Top Headlines From The Turkish Pres

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Top Headlines From The Turkish Press



      ANKARA, Sept 6 (Reuter) - These are the leading stories in the Turkish
press on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch
for their accuracy.

    SABAH

    MILLIYET

    - Iraqi governor of Dohuk says they need Turkish troops to fight the
separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

    YENI YUZYIL

    - Turkish, Iranian and Syrian foreign ministers to discuss northern Iraq
in Tehran meeting.

    ZAMAN

    - PKK steps up assaults on Turks living in Germany.


Turkey Complains To Great Britain About PKK TV
      By Suna Erdem

    ANKARA, Sept 6 (Reuter) - Turkey complained to British Foreign Minister
Malcolm Rifkind on Wednesday that a Kurdish television channel based in
Britain threatens Turkish interests.

    ``There is one question which still is not solved, and that is the
broadcast of the so-called MED-TV, which in our minds is subversive
propaganda against the territorial integrity of Turkey,'' Turkish Foreign
Minister Erdal Inonu told reporters at a joint news conference with Rifkind.

    MED-TV was set up in May, and broadcasts in Kurdish for three hours daily
by satellite to Turkey, where Kurdish-language broadcasting is not allowed.

    Turkey is worried that the channel, which has broadcast interviews with
separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, is being
used by the guerrilla group to promote demands for independence or autonomy
in Turkey.

    Rifkind said if there was question of the channel being used to incite
violence or ``terrorism,'' then that was grounds for a licence being
withdrawn, but he could give no assurances.

    ``Under British law the question of a licence for a television company is
determined by the Independent Television Commission, which is a body set up
by parliament free of political interference,'' he told a news briefing.

    After Rifkind had left the joint briefing, Inonu griped to mainly Turkish
journalists that Britain was missing the point.

    ``(MED-TV) is part of the PKK. We keep telling them that. But they say
the speeches on MED-TV do not incite violence,'' Inonu said. ``Okay, they do
not say 'Go and attack this place'...but everything (a PKK spokesman) says is
aimed at violence.''

    More than 17,500 people have been killed in Turkey since the PKK took up
arms for a Kurdish homeland in 1984.

    During the news briefing, Rifkind pledged British support for Turkey's
efforts for a customs union with the European Union.

    But in a later speech at a Turkish scientific grouping, he drew attention
to Turkey's shaky human rights record, which has long attracted criticism
from the West.

    ``I would be less than frank if I did not mention here the importance of
Turkey's performance on human righs matching up to the international
standards it has embraced,'' Rifkind said.

    Turkey, hoping the European Parliament will ratify the customs union
treaty by the end of 1995, has most often been rebuked with regards to its
treatment of Kurds, which Ankara defends by citing the PKK's 11-year
guerrilla struggle.


Iraqi Kurds Deny Seeking Turkish Military Assistance
      ANKARA, Sept 6 (Reuter) - An Iraqi Kurdish group on Wednesday denied
that one of its officials had asked for Turkish military support against
Turkish Kurd rebels.

    Abdulaziz Tayyip, governor of northern Iraq's Dohuk province, was quoted
by Turkey's state-controlled Anatolian news agency on Tuesday as saying he
wanted Turkish troops to chase guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) out of the province.

    ``After establishing contact with the governor it became clear that no
such statement was ever made,'' the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said in
a statement in English.

    ``No reference was made to inviting Turkish military into the region or
assisting local authorities in ending the clashes,'' it said.

    An Anatolian editor said he had no immediate comment on the denial.
Reuters, along with the Turkish media, reported the governor's remarks as
quoted by Anatolian.

    Tayyip, a KDP official, was an outspoken critic of a big Turkish military
operation aimed at crippling the PKK in northern Iraq earlier this year.

    The Turkish Kurd guerrillas, fighting for independence or autonomy in
southeast Turkey, remained active in the region and late last month turned on
the KDP.

    They have staged dozens of attacks in KDP-held areas in the last two
weeks in an apparent bid to scuttle a peace process between Iraqi Kurdish
groups.


Constitutional Court Delays Ruling on DEP Parliamentarians
      ANKARA, Sept 6 (Reuter) - Turkey's constitutional court has postponed
until September 12 an appeal hearing that could return pro-Kurdish deputies
to parliament, a court official said on Wednesday.

    He blamed the delay on the court's workload.

    The case of the deputies, some of whom lost their immunity and were
convicted on the basis of statements made in favour of Turkey's Kurds, has
clouded prospects for a customs union with the European Union.

    The deputies were jailed for upto 15 years.

    The European Parliament has strongly supported the former MPs, suggesting
their freedom could go a long way toward sealing the customs deal. A vote on
the matter is expected this autumn.

    Lawyers for the MPs said earlier that a favourable ruling would mean six
deputies imprisoned last December could regain their parliamentary seats.


Rotterdam Bans Kurdish Meeting
      ROTTERDAM, Sept 6 (Reuter) - The Rotterdam city council said on
Wednesday it had prohibited a planned cultural gathering by Kurds at a local
soccer stadium on September 16 because of concern about possible clashes
between ethnic Kurds and Turks.

    Fighting broke out in Rotterdam's Feyenoord district in April after a
demonstration by Kurds supporting the creation of a separate Kurdish state in
southeastern Turkey.

    Dutch-based Kurds have also angered Ankara through the inauguration of a
Kurdish parliament-in-exile in The Hague, the Dutch seat of government.

    The Rotterdam city council said in a short statement to Dutch television
that the political standpoint of the Kurds was not the reason for turning
down a permit for the gathering.



PKK Loses 10 To Turkish Troops in Southeast
      DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 6 (Reuter) - Turkish security forces have
killed 10 Kurdish rebels in clashes in southeastern Turkey, regional security
officials said on Wednesday.

    The emergency rule governor's offfice, based in Diyarbakir, said the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas were killed in three different
clashes in Hakkari and Bitlis provinces on Tuesday.

    It said seven of the guerrillas were killed in Isiklar village and
Altindaglar mountain in Hakkari province and the other three were killed in
Agacdere village in Bitlis province.

    More than 17,500 people have been killed in Turkey since the PKK took up
arms for a Kurdish homeland in 1984.


Iraq Reaches Out to Turkey and Other Neighbors
      By Leon Barkho

    BAGHDAD, Sept 6 (Reuter) - Iraq, striving to break loose from its
political and economic isolation, is asking its neighbours help it fight
crippling U.N. trade sanctions.

    The government in Baghdad has made calls for normalisation of ties with
former enemies -- Syria and Iran -- and has also asked Turkey to boost
existing trade relations.

    The overtures come as its three neighbours prepare a meeting of foreign
ministers in Iran due on Friday to discuss Iraq. Officials holding
preparatory meetings talked of their ``deep concern'' over threats to Iraq's
territorial integrity.

    Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahaf surprised analysts and
diplomats in Baghdad on Tuesday by praising President Hafez al-Assad of Syria
for what he termed his ``balanced and positive'' remarks on the defection to
Jordan of Lieutenant-General Hussein Kamel Hassan.

    Assad was quoted as saying the defection of President Saddam Hussein's
son-in-law to Jordan last month was not as important as media reports had
suggested.

    Hussein Kamel, the brains behind Iraq's military industries, has called
for the overthrow of the Baghdad government.

    Sahaf's statement front-paged Baghdad newspapers on Tuesday and was
repeated several times by the country's state radio and television.

    ``That was the first positive reaction from Baghdad towards Assad since
1979,'' said an Arab diplomat. ``Maybe the Iraqis think the solution to their
problem lies in drastic changes in the political alliances in the region.''

    Hussein Kamel's defection, and reports of other dissent in Iraq's ruling
circles, has already prompted one shift against Iraqi interests as Jordan's
King Hussein moved sharply away from his one-time ally and openly called for
change in Baghdad.

    And the United States has been positively agitating against Iraq in the
last few weeks, urging its Arab allies to band together against Saddam and
moving troops and ships around the region in well-publicised manoeuvres.

    In response, Iraq has also changed tone towards Tehran, the foe it fought
for eight bloody years in the 1980s. Baghdad is now asking openly for a
tactical or strategic alliance with Tehran against their tormentor, the
United States.

    As part of its policy to isolate both Iraq and Iran, Washington has
banned American companies doing business with Tehran and is the main advocate
of sanctions on Iraq imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

    For the third day running, the official press urged Iran to reconsider
what it termed its hostile attitude towards Iraq ``for the service of the
Moslem peoples of the two countries.''

    ``Today, Iran should prove its good intentions to establish good
neighbourly relations with Iraq,'' said the English language daily Baghdad
Observer in an editorial.

    Iraq is also seeking to improve ties with Turkey. The Vice- Chairman of
the Revolutionary Command Council Izzat Ibrahim, in remarks published on
Wednesday, stressed ``Iraq's desire to develop relations with our neighbour
Turkey in a manner that will serve the interests of the two Moslem
countries.''

    Iraq's ties with its neighbours are a highly complex web of interests,
some of them conflicting with others.
    Syria, Iran and Turkey routinely affirm their commitment to Iraq's
territorial sovereignty and opposition to any foreign intervention in its
internal affairs.

    But they all host Iraqi opposition leaders too.

    Syria and Iraq, both adherents of Baathist ideology, have long been
locked in the bitter struggle of two splinter groups claiming to be the true
heirs of the same revolutionary movement.

    Shi'ite Iran has been historically linked to coreligionists in Iraq,
where the key Shi'ite shrines of Najaf and Kerbala are located.

    And Turkey has made two large-scale military incursions into northern
Iraq this year to chase down Turkish Kurd rebels.


Talabani Discusses Iraq Situation in Damascus
      DAMASCUS, Sept 6 (Reuter) - Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, who
arrived in Damascus on Tuesday night, held talks with Syrian Vice-President
Abdul-Halim Khaddam on developments in northern Iraq, a Kurdish spokesman
said on Wednesday.

    He said Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), also
discussed with Khaddam relations between Syria and the union.

    Talabani maintains good ties with the Syrian leaders and he made his
visit ahead of a U.S-sponsored meeting between the PUK with the rival
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which is due to be held in Ireland on
September 12.

    The meeting seeks to find ways of ending a feud between the KDP and the
PUK that has split northern Iraq between the factions in a conflict that has
killed some 3,000 people.

    Neighbouring Turkey is expect to attend the talks.

    The foreign ministers of Syria, Turkey and Iran, expressing concern over
the developments in northern Iraq and the dangers to its territorial
integrity, are to meet in Iran on Friday.

--
Yusuf Pisan
y-pisan at nwu.edu
http://www.eecs.nwu.edu/~yusuf

---
 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)