TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 20 SEPTEMBER 1

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 20 SEPTEMBER 1995


Public workers begin widespread strike

Demonstrations: An estimated 350,000 workers will stage large scale protests

Turkish Daily News
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ANKARA- Almost 260,000 public workers will go on strike between Sept. 20 and
25 as the collective bargaining negotiations with the government have
reached deadlock. Workers in strategic sectors under the strike ban will
also stop work for one day, on Wednesday, to support the strikers.

The number of strikers is expected to reach 350,000 in the next few days,
including 30,000 workers already on strike. They will stage large-scale
protests and meetings during the strikes. The first of these meetings will
be held at Ankara's Tandogon Square today at 10:00 a.m.

The government is planning to halt the strikes with a suspension decree. But
the coalition's junior partner, the Republican People's Party (CHP), is
split on the suspension decision and some CHP ministers refused to sign the
decree, preventing it from taking effect. The fate of the suspension decree
and the new pay rise proposals will be decided during coalition negotiations
which will start today between the CHP's newly-elected chairman, Deniz
Baykal, and Prime Minister Tansu Ciller.

Bayram Meral, chairman of the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions
(Turk-is), said that since the government did not propose a sufficient pay
rise, workers will use their legal rights. "The government is doing this on
purpose. Their aim is to suspend the upcoming strikes and then constrain us
to negotiate the pay raise at the Arbitration Board," Meral told the
Anatolia news agency.

The Turk-is leader claimed that the government will pay the price for its
acts at the next election.

Minister of Labor and Social Security, Ziya Halis, said he is not in favor
of suspending the strikes by government decision.

"Under the constitution, the strikes can only be suspended on condition of
threats to public health and security. Since no such threats exist, and an
insufficient pay rise of 5 percent is offered, I am against the suspension,"
said Halis.

But Halis explained that conditions could change at any moment and thus a
suspension could become necessary.

Yildirim Koc, head of the Turk-Is research department, described their pay
rise proposal as "reasonable" and in accordance with the contracts signed
since 1989.

"Our proposal is totally based on the inflation rate and aims only to
compensate the workers for their losses. We have two different proposals for
two groups of workers.

The first group consists of the 237,000 workers who signed contracts on Jan.
1 1995. For them our proposal is a 40 percent raise for the first 6 months,
and a 31.17 percent increase for the second 6-month period. The other group
of 270,000 workers signed contracts on March 1 1995.

Our proposal is 52.3 percent for the first six months and 24.7 percent for
the second six months. The government proposes an approximate 5.4 percent
annual pay raise against this," Koc said to the TDN.

Koc said workers will not stay at their factories or homes but rather stage
large scale protests. "Ankara will be a meeting place for thousands of
workers and they will voice their demands," said Koc.

Koc continued, "Government policies are imposed by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). Therefore, our struggle is against the IMF. If the
government had any respect for democracy and labor rights, they would change
these policies." The labor unions and sectors of the 290,000 workers are on
strike or about to strike.
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High court to hear DEP appeal tomorrow

Turkish Daily News
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ANKARA- A criminal chamber of the High Appeals Court will hear the appeal by
the attorneys of the seven former deputies of the now defunct Democracy
Party (DEP) and independent deputy Mahmut Alinak on Thursday.

Nusret Demiral, the chief prosecutor of the Ankara State Security Court
(DGM), had also appealed the earlier verdict. The court made its decision on
Dec. 8 when Hatip Dicle, Leyla Zana, Ahmet Turk, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak
were each sentenced to 15-year prison terms, Sedat Yurttas to seven and a
half years and Mahmut Alinak and Sirri Sakik to three and a half years.
Alinak and Sakik were released since they had already been in custody for a
period equal to their sentence. The appellate hearing will reportedly take
place at the convention hall of the United Civil Chambers of the High
Appeals Court.

In its indictment, addressed to Criminal Chamber No. 9, the office of the
chief prosecutor of the High Appeals Court requests that the prison terms
against Sakik and Alinak be increased by one sixth. However, the chief
prosecutor notes that the prison terms against Sakik and Alinak are in
accordance with Article 8 of the Anti-Terrorism Law.

The prosecutor wants the punishments against Turk and Yurttas to be made in
accordance with Article 8 of the Anti-terrorism Law in lieu of the relevant
provisions of the Turkish Criminal Code which calls for prison terms for
Yurttas for providing assistance to an outlawed organization and for Turk
for being member of an outlawed organization.

He also wants Dogan's punishment Dogan to be given on charges of providing
assistance to an outlawed organization instead of charges based on being a
member of an outlawed organization.

The chief prosecutor wants the prison terms against Sadak, Zana and Dicle to
be upheld. On March 2, 1994, the immunity of the DEP deputies Hatip Dicle,
Ahmet Turk, Leyla Zana, Orhan Dogan, Sirri Sakik, Selim Sadak, the
independent deputy Mahmut Alinak, and the Welfare Party (RP) deputy Hasan
Mezarci, was lifted. Hatip Dicle and Orhan Dogan were immediately detained
by the police as they left the parliament building. On March 4, the five
other deputies went to the State Security Court to be questioned where they
too were detained. Selim Sadak was released, however, and the Constitutional
Court later reinstated his immunity.

Hatip Dicle, Ahmet Turk, Leyla Zana, Orhan Dogan and Mahmut Alinak were kept
at Ankara Security headquarters until March 17, when they were brought
before the State Security Court and were officially arrested.

On June 16, the Constitutional Court closed down the DEP and its deputies
lost their status as parliamentary representatives. Prior to that decision
several members of the DEP, including Remzi Kartal, Nizamettin Toguc, Zubeyr
Aydar, Ali Yigit, Naif Gunes and Mahmut Kilic, had already fled the country.
Selim Sadak and Sedat Yurttas, who stayed in Turkey, were detained on July
2.

Hatip Dicle, Leyla Zana, Ahmet Turk, Orhan Dogan, Sirri Sakik, and the
independent deputy Mahmut Alinak were tried on Aug. 3, in the first session
of the case. Later, the files of Selim Sadak and Sedat Yurttas were included
in this case as well.

European Parliament resolution for Mehdi Zana

The deputies of the Green and socialist groups in the European Parliament
presented draft resolutions calling for amnesty for the prisoners of
conscience in Turkey including former Diyarbakir Mayor Mehdi Zana, the
Anatolia news agency reported from Strasbourg on Monday. The draft
resolutions also urge Turkey to abide by the international conventions which
it has signed with regard to human rights issues.
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The PKK-narcotics connection

Interior Minister Nahit Mentese told a meeting in Istanbul today that he
will launch a campaign against drug trafficking which is linked to the PKK.
In a meeting at the Istanbul Security Directorate, Mentese said that the
relationship between terror and the narcotics trade is very important and
should be given attention.

"We have to dry up the financing source of the PKK" he said. According to
Mentese, the PKK is delivering narcotics to European countries through
Turkey and in exchange is obtaining arms.

On the bomb-raid in Izmir which killed 5 people on Sunday, Mentese said that
the raid was aimed originally at the Izmir International Trade, but failed
to attain this goal, because of the precautions taken by companies
displaying at the fair. Istanbul Security Director Mehmet Agar said that the
drugs traffic will also be stopped and said that the Turkish Security
Directorate is collaborating with Rumania and Bulgaria, as well as other
European countries.

ATV quoted Agar as saying that this year, in Istanbul alone, the police
seized 690 kilograms of heroin, 468 kilograms of Hashish, 117 kilograms of
acid, 468 kilograms of cocaine and 2215 pills; 857 people were detained.

Meanwhile, police arrested seven drug dealers, including a foreigners, who
are members of the PKK. The group was caught red-handed attempting to
smuggle narcotics out of Turkey. The group was to sell drugs in Europe and
bring arms for the PKK.

* In the vicinity of the Kursunlu village of Diyarbakir's Dicle township,
security forces killed 11 terrorists. Two security staff were killed in the
same clashes on Sunday.

* In clashes with the PKK, peshmergas of the Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP) killed 60 PKK members and injured 76. The spokesman for the KDP said
that four temporary PKK bases in the region have been captured.

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