TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News (January 25, 1996)

From: TRKNWS-L <trh@aimnet.com>

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS

25 January 1996

[01] Turkey accuses Syria but falls short of evidence

Turkish Daily News

SANLIURFA- Turkey accused Syria on Wednesday of trying to help with the transfer of arms and ammunition to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) but fell short of supporting this accusation with conclusive evidence.

Turkish Interior Minister Teoman Unusan, who held a press conference in Sanliurfa where six truckloads of arms and ammunition were shown to a crowded group of the press, said that it was clear that the arms and ammunition were being sent to the PKK bases located in areas of Syrian control.

"The support of Syria to terrorism ... is displayed once more and in all clearness with the seizure of these six truckloads of ammunition and arms," Unusan said.

The six trucks, which have Turkish plates, were seized by Turkish security forces in Urfa and Hatay last week. Although their manifesto said that they were carrying oil and paraffin, the barrels concealed Kalashnikov bullets, explosives known as TNT, plastic bombs, land mines and six antiaircraft missiles.

The equipment had been loaded in a plant owned by Iran's Behran Oil Company, located 12 kilometers away from Tehran. The trucks were supposed to go through Syria and unload their cargo in Lebanon.

"The address in Lebanon is a false one, which leads us to believe that the cargo would be unloaded in Syria," Unusan said.

Asked how he knew this would be the case, instead of another address in Lebanon, he merely replied: "It is either Syria or the Syrian-controlled part of Lebanon. There is really no difference." "What is important is what Syria aims to do by trying to aid the arming of the PKK and other terrorist organizations ...

Syria's attitude of extending support to terrorist organizations, with a desire to threaten domestic security of various countries is nothing new," the interior minister said.

Turkey asked Syria for information regarding the matter on Jan. 17, but no answer has been received so far.

Turkey's conviction that there is a "Syrian finger" in the transport of arms comes at a time when Turkey has become extremely vocal on the question of Syrian support of terrorism.

Ankara has told both Israel and the United States that Syria cannot be a reliable partner in the Middle East peace process if it does not abandon its support of terrorism. Turkish diplomats also believe that Washington should keep Syria on the list of states sponsoring terrorism.

Despite the fact that the trucks were loaded in Iran, Unusan said that Iranian authorities had assured Turkey that the loading could not have been made "with the knowledge of Iranian authorities." Iran has assured Turkey that they would provide Ankara with information as soon as they finished their investigation.

The two countries also have a joint security committee which will take up the issue at length in the next meeting, the minister said.

Asked how Turkey was sure that the arms were going to the PKK and not to any other terrorist organization, Unusan said: "The security forces which monitor the talks between some PKK members on the wireless has heard them referring to a big loss in the expected supply of arms." He did not give any other evidence to prove the link between the arms, the PKK and Syria.

The interior minister also claimed that the arms demonstrated that the PKK was not sincere in its call for a cease-fire and merely wanted "recovery time" to arm itself with more weapons.

"We know only too well that the so-called cease-fire does not aim at peace," he said. "It is just an attempt of the weakened organization to catch its breath and launch a new attack." Saying that the PKK had killed 11 people on Jan. 15 by burning down their truck, he firmly denied that the claims that the attack was actually done by Turkish security forces.

"The terrorist leader claims that it is the security forces who have done this and, unfortunately, he has found certain people to carry out the propaganda," Unusan said.

"This is not new. In 1993, after declaring a cease-fire, the terrorist group killed 33 Turkish youths who had completed their military service and were going home. Around the same period, in July 5, they have killed 33 civilians, including women and children, in Erzincan's Basbaglar village," he said.

According to the Diyarbakir Branch of the Human Rights Association, the burning was done by the security forces.

The arms in the truck were worth TL 32 billion and were enough to blow up all of Sanliurfa, the minister said.

[02] Official says Turkey-Iraq pipeline can start pumping at short notice

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- A senior official from the government run Turkish pipelines concern, BOTAS, has said that they had made all the technical preparations to get the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline operating again, in the event that Baghdad and the UN agree on a formula for a limited sale of Iraqi oil.

Isik Eyuboglu, the deputy chairman of BOTAS, told the Anatolia new agency on Wednesday that their preparations covered the storage and loading facilities which had been brought to working order.

The pipeline connecting Kirkuk in Iraq and Yumurtalik on Turkey's Mediterranean coast has remained dormant since being closed down in 1990 in line with a UN resolution following Baghdad's invasion of Kuwait.

Indicating that the electrical and electronic equipment of the pipeline have been periodically checked and that necessary maintenance has taken place since the embargo on Iraq, Eyuboglu said there is a plan for flushing the pipeline that had been worked out, and that it could be implemented immediately.

He said this plan involved the flushing of the estimated 12 million of barrels of oil caught in the pipeline, 7.5 million on the Turkish side and 4.5 million on the Iraqi side.

Eyuboglu said that this flushing operation would be done to prevent further corrosion in the pipeline and once it was completed fresh oil would be pumped from Kirkuk.

He said that the plan foresees this flushing operation being conducted at least two times or at the most three times, adding that following this "rescue operation," the pipeline could be in ready to pump oil on a regular basis in one month at the very most.

Eyuboglu went on to explain the conditions laid down by the UN Security Council for Iraq's exporting a limited amount of oil to procure humanitarian needs.

He said that UN resolutions 706 and 712 allowed Iraq the right to export up to $2 billion in oil over a six month period, under the strict scrutiny of the world body.

Indicating that the current talks between Iraq and the UN were being closely monitored by the Turkish foreign ministry, Eyuboglu added that BOTAS had during this time also kept "warm ties" going with its interlocutor on the Iraqi side, the Northern Oil Company (NOC).

Eyuboglu said that as far as they were concerned, the "rescue flushing" of the Iraq-Turkey pipeline was set to go as soon as the right signal was received from the UN.

Pointing out that BOTAS used to earn substantial transit fees from the pipeline amounting to nearly $1 million a day, Eyuboglu said his company's loss to date since the pipeline was closed has reached $2.5 billion.

[03] Optimism for Baku-Supsa pipeline on the increase

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- A leading Turkish oil executive has said that the securing of financing for an oil pipeline between Baku in Azerbaijan and Supsa in Georgia had increased the attractiveness of this route for transporting early oil from the Caspian.

Necdet Pamir, the deputy president of the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPAO) told the Anatolia news agency in Baku on Wednesday, that the AIOC, the company set up by the international consortium for processing Caspian oil, had expressed its satisfaction over Turkey's decision to finance this pipeline.

Pamir said a protocol had been signed in Baku on Monday between representatives of AIOC, the Azeri Petroleum Company, SOCAR, and the Georgian Petroleum Company (GIOC) aimed at speeding up the building of the Baku-Supsa pipeline.

Pamir said that the details of the credits to be extended to Azerbaijan and Georgia would be submitted to representatives of this country at a meeting to be held on Feb. 19.

He added that they also welcomed the recent signing of an agreement between Azerbaijan and Russia for the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline, the second route by which early oil from the Caspian is to be transported to world markets.

Indicating that Ankara always advocated two routes for this purpose Pamir said this would expedite the whole early oil project.

Pamir said that the Baku-Supsa line would not only open an alternative route for Azerbaijan to export its oil but would also bring financial advantages to Georgia.