TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News (March 17, 1996)

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

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 17 March 1996

[01] Turkey Gets Its Way at the Anti-Terrorism Summit

Turkish Daily News

For several years Turkey has been trying to get international action against terrorism, complaining that some countries are applying double standards and are not showing resolve to combat terrorists as long as they are not directly threatened.

So at the anti-terrorism summit hastily convened in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Turkey managed to make serious headway in rallying international support for its calls for concerted action against terrorism.

The news that such a summit would be convened came just as President Suleyman Demirel was about to launch his first ever state visit to Israel. Egypt and the United States, seeing that the Middle East peace process was in serious jeopardy after extremist Palestinian terrorists launched fatal bomb attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, convened the summit and gave Turkey the chance to voice its grievances. But that was not all. Turkey seized this occasion to push for joint action by the international community to fight terrorism and also punish "rouge states" which help extremists.

Turkey has been complaining that the Kurdish separatist terrorists of the PKK receive sanctuary and support from neighboring states like Syria, Greece and at times from Iran.

So the Turkish Foreign Ministry launched a diplomatic offensive to get its views across especially to European and Middle Eastern countries.

The Foreign Ministry prepared the following list of proposals:

- Tough measures must be taken to deter states that support terrorism or harbor terrorists. One such measure might be the imposing of economic sanctions.

- A significant part of combatting terrorism, as well as terrorist front organizations necessitates the banning of TV and radio stations and other media that promote or support terrorism and terrorist organizations and that provide means for terrorists to disseminate their false propaganda.

- A center that will collect and classify information on terrorist groups, their methods and financial sources should be established. All states must fully cooperate to extend information to the center. Turkey is keen to participate in the establishment and operation of such a center.

- All support should be extended to the countries that combat terrorism, and all technical material used in combatting terrorism should be brought to the disposal of these countries. One of the most effective methods to combat terrorism is the unconditional extradition of the perpetrators of terrorist acts to the relevant countries. States should comply with the stipulations of the already existing international agreements in this field. This will be a significant contribution to reaching the ultimate deal.

- No political or other considerations should be advanced to avoid extradition of terrorists.

- Another responsibility for all states toward countries combatting terrorism is to find out the origins of the weapons and arms provided to the terrorists. It is the right of the international community to expect explanations from those countries that are the sources of these arms.

The list was first presented to Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres during his meeting with President Demirel. Then the foreign ministers of Israel and Turkey took up the issue in detail, and soon Israel said it "fully backs" the proposals and will lobby for them at the summit.

Turkey also took its proposals to the United States, Jordan and Egypt and won support.

In the final communique of the anti-terrorism summit quite a few of Turkey's proposals were included.

Israel even went further as it proposed the creation of a "Middle East Interpol" to combat terrorists. But this was not included in the communique. The Israelis also did not get their way in having Iran singled out as a country supporting terrorism.

The anti-terrorism summit decided among other things:

- To work together to promote security and stability in the region by developing effective and practical means of cooperation and further assistance.

- To promote coordination of efforts to stop acts of terror on bilateral, regional and international levels; ensuring instigators of such acts are brought to justice; supporting efforts by all parties to prevent terrorist organizations from engaging in recruitment, supplying arms; or fund raising.

- To exert maximum efforts to identify and determine the sources of financing these groups and to cooperate in cutting them off, and by providing training, equipment and other forms of support to those taking steps against groups using violence and terrorism to undermine peace, security and stability.

- To form a working group, open to all summit participants, to prepare recommendations on how best to implement the decisions contained in this statement, through ongoing work and to report to the participants within 30 days.

These clearly show how Turkey's list of proposals was effectively inserted in the final communique.

According to original proposals the working group was to have included the United States, Russia, Israel and Egypt. However, upon Turkey's insistence the group was expanded to include Turkey as well as other states.

The working group will meet within 15 days to discuss specific anti-terrorism moves. Counter terrorism experts from a variety of nations will discuss concrete measures against terrorism and present their findings to the conference participants within a month.

All in all, everyone got what they wanted out of the summit. The summit called for a continuation of the Middle East peace process, Israel won a pledge from the Arabs to fight terrorism, Palestinians got a promise that Israel would lift the restrictions on access to Palestinian lands, Shimon Peres got an election campaign booster, President Bill Clinton once again portrayed himself as a peacemaker and won points in the presidential campaign and Turkey got a pledge from the international community that an effective fight will be launched against all terrorists and terrorist groups.

The fact that Syria shied away from the meeting and Greece was not even invited strengthened Turkey's hand...