TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News (March 20, 1996)

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

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 20 March 1996

[01] Military chiefs brief Cabinet on threats

ANKARA- The Turkish General Staff on Tuesday briefed Prime Minister Tansu Ciller and key Cabinet ministers on the security issues and threats facing the country as the separatist Kurdish rebels threatened an escalated campaign and the situation remained volatile in the Aegean.

Emerging from the meeting, Yilmaz said the briefing focused on domestic security and external threat assessments.

The briefing came against a backdrop of threats from the Separatist Kurds to end a unilateral cease-fire they declared in December and renew attacks.

Rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan recently disclosed that he had sent a letter to Yilmaz, threatening to resort to arms if he did not make concrete proposals for a political solution soon.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) led by Ocalan has been fighting a separatist war in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Over 20,000 people have died in the fighting in official estimates. Turkey, regarding the PKK as a terrorist organization, has refused to enter any negotiations or respond to the cease-fire.

After the General Staff briefing, Yilmaz told reporters that he had not received any letter from Ocalan. As for the threat contained therein, he said no Turkish government would take such threats seriously.

Beside Yilmaz who had a private meeting with General Staff Chief Ismail Hakki Karadayi before the briefing, Deputy Prime Minister Nahit Mentese, Defense Minister Oltan Sungurlu, Interior Minister Ulku Guney, Finance Minister Lutfullah Kayalar, State Ministers Rustu Saracoglu and Ufuk Soylemez, Justice Minister Mehmet Agar, Transport Minister Omer Barutcu, and Education Minister Turhan Tayan attended the conference.

In a presentation made in the United States during a recent visit, Deputy Turkish Chief of General Staff, Gen. Cevik Bir, made clear Turkey's worries about the power void in northern Iraq serving the PKK, as well as Syria's support to the separatists and Iran's links with Muslim extremists in the region.

Gen. Bir also voiced concern about Russian efforts to beef up its military might in the troubled Caucasus region.

The threat assessment also noted the heightened tensions in the Aegean where NATO partners Turkey and Greece came close to war over the disputed Kardak rocks off the Turkish shore. The report stressed Turkey's determination to protect its interests but its readiness to settle the dispute through bilateral negotiations.

Yilmaz said Operation Provide Comfort (OPC) under which a Western air force based in southern Turkey is protecting Iraqi Kurds would be discussed between government and military officials on Friday.

For more than four years, a U.S.-British-French air force, comprising about 80 combat and support aircraft based at Incirlik, near the southern Turkish city of Adana, have been patrolling an air-exclusion zone north of the 36th parallel and partly covering the Kurdish safe haven in northern Iraq to deter an attack by Saddam Hussein's forces.

The Turkish Parliament, which has been regularly extending the stay of the foreign warplanes, has to decide on a new mandate at the end of the month.

The legislature has been ever more reluctant to approve extensions of its mandate because of a widespread feeling that the limitation of Iraq's authority in the area has created a power vacuum, allowing a sanctuary there for the PKK.

To eliminate the grievances, Ankara has been recently discussing a new format for OPC with American officials, Deputy Chief of General Staff Cevik Bir and Deputy Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ali Tuygan conducting talks in Washington.

U.S. and Turkish sources told the TDN earlier that the undisclosed new setup addressed the concerns of the Turkish military who have been seeking a new definition of "rules of engagement" and enhanced Turkish control over sorties and flight plans of jets and helicopters. In the past the military had urged renewed mandates for the OPC, since the Western dependence on Turkey's permission allowed Turkish incursions into Iraq in pursuit of the PKK which, otherwise, would have evoked stiff reaction.

But despite the improved terms for the stay of the Western planes, the future of the OPC remains in doubt given the entrenched position of the Islamist and social democrat opposition parties in the Parliament where the Motherland Party (ANAP)-True Path Party (DYP) coalition lacks a majority.

To make things more difficult for the government, Bulent Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP) which is pledged to keep the coalition afloat by blocking no-confidence votes, is also averse top keeping the Western force after a "final" two-month extension of mandate at the end of the March. The DSP is expected to let the two-month extension pass by staying away when the Parliament votes on the issue.

On Tuesday, Yilmaz and his coalition partner Tansu Ciller met separately with Ecevit in a seeming bid to soften his opposition to future provide comfort extensions.

But the DSP leader also came under counter pressures, with Iraqi Ambassador Rafi Dahham Mijwel al-Tikriti paying him a visit the same day. Iraq has consistently asked Turkey not to permit the stay of the Western planes.

Turkey, hoping for the reopening of twin oil pipelines from Iraq after a possible deal between the United nations and Baghdad for limited oil sales, is expected to be more anxious to prevent the recurrence of tensions between its southern neighbor and the West.

[02] German chanellor vows to deport PKK militants

TDN with wire Dispatches

ANKARA- German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has indicated that supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who went on a rampage over the weekend in Dortmund, brutally attacking members of the police force, would be deported from Germany, the Anatolia news agency said on Tuesday.

German President Roman Herzog on Monday condemned Kurdish militants for political violence over the weekend and warned that foreigners involved in rioting forfeited their right to live in Germany and should leave.

More than 300 people were injured in pitched battles as German police tried to stop thousands of Kurds from attending a banned protest in Dortmund organized by the PKK.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday in Bonn, Kohl was quoted by Anatolia as saying that the activities of the PKK, which is banned in Turkey and Germany, had "become intolerable." "Our government condemns in the strongest possible terms the activities of Kurdish extremists," Kohl said in his opening remarks at the press conference.

"The time has come to show that the statement `no PKK member will be able to engage in terror anymore in Germany' is not merely words," the German Chancellor said.

Kohl went on to indicate that those who abuse their residence permits in Germany with such acts of violence should be tried in the most expeditious way and deported.

He added that the coalition partners in Germany had agreed on the need to toughen the law on deportation of foreigners and indicated that speedy deportation of those breaking the law of the land was on the agenda.

The Chancellor added that the Cabinet would be meeting next Tuesday and Wednesday to debate and ratify the changes to this article.

He also said that important responsibilities befell State governments in Germany to act swiftly too and do what was necessary in such cases.

President Herzog for his part was quoted by Reuters on Monday saying that, "Foreigners waging a campaign of violence and terror have abused and forfeited their right to stay (in Germany)." "The string-pullers, ringleaders and those perpetrating the violence must leave our country," he said in his statement.

Herzog, visiting police officers injured in the clashes, expressed support for police efforts at the weekend and echoed Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel's call for the deportation of foreigners responsible for organizing riots in Germany.

Kinkel said on Sunday that the full force of the law should be brought to bear on militant Kurdish extremists who abused their refugee status by bringing to Germany their violent campaign for an independent homeland in southeastern Turkey.

Germany's opposition Social Democrats (SPD) also condemned the violence and warned the PKK against further attacks.

"With these acts of violence, the PKK has seriously damaged the Kurdish cause. The SPD urges the 500,000 Kurds living in Germany to be peaceful, to isolate the PKK and cooperate with the German authorities," the center-left party said.

"Only in this way can the justified demands of the Kurdish people for autonomy and the protection of human rights be achieved," it said in the statement, which expressed sympathy for the 40 police officers injured in the weekend fray.

[03] Egypt, Turkey slam terrorism

By Nazlan Ertan

Turkish Daily News

ASWAN- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday expressed his full support for Turkey in cooperating against terrorism, but fell short of condemning Syria as a state that supports terrorism.

"There is no proof that Syria is supporting terrorism," he told a joint press conference in Aswan in southern Egypt with visiting Turkish President Suleyman Demirel.

"Syria is looking for peace," he added.

Mubarak's remarks came after both presidents met in Aswan to condemn the terrorism which the region is faced with.

Demirel was on a one-day working visit to Egypt for talks on terrorism and natural water resources.

Talking to reporters during the three-hour flight to Aswan, Demirel said his talks with the Egyptian president would take place within the framework of regular bilateral consultations.

He said that during the talks with Mubarak they would exchange ideas on cooperation against terrorism.

Asked if he was going to seek Egyptian support in the area of terrorism and Syria's dispute with Ankara over the waters of the Euphrates, Demirel merely indicated that "Turkey is not seeking support from anyone." Demirel also denied that Syria was being adversely effected as a result of Turkey's project to dam the Euphrates.

"What do they mean by raising this issue? Does it mean their agricultural lands have dried up?" Demirel asked, going on to maintain that Syria wanted "ten times the water it needs." During his joint press conference with Demirel after their talks, the Egyptian president also stressed that the results of the Sharm-el-Sheikh summit should be actively implemented.

He was referring to the terrorism summit held at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh and co-hosted by himself and U.S. President Bill Clinton.

During the talks, sources said the Turkish side briefed the Egyptian side on terrorism by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is outlawed in Turkey where it is waging a separatist battle by means of terrorist tactics. It also indicated, in this context, that Syria was supporting the PKK.

Mubarak for his part reportedly said he had conveyed this Turkish complaint to Syrian officials he had met previously, but had received an answer in which Damascus categorically rejected the charges that it was supporting the PKK.

Syria's official position in response to Turkish accusations is that it is not supporting the PKK and that this organization's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, does not live in Damascus.

The talks Mubarak held with Demirel were also reported to have taken up Syria's dispute with Turkey over the waters of the Euphrates and the pronouncements critical of Turkey which have been made on this issue by the Arab League.

Mubarak is reported to have told Demirel that the league had not meant either to condemn Turkey with these statements or to squeeze it into a corner.

He is said to have indicated nevertheless that there was a problem and that the Arab League had wished merely to urge a settlement to this problem.

After his meeting with Mubarak, President Demirel paid a visit to the Aswan high dam.

This visit will be Demirel's last meeting with Middle Eastern leaders before he goes to the United States next week. The peace process in the Middle East will be one of his talking points when he meets President Clinton during that visit.

Before his departure Demirel told reporters in Ankara that his visit to Aswan would provide an opportunity to express Turkey's dissatisfaction with various "unfair and senseless claims" regarding Turkish allocation of the waters of the Euphrates.

"Within this framework I will have the opportunity to tell President Mubarak our views and our reaction to the last decision by the Arab League," he said.

Demirel also singled out cooperation in the field of terrorism and cooperation in the reconstruction of the Middle East as topics to be discussed.

[04] Central Bank sells dollars for lira

ANKARA- The Turkish Central Bank sold U.S. dollars for Turkish lira to banks and cash dollars and cash German marks for lira to the free market in late morning trade to control the U.S. currency's recent jump, bankers said.

The Bank sold dollars to banks at 69,250 lira, cash dollars at 69,200 lira and cash marks at 46,800 lira in the last half hour of the morning trade.

The lira firmed to 69,240 per dollar on the interbank from previous 69,280. In the free market, cash dollars traded at between 69,150-220 lira, down from a high of 69,300 lira before the intervention.

Bankers said the dollar's recent rise was fueled by public demand as well as recent sharp rises in the Central Bank's daily dollar rate for banks' compulsory monthly currency transfers a key indicator of where the central bank wants the dollar to settle.

"The central bank has recently been allowing the dollar to rise in a controlled way. There has not been much dollar demand from customers, but the central bank still allowed the dollar to rise faster in recent days," Reuters quoted a senior banker as saying.

The Central Bank raised its dollar rate for compulsory currency transfers to 68,720 lira at opening from Monday's 68,610 close. The Bank's closing rate was 68,200 on Friday and 67,900 on Thursday.

Bankers said the Central Bank partly intended to encourage banks to make their compulsory dollar transfers to raise cash amid a severe liquidity squeeze that has continued since early last week.

Banks have to turn in 20 percent of their foreign currency deposits to the central bank every month in return for lira. The Central Bank has been heavily funding banks amid a lira shortage caused mainly by mid-month public sector salary payments and lack of fresh cash entry. It lent TL 34 trillion overnight at 88 percent on Monday and TL 40 trillion on Friday.

The Central Bank continued to lend overnight cash to banks at 88 percent this morning.

Official lira depreciation slowed down to 1.3 percent last week from 1.5 percent a week ago when uncertainty over the new conservative coalition's economic and monetary policies haunted the markets.

[05] Fedorov urges Turks to invest in Russian high tech projects

Turkish Daily News

ISTANBUL- Turkish companies should invest in high technology Russian projects, and trade between the two nations should be expanded to fields other than gas and oil, a prominent Russian business leader said in Istanbul Tuesday.

"The trade between the two countries should not be limited to gas and oil," Valentin P. Fedorov, vice president of the Russian Union of industrialists and Employers, told Turkish businessmen.

Fedorov, heading a four-man Russian trade delegation on a week-long visit to Turkey, called on Turkish companies to invest in Russian high technology projects. The delegation is in Turkey as guest of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM).

He said many western European companies were buying the patents of new Russian scientific discoveries in heavy industrial processes, or "technopark investments," and using them in either Russia or in their own countries.

"Turkey should not fall behind other countries in Russian high technology investments," Fedorov said.

Turkey buys mainly raw materials, including crude oil and natural gas, from Russia, and sells processed food, pharmaceuticals, health care products and a wide range of consumer goods in return.

The Russian business leader also expressed concern over the big increase in "suitcase trade" between Turkey and Russia, which is dwarfing official trade between Moscow and Ankara.

Suitcase trade is the term Turks use to describe unofficial trade between the two nations. Suitcase traders are mainly visitors from Russia and other former Soviet republics who come to Turkey as tourists and take back loads of consumer products home in suitcases. Hardly any of the business is registered in official statistics.

Businessmen attending the meeting said both Russia and Turkey lose tax revenues from the unofficial trade.

Official trade between the two nations stood at $3.5 billion in 1995, but unofficial or suitcase trade was about $5 billion.

Fedorov also proposed that Turkish companies to do business outside Moscow and St. Petersburg, where most are currently concentrated.

"We have many regions in Russia, where there is extensive business opportunities," Fedorov remarked He also asked the Turkish government to allow more Russian contractors to do business in Turkey.

Scores of Turkish contractors are building $5.5 billion worth of big construction projects in Russia. No Russian construction firms are involved in Turkish projects.

"A balance must be achieved in investments," he said. The delegation will the Istanbul Stock Exchange and the Tuzla Leather Works Free Zone Wednesday and Izmir on the following day for talks with businessmen in the Aegean port city. It will leave Turkey Sunday.

Kurds, Turks to celebrate Newroz festival

Newroz, the beginning of spring, has become a symbol of Kurdish-Turkish tension. Newroz has long been celebrated by Kurdish nationalists, but has recently been claimed by Turkish nationalists. Kurdish groups will organize meetings on the day while the government is offering an alternative program

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- March 21 became an important day after the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) appropriated it for its separatist activities. Newroz, which has been celebrated in Turkic countries for many years, became a part of the political struggle in Turkey when Kurds claimed that it was their national holiday and wanted to celebrate the day.

Every March 21, incidents have occurred in the east and Southeast of Turkey, hundreds of people have been killed, and the government seems powerless to prevent it.

Belatedly, the Turkish government remembered that Newroz was a festival for Turks too and worked hard to make its own claim on the day, even going so far as to attempt to prove that yellow, red and green the Kurdish national colors have been used by Turks in the past.

The government has said for 10 years that the three colors were the colors of the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK. An attempt was made to change the colors of Turkey's traffic lights to avoid giving support to the PKK.

It seems that Newroz will yet again be celebrated in an atmosphere of tension this year.

The government has mobilized to celebrate the day throughout the country and is organizing ceremonies in many provinces.

Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz is reportedly to participate in the ceremonies to be held in Igdir.

The Religious Affairs Directorate has issued a sermon to be delivered in mosques on Newroz. Religious Affairs Director Mehmet Nuri Yilmaz has called on the Turkish people not to allow themselves to be provoked.

TIKA, the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency, will hold celebrations for one week, over which several conferences and meetings will take place. One activity is the International Newroz Running Race, which will be started from the Presidential Palace in Ankara by President Suleyman Demirel.

The National Lottery is holding a special draw for Newroz, and Minister of Culture Agah Oktay Guner will give a cocktail party.

Meanwhile, the Kurds have announced their plans for Newroz.

The Kurdish "parliament-in-exile" said that Newroz was their national festival and must be celebrated. The PKK said that Newroz would be celebrated with demonstrations as in the past.

Local sources say that the PKK may attack some villages and towns to win publicity.

The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) is organizing Newroz celebrations. Ismail Arslan, deputy chairman of HADEP, said in a press conference at the party's headquarters in Ankara that the party had wanted to celebrate Newroz in the open fields of such big provinces as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Malatya and Van, but the governors' offices of these provinces had refused permission. Arslan said that some governors had offered to celebrate Newroz with HADEP, but the party had refused these offers.

Arslan claimed that the security forces had started to take people into custody prior to the day and warned that if these measures continued, this year's Newroz would be bloody again. He called on the government to take measures against the actions and murder by what he called "dark forces." Arslan said that the presence in today's government of administrators who were responsible for bloody Newroz ceremonies in the past made HADEP doubtful of how far its warnings would be heeded.

Monseigneur Gaillot, archbishop of Pertanya in Algeria, also participated in the HADEP press conference with Ismail Arslan.

"Peace, itself, frightens people. Because peace requires taking risks and changing ways of thinking. It requires courage. Making peace requires more courage than making war," the archbishop said. Gaillot said that peace would be realized when the guns became quiet, torture stopped and military pressure ended.

Meanwhile, State Minister Ayva Gokdemir said that Newroz was a day to celebrate the happiness of life. Newroz is a day of peace and brotherhood, he said.

[06] TOKI chairman Guloksuz gives assurances for Habitat II

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Yigit Guloksuz, head of the Mass Housing Administration, said on Tuesday that preparations for the Habitat II conference, which will be held in Istanbul in June 1996, were going well, and that there was no reason for concern about this conference.

Delivering the opening speech of the Habitat II and Local Administrations Conference, organized by the Turkish Mayorship Association, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Mayors' Services Planning Foundation, Guloksuz said that 25,000 people from various countries were expected to participate in the conference. He noted that every year around 200,000 people migrated to Istanbul, and every month around 30,000 people settled there.

Guloksuz added that in the area in Istanbul known as "Conference Valley" the number of beds at four and five-star hotels was around 10,000. He said these hotels had guaranteed they would increase their capacity to 15,000. He noted that a conference hall with a capacity of 4,500 had been established at a cost of TL 1.5 trillion, and that 3,000 specially trained personnel would be available to assist visitors to the conference.

Referring to the debate over the Habitat II national report, Guloksuz said that to date Turkey had prepared five national reports for United Nations conferences. He continued that none of these had been disputed, though he added that the present report was under discussion.

He suggested a possible route to success for the conference, saying that the decisions made at the end of the conference would not be obligatory but local habitat conferences could be established to solve the problems of local inhabitants.

Professor Ilhan Tekeli, a member of the Habitat II Advisory Board, informed the conference about the preparation process.

Max Georg Meier, chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said the Habitat II Conference would be an important opportunity to promote Turkey and would contribute to the democratization of Turkey.

Opposition

During the conference, opposition to the Habitat II national report draft was voiced by Professor Cevat Giray, a member of the Ankara Political Sciences Faculty. Giray said the issue of local administrations was not take into account satisfactorily in the report. He suggested the state should withdraw from housing issue, saying this was a matter for local administrations. He added that local administrations should be strengthened.

Giray pointed out that during the conference the Southeast question would not be discussed by Turks, because it was seen as a taboo in Turkey. However, he noted that foreigners attending the conference would discuss it, and added that every sort of issue should be discussed at the Habitat II Conference.