TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News (April 9, 1996)

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

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 9 April 1996

[01] Turkey hits PKK in Northern Iraq

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- In what seems to be the opening shots of a spring campaign against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the month-old coalition government of Mesut Yilmaz has sent air force jets and ground troops into northern Iraq to attack the rebels entrenched there, government sources told the TDN.

The sources said the incursion and the strikes were carried out on Sunday on the orders of Yilmaz who is expected to make an official statement today. Sources said after ordering the crossborder operation, Yilmaz went to the city stadium to watch a soccer match to give the operation a maximum element of surprise.

The operation was successful and the jets and troops returned safely after fulfilling their missions, the sources said.

Parallel to the incursion, the troops launched a massive search-and-destroy operation in Turkey's southeastern provinces, where the PKK has been waging a separatist war for more than 11 years. So far, some 20,000 people have died in the fighting, according to official estimates.

Sources said about 70 separatists had been killed in an engagement between the security forces and a rebel unit.

Interior Minister Nahit Mentese later told the Anatolia news agency that 64 rebels had been killed in the clash which occurred north of Lice township in Diyarbakir province. There were also casualties among the security forces, the minister told the agency without elaborating.

Earlier reports said 18 militants had been killed in clashes on the provincial border between Diyarbakir and Bingol.

A unilateral cease-fire was declared by Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed PKK, in December, but was rebuffed by the Turkish government.

Last year Turkey carried out massive crossborder strikes against PKK concentrations in Kurdish-held northern Iraq and said it had killed hundreds of rebels.

Ankara, while allowing a Western air force to operate from its soil to protect Iraqi Kurds' safe-haven against attack from Saddam Hussein's forces, sees Baghdad's curtailed authority in the area, coupled with a violent power struggle between the Iraqi Kurdish leaders, as creating favorable conditions for the PKK's entrenchment.

Yilmaz's center-right minority coalition was able to extend the mandate of Operation Provide Comfort for three months recently but a left-wing party on whose support the government depends for survival made clear that there would be no further extensions.

The PKK last month threatened suicide attacks in Turkish cities and resort centers if Ankara did not respond to its unilateral cease-fire.

The rebels also issued threats against Germany after its latest crackdown on the PKK, following bloody riots by its supporters in German cities in late March.

Recently, the PKK has been raising the tone of its threats to Germany over the German crackdown on PKK activity.

Last week, the PKK threatened German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel with death, and Ocalan attacked Kinkel and Interior Minister Manfred Kanther for "surpassing each other in being of service to Turkey and slandering the Kurds." Despite subsequent denials by the PKK leadership, Germany took these death threats seriously and security precautions have been tightened in the country.

The PKK is banned in Germany on charges of being a terrorist organization.

[02] Bureaucrats, businessmen warn of delay in policy-making

ANKARA- Turkish bureaucrats joined businessmen to complain that the coalition government was acting too slowly in devising a macroeconomic policy which, hopefully, would help restore balance in the still-drifting economy.

"Yes, drifting is the word. We spent the past month pondering what policy mix would suit the current circumstances best. No action. We are still drifting," one senior Treasury economist told the Turkish Daily News.

The economist, who asked not to be identified, said that hopes for productive efforts -- now that the two center-right parties have formed an alliance -- are fading away amid the tough struggles for key economic posts and slow policy-shaping.

He explained: "That is waste, to use the most polite expression. More than thirty days have been wasted on bargaining for fancy posts and some debate on a budget which is, in a word, hopeless." A senior state banker said he now sees that his expectations for swift action after the end of the (five-month) political turmoil have proved futile.

"It seems that those people are not bringing synergy, as they claimed on the day of their historic accord, but only doing the very things they had criticized," he commented.

The same banker said time was going by quickly -- and to the disadvantage of the average Turk.

"The political authority, no matter what political complications it is undergoing, must, as a priority, define its economic choices to allow policy-makers to devise options regarding these objectives. Unfortunately, this is not happening at all," he said.

Businessmen are no happier.

"We have been tolerating this lack of action for the past month. But I feel close to the point of frustration, particularly when I see all that bargaining for key posts still on the agenda," said the head representative of one EU company in Istanbul.

He said, in a telephone interview, that it was a shame on the coalition to have failed to make assignments to principal economic offices "at least to start with." "It is no comfort to know we have a government at least," he said.

A mission from the prestigious Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) arrived in Ankara Monday to hold talks with a wide range of statesmen, including President Suleyman Demirel, Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, and Parliament Speaker Mustafa Kalemli.

The delegation will also visit the ministers of interior, finance and industry and commerce.

Sources close to the Istanbul merchants said the group would express its concern over delays in economic policy-making, during a planned meeting with the prime minister.

On Monday, the ITO mission visited Finance Minister Lutfullah Kayalar, who said, during the meeting, that one of the primary objectives of the government was to achieve (economic) stability.

The minister said one way to achieve that could be by taxing underground economic activity.

[03] Syria regrets Turkey's accord with Israel and calls for a 'review'

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Syria on Monday expressed "deep regret" over what are referred to as "reports of an agreement of military cooperation in security and strategic fields" between Turkey and Israel and called on Ankara to "review" this arrangement.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mousa, referring to this accord, said over the weekend that it was a "dangerous example" and added that it posed "danger for the region." While officials in Tehran remained quiet on reports of such an accord between Turkey and Israel, the Iranian media has been lambasting Ankara for what one paper referred to as "bringing Zionism to Iran's doors." A written statement from the Syrian Embassy in Ankara also denied reports that Syria had signed a similar agreement with Greece and indicated Turkey had been informed of the "fallacy of this claim." Greek Foreign Minister Gerassimos Arsenis indicated recently that a military cooperation accord concluded by Athens and Damascus would also allow for Greek fighter jets to use Syrian bases.

Arsenis had indicated in so many words that this arrangement with Syria was aimed at Turkey.

Arsenis' remarks were followed in a few days by the disclosure by Turkish Minister Defense Oltan Sungurlu to the Turkish Daily News that Turkey had given extensive rights for Israeli jets to use Turkish skies for training purposes.

Sungurlu backed down from this statement over the weekend when he told a leading daily that he had "confused two issues" and that Israel had not been given the rights he had initially suggested.

He did not deny however the existence of a military cooperation accord with Israel.

Analysts point out that Sungurlu's backing down followed an official statement in Ankara that assurance had been obtained from Damascus that the accord between Syria and Greece as suggested by Arsenis did not exist.

"Syria expresses her deep regret and concern that Turkey, an important member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, should this (agreement with Israel)... The friendly Turkish people are well aware of the firm and consistent resolutions of the OIC condemning Israel's occupation of Arab lands and her usurpation of holy Jerusalem which she considers her eternal capital," the statement from the Syrian embassy read.

"They know very well that the resolutions of the OIC, adopted with Turkey's support, demand that all OIC members abstain from any form of political, military, economic or other cooperation with Israel as long as Israel continues her occupation of Arab lands and her denial of Arab rights." The statement appeared to conveniently overlook the fact that OIC members such as Egypt, Jordan and the PLO are cooperating with Israel, politically and economically, if not militarily.

"Furthermore, Syria wishes to make it clear that there is no truth in the claims that there is a similar agreement between Syria and Greece. Syria confirms a new agreement is non-existent. She has duly informed the authorities of her neighbor Turkey of the fallacy of this claim," the statement indicated.

Going on to point out that Syria "is always anxious to develop with her neighbor Turkey a bilateral and constructive dialogue based on good neighborhood, mutual respect and nonintervention in internal affairs," the statement said Damascus would spare "no effort to achieve this goal." "Syria hopes that the Turkish government would review the security and military agreements it concluded lately with Israel, in conformity with the OIC resolutions and safeguard the historic relations between the Islamic people of Turkey and the Arab and Islamic states," the statement concluded.

[04] US calls chances of peaceful resolution of Greek-Turkish differences 'hopeful'

WASHINGTON- Looking toward this week's visit by Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, the State Department has said "signs are hopeful" for a peaceful settlement of Greek-Turkish differences.

A reporter at last Friday's State Department daily press briefing alleged that Turkish President Suleyman Demirel, during his visit to Washington last month, had "officially" asked the United States to mediate between Greece and Turkey. Would the United States do so, the reporter wondered, or was a similar request expected from Greece during Simitis' visit?

"We'll play whatever role the sides want us to play that we're comfortable with," Acting Spokesman Glyn Davies replied, reiterating past statements of U.S. policy: "We're very interested in ensuring that two of our closest allies, Greece and Turkey, are able to work out their differences. We've called on Greece and Turkey to do so peacefully. And we have as a member of NATO a strong interest in doing everything we can to ensure that this does play out peacefully.

"Right now I'd say signs are hopeful," Davies commented. But he declined to go into details, saying, "This probably falls under the category of diplomacy that's best left outside the light or glare of media or public attention."

Later in the briefing a Greek journalist tried -- but failed -- to draw Davies into casting the European Union's cloak around Greece in its disputes with Turkey.

The reporter, who is known -- and sometimes ridiculed -- within the Washington foreign press corps for his tendentious questions which parrot PASOK positions, asked whether Davies considered "the present Greek-Turkish border in the eastern Aegean is a border also between Turkey and the European Union." He prefaced this with a claim that the United States supported determining ownership of the disputed Kardak (Imia) islet off Turkey's southwestern coast "only" through the International Court of Justice.

Davies finessed the border question by addressing the journalist's preface: "I think you may be mischaracterizing our position on Imia-Kardak. I don't know that we've said that it can only be addressed in the International Court of Justice. I think you have to draw back from that. Our position is that we want very much for Turkey and Greece to work out their differences, to do it peacefully, that there are various ways that that can be done, and that the International Court of Justice is one such way." Neither Davies nor the reporter returned to the "border" question.