Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review(April 13, 1995)
Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller signed a deal with Azeri President Haydar Aliyev yesterday in Baku that will give
Turkey 5 % of Baku's shares in an international oil consortium. According to the agreement, the state-run
Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) took over 5 % more shares to raise its total to 6.75 % from the present 1.75 %.
Speaking before leaving Ankara, Ciller reiterated Turkey's continued support for Azerbaijan in its conflict with
Armenia. "The occupation of Azeri lands by Armenian forces must end. I'd like to see more efforts in international
fora and within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)" she said. Foreign Minister
Erdal Inonu, Housing and Settlement Minister Erman Sahin, Industry and Commerce Minister Hasan Akyol, Energy and
Natural Resources Minister Veysel Atasoy, Culture Minister Ercan Karakas and several business leaders accompanied
Ciller on her visit. Ciller said that Turkey hopes to build a Mediterranean terminal at the end of an envisaged oil
pipeline that will carry Azeri and Kazakh oil from the Caspian region. Aliyev met with Tansu Ciller at Baku's Bine
Airport yesterday. Azeri Parliament Speaker Resul Guliyev and Cabinet members participated in the meeting. /All
papers/
In an interview with the newspaper "Correio Braziliense" President Suleyman Demirel said that Turkey was fighting
against terrorists, not Kurdish people.
Demirel noted that "our Kurdish citizens are our brothers, and we have no problems with them at all." Expressing
sympathy for the difficulties endured by some Latin American countries because of terrorism, Demirel went on to say that
the PKK terrorist organization was not defending the rights of the Kurdish people, but was more concerned with
establishing an illegal Kurdish state against the wishes of the Kurdish groups living in the region. /All papers/
US State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns disclosed yesterday that the US they did not support autonomy for
Turkish Kurds living in Turkey. Burns touched on the explanations of State Department Spokeswoman Christine
Shelley about Iraqi Kurds last Monday. Burns stressed that the solution proposal suggesting autonomy for Kurds did not
include Turkey. Burns said that "we are against Kurdish autonomy inside Turkish borders". Burns noted too that the
US did not accept a Kurdish parliament-in-exile. Burns expressed his views saying that :"We do not accept the PKK
Parliament in The Hague. The US can not support an initiative coming from the PKK terrorist organization. We
have stated to this to both Dutch and Turkish governments". The expression "PKK parliament" instead of "Kurdish
parliament" is noteworthy. The US Embassy to Ankara also stressed that the US saw the PKK as a terrorist
organization, and that this terrorist organization was not only active in Turkey but in Western Europe as well.
/Hurriyet-Sabah/
Government officials said yesterday that leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) Mesud Barzani will come to
Ankara at the end of the month with a large delegation. Foreign Ministry officials have also confirmed that
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Celal Talabani has informed the ministry by letter that he wants to have talks
with government representatives.
Turkish government officials want to talk to the leaders of the two main Kurdish political parties about security in the
northern Iraq region once Turkish military forces pull out. After initial details have been sorted out, then dates will
be fixed for visits and talks. During the weekly Foreign Ministry press meeting yesterday Spokesman Ferhat Ataman
said that Ankara viewed these developments positively. /Hurriyet/
During a press meeting after the two day meetings in Ankara between a top level US delegation and Turkish officials
including Prime Minister Ciller and Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu, US delegation leader Strobe Talbott said that he had
been given assurances about a Turkish forces withdrawal from northern Iraq.
Talbott said that both Ciller and Inonu had assured him that the Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq would be
limited in scope and time. Talbott closed his comments by saying that the delegation attached a lot of importance to
the government's assurances, and that it was the hope of the US administration that as far as possible Turkey would be a
stable, strong country. /Cumhuriyet/
SOUTHEAST
Seventy-five terrorists and three members of the state security forces were killed in fierce fighting in villages
surrounding the city of Tunceli yesterday, when government troops launched an operation in the region against the PKK
terrorist organization. /All papers/
Turkey said yesterday it would ask Denmark to stop the Kurdish separatist ERNK organization from opening an office
in Copenhagen this month, the Anatolia news agency reported. Turkish Ambassador Faruk Logoglu said: "It would be quite
wrong for Denmark to host an ERNK office- the organization is connected directly to the PKK". ERNK has announced it
plans to open the Copenhagen office on April 25.
Kurds, including the six deputies of the banned pro-Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP) now living in Europe as well as
members of the PKK terrorist organization, yesterday formed an "exile parliament" in The Hague, despite Turkey's
opposition. PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, in a message sent in English" wished "success" to the Kurdish representatives
and stated that AGRK, the armed-wing of the PKK, supported the parliament. The 65-seat parliament, initially drawn
only from exiled Kurds, opened in The Hague's main conference centre as about 2,000 Kurds raised flags of
yellow, red and green which are considered the traditional Kurdish colors. The elected member and chairman of the
Kurdish Institute, Ismet Serif Vanli, said the parliament constituted the first step towards a Kurdistan National
Congress, uniting with the parliaments of the Kurdistan provinces to fight for national liberation.
Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu said it was not possible to characterize the stance of the Netherlands' government as
friendly and wanted the Netherlands to reconsider its approach toward the "so-called parliament-in-exile. It has
been reported in the press that a so-called Kurdish parliament-in-exile has been established in Holland by
groups led by the PKK. This does not agree with the Netherlands' international obligations". Inonu also
recalled that both Turkey and Netherlands are NATO members, saying: "Such a course of action by the Netherlands is
contrary to NATO's common values as well as to the spirit of the traditional friendship between our countries, the
toleration of the formation of a parliament-in-exile by a terrorist organization which threatens the territorial
integrity of an allied country, by citing gaps in the domestic legislation, will signify, even if it is
unintentional, nothing less than the encouragement of terrorism itself". /Sabah/
A PARLIAMENT"
Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) Speaker Husamettin Cindoruk qualified the establishment of a Kurdish
parliament- in-exile as "a situation directed to violate the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political unity of
Turkey". Cindoruk said: "No right can be given to terrorists to establish a parliament". True Path Party
(DYP) Group Deputy Chairman Ihsan Saraclar noted that Turkey was an independent and free state, and that she struggled
against a terrorist organization, therefore some western countries should take this under consideration. /Sabah/
Nuzhet Kandemir, Turkish Ambassador to the US, sent a severe answer to the editor of "Newsweek" pertaining to an article
on Turkey published in the latest issue of the magazine. In response to the magazine's allegations that "the sick man
coughs again" (referring to Turkey's operation in northern Iraq), Kandemir replied "This time, history will not repeat
itself". The ambassador stated that the term "sick man" had been coined in the 19th century by the big European powers
with the aim of dismantling the Ottoman Empire. He said this strategy had been successful then, but that this was no
longer the 19th century. He concluded that Turkey would overcome its difficulties democratically within the
structure of a unitary state. /Cumhuriyet/
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ferhat Ataman, in his weekly press conference, stated that the 5th meeting of the Black
Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Foreign Ministers would be held in Athens and that a Turkish delegation headed by
Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu would attend the meeting. Pointing out that Greece was the term president of the BSEC,
Ataman said that it was foreseen according to the English alphabetic order that BSEC term presidency would be handed
over Moldova at this meeting. /Cumhuriyet/
A "High Level Group" will be established in order to develop common strategies between Turkey and the US, to facilitate
taking common attitudes regarding issues concerning both countries and to establish grounds for agreements regarding
developments in Turkey. Lawrence Eagleburger, former US Secretary of State will preside over the High Level Group
which will be introduced by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller in a ceremony to be held in Washington on 19 April. Nearly 30
representatives from both countries will participate in the group which is expected to gather twice a year. The group,
which will carry out its work at academic levels, will present reports and strategical evaluations as proposals to
both sides. The Turkish-US High Level Group will carry out its work under the International Strategic Research Centre
which is one of the leading US think-tank institutions. The US has similar High Level Groups with countries that have
strategic importance. The US-Russia High Level Group called the "St.Petersburg Commission" is carrying out its work
under the direction of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Counsellor during the
presidency of Jimmy Carter, is presiding over the US-Ukraine and the US-Poland High Level Groups. /Milliyet/
113,400 voters will vote for the new President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on April 15, the
Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.
Arsonists set fire to two Turkish stores in the western German cities of Ludwigshafen and Berlin yesterday morning,
causing substantial damage. The police, quoted by the Anatolia news agency, said they were searching for two young
men seen driving away from the store in Ludwigshagen.
BUSINESSWEEK (April 10, 1995)
"Some 2,400 insurgents belonging to the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) have been using bases across the Iraqi frontier
to mount raids into Turkey."
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS (APRIL 1, 1995) Prof. Joe Szyliowicz
"You have had an ongoing campaign by the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, that is seeking independence for
Kurds from Turkey. They have enjoyed support in the past from neighbors of Turkey - Syria, Iraq, Iran - and they have
bases along the Iraqi-Turkish border. The offensive is aimed at destroying those bases and also the PKK guerrilla
bands. We consider Turkey to be an important ally and one that
occupies a critical strategic location. It borders on central Asia and has powerful connections to the former
Soviet republics. Turkey has played an important role in supporting U.S. policy toward Iraq since the invasion of
Kuwait. Turkey also borders Iran and Syria, countries that in the past have been troublesome for the U.S."
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE (APRIL 6, 1995) Dilip Hiro
"PKK terrorists from Turkey have exploited the power vacuum, and Turkey's incursion has come in response to the
PKK's increased influence in the war-torn region... (fighting between Mr. Barzani's KDP and Mr. Talabani's
PUK) deepened the power vacuum in northern Iraq and gave the PKK increased leeway to launch its terrorist actions against
Turkey from the Kurdish enclave... It was against this background that Turkey sent 35,000 soldiers..."
THE WASHINGTON TIMES (MARCH 30, 1995) Stephen Green
"Although the 3,500-square-mile area was placed off-limits to Iraqi aircraft and soldiers to protect Kurdish
residents from Saddam's army, the resulting vacuum of authority has had an unintended effect. The "no fly" zone
has become a refuge and logistical base for separatist Kurd terrorists, seeking sanctuary between operations in Turkey.
Turkey has been castigated by some for the incursion, but the criticism is unfounded. Clearly, Turkey has a right
to protect itself from terrorism. If there is no authority in Northern Iraq capable of preventing the region's use by
terrorists, Turkey is justified in taking matters ito its own hands.
Indeed, under the circumstances, Turkey has every right to expect the United States, Britain and France to assist in
keeping terrorists out of the area."
REUTER (March 22, 1995)
"'Turkey has justified security interests in its conflict with the terroristic activities of the PKK (Kin
north Iraq,' the (German Foreign) Ministry quoted (Foreign Minister) Kinkel as saying."
NEWSWEEK (April 3, 1995)
"Bill Clinton's administration has been broadly supportive, recognizing that the Kurdish Workers' Party
(PKK) is a brutal terrorist group and concluding that Turkey's actions could be justified under international
law."
END
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