<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>------------<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>
<<>><<>><<>>.....TURKISTAN NEWSLETTER...ISSN:--1386-6265....<<>><<>><<>>
<<>><<>><<>>--------------------------------------------<<>><<>><<>><<>>
<<>><<>><<>>........Editor/Manager: Mehmet Tutuncu......<<>><<>><<>><<>>
<<>><<>><<>>......Business:S.Bogut,H.Savas..............<<>><<>><<>><<>>
<<>><<>><<>>...Features: I. Noyan-Izmirli,Y. Puersuen...<<>><<>><<>><<>>
<<>><<>><<>>......Technical: T. Ates, K. Cagiltay.......<<>><<>><<>><<>>
<<>><<>>......Associate Editors: A.Baguirov, A. Eren,Z.Kadir....<<>><<>>
<<>><<>>....Editorial Board:Dr.Robert M.Cutler, Dr.H.M.Hubey....<<>><<>>
<<>><<>>........Dr.T.Kocaoglu, Dr.N.Sariahmetoglu...............<<>><<>>
<<>><<>>--------------------------------------------------------<<>><<>>
<<>><<>><<>><<>>.....Volume:97-1:15----25-june-1997.....<<>><<>><<>><<>>
<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>-----------------------------<<><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>
<>Uze kok tengri asra yagiz yer kilintukta ekin ara kisi ogli kilinmis<>
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********Archives of the Turkistan Newsletter can be found at:***********
********<http://www.euronet.nl/users/sota/turkistan.htm>****************
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_________1. Kyrgyz News -- Naryn Aiyp
1.1) State Tax Agency head fired, on Russian as official language in
Kyrgyzstan, Deputies accused of corruption, Geology conference, and
Women's conference.
1.2) Russian as official language, CIS custom union meeting postponed,
Tajik negotiations, UN ecology meeting, Border troop discussions
1.3) More on Russian as official language, Muslim Board to publish
own paper, Update on Libel suit, New area of study,
_________2. Announcements of Conferences -- Ukraine
2.1) The Eastern Question, to be held in Foros, Crimea
2.2) The Black Sea fleet and destiny of Russia,
to be held in Sevastopol,Crimea
_________3. RFE/RL & More -- Yanki Puersuen
3.1) Khoja Ahmet Yasevi University Homepage
3.2) Alcatel in Turkmenistan
3.3) Conference Announcement from Price-Waterhouse
________4. TRH News -- A. Toprak
4.1) Yilmaz to form new government
4.2) Pullout from Northern Iraq
4.3) Article from Washington Times -- Bill Gertz
4.4) Article from US News and World Report
4.5) Jordan Times -- Internet Edition--Commentary by Rami Khouri
4.6) Tehran Times -- Article/ Commentary
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KYRGYZ NEWS - 22 JUNE 1997
1. Government official told out correspondent on 21 June, that Kerim
Urazbayev, director of the State Tax Agency, was fired by Prime minister on 20
June. No official reasons have been announced. Former head of the Pervomai
district administration in Bishkek, Medet Sadyrkulov, was appointed instead of
him the same day. Department head of the President administration, Kalmurza
Imanaliev, replaced Sadyrkulov.
2. President Askar Akayev will address the session of People's Assembly of
Parliament on 23 June. Session will begin on 23 June and last till 1 July.
Main topic of the President's speech would be the issue on granting the
Russian an official status in the country. Kyrgyz has been the state language
in Kyrgyzstan since 1989.
3. Procurator general office had asked People's Assembly to agree to bring the
legal actions against 7 members of the Assembly,- parliament press service
announced in Bishkek on 21 June. The issue would be added to the session
agenda on 23 June. All 7 deputies are accused of corruption. They are:
- Bayaman Erkinbayev, businessman,
- Jamalbek Tuleberdiyev, former president of
the State energetics company,
- Kamchybek Kudaibergenov, former president of the
State oil company and then - chairman of the
Parliament Control chamber,
- Mamat Aibalayev, former director of the Kadamjai
antimony factory,
- Bakyt Abdyldayev, a businessman,
- Marat Kalmurzayev,
- Vladimir Shevelev, director of the Toktogul
hydro-electric power stations.
4. Head of the international department of President administration, Muratbek
Imanaliev, told our correspondent in Bishkek on 21 June, that Isenbay
Abdurazakov, state secretary, will take part in the Genaral Assembly of the
U.N. He will arrive to New York from Paris on 22 June. Abdurazakov left
Bishkek for Paris on 20 June. He meets with French foreing minitry officials.
5. Meeting of the Muftiyat, top Muslim Board of the country, was held in
Bishkek on 21 June, deputy Mufti, Abdylda Asrankulov, told our correspondent
on 21 June. Several questions were discussed at the meeting: registration of
the all mosques in Kyrgyzstan, sertifying of all imams, reorganization of the
religious education system, publishing the own paper.
6. Conference of the Associations of geologists and mining workers was held in
Bishkek on 21 June. Conference expressed the cocern that the government does
not support the field enough and there is no united strategy in mining
industry.
7. International conference 'Woman Dialogue' was held in Bishkek on 20 June.
Organizer was the National Forum of non-governmental organizations.
Representatives of Central Asian states took part in it.
KYRGYZ NEWS - 23 JUNE 1997
1. President Askar Akayev met with deputies of the People's Assembly of Kyrgyz
Parliament today. According to the parliament press service, it was not a
session of the Assembly, it was a meeting only. Session will begin tomorrow,
on 24 June, and will last till 1 July.
President Akayev asked deputies to resolve a problem on official status to
the Russian in Kyrgyzstan. He said that if Russian would be an official
language, there will be no problem with languages in Kyrgyzstan in the future.
Also, Akayev said that the problem of water resources of the country is been
studying by UNDP experts. Legislative Assembly of the Parliament decided on 12
June that neighboring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan should pay for water from
Kyrgyz reservoirs.
Kyrgyz is a state language in Kyrgyzstan since 1989. Under pressure from the
president office, Constitutional Court decided on 31 December, 1996, to make
amendment to the Constitution, giving the Russian an official status. To make
this decision valid, both Houses of Parliament should approved it till 1 July.
Legislative Assembly asked Constitutional Court in February to give an
official explanation what is difference between a state language and an
official one. There has been no answer.
2. President press sercretary, Kanybek Imanaliev, announced in Bishkek today
that the meeting of heads of countries, joined in Custom Union of the CIS, is
postponed. I had been planned to 27-28 June and according to Imanaliev,
meeting will be held in the fall and was postponed by the request of Russia.
Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are members of the Custom Union.
3. Foreign ministry press service announced in Bishkek today that foreign
ministers of Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
will take part in the final session of the Tajik negotiations, which begins
in Moscow on 27 June. Kyrgyz minister, Roza Otunbayeva, will take part in it.
4. Foreign ministry department head, Bakyt Orunbekov, told our correspondent
in Bishkek today, that three representatives of Kyrgyzstan are taking part in
the meeting at the United Nations on ecology, began in New York today. They
are: Ishenbay Abdurazakov, state secretary; Kulubek Bokonbayev, minister of
ecology; Alikbek Jekshenkulov, first deputy foreign minister. Abdurazakov
deliveres a speech at the meeting today.
5. President press service announced in Bishkek today that General Andrei
Nikolayev, head of the Russian Frontiers Guard Federal Service, will visit
Kyrgyzstan on 24 June. He will be received by President Akayev. Situation on
the border between Kyrgyzstan and China, wich is guarded by Russian and Kyrgyz
border guards togeteher, activity of the Kyrgyz peacekeeping batallion in
Tajikistan and situation in Afghanistan will be discussed.
6. Gennady Seleznev, speaker of the Russian State Duma, arrives to Bishkek on
25 June. He will meet with President Akayav, Prime MInister Apas Jumagulov,
speakers of two Houses of the Parliament and will address the joint session of
the Parliament.
7. Talant Duishembiyev, a prominent Kyrgyz sportsman, held a press conference
in Bishkek today. Duishembiyev won World and Olympic titles in handball, being
a captain of the USSR national team. He has lived in Spain since 1994 and
received a Spanish citizenship in 1995. Duishembiev is a captain of the
Spanish national team. According to him, he will return to Kyrgyzstan when his
professional sport career will end.
KYRGYZ NEWS - 24 JUNE 1997
1. People's Assembly of Kyrgyz Parliament did not support today the decision
on giving an official status to the Russian language. Some deputies suggested
to vote for the decision without discussion. MPs Dastan Sarygulov and Jamin
Akimaliyev insisted on consideration. At about 5 p.m., local time, there was a
break in the session and the discussion continued in the evening. Decision
requiered 47 votes ( two thirds of the 70 members of the Assembly), but only
40 deputies voted for the official status to the Russian.
Law on state language was passed in Kyrgyz parliament in September 1989.
According to it, the Kyrgyz was proclaimed as a state language and all
documents should be written in Kyrgyz by 1996 (in following 7 years). In 1994,
it was decided to extend the deadline till 2000. Kyrgyz was approved as a
state language in the new constitution, passed in May 1993.
President Askar Akayev signed a special decree in June 1994, letting to use
Russian as official language in some areas and establishments, where the
ethnic Russians were in majority. People's Assembly of the Parliament passed a
law on giving Russian an official status on 11 March 1996. Legislative
Assembly had not discussed the issue at all, but the Constitutional Court
decided on 31 December 1996 to make amendment to the Constitution, adding the
words that Russian is an official language in Kyrgyzstan. To make this
decision valid, both houses of the parliament (People's Assembly and
Legislative Assembly) should approve it till 1 July, 1997.
Legislative Assembly appealed to the Constitutional court in February and
asked to give explanation, what is a difference between state language and
official language. Jolbors Jorobekov, Chairman of the Parliamentarian
committee on culture, told our correspondent on 24 June, that Constitutional
Court had answered that the government commission on terminology should make
conclusion on it.
President Akayev met with members of both Legislative Assembly (on 30 May) and
People's Assembly (on 23 June) and asked them to grant the Russian an official
status. Legislative Assembly (there are 35 members in it) will consider the
case this week, too.
2. Russian State Duma speaker, Gennady Seleznev, will arrive to Bishkek
tomorrow, on 25 June. He will meet, exept top Kyrgyz officials, with
Mr.Vishnevsky, leader of the Slavic Fund of Kyrgyzstan. The Fund unites ethnic
Russian of the country. There are about 600,000 Russians in Kyrgyzstan now.
3. President press service announced in Bishkek today that the visit of
General Andrei Nikolayev, director of the Russian Border Guard Service, is
postponed for July. Press service did not elaborate. The visit was set for
today, 23 June.
4. Speaker of the People's Assembly, Almambet Matubraimov, decorated President
Akayev with a special Gold medal on 23 June. Akayev was awarded by
Inter-Parliamentarian Assembly of the CIS for economical achievements of
Kyrgyzstan in 1996. Matubraimov took part in the session of the Assembly, held
together with Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe in St.Petersburg,
Russia, on 17-21 June.
5. Deputy Mufty of Kyrgyzstan, Abdylda Asrankulov, told our correspondent in
Bishkek on 24 June, that the Muslim Board began to sertify the kasy of
districts and towns. Decision on it was made at the meeting of the Board last
week.
Another deputy Mufti, Ulukmar Agy, told our correspondent today that the Board
will publish its own paper, "Culture of Islam", soon. Prominent Kyrgyz
journalist, Pamirbek Kazybayev, has been appointed as chief editor.
6. Lawyer of Zamira Sydykova, Yuri Maksimov, told our correspondent in Bishkek
on 24 June that he handed the appeal to the Supreme Court yesterday, on 23
June. Sydykova was accused of insulting and libeling a manager of the State
gold concern and was sentenced to 18 month of imprisonment by district court
on 23 June. Municipal court softened the verdict on 10 June, replacing the
imprisonment by colony serving. Kyrgyz opposition says the trial was
politically motivated. Maksimov says, he received the formal decision of the
municipal court, taken on 10 June, only on 20 June.
7. President Akayev congratulated today all young people, graduated from
schools this year. 47,000 people leave schools this year, 325 of them - with
Gold medals. Education, science and culture ministry spokeswoman, Nurbubu
Ashymbekova, told our correspondent today that number of gold winners is less
then in 1996 by about 100. President press service announced today there would
be no Youth Forum this year, because of finance shortage. Before, every year,
President Akayev had received representatives of the school leavers at the
resort town of Cholpon-Ata. Government spent about 500,000 som (about $30,000)
for each forum.
8. State custom service spokesman, Abdylda Maldybayev, told our correspondent
in Bishkek today that a new department will be opened at the State Managemant
Academy this year. It will be called Department of Management and Custom
service. People with high education can study at it for 2 years, people
without high education should learn 4 years.
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#2 ANNOUNCEMENTS
2.1)
The Eastern Question: History and New Geopolitical reality
The Fourth International Memorial N.Y. Danilevsky Scientific Readings,
October 25-31, Crimea, Foros, N.Y. Danilevsky's estate Mshatka
The Crimean Research Centre of Humanities Institute of Geopolitics,
The Simferopol State University
The Crimean Society of Russian Culture invite you to take part in the The
Fourth International Memorial N.Y. Danilevsky Scientific Readings, "The
Eastern Question: History and New Geopolitical reality". The Conference
will take place on 25-31 October 1997 in the Crimea (Foros). Offcial date
of praticipants arrival is 25 October (Saturday), departure is 31 October
(Saturday).
The issues planning to be discussed within the conference
- The Eastern Question and Russian Geopolitical School Studies
- Balkan Countries, The Crimea, The Caucasus: Islamic factor and the
Slavic World
-The Black Sea region - Balance of geopolitical Forces
-Black Sea in Geostrategic conception
On October 30 1997 specialists in the fields of geopolitics, politicl
science, miltary history are wellcome to take part in "round table"
discussion "THe Black Sea Fleet problem in 1990s: politcal and military
aspects" together with participants of the international simposium "The
Black Sea Fleet n the destiny of Russia (October 26- November 1, 1997,
Sevastopol Crimea). The official languages of the conference will be
Russian and English.
Fees: $ 50 Registration fee to be paid after arrival.
Accommodations: IN Yalta and Foros hotels $ 35-120 per day inluding 3 meals
Abstracts due June 1997. A registration form and accommodation form will be
sent as sooon as your abstract and claim have been accepted.
Conference Secreatariat
Institute of Geopolitics
Crieman Research Centre for Humanities
Simferopol State University
4 Yaltinskaya str.
Simferopol Crimea
333036 Ukraine
tel: + 38 00652 23 22 76, 232932
fax: + 38 00652 232169
________________________________________________
2.2)
"The Black Sea Fleet and the destiny of Russia"
An International Scientific Simposium
(October 26- November 1, 1997, Sevastopol Crimea)
The Crimean Research Centre of Humanities in association with The Black Sea
fleet Command, World Russian Sobor, Union of Russia's Writers,
Committe in compatriots Affairs of State Duma of Russian Federation,
governmental and public organizations in the CIS
The issues planning to bediscussed at the simposium:
The destiny of the fleet and the destiny of Russia: tragic and heroic pages
of history The Balck Sea fleet and international security on the eve of
the XXI cent.: Legal aspects of interantional realtions in the Black
Sea region The Black Sea in gestrategic conceptions and plans
The Balck Sea Fleet and Sevastopol as the factors of relations between
Russia and Ukraine Problems of Nuclear security in Black Sea region
Problems of national conflicts non-violent resolution in the Black Sea region.
On October 30 1997 specialists in the fields of geopolitics, political
science, military history are wellcome to take part in "round table"
discussion "THe Black Sea Fleet problem in 1990s: political and military
aspects" together with participants of the Foruth memorial N.Y. Danilevsky
Raedings.
The official languages of the conference will be Russian and English.
Accommodations: In Sevastopol hotels $ 35-100 per day inluding 3 meals
Abstracts due August 15, 1997. A registration form and accommodation form
will be sent as sooon as your abstract and claim have been accepted.
Conference Secreatariat
prof. Vladimir P. Kazarin
Institute of Geopolitics
Crieman ResearchCentre for Humanities
Simferopol State University
4 Yaltinskaya str.
Simferopol Crimea
333036 Ukraine
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#3
3.1)
>From: YANKI PURSUN <puersuen@stud.uni-frankfurt.de>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 22:49:11 -0200
The Hoca Ahmet Yesevi University has a web page @ http://www.asdc.kz/~yasawiun
Hoca Ahmet Yesevi International Turkish - Kazak University was founded in
1991 and will be located in Turkistan, a city in southern Kazakstan. Before
the making of the campus in Turkistan, courses started at faculties in
Chimkent and Kentau. In 1993 6.000 pupils were taught by 710 professors and
assistants. 1993 the university had 13 faculties and 75 professorial chairs.
>From puersuen@stud.uni-frankfurt.de Mon Jun 23 17:37:00 1997
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 22:49:12 -0200
3.2) COMMUNICATION
Alcatel brings Turkmenistan state-of-the-art digital equipment-Turkmen-Press
Germany-based Alcatel Co. will deliver to Turkmenistan digital communication
equipment worth DM 1.9 million. This will be the first digital communication
station with a capacity of 10,000 numbers in the town of Turkmenbashi,
said the official of the Turkmentelecom. The delivery and installation of
equipment will be financing out of proceeds of Alcatel's credit. The credit
is payable in five years, including a two-year grace period.
In addition, the second telephone station in Turkmenbashi will be
re-equipped with new digital communication equipment. Digital communication
stations are already operating in Ashgabat, Chardjou, Nebitdag and Tashauz.
The issue of constructing automatic and international telephone services
in Mary is being discussed today due to the building of the
Trans-Asian-European fiber-optic communication network.
3.3)
>From puersuen@stud.uni-frankfurt.de Mon Jun 23 17:58:38 1997
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 23:53:55 -0200
ATTENTION TURKISH COMPANIES AND TURKEY-BASED MULTI NATIONAL COMPANIES
Price Waterhouse
TURKEY : GATEWAY TO AZERBAIJAN INVESTMENT CONFERENCE
THURSDAY, JUNE 26 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Ceylan Inter-Continental Hotel Istanbul
With oil from the Caspian Sea beginning to flow late this year, and the
launching of its privatization program, Azerbaijan offers an improved
climate for a wide variety of investment opportunities.
Now, during this first ever private sector investment conference, vou can
get current information about Azerbaijan's investment climate, geopolitics,
economic outlook and foreign trade relations. You'll also receive practical
information about doing business in Azerbaijan.
Price Waterhouse, which has full service accountancy, taxation and
consultancy practices in Baku and Istanbul, will make detailed presentations
about Azerbaijani taxation and accounting methods.
Specific sector panels will take place on:
- Banking and Finance
- Agroindustry
- Construction
- Infrastructure
- Industry
- Business Services
... and much more.
International firms will share experience and give tips about how to make
the most of your investment in Azerbaijan. You'll hear from top
international leaders from a wide variety of companies, including Bayraktar,
Xerox, Borusan Makina, Bank of New York, Global Securities, Tekfen, British
Bank and Netas.
Highlights of trade relations will be discussed by the Embassy Commercial
Officers from France, Germany, Turkey, United Kingdom and United Stades.
Further perspectives on Turkey as an investment hub for Azerbaijan will be
shared by Azerbaijans's Ambassador to Turkey, Mehmet Aliyev and the Turkish
Treasury's Foreign Investment Deputy General director, Isa Coskun, President
Aliyev's Special Economic Advisor, Vahid Akhundov, will outline progress
since independance during his address on foreign economic relations.
Registration for the full day conference and luncheon is only $195 USD,
including VAT. For details, contact Martha Hooper, Price Waterhouse
Istanbul, 212/259-4980, extension 3152
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#4
Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review JUNE 23, 1997
4.1) YILMAZ TO FORM THE NEW GOVERNMENT
Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Mesut Yilmaz, the prime minister
designate, will spend the week having talks. He convenes his party's
executive board today. On Tuesday he will meet with True Path Party
(DYP) leader Tansu Ciller, beginning a series of talks with party
leaders in the course of which he will meet with Bulent Ecevit, Deniz
Baykal and Husamettin Cindoruk. On Wednesday he will have talks with
Parliament Speaker Mustafa Kalemli and Constitutional Court Chief
Justice Yekta Gungor Ozden. On June 28, he will present the list of
the new government members to President Suleyman Demirel, on July 2 he
will read the new government's programme in Parliament, and on July 8
he will seek a vote of confidence. /All papers/
4.2) PULLOUT FROM NORTHERN IRAQ
Turkey has achieved the goals of its five-week incursion into northern
Iraq against the PKK terrorist organization and has begun to withdraw
its forces from the region. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led
by Mesut Barzani, is now set to assume control of the border areas
where PKK militants are no longer operating. According to official
figures, to date more than many separatists have been killed by the
Turkish Armed Forces, and tons of ammunition and food and numerous
weapons have been seized during the operation.
Meanwhile, the radio station of Celal Talabani's Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) claimed yesterday that the KDP has declared emergency
rule in Erbil, the chief city of northern Iraq. PUK radio is claiming
that the KDP has carried out the arrest and imprisonment of hundreds
of people in Erbil in an attempt to silence all opposition.
On the other hand, KDP radio has declared that the Turkish military
operation in northern Iraq has come to a successful close and that
Turkish troops have withdrawn with the exception of a small force to
protect the border. The radio station reported that the region had
been cleared of PKK terrorists, and that the Turkish operation had
been designed to protect the security of Kurds. /Cumhuriyet/
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4.3)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES 06/23/97
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A group of up to 20 Russians based in Moscow have been smuggling arms to
Kurdish terrorists using Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the former
Yugoslavia as transit points, according to a U.S. intelligence report.
. . . . The report, obtained by The Washington Times, says the smugglers,
including former Red Army soldiers, work on behalf of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party, known as the PKK, to obtain the weapons as part of an
organized-crime operation involving high-level Russian government
officials.
. . . . "The smugglers have encountered no problems whatsoever at the
border crossings," says the classified report, labeled "top secret."
. . . . The fact that weapons are being shipped with ease highlights
Russia's international organized criminal activities and how border
controls in Russia and Turkey have failed to cope with weapons transfers,
according to U.S. officials.
. . . . The weapons enter Turkey by truck at two towns -- Sarp, in the
east, and Kapikule in the west --and are passed on to PKK terrorists at
secret meetings in three other locations -- Istanbul, Samsun and Trabzon,
the report says.
. . . . "Weapons are also coming to Turkey from or through Bulgaria,
Poland, the Slovak Republic or Yugoslavia," the report states, noting that
Polish smugglers were involved in arms transfers to the PKK in March.
. . . . The Turkish National Intelligence Organization was informed of the
smuggling operation in April and knows the identities of some of the
smugglers, the report said.
. . . . The Russian group is paid up to $3,000 per person for each arms
transfer. Its cargoes move between 150 to 200 weapons at a time. The
report did not state how many shipments have been made, but it said the
smuggling has been going on for a year.
. . . . The weapons were not identified, but officials familiar with the
report said they suspect the group is supplying the PKK with small arms,
shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
. . . . Akif Oktay, a spokesman for the Turkish Embassy, would not comment
directly on the weapons-smuggling network.
. . . . But Mr. Oktay said the Turkish general staff uncovered
Russian-origin weapons in a PKK arms cache in northern Iraq during a
two-week military operation that ended last week.
. . . . "It's clear there are several other countries that served as a
transit route and that the arms originated from Russia," Mr. Oktay said,
adding the smuggling is evidence of an organized-crime operation in
Russia.
. . . . "It's an open secret the Russian mafia is involved in this," Mr.
Oktay said. "We are trying our best to stop this."
. . . . The Turkish government has protested to Moscow, and "we are asking
them, as well as other countries, to do everything in their power to stop
the smuggling of weapons," he said.
. . . . The downing of two Turkish military helicopters over northern Iraq
recently was carried out by PKK guerrillas using shoulder-fired Russian
missiles, Mr. Oktay said. "So this is no longer just light weapons," he
said.
. . . . The PKK was identified in the State Department annual report on
terrorism as a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group made up mostly of Turkish
Kurds and numbering about 10,000 to 15,000 guerrillas.
. . . . The State Department report, released in April, stated that the
PKK receives protection and modest aid from Syria, Iraq and Iran.
. . . . In recent years, the PKK has expanded beyond rural insurgency and
has carried out urban terrorist attacks. The group participated in several
suicide bombings last year, including one attack that killed nine Turkish
soldiers and wounded 35 others.
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4.4)
Subject: TRKNWS-L An undemocratic `democracy'
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 13:26:38 -0400
US News & World Report
An undemocratic `democracy'
The Clinton administration says that one of the best
reasons to add new Eastern European members to NATO is to protect
democracy. But apparently no one explained that to one of the
alliance's old members, Turkey. Last week Turkey's staunchly
anti-Islamist military chiefs forced the elected prime minister to
resign. The military guardians of Turkish secularism had finally had
enough of Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who had angered the
generals by promoting Islamic practices in government and society and
by befriending Iran and Libya.
Before stepping down, Erbakan tried to arrange a
power-sharing deal with conservative coalition ally Tansu Ciller, who
would have become prime minister for a second time. Erbakan's Welfare
Party would have kept several government posts and the means to
dispense patronage. But the military was unhappy with any deal that
included the Islamists, and Turkey's president opted instead to pick
opposition leader Mesut Yilmaz, a former prime minister, to form the
next government--sans Welfare. Yilmaz will need parliament's backing
before he can take power. Yet Erbakan and Welfare may return even
stronger in elections next spring if Turks react badly to the
generals' heavy hand.--Thomas Omestad and Jonathan Ewing
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
4.5)
Subject: TRKNWS-L: Two views on political change in Turkey. (06/23-24/1997)
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 13:29:08 -0400
JORDAN TIMES - Internet Edition - Tuesday - June 24, 1997
The View from Fourth Circle: Softness and loudness in Turkey's and
NATO's latest military coup
By Rami G. Khouri
HERE IS a fine little dilemma for our friends and allies in NATO: What
happens when the military in a NATO member state stages a soft coup,
ousts a democratically elected government and dictates future political
configurations to the civilian political establishment? This is
basically what seems to have happened this month in Turkey, that great,
ancient civilisation and state that is also one of the enduring enigmas
of modern political history. Having just experienced its fourth major
direct military intervention in government this century, Turkey is a
spectacular arena in which ancient and modern concepts of democracy,
secularism, national identity and religiosity spar with one another and
seek to find a modus vivendi that strikes a reasonable balance amongst
them all.
The facts are clear and uncontested. The nearly one-year-old (and quite
odd) coalition government led by the Islamist head of the Welfare Party,
Necmettin Erbakan, and including the True Path Party of Deputy Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller, has been subjected to
sustained and strong pressure by the Turkish military for about six
months. First, the military-dominated National Security Council in
February laid down an ultimatum, demanding that the government
implement measures to blunt the spread of Islamist institutions in
Turkey, such as in schools, clubs and the armed forces. Last month, the
state prosecutor filed a case in the state constitutional court to
outlaw the "subversive" Welfare Party, because it is a religious party
in a secular state.
In June, the military started giving briefings to journalists, judges,
academics and others, accusing the Welfare Party and other Islamists
of spreading dangerous fundamentalist sentiments and posing "a
fundamentalist threat to overturn the Turkish republic and introduce
political Islam." The military has recently portrayed indigenous Turkish
Islamism as an equal or even greater threat than the Turkish-Kurdish
terrorism and separatism that the military has been fighting for years,
with mutual mixed success and considerable violence, in the
southeastern provinces. Major-General Fevzi Turkeri, chief of
counter-intelligence at the general staff, recently stated in a briefing
that "radical Islamic activities have gained momentum towards a civil
uprising... political Islam works closely with Iran and some other
Islamic countries to pull Turkey into an endless darkness... away from
Western civilisation."
The military also worked the political system to break up the
Erbakan-led coalition by successfully nudging some members of Mrs.
Ciller's True Path Party to resign as ministers and from her party. This
took away the coalition government's majority in parliament and also
weakened the chances of the coalition being reestablished with Mrs.
Ciller as prime minister.
Consequently, Prime Minister Erbakan finally resigned last weekend,
and President Demirel has asked the leader of the centre-right
Motherland Party, Mesut Yilmaz, to try and form a government (since his
party had the second highest number of seats in parliament at the last
election). Mr. Erbakan, responding to criticism of his Islamist movement
as subversive, dangerous and medievally retrogressive, has called his
opponents "secular fascists".
A review of the policies and actions of the Erbakan government - as
opposed to its pre-incumbency Islamist campaign rhetoric - suggests
that the Welfare Party has engaged in rather modest policy changes
that are often more symbolic than substantive; these changes often
primarily seek to promote an expression of Islamic identity among many
in a citizenry that seem to be calling for this - though only about 21
percent of voters cast their ballots for the Welfare Party in the 1995
election. The accusation of the revolutionary, dangerous and subversive
nature of the Turkish Islamists is intriguing, but not well documented
or proven. The military needs not only to prove more emphatically why
the Islamists are such an alleged threat (which the Turkish people and
others in the region would applaud, if such proof were both plentiful
and credible) but it should also provide more convincing arguments for
the manner in which it has engineered this latest coup - a rather soft
coup in terms of the military's entry into governance in Turkey in 1960,
1971 and 1980, but a rather loud coup for a NATO member state that
prides itself with its democratic secularism.
Turkey is important to watch because - like the two other big, old,
formidable nationalisms in this region, in Egypt and Iran - it
represents history's ongoing deliberation and uncompleted verdict on the
transition from the ancient to the modern and from the Oriental to the
Western (or, at least, to the European). Even more than Egypt and Iran,
Turkey, since the mid-1920s, has represented a bold and audacious
attempt at national and social engineering that has sought to promote -
or even manufacture - a European state and values on very fertile
Anatolian soil.
This might be a flight of romantic fantasy implemented with old
fashioned authoritarianism camouflaged as democratic secularism, or it
might prove to be one of history's most enlightened, successful
transitions to mass modernity, socio-economic progress and national
well-being. The changes are still under way. The only reasonable
position that outsiders can take on this matter is to wish the Turkish
people well in their endeavours, and to hope that their national
configuration, identity, values and fate would reasonably and accurately
reflect the national consensus of the Turkish people.
The Turkish situation is perpetually fascinating and important because
it may tell us much about the prospects for stable, responsive,
democratic and accountable governance in these Oriental lands of ours
where the anchorage of traditional collective social and religious
identities is seriously challenged by the dictates of global,
individualistically-oriented free market economies.
That the Turkish military has forced a change of government in Turkey is
neither novel nor surprising; but it is particularly significant for the
very blunt, public and sustained manner in which this was done. With
nearly a million people, considerable national prestige, and the biggest
single slice of the state's budget, the Turkish military had already
demonstrated the political will to operate virtually independently of
the elected civilian government when deemed appropriate (for example, in
the Turkish military's operations in northern Iraq or in its closer ties
with Israel). Now, the military has seen it fit not only to openly
dictate a combination of social and political values, but also
single-handedly to define the nature of the democratic secularism that
has characterised modern, Ataturkist Turkey, and that it feels obliged
to uphold.
The dilemma here is at once obvious, profound and historic, but also
multi-faceted: What does it mean to be a secular state? When the rule
of law and the perceptions of generals clash, who decides the
outcome? When secular democratic mechanisms lead to an expression
of rising religious identity among the citizenry, does secularism or
democracy emerge as a more important value to preserve? Who
determines the political will or the consensus of the Turkish people on
these issues? Is the military subject to the deliberations of a secular
democratic political system, or above the system's democratically
operational decisions? If the Turkish military has intervened in order
to impose a political value system reflecting its own definition and
self-image of what Ataturk and his generals had in mind in 1923, and to
suppress rising expressions of Islamist culture as manifested in a
democratically elected government, then the current situation in Turkey
is likely to lead to greater instability and tension. If, on the other
hand, the military has intervened in order to guarantee those vital open
spaces in a secular democracy where all views can be expressed and a
national consensus can emerge, then the military may have acted with
enlightened decisiveness.
What we are witnessing in Turkey may or may not prove to be a noble
preservation of democratic secularism; but it is certainly part of the
modern historical process by which some ancient Middle Eastern
societies are trying to define what democratic secularism means in their
contexts, whether it is appropriate and efficacious for them, and how it
relates to deeper, underlying identities based on religion, nationalism
and ethnicity.
***********************************************************************
4.6) TEHRAN TIMES - Monday - June 23, 1997
Turkey's Premeditated Political Coup
TEHRAN Finally, after 11 months of resistance against a multitude of
pressures exerted on his government by Turkish interests determined to
advance Turkey's links with the West, Necmettin Erbakan, leader of the
Refah Party, handed his resignation as prime minister on Wednesday.
Turkey's President Demirel forthwith the leader of the Mam-e-Mihan
Party, Mesut Yilmaz, to form a new cabinet. The Persian-language daily
Salam, in an article entitled Turkey is Not Algeria, gave an analysis of
recent developments in Turkey. The article, in part, says that in
Algeria the annulment of the result of parliamentary elections in which
the Islamic Salvation Front came out the victor triggered Islamists to
take up the armed struggle, suppression of armed or unarmed combatants
and finally convinced the president to call for an election under
conditions that banned the Islamic Salvation Front from taking part.
Turkish laics, by taking Algeria as their model to implement a similar
cause of action without considering similarity of circumstances,
committed their first blunder. The measures taken to achieve their goals
include disregarding the Refah Party which commands the highest
popular support, submission of a bill to judicial authorities which led
to its disbanding, imposing sever political restrictions on the Refah
Party, indicting Islamists for various offenses without sufficient
evidence, and, finally, undermining Erbakan's government by encouraging
the military to disobey government orders in an attempt to block the
influence of Islam in Turkey's policies and guaranteeing secular
policies in the forthcoming election. The article further predicts that
despite all overt and covert machinations, the existence of alternative
political situations available to Turkey, compared with the limited
choices available to politicians in Algeria, will diminish the chances
for a long-term survival of this scenario.
The daily cites a number of
factors which it believes could cause Turkish laics to face defeat in
their confrontation with Islamists. The long experience of Turkish
Islamists in Turkish society compared to their counterparts in Algeria,
the presence of many Turkish Islamists in government organizations and
their superior capability when it comes to analyzing practical areas of
application of resources are among these factors. Salam concludes its
comment by arguing that Erbakan and the Refah Party are branches of the
strong trunk of Islamic culture and civilization in Turkey, and that the
laics have to grapple with the Muslim people of Turkey, not with the
Refah Party, in order to cut the tree. The daily Akhbar editorializes on
the recent developments in Turkey under the title Ankara's Leftout
League and writes that Necmettin Erbakan's ouster was manipulated by
Ciller and Turkish generals brought in Mesut Yilmaz to the arena of the
contest. In the game Suleyman Demirel acted as the referee who, like
Turgot Ozal in the 80s, tried to direct the race trouble-free. The
daily further writes that Mesut Yilmaz heads a party whose foundation
was laid in the 80s during the rule of General Kanan Oren.
The Mam-e-Mihan Party believes that it can push its way onward by relying on
laicism and preserving the biggest share in NATO's ground forces.
This was precisely the reason why during the peak of Ciller and
Erbakan's coalition Turkey's army advanced deep into Iraqi soil with the
intention of making talks between the warring sides come to a stalemate
and thus discredit the coalition in the eyes of public opinion.
Akhbar adds that now that Demirel has sent Yilmaz to the scene to
confront his rival as foreplanned because he has understood that the
Erbakan-Ciller side is not able to form a government by itself and that
he could count on Yilmaz. The daily concludes that putting the
issue of who the prime minister will be and how he/she will come to
power, Turkey should be evaluated in terms of its army, minus which the
future of its political system cannot be visualized.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Mark Hubey ---------------------------------------------------------
http://www.csam.montclair.edu/Faculty/Hubey.html
hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu hubeyh@alpha.montclair.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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