· UK FIRM ABANDONS ILLISU DAM PROJECT ON HUMANITARIAN,
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUNDS. The British Building and Civil Engineering Group,
Balfour Beatty, announced, on 13 November that it was pulling out of the very controversial
project to build a dam in the Kurdish region of Turkey. The group decided
to end its participation in the consortium to carry out the project because
the humanitarian and environmental questions involved have not been
settled, it stated in a communiqué. "As there is little likelihood of their
being resolved soon the management considers that it is not in our
shareholders' interest to continue to participate " Balfour Beatty specified.

The Illisu dam is strongly criticised by a number of NGOs for its negative
impact on the environment and the upheaval its construction would create
for the Kurdish population living in the region. The Friends of the Earth
immediately reacted by welcoming this decision. This dam is "disastrous
from an environmental, political and social point of view " the NGO
declared, estimating that 30,000 people would be made homeless by the
construction of this dam.

However, Charles Secrett, Director of Friends of the Earth regretted that
the group's decision also saves the British Government from having to take
a clear stand on the issue. According to him, the granting of Export Credit
Guarantees should be out of the question for cases which include "such a
destruction of the environment and such violation of Human Rights ".
 

· HUNGER STRIKE CLAIMS 43rd VICTIM. A 30 year old detainee,
Muharrem Cetinkaya, who set himself alight a week earlier, in protest at a
police raid in which four of his companions were killed, died from his
injuries on 12 November. According to the police and the first results of
the enquiry, these four detainees died from fire, but their relatives state
that they were killed.

Tulay Korkmaz, who died on 19 November following 193 days of hunger strike,
is the latest victim of a protest movement launched by Turkish detainees a
year ago. These prisoners, mostly activists of Left-wing movements, are
protesting against the new type of high security jails where they are
isolated and hence more exposed to being subjected to ill-treatment, as
against older style of the large dormitory blocks containing up to 100
prisoners. 43 prisoners and their supporters have died as a result of their
hunger strikes since the beginning of this movement.
 

·  EUROPEAN UNION REPORT FINGERS HUMAN RIGHTS
SITUATION: ROAD TO INTEGATION REMAINS VAGUE. The European
Union's annual report for 2001, on "Progress achieved by Turkey along the
road to membership  " was made public on 13 November by the European
Commission.

The report first of all notes that "the alteration to the Constitution
adopted by the Turkish Parliament on 3 October constitute an appreciable
progress towards the strengthening of guarantees in the areas of Human
Rights and fundamental liberties and towards the abolition of the death
sentence ". However, it points out that "despite these changes, basic
freedom remains subject to a certain number of restrictions " and that "the
improvement that individuals will really enjoy in the exercise of their
fundamental liberties will depend on the way their are translated into
legislation and applied in practice ".

The Commission also stresses that the Constitutional amendments to Articles
26 and 28 "could open the way to the use of other languages than Turkish ",
is a positive point for Kurdish, but that the still remaining restrictive
regulations and practices must also be altered in order for this
Constitutional amendment to really work. It also notes that there was "no
improvement in the possibility of members of ethnic groups having a
cultural identity and shared traditions expressing their linguistic and
cultural identity  ".

With regard to torture and ill treatment the report notes that these are
used "in particular in the South-East, especially in cases of "detention in
solitary " mainly used in the four provinces under State of Emergency and
in cases connected with state security. According to the Turkish
authorities, in 2000 and 2001 there were 1472 legal proceedings started
against members of the security forces for ill treatment and 159 for
torture. Of these, 36 people were sentenced to imprisonment while 50 others
lost their jobs. "It is to be feared that sentences are still too lenient
or often converted to fines or suspended " the report observes.

In the area of civil and political rights, the Commission points out that
"in the period covered by the report   17 people were sentenced to death in
2000 and 10 others between January and August 2001 ". The report also
stresses, in the chapter "democracy and the primacy of law " that last year
courts martial "handled 22 cases concerning 38 civilians sued in violation
of their right to freedom of expression " and that "the real independence
of the judiciary remains a source of concern ". As for the National
Security Council (MGK), the Commission notes the alteration in the role and
composition of the Council and stresses that "it will be necessary to check
extent these alterations to the Constitution will, in fact, improve
civilian control of military affairs ".

Regarding the workings of the judicial machinery, "measures must be
embodied into Turkish legislation that allow the remedying of the
consequences of sentences that the European Human Rights Court has judged
to be contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights " specifies the
report that rises here the problem of the direct effect of the European
Court's rulings by stressing the ruling of 17 July 2001 which found Turkey
guilty, amongst other things, of "an unfair trial " in the case of the
Kurdish Members of Parliament imprisoned in Turkey.

The report concludes by pointing out that "considerable efforts are still
necessary to satisfy the short-term priorities of the 'partnership for
membership' (adopted in March 2001) to be achieved ". On 19 November, the
Turkish President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, declared that the report of the
European Union was "objective". "Nevertheless, the European Union should
not stipulate supplementary specific conditions for Turkey. We will achieve
the criteria required of other candidate countries " he added. The Deputy
Prime Minister, Mesut Yilmaz, had declared, on 3 November, that he agreed
with the European criticisms of Turkey regarding democracy and Human
Rights. Devlet Bahçeli, another partner in the coalition government and
leader of the National Action Party (MHP ­ neo-fascist) however, qualified
Mesut Yilmaz's remarks by stressing, on 15 November, that "to justify the
European report was to call to question the National Programme eight months
after it had been drawn up by a consensus of all the parties of the
three-Party coalition ".
 

· TURKEY FIRST COUNTRY TO RE-OPEN ITS DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS IN KABUL
AND MAZAR-E-SHARIF. On 14 November, Turkey announced that it was reopening
its diplomatic missions in the Afghan towns of Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif
which are at the moment controlled by the Northern Alliance.
In a communiqué, the Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that "the necessary
work" for the re-opening of diplomatic missions had begun. Ankara's
decision to re-open its Embassy in the Afghan capital and its consulate in
the Northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif is apparently an initiative aimed at
facilitating communications between the different opposition factions so as
to form a government and to prepare a possible deployment of peace keeping
forces. Turkey has proposed sending soldiers to keep the peace but also
promised, at the request of the United States, to sent 90 men from its
special forces units to work with the anti-taliban forces.
 

· EUROPEAN COURT: TURKEY PAYS MANY FINES, MANY MORE UNPAID
. According to official Turkish data, 3,964 complaints against Turkey
­ 735 of which were declared admissible last year ­ have been filed with
the European Human Rights Court. Hikmet Sami Turk, Minister of Justice,
declared, on 14 November that to date Turkey had been found guilty in 115
cases and that the fines paid by the Turkish authorities were $13,557, FF
6,200,000 and £866,230.

Furthermore, the Minister specified that Turkey had also opted for out of
court settlement in 343 cases and paid TL 489 billion.

Turkey has not yet settled the sum of £ 4,663,668, $ 2,841,470, and FF
5,203,567 of damages and legal costs arising from these cases.
 

· TURKISH RAMBO MACHINE-GUNS 11 BANKS THAT REFUSED CREDIT.
According to the Turkish daily Hurriyet  of 13
November, a Turkish Army officer, whose demand for credit had been refused
by several banks, machine gunned, with his men, 11 banks in the Manavgat
district of Antalya. This 25-year-old gendarmerie major, Murat Zencerli,
has been with the special forces units (TIM) in the Kurdish regions and
was, according to the paper, "an excellent soldier  ". In the course of 20
minutes, over 400 bullets were fored, and eight shops, as well as the
banks, were also hit by the soldiers.

Th paper concluded, "the fact that Murat Zencerli had fought the PKK in the
South-East in the Special forces units,  recalls the case of Stallone,
playing the part of Rambo  In the course of the Vietnam war, he had fought
like a machine. When peace returned all the efforts he had deployed during
the war were of no use to society. Created for war, he was worthless in
times of peace "