· 44th EXTENSION OF STATE OF EMERGENCY IN FOUR KURDISH PROVINCES.
On 27 November, the Turkish Parliament renewed the State of Emergency for
the 44th time in the four Kurdish provinces of Tunceli, Diyarbekir, Hakkari
and Sirnak, which have been suffering from this regime for the last 14
years. Prior to 1987 they had been under martial law which the Turkish
authorities then "softened" to a "civilian" State of Emergency.

Rustu Kazim Yucelen, Turkish Minister of the Interior, declared that "in
2000, terrorist incidents had dropped by 83% compared with 1999 " and that
this drop had continued in 2001 "with a 26% drop compared with the year
before ". He also stated that the government was taking "steps for the
return of villagers who had been evacuated during the terrorist campaign "
with a 5.65 trillion TL project (about $4 million) and that, between 2000
and 2001, 35,227 villagers had been allowed to return and live in 393
villages and hamlets.

The Turkish Parliament decides every four months whether or not to maintain
this extra-ordinary regime. Its lifting is amongst the political measures
demanded by the European Union as a precondition for opening negotiations
for membership.
 

· 50% INCREASE IN CASES OF TORTURE. In a report published on 22
November, the Turkish Association for Human Rights (IHD) denounced the 50%
increases of cases of torture and a spectacular multiplication of obstacles
to freedom of expression in the first 9 months of this year, as compared
with the year before.

For the period January to September, the Association recorded "at least"
762 cases of torture in this country, that is applying for membership of
the European Union, as against 508 for the same period in 2000, that in an
increase of one half again. IHD recalls that, in 1999, the records showed
472 cases for the same period ­ 7% less than in 2000.

Moreover, the Association deplores the fact of a virtually eight-fold
increase in the number of peoples facing charges because of their opinions
in the first three-quarters of this year compared with 2000. Thus there
were 1,921 people charged for "crimes of opinion" against 254 the year
before, to be precise. The total of sentences passed have increased by 350%
­ 3,758 years imprisonment this year as against 1,098 the year before.

It is the Human Rights situation in Turkey that is the principle obstacle
to Turkey's entry into the enlarged European Union, as is remarked in the
report on the progress of the candidate countries, published on 13
November, which states that "the present situation and its repercussions on
individuals needs to progress ". IHD, in commenting on its report, deplores
the fact that the 12 other candidate countries had managed to fulfil the
Copenhagen criteria in "between one and a half and two years " whereas
Turkey, in two years, has only been able to "modify 34 articles of the
Constitution ". Unlike the other 12 candidate countries, Turkey has not yet
been able to even start negotiations for membership. In the opinion of
Husnu Ondul, President of IHD, this in mainly due to the "lack of
determination " of the politicians and bureaucrats in applying democratic
reforms. "Legal, administrative, judicial and educational measures must be
taken urgently  " he considered.  Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz,
responsible for negotiations with the European Union, has recognised that
his country had not succeeded in meeting the criteria set by the Fifteen
particularly with regard to process towards democracy, despite the 34
amendments passed in October 2001.

IHD, the principle organisation for the defence of Human Rights in Turkey
and founded in 1986, points out that all its figures are based on written
or verbal complaints received by its various regional branches ­ many of
which have been closed down by the authorities.
 

·  TURKISH PRESIDENT CRITICISES CLOSING DOWN OF PRO-KURDISH PARTY,
CONSIDERING THAT IT IS SIMPLY BASED ON "HYPOTHESES".  According to the
Turkish press of 23 November, the Turkish President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer,
denounced the closing down of a pro-Kurdish party by the Constitutional
Court, considering it was simply based on "hypotheses". Mr. Sezer was
commenting on the decision of the Court, taken in 1999 (when he still
presided the Court) and published in the Official Gazette.

He regretted that the Democratic Party of the Masses (DKP) had been banned
without any proven crimes or offences. "That verdict should have been
different " he considered as quoted by the Turkish daily Radikal. A former
judge, noted for his democratic commitments, the president observed that,
on the contrary, "the programme (of the DKP) advanced the idea of the
equality of ethnic and religious groups and, instead of being opposed to
the unity of the nation it distanced itself from separatist ideas". "The
opinions expressed by the DKP and its members were mot translated into
actions, it is unsuitable for the law to close down a party by basing
itself on the hypothesis that it might commit reprehensible actions" Mr.
Sezer explained, as quoted by the Turkish paper Sabah.

The DKP was closed down in February 1999 for having mentioned, in the
section of its programme headed "The Kurdish Question", the existence of a
Kurdish nation "assimilated", "under pressure" that had its own "ethnic
identity". Under pressure from its all-powerful Turkish Army, Turkey has,
over the last few years, banned several pro-Kurdish parties, including the
Party for Democracy (DEP), four of whose M.Ps, including Leyla Zana, have
remained in jail since 1994, as well as marxist and islamist parties.

At the end of July 2001, the European Human Rights Court had, by a narrow
margin, found in favour of Ankara over the banning of the Prosperity Party
(Refah), arguing, contrary to Mr. Sezer, that a State "can reasonably
prevent the realisation of a political project incompatible with the
standards of the European Convention before it has been put into practice
by concrete actions".

The principle pro-Kurdish organisation in Turkey, the People's Democratic
Party (HADEP) is also threatened with being banned for "organic links" with
the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
 

· NATIONAL ACTION PARTY'S (MHP) N°2 DECLARES ANKARA NOT READY TO
GRANT CULTURAL RIGHTS TO KURDS, TORTURE "EMBEDDED IN PEOPLE'S SPIRITS".
On 26 November, Sevket Bülent Yahnici, Vice-President of the National Action Party (MHP),
one of the three parties in the government coalition, stated that Turkey was "not ready " to grant
cultural rights to the Kurds as this could "divide " the country. "Certainly it would divide  (the country).
Turkey is not ready at the present time for this kind of thing. It is not a country where the atmosphere
is favourable to these arrangements " declared Sevket Bülent Yahnici to the daily paper Radikal".

Mr. Yahnici stated that "Turkey is not rushing to join the European Union".
According to him "in any case the Fifteen has the same attitude" to the
membership problem, he declared.

Regarding Turkey's negative record on Human Rights, Mr. Yahnici deplored
the existence of torture in the country but stressed that even if it
respected all the (Copenhagen) criteria in this respect, this practice
would continue because it is "embedded in people's spirits".

Moreover Mr. Yahnici accused the E.U. of "ill will" on the subject of
Cyprus, stressing that a solution to this problem lies with UNO. Cyprus is
divided since 1974, following an invasion by the Turkish Army in response
to an ultra-nationalist Greek Cypriot coup d'état aiming at uniting the
island with Greece. Turkey has recently threatened to annex the Northern
(Turkish occupied) part of Cyprus if South (essentially Greek) Cyprus
joined the European Union with the first wave of its enlargement in 2004.

On 13 November the European Commission published its annual report on
Turkey where it recognised that Ankara had made a step forward by adopting
amendments to liberalise its Constitution but judged them insufficient for
opening negotiations for membership. The E.U. demands more cultural rights
for the Kurdish population, in particular teaching and Television in the
Kurdish language.
 

·  GERMAN DAILY BILD: GERMAN GOVERNMENT AUTHORISED
EXPORT OF 400 TANK CANNONS TO TURKEY. According to the 23 November issue
of the German daily BILD, the German Government has authorised the export
to Turkey of 400 cannons for tanks. This revelation risks provoking fresh
discord in the government coalition between the Greens and the
Social-Democrats.
The sale of these canons, of joint German-South Korean manufacture, was
authorised during a meeting of the Government's Security Council, BILD
continues. Questioned on the ARD television channel, the under-secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, Ludger Volmer, refused to deny or confirm the
news. According to him, it had been put about "with the aim of disrupting
the Greens' Congress " which was being held in Rostock the following
week-end. A government spokesman refused to comment on this news, stressing
the confidential nature of all Security Council decisions (Editor's Note:
The Security Council is a body than brings together, round Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Finance, the
Interior,  Justice as well as of Cooperation and of the Economy).

The delivery of a Leopard II tank to Turkey in 1999, for testing purposes,
had aroused a sharp controversy within the SPD-Green coalition, many Human
Rights defenders arguing the danger of seeing the Turkish Army using it for
the repression of the Kurdish minority. The Security Council, which also
takes Human Rights criteria into account, has often opposed the sale of
arms to Turkey, in the past, on the initiative of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

In August, a similar affair had shaken Germany, when the press revealed
that, under pressure of arms manufacturing firm, the Security Council had
decided to lift the opposition it had maintained for the last year, to the
sale of detonators to Turkey. Too late, however, the company having let it
be known that it lost the contract. The German government had then insisted
that its policy of arms sales to Turkey was "unchanged".
 

· "THE CRISIS, AN OPPORTUNITY TO SEIZE ": ARMY'S HOLDING COMPANY, OYAK,
MARKS UP A RECORD PROFIT OF $430 MILLION FOR 2001. The economic
crisis ravaging Turkey is decidedly profitable to the Turkish Army  Thus
the report of the Army's cooperative organisation (OYAK), one of the most
prosperous companies in Turkey, published on 22 November, for the first
time since its creation 40 years ago, shows that it enjoyed, during the
crisis, a growth of 50% on a dollar basis and 250% to 300% on a Turkish
lire basis.

Coskun Ulusoy, the General Manager of OYAK stated that they had reached
about $430 million profits adding: "If there is a crisis, there are also
opportunities, and if we did not take advantage of these opportunities we
would be unfair to ourselves, for a company that reached 600 trillion TL
($430 million) in profits  Where there is a crisis there are also
opportunities to be seized, there will even be other windfalls of the
crisis is not ended   We have seen and we have seized " Mr. Ulusoy added:
"Our profits are greater than the investment opportunities in Turkey so we
must open out abroad ".

Created in 1961, OYAK is made up of 26 companies covering the areas of
vehicles accessories, finance, cement, food, chemicals and services; it
employs 12,572 people and has 180,000 members, officers in the Armed
forces. Its Board of Directors is solely composed of regular Army officers,
and its General Manager, the only civilian there stresses that his father
was a regular Army officer.

On the same day as OYAK published its report, the Turkish economic crisis,
that some unhesitatingly call "the most serious ever experienced to date "
entered its first anniversary. According to the latest forecasts, the
Turkish national income has dropped from $ 201 billion in the year 2000 to
$130 billion in 2001, losing $ 71 billion. The per capita income has
dropped from $3,060 to $2,200 ­ $860 less per capita. The foreign debt has
risen to $112 billion. According to the Turkish Trade Union Federation,
TURK-IS the poverty for a family of four living in Ankara is about $ 574
for the month of November. The minimum amount needed by such a family has
increased by 64.2% in the last year.
 

 ·  REFORM OF CIVIL CODE: OFFICIAL END OF MALE SUPREMACY. 
On 22 November the Turkish Members of Parliament passed an
important reform to the Civil code that, in particular, ends male supremacy
in marriage. The new Code suppresses the clause that states: "the man is
the head of the matrimonial union ".

Another significant change ­ all goods accumulated during marriage will be
the common property of the couple whereas hitherto they had belonged to the
person in whose name they had been registered. Women will no longer need
their husband's authorisation to take up paid employment ­ on condition
that it does not harm "the harmony of their alliance ". They can also
retain their maiden name, adding to it their husband's surname. The latter
can drop his own surname and adopt that of his wife. The legal age for
marriage will be raised to 18 for all, as against 15 for women and 17 for
men as at present. In the event of divorce, either partner can claim maintenance.

The Code, furthermore, eases the legal procedures for adoption and protects
the rights of children born outside marriage. Couples already having
children will also have the right to adopt.

The new Civil Code will come into force next year, once it has been
endorsed by the President of the Republic.

The Minister of Justice, Hikmet Sami Turk, has who fiercely defended the
project and been debating its clauses with various Parliamentary
Commissions for two years, welcomed the vote in Parliament. "The great
legal revolution of 1926 has been renewed in this 21st Century " he told
journalists. The Turkish Civil Code was adopted in 1926, three years after
the proclamation of the Republic by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on the ruins of
the theocratic regime of the Ottoman Empire.

Although women have been enjoying considerable rights in Turkey for several
decades, particularly in the major cities, where they are to be found,
though is small numbers, at all levels of social and government life, these
rights are still often flouted in the rural areas.
 

· " KURDISTAN SYDROME":  POLICEMEN RECENTLY TRANSFERRED FROM
BATMAN, KILLS HIS WHOLE FAMILY. A Turkish police officer, Turgut Karahan,
stationed for many years in the Kurdish province of Batman but recently
transferred to the anti-terrorist section of Buca, shot himself in the head
on 27 November after having killed his wife and his three children in their
marital home at Gaziemir, in the Izmir district.

Sub-Prefect Gökhan Velikisioglu stated that T. Karahan had a career service
of 15 years, and had no domestic or economic problems. The case is
officially classed as "dementia ", but some people prefer to use the term
"Kurdistan syndrome  " which affects a number of officers and conscripts of
the Turkish Army stationed in Kurdistan and who do not escape undamaged
from those years of excessive use of terror in total impunity.
 

· PRISON ATTACK INVESTIGATOR EXILED.
The Eyup district public prosecutor, Cafer Koman, assigned with the investigation of
 "Operation return to life ", launched at the Bayrampasa Prison (Editor's
Note: the Army attack of 19 December 2000) has been banished by the Turkish
Minister of Justice. The public prosecutor, who had dared to go and
investigate matters on the spot to collect evidence, has been exiled to
Sakarya before he could complete his seven years posting at Eyup.

Moreover, Ibrahim Can Demircioglu, Public Prosecutor at the Edremit Court,
assigned investigating the case of the "youngsters of Manisa " who had
accused Kemal Iskender, Director of Security at Manisa (today stationed at
Balikesir) with "the use of torture causing death " has been exiled to Erzurum.
 

·  ECONOMIC CRISIS DOES NOT STOP ARMS RACE.
According to the Turkish daily Hurriyet  of 23 November, the Turkish Army
has launched another series of arms contracts, despite the economic crisis. Thus, in
collaboration with the Germans, it plans to modernise 162 Leopard I tanks
for a sum of $130 million.

Moreover, $190 million will be devoted to fitting 80 type F-16 fighter
planes with ALQ-178V (5) electronic jamming equipment made by Mikes.

For it part, the Turkish daily Milliyet of 23 November announces that fresh
credits granted by the IMF will primarily save Israeli firms since Turkey
is preparing to  conclude the biggest ever agreement between the two
countries, for a sum of $700 million, for modernising 170 tanks. As Ankara
had stated that the amount could not exceed $500 million, the agreement
had, up to now, been suspended :
 

· FROM TURKISH PRESS: IS HADEP'S STRENGTH SUCH A SURPRISE?
Ilnur Çevik, editorial writer on the English language paper Turkish Daily News ,
in his column of 27 November returns to the situation in Kurdistan through
the development of the pro-Kurdish party, HADEP, whose strength worries the
Turkish Army which demands the search for means of reducing its impact on
the politico-media scene. In his editorial entitled "Is HADEP's strength
such a surprise?" the journalist describes the real and much
under-estimated strength of HADEP and, alongside it, the incompetence of
the Turkish authorities in the region. Here are extensive extracts from the
article:

" According to the banner headline in mass circulation daily Milliyet, the
National Security Council (MGK) will convene today and may take up the fact
that while the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) preserves its
strength in southeastern Turkey, all the other parties lack any muscle in
the region...

HADEP, or the views it represents, have received strong backing in the
region for a very long time. HADEP has tried to enter Parliament several
times but has failed because it could not pass the 10 percent threshold
required to be able to win seats. However, HADEP has won huge votes in many
southeastern provinces, many more than any of its rivals. That is why the
party swept all the mayoral seats in the local elections in the Southeast
and proved its strength.

If the HADEP deputies had run in the parliamentary elections on independent
tickets they too would have easily won seats, irrespective of the regional
thresholds, simply because they won much more votes than the regional
thresholds. HADEP won a respectable 4.3 percent of the vote but could not
pass 10 percent...

The people of the region feel the party caters for their needs and
represents their aspirations. The only other party that made any impact in
the region was the banned pro-Islamic Welfare Party (RP) of Necmettin
Erbakan, but that party too could only win so many southeastern seats
because HADEP could not enter Parliament. Now that the establishment has
closed down RP and its successor the Virtue Party (FP), it seems HADEP
enjoys more support than before.

So the authorities are concerned. They feel in the next elections HADEP
deputies may find a way to enter Parliament, and they simply don't like
this idea.

But what option has the establishment left for the local people? They could
vote for Justice and Development Party (AKP), but even that party is
threatened. No one wants to vote for the parties that have proven to be so
nationalistic and have always looked upon the people of southeastern Turkey
with suspicion...

Once the struggle against the separatist terrorist organization Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) died down, the authorities simply forgot southeastern
Turkey. The economic crisis that has hit Turkey in general has had an even
tougher impact on the already impoverished southeastern people

That is what the military is so concerned about. Those running Turkey have
completely abandoned the people of the region, and will pay the price in
the next elections. So it is inevitable that HADEP wins and the other
loses.

The MGK may discuss this, but words will be empty so long as Turkey does
not have a viable administration which is prepared to take on challenges
and really boost the welfare of southeastern Turkey through animal
husbandry and allowing the locals to do meaningful border trade with little
or no bureaucratic obstructions.

Just like in any place in Turkey, you have to make the people realize that
you really care for them and their problems, and that you do not treat them
as third class citizens but as "one of us." "