· DISINTEGRATION OF BULENT ECEVIT'S GOVERNMENT AND PARTY.
Turkish Prime Minister, Bülent Ecevit, is faced with the collapse of his coalition
government ­ since the beginning of the week, seven of his ministers have
resigned and 44 members of Parliament have left his "Democratic Left" Party
(DSP). Amongst these are Deputy Prime Minister Husamettin Ozkan and the
popular F9oreign Minister Ismail Cem who, on 12 July put himself forward
are the spokesman of a "renovated" and resolutely European Turkey by
launching a new social democratic political party.
The day after his resignation from the government, I. Cem explained that he
had decided, with former Deputy Prime Minister Husamettin Ozkan and the
present Economics Minister Kemal Dervis, to form a "new movement" backed by
several members of parliament who had left the Prime Minister's "Democratic
Left" Party to get Turkey out of the crisis and make progress towards full
integration with the European Union. The  Economic Minister's resignation
on 11 July was withdrawn at the last minute after the intervention of
President of the Republic Ahmet Necdet Sezer. The main reason why the
revolt broke out in the ranks of the DSP was the inaction on the reforms
needed for membership of the European Union by a government led by a sick
Prime Minister.

In charge of Turkish foreign policy for the last five years ­ a record in
this country governed by unstable coalitions ­ Ismail Cem has carved
himself a reputation as the preferred and well liked partner of the
European governments. He had, in particular, secured for Turkey the status
of candidate for membership at the Helsinki European Summit in 1999. But
since then reforms have marked time on the issues of Human Rights and the
granting of Kurdish cultural rights. "Being a full member of the European
Union is part of the historical development of Turkey. A most important
aspect of our Party's programme will be to secure membership of the
European Union for Turkey and to carry out the necessary economic and
political reforms necessary for that" Mr. Cem said. He assured his hearers
that his new movement would be pro-Western, would act to put into effect
the reforms required by the European Union and would base itself on social
democratic principles. "Turkey needs an efficient administration" he
argued, adding that his new party would lead "a new social unity ( )  to
renovate Turkey".

The former Foreign Minister has made no secret of his ambition, one day, to
replace the present bed-ridden and, for the last two months absentee,
Premier Bülent Ecevit and govern Turkey. The public declarat5ion, on 10
July, of the political alliance between Messrs Cem, Ozkan and Dervis was
very well received by economic circles and by those commentators who have
long been calling for Mr. Ecevit to throw in his hand and call early
General Elections.

The latter, in statements on the Turkish private channel NTV has stated his
opposition to early elections. He has also recognised that he might be
forced to resign should his coalition government lose its Parliamentary
majority because of a massive revolt of his party's M.P.s. Ismail Cem's
resignation has probably been the government's death blow ­ indeed he has
not yet been replaced as Foreign Minister. Pressing their point home,
without attacking Mr. Ecevit personally (who, indeed, he thanked for their
long cooperation) Ismail Cem said he considered that the government had
become incapable of taking the measures that Turkey needed and that the DSP
had become a victim of his "poor leadership".  Apart from the problems
caused by Bülent Evecit's health, the Turkish government has been weakened
by the coalition's increasingly obvious divisions over the reforms that
have to be undertaken. Br. Bahceli's ultra-nationalists are totally opposed
to the granting of cultural rights to the 15 million Kurds which is one of
the conditions for the country's entry into the European Union.

Moreover, Mr. Devlet Bahceli ­ who is Deputy Prime Minister as well as head
of the National Action Party (MHP - neo-fascist) had already on 7 July,
come out in favour of an early general election. In the course of a meeting
of his party in the province of Bursa, he had expressed the hope that
Parliament would meet before October, when the summer recess ends, so as to
decide on holding the elections. "Let us take a decision on 3 September for
early elections" he declared "with a 3 November polling day".  As for the
Motherland Party (ANAP), the smallest of the governmental coalition
parties, it is calling for them in September. On 9 July, Turkish Deputy
Premier Mesut Yilmaz stated that Turkey had entered into a "phase of
political crisis". "We must overcome this crisis with the least possible
damage to the country   We must form a new government to achieve the
reforms needed for E.U. (membership) before December. We owe this to future
generations" he declared.

This political crisis takes place at a critical moment for Turkey, in which
the government is trying to face up to a massive debt which includes, in
particular,  $31 billion lent by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
These sums are intended to help the country emerge from a crisis that has
led to the laying off of over two million workers ­ but the IMF demands, in
exchange, a vast programme of economic reforms and fears that the political
instability, which has pushed up interest rates and caused the Turkish lira
to fall still further, is endangering this.
 

· EUROCOURT: TURKEY GUILTY OF VIOLATING PRESS FREEDOM.
On 9 July, the European Human Rights Court found Turkey guilty of
"violations of freedom of the Press".  In July 1995, Seher Karatas,
publisher and Chief Editor of the bi-monthly review Gençligin Sesi  (The
Voice of Youth) had been found sentenced by the Istanbul State Security
Court for an article headed "We must re-examine the system itself " on the
basis of Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code that punishes "inciting the
people to hatred and hostility through distinctions based on belonging to a
social class or religion". The Turkish government maintaining that the tone
of the article was not that of criticism but of verbal aggression against
the established regime.

The European Court "notes that the article in the case, over all, is an
appeal to the youth to join with the working class in struggling against
unemployment and poverty and finds nothing in it that could pass for a call
for violence, for an uprising or any other form of rejection of democratic principles".

The Court stresses that "the fact that such a political appeal is
considered incompatible with the repressive legislation of the Turkish
State does not, however, make it contrary to democratic rules. From this
point of view, this appeal, even if it includes a call for "strikes and
general resistance" is no different from those made by political movements
in other member countries of the Council of Europe". No passage in the
article in this case proposes the use of violence, stressed the Court, that
found Turkey guilty of violating Article 10 of the European Convention on
Human Rights.

Moreover, the Court concluded that Article 6 §1 of the Convention had also
been violated, since the petitioner had been brought before a State
Security Court which included a career officer belonging to the military judiciary.

Turkey was sentenced to paying the petitioner 4,500 ¤ damages and 2,000 costs.

Turkey, regularly found guilty by the European Court for Human Rights of
violations of the freedom of expression of Kurds, has once again promised
to do more to ensure this right is respected. In a joint declaration
following the out of court settlement of another case, the Turkish
authorities committed themselves "to carrying out all the changes in the
law and internal practices needed in this area". In this case, the Turkish
State accepted, in the context of an out of court settlement, to pay 7,000
¤ to a Turkish citizen who had been sentenced to one year's imprisonment
for having made "a speech on the problems of the Kurdish people and ( )
possible solutions to them". "The interference incriminated in this case (
)  is an additional illustration" of the fact that "Turkish law and
practices must urgently be brought into conformity with the requirements of
Article 10 (on freedom of expression) of the Convention" explained the Turkish side.
 

· OSCE REPORT PEGS TURKEY ON THE KURDISH QUESTION.
From 6 to 10 July 2002, over 300 members of Parliament from 55 different
States met in the Berlin Bundestag for the 11th annual session of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The discussions
were oriented around the political economic and humanitarian aspects of the international
struggle against terrorism and was followed by final declaration. Moreover,
a report drawn up by Svend J. Robinson, on behalf of the Commission on
Democracy, Human Rights and humanitarian questions, entitled "Facing up to
terrorism : a challenge on a planetary scale for the 21st Century" was adopted.

The Report deplored that "in Turkey HADEP mayors are victims of permanent
harassment, like the Mayor of Hakkari, who was accused of subversion for
having published a calender in English and Kurdish".  It also stressed that
"the Kurdish language remains forbidden on the radio  and in education and
the former member of Parliament Leyla Zana is still in prison".

"In Van, the security forces have arrested about 500 students for having
signed a petition in which they claimed the right to studying in Kurdish.
As the Human Rights lawyer, Osman Baydemir, said in the weeks following 11
September, "the government thinks it can do whatever it likes now and that
the West will let it get away with it" " the report pointed out.

In his resolution, the reporter proposed to "encourage the participating
States to contribute to international efforts to put an end to long
standing injustices existing in the Middle East, including the full respect
of the rights of Palestinians and Kurdish minorities and the right of all
the states of the region to live in peace and security".