Turkey:Trial over TOBB-report?

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

By Suna Erdem

ANKARA, Aug 14 (Reuter) - A Turkish court is set to decide this week whether to
press charges over a report on the thorny Kurdish issue, but analysts say the
document has already caused so much rancour that its value may be lost whatever
the verdict.

The report, commissioned by the Union of Chambers and Trade Bourses (TOBB),
said support for Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels would weaken if the
government heeded Kurds' social and economic grievances and tolerated
pro-Kurdish sentiments.

Ankara's state security court is reviewing the report to see if its mention of
possible federation with Kurds and the use of Kurdish as a second official
language constitutes a crime.

"You shall see in the next few days what we decide," court prosecutor Nuh Mete
Yuksel told Reuters. "I can say no more." He said earlier that charges could be
brought -- he did not say against whom -- under Article 8 of a tough
anti-terror law, which bans propaganda threatening the unity of the state.

Western analysts said the uproar over the report had again revealed just how
hard it was to initiate serious debate on the status of Turkey's Kurds. More
than 17,500 people have been killed in the PKK's 11-year insurgency.

"If anyone was so stupid as to decide charges could be... brought it would
possibly be the silliest thing the Turkish administration has done this year,"
a Western diplomat said. "It would play incredibly badly in Europe."

Turkey, hoping the European Parliament will ratify a lucrative customs union
deal with Ankara in October, is being monitored closely by Europe for signs of
democratic progress.

Scrapping or amending Article 8 has been cited as a condition for the European
parliament's customs union approval. Prime Minister Tansu Ciller managed last
month to bludgeon through parliament a package of reforms to Turkey's 1982
military-era constitution, and promises further progress. But diplomats say a
serious debate about Turkey's problems -- necessary for serious reform -- has
yet to materialise.

"The usual gut instinct reaction of the Turkish ruling classes is that the
issue is sacrosanct and should not be discussed," said a European diplomat.
"But it is high time this discussion received a wider airing."

The TOBB report came with the hope it would be taken seriously due to its
mainstream patrons. Liberals and intellectuals pleaded in newspaper columns
for calm and constructive discussion.

But instead, the report and its author Dogu Ergil -- a respected Ankara
professor -- have been lambasted by conservative politicians, journalists and
security officials as biased towards the Kurds and bent on breaking up the
country.

"Turkey's most crucial problems have not been evaluated scientifically up to
now," Ergil told Reuters. "The issue at hand is all the problems of
instability, economy, democratisation and national unity. We opened this
concept to discussion. But everyone panicked without reading the report."

Even the ERNK, the PKK's political arm, said in a statement last week that
the report "reflected the logic of the state."

"If even they slam it I suggest the report is not far off the mark," one
Western analyst said. "It's what (politicians) don't want to hear but what they
know to be true -- what does come as a surprise is that it was ever produced,
especially given TOBB's closeness to Ciller."

Some people suggest that Ciller was behind the report, which she hoped would
pave the way for further democratic reform. "Whatever hope there might have
been of that has probably been destroyed by the adverse reaction," the analyst
said.

(4)

ANKARA, Aug 14 (Reuter) - These were the leading stories in the Turkish press
on Monday.

CUMHURIYET

- Security forces take extra measures to guard against Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) actions on Wednesday, the 11th anniversary of the group's first attack.

YENI POLITIKA

- Thousands of Kurds call for talks to end PKK campaign at rally in Istanbul's
Taksim Square.


---
 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)