TURKEY IS NOT A DEMOCRATIC COUN

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Re: TURKEY IS NOT A DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY!!! #1

-------------------- Forwarded from : Petros Liapis <hdivp> --------------------

The bellow copy of a report in the house of the Representatives in US, demonstrates
clearly the lack of democracy in Turkey.  

Petros.



> 
>                     TURKEY ESCALATES WAR ON FREE EXPRESSION
> 
>                                   [Page: E313]
> 
> 
> 
>                            HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH
> 
>                                  OF NEW JERSEY
> 
>                         in the House of Representatives
> 
>                            Thursday, February 9, 1995
> 
> Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, last October, a Helsinki Commission
> delegation met with Turkish officials and others in Ankara. With one exception,
> each and every official, including the Speaker of Parliament, produced a copy
> of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Ulke and waved it in the air as proof that,
> despite what critics alleged, free expression was alive and well in Turkey.
> 
> Last week, Mr. Speaker, Turkish officials decided that the costs of allowing
> the paper to air its pro-Kurdish sentiments outweighed its value as a token of
> free expression. On February 3, a Turkish court forced the paper to shut down.
> This blatant assault on free speech comes within a week of the decision to
> prosecute Turkey's most widely known author, Yasar Kemal, for publicly stating
> his thoughts on the government's handling of the Kurdish situation. He now
> faces charges of separatist propaganda, and now, even those who favor the
> government's uncompromising hardline towards the Kurds are beginning to
> question whether the government hasn't gone too far.
> 
> Mr. Speaker, Ozgur Ulke's closure culminates an orchestrated campaign which
> began as soon as the newspaper appeared to fill the void left when a likeminded
> predecessor was forcibly closed. Censorship of the paper included violent
> attacks that left 20 reporters and distributors killed by unidentified death
> squads. At least four others have been kidnapped. The tortured, bullet-ridden
> body of one reporter was found weeks after he had disappeared. At least 35
> journalists and workers of the newspaper have been imprisoned and 238 issues
> seized. The campaign against the newspaper went into high gear on November 30,
> 1994, when Prime Minister Ciller issued a secret decree, which was leaked and
> published, calling for the complete elimination of the newspaper. On December
> 3, 1994, its printing facility and headquarters in Istanbul and its Ankara
> bureau were bombed. One person was killed and 18 others were injured in the
> explosions.
> 
> On January 6, 1995, policemen started to wait outside the printing plant to
> confiscate the paper as soon as it was printed. Copies were taken directly to a
> prosecutor who worked around the clock to determine which articles were
> undesirable. Often some three to four pages of the paper, mostly articles about
> security force abuses, were censored and reprinted as blank sections. Since
> December, five reporters, who were detained and later released, spoke of being
> tortured by police attempting to force confessions against the newspaper's
> editorial board.
> 
> Mr. Speaker, last week, the State Department issued its annual human rights
> report, and only China had as many pages devoted to it as Turkey. While the
> report indicated that human rights conditions in Turkey had worsened
> significantly over the past year, the publication of Ozgur Ulke was cited as a
> positive example of press freedom. Responding to the report, an official
> spokesperson dismissed its report as biased and based on one-sided information.
> The spokesperson, repeating assertions made whenever Turkey is criticized for
> human rights violations, insisted that significant improvements had taken place
> and other important reforms were being undertaken. Given the countless times we
> have heard such assertions, it is a wonder that Turkey is not a model of
> freedom and democracy.
> 
> Mr. Speaker, now that Turkish officials do not have copies of Ozgur Ulke to
> wave at visiting delegations, they will likely search for other props to
> convince skeptics of their good intentions. I would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that
> instead of tolerating certain types of expression in order to placate foreign
> observers, Turkish officials should take real steps to bring policies in line
> with stated human rights commitments. Free expression and other rights cannot
> be viewed simply as products of public relations campaigns. If Turkish
> officials are unwilling to work seriously towards implementing such rights to
> bring their laws into conformity with international standards, then they cannot
> expect their pronouncements on human rights to be viewed sympathetically. In
> this context, Turkish denunciations of the State Department human rights report
> are as puzzling as they are absurd.
>


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