HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Ha

[root at newsdesk.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam)
Subject: Re: HIrgUr MUstemleke; Sanki Fiyasko Haberler, 30/3/95, 09:00 TSI
Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl

(1) Turks raise fresh ire over Iraqi drive 10 days on

By Howard Goller

ANKARA, March 30 (Reuter) - Turkey, under growing international fire for its
10-day-old push against rebel Kurds in Iraq, seemed set to launch a diplomatic
initiative to press its view of the affair.

The newspaper Hurriyet said new Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu would visit four
major Western allies -- the United States, Germany, France and Britain -- to
calm their fears. It gave no date for the planned trip.

Meanwhile concern and anger over the fate of civilians in northern Iraq and
fears that the 35,000 Turkish troops may stay there a long time mounted abroad.

Germany, Turkey's NATO partner and a main military supplier, suspended a
shipment of army hardware on Wednesday over the land-and-air operation, the
biggest in Turkey's modern history. "Turkey has to pull out immediately,"
Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel insisted in Bonn.

In London, British Prime Minister John Major joined a growing international
chorus, saying: "We look to Turkey to withdraw its forces as soon as possible
and to avoid harm to non-combatants and relief efforts."

The United States has put the onus back on Turkey to suggest an international
plan to halt Kurdish cross-border attacks from Iraq. Turkish Prime Minister
Tansu Ciller last week urged the international community to produce such a
plan. "It's up to Turkey to now come forward with something more concrete in
terms of how that might be done," State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly
said.

Ankara says the drive against rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who
are using Iraq in their fight for a separate homeland would safeguard Turkey
against terrorism. Its army chief, General Ismail Hakki Karadayi, told the
Anatolian news agency on Wednesday that anyone who criticised the incursion
was supporting terrorism.

Turkish officials said they were taking every precaution to ensure the safety
of Kurdish refugees and Iraqi civilians. The head of the U.N. contingent in
Iraq accused Turkish troops of preventing his guards from carrying out normal
patrols in the Kurdish villages of the combat zone.

The United Nations was due on Thursday to evacuate a third convoy of displaced
Turkish Kurds, who said they feared Turkish harassment, from the Iraqi border
town of Zakho.

On the rebel side a PKK commander in the Iraqi city of Arbil vowed Turkish
troops trying to subdue his mobile rebel force would "go home in body bags" if
they stayed in northern Iraq. "There is no military solution, even if Turkey
sends in thousands more soldiers," said the commander, 34, who spoke on
condition his name be kept secret.

The on-the-ground situation meanwhile remained unclear, with the two sides
giving hugely conflicting death tolls. The PKK said it had killed a total of
515 troops but Ankara said it had lost 17. Turkey said it killed 269 rebels,
the PKK that it had lost 18.

(2) Villagers Show Turks' Path

BESHILLE, Iraq (AP) -- The mountain village is empty now. A black pile of
burned shoes at a doorstep is a sign that there once was life here. "Turkish
planes bombed our village and then the soldiers moved in and burned our
houses," said Fevzi Rashid, who returned to his village Wednesday.

Rashid said the air attack occurred a week ago, followed by Turkish soldiers
two days later. His claims add to the charges of abuse and intimidation from
villagers caught in the cross-fire in Turkey's military offensive against
Kurdish guerrilla bases in northern Iraq.

Turkey sent 35,000 troops across the border March 20 to wipe out bases of the
Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK.

The Turkish army's offensive involves the section of northern Iraq controlled
by Iraqi Kurds who want independence from Baghdad. Patrolled by allied
warplanes since the end of the Gulf War, Baghdad has no authority in the
region.

The PKK has fought for autonomy in Turkey in a war that has killed more than
15,000 people. Turkey contends about 2,800 PKK guerrillas are based in northern
Iraq. Other Iraqi Kurds have claimed that Turkish soldiers stormed villages and
searched houses. One villager said a Turkish tank rolled into his house.

A 5-year-old Iraqi Kurd was killed during an air raid while four other
civilians were injured in the raids in the first days of the operation,
according to Iraqi Kurdish sources.

Turkey denies that the army has given any harm to the civilians.

In Beshille, villager Izet Mohammed pointed to splintered trees he said were
hit by fighter bombs. Out of the total 25 houses, many were burned out, the
roofs caved in, wood beams charred.

The villagers showed a ditch some 15 feet deep and 30 feet wide which they said
a bomb opened in the ground. A burned water tank stood by the ditch. "Soldiers
threw our belongings into the river," Mohammed said. Tea leaves could be seen
at the side of a stream flowing through the village, 42 miles east of Zakho.

Rashid said there had been no casualties because most villagers had earlier
fled when Turkish jet fighters bombed Dergela village, about three miles east
of Beshille. Rashid, 43, said the Turkish soldiers believed his village was
cooperating with the Kurdish rebels who have waged an 11-year battle for
autonomy. "When the soldiers found United Nations-supplied tents in our
village, they said we were helping he PKK," Rashid said.

(3) Turkey Eases Kurd War Coverage

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey reopened the border Wednesday to some journalists
covering the military incursion in northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels.

A statement from the government's press and information office said Turkish
journalists and foreign reporters living in Turkey could cross the frontier.

The ban still applies to foreign media without residence permits in Turkey. The
Turkish army's offensive involves the section of northern Iraq controlled by
Iraqi Kurds who want independence from Baghdad. Patrolled by allied warplanes
since the end of the Persian Gulf War, Baghdad has no authority in the region.

Turkey sent 35,000 troops inside northern Iraq on March 20.

The Turkish government has grown increasingly uneasy about reports in the
foreign media that the military offensive was causing civilian casualties and
disrupting daily life.

Some Western officials and rights groups have appealed to Turkey to steer the
offensive away from civilian areas and quickly pull back across the border. The
Committee to Protect Journalists, a New-York-based U.S. media-watch
organization, condemned the restrictions in a letter Tuesday to Prime Minister
Tansu Ciller.

(4) Germany Axes Turkey Supplies

BONN, Germany (AP) -- Stepping up pressure on Turkey to stop its war on Kurdish
rebels, Germany has canceled the delivery of 106 armored vehicles and other war
materiel to the NATO ally.

Before aid is restored, Turkey must halt its invasion of northern Iraq, stop
human rights abuses and resolve its conflict with the Kurds through political
means, Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel told reporters Wednesday.

In an attempt to force Turkey to halt its military offensive, the German
parliament suspended $105 million in subsidies Tuesday to shipyards building
two frigates for Turkey.

Later in the day, the Cabinet stopped the delivery of $107 million worth of
supplies including armored vehicles for the engineering corps, a supply ship,
radios and spare parts.

The materiel was to have been delivered in the next three months as the last
installment of a $1 billion 1990 military grant sending old NATO and former
East German tanks, weapons and munition to Turkey.

(5) Britain urges Turkey to remove troops from Iraq

LONDON, March 29 (Reuter) - British Prime Minister John Major urged Turkey on
Wednesday to withdraw its troops from northern Iraq. "We look to Turkey to
withdraw its forces as soon as possible and to avoid harm to non-combatants and
relief efforts," he told a London conference on Britain's role on the
international scene.

"I understand Turkish concerns about PKK terrorism. But Turkey should remain
within the rule of law," Major said.

(6) Turkey says German aid freeze may kill big project

ANKARA, March 29 (Reuter) - Turkey said on Wednesday that Germany's freeze of
military aid in response to its incursion into northern Iraq could kill
Turkey's $500.7 million order for two warships.

"The frozen amount of 150 million marks ($107 million) is only part of the
total project value for two frigates to be built for Turkey and worth 840
million marks ($609.6 million)," foreign ministry spokesman Ferhat Ataman said.
"Under the contract, the project can work only if the German grant is realised.
It is worth thinking about how the suspension of the grant could affect the
overall project," he said.

German sources said earlier the project was valued at a total 800 million
marks ($571 million).

Ataman said Turkey would be paying 690 million marks in cash and the German
grant would go not to Turkey but as subsidy to the German builders Blohm and
Voss for two Meko frigates.

"The amount involved should not be a negligible resource for the German
armaments industry," he said.

Germany, a major military supplier to its NATO partner, on Monday froze
the 150 million marks in reaction to the Turkish offensive against rebel
Kurds in northern Iraq and concern that Turkey plans an indefinite military
presence there.

German politicians, accusing Turkey of violating human rights in northern Iraq,
are calling for a total ban on all military supplies to Turkey.

Ataman said Turkey's defence purchases from Germany totalled $7.2 billion as
compared to $4.2 billion received in aid. "This has been Turkey's contribution
to the German economy." The defence cooperation between Ankara and Bonn dates
back to the 1960s. In response to German criticism, Ataman said the operation
aimed to repel a "terrorist" threat from outside its borders. "We have every
right to expect our NATO allies to adhere to the letter and spirit of the
alliance treaty when a member is faced with such threats."

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