TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald

[newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk_aps_nl at apsf.aps.nl (newsdesk at aps.nl)
Subject: TRKNWS-L NEWS from Vic McDonald


Turkey warns Iraqi Kurds against goading Iraq

    ANKARA, March 15 (Reuter) - Turkey criticised an Iraqi Kurdish faction on
Wednesday for goading Iraqi troops across a Western-protected safe haven and
warned it against any moves to seize the Baghdad-held oil city of Kirkuk.

    ``We have reports that local (Kurdish) forces in northern Iraq are
opening harassing fire on Iraqi troops permanently positioned south of the
36th parallel,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ferhat Ataman said.

    ``We praise the cool attitude of the Iraqi side in the face of such
harassment,'' he said.

    ``We are also receiving reports that the local forces plan to start an
assault on Kirkuk. I wish to stress that Turkey will in no way accept such a
development that will harm Iraq's territorial integrity,'' Ataman said.

   For more than a year, Turkey has been leading delicate talks with Baghdad
and United Nations to flush an oil pipeline from Kirkuk to its own
Mediterranean coast.

    In line with U.N. sanctions, Ankara shut the pipeline shortly after Iraq
invaded Kuwait in August 1990. It says the expensive investment is corroding
after four years of disuse.

    The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two major Iraqi
Kurdish guerrilla factions, has claimed successful raids recently agaist
Iraqi forces positioned south of the demarcation line set by a Western
coalition to protect the Kurds.

    ``Turkey has always backed Iraq's territorial integrity... (and) opposed
moves that will increase tension and damage peace and order in northern
Iraq,'' said Ataman.

    PUK's rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Masoud Barzani, is locked
in a bitter conflict with PUK forces and opposes attacks on Iraqi troops as a
sure way of drawing the wrath of Baghdad on innocent civilians.
REUTER      Transmitted: 95-03-15 10:47:50 EST

Kazakhstan -- vast state in constitutional turmoil

    ALMA-ATA, March 15 (Reuter) - These are the key facts about Kazakhstan,
where parliament was dissolved last weekend after the country's first
post-Soviet parliamentary elections last year were declared illegal.

    Kazakhstan is the second biggest former Soviet republic and occupies a
territory the size of Western Europe. Its 17 million people inhabit a swathe
of steppe, desert and mountains covering 2.6 million square km (one million
square miles) from China to the Caspian Sea.

    POLITICS: President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the son of a shepherd and a
former steelworker, won the country's first presidential elections in
December 1991 when he was the republic's Communist Party boss.

    Although he is regarded at home and abroad as a force for stability,
there are underlying ethnic tensions in the vast country -- particularly
between Russians and Kazakhs, who each make up about 40 percent of the
population.

    Kazakhs are descendants of Moslem Turkic tribes who ruled the Central
Asian steppe 1,000 years ago, and speak a Turkic language easily understood
by Turks.

    They were absorbed into the Russian empire in the mid-19th century and
their numbers were drastically reduced by the forced resettlement policies of
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

    Russians generally have greater literacy and better education, dominate
skilled professions and still occupy key posts in the government and
industry. The government uses Kazakh as its national language and Russian for
inter-ethnic relations.

    Nazarbayev has been a frequent advocate of closer integration with other
former Soviet republics as part of a ``Euro-Asian'' federation.

    He clearly hoped last year's general elections would return a compliant
parliament willing to give him a free hand to proceed with reforms.

    But the assembly frequently stood against him. Opponents say the
dissolution of parliament -- on the basis of a court ruling declaring the
election illegal -- was a pretext to take more power into his hands.

    ECONOMY: The Kazakh economy faced major problems after the collapse of
the former Soviet Union, with trade turnover falling steeply and industrial
output sharply down.

    Output fell 28.5 percent in 1994, although officials say the worst is
over. February production was 11 percent above year-ago levels.

    Kazakhstan is the second-biggest former Soviet oil producer after Russia,
with an annual output of about 22 million tonnes.

    It produces around 12 tonnes of gold a year and contains much of the
former Soviet Union's silver, lead, zinc, copper and other mineral resources.


    The republic's industry is based mainly on metallurgy, heavy machinery,
agro-processing, petrochemicals and textiles.
REUTER           Transmitted: 95-03-15 21:35:08 EST

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