EP withholds aid to Turkey for 1998 because of `certain problems'

According to TRT (18:00 hours, 18.12.97) the European Parliament (EP) has
decided to shelve the aid that was to be extended to Turkey from the EU's 1998
budget. The EP decided to shelve 53 million ECU from the aid that was to be
extended to Turkey because of certain problems relating to human rights,
international law, and southeastern Anatolia. The EP also demanded that the aid
that was to be given to Turkey from the Mediterranean Development and
Cooperation Fund be extended on the basis of certain conditions and for
specific projects only. The EU aid that was withheld earlier because Greece
vetoed it was withheld directly by the EP this time.
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Turkey to receive EU funds only under terms

Brussels, 26/09/1997 (ANA)

The Europarliament yesterday set four terms for Turkey before approving ECU 35
million in funding.

Following a proposal by Greek Eurodeputy Katerina Daskalaki (New Democracy),
the Europarliament's Foreign Affairs Committee froze a "special support" fund
of ECU 3.5 billion and the "funding agreement" funds of ECU 35 million.

Following this approval, the parliament committee passed by a narrow margin (19
yes, 16 no) an amendment to this by Greek Eurodeputy Alekos Alavanos (KKE)
setting terms for releasing the funds to Turkey.

The terms are as follows: Respect for international law and human rights,
recognition of the rights of the Kurds, contribution towards solving the Cyprus
issue on the basis of United Nations resolutions and respect for the external
borders of the Europe an Union and its member-states.
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European aid ban highlights Turkey's shaky rights record

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Nando Net. Sep 22, 1996 11:00 a.m. EDT) - Turkey's shaky
human rights record is in the spotlight again after a European Union decision
to block aid for lack of democratic progress, but analysts and activists are
not expecting any improvement.

"The human rights situation here is a complete disaster," said Levent Tuzel,
one of the lawyers representing the family of journalist Metin Goktepe, who was
beaten to death in police custody in January.

"But I really don't think the decision will change anything. The Turkish
republic will carry on as it sees fit," Tuzel said.

The catalog of abuses cited by rights activists includes police torture, deaths
in detention and bloody and sometimes fatal crackdowns against a series of
protests by students and others.

The European Parliament, angered by what it sees as Turkey's reneging on
promises to improve its rights record, said in a resolution Thursday it would
block hundreds of millions of dollars of European Union aid to Ankara.

The EU was due to give Turkey $470 million by year 2000 to help it adapt to the
customs union.

"Since customs union was established (in January 1996) Turkey seems to have
relapsed into its bad habits," a Western diplomat told Reuters. "It even seems
to be a little worse."

Turkish Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller, who as prime minister fought to persuade
the European Parliament to approve customs union amid human rights concerns,
said the decision was biased, but Turkish rights activists supported the
resolution.

"Starting with the right to live, all basic rights are being abused and this is
becoming more systematic," said Akin Birdal, head of the Ankara-based Human
Rights Association. "If Turkey continues on its own bent, it will be left out
by the West."

According to Human Rights Association figures, 21 people died of extrajudicial
executions in detention or of torture in August this year, compared with 12 in
August last year, before the customs union was approved.

There were 37 cases of police torture in August 1996, against 22 for the same
period in 1995, the HRA said.

Birdal said the number of people in jail under Turkish laws that effectively
restrict the freedom of expression had risen to 170 from 90 before the customs
union was approved in December 1995.

Next week an Istanbul court will continue to hear the case of some 100 writers
and intellectuals, on trial after they put their name to a publication banned
under these laws in an act of protest. Just after the customs union went ahead,
renowned writer Yasar Kemal was tried under one of these laws for two essays.

A Turkish court last month indicted 41 top members of a Kurdish party for
forming an armed separatist gang. They face up to 22 1/2 years in jail.

Four MPs from the pro-Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP), including Nobel Prize
nominee Leyla Zana, are still in jail serving out 15-year sentences given at
their 1994 trial.

Earlier this year, 48 police were charged for killing Goktepe and another 10
for the torture of a group of mostly teenage students held for leftist
activities. The indictments prompted faint hopes of justice at last.

But the Goktepe case has yet to come to court after it was transferred from
Istanbul to the western town of Aydin. Likewise, the teenage torture case is
crawling along.

After the DEP case outraged Europe, Turkey was pressed to improve its rights
record for the customs union.

It altered its 1982 military-era constitution and made promises of further
improvement on rights, democratization, its Kurdish problem and Cyprus. The
island is divided between Greek and Turkish communities since a 1974 Turkish
invasion in response to a coup engineered by Athens.

The 12-year-old battle with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatists
rages, with no sign that the government is seeking an alternative to its
military-only tactics.

In Cyprus, tension has risen considerably in the past month following the
killings of two Greek Cypriots demonstrating against the Turks in the buffer
zone.