17 July 2001

1. "Justice Minister Turk in Erzurum", 'Death fasts are meaningless. The government is decisive when it comes to F type jails'.

2. "Human rights group calls for justice minister's prosecution over prison deaths",
Police detained 42 people near the Istanbul prosecutor's office as the group presented its petition

3. "Turkish military is playing dangerous", while Turkish military forces continue their operations against People's Defense Forces (HPG) guerrillas in North [Turkish] and South [Iraqi] Kurdistan, it has been learned that four soldiers died as the result of a mine explosion. It has also been learned that the Turkish state has increased is pressure on the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to fight against the PKK in the South.

4. "Turkey requires women medical students to be virgins", Turkey has adopted a new code of conduct disciplinary code for women studying for professions in the health sector, requiring them to be virgins, press reports said Monday. New directives issued by the health ministry provide for virginity tests if a female student is suspected of "having had sexual relations or being a prostitute," Hurriyet daily reported.

5. "ECHR to announce its decision regarding applications of former DEP deputies", the European Court of Human Rights will tomorrow announce its decision regarding the applications of four former deputies of the outlawed Democracy Party (DEP) who are currently in prison.

6. "Saddam Invites Kurds to Make Peace with Baghdad", Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invited Kurdish rebel foes on Sunday to open dialogue with Baghdad, Iraqi state-run television said.

1. - Turkish Daily News - "Justice Minister Turk in Erzurum":

'Death fasts are meaningless. The government is decisive when it comes to F type jails'

Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk, during his visit to Erzurum, stated that Turkey had suffered from ward-like prisons for years, in which the state could not control, and said, "Death fasts are meaningless. The government will stick to its policy of F-type prisons. The `Operation Back to Life,' carried out on December 19, 2001, resulted in regaining control of prisons by the state. We are determined to maintain order."

Stating that they aimed to establish a prison model in which convicts could develop their characters and personalities, Turk went on to say that the model they aimed to establish was in accordance to the prison standards of the United Nations.

Turk stated that F-type prisons allowed joint activities to take place and said, "people are against F-type prisons because they will not be able to act as they wish in there."

Preparations for L-type prisons

Minister Turk stated that L-type prisons for political convicts were being formed along with F type prisons, which have been formed in accordance with the law for Struggle With Terrorism.

Turk explained that L-type prisons would consist of one-person cells but would allow convicts to carry out joint social activities within the day. He added that they believed these projects would have positive results.

'The number of prisons will be decreased'

Turk stated that there were too many prisons in Turkey and said, "We will decrease the number of prisons by forming regional ones. Prisons will be located out of the cities. Building more prisons does not make us happy either but they will naturally exist as long as there is crime"

2. - AP - "Human rights group calls for justice minister's prosecution over prison deaths":

Police detained 42 people near the Istanbul prosecutor's office as the group presented its petition

Ben Holland

A human rights group has called for the prosecution of Turkey's justice minister over a prison raid that killed 30 inmates and a hunger strike that has seen 29 people starve to death.

Turkey's Human Rights Association presented a petition to Istanbul prosecutors on Sunday calling for charges to be brought against Hikmet Sami Turk for "causing the death" of prisoners in a December raid to transfer members of banned leftist groups to new, maximum-security prisons.

The group also blame Turk for a hunger strike launched by leftist prisoners and their relatives to protest the transfer. So far 29 people have died in the hunger strike.

"We don't think that the prosecutors will pursue the charges, because Turk is a member of parliament and so he enjoys parliamentary immunity from prosecution," said Eren Keskin, head of the Human Rights Association's Istanbul branch. "But we believe he is responsible for the prisoners' deaths."

The government ordered troops into prisons throughout Turkey in December to transfer leftist inmates to new, maximum-security prisons with one or three-person cells. It said the old system allowed banned leftist, Kurdish and Islamic groups to transform large cells holding up to 100 inmates into training camps for extremists.

The raid sparked clashes which left 30 inmates and two soldiers dead. Prisoners say the new system leaves them isolated and vulnerable to abuse by guards. More than 200 prisoners and several of their relatives have been refusing solid food for months to protest the transfers, taking sugar and vitamins to prolong their fast.

The government has passed a law allowing inmates in the new prisons to take part in group activities, and another that opens jails to civilian inspection. But human rights groups say the changes don't go far enough, while the hunger strikers are demanding further concessions including larger cells.

Turk has rejected the demands and blames leaders of the banned leftist groups for pressuring members to continue their fast.

Visiting one of the new maximum-security prisons in the western town of Tekirdag on Sunday, Turk said it offered "a modern and healthy standard of living." Television pictures showed prisoners playing basketball.

But 35 inmates at Tekirdag Prison are taking part in the hunger strike to protest prison conditions, said Hayrettin Uysal, the district's chief prosecutor.

Human rights activists, who were joined by members of some legal left-wing parties, carried photographs of some of the dead hunger strikers as they presented their petition.

Police detained 42 people near the Istanbul prosecutor's office as the group presented its petition, the Anatolia News Agency reported. Keskin said some members of the Human Rights Association had been detained, adding that the numbers were not immediately clear.

3. - Kurdish Observer - "Turkish military is playing dangerous":

While Turkish military forces continue their operations against People's Defense Forces (HPG) guerrillas in North [Turkish] and South [Iraqi] Kurdistan, it has been learned that four soldiers died as the result of a mine explosion. It has also been learned that the Turkish state has increased is pressure on the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) to fight against the PKK in the South.

MURAT SARAC/S. KURDISTAN

It has been learned that while military movement continues in South Kurdistan in the month of July, pressure by the Turkish state against the forces of the South to fight against the PKK has been increased. Meanwhile, four soldiers died during operations in North Kurdistan.

Four soldiers died and a number were wounded as the result of the explosion of a mine that had been planted in previous years while withdrawing on July 11 from an operation against the HPG. The operation had been started by Turkish military forces on July 8 in on Kato-Jirki Mountain near Hakkari. There was also another mine explosion on Carcella Mountain near Yuksekova during an operation begun by Turkish military forces against the HPG guerrillas on July 11. There is no further information on this incident.

There was also a clash, concerning which no details are yet available, near Ertus in South Kurdistan between HPG guerrillas and Turkish military forces.

5,000 soldiers in the South

Meanwhile, it has been reported that 5,000 Turkish soldiers and 100 tanks have crossed into South Kurdistan. It was reported that the aforementioned tanks and soldiers were positioned in the Qoysanjak region, while 12 TIR trucks, said to be civilian, entered the city of Suleymaniya.

Local sources say that there were military equipment and tanks in the TIRs, while heavy tank activity has likewise been noted in the Behdinan region.

Pressure to war on the PKK

At the same time, news is continuing that the Turkish state is increasing the pressure on the KDP and PUK to fight against the PKK in South Kurdistan. It has been reported that a helicopter belonging to the Turkish state landed in Selahaddin, where the home of KDP leader Massoud Barzani is located, and took off again after a 3 or 4 hour visit. It was reported that another helicopter landed in Carkune and spoke with PUK officials with the same aim.

At the same time, it was reported that PUK leader Jalal Talabani sent a letter to Turkish officials a month ago, asking them to pressure the KDP to fight against HPG forces. Talabani additionally said in the letter that if the KDP did not accept this, they were ready to fight against PKK forces as long as they were given enough money and military equipment.

In the face of this, sources close to the PKK recalled that the PKK is determined to continue the peace process, but that the HPG forces will use their legitimate right to self defense should war be imposed on the region.

Tank ammunition takes three lives

Meanwhile, mines and other explosives remaining in South Kurdistan from the Iran-Iraq war continue to take lives almost every day. Tank explosives remaining from the war period near the Iranian border cost three Kurdistanis their lives the other day. Three Kurdistanis named Hasan Bapir Hasan, Abdurrezak Bekir Mahmud, and Mustafa lost their lives while trying to cut the barrel of a tank remaining from the war on the Barzin plateau near the Iran-Iraq border.

4. - AFP - "Turkey requires women medical students to be virgins":

ANKARA

Turkey has adopted a new code of conduct disciplinary code for women studying for professions in the health sector, requiring them to be virgins, press reports said Monday. New directives issued by the health ministry provide for virginity tests if a female student is suspected of "having had sexual relations or being a prostitute," Hurriyet daily reported.

Students found not to be virgins would be expelled, the paper said. No appeal against the decision would be allowed, Radikal daily said. The code of conduct covered students at the Health Schools which train young women aged 13-17 for work as nurses or midwives. Hurriyet criticized Health Minister Osman Durus, a member of the ultra-nationalist MHP party, for issuing the code of conduct, saying he was setting himself up as a "guardian of virtue."

It was not the first brush with controversy for Durus, who in 1999 turned down foreign aid to victims of a devastating earthquake in northwest Turkey, which claimed nearly 20,000 lives, saying Turkey could take care of its own.

5. - Anadolu Agency - "ECHR to announce its decision regarding applications of former DEP deputies":

STRASBOURG

The European Court of Human Rights will tomorrow announce its decision regarding the applications of four former deputies of the outlawed Democracy Party (DEP) who are currently in prison.

Leyla Zana, Selim Sadak, Hatip Dicle and Orhan Dogan, in the application they made to the ECHR in 1996, had claimed that Turkey violated Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding the freedom of expression, Article 11 about setting up organizations, Article 14 about the prohibition of discrimination and Article 6 about a suspect's right to receive a fair trial.

The ex-deputies who were sentenced to 15 years in prison claimed that they didn't get a fair trial in Turkey since there was a military judge in State Security Court (DGM) which tried them.

The ECHR had sentenced Turkey to pay compensation after examining the first application of six ex-deputies of DEP, Mahmut Alinak, Sirri Sakik, Ahmet Turk, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Leyla Zana. During this case, the ECHR had decided that Turkey violated articles related to detention and trial periods of the European Convention of Human Rights.

6. - Reuters - "Saddam Invites Kurds to Make Peace with Baghdad":

BAGHDAD

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invited Kurdish rebel foes on Sunday to open dialogue with Baghdad, Iraqi state-run television said.

"We want any solution with as few losses as possible, when the solution is among our people," the television quoted Saddam as saying. The remote mountainous enclave of northern Iraq, controlled by two rival Iraqi Kurdish groups, has been outside Baghdad's control since the end of the 1991 Gulf War to end its occupation of Kuwait.

U.S. and British jets patrol no-fly zones set up after the expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait to protect Kurd dissidents in northern Iraq from attack by Baghdad forces. The Iraqi president said Baghdad had left the northern area alone until now to allow the Kurds to deal with their own problems and that fear of intervention by Baghdad has kept the two rival Kurdish factions from harming the Kurdish people.

"We wanted our people in Kurdistan region...to deal with the events and circumstances, good and bad in details to reach a satisfaction of their own choice," Saddam said, during a ceremony to award him the sash and shield of al-Jihad (holy war).

Baghdad has severed all ties with Kurds in the north, who have aligned themselves with other Iraqi opposition groups and have publicly vowed to topple the government in Baghdad.
The two sides held inconclusive talks in 1991. In 1992 the Kurds held elections for a parliament and established a regional government in which the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan share power.