14
March 2001
2. "'Cut military expenditures to overcome crisis'", the final declaration from the HADEP parliamentary assembly meeting presented a suggestion for solving Turkey's economic crisis: "Reduce military expenditures, which are constantly overlooked, and allow Turkey's economy to straighten out."
3. "This is the 'Government of the Republic of Sirnak'", JITEM, which was established in Silopi and whose name has been implicated in a number of incidents of execution, kidnapping, and smuggling since 1993, continues its dark activities in Silopi and the surrounding region.
4. "Turkey to restructure state banks to rescue economy", Turkey announced plans Tuesday to reform its troubled banking sector amid fears the government was not doing enough to deal with an economic crisis.
5. "Ankara still picks French as defense contractor", the French might have accused Turkey of genocide. But Turkey's military still can't resist French cooking.
6. "National Program nearly ready", Cem : I believe the National Program will be discussed at the Cabinet next week and will be ready to submitted to the EU in 10 days
7. "Economic crisis forces Turkish Army to cut its purchase", TSK is prompted to become more sensitive to the rational use of economic resources and Kivrikoglu states that they may scrap TSK's plans for arm purchases.
8. "U.S. Congress members urge Bush to help Turkey overcome crisis", twenty-five members of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress have written a letter to President George Bush and urged him to support Turkey to overcome its economic troubles.
1. - Independent - "The shocking pictures that Turkey is trying
to stop us from seeing":
BY ROBERT FISK
Not content with denying the truth of the Armenian Holocaust of
1915, Turkish officials are now trying to undermine the veracity of
the photographic evidence of the genocide that killed a million and
a half Armenians during the First World War. Following a letter of complaint
from the Turkish embassy in London this week, the Hulton Getty picture
library has withdrawn three famous photographs of slaughtered Armenians
from its website, preventing their use by the media.
One of the pictures - a now-famous image of an Armenian girl and two
small children lying dead amid garbage at the height of the genocide
- was taken by the German photographer Armin Wegner and has been regularly
distributed by Hulton to newspapers for many years. But a letter from
a Turkish embassy official in London - who signed his name only as "Korkmazhaktanir"
- objected to the picture's caption, which stated that the dead were
victims of the Turkish massacres. The dead, according to the Turkish
official, had obviously only "starved" to death.
This extraordinary argument - which would presuppose that Jews starved
to death by the Nazis in the Second World War could not be counted victims
of the Jewish Holocaust - did not impress Hulton's general manager,
Mathew Butson. "This picture was used recently by both The Independent
and The Times and the key word the Turks objected to in our caption
was 'massacred'," he says. "We always routinely examine such
complaints and temporarily withdrew these images from our files. But
we believe the information in our caption is correct.
"The argument that these Armenians weren't 'massacred' just because
they were starved is not acceptable. The Turkish letter went on about
how starving can't be part of a massacre, blah, blah, blah. I think
that because of their application to join the EU, the Turks want to
'clean' their history - but this isn't the way to do it."
The Turkish government has been mounting an increasingly expensive lobbying
campaign to deny the fact of the Armenian Holocaust, funding academic
chairs at American universities - in which professors invariably questioned
the details of the genocide - and threatening economic boycotts against
European countries that acknowledge the Armenian massacres. When President
Jacques Chirac last month publicly accepted the genocide as fact, Turkey
cancelled arms and construction contracts with France worth millions
of pounds.
Claiming that the Armenians died in "civil unrest" and that
the Armenian population supported Turkey's First World War enemies,
the present Turkish government has consistently denied eyewitness evidence
at the time - including that of US diplomats and missionaries - that
the genocide was organised and carried out on the specific orders of
Ottoman Turkey's rulers. Planning his extermination of European Jewry
in the 20th century's second Holocaust, Hitler asked his generals: "Who
now remembers the Armenians?"
Turkey's embassies abroad have seized every opportunity to prove Hitler's
question valid. The mass execution by firing squads of tens of thousands
of Armenian men and the starvation, rape and killing of equal numbers
of women and children during the mass deportations to the deserts in
1915 have no place in Turkish history books. And, so far as the Turks
are concerned, no place in anyone else's history books.
During its research, however, Hulton concluded that it did not hold
the copyright to the three photographs taken - at great personal risk
- by Wegner in 1915 and 1916. Mr Butson now says that they belong to
an Armenian historical archive in Germany, a fact confirmed by Tessa
Hofmann of the Centre for Documantation and Information on Armenia in
Berlin - who says that all three photographs were taken by Wegner and
show victims of the Armenian genocide. "The rights to these photos
are owned by the Schiller Literary National Archive in Marbach, here
in Germany," she says.
"They hold items from the Wegner estate and gave us the rights
to copies of photographs that relate to the Armenian genocide, courtesy
of Wegner's second wife, who is still alive and now lives in Israel."
According to Mrs Hofmann, Wegner - although under strict Turkish instructions
to take no pictures - photographed the dead Armenians during and after
visits to Turkish concentration camps in the Syrian desert near Aleppo.
"We cannot be sure the picture of the three bodies is of a mother
and her two children - only that it is a girl and two children. But
the pictures are perfectly genuine. In his diary, Armin records seeing
all these bodies of starved Armenians around the camps and of taking
their photograph. He wrote that many of the bodies had become 'petrified',
stiff and unchanging after death."
Ironically, the first copy of the photograph of the three dead Armenians
traced by The Independent comes from an American journal also called
The Independent and was published on 18 October, 1915. The caption to
the picture printed then states that "these victims of Turkish
cruelty were driven out to suffer extremes of hunger and hardship in
their wanderings through the desert where so many thousands like them
also died. Shown here is a mother and her two children found in the
desert." The accompanying article begins: "The most extensive,
the most atrocious of religious massacres which the world has seen for
centuries is now being perpetrated in Turkey..." In fact, it was
not until the end of the First World War that the full extent of the
Armenian Holocaust - up to a million and a half murdered by the Ottoman
Turkish regime - became clear.
Mrs Hofmann says she is ready to give permission for newspapers to use
the Wegner photographs of the genocide. (Her e-mail address is tessahofmann@d-armenier.de
and her centre is principally involved in the identification of Wegner's
Armenian photographs).
It wasn't his intention, but Mr Korkmazhaktanir's letter to Hulton may
have helped to disseminate this invaluable photographic evidence of
the Armenian Holocaust even further. 
2. - Kurdish Observer - "'Cut military expenditures
to overcome crisis'":
The final declaration from the HADEP parliamentary assembly meeting
presented a suggestion for solving Turkey's economic crisis: "Reduce
military expenditures, which are constantly overlooked, and allow Turkey's
economy to straighten out."
NEWS CENTER
The People's Democracy Party (HADEP) released the final declaration
from its party assembly meeting which was held March 10-11. Along with
mentioning preparations being made for the Newroz celebrations, the
declaration highlighted the narrow straits the Turkish economy has entered
and gave the following formula as the key to solving the country's problems:
"a complete democracy based on peacefulness, transparency, and
the supremacy of the law."
Ironic declaration
The declaration, dominated by the language of irony, mentioned the IMF-based program implemented by the government under the Prime Ministry of Bulent Ecevit, pointing out that it had failed despite being executed with virtually no obstacle from the opposition for the past two years, continuing: "Just as no serious measures have been taken against the profiteering economic system during these years, the area in which this government has been the most successful is in political approaches which secure the opportunity for this profiteering system to spread."
The declaration said that another and the most important area in which this government has been successful (!) was in that of military expenditures, continuing to say the following: "Funds appropriated openly and covertly for building up arms under defense expenditures in the budget, one of the fundamental reasons for the crisis, have not been brought to the people's attention. Along with the military bill exceeding USD 120 billion for the 15-year climate of violence and the economic losses of which records were not kept, expenditures were made springing the climate of violence that exceed Turkey's total domestic and foreign debt. The crisis may be overcome by giving up on expenses for building up arms and with policies based on industry, tourism, exports, and increasing of production capacity instead of the profiteering economy and savings on public expenditures."
There will be shouts for peace on Newroz
The declaration noted that HADEP would celebrate Newroz
with open-air meetings. The declaration said that the party would celebrate
in all areas in which HADEP is organized, foremost Istanbul, Amed (Diyarbakir),
Adana, Izmir, Mersin, Batman, and Van, and that peace and democracy
would dominate at the March 21 celebrations.
3. - Ozgur Politika - "This is the 'Government
of the Republic of Sirnak'":
JITEM, which was established in Silopi and whose name has been implicated
in a number of incidents of execution, kidnapping, and smuggling since
1993, continues its dark activities in Silopi and the surrounding region.
NEWS CENTER
One by one, the actors and the urban extensions of the "Government
of the Republic of Sirnak" - which has once again come back onto
the agenda with the disappearance of HADEP Silopi District Chairman
Serdar Tanis and District Secretary Ebubekir, who have not been heard
of since last seen at the Silopi District Gendarmerie Command base on
January 25, 2001 - are coming out into the open. It has been learned
that the "government" is being coordinated by Silopi Mayor
Neset Okten, Captain Semih Narlioglu, and Silopi Gendarmerie Commander
Suleyman Can.
The deep state, which began in 1990 but was only uncovered six years later when the Susurluk accident revealed the dark and tangled web of relations, is still busy at work. These gangs are strong enough to kidnap and "lose" people in broad daylight and still continue their activities today. It is no coincident that the center for the "Government of the Republic of Sirnak" is in Silopi, just as there were important factors why Commander Ahmet Cem Ersever established JITEM (the Gendarmerie intelligence agency) in Silopi. The importance of Silopi is increased because it is the place where the Habur customs gate is located, near where the borders of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq all meet. The existence of profit-making organizations BOTAS (the state-owned pipeline concern) and TPIC (petroleum concern) have left Silopi open to every type of dark activity. And one does not need to be an intelligence officer to know about these types of activities in Silopi, because while a mechanism that doesn't even feel the need to act secretly continues to operate, a blind eye is being turned to the people who run this mechanism.
Profitable Habur
The smuggling of heroin, diesel fuel, weapons, and archeological artifacts is being carried out with great organization through Habur border gate with JITEM members with official identity documentation in their hands. The conspiracies of the contras against trucks crossing the border in recent times has also increased. The contras are secretly stashing weapons or artifacts that they have obtained in Iraq in certain trucks, and then having the drivers of those trucks "caught" at Habur. It has not escaped attention that this same method was used concerning the letter that falsely asserts that Deniz and Tanis are in the hands of the PKK and which was supposedly "caught" at Habur.
The members of this team have for many years secured great profit from the USD 2-billion that turns about Silopi per year because of their "superior service." Vehicles which operate through Habur, the number of which varies between 45,000 and 50,000, are now only making one trip to Iraq every five or six months because of new regulations implemented by JITEM and are forced to deliver the diesel fuel they buy there to TPIC. Certain truck drivers selected by this team, however, are allowed to make as many trips as they like and are able to sell the fuel that they buy cheap in Iraq at a high price on the Turkish market and without paying taxes.
The center is BOTAS
Information received calls attention that BOTAS is the center of the JITEM inside Silopi's borders while predicting that the illegal gang in question, which has given Sirnak a different status and established a 'republic' here, could engage in various acts of provocation in order to protect its profits. The strategic importance of BOTAS is highlighted in the "protection" of this triangle in which the borders of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria all meet.
Head hunting
The team which comprises the Silopi gang has a very dark history. This team, which has signed its name to hundreds of murders, is responsible for the fate of 60 people who have disappeared from Silopi district center and the surrounding villages alone in past years. Captain Semih Narlioglu and his team, which have captured people crossing the border illegally, riddled them with bullets, and then told the press, "We killed some PKK members," are able to freely cross through Habur gate and carry out murders on the other side of the border. This team has had the full support of Habur Customs Chief Director Ali Balkan Metel since 1992. In order to intimidate the few border officials who have opposed these free crossings, one official was executed at the Customs Lodgings right across from the Silopi District Gendarmerie base. Another illustration of the "talents" of this team was the capture of Mehmet Tan (Pala Mehmet), who had escaped to Zaxo when he was being sought by police. After Tan was captured, he was beheaded and then brought to Turkey.
They are being protected
In the post-1990 period, Silopi Mayor Levent Taysun and
four of his siblings were tortured by special team members on the order
of top-level military official Mete Sayar, who was stationed in Sirnak.
Taysun, who was paralyzed because of the torture he experienced, later
died. Another action of this special team was the abduction in broad
daylight and in front of the eyes of his cotton workers of Suleyman
Soysal, who lived in the Ozgen village of Silopi and had a large extended
family throughout Sirnak. Soysal, too, was killed. The team, whose signature
has been put to this and dozens of similar disappearances and executions,
is being protected currently by Silopi Mayor Neset Okten.
4. - AP - "Turkey to restructure state banks
to rescue economy":
ANKARA
Turkey announced plans Tuesday to reform its troubled banking sector
amid fears the government was not doing enough to deal with an economic
crisis.
Three state-run banks, which have run up losses widely estimated at
$20 billion, will be united under a single independent board, said Faruk
Bal, the minister responsible for one of them, Emlakbank. The board
will include directors from all three banks, he said.
Banking reform is a key area of the new program now under discussion
by Turkish ministers and officials. Economy Minister Kemal Dervis promised
Tuesday that the new program would be ready soon, but declined to give
a date.
"We are still discussing various proposals and we want to announce
the program as a whole when it is finished. I ask you to be patient,"
he said.
Turkey's economy has been in tatters since the government abandoned
currency exchange rate controls last month. The lira has lost a quarter
of its value against the dollar, sparking price hikes. Some companies
have begun laying off staff.
Bal's statement comforted a stock market which fell 9 percent Monday
and another 6 percent early Tuesday, amid concerns that ministers had
failed to make a clear statement on the new program.
Shares recovered somewhat Tuesday afternoon, and the Istanbul Stock
Exchange's IMKB 100 index closed at 8,484 points, down 1.9 percent for
the day but up some 4 percent since noon.
"Bank shares are heavily weighted in the index, and they finished
the day very strongly after the Bal statement," said Gazanfer Seyhan,
a market analyst at Ata Investments.
But some doubt whether uniting the banks under a single board will solve
their problems.
"Such a board is open to political pressure ... this doesn't fit
the need for urgent decisions which the government itself has proclaimed,"
said Erol Katircioglu, a professor of economics at Istanbul's Marmara
University.
Analysts blame Turkey's recent governments for using state banks as
political war-chests, liberally dispensing credit in order to secure
votes and build client networks.
As well as bringing state banks under a single roof, the new program
could give Turkey's banking regulatory board wide powers to close down
money-losing private banks. The government has bailed out 12 troubled
private banks in the past two years.
"Bank deposits will continue to be under the state's guarantee,"
Dervis reassured savers.
A three-year plan, which was backed by $11.5 billion in International
Monetary Fund loans, foresees a year-end inflation figure of 10-12 percent.
Dervis, who held talks with U.S. officials and international money lenders
in Washington last week, said Turkey would seek international financing
for the program once it has taken shape. He did not say how much support
the recovery program would need.
The crisis may force Turkey's military to reconsider a multibillion
dollar project to modernize equipment, the country's top general has
hinted.
"Priorities of certain projects may have to be reviewed,"
Hurriyet newspaper quoted Chief of Staff Gen. Huseyin Kivrikoglu as
saying.
5. - Middle East Nwsline - "Ankara still picks French as defense contractor":
ANKARA
The French might have accused Turkey of genocide. But Turkey's military
still can't resist French cooking.
The result is that Turkey's military has violated its own ban on French companies by awarding one of them a contract to supply food. Military sources said the French firm Sodexho will cook for Turkish officers and soldiers in bases and academies around the country.
The contract is part of an effort by the military to improve the quality of food for conscripts and enlisted men. As part of a pilot project, the military has outsourced food and catering services that were once performed by soldiers.
In January, Turkey banned French firms from competitions for several projects. This included the $7 billion main battle tank coproduction project and the electronic warfare systems for the F-16. Ankara also suspended a contract for the supply of a military satellite by the French Alcatel firm.
Ankara's move was in retaliation for a resolution passed
by the French parliament which deemed the death of 1.5 million Armenians
in Turkey during World War I as genocide.
6. - Turkish Daily News - "National Program nearly
ready":
Cem : I believe the National Program will be discussed at the Cabinet
next week and will be ready to submitted to the EU in 10 days
ANKARA
Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said that Turkey's National Program
envisaging necessary reforms to become a full member of the European
Union would be ready within 10 days.
"I believe the National Program will be discussed at the Cabinet
next week and will be ready to submitted to the EU in 10 days,"
Cem said in a Tv program on Monday.
Turkey has repeatedly delayed the presentation of the program apparently
due to disagreements within the three-party governing coalition. The
program will set a timetable for the political, economic, and legal
reforms Turkey must undertake for EU membership.
The far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is staunchly opposed
to granting any cultural rights to Kurds, to abolishing the death penalty
and education and broadcasting in Kurdish which are EU demands.
7. - Turkish Daily News - "Economic crisis forces
Turkish Army to cut its purchase":
TSK is prompted to become more sensitive to the rational use of economic
resources and Kivrikoglu states that they may scrap TSK's plans for
arm purchases
ANKARA
The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) took an important step towards contributing
to the efforts to overcome economic crisis when it stated that it may
cut its multi-billion dollar military purchases.
"The Turkish military may scrap its plans for arms purchases after
four weeks of economic devastation," Turkish Chief of General Staff
Huseyin Kivrikoglu told reporters at the dinner given in honor of Azerbaijan's
President Haydar Aliyev at the Presidential Palace.
The devastating Aug. 17 earthquake in 1999, which dealt a serious blow
to the economy, and then two serious economic crisis -- in November
2000 and in February 2001 -- has prompted the army to become more sensitive
to the rational use of economic resources while maintaining its determination
not to allow any weaknesses in the strength of the TSK.
Turkey, which has the second biggest army in NATO after the United States,
planned to spend billions of dollars on attack helicopters and tanks
despite a three-year IMF-backed disinflation program.
But the government is now working to cut spending, including military
expenditures, as part of a plan to stabilize the economy.
"The Turkish lira has lost 30 percent of its value. The priorities
of some projects will be re-evaluated," Kivrikoglu said.
The country's financial crisis, ignited by a row between Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer over corruption, disrupted
the economic restructuring program and forced Ankara to float the lira
on Feb. 22.
Deadlines for some defense tenders could be extended, Kivrikoglu said
without elaborating. Defense ministry and military officials were not
immediately available for comment.
The military's plans to spend about $11.2 billion on 145 attack helicopters
and 1,000 tanks were criticized for having the potential to upset economic
balance. But army officials denied such a possibility, saying that spending
would be phased over the years until 2013.
The proportion of the defense budget to gross national product (GNP),
meanwhile, rose slightly to 3.3 percent from 3 percent last year. The
Turkish Defense Industries Undersecretariat has a separate budget of
about $1.5 billion per year.
8. - Anadolu Agency - "U.S. Congress members urge
Bush to help Turkey overcome crisis":
WASHINGTON
Twenty-five members of the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress
have written a letter to President George Bush and urged him to support
Turkey to overcome its economic troubles.
The letter said Turkey which has been a friend and a key ally to the
United States for many years is trying to implement its reform program
with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Bank and its economic importance keeps growing for the United States.
The congressmen stated that they believed the United States should back
Turkey's efforts to pull itself out of the economic chaos and express
its support.
Democratic party member Tom Lantos and Republican Dan Burton, who had
took sides with Ankara when the U.S. Congress debated the so-called
Armenian genocide last year, are the the first ones who signed the letter.
After considering Turkey's key role in the Middle East and assessing
the possible negative consequences of resolution on Turkish-U.S. relations,
the U.S. Congress had later withdrawn the resolution which proposed
the official recognition of the so-called genocide allegedly committed
by Turks against Armenians in 1915.
The parliamentarians also pointed out that Bush's phone call to Prime
Minister Bulent Ecevit and the message released by Secretary of Treasury
Paul O'Neill were positive indications.