From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: haberler / news--Part 3
Date: 22 Aug 92 03:23:00 GMT
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BITNET@forsythe.Stanford.EDU>


 Cizre lies along the road where Turkey and Iraq 
 join at Habur. In the past, up to 1,500 crossings 
 took place each day. "When drivers stop working, 
 life comes to a standstill in the region. This 
 holds true for both sides," says Ibrahim Acar, the 
 chairperson of the Cizre Drivers Association.
 Acar states that the 300 drivers' association 
 members have simply parked their vehicles which 
 for all intents and purposes, has put the whole 
 community on hold.
 Beer has always been one of the hottest selling 
 items in Kurdistan, but as one Cizre merchant 
 explained: "now I've got 75,000 bottles on my 
 hands with nothing to do with them."
 
   CLASH BETWEEN TROOPS, KURDISH REBELS IN 
 SIRNAK ENTERS THIRD DAY
 ANKARA, TURKEY (AUG. 20) - The battle 
 between security forces and Kurdish separatist 
 guerrillas entered its third day Thursday in the 
 southeastern town of Sirnak, but Interior Minister 
 Ismet Sezgin said the situation was under control.
 Mehmet Alinak, a parliamentary deputy from 
 Sirnak, said the sound of gunfire and mortar 
 shelling could still be heard in the town when he 
 called relatives there early Thursday and ''the 
 death toll is very high, '' but he was unable to 
 provide figures immediately.
 Alinak, who heads the pro-Kurdish Free Toil 
 Party, told the independent National Press Agency 
 in Ankara that in four districts of Sirnak ''there 
 was not a single house that was not smashed'' and 
 casualties could be in the hundreds.
 Wednesday, a military source said at least 80 
 people were killed in the fighting and that 
 commando units moved into Sirnak to attack and 
 smash 22 houses which the rebels were using to 
 fire on troops.
 But Sezgin said that at 3.15 p.m. he called 
 Sirnak and was told that all shooting and shelling 
 had stopped at 1.45 p.m. He told journalists at a 
 press conference that the situation in the town 
 was under control.
 Gunmen from the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, 
 launched an attack on Sirnak late Tuesday, using 
 mortar and rocket fire to smash a power house, 
 plunging the town into darkness.
 The rebels attacked the headquarters of an army 
 brigade and that of the gendarmerie, or 
 paramilitary rural police, killing one policeman 
 and three soldiers, and injuring 13 troops.
 Regional Gov. Ural Erkan said the rebels used 
 heavy mortars and blew off the roof of the 
 gendarmerie building in the initial attack.
 The rebels infiltrated the town during an all-
 night battle, and took up positions there against 
 the troops. Ernak imposed curfew on Sirnak at 6 
 a.m. Wednesday, and the troops surrounded the town 
 before stepping up their attack on the 
 separatists.
 Armored vehicles moved into the streets to 
 flush out the rebels and commando units were sent 
 in to attack guerrilla positions.
 The battle was said to be the biggest single 
 clash between government troops and Kurdish 
 separatists since the PKK emerged in 1984. The 
 rebels have sworn to set up an independent state 
 in southeastern Turkey for the country's estimated 
 10 million Kurds.
 Sirnak was the scene of a similar battle 
 between the PKK and the security forces in March, 
 when clashes broke out between police and Kurdish 
 demonstrators in several towns in the area during 
 celebrations for Now Ruz, the traditional Kurdish 
 New Year festival.
 
   TURKEY REPORTEDLY EXPLORING DIFFERENT OPTIONS 
 FOR EUROPE-ASIA RAIL LINK
 ANKARA (AUG. 20) - 
 Turkey's biggest engineering design project, a 
 super-train link between Asia and Europe, is going 
 back to the drawing board, according to Reuters 
 news agency. The agency reported today that the 
 government wants to study a variety of options - a 
 suspension bridge, a tunnel or a sea-bed tube. 
 Turkey invited tenders at the beginning of this 
 month for a 430 km two-track railway line between 
 Ankara and Istanbul, cutting the journey time from 
 eight hours to two and a half. This, plus the sea 
 link would cost an estimated $4.2 billion and take 
 six years to build. Originally the closing date 
 for designs was September 15, but this is now to 
 be extended for new ideas.
 
   TURKEY CALLS FOR U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY 
 MEETING ON PLIGHT OF BOSNIAN MOSLEMS
 NEW YORK (AUG. 20) - Turkey called Thursday 
 for a U.N. General Assembly meeting to discuss the 
 plight of Moslems in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
 The request was contained in a letter to 
 Secretary General Butros Ghali in response to 
 concerns expressed earlier this week by the 47 
 countries of the Islamic Conference Organisation.
 Officially, the letter cited "violation of the 
 integrity and sovereignty" of a U.N. member 
 nation. But privately, Turkish officials were said 
 to be outraged at reports of Serbian atrocities 
 against Moslems in Bosnia.
 Turkey proposed holding the meeting during the 
 London Yugoslavia Conference August 26-28.
 
   HUNDREDS OF CIVILIANS REPORTED DEAD AFTER 
 KURDISH ATTACK ON ANATOLIAN TOWN
 ANKARA (AUG. 21) - Hundreds of civilians 
 were killed in Anatolian town of Sirnak after 
 security forces repulsed a Kurdish rebel attack, 
 Turkish newspapers reported Friday  The 
 liberal Istanbul daily Cumhuriyet quoted a 
 firefighter who said that eight to ten persons 
 died in each house set ablaze during the fighting. 
 Between 60 and 80 homes were razed, said the 
 report.
 Regional governor Unal Erkan said Thursday that 
 three soldiers, a policeman and a woman and child 
 were killed and 15 members of the security forces 
 injured in the fighting.
 More than 100 suspected guerrillas of the 
 Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) were arrested in the 
 town of 35,000 inhabitants.
 Sirnak deputy Selim Sadak told the Kurdish 
 newspaper Ozgur Gundem that 500 civilians were 
 killed in the fighting.
 Only two journalists from the Turkish daily 
 Hurriyet have been allowed to travel to Sirnak, 
 several dozen journalists were stopped in Cizre 
 from boarding a ferry to Sirnak.
 The Hurriyet reporters said that a total of 150 
 mortar shells had hit targets in the town. 
 Hundreds of civilians were interrogated at a local 
 football stadium and more than 200 arrested, they 
 added.
 Security forces maintained strict controls on 
 people entering and leaving the town. Eyewitnesses 
 reported many burning buildings.
 Electricity and telephone links cut off during 
 the fighting were restored Thursday.
 
   TURKISH DEPUTY PREMIER ERDAL INONU FLIES TO 
 SIRNAK AFTER KURDISH REBELS ESCAPE
 ANKARA, TURKEY (AUG. 21) - Deputy Prime 
 Minister Erdal Inonu flew to the southeastern 
 Turkish town of Sirnak for an on-the-spot inquiry 
 after Kurdish rebels slipped through an army net 
 and escaped during a battle, officials said 
 Friday.
 Interior Minister Ismet Sezgin, who accompanied 
 Inonu to Sirnak, told reporters earlier an 
 estimated 600 to 700 guerrillas from the outlawed 
 Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, took part in an 
 intensive battle with security forces in the town 
 this week.
 Reports in the Turkish press said the number 
 was believed to be closer to 1,000, making it the 
 biggest single PKK attack on any target since the 
 rebels vowed in 1984 to fight to set up an 
 independent Kurdish state in the region.
 Inonu, who heads the Social Democratic Popular 
 Party, flew to Diyarbakir Friday, a day after the 
 shooting in Sirnak ended. He was scheduled to take 
 a helicopter to the scene of the fighting.
 Besides Sezgin, he was accompanied by State 
 Minister Mehmt Kahraman, responsible for affairs 
 related to human rights in Turkey.
 The shooting in Sirnak died down in the early 
 afternoon Thursday, but the bulk of the PKK force 
 apparently slipped through the military net around 
 the town during the battle, which began late 
 Tuesday.
 Sezgin said a house-to-house search was 
 launched after the fighting ended, but bodies of 
 rebels were not found, apparently because the PKK 
 guerrillas took the corpses with them when they 
 slipped out.
 It was not immediately clear how the rebels 
 managed to slip through the net around the town.
 Sezgin said four civilians died in the 
 fighting, including at least one woman and one 
 child. Earlier, a military source said at least 80 
 rebels were estimated to have died by the second 
 day of the fighting, but there was no immediate 
 confirmation.
 The military source said commando units were 
 sent into the town during the battle, and 
 flattened 22 houses from which the guerrillas were 
 firing on the security forces.
 Mehmet Alinak, a parliamentary deputy from 
 Sirnak, said not a single house was left standing 
 in four districts of the town after the battle.
 Armored vehicles entered the town Wednesday as 
 the fighting raged. The rebels were armed with 
 rockets and heavy mortars, which they used in the 
 initial attack on the headquarters of an army 
 brigade and the gendarmerie, or paramilitary rural 
 police.
 Regional Gov. Ural Erkan said the guerrillas 
 blew off the roof of the gendarmerie building in 
 the initial attack, killing one policeman and 
 three soldiers. Another 13 soldiers were wounded.
 There were no further reports of military or 
 police casualties in the two-day battle.
 The government of Prime Minister Sulayman 
 Demirel came under criticism in the press for what 
 was described as poor intelligence in Sirnak, 
 about 560 miles southeast of Ankara and close to 
 the Iraqi border.
 Sezgin admitted to reporters that intelligence 
 services in the area were poor.
 Sirnak was the scene of another big battle 
 between PKK guerrillas and security forces in 
 March when police clashed with demonstrators in 
 several towns in the region during celebrations to 
 mark Now Ruz, the traditional Kurdish New Year.
 The PKK, a Marxist-Leninist group, is reported 
 to have received a large quantity of arms and 
 ammunition from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein 
 last year, after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War. 
 The group stepped up its attacks in Turkey after 
 receiving the weapons.
 
   CONFLICT IN BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA WIDENS GULF 
 BETWEEN WEST AND ISLAMIC NATIONS
 LARNACA (AUG. 21) - Parallel conflicts in 
 Bosnia-Hercegovina and a confrontation between a 
 United States led coalition and Iraq threaten to 
 significantly widen the gap between the West and 
 Islamic nations, according to Arabic and Western 
 diplomats.
 Islamic nations, led by Iran but including 
 moderates like Turkey, increasingly portray the 
 conflict in former Yugoslavia as one in which 
 Serbian Christians are waging a war of genocide 
 against their Muslim brethren.
 As the U.S. threatens renewed violence to force 
 Iraq to comply with United Nations Security 
 Council resolutions, Muslims from countries as 
 disparate as Iran, Turkey Saudi Arabia and Egypt 
 contrast this with the West's slow and hesitant 
 response to clear and continued attacks on the 
 Muslims of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
 In Iran newspapers regularly charge that a 
 desire to see Islam defeated drives Western policy 
 in former Yugoslavia, while senior religious 
 leader Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi recently told a 
 Teheran prayer gathering that the West does not 
 wish to see Islam "restored to its original 
 authority."
 But diplomats and analysts say Iranian 
 statements are not simply coming from the radical 
 Islamic fringe but are echoed in the corridors of 
 power of Islamic nations closer to the West.
 "Emotions are running high," said an Arab 
 ambassador in Nicosia. The sense of Western and 
 U.S. policy being governed by fear of Islam is 
 gaining increasing currency, added a Western 
 diplomat.
 Speaking in an interview with a Dutch 
 newspaper, Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin 
 this week warned that Western failure to act in 
 former Yugoslavia was turning the crisis in 
 Bosnia-Hercegovina into a Christian-Muslim 
 conflict.
 "It reinforces the perception that all the west 
 cares about are its fellow Christians. This is 
 true even for a secular Muslim state like Turkey," 
 said a Western diplomat.
 Preparations for the declaration of the so-
 called "no fly zone" over Shi'ite territories are 
 well under way. The U.S. moved four B-52 bombers 
 and two Air Warning and Control Systems (AWACs) 
 planes to a British air base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, 
 yesterday.
 As many as 50 British air force planes have 
 been readied for operation at the base, said 
 Cypriot reports. French aircraft are shortly 
 expected, with technical support from the U.S. air 
 base at Frankfurt's Rhein Main being flown in at 
 the same time.
 Arab diplomats note that compared to its 
 continuing air operations to protect Christian 
 Kurds in the north of Iraq, begun in the aftermath 
 of the 1990 Gulf war; the West has only recently 
 begun speaking about Iraqi attacks on Shi'ites in 
 the south, and is only now and for its own 
 purposes turning words into action.
 However Islamic nations - despite Iranian moves 
 to provide Bosnian Muslims with humanitarian aid 
 and calls for Muslim military intervention - have 
 so far been content with calling on the West to 
 defend their Muslim brethren, warning about the 
 consequences of a Western failure to do so.
 While those consequences may not be immediate 
 and dramatic, the diplomats and analysts say they 
 significantly strengthen an increasingly anti-
 Western sentiment.
 "Muslims are being convinced that the West 
 views them as second class citizens who deserve to 
 be helped and protected only when it serves 
 Western interests," says an Arab political 
 analyst.
 "Western failure to push for democracy in the 
 Arab world because of the close ties between the 
 West and undemocratic Arab rulers only serves to 
 drive the point home. How can you then be 
 surprised that increasingly impoverished masses 
 reject concepts of democracy in favor of Muslim 
 fundamentalism?"
 Yet with the exception of Kuwait and segments 
 of the Saudi leadership, Arab leaders, including 
 those of U.S. Gulf war allies Egypt and Syria, are 
 privately cautioning the West that renewed 
 military attacks against Iraq, designed to weaken 
 the position of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, 
 are likely to strengthen anti-Western Muslim 
 fundamentalists.
 Sources among Iraqi opposition groups abroad 
 fear that the timing of a renewed U.S.-led assault 
 could not be worse. They believe that there is a 
 growing perception across the Middle East that the 
 authority of Saddam Hussein is being steadily 
 weakened under pressure of U.N. sanctions.
 

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Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish