From: senel@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Hakan)
Subject: Haberler / News  (forwarding)
Originator: senel@irlsp
Organization: Takanumi University of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 14:56:48 GMT


ARMENIAN UNITS BEGIN OFFENSIVE IN KARABAKH, SIX VILLAGES
REPORTED CAPTURED
    YEREVAN (SEPT. 5) - Armenian forces have regained
control six villages in the Askeran region of Nagorny
Karabakh which were occupied by the Azerbaijani army, ITAR-
TASS news agency reported Saturday.
    The villages were regained in heavy fighting over the
past 24 hours, the agency said. Nine Armenian soldiers were
killed and 21 wounded.
    Fire spots at the military bases of Gyulanlu and Abdala
had been suppressed. In the course of the counter-attack,
Armenianh units destroyed two tanks and three infantry
armoured carriers, and siezed a ''considerable amount'' of
artillery and rifles, ITAR-TASS said.
    Armenian forces had shot down an Azerbaijani fighter
plane over Stepanakert Friday evening.
    No considerable violations of the ceasefire agreement
were reported in the Armenian regions bordering on
Azerbaijan.
    Interfax news agency reported that Azerbaijani forces
shelled the Armenian city of of Kapan Saturday in violation
of a ceasefire agreement. Azerbaijani forces kept an
Armenian military convoy from bringing supplies to Nagorny
Karabakh through the Latshin corridor.

BELGRADE CLAIMS 1,500 MUJAHEDIN "MERCENARIES" FIGHTING SERBS
IN BOSNIA
    BELGRADE (SEPT. 5) - At least 1,500 Moslem "mercenaries"
from Turkey, Afghanistan and Arab countries are already
fighting the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Belgrade news
agency Tanjug claimed Saturday.
    There have been widespread reports of "mujahedin"
joining the Bosnia Moslems in their civil war. Saturday's
Serbian total of outsiders is even higher than the 1,300
estimated by the Turkish newspaper Milliyet in a report on
August 30.
    Tanjug claimed there were also many Kurds in the ranks
of the "mujahedin", whose ranks had "swelled" since last
week's London conference on Yugoslavia.

PKK GUERILLAS CLASH WITH TURKISH FORCES, 26 REPORTEDLY
KILLED
    ANKARA (SEPT. 5) - Clashes between Turkish forces and
guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
plus a series of PKK attacks claimed at least 26 lives
Saturday.
    Turkish authorities said 18 PKK fighters were killed and
four Turkish soldiers wounded in Aradahan Province.
    Another 100 PKK guerrillas were said to have stopped a
number of cars and buses along the road between Bingol and
Genc in eastern Anatolia, killing seven motorists and
abducting two.
    In Dogubeyazit, one Kurd was killed in a fire-fight.

KURDISH SEPARATISTS GUERRILLAS AMBUSH TRAIN IN EASTERN
TURKISH TOWN OF GECIT
    ANKARA (SEPT. 8) - Kurdish separatist guerrillas
ambushed a train at a station in the eastern Turkish town of
Gecit, killing one soldier and abducting another, local
officials said on Tuesday.
    During Monday night's attack, the Kurdish Workers Party
rebels also blocked a road running parallel to the railway
line and robbed around 250 motorists of cash and valuables,
the officials said.
    The guerrillas set two trucks alight and fired into the
air before escaping, said the governor of Erzincan province,
Recep Yazicioglu.

MORE DIE AS STRIFE CONTINUES IN REPUBLICS IN THE CAUCASUS
    MOSCOW (SEPT. 8) - Fighting continued Tuesday in the
strife-torn republics in the Caucasus, while a new president
took office in Tajikistan, replacing ousted President
Rakhmon Nabiyev.
    Clashes in the breakaway region of Abkhazia went on
despite a truce which was to have gone into effect from
September 5.
    Four Georgian national guardsmen were killed and 18 were
injured in an Abkhazian attack near the town of Gagra early
Tuesday, Georgian officials said in Tbilisi.
    Interfax news agency said some 3,500 volunteers from the
Confederation of Caucasian Mountain Nations supported
Abkhazia.
    Russian members of a tripartite peace commission flew to
the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi on Tuesday for talks with
members of the Georgian state council on the Abkhazia issue.
    Meanwhile, at least four people were killed and 16 were
injured in fighting overnight in the disputed Armenian
enclave of Nagorny Karabakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani
forces.
    Azerbaijani forces had attacked villages in Martuni,
Gadrut and Askeran with tanks, missiles and artillery, the
parliament of the enclave said.
    Skirmishes were reported between rival gangs in the
southern Kurgan Tyube district of Tajikistan Tuesday, the
Russian newspaper Isvestiya said.
    ''Who is shooting at whom and why is is utterly
unintelligible,'' an Izvestiya correspondent wrote. He said
dead bodies had been littering the capital, also called
Kurgan Tyube, for days as it was not safe to clear them away
due to snipers.
    In the Tajik capital Dushanbe, parliamentary leader
Akbarsho Iskandarov assumed the post of president Monday
night, only hours after President Rakhmon Nabiyev was forced
to resign.
    Agreement on Iskandarov's caretaker appointment was
reached in the capital Dushanbe between the parliamentary
presidium and the government, sources told the German Press
Agency dpa Tuesday.
    Nabiyev had resurfaced Monday after a week's absence.
The president, who was elected last Novemeber, had fled
after angry opposition demonstrators raided the government
palace in Dushanbe a week ago. He was detained at Dushanbe
airport Monday.
    Government sources said Nabiyev was en route to
Chodshent, the capital of Leninabad district in the north of
the country. He has many supporters in the area.

    PRESS INSTITUTE EXPRESSES ITS CONCERN OVER JOURNALISTS'
DEATHS IN TURKEY
    LONDON (SEPT. 8) - The International Press Institute
(IPI) expressed Tuesday its grave concern at the violent
deaths of eight journalists in Turkey during the past few
months.
    In a statement released in London, the IPI said it hoped
that the anguish expressed by Prime Minister Suleyman
Demirel over the killings ''will be matched by a
determination to bring the perpetrators of these crimes of
violence to justice''.
    It said that if it was alleged that the journalists were
participating in terrorist operations in the southeast of
the country ''then the onus to prove this is clearly on
those making the allegation''.
    The IPI criticised that authorities were still enforcing
a ''discredited'' press law although new legislation had
already been approved by the country's Press Council.
    The IPI represents leading publishers and journalists
from many parts of the world.

    MISSIONS FROM CIS STATES TO RECEIVE LAND AND HOUSING IN
RUSSIA
    MOSCOW (SEPT. 8) - MISSIONS, CULTURAL CENTRES, TRADING
HOUSES AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS OF AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA,
BELARUS, GEORGIA, KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN, LITHUANIA,
MOLDOVA, TURKMENISTAN, UKRAINE AND ESTONIA WILL SOON BE
HOUSED IN MOSCOW.
    THE MOSCOW PREMIER ISSUED INSTRUCTIONS TO ALLOCATE THEM
PLOTS OF LAND, PREMISES FOR OFFICES AND FLATS. BESIDES,
GOVERNMENT AND COMMERCIAL ORGANISATIONS FROM THESE REPUBLICS
WILL BE GRANTED PRIORITY OPPORTUNITIES TO PARTICIPATE IN THE
PRIVITISATION OF TRADING AND PUBLIC CATERING ESTABLISHMENTS
HOTELS, WAREHOUSES AND OTHER PREMISES UNDER INTERGOVERNMENT
AGREEMENTS ON COOPERATION SIGNED RECENTLY IN MOSCOW.
    FOR INSTANCE, THE MOSCOW ADMINISTRATION WILL HELP THE
AZERI MISSION IN OBTAINING LIVING QUARTERS AND PREMISES FOR
A REPUBLICAN BUSINESS CENTRE. THE BUILDING OF THE KAZAKHSTAN
CINEMA AND THE ADJACENT LAND WILL BE USED FOR KAZAKHSTAN'S
BUSINESS CENTRE.
    A UKRAINIAN CULTURAL CENTRE WILL OPEN IN THE ARBAT
STREET, AND ESTONIA'S SIMILAR ESTABLISHMENT WILL BE HOUSED
IN THE SEMASHKO STREET.
    IN TURN, MOSCOW MISSIONS WILL RECEIVE ADEQUATE PREMISES
AND FLATS IN THE ABOVE COUNTRIES.

    U.S. F-16 FIGHTER CRASHES IN SOUTHEASTERN TURKEY AS
PILOT EJECTS SAFELY
    ANKARA (SEPT. 8) - A U.S. F-16 JET FIGHTER CRASHED TODAY
IN SOUTHEASTERN TURKEY EN ROUTE TO NORTHERN IRAQ ON A PATROL
MISSION, THE SEMI-OFFICIAL ANATOLIA NEWS AGENCY REPORTED.
    THE AMERICAN PILOT, IDENTIFIED AS DON SNEL BROVE, BAILED
OUT AFTER HIS PLANE BROKE DOWN BECAUSE OF AN UNIDENTIFIED
TECHNICAL TROUBLE LE AT 9.20 P.M. (0620 GMT). HE  PARACHUTED
TO SAFETY WITHOUT INJURY, THE REPORTS SAID.
    THE REPORTS DID NOT GIVE FURTHER DETAILS ABOUT THE
TECHNICAL FAULT. THE PLANE CRASHED LATER SOME 50 KILOMETERS
NORTH OF GAZIANTEP NOT FAR FROM THE INCIRLIK AIRBASE WHERE
IT HAD TAKEN OFF ON A PATROL MISSION OVER THE SO-CALLED
"SAFE HAVEN" FOR KURDS SET UP BY THE U.S.-LED ALLIES ABOVE
36 PARALLEL IN NORTHERN IRAQ.
    BROVE BELONGED TO THE U.S. AIR FORCE CONTINGENT
DEPLOYED IN INCIRLIK IN SOUTHEASTERN TURKEY UNDER A MANDATE,
ALLEGEDLY TO PROTECT  THE KURDISH POPULATION IN NORTHERN
IRAQ  FROM AIR AND GROUND ATTACKS BY BAGHDAD.
    A STATEMENT RELEASED FROM THE INCIRLIK AIRBASE SAID THAT
INVESTIGATION INTO THE CAUSE OF THE  ACCIDENT IS UNDERWAY.

    KURDISH REBELS ATTACK CONVOY OF DISCHARGED TURKISH
SOLDIERS
    ANKARA (SEPT. 8) - Kurdish rebels Tuesday attacked a
convoy of ten buses carrying soldiers who were returning
home after completing their military service, the semi-
official Anadolu news agency said.
    At least one bus driver and several soldiers were killed
in the when Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) rebels launched the
attack near the city of Cukurca in the southeastern province
of Hakkari.
    As fighting continued late Monday official casualty
figures were unavailable Anatolia said, adding that
Provincial Governor Cemalettin Sevim refused to talk to
journalists.

    CENTRAL ASIA'S MUSLIM REPUBLICS MEDIATE FEUDS IN
VOLATILE REGION
    ISLAMABAD, (SEPT. 8) - Compared to the ethnic
disintegration that has split Eastern Europe after the
collapse of communism, the former Soviet Muslim republics of
Central Asia have remained relatively calm.
    But all that could change in the volatile region, where
external powers have a vested interest.
    The abduction of government ministers in Tajikistan last
week in another attempt to oust President Rakhmon Nabiyev
has shown that this multi-ethnic region may be only a small
step away from anarchy and disintegration itself.
    However, there is an effort by the former Soviet
republics to mediate conflicts in each other's countries.
    Last week, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev
hosted a tripartite meeting of foreign ministers of Armenia,
Azerbaijan and his home country at Alma Ata to find a
solution to the conflict in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-
Karabakh.
    The conflict over the territory, which is inside
Azerbaijan, is the worst ethnic dispute within the former
Soviet Union and has claimed 2,000 lives in the past four
years.
    The other skirmish, which is causing concern in
neighboring Central Asian republics is the civil war in
Afghanistan. In a statement Aug. 22, the Tajik government
offered to send a "mediation delegation to Afghanistan
provided both parties involved in the conflict agree to it."
    After the fall of the Najibullah regime in Kabul six
months ago, rivalry between Afghanistan's dominant Pashtoon
tribe with minority ethnic groups has turned Kabul into a
battlefield. Thousands have been killed in two months in the
most intense fighting Kabul has ever seen.
    The Pashtoon chieftain of the radical Hezb-e-Islami
group, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is opposed to the government
which is backed by a strong militia group belonging to the
Uzbek minority. The powerful defense minister, Ahmed Shah
Masood, is himself a Tajik.
    "The continuation of bloodshed and infighting in
Afghanistan is a threat to the stability of Tajikistan,"
said a Tajik government statement last week.
    Uzbekistan has also been following developments in Kabul
closely, and President Islam Karimov has called for a speedy
resolution of the Afghan infighting to stop it from
spreading to neighboring Central Asian republics.
    There are unconfirmed reports that the pro-government
Uzbek militia of General Abdur Rashid Dostum in Kabul is
receiving military support from across the border in
Uzbekistan.
    Prominent Central Asian leaders have also been visiting
another major power in the region, Iran. The Turkmenistan
president, the speaker of the Kirgiz parliament and the
Azerbaijan foreign minister were in Tehran in the past
month.
    Iran sponsored Uzbekistan and Kirgiztan as members of
the Non-Aligned Movement at its summit in Jakarta last week.
Iran has set up a consulate in the Uzbek capital and Tehran
is helping Turkmenistan build a gas pipeline to Europe via
Turkey, and a railway connecting the country with Iran.
    The 50 million people of the five Central Asian Muslim
states plus Azerbaijan are rediscovering their common
heritage with their neighbours after 70 years under Moscow.
    "Seventy years of separation of Central Asian Muslims
from Iran was a great historical blunder," said Iranian
President Hashemi Rafsanjani at a meeting with the Kirgiz
parliament speaker, Sherimkhulovic.
    The Central Asians themselves seem keen to avoid being
identified with any ideology, including Islamic dogma. The
new formula is free market and the republics are seeking
foreign investments.
    Kuwaiti and Chinese delegations have been visiting
Tajikistan to identify business ventures. During his visit
to Pakistan last month, the Uzbek president signed three
cooperation agreements on communications, road transport and
banking.
    Five of the Muslim republics recently joined the
Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) which was set up by
Turkey, Iran and Pakistan to promote trade and economic
development.
    Tajikistan has announced it will be opening embassies in
Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, China,
Turkey, the United States and Germany plus a consulate in
New Delhi.
    Culturally, the Central Asians are reinforcing their
linguistic and cultural links with other Muslim nations.
This week, a world Tajik conference is taking place in the
capital Dushanbe which will be attended by 500 participants
from 16 countries.

    SETTLED TURKISH MIGRANTS FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO REMAIN
IN KUCUKARMUTLU
    ISTANBUL, (SEPT. 8) - Kucukarmutlu's 20,000 residents
are being denied all the basic services -- electricity,
water, postal, health and transportation.
    But having -- in many cases -- traveled hundreds of
miles to set up their homes in this peripheral Istanbul
district, they don't intend to leave -- even if government
wants to tear down their houses to set up a military base.
    It was after all they who built this little district on
the northern outskirts of this bustling north-western
Turkish city, erecting 2,000 shanty houses --each one
literally overnight -- over the past six years.
    "We will fight to death but not let our houses be
demolished," said one resident, who has built a "gecekondu"
at the base of one of the scenic hillsides looking out to
the Bosphorus waters.
    A "gecekondu" is a small brick and cement house which is
built at night in order to escape the eyes of the
authorities. More than 550,000 of them have sprung up
throughout Istanbul in the last 40 years and house four
million of Istanbul's 7.2 million population.
    The Ministry of National Defence recently announced its
intention to have the area cleared "as soon as possible" in
order to set up anti-aircraft bases to provide air defence
along Istanbul's sea borders.
    During the Gulf War in February, 1991, the ministry
deployed anti-aircraft batteries in the district and the
local Sariyer Municipality was ordered to block all services
in an effort to deter further settlement in the area.
    "There was pressure coming from above, that is true, and
the services I was allowed to provide for the district was
limited to collecting garbage and to building roads, and I
still go on doing those," says Ihsan Yalcin, the Sariyer
mayor with responsibility for the district.
    Now government wants at least 100 houses in the area
torn down. But Yalcin thinks it is unfair for government to
force the residents from their new found home without
providing alternative accommodation. "Unless new housing is
provided, I will not ruin their houses."
    Indeed, the land is public property encroached upon by
country folk seeking a better life in an urban town.
    But nowadays accommodation is a scarce commodity in the
urban centers, which are bearing the brunt of an increasing
migrant population from the poorer rural districts.
    As many as 900,000 gecekondus have sprung up in the
Turkish capital Ankara, the western port of Izmir, the
southern port of Mersin and the industrial centers of Adana
in the south and Bursa in the north-west.
    The north-western city of Istanbul -- a hub of merchant
activity -- has been expanding at a rate of 100 new dwellers
a day, showing a population growth of 1.5 million between
1985 and 1990.
    According to Yalcin, the problem in Kucukarmutlu is
closely related to the existing general social problems in
Istanbul and Turkey as a whole, particularly high
unemployment.
    "Every year 400,000 new emigrants come to Istanbul to
find a job. And the task of the state is to create jobs and
housing for the people not to demolish their homes,"
concludes Yalcin.
    This massive migration, the pressing demand for urban
land and the illegal erection of houses on state property
has over the years caused a lot of controversy, and at one
point there was a Mafia-like outfit which attempted to take
advantage of the uncertain situation.
    Claiming ownership of the publicly owned lands, the
outfit have made unbelievable profits by selling tiny plots
to newcomers who are prepared to give almost anything to
find a shelter.
    The plots where the residents of Kucukarmutlu have
settled since 1986 were originally owned by Istanbul
Technical University, the Municipality, and the Ministry of
National Defence, but this did not stop the Mafia
organisation from selling the land to the migrants.
    However as tension between the Mafia group and the
migrants reached boiling point, the authorities decided in
1988 to establish local district committees to parcel out
the land free of cost.
    "We have divided the district in four blocks," said
Ahmet, a young Kucukarmutlu resident, who proudly announces
that the committees are well on their way to achieving what
the state has failed to do in for the past 40 years.
    "We have laid the electric network ourselves. We steal
the electricity and the water from the main lines. Now we
are developing our settlement plans and a polyclinic."
    Ahmet is a member of one of the four block committees,
each of which is made up of 12 elected members. The
committees assume both the powers of the municipality and
the state.
    But the committee's work may be all for nought with
government's plans to set up a military base. What also
weighs heavily against the residents are government fears
that the area is harbouring guerrilla groups like the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Dev- Sol.
    A number of police troops have been deployed in the
region over the last three months, with two of the very
primary schools which the committees have set up, being
turned into police outposts.
    According to Istanbul Governor Hayri Kozakcioglu: "The
gecekondu areas which have developed irregularly and rapidly
surrounded Istanbul are very suitable mediums for terrorism.
    "The immigrants who come from other parts of Turkey are
forming tightly knitted collective groupings and prevent the
others from entering into their domain which as a result
restrain the security and information efforts."
    Oya Gokbayrak, 30, another member of the committee,
admits that the district is coming under increasing pressure
because government believes it is a hideout for
"terrorists".
    "The armoured cars are patrolling. The youngsters are
searched on the streets and police threaten to shoot us if
we go out after nine o'clock in the evening " complained
Gokbayrak.
    Nejdet Menzir the Istanbul Chief of Police justifies
these measures by claiming that "underground organisations"
are trying to build a mass base in the area.
    The residents however deny the existence of terrorists
in the district. "We have come here to find a shelter. There
is no terrorism here. We are fed up with police terrorism,"
said an elderly woman of 60.
    "Kucukarmutlu has the most wonderful scene looking at
Bosphorus, and the rich do not want us to remain here. They
believe that not us but they deserve to enjoy that view,"
she adds.
    Meanwhile, the children are concerned about what will
happen when the schools reopen on September 15. Eylem, 11,
who hopes to graduate from primary school this coming year
says: "The policemen are living in our school. I am
extremely scared. I don't know if we will be taught by the
policemen."

Xref: sparky soc.culture.turkish:10007 talk.politics.mideast:20100 talk.politics.soviet:7950 soc.culture.greek:8921 soc.culture.europe:8395 soc.history:8308