From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: NEWS FROM TRH--PART II
Date: 16 Aug 92 18:33:00 GMT


 
ARMENIA SHELLS AZERBAIJAN'S SETTLEMENTS 
 
BAKU (AUG. 11) - MASS SHELLING OF BORDER SETTLEMENTS OF FIVE 
AZERBAIJAN'S DISTRICTS AND THE NACHICHEVAN AUTONOMOUS 
REPUBLIC FROM THE TERRITORY OF ARMENIA WERE REPORTED ON 
MONDAY NIGHT AND THROUGHOUT TUESDAY MORNING. 
 
EIGHT PEOPLE WERE KILLED, SEVERAL WOUNDED AND HOUSES WERE 
DESTROYED, AZERBAIJAN'S DEFENCE MINISTRY INFORMATION CENTRE 
REPORTED ON TUESDAY. 
 
AZERBAIJAN'S UNITS REBUFFED THE ATTACK OF ARMENIAN 
FORMATIONS ON THE DEFENCE POSITIONS OF THE AZERI ARMY IN THE 
AKSTAFINSKY REGION NEAR THE STATE BORDER. 
 
ARMENIA HAS SUSTAINED HEAVY LOSSES IN MANPOWER AND 
AMMUNITION. 
 
IN THE KEDABEKSK BORDER AREA, UNITS OF AZERBAIJAN'S ARMY 
OCCUPIED STRATEGIC POINTS SITUATED ON AZERBAIJAN'S TERRITORY 
WHICH WERE PREVIOUSLY OCCUPIED BY THE ARMENIAN ARMY, THE 
INFORMATION CENTRE REPORTED. 
 
 
TURKEY WARNS IT WILL "SEEK OTHER WAYS" TO STOP ATTACKS ON 
MUSLIMS IN BOSNIA 
 
ANKARA, TURKEY (AUG. 12) - Turkey warned Wednesday that it 
would seek ''other ways'' to stop attacks on Muslims by 
Serbs in Bosnia-Hercegovina if Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan 
Panic is unable to end the conflict. 
 
Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin told reporters Ankara 
''will request that the aggression (by the Serbs) end,'' 
otherwise ''there are other ways to stop it.'' 
 
Cetin's remarks were seen as a veiled reference to military 
intervention in Bosnia-Hercegovina to end what Ankara calls 
the massacre of Muslims in the former Yugoslav republic. 
 
Turkey earlier submitted a plan to the U.N. Security Council 
calling for military intervention in Bosnia-Hercegovina. 
NATO's military committee was discussing the plan in 
Brussels, officials said. 
 
In Tehran, a senior Iranian cleric called for a joint 
military force to be set up as quickly as possible to assist 
the Muslims of Bosnia- Hercegovina, the Iranian state radio 
said. 
 
Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, who headed an emergency relief team 
to Bosnia-Hercegovina, visited the republic as a 
representative of Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali 
Khamenei. He said the Muslims in Bosnia were urgently in 
need of arms to defend themselves. 
 
Panic told reporters on his arrival at Ankara's Esenboga 
airport that ''Turkey is a leader in the region pursuing 
peace. Thats why I am here. 
 
He said the clashes between Serbs and Bosnians should be 
ended through peaceful dialogue. ''Nothing can be solved by 
the use of arms,'' the Yugoslav prime minister said. 
 
Panic's trip to Ankara came two days after he held talks in 
Athens with Greek Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, who 
told him Greece opposed military intervention in Bosnia-
Herzegovina. 
 
Cetin told reporters: ''Everything leads to military 
intervention... Bloodshed brings bloodshed and conflicts 
bring conflicts. 
 
Panic later met Turkish Prime Minister Sulayman Demirel and 
Cetin at a working lunch. 
 
Turkey reportedly offered to set up a ''safe haven'' for 
Muslims in Bosnia, similar to that set up last year in 
northern Iraq by U.S.-led coalition forces to protect Kurds 
from troops loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. 
 
The Turkish leaders also suggested that detention camps in 
Bosnia- Herzegovina should be taken over by the United 
Nations. 
 
Earlier, reports in the Turkish media said NATO was studying 
three different plans submitted by Turkey, one of which was 
for a permanent NATO naval force in the Mediterranean under 
the command of a Turkish captain. 
 
The force was intended to intervene in the former Yugoslav 
republic to stop the massacre of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs. 
 
The reports, in the Istanbul newspapers Cumhuriyet and 
Milliyet, quoted NATO sources in Brussels as saying one plan 
called for the use of military units of the alliance to 
carry relief aid to the people of Bosnia. 
 
The second plan calls for the use of a NATO naval force to 
strengthen the arms embargo imposed on Serbia and 
Montenegro, which make up the rump Yugoslavia, the reports 
said. 
 
The third plan calls for a lasting cease-fire to be 
established, and for a NATO peace-keeping force to take 
control of the heavy weapons now in the hands of Serb, Croat 
and Muslim militias in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Cumhuriyet and 
Milliyet said. 
 
 
GREEK, TURKISH LEADERS FROM CYPRUS TO DISCUSS MEDITERRANEAN 
ISLAND IN NEW YORK 
 
NEW YORK (AUG. 12) - The leaders of the Greek and Turkish 
communities on Cyprus will meet in New York late Wednesday 
to discuss ways to end the division of their Mediterranean 
island. 
 
Greek Cypriot President Georgios Vassiliou and the president 
of the self-declared Turkish Federated State of Cyprus, Rauf 
Denktash, agreed to meet at United Nations headquarters, the 
U.N. said. 
 
U.N. Secretary-General Butros Ghali began separate talks in 
New York with the two leaders on July 15 and has said he 
would keep meeting with them until a solution was found. 
 
The U.N. and the Cypriot leaders have agreed to keep silent 
on the negotiations. 
 
On July 13, the U.N. Security Council urged the two Cypriot 
parties to be aware of their responsibilities and to work 
for the success of the talks with Ghali. 
 
Greek Cypriot right-wingers staged a coup in Cyprus on July 
15, 1974, prompting Denktash to ask Turkey to protect the 
island's Turkish minority, which represents about 20 per 
cent of the population. 
 
Turkish troops landed in Cyprus five days later and have 
occupied the northern third of the island ever since. U.N. 
peacekeepers are based along the front line. 
 
 
TURKISH GOVERNMENT URGED TO INTERVENE TO PUT OFF GENERAL 
STRIKE 
 
ISTANBUL (AUG. 12) - THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT WAS URGED TODAY 
TO INTERVENE TO PUT OFF AN ONGOING GENERAL STRIKE STAGED BY 
22,000 MUNICIPAL WORKERS IN MAJOR CITIES THAT HAS WIDELY 
AFFECTED NORMAL PUBLIC LIFE. 
 
 FOLLOWING A MEETING OF THE ISTANBUL PROVINCIAL COMMITTEE, 
PROVINCIAL OFFICIALS TOLD REPORTERS THAT A DECISION HAS BEEN 
ADOPTED DURING THE MEETING TO CALL ON THE GOVERNMENT TO 
INTERVENE IN POSTPONING THE STRIKE. 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL WORKERS IN MAJOR CITIES, INCLUDING ISTANBUL, 
ANKARA AND IZMIR, BEGAN THE STRIKE ON JULY 30 TO BACK THEIR 
DEMAND FOR HIGHER WAGES. THEY SAID THAT THE WORK STOPPAGE 
WOULD LAST UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER IF THEIR DEMANDS WERE 
NOT MET. 
 
 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING BETWEEN MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES AND 
LABOR UNIONS REPRESENTING THE STRIKING WORKERS HAS BEEN 
GOING ON SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE STRIKE, BUT NO AGREEMENT 
HAS BEEN REACHED SO FAR. 
 
 THE UNION IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF ANKARA IS DEMANDING THAT 
THE MONTHLY PAY FOR AN INDIVIDUAL WORKER BE INCREASED TO AN 
AVERAGE OF 4.7 MILLION TURKISH LIRAS (ABOUT 670 U.S. 
DOLLARS), BUT THE MUNICIPALITY OFFERED 3.7 MILLION LIRAS 
(ABOUT 530 DOLLARS). 
 
 AS A RESULT OF THE WORK STOPPAGE OVER THE PAST 14 DAYS, 
TONS OF GARBAGE HAVE BEEN PILED UP IN THE CITIES, POSING A 
POTENTIAL THREAT TO THE HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC. 
 
 IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY'S LASTEST CITY, SOME 80,000 TONS OF 
GARBAGE ARE LYING ON THE STREETS YET TO THE COLLECTED. 
 
 A 36-YEAR-OLD WORKER, LUTFU GUNDOGDU, WHO HAS BEEN A 
DRAFTSMAN FOR 13 YEARS, TOLD REPORTERS TODAY THAT THE 
LABOR'S DEMAND FOR HIGHER PAY IS REASONABLE SINCE A LABOR 
CONTRACT HAS NOT BEEN MADE OVER THE PAST 12 YEARS. 
 
 ANOTHER WORKER, ISMAIL TEKIN, SAID HIS MONTHLY SALARY IS 
ONLY 1.36 MILLION LIRAS (194 U.S. DOLLARS), AN AMOUNT HE 
SAID NOT ENOUGH TO SUPPORT HIS FAMILY. 
 
 HEALTH MINISTER YILDIRIM AKTUNA SAID TUESDAY HE WAS AFRAID 
THAT THE STRIKE MIGHT CREATE SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEMS SHOULD 
IT CONTINUE. 
 
 "I WILL TAKE THE ISSUE TO THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS IF I SEE 
AN INCREASE IN THE PROBLEMS OR INCIDENTS," HE SAID. 
 
 ALSO TUESDAY, PRIME MINISTER SULEYMAN DEMIREL SAID THE 
STRIKE COULD NOT BE PUT OFF UNLESS THE TWO SIDES REACH AN 
AGREEMENT WITHIN A FEW DAYS. 
 
 HE SAID THE SITUATION HAS REACHED A "SENSITIVE POINT" AND 
THAT THE GOVERNMENT WOULD NOT ALLOW ANY THREAT TO THE HEALTH 
OF THE PUBLIC. 
 
 "A STRIKE IS A WAY OF SEEKING JUSTICE. WE HAVE BEEN 
FOLLOWING THE MATTER CAREFULLY FOR DAYS IN ORDER NOT TO 
OBSTRUCT THIS RIGHT WHILE ALSO PROTECTING PUBLIC HEALTH," 
SAID THE PRIME MINISTER. 
 
 
YUGOSLAV PREMIER MILAN PANIC CALLS ON TURKEY NOT TO 
INTERVENE IN BOSNIA 
 
ANKARA (AUG. 12) - In talks with officials in Ankara 
Wednesday, the prime minister of rump Yugoslavia, Milan 
Panic, advised Turkey not to intervene militarily in Bosnia-
Herzegovina. 
 
Turkey could play an effective role in achieving peace as a 
negotiator in line with its "historic influence in the 
Balkans", Panic said in Ankara following 90 minutes of talks 
with Turkish Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel. 
 
Demirel stressed Panic's "good intentions" and said he was 
pleased at Panic's pledge to end the war in Bosnia-
Herzegovina and the suffering in that region. 
 
Panic, who arrived in Ankara with Foreign Minister Milivoje 
Maksic and a delegation of international journalists, said 
he was praying "not to have to see Turkish soldiers in 
Yugoslavia". 
 
Panic stressed that rump Yugoslavia, which consists of 
Serbia and Montenegro, had no territorial claims on former 
Yugoslav republics and also sought to recognise Bosnia-
Herzegovina "following a few necessary corrections". 
 
He could also guarantee that Sarajevo airport would be 
opened for the arrival of international aid shipments, Panic 
said. 
 
Panic stressed that his country would do everything to make 
sure that the tragedy of Bosnia-Herzegovina did not repeat 
itself in the autonomous region of Kosovo, where Albanians 
comprise the majority. 
 
Demirel called this "a most important promise". 
 
 
TURKISH GOVERNMENT DECIDES TO SUSPEND GENERAL STRIKE 
 
ISTANBUL (AUG. 12) - THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT DECIDED TODAY TO 
ORDER A SUSPENSION AND POSTPONEMENT OF AN ONGOING GENERAL 
STRIKE STAGED BY TENS OF THOUSANDS OF MUNICIPAL WORKERS, A 
HIGH-RANKING GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL SAID TODAY. 
 
 FOLLOWING AN EXTRAORDINARY MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF 
MINISTERS CHAIRED BY PRIME MINISTER SULEYMAN DEMIREL IN 
ANKARA, AKIN GONEN, SPOKESMAN OF THE GOVERNMENT, TOLD 
REPORTERS THAT THE MEETING "DECIDED THAT THE STRIKE BE 
SUSPENDED FOR 60 DAYS." 
 
 HE SAID THAT THE MEETING DISCUSSED THE DEMANDS TO SUSPEND 
THE STRIKE BY THE ISTANBUL AND ANKARA PROVINCIAL COMMITTEES 
AND THAT "THE STRIKE HAS GONE TO THE EXTENT THAT THREATENS 
NORMAL PUBLIC LIFE AND HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC." 
 
 THE ISTANBUL AND ANKARA PROVINCIAL COMMITTEES TODAY HELD 
SEPARATE MEETINGS TO URGE THE GOVERNMENT TO INTERVENE TO WIN 
A POSTPONEMENT OF THE STRIKE. 
 
ABOUT  22,000  MINICIPAL WORKERS IN MAJOR CITIES, INCLUDING 
ISTANBUL, ANKARA AND IZMIR,  BEGAN THE STRIKE ON JULY 30 TO 
BACK THEIR DEMAND FOR HIGHER WAGES. THEY SAID THAT THE WORK 
STOPPAGE WOULD LAST UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER IF THEIR 
DEMANDS WERE NOT MET. 
 
 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING BETWEEN MUNICIPAL AUTHORITIES AND 
LABOR UNIONS REPRESENTING THE STRIKING WORKERS HAS BEEN 
GOING ON SINCE THE BEGINNING  OF THE STRIKE, BUT NO 
AGREEMENT HAS BEEN REACHED SO FAR. 
 
 THE UNION IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF ANKARA IS DEMANDING THAT 
THE MONTHLY PAY FOR AN INDIVIDUAL WORKER  BE INCREASED TO AN 
AVERAGE OF 4.7 MILLION TURKISH LIRAS (ABOUT 670 U.S. 
DOLLARS), BUT THE MUNICIPALITY OFFERED 3.7 MILLION LIRAS 
(ABOUT 530 DOLLARS) ONLY. 
 
AS A RESULT OF THE WORK STOPPAGE OVER THE PAST 14 DAYS, TONS 
OF GARBAGE HAVE BEEN PILED UP IN THE CITIES, POSING A 
POTENTIAL THREAT TO THE HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC. 
 
 DEMIREL WARNED TUESDAY THAT THE SITUATION HAS REACHED A 
"SENSVIVE POINT" AND THAT THE GOVERNMENT WOULD NOT ALLOW ANY 
THREAT TO THE HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC. 
 
 
TURKEY DECIDES TO BUY ARMS IN RUSSIA 
 
ANKARA (AUG. 13) - TURKEY DECIDED TO PURCHASE 300 MILLION 
DOLLARS WORTH OF ARMS FROM RUSSIA, THE TURKISH MINISTER OF 
THE INTERIOR, ISMET SEZGIN SAID IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE 
"MILLIYET" NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED TODAY. ACCORDING TO HIM, AN 
ENTIRE PACKAGE OF MILITARY AGREEMENTS IS ENVISAGED BETWEEN 
THE TWO COUNTRIES. THE TURKISH SIDE IS EXPECTED PRIMARILY TO 
BUY HELICOPTERS AND ARMOURED TROOP CARRIERS FROM RUSSIA. 
 
RUSSIA HAS ALLEGEDLY CONSENTED TO SUPPLY ARMS TO TURKEY, 
PROVIDED THEY ARE NOT TRANSFERRED TO A THIRD PARTY. 
 
 
UZBEKISTAN PRESIDENT ISLAM KARIMOV IN PAKISTAN ON THREE-DAY 
OFFICIAL VISIT 
 
ISLAMABAD (AUG. 13) - PRESIDENT OF UZBEKISTAN ISLAM KARIMOV 
ARRIVED HERE TODAY ON A THREE-DAY OFFICIAL VISIT TO 
PAKISTAN. 
 
ON ARRIVAL AT THE AIRPORT, THE UZBEK PRESIDENT WAS GREETED 
BY PAKISTAN PRESIDENT GHULAM ISHAQ KHAN, PRIME MINISTER 
NAWAZ SHARIF, SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AYUB KHAN, 
DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE JEHAN PANEZAI. 
 
ISLAM KARIMOV WILL TAKE PART IN THE CELEBRATION ON THE 
OCCASION OF THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF 
PAKISTAN AS A SPECIAL GUEST. 
 
DURING HIS STAY IN PAKISTAN, HE IS EXPECTED TO MEET WITH 
PRESIDENT ISHAQ KHAN AND PRIME MINISTER NAWAZ SHARIF AND 
HOLD TALKS ON MATTERS OF MUTUAL INTEREST. 
 
THE TWO COUNTRIES ARE ALSO EXPECTED TO SIGN FOUR PROTOCOLS 
ON PROVISION OF A 50-MILLION U.S. DOLLAR CREDIT BY PAKISTAN 
TO UZBEKISTAN, FORMAL ESTABLISHMENT OF BILATERAL TIES AND 
COOPERATION ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE. 
 
THE UZBEK PRESIDENT IS ACCOMPANIED BY A 36-MEMBER ENTOURAGE 
INCLUDING HIS FOREIGN MINISTER ABDUR RAZZAQ AND THREE 
GOVERNORS OF HIS COUNTRY. 
 
PAKISTAN PRIME MINISTER NAWAZ SHARIF VISITED UZBEKISTAN LAST 
JUNE. 
 
 
TURKISH POLICE CLASH WITH SUSPECTED TERRORISTS, SHOOT FIVE 
DEAD 
 
ANKARA, TURKEY (AUG. 13) - Police clashed with suspected 
terrorists in two separate incidents in downtown Ankara 
Thursday, shooting dead five, including two women, the 
capital's police chief said. 
 
There was no immediate word on the identity of the armed 
groups, but they were believed to be members of the outlawed 
organization Dev-Sol, or Revolutionary Left, which has been 
responsible for a series of assassinations and other 
terrorist attacks this year. 
 
Ankara Police Chief Mehmet Canseven said the clashes 
occurred after a tipoff that armed groups were using houses 
in two separate districts of the capital as hideouts. 
 
In one incident, police surrounded a house in the Maltepe 
district and asked the occupants to come out. They were met 
with gunfire instead, and in the ensuing clash two people, 
including one woman, were shot dead, Canseven said. 
 
The second incident occurred in the Esat district, close to 
Maltepe. In an almost identical scenario, police surrounded 
the suspected safe house and called on the people inside to 
surrender. 
 
The call was answered by gunfire, and a shootout occurred. 
When the gunfire from inside died down police entered the 
house and found the bodies of three people, including one 
woman. 
 
In searches of the premises, police found a large number of 
weapons, money and false identification papers, Canseven 
said. As the searches were going on, people assembled 
outside the houses and raised slogans against the militant 
organization, witnesses said. 
 
The police chief said the two groups were planning to 
assassinate three police officers in Ankara and Adana. 
 
Last month, attackers believed to be members of Dev-Sol shot 
and killed retired Adm. Kemal Kayacan, a former Turkish 
marine commander, when he answered his doorbell in Istanbul. 
 
During the past decade, the group has targeted Turkish 
police and military officers, as well as U.S. military and 
embassy officials and businessmen in Turkey. 
 
In July 1991, security forces cornered several groups of 
Dev-Sol members in safe houses in Istanbul and Ankara, 
killing 12 in shootouts. 
 
The incidents occurred just prior to President George Bush's 
visit to Turkey, and resulted from tipoffs received while 
police were taking extensive security precautions prior to 
the visit. 
 
Dev-Sol appeared shaken after the crackdown but the group 
resumed its assassinations and bomb attacks early this year. 
 
 
KARABAKH PARLIAMENT DECLARES SIX-MONTH STATE OF WAR 
 
MOSCOW (AUG. 13) - The presidium of the parliament in 
Nagorny Karabakh, the embattled Armenian enclave in 
Azerbaijan, declared a six-month state of war on Thursday, 
the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported. 
 
The declaration means that all able-bodied men between the 
ages of 18 and 45 have to report for military duty. 
 
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani troops continued their attacks in the 
region around Mardakert, the Russian Information Agency 
reported the defence ministry in Baku as saying. 
 
 
U.S. TO LEAVE MORE MILITARY BASES IN EUROPE, KOREA, SAYS 
PENTAGON 
 
WASHINGTON (AUG. 13) - U.S. military forces will withdraw 
from or reduce their presence at 69 more sites in Europe and 
one in Korea, the Pentagon announced Thursday. 
 
It said the latest round of withdrawals - the eighth from 
Europe - brings to 628 the total number of installations 
where the American military presence will be phased out, 
reduced or placed on standby. That is a 38 percent reduction 
since the pullback began in January 1990. 
 
The aim of the drawdown is to reduce U.S. troop strength in 
Europe from its high of 314,000 in 1989 to a projected 
150,000 by 1995. 
 
The latest changes will affect more than 5,000 U.S. troops, 
450 American civilians and 2,300 local national employees. 
More than 90,000 military and civilian personnel billets 
have been moved or eliminated in the drawdown thus far. 
 
The latest departures will be from 28 installations in 
Germany, nine in Britain, six in Italy, three in Turkey and 
one each in Belgium and the Netherlands. In addition, 21 
fuel tank farms and pumping stations in France will be 
returned to the French. 
 
The largest European sites involved this time are all in 
Germany: Dragoner Kaserne in Mainz and Camp Pieri in 
Wiesbaden, both of which will be left, as well as Finthen 
Army Airfield near Mainz, which will reduce its operations. 
All three have more than 1,000 personnel billets each. 
 
Other significant sites from which Americans will depart 
include Dolan Barracks in Ansbach, Germany, where U.S. 
operations will end, and U.S. Air Force Stations in Ankara 
and Izmir, Turkey, where such operations will be reduced. 
 
These specific installations alone will account for 3,400 of 
the total military personnel to be removed in the latest 
round, as well as 400 U.S. civilians and 1,900 local 
employees. 
 
In Korea, Camp Isbell, a small installation in Seoul, will 
end its operations. It will be the 21st site in Korea 
affected by the drawdown. 
 
When the U.S. ends its operations at any of these sites, the 
entire facility is returned to the control of the host 
nation. When the U.S. merely reduces it operations, it 
retains at least some property on the site. When a site is 
put in a standby status, the operations end, but the site is 
kept ready for reactivation if needed. 
 
''This process,'' said Pentagon spokesman Bob Hall, ''will 
continue.'' 
 
 
KURDISH SEPARATIST GUERRILLAS KILL THREE SOLDIERS IN 
SOUTHEAST TURKEY 
 
ANKARA, TURKEY (AUG. 14) - Kurdish separatist guerrillas 
killed three soldiers in an ambush in Turkey's southeastern 
Hakkari province in the latest of a series of attacks that 
began eight years ago, the semi- official Anatolian News 
Agency said Friday. 
 
The attack came as Interior Minister Ismet Sezgin told the 
English- language Turkish Daily News that the separatist 
Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, has evidently changed its 
tactics and may be moving its operations further north from 
the Iraq-Turkey border. 
 
The attack on the three soldiers occurred late Thursday as 
they were on patrol. The Anatolian News Agency said PKK 
gunmen ambushed and shot them dead at Hakantepe, a village 
near Hakkari, 625 miles southeast of Ankara. 
 
The PKK, a Marxist-Leninist group seeking to set up an 
independent state for Turkey's estimated 10 million Kurds, 
began attacking members of the security forces in 
southeastern provinces on Aug. 15, 1984. 
 
Authorities in the area have stepped up security measures to 
prepare for the Aug. 15 anniversary of the start of the 
rebellion, following reports that the rebels recently 
distributed leaflets asking people to switch sides and join 
them. 
 
Sezgin said the rebels have suffered big losses in recent 
clashes with the security forces, and had lost a lot of 
support among the Kurdish people because of their violent 
methods. 
 
He told the Turkish Daily News that the PKK was again 
attempting to ''spread fear among the people'' by killing 
civilians ''like they did in 1984.'' 
 
Over the past one year, the PKK concentrated more on 
attacking military and police outposts in the border areas, 
and then heading back to their bases in northern Iraq. 
 
But attacks on civilians have continued, and a feud between 
the PKK and the Islamic fundamentalist group Hezbollah is 
reported to have escalated in recent months. 
 
 
GERMAN GROUP SAYS EX-SOVIET STATES SHOULD GET "DEVELOPING 
COUNTRY STATUS" 
 
BONN (AUG. 14) - Former Soviet republics are going through 
"a process of economic disintegration" that may have 
"unforeseeable and unparalleled consequences worldwide," 
says the Confederation of German Industry (BDI). 
 
And, some members of the Commonwealth of Independent States 
(CIS) are in fact in a situation that places them on par 
with the Third World countries. "They should be given a 
developing country status," the report adds. 
 
Sounding the alarm, the Cologne-based BDI underlines that 
"the military-industrial complex there, has only in part 
been switched over to civilian production." 
 
In a just completed analysis, the BDI warns that the 
economic situation in Russia - potentially the strongest 
constituent of the CIS - is on the verge of a collapse. 
 
National income has registered a decline of 14 percent, 
industrial production has fallen by 13 percent, and gross 
capital investments by 44 percent in the first quarter of 
1992 when compared to the corresponding period last year. 
 
The difficulties are compounded by the fact that Russia is 
heading towards hyper-inflation. Consumer prices in March 
1992 stood 1,200 percent higher than in March last year, 
says the BDI study made available to IPS today. 
 
Other former Soviet republics are no better off - industrial 
production everywhere has declined. Ukraine, Kazakhstan and 
Belorussia have started separating themselves from the 
rouble although "stabilization" of their own new currency 
remains a tough task. 
 
The report points out that "the difficulties of many a 
constituent of the CIS are to a great extent identical to 
those usually faced by the Third World countries." 
 
Particularly grave is "the desolate financial situation" of 
the CIS; they lack funds not only to steer clear at home but 
also to fulfil their commitments abroad. 
 
The fact that some of them are in a position to handle high 
technology does not alter the fact that "many of them" are 
"in fact developing countries" - a point which is reinforced 
by their inability to put their high-tech knowledge to 
commercial use, the report adds. 
 
And, like developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin 
America, without Western nations' help they will not manage 
to compete on international markets. 
 
The BDI report pleads for giving "some of the CIS 
constituents a developing country status" and enabling them 
to take advantage of national and international aid 
facilities. 
 
"It is clearly discernible right now that the developing 
countries of the CIS need long-term debt restructuring, 
direct financial assistance and financing conditions which 
conform to their performance ability," argues the report. 
 
The BDI plea to grant some of the former Soviet republics a 
developing country status has already found a receptive ear 
with the German government. 
 
Economic Cooperation Minister Carl-Dieter Spranger said in 
an interview that he expected Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, 
Kirgistan and Turkmenistan to be recognised as developing 
countries next Autumn by the Paris-based Organization for 
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). 
 
This will make them eligible to receive financial and 
technical assistance on the same terms as applied to some 
115 Third World states in the past four or so decades. 
 
Spranger pointed out that Germany planned to increase by 
about 50 percent its bilateral development assistance to the 
former Soviet republics and East Europe next year. 
 
Instead of 65 million marks ($44.5 million) allocated this 
year, the intention was to set apart 97 million marks ($66 
million) in 1993, added Spranger. 
 
This assistance will, however, stem from a separate fund 
created at the economic cooperation ministry and will not be 
taken away from the Third World aid budget, he assured. 
"There is no reason therefore for the developing countries 
to get anxious."/ 
 
 

Xref: sparky soc.culture.turkish:8876 talk.politics.mideast:18592 talk.politics.soviet:6985 soc.culture.greek:7517 soc.culture.europe:7299 soc.history:7333