From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Date: 07 Apr 92 09:38 PDT
Subject: TURKEY: PARTY CHALLENGES OFFICIAL P
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1475100121:000:2836
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Apr  7 09:38:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: TURKEY: PARTY CHALLENGES OFFICIAL P

/* Written  9:03 am  Apr  7, 1992 by newsdesk in
cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
rights reserved.  Permission to re- print within 7 days of
original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: TURKEY: PARTY CHALLENGES OFFICIAL POSITION ON KURDISH
UNREST

istanbul, apr 4 (ips) -- the social democratic populist party
(shp), a member of turkey's ruling coalition, has challenged the
government's claim that kurdish demonstrators had provoked the
violence during last month's newroz spring festival.

''if the security forces had not adopted a cold-blooded attitude,
and if they had been more lenient towards the people, no such
bloodshed would have occurred,'' an shp investigating committee
said in a preliminary report this week.

turkish troops opened fire on crowds celebrating the spring
festival in south-east turkey mar. 20-22, killing at least 70
people. this was followed by three days of heavy fighting between
the kurdish workers' party (pkk) and security forces.

the government blamed the pkk for the disturbances, saying the
rebels had exploited the public enthusiasm for a display of power
and had encouraged an uprising.

but the shp committee rejected this claim. it accused president
turgut ozal and national intelligence chief, teoman koman, of
creating anxiety before the festival by warning of a pkk uprising
and threatening to take drastic counter-insurgency measures.

the committee said this tense atmosphere was the main cause of the
disturbances.

it also challenged the official justification of the high number
of casualties. most of those killed and wounded were women and
children, and there were no pkk guerrillas among the victims.

the committee cited the peaceful demonstrations in nusaybin as an
example of tolerance by local authorities. ''if authorities in
cizre and sirnak had adopted a similar attitude, bloodshed could
have been avoided,'' the committee report said.

it also drew attention to the large number of sirnak residents
seeking refuge in other places -- another consequence of the
newroz festival violence.

but the preliminary report has aroused conflicts within the shp.
party leader erdal inonu reportedly wants phrases sharply
criticising the army to be dropped from the final version.

fourteen ex-shp deputies, who quit the party tuesday, this week
submitted a joint statement with the people's labour party (hep)
to the u.n. representative in ankara, adalat khan, to be delivered
to u.n. secretary-general boutros boutros-ghali on thursday.

they denounced the security forces for the ''massacre of
civilians''. the statement said: ''it is clear that the target of
the army was the civilian population, rather than the
guerrillas.'' (end/ips/np/nm/ln/92)

Xref: sparky soc.culture.turkish:4268 talk.politics.mideast:10899 talk.politics.soviet:3450 soc.culture.soviet:3106 soc.culture.greek:3339 soc.culture.europe:3812