From: senel@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Hakan)
Subject: Forwarding from TRKNWS-L
Originator: senel@irlsp
Organization: Insulting, Ridiculing, Forwarding Inc.
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 17:07:39 GMT


  > From: "(Al Trh)" <trh@jack.sns.com>
  > Subject:      News from the Turkish Radio Hour

FORWARDED BY TRH@MCIMAIL.COM................
 ____________________________ ___________________________
|                            |                           |
| TURKISH CULTURAL PROGRAM   |       ORIENT EXPRESS      |
|   Saturdays at 5:00 PM     |   3rd Saturdays at 6:00 PM|
|KUSF FM 90.3, SAN FRANCISCO |   KKUP FM 91.5,  CUPERTINO|
|____________________________|___________________________|

               e-mail address: TRH@mcimail.com
         (Also send a copy of any correspondance to
                      TRH@jack.sns.com)
>>>>>>>>>> ANNOUNCEMENTS


*** DONATE TO THE RED CRESCENT (KIZILAY) BOSNIA-HERZOGOVINA FUND

    The Red Crescent is soliciting donations to help the
    victims of the war in Bosnia-Herzogovina. Your donations
    can be made through Ziraat Bank

    Ask Ziraat Bank to forward your donations to the
    following account:
        Kizilay Subesi
        Hesap No: 30440/30336
        Ziraat Bank's New York address
        330 Madison Avenue (32nd Floor)
        New York, NY 10017
        Tel (212) 557 5612

>>>>>>>>>> UNDERWRITERS

***    The Turkish American Association of California, a
        cultural organization. For more information about
        their activities call them at: (415) 923-0562.

***    Ali's, with its Moroccan and Middle-Eastern cousine, acclaimed
        by the San Francisco Chronicle as 1 of the top 20 restaurants
        in the Bay Area, is underwriting this segment of the Turkish
        Cultural Program.

        Ali's has entertainment every night, and on Friday and
        Saturday evenings features Mimi and Vince with Turkish and
        Middle-Eastern Music. Also banquet and private rooms are
        available for such occasions as wedding receptions.

        385 Colusa Ave. Kensington, California 94707   510 526 1500

>>>>>>>>>> ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 ***   UNIQUE DESIGNS FOR YOUR DREAM MANSION.
       We'll design your home wherever you desire in North America
       including Canada and Mexico.
       Photographs of works available. G'LUSH AND ASSOCIATES,
       1-408-379-4919. Turkce konusulur. Farsi sohbet me konem.

 *** PROGRAMIN SONUNA DOGRU SU ANONSLARI YAP:

     Tune in next week at 5:00 P.M. to the Turkish Cultural
     Program.
     Also do not forget to listen to the Azerbaijani Program
     at 2:00 P.M.
     Tune to KKUP FM 91.5 for the Orient Express on
     October 17 at 6:00 P.M.

     Tune to KPFA FM 94.1 every third Tuesday at 20:00 for
     Music from Africa-Asia, hosted by Kutay Kugay.


------------------------------------------------------------

    The following news is collected from various news
    sources. None of them are written by the TRH volunteers
    except those that has "TRH" after the date. Murat Erder
    and Murat Sonmez have translated the news items from
    a daily summary of Turkish papers we get here in
    California. Our radio broadcasts usually include all of
    the articles from Turkish papers and/or some of the
    articles that follow the Turkish papers section.

_____________________________________________________________

SEARCH FOR A NEW COALITION?
     9/24/92, SABAH-- The meeting of Prime Minister Suleyman
Demirel with opposition leader Mesut Yilmaz increased talks
in political circles about new coalition possibilities.
    The coalition government has been in question ever since
the re-opening of the Republican Peoples Party (CHP)
resulted in resigning of several deputies from the Social
Democratic Peoples Party (SHP).
    Two popular scenarios discussed are the possibility of
Mesut Yilmaz's conservative Motherland Party (ANAP) joining
in the existing government or of ANAP replacing SHP and
forming a new coalition government with Prime Minister
Suleyman Demirel's True Path Party (DYP).

BOAT ARSON IN ISTANBUL
     9/24/92, TURKIYE-- A fire started on a boat just after
it had unloaded all of its passenger's in Eminonu, Istanbul.
Several terrorist organizations, including the the Kurdish
Worker's Party (PKK) took credit for the arson.
    The same night a bomb was found in a suitcase in one of
the major hotels of Istanbul.

TURKEY TO HELP ARMENIA PURCHASE WHEAT
     9/24/92, CUMHURIYET-- The Turkish Foreign Ministery
announced that Turkey had accepted to help Armenia with its
current wheat shortage.
    Details of the arrangement will be negotiated between
the two governments in the coming weeks.

FRENCH ARMS SCANDAL CLARIFIED

     9/24/92, HURRIYET/TURKIYE-- The Turkish Foreign
Ministery made an announcement that clarified the issue
regarding French arms shipments to Kurdish rebels.
    During the last week Turkish newspapers had reported
that arms were found on a French plane that was supposed to
be flying in humanitarian aid to the Kurds in Northern Iraq.
    The announcement by the Foreign Ministery stated that
the equipment found aboard the plane consisted of mine
detectors and that there were no arms on the plane.
    The plane is being kept in Diyarbakir waiting for
clearance of the shipment of the mine detectors. A decision
is expected to be reached shortly.

COST OF THE GULF WAR
     9/24/92, TERCUMAN-- The Turkish Treasury estimated the
cost of the Gulf War on the Turkish economy as 2.8 billion
US dollars.

POLAND BEATS TURKEY IN SOCCER
     9/24/92, MILLIYET-- The Polish national soccer team
beat their Turkish opponents 1-0, in a World Cup qualifier
game.

TURKEY TO OPEN A DIPLOMATIC MISSION IN BOSNIA
     9/23/92, TURKIYE-- The Turkish Foreign Minister, Hikmet
Cetin, announced that Turkey plans to open a diplomatic
mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Cetin made the announcement
in New York where he is attending the United Nations General
Council.
    During his stay in New York Cetin met with the President
of Bosnia, Izzetbegovic, the President of Armenia,
Petrosyan, and the Foreign Ministers of Azerbeijan and
Germany.

EC COMMISION PASSES REPORT ON TURKEY
     9/23/92, CUMHURIYET-- A report on relations between the
European Community (EC) and Turkey was discussed and
accepted by the EC Foreign Relations Commision.
    The report, which was prepared by a Belgian
representative in the EC Parliament, warns Turkey on human
rights abuses that occur during its struggle with terrorist
organizations.

GOVERNMENT BARELY STAYS ALIVE
     9/22/92, HURRIYET-- The coalition government of the
True Path Party (DYP) and the Social Democratic People's
Party (SHP) almost lost its majority in the Parliament when
three deputies of SHP were about the resign to join the
newly rejuvenated Republican Peoples Party (CHP).
    The three deputies decided to stay with SHP at the last
moment, but criticized the government's Kurdish policy in a
press conference.

CABINET PASSES MEASURE TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS IN THE
SOUTHEAST
     9/22/92, HURRIYET-- The Cabinet accepted an action plan
to improve the economic and social conditions in
Southeastern Turkey, which is in turmoil due to the recent
escalation of the Kurdish conflict.
    The plan will be implemented by a committee lead by
Minister of State, Ekrem Ceyhun.

KILLINGS CONTINUE IN THE SOUTHEAST
     9/22/92, SABAH-- One day after 74 year old journalist
and Kurdish historian, Musa Anter, was killed, a county
prosecuter and judge were murdered in their homes in Kulp, a
town in the province of Diyarbakir.
    The funeral of Anter took place in Nusaybin under heavy
police protection. The recent killings have increased the
tension in the region.

US COMPANIES GET THREE DEFENSE CONTRACTS
     9/22/92, CUMHURIYET-- Three US companies were given
three major defense contracts. While Sikorsky was selected
as the vendor for military helicopters, General Electric was
chosen to build jet engines under an agreement for the F-16
fighter planes that Turkey is manufacturing.
     A contract to build two unmanned surveillance planes
was given to American Aerospace Industries and General
Atomics.

MACEDONIA ASKS FOR TURKISH SUPPORT
     9/19/92, TERCUMAN-- During his visit to Turkey, the
Deputy Prime Minister of Macedonia, Yolan Andonow, asked for
Turkey to put pressure on Greece to recognize Macedonia.
    While Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize
the former Yugoslav republic, Greece has refused to accept
the republic as long as it is called Macedonia.

TURKISH TROOPS WILL NOT BE IN BOSNIA
     9/19/92, CUMHURIYET-- Turkey and Italy were not
included in a  North Atlantic Treay Organization (NATO)
force to be deployed in Bosnia to protect relief convoys.
    Both countries are considered as geographically and
historically too interlocked with the region to participate
in such activities.
    The force will consist of troops from Great Britain,
Canada, France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Norway and Denmark.

THAWING RELATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND SYRIA
     9/19/92, CUMHURIYET-- The relations between Syria and
Turkey seemed to improve during an official visit of the
Syrian Interior Minister to Turkey.
    Syria announced that it was giving three major
construction contracts to Turkish firms and Turkish Prime
Minister Suleyman Demirel said that he had accepted the
Syrian President's invitation to visit Damascus.


AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC BECOMES MEMBER OF INTERNATIONAL MONETARY
FUND

WASHINGTON (SEPT. 18) - The Azerbaijan Republic became a
member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today when
Badir Karaev, minister of finance, signed the IMF's Articles
of Agreement in Washington.

The initial quota(A) of Azerbaijan in the IMF is special
drawing rights (SDR) 78 million (about US$112 million).

With the admissin of Azerbaijan, the membership of the IMF
now totals 170 countries.  The total of members' quotas in
the IMF is SDR 97,208 million (about US$139,920 million).

(A) A member's quota in the IMF determines, in particular,
its subscription, its voting weight, its access to IMF
financing, and its allocation of SDRs.


A POWER SHIFT IN MOSCOW COULD HAVE REGIONAL IMPLICATIONS

MOSCOW, (SEPT. 21) - Even as the Middle East peace
conference negotiators in Washington ended another week of
discussions, there are some who may well be glancing over
their shoulders at the power struggle currently taking place
in Russia.

This is because Russia -- a co-sponsor of the talks with the
United States --may be in line for a high-level political
shake- up, and a new, less radical government could affect
Moscow's future Middle East policy.

Russia's policy towards the troubled region is currently in
a "state of limbo" says Dr Alexei Vassiliev, acting head of
Moscow's Institute of African and Arab affairs.

"Now that Russia's ideological ties to the Arabs is over, it
is formulating a new Middle East policy based on its own
national security and economic interests within a framework
of international cooperation between the major powers.

"But this will not be well defined for quite a few years
until Russia is over its own internal problems."

Vassiliev, who is the author of almost 20 titles on the
Middle East, identifies the potential rise of a third power
in the region as the greatest threat to Russia's security.

He speaks of Iran and Pakistan in particular as aspiring
nuclear powers with the possible capability in the future to
threaten Russia, either with atomic weapons or weapons of
mass destruction -- chemical and biological.

Russia is looking to its southern neighbors, Iran and
Turkey, for cooperation in return for maintaining stability
in what were the southern republics of the Soviet Union --
in the Caucasus and Islamic Central Asia.

And while Moscow recognizes that these two countries have
"legitimate rights" north of their borders, Russia is not
prepared to tolerate degrees of instability that threaten it
or millions of its ethnic Russian compatriots who live in
say either strife-torn Tajikistan in Central Asia or Georgia
in the Caucasus, says Vassiliev.

According to two former KGB intelligence officers who served
in the Middle East, Russia is keen to see that Iraq does not
break up. A Shi'a republic in the south of the country would
strengthen neighboring Iran with a knock-on effect into
Farsi-speaking Tajikistan, says Vassiliev.

Ultimately, the buck could stop in northern Kazakhstan on
Russia's southern border where ethnic Russians outnumber the
newly independent Muslim Kazakhs by almost four to one.

A rise in Kazakh nationalism, perhaps fired by Islamic
success to the south, would correspondingly arouse Russian
nationalism in the region with unpredictable consequences.

So that while analysts believe that the security services of
both Russia and the United States are working closely to
topple Iraq President Saddam Hussein, the two are also
trying to ensure the country's unity.

"Russia has definitely got agents high up in the Iraqi
government," claims one KGB officer, who declined to be
named. "After all, everybody has their price."

But while Russia keeps one eye on the regional political
power shifts, Moscow is itself the scene of internal power
plays which are also likely to have a bearing on the Middle
East talks in Washington.

Among the main players in the game is the leader of Russia's
military industrial complex, Arkady Volsky, who is against
the radical reform efforts of acting Prime Minister Yegor
Gaidar.

Volsky has thrown his weight behind another key player in
the power struggle -- Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi --
who is also trying to temper the reform efforts of Gaidar,
who has up to now been assured of President Boris Yeltsin's
support.

And while the removal of Gaidar from the frontline in
governmental policy will not radically reverse Russia's pro-
Israeli, pro-democratic stance in the Middle East, it would
perhaps stiffen Arab resolve at the negotiating table.

With Gaidar in place, Syria, which is demanding a full
Israeli withdrawal from occupied Golan Heights, may be
inclined to soften its position for the sake of a peaceful
settlement.

But in the event of a more cautious government in Russia,
perhaps less amenable to the Israeli position, Syria may
decide to stick to its guns adding a tight knot to the
already delicate string of peace negotiations.

As far as Russia is concerned, peace and stability in the
region is desirable but not at any price. No matter who is
in power in the Kremlin, there is a feeling here that the
old days of confrontation with the West in the Middle East
are well and truly over.

And while the world must still wait a little while yet
before it sees a better defined Russian policy in the
region, it would seem that policy will be for democracy,
stability and economic cooperation.


SOVIET UZBEKISTAN JOINS IMF AND WORLD BANK

WASHINGTON (SEPT. 22) - Uzbekistan became Monday the 171st
member-nation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the World Bank.

The central bank chief of the former Soviet republic,
Faisullah M. Mulladshanov, signed the membership documents
in Washington.

The country paid 12.1 million dollars to fulfill its
obligations to the World Bank. Uzbekistan is the 13th former
Soviet republic to became a member of the bank. Turkmenistan
and Tadjikistan, the only two former republics not yet
members, have applied for membership.


RUSSIA MEDIATES CEASEFIRE DEAL IN NAGORNY KARABAKH

MOSCOW (SEPT. 23) - Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to
observe a ceasefire from midnight Friday in the disputed
Nagorny Karabakh enclave, it was reported in Moscow
Wednesday.

The agreement was reached last weekend in the Black Sea
resort of Sochi in Russia. Russian Defence Minister Pavel
Grachov mediated the talks between the defence ministers of
the two states.

Grachov told Komsomolskaye Pravda newspaper the two
ministers agreed to take personal responsibility for
ensuring forces in the predominantly Armenian enclave in
Azerbaijan observe the ceasefire.

On Tuesday, Azerbaijan and Armenia had agreed a three-day
truce for the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan, on the
border with Iran, which has been the scene of heavy
fighting.

According to ITAR-TASS news agency, the ceasefire also
applied to border areas between Azerbaijan and Armenia where
repeated artillery duels had taken place in the last few
days.


GERMANY TO SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCE MILITARY AID TO TURKEY

BONN (SEPT. 23) - Germany will substantially cut its arms
deliveries to Turkey, Defence Minister Volker Ruehe told the
parliamentary defence committee Wednesday.

Bonn was planning to reorientate relations with its ally,
informed sources quoted Ruehe as saying in a closed-doors
session.

In future Bonn would give priority to economic and cultural
cooperation with the government in Ankara, the sources said.

The German army would train Turkish troops and officers and
help integrate the army into democratic society, but
''uncontrolled'' military aid would be discontinued, the
sources said.

Relations between the two countries reached a low point in
March when the government in Bonn suspended military aid to
its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) partner after
Ankara used German arms and tanks against opposition Kurds.


ARMENIAN PRESIDENT CALLS FOR U.S. MEDIATION IN WAR WITH
AZERBAIJAN

YEREVAN (SEPT. 23) - Armenia is calling on the United States
to actively mediate an end to its four-year-old war against
Azerbaijan and persuade Turkey to drop alleged military
support for the Azeris, according to senior government
officials.

The officials, including presidential advisors Vahan
Shirkhanian and Ruben Shugarian, said President Levon Ter
Petrossian would raise these issues in New York this week
during meetings with President George Bush and Democratic
presidential candidate, Bill Clinton.

But the officials conceded that following a rejection of a
similar request earlier this month at lower levels of the
U.S. administration, it was unlikely that Bush would change
his government's policy during his talks with Ter
Petrossian.

The U.S. embassy in Yerevan told the government about two
weeks ago that it hoped the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
could be resolved under auspices of either the Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) or the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the officials
said.

The embassy also advised Armenia that Turkey was free to do
as it wished, they said.

Armenian hopes for a summit between Ter Petrossian and
Azerbaijani leader Abulfaz Elchibey were dashed Sept. 18
when Elchibey let it be known that he would not be attending
the current session of the United Nations General Assembly
in New York.

Elchibey's decision to stay away from New York followed his
rejection of earlier Turkish and Kazakh attempts to engineer
a meeting with his Armenian counterpart. Officials said that
Elchibey had also refused since his election earlier this
year to take phone calls from Ter Petrossian.

"We had hoped their would be a meeting," Shugrian said Sept.
19 standing on the tarmac of Yerevan airport as Ter
Petrossian prepared to board his Yak-42 bound for New York.
The president himself declined to take a question.

At his headquarters at the Defense Ministry, Ter
Petrossian's military aide Vahan Shirkhanian charged that
Azerbaijan could only maintain its current military position
involving the occupation of the northern third of Nagorno-
Karabakh -- an Armenian-populated enclave inside Azerbaijan
-- with Turkey's help.

Shirkhanian said 26 senior military advisors were helping
the Azerbaijani armed forces in Baku and that units of 100
Turkish soldiers each had been operating along the Azeri
side of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border.

In addition, he said Turkey had bought 40,000 machine guns
from Russia for Azerbaijan earlier and this month a
considerable amount of artillery and anti-tank weapons.

"The Russians have confirmed this to us. The arms were
shipped directly to Azerbaijan... We have seized Turkish-
produced mortars and ammunition as well as Soviet weapons
bought by Turkey for Azerbaijan," Shirkhanian said.

Twelve Turkish tanks had this month also been moved into the
autonomous republic of Nakhichevan on Armenia's southern
flank, the military aide said. "Our reconnaissance found
that these tanks were transported from Turkey," he claimed.

Armenian officials and political analysts charged that the
United States was willing to sacrifice Armenian interests
and allow Turkey to pursue its policy because it wished to
see Turkey rather than Iran emerge as the regional power.

Influenced by a century of strained relations and the memory
of the 1915 Turkish genocide which left 1.5 million
Armenians dead, the officials and analysts said Turkey was
grabbing the opportunity to established a modified Turkish
empire and secure Caucasian and Central Asian markets.

"To achieve its aim it exploits ethnic and religious
differences. Turkey must know it is impossible today to
establish a pan-Turkish state but they use this concept to
develop and strengthen their own country," says Mourad
Bodjolian, the Turkish-born head of the Armenian Foreign
Ministry's Turkish desk.

As he spoke, Bodjolian was putting together with Yilmaz
Kushkay, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in
eastern Turkey's Erzurum, the final touches on a $1.2
million contract with the soft drink company Coca cola. "We
have to forget the past. The past is the past," said
Kushkay.

Critics of the government charge that Ter Petrossian's
mishandling of relations with the United States as well as
Turkey and the Nagorno-Karabakh war are threatening to
undermine Armenia's international standing and what good
relations it has with other countries.

Says Tigran Hayrapitian, director of Yerevan University's
Armenian Research Institute for the Near East: "Armenia's
opportunities could be reduced to zero by the elevation of
Turkey (to regional power) and the Azerbaijani-Armenian war.

"These factors could undermine Armenia's relations with
Middle Eastern nations " he added.


PRATT & WHITNEY COMMENTS ON LOSS OF TURKEY'S PEACE ONYX II
ENGINE

WEST PALM BEACH, FL (SEPT. 23) - The Republic of Turkey's
Peace Onyx II engine selection announced today was based
solely on commonality and logistics systems in place, said
Pratt & Whitney officials.  During the technical evaluation,
P&W was informed its F100- PW-229 engine was technically
superior to the competitor's and its offset proposal was
equal to and in some cases better.

"Pratt & Whitney is certainly disappointed with Turkey's
selection of an alternate power plant, but it does not
lessen our drive to enter future competitions with the most
technically advanced, reliable engines in the world " said
John Balaguer, president of the company's Government Engines
& Space Propulsion unit.

The company's latest F100 engine model, the F110-PW-229, was
a contender to power as many as 80 new F-16 fighters being
purchased by Turkey.  The competitor's engines currently
power nearly all of Turkey's military and commercial
engines.

The F100 family of engines, with more than nine million
flying hours, is the more mature, reliable and durable
fighter engine in the world.  It remains the engine of
choice for 100 percent of the world's F-15 fighters and 70
percent of F-16s.  Employed by the air forces of 17
countries, more than 1,450 P&W powered F-15s and 2,390 F-16s
have been ordered.  This past year, the Republic of Korea
selected the PW-229 to power its air force's new order of F-
16s.

Pratt & Whitney is now testing a more powerful version of
the engine in anticipation of future requirements for higher
thrust power plants. Recently, a higher power version of the
PW-229 achieved a thrust level of over 37,000 pounds.

Pratt & Whitney's, Government Engines & Space Propulsion,
based in West Palm Beach, Fla., USA, designs, develops and
supports military jet engines and space propulsion systems.
It is a unit of United Technologies Corporation, a world
leader in developing and applying advances technology to
aerospace and commercial products.


ROCKET EXPLOSION LEAVES TWO TURKISH SOLDIERS DEAD, 16 OTHERS
INJURED

ISTANBUL (SEPT. 24) - Two soldiers were killed and 16
injured, some seriously, when a rocket exploded during a
fire at a infantry academy near Istanbul, it was reported
Thursday.

The fire late Wedenesday was on a training field of the
academy in Tuzla, the semi-official Turkish news agency
Anadolu said.


AZERBAIJAN READY TO SIGN ECONOMIC AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIA

MOSCOW (SEPT. 25) - THE AZERI GOVERNMENT IS ATTACHING
PRIORITY IMPORTANCE TO THE STRENGTHENING OF ECONOMIC
RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA, WHICH IT REGARDS AS ITS MAIN PARTNER.
A DRAFT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES ON TRADE AND
ECONOMIC COOPERATION, MONETARY AND CREDIT RELATIONS AND
TRADE REGULATIONS HAS BEEN PREPARED AND INITIALLED IN
MOSCOW, AZERI FIRST DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER A.ABBASOV SAID IN
AN INTERVIEW WITH PRAVDA, PUBLISHED TODAY.

HE POINTED OUT THAT "OUR REPUBLIC WAS AMONG THE FIRST TO
BRING THE WORK AT INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENTS TO ITS
LOGICAL END." ABBASOV SAID THE RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY HAD
INFORMED THE AZERI FOREIGN MINISTRY THAT RUSSIAN ACTING
PRIME MINISTER YEGOR GAIDAR WAS WILLING TO COME TO BAKU ON
SEPTEMBER 30 FOR A WORKING VISIT, THE PROGRAMME OF WHICH
WOULD INCLUDE THE SIGNING OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL
AGREEMENTS.


GUERRILLAS KILL TURKISH BATTALION COMMANDER, TWO SOLDIERS
NEAR IDIL

ANKARA (SEPT. 25) - Guerrillas attacked and killed a Turkish
battalion commander and two soldiers near Idil in the Sirnak
border province, the Anadolu news agency reported Friday.

The bodies of Lieutenant Colonel Muammar Yuzsuren and the
soldiers were found in their vehicle after the attack
Thursday evening by Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas.

The guerrillas are believed to have used missile launchers
and machine-guns.


PRESS INSTITUTE CALLS ON TURKEY TO PROBE MURDER OF
JOURNALISTS

LONDON (SEPT. 25) - The International Press Institute in
London Friday called on Turkey to investigate the recent
murder of a prominent journalist and bring those responible
to justice.

Musa Anter, a 74-year-old Kurdish journalist known worldwide
as ''the grand old man of Kurdish culture'', was shot dead
on September 20.

The Turkish government has the power to take action, but
must also be seen to have the will to use that power,
otherwise the situation in the country would become worse
and might drift into chaos, the institute said in a press
release.

In September, the International Press Institute reported
that eight journalists in Turkey's Kurdish region had been
assassinated.


AZERBAIJANI TROOPS LAUNCH NEW OFFENSIVE INTO NAGORNO-
KARABAKH

BAKU, (SEPT. 25) - Azerbaijani troops are pushing toward the
capital of the predominantly Armenian-populated enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh in what could be a decisive battle in their
four-year-old war against Armenia, according to the
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

The offensive, aimed at cutting off the war-ravaged city of
Stepanovka from the outside world, is coupled with a
significant hardening of Azerbaijani conditions for peace
which amount to ethnic-cleansing.

The conditions are unlikely to be acceptable to either the
Armenians or the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, which
declared itself independent a year ago.

"Our aim is to clear our territory of occupying Armenian
forces," defense ministry spokesman Lt. Assad Issazadeh said
in the first disclosure of the offensive.

Issazadeh said some 550 Armenians had been killed in the
first three days of the offensive which began last weekend.
He put Azerbaijani casualties at 32 dead and 106 wounded in
the first two days.

On Martyr's Lane opposite the Azerbaijani parliament in
Baku, the intensity of the fighting is deeply felt. A former
recreation park, it now serves as a war cemetery. Amid the
colorfully decorated graves of fighters, sometimes no older
than 16 when they were killed, new holes are being dug for
the casualties of recent days. Funeral processions come and
go.

The spokesperson refused to comment on Armenian claims that
some 12,000 Azeri troops were involved in the offensive on
the eastern front alone.

As Azerbaijan launched its offensive, press reports out of
Moscow said Russian Defense Minister Gavel Grochow summoned
the defense ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia to the
Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi and imposed a ceasefire
that would take effect at midnight tomorrow.

The press reports said the cease fire agreement was for two
months during which Commonwealth of Independent States and
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe observers
would be stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh. The ceasefire
agreement, if observed, means Azerbaijan would have to
achieve the goals of its offensive by Sept. 26.

Issazadeh said Azerbaijani troops were attacking Armenian
positions in Nagorno-Karabakh from the east, the north and
the west. On the eastern front in Aghdam, he said Azeri
troops had recaptured from the Armenians a strategic
mountain range on Azeri territory outside the borders of the
enclave.

At the same time, Azeri troops control the Lachin corridor,
a 20 km mountainous road that provides Nagorno-Karabakh's
only land route to Armenia. "We can interdict whatever
traffic we want," he said.

Azerbaijan, the spokesperson said, was calling on the
civilians of Stepanovka to evacuate the city. Armenian
officials estimated last week that some 70,000 people still
lived in Stepanovka, a city where few buildings seem to have
escaped war damage.

"If we reach Stepanovka there will be a blood bath because
of the civilian population. We are trying to force them to
leave. It's nuts for them to live there. Similarly, we
removed our civilian population from Aghdam," Issazadeh
said.

The spokesperson, as well as other Azeri officials including
presidential adviser Vafa Gouluzadeh, charged that Armenia
was forcing civilians who had fled the fighting in Nagorno-
Karabakh to return to their homes by not giving them housing
and other assistance inside Armenia.

During a visit to Armenia and the Armenian-controlled parts
of Nagorno-Karabakh earlier this month, this reporter saw
Armenians fighting to get transportation back to the
enclave, claiming it was their land.

The Azeri officials said they were no longer willing to
automatically grant the estimated 200,000 Armenians that
lived in Azerbaijan prior to the outbreak of the war in 1988
full autonomy as they had enjoyed since the enclave was
included by the Soviets into Azerbaijan in 1920.

Azerbaijan would grant Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh only
those rights accorded to Azeris in Azerbaijan, they said.
Some 200,000 Azeris -- virtually the whole Azeri population
-- were expelled from Armenia in the early stages of the
war, the officials said.

"We are prepared to create the circumstances in which the
Armenian civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh may come
and live there. But under one condition: The 200,000 Azeri
refugees driven out of Armenia have to be allowed to rerun
and enjoy exactly the same rights," said Issazadeh.

"It's clear that Armenia will not allow the 200,000 Azeris
to return," Issazedeh said. But he warned in a veiled
reference to the massacring of Armenians in Azerbaijan at
the outset of the war: "It will be increasingly difficult
for us to protect Armenians in Azerbaijan as long as we have
a pool of Azeri refugees from Armenia."


CONFLICT WITH AZERBAIJAN OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH DRIVES
ARMENIANS TO FURY

STEPANAKERT (SEPT. 25) - Vaitsar's family has survived
numerous Azeri attacks, but her house has been destroyed for
the second time in seven years. Again she is attempting to
pick up the pieces and rebuild her life.

Driven out of the Azerbaijan city of Sumgait in 1985, she
sought refugee in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-
Karabakh, the disputed Armenian enclave on Azerbaijani
territory.

Four years of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan have left
their imprint on Vaitsar's new home on Dimirazev Street in
the northern part of the city. Gaping holes and piles of
rubble indicate where apartment blocks once stood.

Hit by long-range artillery, rockets, and bombed by Azeri
planes nine times in August, only the two lowest floors of
Vaitsar's six story building are even remotely inhabitable.
The building itself seems on the verge of collapse.

"Where is it safe for Armenians to live and breathe freely?"
she asks. "How much longer can we endure this? We escaped
from Baku to Stepanakert. Where are we supposed to go from
here?"

To Vaitsar, as to most Armenians, the struggle for Nagorno-
Karabakh is the century-old struggle for survival of a
people whose modern history and outlook on the world has
been shaped by the 1915 genocide in which an estimated 1.5
million Armenians were killed by the Turks and their Kurdish
henchmen.

"We have no other choice but to fight. We can either stay
here and continue or leave the land," says Robert Kucharian,
new head of the State Defense Committee - Nagorno-Karabakh's
equivalent of a Prime Minister and Commander in Chief.

"I have no hope that the Azeris will come to their senses,"
he says. "I just hope we can create the means to resist
them."

Just back from struggling peace talks in Rome under the
auspices of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe (CSCE), Kucharian has the difficult task of
organizing life in an embattled enclave that stands little
chance of winning the war by military means.

With a population of 150,000 Armenians, many of whom have
fled to Armenia and elsewhere, a third of its territory
occupied by Azeri forces, and a tenuous link to the Armenian
border, the odds are certainly against it.

"It is not just a question of simple arithmetic," says
Kucharian. "Besides military and human resources you need
morale. We are fighting for our land and we have the
brilliant example of Israel."

Morale is indeed high, despite the war. Its cities
devastated, Nagorno-Karabakh is about to introduce food
rationing. Fuel is already limited of 20 liters of petrol
per week. Unemployment is estimated at 70 percent.

"I have no job and have not had a pension for a year," says
Pavel Grigorian, standing in front of a desecrated church in
Sushi. "I live on bread, potatoes and water. I have had 200
grams of butter and 200 grams of sugar in the last two
months."

"We have had no money in circulation for more than a year,"
says Marcel Petrossian, Nagorno-Karabakh's equivalent of an
Information Minister. "People live in archaic ways, helping
each other. It is prehistoric barter."

"The world has to recognize that we would like to be united
with Armenia," says Petrossian. "But if the world does not
allow that then we must have our own state." Indeed,
Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence last year, but
no-one has officially acknowledged it as an separate entity.

Sources close to the Armenian Foreign Minister Rafi
Hovhannisian quote him as saying Armenia is waiting for
another country to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh. "Armenia will
be the second state to recognize it."

Totally dependent on Armenia for almost everything, and
aware that any long term existence independent of Azerbaijan
would have to be together with -rather than alongside -
Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh has been slow in creating its own
institutions.

The 71 member parliament elected last December is an
institutional hangover from the Soviet days. Kucharians's
seven member State Defense Committee was formed only last
week.

But the deep-seated hatred of the Azeris is everywhere. "The
Azeris are our historical enemies," says film maker Gennady
Melkonian.

"They were barbarian tribes, vandals and conquerors. There
are many Armenians who have contributed to the development
of mankind. Can you give me the names of any Azeris mankind
can be proud off?"


AZERBAIJANI PRES. SEES NO HOPE FOR CEASEFIRE ON SATURDAY IN
NAGORNO-KARABAKH

BAKU (SEPT. 25) - Azerbaijani President Abulfez Elchibey
says a Russian mediated ceasefire in his country's four year
war with Armenia will not take place tomorrow as planned.

Speaking through an interpreter during a two-hour interview
at his residence late yesterday, Elchibey insisted that
Armenian forces withdraw from the Azerbaijani city of Lachin
on the border of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh
and from the corridor between it and Armenia - at the same
time hostilities ceased.

"Without that a ceasefire is pointless. I will never agree
to Armenian troops on Azerbaijani territory. If we have a
ceasefire and Armenian troops have not withdrawn form Lachin
within three days it means Armenia continues to be an
occupier."

"We'll fight until the Armenians are kicked out. The
Armenians are trying to do it their way. They want a
ceasefire and to hang on to all the occupied territories and
then negotiate for as long as it takes, Azerbaijan will
never agree to that," he said.

He was commenting two days after the ceasefire plan was
announced and four days after the start of a Azeri offensive
to seal off Stepanakart, capital of Nagorno-Karabakh - a
mainly Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan claimed by both
sides.

Elchibey said the ceasefire had been predicated on Armenia
and Azerbaijan agreeing on a "mechanism" to halt
hostilities. He said Azerbaijani officials had spent four
days in Moscow waiting in vain for their Armenian
counterparts to show up and agree it.

The mechanism, Elchibey said, would involve up to 440
international observers, probably from the Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now based on the
border and ready to enter Nagorno-Karabakh when the
ceasefire takes effect.

"The ceasefire set for the 26th of this month was predicated
on establishing a mechanism. Because the mechanism was not
worked out there is not going to be a ceasefire."

"The most important thing is to establish the mechanism for
a ceasefire so that the next day the other side can't
violate it the next day as they have done in the past. We
want the mechanism to establish who is responsible for
violations," Elchibey said.

As he spoke a major Armenian counter offensive was being
reported around the town of Martuni, 12 miles east of
Stepanakart, one of the last Armenian bastions on the road
to the capital. But Elchibey played down the significance of
the ongoing attacks.

This contrasted to Sept. 23 official claims that Martini had
already fallen to Azerbaijani troops. An aide to Elchibey
was even more frank: "I don't like this lying to the
people," he said. "We are achieving military parity. We'll
have military successes in six months. We never took
Martuni. We entered it and left."

Elchibey stressed that any solution to the conflict could
not include an automatic return to the pre-conflict
situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, in which up to 200,000
Armenians enjoyed full autonomy granted to them by their
former Soviet rulers.

"Certainly not independence," he said. "But cultural
autonomy like the 200,000 Armenians in France and the
hundreds of thousand oF Armenians in the United States
alone."

"We are talking about refuges from Armenia and from Nagorno-
Karabakh. If we talk about Armenians (in Azerbaijan) once
we've created a state of law there will be no difference
between Azeris and Armenians. Armenians will be welcome
here. We think only about individual freedoms, not about
religion, geography or nationality."

Elchibey issued a decree last week that guarantees the
rights of national minorities, but the president cautioned
however that it would tale several years to change
Azerbaijan's political culture and get Azeris truly used to
democratic values.

"The most important thing is achieving a ceasefire. We will
take help from anyone to achieve that goal. If France, the
United States and Britain decided to work together to stop
this business it would be over in three days," he said. "The
West is not preoccupied with this problem."

The ceasefire deal was settled on Sept. 19, at the Black Sea
resort of Sochi, Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev and
his Armenian and Azeri opposite numbers Vayzen Sarkossian
and Rahim Gazayev agreeing on a cease fire to take effect
today.

But senior aides to Elchibey said Gazayev did not have the
authority to sign the ceasefire agreement and suggested that
he may have actually undermined Azerbaijan's position. "The
defense minister exceeded his authority,"' he said.

 *****************************************************************************
A service of the Turkish Radio Hour. Producer of the Turkish
Cultural Program and the Orient Express.
    * To correspond with us, please use and trh@jack.sns.com
send a copy to TRH@MCIMAIL.COM.
    * You may subscribe to this news by sending the
following message to the following e-mail address. (Do not
send it to trknws-l.)

 e-mail address : listserv@uscvm.bitnet
 your command   : subscribe trknws-l yourname yourlastname

    * DO NOT HIDE YOUR NAME. THIS IS A CLOSED LIST. NOBODY
CAN REVIEW THE LIST WITH THE REVIEW COMMAND. HIDING YOUR
NAME CAUSES DIFFICULTY TO THE MAINTENANCE OF THE LIST.
    * Every Wednesday we delete from our distribution list
addresses with returned messages. If a message is returned
from your address due to a software or hardware problem,
please re-subscribe to the list.
    * If your account is closing, please do not forget to
delete your name from the list. For this send the following
command to listserv@uscvm.bitnet address:
    signoff trknws-l
*****************************************************************************

-- 
__________________________________________________________________
God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board
                -- Mark Twain
__________________________________________________________________