From: Guven.Guzeldere%STANFORD.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU (hq.ggg)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Saturday's News
Date: 14 Oct 92 03:51:04 GMT
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
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------------------------------------------------------------

    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.

_____________________________________________________________

    TURKISH GOVERNMENT WOULD LIKE TO SOLVE THE KURDISH PROBLEM WITHIN THE
    DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM
        09/07/92, MILLIYET-- Turkish prime minister Suleyman
    Demirel said his government would solve the Kurdish
    problem within the rules of democracy. He continued by
    saying that the government was trying to act within this
    domain.  If needed however, Mr. Demirel continued, his
    government would use all precautionary measures
    including marshall law, especially if the integrity of
    Turkish land becomes threatened.

    IRAQI KURDS AND TURKISH TROOPS ATTACK KURDISH TERRORIST CAMPS IN IRAQ
        09/07/92, SABAH-- Iraqi kurds continue their attacks
    on Marxist Kurdish Party (PKK) camps in northern Iraq,
    driving the PKK militants towards the Turkish border.
    Turkish troops, numbering 125,00 according to one
    Turkish official, are waiting for a land attack against
    PKK.  Turkish air force is on standby for an imminent
    air attack.

    PKK TAKES A BIG LOSS ON KURDISH AND TURKISH ATTACKS
        09/07/92, SABAH-- Iraqi kurds blocked Iraq's border
    with Syria and Iran to prevent PKK militants escape to
    those countries from the continued attack on their
    camps.  So far 62 PKK militants are reported killed with
    120 captured by the 20,000 Iraqi kurds.  Iraqi Kurdish
    representative in Ankara, Turkey, Safeen Dizai, said the
    attacks would continue until PKK was thrown out of
    northern Iraq.

    TURKISH GOVERNMENT IS AGAINST THE DIVISION OF CURRENT IRAQI LAND
        09/07/92, CUMHURIYET-- Following the announcement of
    the Kurdish federal state in Northern Iraq, three
    opposition groups consisting of Kurdish, Turkish and
    Arab opponents of Saddam Hussein move to form an
    alternative government for all of Iraq.  In the mean
    time, Turkish prime minister Suleyman Demirel said a
    divided Iraq in the Middle East would cause chaos in the
    region, and that his government prefers to maintain the
    current Iraqi land.

    TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER EXPLAINS HUMAN RIGHTS REFORM PACKAGE
        09/07/92, HURRIYET-- Turkish foreign minister Hikmet
    Cetin told European Council parliment members that his
    government was working on passing a human rights reform
    package from the national assembly.  He also cautioned
    against unrealistic expectations by saying that it would
    not be possible to change things overnight.  Mr. Cetin
    made his statements during the opening speech of the
    meeting, which he is presiding as the president for the
    current term.

    PENTAGON RECEIVES PERMISSION FROM CONGRESS TO COMPENSATE THE VICTIMS OF THE
    ACCIDENT DURING NATO EXERCISES
        09/07/92, SABAH-- Pentagon received permission from
    the US congress to compensate the victims of the naval
    accident during the Nato exercises, where a US ship
    fired two missiles on a Turkish ship, killing 5 people.
    Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said payments for
    damages caused to the ship was not required as part of
    the Nato bylaws.  He continued by saying that
    investigations were continuing to identify the cause of
    the accident.

    TURKEY RANKS 71 IN THE WORLD FOR HUMANITARIAN DEVELOPMENT
        09/07/92, TERCUMAN--  According to the 1992 United
    Nations world development report, Turkey ranked 71st
    among 160 countries.  Japan, which has been ranked
    number one in recent years ranked number 2, behind
    Canada this year.

    TURKEY STARTS AIR RAIDS ON PKK
        09/08/92, SABAH-- Turkish air force jets started
    bombing Northern Iraqi areas where the PKK terrorists
    attacked by Iraqi kurds are escaping towards.  The
    Turkish government announced that they would not allow
    Kurdish refugees enter Turkey this time, fearing that
    PKK militants may pose as refugees.  Iraqi Kurdish
    leader Barzani said they were determined to throw PKK
    out of the region.

    TURKISH PRIME MINISTER SAID HIS GOVERNMENT OPPOSES DISINTEGRATION OF IRAQ
        09/08/92, MILLIYET-- Turkish prime minister Suleyman
    Demirel said the Turkish Iraqi border should have passed
    from the bottom of the mountains not through the
    mountains.  He made his statements based on the fact
    that Mosoul was an Ottoman state in the past.  He also
    said his government opposed the idea of dividing up the
    current Iraqi land.  He continued his statements by
    saying that all of the commando units of Turkish armed
    forces were now at the Iraqi border, along with 10 cobra
    and 110 other helicopters.  54% of Turkish army is in
    the region to fight agains the Kurdish terrorists.

    NORTHERN CYPRUS LEADER DENKTAS SAID NO PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE ON CYPRUS
        09/08/92, MILLIYET-- President of the Turkish
    republic of Northern Cyprus, Rauf Denktas, said the
    meeting that shuld have taken place in Cyprus until
    October 26 has not taken place yet.  He said he was
    afraid the meeting would not take place, and the Turkish
    side would be brought to New York on October 26, and be
    forced to sign the Gali plan, with minor changes on the
    map proposed by Bhutros Gali, secretary general of the
    United Nations.  Turkish Cypriots had rejected the map
    in the earlier round of talks on the issue.

    NO AGREEMENT ON WATER BETWEEN TURKEY, SYRIA AND IRAQ
        09/08/92, CUMHURIYET-- Turkey, Iraq and Syria could
    not reach an agreement during the technical meetings in
    Damascus between 28 September and 2 October aimed at
    determining water demands of each country.  Turkish
    foreign ministry spokeswoman Filiz Dincmen said the
    disagreements have not been resolved over the water
    supply by Tigris and Euphrates rivers flowing through
    all three countries.

    TURKISH GOVERNMENT UPSET OVER THE US MILITARY AND
    ECONOMIC AID PACKAGE
        09/08/92, GUNAYDIN-- Turkish foreign ministry issued
    a statement saying that the 1993 aid from the United
    States has caused frustration as most of it has been
    converted to low interest loans, instead of aid.  The US
    administration had asked for 500 million dollar of aid,
    and 43 million dollar of low interest loans.  The
    congress however converted the package into 450 million
    dollar low interest loan, and 125 million dollar
    economic aid.

TURKEY'S CENSORSHIP BY BULLETS INFURIATES OPPOSITION MEDIA
    ISTANBUL, (OCT. 2) - A call by Turkish government
leaders and military men for a "total war" against the
separatist guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
is also resulting in a new offensive against opposition
media in Turkey.
    The government and the army are responding to media
criticism for its conduct in the Kurdish areas of south-east
Turkey by taking steps to bring the press into line and get
their backing for a "propaganda war" against the PKK.
    Where this fails they are resorting to banning orders
and arresting journalists reporting for opposition papers.
    The developments followed a thinly veiled warning in a
communique Sept. 25 from the Turkish National Security
Council (MGK) against "mass organizations and the mass
media" said to be allegedly conducting "activities damaging
the integrity of the country and the unity of the state."
    Yahya Kocoglu, a reporter for the ANKA press agency
interpreted the declaration as "censorship by bullets." He
said the MGK was trying to generate an atmosphere of fear.
Yurdagul Erkoca, of the daily "Cumhuriyet" described it as
"a threat aimed at cowing large sections of the public."
    The call -- implying further restrictions on Turkey's
ailing democracy -- was triggered in part by the bloodiest
clash yet in the eight year conflict between Ankara and the
Kurdish guerrillas.
    The government says 174 PKK guerrillas and 29 security
troops were killed in a two day battle outside the town of
Semdinli in Hakkari, south-east Turkey. The PKK's official
organ "Berdxewan" says that 190 security personnel and six
guerrillas died.
    As the attack began Turkish Chief of Staff General Dogan
Gures and the editors-in-chief of the country's top
newspapers were visiting the area with the aim of
"displaying the determination of the armed forces to quell
the separatist violence."
    The same weekend the banning of four opposition
publications -- the left-wing "Gercek" and the pro-Kurdish
"Yeni Ulke" along with the left wing monthlies "Mucadele"
and "Emegin Bayragi" -- further underlined MGK determination
to fight the PKK "on all fronts."
    The MGK is a constitutional consultative body for
security affairs comprised of the chief of staff, commanders
of the Navy, Army, Air Forces and the para-military
Gendarmerie, the MGK's military general-secretary, President
Turgut Ozal, Demirel and his senior cabinet ministers.
    "The government and the parliament has submitted before
the MGK," said law lecturer Attila Nalbant, from Marmara
University. "The MGK in fact, has full constitutional right
to advise the government in terms of nationwide security
issues.
    "However this abstract right in the constitution is
balanced by the authority of the government and the
parliament. But neither the government nor the parliament
show willingness to challenge the extraordinary power
invested in the military," he said.
    The MGK warning was also directed against the People's
Labor Party (HEP). Ten top HEP leaders, including former
chair Feridun Yazar, were detained and charged with allowing
pro-PKK demonstrations during the recent HEP national
congress.
    Not all the media were willing to take the state line
like Ertugrul Ozkok, of Turkey's second largest daily
"Hurriyet," who called for a "massive psychological war
against the PKK."
    Yazgulu Aldogan of "Yeni Gunaydin" criticized the
publishers' tour of the conflict zone under the wing of the
military. "The publishers were brought there with the aim of
controlling the rank and file journalists from above --just
as it was during military rule. This is nothing but
restructuring the press on hierarchical military model," she
wrote.
    Journalists' associations were cautious. Orhan Erinc,
president of the Turkish Journalists Union, told that "we
need to wait for the government's reaction (to the MGK
communique) to see if anything new is about to take place."
    Over 150 articles within the country's penal and media
laws grant the authorities power to ban publications and
detain journalists -- even to confiscate printing presses.
    Celal Toprak of the Contemporary Journalists Association
said that the MGK communique would seem to demand even more
draconian authority. "Even so, should new legal arrangements
be called for the Parliament and not the MGK should be the
source of them."
    Merdan Yanardag of the daily strongly anti-government
"Gundem" -- who have lost four reporters and a leading
columnist to unidentified assassins -- saw the communique
"as the termination of the democratization process" as
pledged by the protocol establishing Demirel's coalition
government in November 1991.
    "Now the initiative is no longer with the government but
in the MGK," concludes Yanardag.
    Sukru Gulmus, editor in chief of the weekly "Yeni Ulke"
was defiant: "The MGK communique is a blow at the struggle
for democracy being waged in Turkey," he said.
    "However, we shall go on publishing tomorrow in the
consistent fashion as we did yesterday. Should they close
Yeni Ulke (The New Country), then we shall bring out the
Ozgur Ulke (The Free Country)."
    Werner van Gent of Swiss Radio and chair of the Foreign
Press Association wryly described the Turkish media's
acquiescence in the face of state pressure as the behavior
of "good schoolboys" who "learn very quickly what they are
wanted to say."
    Seyfi Ongider, from the "Ozgur Gundem" added that in any
case "only a few papers went beyond the official
explanations to investigate what is really going on in the
south-east."
    Comparing Switzerland, Greece and Turkey Gent said that
in all three the state tries to control or at least
manipulate the press.
    "However," Gent adds "while in Switzerland the press
shrugs its shoulders, in Greece they care about the official
truth a little bit. But in Turkey the situation is three or
four times worse in terms of independent journalism."

    BUSH EXPRESSES REGRETS TO TURKEY OVER MISSILE ACCIDENT
THAT KILLED FIVE
    WASHINGTON (OCT. 2) - President Bush expressed his
regets to Turkish officials Friday for a naval accident in
which a missile fired from the U.S. aircraft carrier
Saratoga slammed into the bridge of a Turkish destroyer,
killing the captain and four crew members and wounding 14
others.
    The White House said Bush called Turkish President
Turgot Ozal and Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel to express
his ''sorrow and regret for this unfortunate and tragic
accident.''
    A U.S. Navy board of inquiry was convened to investigate
the incident in which one of two Sea Sparrow missiles fired
from the Saratoga struck the bridge of the Turkish destroyer
Muavenet late Thursday and set it on fire.
    Bush promised Ozal and Demirel there would be a ''full
and complete investigation'' and expressed his ''profound
sympathy for the families of the victims,'' aides said.
    Gen. John Shalikashvili, the U.S. NATO commander, and
Acting Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger also
expressed regrets. The State Department said the government
will discuss the ''question of compensation and assistance''
with the Turkish government.
    The Saratoga and the Muavenet were about three miles in
the Aegean Sea about 80 miles west of the Turkish port of
Izmir and participating in a NATO naval exercise.
    The Sea Sparrow is an antiaircraft weapon and is not
intended for use against ships.
    The missile, which is derived from the Sparrow air-to-
air missile carried by fighter aircraft, is normally fired
in pairs. Each missile is about six feet long and has a
warhead weighing up to 100 pounds. It has a range of about
10 miles.
    ''Accidents big or small occasionally happen in such
exercies,'' Turkey's defense minister, Nevzat Ayaz, said
Friday. ''It requires a lot of attention and carefulness not
to allow these things to occur.
    ''Of course the fact that this has happened by mistake
lessens our sorrow. Should it have been deliberate it would
have added to our sorrow.''
    The office of the chief of general staff identified the
ship's commander as Lt. Col. Kudret Gungar.
    Other U.S. Naval vessels participating in the exercise,
including the Saratoga  the frigate USS Thomas Gates, and
the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, came to the aid of
the stricken Turkish ship, helped extinguish the fire and
evacuate casulaties.
    The Muavenet actually began its service as a U.S.
warship commissioned in 1944 as the USS Gwin. The destroyer
was transferred to Turkey in 1971.
    The bodies of the five dead crewmen were transferred to
Turkish custody in a ceremony aboard the Saratoga Friday and
were flown to the mainland escorted by a U.S. Navy and
Marine Corps honor guard, a spokesman for the European
Command said.
    Five of the wounded Turkish sailors were being treated
aboard the Saratoga and one was flown to Izmir by medical
evacution helicopter. The others were treated aboard the
carrier and then returned to their ship, which was towed to
Izmir.
    The exercise was suspended in the immediate area of the
firing, but will continue elsewhere in the Aegean with the
Saratoga still participating.
    The chief of Naval operations, Adm. Frank Kelso, told
CNN the live firing was not part of the exercise. Kelso said
he had never heard of such an accident involving a Sea
Sparrow missile in his 37-year Navy career.
    ''You wouldn't expect anything like this,'' he said.
''Not with this particular missile.''

    WASHINGTON POST, N.Y. TIMES: HUMAN ERROR PROBABLE CAUSE
FOR NAVAL ACCIDENT
    (OCT. 3) - Both the Washington Post and the New York
Times report today human error was probably to blame for the
accidental firing of a missile from a U.S. aircraft carrier
Thursday that struck a Turkish ship.  The commander and four
other crew members were killed aboard the Turkish vessel.
President Bush has promised the Turkish government a full
investigation.

    TURKEY REPORTS NINE KILLED IN CLASH WITH KURDISH REBELS
AND SECURITY FORCES
    ANKARA (OCT. 4) - Nine rebels died in clashes Sunday
between Turkish security forces and guerrillas of the
Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) near Dereler in the south-east
Anatolian province Sirnak, state-run TRT radio reported.
    At least ten persons suspected of active support for the
PKK had been arrested in the same area, the radio said,
quoting official sources.
    The town of Kulp in Diyarbakir province was reported
without power following fighting on Saturday and many houses
and public buildings were seriously damaged, the radio
added. No estimate of casualties was given.

    COUNCIL OF EUROPE INVITES CIS REPRESENTATIVES TO
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW FORUM
    PARIS (OCT. 5) - A MEETING WHICH IS BEING ORGANISED AT
THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE'S INITIATIVE IN ISTANBUL FROM OCTOBER
8 TO 10 WILL ADDRESS ISSUES OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND
PROBLEMS OF BUILDING A LAW-GOVERNED STATE. THE MEETING WILL
BRING TOGETHER THE MOST EMINENT EUROPEAN LAWYERS, WHO ARE
MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR DEMOCRACY THROUGH
LAW, AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CIS COUNTRIES AND GEORGIA,
SAYS A COMMUNIQUE BY THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE RELEASED IN
STRASBOURG TODAY.
    THE COMMUNIQUE SAYS THAT THE MEETING, WHICH WILL ALSO BE
ATTENDED BY TURKISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER ERDAL JNONU AND
COUNCIL OF EUROPE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY CHIEF MIGUEL ANGEL
MARTINEZ, WILL ENABLE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CIS COUNTRIES
AND GEORGIA TO TELL ABOUT THE SITUATION IN THE FIELD OF THE
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW IN THEIR COUNTRIES AND FAMILIARISE
THEMSELVES BETTER WITH EXPERIENCE GAINED IN THIS FIELD BY
WESTERN COUNTRIES.

    TURKEY REPORTEDLY CLOSE TO INTERVENING IN INTER-KURD WAR
INSIDE IRAQ
    ANKARA (OCT. 6) - Turkey massed troops Tuesday on the
border with Iraq, ready to crush rebel Turkish Kurds who are
locked in a growing war with the Kurds of northern Iraq.
    Sources at the Turkish armed forces command said the
troops might enter Iraq in a ''hammer and anvil'' operation
against the rebels. The source said this would be justified
because it would prevent the fighting ''spilling onto
Turkish territory''.
    Some 6,000 Kurdish peshmergas (militiamen) are massed in
northern Iraq to eject 2,500 to 3,000 militants of the
Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) from the autonomous Kurdish
zone, according to Ankara spokesmen of the two main Kurdish
parties in Iraq.
    While the inter-Kurd war serves Ankara's interests best,
the peshmergas also had the support of the local population,
said the representatives of the Democratic Party of
Kurdistan (DPK) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
    The Marxist PKK is trying to win independence for
Turkey's Kurdish-populated areas and is outlawed inside
Turkey. The Iraqi Kurds have been warning the PKK for weeks
to either stop launching guerrilla attacks on Turkey from
Iraqi territory or to get out.
    PKK fighters ignored an ultimatum from the peshmergas
demanding that the PKK pull back from positions in northern
Iraq close to the border with Turkey. It expired late
Monday.
    Serchil Khazas, a spokesman for the PUK, claimed in
Ankara that PKK units that had been based inside Iran had
been rushed to the scene of the fighting, with Teheran
allegedly turning a blind eye.
    Khazas said it was uncertain how many had died in the
fighting. Turkish newspapers claimed Tuesday at least 30 PKK
men and 25 peshmergas had died, with much heavier casualties
likely Tuesday.
    Despite Ankara's evident approval of the peshmergas
campaign, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman described
moves by Kurds in Iraq to set up a Kurdish republic that
would merely be part of an Iraqi federation as ''a dangerous
development''.
    Turkey said Tuesday that it supported a ''democratic and
free Iraq'' in which representatives of all ethnic groups,
regardless of their heritage, language and religion, were
responsible for the territorial integrity of the country.
    The alternative would be a danger to democracy in the
area, said the Foreign Ministry spokesman.
    The PKK has been waging an eight-year-old guerrilla war
against Turkey with the aim of establishing an independent
Kurdistan.
    In a related development, the Turkoman people of
northern Iraq appealed for the United Nations protected zone
in northern Iraq to be extended southwards to include their
homeland.
    Muzaffer Arslan, general secretary of the Turkoman
National Party, said in Ankara the boundary of protection
should be shifted southwards from the 36th parallel to 34
degrees' latitude.
    He said the one million Turkomans were scared they would
be massacred by the army of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Many Turkoman villages had been surrounded by Iraqi troops
and 2,500 Turkomen had been taken hostage last week in Iraqi
barracks.
    Arslan said Turkomans were not opposed to a federated
Iraq, as sought by the Kurdish parliament in its latest
resolution, but believed the same right to set up autonomous
republics should be available to Iraq's other ethnic
minorities.
    State-run TRT television of Turkey said Tuesday night
that about 16,000 peshmergas were locked in combat with
about 8,000 PKK men along the whole Iraqi border with
Turkey, but there were no casualty figures yet.
    A PUK official at Habur border post said Tuesday evening
that at least 60 PKK men had died. TRT said the Turkish
armed forces were do ''everything necessary'' to protect
Turkish territory.

    TROOPS OF NATION OF GEORGIA ON THE RUN AFTER LOSING
ABKHAZIA BATTLE
    MOSCOW (OCT. 6) - Georgian troops lost a major battle
overnight in the secessionist region of Abkhazia and
immediately blamed the southern Russian groups that have
reportedly been aiding the rebels.
    About 300 Georgian personnel abandoned their heavy
weapons and took refuge in the mountains, while the news
agency ITAR-TASS said Tuesday 200 more were chased by
Abkhazian units across the border into Russia where they
were interned, then flown to Tbilisi, Georgia.
    Elsewhere in the troubled south of the Commonwealth of
Independent States, Azeri forces attempted to recapture the
Lachin Corridor that links Armenia with Nagorny Karabakh.
    The Azerbaijan news agency Turan said some had
penetrated Lachin town. Other Azeri sources said the
Armenians were bombarding nearby villages that Azerbaijan
recaptured. Armenia seized the corridor in May.
    Russia said it would pull all its troops out of the
Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, which is locked in
civil war. President Boris Yeltsin told parliament the 201st
Division in Tajikistan had been reinforced solely to secure
a corridor for a safe withdrawal.
    Both sides in the Tajik civil war are trying to seize
the Russians' arms dumps.
    The Georgians' reverse prompted Tbilisi President Eduard
Shevardnadze to blame ''reactionary circles'' in Russia. He
claimed they were out to ruin this Sunday's elections in
Georgia, in which Shevardnadze is the sole candidate for
president.
    But Shevardnadze said he could not believe that Yeltsin
himself supported the rebels. The Georgian leader said all
efforts to settle the conflict with the Abkhazians
peacefully had been exhausted now.
    News agencies said the Abkhazians launched an offensive
late Monday that ended in the capture of Leselidze town and
nearby Gantiadi.
    While ITAR-TASS quoted Abkhazians saying casualties had
been few on either side, unconfirmed reports spoke of
hundreds of dead from the fighting.
    The Tbilisi Defence Ministry claimed Russia was
supporting the rebels and said Moscow was responsible for
''hundreds of dead, thousands of refugees and abandoned
ruins''. Pro-Abkhazian ethnic warriors from Russia are
reportedly fighting on the rebel side.
    The defence ministry alleged Russian paratroopers were
helping the rebels. Shevardnadze said Monday that his
country was on the verge of war with Russia because of the
conflict.
    Yeltsin told parliament in Moscow Tuesday that all
Russian troops based in Abkhazia and Georgia were observing
strict neutrality.
    More than 25,000 refugees have fled the fighting to
Russia, with reports saying 2,400 streamed over the Psou
River after the fall of Gantiadi and Leselidze.
    Georgian ships picked up some of the refugees at the
Russian Black Sea port of Adler and took them to Poti on the
Georgian coast.
    Ethnic Georgians in the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi were
reported to be fleeing to Georgia proper in fear of
maltreatment by Abkhazians.
    The oil pipeline that links the oilfields of Azerbaijan
to the Black Sea port of Batumi was blown up Tuesday near
the Georgian town of Lanchkhuti, the Russian Information
Agency (RIA) reported.
    It said a fountain of oil 30 metres high was shooting
into the air. It was not known who had planted the bomb.
    Panic was meanwhile reported among the ethnic Georgians
still living in Abkhazia. In the city of Ochamchire on the
coast, city council officials said people were demanding
buses to flee, with Abkhazian units only two kilometres from
the city.
    Yeltsin said in Moscow that Russian troops would take
control of the coastal railway line through Abkhazia from
the Russian border to the border with Georgia proper.
    The Russian president is due to meet Shevardnadze and
Abkhazian parliamentary speaker Vladislav Ardzinba on
October 13.

    TURKISH SECURITY FORCES KILL AT LEAST SIX KURDISH
GUERRILLAS IN NIGHT CLASHES
    ANKARA (OCT. 7) - At least six guerrillas of the Kurdish
Workers' Party (PKK) were killed Tuesday night during
clashes with security forces in the southeast Turkish
province Kahramanmaras, the Anadolu news agency reported
Wednesday.
    It said security forces had begun a large-scale
offensive in the region after eight civilians were killed in
PKK attacks.

    BRITISH AND AZERBAIJANIS SEARCH VOLCANOS FOR NEW SOURCES
OF OIL
    SHEMAKHA (OCT. 7) - REPRESENTITIVES FROM THE "BRITISH
PETROLEUM" FIRM ARRIVED IN AZERBAIJAN WEDNESDAY TO JOIN
AZERI GEOLOGISTS IN EXPLORING THE COUNTRY'S MUD VOLCANOS FOR
NEW SOURCES OF CRUDE OIL. THE SCIENTISTS LAUNCHED A WEEK-
LONG EXPEDITION IN SHEMAKHA.
    "BRITISH PETROLEUM'S INTEREST IN MUD VOLCANOS IS NOT
ACCIDENTAL," SAID GEOLOGIST RADIG RAKHMANOV, DIRECTOR OF THE
GEOLOGY LABORATORY AT AZERBAIJAN'S ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. "THE
FOREIGN INVESTIGATORS ARE INTERESTED IN STUDYING THE
GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THIS NATURAL PHENONMENON."
    AZERBAIJAN, ACCORDING TO RAKHMANOV, HAS MORE THAN 200
MUD VOLCANOS THROUGHOUT THE REPUBLIC, ON LAND AND ON THE
CASPIAN SEA, WHICH ARE NATURAL WELLS IN THE EARTH'S CRUST.
    THE JOINT EXPEDITION WILL FOCUS ON THE VOLCANOS OF THE
SHEMAKHA-GOBUSTRANSKY ZONE FOR A WEEK, AFTER WHICH THEY WILL
EXAMINE THE MATERIALS JUST COLLECTED FROM THE ERUPTION OF
THE VOLCANO "BAKHAR." RESEARCHERS ARE MOST INTERESTED IN THE
GEOCHEMICAL DATA, HE ADDED.

    AZERBAIJAN TO LEAVE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES
    MOSCOW (OCT. 7) - Azerbaijan will leave the Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS), the Caucasus republic's
National Council ruled on Wednedsday with 43 to 1 votes, the
Azerbaijani news agency Turan reported.
    President Abulfaz Elchibey told parliament that
Azerbaijan would not sever all ties with the CIS. Azerbaijan
would remain in the CIS as an observer or an associate
member, he said.
    A treaty on bilateral cooperation would be signed with
Russian President Boris Yeltsin on October 12, Elchibey said
further. A similar agreement would follow with Ukraine in
the near future.
    The Azerbaijani leader said he did not reject the CIS
primarily because it had bleak propects.
    He criticised the Commonwealth of Independent States for
representing a chance to survive for ''post-communist
regimes'' in Central Asia, noting that as a result, these
republics were the most enthusiastic members of the CIS.

    TURKISH BUSINESSMEN TURNED OFF BY AZERBAIJAN'S
INVESTMENT CLIMATE
    ISTANBUL, (OCT. 7) - With Turkey taking the lead in
opening up Central Asia and the Caucasus to Western
businessmen, Turkish businessmen have written off Azerbaijan
as long as recently elected President Abulfez Elchibey
remains in power.
    Elchibey's failure to create a basic legal environment
for foreign businessmen, and, the Turkish businessmen
charge, his government's inability to even grasp the
fundamentals of a market economy are turning off foreign
investment.
    Turkish businessmen say they have thus switched their
focus to other former Soviet republics in Central Asia,
primarily Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
    Disappointment over Azerbaijan's unwillingness to open
up its economy follows months of lobbying by Turkish
businessmen during which Elchibey is said to have pledged
that he would take the necessary steps of market reform.
    It coincides with a growing sense among Azeri
businessmen that the business climate in their country has
deteriorated sharply since Elchibey came to power last
spring.
    Azeri businessman Namek Askarov has moved offices in
Baku for the fourth time recently because every time he
invests in a building, he claims it is requisitioned by the
government.
    "The government declares privatisation but in practice
does nothing. Their goal is to maintain power and control.
They'll do anything for that. If I compare business
conditions now and under the previous government it has
gotten worse now," Askarov says sitting in his makeshift
office in a private apartment.
    Bulent Semiler, executive director of Impexbank and one
of Turkey's most prominent businessmen, says that despite
the ongoing war against Armenia for the disputed Nagorno-
Karabakh enclave, Turkish investors were willing to take the
risk -- once the buisiness climate is right.
    "The unsettled situation in Azerbaijan would not deter
us. Banks, oil companies, consumer product companies, they
would all go into Azerbaijan, but you have to have the right
environment. Elchibey has lost his chance, he's in total
chaos," says Semiler.
    His comments came after failed attempts to establish a
bank in Azerbaijan and after intensive talks with Elchibey
during a week-long visit to Baku during which he stayed at
the president's guest house.
    Semiler said the for Azerbaijan to reestablish its
credibility in the eyes of foreign investors, it would have
to recruit western-trained Azerbaijanis living abroad or
experts from international organisations like the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP).
    Turkish banker Aktan Serdar compares Elchibey to
Emiliano Zapata, the turn-of-the century Mexican
revolutionary. "The new Azeri leaders are no different. They
don't know how to run a state and they don't how to pass a
law, " he says.
    Serdar recalls an attempt to finance the export through
Turkey of Azerbaijani copper. "They wouldn't allow the
export of copper because that was depriving them of their
national wealth. They suggested we re-export Russian copper
through Azerbaijan. We told them that they could earn badly-
needed money. They don't understand it, they're childish,"
he says.
    Another prominent Turkish businessman recalls inviting
an Azeri minister to his house in the U.S. In a shopping
mall, the minister saw a Turkish shop and expressed
satisfaction that the Turkish government had opened a shop
in the U. S. Told that the shop was privately owned, as was
the whole mall, the minister reportedly exclaimed: "What?
This is not run by the American government?"
    Unlike other former Soviet republics, Azerbaijan has yet
to pass laws on privatisation, trade and real estate. As a
result letters of credit by Azeri banks are not accepted
internationally and all trade occurs on a cash basis.
    "I've given up hope with this government. You visit
Kazakhstan or Uzebekistan and they show you factories. You
visit Azerbaijan and they show you museums. Azerbaijan does
not have a single graduate in business administration," says
Semiler throwing his arms up into the air.
    Semiler knows what he is talking about when he insists
that Azerbaijan bring in Azeris from abraod or international
experts.
    At age 30 he was brought in 1984 to Turkey by then Prime
Minister Turgut Ozal, to help restructure the Turkish
banking system. A Turkish Cypriot by birth, a special
Cabinet meeting had to grant him Turkish citizenship.
    "We knew nobody when I arrived in Turkey. We had no
political affiliations and no business connections, we
didn't know the laws. I went for a week to a Club Med on the
coast to study the law and came back and said, these laws
are ridiculous. The Azeris have to do something similar.
Local Azeris are either scientists or artists. You can't run
a country like that," he says.
    Says a Western diplomat: "This place (Azerbaijan) is
warped. The question is whether that's how Azeris are, or
whether they have been skewed by the Soviet system."

    TURKEY SIGNS TRAVEL COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH SOVIET
KAZAKHSTAN
    ALMA ATA (OCT. 8) - A MEETING BETWEEN DELEGATIONS OF
KAZAKHSTAN'S MINISTRY OF TOURISM, PHYSICAL TRAINING AND
SPORTS AND THE TURKISH MINISTRY OF TOURISM TOOK PLACE HERE
ON THURSDAY.
    KAZAKHSTAN HAS UNIQUE NATURAL CONDITIONS FOR BECOMING A
"SECOND SWITZERLAND" AND TURNING TOURISM INTO A LUCRATIVE
BRANCH OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY, SPEAKERS AT THE MEETING
POINTED OUT. TURKEY, WHICH HAS YEARS-LONG AUGMENTED
EXPERIENCE IN TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS, IS PREPARED TO RENDER
ALL-ROUND ASSISTANCE.
    AS A RESULT OF THE TALKS, THE TWO SIDES SIGNED AN
AGREEMENT ON COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF TOURISM. IT
ENVISAGES CLOSE COOPERATION IN THIS FIELD ON A MUTUALLY
BENEFICIAL AND LONG-TERM  BASIS.
    TURKEY INTENDS TO GIVE MUCH ASSISTANCE TO THE REPUBLIC
IN THE DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTION OF HOTELS, MOTELS AND
CAMPINGS, THE PRODUCTION OF THE NECESSARY TOURIST EQUIPMENT
AND REQUISITES, THE MANIFACTURE OF ADVERTISING PRODUCTS, AND
THE TRAINING OF  PERSONNEL.

    C.I.S. SUMMIT STRUGGLES WITH MILITARY, ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
    BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN (OCT. 9) - Leaders of the
Commonwealth of Independent States convened a summit Friday
in hopes of edging the flagging community toward closer
military and economic union.
    But the C.I.S. presidents met under a cloud, with the
most intractible problem - solving relations between member
states - far from resolution.
    Ukraine - which still sees the C.I.S. as an ''instrument
for civilized divorce'' following last year's collapse of
the Soviet Union - still wants more control over strategic
nuclear weapons on its territory.
    Such demands come despite Ukraine's pledges to transfer
all nuclear weapons to Russia, as well as Kiev's stated
desire to become a non- nuclear power.
    Nonetheless, Ukraine still insists on administrative
control of its weapons.
    ''We want to have the right to block the launching of
missiles, not to launch them ourselves,'' Ukrainian
President Leonid Kravchuk said as he arrived in the Kyrgyz
capital of Bishkek.
    The C.I.S.'s two other nuclear republics, Kazakhstan and
Belarus, have already allowed Russia to take control of
their nations' nuclear arsenals.
    But at a preliminary meeting of defense ministers in
Bishkek this week, Russia's defense chief warned that
Ukraine's nuclear weapons appeared to be practically owner-
less.
    He also threatened to interrupt the summit and press the
issue unless the C.I. S. presidents resolved the matter
themselves.
    The C.I.S. leaders came together following a week of
lobbying by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who
has proposed ways of re- establishing crumbling economic
links between the republics.
    Nazarbayev also wants to reintergrate laggard C.I.S.
nations who have been pushed to the margins of the
organization - effectively creating a two-tiered
commonwealth.
    The Kazakh leader has proposed a coordinating council to
work out a common economic policy for the C.I.S. - a
suggestion which prompted charges that Nazarbayev wants to
create a new confederation out of the present loose
alliance.
    Under Nazarbayev's proposal, the council would create a
common market of capital and labor - working out joint
fiscal, tax and monetary policies for all C.I.S. states that
still use the ruble.
    However, leaders Friday scaled down the Kazakh
president's plan, deciding instead to form an economic
consulting body with vague functions - a pale imitation of
Nazarbayev's model of a council with wide powers to
coordinate policy.
    Still, the leaders did agree to a Russian proposal to
form an interstate banking union, which would print money,
issue credit and control currency circulation in the entire
''ruble zone.''
    However, this reinforcement of the ruble zone will
squeeze out states like Ukraine, which have made moves to
introduce their own currencies - and want an independent
banking system free of central control.
    Ukraine, along with Moldova, has also failed to ratify a
joint security pact which would lead to closer military ties
among C.I.S. members.
    In other matters, the presidents abruptly cancelled
plans to discuss the situation in Tadzhikistan, where a
political struggle between an Islamic-democratic alliance
and forces loyal to ex-President Rakhmon Nabiyev has turned
into inter-clan civil war.
    Kyrgyzstan this week dispatched 80 peacekeeping troops
to the troubled region, and C.I.S. forces have been sent to
reinforce border troops on the Tadzhik-Afghanistan frontier.
    However, at the request of Tadzhik representives, C.I.S.
leaders - without explanation - Friday withdrew the issue
from the summit's agenda.
    Still, the matter of C.I.S. external borders remained
high on the discussion list.
    Central Asian leaders like Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan
are castigating Turkmenistan for its open frontier with
neighboring Iran.
    Friday, Karimov said Iranians cross into Turkmenistan,
then freely enter other Central Asian republics.
    Separately, the republics agreed to create a television
and radio company encompassing all C.I.S. members -
signaling an attempt to create a single information agency
throughout the former Soviet Union.
    Leaders of 10 former Soviet republics attended Friday's
summit.
    Azerbaijan, whose former president initially signed his
country into the C.I.S. , sent an observer.
    The nation's Parliament this week overwhelmingly voted
not to remain a full member of the commonwealth.
    Georgia, the only republic not to join the C.I.S. when
the Soviet Union split up, also sent observers.

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