From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News--5 jan
Date: 6 Jan 1993 00:42:27 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

 01/04 TURKISH PLAN TO PAY HOUSEWIVES MET WITH
       SUSPICION
 01/04 Turkey Praises START II Treaty
 01/02 Police Clash With Ethnic Serbs
 01/02 Report Details Kurd Decimation

01/04 1454  TURKISH PLAN TO PAY HOUSEWIVES MET WITH
SUSPICION

ISTANBUL (JAN. 4) IPS - A plan by the Turkish government to
promote the rights of women has aroused conflicting
reactions.
   Although the motive for revising some 54 laws relating to
equality between the sexes is generally appreciated, a
proposal to pay women for the housework they do is seen as
playing into the hands of private insurance companies.
   While the draft legislation submitted by Turkan Akyol,
the minister responsible for women and social welfare, is
awaiting parliamentary debate, the ministry is conducting a
series of surveys to authenticate its proposed reforms.
   These aim at the economic and social protection of women
and challenge men's traditional position as head of the
family. Under the draft bill, family members will no longer
be obliged to disclose their personal earnings to each other
and women will no longer require their husbands' consent to
work.
   The law which stipulates a lower penalty for rapists
whose victim was a prostitute, is also to be revoked.
   Property and goods acquired during a marriage used to be
almost exclusively considered as belonging to the husband,
but this too is to be replaced by a system of joint
ownership.
   On the whole, all these moves have been met with a
positive reaction from Turkish women. However, a proposal to
introduce retirement insurance for housewives has been met
with suspicion, both for its feasibility and its
accessibility for women who really need it.
   Akyol has said that all housework tasks performed by
women are to be rated according to market standards so that
women can be "included in the production process."
   Once the total monthly value of a woman's housework has
been calculated, she will be assigned into an insurance
category according to the duration of her marriage. This
will then be used as a basis for future pension payments.
   The recent debate on the authenticity of the new
legislation was sparked off by this proposal and, more
specifically, the entry of private insurance companies onto
the market.
   Erkan Pekmezci, a lawyer who specializes in business law,
criticizes the proposed insurance system as totally alien to
the principles of a welfare state.
   In a welfare state, all social security services should
be provided by the state to prevent private profit-making,
says Pekmezci.
   The draft legislation does not even recommend that the
state acts as a mediator between the private companies and
those that wish to buy retirement insurance, he adds.
   Under the government's scheme, husbands will have to pay
their wives' insurance premiums, a system which will merely
place a greater strain on low-income families, say opponents
of the proposal.
   Ayse Gulenay is married to a man on the national minimum
salary of $120 per month. "My husband's wage does not cover
our basic needs. If the state wants to do something
worthwhile, it should do it itself."
   Doorman Necati Ozkan is surprised when he hears about the
proposal: "Why should I pay insurance for my wife? Of course
she does the washing and the dishes. One doesn't pay for
these things. If the state wants that, it should pay for
them."
   Writer and actress Fusun Erbulak claims the draft
legislation degrades women. "Housework is mindless labor.
This proposal does not open the way for this sort of work to
be shared by men, to the contrary... It is almost as if
women are seen as having been born to do the dishes and the
laundry."
   "What is needed is unemployment insurance. Housework is
not work proper," she adds.
   The government's desire for half of the population to buy
insurance is simply a way of bolstering the private
insurance businesses, claims writer and singer Bilgesu
Erenus.
   Gulnur Savran, one of the leaders of Turkey's feminist
movement, agrees, adding. "First and foremost this
constitutes an additional financial burden on the family
budget...
   "And then comes the question of single housewives. How
will they pay the insurance premiums? It would be better for
the state to allocate funds for single women and mothers."
   Mustafa Dum of Halk Sigorta, a private insurance company,
adds that the present system already allows all those who
want to buy insurance settlements from private companies to
do so. He notes though, that his agency is currently
preparing a campaign targeting the women.
   Meanwhile, ministry officials decline to comment on the
matter, saying that they are preparing a detailed evaluation
which will be ready in a couple of weeks.

01/04 Turkey Praises START II Treaty

   ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey on Monday hailed the START
II Treaty and called for complementary steps on a global
scale.
   A foreign ministry statement said the slashing of the
strategic stockpiles should be carried out before 2003
deadline.
   Expressing worry about proliferation of nuclear weapons
and the "passage of nuclear technology or weapons material
to unwanted hands," the statement urged "particular vigil in
this respect in regard to certain very sensitive regions of
the world."
   In the past years, Turkey has denied helping Pakistan
acquire equipment used in the manufacture of nuclear
weapons.



01/02 Police Clash With Ethnic Serbs

   SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) -- Police clashed with rioting
ethnic Serbs when they tried to remove portraits of Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic and other nationalists,
according to a report Saturday.
   The melee, in which one policeman and five Serbs were
slightly injured, occurred minutes after midnight on New
Year's Eve in Kuceviste, a Serb-inhabited village, 10 miles
north of the Macedonian capital Skopje.
   The clash was the most serious involving Macedonia's
ethnic Serb minority since the republic declared its
independence in September last year. Ultra-nationalists in
Serbia have laid claim to parts of Macedonia, especially the
border region of Skopska Crna Gora, where Kuciste is
located.
   It appeared to follow the pattern of similar clashes
between police and ethnic Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina in 1991 and 1992. Those were followed by armed
action by Serb militants supported by the Yugoslav army and
the Serb occupation of large areas of those republics in
subsequent warfare.
   About 150 Serb youths attacked policemen and firemen
trying to remove a Yugoslav flag and portraits of Milosevic
and Serbian militia leaders Vojislav Seselj and "Arkan" from
a merry-go-round in the village, a police report said.
   Seselj and Arkan -- his real name is Zeljko Raznjatovic -
- have been named as potential war criminals by U.S.
Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger for actions carried
out by their paramilitary groups in the war in Bosnia.

01/02 Report Details Kurd Decimation

   CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A report by two American human
rights groups on Iraq's destruction of a Kurdish village
accuses Saddam Hussein's government of crimes against
humanity and says Baghdad should be brought to trial.
   Middle East Watch, based in New York, and Physicians for
Human Rights, based in Boston, issued the report Sunday,
detailing the decimation of Koreme, Iraq, in late August
1988.
   It alleges the systematic destruction of the village, the
murder of many of its men and boys, and the herding of its
women and young children into a death camp. The report
quotes "numerous accounts" that soldiers responded to camp
inmates' pleas for food, water and shelter by saying:
"Saddam has sent you here to die."
   In an accompanying statement, the human rights groups
said the world must act quickly to counter "stepped up
intimidation against the autonomous Kurdish zone" in
northern Iraq.
   The U.S.-led allies set up the zone as a haven for Kurds
after the Gulf War. Baghdad has imposed an economic embargo
on the region.
   Koreme was among the last villages targeted by the Iraqi
army in its "al-Anfal" drive against the Kurds, a campaign
named for a Koranic passage describing Islam's fight against
infidels.
   The report by the human rights groups said Koreme's fate
was indicative of most of an estimated 4,000 Kurdish
villages laid waste in the campaign, which lasted for most
of 1988.
   News organizations have reported many of the al-Anfal
atrocities under Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam's cousin
and defense minister who is known as "the butcher of the
Kurds."
   But the new study uses archaeology, anthropology,
forensic pathology and other disciplines to draw conclusions
that the authors say "would be accepted by a court of law
operating in conformity with internationally accepted
standards of due process."
   They charge Iraq's government, army and ruling Ba'ath
Party with crimes against humanity and ask that the
international community make sure the case goes to court.
   The authors said the report lays the groundwork for
genocide charges to be addressed in subsequent reports.
Proving genocide requires evidence of intent to destroy a
specific group of people, more difficult to document than
crimes against humanity like those for which Nazi war
criminals were convicted.
   Before it was ransacked, Koreme had about 150 families
and 160 buildings of mud brick or stone and cement. The
government built a school in the early 1980s and installed
electricity in 1987.
   Like many Kurdish villages, many of its people at least
sympathized with Kurdish guerrillas fighting for autonomy.
But the human rights report insists the guerrillas "never
had an established military base in the village ... that
would qualify as a legitimate target in war."
   Nevertheless, Iraqi soldiers had waged punitive attacks
against Koreme three times since the early 1960s.
   But Anfal, the report said, was seen as a 'final
solution."'

   CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A report that could lay the
foundation for war crimes charges against Iraq alleged
Sunday that forces systematically destroyed a Kurdish
village, including mass executions and herding women and
children off to death camps.
   The report quotes "numerous accounts" that soldiers told
starving and cold prisoners, "Saddam has sent you here to
die."
   The New York-based Middle East Watch and Physicians for
Human Rights, based in Boston, compiled the report of the
destruction of Koreme, Iraq, in late August 1988. The events
represent the pattern of government atrocities across
Kurdish areas in northern Iraq during 1988, the report said.
   Authors said the report proves Saddam Hussein's
government committed crimes against humanity and lays
groundwork for charges of genocide to be addressed in
subsequent reports. Proving genocide requires evidence of
intent to destroy a specific group of people, more difficult
to document than crimes against humanity lodged against Nazi
war criminals after World War II.
   The United Nations or some other world organization would
have to convene a special tribunal to hear war crimes
charges. Last month, Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger
said such charges should be considered against some Serb and
Croat leaders, including Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic.
   Koreme was among the last villages targeted by the Iraqi
army in its so-called al-Anfal campaign against the Kurds,
named for a Koranic passage describing Islam's fight against
infidels.
   But Sunday's report said Koreme's fate was mirrored in an
estimated 4,000 Kurdish villages laid waste in the campaign
that lasted for most of 1988.
   News organizations have reported many of the al-Anfal
attacks under Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam's cousin and
defense minister, who is known as "the butcher of the Kurds"
for the violent campaign.
   But the new study uses archaeology, anthropology,
forensic pathology and other disciplines to formulate
conclusions that "would be accepted by a court of law
operating in conformity with internationally accepted
standards of due process."
   The authors "charge the government of Iraq, (Saddam's)
Ba'ath Party and the Iraqi army with crimes against
humanity, and we call upon the international community to
undertake appropriate measures to see that prosecution and
punishment are carried out."
   They also claimed Iraq has "stepped up intimidation
against the autonomous Kurdish zone" through bombing of
relief convoys.
   Koreme was a village of about 150 families and 160
buildings of mud brick or stone and cement, built on either
side of a brook and surrounded by farmland. The government
built a school in the early 1980s and installed electricity
in 1987.
   It was relatively prosperous and, like many Kurdish
villages, most of its people sympathized with Kurdish
guerrillas fighting for autonomy. But the human rights
report insists guerrillas "never had an established military
base in the village ... that would qualify as a legitimate
target in war."
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish