From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News Articles: Germany vs Turkey, etc.
Date: 5 Nov 1992 17:32:08 -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

AZERBAIJANI ARMY REPELLS LARGE-SCALE ARMENIAN ATTACK

    BAKU (NOV. 1) ITAR - THE AZERBAIJANI ARMY REPELLED A
LARGE-SCALE ARMENIAN ATTACK SUPPORTED BY AVIATION IN THE
LACHINSK DISTRICT OF AZERBAIJAN ON SUNDAY. TWO BOMBERS WERE
SHOT DOWN, THE AZERBAIJANI DEFENSE MINISTRY SAID.
    THE SHELLING OF AZERBAIJANI VILLAGES IN DISTRICTS
BORDERING ON ARMENIA CONTINUED THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
CASUALTIES WERE REPORTED.
    THE MINISTRY DENIED REPORTS ABOUT THE DEATH OF AN
AZERBAIJANI AIR FORCE PILOT WHO WAS SHOT DOWN OVER NORTHERN
DISTRICTS OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH ON SATURDAY. THE MINISTRY SAID
THE PILOT SURVIVED AFTER HE CATAPULTED FROM THE FALLING
PLANE.

TURKEY WARNED AGAINST "MISUSING" GERMAN ARMS BY DEFENSE
MINISTER RUEHE

     ANKARA (NOV. 3) DPA - German-Turkish relations would
suffer "heavily" if Turkey again "misuses" German-delivered
arms, Bonn Defence Minister Volker Ruehe said Tuesday at the
end of a two-day visit.
     The Turkish side promised that tanks and other
equipment delivered by Germany under the framework of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will not be used for
attacks against militant Kurds in southeastern Turkey but
only for NATO purposes, Ruehe said.
     Ruehe said he made an agreement with his Turkish
counterpart, Nevzat Ayaz, to form a joint working group to
ensure that German military aid delivered to Turkey does not
lead to irritations.
     Ayaz confirmed that German aid would only be used
"according to NATO principles" and Turkey would see to this
with great care.
     He said any "disagreeable incidents" must be avoided
and German-Turkish friendship should not be tainted by
reports about the use of German arms against the Kurdish
Workers' Party (PKK).
     The German minister said new paths for future
cooperation should be found and expressed hope that the
democratization process in Turkey would continue. More
respect should be paid to human rights.
     He said Turkey played a major role as a leading power
in its region. He ackowledged that Turkey had the right to
act against terrorism using legitimate methods.

IRAQI OPPOSITION GROUP DENOUNCES TURKISH ATTACK ON KURDS
    BEIRUT (NOV. 3) DPA - A Teheran-based Iraqi opposition
group denounced Tuesday Turkish attacks against Kurdish
rebels in northern Iraq.

The Islamic al Dawaa party said in a statement distributed
in Beirut that the attacks on the Kurdish Workers Party
(PKK) were ''a provocation and dangerous violation''.
    The statement accused the Turkish government of having
''illegal ambitions'' in the districts of Mousel and
Karkouk.
    ''We denounce and condemn such actions,'' the statement
said, adding that the Turkish government was trying to take
advantage of the situation in iraq.
    ''Iraqi soil should never become a battlefield for
settling accounts,'' the statement said.
    The statement called on the Turkish government to ''deal
with the situation wisely and withdraw immediately and
unconditionally.''
    Last month, thousands of Turkish commandos crossed the
Iraqi border in a large-scale military campaign to uproot
PKK guerrillas who have been launching attacks from northern
Iraq against Turkey.

PRESIDENT BUSH DISPATCHES EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPLIES TO ARMENIA

    OSHKOSH, WI (NOV. 1) UPI - The United States began air
shipments of emergency food supplies to Armenia Sunday, the
day after President Bush authorized the aid, the White House
said.
    In a statement released Saturday as Bush campaigned in
Wisconsin, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the air shipments
were in response to ''an urgent request'' Oct. 30 from
Armenian President Levon Ter- Petrosian.
    The shipments began Sunday, the White House said.
    Fitzwater said because of critical shortages in the
country wracked by political instability and economic
hardship, the United States would airlift 236 metric tons of
all-purpose flour to the Armenian capital of Yerevan over
the next few days. The deliveries will leave from Kelly Air
Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and would be flown in four
U.S. Air Force C-5 planes.
    ''Today's action by the president demonstrates anew U.S.
commitment to the welfare of the Armenian people and to the
independence of Armenia,'' Fitzwater said. ''It is another
example of the close bilateral relationship between the
United States and the government'' of Armenia.
    The shipments also will include supplies to meet longer-
term winter good needs, including 66,000 metric tons of
wheat grain and 3,000 of ''processed commodities'' from
warehouses in Turkey, the spokesman said.

ISLAM COMPETES WITH REMNANTS OF OLD ORDER IN FORMER SOVIET
CENTRAL ASIA
    TASHKENT (OCT. 29) IPS - The abortive attempt to restore
Tajikistan's old Communist regime this week underlines the
precarious balance between assertive Islam and remnants of
an old order across the ex-Soviet states of Central Asia.
    A year after attaining independence in the aftermath of
the disintegration of the Soviet empire, Communist Party
chiefs in Central Asia assumed office as presidents of
sovereign republics. They quickly sanitized party image by
re-naming themselves the Peoples Democratic Party (as in
Uzbekistan) or Socialist Party (in Kazakhstan).
    The only Central Asian leader who refused to do this was
Tajikistan's Rakhman Nabiyev, and he paid for it through his
ouster in a popular upsurge led by a Islamic and democratic
combine in early September.
    Tajikistan is the only ex-Soviet Central Asian republic
where an Islamic party is legal and is currently one of the
components in a fragile power structure that succeeded the
Nabiyev regime.
    Although the Tajikistan border with Afghanistan was
sealed in August, Nabiyev supporters blame an influx of arms
and ideology from across the frontier for the "Islamic Coup"
that ousted their government after months of civil war in
the southern regions of Kurgan-Tyube and Kulyab.
    Peace has been restored by Russian troops after
Nabiyev's supporters seized parliament and scores were
killed in fighting.
    Tajikistan's acting leader, Akbarsho Iskandrov, and
Nabiyev's supporters met in a Russian military camp on Oct.
25. The Russian troops are concerned about the welfare of
ethnic Russians, who make up 10 percent of the country's
five million population.
    In many ways, Tajikistan represents the worst-case
scenario for the five Muslim Central Asian republics and
Azerbaijan if the fragile balance between Islam and the
status quo does not hold.
    The six Muslim republics together have a population of
about 50 million, of which a substantial portion are
Russians. In Kazakhstan, for instance, Russians make up half
the population and outnumber the native Kazakhs.
    Apart from walking on an ethnic tight-rope, the
economies of the Central Asian states are still dependent on
trade and commerce with Russia. Politically, their regimes
are carry-overs from the past.
    Analysts say this is why many of the ex-Communist rulers
of Central Asia see Islam as a threat to the status quo.
    A slow, controlled and officially-sanctioned process of
cosmetic Islamization is in progress in most Central Asian
states, but Islamic political parties are still banned
everywhere, except in Tajikistan.
    "At present, governments of Kazakhstan, Kirghizia,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are all serious about separating
politics and religion and trying keep secular, " observed
one Asian diplomat here.
    Even Central Asian Islamicists do not agree among
themselves about the theocratic character of the state.
    "Islam should not be limited to the practice of rituals
and dogmas alone," said Sultanat Emrekova, leader of
"Alash," a Muslim group in Kazakhstan.
    Emrekova says her group seeks to integrate "Turkism,
Islam and Democracy in an Islamic revival in Kazakhstan."
    But here in Tashkent, the Grand Mufti of Uzbekistan,
Mohammad Yusuf Mohammad Sadiq, does not want to have
anything to do with politics.
    "I cannot support any Islamic movement in Uzbekistan
since it will be political in character, but I certainly can
support such efforts at a religious level," he said.
    Mohammad Sadiq warned that if religion and politics were
mixed, the situation in his country could become like
Tajikistan. "At least here we have peace and stability," he
added.
    Both "Alash" in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan's Mufti deny
any connection with Iran, the big Islamic neighbor to the
south.
    Tehran itself appears to have toned down its Islamic
rhetoric towards Central Asia of late and is pursuing a more
pragmatic policy using linguistic and cultural affinity with
Central Asian states for economic benefits rather than
ideological gain.
    If there is no outside religious or ideological
interference, analysts say Central Asia will be able to
sustain the status quo for the foreseeable future by deftly
calibrated reforms.

  IRAN, KAZAKHSTAN SIGN OIL, TRANSPORT, FINANCE AGREEMENTS

    NICOSIA, Cyprus -AP- Kazakhstan President Nursultan
Nazarbayev and Iran President Hashemi Rafsanjani signed oil,
transport and finance agreements today, Tehran radio said.
    Secular Turkey and fundamentalist Iran, both Muslim
states, are locked in fierce competition to gain political
and economic influence in Muslim-populated former Soviet
republics.
    The radio, monitored by the BBC, quoted Rafsanjani as
saying speedy progress in talks between the two countries
showed their eagerness to work together.  It gave no details
of the deals signed by the two leaders in Tehran, but quoted
Nazarbayev as expressing satisfaction that they would soon
be implemented.
    The Kazakh leader met earlier in the day with Iranian
spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who stressed that
Iran ''supports the idea of the unity of Asian countries,''
the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
    Nazarbayev had been welcomed by Rafsanjani when he
arrived in Tehran Saturday from the Ankara summit of five
former Soviet republics with large Muslim populations and
close ethnic and linguistic links to Turkey.
    Nazarbayev's visit to Tehran immediately after the
Ankara summit was seen as an indication he did not want to
be seen as favoring either Turkey or Iran as they struggle
for influence in the region.
Xref: sparky soc.culture.turkish:11337 talk.politics.mideast:21910 talk.politics.soviet:8781 soc.culture.greek:10364 soc.culture.europe:9402 soc.history:9243