From: serdar@fawlty8.eng.monash.edu.au (Serdar Boztas)
Subject: Re: TURKEY: A project for stability or
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 22:24:28 GMT

>From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
>Subject: TURKEY: A project for stability or 

>Title: TURKEY: A project for stability or instability?/SERIES/

>an inter press service feature

>by nadire mater

>istanbul, jul 25 (ips) -- for all the government boasts about the
>benefits to be reaped from the south-eastern development project
>(sdp), there are many of the view that it will bring social
>unrest, rather than stability to the troubled region.

>prime minister suleyman demirel, the 'godfather' of the multi-
>billion dollar irrigation project says it will bring new jobs for
>3.5 million people, agricultural and industrial development in the
>region and demographic stability to turkey by integrating the
>kurdish minority.

	Nice play on words, 'godfather' instead of 'father' which
	would normally be used. I guess the father is Ozal and
	the Godfather Demirel :-).

>but economist adnan baser kafaoglu, charges that the whole
>development project is simply being done to ''impress'' the kurds
>and the public at large, but in truth and fact,''it will lead to
>nothing but increased social injustice''.

	I have a feeling this should be Arslan Baser Kafaoglu, Adnan's
	brother, they frequently disagree and I doubt Adnan would
	hold this view vis a vis this project.

>kafaoglu argues that 90 percent of the electric power  generated
>by the system will be transferred to the west, and claims that
>neither the state nor the private sector has any intention to
>invest in the region.

	I think the government wants to encourage investment but
	the private sector will not rush to invest there.

>a central issue to the debate is whether or not government will
>come true on its plans for land redistribution in the region. if
>they don't, kafaoglu and others argue, the irrigational and
>agricultural benefits will only be derived by the rich land-
>owners, and not the poor kurds.

	I didn't know there were plans for land redistribution.
	On the other hand (just nitpicking) the rich landowners
	are as likely to be Kurdish as the poor landless peasants.

>more than 50 percent of arable land is currently in the hands of
>eight percent of the population, those being the 'agas'  (feudal
>landlords). as much as 40 percent of the peasants do not have any
>land at all, while the remaining 10 percent toil on tiny and
>scattered scraps of barren land.

	Sounds about right.

>land reform, which has been pledged by successive governments
>since the 1940's, has been painfully slow and up to now the
>ministry of agriculture has redistributed only 140,000 hectares of
>land -- most of which is back in the hands of the agas -- since
>the peasants lacked the financial and material support to work
>it.

>the project itself will bring irrigation to two million hectares
>of land.

	Still an impressive number.

>mahmut alinak, of the pro-kurdish people's labour party (hep),
>also believes that without radical land reform, the new investment
>will deepen the prevailing social instability in the region.

	This remains to be seen. The peasants are so poor, their
	lot may improve due to new jobs. 

>''while the feudal relationships may be dissolved, the kurdish
>peasants will now be converted into wage labourers in big
>plantations,'' said the sirnak deputy.

	A likely scenario.

>the kurdish workers party (pkk), the guerrilla arm of the kurds,
>believes the sdp will bring about some positive changes in the
>region although it also envisages a widening of class
>differences.

	It's not just some fanatics who equate the Kurdish people
	of Turkey with the PKK, but our friends at IPS as well :-).

Serdar
-- 
Inhabited by absurd fears,  they only discuss  the puerilities with which 
every fool is familiar, and dare not, by turning a bold hand to the human 
heart, offer its gigantic idiosyncrasies to our views.     Sade, 'Justine'
Serdar Boztas \\ serdar@fawlty1.eng.monash.edu.au \\ +(61)3-565-5722 
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