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104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 578

To limit assistance for Turkey under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961

and the Arms Export Control Act until that country complies with

certain human rights standards.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 20 (legislative day, MARCH 16), 1995

Mr. D’AMATO (for himself and Mr. PRESSLER) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

A BILL

To limit assistance for Turkey under the Foreign Assistance

Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act until

that country complies with certain human rights standards.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Turkish Human Rights

5 Compliance Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress makes the following findings:
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1 (1) The Department of State, in its 1995 re2 port entitled ‘‘Country Reports on Human Rights’’,

3 documented a systematic and widespread pattern of

4 human rights abuses by the Government of Turkey.

5 According to the portion of the report relating to

6 Turkey, ‘‘the human rights situation in Turkey

7 worsened significantly in 1994’’.

8 (2) Amnesty International, Human Rights

9 Watch, the United Nations Committee Against Tor10 ture, the European Parliament, the International

11 Human Rights Law Group, the Lawyers Committee

12 for Human Rights, Physicians Without Frontiers,

13 Freedom House, the Humanitarian Law Project, the

14 Turkish Human Rights Associations, and other

15 human rights monitoring organizations have docu16 mented extensive and continuing human rights

17 abuses by the Government of Turkey, including the

18 widespread use of torture.

19 (3) The actions of the Government of Turkey

20 are in violation of several international human rights

21 agreements to which Turkey is a party, including

22 the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human

23 Rights, the Final Act of the Conference on Security

24 and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Con25 vention on Human Rights.
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1 (4) The Government of Turkey continues to

2 deny the existence of its 15,000,000 Kurdish citizens

3 and has used military force to deny them an iden4 tity, destroying more than 2,000 Kurdish villages

5 and uprooting more than 2,000,000 Kurds.

6 (5) Turkey continues its illegal military occupa7 tion of Cyprus and has obstructed efforts to reach

8 a just and lasting resolution to the division of Cy9 prus and the massive uprooting of Greek Cypriots

10 caused by the 1974 invasion by Turkey of Cyprus.

11 (6) The Government of Turkey continues to

12 blockade Armenia, obstructing the delivery of Amer13 ican and international humanitarian relief supplies.

14 (7) Turkey continues to place prohibitive re15 strictions on the religious leadership of Christian

16 communities within Turkey and has failed to protect

17 these communities adequately from acts of violence

18 and vandalism.

19 (8) The Congress, in the fiscal year 1995 budg20 et for foreign assistance, withheld 10 percent of the

21 principal amount of direct loans to Turkey because

22 of that country’s human rights record and the situa23 tion in Cyprus. The Government of Turkey has stat24 ed that it would reject any United States assistance

25 tied to its human rights record, which, according to
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1 independent human rights monitoring organizations,

2 has continued to deteriorate.

3 SEC. 3. RESTRICTIONS ON ASSISTANCE FOR TURKEY.

4 (a) RESTRICTIONS.—Of the funds made available for

5 fiscal year 1996 for assistance for Turkey under the For6 eign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control

7 Act, the President shall withhold, first from grant assist8 ance, if any, and then from loan assistance, $500,000 for

9 each day that Turkey does not meet the conditions of sec10 tion 4.

11 (b) WAIVER.—The President may waive the applica12 tion of subsection (a) if the President determines that it

13 is in the national security interest of the United States

14 to do so.

15 SEC. 4. CONDITIONS.

16 The conditions of this section are met when the

17 President certifies to Congress that the Government of

18 Turkey—

19 (1) allows free and unfettered monitoring of the

20 human rights situation within its territory by domes21 tic and international human rights monitoring orga22 nizations, including but not limited to, the Turkish

23 Human Rights Association, the Conference on Secu24 rity and Cooperation in Europe, Amnesty Inter25 national, and Human Rights Watch;
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1 (2) recognizes the civil, cultural, and human

2 rights of its Kurdish citizens, ceases its military op3 erations against Kurdish civilians, and takes demon4 strable steps toward a peaceful resolution of the

5 Kurdish issue;

6 (3) takes demonstrable steps toward the total

7 withdrawal of its military forces from Cyprus and

8 demonstrates its support for a settlement recogniz9 ing the sovereignty, independence, and territorial in10 tegrity of Cyprus, with a constitutional democracy

11 based on majority rule, the rule of law, and the pro12 tection of minority rights;

13 (4) completely removes its blockade of United

14 States and international assistance to Armenia; and

15 (5) removes official restrictions on Christian

16 churches and schools and offers sufficient protection

17 against acts of violence and harassment directed at

18 members of the clergy, and offers sufficient protec19 tion against acts of vandalism directed at church

20 and school property.

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