[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 578 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

  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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Turkish Human Rights Compliance 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Department of State, in its 1995 report entitled 
        ``Country Reports on Human Rights'', documented a systematic 
        and widespread pattern of human rights abuses by the Government 
        of Turkey. According to the portion of the report relating to 
        Turkey, ``the human rights situation in Turkey worsened 
        significantly in 1994''.
            (2) Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United 
        Nations Committee Against Torture, the European Parliament, the 
        International Human Rights Law Group, the Lawyers Committee for 
        Human Rights, Physicians Without Frontiers, Freedom House, the 
        Humanitarian Law Project, the Turkish Human Rights 
        Associations, and other human rights monitoring organizations 
        have documented extensive and continuing human rights abuses by 
        the Government of Turkey, including the widespread use of 
        torture.
            (3) The actions of the Government of Turkey are in 
        violation of several international human rights agreements to 
        which Turkey is a party, including the United Nations Universal 
        Declaration of Human Rights, the Final Act of the Conference on 
        Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the European Convention 
        on Human Rights.
            (4) The Government of Turkey continues to deny the 
        existence of its 15,000,000 Kurdish citizens and has used 
        military force to deny them an identity, destroying more than 
        2,000 Kurdish villages and uprooting more than 2,000,000 Kurds.
            (5) Turkey continues its illegal military occupation of 
        Cyprus and has obstructed efforts to reach a just and lasting 
        resolution to the division of Cyprus and the massive uprooting 
        of Greek Cypriots caused by the 1974 invasion by Turkey of 
        Cyprus.
            (6) The Government of Turkey continues to blockade Armenia, 
        obstructing the delivery of American and international 
        humanitarian relief supplies.
            (7) Turkey continues to place prohibitive restrictions on 
        the religious leadership of Christian communities within Turkey 
        and has failed to protect these communities adequately from 
        acts of violence and vandalism.
            (8) The Congress, in the fiscal year 1995 budget for 
        foreign assistance, withheld 10 percent of the principal amount 
        of direct loans to Turkey because of that country's human 
        rights record and the situation in Cyprus. The Government of 
        Turkey has stated that it would reject any United States 
        assistance tied to its human rights record, which, according to 
        independent human rights monitoring organizations, has 
        continued to deteriorate.

SEC. 3. RESTRICTIONS ON ASSISTANCE FOR TURKEY.

    (a) Restrictions.--Of the funds made available for fiscal year 1996 
for assistance for Turkey under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and 
the Arms Export Control Act, the President shall withhold, first from 
grant assistance, if any, and then from loan assistance, $500,000 for 
each day that Turkey does not meet the conditions of section 4.
    (b) Waiver.--The President may waive the application of subsection 
(a) if the President determines that it is in the national security 
interest of the United States to do so.

SEC. 4. CONDITIONS.

    The conditions of this section are met when the President certifies 
to Congress that the Government of Turkey--
            (1) allows free and unfettered monitoring of the human 
        rights situation within its territory by domestic and 
        international human rights monitoring organizations, including 
        but not limited to, the Turkish Human Rights Association, the 
        Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Amnesty 
        International, and Human Rights Watch;
            (2) recognizes the civil, cultural, and human rights of its 
        Kurdish citizens, ceases its military operations against 
        Kurdish civilians, and takes demonstrable steps toward a 
        peaceful resolution of the Kurdish issue;
            (3) takes demonstrable steps toward the total withdrawal of 
        its military forces from Cyprus and demonstrates its support 
        for a settlement recognizing the sovereignty, independence, and 
        territorial integrity of Cyprus, with a constitutional 
        democracy based on majority rule, the rule of law, and the 
        protection of minority rights;
            (4) completely removes its blockade of United States and 
        international assistance to Armenia; and
            (5) removes official restrictions on Christian churches and 
        schools and offers sufficient protection against acts of 
        violence and harassment directed at members of the clergy, and 
        offers sufficient protection against acts of vandalism directed 
        at church and school property.
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