[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 61 (Tuesday, May 17, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TURKISH DEMOCRACY? FREE MEHDI ZANA

 Mr. DeCONCINI. Mr. President, I am compelled to recount to 
this body an incident which reflects a growing and most disturbing 
trend by the Government of Turkey to restrict free speech on the 
Kurdish issue. As I speak today, I sadly recall similar statements I 
have made on behalf of political prisoners who spoke out and then 
suffered at the hands of authoritarian Communist rulers behind the iron 
curtain.
  Last Friday, Mehdi Zana, a man whom I have met and for whom I hold 
deep respect, was jailed for 4 years for a speech he delivered at the 
European Parliament in October 1992. Mr. President, Zana is a man of 
honor and peaceful intentions who has struggled for more than 30 years 
for the cause of human rights in Turkey. He has already spent 15 years 
in jail and has been tortured because he refused to remain silent about 
the injustices visited upon his Kurdish brothers and sisters. Leyla 
Zana, his wife, is one of six Turkish parliamentarians who face the 
death penalty for statements they made in support of Kurdish rights.
  Mr. President, I am frightened not only for the fate of the Zana 
family, but for the future of Turkish democracy itself. The situation 
in southeast Turkey has deteriorated to the point where violence has 
become the most common form of discourse between Turks and Kurds. It is 
a tragic irony that thousands of Turkish Kurds are presently being 
forced to seek refuge in northern Iraq--taking the reverse route of 
Iraqi Kurdish refugees who fled Saddam Hussein's war machine. Turkish 
security forces seem to be creating a buffer zone along the Iraqi 
border to prevent infiltration by the PKK and hundreds of villages have 
been destroyed and their inhabitants forced to flee--a pattern which 
has been compared to ethnic cleansing conducted by the Serbs in Bosnia.
  Mr. President, as I have in the past, I once again condemn PKK 
terrorism. Terrorist violence is never, I repeat, never, a legitimate 
means of securing political objectives in a democratic state. I am 
acutely aware of the severity of the PKK threat, but firmly believe all 
of Turkey's Kurdish citizens cannot be labelled PKK supporters. The 
fight against terrorism must not be waged at the expense of the 
legitimate rights of all Turkish citizens. Turkey's Kurds, whether in 
Istanbul or Diyarbakir, must be allowed to express their cultural 
identity and to participate in the political process.
  Aside from my overriding human rights concerns, however, my major 
motivation for speaking out is that, given my belief that Turkey is a 
most valuable ally, I cannot remain silent as Turkey's Government 
pursues policies which have no hope of ending the violence. I am 
convinced that these policies further threaten democracy and regional 
stability. The $7 billion the Turkish Government spends each year to 
fight the PKK could be better used to address Turkey's serious economic 
woes. As a friend and supporter of Turkey, I have to express my 
frustration with the Government for not seeking a political solution to 
a crisis which cannot be solved by military means or crude attempts to 
restrict free speech.
  Mr. President, yesterday, Steny Hoyer and I, as Chairmen of the 
Helsinki Commission, sent a cable to Prime Minister Ciller urging the 
immediate release of Mehdi Zana. I wish to submit to the Record a copy 
of the appeal he delivered before the European Parliament which 
resulted in his 4-year jail sentence. Successive Turkish Governments 
have committed themselves to upholding numerous international human 
rights conventions which include free speech protections. The 
increasingly frequent practice of arresting those who speak out 
peacefully for Kurdish rights is an affront to democracy and violates 
Turkey's stated international commitments. What follows is the text of 
the speech which serves as the basis for Mehdi Zana's being in jail now 
as I speak. So again, Mr. President, I call for his immediate release, 
and urge my colleagues to follow suit.
  The text follows:
                                                 October 26, 1992.

  An Appeal From Mehdi Zana to the European Parliament, to All Human 
                   Rights Advocates, and to the Press

       Ladies and Gentlemen, let me first heartily thank you for 
     your presence here today at this press conference.
       My name is Mehdi Zana. I am 52 years old. For 30 years I 
     have fought for the recognition of the rights of the Kurdish 
     people in Turkey. In spite of the fact that I was never 
     involved in any act of violence, I had to spend 15 years of 
     my life in Turkish prisons because of my opinions and 
     pacifist struggle for my people. I am one of the few 
     miraculous survivors of the sinister Diyarbakir prison where 
     so many of companions died under torture. My eye-witness 
     account of the unspeakably brutal and sadistic torture 
     proceedings is included in the publication ``Journal of 
     Barbarity'' currently being translated from Turkish to 
     French. I owe my survival to the mobilization of public 
     opinion, to NGOs and to the Western mayor colleagues in my 
     favor.
       I say colleagues, because I was mayor of Diyarbakir, the 
     politico-cultural capital of Turkish Kurdistan. The 
     population of this city which amounted to 400,000 inhabitants 
     in 1977 had elected me mayor by direct universal suffrage. At 
     that time, I practiced the trade of tailor and I was an 
     independent activist. The military coup d'etat of September 
     1980 dissolved my municipal council. I was arrested and 
     incarcerated only to be released in May 1991. Since then, I 
     have again been arrested twice. At this time, I, like all 
     other Kurds condemned of the ``crime of separatism'', am 
     deprived of my political rights for the rest of my life. Such 
     is democracy--Turkish style! Finally I must emphasize that 
     while continuing to struggle pacifically for the recognition 
     of the rights of 15 million Kurds of Turkey, I am not a 
     member of any party or movement.
       Thus, it is as an independent Kurdish activist, that I 
     address myself to you and through you to public opinion to 
     the conscience of the civilized world, so that a cry of alarm 
     may be sent forth.
       The Kurds of Turkey are experiencing at this time one of 
     the most dramatic moments in their history. Our cities and 
     villages have been systematically destroyed, our forests 
     burned. Using military and economic means, Turkey has forced 
     the Kurdish people to evacuate their ancestral lands. Girls 
     and women of the villages are insulted and raped by Turkish 
     soldiers. Homes are looted, Kurdish journalists and 
     intellectuals are assassinated one after another in broad 
     daylight. People arrested on the pretext of interrogation 
     are tortured to death by barbaric methods. Prisons are 
     filled with children and youth under 18. Legal and illegal 
     state organizations known as counter-guerilla units or as 
     special units have the authorisation to act freely as they 
     please. They have the power of life and death over those 
     questioned. The last measure taken by the National 
     Security Council protects members of the security forces 
     against prosecution for actions committed in the 
     exercising of their functions and prohibits the press from 
     reporting these incidents.
       Our maternal language, Kurdish, still remains prohibited. 
     Offenders are arrested and mistreated at police stations. One 
     example among so many others, illustrates this prohibition de 
     facto: barely 15 days ago in Diyarbakir, the security forces 
     intervened in the wedding ceremony of a Kurdish lawyer, 
     Fikret Akias, broke the Kurdish musical instruments and 
     arrested several people including 7 lawyers.
       State television by way of propaganda programs incites the 
     Turkish people to rise up against the Kurdish population 
     established in Anatolia. The ideas which suggest a ban on 
     doing business with the Kurds, on furnishing them with work 
     have appeared on these openly distributed tracts. The latest 
     violent events against the Kurds in the city of Fethiye in 
     the West of the country give evidence of the severity of the 
     situation. Chased by the violence perpetrated in their 
     region, the Kurdish population no longer knows where to 
     shelter themselves, where to live in security. In fear they 
     wait to die at any moment. The risk of a Kurdish-Turkish 
     racial war is growing larger every day.
       Whole hours would not suffice were I to begin to enumerate 
     for you the cases of assassination, of torture and 
     destruction which I have witnessed, the tragedy which my 
     people are experiencing even as I stand before you. In the 
     press kit, you will find numerous facts, figures and eye-
     witness accounts on this subject.
       Is it still possible to imagine that at the dawn of the 
     twenty-first century, a people can still be deprived of the 
     use of its own mother tongue, of the expression of its 
     identity?
       The democratic promises, the speeches on the respect of 
     human rights which thoroughly dominated the October 1991 
     legislative elections, over the course of moving electoral 
     meetings, promises for the respect of the rights and demands 
     of the Kurdish people made by the governmental coalition of 
     the DYP and the SHP which emerged from the elections, which 
     had worried over the massive support of Kurdish voices for 
     the candidates of the HEP party, gave birth to real hope. The 
     current Prime Minister Demirel, barely 5 days after his 
     nomination, publicly affirmed during a televised speech which 
     surprised everyone, that henceforth Turkey would recognize 
     the Kurdish reality in the East and West of the country, that 
     it would establish an egalitarian policy permitting a common 
     life between the Kurdish and Turkish people.
       Mr. Demirel also displayed his faith in a henceforth 
     unrestricted democracy and his willingness to put an end to 
     all anti-democratic laws, to develop a new Constitution which 
     would take contemporary reality and values into 
     consideration.
       Since then, not only has not a single anti-democratic law 
     inherited from the military junta and aiming to wipe out the 
     rights of the Kurdish people been abolished, but on the 
     contrary, the promulgation of new repressive laws almost 
     inspire a nostalgia for the military regime.
       At this time in Turkey not a single investigation nor trial 
     is underway concerning so many journalists and intellectuals, 
     against the forces which destroyed and set fire to cities 
     such as Sirnak, Cizre, Kulp, Vario and so many others which 
     you will find listed in the press kit.
       Meetings on democracy and on human rights have been 
     prohibited in the Kurdish provinces. Censorship rages in full 
     force to prevent the circulation of independent news on the 
     barbarity of the war running rampant in Kurdistan. Not a 
     single journalist is authorized to go to the scene of army 
     operations. Even the parliamentarians of the region are 
     denied the right to approach the regions concerned.
       A new administrative measure has just transferred the 
     prerogatives of the Regional Prefect to the military. 
     Kurdistan is now governed by an undeclared State of siege 
     administration and completely left to the good well of the 
     army.
       About three weeks ago, the IFHR delegation which visited 
     Turkish Kurdistan was not authorised to go to the cities of 
     Sirnak and Cizre. They will be able to testify to the 
     situation themselves.
       I sincerely believe that the Turkish regime never opted for 
     democracy. This notion remains only in the speeches destined 
     to mislead the civilised world. If we make a careful 
     assessment of the current government over the past year, we 
     will not find any arrangements made to further the respect of 
     human rights.
       I send forth publicly an appeal to all those who are 
     enamoured of liberty and democracy to act to stop the Turkish 
     government's policy which aims at the pure and simple 
     extinction of the Kurdish people, to act in order to finally 
     permit this people to live in dignity and in peace.
       I invite journalists, parlementarians, NGOs to investigate 
     on the spot, to pierce the wall of silence which surrounds 
     the destruction of my country and my people.

                          ____________________