[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 12 (Friday, January 20, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E146-E147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        TURKEY: HERE WE GO AGAIN

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                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 20, 1995
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, last October, the Chairman of the Helsinki 
Commission, Dennis DeConcini, lead a delegation to Turkey to examine 
human rights issues in that country. While in Diyarbakir, the largest 
city in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, delegation members visited 
the offices of the local Human Rights Association [HRA] branch. The 
delegation had met with HRA leaders in Ankara and the Helsinki 
Commission has often worked with the HRA and has found its publications 
extremely useful and reliable.
  While meeting with the Commission delegation, HRA leaders explained 
how the organization's members operated at great risk to their personal 
safety. HRA members around the country, but especially in the 
southeast, face constant danger and persecution. Dozens of activists 
had been threatened, kidnaped, murdered and disappeared with the 
collusion of security forces. The Diyarbakir HRA branch was the only 
office in 10 state of emergency provinces allowed to remain open. HRA 
leaders believed authorities wanted to use the 
[[Page E147]] open office to demonstrate their tolerance of human 
rights organizations. Now, even that Potemkin village has been pulled 
down by authorities bent on eradicating all criticism of Kurdish 
polices.
  Mr. Speaker, last Tuesday, seven leaders of the HRA chapter in 
Diyarbakir were arrested and charged with disseminating separatist 
propaganda. Prosecutors are seeking jail sentences of more than 10 
years for these activists because of their publication which detailed 
human rights cases in 1992. One of those now in prison awaiting trail 
is Neymetullah Gunduz, an attorney who met with members of Chairman 
DeConcini's delegation and who visited the Helsinki Commission in 1993 
while on a USIA grant. Mr. Gunduz is highly regarded and is considered 
a dedicated human rights lawyer and reliable source of information 
concerning rights abuses by both the Government and the PKK.
  Mr. Speaker, just recently the Government abandoned a similar case 
brought against a group of well known Turkish activists. The move was 
widely hailed as a positive development in an otherwise bleak human 
rights picture. What this new case seems to indicate is that the recent 
acquittal stands merely as an aberration as opposed to a genuine effort 
to dismantle restrictions on free expression. I have said it before, 
and I reemphasize it now, Turkey cannot be considered a truly 
democratic nation as long as individuals like Neymettulah Gunduz, Mehdi 
Zana, Halit Gerger, former parliamentarians and other are jailed for 
exercising their rights to free expression.
  Mr. Speaker, a recent commentary in a large Turkish daily purports 
that the Government has spent five times more money fighting terrorism 
than on the giant GAP water project supposed to be the cornerstone of 
development in southeast Turkey. Tens of billions of dollars have been 
used to institute policies which have left the region more devastated 
than ever and its population more resentful than ever. Meanwhile, 
Turkey continues to fact mounting economic and political crises tied 
directly to failed Kurdish policies. Unless Turkish leaders bit the 
bullet and seek political approaches to the Kurdish situation, there 
can be no hope for peace, prosperity or democracy in Turkey. As a 
friend and ally of Turkey, such a dismal prognosis can bring no 
happiness to anyone in this country either.


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