[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 26 (Thursday, February 9, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                TURKEY ESCALATES WAR ON FREE EXPRESSION

                                 ______


                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 9, 1995
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, last October, a Helsinki 
Commission delegation met with Turkish officials and others in Ankara. 
With one exception, each and every official, including the Speaker of 
Parliament, produced a copy of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Ulke and 
waved it in the air as proof that, despite what critics alleged, free 
expression was alive and well in Turkey.
  Last week, Mr. Speaker, Turkish officials decided that the costs of 
allowing the paper to air its pro-Kurdish sentiments outweighed its 
value as a token of free expression. On February 3, a Turkish court 
forced the paper to shut down. This blatant assault on free speech 
comes within a week of the decision to prosecute Turkey's most widely 
known author, Yasar Kemal, for publicly stating his thoughts on the 
government's handling of the Kurdish situation. He now faces charges of 
separatist propaganda, and now, even those who favor the government's 
uncompromising hardline towards the Kurds are beginning to question 
whether the government hasn't gone too far.
  Mr. Speaker, Ozgur Ulke's closure culminates an orchestrated campaign 
which began as soon as the newspaper appeared to fill the void left 
when a likeminded predecessor was forcibly closed. Censorship of the 
paper included violent attacks that left 20 reporters and distributors 
killed by unidentified death squads. At least four others have been 
kidnapped. The tortured, bullet-ridden body of one reporter was found 
weeks after he had disappeared. At least 35 journalists and workers of 
the newspaper have been imprisoned and 238 issues seized. The campaign 
against the newspaper went into high gear on November 30, 1994, when 
Prime Minister Ciller issued a secret decree, which was leaked and 
published, calling for the complete elimination of the newspaper. On 
December 3, 1994, its printing facility and headquarters in Istanbul 
and its Ankara bureau were bombed. One person was killed and 18 others 
were injured in the explosions.
  On January 6, 1995, policemen started to wait outside the printing 
plant to confiscate the paper as soon as it was printed. Copies were 
taken directly to a prosecutor who worked around the clock to determine 
which articles were undesirable. Often some three to four pages of the 
paper, mostly articles about security force abuses, were censored and 
reprinted as blank sections. Since December, five reporters, who were 
detained and later released, spoke of being tortured by police 
attempting to force confessions against the newspaper's editorial 
board.
  Mr. Speaker, last week, the State Department issued its annual human 
rights report, and only China had as many pages devoted to it as 
Turkey. While the report indicated that human rights conditions in 
Turkey had worsened significantly over the past year, the publication 
of Ozgur Ulke was cited as a positive example of press freedom. 
Responding to the report, an official spokesperson dismissed its report 
as biased and based on one-sided information. The spokesperson, 
repeating assertions made whenever Turkey is criticized for human 
rights violations, insisted that significant improvements had taken 
place and other important reforms were being undertaken. Given the 
countless times we have heard such assertions, it is a wonder that 
Turkey is not a model of freedom and democracy.
  Mr. Speaker, now that Turkish officials do not have copies of Ozgur 
Ulke to wave at visiting delegations, they will likely search for other 
props to convince skeptics of their good intentions. I would suggest, 
Mr. Speaker, that instead of tolerating certain types of expression in 
order to placate foreign observers, Turkish officials should take real 
steps to bring policies in line with stated human rights commitments. 
Free expression and other rights cannot be viewed simply as products of 
public relations campaigns. If Turkish officials are unwilling to work 
seriously towards implementing such rights to bring their laws into 
conformity with international standards, then they cannot expect their 
pronouncements on human rights to be viewed sympathetically. In this 
context, Turkish denunciations of the State Department human rights 
report are as puzzling as they are absurd.


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