[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 10, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1549-E1550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TURKEY: NEW GOVERNMENT, SAME OLD REPRESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 10, 1996

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, in the last few weeks, the new 
Government of Turkey has demonstrated a familiar disregard for 
international human rights commitments and earlier promises made to 
secure entry into a European Union customs agreement. On August 26, 41 
members of the Peoples Democracy Party [HADEP], including its 
leadership, were charged for alleged ties with the outlawed Kurdistan 
Workers Party [PKK]. The same day, two editors of the Turkish Daily 
News were charged with ``damaging the prestige of the armed forces'' by 
publishing an

[[Page E1550]]

opinion poll. And, on September 3, Akin Birdal, president of the Human 
Rights Association of Turkey, was detained for participating on a 
delegation negotiating the release of Turkish soldiers captured by the 
PKK.
  Mr. Speaker, the HADEP case follows an all too familiar pattern. The 
Turkish Government is stepping up efforts to delegitimize and dismantle 
HADEP, Turkey's only Kurdish-based political party. Supported by more 
than 1.2 million votes in last December's elections, HADEP was 
increasingly viewed as a possible interlocutor in the bloody conflict 
between government forces and Kurdish militants. Yet, like its director 
predecessor, the Democracy Party [DEP], whose 13 parliamentarians were 
imprisoned or exiled for speech crimes, HADEP has now become the 
government's target. In June, following a party convention at which a 
Turkish flag was torn down, 28 HADEP leaders were detained and have 
been held ever since, without being charged--despite their disavowal of 
any connection to the flag incident. Following the convention three 
HADEP members were murdered and party offices in Izmir were bombed. Two 
men accused of tearing down the flag have been charged with treason and 
could face the death penalty.
  Mr. Speaker, nationalist hysteria over the flag incident also had 
negative consequences for a former DEP Member of Parliament, Sirri 
Sakik, who has been charged for saying, ``People who desire that a 
certain respect be paid to their own flags should also be respectful of 
others' flags''. Prosecutors deemed this statement to be advocating 
separatism and charged Sakik under article 8 of the Anti-Terror law. 
Mr. Speaker, you may recall that article 8 was amended with great 
fanfare last fall to mollify European concerns about Turkey's human 
rights record in advance of the vote on Turkey's customs union entry. 
Dozens of people have since been jailed under the new and improved 
article 8, and hundreds of others under similarly restrictive statutes.

  Mr. Speaker, the Turkish Daily News case demonstrates how mainstream 
journalists also face continued repression. Ilnur Cevik, who 
participated in a Helsinki Commission briefing on Turkish elections, 
and Hayri Birler face up to 6 years in prison for publishing results of 
a poll on preferences for government alternatives following last year's 
elections. The polls were published in February and some speculate that 
the belated decision to prosecute was based on growing displeasure in 
military circles with Cevik's perceived support of Refah, the Muslim-
based party.
  Mr. Speaker, another troubling case involves Human Rights Association 
[HRA] President Akin Birdal, who participated in a 1995 Helsinki 
Commission briefing. A valuable source of information on human rights 
abuses in Turkey, the Association and its president, Akin Birdal, have 
received numerous awards in the United States and Europe. Since its 
inception, HRA activists have faced severe repression. Fifteen branches 
have been closed in southeast Turkey, activists and leaders have been 
murdered by government-supported death squads, and hundreds of HRA 
members have been arrested and imprisoned. The absurd justification for 
the latest detention, however, made the authorities look even more 
capricious than usual.
  Akin Birdal participated in a delegation seeking the release of 
Turkish soldiers captured by the PKK. The delegation, led by a Member 
of Parliament from the ruling Refah Party and including other well-
known human rights activists, was discussed in the press and government 
circles for weeks. Although unsuccessful, the delegation's mission 
fueled speculation that the government might be reconsidering its 
purely military approach to the Kurdish insurgency. Such speculation 
caused sufficient consternation in ruling circles to order detention of 
delegation members. Although the government released the delegation 
members on September 6, it remains unclear whether they will be charged 
under Penal Code Article 169 for aiding an illegal organization, for 
which they could face up to 5 years in prison.
  These recent incidents, Mr. Speaker, punctuate the routine repression 
occurring daily in Turkey. None accused in these incidents committed 
acts of violence, but are being silenced rather for speaking against 
government-sponsored violence and policies that have prolonged a bloody 
internal war. And, if the pattern of past convictions of former 
parliamentarians and others repeats itself, the only evidence that will 
emerge to suggest support for terrorism will be clumsy fabrications and 
testimony coerced under torture.
  Our important ally Turkey, Mr. Speaker, is facing a serious 
multidimensional crisis. If we are to help Turkey address this crisis, 
we must be firm in our support for a political solution to the conflict 
which has claimed more than 21,000 lives and created more than three 
million internal refugees. Recent events in northern Iraq have 
underscored regional instability complicated in no small part by 
Kurdish unrest in Turkey. Clearly, Turkey's leaders will pay little 
more than lip service to human rights commitments when it become 
necessary to secure cooperation with Western governments. They will 
continue such policies as long as Western governments remain willing to 
overlook abuses in order to advance security or economic objectives. 
Turkey's allies should undertake every effort to support the victims of 
this peculiar form of democracy. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to 
speak out against recurring restrictions imposed on free speech in 
Turkey and call upon the Turkish Government, once again, to release all 
those imprisoned for nonviolent expression, including the HADEP members 
and former DEP parliamentarians.

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