From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 13:38:00 -0800 Le Monde front / Chaos damages Turkey's EU ambitions / Martine Jégo Chaos damages Turkey's EU ambitions Focus on prison turmoil reveals a nation racked by violence and self- doubt. - Martine Jégo One year after being formally shortlisted for membership of the European Union, Turkey is in turmoil. Already weakened by chronic political instability, street violence and a series of failures in the banking sector - which have left a $40bn deficit - the country has sunk further into chaos since December 19, when security forces using bulldozers, helicopters and armoured vehicles stormed 20 jails where prisoners were on hunger strike. Launched to "save lives", the operation left 28 dead. Although crackdowns, prison riots and street protests are nothing new in Turkey, recent events have made its European ambitions look less realistic, and demonstrated that the nation is in an advanced state of disintegration. Undermined by its contradictions and straitjacketed by its founding dogma, the republican state set up by Kemal Ataturk in 1923 looks as though it will need to be dragged kicking and screaming into Europe. The Copenhagen criteria on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, which the EU makes a precondition of membership negotiations, have prompted reservations in Turkey, particularly among the political community, which seems incapable of getting the country to accept changes. Tusiad, the employers' federation, recently urged the authorities "not to be afraid of reforms". Their inability to introduce the changes necessary for EU membership was evident in their decision to introduce controversial legislation to ease overcrowding in prisons. The brutality of the methods used by the security forces in crushing the prison unrest has been condemned on all sides. But the behaviour of the far-left groups behind the protests seem to be just as blameworthy as that of the police. Those groups, sometimes called "political sects", organise trials and executions within prisons, to eliminate "traitors" to the cause. Their leaders outside the jails issue orders that have to be obeyed on pain of summary execution. They decree that lots be drawn to decide who will become "death hunger-strikers". They believe in martyrdom, and forbid members to have one-to-one meetings with their lawyers in jail. This stance explains their rejection of the government's plans for prison reform, which would replace dormitory-style wards containing dozens of inmates with cells for three or four inmates. Such cells would be more in line with international standards, but less conducive to political mobilisation. Although still only marginal, such organisations are trying to occupy the ground left vacant by the Kurdistan Workers' party, which has been moribund since its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured in February 1999. The main organisation, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Army Front, which has spearheaded the hunger-strike campaign in prisons, was responsible for the murder in January 1996 of the industrialist Ozdemir Sabanci, who was a fervent believer in the democratisation of Turkish society. During the current crisis the coalition government did for once pursue a policy of consultation, and promised to postpone its prison reforms. Yet it took advantage of the fact that everyone's attention was focused on the storming of the jails to push through a much- criticised bill to reduce prison sentences, which President Ahmed Necdet Sezer, a legalist and firm European, had earlier vetoed. Although the legislation will enable 35,000 prisoners to be released gradually (a welcome development in the context of the overcrowding that has caused many security problems), it constitutes a serious step backwards in terms of EU membership. Many people had hoped that the legislation, which the government had presented as an amnesty, would result in the release of political prisoners. Such a move would have been interpreted as a sign of opening up towards Europe, signalled the end of the crackdown against intellectuals and raised hopes of reconciliation, particularly in Kurdistan, where armed violence has ceased. The trouble is that the bill which was finally adopted is not an amnesty, merely an act of clemency, combined with a reprieve. It fails to include most political prisoners. Those sentenced for or charged with a "breach of the security and integrity of the state"(Article 312 of the Turkish penal code) are excluded from it. Those are precisely the charges used to jail journalists and intellectuals who dare to break the taboo of "integrity" by discussing, among other things, the issue of the Kurds. It was no accident that Article 312 was excluded: the notion of "the integrity of the state" is one of the inviolable principles of Kemalist dogma, over which the army keeps a watchful eye. The EU has already called into question the army's influence, which extends into every cranny of political life, notably through the Security Council, whose rulings are observed to the letter. If Turkey were to join Europe by 2010, how would it be able, in the current context, to carry out the necessary transfer of sovereignty? While many people on death row have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, in accordance with the requirements imposed on countries applying to join the EU, the death sentence passed on Ocalan, whose case is being examined by the European Court of Human Rights, has not been quashed. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co- chairman of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, says: "The Turks seem unable to come round to the fact that they must turn the page. They have won the war and they show no pity. >>Their parliament has not yet understood the age it lives in." December 26 (The Guardian Weekly 4-1-2001, page 25) " JC _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
