Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

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Turkey givesguarded
responseto US report
. 1iutish Daily News
ANKARA- Despite the U.S. State Department's presenting its
report on Turkey's human ri2hts and Cyprus as a tialanced one,
TUrkish diplomatic sources adopted a "guiuded" approach toward
the report Friday.
Forei~ Ministry sources, ~g on condition of anon~ty,
'said the Turkish government would lake up the ~rt's "lack of
information and wrong assessments" with the U:S. government in
the near future. .
"We hope that this report, which was released a week before the
U.S. Congress starts discussing aid for 1996, will not hele the
efforts of ceftaÏ!l circles who are prejudiced. against Turkey, the
same sources saId.
Although no clarification was made on this point, the reference
was clearly toward the report's.
statement that it was likely ,that
U.S.-origin equipment was used
in the evacuation and destruction
of villages in the Southeast.
However,Ankàra~ .. also
a~ awarethat ,.the report,
wliich came ata timCofmounting
Euro~ean criticism, contained
positive eleinents.
Dipfomaticsources said that
the report noted the developments
m democratization.
"It is clear that the human
rights issues are taken up in the
report in a balanced and con~
structive way," diplomats said.
"Within this framework, we
think it may be a model for
some simIlar attempts of
European institutions."
On the report's section on
Cyprus, Turkey acknowledged
thaJ the report -reflected the
"Turkish side' s positive
approach" but claimed that the
way the two leaders in tbe
island -; Turkish Cypri~t
President Rauf De~ and his
Greek Cypriot counterpart
Glafkos Clerides - were
addressed on the island did not
reflect the "principle of equality."
Neither is the uncompromising
attitude of the Greek
Cypriots reflected in the report,
Turkish diplomats said.
Ironically, the Cyprus part of
the report displeased the Greek
Cypnot government. Greek
Cypriot ~overnment spokesman
Yannakls Kasulides said that
the administration may contact
Washington to express their
objections to the report, which
they said was too favorable
toward Turkey.
Turkish naily News
SATURDAY.JUNB3.199S
Human Rights Watch says
report too kind to Ankara
Turld:rh Daily News
ANKARA- The Human Rights Watch has criticized the US State
Department report on Turkey, obtained by the TON on Friday, for
its failure to admit that burning villages was "a policy of the
Turkish government."
'1be Human Rights Watch regrets the State Department's statement
that it has no clear idea of how villages came to be evacuat-
. ed," a press release from the human rights organization said. 'The
State Department's lack of precision about the evacuation campaign
suggests a desire to avoid giviilg offense to the Turkish government
which denies e~loying such tactics." ,
The Human Rights Watch claimed that the precise circumstances
of individual evacuations are very clear. "Field research conducted
:by Human Rights Watch in Turkey on forced evacuations and statemènts
by Turkish government officials aocument that the majority of the estimated 14Q(). villages
'and hamlets forcibly evacuated in southeastern Turkey were the result of a government-sf>Onsored
counterinsurgency campaign," the non-government organization (NGO)
said. ,
It. also said that. it held the Turkish government responsible for the majority of forced
evacuations and destruction of villages, usually carried as a punishment for refusal to join
the village' ~ system or for a pro-Kurdistan Workers'-Party (PKK) village that proVideS
the PKK With logisticor personnel support. .
While the PKK has killed civilians and committed extensive human rights violations, their
attacks on settlements are usually targeted against so called "village guard" villages, a
minority of villages in the area, it said.
The Human Rights Watch called on the Stat~ Department to continue its investigation into
this matter and to update this report concerning the use of U.S. manufactured weapons in all
deployments in southeastern Turkey, especially in village evacuations. "We calion the
Turkish government to give all journàlists, legitimate NGOs: and foreign embassy personnel
access to southeastern Turkey," it concluded.