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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN OZETi
"We call on everyone to watch on others and infonn
the local committee if these orders a violated," a local
communique said.
"The state IS strong and in control of the region,"
Çiller announced from Washington this weekend not
referring to the most recent order by the PKK, for
political parties to close their offices m Tunceli.
"The occupiers who cannot withstand the blows of
the guerillas are step by step withdrawing from rural
areas. We say welcome to the 'stage of balances,'" a
recent report in t.he organizations
lication Berxwedan said. Earlier,
underground pub-
PKK leaders had
been quoted saying that the movement had overcome
the tactical guerilla stage of its" strategic defense,"
or active resistance, and was now in the stage of
"strategic balances" -- forcing troops also to go into
defenSIve positions.
. "We will crush thePKK by next Spring at the latest,"
Turkey's Chief of General Staff Gen. Doggan
Güre~ announced last month.
During the weekend, Erkan said preparations had
been completed to launch a major "winter operation"
on the PKK and added that troops had already been
moved to necessary strategic centers.
Sources reported that land and air operations were
underw~y. in the provinces of D!yarbakIr, BingöJ,
Mu~, Bitlis, ~Irnak and Hakkan. The operations
concentrated on rural areas but sources said some
5,000 people had been detained in city centers. There
was also uncon!inned speculation in the reoion
that hundreds of villages hadbeen evacuated. e
Observers in Ankara believe the government has
decided to i~plem~nt ~ major military plan to crush
the PKK dunng thIS wmter, and that thIS will beoin
after Çiller returns to Turkey on Wednesday. fhe
current operations, they say, aim at harassino PKK
mountain units and their supporters. The military is
then expected to crack down on them en masse.
PKK threatens tohalt
Azeri pipeline project
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA- The secessionist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
has threatened a group of international
companies with ~Io~kin.g
the Azerba~an-Turkey 011 pIpelIne
project If they do not get the
organization's approval.
Ql),oted by the pro-Kurdish daily
Ozgür yündem on Monday,
Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of
the PKK said that it would "not
be possible" to operate the pipeline,
"even if constructed," byexcluding
the PKK's presence In eastern
and southeastern Turkey.
"Neither the currently closed Kirkuk-Ceyhan
oil pipeline, nor the
planned Baku-Ceyhan. pipeline
can be successful without bringing
an end to the war in Kurdistan
(meaning parts of eastern and
. southeastern Turkey)," Ocalan said.
"It's not possible for any foreign
company to invest in a project
in KurdIstan without our approal"
. v
He said complaints by the Western
partners of the project and by
RUSSia about the insecure situation
in the region were "quite
right."
The PKK has hinted by its attacks
in the region since May
1993 that it was trying to block
the project and make it a bargaining
chip for its becoming a partner
in international forums. See-
• "Neither the currently closed Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil
pipeline, nor the planned Baku-Ceyhan pipeline
can be successful without bringing an end to
the war in Kurdistan (meaning parts of eastern
and southeastern Turkey)"
king an independent Kurdish state
carved out of Turkey, Iran, Iraq
and Syria, the PKK has been waging
an anned campaign since
1984 in which some 7,500 people haye been killed
in eastern and southeastern Turkey so fur.
Ocalan added that had Turkey chosen a political
solution to the Kurdish problem, it could have saved
the Azerbaijan 'pipeline, but Ankara's preference fOI
a military solutIOn had worked to Turkey's disadvan.
tage, more than it had been thought. Turkish govern.
nient officialscannot say anything more detailed on
the development than, "State forces are strong eno ..
ugh to take the necessary measures and secure the
route."
The .Azeri- Turkish pipeline was planned to call)
Azeri crude oil froin Baku to Turkey's Mediterrane.
an port of Ceyhan. Ceyhan is the tenninal of the Iraqi-Turkish
pipeline that was closed down by the Tur.
kish government in August 1990 because of the Uni.
ted Nations embargo following Iraq's invasion 01
Kuwait. The idea was to connect the pipeline from
Baku to the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline either at Midyal
or Viran~ehir, both located In southeastern Turkey.
Midxat was thought of as the connection point fOI
a 'possIble route passing either through Iran or Anne.
ma before .crossing into Nakhichevan and Turkey.
whereas the Vitan~ehir connection offered the option
for a route passing through Georgia before crossing
into Turkey. The cost of the pip'eline has been esti.
mated between $1.4 ana 1.6 bIllion, depending on
the route.
The transportation of 25 million tons of Azeri cru.
de oilto world markets is p'art of a bigger project te
explore for and produce Oll in three major fields in
Azerbaijan. The British Petroleum-Norwegian Statoil
alliance, the American companies of AMOCO.
Pennzoil. Ramco, and Unocal, and the Turkish nalional
oil company TPAO are partners in this project.
Azerbaijan's national oil compilnY SOCAR is expected
to have a 30 percent share in the project,.èStimated
to be worth $9 billion, when a final deal is reached
between the Azeri 9.0vernment and the partner
companies. BP, AMOCu, SOCAR, Pennzoil and
Turkey's pipeline trans~ortation company BOT A~
are partners in other projects for transporting the oil.
once it is produced. Other alternatives have been under
discussion for more than a year, for thetranspor-.
tation of Azeri crude oil to world markets. One of
them, to carry Azeri oil together with Russian and.
Kazakh oil, using tanker ships through the Turkish
straits, was ~ut back by a campaign of the Turkish
Foreign Mimstry that said it would pose a bip threat
to the JO million inhabitants of Istanbul ana would
also block foreign trade for the Black Sea countries -
- excluding oil. .
S?urces in the. ene.rgy sector say that considering
the Intense conflIcts In the Caucasus and the tension
in southeastern Turkey, Western companies think
thatto carry Azeri oil t? Rus~ia'~ Novorossysk port
at the Black Sea coast vIa a Plpetine, then to carry it
to another port on Turkey's west Black Sea coast by
tanker ship and transport itto the Turkish Aegean
coast via another pipeline may be a better and safer
solution. In spite of the fact thai the Baku-Ceyhan
route has been marked out by two protocols -- the
Ankara protocol of March 9, 1993 between Azerbaijan
and Turkey, and the London protocol of Oct. 2,
1993 between relevant companies -- as the cheapest
way of carrying Azeri oilto world markets, sources
sayinvestors may chose the more expensive but relatively
more secure way. .
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