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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RmsTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASlN ÖZETi
Monday, September 6, 1993
turkish daily news
Iraq welcomesTurkey's efforts
to have the UN embargo lifted
Turkish Daily Nl:w,ç
ANKARA- Turkey's moves to have the United,
Nations embargo on Iraq lifted were welcomed
by Iraq, said a minister of the Baghdad governr
ment at a prèss conference in Istanbul on Saturday:
'
Mohammed Mehdi Saleh, the trade' minister of
Iraq who is in Istanbul for the ninth COMEC (Organization
of Islamic Conference Economic
Committee) meetings, said that both Iraq and
Turkey would benefit from the lifting of the em-,
bargo.
He said that because of the embargo, there has
been a marked increase in the infant death rate
and medicine shortages in Iraq. Saleh said Iraq's
debts have increased to $30-35 billion and that $6
billion of Iraqi money has been frozen by Wes- h:iS'Starteda debateamong diplomatic circles.
tern governments since the embargo.' ," Saleh claimed if there were no embargo, the
, Saleh said that once the embargo is lifted they trade volume between Iraq and Turkey would
could export $15-20 billionworth of oil and pay increase to $10 billion. He also said that many'
the country's debts. The United Nations impos.ed countries have come to realize that the embargo
an embargo on Iraq in August 1990, after ItS In- on Irag has not been successful but they "could
vasion of Kuwait. Turkey, one of the first count-not" lift the embargo because they were "afraid of
ries,to implemem the embargo, closed down the' the United States." ,
986-km, twin crudeoil pipeline connecting the Saleh criticized theallied monitoring of flights
rich Kirkuk'oil fields of Iraq to the Turkish Medi~ over the U.N.-imposed no-fly zone north of the
terranean terminal of Ceyhan. 36th parallel and south of the 32nd parallel in
Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin anno- ~raq,calling it an effort to create a power vacuum
unced in Parliament on Friday that Turkey had In the country. '
lost $600 million from the closure of the pipeline.' U.S., British and French planes based in Tur-
For the past few weeks, Turkey has been raising key have been carrying out monitoring flights
the idea of revising the embargo on Iraq, which north of the 36th parallel in Iraq since June 1991.
Dispute mounts over 1~lklar
TDN Parliament Bureau O~ficial Gazette, however,. was interpreted .as me-
ANKARA- The statusof Fehmi I~lklar, who amng that he had been stopped of his parhamenwas
stripped of parliamentary membership bythe tary membership, since the last paragraph of Ar-
ConstitutIOnal Court, is the object of increasing' ticle 84 of the Constitution rules that parliamencontroversy.
. ' tary membership is stripped after theConstitutio-
I~lklar, deputy speaker of Parliament and Soci- , nal ~ourt officIally submits its decision to the
al Democrat People's Party (SHP) DiyarbakIr de- parlIamentary speaker's office.' , '
puty, was strif~ of both of these titles when the
Constitutiona Court decision against him was of- Cindoruk's reaction
'ficially submitted io the speaker's office on Aug. Cindoruk acted against' moves to prevent, a
18. Earlier this year, the court ordered the sh~t- constitutional amendment and the publication of
downof the pro-Kurdish People's Labor Party the Constitutional Court's decision when Parlia-
(HEP), of whIch I~lklarwas a member. This led ment was in recess. '
'to his being stripped of h,is parliamentary mem- I~lklar, at that time, applied to the parliamenbership
In August. After the closure of the ~EP tary speaker's office to clarify his position. Cin-
I~lklarbecame a member of the SHP.' doruk replied that despite the Constitutional Co~
The Constitutional Court decided :>n July 14 urt's deCISion,I~lklar was,still a memberof Parlithat
I~lklar, as the, former chairmanof the pro- ament until Parliamentmade a decision.
Kurdish HEP, hadviolated the Constitution and
the Political Parties Law by "dividing the nation
into Turks ancLKurds and describing the Kurds as
an oppressed T!ation"in his speeches before the
October 1991 elections.' ,
While the Constitutional Court stated that its
decision had. been' published in the Official Gazette
and officially submitted to the parliamentary
speaker's office, Pa~liament Speaker Hüsame~tin
Cindoruk revealed that I~lklar would continue
to be a member of Parliament until Parliament
made a decision. Cindorukhad asked for a
constitutional amendment which would prevent
I~lklar from losing his parliamentary membership.
The publication of the court's decision in thé
124
Who is against whom,?
With regard to the Constitutional Court decision,
Cindoruk maintains thatonly the General As- '
sembly of Parliament can decide to strip a deputy
of hi~ p~rliamentary membership. But Yekta
Güngör 0 zden, the head of the Constitutional
Court"says~ the court's decision is not' open to interpretation.
He adds the decision was not affected
by the deputy's term in Parliament.,
Ozden has based the court's decision on Article
84 of the Constitution, which states that' membership
terminates when the decision is officially
submitied to the parliamentary speaker's office. ,
Cindoruk takes A~ticle 83 of the Constitution
as a base for his stance. That article states that the
execution of a court's decision made against a
member of the Turkish Parliament, before or after
his election, is left to the end of the deputy's
termin Parliament. Further, any interrogatIOn or
trial of the:member, if re-elected to Parliament,is
dependent on a parliamentary decision to strip
,the deputy's parliamentary. immunity. . .
, Whlchone of those articles takes pnonty and
the one to be used for reference is open to dIscussion.
,', The argument'over the decision is important in
another sense as well. ' ,
Cindoruk wants Parliament to be confirmed as
the top institution of the state and the top constitutional
body. Ozden wants the same for his
Constitutional Court. And behind this struggle is
the slruggle betweenthe moderates and hard-liners
regarding,the attitude to be taken toward the
pro-Kurdish deputies of Parliament.
The conflict between those displeased with the '
presence of the pro-Kurdish Democracy Party ,
(DEP) deputies In' Parliament and those who
think it is something useful also affects the I~Iklar
affair. "
The legalsituation of I~lkJàr will be clarified
after Sept. J4, when Parliament will elect its new
speaker. For the lime being I~lklar is receiving
hIS parliamentary salary and participating in 'the
group meetings of the SHP,upon the instructions
of Clndoruk. But it is not known yet whether he
will participate in the General Assembly on Sept.
14. '