Wayzata World Factbook 1996/The World Factbook - 1996 Edition - Wayzata Technology (3079) (1996).iso/pc/text/humanrts/turkey.txv

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TITLE:  TURKEY HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE:  FEBRUARY 1995




Associations and labor unions are prohibited by law from having
ties to political parties or engaging in political activities
(see Section 6.a.).  Police raided a number of associations and
organizations in 1994 and harassed some of their members.  For
example, on May 7 the Iskenderun governorship closed the
Iskenderun office of the Human Rights Association (HRA) on the
grounds that, through a press statement, the HRA had "acted
against the associations law and functioned to incite people."
In May the Adana governorship closed the Adana HRA branch for
15 days, as well as the Ozgur Der association, because it had
in its possession some "documents with ideological content."
On December 28, the Diyarbakir Governor closed the Diyarbakir
Branch of the HRA for 1 month.

Associations must submit their charters for government
approval, a lengthy and cumbersome process.

     c.  Freedom of Religion

The Constitution establishes Turkey as a secular state and
provides for freedom of belief, freedom of worship, and private
dissemination of religious ideas.  About 99 percent of Turkey's
population is Muslim.  Under Turkish law, religious services
may take place only in designated places of worship.  In Adana,
Turkey's fourth largest city, the only approved sites are
mosques, one Jewish synagogue, and one Roman Catholic church.
A Protestant expatriate group petitioned to have a house of
worship designated for its use.  The petition has been "under
consideration" in Ankara since at least 1992.  In February
1994, the Peace and Tolerance Conference, involving a wide
range of religious figures, took place in Istanbul.

Although Turkey is a secular state, religious instruction in
state schools is compulsory for Muslims.  Upon written
verification of their non-Muslim background, non-Muslims are
exempted by law from Muslim religious instruction, although
students who wish to attend may do so with parental consent.

Turkey's Alawi Muslim minority (an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam)
is estimated to number at least 12 million.  There are,
however, no government-paid Alawi religious leaders, no
religious affairs directorate funds go to the Alawi community,
and some Alawis allege informal discrimination in the form of
failure to include any Alawi doctrines or beliefs in religious
instruction classes.  Alawis are disgruntled by what they
regard as the Sunni bias in the religious affairs directorate
and the directorate's tendency to view the Alawis as a cultural
group rather than a religious sect.

Many prosecutors regard proselytizing and religious activism on
the part of either Islamic extremists or evangelical Christians
with suspicion, especially when they deem such activities to
have political overtones.  Since there is no law prohibiting
proselytizing, police sometimes arrest Islamic extremists and
evangelical Christians for disturbing the peace.  Courts
usually dismiss such charges.

Most religious minorities are concentrated in Istanbul, and the
number of Christians in the south has been declining as the
younger generation leaves Turkey for Europe and North America.

The status of only three minorities--Armenians, Jews, and
Greeks--was recognized under the Lausanne Treaty.  Other
religions may not acquire additional property for churches.
The Catholic Church in Ankara, for example, is confined to
diplomatic property.  The State must approve the operation of
churches, monasteries, synagogues, schools, and charitable
religious foundations, such as hospitals and orphanages.

The Jewish community is well integrated into Turkish society,
although it fears the possibility of rising Islamic extremism.
The only problems the Jewish community reported in 1994 were
petty thefts; facsimiles sent early in the year by the Muslim
fundamentalist terrorist organization Ibda-c, urging Turks to
cease doing business at Jewish-owned establishments; and some
damage to tombstones.

The activities of Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches and
their affiliated operations are carefully monitored and closely
calibrated to the state of political relations between Turkey
and Greece and between Turkey and Armenia.  In November, the
Istanbul Deputy Governor for the first time called in and
questioned the Armenian Patriarch on the Church's activities.

The Ministry of Education tightly controls the curriculums in
foreign-language schools.  Greek educators complain that the
Turkish Ministry of Education is extremely slow to approve
Greek-language textbooks, including those in such
noncontroversial subjects as mathematics and the natural
sciences.  They claim that, rather than allowing the use of
texts from Greece, the Ministry wants them to use Greek
translations of Turkish textbooks.  In September the Turkish
and Greek Governments eased a longstanding problem of
schoolteachers for Istanbul's Greek community and for Turks in
Western Thrace.  Because there was no physical education
teacher at one of the Greek high schools, a few graduating
seniors were initially denied their diplomas.  The problem was
worked out in time for them to enroll in university in the
fall, but many Greek students report difficulty in continuing
their education in Turkey and go to Greece, often never to
return.

The Greek Patriarchate (Istanbul is the see of the ecumenical
Patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox faith) has consistently
expressed interest in reopening the seminary on the island of
Halki in the Sea of Marmara.  The seminary has been closed
since the 1970's when the State nationalized all private
institutions of higher learning.  Turkish officials, however,
have used a variety of excuses to keep it closed.

During the last few years, there have been instances of
graffiti, stones tossed over the walls, and press attacks on
the Patriarchate and the Patriarch.  In May three bombs were
found inside the Patriarchate walls.  Police defused them, and
since then have provided enhanced protection for the
Patriarchate.  While the Patriarchate views the Turkish
authorities as responsive to its needs, it has undertaken its
own security improvements.

The Armenian Patriarchate has reported similar attacks against
Armenian churches in the city as well as problems similar to
those of the Greek Patriarchate.  Armenian church officials
also complain of petty harassment from local officials (such as
delays or refusals in receiving building permits) and growing
encroachment by certain Muslim extremist groups on lands
belonging to the Armenian community, especially on the Princes'
Islands in the Sea of Marmara.

The Islamic terrorist organization Ibda-c claimed
responsibility for bombs which exploded on May 19 in front of
Istanbul's Santa Maria and Saint Antoine churches, causing some
damage.

Bureaucratic procedures relating to historic preservation
impede repairs to some religious facilities.  Under Turkish
law, religious buildings that become "extinct" (because of
prolonged absence of clergy or lay persons to staff local
religious councils) revert to government possession.  Some
non-Muslim minorities, particularly the Greek Orthodox and, to
a lesser extent, the shrinking Armenian Orthodox and Jewish
communities, are faced with the danger of losing some of their
houses of worship.

     d.  Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign
         Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation

Citizens generally enjoy freedom of movement within Turkey and
the freedom to travel abroad.  The Constitution provides that a
citizen's freedom to leave may be restricted only by the
national economic situation, civic obligations (e.g., military
service), or criminal investigation or prosecution.  Each
Turkish citizen (except those regularly working abroad) must
pay a departure tax of $100 for every departure from the
country.  This tax is to be phased out in 1995.

Travel in the southeast sometimes is restricted for security
reasons.  Roadblocks, set up by both Turkish security forces
and the PKK, can seriously impede travel in the region.
Allegedly, security forces on occasion closed off villages and
surrounding regions making it impossible to investigate reports
of human rights abuses.

Although Turkey is a signatory to the U.N. Convention on
Refugees, it officially accords refugee status only to
claimants from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Asylum seekers from elsewhere are referred to the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for
third-country resettlement.

The Government has cooperated with the UNHCR in dealing with
large groups of Iraqis and Iranians seeking to qualify as
refugees.  Since July 15, 1994, Turkey has exercised its right
to make decisions on the qualifications of individual
refugees.  The Turkish Government now screens Iranians who
claim asylum before referring those it considers bona fide to
UNHCR for resettlement.  During the screening process, UNHCR
may provide technical assistance to the Turkish Government.  In
addition, at least 15,000 Bosnians have found temporary refuge
in Turkey, the majority living with friends and relatives and
another 3,000 in camps established by the Turkish Government
with UNHCR support.

Section 3  Respect for Political Rights:  The Right of Citizens
           to Change Their Government

According to the Constitution, citizens have the right and
ability to change their government peacefully.  Turkey has a
multiparty parliamentary system, in which elections are held at
least every 5 years on the basis of mandatory universal
suffrage for all citizens aged 21 and over.  As of October, at
least 25 political parties were operating in Turkey, 10 of
which were represented in Parliament.  The Grand National
Assembly (parliament) elects the President as Head of State
every 7 years, or when the President becomes incapacitated or
dies.

There are no restrictions in law against women or minorities
voting or participating in politics, but the Government has
made repeated efforts to frustrate political activities of
those who emphasize their Kurdish ethnicity.  As noted in
Section 2.b., the Constitutional Court closed the pro-Kurdish
DEP in 1994.  It immediately reformed as HADEP.  Additionally,
the Constitution forbids students, university faculty members,
and trade unionists from active participation in party
politics.

In February the Interior Ministry discharged three
democratically elected mayors in the southeast, all from the
DEP:  Kozluk (Batman province) mayor Abdullah Kaya; Kurtulan
(Siirt province) mayor Cemil Akgul; and Lice (Diyarbakir
province) mayor Nazmi Balkas.  In September the Istanbul SSC
sentenced Kaya and Balkas to 20 months in prison each and fined
them TL 210 million ($700) each for allegedly separatist
statements they had given to the newspaper Ozgur Gundem.

In the runup to nationwide local elections held on March 27,
there were serious threats to the safety of candidates in the
southeast.  A number of DEP candidates were threatened and a
few killed, and party offices of several political parties were
bombed.  As of the end of the year, none of the perpetrators
had been apprehended.  On February 24, the DEP withdrew from
the elections, claiming it was not safe for its candidates.  On
March 1, the PKK demanded that people boycott the elections and
threatened to kill both candidates and voters who went to the
polls.  The elections went forward peacefully throughout the
country.

Apart from banning the DEP, the Constitutional Court formally
closed the small Greens party on the grounds that its
executives had not submitted their financial accounts and other
necessary documents for the year 1988; and it also closed the
Turkish Socialist Party because its platform allegedly aimed at
destroying the unity of the country and its people.

The Constitution calls for equal political rights for men and
women; however, only eight women representing three parties
were elected to the Parliament in 1991.  In addition to Prime
Minister Ciller, there is one female Cabinet Minister.
Political parties now recruit female delegates for their party
conferences and electoral lists.  Women's committees are active
within political party organizations, although formal youth and
women's wings are not permitted under the Constitution.

Section 4  Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
           Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
           of Human Rights

A nongovernmental Human Rights Association (HRA), officially
approved in 1987, has branches in 50 provincial capitals, but
at year's end 13 had been closed, all of them in the east and
southeast.  It claims a membership of about 20,000.  In 1990
the HRA established its companion Human Rights Foundation (HRF)
which, in addition to operating torture rehabilitation centers
in Ankara, Izmir, and Istanbul, serves as a clearinghouse for
human rights information.  Other nongovernmental organizations
include the Ankara-based Turkish Democracy Foundation, the
Istanbul-based Helsinki Citizens Assembly, and human rights
centers at a number of universities.

Government agents have increasingly harassed human rights
monitors, as well as lawyers and doctors involved in
documenting human rights violations.  Some have reported
receiving death threats from unknown parties.  At least one
human rights monitor was killed.  A number have been
aggressively prosecuted as well.  In December, a SSC trial
opened against Yavuz Onen, President of the HRF, and Fevzi
Argun, head of the HRF'S Documentation Center, for allegedly
separatist language in the booklet "File of Torture."  They
were acquitted in January along with four defendants from the
HRA who had been indicted for their publication of "A
Cross-Section of Burned-Down Villages."  In December three
members of the board of the Diyarbakir HRA were arrested on
charges of separatism and four others were being sought for
their 1992 publication of "Report On The State Of Emergency
Region, 1992."

Some government officials, including some prosecutors and
police, punitively apply various laws to restrict the HRA's
activities.  For example, officials ordered various branches of
the HRA closed for periods of weeks or months generally on
charges that they had violated the associations law through
publication of a press statement or allegedly separatist
material (see Section 2.b.).  An HRA president in southern
Turkey said he and his board remained under surveillance, and
one in eastern Turkey noted that many board members had left
the city or resigned because they were concerned about their
personal safety.

The president of the Siirt HRA, who was arrested on February
26, 1993, and detained for 3 months on charges of giving aid
and comfort to the PKK, was again arrested on January 21, 1994,
after which the local branch closed.  He was released in
October, but charges against him have not been dropped.  Sedat
Aslantas, chairman of the Diyarbakir HRA branch and vice
chairman of the Turkish HRA, was arrested on May 13 by the
Ankara SSC on charges related to a joint press statement issued
in May 1993 by Diyarbakir union and association leaders.  That
trial continued as of the end of the year.  On December 5, he
was imprisoned for 3 years based on an earlier case involving
his speech during an HRA congress in October 1992.  The HRA
representative in the town of Derik, Mardin province, who was
detained six separate times in 1993, has moved away, and the
local HRA office is closed.  Muhsin Melik, founder of the
Sanliurfa branch of the HRA and former president of the DEP
branch office, was shot and killed on June 2.  Before his
death, he identified his assailants as police officers.  There
have been no arrests in connection with this case.  Other HRA
offices closed for similar reasons include those in Sirnak,
Nusaybin, Tunceli, Dogubeyazit, and Cizre.  Many of these
investigations and prosecutions, as well as many arrests of
human rights monitors, stemmed from alleged violations of the
law on associations or the holding of illegal demonstrations.
Surveillance and harassment of HRA members in the southeast
continues on a regular basis.

Since 1991, Parliament has had a Human Rights Commission.  The
Commission is authorized to oversee Turkey's compliance with
the human rights provisions of Turkish law and international
agreements to which Turkey is a signatory, investigate alleged
abuses, and prepare reports.  Claiming it is underfunded and
lacks the necessary powers to subpoena witnesses or documents,
the Commission has been inactive and ineffective.  In August
the State Minister in charge of human rights announced the
establishment of a human rights advisory department connected
to the Prime Ministry would be established to investigate
allegations of human rights violations and monitor
international human rights developments.

While representatives of diplomatic missions who wish to
monitor the state of human rights in Turkey are free to speak
with private citizens, security police may place such visitors
in the southeast and the east under surveillance, and the
presence of security officials may have an intimidating effect
upon those interviewed.  Access to government officials or
facilities has been restricted at times, although in 1993 and
1994 high-level visitors obtained most of the appointments they
requested, including access to detention facilities.  However,
in August a delegation from Human Rights Watch/Helsinki was
unable to obtain the cooperation of the Regional Super
Governor's office to investigate PKK human rights abuses
outside of Diyarbakir.  In September Amnesty International's
principal researcher for Turkey was declared persona non
grata.  Also in September, the Foreign Minister announced his
intention to restrict foreign visitor access to judges and
prosecutors.

Section 5  Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
           Disability, Language, or Social Status

The Constitution proclaims Turkey to be a secular state,
regards all Turkish citizens as equal, and prohibits
discrimination on ethnic, religious, or racial grounds.  The
Government officially recognizes only those religious
minorities mentioned in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which
guarantees the rights of Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic,
and Jewish adherents.  Despite constitutional provisions,
discrimination remains a problem in several areas.

     Women

Traditional family values in rural Turkey place a greater
emphasis on advanced education for sons than for daughters.
Far fewer girls than boys continue their education after
primary school.  The illiteracy rate for women is approximately
29 percent, some 10 percent higher than for the population as a
whole.  Turkey's civil code, which prohibits granting
gender-based privileges or rights, retains some discriminatory
provisions concerning marital rights and obligations.  Because
the husband is the legal head of household, the wife
automatically acquires the husband's surname with marriage; the
husband is authorized to choose the domicile and represents the
conjugal unit.  As parents, husband and wife exercise their
rights jointly, but when they disagree, the husband's view
prevails.  Women's groups have lobbied to change this
provision.  Divorce law requires that the divorcing spouses
divide their property according to property registered in each
spouse's name.  Because in most cases property is registered in
the husband's name, this can create difficulties for women who
wish to divorce.  With regard to inheritance laws, a widow
generally obtains one-fourth of the estate.

Although spousal abuse is a serious and widespread problem, it
is still considered an extremely private matter, involving
societal notions of family honor.  Few women go to the police,
who in any case are reluctant to intervene in domestic disputes
and frequently advise women to return to their husbands.  Turks
of either sex may file civil or criminal charges but rarely
do.  A combination of laws and ingrained societal notions make
it difficult to prosecute sexual assault or rape cases.  By
law, penalties may be reduced if a woman was not a virgin prior
to a rape.  Penalties may also be reduced if a judge deems the
woman to have acted provocatively.  There are several shelters
for battered women, and at least two consultation centers,
Istanbul's the Purple Roof Foundation and Ankara's Altindag
Center.  In a 1-year period, 400 women applied to one major
city shelter.

Particularly in urban areas, women are improving their position
overall, including in the professions, business, and the civil
service, although they continue to face discrimination to
varying degrees.  Numerous women have become lawyers, doctors,
and engineers since the 1960's.  In March a woman for the first
time was elected chief justice of a court of appeals.  Women
comprise about 36 percent of the work force; approximately 80
percent of working women are employed in agriculture.  They
generally receive equal pay for equal work in the professions,
business, and civil service jobs, although a large percentage
of women employed in agriculture and in the trade, restaurant,
and hotel sectors work as unpaid family help.  The arbitrary
barrier to women becoming governors and subgovernors
(government-appointed positions) has been breached, and women
may now take the examination required to become a subgovernor.
Several have been appointed subgovernors, and one governor is a
woman.

Independent women's and women's rights associations exist, but
the concept of lobbying for women's rights has not gained
currency.

     Children

The Government is committed to furthering children's welfare
and is working to expand opportunities in education and health,
including further reduction of the infant mortality rate.

Children have suffered greatly from the cycle of violence in
southeastern Anatolia.  School closings and the migration of
many families, forced or voluntary, have uprooted children to
cities which are hard pressed to find the resources to extend
basic, mandatory services, such as schooling.  The Government
is establishing regional boarding schools in the southeast to
help combat this problem but not enough to meet the need.  The
HRF claims that 78 children were subjected to torture between
January 1989 and July 1994.

     National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

The Constitution, following the Treaty of Lausanne, does not
recognize the Kurds in Turkey as a national, racial, or ethnic
minority.  Many human rights abuses are targeted at Kurds who
insist on publicly or politically asserting their Kurdish
ethnic identity, and their supporters.

Kurds who are long-term residents in industrialized cities in
western Turkey have been, for the most part, assimilated into
the political, economic, and social life of the nation.  Kurds
who are currently migrating westward (including those displaced
by the conflict in the southeast), bring with them their
Kurdish culture and village identity; many simply are not
prepared for urban life.

Most parliamentary representatives from southeastern Turkey are
ethnic Kurds, but representatives of Kurdish ethnic origin have
been elected from districts far removed from the southeast.
Several Cabinet Ministers, more than 25 percent of M.P.'s and
other government officials claim an ethnic Kurdish background.

The increasing violence of the fighting in the southeast is
polarizing ethnic Turks and Kurds and creating a climate of
intolerance.  Particularly in cities such as Adana and Mersin,
which have witnessed a large influx of Kurds fleeing the
violence in the southeast, tensions continue to rise.  With PKK
bombings in Aegean resort towns and Istanbul, tensions have
also spread westward, making it difficult, for example, for
some otherwise qualified new migrants to find work in the
western cities.

The 1991 repeal of the law prohibiting publications or
communication in Kurdish legalized some spoken and printed
Kurdish communications.  Under the political parties law,
however, all discussion that takes place at political meetings
must be in Turkish.  Kurdish may be spoken only in
"nonpolitical communication."  Court proceedings (and all
government functions, including public education) continue to
be conducted in Turkish, disadvantaging those Kurdish-speaking
defendants who have to rely on court-provided translators.
Moreover, materials dealing with Kurdish history, culture, and
ethnic identity continue to be subject to confiscation and
prosecution under the "indivisible unity of the State"
provisions of the Anti-Terror Law.

The Roma population is extremely small, and there were no
reported incidents of public or government harassment directed
against Roma during 1994.

     People with Disabilities

To date legislation dealing with the disabled is piecemeal, and
there is little legislation regarding accessibility for the
disabled.  Certain categories of employers are required to hire
disabled persons as 2 percent of their employee pool, although
there is no penalty for failure to comply.