So the smugglers are feeding a growing demand. They have the power and the money to corrupt, and the ruthlessness to abandon anyone whose luck deserts them.

Make no mistake, getting to Europe is a hazardous business and it costs money - thousands of pounds with no guarantee of success.

Some people arrive in Turkey and then get stuck, forced to eke out a life outside the system in grinding poverty.

The Georgian cargo ship Pati was split in two Nashmi Rashidi is living illegally in Turkey with her husband and two young children. They paid several thousand pounds to buy false Iranian passports, and bribe their way across international borders via Iraq and Syria. Now they live in a rented room with no source of income, and no means of escape. "We can't go back to Iran because my husband could face the death penalty," said Nashmi. "But we haven't got the money to go any further. We can't even buy clothes for the children." Nashmi regards herself as a political refugee - but it can be a hard point to prove. Others may see her family in a different light - part of the wave of unwanted economic migrants heading remorselessly westward.

Global inequality

In one form or another, the problem is bound to get worse as long as inequality in the global economy is so striking.

And when images of Western affluence are fed by television into huts and shanties across the world, who can blame those who want to take to the road, convinced that on the other side of the divide the streets really are paved with gold. Europe can try to stem the tide with new regulations and better cross-border co-operation, but it cannot plug every hole. For those on the outside looking in, the temptations are too great.

Migrants come in all shapes and sizes, some good, some bad, but all of them united in their search for a better life.

I used to get phone calls from a Ugandan refugee in Istanbul called James, a deserter, he said, from the Ugandan army. Could I get him a passport, he wondered, or have a quiet word with the local United Nations office. They might help him if he knew the BBC.

James used to call once every few weeks until his pay phone cut him off. Speaking perfect English, he never asked for money, only for advice, and for help which I could not provide.

BY AMBERIN ZAMAN
Los Angeles Times Service

ANKARA, Turkey -- Iraqi Kurdish officials confirmed on Sunday that at least 500 Turkish troops have pushed 100 miles into northern Iraq in their deepest incursion into the Kurdish-controlled enclave in 15 years of war against Kurdish separatists.

The officials described the move as preparation for a major offensive against about 2,500 rebels belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who are dug in along a 25-mile-long swath of mountainous territory on the Iran-Iraq border.

The mass-circulation Turkish daily Sabah repeated earlier reports that as many as 10,000 Turkish troops have poured into northern Iraq since Dec. 20 in response to pleas for help from one of the main Iraqi Kurdish factions there. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK -- which controls the southern third of the Iraqi Kurdish enclave -- has been clashing with the Turkish Kurd PKK since September.

``The PKK has occupied 45 of our villages since September,'' a PUK official who requested anonymity said. ``They are terrorizing our people and should leave our territory at once.''

As many as 200 PUK soldiers have been killed in fighting with the PKK in recent weeks around the towns of Sulaymaniyah and Raniyah, according to the Iraqi newspaper Al Iraq, which in an article Friday also alluded to Turkish military involvement.

The Turkish general staff issued a statement Sunday denying the incursion, saying ``the [media] reports involve no truth.''

But Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said in a statement reported by the official Anatolia news agency: ``Turkey is, of course, providing technical support [to the Iraqi Kurds]. This is necessary for our own security.''

Western diplomats here in the Turkish capital say they have been aware of a Turkish troop buildup in northern Iraq for some time.

``We are deeply concerned. It will only further destabilize what is already a highly unstable region and could even provide [Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein] with an excuse to intervene,'' said a European diplomat based in Ankara who also requested anonymity.

But this diplomat, like several others, characterized the reports of a buildup of thousands of troops as grossly exaggerated.

Osman Ocalan, brother of the captured PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, was quoted Sunday by the Kurdish daily Ozgur Politika as saying, ``The PUK has invited Turkish troops to destroy the Kurdish national movement and Kurdish unity.

This intervention will only provoke further rebellions throughout Kurdistan.''

Northern Iraq has been under the control of two rival Iraqi Kurdish factions, the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, ever since they united for a failed uprising against Hussein at the end of the Persian Gulf War.

Millions of Kurdish civilians flocked to the Iranian and Turkish borders at the time, provoking an international outcry and prompting the Gulf War allies to establish a ``no fly'' zone over the region to protect them against possible attack by Iraq.

Traditional rivalries between the KDP and the PUK, however, led to a breakdown of the joint government they formed in 1992 after the Iraqi Kurds' first-ever parliamentary elections.

The enclave has been racked with violence since, and U.S.-led mediation efforts have failed to secure a lasting peace between the warring factions.

Feuding between the Iraqi Kurdish groups has been further stoked by Turkey and Iran.

With restive Kurdish minorities of their own, both countries fiercely oppose the emergence of an independent Kurdistan on their borders and hence have encouraged factional war between the Iraqi Kurds and at the same time armed them to fight their own Kurdish separatist groups.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish police have increased security following attacks by left-wing radicals that have left three police dead and more than two dozen injured.

Security officials said Monday they fear that left-wing radicals will start targeting politicians and judges in addition to police to avenge the deaths of 30 of their comrades. The 30 died last month when troops stormed prisons to end a hunger strike by the militants.

Police checked cars parked in front of police stations or military barracks and bomb experts were detonating packages left in public places. Citizens were asked to immediately report stolen cars or suspicious parcels.

On Monday, police evacuated an area in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, a hotspot with European tourists, after a suspicious parcel was found. The bomb squad exploded the parcel, but found only a pair of glasses in the debris.

Police have been ordered not to patrol isolated streets in poor neighborhoods with histories of anti-police violence, and security around top officials has been increased.

The alert was declared last week after a militant with a bomb strapped to his body blew himself up inside an Istanbul police station, killing one policeman and injuring seven people, an intelligence officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it carried out the attack to avenge the December prison killings.

On Sunday, two gunmen wearing ski masks raked a police patrol car in Istanbul with gunfire, wounding one officer.

A week before the prison raids, another militant group -- Turkey Communist Party-Marxist/Leninist ambushed a police bus in Istanbul, killing two officers and wounding 11. The attack was in retaliation for a shootout with police that left a group member dead.

Both militant groups have carried out attacks against Turkish officials and Americans but have not targeted tourists.

The U.S. consulates in Istanbul and Adana were closed for three weeks in December for security reasons. The consulates reopened in late December.

A U.S. diplomat said they are watching the situation very closely.

Turkish-Israeli-US naval maneuvers next week

Wednesday, 10 January, 2001, 15:14 GMT

Shadow hangs over Turkish jails

By Chris Morris in Istanbul

Prisoners say security forces set fire to dormitories

Three weeks after Turkish security forces stormed prisons across the country to regain control of dormitories run by left-wing militant groups, international human rights organisations are expressing grave concern about the state of Turkey's prison system The government has said the move re-established the rule of law in the prisons following four days of violent clashes in which 30 inmates and two soldiers were killed.

But human rights activists have been inundated with complaints of torture and abuse from lawyers, doctors and prisoners' relatives.

Over 1,000 left-wing inmates have been transferred to new jails where they are kept in cells which hold a maximum of three people.

Hundreds of prisoners are still on a hunger strike which began over two months ago.

Investigation promised

The Justice Ministry has promised to investigate any allegations of abuse. But it has already dismissed claims that the security forces used excessive force and brutal punishment when they re-asserted control over the prisons, and transferred inmates to their new locations.

But written statements from survivors suggest that in some cases prison wards were deliberately burnt down by incendiary devices, which were fired by members of the security forces.

Several of the dead also had bullet wounds, while survivors say they were repeatedly beaten and abused after the operation came to an end.

'Human rights for everyone'

There is no doubt that the prison system had degenerated into chaos, and something needed to change.

Officials say they had been unable to enter some areas inside the prisons for nearly a decade, and militant groups were using their dormitories as indoctrination centres.

The concern now, however, is that the new prisons are being used to implement a regime of isolation which does not conform to international standards.

Relatives say prisoners have been beaten and tortured

What is needed above all is greater openness", said Jonathan Sugden of Human Rights Watch, "and an independent investigation into what really happened last month." The government says it is ushering in the beginning of a new era of "human rights for everyone" in the prisons. But allegations continue to emerge that inmates have been abused and humiliated - beaten if they refuse to sing the national anthem or stand to attention during roll call.

European diplomats in Ankara believe the government is genuine in its determination to stamp out torture and ill-treatment, but they question whether senior officials really know what is happening behind closed doors.

Trouble looming

The next crisis is already looming. At least 30 of the prisoners on hunger strike are reported to be in a critical condition. Further deaths inside the prisons could spark renewed violence on the streets as well.

Last week a member of one extreme left-wing group, the DHKP-C, walked into an Istanbul police station with dynamite wrapped around his body. He blew himself up, killing a policeman and injuring 7 bystanders.

Security officials said Monday they fear that left-wing radicals will start targeting politicians and judges in addition to police to avenge the deaths of 30 of their comrades. The 30 died last month when troops stormed prisons to end a hunger strike by the militants.

Police checked cars parked in front of police stations or military barracks and bomb experts were detonating packages left in public places. Citizens were asked to report stolen cars or suspicious parcels immediately.

On Monday, police evacuated an area in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, a hotspot with European tourists, after a suspicious parcel was found. The bomb squad exploded the parcel, but found only a pair of glasses in the debris.

Police have been ordered not to patrol isolated streets in poor neighborhoods with histories of anti-police violence, and security around top officials has been increased.

The alert was declared last week after a militant with a bomb strapped to his body blew himself up inside an Istanbul police station, killing one police officer and injuring seven people, an intelligence officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front claimed responsibility for that attack, saying it carried out the attack to avenge the December prison killings.

On Sunday, two gunmen wearing ski masks raked a police patrol car in Istanbul with gunfire, wounding one officer.

A week before the prison raids, another militant group - Turkey Communist Party-Marxist/Leninist ambushed a police bus in Istanbul, killing two officers and wounding 11. The attack was in retaliation for a shootout with police that left a group member dead.

Both militant groups have carried out attacks against Turkish officials and Americans but have not targeted tourists.

The U.S. consulates in Istanbul and Adana were closed for three weeks in December for security reasons. The consulates reopened in late December.

A U.S. diplomat said they are watching the situation very closely.

Each of the groups are believed to have only a few hundred members who are not in prison. Nando Times

Zekeriya Beyaz, theology dean of Istanbul's Marmara University, told female students that they would have to abide by the law and take off their head scarves if they wanted to attend class, the Sabah newspaper reported.

An unidentified assailant stabbed Beyaz three times in the chest as students were leaving the hall, newspapers said. The wounds were not life-threatening.

Police detained the assailant and dozens of students after the attack.

Women wearing head scarves frequently protest the ban outside Turkey's universities.

By Ron Synovitz

Five years of archival research by an RFE/RL correspondent in Bulgaria has resulted in a documentary film that sheds light on the forced assimilation of ethnic Turks in the 1980s. Reporter Tatiana Vaksberg found documents showing that the assimilations were ordered at the highest levels. Most Bulgarians will see the evidence for the first time tonight when the film airs on national television.

Prague, 9 January 2001 (RFE/RL) -- A documentary film that airs on Bulgarian television tonight is sparking a national debate over a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the country's Turkish minority that was ordered by the communist leadership in the 1980s.

The film, based on five years of research by RFE/RL Sofia correspondent Tatiana Vaksberg, raises questions about why those who ordered the forced assimilation of some one million Turks were never brought to justice.

Bulgarian judicial authorities say the lack of any documents clearly ordering the assimilations has prevented them from convicting anyone.

But RFE/RL's Vaksberg says prosecutors never conducted an extensive search of state archives, the files of the Interior Ministry or the Bulgarian Communist Party.

Vaksberg searched the archives and discovered exactly the kind of documents that the courts have said are necessary for convictions.

One document from the Interior Ministry archives shows that former Interior Minister Dimitar Stoyanov ordered a campaign in December 1984 to force ethnic Turks in Bulgaria to adopt Slavic names. The document reveals Stoyanov instructed senior security officers "to start renaming all Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origin in all districts where such populations exist."

A Politburo meeting had preceded Stoyanov's order. But a record of that meeting could not be found in the archives of the former Communist Party, which has since renamed itself the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

Stoyanov, who died last year, served as interior minister under late communist dictator Todor Zhivkov from 1973 until 1988.

A January 1985 document found by Vaksberg shows that Georgi Atanasov, then the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, also ordered the forced assimilation of ethnic Turks in northern Bulgaria.

Atanasov was prime minister at the time of Zhivkov's ouster in November 1989 and continued in the post until the first post- communist elections in early 1990.

Vaksberg did not find any assimilation orders coming directly from Zhivkov himself, but the document of Zhivkov's interior minister strongly suggests that Zhivkov was behind the campaign -- a position generally accepted by historians.

Vaksberg says Zhivkov's comments at a Politburo meeting in January 1985 show he was pleased with assimilation efforts in the south -- where more than 300,000 ethnic Turks already had been forced to adopt Slavic names.

"If you talk about an order, Interior Minister Dimitar Stoyanov is the person with the highest position. But I found also a document on Todor Zhivkov 18 January 1985. This is not an order, but he was very happy about the process in the south of Bulgaria. I think the idea for this crime was a Todor Zhivkov and Dimitar Stoyanov idea -- both of them."

A first screening of Vaksberg's 85-minute film took place last week. Those who attended the event at a Sofia cinema included Bulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov as well as Turkish diplomats and prominent Bulgarian journalists.

Bulgarian newspapers have been debating the film since that screening. An unsigned article in the daily Duma, the official newspaper of former communists in the renamed Socialist Party, attacks Vaksberg's credibility. The Duma called Vaksberg a "fascist" and claimed she "received orders" to create an anti-communist documentary.

But other newspapers have praised Vaksberg's work for shedding light on a dark period of Bulgaria's recent history. Vaksberg says there is still too much denial in the country about the ethnic cleansing of Turks during the mid-1980s.

"I know many people, students, who've never heard about this. I think the country is not yet ready to understand this crime -- the dimension of this crime."

For ethnic Turks, the assimilation was a program of massive repression. It included a ban on Islamic religious practices and cultural traditions. Those who refused to accept Slavic names were beaten by police and had their identification documents confiscated -- which meant they could not leave their villages. As assimilation continued, some were forced at gunpoint to change their names. Severe fines were imposed for speaking Turkish in public.

When public protests broke out at the beginning of the program in 1984 and 1985, Zhivkov responded by sealing off the ethnic Turkish areas to outsiders.

The assimilation program was accelerated in 1989 as Zhivkov came under increasing pressure because of deteriorating economic conditions.

Communist officials and state media continued to insist that the campaign to eliminate Turkic names was a unanimous and voluntary act by the country's Muslims.

Ethnic Turks interviewed in 1989 told a different tale:

"We all listen to radio broadcasts and I've started to make conclusions. We understand that only in Bulgaria is there such a thing as changing names by force. They changed our names under rifles, under automatic guns, and then they tell us we have changed our names voluntarily."

Riots and demonstrations broke out among ethnic Turks in the summer of 1989. In some instances, police and militia fired on crowds and reportedly killed dozens of people -- provoking a diplomatic crisis with Ankara and a potentially explosive situation within Bulgaria.

Zhivkov first deported thousands of alleged ringleaders to Turkey and then gave ethnic Turks the right to emigrate to Turkey. The exodus quickly developed into one of the largest human migrations in post-World War Two Europe. Ankara estimates that about 370,000 people entered Turkey -- although some 50,000 later returned to Bulgaria after receiving little support from Turkish authorities.

More importantly for Zhivkov's regime, the debacle raised anti- Zhivkov feelings within the Communist Party and at the Kremlin in Moscow. Zhivkov's refusal to consult the Politburo before accelerating assimilation in 1989 is often cited as a major factor contributing to his ouster in the so-called palace coup of November 1989.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Masked gunmen fired on a police car in a poor part of Istanbul on Wednesday, killing one officer and injuring another, police said.

Scores of police officers were searching the Sirinevler neighborhood, near Istanbul's airport, but as of Wednesday evening the three gunmen had not been caught or identified.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on left-wing groups. Turkish police have increased security following recent attacks by leftist radicals that have left three police officers dead and more than two dozen injured.

Last week, a militant with a bomb strapped to his body blew himself up inside an Istanbul police station, killing one policeman and injuring seven people. The Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front claimed responsibility, saying it attacked to avenge the deaths of 30 of their comrades last month when troops stormed prisons to end a hunger strike by the militants.

Wednesday, 10 January, 2001, 16:59 GMT

A prosecutor in Istanbul has charged fifty police officers with taking part in an illegal demonstration.

Thousands of others are still under investigation after they joined mass protests last month following the killing of two policemen in a gun attack on a police bus.

Under Turkish law civil servants are banned from staging demonstrations.

If found guilty the police officers face prison sentences of up to five years.

By Jean-Christophe Peuch

Turkey's plan to house prisoners in cleaner, more modern jails has been marred by prison riots, as inmates fear that the new jails, which have smaller cells, will increase the scope for isolation and abuse. The plan sparked prison riots last month that left more than 30 dead, and some prisoners remain on a hunger strike. RFE/RL's Jean-Christophe Peuch reports the Turkish government has been slow to answer the concerns of inmates and international watchdog groups.

Prague, 12 January 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Last month, Turkish police and paramilitary forces launched simultaneous raids on 20 prisons throughout the country to put an end to a two-month-old hunger strike staged by inmates protesting a pending transfer to new controversial jails.

The four-day police operation -- code-named "Return to Life" -- ended in unprecedented bloodshed. Turkish authorities put the death toll at 33, including two gendarmes who the Justice Ministry says died as "martyrs" during clashes with inmates.

A month later, the heavy smoke hanging over Turkey's prisons is gone, yet hundreds of prisoners are continuing with their hunger strike -- some have been striking more than 80 days and are said to be near death. In the meantime, more than 1,000 inmates -- mainly members of far-left political organizations -- have been forcibly transferred from the older jails, known as "E-type" prisons, to the newer establishments.

Inmates opposed the transfer to the new jails, which are more modern but have smaller cells, because they feared they could more easily be isolated and abused in the new facilities. Turkish officials claim the new prisons meet international human rights standards and bring them closer to European norms.

Human rights organizations say inmates endured all manner of ill treatment during the transfer and on arrival to the new prisons.

A researcher for the London branch of Human Rights Watch, Jonathan Sugden, tells RFE/RL that he spoke to relatives of inmates, lawyers and to three prisoners released last month under a partial amnesty. He relays their stories:

"The sorts of things they reported were people being beaten, punched, insulted, at the time of when they were arriving to the prison [and] running a gauntlet between two groups of soldiers who were beating and kicking them, making them crawl, kiss [their] boots, making them sing the national anthem."

Turkish authorities have not responded to requests by lawyers and human rights organizations for an explanation and forensic examinations. In a statement last week, the Justice Ministry denied prisoners transferred to the new prisons are being tortured or maltreated.

The Justice Ministry did not return RFE/RL's calls for comment.

Most of Turkey's 72,000 inmates live in large dormitory-style cells that house up to 80 inmates. Under a government plan, prisoners are to be moved to new jails with cells designed to house one to three convicts.

But critics say inmates' fears are justified that the new prisons will expand the scope for guards and wardens to isolate and abuse individuals. Feray Salman is the deputy secretary general of the Ankara-based Human Rights Association (IHD). She explains to RFE/RL:

"There is a strong belief that [the new regime] is a regime to isolate people. This is not a reform. This cannot be called a reform. Cell-type [prisons] are organized in [such] a way that control over the cells is subject to arbitrary use."

Sugden believes isolation is also a matter for concern:

"From my point of view, the most grave worry is the isolation because it could turn into a long-term problem which will cause immense misery to many, many people for a long time to come."

The government justifies its plan by saying that in the older E-type jails, criminals can share living space with members of their own gangs. It says the prison reform will cut the power of mafia bosses and "terrorists" -- a generic name used to designate militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and other banned leftist groups and guerillas -- whom it accuses of hiding weapons in their cells and running the dormitories as "indoctrination centers" to recruit new members.

Authorities say new jails are equipped with workshops, libraries and sport facilities which do not exist in old prisons. They claim that the new system will be more humane and will meet human rights standards while Turkey is knocking at the European Union's door.

But critics object that prior to reforming the prisons the government should amend the penal code and strict anti-terror laws adopted in 1991, when the government decided to crack down on the PKK. They say these laws allow police to torture confessions out of suspects and jail people for simply writing political slogans onto walls, an offense that is punishable by heavy jail sentences.

As Salman explains:

"The state [authorities] are quite clever actually. They are bringing [forward] this ward system, saying that there are 80 inmates in one [cell], that this is not humane, that several incidents are taking place in these kinds of [cells], etc. But this is not the starting point. On which accusations are you putting these people in prison? What kind of penal system have you got? Is it democratic or not? Is it limiting freedom of expression or freedom to get organized? This needs to be discussed first of all."

Earlier this week police beefed up security measures, saying they fear attacks by left-wing radicals who allegedly vowed to avenge the deaths of their 31 comrades killed during last month's prison riots.

The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left militant group, reportedly claimed responsibility for a recent suicide bomb attack against a police building in Istanbul's Sisli district which killed one policeman.

On Wednesday, unidentified gunmen shot one police officer dead and wounded another in Istanbul. A similar attack left two policemen dead in December.

Authorities say most of the prisoners killed during last month's riots were set ablaze by fellow inmates or burned themselves. But families of the victims have also accused law enforcement agencies of excessive violence and arbitrary killings during the operation. As Sugden says, the victims' families are calling upon the government to carry out an independent investigation into the raids.

"Persistently, we had accounts of gendarmes pouring in incendiary material, powder and liquids into the wards and then setting them alight. I can't tell you whether this is true or not. The only way you can find out is by having a really thorough and impartial investigation."

Turkish authorities meanwhile have begun cracking down on human rights activists looking into allegations of torture in the new prisons.

Salman told RFE/RL that authorities have ordered branches of the Human Rights Association to be closed down in Bursa, Izmir, Van, Malatya, Konya and Gaziantep -- some temporarily, others permanently.

Reuter news agency reports that former Human Rights Association president Nimet Tanrikulu was arrested this week after demonstrating against the transfer operations. Salman said other members of the association are being investigated by police.

The December raids have added fuel to concerns that law-enforcement agencies are trying to have a greater say in Turkish affairs.

Both Sugden and Salman point out the Justice Ministry was not directly involved in the violent crackdown. They say it was planned and decided on by the military and the Interior Ministry.

Media and politicians have been speculating over the growing role of the military, which is opposed to government efforts to amend the criminal code.

Earlier this week, the deputy prime minister and leader of the center-right Motherland Party, Mesut Yilmaz, called a recent corruption probe at the Energy Ministry an assault on the authority of civilian politicians. He was reacting to remarks published by Turkey's biggest selling daily "Hurriyet," in which an unnamed commander of the paramilitary forces said the gendarmerie had ordered the probe.

The army's general staff reacted swiftly to Yilmaz's comments, calling them "great slander against the armed forces."

ISTANBUL, Jan. 12 -- Despite pressure from the European Union to clean up its human rights record, Turkey has launched a major crackdown on human rights groups and activists for protesting government raids on prisons last month that left 32 people dead.

Five branches of Turkey's Human Rights Association have been closed, several of its members have been detained and other protesters have been jailed for demonstrating against the Dec. 19 prison raids, demanding an independent investigation and publicizing what they say is widespread torture and inhumane isolation of inmates in Turkey's prisons.

The simultaneous storming of 20 prisons last month left 30 inmates and two security officers dead. Some of the inmates reportedly died after setting themselves on fire when police stormed the prisons.

The operation, code-named Return to Life, was designed to break a two-month hunger strike by hundreds of political prisoners in prisons across Turkey. The hunger strikers were protesting a plan by Turkish officials to move them out of large, dormitory-style facilities to prisons with smaller cells.

Many victims of the raids belonged to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, a radical leftist group that has vowed revenge against the government.

In recent weeks, four police officers have been killed and more than 20 people injured in attacks on police facilities, including one this month in which a militant detonated a bomb strapped under his clothes inside an Istanbul police station.

In the most recent incident, one officer was killed and another injured late Wednesday when masked gunmen fired on a police car near the Istanbul airport. No one has claimed responsibility.

Meanwhile, several hundred inmates reportedly are continuing their hunger strike to the death to protest inhumane treatment of prisoners. Some of the inmates have been fasting for 83 days and reportedly are in critical condition.

The prison turmoil and crackdown on human rights activists come as Turkey faces increasing pressure to improve its human rights record as a prerequisite to European Union membership.

Jonathan Sugden, an analyst with Human Rights Watch, said rights activists in Turkey protesting and publicizing the raids and continuing prison problems were being harassed and threatened, while physical evidence from the raids "seems to be disappearing."

"The Turkish authorities are allowing no center ground," he said. "How is it possible to determine what's true or false?"

On Sunday, four activists were arrested while attempting to lay a black wreath outside the Istanbul offices of the Democratic Left Party, led by Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. The four were charged with demonstrating without permission, which carries a one-year prison term, and are being held in prison.

"This is the system in Turkey. There is no permission for objection," said Eren Keskin, president of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, who was detained during Sunday's protest. "The situation in the prisons is really bad. The inmates are injured, ill and still death-fasting. Nothing has changed."

The Turkish government did not respond to specific allegations raised by human rights and prison activists, but cited previous blanket denials of wrongdoing during the raids or prisoner mistreatment in general. Three Justice Ministry officials have been assigned to investigate the charges.

"All humanitarian demands have been met" in the new prisons, Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk told reporters.

Government officials defended the Dec. 19 raids, saying the action was necessary to wrest control of the prison system from violent mafias. Prisons previously had as many as 100 inmates living in large, unpatrolled communal areas. After the December operation, inmates were moved to new, more restrictive prisons that have cells housing one to three prisoners each.

Human rights activists have criticized the new prisons, noting that they were designed principally for small-group isolation, with each cell having a dedicated switch for guards to control its electricity, sewerage system, water and heat. The prisons have no communal areas for inmates to socialize, they said. Activists said such conditions typically raise the risk of inmate abuse by guards.

Human rights activists investigating the raids said prisoners were systematically beaten and tortured during the operation and afterward while being transferred to the new prisons. They said the inmates, many of whom are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of a crime, are housed in solitary confinement or small-group isolation.

A joint statement by the independent organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said there were reports that some inmates were stripped and raped with truncheons upon arrival at one of the new prisons.

A report released last week by the Human Rights Association of Turkey said soldiers used gas, fire and smoke bombs during the raids. It disputed government claims that most inmates who died or were injured had set themselves afire, stating, "preliminary autopsy reports say the majority of inmates died because of bullets and burns and one because of gas poisoning."

"Torture is continuing. The inmates are injured, lonely, cold, wet and naked in the cells, waiting in incomplete prisons without water, electricity and heating," the report said. "The state, instead of protecting the lives of inmates, took their basic right to life in order to prove its own authority."

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Gynecologist Zeki Uzun says police arrested him, then beat him for three days and deprived him of sleep after he treated a suspected Kurdish rebel.

Police sued psychiatrist Ozge Yenier Duman on charges of malpractice after she insisted that policemen leave her office while she listened to a prisoner she suspected might have been tortured.

The government fired forensic expert Sebnem Korur Fincanci after she wrote in a report that police tortured a detainee to death, and she is under attack again over a similar case.

Turkey's leaders have vowed to crack down on torture, but doctors say police still intimidate them into not reporting torture, making it virtually impossible to gather evidence needed to prosecute officers for abuse.

Doctors have also been detained, and in some cases beaten, for treating victims of torture or refusing to provide information on individuals they treat.

Despite a recent decree giving doctors the right to ask police officers to leave during medical examinations of detainees, most police insist on staying and watching.

Officers argue they need to be present to protect doctors and to prevent detainees from escaping. But the Turkish Physicians Association says the police presence is intimidation meant to ensure abuses are not reported.

Enraged officers have ripped up medical reports, asking doctors to write less incriminating ones, or even threatened them with death, said Fincanci, a professor of forensic science.

In response to doctor's complaints, the government enacted legislation in 1999 imposing jail sentences both for physicians who write false reports to hide torture and for officials who force doctors to write such reports.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit contends the government is working to curb torture.

"Torture complaints have decreased," he said. "I believe that they will disappear totally within a short time."

Physicians, however, say most of their colleagues are too scared to report abuses, and there is little evidence the government campaign is being taken seriously by police officers.

Doctors "report the marks, but will not conclude that they were caused by torture," said Fincanci, one of only 16 professors of forensic science in Turkey.

A parliamentary commission reported last year on widespread incidents of torture, providing pictures of rooms soundproofed with black leather, apparently to muffle the screams of victims.

Sema Piskinsut, a former physician who headed the commission, was then asked to step down and was replaced by a right-wing legislator from a party popular with police.

The Turkish Human Rights Foundation, which runs five rehabilitation centers for torture victims, says police have turned to methods like sleep deprivation or humiliation, which don't leave physical scars.

"There are no outward signs, but the psychological effect is tremendous," Dr. Sukran Irencin said.

Uzun, the gynecologist who works for a center that treats torture victims, was acquitted last year of charges of aiding Kurdish rebels, a charge that could have put him in jail for three years. Uzun says he was beaten in police custody, a claim officials have denied.

A court in November acquitted psychiatrist Duman of charges of malpractice, but three other doctors are still on trial for insisting police leave their offices during examinations of detainees. The doctors each face one-year prison terms if convicted.

Istanbul Gov. Erol Cakir is seeking Fincanci's dismissal from the state-run Forensic Medicine Institute for writing a report saying union activist Suleyman Yeter was beaten to death by police. Yeter died two days after he was arrested.

Cakir contends Fincanci should be dismissed because she is biased against police.

Fincanci, who once worked in Bosnia for the United Nations International War Crimes Court, was dismissed previously, in 1996, after writing a report saying a student who died in police custody was tortured to death.

An initial report -- based on an autopsy conducted by a veterinarian -- blamed his death on respiratory problems.

Fincanci was reinstated in 1998.

"The authorities just do not recognize ethics associated with our profession," said Dr. Umit Erkol, who heads an Ankara-based physicians group.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- Kurdish militiamen walk patrols armed with assault rifles and cruise the streets in pickup trucks mounting heavy machine guns. Local officials, and not Baghdad, make the decisions on what gets done. Foods and goods in short supply elsewhere in Iraq are abundant.

Ten years after the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi Kurds have realized their dream of governing themselves in a largely independent area of northern Iraq.

But the undeclared state is divided, fragile and dependent on the United Nations for food and the U.S. Air Force for protection.

Kurds know their fighting men are no match for Iraqi helicopters and tanks just 20 miles from Irbil, whose 750,000 people make it the area's biggest city. They worry about losing the U.S. air patrols that have kept Saddam Hussein's troops at bay since a failed Kurdish uprising a decade ago.

"If there were more planes, we'd feel even safer," says Ibrahim Amin Abdel Rahman, a former militiaman.

Anxiety has been increasing as Iraq's government tries to weaken support for U.N. economic sanctions that have devastated Iraq's economy by dangling the prospect of lucrative oil deals to oil-consuming nations.

"Could the international community just drop this experience in freedom and democracy after 10 years?" says Sami Abdel Rahman, a former Kurdish militia leader who is now a leading figure in the local administration. "I believe there is a moral obligation, but sometimes economic interests overrule moral obligations."

The Kurdish-run zone was established with the help of Washington and its allies after Saddam brutally put down the 1991 Kurdish uprising that broke out after the Gulf War, causing hundreds of thousands of Kurds to flee into Turkey and Iran.

Iraq's Kurds have thrived in their autonomy.

They have freedoms virtually unimaginable in the rest of Iraq. There are several political parties and newspapers, and criticism of the Kurdish administration is tolerated although discouraged. The Internet, which is banned by Saddam, is permitted.

Iraqi Kurds have been battling for their freedom for most of the last century. That fight has been frustrated not only by Iraqi forces, but also by neighboring Iran and Turkey, which fear Kurdish freedom in Iraq would encourage restive Kurdish minorities on their territory.

The economy in the Iraqi Kurdish areas is booming. New roads are being built, refugees are being resettled and shops are kept filled.

But the sense of stability and prosperity is deceptive.

Although the Kurds are lobbying for the United Nations to keep the sanctions imposed on Iraq after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, they benefit from being one of the largest violators.

An army of tanker trucks -- observers estimate as many as 40,000 -- haul oil from Iraqi government areas to Turkey, a rampant business that can create traffic jams at the border stretching six miles. The illicit trade funnels badly needed cash to both Saddam and the Kurds, with the latter earning about $100 million a year.

Oil smuggling income would mostly disappear if sanctions are lifted.

The Kurdish economy also thrives on the United Nations' oil-for-food program, which has pumped $4.6 billion into the north over the past four years. The program allows Iraq to sell oil and buy food and medicine and repair infrastructure as an exception to U.N. trade sanctions.

The north gets disproportionate help from the U.N. program, because some money is taken from the Iraqi government's share to cover war reparations and administrative costs. The result is that the Kurds get about 50 percent more per person than the rest of Iraq.

Despite two years of drought in the north, there are few signs of hunger. Markets are filled with refrigerators from Turkey, soaps from Syria, even potato chips from Europe. In Iraqi government areas, hunger and want are widespread.

"It's black and white between the Kurdish areas and Iraq," says Alan Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East policy.

The aid creates problems, however. So much free U.N. food is pouring into the Kurdish area that many farmers no longer bother to plant wheat in the valleys that once formed part of the breadbasket of Iraq.

The problem is becoming so serious that the local government is urging the United Nations to start buying food locally. Currently, all the aid for the food program is imported so no money benefits Saddam's government.

"They need to give farmers an incentive to grow," says Safiq Qazzaz, the Kurdish official in charge of humanitarian aid.

Politically, the Kurds have also taken only small steps toward creating a viable state.

The region is partitioned between Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which are antagonistic largely due to clan splits and a personality clash between their leaders.

The two militias face off across a fortified line that splits the enclave, with slightly over half of the enclave's 3.5 million people living in Barzani's area.

The two sides signed a cease-fire in Washington in 1998, but officials admit they have done little since to unite the feuding fiefdoms.

Many Kurds are pinning their hopes for stability on Washington, especially now that the son of the U.S. president who defeated Saddam in the Gulf War is headed for the White House.

But few have forgotten that George W. Bush's father did not intervene in the north until after the Kurdish uprising was defeated. "Bush has the name, but it is not always complimentary," Qazzaz says.

Some people, like Ali el-Ekiabi, a political science professor at Irbil's university, keep ready to flee on a moment's notice.

"I don't think Saddam Hussein will be back tomorrow morning," el-Ekiabi says -- but he keeps his passport in his jacket pocket and his wife carries a small bag filled with dollars at all times.

Criticism grows over Ilisu dam

by Simeon Kerr (Fri, 25 Aug 2000 08:56:20)

The GAP project in southeast Turkey is supposed to improve the lot of the local population, though many who live in the region doubt that it will. Opposition to the project is beginning to impact the investment plans of foreign companies seeking contracts in Turkey.

The Turkish military, hardly known as bleeding heart liberals, recently urged the government of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit to invest in the deprived Kurdish heartlands of southeast Turkey. The underlying message: win the hearts and minds of the local people. The government, in turn, points to the $32bn Greater Anatolia Project (GAP), which is building 22 dams and 19 power plants in the southeast, as its primary tool in redressing this poor region's development gap.

But the vitriol heaped on the project and the foreign-led consortium hoping to construct the Ilisu dam - the largest dam in the network - has reached the point where the involvement of Balfour Beatty, the UK construction firm, is in doubt.

Balfour Beatty is getting cold feet. On August 17, the firm warned that it would pull out of the project if the British Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) refused to cover its share of the $2bn Ilisu dam project. London's attitude has veered from hot to cold. Initially, British Trade Secretary Steven Byers said that he was "minded" to support the cover, but as the bad press grows London appears increasingly wary of getting involved. "If Ilisu goes ahead it will break the back of the UK's ethical foreign policy," says crusading British comedian-cum-activist Mark Thomas, who is campaigning against the dam. London has predicated its approval on four tough conditions - including a sound resettlement plan for local residents. Ankara, which hates external interference in its affairs, will find it hard to meet those demands.

This is good news for the loosely organized pressure campaign against the dam. Kurdish, human rights and environmental groups have criticized the GAP's effect on the indigenous Kurdish population and local historical sites, as well as noting the impact on the water requirements of Turkey's downstream neighbors, Syria and Iraq. (Both nations have long feared that the dams could be used as a political tool against them - but that's another story.) The pressure groups say the dam waters will subsume dozens of villages and small towns, including the ancient Kurdish cultural center of Hasankeyf, forcing the displacement of over 16,000 Kurds. Kurdish groups say this sacrifice is unnecessary.

The Turkish government argues that you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. The dams are an essential component of its development plan. True, the local population will be moved - but that's the price you pay for prosperity. The government claims that it's doing its best to salvage archaeological relics and help to relocate residents. But, it insists, the benefits for the local population are immense: the project will irrigate 2,500 square meters of land and boost the local economy, which Ankara hopes will evolve into an export-based economic powerhouse. "The rapid change in the region's development is already apparent," says a Turkish official. "We can't win: for years there have been complaints about poverty; now we're tackling it and the complaints continue."

Not so, say the critics. "We're not against development," says Kerim Yildiz, executive director of the London-based Kurdish Human Rights Project, "but the government should have looked for alternatives, like solar and gas power, and consulted the local population first. This didn't happen." True, Turkey is short on the electricity it needs to meet demand from its growing population and booming industry. But the grid is leaking between 18-30% of its power already, making energy efficiency as important as building new dams. Gas-powered stations are easier to locate near the areas of greatest demand - in Turkey's case, highly populated and industry-heavy western Turkey. (The government argues that basing a power strategy solely on gas is foolhardy, as the country's power supplies would depend on gas imports from the Caspian and Middle East.)

Anti-dam activists see an insidious subtext behind the project. First, half the dams have already been flooded which - along with the military campaign against the local separatist group, the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) - has contributed to massive migration from the region. So, the argument goes, what use are the jobs now? Moreover, the reservoirs will eventually split the Kurdish-dominated southeast, undermining the remnants of the PKK - so there's a security element to the project. That may be verging on the paranoid. Still, you can't separate the GAP from the local political context, which is steeped in demands for Kurdish cultural and political rights. "A major rationale behind GAP involves moving Kurds out of the villages - where they're difficult to control - into larger conurbations," says Nick Hildyard of The Cornerhouse, a UK-based environmental research organization. The government flatly rejects these accusations. "The southeast is going to be the main beneficiary of a project into which the government has ploughed $20bn and 20 years of planning," says the Turkish official.

Controversy surrounding the project is giving Turkey's allies the jitters. In January 1999, the US export credit agency, the Ex-Im bank, made a preliminary commitment of a $100m loan to Balfour Beatty. After a meeting with Yildiz last week, the bank announced that it shared some of the Kurds' "concerns". The initial commitment has now expired and the loan is by no means assured. The ECGD, which has a 10-12% share of the export cover, now looks wobbly. The construction consortium, led by Swiss company Sulzer Hydro, is seeking a total of $850m in export guarantees from several developed countries' export credit agencies. The real worry for the consortium, however, is the agencies' apparent intention to act in unison on the project. "We understand that they will all either support or reject cover for the project," says Tim Sharp, Balfour Beatty's director of communications.

So the rising protests could have a real impact. If the agencies deny cover, the Turkish government would be caught in a difficult situation. The project may not be doomed, though, as the government in Ankara may stump up the cash itself. "The Turks are hot to trot on this one," says a UK-based business consultant familiar with the case." It's hard to deny that there are powerful interests vested in the GAP project. "Don't underestimate the political influence of the construction industry in Turkey," adds the consultant.

One thing is plain; investment in southeast Turkey now raises questions of the greatest delicacy. As Balfour Beatty has learned, foreign companies investing in this troubled area should not dismiss potential risks to their reputation, especially in an age of intense scrutiny of corporate responsibility. The Kurds rarely surface on the global media agenda. But the GAP project - riddled as it is with environmental, human rights, archaeological and geopolitical concerns - is changing that. Foreign investment in the southeast used to be primarily concerned with the dangerous security environment. With the PKK almost buried, that risk has receded. But for investors, the waters in the region are still anything but placid.

By Charles Recknagel

Northern Iraq has seen new rounds of fighting in recent weeks, this time between the once-allied PUK and PKK. As the conflict has intensified, there are reports that thousands of Turkish troops have swept into the area to support the PUK. RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel looks at what caused the fighting and how it affects the delicate balance of power in the region.

Prague, 17 January 2001 (RFE/RL) -- The latest fighting in northern Iraq may mark an end to the long alliance between the Iraqi-Kurd Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Turkish-Kurd Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

And it may represent Turkey's best chance yet of eliminating the armed Turkish-Kurd group from rear bases in northern Iraq, which the PKK has used to battle for a Kurdish homeland in southern Anatolia.

But analysts say there is little reason to believe the developments spell an end to the PKK's military presence in the region. Instead, the group is fighting hard while positioning itself for a withdrawal if needed to bases in Iran. There the fighters would await new events in hopes of returning to northern Iraq as soon as possible.

The breakdown in the alliance between the PUK and PKK flared into open fighting some five months ago, surprising many observers who had grown used to thinking of the relationship as a stable part of the northern Iraq's balance of power.

For years, the PUK had counted on its military cooperation with the Turkish Kurd group to counterbalance the rival Iraqi-Kurd Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), backed by Ankara. In exchange, the PUK allowed the PKK to maintain mountain bases in its territory along the Iraqi-Iranian border.

But that alliance seemed definitively over last week as Turkish media reported that 10,000 Turkish soldiers have crossed the border to support the PUK since late December. Ankara immediately denied the reports but acknowledged that Turkey is providing what it called "technical support" to the Iraqi-Kurd group.

At the same time, the PKK is reported to have moved its fighters from bases along the Turkish-Iraq border where they used to battle with the KDP, to reinforce its bases in the PUK's territory.

Analysts say there are at least two possible reasons for the PUK-PKK fighting.

One theory is that PUK leader Jalal Talibani, who used to consider the PKK a strong ally, changed his assessment after Ankara captured its chief Abdullah Ocalan two years ago. Since then, Ocalan -- now under a death sentence for treason -- has ordered his men to stop fighting Ankara and withdraw outside Turkey's borders. According to the Turkish military, some 4,500 fighters have obeyed and retreated into northern Iraq and, less so, to Iran.

As the retreat of the PKK into northern Iraq has grown, so has a rapprochement between Talibani and Ankara. After a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in Ankara last week, Talibani denied he has sought Turkish military support against the PKK but said he has asked for economic aid.

Alan Makovsky, a regional analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, says recent tensions between the PUK and Iran also have helped spoil Talibani's ties with the PKK.

The analyst says Iranian hardliners, who support the PKK, have backed Kurdish Islamists in Talibani's territory and pushed the PKK to aid them, souring at least temporarily the PUK's often good relations with Iran. Alan Makovsky says:

"The PUK has traditionally worked with Iran, even depended on Iran, but in recent times Iranian pressure has probably become more than Talibani wanted to bear. In particular, [there is anger over] Iranian support of Kurdish Islamists who control several towns in what was formerly Talibani's territory. I think we can see the PUK fight against the PKK as an effort to get out from under Iran's thumb. And therefore the [Talibani] tilt towards Turkey."

Makovsky says that Washington welcomes the shift but has played little part in causing it. Washington has long asked Talabani to observe a US-brokered accord in 1998 which seeks to unite the two northern Iraqi-Kurd factions and obliges both to prevent PKK activity in the region.

"I am sure the United States is more than pleased by any development that at one and the same time aligns the PUK and KDP more closely, aligns the PUK and Turkey more closely, and helps to corral the PKK. [But] I don't know that the United States actually had a role in initiating it or otherwise encouraging it."

The analyst predicts that Turkey, which worries that Washington's policy of uniting the Iraqi Kurds might lead to an independent state, will now assist both the KDP and PUK while still working to keep them divided. Makovsky says:

"Turkey traditionally does not want the two [Iraqi-Kurd] parties to be too close, although they have formally supported and sponsored the [U.S.-backed] process which is dedicated to bringing the parties together...[the Turks] have wanted [KDP leader Masoud] Barzani and Talibani to be at peace but not to be unified and I think that is still what they will continue to encourage."

With both the PUK and KDP now aligned against the PKK, Turkey is widely expected to soon undertake a military offensive against the Turkish-Kurd group. It is a job Turkey's generals welcome. They have repeatedly vowed to fight the PKK until, in their words, every last terrorist is neutralized.

But few analysts expect that a Turkish offensive -- which could begin in earnest in spring -- would conclusively smash the PKK. The group's mountain redoubts are strong and the back door remains open to Iran. Makovsky says:

"[The Iranians] have been strongly supportive of the PKK fighters and for years they have let the PKK use Iran as a safety valve and I think if the PKK fighters are able to escape into Iran, then Iran, to say the least, will not block the border. The PKK in northern Iraq is in large part under Iranian sponsorship and their sponsors will have to welcome them back."

Ankara and Washington charge Iran with allowing the PKK to maintain bases there. Tehran, which is seeking stronger economic ties with Ankara, denies it.

That means that the PKK's fighters, now in self-imposed exile outside Turkey, are still far from finished as a player in the region's complicated political rivalries.

The next months will see whether Turkey can push the PKK beyond northern Iraq and, if so, how much and who in Iran wants to give them refuge.

And they will see how long the current realignment in northern Iraq's ever-changing politics keeps them out of a region they long ago have come to regard as their second home.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) -- Three people died when a Turkish military transport plane crashed near the central Anatolian city of Kayseri on Friday, the state-run Anatolian news agency said.

An F-4 warplane slammed into a Turkish mountainside near the northwestern city of Sivrihisar on Wednesday, killing two crew. CNN

Turkey hints that Israel may win $2 B deal to upgrade tanks

By Aluf Benn
Ha'aretz Diplomatic Correspondent

Israel stands a good chance of winning a major contract to upgrade hundreds of Turkish tanks in a deal estimated at $2 billion, Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Friday.

Ecevit was meeting Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami in Ankara. The two discussed future cooperation between their countries and developments in the Middle East peace process.

Ben-Ami raised the possibility that Turkey might reconsider buying an Israeli imaging satellite. Israeli firms bid for the Turkish military satellite contract but lost out to a French company. Relations between France and Turkey recently soured over the Armenian question, and Ankara is threatening to cancel projects assigned to French firms.

Ben-Ami said bilateral relations with Turkey have improved significantly in the past year and are now essential to regional stability. "This strengthens Turkey's ability to influence the creation of an appropriate atmosphere in the region which would further the peace process."

Last week, Israel, Turkey and the U.S. held joint search and rescue naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey's President, Ahmet Sezer, accepted an invitation for an official visit to Israel and extended a similar offer to President Moshe Katsav.

Erzurum: Of the 10 suspects who were tried by the Erzurum State Security
Court for aiding and abetting the Hizbut Tahrir organization, which aims at
overthrowing the existing constitutional order and replacing it with a
"shari'a system" by opening a branch in Turkey, nine have been acquitted.

Suspects Cengiz Karakus, Nurullah Aybas, Ahmet Cakirkaya, Canip Acar, Rifat
Esen, Hasan Yilmaz, Orhan Aslan, Alibey Dursun, Cengiz Kamer, and Serafettin
Durmus, who are not in detention, did not attend the hearing.
Ebubekir Coskun, the suspects' lawyer, said in his defence that his clients
do not have ties with the organization and they were trial for reading its
publications. Coskun also stated that the said organization does not engage
in any activities in Turkey...
The court sentenced Cengiz Karakus to a prison sentence of two years and six
months and acquitted the others.
The indictment called for a prison sentence of one to five years for the
suspects who were detained in Erzurum on 3 March 2000 during operations
against the Hizbut Tahrir organization, in accordance with articles 1 and 2
of Counterterrorism Law 3713 for aiding and abetting the organization which
aims at overthrowing the existing constitutional order in Turkey and
replacing it with a shari'a system by opening a branch in Turkey.
The Palestinian-origin Hizbut Tahrir organization (Islamic Liberation
Party), which was established by Takiyuddin En Nebhani..., engages in
training and propaganda
activities with a view to instituting a shari'a system.
The records of the Security Directorate General mention that the
organization, which participated in the elections in Palestine, is active in
Jordan and Germany, and it is working to find grassroots in Turkey as well.

Source: BBC /Khalifah