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“TURKEY ESCALATES WAR ON FREE EXPRESSION” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E313 on Feb. 9, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TURKEY ESCALATES WAR ON FREE EXPRESSION
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HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Thursday, February 9, 1995
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, last October, a Helsinki Commission delegation met with Turkish officials and others in Ankara. With one exception, each and every official, including the Speaker of Parliament, produced a copy of the pro-Kurdish newspaper Ozgur Ulke and waved it in the air as proof that, despite what critics alleged, free expression was alive and well in Turkey.
Last week, Mr. Speaker, Turkish officials decided that the costs of allowing the paper to air its pro-Kurdish sentiments outweighed its value as a token of free expression. On February 3, a Turkish court forced the paper to shut down. This blatant assault on free speech comes within a week of the decision to prosecute Turkey's most widely known author, Yasar Kemal, for publicly stating his thoughts on the government's handling of the Kurdish situation. He now faces charges of separatist propaganda, and now, even those who favor the government's uncompromising hardline towards the Kurds are beginning to question whether the government hasn't gone too far.
Mr. Speaker, Ozgur Ulke's closure culminates an orchestrated campaign which began as soon as the newspaper appeared to fill the void left when a likeminded predecessor was forcibly closed. Censorship of the paper included violent attacks that left 20 reporters and distributors killed by unidentified death squads. At least four others have been kidnapped. The tortured, bullet-ridden body of one reporter was found weeks after he had disappeared. At least 35 journalists and workers of the newspaper have been imprisoned and 238 issues seized. The campaign against the newspaper went into high gear on November 30, 1994, when Prime Minister Ciller issued a secret decree, which was leaked and published, calling for the complete elimination of the newspaper. On December 3, 1994, its printing facility and headquarters in Istanbul and its Ankara bureau were bombed. One person was killed and 18 others were injured in the explosions.
On January 6, 1995, policemen started to wait outside the printing plant to confiscate the paper as soon as it was printed. Copies were taken directly to a prosecutor who worked around the clock to determine which articles were undesirable. Often some three to four pages of the paper, mostly articles about security force abuses, were censored and reprinted as blank sections. Since December, five reporters, who were detained and later released, spoke of being tortured by police attempting to force confessions against the newspaper's editorial board.
Mr. Speaker, last week, the State Department issued its annual human rights report, and only China had as many pages devoted to it as Turkey. While the report indicated that human rights conditions in Turkey had worsened significantly over the past year, the publication of Ozgur Ulke was cited as a positive example of press freedom. Responding to the report, an official spokesperson dismissed its report as biased and based on one-sided information. The spokesperson, repeating assertions made whenever Turkey is criticized for human rights violations, insisted that significant improvements had taken place and other important reforms were being undertaken. Given the countless times we have heard such assertions, it is a wonder that Turkey is not a model of freedom and democracy.
Mr. Speaker, now that Turkish officials do not have copies of Ozgur Ulke to wave at visiting delegations, they will likely search for other props to convince skeptics of their good intentions. I would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that instead of tolerating certain types of expression in order to placate foreign observers, Turkish officials should take real steps to bring policies in line with stated human rights commitments. Free expression and other rights cannot be viewed simply as products of public relations campaigns. If Turkish officials are unwilling to work seriously towards implementing such rights to bring their laws into conformity with international standards, then they cannot expect their pronouncements on human rights to be viewed sympathetically. In this context, Turkish denunciations of the State Department human rights report are as puzzling as they are absurd.
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