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

REVUE DE PRESSE#PRESS REVIEW#BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA#BASIN OZET;
Papers express doubt over
state authority in Southeast
• Lash out at state officials
for bungled policies
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA- With Turkish dailies complying
with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) demand to close their bureaus
in what it calls "Kurdistan" (the Southeast)
and with kiosks forced not to sell any
papers, state officials have come under fire
from the press for their bungled management
of the affair. "Is there no state?" asked
the high-circulation Milliyet in its banner
headline Tuesday.
"The Southeast and East have become
places where fear and uncertainty rule.
Taking advantage of the power vacuum
there, terrorist organi~a!ions do as they
please. As terrorist aC~lVlty~nd unsol~ed
murders continue, now Journahsts are bemg
threatened and dail,ies cannot be distributed
or sold," Milliyet said. ..
"Despite the fact that terrons~ Isnow targeting
the press, those responsible for state
affairs do nothing but utter empty words and
sta~e shows," Milliyet protested.
. Newspaper offices m the Southeast have
been forced to close by the PKK. Besides,
the PKK has announced that it will force all
reporting activity to cease in 22 to 23
provinces, including eastern Turkey. Alas,
this in effect means that the sovereIgnty of
the Turkish state in the region is blatantly
ignored. The PKK is saying it is the sole
power in the region," wrote Yalçm Dogan, a
columnist for the paper.
Urging Turkish politic~lleaders to. reach
a consensus on a solutIOn to the Issue,
Dooan said the same kind of threat could be
dir~cted aoainst political parties as well.
''The PKKecould soon declare it is suspending
political party activity until further
notice," he added.
In a front-paoe editorial Tuesda¥,
Cumhuriyet, wbife qualifying the PKK s
threat as "tragic," criticized government
officials for their efforts to downplay the
gravity of the situation and c~I1ed on
Parliament to convene to tackle the Issue.
"To ensure the individual's right to life is
the primary responsibility of a state. If this
is not the case, the existence of the state in
any country is questionable," Cumhuriyet
argued.
"The time has come for state officials to
ascribe a name to the even(s surging through
the country. Some sayan undeclared civil
war is raging in the country." "The. PK~
forced press members to stop reportmg m
the regIOnon the pretext that the oress has
been serving' ag a mere lackey Of the
Southeast Emergency State Governorship.
The curious thing is that Interior Minister
Mehmet Gazio~lu went as far as to accuse
press members of 'not having informed
police and going to the meeting, ",
Curnhuriyet saId.
"The coalition government must decide
whether there is a war raging in Turkey. If
an outlawed authority strong enough to
force Turkish papers to close their offices in
the Southeast has come into existence, then
the Turkish government must clarify the
issue and not tI)' to sweep it under the rug.
If the state is bemg eradicated in the eastern
part of Turkey and the country is running
the risk of division, attempts by the governmentto
'naturalize' the issue and downplay
it are highly hazardous," Curnhuriyet maintained.
Hürriyet's Oktay Ek~i, also chairman of
the Press Council, directed severe criticism
against Interior Minister Mehmet Gazioglu
for his statements concerning the PKK ban
on Turkish dailies.
"Considering his previous conduct, no
one could have expected a consistent statement
from Gaziogfu. Yet when he criticized
the press members in DiyarbaIor for failing
to inform security forces of their meeting
with the PKK and said they would have
done whatever was necessary, no ohe
thought he could be such a dreamer," Ek~i
wrote in his column on Tuesday. "He says,
'Such threats by the PKK are common;
we'11protect journalists.' As if journalists
were kids of five. As if they would believe
what he says.
If Gazioglu can, he must unearth those
base killers who have been murdering so
many of our fellow journalists," he wrote.
In a written statement on Monday, Ek~i
again lashed out at government offiCIais for
failure to ïmprove the condition of journalists
based in the Southeast and for their frequent
assault and battery of reporters. "Just
as previous threats and pressures by .security
forces could not silence the press, so the
PKK threat cannot manaße to silence it,"
Ek~i said. Except for Eksi s column and the
abbreviated text of an announcement by the
Brussels-based FU (International Federation
of Journalists) denouncing the PKK's threat,
Hürriyet chose not to highlight the issue at
all. .
Sabah, another mass-circulation paper,
followed a similar policy of downpIaying
the incident - except that the paper's economic
editor Necati Do~ru warned that
Turkey was on the road to'becoming another
Bosnia in the face of recent developments.
"Anatolia wil1 become another
Bosnia if things go on like this," he wrote.
"Kurdish parents do not advise their offspring
to lead brotherly lives with Turks. On
the other hand, Turkish parents keep alive
the seeds of thought that might lead to a
comp,rehensive counter-cleansing operation,
, Dogru maintained. Aydmhk, a lowcirculation,
hard-line, leftist daily, said the
whole incident was a "trap set by the state."
"From now on, reportmg will be the job
of the Emergency Rule Governorship, the
military's Photography and Motion Pictures
Center, TRT (state TV), and the (semiofficialJ
Anatolia news a~ency in the Kurdishdominated
provinces,' Aydmhk said.
"The state has already prevented the distribution
of AydlOhk 10 the region," the
r.aper said in a. front-page editorial.
'Therefore, the PKK ban does not mean
anything to us in effect. It is only the ratifi.
cation of a practice by another power.
In fact, previous pressures on Aydmhk
foretold an imminent (Nazi) S5 regime. The
Turkish Army knows that a military operation
will claim an 'extraordinary number of
lives.' It is only part of preparations for a
military operation to create conditions that
would allow only state-run media organizations
10 report the operation."
"The PKK has fallen into the trap set by
the state. With the press leaving the region
for good, the place will be one where neither
the media nor the people will have a
say," the daily went on to say.
Ertugrul I\.ürkçü, a columnist with the
pro-Kurdish Ozgür Gündem, the only paper
the PKK has not banned in the Southeast,
criticized the mainstream Turkish press for
their meek compliance with so many "ultimatums"
by the Turkish Army. "Therefore,
the selfsame Bablali (generic term to refer
to the Turkish press en bloc) cannot stand
up against the PKK ban in the name of the
'free~om of the press' without being guilty
of usmg 'double standards, '" Kürkçü wrote.
"Those who bow down before the state's
armed forces will have to bow down before
the PKK's armed forces, too," he said.
Kürkçü added, however, that the adoption
of a critical stance toward the ban was necessary,
considering the fact that force had
been used against the press.
"Even if it were the case that that which
uses force had moral and intellectual norms
based on the loftiest press ethics, inequality
would emerge," he said.."So it is now up to
Ozgür Gündem to adopt a stance where it
can criticize the one with the power."
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