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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RNISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
Secret Gendarmerie report reveals
military inadequacies in Southeast
. Compulsory military service is 15 mont.hs
for privates an(n~ months fo~ non-co.mnussioned
officers. With the freezmg of discharges,
all will be in uniform during the spring
months during which Chief of Staff Gen. Dogan
Gures has prom~,sed pu~licly ':to crush Turkish Daily News
terrorism completely. Gures s term In office, ANKARA- A report prepared by Gendarmerie inextended
last year for 12 mo~ths, ends .on spection teams says gencfarmerie forces currently
Aug. 30 and it is believed he alms at solVIng stationed in the Southeast suffer from a number of
the terrorism probl~m before then. .. problems relating to personnel deployment, intelli-
On Friday, a Chief of Staff offiCIai said the gence, operations, training and logistics.
order would hold until "necessary arrange- On Friday, the mass circulatIOn daily Hurriyet
ments could be made," without elaborating. published excerpts from the secret report, which also
Political sources in Parliament said this indl- lists proposals to overcome the military deficiencies
calCd that Turkey would be working on a the inspection teams witnessed during their tours of
new compulsory service regulation With ex- Southeastern provinces.
tended terms and was buying time with this Hurriyet said an inspection team comprising three
order. high-ranking gendarmerie officers had concluded,
But, observers say, Prime Minister Tansu after investigations in Diyarbakir and BingoI prov-
Çiller's coali~ion g?vernment may fa~e prob- inces, that high-ranking .
\ems in deahng With such an extensIOn. On non-commissioned officers had been stationed at
Friday, at her True Path Party's General Exe- relatively safe, central locations whereas personnel
cutive Board meeting, Çiller was accused. of lower down the ladder had been sent to faraway stataking
the decision even without consultIng tions prone to terrorist attacks.
with the Parliament National Defense Com- "At certain stations, the number of personnel is semission.
She explained that the decision was verely inadequate. The transportation öf personnel
taken in accordance with a demand by the demobilized or on leave poses grave difficulties," the
Chief of Staff.
report says.
Military officers have been arguing for so- It adds military personnel stationed at certain
me time that Turkey is faced with a personnel' posts are unable to communicate with their relaproblem
with regard to its compulsory servi- . tives. "While too much is expected of low-ranking
ce. Recently, more and ~o~e. newspaper ad- unit commanders, it is clear that such personnellack
vertisements have been InVItIng Turkish yo- the necessary experience and training to cope with
uths to join the armed forces. Defence Minis- the conditions prevalent there and assume an indifter
Mehmet Gölhan declared last month that ferent stance towards incidents developing in their
Turkey had 250,000 draft dodgers and was to areas," complains the gendarmerie report.
take measures to fill the gap. ". Referring to high-ranking officers posted at cen-
Chief of Staff spokesman, Col. Dogu SI- tral headquarters, it says they suffer from a lack of
lahçlOglu, warned that those d~~g.ing nllli!ary adequate knowledge as to the problems encountt:red
service, by various methods, Will ceft~Inly in the region. .
be punished the way they deserve and wI.!II!- As to Intelligence activity in the Southeast, the reve
with this disgrace for the rest of thw h- port wams that because the communications of those
ves." stations defendingthemselves against attacks are cut
"Those who should really be sorry for off, prerequisite intelligence is lacking. It complains
what is happening are the families of t.he pe- that search opera~ions are limited, that thanks to a
ople who will do anythIng to aVOid the. lack of control over rural areas, attacks on stations
struggle" and there.~ have lost their principal are belatedly heard of, and that not enough imporvaIues,
he had sai .
tance is attached to secrecy in intelligence activity.
Referring to security operations in the troubled
Southeast, the gendarmene report discloses that a
large number of units refuse to conduct operations
on the grounds that they lack sufficient manpower
and walt for external help from other units to start _
operations. "The training of personnel responsible
for the use of support weaponry is inadequate. Those
units lacking backing by support weaponry are useless,
especially in forest areas," it says. "Gendarmerie's
commando units are not used properly.
They are scattered about to protect highways and
military posts. Furthermore, owing to a lack of proper
training on the part of station commanders, soldiers
get neither adequate training nor enough rest at
stations where security is inadequate," it says,
"There are military posts where not even a generator
is to be found."
The report adds that spare parts for combat equipment
is another serious
neither armoredvehicles
problem. "In certain towns,
nor support weaponry, nor
first aid equipment and personnel can be found."
Members of the inspection
lution offers to the 'problems
teams also list their so-
experienced by gendarmerie
forces on actIve duty in the Southeast.
"Measures should be taken to inculcate an awarenes~
of responsibility
sem or petsonnelshould
in personnel. ~igh-rankin.g.
be posted to cntIcally POSItioned
stations.
Reinforcements are necessary in stations lacking
adequate personnel. Mobile telephones should be allocated.
Officers stationed at the central headquarters
should be sent to stations on a rotating baSIS to
familiarize them with problems," the report advises.
Referring to intelligencework, it advises station
personnel to engage in dialogue with the locals and
demands station commanders be accorded the authority
to use intelligence funds.
The report says every unit should jointly conduct
operations with other units and demands additional
armored vehicles, spare parts, and other equipment,
thermal cameras, and support weaponry De sent to
delivery of gen-
the area, also urging the Immediate
erators to stations which lackthem.
Çiller says military demanded freezing of discharges
Prime Minister: It was placed in front of us as an 'absolute must' at the National Security Council
Parliamentary National Defense Commission chairman Baki Tug says he read the neWs in the papers
Turkish
Daily Nellis
ANKARA- Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, under
fire from her own party's executIves for a
Cabin~t decision freezing the discharge of army
conscnpts for three to five months, said Friday
the decision was made following a request from
the chiefof staff. .
Çiller was heavily criticized by members of
the ruling True Path Party (DYP) General Exe-
. cutive Board for failing even to consult with the
. parliamentary National Defense Commission
(MSK) before passing the Dec. 20-dated Citbinet
decision.
Pointing out that the decision was the result
40
of a demand from the chief of staff, Ciller said:
'There was a need. The country needed this. It
was a mistake to reduce the military service period
from 18 to 15 months.'" .'
Çiller said Turkey faced problems in recruiting
the soldiers that it required and added,"We
made this decision because in this period, there
is a great demand for trained soldiers." Speaking
later in the day with re~resentatives of
professional organizations, iller said 1994
would be "a year of strugg e against terrorism."
. The prime minister said, "In order to prevent
a decrease in the number of people. needed to
carry out this stru~gle, military service has been
extended by tnree months for one time
only." She added that the Cabinet decision was
taken as the result of "an absolute demand"
whi~h was put. to the government both at the
National Secunty Council and by security forces.
Observers noted that aware of the reaction of
relatives of conscrip.t .soldiers, both Çiller and
other government minIsters preferred to describe
the extension as one of only three months,
without referring to the freezing of discharges
for four to five months for some conscripts. ~
Hundreds of people called newspapers and.