Intolerance against Kurdish people, which became a serious matter in 1992, and occa- sionally caused clashes and attacks in 1993, continued in 1994. As a result of this, some inci-dents which caused tension and clashes between Turks and Kurds were experienced. Provoca-tive broadcasting and publications, attacks by the PKK or other organizations against civilian targets, and the funeral ceremonies for soldiers killed in clashes or raids, increased the tension among people. In February, the strain between Sunni Kurds and Alevi Turks in the Doğançay village of the Karşıyaka district in Izmir, which arose because of the high volume of the loud-speakers of the mosque, turned into a fight. Erdoğan Yılmaz, one of the villagers, said the fol-lowing about the incident: “The sound coming from the mosque was too loud. We were unable stay at home and hear each other. Upon this, I spoke about the problem to the village headman on 18 February, and demanded the volume to be lowered. Hearing this, Zikri Acar, a relative of the village imam,
attacked me. In the meantime, imam Sinan Acar was harassed by the women of the village, and some people were wounded with stones. Upon intervention by police, both parties calmed down that day. Two days after the incident, I was attacked and beaten while I was going out of the village to sell milk. MHP District Chairperson came to the village on 21 February and threatened the villagers. Thus, the incident acquired a political dimension.”
The court house, where 8 people detained in the Tercan district of Erzincan on charges of “aiding the PKK and harboring its members”, were brought for interrogation, was the scene of an attempted raid by a group of about 1,000 people, most of whom were MHP followers, on the evening of 26 May. The crowd, which attempted to lynch the defendants, dispersed far from the building by the soldiers opening fire into the air. The group, which blocked the road bet-ween Erzurum and Erzincan for 3 hours, dispersed following a speech made by Erzincan Gov-ernor Recep Yazıcıoğlu, who went to the district. A baseless news story saying that Mustafa Kul, Erzincan Deputy from the SHP, would have the 8 detainees be released, had been pub-lished in the 26 May 1994 dated issue of the newspaper Zaman.
Relatives of the soldiers who died in clashes in the Emergency State Region gathered at the Izmir Konak Post Office on 29 November, and sent telegrams to Prime Minister Tansu Çil-ler, National Assembly Chairperson Hüsamettin Cindoruk and other party leaders in order to protest the amendments planned in the “Law to Fight Terrorism”. Meanwhile, retired Colonel Lütfü Aksoy said the following: “If the draft of “Law to Fight Terrorism”, prepared and sent to the Assembly by the SHP is accepted, our martyrs’ blood will fall on the ground. As the relatives of the martyrs, we do not want this draft law to be adopted by the Assembly.”
Some statements and speeches of General Staff Chief General Doğan Güreş, who left duty on 30 August, caused debate. For example, in a statement on 16 May, he said: “The PKK will not be on the agenda from the end of summer. The state has many means that it has not used, yet. If we need to, we will use them, too.” Claiming that the PKK had suffered great da-mage, he made the following call to PKK militants: “I say once more, ‘Come and surrender!’ The state wants to acquire you. With this aim, it has enacted various laws. Whatever your reason is in joining the PKK, pity yourself and your family. On the contrary, your adventure will end up badly.” It was not discovered what Doğan Güreş meant with his words “The state has many means that it has not used, yet.” However, certain publications interpreted his words as “The state may use chemical weapons.”
In a speech he delivered at the end of July, Doğan Güreş stated that the number of security forces fighting against the PKK had reached 220,000 and that they had succeeded in the military struggle against it. Indicating that the army has changed its tactics, he said: “Now, we have changed our tactic and started to dominate the area. We do not attack terrorists. Since we have taken the area under our control, militants cannot receive any logistic support nor any food. There cannot be a more humane practice than this. We have changed the weaponry used against the PKK. Recently, they said, ‘A village was burnt down.’ Western countries rose up. Deputies came. Actually, the incident developed as follows: While a military unit was passing-by, people were taking their belongings out of their houses. The commander took his unit up the hill. When he looked behind he saw that the village was burning. He was perplexed. Then the unit turned back in order to see what happened. The belongings were out and village was burnt down. Listen to wireless conversation between the terrorists, ‘You burnt, didn’t you?’, answer ‘Yes, we did.’ They publicized this case as a village burning by soldiers and are success-ful in using this as a propaganda tool.” Indicating that the PKK has made propaganda by distorting the facts, Doğan
Güreş said: “When you see how the soldiers behave the terrorists, you do not believe in your eyes. When we see corpses of 17-year old youths, who were killed, we are grieved. We think of their parents. We want them only to hold up their hands. But, they open fire. What can we do in that case?” Doğan Güreş also complained about some newspa-pers and journals and said: “I cannot say that the law reigns in Turkey totally. There are gaps in the law. You should fill the gaps of the judicial system well, and this is possible through proper application of the law. There is a newspaper in the name of Gündem. It writes ‘Guerrillas killed any number of enemy soldiers.’ every day. Although it writes such stories everyday, it is al-lowed to continue publishing.”
IHD Secretary General Hüsnü Öndül criticized the speeches and statements by Doğan Güreş and stated the following on 31 July: “The General Staff Chief threatens the public and efforts for democratization. With a weapon in his hand, he insisted on intervening in every-thing from freedom of press to provincial administration and to democratization discussions.” Arguing that military authority has a determinative role in policies in Turkey, Hüsnü Öndül made the following call to Doğan Güreş: “If you are involved in politics, lay your arm down.”
Interesting cases of suicide were witnessed in Tunceli in 1994. For example; Colonel Kazım Çillioğlu, the Commander of the Tunceli Regiment, was found dead in his house in Tunceli on 3 February. It was stated that Kazım Çillioğlu had committed suicide. However, this statement was denied by his family. Colonel Çillioğlu was laid to rest in Düzce on 5 February after a funeral. Çillioğlu’s nephew Suat Çillioğlu said the following to journalists in the funeral: “My uncle decided at the last minute not to board the plane of Gendarmerie General Commander General Eşref Bitlis, which crashed in Ankara in February 1993(*). He did not commit suicide. Dark forces
killed him.” Savaş Kanlıoğlu, a relative of Çillioğlu, stated:
“There are contradicting notes in the minutes of the medical examination and in the autopsy report. The autopsy report does not mention a ballistic examination. The Forensic Medicine Institute does not verify suicide without finding gunpowder traces in the palm of the person in question applying a mask. Such a procedure was taken. Gendarmerie General Commandership announced that Colonel Çillioğlu had committed suicide with a single bullet to the head at home. The empty cartridge of the bullet could not be found. We were delivered two clips, one gun and an empty cover. Both of the clips, which were given to us were full. The minute was written at 9.00 p.m. on 3 February 1994. In the minute it was written that he had died 4-5 hours before. The corpse was not taken to a hospital, but was delivered to us. Accord-ing to the information we received, the colonel went to his lodging at about 10.00 a.m. on the day of the incident. Seven hours passed until his death. Although he did not answer telephone and wireless calls during the 7 hours, nobody went his home to find out why.” Another nephew of the Colonel claimed that his uncle had been receiving threats and said: “I examined the corpse of my uncle. A person, who commits suicide leans his gun against the temple. However, the bullet was fired above the head. Besides, there were not traces of gun-powder on his hand. This was not a suicide.”
The second case of suicide involved the PKK. The Ministry of Interior put out a state-ment on 24 March stating that Müslüm Durgun, code name Doctor Baran, who was one of the leaders of
(*)The plane which took off on 17 February 1993 in order to take Gendarmerie General Commander Full
General Eşref Bitlis from Ankara to Diyarbakır, crashed in the vicinity of the Varlık quarter of Ankara. In the incident, Eşref Bitlis, military officers Fahri Işık, Yaşar Erian and Tuğrul Sezginler, and non-commis-sioned officer Emin Öner died. A theory that the plane had been sabotaged, came up. The official state-ments claimed that the plane had crashed because of ice.
the PKK and responsible for the Tunceli Region had committed suicide. The state-ment said: “Müslüm Durgun, who had been the PKK official responsible for the Tunceli region since 1992, committed suicide by exploding a hand grenade at about 4.00 a.m. on 12 March 1994 on the Yılan Mount in the Northwest of Tunceli.” His suicide was later confirmed by the European Representation of the PKK. The PKK claimed the following: “Comrade Doctor Baran committed suicide. One of the characteristics of Doctor Baran, was his great loyalty to the party and its leadership. However, he had previously been criticized for his per-formance. He was hard up since he could not use properly the facilities of the Dersim region and could not be as successful as he wanted in this special war. He was questioning how he would face the party and its leadership with such a performance. His loyalty to the PKK and its leadership reflected to his speeches. However, he should not have showed his loyalty with such an act, which cannot be approved, but he should have continued struggling in the special war. That was what the party expected from him and his experience.”
Those experienced in the Emergency State Region and the Kurdish problem came to affect everything from economy to ecology. The Environmental Commission of the IHD Istan-bul Branch stated that the bombs used in the operations, especially in the air operations, in the Emergency State Region had a negative impact on the nature. The statement made in July in- dicated that the bombs and chemicals used in the weapons used during air operations left traces on the environment that will remain for 40-50 years, and said that burning of forests and cultivated fields during the operations was another negative impact.
Turkey faced a heavy economic crisis from the beginning of 1994, since it did not prefer a democratic way for solution to the problem and because of clashes and wide-scale operations. When the crisis gained an unbearable dimension, a series of economic measures were taken under the title of “Austerity Measures”. They were announced in a press conference held by Prime Minister Tansu Çiller on 5 April.
Under the measures, called “5 April package” by the public, the prices of goods and services produced and rendered by state enterprises were increased from 50 to 120 %. Closure of some plants and establishments owned by the state and the privatization of some others were decided. Agricultural subventions were almost lifted. The salaries of civil servants and workers at state enterprises were increased at low rates until the end of the year. Some tax rates were increased and additional taxes were introduced. As a result of the official currency being indexed to the interbank interest rate, the Turkish Lira was devaluated by 38.4 %. Following the devaluation, 1 USA $ went up to TL 40,000. Upon the sharp rise in the foreign currency, the Central Bank had to raise nightly interest rates up to 1000 percent. Many banks came to the point of bankruptcy because of these developments. The Board of Ministers closed down the Turkish Investment, Tourism and Credit Bank (TYT Bank) on 12 April on the grounds that it could not cover its payments and started to liquidate it. Subsequently, Marmarabank and Impexbank were closed down, too. In addition, the activities of more than 10 stock market intermediaries were halted. The panic, caused by those developments was stopped when the deposits in the banks were taken under the guarantee of the government.
The austerity measures had a negative affect on the daily life of large part of society, especially that of workers and civil servants, and the cost of living, unemployment and social restlessness increased. About 650,000 people were dismissed from their jobs. The inflation rate exceeded 150 %. 1 US Dollar, which was worth TL 13,000 at the beginning of 1994, climbed to TL
40,000 at the end of the year. Gross National Product per capita, which was $ 2,933 in 1993 receded below $ 2,000 in 1994. The budget deficit reached TL 200 trillion (US $ 5 billion).
Turkey was discredited in international capitalist circles because of the crisis. For ex- ample, Moodys, an international rating institution, decreased the credit note of Turkey from “BBB (-)” to “BB” in January. Thus, Turkey was excluded from the category of countries which are appropriate for investment. Standard and Poors, one of the leading rating institu-tions of the world, decreased the credit rating of Turkey from “BBB” to “BB” in March. There-fore, the risk of credits to Turkey was set to be 60 % and Turkey was excluded among the coun-tries available for investment.
A report by the RP in September drew protests from the public. The report prepared after an investigation made in certain settlements in the Southeast of Anatolia by administra-tors of the RP, stated that most of the special team members were MHP followers, that candi-dates who would take an exam to be special team members first applied to the MHP and special team members were selected among people suggested by the MHP. Claiming that the report in question was not true, MHP Vice Chairperson Rıza Müftüoğlu said: “There is unemployment in our country. We receive many applications for jobs. There are various demands. We also received applications related to this issue. However, we cannot do so many things, because special team members are selected through an exam. The RP is talking like the PKK and trying to wear down our party.” Upon the criticisms from the MHP, administrators of the RP said: “There is a public prejudice that ‘Nationalist, conservative people protect the country better.’ Since the state has the same mentality, the MHP has a determinative role in this subject.”
The Kurdish problem also caused disputes on various echelons of the state. For exam-ple, retired Major-General Suat Eren, Vice Secretary General of the National Security Council and National Security Policy Chief, resigned in July citing the differences in approaches about national security strategies, and certain discords in the National Security Council. Suat Eren, who was the Secretary General of the General Staff Office and thus close to the then President, Kenan Evren, after the 12 September Coup and a classmate of Gendarmerie General Com-mand Full General Eşref Bitlis, who died in a mysterious plane crash, stated the following: “There is something which can be uttered, but cannot be written. At that time, we had some problems concerning the measures, which should have been taken. I did not leave for nothing. Our field of work was the southeast and the regions having development priority. When some cases appeared, I decided to resign.”
PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who sent a message to an international meeting about the Kurdish problem held in Belgium in March, said that the PKK did not want to separate Turkey, that they were ready to discuss every alternative, including federation and were open to all proposals on that issue, and that they would clear the way for an end to the war, if a ground for political solution and independent political activities was prepared. He indicated that if a bilateral cease-fire was announced and negotiations for a solution were started under interna-tional observation, they would not ignore them. Abdullah Öcalan claimed that the Kurdish problem, which has become a focus in international platforms, reached the solution stage. Stating that Turkey has an approach, which ignores the historical facts, and that the ap-proaches of some European countries do not help find the solution, but make it harder, Ab-dullah Öcalan said: “Untrue discourses about our struggle such as ‘The PKK is not in favour of a solution.’ or ‘it does not have any approach except founding a separate state.’ are baseless.”
The grave point that the Kurdish problem reached and the inhumane practices in the Emergency State Region occupied an important place in the reports of international human rights organizations. In 1994, many non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International, International Federation for Human Rights, Helsinki Human Rights Watch, published reports condemning Turkey (and sometimes the PKK) and staged campaigns. Turkey was hard pressed in front of the European Parliament and CSCE/OSCE. The Helsinki Committee of Human Rights Watch published a report in October which devoted a large section to incidents and problems in the Emergency State Region. The report, which evaluated the 10-year history of the Kurdish problem, called on Turkey, the US, Germany, the other European Union-member countries and the PKK to take action. The calls are briefly as follows:
To Turkey
• An end to the policy, which forces villagers, especially those who refused to be village guards, to leave their houses and social environments.
• Respect for human rights principles during the military operations, especially the Emergency State Region.
• Punishment for security officers degrading, abusing and killing citizens
• Establishment of a commission to investigate the policy of aiming at depopulating the