Problems With Current U.S. Policy.

The December 1997 State Department agreement to link an export license to human rights improvements would signal--if implemented--respect for international human rights law. It would also bring U.S. policy in line with Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act, which states that weapons may not be provided to any country "the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights." The State Department's annual human rights reports have documented Turkey's flagrant human rights abuses year after year in a pattern that is clearly gross and consistent. Arms exports to Turkey also contravene President Clinton's Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 34, issued in February 1995, which directs the State Department to factor into arms export decisions the impact of an export on regional stability and on human rights and democracy in the recipient state.

Turkey has also regressed or made little progress on the human rights criteria the State Department laid out for the attack helicopter sale. The cultural and linguistic rights of Kurds are still repressed, and the "state of emergency" continues in six of the nine southeast provinces. Torture continues with impunity, and Turkey has one of the world's highest numbers of imprisoned journalists.

As the 1998 State Department Human Rights report for Turkey states: "Despite Prime Minister Yilmaz's stated commitment that human rights would be his government's highest priority in 1998, serious human rights abuses continued.... Extrajudicial killings, including deaths in detention from the excessive use of force, `mystery killings,' and disappearances continued. Torture remained widespread.... Security forces continued to use arbitrary arrest and detention. Prolonged pretrial detention and lengthy trials continued to be problems."

According to an April 1999 Human Rights Watch report, journalists risk fines, imprisonment, bans, or violent attacks if they write about such subjects as "the role of Islam in politics and society, Turkey's ethnic Kurdish Minority, the conflict in southeastern Turkey, or the proper role of the military in government and society." At present, many journalists, prominent human rights leaders, and Kurdish and Islamic political leaders--including members of parliament--are in prison for violating ambiguous laws against inciting "racial" or "religious hatred" or for issuing "separatist" propaganda. The arrest of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan provided an excuse to once again lash out against those calling for a peaceful end to the war.

Intimidation tactics marred the April 1999 national and local elections, leaving interim Prime Minister Ecevit's nationalist Democratic Left Party (DSP) with the most seats in parliament. The only remaining legal Kurdish party, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HADEP), faced an imminent ban, and thousands of HADEP members--including its leader and several electoral candidates--were detained prior to the elections. Members of the Islamic Virtue party were also harassed and jailed. Turkey's chief prosecutor is now seeking to close the Virtue party after a newly elected female Virtue parliamentarian insisted on wearing a head scarf inside parliament chambers.

U.S. weapons transfers not only provide tacit support for these repressive policies, but have also been used directly by military and police forces to commit human rights abuses, as documented by both Human Rights Watch and the U.S. State Department. In a campaign to root out local Kurdish support for the PKK, U.S.-supplied attack helicopters, jets, tanks, and armored personnel carriers have been used to destroy over 3,000 Kurdish villages. U.S.-origin small arms have been used in the extrajudicial killing of suspected PKK soldiers or sympathizers, and American-made utility helicopters have been used to transport soldiers on these missions. After the Ocalan arrest, the Turkish military heightened its attacks on the PKK, both in Turkey and across the border into northern Iraq. Turkey's renewed faith in the ability to win the war probably encourages the military to continue using indiscriminate and disproportionate force, though Turkish authorities have prevented U.S. officials and international human rights groups from monitoring their activities in the region.

The war with the PKK also carries repercussions for stability in the region and within Turkey, both of which adversely affect U.S. security interests. The CIA's 1997 "State Failure Task Force" report identified Turkey as a nation in danger of collapse. The military's heavy-handed, destabilizing role in domestic politics can only be justified as long as the war continues. The conflict has also created entrenched governmental corruption, touching all central political actors in Ankara.

By flooding the Aegean region with high-tech arms, the U.S. has also fueled an arms race between Turkey and Greece and exacerbated their fractious relationship. Time and time again, Turkey has provoked Greece by flying over its airspace and entering its territorial waters, and it has flown F-16s over southern Cyprus in violation of its licensing agreement with the U.S. government. Turkey has often threatened force against Greece and Cyprus, most recently in response both to Greece's role in harboring PKK leader Ocalan and to the Greek Cypriot government's planned purchase of Russian S-300 air-defense missiles. The U.S. has often had to intervene to prevent open conflict between the two NATO allies, whose tense relationship threatens to further undermine regional stability.

Key Problems

* Turkey does not meet basic U.S. criteria for arms exports, nor those outlined by the State Department specifically for the attack helicopter sale.

* Turkish forces have used U.S. arms to commit human rights abuses, and the U.S. government does not have the ability to prevent future arms exports from being used in this manner.

* Stability--both within Turkey and in the region--is undermined by high levels of U.S. arms exports.

By Tamar Gabelnick, Federation of American Scientists 

Tamar Gabelnick ([e-mail]) is Acting Director of the Arms Sales Monitoring Project of the Federation of American Scientists.