Monday, February 22, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page'
World News
Turkey reacts to Western critics
Skepticism aimed at trial of captured rebel leader
The Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey — The Turkish prime minister's manner was mild, but his message was unmistakable: Back off.
Now that Turkey has rebel warlord Abdullah Ocalan behind bars, it is telling the West in no uncertain terms that it wants no advice from anyone on how to conduct his trial.
"We would consider such attempts an unacceptable affront to Turkish justice," Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told a news conference on Sunday, six days after Turkish commandos captured Ocalan in Nairobi, Kenya. Ocalan is now on an isolated Turkish island prison where he remains in solitary confinement, under interrogation but not yet under formal arrest.
Even before a trial date has been set and the
nature of the proceedings agreed upon, the case is pitting Turkey against Western critics who cite its shaky human rights record and question whether the much-reviled Ocalan will be dealt with fairly
At the hour-long question and answer session held by the prime minister and his foreign minister, Ismail Cem, Turkey's prickly brand of nationalistic pride was on ample display.
Both men stopped just short of openly gloating over violent protests by expatriate Kurds that erupted across Europe within hours of Ocalan's arrest, including many staged on the soil of countries that have expressed sympathy for the Kurds' struggle for autonomy.
"There is a Turkish expression, 'Long live the snake that doesn't bite me.' The attitude of some governments in Europe could well be described with that expression," Ecevit said. "Now that they have been slightly bitten by the snake, they may better realize what we have been suffering for many years."
The 73-year-old prime minister said autonomy
for the Kurds is out of the question — and so is talking to Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a 15-year military struggle for autonomy.
"A dialogue need not be formed with minority groups who want to partition Turkey," Ecivit said.
All this will be to the detriment of Turkey's international image, some analysts say.
Such combativeness on Turkey's part is likely to intensify as the trial unfolds, particularly if it is held in state security courts, which include military judges. With national elections less than two months away, the country's leaders will likely stick to the politically popular line that the trial is Turkey's business and no one else's.
Waving off outsiders' concerns about the proceedings will worsen relations with Europe, predicted Huseyin Bagci, an international relations scholar at Middle East Technical University in Ankara.
"This is not a normal trial; it's an international event," he said.
Control of two Mexican states up in air
The Associated Press
CHETUMAL, Mexico — Mexico's ruling party battled to keep two governorships in Sunday elections, with the toughest battle by far in Quintana Roo, where palm trees and turquoise waters serve as a backdrop for grinding poverty and a booming drug trade.
The Caribbean coast state, where wealthy tourist resorts like Cancun are located near dirt-poor Maya Indian communities, will test the Institutional Revolutionary Party's ability to convince voters it can narrow the income gap and overcome the image of corruption and authoritarianism that dogs current Gov. Mario Vil-
lanueva.
"We need a change. The worst thing that could happen is for things to go on the same way," said Manuel Peraza, a businessman in Cetuala, the state capital.
Voters formed short lines at polling places in Chetumal. Turnout also appeared to be light in Sunday's other race, the gubernatorial contest in Hidalgo state, on Mexico's central plains.
The ruling party, known as the PRI, was expected to win easily in Hidalgo. The Quintana Roe race between Gaston Alegre of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party and PRI candidate Joaquín Hendricks, a former army officer, was much closer.
Alegre has pledged more protec.
tion for workers and the state's fragile environment, while Hendricks wants to develop agribusiness to keep poor farmers from flocking to slums surrounding the resorts.
The PRI has governed Quintana Roo since it was admitted as a state in 1974. At the federal level, the party has held the presidency without interruption since 1929 and would like to maintain its strength for the 2000 presidential vote. Earlier this month, it won the governorship of Guerrero state but lost in Baia California Sur.
The party faces serious problems in Quintana Roo.
Two days before Sunday's vote, federal prosecutors announced 38 arrest warrants for former Quintana Roo state officials and businessmen linked to the cocaine-trafficking Juarez cartel.
Many think the U.S. government would like to see Villanueva prosecuted for alleged links to drug traffickers.
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