Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1988
TURKEY
.
Turkey, a functioning democracy, is a republic with a
multiparty parliamentary system and a relatively strong
presidency. Prime Minister Turgut Ozal's right-of-center
Motherland Party won a 5-year mandate in national elections
held in late 1987.
The Turkish National Police in the cities and the Jandarma in
the countryside are responsible for maintaining public order.
In 1987 the Government lifted martial law in the last five
provinces where it had been in effect. A legal "state of
emergency" continues to exist in eight provinces in the
southeast, where the Turkish Government is combating armed
Kurdish separatists. The state of emergency allows the
civilian governors to exercise some martial law powers.
The Government has liberalized the economy in recent years and
given it a strong free market, export orientation. The
economy is rapidly expanding, and the gross national product
in 1988 grew at a rate of between 7 and 8 percent.
Unemployment and inflation, however, remain serious problems.
Turkey continued to make progress in the observance of human
rights in 1988. In January Turkey became the first country to
ratify the Council of Europe Convention for the Prevention of
Torture. In August 1988, it ratified a similar U.N.
convention. By becoming party to these conventions, Turkey
for the first time accepted the role of outside observers in
investigating allegations of torture in Turkey and monitoring
Turkish places of detention.
There were fewer allegations of torture in 1988 than in
preceding years. Nevertheless, some charges of torture
persisted and were reported in the press. The existence of a
legal framework that allows lengthy incommunicado pretrial
detention creates both an opportunity for abuse and makes it
difficult to prove or disprove charges of mistreatment and
torture that do emerge.
Turkish law limits the extent to which minorities can express
distinct or separate identities (the word "minorities"
throughout this report refers to groups which comprise less
than one half of the population and is devoid of political
connotation) . Amid deeply rooted feelings regarding potential
threats to the integrity of the State, Turks are extremely
sensitive to suggestions that they have an obligation to
provide autonomy to any of the groups which make up the
intricate mosaic of Turkish society. The Government only
recognizes non-Muslim groups, as mentioned in the Lausanne
Treaty of 1923, as minorities. It restricts the separate
cultural identity of Muslim groups, such as Turkish Kurds.
Publishing materials in Kurdish or writing about Kurdish
history has resulted in imprisonment, and even the singing of
Kurdish songs in public performances has been prohibited. In
1988, however, the Government did permit, for the first time,
the sale of cassettes containing songs in Kurdish.
In the late summer of 1988, the Turkish Government undertook a
major humanitarian effort when it gave refuge to 60,000 Iraqi
Kurds, who had fled across the border into Turkey. By year's
end almost 40,000 remained.
Some inhibitions on full press freedom continue to exist, but
the press is active and freely criticizes the Government.
Over the past few years, journalistic practice and court
decisions have steadily expanded the scope of press and
individual freedom of expression.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from:
a. Political Killing
There were no known unlawful killings instigated by government
or political opposition groups in 1988.
Since 1984 a small number (perhaps 3,000) of Kurdish
separatists, mostly members of the illegal Marxist Kurdish
Workers Party (PKK) , have conducted a campaign of terrorism in
southeast Turkey against security forces as well as fellow
Turks of Kurdish origin who do not support them, causing 1,400
deaths, most of them civilian. The Government in 1988 made
major strides in combating the campaign, both through improved
coordination of the security forces and the creation of better
economic conditions for the inhabitants.
b. Disappearance
There were no known disappearances caused by government forces.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Article 17 of the 1982 Turkish Constitution states that "no
one shall be subjected to torture or ill treatment
incompatible with human dignity." Nevertheless, there were
credible allegations of torture and other mistreatment during
1988, though at a reduced level compared to past years.
In one case, Turkish Christians, detained by Turkish security
forces for alleged proselytizing during the spring and summer
of 1988, were victims of police brutality and some of their
non-Christian cellmates were more severely abused. According
to one credible report, one man was beaten, subjected to cold
water hoses, and hung from a bar running under his arms with
his hands tied behind him.
An Amnesty International report written in June 1988 alleged
several incidents of torture, including the reported sexual
abuse of 16-year-old Saadet Akkaya in April in Istanbul Police
Headquarters. Miss Akkaya reportedly lodged a formal
complaint against the police.
Other charges were levied by two members of Turkey's
opposition Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) . In January
an SHP deputy from the southeast asserted that torture was
systematic in the Erzurum Military Prison. In late August,
SHP Chairman Erdal Inonu asserted that torture was a
continuing phenomenon in Turkey, but he did not offer any
specifics. In September an SHP deputy from the same area
claimed that a man whose body had been returned to his family
by the Jandarma—who said the man had been killed by Kurdish
separatists—had actually been tortured to death by the
police. As reported by the opposition deputy, a police
autopsy showed the man had been killed by gunfire from PKK
members, while a second autopsy ordered by the family showed
the man had been tortured before he died. In December a
delegation of SHP members travelling in eastern Turkeypublicized
an incident in Kars province in which three
Jandarma officers allegedly tortured seven villagers while
investigating a murder stemming from a local blood feud.
According to press reports, two victims were hospitalized.
The President of the Istanbul chapter of the Human Rights
Association charged that inmates of Bursa prison, including
Hasan Fikret Ulusoydan, a Communist writer, were beaten in
late September. The beatings led to a widely publicized
hunger strike. In December the Presidenc of the Ankara
chapter of the Human Rights Association announced that three
students (two of whom accompanied him to the press conference)
had been beaten and hung by the arms after being detained for
hanging posters and distributing leaflets. They were later
released by a judge.
The Government in January 1988 became the first country to
ratify the Council of Europe Convention for the Prevention of
Torture. In August it ratified a similar U.N. Convention
Against Torture. In taking these actions, the Government
accepted the legitimate role of outside observers in
investigating torture allegations in Turkey and monitoring
Turkish prison conditions. In September a U.N. rapporteur
conferred in Turkey with government officials and visited
prisons in Istanbul and Ankara.
Current Turkish legal procedures permit incommunicado
detention of suspects for up to 15 days upon court order and
up to 30 days in cases to be tried in a state security court.
It is during this period of detention that most alleged acts
of torture are said to occur. Turkish human rights activists
and foreign observers alike agree that ending this practice of
incommunicado detention and allowing lawyers and family access
to prisoners during these periods of detention would be one of
the most effective ways of assuring that torture does not
occur. Proposed revisions to the criminal code under
consideration by the Government would allow immediate access
for lawyers.
Observers note that the current system creates a situation in
which allegations of torture are difficult to prove or
disprove. This was clearly demonstrated in the case of Haydar
Kutlu and Dr. Nihat Sargin, leaders of Turkey's outlawed
Communist Party, who were arrested in November 1987 after
their voluntary return to Turkey. After being held
incommunicado for several weeks, the two claimed they had been
tortured. They also said that all signs of torture had
disappeared and that court-appointed doctors would be unlikely
to find any marks. Court-appointed physicians did examine
them and found no indications of torture. The two continued
to repeat their charges as their trials went forward in 1988.
In 1988 a number of officials were convicted of having
tortured people in their custody. Izmir policeman Mehmet
Sonmez was sentenced to 7 years for the beating death of Ali
Guven during an arrest in. 1983, but other offenders received
lighter sentences. Proposed revisions to the criminal code
would double the penalty for murder by torture, classified as
manslaughter, from 8 to 16 years.
Turkish prison conditions suffer in comparison with those in
many richer countries. In February Prime Minister Ozal
announced a series of reforms that increased visiting hours
and gave prisoners greater access to television and printed
matter, among other things. Stringent new prison regulations
were issued on August 1, leading to hunger strikes in
13 prisons. The strikes, during which prisoners refused
prison meals but not other forms of sustenance, ended after
negotiations in early December which relaxed some of the new
regulations. One important reform allows the family members
of prisoners who do not speak Turkish to converse during
visits in their own language. This change constituted an
important step for Turks of ethnic Kurdish origin living in
eastern Turkey. (See also Section 5.) •
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
Except in limited circumstances, such as when a person is
caught in the act of committing a crime, a judge must issue a
detention warrant to the prosecutor if a person is to be
incarcerated. This can lead to at least 2 weeks of
incommunicado detention.
In the eight provinces under a legal state of emergency, the
governor (or regional governor) may authorize initial .
detention of a person for up to 30 days without charge. Once
formally charged, a detainee is arraigned before a judge and
is allowed to retain a lawyer.
A proposed revision of the criminal code under consideration
by the Government would accord suspects the right to obtain
and have access to a lawyer from the outset of detention.
Under existing legislation, a detainee's next of kin must
normally be notified "in the shortest time." A detainee does
not have a right to bail; the arraigning judge may release the
accused on presentation of an appropriate guarantee, or order
him held in preventive detention if the court determines that
he is likely to flee or destroy evidence.
The Constitution specifies the right of detainees to request
"speedy conclusion of arraignment and trial." Nevertheless,
judges have ordered a significant number of persons detained
while their cases progress, sometimes for a period of years.
While many of these cases involved persons accused of violent
crimes, others involved membership in illegal organizations.
There is no formal exile. The Government • has refused to renew
the passports of a number of Turks working abroad who have
refused to return home to face court charges or perform
military service. These persons may apply to the Interior
Ministry for permission to return to Turkey. According to a
1987 report, about 14,000 Turks living abroad (most of them in
West Germany) have been denied passports for these and other
reasons. In a well-publicized incident, eight Turks tried to
enter Turkey on December 17. Five were refused entry on the
grounds that they had lost their citizenship; the other three
were detained pending investigation of outstanding charges
against them. Two were later released. All were allowed to
contact lawyers and hold press conferences.
Some human rights observers continue to assert that Turkish
detention facilities contain many political prisoners or
prisoners of conscience. The authorities detained many
persons following the 1980 military intervention, including
many charged with acts of violence. Early release under the
"Execution of Sentences Act" for those convicted of crimes,
and the conclusion of most of the mass trials dating from the
same period, in which courts have distinguished carefully
between violent and nonviolent acts in nieting out sentences,
have reduced those numbers significantly.
One such mass trial, which began in 1981, ended in late
August. Over naif of the 800 defendants were acquitted, and
271 received sentences ranging from 1 to 20 years. Of 53
defendants for whoni the prosecutor requested death sentences,
46 were given lesser sentences. The defendants, members of a
revolutionary group, had taken over a town shortly before the
1980 military intervention and declared it a "liberated
zone." It was retaken by the military without loss of life,
but the revolutionaries had allegedly executed a number of
people during their brief rule.
With regard to forced or corrpulsory labor, see Section o.c.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The Turkish court system and judicial procedures are modeled
on Italian (criminal) and Swiss (civil) law codes. Defendants
normally have the right to an open trial.
The Constitution declares that judges shall be independent in
the discharge of their duties and provides for the security of
their tenure. It also prohibits authorities from giving
orders or recommendations concerning the exercise of judicial
power. In many instances, charges brought by prosecutors, who
are also independent, are dismissed by the courts.
Eight state security courts try defendants accused of terrorism
or other offenses against the security of the State, including
drug smuggling and membership in an illegal organization. The
same standards of evidence and general rules of procedure are
required as in civilian courts. A conviction or acquittal in
either system may be appealed. If an appeals court overturns
a lower court's guilty verdict, the case is sent back to the
lower court for reconsideration. If the lower court insists
on its original verdict, the case is returned to the appeals
court for a binding opinion.
In some cases, particularly capital cases, appeals to the
Supreme Court or to the High Court of Military Appeals are
mandatory and automatic. If a death sentence is confirmed by
an appeals court, it must be approved by the Council of
Ministers, then by Parliament, and finally by the President.
No death sentence has been carried out since 1984. In
September the Chairman of the Parliamentary Justice Committee
remanded the dossiers of 287 prisoners sentenced to death to
the Parliamentary Archives, effectively commuting their
sentences to life,
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
The Constitution provides for the inviolability of a person's
domicile and the privacy of correspondence and communication.
Entry by government officials into a private residence and
interception or monitoring of private correspondence are
permitted only upon issuance of a judicial warrant.
In the eight provinces still under a state of emergency,
however, the governor (or regional governor) may empower
authorities to search residences or the premises of political
parties, businesses, associations, and other organizations
without a warrant. They may also search, hold, or seize
without warrant persons, letters, telegrams, and documents.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The Turkish press is lively and vigorous. There are many
newspapers and periodicals, all of which are privately owned
and reflect a wide range of opinion. There is no government
newspaper; all papers reflect opposition views to a greater or
lesser extent.
While it is permissible to criticize government leaders or
policies, the criminal code has provisions to prosecute those
who "insult the President, the Parliament, the Government, and
the Army." Penalties range from a 3-year minimum sentence for
insulting the President to a 6-year maximum for insulting the
other branches of government. The criminal code also has
longstanding prohibitions on speech or writings considered
threatening to the democratic and secular system of government
and the security of the State. The proscriptions apply to:
advocacy of a government based on class or racial domination
(e.g., communism or fascism); the establishment of a theocratic
state (e.g.. Islamic fundamentalism); or the creation of a
separate state on ethnic lines (e.g., Kurdish separatism).
Public prosecutors have been vigorous in bringing charges
under these laws, and the number of people charged with such
violations fluctuates and is hard to estimate but may be
several thousand. However, judges have generally been
rigorous in examining the evidence in such cases and dismiss
most of them.
The former mayor of Samsun was convicted for insulting the
President. He was accused of saying that the upper levels of
government are occupied by ignorant people whose obsession
with women covering their heads is perverse, meaning that he
felt that conservative female Muslim students should be allowed
to wear headcoverings on university campuses. (The issue has
become an important one between secularists and religious
fundamentalists. The Higher Education Council has recently
permitted headcoverings, but some faculty members have refused
to teach students who wear scarves to class.) The mayor's
case is being appealed.
Prosecutors sometimes use these laws to harass newspapers.
All papers have a "responsible editor" whose only function is
to represent it before the courts and bear the penalty if the
paper is found guilty. In a number of instances in 1988 fines
were imposed, often for obscenity convictions, but no
"responsible editor" actually went to jail. In December the
editor of a leftist magazine. Toward the Year 2000, was
sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison for "having insulted
Ataturk" in an article. The case is being appealed, and there
are indications that the appeals court will reverse the
conviction. Meanwhile, the magazine's "responsible editor,"
Fatma Yazici, was fined $75 for the same incident. Yazici, a
prominent leftwing journalist, is involved in as many as 30
other court cases as "responsible editor" and could serve many
years in jail for sentences currently under appeal or new
convictions. So far, however, she has not served any time in
jail.
A publisher and reporter of the major daily, Milliyet, are
currently on trial for having published in 1988 a series of
interviews with a Kurdish leader advocating separatism. It is
widely expected that they will be acquitted or, at most,
receive a relatively minor fine. The editions of the
newspaper containing the interviews were seized by authorities
before reaching the newsstands. A book reprinting a series of
articles legally published in 1966 on Kurdish life in eastern
Turkey was banned. The books were reportedly physically
destroyed, and charges were brought against the publisher.
The case had not yet been heard at year's end.
Judicial rulings m 1988 affecting freedom of the press have
consistently favored more freedom. This is one reason why,
despite the possibility of prosecution, the press constantly
tests the laws. Government prosecutors continued to use some
statutes to harass the press and were at times effective in
doing so; but the courts, for the most part, continued to come
down on the side of free expression and to expand the bounds
of press and individual freedom.
Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) is a government monopoly.
Despite fairly extensive coverage of the activities of
opposition leaders and their parties, opposition figures
complain TRT's broadcasts and news coverage have a strong
progovernment bias. A government commission apportions party
access to television and radio during election and referendum
campaigns based on the percentage of parliamentary seats they
presently hold. Works of certain leftist and Kurdish
performers and writers are said to be banned from broadcast on
TRT for political or cultural reasons.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Peaceful assemblies are perm.itted with prior permission from
the authorities. Such requests are generally granted, but
assem.blies are restricted to sites chosen by the authorities.
The Law on Associations reflects concern over the involvement
of some organizations in the violence which preceded the
military intervention of 1980. It prohibits associations from
having ties to political parties or engaging in political
activity. The Government closely monitors association
activity. Associations must submit their charters for
government approval before they are allowed to form.
Academic freedom is circumscribed in that the Constitution and
the Political Parties Law proscribe student and faculty
involvement in political activities. These prohibitions stem
from concern over university involvement in pre-1980
violence. Political parties may not form youth branches.
Students and professors may, however, participate in politics
and political parties as individuals, and a number of
academicians have been elected to Parliament.
For a discussion of freedom of association as it applies to
labor unions, see Section 6. a.
c. Freedom of Religion
Turkey is a secular state. The Constitution provides for
freedom of belief, freedom of worship (if in a public
building, the building must be specifically designated for
this purpose and approved by the State), and private
dissemination of one's religious ideas. It is illegal,
however, to advocate the establishment of a theocratic state.
Systematic proselytization is a legal gray area but the
government consistently discourages it, and anyone engaging in
such activities may be detained, investigated, and possibly
prosecuted.
In January and February, a series of articles in a masscirculation
newspaper claimed that various Christian groups
were trying to convert Turks through such inducements as sex,
language lessons, and trips abroad. The police detained some
50 foreign and Turkish Christians throughout Turkey on
suspicion of organizing illegal activities. Most of the
detainees belonged to evangelical Protestant groups. While
some hearings are still pending, the courts have dismissed all
cases heard to date. Nevertheless, some foreigners were later
forced to leave Turkey when their residency permits or
employment contracts were not renewed. Police in Ankara
detained a group of foreign and Turkish Christians for a
second time in September. The group was held for 7 days, but
none of the detainees was charged with a crime. Several
Turkish detainees complained of police brutality during their
detention, and one was beaten; none of the foreign detainees
was mistreated, but consular access was denied.
Although Turkey is a secular state, Turkey's population is
overwhelmingly Muslim. Instruction in "religious culture and
moral education" in accordance with a state-prepared
curriculum is compulsory for all Muslim students. A recent
decree combined the practical and theoretical aspects of this
curriculum but also stated that non-Muslims can attend such
classes only with written permission of their parents. This
superseded a 1986 Education Ministry decree to the effect that
non-Muslims had to attend classes in general religious
instruction but were excused from the practical sections,
which included memorization of Koranic verses and instructions
in prayer.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
There is freedom of movement within Turkey, and Turks are
generally free to travel abroad. The Constitution provides
that a citizen's freedom to leave may be restricted on account
of the national economic situation, civic obligations
(generally military service), or criminal investigation or
prosecution.
In April, the Government eased some of the regulations
governing passport issuance. Critics, however, point out that
while the reforms made it easier for people who had been
convicted on criminal charges to obtain passports, the reform
has not been fully applied to people accused or convicted of
having advocated a government based on class or religion.
There is also evidence that some people under indictment for
such offenses, as well as others under no indictment at all,
are unable to obtain passports or only get them after lengthy
delays.
Turkey has resettled approximately 4,500 Afghan refugees in
recent years. In the late summer of 1988, it generously
provided temporary refuge to some 60,000 Iraqi Kurds. It also
provides two temporary settlement facilities for East European
refugees. Though the Turkish Government does not grant
Iranians refugee status, Turkey serves de facto as a country
of first asylum and safehaven for many Iranians. Before the
current ceasefire in the Iran/Iraq war, there were an estimated
500,000 Iranians in Turkey, mostly in Istanbul and other large
cities. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has
raised with the Turkish Government a small number of cases of
refoulement of persons who had violated Turkish law.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Turkish citizens have the right and ability peacefully to
change their government, within certain legal constraints.
Parties advocating a theocratic state, the superiority or
dictatorship of a particular social class or group, or
"exclusive" or "elitist" political philosophies are
prohibited. Among the political groupings which are
effectively barred by these provisions are Communist, Marxist,
Islamic fundamentalist, Kurdish, and Fascist parties. These
are regarded as inimical to a Western-style democracy and a
threat to Turkey's fundamental integrity. Fascists and
Communists as individuals are banned from membership in other
parties. Members of the armed forces and certain categories
of civil servants may not join any political party.
Members of the Communist party, such as Haydar Kutlu and Nihat
Sargin, and of Kurdish separatist parties, such as Fatma Unal
and Sabri Erbil, are among those held on charges of advocating
rule by a particular social class or ethnic group. Kutlu and
Sargin voluntarily returned to Turkey in November 1987. Over
400 Turkish lawyers volunteered to defend the two and their
trial has occasioned domestic debate over the suitability in a
democracy of outlawing Communist parties.
At the time of their arrest. Prime Minister Ozal said that he
personally would not object to the legalization of Communist
parties of the Eurocommunist type, though he felt that many
Turks might not agree. President Evren stated that he could
foresee the eventual legalization of a Turkish Communist
party, but the time had not yet come. The issue of legalizing
the Communist party continues to be a subject of debate in
Turkey, with members of several parties calling for an
amendment to the Constitution.
Turkey has a multiparty, presidential parliamentary system.
The President is elected by Parliament for a single 7-year
term. The current President, whose election was approved with
the adoption of Turkey's new Constitution in the 1982
referendum, is retired General Kenan Evren, former Chief of
the Turkish General Staff and head of the National Security
Council which governed Turkey during the period of military
rule (1980-83). In 1989, a new president will be elected by
the Members of the current Parliament.
Elections for public office are on the basis of mandatory
universal suffrage and secret ballot. Turgut Ozal's
Motherland Party won a 5-year mandate in the national elections
held in November 1987, in which political leaders formerly
banned from political activity were allowed to participate
following a referendum to this effect in September 1987.
The unicameral Parliament has 450 seats elected on a weighted
proportional representation basis. Under a "barrage" system,
the Turkish election law excludes parties obtaining less than
10 percent of the total national vote. This measure is
intended to prevent political fragmentation and recurrence of
the parliamentary paralysis of the late 1970's. The law is
structured to assist a party which obtains a plurality of the
popular vote to obtain a strong majority in Parliament. In
the November 1987 parliamentary elections, a 36-percent
plurality of the popular vote provided Prime Minister Ozal's
Motherland Party 292 seats in the 450-person Parliament.
The Constitution provides equal political rights for men and
women. There are currently six female Members of Parliament,
one of whom is the Minister of Labor. Several women hold
important positions in the party hierarchies. Members of
minorities, Muslim and non-Muslim, face no legal limitations
on political participation as long as they accept Turkish
national identity and do not form "exclusive " parties. For
example, many Turks of Kurdish descent serve in the
Parliament, the Cabinet, and senior government posts.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
The Government's attitude toward private organizations
monitoring human rights situations is ambivalent. Their
representatives are free to come, but the degree of official
cooperation extended to them varies and reflects, at times,
clear resentment over what the Government perceives as
"unfair" reporting by such groups following visits to Turkey.
A nongovernmental Human Rights Association has been active
since its charter was officially approved in 1987. It has
opened branches in provincial cities, and organizes
discussions, publications, rallies, and petitions. It
gathered 150,000 signatures in support of the abolition of the
death penalty and a general amnesty for all political
prisoners. Because of this campaign, several association
officials were charged with having illegally participated in
politics in contravention of the law on associations, but they
were acquitted in early December.
The Social Democratic Populist Party, the main opposition
party, also has a human rights committee and has actively
pursued human rights issues in Parliament. In December the
Government formed an interministerial working group to
coordinate government efforts on human rights matters.
Under the European and U.N. conventions against torture
ratified by Turkey, committees or rapporteurs are allowed to
visit all places of detention (police stations, civilian and
military prisons, mental hospitals, etc.) at any time,
following notification to the Government. In early September,
a U.N. rapporteur met with government officials and visited a
prison in Ankara and a prison in Istanbul.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion, Language, or Social Status
There is no legal discrimination based on race, sex, religion,
or social status. The Constitution proclaims Turkey to be a
secular state, regards all Turkish citizens as equal, and
prohibits discrimination on ethnic, religious, or racial
grounds. The Treaty of Lausanne also guarantees the rights of
Turkey's non-Muslim minorities. In many respects, there is
also little actual discrimination in Turkey. Many prominent
Turks are of Kurdish origin. The tiny Jewish and Christian
minorities are heavily represented in business and the
professions. There are, however, some problems.
Turkish Governments since Ataturk have sought the assimilation
of all ethnic groups residing within the territorial boundaries
of Turkey into the mainstream of Turkish society. As a result,
a variety of Turkish laws and practices make it difficult for
ethnic or religious minority groups to maintain fully distinct
or separate identities within Turkish society. Turks feel
that to permit such groups to do so could eventually bring the
unity of their State into question. Pursuit of this policy
has, however, caused social strains, particularly with regard
to citizens of Kurdish origin.
Although millions of Turkish Kurds are fully integrated into
the political, economic, and social life of the nation, the
Government's pursuit of full assimilation has led to the
proscription of publication of any book, newspaper, or other
material in the Kurdish language. Neither are materials
dealing with Kurdish history, culture, and ethnic identity
permitted, and there have been instances of arrests of
entertainers for singing songs or performing in Kurdish.
While some forms of cultural activity are permitted, the
foregoing limits on cultural expression are a source of
genuine discontent to many Turks of Kurdish origin,
particularly in the economically less developed southeast,
where they are in the majority.
There are no legal restrictions on the private use of
Kurdish. In addition, as part of his February announcement on
prison reforms. Prime Minister Ozal lifted restrictions on
allowing Kurdish-speaking prisoners to converse in Kurdish
with visitors or lawyers. This brought an end to a widely
publicized and resented situation in which some Kurdish
prisoners and their families were unable to converse during
family visits for want of the ability to do so in Turkish.
Turkish laws and regulations insist on the use of Turkish in
court, with interpreters provided to those who cannot speak
Turkish.
The entire Kurdish issue is one of great sensitivity and
controversy for the majority of Turkey's citizens. Early in
1988, a small group of deputies broke a longstanding taboo
when they tried to initiate a parliamentary discussion on the
condition of Turkish Kurds. The move was rejected by
parliamentary colleagues from all political parties, but the
attempt constituted an unprecedented public discussion of this
issue. The emotions surrounding this problem are heightened
by the ongoing Kurdish separatist armed violence in the
southeast.
As one way of ameliorating the problems of the southeast, the
Government has put great efforts into creating better economic
conditions through large-scale economic development programs.
Dams have been built to provide irrigation and hydroelectric
power. Almost all villages are now electrified. Tractors are
common. Virtually every village now has a primary school
where children learn Turkish. The introduction of television
to rural areas is having a major impact, giving the inhabitants
of this area the same access to Turkish-language information
and cultural programs afforded other Turks.
Notwithstanding the sensitivity of its internal Kurdish issue,
the Government generously afforded refuge to some 60,000 Kurds
fleeing chemical warfare in Iraq in the late summer of 1988.
Foreign observers praised the Government for providing
humanitarian assistance under difficult circumstances.
Under the Treaty of Lausanne, the equality of non-Muslim
Turkish nationals with Turkish Muslims is guaranteed. Among
non-Muslim religious groups there are some 50,000 Armenians,
20,000 Jews, 6,000 Greek Orthodox, and several thousand Syriac
Christians. These groups operate churches, monasteries,
synagogues, schools, and charitable religious foundations,
such as hospitals and orphanages, but have faced a number of
restrictive bureaucratic policies and procedures governing
their activities and institutions. In some instances, these
problems have been caused by municipal governments which have
sought to expropriate, by legal means, real estate owned by
religious groups and non-Muslims. Over the last few years,
the Ozal Government has been sympathetic to these concerns and
has taken a number of steps to alleviate them, particularly in
regard to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul.
Nevertheless, a variety of obstacles to the efficient operation
of their schools, churches, and seminaries have contributed,
along with economic factors, to a dwindling of these minority
populations. The population of non-Muslim minority groups has
declined steadily over the years to under 200,000 people.
The Government has long been a leader in promoting and
protecting women's rights. Their marriage and property rights
are guaranteed by laws based on the Swiss civil code. Women
have full suffrage and educational rights, have attained high
office, and are represented in all professions and
institutions, including the law and medicine. Still, in much
of the country, particularly small towns and villages,
cultural constraints severely limit womens ' roles in society.
Traditional attitudes tend to keep women out of blue-collar
jobs, though women do perform certain unskilled and
semiskilled labor in factories and farm work. In work sites
covered by labor agreements, they receive equal pay.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
Most workers have the right to associate freely. Among those
who do not have the right to form representative unions are
public schoolteachers, civil servants, the police, and the
military.
Union officers may serve no more than eight consecutive 3-year
terms in a given office. The Constitution requires candidates
for office to have worked 10 years in the industry represented
by the union. Like other associations, unions must have
government permission to hold special meetings or rallies, and
police officers must be allowed to attend and record the
proceedings of both special and mandatory meetings. The
Government protects the person and property of trade unionists.
The 1982 legislation banned unions and their officers from any
political activities. The 1988 amendments to those laws
clarified the right of unions and their officers to express
their views on issues which directly affect their members*
economic or social interests, but they did not undo
constitutional provisions which forbid any union role in party
politics. Unions may not establish organic or financial
connections with any political party or other association. In
practice, union leaders and the executive board of the Turkish
Confederation of Labor (Turk-Is) have undertaken significant
political activities. In 1988 Turk-Is campaigned hard against
the Government's position in a referendum on the timing of
local elections, a clearly political issue. While several
members of the ruling party called for legal action against
Turk-Is, no case arising from its referendum activities has
yet been opened against the Confederation.
In some circumstances, the Government may take over the assets
of a union or confederation after a lengthy court proceeding.
This procedure was used in the case of the Confederation of
Revolutionary Workers Unions (DISK), which was dissolved by a
military court in a proceeding which began in 1981. At year's
end the case was on appeal.
Workers have the right to strike. Turkish law and the labor
court system, however, reguire collective bargaining before a
strike. The law specifies a series of steps which a union
must take before it may legally strike, and a similar series
of steps before an employer may engage in a lockout.
Nonbinding mediation is the last of those steps. Once a
strike is declared, unions are restricted in the actions
pickets may take, as well as the number of pickets they may
place at each entrance and exit of a strike site. The struck
employer may respond with a lockout. If he chooses to remain
open, he is prohibited from hiring strikebreakers or from
using administrative personnel to perform jobs normally done
by strikers. Unions are forbidden to engage in secondary or
solidarity strikes, wildcat strikes, or general strikes. In
the peak strike year of 1987, all strikes were peaceful, and
all ended in collective agreements. That trend continued in
1988.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) has, for a number
of years, considered allegations that Turkish laws contravene
the standards of ILO conventions which Turkey has ratified.
Several ILO missions have visited Turkey in recent years and
suggested significant changes in Turkey's labor laws and
Constitution. The May 1988 amendments to the Labor Law
addressed some of the ILO recommendations. In November the
ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association noted improvements
in the existing labor legislation but insisted on several
additional major amendments to correct provisions incompatible
with freedom of association: specifically, the right to
establish organizations without previous authorization; to
draw up constitutions and rules and elect representatives in
full freedom; and to bargain collectively without government
interference.
Turk-Is is affiliated with the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the European Trade Union
Confederation (ETUC) and represents Turkish workers at the
ILO. The Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DISK),
although dissolved by court action, is still carried as a
member of the ETUC, and its legal appeals have been actively
supported by all three major trade union internationals: the
ICFTU, the World Federation of Trade Unions, and the World
Confederation of Labor.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
The right to organize and bargain collectively exists for
almost all industrial workers in Turkey. The Constitution,
the Labor Law, and the Collective Bargaining, Strike, and
Lockout Laws make these rights clear. Most industrial
activity is organized, as well as some public sector
agricultural activities.
The law favors established unions by requiring that a union
must have as members 10 percent of the workers in a given work
branch as well as 50 percent plus one of the workers at a
given work site in order to become a bargaining agent. There
is no agent election. The union submits its membership roll
to the Ministry of Labor and requests certification as the
bargaining agent. Once certified, the union receives dues,
check-off privileges, and compensatory payment from nonunion
members. The employer must enter good-faith negotiations with
the certified union.
In the organized sector of the economy, collective bargaining
is the norm. Even in those sectors in which there is no right
to strike (for reasons relating to national security, broadly
defined, or in newly established free trade zones) collective
bargaining, followed if necessary by binding arbitration, is
the rule.
Unions complain that the ban on strikes outside the collective
bargaining process makes it impossible to protect members
against retribution for organizing or performing other union
functions. Charges of employer retribution against union
activists may be raised in labor courts, which most employers
regard as fundamentally prolabor. Few incidents of antiunion
discrimination are reported.
Although organization and collective bargaining are permitted
in newly established, duty-free zones near Adana and Antalya,
workers in those zones will not be allowed to strike until
1994 (10 years after the zones were legally established).
Until that date, differences between union and employer which
cannot be settled otherwise will be determined by binding
arbitration. Workers in these zones are paid in foreign
exchange rather than in Turkish currency.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
Forced or compulsory labor is not practiced.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
The Constitution and labor laws forbid employment of children
younger than 14 years of age and require those above 14 who
are in school to have their work hours adjusted accordingly.
The Constitution also prohibits women and children from
engaging in physically demanding jobs, such as underground
mining, and from working at night. The Ministry of Education
and Sports enforces the laws effectively in the organized
industrial area.
In practice, many children work in Turkey. In the major
cities, many young boys shine shoes and sell pretzels and
sandwiches on the street. In family-owned businesses,
including restaurants, boys visibly younger than 14 work long
hours as busboys. Rural families frequently need the small
income their children can generate by working outside the
family.
In addition there is an informal and essentially unsupervised
apprentice system, in which young boys work at low wages in
hopes of learning a trade. Auto repair shops frequently have
underage helpers. Girls, because of traditional efforts to
shield them from public view, are rarely seen in such
circumstances, but many are kept out of school to work at
home, especially in rural areas, and may also be employed
while under age in the manufacture of handicrafts and rugs.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
A tripartite group made up of representatives of labor.
Government, and employers sets an annual minimum wage. On
July 1, the monthly minimum wage was raised from $45 to $76 at
the exchange rate of November 1988. Take-home wages rose from
$30 to $51 per month. Inflation and rapid devaluation of the
Turkish currency against the U.S. dollar had reduced its
international value significantly by year's end.
The minimum wage is effectively enforced. Unions argue
annually that the minimum wage should be set to reflect the
needs not just of the worker, but of a worker and three
dependents. Most workers, however, earn considerably more
than the minimum wage, which generally is restricted to those
new to the work force or those providing temporary or
part-time services. It would be difficult for a single worker
to live on the minimum without support from other sources, and
it would be impossible to raise a family on it. It should be
noted, however, that workers also receive a hot meal daily (or
a food allowance), transportation to and from work, a fuel
allowance, and other fringe benefits which make the salary
only about one-third of total remuneration.
The Constitution provides for a nominal 45-hour workweek and
mandates a right to leisure. Most unions have bargained for
fewer hours in the workweek, both to produce more leisure time
and to ensure more overtime, which earns premium pay. Labor
law limits the number of overtime hours a worker may be
reguired to work to 270 per year.
Occupational safety and health regulations are nominally
mandated by the Constitution. In practice, limitations on
financial resources and knowhow, lack of safety awareness,
fatalism, and carelessness often lead workers and employers to
eschew basic devices, freguently resulting in poor
occupational safety and health records. To date, the
Government has not carried out an effective inspection and
enforcement program
