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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 May 1999 Issue No. 428 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 May 1999 Issue No. 428
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Special Focus Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Turkish public in a lynching mood
By Gareth JenkinsOn 30 April the Ankara Security Court ruled that Ocalan's trial will begin on 31 May on the prison island of Imrali in the Marmara Sea. The Turkish authorities accuse Ocalan of being responsible for over 35,000 deaths in its 15 year low-level war against the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). If convicted, Ocalan faces the death penalty.
Amnesty International observer Wesley Gryk alleged that following last Friday's hearing 19 of Ocalan's lawyers were kicked and beaten by Turkish police and that two had to be hospitalised as a result. "The intimidation of lawyers makes it difficult for them to do their jobs properly," said Gryk.
The beatings were also criticised by the Turkish Union of Bar Associations. "The sorrow of the families of the martyrs [killed by the PKK] should not be a reason for preventing defence lawyers from performing their duty," said a statement released by the union.
But many Turks see Ocalan's defence lawyers as virtual accomplices in his alleged crimes.
"How can anyone try to defend someone who ordered the deaths of women and children and brainwashed thousands of Kurdish teenagers and sent them to their deaths in the mountains while he sat in a luxury villa in Damascus?" asked one 57 year-old businessman.
With the picture of Turkish nationalist leader Kamal Ataturk in the background, MP Merve Kavakci, of the pro-Islamic Virtue Party, arrives for a news conference in parliament last Monday. A day earlier, Kavakci drew wide protests for showing up in the parliament hall with her headscarf (photo: AP)
In March, public outrage was exacerbated by a string of apparently uncoordinated bombings and burnings by PKK supporters to protest Ocalan's capture and detention in Turkey. On 13 March four PKK sympathisers torched a department store in Istanbul, killing 13 people.
Even though the violence has since subsided, the strength of public feeling was again demonstrated last Tuesday when news leaked out that three suspects in the arson attack had been detained. Several hundred police had to be called in to prevent them being lynched.
The war against the PKK was one of the main factors behind the surge in support for the ultra nationalist National Movement Party (NMP) in the 18 April general elections. According to the official results released last week, the nationalist-left Democratic Left Party (DLP) emerged the leading party with 22.1 per cent of the votes and 136 seats in the 550 seat unicameral parliament, followed by the NMP with 17.9 per cent (130 seats), the Islamist Virtue Party (VP) with 15.4 per cent (111 seats), the centre-right Motherland Party (MP) with 13.2 per cent (86 seats) and the conservative True Path Party (TPP) with 12.0 per cent (85 seats).
Most observers expect Ocalan's trial to last until late autumn. "There is so much evidence against him that it should take at least six months," said lawyer Lale Cander. There is little doubt that Ocalan will be found guilty and sentenced to death. The only question is whether the sentence will be carried out. Even though the death penalty remains on the statute books no one has been executed in Turkey for 15 years and all death sentences have to be approved by parliament. "Turkey cannot afford to execute him," said Nazli Ilicak, a newly elected VP member of parliament. "There would be a huge international outcry." "The man is a monster but there are practical considerations," said Emre Kocaoglu, a member of parliament from the MP. "Ocalan would become a martyr and we would have problems such as where to bury him and how to stop it becoming a shrine for PKK supporters. Executing him could make everything worse." But there is little doubt that the majority of the Turkish public want to see Ocalan hanged. "How can we feed him and look after him when he has been responsible for the deaths of so many of our people?" asked businessman Erdal Dumanli.
In the run up to the elections the NMP repeatedly promised that if it came to power it would hang Ocalan. Turkish President Suleiman Demirel is expected to ask the DLP to head Turkey's next government. Most analysts predict that the DLP will form a coalition with the NMP and the MP. "We know the DLP is opposed to capital punishment but if we come to power then we shall push for Ocalan to be executed," said a high-ranking NMP official. "Doing anything else would be betraying both our voters and the thousands of soldiers who have been killed." But the new government is not likely to have to make a decision until early next year at the earliest. "Parliament will not have to vote on the execution as soon as the sentence is passed," said one lawyer. "There is still a lot of time for Ocalan to develop a fatal illness or for security to be relaxed enough for a relative of a slain soldier to get close to him."
Over the next few weeks the new government's agenda is expected to be dominated by the issue of secularism rather than the fate of Ocalan. On Sunday, the swearing in of new members of parliament had to be suspended when Merve Kavakci, a newly elected female deputy from the Islamist VP, entered the chamber in a headscarf.
An estimated 70 per cent of Turkish women cover their heads but civil servants are banned from wearing headscarves while carrying out their official duties on the grounds that they are a religious symbol and thus violate the country's laws on secularism. When Kavakci entered the chamber DLP deputies leapt to their feet in noisy protests, forcing the speaker to announce a recess. After 25 minutes Kavakci, a feisty, 31 year-old US-educated computer engineer, left the chamber and the ceremony was resumed.
President Demirel described the incident as a provocation aimed at undermining secularism. But Kavakci remains undeterred and determined to try again. "They'll have to cut off my head before I remove my headscarf," she said.
