By John Ward Anderson

Washington Post
February 14, 2002; Page A24

ISTANBUL, Feb. 13 -- Not every Kurdish man hauled before a Turkish security court on terrorism charges has a famous American intellectual like Noam Chomsky in his corner demanding to be declared a co-defendant, and dozens of human rights activists and foreign reporters crowded into the courtroom to scrutinize the response.

So when a three-judge panel today acquitted Fatih Tas, a 22-year-old student and book publisher, on charges that he had published a lecture by Chomsky that threatened "the indivisible unity" of Turkey, Tas said he felt he had definitely dodged a bullet. Temporarily, at least.

"It's only because Noam Chomsky was here that I was acquitted. I don't think this was a sincere decision," said Tas, a third-year journalism student at Istanbul University. "I still have six more trials [for publishing allegedly seditious ideas], and I'm expecting to be punished."

Today's case was just the latest of many high-profile freedom of expression cases in Turkey, which over the years has used tough anti-terrorism laws to ban books, plays, movies, speeches, and radio and television broadcasts that it deems threatening to its public security. The laws are specifically aimed at quashing support for Kurdish nationalism, a cause that fueled a 16-year conflict in southeastern Turkey in which about 30,000 people were killed.

That conflict ended in February 1999, most analysts agree, when the country's top Kurdish rebel -- Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK -- was captured and ordered his followers to lay down their arms. But despite two years of almost complete calm and a general sense that the military's fight against the PKK was over, many people here think the terrorist threat remains, and they do no want laws curbing civil liberties removed from the books.

Turks are also bitterly divided over laws that prohibit broadcasting and teaching in the Kurdish language, and teaching the language itself. About 20 percent of Turkey's 68 million people are Kurdish, according to the CIA.

In recent weeks, police reportedly have arrested dozens of students and detained thousands more who were involved in a nationwide petition drive to permit Kurdish to be taught in schools. On Monday, Turkey's radio and television council shut a television station in Diyarbakir, a major city in the southeast, for one year because it played Kurdish songs on two days in October.

"The feeling I always have is, why is all this stuff still going on?" said Jonathan Sugden, a specialist on Turkey for Human Rights Watch, who attended today's hearing. "In the end, it comes back to the army, really, and keeping society in a constant state of alert and emergency. The main beneficiaries are the security forces and the army with all its privileges."

Turkey, which wants to become the first Muslim country to join the European Union, has been told that it must improve its human rights record before its application would be considered.

Last week, in an effort to bring its laws more in line with European standards, the Turkish parliament approved a series of legal reforms -- known here as "the mini-democratization package" -- that reduced some penalties for violating Turkey's anti-terrorism and anti-sedition laws, while making those laws slightly less vague.

Tas, the head of Aram Publishing in Istanbul, was accused of publishing "propaganda against the indivisible unity" of Turkey for publishing a Turkish-language translation of a lecture Chomsky delivered in Toledo, Ohio, in March 2001 that briefly touched on the Kurdish issue. Tas's indictment specifically cited 11 sentences from Chomsky's lecture, including one declaring that "In 1984, the Turkish government launched a major war in the Southeast against the Kurdish population."

Turkey is particularly sensitive to charges that it engaged in a "war" against its citizens.

Chomsky, a renowned leftist and professor of linguistics at MIT who has gained worldwide fame for his blistering attacks on U.S. foreign policy, showed up at the trial and filed a petition to be named a co-defendant. His request was denied by the court, but his presence at the hearing guaranteed a huge turnout of local and foreign reporters.

U.S. activist calls for Kurdish state in Turkey

February 15, 2002

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AP) -- In a move likely to enrage Turkish leaders, American linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky on Thursday called For an autonomous Kurdish state in the country's southeast, where Turkish troops have battled autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels for years.

Hundreds of Kurds cheered and applauded Chomsky throughout a conference, During which he attacked Turkey's refusal to grant cultural rights to Kurds. He also hinted that Kurds in Turkey, neighboring Iraq, Iran and Syria should be united in one state.

"Within that kind of framework which I hope will be evolving, one can I think look forward to an autonomous Kurdistan which will bring together the Kurds of the region," Chomsky said in Diyarbakir, the largest city of Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast.

About 12 million Kurds live in Turkey, with an additional 8 million in the neighboring countries.

Similar comments have landed several intellectuals and activists in Turkish jails on charges of provoking separatism. Plainclothes policemen equipped with video cameras filmed Chomsky's entire speec h and took down names of the media organizations attending.

Hours later, police in the southeastern cities of Batman and Siirt rounded up a total of 90 Kurdish protesters who set car tires on fire on the eve of the third anniversary of the capture of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in protest. Five protesters were reportedly injured in Siirt when police used truncheons to disperse demonstrators, police said.

Police in Diyarbakir were also put on alert against similar protests but no incident were reported.

Fighting between Turkish troops and the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has decreased dramatically after Ocalan ordered a rebel cease-fire more than two years ago. But the region is now simmering over demands for Kurdish courses in universities and schools.

Referring to rebel attacks, Chomsky said: "My own personal view is that a Very heavy burden of proof is required before anyone undertakes the use of violence."

"In my view that burden of proof can rarely be met ... and nonviolent protests are more appropriate, both morally and practically," he added.

Turkey's answer to demands for Kurdish-language teaching has been harsh And unbending. More than 5,000 Kurds who petitioned the authorities on the issue over the past few months have been detained on charges of separatism, bringing more criticism of Turkey's rights record.

"One can only admire the courage of the people who are pressing that campaign in the face of repression and atrocity," Chomsky said, bringing another burst of cheers in a packed municipal hall.

The right to "use one's mother tongue freely in every way that one wants" is among the "primarily essential human rights," he said.

Turkey says that the language campaign is orchestrated by the PKK, and

That allowing education in Kurdish would divide the country along ethnic lines. Turkey does not recognize its estimated 12 million Kurds as an official minority. Using the Kurdish language in schools, official events and broadcasts other than music is outlawed.

"We want the right to education in Kurdish," said Irfan Inci, a Kurdish villager listening to Chomsky. "It is our most natural right."

Village women in traditional colorful Kurdish outfits and old men in baggy Pants chanted: "Our right to education in the mother tongue cannot be barred."

University students presented a 72,000-word English-Kurdish dictionary to Chomsky, thanking him for his support.

"You are our voice!" read an anonymous note passed to Chomsky from the audience.

 4) Court examining Chomsky's remarks on Kurds

Feb 18, 2002
Reuters

A Turkish security court began examining evidence against U.S. academic Noam Chomsky for allegedly fomenting separatism during a visit to Diyarbakir, security officials said.

Police turned over to the court cassettes and a translated version of Chomsky's remarks on Thursday in which he reportedly said he hoped an independent Kurdish state would eventually be established. If the court finds evidence of a crime it could decide to charge Chomsky.

 The furore surrounding Chomsky will also be seen in the context of Turkey's EU aspirations. The European Union has urged Turkey to reform laws limiting freedom of speech and thought, and expects curbs on language and other cultural rights such as those on the Kurdish minority to be scrapped before membership talks can begin.

Chomsky, a professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology better known for his attacks on U.S. foreign policy, was in Turkey last week to observe the trial of his 22-year-old publisher Fatih Tas, who had translated Chomsky's work into Turkish.

An Istanbul court cleared Tas on Wednesday of charges he had threatened the unity of the state by publishing Chomsky's accusations that Turkey had oppressed its Kurdish minority during violence between soldiers and Kurdish separatists that has killed more than 30,000 people since 1984.

Chomsky travelled to the southern city of Diyarbakir on Thursday before leaving Turkey on Friday.

 According to a Turkish translation turned over to the court and seen by Reuters, Chomsky also told a meeting in Diyarbakir: "People's right to speak in their mother tongue is an essential human right. It's a mistake to even debate cultural rights."

 In recent weeks Turkey has detained hundreds of people who had signed petitions calling for Kurdish language education in Turkish schools. Authorities fear greater cultural rights could lead its restive Kurdish population to demand more autonomy.