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Voice of America, 99-12-30
CONTENTS
[01] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)
[02] TURKEY / KURDS (PART TWO OF THREE) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY)
[03] TURKEY / OCALAN (L ONLY) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)
[01] N-Y ECON WRAP (S & L) BY BRECK ARDERY (NEW YORK)
DATE=12/30/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-257630
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were mixed
today (Thursday) as some late session profit-taking
brought two major averages lower. V-O-A Correspondent
Breck Ardery reports from New York.
TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11-
thousand-452, down 31 points. The Standard and Poor's
500 index closed at a record high 14-hundred-64, up
one point. The NASDAQ index ended down four points at
four-thousand-36.
/// Begin Opt /// Many Wall Street veterans continue
to marvel at the performance of the NASDAQ, which is
up almost 85 percent this year, powered by the many
high technology companies in that index. Some say the
NASDAQ stocks are overdue for a downward correction.
/// Opt /// But Joe Battapaglia of the Gruntal
investment company says the NASDAQ index will continue
to outperform the other major averages.
/// OPT BATTAPAGLIA ACT ///
The NASDAQ should deliver at least a 30 percent
gain in profits next year, versus about 13 and
one-half percent for the Standard and Poor's.
That is why the NASDAQ is going to continue to
power forward and outperform the Dow by at least
a factor of two to one.
/// END ACT // END OPT ///
The U-S labor market remains tight, with the number of
new claims for jobless benefits falling by nine-
thousand last week.
A survey shows that Christmas holiday sales through
the Internet rose by 300 percent. Although on-line
retailing is the fastest growing segment of the
industry, those sales still constitute just one-point-
two percent of overall retail sales in the United
States.
/// Rest Opt ///
The stock of the Young and Rubicam advertising agency
rose 10 percent after it was announced that the
company will be added to the Standard and Poor's 500
index. Many investment funds are obligated to hold
all stocks in that index and the addition of any stock
usually causes that stock to rise.
Three U-S investment banks are reportedly in
negotiations to buy Credito Fondiario, a leading
Italian corporate lending firm. The deal could be
worth as much as 250-billion dollars.
Federal Express, the world's largest overnight package
delivery company, will impose a three percent price
increase effective February first. The company says
the increase is needed to cover rising fuel
costs.(Signed)
NEB/NY/BA/LSF/JP
30-Dec-1999 16:55 PM EDT (30-Dec-1999 2155 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
[02] TURKEY / KURDS (PART TWO OF THREE) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY)
DATE=12/30/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
NUMBER=5-45147
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
//// ED'S: THE SECOND OF THREE REPORTS ABOUT THE
SITUATION IN TURKEY'S MOSTLY KURIDSH SOUTHEASTERN
REGION. ////
INTRO: Hopes are growing for a lasting peace in
Turkey's largely Kurdish southeastern provinces.
Clashes between Turkish government forces and rebels
of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' party, the P-K-K,
are receding in the wake of a rebel cease-fire. In
the second of three reports about this new climate in
Turkey's Kurdish region, Amberin Zaman reports from
Diyarbakir on the expanding political debate about the
future of Turkey's 12-million Kurds.
TEXT:
/// PRO-P-K-K KURDISH MUSIC - FADE UNDER ///
"Rebellion is life." The lyrics of this banned
Kurdish song still trigger loud cheers and frenzied
folk dances at gatherings here. But it no longer
reflects the prevailing mood in Turkey's largely
Kurdish southeast provinces.
In Diyarbakir, the political nerve center of these
harshly beautiful, mountainous lands, it is
"democratic republic," not "independent Kurdistan"
that are the buzz words throughout noisy street
bazaars and high-brow intellectual circles.
A "democratic republic" encompassing Turks and Kurds
is what imprisoned P-K-K leader Abdullah Ocalan has
called for since his dramatic capture by Turkish
special forces last February in Kenya.
Ocalan declared that Kurdish autonomy and independence
were no longer realistic goals during his month-long
court room trial last June. The P-K-K leader, who was
handed the death sentence on treason charges, said
granting of long-denied cultural rights would be more
than enough to satisfy the Kurds' demands. Ocalan has
since ordered his fighters to pull out of Turkey and
to end their 15-year armed campaign fight.
Ocalan's reversal has taken both his critics and
supporters by surprise.
Cezair Serin is the mayor of Diyarbakir's bustling
commercial Surici district. Mr. Serin was elected
together with 38 other members of the pro-Kurdish
People's Democracy Party or HADEP in elections last
April.
/// SERIN ACT ONE - IN TURKISH - FADE UNDER ///
The mayor says he agrees that ethnic nationalism is an
outdated concept, and says that he and his party will
do everything possible to promote peace.
Still, Ocalan's reversal has triggered accusations
among his erstwhile supporters that his peace
overtures are merely aimed at saving his own life.
Many question whether the 15-year rebellion that has
claimed nearly 40-thousand lives has been worth it.
Like many Kurdish politicians and activists, Mr. Serin
says it is --in his words -- fruitless to dwell on the
past. Instead, he says Kurds should seek to
consolidate their gains.
What are they? Like many, Mr. Serin responds that
today Kurds are no longer afraid to say that that is
what they are - Kurds - and that their problems are
now - largely thanks to the P-K-K insurgency - known
throughout the world.
Hanefi Isik is the regional representative of the
Ankara-based Turkish Human Rights Association. Mr.
Isik says the daily lives of Kurds in the region has
improved dramatically in recent months.
/// ISIK ACT - IN TURKISH - FADE UNDER ///
Mr. Isik says Turkish security forces appear much more
relaxed in the wake of the P-K-K cease-fire and now
treat local citizens, in his words - more gently. He
says torture and arbitrary detentions have sharply
decreased.
Cemil Serhatli is Diyarbakir's new governor. He says
the Turkish government is doing its best to restore
confidence in the government among civilians
throughout the region.
/// SERHATLI ACT - IN TURKISH - FADE UNDER ///
Mr. Serhatli says measures include helping villagers
displaced by the fighting to return to their homes, as
well as providing free education and health for them.
But many, like Hadep's Cezair Serin, say that unless
the Turkish government takes urgent steps to address
the Kurds' demands for greater cultural freedom, the
atmosphere of peace could give way to renewed
violence.
/// SERIN ACT TWO - IN TURKISH - FADE UNDER ///
Mr. Serin says a crucial first step in moving peace
forward would be full amnesty for thousands of P-K-K
rebels in the mountains and for about 10-thousand P-K-
K militants and sympathizers locked up in Turkish
jails.
He says other steps would be to ease restrictions on
Kurdish language broadcasting and education, and to do
away with bans that effectively bar free debate of the
Kurdish issue and others deemed - threatening to the
unity of the Turkish state.
And, Mr. Serin argues that Kurds should be permitted
to freely sing songs, even if they are about
rebellion, without facing imprisonment. (SIGNED)
NEB/AZ/JWH/RAE
30-Dec-1999 07:46 AM EDT (30-Dec-1999 1246 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
[03] TURKEY / OCALAN (L ONLY) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)
DATE=12/30/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-257623
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Turkey's chief prosecutor, Vural Savas, has
rejected demands for a retrial of Kurdish rebel leader
Abdullah Ocalan. Ocalan was sentenced to death in
June. Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara.
TEXT: Ocalan's lawyers say their domestic legal
avenues are now exhausted. So they say they now will
apply to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human
Rights to intervene on behalf of Ocalan, the leader of
an outlawed rebel group known as the P-K-K.
Ocalan was sentenced to death after being convicted on
treason charges last June at the end of a one-month
trial on the prison island where he is being held.
Lawyers for the P-K-K leader say the trial was riddled
with irregularities and they are demanding a new
trial. Experts say the European court could take up
to two years to come up with its decision. They say
the court also could renew demands that Ocalan not be
executed.
Although there are about 40 Turkish prisoners on death
row, no one has been executed in Turkey since 1984 --
in line with efforts to bring the country's laws
closer to standards of West European nations.
Both Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and Justice
Mnister Hikmet Sami Turk have repeatedly indicated
that Ocalan cannot be executed if Turkey wants to
become a full member of the European Union.
Under Turkish law, it is up to parliament to decide
the P-K-K leader's fate. Until recently, there was
strong public pressure on the politicians to vote in
favor of hanging the man Turkey blames for the deaths
of nearly 40-thousand of its citizens.
Analysts say Ocalan's demands that his P-K-K fighters
abandon their bloody independence struggle and
withdraw from Turkish territory have greatly reduced
the Turkish public's thirst for revenge.
Prime Minister Ecevit says Turkey will need to await
the European Court's verdict before its proceeds any
further with the Ocalan case.
NEB/AZ/JWH/JO
30-Dec-1999 10:07 AM EDT (30-Dec-1999 1507 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
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