RIGHTS – EUROPE: Cold War Winds Cool OSCE Summit in Turkey

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Nadire Mater

ISTANBUL, Nov 17 1999 (IPS) - Although the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) starts its Istanbul Summit Thursday in a totally different scenario from that of Helsinki 1975, when it was created, cold war-style frictions will not be absent.

The U.S. and its allies will put the Russian military offensive against Islamist fighters in Chechnya at the centre of the Summit’s discussions, while Russia has warned that will not tolerate any interference in what considers an internal affair.

But Russian Foreign minister Igor Ivanov warned Wednesday that “If any country tries to politicise the problem, to use it against us, it would become very difficult to have a constructive atmosphere at the Summit,”

Russia seems determined not to be reduced again to the role of a second-rate player in the international scene, particularly in eastern Europe and Central Asia. Chechnya is Russia’s response to the NATO war against Yugoslavia, analysts say.

But it is not only the rather selective focus on the humanitarian crisis in Chechnya what worries human rights organisations. There are widespread human rights abuses from Kosovo through Central Asia, the Caucasus and the host country, Turkey, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

“Nearly twenty-five years since the signing of the Helsinki Accords, the challenges facing OSCE member states are no less significant today than they were in 1975,” Human Rights Watch says in a letter to the heads of state and government of the 62 countries to be represented at the Summit.

“As the Summit convenes in Istanbul, there is conflict raging again in Chechnya, the fledgling peace in Kosovo is threatened by continued ethnic violence, and Central Asia is teetering on the edge of serious regional unrest and violence,” the group says.

Also the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) joined Wednesday in criticising Russia, in a letter sent to Alexy II, the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser deplored “the disproportionate and irresponsible use of force employed by the Russian military forces, which is contributing to a humanitarian crisis of the utmost seriousness.”

But Russian president Boris Yeltsin said he is coming to Istanbul to defend the Chechnya offensive, which will continue until the “the bandits of the West in Russia, are eradicated to the last man,”

“Russia in Chechnya is acting in accordance with international civilised norms,” Yeltsin told reporters Wednesday in Istanbul.

The Chechen war has greatly helped Turkish authorities to avoid public debates regarding the country”s rights record.

But Human Rights Watch urged the European Union “to press the Turkish government to make the Summit the occasion to announce concrete steps toward reform, especially to promote freedom of expression, achieve genuine democratic and unfettered pluralism, curb torture, and cease persecution of human rights defenders.”

Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit “has expressed support for freedom of expression, but only in general terms, and there has been no serious attempt to remove from the penal code articles under which journalists, writers, and academics have been imprisoned,” the letter says.

Ankara expects the Summit to become a springboard for its long- standing desire to join the EU, and to play a more visible role in the region. The two-day visit of US president Bill Clinton prior to the Summit has been taken by Turkish leaders as an endorsement.

Turkey is actively seeking a the conclusion of final agreement with Azerbaijan on the construction of an oil pipeline during the Summit. The pipeline will transport Caspian Sea oil to the Turkey’s southern port of Ceyhan, and Ankara expects it to convert the country into a major player in the energy business.

The Turkish authorities have taken extreme security measures for the Summit. Some 100 people have reportedly been arrested in police raids on left-wing organisations this week. Some 300 had been arrested Sunday in demonstrations against Clinton’s visit.

“The OSCE has developed into a different formation since the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975,” observes Prof. Turgut Tarhanli, an international relations expert from Istanbul’s Bilgi University.

“Now the OSCE stands on a tripod- market economy, freedom of expression and freedom of conscience. Once a meeting point of ‘West and East’ now the OSCE is a forum of the ‘first world,’ closed to the ‘third world’ ” and under U.S. hegemony, he said.

“Seemingly the OSCE agenda will be occupied with concluding the ongoing conflicts in the Caucasus, the Balkans and in the Black Sea region. However, this is not a simply diplomatic mission but an economic one as well. That is, basing peace on an establishing an integrated market economy.”

“In Turkey’s terms, the OSCE values are generally welcomed by the public for its increased accent on human rights,” Tarhanli said. In turn, “Turkey would naturally seek benefit from hosting such a significant Summit what Ankara expects improve its international image.”

The agenda includes a huge number of burning issues, from Chechnya to the Caucasus and the Middle East, which seem to be impossible to even discuss properly in two days. The meeting’s final document has been negotiated for months and contains no surprises, so far.

“Neither a negotiation nor an agreement will be made for the Nagorno-Kharabak (the Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan) issue,” says Hrant Dink, editor of the Istanbul-based Armenian minority weekly “Agos”.

However, Dink is more optimistic about the Summit’s impact on the situation of his people and of other ethnic groups in Turkey.

“The West has apparently changed its critical tone towards Turkey. Now they advice the other way round, ‘its for Turkey’s good to improve the human rights situation’, and Ankara welcomes and responds to this style. I hope the OSCE Summit will have a positive impact on Turkey,” Dink told IPS.

“Paths are opening for the Kurds,” said the pro-Kurdish daily “Ozgur Bakis,” quoting Clinton’s speech Monday before the Turkish parliament. Meanwhile the exiled leaders of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) announced their readiness to “accept any decision by the OSCE in the direction of bringing the Kurdish conflict to a solution.”

The PKK presidential council also called the OSCE “to assume its responsibility to correct the historical injustice and error committed against Kurds.”