Don't Sell Weapons to Turkey

	It is highly unusual for the public to learn of a pending US weapons 
sale before formal Congressional notification.  Recently, however, unnamed 
administration officials leaked word of a proposal to sell the Turkish 
government 10 AH-1W "Super Cobra" attack helicopters, which human 
rights organizations and arms control advocates are preparing to oppose.  
Given Turkey's abysmal human rights record, and the precarious economic 
and political turmoil it finds itself in, this sale is sure to provoke a serious 
debate over the Clinton administration's arms control policies, its 
commitment to human rights and democracy, and its ability to nurture a 
productive and positive relationship with an important regional ally.   
	The administration is well aware that Turkey's brutal civil war against 
its Kurdish minority has been made possible only with strong US military 
backing.  Last June, the US State Department issued a report to Congress 
acknowledging for the first time that Turkey regularly uses US weapons in 
operations where gross violations of human rights occur.  The report 
specifically cites the Turkish military's use of the Bell-Textron Cobra and 
Super Cobra attack helicopters, Lockheed-Martin F-16 fighter planes, United 
Technologies-Sikorsky Black Hawk troop transports, and various other US 
tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery systems to attack and forcibly 
evacuate Kurdish villages suspected of supporting the Kurdish Workers Party 
(PKK), a militant Kurdish opposition group.  In recent years, the US has 
supplied Turkey 85% of its arms imports and 90% of its foreign military aid.  
Since 1980, this has amounted to the Turkish military receiving $6.6 billion in 
US taxpayer money. 
	Despite extensive documentation by human rights groups and even 
the US State Department of US weapons being used to commit severe human 
rights abuses and violations of the rules of war, the Clinton administration 
has consistently refused to link US arms sales to improvements in Turkey's 
human rights.  Shortly after the State Department's report came out, 
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Shalikashvili wrote a 
letter specifically urging Congress not to cut military aid to Turkey based on 
its human rights record.  Heeding his advice, Congress approved $320 million 
in American credits in FY1996 to finish Turkish production of F-16 fighter 
planes under a US co-production deal.   
	But while the Clinton administration denies the role of US military 
support in perpetuating Turkey's civil war --which has already led to 
countless cross-border invasions into Northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK 
guerrillas-- Turkey's political landscape continues to grow dangerously 
unstable.  To date, according to a Human Rights Watch report issued last 
November, the war has caused an estimated 19,000 deaths (including some 
2,000 death-squad killings of suspected PKK sympathizers), two million 
internally displaced who have fled to overcrowded urban shantytowns, and 
more than 2,200 villages destroyed, most of which were burned by Turkish 
security forces who aim to eliminate all "logistical support" for the PKK in 
the countryside.  
	Beyond this devastating cost to human life, the civil war poses a 
serious drain on Turkey's purse at a time when Turkey's economy is 
plummeting and its political parties are in a stalemate, unable to form a new 
coalition government.  In 1994, State Minister Ali Sevki Erek estimated that 
Turkey would spend $8.2 billion in its war against the PKK, roughly 20% of 
Turkey's $41 billion 1994 projected military budget.  Given that Turkey's 
counterinsurgency war has only escalated since 1994, with military spending 
continuing to skyrocket, there can be little doubt that Turkey's present day 
economic woes would be greatly eased if the country were not trying to 
sustain such a bloated military.
	The obvious solution to Turkey's crisis is a political resolution of the 
PKK conflict, but the Turkish government-- led by former Prime Minister 
Tansu Ciller -- has adamantly refused to negotiate with what it calls a terrorist 
organization.  Recently, Turkey was allowed to join a trading alliance with 
the European Union, after it made largely cosmetic improvements to its Anti-
Terror law, long used to suppress free speech and justify the imprisonment 
and torture of 170 writers, intellectuals and journalists.  Shortly after joining 
the customs union, graphic photographs appeared in the European press 
showing Turkish soldiers gloating over the severed heads and mutilated 
bodies of their Kurdish victims.  The pictures drove home Europe's failure to 
stop Turkish abuses.  
	Because Turkey is so reliant on US military aid, the US is in a unique 
position to pressure Turkey to finally seek a political solution.  In a 1994 poll 
by the daily Milliyet, 86% of the Turks questioned favored a political solution 
to the Kurdish conflict.  In December, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan sent a 
letter to President Clinton once again offering to participate in a unilateral 
cease-fire if Turkey would call off its own attacks.  The letter further clarified 
that the PKK does not insist on a separate state, but would be "open to a 
federal solution," such as "prevails in the United States of America."  Yet the 
Clinton administration continues to bolster the military.  In December, the 
Administration sold Turkey 120 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), 
the first foreign sale of the US Army's most advanced surface-to-surface 
missile.  Approved just two weeks before Turkish elections, the deal was 
specifically timed to demonstrate US support for Ciller's teetering 
government.
	If the Clinton administration approves the sale of 10 additional Bell-
Textron Super Cobra helicopters to Turkey, it plays directly into the hands of a 
powerful arms industry lobby.  Congressional letters in support of the sale all 
reference the same Bell-Textron talking points.  US foreign policy should not 
be dictated by the US weapons industry.  A recent CIA study by the "State 
Failure Task Force" identified Turkey as one of the world's states most at risk 
of collapsing.  Every delivery of US weapons to Turkey's undemocratic 
government sends a clear and dangerous message:  Continue to pursue a 
costly civil war against the Kurds, prop up a pro-Western government with 
sheer military might, ignore all indications of economic decline.  Instead, the 
administration should forcefully oppose this sale, insisting that all future 
military aid be tied to verifiable improvements in Turkey's human rights.  
Turkey's recovery depends on finding an end to the bloodshed.

Jennifer Washburn is a research associate at the World Policy Institute at the 
New School in New York City.

Note: a slightly editied version of this article first appeared in the Journal of 
Commerce on Friday, February 23, 1996