Urgent Action Alert:
Oppose
Helicopter Sale to Turkey!
The U.S. government is considering exporting 145 attack helicopters to
Turkey this spring. Now is the time to support peaceful negotiations between
the Turkish government and its Kurdish population, not to encourage further
military conflict by exporting weapons of war. Write to your
member of Congress to oppose this sale! BACKGROUND | SAMPLE LETTER TO CONGRESS In March 2000,
the Turkish government will decide which of five models—Bell Textron's AH-1W
Super Cobra, Boeing's AH-64 Apache Longbow, Eurocopter's UHU-HAS Tiger,
Agusta's A-129 International, or Kamov Helicopter's Ka-50/2 Black Shark (in
cooperation with Israeli Aircraft Industries)—will win the bid for 145 attack
helicopters, a deal worth about $3.5 billion. While Turkey apparently finds
the U.S. models technically superior and more politically palatable,
anticipation of Congressional opposition to the sale might prompt it to
choose a different helicopter instead. Initial
criticism of the sale was voiced by human rights and arms control groups in
1997, but was matched by forceful industry lobbying, leading the State
Department to forge a compromise deal. A marketing license was granted to the
U.S. companies, but State promised to condition approval of an export
license—if a U.S. helicopter were to be selected—on specific improvements in
Turkey's human rights and democratic practices. Among the areas highlighted
for improvement were: ·
Decriminalization of
free speech ·
Release of political
prisoners (including journalists and Members of Parliament) ·
An end to torture and
police impunity ·
Re-opening of
non-governmental organizations closed by Turkish authorities ·
Democratization and
expansion of political participation ·
Lifting the state of
emergency in the southeastern part of Turkey ·
Resettlement and aid
to internally displaced persons These
conditions have not been met; the government of Turkey has made little
progress on human rights, especially vis-à-vis its Kurdish population. The
Turkish regime has spent more than $120 billion on its military campaign
against the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and continues to pursue
all-out military victory despite repeated calls for an end to the fighting by
the PKK. For example, after the PKK announced it was laying down its arms and
withdrawing from Turkey in September 1999, the Turkish military sent
thousands of troops over the Iraqi border to pursue them in retreat.
Supplying the Turkish military with such a large quantity of attack
helicopters will only encourage Turkey to pursue military, rather than
peaceful and democratic, remedies to the conflict. The sale of attack
helicopters could also contribute directly to future human rights abuses in
the war. Other U.S.-supplied helicopters have been used to carry out
indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets, and nothing in Turkey's record
indicates such practices will change. Moreover,
Turkey has consistently failed to address the human rights and economic
problems that have fueled support for this rebellion in the first place. The
Government of Turkey has prohibited all legal avenues for Kurds in Turkey to
express themselves politically or culturally. Kurdish language television and
radio broadcasts are forbidden. Four democratically-elected mayors from the main
Kurdish political party (People's Democracy Party or HADEP) were arrested in
February 2000 for alleged connections to the PKK. The Turkish Government is
preparing a legal case to close HADEP and another Kurdish-based political
party, which would eliminate a possible interlocutor for the Kurds in
eventual peace talks. Fourteen other political parties have been banned since
1982. More generally,
the persecution of peaceful opposition leaders continues at record levels,
torture continues with impunity, and the military regularly interferes with
the democratic process and the work of elected officials. Journalists and
opposition leaders have been silenced through intimidation and prison
sentences. In the fall of 1998, Turkish courts upheld a sentence against the
mayor of Istanbul, a leader of the Islamic movement, and extended the
sentence of Leyla Zana, a Kurdish ex-Deputy, for allegedly "inciting
religious hatred" and "racial hatred," respectively. The PKK’s
leader Abdulah Ocalan was captured in early 1999 and sentenced to death in a
trial that human rights groups have decried as unfair, not least because his
lawyers were threatened and given only restricted access to Ocalan. In
October 1999 several journalists imprisoned for their political views were released,
but until the laws criminalizing expression of certain opinions are repealed,
journalists will still operate in a climate of fear. The U.S. State
Department has reason enough to reject the helicopter deal based on Turkey's
failure to make the requisite improvements in its human rights practices. But
another strike against the deal is the large degree of technology transfer
Turkey requires in order to co-produce the helicopters. Turkey would gain
access to sensitive technology with which it aims to become an independent
producer and exporter of helicopters. Along with creating future competition,
co-production deprives the supplier of many jobs, undermining the defense
industry's claim that the contract would be an enormous boon to the U.S.
economy. Dear Rep./Sen.
X, I am writing to
seek your support in opposing a possible sale of 145 U.S. attack helicopters
to Turkey because of serious ongoing human rights abuses in that country.
Currently, Bell Textron’s AH-1W Super Cobra and Boeing’s AH-64 Apache Longbow
are under consideration for this deal. The State Department issued a
marketing license to the two companies in December 1997, yet conditioned
final export license approval on specific improvements in the human rights
situation in Turkey. These
conditions have not been met. Persecution of peaceful Kurdish and other
opposition leaders is at record levels, torture continues with impunity, and
the military regularly interferes with the democratic process and the work of
elected officials. Moreover, the war with the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) in the Southeast continues unabated despite the capture of PKK leader
Abdulah Ocalan and his repeated attempts to end the PKK’s violent conflict
through peaceful negotiations. Supplying the Turkish military with such a
large quantity of attack helicopters will only encourage Turkey to pursue
military, rather than peaceful and democratic, remedies to the conflict. Both the State
Department and international human rights organizations have documented the
use of U.S. weapons by Turkish security forces in the commission of past
human rights abuses. In the course of its 15-year-old war with Kurdish
insurgents in the Southeast, Turkish forces have used U.S. attack helicopters
and fighter jets to destroy over 3,000 villages, leaving an estimated 1-2
million Kurds homeless. The U.S.
government has a responsibility to prevent the future use of U.S. arms in
human rights abuses by halting exports until the conflict is peacefully
resolved and the rule of law is back in force throughout the country.
Stability in Turkey depends on a strong democracy, a fully-enfranchised
population, and peace in the southeast. By providing the tools with which
Turkey wages war against its own citizens, the U.S. government will not
promote the long-term security of either Turkey or the United States. One of the two
U.S. companies is likely to win the attack helicopter bid. I urge you to make
your opposition to the sale of these helicopters known to the Secretary of
State and the White House long before Congress is officially notified of the
sale. Respectfully
yours, FAS Home | ASMP
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