Turkey's Erbakan attacks critics of Libya trip 17:06 Oct 10, 1996

ANKARA, Oct 10 (Reuter) - Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan accused opponents on Thursday of applying ``double standards'' when they criticised his controversial trip to Libya.

In a televised address, Erbakan defended the trip, which has been heavily criticised because of an outburst by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi against Turkey's treatment of its Kurds.

``Some circles, who are not happy with the development of relations with Moslem countries did everything they could to overshadow the development of our relations with Libya,'' he said.

The premier will next week face an opposition bid to topple him because of the trip. Turkish deputies on Thursday said they will take up the opposition parties' censure motion on October 16.

``The prime minister was involved in an insult and scandal unprecedented in the history of the Turkish Republic,'' the main opposition Motherland Party (ANAP) said in its motion.

Two left-wing parties also tabled motions to bring down Erbakan after a trip that also left Turkey open to a scathing attack from Ankara's close ally Washington, which considers Libya a sponsor of terrorism.

Erbakan answered the attacks by saying he had succeeded in persuading Gaddafi to declare the Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a terrorist organisation and to give Libya's support in Turkey's fight against the PKK.

He said this declaration was a success when compared with the misunderstandings of Turkey's security situtation which persist in the West.

``Despite millions of dollars spent by Turkey to explain its problems to its Western allies...there are still many wrong views (of Turkey's situation) within these countries,'' he said.

Critics of the Gaddafi visit had failed to aim comparable criticism at anti-Turkish activities in some Western countries, Erbakan said.

He cited the granting of a license to the Kurdish television station MED-TV, the existence of ``Kurdish parliaments'' and the sheltering of PKK rebels as refugees as examples of activities against Turkey's interests in the West.

Erbakan, who heads a coalition with Tansu Ciller's conservative True Path Party, would have to resign after little more than three months as modern Turkey's first Islamist leader if he lost next week's censure motion.

Turk prosecutor seeks death penalty in flag row 07:11 Oct 11, 1996

ANKARA, Oct 11 (Reuter) - A Turkish prosecutor has asked for the death penalty for two suspects accused of a leading role in a rowdy demonstration in favour of Kurdish rebels at a political party congress, Anatolian news agency said on Friday.

It said prosecutor Nuh Mete Yuksel petitioned Ankara State Security Court to apply capital punishment to Faysal Akcan and Giyasettin Mordeniz for separatist activities.

Akcan was alleged to have torn down the Turkish flag at the June congress of Turkey's only legal Kurdish political group, the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), and replaced it with Kurdish rebel symbols on the orders of Mordeniz.

The petition accused the two of membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a 12-year-old armed struggle for self-rule in the southeast of Turkey. More than 20,000 people have died in the fighting.

``The defendants' actions are no less treacherous...than the armed operations of PKK militants in the countryside,'' the prosecutor's petition said.

The flag incident at the HADEP congress in Ankara also led to the arrest of the HADEP leadership, including party leader Murat Bozlak.

Eighteen senior HADEP members face up to 22 years in jail on charges of links to the PKK and a further 23, mostly party members, could get up to 15 years under a lesser charge.

Bozlak has denied any party links to the rebels.

HADEP was formed in 1994 after another Kurdish party was closed by the constitutional court for alleged separatism and 13 of its deputies expelled from parliament. Six Kurdish MPs were later sent to jail, convicted of links to the PKK.