Turk court wants Islamist MP's immunity lifted 11:55 Oct 07, 1996

ANKARA, Oct 7 (Reuter) - A Turkish prosecutor's office on Monday said the immunity of a deputy in the coalition partner Welfare Party should be lifted because he negotiated with separatist Kurdish rebels, Anatolian news agency said.

The state security court's chief prosecutor sought an end to Fethullah Erbas's immunity so that he could face a charge of ``aiding an armed gang,'' which carries a sentence of three to five years in prison.

The Turkish parliament would have to approve the lifting of his immunity.

In August, Erbas visited a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camp in northern Iraq with human rights activists to negotiate the release of nine Turkish soldiers held there. Following the visit, two soldiers were released but seven others remained.

Last week the prosecutor's office began similar cases against the three rights activists: Human Rights Association chairman Akin Birdal and his colleague Cengiz Aydogan, and Ihsan Arslan, deputy chairman of the victims of cruelty association, Birdal told Reuters.

The group came under fire from political parties and the Turkish media after the visit, which was criticised as amounting to separatist propaganda.

PKK guerrillas have waged a 12-year-old armed struggle for self-rule in the southeast. More than 20,000 people have died in the conflict. Turkey rejects any negotiations with the PKK, saying it will not talk to what it calls a terrorist groupIraq's Aziz says north now part of Iraq 07:34 Oct 07, 1996

BAGHDAD, Oct 7 (Reuter) - Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said on Monday that his country's backing of its new Kurdish ally had regained the north as part of Iraq.

``Last August's events have proved that the north with its people is part of Iraq,'' said Aziz at the opening of a conference for Iraqi expatriates living in Europe and the U.S.

Iraqi troops in late August backed rebels of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Masoud Barzani against its rivals the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by Jalal Talabani, helping Barzani take control over Iraqi Kurdistan. The move prompted the United States to fire cruise missile against Iraq.

``Without Iraq, the state of Iraq and the leadership of Iraq, its (the north's) fate would be anarchy, bloodshed, destruction and the domination of the foreigner's control and manipulation,'' Aziz said.

Aziz described the post-1991 Gulf War period -- when Kurds established a self-rule autonomy with the help of a U.S.-led air protection force -- until the KDP's military triumph as ``years of spending a lot of finance in active conspiarcies to dismantle the north from the rest of the country.''

Aziz also harshly attacked the United States, criticising its missile strikes last month against his country and blaming it for prolonging trade sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

``The unjust embargo...is no more an international decision issued by the so called international legitimacy, rather it is a stand imposed by America on the (U.N.) Security Council,'' he said.

The U.N. trade sanctions, imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait, include a ban on oil exports and imports of all goods except food and medicine, for which Iraq has no cash to pay.

Last May Iraq signed an oil-for-food deal with the U.N., allowing it partial oil sales worth $2 billion every six months to buy food and medicine. implementation of the deal was suspended when Iraqi forces intervened in the north.

``America has added to its hostile stands (against Iraq) yet another one when it froze the oil-for-food deal,'' Aziz said.

More than 300 Iraqi expatriates are taking part in the conference organised by Iraq's Foreign Ministry to show their support for Iraq against the sanctions. They brought with them donations of medicine and medical equipment.

Turkey to bring home envoy to Libya in Kurd row 15:39 Oct 07, 1996

ANKARA, Oct 7 (Reuter) - Turkey said on Monday it would recall its ambassador to Tripoli after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi dealt a body blow to Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's Islamist foreign policy in an outburst over the Kurds.

``It has been decided to recall our Tripoli ambassador to Ankara temporarily for consultations because of Libyan leader Gaddafi's saddening comments about Turkey,'' the foreign ministry said in a single-sentence statement.

Gaddafi called for the foundation of a Kurdish state -- an anathema to Turkey --- during a joint news conference with Erbakan in the Libyan city of Sirte on Sunday.

He also criticised NATO-member Turkey's close ties to the West.

``Kurdistan should be established,'' the Turkish press quoted Gaddafi as saying. ``I am talking about the Kurdish nation. This nation should have its place under the Middle Eastern sun.'' Gaddafi said.

A Kurdish state would presumably take territory from Turkey, fighting with separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels for the last 12 years.

The opposition urged Erbakan, Turkey's first Islamist leader, to step down for giving Gaddafi a platform to take a swipe at Turkey and then doing little to rebuke his comments.

``Mr Erbakan should return to Turkey without wasting any time. He should go straight from the airport to Cankaya (presidential palace) and submit his resignation,'' Anatolian news agency quoted main opposition Motherland Party leader Mesut Yilmaz as saying.

The Libya trip was the most serious in a string of let-downs for Erbakan in a bid to take the country closer to the Arab and Moslem world since he took power in June.

Baghdad's military drive into the Kurdish north of Iraq in August put paid to Erbakan's plans for regional security cooperation with neighbours Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Erbakan defied a warning from Washington and advice from his own diplomats to steer clear of Libya, the second stop on an African trip that includes Egypt and Nigeria.

``We are not surprised by what happened,'' a Turkish foreign ministry official told Reuters, referring to Gaddafi.

``Some people think that flaunting an Islamic identity is enough to have good relations with Moslem countries,'' he said.

Libya is under limited U.N. sanctions for refusing to hand over two Libyans suspected of blowing up a Pan Am airliner over Scotland in 1988.

Gaddafi highlighted a failure by Erbakan to carry out election promises to loosen ties with the United States and Israel.

``We are not happy in general about Turkey's foreign policy,'' the Libyan leader said. ``Turkey has lost its will. Turkey's future lies not in NATO, U.S. bases and in repressing the Kurds but in its nobility and its past.''

Under pressure from Turkey's influential military, Erbakan has backtracked on promises to get rid of a U.S.-led air force that patrols northern Iraq from a base in Turkey and scrap a military deal with Israel that has angered the Arab world