Arrests Turkey

Police said they foiled a plot to attack an air base in southern Turkey used by a U.S.-led force patrolling Iraq, confiscating bombs and sketches and arresting two militants. According to police in Adana, the suspects are members of the underground Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, which seeks to topple the government and replace it with a Marxist one. There were no further details on the arrests or the alleged plot.

Riot police fired tear gas Monday and arrested 60 students protesting in sympathy with demonstrators in Washington who accuse world financial institutions of burdening developing countries. Some of the more than 100 students who gathered for the protest in downtown Istanbul were slightly injured, the Anatolian news agency said. Television station NTV showed riot police grabbing students by their arms and legs and carrying them away.

An elated Turkey paraded the long-hunted guerrilla leader before the cameras, showing the world a disheveled, middle-aged man standing between two blood-red Turkish flags. For many Turks, the humiliating treatment of Abdullah Ocalan showed that his guerrilla movement is finished and that an end to the 15-year war in southeastern Turkey is in sight. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit renewed surrender appeals Saturday to Ocalan's fighters, asking them to lay down their arms in exchange for clemency.

An elated Turkey paraded the long-hunted guerrilla leader before the cameras, showing the world a disheveled, middle-aged man standing between two blood-red Turkish flags. For many Turks, the humiliating treatment of Abdullah Ocalan showed that his guerrilla movement is finished and that an end to the 15-year war in southeastern Turkey is in sight. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit renewed surrender appeals Saturday to Ocalan's fighters, asking them to lay down their arms in exchange for clemency.

Riot police fired tear gas Monday and arrested 60 students protesting in sympathy with demonstrators in Washington who accuse world financial institutions of burdening developing countries. Some of the more than 100 students who gathered for the protest in downtown Istanbul were slightly injured, the Anatolian news agency said. Television station NTV showed riot police grabbing students by their arms and legs and carrying them away.

Plainclothes Turkish police arrested a British newspaper correspondent here Thursday night after 30 British Royal Marines were expelled from a mountain refugee camp. The two incidents highlight the worsening climate of friction between Turkish authorities and the Western powers spearheading the relief effort for nearly half a million Kurdish refugees in this country.

A man from Azerbaijan was detained for trying to sell 26 ounces of weapons-grade uranium. Istanbul's Nuclear Research Center identified the material as enriched uranium-238, suitable for making nuclear bombs, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported. Ramis Shageldiev, 46, who tried to sell the uranium for $60,000 to undercover agents, told police he had bought the uranium in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, Anatolia reported.

Five police officers were sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for beating to death a 27-year-old journalist under detention. A three-judge panel in Afyon, about 150 miles west of Ankara, the capital, convicted the officers of killing Metin Goktepe by kicking, punching and beating him with truncheons Jan. 9, 1996. Six other officers were acquitted. Prosecutors had sought the maximum 15-year sentence for the officers accused of inflicting the fatal blows.

Police arrested two leading Kurdish members of Parliament on Wednesday, in a move that added to Turkey's growing atmosphere of political and economic crisis, escalating nationalist sentiment and diminishing respect for human rights. Security forces took Hatip Dicle and Orhan Dogan into custody after right-wing parties in Parliament voted to lift the immunity from prosecution of several lawmakers who belong to Turkey's only legal Kurdish nationalist group, the Democracy Party.

Ankara on Saturday demanded the immediate release of 11 Turkish soldiers it said were detained by U.S. forces in Iraq, and Turkey's military brass was reportedly meeting to consider retaliatory steps if Washington failed to comply. The soldiers were detained Friday in a raid by about 100 U.S. troops on the headquarters of Turkish special forces in the northern Iraqi province of Sulaymaniyah, according to Turkish media reports.

Five police officers were sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for beating to death a 27-year-old journalist under detention. A three-judge panel in Afyon, about 150 miles west of Ankara, the capital, convicted the officers of killing Metin Goktepe by kicking, punching and beating him with truncheons Jan. 9, 1996. Six other officers were acquitted. Prosecutors had sought the maximum 15-year sentence for the officers accused of inflicting the fatal blows.

Police said they foiled a plot to attack an air base in southern Turkey used by a U.S.-led force patrolling Iraq, confiscating bombs and sketches and arresting two militants. According to police in Adana, the suspects are members of the underground Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, which seeks to topple the government and replace it with a Marxist one. There were no further details on the arrests or the alleged plot.

A man from Azerbaijan was detained for trying to sell 26 ounces of weapons-grade uranium. Istanbul's Nuclear Research Center identified the material as enriched uranium-238, suitable for making nuclear bombs, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported. Ramis Shageldiev, 46, who tried to sell the uranium for $60,000 to undercover agents, told police he had bought the uranium in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, Anatolia reported.

Police arrested two leading Kurdish members of Parliament on Wednesday, in a move that added to Turkey's growing atmosphere of political and economic crisis, escalating nationalist sentiment and diminishing respect for human rights. Security forces took Hatip Dicle and Orhan Dogan into custody after right-wing parties in Parliament voted to lift the immunity from prosecution of several lawmakers who belong to Turkey's only legal Kurdish nationalist group, the Democracy Party.

Plainclothes Turkish police arrested a British newspaper correspondent here Thursday night after 30 British Royal Marines were expelled from a mountain refugee camp. The two incidents highlight the worsening climate of friction between Turkish authorities and the Western powers spearheading the relief effort for nearly half a million Kurdish refugees in this country.