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Turkish PM brings economic plan to Kurdish areas

   DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, March 7 (AFP) - Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit 
brought promises of economic aid Sunday to this poor
Kurdish-populated region of southeast Turkey that has been a seedbed
for PKK activists.
   "The development of the southeast is vitally important to the 
development of Turkey," Ecevit said on his first visit to the
province since the February 15 arrest of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of
the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
   Security was tight following PKK threats to "punish" Kurds who  
attended a public meeting Ecevit was to hold in the city to discuss
his 100-million-dollar economic revival plan for the region.
   PKK members distributed leaflets in Diyarbakir "recalling that 
Ecevit had an important part in the capture of PKK chairman Abdullah
Ocalan and is the number one enemy of Kurds," the PKK news agency
DEM said.
   Ecevit's plan calls for injecting 100 million dollars up to the 
year 2000 in direct aid and incentives for job creation and
investment.
   The goal is to create 8,000 jobs for residents of southeast 
Anatolia, Turkey's poorest region.
   A mammoth irrigation and dam construction project, launched in 
the 1980s, was supposed to provide a boost to economic development
in the region, but financing problems caused a five-year delay in
the project that is now slated for completion in 2010.
   The PKK suffered a blow to its 15-year armed campaign to carve 
out an independent Kurdistan in southeast Turkey when Ocalan was
captured in Nairobi last month and brought back to Turkey to face
trial for treason.
   Ecevit has called on PKK rebels to turn in their arms but the 
group has vowed to step up attacks.
   Almost 31,000 people have died in clashes between Turkish 
security forces and the PKK, according to Ankara.
   Police detained some 150 people Sunday who protested Ocalan's 
capture in the western town of Izmir, the Anatolia news agency
reported.
   There have been Kurdish protests throughout Turkey since 
Ocalan's arrest.
    

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