21 June 2001

1. "Former head of Kurdish party in Germany gets jail term", a German court on Wednesday sentenced a former head of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Germany, Sait Hasso, to two years and nine months in prison on charges that included leading a criminal organization. The defense had called the 36-year-old a "Kurdish politician" who supported the PKK's new initiative for a political solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey and called for his acquittal.

2. "Turkey in a Tangle Over Control of Web", President Vetoes Bill Curbing Internet As Concern About Free Speech Grows.

3. "Mass declaration from women", there has been strong participation from Kurdish women in the declaration of identity campaign begun in Europe. Kurdish women will declare that they are members of the PKK today (Wednesday) in the German city of Duesseldorf and the French city of Marseilles.

4. "Yilmaz:'No concessions from Cyprus'", delivering a speech at the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Commission meeting, State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Mesut Yilmaz, has forcefully emphasized that Turkey would make no concessions from the Cyprus issue."

5. "Hundreds of thousands to HADEP", the HADEP General Headquarters moved on to Istanbul Tuesday. Thousands of people came out to greet Chairman Murat Bozlak and the central administrators accompanying him. Following that, the "Hundreds of thousands to HADEP" campaign was kicked off with a cocktail party.

6. "Iraq and the UN chief", the Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz on Tuesday in Baghdad called on the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to oppose the attempts made to use the humanitarian program as a cover to perpetuate the British- American political projects against Iraq.

1. - AFP - "Former head of Kurdish party in Germany gets jail term":

DUESSELDORF

A German court on Wednesday sentenced a former head of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Germany, Sait Hasso, to two years and nine months in prison on charges that included leading a criminal organization.

The sentence was four months less than the term requested by the prosecutor's office. The defense had called the 36-year-old a "Kurdish politician" who supported the PKK's new initiative for a political solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey and called for his acquittal. The PKK, which the German authorities consider a terrorist organisation, has been banned in Germany since 1993 after its militants mounted coordinated firebomb and other attacks on Turkish interests around the country. The authorities have since then arrested and charged a number of suspected senior PKK officials. The court said Hasso had run PKK operations as a so-called sector leader of the organization in Germany from at least December 1999 until his arrest on March 30, 2000 on the German-Dutch border.

From June to December 1999, Hasso was accused of running the PKK's central German operations, the largest in the country. He was also found guilty of violating immigration regulations, notably by smuggling PKK cadres into and out of the country. Hasso, who used the code name "Mehmed", was also in charge of fundraising for the PKK among Kurds living in Germany and appointing local heads of group chapters.

The court said that although the PKK had distanced itself from arson and bombing attacks, it continued to systematically disregarded German law with its repeated forgery of identification papers for PKK cadres. "The PKK still has a tight organizational structure with a concentration of power at the top," presiding judge Otmar Breidling said in his ruling.

Hasso's trial drew peaceful protests outside the court in this western German city. The PKK has waged a bloody war in Turkey for Kurdish independence since 1984.There are some two million Turkish nationals living in Germany, about a quarter of them Kurds.

2. - Washington Post - "Turkey in a Tangle Over Control of Web":

President Vetoes Bill Curbing Internet As Concern About Free Speech Grows

ISTANBUL

It was a long message -- the equivalent of about 24 pages. But it contained no pornography or demands for an Islamic government or separate Kurdish state -- the usual red flags that would warrant pulling a message from "Debate Platform," a popular interactive bulletin board operated by Turkey's biggest Internet service provider.

So as visitors left follow-up comments, Coskun Ak, then the interactive coordinator for the service Superonline, waited the usual five days before removing the message -- a well-documented rant about human rights abuses in Turkey that seemed to be based principally on newspaper stories, court cases and reports by human rights organizations.
Two weeks later came the call from the local prosecutor's office, followed by an investigation and a trial in which Ak, a lanky, bookish 33-year-old, was found guilty of insulting the state and sentenced in March to 40 months in prison.

The verdict was reached even though Turkey has no law governing the Internet, the sender of the original message -- who used an online nickname, "A Human" -- was never identified and Superonline was not prosecuted. Ak is appealing the decision.

"I said in court that I didn't agree with the content [of the message], but that I didn't see anything we couldn't debate about it," Ak said in an interview last week. "I tried to explain to the prosecutor what the Internet is and what these forums are about, but I couldn't make them understand. At the end of two hours, the prosecutor asked me, 'Are you the Godfather of the Internet?' "

The case highlights the continuing struggle in Turkey to expand freedom of expression, particularly in matters where human rights and national security are concerned. But in a much broader sense, it illustrates a growing issue for countries the world over that are trying to control what is published on the Internet in an age of instantaneous global communications that make national borders largely irrelevant. Many experts believe that efforts by individual states to clamp down on the Internet are doomed to failure, and that the solution is to adopt worldwide standards and laws governing electronic communications.

"No country can truly control the Internet, but the technological race that pits the 'enemies of the Internet' against those fighting for freedom is permanent," the international press group Reporters Without Borders said in a February report on the numerous attempts by countries -- including China, Saudi Arabia and Germany -- to restrict the Internet. "The outcome of this technical guerrilla war is still undecided."

Some countries are looking for a global consensus on fighting cyberterrorism and crime. The United States and the European Union, for instance, have drafted an international treaty on cybercrime that seeks to set norms and jurisdiction for combating computer-related fraud, pornography, hacking and copyright violations.

But that is probably years away and Turkey doesn't seem to want to wait. Two weeks ago, its parliament approved an Internet law as a subsection of the country's restrictive press law, treating anything posted on or sent over the Internet the same as if it were published in a newspaper or broadcast over the airwaves. Legal experts said the law was so vague and broad that it potentially regulated the content of private e-mails and held Internet service providers responsible for the content of thousands of Web pages accessed through their portals.

On Monday, President Ahmet Sezer vetoed the legislation, returning it to parliament and setting the stage for a possible legislative and constitutional showdown over the Internet, freedom of expression and the ownership and management of the press in Turkey.

"The most important aspect of Internet broadcasting, which is like a revolution in communication technology, is that it is the most effective area for freely expressing and spreading ideas and for forming original opinions," Sezer, formerly head of Turkey's Constitutional Court, wrote in a 16-page statement. "Leaving the regulation of the [Internet] to public authorities completely and linking it to the Press Law does not fit the characteristics of Internet broadcasting."

Critics have been savaging the proposed Internet bill for days, saying it apparently was drafted by people with no knowledge of the Internet who thought that they could regulate and legislate what was being posted on Web pages -- particularly Turkish news portals. Some observers said the bill was aimed at stifling the independence of a few aggressive Internet news portals, which have been publishing stories about corruption and politics that the mainstream media -- firmly tied to the establishment -- consider too hot to handle.

The law, a government bill, was so thoroughly ridiculed that no agency admitted drafting or introducing it and no member of parliament acknowledged voting for it. But it was approved nonetheless.

Ufuk Guldemir, owner of Haberturk, one of Turkey's most successful Internet news portals, laughed at the idea of the government regulating what he puts on his site.

"They have no idea what's going on -- I'll just send my stuff through Toronto!" he said with a chuckle. "The problem is we have a prime minister who is still using a typewriter. All he hears about the Internet is negative because he never uses it."

The danger of such a proposal, at a time when Turkey is trying to win acceptance into the European Union, is that "the world will qualify you as an openly communist country," Guldemir said. "The World Bank is going to think: What's wrong with these guys? Though we can't do anything about the Internet, we're going to get smeared for having tried."

Critics said the proposed law may have been a well-intentioned effort to hold people accountable for the truthfulness of what appears on the Internet. But, they said, because of a poor appreciation of how the Internet works -- and a failure to recognize that what is written on one side of the world can be posted almost simultaneously on the other side -- the law could drive business out of Turkey and stunt the growth of the Internet here.

Burak Cedetas, chairman of Turkey's Internet Service Provider Association and head of Prizmanet ISP, said the proposed law is unenforceable. "The future is here, but we shot ourselves in the foot," he said. President Sezer, with his veto, "said the Internet needs regulation, not censorship, and I couldn't agree more."

"Apparently there is heavy criticism of the alternative [Internet] media and the fact that they don't publish corrections, and this was in reaction to that," he said. But the proposed law was too confusing and all-encompassing, he said. "I have no clue about the number of e-mails that go through our system every day, and I don't want to control them. But even a family page was part of this law -- anything in the public domain."

Ak, the former interactive coordinator at Superonline, said the officials involved in prosecuting his case did not understand the nature of the enterprise they were out to control. But because there was no Internet law, "They applied the press law in some way to my case, and they treated me as if I were the editor in chief of a newspaper."

The long message Ak was prosecuted for included allegations that Turkish army officials and politicians were involved in money laundering and drug trafficking, according to the court decision. Ak said that a visitor to the site, using the online name "Life," posted a warning to Ak that unless he removed the message, the visitor would go to the Superonline boss and have him fired. The prosecution argued that because of the warning, Ak "realized the aspects of this crime."

"Life" filed a complaint with the Istanbul prosecutor, including printouts of the bulletin board messages. Several weeks later, Superonline fired Ak.

"Everybody, including Turkey, wants some control over the Internet, but it doesn't seem possible," Ak said. "If you go from one Web site to another, monitoring e-mails and trying to see what people think, you'll be missing another train altogether, which is the really important one of trying to improve the Internet. It's unbelievable, but we're moving in the opposite direction."

3. - Kurdish Observer - "Mass declaration from women":

There has been strong participation from Kurdish women in the declaration of identity campaign begun in Europe. Kurdish women will declare that they are members of the PKK today (Wednesday) in the German city of Duesseldorf and the French city of Marseilles

A.SARAC/Z.ARSLAN

Kurdish women will declare "I am PKK, too" in a mass demonstration in Germany today, calling for official recognition of the Kurdish identity and for the ban, in effect since 1993, against the PKK in Germany to be lifted. About 250 Kurdish women will meet in front of the parliament building in Duesseldorf, the capital of North Rhen Westphalia and present their signed petitions to the Speaker of the House. During the same hours, another group will gather in front of the Duesseldorf State Court and present about 2,000 petitions they have collected declaring membership in the PKK. The petitions will be given to the judge presiding over the case of Kurdistani Mehmet Sait Hasso, who is being tried on charges of membership in the PKK.

The declaration of identity demonstration, led by the Free Women's Party (PJA), will begin at 10:00 in the morning in front of the parliament building at Platz Des Landtags 1. Women will wear their national dress to the demonstration. A three-person delegation is expected to deliver the petitions at 12:30 to the Speaker's office, where they will ask for the petitions to be processed and for the problems discussed in them to be forwarded to the concerned offices.

After the meeting ends, there will be a statement to the press concerning the women's declaration that they are PKK in front of parliament building at 14:00. The event will end with the women dancing to the davul (drum) and zurna (a wind instrument).

First declaration in Marseilles from the women

Women will start off the first declaration of identity in the French city of Marseilles. The women will hold an "I want my identity" meeting today under the organization of the PJA. The meeting will begin with the women gathering in front of the Marseilles Governor's Office at 1:00 in the afternoon, after which he petitions will be given turned in to the office.

Meanwhile, there will be various activities in connection with the signature campaign. There will be an "Our identity is our honor" activity every Friday at the Marseille port of Vieaux-Port, where signatures will be gathered and the public will be informed concerning the declaration of identity campaign.

Full speed ahead on the campaign in Sweden

Declaration of identity campaigns also continue in the Scandinavian countries. Kurds living in Sweden will open "Our identity is our honor" stands in 20 cities and speed up the signature drive. Among the cities in which stands will be opened are the capital Stockholm as well as Gothenburg, Malmo, Bollnes, Gevle, Borlenge, Vesterlos, Helsinborg, Halmstad, Falkemberg, Pfalun, Hedemura, Avest, Erebru, Karlburga, Sala, and Joeschoeping.

Goal 30,000 signatures

Kurds in Stockholm met in the famous Sergelstorg square and kicked off the signature campaign by opening a "Support the Kurdish National and Political Identity" stand.

Izzet Yildirim, Chairman of the Council of Kurdish Associations in Stockholm, said that the goal of the campaign was to gain acceptance from the public for recognition of national and political identity and to make mass petitions to the Swedish government offices.

Yildirim said that they would continue the campaign until July 13 and hoped to present 30,000 signatures. Yildirim said they would present the signatures together at a great meeting, and said the campaign was being carried out within the framework of the "Our identity is our honor" and the "Support the Kurdish national and political identity" campaigns.

4. - Cumhuriyet - "Yilmaz:'No concessions from Cyprus'":

Delivering a speech at the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Commission meeting, State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Mesut Yilmaz, has forcefully emphasized that Turkey would make no concessions from the Cyprus issue."

Replying the questions from the parliamentarians who alleged that Turkey occupied Cyprus and that there was only one state on Cyprus, Yilmaz said, "Whether you recognize it or not, there is a separate state in the northern part of the Cyprus. We want a permanent and just solution on the island. It is Greeks who are responsible for the current situation."

Yilmaz also met with EU commissioner responsible for the Enlargement, Gunther Verheugen. Speaking after the meeting, Yilmaz said that Turkey would give no concessions from Cyprus. If certain circles think that making concessions from Cyprus is a price for Turkey's full EU membership, Turkey will never and ever pay such a price."

5. - Ozgur Politika - "Hundreds of thousands to HADEP":

The HADEP General Headquarters moved on to Istanbul Tuesday. Thousands of people came out to greet Chairman Murat Bozlak and the central administrators accompanying him. Following that, the "Hundreds of thousands to HADEP" campaign was kicked off with a cocktail party.

ISTANBUL

The People's Democracy Party (HADEP) is putting its signature to a huge campaign. The campaign, called "Hundreds of thousands to HADEP," got an official start in Istanbul with a cocktail party, following a press conference which was attended by a great crowd in the evening.

HADEP Chairman Murat Bozlak and the central party administrators accompanying him flew from Izmir to Istanbul in the morning to kick off the campaign. The administrators were met at Ataturk Airport at 1:30 in the afternoon by Istanbul Provincial Chairman Dogan Erban and a convoy of over a thousand vehicles.

Kept waiting for two hours

Following the greeting ceremony, controversy lasting hours broke out concerning the convoy accompanying the delegation to the party provincial headquarters. The vehicles in the convoy were obstructed by special team police, who said that they would give the vehicles permission to leave in groups of five. The HADEP members, for their part, said they would not go anywhere unless they could leave as a convoy and stopped hundreds of vehicles at the entrance of the airport. The crowd, in which women drew attention with their national dress, sang Kurdish songs and danced to the accompaniment of the davul and zurna. The party members waited for nearly two hours, despite the burning sun, and finally departed from the airport to the sound of zilgits (trills) and waving HADEP banners after police gave them permission to leave.

Demonstrations of affection along the road

Bozlak and the convoy traveled along the E-5 highway through Sirinelver, Vatan Avenue, and Aksaray as far as Sishane. The convoy was cheered and applauded and greeted with victory signs by crowds from place to place along the route.

Police refused to allow the convoy into Sishane on the grounds that it would block traffic, and the convoy then proceeded along various routes to the HADEP Istanbul provincial headquarters in Nisantasi.

Bozlak: We are the party of the future

HADEP Chairman Bozlak gave a press conference at the party headquarters, which was overflowing with people. Reporters from all the press organs in Turkey attended the press conference. Bozlak said that HADEP was the party of power for the future and announced that a large number of intellectuals would join the party at a cocktail party in the evening.

Bozlak said that "politics, the basic aim of which is to serve the people, has entered a deep crisis of faith," adding that the current government was blocking the path of Turkey, which needed to accomplish serious political reform in order to open the path to a meaningful integration with the world of the 21st century.

Bozlak called even more attention to the scattered condition of the opposition than to the vacuum created by the political power in Turkey, adding, "HADEP is taking on the historic role to become the only democratic choice for Kurds, Turks, everyone living in this country who is on the side of democracy in Turkey, labor, peace, and brotherhood."

Bozlak said that HADEP was a candidate to become the strongest representative in Turkish politics and said that they had begun their campaign with this reason. Bozlak continued to say the following at the press conference: "Thus our party, a candidate for such a historic role, has begun a broad membership campaign in Istanbul under the slogan 'Hundreds of thousands to HADEP'. This participation is just a moderate beginning. Our call to 'Become a member, for a democratic society, equality and freedom, peace and brotherhood, and democratic politics' will continue and our party will definitely do its part so that the process of democratization in Turkey reaches success."

Mostly lawyers and businessmen

Chairman Murat Bozlak gave an official start to the "Hundreds of thousands to HADEP" campaign at a cocktail party held in the evening at the Mecideyekoy Culture Center. HADEP officials said that the aim of the campaign was to assure enough members suitable to a party aiming for power, and announced that 126 people, 37 of whom were businessmen and 35 of whom were attorneys, had officially joined the party.

Some new members from the MHP

Bozlak said that a number of people from various parties had joined the party since the campaign kicked off in the Aegean region, and noted that four of the people who had joined in Izmir were from the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and one from the conservative nationalist Grand Unity Party (BBP). In addition to transfers from these two parties which are on the furthest right in Turkey, there were also 23 new members transferring from the Republican People's Party (CHP), 22 from the Motherland Party (ANAP), 15 from the Fazilet Party (FP), and 8 from the Democratic Left Party (DSP).

Some new members who joined in Izmir explained their reasons for joining HADEP:

SEYHAT KARAKAS (former member of the district administrative board of FP in Bornova): I asked myself what type of stance was necessary to take for those who always support the oppressed. I underwent a search in this way. I have taken place thus far in a number of parties such as the DYP, RP, and FP. We were not valued in these parties and were looked down upon from above. I believe that HADEP will bring a solution to the existing problems.

NECIP PISKIN (former CHP member): They call HADEP people's democracy. If only there could be such a thing in Turkey... I am 61 years old. Even if I am not a leader of the labor class, I am a sympathizer. We were looking for a party that supports labor. We believe that the true democratic republic will come. We see this as the first step.

SABAN KARAMAN (former FP member): We previously struggled inside the RP and FP. When they first came out, they had works for justice and the rights of the oppressed. But they did not show sincerity in the process that developed. We transferred to this process because HADEP is always on the side of the oppressed and exploited.

SAIT YASAR (former ANAP Bornova district delegate): I am very happy that I transferred to HADEP. In fact, I made a sacrifice to celebrate their embracing me and giving me a place. I was in ANAP before and I was very oppressed there. I saw that they did not work for the people but to gain seats of power. I believe that HADEP is the most realistic, the most honest party.

6. - Arabic News - "Iraq and the UN chief":

The Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz on Tuesday in Baghdad called on the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to oppose the attempts made to use the humanitarian program as a cover to perpetuate the British- American political projects against Iraq.

In a message to Annan, handed over to Annan by Iraq's representative at the UN, Aziz added that Iraq and the UN secretary general are the two sides which are responsible for implementing the program, in line with a memorandum of understanding, noting the need of asserting this fact because there are American and British attempts which are made to violate this memorandum.

Aziz expressed his wonder over the statements made by the UN chief at the UN headquarters on June 4th in which he said that the UN Security Council is reviewing the "oil for food" program.

He explained that Iraq refused to deal with the new decision adopted by the UN Security Council to extend the humanitarian program for one month instead of 9 months because it came with two contradictory decisions: to extend working according to the memorandum of understanding for one month and one article notes the intention of the UN Security Council to introduce fundamental changes in the concept of the program and its work mechanism.

Aziz stressed that Iraq will refuse to deal with any comming decision of the same kind and will not react to any decision to be released by the UN Security Council including attitudes of the American- British project, regardless the identity of the introducer of a project as such.