28 June 2001

1. "Kurdish anger simmers, rebels threaten more fighting in Turkey", Turkish soldiers patrol the roads in the country's southeast in armored troop carriers, a sign that although the war in the overwhelmingly Kurdish region may be over, tensions remain high.

2. "Turkey: Court's Ruling Unlikely To End 'Political Islam'", Turkey's Constitutional Court last week outlawed the moderate Islamic Virtue Party, the third-largest group in parliament.

3. "Bendit: National Program is obscure and not sufficient", in the wake of the Turkish-EU Association Council meeting, Turkey's efforts in the way of EU membership have been found insufficient in a report prepared by Daniel Cohn Bendit, Co-chairman of the Turkish-EU Joint Parliamentarian Commission. Bendit's report is separate from the Council of Europe's report, which will be discussed today in Strasbourg.

4. "Council of Europe threatens Turkey over rights case ", the head of the Council of Europe warned Turkey on Wednesday that it risked sanctions if it continued to ignore a judgement issued by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of a Greek Cypriot woman.

5. "Cem: Turkey will show strong reaction if Greek Cypriots become EU member", Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem warned EU countries about their Cyprus policies on Wednesday and that Turkey would show a strong reaction if the European Union accepts the Greek Cypriot Administration's membership.

6. "Three rebel Kurds killed in clash with Turkish troops", three members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party were killed by Turkish troops in clashes in this southeast region, an official statement said Wednesday. One of the rebels was of Iraqi nationality, the statement said.

1. - AP - "Kurdish anger simmers, rebels threaten more fighting in Turkey":

BINGOL/TURKEY

Turkish soldiers patrol the roads in the country's southeast in armored troop carriers, a sign that although the war in the overwhelmingly Kurdish region may be over, tensions remain high.

Two years after Turkey sentenced Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to death, hopes for real peace have faded. The government is still refusing demands for recognition of a distinct Kurdish culture, and Turkish officials and generals avoid contact with pro-Kurdish mayors in the southeast.

The area's economy remains in shambles, and Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party -- PKK in its Kurdish initials -- is warning it could begin attacks again. Turkey's military is clearly prepared.

Some 200,000 soldiers are based in the southeast -- as many as at the height of the 15-year rebel insurgency -- backed up by tanks and armored cars visible at roadblocks and paramilitary police stations.

"The swamp is still there, festering as always," said Mehmet Ali Birand, a commentator for the Turkish Daily News. "The side effects that nourished the PKK are still there."
After Ocalan was captured by Turkish commandos in February 1999, many Turks rejoiced, hoping that the conflict that had led to the deaths of 37,000 people, mostly Kurds, was nearing an end.

Ocalan declared a cease-fire from his prison cell and most of his defeated rebel army began withdrawing. His death sentence was handed down on June 29, 1999. His appeal is pending.
Pro-Kurdish mayors swept to power throughout the southeast in elections in April of that year and many Kurds began to talk of a political struggle for their rights, rather than a military one.
But little has changed. Turkey still does not recognize its 12 million Kurds as a minority. Teaching or broadcasting in Kurdish, for example, is illegal.

Government funds to rebuild this poorest part of the country never came. Right-wing legislators opposed the funding and after two devastating earthquakes struck western Turkey in 1999, money was diverted to the west.

Politicians and military commanders shunned the pro-Kurdish politicians, fearing they were just fronting for the rebels.

Some political leaders have suggested granting more cultural rights to the Kurds. But opposing any compromise are the military, Turkey's most powerful institution, and the far-right Nationalist Action Party, a key partner in the governing coalition.

"Language is an excuse," said Mehmet Sandir, a lawmaker from the coalition's nationalist wing. "They are inciting separatism. We will never allow this. They are playing with fire."

In Bingol, a southeastern city of some 100,000 people, Mayor Feyzullah Karaaslan complains that no military or government officials have visited him since he was elected in 1999.

"No one will shake my hand," said Karaaslan, who is with the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party. "The government should get rid of its obsessions."

During a recent trip to the southeast, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer met with local governors, who are appointed by the central government and are ethnic Turks, but would not meet with the elected mayors.

The European Union is demanding that Turkey grant cultural freedoms to Kurds.

"The Turkish government has all the cards now; the question is to what extent they are going to be influenced by the European Union," said Michael Radu of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. "Turkey ultimately can survive without membership in the EU, but is it worth risking a revival of Kurdish political violence or not?"

In a communique from his base in northern Iraq this week, Mehmet Karasu, a PKK commander, urged Kurdish youths to join the rebels. His remarks were broadcast by Medya TV, a Europe-based Kurdish TV station that is widely watched in the southeast.

On the prison island of Imrali, Abdullah Ocalan is busy writing a 1,000-page defense for the European Court of Human Rights, which is expected to rule on his appeal this year.

His brother, Osman Ocalan, warned that if the government does not begin to meet rebel demands for more cultural rights, fighting could start again.

"This is the last chance," Osman Ocalan said. "Everyone should know that if Turkey does not respond to (our) peace initiative, the war will start anew."

2. - Radio Free Europe - "Turkey: Court's Ruling Unlikely To End 'Political Islam'":

By Jean-Christophe Peuch

Turkey's Constitutional Court last week outlawed the moderate Islamic Virtue Party, the third-largest group in parliament. But far from putting an end to what Turkey's secular rulers usually describe as "political Islam," the court's ruling could result in the founding of new religion-oriented parties. RFE/RL correspondent Jean-Christophe Peuch says it may also help the far-right Nationalist Action Party, a senior partner in Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's ruling coalition. Here is his report.

PRAGUE

Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled last week to outlaw the moderate Islamic Virtue Party (Fazilet Partisi) for anti-secular activities. But the court chose not to expel all of Virtue's representatives in parliament, thereby avoiding an immediate political crisis that might have destabilized the country.

Still, the court's decision is likely to have long-term political consequences for secular Turkey.

On Friday, 22 June, Turkey's highest court voted eight to three to ban Virtue, Turkey's main opposition party, and to strip two of its deputies of their mandates. In addition, five party members -- including the two expelled deputies -- were barred from political life for five years.

The court found that Virtue -- the third-largest party in parliament, with 102 deputies in the 550-seat Grand National Assembly -- represented a threat to Turkey's secularism, and ordered the confiscation of all its assets.

The Constitutional Court has a long tradition of banning political groups regarded as subversive by the country's powerful military. It has now barred four Islamic parties from political life in the past 40 years.

Surprisingly, the court rejected an additional charge that Virtue, which was created four years ago, was a continuation of former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's banned Welfare Party (Refah Partisi). In 1998, Welfare was outlawed and Erbakan was banned from political life for five years.

Sixty-nine of Virtue's deputies were former members of Welfare -- a fact cited by prosecutors who argued that the party was in fact Welfare under another name. Prosecutors also accused Erbakan of running Virtue from the outside.

Turkish markets reacted calmly to the court's decision when they reopened after the weekend. Some economic analysts even described the verdict as a "market-friendly result."

A decision to expel 20 or more Virtue deputies from parliament would have triggered by-elections at a time when Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's tripartite coalition government is trying to pass much-awaited reforms before the parliament's summer recess, which begins on Sunday, 1 July.

The reforms are crucial in securing a $16 billion foreign aid package, backed by the International Monetary Fund as a means of extricating the country from its eight-month-long economic crisis.

Many analysts believe that the ban on Virtue is unlikely to weaken the country's Islamic movement in the long term. On the contrary, they say, a new, revamped "political Islam" is likely to emerge out of Virtue's ruins.

Semih Idiz is a columnist for Turkey's "Star" daily newspaper. In an interview with RFE/RL, Idiz agreed that the court's ruling avoided immediate political turmoil by eliminating the prospect of early elections. But he said Turkey could nevertheless face serious political consequences later.

"At the moment, there is a big race to see who will fill in the gap left by Virtue. There is an effort by the party's 'bigwigs' to ensure that they do not split and form [another] party. But, in the meantime, they have produced some mavericks who want to set up their own party. So what the consequences will be is that we will have either one or two new parties that will [take] Virtue's place."

Addressing a crowd of 15,000 supporters in Istanbul five days ago (22 June), Erbakan said that neither the government nor the powerful military -- which rules the country through the National Security Council -- will ever succeed in "silencing the voice of the people."

Erbakan's followers held a series of meetings over the weekend and vowed to continue their struggle by setting up a new party.

Former Virtue leader Recai Kutan claimed in the past that his party enjoyed the support of 30 to 40 percent of Turkish voters. But recent opinion polls show the party's popular backing is well below the 10 percent threshold needed for representation in parliament.

After winning only 15 percent of the vote in the 1999 legislative elections -- almost 7 percent less than the result attained by Welfare four years earlier -- Virtue was generally regarded as a fading political force.

Kutan's conservative old guard has been challenged by younger reformist party members, who advocate reconciliation between Turkey's Islamic tradition and Western democratic values. Before it was banned, Virtue was reportedly on the verge of a split.

Analysts say that, paradoxically, the court's verdict may eventually benefit the Islamic movement by allowing reformists and conservatives to separate peacefully.

Earlier this week (25 June), political analyst Gungor Mengi wrote in the "Sabah" daily that the emergence of what he described as a "conservative, democratic and modern alternative party" would be beneficial to Turkey, Islam, and democracy.

In an interview with our correspondent before the Constitutional Court ruling, political analyst Sami Kohen said he viewed former Istanbul Mayor Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the most probable leader for a future, "modernized" Islamic party.

"[Erdogan] is quite an outstanding politician. He is quite active, he is young, he is considered a moderate and pragmatic [man]. He has been going around and trying to form his own party. So the [minute] the court will decide to close down the present Islamic party, we are sure that he will announce the formation of a new party."

Last Saturday (23 June), Virtue reformist leader -- and Erdogan's close associate -- Abdullah Gul said everything was now in place for the formation of a new party, which he said would make itself known in the near future. But it remains unclear how many of the 100 former Virtue deputies now officially registered as independent would join Erdogan's party.

Last week's court ruling could also alter Turkey's political landscape in another way.

Turkish media have reported that negotiations have started between some Virtue deputies and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, one of the three coalition partners in the government. The MHP, whose conservatism could attract some Virtue members, currently holds 127 seats in parliament, only eight fewer than Ecevit's Democratic Left Party, or DSP.

The balance between the MHP and the DSP could be reversed if a large number of Virtue deputies choose to join the MHP. That, in principle, could allow MHP leader and Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli to claim the right to run the government instead of Ecevit.

But on Saturday (23 June), Bahceli pledged that he would hold to a 1999 accord with his two coalition partners, which specified that changes in the strength of individual parties in parliament would have no impact on power-sharing among them.

Columnist Idiz believes that Bahceli will abide by the agreement and refrain from challenging Ecevit.

"Obviously, [Bahceli] is acting responsibly in the sense that he knows that a change in the coalition now would bring down a very delicate economic program. And this is something he cannot afford. Should he sort of [rock] the boat and endanger the [economic] program, this could affect his electoral prospects."

Remy Leveau is a regional analyst at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris. He told RFE/RL that in his view, much more important than the Constitutional Court's decision is the stance the government and the army's high command adopts toward "political Islam" in the near future.

"If there is some room left for moderate Islamic movements, then the ban will be only one out of many episodes in Turkey's political life. Pressure has been exerted before on the Islamic movement by the political and military establishments. But if the Islamic movement has no room left to express itself, if Turkey's political system turns more and more authoritarian, then there is a risk that violence will remain almost the only way [for Islamic supporters] to express [their] political discontent."

Both Ecevit and Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz -- the leader of the ruling coalition's junior partner, the Motherland Party -- have said they regret the ban imposed on Virtue.

Last Tuesday (19 June), Yilmaz pledged the parliament would hold an extraordinary session in September to examine constitutional amendments required by the European Union to start accession talks with Ankara. Among the 37 proposed amendments is one that would make it harder to ban political parties.

The constitutional changes have been debated in parliament for months. But even if they are eventually adopted, they will have come too late to save Virtue.

3. - Turkish Daily News - "Bendit: National Program is obscure and not sufficient":

In the wake of the Turkish-EU Association Council meeting, Turkey's efforts in the way of EU membership have been found insufficient in a report prepared by Daniel Cohn Bendit, Co-chairman of the Turkish-EU Joint Parliamentarian Commission. Bendit's report is separate from the Council of Europe's report, which will be discussed today in Strasbourg.

The report was given by Bendit to his Turkish counterpart Kursat Eser, in which the Accession Partnership Documents and changes mentioned in Turkeys National Program were compared and consequently it was said that the National Program did not include the necessary reforms needed for EU membership, adding that Turkey should update its national program. Even if the report was prepared before the closure of the Virtue Party (FP) it urged Turkey to take the necessary steps to make the closure of political parties difficult. Here are some important excerpts from the eight page report.

* Turkey's National Program includes important steps and we do not belittle these steps, but some parts of the program are obscure and do not include the drastic reforms needed for EU membership.

* The constitutional change package is a good start, but it is not clear whether some of the planned changes to be made are in the short term or not.

* There are still uncertainties whether legal obstacles for broadcasting in the mother tongue will be lifted or not.

* It is impossible to be an EU member with a constitution prepared during a military regime. The role of the Turkish army should be redefined. It is not customary in any country for military representatives to be on Higher Education, Radio or Television Boards. Moreover, the National Security Council (MGK) has strong influences on politics that also restrain the government's role. Increasing civil members in MGK does not lessen the military members role in the council.

* Although there has been certain reforms, the condition of prisons is still cause for concern.

* Although Turkey declared it would comply with the European Human Right Convention's Article 10, it continues to punish journalists, nongovernmental organization (NGO) representatives and political party members because of their views. Freedom of expression has been restrained by exploiting the meaning of such verbs as "reactionary" and "separatist."

Council of Europe to discuss Turkey report

The Council of Europe will discuss Turkey's report in Strasbourg today, a different one from Bendit's. This annual report prepared by the council for new member countries includes Turkey among the new member countries and has caused anger in Turkey.

The report prepared by Hungarian Parliamenter Andreas Barsony and German Benn Zierer said improvements in human rights issues are not sufficient in Turkey.

In the report, Turkey is urged to take the necessary steps to fulfill reforms including constitutional changes, the abolishment of the death penalty, prison reforms and freedom of expression.

4. - AFP - "Council of Europe threatens Turkey over rights case ":

STRASBOURG

The head of the Council of Europe warned Turkey on Wednesday that it risked sanctions if it continued to ignore a judgement issued by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of a Greek Cypriot woman.

"If a country refuses to respect a court judgement, it could lead to sanctions and in the long term other consequences" which would be even more serious, warned Walter Schwimmer. Turkey has categorically refused to accept a ruling by the European court which ordered Ankara to pay damages to a Greek Cypriot woman, Titina Loizidou, for property seized in the north of the divided island after Turkish troops invaded in 1974. "The judgements of the European Court must be respected and carried out" by all member states, the secretary general insisted. Turkey again on Tuesday denied responsibility for actions carried out by the self proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which has only ever recognised by Ankara. Turkey has received a third demand from the executive body of the Council of Europe, the Ministers' Committee, to pay the damages awarded by the court. "The court issues judgements which are non-political and strictly legal," Schwimmer said.

The Ministers' Committee raised the threat of sanctions on Tuesday, underlining that acceptance of the European Convention on Human Rights, "including the obligatory jurisdiction of the court and the obligatory nature of its judgements, has become a condition of membership of the organisation." The court ordered Ankara to pay 640,000 dollars (740,000 euros) in damages to Loizidou.

5. - Turkish Daily News - "Cem: Turkey will show strong reaction if Greek Cypriots become EU member":

Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem warned EU countries about their Cyprus policies on Wednesday and that Turkey would show a strong reaction if the European Union accepts the Greek Cypriot Administration's membership.

The Cyprus issue, which was widely discussed at the Turkish-EU Accession Council meeting on Tuesday, again dominated the Turkish-EU Joint Parliamentarian Commission meeting yesterday in Brussels.

Stating that there has been serious improvements in Turkish-EU relations in all areas, Cem underlined that the Cyprus issue seems to be a serious setback in relations.

Cem stated: "According to international agreements, Cyprus cannot be a member of any organization in which both Turkey and Greece are not members and which causes the Greek Cypriot membership to be a controversial issue since Turkey is not an EU member. All developments concerning Greek Cypriot membership will complicate the existing dispute and will leave all parties in difficulty, and of course Turkish-EU relations will be damaged by this."

Bringing to mind the ethnic clashes that occurred in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia, Cem requested that the EU parliamentarians take a look at the Cyprus dispute from a different aspect adding that the best solution for the dispute would be a confederal structure.

Drawing attention to the fact that the EU is asking for efforts only from the Turkish side, Cem noted that the EU should apply pressure to the Greek side for a solution. "The EU's current policy supports lack of solution on the island. If I were on the Greek side, I would do nothing for reaching a solution since I will be an EU member within two years," Cem said.

He stressed that Turkey will show a strong reaction if the Greek Cypriot administration becomes an EU member, and that may seriously hurt Turkish-EU relations.

Sharing the same views as Cem, Turkish-EU Joint Parliamentarian Commission Co-chairman Daniel Cohn Bendit said he believed that the Cyprus dispute would take up much more time in the forthcoming days and this situation could harm Turkish-EU relations.

Stating that there has been a compromise among the European parliamentarians concerning the Cyprus dispute, Bendit revealed that the Council of Europe is preparing a report on this issue.

6. - AFP - "Three rebel Kurds killed in clash with Turkish troops":

DIYARBAKIR

Three members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party were killed by Turkish troops in clashes in this southeast region, an official statement said Wednesday. One of the rebels was of Iraqi nationality, the statement said.

Two soldiers were also wounded in a blast from a landmine laid by rebels close to the Iraqi border, it added. The PKK took up arms against the Ankara government in 1984 in pursuit of Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's eastern and southeastern regions, which are mainly populated by Kurds. In September 1999, the group declared an end to its armed campaign and said it would withdraw from Turkish territory and help find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Since then, previously heavy fighting in the region, which has claimed some 36,500 lives, has scaled down considerably.

But the PKK truce, launched following peace calls by condemned rebel Abdullah Ocalan, on death row in a Turkish jail, has been brushed aside by the Turkish army as a "terrorist ploy". Most of the rebels who left are believed to have crossed into northern Iraq, an area outside Baghdad's control since the 1991 Gulf War.