16 November 2001

3. “Turkey has long history in Afghanistan”, seventy-three years ago as secular Turkey was emerging from the ashes of the Ottoman empire, the founder of the new republic offered the king of Afghanistan troops to put down a radical Islamic uprising.

4. “Let Turkey, Our Best Muslim Ally, Join the Club”, five steps should be taken by Europe and the U.S. to confirm Turkey in its promising course

5. “Ecevit Says EU Cyprus Plans Could Spark Violence”, Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Thursday warned the European Union and United Nations that their policies on Cyprus risked returning the island to the ethnic violence of the 1960s and 1970s.

6. “Denktas replies to Turkish Cypriot youth”, within a 200,000-strong population there are 90,000 Turks from Turkey that are now naturalized citizens. What is bad about this is that the Turks from Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots do not like one another.

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1. - Kurdish Observer – “A new drive from PKK”:

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is extending its campaign called "declaration of national and political identity" which has been launched in Europe to Turkey and North Kurdistan. Making a written statement, PKK Council of Leaders asked for participation in the new political and national serhildan (popular uprising) drive. The statement emphasized the following: "The first stage of the declaration of identity is expressing our national freedom demands verbally.

While people declare their identity by democratic actions in Turkey and North Kurdistan, there will also be signature campaigns to be submitted to the international institutions. And the Kurdish people living abroad will strengthen the campaign with a new drive."

MHA/FRANKFURT

Council of Leaders stated that the policies which have deprived the Kurdish people of statue and freedom lost their validity and the latest developments give them the opportunity to gain their freedom. The statement stressed that the Democratic Civilization Project by PKK President Abdullah Ocalan is a line for the humanity, peoples in the region and the Kurdish people to solve their problems, adding that PKK believes that it is time to raise the democratic struggle and take their well deserved place within the Democratic World Order.

A new serhildan drive

PKK Council of Leaders emphasized that the way for raising the struggle is a new serhildan drive, and added the following: “You must make marches, demonstrations saying ‘I am a Kurds, I want my national identity to be recognized, freedom for President Apo, I want my mother tongue, national and cultural rights’; you must close your shutters of your stores, make boycotts, strikes, meetings and other peaceful and democratic actions.” The statement pointed out that they will launch a campaign for declaration of national and political identity in Turkey and North Kurdistan from November 15, 2001 on, and attracted attention that participation of all the Kurdish people is of vital importance.

“No justification”

Stressing that regionalist, tribal, excluding and egoist approaches which render the struggle for freedom weak and cause the opportunities to be missed, the statement noted that all forces in all parts of Kurdistan should reach a point of national unity, peace and democratic solution. For this, it said, the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) should organize a conference on national unity, peace and democracy and contribute to the solution. A call from the Council of Leaders to all forces is as follows: “All forces should study their existing policies for national unity, peace and democratic development once again and change them, and without resorting to any justification they should support the political serhildan of our people.”

“Change is unavoidable”

The statement attracted attention that the world system of the 20. century is about to be finally collapsed, saying that the final blow to it is the war in Afganistan. Considering the war a conflict within the capitalist system, PKK Council of Leaders said the following: “At this point it is impossible to continue the relations and alliances with the policies valid for the 20. centuries. As our world is being re-arranged, it will be possible for the forces which have been against each other to this day to form alliances and cooperation. The common stance of USA and Russia against the Afghanistan problem is the example of this, and the cooperation will be unavoidably comprise other areas. It seem unavoidable that various forces should re-determine their positions.”

The old system overcome

The statement also emphasized the following: “The forces which dominate in the Middle East seek to survive anxiously. But their economic, social and political crisis is increasingly threatening their own existence. These powers which cannot risk democratic transformation and change lose their chance to live everyday. While the developments weaken their resistance, the conditions for their collapse are ripe. The powers in the region including Turkey therefore object to an international operation against Iraq.”

“No success with repression”

The statement underscored that the platform to solve the problems is not anti-democratic stances and repression on the Kurdish Freedom movement, continuing as follows: “On the contrary to solve the Kurdish national freedom struggle within a democratic system is a method which will be productive for everybody. Therefore the aggressiveness of Turkey inside and outside only increase the problems. The democratic forces of Turkey should not give a chance to such a development. Our people should play their role in the democratic solution by taking part in the political serhildan and democratic struggle.”

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2. - Kurdish Observer – “Armed assault on HADEP”:

Yet another assault on HADEP was executed in Istanbul while its efforts for organization were obstructed in a number of places, its provincial, district premises were bombed, its members and administrators were kidnapped and killed. 2 HADEP members were wounded during the assaults with knives and guns on Istanbul provincial and Sisli district premises.

The first assault was on the HADEP provincial premises in Harbiye. A person who said his name was Zeki Genç and was about 20-25 years old came to the premises with a gun in his one hand and a knive and a parcel in the other, and entered into a room full of women after threating. He made the women lie down on the ground while saying “I take the revenge of my brother you have killed. I kidnapped those in Silopi. My name is Zeki Genc. Learn by hearth so that you can say to police.” Then he injured Cemal Kilikli, former Tuzla district chairman with his knive. After breaking the windows and putting a parcel on which “Lonely Wolf/Blood of Our Martyrs Will Not be Remained on the Ground” and firing, he left the place easily on foot. Kilikli was taken to the Sisli Education and Research Hospital.

He said he was a policeman

The second assault was on the Sisli district premises. According to the information a person came to the premises at noon and said to the 5 person within the premises “Hands above, I am a policeman” and shot Omer Kalayci, member of district youth wings. While Kalayci, shot at his leg, collapsed, the assaulter run away easily. Kalayci was taken under treatment at Taksim Emergency Hospital.

Statements of Erbas and Salik

Dogan Erbas, HADEP Istanbul Provincial Chairman, made a statement. He said that a person who has said his name was “Zeki Genc” and wanted to revenge of his brother has wounded Cemal Kilikli in provincial premises, then Omer Kalayci in Sisli district premises which is about a kilometre far from the provincial one. Erbas added that their health conditions are good. And Halil Salik, HADEP Istanbul provincial secretary who stated that he had not been in the premises during the assault, narrated the statement of the eye-witnesses. Salik pointed out that the assaulter has said that “He has killed Serdar Tanis, Silopi district chairman and Ebubekir Deniz, district administrator” who has been missing since January 25, 2001.

On the other hand a number of visitors came to the provincial premises, among them there are Hidir Ates, owner of newspaper Yedincigundem; Hasan Kaya, Chairman of the Kurdish Institute; Suna Parlak, Chairman of DKKM and its administrators; Mothers for Peace; administrators of Azadiya Welat; MKM administrators; Niyazi Bulgan, Chairman of TOHAV; IHD administrators; Kemal Pekoz, member of HADEP Party Assembly; Recep Yilbas and Ilker Kaplan, provincial administrators of ODP; and Cemal Cosgun, Chairman of Izmir and a number of HADEP members and administrators.

“We denounce with hatred”

The HADEP administrators made a press conference. The statement read by Naci Kutlay, HADEP Deputy Chairman, said that it is striking that the repression on their party has recently been on increase. Kutlay stated that they consider the assault “a big blow on the political life”, calling on all state officials to duty. The Deputy Chairman continued to say the following: “It cannot be accepted that assaulters can leave undauntedly whereas our members should be under guarantee of state and security forces.” Kutlay emphasized that they denounce the assault with hatred, adding that “We expect the sensitivity of the media and public on the matter.”

Provocative ploy

Releasing a written statement, Ahmet Seker, General Chairman of Youth Wings, called attention to the increasing repression and assaults on HADEP, adding, “We hope that the latest assault after a young woman in Silvan and a municipal policeman in Dogubeyazit being executed on the spot can make the officials who speak of law frequently think.” Seker said that they consider the incident “a provocative plot aiming at conflict between Turks and Kurds.”

IHD: Not individual

A written statement by Human Rights Association (IHD) Istanbul Branch) said that the assault cannot be considered an individual incident. The statement added the following: “The incident is an assault caused by official propagandas against HADEP. It is a new conspiracy of the forces who want to obstruct democratisation. It cannot be considered an individual one. Everybody who supports democracy and human rights should react against the violent assault on HADEP. We ask for the perpetrators to be brought before the law and denounce the assaults.”

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3. – Associated Press – “Turkey Has Long History in Afghanistan”:

ANKARA / by Selcan Hacaoglu

Seventy-three years ago as secular Turkey was emerging from the ashes of the Ottoman empire, the founder of the new republic offered the king of Afghanistan troops to put down a radical Islamic uprising.

``Turkish officers there and those who are on their way to serve under your command were ordered to sacrifice their lives,'' Mustafa Kemal Ataturk wrote to King Amanullah.

The king's decision to send Afghan girls to secular Turkey for schooling had sparked the rebellion in November 1928.

Now, nearly three-quarters of a century later, Turkey again has committed its troops - special forces and peacekeepers if needed - to a messy fight in Afghanistan. And, as the NATO alliance's only Muslim member, it is showing some diplomatic muscle as well.

Ankara announced Wednesday it was reopening its embassy in Kabul and its consulate in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif to help with contacts among Afghan tribal groups and the creation of a new government.

Turkey, a close U.S. ally and recipient of massive American military aide, has been steadfast in its support for the U.S.-led campaign against Afghanistan's Islamic Taliban rulers and Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Turkey hopes its actions will further strengthen ties with the West at a time when Ankara urgently needs foreign loans to recover from a deep economic crisis.

The deeds of Ataturk, founder of the country and a national hero, loom large over decisions made by modern-day leaders here, making it natural that Turkey would want to restore historic ties with Afghanistan.

``Contributing to the Afghan people's freedom and development is the will of Ataturk,'' Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said.

Afghanistan was the second government, after the Soviet Union, to recognize Ataturk's new government, which fought against occupying forces of Britain, Greece, France and Italy in 1921 when the failing Ottoman government still held power in Istanbul.

``Ataturk was a successful model for King Amanullah in building a Muslim nation with Western norms,'' said Hasan Ali Karasar, a Central Asia expert at Ankara's Bilkent University.

Upon his return from a 1927-28 European tour, which included Turkey, King Amanullah shocked his subjects by promoting Western dress, education of women and a ban on polygamy among government workers.

A group of fundamentalists marched on Kabul after about 20 Afghan girls left for schools in Turkey in November 1928. Ataturk immediately sent 12 officers to protect the king and put down the uprising with the help of other Turkish officers who had already been training Afghan troops since early 1920s.

But Amanullah's reforms quickly alienated many tribal and religious leaders. The king's army was weak, the reforms didn't hold and Amanullah abdicated a year later, fleeing Kabul in his Rolls-Royce.

Thousands of Afghan students have attended Turkish universities, and Turkey built hospitals, schools and other institutions in Afghanistan.

However, Turkey's influence in today's Afghanistan is minimal and Ankara hopes to resurrect historic ties. Leaders believe Turkey's experience might serve as a model in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

``We're a secular democracy ... a modern one with gender equality. So we are the antithesis of what the Taliban represents,'' Foreign Minister Ismail Cem has told an interviewer.

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4. - Los Angeles Times – “Let Turkey, our best Muslim ally, join the Club”:

By Tom Grant

Turkey has committed to fighting on America's side in the war against terrorism, and it now appears Turkey will take the lead in contributing troops to a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
From no other Muslim country could we ask so much. As we seek to stabilize the shaky Muslim wing of the alliance against terror, Turkey must be seen to earn real dividends from its allegiance.
The United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries have few allies who are more steadfast. From the Korean War to the Gulf War, Turkey has supported the West in time of crisis while also working to put its own house in order. On constitutional reform, human rights and accountability of the bureaucracy and armed forces, Turkey stands head and shoulders above virtually every other state in its region.

Yet while kowtowing to much less dependable allies, we sometimes treat the only stable secular republic of the Muslim world as a second-class citizen.

Unfortunately, Turkey may not be able to withstand the buffeting forces of Islamic fundamentalism, political backwardness and economic stagnation that characterize much of the Middle East. Five steps should be taken by Europe and the U.S. to confirm Turkey in its promising course:

* Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in Iraq must be brought to an end. Turkey enjoyed volumes of cross-border trade with its southern neighbor, but this turned to a trickle when sanctions were imposed against Iraq in 1991. The Turkish economy suffered sharply. This gives further grounds for finishing what we left half done after the Gulf War.

* The United States and the European Union should make Turkey a key terminus for oil and gas from the Caspian and Central Asia. If Russia remains the only export route, we stake too much on that country's stability and future allegiances. If Iran steps in, fundamentalist influence will multiply. China may someday tap Central Asian resources with pipelines of its own, presenting other issues. Turkey offers diversification of geopolitical risk. Finishing a pipeline to the Mediterranean via Turkey would secure Turkey's position in the regional hydrocarbon infrastructure and Turkey's own energy needs.

* We should work on ending the 27-year impasse on Cyprus. The northern, Turkish zone of the island has faced economic and diplomatic isolation imposed by the United Nations at the behest of the Greek Cypriots and Greece. The longer the isolation, the greater the risk that Turkish Cypriots will turn to other quarters for aid. Turkish Cypriots are perhaps the most secular of all Turks, with a British colonial legacy of sentimental links to the West and a legal system similar to our own. Helping them would send a powerful message of support to Turkey.

* A generous--but intelligent--package of fiscal support must be directed to Turkey. In February, Turkey entered its most severe fiscal crisis in a generation. Collapse of the lira triggered a catastrophic sell-off on the Istanbul Stock Exchange, and the country is still reeling. Without some aid, millions of less affluent Turks who had gotten their first taste of what a free market can deliver might begin to challenge the secular and capitalist orientation of their republic. A $10-billion bailout backed by the International Monetary Fund may be both too little and too much. Lacking firm commitment by Turkey to slim down heavy and intrusive government bureaucracies, we err in handing out more fodder for sinecures and inefficiency. How--and how much--aid is administered must be reconsidered.

* The European Union must welcome Turkey. The EU made statements at Helsinki in 1999 that Turks took to mean a promise of membership quickly, but subsequent EU conduct has dashed those hopes. Is the EU to be a closed federation of European Christians? If so, then fanatics on the fringes of Turkish politics will be vindicated. If Europeans are unwilling to include Turkey, then the United States should apply pressure.

The soldiers likely to deploy to Afghanistan, drawn from Turkey's elite commando units with years of experience fighting terrorists in the tortuous terrain of eastern Anatolia, are no mere tokens. And Turkey gets the gestures right as well: Foreign Minister Ismail Cem was the first official of rank from a Muslim state to visit the ruins of the World Trade Center.

In substance and symbol, Turkey is with us. This reaffirms where we find our best friends in the Muslim world and should encourage policies that reciprocate.

(Tom Grant is a research fellow at St. Anne's College, Oxford University)

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5. - Reuters – “Ecevit Says EU Cyprus Plans Could Spark Violence”:

ANKARA

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Thursday warned the European Union and United Nations that their policies on Cyprus risked returning the island to the ethnic violence of the 1960s and 1970s.

In stern comments to his party's deputies in parliament, Ecevit said international attempts to unite the divided island into a single state would only bring a return to fighting between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

The island has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey invaded the north in response to a Greek Cypriot coup.

The EU this week told Turkey, a candidate for EU membership, that it expected concrete steps to help U.N. diplomatic attempts to end the division. Turkey wants the northern Turkish Cypriot administration that it backs to be recognized as a state in its own right.

``If the wishes of certain foreign circles, the EU and the U.N. secretary-general are agreed to and Turkish Cypriots are forced to live alongside Greek Cypriots on the island, they will be confronted with worse than the genocide that was faced before the Turkish peace operation,'' Ecevit said.

``We will not be willing, we cannot be willing, to allow Turkish Cypriots to fall under Greek Cypriot domination.''

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6. – Turkish Daily News – “Denktas replies to Turkish Cypriot youth”:

By Mehmet Ali Birand

I do not know what you think about the situation you witnessed during last night's episode of the 32nd Day program. I, personally became aware that we have done certain things wrongly. President Denktas too admits that certain things have gone wrong. He stresses that no dialogue has been established with the young people and that mistakes have been made in the education area. The alarm bells are ringing.

After watching last night's episode of the 32nd Day I am sure some of you became very angry at the Turkish Cypriot youths. You may have said that they were insolent ingrates. And some of you must have become angry at me for producing a program of this kind. Those who prefer to sweep the facts under the rug and keep them there must have said, "Brother, was there any need for such a program?" However, some of you must have realized the gravity of the situation and started discussing the measures that must be taken.

What you heard was not communist propaganda or a Greek Cypriot ploy but the views of some of the young people who represent the future of Cyprus. There would definitely be those who do not think like them. However, even that much should be enough for us to sound the alarm bells.

I do not know whether you paid attention to the reactions coming from the Turkish students from the mainland who were in the audience, especially those sitting among them, are known as Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) supporters, and have played a key role in a number of incidents.

Rather than hearing out their Turkish Cypriot friends and find out what they think, they pounced upon them.

This is exactly what upsets the young Turkish Cypriots.

Let us be frank.

There is really a big Turkish presence in Cyprus.

Within a 200,000-strong population there are 90,000 Turks from Turkey that are now naturalized citizens. What is bad about this is that the Turks from Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots do not like one another. They keep a certain distance from one another. Turks from Turkey see the Turkish Cypriots as "lazy freeloaders," parasites who subsist on the basis of the money sent from Turkey. And they openly say so.

How interesting that the young Turkish Cypriots too are complaining about this system.

You watched them last night.

They say, "This warped system has been brought in and imposed by Turkey. Here, people (some 80,000 of them) have become accustomed to get money from the state and live without producing anything."

The tension between the two communities has been increasing. The pressure the radical nationalist groups out on the Turkish Cypriots, especially, is quite obvious. We witnessed that pressure even during the program shot at the university. With their reactions they prevented the Turkish Cypriots from expressing "farther" views.

The Turkish Embassy (that is, Ankara) too puts pressure on the Turkish Cypriot citizens. What should be done and how gets determined by the Turkish Embassy to a great extent.

Also to be mentioned is the 35,000-strong Turkish military presence, that is, the Turkish peace force. That force too gives orientation to the Turkish Cypriot community. Turkish Cypriots openly say that they cannot get used to the never-ending ceremonies and the way schoolchildren are taken to the border areas to boost the troops' morale.

As a accumulated effect of all this, Turkish Cypriot youngsters stress that they have lost their identity, that they have become nonexistent under Turkey's hegemony. They said that they are fed up with the way they get accused of committing high treason, of selling out "the cause," and of oiling up to the Greek Cypriots whenever they put forth a different view.

Instead of getting angry we should be asking ourselves, "Where did we go wrong?"

Denktas says they have failed to establish a dialogue with young people

I posed that question to President Rauf Denktas of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) immediately after the program shot at the university. You can watch that during this evening's episode of the Manset program on CNN Turk at 17:00.

Denktas too is troubled.

He complains that no dialogue has been established with the young people and that the country is backwards in the education area.

I think that what Mr. Denktas could not or would not see is that there is an enormous abyss between "those who govern Cyprus and certain ruling circles in Turkey" and the Turkish Cypriot youngsters.

We will all suffer greatly unless the measures required are taken as soon as possible -- and, by measures I do not mean restrictions or punishment.

I have relayed to the Turkish public this bitter reality which everybody is aware of but no one is willing to talk about out in the open.

Let us know these things and take our steps accordingly.