1. "Turkey moves to punish students for Kurdish educaion demands", Turkey's Higher Education Board (YOK) on Tuesday called for disciplinary action against university students who have held demonstrations and filed petitions for education in the Kurdish language, which is banned under Turkish law.

2. "Turkey extends emergency rule in four mainly Kurdish provinces", Turkey's parliament extended Tuesday a 14-year-old state of emergency in four mainly Kurdish provinces at the heart of a long-standing conflict between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels.

3. "Cohn-Bendit warns of 'major crisis' over Cyprus if solution is not found", European Parliament member Daniel Cohn-Bendit warned here on Tuesday of serious international turmoil if the European Union's enlargement is blocked because of the Cyprus conflict.

4. "Departure of Turkish soldiers", it was decided some weeks ago to send Turkish soldiers to Afghanistan, but they haven't been sent yet. What are the reasons?

5. "Thinking aloud about Cyprus", everybody who is interested in the Cyprus issue is waiting for the face-to-face meeting between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders.

6. "Stern warning to EU - MGK throws its weight behind Denktas", the all-powerful National Security Council (MGK) declared its continued support for Turkish Cypriot President Rauf Denktas and issued a stern warning to the European Union.

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1. - AFP - "Turkey moves to punish students for Kurdish education demands":

ANKARA

Turkey's Higher Education Board (YOK) on Tuesday called for disciplinary action against university students who have held demonstrations and filed petitions for education in the Kurdish language, which is banned under Turkish law. The YOK said in a statement that the students' acts did not constitute "innocent civilian demands", but an organized movement masterminded by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which waged a 15-year armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey. The petitions filed by the students were exactly the same as sample petitions issued on nine internet websites affiliated with the PKK, it said. "The (student) acts are regarded as separatist activities aimed against the Turkish Republic's indivisible unity," said the statement, which was carried by the Anatolia news agency. The board urged universities not to allow pro-PKK acts and asked them to take disciplinary santions against students who have participated in the demonstrations or handed in petitions. The sanctions YOK is seeking involve either expulsion from the university or a suspension of one to two years. The Kurdish language has been legally banned in Turkey for a long time, even though authorities have long tolerated a series of magazines and music cassettes in Kurdish. Last month, the Turkish parliament approved a constitutional amendment scrapping a ban on using "forbidden" languages to voice opinions, which paves the way for the country's Kurds to broadcast and publish material in their mother tongue. But education in the Kurdish language is still out of the question over fears that such a move could fan Kurdish separatism and lead to the break-up of Turkey. The PKK ended its armed campaign against Ankara in September 1999 to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict upon peace calls from its condemned leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is on death row in Turkey. But the PKK truce was brushed aside by the powerful military as a ploy.

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2. - AFP - "Turkey extends emergency rule in four mainly Kurdish provinces":

ANKARA

Turkey's parliament extended Tuesday a 14-year-old state of emergency in four mainly Kurdish provinces at the heart of a long-standing conflict between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels. Under the decision, emergency rule will continue for four more months in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir, Hakkari and Sirnak as well as Tunceli in the east, starting on November 30. Parliament lifted emergency rule in Van province in June last year, and in Siirt in November 1999. The European Union has asked Turkey, a lagging membership candidate, to end the state of emergency in the remaining provinces as part of reforms to catch up with the Union's democracy norms. State of emergency was first declared in southeast Turkey in 1987, three years after the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) took up arms for self-rule in the region. The conflict has claimed some 36,500 lives, stalled economic activity in the region and led to massive migration to Turkey's urban west. Fighting has notably scaled down since September 1999 when the rebels said they were ending their armed struggle following peace calls from PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, on death row in a Turkish jail. But Turkey's powerful military has played down the peace bid as a ploy, saying the rebels should either surrender or face the army.

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3. - Reuters - "Cohn-Bendit warns of "major crisis" over Cyprus if solution not found":

ISTANBUL

European Parliament member Daniel Cohn-Bendit warned here on Tuesday of serious international turmoil if the European Union's enlargement is blocked because of the Cyprus conflict. "If Turkey or Greece blocks the enlargement of Europe, there will be a major crisis, and this major crisis won't be a crisis from which the Turkish people will benefit," Cohn-Bendit told reporters at the end of a meeting of a Turkey-EU parliamentary commission, of which he is a co-chairman. The deputy said a settlement to the Cyprus conflict would facilitate Turkey's road to ultimate membership in the pan-European bloc. The long-standing division of Cyprus has recently sparked tension between Ankara and Brussels amid Turkish threats to annex the island's Turkish Cypriot north if the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government in the south, a leading EU candidate, is admitted into the bloc without a settlement. The EU says reunification is not a pre-condition for Greek Cyprus' entry, which could come as early as 2004, but such a prospect remains a source of concern as it would entail the admission of a divided country, part of which is occupied by another candidate, Turkey. EU member Greece, meanwhile, threatens to veto the whole enlargement process if Greek Cyprus is not admitted in the first wave of newcomers. "If Cyprus, north and south, is integrated into the EU, this is the first step to the integration of Turkey into Europe... this is the major step of Turkey for its accession," Cohn-Bendit said. Rauf Denktash, the head of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and Greek Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides are scheduled to meet next Tuesday for the first time in four years to explore ways of reunifying their island. Denktash and Turkey say Cyprus should be reunified in a confederation of two states, this putting the acknowledgement of the TRNC as a pre-condition. But Greek Cyprus and the international community favor a bi-zonal federation. Cohn-Bendit also urged Turkey, a NATO member, to back down on its objections to the establishment of an EU rapid reaction force with guaranteed and permanent access to NATO assets.

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4. - Milliyet - "Departure of Turkish soldiers":

by Fikret Bila

Columnist Fikret Bila comments on sending Turkish soldiers to Afghanistan.

It was decided some weeks ago to send Turkish soldiers to Afghanistan, but they haven't been sent yet. Will the Turkish soldiers go to Afghanistan? If so, when will they go and how many will there be? I wrote previously that answers to these questions would emerge following US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Ankara. Powell will be in Ankara on Dec. 4-5. Ankara will give him its final decision on sending Turkish soldiers in light of what request and information he conveys from the US administration. One could say that the delay in sending Turkish soldiers comes from both US wishes and recent developments in Afghanistan. The US asked for our soldiers not through NATO but through bilateral channels, and it seems to have imposed a breather before the departure of those soldiers. Furthermore, same forces in Afghanistan, particularly those of deposed leader Rabbani, have publicly came against sending Turkish soldiers and this should be considered as a factor. Pakistani head of state Pervez Muserref's suggestion that Turkish soldiers not participate armed conflict is another factor. Under these circumstances, the departure of the Turkish soldiers will become clear during Powell's stay in Ankara. Military and political circles in Ankara favor the idea that the Turkish soldiers will be in charge, except during conflicts, and that they will serve as 'protectors'; for example, they will protect airports and provide security for humanitarian aid. If Powell makes a firm request that Turkish soldiers be sent, then our troops might go to Afghanistan on the heels of his visit. Ankara doesn't want to look like the countries which rushed into Anatolia hoping to carve up the remains of the disintigrating Ottoman Empire. The Turkish soldiers' place and definition of service has not yet been determined, and this comes from Ankara's dignified manner.

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5.- Hurriyet - "Thinking aloud about Cyprus":

by Oktay Eksi

Columnist Oktay Eksi comments on the Cyprus issue as follows:

After being criticized for 'leaving the negotiation table,' Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas understood that the issue has been clauded and so he challenged the world and said that he was ready to meet Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides. Now everybody who is interested in the Cyprus issue is waiting for the face-to-face meeting between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders on Dec. 4. In fact, this meeting's intent is to determine whether solutions can be found for the island this way, rather than actually finding such solutions. Therefore neither pessimism nor optimism is precisely warranted. However, there is a great pressure on Turkey both from the European Union countries and the EU's commissioner responsible for enlargement, Gunter Verheugen, on behalf of them and from the Western world, insisting that Denktas should be convinced that the Turkish Cypriots can live with the Greek Cypriots and that a solution to the Cyprus issue can be found. But those who give such high-sounding advice forget that although there is no difference between the actions of Slobodan Milosevic - who is being tried at the International Court of Justice for committing atrocities against innocents in Bosnia-Herzegovina - and the actions of the Greek Cypriots against Turkish Cypriots between 1963 and 1974, no one is prosecuting the latter murders. What's more, they want us and the Turkish Cypriots, who lived through the massacres, to forget as well. In addition, they accept that following the crimes against humanity committed by Milosevic and his accomplices, the former Yugoslavian Federation will end up divided, but when it comes to Cyprus, they reject the same solution. West's double standards, which I have often discussed in this space, appear here concerning the Cyprus issue. While we are unable to either convince the Western world, or reach a solution under the current arrangement, would it not be possible to deal the cards again and to look for a solution through a new arrangement? For example, the main problems for Turkey and for the Turkish Cypriots are the security of Turkey and the Turkish people there and the Turkish Cypriots' living under their own sovereignty with their own identity. Why is Britain, one of the three countries which gave Cyprus the guarantee of maintaining its status in the London and Zurich agreements, contented with merely giving advice to the parties, particularly saying that the Turks should abandon their current views? Why didn't Britain make some sacrifices? For example, why doesn't it leave the Dikhelia Base near Magosa to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), which will guarantee the protection of the Turkish Cypriots and protect the sovereignty of the North? If this main problem, that is, the issue of security and sovereignty, is solved this way, why can't the others be solved?

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6. - Turkish Daily News - "Stern warning to EU - MGK throws its weight behind Denktas":

ANKARA

The all-powerful National Security Council (MGK) declared its continued support for Turkish Cypriot President Rauf Denktas and issued a stern warning to the European Union, planning to enlist in two years time the Greek Cypriot administration as its member, that Turkey would not allow creation of a situation on Cyprus that would render the Turkish Cypriot people there a minority. In a statement issued after a closed-door meeting at the Cankaya Presidential Palace under the leadership of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, MGK said it supported the latest initiative undertaken by Denktas for a direct meeting between himself and Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides. The Denktas-Clerides meeting, the first-ever meeting between the two leaders since the summer of 1997, was fixed for Dec. 4 at the request of the Turkish Cypriot leader. The statement said Turkey would continue searching for a settlement acceptable to both sides on the island. However, the statement also underlined a veiled threat to the European Union that Turkey would not allow any development on the island that could be in violation of the agreements, pose a threat to Turkey's national security and that could render the Turkish Cypriot people a minority at the whim of the Greek Cypriots. Turkey has been stating that the 1960 founding treaties and agreements of the Cyprus Republic were prohibiting the island from joining any economic, political or military grouping where both Turkey and Greece, the two guarantors of the 1060 accord and the Republic together with Britain, were already members. The Greek Cypriot administration is the front-runner of EU membership aspirant countries and EU officials and politicians have been on record recently with declarations that the island would be the first to join the club in a new wave of enlargement expected in January 2004. Turkey and Turkish Cypriots oppose the EU membership of the island before a political settlement and Turkey has warned the EU this month that if the Greek Cypriot administered southern Cyprus was allowed to become a member of the group Turkey would consider annexation of northern Cyprus. {Text}