27 February 2003

1. "Activists Denounce Sex Abuse in Turkey", women detained in Turkey have been raped, abused and assaulted by security forces, according to a report released Wednesday by human rights group that urged the country's new Islamic-rooted government to halt the abuse.

2. "Ethnic faultline threatens to divide again", one of the bloodiest ethnic faultlines in the Middle East has remained dormant for the best part of a decade, but yesterday it threatened to erupt again and undermine America’s plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

3. "Ancient enmity may explode when Turks go in", the Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan fuelled fears yesterday that war with Iraq could trigger a secondary conflict between Turks and Kurds when he confirmed that Ankara would send a substantial force into Northern Iraq behind American troops.

4. "Turks say US pledges to block move on Kurdish autonomy", the United States has promised to prevent Kurds from imposing a federation-style government in postwar Iraq to ensure their continued autonomy and agreed to allow Turkish troops to enter northern Iraq and observe the disarmament of Kurdish militias once fighting has stopped, Turkish officials said yesterday.

5. "Reversing the clock in North-Iraq", Iraqi Kurds fear Turkey is preparing to challenge Kurdish self rule in the north and the proposed Turkish military presence in the region in a new American-led campaign would be designed to facilitate this.

6. "U.N.'S Annan Says Wants Cyprus Deal in a Week", U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave rival Greek and Turkish Cypriots a new peace plan on Wednesday in a last ditch bid to reunify the island after almost 30 years of division and gave the two sides a week to respond.

1. - Associated Press - "Activists Denounce Sex Abuse in Turkey":

ANKARA / 26 February 2003 / by Suzan Frazer

Women detained in Turkey have been raped, abused and assaulted by security forces, according to a report released Wednesday by human rights group that urged the country's new Islamic-rooted government to halt the abuse.

Kurdish women and those with dissident political views were particularly at risk, London-based Amnesty International said in the report.

Amnesty said that many of the abuses occurred during the recently lifted state of emergency in southeastern Turkey. It warned that violence against women could increase should emergency rule be reinstated if there is war in neighboring Iraq.

Turkey began phasing out 15 years of emergency rule imposed on 13 mostly Kurdish southeastern provinces in 1999, after fighting between the military and autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels subsided. Emergency rule, which allows authorities to restrict gatherings and conduct searches without warrants, was lifted in the last two remaining provinces in November.

Turkish authorities are considering reinstating emergency rule in case of an Iraq war.

"Should a state of emergency be imposed because of a conflict in Iraq, we would certainly hope that the authorities would do all they can to ensure that these powers are not abused at the expense of women," the report said.

Amnesty said it received reports indicating women are frequently stripped naked by male officers during questioning. At times, women were abused in front of their husbands or other family to force relatives into confessing alleged crimes.

The human rights group researched its report throughout 2002, basing it in part on interviews with more than 100 female prisoners in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Amnesty called on the government, which came to power in November, to stop blindfolding and stripping detainees during questioning and to halt strip searches of female prisoners by male officers. It urged the government to arrest those who committed the abuse.

There was no immediate government comment. Turkey's new government, however, has vowed to take steps to curtail torture as part of its bid to join the European Union.

The report said women rarely spoke about the abuse.

"Ostracism, discrimination by society and concepts of 'honor' conspire to silence the survivors of sexual violence," the report said.

2. - The Times - "Ethnic faultline threatens to divide again":

LONDON / 27 February 2003 / Analysis by Richard Beeston

ONE of the bloodiest ethnic faultlines in the Middle East has remained dormant for the best part of a decade, but yesterday it threatened to erupt again and undermine America’s plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

After a time of relative peace, Turkey and the Kurds of Northern Iraq traded threats and accusations as both sought to protect their interests in the region after “regime change” in Baghdad.

The first rhetorical shot was fired by the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan, who have successfully created a free and prosperous mini-state thanks to air cover from American and British warplanes patrolling the northern no-fly zone. Now, however, they fear that the very existence of their autonomous enclave is under threat.

Meeting in the provincial capital of Erbil, Iraqi Kurdish leaders issued a warning that any incursion by Turkish troops into their territory could provoke a military response and trigger a new round in the old conflict with the Turks.

Despite the warning, Ankara insisted that it reserved the right to send thousands of troops into the area to protect its border and head off any potential humanitarian catastrophe. The details were contained in a passage included in a motion before parliament in Ankara, authorising the deployment of thousands of US troops into Turkey to open a northern front against Baghdad.

Unless handled sensitively, the verbal warnings could quickly turn violent, pitting the tens of thousands of Kurdish Peshmerga guerrilla fighters against Turkey’s formidable and well-equipped army, which is already deployed in force just inside the Iraqi border. Although both sides are nominally allied to Washington, deep-seated mistrust could overcome any allegiance to the Bush Administration.

Yesterday Western diplomats in Ankara attempted to play down the war of words, insisting that both sides were simply trying to establish their strongest positions ahead of the looming conflict. Nevertheless, both Turks and Kurds have huge stakes in the future of Iraq and could quickly come to blows if their interests were at odds.

For Turkey a new conflict in Iraq presents serious security and humanitarian problems. After the 1991 Gulf War, hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees fled into southern Turkey. This time the Turks insist that they need to create a buffer zone inside Iraq to keep any refugee exodus from crossing the border.

The other concern is security. There are an estimated 4,000 rebel Kurds from Turkey near the Iranian border. Ankara wants to make sure that they do not use the pretext of a war in Iraq to infiltrate southern Turkey and resume their insurgency. They also want to secure crucial oil supplies from Iraq.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “It would be misleading and unfair to misinterpret possible military measures taken by Turkey — to ensure both her security and efficient humanitarian aid to refugees — as if Turkey had any other aims or intentions in Iraq. Turkey does not have any hidden agenda on Iraq.”

That, however, is how the Kurds view Ankara’s intentions. They fear that under the pretext of a humanitarian mission the Turks actually intend to deploy deep into Northern Iraq.

For the Turks a large military presence would make it all but impossible for the Iraqi Kurds to maintain their fragile autonomous state, which currently has its own parliament, universities and security forces. By undermining the Kurdish entity in Iraq, it would discourage similar separatist aspirations among Turkey’s own disgruntled 14 million Kurds. The Kurds also suspect that the Turks will be encouraged to curtail Kurdish nationalism in Syria and Iran, who also have large restless Kurdish minorities.

Conspiracy theorists also fear that the Turks’ ambitions stretch deeper inside Iraq to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and the ancient Ottoman provincial capital of Mosul, which both have sizeable Turkoman populations, an ethnic minority with strong links to their Turkish brethren.

The sad conclusion for Iraq’s Kurds is that Saddam Hussein, the hated genocidal ruler who killed thousands of his own Kurdish citizens with bombs and poison gas in the late 1980s and again in 1991, may paradoxically have been a blessing for their national aspirations. With his rule weakened by sanctions over the past 12 years, the Kurds have come closer than ever to achieving their century-old dream of statehood.

While America and Britain have assured the Kurds that their interests will be protected in a future democratic Iraq, the Kurds are rightly fearful that their voices will be drowned by other ethnic and religious groups clamouring for their share of power. Any future Iraqi leader will certainly want to reimpose Baghdad’s authority over Kurdistan. Turkey, for one, would be glad to see that happen.

3. - The Times - "Ancient enmity may explode when Turks go in":

LONDON / 27 February 2003 / from Suna Erdem in Istanbul and Anthony Loyd in Salahaddin, Northern Iraq

THE Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan fuelled fears yesterday that war with Iraq could trigger a secondary conflict between Turks and Kurds when he confirmed that Ankara would send a substantial force into Northern Iraq behind American troops.

The statement by Mr Erdogan, leader of the ruling Justice and Development party, came one day after the Kurdish parliament in Northern Iraq declared that any such intervention would create a very dangerous situation, and on the same day that Iraqi opposition leaders meeting in the Northern Iraqi town of Salahaddin issued an equally blunt warning against any occupation by foreign powers.

Today the Turkish parliament is expected finally to approve a deal with Washington permitting up to 62,000 troops to use their country to open a northern front in a war.

The quid pro quo is not only a $25 billion (£16 billion) economic aid package but Washington’s approval for Turkish forces to enter Northern Iraq. Mr Erdogan told a television interviewer that there would be “twice as many of our troops as American soldiers” entering Iraq. He gave no specific figures, but did not deny that they could total 40,000.

He said he expected the Turkish troops would advance about 20 kilometres into Iraq and that the Kurds had nothing to fear. Ankara has long claimed the deployment is necessary for humanitarian and security reasons and to ensure that there is no repeat of scenes that followed the Gulf War, when 500,000 Kurdish refugees flooded into Turkey.

But most observers agree that Turkey’s real goal is to prevent the creation of a Kurdish state in an area that has enjoyed 12 years of autonomy — a development that would revive secessionist dreams among Turkey’s own Kurds.

Ankara also believes that about 6,000 Turkish Kurd guerrillas have taken refuge in Northern Iraq.

The 55 disparate Iraqi opposition leaders, meeting for the first time on their home soil in the hill town of Salahaddin, voiced strong concerns at the US’s intention to rule post-war Iraq as a military governate. But their biggest fear is the arrival of Turkish troops. Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), said in his opening address to the two-day meeting: “The most dangerous aspect of a coming conflict lies with the foreign powers who will try to enter Iraqi lands.

“We need the regime toppled and the country rebuilt. But the control of our country by foreign powers after the war, should they remain, could leave us worse than before. This would be a big mistake, and we don’t need another mistake by the US and Europe after so many before.”

Zalmai Khalilzad, the US special envoy, who arrived in Northern Iraq amid heavy security on Tuesday night, laboured to assuage opposition fears. “The US has no desire to govern Iraq,” he insisted. “The Iraqi people should govern their own affairs as soon as possible. The coalition will not depart one minute before the job is done. It will not stay one minute more than it is needed.”

At a December conference in London the Iraqi opposition leaders believed they were agreeing the blueprint for a future government in Iraq. However, America subsequently revealed plans to install a US governate in which the opposition would be lucky to hold even an advisory role.

Yesterday’s delegates included representatives from the dominant Kurdish KDP and PUK parties, the Iran-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Iraqi National Congress, and a smaller number of independent Islamic, Turkoman and Assyrian parties as well as Iraqi defectors. Other than the Kurdish leaders, foremost among the opposition members present was Ahmad Chalabi of the congress, once the leader favoured by the US.

4. - Washington Post - "Turks say US pledges to block move on Kurdish autonomy":

ANKARA / 27 February 2003 / by Philip P. Pan and Daniel Williams

The United States has promised to prevent Kurds from imposing a federation-style government in postwar Iraq to ensure their continued autonomy and agreed to allow Turkish troops to enter northern Iraq and observe the disarmament of Kurdish militias once fighting has stopped, Turkish officials said yesterday.

The deal, designed to persuade Turkey to allow US troops to use its bases for an attack on Iraq, foresees that Turkish troops will cross the 218-mile Turkish-Iraqi border along with US troops and proceed at least 121/2 miles into the rugged Kurdish-inhabited hills to prevent a flow of refugees into Turkey and maintain stability and security in the region, the officials said.

Turkish officials said they requested the guarantees as a condition for opening their territory to US forces to ensure that an independent Kurdish state - or even an autonomous Kurdish entity within an Iraqi federation - does not emerge along Turkey's borders after a widely expected US attack destroys President Saddam Hussein's central government.

US and Turkish negotiators reached consensus yesterday on almost all details of the deal, officials from both sides said, and the Turkish government predicted a parliamentary vote - the final step - is likely today.

The plans to allow Turkish forces into Iraq already have provoked anger and concern among the 3.5 million Iraqi Kurds who have since the 1991 Gulf War enjoyed a flourishing self-rule in northern Iraq under the protection of US air patrols. A Bush administration envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, addressed Kurdish and other anti-Hussein Iraqi leaders in northern Iraq yesterday, seeking to reassure them that Washington does not plan to sell them out.

Khalilzad was on a mission to Sulahaddin, just north of Arbil in northern Iraq, where the US-sponsored opposition groups opened a long-delayed meeting just 20 miles from territory under control of Hussein's troops. The meeting, the first all-opposition gathering on Iraqi soil in 11 years, was called to discuss the future of Iraq after Hussein's expected removal. But it quickly focused on the bargain with Turkey and widely discussed US plans to run postwar Iraq with a military government.

In a speech to 54 opposition delegates, Khalilzad said that it was up to Iraqis to choose their post-Hussein leadership and that the US military occupation would last only until a democratic Iraqi government could be organized and take power. But he made no pledges to turn the government over to the Kurdish militias and exile groups whose leaders have campaigned tirelessly against Hussein, with US encouragement, and had hoped to be the logical US choice for Iraq's next leadership.

''None of us want Saddamism without Saddam,'' Khalilzad declared, seeking to allay opposition fears that the Bush administration is looking for another strongman to replace the Iraqi leader.

Khalilzad did not address Turkish intervention directly in his speech. But in a briefing for reporters afterward, he said Turkish troops will enter Iraq in ''coordination'' with invading US forces and leave when they do. ''We are opposed to a unilateral Turkish move here,'' he told reporters after his speech.

Massoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two Kurdish movements that run the autonomous north, said in a speech that the Iraqi opposition rejects intervention by any ''regional power,'' clearly alluding to Turkey. The Kurds, who constitute the most numerous and best-armed element of the US-supported opposition, harbor centuries-old resentment of the Turks and have expressed strong opposition to an occupation.

Mohammed Bakr Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an Iranian-based opposition militia which embraces principally members of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, warned against US domination of Iraq and cautioned a prolonged occupation could provoke ''the sensitivities of religious and patriotic societies.''

US and Turkish officials in Ankara, the Turkish capital, continued to tweak the agreement on northern Iraq, but officials familiar with the talks said almost all disputes have been settled. The leader of Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, predicted Parliament will vote today to approve the US deployment and allow the US military to proceed with its preparations.

The Turkish government fears a Kurdish state in northern Iraq would encourage separatist sentiment among the estimated 12 million Kurds who live in Turkey. For much of the past two decades, the Turkish military has battled Kurdish separatists, who sometimes used northern Iraq as a base for attacks in Turkey.

5. - Turkish Daily News - "Reversing the clock in North-Iraq":

Iraqi Kurds fear Turkey is preparing to challenge Kurdish self rule in the north and the proposed Turkish military presence in the region in a new American-led campaign would be designed to facilitate this.

27 February 2003 / Analysis by Ilnur Cevik

After extensive talks in Ankara with Turkish government and military leaders and with the Iraqi Kurdish leadership in Salahaddin and Suleymaniyeh it is clear that the two sides have opposing agendas which are at the heart of the current frictions between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds...

Turkey has never looked kindly at the self rule of the Kurds led by Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani in their respective regions in northern Iraq ever since the Gulf War. Ankara felt all this was a fait accompli that had to be lived with. But it also felt that this self rule could lead to other things and may even be a prelude to an independent Kurdish state in the region that would eventually be a source of attraction for some secessionist minded Kurds in Turkey.

So the Kurds used the Iraqi bureaucratic structure that existed before the war and built their own system of administration in the areas controlled by the Kurdistan Democracy Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in northern Iraq. Yes, there were rivalries and bitter conflicts which drew in Turkey, the United States as well as regional states like Iran and Syria. Yes, Turkey had to intervene to break up a fight in 1997 between KDP and PUK. But despite such negative developments the Kurds managed to create a viable system of administration that introduced freedoms and liberties for the people of northern Iraq in their regions which they had never experienced before.

They used U.N. funds and their own finances to build the infrastructure of their cities and towns which were left untouched by the Iraqis for decades. They created a semi-democratic system which does not exist anywhere else in the Middle East. Their areas saw relative prosperity that had never been seen in the so-called oil-rich Iraq. It is interesting to note that even in the good old days Iraq did not use its oil wealth to help develop northern Iraq where people still live in mud huts...

So the Iraqi Kurds made major gains with their newly found safe haven that was created by the Americans, the British and the French after the Gulf War when Saddam Hussein attacked the Kurds to punish them for siding with the coalition forces. Turkey gave its blessing for the safe haven and allowed the allied forces to use its Incirlik Air Base in Adana to patrol the skies of the safe haven to protect the Kurds from Saddam's wrath.

But this did not prevent Turkish officials from complaining that they had deep suspicions that the Kurds were intent in declaring an independent state at Turkey's doorstep. The Kurds repeatedly denied this and said while they had such aspirations deep in their hearts they felt the creation of a state was not realistic. It would destroy the territorial integrity of Iraq, an Arab state, and thus draw the enmity of the Arab world. It would be unacceptable to Turkey, Iran and Syria which have their own Kurdish citizens and of course to Iraqi Arabs who would unite forces to destroy such a state.

The Kurds said they are satisfied with their gains of the past 12 years and want to hold on to it. Kurdish leaders Barzani and Talabani in their private conversations with this columnist agree that if and when a new Iraqi administration is set up in the post-Saddam era they will have to give up some of their authority to the central government but they say their current control and privileges in northern Iraq cannot be challenged.

This is exactly the point where Ankara and the Iraqi Kurdish leaders differ. The Iraqi Kurds are suspicious that the circles in Ankara who have been so vocal against Kurdish self-rule in Iraq may now be trying to exploit the system change in Iraq in the post-Saddam period and bring serious restrictions to Kurdish self rule in northern Iraq. They fear that the presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq in a new war would be designed as a challenge to the current system in northern Iraq and that is why there is so much strong reaction from all the Kurdish leaders to suggestions that Turkish troops will enter northern Iraq along with the American invasion force...

Turkish troops have been in northern Iraq in varying numbers ranging from 3,000 to 30,000 in the past 12 years and have never been met with any reaction. Yet, this time it is different. The stakes are high and the prize is: Who controls Iraq in general and northern Iraq in particular. The worry is not whether more Turkish troops enter northern Iraq or not. The worry is will Turkey use its military muscle to impose its will to undermine Kurdish autonomy and self-rule in northern Iraq.

The Iraqi opposition meeting that started Wednesday in Salahaddin is now a scene for some tough bargaining between the Americans who want to set up a transition administration led by their own military personnel while the opposition groups want to control the situation themselves. The Kurds will inevitably raise the question of northern Iraq with the Americans and will get assurances that the clock will not be reversed in northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, we feel Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdish leadership should create a direct line to discuss this issue and iron out their differences instead of being involved in a war of words that is creating new tensions, misunderstandings and resentment on both sides. That was one of the reasons why Turkey, KDP, PUK, the Turkomans and the U.S. set up a joint commission for cooperation and consultations. That commission should be properly activated.

Isn't it unfortunate that a Turkish Foreign Ministry delegation is not present at the Iraqi opposition meeting in Salahaddin?

6. - Reuters - "U.N.'S Annan Says Wants Cyprus Deal in a Week":

NICOSIA / 26 February 2003 / by Michele Kambas

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave rival Greek and Turkish Cypriots a new peace plan on Wednesday in a last ditch bid to reunify the island after almost 30 years of division and gave the two sides a week to respond.

Annan arrived on the east Mediterranean island Wednesday, armed with what diplomats hope is the third and final draft of a complex power-sharing plan designed to bring peace to the island -- a flashpoint in testy relations between NATO allies Greece and Turkey.

Despite mounting odds against a deal, Annan, who earlier visited Greece and Turkey, remained hopeful his latest effort to reunify the island could bring a breakthrough.

"I pray that the leaders in their wisdom will come to an agreement in the coming few days," Annan told reporters after arriving in Cyprus.

The United Nations has indicated it would extend a February 28 deadline for a deal, but not for too long. The deadline was set to give enough time for referenda scheduled on March 30, and for a reunited Cyprus to sign a European Union accession treaty on April 16.

Cyprus and nine central and east European countries are to join the EU in May 2004. Cyprus will join divided or not, but the prospect of admitting a divided island has roused fears it could cement partition.

Annan will stay until late Friday, stressing the importance the United Nations puts on a deal despite mounting tensions over Iraq.

Talks with both sides and Annan were expected to start on Thursday morning.

The eastern Mediterranean island was partitioned along ethnic lines after a 1974 invasion of Turkish troops, triggered by a failed Athens-backed coup to unite Cyprus with Greece.

A Cyprus deal would be based on a largely decentralized bi-zonal confederation, with one area populated largely by Greek Cypriots and the other by Turkish Cypriots.

A draft of the changes made available to Reuters shows the deal would seek to limit the territory under Turkish Cypriot administration to 28.2 percent of the island from 36 percent held today. The earlier draft suggested the Turkish Cypriots would get 28.6 percent.

That arrangement would allow some 92,000 Greek Cypriot refugees to return to their former homes and displace around 40,000 Turkish Cypriots and Turks.

It also seeks to limit the quota of Greek Cypriot resettlement in the Turkish Cypriot area to 21 percent of the total population from 28 percent in the earlier text.