9 January 2003

1. "KADEK: We are waiting for a statement", KADEK Presidential Council member Murat Karayilan asked for the Turkish state to deliver a statement about KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan. Karayilan called on the KADEK activists and sympathizers to make actions in case that Ocalan would not be allowed to see his lawyers and family members today (yesterday).

2. "Trial put off for 13 who smuggled Kurdish leader Ocalan into Greece", an Athens court on Wednesday delayed the opening of a trial of 13 Greeks and Kurds accused of helping to smuggle Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan into Greece in 1999, while he was on the run from Turkey.

3. "Honeymoon for Turkish government over", the widespread goodwill enjoyed by Turkey's newly elected Justice and Development party (AKP) appears to be drawing to a close.

4. "U.S. Suffers From Bad Timing In Request for Turkey's Help", the Turkish government's delay in deciding whether to host U.S. troops for a possible invasion of Iraq mainly reflects deep skepticism among Turks that such a conflict would benefit their country politically or economically. But the hesitation is reinforced, analysts and diplomats here said, by the timing of the U.S. request and the inexperience of the new Turkish government fielding it.

5. "Turkish army chief accuses government of supporting Islamic activism", the head of the Turkish army, which enforces secular rule in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation and wields immense political power, has accused the new government of encouraging Islamic activism.

6. "Euro parliament's biggest group opposes Turkish entry in EU", the leader of the biggest political grouping in the European Parliament said Wednesday that most of its members oppose Turkish membership of the EU.

1. - Kurdish Observer - "KADEK: We are waiting for a statement":

KADEK Presidential Council member Murat Karayilan asked for the Turkish state to deliver a statement about KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan. Karayilan called on the KADEK activists and sympathizers to make actions in case that Ocalan would not be allowed to see his lawyers and family members today (yesterday).

MHA/FRANKFURT / 8 January 2003

KADEK Presidential Council member Murat Karayilan stated that they had not been able to be informed about the general state of their president Abdullah Ocalan for 5 weeks and been worried about him. “The Turkish state wants to make the freedom struggle of the Kurdish people and its leadership a target, believing that the international powers and USA in special are dependent upon it” said Karayilan.

“We are worried about him”

Karayilan asked for the international powers and organisations to intervene the isolation of KADEK President Ocalan. Karayilan continued with following words: “It is not a right policy for Turkey but it is extremely dangerous for the Kurdish people and for people living in North Kurdistan especially. Our leader has been under isolation for 4 months. We consider it being related with this policy. Our leader was an international detainee, that is he was not arrested by the Turkish security forces. International forces did it. Now the Turkish state makes him a target in order to get gains from the international process. And in it the international powers have responsibility. We call on them to should their responsibilities. We do not have any information about him for the last 5 weeks. We are very worried. The Turkish state must make a statement about his situation. Tomorrow (today) is his legal visiting day, in case that he is not allowed to see his lawyers or family members or any statement is made, it is clear that our worries will increase seriously.”

“People must make actions”

Karayilan pointed out that they were waiting for a statement from the Turkish state urgently and called on the people to make actions. Not they but the Turkish state would be responsible for all the negative consequences that would result from this situation, said he.

Karayilan continued with words to the effect: “If there is no visit tomorrow people must make actions in order to attract attention of the international organisations to the problem. Some organisations must be occupied in order to make them make statement. Because the seriousness of the situation is too clear. Nobody has seen him for 5 weeks. We do not know if he lives or not. Our people is extremely worried, they cannot put up with it anymore. Insensitivity of the international organisations is well-known. Therefore we must call on them to be more sensitive and to make more efficient efforts.”

2. - AFP - "Trial put off for 13 who smuggled Kurdish leader Ocalan into Greece":

ATHENS / 8 January 2002

An Athens court on Wednesday delayed the opening of a trial of 13 Greeks and Kurds accused of helping to smuggle Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan into Greece in 1999, while he was on the run from Turkey.

No date was given for the beginning of the trial, which was also to try Ocalan in absentia for illegally entering the country. Ocalan, who led the banned militant separatist Kurdish organization, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is currently serving a life sentence in a Turkish maximum security prison.

He was initially sentenced to death by a Turkish court in June 1999 for treason and separatism, but the sentence was later commuted to life. The court agreed to a request from Ocalan's lawyer to suspend the trial until Ocalan "is able to sign a proxy that will allow him to attend the trial", judicial sources said.

The 10 Greek defendants were present on Wednesday, including former admiral Antonis Naxakis, charged with an "offense against the country's international peace," and the writer Stavroula Vassilopoulou-Damianakou and two former police officers, charged with complicity in the smuggling.

Ocalan is believed to have fled to Greece on the night of January 28-29, 1999, after being expelled from his long-standing safe haven in Damascus, Syria, in the face of Turkish threats of military action.

His flight from Syria took him to Russia and Italy and then Greece before he was taken to Kenya by Greek security forces, where he was eventually seized in a security swoop by Turkish agents.

The revelation that Ocalan was taken to Kenya by Greek agents caused a political storm in Greece that brought about the fall of three senior ministers.

3. - The Financial Times - "Honeymoon for Turkish government over":

ANKARA / 9 January 2003 / by Leyla Boulton in Ankara

The widespread goodwill enjoyed by Turkey's newly elected Justice and Development party (AKP) appears to be drawing to a close.

"The honeymoon is over," said Tolga Ediz, analyst at Lehman Brothers in London after interest rates had inched upwards on Tuesday and the Turkish lira took a fresh knock following a disappointing debt auction.

Like other financial analysts, Mr Ediz cited among other problems the debt-ridden government's decision last week to increase spending on pensions by $2bn this year without clarifying where the additional funds would come from.

Stung by the market's reaction, and after a meeting with the central bank governor and senior economic officials, Abdullah Gul, the prime minister, moved yesterday to repair the damage. He said the government was fully committed to the fiscal discipline underlying Turkey's $16bn rescue pact with the International Monetary Fund.

Specifically, he said the government would achieve a tough 6.5 per cent primary surplus (revenues over expenditure before interest payments) in 2003. Revenue-raising measures include a new consumption tax enacted yesterday and a $1.5bn windfall from a tax amnesty. Mr Gul added that the government's plans to sell off state enterprises this year would be published by the end of this week.

The AKP's election two months ago as Turkey's first single-party government in 15 years was greeted by financial markets with a big vote of confidence. Interest rates tumbled 20 percentage points from a high of 70 per cent in the political turmoil triggered by the previous three-party coalition government's collapse last year. But by last night, interest rates were edging back up to nearly 60 per cent.

The confusion over the economy has contrasted with what is widely seen as the AKP's impressive performance on foreign policy. The difference is due mainly to the personal role of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the AKP leader who cannot become prime minister until he enters parliament and who was barred from standing after a conviction for inciting religious hatred.

The shift in market sentiment is mostly to do with investor nervousness over the AKP's economic policies, exacerbated by increasing talk in the international community of an imminent war in neighbouring Iraq.

Meanwhile, defending the pension rise, Mr Erdogan said the party was "restoring social peace to Turkey" after a strong showing by ultra- nationalists in the election reflected bitterness following the financial crisis in 2001. While a 6.5 per cent primary surplus target is not incompatible with a more caring social policy, analysts say that Ankara must take tough decisions quickly to cut expenditure elsewhere.

"They've been enjoying more of a honeymoon than anyone expected, but now that it is coming to an end they've got to get going and show they intend to do the right thing," said one western official. The economic programme has already proved successful, contributing to unexpectedly strong growth of 6.5 per cent last year and lower-than-expected inflation at 30 per cent.

But as Mr Gul conceded, the final test of whether the government can put its money where its mouth is comes at the end of this month, when it must produce a budget for 2003. The government took a step in that direction this week when it announced plans to cut spending on medicine, an area known to be plagued by corruption and waste.

Taking on vested interests and corruption in the state bureaucracy - as the government has promised to do - will not be easy.

Further doubts have been raised by Mr Erdogan's stated intention to revise a law which in theory came into effect on January 1 to combat corruption in public procurement. The new system is also keenly backed by the EU, World Bank, and the IMF. In response to a storm of criticism in the Turkish media, Mr Erdogan said earlier this week that he only wanted to ensure more access to contracts for small businesses as well as to accelerate tender procedures.

In an interview, Sener Akkaynak, head of the new public procurement board, whose role is to ensure tenders are conducted according to the new rules, countered yesterday that the 110-day tender period cited by Mr Erdogan applied only to special and relatively rare contracts involving high technology.

He added that "all over the world", bigger companies with a track record played a prominent role in construction contracts, with smaller companies serving as subcontractors.

4. - The Washington Post - "U.S. Suffers From Bad Timing In Request for Turkey's Help":

ANKARA / 9 January 2003 / by Karl Vick

The Turkish government's delay in deciding whether to host U.S. troops for a possible invasion of Iraq mainly reflects deep skepticism among Turks that such a conflict would benefit their country politically or economically. But the hesitation is reinforced, analysts and diplomats here said, by the timing of the U.S. request and the inexperience of the new Turkish government fielding it.

Turks at all levels of society remember the economic setback they suffered as a result of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when Iraq, one of their main trading partners, came under sanctions. In addition, Turkish officials and military officers fear that Iraqi Kurds could take advantage of a conflict to reinforce the autonomy they enjoy in northern Iraq, setting a troubling separatist example for Turkey's own Kurdish minority.

A nationwide poll released last week found that 88 percent of Turks oppose a new war on the southeastern border and almost two out of three believe that Turkey should stay out of it if there is one. "The sensitivity of the Turkish public is very high," said Fehmi Koru, an analyst in Ankara, Turkey's capital. "There's no room to maneuver."

The Pentagon has asked Turkey for bases to house about 80,000 U.S. troops near Turkey's 250-mile border with Iraq, plus use of Turkish airfields and ports. It is an ambitious request, and it fell to a new Turkish government that took office only in mid-November. "It's not easy taking the country into war a month after taking over the government," said Egemen Bagis, a member of parliament in the ruling Justice and Development Party.

It is especially hard for Justice and Development. Although the party has roots in political Islam, it was swept into office on a populist platform, promising to shake Turkish politics out of a recent tradition of elitism and corruption that many Turks see as a cause of the financial collapse that has cast millions of Turks out of work since 2001.

But rather than moving to provide the economic relief it promised in its campaign, the new government was immediately confronted with three major foreign policy questions: Turkey's troubled candidacy for membership in the European Union, a deadline in February for a Cyprus settlement and the looming war in Iraq.

Turkish foreign policy is traditionally controlled by what is called the "deep state," generals and senior bureaucrats who remain in power as elected governments come and go. But the European Union made clear that Turkey's generals -- who have taken power outright three times since 1960 -- must move out of politics if the country is serious about qualifying for membership in a club of genuinely democratic nations. So rather than quietly handling the U.S. request for bases, the Turkish general staff this week briefed lawmakers and urged them to make a "political decision."

"That's hard to criticize when the EU and everyone is telling the Turks that the military has to stay out of politics," said a diplomat familiar with war planning. "But unfortunately the timeline is such that it's frustrating our need for a quick decision."

The government has delayed a vote on the bases until after Jan. 27, when the U.N. Security Council is due to receive a report from inspectors scouring Iraq for evidence it has continued developing weapons of mass destruction. But U.S. officials say that it may be too late by then to prepare bases for the troops.

The Pentagon would hesitate to spend $200 million to $300 million on upgrading Turkish bases for U.S. troops without an assurance from Turkey's Grand National Assembly that it would vote to allow in the foreign troops. And diplomats have said they are troubled by the performance of Justice and Development leaders who voice general support for U.S. objectives but show no sign of steering public opinion that way.

Particularly dismaying to the United States, according to diplomats and analysts, is the government's emphasis on the economic fallout Turkey might face because of the fighting without mentioning the consequences of remaining on the sidelines. The United States is offering economic aid worth as much as $14 billion, but the Turkish public is not being told that Congress is unlikely to vote the money unless Turkey's parliament votes to open the bases.

Koru, a columnist for the Muslim-oriented Yeni Safak paper, agreed that the link between aid and cooperation has not been made to the public. "This is a misconception on the part of the Turkish public," he said. "Nobody talks about the Congress."

But even if the aid connection sinks in, Koru said, the United States still must overcome concerns that temporary bases would become permanent U.S. installations, a concern diplomats call realistic.

"The big problem is the lack of trust between the Americans and the Turks, despite the fact we've been allies since 1946," said Mensur Akgun, an analyst at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, a respected Istanbul research organization. "Traditionally this country has been afraid of great powers, especially when they behave unilaterally."

Turkish memories, analysts said, are nearly as long as Turkish history -- a point brought home today during a visit by Geoff Hoon, the British defense minister. In Ankara reportedly to discuss basing British forces on Turkish soil, Hoon was repeatedly reminded that the last time British troops were in Turkey was for partitioning the Ottoman Empire after World War I, creating what one member of parliament termed "historic sensitivities regarding a British troop presence."

5. - AFP - "Turkish army chief accuses government of supporting Islamic activism":

ANKARA / 9 January 2003

The head of the Turkish army, which enforces secular rule in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation and wields immense political power, has accused the new government of encouraging Islamic activism.

General Hilmi Ozkok late Wednesday accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of encouraging soldiers "involved in fundamentalist activities" and pledging to lift the ban on women wearing Islamic headscarves in public.

The ruling AKP, which scored a landslide victory in Turkey's general election two months ago, has Islamic roots but says it has foresworn its Islamist origins for a more centre-right agenda. Its comments on army practices and bid to relax the headscarf ban have nevertheless sparked a furious reaction from the military, which regularly voices its views on domestic and foreign security issues. In a rare comment to reporters, Ozkok said Islamic extremism was one of the most serious threats to Turkey's secular system and justified the army's annual purge of military personnel it found guilty of Islamic activism.

The army had developed "defence mechanisms (against) Islamic infiltration", he explained, saying Prime Minister Abdullah Gul had been wrong to oppose elements of the system. Last week Turkey's supreme military council sacked seven officers for Islamic activities. Military personnel targeted in such purges have no right of appeal and Gul, who signed last week's verdict but added a written reservation, said his government would seek to amend the law so those expelled could contest their dismissal.

Ozkok said Gul's planned move had "no legal foundation" and "ran counter to the administration's responsibility" of upholding the country's laws. He also attacked the AKP for seeking to relax the ban on women wearing headscarves in universities and public offices.

"We should not be expected to tolerate the use of the headscarf as a political symbol to erode republican values," he warned. The AKP vowed in its election campaign to tackle a problem that has led many women to abandon or forego university studies rather than give up their headscarves. The ban on wearing headscarves in public was tightened in 1997, when the army and pro-secular hierarchy in Turkey forced the government of Islamist prime minister Necmettin Erbakan to resign after only one year in power.

Parliament speaker Bulent Arinc, a prominent member of the AKP, sparked uproar in the press shortly after the November election when his headscarf-wearing wife accompanied him to the airport to see President Ahmet Necdet Sezer off on a foreign trip. On Wednesday the head of the parliament's important defence committee said he was resigning after press allegations that he had been sacked from the army in 1997 for Islamic activism. Former officer Ramazan Toprak, a 42-year-old AKP member of parliament, gave no reason for his departure but attacked the "slur campaign" he said had been waged against him.

6. - AFP - "Euro parliament's biggest group opposes Turkish entry in EU":

BRUSSELS / 8 January 2003

The leader of the biggest political grouping in the European Parliament said Wednesday that most of its members oppose Turkish membership of the EU.

"The majority view of our group is that Turkey should not become a member of the Union," European People's Party (EPP) chairman Hans-Gert Poettering told a news conference. "Among the countries in Europe, not all of them should inevitably become members of the Union," the German Christian Democrat said as he outlined the EPP's priorities for 2003.

At a summit in Copenhagen last month that agreed to enlarge the EU from 15 to 25 members, EU leaders put off a decision on Turkey's long-running drive to join the Western bloc until December 2004. The Muslim-majority country has been an EU candidate since 1999 but has still to win a date to launch accession talks.

Poettering said the EU should debate the possibility of "privileged partnerships" with countries such as Turkey and Russia that stop short of full membership. With 232 deputies out of a total of 626 seats, the EPP is the biggest faction in the European Parliament.