14 May 2003

1. "Turkish optimism fades away", single-party regime fails to hype economy as U.S. ties falter.

2. "EP calls on Turkey to put army under civilian control", the European Parliaments' Foreign Affairs Committee has voiced concern over the army's "excessive role" in Turkey, which is seen as slowing down its development towards a democratic and pluralist system.

3. "MEPs say Turkey not yet fulfilling EU criteria", Turkey in the EU? Still a way to go, MEPs said.

4. "All Cyprus Trade Union Forum: Latest Cypriot developments not a solution", the Permanent Committee of the All Cyprus Trade Union Forum, which met today in Nicosia, welcomes the government's measures to support the Turkish Cypriots, as well as the easing of restrictions on the free movement of citizens on the island, but notes that these developments cannot be considered as a solution to the Cyprus problem.

5. "Kurds' Bid for Stake in Oil Firms Rebuffed", removing Baathists Takes Backseat to Scaling Up Iraqi Petroleum Output.

6. "Kurds ask Turkish peacekeepers to leave north Iraq", the Iraqi Kurdish parliament has passed a resolution asking Turkish peacekeepers to leave northern Iraq where they have been deployed since 1996 to curb internecine fighting, a Kurdish official said on Tuesday.

1. - The Los Angeles Times - "Turkish optimism fades away":

Single-party regime fails to hype economy as U.S. ties falter

ISTANBUL / 14 May 2003 / by Amberin Zaman

Six months ago, voters angered by decades of corruption and mismanagement swept the novice Justice and Development Party into office, hoping that Turkey's first single-party government in 15 years could end a recession that had left 2 million people jobless.

Despite qualms over the party's Islamist roots, Western-oriented business leaders welcomed the result.

Financial markets soared, interest rates fell and this predominately Muslim country of 67 million people seemed ready to rise to its economic potential.

But foreign-policy setbacks and rising tensions between the new government and the nation's armed forces have eroded much of that optimism.

"Today there are few signs that they can fix the economy or that they have even devised a policy to do so," said Cuneyt Ulsever, a liberal economist and commentator for the newspaper Hurriyet.

Gloom has spread across boardrooms in the country's financial capital since parliament rejected a bill that would have enabled the United States to deploy combat troops in Turkey for the attack on Iraq.

Turks opposed to the war were delighted by the March 1 vote, but relations with the country's most powerful ally were badly damaged.

So were Turkey's finances when the Bush administration withdrew $6 billion in conditional grants that would have helped cushion the effects of the war next door.

Any hope that the loss would be offset by financial help from European nations that opposed the war dimmed when the government refused in March to sign off on a U.N. plan to reunite the island of Cyprus.

The island is divided between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot governments. European leaders saw Turkey's rebuff as an obstacle to its bid to join the European Union, which has accepted Cyprus' Greek government as a member.

"We were counting on the (U.S.) cash to roll over our debt," said Reha Denemec, a Justice and Development lawmaker and adviser to the government on economic policy. "Losing it was a big blow."

Turkey's total debt stands at $200 billion. With $93.4 billion worth of debt repayments due this year, "the chief worry is whether the government can continue to repay its debt by successfully lowering interest rates," said Atif Cezairli, the Istanbul-based head of research for the Dutch bank ING.

That, in turn, hinges on whether the government can rebuild confidence in the markets.

"The upside of the crisis with America is that it's forcing the government to learn to stand on its own feet," said Mustafa Koc, chairman of Turkey's largest industrial conglomerate, Koc Holdings.

The government has felt obliged to abandon some populist campaign promises. By agreeing to raise taxes and slash public spending, it persuaded the International Monetary Fund late last month to disburse a long-delayed $703 million loan that is part of a three-year bailout package worth $16 billion.

And despite the chill in ties, the Bush administration has invited Turkey to bid for contracts to rebuild Iraq and has secured congressional approval for a $1-billion grant to shore up the Turkish economy. The money can be used to leverage loans totaling $8 billion.

The relatively quick end of the war has boosted expectations that tens of thousands of Western tourists who had cancelled bookings for vacations in Turkey will come after all, bringing needed foreign currency.

"Those who predicted disaster have been proven wrong," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said recently, following news that annual interest rates had fallen back to a post-election low of around 50 percent.

He may have spoken too soon. Latent tension between the ruling party and the armed forces, self-appointed guardians of Turkey's secularist traditions, is rising, threatening the kind of political instability that has plagued the country in the past.

2. - IRNA - "EP calls on Turkey to put army under civilian control":

BRUSSELS / 14 May 2003

The European Parliaments' Foreign Affairs Committee has voiced concern over the army's "excessive role" in Turkey, which is seen as slowing down its development towards a democratic and pluralist system.

MEPs stressed the need for comprehensive state reform and called on the Turkish government to set up a new political and constitutional system which guarantees the principles of a secular system and civilian control over the military, said an EP announcement Tuesday.

The committee adopted a report by a Dutch MEP, Arie Oostlander, that said the National Security Council should in the long term be abolished in its current form and position, while military representatives should withdraw from civilian bodies such as the High Council on Education and the audio-visual media.


The Turkish Parliament should have full control over the military budget. The report denies that the Judaeo-Christian and humanist culture of Europe is a prerequisite for EU membership but only a "relaxed attitude to Islam and to religion in general."


MEPs urged Turkey to cooperate with its neighboring countries Iran, Syria and Iraq in order to safeguard its borders "while enabling citizens of Kurdish origin in the different countries to develop their human, cultural and economic relations."

They called on Turkey to withdraw its troops from northern Cyprus and thus pave the way for reunification of the island, and to promote good neighborliness with Armenia.

MEPs welcomed the fact that Turkey has made good progress since October 2001 towards fulfilling the political criteria for EU membership, but said that the conditions for the opening of accession negotiations were not yet in place.

Under Article 49 of the EU Treaty, the accession of any new country requires the assent of the European Parliament.

3. - EUOBSERVER - "MEPs say Turkey not yet fulfilling EU criteria":

Turkey in the EU? Still a way to go, MEPs said

STRASBOURG / 13 May 2003

Turkey's prospective EU membership was struck a blow by MEPs yesterday, Monday 12 May, as they stated that the conditions for the opening of accession negotiations with Turkey are not yet in place.

A report adopted by the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee meeting in Strasbourg - after tough discussions and almost 300 amendments to the original draft - urges Turkey to take the necessary steps in the protection of human rights, to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria and to finally eradicate torture practices.

The report adds that it is crucial for Turkey to reform its judicial system and expressed concern about the dominant position the army still occupies within the Turkish state and the Turkish society. The report stressed that measures need to be taken to limit the role of the army to strictly military tasks.

Turkey is also being encouraged to strengthen the principle of the primacy of international law over national law, especially in cases where there are substantial differences relating to respect for human rights and the rule of law. This is considered "necessary in order for Turkey to be brought more closely in line with the standards prevailing in the Member States of the European Union".

The Cyprus issue

Cyprus's entry into the EU is also a major barrier to Turkey's accession, as it is still illegally occupying the northern part of the island.

The MEPs stated that a solution to the Cyprus issue "is of vital importance to relations between the EU and Turkey", and urged a solution based on the plan proposed by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan.

4. - BBC Monitoring Service - "All Cyprus Trade Union Forum: Latest Cypriot developments not a solution":

NICOSIA / 13 May 2003

The Permanent Committee of the All Cyprus Trade Union Forum, which met today in Nicosia, welcomes the government's measures to support the Turkish Cypriots, as well as the easing of restrictions on the free movement of citizens on the island, but notes that these developments cannot be considered as a solution to the Cyprus problem.

In a press release, the committee says that "the All Cyprus Trade Union Forum demands the lifting of all restrictions on the freedom of movement and underlines its decisive claim for immediate lifting of the obligation of Greek Cypriots to show their passports". The forum comprises all Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot trade unions.

The committee "welcomes the partial lifting of restrictions on movement for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, as well as the measures aiming at supporting the Turkish Cypriot community, and declares its readiness to facilitate their implementation".

It furthermore "declares its firm evaluation that though the latest measures are a welcome development, in no case can they be considered as a solution to the Cyprus problem, which divides the country and the people, and calls on all parties involved to work for an early activation of the processes which will lead to a lasting, viable and functional solution, based on the UN resolutions and the rulings of the acquis communautaire".

The committee "reaffirms its adherence to the unanimous decisions of the All Cyprus Trade Union Forums for a solution of the Cyprus problem, which will safeguard unitary conditions for all the working people of Cyprus".

It also decided "to reactivate the preparations for the Fourth All Cyprus Trade Union Forum, which is provisionally scheduled for the period of next September-October, will last for three days and will be held on both sides".

"The trade unions will continue their collective efforts to get absolute freedom of movement and unobstructed meeting of trade unionists in their programme of activities," the press release concludes.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Last month, the Turkish occupation regime announced the easing of restrictions on the free movement of citizens and demands of the Greek Cypriots to present their passports to cross the divide. A few days later, the government announced a package of measures it had been examining for a while now to support Turkish Cypriots.

Source: Cyprus News Agency, Nicosia, in English 1655 gmt 13 May 03

5. - The Washington Post - "Kurds' Bid for Stake in Oil Firms Rebuffed":

Removing Baathists Takes Backseat to Scaling Up Iraqi Petroleum Output

KIRKUK / 14 May 2003 / by Peter S. Goodman

U.S. authorities rejected a bid by ethnic Kurds for a stake in the state oil giants of northern Iraq -- the dominant force in the local economy -- preferring to retain existing managers and minimize disruption to resume large-volume production as quickly as possible, according to Kurdish and U.S. officials.

Citing the same goal, U.S. officials have also largely postponed plans to remove former high-level members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from oil jobs. The U.S. Army commander for the region did dismiss the former director general of a large company that distributes gasoline after he appeared on a blacklist of former Baathists compiled by U.S. intelligence, a spokesman confirmed. But workers and Kurdish party leaders in Kirkuk complain that the old Baath structure remains largely intact, with many oil divisions still filled with the party's people.

The American focus on oil production first and new leadership later has upset Kurdish leaders, who had hoped the end of Hussein's regime and the arrival of their long-time allies would gain them entree into the political system and the oil industry.

The Kurds and other ethnic minorities have achieved significant political influence through a new city council made up of representatives from each of the region's major ethnic groups -- Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians. But one of the two Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was unsuccessful when it pressed the Americans at a recent meeting to establish a similarly balanced council to oversee the oil industry.

"We're not satisfied," said Ramadhan Rasheed, the party's deputy director. "The oil industry is controlled by these old Baathists. Many have come back and hold very sensitive positions in the oil industry. They are very dangerous, very serious. They continue to meet in secret. They are capable of causing many problems."

As U.S. officials present it, the future composition of the state oil companies is an issue for the Iraqis to sort out for themselves, after a new government is in place. They portray their mission as rebuilding the industry to its prewar state in order to produce gasoline and fuel oil now in critically short supply, while eventually resuming exports to fund Iraq's government.

U.S. officials say Baath Party leaders with direct responsibility for past crimes must be rooted out immediately. But in recent decades, any Iraqi desiring a decent job or education was virtually required to join the party, and casting them all out would leave hardly anyone to run the oil industry, officials say.

"It is unacceptable to allow senior Baath Party members to occupy positions of leadership and influence with the oil companies," said Maj. Rob Gowan, spokesman for the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade, which controls the area. "However, there are some members who were affiliated with the Baath who will be allowed to work."

Throughout Iraq, battles over control are unfolding as long-repressed groups such as Shiite Muslims in the south and Kurds and Turkmen in the north seek a stake in the future. But battles over Iraq's oil industry have been particularly charged. The Kurdish groups say they have no designs themselves on the fields around Kirkuk, which produce 40 percent of the country's oil. Such a development could well bring military action from Turkey, whose government fears that Iraqi Kurds with oil could finance Kurdish resistance groups inside Turkey. The Kurds say they only want a new system that supplies them a fair opportunity to get jobs and contracts.

Hussein systematically excluded the Kurds, who set up an essentially separate state in the northern part of the country, aided by a U.S. enforced zone barring Iraqi military flights. Hussein moved Arabs into the Kirkuk area and forced Kurds out, ensuring that Arabs got almost all of the oil jobs -- a trend not hindered by the fact that Arabs are more likely to bring engineering credentials from prestigious universities. Of the roughly 10,000 people who now work at North Oil Co., no more than six are Kurdish, according to company officials.

Omer Amin, a local Kurd, tried to get a job at North Oil in 1991 after the death of his father, who had worked there as a gardener. North Oil had a policy that children could assume their parent's jobs as a way to keep company-provided housing. But even though Amin held a degree in mechanical engineering from the Kirkuk Institute of Technology and was willing to take any job, he was repeatedly turned away, he said. Amin and his mother, brother and sister had to give up their rent-free, three-room home, moving into a one-bedroom house for which they now must pay. He works as a clerk in a supermarket.

"My family said, 'Don't even bother, because you are a Kurd,' " Amin recalled. "I looked for any job, even a street-sweeper, just to take care of the family. But the company said they could not get approval from the oil ministry to hire me."

The American groups now tasked with rebuilding the oil infrastructure -- the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its contractor, Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. -- say they are trying to work around the politics, focusing on the pragmatic tasks of fixing what is broken.

"The reality is the regime is gone and you have all these groups trying to get a piece of what comes next," said Capt. John Connor, with the Army Corps of Engineers. "We're here to facilitate the pumping of oil. All these other issues are things the Iraqis will have to work out for themselves. Maybe it will work out, and maybe it won't."

6. - Reuters - "Kurds ask Turkish peacekeepers to leave north Iraq":

ARBIL / 14 May 2003 / by Daren Butler

The Iraqi Kurdish parliament has passed a resolution asking Turkish peacekeepers to leave northern Iraq where they have been deployed since 1996 to curb internecine fighting, a Kurdish official said on Tuesday.

Turkish peacekeepers entered the enclave under the supervision of Britain and the United States, which brokered a 1996 ceasefire between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Kurdish sources have said the United States fears Turkey's military presence in the north could spark tension with Kurds after the war that deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

A KDP spokesman who asked that his name not be used said the regional Kurdish parliament on Monday voted unanimously to ask the 800-man Turkish peace monitoring force (PMF) to withdraw.

"The PMF did a good job when there was fighting between the PUK and the KDP. But since 1997 there has been no fighting, so there is no need for them to stay," the official said.

"We thank them for their services and good will but it is time for them to get out of the country," he said, adding that Kurdish authorities would not use force to remove them.

Besides the peacekeepers, Turkey also keeps a few thousand troops in northern Iraq along its border to pursue Turkish Kurdish rebels based there.

The rival KDP and PUK have run the mainly Kurdish north since wresting control from Baghdad in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War, but their infighting plagued the region in the mid-1990s.

Relations between the two groups have warmed considerably, and their "peshmerga" fighters backed the United States in its war to topple Saddam this year.

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

KDP leader Massoud Barzani, backed by Saddam's armoured forces, in August 1996 ousted PUK fighters from Arbil, now the regional capital where their parliament is based. The two sides signed a Washington-brokered ceasefire two months later.

The KDP spokesman said the United States and Britain had formed the PMF but it had since become a purely Turkish force.

Turkish soldiers in green uniform and blue caps at their white-washed barracks in Arbil declined to comment and directed journalists to authorities in Ankara.

An official at the military General Staff in Ankara said it had not received any request to pull out its peacekeepers.

Asked what Kurdish authorities would do if Turkey refused to leave, the KDP spokesman said: "For sure no force will be used."

NATO ally Turkey considers northern Iraq part of its sphere of influence and has nervously watched for signs Iraqi Kurds could use the U.S.-led war to break away from Baghdad and form a new state, potentially sparking separatism among its own Kurds.

Iraqi Kurds deny statehood is their aim, and Washington has said territorial integrity should be preserved in post-war Iraq.

Muslim Turkey refused to allow U.S. forces to stage attacks on Iraq from Turkish soil during the campaign against Baghdad, souring relations with its traditional close ally.

(Additional reporting by Ferit Demir and Ayla Jean Yackley in Turkey)