11 March 2004

1. "The military is spying on Turkey's citizens", a controversial intelligence collection program has caused outrage among human rights leaders who claim 'the military has no legal right to monitor innocent people ... the Chief of Staff or the Prime Minister should be held responsible'

2. "Patriotic demonstrations rock Iranian-occupied Kurdistan", large pan-Kurdish demonstrations have taken place in eastern (Iranian-occupied) Kurdistan in recent days.

3. "If this war has a victor, it is the Kurds", they have gained territory and seized control of Iraq's largest oil field.

4. "Kurds sense chance to shine", Iraq's non-Arabs anxious to secure future of prosperity.

5. "Cyprus talks still flounder as deadline nears", talks between Cyprus's Greek and Turkish leaders still floundered Wednesday, with each sniping at the other, as a top European Union official voiced alarm that the May 1 deadline for a reunited island to join the bloc might be missed.

6. "Turks hope Greece stays course", while newly elected Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis promised a "new start for all Greeks", many Turks are hoping a new government in Athens will mean anything but change.

1. - Turkish Daily News - "The military is spying on Turkey's citizens":

A controversial intelligence collection program has caused outrage among human rights leaders who claim 'the military has no legal right to monitor innocent people ... the Chief of Staff or the Prime Minister should be held responsible'

ANKARA / 11 March 2004 / by Salih Efe

In response to an initiative by the Turkish military to monitor and collect intelligence on a multitude of minorities and groups, the leaders of two major human rights organizations have both claimed this program is reminscent of the activities that instigated coups in 1980 and 1997.

The Turkish Land Forces Command (KKK) sent a letter to military centers and local governors in January asking them to collect information on certain minorities and groups in the society who carry out "divisive and destructive activities" in Turkey.

Along with the letter, the KKK also sent a text detailing the "Gathering Information Plan for 2004," which contained 96 questions to be answered on the potential suspects and groups.

These groups are minorities and those who consider themselves minorities (Circassians, Romans, Abkhasians, Albanians and Bosnians), high society groups, groups linked to artists, children of well-to-do families, individuals known to support the U.S. and the EU, religious orders, Satanists, Ku Klux Klan, Mason Lodges, internet groups, sex, drugs and meditation groups, etc.

The letter also asked the local governors to report on minorities' local language courses, radio-TV stations, those who carry out fundamentalist religious activities and those who have links with separatist parties. The report also asked the governors to pay attention to the pro-separatist TV stations such as Med TV, Mesopotamia TV and CTV.

Following this directive, the Istanbul Second Armed Brigade Command sent a letter to Kadikoy, Maltepe, Kartal and Sultanbeyli administrators and some army centers, asking them to register certain individuals and groups.

The KKK asked the local administrator and district army commanders to submit information every three months. The army wants these groups to be investigated, their associates and other linked groups to be known, their financial dealings and whether they had any intention of infiltrating the state or the army.

The KKK also asked local governors and the military centers to include authors and writers and philosophical groups whose aims are not determined clearly yet but that may be working against Turkey. Among the people who should be put in the intelligence report are those that are pro-EU and pro-U.S., people who see themselves being above and beyond national values, stated daily Hurriyet.

Human rights NGOs react harshly

Talking to the Turkish Daily News, Husnu Ondul, president of the Human Rights Association (IHD), reacted harshly against this military intelligence gathering operation, stating that military directives like this have no place in a democracy.

"This way of seeing citizens as potential enemies is only seen in the militarist-autocratic systems. These kind of acts are planned and committed by a sector of the state that aims to halt the rapid democratization process taking place within the society and the state," stated Ondul.

"This is another way of revealing the will to repeat the infamous Feb. 28 postmodern military coup in 1997. These apparatuses of state indeed are trying to divide its own citizens by ethnic background or political opinions while claiming that it's working for the unity of people and the state. Those people or bureaucrats see all of the democratic-minded people in Turkey as the enemy of the state. This is very wrong and dangerous for peace and harmony in Turkey."

"However, the Turkish people will overcome such problems. The Turkish people demand democracy with high standards, not democracy in this Turkish way. This kind of attempt, regardless of where it comes from, will result in failure," concluded Ondul.

Yilmaz Ensaroglu, the president of Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed People (MAZLUM-DER) reacted even more strongly than Ondul. Ensaroglu stated "that this is another shame for Turkey. This act proves once more that there are still some minds in the Turkish government that have the mentality of those who instigated the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup. During that military coup thousands of innocent people were detained, tortured and finally forced to flee Turkey based on this kind of illegal registration by the military and intelligence."

"We cannot imagine such acts occuring while the country is on the right track for democratization and the EU process. Military officers and local governors have no legal rights to monitor innocent people and register them illegally as separatist or pro EU-U.S., or pro-religion and so on. Indeed, only the Chief of Staff or the Prime Minister should be responsible for such acts. They are the ones who should be blamed and held liable, because there cannot be such acts in a country that claims to cherish the rule of law and democracy," stated Ensaroglu.

2. - KurdishMedia.com - "Patriotic demonstrations rock Iranian-occupied Kurdistan":

Large pan-Kurdish demonstrations have taken place in eastern (Iranian-occupied) Kurdistan in recent days

East Kurdistan / London / 10 March 2004 / by Agit Can

After the signing of the new Iraqi constitution, which specifically recognized the establishment of a Kurdish federal unit with an explicitly Kurdish government in Article 53, spontaneous pan-Kurdish demonstrations broke out in various cities throughout eastern Kurdistan, including Mahabad, Sanandaj, Mariwan, Bana, and Sardasht. Crowds of Kurds took to the streets to raise Kurdistan flags and sing the Kurdish national anthem.

In some cities, these demonstrations lasted until midnight. According to the estimates of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), there were approximately 50,000 involved in the demonstration in Mahabad and 10,000 in Mariwan.

The most sizable demonstration took place in Mahabad, where a group of demonstrators visited the grave of Qazi Mohammed. A major incident took place in Mariwan, where demonstrators toppled a statue erected by the Islamic regime of a young man who blew himself up during the Iran-Iraq war. Supporters of the regime believed that this young suicide bomber was a model of patriotism.

The Iranian regime’s forces tried to disperse the demonstrators, in some cases opening fire and seriously wounding an unknown number of them demonstrators. An unknown number of demonstrators were also detained by the regime’s forces, and cities were put under curfew and transportation between cities has been restricted.

This is the second time in just over a month that the masses in eastern Kurdistan have publicly responded to events in Iraqi Kurdistan with patriotic actions. Following the Hewler terrorist attacks of 1 February 2004, large memorial services were held in eastern Kurdistan in honor of the martyrs of this attack, and these events were attended by some Kurdish members of the Iranian parliament.

Unfortunately, the world media has chosen not to focus on the recent developments in eastern Kurdistan as the Kurds under the occupation of the Islamist dictatorship of Iran fight for human rights and freedom. As the Iranian regime faces increasing pressure from the outside due to its weapons programs and from the inside as the masses are more eager to fight their oppressors, it is apparent to all that the days of the Islamist regime are numbered. The statue in Mariwan is not the last to fall in Iranian-occupied Kurdistan.

3. - The Globe and Mail - "If this war has a victor, it is the Kurds":

They have gained territory and seized control of Iraq's largest oil field

KIRKUK / 10 March 2004 / by Stephanie Nolen

In the Masbah neighbourhood of Baghdad, there is a very fine house that looms behind a high stone wall. The house is guarded, these days, by soldiers carrying new automatic rifles. Until recently, the house belonged to Tariq Aziz, the urbane Iraqi vice-president who spoke for Saddam Hussein. Now it is occupied by Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The soldiers out front are Kurds from the peshmerga militia.

"Jalal Talabani lives here now," one of them said. "He sleeps in Tariq Aziz's bed." The soldier smiled. "And we guard the house. The peshmerga are all over Baghdad," he added, and grinned a little wider.

This new house represents a dramatic improvement in the fortunes of Mr. Talabani, who a year ago ruled a small patch of northern Iraq and now sits on the Iraqi Governing Council and entertains in the former vice-president's lounge. It is symbolic of the overall fate of the Kurds: If the war in Iraq can be said to have a victor, one year later, the long-persecuted Kurdish minority has best claim to the title.

The Kurds have won the promise of self-government from the U.S.-led military coalition, and have seen that right enshrined in the temporary constitution; they have expanded their territory and have seized de facto control of the country's largest oil field.

There is a new sense of freedom in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, a feeling that has precipitated a building boom, as people invest their long-squirrelled-away savings. The government has used a windfall of almost $1-billion (U.S.) from the coalition (recovered funds of Saddam Hussein) to start road repairs and triple civil-service salaries. But little else has changed here since the war, and that suits Kurds just fine. The two Kurdish political parties continue to administer civil affairs, as they have since a Kurdish self-rule area was established in 1991 under a UN no-fly zone.

The Kurdish region was almost entirely unscathed during the war, after Turkey prevented the coalition from using that country as a base to launch an attack from the north. So the United States and its allies relied on the peshmerga as their northern front, and it was Kurdish troops who secured the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk. Thus, Kurdish leaders had two goals going into the postwar negotiations. First, they wanted to keep what they had, with Kurdish control over civil affairs based on "ethnic federalism," rather than the 18 separate geographic regions proposed by Washington.

And they wanted recognition of historic Kurdish claims to territory from which Mr. Hussein and his predecessors had driven the Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

The Kurds are well-positioned at the moment: They are the best organized of the parties grappling for position on the Governing Council, with 12 years experience in political pluralism. Their peshmerga fighters are the largest military force in Iraq. And as the coalition battles Sunni insurgents in the south, while preparing to hand over control to Iraqis by summer, there is little incentive to meddle in the stable north.

Washington has appeared keen to placate the Kurds so far. Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, said early on that they must be given sweeping federal rights -- but the Kurds are the smallest minority in Iraq, with four million people, and they are utterly dependent on the United States for protection, from the Arabs and from Turkey, which has fought its own Kurd population.

Mr. Talabani of the PUK and his rival, Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, say the best option for Kurds is membership in the new united Iraq.

"The time of the mini-state is over," said Noshirwan Mustafa, a veteran PUK leader involved in some of the key negotiating. "We believe this is a golden chance to get more." He said the Kurdish position is that they will keep the regional government and turn over foreign affairs, financial affairs and defence to a federal level.

Mr. Mustafa said Kurds have already reaped substantial benefit from being reunited with the rest of Iraq, and will see more. "The budget of the Kurdish regional government is larger, so salaries are higher and we can do more projects. People can go and come freely to other countries," he noted. "And there is more freedom . Once a member of the PUK would be hung in Baghdad or Kirkuk, and now our newspaper is on sale there. And above all, it is the end of Arabization."

But the charm of federalism is not widely felt in the north. A recent editorial in Hawalati, the bold independent newspaper published in the autonomous zone, said bluntly that Kurds were "better off under Saddam Hussein" because they had a de facto state, whereas under the U.S.-led occupation they are losing control of things they once managed. They can no longer appoint their own police, for example, and they might soon see Arab soldiers in Iraqi uniforms in their area.

Nearly two million people in the autonomous zone signed a petition last month asking for a referendum on whether Kurds would prefer to join a federal Iraq, or be an independent state. Copies were delivered to the provisional authority, the UN and the Governing Council.

"If you ask people: 'Federal Iraq or independence?' they will say independence," said Fouad Baban, a physician and instigator of the petition. But like most older Kurds, Dr. Baban has a realpolitik understanding that the United States will not allow an independent Kurdistan, and that even were the Kurds to declare independence, such a state would be invaded by neighbouring Turkey, Iran and Syria, which have large, restive Kurdish minorities.

But he sees other value in the plebiscite, demonstrating the political acumen Kurds have developed over the past decade: "If there is good media coverage of this, it will have a big influence. If we ask for independence, we may get a good framework for a federal Iraq. We must aim high in the negotiations."

The most sensitive issue in those negotiations may be the northern oil fields, the largest in Iraq, which recently returned to their prewar production levels, and over which Kurdish forces currently have firm control. A Kurdish company has the U.S. contract to provide security, and a prominent Kurd has been brought in by the American executive manager to serve as general manager. Ghaza Talabani was the former quality-control manager at the oil field under Mr. Hussein, and he is reportedly working closely with his clansman, Jalal Talabani.

Such internal political ties may yet prove the biggest obstacle to Kurdish political aspirations. The PUK and KDP have engaged in vicious civil wars, most recently in the mid-1990s, and relations are still icy despite meetings between the parties in the past year.

Still, life is appreciably better in the northern region than anywhere else in Iraq -- safer, more prosperous, more orderly -- and the Kurdish leaders act like men who have won and will go on winning. "We will always insist on keeping what we have now," said Mr. Mustafa, with a smile that suggested that what they have now is more than the Kurds could have hoped for.

4. - Star-Ledger - "Kurds sense chance to shine":

Iraq's non-Arabs anxious to secure future of prosperity

SULAYMANIYAH / 11 March 2004 / by Borzou Daraghi

Iraq Publicly, Kurds celebrated this week's signing of a transitional Iraqi charter that guarantees them cultural and political rights.

Major issues are unresolved by the constitution, a precursor to a permanent constitution slated to be drafted and ratified after United States-led occupation forces hand over the country's authority to a transitional government on July 1.

Many of Iraq's 4 million Kurds, who fought side by side with Americans in capturing oil-rich cities such as Khaneqin and Kirkuk, say they paid their dues under Saddam Hussein, enduring his regime's violence and racial policies and giving up martyrs in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Now, they say, it's time to collect.

"If not now, when?" asks Sara Kamal, a 28-year-old English instructor at the University of Sulaymaniyah. "We have suffered a lot. ... We deserve more."

Kurds have controlled this mountainous swath of northern Iraq since the 1991 war. From the rubble of wars and neglect, they built up the Kurdistan Regional Government, a relatively prosperous, liberal and secure autonomous zone ruled by Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, who became Governing Council members.

In contrast to the rest of Iraq, the Kurds enthusiastically took part in the war to overthrow Saddam, who had targeted them in several ethnic cleansing campaigns and sprayed lethal chemicals on the Kurdish town of Halabja and other villages in 1988.

Now, voicing rare criticism of Talabani and Barzani, they say their leaders did not win enough for the Kurds during the Baghdad negotiations over the future of Iraq.

Specifically, Kurds want the incorporation of the cities of Kirkuk and Khaneqin in any future Kurd-dominated region, the enshrinement of the 50,000-man Peshmerga militia into law, and control over northern Iraq's natural resources, which include considerable oil and water reserves.

"We should have gotten more," said Mola Bakhtiyar, a Kurdish politician.

Not all Iraqi Kurds are dissatisfied. Nechirwan Mustawfa, a journalist and adviser to Talabani, said he's overjoyed with the transitional charter.

"For the first time I feel Iraqi," said Mustawfa, who fondly recalls his days as a Baghdad University student in the 1960s. "For 80 years we fought in Iraq for our natural rights. Now I can relax."

But young Kurds generally don't identify with the Iraqi nation and consider Baghdad the wellspring of 80 years of anti-Kurdish policies. "We have different skin color," said Aryan Dara, a student at the university, a reference to the fact that Kurds are not Arabs.

Kurds are deeply suspicious of any future Baghdad-government dominated by Arabs.

"The Arabs will simply elect another version of Saddam," said Mahmoud Fallah, a taxi driver. "It was the government of Baghdad that wronged us in the previous decades."

Thousands of Kurds have signed a petition calling for a Kurdish referendum on the status of northern Iraq. "We want to let the people decide whether we're a part of Iraq or a something else, like a new state," said Amanj Saeed, who runs a health center and collected signatures for the petition.

The Kurds' separatist tendencies have long worried Turkey, Iran and Syria, all home to large, restless Kurdish minorities. Both Ankara and Tehran have wrestled with armed Kurdish uprisings over the past several decades. They view Iraqi Kurds' demands for autonomy as dangerous inspiration for their own Kurds.

"What the Kurdish street doesn't understand is that there's a big difference between declaring and sustaining a Kurdish state," said Fareed Asasard, director of the Kurdistan Strategic Studies Center. "They would like an independent state. But no one would recognize or back up such a state."

Barham Salih, the prime minister of the eastern half of Kurdish Iraq, said he has taken on critics in a series of televised town halls. Instead of invoking nationalism, Salih has voiced a vision of Kurdish Iraq as part of a global economic and cultural community.

His government is about to launch a wireless Internet network for local high schools. It hired a Turkish firm to build the city's airport for commercial air traffic.

Indeed, northern Iraq is booming with so much construction that Kurds are thinking about importing laborers from the Arab parts of Iraq. Turkish, European, American and Iranian businessmen have filled the city's hotels. Delegations from different countries -- Czechoslovakia and Russia this week -- come to visit, attempting to curry favor with Iraqi Kurds.

"We're trading with the rest of Iraq and our neighbors without inhibition," he said. "We want to send the message that prosperity in Iraqi Kurdistan is good for our neighbors."

5. - EUbusiness - "Cyprus talks still flounder as deadline nears":

10 March 2004

Talks between Cyprus's Greek and Turkish leaders still floundered Wednesday, with each sniping at the other, as a top European Union official voiced alarm that the May 1 deadline for a reunited island to join the bloc might be missed.

EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen called on both sides to seize a "unique" chance to reunify Cyprus, while blaming Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash for delaying accord.

"I call on the two communities to seize this quite unique opportunity to show that they are ready for peace and reconciliation in this region," Verheugen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

"We have started making basic preparations for the eventuality that the Turkish Cypriot community joins," he said, adding that Brussels has notably to prepare for the possible inclusion of Turkish as an official EU language.

But he acknowledged that efforts to strike a deal are running against an increasingly tight UN timetable, charging, "It's a bit late but Mr. Denktash is responsible for this delay."

If there is no accord on the UN plan providing for a Swiss-style confederation of two largely autonomous states, only the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot southern part of the island would be subject to EU rules.

Denktash is head of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognised only by Ankara. If he and his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Tassos Papadopoulos, fail to reach a deal by March 22, the "motherlands" Turkey and Greece will take a hand.

If they also cannot resolve the differences by March 29, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will have the final word on outstanding issues. His text will be put to referendums on both sides on April 20.

Before their 13th round of talks Wednesday Papadopoulos accused Denktash of wanting everything his own way at the expense of Greek Cypriots.

"They want a reduction in the number of Greek Cypriots allowed to return, to curtail their right to property and boost the ethnic character of the constituent states," he said.

The UN plan provides for some 90,000 refugees from Turkey's 1974 invasion and occupation of the north to return to their homes on land to be returned to a Greek Cypriot administration.

But Denktash wants Turkish Cypriots currently in those areas to be resettled and found gainful employment first.

He also wants to reduce the quota and voting rights of Greek Cypriots in the Turkish areas, which he wants invested with full autonomy, if not complete sovereignty.

Papdopoulos wants a stronger central government, which would automatically have a Greek Cypriot majority, than is provided for in the Annan plan.

After Wednesday's talks Denktash described as "unacceptable" a Greek Cypriot proposal to bring in thousands of foreign peacekeepers to Cyprus after reunification.

"The Greek Cypriot attitude on security is an unacceptable document, which, in our view, creates great dangers and leaves us totally insecure," he told reporters in the Turkish-held sector of Nicosia.

Denktash said the Greek Cypriots wanted a UN force of nearly 7,000 peacekeepers plus a police force of 3,000 for themselves and 1,700 for the Turkish Cypriots.

They also wanted the peacekeepers to have authority to deal with internal security issues as a precautionary measure against possible ethnic tensions, he said.

"But deploying such a force and giving them executive powers is a cause of anxiety and unacceptable," Denktash charged.

In Ankara, meanwhile, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan said "it has become obvious that the Greek Cypriot side does not have any political will and desire for a settlement.

"Greek Cypriots have rejected without discussion limited and reasonable proposals put forward by the Turkish side," he charged, adding that they "seem to enjoy the comfort of (guaranteed) EU membership on May 1."

Ankara worries that a failure to resolve the conflict in time could trigger tensions with Brussels and undermine its own bid to join the EU.

There will be no talks on Thursday, when UN mediator Alvaro de Soto is going to Athens, where a new right-wing government took power after weekend elections. Negotiations will resume on Friday.

During the one-day break, Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat and his deputy Serdar Denktash, son of the Turkish Cypriot leader, are scheduled to fly to Ankara for talks.

Papadopoulos for his part will meet the new Greek leadership in Athens at the weekend, his government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said.

6. - Aljazeera - "Turks hope Greece stays course":

ISTANBUL / 10 March 2004 / by Jonathan Gorvett

While newly elected Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis promised a "new start for all Greeks", many Turks are hoping a new government in Athens will mean anything but change.

With Greece and Turkey involved in delicate negotiations over the future of Cyprus, and with Athens a key supporter of Turkey's European Union ambitions, many Turks hope the new government will continue with the old policies.

It seems they are unlikely to be disappointed.

"One of the most amazing things about the election," John Psaropoulos, editor of the weekly Athens News, told Aljazeera.net, "is that for the first time in history, we have had a change of government without it meaning a change of foreign policy."

Historical animosities

Since 1999, when disastrous earthquakes struck both Turkey and Greece, the two Aegean neighbours have been following a policy of rapprochement – trying to end decades of hostility.

Bad relations had followed historical animosities and a number of major disputes. Cyprus, effectively divided after an Athens-backed coup in 1974 and a subsequent Turkish invasion, has long been a central cause of disagreement.

Now, Greece and Turkey are key players in the latest UN-sponsored attempt to reunite the island. Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders are currently meeting in Nicosia to negotiate on this issue.

Meanwhile, the two countries have disputes over maritime and air space in the Aegean, as well as conflicting claims to ownership over dozens of tiny islands located off the Turkish coast – but which Athens claims are within Greek territory.

Talk of war

The two neighbours nearly came to war over one such island, known as Kardak to the Turks and Imia to the Greeks, back in 1996.

However, in 1999, talk of war changed. Athens adopted a new policy that promoted warmer relations with Turkey.

It was the brainchild of George Papandreou, the man who lost the general elections. He was foreign minister in the centre-left PASOK government that ruled Greece before last Sunday, and which had made him prime minister last month.

"Greece stepped back," said Psaropoulos. "Under Papandreou's leadership, Athens said it no longer had any objections to Turkey joining the EU. That changed everything."

It was the beginning of a very successful new foreign policy – with Ankara responding positively. Turkey has long wanted to join the EU while Greece has been a member since the early 1980s.

Athens' policy shift

In the past, Athens had long objected to its neighbour being allowed in, citing Turkey's Muslim culture, history and slower economic progress as objections.

Papandreou managed to shift all that around and make Greece one of Turkey’s strongest EU membership advocates.

"The Greek government managed to tie all its disputes with Turkey to the issue of Turkey joining the EU," Hasan Onal, assistant professor of international relations at Ankara’s Bilkent University, told Aljazeera.net.

"The Turkish government has been prepared to go along with this too, on the strength of a rather iffy promise of eventual EU membership."

"The shift meant using the EU to gain leverage in solving the Cyprus and Aegean issues," added Psaropoulos. "It has been such an effective foreign policy move; no one would want to change it."

New Democracy party

"We will all together, united, give the great battle to safeguard a just, functional and European solution to the political problem of Cyprus," Karamanlis said on election day.

But Karamanlis's New Democracy (ND) party made little play of foreign policy issues in the election campaign, and Karamanlis had in fact visited Ankara last year to tell the Turkish parliament that he did not intend to make any change in policy direction.

As a result, the election campaign was fought on domestic rather than international issues, itself a major difference from previous years.

"There were two issues the parties decided not to fight over: The Olympics and Cyprus," said Psaropoulos. "In fact, from Cyprus, this truce widened out to a decision by both not to make foreign policy an issue at all."

But the past was still a cause for reserving judgment.

Centre right

The last time the centre-right ND were in office for any length of time – back in the 1980s - relations between Greece and Turkey were at a frightening low.

"The 1970s and 1980s were a very difficult time," recalled Psaropoulos. "It was something of a cold war period."

Now all that has changed, with few expecting any return to those darker days.

Onal, himself a sceptic, said: "I am not sure if it is possible to say that what has been happening in recent years is really an improvement."

"The present Turkish government appears to be giving too much away in its efforts to get a deal on joining the European Union. This is quite a dangerous business, as I am not sure how far the Turkish public will go along with any apparent sellout on issues such as Cyprus or the Aegean."

Minority rights

Meanwhile, many Turks are also concerned about the status of the ethnic Turkish minority in northern Greece.

"These people had been subjected to official discrimination for a long time," said Psaropoulos. "They were denied equal treatment in the army and civil service. For a long time, it was even taboo to refer to them as Turks – the official description is 'Muslim Greeks'."

Papandreou had also tried to change all that, apologising to the Turkish minority for past discrimination during his election campaign.

However, Karamanlis's ND stayed clear of this issue.

"It is early days," said Onal. "Yet, I suspect no new government in Athens is going to want to change much in a process that is very much in its favour."

"The lack of any real dispute over foreign policy is in itself a major change in Greek politics," added Psaropoulos. "It is perhaps the beginning of a new chapter."