31 August 2005

1. "European Parliament To Host Conference On Kurdish Issue", Turks and Kurds must choose between peaceful coexistence or a return to violence,’ believes Uzun, a Kurdish-language writer who is to attend the conference in Brussels

2. "Turkish PM addresses Kurdish question", a speech made by Turkey's prime minister in the nation's troubled southeast has raised hopes of a solution to an increasingly violent struggle between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish army.

3. "Erdogan's Diyarbakir move stumbles", escalating tension in the southeast raises more questions on Erdogan's Diyarbakir initiative.

4. "Kurds clash with Turkish police", one man was killed and five officers were injured during clashes between Kurdish protesters and police in south-eastern Turkey.
Around 1,000 Kurds were demanding the release of the bodies of six men accused of being Kurdish rebels in the town of Batman.

5. "Turkey's Kurds languish in poverty", the Kurdish southeast copes with unemployment, violence.

6. "EU links concessions over Cyprus to Turkish membership talks", Olli Rehn, the European Union's commissioner for enlargement, has made an urgent plea for EU govern ments to start membership negotiations with Turkey on time on October 3.

1. - Turkish Daily News - "European Parliament To Host Conference On Kurdish Issue":

Turks and Kurds must choose between peaceful coexistence or a return to violence,’ believes Uzun, a Kurdish-language writer who is to attend the conference in Brussels

ANKARA / 30 August 2005

Only days ahead of the October start of Turkey's membership talks with the European Union, Brussels will host a conference on the controversial Kurdish issue in Turkey.

European Parliament President Josep Borrell and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn are among those who will deliver speeches at the two-day conference, running from Sept. 19 to 20, according to an announcement from the Norway-based Rafto Foundation.

The September conference is a follow-up to a conference held last November prior to a December EU summit at which European leaders set the Oct. 3 date for the start of Turkey's entry talks with the 25-nation bloc.

“The conference in Brussels will focus on the human rights situation in Turkey, especially focusing on the conditions for the Kurdish people,” the Rafto Foundation says on its Web site. The group will hold the conference at European Parliament in collaboration with the Kurdish Human Rights Project (UK), Medico International (Germany) and Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales.

Prominent Kurdish and Turkish representatives from different political and civilian organizations have been invited and will contribute to the conference at which human rights issues, including democratic and parliamentary reforms, will be discussed, the foundation said, however, it did not elaborate on the names of those invited from Turkey.

Uzun trusts in ‘peaceful coexistence of Turks and Kurds'

Yet Kurdish-language writer Mehmed Uzun, who has recently returned to Turkey after 28 years of exile in Europe, told Hürriyet daily that he would attend the conference in Brussels.

“I believe in the universal nature of the word. I will make a speech on Sept. 19 at European Parliament and I will use that opportunity to tell them about democratization in Turkey. Most importantly, I will support Turkey's admission into the EU,” Uzun was quoted as saying in yesterday's Hürriyet.

“Turks and Kurds must choose between peaceful coexistence or a return to violence,” Uzun, who describes himself as “Kurdish, Turkish and Scandinavian,” said soon after his return to Turkey. The remark was an apparent reference to deadly violence that has recently escalated in the Southeast due to attacks by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

2. - Al Jazeera - "Turkish PM addresses Kurdish question":

ANKARA / 30 August 2005 / by Jonathan Gorvett

A speech made by Turkey's prime minister in the nation's troubled southeast has raised hopes of a solution to an increasingly violent struggle between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish army.

Recip Tayyip Erdogan visited the regional capital of Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, Diyarbakir, in a bid to address an issue few Turkish premiers have ever discussed publicly.

In a groundbreaking speech on 12 August, he told the crowd that the government would "resolve all problems with more democracy, more civil rights and more prosperity".

He also made reference to the existence of a "Kurdish problem", something which had long been denied by Ankara, along with admitting "past mistakes".

Since the mid-1980s, the war in southeast Turkey has claimed over 30,000 lives and created many internally displaced people. It has also left the region’s economy one of the poorest in the country.

The prime minister’s speech was warmly welcomed by local politicians.

Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (DEHAP) said: "I hope his pledges will lead to the opening of a new page."

At the same time, over 70 unions, chambers of commerce and professional associations in Diyarbakir issued a joint statement of support for the prime minister's statement, as did a group of 50 ethnic Kurdish artists and intellectuals.

Simultaneously, a statement from the PKK released in Northern Iraq said: "We believe Erdogan's statements are significant."

Not so happy

Yet while many are seeing moves by Turkey's leaders and ethnic Kurdish groups as signs of change, others remain highly cautious while the military takes part in the recently restarted guerrilla war.

After the Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), ended its unilateral ceasefire last September, violent incidents between PKK fighters and Turkish troops escalated, with dozens killed and wounded in the last few months.

And the PM's speech was not warmly received by Turkey's main opposition grouping, the Republican People's Party (CHP), and by many Turkish commentators.

PKK has declared a temporary ceasefire until 20 September

They see in the southeast a war that must be won against a "terrorism" that seeks to break up Turkey.

"He [Erdogan] gave the wrong impression to the people and the terrorists," CHP Vice Chairman Onur Oymen told Aljazeera.net.

"This has nothing to do with democracy and human rights. Terrorism exists in many countries - such as Spain - which can hardly be accused of not having enough democracy."

Yet the prime minister's comments were followed by a rapid series of developments.

Recent developments

A few days later, DEHAP announced that it was merging with the other pro-Kurdish group, the Democratic Society Movement (DTH).

This merged group then called for the PKK to cease its armed activities. The following day, the PKK announced that it would observe a ceasefire for a month, until 20 September.

However, the violence has not stopped.

Since the announcement, the Turkish army - which has refused to join the ceasefire - has continued operations, killing six suspected fighters in the week after the PKK said it was suspending armed operations.

Turkish opinion is deeply divided on the issue, although most agree there can be no negotiation with the PKK, which most Turks see as a terrorist group.

"Our government cannot negotiate with terror," says Oymen. "The PKK cannot make a conditional ceasefire - they must give up altogether … . The government must not appease them either."

Striking a balance

Those against Erdogan's move often think he has already gone too far, while those supporting him are calling for further steps.

"Amongst all Turkey's prime ministers," says leading economic and political analyst Cengiz Candar, "he became the first to pronounce the words 'Kurdish question' clearly - to name this for what it is.

"He created a very positive sentiment among the Kurds of Turkey and democratic public opinion.”

Candar believes that now the government must begin a dialogue with the civil society that exists among the nation's Kurds.

"Erdogan must receive Kurdish political and intellectual figures," he says, "and underline that strict military measures won't be used ….

This is a point taken up by Ekyen Mahcupyan, the director of the democratisation programme at top Turkish thinktank TESEV.

"Although the Kurds are not a state," he says, "the PKK have created a psychological umbrella state, which has pushed any real discussion among Kurds underground.

"Very few Kurds actually support the PKK, even if they are sympathetic with what they have achieved."

The "Kurdish question" has also been a "Turkish question".

Unfounded fears

"This issue raises the whole problem of the relationship between the Turkish state and society," Mahcupyan continues.

"There is a very authoritarian tradition in the bureaucracy and some parts of the military that gets its legitimacy from the 'Kurdish threat'. They don't want to give up their power."

Meanwhile, many also see an international dimension to the issue.

"It is no coincidence that all this is happening near an oil-rich region," says Oymen. "You have to look at the geostrategic dimension. Terror is being used against Turkey as a weapon by those countries interested in oil.

"The reason the PKK could start again is Iraq - they are based there and the local security forces do nothing. The US and UK aren't interested and neither is [Iraqi President] Talabani."

EU dimension

Others see the European Union dimension as also key.

"Erdogan's speech created an advantage with the EU," says Mahcupyan, referring to the forthcoming opening of membership talks, due to start on 3 October.

Yet, "the government is not so strong that it can force through democratic change without the EU … . If the EU accession process were to stop, then any progress in the Kurdish issue would also stop, immediately."

Turkey may therefore be walking a tightrope as the days count down to the end of the ceasefire and what looks to be a troubled start to EU negotiations.

Meanwhile, on the ground in the southeast, many are wondering how much longer the violence will continue — a struggle most would much rather see over.

3. - The New Anatolian - "Erdogan's Diyarbakir move stumbles":

Escalating tension in the southeast raises more questions on Erdogan's Diyarbakir initiative.

ANKARA / 31 August 2005

Escalating tension in the province of Batman in the southeast raised significant questions on the current political and social conditions in the region. However, this seems to have calmed down after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Diyarbakir visit early this month.

Right after the premier's visit to Diyarbakir, where he highlighted the importance of peace and democracy to resolving the Kurdish problem, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) also announced a one-month cease-fire.

However, on Sunday a group in the village of Besiri, Batman, who wanted to claim the bodies of the six PKK militants killed during a three-day security force operation, conducted a march which ignited a clash between the group and security forces. The clash left Hasan Is dead and three police officers injured.

Then on Monday a group from the Free Citizens Entrepreneur Association took the body of Hasan Is from Batman Hospital. They then marched to the city cemetery with the coffin on their shoulders, covered by a tri-colored cloth of yellow, red, and green, the colors favored by the PKK.

So Monday's incident, which became a pro-Kurdish demonstration and a protest against the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party as well, is yet another indicator of the underlying stressful atmosphere in the region. It also served as proof that political messages which aren't strengthened by visible moves can't bring about the establishment of a long-lasting peace.

At the march on Monday there was a group carrying posters of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and shouting pro-PKK slogans. They also broke the windows of the AK Party Batman office. The mayor of Batman and neighboring towns' mayors were also present.

Certain members of the group also attempted to hurl stones at the police station but were stopped by other marchers.

The Free Citizens Entrepreneur Association said that they will continue holding demonstrations until the bodies of the six PKK members are handed over to them.

4. - BBC - "Kurds clash with Turkish police":

29 August 2005

One man was killed and five officers were injured during clashes between Kurdish protesters and police in south-eastern Turkey.
Around 1,000 Kurds were demanding the release of the bodies of six men accused of being Kurdish rebels in the town of Batman.

The six were killed during fighting with the Turkish military last week.

The violence comes after the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) announced a unilateral ceasefire 10 days ago.

Police asked the protestors to disperse and fired warning shots, tear gas and water cannon. They said the dead man had been hit by a stray bullet.

Turkish forces launched an operation against PKK militants in Batman last Thursday, when the six suspected rebels were killed.

The fighting came just a week after the PKK ordered its armed wing to refrain from violence for a month.

The PKK has led an armed struggle for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey since the mid-1980s.

5. - The Christian Science Monitor - "Turkey's Kurds languish in poverty":

The Kurdish southeast copes with unemployment, violence.

BISMIL / 3O August 2005 / by Yigal Schleifer

Outside a post office in this southeastern Turkish town ringed by cotton and wheat fields, men and women jostle for position, eager to read a list of names posted near the window. The names are of poor families with school-age children eligible for financial support from a World Bank program, giving each $7-14 per child every month.

Sakir Yasarer, a father of three, says he couldn't find his family's name on the list. "I'm very poor. I'm in a very tough position," says Mr. Yasarer. His children, he says, sometimes go to the dump to find scrap metal or plastic to earn extra cash for the family. "I need a factory job, something steady, something I can go to everyday."

Yasarer's story is not unusual in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast, a region that lags behind the rest of Turkey in virtually every economic indicator.

Turkey's unemployment rate is about 10 percent, but in the southeast the figure is closer to 60. And while some cities in western Turkey, where much of the country's industry is located, have per capita incomes that rival parts of Europe, many cities in the southeast have per capita incomes more in line with parts of India.

Some economists attribute this gap to decades of official neglect and the effects of the 15-year war fought between the Turkish military and the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the 1980s and 1990s. A recent increase in PKK activity after a lull of six years - some 120 Turkish security personnel have been killed in the past year - is causing concern that the southeast will again be torn by violence, further damaging its fragile economy.

"We worked very hard to put into people's minds the idea of investing here," says Kurtbettin Arzu, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Diyarbakir, the political and cultural capital of Turkey's Kurdish region. "If you had asked me six months ago, I would have said things have improved, but now we have started to go back."

In an apparent response to the growing PKK activity, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Diyarbakir earlier this month. He declared that the Kurdish problem would be solved through greater democratization. But business leaders and officials here insist that any effort aimed at settling the Kurdish issue must go beyond political and cultural rights to include economic development.

Despite a month-long cease-fire called for by the PKK following Prime Minister Erdogan's speech, violence in the region continues. In clashes last week with PKK guerrillas in a remote part of Batman, another southeast province, Turkish soldiers killed three members of the Kurdish rebel group.

In Diyarbakir, where the population has tripled over the past 15 years, fed by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of villagers who had fled the fighting between the PKK and the military, local officials say poverty and unemployment have led to a host of worrying trends, including prostitution and drug use. The city of 1.2 million also has what some estimate to be Turkey's largest population of street children.

"The people in this region are asking why this region has no factories. They look at other regions and ask why they have state-sponsored industries and irrigation," says Firat Anli, a district mayor in Diyarbakir.

The government, with help from the European Union (EU) and the UN Development Program, has set up several offices throughout the southeast to assist local businesses. But Bulent Yuce, a field officer with the program, says economic growth here is kept in check by deep-rooted problems that are difficult to surmount. "Investors from the west [of Turkey] don't think about investing here, not because of terror but because of a lack of infrastructure, trained personnel, and the distance from raw materials."

Many hope that Erdogan's recent visit to Diyarbakir is an indication that his government will start paying more attention to the southeast's economic woes.

6. - Finacial Times - "EU links concessions over Cyprus to Turkish membership talks":

BRUSSELS / 31 August 2005 / by Daniel Dombey

Olli Rehn, the European Union's commissioner for enlargement, has made an urgent plea for EU govern ments to start membership negotiations with Turkey on time on October 3.

But he also signalled that Ankara eventually needed to make further concessions to Cyprus if the talks were to progress. France and Cyprus have recently doubted Turkey's readiness to begin the negotiations, because of Ankara's refusal to recognise Cyprus diplomatically.

Germany's Christian Democrat opposition, which is leading in the polls ahead of the country's general election, has argued that the talks should lead to a partnership deal with the EU rather than full membership. The negotiations could last a decade and need the backing of all 25 EU governments.

The issue is due to be discussed by EU foreign ministers tomorrow at a meeting near Newport in Wales. The EU faces a race against the clock if the negotiations are to begin on schedule. "We must stick to our commitments once Turkey has met the conditions," Mr Rehn said yesterday. "My interpretation is that Turkey has fulfilled the two strict conditions which pave the way for the opening of negotiations."

In June a Turkish legislative package on human rights came into force and last month Turkey signed a protocol that extended its customs union with the EU to include Cyprus. However, Ankara announced it had no intention of recognising Cyprus without a comprehensive deal to end the three-decade-long division of the island between the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriot north.

Mr Rehn argued that the Turkish declaration should not hinder the start of membership talks, but indicated that Ankara needed to make further concessions in the near future, particularly over its refusal to allow Cypriot ships to use its ports.

The EU is ready to issue a formal declaration making a similar point, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

"People have made it very clear that they have things they want to say about the talks and this meeting is the opportunity to do so," said a spokesman for the British presidency. "The goal is to open the negotiations as smoothly as possible."

Beginning the talks on time is one of the UK's main priorities for its six-month presidency of the EU.

Yesterday it received a fillip from Catherine Colonna, France's Europe minister, who delivered a speech that was markedly more conciliatory on Turkey than were comments earlier this month by Dominique de Villepin, France's prime minister.

"When it comes to Turkey, its future with the EU - accession or another solution - can only be written at the end of a long process," she said.

"Between now and then, the rules have been set out: if the conditions set are met, the negotiations can begin."

However, the EU has yet to agree the fine print of the negotiations, which Cyprus wants to toughen up.

Mr Rehn argues that future membership talks will be tougher than ever before. Turkey will have to demonstrate concrete progress during the negotiations including, at a relatively early stage, in the sensitive area of judicial reform and fundamental rights.