21 July 2005

1. "Turkey, Kurdish rebels exchange threats", Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Wednesday that Ankara is running out of patience with a safe haven that armed Turkish Kurd rebels enjoy in neighboring northern Iraq as the militants said they were ready to fight the Turkish army if it enters the region. (..) The PKK responded with a threat to turn northern Iraq into a "quagmire" for the army if it launches cross-border operations to clean up on guerrilla camps there.

2. "State Dept says no info on US order to capture PKK leaders", U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters yesterday that he was not able to confirm whether the U.S. has ordered the capture of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leaders in northern Iraq, but said that his country was in close coordination with Turkish and Iraqi authorities on this commonly shared problem.

3. "Kurds now spell freedom", a pervasive sentiment among Kurds in Turkey is that reforms are cosmetic and that the government’s attitude has not changed.

4. "Scuffles mar trial over killing of Kurdish boy, father", several people were injured Wednesday when Kurdish demonstrators and right-wing extremists clashed outside a courthouse where four policemen were appearing charged with the killing of a 12-year-old Kurdish boy and his father, media reports said. (..) The Kurdish demonstrators were in Eskisehir for the trial of four policemen for the shooting on November 21 last year of Ahmet Kaymaz and his 12-year-old son Ugur outside their house in Kiziltepe, in the mainly Kurdish southeastern province of Mardin. Police said the pair were gunned down in an operation against armed Kurdish rebels, but local rights activists and neighbors said the two were unarmed civilians.

5. "Egitim-Sen and rights body administrator on trial", the chairman of Egitim-Sen and a former Human Rights Association official testify before the court, denying charges that they supported criminal behavior during a visit of the Peace Mothers Initiative to Ankara. The Peace Mothers Initiative is a group of women claiming to promote peace in the country.

6. "Violence Feeds Doubts on Turkey's EU Bid", on the verge of opening EU accession talks, Turkey is facing growing violence from Kurdish rebels and growing opposition from within Europe, potentially jeopardizing Ankara's bid to join the bloc.

1. - AFP - "Turkey, Kurdish rebels exchange threats":

ANKARA / 20 July 2005

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Wednesday that Ankara is running out of patience with a safe haven that armed Turkish Kurd rebels enjoy in neighboring northern Iraq as the militants said they were ready to fight the Turkish army if it enters the region.

"We have a certain degree of tolerance for the moment, but we cannot continue like this much longer," Erdogan told reporters accompanying him on a trip to Mongolia, the daily Hurriyet reported.

"We must put the PKK problem behind us," he said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

The PKK responded with a threat to turn northern Iraq into a "quagmire" for the army if it launches cross-border operations to clean up on guerrilla camps there.

"We are prepared for a possible attack. ... We will make it fail and turn (northern Iraq) into a quagmire for the forces that will carry it out," a statement by the PKK’s military wing said.

The PKK, which has stepped up violence in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast over the past few months, took refuge in the mountains of northern Iraq after a unilateral ceasefire it declared in 1999 in its war with Ankara.

The militants began sneaking back into Turkey after they called off the truce in June 2004 on the grounds that Ankara’s reforms to expand Kurdish freedoms were inadequate.

The PKK statement was published Wednesday on the Internet site of the Germany-based MHA news agency, which is close to the rebels and regularly publishes their statements.

Erdogan argued that international law gives Turkey the right to make military incursions into northern Iraq in self-defense against the PKK if the Iraqi authorities fail to act.

"Turkey can conduct such an operation in line with international rules," the Milliyet newspaper quoted Erdogan as saying.

"No doubt, Turkey will do this after consulting the Iraqi authorities," he said. "But the time may come when it will do it without consulting. Why? Because this is an internationally recognized right."

Erdogan said he raised Turkey’s concerns with both US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari when he met them in June and May, respectively.

He complained that Washington has failed to respond in kind to the support Ankara gave to US-led efforts against terrorism, particularly in Afghanistan, after the September 11 attacks, Milliyet reported.

"While Turkey has been so open (in its support), the United States has yet to take the least action against PKK infiltrations into Turkey, except for intelligence-related efforts," Erdogan said.

On Tuesday, the Turkish army’s number two, General Ilker Basbug, said Washington had ordered the arrest of senior PKK commanders in Iraq.

He said 105 soldiers have died in PKK-related violence over the past year, without giving the number of PKK militants killed in the same period.

The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast.

2. - The New Anatolian - "State Dept says no info on US order to capture PKK leaders":

ANKARA / 21 July 2005

State Department's Ereli says the US is working closely with both Turkey and Iraq to prevent the use of Iraqi territory by the PKK

U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters yesterday that he was not able to confirm whether the U.S. has ordered the capture of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leaders in northern Iraq, but said that his country was in close coordination with Turkish and Iraqi authorities on this commonly shared problem.

Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug told journalists on Tuesday that Washington had ordered its forces in Iraq to arrest top Kurdish rebel commanders.

Gen. Basbug also said that they would wait for the response of the Iraqi government against Iraq-based rebels which strike at Turkey, but emphasized that Turkish soldiers would use their internationally sanctioned right of "hot pursuit" should the response fall short of what is needed.

Basbug's "hot pursuit" remarks echoed similar assertions by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in recent days.

Ereli said that he had seen those reports but had no information to confirm them.

“Obviously, the U.S.' position is clear on the PKK," he said. "We consider it a terrorist organization. We work closely with Turkey and with Iraq in preventing the use of Iraqi territory by the PKK for its activities. And we will continue to have, I think, good and close coordination with the authorities in both countries on what is a commonly shared problem."

Ereli emphasized that the U.S. cooperates closely and is an ally with Turkey in confronting the activities of the PKK.

3. - The Washington Times - "Kurds now spell freedom":

DIYARBAKIR / 20 July 2005 / by Seth Rosen

Sitting attentively in the front row of a small, pink classroom, Hasbey Koksal, a primary school teacher, learns how to conjugate verbs in his mother tongue.

"I see. I saw. He sees. He saw," he repeats emphatically with the rest of the class of 20, half of them older than 40, learning Kurdish vocabulary and grammar at a new private school on the outskirts of this sprawling city in southeast Turkey.

"We’re rediscovering ourselves and our culture," said Mr. Koksal, 47, who learned Kurdish as a child but lacked the grammar skills to understand literature or poetry. "It’s like being an adolescent again."

To the students at the academy, this simple lesson was unimaginable just a few years ago.

From 1984 to 1999 the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a guerrilla group, fought for independence in a conflict that claimed an estimated 37,000 lives and displaced millions.

Language banned

The Turkish government banned the speaking of Kurdish dialects, and violators risked harassment and prosecution. The only way to study Kurdish was to attend clandestine schools in the basements of homes.

To improve its prospects of joining the European Union, Turkish parliament enacted reforms in 2002 allowing state-run Kurdish television and radio broadcasts and permitting private language courses.

Although the measures carried symbolic weight, Kurds said, they were enacted solely to placate the European Union and did not change official repression of cultural rights. "To teach in a classroom is a dream come true," said Sakir Ozeydin, an instructor at the school in Diyarbakir. "But this institution is not going to solve the Kurdish language problem."

The private school, which opened in September 2004, was one of six in Turkey offering 10-week beginner, intermediate and advanced courses in Kurdish, and 130 of its students have completed one of them.

"If someone tells you not to use your language, it’s like them telling you not to use your legs. It makes you disabled," Yakup Yilmaz, 25, said during a tea break at the school. "They cut off my legs and I’m here to get them back."

A cultural renaissance

There is talk in this city among the hills of Mesopotamia and on the banks of the Tigris River of a cultural and linguistic renaissance.

Shops along Diyarbakir’s boulevards blare Kurdish music and prominently offer Kurdish films. It is now much easier for parents to register Kurdish names for their children, though they are prohibited from using the letters Q, W and X, which don’t exist in the Turkish alphabet.

The Tigris and Euphrates Culture and Arts Center, which opened two years ago, orchestrates Kurdish plays and concerts and offers classes in vocal training, cinema and guitar. "Before this center opened, people forgot the details of Kurdish culture," said music teacher Adnan Sevik. "We are trying to revive it."

On a steamy Friday afternoon in May, old men sat in the courtyard drinking tea and watching a dance lesson incorporating traditional Kurdish motifs and modern routines. They all tell harrowing tales of police intimidation and imprisonment. Kadir Dogan said police once broke his fingers for playing Kurdish music on his flute.

Center closely watched

Local authorities monitor the center closely. The managers must inform police of who will sing what songs at their concerts. Twice, authorities have searched the premises. Cases are pending against the arts center for having banned books and attempting to turn a profit by selling tea, Mr. Sevik said.

In the mid-1990s, radio stations were allowed to broadcast Kurdish music as long as the lyrics contained no political material. If Kurds wanted to watch television in Kurdish, they had to turn to European satellite channels.

In June last year, state-run Turkish Radio and Television began airing a 30-minute news program in different languages each weekday. "Our Cultural Wealth" is broadcast in Kirmanci and Zaza Kurdish two days a week and in Bosnian, Arabic and Circassian on the others.

Broadcasts criticized

Many Kurds criticize the program, which sometimes shows week-old news, as a token gesture for the European Union.

Cemal Dogan, Gun TV’s director, said it is imperative that local channels air news and health programs, because many older residents speak little Turkish. Gun TV applied to the Radio and Television High Council (RTUK) for a license in March 2004, and six other regional channels have followed suit, but none has received a yes or no.

RTUK demanded a viewer profile survey, which was conducted by the Diyarbakir governor’s office and a local university, but it was deemed inadequate because it did not give the number of speakers of the region’s languages and dialects, said Sebnem Bilget, an RTUK spokeswoman. A state institute for statistics is supposed to carry out another survey, but she did not know whether it had begun.

Station suspended

"The real mentality of the state is shown in our application process," said Mr. Dogan, whose station had its license suspended for a month in September for broadcasting a live municipal meeting where two members unexpectedly spoke Kurdish.

Most Diyarbakir residents praise the European Union, which is to begin the formal negotiation process with Turkey in October, for raising the state’s treatment of its Kurds as an issue and for pressing the government to change its policies. The changes are compulsory to meet the Copenhagen criteria, a necessity for EU membership that includes "respect for and protection of minorities."

"There have been changes in legislation but we would like to see that they are properly implemented and then become broader," said European Commission Enlargement spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy. "What is important to us now is observing that these cultural rights are respected."

A pervasive sentiment among Kurds is that reforms are cosmetic and that the government’s attitude has not changed.

"They are done only for the EU, so that the state can say, ’Look we are allowing Kurdish to be spoken,’ " said Celil, a 23-year-old law student who until recently taught Kurdish classes secretly twice a week. "Turkey treats these reforms like ’homework.’ They should be doing them for their own people, not because the EU asked for it."

’Recognized’ minorities

It is still illegal to use Kurdish in the public domain or at government sites or functions. Offices of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People’s Party (DEHAP) are raided routinely and several high profile members have been arrested and tried for inciting separatism.

In Turkey, the only recognized minorities -- spelled out in the 1923 Lausanne Treaty that created the Turkish Republic -- are Jews, Greeks and Armenians. The roughly 14 million Kurds, one-fifth of Turkey’s population, do not have constitutionally guaranteed rights.

"We will give our Kurdish brothers and sisters individual rights, but will never accept that those individual rights will become group or political rights," said Emine Sirin, an independent member of parliament.

Learning Kurdish in state schools is out of the question because the Turkish language is a symbol of national unity, said Onur Oymen, a member of parliament from the opposition Republican People’s Party.

EU attention faulted

Many politicians and ordinary citizens are frustrated by what they perceive as inequitable attention lavished on the Kurds in the southeast by the European Union and human-rights activists.

Turkey has many other ethnic groups, but the European Union focuses only on the Kurdish situation, said Mr. Oymen. "Excessive protection of one ethnic group is racist," he said.

After a five-year cease-fire brokered following the arrest of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK resumed attacks in June 2004 and clashes with government forces are rising in frequency and intensity. The group bombed a train in southeastern Turkey this month, killing five persons. A separate organization, the Kurdish Freedom Falcons, took responsibility for a bomb blast Saturday at a resort on the Aegean coast that killed five persons including two foreign tourists.

Outside pressure felt

What the military and government fear is not the armed struggle, but the unarmed struggle for Kurdish independence through pressure from the European Union and nongovernmental organizations, said Burak Bekdil, a political commentator.

Government officials spoke of their concern that the call for political and cultural rights is just a screen for greater autonomy and, eventually, an independent Kurdistan. "DEHAP thinks that by using the EU, they can carve up Turkey and have an independent state," said Mr. Sirin.

During the tea break at the private language school, there is no talk of separation or rebellion. The heated discussion focuses on the cost of tuition, roughly $75 a month and more than most can afford. Seventy percent of the students are unemployed, estimated Suleyman Yilmaz, the school’s director.

Most people would rather just continue learning from their parents or meet in neighbors’ homes, said Mr. Ozeydin, the teacher. The government is using this low turnout to create an image that no one wants to learn Kurdish and as a justification for not extending Kurdish cultural rights, he added.

"Why should we have to pay to learn our mother tongue?" Mr. Ozeydin asked.

4. - AFP - "Scuffles mar trial over killing of Kurdish boy, father":

ANKARA / 20 July 2005

Several people were injured Wednesday when Kurdish demonstrators and right-wing extremists clashed outside a courthouse where four policemen were appearing charged with the killing of a 12-year-old Kurdish boy and his father, media reports said.

Fighting erupted when a group of far-right militants wielding sticks attacked about 200 people demonstrating in front of the courthouse in Eskisehir, west of Ankara, before the hearing began, the NTV news channel said.

Footage showed a young man with blood running down his head being violently kicked on the ground before a police officer intervened.

The Anatolia news agency said several people were hurt, while NTV said one person sustained serious injuries.

The Kurdish demonstrators were in Eskisehir for the trial of four policemen for the shooting on November 21 last year of Ahmet Kaymaz and his 12-year-old son Ugur outside their house in Kiziltepe, in the mainly Kurdish southeastern province of Mardin.

Police said the pair were gunned down in an operation against armed Kurdish rebels, but local rights activists and neighbors said the two were unarmed civilians.

A parliamentary investigation accused police of "heavy negligence" and concluded that Kaymaz and his son could have been captured unharmed.

If found guilty, the policemen could be jailed for two to six years.

The trial that began in February in Mardin was moved to Eskisehir at the request of defence lawyers who said they feared for their clients’ security.

The trial is seen as a further test of Turkey’s commitment to democracy and human rights as it seeks to join the European Union.

5. - Turkish Daily News - "Egitim-Sen and rights body administrator on trial":

The chairman of Egitim-Sen and a former Human Rights Association official testify before the court, denying charges that they supported criminal behavior during a visit of the Peace Mothers Initiative to Ankara.

ANKARA / 21 July 2005

Education Personnel Labor Union (Egitim-Sen) Chairman Alaaddin Dinçer and former Human Rights Association (IHD) official Yüksel Mutlu yesterday went on trial for “supporting criminal behavior” during a demonstration held by the Peace Mothers Initiative, reported the Anatolia news agency.

The Peace Mothers Initiative is a group of women claiming to promote peace in the country.

Testifying before the court, Dinçer proclaimed his innocence and said he didn't know that the Peace Mothers Initiative has ties to any other organizations.

According to the indictment against Dinçer, he was quoted as saying to initiative members: “Your struggle is our struggle. We are also propping up peace.”

“I am not affiliated with them,” he said. “I am a supporter of peace and would repeat my support anywhere in the world.”

Dinçer also testified that he hadn't praised the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, during a speech directed to initiative members when they gathered around the Egitim-Sen outdoor booth set up in central Yüksel Street in Ankara on July 12, 2004.

Former IHD official Mutlu, during his testimony, said he was present at the release of a press statement by initiative members in Ankara but denied making any speeches during the demonstration that followed.

If found guilty, the two face up to two years of imprisonment.

Previously, the Supreme Court of Appeals' General Board on Legal Matters unanimously decided to reverse a lower court decision not to shut down Egitim-Sen. A closure motion was filed because its objectives included the right to receive education in one's mother tongue. The motion alleged that the union had violated constitutional articles stipulating that Turkey's official language is Turkish and that no other language can be taught as a first language in educational institutions.

6. - Deutsche Wele - "Violence Feeds Doubts on Turkey's EU Bid":

21 July 2005

On the verge of opening EU accession talks, Turkey is facing growing violence from Kurdish rebels and growing opposition from within Europe, potentially jeopardizing Ankara's bid to join the bloc.

Officially, European Union leaders say things remain on track for the start of talks with Ankara in October, subject to conditions. But there is little doubt that Turkey's drive to become part of the 25-nation EU is currently mired in problems.

With the exchange of threats between Turkish officials and Kurdish rebels across the border in Iraq, the increased tensions could help increase European doubts whether the country is cut out for EU membership.

Heinz Kramer from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin told DW-Radio that any Turkish military operation against Kurdish rebels in Iraq would put Ankara's EU ambitions on ice.

"The Europeans would step on the breaks and the accession process would be suspended for the time being," Kramer said.

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gül in Ankara this week there was a growing fear of Muslim countries among Europeans, which posed a risk to Turkey's ambition of joining the European Union, according to Ahern's spokesman. Gül assured Ahern that immediate steps would be taken to ensure the security of Western tourists in Turkey after Saturday's deadly attack, but the damage may already be done.

A new opinion poll showed a majority of Europeans are opposed to offering Turkey EU membership. A Eurobarometer poll released this week indicated that 52 percent of Europeans are against offering EU membership to Turkey, with only 35 percent in favor.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country took over the EU reins this month, shrugged off those numbers on Monday, saying European leaders would stick to there plans to begin talks with Ankara.

"There's been a strategic decision made by the European Union that Turkey's future lies in Europe, and that our strategic interests lie in that happening," said Straw, chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

No guarantees

But Straw, whose country has been a champion of Ankara's hopes, stressed that the EU has made it clear to Turkey that there is no guarantee of eventual EU membership. In any case, however the negotiations proceed, "it's widely agreed this (EU entry) would not happen for at least a decade," he told reporters after the monthly ministerial talks.

He also underlined that EU governments will ultimately have the last say on Turkey's hopes, as Ankara's entry will have to be ratified by all member states, either by parliamentary vote or public referendum. "That's the appropriate way to discern popular opinion, so it's not being bypassed at all," he said.

EU leaders agreed last December to open talks with Ankara, but set a number of conditions, and notably stressed that the negotiations would be "open-ended" -- meaning they may not lead to EU membership. Backers of Turkey's hopes say notably that Ankara must be firmly tied into the EU to extend stability into the volatile region on Europe's southeastern rim.

Critics say the country is simply too big, and too economically and culturally different, to integrate into the expanding bloc, with many calling for a "privileged partnership" with the EU rather than full entry.

Austrian opposition

Austria has been one of the most vocal opponents of Turkish EU membership, and a senior minister in Vienna said this week that discussions on Ankara's hopes should be postponed. "Turkey does not meet any of the criteria necessary to enter into the EU -- neither economic, social, nor political," Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser told the daily Standard newspaper.

Grasser remains in the minority of European leaders, however, that could soon change. The head of Germany's conservative opposition, Angela Merkel, on Tuesday reiterated her belief in a "privileged partnership" for Ankara rather than full accession, telling journalists in Paris that a victory of her party would lead to "intense discussions" in the EU ahead of the October target date for the start of membership talks. Merkel's position was echoed by French Interior Miniters Nicolas Sarkozy.

"After the failures of the referendums (on the EU constitution) in France and the Netherlands, we need to start worrying about Europe's future. We need to talk about the limits of future enlargement. We need borders. People have to know where the borders are," Merkel said.

Merkel is expected to become German chancellor in an early election this fall and Sarkozy is widely tipped to become French president in two years' time.