21 June 2005

1. "Eight Turkish soldiers killed in clashes in southeast", the HPG [People's Defence Forces] has announced that violent clashes are taking place as a result of the Turkish army operations. Accordingly, eight soldiers were killed in Cukurca, including three officers.

2. "Kurdish Rebels Claim Responsibility For Attack On Oil Pipeline", HPG [People's Defence Forces] Press and Liaison Centre (BIM) has said that they carried out an act of sabotage targeting an oil pipeline passing through Idil, Midyat. It noted that 40,000 barrels of oil were lost as a result of the attack. BIM also said that two commandos were killed in an ambush laid by a group guerrillas in a rural area of Sirnak.

3. "Rebel Kurds say three soldiers killed in clash in eastern Turkey", the Turkish Army is continuing its operations. The HPG [People's Defence Forces] announced that three soldiers were killed in a clash that broke out in the rural sector of Van's Baskale District.

4. "Turkey apprehensive over EU crises", as the European Union becomes embroiled in one integration crisis after another, prospective member Turkey's EU accession path is looking more troubled than ever.

5. "Rights record key to Turkey bid says EU", Turkey must make further progress on human rights before it opens membership talks with the European Union in October, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said yesterday. (..) "Turkey Negotiations Open Ended: Verheugen", the outcome of Ankara’s negotiation process might come in the next ten years, the EU commissioner and former commissioner for expansion said.

6. "Kurdish Parties Say Syria Arrested 60 During Protests", Syrian Authorities have arrested 60 Kurds during a demonstration in northern Syria protesting the death of a prominent Kurdish cleric, and some of the detainees were tortured, two Kurdish parties claimed. The protest was held June 5 in the mainly Kurdish city of Qamishli, four days after the body of Kurdish Islamic scholar Mohammad Mashouk al-Khaznawi was found in a hospital morgue.

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1. - BBC Monitorung Service - "Eight Turkish soldiers killed in clashes in southeast":

19 June 2005

The HPG [People's Defence Forces] has announced that violent clashes are taking place as a result of the Turkish army operations. Accordingly, eight soldiers were killed in Cukurca, including three officers.

Based on information released by the HPG Press and Liaison Centre, the Mesopotamia News Agency reports that the Turkish army is continuing to carry out operations in several areas in Kurdistan. Violent clashes are taking place as a result of these operations. Lately, eight soldiers, including three officers, were killed in the Maruko area outside Cukurca District in Hakkari.

Violent clashes took place at Bilican pass and Serani hills. No information has been received yet about the outcome of these clashes.

Clashes are also reported in Geliyezap and Dejtahane areas in Cukurca and Garisa in Desta region in Sirnak.

The HPG Press and Liaison Centre announced that Sahap Durmaz, a fighter known as Diyar, was killed in a clash in Pamuklu and Golek regions in Dersim's Mazgirt District.

Meanwhile, Turkish military officials have announced that two guerrillas were killed in clashes outside Tutak village in Van's Gurpinar District. The HPG has not issued a statement in connection with that development.

The funeral of the first lieutenant who was killed in a clash in Cukurca's Hakantepe area on 17 June took place in Adana today.

Also, Commando Corporal Zafer Konak who was seriously wounded in a recent clash in Elazig's Aricak District died in hospital.

Source: Roj TV, Copenhagen in Turkish 1700 gmt 18 Jun 05

2. - MHA - "Kurdish Rebels Claim Responsibility For Attack On Oil Pipeline":

BEHDINAN / 17 June 2005

HPG [People's Defence Forces] Press and Liaison Centre (BIM) has said that they carried out an act of sabotage targeting an oil pipeline passing through Idil, Midyat. It noted that 40,000 barrels of oil were lost as a result of the attack. BIM also said that two commandos were killed in an ambush laid by a group guerrillas in a rural area of Sirnak.

BIM noted that the Turkish army had launched an operation against guerrilla forces in Gundik Remo, Spindarok, and Navakara, which are located in the rural areas of Sirnak near Mount Cudi. It said: "Intensive attacks supported by Cobra helicopters and other military equipment were carried out during the TSK [Turkish Armed Forces] operation, which was extended on 15 June to include Gire Hirmo. Our guerrillas did not suffer any casualty during the operation, which is still under way." BIM added that it would issue a more detailed statement about the military operation.

BIM also said that the Turkish Army had conducted an operation in Deriye Meydana and Deriye Beroj, also located in the rural parts of Sirnak, on 14 June. According to the statement, guerrillas ambushed a military unit advancing in the area and killed two commandos.

BIM said that the Turkish army was putting pressure on civilian population in the area after a military truck was totally destroyed and two soldiers had been killed an attack mounted by guerrilla groups in an area between Kocan village and Karayazi district of Erzurum on 10 June. The statement noted: "Unable to respond to a series of surprising attacks launched by our guerrilla units, the TSK is trying to blame those attacks on the civilian population and thus to legitimize its oppression. The civilian population in the region is still being subjected to oppression." BIM added that the HPG did not suffer any casualty in the clashes, which occurred during the military operations.

3. - BBC Monitoring Service - "Rebel Kurds say three soldiers killed in clash in eastern Turkey":

20 June 2005

The Turkish Army is continuing its operations. The HPG [People's Defence Forces] announced that three soldiers were killed in a clash that broke out in the rural sector of Van's Baskale District.

In a statement to the Mesopotamia News Agency, the HPG Press and Liaison Centre disclosed that a clash broke out between Turkish Army forces conducting an operation in the rural sector of Van's Baskale District and the guerrillas. It was said that three soldiers were killed in the clash. It was further stated that the operations are being broadened in the region between the Gurpinar and Baskale Districts.

Yesterday, HPG sources reported, a clash broke out between the guerrillas and Turkish army forces that conducted an operation in Hakkari's Kato, Meydan, Kulideriye, Zerbil pass, and Pilan regions. It was noted, however, that there is no clear information yet with regard to the outcome of the clash.

Source: Roj TV, Copenhagen in Turkish 1700 gmt 19 Jun 05

4. - Al Jazeera - "Turkey apprehensive over EU crises":

ANKARA / 19 June 2005 / by Jonathan Gorvett

As the European Union becomes embroiled in one integration crisis after another, prospective member Turkey's EU accession path is looking more troubled than ever.

The latest blow to European unity - the failure to agree on a 2006-2013 budget - came quick on the heels of founding members France and Holland's rejection of the EU constitution.

The failure to agree on the constitution revealed deep anxieties in both countries over future Turkish membership.

The constitution's author, former president of France Valery Giscard d'Estang, went so far as to blame the Turkish membership issue for the double rejection of the constitution.

At the same time, the German opposition Christian Democrat Union (CDU) - who are on course to win September's early elections - have said they are opposed to Turkey's membership.

Recent debate on enlargement has also caused anxiety in other prospective EU member countries Romania and Bulgaria -which are set to join in 2007 - and in Croatia.

A Christian club?

However, "Turkish membership has always been different from the other candidates," Sedat Laciner, director of the Ankara-based think-tank, the International Strategic Research Organisation, told Aljazeera.net.

"This is because the other European countries don't really consider Turkey a European country, as Turkey is the only Muslim candidate."

Such a view has often led in the past to allegations from Ankara that the EU is a Christian club. Now, some argue, Europe's basic prejudices are coming out as the union faces a crisis.

But this is a view denied by European leaders, who decided last December to give Turkey a 3 October 2005 date to begin accession talks - more than 40 years after Turkey first applied to join.

"The EU has to stick to its existing commitments," European Commission spokesperson Krisztina Nagy told Aljazeera.net on Friday.

"The talks will begin on October 3 provided Turkey fulfils the necessary conditions."

Difficult conditions

However, these conditions are already proving difficult for Ankara to meet.

Turkey undertook last December to extend the Ankara Agreement - a deal between the country and the EU over customs and trade - to include all the EU's latest members. Since May 2004, the new EU countries have included the Republic of Cyprus, which Turkey does not recognise and with which it has long had hostile relations.

Many Turks resent the idea of having to include the Greek Cypriot-dominated Republic in any official relationship -preferring instead to champion the cause of the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the isolated breakaway state in the north of the island.

"The EU has to take some steps on Cyprus too," says Zeynep Ersahin, research fellow at the Bosphorus University-TUSIAD Foreign Policy Forum.

She points to the fact that Brussels promised to assist the Turkish Cypriots, who voted last year in favour of the last United Nations plan to reunify the island, while the Greek Cypriots voted against it.

"After the referendum, however, the EU did not take any action," she says.

Revamped penal code

At the same time, Turkey also agreed as a precondition for accession talks that it would enforce six pieces of legislation that would bring the country more in line with EU norms. These included a revamped penal code, which went through parliament in Ankara on 1 June.

"The EU is always emphasising that legislation adopted has to be implemented," says Nagy. This, too, is a major sticking point, as it requires potentially open-ended-on-the-ground evaluation.

Recent heightened violence in Turkey's southeast between the army and Kurdish separatists has also called this implementation into question.

Dutch ambassador to Ankara Sjoerd Gosses said earlier this week that the EU stood for "the integration, not ... disintegration" of its future members, backing calls from the European Commission for Turkey to find a civil alternative to its military campaign against the separatists.

The EU argues that the southeast is effectively run by the Turkish military, rather than civilian authorities.

Armenian haunting

Then there is the long-running Armenian question. On 16 June, the German parliament passed a resolution acknowledging the massacres of Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire back in 1915 by Ottoman troops and irregulars.

Stopping short of labelling these events 'genocide', the Germans called on Turkey to acknowledge the massacres -something it has always been wary of doing.

While the EU itself has made no such demand on Turkey, it has called for a normalisation of Turkey's relations with neighbouring Armenia, a process which inevitably involves the events of 1915.

"This was almost 100 years ago," says Laciner. "And the EU makes no mention of the current Armenian occupation of Azeri territory."

In the conflict over the enclave of Nagorno Karabakh in the early 1990s, Armenian forces took a swathe of land from Turkish ally Azerbaijan, linking the enclave to their border.

"People in Turkey see this as an example of Christian solidarity. Just focusing on the events of 100 years ago shows the EU is not sincere," Laciner told Aljazeera.net.

Cautious optimism

However, despite this range of disputes, some Turks remain optimistic about their EU chances.

"I don't think Turkey's EU membership can be looked at from the perspective of the recent referendums on the EU constitution," says Ersahin, pointing to the recent Eurobarometre poll which found that only 6% of French respondents voted against the constitution because of Turkey.

In Holland, the figure was even lower, at only 3%. Most voted 'no' because of concerns over unemployment and the local economy.

"The EU has to deal with its own economic and social problems first and Turkey later," Ersahin says. "Accession is a process, which can go up or down.

"Turkey has made great strides on many issues, and while there will be many discussions on the shape of the EU in the future, the EU is the most successful integration process of the century. It may take 10 to 15 years, but Turkey will become an EU member."

"Yes, there are many problems here in Turkey," acknowledges Laciner. "But the EU has already said Turkey is a candidate and that these problems can be solved. Up to now, Turkey has done what the EU wanted in terms of reforms and the Europeans have acknowledged this."

The pressure, however, is likely to be growing not just on Turkey to fulfil its commitments, but on the EU to carry through with its obligations.

"The EU is a community of commitments," says Nagy, "and those that have been taken have to be met."

5. - Gulf Daily News / NTV/MSNBC - "Rights record key to Turkey bid says EU":

BRUSSELS / 21 June 2005

Turkey must make further progress on human rights before it opens membership talks with the European Union in October, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said yesterday.

Rehn said he was not creating an extra condition for starting negotiations as continuous improvement in human rights was part of the EU's basic criteria for all candidate countries.

The phrasing of his remarks, in a speech to the European Policy Centre think tank, was clearly a response to public anxiety about further EU expansion, a factor in the French and Dutch referendum rejections of the EU constitution.

EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini, also reacting to public concern about the pace of expansion, said Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania would now come under increased scrutiny before being allowed to join.

Turkey conceded the EU turmoil would create difficulties for its bid, but vowed that it remained "locked" on to its target of full membership.

Turkey Negotiations Open Ended: Verheugen

The outcome of Ankara’s negotiation process might come in the next ten years, the EU commissioner and former commissioner for expansion said.

Turkey’s membership negotiations with the European Union, due to start this October, will be an open ended process, EU Commissioner Gunter Verheugen said Monday.

In an interview with the German newspaper Bild Am Sonntag, Verheugen said that it has been his advice that the process not have a set time table.

“This was my advice,” he was quoted as saying. “We might get to see the result maybe in ten years time.”

Verheugen also told the paper that the EU was not in position to undertake more responsibilities than those it has at the present. While agreements that had been concluded with Bulgaria and Romania should be kept if they were not ready for it that there was the possibility of deferring their membership.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in a radio interview that the EU could not defer accession negotiations with Turkey.

“As the current 25 we are facing trouble in finding ways of living together, he said. “We have to be tougher about the criteria of new members.”
Douste-Blazy added that by the end of the negotiation process with Ankara that France would hold a referendum to get the views of the French public on Turkey’s entry to the EU.

6. - Daily Star - "Kurdish Parties Say Syria Arrested 60 During Protests":

20 June 2005

Syrian Authorities have arrested 60 Kurds during a demonstration in northern Syria protesting the death of a prominent Kurdish cleric, and some of the detainees were tortured, two Kurdish parties claimed. The protest was held June 5 in the mainly Kurdish city of Qamishli, four days after the body of Kurdish Islamic scholar Mohammad Mashouk al-Khaznawi was found in a hospital morgue.

The demonstrators denounced the death and protested what they call the government's persecution of Syria's Kurds, the Yekiti Kurdish Party and the Azadi Kurdish Party said in a statement.

The two parties listed the names of 60 people detained, saying they included "university students who were brutally beaten and tortured."

There was no immediate response from the government, which rarely comments on such cases.

The detainees are being held on charges of "fomenting riots and sectarian rifts" at prisons in Qamishli and the nearby town of Hasaka, the two Kurdish parties said, warning that the arrests would escalate political tensions.

Meanwhile, a state security court sentenced three Kurds to prison terms, according to human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni. Ismail Osso received a two-year sentence and Khalil Youssef and Fouad Hanif each received one-and-a-half years for belonging to a banned Kurdish party, Bunni said.