23 March 2005

1. "Turkish army warns Kurds over burning of flag", Turkey's army on Tuesday harshly condemned an attempt to burn a Turkish flag at a Kurdish festival at the weekend, warning that it is always ready to take action to protect the country's unity.

2. "Journalists Protest the Penal Code on Streets", RSF expressed its backing for Turkish journalists as some 250 of them demonstrated in the streets of Istanbul calling for the shelving of a new criminal law threatening press freedom. They have condemned restrictive measures in the new law.

3. "Cyprus tells Turkey it must sign EU protocol to begin normalisation", Turkey must extend a European Union customs accord to include Cyprus before October if it wants to start accession talks with the 25-member bloc, Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos warned on Tuesday.

4. "Turkey committed to Cyprus accord, democratic norms: PM", Turkey will live up to its promise to sign an EU-requested accord concerning Cyprus and keep up efforts to enhance its democracy, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Brussels on Tuesday.

5. "Turkey to become water poor", the country being described as water rich is a misrepresentation of the facts, says an Uludag University academic.

6. "Shiites claim deal struck with Kurds", leading Shiite politicians claim they have finally brokered a deal with Kurdish parties to end a debilitating impasse over the formation of Iraq's first freely elected government in decades.


1. - AFP - "Turkish army warns Kurds over burning of flag":

ANKARA / 22 March 2005

Turkey's army on Tuesday harshly condemned an attempt to burn a Turkish flag at a Kurdish festival at the weekend, warning that it is always ready to take action to protect the country's unity.

The incident occurred in the southern city of Mersin during a celebration marking the traditional Kurdish New Year, the Newroz. A plainclothes policeman grabbed the flag as it was set ablaze by several young boys.

"Such a treatment of the flag of a nation... in its own land by its own so-called citizens is inexplicable and unacceptable. This is treasonous behaviour," a general staff statement said.

"Everyone should know that neither the indivisible unity of this country nor its flag are defenseless," it said. "We advise those who would attempt to test the Turkish Armed Forces' love for the motherland and its flag to look into the pages of history."

The incident triggered harsh reactions in the mainstream media, with critics saying that the Kurds are abusing the relative tolerance of authorities towards dissidence as Ankara seeks to prove its democratic credentials to the European Union.

The main pro-Kurdish political movement, the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP), also condemned the burning of the flag.

"The incident in Mersin is a provocation," DEHAP leader Tuncer Bakirhan said in Diyarbakir, the main city of Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast, Anatolia news agency reported.

"The Turkish flag is also the flag of the Kurds," he said. "We respect it as much as anyone who lives in Turkey."

Kurdish rebels fought a bloody campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey between 1984 and 1999, with the conflict claiming some 36,500 lives.

The rebels ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with the government last June, raising tensions in the region.


2. - Bianet - "Journalists Protest the Penal Code on Streets":

RSF expressed its backing for Turkish journalists as some 250 of them demonstrated in the streets of Istanbul calling for the shelving of a new criminal law threatening press freedom. They have condemned restrictive measures in the new law.

PARIS / 22 March 2005

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed its backing for Turkish journalists as some 250 of them demonstrated in the streets of Istanbul on 17 March calling for the shelving of a new criminal law (TCK) threatening press freedom.

Turkish media have condemned restrictive measures in the new law that is due to come into force on 1st April 2005, at a time when the government appeared to have shaken off its former reflex of cracking down on journalists, the worldwide press freedom organization said.

"Far from bringing Turkish law into line with European law over free expression, some articles look like making it easier to bring legal action against journalists, it said, adding, "We call for the law to be amended to abolish prison terms for press offences."

Elsewhere, the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has brought defamation cases and is seeking heavy damages from two cartoonists. Musa Kart, working for the leftist daily Cumhuriyet (40,000 circulation) was on 21 December 2004, fined 3,000 euros by an Ankara court for drawing the president with a cat's head.

Judges ruled that the cartoon published on 9 May 2004 was "liable to humiliate the prime minister". Kart's lawyer lodged an appeal on 22 February.

The prime minister also laid a defamation complaint against Sefer Selvi who drew his adviser Cüneyt Zapsu perched on his back, in the left wing paper Günlük Evrensel. The trial is still going on.

Journalists take to the streets

Some 250 journalists demonstrated in the streets of Istanbul on 17 March to try to persuade the government to delay the new law due to come into force on 1st April.

The press wants it to be shelved for at least six months, on the grounds that it contains many restrictions on press freedom and that some of the articles, drawn up in terms that are too vague, could mean an increase in legal action against journalists.

"Insulting a person, in a way liable to humiliate, dishonor and assail his dignity" (Article125 of new criminal law) is punishable by three months to two years in prison. The sentence can be increased by one third if the offence is committed in the press (Paragraph 4).

Another controversial article, 305, imposes a prison sentence of three to 10 years and a fine for any claim relating to the "Armenian genocide" or "withdrawal of Turkish forces from Cyprus," seen as being contrary to fundamental national interest.

The sentence can be increased to 15 years if the claim is made in the press. Dozens of journalists have been imprisoned in the past for simply expressing an opinion on these questions.

Elsewhere, before the new law comes into effect, the courts appear to have stepped up convictions for "insulting the army". The relevant article - 159/1 - is due to be abolished after 1st April.

Columnist Erol Özkoray of the pro-Kurdish daily Ozgur-Gundem heard from the high court in Sisli, Istanbul on 16 March that he had been sentenced to one year in prison or payment of 1,000 euros damages for articles posted on the website, on 26 November 2001, headlined, "What use is the Army" and "New barbarians and Taliban in epaulettes".


3. - AFP - "Cyprus tells Turkey it must sign EU protocol to begin normalisation":

NICOSIA / 22 March 2005

Turkey must extend a European Union customs accord to include Cyprus before October if it wants to start accession talks with the 25-member bloc, Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos warned on Tuesday.

He said signing the protocol would be the "first significant step in normalising relations between the Cyprus Republic and Turkey."

Cyprus is the only EU member with which Turkey has no formal diplomatic ties.
"Turkey must sign the protocol extending the customs union to all new EU member states, including Cyprus, before October 3 when it is set to commence accession negotiations," Papadopoulos told reporters before leaving for Brussels where he will also meet Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

Turkey hopes to start talks on joining the EU in October after winning a green light from EU leaders in December, but the bloc has said Ankara must sign the agreement to cover Cyprus first.

The EU expects Turkey to fulfill its commitment to sign the adaptation Protocol of the Ankara Agreement, an updated version of an already-existing customs agreement between Turkey and the EU, taking into account the bloc's 10 new member states which joined last year -- including Cyprus.

While Turkey insists that extending the customs accord to Cyprus does not amount to official recognition of the Mediterranean island state, the EU says it amounts to de facto recognition.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied its northern third following a Greek Cypriot coup seeking to unite the island with Greece. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is only recognized by Ankara.

A divided Cyprus joined the EU last May 1, a week after Greek Cypriots rejected a UN reunification plan in a referendum. Turkish Cypriots had voted for the plan.

Ankara first applied to join the EU in 1963. The EU decision to finally start entry talks has sparked fierce debate over whether the bloc can take in a country with such vast economic, cultural and religious differences.

EU leaders have made it clear that, while membership talks can start this year, it will take at least a decade before Turkey can actually hope to join the EU.


4. - Turkish Press - "Turkey committed to Cyprus accord, democratic norms: PM":

ANKARA / 22 March 2005

Turkey will live up to its promise to sign an EU-requested accord concerning Cyprus and keep up efforts to enhance its democracy, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Brussels on Tuesday.

Speaking to Turkish reporters at a news conference broadcast live on Turkish television, Erdogan said he discussed the issue of Cyprus with his Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis at a meeting in Brussels Monday.

"I told him that we will stand behind our promise" to sign the protocol demanded by the European Union, he said.

The EU has made the opening of accession talks with Ankara, set for October 3, conditional on the signing of a protocol that would extend an already-existing Turkey-EU association agreement to cover 10 new members, including Cyprus.

Ankara refuses to endorse the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government of Cyprus, and instead recognizes the breakaway Turkish Cypriot republic in the north of the long-divided island.

The government has said it will sign the protocol in time, but maintains that the move will not amount to formal recognition of the Greek Cypriots.

Erdogan also brushed aside concerns both at home and in the EU that his government is failing to fully enforce respect for human rights, sparked by a heavy-handed police response to an unauthorized women's demonstration earlier this month.

Referring to his own four-month imprisonment for sedition in the late 1990s over a poem with Islamist messages he recited at a political rally, Erdogan said he had personally been a victim of restrictions on freedoms in Turkey.

"We are very well aware of the importance of this issue," he said. "We will keep up our efforts to implement in the best way our approach in favor of freedoms."

Erdogan blamed the beating of women at the March 6 demonstration in Istanbul on a small number of policemen and urged the EU not to judge Turkey's commitment to human rights norms on the basis of "individual mistakes."

"It will be unfair to make the Turkish state pay the cost of individual mistakes," he said.

Six officers were suspended after the demonstration, at which the security forces used truncheons and tear gas against the protestors. Several officers were seen hitting and kicking women who had fallen to the ground.


5. - Turkish Daily News - "Turkey to become water poor":

The country being described as water rich is a misrepresentation of the facts, says an Uludag University academic

ANKARA / 23 March 2005

Assistant Professor Senih Yazgan of Uludag University said on Tuesday that Turkey will become a water-poor country after 2025.

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Yazgan said Turkey being described as water rich was a misrepresentation of the facts, noting that Turkey was located in a semi-arid region that would become worse with global warming.

“Turkey will soon become a water-poor country It was never a water-rich country, anyway,” he said.

He said 70 percent of all water used in Turkey and in the world was used for agricultural purposes, adding that implementing modern water use methods was very important to decrease this rate.

These modern methods were only recently introduced to Turkey, said Yazgan, noting that it was crucial for the state to encourage and subsidize the use of modern technology in agriculture.

‘Water to be more valuable than oil':

He said the underground water reservoirs were replenished only during winter precipitation but added that in recent years, winter rainfall had been disappointing. “The winter rains fail to replenish the reservoirs, and this causes droughts. We are not water rich, but we are luckier than other countries in the region. The sources of some rivers are in Turkey but then cross into other countries. That's why the matter is very sensitive. Some say there will be wars due to water in the region. In the future, water will be more valuable than oil,” he said.

He said the per capita water in Turkey was 1,500 cubic meters while it was projected to fall to 1,300 by 2025.

He said countries with less than 1,000 cubic meters per capita water were considered water poor, noting that the normal amount was between 1,000 and 2,000 cubic meters.

“The per capita water we have clearly shows that we are not water rich. When one considers the increasing population and the decreasing precipitation rates, one comes to the conclusion that one day Turkey may become water poor. That's why we need to protect our water resources. Everybody needs to be aware that protecting and preserving our water resources in our civic duty,” he said.


6. - The Age - "Shiites claim deal struck with Kurds":

BAGHDAD / 24 March 2005

Leading Shiite politicians claim they have finally brokered a deal with Kurdish parties to end a debilitating impasse over the formation of Iraq's first freely elected government in decades.

They said the new parliament, which held its largely ceremonial inaugural session last week, would reconvene on Saturday to try to form a coalition administration.

"We have agreed on almost everything, and expect to present an agreement on a government of national unity to Parliament by the end of the week," said Jawad al-Maliki, a senior aide to Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the prime minister in waiting.

But similar positive noises have been made over the past fortnight and negotiators admitted on Tuesday that the distribution of key cabinet posts, including oil, defence and finance, had yet to be decided.

The main Shiite alliance emerged from the January 30 vote with 140 seats in the 275-member assembly, and the Kurds with 75.

Both have since been trying to form a coalition to muster the two-thirds parliamentary support necessary to elect a president and establish a government.

tTalks have stumbled over the status of the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, the future of Kurdish peshmerga fighters, which the Shiites want to be absorbed into the centrally controlled security structures, and the role of religion in the new state.

The Kurds want guarantees that Iraq will remain secular. Such issues appear to have been resolved - for now.

But the most important, and difficult, task of the assembly will be to draft a permanent constitution by mid-August.

Mr Maliki said delays had also been caused by the need to make the government as inclusive as possible.

"It is extremely important to draw Sunni Arabs, many of whom didn't vote and some of whom are in the insurgency, into the government and into the political process," he said.