29 March 2005

1. "Kurdish insurgency presence along the Iraqi border", Gen. Osman Pamukoglu placed the number of PKK operatives in the Anatolia region at 7,000.

2. "Furious Turks wave the flag demonstrators tried to burn", if you want to bring the wrath of Turkey down on you, burn its flag.

3. "Lawyers act in Turkish flag row", Lawyers in Turkey's third city, Izmir, have filed a complaint against the country's most senior military officer.

4. "Turkey's EU bid stuck in limbo", 'Since December they have been treading water,' said one EU diplomat. But it is not just the government's lethargy that troubles observers. They are equally alarmed by the president's Justice and Development Party's (AKP) increasing reliance on the hawkish discourse and nationalist politics many Turks had hoped were a thing of the past.

5. "Turkey PM rights adviser resigns", the chairman of the Turkish prime minister's human rights advisory board has confirmed to the BBC that he will resign from his post.
Yavuz Onen, who is leaving with five others, has bitterly criticised the attitude of the Turkish government towards human rights.

6. "Cartoonists bug Turkey's top dog", Premier isn't laughing and artists are paying.

7. "Turkey shrugs off success of Hitler's Mein Kampf", Turkey's government on Monday played down soaring sales of Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic book "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle") and said there were no racists in the large Muslim country.

8. "AKP going strong according to poll", according to MetroPoll's opinion poll results, voting on the credibility of state institutions, the vast majority of those polled named the Turkish Armed Forces and Gendarmerie. Those who regard Parliament’s performance as successful were 59.8 percent.

9. "More than 40 Syrian Kurds arrested in Aleppo: lawyer", Syrian authorities arrested more than 40 Kurds following Kurdish New Year celebrations in the northern city of Aleppo, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said Thursday.

10. "KURDS OF KIRKUK: Political ascension speaks volumes", flush from an election day sweep in this divided city, the Kurds who now dominate the local council made clear this month they intend to do things differently when they conducted their public meeting in Kurdish, not Arabic.

1. - Central Standard Time - "Kurdish insurgency presence along the Iraqi border":

Gen. Osman Pamukoglu placed the number of PKK operatives in the Anatolia region at 7,000.

27 March 2005

Turkey continues to assess a large Kurdish insurgency presence along the border with Iraq.

Officials said the Kurdish Workers Party has been bolstering its presence in southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border. They said the presence has grown over the last year amid the migration of thousands of PKK fighters from northern Iraq.

[Ret.] Gen. Osman Pamukoglu placed the number of PKK operatives in the Anatolia region at 7,000. At a conference on March 24 at Sakarya University, Pamukoglu said the PKK fighters have been hiding in the mountains in the southeast.

"They have received military training in the mountain regions," Pamukoglu said. "They have also been indoctrinated."

2. - Financial Times - "Furious Turks wave the flag demonstrators tried to burn":

26 March 2005 / by Vincent Boland

If you want to bring the wrath of Turkey down on you, burn its flag. Three children aged 12, 14 and 15 discovered this to their cost after they were caught apparently trying to set the Turkish flag alight - a criminal offence - at a demonstration last weekend, provoking a wave of nationalist outrage across the country.

In scenes reminiscent of the US after the attacks of September 11 2001, the Turkish flag has been flown in the past few days from apartment windows in towns and cities, on municipal buildings and public transport, and displayed constantly on television screens, after calls from the government and the armed forces for the public to show "solidarity" with the defiled national emblem, depicting a white crescent and star on a red background.

Commentators said the reaction to the incident reflected the brittle state of Turkish self-confidence. Even though the country will begin talks with the European Union in October, Turks seem already to be disillusioned with the accession process. They know it will require concessions of sovereignty, including recognition of the Greek domination of Cyprus and, perhaps, on Armenian claims of genocide in 1915, and endless lectures by EU leaders on Turkey’s imperfections.

The attempted flag-burning happened at a pro-Kurdish rally last Sunday in Mersin, a port city on the Mediterranean, marking the Nevroz spring festival. It led yesterday to a call by the state security apparatus for the courts to consider bringing charges against the Kurdish political party that organised the demonstration, despite the insistence of Kurdish leaders that flag-burning was as much an insult to Kurds as to Turks.

A policeman who intervened to rescue the flag from the children was praised as a hero and was reportedly awarded a bonus equivalent to 24 times his monthly salary. The three children have been arrested and their fate is in the hands of a judge. Up to 30 other people have also been detained after separate demonstrations last weekend, police said yesterday.

The furious and almost unanimous outburst of patriotism followed a statement on the incident from the military, Turkey’s most respected institution and guardian of its independence and nationhood. The general staff said the burning of the flag by "so-called citizens" was tantamount to treason and added: "The Turkish armed forces, like their forefathers, are ready to shed their last drop of blood to protect the country and its flag."

That prompted political leaders to join the condemnation. Ahmed Necdet Sezer, the president, said he "cursed" the perpetrators. Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, called them "miserable". Press reports speculated that the children were incited to burn the flag by militant demonstrators, and there was talk of conspiracies. "Somebody has pushed the button for a plot against Turkey," ran a headline in the daily Aksam newspaper.

Almost drowned out in the din of nationalism was a call for moderation by the Turkish Human Rights Association and a plea by Kurdish leaders for the incident not to be exaggerated.

Nevroz is a celebration of the arrival of spring. In the past it has sometimes become a focus for expressions of Kurdish nationalism. Turkey is home to the world’s largest Kurdish minority, and its armed forces and Kurdish separatists fought a vicious war in the 1980s and 1990s that killed 35,000 people.

Gunduz Aktan, a former diplomat, said Turks were upset by what they saw as disrespect for Turkey at the Mersin demonstration, and responded by embracing the flag. "There is a malaise in Turkish public opinion just now," he said. "You could say that Turkey is vulnerable, and everybody wants to protect their country from a difficult situation."

3. - BBC - "Lawyers act in Turkish flag row":

ISTANBUL / 28 March 2005

Lawyers in Turkey's third city, Izmir, have filed a complaint against the country's most senior military officer.

The complaint says comments made by Gen Hilmi Ozkok, after two young Kurdish men tried to burn a Turkish flag, created hatred between citizens.

He had described the men, who tried to burn the flag during a Kurdish festival a week ago, as "so-called citizens".

The incident provoked a week of demonstrations across Turkey in support of the Turkish flag.

Nationalist threats

The general's irritation at the incident in Mersin, in south-eastern Turkey, was clearly shared by much of the population, in some part whipped up by the nationalistic media and by state organisations, says the BBC's Jonny Dymond in Istanbul.

Turkish flags have been fluttering from cars and buses, office blocks and homes in a way that is normally reserved for public holidays.

Kurds make up about a fifth of the Turkish population.

They have regularly been punished for attempting to assert their separate cultural identity.

As part of its legal complaint, the Izmir bar association also lists more than a dozen incidents of nationalist threats and violence.

The move is, if not unprecedented, then certainly surprising, our correspondent says.

The military is no longer the power it once was, but it is still a respected, and to some degree untouchable institution.

4. - The Washington Times - "Turkey's EU bid stuck in limbo":

ISTANBUL / 27 March 2005 / by Nicholas Birch

When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned from Brussels in December with a provisional date to start negotiations with the European Union, many Turks hailed him as a miracle worker.

In the 40 years since Turkey first applied for membership, it had lurched from crisis to crisis, from coup to coup. Here, finally, was a leader whose pro-European sentiments seemed unimpeachable.

Less than a hundred days later, the festivities have been replaced by general bafflement.

With a final decision on Turkey's accession bid due in October, Mr. Erdogan and his colleagues haven't even gotten around to choosing a senior negotiator. Last year they revolutionized Ankara's traditionally inflexible policy on Cyprus. Now they now appear petrified of signing a customs protocol with the Greek-Cypriot government.

"Since December they have been treading water," said one EU diplomat.

But it is not just the government's lethargy that troubles observers. They are equally alarmed by the president's Justice and Development Party's (AKP) increasing reliance on the hawkish discourse and nationalist politics many Turks had hoped were a thing of the past.

Faced with international condemnation when police beat female protesters on March 6, Mr. Erdogan responded by accusing the Turkish press of pandering to the West. At the Environment Ministry, meanwhile, his Cabinet colleague raised smirks by removing references to Armenia and Kurdistan from the scientific names of a local species of fox and sheep.

Vulpes vulpes kurdistanica and Ovis armeniana, Osman Pepe explained, were a threat to national unity.

Shaken by the recent resignations of half a dozen members of parliament and one Cabinet minister, AKP whips are tightening party discipline. With the leaks drying up, analysts can only speculate on the reasons behind the government's apparent change of direction.

For some, Cyprus is the key. Mr. Erdogan, they argue, had gone to Brussels Dec. 17 hoping his support for pro-European Turkish Cypriots had finally convinced the international community that it was Greek Cyprus, not Turkey, that was responsible for stalling reunification of the island, divided since 1974.

To an outsider, EU insistence that he sign a customs union with Cyprus seems a trifle. To many Turks, it means recognizing a state they believe once tried to wipe out the island's Muslims.

That is a major issue. Earlier this month, Turkey's president cancelled an official visit to Finland when he heard he would be sharing a dinner table with the Greek-Cypriot leader.

Holding almost two-thirds of the seats in parliament, AKP should have little reason to fear a nationalist backlash. The trouble is, it is less powerful than it looks.

Built from the wreckage of a string of traditional anti-Western Islamist parties, AKP owed its success in the 2002 elections to support for its pro-European policies that extended far beyond its traditional religious base. Now splits are beginning to appear among its supporters.

"For many conservative supporters, AKP has done enough on Europe for the time being," said Cuneyt Ulsever, a columnist with the mass-market daily Hurriyet. "They want the party to concentrate on issues they consider important -- lifting the ban on headscarves in universities, and so on." It is an opinion shared by senior party officials, around 70 percent of whom are known to have political roots in the unreconstructed political Islam of the 1970s and 1980s.

Political scientist Ihsan Dagi said AKP's fundamental problem lies in gauging even its traditional support base. "Opinion polls regularly show AKP's conservative supporters to be more pro-European than Turks as a whole," he said. "Yet at the same time, these are the people most susceptible to nationalist rhetoric."

So far, AKP's efforts to patch up such contradictions have been counterproductive. Last year's aborted plans to criminalize adultery were just the start of a progressive alienation of supporters in the mainstream media and business community.

"The government must realize that its strength is rooted in support for its policy of change, not in the party itself," columnist Ali Bayramoglu wrote recently in the Islamist daily Zaman.

Upping the nationalist stakes, he said, could be suicidal. "AKP contains nationalist elements, but others -- the ultra-right wing, the army, the judiciary -- represent nationalism much better." With parliamentary opposition in disarray, the government shouldn't have to worry about its temporary loss of direction. But nature abhors a vacuum, and in Turkey there is always someone to fill the gaps.

Since last August, when Turkey's chief of staff told his men to shut up, the generals have been unusually quiet. Last week, though, one pointedly commemorated six Turkish policemen killed by the British in World War I. The ceremony had been dropped in the 1950s.

A couple of days later, to the anger of ministers, the general tipped to take over the top post in a year's time also weighed in with a criticism of government policy on Iraq. It could be the start of a trend.

5. - BBC - "Turkey PM rights adviser resigns":

ISTANBUL / 25 March 2005 / by Jonny Dymond

The chairman of the Turkish prime minister's human rights advisory board has confirmed to the BBC that he will resign from his post.

Yavuz Onen, who is leaving with five others, has bitterly criticised the attitude of the Turkish government towards human rights.

His departure is an embarrassment for the government.

It has worked hard over the last three years to persuade the world its attitude to human rights has changed.

The advisory board and the government had clashed before, following a report from the board that criticised the country's attitude towards its minorities and questioned some of the fundamentals of Turkey's constitution.

The government effectively ignored it; at one point, locking it out of its own offices.

Mr Onen complained that he and 30 other members of the board had tried to get to see the foreign minister, but with no success.

No consultation

He condemned what he called the government's insincere attitude towards human rights and its lack of consultation with the board.

The resignation of Mr Onen and five other members of the board comes at a time when Turkey's human rights record is once again under the spotlight.

The EU, which has given Turkey a date for membership negotiations to start, has made it clear that those negotiations are contingent upon continuing human rights improvements.

Many were deeply shocked by pictures of women demonstrators being assaulted by the police earlier this month in Istanbul.

And human rights groups in the south-east of the country have told the BBC that the situation there has got worse in the last few months.

6. - The Chicago Tribune - "Cartoonists bug Turkey's top dog":

Premier isn't laughing and artists are paying

ISTANBUL / 28 March 2005 / by Catherine Collins

Apparently Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan doesn't like cartoons. Or maybe it's just animals he dislikes. Perhaps the dog ate his sense of humor.

For the second time in recent weeks, Erdogan has filed a lawsuit over animal caricatures of himself in the Turkish press.

In the first case, Erdogan sued a cartoonist for making fun of the government's difficulty in getting legislation passed by portraying him as a cat, entangled in a ball of yarn. The cartoonist, Musa Kart, was convicted of "publicly humiliating" the prime minister and fined 5,000 lira, about $3,700.

In support of Kart, eight other Turkish cartoonists quickly produced new caricatures of the prime minister--as a frog, snake, giraffe and a cow--and they were published on the cover of a magazine.

That too drew Erdogan's wrath, and the cartoonists were charged with "attacking his individual rights." They face fines totaling up to 40,000 lira, or about $30,000 if convicted.

"Musa Kart's cartoon had a message, although the prime minister didn't get it," said Erdil Yasaroglu, publisher of the humor magazine Penguen, which ran the caricatures of Erdogan.

"Our animals are purely symbolic and our message is, `All for one.' What we are doing is defending all humorists, the press and even freedom of speech for all Turkish people," Yasaroglu said.

Another cartoonist, Salih Memecan, jumped into the fray Wednesday by portraying Erdogan as a lion on the front page of the newspaper Sabah.

"It's a cartoon; of course it's an exaggeration," Memecan said. "Prime Minister Erdogan is a public figure. I'm a cartoonist. He shouldn't worry about these things."

Erdogan calls himself a champion of free expression because he served 4 months in prison in 1999 for reciting a poem that a court said incited hatred. But the suits against the cartoonists have angered the media and led to accusations that he is trying to stifle such expression.

The outcry comes as Turkey prepares to implement the first change of its penal code in 78 years. The new code was touted by the government as less restrictive and more democratic and passed hastily last year, at least in part because of Turkey's candidacy for membership in the European Union. But media experts say there was too little review by human-rights groups and the media, and that portions of the code actually would quell press freedoms.

The revised code, which goes into effect Friday, calls for prison for journalists who insult the state or write about classified information or ongoing government investigations.

The new laws, according to Amnesty International, "could be used to criminalize legitimate expression of dissent and opinion."

Although Turkey has been credited with progress in recent years, it still is criticized for prosecuting and jailing journalists. About 60 publishers and writers are facing prosecution in Turkey, according to Patricia Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, "for daring to produce works that touch on issues the authorities regard as sensitive."

The new press laws have prompted creative protests. One day last week Kars News in eastern Turkey devoted its entire front page to local recipes. The publisher said it was because recipes would be the only things safe to publish under the new press laws.

"There is no doubt that if the penal code is enacted as it stands now, it represents a step backward for our press," said Yavuz Baydar, ombudsman for Sabah.

7. - Reuters - "Turkey shrugs off success of Hitler's Mein Kampf":

ANKARA / 28 March 2005

Turkey's government on Monday played down soaring sales of Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic book "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle") and said there were no racists in the large Muslim country. Booksellers say "Mein Kampf", or Kavgam in Turkish, has featured among the top 10 bestsellers in the past two months, to the dismay of the country's small Jewish community and of the German embassy in Ankara.

Asked to comment on the phenomenon, government spokesman Cemil Cicek said: "We cannot allow prejudice against people for belonging to a certain race."

"We have never had such an attitude in our culture, nor in our history, and we do not have it now ... It's not possible for people to choose their races ... Turkish society's idea about this issue is clear. There is no racism in this country."

Privately, Turkish officials say this is a free country where the government cannot dictate what people choose to read. At least two new Turkish language versions of "Mein Kampf" are out in paperback.

Anti-Semitism has traditionally been weak in Turkey, a Muslim but secular country that has forged close security ties with Israel in recent years.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire offered refuge to Jews and other minorities fleeing persecution in Europe from the time of the Spanish Inquisition onwards.

Political analysts say "Mein Kampf" probably reflects rising nationalism and anti-American sentiment rather than anti-Semitism or specific support for Hitler and his ideas.

8. - Turkish Daily News - "AKP going strong according to poll":

According to MetroPoll's opinion poll results, voting on the credibility of state institutions, the vast majority of those polled named the Turkish Armed Forces and Gendarmerie. Those who regard Parliament’s performance as successful were 59.8 percent.

ANKARA / 27 March 2005

Even if Turkey goes to fresh polls this Sunday, the ruling Justice and development Party (AKP) and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) will still be the sole two parties to win over 10 percent of the votes and send deputies to Parliament, a poll by the MetroPoll Strategic and Social Research Center showed.

The poll was conducted by the MetroPoll Strategic and Social Research Center under the direction of Professor Özer Sancar and surveyed 2,922 people in the city centers of Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Izmir, Konya, Malatya, Samsun, Tekirdag and Trabzon representing Turkey in general in accordance with the NUTS-1 regionalization method. Age and gender quotas were also considered and the poll was conducted through the direct interview technique.

The poll showed that if Turkey was to go to parliamentary elections this Sunday, excluding the AKP, all parties would experience a substantive retreat from their 2002 electoral support levels. According to the poll AKP might increase its vote share from the 2002 level of 36.3 percent to 38.6 percent while the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) would go down to 13.8 percent from the 2002's 22.2 percent level.

According to the poll, the True Path Party (DYP) that received 5.3 percent of the vote in 2002 would go down to 4 percent while the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) would drop to 5.2 percent from its 2002 vote share of 8 percent despite being a nationalist party and the Young Party (GP) would go down to 2.9 percent from its 2002 level of 8.9 percent. The Motherland Party (ANAP) which has been suffering for some time from a leadership crisis that it hopes to overcome by electing Erkan Mumcu as its chairman, has gone down to a negligible 0.5 percent from its 2002 level of 3.9 percent while the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (DEHAP) dropped in the MetroPoll to 2.9 percent from the 2002 level of 4.6 percent. The Islamist Saadet (or Felicity) Party, on the other hand, suffered a slight depreciation and went down to 2 percent from the 2.7 percent level of electoral support it received in 2002. In the MetroPoll research while 3.4 percent expressed support for unlisted parties a substantive 28.4 percent were undecided.

The results of the poll clearly demonstrated that while the AKP was the sole party to increase its electoral support, the GP of troubled businessman Cem Uzan has started to vanish from the Turkish political spectrum.

On other issues:

The poll highlighted that the public has been considering the government as successful in its economy policy (64.8 percent), in its policies for EU membership (63.3 percent) and in confronting corruption (57 percent), whereas as unsuccessful in reducing injustice (50.4 percent), tackling poverty (47.1 percent) and policy towards Iraq. It is clear that the percentage of people supporting the economic policies of the government is far higher than the percentage of its voters.

The government's performance in struggling with inflation is considered to be successful by 66 percent of the people.

The agricultural policy has special importance because it is one of the most talked about topics after the EU agreed to give the go ahead to Turkey to start talks and the poll showed that 42.3 percent of voters think the government is successful.

Polled on the credibility of state institutions, a vast majority named the Turkish Armed Forces and Gendarmerie. Those who regarded Parliament's performance as successful were 59.8 percent.

On the subject of the leadership problem within the leftist politics in Turkey, 65.8 percent said they believe in the existence of such a problem. 65.2 percent thought that the CHP is in need of change in its philosophy and way of practicing politics.

69.3 percent thought that the result of the last extraordinary party congress was far from bringing a solution to the problems within the party structure. The poll showed that the 70.6 percent thought the problems will persist.

With reference to the new currency that entered into circulation on Jan. 1, 2005, 86.2 percent said they hadn't encountered any serious problem due to the new currency. The majority said they had not noticed any increase in the prices of goods as was previously expected.

The poll showed that the Turkish people didn't approve of the closure of the Rural Affairs Directorate and the decision to shut down the SEKA paper mill.

Responding to the questions concerning the handover of Social Security Authority (SSK) hospitals to the Health Ministry, 64 percent said they supported the ministries taking control. The controversial issue of the presidential system in Turkey seemed to have divided the people surveyed. While one-third of the voters said they supported the system, an equivalent number of voters said they do not want the system to be put into effect.

9. - AFP - "More than 40 Syrian Kurds arrested in Aleppo: lawyer":

DAMASCUS / 24 March 2005

Syrian authorities arrested more than 40 Kurds following Kurdish New Year celebrations in the northern city of Aleppo, human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said Thursday.

"More than 40 Kurds, seven of them women, were arrested two days ago (Tuesday) after incidents in Aleppo during the celebrations for Newroz," said Bunni, without giving details.

In March 2004, deadly clashes pitted Kurdish protestors against Syrian security forces and Arab tribes in northern Syria, in which the Kurds said 40 people died and the Syrian authorities gave a death toll of 25.

Bunni called for "a neutral investigation into the events in Aleppo and Qamichli," in northeast Syria, the scenes of last year's unrest.

He condemned those "who used force, killed innocent people and beat up demonstrators", and said the only answer to Kurdish grievances was "a political solution based on human rights".

Syria is home to some 1.5 million Kurds, around nine percent of the population. They are fighting to have their language, culture and political rights recognised.

Rights groups estimate some 2,000 political prisoners are being held in Syria, including 200 Kurds.

10. - Los Angeles Times - "KURDS OF KIRKUK: Political ascension speaks volumes":

KIRKUK / 28 March 2005

Flush from an election day sweep in this divided city, the Kurds who now dominate the local council made clear this month they intend to do things differently when they conducted their public meeting in Kurdish, not Arabic.

For 90 minutes, about two dozen Kurdish council members debated issues and shared jokes, leaving Arabic-speaking citizens and journalists in the audience scratching their heads and walking out in frustration. U.S. officials in attendance scrambled to replace their usual Arabic-language interpreter with one who spoke Kurdish.

One slightly exasperated Assyrian Christian council member, Sylvana Boya Nasir, finally pleaded that she did not understand what was going on. "I don't object to Kurdish," she said later, "but the language used should be understood by all members."

An Iraqi Army soldier looks back at an oil pipeline fire Sunday in Kirkuk, Iraq, after it was ignited by a bomb that was detonated Saturday night. Also Saturday, assailants opened fire on a cafe popular with ethnic Kurds in Kirkuk, killing one and injuring three, police said. The cause of the attack in the ethnically mixed city was not known.(AP)
The episode underscored the tensions dividing ethnic rivals in the northern Tamin province, where Kirkuk is the capital. Once dominated by Turkmen and then by Kurds, Kirkuk became the center of an "Arabization" campaign under Saddam Hussein, who expelled as many as 100,000 Kurds and replaced them with Arabs over the past 20 years. He hoped it would tighten his grip over the province and its oil, estimated to total 6 percent of the world's known reserves.

After the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, thousands of Kurds flooded back to Kirkuk, living in refugee camps, squatting on public land and demanding the right to return home.

Today, Kirkuk's diverse population and oil wealth have put the city at the top of the national agenda. The city's future has been a contentious topic during negotiations between Kurds and Shiites, who are meeting to form a new national government.

For the past two years, feuding groups in Kirkuk coexisted under a U.S.-brokered power-sharing agreement that prevented any single ethnicity from dominating.

But the Jan. 30 election gave Kurds a 63 percent majority of the council seats, leaving Turkmen with just 19 percent and Arabs with 12 percent.

Kurdish leaders in Kirkuk insist they will be gracious winners and reach out to their longtime rivals.

"We are extending our hands to the members of the other slates," said Abdul Rahman Mustafa, a Kurd who has served as Kirkuk governor under the U.S. occupation and is likely to retain the job. "They are all our brothers."

Turkmen and Arab leaders, however, say negotiations have yielded few signs of compromise. The recent Kurdish-language council meeting only heightened their anxiety, and a recent surge in insurgent activity in the area has added to the sense of instability.

Newly elected Turkmen and Arab council members are boycotting meetings until a power-sharing agreement can be hammered out.

"If they want stability, we are all going to have to participate," said Tahsin Kahya, a leader with the Islamic Union of Turkmen. "It's our right to occupy certain posts." But Kahya's chances of retaining his post as Kirkuk council chief appear slim. He said Kurds recently informed him that the head of the council must be a Kurdish speaker.

It's little surprise that Kurds are savoring their victory, which comes even as new mass graves are uncovered on the city's outskirts, a reminder of Saddam's brutal genocide campaign against them.

"We are so happy about the election," said Sabir Ahmed Omar, 54, whose two sons were killed by the Saddam regime because they were fighters with the peshmerga, the Kurdish militia. Omar himself is a former resistance fighter. He proudly raised a baggy pant leg to reveal a deep scar on his knee from a grenade attack 35 years ago.

His family was forced to abandon their home and move north in the late 1980s, but they returned last year and built a two-room, cinder-block house on some vacant government land on the edge of the city.

"We are dreaming about the changes that now will take place," Omar said with a broad smile as two grandchildren played at his feet.

A top priority of the Kurds is helping the estimated 30,000 to 50,000 refugees who are still living in temporary camps around the city, Mustafa said. Compensating those families and building new housing could cost more than $500 million, he said.

Turkmen and Arabs, meanwhile, are still stinging from the election results, which they insist were distorted by thousands of Kurds from other cities flooding to Kirkuk on election day. Shortly before the vote, Iraq's Independent Election Commission ruled that up to 70,000 displaced Kurds could vote in the province even though they do not currently live here.

"The election is not legal," Kahya said. "The results don't reflect reality." Kurds dismiss such complaints. "It doesn't matter whether they accept the results or not," Mustafa said. "These are the results."

Arabs fear that Kurds plan to force out thousands of families, mostly Shiite Muslims from the south who were moved to Kirkuk under Hussein's campaign. Under Article 58 of Iraq's draft constitution, Kurds are permitted to return and Arabs must leave, though they must be compensated.

A group of Arab leaders in Kirkuk recently demanded that Article 58 be amended to permit Arabs to remain in the city alongside returning Kurds.

"We ask the Kurds to reconsider what they are saying in their statements, and to remind them that they were not the only ones who suffered during the time of the tyrant Saddam," said Abed Hadi Daraji, a spokesman for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has been increasingly outspoken about the Kirkuk controversy.

At the national government negotiations recently, Kurds sought to annex Kirkuk into their Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, but they settled for a pledge from the Shiites to implement Article 58 this year, before a new national constitution is drafted, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Much of that job will likely fall to Hamid Majeed Mousa, head of the Iraqi Communist Party, who was tapped in January to lead a new committee charged with implementing Article 58. A previous resettlement committee set up by the U.S. languished unfunded and inactive for more than a year. Mousa said he demanded independent funding and a direct line to the prime minister's office.

He plans to settle disputes over Kirkuk's borders by appointing an independent arbiter, unanimously approved by the president and vice presidents, who will collect evidence from all sides and make a ruling. Saddam redrew the old borders to include more Arab communities and fewer Kurdish ones.

On the sensitive issues of returning Kurds and removing Arabs, Mousa said he would call for a massive compensation fund to pay victims and involve the United Nations and foreign countries to craft a fair process.

The outcome in Kirkuk, he said, is vital to the future of Iraq.

"Solving this problem," Mousa said, "is going to bring stability to the entire country."