28 February 2006

1. "Turkish police walk free despite conviction of killing jail inmates", aixty-two Turkish policemen and paramilitary police were convicted yesterday of beating 10 Kurdish inmates to death a decade ago but walked free under an amnesty. Sezgin Tanrikulu, a lawyer for the victims — who were accused of belonging to the autonomy-seeking outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, — immediately criticised the verdict as unjust. Turkey is also under pressure from the European Union to punish perpetrators of torture.

2. "Turkish officials given suspended sentences for 1996 prison crackdown", a Turkish court Monday sentenced 62 people -- including officials, prison guards and policemen -- to five-year prison terms, which were then suspended, for their role in a bloody crackdown on Kurdish prisoners in 1996.

3. "Turkey's judiciary -- an obstacle on the EU path", to its critics, Turkey's judiciary is the biggest obstacle on the long road to the European Union -- rigidly conservative, unaccountable, hostile to human rights and often corrupt.

4. "Turkey disappointed by EU aid deal on northern Cyprus", the EU's foreign ministers have approved a controversial aid package for northern Cyprus. The move was welcomed by the Greek Cypriots. However, Turkey said that the deal could create new problems.

5. "Gonul: Turkish-Israeli defense ties intact", Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Sunday that a surprise visit by the radical Palestinian organization Hamas to Ankara did not cause a negative impact in relations between the Turkish and Israeli defense ministries.

6. "Iranian police clash with PKK supporters", conflicting numbers of casualties were reported regarding clashes between Iranian police and supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who held a series of demonstrations in the provinces of Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan last Friday in order to protest PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan's imprisonment on the anniversary of his capture seven years ago.

1. - Reuters - "Turkish police walk free despite conviction of killing jail inmates":

ANKARA / 28 February 2006

Sixty-two Turkish policemen and paramilitary police were convicted yesterday of beating 10 Kurdish inmates to death a decade ago but walked free under an amnesty.

Sezgin Tanrikulu, a lawyer for the victims — who were accused of belonging to the autonomy-seeking outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, — immediately criticised the verdict as unjust. Turkey is also under pressure from the European Union to punish perpetrators of torture.

The court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir initially sentenced the defendants to 18 years in prison for using excessive force to quash a prison uprising, during which 10 Kurdish inmates were killed in September 1996. But the court immediately commuted the prison term to six years, saying the defendants were acting under “heavy provocation,” and then reduced their sentence to five years in prison, citing “good behaviour” throughout the trial.

Eventually, the accused walked free as their five-year term was automatically suspended under a 1999 amnesty until they re-offend. The court also ruled that the defendants should be dismissed from office for three years; however that punishment was also eliminated under the same amnesty.

“Those who committed crimes against humanity have evaded prison under the amnesty without serving one day in prison,” the Anatolia news agency quoted Tanrikulu as saying.

A parliamentary committee report had concluded that there was evidence to show that some of the prisoners had been severely beaten.

2. - AFP - "Turkish officials given suspended sentences for 1996 prison crackdown":

DIYARBAKIR / 27 February 2006

A Turkish court Monday sentenced 62 people -- including officials, prison guards and policemen -- to five-year prison terms, which were then suspended, for their role in a bloody crackdown on Kurdish prisoners in 1996.

On September 26, 1996, ten detainees were killed and several others wounded when security forces put down a prison uprising by members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group.

Of the 72 people originally accused in a trial that lasted nearly ten years, three of those sentenced were acquitted and seven took advantage of a statue of limitations to get off.

The judges, sitting in a court in the southeast city of Diyarbakir, had originally sentenced the remaining 62 defendants to 18 years each, but reduced their sentences to five years under a penal code article that allows for a reduction in prison time for crimes considered to be provoked.

The five-year sentences were then suspended due to the application of a 2000 amnesty stating that all crimes committed before April 1999 may be reduced by 10 years.

3. - Reuters - "Turkey's judiciary -- an obstacle on the EU path":

To its critics, Turkey's judiciary is the biggest obstacle on the long road to the European Union -- rigidly conservative, unaccountable, hostile to human rights and often corrupt.

ANKARA / 28 February 2006 / by Gareth Jones

To its critics, Turkey's judiciary is the biggest obstacle on the long road to the European Union -- rigidly conservative, unaccountable, hostile to human rights and often corrupt.

But to its supporters, the judiciary is the front line in the daily battle to preserve the secular, unitary Turkish state from its many enemies, ranging from Islamists to Kurdish rebels.

Last week, in the latest case to upset liberals and reassure conservatives, two academics faced charges of harming national unity with a report on ethnic minorities in Turkey commissioned by the prime minister's own office. Their trial continues.

Turkey's judiciary has turned into a battleground between competing ideologies as Ankara struggles to meet EU demands on human rights reforms and as the country gears up for presidential and parliamentary elections in 2007.

"The judiciary is the civilian guardians of the Kemalist order," said Cengiz Aktar of Istanbul's Bahcesehir University, referring to the secular system of government established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, revered founder of the Turkish republic.

"But their conservatism does not fit with this modern world of European rules and regulations, with the European Convention on Human Rights. They are thousands of miles away from the EU."

The judiciary has been trained to put the interests of the state and the nation before individual citizens, he said.

Many experts agree the judiciary is too conservative.

"It is not easy to change. Old attitudes are strong, it takes time," said Hikmet Sami Turk, a former justice minister and now a law professor at Ankara's Bilkent University.

"The government passes new laws but implementation is to some extent not up to EU standards," he told Reuters.

Turkey began EU entry talks last October but is not seen joining the wealthy bloc before 2015 at the earliest.

Writers targeted:

Recent EU criticism of the judiciary has focused on Article 301 of Turkey's revised penal code, which makes it a crime to insult state institutions or Turkish identity.

Nationalist-minded lawyers have used the article to press charges against the two Ankara academics and many more scholars and writers, including best-selling novelist Orhan Pamuk. The Pamuk trial collapsed last month on a technicality.

"The judiciary has emerged as perhaps the major instrument of anti-EU forces in defending old ways and resisting change," said one Ankara-based EU diplomat.

Defenders of the status quo retort that few freedom of expression cases end in jail and they say judiciary must also respect verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights.

"I think the EU was too hasty in criticizing the judiciary over the Pamuk case. And after all it is the politicians who make the laws," said Talat Salk, a retired state prosecutor.

"As long as Article 301 remains on the statute books, people will be prosecuted under it," he said.

But critics say freedom of expression cases expose a deeper failing within the judicial system -- its arbitrariness. Some prosecutors would have thrown out the case against Pamuk and other writers at the outset; others prefer to pursue the case depending on their political leanings.

"Verdicts too often seem to hinge on the individual prosecutors and judges making them," said the EU diplomat.

Echoing that comment, Bahcesehir's Aktar said, "This unevenness creates confusion and undermines public confidence."

AKP plans:

The judiciary suffers from poor funding, staff shortages and lack of transparency, Aktar said, adding that the government seemed to lack the political will to tackle these problems.

"[Prime Minister Tayyip] Erdogan and the AKP are only interested when judicial rulings touch on issues dear to them, such as the Muslim headscarf," Aktar said.

Erdogan, whose roots are in political Islam, often criticizes rulings upholding a strict ban on women's headscarves in universities. Last week, he slammed a court ruling against a woman teacher from wearing her headscarf outside school.

Turks are now waiting to see whether Erdogan will contest the presidency in May 2007. Parliament selects the head of state and Erdogan's AKP has a big majority in the current assembly, whose term runs until November 2007.

As president, he would have the right to appoint many of Turkey's judges and could, over time, dilute the judiciary's strong secularist bias.

"When the AKP controls the presidency, we will see a situation like in the United States in the struggle for control of the Supreme Court. But whereas the ideological issue there is abortion, here it will be the headscarf," said the EU diplomat.

"The judiciary will become even more of a battleground."

4. - EurActiv - "Turkey disappointed by EU aid deal on northern Cyprus":

The EU's foreign ministers have approved a controversial aid package for northern Cyprus. The move was welcomed by the Greek Cypriots. However, Turkey said that the deal could create new problems.

28 February 2006

In 2004, the Commission proposed an aid package originally worth 259 million euros to the Turkish community of Cyprus. The package was to be coupled with an agreement that would have allowed direct trade between the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the EU's 25 member states.

The proposal came on the heels of the April 2004 referendum in both Cypriot communities whose aim was to decide on the island's reunification along the lines of the UN's so-called Annan Plan. The Turkish Cypriots voted for reunification but the Greek Cypriots voted against. On 1 May 2004, the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU as a full member.

Following the referenda, the Commission stated in July 2004 that it was determined to "put an end to the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community and to facilitate the reunification of Cyprus by encouraging the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community." For this end, the Commission proposed an aid envelope of 259 million euros for 2004-2006, and it also proposed a regulation to facilitate direct trade from the the northern part of Cyprus. "The proposal offers a preferential regime for products originating in the North, entering the Customs Territory of the EU," said the Commission's communication.

Following several months of debates, the EU's foreign ministers approved on 27 February 2006 a financial aid package to northern Cyprus. A total of 139 million euros in financial aid will be released to the Turkish Cypriot community in 2006. Of the originally planned 259 million euro purse, some 120 million were lost as the deadline for using the funds from the EU's 2005 budget was missed.

Issues:

For the EU, the adoption of the aid package is seen as conducive to the adoption of the 2004 proposal on direct trade between the EU and the Turkish Cypriot community. However, for now Ankara remains disappointed as it continues to insist that the EU should first fulfill its own commitments on Cyprus before Turkey opens its ports and airports to Greek Cyprus. This, in turn, is seen by the Greek Cypriots as a condition to their giving green light to the direct trade scheme. Cyprus, just like all other member states, has veto rights over every stage of the process. Cyprus has blocked the aid and trade measures since 2004.

Furthermore, Ankara considers the current aid package weak since it aims at improving infrastructure rather than boosting economic development. The aid proposal approved on 27 February does not mention the trade provisions between the EU and Turkish Cyprus.

Meanwhile, the US State Department has indicated that in its view it is not illegal to conduct trade with Turkish Cyprus. "Commercial transactions with the northern part of Cyprus are not illegal by any definition that I'm aware of," said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. He added, however, that this stance did not amount to the recognition by Washington of Turkish Cyprus. "The nucleus is that our policy and recognition has not changed," Ereli said.

Positions:

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn welcomed the 27 February decision by the General Affairs Council, stressing that "many concrete projects can now be realised which bring the Turkish Cypriot community closer to the European Union." The decision "should be seen as a first step by the EU towards putting an end to the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community and facilitating the reunification of Cyprus," Rehn said.

The Austrian Presidency has also expressed satisfaction with the agreement. "We have tackled a very difficult issue and we are very, very happy that we have solved it,” said a spokesman.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains adamant that "first you [the EU] should fulfill your pledges before asking Turkey to honour its commitments."

Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that “the genuine step Turkey expects is direct trade together with financial aid. This unilateral decision by the EU will bring new problems and difficulties.”

According to the Presidency of Turkish Cyprus, "the decision [...] is far from meeting our expectations. The EU institutions making decisions, as a result of Greek Cypriot pressure, that can hinder a comprehensive solution on the island make the Turkish Cypriots uneasy."

The President of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, voiced his satisfaction with the EU's decision. "This is the first time, after so many years, that the issue of the return of Famagusta has become an issue for discussion by the European Union," he said. In the words of Cypriot government spokesman Georgios Lillikas, the "fairy tale of Turkish-Cypriot isolation" is now eliminated with the EU's decision.

5. - TMCnet - "Gonul: Turkish-Israeli defense ties intact":

Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Sunday that a surprise visit by the radical Palestinian organization Hamas to Ankara did not cause a negative impact in relations between the Turkish and Israeli defense ministries.

27 February 2006

"The Hamas visit took place between political parties. It has nothing to do with relations between governments because Hamas, in fact, has not formed a government," Gonul was quoted as saying in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri.

Replying to a question asking whether the Hamas visit would cause a change in Turkey's tank modernization project to be undertaken with Israel, Gonul said the "M-60 project" has continued in cooperation with Israel and added that the mass production of the modernized tanks would start in Kayseri in the summer at the latest.

Gonul highlighted that the Hamas talks in Ankara did not have a negative impact upon the relations between the defense ministries of the two countries

"The relations between the Turkish and Israeli defense ministries are running on the same course," he added.

6. - TMC.net - "Iranian police clash with PKK supporters":

27 February 2006

Conflicting numbers of casualties were reported regarding clashes between Iranian police and supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who held a series of demonstrations in the provinces of Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan last Friday in order to protest PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan's imprisonment on the anniversary of his capture seven years ago.

The governor of a Kurdish town in western Iran told the Associated Press yesterday that peace had returned to his constituency, two days after two demonstrators were killed during a demonstration marking the anniversary of the capture of Ocalan.

Alireza Radfar, governor of Maku, said police clashed on Friday with rock-throwing demonstrators who tried to storm government buildings in Bazargan and Yolaglas districts.

"Some 10 demonstrators were shot, including two who were killed," he said, noting that the demonstrators launched attacks during a gathering

Maku, some 900 kilometers northwest of Tehran, has a predominantly ethnic Kurdish population of more than 150,000.

Kurdish areas in Iran have occasionally witnessed unrest against the ruling Islamic establishment. Last year, the unrest rocked several Kurdish towns in northwestern Iran. Clashes with police and arrests led to more protests.

Ocalan was captured in Kenya after he was forced to leave a Greek diplomatic mission there in 1999. He was then sentenced to death for leading the PKK but his sentence was later commuted to life in prison, which he is serving as the sole inmate on a prison island near Istanbul.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

An Internet news site, Iran Focus, reported that a least five people were killed and dozens injured or arrested in the course of clashes.

Iranian Kurds staged several rallies in various towns and cities in the northwestern regions of Iran on Thursday and Friday, the report said. There were street clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the towns of Maku, Bazargan and Sardasht, the report added. Another Internet news site that is close to the PKK reported that at least eight people were killed, 25 injured and 400 arrested.

Turkey has in the past accused Iran of fueling radical Islam in Turkey and sheltering Islamic extremists. But Ankara has similar concerns with Tehran in regards to mutual neighbor Iraq and the threat posed by the PKK, which is carrying out attacks on Turkish soil. The group is also believed to be behind ongoing ethnic unrest in Iran's northwest.