6 January 2006

3. "Matsakis requests EU intervention in detention over flag incident", Marios Matsakis, a firebrand Greek Cypriot member of the European Parliament, appealed to the president of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, urging him in a letter to intervene with Turkey in the matter of his detention in northern Cyprus over a flag incident in November, according to Greek Cypriot news reports published yesterday.

4. "Poetry set to music in a haunting way", the great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) got himself thrown in jail — the first time — for speaking out about the Armenian massacres of 1915 and 1922.

5. "Big Turn-On for the Turks: Panorama", Roj TV is the most popular station in southeastern Turkey. It broadcasts in Kurmanji, the Kurdish dialect spoken there, and it is sometimes more reliable than Turkish news, especially on touchy topics like rebel movements that might otherwise go unreported.

6. "Thirty-year prison sentence for criticising Kurdish regional president in Internet articles", Reporters Without Borders has written to the president of the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, asking him to intervene in the case of an Austrian citizen of Kurdish origin, Kamal Sayid Qadir, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison on 19 December 2005 for libelling him in articles posted on the Internet.

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1. - Taipei Times - "Turkey's entry into EU still an open question":

Nearly 50 years since its application for membership, Turkey's `European identity' continues to divide neighbors

6 January 2006 / by Michel Rocard*

Turkey is now, finally, negotiating with the European Commission the terms of its possible membership in the EU. But whether "possible" becomes "eventual" remains very much an open question. Indeed, completing the negotiations is likely to prove as difficult as the decision to start them.

Recall that Turkey made its first application to join in 1959, and that since 1963, the European Economic Community, the forerunner to today's EU, responded with a delaying tactic: a request for a customs agreement. At the same time, having never had to take "no" for an answer -- and after receiving a series of nods and winks that hinted that membership might one day come -- Turkey's expectation of eventual EU integration became increasingly palpable.

But ordinary Europeans have begun looking at maps, and the geography that they see cannot be denied: 95 percent of Turkey's territory and 80 percent of its population is in Asia.

As a result, the fierce and lively debate -- in Turkey and much more emphatically in the EU -- about whether Turkey really belongs to Europe has continued, despite the start of negotiations.

Of course, the question of Turkey's European identity cannot be answered with geography lessons. At least half of the body of Greek theater and philosophy was produced in Asia Minor. The first Christian evangelization trips of Saint Peter and Saint Paul were to Turkey. Later, Ottoman Turkey was for centuries considered a part of the "concert of Europe," proving indispensable in defining and securing the strategic balance among the European continent's Great Powers.

The turkish question

Yet this historical evidence is not enough to unite European sentiment in favor of Turkey's EU membership. On the contrary, "the Turkish Question" will be resolved on the basis of the current political preoccupations and concerns for the future.

Fortunately, that choice was not settled prematurely and peremptorily: the process that will lead to a final decision was merely allowed to start with the opening of negotiations.

Membership talks can't help but be long and arduous, if only because adopting the acquis communautaire (the body of EU law) requires that Turkey integrate around 10,000 pages of texts into its legislation. However, all this now seems to have a serious chance of succeeding.

And yet Turkey scares countless Europeans. With 67 million people today, and a population that will reach 80 million in 20 years and 100 million in 2050, Turkey is bound to become the most populous of all European nations. It is also a very poor Muslim country.

To be sure, a few countries in Europe, mainly Germany and Austria, have welcomed strong inflows of Turkish immigration. But the immigrants have been mostly poor peasants from Anatolia, whose integration has proven to be difficult. By contrast, Turkey's large, secular intellectual community, whose cultural background is European, and from which the Turkish state recruits most of its executives, has remained in Istanbul and Ankara.

Europe, then, is frightened by the prospect of more immigration by Turks who find it almost impossible to assimilate. For the moment, such immigration has almost stopped, owing to rapid economic growth -- indeed, the fastest in Europe -- in recent years, which is absorbing the country's available labor and has thus stemmed the flow of emigrants. Yet the fear remains that membership in the EU will unleash a new human tide.

Theater of violence

Economic fears are not the only concern for EU citizens. Turkey was the theater of exceptional violence in the 20th century: its participation in WWI fueled hatred and gigantic massacres, with the genocide of the Armenians the last vicious spasm of the Ottoman Empire's brutal demise.

Moreover, while Kemal Ataturk restored Turkish national pride by creating the secular Turkish republic, his legacy is mixed, for it includes both Turkey's strong attraction to the West and a militarization of public life.

The latter explains much of the repressive attitude towards free speech and independent opinion that has characterized much of Turkish public life -- a straitjacket that has left little room for real negotiations with Turkey's restless Kurds or for resolving the division of Cyprus.

But Turkey's EU aspirations mean that it is now being forced to demilitarize its democracy and to find negotiated and peaceful agreements with all its neighbors and future partners -- Armenians, Kurds and Cypriots.

Thus, if Europe manages to overcome its fears and hesitations and open itself to a powerful Muslim state, it will consolidate peace in one of the world's most dangerous regions.

Indeed, by integrating Turkey, Europe would show that it is not a Christian club, that the supposed "clash of civilizations" need not be fatal and that the European project, born out of a desire for reconciliation and the need to promote development, can spread its benefits far beyond the Western half of Europe. In opening itself to Turkey, the EU would finally begin to play its proper role in confronting today's most daunting political challenges.

* Michel Rocard, a former prime minister of France and leader of the Socialist Party, is a member of the European Parliament.

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2. - Zaman - "Turkish Press Council Late to Criticize Penal Code but Brisk on Terror Law":

ISTANBUL / 5 January 2006 / by Busra Erdal

The Counter Terrorism Act, or the CTA another words, continues to attract public criticism on the grounds of restricting freedom.

The Turkish Penal Code (TCK) was belatedly revised regarding its provisions that restricted the freedoms of thought and speech, said Oktay Eksi, Chairman of Turkish Press Council.

The same thing, he assured, will not be the case with the CTA. As soon as the draft is released in its final form, freedoms of speech ought not to be limited.

At a briefing over the TCK provisions to restrict freedom of thought, the Chairman said it should not take an extraordinary effort to realize the current situation far from the hopes for having an advanced level of democracy in the country.

Eksi criticized the provisions that cause journalists to run the risk of going to prison; he demanded Articles 208 and 301, penalizing the crimes of “influencing the judiciary” and “insulting Turkish identity” respectively, should be subject to amendment.

The draft CTA attracted serious reaction from such non-governmental organizations as the Human Rights Watch Organization, based in New York.

The Commission of European Union (EU) Representative Office of Turkey also leveled severe criticism at the draft CTA in its four-page notification sent in to Brussels.

Eleven people turned up at the briefing, among who were Haluk Sahin, a member of the High Commission of the Press Council, Dogan Heper, Tugan Turenc, and Nevzat Ayaz.

The TCK provisions cause us to think of the future in pessimistic terms, said Eksi; the Press Council is not surprised at the current situation.

“We have to make it clear that we will have to deal with far serious situations. This is why we are in haste to urge those in authority to take action to improve the current situation before it gets even worse.”

As the council, he said, they launched a campaign in March 2005 in order to communicate the new Penal Code included several objectionable provisions in terms of “freedom of communication (press)”.

Hopes arose as the enforcement of the code was postponed for two months, Eksi said, but they achieved no positive results about the basic nature of demands.

The Chairman expressed “Though we said ‘Turkey will be remembered as the world’s biggest journalistic prison’ as it was formerly if this law comes into effect this way, nobody took this into consideration,” and he stated they listened to discourses on the “press’s sins” instead.

About 70 journalists were charged due to the new laws, particularly article 301 of the TCK about “vilifying the Turkish identity,” for which cases were opened against the journalist Hrant Dink and the writer Orhan Pamuk. Eksi emphasized the sentence of six months to three years in this article must be replaced by a fine.

The Association is working on a project in order to protect journalists against the dangers they may face with in ‘the mine field’ formed by the new Penal Code. Eksi on the other hand, confessed being late to intervene in provisions restricting the freedom of thought and expression in the TCK. He assured this will not take place in the Counter-Terrorism Act; “After the bill is shaped, we will deal with the dimensions that interest us.”

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3. - Turkish Daily News - "Matsakis requests EU intervention in detention over flag incident":

ANKARA / 6 January 2006

Marios Matsakis, a firebrand Greek Cypriot member of the European Parliament, appealed to the president of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, urging him in a letter to intervene with Turkey in the matter of his detention in northern Cyprus over a flag incident in November, according to Greek Cypriot news reports published yesterday.

“I ask kindly for your intervention towards the Turkish government to protest against the treatment I, as an MEP, received and to ask that this is not repeated in the future. I also request that this matter, especially the way the Turkish authorities treat MEPs, be discussed at the next plenary session,” Greek Cypriot daily quoted Matsakis as saying in the letter.

Matsakis said in the letter that what he experienced in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) was similar to what was experienced by Joost Lagendijk, another European parliamentarian, and claimed that he was threatened by nationalists during the time he was in custody in northern Cyprus.

A group of nationalist lawyers recently called for the prosecution of Lagendijk, who told Turkish journalists at a press conference in Istanbul that the Turkish military was provoking clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Matsakis was arrested over the weekend at a checkpoint near the Ledra Palace Hotel in Nicosia while trying to take a New Year's present to KKTC President Mehmet Ali Talat. He was arrested under a warrant issued over the flag incident in November, when he snatched a Turkish flag from an observation post along the buffer zone that separates the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot administration from the KKTC in the north. After the incident, Turkish Cypriot authorities warned that Matsakis would be arrested if he crossed over again.

The KKTC military court ruled earlier this week for Matsakis' release on YTL 50,000 bail, saying that the European parliamentarian's immunity was valid in northern Cyprus. The judge said the trial would be suspended until Matsakis' term in office expired.

Matsakis did not attend a hearing yesterday in northern Cyprus during which the court said it had to investigate his parliamentary immunity further. The hearing was delayed until Oct. 20.

Matsakis said on Tuesday he did not regret pulling down the Turkish flag, adding that he did not steal, destroy or desecrate the flag and that he respects the symbols of all countries. Matsakis said he took the flag to bring it to the European Parliament, where he had planned to demand the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island.

Matsakis is a figure who is frequently seen in the news. The controversial parliamentarian is currently under two investigations, one for allegedly blackmailing a police officer for £10,000 in return for changing his testimony in a case involving the shooting of a drug suspect, and the other for buying smuggled antiquities.

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4. - The Seattle Times - "Poetry set to music in a haunting way":

6 January 2006

The great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) got himself thrown in jail — the first time — for speaking out about the Armenian massacres of 1915 and 1922.

Today, another Turkish writer, novelist Orhan Pamuk, is being threatened with jail for saying exactly the same thing, almost a century later. The outcome may be crucial in Turkey's admission to the European Union.

Though the timing is pure coincidence, Sunday's concert, "New Music for Nazim Hikmet" by Seattle composer Robin Holcomb, couldn't be happening at a better moment.

With the help of a grant from the Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Holcomb has set six of Hikmet's poems to music for a chamber ensemble — three strings and three winds, plus her own piano and voice. The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Richard Hugo House, Seattle $5-$10 (206-322-7030 or www.brownpapertickets.com).

Hikmet spent much of his life in prison, but in 1950, after an international protest led by Pablo Picasso, among others, the Turkish poet received the World Peace Prize.

Though Holcomb is best known for haunting, minimalist art songs, you might guess this new project was prompted by politics. She also recently sang in "Joe Hill," the chamber opera about the radical labor leader, by her husband, Wayne Horvitz.

In fact, it was passion, not politics, that sealed the deal.

"I read [Hikmet's poem] 'Things I Didn't Know I Loved' at our wedding, 25 years ago," Holcomb said in an interview earlier this week.

That poem is a long, rhapsodic free-verse train poem, in which Hikmet, Pablo Neruda-like, declares his love for all things elemental, as they fly by the window — sky, flowers, sun, rain.

Its quiet, simple affirmation is characteristic of Hikmet's tone.

"It's settled, in a way," reflected Holcomb, 51. "At peace, with even a very difficult life. Being at peace seemed like a good message to go into the rest of your life with."

A poet before she was a composer, Holcomb discovered Hikmet in the mid-'70s, as a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Years later, she found Pete Seeger's famous setting of Hikmet's anti-nuke poem, "I Come and Stand at Every Door" (aka "Hiroshima," also recorded by the Byrds).

Holcomb composed new music for "I Come and Stand" and has been singing it ever since. On Sunday, she'll do it at the piano in her own inimitable style, which combines the simple harmonies of a New England hymnal with the floating dissonances of Satie and Ravel, all churning under her oddly quaking voice. That style is amplified and expanded in the ensemble pieces.

On one of them, "Angina Pectoris," Hikmet explains to a doctor that his chest pain stems from compassion for the struggling poor, not tobacco, hardened arteries or prison walls. Holcomb's setting features upbeat piano dramatic changes of pace and decorative lines from the winds, winding through the melody.

Though Hikmet died in exile, there is a movement afoot to reinstate his citizenship. With Turkey back on the international stage, Holcomb's concert should raise awareness while offering an extraordinarily beautiful musical experience, as well.

Another lovely chamber ensemble is on deck the following night, when Jim Knapp's little big-band performs at 8 p.m. Monday in the L.A.B. performance space at the Seattle Drum School, in Seattle, $5-$10 (206-364-8815). The great jazz French horn player Tom Varner, who recently relocated from New York to Seattle, will be in the band.

Paul de Barros: 206-464-3247 or pdebarros@seattletimes.com

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5. - Wired Magazin - "Big Turn-On for the Turks: Panorama":

6 January 2006 / by Thomas Galen Grove

Mustafa Özgen's borrowed Ford Turbo bumps along a Turkish dirt road, 13 miles from the border with Syria. Özgen rumbles past dilapidated houses, abandoned during the country's prolonged war with Kurdish rebels. In the back of his truck, satellite TV dishes are stacked neatly on their sides like silverware in a drawer. Özgen, a Kurd, is making the three-and-a half-hour journey to the village of Kocyigit. But he doesn't use its Turkish name; he insists on the Kurdish appellation, Rosat. Feelings are still a bit raw in southeastern Turkey.

A man wearing an oversize sports coat watches intently as Özgen's truck approaches. He has walked for hours to reach Rosat. When Özgen finally arrives, the man waves him to a halt. "I can't get Animal Planet," he says. "What's the new code? My kids are driving me crazy." Özgen leans out the window to give him two 16-digit codes. After a quick handshake, the man begins the long walk back to his village. "Sometimes they change the codes for channels so people can't watch them without a subscription," Özgen says later. "But I can always find them on the Internet."

Özgen, a door-to-door satellite TV salesman, is part of a new crop of entrepreneurs taking advantage of the repopu­lation of the Turkish countryside. In the process, he has become an unlikely ambassador of culture; the 35-year-old sees his work as more of a humanitarian effort than a capitalist venture. Until a few years ago, this delivery trip would have been illegal - Turkish military routinely destroyed dishes to keep the Kurds from watching TV in their own language. "Men here have gone through the military service and school. They know Turkish," Özgen explains. "But most women speak only Kurdish. They need Kurdish satellite TV." Imagine the Muslim women of Rosat, covered in full-length dresses that tie at the ankle, faces veiled in thin cotton scarves, kicking back with Animal Planet.

Of the 900 channels that Özgen's service beams in from northern Europe, five are broadcast in Kurdish, offering news, talk shows, and US documentaries. Roj TV is the most popular station in the region. It broadcasts in Kurmanji, the Kurdish dialect spoken there, and it is sometimes more reliable than Turkish news, especially on touchy topics like rebel movements that might otherwise go unreported.

Özgen pulls up to Yilmaz Acar's house. Before he cuts the engine, Acar's wife ducks inside. She returns with glasses of ayran (chilled diluted yogurt) and then disappears, as is the custom, until her husband has finished his business. Acar's place doesn't have a roof or windows, but he's willing to put off the purchase of those to buy a satellite dish. He makes just $260 a month from his small grocery store; it will take about a year to pay Özgen's $180 fee on the installment plan. Before today, he plugged his TV into his neighbor's satellite system. But, he says, he's tired of watching his friend channel surf.

In front of another house, Özgen grabs his leather bag and pulls out an access card. This is a special order. News isn't the only thing being beamed from Europe; pornography is, too. Özgen walks up to the front door and furtively slips the card to a middle-aged man, who quickly takes it and shuts the door. Some situations are delicate, and customers would rather not talk at length about their preferences. "People ask for things from a satellite salesman they wouldn't tell anyone else," he says. "I'm like a doctor."

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6. - RSF/IFEX - "Thirty-year prison sentence for criticising Kurdish regional president in Internet articles":

6 January 2006

Reporters Without Borders has written to the president of the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, asking him to intervene in the case of an Austrian citizen of Kurdish origin, Kamal Sayid Qadir, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison on 19 December 2005 for libelling him in articles posted on the Internet.

"This incident bodes ill for freedom of expression in Iraq's Kurdish region," the press freedom organisation wrote. "We condemn the use of prison sentences to punish press offences and we are especially shocked by the length of this sentence, even if Qadir really did libel you. We therefore hope you will intervene to obtain his release and thereby show you intend to establish a fair judicial system in your region that complies with international standards."

Qadir was arrested on 26 October by members of the Parastin, a security service operated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the region's two ruling parties. He is currently held in a prison in Erbil, one of the region's main cities.

A lawyer normally based in Vienna, Qadir, 48, is accused of libelling and insulting Barzani in web articles. He has written dozens of articles for websites such as http://www.kurdishmedia.com and http://www.kurdistanpost.com in which he has been very critical of Barzani's policies. He was reportedly convicted on the basis of Kurdish customary law and not the law approved by the regional parliament.

According to his sister, who lives in Germany, he has been on hunger strike for more than a week in protest against his conviction.

MORE INFORMATION:

For further information, contact Julien Pain, RSF Internet Desk, 5, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 71, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: internet@rsf.org, Internet: http://www.internet.rsf.org

Source: The International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX)
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/71374/