21 September 2006

1. "Elif Shafak Case Dropped", Charges against renowned Turkish writer and Zaman columnist Elif Shafak for “degenerating Turkishness” in her book “The Bastard of Istanbul” were dropped Thursday morning.

2. "Hundreds of soldiers cleared of rape, torture of Kurdish woman", A Turkish court has cleared 405 soldiers of the torture and rape of a Kurdish woman in custody in a controversial case dating back more than a decade ago, a lawyer for the plaintiff said on Wednesday.

3. "Attempted assassin warns Pope against Turkey visit", The man who tried to kill
Pope John Paul II in 1981 has warned the current Pope not to visit Turkey, saying his life would be in danger, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

4. "Turkey grounds Iranian VIP plane", A military plane carrying Iranian officials, including several ministers, deputies and journalists, was asked to land in Istanbul early Wednesday as it lacked the necessary permission to fly in Turkish airspace, creating a row between Tehran and Ankara.

5. "BBC: Israelis have been training Kurds in Iraq", In another headline unlikely to bring peace to the Middle East any time soon, the BBC announces that "The BBC has obtained evidence that Israelis have been giving military training to Kurds in northern Iraq." The BBC report will be like the smoking gun the Arab media has spent years looking for.

6. "Iraq: Displaced villagers in north face harsh conditions", Since last May, parts of Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq have been the targets of sporadic bombardments by Iranian and Turkish armies, for the alleged presence of Kurdish rebels there.

1. - zaman.com - "Elif Shafak Case Dropped":

21 September 2006

Charges against renowned Turkish writer and Zaman columnist Elif Shafak for “degenerating Turkishness” in her book “The Bastard of Istanbul” were dropped Thursday morning.

The Beyoglu Court in Istanbul decided that there was not sufficient evidence for the crime, so Shafak could not be prosecuted.

Shafak did not participate into the trial in person, but her husband, Eyup Can, and her lawyers were present in the court.

Joost Lagendijk, the Turkey-E.U. Joint Parliamentary Commission co-chairman, was also following the case.

2. - Kurdishaspect.com/AFP - "Hundreds of soldiers cleared of rape, torture of Kurdish woman":

ANKARA / 20 September 2006

A Turkish court has cleared 405 soldiers of the torture and rape of a Kurdish woman in custody in a controversial case dating back more than a decade ago, a lawyer for the plaintiff said on Wednesday.

The court ruled Monday there was no evidence to determine which of the defendants had actually committed the alleged crimes, attorney Reyhan Yalcindag told AFP.

The 34-year-old woman, known only as S.E., claimed she was blindfolded when she was tortured and raped, leading the prosecution to charge all 405 soldiers who served during that period in two paramilitary stations in the southeastern province of Mardin where she claims she was abused in the early 1990s.

‘We will appeal the ruling and if we fail again, we will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights,’ Yalcindag said.

S.E. says she was tortured and raped by paramilitary troops each time she was detained in November 1993 and in March and August 1994, a period of intense fighting in the region between separatist Kurdish rebels and the army.

In the last incident, she lost consciousness and came to after nine days inhospital.

The trial, which started in October 2003, was moved from Mardin to the northern town of Sungurlu on security grounds.

Turkish security forces have faced widespread accusations of human rights abuses in their fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, which took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984.

But the authorities have been reluctant to look into such cases andconvictions of security personnel for torture or other abuses have been rare.

Cases of rights abuses are seen as a test for Turkey’s commitment to respect democratic norms in its quest to join the European Union.

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture said in a report earlier this month that abuse of prisoners in Turkey remained a problem, even though it was ‘on the decline.’

S.E., who was never officially charged with any crime, suffered severe psychological problems and moved to live in western Turkey. From there she managed to win asylum in Germany, where she is still living, in the northwestern town of Bochum.

3. - Reuters - "Attempted assassin warns Pope against Turkey visit":

ISTANBUL / 20 September 2006

The man who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981 has warned the current Pope not to visit Turkey, saying his life would be in danger, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

The comments came amid a furor in the Muslim world over Pope Benedict's comments on Islam and ahead of his scheduled visit to Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, in November.

Pope Benedict is facing growing pressure to apologize unequivocally for remarks seen portraying Islam as a violent faith, which also triggered an angry response in Turkey.

"As someone who knows these matters well, I say your life is in danger. Don't come to Turkey," Mehmet Ali Agca said in comments released in a statement by his lawyer Mustafa Demirbag.

"Also, I won't be able to meet you as I am in prison," Agca said. Pope John Paul visited Agca in a Rome prison in 1983 and forgave him.

Agca is serving a sentence for the killing of a newspaper editor in the 1970s and also for robbery and is scheduled to be released from prison in January 2010.

In a separate rambling letter released by the lawyer, Agca said the Pope was a victim of bribery plot hatched by intelligence agencies and called on him to resign and return to Germany.

The former right-wing gangster served 19 years in an Italian prison for the assassination attempt before being pardoned at the Pope's behest in 2000 and extradited to Turkey.

He was briefly freed from jail in January but a high court overturned the decision to release him.

His motives for shooting Pope John Paul in Rome's St Peter's Square remain a mystery. Some believe he was a hitman for Soviet-era East European security services alarmed by the Polish-born pontiff's fierce opposition to communism.

4. - The New Anatolian - "Turkey grounds Iranian VIP plane":

ANKARA / 21 September 2006 / by Name Surname

A military plane carrying Iranian officials, including several ministers, deputies and journalists, was asked to land in Istanbul early Wednesday as it lacked the necessary permission to fly in Turkish airspace, creating a row between Tehran and Ankara.

One of the passengers, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Reza Bagheri, who had to stay inside plane for several hours, protested Turkey's action, describing it as "illegal." The Iranian Foreign Ministry also called Turkish Ambassador to Tehran Gurcan Turkoglu and conveyed their unease, seeking an apology from Ankara.

But Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Namik Tan stated on Wednesday that the Iranian plane didn't have permission to fly in Turkish airspace on its return to Iran, and said the Iranian pilot landed in Istanbul to refuel.

Iranian press reports said the plane was forced to land in Istanbul and kept there for several hours.

The Boeing 707, which was described by Turkish officials as a "military" one, was carrying Iranian officials who were accompanying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his tour of Senegal, Cuba and Venezuela, including several ministers, deputy ministers, deputies, experts and journalists.

The delegation members had to return home after the US administration refused to issue them entry visas and prevented them from attending the 61st United Nations General Assembly meeting.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tan said officials
made a great of effort early Wednesday morning but it took several hours to get the necessary permission, which is in line with international rules.

But the angry Iranian officials made harsh statements, warning the Turkish government over its action. Iranian press reports said Industries and Mines Minister Mohammad Reza Tahmasb warned the Turkish government that the not issuing flight permission for the Iranian VIP plane and forcing the Boeing 707 to land at Istanbul airport was a blatant violation of the law and a clear insult to Iran.

"The treatment of a number of Iranian top officials and experts by the Turkish government cannot be considered a simple or routine mistake," a passenger on the same flight said. He added that the Foreign Ministry is to take steps to clarify the issue.

AKP deputy asks transport minister to explain forced landing

Ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party Balikesir Deputy Turhan Comez, in a question motion for Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim, asked whether or not the plane was forced to land in Istanbul.

"Why was the airplane asked to land in Istanbul? Were Iranian officials, including several ministers, deputy ministers, deputies experts and journalists on the plane? Do you think that forcing the plane to land in Istanbul will affect Turkish-Iranian relations negatively? How many planes have been forced to land in Turkey in the past five years and what was the outcome?" asked Comez in the motion.

5. - Watching the Watchers - "BBC: Israelis have been training Kurds in Iraq":

20 September 2006 / by Lee Russ

A report on the BBC TV programme Newsnight showed Israeli experts in Kurdish areas of north Iraq, drilling soldiers in shooting techniques.

Kurdish officials have refused to comment on the report and Israel has denied it knows of any involvement.

The revelation is set to cause enormous problems for the Kurds, not only in Iraq but also in the wider region.

Inside Iraq as well as in the wider region Israel is seen as an enemy of Arabs and Muslims.

'Against Israeli law'

Kurdish politicians will most likely come under pressure to explain what their semi-autonomous government has been up too.

Israeli security experts who spoke to the BBC said they could not have worked inside Kurdistan without the knowledge of the Kurdish authorities.

The news will most probably increase the tension between the Kurds and other Iraqis.

Iraq's neighbours, too, will be outraged.

Iran and Syria, which have long accused the Kurds of allowing the Israelis to operate on Iraqi territory, will demand an explanation from the government in Baghdad.

The Israeli government says it is conducting an investigation into the BBC report because it is against Israeli law to export military know-how without prior permission.

'Conspiracy evidence'

The BBC report will be like the smoking gun the Arab media has spent years looking for.

Ever since the US-led invasion of Iraq began over three years ago, Arab journalists have been speaking of Israelis operating inside the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

They said this was evidence that toppling Saddam Hussein was only the first chapter in a wider American-Israeli conspiracy to eliminate threats to their strategic interests and re-draw the map of the Middle East.

Syria and Iran, which have common borders with Kurdish areas, are believed to be the primary target.

And won't Turkey be pleased. And won't the other Iraqi factions be pleased. And won't the U.S. be pleased that this hits the fan at the same time that the White House is battling its own party's Senators over torture. And shouldn't we all be pleased that we stagger yet one more step toward the point of no return in Iraq.

6. - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - "Iraq: Displaced villagers in north face harsh conditions":

20 September 2006 / by the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

ARBIL, 20 September (IRIN) - Humanitarian organisations and local authorities in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region have expressed concerns over the living conditions of more than 900 families who have been displaced from their villages on the border strip between Iran and Iraq as a result of heavy artillery shelling by Iranian forces.

"The situation has not yet reached the level of disaster," said Jalal Mahmoud Saeed, the head of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society's office in the northeastern province of Sulaimaniya. "But if the bombardments continue in future, it may reach disaster level."

Since last May, parts of Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq have been the targets of sporadic bombardments by Iranian and Turkish armies, for the alleged presence of Kurdish rebels there.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its affiliated Kurdistan Freedom Life Party (PEJAK) have bases inside Iraq's soil and fight for autonomy for the Kurdish population in Turkey and Iran respectively.

According to figures by local authorities, at least three people were killed in recent bombardments and 20 others injured. This has forced many civilians out of their homes to live with friends and family in the nearby towns of Raniya and Qaladize.

At least 23 villages have been abandoned, local authorities say.

"The living conditions of these displaced people are really bad," said Ali Hamad Waso, the mayor of Raniya, adding that local authorities could not cope with such a large scale displacement of people.

"Many of these people have not been able to take their cattle and home furniture with them and have no income source or medical facilities here," he added. "Their living conditions will further deteriorate as they will have to stay here for winter with limited facilities and income."

The villagers are afraid to return home because if the shelling resumes during winter, harsh weather conditions will make it harder for them to flee.

Displaced villagers complain that so far no-one is helping them.

"We haven't seen any help from any side, neither humanitarian organisations nor the government," said Wasu Bapir Mahmoud, 66, a father of four who abandoned his village of Sharushian after it was heavily pounded twice by cannon fire. Several houses in that village were damaged and acres of agricultural land with crops were burned, he said.

"We have left everything behind and our life is very hard here," said Mahmoud, who now lives in a relative's house in the Chwar Qurna district, near Raniya. "We wish we could return to our village soon and resume our lives."