19 June 2001

1. "Turkish court nears party ban decision", Predominantly Muslim Turkey is legally a secular state.

2. "Turkish president vetoes media law as undemocratic", Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer sent back to parliament Monday a law envisaging sanctions for the Internet, as well as TV and radio broadcasts, saying it violated democratic norms Turkey should heed on its road to EU membership.

3. "Ankara: 'We will take Baghdad as a counterpart for the second border gate with Iraq, but not the Kurds'", Ankara and Baghdad reached a real consensus regarding the second border gate with Iraq, senior Turkish officials said, pointing out that the Iraqi administration is the counterpart for Ankara, but not the Iraqi Kurds.

4. "Military operation on Cudi", while Turkish military forces have begun to withdraw from some of the places in which they have been carrying out operations in North and South Kurdistan, a new operation has begun near Cudi Mountain. It was learned that one guerrilla lost his life in a clash that broke out.

5. "'INSINCERITY'", the circular concerning the state guarantee for the rights of the Assyrian-Syriac people issued by Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit last week was found far from sincere. Representatives of the Assyrian-Syriac people said that these types of announcements mean nothing unless practical steps are taken as well.

6. "Turkish daily penalized for insulting justice minister", the Turkish daily Radikal has been banned from publishing advertisements for five days for insulting the justice minister over a deadly hunger strike, the daily reported Monday.

1. - BBC - "Turkish court nears party ban decision":

Predominantly Muslim Turkey is legally a secular state

ISTANBUL

The Constitutional Court in Turkey is resuming final deliberations on Tuesday on whether to close down the country's largest opposition party, the Virtue Party.

Prosecutors want the party banned on the grounds that it is a focus of Islamic militancy and that it is an illegal successor to another Islamist party - the Welfare Party - which was banned in 1998. The party has denied both charges in a case which has dragged on for more than two years. The court could reach a verdict this week.

The case has now reached its final phase and everyone agrees that the outcome could be political dynamite. Legal opinion about the strength of the prosecutor's case is divided, but links between the Virtue Party and the Welfare Party are well documented. If the court does decide to ban the Virtue Party that could unsettle the government and even trigger early elections. Possible expulsion

Much would depend on whether some or all of Virtue's parliamentary deputies were forced to leave elected office. They may be allowed to stay in parliament as independents, which would trigger a scramble among other parties to sign up new members. If more than 20 deputies were banned, however, that would trigger a series of by-elections which could also change the parliamentary balance. All this comes at a time when the country desperately needs political stability as the government tries to push through a package of economic reform.

If Virtue survives this court case it may well split in two anyway, and many observers see it as a fading political force. But shutting the party down would bring fresh criticism both at home and abroad of the way the Turkish system deals with political opinions which challenge the status quo.

2. - AFP - "Turkish president vetoes media law as undemocratic":

ANKARA

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer sent back to parliament Monday a law envisaging sanctions for the Internet, as well as TV and radio broadcasts, saying it violated democratic norms Turkey should heed on its road to EU membership.

The law "includes rules which are not in line with public benefit and which are incompatible with democratic traditions and principles of rights and freedoms as well as legal and constitutional norms," Sezer said in a 16-page justification, carried by Anatolia news agency. The much-criticized bill, passed earlier this month, for the first time brought sanctions for disseminating false information on the Internet, and toughened up penalties for breaches of television and radio broadcast rules. Sezer, a former constitutional court head, said the law opened the door for political interference in the media and criticized planned fines of up to
210,000 dollars as disproportionate.

"Turkey's program outlining goals... for European Union membership calls for stronger constitutional and legal guarantees for press freedom. Rendering media organizations unoperational with very heavy fines will not be compatible with this aim," he said. Sezer criticized the inclusion in the law the dissemination of false information and slander on the Internet, underlining that it should be regulated in a law of its own. "The Internet has become the most effective area of expressing and disseminating thought. The problems here can be resolved only on the basis of freedom of expression and by leaving the supervision to the judiciary," Sezer said.

He added that some violations regarding radio and television broadcasts in the law had been vaguely formulated, paving the way for arbitrary decisions by the broadcasting watchdog, RTUK. "The need to obey unclear rules will lead to uneasiness among radio and television stations and will impede true and objective broadcats," Sezer said. He also disapproved of the right of political parties to propose a certain number of RTUK members and later to approve them in parliament. "It is a known fact that in elections of this type, people who have a certain political inclination are chosen," Sezer said. He also underlined that some clauses opened the door for media monopolies and cartels.

Under the constitution, the president is obliged to approve a rejected law if parliament passes it again without any changes. But he reserves the right to file a case against the bill at the constitutional court.

3. - Turkish Daily News - "Ankara: 'We will take Baghdad as a counterpart for the second border gate with Iraq, but not the Kurds'":

SAADET ORUC

Ankara and Baghdad reached a real consensus regarding the second border gate with Iraq, senior Turkish officials said, pointing out that the Iraqi administration is the counterpart for Ankara, but not the Iraqi Kurds.

"The technical and legal framework is being worked upon by each side," top diplomats said.

"We don't consider northern parts of Iraq as the lands of Massoud Barzani, these are the lands of Iraq and our counterpart is Baghdad regarding the construction of the second border gate," sources said, emphasizing the Turkish policy of paying full respect for the territorial integrity and political unity of Iraq.

"Iraqi border control officials will be in charge of the second border gate with Iraq," officials say.

Currently, the peshmergas (Iraqi-Kurds) of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), headed by Barzani, are in charge of the Halil Ibrahim customs checkpoint, which comes under the KDP-controlled area.

During the recent visit by undersecretary Faruk Logoglu to Baghdad, the second border gate issue was broadly discussed.

Top Saudi diplomat to visit Ankara

Iraqi affairs will be debated during an upcoming visit by the Saudi deputy foreign minister Dr. Madani to Ankara.

The visit, which is evaluated to be an important step regarding Turkish-Saudi relations, will be an opportunity for Ankara to declare its position concerning the currently-debated sanctions regime for Iraq.

Turkey wants to improve economic relations with Saudi Arabia and within that framework the formation of Saudi Arabian-Turkish Business Council

After the visit of the Saudi diplomat, Ankara will host the undersecretary of the Israeli Foreign Ministry Avi Gil. Gil will come to Ankara with a six-person delegation and have one-day political consultations with the Turkish delegation to be headed by undersecretary Logoglu.

Top Turkish diplomat Logoglu, who has recently been involved in key contacts regarding Turkish diplomacy, will be in Tehran for the political consultations between Turkey and Iran at the end of the week.

4. -Ozgur Politika - "Military operation on Cudi":

While Turkish military forces have begun to withdraw from some of the places in which they have been carrying out operations in North and South Kurdistan, a new operation has begun near Cudi Mountain. It was learned that one guerrilla lost his life in a clash that broke out.

MURAT SARAC/G. KURDISTAN

The Turkish army has been continuing military action in Zagros, Botan, and Behdinan. While the operation begun in Zagros has ended, another operation was begun in the environs of Cudi Mountain.

While Turkish military units continue their operations despite the PKK's call for peace and its pursuit of the path of democratic struggle, units which were sent into the regions of Oramar, Ertus, and Carcela on June 1 began to withdraw as of June 12. PKK sources state that while they do not have information on the number of military losses in these operations, one guerrilla lost his life and 4 guerrillas broke away from their units. Meanwhile, all the tanks that were in Ciyaye Spi have been withdrawn.

There has also been a reduction in troops in Kanimasi. No information was available as to where the withdrawing soldiers were transferred.

It was also learned that tanks in the South Kurdistan Metina region bordering on North Kurdistan were withdrawn. Only three tanks remain in the KDP-controlled town of Shaladize, where a number of tanks had been kept for a long time. While PKK sources have confirmed the withdrawal, they also say that 41 of the tanks that were withdrawn are being kept at Bamerni. It was also learned that a 100-vehicle military convoy has gone to Semdinli.

'We have nothing to do with the mines'

Meanwhile, it was learned that the Turkish military began an operation near Cudi Mountain a while ago. It was reported that there have been no clashes so far in the operation in which two air brigades are participating. The People's Defense Forces (HPG) released a statement saying that an operation had begun in Masiro and Sukurpasa the other day.

Meanwhile, the HPG also released a statement saying that it have nothing to do with the mine which exploded on the road between Gire Colyan and Silopi, leading to the deaths of three people. The HGP statement said unequivocally that it had nothing to do with the incident.

PUK peshmergas receiving training

Meanwhile, although no solid results have come out of the latest meetings between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the meetings are continuing. The PUK has in the meantime increased its road check points near Kandil Mountain, while all its peshmergas are receiving one month of training from Turkish military officers.

5. - Kurdish Observer -"'INSINCERITY'":

The circular concerning the state guarantee for the rights of the Assyrian-Syriac people issued by Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit last week was found far from sincere. Representatives of the Assyrian-Syriac people said that these types of announcements mean nothing unless practical steps are taken as well.

HAYRETTIN KARA

Meanwhile, it was learned that the Prime Minister did not issue this circular of his own initiative, but as the result of the international outcry and complaints from tourism firms in Turkey against a repressive circular issued by the Turkish Interior Ministry which forbad anyone from visiting Syriac villages.

Evaluating the circular issued by the Turkish government concerning the return of Syriacs to the land from which they had been driven, Assyrian-Syriac representatives said that a call to return on its own meant nothing and called for concrete steps to be taken.

The representatives, commenting on the circular concerning a state guarantee of return carrying Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's signature, said that this was a positive step from the aspect that it was the first circular issued concerning Syriacs in Republican history, but that this circular was not the same as state guarantee. They said that it was necessary to urgently make the necessary legal and constitutional changes for people to live freely and democratically and called on the oppression against the language and culture of the Assyrian-Syriac people to end.

The representatives said that just as a circular would not be sufficient to get the Syriac people to return, they did not believe it would lead to any solutions either.

'Far from sincere'

George Aryo, representative of the Syriac people on the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) pointed out that Turkey had greater and more serious problems to tackle, and continued to say the following: "The problem in Turkey is not just the Assyrian-Syriac problem. There are greater societal problems. Among the foremost of these if the Kurdish problem. If you ask me, the sincerity of a state which issues a circular about the Syriacs but does not publish a single word concerning the Kurds which were forced to migrate from the same settlement areas is open to question."

Democratization first

The Syriac representative responded to Ecevit's words that "the Syriacs are under the legal guarantee of the state" by saying, "I don't think that anyone in Turkey feels that they are under legal guarantee," pointing out that neither the murderers of over 50 Syriacs nor those who were responsible for the burning of their villages and churches had yet been found. Aryo said that that the state had not carried out the democratic steps which all of society was expecting from it, and said that, before doing this, the invitation for Syriacs to return would remain far from sincere.

Timing interesting

Aryo also noted that it was interesting that such a circular be published at a time when the Assyrian-Syriac people in particular were raising their voices and debating returning to their homeland., adding, "If Turkey is genuinely resolute and determined to encourage return, we will be of assistance to them on this subject. But first, it is necessary to give some guarantees."

The problem is with practice

Chairman of the Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Union (ACSU) Fikri Aygur said that the circular brought nothing new, pointing out that they had the same rights in Turkey right now but that the problem was with implementation of those rights. "There was no state guarantee for the more than 50 Assyrian-Syriacs murdered by state forces," Aygur said, continuing to add the following: "In fact, great question marks concerning how able the government will be to implement this guarantee have been raised by the prosecution of Diyarbakir Priest Hn. Yusuf Akbulut ten months ago and the prohibition against entering or leaving the Assyrian-Syriac villages near Tur Abidin one month ago."

Aygur said that a call made through a circular was definitely not enough to make the Assyrian-Syriacs who had spread across the world return, and added the following: "The policies of societal prohibitions, pressure and fear and the inequality practiced are the basic reasons that the Assyrian-Syriacs left their country. For the Assyrian-Syriacs who left their country seeking salvation as a result of these practices to return again, it is necessary to remove all these routines from the law, and especially from practice."

Problem of trust

Aygur said that returning was one of the basic desires of the Assyrian-Syriac people but that it was necessary to break the lack of trust created by past experiences in order to achieve this.

Aygur additionally said that it was necessary to grant the same rights to the Assyrian-Syriac people as those granted to the other non-Muslim peoples under the Lausanne Treaty and for them to have status as an ethnic community in order to return.

Aygur said that it was not possible for the Assyrian-Syriac people to take this repeated guarantee seriously unless it shows that it is different from the other guarantees offered. He said that he viewed the Assyrian-Syriac people as one of the various cultures living in Turkey and that therefore, they would not believe in any guarantee or decision regarding the Assyrian-Syriac people as long Turkey failed to democratize.

Too late and too insufficient

Meanwhile, officials from the Mor Gabriel monastery in Midyat said that the circular concerning the return of Syriacs to their villages was "both too late and too insufficient." Not wanting to give an opinion on the circular, monastery officials said, "The situation and what is happening are well known. If they really want the Syriacs to return to their land, why don't they do what is required?"

We are waiting for practice

Releasing a statement concerning the circular, the Mesopotamia Freedom Party called attention to the ban through the end of the year against Assyrian-Syriacs visiting their villages or historical sites, stressing that the issue was not simply one of mistaken implementation.

The statement said that anti-democratic practices against the people of the Republic of Turkey had become systematized and that national, ethnic, religious, societal and individual rights and freedoms had been destroyed. In response to Ecevit's statement about being "under legal guarantee," the statement said the following: "Then is it necessary to ask, didn't the Assyrian-Syriac people begin to rapidly emigrate following the mandatory Islam religious classes brought by the 1982 Constitution? What will be the status and form of the guarantee that the Assyrian-Syriac people are under if the existing constitution is a constitution which was drawn up by the September 12 military regime and society was forced to accept it? It is necessary to ask Prime Minister Ecevit, who said that 'Syriac citizens migrated of their own free will because of terrorism' what justifications he will use to defend the prohibitions that exist today. In the current situation, with the armed clashes at an end and the PKK adopting a strategy of democratic change, why are some circles in the Turkish Republic still imposing violence?"

The Mesopotamian Freedom Party said in its statement that the Assyrian-Syriac people had experienced must pain in the 20th century and called attention to the practices implemented after 1980. The statement said: "As long as everyone has a need for democracy, then cultural difference must be seen as a richness and a constitution which recognizes the identities and values of the people and protects the rights of societal segments in Turkey and develops tolerance between religions and sects must be drawn up. All political parties and thought must be left free."

Syriac journalist Yawsef Beth Turo said that it was not possible for the Assyrian-Syriac people who had spread to over 70 countries of the world to take these types of calls seriously unless serious steps were taken. Beth Turo said that it was also far from realistic to not speak of the other peoples and cultures which had been pushed from their land in Turkey and said that the circular was a symptom of instability.

Beth Turo said that Ecevit's words about "state guarantee" were definitely words that would remain far from implementation, adding that not only the Syriacs, but also the Kurds, Armenians, Laz, Circassians, and other peoples were deprived of legal guarantees in Turkey. "We want action, not words," Beth Turo said.

Beth Turo said they had been taking international initiatives for two years now to prevent the destruction of their villages and historical legacy, adding, "The officials of the Republic of Turkey have never seen these values as a wealth of Turkey that they should stand up for them or put them to the service of the country. This is why Turkey can only earn the sympathy of the Syriac people in proportion to how much it protects these values by loving and standing up for them on its own initiative, not because of the imposition and force of European countries."

6.- AFP - "Turkish daily penalized for insulting justice minister":

ANKARA

The Turkish daily Radikal has been banned from publishing advertisements for five days for insulting the justice minister over a deadly hunger strike, the daily reported Monday.

Radikal said that the ban came following a complaint from Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk to the board of press advertisements that an editorial published in Radikal on April 15 contained insults against him. The editorial accused Turk of "having a heart of stone and playing dumb" to the prison hunger strikes -- which have already claimed 24 lives -- and for failing to take adequate steps to end the protest.

When Radikal reported Turk's complaint against the newspaper, the minister lodged a second complaint against the daily over that report, Radikal wrote. The board which oversees advertising in the press decided that Turk was indeed insulted in the editorial and banned the newspaper from publishing advertisements for five days, it added. The ban was criticized Monday by the head of the Turkish Journalists' Society, Orhan Erinc, as "economic censorship". Since the start of the hunger strike in October last year, the liberal paper has often accused the government of failing to efficiently deal with the protests, in contrast to mainstream media.

The hunger strike was launched by mainly left-wing inmates to protest the introduction of new jails where they would be kept in smaller cells of up to three people instead of large dormitories. Backed by human rights activists, the protestors claim the new arrangement will leave them more vulnerable to maltreatment and socially alienate them. But the government refused to back down on the new prisons, maintaining that the packed dormitories were the main factor behind frequent riots and hostage-taking incidents in its unruly jails.