30 th March 2001

1. "Turkish minister optimistic over foreign aid for economy", Turkey's Economy Minister Kemal Dervis expressed optimism on Friday that Ankara would get foreign aid to overhaul its battered economy, and urged quick legislative action on a series of bills at the core of an economic recovery programme.

2. "At Iraq's Backdoor, Turkey Flouts Sanctions", deep in the dusty southeastern corner of Turkey, closer to Baghdad than to Istanbul, a line of 200 aging tanker trucks stretches for half a mile along the highway as drivers wait to unload Iraqi diesel fuel at a depot run by the Turkish government.

3. "Dam construction on act of war? Turkey, Iraq, Britain battle over life's most precios resource", the planet's most precious resource -- water -- has become the latest point of conflict in the Middle East, as the UK and Arab nations in the area battle over a proposed dam in Turkey, a facility that could cause the perpetual flooding of countless Kurdish villages in the region.

4. "MGK will discuss the PKK", The MGK will discuss a report completely aimed at shaping opinion on Friday. The report in question works the themes of the PKK and nationalization and cannot overcome the viewpoint of 'classical' theses.

5. "Cem boasting about the 'National Playing for Time Program'", despite the fact that the National Program presented to the EU has not even yet been examined by the necessary commissions, Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem is asserting that it has generally been found acceptable. Various circles have called the National Program prepared by Turkey a "Playing for Time Program" because it is an empty program.

6. "Call for a National Peace Conference", the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) announced its peace project to all Kurdistani parties at the national level and the concerned circles. The KNK said that approaches that damage national values must be abandoned immediately in order to secure democracy and peace amongst the Kurds and called for a National Peace Conference.


1. - AFP - "Turkish minister optimistic over foreign aid for economy":

ANKARA

Turkey's Economy Minister Kemal Dervis expressed optimism on Friday that Ankara would get foreign aid to overhaul its battered economy, and urged quick legislative action on a series of bills at the core of an economic recovery programme.

"I am very optimistic that we will receive foreign financial support," Dervis told reporters in Istanbul after returning from a tour of Germany, the United States and France to seek emergency funds.

But he underlined that the amount and nature of the foreign aid would become clear only after Ankara announced its new macro-economic targets.

"Foreign circles are waiting for the new parts and figures of the economic programme," said Dervis, a former World Bank vice president appointed economy minister last month to tackle a raging crisis.

The minister had previously pinned down the amount of aid Ankara needed at 10 to 12 billion dollars.

He added that Ankara also needed to generate funds at home, and said that although undecided yet, the government might opt to introduce additional tax. "Tax rates in Turkey are very high. What we need to do is to widen the tax base and get every citizen to pay tax," Dervis said.
He appealed to the Turkish parliament once again to adopt 15 priority bills, aimed mainly at reforming Turkey's ailing banking sector and speeding up privatization, by mid-April.

"I am optimistic that the bills can be passed in 15 days. We have to finalize them as soon as possible," he said.

The bills are an essential part of a new economic programme which Ankara is drawing up after it abandoned a pegged currency rate and floated the lira last month.

The decision, taken to contain a severe cash crunch triggered by fears of political instability, broke the backbone of a three-year disinflation programme backed by a four-million-dolar loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Last week, Turkey and the IMF agreed on the framework of a revised plan, which is expected to be finalized by mid-April and submitted to the Fund for a final approval in late April.

The IMF said Tuesday that its future financial assistance to Turkey would be determined by the content of the new economic reform package.

"The next step is for the government to formulate the program and translate it into fiscal terms and then we'll see what that implies for financing," IMF spokesman Thomas Dawson told a press briefing in Washington.


2. - New York Times - "At Iraq's Backdoor, Turkey Flouts Sanctions":

HABUR

Deep in the dusty southeastern corner of Turkey, closer to Baghdad than to Istanbul, a line of 200 aging tanker trucks stretches for half a mile along the highway as drivers wait to unload Iraqi diesel fuel at a depot run by the Turkish government.

The trucks are returning from Iraq with full tanks on the last leg of a journey that openly flouts the United Nations economic embargo against Baghdad. It is sanctions- busting smuggling regulated and taxed by the Turkish government and tolerated by the United Nations and the United States.

Estimates on the volume of Iraqi oil and diesel fuel passing through Habur Gate, the only legal crossing between Iraq and Turkey, range from $300 million to $600 million a year. Western diplomats calculate that the illicit business puts $120 million a year in the pocket of President Saddam Hussein.

"This trade is outside the sanctions system," said a senior Turkish government official, who spoke on the condition his name not be used. "But I would say it is indispensable for Turkey, and we are sensitive not to allow it to help Iraq acquire weapons of mass destruction."

There is, however, no way to monitor what Iraq does with the revenue.

Western diplomats say the trade has increased as oil prices have climbed. They justify turning a blind eye because the money helps the battered economy in this volatile region of Turkey, an important American ally. The trade also is the chief source of income for northern Iraq's Kurdistan Democratic Party, which opposes Mr. Hussein.

Because of the political considerations, the smuggling continues and underscores a quandary confronting the Bush administration as it shapes its sanctions policy.

The United States and Britain have been under pressure from other members of the United Nations Security Council to ease the sanctions. One contention is that the borders are porous anyway; experts say illegal goods and oil flow overland from Jordan and Syria and by boats in the Persian Gulf. Another argument is that the sanctions have inflicted the most damage on the Iraqi people and neighboring countries.


Turkey has been hard hit by the embargo. Iraq was not only a major trading partner, but also a conduit for getting Turkish agricultural products into the Middle East. Turkish officials say the embargo has cost the economy $35 billion to $40 billion, and the country's current economic crisis has increased pressure to expand trade with Iraq.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is trying to develop sanctions that will allow more consumer goods into Iraq and tighten the rein on Mr. Hussein's ability to buy weapons. But any attempt to loosen controls is likely to face opposition from hard- liners at the Pentagon and conservative Republicans in Congress.

Edward S. Walker Jr., assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, traveled to Ankara this month to assure Turkish officials that the administration is studying ways to reduce the impact of sanctions on Iraq's neighbors. "It's going to mean that we're going to have to change the way we deal with the border," Mr. Walker said.

Iraq is allowed to sell oil under United Nations supervision only through a pipeline to Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, and by ship through Mina al Bakr, a Persian Gulf port. Proceeds go into an account administered by the United Nations to buy food, medicine and other goods and pay war reparations.

To gain more control over its oil revenues, Iraq has been sending oil through an unauthorized pipeline to Syria. It also increased sales of low- grade fuel oil and diesel fuel to the truckers who ply their trade through Habur Gate.

Turkish and Western government officials as well as truckers said the oil and diesel fuel were sold by Iraq to the Kurdistan Peoples Party, despite its opposition to Baghdad. The party is an independent force that controls the border on the Iraqi side.

Masoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish party, marks up the price, adds a tax and resells it to truckers. The revenue helps Mr. Barzani cement his control over the border area and makes it relatively prosperous, diplomats said.

A 31-year-old Turkish truck driver said he paid 14 cents a liter for diesel fuel in Iraq, including a 2-cent tax. He said he often waited at least three days to load because the lines were so long.
Once loaded, truckers said, 2,000 or more trucks are often lined up at the border because Turkey allows only 450 tankers a day back into the country. Turkish officials said the limit was necessary so trucks can be inspected for other smuggling.

The volume of tankers remains far below pre-embargo levels, and the landscape is dotted with thousands of rusting tankers, described by an official as "martyrs to the embargo." Officials estimate that 40,000 to 50,000 trucks now haul oil and diesel fuel from Iraq into Turkey.


3. - World.Net.Daily.com - "Dam construction on act of war? Turkey, Iraq, Britain battle over life's most precios resource":

KARS

The planet's most precious resource -- water -- has become the latest point of conflict in the Middle East, as the UK and Arab nations in the area battle over a proposed dam in Turkey, a facility that could cause the perpetual flooding of countless Kurdish villages in the region.

It has long been thought that oil would bring about the next great war in the Middle East. In reality, however, the next conflagration will most likely be fought over something more basic to survival and prosperity in the region -- water resources.

Some nations, like Iraq and Turkey, are rich in water resources. Others in the region, like the Jordanians and Palestinians, lack water. Israel also is rapidly running out of water.

Now, a new development is emerging in the area. After interviewing scores of Iraqi and Kurdish dissidents in Scandinavian refugee camps, WorldNetDaily has identified one of the pillars undergirding Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's intentions in Kurdistan -- it involves the construction of a dam.

Kurdistan is a dangerous and rugged place. The Kurds are persecuted by Iran, Turkey and Iraq. They have no homeland. The area is believed to be home to the biblical Noah's Ark, yet the Kurds can find no safe refuge, as did Noah and his family. The U.S./UK bombings of Iraq and the northern "No Fly Zone," as well as United Nations sanctions and other actions to help the Kurds, have proven futile. Saddam's mega corporation "Asia" has made him a billionaire as he sends consumer goods, oil and water through Turkey via Kurdistan to beat the ineffective U.N. sanctions on Baghdad. There is also uranium in the region. The Iraqis seek control of both uranium and water resources.

Turkey wants to build dams on the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Those rivers are the keys to the water supply of the entire Middle East. One of those dams will be called Ilisu Dam, near the border to Syria and Iraq.

According to Anna Van Meter, a Scandinavia Red Cross worker currently working in Kurdistan, "When the dam is completed, it will flood over many Kurdish cities, including one of Kurdistan's oldest cities. But that is just one of many water dams which Turkey has planned over the next 20 years."

Van Meter continued: "Turkey will make electricity, and lots of it, at plants it hopes to construct on the river. The financiers of the project are from Great Britain. And Norwegian engineers will bring the project to life. Syria, Iraq, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have now made an official complaint to Great Britain and warned Turkey that the construction of this dam is an act of war. Some of the Christian Kurds told me this is the fulfillment of a prophecy of the book of Revelation, that the Euphrates River will be tied up so the 200-million-man armies of China and south Asia will enter into the Middle East."

The Socialist Labor government of Tony Blair has been criticized by some members of Parliament over the UK's backing of the Ilisu dam project.

According to The Guardian -- a British newspaper that shocked Parliament by exposing the existence of the project and that the UK would fund it -- members of the Trade and Industry Select Committee said plans to spend 200 million of taxpayers' money on the dam would have to be dropped unless the Turkish government agreed to certain guarantees.

The main stumbling block is trade secretary Stephen Byers' insistence that Turkey consult Syria and Iraq on its proposal to restrict the flow of the Tigris into their territory. Turkey will not do so, according to Olcay Unver, president of the Turkish administration in charge of the project.
The British Parliament seems to have conceded that British commercial interests in Turkey and political relations between the two countries would be damaged if Britain did not pledge the 200 million.

"At the same time, it would be quite wrong to go ahead regardless of the potential ill effects of the dam in the hope that matters would sort themselves out," said one committee member.
The committee demanded that Byers obtain assurances from the Turkish authorities that they had consulted downstream neighbors before agreeing to the project.

"Objections from neighboring states, however charged in the political context, deserve to be taken seriously," the committee stated.

MPs said their worst fears were for the Kurdish people whose homes would be drowned and their livelihoods lost. The failure to consult even the mayors of the affected towns was "lamentable."

The committee said: "The principal result of the dam will be the movement of yet more people from the land to overcrowded cities ... and the absence of remedies in the courts for those aggrieved will leave many people without access to justice."

The committee "shares the view of ministers that the greatest remaining obstacle to granting export credit for the dam is the prospect of a program of displacing thousands of local residents without proper consultation, compensation and resettlement."

On the issue of secrecy, some Parliament members demand that those involved in the scheme "address the deplorable and counter-productive lack of transparency in the way in which documentation has been kept from the public on the Ilisu dam project."

Some MPs also criticized the government's delayed publication of environmental and resettlement reports until just before Parliament adjourned for the Christmas recess so MPs could not raise any issues involved.

Tony Juniper, policy director of Friends of the Earth, said: "This report highlights how the government's commitments to the environment, human rights and democracy and ethical foreign policy are not reflected in the policies of the ECGD. Mr. Byers should refuse support for the Ilisu dam and instead concentrate on overhauling the rules that decided which British companies gain taxpayers' assistance for their work overseas."


4. -Kurdish Observer - "MGK will discuss the PKK":

The MGK will discuss a report completely aimed at shaping opinion on Friday. The report in question works the themes of the PKK and nationalization and cannot overcome the viewpoint of 'classical' theses.

Despite the change in strategy accepted by the PKK and remedial democratic-peaceful steps it has taken, certain influential centers of power, particularly within the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), who have declared the PKK an "enemy" have prepared a report entitled "Actions Towards Nationalization and State-Building of the Terrorist Organization."

The report in question, which is to be discussed at the National Security Council (MGK) meeting to be held at the Cankaya presidential palace on Friday, has been called "a very important report" by military officials and certain civilian observers in Ankara.

The report prepared by the TSK was drawn up with a completely subjective approach from beginning to end and the resulting work can be termed nothing more than an effort in molding opinion. It asserts that claims that the PKK President Abdullah Ocalan has abandoned establishing a separate state and is now discussing a "democratic republic" are not correct and gives organizations and institutions which use the word "Kurdistan" in their names and which are alleged to be tied to the PKK as examples to illustrate this thesis.

The report asserts that PKK Council of Leaders member Riza Altun has established a "Diplomacy and Institutional Political Activities Coordination Board" in Paris, and says the following concerning the board: "It was decided at a meeting of this board for foreign relations bureaus to carry out diplomatic activities at the international level, for the bureaus in question to carry out the duties of Kurdish diplomacy, and for the Kurdish National Congress under the chairmanship of Ismet Serif Vanli to establish a Kurdish government in exile in Europe within two at the latest in order to secure Kurdish national unity. The meeting was held with the knowledge of French intelligence."

The report asserts that the PKK is taking advantage of legal vacuums in Turkey. It says that Kurdish language courses arise from that legal vacuum and asserts that language activities were being carried out in order to "complete the nationalization process."

The concluding section of the report takes a completely one-sided approach and gives room to the following "classic" evaluation which has been used for 15 years: "All these truths demonstrate that the terrorist organization has not distanced itself from its aim of dividing Turkey. It is not possible for, not just Turkey, but for any of the democratic countries to address this organization with 5,000 members and a bloody past. What needs to be done is not for the terrorist organization to threaten Turkey with their potential actions but to call on the terrorist organization to surrender."


5. - Ozgur Politika - "Cem boasting about the 'National Playing for Time Program'":

Despite the fact that the National Program presented to the EU has not even yet been examined by the necessary commissions, Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem is asserting that it has generally been found acceptable. Various circles have called the National Program prepared by Turkey a "Playing for Time Program" because it is an empty program.

WASHINGTON

Turkey's Ambassador in Washington, D.C. arranged a reception at his residence the other evening in honor of State Minister Kemal Dervis and Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, who are in Washington to attend the annual American Turkish Council (ATC) meeting and for various other contacts. Answering reporters' questions concerning the National Program (NP), Cem defended the following view: "The European Union Council and the Commission made statements. So did [EU Commission responsible for enlargement Guenther] Verheugen. One could generally call it positive. In any case, it could not be expected that everyone would be pleased with every page and every line of the national program in the same way. But there is a general acceptance. Verheugen said this himself."

Messages of support from ATC

US Ankara Ambassador Robert Pearson said they would make a contribution to efforts in every field for establishment of a civil aeronautics agency in Turkey, from missile production to launching satellites.

The yearly ATC meeting, which continues in the US capital Washington, released a statement which included important statements in the defense section by Corps General Resat Turgut, who is department chief of General Staff's office of planning and principles.

General Turgut said words to the effect that, "any foreign intervention into Iraq's internal affairs will accomplish nothing but to increase the enmity between the political groups."

US Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, speaking at the opening of the annual meeting, said that they support the European Security and Defense Identity (ESDI), adding, "But, like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, this initiative must not undermine the existence of NATO and NATO must remain the basic force in Europe's security."

Turkey's former Ambassador to Washington, Sukru Elekdag said that it was a great sin to block Turkey's path to EU membership by using fears that the country would be divided, while former commander of the Turkish Air Force, retired Full General Halis Burhan, said that the EU was acting with a narrow mind and not developing relations with Turkey as much as is necessary.


6. - Kurdish Observer - "Call for a National Peace Conference":

The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) announced its peace project to all Kurdistani parties at the national level and the concerned circles. The KNK said that approaches that damage national values must be abandoned immediately in order to secure democracy and peace amongst the Kurds and called for a National Peace Conference.

HAYRETTIN KARA

The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) released its "Peace Project for Democracy and National Unity Amongst the Kurds" on Wednesday and called on all Kurdish political parties, organizations, and political circles to exert efforts to secure national peace.

The KNK pointed out in its peace project that the existing situation and partitioning had been established against the will of the Kurdish people. It also noted that, despite the fact that there were very few peoples which had paid as heavy price for their own freedom as the Kurds had, the Kurds had still not been successful, and stressed that among the major reasons for this were the deficiencies which had been experienced in securing national unity.

The KNK recalled that, because of the existence of this fragmented situation, the Kurdish movements usually found themselves under the control of outside powers and were used against each other. "Just as these politics developed with outside powers have not been a solution, they are constantly the cause of internal war," the statement said, continuing, "Internal war is causing the division and shattering of national dynamics."

In its "Democracy, Unity, and Peace Project" which it presented to all the national powers, the KNK stressed that the Kurdish Struggle for Liberation was necessary for victory, national unity, and internal peace and drew attention to measures that urgently need to be taken.

Administration in South Kurdistan

The KNK recommended a restructuring in South [Iraqi] Kurdistan, where the long-standing dual style of administration has resulted in a vacuum and division, and called for the Southern forces to show sensitivity to the peace project. The KNK said in the Peace Project that the environment secured by the parliament and government established after elections held in 1992 in the South had not been preserved and noted the following: "The situation established did not last long. Internal war broke out and the region was split in two as a result, the parliament and government were fragmented. Two governments, one in Hewler [Arbil] and one in Suleymaniya, were established. This situation continues today."

The project stressed that this situation had allowed great problems to arise and permitted enemies to enter between the Kurds. It noted that the administrative system was not operating effectively in the South and that the people felt great discomfort over this. "Above all else, this part of our country needs peace," the KNK noted in its project.

In addition to suggesting restructuring with coalition in administration and government, the Peace Project made recommendations on subjects such as showing respect for human rights, social equality, and women's rights in order to secure a lasting peace in the South.

Put an end to domestic clashes

The KNK made recommendations also for urgent measures to end domestic clashes and to resolve differences through political and peaceful means, and renewed its call for the Kurdistan Democrat Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), along with other Kurdish forces experiencing difficulties amongst themselves, to begin negotiations for an agreement. It also called for the Kurdish parties to put an end to provocative propaganda against each other. The peace project called for the the Kurdish parties to unconditionally release the captives they held as a first step for the victory of national peace.

National Peace Conference advised

The Peace Project also recommended a National Peace Conference to bring Kurdish groups together. It noted that its urgent measures for the democracy, peace, and national unity project had been presented to all national forces and called on the Kurdish organizations and parties to make their positions clear to accomplish a lasting peace. "Let's meet in a peace conference of Kurdish parties, organizations, and institutions and bring results on this important agenda," the KNK called.

Warm reception for KNK

Meanwhile, the KNK delegation is continuing it round of visits with a series of contacts in Vienna, Austria. The delegation of Haydar Isik and Nizamettin Toguc met with a number of representatives of political parties represented in the Austrian parliament, including Parliamentary Speaker Dr. Heinz Fischer, and with the Austrian press.

The KNK delegation was accompanied during its meetings in Vienna by Dr. Ender Karadas, a representative of the Federation of Kurdish Associations in Austria. The delegation met with Social Democrat Party (SPO) deputy Hannes Swoboda, former Interior Minister Caspar Einem, International Secretary Albrecht Konenci, Greens Party deputy and Chairman of the Human Rights Commission, as well as member of the Council of Europe, Tresija Stoisits, and deputy of the Austrian Freedom Party Mag. Beate Hartinger.

The KNK delegation met with representatives of all parties other than the Austrian Populist Party. It stressed in these meetings that the National Program presented to the European Union by Turkey was not acceptable from the Kurds' viewpoint, calling attention that the National Program contained denial, but no measures taking development of democracy and human rights as a basis.

The delegation also brought up the assassination plans against PKK President Abdullah Ocalan in its meeting with parliamentary spokesperson for human rights Tresija Stoisits. Stoisits presented views on this subject, and pointed out that an environment of chaos would be created in Turkey without Ocalan.

The delegation also brought up repression against the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) in its meetings and how the Kurds had carried all their demands for peace and democracy out into the streets, particularly in their Newroz celebrations. The delegation met with Austrian Parliamentary speaker Heinz Fischer on Wednesday evening.