14 May 2001

1. "Turkey defuses 'genocide' row", Armenian survivors gathering in New York last year.

2. "Iran, Turkey sign another security accord", Iran and Turkey have signed another accord to ensure security cooperation.

3. "Turkish PM: No time for government row amid crisis", Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Saturday that Turkey's efforts to win $10 billion in crisis loans were too important to be distracted by reports of government rows over the reforms the International Monetary Fund has demanded.

4. "Cyprus talks meaningless after European court ruling: Denktash", talks to reunify long-divided Cyprus have become meaningless after a European court ruling condemning Turkey for gross human rights violations in the island, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said Monday.

5. "'If we are not organized, we won't have a place'", PKK President Abdullah Ocalan sent a message for the great march in Dortmund. Hundreds of thousands of people stood to applaud and shout slogans for several minutes in support of the message in which Ocalan asked for millions to organize on the basis of the legitimate defense line.

6. "Human Rights in the grey zone", EU's sliding sanctions scale punishes countries differently.

1. BBC - "Turkey defuses 'genocide' row":

Armenian survivors gathering in New York last year

Ambassador Sonmez Koksal was withdrawn in January, shortly after the French parliament passed a bill asserting that the Turkish Ottoman Empire had committed genocide in 1915.
In a further sign of anger, Turkey cancelled a number of contracts with French companies, including a lucrative airports contract.

"Turkish-French relations have been hurt by this incident," Mr Koksal told reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, before flying out to France on Sunday.

"But I believe that both sides will do their utmost to heal this wound," he said.

The European Union - which Turkey is eager to join - stepped into the row earlier in the year, warning Turkey that it was investigating the legality of its sanctions against France.

Even Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit warned his nation not to overreact.

"Let's not hurt ourselves by hurting France," he said. "Let's not trample on international rules".

Contested history

Armenians say that the Ottoman Empire - of which Turkey is the successor - slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Turkey has always fiercely denied that claim, saying that perhaps 300,000 Armenians were killed when they revolted against the authorities.

Turkey - an important regional power and Western ally - has succeeded in keeping the genocide debate on the sidelines in a number of countries, including the US and UK.

In Washington, former President Bill Clinton opposed a US House of Representatives resolution on the issue, and there was no official mention of the Armenians in the UK's first Holocaust Memorial Day, held at the end of January.

2. - Middle East Newsline - "Iran, Turkey sign another security accord":

NICOSIA

Iran and Turkey have signed another accord to ensure security cooperation.

The memorandum of understanding calls for cooperation on border security, counterterrorism and coordination on immigration. The agreement was signed by Turkish Interior Minister Saadettin Tantan and his Iranian counterpart, Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari.

Officials said the memorandum calls for the smooth passage of Iranian and Turkish nationals through their joint borders. It also calls for implementation of previous agreements on border security, drug trafficking, and counterterrorism.

The two ministers agreed to form several panels that would examine security problems. Ankara has accused Iran of harboring Kurdish insurgents as well as fomenting Islamic unrest in Turkey.

3. - Reuters - "Turkish PM: No time for government row amid crisis":

ISTANBUL

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Saturday that Turkey's efforts to win $10 billion in crisis loans were too important to be distracted by reports of government rows over the reforms the International Monetary Fund has demanded.

The 75-year-old prime minister's comments followed newspaper reports that the nationalist wing of his coalition had clashed with Economy Minister Kemal Dervis over the reams of reform legislation that must be pushed through parliament.

"At this time I find it worrying to go into arguments about the government," Anatolian news agency quoted Ecevit as saying. "We are going through a critical period. We have the chance to straighten the economy. To make the most of that chance I don't want to contribute to this kind of debate."

Turkey has promised the IMF it will pass a package of deep-reaching reform legislation drawn up by Dervis before the Fund meets on May 15 to approve $10 billion in new IMF and World Bank lending to help Turkey pull itself out of economic crisis.

Turkey needs the money to ease investor concern over a swelling domestic debt burden. The country has been trying to rehabilitate a banking sector that has collapsed into crisis twice in the last six months.

All three large-circulation dailies with close links to the establishment reported a bust-up between Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) wing of the government, and Dervis over telecommunications sector liberalization.

"With Bahceli and Dervis facing off, the government shook to the biggest earthquake in its two years of life," wrote the newspaper Sabah of coalition rowing on Thursday and Friday.

Central to the row was an IMF demand that powers be given to a board to regulate a liberalized telecommunications sector at the expense of the MHP-controlled Communications Ministry.
While details of the reported argument behind closed doors in Ankara varied, most papers said that Bahceli had asked whether Dervis, a former World Bank bureaucrat called in from the United States to draft Turkey's recovery plan, was loyal to Turkey or to the international lenders in Washington.

"We gave you a job to persuade the IMF, now you are doing the opposite and trying to persuade us of the IMF's views. Who do you represent, the IMF or the government?" the big-circulation daily Hurriyet quoted Bahceli as saying before storming out of the meeting.
It said Ecevit had rushed after the nationalist leader and persuaded him to return.

The newspaper Milliyet called the row an "MHP rebellion against Dervis."

Most newspapers said Bahceli had later called an emergency meeting of MHP party aides at which withdrawal from the coalition was rejected as too damaging for the country.

Parliament is scheduled to start debate of the law to privatize the majority of state landline monopoly Turk Telekom in an unusual Saturday sitting of the assembly. It passed a banking reform law late on Friday.

Turkey needs the new IMF lending, its third such agreement in 18 months, to help it restore order to a banking sector in chaos, whose rehabilitation analysts say could cost as much as $40 billion in new domestic debt.

4. - AFP - "Cyprus talks meaningless after European court ruling: Denktash":

NICOSIA

Talks to reunify long-divided Cyprus have become meaningless after a European court ruling condemning Turkey for gross human rights violations in the island, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said Monday.

"We do not see any use in talks under these conditions," Denktash, the head of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), told reporters in Nicosia's Turkish Cypriot sector. "The court ruled in favor of the Greek Cypriots on all issues within the negotiation process and left nothing to be discussed at the table," he added. The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that Turkey committed massive human rights violations after occupying northern Cyprus in 1974 in response to an Athens-engineered military coup seeking to united the island with Greece.

The charges upheld by the court included the disappearance of almost 1,500 Greek Cypriots and the forced displacement of 211,000 others from areas occupied by Turkey. Ankara blasted the ruling as "inapplicable" and warned that it would hamper efforts for a peaceful solution to the island's division. It also said responsibility lay with the TRNC as a "sovereign state", which was declared in 1983 but is only recognised by Ankara. The Greek Cypriot government in the south is internationally recognized as the government of the whole island. Referring to a Greek Cypriot description of the ruling as a "legal victory," Denktash said: "If you want the island to remain divided, you really won a great victory."

Long-standing international efforts to reunify Cyprus have so far failed to bear fruit. In December 1999, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched a fresh process of indirect negotiations between Denktash and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Glafcos Clerides. But the talks halted ahead of a sixth round when Denktash quit the negotiation process last November on the grounds that it was against TRNC interests. Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots say the island should be a two-state confederation, thus making the acknowledgement of the breakaway TRNC a pre-condition to a settlement. Greek Cyprus and the international community favor a two-zone, bi-communal federation.

5. - Ozgur Politika - "'If we are not organized, we won't have a place'":

PKK President Abdullah Ocalan sent a message for the great march in Dortmund. Hundreds of thousands of people stood to applaud and shout slogans for several minutes in support of the message in which Ocalan asked for millions to organize on the basis of the legitimate defense line.

Ocalan began the message with the words, "I am saddened because I am not among you and cannot participate in your Democratic Transformation March," and called for ideological and political organization to be developed in every area taking the Legitimate Defense Line as a base. Ocalan pointed out that peace and democratization require great effort, will, and organization, stressing that it was necessary to do this with a spirit of a campaign.

The PKK President noted that is is necessary to present the Legitimate Defense Line correctly, continuing to say: "Let no one misunderstand this. That is the only way the foundations of Kurdish-Turkish brotherhood can be laid. That is the only way to come out of the current crisis."
Ocalan said that is was essential for the Kurds to organize, continuing: "Turkey is preparing to restructure itself. We, too, just prepare and organize ourselves in accordance with this. This is what happened in the 1920s. The Turks organized themselves and established the republic."
The PKK President tied the failure of the Kurds to be accepted today to their lack of organization during the foundation of the republic, continuing to say the following: "A democratic republic could not be established because the Kurds did not participate. Therefore, a process like the one in the 1920s must be repeated. Kurds will take their place in the democratic republic if they organize correctly now."

6. - Frankfurter Rundschau - "Human Rights in the grey zone":

EU's sliding sanctions scale punishes countries differently

By Martin Winter

Nykoping, Sweden - The European Commission would like human rights to feature more prominently in the foreign policy of the European Union. But because that which is desirable is seldom the same as that which is do-able, countries that are geostrategically and politically important to the EU can continue to count on the group being reluctant to implement sanctions against them - especially since the Europeans favour "political dialogue" over punitive economic measures.

In a written appeal presented to EU foreign ministers at their semiannual informal meeting held at the weekend in Nykoping, Sweden, External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten urged the ministers to examine their official agreements with third (non-EU) countries with the aim of identifying whether and how human rights might better be promoted.

Patten is critical of the fact that similar cases are treated differently. Trade concessions, for example, are suspended only with meaningless countries such as Niger, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Fiji, Haiti and Comoros, whereas other countries - the Commissioner mentioned specifically Russia (Chechnya) and Israel (human rights violations in the occupied territories) - were judged according to different standards.

In fact, the EU could partially or entirely freeze its relations with Russia or Israel as set down in official agreements. Since 1992, the group has exclusively concluded agreements in which both sides commit to human rights and democracy. But as this does not always correspond with each new EU partner's reality, "political dialogues" are often arranged, too. These are meant to help to prevent the eventuality foreseen in the agreements: that these can be "suspended" in whole or part due to violations of basic values - an action that can bring political and economic disadvantages to the affected countries.

So much for theory; in practice, things are more complicated. This was on display again in Nykoping, where the foreign ministers debated Patten's letter for several hours.
For one, there are different views on human rights within the EU.

In principle, everybody is in favour of increasing their weight in foreign policy. But while they play a powerful role in the policies of countries such as Sweden or Finland, in case of doubt, other EU countries are more prone to follow powerful political interests or historical commitments. An example of the latter is Germany, which would never vote for a sanctions policy against Israel.

For another, there is a grey area regarding what kinds human rights violations should be considered meaningful for EU-third country agreements. A military coup, for example, or a disintegration of the rule of law are clear-cut cases. But, Patten asks whether the EU is not also obliged to react harshly when human rights are "gradually" being whittled away.

Many European diplomats are doubtful that such "difficult questions" will soon be resolved. They rather tend to view Patten's initiative as a signal to the European Parliament and non-governmental organisations that the Commission has not simply forgotten the topic.

Patten's mention of Israel has led to wrinkled brows in some capitals. At a time when the EU is involved in international mediation efforts in the conflict in the Middle East, even such indirect references to sanctions could have a disruptive effect.

Anna Lindh, foreign minister of Sweden, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, flatly rejected sanctions against Israel, saying they were "not the right way" to jump-start the Mideast peace process.