14 November 2001

1. "Blow to Turkish dam project", British engineering group Balfour Beatty said it was pulling out of a controversial dam project in Turkey. The u-turn has delighted environmentalists who had opposed the scheme in southeast Turkey, saying it would flood towns and make homeless large numbers of Kurds.

2. "WSJ: Despite important role in US-led war, Turkey sees ties with EU strained", influential American newspaper the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has criticized the behaviour of the European Union over relations with Turkey, and writes that "While the United States and Turkey have enjoyed close military links since the Cold War, Turkey's far broader economic and political relationship with the European Union looks more strained since the terrorist strikes on the United States.

3. "EUROPE: Brussels urges Turkey to hasten reforms", the European Commission yesterday went out of its way to praise Turkey's recent human rights reforms but urged it to accelerate progress in order to safeguard citizens' fundamental freedoms in everyday life.

4. "Turkey acknowledges shortcomings, urges more support from EU", Turkey acknowledged on Tuesday its shortcomings in meeting the European Union's criteria for starting accession talks but said it had not received enough support from Brussels for carrying out the required reforms.

5. "Saddam Hussein threatens Kurds with use of force", President Saddam Hussein Tuesday warned Kurds living in areas of northern Iraq outside the control of Baghdad that he may resort to force if they refused dialogue. "Wisdom must be the foundation of any dialogue to resolve problems between people," Saddam said, quoted by the Ath-Thawra daily.

6. "Police raid Turkish hunger strikers", police raided two houses Tuesday where hunger strikers have been protesting prison conditions, part of a continuing effort by authorities to end the nationwide fasting campaign. Sixteen people were detained.


1. - BBC - "Blow to Turkish dam project":

LONDON

British engineering group Balfour Beatty said it was pulling out of a controversial dam project in Turkey. The u-turn has delighted environmentalists who had opposed the scheme in southeast Turkey, saying it would flood towns and make homeless large numbers of Kurds.

There were also fears that the Ilisu dam would control water flow along the River Tigris threatening a 'water war' with other countries which rely on the river for water. Balfour denied that the protests and controversy surrounding the project had forced their hand.

"The decision follows a thorough and extensive evaluation of the commercial, environmental and social issues inherent in the project," Balfour Beatty said in a statement. Company spokesman Tim Sharp told Reuters news agency: "Our withdrawal does not mean that the dam won't happen."

Balfour has been targeted by environmental groups like Friends of the Earth and human rights organisations over its leadership of the dam engineering consortium. The $2 billion project is designed to boost regional power and electricity supplies.

Leading companies involved in a separate dam power consortium include France's Alstom and Swiss firm Sulzer, and Balfour spokesman Sharp said he believed those companies were still committed to the project.

It was unclear however whether the other members of the engineering consortium were going ahead with the project. Friends of the Earth has warned that the Turkish government's scheme would displace over 30,000 local Kurdish citizens and flood towns. FoE said Balfour's withdrawal was a victory for their organisation.

The pressure group acquired a small shareholding in the company, enabling it to attend Balfour's annual general meeting in May and fire questions at management over their ininvolvementn the Ilisu Dam scheme.

"This is a tremendous win for campaigners against a disastrous dam project," said Friends of the Earth director Charles Secrett in a statement. "Balfour Beatty's very welcome decision to drop out of the project shows the power of shareholder pressure and publicity campaigns by groups like Friends of the Earth and the Ilisu Dam Campaign."

A spokesman for the London-based Kurdish Human Rights Project, which had also protested against the scheme, also welcomed Balfour's withdrawal. "If you bring the human rights and environmental issues together, you can win," the spokesman told Reuters.


2. - Turkish Daily News - "WSJ: Despite important role in US-led war, Turkey sees ties with EU strained":

Influential American newspaper the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has criticized the behaviour of the European Union over relations with Turkey, and writes that "While the United States and Turkey have enjoyed close military links since the Cold War, Turkey's far broader economic and political relationship with the European Union looks more strained since the terrorist strikes on the United States.

According to an article published in the WSJ: "Many European leaders are angered by what they see as recent Turkish grandstanding on Cyprus, EU enlargement, and the EU's plans for an autonomous defense force. Those three issues, the most contentious on the Turkish-EU agenda, while separate, tend to get bunched together. The Turks, for their part, say the new war on terrorism ought to make the European Union recognize Turkey as an important regional military and diplomatic power, and treat it accordingly."

"The attacks in the United States make Turkey more bold, which irritates the Europeans even more," says Heather Grabbe, the research director at the Center for European Reform, a London think tank of the WSJ. Rather than revert to realist politics in the wake of the terrorist attacks, the European Union as a whole is now stressing common European values more forcefully than before, she says. And in many European eyes, Turkey's spotty record on human rights, prison reform and civilian control over the military sets it apart.

Part of the problem may be the style and self-confidence of the Turks, says William Wallace, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. "The Turks have not been very skillful at playing this," he says, adding that Turkish leaders have failed to make their case effectively abroad.

The WSJ also stresses that: "Everyone now speaks of a new strategic partnership. Turkish diplomats were annoyed when the European Union gave Russia better access to its new security and political committees than to Turkey and other non-EU European members of NATO.

Divided within on the policy toward Turkey, the European Union might be myopic in its approach. Wallace says the European Union gives Russia too much weight and Turkey too little. After all, Turkey may make or break two of the biggest EU projects this decade: eastward enlargement and an EU defense force.

The WSJ evaluated the Cyprus problem as a a time bomb under EU enlargement and continues to write that: "If the European Union holds out for a peace deal in Cyprus, Greece threatens to veto the accession of other candidate countries. If the European Union goes forward, Turkey now says annexation is likely; Turkish hard-liners go further, saying they might impose a sea blockade of the island. "This is the one place in the world that Sept. 11 has failed to affect," says Andrew Duff, a British member of the European Parliament and Liberal Democratic spokesman on constitutional reform."

The WSJ says that: "Another irritant is the two-year-old dispute over Turkey's participation in the EU's new rapid-reaction military force. Turkey wants a greater say in EU decision-making. Happy to accept Turkish troop contributions, the European Union resists any Turkish say over how the European Union makes decisions. Until this dispute is resolved, the Turks are blocking a deal between NATO and the European Union on defense cooperation, which the United States wants to ensure the two institutions work closely together."


3. - Financial Times - "EUROPE: Brussels urges Turkey to hasten reforms":

By LEYLA BOULTON

The European Commission yesterday went out of its way to praise Turkey's recent human rights reforms but urged it to accelerate progress in order to safeguard citizens' fundamental freedoms in everyday life.

The European Union's executive, which has tried to avoid discouraging finger-pointing since Turkey became a candidate for membership two years ago, said constitutional amendments adopted last month represented "a significant step towards strengthening guarantees" in areas such as freedom of expression and association.

It also noted that practical implementation would depend on the detail of enabling legislation now being finalised by the government, which still fell short of the so-called Copenhagen criteria for starting membership talks.

The Commission also urged Ankara to facilitate a solution to the division of Cyprus, without which, diplomats say, the EU's planned admission of the island next year could wreck Turkey's relations with the EU.

As Turkish police yesterday continued a crackdown on hunger strikers who are protesting against prison reforms praised by the Commission as "substantial", Brussels regretted Turkish authorities' "disproportionate use of force in breaking up prison protests".

Many Turks see the European Union as a useful catalyst for reforms which have been delayed by a lack of political will in Ankara. "There is no point in quarrelling with a mirror which shows us as we are," said Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, former minister for EU affairs.

The report welcomed the lifting in principle of restrictions on Kurdish language broadcasting as part of the constitutional reforms. But the Commission said Turkey's decision to retain capital punishment for terrorism breached the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Commission was less upbeat about the economy, saying that Turkey had been unable to make further progress in achieving a functioning market economy after two financial crises in the past year.

The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and many financial analysts would argue however that economic restructuring since a devastating devaluation in February has been significant. The Commission however simply noted progress in individual economic sectors.


4. - AFP - "Turkey acknowledges shortcomings, urges more support from EU":

ANKARA

Turkey acknowledged on Tuesday its shortcomings in meeting the European Union's criteria for starting accession talks but said it had not received enough support from Brussels for carrying out the required reforms.

Speaking after the publication earlier of the European Commission's annual progress reports on the 13 candidates, Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said the document on Turkey reflected "a constructive approach" by the EU. "We regard the criticism as constructive contributions to Turkey's progress towards EU membership," Yilmaz, who is in charge of EU affairs, told reporters. He said many of the EU's concerns on human rights violations and shortcomings on democracy were justified.

"We have to recognize that a fair amount of this criticism is justified and needs to be addressed immediately... It is clear that more steps need to be taken in general, both in terms of legislative amendments and measures to be taken for implementation." The minister, however, criticized as "misleading" what he called an "undue emphasis on a number of isolated incidents." He also underlined that unlike other candidates, Turkey "received almost no assistance from the (European) Commission while preparing its national program" aimed at aligning its legislation with EU standards.

Yilmaz asserted that Ankara was determined to rectify its deficiencies. "We have the ability and political will to achieve this objective. Turkey cannot tolerate any delays or mistakes at the turning point of the enlargement process," he said. The minister urged Brussels to offer firmer support for the endeavours of Turkey, the only mainly Muslim candidate. Referring to the EU summit in December 2002, by when the EU enlargement is expected to be shaped, Yilmaz said: "We hope that the EU will take a more clear and supportive stance on Turkey's process for accession. Such decisions will help accelerate our reform progress."

A foreign ministry statement regretted the fact the EU did not recommend the opening of the screening process, which covers cooperation between the EU and candidates on aligning their legislation, and which, it said, did not require the fulfilment of political criteria. In the report published in Strasbourg, the EU praised Turkey's efforts to amend its constitution to improve its troubled human rights record and democracy. But it said the country had not yet met fully the Copenhagen criteria required for the opening of accession talks. Turkey "is therefore encouraged to intensify and accelerate ... reform to ensure that human rights and fundamental freedoms are fully protected," the report said.

Turkey, a candidate for full membership since December 1999, is lagging behind the other 12 candidates, all of whom have already started accession talks. The EU also urged Ankara to cooperate for the resolution of the division of Cyprus, a frontrunner for EU membership, whose accession is likely to spark tension between the EU and Turkey, which holds the island's northern third. Referring to the Cyprus issue and also to Turkish objections to EU plans to establish a force with access to NATO assests, Yilmaz said: "Turkey cannot resolve these issues unilaterally as all parties must assume their respective responsibilities. The EU should play a constructive role in facilitating their resolution." The government's far-right partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), took a harsher stance against the EU, accusing it of bias and insincerity towards Turkey.


5. - AFP - "Saddam Hussein threatens Kurds with use of force":

BAGHDAD

President Saddam Hussein Tuesday warned Kurds living in areas of northern Iraq outside the control of Baghdad that he may resort to force if they refused dialogue. "Wisdom must be the foundation of any dialogue to resolve problems between people," Saddam said, quoted by the Ath-Thawra daily.

"But if wisdom is unable to achieve dialogue ... the Iraqi sword should be used to recover rights," he warned. "We are not incapable of using arms, even in the presence of the Americans and British in the north and south of the country," Saddam noted, referring to daily aerial surveillance designed partly to protect the Kurds. Saddam was taking aim at Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), for refusing Baghdad's recent overtures to open dialogue. "Why have you published a communique rejecting any dialogue with the government?" he asked without naming Talabani.

"One day we will cut out the tongue of he who pronounced these words," Saddam said in the ruling Baath party newspaper. "If you want to talk to the Americans and the Zionists, we want to talk to our Kurdish people." Saddam said he "could visit the provinces of Kurdistan. I supose no one can stop me, but I do not go for pyschological reasons," he said without further explanations. The Iraqi strongman renewed on July 15 his call for dialogue with the Kurdish factions.

Iraqi Kurdistan rose up against the regime in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf war over Kuwati, leaving the three provinces of Arbil, Suleimaniyeh and Dahuk outside Baghdad's reach. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Masoud Barzani today controls an area along the Turkish border, while the rival PUK administers an area close to the Iranian border. On July 15, Saddam Hussein called for the Kurdish factions, which the United States has tried to bring together, to engage in dialogue to find an equitable solution to the Kurdish problem.


6. - CNN / AP- "Police raid Turkish hunger strikers":

ISTANBUL

Police raided two houses Tuesday where hunger strikers have been protesting prison conditions, part of a continuing effort by authorities to end the nationwide fasting campaign. Sixteen people were detained.

Police uprooted barricades erected by leftist militants in the streets around a house in an Istanbul suburb where former prisoners and their supporters have been participating in the hunger strike.

Some threw Molotov cocktails and rocks at police, eyewitnesses said. Police used tear gas against the protesters and a police helicopter hovered overhead.

Police detained nine people during that raid, including three women, Istanbul police chief Hasan Ozdemir said. He said four of those detained were hunger strikers, and added that they had all been hospitalized.

Police raided another house in a different suburb later Tuesday and detained all seven hunger strikers there, the Anatolia news agency reported.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths in Tuesday's raid. Last week, four people died after a similar police raid on another house.

Leftist militants said the four were killed by police gunfire, but police said they died after setting themselves on fire. The Justice Ministry's forensic department said autopsies on the four bodies showed no signs of gunshot wounds.

Three inmates in various Turkish prisons also died after setting themselves on fire to protest last week's raid.

Since the hunger strike began last year, 41 people have starved to death. The hunger strikers have been taking sugar and salt water with vitamins to prolong their fast.

Many of the fasting prisoners are members of outlawed Marxist organizations that have claimed responsibility for scores of attacks and assassinations over the past decade.

The government says it needs to break up the large, ward-type prison cells because it allows banned groups to use prisons as training camps for militants.