23 November 2001

1. „Germany authorises controversial supply of guns to Turkey: report”, the German government has authorised the supply of 400 tank-mounted howitzers to Turkey in a move likely to cause new strains in the ruling coalition of Social Democrats and Greens, Bild newspaper reported Friday.

2. “Turkey's EU Hopes May Hinge on Cyprus”, Turkey's swift show of willingness to help shape the future of Afghanistan won praise and perhaps financial rewards from the West, but another ethnic impasse closer to home bars membership in the Western club that Turkey most wants to join.

3. “Turkish delight at Afghanistan role”, Turkey is eager to assist western operations in the war against terror - and to call in a few favours for the price of its support, writes Simon Tisdall.

4. “Turkish women win equality”, Turkish MPs approved a series of revisions to the civil code yesterday, formally recognising men and women as equals, 75 years after the code was introduced.

5. ““Kurdish education” campaign started”, a campaign for “recognition of the Kurdish language in universities as a selective course” was launched in Istanbul by Kurdish students. The petition signed by 200 students were submitter to Rector of Istanbul University, Prof Dr Kemal Alemdaroglu.

6. “Unprecented problems”, columnist Hulki Cevizoglu writes on the Cyprusproblem. A summary of his column is as follows.

1. – AFP – „Germany authorises controversial supply of guns to Turkey: report”:

BERLIN

The German government has authorised the supply of 400 tank-mounted howitzers to Turkey in a move likely to cause new strains in the ruling coalition of Social Democrats and Greens, Bild newspaper reported Friday.

It said the sale of the German and Korean-produced guns had been authorised by the German security council, and that under the arrangement South Korea had agreed to buy German-made submarines. Asked about the reported arms deal, junior foreign minister Ludger Volmer refused to confirm or deny it, saying on ARD television that the purpose of the report was to wreck the conference of his Greens party in Rostock this weekend.

A previous arms-for-Turkey affair, in 1999, caused serious strains in the SPD-Greens coalition, after the security council authorised delivery of a sample Leopard tank that Turkey was planning to order from Germany. The Greens succeeded then in instituting an official German policy by which arms would not be delivered to a country where there were grounds to believe they would be used for internal repression or human rights violations. The security council is a restricted nine-member body of government ministers chaired by the chancellor. Its decisions are regarded as confidential.

2. – AP – “Turkey's EU Hopes May Hinge on Cyprus”:

ISTANBUL / by BEN HOLLAN

Turkey's swift show of willingness to help shape the future of Afghanistan won praise and perhaps financial rewards from the West, but another ethnic impasse closer to home bars membership in the Western club that Turkey most wants to join.

Many believe the 27-year division of Cyprus is one of the biggest obstacle to Turkey's European Union membership, adding urgency to talks between the leaders of Greek and Turkish Cypriots set to resume next month after a yearlong delay.

Cyprus heads the list of contenders to join the union, and EU approval for the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government's bid could come as early as next year.

If that happens, Turkey has threatened to annex the island's north, where it maintains 35,000 troops in a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state that only Turkey recognizes. Turkey says a solution on Cyprus should come before EU membership.

Turkey's parliament will hold a closed session Friday on Cyprus. Ministers say they are ready to pay the costs of closer integration with the north, but some warn that those costs will be too high.

``Without a doubt, it would mean turning Turkey's EU membership into the most distant of dreams, or abandoning Turkey's candidacy altogether,'' wrote Ismet Berkan in daily Radikal.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has gone further, warning that Cyprus' admission to the EU could spark a Turkish-Greek war. The two countries have come close to war three times since Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 in the wake of a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece.

Some analysts believe the EU could try to ease Turkish concerns over Cypriot membership by promising to speed up Turkey's own accession.

``Suppose Turkey knew it could start accession negotiations in the reasonably near future,'' said William Hale, a Turkey specialist at London's School of Oriental and African Studies. ``Would they go ahead with all the things they've threatened?''

At the moment, Turkey's bid to join the 15-member bloc seems to have little momentum.

The latest EU report offered faint praise for Turkey's reform efforts, saying Ankara still had a long way to go before it could open membership negotiations. Even Turkey's deputy premier, Mesut Yilmaz, admitted Turkey had no right to be proud of its progress.

Human rights and freedom of expression are among the EU's chief concerns, along with Turkey's determination to block access to NATO resources for a planned EU army unless it is given a voice in decision-making.

A breakthrough in the Cyprus reunification talks could regain the lost momentum, but that has been an elusive prize in nearly three decades of failed initiatives.

Some Turks say the only hope of a solution lies in giving both communities in Cyprus a stake in the European Union.

The proposal could win the support of Turkish Cypriots concerned by the growing economic gap with their southern neighbors, said Cengiz Aktar, a specialist on Turkey-EU relations at the Istanbul think tank Bogazici Communications.

``I think the north realizes that this isolation cannot last for ever,'' he said. ``Don't forget that GDP per capita is in the south is $13,000, in the north it's $3,000.''

The Union has always said it would prefer to admit Cyprus as a united island. But as Denktash and Greek Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides prepare for their first face-to-face meeting in four years, there is little time to achieve this.

``The clock is ticking,'' Aktar said. ``Once the south joins, it will be more difficult to settle this issue.''

3. – The Guardian – “Turkish delight at Afghanistan role”:

Turkey is eager to assist western operations in the war against terror - and to call in a few favours for the price of its support, writes Simon Tisdall

Turkey is emerging as a potential key player amid the continuing confusion over multinational efforts to ensure stability and security in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Unlike most states in the region surrounding Afghanistan, Turkey has offered military assistance to the US in its "war on terrorism", including specialist troops and over-flight and basing rights.

Turkey, the only Muslim member of Nato, has long played a crucial role in assisting US and British aircraft enforcing the northern no-fly zone over Iraq.

During a recent visit to Ankara, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, highlighted the possibility of Turkey leading a UN-authorised peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

Senior British officials continue to suggest that Turkey would be the best choice to lead a predominantly Muslim force including contingents from countries such as Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Whether such a regular UN peacekeeping force is actually created remains to be seen. Both the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN's senior envoy to Afghanistan, have stressed the difficulties surrounding such an idea.

They would prefer an indigenous, all-Afghan security force, to be temporarily preceded by a Balkans-style multinational stabilisation force.

But the chances of the numerous rival Afghan factions agreeing on a national military coalition, working in parallel with the national "provisional council" the UN will try to create in Berlin next week, appear slim to non-existent.

Attempts to launch a non-UN stabilisation force, meanwhile, have faltered. Tony Blair's decision to send up to 6,000 British ground troops to Afghanistan has been stymied by disagreements with the Northern Alliance faction in Kabul and by a lack of enthusiasm for the idea in Washington.

But even if Blair eventually goes ahead, and other countries such as France and Germany advance their deployments too, they all insist that this will not amount to a stabilisation force as such. They say all detachments will remain under national command and that the duration of the deployments will be limited.

Yet whatever happens in the short term, it seems certain that some form of longer-term UN peacekeeping presence, backing up the UN's administrators and aid agencies, will be essential as Afghanistan's reconstruction is put in train.

This week's Washington reconstruction conference is to be followed by a pledging conference in Pakistan later this month, hosted by the World Bank. This effort will be wasted if the international community lacks some degree of control and influence on the ground in Afghanistan.

All of which brings us back to Turkey as the possible lead actor in UN-approved or directed peacekeeping efforts. Although the task looks daunting, Turkey has already received significant, indirect encouragement for its efforts so far.

Last week the International Monetary Fund agreed in principle to extend a further $10bn (£7bn) in loans to help Turkey overcome its economic and debt problems. The IMF and World Bank are already lending a total of $15.7bn this year.

There is no doubt that some of this assistance has been more readily forthcoming as a result of Turkish collaboration with the US since September 11. And there is equally no doubt that Turkey, which nearly suffered an economic collapse last winter, badly needs the help.

But if Turkey is to take on a leadership role in Afghanistan, it may require more favours in return. One such might be more EU flexibility over Turkish objections to Nato asset-sharing with the proposed EU rapid reaction force. Another might be a more open EU viewpoint on Turkish opposition to Cyprus's expected membership in 2004.

Turkey regards Cypriot EU membership, while the island remains divided and its conflicts unresolved, as illegal - and has threatened formally to annex the northern part of the country that it seized in 1974. It wants recognition for the Turkish republic of north Cyprus currently led by Rauf Denktash.

The EU has in turn been pressurising Turkey to persuade Denktash to resume a bilateral dialogue. Denktash has now unexpectedly agreed, and a meeting (the first for four years) is planned next month between himself and the president of southern Cyprus, Glafcos Clerides.

This revived dialogue may in turn have a positive impact on Turkey's own slow-moving EU membership application. And Ankara may be hoping that the outcome of the talks could, thanks to Afghanistan, ultimately prove beneficial to Turkey's interests in Cyprus.

In return for its help in Afghanistan, Turkey may also (like Russia over Chechnya) be looking for a lot less US and European criticism of its human rights record, especially with respect to the Kurds and Armenians. Human rights issues remain a big stumbling block to Turkey's EU aspirations.

The scale of this problem is illustrated, for example, by the current hunger strikes by leftwing "political" prisoners in Turkish prisons. With another death this week, 43 prisoners have now reportedly died in the past 12 months.

Amnesty International meanwhile complains that it has been refused permission to expand its Turkish monitoring activities.

Earlier this month, Amnesty said Turkey was guilty of "systematic and widespread" torture in prisons and police detention centres. It said beatings, sexual abuse, and the use of electric shocks were commonplace.

If Afghan warlords have to be treated with a firm hand in the difficult period ahead, the Turks may be just the people to oblige.

4. – AP – “Turkish women win equality”:

Turkish MPs approved a series of revisions to the civil code yesterday, formally recognising men and women as equals, 75 years after the code was introduced.

The code, virtually unchanged since 1926, previously designated men head of the family and gave women no say in decisions concerning the home and children. If there was a divorce, the woman was entitled only to property legally registered under her name.

The revised code, which comes into force on January 1, uses plainer, more politically correct language, and scraps the phrase "the head of the marriage union is the man". Men and women are given equal say in making decisions concerning the family. The new code also makes it clear that a woman does not need her husband's consent to get a job.

It raises the legal age for marriage to 18 from the current 17 for men and 15 for women. It sets a legal separation period of six months before couples can file for divorce.

"This symbolises a historic turning point," one women's rights group said in a statement after the final vote. "Our country is closer to achieving the goal of equality between women and men."

The revised code does not mention modern issues such as surrogate motherhood or homosexual marriages. In a predominantly Muslim country where unmarried couples living together are still frowned upon, it also makes no provisions for cohabiting families.

5. – Kurdish Observer – ““Kurdish education” campaign started”:

A campaign for “recognition of the Kurdish language in universities as a selective course” was launched in Istanbul by Kurdish students. The petition signed by 200 students were submitter to Rector of Istanbul University, Prof Dr Kemal Alemdaroglu.

MHA / ISTANBUL

Setting off with slogans “Our Mother Tongue is the Condition of Our Existence” and “Limits of Our Languages are Limits of Our World”, Kurdish students launched a campaign in Istanbul for recognition of Kurdish language “as a selective course”. Going into action under the name of Initiative of Kurdish Students for Kurdish Education two months ago, the initiative submitted the petition signed by 200 students to Istanbul University Rector, Prof Dr. Kemal Alemdaroglu. The petition reminded that education in one's mother tongue is a right and it involves in the international agreements ratified by Turkey.

Then the students went to Human Rights Association (IHD) Istanbul Branch declared their campaign there. The press statement was read by Ali Turgay in Kurdish and Ruken Isik in Turkish, both students of Istanbul University. The statement emphasized that mother tongue is the condition for human-being to exist.

Mother tongue and success

The Kurdish students pointed out that according to the studies there are problems of adaptation, feeling of unsuccessfulness, being not able to establish relationships and depression where one is forced to live and get education in a language other than one's own, adding the following: “Therefore he/she cannot be a useful, productive individual. Denial of language, culture and history of a people causes in turn an unhealthy development in the society. An individual raised in such a society cannot be expected to be worthwhile for himself and his society. And it also causes separationism and violence. Mother tongue is a very important means for establishing healthy relations, development of a productive and useful individual.”

Call for support

After the press conference, the students called on non-governmental organizations, democratic mass organization, political parties as well as lecturers to support the campaign.

The press conference was participated by Lawyer Dogan Erbas, HADEP Istanbul Provincial Chairman; journalist-writer Celal Baslangic; Gulseren Yoleri, IHD Provincial Secretary; Hasan Kaya, Chairman of the Kurdish Institute; Kurdish linguistics expert Feqi Huseyin Sagnic; Sefika Gurbuz, Chairwoman of Goc-Der (Association for Migrants); Mother of Peace Initiative, administrators of Dicle Women's Cultural Center and a number of students.

“I feel very ashamed”

Journalist-writer Celal Baslangic, reminding the international agreements on education in mother tongue signed by Turkey, said, “Education in mother tongue is a right. Demanding it today, in this age is shameful.”

And Dogan Erbas, HADEP Provincial Chairman, drew attention that students has taken a very important historical step, adding the following: “I congratulate the students. They are the first stone showing the long way.”

6. – Sabah – “Unprecented problems”:

Columnist Hulki Cevizoglu writes on the Cyprusproblem. A summary of his column is as follows:

As the attention of the entire wold is turned towards Afghanistan, we should foregt the important developments in Cyprus. It seems that the issue of Greek Cypriot administration's EU membership will put the political problems on the island in a lock.

The EU membership of the Greek Cypriot administration will increase the large gap between the two communties, which is already high. The most important part of this membership is implementing an economic embargo on Northern Cyprus which is already suffering from the present one. In other words, this would amount to an economic enosis (union with Greece). Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cypus (TRNC) are fervently defending their arguments but have been unable to convince anyone.

International law expert, Prof. Maurice H. Mendelson has prepared a report on the solution to political problems in Cyprus, explaining the problems which would be created by granting EU membership to the Greek Cypriot administration. He stated that that the admittance of Southern Cyprus to the EU would create serious and unprecedented problems. He states that EU membership for the Greek Cypriot administration should not be even mentioned before the island's political problems are solved.

The Greek Cypriots know full well that the present Constitution and the Guarantee Agreement which keep the peace on the island are closing the doors of EU membership. But they advance another argument, are involving the 1955 treaty concerning the foundation of the Austrian state. The countries which were party to the agreement did not use their right to veto even though they could have, and they admitted Austria to the EU. The Greek Cypriots want to use this example and bypass the prohibiting provisions of the Guarantee Agreement. Prof. Mendelson, makes other legal points as well. For example, when the Greek Cypriot administration becomes an EU member, EU law should be implemented on the island. However, this is not possible as the Greek Cypriot administration does not have authority over the TRNC.

Even if the Greek Cypriots are admitted to the Union, neither the EU nor the Greek Cypriot administration can fulfil their obligations towards each other. Furthermore, the Guarantee Agreement -which is still valid- forbids the entrance of the Greek Cypriot administration to the Union. In such a case, the Cypriot Constitution which is guaranteed internationally would be violated. Therefore the Turkish diplomats have to work hard not to be faced with unprecedented problems.