16. August 2000

1. „Turkey says snags persist in efforts for EU-NATO defense deal”, Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said on Monday that differences continued to hinder a long-sought deal to allow the European Union to use NATO assets in future security operations, even though certain progress had been achieved.

2. „Turkish women score victory for equality”, the sun is setting on an era when man ruled supreme.

3. „TUSIAD blames Denktas: Intransigent”, Ozilhan says a correlation between the Cyprus problem and Turkey's EU bid was inappropriate.

4. „Celebrations in Kurdistan”, in Osmaniye, Batman and Bitlis thousands of people, mainly youth, made actions on the occasion of the 23. anniversary of PKK.

5. „Is HADEP's strength a surprise?”, this government has abandoned the Southeast as it has abandoned the suffering masses.

6. „IMF loans for Turkey transferred to the Israeli military industries”, Turkish news reports said on Friday that loans of the International Monetary Fund IMF the Turkish minister of the economy Kamal Darwish used to say it will arrive Turkey very soon in order to rescue the economy from its drastic recession, appeared to be used to rescue certain Israeli military industry companies instead of supporting the Turkish economy.

1. – AFP – „Turkey says snags persist in efforts for EU-NATO defense deal”:

ISTANBUL

Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said on Monday that differences continued to hinder a long-sought deal to allow the European Union to use NATO assets in future security operations, even though certain progress had been achieved.

"As far as it can be seen we are not able to reach an agreement," Cem said. "On certain issues mutual steps were taken... some significant steps... We also managed to ensure certain approximity on technical and military issues, but there are also issues on which we could not reach sufficient proximity," the minister added. Turkey, which has the largest NATO army after the US and several strategic military bases, says EU access to NATO assests should be decided on a case-by-case basis and not permanent as the EU wants.

Turkey, a candidate for EU membership with no near prospect of entry, wants guarantees that it will not be sidelined when the EU deploys its planned rapid reaction force on hotspots in its vicinity. Cem was speaking at a meeting of a Turkey-EU parliamentary commission here, while in Ankara Turkish diplomats met in a bid to come closer to a compromise ahead of the EU's Laeken summit next month. At the summit the Union is expected to officially declare its 60,000-strong rapid reaction force operational.

Access to NATO assets is considered vital to the force, which is intended to carry out humanitarian and peacekeeping operations in Kosovo-like trouble spots. Cem stressed Turkey was not blocking the accord, but was seeking to ensure that the EU complies with a NATO resolution from the alliance's 1999 summit in Washington, which said that NATO's assets would be made available to the EU on a case-by-case basis with anonymous decisions. "Turkey is not deviating from the resolution... The side that is not complying is the EU, which at the Nice summit outlined its own conditions ignoring NATO's decision," Cem said.

"In Laeken, the EU will probably make up its mind, form its force and go ahead in the direction it wants, it is not up to us to say anything... If in the future the EU and NATO feel the need, they could explore ways of ensuring this (NATO) contribution," he added.

Turkish talks aim to break EU defence deadlock

Senior military officials from Turkey, Britain and the United States met in Ankara on Monday in a bid to break a diplomatic log-jam that has hindered efforts to create a European Union defence force. EU leaders are set to approve plans to beef up the European Union's defence policy when they meet in Laeken on the outskirts of Brussels on December 14 and 15.

The project could eventually enable the European Union to call on a force of up to 60,000 troops to carry out humanitarian and peacekeeping missions in the world's trouble spots. But the plan will only work if EU governments are able to use NATO military resources and at present Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, is refusing to allow this. Ankara wants to be consulted about any future EU defence initiatives agreed under the new policy and says its membership of NATO gives it the right to make this demand. But the EU disagrees, arguing that as Ankara is not yet a member of the European Union it cannot be party to the bloc's internal defence negotiations.

Monday's talks in Ankara mark the fourth time that senior military officials from the three NATO states have met to discuss the EU defence issue. A first round of talks took place in Istanbul in May last year followed by a meeting in Ankara in October last year and a session in London in May. Turkey is currently in the early stages of applying for EU membership. But in a detailed report issued on November 13, the European Commission warned that Ankara had to make significant progress in areas including human rights and democracy before it could begin formal EU accession negotiations.

2. – BBC – „Turkish women score victory for equality”:

Turkey's parliament has ratified changes to a 76-year-old civil code to make men and women equal before the law. Turkey rejected Islamic law in favour of a more secular legal code decades ago, but the civil code that was in use did not legally treat men and women as equals, proclaiming men as the heads of households and requiring women to seek permission from their husbands in order to work.

After a month of debate, the Turkish parliament has adopted a far-reaching revision to this code, formally recognising men and women as equals. The new code comes into effect on 1 January 2002 and has been warmly welcomed by the country's press.

Equal partners

"Who says the man is the head of the house!" exclaimed the mass-circulation daily Milliyet. Other papers carried similar headlines. "Now the spouses are equal," the centre-right daily Sabah proclaimed, while Hurriyet noted with satisfaction that the civil code had finally been brought up to date. "Turkey is now in a position to compete with all the developed countries in the arena of women's rights and their place in the community," one Hurriyet columnist wrote.

A right to choose

The new law gives women a much greater say in decisions concerning the home and children. Property will be owned jointly by husband and wife. A woman will no longer need to obtain her husband's consent before working outside the home, and will also have an equal say in choosing where to live.

Women are now entitled to sue for divorce if their husband commits adultery, and have acquired the right to claim compensation and alimony. Previously, a woman was only entitled to keep property legally registered in her name.

The new law also addresses the question of terminology. Women are now entitled to continue to use their maiden names - as the daily Aksam noted, a woman is not merely a "wife" any more.

A big step, but...

Nonetheless, some have expressed pessimism regarding the new code, saying that people's way of thinking needs to be changed first. "How, in a country which hasn't got even one female minister of state, will one make radical changes?", asked one commentator. The new code has also had a mixed reception amongst women's groups.

Over one hundred women's organisations issued a joint statement in the wake of the changes, complaining that they do not go far enough. Turkey granted women the right to vote and serve in parliament in 1934 following the founding of the modern republic 11 years earlier.

Women have had access to education, equal charge of their children and the right to divorce their husbands for several decades, and the country's first female prime minister was elected in 1993.

3. – Turkish Daily News – „TUSIAD blames Denktas: Intransigent”:

Ozilhan says a correlation between the Cyprus problem and Turkey's EU bid was inappropriate

ISTANBUL

In a major shift from expressions of traditional Turkish support for the Turkish Cypriot cause and President Rauf Denktas, the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) blamed the veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Monday for being intransigent and urged the Turkish government not to lend him support.

Meeting in a closed-door luncheon with members of the European Parliament, who are currently visiting Turkey for the Turkey-European Parliament Joint Parliamentary Group meetings, TUSIAD chairman Tuncay Ozilhan said the group, that brings top industrialists and businessmen of Turkey together, opposed any correlation between the Cyprus issue and Turkey's bid to become a member of the European Union.

The text of the speech of Ozilhan was distributed to the press by USIAD press office.

Stressing at the meeting that Turkish industrialists and businessmen appreciated the "sensitive language used" and "expression of issues with a just understanding" in a recently released progress report on Turkey, Ozilhan said TUSIAD was irritated however that the scanning period had not started.

Ozilhan said fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria was not a prerequisite for the start of the scanning period and complained that the support extended to Turkey from the EU was not at an expected level.

Stressing that EU membership was the most crucial phase of the 200-year-old westernization and modernization drive of Turkey, Ozilhan said, "Turkey cannot put aside its EU membership target under any conditions."

The TUSIAD chairman said Turkish Parliament legislated constitutional reforms with an extraordinary effort, but that was just the beginning as work is still continuing to make amendments in the laws of the country to conform them with the changes made in the Constitution. He said all these steps were taken by Turkey at a time when the country was passing through one of its worst economic crisis.

Ozilhan said: "Parliament has also taken important steps towards restructuring the Turkish economy. In this process, the Turkish private sector resisted to competition pressures that stemmed from the Customs Union and extended support to the fundamentals of the economic program, even though not to the whole of it."

Ozilhan said 2002 would be a very important year in Turkish-EU relations and indeed would be a year when it would be seen whether there was a "close future" of these ties.

"We are aware of the steps Turkey ought to take to conform with the Copenhagen political criteria. But, it's not difficult to guess that the most critical subject will be Cyprus. We don't see appropriate correlation between Turkey's membership and the Cyprus problem. Steps required for a settlement on the island should not be expected to be all taken by Turkey. On the other hand, we don't see appropriate either Turkey's support to the intransigent position of Mr. (President Rauf) Denktas. We are worried that if Greek Cypriot's are allowed to enter EU membership, Turkey-EU relations will suffer unrepairable damage. Within this framework, we hope the summit meeting of the two leaders (Denktas and Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides on Dec. 4) will constitute the first step towards a resolution (of the Cyprus problem).

Entering the luncheon, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-chairman of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission, told reporters that Turkey's EU membership was impossible as long as the Cyprus problem remained.

"The country who would like to be a member must find a settlement," he said adding that the EU wanted to see a united Cyprus.

Speaking later at the end of the luncheon, Ozilhan reiterated his position that he believed Turkey's EU bid should not be sacrificed just because Cyprus has some strategic importance.

"Cyprus could be an island with strategic importance. On the other hand, there is a nation of 65 million with a target of becoming a member of the EU, increasing its life standard, becoming a rich country. Therefore, just for the sake of Cyprus, this should not be lost," Ozilhan said.

TUSIAD boss said his group wanted a settlement on Cyprus and believed that Denktas ought to sit Cyprus talks and work for a Cyprus settlement.

"As you saw at this meeting, Cyprus constitutes the most important problem in front of Turkey's EU accession. Therefore, we believe that there is need for a very detailed effort on Cyprus," he said.

Also speaking at the end of the meeting, Bendit said the Greek Cypriot administration was a front-runner for EU accession. He said the EU wanted a settlement on the island but that settlement ought to be one reached between both sides on Cyprus rather than impositions of Turkey and Greece.

Denktas: Summit aims to explore possibility of a new partnership

Meanwhile, Denktas said the scheduled Dec.4 summit meeting between himself and Clerides will aim to explore the possibility of establishment of a "new partnership" state on the island.

Denktas, who travelled Monday morning to Rome to deliver a conference and hold talks with Italian officials, said the meeting with Clerides was fixed after he wrote to the Greek Cypriot leader three letters in a row and told him that Turkish Cypriots did not want a new crisis on the island and wanted a negotiated settlement.

Denktas said Greek Cypriot EU accession with the false title of the "government of Cyprus" would lead to a new crisis and blamed Europe for triggering that crisis by accepting Greek Cypriots as the sole government on the island.

Stressing that according to the founding treaties and the constitution of the 1960 republic, Greek Cypriots were not representing the Turkish Cypriot people, nor could be described as the government of Cyprus, Denktas said Cyprus peace talks were not progressing towards a settlement because of the international recognition extended to Greek Cypriots as the "sole legitimate government" of the entire island.

Denktas said he wanted establishment of a new partnership state on Cyprus.

The Turkish Cypriot leader will stay in Rome until Thursday and will deliver a conference and meet with some Italian officials during his stay.

4. – Kurdish Observer – „Celebrations in Kurdistan”:

In Osmaniye, Batman and Bitlis thousands of people, mainly youth, made actions on the occasion of the 23. anniversary of PKK.

MHA / OSMANIYE/BATMAN/BITLIS

Actions for declaration of identity and the anniversary of PKK continues in Osmaniye. In Batman a group of young people marched with slogans while in Bitlis people wrote slogans on walls.

Kurdish youth made an action in Ali Bukan district of Osmaniye, chanting slogans "Long Live November 27", "Hello, Hello, Thousand Hellos to Ocalan" "We Are the PKK" and "We Are Kurds, We Want Our Identity and lighting fires and dancing "halay".

And in Petrolkent district of Batman province a group of young people lighted fires and danced halay with slogans "We Are the PKK", "Long Live President Apo" and "Thousand Hellos to the Sun".

There was action in Bitlis too. In Sekiz Agustos district a group of young demonstrators wrote slogans on walls such as "We Are the PKK", "Long Live President Apo" and Martyrs Are Immortal" and chanted slogans.

5. – Zaman – „Is HADEP's strength a surprise?”:

According to the banner headline in mass circulation daily Milliyet, the National Security Council (MGK) will convene today and may take up the fact that while the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) preserves its strength in southeastern Turkey, all the other parties lack any muscle in the region...

HADEP, or the views it represents, have received strong backing in the region for a very long time. HADEP has tried to enter Parliament several times but has failed because it could not pass the 10 percent threshold required to be able to win seats. However, HADEP has won huge votes in many southeastern provinces, many more than any of its rivals. That is why the party swept all the mayoral seats in the local elections in the Southeast and proved its strength.

If the HADEP deputies had run in the parliamentary elections on independent tickets they too would have easily won seats, irrespective of the regional thresholds, simply because they won much more votes than the regional thresholds. HADEP won a respectable 4.3 percent of the vote but could not pass 10 percent...

The people of the region feel the party caters for their needs and represents their aspirations. The only other party that made any impact in the region was the banned pro-Islamic Welfare Party (RP) of Necmettin Erbakan, but that party too could only win so many southeastern seats because HADEP could not enter Parliament. Now that the establishment has closed down RP and its successor the Virtue Party (FP), it seems HADEP enjoys more support than before.

So the authorities are concerned. They feel in the next elections HADEP deputies may find a way to enter Parliament, and they simply don't like this idea.

But what option has the establishment left for the local people? They could vote for Justice and Development Party (AKP), but even that party is threatened. No one wants to vote for the parties that have proven to be so nationalistic and have always looked upon the people of southeastern Turkey with suspicion...

Once the struggle against the separatist organization Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) died down, the authorities simply forgot southeastern Turkey. The economic crisis that has hit Turkey in general has had an even tougher impact on the already impoverished southeastern people. So their alienation has deepened.

That is what the military is so concerned about. Those running Turkey have completely abandoned the people of the region, and will pay the price in the next elections. So it is inevitable that HADEP wins and the other loses.

The MGK may discuss this, but words will be empty so long as Turkey does not have a viable administration which is prepared to take on challenges and really boost the welfare of southeastern Turkey through animal husbandry and allowing the locals to do meaningful border trade with little or no bureaucratic obstructions.

Just like in any place in Turkey, you have to make the people realize that you really care for them and their problems, and that you do not treat them as third class citizens but as "one of us."

6. – Arabic News – „IMF loans for Turkey transferred to the Israeli military industries":

Turkish news reports said on Friday that loans of the International Monetary Fund IMF the Turkish minister of the economy Kamal Darwish used to say it will arrive Turkey very soon in order to rescue the economy from its drastic recession, appeared to be used to rescue certain Israeli military industry companies instead of supporting the Turkish economy.

The Turkish daily Millet said that it is expected that a sum of USD 700 million of the IMF loans will be transferred to the Israeli manufacturing company " AMA" and this loan will rescue the company from the drastic financial crisis it has been suffering since a long period of time. This facility will be given for an agreement to be signed between the Turkish ministry of defense and the said company in order to renovate 170 tanks used by the Turkish land forces.

The paper explained that if the Israeli company will accept the conditions of the Turkish army chief of staff to reducing bid prices, and allocate part of the production for the Turkish companies, then Turkey and Israel will sign the largest arms deal between them since the beginning of the new Millennium.

America, Turkish, Israeli join maneuvers

An Israeli military spokesman has announced that the naval force in each of Israel, Turkey and the US will carry out by the beginning of December joint maneuvers off the Turkish coast.

The spokesman added in a statement that several reconnaissance planes, helicopters and ships will take part in the maneuvers which will be held on December 3 through 7.

However, this annual maneuvers are the fourth of its kind. Similar maneuvers were held in January this year and December 1999 as well as January 1998.