16. April 2002

1. "Kurdish rebel group to reveal new name, new strategy on Tuesday", Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 15-year armed struggle for self-rule in southeast Turkey, will this week announce a new name and strategy, a pro-PKK Kurdish group in Brussels said on Monday.

2. "New party to replace PKK, says Ocalan's brother", the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) will cease activities and regroup under a new name, Osman Ocalan, the brother of the organisation's jailed leader, said on Monday, as the PKK seeks to avoid the terrorist label.

3. "IMF extends billion-dollar credit to Turkey", the International Monetary Fund said Monday it would extend a further one billion dollars in credit after a favorable review of the country's economic performance.

4. "Critical Turkish-EU appointments being held", Turkish-EU Association Council meets on Tuesday in Luxembourg / EU to demand Turkey to use its influence on Denktas / Yilmaz: EU will include PKK, DHKP-C in the list

5. "Conflict puts Israeli-Turkish ties to the test", Muslim anger despite history of cooperation

6. "Devlet Bahcelei, Turkish deputy premier, notes progress in adhering to EU standards", while at the same time announcing his wishes for a prominent status of Turkey within the EU: 'We don't only want to join the EU, but we also want to have a status in it which reflects Turkey's history and potential.'

1. - AFP - "Kurdish rebel group to reveal new name, new strategy on Tuesday":

ANKARA, April 15

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 15-year armed struggle for self-rule in southeast Turkey, will this week announce a new name and strategy, a pro-PKK Kurdish group in Brussels said on Monday.
A press conference will be held in Brussels on Tuesday "to share... the new strategy, new name and new decisions" outlined at a recent PKK congress, the PKK-linked Kurdistan Committee said in a statement faxed to AFP in Ankara.
The statement said the PKK leadership had "made important decisions regarding the resolution of the Kurdish problem, its (the PKK's) future, the Middle East and Europe" at the congress, without specifying when and where it took place.
In February, the PKK said it would disband in its current form but would restructure and fight for Kurdish rights through legalised means.
Many observers see the decision as a move by the PKK to break free from its violent image, circumvent the ban on its activities in several European countries and pursue its goals through democratic, peaceful means.
The PKK is outlawed in Turkey, Germany, France and Britain and has been dubbed a "terrorist" organisation by Ankara and Washington. But it has not been included on a recent European Union list of terrorist groups.
Heeding peace calls from its leader Abdullah Ocalan, currently on death row in a Turkish jail, the PKK said in 1999 it was laying down its weapons to seek a peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict, which has claimed some 36,500 lives since the group took up arms in 1984.
Since then heavy fighting in the mainly Kurdish southeast has significantly declined but Ankara has played down the PKK's peace overtures and the army continues to hunt down the rebels.
Turkey has also condemned the PKK efforts to transform itself into a political organisation and regularly cracks down on groups thought to be linked to it, including the legal People's Democracy Party (HADEP), which campaigns for Kurdish cultural freedoms.
Turkey recently passed reforms that authorise the use of the Kurdish language in publications as part of a drive to improve its crippled democracy and boost its bid to joint the European Union.
But Ankara has so far been reluctant to legalise television broadcasts and education in Kurdish, fearing that such reforms could fan separatist sentiment among the Kurds.

2. - Reuters - "New party to replace PKK, says Ocalan's brother":

TUNCELI, Turkey, April 15

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) will cease activities and regroup under a new name, Osman Ocalan, the brother of the organisation's jailed leader, said on Monday, as the PKK seeks to avoid the terrorist label.
His comments follow indications that the European Union could include the PKK on its list of "terrorist" groups.
The PKK launched an armed campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey in 1984 and more than 30,000 people have died in the fighting.
But violence has tapered off since PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in 1999 and sentenced to death for treason.
After his arrest Abdullah Ocalan ordered his followers to withdraw from Turkey and seek greater cultural rights for its estimated 12 million Kurds through political means.
The move is seen by Turkish authorities as a ruse for Ocalan to avoid the noose and Ankara has vowed to track down and eliminate the PKK.
"With the decision taken at the PKK congress, all of the PKK's activities have ended," Osman Ocalan, a senior PKK member, said on satellite television channel Medya TV, which acts as a mouthpiece for the rebels.
"After this, activities will be carried out under the roof of the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Party," Ocalan said, speaking live by telephone from northern Iraq -- where the PKK has been holding a congress -- in a rare interview.
Turkey has accused some European countries of providing PKK members with a safe haven and has pressed the EU to include the rebels on their terrorist list.
Sources close to the guerrillas, most of whom have fled to northern Iraq, previously said the PKK had launched a new political party, the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party, that would seek a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish question.
The U.S. State Department, which includes the PKK on its list of terrorist organisations, has said a name change would not affect the group's status.
"The European Union's putting the PKK on the terrorism list is a grave mistake," Osman Ocalan said, speaking in Turkish.
"Putting the PKK on this list would portray the Kurdish people as terrorists...and means the leaders of the Kurdish people are terrorists.
"The European Union should certainly not accept this pressure from Turkey," he said. "Putting the PKK on this list means war is wanted, not peace."
Europe-based Medya TV, which broadcasts in Kurdish and Turkish and is viewed by many people in the mainly-Kurdish southeast of Turkey, broke into its programming to show the interview.

3. - AFP - "IMF extends billion-dollar credit to Turkey":

WASHINGTON, April 16

The International Monetary Fund said Monday it would extend a further one billion dollars in credit after a favorable review of the country's economic performance.
The credit is part of a 16-billion-dollar loan approved in February by the organization.
The IMF said Friday that Turkey's economic policies were on the right track, despite a dramatic 9.4-percent contraction in the economy last year.
"The Turkish authorities have made considerable progress in implementing their ambitious economic reform program. In the past, financial indiscipline and structural weaknesses had prevented Turkey from realizing its economic potential, and created an environment of highly volatile growth and inflation over several decades," IMF First Deputy Managing Director Anne Krueger said in a statement.
"The program addresses these weaknesses and should reduce the vulnerability of the economy to shocks. It represents a further decisive step away from the interventionist policies of the past, and will lay the groundwork for a more consistent economic performance in the future."

4. - Turkish Daily News - "Critical Turkish-EU appointments being held":

Turkish-EU Association Council meets on Tuesday in Luxembourg / EU to demand Turkey to use its influence on Denktas /

Yilmaz: EU will include PKK, DHKP-C in the list

by Saadet Oruc, April 16

The week started with critical appointments vis-a-vis the Turkish - European Union (EU) relations. While deputy prime minister Mesut Yilmaz said in Brussels that the EU would take a decision, which would satisfy Turkey over the inclusion of the Turkish terrorist groups into the terrorism list of the union, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem was heading for Luxembourg to take part at the Turkish - European Union (EU) Association Council.
Yilmaz told CNN TURK's Mehmet Ali Birand that on Friday, the EU will take a decision on the terrorist list, in reference to his meeting with the head of the EU Commission Romano Prodi.
Turkey presses for the inclusion of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party and Front (DHKP-C) in the terrorist list of the EU.
However, top EU officials in Ankara told the Turkish Daily News that, on Thursday there would be a meeting at the ambassadorial level, where the list issue would be handled politically.
"There was a technical meeting held by the civil servants from Justice and Home affairs. That ambassadorial meeting would be followed by the Council of Ministers of the Justice and Home Affairs, which will be held on April 25-26. And the decision, then, will become clear," a senior EU ambassador, who asked not to be quoted said.
Yilmaz was in Brussels taking part at the Convention on the future of the European Union and he gathered with Prodi here.

Association Council

The Association Council will meet on Tuesday in Luxembourg, where the separate agendas of Turkey and the union will be discussed.
Senior EU officials told the Turkish Daily News that the blocking of the contacts between Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) will be raised by the EU Commissioner, responsible for enlargement Gunter Verheugen during the Association Council's informal part of the meeting.
As it had been the same in the past, Verheugen is expected to demand Cem to use his influence on the leader of the KKTC Rauf Denktas.
The revealing of the e-mail messages of the EU Commission's representative in Turkey, Karen Fogg, will also be brought to the agenda by the representatives of the member states.
The official evaluation on Turkey fulfilling the short-term criteria, would not be made this time during the Association Council, EU diplomats in Ankara said.
The Progress Report, which will be published in October, contrary to the previous reports being published in November, will have evaluations on Turkey fulfilling the EU expectations.
"That will be the time to assess the degree of fulfillment of the Copenhagen criteria by Turkey," an official from the EU said.
However, the last word on the short-term criteria will be told during the Copenhagen EU Council in December, since the EU will need time to work on the Progress Report to be released by the EU Commission.
However Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique will give statements during the Association Council meeting, which would reflect on the current state of Turkish-EU relations.

The formal agenda of the meeting is as the following:
Pre-accession strategy of Turkey will be debated in the light of three documents, which are the Accession Partnership Accord, National Programme of Turkey and the Progress Report of the year 2001,
State of relations under the Association Agreement and the customs union, which is expected to be more economic and trade-oriented,
Exchange of views on international issues of common interest such as the Middle East, Afghanistan and the post-September 11 attack.
Enhanced political dialogue between Turkey and the union, which means discussions on Cyprus and the Aegean disputes are expected to be discussed, as well.

The meeting will start at 12.00 and by 13.00, the informal part of the council, lunch will start. The Association Committee meeting, which was a preparation for the Association Council, was held on January 24.

Javier Solana, Head of the Common foreign and security policy of the EU, Verheugen and the Greek Foreign Minister Yorgo Papandreu will take part at the Turkish - EU Association Council meeting to take place on Tuesday.

JPC meets in Brussels

In addition to the Association Council and the contacts held by Mesut Yilmaz, the Turkish-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission (JPC) was also held in Brussels.
Kursat Eser, the co-chairman of the JPC, put emphasis on the need for the starting of accession talks by the end of the year 2002.
Ayfer Yilmaz and Ismail Bozdag will also represent Turkey in the chairmanship meeting of the JPC.

5. - Boston Globe - "Conflict puts Israeli-Turkish ties to the test":

Muslim anger despite history of cooperation

Istanbul, April 15, by Jonathan Gorvett

In a downtown square, tempers were high. ''They are killing all the Palestinians and the world just watches,'' said an angry shopkeeper, Ahmet Kirikoglu. He had come here Saturday along with several thousand others to protest the Israeli military operation, and to express his solidarity with ''Turkey's Muslim brothers.''

His view is shared by many Turkish citizens - including, at times it seems, the prime minister. ''A genocide against the Palestinian people is being carried out before the eyes of the world,'' premier Bulent Ecevit claimed last week, a statement that sent shock waves through Turkish-Israeli relations.

Despite the public displays of anger, behind the scenes, the complexities of Middle Eastern politics mean that Turkey in fact remains Israel's number one friend in the region.

''We were very surprised by Ecevit's comment,'' said Hagit Benyaakov, spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy in Ankara. ''It seems really out of the blue.''

This is because for the past five years, Turkey, with a 98 percent Muslim population, has enjoyed extremely close cooperation with Israel.

''When you look from the outside,'' said the respected columnist Haluk Sahin, ''it may seem strange, but the fact is that for years now, Turks have had more sympathy with the Jews than they have with the Arabs.''

It is an alliance that has deep historical roots - going back to the days of the Ottoman Empire, when the Jews of Spain, fleeing the Inquisition, were given a place to live in Istanbul by a Turkish sultan. In more modern times, Israel and Turkey have discovered common interests in a region of worrisome neighbors.

''The Israeli-Turkish alliance grew up first of all as a response to Islamic fundamentalism in Iran, which was seen as a threat by both countries,'' added Sahin.

This cooperation later also included Israeli secret service assistance against Turkey's Kurdish militants, while military relations developed apace. Israel provides Turkey with a great deal of military hardware and know-how - which the United States and Europe do not give because of their concerns over Turkey's human rights record.

Meanwhile, the Israeli lobby in the United States has done much leg work on behalf of Turkey, particularly in deflecting attempts by the Armenian lobby to have the US government recognize the Armenian genocide.

''Relations between us have never really been better,'' said Benyaakov. ''A couple of weeks ago we signed a deal for Turkey to supply us with fresh water from the Manavgat River, and just the other week we signed a major combat tank refurbishment deal.''

However, the tank deal has now given Turks some pause for thought. At the beginning of April, Turkey signed a $670 million agreement with TAAS-Israel Military Industries to modernize 170 of its aging US-built M-60 tanks. At the same time, similar Israeli-owned vehicles could be seen on Turkish TV screens surrounding Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters and opening fire.

These scenes prompted Evecit's ''genocide'' comment and led to widespread calls from parliamentarians and the public for Turkey to break off its military ties with Israel.

''As Israeli troops invade the Palestinian territories ... our incapable government signs a tank tender with Israel,'' said Recai Kutan, leader of the pro-Islamist opposition party, Saadet. ''We will do everything we can to get this agreement canceled.''

Yet it seems his party is unlikely to succeed. ''Turks' current sympathy for the Palestinians is a reaction to the oppression we are witnessing,'' said columnist Ferai Tinc of the mass circulation daily Hurriyet. ''But on the other hand, for the last five years, Turkey has made good use of the strategic agreements it has with Israel.''

Prime Minister Ecevit stated last week that the tank deal would go through regardless, and apologized on three occasions for his ''genocide'' remark.

''As far as we're concerned,'' said Benyaakov, the Israeli Embassy spokeswoman, ''the incident is closed.''

Meanwhile, Turkey is searching for some way to positively intervene in the conflict diplomatically. Last week, the foreign ministers of longtime adversaries Turkey and Greece announced that they would launch a joint mission to Israel after US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's visit.

Ismail Cem and Yorgo Papandreou's trip has the blessing of the United States and Israel, though the trip as yet has no timetable or confirmed dates.

''It's largely symbolic,'' said Sahin. ''In the past, when Israel and the Palestinians were making peace, people criticized Turkey and Greece for not doing the same. Now, Greece and Turkey have begun a rapprochement, and they want to show this possibility to the sides in the Middle East. But frankly, it's about all they can manage to do.''

Turkey has often tried to present its Israeli ties and Muslim credentials as factors in making it a friend to both sides in the conflict. Yet as that conflict has escalated, such a mediating role seems likely to be lost.

Referring to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, Sahin said, ''If his policies escalate further, or a major conflict breaks out in the region, then it will be very hard for Turkey to sell its Israeli alliance to its own people, let alone anyone else.''

6. - BBC Monitoring Service - "Turkish deputy premier notes progress in adhering to EU standards / ECHR: Most common accusation: lack of fair trial":

Ankara, April 15, 2002

Ankara: State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli said on Monday [15 April] that even if the biased attitude within EU towards Turkey overshadowed the bilateral relations, Turkey recorded significant progress in abiding with European standards.

The Science and Technology Higher Council convened at Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under the leadership of Bahceli the same day to discuss Turkey's joining EU Science and Technology Sixth Frame Programme.

Addressing the opening of the meeting, Bahceli said that accession to the EU is an important target of Turkey. "We don't only want to join the EU, but we also want to have a status in it which reflects Turkey's history and potential. Certainly, majority of EU members are aware of our status. It is known that the role, effects of Turkey in the EU will be more than other candidate countries. Our government has launched great efforts to abide by the EU laws," Bahceli said.

Bahceli said that Turkey wants to be a part of "e-Europe", the European information society, adding that the European Space Agency (ESA) seems willing to admit Turkey.
Bahceli noted that the EU started to put forward frame programmes covering five-year periods since 1984 to support and coordinate the studies in science and technology fields.
Bahceli said those programmes were not only opened to member and candidate countries to the EU but also to other countries to connect Europe to global science and technology systems.

Bahceli said: "The Sixth Framework Programme covering 2003-2006, is formed by a support package costing 16.3bn euro. The EU, which had determined its target in Lisbon summit in 2000, prepared its Sixth Framework Programme in line with this target. "The target determined in 2000 year Lisbon summit was to reach the highest economy and society order having the highest competitive power. It is possible to evaluate participation to the EU Sixth Framework Programme as an important opportunity for our country to improve competitive power and to reach economic targets. Science and technology can be developed with broad cooperation networks today to a great extend. Countries like Norway which rejected the EU membership with referendum participated in those programmes with great determination. The issue should be evaluated within this scope," he noted.

Meanwhile Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said on Sunday that the most common accusation against Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is the lack of a fair trial. Torture is the second most common accusation against Turkey, the Justice Minister said. Turkey is often criticized for its bad human rights record and it is said that torture is applied systematically at police stations and prisons. Until now, some 5,000 personal applications have been filed at the ECHR against Turkey. Those who apply to the ECHR are mostly from Greek Cyprus or the southeast region of Turkey, according to the Justice Ministry.