23.
August 2002
2. "Death toll to 54 in Turkish prison hunger strike", the death toll in a hunger strike by Turkish prisoners against controversial jail reforms rose to 54 on Thursday when a woman inmate died in an Ankara hospital, a human rights activist said.
3. "Six more MPs abandon Turkey's Ecevit ahead of snap polls", six legislators resigned Thursday from the party of embattled Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in protest at his reluctance to back efforts to unite the fractured center-left ahead of snap polls in November
4. "Dervis Emerges as Spearhead Amid 'Islamist' Fears", Economy guru Kemal Dervis, architect of crisis-racked Turkey's IMF economic reforms, offered himself on Thursday as standard bearer for Turks fearing electoral triumph for a party with roots in political Islam.
5. "Even if the US doesn’t strike, Turkey must stay alert on northern Iraq", the US of A is shifting its attitude in its plans to strike at Iraq and the developing situation in northern Iraq.
6. "Dervis to challenge Turkish Islamists", Kemal Dervis, Turkey's popular former economy minister, was poised to join the country's leading pro-secular party yesterday in an attempt to seize power in forthcoming parliamentary elections.
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due to the holiday time our "Flash Bulletin" will not be forwarded to email addresses from August 1, 2002 until August 25, 2002. It can be viewed, however, right here in the internet at www.flash-bulletin.de as usual.
the staff
1. - AFP - "Turkey has historical interests in north Iraq":
ANKARA / August 22, 2002
Turkey has historical interests in northern Iraq and will not tolerate
the establishment of an independent Kurdish state there, the mass-circulation
Milliyet on Thursday cited Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu
as saying.
Northern Iraq "was forcibly separated (from Turkey) ... by manipulating
(its) condition at the time," Cakmakoglu was quoted as saying,
referring to the early 1900s when the Ottoman Empire collapsed and
Allied western powers took over swathes of its territories in the
Middle East.
His statement came in response to a question about alleged plans by
Kurdish factions running northern Iraq to extend their control over
regions including
oil-rich Mosul and Kirkuk that are populated by Turkmen, a group of
Turkic origin, if the United States were to launch an operation against
Iraq.
"Northern Iraq is not a region that we will let fall prey to
the ambitions of this or that group... A (Kurdish) state to be established
in Mosul and Kirkuk will discomfort both our country and our kin there,"
Cakmakoglu said.
"We, the authorities of the Turkish Republic, say 'no' to this,
regardless of who and which force is behind" such plans, he added.
Mosul and Kirkuk were within the borders of the Turkish republic that
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was planning to establish on the ruins of the
Ottoman
Empire when he initiated a liberation war. But he was later forced
to surrender the regions to Britain.
Referring to their Turkmen population, Cakmakoglu described Mosul
and Kirkuk as "Turkish soil," according to Milliyet.
The establishment of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq
is a worst-case scenario for Turkey, a key NATO ally of the United
States, and one of the main reasons behind its stiff opposition to
a military operation to oust Saddam Hussein.
Two rival Kurdish factions, part of the Iraqi opposition whose support
Washington is seeking against Baghdad, have run northern Iraq since
the 1991 Gulf War, outside Baghdad's control and under the protection
of a no-fly zone enforced by US jets based in Turkey.
Ankara worries that the Kurdish groups could take advantage of turmoil
in Iraq and declare independence, a development which in turn could
give a boost to Kurdish claims in the adjacent southeastern part of
Turkey at a time when Turkish Kurds' rebellion for self-rule has practically
stopped.
With the consent of local Kurds, the Turkish army has made frequent
incursions into northern Iraq in recent years to hunt down Turkish
Kurdish rebels who set up bases there, taking advantage of the power
vacuum in the area.
2. - AFP - "Death toll to 54 in Turkish prison hunger strike":
ANKARA / August 22, 2002
The death toll in a hunger strike by Turkish prisoners against controversial
jail reforms rose to 54 on Thursday when a woman inmate died in an
Ankara hospital, a human rights activist said.
Melek Birsen Hosver, 32, had been fasting for 250 days when she died,
a spokeswoman for the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) told
AFP.
Hosver was serving a 12-year sentence for membership of an extreme
left-wing underground group, the Revolutionary People's Liberation
Party-Front
(DHKP-C), which is seen as the mastermind of the protest.
The strike began in October 2000 by hundreds of mainly leftist inmates
who have been fasting on a rotating basis, taking liquids with sugar
and salt as well as vitamin supplements to prolong their lives.
Their action aims to protest against the introduction of high-security
jails in which cells for one to three people replaced large dormitories
for dozens of inmates.
Backed by rights groups, protesters say the new arrangement leaves
them socially isolated and more vulnerable to torture and maltreatment.
The government, however, has categorically ruled out a return to the
dormitory system, arguing that it was the main reason behind frequent
riots and hostage-taking incidents in the country's unruly jails.
Support for the strike has faded in the face of Ankara's tough stance
and only about 30 inmates linked to the DHKP-C are currently fasting.
The death toll from the strike includes both prisoners and outside
supporters of the movement.
Apart from those who have starved to death, four prisoners burned
themselves to death in support of the strike and another four people
died last
November in a police raid on an Istanbul house occupied by hunger
strikers.
3. - AFP - "Six more MPs abandon Turkey's Ecevit ahead of snap polls":
ANKARA, August 22, 2002
Six legislators resigned Thursday from the party of embattled Turkish
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in protest at his reluctance to back
efforts to unite the fractured center-left ahead of snap polls in
November.
The resignations brought to 69 the number of MPs that have quit Ecevit's
Democratic Left Party (DSP) amid a government crisis since July.
The DSP, once the largest party in the house, has now dwindled to
fifth place with only 59 seats.
A spokesman for the latest defectors, Emin Karaa, said "our efforts
for a union of forces at the center-left will continue and we will
do our best for that" at a press conference announcing their
resignations.
Leading the initiative to unite the center-left is former economy
minister Kemal Dervis.
The search for a pro-Western electoral bloc has been prompted by the
rising popularity of an opposition party with Islamist roots, whose
possible election victory could be destablizing for the mainly Muslim
but strictly secular nation.
The Justice and Development Party is leading opinion polls with about
20 percent of the vote, while support for others is dangerously floating
around the 10-percent national threshold required to enter parliament.
Dervis has so far failed to persuade Ecevit and another key center-left
group, the New Turkey party formed recently by DSP defectors and led
by ex-foreign minister Ismail Cem, to join forces with the third major
group, the Republican People's Party (CHP).
Dervis, the non-party economist who led far-reaching IMF-backed economic
reforms, is expected to formally join the CHP, Turkey's oldest party,
on Friday.
The CHP has seen its popularity rise since the previous elections
in 1999 when it failed to clear the 10-percent threshold to join the
parliament.
Karaa said their group would support efforts for unity "under
CHP roof."
The six defectors were part of a long-standing dissident group of
nine legislators in the DSP, who had insistently called for the crumbling
party run by Ecevit with an iron fist to be reformed.
Political tension has haunted Turkey since May when Ecevit fell ill
and his fragile three-way coalition hit a deadlock over EU-oriented
democracy reforms, which were finally passed earlier this month.
The turmoil resulted in a decision to bring elections forward from
April 2004.
4. - Reuters - "Dervis Emerges as Spearhead Amid 'Islamist' Fears":
ANKARA / August 22, 2002
by Ralph Boulton
Economy guru Kemal Dervis, architect of crisis-racked Turkey's IMF economic reforms, offered himself on Thursday as standard bearer for Turks fearing electoral triumph for a party with roots in political Islam.
Dervis opted on Wednesday to join the leftist Republican People's Party (CHP) in a move that raised the chances he could yet be restored to government at November polls. The sight of Dervis at the economic helm in a coalition could quickly soothe markets and ease the cost of a huge debt burden.
Members of other center-left parties seemed set to follow.
Markets fearing the emergence of a government that might undermine a multi-billion dollar IMF pact to tackle Turkey's worst recession since 1945 held steady. Stocks rose initially before falling back, bond yields eased and the lira, its value slashed by a half since February 2001, held steady.
"DECIDED AT LAST"
"Phew! Dervis has decided at last," ran a headline in the mass-circulation Sabah daily that reflected feeling through much of the political mainstream and beyond Turkey's frontiers.
Dervis met leaders of CHP, Turkey's oldest party, for talks on Thursday as he continued efforts to build a leftist alliance.
Dervis's decision may be greeted with some relief among NATO allies, especially the United States which sees Ankara as a key element in any U.S. military operation in neighboring Iraq.
The IMF is also keen to return Dervis to a position where he can steward the pact that made Turkey the fund's biggest debtor.
"It's a shame that Dervis, at least so far, hasn't been able to formally unite the center-left," one diplomat said of the decision by the man who resigned as economy minister last month. "But at least everyone now knows where he stands. The election campaign can begin in earnest."
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, 77, whose Democratic Left Party (DSP) has lost a half of its members since crisis befell his three-party coalition in May, summoned Dervis from his post at the World Bank in 2001 to tackle a severe financial crisis.
But the two men grew apart as Dervis's political ambitions emerged. Dervis acknowledged Ecevit declined a formal alliance.
The DSP lost another six members when a group of long-time dissenters quit. Political sources said they might join the CHP.
ORTHODOX FEAR "ISLAMIST" VICTORY
The center-right is also riven by personal rivalries.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP), viewed warily by the powerful army for its Islamist roots and with unease by markets suspicious of its economic plans, profits from the disarray. It is far and away the strongest in opinion polls.
Dervis's search for unity among center parties was motivated by fear many mainstream parties could fall below the 10 percent barrier needed for entry to parliament.
That could deliver overwhelming victory to the conservative AKP as it draws on popular anger over poverty and unemployment.
A successful centrist grouping could temper the influence of nationalist parties and be a bonus for Turkey's ambitions for European Union entry. It could also quickly lower the cost of a domestic debt burden of around $80 billion at the end of July.
The CHP failed to clear the 10 percent barrier at 1999 polls but is now the strongest party after AKP in surveys. Its reach includes a spread of socialist and nationalist tendencies that in the long run may not always sit easily with Dervis.
The AKP is one of two parties founded after the banning of a party accused of forming a focus of political Islam.
It rejects the Islamist label and says it has learned from the fate of Turkey's first Islamist premier, Necmettin Erbakan, driven from power in 1997 in a campaign spearheaded by the army.
Its declared economic policies differ little from those of the mainstream. Some analysts say its hands would be tied by a heavy debt burden and by a possible need for new IMF funds.
Erbakan, the founder of modern political Islam in Turkey and a man eschewed by the AKP, gave what for many may be an unnerving reminder of times past as he readied to stand as an independent. He said his one-year government brought prosperity.
"How did we do this? Not with domestic borrowing, not with foreign
borrowing, not with price rises. Where did we get the money from?
From belief," Erbakan said, to rousing cheers of "Warrior
for the faith Erbakan" and "Prime Minister Erbakan."
5. - Milliyet - "Even if the US doesn’t strike, Turkey must stay alert on northern Iraq":
August 22, 2002 / by Sami Kohen
The US of A is shifting its attitude in its plans to strike at Iraq and the developing situation in northern Iraq.
The probability of a US military attack on Iraq in the very near
future seems to have recently lost some of the wind from its sails.
No matter how the hawks’ in Washington are hell-bent to go ahead,
President Bush will only be able to make up his mind on the issue
in early 2003 at the earliest.
Among the various reasons for this delay –- perhaps the most
important one under the circumstances –- is the opposition to
a war in Iraq on the part of some prominent US political figures who
advised the Bush administration not to go into another dangerous adventure
in Iraq. As defense analyst Robert Levine wrote in a column in the
International Herald Tribune, President Bush is quite concerned that
he listen to these voices, especially on the eve of the US congressional
elections set for November. It is known that Washington has been searching
for alternative methods to military intervention for bringing down
Saddam Hussein. In other words, the president is determined to try
every option to achieve his goal, but also to keep the military one
in reserve like a sword of Damocles’ hanging over Iraq. Meanwhile,
Saddam hasn’t missed the opportunity to capitalize on the US’s
difficulties.
Moreover, the US efforts to bring Iraqi opposition leaders together
for concerted action against Saddam has so far not gone well. Additionally,
Russia, too, is trying to improve its relations with Iraq. As far
as Turkey is concerned, the prevention of a possible war in Iraq carries,
for very obvious reasons, great importance. However, the issue has
another aspect crucial to Turkey: the situation in northern Iraq.
No
matter whether the US launches an operation in Iraq or not, Turkey
is going to be seriously occupied by this problem. As we stated earlier,
Turkey believes that the balance between the most two powerful groups
in the region has shifted. Massoud Barzani, who displayed more of
a pro-Turkey attitude in the past, and Jalal Talabani, who used to
be mostly at odds with Turkey, now seem to have switched places. Turkey
is quite anxious about a draft constitution prepared by Barzani for
Iraq, one which would give a Kurdish state there a near-autonomous
status. And yet, there is still a chance to ease this ‘psychological
war’: Barzani’s aide Hoshyar Zabari is expected to visit
our country next week. Turkish authorities will be able to once again
reiterate Turkey’s sensitivities on the issue. Surely, Barzani
is aware of Turkey’s role in the reshaping of Iraq, and he must
be reminded that he doesn’t have the luxury of losing Turkey’s
support.
6. - The Telegraph - "Dervis to challenge Turkish Islamists":
ISTANBUL / August 23, 2002
by Amberin Zaman
Kemal Dervis, Turkey's popular former economy minister, was poised to join the country's leading pro-secular party yesterday in an attempt to seize power in forthcoming parliamentary elections.
Mr Dervis, who was drafted in from the World Bank last year to sort out Turkey's worst financial mess since the Second World War, said he would stand under the banner of Deniz Baykal's Republican People's Party. He had earlier tried to form a Left-wing alliance. The Islamic-dominated Justice and Development Party has been favourite to win the poll on Nov 3.
Pro-secular Turks and the country's industrial elite were relieved at Mr Dervis's move. They see the LSE-trained economist as the only man who can stop the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Istanbul's former Islamist mayor, and keep Turkey's still fragile economy on track.
Mr Dervis, 53, who comes from a long line of illustrious pashas, is credited with ramming through a series of radical economic reforms that helped Turkey to secure more than £20 billion of international loans to finance its recovery.
A committed social democrat, admired for his modesty, integrity and hard work, Mr Dervis is a reluctant newcomer to politics and says he would refuse any job other than that of economy minister in a future government.
Close co-operation with Turkey - the only Muslim member of Nato,
and Israel's strongest regional ally - is seen by the West as crucial.
The country leads the international peace-keeping force in Afghanistan,
a job no other nation wants, and its support would be important in
any operation to topple Saddam Hussein.