29
August 2002
2. "Schussel: Turkey not mature enough for EU membership", Austrian Prime Minister and People Party (OVP) leader Wolfgang Schussel asserted that Turkey was not mature enough to be accepted into the European Union.
3. "Turkish army warns of crisis with EU over Cyprus", the powerful Turkish army, which has troops posted in the northern third of Cyprus, warned the EU Wednesday of major turmoil in the region if Turkish Cypriot interests were disregarded in efforts to resolve the long-standing conflict on the island.
4. "Pro-EU Turkish leader defends army's role", Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, a keen advocate of Turkey's bid to integrate with Europe, said Wednesday the EU should understand the role the powerful Turkish army plays in fending off political Islam and Kurdish separatism.
5. "Kurd Leader Reassured by U.S. Promise on Turkey", the United States has promised Kurds in northern Iraq that Turkey will not take part in any U.S. attack to remove President Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi Kurdish leader said Wednesday.
6. "Turkey's new top general promises to
fight radical Islam, Kurdish rebels", a new military
chief formally took command of Turkey's armed forces Wednesday and
vowed to pursue the country's fight against political Islam and Kurdish
rebels. 
1. - Tehran Times - "Turkey Readies for Election, But Will It Take Place?":
ANKARA / 29 August 2002
The rallies have begun. Turkey is hurtling towards polls that may decide its fate within the Western alliance and the destiny of its shaky economy.
But while politicians prepare for a November date that they backed overwhelmingly in Parliament only last month, a crucial question still tantalises them as well as NATO allies and financial markets: Will the election really take place? Surveys suggest many mainstream parties, riven by personal rivalries, may fall short of the 10 percent vote needed to win seats. Likely victor now is a new party, drawing on anger over poverty and suspected by powerful generals of Islamist leanings.
A vote in Parliament would suffice to delay polls to 2004 and rumors abound of conspiracies to save face and preserve power, Reuters reported.
"Most parties would like the elections postponed," said Bulent Akarcali of Motherland Party, junior partner in the current three-party coalition of veteran Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. Bbut they're afraid of voter reaction. No one wants to be seen as the one taking the lead."
Tansu Ciller, head of the Center-Right True Path Party (DYP), said this week she had been approached to head a new coalition government that would displace Ecevit and postpone elections, perhaps for a year.
Ciller, viewed warily by generals for backing an Islamist- led government which they helped ease from power in 1997, said she had refused.
Her struggling rival, the Motherland Party, was implicitly the source of the invitation but denied nurturing any such schemes.
Could Dervis return to economic helm? Akarcali feels the polls will not be called off, but markets may remain cautious.
Hopes for a centrist alliance that prevailed when the polls were called have all but evaporated in bickering.
"When it appeared a plan to delay polls would not come off there was a little bit of an easing (on markets)," said Numan Ulku of Nurol securities.
Financial markets and large swathes of the general public see polls as a means to head off paralysis in government that has increased with the ill health of the prime minister.
But markets might warm to any solution that brought ex-world banker Kemal Dervis, architect of a multi-billion dollar IMF crisis plan for Turkey, back to the economic helm.
Western allies and the IMF, which has in Turkey its biggest debtor, view Dervis as the nearest thing the country can offer to a guarantee imf reforms will be carried through.
The United States would also welcome a centrist government it could rely on to cooperate in any attack on neighboring Iraq.
Under the most dogged "postponement" rumor, Ciller, in return for her participation, would head a cabinet supported by Motherland and other parties fearing exclusion from Parliament if the poll went ahead.
A pretext would be found -- perhaps that electoral uncertainty might damage Turkey's debt-laden economy.
Dervis, who last week joined the leftist Republican People's Party (CHP), the strongest of mainstream parties in opinion polls, would be offered control of economic affairs.
Prime Minister Ecevit would be in an invidious position. He has insisted throughout that Parliament should run its term until April 2004, arguing polls would undermine the economy.
But he would hardly back such an alternative government.
--- The Disgruntled Element ---
The process of postponement in itself would not be so complex. Before most elections, a core of deputies who have been scratched from their party electoral lists and thus consigned to political oblivion oppose the polls; they are known as "the disgruntled ones".
September 11, the day when party lists are submitted to the authorities, will be key. This year, commentators say, could produce a bumper crop of disgruntled ones.
The rightist Nationalist Action Party (MHP), biggest in the coalition since a rebellion in Ecevit's group, has hinted at big changes.
Ismet Berkan of the popular ***Radikal*** daily feels a critical
disgruntled mass is in the offing for the first time. "The leaderships
of the parties do not fight firmly against efforts to postpone because
they secretly want this."
2. -Turkish Daily News - "Schussel: Turkey not mature enough for EU membership":
ANKARA / 29 August 2002
Speaking at the Alpbach Europe Forum in Austria, Austrian Prime Minister and People Party (OVP) leader Wolfgang Schussel asserted that Turkey was not mature enough to be accepted into the European Union.
Schussel said that the EU should open a perspective for Turkey's membership, but also that the EU should not act as if all the problems had been solved.
Asserting that the Turkish military had the right to object to every problem within the country, Schussel said that a country which did not have democratic maturity could not be accepted for EU membership.
Schussel, stating that the EU should wait to find out which political
party would win the elections on Nov. 3, pointed out that Turkey had
decided to make fundamental reforms and added that these reforms should
be implemented satisfactorily.
3.
- AFP - "Turkish army warns of crisis with EU over Cyprus":
ANKARA / August 28, 2002
The powerful Turkish army, which has troops posted in the northern
third of Cyprus, warned the EU Wednesday of major turmoil in the region
if Turkish Cypriot interests were disregarded in efforts to resolve
the long-standing conflict on the island.
"It is not possible to resolve the Cyprus problem with approaches
that disregard the actual situation (on the island) and support the
Greek Cypriot side's goal to reign over the entire island," army
chief Huseyin Kivrikoglu told a ceremony marking the end of his term.
"Otherwise, a period of continued crisis in the eastern Mediterranean
with all sides involved, including the European Union, will become
inevitable," said the general, who formally retires Friday.
The Greek Cypriot government in the south of the island, which is
recognized internationally as ruling over all of Cyprus, is a front-runner
for EU membership, while the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus (TRNC) is recognized only by Ankara.
Turkey, an EU hopeful itself, has threatened to annex the TRNC, where
some 35,000 Turkish troops are stationed, if Greek Cyprus is admitted
into the EU before the island's reunification.
TRNC leader Rauf Denktash attended Wednesday's ceremony in Ankara,
and warmly congratulated Kivrikoglu as he finished his speech.
Coming under international pressure to resolve their division before
the EU enlargement process gets under way, Denktash and his Greek
Cypriot counterpart Glafcos Clerides began peace talks in January,
but the negotiations have yielded no visible result so far.
Denktash and Turkey want the island to be reunified within a confederation
of two states, while the Greek Cypriots and the UN favor a federation
of Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot zones.
The strategically important Mediterranean island has been divided
since 1974, when Turkey seized its northern third in response to an
Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia seeking to annex Cyprus to Greece.
4.
- AFP - "Pro-EU Turkish leader defends army's role":
ANKARA / August 28, 2002
Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, a keen advocate of Turkey's bid
to integrate with Europe, said Wednesday the EU should understand
the role the powerful Turkish army plays in fending off political
Islam and Kurdish separatism.
Turkey, the laggard among the 13 candidates for European Union membership,
has recently undertaken far-reaching reforms to improve its crippled
democracy
in the hopes of obtaining by year-end a date to open accession talks.
Yilmaz told a news conference that the political influence the Turkish
military wields had often been raised by EU countries in bilateral
talks as a snag on Turkey's road to accession.
"What we are telling them is that the Turkish armed forces have
a sensitivity on two issues: one is the secular character of the system
and the second -- the unity of the country," said Yilmaz, who
is responsible for EU affairs.
"When all parties in Turkey become mature enough not to make
these two issues a matter of politics, the need for this sensitivity
of the army will disappear. But unfortunately, as long as the issues
are manipulated politically the continuation of this sensitivity is
inevitable," he said.
The staunchly secular military participates in political decision-making
through its membership in Turkey's top security body, the National
Security Council.
It has carried out three coups since 1960 and was instrumental in
forcing the resignation of the country's first Islamist-led government
in 1997.
The military has also fought Kurdish rebels since 1984 and has cautioned
that EU-demanded democracy reforms -- namely those expanding minority
rights for the Kurds -- should not serve to fan Kurdish separatism.
"No country can remain indifferent to threats to its territorial
integrity and no country can just watch if a party is eradicating
democracy by using democracy," Yilmaz said.
He gave as an example EU member Spain, where the Basque Batasuna party
has been suspended for allegedly supporting the armed separatist group
ETA.
"When evaluating Turkey's conditions, Europe should also look
from this angle," Yilmaz said.
The minister was the torch-bearer of a set of democracy reforms, among
them the abolition of the death penalty and the legalization of Kurdish-language
courses and broadcasts, which were passed by the parliament in early
August.
5. - Reuters - "Kurd Leader Reassured by U.S. Promise on Turkey":
London / AUgust 28, 2002
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
The United States has promised Kurds in northern Iraq that Turkey will not take part in any U.S. attack to remove President Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi Kurdish leader said Wednesday.
Jalal Talabani, whose fighters control part of northern Iraq, said U.S. officials had responded to concern among Iraqi opposition groups that Turkish participation in a U.S. attack would destabilize Iraq and anger its Kurdish population, which occasionally comes under attack from Turkish forces.
"The United States has the technology and logistics to stage an attack to change the regime on their own. They do not need us or anyone else," Talabani told Reuters after meeting with Iraqi exiles in London.
"The United States promised us in Washington that there would be no external interference from Turkey or Iran," said Talabani, referring to a meeting between six opposition leaders and U.S. officials earlier this month to discuss the future of Iraq.
Turkey, fearful of Kurdish nationalism in its own borders, opposes the formation of any Kurdish state inside neighboring northern Iraq and keeps an eye on developments in the enclave.
Turkey regularly sends troops into northern Iraq, largely to strike at its own Kurdish rebels who have bases there.
Talabani, who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barazani, whose group controls the rest of northern Iraq, say they want autonomy for the Kurds within a federal structure that keeps Iraq united.
Both have said they are worried by the prospect of a U.S. attack on Iraq, fearing that any turmoil could jeopardize the fragile autonomy and prosperity they have built in their mountain region since the end of the Gulf War.
MIXED SIGNALS
Turkey allows U.S. and British warplanes to fly over northern Iraq from its southern Incirlik airbase to enforce one of two "no-fly-zones" set up over Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.
But Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Wednesday that Turkey, a member of NATO, was still opposed to a U.S.-led military campaign to topple the Iraqi leader.
Talabani said the Kurdish opposition had urged the United States to back what he described as 100,000 anti-Saddam fighters -- mostly stationed in northern Iraq -- to march on Baghdad and dispose of Saddam, but that the United states had not responded.
"When the time comes, tens of thousands more would take up arms against the regime," Talabani said. "We told the United States things it did not like, such as that the Iraqi people should be the ones performing the regime change."
"U.S. officials have told us that they were determined to bring down the regime. But Iraq is a big country. The United states cannot control the streets and prevent internal fighting if the regime falls. It needs the opposition (after any attack)," Talabani added.
The Kurds have been generally wary of the United States after they
rose against Saddam in the wake of the Gulf War. They were defeated
after the United States, which urged them to revolt, did not come
to their aid.
6. - Associated Press - "Turkey's new top general promises to fight radical Islam, Kurdish rebels":
ANKARA / August 28, 2002
A new military chief formally took command of Turkey's armed forces Wednesday and vowed to pursue the country's fight against political Islam and Kurdish rebels.
Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, who formerly headed the army, took control of Turkey's influential military from Gen. Huseyin Kivrikoglu, who retired.
Ozkok's appointment comes as this mainly Muslim, but staunchly secular country prepares for November elections. Most opinion polls put an Islamic-oriented party on top — a victory that could bring tension with the staunchly secular military.
"The fight against fundamentalists will continue with the same determination," Ozkok said. "We will defend secularism against all threats."
The military, NATO ( news - web sites)'s second-largest, has carried out three military interventions since 1960. It also pressured a pro-Islamic party out of power in 1997.
Many lawmakers from of the Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party, which tops many opinion polls, formerly belonged to two pro-Islamic parties that were banned for anti-secular activities. But the party has been trying to distance itself from that heritage and promote itself as a conservative party that advocates social welfare.
But Turkish secularists, led by the military, fear that the party may be trying to change just to avoid friction with Turkey's top brass.
Ozkok also swore Wednesday that Turkey would continue to fight autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels "until the last member of the terrorist organization is caught."
Turkey fought a 15-year war against the Kurdish guerrillas. The fighting has claimed the lives of some 37,000 people.
The rebels declared a cease-fire in 1999, but the military rejected the rebel truce, saying all the rebels must surrender or be killed. The Turkish troops maintain their hunt for rebels but clashes are sporadic.
Earlier this year, Ozkok oversaw the deployment of Turkish troops
in Afghanistan ( news - web sites) to lead the international peacekeeping
mission there.