4
December 2002
2. "Turkey to cooperate with US military", urges disarmament before war in Iraq.
3. "Turkish government submits watered down democracy package to parliament", Turkey's new government has submitted to parliament a package of EU-oriented democracy reforms which was watered down from its original version to exclude some arrangements on torture and the right to retrial, parliamentary sources said Wednesday.
4. "Why Giscard spoke out on Turkey and the EU?", early last month a reporter for Le Monde received a phone call from the office of Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former president of France. Giscard wanted to talk about Turkey's application for membership in the European Union, a spokesman told the reporter, who quickly obliged and interviewed Giscard.
5. "Turkey renews pressure to win firm date for EU entry talks", Turkey yesterday put fresh pressure on European Union heads of state to offer Ankara a firm date to start accession negotiations at next week's Copenhagen summit.
6. "Arabization' Forces Iraqi Kurds to Flee From Homes", families are harassed or starved out. A decree 'allows' minorities to change their ethnicity.
1. - Kurdish Observer - "Mustafa Karasu: Democratic movement must be organized":
KADEK Presidential Council member Mustafa Karasu drew attention that what was lacking on November 3 elections was efforts for the democratic movement to develop itself. "Democracy can only be secured by determined rings around determined groups of powerful grounds" said Karasu.
MHA/FRANKFURT / 3 December 2002
KADEK Presidential Council member Mustafa Karasu participated by
telephone in "Acilim" program on Medya TV the other day and
commented on important issues. Karasu stated that social democrats and
socialists as well as non-governmental organizations should come together
in DEHAP and organize a huge democratic movement.
"DEHAP's example should be broadened and its vision should be changed. It is important to unite around the common identity. There are a number of non-governmental organizations and institutions. They can unite in a party in which they express themselves. Socialists, social democrats, even liberal democrats can find a place in such a party" said Karasu.
The council member pointed out that having results of public struggle snatched by other parties was a situation that needed a self-criticism as far as leftist and democratic forces were concerned. Criticizing the Turkish left of being marginalized, Karasu said the following: "We have shown a line for democratic freedom but have not been able to fulfil its requirements. We have not been able to determine the shortcomings of the Kurdish movement."
It must be a part of Turkey
Karasu continued with words to the effect: "The Kurdish democratic movement must express itself to Turkey, come together with democratic forces and make itself a political movement that will be a part of Turkey. We criticize the Turkish left of being marginalized but if we do not avoid it we will face it too Democracy can only be secured by determined rings around determined groups of powerful grounds."
"The approach 'We are right, we will succeed tomorrow absolutely' is a classical one and not true at that" said Karasu, "There are some peculiarities of the democratic movement. If we do not catch them, it will be impossible to speak of success. Democrats must catch a peculiarity that attracts everybody."
People sincere
Stressing that people's forces were sincere, Karasu said the following: "We must express themselves clearly. We must certainly eliminate our shortcomings. There is really a dynamic force and it must be used well. But we cannot do it with disdainful approaches. On the contrary there must be policies to impress everybody."
The council member continued as follows: "The result
of the election is not a victory of AKP. We must see that it is the
product of democratic struggle. Having results of public struggle snatched
by other parties is a situation that needs a self-criticism as far as
leftist and democratic forces are concerned." 
2. - Washington Post - "Turkey to cooperate with US military":
Urges disarmament before war in Iraq
ANKARA / by Vernon Loeb and Bradley Graham
Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said yesterday his government
is prepared to cooperate with US military forces and allow American
warplanes to bomb Iraq from bases in Turkey if war is necessary to disarm
President Saddam Hussein's government.
But Yakis stressed that Turkey wouldn't support war against Iraq until every peaceful means of disarming the neighboring country has been exhausted. In addition, he said the Turkish government strongly believes a second UN Security Council resolution would be necessary before military action could begin.
The minister's statements, at a press conference outside his residence, represented Turkey's public response to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who came here yesterday seeking a commitment for military cooperation if President Bush decides to launch a war against Iraq. Judging from what Yakis said, the response was yes, with conditions.
After meeting with Wolfowitz here in the Turkish capital, Yakis said his government would have difficulty allowing ''tens of thousands'' of US ground troops to invade Iraq from bases in Turkey because of public opposition. But he left the door open to basing smaller units in Turkey and called military cooperation a priority for Turkey if war becomes necessary.
''We believe there should not be left any stone unturned before resorting to military force,'' Yakis told reporters. ''But if it comes to that, of course we will cooperate with the United States.''
Wolfowitz declined to describe the extent to which Turkey has pledged military cooperation. He also refused to note the amount of foreign aid the United States is willing to provide in return for assistance in any future war and to compensate for economic losses Turkey has sustained because of sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Wolfowitz left little doubt, however, that he was pleased by his meetings with Turkey's new government, which took office only last week.
Pentagon officials consider Turkish bases important for the execution of war plans that call for special operations and airborne forces to launch simultaneous invasions of northern, southern, and western Iraq. Without bases for aircraft and troops in Turkey, which is just north of Iraq, invading northern Iraq and bombing targets north of Baghdad would be problematic, because the Pentagon's other nearby bases are in Persian Gulf states, south of Iraq.
''It's important that he see that he's surrounded by the international community, not only in the political sense, but in a real practical military sense,'' Wolfowitz said, ''and Turkey has a very important role to play in the regard.''
A senior US official said yesterday's talks with Turkish officials involved a discussion of the size of US forces that would be involved in an invasion of northern Iraq, or how many Turkish troops might be necessary to police refugees or guard prisoners of war along the border. He discounted reports in the Turkish press that the Bush administration wants to stage 120,000 combat troops in Turkey and has requested 35,000 Turkish troops to police refugees along the Turkish-Iraqi border.
''There have been a lot of discussions in military channels, of all kinds of hypothetical possibilities,'' the official said. ''I imagine the numbers you read in the [Turkish] press start from that.''
The United States already has a substantial military presence in Turkey, centered at the Incirlik air base in the southeastern part of the country. For 11 years, US forces have used Incirlik as the jumping-off point for patrol flights over northern Iraq. The base also has been a major hub in the past year for C-17 cargo flights to and from Afghanistan.
US aircraft also are positioned at a smaller, much-less-publicized base farther to the east for use in search-and-rescue missions if any aircrews crash in Iraq.
In the event of war with Iraq, US authorities hope not only to expand operations at Incirlik, but also to use another half-dozen other Turkish bases for various aircraft, according to American officials.
One reason the Bush administration appears so insistent
on getting Turkey's clear support soon is the need to send American
military survey teams to assess facilities and utilities at the bases
that US war planners have been eyeing as likely launching pads. ''We
need to take a look, in detail, at their bases and roads and to check
on the availability of fuel, water, security, and so on,'' a US official
said.
3. - AFP - "Turkish government submits watered down democracy package to parliament":
ANKARA / 4 December 2002
Turkey's new government has submitted to parliament a package of
EU-oriented democracy reforms which was watered down from its original
version to exclude some arrangements on torture and the right to retrial,
parliamentary sources said Wednesday.
The package, handed into the parliament late Tuesday, aims to strengthen the government's hand ahead of the European Union's Copenhagen summit on December 12-13, at which Turkey wants the pan-European bloc to set a firm date to formally open accession negotiations. The EU, which is set to map out its eastwards expansion at Copenhagen, has so far refused to do so on the grounds that the country needs to make more progress in bringing itself up to European norms.
The planned amendments, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, make it easier to prosecute police officers accused of torture, extend the rights of detainees and suspects, and ease restrictions on the press, civic groups and non-Muslim religious foundations. However, the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), a movement with Islamist roots, chose to not to scrap the 15-year statute of limitations for cases of torture, as was earlier intended.
It also omitted from the package an article which would have allowed prisoners -- under certain conditions -- to ask for a retrial if the European Court of Human Rights spoke out against their sentences. Several former Kurdish MPs jailed for aiding armed Kurdish rebels -- among them Leyla Zana, who won the EU Parliament's 1995 human rights award -- were expected to have benefitted from the change.
The bill would also make it more difficult to ban political
parties. This would help the AKP, which is itself under the threat of
being banned. The government is aiming to have the reforms adopted in
parliament, where it enjoys a comfortable majority, before the Copenhagen
summit. It also has the backing of the opposition party on the EU reforms.
Turkey's Eu accession has been the primary goal of the new government,
which swept to power after a landslide victory in elections on November
3.
4. - International Herald Tribune - "Why Giscard spoke out on Turkey and the EU?":
BRUSSELS / 4 December 2002 / Thomas Fuller
Early last month a reporter for Le Monde received a phone call from
the office of Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former president of France.
Giscard wanted to talk about Turkey's application for membership in the European Union, a spokesman told the reporter, who quickly obliged and interviewed Giscard.
Published Nov. 8, the comments on Turkey created a stir across Europe. Turkey was not part of Europe, Giscard said. The Turks have a different culture, a different "way of life," and it would be the end of the European Union if they were ever admitted.
The provocative comments, which contradicted the official line of the European Union, puzzled the chattering ranks of Europe's bureaucracy. For eight months, Giscard had presided over the Convention on the Future of Europe, an ambitious effort to write the Union's first true constitution. Why had he suddenly stirred this hornet's nest?
"He's a man of huge political sophistication," said Chris Patten, the official charged with foreign affairs at the European Commission. "I can't believe it was a slip of the tongue."
In fact, Giscard's comments fit neatly into a pattern: Since beginning his job as head of the convention, the elder statesman has at fairly regular intervals made headlines by announcing provocative and at times quirky proposals for Europe's future.
Whether by design or not, these remarks have raised Giscard's profile out of the has-been club of former presidents of European countries and back into the glare of the spotlights. They have also injected life into a potentially boring subject: how to rewrite the labyrinthine rules that govern the European Union.
Call it public relations for Europe's constitutional convention.
"We don't have the means to run a big advertising campaign," said Giscard's spokesman, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut. "All we have is words." (Giscard could not be reached Tuesday evening at his home in Paris.)
A month before summoning the reporter for Le Monde, Giscard proposed in a speech that the European Union change its name to the "United States of Europe." Several weeks earlier, he came out in favor of Europe's creating an American-style secretary of state.
Neither idea is central to the work of the convention. The European Union can function properly with its current name. And the creation of a European superminister for foreign affairs would not solve fundamental questions about how power is shared in the Union.
But partly as a result of the media coverage Giscard received for the easy-to-grasp ideas, Europe's constitutional convention is now at the top of the busy political agenda in Brussels.
The notion of writing a constitution for Europe - derided by many officials a year ago - is now virtually a foregone conclusion. Last month Giscard presented a fill-in-the-blanks skeleton of what the constitution could look like.
More importantly, Europe's biggest and most influential countries are now taking the convention more seriously. Two weeks ago Jacques Chirac, the French president, announced that he was replacing a lower-ranking representative at the convention with Dominique de Villepin, France's foreign minister.
"At a time when the Convention on the Future of the European Union - which you are presiding over so efficiently - will begin its most important phase," Chirac said in a letter to Giscard, "I would like to express again France's determination to contribute to the success of this great enterprise."
Several months earlier, Germany had upgraded its representation, sending Joschka Fisher, the foreign minister, to the convention. Now all five heavyweights in the European Union - France, Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy - have minister-level representatives at the convention.
"They realized that if you want to influence the process you must do it now," said Meyer-Landrut, Giscard's spokesman.
None of this guarantees success for Giscard. Making headlines is not the same as hammering out a coherent set of rules to allow the Union to run smoothly, especially with its scheduled expansion from 15 to 25 members in 2004.
Fundamental questions about which institutions in Brussels will hold power have only begun to be discussed.
On Thursday, the European Commission, the Union's executive body, is expected to lobby for more power when it presents its vision of the future government in Brussels.
The convention delegates are expected to continue their
work well into next year until they produce a constitution, which then
must be approved by the Union's 15 members.
5. - The Financial Times - "Turkey renews pressure to win firm date for EU entry talks":
BRUSSELS / 4 December 2002 / by Judy Dempsey
Turkey yesterday put fresh pressure on European Union heads of state
to offer Ankara a firm date to start accession negotiations at next
week's Copenhagen summit.
If no date was given, diplomats said, it could raise difficulties in reaching a deal over the divided island of Cyprus, one of the 10 candidates to join the EU in May 2004.
"At Copenhagen we want a date to start the negotiations," said Oguz Demiralp, Turkey's ambassador to the EU. "We do not want a conditional date. We do not want what was suggested last month, a date for a date to start the talks. We want a commitment to a date and long-term membership of Turkey to the EU," he said.
Mr Demiralp said late 2003 or early 2004 was realistic since it would give Recep Tayyep Erdogan's governing Justice and Development party time to implement reforms required by the EU before talks can start.
Mr Demiralp warned of difficulties ahead if there was no date and if Cyprus was admitted in its present form.
Diplomats said Mr Demiralp's remarks reflected pressure by the US, United Nations and EU on Turkey to reach a deal at Copenhagen over Cyprus, whose northern part has been occupied by Turkish troops since 1974 following a coup attempt by the Greek junta.
The US administration, which has been lobbying heavily on behalf of Turkey, warned of the dangers of excluding Turkey from the EU. Yesterday Richard Haass, director of policy planning at the US State Department, said: "Europe needs to integrate Turkey and needs to give them an accession date. This is a major opportunity to bring Turkey into Europe. It would not simply be an error, but to paraphrase Bismarck, a blunder, if this opportunity were lost."
Jack Straw, British foreign secretary, and Per Stig Moller, his Danish counterpart, were in Ankara this week to press Turkey to accept the UN plan. Paul Wolfowitz, US deputy defence secretary, was also holding talks over Turkey's role in any US-led attack on Iraq.
Not all 15 EU member states want to give Turkey a date at Copenhagen. Britain, Denmark, Greece, Spain and Italy could support it provided Turkey implements reforms and accepts the UN proposal for Cyprus. Others would prefer to wait until next year or later.
The UN idea is that at Copenhagen, Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders would make a declaration in principle to accept the Cyprus deal.
The UN has set a February 28 deadline for a final accord. A month later, both communities would hold a referendum. If accepted, it would mean the whole island could be ready to join by 2004.
Denmark, current holder of the EU presidency, is still
hoping to wrap up negotiations with the other nine countries ahead of
Copenhagen. But Jan Truszczynski, Polish chief negotiator, said that
was unlikely.
6. - The Los Angeles Times - "Arabization' Forces Iraqi Kurds to Flee From Homes":
Families are harassed or starved out. A decree 'allows' minorities to change their ethnicity.
BURDA QARAMAN / 3 December 2002 / by Robin Wright
As a cold mountain wind heralds the coming winter in northern Iraq, Hassan Kiram has taken up residence in a small triangular tent of bright green plastic without a door. So have his wife and six children.
The Kirams are recent arrivals at this squalid settlement of tents and crude clay-brick huts with roofs crafted out of cardboard and plastic sheeting that are held down by stones. The family squeezes together to sleep on mats atop an earthen floor. Otherwise, there is no furniture.
The diminutive Kurdish laborer, 38, and his family are among the latest victims of a sweeping campaign of "ethnic cleansing" that has forcibly displaced more than 1 million Iraqis since President Saddam Hussein took power in the 1970s, according to a report by the Brookings Institution in Washington. All are members of ethnic minorities.
The goal is to "subdue recalcitrant populations, take over oil-rich and fertile land, and stamp out political opposition," adds the think tank report, which says that as many as 800,000 people have been displaced in northern Iraq and at least 300,000 in the center and south of the nation.
Having lost virtually everything but the few personal items they can carry, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis still live in destitute conditions without jobs, access to basic health facilities or prospects of a better future, charges the report, which was released in October. It also faults the United Nations and international aid groups for not devoting enough attention or resources to a crisis.
"This is one of the most profound human tragedies in modern Iraq," said Nasreen Mustafa Sadiq, the Harvard-educated minister of reconstruction and human development in the western half of Kurdistan, the Kurds' self-ruled area in northern Iraq.
A new survey by Human Rights Watch -- based on a recent tour of Kurdistan, where most of the internally displaced end up -- charges that the campaign ranks as a crime against humanity.
The chief targets today are the ethnic Kurds. In one of the world's biggest ongoing human upheavals, the Iraqi government is trying to expand its hold on the oil-rich north by transforming its identity. The "Arabization" campaign has forced thousands of Kurds and other minorities to flee and replaced them with Arabs, according to international human rights groups, U.N. relief agencies and Kurdish officials.
Even cemeteries are affected, with non-Arab names on tombstones rubbed out and Arab names engraved in their place. Since April, the government has offered Arab families extra incentive in the form of land if they bring the remains of their dead relatives with them to rebury in local graveyards, say relief groups and deported Kurds. The goal is to create evidence that the Arab claim to the region goes back generations.
The new twist stems from "nationality correction" decrees by the Revolutionary Command Council, the highest governing body under the Iraqi president. Decree 199, issued in September 2001, "allows" non-Arab Iraqis over 18 to change their official ethnic identity, according to Human Rights Watch.
In reality, the regime forces minorities applying for anything official -- from school enrollment to marriage licenses to car registration -- to sign a form changing their national identity and declaring that they are Arabs, according to rights groups and Kurds.
"The whole change in demographics goes beyond pushing people out. Newborns, even Christians, are not allowed to be registered with non-Arab names. People can't buy a home until they change their identity to Arab," said Fawzi Hariri of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, one of two parties that run the north.
The decrees reflect a subtle and evolving change in tactics. For years, Baghdad merely ordered minorities to be deported. But after an international outcry and growing pressure in the 1990s, Hussein's government devised an approach that doesn't tie it to the evictions. It is harassing Kurds and other minorities into voluntarily leaving for a simple reason: They can't survive if they stay.
According to relief agencies, rights groups and Kurdish officials, Iraq is confiscating the U.N. food ration cards of non-Arabs. It's pressuring employers to fire them. It's locking up non-Arabs, including elderly women, until they agree to change their names and family histories. Those who balk are gradually squeezed out.
"The government doesn't issue deportation orders so people can't prove they're thrown out. There's no longer a paper trail," said Sami Abdul Rahman, the KDP deputy prime minister in western Kurdistan.
Without papers, Kurds have trouble qualifying for aid from either Kurdish groups or the United Nations. And without a ration card, the internally exiled minorities have no access to food baskets provided by the World Food Program to Iraqi families.
"It can take months to verify their circumstances and get them back on the list for rations. In the meantime, these people are also unemployed and have no source of income," said Salah Rashid, the minister of human rights for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the political movement running eastern Kurdistan.
Without deportation evidence, tracking the flow is also more difficult. The monthly influx has varied widely in recent years, from a few dozen families to up to 3,000 people, Kurds and relief groups say. Some families are merely dumped at one of the checkpoints into Kurdistan. Others make their own way across the no man's land frontier. And many move in with extended family members already forced into the north.
Before he reluctantly opted to leave the city of Kirkuk on Oct. 30, Kiram had been increasingly harassed. He said he was ordered to abandon his Kurdish family name or face unemployment -- and then jail. The family of eight was told to leave its rented home so the government could build a road, with no alternative provided.
"One of the hardest parts was taking my kids out of school. Now they don't have a home -- or a future. But what else could I do?" he said, as the children, ages 4 to 18, meandered among the debris of the makeshift camp.
The family spends much of its day searching for large stones to begin building a one-room shanty, like others in Burda Qaraman, a dusty settlement without proper sanitation in the foothills of rugged mountains.
Throughout northern Iraq, the United Nations has set up a series of more-regulated camps with larger tents and access to running water, communal toilets and limited electricity.
Just down the road from the Kirams, Gola and her two sons have lived in tent No. 53 at Takia Camp since an Iraqi truck dumped them and a few belongings at the edge of Kurdistan on Sept. 2. Takia is home to dozens of Kurdish families who live in dusty 12-foot-by-12-foot tents. Some claim to have been stuck here since 1998 in the long wait for alternative shelter.
Gola is a prematurely aged Kurd with weathered hands who asked that her last name not be used because two other sons are still hiding in their hometown. She said she had long been harassed by Iraqi secret police. Her husband was imprisoned in 1981 and then disappeared in 1984, although she still holds out hope that he wasn't executed.
The last straw was in August, Gola said, when Iraqi agents came to the home where her family had lived for three generations and demanded their food ration cards. Then she was taken to police headquarters, where she was held until two sons arrived and offered to take her place so she could go home. They were then told that if the family didn't leave the area, the sons would be held indefinitely in another jail.
"I didn't need to think very long. I'd lost my husband, I wasn't going to lose my sons," she explained, tears trickling down her cheeks. The family home was immediately occupied by Arabs, she added.
New arrivals to the camps typically spend at least a year and often two enduring bitter winters and searing summers before they are moved out of tents, said Sadiq, who works for the KDP government. And only 10% to 15% find new jobs. Many aren't allowed to bring documentation that proves they were trained or had job experience.
The Brookings report charges that the outside world has not helped in part because it views the problem as temporary -- decades after the internal expulsions started.
"More than 400,000 displaced persons in the north are reported to live in 'collective centers,' many in an advanced state of decay with insufficient infrastructure," it says. "A further 57,000 live in barracks, including more than 6,000 still in tents."
Iraq's displaced are a major and growing drain on the north's limited resources. Kurdish leaders and relief groups fear they may be inundated with a new influx if the U.S. opens a military campaign against the Iraqi regime. Tens of thousands could flee to the northern enclave, which is already in effect liberated from Baghdad's control and watched over by U.S. and British warplanes.
What to do with the refugees will be one of the biggest challenges faced by any post-Hussein government, international groups warn.
"Any new government will have to address these issues as a high priority if it is to secure the unity and stability of Iraq. And this will not be easy," warns the Brookings report, written by John Fawcett and Victor Tanner.
Sorting out ownership could even become the source of
new tensions, the report warns.