19 February 2002

1. "Turkish president approves reform package, with an eye on EU", President Ahmet Necdet Sezer signed into law Monday reforms designed to improve the country's human rights record in a bid to boost its chances at joining the European Union, his office said.

2. "Turkish government divided over lifting death penalty", nationalists in Turkey's coalition government said Sunday they opposed lifting the death penalty, a key European Union demand for the country's membership in the group.

3. "Turkey: Court Ruling Shows Authorities' Refusal To See Alevism As A Religious Community", until a few years ago, Kurdish separatism was the only movement in Turkey that openly challenged the official view that the country was a homogeneous nation-state. But the past two decades have seen a resurgence of Alevis, a minority religious group that has had difficult relations with both the state and Sunni Islam, Turkey's predominant religion. Turkish authorities recently banned an Alevi cultural center in Ankara.

4. "Time for important decisions", the controversy over the abolishment of the death penalty has turned into a "what do we do with Ocalan" campaign.

5. "Court examining Chomsky's remarks on Kurds", a Turkish security court began examining evidence against U.S. academic Noam Chomsky for allegedly fomenting separatism during a visit to Diyarbakir, security officials said.

6. "Islamist woman politician risks jail for insulting Turkey", state prosecutors filed a lawsuit Monday against an Islamist woman politician who sparked turmoil in parliament three years ago by trying to take the oath wearing a headscarf, Anatolia news agency reported.

1. - AFP - "Turkish president approves reform package, with an eye on EU":

ANKARA

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer signed into law Monday reforms designed to improve the country's human rights record in a bid to boost its chances at joining the European Union, his office said.

The nine articles, amending mainly clauses regarding freedom of expression in the penal code, were already criticised as inadequate by legal experts, non-governmental groups and the media when parliament passed them earlier this

month. The European Union has also criticised the reforms, saying last week the overhaul of laws regulating freedom of speech fell short of EU democracy norms.

The reforms come on the heels of a set of constitutional amendments the EU hopeful passed in October of last year, among them the abolition of the death penalty except for times of war, imminent threat of war and terrorism. Under EU criteria, however, countries are required to abolish capital punishment for any crime. Two articles of the penal code have been amended, which in the past allowed the state to jail intellectuals and political dissidents for their opinions.

The vague scope of one offence -- "inciting enmity and hatred among the people on the basis of differences of class, race, religion, sect and region" -- has been amended in one article that it be committed in a way that could endanger public order. That article, 312, carries terms of between one and three years in jail, and has mainly been used to put pro-Kurdish and pro-Islamic dissidents behind bars.

The scope of the other thorny article, 159, which penalizes acts of insulting and defaming the Turkish nation, state, parliament, administration and army, was unchanged, while the maximum jail term it carries was reduced from six to three years. EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said during a visit to Ankara last week that the reforms on freedom of speech were not enough for Turkey to catch up with EU standards.

"In the Turkish context, of course, this is an improvement. If you see it in a purely western European context you will find some problems... you would expect the country (to be) more forthcoming," Verheugen said Thursday. Verheugen also urged Turkey to abolish the death penalty for any crime and legalize education in mother tongue for the country's Kurdish minority.

2. - AP - "Turkish government divided over lifting death penalty":

ANKARA

Nationalists in Turkey's coalition government said Sunday they opposed lifting the death penalty, a key European Union demand for the country's membership in the group.

In September, Turkey limited the death penalty to cases involving terrorism and those that happen during times of war. The EU, though, has demanded that Turkey eliminate capital punishment altogether and not hang Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, now on death row.

The EU's demand to abolish capital punishment would amount to giving concessions to Kurdish rebels, the nationalists said. Ocalan is the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

"Yes to EU, but you can't accept demands which overlap with those of the PKK," said Ismail Kose, deputy chairman of the Nationalist Action Party. "We will certainly continue to oppose lifting the death penalty in crimes committed against the state."

Ocalan was sentenced to death in 1999 on charges of treason for leading a separatist rebellion against the state for autonomy in the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit is hoping to lift the death penalty by reaching a consensus in parliament for the sake of EU membership.

Turkey has not executed anyone since 1984.

3. - Radio Free Europe - "Turkey: Court Ruling Shows Authorities' Refusal To See Alevism As A Religious Community":

Until a few years ago, Kurdish separatism was the only movement in Turkey that openly challenged the official view that the country was a homogeneous nation-state. But the past two decades have seen a resurgence of Alevis, a minority religious group that has had difficult relations with both the state and Sunni Islam, Turkey's predominant religion. Turkish authorities recently banned an Alevi cultural center in Ankara. RFE/RL correspondent Jean-Christophe Peuch talked to regional experts about the origins and the recent history of the group.

PRAGUE / by Jean-Christophe Peuch

Turkey's judiciary imposed a ban on a cultural center belonging to the Alevi community on 13 February, raising concerns about renewed tensions between the minority religious group and the secular government.

An Ankara court ruled that the Cultural Association of the Federation of Alevi-Bektashi Institutions -- where members perform ritual dances and songs -- was promoting a sectarian belief and religious separatism. Turkish laws forbid associations and political parties from carrying names pertaining to religion or ethnicity.

Although the name of the center refers directly to the Bektashis - an ancient dervish order whose history is closely linked to Alevism -- it is believed to be a purely Alevi institution.

The court decision sparked a wave of protests, both inside and outside the large Alevi community. The Turkish Association of Human Rights condemned the ruling, while even state officials criticized the rigidity of the legislation. The attorney general of the supreme court of appeal, Sabih Kanadoglu, said that in his view, "the ruling shows that laws must be improved."

Turkey, which stands last among 13 candidates for European Union membership, has pledged to bring its legislation in line with democratic standards -- a prerequisite set by the 15-nation bloc to start accession talks. But amendments made so far to existing laws have not appeased European concerns over human rights issues in Turkey.

Speaking to reporters on 15 February, the chairman of the European Federation of Alevi communities, Turgut Oker, said his organization will turn to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge the ruling. He also denied charges brought by the prosecution against the Alevis.

"While Turkey is on its way to joining the European Union and while it is bringing its legislation in line with that of the EU, the closure of Alevi foundations is not a wise decision for those who rule [the country]," Oker said. "The Alevi-Bektashis are not a religious sect. Alevism, which recognizes man as its founding principle and supreme value, is a culture, a doctrine, a way of life, a philosophy, and even a social reality."

Some scholars believe Alevism, which seems to have emerged in the ninth century, is the product of a schism within Shia Islam. Other scholars link the group to the Kizilbash, or "Redheads" -- an ancient nomadic Turcoman tribe that resisted Ottoman rule in 16th-century Anatolia with the active support of Iran's Safavid dynasty.

Thierry Zarcone is an expert in non-traditional Islamic religions at the Paris-based National Center for Scientific Research, better known by its French acronym CNRS.

He told RFE/RL that although both movements are radically different, Alevism is sometimes mistakenly linked to Alawism -- a religious Shia group based in Syria that originates from Shia Islam through Ismaelism (an Islamic religious belief that sees the Arabs as the descendants of Abraham's son, Ismael).

"Alevism is really on the fringe of Islam," Zarcone said. "Culturally, it is linked to the Muslim world. But it represents an Islam that has distanced itself [from] everything that represents Muslim orthodoxy, even with Shiism. The big mistake is to consider Alevis as Shia Muslims. In fact, Alevis are crypto-Shias."

Zarcone describes Alevism as "a kind of religious syncretism based on ancient Turkish beliefs which still has some elements of animism and shamanism in it and which, at some point in its history, has integrated some ideas borrowed from Shiism."

Alevis are concentrated in Central Anatolia and in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeastern provinces. There are also large Alevi settlements in western Anatolia, along the Mediterranean coast, in Istanbul, and in Ankara. Alevis are also well represented in the 3-million-strong Turkish diaspora. Altogether, Turkish and Kurdish Alevis are believed to number somewhere between 10 and 20 million -- making up between 15 and 30 percent of Turkey's population.

Martin van Bruinessen teaches Islamic studies at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. He told RFE/RL that despite some internal political divisions, Alevis all see themselves as belonging to a distinct, united community.

"Originally, Alevism is a different form of Islam. It is a syncretistic religion, which has still very recognizable elements of other religions in it. The major rituals of that religion are very different from Islamic rituals. But most Alevis do not believe in that religion. I mean that they have been secularized much more than Sunni Muslims have," van Bruinessen said. "So, being an Alevi now is an identity. People define themselves as Alevis. It is a social group that has long been discriminated against and that has a strong awareness of always having been second-rate citizens."

Alevis have always had a conflicting relationship with orthodox Sunni Islam. That was notably the case in the first years of the republic, when Alevis actively supported the idea of a secular nation advocated by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

During the great rebellion that ignited Kurdistan in 1925, Kurdish Alevi tribes fought against the insurgents, who were not only demanding autonomy for the province but also the restoration of the Holy Law and the Caliphate (Islamic religious leadership), which Ataturk had abolished the previous year.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, violent clashes regularly pitted Alevis -- many of whom then identified themselves with radical left-wing parties -- against Sunni Muslim groups backed by far-right politicians. By the end of the 1970s, anti-Alevi pogroms had left hundreds of people dead.

During the 1980s, confrontations between Alevis and Sunni Muslims became particularly acute, as the political and military establishments became increasingly influenced by the so-called "Turkish-Islamic synthesis," an ideology that imparted to the Turkish nation a quasi-messianic mission against socialism and communism. Van Bruinessen says this period signaled a new stage in the development of Alevi self-consciousness.

"After the 1980s, many Alevis thought that it had hurt the community very strongly to be associated with the left and they started a debate on how to define themselves again," van Bruinessen said. "This happened also because the state, after 1980, tried to impose a [certain] form of Sunni Islam. In spite of the state being very secular, [it] imposed Sunni Islam, [it] made religious teaching obligatory in schools and [it] built mosques [everywhere], even in Alevi villages. So you could see a shift in the way Alevis started looking at themselves. Some tried to redefine themselves again as a religious community, others as an ethnic community with an ethnicity that cross-cut linguistic boundaries."

In July 1993, 36 Alevi artists attending a cultural festival in the central Anatolian city of Sivas died when an angry mob of radical Sunni Muslims and right-wing militants set fire to their hotel. Local authorities and police did nothing to prevent the tragedy, and the culprits have still not been brought to justice.

In 1995, another 15 Alevis were killed in clashes with police forces following an incident in which unidentified gunmen attacked teahouses in Gaziosmanpasa, a poor Istanbul neighborhood with a large Alevi community.

If Alevis have been in open conflict with Sunni Islam, their relations with the state have been more ambiguous, depending mainly on political circumstances.

Given their numerical strength, Alevis represent an important electoral force, and the secular government has attempted to lure them to its side in a bid to counter the growing influence of Islamic parties. Since 1989, government officials have regularly attended the traditional Alevi pilgrimage in Hacibektas, while Alevi communities have been allowed to set up cultural centers even without official permission from the Interior Ministry.

Yet, Zarcone says for all that, the situation of Alevis did not really improve.

"Even if there were attempts at rapprochement [between the state and the Alevis,] they remained sporadic and aimed at putting some distance [between the state and Islamic parties]," Zarcone said. "But the state has never made any genuine, positive attempt at getting closer to the Alevis."

Etienne Copeaux is a Turkey expert at France's Group for Research and Studies on Middle East and Mediterranean Affairs. He says that, while courting the Alevis, Turkish authorities have persistently refused to recognize them as a full-fledged religious community.

To Copeaux's view, the state-sponsored structures of Sunni Islam -- mainly the Directorate of Religious Affairs -- have played a key influence on the government's attitude toward Alevism.

"There has been a persistent refusal, on the part of the government, to recognize Alevism as a community. This is certain," Copeaux said. "The state doctrine is so unitary that, officially, it cannot tolerate any sign of [religious] identity."

Yet, van Bruinessen says there is no consensus among government officials on how to deal with the Alevi community. While some see Alevis as potential allies against Islamic parties, others -- notably far-right politicians and army generals -- believe they threaten the unity of the state.

"The Turkish elite would like the whole population to be homogeneous, to be Muslim by identity, but not too much practicing, to be very secular. Alevis, because they are different, because [they are regrouping themselves] as Alevis and, therefore, separating themselves -- at least socially -- from most Sunnis, are one of the groups that threaten the unity of the nation, like the Kurds," van Bruinessen said.

In an editorial published on 14 February in the liberal "Star" newspaper, columnist Semih Idiz noted that the court decision to ban the Alevi cultural center was made while foreign ministers of the EU and the Organization of the Islamic Conference were gathered in Istanbul to promote dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

Noting that the forum had been a major diplomatic success for Turkey, which sees itself as a bridge between Islamic civilizations and the West, Idiz said Turkey's religious and ethnic minorities should enjoy greater cultural rights.

"Otherwise," he said, "nobody will respect a country that calls for tolerance abroad while intolerance prevails within its own borders."

4. - Turkey Daily News - "Time for important decisions":

The controversy over the abolishment of the death penalty has turned into a "what do we do with Ocalan" campaign

Turkey has reached a crucial moment in its history where it has to make some important decisions. Are we going to break the incredible resistance against modernization and democratic transformation, and become a genuine contemporary parliamentary democracy or shall we turn into another Third World country with its own rules?

Our leaders keep on telling us that they want to introduce a genuine democracy here, at par with the Western democracies. They promise swift reforms and have attempted to introduce some modest changes in the constitution as well as the restrictive penal laws. However, they have now reached a stage where they will either change the crucial restrictive legislations, or simply bow to the conservative establishment and see Turkey become a marginal country...

According to European norms, the death penalty is a crude form of punishment which should be abandoned. The Americans do not accept this argument and are executing dozens of people every year. However, Turkey is a signatory to the European conventions and thus has agreed to scrap capital punishment.

Will the state take revenge because someone has committed a crime or do we move to reform them? The death penalty is regarded as a form of state revenge and opponents feel it is outdated and cruel.

Turkey stopped executing people in 1984. Thus it has scrapped capital punishment in application, but has still kept it in its laws. Now we have to take the extra step to ban capital punishment and make a sincere effort to integrate with the European Union, but unfortunately this is easier said than done.

Here the real issue is not whether to scrap the death penalty. The real controversy centers around the name of Abdullah Ocalan, the convicted terrorist leader of the PKK. The court has found Ocalan guilty of treason and has convicted him to hang. His file is currently at the prime ministry awaiting the result of an appeal to the European Court of Justice. Once that appeal is finalized, the file will be sent to Parliament for approval. It will join nearly four dozen other files on capital punishment awaiting parliamentary action.

Here, the conservative politicians seem to be racing to win points with the electorate. Thus, while they may all be willing to scrap the death penalty, they are not prepared to do it now and they all give signals that they will do their best to see Ocalan hanged in order to win crucial points with their constituents.

The issue has caused rifts in the coalition...

So we are at a crucial stage. The death penalty will be a test case on whether we are prepared to go along with democratic reforms or to sacrifice EU membership for short term political gains...

5. - Reuters - "Court examining Chomsky's remarks on Kurds":

DIYARBAKIR

A Turkish security court began examining evidence against U.S. academic Noam Chomsky for allegedly fomenting separatism during a visit to Diyarbakir, security officials said.

Police turned over to the court cassettes and a translated version of Chomsky's remarks on Thursday in which he reportedly said he hoped an independent Kurdish state would eventually be established. If the court finds evidence of a crime it could decide to charge Chomsky.

The furore surrounding Chomsky will also be seen in the context of Turkey's EU aspirations. The European Union has urged Turkey to reform laws limiting freedom of speech and thought, and expects curbs on language and other cultural rights such as those on the Kurdish minority to be scrapped before membership talks can begin.

Chomsky, a professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology better known for his attacks on U.S. foreign policy, was in Turkey last week to observe the trial of his 22-year-old publisher Fatih Tas, who had translated Chomsky's work into Turkish.

An Istanbul court cleared Tas on Wednesday of charges he had threatened the unity of the state by publishing Chomsky's accusations that Turkey had oppressed its Kurdish minority during violence between soldiers and Kurdish separatists that has killed more than 30,000 people since 1984.

Chomsky travelled to the southern city of Diyarbakir on Thursday before leaving Turkey on Friday.

According to a Turkish translation turned over to the court and seen by Reuters, Chomsky also told a meeting in Diyarbakir: "People's right to speak in their mother tongue is an essential human right. It's a mistake to even debate cultural rights."

In recent weeks Turkey has detained hundreds of people who had signed petitions calling for Kurdish language education in Turkish schools. Authorities fear greater cultural rights could lead its restive Kurdish population to demand more autonomy.

6. - AFP - "Islamist woman politician risks jail for insulting Turkey":

ISTANBUL

State prosecutors filed a lawsuit Monday against an Islamist woman politician who sparked turmoil in parliament three years ago by trying to take the oath wearing a headscarf, Anatolia news agency reported.

Merve Kavakci is accused of insulting the Turkish state, an offence that carries between one and six years in jail, over an interview she gave to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television last November. Her comments, also aired on a Turkish channel, lashed out at Turkey for "attacking and discriminating" against women who wear the Islamic headscarf, the Anatolia report said.

Predominantly Muslim but strictly secular Turkey bans women from donning headscarves in public offices and universities on the grounds that it is tantamount to making a political declaration against secularism. Kavakci won a parliamentary seat in the 1999 elections on the list of the now-banned pro-Islamic Virtue Party (FP), but was not allowed to assume her post after attempting to take the oath of office wearing a headscarf.

The move triggered uproar in the assembly hall at the time. The government later stripped her of her citizenship after it emerged that she had also acquired US citizenship without permission from Turkish authorities, as required under Turkish law.

The constitutional court banned her party, the FP, last June on the grounds that it promoted anti-secular activities. Kavakci's attempt to take oath wearing a headscarf was cited in the ruling. Turkey's secularist elite, led by the powerful military, constantly clamps down on political Islam, fearing it could sway Turkey, a European Union hopeful and member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, from its pro-Western path.