28. February 2002

1. "Debate on death penalty... Why now? ", the debates over the death penalty and proposals to allow the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to take part in political activity in Turkey are part of a campaign against the European Union, according to European diplomatic circles.

2. "DYP's Ekinci: The government faces threshold syndrome": ANAP seeks alliance with pro-Kurdish HADEP to surpass 10 percent national threshold , Ekinci also hinted that the DYP might support an interim government, which may be established after June, by either taking part in the government or supporting it in Parliament.

3. "Swiss bank quits Turkish dam project", Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has pulled out of a troubled dam project in Turkey, saying it was concerned about its social and environmental impact.

4. "EU envoy's e-mail riles many Turks", relations between Turkey and the European Union are being strained by the theft and publication of e-mails belonging to Karen Fogg, the EU's
ambassador to Turkey

5. "Lonely Turkish Cypriots long for prosperity", decades of international isolation and economic stagnation have left Turkish Cypriots longing for change but officials and observers say that will not make them accept a solution to Cyprus's division at all costs.

6. "Turkey Rescinds Virginity Test Law", Turkey has rescinded a controversial law that authorized virginity tests for high school girls suspected of having premarital sex.

1. - Turkish Daily News - "Debate on death penalty... Why now? ":

ANKARA / by Saadet Oruc

The debates over the death penalty and proposals to allow the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to take part in political activity in Turkey are part of a campaign against the European Union, according to European diplomatic circles.

EU officials state that they are surprised to see that the debate over the removal of capital punishment has already begun heating up, since the abolition of the death penalty is mentioned in the medium-term criteria.

The short-term political criteria, which Turkey is expected to fulfill by March 19, only requires the "maintaining of the de facto moratorium on capital punishment".

The medium-term political criteria, expected to be fulfilled by the end of 2003 or beginning of 2004, demands in plain language the abolition of the death penalty.

It has been suggested that State Minister Mehmet Kececiler's statements regarding the inclusion of the PKK in Turkey's political activities were also an attempt to serve the interests of anti-EU circles.

The debate over the death penalty and Kececiler's statements are both being characterized as provocative steps, allowing anti-EU groups to show early reactions.

The disclosure of the private e-mail messages of the EU Commission's Ankara representative, Ambassador Karen Fogg, is also considered to be a step taken by the same circles to torpedo Turkish-EU ties.

Election syndrome
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) realized that its vote had increased by 2-3 points after its resistance to Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code, according to parliamentary sources.

In order hold onto their supporters, both the Motherland Party (ANAP) and the MHP have drawn their swords on the death penalty issue.

The decision on the execution of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed PKK, which is in fact the main focus of the debate on capital punishment, is currently being kept by the Prime Ministry without being sent to Parliament.

The European Court of Human Rights will hear Ocalan's case in September.

2. - Turkish Daily News - "DYP's Ekinci: The government faces threshold syndrome: ANAP seeks alliance with pro-Kurdish HADEP to surpass 10 percent national threshold"

ANKARA

Main opposition True Path Party (DYP) Deputy Chairman Hasan Ekinci claimed that the three partite coalition government was facing a national threshold ahead of the coming elections, stressing that the elections would be held this autumn or in the beginning of 2003 at the latest. Ekinci also hinted that the DYP might support an interim government, which may be established after June, by either taking part in the government or supporting it in Parliament.

Holding a press conference in Parliament, Ekinci noted that the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had fallen below the 10 percent national threshold because of its practices within the government and its failure to keep its promises to the public. According to Ekinci, the MHP lost votes since it acted as the "revolutionary guard" of Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, and it kept the death penalty file for terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan at the Prime Ministry.

Stressing that the Motherland Party (ANAP) had also fallen below the 10 percent threshold, Ekinci stated that ANAP leader and Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz was a desperate man facing any risk. "Yilmaz expects help from the PKK and Ocalan. He is afraid of a liquidation of his party," said Ekinci.

Ekinci also claimed that Yilmaz had reached an agreement on the lifting of the death penalty and education in the Kurdish language, not with his coalition partners but with others. He criticized Yilmaz who brought these two issues to the agenda, although they are included in the midterm targets of Turkey's National Program for the European Union that should be fulfilled by 2004. According to Ekinci, Yilmaz reached an agreement with pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) to bring these issues to the agenda earlier than expected in order to push his partner MHP into a corner. Although he is the deputy prime minister responsible for the relations with the EU, Yilmaz failed to convince the EU to include the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on its terrorist organization list, Ekinci said.

Ekinci pointed out that ANAP's possible election alliance with HADEP first came to the agenda a year ago, and said that HADEP officials were meeting with ANAP officials at present. He also added that the DYP would make contacts with the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in order to bring the Election and Political Parties Laws to the agenda of Turkey.

3. - Swissinfo - "Swiss bank quits Turkish dam project":

Environmentalists oppose the controversial dam scheme

Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has pulled out of a troubled dam project in Turkey, saying it was concerned about its social and environmental impact.

Critics say the project would destroy culturally valuable sites

Environmental groups have strongly criticised the Ilisu dam project in the south-east of the country, arguing that the scheme would displace tens of thousands of people and flood historic towns.

Its future had already been thrown into doubt after the main contractors in the $1.5bn project - British consortium firm Balfour Beatty and Impregilo of Italy - withdrew in November for similar reasons.

Now, UBS has ended its financial backing for the controversial project.

"The decisive factor behind this termination is that the general progress of the project has been unsatisfactory in recent years," UBS said in a statement.

"Until now there has been no definitive decision on what accompanying measures are to be taken to minimise the social and environmental impact of the project," it said.

Controversy

The Ilisu dam is part of an enormous regeneration scheme known as the Gap project.

Turkey plans it to be the second largest of 22 dams for generating electricity and irrigation in an area hit by poverty.

But ever since the dam was proposed, critics have argued that it would flood 300,000 sq km of land, including the sites of ancient Ottoman and Byzantine towns and villages.

They also say that more than 30,000 local people, mostly ethnic Kurds, would be displaced.

Neighbouring Syria and lraq have also objected to what they say is a potential reduction of the water flow in the River Tigris.

The news seems to have come as a surprise to Turkey's Energy Ministry.

The ministry told the BBC it was preparing a statement, but said the contractors building the dam were responsible for it and they would have to deal with the withdrawal of UBS.

4. - Chicago Tribune - "EU envoy's e-mail riles many Turks":

By Catherine Collins

ISTANBUL -- Relations between Turkey and the European Union are being strained by the theft and publication of e-mails belonging to Karen Fogg, the EU's ambassador to Turkey.

Turkey has been a formal candidate for membership in the EU since December 1999, but it has stumbled occasionally along the road to acceptance. Among the obstacles have been Turkey's laws restricting freedom of speech, the death penalty and its questionable record on human rights.

But the latest hurdle verges on the bizarre. A left-wing nationalist magazine, Aydinlik, has published a series of articles reproducing Fogg's personal e-mails and accusing her of being a spy and working against Turkish national interests. The e-mails do not contain any bombshells, but their disclosure has embarrassed Fogg and created a public furor in Turkey.

After several days of disclosures and debate, Turkish Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk last week banned further publication of Fogg's e-mails.

But the harm has been done, both to Fogg's standing as an ambassador and to Turkey's reputation in Europe, where some countries were leery of its potential EU membership.

Source of e-mails

The controversy began when the e-mails were leaked to the magazine by Dogu Perincek, the chairman of a small splinter party, Turkish Labor Party, who is known for his anti-Western stance and fondness for conspiracy theories.

Neither Perincek nor the magazine will disclose how the e-mails were obtained. The mystery has prompted wide speculation within the Turkish media that the source was the Turkish government or someone within the EU who wants to torpedo Turkey's chances of membership.

Aydinlik articles have accused Fogg of participating in "destructive and separatist activities" and of running a "network" of Turkish government officials, heads of labor unions, retired generals, journalists, academics and directors of civic organizations in order to manipulate Turkish internal affairs.

The most sensitive e-mails involved discussions about financial aid for a newspaper to be published in Kurdish and amendments to the constitution regarding laws governing free speech.

Turkey's hard-liners oppose any public use of Kurdish or relaxing any laws restricting free speech.

Some Turks have also taken offense to the lighthearted manner in which Fogg's e-mails referred to various Turkish officials by the literal English translations of their often-colorful names, such as Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli as the "Government Garden" and the Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz as "Happy Unyielding."

In other cases, words or phrases in some e-mails have been used to undermine her. In one example, Fogg told an EU colleague that she needed to resort to "stealth" to gather information for a report, leading to accusations that she is more spy than diplomat.

Perincek is demanding that Fogg be declared persona non grata and deported from Turkey. Various nationalist politicians and others opposed to closer ties with Europe have taken up the cry.

Rumblings in the regime

Although officially Turkey has insisted that there will be no effort to force Fogg to leave her post early, Turkish newspapers have been filled with anonymous sources in various government ministries calling for her early departure and labeling her a "lame duck."

"Her [Fogg's] requests for appointments are unlikely to be accepted by Turkish leaders any more, and her invitations will not be attended by high level officials," a Turkish official was quoted as saying in the Turkish Daily News.

Though Western diplomats in Ankara say Fogg is deeply angered and embarrassed by the disclosure, she has remained silent on the matter.

Aydinlik, which has seen its circulation double since it started publishing the material, is unapologetic about its strategy, which one of its columnists described as an attempt to force Fogg to leave the country and cause Turkey to re-examine its relationship with the EU.

"Turkey needs to evaluate the overall relationship with the EU," the columnist, Ozcan Buze, said in an interview. "We do not think their aims are in the best interest of our country. This is not a question of Karen Fogg. It is a question of the EU."

A victim sees why

Sahin Alpay, a political science professor at Bahcesehir University and one of those whose e-mail correspondence with Fogg was published, said that to a certain extent Aydinlik has succeeded.

"The whole point has been to create a negative debate about the EU, there is no doubt of it," Alpay said.

"These people are worried that our government is going forward with constitutional and legal changes, which would pave the way for a closer relationship with the EU, and they want to subvert it."

A European diplomat in Brussels said the case shows the divisions of opinion about Turkey's future.

"It is hard to know exactly what is going on here, but we do know from experience that the Turks are great at the drama game," the diplomat said. "Turkey has a bipolar attitude toward the EU. Sometimes they want to be a Western nation. Sometimes they don't."

5. - Reuters - "Lonely Turkish Cypriots long for prosperity":

By Gokhan Tezgor

Decades of international isolation and economic stagnation have left Turkish Cypriots longing for change but officials and observers say that will not make them accept a solution to Cyprus's division at all costs.

Greek Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash are holding intensive talks aimed at resolving a stalemate on the island that has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to an Athens-backed Greek Cypriot coup.

The self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is shunned by the international community and recognised only by Ankara. There are no direct flights to it except from Turkey, trade faces numerous obstacles and foreign investors prefer to stay away rather than risk the wrath of Greek Cypriots.

"The club of unrecognised states is not a nice place to be," says Ahmet Aker, undersecretary at northern Cyprus's economy "ministry". "It brings all the other evils associated with the other members of the club," he said.

As well as economic isolation, Turkish Cypriots deeply resent restrictions in areas such as sports and cultural exchanges.

For years Denktash, backed by Ankara which bankrolls the breakaway enclave, has called for an end to the embargo and the issue will be an important element of the current talks.

The search for a solution has been given greater urgency by the Republic of Cyprus's fast-approaching entry into the European Union, something Turkish Cypriots too hanker after.

Denktash himself added to that urgency by revealing on Wednesday (Feb 27) that he may have to undergo heart surgery in the coming months.

"My doctors' advice is that within the next six to 12 months I should give serious thought to heart surgery," Denktash, 78, told Reuters, saying the diagnosis coincided with his decision to ask Clerides, 82, to begin face-to-face talks in January.

"That is why I said from the beginning, without disclosing this problem, that June is a convenient time to finish everything that we can," Denktash said.

MANY MOTIVES

Greek Cypriots are hoping that the prospect of millions of euros of EU aid for Turkish Cypriots if a reunited Cyprus joins the bloc, plus an end to the isolation, will be an incentive for Denktash to compromise in some areas and reach a solution.

The per capita income in the Greek south is nearly four times higher than in the Turkish north.

But Jonathan Stevenson of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London said economic considerations were not the strongest motive at play.

"It's a factor because I think the people of the TRNC really want greater prosperity and that would certainly be a very major motivation of virtually all the opposition parties," he said.

"I think it's a standing concern and an ultimate objective even of Denktash to take Turkish Cypriots out of the international dog house and make economic conditions better."

"But I think Denktash, when it came time for his election, was able to conjure up visions of Greek Cypriot ethnic cleansing that trumped all of those considerations," Stevenson said.
One of Denktash's advisers who declined to be identified said that while he recognised the economic incentives to finding a solution, that was not the priority.

"Everyone realises the benefits the EU offers, especially economically, but the main issue which concerns us is security and a system of guarantees when taking into consideration what has happened on the island in the past," he said.

Bitter fighting between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities was the defining characteristic of the period leading up to the Turkish invasion and both sides accuse each other of atrocities.

TURKEY SUPPORTS NORTH WITH CASH

Aker said economic growth in recent years had been limited to two or three percent at most and northern Cyprus was running a large budget deficit. Cash from mainland Turkey allows the north to survive.

"This is not because we cannot produce but we cannot sell what we produce," Aker said. "Therefore the country does not produce enough revenue for its citizens or revenue in the form of taxes for the government. It's a vicious circle."

Potatoes used to be a major export item for the north with capacity to produce around 20,000 tonnes a year, Aker said.

In 1994 the European Court of Justice ruled that commodities exported from the north must be accompanied by a certificate of health from the Greek Cypriot authorities.
"In effect we were stopped from exporting these commodities to Europe," Aker said. Textiles and citrus fruit exporters face the same problem, having to send their produce through Turkey which raises the cost. Most citrus crops from northern Cyprus are now shipped to Eastern Europe at low prices or sold less profitably for juice.

Ali Erel, head of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce, said it was essential that any solution should bring an end to the embargo and help businesses in the north close the gap with the prosperous south of the island.
"What we understand from a settlement is of course a political settlement together with membership of the EU," Erel said. "The basic rule before entering the EU is that we should be able to have an economy that can compete."

"At the moment we are not in a position in which we will be able to compete," he said.

Turkey currently subsidises northern Cyprus, announcing last year it would inject $350 million over three years. The financial support is as important for Turkish Cypriots as the 30,000 Turkish troops stationed on the island.

"We can rely on Turkey in terms of monetary support but we don't want to have a society that lives on a hand-out. We want to be able to produce and sell," Aker said.

6. - The Associated Press - "Turkey Rescinds Virginity Test Law":

ANKARA

Turkey has rescinded a controversial law that authorized virginity tests for high school girls suspected of having premarital sex.

Forced gynecological examinations in schools were common until 1999, when five students who did not want to submit to the test attempted suicide by taking rat poison.

Many people in predominantly mostly Muslim Turkey believe women should not have sex before marriage, but the practice drew harsh criticism from human rights and women's groups, and the government ordered a halt to the tests after the suicide attempts.

On Tuesday, the government made the ban official by changing a law on punishment in schools, removing ambiguous wording that allowed school administrators to "determine" whether girls were virgins. It is unclear whether any schools have conducted the tests since 1999.

The revised law took effect with its publication in the government newspaper Official Gazette. The change eliminates reference to girls' chastity but makes a broader reference to the expulsion of students not behaving properly in school.

Last summer, Health Minister Osman Durmus, a member of the far-right Nationalist Action Party, caused an uproar when he called for girls who were not virgins to be expelled from government-run nursing high schools and barred from enrolling in other state-run schools.