28 January 2002

1. "Turkish PM rules out Kurdish language education", Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has ruled out the offering of classes at schools and universities in the Kurdish language, denouncing such efforts as a move "aimed at dividing Turkey."

2. "Some 130 held, eight injured in protests over missing Kurds", Turkish police on Friday detained 128 members of a pro-Kurdish political party who protested in several cities over the disappearance of two colleagues a year ago.

3. "Turkey's 'Cultural Crackdown" may backfire", Kurdish activists in Turkey say the authorities have cracked down on a petition to make Kurdish-language education a cultural right. According to the activists, many people who signed the petition now find themselves in jail.

4. "New troubles between Turkey and European Court expected", Turkey's refusal to implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights may lead to a second Loizidou case, blocking the relations between Ankara and the Council of Europe, legal experts say.

5. "EU urges Ankara to "think twice" on the amendments", mini packet not only causes deadlock in Turkish-EU ties, but also causes a threat against the coalition harmony.

6. "A Turkish Doctor's Specialty: The Torture Victim", as a physician at the Human Rights Foundation here, Dr. Onder Ozkalipci tends to the handiwork of sadists. He talks of the most popular methods of torturers as another doctor might talk of the perils of cholesterol.

1. - AFP - "Turkish PM rules out Kurdish language education":

ANKARA

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has ruled out the offering of classes at schools and universities in the Kurdish language, denouncing such efforts as a move "aimed at dividing Turkey."

"We cannot accept it -- it's impossible," Ecevit said in an interview late Friday with the news channel CNN-Turk. The prime minister lashed out at organizers of recent protests demanding.

that classes be taught in Kurdish, saing they were "maneuvers using young people, originating in certain European countries, aimed at dividing Turkey." Education in Kurdish is banned under the Turkish constitution, but the country is under pressure to grant its Kurds cultural freedoms in line with prevailing European Union standards, as Ankara hopes to join the bloc. Last October, Turkey passed a package of reforms which paved the way for the Kurds, who live mainly in the southeast of the country, to broadcast and publish material in their mother tongue.

But Kurdish-language education was left outside the scope of the reforms, triggering the current movement. The campaign started in November in Istanbul, where university students submitted petitions asking for courses in Kurdish. It quickly spread to universities and secondary schools across the country. However, the government fears that yielding on teaching could fan separatist sentiment among the Kurds at a time when the level of the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) armed struggle has significantly diminished.

The PKK waged a 15-year war for self-rule in the southeast, but declared an official end to its armed campaign in September 1999, following peace calls from its leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is awaiting execution in a Turkish jail. The authorities have rounded up at least 5,000 people and have formally arrested about 300 of them since the start of the Kurdish education campaign, according to the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP).

2. - AFP - "Some 130 held, eight injured in protests over missing Kurds":

DIYARBAKIR

Turkish police on Friday detained 128 members of a pro-Kurdish political party who protested in several cities over the disappearance of two colleagues a year ago.

In Siirt province, in the mainly Kurdish southeast, riot police took into custody some 70 members of the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) after they ignored orders to disperse on the grounds that their protest was illegal, the Anatolia news agency reported. Scuffles between the police and the protestors left eight people injured, including four officers, the report said.

In the southern city of Tarsus, 45 party members were detained when they insisted on making a press statement to commemorate the missing politicians. In Diyarbakir, the regional capital of the southeast, riot police took into custody six HADEP members when they attempted to march along the streets, shouting slogans, an AFP correspondent witnessed. Four party members were detained in a similar protest in nearby Gaziantep province and three others in the eastern province of Batman, Anatolia reported. The protests came on the first anniversary of the disapperance of two HADEP members, Serdar Tanis and Ebubekir Deniz, in the southeast town of Silopi after they were summoned to a paramilitary gendarme station.

There has been no word on the fate of the two men since then despite seperate investigations launched by the government and local authorities. Turkish authorities frequently clamp down on HADEP, detaining or jailing its members on suspicion of links to armed rebels who waged a 15-year armed campaign against Ankara for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey. HADEP, which campaigns for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question, denies the charges, but nonetheless faces a possible ban for alleged association with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Turkey's normally tense southeast has been relatively calm since September 1999, when the PKK abandoned its armed campaign in favor of seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict following peace calls from its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

3. - Radio Netherland - "Turkey's 'Cultural Crackdown" may backfire":

Kurdish activists in Turkey say the authorities have cracked down on a petition to make Kurdish-language education a cultural right. According to the activists, many people who signed the petition now find themselves in jail.

The alleged crackdown has raised further concerns about Turkey's pledge to improve its human rights record. It's also prompted questions about why the government is still taking such a hardline approach now that the main Kurdish militant group, the PKK, has laid down its weapons.

According to Turkey's main Kurdish party, HADEP, Turkish security forces have rounded up more than 5000 people and arrested over 300 in a nationwide crackdown against a campaign to have the Kurdish language taught in schools and universities.

The campaign started in Istanbul's universities in November and has rapidly spread across the country. Kurdish students and parents have been collecting signatures petitioning the government to allow Kurdish to be used in education. The Turkish constitution stipulates only Turkish can be used as a mother tongue in education, although that does not apply to the Greek and Armenian minorities living in Turkey. Their rights are protected by an international treaty.

Kurdish Minority Rights

Around 20% of the country's 65 million population is of Kurdish origin, but Turkey steadfastly refuses to recognize them as a minority. Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli accused the campaigners of being part of a terrorist plot to undermine and ultimately break up the country. The head of Turkey's Universities Dr Kemal Guruz said no quarter will be given to the campaigners:

"Nobody should expect us to give up this basic tenet of the Turkish republic, unity of the language. Everybody can speak any language they want in their daily lives. But, it's obvious that the official, the language of education of this country is Turkish and there'll be no going back on this issue it is a sina qua non."

Uneasy Ceasefire

According to the Minister of the Interior, the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK, is organizing and controlling the campaign. The PKK fought a 15-year bloody war with the Turkish state, which claimed over 30,000 lives. But for the last two and half years, an uneasy ceasefire has been in place following the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. Ocalan is now languishing in a Turkish jail facing the death penalty.

While peace has returned to much of the country, little has been done to win back the hearts and minds of the country's Kurdish population. Hopes of providing economic assistance to the south east of the country - devastated by the 15-year-conflict - have been scuppered by Turkey's worst economic crisis.

Reforms are Blocked

While political reforms such as granting cultural rights and broadcasts in Kurdish on radio remain blocked by senior coalition partner the extreme rightwing National Action, HADEP leader Murat Bozlak accuses the Turkish state of overreacting:

"In the Breton region in France and the island of Corsica, people use languages other than French in schools and there is no threat to the integrity of the country. In Turkey, it can be the same ..we must adopt a similar mentality to that of Europe."

EU Concern

Such a call is likely to go unheeded as the crackdown is expected to continue with more arrests and prosecutions. It will probably add to the growing unease within the European Union towards Turkey. The EU has repeatedly called on Turkey to grant cultural rights to the Kurds, and Turkey's poor human rights record remains a major stumbling block to its bid to join the Union.

The ongoing crackdown will inevitably give further ammunition to those in Europe who say Turkey is still nowhere near ready to join. But maybe more worrying for Turkey is that, while it may have won the war against the Kurdish separatists the PKK, it could well be losing the battle for a permanent peace with its Kurdish population.

4. - Turkish Daily News - "New troubles between Turkey and European Court expected":

SAADET ORUC

Turkey's refusal to implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights may lead to a second Loizidou case, blocking the relations between Ankara and the Council of Europe, legal experts say.

Speaking to the Turkish Daily News on the towering cases against Turkey, a Turkish official said that more than 150 cases in front of the Ministerial Committee of the Council of Europe may put an additional strain on the already-damaged ties with, not only the court itself, but also with the Council of Europe.

Theoretically, Turkish membership of the Council can be halted, experts say, adding that such a development was unprecedented.

Legally, the European Court controls the judicial decisions, while political control is carried out by the Ministerial Committee of the Council of Europe.

The European Court made 3,142 legal decisions against Turkey, 1,000 of which were made last year, according to recent information released by the court.

Over 240 of them were related to violations of rights, while more than 150 cases are in front of the Committee of Ministers, the political mechanism.

Turkey has paid out more than $11 million in compensation since 1995 following court decisions.

The Loizidou was opened by a Greek Cypriot against Turkey. Ankara argues that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) is responsible for the case, and not Turkey itself, and refuses either to pay compensation or take the necessary steps related to the case.

5. - Turkish Daily News - "EU urges Ankara to "think twice" on the amendments":

Mini packet not only causes deadlock in Turkish-EU ties, but also causes a threat against the coalition harmony

SAADET ORUC

The so-called "mini reform package" has not only puzzled the European Union (EU) side, but also gave the signals of a new coalition crisis.

In a meeting with EU officials on Friday, Bulent Ecevit stated that he would try for reconciliation between the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP), during the leaders summit to be held on Monday.

"Ecevit said at the meeting that he would do his best to review the package. However, he did not rule out a possible failure, since his government was a coalition," a senior Turkish official, who was present at the meeting said.

The unexpected meeting between top EU officials in Ankara and Ecevit, which took place on Friday, has been the ground for a strongly-voiced reaction of the EU side against the new package of constitutional amendments.

The EU troika told the prime minister that the existing package stayed far from meeting the expectations of Brussels for fulfilling the political criteria.

Foreign Ministry sources stated that EU diplomats also voiced concerns over some recent steps taken, in reference to the harsh attitude of the security forces against the students giving petitions for education in the mother tongue and the refusal against the opening of an Amnesty International office.

The attendees of the meeting at the prime ministry were Secretary General of the EU Volkan Vural, Foreign Ministry undersecretary Ugur Ziyal, EU Commission representative Ambassador Karen Fogg, Spanish Ambassador Manuel De La Camara, Danish Ambassador and the EU troika.

Speaking on CNN TURK's Kafe Siyaset programme on Sunday, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said that the debate on the harmonization laws will not cause troubles in Turkish-EU relations, contrary to the remarks made by De La Camara on the "Kriter" programme that the exiting package will cause a strong barrier, negatively affecting the momentum reached at the Laeken summit of the EU.

Coalition crack

"A serious coalition crack can be seen in the aftermath of the discussion over the new amendments," officials, who are involved in the discussions say.

As a result of the ongoing debate over the harmonization laws, MHP is expected to be marginalized, according to comments in political circles in Ankara.

The National Security Council (MGK) meeting planned to be held on Tuesday is also commented to be critical regarding the harmonization law package.

MHP argues that the territorial integrity of Turkey can be at risk with some changes, which are demanded by the EU.

ANAP, on the other hand, is seen to be more willing for more steps to fulfill the political criteria for EU membership.

Amendments related with Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code and Article 159, as well as the changes for the improvement of freedom of thought and expression are under the spotlight of the EU side.

ANAP's Erkan Mumcu had reacted against the package during a meeting of the Justice Commission last week, creating a pause in the commission studies.

"Such a package can lead to anti-democratic administration," he said.

In political circles, it is being believed that Mumcu is speaking on behalf of his party leader.

6. - The New York Times - "A Turkish Doctor's Specialty: The Torture Victim":

ISTANBUL / by SOMINI SENGUPTA

As a physician at the Human Rights Foundation here, Dr. Onder Ozkalipci tends to the handiwork of sadists. He talks of the most popular methods of torturers as another doctor might talk of the perils of cholesterol.

There's "falanga," the beating of the soles of the feet, and "submarino," wet or dry, which involves submerging the detainee in water (wet) or wrapping a plastic bag over the head (dry). Rape, electrical shock and mock execution are also used.

Among the latest techniques is the sandwiching of a detainee between blocks of ice, a procedure that leaves no physical marks but usually causes a lung infection within days.

Dr. Ozcalipci's job, like those of roughly a dozen full-time physicians at the foundation's five clinics across Turkey, is to rehabilitate the men, women and occasionally children who say they have been tortured by police officers and prison guards. He offers vitamins, refers psychiatric help, prescribes physical therapy to treat an injured back.

Of his work, the doctor, 43, observes, "Maybe we're masochists."

Dr. Ozkalipci is a large, lumbering man with hangdog eyes and a shock of silver hair. He speaks softly, almost in mumbles, and when he laughs, which is often considering his trade, the laughter comes in quiet, wide- grinned chuckles.

His patients may be leftists, Kurds, transvestites, criminals and, most recently, Islamists. He has treated street children - pint-size thieves as young as 5 caught snatching car stereos - who are punished by beatings and electrical shocks.

The children hit him the hardest. He has a daughter, age 7, whom he describes as his chief motivation. "You think they could be your child," he says of his youngest patients. "It's hard to imagine what they will do when they grow up."

Born and schooled in Izmir, and raised in a middle-class family, he came to his calling after witnessing what happened to his friends during the 1980 military coup in Turkey. He was in college, a self-described Socialist, and watched as his peers were hauled into jail, beaten, abused.

But if the socialism of his youth brought him here, what he has seen has drained his idealism. Although his job is to help people recover from horror, he now describes himself simply as a pessimist.

He neither entirely agrees nor disagrees with the political beliefs of most of his patients. Frankly, says Dr. Ozkalipci, who practiced general medicine privately in a small town for four years before joining the foundation in 1991, what matters to him is how his patients were tortured. Not why. "It's none of my business," he says.

Sometimes, he says, he makes people better only to see them beaten again. Despite all the expertise he and his colleagues have mustered over a decade of doing this work, the payoff is slim. Few torturers, even when they can be identified, are punished.

"There's a lot of pain and few results," Dr. Ozkalipci said. "Our country is one of the countries that has systematic torture. This is our - I can't find the word - our moral pain."

Turkish government officials dispute his claim. Last month the interior minister, Rustu Kazim Yucelen, told reporters that there had been 67 deaths in police custody over the last six years. But he said they were "isolated incidents" that resulted in the prosecutions of 112 security officials.

For years Turkey's human rights record has earned the opprobrium of local and international rights groups, and reports of torture have become central to the debate on the country's request for European Union membership. In a scathing report last month, Human Rights Watch described torture as "rampant" and accused Turkey of "little but superficial and halfway measures" to improve the human rights of its citizens.

FEW people are as intimate with the banal, redundant nitty-gritty of torture as Dr. Ozkalipci. People of all political stripes walk into his examination room, a spare chamber with gauzy curtains, a violet weight scale, a kilim rug the color of ocher.

The work itself carries political risks. The foundation, whose budget is supported by the United Nations and other international groups, has been charged by the state security courts on several occasions. The foundation's clinic in Diyarbakir, the center of Turkey's Kurdish region, which remains under emergency rule, had its patient files confiscated by the authorities in early September.

Among the patients is a pale, twiggy woman of 23, named Yeliz Sayginar.

By her own count, Ms. Sayginar, who writes for a socialist publication, has been in police custody roughly 30 times since she was 17 for her writing and political activity.

Among the most memorable was an 11- day stay in the city's antiterrorism cell. She sat blindfolded in a chair for two days, she said, subjected to a discordant serenade: military music from one speaker, pop tunes from another. Over the next nine days, as she refused to cooperate with her interrogators, she was hosed down with cold water, pummeled, kicked, stifled by a plastic bag over her head and hung by her wrists from a wooden bar.

In one such session, the cuffs slipped up her narrow arms and dug into her skin, leaving scars on her left forearm still. On another occasion, after her arrest at a demonstration protesting prison conditions, officers herded her into the back of a police van, groped her breasts and forced her to stick her head between one officer's legs. The memory of it is shocking in its precision. "I talked about this in great detail with people I love and who love me," Ms. Sayginar said. "It's also not something one forgets very easily."

FORGETTING doesn't come easily for most of Dr. Ozkalipci's patients, or for him. One patient, he recalled, suffered from what seemed like severe paranoia. The young man talked constantly about his fear of death. Then he died in police custody.

The rewards of the doctor's job are rare. Physical signs of torture - a perforated eardrum, say - are like answered prayers, offering a reason to go to court. Lately, in the trials of torture suspects, the courts have begun consulting the foundation's reports to supplement a government doctor's examinations.

Does he worry about becoming insensitive to the pain he sees? His answer suggests more a worry for his nation than for himself.

"This is a real trauma for us," Dr. Ozcalipci says. "It destroys the moral values of the nation, not just the survivor. When you start to accept torture as something normal, it destroys your sense of humanity. If you keep your silence, after a while it will destroy you."

He imagines that some Turks are afraid to speak out. He imagines, too, that many believe that torture cannot happen to them and so are not moved to care. Summing up the dismissive attitude of many people, he recalls a Turkish saying: If a snake doesn't touch me, it can live forever.