13
June 2002
2. "New Turkish troops in Cyprus a provocation: Athens", the dispatch of Turkish troops to northern Cyprus is a provocation to distract attention from key problems such as the status of the divided island and its future membership of the European Union, Greece charged Wednesday.
3. "Turkish Media Law Could Censor Net", Turkey's highest court declined to overturn a controversial law that critics contend could lead to government media censorship on Turkish Web sites.
4. "DGM trial continues for musicians, artists and writers", some 16 people including writers, artists, musicians and democratic mass organizations, who signed the book named "Freedom to Thought 2000" as publisher, continued to be tried at Istanbul State Security Court (DGM) yesterday. These people are being tried on the grounds that they published a publication, which is considered as a crime by the laws.
5. "Coalition partners escalate tension", State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, who also acts as the leader of the Motherland Party (ANAP), said the issues, which became a problem between his party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) could be discussed in a EU Compromise Commission which will be set up within the Parliament with the participation of officials from each party.
6. "Invitation to demonstration in Brussels, 19 June 2002", the Kurdish National Congress (KNK) will organise a demonstration in Brussels on 19 June 2002 in order to protest against the EU terrorism list which has created a serious obstacle to solving the Kurdish question peacefully and through dialogue.
1. - AFP - "Turkish PM seeks opposition support for death penalty abolition":
ANKARA / 12 June 2002
Ailing Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit called on the opposition
Wednesday to back his bid to abolish the death penalty, a key demand
for EU membership that has deadlocked his three-way coalition government.
Ecevit issued the appeal in a written statement in the face of mounting
concerns that a government rift over key reforms required under Turkey's
bid to join the EU, coupled with Ecevit's ill health, was paralyzing
the government and threatening political and economic turmoil.
The far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP), which is against the abolition of the death penalty and the granting of minority freedoms to the country's Kurds, has threatened to quit the ruling coalition if the two other partners habitually seek opposition support for crucial reforms. Turkey has had a moritorium on judicial killings since 1984, and in October amended the constitution to outlaw executions except in wartime or for terrorism. But the EU has insisted that Ankara completely ban the death penalty and also allow schools to teach in the Kurdish language.
Ecevit said however Wednesday that MHP leader Devlet Bahceli did not oppose his center-left Democractic Left Party and the third coalition partner, the center-right Motherland Party, establishing "a dialogue with the other parties on the death penalty issue." He expressed hope that "a compromise on the subject could be easily reached" with the two pro-Islamic opposition parties in parliament, which have voiced support for the reform, though on certain conditions. Ecevit also appealed to the third opposition party, the center-right True Path Party (DYP), to back the reform. DYP leader Tansu Ciller, who is normally pro-EU, has refrained from taking a clear stance on the issue while fervently advocating early elections in an apparent hope to earn political gains from the government's weakness. Ecevit warned however that scrapping capital punishment would not be a strong enough signal to Brussels that Ankara is committed to improve its democracy, and that moves to legalize education and broadcasts in the Kurdish language would also be required.
"But I think that a compromise over these will not
be difficult," he said. Turkey, the laggard among the 13 EU hopefuls,
has a self-imposed target to get a date for the opening of its accession
talks by the end of the year. But its reform drive has come to a standstill
due to MHP resistance and political manoeuverings by the opposition,
which hopes to capitalize on government divisions, aggravated by Ecevit's
ill health. Ecevit said Wednesday his health was improving and doctors
have decided not to visit him daily as they have done since he was released
from a second hospitalization on May 27. 
2. - AFP - "New Turkish troops in Cyprus a provocation: Athens":
ATHENS / 12 June 2002
The dispatch of Turkish troops to northern Cyprus is a provocation
to distract attention from key problems such as the status of the divided
island and its future membership of the European Union, Greece charged
Wednesday.
Criticism by a Greek government spokesman followed remarks by Greek Cypriot Defence Minister Socrates Hasikos Tuesday accusing Turkey of waging a war of nerves by sending an additional 5,500 troops to the Turkish-held north of Cyprus, bolstering its military presence there to more than 40,000. Athens spokesman Christos Protopapas accused Turkey trying to "open secondary fronts" with what he termed provocative acts to "distract attention from the main questions: settlement of the Cypriot question and the European Union membership of the Republic of Cyprus."
Leading EU candidate Cyprus expects to wrap up its accession negotiation by July and join an enlarged European family by January 2004. But Turkey has threatened to annex the island's northern third if Cyprus enters before an overall Cyprus settlement is reached, but the EU has stated that settlement is not a condition for entry. The Athens spokesman told journalists the reported Turkish troop reinforcement was "an act which can be added to the chain of provocative Turkish acts whose sole aim is to turn current differences of opinion between Turkey and the European Union into differences between Greece and Turkey."
Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou was quoted as describing the troop increases as a "negative act." There has been no confirmation by the Turkish government so far of the reported troop movements. No officials were available for comment at the foreign or defence ministries or the general staff in Ankara. Cypriot Defence minister Hasikos Tuesday accused turkey of brinkmanship to escalate tension in the region ahead of Cyprus' EU accession. Hasikos said the information on the troops increase was "cross-checked and verified" and observed by the United Nations here.
Extra troops and mobile field hospitals were dispatched to the north, said the minister. However, he said there was no evidence about new weapons systems being shipped over. When asked to confirm Hasikos' claims, UN spokesman Brian Kelly would say only that "any relevant information that we have on this we have sent to New York." Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash have held talks since mid-January with few signs of the compromise needed to achieve a breakthrough by the end of June target date to end 28 years of division.
The Greek Cypriots argue that no progress in the talks
can be achieved until Denktash budges from his position of demanding
separate sovereignty for his self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus (TRNC), which is recognised only by Ankara. The Turkish Cypriots
say reunification should be based on a loose confederation of two states,
while the Greek Cypriots and the international community favor a tighter
bi-zonal, bi-communal federation. A coup in Nicosia aimed at union with
Greece prompted the 1974 invasion of Turkish troops who have occupied
the northern third of the island ever since.
3. - AP - "Turkish Media Law Could Censor Net":
ISTANBUL / 12 June 2002 / by Ben Holland
Turkey's highest court declined to overturn a controversial law that critics contend could lead to government media censorship on Turkish Web sites.
After fiery protests – including opposition from the European Union – the court on Wednesday suspended parts of the same broadcasting law that would have let individuals own larger chunks of Turkey's news media, a move critics feared would drive small newspapers and television and radio stations out of business.
When parliament passed it a second time last month – overriding a presidential veto – there were furious scenes, as opposition and government lawmakers nearly came to blows.
Many Turkish Web sites blacked out their home pages in protest.
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer referred the law to the Constitutional Court last month, hoping it would be overturned. He said it would curb freedom of expression and open the way to media monopolies.
Criticism from the European Union, which Turkey wants to join, put added pressure on the court.
The court voted to suspend implementation of some clauses of the law, while it decides whether to annul those and other parts of the law. It could take as long as a year to announce a final decision.
Among the articles the court suspended was a clause that would have permitted more consolidation by Turkey's biggest media conglomerates. Four media groups control 80 percent of the country's newspaper circulation and television and also own banks, construction companies and mobile telephone companies.
Opposition parties had charged that this measure, together with others allowing media owners to bid for state contracts, was an attempt by the government to buy the support of powerful media bosses.
Previously, there were some restrictions on media groups bidding for lucrative government contracts.
The court did not suspend sections of the law that could extend tight controls that are already applied to traditional media to Web sites.
Turkey's broadcasting watchdog regularly hands out fines or temporary closures for broadcasts that offend the military, question Turkey's treatment of its Kurdish minority or its strict secular policies, or offend traditional values.
Information technology groups have expressed fears that
the law will allow broadcasting authorities to take similar action against
Web sites – stunting the growth of the Internet in Turkey.
4. - Turkish Daily News - "DGM trial continues for musicians, artists and writers":
ANKARA / 13 June 2002
Some 16 people including writers, artists, musicians and democratic
mass organizations, who signed the book named "Freedom to Thought
2000" as publisher, continued to be tried at Istanbul State Security
Court (DGM) yesterday. These people are being tried on the grounds that
they published a publication, which is considered as a crime by the
laws.
Suspects musician Sanar Yurdatapan and Prof. Huseyin Ali Nesin attended the hearing held yesterday. Nesin asked the court to send their dossier to the Constitutional Court for the cancellation of the Penal Code's article, on which they were being tried. The court postponed the hearing for the completion of the lacking dossier upon this demand.
The suspects were earlier acquitted by the same court for the crimes, "sheltering and assisting the terrorist organization," and "inciting people to enmity and hatred," because of lack of evidence.
Court of Cassation overturned a local court's verdict acquitting these suspects and announced that the suspects should be tried of the crime in Penal Code's Article 162 reading, "publishing publications considered as crime by the laws."
Sanar Yurdatapan, Zuhal Olcay Bilginer, Prof. Huseyin
Ali Nesin, Vahdettin Karabay, Cengiz Bektas, Siyami Erdem, Salim Uslu,
Yilmaz Ensaroglu, Mehmet Atilla Maras, Yavuz Onen, Husnu Ondul, Sadik
Tasdogen, Etyen Mahcupyan, Ayse Lale Mansur, Ibrahim Omer Madra and
Erdal Ozun are facing heavy imprisonment more than five years in the
case that they are found guilty.
5. - Radikal - "Coalition partners escalate tension":
State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, who also acts
as the leader of the Motherland Party (ANAP), said the issues, which
became a problem between his party and the Nationalist Movement Party
(MHP) could be discussed in a EU Compromise Commission which will be
set up within the Parliament with the participation of officials from
each party. Yilmaz said, ''we want to solve the problem before it grows
up.''
Meanwhile, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli said Turkey's EU membership could not be achieved before 2010-2013 at the earliest, and noted that this reality was hidden from the public. Bahceli said the National Program foresaw solution of the problem of death penalty in the Parliament.
Ankara remains as spectator to Northern Iraq
Turkey, which experiences the tension caused by health condition of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, and the European Union (EU) discussion between the government partners, can not deal with the foreign policy issues like Northern Iraq, which closely concern its security.
The government, which does not include foreign policy
issues onto its agenda apart from the EU and Cyprus, could not respond
to the imposition of the Northern Iraqi Kurdish groups for ''federation
system'' after a probable operation of the United States, and their
demand to add Kirkuk, which is known with its underground riches, to
their borders.
6. - KNK - "Invitation to demonstration in Brussels, 19 June 2002":
Invitation to demonstration in Brussels, 19 June
2002
Start: 11am at Konning Albert Laan Square (Gare Du Nord)
Dear Friends,
We are organising a demonstration in Brussels on 19 June 2002 in order to protest against the EU terrorism list which has created a serious obstacle to solving the Kurdish question peacefully and through dialogue.
The unilateral steps taken by the Kurdish side, with valued contributions from our friends, to solve the Kurdish question within universal norms, had reached a positive stage but unfortunately this has been ignored and a policy of systhematic denial and destruction of the Kurds has been endorsed.
It is no coincidence that the Turkish armed forces started military operations the day after the announcement of the EU list and that this event was also accompanied by an increase in persecution, torture in detention and arrests of civilian Kurdish people in Kurdistan of Turkey as well as South Kurdistan .
The Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem threatened all Kurdish by saying that the establishment of any Kurdish entity in Northern Iraq would be a reason for war. It is the same ministry which prepared a list of 450 European and Kurdish organisations, the only social and cultural organisations to be threatened with inclusion in the European states¹ list of terrorist organisations.
The logic behind this is to say that anyone who makes the smallest effort for the Kurds is a terrorist and cannot be considered otherwise. It is obvious that we are facing a very serious situation.
The KNK however continue to believe in a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question and will continue our activities for this purpose.
This is the reason why we are organising this demonstration - we wish to draw public attention to this dangerous developments and inform them that the only solution of the Kurdish question will be by peaceful and democratic methods.
It will be an honour to see a valued friend such as yourself with us at our demonstration which will deliver the most effective message to those who wish to impose war and prevent a solution.
The demonstration will start at 11.00 am at Konning Albert Laan Square (Gare Du Nord) and will march to Schuman Square.
Your participation willl strengthen us and weaken the warmongers.
We hope very much that you will join us on the day, and we wish you all success in your work.
Yours sincerely,