15 May 2002

1. "Turkish army pounds Kurdish rebel hide-outs in eastern Turkey", the Turkish army has launched an air-backed operation in the mountainous east of the country to destroy hide-outs belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), local authorities said Tuesday.

2. "Turkish parliament adopts controversial media law", Turkish lawmakers adopted early Wednesday a controversial media law introducing legal sanctions for the dissemination of false information on the Internet and tougher penalties for breaches of television and radio broadcasting laws, the Anatolia news agency reported.

3. "Saddam deploys tanks to avert Kurdish uprising", Iraq has been offered a chance to rejoin the international community Iraqi soldiers and tanks are massing on the border of Kurdistan in a warning to Kurdish leaders not to ally themselves with America against President Saddam Hussein.

4. "IMF to assess Turkey's progress", an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation arrived in Turkey yesterday to review the crisis-hit country's progress under a $16-billion stand-by arrangement, the Anatolia news agency reported. During the two-week mission, the delegation, headed by the Fund's Turkey desk chief Juha Kahkonen, will first meet with private sector representatives in Istanbul and then government officials in Ankara.

5. "Annan flies to Cyprus in bid to avert crisis", the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, flew into Cyprus yesterday in what is widely seen as a last-ditch effort to rejuvenate flagging peace talks between the island's Greek and Turkish leaders. Mr Annan faces the formidable task of persuading Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash to drop some of their longstanding demands and make the reunification of Cyprus a possibility.

6. "A U.S. Cabal Pulling America to War", SOMETIME THIS FALL, probably before the mid-term elections, the U.S. will probably be at war with Iraq. But why are we headed to war in the Mideast? Not because Iraq is engaged in terrorism. According to the CIA, it isn't. Not because Iraqi arms threaten our security. According to most arms inspectors, Iraq is essentially disarmed.

1. - AFP - "Turkish army pounds Kurdish rebel hide-outs in eastern Turkey":

DIYARBAKIR / May 14 2002

The Turkish army has launched an air-backed operation in the mountainous east of the country to destroy hide-outs belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), local authorities said Tuesday. The governor's office in Tunceli province said in a statement the operation had targeted the rugged region of Alibogazi near Cemisgezek, a town some 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of the province's main city, also called Tunceli.

The operation was launched after captured PKK militants testified that there were "rebel hide-outs and caves used to store weapons and food" in Alibogazi, which had been used by the organization as a base until last year, the statement said. "During the operation, mortars and combat helicopters are also being used when necessary as a means of providing additional fire support to ground forces," the statement added. It did not say when the operation had been launched or how many troops were taking part in it. The statement said civilians had been barred from entering the area until further notice because of the "possible presence of unexploded munitions in the area and mines planted by PKK terrorists".

The presence of civilians in the region could also lead to troops mistaking them for PKK rebels, it added. The PKK took up arms against the Ankara government in 1984 to fight for Kurdish self-rule in the country's southeastern corner, triggering a fierce crackdown by the powerful Turkish army. More than 36,000 people, most of them PKK rebels, have been killed in the conflict. In September 1999 the group said it was ending its armed campaign against Turkey to seek a peaceful resolution to Kurdish question. The change came after peace calls from PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was captured by Turkey in February 1999 and condemned to death for treason.

The army has brushed aside the PKK truce as a "ploy" and has warned the rebels to either surrender or face the army's wrath. The PKK, which Ankara says is a "terrorist organization", was recently included on the European Union's list of terrorist groups. The EU decision came some two weeks after the PKK said it would re-organize under the name of Congress for Freedom and Democracy in Kurdistan (KADEK) as part of a new strategy to campaign for Kurdish rights through democratic means.

2. - AFP - "Turkish parliament adopts controversial media law":

ANKARA / 15 May 2002

Turkish lawmakers adopted early Wednesday a controversial media law introducing legal sanctions for the dissemination of false information on the Internet and tougher penalties for breaches of television and radio broadcasting laws, the Anatolia news agency reported. Of the 292 MPs present in the 550-seat general assembly, 202 voted in favour of the bill, 87 voted against it while three deputies abstained from the vote after a 10-hour tumultuous session which saw government and opposition members nearly come to blows, the report said.

The adoption of the bill, whic amends existing media regulations, came in defiance of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's veto in June last year, when the law was first adopted, on the grounds that it violated democratic norms Turkey should heed on its road to EU membership. Sezer had asked the parliament to reconsider the law, arguing that it would pave the way for political interference in the media and the formation of monopolies and cartels, but the parliament passed it on Wednesday without any amendments. The result means that the president is now obliged under the constitution to approve the law as he does not have a second veto, but he reserves the right to apply to the constitutional court for its annulment.

The law stipulates for the first time in Turkish history that the dissemination of false information and slander on websites will be punishable by heavy fines of up to 100 billion liras (about 72,000 dollars). It prevents authorities from taking television and radio stations off air for violating broadcasting norms, as is the current practice. Instead, Turkey's broadcasting watchdog, RTUK, will in the first instance warn the institutions to run an apology. Failure to comply will result in the suspension of an offending programme, its temporary replacement with educational and cultural programme prepared by RTUK, and heavy fines of up to 250 billion Turkish liras (about 178,000 dollars).

But RTUK will cancel the broadcasting licences of institutions which target Turkey's unity and disseminate "subversive and separatist propaganda". Founded in 1994, RTUK has to date suspended hundreds of local and national television and radio stations, often coming under fire for being too harsh. Since the launch of Turkey's first private television in 1990 after years of state monopoly, broadcasting organizations have mushroomed across the country, with 13 national and some 200 local television channels as well as about 2,500 radio stations.

3. - The Independent - "Saddam deploys tanks to avert Kurdish uprising":

By Patrick Cockburn / 15 May 2002

Iraq has been offered a chance to rejoin the international community Iraqi soldiers and tanks are massing on the border of Kurdistan in a warning to Kurdish leaders not to ally themselves with America against President Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi leader also sent a high-level delegation to Kurdistan, the three provinces in northern Iraq that enjoy de facto independence, to express dismay at talks the Kurds held with the CIA in the United States.

Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, the leaders of the two main Kurdish parties, had been flown to meet the CIA in Virginia because the agency wanted to establish two full-time missions with their headquarters in Kurdistan to co-ordinate action against Iraq.

But the price the Kurds demanded was a guarantee that America would promise to defend them from retaliation by the Iraqi armed forces. The CIA was unable to give the guarantee, says The Washington Post. The Kurds refused to allow the bases, but their consideration of such a move appears to have made President Saddam nervous.

The Kurds control the only territory in Iraq not under the authority of the Iraqi leader. They have tried to keep on good terms with the Iraqi government and with Washington, but if President George Bush is determined to overthrow the Iraqi leader they want to be on the winning side.

The visit to Virginia by Mr Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party ruling western Kurdistan, and Mr Talabani, who controls the east, was confirmed yesterday by Mahmoud Othman, a veteran Kurdish leader, in an interview with Radio Free Iraq.

Iraqi forces have moved forward on a broad front south of the unofficial border with Kurdistan, sources in the area say. The troops are unlikely to attack but their presence is a clear warning by Baghdad that it will not allow Kurdistan to become a haven for its enemies.

The three main Kurdish cities, Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk, are within a couple of hours' tank-drive from the Iraqi front line and vulnerable to long-range artillery fire. They could not be defended for long by Kurdish light infantry.

In the past few months, the Kurdish leaders have been toying with the idea of playing a role against President Saddam similar to that of the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the Kurdish leaders know they are militarily inferior to the Iraqi army, and probably would not commit themselves to Washington unless there were American ground forces to protect them.

The Iraqi government is convinced America will eventually try to overthrow it, and the Iraqi security forces will try to crush any rebellion before it gathers pace. Iraqi checkpoints and military posts have been set up on roads south from Baghdad to Basra, the area that was the heart of the abortive Shia rebellion of 1991.

Saddam's security officers are everywhere in the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala on the Euphrates river, recent visitors say. In Baghdad last week, the dictator ordered government ministers, officials and senior advisers to report for training with the Kalashnikov automatic assault rifle.

The Iraqi leader wants to make clear he will crush mercilessly any US-backed rebellion, but he is unlikely to invade Kurdistan, except as a last resort. Such an attack, he reasons, could give America and Britain the pretext for a new bombing offensive. For the same reason, Iraqi negotiators have shown greater flexibility in talks with the United Nations about the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq. They were withdrawn in December 1998.

4. - Business Day - "IMF to assess Turkey's progress":

ISTANBUL / 15 May 2002

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation arrived in Turkey yesterday to review the crisis-hit country's progress under a $16-billion stand-by arrangement, the Anatolia news agency reported. During the two-week mission, the delegation, headed by the Fund's Turkey desk chief Juha Kahkonen, will first meet with private sector representatives in Istanbul and then government officials in Ankara.

The talks will focus on several issues ranging from government budget and monetary policy targets, progress in structural reforms, especially the auditing and recapitalization of private banks, planned staffing redundancies in state economic enterprises and privatization, the IMF's Ankara office said.

If Turkey receives a favourable review, the IMF executive board could meet around mid-June and discuss the release of $1.1-billion.

Turkey signed a new three-year stand-by deal with the IMF in early February, receiving its third aid in less than two years, during which period the country plunged into one of its worst recession in decades after two major financial crises.

Under the new economic programme, Turkey has pledged to push down chronically high inflation, achieve sustainable positive growth, decrease the state's debt burden and restructure its weak banking system, the underlying reason of the country's economic woes.

5. - The Guardian - "Annan flies to Cyprus in bid to avert crisis":

ATHENS / 15 May 2002 / by Helena Smith

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, flew into Cyprus yesterday in what is widely seen as a last-ditch effort to rejuvenate flagging peace talks between the island's Greek and Turkish leaders. Mr Annan faces the formidable task of persuading Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash to drop some of their longstanding demands and make the reunification of Cyprus a possibility.

It is 28 years since an Athens-inspired coup led Turkey to invade and seize the island's northern third.

"I am going with a message of hope," said Mr Annan, the first secretary general to visit Nicosia since 1979. "I think this is the right time for us to hold talks with regard to the [UN-brokered] negotiations."

He cautioned against expecting "miracles", but much hinges on his two-day trip.

A major sticking point since the long-awaited negotiations resumed in January has been Mr Denktash's insistence on international recognition for his breakaway state.

"Mr Annan will be asking some hard questions," an EU diplomat said.

With the island's entry to the EU fast approaching, this year is viewed as a crucial time for Cyprus. Cracking the Cyprus nut would ease Greek-Turkish relations, lower tensions on Nato's edgy southeastern front and head off a potentially devastating confrontation between Turkey and the EU.

Turkey has threatened to annex Rauf Denktash's breakaway republic if the island is admitted to the EU before a solution is found.

Greece, in turn, has said that it will veto the entry of nine other central and eastern European countries to the EU if Cyprus's admission is rejected.

6. - Foreign Policy in Focus - "A U.S. Cabal Pulling America to War":

3 May 2002

SOMETIME THIS FALL, probably before the mid-term elections, the U.S. will probably be at war with Iraq. But why are we headed to war in the Mideast? Not because Iraq is engaged in terrorism. According to the CIA, it isn't. Not because Iraqi arms threaten our security. According to most arms inspectors, Iraq is essentially disarmed.

No, it will happen because more than a decade ago a small cabal of political heavyweights in the administration of George Bush the First, who now also run the foreign and defense policy of George Bush II, sat down and drew up a blueprint to rule the world. X-Files fantasies?

Their names should be familiar: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff. Their goal is to "shape" the world to "preclude the rise of another global rival for the indefinite future," in the words of one of the group's leading thinkers, Zalmay Khalizad (now special envoy to Afghanistan).

The tone of these people is chilling. Our allies are cast as a bunch of spineless whiners, international agreements are dismissed as straitjackets, and the "enemy" portrayed as a mob of wogs, easily scattered by a show of cold steel. In his briefing of senior White House staff on the Mideast, Bernard Lewis of Princeton (another "team" member) argued that "in that part of the world, nothing matters more than resolute force and will."

Homework was undoubtedly the collected works of Cecil Rhodes and Rudyard Kipling.

When Bush addressed the nation Sept. 20, he called on the American people and our allies to join a "war on terrorism." But in the intervening six months, the goals of that war have changed drastically. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told Lemann that the policy was not just to go after terrorists, but to prevent the accumulation of weapons of mass destruction in "the hands of irresponsible states."

This is a handy little distinction, because on Feb. 5 the CIA said there was no evidence that Iraq has engaged in any terrorism directed at the United States or its allies. And while the administration has trumpeted that Iraq blocked all arms inspections three years ago, few people outside of Washington (except British Prime Minister Tony Blair) actually think that Iraq has such weapons.

As Scott Ritter, former head of the UN Special Commission on Concealment says, "It was possible as early as 1997 to determine that, strictly from a qualitative standpoint, Iraq had been disarmed."

Would it make a difference if Iraq agreed to inspections? Nope. When asked that question by CNN, Powell replied that "even then the United States believes the Iraqi people would be better served with a new kind of leadership."

The latest rationale for invasion is that Iraq has ties with al Qaeda, a charge based more on tortured logic than intelligence. CIA Director George Tenet recently told Congress that, while there was no evidence that such ties exist, the "mutual antipathy" that the two had for the United States "suggests that tactical cooperation between the two is possible." If one can find two flimsier words than "suggests" and "possible" to launch a war, it would be great to hear them.

The lack of evidence linking Iraq to terrorism is deeply disturbing to our allies. Even America's strongest ally, Britain, is split on an invasion. More than 122 Labor members of Parliament have signed a petition opposing any attack. By shifting the target from terrorism to weapons that might fall into the hands of terrorists, virtually any country becomes a target. The administration has already lined up Syria, Iran, Somalia, and Sudan once Iraq is toppled. That invading any of these countries would violate international law and the UN charter doesn't faze these people.

U.S. foreign policy has been hijacked by a group of unelected unilateralists who seem determined to drag America into an endless morass of brushfire wars to achieve the goal of unrestrained power. They are doing this without consulting with Congress or the American people, and unless citizens act now to hold them accountable, our world is going to get a lot more dangerous than it already is.

(Conn Hallinan <connm@cats.ucsc.edu> writes for Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org) and is a journalism lecturer and the provost at the University of California, Santa Cruz.)