21. May 2002

1. "Turkish president approves controversial media law", Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer Monday approved 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.

2. "Turkish PM summons coalition partners amid early poll debate", convalescing Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has called a meeting of his coalition partners as debate intensified over whether general elections should be brought forward because of his poor health.

3. "Sexual Abuse in Turkey: Why are the Victims on Trial?", Junge Welt’s Andrea Schanz interviews trial observer Wanda Lass.

4. "US Administration reportedly plans decentralized Federal, Democratic Republic of Iraq", reliable diplomatic sources confirmed to Al-Hayah yesterday that the US Administration is planning to establish a "Federal Democratic Republic" in Iraq after overthrowing the regime of President Saddam Husayn.

5. "Film Addresses Armenian Genocide", in a new film at Cannes, Charles Aznavour's character eats the seeds of a pomegranate – one a day – to remind him of his mother's flight from Ottoman Turkey, when the fruit was all she had to live on.

6. "Yilmaz: inactivity is our biggest problem", in a speech at a panel held yesterday to mark the 19th anniversary of the Motherland Party (ANAP), Deputy Prime Minister and ANAP Chairman Mesut Yilmaz evaluated recent developments surrounding Turkish-EU relations.

1. - AFP - "Turkish president approves controversial media law":

ANKARA / 20 May 2002

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer Monday approved 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.

The Turkish parliament adopted the law last week after a 10-hour tumultuous session which saw government and opposition members nearly come to blows. The bill was passed in defiance of President 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.

The president was 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.

2. - AFP - "Turkish PM summons coalition partners amid early poll debate":

ANKARA / 20 May 2002

Convalescing Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has called a meeting of his coalition partners as debate intensified over whether general elections should be brought forward because of his poor health. Ecevit will hold talks on Tuesday with members of his fragile three-party coalition in hospital, where the 76-year-old veteran leader is recovering from a cracked rib and an inflamed vein in a leg.

His increasingly frequent health problems are a subject of national anxiety as the government struggles to pull Turkey out one of its worst-ever economic crises with massive loans from the International Monetary Fund. And one of his junior ministers, meeting on Monday with an International Monetary Fund official, spoke out against the holding of early elections.

"We are of the belief that elections would have an unfavourable effect on the economy," junior trade minister Tunca Toksay said after a meeting with Juha Kahkonen. "We are on the save wavelength with the Fund regarding early elections," Toskay added. Elections are not due to be held until 2004 but have often been held ahead of schedule in a country that has been ruled by coalition governments for more than 10 years. Doctors for Ecevit said his condition was improving and that he continued to work daily in an armchair. His admission to hospital on Friday hit financial markets hard, triggering a plunge on the Istanbul stock market of more than five percent and a decline in the lira on foreign exchange markets. It was the second hospitalization in two weeks for the leader of the Democratic Left Party (DSP).

He was admitted to hospital on May 4 suffering from an intestinal infection and spent the following 12 days resting at home. Tuesday's coalition meeting will focus on the country's quest for EU membership, debating in particular the death penalty question, which remains a sticking point for its candidacy. Ecevit, a mainstay of Turkish politics since 1957 and four-time prime minister, is seen as the only one capable of leading the country out of its 15-month economic crisis.

But the prime minister released a statement last week to stabilize the financial markets, saying his "temporary unavailability" should not affect the future of the economy and the political situation." And Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz dismissed as "unrealistic" suggestions that the prime minister should resign. An IMF spokemsan said last week that Ecevit's health, while a concern, would not create obstacles to implementing the economic program backed by 16 billion dollars in total IMF financial aid. Ecevit's hospitalization has however led him to cancel a planned visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan next week, ahead of Turkey's takeover of the command of the international security force serving in Kabul.

3. - Junge Welt (Ger) - "Sexual Abuse in Turkey: Why are the Victims on Trial?":

Junge Welt’s Andrea Schanz interviews trial observer Wanda Lass

18 May 2002 / Translated by Kurdish Media

Two years ago a conference was held in Turkey on sexual violence in the prisons there. Nineteen of those who participated have been on trial since last week, charged with defaming the Turkish military. Included among the defendants are attorneys for a Turkish legal aid project that, inter alia, offers legal assistance to women victimized by such violence.

Q: How did the first trial session go on Wednesday?

Three of the women charged were present; two of them only had their personal details recorded. The third, a 27-year-old student who lives in Athens, declared that she had taken part in the conference in order to tell about her own experiences with sexual abuse by police. She testified that she had not defamed the state, but had merely related what had happened to her.

Q: How much interest was there on the part of the public?

There were only five people in attendance, two of them trial observers and two others female journalists.

Q: Do you assume that the court will try to drag the trial out intentionally?

It’s a normal procedure in Turkey that personal details are recorded during the trial, and then investigated. For that reason, it’s quite normal for the trial to be adjourned again and again.

Q: The trial already began a year ago. The Turkish prosecutor’s office has opened other cases in the meantime in which, among others, two attorneys from the legal aid project are accused. Why this wave of trials?

In the middle of the week we had the opportunity to speak with one of the women involved in the Turkish legal aid project. Even during our conversation, yet another prosecution case against attorney Eren Keskin arrived by fax. She is accused on the basis of a speech given on 8 March in Cologne. Note: on the basis of a speech in Germany! The woman working with the project takes it for granted that the Turkish state feels itself threatened by these public accusations. Rape is one of the worst methods of torture – and is supposed to be kept quiet.

Q: This address by Keskin in Germany also led to a campaign against her in the Turkish media. The journalist Fatih Altayli cursed her vehemently, and even threatened sexual violence against her. What does that mean for her?

Eren Keskin also has a certain degree of support within the public. There are journalists who have called repeatedly upon Fatih Altayli to apologize to Eren Keskin. She gets a great many letters of support. In addition, Claudia Roth, the Chairwomen of the Alliance 90/Greens [in the German parliament] was recently in Istanbul and read a press statement there on the topic. One has to understand that the military has a very high status in Turkey. Fatih Altayli has in the meantime gotten himself female support, in the person of Professor Nesle Arat. She is married to a general and has attacked Eren Keskin for her engagement on the issue of sexual violence. The situation for Eren Keskin has meanwhile become quite difficult, since she can be taken into custody at any time based on the new accusation. In that case it would become impossible for her to work for the legal aid project.

4. - Al Hayat - "US Administration reportedly plans decentralized Federal, Democratic Republic of Iraq":

By Salamah Nimat / 19 May 2002

Reliable diplomatic sources confirmed to Al-Hayah yesterday that the US Administration is planning to establish a "Federal Democratic Republic" in Iraq after overthrowing the regime of President Saddam Husayn. According to these sources, this republic will consist of "Three separate entities administered by local and elected representative councils inside a united Iraq that will be ruled by a central federal government in Baghdad."

The same sources explained that Washington has begun contacts "to reassure countries neighboring Iraq that their interests will not be threatened" during the phase that will follow the overthrow of the current Iraqi regime and that these countries "will be informed in advance of the US plans in this regard."

The sources added, "the clear specification of the US goals in advance will help persuade the countries neighboring Iraq to cooperate in order to bring about the desired change." The sources said that the US Administration has begun to leak some details of the plan through the media in order "to monitor the reaction of the countries that have not yet been informed by Washington of this plan for a federation."

They said that President George W. Bush’s Administration considers Turkey to be the "most important ally in the region in the cooperation to carry out the plan in view of its geographic location and its role as a Muslim secular and democratic state allied to Washington."

In Beirut, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan al-Mu’ashir denied that Jordan has any knowledge about this US approach. Answering a question posed by Al-Hayah, Al-Mu’ashir said, "any regime is the sole prerogative of the Iraqi people. An alternative regime cannot be imposed from the outside. This is an internal affair and we do not interfere in Iraqi affairs."

Washington’s plan calls for "dividing Iraq into a Kurdish-Turkoman-Assyrian region north of the 36th line of latitude; an Arab Shi’ite region in the south; and an Arab Sunni region in the center. " The plan also calls for the establishment of a central government in Baghdad that will administer defense affairs, foreign policy affairs, and energy (oil) affairs but with a decentralized system of rule that will allow the establishment of local governments, parliamentary councils, and security organs in the three regions. The plan also aims at keeping oil affairs, defense, and foreign policy in the hands of the central government in order to insure against the secession of the Shi’ite and Kurdish regions from Iraq. The plan also calls for proportionate political representation in the central government of all the main factions in the Kurdish and Shi’ite regions.

The diplomatic sources pointed out that some European and Arab quarters consider the US plan as "logical and reasonable by admitting the fit accompli on the ground." They explained that the region of Iraqi Kurdistan already enjoys a kind of self-rule and many parts in the south are not under the control of the central government in Baghdad. These sources said that the US plan "may offer an incentive to unify Iraq in accordance with more fair and democratic conditions."

5. - Washington Post - "Film Addresses Armenian Genocide":

CANNES / By Angela Doland / 21 May 2002

In a new film at Cannes, Charles Aznavour's character eats the seeds of a pomegranate – one a day – to remind him of his mother's flight from Ottoman Turkey, when the fruit was all she had to live on.

In real life, Aznavour's parents fled Turkey for France to escape the killings of Armenians during World War I. The 77-year-old singer-actor, whose real name is Chahnour Varinag Aznavourian, has waited a lifetime for a compelling movie about the history of his people.

"Ararat," which opened in Cannes on Monday, is that movie, he says. The film by Atom Egoyan, best known for "The Sweet Hereafter," jumps between fact and fiction, past and present.

Armenians claim that some 1.5 million people were killed in 1915 as part of a campaign of genocide aimed at forcing the Armenian population from the east of Turkey. Turkey says there was no systematic campaign of slaughter and that many Armenians fled during the war and the civil unrest that followed.

The movie's inclusion in Cannes has caused an outcry in Turkey, and several groups have petitioned and threatened to boycott Miramax, which released the film, and its parent company, the Walt Disney Co.

For Egoyan, a Canadian of Armenian origin, the movie was a labor of love. It also had special meaning for many of its stars, including actors Eric Bogosian and Arsinee Khanjian, who are of Armenian origin.

Few people outside the Armenian community know much about the killings, and Egoyan hopes the movie will change that. One character in the film points out that Adolf Hitler saw the slaughter as proof he could get away with the Final Solution, because "nobody remembered the extermination of the Armenians."

The movie leaps between 1915 Turkey and present-day Canada, and with a complex web of characters whose ties are not apparent from the beginning.

Aznavour plays a director making a movie about the genocide. The film within a film is the starting point for telling that story, and for showing how history affects two Canadian families.

Most of the characters are struggling to come to terms with the loss of loved ones and are looking to the past for answers.

Khanjian, Egoyan's partner in life, plays Ani, an art historian who has lived through the death of two husbands and is struggling in her relationship with her teen-age son.

She has written a book about an early 20th century Armenian painter, Arshile Gorky. In beautiful, emotional flashbacks, we see Gorky as he paints a portrait of his mother, who died of starvation during forced marches.

Ani's son, Raffi, is helping out on the movie set and goes to Turkey to film the deserted, ruined villages and churches of his ancestors. David Alpay, a tousle-haired 20-year-old Canadian pre-med student with no acting experience, gives an impressive and soulful performance as Raffi.

Then there's Christopher Plummer, who plays a customs agent at the airport who intercepts Raffi on his way home from Turkey, suspicious that he might be smuggling drugs.

Other characters include a Turkish-Canadian actor who struggles with his conscience to play the role of an evil Turkish official; a pushy, fast-talking screenwriter (Bogosian); and a deeply troubled teen-age girl who attacks a museum painting with a knife.

If it sounds complicated, it is, and Egoyan said he knows that he's "expecting a ton of the viewer." But the connections between the characters – and between the past in Turkey and the present in Canada – pay off in the end.

6. - Cumhuriyet - "Yilmaz: inactivity is our biggest problem":

In a speech at a panel held yesterday to mark the 19th anniversary of the Motherland Party (ANAP), Deputy Prime Minister and ANAP Chairman Mesut Yilmaz evaluated recent developments surrounding Turkish-EU relations.

Remarking that Turkey’s bid for full EU membership was the most important driving force for the nation’s advancement, Yilmaz said, “Inactivity is Turkey’s biggest problem. The more inactive a society is, the lower its productivity and investments rates become. Such a society is doomed to decline among the ranks of modern countries as its institutions become outdated, ineffective and insufficient.”