28
May 2002
2. "Justice Minister: 'TL 1,800,000, 000 is spent on Ocalan every day'", Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said that the daily expenditure of the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan, who is being kept in Imrali prison, was TL 1,800,000,000.
3. "Power of the Press Lord", Turkey's media law strengthens the Dogan Group's hand — and tightens controls on free expression.
4. "Judiciary officials' bottom line on the EU", death penalty: As a primitive style of punishment, it should be abolished and replaced by heavy imprisonment. Right to learn in the mother tongue: It should not even be declared, since 26 different ethnic groups might raise the same demand
5. "Top UN official on displaced persons in Ankara", State Minister Nejat Arseven received the undersecretary of the United Nations (U.N.) and special representative on displaced persons Francis Deng on Monday in Ankara. Deng also came together with the representatives of the nongovernmental organizations (NGO). GOC-DER, Mazlum- Der, Turkish Human Rights Foundation, Anatolian Development Foundation, Social Law Researches Foundation (TOHAV), ASAM (Asylum Seeker and Migrants Solidarity Association) and Human Rights Association (IHD) attended the meeting of Deng with the NGO's.
6. "Iraqi Kurds Worry About U.S. Action", Iraqi Kurds Worry That U.S. Invasion Could Lead to Backlash From Saddam.
1. - NTV / MSNBC - "Bahçeli sets five conditions for EU":
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Bahçeli said that they would voice their conditions for EU membership during a meeting of party leaders to be convened President Sezer scheduled for June 7.
28 May 2002
European Union requirements that Turkey abolish capital punishment
and allow education and broadcasting in mother tongue can only be negotiated
after a series of conditions have been met, the leader of Turkey’s
far right coalition partner said during a visit to China on Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference to mark the third anniversary of the coalition government coming to power Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahçeli listed five pre-conditions of his Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) for EU membership.
The first of these was that the death sentence handed down to Adbullah Öcalan, the leader of the the PKK should immediately be tabled for debate before the parliament, regardless of what the European Court of Human Rights ruling might be on the case.
All sentences of execution in Turkey must be ratified by the parliament before they can be carried out. The parliament has not considered the file on Öcalan, who was found guilty of crimes against the state and being responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 people as it is to be considered by the ECHR. The hearing of the case could take as much as two years. However, Bahçeli said that the decision on whether the terrorist leader should be executed should lie with the Turkish parliament.
As a second condition, the MHP chairman said that Öcalan should be transferred from Imrali Island in the Marmara Sea, where he is presently imprisoned, to a maximum security F-type prison and stressed that as his trial was over Öcalan should face his be held according to regulations. He also called for the EU to include the PKK’s successor, KADEK, on its list of organisations that conducted terrorist activities and said that the PKK and KADEK should announce in a convincing manner to the Turkish and international public that they had completely abandoned terrorism.
The last demand made by Bahçeli was that all terrorist
group leaders openly announce that they recognise the constitution of
the Turkish Republic and the fundamental principles on which the country
was founded and that they will follow them and will be loyal to the
Republic. 
2. - Turkish Daily News - "Justice Minister: 'TL 1,800,000, 000 is spent on Ocalan every day'":
ANKARA / 27 May 2002
Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said that the daily expenditure
of the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah
Ocalan, who is being kept in Imrali prison, was TL 1,800,000,000.
Justice Minister Turk responded to the official question of the Sinop deputy of the True Path Party (DYP) Kadir Bozkurt, related with the prison conditions of Abdullah Ocalan.
Indicating that no more money is being spent on Ocalan any different than the other prisoners, except for the security costs, Turk said that the amount of money spent daily for Ocalan is TL 1,800,000,000.
Turk said that Ocalan is being treated just like any other prisoner, pointing out that there is not a different way of treatment.
The Justice Minister pointed out that Ocalan is using
his fundamental prisoner rights, such as reading newspapers and books,
writing petitions, receiving visitors, seeing his lawyers, getting health
and psychosocial services, to have open air and listening to radio.
3. - The Time Magazine - "Power of the Press Lord":
Turkey's media law strengthens the Dogan Group's hand — and tightens controls on free expression.
BY MARYANN BIRD / 27 May 2002 
Aydin Dogan wants to make one thing perfectly clear. "All I
want is transparency," says the Turkish media magnate. "I
want for my country exactly the same conditions as there are in the
West." His words, spoken after parliament approved a complex and
harsh new media law, do not reflect disappointment. Rather, he is pleased
to have got his way on the one bit of the law that matters most to him.
Dogan, like other owners of major Turkish media outlets, now will be
able to own, legally and publicly, what he already controls clandestinely.
With the emergence of private television stations in the early 1990s, Turkish corporate giants such as the Dogan Group have used nominal companies to get around restrictions designed to prevent monopoly ownership of the press and broadcasting outlets. At the same time, they also have delved into a variety of other businesses, even bidding for government contracts in such non-media fields as electricity distribution. "I've fought since 1995 to change the aspect of the law pertaining to press ownership," says Dogan. "It has driven the owners of television stations underground." Now, the public will at least be able to see who owns what.
The same law was vetoed nearly a year ago by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a former judge, who then listed 18 clauses he thought violated the constitution. Legally barred from vetoing it twice, Sezer reluctantly signed the law last week, while referring it for court review. Although the legislation was designed to strengthen the powers of the broadcasting authority, most commentators believe the real impetus was to strengthen the media conglomerates, particularly the Dogan organization. Enormous power, they say, will be vested in the hands of the company that owns eight newspapers and two TV stations, and is also involved in banking, tourism and fuel distribution. Among Dogan's best-known media holdings are two of Turkey's largest newspapers — Hurriyet and Milliyet — and CNN Turk, a joint television venture with CNN, whose parent also owns TIME. The clash over the law goes much deeper, however. At a time when the European Union — which Turkey is keen to join — demands that the country relax its restrictions on the press and not block Kurdish-language broadcasting, the new measure takes several steps backward. It terms promotion of "pessimism or despair" an offence, makes the Internet liable to regulations controlling the printed word and provides for potentially crippling fines. Subtly, it allows for more political control over broadcasting-authority appointments.
"The Radio and Television Association was badly in need of reform, but now things are a whole lot worse," says Nuri Kayis, chief of the broadcasting body. Like many others, Kayis sees Dogan as the real force behind the law's success. Letting media groups enter into public tenders and allowing their proprietors to trade on the stock exchange, to Kayis' mind, means that "they can now intimidate the government or their commercial rivals, and manipulate the market with a single piece of news."
Most of the large companies capable of bidding for those
contracts have media interests, retorts Dogan. About his rivals he says:
"The unworkable nature of the law has opened the door to all sorts
of undesirables — organized crime, leaders of religious sects,
people who use the media to make money elsewhere." After slashing
costs and seeing the competition collapse in last year's fiscal crisis,
analysts say, Dogan's press interests are flourishing. His group controls
nearly 40% of advertising revenues and, Dogan adds, "I do control
some 80% of distribution. I don't see this as a monopoly." Others
aren't so sure. Many Turks feel the media are more interested in enriching
their owners than in acting as a force for change. And as Turkey advances
in its efforts toward fiscal reform, it must do the same on the human-rights
and civil-liberties front if its E.U. application is to proceed. Jean-Christophe
Filori, the E.U.'s enlargement spokesman, said the law is "incompatible
with the Copenhagen criteria" to which Turkey must conform. Even
Dogan agrees that the law is flawed. "I too take issue with the
parts that limit freedom of expression or would restrict use of the
Internet," he says. "Of course I am on the side of freedom."
But he is not going to campaign against a measure that "confirms
legality" on the way he conducts business. In the end, if Turkey's
press does not defend its own freedom, who will?
4. - Turkish Daily News - "Judiciary officials' bottom line on the EU":
Death penalty: As a primitive style of punishment, it should be abolished and replaced by heavy imprisonment
Right to learn in the mother tongue: It should not even be declared, since 26 different ethnic groups might raise the same demand
Broadcasting in the mother tongue: Private companies should not be permitted, but the State might be involved this kind of broadcasting
Political parties based on ethnicity: Since it is a clear step towards separating Turkey, it is unacceptable to permit their functioning
ANKARA / 28 May 2002 / SAADET ORUC 
The increasingly heated domestic discussions over the European Union
are being closely followed by top judiciary officials, who are raising
eyebrows as some political parties are seen to be pinning their political
future on the EU debate.
A leading judiciary official, speaking to the Turkish Daily News (TDN) on Monday in Ankara, commented that the call made by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer for a summit on the EU, to be attended by the political party leaders, is a very important step.
"Turkey should clarify a national policy on these issues and stop those who use the EU as a domestic policy issue," the official said.
Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Mesut Yilmaz and Foreign Minister Ismail Cem have drawn reactions from judicial circles with their emphasis on the acceleration of reforms.
The focus on Kurdish cultural rights, especially, has caused serious unease among the judiciary, as they evaluate the main aim of the politicians who focus on the "tricky" topics to be related to their political careers.
In fact, EU circles also do not see the urgency vis-a-vis the abolishment of the death penalty or the rights related to learning or broadcasting in the mother tongue (a solid reference to Kurdish).
The fundamental issues for the EU are the freedom of expression and the freedom of association, not the critical topics that are on the fault line of the MHP-ANAP-DSP coalition government.
Reforms: one by one
The position of the judiciary regarding the political reforms, as stated by a leading official, is as follows:
Death penalty: The debate should not be carried out over the situation of Abdullah Ocalan. The death penalty is a primitive style of punishment. It should be abolished absolutely and replaced by heavy imprisonment.
Right to learn in the mother tongue: The word Kurdish should not even be declared. There is nothing preventing the use of other languages at home, but if you permit the right to learn in the mother tongue, there are 26 different ethnic groups in Turkey. How will you regulate all these demands?
Broadcasting in the mother tongue: It may be permitted, but the State should be involved, instead of the private companies.
Political parties based on ethnicity: Since there is a clear link between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), the permission for its survival means allowing the separation of the State. Not only is HADEP being followed closely, but also its efforts to form alliances, such as with the Murat Karayalcin-led Social Democrat People's Party (SHP). Additionally, the Constitutional Court is being criticized because the closure of HADEP has been delayed. The EU's interference in the HADEP case and the pressure coming from the West are being linked with the Constitutional Court delay.
Retrial for European Court of Human Rights (AIHM) decisions against Turkey: Despite the pressure being put by the Foreign Ministry and the State Ministry responsible for human rights regarding the retrial of cases as a result of decisions against Turkey, we cannot accept foreign interference in our judiciary system
Judiciary suspicions
The judiciary's suspicions are related to the EU position on the terrorism issue.
Top judiciary officials still believe that the EU, institutionally and at the state level, supports the PKK for not letting Turkey get rid of its problems, since a weak Turkey would be preferred at the intersection point of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Europe.
"Sevres-phobia is always being criticized, but how can one explain the increasingly heated, so-called Pontus genocide issue and the current uneasiness of the Patriarch. The minority issue, which led to the separation of the Ottoman Empire, is being raised again," the judiciary official told TDN.
Judicial circles are closely following the debate over
the Cyprus problem, also with increasing concern.
5. - Turkish Daily News - "Top UN official on displaced persons in Ankara":
ANKARA / 28 May 2002
State Minister Nejat Arseven received the undersecretary of the
United Nations (U.N.) and special representative on displaced persons
Francis Deng on Monday in Ankara.
Deng and Arseven discussed the situation of the displaced people in Turkey, as Arseven described the project of "Return to Villages" to Deng.
Deng also came together with the representatives of the nongovernmental organizations (NGO).
GOC-DER, Mazlum- Der, Turkish Human Rights Foundation, Anatolian Development Foundation, Social Law Researches Foundation (TOHAV), ASAM (Asylum Seeker and Migrants Solidarity Association) and Human Rights Association (IHD) attended the meeting of Deng with the NGO's.
NGO's told Deng that Emergency Rule (OHAL) and the village guards system should be abolished.
U.N. Undersecretary Sudanese Francis Deng will be in Diyarbakir on Wednesday.
And he will be visiting other provinces in the southeast
to get a picture about the displaced people in Turkey.
6. - AP - "Iraqi Kurds Worry About U.S. Action":
Iraqi Kurds Worry That U.S. Invasion Could Lead to Backlash From Saddam
WASHINGTON / 27 May 2002
Kurds in northern Iraq have created a quasi-democratic, somewhat
prosperous life under the protection of U.S. jets patrolling a no-fly
zone and keeping Saddam Hussein's tanks away.
But faced with the question of whether that democracy could flower elsewhere in Iraq if the United States launched an invasion to topple Saddam, many Kurds are leery.
They worry that any U.S. military action in Iraq could just lead to a backlash against them by Saddam, who gassed Kurdish villages in the 1980s.
Even if Saddam were toppled, they could just end up with another dictator in Baghdad or even worse invasions by Iran or Turkey, said several who attended a meeting this weekend in Washington on prospects for democracy in Iraq.
Before they support any U.S. efforts to overthrow Saddam, the Kurds want guarantees that the United States would not stop until Saddam was overthrown, and that they would have a role in any future central Iraqi government, said Mahmood Osman, a Kurdish politician who lives in London.
"They cannot destroy all their gains, and give more sacrifices," he said at the conference, sponsored by the human rights group Freedom House and the Iraq Institute for Democracy, an organization based in Irbil in the Kurdish north of Iraq.
Much of the debate in the United States over how to deal with Saddam has focused on how to overthrow him, what opposition groups the United States might work with and whether a military invasion is too risky. President Bush has made clear his desire to see Saddam toppled, but has not said how he might do that. Some officials in his administration advocate military action, some covert action, others continued diplomatic efforts.
But the concerns raised at the conference here point to another problem: How to ensure a stable government once Saddam is gone a government that's agreeable to Iraq's neighbors and provides a better life for Iraqis, even minority groups.
"Removing Saddam will be opening a Pandora's box, and there might not be any easy way to close it back up," said Philip Gordon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Neighboring Turkey, a U.S. ally, fears that any Kurdish freedom in Iraq, for example, would encourage restive Kurdish minorities in their territory. Iran has the same concern.
Many regional governments don't really want a democratic northern Iraq under Kurdish rule, or even a democratic Iraq overall, said Fuad Hussein, an Iraqi who lives in the Netherlands.
He and others at the conference said they believed the Kurdish autonomy in the north could serve as a potential model for Iraqis seeking democracy in the country as a whole, if Saddam were toppled.
But the problem is that Iraqis have been so conditioned to fear Saddam's harsh regime that their very mindset must first be changed, said Laith Kubba, an Iraqi expatriate who works for the National Endowment for Democracy in the United States.
"Iraqis in the last 30 years have been conditioned not to participate, to live in fear," Kubba said.
There has been much debate within the United States over whether opposition groups, members of the Iraqi military or even ordinary Iraqis would rise up against Saddam if it were clear that U.S. help was coming.
Leaders of the two main Kurdish parties in northern Iraq met with U.S. officials a few weeks ago to talk about ways to remove Saddam from power, according to Iraqi dissidents.
Some U.S. officials believe another group called the Iraqi National Congress, which also includes some former Iraqi military officers, would be able to foment rebellion, but others call the group inept.
As for the Kurds, Saddam already has moved tanks closer to them, said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief.
The Kurdish-run zone was established with the help of Washington and its allies after Saddam brutally put down the 1991 Kurdish uprising that broke out after the Gulf War.
The region has an incipient democracy with several political parties and newspapers, said Hussain Sinjari, president of the Iraq Institute for Democracy. Criticism of the Kurdish administration is somewhat tolerated and the region's economy is doing well. The two main Kurdish parties, however, remain antagonistic, leaving the region partitioned.
The Iraqi Kurds quite rightly worry that prosperity, peace and autonomy would be in jeopardy if Saddam is attacked, Cannistraro said.
"It's pretty clear that no one is going to rise up
and revolt against Saddam until they see his dead body on the ground,"
he said.