9 May 2002

1. "Turkey furious at French 'insult'", Turkey has threatened to review its military agreements with France in protest at a huge railway-station poster in Paris portraying its senior commander beside the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and others considered enemies of press freedom.

2. "Turkey fumes at France over protest by press watchdog", Turkey lashed out at France on Wednesday after media rights organisation Reporters without Borders branded the head of the Turkish army an enemy of the press alongside leaders such as Saddam Hussein.

3. "EP delegation in Diyarbakir for HADEP", a delegation consisted of nine members of the European Parliament arrived in Diyarbakir.

4. "Yilmaz: Turkey should change track", Yilmaz said that Turkey should shift to the EU track, but added that he was worried that the EU harmonization studies might be shelved.

5. "AIHM sentences Turkey to pay compensation for long trial", European Court of Human Rights (AIHM) sentenced Turkey to pay compensation because of a case opened for a years long trial.

6. "Denktas: 'I wish Turkey would get rid of Karen Fogg'", Rauf Denktas stated that European Union Representative in Turkey Ambassador Karen Fogg was continuing her efforts to harm the relationship between Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.

1. - The Guardian - "Turkey furious at French 'insult'":

ANKARA / 9 May 2002 / by Hidir Goktas

Turkey has threatened to review its military agreements with France in protest at a huge railway-station poster in Paris portraying its senior commander beside the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and others considered enemies of press freedom.

The defence ministry said the French defence attache had been summoned to general staff headquarters and told that the map with the image of General Huseyin Kivrikoglu should be removed immediately from the floor of Saint Lazare station.

"He was told this insulting attitude towards General Kivrikoglu must be ended," a Turkish official said. "The attache was also informed that should this attitude continue, military agreements between Turkey and France could be reviewed and could be frozen."

The French ambassador was also summoned to the foreign ministry.

The poster is part of a campaign against censorship by the independent pressure group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).

The prime minister Bulent Ecevit's office called the poster an "unfair and disrespectful protest".

"We have expressed our expectation [that] the French authorities will take every measure to remove Chief of General Staff Huseyin Kivrikoglu's picture," its statement said.

The deputy prime minister responsible for EU relations, Mesut Yilmaz, suggested that the issue did not merit the storm it had unleashed.

"I don't take this as seriously as the chief of general staff," the Anatolian news agency quoted him saying. "As you know, Europe has wide freedoms. Many groups can make a lot of mischief with this.

"The Turkish state has lived through examples of this in the past."

Turkish newspapers showed photographs of the poster, with pictures of Gen Kivrikoglu and others considered enemies of press freedom mounted on their respective countries on a map of the world. Passengers were shown walking, presumably unwittingly, on the map and Gen Kivrikoglu's picture - a sight unthinkable in Turkey.

NTV television said a review of relations between the countries - both Nato members - could extend to defence procurement contracts.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said he "condemned with regret" the incident and said it showed that RSF did not understand Turkey.

The incident underlines the gap between Turkey, a candidate for EU membership, and western Europe on criticism of political and military leaders.

General staff headquarters had no comment.

No one from RSF in Paris or the French defence ministry was immediately available for comment.

2. - AFP - "Turkey fumes at France over protest by press watchdog":

ANKARA / 8 May 2002

Turkey lashed out at France on Wednesday after media rights organisation Reporters without Borders branded the head of the Turkish army an enemy of the press alongside leaders such as Saddam Hussein.

The Turkish general staff warned the French military attache in Ankara that "military ties could be revised" if France did not react to the RSF protest, the Anatolia news agency reported. The reaction came after a picture of Turkey's chief of general staff, Huseyin Kivrikoglu, was featured on a Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) map as a leading figure in a country where "freedom of the press is trampled on".

He was pictured on the map along with Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Bashar al-Assad of Syria. A large copy of the map was placed on the floor of a Paris train station on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, where passers-by could symbolically trample on it, Turkish media reported. "We have protested at this unjust and disrespectful action and indicated that we expect French authorities to rapidly take measures to remove this map and the picture of Mr Kivrikoglu," Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's office said. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, an ardent advocate of human rights, also condemned the protest and said Ankara had asked Paris to "punish" RSF.

"Laws here are made by parliament. It is incorrect to create the impression that certain restrictions on press freedom are applied by individuals. I think this organisation does not know Turkey very well," Sezer said. In a statement Wednesday, the Paris-based RSF defended its decision to put Kivrikoglu's picture on the map. It said it was born out by the fact that in Turkey "more than 50 representatives of the press had been tried in 2001 for what they had written," and that journalists had faced further trials this year. The head of RSF, Robert Menard, wrote to Kivrikoglu on Wednesday calling on Turkey to respect its obligations towards human rights and respect for freedom of expression.

A French diplomat based in Ankara confirmed that Turkish military officials had said they were displeased by the RSF initiative. But he denied that Turkey had suspended military cooperation with France pending the removal of Kivrikoglu's picture from the map, as the all-news NTV channel had reported earlier. The Turkish army, which has carried out three military coups since the Turkish Republic was set up 79 years ago, wields considerable influence in politics and heavily influences the country's administration through the national security council.

3. - Turkish Daily News - "EP delegation in Diyarbakir for HADEP":

DIYARBAKIR / 9 May 2002

A delegation consisted of nine members of the European Parliament arrived in Diyarbakir.

Chaired by the co-chairman of the European Parliament's Greens Group Dutch Joos Lagendijk, the group visited the Emergency Rule (OHAL) Governor Gokhan Aydiner and the Governor of Diyarbakir Cemil Serhadli.

The chairman of the delegation Lagendijk told reporters before his meetings that there is a major interest among the European Parliament on this part of Turkey.

"We give importance to the role of People's Democracy Party (HADEP) in this region as a political party. The reason for us to visit here is that we are concerned about the situation of HADEP. There is a trial against HADEP in the Constitutional Court. We will try to consult with the government officials over the HADEP case as much as we can. Our negotiations in Ankara will continue," he said. They were scheduled to meet with Mayor of Diyarbakir, who is from HADEP Feridun Celik.

The group will arrive in Ankara on Thursday and will give a press conference on Friday.

4. - Turkish Daily News - "Yilmaz: Turkey should change track":

ANKARA / 9 May 2002

Yilmaz said that Turkey should shift to the EU track, but added that he was worried that the EU harmonization studies might be shelved.

Coalition junior partner Motherland Party (ANAP) leader and Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said that Turkey might overcome its problems by changing track, rather than by asking for more concessions from its people. "This new track is the EU track. Turkey can only overcome the crisis through this deep-rooted transformation," he added.

Addressing his group in Parliament on Wednesday, Yilmaz expressed the wish that Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit would get well soon, on behalf of himself and his party.

Stressing that Turkey was passing through a speedy transformation process, Yilmaz noted that Turkey was facing the danger of loosing its power in the transformation process, which its region and the entire world were experiencing at present. He said that as long as the administrations, which could not harmonize with the transformation, remained in Turkey, the losses of the country would increase.

Yilmaz also said he was worried that Turkey's harmonization studies would be shelved. He warned that there would be extremists, who would want to pull Turkey to the past unless the problems were not solved.

Yilmaz claimed that people expected ANAP to solve these problems, saying that ANAP members should take care of themselves in this period, when Turkey needed ANAP's understanding more than ever. "What we should do is to join our forces and avoid falling in the trap of pride and caprice," he said.

5. - BBC Monitoring Service - "AIHM sentences Turkey to pay compensation for long trial":

STRASBOURG / 8 May 2002

European Court of Human Rights (AIHM) sentenced Turkey to pay compensation because of a case opened for a years long trial.

Four individuals, who were detained with charges of being members of illegal Dev-Yol (Revolutionary Path) and who were tried after being released, appealed to the AIHM for complaining about Turkey for the length of the judiciary process.

AIHM decided that Turkey had violated the Article 6 of the European Declaration of Human Rights (AIHS) related with the right for fair trial, taking the facts into account that one of the individuals was tried for 14 years, while the process for the other person was 21 years.

Strasbourg Court sentenced Turkey to pay a compensation of 15,250 euros per each, while it demanded Turkey to meet the expenses of the trial by paying 1200 euros per each person.

6. - Anadolu Agency - "Denktas: 'I wish Turkey would get rid of Karen Fogg'":

ANKARA / 8 May 2002

President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) Rauf Denktas stated that European Union Representative in Turkey Ambassador Karen Fogg was continuing her efforts to harm the relationship between Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.

"I hope Turkey will get rid of Madam Fogg and that a more serious, realistic person comes to Turkey and presents more realistic reports to the EU," said Denktas, the Anatolia News Agency reported.

"Recently, newspapers have quoted her as saying in a meeting held in Istanbul that her struggle was to separate Turkish Cypriots from Turkey and save Turkish Cypriots from Denktas," Denktas said, during a reception in the KKTC.

"The woman sits and says these things. Why? Because, she always hears this from both the Greek Cypriots and the opposition on our side. They believe that this is the demand of the whole people, and they arrange their plans according to this. As a result of this, they are faced with troubles," he said.

"In fact, they themselves miscalculate and cause deadlocks. They should know this. I hope Turkey will get rid of Madam Fogg and a more realistic person replaces her, who will present more realistic reports to the EU," he said.

President Denktas said that both rightists and leftists should react against the unilateral EU membership of the Greek Cypriot side, stating that this unfairness should be voiced by everybody, indicating that they were being portrayed as the side which does not want peace.

"We want peace, but we want a peace for which our state will be considered the basis," Denktas said.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Fogg responded to questions about her remarks, referred to by Denktas, as follows:

"It is not possible for me to make such a statement. The EU Commission, which I represent, wishes success for all the related sides in reaching a suitable agreement."