11 March 2002

1. "Turkey's EU membership bid is indispensable: PM Ecevit", Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit asserted Friday that Turkey would stick to its goal to become a European Union member despite having to endure hardship during essential reforms prior to joining. His comments come amid intensifying debate in the country over its bid to join the pan-European bloc.

2. "General's comments shake debate on Turkey's bid to join EU", when a general speaks in Turkey, a country marked by three military coups in 20 years, he is taken seriously. All the more so when he is head of the National Security Council, which wields significant political influence, and is lashing out at the European Union.

3. "Thirty arrested during Women's Day protests in Turkey", around 30 women were arrested in Turkey Friday when some of a large number of rallies marking International Women's Day led to clashes between protesters and police, local media reported. All the women detained were arrested and questioned in Gebze in the west of the country and Batman in the southeast, the CNN-Turk television channel said, screening images of clashes between security forces and demonstrators.

4. "Forty-seventh Turkish hunger striker dies", a 27-year-old Turkish man starved to death on Friday, becoming the 47th person to die in more than a year of hunger strike protests against Turkish prison conditions.

5. "Think-tank CSIS: 2002 is very important for Turkey-EU relations", the U.S.-based think-tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said in a recent report that Turkish-European Union relations had been damaged in the recent period and suggested both parties spend the rest of 2002 preventing possible damages in order to put the relations back on track.

6. "Fogg urges participation of civil society in EU membership process", European Union representative to Turkey Ambassador Karen Fogg said last weekend that the union wanted to help the civil society in Turkey participate in the membership process, stressing that they had two offers for Turkey in this framework.

7. "Trial of Kurdish novelist postponed", the trial of a prominent Kurdish novelist in Turkey has been postponed, and a warrant for his arrest lifted. Mehmed Uzun, 47, who lives in Sweden, had been charged with violating Turkey's ban on the Kurdish language.

8. "Israeli company chosen to modernise Turkish tanks: Ecevit", Turkey has chosen an Israeli company to modernise 170 US-made M-60 tanks for 668 million dollars (585 million euros), Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Friday.

1. - AFP - "Turkey's EU membership bid is indispensable: PM Ecevit":

ANKARA / March 8

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit asserted Friday that Turkey would stick to its goal to become a European Union member despite having to endure hardship during essential reforms prior to joining. His comments come amid intensifying debate in the country over its bid to join the pan-European bloc.

"Full membership to the European Union is an undeniable and indispensable right of Turkey," Ecevit said in a written statement, a day after a prominent general suggested that Ankara should seek new partnerships in the region. "There could sometimes be arguments between Turkey and the EU... (but) it is out of the question for us to seek new alternatives out of discouragement from difficulties and obstacles that we have met and will meet from now on on the road to membership," Ecevit said.

General Tuncer Kilinc said Thursday that Turkey should seek new alliances in its regional sphere, notably with Russia and Iran, saying that the EU would never admit Turkey, the only candidate among the 13 hopefuls that has so far failed to start accession talks. He also harshly criticized Brussels for taking "a totally negative view of issues that impinge on Turkey's national interests." Kilinc's remarks were particularly prominent because he is the secretary-general of the National Security Council, Turkey's top decision-making body, through which the Turkish army wields significant influence in politics.

His remarks fanned an already heated debate on whether the EU was acting in a genuine and fair way towards Turkey, the only mainly Muslim nation seeking membership. Turkey was declared a candidate in 1999, but unending political wranglings and a severe economic crisis have so far kept it from accomplishing the required reforms to improve its crippled democracy in order to start accession talks.

Many crucial reforms Ankara should carry out pertain to the need to expand the freedoms of its sizable Kurdish minority.

EU opponents claim the Union has no intention of ever taking Turkey in and is using its political criteria to weaken and even divide the country by strengthening the rights of the Kurds, who have waged a 15-year war for self-rule in the country's southeast. The EU debate has strained Ecevit's three-way coalition, whose far-right partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has accused the EU of "laying mines" on Turkey's road to membership.

Apart from the Kurdish issue, Brussels and Ankara are also at odds over the Cyprus conflict and the recognition by some European countries and the European Parliament of the killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Despite frequent wrangling over Turkey's EU membership bid, opinion polls show that Turks are overwhelmingly in favor of joining the bloc.

2. - AFP - "General's comments shake debate on Turkey's bid to join EU":

ANKARA / March 9 / by Florence Biedermann

When a general speaks in Turkey, a country marked by three military coups in 20 years, he is taken seriously. All the more so when he is head of the National Security Council, which wields significant political influence, and is lashing out at the European Union.

A statement by General Tuncer Kilinc Thursday openly questioned Turkey's bid to join the 15-nation pan-European bloc with the political effect of a small bomb. While the general insisted that the views expressed were his own, Turkish analysts have expressed doubt that his comments came entirely on his own initiative.

"Turkey has not received the slightest help from the EU on any issue regarding its national interests. The EU takes a totally negative view of issues that impinge on Turkey's interests," the general said. He furthermore suggested seeking stronger alliances with Russia or Iran as a better means to ensure regional security. The comments drew a swift response from Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit distancing himself from the remarks, and insisting that Turkey would stick to its goal to become a European Union member despite having to endure essential reforms.

"Full membership to the European Union is an undeniable and indispensable right of Turkey," Ecevit said in a written statement. "There could sometimes be arguments between Turkey and the EU... (but) it is out of the question for us to seek new alternatives out of discouragement from difficulties and obstacles that we have met and will meet from now on on the road to membership," Ecevit said. The general's comments were dubbed a "nightmare scenario" by Turkey's deputy prime minister responsible for EU relations, Mesut Yilmaz, quoted in the press Friday. And the chief of staff of Turkey's armed forces, General Huseyin Kivrikoglu, said that Turkey's membership of the EU was a "geopolitical necessity" and that "the interests of Turkey and the EU are parallel," in an interview to be published at the weekend.

The Turkish army -- behind coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980 -- is officially in favour of EU membership, but Kilinc's comments have shown a different picture, highlighting a controversial debate taking place within the country's power structures.

Turkey's three-way coalition government has been split by the opposing views put forth by Yilmaz and the other deputy prime minister, the ultra-nationalist Devlet Bahceli, on the death penalty and the granting of increased rights to the Kurdish minority. Ecevit supports the abolition of the death penalty but fears that teaching in the Kurdish language could rekindle separatist sentiments in the 12-million-strong minority. Bahceli is largely opposed to the abolition of the death penalty because it would save Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, sentenced to death in 1999, from the gallows. Debates on whether the EU is sincere in its relations with Turkey have escalated recently, as the deadline for the implementation of essential reforms prior to joining nears.

The latest examples include Turkish anger at Europe's list of terrorist groups, which does not include the Kurdish Workers' Party and the DHKP-C, both accused of attacks in Turkey, and an EU resolution demanding Ankara recognise as genocide the 1915 massacre of Armenians. "The issue is not whether Europe will accept us, but whether we are ready to become Europeans. This year is critical for Turkey because the EU will finally announce its vision of enlargement," an editorialist wrote in the liberal daily Radikal.

He was referring to another problem faced by Turkey: the planned entry into the EU of Cyprus, an island still under Turkish occupation in the north. The division of the island is currently being discussed by its Greek and Turkish communities in marathon negotiations, the outcome of which remains uncertain.

3. - AFP - "Thirty arrested during Women's Day protests in Turkey":

ISTANBUL / March 8

Around 30 women were arrested in Turkey Friday when some of a large number of rallies marking International Women's Day led to clashes between protesters and police, local media reported. All the women detained were arrested and questioned in Gebze in the west of the country and Batman in the southeast, the CNN-Turk television channel said, screening images of clashes between security forces and demonstrators.

The reasons for the arrests were not reported. A separate demonstration in the southwestern town of Izmir, which included members of the pro-Kurdish Hadep movement, saw women march to protest against the cost of living and high unemployment, the Anatolia news agency reported. The Turkish Women's Union told the agency that only one in three women in the country was now employed, compared to over twice that number 50 years ago.

Separately, the Radikal newspaper said that in the central town of Konya residents of a refuge for battered women had marked the day by mounting an exhibition of some of the weapons their menfolk had used to beat them up. The macabre show included irons, rolling-pins, meat-grinders and electrical cables, the paper said.

4. - Reuters - "Forty-seventh Turkish hunger striker dies":

ANKARA / March 9

A 27-year-old Turkish man starved to death on Friday, becoming the 47th person to die in more than a year of hunger strike protests against Turkish prison conditions.

Yusuf Kutlu died in an Ankara hospital, the fourth striker to die this year, the Anatolian news agency said.

Accusations of torture are common in police stations and prisons in Turkey, which the European Union says must improve its human rights record before accession talks for membership can begin.

Hundreds of leftist prisoners and many of their supporters started the hunger strikes more than a year ago in protest at plans to introduce new prisons with small cells. The protestors say the cells isolate prisoners and leave them open to abuse.

The government says the new prisons meet European standards and refuses to negotiate with the protesters, accusing them of belonging to "terrorist" organizations.

The strikers have prolonged their protest by drinking sugared and salted water and taking vitamins to help them stay alive.

5. - Turkish Daily News - "Think-tank CSIS: 2002 is very important for Turkey-EU relations":

11 March

The U.S.-based think-tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said in a recent report that Turkish-European Union relations had been damaged in the recent period and suggested both parties spend the rest of 2002 preventing possible damages in order to put the relations back on track.

Prepared by CSIS's Turkey expert Seda Ciftci, the report, namely "Turkey and the EU: Toward separation?", stresses that the United States, which supports Turkey's integration with the EU, should put forth its position clearly in the presence of Ankara and Brussels.

The report read that 2002 would play a significant role in determining Turkey-EU relations, but added that the recent data was not positive. "Turkey seems to be heading for a disappointment, which will likely make Turkey review its aim for integration with the EU," the report said.

According to CSIS, it is highly likely that the EU will not give a definite date for the launching of membership negotiations with Turkey this year either. Ankara has shown impressive determination in structural and political reforms in the framework of the harmonization with the Copenhagen criteria, but it is now doubtful about EU's sincerity, since the latter stipulated additional constitutional amendments such as granting rights to ethnic groups and the abolition of the death penalty, the report added.

The report said that Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz had transmitted Turkey's hopes for starting membership talks with the EU in 2003, and entering the union in 2007, but also said that the EU resisted Turkey's demand to set a date by supporting that the reforms realized to date were insufficient.

It was also noted that those circles opposing the EU process in Turkey had toughened their stances following the hacking and publishing of EU representative to Turkey Karen Fogg's e-mails.

According to the report, one of the most challenging issues in the Turkish-EU relations was Cyprus, and that the bluffs of the EU and Turkey on Cyprus would inevitably produce negative results before the end of 2002. The report added that it was hard to see Turkish-EU relations getting back on track in an environment where Turkey's military and political circles doubted the EU's intention.

6. - Turkish Daily News - "Fogg urges participation of civil society in EU membership process":

ANKARA / 11 March

European Union representative to Turkey Ambassador Karen Fogg said last weekend that the union wanted to help the civil society in Turkey participate in the membership process, stressing that they had two offers for Turkey in this framework.

Delivering the opening speech of a symposium on violations of the freedom of expression, organized by the Liberal Thought Community and the EU Commission, in the scope of the freedom of expression project in Istanbul last weekend, Fogg recalled that the project was one of the initiatives of various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Turkey that had received financial support from the union.

Fogg stated that the EU commission's mission was to help Turkey in every possible way in the framework of the EU understanding and accession strategy. "If some circles in Turkey are still doubtful about this role, this is of course saddening. If they resort to gossips and smears and try to create fear, this is more saddening," Fogg said.

According to Fogg, the government and political elites in democracies know that they should allow a pluralistic civil society, unless it included violence, and should tolerate a determined media having an opinion, unless it was provocative. Fogg emphasized that two EU projects, namely, "European Horizons" and "European Information Bridges," which aim to inform the public on Turkey's accession to the union, have recently been launched.

She noted that the commission targeted to work together with both the civil society and the government in supporting the accession process and strengthening democracy.

Emphasizing that a strong debate on the EU membership was totally normal in candidate countries, Fogg said that her country, the United Kingdom, was also renown for its smears and gossips about the union. She said she hoped that there was enough freedom of opinion in the Turkish media for a healthy and vivid debate on all aspects of the EU.

"The Turkish government has pledged progress in fulfilling political criteria. This means a gradual reduction in the limitations on the freedom of expression. The constitutional amendments adopted last October raised the expectations related with this issue," she added.

Addressing the same symposium, State Minister Yilmaz Karakoyunlu urged that freedom of expression should be handled in a wide-scoping way and said that the EU was extremely important for Turkey. He noted that Turkey's ongoing struggle since its foundation aimed at integrating with the EU.

"The EU is extremely important for Turkey. None of the opinions and movements aiming to prevent it can succeed. Turkey has been carrying its European aim for 600 years," he added.

Liberal Thought Community Chairman Atilla Yayla also delivered a speech at the symposium, and said that all problems stemmed from the lack of freedoms in Turkey. Yayla stressed that approaching the issue in a way that would further restrict the freedom of expression would be irrational. According to Yayla, the symposium was very meaningful in terms of its timing since the efforts to make Turkey a third world country have been intensified in the recent days.

7. - BBC - "Trial of Kurdish novelist postponed":

9 March

The trial of a prominent Kurdish novelist in Turkey has been postponed, and a warrant for his arrest lifted.

Mehmed Uzun, 47, who lives in Sweden, had been charged with violating Turkey's ban on the Kurdish language.

The writer had refused to attend the trial to avoid arrest, after a warrant was issued in an attempt to require him to testify in the hearing.

Now the court, in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, has agreed to cancel the warrant and adjourn the trial until 19 April.

The decision came after Mr Uzun's lawyers told the court that he wanted freely to attend the trial, his attorney Muharrem Erbey said.

Under Turkish law defendants can face charges without first being arrested.

Eric Ostberg, formerly a prosecution lawyer for the International War Crimes Tribunal, has supported the novelist's case.

"We're very satisfied with the decision - I believe he will be acquitted on 19 April, I don't think the charges are strong enough to convict him," said Mr Ostberg.

The case has been criticised internationally and drawn attention to Turkey's laws curbing the use of the Kurdish language in public life.

Rebels

The use of Kurdish is currently prohibited in schools, official settings and broadcasts other than music.

Kurdish rebels, who fought a 15-year war for autonomy in the southeast of the country, have been demanding Kurdish courses in schools.

Mr Uzun, who is an outspoken critic of the laws, said: "How can a language be banned? How can a ban be imposed on the identity of a people?"

"I am saying this not as a Kurd but as an intellectual," he added.

Turkey has also been asked to allow education and broadcasting in Kurdish as a condition for opening talks on European Union membership.

Stability

But the Turkish military, which has in the past seized power, opposes such rights - along with most of the government.

They are concerned it will undermine the country's stability.

Mr Uzun, who fled to Sweden in 1978 after serving a brief prison term on charges of Kurdish separatism, could face maximum eight years in prison if convicted.

He has written a dozen novels in Kurdish and Turkish, is seen as one of the leading writers trying to create a body of modern Kurdish literature.

In January 2000, Mr Uzun was allowed to visit Turkey after 23 years away.

Subsequently one of his novels became a Turkish best-seller, although seven of his books were briefly banned again.

8. - AFP - "Israeli company chosen to modernise Turkish tanks: Ecevit":

ANKARA / March 9

Turkey has chosen an Israeli company to modernise 170 US-made M-60 tanks for 668 million dollars (585 million euros), Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Friday.

The state-owned Israeli Military Industries (IMI) was selected for its price and its ability to finish the project in good time, Ecevit said as he left a defense industry meeting.

Mainly Muslim but strictly secular Turkey has been Israel's chief regional ally since 1996 when the two countries reached a military cooperation accord, much to the anger of most Arab nations and Iran. Ankara had started negotiations over the project with IMI without opening a tender and inviting other bidders. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer lobbied hard for stakes in Turkish defense projects during visits to Turkey last summer.

Israel has also expressed interest in supplying the Turkish army with hi-tech arms such as anti-tank missiles, remote sensing satellites and combat helicopters.

During his visit to Ankara last July, Ben Eliezer said the two countries would seek Washington's blessing for the sale of the mid-range Arrow missiles to Turkey, which are developed jointly by the US and Israel. A major Turkish plan for the purchase of 1,000 combat tanks, estimated at some seven billion dollars, was suspended last year along with several other projects when a severe economic crisis hit the country.