18 March 2002

1. "Death toll in Turkish prison hunger strike hits 48", a hunger strike by prisoners in protest at controversial jail reforms in Turkey claimed its 48th victim Saturday when a detainee died in hospital, a Turkish human rights organisation said.

2. "Turkey: Frustration Mounting Over EU Demands For Reform", last week, a prominent Turkish army general lashed out at the European Union, suggesting that Ankara should look for more obliging partners -- namely, Russia and Iran. But the remarks, rather than reflecting a true shift in Turkey's strategic orientation, may signal the frustration many in the country feel over the EU's numerous demands ahead of accession talks.

3. "Turkey ponders joining EU", in a country where anybody over 22 has lived through at least one military coup, a general's comments that Turkey could turn to Iran and Russia rather than embracing the European Union cannot be ignored.

4. "Kurdish Mayors' Job Is a High-Wire Act", Turkey: City leaders find it hard to balance their constituents' demands for ethnic expression against higher officials' suspicions of separatism.

5. "Iraqi Kurds recall chemical attack", Iraq's Kurdish region came to a standstill at 11 am on Saturday to observe a five-minute silence in memory of those killed by Iraq's chemical weapons attack in the Kurdish city of Halabja 14 years ago.

6. "EU happy with debate in Turkey", Turkey learning EU: According to a Western ambassador, the Karen Fogg e-mail scandal, revelations of a top military commander, and most lately, remarks of Yilmaz that EU placed the Kurdish education, broadcasting in Kurdish and death penalty conditions to bar Turkish accession have ignited a 'true and useful discussion' in Turkey on EU.

7. "Journey to Peace is Hindered", the bus convoy that recently departed Brussels on March 16th in support of the campaign for education in Kurdish by university students in Turkey and to press for the end to capital punishment has been halted. We deplore the action taken by the government of Macedonia which cited visa problems in order to stop the obstruction of the convoy.

8. "Good news from Europe", columnist Zeynep Gurcanlý comments on the outcome of last week’s EU summit in Barcelona.

1. - AFP - "Death toll in Turkish prison hunger strike hits 48":

ISTANBUL / March 16

A hunger strike by prisoners in protest at controversial jail reforms in Turkey claimed its 48th victim Saturday when a detainee died in hospital, a Turkish human rights organisation said.

Dogan Tokmak, 30, died after 290 days of hunger strike, a spokesman for the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) told AFP. Tokmak had been jailed for membership of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, a far-left group banned by the Turkish government, the spokesman said.

Prisoners began their hunger strike in October 2000 to protest against the use of high-security prisons, in which cells for one to three people replaced large dormitories for dozens of inmates. They are also supported by various groups outside the prison system. Protestors, backed by rights groups, say the new arrangement leaves them socially isolated and more vulnerable to torture and mistreatment. The government, however, has categorically ruled out a return to the dormitory system, arguing that they were the main reason behind frequent riots and hostage-taking incidents in the country's unruly jails.

In December 2000, skirmishes between prisoners and Turkish police, who had launched a move to stamp out the strikes, saw 32 people die, including two police officers. The government then opened four new prisons based on the new cell system. Four prisoners burned themselves to death in support of the strike and another four people died last November in a police raid on an Istanbul house occupied by hunger strikers.

2. - Radio Free Europe - "Turkey: Frustration Mounting Over EU Demands For Reform":

Last week, a prominent Turkish army general lashed out at the European Union, suggesting that Ankara should look for more obliging partners -- namely, Russia and Iran. But the remarks, rather than reflecting a true shift in Turkey's strategic orientation, may signal the frustration many in the country feel over the EU's numerous demands ahead of accession talks.

PRAGUE / By Jean-Christophe Peuch / 15 March

As Ankara's deadline for meeting short-term European Union requirements approaches, resentment of the 15-nation bloc is growing among Turkey's right-wing parties, army generals, and even parts of the political left.

Turkey, which applied for EU membership in 1987, was granted candidate status only two years ago. And Brussels is now insisting that Ankara push through reforms to bring the country in line with the so-called Copenhagen criteria -- the political and human rights requirements set for EU membership -- before accession talks can even begin. Of the 13 EU candidate countries, Turkey stands in last place.

One year ago, Prime Minster Bulent Ecevit's coalition cabinet adopted a program of short- and medium-term reforms aimed at putting Turkey on track with membership goals. And Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, the leader of the liberal conservative Motherland Party and the man who oversees the government's relations with the EU -- now says a new set of proposals aimed at conforming Turkish laws to European democracy standards would be submitted to the legislature next week.

The EU, which decides next fall which candidates will be invited to join the first wave of enlargement, is scheduled to assess Ankara's short-term reform progress within days.

Turkey hopes to begin accession talks before the mandate of its current legislature expires in 2004, with an eye on possible membership in 2007. Ankara would also like to obtain a timeframe for accession talks by the end of this year.

But in a report published last week, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says this is unlikely to happen. The report says: "Turkey seems to be heading toward the kind of disappointment that will prompt a review of its goal of integration with Western Europe."

Some analysts believe uneasy relations between Brussels and Ankara -- as well as unending political wrangling among cabinet members over what the country should concede to Brussels -- may eventually damage Turkey's membership bid.

Last week, a senior Turkish army general, Tuncer Kilinc, entered the fray, accusing the EU of being a "Christian club," and describing predominantly Muslim Turkey's efforts to join the body as doomed to fail.

Kilinc, who is the secretary-general of the powerful National Security Council -- Turkey's main decision-making body and a powerful political tool of the army -- suggested that instead of focusing on relations with Europe, Turkey should look for alternative alliances:

"Regarding those issues that touch upon its national interests, Turkey has not received the slightest assistance from the EU. On the contrary, it is obvious that the EU holds a negative view on these issues. It is, therefore, necessary for Turkey to explore new possibilities. Russia, too, feels isolated and is trying to get closer to the United States. Without disregarding the U.S., we could cooperate with Russia in the region. If possible, let us also [cooperate with] Iran and look for new options in the region." Although Kilinc said he was merely expressing a personal opinion and was not speaking in the name of the military, his comments raised alarm among proponents of Ankara's EU membership.

Some commentators noted that this was the first time Turkey's anti-EU lobby has so clearly voiced its concerns. Others suggested the high-ranking officer would not have indulged in such harsh criticism of the EU without the approval of his political superiors.

Analysts also expressed dismay at Kilinc's direct reference to Iran and Russia. Despite increasing economic cooperation between Ankara and these two countries, both are still regarded by the military establishment as threats to NATO-member Turkey's strategic interests.

The day after Kilinc's remarks, Prime Minister Ecevit issued a brief statement reasserting Turkey's commitment to joining the EU. While acknowledging the difficulties Ankara faces and may continue to face on the road to membership, Ecevit said that "geographically, historically, and culturally, Turkey is a European nation."

Turkish-EU relations have been rocky in recent years, most notably regarding the status of the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a frontrunner among EU candidates, which Ankara has been partially occupying since 1974.

However, since inter-Cypriot peace talks resumed last January under the aegis of the United Nations, the animosity between Brussels and Ankara seems to have been temporarily redirected toward other issues.

Kilinc's comments came amid controversy sparked by the recent publication in Turkish newspapers of confidential e-mails sent by the European Commission envoy to Ankara, Britain's Karen Fogg, to journalists, politicians, and human rights activists, as well as to EU officials in Brussels.

Fogg's private correspondence was first made public by Dogu Perincek, the outspoken leader of the left-wing Workers' Party, who accuses the EU envoy of spying against the government and working against Turkey's national interests.

Many in Turkey believe Perincek, who claims he has close links with the military and who has refused to say how he had obtained Fogg's correspondence, did not act alone. Both the Army General Staff and the MIT -- Turkey's intelligence services -- have denied any involvement in the incident.

Although judicial authorities have launched legal procedures against Perincek, who faces up to three years in jail, the case has sparked a wave of public hostility toward the EU in Turkey. Perincek earlier this week accused the EU of supporting separatist and "terrorist" organizations. His remark cuts to the core of the so-called "Fogg affair" -- controversial e-mails referring to an alleged EU project to fund a newspaper in the Kurdish language.

Granting greater cultural rights to Turkey's 12 million ethnic Kurds -- whom Ankara refuses to recognize as a fully-fledged minority -- is one of the prerequisites set by the EU to start accession talks. Yet, many in Turkey -- especially in the military and in the far-right Nationalist Action Party, a coalition partner in Ecevit's cabinet -- reject such a possibility lest it add fuel to Kurdish separatism.

Since the 11 September attacks against the United States, Ankara has been pressing European countries to ban or take legal action against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and other radical left-wing organizations, such as the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, which operate legally outside Turkey.

But, unlike the U.S. and Britain, the EU has so far refused to include these groups on its list of terrorist organizations.

CSIS Turkey Project Research Assistant Seda Ciftci told RFE/RL that this refusal may have contributed in large part to the widespread perception among Turkish army generals and nationalist political leaders that the EU is acting against Ankara's security interests:

"The main criticism [toward the EU] has come from the military because the EU has not considered the PKK a terrorist organization. This has kind of [upset] the military establishment, and the political establishment too."

The Kurdish fight for independence has claimed more than 30,000 lives during the 15 years leading up to 1999, when PKK militants agreed to stop fighting Turkish government troops and set up their main base of operations in northern Iraq following the arrest of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in Kenya.

Sentenced to death in 1999, Ocalan is now on death row in the Imrali high-security jail, where he is the only inmate.

Turkey has been observing a moratorium on executions since 1984, but the EU demands that capital punishment be abolished as a prerequisite to accession talks.

Last autumn, Turkey's lawmakers passed constitutional changes limiting the use of the death penalty in cases involving terrorism and crimes committed in wartime. The changes also eased the media ban on languages other than Turkish -- a move presented by Ankara as giving the green light to Kurdish-language broadcasting but described as purely symbolic by human rights groups.

Similarly, amendments to existing laws governing freedom of expression passed in parliament last month (6 February) were deemed inadequate by EU officials, Turkish lawyers, liberal politicians, and rights activists.

Ciftci of CSIS says the Turkish population is caught between its desire to join the EU and its reluctance to accept concessions implied by Turkey's eventual entry into the bloc:

"When you look at opinion polls, you see that the Turkish [population] really [wants] Turkey to be a EU member. But, on the other hand, there are some problems with the EU such as Cyprus, the death penalty, [or] human rights [issues]. Also, the EU has been pressing for constitutional changes [to grant] rights to Turkey's ethnic minorities, especially [to] the Kurds. So there is a reaction in Turkey, saying: OK, we are going to comply with the Copenhagen criteria, but this is not going [to happen] at any cost."

Recent polls show that up to 68 percent of Turks favor entry into the EU, which they associate with greater civil liberties and economic welfare.

Bolstered by these surveys, Deputy Prime Minister Yilmaz would like to organize a referendum on Turkey's EU membership to end what he has described as "sterile debates" between his own party and the Nationalist Action Party. Addressing fellow party members earlier this week in parliament, Yilmaz said:

"Some people are trying to spread doubt in the mind of the citizens, and we believe that, if we organize a referendum on that issue (Turkey's accession to the EU), these doubts will be radically dispelled. To those who are afraid of a referendum, I would point out that we should fear neither the nation nor its decisions."

In a further bid to defuse tension between Turkey and the EU, Ecevit said this week that the National Security Council was drawing up a "plan of action" regarding Kurdish broadcasting. Ecevit did not elaborate, but Turkey's NTV private television channel earlier this week (10 March) reported that the Army General Staff and other security agencies would not object to some limited broadcasting in the Kurdish language as long as it remains under strict government control.

3. - nzoom.com - "Turkey ponders joining EU":

18 March

In a country where anybody over 22 has lived through at least one military coup, a general's comments that Turkey could turn to Iran and Russia rather than embracing the European Union cannot be ignored.

Opinion polls regularly show around 70% of the population in Muslim Turkey want to join the EU and the government says it wants a date set by the end of this year for the start of membership negotiations.

But a chorus of dissent is growing, led by the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), part of Turkey's coalition government. The "EU question" is taking its toll on government unity.

Conservatives in the MHP, and some in the military, say Turkey is being pushed into making too many concessions that will serve only to promote separatism among the Kurdish population and blunt the state's ability to fight terrorism.

More surprising were comments from General Tuncer Kilinc that the EU had done nothing for Turkey and that Turkey might turn to Iran and Russia. They stirred a hornets' nest here. While the powerful army may not be "anti-European", it has its concerns.

"This is a message to the EU -- the message that Turkey is not about to say yes to every demand with no objections," commentator Fikret Bila wrote in the newspaper Milliyet.

"Turkey expects flexibility, understanding and support from the EU. This is an approach to make the EU ponder about Turkey and consider that it also has its bargaining chips."

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit himself has said that EU membership was "Turkey's undeniable and indispensable right". Many are convinced the EU would gain as much as if not more than Turkey if the marriage ever came to fruition.

Does the EU really want Turkey?

Professor Hasan Unal of Ankara's Bilkent University, however, says it is clear the EU has no intention of letting Turkey join and is just stringing it along for its own benefit.

"Europe wants to get things like Cyprus out of Turkey in return for hopes of accession one day," Unal said.

Peace talks under way on the divided island of Cyprus have been given added urgency by the rapidly approaching prospect of EU membership for the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus in the southern, Greek Cypriot, half of the island.

Cyprus is expected to be among the first wave of new members as soon as 2004 and Europe wants to avoid what one EU diplomat said would be the "cataclysmic" consequences of doing so without an agreement to reunite the island.

Turkey, which has threatened to annex northern Cyprus if EU accession goes ahead, would find itself with 30,000 troops stationed in an EU member.

A major breach would be unavoidable and Turkey's own EU ambitions would be scuppered.

"Whatever we are supposed to do, whatever we can achieve within a year, or two or five or 10 years, Europe is not ready for Turkish accession," Unal said.

He cites three reasons: size -- a population of 65 million and growing would make Turkey among the largest member states; geography -- Turkey borders Syria, Iraq and Iran, countries the EU may be reluctant to have as neighbours; and religion -- Christian Europeans don't really want Muslims in the club.

His comments are at the end of the spectrum of opinion in Turkey but there is widespread mistrust of Europe's motives, and even EU diplomats admit privately that taking in Turkey would be a challenge not all member states want to take on.

A quip among the more jaded in Brussels plays on a workers' joke in the old communist Soviet Union that "we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us". "They pretend to be striving for membership," runs their version, "and we pretend to want them."

Mutual benefits for Turkey and EU

Yet at the other end of the spectrum in Turkey, there is widespread understanding of the benefits both economic and political that EU membership could bring.

Turkey, which has just seen a year of financial turmoil and where GDP per capita is less than a third of the EU average, has watched EU members Spain and Portugal surge ahead economically over the past 20 years after starting from a low level.

A customs union with the EU has already allowed Turkish exporters to take advantage of a huge market for products such as textiles and white goods, and business groups are firmly in favour of EU membership which they say would help stability.

"What lies at the basis of Turkey's decision to join the EU is the fact that the EU is one of the world's most important economic blocs," said Meral Gezgin Eris, chairwoman of Turkey's Economic Development Fund (IKV). "There may be differing views which should be respected, but Turkey's fundamental choice is very obviously integration with the EU," she said.

Spanish Ambassador to Ankara Manuel de la Camara said bringing Turkey into the EU would help stability in a volatile region of crucial interest to the bloc as well as opening up a huge market for European businesses.

But in order to join, Turkey needs to improve its human rights record and meet the EU's democratic standards.

The EU wants the death penalty abolished. It wants Turkey to loosen curbs on minority cultural rights, an issue particularly poignant among its 12 million Kurds. And it wants the military to loosen its grip on civilian politics.

"It's a question of whether you share with Europeans the values and the vision, or not," said de la Camara, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

"If you share these views, if you're convinced this is the way you want to move, then you can do it. But if you do not share the same views, the same vision, then you will never do it," he said. 'It's very clear, it's black or white, yes or no."

"I don't think anybody in Turkey is against joining the EU but what many of them think is they can get into the EU on their own terms," he added. "But this is not going to be possible."

Turkey's government is a coalition of Ecevit's Democratic Left Party (DSP), Devlet Bahceli's nationalist MHP, and the pro-European Motherland Party led by Mesut Yilmaz.

A deep gulf divides Bahceli and Yilmaz on Europe.

Yilmaz is trying to push through the reforms needed to start negotiations and is using as a spur the first anniversary of Turkey's National Programme -- a document laying out the government's plans to put its house in order for the EU.

That anniversary on Tuesday (March 19) will provide an occasion for all sides in Turkey's most fateful debate to take stock and for the EU itself to send its own signals to Ankara.

4. - Los Angeles Times - "Kurdish Mayors' Job Is a High-Wire Act":

Turkey: City leaders find it hard to balance their constituents' demands for ethnic expression against higher officials' suspicions of separatism.

VIRANSEHIR / by AMBERIN ZAMAN / 18 March

Being a mayor in southeastern Turkey, where most people are Kurdish, can be tricky. You've got to satisfy the voters' desire to express their ethnic identity more openly, without raising suspicion among Turkish officials that you are encouraging separatism.

Last summer, after two years in office here, Emrullah Cin hit upon what he thought was a safe formula: He organized a festival to celebrate the shelengo, a strain of cucumber that, he claims, grows only in Viransehir and requires no water. Shelengo is the Kurdish word for the vegetable.

"I thought, Kurdish or not, cucumbers were pretty harmless," Cin recalled with a wry grin during a recent interview. The Turkish regional governor, however, disagreed. He banned the event, saying it posed a "threat to the indivisible unity of the Turkish state."

Such are the difficulties facing Cin and 33 other mayors whose election in 1999 gave local political power for the first time to a pro-Kurdish group in Turkey. So far, they have been able to do little to relieve decades of Turkish repression of the Kurdish culture and language. There are an estimated 13 million Kurds in Turkey, constituting 20% of the population.

"We are wearing shirts of fire," said Cin, a 35-year-old former schoolteacher, using a Turkish metaphor for risky missions.

Many of the Kurdish mayors, all members of the People's Democracy Party, remain popular. Yet the Turkish government's treatment of them ranges from the unabashedly discriminatory to the patently absurd. Turkish prosecutors have accused some of the mayors of trying to sow the seeds of an independent Kurdish homeland.

Unlike their counterparts from other political parties, the Kurdish mayors are routinely barred from events organized by Turkish officials and face what Cin calls an undeclared economic embargo by the central government in Ankara.

"Every single project I sought funding for has been rejected," he said.

With a long history of drought and no local industry, this city of 160,000 people long relied on trade with Iraq. But legal trade ended when the United Nations imposed sanctions on Turkey's southeastern neighbor following Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Nowadays, the city gets by on a small amount of oil smuggling.

A 15-year-long conflict between Turkish forces and separatist guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party has prompted thousands of people to move to Viransehir from surrounding rural villages, further straining the city's resources.

When Cin became mayor, he found that the city owed its employees 23 months' worth of back wages and had an additional $2.5 million in debts. "The [central] government did not lift a finger for us," he said.

Life could get worse for the Kurdish mayors if Turkey's constitutional court upholds a demand by the state prosecutor that their party be banned on charges that it acts as the guerrillas' political wing. Hundreds of the party's officials have been detained during the last year in violent police raids, and 10 of the mayors face criminal charges as they struggle to run their cities.

Mehmet Yasik, a Kurdish mayor who brokered peace between two feuding Kurdish families in the province of Adana last month, wound up on trial for his efforts, accused of "aiding and abetting terrorists" allegedly involved in the dispute.

The constitutional court is expected to rule on the party's legality in the coming weeks. A ban would further jeopardize chances of European Union membership for Turkey, which also has balked at an EU demand that it ease restrictions on use of the Kurdish language.

Police have beaten and detained hundreds of university students across Turkey in recent months for signing petitions urging that optional Kurdish-language courses be added to the official school curriculum. Turkish leaders say the campaign is orchestrated by the guerrillas, who have observed a unilateral cease-fire since the capture of their commander, Abdullah Ocalan, in 1999.

Turkish authorities have cast a wide net for Kurdish separatists and hauled in some unlikely suspects. Seven families in the largest Kurdish province, Diyarbakir, face trial on charges of "damaging the national culture" by giving their children Kurdish names such as Berivan, Kurdish for milkmaid, and Baran, which means rain.

This month, Turkish prosecutors charged an elementary school teacher in Diyarbakir, Recep Simsek, with "spreading terrorist propaganda" for putting a Kurdish-language love poem on his wedding invitation. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Cin, in addition to having his festival banned, came under investigation last year because of his city's new flag. The governor's office said it was evocative of the red, green and yellow banner of the guerrillas; the inquiry is continuing.

Nevertheless, the city and its mayor appear to be thriving. The municipality's debts all have been cleared, Cin says, largely because residents who once made a habit of dodging property taxes and utility bills now pay willingly and on time.

The funds have helped build a health clinic for women, where a team of young doctors and nurses is shattering religious and social taboos by teaching mostly illiterate women how to use contraceptives.

"The mayor changed my life," said Mekiye Bilge, 35, who after her sixth baby decided to ignore pressure from her in-laws and stop bearing children.

Earlier this year, citizens dug deeper into their pockets and raised money for 8,000 new pipes to modernize and expand the city's sewage system. "There is a huge sense of solidarity here," the mayor said. "A burning need to show the rest of the country that we can take care of ourselves."

5. - BBC - "Iraqi Kurds recall chemical attack":

By the BBC's Hiwa Osman / 17 March

Iraq's Kurdish region came to a standstill at 11 am on Saturday to observe a five-minute silence in memory of those killed by Iraq's chemical weapons attack in the Kurdish city of Halabja 14 years ago.

Iraqi aircraft shelled Halabja with chemical weapons on 16 March 1988, in an attack which left 5,000 dead and 7,000 injured or with long-term illnesses.

The event was remembered in different way across the region.

Kurdistan TV displayed a black band throughout its broadcast.

Vigils, performances and exhibitions about the tragedy were organised across the region.

The chemistry department at the university of Salah al-Din organised a seminar on the effects of chemical weapons.

Thousands marched to the city of Halabja to lay wreaths on the graves of victims, whose surviving relatives received the visitors.

"I lost 120 of my relatives, who were in Halabja for a wedding" said a woman to Kurdistan TV. "I'm the only one left"

On the road to Halabja, gas masks and shells of the chemical bombs - painted with question marks - were displayed at the entrance to the city.

Aftermath

The chemical after-effects of the attack are still affecting people.

"Traces of the chemicals agents are still residing in the water, air and food," said one surgeon.

Since the chemical attacks, the number of various forms of cancer, birth deformities, still-born babies and miscarriages is reported to have dramatically increased.

Four years ago, Christine Gosden, a doctor from Liverpool, carried out a survey on the health situation in Halabja which suggested as many as three in five children in Halabja had leukaemia.

She is now leading a campaign to meet the health needs of victims by training doctors from the region to treat the various illnesses.

Bitter memories

"Halabja is a black mark on the reputation of the international community, " said the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Prime Minister Barham Salih, addressing a gathering in Halabja.

"Had it not been for Iran and the voices of Danielle Mitterrand, Anne Clwyd, Andrei Sakharov [Russian Nobel prize winner] and Senator Pell, the perpetrators of the crime would not have been exposed to the world," he said.

The attack on Halabja took place during the Iran-Iraq war when Iraq enjoyed the support of the west against Iran.

US State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said: "Saddam Hussein's regime must never be permitted to rebuild its weapons of mass destruction programmes".

There is increasing speculations that the US-led war on terror could target Iraq because of its alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.

The Kurdish region would then have a key role to play, as it could become a base for attacks against Baghdad.

But Kurds are wary of declaring their support for such a war.

"The world did nothing when Halabja took place. Saddam is still there. Who says he is not going to do it again?" said a Kurdish journalist.

6. - Turkish Daily News - "EU happy with debate in Turkey":

Turkey learning EU

According to a Western ambassador, the Karen Fogg e-mail scandal, revelations of a top military commander, and most lately, remarks of Yilmaz that EU placed the Kurdish education, broadcasting in Kurdish and death penalty conditions to bar Turkish accession have ignited a 'true and useful discussion' in Turkey on EU

Poles clarified

Diplomatic sources said that with the start of the current debate in the country, finally the supporters and opponents of European Union accession have been clarified. According to a Western ambassador the discussion between the two poles will help Turkish society understand better what the EU is and what it is not

Yusuf Kanli / 18 March

The current discussions in Turkey over European Union membership have been evaluated in Ankara by European diplomats as a "true and useful discussion," which may help Turks better understand "What the European Union is and what it is not," sources said.

Talking with the Turkish Daily News, senior Western diplomats underlined that the latest debate, which started with the publication of the e-mail messages of European Union representative to Turkey Karen Fogg in a leftist magazine, continued with a remark by MGK Secretary-General Tuncer Kilinc and climaxed this weekend with remarks of Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Deputy prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, ended a "utophic" discussion in the country.

At a March 7 speech at the Istanbul War Academies, Kilinc had said the Turkey had received "not the slightest help" from the EU it sought to join, and suggested Ankara look now to Russia and Iran besides its traditional U.S. ally for support.

"Turkey has not received the slightest help from the EU... the EU views are negative when it comes to the issues that Turkey is interested in," the top general had said.

Kilinc further underlined that Turkey should do nothing to compromise its relations with the United States, which has backed Turkey during its financial crisis and sees Ankara as a key Muslim ally in its "war against terrorism." However, he added, "I would see it as useful for Turkey to enter a new search that would include Iran and the Russian Federation."

The remarks of the top general ignited a heated debate in the country, with Yilmaz blasting Kilinc for advocating "disaster scenarios."

It was the turn of Yilmaz on Sunday, however, to talk of disaster scenarios. Two prominent newspapers, Hurriyet and Sabah, reported in their Sunday editions that the deputy prime minister believed that the EU had placed the Kurdish education and broadcasting rights and the lifting of the death penalty issues as conditions Ankara should fulfill before opening accession talks, in hopes that Turkey would never succeed in overcoming those problems.

According to the two newspapers, during a "home warming" reception at his new Istanbul house for top newspaper editors, Yilmaz underlined that he was seriously worried that Turkey may fail to comply with the EU conditions on time. He said such a development would be the "worst scenario" that would deviate Turkey from its Westernization course, and place it on a course that would turn it into a third-class Middle Eastern country."

Furthermore, according to Yilmaz, in a statement that indicated similarity with the position of Kilinc, "In reality, the EU does not want us. They told us to comply with the Copenhagen criteria because they thought we were not capable of doing it."

Yilmaz then explained in detail how Turkey could undertake those reforms speedily and without harming its national or territorial integrity, the two norms Turks are very sensitive on.

According to Western ambassadors, however, the EU's position on Turkey was clear "right from the very beginning," while Turkey dragged its feet for decades pledging to undertake the reforms, but never realizing them in full.

With the latest wave of debates in Turkey over the EU, the reforms Turkey ought to undertake and possible intentions of the EU on Turkey, diplomats said, finally Turkey had started debating what EU meant for them.

"Until very recently, for the supporters of the EU, the union was just the mother of everything good. It represented democracy, human rights, enhanced liberties, freer trade, prosperity and such. Every sector of Turkish society that supported EU accession was finding a reason according to themselves. Now, Turks are learning that EU is neither the mother of all good, nor the reason of everything that's bad. Turks have finally started debating the EU. This is a good beginning," said a female EU top diplomat.

Another senior EU diplomat recalled that before accession, similar discussions had taken place in almost all countries. "These discussions are normal. The discussions themselves underline the advancement of democracy in Turkey. Through these discussions, the Turkish society will have the opportunity to learn what EU is and what it is not," he said.

The diplomat underlined that the EU did not have a separate membership prescription for each and every country. "The conditions for EU accession are same for all countries. Regarding Turkey, the accession process was launched at the Helsinki Summit and the criteria were clearly stated. Turkey will have to fulfill the criteria before it completes EU accession, and as EU countries it is our duty to help Turkey to complete this process," he said.

7. - Press Release from KON-KURD / 18 March 2002 - "Journey to Peace is Hindered":

The bus convoy that recently departed Brussels on March 16th in support of the campaign for education in Kurdish by university students in Turkey and to press for the end to capital punishment has been halted. We deplore the action taken by the government of Macedonia which cited visa problems in order to stop the obstruction of the convoy.

The fundamental concepts of our modern political landscape are pluralism and participatory democracy. For the Kurdish people, however, whose language and culture continue to be denied and supressed, these concepts can only appear illusory.

It is irresponsible for us to consider that the denial of the basic rights of a whole people can be achieved solely by the power of anti-democratic regimes such as Turkey. Regimes which have identified their own citizens as adversaries remain in their position by the support they receive from other states, just as we have seen in the actions of the Macedonian government.

We find the Macedonian government's actions hard to justify in light of the evidence reflecting the true nature of the Turkish government. It is a state where the former General Chief of Staff Dogan Gures and former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller can publicly declare their support in favour of the chief player in the Susurluk Scandal, retired colonel Korkut Eken, whose guilt was proven by the courts.

We ask that the Kurdish people's peaceful and democratic proposals be given support in a fashion true to the ideals that bind our civil society together. The bus convoy, organized by our institution, has three main proposals: the abolishment of the death penalty in Turkey, Kurdish education and broadcasting rights, and the end to the pressures put on democratic organizations.

We call on European nations and organizations to revitalize their commitment to upholding the values set forth in all the declarations that Turkey is a joint signatory to, and actively contribute in building a functioning democracy in Turkey.

8. - Star - "Good news from Europe":

Columnist Zeynep Gurcanlý comments on the outcome of last week’s EU summit in Barcelona. A summary of his column is as follows:

“Nobody in Turkey thinks that our public’s support for EU membership will fall below 70%,’ said Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit during the Barcelona summit last week. Speaking both to European leaders and the Turkish public opinion, he said, ‘Turkey is a democratic country. There are many discussions going on in Turkey right now but Turkey will not, and can not, abandon the EU.’

Not satisfied with mere words, Ecevit also opened the door to a very important project in terms of integration with the EU, that is, the Istanbul-Dedeagac natural gas pipeline. Ecevit talked about this project during the opening day of the summit, and Greece gave its reply the very next day. Prime Minister Costas Simitis said that Greek Development Minister Akis Cohacopulos would go to Ankara and sign a preliminary agreement next week. This project is very important for Turkey’s EU membership as well.

One of the biggest problems looming for the EU in the future is its energy needs. The European leaders do not want to be dependent on ‘a single source,’ that is, on Russia, and so are looking for ways to increase the energy supply to the continent. Considering the Turkish-Greek line together with the natural gas pipeline crossing the Caspian and the Turkish-Iranian natural gas pipeline projects, this project’s importance for Europe is more and more evident, and the line will make Turkey an inseparable part of Europe. T

his was not the only good news from the Barcelona summit. The second piece concerns the proposed European army. The EU leaders discussed the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) after Ecevit left Barcelona. Greece, which had objected to a Turkish- EU compromise on the ESDP, became isolated in its stance. Even the other European leaders criticized Grace somewhat harshly.

Jose Maria Aznar, the prime minister of EU President Spain, complained that the EU ‘cannot move even one step forward’ due to Greece’s obstructionism. He gave the example of the international peacekeeping force that was established in Afghanistan within a very short period of time, and complained that Europe cannot even send soldiers to Macedonia under its very nose.

Greece openly said, ‘All 14 EU member countries support the compromise that was reached concerning Turkey and the ESDP.’ The final notes of the Barcelona Summit were a kind of message to my fellow citizens who put forward the unproductive concept of nationalism and object to Turkey’s joining the EU. In short, the news from the Barcelona summit to Turkey was extremely positive.

The European leaders also took several other important decisions in terms of the EU’s future during the sessions they held among themselves. Although these decisions may seem to be mere ‘details,’ all of them in fact were measures to increase ordinary Europeans’ standard of living and their level of education and culture.”