22
March 2002
2. "Turkish prison hunger strike claims 49th victim", the death toll in a long-standing hunger strike by prisoners protesting at controversial jail reforms in Turkey reached 49 on Thursday with the death of another inmate, a human rights activist said. Tuncay Yildirim, 30, died in a house in the western city of Izmir where he was staying after being granted a six-month release from jail on health grounds on February 14, a spokeswoman for the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) said.
3. "Two killed in Kurdish New Year clashes in Turkey", two men were crushed to death and dozens were injured in Turkey on Thursday when riot police cracked down on Kurds celebrating their traditional New Year. The Anatolia news agency reported scattered incidents across the country and said more than 500 people were arrested, although the day's festivities went off calmly in many areas.
4. "Kurds clash with Turkish police", three people have died in the southern Turkish city of Mersin, in clashes between thousands of Kurdish youths and Turkish riot police over a government ban preventing Kurds from celebrating their new year.
5. "Turkish MPs open debate on democracy reforms for EU bid", Turkish lawmakers on Thursday began debating a fresh package of laws expanding basic civil rights and liberties in a bid to bring the country into line with EU standards.
6. "Cyprus talks ‘not moving fast enough’", US envoy expresses concern.
7. "Yilmaz: Turkey targets to start membership negotiations with EU at the beginning of 2003", visiting Brussels to represent Turkey at the European Convention meetings, Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said yesterday that Turkey was targeting to start full membership negotiations with the European Union during the term presidency of Greece, which will start at the beginning of 2003.
8. "Verheugen warns Turkey over Cyprus", Turkey should not consider annexing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus if the island is accepted into the EU without a resolution of the disputes dividing the two states on Cyprus.
1. - Turkish Daily News - "Mumcu: Ocalan will be executed":
March 21
The ANAP deputy chairman says PKK chieftain Ocalan was not a guest,
but a prisoner whose sentence will be carried out
The ruling three-way coalition's junior partner Motherland Party (ANAP) Deputy Chairman Erkan Mumcu joined in the lifting of the death penalty controversy Wednesday with a remark that Abdullah Ocalan, the death-row inmate chieftain of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) gang, would eventually be hanged.
Speaking to reporters at Kirikkale on his way to Sivas, Mumcu underlined that the separatist chieftain was not a "guest" but a "prisoner on death-row," and his sentence would be executed in accordance with the laws of the country.
Responding to a question of reporters on the suggestion by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture that Ocalan should be given a TV set and short-wave radio, as well as a telephone, in his prison quarters so that he could call outside, Mumcu said that everyone should know that Ocalan was a prisoner and would be treated as such.
He said it was out of the question for politicians and the government to intervene on how Ocalan would be treated, as it was a subject of the judiciary.
Responding to another question, Mumcu said an early election was not something that could be decided solely by the political parties. He said an early election was not on the agenda of the country now, but said that the issue may come to the agenda of the country depending largely on the success of the economic program being implemented. He said that when the time comes, the three ruling parties had the required parliamentary majority to decide on an early election, but stressed that there was no such thing on the agenda of the country for the time being.
Mumcu also stressed that apart from rhetoric, there was
no indication either that the opposition parties were demanding an early
election. 
2. - AFP - "Turkish prison hunger strike claims 49th victim":
ANKARA / March 21
The death toll in a long-standing hunger strike by prisoners protesting
at controversial jail reforms in Turkey reached 49 on Thursday with
the death of another inmate, a human rights activist said. Tuncay Yildirim,
30, died in a house in the western city of Izmir where he was staying
after being granted a six-month release from jail on health grounds
on February 14, a spokeswoman for the Turkish Human Rights Association
(IHD) said.
Yildirim started fasting in July last year while serving a 12-year jail sentence for membership of a far-left underground group and was briefly hospitalized in January this year, she added. Prisoners launched 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. Backed by rights groups, protesters say the new arrangement leaves them socially isolated and more vulnerable to torture and maltreatment. The government, however, has categorically ruled out a return to the dormitory system, arguing that it was the main reason behind frequent riots and hostage-taking incidents in the country's unruly jails.
The death toll from the strike includes both prisoners
and outside supporters of the movement. 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.
3. - AFP - "Two killed in Kurdish New Year clashes in Turkey":
DIYARBAKIR / March 21 
Two men were crushed to death and dozens were injured in Turkey
on Thursday when riot police cracked down on Kurds celebrating their
traditional New Year. The Anatolia news agency reported scattered incidents
across the country and said more than 500 people were arrested, although
the day's festivities went off calmly in many areas.
Officials warned the Kurdish minority not to use the day, which in the past has witnessed deadly clashes between troops and Kurdish separatist sympathizers, for political ends. But the celebrations were marred with bloodshed in the southern city of Mersin where 34-year-old Mehmet Sen died after being crushed against a wall by a police vehicle moving in on a riot that erupted when revellers refused to disperse, according to local officials quoted by Anatolia.
A second man -- Omer Aydin, 39 -- was also crushed to death in Mersin, the agency reported, but gave no further details on his death. The merry-makers had reportedly built several bonfires, a traditional activity to mark the Kurdish New Year, Newroz, before the riot broke out. Local governor Akif Tig said 41 police and 20 protestors were injured. It was the first death in the past few years of Newroz celebrations. Anatolia said around 80 protestors were detained in the incidents, which saw police use tear gas while the rioters pelted officers with stones and attacked them with sticks.
There were also scuffles in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul when police moved on a crowd that had gathered despite a local ban on the celebrations. Istanbul police chief Hasan Ozdemir told the agency that 439 people were detained in the city in the crackdown on what he called "illegal demonstrations", and the report said riot police used water cannons and tear gas on the crowd. There were also scuffles between police and protestors in Mersin and Aydin reported on Wednesday. The violence prompted a harsh warning from Interior Minister Rustu Kazim Yucelen against those who "use Newroz for political aims".
"Everyone should be aware that the state and its officials will never allow this day to be exploited for political reasons and be an occasion for acts against the state," Yucelen told reporters in Istanbul. Thousands of Kurds also gathered outside the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, the regional capital of the mainly-Kurdish region which was the scene of a 15-year insurgency led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). A peaceful atmosphere prevailed at the festivities, organized by the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) for the third year in a row. "We went to live in peace with the Turkish people," HADEP chairman Murat Bozlak told the crowd, which chanted pro-Kurdish slogans without any intervention from police.
About 50 Kurds were killed by security forces in 1992 during violent demonstrations in the region. But the tense atmosphere and normally heavy fighting has subsided considerably since September 1999, when the PKK said it was ending its armed campaign and withdrawing from Turkey to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The PKK truce came following peace calls from its leader Abdullah Ocalan, captured in February 1999 and now on death row for treason, but was brushed aside by the Turkish army as a ploy.
Newroz, a pagan festival of Zoroastrian origin, marks
the awakening of nature at the March 21 equinox, and is also celebrated
in Iran and other Muslim communities in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
4. - BBC - "Kurds clash with Turkish police":
22 March 2002 
Three people have died in the southern Turkish city of Mersin, in
clashes between thousands of Kurdish youths and Turkish riot police
over a government ban preventing Kurds from celebrating their new year.
Two police officers were killed and one demonstrator was crushed to death. Another police officer has been seriously injured.
But in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish south-east, hundreds of thousands gathered peacefully to hold celebrations.
The government has banned festivities in a number of cities, including Istanbul, because it said they would be "exploited by outlawed groups to cause provocations".
The pro-Kurdish party Hadep - which organised the celebrations - said it wanted them to highlight "democracy, peace and human rights".
But it said it had come "face to face with Turkey's forbidding, repressive, antidemocratic mentality".
In Istanbul, police used water cannons to disperse small groups of demonstrators who attempted to gather in the suburbs.
Security deployment
More than 100 people are reported to have been detained.
In Diyarbakir, nearly half a million Kurds sang and danced and lit a giant torch - a symbolic burning of the past's impurities.
But correspondents say thousands of police, riot squads and soldiers had been deployed on the roads leading to the city.
Organisers said this was a deliberate attempt by the government to stop people attending the festivities.
The festival of Nowruz - the Farsi language word for new year - is celebrated by tens of millions of people from Asia to the Middle East on the first day of spring.
In Turkey, the festival is a mainly Kurdish event.
EU pressure
As such, they are a reminder to the government that it has yet to tackle the thorniest parts of a reform programme aimed at securing a place in the European Union.
While Kurdish politicians nowadays acknowledge the existence of the Kurdish population, the Kurds are not officially recognised as a minority.
The EU - which is a strong critic of Turkey's treatment of its 12 million Kurds - says Turkey must meet certain standards of human rights and freedom of expression before it can become a member.
It is putting pressure on Ankara to allow for broadcasting and education in Kurdish, which are also the immediate demands of the Kurds.
The festival comes as the government is considering allowing the state broadcaster TRT to screen Kurdish language programmes.
In the past, Nowruz has triggered deadly clashes between troops and sympathisers of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The PKK fought a 15-year armed campaign against the government for Kurdish self-rule in the south east of the country.
But fighting dwindled after the group's leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999 issued orders from his Turkish jail for the PKK to give up its armed struggle and find a peaceful resolution.
The PKK says it has abandoned its armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland and now campaigns peacefully for Kurdish cultural rights within Turkey.
Turkey says the unilateral PKK pullout is a ploy ad refused
to recognise any ceasefire.
5. - AFP - "Turkish MPs open debate on democracy reforms for EU bid":
ANKARA / March 21 
Turkish lawmakers on Thursday began debating a fresh package of
laws expanding basic civil rights and liberties in a bid to bring the
country into line with EU standards. The package aims to incorporate
into law some of the far-reaching
constitutional amendments adopted in October to improve the crippled democracy of the country which has been an EU candidate since 1999. One of the proposed amendments scraps a ban in the press code on publications in "forbidden languages", which would open the way for the country's Kurdish minority to publish material in their mother tongue.
Despite the ban, authorities have long tolerated a number of magazines in Kurdish. A second article toughens the criteria for banning political parties, and also envisages cutting part of, or all, state aid to parties if they are found guilty of crimes that do not merit a ban. Another amendment stipulates that compensation Turkey is ordered to pay by the European Court of Human Rights for "torture, inhumane and cruel treatment" is to be paid by the civil servant responsible.
Other amendments ease the criteria for establishing associations, but underline that they cannot be set up along "discriminating lines based on ethnicity, religion, culture or language." The package also makes it easier for the public to hold protests and marches, including in the mainly-Kurdish southeast where there was a general ban on holding protests as part of measures to quell a 15-year Kurdish insurgency.
Last month Turkey's parliament adopted a first package
of appropriation laws, amending mainly clauses regarding freedom of
expression in the penal code, which were largely criticized by observers
as inadequate. Since being declared a candidate for EU membership in
December 1999, Turkey has been under pressure to introduce far-reaching
democracy and rights reforms to join the pan-European bloc. However,
it is lagging behind the other 12 candidates, all of whom have already
started accession talks.
6. - Reuters / AP - "Cyprus talks ‘not moving fast enough’:
US envoy expresses concern
NICOSIA / 22 March
A US envoy said yesterday that Cyprus reunification talks were not
moving fast enough to meet a June target to resolve the island’s
division, a key source of tension between Greece and Turkey.
The comments by Thomas Weston, special envoy for Cyprus at the State Department, came amid mounting speculation that the talks were faltering on issues that have kept the eastern Mediterranean island divided for years.
“I can’t say that they appear to be moving with the needed urgency which the (UN) Security Council asked for in its last statement to permit an agreement, which the Security Council feels is feasible by June,” Weston told reporters after his arrival in Cyprus.
Weston said the fact that talks were still under way between Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides, and Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, was a positive sign.
The two leaders are rushing to plug the open wound of Cyprus’s division ahead of EU membership in 2004 and stop the simmering conflict from coming to a head.
But there has been no tangible progress so far, even though the two sides say June is a reasonable time frame within which to expect any breakthrough.
Greek Cypriot media has speculated that Weston’s visit is designed to give the faltering process a decisive prod.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to review the progress of the talks in early April. UN envoy Alkvaro de Soto, who has been mediating the talks, will come to New York to review progress with Annan after visiting Ankara on March 28 and Athens on March 29, UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said on Tuesday. De Soto will also brief the UN Security Council, she said.
The EU is to decide by the end of this year on when it will enlarge the union. Cyprus is a front runner for membership.
Talks are held under a media blackout, but reports that have emerged suggest neither side has budged on positions which have kept a Cyprus settlement out of reach for years.
A key difference between the two sides is the form of
reunification sought. The Greek Cypriots want a single federated state
made up of two regions, one Greek and the other Turkish. The Turkish
Cypriots want independence in a union of two states loosely linked by
a central administration.
7. - Turkish Daily News - "Yilmaz: Turkey targets to start membership negotiations with EU at the beginning of 2003":
BRUSSELS / 22 March 
Visiting Brussels to represent Turkey at the European Convention
meetings, Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said yesterday that Turkey
was targeting to start full membership negotiations with the European
Union during the term presidency of Greece, which will start at the
beginning of 2003.
Responding to questions from Turkish reporters in Brussels, Yilmaz said that the EU should decide on starting membership negotiations with Turkey at the Copenhagen Summit in December, so as to begin during the term presidency of Greece. "In case Turkey does not meet this target because of its failure to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria, our relations would be extremely disturbed," he added.
When asked whether the EU had helped Turkey in these efforts, Yilmaz said: "Why would they help? They do not want Turkey's accession. We have decided to enter the EU and fulfill the preconditions. They now say, 'Do it.' The EU's interest is to prevent any hostile stance of Turkey against the EU. It is open to discussion as to whether a Turkey within the EU is profitable for the union. According to those who want to see the EU as a global actor, the union cannot be without Turkey. However, according to those who consider the union as a limited integration targeting to improve its own welfare, Turkey would be an unbearable burden for them. That's why the convention is so important."
Yilmaz stressed that it was wrong for Turkey to open the EU issue to discussion, since we had pledged to fulfill the preconditions in order to become a member.
Believing that the EU's stance was not insincere against Turkey, Yilmaz recalled that the Turkey-EU Partnership Council meeting would be held in Luxembourg on April 16, when the National Program would be discussed, saying that the following 15 days were very important for Turkey.
We are at the most critical point
Yilmaz stated that a deep-rooted reform process was only available with a stable, harmonious government, adding that they, the current government, had received full support from the opposition to date on the EU process. According to Yilmaz, if they managed to overcome the current complicated point in the EU process with the support of the opposition, the EU route would not be changed from now on, no matter who came to office in the future.
Responding to a reporter who said that there was a picture of polarization between the coalition partners the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and ANAP at present, Yilmaz noted that they had made many amendments in the preparation and implementation processes of the National Program in line with the MHP's objections, stressing that MHP would have put forth its stance clearly at the beginning if it had been against Turkey's accession to the union.
Cyprus
Touching on the Cyprus issue, Yilmaz stated that any wrong steps taken on Cyprus would cause great problems in Turkish-EU ties. Stressing that there is no concrete progress on Cyprus yet, Yilmaz said that EU's stance was insufficient to provide the necessary progress, and added: "When the EU lets southern Cyprus into the union, it may put parameters for the solution of the problem and show some forward points in its ties with Turkey. Then the issue may be overcome without any problem. Otherwise, we will face a major crisis."
Remove the army's concerns
When asked whether the Turkish army was against the EU, Yilmaz noted that the soldiers feared that the fulfillment of Copenhagen criteria would divide Turkey, stressing that these concerns over national integrity should be removed.
"I do not believe the Copenhagen criteria would harm Turkey, but there are institutions who believe it. They see the protection of national integrity as a mission, and want to take any risk. The essence of the discussion in Turkey is this," Yilmaz said.
EU is egoist on terrorism issue
Yilmaz claimed that the EU had always followed an egoistic approach on the terrorism issue, saying that excluding the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) from their terrorist list was clear evidence of this approach.
Yilmaz said that the EU had informed Turkey that it would review these lists in June, stressing that term president Spain might be more understanding on the issue.
Let's lift the death penalty
When asked a question on the abolition of death penalty, Yilmaz said he had started the discussions on the issue, and added, "We pledged to lift the death penalty or not to execute it until we legally lift it, and we had a target of starting the full membership negotiations next year, we should fulfill this pledge now. What we say in the National Program is that we will not implement this penalty from now on, but we will remove it from the laws in three or four years time. What I say is that if we do not implement this penalty, let's remove it from the laws now."
Yilmaz also hoped that an agreement would be reached on the discussions for education in the Kurdish language.
No need to offend in Karen Fogg incident
Speaking on the hacking and publishing of EU representative
to Turkey Karen Fogg's e-mails, Yilmaz stated that there was no need
for the government to take offense against the incident, stressing that
if the claims of Workers Party (IP) Chairman Dogu Perincek, who said
that he had received the e-mails from a state institution, were proven
right, then it would be a dishonor for the government.
8. - MS/NBC - "Verheugen warns Turkey over Cyprus":
Turkey should not consider annexing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus if the island is accepted into the EU without a resolution of the disputes dividing the two states on Cyprus.
March 22
The Commissioner responsible for the expansion of EU says that Turkey
should not issue threats after the Greek Cypriot side joins the bloc,
otherwise Turkey’s membership bid would be cancelled.
Günther Verheugen, the commissioner responsible from the European Union expansion process, on Friday said that Turkey had serious deficiencies in the political criteria for the EU membership. After his meeting with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreau, Verheugen stated that the EU membership calendar would not be changed for Cyprus even if no solution were reached on the island.
Cyprus is due to be accepted into an expanded EU in 2003. However, both Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus object to the inclusion of Cyprus until a solution to the long running dispute on the island is settled. There are also objections that Cyprus cannot be included into the EU if it is to only be represented by the Greek Cypriot administration in the south of the island.
The EU commissioner also warned that Turkey should not
consider annexing any part of a country that is member of the EU. There
have been calls from some in Turkey that the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus should be included in Turkey should the Greek Cypriot administrated
south be included in the EU.