22 November 2002

1. "Ocalan did not see his brother once again", KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan was not allowed to see his lawyers and his brother this week. And the pretext is "an out-of-order boat". Lawyer Bekir Kaya stated that the boat in question was not out-of-order. KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan who had been under isolation in Imrali Island was not allowed to see his lawyers and his brother this week too. The fact that although there is a rule that he is entitled to make meetings for an hour once a week the ban on visits increases worries.

2. "The European Parliament takes an interest in Leyla Zana", the European Parliament Chairman Pat Cox stated that he would ask for AKP Chairman Erdogan to hear the Leyla Zana case again in their meeting tomorrow (today). On the other hand Joost Lagendijk, Chairman of the Turkey and European Parliament's Joint Committee, demanded that the situation of Leyla Zana should be gone-over again.

3. "Turkey deserves German support", Turkey and Germany have enjoyed a close but uneasy relationship, from allies in the first world war to partners in Nato today. Helmut Kohl never really supported Turkish membership of the European family of nations, but Gerhard Schröder's red-green government has been consistent. For reasons of domestic politics and international stability, it is right to lend its support. Without it, Turkey has little hope of ever joining the European Union.

4. "Kurds unmoved by Turkish pledge", Kurds want unrestricted broadcasts in their language

5. "Denktash delays Cyprus response", Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader who is recovering from heart surgery in New York, will not respond to a United Nations plan to reunite Cyprus until he has returned home and consulted Turkish Cypriots and the new Turkish government in Ankara, a top aide said yesterday.

6. "A godsend for America from Turkey", the victory scored by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish general election did not come as a surprise. The AKP has since been variously described as “Islamist,” “fundamentalist,” “democratic Islamist,” “conservative,” and a “centrist party with Islamic roots.”

7. "Europe's Campaign Against Turkey", Europeans often complain that America's strategy in the war on terror is one-dimensional. It's all military might with little effort to engage the Islamic world in a constructive way. They point out that unless we help Muslim countries prosper, all the F-16s and Predators in the world won't stop the flow of terror. It's a valid criticism, but the single biggest push that could shift events in this direction lies not in America's hands but in Europe's. And Europe is about to blow it.

8. "Court hears case to ban human rights association", an Ankara court yesterday continued hearing a case seeking to ban the country's main human rights group on the grounds that it contradicted laws, semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported.

1. - Kurdish Observer - "Ocalan did not see his brother once again":

KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan was not allowed to see his lawyers and his brother this week. And the pretext is "an out-of-order boat". Lawyer Bekir Kaya stated that the boat in question was not out-of-order. KADEK President Abdullah Ocalan who had been under isolation in Imrali Island was not allowed to see his lawyers and his brother this week too. The fact that although there is a rule that he is entitled to make meetings for an hour once a week the ban on visits increases worries.

NEWS CENTER / 21 November 2002

Ocalan's lawyers Mahmut Sakar, Mehmet Ayata from Diyarbakir Bar Association, Bekir Kaya from Van Bar Association and his brother Mehmet Ocalan attempted to go to the island by "Imrali-9" boat. But the officials did not give them permission to go there, saying that the boat was out-of-order. The lawyers and the brother had to go back to Bursa.

The boat is not out-of-order

Lawyer Bekir Kaya made a statement to our newspaper OZGUR POLITIKA, saying that after covering half of the distance to the island, they were forced to go back because of so-called out-of-order but the boat was not out-of-order. It was done deliberately, said Kaya. The lawyer continued to say the following: "It is of course a decision taken independently but it is a continuation of a recent general policy. We have been preparing for a new case. When we cannot see him, we make a minute and send him. In case that we cannot see him once again we will appeal to the Amnesty International and CPT again."

Obligation were reminded

The situation was reacted by a number of Kurdish organizations. The organization "Freedom for Ocalan – Peace For Kurdistan" in Germany asked for the European Union to make efforts to improve Ocalan's life conditions. The organization drew attention that his death sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment but his prison conditions had been made harder and reminded that Turkey must fulfil its obligations arisen from the European Accord of Human Rights.

The statement made by the organization made a warning saying "Ocalan is seen as a national leader, therefore the Kurdish people will not accept the conditions." The organization also called for the Turkish government to abandon the repression on Ocalan and to lift his isolation.

Isolation must be lifted"

Actions in protest of his isolation continue. Coming together in Akkoprulu, Bayirli, Yali and Vali Mithat Pasa quarters of Van province groups of youth marched with torches. They chanted slogans "We Are With You Ocalan", Hello, Hello, A Thousand Hellos to Imrali". The inhabitants supported the demonstrators with applause and "zilgit".

2. - Ozgur Politika - "The European Parliament takes an interest in Leyla Zana":

The European Parliament Chairman Pat Cox stated that he would ask for AKP Chairman Erdogan to hear the Leyla Zana case again in their meeting tomorrow (today). On the other hand Joost Lagendijk, Chairman of the Turkey and European Parliament's Joint Committee, demanded that the situation of Leyla Zana should be gone-over again.

BRUSSELS / 21 November 2002

Pat Cox stressed that he would bring the Cyprus question into the agenda as well as Leyla Zana and want support for the plan prepared by the United Nations' Secretary General. The Chairman said that they watched the structural reforms closely.

And Joost Lagendijk stated that he considered the proposal by Christian Democrats not "serious". They have proposed that there should be special relation with Turkey in lieu of membership. Lagendijk called attention that in case that the proposal were passed the relations between the European Parliament and the Turkish Grand National Assembly would be put an end. Lagendijk pointed out that not every democrat was like Elman Brok, saying that Erdogan's messages on torture were important and should be implemented.

3. - The Financial Times - "Turkey deserves German support":

21 November 2002 / by Dietrich Von Kyaw*

Turkey and Germany have enjoyed a close but uneasy relationship, from allies in the first world war to partners in Nato today. Helmut Kohl never really supported Turkish membership of the European family of nations, but Gerhard Schröder's red-green government has been consistent. For reasons of domestic politics and international stability, it is right to lend its support. Without it, Turkey has little hope of ever joining the European Union.

After decades of European hesitation Turkey cannot be condemned for wanting a starting date for accession negotiations. At its Helsinki summit in 1999, the European Union formally recognised Turkey as a candidate for membership, on the basis of groundwork laid by Mr Schröder. Despite heavy criticism from the conservative Christian Democrats the red-green government is maintaining its support for that position. By doing so, it is helping to promote the democratic and pro-western evolution of Turkish society.

In the light of Europe's difficult relationship with the Arab world, Berlin values Turkey as an important strategic partner and as a secular democracy, proving that democracy and Islam can co-exist. Germany is not alone. Greece knows only too well that lasting reconciliation with Turkey, its old enemy, can be made possible only under the roof of the EU.

Mr Schröder's position is also astute politics. There are now more than 2.5m migrant workers in Germany, most of them originating from Anatolia. While many of them continue to prefer to live closely together in big cities like Berlin, their presence helps to remind everybody that with some 15m Muslims, the EU is no longer an exclusively Christian club as some of our politicians would like to believe.

There are, after all, already about 500,000 German citizens of Turkish origin. Each year up to 100,000 more acquire German citizenship. Some conservative politicians refuse to recognise this development and are paying a growing political price for it. In the last federal elections the Social Democrats gained only about 7,500 more votes than the Christian Democrats. But among the voters of the red-green coalition were almost 300,000 German Turks. The conservative opposition and the liberal party won the votes of only 65,000.

Mr Schröder's government deserves credit for its stand. But that does not mean the EU should give in prematurely to Turkey's demands for starting date for accession negotiations. In spite of considerable progress and good intentions Turkey is not yet ready. Recent political and economic reforms have not been fully implemented and, in any case, do not go far enough. Racep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's unofficial leader, is an astute operator but still has to demonstrate his lasting commitment to secular democracy.

However, to encourage the new Turkish government to advance further with democratic and economic reforms, and to help in overcome the partition of Cyprus, the EU must make it absolutely clear that this time it means business. A "conditional date" as well as a convincing schedule for a regular evaluation of progress made has to be set.

The European Commission will have to make an assessment and the European Council will then have to take a decision about the earliest feasible date for starting membership negotiations. Our Turkish friends should accept such a compromise in a realistic assessment of their remaining shortcomings: the unresolved Cyprus question and of the fact that integrating a big, populous and complex country like Turkey requires careful preparation.

* The writer is a former German permanent representative to the European Union

4. - BBC - "Kurds unmoved by Turkish pledge":

Kurds want unrestricted broadcasts in their language

ISTANBUL / 22 November 2002 7 by Nick Thorpe

Kurdish and human rights groups in Turkey have reacted with disappointment to a long-awaited ruling which will allow limited broadcasting in the Kurdish language for the first time. One leading Kurdish politician described the ruling by the body which oversees broadcast media as an important move but nowhere near enough.

The new Turkish Government is lobbying hard to be given a date at the Copenhagen summit of the European Union in mid-December at which talks on EU membership can begin.

EU leaders often call for significant improvements in the rights of Turkey's large Kurdish community.

But Wednesday's announcement that a maximum 30 minutes per day of Kurdish programmes will be allowed on state television and 45 minutes on the radio has been met with dismay by Kurdish representatives.

A leading Kurdish politician in Turkey, Nasmi Gor, told the BBC: "This is a very important step but a very small one."

He said the decision shows that the Turkish state still wants to control and limit the rights of the Kurds.

Language denied

The existence of Kurds and of a Kurdish language was long denied by the state.

Last August, under EU pressure, the general right to education and media in Kurdish was established.

The announcement by the media watchdog marks a stage in the implementation of that change.

More important for the Kurds than short broadcasts on state-controlled channels would be the right to unlimited broadcasts on local and commercial media of their music, as well as news and cultural programmes.

That still appears a long way off.

5. - The Financial Times - "Denktash delays Cyprus response":

NEW YORK / 22 November 2002 / by Leyla Boulton in New York

Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader who is recovering from heart surgery in New York, will not respond to a United Nations plan to reunite Cyprus until he has returned home and consulted Turkish Cypriots and the new Turkish government in Ankara, a top aide said yesterday.

"The president believes the way forward is through negotiation, but while negotiating one needs a basic strategy and co-ordination on different issues," Ergun Olgun, presidential undersecretary to Mr Denktash, told the Financial Times. "The first priority is to hold the consultations and take it from there." Glafcos Clerides, the Greek-Cypriot president, has already accepted the UN proposal for a loose Swiss-style confederation of "component states" with a weak central state.

Mr Olgun was responding to a question about a Turkish Cypriot media interview in which Mr Denktash, whose Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognised only by Ankara, said that "unless the deficiencies . . . are removed, we cannot accept the plan as forming a basis [for negotiation]."

He hoped that Mr Denktash would leave hospital today after responding to treatment for an infection of the surgery wound which "could have killed him" had it spread to his aorta, replaced in a heart operation earlier this month.

Doctors would also have to decide when he would be fit to travel, said Mr Olgun, adding that it was not possible to discuss a 150-page document over telephones which were not secure.

Mr Denktash's stance is of vital interest to the international community, desperate for a settlement before the European Union considers at its December 12-13 summit in Copenhagen whether to admit Cyprus, without a deal if necessary.

The accession of a divided island would exclude the Turkish Cypriots, who control a third of the island, import a messy dispute into the EU, and hurt Turkey's own bid to secure at Copenhagen a date to start EU accession talks.

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, had set a deadline of Monday this week for Greek and Turkish Cypriots to respond to his plan, which aims to use the pressure of the EU deadline to end 40 years of deadlock.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's unofficial leader, has said that although he supports the UN plan as a basis for negotiations, an accord is "impossible" before Copenhagen because of Mr Denktash's ill-health.

Mr Erdogan acknowledged in London on Wednesday that the Cyprus question was linked to Turkey's bid to secure, at Copenhagen, a timetable for starting accession talks.

Support for the Turkish government's more conciliatory approach came from an unexpected quarter on Wednesday, when Kenan Evren, Turkish land forces commander during the 1974 intervention, pointed out that Turkey had deliberately seized extra land in Cyprus as a bargaining chip in a future settlement.

The Turkish side could therefore afford to give up territory - a notion opposed by Turkish hardliners in a growing domestic debate about Cyprus - as part of an overall compromise solution, said General Evren.

The general cannot be accused by hardliners of being weak-kneed - he led a much-criticised coup in 1980.

6. - The Daily Star (Lebanon) - "A godsend for America from Turkey":

21 November 2002 / by Joseph Samaha*

The victory scored by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish general election did not come as a surprise. The AKP has since been variously described as “Islamist,” “fundamentalist,” “democratic Islamist,” “conservative,” and a “centrist party with Islamic roots.”

AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan was not exactly an obscure politician. In fact, he was so famous that the Turkish Army went to great lengths to prevent him from contesting the Nov. 3 general elections by having the courts ban him for having at one time recited a poem deemed “religiously provocative” by the military. The army had already succeeded in banning the AKP’s predecessor in the first “post-modern” coup in history. Yet like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, Turkey’s Islamists managed to bounce back. Changing their name and program, the Islamists returned to legitimate politics.

Despite the fact that the party was facing a new court case that could result in a ban, the AKP won more than a third of the vote in the general elections. Thanks to Turkey’s voting system in which parties have to win at least 10 percent of the vote to be represented in Parliament, the AKP secured more than two-thirds of the total number of seats.

The election result was inevitable. The Islamist current in Turkey was strong, and had already succeeded in propelling one of its leaders (Necmettin Erbakan) to power at the head of a coalition. Islamist leaders had scored good results in municipal elections, including in Ankara. Erdogan also benefited from a strong protest vote against a corrupt government that had bankrupted the nation, and against an opposition tainted by corruption.

The economic crisis pushed millions of Turks to the edge of poverty. It affected the lower and middle classes of Turkish society, and injured national pride by forcing Turkey to go cap in hand to the IMF. It was clear the electorate were looking for a radical party.

Yet the AKP didn’t win on protest votes alone. There was more to the Islamist phenomenon than that. Turkey’s extreme brand of secularism ­ like extreme Iranian fundamentalism ­ has always been provocative to ordinary Turks wanting to exercise their faith quietly. Moreover, the European Union’s unwillingness to accept Turkey in its ranks strengthened feelings of insularity. “As long as we are being treated as Muslims,” Turks figured, “why not be Muslims?” Many Turks have also adopted Islam as a solution to the country’s severe identity problem.

What has to be said at this point though is that Turkish secularism has stamped an indelible mark on the country’s Islamist current. Islamist ideologues recognize that the majority of Turks have crossed the Rubicon, and that there is no going back to old-style Islamist policies ­ not with the army there to oversee things. Turkey’s Islamists realized their only option was to reform their policies and make them different to those pursued by Islamists in other Muslim countries.

It was not strange therefore that people started wondering whether the already moderate AKP had grown even more moderate after the election, or whether it was only feigning moderation. In the first few days after the election, Erdogan was keen to reassure Turks that the Islamists had indeed changed. He sent clear signals to the army, pledged his respect to the country’s secular constitution, opened up to Greece, and declared his readiness to do whatever it takes to secure Turkey’s accession to the EU. Erdogan also avoided provoking the Americans by saying that Turkey would not oppose war against Iraq so long as there was a UN Security Council resolution sanctioning such action.

The Europeans seem confused as to how to deal with this phenomenon. The EU had put forward conditions for Turkey to fulfill before accession talks could begin. One of these is that the army has to respect the will of Turkish voters. It did, and the result was an Islamist win. That embarrassed the Europeans, putting their position on the line.

European disarray vis-a-vis Turkey was not helped by former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing’s assertion that Turkey does not belong in Europe. While only some agreed, all felt the former president had a point worth discussing. Where are the limits of the EU project? Are they geographical, political, ideological, or religious?

Europe aside, all eyes were trained on Washington to gauge its reaction. For decades, the US has been Turkey’s main Western backer. The Iraq question adds to Turkey’s importance. By dealing negatively with Erdogan, ­ who has been keen to demonstrate his allegiance to the West ­ Washington would emphasize that its “war on terror” was actually a clash of civilizations and a new crusade against the Muslim world.

The Americans played it cool. In fact, Washington has been edging toward eventually adopting the AKP as “its kind of Islamists.”

After the Cold War, Washington tried to promote Turkish secularism in Central Asia as an alternative to fundamentalism. Sept. 11 changed that. The issue was no longer secularism vs. fundamentalism, but Islam vs. Islam. The most obvious example of that was the unprecedented tension between the US and Saudi Arabia over perceived fundamentalism in the kingdom.

The Americans may adopt the Turkish brand of Islam (a NATO member, cooperating with the IMF, respectful of the state’s secular nature) in their arguments against conservative political Islam. In this case, Erdogan’s victory can be seen as a gift to the Americans, enabling them to distinguish between their real battle and that against Islam that they are accused of waging.

*Joseph Samaha is the editor in chief of the Beirut daily As-Safir. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star

7. - The Washington Post - "Europe's Campaign Against Turkey":

20 November 2002 / by Fareed Zakaria

Europeans often complain that America's strategy in the war on terror is one-dimensional. It's all military might with little effort to engage the Islamic world in a constructive way. They point out that unless we help Muslim countries prosper, all the F-16s and Predators in the world won't stop the flow of terror. It's a valid criticism, but the single biggest push that could shift events in this direction lies not in America's hands but in Europe's. And Europe is about to blow it.

Next month the European Union is likely once again to dissemble, delay and deceive Turkey about its prospects for membership. Ever since December 1999, when the EU announced that Turkey was a candidate to join, becoming part of Europe has been Turkey's national obsession. Despite the worst economic recession in a generation, despite divided and weak governments, despite a recent battle with its Kurdish minority, Turkey has undergone large-scale economic liberalization and passed three sets of path-breaking constitutional reforms along lines suggested by the European Commission. The last set, approved in August, abolished the death penalty, gave linguistic and educational rights to the Kurdish minority, and expanded the rule of law and political and press freedoms. "All the things that Turkey has been unwilling to do for decades it enacted in one day last August," says Soli Ozel, a Turkish political scientist.

And what was Europe's reaction to these historic measures? It found fault with all of them. The European Commission put out a dismissive report pointing out that there are yet more reforms to be done -- which the Turks have always acknowledged and to which the new government has committed itself. Key national governments -- chiefly Germany and France -- have waged a whispering campaign against Turkey on constantly shifting grounds. For instance, until last month Europeans warned that if the Turkish military intervened to ban the Justice and Development Party -- for fear of its Islamist past -- it would prove that the country was not really democratic. Now that the military has endorsed the party's victory in recent elections, Europeans say, "We can't take into Europe a government run by Islamists."

Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the insufferably arrogant former French president entrusted with envisioning the future of Europe, did not bother to whisper. He announced in an interview with Le Monde that those advocating Turkish membership are "enemies of Europe" and that Turkish admission would mean "the end of Europe." But who are these enemies? It was Charles de Gaulle who supported Turkey's claim to be part of the European Community in the 1960s. It was Europe that invited Turkey to apply for membership in the 1970s, an invitation that Turkey foolishly declined at the time. And it was Brussels that declared Turkey a member candidate in 1999.

Europe's concerns about Turkey are real. The country is big and poor. But Portugal was also poor when it joined the European Community; in fact, its per capita GDP then was about that of Turkey now. Besides, no one is talking about Turkey's becoming a member today. It took eight years to negotiate Spain's entry into Europe. It could take longer for Turkey, but the process would set the country irrevocably on the path to prosperity and mature democracy. Turkey's size makes countries such as France and Germany worry about losing influence in a bigger Europe. But that process is already underway. In 2004, 10 countries totaling more than 74 million people will become part of the EU. And if Turkey has been an imperfect democracy, until a few years before they joined Europe, Spain, Portugal and Greece were dictatorships.

The big unstated objection -- well, now stated after Giscard's outburst -- is that Turkey is Muslim. But while this view of Europe as ethnically and religiously coherent has a comforting feeling to it -- as nostalgia always does -- it doesn't really describe Europe today. What about Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania, three Muslim societies within Europe? What about the millions of Muslims in Europe, who make up the region's second-largest religion? Europe is increasingly a continent of diverse peoples, races and religions, united by ideas and ideals. There is no going back to Christendom.

European statesmen often rue the fact that they do not have the power or unity to act boldly on the world stage the way America does. But the prospect of European Union membership is Europe's strategic weapon -- one that is wielded collectively. In offering it to struggling societies, the EU has revolutionized them. Now it can transform Turkey, create a larger, more energetic Europe, and dramatically alter the balance between moderates and radicals in the Islamic world. Europe has the power. It needs only the vision and the will.

8. - Turkish Daily News - "Court hears case to ban human rights association":

ANKARA / 22 November 2002

An Ankara court yesterday continued hearing a case seeking to ban the country's main human rights group on the grounds that it contradicted laws, semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported.

Ankara Court of First Instance held a hearing regarding the closure of the Human Rights Association (IHD) as the association's branch in southeastern province of Siirt contradicted the Associations Law No. 2908.

IHD's lawyer Yusuf Alatas attended Thursday's hearing of the case, while IHD Chairman Husnu Ondul, Ankara branch chairman Ender Buyukculha and some association administrators watched on.

Alatas said that the IHD was the main human rights group of Turkey and asked the court to finalize the case as soon as possible.

Judge Mehmet Kartal decided to give time to the prosecutor, so that he may inspect the case dossier, and adjourned the case.

Siirt Public Prosecutor's Office filed the suit to close the association on the grounds that the IHD's Siirt branch accepted five members to the human rights group illegally at a board meeting held on March 25, 2001. The indictment reads that the officials of IHD's Siirt branch allowed Siirt provincial chairman of the former pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP), Ahmet Konuk, to make a speech that insulted the courts and police at this board meeting.