19
September 2002
2. "EU-hopeful Turkey moves to improve detention conditions", Turkey has issued a set of rules outlining detainees' rights and police jurisdiction in a bid to improve its poor human rights record and strengthen its bid to join the European Union, the Turkish press reported Thursday.
3. "Pro-Kurdish party fears democratic reforms will be slow to take hold", DEHAP, the sole pro-Kurdish party to field candidates in Turkey's upcoming general elections, has praised Ankara's recent pro-democracy reforms but fears they will be slow to take hold.
4. "Turkish parties abandon bid to change election rules", a bid by several Turkish parties to change electoral rules ahead of polls in November has been abandoned, a senior politician said on Wednesday. "As far as I can see those who raised this issue hesitated and it was dropped from the agenda," said Ismail Cem, the leader of the opposition New Turkey party (YT) whose members were backing the bid, according to Anatolia news agency.
5. "Amnesty International to EU: Turkey still uses torture", Turkey's police still torture suspects, including women and children, despite recent reforms meant to enhance its candidacy for European Union membership, the human rights group Amnesty International told the European Union on Wednesday.
6. "Turkey Moves Towards Creating Private Kurdish Schools", Turkey's education minister says the government has approved a new set of regulations that will permit the establishment of privately-run schools to teach the Kurdish language. The new regulations are another move by the government to improve the country's chances of getting into the European Union.
7. "EU military mission at risk from Turkish rift", the European Union's first military mission has been thrown into doubt following its failure to resolve a dispute with Turkey, a leading Nato member.
8. "Turk Party Leader Vows to Fight on Despite Any Ban", The leader of the party topping the polls ahead of a Turkish election vowed on Wednesday to battle on even if electoral authorities ban him from running. A decision on whether popular Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdogan may stand in November polls is expected by Friday, the top electoral official said on Thursday.
1. - Turkish Daily News - "Still no EU date for Turkey":
ANKARA / 19 September 2002
As the EU Commission works to put the final touches on Turkey's progress report, a sketch of what the report contains has started to emerge. The draft report is said to include both positive and negative comments. However, it leaves the decision regarding the negotiation calendar for Turkey's membership up to the EU Council, which consists of the heads of the member states, news portal Abhaber said yesterday.
Turkey's progress report will be unveiled after it is approved by the EU commission, which will convene under the presidency of Romano Prodi on October 9. The draft report is expected to undergo changes up until then. One of the most important factors to affect the report will be the results of elections in Germany.
The EU Commission's draft report presents a picture of the current political and economic situation, while leaving the decision on the negotiation calendar to the member states. The draft evaluates Turkey's recent steps taken on the EU path as significant, but remains cautious about whether this progress is permanent.
On the economic front, the report emphasizes that Turkey enacted
structural reforms in order to achieve a proper-functioning free market,
but questions how this economic system will work. While offering praise
for Turkey's EU reforms, the draft details both positive and negative
aspects of Turkey's harmonization with EU norms.
Positive aspects of the EU report
According to the draft report, Turkey's EU adaptation laws have been
a significant development on the way to full membership. It adds that
Turkey has taken a significant step within the framework of fulfilling
political criteria, despite the uncertainty in domestic politics.
Reforms such as abolishing the death penalty, expanding freedom of
speech and expression and granting language rights have brought Turkey
closer to the EU. The report suggests that Turkey's EU perspective
should be strengthened. It also notes that the legal amendments protecting
minority rights and securing the right to possess goods were remarkable.
Negative aspects of the EU report
The EU Commission also touches on uncertainty over the implementation
of the political criteria, and says there were some questions as to
the how these reforms will be put into practice. The report emphasizes
the lack of concrete developments in the fields of freedom of expression
and thought, and notes that former Democracy Party (DEP) deputies
remain in prison. Developments related to high security 'f-type' prisons
were also included in the report, as were references to international
human rights associations' reports alleging torture in prisons and
police stations.
2. - AFP - "EU-hopeful Turkey moves to improve detention conditions":
ANKARA / September 19, 2002
Turkey has issued a set of rules outlining detainees' rights and
police jurisdiction in a bid to improve its poor human rights record
and strengthen its bid to join the European Union, the Turkish press
reported Thursday.
The rules, published in the official gazette on Wednesday, follow
up on a series of key democracy reforms parliament passed last month
to bring the country in line with European norms.
Under the changes, police will read detainees their rights and inform
them of the charges against them when they are taken into custody.
Those arrested will be allowed to call a relative to inform them of
their detention, the liberal daily Radikal reported.
The rules limit detention periods to four days and have made it obligatory
to seek a court order to extend it, it added.
Another change gives detainees the right to see a doctor without a
security officer being present as was earlier the case, Radikal said.
The rules aim to prevent alleged torture and disapperances, two of
the main human rights violations Turkey stands accused of by Western
allies and rights organizations.
Ankara's poor human rights record is seen as one of the main obstacles
to its long-standing bid to join the European Union.
Turkey says it has met the political criteria required to open accession
talks with the European Union with last month's adoption of democracy
reforms, which also abolished the death penlty and granted the country's
Kurdish minority cultural rights.
It has been pressing the pan-European bloc to set a date for accession
negotiations by the end of the year.
The Union has welcomed the reforms but said it will watch closely
how they are implemented.
3. - AFP - "Pro-Kurdish party fears democratic reforms will be slow to take hold":
DIYARBAKIR / 18 September 2002 / by Burak Akinci
DEHAP, the sole pro-Kurdish party to field candidates in Turkey's
upcoming general elections, has praised Ankara's recent pro-democracy
reforms but fears they will be slow to take hold. Officials of the
Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) have been quick to praise the new
laws adopted by parliament in August which allow, among other freedoms,
for broadcasts and education in Kurdish, the language of Turkey's
largest minority.
"These laws are truly a revolution," said Osman Baydemir,
a DEHAP candidate in the November 3 general election.
Only last week, for example, a Turkish state security tribunal acquitted
28 Kurdish children who faced up to three years in jail for demanding
education in their mother tongue prior to the parliamentary vote.
But "laws have little meaning without a change in mentality,"
he stressed, referring to long-standing opposition in Turkey to allowing
Kurds any minority rights.
It is still forbidden, for example, to register one's child with a Kurdish name, he added. And Turkish authorities recently banned the distribution of a new pro-Kurdish newspaper, Yeniden Ozgur Gundem, in two mainly Kurdish provinces under emergency rule, following its publication of writings by jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) waged a 15-year war for Kurdish self-rule in the region. Nationalists in Turkey have criticized the parliamentary reforms, saying they were imposed by the European Union to which Ankara is pandering in a bid to win membership.
Ankara has promised to move swiftly to implement the new laws. Education Minister Necdet Tekin announced Wednesday they had completed legal preparations for the inauguration of courses in the Kurdish language, effectively giving them the official go-ahead. "The enactment of the laws will be as important as their adoption," according to Ali Urkut, provincial DEHAP chairman in Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey. "The region has really changed for the better since the last elections, but much remains to be done", he also added.
A rebellion led by the PKK which left some 36,000 dead has fizzled
out since Ocalan was arrested and jailed in 1999.
Urkut fears however the atmosphere may sour again in the runup to
the elections, especially in rural areas "where the military
threaten villagers with the burning of their homes if they vote for
the (pro-Kurdish) party". DEHAP is now the only pro-Kurdish party
to run in the election after HADEP, the People's Democracy Party,
folded 10 days ago fearing it was about to be banned by the Turkish
judiciary for alleged "links" with Kurdish rebels. Now former
HADEP members, along with representatives from two smaller left-wing
parties, are throwing in their lot with DEHAP, a sister party set
up in 1997.
In the last general elections in 1999, HADEP won a majority of votes
in the Turkish southeast, but failed to win the necessary 10 percent
of the vote nationwide to obtain any seats in parliament. The party,
however, won several major townships in the region. "There's
no need to fear us, we shall enter parliament to truly work for brotherhood
between the Kurdish and Turkish people," according to Baydemir
who feels confident DEHAP will this time win seats.
4.
- AFP - "Turkish parties abandon bid to change election rules":
ANKARA / 18 September 2002
A bid by several Turkish parties to change electoral rules ahead of polls in November has been abandoned, a senior politician said on Wednesday. "As far as I can see those who raised this issue hesitated and it was dropped from the agenda," said Ismail Cem, the leader of the opposition New Turkey party (YT) whose members were backing the bid, according to Anatolia news agency.
Cem's remarks followed a statement by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer,
who on Tuesday accused the three parties behind the initiative of
aiming to stall the elections. The three parties stand to be eliminated
from parliament in the
election, according to opinion polls. YT members said Monday their
party was planning to launch a joint bid with
the ruling coalition's Motherland Party (ANAP) and the opposition
Islamist Saadet Party (SP) to recall parliament back from summer recess
to debate amendments to electoral laws.
Parliamentary sources said the move, which was being organized behind
the scenes, had been postponed after the ANAP and SP leaderships backed
down. Planned changes included slashing the 10-percent national threshold
required to enter parliament to five percent and lifting a ban on
electoral alliances between parties.
According to recent opinion polls, only two of some 20 parties running
in the election have a chance of clearing the 10-percent threshold
and nine parties currently represented in parliament risk losing all
their seats.
5. - Associated Press - "Amnesty International to EU: Turkey still uses torture":
BRUSSELS / September 18, 2002
Turkey's police still torture suspects, including women and children, despite recent reforms meant to enhance its candidacy for European Union membership, the human rights group Amnesty International told the European Union on Wednesday.
The EU is expected to decide in December whether to open negotiations
with Turkey over the country's joining the union - talks that have
been long delayed because Turkey has not met EU demands for democratic
and economic reforms, including a ban on torture.
Amnesty said in a report to EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen
that torture was ``widespread'' and persistently used by police forces
in most of Turkey's 13 provinces.
Amnesty representatives found evidence of torture while visiting Turkey
from January to June. They listed 28 cases involving 60 alleged victims.
The alleged victims included suspects accused of pro-Kurdish, militant
Islamist or leftist activities, and suspects - many of them children
- accused of burglary and theft, the group said.
Amnesty said people taken in for questioning routinely are blindfolded
and can face a barrage of torture methods, including electric shocks,
hanging by the arms and severe beatings.
``Women and girls taken into custody are reportedly regularly sexually
abused and threatened with rape,'' the report said.
Turkish officials said they did not have immediate comment on the
report.
Dick Oosting, the director of Amnesty International's EU office, asked
the EU's head office to ``urge Turkey to immediately end incommunicado
detention,'' during which tortures allegedly are carried out.
``The EU must thoroughly assess the practical impact of any legal
reforms on the human rights situation,'' Oosting said. ``Compliance
on paper is not enough ... This report shows that in Turkey, the reforms
are clearly not sufficient.''
Turkey hopes that the EU will announce a date for the start of membership
negotiations during the union's Dec. 12-13 summit in Denmark. Turkey
acceded to long-standing EU demands last month when parliament abolished
the death penalty in peacetime, granted rights to minority Kurds and
took steps to ease press restrictions.
It also began reforming its penal code to guarantee freedom of expression
and to protect against torture, but Amnesty claims those efforts were
``an inefficient step to effectively combat torture.''
The EU will present its annual progress reports on all 13 candidate
countries Oct. 9.
Turkish Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel said continued delays by
the EU will have serious political ramifications in Turkey, where
elections are scheduled for Nov. 3.
6. - Voice of America - "Turkey Moves Towards Creating Private Kurdish Schools":
ANKARA / 18 September 2002
by Amberin Zaman
Turkey's education minister says the government has approved a new
set of regulations that will permit the establishment of privately-run
schools to teach the Kurdish language. The new regulations are another
move by the government to improve the country's chances of getting
into the European Union.
Education Minister Necdet Tekin stresses the regulations covered the
teaching of all regional languages and dialects spoken in Turkey and
not solely the Kurdish language.
Mr. Tekin said the new regulations ensured that such languages would
be taught in conformity, as he put it, with the interests of the Turkish
state.
Under the new regulations, teachers will need to go through a rigorous
vetting process by the government before being permitted to teach
in privately run schools. They have to be Turkish citizens and to
not have been convicted of any crimes against the state. To be eligible
for the courses, students have to be above 18 years of age and to
have parental approval.
Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds have long fought for the right
to broadcast in and teach in their own language. But successive Turkish
governments have denied such rights, saying they would promote separatist
sentiment and eventually lead to the establishment of an independent
Kurdish state.
Such fears diminished, analysts say, after separatist guerrillas of
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party called off their armed fight
for an independent Kurdish homeland, following the capture of their
leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in 1999.
Both Ocalan's group and Turkey's largest pro-Kurdish political party,
Hadep, say Turkey's Kurds no longer seek independence and that easing
bans on their mother tongue would go a long way toward satisfying
their demands.
The European Union is also demanding that Turkey lift bans on the
use of the Kurdish language as one of its conditions for starting
membership talks with the Ankara government.
In August, Turkey's parliament approved sweeping reforms aimed at
fulfilling EU conditions. The reforms included abolishing the death
penalty, except in times of war, and easing restrictions on the Kurdish
language.
7. - The Financial Times - "EU military mission at risk from Turkish rift":
BRUSSELS / 19 September 2002
By Judy Dempsey
The European Union's first military mission has been thrown into doubt following its failure to resolve a dispute with Turkey, a leading Nato member.
The first defence mission was scheduled to take place next month
in the unstable Balkan republic of Macedonia, where the EU had hoped
to take over from the Nato-led "Amber Fox" operation, currently
led by The Netherlands.
The small Nato operation, consisting of only 800 soldiers, most of
whom are European, has a mandate to protect international monitors
overseeing the implementation of a peace agreement forged last year
after months of fighting between the Macedonian Slav majority and
the ethnic Albanian minority.
But Nato officials yesterday said the alliance had no option but to
extend its role in Macedonia up to December.
They said the EU and Turkey had again failed to reach agreement on
the terms for European access to Nato's assets, including planning.
Any such access requires agreement from all 19 Nato members.
The EU failure comes at an embarrassing time for the Europeans, who
have set an ambitious target of having a 60,000-strong rapid reaction
force up and running by the middle of next year.
The force, to be operated under the umbrella of the EU's European
Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), is supposed to be deployed within
60 days and remain on the ground for up to a year.
Diplomats said yesterday that, even if the EU could clinch an agreement
with Turkey, the Europeans would still be plagued by the lack of defence
capa-bilities.
This is despite repeated pleas by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign
policy chief, for the Europeans to spend greater amounts more selectively
on military equipment crucial for ESDP's success. This includes logistics,
intelligence, communications and transport aircraft. The Europeans,
for the moment, have to rely on Nato, particularly the US, for making
up shortfalls.
Turkey wants a greater say in how decisions over any EU operations
are made and assurances that missions would not take place in areas
sensitive to Turkey's security, such as the Aegean Sea.
EU diplomats said they had given Turkey, a candidate for membership
of the EU, as many assurances as possible, short of giving Ankara
a seat at the Union's table.
The deadlock has prompted some countries, notably Belgium and France,
to suggest the EU goes ahead without a Nato accord since Amber Fox
does not carry a high military risk.
Diplomats said France, a supporter of an ESDP more independent from
Nato, could provide the planning. But Britain, Spain and Germany oppose
the EU acting independently of Nato since it could weaken the transatlantic
military alliance.
8. - Reuters - "Turk Party Leader Vows to Fight on Despite Any Ban":
ANKARA / 19 September 2002
By Ralph Boulton
The leader of the party topping the polls ahead of a Turkish election vowed on Wednesday to battle on even if electoral authorities ban him from running.
A decision on whether popular Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdogan
may stand in November polls is expected by Friday, the top electoral
official said on Thursday.
Erdogan, who heads the frontrunning Justice and Development Party
(AKP), has fought to lift a political ban and return to politics after
serving jail time in 1999 for "inciting hatred" in a speech
he gave while serving as Istanbul mayor.
A supreme court ruling this week effectively bars Erdogan from the
ballot, but the High Election Board (YSK) has the final say in who
can stand in the November 3 election.
"Whatever the conditions...I will travel Anatolia's roads to
ask the people to vote for the AK Party," Erdogan said.
Erdogan's AKP is the only party to consistently poll above the 10
percent of votes needed to enter parliament. But he and his party
are viewed with deep suspicion by Turkey's military and secular establishment
because of their Islamist roots.
Financial markets also fear an AKP sweep at the polls could undermine
the country's economic recovery, backed by a $16 billion International
Monetary Fund ( news - web sites) loan package, despite Erdogan's
pledge he would see through the economic reforms.
If the 48-year old Erdogan is banned it will drive a stake through
his ambitions to stand for parliament and serve as prime minister
despite a 1998 conviction for sedition. He served over three months
of a 10-month prison sentence.
Erdogan said a ban against him would blight Turkey's efforts to meet
European Union ( news - web sites) human rights standards and damage
aspirations for EU membership. His fate is also being closely watched
by U.S. authorities contemplating armed action in neighboring Iraq.
"I still have trouble understanding how a Turkey working to enter
the EU can still obstruct freedom of expression," he said.
WAITING FOR THE PEOPLE
Erdogan's AKP rose from the ashes of the Virtue Party, which was
banned last year on charges that it was a center of fundamentalist
Islamic activity. AKP denies the association and describes itself
as conservative.
Muslim Turkey strictly separates state and religion, and the military
is the self-proclaimed guardian of the secular order. It has ousted
four governments since 1960, including the first Islamist-led coalition
in 1997.
Parliament has since eased the law under which Erdogan was convicted
as part of a package of EU-inspired human rights reforms. But the
conviction, carrying a five-year ban from politics, remains on the
AKP leader's record.
Erdogan made clear that he plans to remain a force behind the scenes
until he can re-emerge from any ban.
"I'm waiting for the people to make the real decision. The decision
on November 3 will be very meaningful for me," he said.
The decision on Erdogan's fate comes after chaotic attempts by mainstream
politicians, fearing their parties may fall short of a 10 percent
barrier to parliament, to delay the polls or lower the hurdle to five
percent. Markets see polls as securing stability and safeguarding
a $16 billion IMF crisis pact.
The move to lower the election threshold appeared to be dead in the
water on Wednesday after its instigator, New Turkey Party (YTP) leader
Ismail Cem, signaled that attempts to gather support to revise election
laws ahead of polls had collapsed.
Opinion polling is a particularly inexact science in Turkey, but the
more reputable surveys consistently place the AKP well ahead of its
mainstream rivals. Of them, only the leftist Republican People's Party
(CHP) shows clearly above the barrier.
Erdogan enjoys strong support among thousands who have lost their
jobs or fallen into poverty after two economic crises under the three-party
coalition of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit.
Erdogan says he will stand by an IMF program negotiated by the government,
seeking minor changes to ease social suffering.
Ecevit, 77, whose illness earlier this year triggered a coalition
crisis and spurred November elections, doubts Erdogan.
"Of course the AKP's chairman says 'I've changed.' But time will
show how much he's changed, how real this change is.