24
September 2002
2. "FEATURE-Turkey's conservative heartland looks to AK Party", Hasan Huseyin Okur, asked how Turkey's financial crisis has affected his tiny hardware shop, points forlornly to the "For Sale" sign in the window.
3. "Iraqi Kurds on regional charm tour", a senior delegation of Iraqi Kurds - from the Kurdish Democratic Party - has spent 10 days in talks with Iranian leaders across the political and security spectrum.
4. "Cyprus expects EU invitation in December - official", Cyprus's top official in European Union membership talks said on Monday he expected a favourable progress report on the island's bid next month, followed by a firm invitation in December to join the club.
5. "Interview with George Papandreou, Greek foreign minister", Defteros: "We said we wanted Cyprus to join the European Union, as a country which is unified and has solved the problem between the Greek and Turkish communities. However, we also said that this would not be a prerequisite for membership, but that we would make every effort, of course, for peace."
6. "Council of Europe sends observers to Turkish elections", European human rights watchdog the Council of Europe will send observers to Turkey's parliamentary elections on November 3, the president of the Council's parliamentary assembly said on Monday.
1. - Associated Press - "Turkish lawmakers seek to delay upcoming elections":
ANKARA / 23 September 2002
Turkey - A group of lawmakers petitioned parliament Monday to vote
to delay Nov. 3 elections, the Anatolia news agency reported.
The move comes as polls show that the country's leading parties are
likely to suffer at the hands of angry voters facing a severe economic
crisis.
If the petition by 124 lawmakers is accepted, parliament would reconvene
on Sept. 26_ about a week before the end of its summer recess, Anatolia
reported. However, parliament speaker Omer Izgi has some discretion
and it was not immediately clear if he would call parliament from
its recess.
It was also unclear if the legislators would have enough votes to
set another election date.
In July, parliament set the Nov. 3 election date - 18 months ahead
of schedule - amid political instability sparked by Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit's frail health.
The Justice and Development Party, a new party with Islamic roots,
is topping most election polls. Many analysts say its popularity is
boosted by the fact that it has never served in government.
None of the three parties in the governing coalition is expected to
draw enough votes to break the 10 percent threshold required to be
represented in parliament. 
2. - Reuters - "FEATURE-Turkey's conservative heartland looks to AK Party":
KONYA, Turkey / September 23, 2002
By Claudia Parsons
Hasan Huseyin Okur, asked how Turkey's financial crisis has affected his tiny hardware shop, points forlornly to the "For Sale" sign in the window.
"It's the government that's to blame," he said, articulating
an anger likely to send mainstream parties into the wilderness at
November elections and bring to power a party suspected by some of
an Islamist leaning which would clash with Turkey's strict state secularism.
Okur, like many in the central Anatolian city of Konya, will be voting
for the Justice and Development Party (AKP), founded from the more
moderate wing of a party banned last year as a centre of radical Islamism.
AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 48, was banned from standing at the
election on Friday because of a conviction for Islamist sedition.
He has vowed to remain at the head of the party even if he can not
become prime minister.
Erdogan was once jailed for reciting a poem including the line: "The
mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our
bayonets and the faithful our soldiers". He says now the AKP
is not Islamist, rather conservative and democratic.
Erdogan's exclusion may be a blow to the party but he is still expected
to take a high profile in the campaign. AKP officials in Konya said
it would not change them.
"It's a team effort. The party is not based on one man so we
will continue as always," said Omer Saylik, head of the Konya
branch of the AKP. The ban could even raise support for the party.
Despite the AKP's rejection of the Islamist label, it is no coincidence
that it expects a strong showing in Konya, regarded by many Turks
as the most religious and conservative city in the country and home
of the whirling dervishes, an Islamic sect founded by the 13th century
mystic Mevlana.
ISLAMIC CITY
As couples and families chat at a tea garden on a hill overlooking
the city of 1.3 million people, the sound of the muezzin calling the
faithful to prayer surges up from mosques across the city.
"Konya is for the AKP and the majority of Turkey is for the AKP,"
said Onur Giz, a 23-year-old who studies in the more liberal western
province of Mugla, as he sips his tea.
He says many will vote for the AKP because more mainstream parties
appear likely to fall well below a 10 percent threshold to get into
parliament and they don't want to waste their votes. Only the AKP
and the leftist Republican People's Party (CHP) are well above the
10 percent according to opinion polls.
"I'm afraid that Konya would even vote for Erbakan," Giz
said, referring to former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan.
Erbakan, father of political Islam in Turkey, was head of a government
forced from power in 1997 by an army-led campaign. His Islamist party
was later banned and his candidacy as an independent rejected by the
election authorities last week.
The secular establishment, including some in the military as well
as veteran Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, suspect Erdogan of trying
to emulate Erbakan, who during his premiership talked of boosting
ties with neighbouring Iran at the expense of the European Union which
Turkey seeks to join.
But Erdogan has consistently rejected the Islamist label and AKP officials
in Konya insist they are merely conservative.
"Being Muslim is a reality in Turkey. Ninety-nine percent of
Turkish people are Muslim so every party is supported by Muslims,"
said Saylik.
Faruk Sekerci, head of the youth division of the local party, keeps
a photograph of Turkey's secularist founding father, Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, in his wallet, whipping it out in answer to questions about
the accusations levelled at the AKP.
"We are a new and democratic reflection of Ataturk," Sekerci
said. Ataturk, who founded modern Turkey on secular democracy, is
revered throughout the country and constantly invoked by politicians.
HEADSCARF CONTROVERSY
Still, some who may vote for the AKP are hoping for action in areas
that touch at the heart of the secular-religious debate in Turkey,
such as a ban on women wearing Islamic headscarves in universities
or at work if they are civil servants.
The headscarf issue raises strong passions. Some insist it is their
human right to wear it. Others who fear Turkey could fall prey to
an Iranian-style Islamic revolution denounce it as an overt challenge
to the constitution and Ataturk's heritage.
For shop owner Okur's four daughters, it defines their potential in
life. "My girls couldn't go to university because of the headscarf.
They won good grades in school but they couldn't go to university.
I want to see these problems solved."
Leyla Betul Kucuk, a 27-year-old lawyer who heads the AKP's local
women's branch, is vague about what exactly it would do about headscarves
if it came to power.
"If we win the election this problem will be analysed under a
general issue, not just the headscarf issue but a general issue of
religious freedom," she said, herself wearing a black headscarf
twinned with a tight red, black and white top.
Freedom of religion is one of the concerns cited by the European Union
over Turkey's candidacy for membership of the bloc. Turkey passed
a swath of human rights reforms in August aimed at meeting EU criteria
and is hoping for a date to be set by the end of the year for the
start of membership talks.
Huseyin Uzulmez, head of Konya's Chamber of Commerce and an avowed
AKP supporter, travels regularly to Europe to lobby EU countries in
favour of Turkey's membership bid and he says there is no question
of Turkey turning its back on Europe.
"We want to join with the West but without destroying our customs
and values," he said.
The views of fellow businessman and AKP supporter Mehmet Ali Korkmaz
may cause more concern among those who fear the AKP could compromise
Turkey's $16 billion International Monetary Fund rescue programme.
"Turkey should be self-sufficient so we should break relations
with the IMF," Korkmaz said, calling for a gradual easing of
links and a change of policies.
"Turkish people have paid too much for the IMF."
More than a million people have lost their jobs as a result of last
year's financial crisis that sparked the worst recession since 1945.
In Konya alone 60,000 were laid off.
That is the root of the anger that may help the AKP.
Ecevit, a veteran statesman five times prime minister, is a frail
figure. Other mainstream parties are filled with familiar faces who
have played musical chairs with power for decades.
"All the politicians must be changed. We want new faces and new
ideas," said 40-year-old Mustafa Unlu, who runs a paint shop.
Ali Menekse, 50, who runs a jewellery shop across the road, echoes
that view. "We like Erdogan and his young friends. We don't want
old people. We want young people in charge."
3. - BBC - "Iraqi Kurds on regional charm tour":
TEHRAN / 23 September 2002 / by Jim Muir
Many believe the US will attack Iraq sooner or later
Despite Baghdad's back-down over the issue of arms inspections, contacts
have been going on in the region on the assumption that the United
States will, sooner or later, go ahead with their plans for regime
change in Iraq.
A senior delegation of Iraqi Kurds - from the Kurdish Democratic Party
- has spent 10 days in talks with Iranian leaders across the political
and security spectrum.
Iraqi Kurds say Iran would be happy to see Saddam go
Delegation sources said they had assured Iran that any future regime
which might emerge in Baghdad - and in which the Kurds would expect
to play a major role - would not be hostile to Tehran, where there
are fears that Iran might be next on the list for American attentions.
The Kurds believe that Iraq is approaching what they call its moment
of truth.
And also that the attitude of Iraq's neighbours will be a vital factor
in future events.
The Iranians know that the KDP - which is one of the two main Kurdish
factions currently running their own affairs in Northern Iraq - with
Western air protection, is liaising closely with the Americans as
well as with other Iraqi opposition groups.
No Kurdish state
The Kurds have also been reassuring their Iranian hosts that there
is no secret agenda for the establishment of an independent Kurdish
state.
This is an issue of great concern in Tehran, but also to Turkey and
Syria. All three have substantial Kurdish minorities.
Iran's official position disapproves of any unilateral American action
to remove Saddam Hussein.
But the Kurds believe Tehran would be quietly delighted to see him
go, and would not stand in the way of Iraqi opposition groups working
to that end.
The Kurdish delegation also held talks with the Iran-based Iraqi Shia
opposition group, the Supreme Council, headed by Ayatollah Mohammed
Baqer al-Hakim.
The group is influential in southern Iraq.
The two sides agreed to co-ordinate closely.
When the Shia and the Kurds rose up against Saddam after his forces
were driven out of Kuwait in 1991 the movements were not synchronised
and the Baghdad government was able to quell them separately.
Clearly there is concern to ensure that that does not happen again.
4. - Reuters - "Cyprus expects EU invitation in December - official":
NICOSIA / September 23, 2002
Cyprus's top official in European Union membership talks said on
Monday he expected a favourable progress report on the island's bid
next month, followed by a firm invitation in December to join the
club.
The annual progress report on EU candidates for membership will be
published on October 9.
On the basis of the report, EU leaders will decide at a Brussels summit
on October 24-25 which of the mostly ex-communist eastern European
countries will join in the next wave of enlargement.
"We are progressing well...I am certain the European Commission
report which will be given to us in Brussels on October 9 will be
very positive for Cyprus," said George Vassiliou, Cyprus's chief
EU negotiator.
"Based on the facts that we have before us today, I can state
for sure that on December 14 in Copenhagen, the Council will approve
Cyprus's accession to the EU with the remaining nine countries,"
Vassiliou told reporters.
Cyprus has been a frontrunner among the candidates in preparing itself
for membership, though its bid has been overshadowed by the country's
division along ethnic lines and continued failure to make headway
in reunification talks.
The east Mediterranean island has been partitioned since a Turkish
invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup.
Slow-moving talks between the leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot
communities have stumbled on a range of issues from territorial handovers
to power sharing.
Brussels says that a settlement is not a precondition for membership.
But the EU still faces warnings from member state Greece that it will
not ratify any expansion without Cyprus, and from outsider candidate
Turkey which says it may "annex" the north of the island
if it joins the union.
5.
- International Herald Tribune - "Interview with George Papandreou,
Greek foreign minister":
ATHENS / September 23, 2002 / by John Defteros
In less than two years time, the Olympic Games will return to the country they were born in more than 2,000 years ago and where the first modern games were held in 1896: Greece. If the events of September 11th and the failure of Greece to stamp out terrorism at home cast a dark shadow over the Games of 2004, that shadow now seems to be lifting. IHT-TV’s John Defterios spoke to Greece’s foreign minister, George Papandreou, in Athens.
I’d like to start with the effort to eliminate the terror group November 17. What changed in the government’s tactic that led to all of these arrests in only three months, after literally decades of hiding?
November 17 was a very tight-knit and small group, and therefore, very difficult to find. But we were very systematic over the past years, having worked with international agencies in the United States, the UK, and other countries in developing our methods. I also think that this group had become more and more isolated in public opinion, making it very difficult for them to move around without being detected. Finally, they made a mistake, and we were ready. Our sources were ready to use this mistake and, from there, unravel and dismantle the organisation.
Let’s turn our attention to Iraq. You met with the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell during the UN General Assembly. Are you comfortable with the aggressive approach Washington is taking against Iraq, or should the weapons inspections process proceed, even if it takes months or years?
First of all, we all want to see Saddam Hussein apply the UN resolutions. Secondly, we were very happy to see that this issue came back to the UN, and is being discussed in the UN, and therefore the UN will be the organisation taking the lead. Certainly, we want to see this problem solved through diplomatic means. Pressure must be applied from the international community in a collective stance. And if that pressure can be maintained, we may have a diplomatic victory.
Washington certainly sees it differently. Will this further strain U.S.-E.U. relations?
I think this is an important question. We have, as Europeans, voiced our opinions, and we need to cooperate very closely with the United States on this issue.
First of all, we feel a collective stance is important. Secondly, it is important that this issue is being discussed within the UN, giving the issue of Iraq international legitimacy. This is important in the eyes of many countries that, if you like, should be educated into accepting international law, and UN resolutions.
But thirdly, there’s also a question as to what military confrontation would mean, not only for Saddam Hussein, but for the whole region: how the Arab world would react, how the region would then be affected, how this would affect the economies and the political situation in the region.
So there are a number of factors that have to be looked at if one is going to talk about a more aggressive military stance. I think that we all need to back the UN effort, and make sure that Saddam understands that there is a true possibility that military action will follow if he does not comply.
The European Union will soon decide whether to formally accept Cyprus within its ranks. Will that take place even if a settlement is not reached on the divided island?
In 1999, the 15 leaders of the European Union made a very important decision in Helsinki.
We said we wanted Cyprus to join the European Union, as a country which is unified and has solved the problem between the Greek and Turkish communities. However, we also said that this would not be a prerequisite for membership, but that we would make every effort, of course, for peace.
Over the next few months, Secretary-General Kofi Annan will be making very important efforts to try to get a solution on Cyprus before December in Copenhagen.
If not, I think what we’ll have to do is continue towards solving the Cyprus issue, so that the Turkish Cypriot community can become part of the new constitution of Cyprus as well as part of the European Union.
Do you take Turkey’s threat seriously, that it will annex the northern half of the island if membership is granted without a deal?
This has been mentioned at times by certain Turkish leaders. We hope that this is not the case. In the long term, Cyprus should become a showcase of cooperation between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, where these two communities can and should live together in peace in a democratic European Union. Together, enjoying the stability and economic benefits of being part of the EU.
Turkey is looking for a commitment to begin formal negotiations to join the EU itself. Do you believe that Turkey has made enough progress on improving human rights and political reforms to grant that request?
The EU Commission will be coming out soon with a report on Turkey’s progress. Certainly they’ve made a number of very important decisions this summer in their Parliament, but I think there are certain steps they have to continue to make and implement. That does not mean, however, that we cannot give a positive response to Turkey in December.
And Greece is one of the more adamant countries in trying to help
Turkey on its European path. We will be working both within the European
Union and with our Turkish counterparts to help them attain membership.
6.
AFP - "Council of Europe sends observers to Turkish elections":
STRASBOURG / September 23, 2002
European human rights watchdog the Council of Europe will send observers
to Turkey's parliamentary elections on November 3, the president of
the Council's parliamentary assembly said on Monday.
"We will observe the elections in Turkey," Peter Schieder
told journalists.
"Turkey is still on monitoring," he added, referring to
human rights monitoring currently being carried out by the Council.
On Monday the parliamentary assembly authorised the Council's intergovernmental
Comittee of Ministers to "consider taking all the necessary measures"
including seizing funds from Turkey's contribution to the council,
if Turkey continued to ignore the council's human rights findings
in cases including that of four Kurds imprisoned for separatist activities.
The Turkish elections, originally scheduled for April 2004, have been
brought forward because of the country's political crisis.
Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe and wishes to join the
European Union.