6 September 2002

1. "Jailed Kurdish politician urges EU to open doors to Turkey", a jailed former Kurdish parliamentarian has urged senior European Union officials to invite Turkey to start membership talks, lending support to the Ankara government. "The uncertainty over the negotiations date is strengthening (EU) opponents. Uncertainty means darkness and opponents benefit from darkness," Leyla Zana, who has been in prison since 1994 for supporting Kurdish separatist rebels, said in a letter.

2. "Turkey's sole pro-Kurdish party joins forces with leftist parties ahead of polls", Turkey's only legal pro-Kurdish party announced Thursday that it would merge with two small leftist parties, boosting the group's strength ahead of November polls.

3. "EU says reform implementation key to Turkey's membership", the European Union will wait to see how effectively Turkey implements democratic reforms before reassessing the country's readiness for EU membership, the European Commission said Thursday.

4. "Turkey's pop diva under nationalist attacks for ethnic songs", Turkey might have voted to broaden minority rights as part of its efforts to join the European Union, but singing in Armenian, Greek and Kurdish can still send nationalist tempers into a frenzy. Sezen Aksu, Turkey's top pop singer, this week caused a row after singing folk songs in Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Kurdish and Turkish during a weekend concert attended by 20,000 people in the western city of Izmir. (...) "Thanks to the EU, Turkey overcomes mother-tongue taboo": Kurdish is no longer taboo. Songs or movies in Kurdish are no longer banned, only fuel for debate. The state-run Radio and Television Institute is preparing to broadcast in Kurdish on its GAP channel.

5. "Mind the Turkish gap", Turkey is one Middle East drama that gets nowhere near the international attention it deserves. After decades of violent uncertainty the body politic is trying to get its act together. Turkey's geography makes this most powerful state in the region either the keystone of an arch connecting Europe and Asia or a barrier to unity for decades to come. Turbulent politics, social unrest, and religious tension have made it unpredictable in an area that needs stability above all.

6. "Barzani: A Kurdish uprising would make our roads to graves for the Turkish military", the weekly German journal "DIE ZEIT" published today an interview with the Kurdish leader Massud Barzani. Because of it’s importance has translated it from German to English from Kurdish Media. Interview by: Namo Aziz.

1. - AFP - "Jailed Kurdish politician urges EU to open doors to Turkey":

ANKARA / 6 Sept 2002

A jailed former Kurdish parliamentarian has urged senior European Union officials to invite Turkey to start membership talks, lending support to the Ankara government. "The uncertainty over the negotiations date is strengthening (EU) opponents. Uncertainty means darkness and opponents benefit from darkness," Leyla Zana, who has been in prison since 1994 for supporting Kurdish separatist rebels, said in a letter.

"That is why... the announcement of a negotiation calendar for Turkey at the (EU's Copenhagen) summit in December will irreversibly open Turkey's road" towards integration with the Union, she wrote. "Otherwise, it could become impossible to put into practice the recent legal arrangements and to speed up the pace of democratization," she added in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP and confirmed by Zana's lawyer Yusuf Alatas.

The parliament last month lifted one-time bans such as broadcasts and courses in the Kurdish language and abolished the death penalty in peace time as part of democracy reforms aimed at bringing Turkey closer to EU norms.

Zana, a laureate of the EU Parliament's human rights award in 1995, said the "historical" measures had sealed "the brotherhood of Turks and Kurds." She sent the letter on August 29 to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country currently chairs the EU, the European Parliament's president Pat Cox, European Commission President Romano Prodi and Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen. Zana, a former parliament member, has been in jail in Ankara since 1994, serving a 15-year sentence for separatist activities in support of armed Kurdish rebels.

Turkey, the laggard among the 13 EU hopefuls, says its recent democratization drive has made it eligible for membership negotiations and wants the EU to set a date for the opening of the talks by year-end. The EU, however, says the passage of the reforms does not guarantee the opening of accession talks and that legal changes must be implemented in practice.

2. - AP - "Turkey's sole pro-Kurdish party joins forces with leftist parties ahead of polls":

ANKARA / 5 September 2002

Turkey's only legal pro-Kurdish party announced Thursday that it would merge with two small leftist parties, boosting the group's strength ahead of November polls.

The People's Democracy Party, or HADEP, and the other two parties said they would merge under the banner of the Democratic People's Party. Two other small leftist parties were also considering joining.

HADEP and the Socialist Democratic Party and the Labor Party — the other parties in the alliance — all failed to clear the 10 percent threshold required to enter parliament during the last elections in 1999.

Prosecutors are trying to close down HADEP, accusing it of being a front for rebels who waged a 15-year war for autonomy in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

The alliance announcement comes as Turkey's top court prepares to decide on HADEP's future. Analysts say the move would allow HADEP candidates to run for parliament even if their party is closed down.

The Constitutional Court has closed down three predecessor parties to HADEP.

HADEP denies links to the rebels and says it demands greater rights for the country's estimated 12 million Kurds.

In a written statement, HADEP said the alliance would allow "Turkey's democratic forces to work together in the elections to enter parliament in a powerful way."

Some 37,000 people, mostly Kurdish rebels and civilians, have died as a result of fighting between the Turkish military and Kurdish rebels.

The rebels declared a cease-fire in 1999, but Turkey rejected the truce, saying all the rebels must surrender or be killed.

A recent opinion poll by Deutsche Bank put support for HADEP at around 5.8 percent. It did not include popular support for the other parties in the alliance.

3. - AFP - "EU says reform implementation key to Turkey's membership":

BRUSSELS / 5 Sept 2002

The European Union will wait to see how effectively Turkey implements democratic reforms before reassessing the country's readiness for EU membership, the European Commission said Thursday.

"We want to see the real situation," said a Commission spokesman, following a meeting in Brussels between Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen and Turkish Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel.

"It's not simply the official texts adopted by the parliament that count, but also the way their concrete implementation affects people's daily lives."

Turkish parliamentarians last month adopted a raft of reforms including abolition of the death penalty, cultural and language rights for minority Kurds and new press and religious freedom guarantees. The spokesman said Turkey had promised to implement the new reforms before early legislative elections in November.

A Commission report on the countries queueing for EU membership, due on October 16, will evaluate Turkey's progress towards keeping the promises of democratic and human rights reforms made in its 2001 accession agreement with the EU.

Ankara wants to see its compliance with EU membership criteria recognised in time for a starting date for formal membership talks to be agreed at the end of the year.

4. - AFP - "Turkey's pop diva under nationalist attacks for ethnic songs":

ANKARA / 5 September 2002 / by Sibel Utku

Turkey might have voted to broaden minority rights as part of its efforts to join the European Union, but singing in Armenian, Greek and Kurdish can still send nationalist tempers into a frenzy. Sezen Aksu, Turkey's top pop singer, this week caused a row after singing folk songs in Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Kurdish and Turkish during a weekend concert attended by 20,000 people in the western city of Izmir.

An Armenian church choir, music groups from the Greek and Jewish communities and a children's choir from the mainly Kurdish southeast accompanied her on stage. The mainstream press hailed the concert as helping to promote tolerance in Turkey. It followed the Turkish parliament giving its green light last month to doing away with bans on broadcasts and courses in Kurdish, in a bid to bring its legislation in line with EU expectations.

But one general was not happy. Hursit Tolon, a regional commander of the army, which still wields significant influence in Turkish politics, criticized the timing of the show. It took place on Victory Day, August 30, a day commemorating a decisive 1922 battle when Turkish forces defeated Greek invaders occupying western Anatolia. The far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP), the only group that opposed Kurdish cultural rights in parliament, quickly followed up on the general's remarks and accused Aksu of propagating separatism.

"Aksu says a country cannot be divided by a song. Of course not, but this is a process. Yugoslavia was also saying it would not split up, but thousands died and it was divided into five," said MHP member Mehmet Gul. "I will advise her to go Greece and Armenia to give those concerts," he added. The controversy comes at a time when the European Union is closely watching how Turkey will implement recently-adopted democratic reforms before it decides whether to enter into talks over Turkey joining the European Union. Turkish fears of seeing the country divided are deep-rooted and date back to the end of World War I when victorious allied forces invaded large parts of what is today Turkey.

Fears grew in the past two decades after a Kurdish rebellion in the southeast, which claimed more than 36,000 lives. "The MHP are the real separatists. Not wanting people to sing together is equal to not wanting them to live together," Hrant Dink, editor of the Armenian-language Agos daily, told AFP. And a Kurdish writer, Seyhmus Diken, said that "what matters is that such a concert was held and welcomed by the majority." Culture Minister Suat Caglayan threw his support behind Aksu and accused her critics of "racism."

But the controversy seems to have discouraged the singer, who might cancel her next show scheduled for September 19 in Istanbul. Organizers told AFP Thursday the concert "could be cancelled," not because of the criticism, but because of "heavy rainfall in Istanbul." Liberals called on Aksu to go ahead with the concert. "Come on Sezen, the overwhelming majority of Turkey is behind you," the mass-circulation Hurriyet daily said. "If not why did parliament approve the EU harmonization laws?"

“Thanks to the EU, Turkey overcomes mother-tongue taboo”

ANKARA / 6 September (TDN)

Kurdish is no longer taboo. Songs or movies in Kurdish are no longer banned, only fuel for debate. The state-run Radio and Television Institute is preparing to broadcast in Kurdish on its GAP channel.

Some may view these as slow developments, but those who remember that some 35,000 died in the 15-year old conflict between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish Armed Forces are aware of the fact that Turkey is at the verge of overcoming a phobia.

Thanks to Turkey's ambition to become a member of the European Union (EU), Turkish pop diva Sezen Aksu was the first singer to take the lead by singing a song in Kurdish after Parliament passed a bill permitting education and broadcasting in Kurdish.

Before the amendment, such attempts were always viewed as efforts to divide the country.

Her concert drew reactions from some circles, especially the nationalists, but she was also supported by a number of people.

Among those who supported Sezer was Culture Minister Suat Caglayan who was a former member of the Turkish Armed Forces. Currently, he is expected to support the lifting of the ban on the movie, "Big Man, Small Love."

Big Man, Small Love, Big trouble

The movie which was Turkey's hope for an Oscar was yanked from cinemas in March after police denounced the movie, which questions Turkey's ban on the Kurdish language, as "separatist" propaganda.

The Culture Ministry, which had partly sponsored the making of "Big Man, Small Love," ordered the film out of theaters after the decision.

The police, in a report, also said the film offended police with a scene of killings in a bloody police raid on a Kurdish house, said a ministry official speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

The movie includes bits of dialogue in Kurdish with Turkish subtitles.

In the film, a five-year-old Kurdish girl escapes a bloody police raid on the home of a relative sheltering Kurdish rebels. She ends up under the protection of a 75-year-old retired Turkish judge. The child cannot speak Turkish, and the authoritarian judge objects to the use of Kurdish in his home.

The movie about their tense relationship and the old man's gradual questioning of the strict, national ban on Kurdish, has won over movie goers since it opened in cinemas in Turkey in October.

Turkey had selected it as its candidate for a foreign film nomination, but the movie wasn't among those nominated for an Oscar last month.

Recently, new Culture Minister Caglayan asked for the removal of the ban on the movie but as the legal procedure still continues, it is not possible to halt the ban.

At least his attempt signals the end of the strict ban on Kurdish language and Kurdish culture.

Now, it is time for broadcasting in Kurdish

According to a news report of the Radikal newspaper, TRT is ready for broadcasting in Kurdish on its local channel, GAP TV.

GAP TV mainly focuses on the problems and local views of the Southeastern region of Turkey.

TRT General Manager Yucel Yener said that GAP TV will broadcast in Kurdish with Turkish subtitles.

It is expected that the preparations will be completed in a year and it would mark the end of another taboo: broadcasting in Kurdish.

5. - The Christian Science Monitor - "Mind the Turkish gap":

ISTANBUL / 6. September 2002 / by Richard C. Hottelet

Turkey is one Middle East drama that gets nowhere near the international attention it deserves. After decades of violent uncertainty the body politic is trying to get its act together.

Turkey's geography makes this most powerful state in the region either the keystone of an arch connecting Europe and Asia or a barrier to unity for decades to come. Turbulent politics, social unrest, and religious tension have made it unpredictable in an area that needs stability above all.

Turkey is split any number of ways and is shot through with paradox as it heads for crucial national elections on Nov. 3.

Seventy-five years ago, Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, defined the state as a secular, democratic republic. A pro-Western modernizer, he abolished not only the Ottoman sultanate, but also the caliphate, the supreme religious authority. He discarded the Arabic alphabet, and Turkish is slowly replacing Arabic as the language of prayer.

But with Muslims about 99 percent of the population, the secular state pays the imams of the mosques salaries as civil servants – mainly to keep them under control.

The Army became the guarantor of secularism, ensuring that politicians, vying for Muslim votes, would not be tempted to compromise. The Army has three times overthrown governments it did not like. Only five years ago, it forced an Islamist prime minister to resign. The Army sees itself, too, as the champion of Turkish national unity, although this state of 70 million includes some 10 million Kurds and other minorities. It fought a 15-year civil war with Kurdish rebels demanding autonomy, which cost some 30,000 lives. The Army's power and its obsession with Kurdish and Muslim dangers block the pursuit of the nation's most urgent goal: membership in the European Union.

Acceptance by Europe would alter Turkey's position as odd man out and open the EU's enormous opportunities to Turkey's considerable entrepreneurial skills. The EU demands a clear rule of law, abolition of the death penalty, respect for minorities and human rights, termination of torture, and an end to crony capitalism by government and political parties using financial institutions as their piggy banks. The EU requires that Turkey get a tighter grip on the heavy traffic in human beings – be they economic migrants, victims, or criminals.

In August, parliament took some real steps to meet these conditions. It had earlier moved seriously to put its financial house in order. After the currency collapsed last year, Kemal Dervish was persuaded to leave a senior post at the World Bank and come home as economy minister. He has since reduced a frightening 50 percent inflation rate and hopes to bring it down to 10 percent by the end of 2003. No smoke and mirrors, just progress.

Mr. Dervish also, with US help, procured large credits from the International Monetary Fund and has the confidence of foreign bankers who may back that up with much-needed private investment. Against the background of some 30 percent unemployment, he is today by far the most popular political figure in Turkey and may in November help a center-left party (founded by Ataturk) brush aside nationalist extremists and those who profit from the old louche ways.

The same share of the vote may go to an Islamist opposition party, a wild card in the political deck. Some see it as a fundamentalist force dissembling its real aims in order to avert an Army crackdown. Others see it as an emerging democratic element. Whichever it is, a stable political system should be able to contain it. Observers note the almost complete absence of Muslim demonstrations against Turkey's increasingly intimate military and economic relations with Israel.

The US is quite satisfied with Turkey's policy toward Russia in Central Asia and the Caucasus as well as its use of Incirlik air base against Iraq.

Ankara, for its part, feels secure enough openly to oppose US invasion of Iraq. However, the road ahead for Turkey holds a number of land mines. The biggest by far is Cyprus, where the clock is ticking. At the end of this year, Greek Cyprus will be invited to join the EU even if the island's division between Greek and Turkish Cypriots has not been resolved. Military voices in Ankara have threatened in that case to annex the northern third of Cyprus as a security measure.

This would poison relations with Greece, which have been gradually improving. Greece, as an EU member, could veto Turkey's application and the fat would really be in the fire.

Much, perhaps everything, depends on a new balance of forces emerging from the Turkish election. Turkey's friends can only watch the process; but doing so intently and openly could help bring home to the Turkish electorate how much hangs on their choice.

• Richard C. Hottelet was a longtime correspondent for CBS.

6. - Die Zeit / Kurdish Media - "Barzani: A Kurdish uprising would make our roads to graves for the Turkish military":

The weekly German journal "DIE ZEIT" published today an interview with the Kurdish leader Massud Barzani. Because of it’s importance (www.amude.com) has translated it from German to English.

5 September 2002 / Interview by: Namo Aziz / Translated by: Sirwan Heci Berko

DIE ZEIT: Is there an agreement between you and Washington over an attack against Iraq?

Massud BARZANI: Discussions take place, but there is no agreement so far. The US needs us, because we know the area. And the Kurds are the only people who have fought continuously against Saddam Hussain. Equipped now with more modern weapons, we could even win the war without America.

DIE ZEIT: Can you imagine that Saddam could attack the Kurds with poisonous gas like he did in 1988, before being attacked by the US?

BARZANI: Yes. Kurdistan has always been the laboratory for Saddam’s weapons of mass-destruction.

DIE ZEIT: Countries like Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait want to secretly provide their territories to America in the case of an attack. Should the Kurds do the same?

BARZANI: It is crucial that Saddam is eliminated. Just as important as the questions: Who comes after him, and who will govern Iraq? Before we make concessions to the US, we want them to guarantee us a federal system.

DIE ZEIT: Do you speak in view of the approaching war with your opponent Jalal Talabani?

BARZANI: To topple Saddam is more important than our differences.

DIE ZEIT: Is Saddam’s army good enough for the US?

BARZANI: On paper Saddam has 400,000 soldiers. But he has disgraced their honour. They are only fodder for him. It is only a question of time, when Saddam’s soldiers will rise to destroy him.

DIE ZEIT: Saddam invited Hans Blix, the UN supervising inspector to Baghdad. Should it take place at all?

BARZANI: The west should not accept this cat and-mouse-games any longer.

DIE ZEIT: How long will it take to destroy Saddam’s death machinery?

BARZANI: At least fifty years - and that if Saddam lets the inspectors do their work.

DIE ZEIT: What do you think about the criticism by many Europeans of the American war plans?

BARZANI: If you could ask half million of Kurdish and Arab political prisoners, you would find too much understanding for them. It is wrong to disaffiliate this conflict as a thing of the US, because it concerns us all.

DIE ZEIT: Would a war be dangerous for America?

BARZANI: No, it would not be. It would be like the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and against Manuel Noriega in Panama.

DIE ZEIT: Saddam says that he will leave Iraq to the US only in the form of ash.

BARZANI: Today, not yet. But if Saddam remains in power, perhaps- such an act of insanity would also meet different countries.

DIE ZEIT: You want an autonomous Kurdistan in a federal Iraq. Will the oil city Kirkuk belong to Iraq then, as Saddam says?

BARZANI: We would give our life to our enemies, but not Kirkuk. Kirkuk remains the heart of Kurdistan.

DIE ZEIT: Don’t you and Talabani strive any longer for a free Kurdistan?

BARZANI: That is our largest desire. But in the today’s situation, since no one supports us, autonomy is the more realistic goal.

DIE ZEIT: Recently, it has been claimed by Turkish government circles that wherever a Kurdish State develops, they will destroy it.

BARZANI: Empty threats. We do not leave a millimeter of our soil to the Turks. Not only will our soldiers fight but also our women, young people and the elderly. A Kurdish uprising would make our roads to graves for the Turkish military. Turkey should instead protect the rights of the 15 million Kurds in their country.

DIE ZEIT: How does it come that Turkey lets only some oil-loaded trucks pass the control point of the border crossing with Chabur and hardly any other vehicles?

BARZANI: That is an embargo against the Kurdish people. Since long Turkey also wants to turn the water off. To their disappointment, they must regard how we flourish.

DIE ZEIT: What is your relationship with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party?

BARZANI: We respect each other and do not interfere in each other’s business.

DIE ZEIT: Many Kurds criticize the "oil for food" program, with which the UN permits Baghdad limited oil export to purchase food and medicines. Do the sanctions benefit the Kurds?

BARZANI: We make up 15 to 17 per cent of the Iraqi population – but Saddam registers us as only 13 per cent. Only the aides, with which the Iraqis cannot do anything, arrive for us. Patients in our hospitals are missing basic equipments and lie there with temperatures up to 50 degrees. Nevertheless we don’t beg, we pay with our oil for their assistance.