19 April 2004

1. "Ten Turkish soldiers, Kurdish militias killed: former PKK", the Kurdistan People's Congress (KONGRA-GEL) said on Friday that its fighters had killed 10 Turkish soldiers and seven of Ankara's Kurdish allies during continuing fighting in the past few days in the Sirnak mountains close to the Turkish-Iraqi border.

2. "Kurd to head Iraq reformed armed forces", Iraq's newly reconstituted Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that a Kurdish former resistance fighter would head Iraq's reformed armed forces.

3. "Turkey EU entry distant, but don't slam door-France", Turkey will not be able to join the European Union any time soon but the EU should not slam the door in its face, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said on Sunday.

4. "Turkey faces tough EU road even with push for Cyprus settlement", it would be very wrong to use a racist and discriminative discourse such as religion and culture to block Turkey’s path rather than finding justified reasons.

5. "World assures Cypriots on plan", as Annan submits report to UN Security Council, polls show Greek-Cypriot opposition softening With the referenda on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s proposal for Cyprus’s reunification scheduled for Saturday, the United Nations and the United States are concentrating on providing assurances to wary Greek Cypriots that they will guarantee the implementation of the plan.

6. "Four Kurdish children arrested at risk of torture in Syria", Amnesty International has criticised the continued detention of four Kurdish school children by the Syrian authorities and has called on the authorities to meet their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

1. - AFP - "Ten Turkish soldiers, Kurdish militias killed: former PKK":

SULEIMANIYA / 16 April 2004

The Kurdistan People's Congress (KONGRA-GEL) said on Friday that its fighters had killed 10 Turkish soldiers and seven of Ankara's Kurdish allies during continuing fighting in the past few days in the Sirnak mountains close to the Turkish-Iraqi border.

"The Turkish attack started April 6 in Sirnak where our forces are deployed, and fighting continues until now," Zubair Idar, an official from the former PKK party in this ethnic Kurdish city in northern Iraq, told AFP.

"During fighting, 10 Turkish troops, including an officer, and seven Kurdish mercenaries as well as one of our combatants were killed," he said. On Thursday, a local source in Diyarbakir, the main Turkish city in the region, said five Kurdish rebels from Turkey and three soldiers were killed during a large sweep in southeast Turkey.

Ten soldiers and "village guards" -- Kurdish militiamen armed by the Turkish state -- were wounded. The operation, led by 6,000 security forces backed by helicopters, started four days ago after a group of 60 PKK rebels infiltrated Turkey from northern Iraq.

The Kurdish rebellion, which claimed 36,000 lives, has been nearly frozen since the PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was arrested in 1999. KONGRA-GEL, which was founded last November, is an offshoot of the PKK.

2. - The Financial Times - "Kurd to head Iraq reformed armed forces":

BAGHDAD / 18 April 2004

Iraq's newly reconstituted Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that a Kurdish former resistance fighter would head Iraq's reformed armed forces.

The choice comes as the US-led coalition in Iraq is seeking ways to bolster the loyalty of Iraqi forces fighting insurgents throughout the country. The choice of a Kurd, the one major ethnic group that has not rebelled against coalition forces, indicated that coalition officials were seeking to use a complex strategy of balancing ethnic and religious minorities to maintain stability in the country.

Babekr al-Zibari, a Sunni Kurd from a village near Mosul, initially joined the regular Iraqi army but quit in 1973 following an uprising by Kurds. Later, he was instrumental in organising the Kurdish Peshmerga resistance fighters along conventional military lines.

Ali Allawi, a Shia Arab recently appointed as defence minister, also indicated on Sunday that he would not discount the possibility of members of the former ruling Ba'ath party rejoining the Iraqi military, emphasising that he wanted a "volunteer, professional" force and adding that the door would be open for former career officers to rejoin.

Ba'athists had been purged from the military on the orders of coalition forces last May.

According to Mr Allawi, the military chief of staff, number two in seniority to Mr Zibari, will be a Sunni Arab who retired from the Iraqi army in 1997, and the number three will be a Shia Arab.

Iraqi police and security forces have been criticised by US generals after it emerged that one battalion had refused to take part in operations against insurgents in the fighting in Falluja.

Mr Allawi's announcement came after the US military said that it was indefinitely closing the main roads leading north and south of the capital Baghdad. The military said that the roads were being closed for repairs but warned that vehicles seen travelling on closed stretches could be subject to lethal force.

In the southern city of Najaf, spokesmen for outlawed Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr insisted on Sunday that they were negotiating with the coalition. But coalition officials said they were using intermediaries from Iraqi Shia parties.

US forces continued to suffer heavy casualties over the weekend. Five US marines died on Saturday in a battle with insurgents near Husayba in the west of Iraq, according to an embedded US newspaper correspondent. Three soldiers died in the southern town of Diwaniya in clashes with supporters of Mr Sadr and one died in Anbar province.

3. - Reuters - "Turkey EU entry distant, but don't slam door-France":

PARIS / 18 April 2004 / by James Drummond

Turkey will not be able to join the European Union any time soon but the EU should not slam the door in its face, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said on Sunday.

EU leaders are due to decide in December whether Turkey has made sufficient progress on human rights to begin long-delayed entry negotiations. Leaders of France's ruling conservative UMP party oppose rapid accession.

"There is no question of Turkey's accession in the current circumstances or in the short-term," Barnier told Europe 1 radio in an interview following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Ireland.

"Accession negotiations have not begun. They have never begun. We will decide together whether they should begin. I cannot say how long they will last -- probably a very long time."

But Barnier said the EU, which expands from 15 to 25 members next month, could discourage reforms by turning its back on Turkey.

"If we reject it (Turkey), if we slam the door in its face as some would like to do quite quickly, there is a risk that it will turn to another model," he said.

"It would be better for it to be with us than for it to be alone and in poverty and under-developped, prey to all excesses and temptations."

Barnier, who was appointed on March 31, triggered a furore in the Turkish media and helped drive Turkish financial markets lower earlier this month when he told parliament that Turkey had not met the conditions for joining the Union.

He later sought to ease concern in Ankara by saying French policy on Turkey's accession had not changed.

Turkey's EU application is a particularly sensitive issue now because the UMP faces elections to the European Parliament in June and risks another defeat following its humiliation in regional elections last month.

An opinion poll released by the BVA survey group on Saturday showed 51 percent of respondents favoured Turkey joining the Union in a few years and 39 percent opposed. The poll of 951 French people was carried out on April 14 and 15.

4. - AFP - "Turkey faces tough EU road even with push for Cyprus settlement":

19 April 2004 / by Hande Culpan

It would be very wrong to use a racist and discriminative discourse such as religion and culture to block Turkey’s path rather than finding justified reasons

Turkey faces an uphill task in its drive to join the European Union — with some questioning whether the mainly Muslim country has a place in Europe — even as it wins kudos for its handling of the Cyprus issue, analysts said.d.

Faced with EU pressure to help end the 30-year division of Cyprus or risk jeopardising its own aspirations to join the bloc, Turkey has thrown its weight behind a UN peace plan, which aims to reunite the island in a loose federation.

Rival Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities are now set to vote on the plan in simultaneous referendums on April 24 which could see their island join the Union as one nation on May 1.

Regardless of whether the vote reunites Cyprus or not, Turkey can rest assured that it has done its share for a settlement, but should not see its efforts as a blank check for progress in its troubled EU bid, according to Beril Dedeoglu, an EU expert at Galatasaray University.

“The EU demand was for Turkey to wholeheartedly work and support a resolution of the Cyprus question. Turkey has done that and convinced its EU partners of its sincerity,” she told AFP.

“But Cyprus is not the only determining factor in Ankara’s membership drive,” she added.

Turkey, a formal EU candidate since 1999, has passed a raft of democracy reforms to meet the Union’s political criteria which it says should be enough to win the nod from EU leaders to begin membership talks when they asses the country’s progress in December this year.

But in early April, the European parliament adopted a highly critical report, in which it said Ankara must adopt a brand-new constitution and ensure the proper implementation of reforms among other things in order to show it is serious about becoming an EU member.

In addition to overhauling its crippled democracy, Turkey has to battle another obstacle: doubts among European leaders on whether the pan-European bloc can absorb a vast and relatively poor county of some 70 million inhabitants with a strong Islamic faith.

Earlier this month, French President Jacques Chirac’s ruling party — the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) — announced it opposed starting accession talks with Turkey and said it preferred a “privileged partnership” instead.d.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier quickly went on record to say Paris’ policy on Turkey remained unchanged, and several other European statesmen came out expressing support to Ankara.

Hasan Unal, a professor of international relations at Bilkent University, argued that the UMP declaration signals an attempt by Turkey opponents inside the EU to try to hamper a settlement on Cyprus and have a pretext to turn down Ankara’s demand to open accession talks.

“To deny Turkey a date on the grounds that the Cyprus question remains unresolved would be a way that would comfort the EU. Otherwise, they would have to say ‘no’ to Turkey on structural grounds,” Unal said.

Many in Turkey already believe the EU does not sincerely desire their membership because of religious differences, and Turkish leaders say their country’s candidacy will test whether the EU is only a “Christian club.”

“It would be very wrong to use a racist and discriminative discourse such as religion and culture to block Turkey’s path rather than finding justified reasons. Such a move would be unfair and damage the European Union’s prestige,” Ferai Tinc, a foreign affairs editorialist from the mass-circulation Hurriyet daily, told AFP.

“The Union should launch accession talks with Turkey. Turkey has the political will to carry out the required reforms and its people are keen on EU membership,” she added.

But, even if Turkey gets a date for membership talks, it will then have to work very hard for a very long time to fully harmonise itself with the bloc, Dedeoglu said.

“The amount of work we need to do in order to become a full EU member is incredible. I would say Turkey would need at least 15 years to align itself to the Union,” Dedeoglu said.

5. - Kathimerini (Greece) - "World assures Cypriots on plan":

ATHENS / 19 April 2004

As Annan submits report to UN Security Council, polls show Greek-Cypriot opposition softening.

With the referenda on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s proposal for Cyprus’s reunification scheduled for Saturday, the United Nations and the United States are concentrating on providing assurances to wary Greek Cypriots that they will guarantee the implementation of the plan. Although opposition to Annan’s plan remained strong among Greek Cypriots, recent polls showed that they were less certain about voting against it on Saturday. Turkish Cypriots appear headed for a “yes” vote.

Greek news media reported from New York that Annan will present the UN Security Council today with a report on his efforts to end Cyprus’s division before it joins the EU on May 1. The reports said that the United States and Britain were insisting on a resolution to be issued by Wednesday at the latest. This could set out the role that the UN will play in guaranteeing security for Cyprus and the implementation of the plan.

The leader of Communist AKEL, the largest Greek-Cypriot party, Dimitris Christofias, said on Friday it might back the plan if were guaranteed by the UN and EU. He said he would not be satisfied by just a “statement” but would want something more concrete. “We need... guarantees for the proper implementation of the plan,” he told Greek state television ERT. “But guarantees not from guarantor powers, but from the Security Council and the EU,” he said. “If there are developments today or tomorrow at the Security Council and we are satisfied, then we will change our position.”

In a series of interviews to Greek and Turkish media on Friday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell sought to assure all involved that Annan’s plan had the strongest guarantees. “We have made it clear, the United Nations has made it clear, the secretary-general of the United Nations has made it clear and the European Union has made it clear that we expect both parties to abide by all elements of the plan. And I have been encouraged by the statements coming from Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan and others in his government, that they fully intend to meet their obligations under the plan,” Powell told Greece’s Antenna TV. “The international community will insist on helping the parties meet their obligations,” he said.

On Friday, the Security Council issued a statement saying it was ready to establish a new operation on Cyprus if the Annan plan were accepted and that it “would also be committed to helping ensure that the parties fully meet their commitments under the statement.”

Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos, who is opposed to the Annan plan, commented on the Friday statement in an interview with Athens’s Ethnos newspaper yesterday: “When you buy a fridge or a TV set from a close friend you ask for a written guarantee that will hold up in court. So, when dealing with the future of a country, how can you accept a statement?”

The Greek-Cypriot newspaper Politis yesterday published a daily poll by SRI among 150-200 people which showed support for a “no” vote, dropping from 71 percent on April 14 to 62 percent on April 15 and 54 percent on April 16. Support for “yes” rose from 12 percent to 17 percent over the same period while the undecided swelled from 17 percent to 29 percent. A poll by Greece’s VPRC conducted on April 15-16 found that 66.9 percent of Greek Cypriots who are not refugees are thinking of voting “no,” while 64.5 percent of refugees are thinking the same. A “yes” is backed by 21.3 percent of refugees and 19.8 percent of non-refugees. A poll conducted among Turkish Cypriots on April 11-16 found that 62 percent were prepared to vote “yes,” despite the strenuous opposition of veteran leader Rauf Denktash.

6. - Amnesty International - "Four Kurdish children arrested at risk of torture in Syria":

16 April 2004

Amnesty International has criticised the continued detention of four Kurdish school children by the Syrian authorities and has called on the authorities to meet their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The four 12 and 13-year-olds, Nijirfan Saleh Mahmoud, Ahmad Shikhmous’Abdallah, Walat Mohammad Sa’id and Serbest Shikhou were arrested at al-Talane’ school, in the Syrian town of Qamishli, on 6 April 2004. The reasons for their arrest are unknown.

The school children were reportedly ill-treated during their arrest and apparently have subsequently been taken to a detention centre in the town of al-Hasaka, about 80 km away from their school.

The current exact location and conditions of their detention are unknown. They are thought to be held incommunicado leading to fears that they might be at risk of torture or further ill-treatment.

Lesley Warner, Amnesty International UK Media Director said:

“The four Kurdish school children must be immediately and unconditionally released unless they are to be charged with a recognisable criminal offence.

“Syrian authorities must be aware of their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We strongly remind the Syrian government that “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.””

Amnesty International is calling on the Syrian authorities to stop any ill treatment imposed on the children and grant them immediate access to families, lawyers and to any medical care they may require.

Background information

Following a clash between Arab and Kurdish fans at a football match in Qamishli on 12 March 2004 a wave of arrests, riots and killing swept Syria. At least 20 people were killed and more than 100 people were injured.

Over 2,000 people, mostly Kurds, are thought to have been arrested. Many of them are held incommunicado at unknown locations.

At least two men have reportedly died in custody. A number of people including children have reportedly been tortured.

In addition, at least 24 Kurdish students have been expelled from their universities and dormitories in what appears to be an increasing prosecution of Kurdish people. Syrian Kurds are reportedly being arrested or attacked because of their ethnicity or for speaking Kurdish.