26 April 2004

1. "Enlargement yes, Turkey no, say French voters", French people have become less favourable to Turkey's accession to the EU. A new poll in France has shown that French people are in favour of EU enlargement, but opposed to Turkey joining the Union.

2. "Kurds' success provides lesson for rest of Iraq", the garbage truck was inspiring. Making the early morning rounds, its energetic crew collected the trash from a tidy residential street in a hopeful city booming with construction sites. That wouldn't be a big deal in America. But this was in Iraq.

3. "Iraqi Turkmens demonstrate against concessions to Kurds", a group of Iraqi Turkmens from the United States and Canada demonstrated in Chicago’s Federal Plaza yesterday, April 24, against clauses of the Iraqi Transitional Law which address the concerns of Iraq’s Kurds.

4. "Constitution to change for Zana", Foreign Minister Gul asks, 'Why do we keep Zana in jail, when even murderers are pardoned?'

5. "Armenians, Jews mark genocide in Jerusalem", historian says political pressure has prevented 2 key countries - the United States and Israel - from recognizing the crime.

6. "Turkish Cypriots lament plan's defeat", North pinned hopes for businesses on Cyprus reunification.

1. - EUobserver - "Enlargement yes, Turkey no, say French voters":

26 April 2004

French people have become less favourable to Turkey's accession to the EU. A new poll in France has shown that French people are in favour of EU enlargement, but opposed to Turkey joining the Union.
The poll - conducted by CSA - saw 62 percent of voters in favour of enlargement, which will become official this coming Saturday (1 May).

But a similar percentage (61 percent) said they were against Turkey joining the European Union.

Moreover, this sentiment has increased from 55 percent in the last poll in November 2003.

The issue of Turkey has hit the headlines in France recently.

The centre-right UMP party of President Jacques Chirac has recently said that countries like Turkey "have no business" in the EU.

But Foreign Minister and former Commissioner Michel Barnier has warned against slamming the door on Turkey's eventual accession.

Member states will decide at the end of the this year whether Turkey is ready for accession negotiations based on a report by the European Commission, which will be published in October.

The survey took place between 20 and 22 April and 956 French voters were questioned.

2. - USA Today - "Kurds' success provides lesson for rest of Iraq":

25 April 2004 / By Ralph Peters*

The garbage truck was inspiring. Making the early morning rounds, its energetic crew collected the trash from a tidy residential street in a hopeful city booming with construction sites. That wouldn't be a big deal in America. But this was in Iraq.

While the media concentrate on the combat and confusion to the south, I recently visited the north of the country, where Iraq's 5 million Kurds have brought off a near miracle: They've built a financially efficient, rule-of-law democracy in the Middle East. Elsewhere, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) spends billions to keep a failed state on life support. While the rest of Iraq's population wallows in the region's addiction to blame, the Kurds have rolled up their sleeves and gone to work. There is a lesson here for Iraq — and U.S. policymakers, who insist on keeping Kurdistan a part of that blood-soaked country.

This month, in the Arab sections of central and southern Iraq, insurgents, religious extremists and international terrorists indulged in an orgy of kidnapping and killing of U.S. troops. Yet, in the north lies Suleimaniye. Here, in the capital of one of the two Kurdish regional governments, officials are writing zoning laws, demanding environmental impact statements from builders and making education funding a priority.

In the streets, women walk freely and safely, dressed any way they wish. Only a minority choose Islamic garb — head scarves, not veils. The regional prime minister, Barham Salih, wants to increase the number of female government officials, describing them as "harder working" than men and "utterly incorruptible." And there are no forced marriages.

Just over 45% of the university students are women. Males and females study side by side. Internet use is free to all students. There is no censorship or political influence on campus. Not one of the oil-rich Gulf states rivals this still-poor country's educational freedom — or standards. There's a department of religious studies, but it's only one of 16 departments (and far from the most popular).

Still, the Kurdish government isn't content. It hopes to build a world-class "American" university to develop its human capital. As the rest of Iraq threatens to implode, the Kurds are racing against time to develop their infrastructure and provide opportunities for their population. International business is welcome, contractors aren't murdered, and even the Turks, longtime opponents of the Kurds, are investing.

If only the Kurds had a disaster or two, then someone might tell their story.

Of course, the Kurds do face significant problems. After decades of underinvestment, a growing economy has overtaxed the power system. Refined petroleum products have to be imported — in an oil-rich country. And hundreds of thousands of internal refugees, displaced by Saddam Hussein, face uncertain futures.

The biggest problem, though, is Washington's insistence that Kurdistan remain part of Iraq. The Kurds are doing their best to support our policies, despite skepticism about the country's future. They're determined that, if Iraq disintegrates, they won't be to blame. They want to make us happy, almost desperately.

If anyone believes that no good came of deposing the old regime, he or she should talk to the Kurds. For them, generations of oppression, ethnic cleansing, torture and massacre ended when Saddam's statue fell. But with hostile powers on their borders, their future security depends on America's goodwill. As terrorists campaign to drive the U.S. from the Middle East, the Kurds are begging for U.S. military bases on their territory.

When American politicians of either party describe the Middle East they'd like to see, they're describing the Kurdistan that already exists — in fact, if not in law. Yet, coalition authorities in Baghdad devote their efforts to holding a Frankenstein's monster of a country together — just as we and our allies earlier tried to force Yugoslavia to remain whole — while ignoring what the Kurds have already achieved. Instead of supporting our only friends in Iraq, we try to please implacable enemies by pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into cities whose people assassinate U.S. soldiers.

An ironclad military rule is "Don't reinforce failure. Reinforce success." In the attempted reconstruction of Iraq, our policy is just the opposite.

Diplomats always have plenty of "good" reasons for doing the wrong things. Borders can't change; stability must be achieved; regional sensibilities must be taken into account — the list of reasons why we cannot live up to our own professed ideals and support Kurdish self-determination is nearly endless. But a moment of truth is approaching: Either we support democracy, or we don't.

Why not hold a referendum? Why not let the Kurds decide their own future?

The United States needs to be clear: America isn't failing the rest of Iraq. The Iraqis are failing themselves. The war to depose Saddam handed them an opportunity no other power would have or could have given them. If, despite the U.S. investment of blood and treasure, Iraq's Arabs decide to squander their chance for a peaceful and prosperous future, there may be painfully little the United States can do about it.

But where freedom, the rule of law and democracy already exist, the United States should offer its support. There are three things the United States can and should do for the Kurds: guarantee their long-term security against neighboring countries; ensure that they receive their fair share of reconstruction aid and Iraq's oil revenue; and, if the rest of Iraq pursues bloodshed and destruction, support an independent Kurdish state.

Kurdistan isn't Iraq.
Go there and see.

*Ralph Peters is the author of Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace.

3. - KurdishMedia - "Iraqi Turkmens demonstrate against concessions to Kurds":

NEW YORK / 25 April 2004

A group of Iraqi Turkmens from the United States and Canada demonstrated in Chicago’s Federal Plaza yesterday, April 24, against clauses of the Iraqi Transitional Law which address the concerns of Iraq’s Kurds. Speakers included Alpay Yilmaz of the 1 Ocak (1 January) Turkmen Cultural Association and Orhan Ketene, US representative of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC).

Mr. Ketene stated that the Iraqi Turkmen were not adequately represented on the Iraqi Governing Council, and that they should be represented "by their largest political organization, the Iraqi Turkmen Front".

Furthermore he stated, "The two Kurdish parties KDP and PUK had been campaigning for a while to include all Turkmen lands and cities especially oil rich Kerkuk, into their defacto Kurdistan province which the majority of Iraqi people refuse to accept."

Additionally, he stated, "We protest the terror and assassination campaigns rampant throughout Iraq and hold the coalition forces responsible for establishing security." In the past months, there have been assassination attempts against two major officials of the ITC, and one Turkmen journalist has been assassinated.

Slogans chanted by those in attendance included, "No Division, No Federation One Iraq, One Nation", "No Government accepted With a random selection", and "Governing Council do it right, Don’t ignore the Turkmen Right".

The ITC and other Turkmen officials and activists have claimed Kerkuk as a Turkmen city and the capital of the land of the Iraqi Turkmens. Kerkuk was liberated by Kurdish soldiers soon after US and coalition forces entered Baghdad on April 9, 2004. Kerkuk now has a Kurdish governor and Kurds were given greater representation on the Kerkuk city council than any other ethnic group. While Kerkuk is under the control of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), it is politically dominated by the Kurds, particularly the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). A variety of other parties representing the Turkmens and other groups operate freely in the city.

4. - Turkish Daily News - "Constitution to change for Zana":

Foreign Minister Gul asks, 'Why do we keep Zana in jail, when even murderers are pardoned?'

ANKARA / 26 April 2004 / by Kemal Balci

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said former Democracy Party (DEP) deputy Leyla Zana would be free shortly with a Constitutional amendment, asking, "Why do we keep Zana in jail, when even murderers are pardoned?"

Speaking to TDN on the matter of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) submitted a proposal to amend a law in order to ensure the release of Leyla Zana and three other Kurdish deputies, Gul said, "Lets first see their proposal."

He said the jailed deputies may even be freed without the CHP proposal, noting, "A small constitutional change will ensure their release."

When asked if he meant the article in the Constitution that allowed the creation of State Security Court (DGM), Gul said, "Yes. If the Constitution is changed, they will be freed very soon after."

Gul said the matter of Leyla Zana damaged Turkey's international standing. "Parliament allowed the release of murderers. There is no justification for their (Zana and friend) continued incarseration."

"Zana was named as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize," noted Gul, asking what people would do, if the prize that no Turk had won yet, was presented to Zana. "That possibility should also be considered," said Gul.

Gul assumes that Zana and the three other DEP deputies in prison would be released after the Constitution is amended, because they were found guilty by the DGM. The proposal is yet to be finalized and be submitted to Parliament. A draft version, prepared by the government, is currently being assessed by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) institutions. Some AK Party deputies want DGMs to be re-opened under certain conditions, instead of total abolition.

The Constitution currently states that, "DGMs are founded." The government intends to remove this sentence in its entirety, while discussions in AK Party central institutions center on the replacement of the sentence with "DGMs may be founded."

If the government is able to persuade all its deputies, a constitutional amendment package, including the article on the DGM, will be submitted to Parliament in May and be passed before the end of the month.

A majority in Parliament (367 deputies) have to approve the bill, in order for it to pass. While the AK Party has 367 seats in Parliament, it needs to ensure all its deputies cooperation, because the voting will take place through a secret ballot. If not, it needs the cooperation of the opposition parties.

The Republican People's Party (CHP) has repeatedly said that it would block all attempts to change the Constitution, before the parliamentary immunity issue is addressed.

5. - The Daily Star (Lebanon) - "Armenians, Jews mark genocide in Jerusalem":

Historian says political pressure has prevented 2 key countries - the United States and Israel - from recognizing the crime

JERUSALEM / 26 April 2004 / by Omar Karmi

It was, according to most, a good turnout. Nearly 1,000 people came to commemorate the Armenian genocide on April 24; a pleasant, sunny day that belied the solemnity of the occasion.

Armenians, mostly from Jerusalem, but also from Jaffa, Haifa, Nazareth and as far away as North America, congregated at the Armenian Convent in the Old City of Jerusalem where mass was held. Prayers were recited, hymns from the Armenian liturgy were sung and amidst the incense and candle smoke, some were moved to tears.

"Today we are remembering the diabolical scheme that started the murder of almost the entire Armenian nation," said Elie Dickranian, 70, headmaster of the Armenian Secondary School in Jerusalem.

On April 24, 1915, some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were arrested and later killed by the Ottoman authorities in Constantinople (Istanbul) accused of cooperating with Russia, then at war with the Ottoman Empire.

This day has come to mark the beginning of the "diabolical scheme," when Armenians say Ottoman Turks slaughtered some 1.5 million people in massacres that carried on until 1923. Turkey denies the charges of genocide, acknowledging only that Armenians were among the many victims of war as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

It is because of this denial - by Turkey and many other countries - that the events of those years came to be known as the "forgotten genocide," something Armenians worldwide are trying to change.

"At least the world must recognize that there was a genocide," said Angela Dikbkian, 24, who works in a local travel agency. "That is the first step. Maybe my great-grandchildren will be able to return to their land and get restitution. That remains a dream for the future."

There have been some successes along the way. On April 21 the Canadian Parliament voted 153-68 to support a motion declaring the events of 89 years ago as genocide. France and Switzerland have done the same, angering Turkey so much that in 2001 the country canceled a large defense contract from France.

But two countries other than Turkey matter more to the Armenians in Jerusalem: the US and Israel, both of whom consider Turkey a strategic ally, and are loath to alienate the country.

"I can understand the US feels Turkey is a great ally," said Dickranian, "but the truth is a greater ally to America."

The United States came close in 2000 to doing what Canada did in 2004. Yair Auron, a Israeli historian and specialist on the Armenian genocide, claims that not only Turkish but Israeli pressure played a part in the motion not being adopted then.

Auron, a professor at Tel Aviv's Open University and author of two books on the Armenian genocide, The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide, and The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide, was among the crowd at Saturday's commemoration event.

"I feel it is my duty as a human being and ... a Jew to protest my government's attitude," he said. "Most Israelis don't know about the genocide and I can feel from Armenians that they are very hurt by this because they feel Jews especially should understand."

Auron, who said he was almost successful in lobbying the Israeli Education Ministry to include the genocide as part of its holocaust curriculum in 1994 - only to see the project deemed too pro-Armenian and subsequently dropped - believes there are two reasons for the Israeli position.

"One is political; Israel considers Turkey its most important regional ally. And another has to do with the concept of the uniqueness of the (Jewish) holocaust. Some people feel that if something like the Armenian genocide is studied it would detract from the uniqueness of the holocaust."

In fact, the Armenian commemoration fell only a week after Israelis commemorated their Holocaust, while on May 15 Palestinians will mark the nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948 that left several thousands of unarmed Palestinians dead at the hands of Jewish militias, and some 800,000 homeless and destitute.

The similarity between the three peoples' histories is not lost on Dickranian.

"Of course there is an analogy between the three people. They have all suffered the same trauma. The only difference is that Israel and Armenia exists, while Palestinians are still striving (for their own state)."

The Armenian community does its best to stay out of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, even though their links to the Palestinians are longer and deeper. The Armenian presence in Jerusalem predates Muslim rule, and the community always enjoyed protected status from their Muslim rulers in Jerusalem.

Many Armenians lost property in West Jerusalem in 1948, and Armenians fought against the Jewish militias to defend the Old City. Since the occupation in 1967, the Armenian Patriarchate has also lost land to Israeli confiscations, and suffers from the same difficulties that other non-Jewish institutions have in obtaining building permits. Armenians have been killed and imprisoned alongside Palestinians in both intifadas.

Nevertheless, Armenians are, in the words of Dickranian, a "negligible" ethnic minority and, while he hopes an eventual political solution to the conflict will also address the property they have lost, "we try not to interfere."

The commemoration ended at the Armenian graveyard in the Old City. There, around a monument to Armenian soldiers who fought with the British against the Ottomans, a final hymn was sung and children held aloft a banner driving home the message: "World Silence: Complicity to the Crime."

"In," said Dickranian, unable to hide his headmasterly instincts. "It should be 'Complicity in the Crime.'"

6. - Associated Press - "Turkish Cypriots lament plan's defeat":

North pinned hopes for businesses on Cyprus reunification

KYRENIA / 26 April 2004 / by Esra Aygin

Hasan Beydola, a Turkish Cypriot textile exporter near bankruptcy, was glum yesterday, a day after Greek Cypriots sank a UN plan to reunify Cyprus -- and with it hopes that his business would get a boost when the island enters the European Union.

Now, Beydola and other Turkish Cypriots are waiting to hear how the EU will keep its promise to reward them for supporting the UN plan.

Turkish Cypriots in the north overwhelmingly voted "yes," but Greek Cypriots in similar numbers in the south voted "no" in twin referendums Saturday.

With the defeat of the plan, which required agreement from both sides, all of Cyprus will enter the EU, but the union's laws and benefits will apply only to the internationally recognized south.

Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded in 1974, putting down a short-lived coup by supporters of the union with Greece. For three decades, international isolation of the north meant Beydola could export only to Turkey -- the sole country recognizing his breakaway state. After Turkey's 1995 customs union agreement with the EU, even those exports declined.

The per capita gross domestic product among Turkish Cypriots is about $4,610, compared with $14,499 among Greek Cypriots and $22,740 for the current 15 EU member states.

Had the Cypriots approved the reunification plan that the EU helped the United Nations draft, $311 million would have flowed in to help the north, and mechanisms to start trade with Europe would have been instituted.

EU foreign ministers open a two-day meeting in Luxembourg today to discuss measures to help Turkish Cypriots. Some possibilities would be the creation of trade opportunities, elimination of tariffs on farm products, or funding for infrastructure development. Lifting the trade embargo may prove difficult, because it was the result of judgments by the European Court of Justice.

The UN plan envisioned a federation of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot states under a weak central government. The Turkish area of the island would have been reduced from 37 percent to 29 percent, requiring entire villages to be uprooted. The number of foreign troops -- 40,000 Turks and 6,000 Greeks -- would have been gradually reduced to a maximum of 6,000 by 2011 and 1,600 by 2018.

Greek Cypriots objected that the plan did not provide for the return of the Greek Cypriots who fled south in 1974. They also said it did not address their security fears and allowed Turkish troops to stay too long. Greek Cypriots say that they still hope for reunification, but under a better deal, and that they bear Turkish Cypriots no ill will.

Tassos Papadopoulos, president of the Greek Cypriots, said yesterday without elaboration that his government will make specific proposals at today's meeting to "enable the Turkish Cypriots to enjoy as much as possible the benefits of their country's accession to the EU."

"The Greek Cypriots are not turning their backs on their Turkish Cypriot compatriots. On the contrary, we shall work for a solution that will meet the hopes and aspirations of both communities," Papadopoulos said.

Turkish leaders urged the EU to reach out to Turkish Cypriots.

"It is an undeniable fact that the Turkish side was the active and constructive side for a Cyprus solution," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said. "I believe that the policy of isolating, of alienating [Turkish Cypriots] will now come to an end."

Though many Turkish Cypriots celebrated their vote Saturday, they have a hard time believing the outside world will welcome them. World sympathy has largely been with the Greek Cypriots since 1974.

"I don't think anyone really cares about us Turkish Cypriots," said Beydola, sitting on a plastic chair along a street in the old part of Kyrenia.

"Greek Cypriots got what they wanted, and they are entering the EU. Turkey will continue with its EU bid and trade with Greek Cypriots, who will be part of the bloc. And us? Turkish Cypriots will carry on like this for another 30 years," he said.

Hasan Cemal, a columnist for the Turkish daily Milliyet in Kyrenia, was optimistic. "The embargoes on the Turkish Cypriots will be lifted eventually. The situation of Turkish Cypriots will get better with increased international involvement and aids," he said. "Turkish Cypriots can only have better tomorrows, since things cannot get worse than this."