5
April 2004
2. "Twenty injured, 10 detained as Kurdish protestors clash with Turkish police", Some 20 people were injured and another ten were detained on Sunday when Kurdish protestors marking the birthday of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan clashed with Turkish security forces
3. "Militia May Disarm, But It Won't Dissolve", How well the peshmerga and other armed groups make the transition into the new security forces may determine whether Iraq avoids civil war.
4. "Will the US Army Attack the (Turkish) Kurds?", 5,000 Turkish Kurdish guerillas are hiding in small camps in the Qandil Mountains of Northern Iraq. Turkey wants the American Army to bring them out.
5. "Turkey to push for recognition of Turkish Cypriot state if Greeks reject reunification", Turkey warned Greek Cypriots on Monday that if they reject a UN plan to reunify Cyprus in a referendum this month it will seek international recognition for the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state.
6. "Cyprus, Turkey and EU", The Turks and the Greeks have been asked to take a decision through referendum on their fate on 24 April next. This referendum is going to determine if Cyprus will emerge, as before, as a united country or a divided country.
1. - International Initiative / MHA - "Peace Prize for Ocalan awarded in Italy":
5 April 2004
The city council of the Italian district town of Cosenza, a city
known in Europe for its commitment to human rights, has awarded this
year's human rights prize to Abdullah Ocalan.
The presentation of the award took place yesterday, April 4th, which
is also Mr. Ocalan's birthday.
The prize was handed over by Elena Hoo, a city council member, standing
in for Cosenza mayor Eva Catione who could not participate due to
illness.
The prize was received by Ocalan lawyer Aysel Tugluk in the presence
of Mr. Ocalan's niece, Fatma. In its resolution the city council said
it had decided in favour of Mr. Ocalan because of the Kurdish leader's
exemplary commitment to peace and human rights.
The prize for the Kurdish leader is a somewhat conroversial issue
in Italy. The political Right in Italy in particular criticized the
city council's decision harshly. This was the first time that the
Prize was awarded. 
2.
- AFP - "Twenty injured, 10 detained as Kurdish protestors
clash with Turkish police":
ISTANBUL / April 4, 2004
Some 20 people were injured and another ten were detained on Sunday
when Kurdish protestors marking the birthday of jailed Kurdish rebel
leader Abdullah Ocalan clashed with Turkish security forces in Istanbul
and the country's southeast, media reports said.
In Istanbul, riot police intervened against a group of demonstrators
marching towards the central Taksim square in the city's European
quarter, on the grounds that the march was illegal, the NTV news channel
said.
Footage broadcast on NTV showed the demonstrators, wearing masks,
throwing petrol bombs and stones at police while officers fired warning
shots into the air.
Ten of the protestors were detained, NTV said.
In the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country, unrest erupted when
Kurdish activists planning to visit Ocalan's birthplace threw stones
at police vehicles at a security checkpoint near the town of Birecik
in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, the Anatolia news agency
reported.
Security forces retaliated by using tear gas, water cannons and firing
warning shots into the air.
Some 20 people, including members of the security forces, sustained
minor injuries in the incidents, Anatolia said.
There were no reports of detentions.
The activists were on their way to the small village of Omerli, also
in the province of Sanliurfa, where Ocalan was born on April 4 1948,
when the clash erupted.
Ocalan, the head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is
serving a life sentence on the northwestern prison island of Imrali
for heading a 15-year bloody rebellion for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern
Turkey.
He was captured in Kenya in 1999 and originally sentenced to death
for treason, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after
Turkey abolished capital punishment to boost its chances of joining
the European Union.
Fighting in Turkey's southeast has significantly abated since September
1999 when the PKK declared a ceasefire. The group has since twice
changed its name and vowed to pursue peaceful means of political change.
3. - Los Angeles Times - "Militia May Disarm, But It Won't Dissolve":
How well the peshmerga and other armed groups make the transition into the new security forces may determine whether Iraq avoids civil war.
SULAYMANIYA (Iraq) / April 5, 2004 / By Kim Murphy
Deadly clashes Sunday between soldiers with the U.S.-led coalition and fighters loyal to a radical Shiite cleric underscore the potential of militia groups to upset Iraq's transition to sovereignty and plunge the nation into armed conflict.
There are growing signs that dismantling these groups — even forces like the Kurdish peshmerga, who fought alongside U.S. troops and were a key ally in routing Islamic insurgents in the north — is unlikely to happen before coalition forces hand over authority to a new Iraqi government on June 30.
How well the peshmerga and other militias make the transition from political and regional armed forces into the new Iraqi army and other national security forces, analysts say, may well determine whether Iraq avoids civil war once coalition forces withdraw.
"No state can exist in which sub-national entities are allowed to have their own private armies or armed forces," a coalition official negotiating the future of the militias said over the weekend. "Our job is to create a single nation in which the government has the control of armed forces. And in order to do that, all these sub-national forces have to be absorbed."
Peshmerga fighters, whose name means "those who face death," already have begun merging into the new Iraqi civil defense and border guard units, but their leaders now say they will also seek to maintain a force of several thousand warriors as a national guard in northern Iraq, in part to promote their aim of expanding Kurdish control over disputed territories like Kirkuk.
"This force was created to achieve a political goal. It has a bright history of sacrifice and pride. And we are not ready to give up the force so easily," Mustafa Said Qadir, a senior military commander of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said in an interview.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Shiite Badr Organization, which has about 10,000 fighters in southern and central Iraq, said they would refuse to disarm as long as the Kurds maintained their militia in the north.
"The Americans do not want to dissolve the Kurdish military, but they want to dissolve the Badr Brigade? Do they think we will accept such a thing?" said Sheik Abbas Hakim, spokesman for the Badr Organization's political wing.
"If the Kurds lay down their weapons, then the Shiites will do so…. But we are going to make pressure on the Americans to demand our rights," he said.
Negotiations involving the militias leave largely unanswered the question of what will happen should coalition leaders fail to reach agreement with the paramilitary groups. The peshmerga alone claim 120,000 active troops and at least 35,000 reservists, though these figures may be inflated.
"They're out there, they're armed, and frankly I don't think the coalition has the necessary force to disarm them," said Richard Naab, who coordinated the Coalition Provisional Authority's northern region in 2003.
Sunday's battle near the southern city of Najaf between coalition soldiers from Spain and El Salvador and civilian supporters of radical cleric Muqtader Sadr and members of Sadr's recently created Al Mahdi army made clear the potential for future violence if coalition officials were unable to rein in the paramilitary groups.
Gun battles across Iraq left at least 20 Iraqis, seven American soldiers and one Salvadoran soldier dead and an estimated 200 Iraqis wounded.
The Al Mahdi army is one of half a dozen new militias not being offered the option of joining the national army. So far, only paramilitary groups that helped topple Saddam Hussein — such groups as the peshmerga, Badr, Iraqi Hezbollah and the Iraqi National Congress — have been offered recruitment into national armies or, as an alternative, government pensions and job training programs.
There are about 60,000 of these eligible militia members, coalition leaders estimate.
Thousands of peshmerga and several hundred members of the Badr Organization have elected to join the new national structures, and coalition officials say they expect those numbers will grow.
In the scenic northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniya, headquarters of the 35,000 active-duty peshmerga controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, three heavily guarded checkpoints protect the road into town. The soldiers wear the fresh-pressed new uniforms of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, but their faces are leathery and creased, pocked with the wounds of the wars fought in these mountains for more than 25 years.
In the last few months, 3,000 PUK peshmerga have traded in their classic baggy trousers and checked head scarves for these plain green fatigues.
"Ninety percent of the members of this battalion, whether they are officers or office staff or soldiers, all of them have served in the ranks of the peshmerga forces for long years," said Anwar Dollany, a Kurdish commander who now heads a national civil defense unit.
"All of us who have been struggling in the ranks of the peshmerga are ready now to take on any duty that will be assigned to us in the new Iraq. It is a continuation of our service to the people."
But peshmerga leaders emphasized their opposition to disbanding the peshmerga, saying the veteran fighting force has made much of northern Iraq an island of relative tranquillity in a nation ravaged by violence.
Unlike Baghdad, where residents live in constant fear of attacks by mortar fire, roadside bombs and drive-by shootings, residents of Sulaymaniya walk freely through the markets and congregate in parks. Last weekend, scores of Kurdish families were picnicking along the roadsides amid the first yellow wildflowers of spring.
Apart from a twin bombing in Irbil earlier this year blamed on Islamic insurgents, terrorist attacks in the north have been rare, and many credit the peshmerga patrols along the border and an extensive intelligence network across the mountains.
"I'm satisfied that if the peshmerga were just disbanded, there would be no security in this area," said Fareidoon Abdul Qadir, interior minister of the eastern Kurdistan regional government.
Peshmerga leaders insist on maintaining a force of unspecified size within the Kurdish area of northern Iraq as the equivalent of a national guard — at least, they say, until there are guarantees of Kurdish autonomy in a permanent Iraqi constitution.
Some senior peshmerga officers said they would not be willing to give up their weapons until all the historic Kurdish areas from which Kurds were evicted under Hussein's regime — particularly oil-rich Kirkuk — were returned to Kurdish control.
"Let them give us a security guarantee in the permanent constitution. Then we will be prepared to dismantle. But now, it is premature to discuss it," Qadir said.
If they are ordered by coalition forces to disarm on June 30, he
said, "Nothing will happen. We are not aggressive. But I want
Iraqis to know that if the peshmerga forces disappear physically,
and in name, that in the moment of threat, in a time of need, the
peshmerga forces will appear again."
4. - Pacifica - "Will the US Army Attack the (Turkish) Kurds?":
5,000 Turkish Kurdish guerillas are hiding in small camps in the Qandil Mountains of Northern Iraq. Turkey wants the American Army to bring them out.
BAGHDAD (IRAQ) / 5 April 2004 / by Aaron Glantz
American soldiers could be on the verge of fighting another war in the Middle East.
In Washington for meetings with US military leaders, the Deputy Chief of the Turkish Army General Staff demanded the US Army start fighting against against approximately 5,000 Turkish Kurdish guerillas hold up in camps in the snow-capped mountains of Northern Iraq. ... After a bloody twenty year civil war and more than 30,000 mostly civilian casualties, the PKK withdrew from Turkey and called a unilateral cease-fire when their leader, Abudlla Ocalan, was captured four years ago. But, it seems, the Turkish Army wants American troops to keep fighting.
After meeting with senior American military officials in Washington, the Deputy Chairman of the Turkish Army faced reporters. The General, Ilker Basburg, told reporters the Bush Administration agreed to take what he called "concrete steps" against the PKK before handing authority over to the Iraqi Governing Council at the end of June.
In response to a question from the Turkish Press, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers offered this statement.
"This is an issue the coalition forces inside Iraq take very seriously," he said. "Let me assure you that there is very close collaboration with Turkey and that they will be dealt with appropriately."
Kurdish leaders say they're doing everything to make peace with the Turkish Army. ... For four years, they've honored a unilateral cease-fire, called by their leader Abdulla Ocalan from his island prison in the Aegean Sea. Ozlem Bolcal editor at the Kurdish-interest newspaper Free Agenda, based in Istanbul, notes the Kurdish fighters in Northern Iraq have repeatedly tried to turn in their arms.
She describes the case of Ali Sapan, a PKK guerilla who came from the mountains as a peace delegate. She compares his case to the Zapatista's Subcomandante Marcos who won after years of struggle won a meeting with the President of Mexico. "Ali Sapan came for a similar meeting," she says. "He was arrested. He's been in prison for more than 8 years. Now he's in solitary confinement."
In addition to filling Turkey's jails with Kurdish leaders, the Turkish Army continues to maintain two bases in Northern Iraq -- one near the border and the other in the middle of one of Northern Iraq's largest cities, Arbil.
At home, Turkish prosecutors moved last week to ban the country's largest Kurdish political party, DEHAP, on the grounds that it supports terrorism. The Kurdish language remains largely banned from Turkish television and Radio. Under new broadcast regulations approved in January, Kurdish can be broadcast just two hours a day -- and even then there are conditions. Meihdi Perincheck is on the Executive Board of Turkey's Human Rights Association, which is suing to over-turn the new regulations.
"With these laws Kurdish programs can only be broadcast on national television with sub-titles in Turkish," he says. "But for the local radios its illegal. No children's programming is allowed. It's a big hard-ship because the children can't learn Kurdish and they forget their own language. The children have a right to learn in their mother tongue. In this law, we don't have that right."
Iraqi Kurds, by contrast, have enjoyed the patronage of the United States for more than a decade and as a consequence have been able to build schools and media institutions where Kurdish is exclusively spoken. Hakim Umar of Iraq's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's foreign office, says Iraqi Kurds aren't willing to risk losing that in a confrontation with the American and Turkish Armies -- but he thinks the United States should think twice before opening up a new front in the Kurdish mountains.
"Maybe they are going to fight the PKK," muses Umar. "But its very difficult in these mountains to find someone and take them out. Saddam Hussein, during the 30 years (he ruled) he couldn't finish us in the mountains. Even all America can't finish bin Laden in Afghanistan.'
"But they try," he sighs. "And they will support the
Turks against the PKK."
5. - AFP - "Turkey to push for recognition of Turkish Cypriot state if Greeks reject reunification":
ANKARA / April 5, 2004
Turkey warned Greek Cypriots on Monday that if they reject a UN plan
to reunify Cyprus in a referendum this month it will seek
international recognition for the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state.
"If Greek Cypriots vote 'no' and Turkish Cypriots vote 'yes',
I shall seek recognition for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,"
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in remarks published by the daily
Hurriyet.
The TRNC was set up in 1983, nine years after Cyprus was divided by
a Greek Cypriot nationalist coup and an invasion of Turkish troops,
but is still recognized only by Turkey.
Turkey has, however, given its blessing to a plan by United Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan to reunify the island before May 1, when
it is due to join the European Union.
If either community rejects the plan in separate and simultaneous
referenda to be held on April 24, only the Greek Cypriot south will
be admitted to the EU.
Latest opinion polls suggest that the Greek Cypriots will vote against
Annan's proposals while the Turkish Cypriots will accept them.
In that event, Gul said, "I shall proudly travel the planet advocating
recognition of the TRNC."
6. - The Daily Star (Bangladesh) - "Cyprus, Turkey and EU":
United we stand--divided we fall?
by Arshad-uz Zaman / 5 April 2004
After intense negotiations in the beautiful hill resort of Buergenstock in Switzerland, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has presented his Peace Plan for Cyprus to the Cypriot Turks and the Cypriot Greeks and their backers, Turkey and Greece. The negotiations have neither failed nor crowned with success. The Turks and the Greeks have been asked to take a decision through referendum on their fate on 24 April next. This referendum is going to determine if Cyprus will emerge, as before, as a united country or a divided country.
The Kofi Annan plan in short is :a) Preserve equilibrium between the Turkish and Greek communities; b) It foresees creation of the United Republic of Cyprus run by Presidential College of six members -- 4 Greeks and 2 Turks. The position of President, who will be the head of state, will rotate and for 40 months there will be a Greek to be followed by a Turk for 20 months. The President and the Vice President who will be from the two communities will travel together to the European Union summits.; c) The present territory of Northern (Turkish) Cyprus will be reduced from its present 36% to 29%; d) Troops -- upto 2011 will be maintained by Turkey and Greece will maintain 6000 troops. At the end of the present arrangement Greece will maintain 950 and Turkey 650 troops.
The reaction of the two sides, that is Turkey and Greece is remarkable. Turkey has been enthusiastic of the Annan Plan and has embraced it wholeheartedly. In an emotional appeal to his Greek counterpart, newly elected Prime Minister Karamanlis, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayiip Erdogan stated, "I would like to call on the Greek and Turkish sides, let's walk together on the road of peace that started here in Buergenstock and let's take the necessary steps together. I started path with goodwill and of course we would like to achieve result". Kofi Annan characterised his plan as a "victory for all sides".
Turkish Cypriots in the north and the Greek Cypriots in the south will vote separately to determine if they want a united Cyprus or a divided Cyprus. In the event of a positive vote on 24 April, Cyprus will join the powerful European Union on 1 May 2004.The EU is slated to expand to 25 members with the inclusion of 10 new member states mainly from Eastern Europe. In the event of a negative vote the consequences will be far reaching and difficult to predict at this stage. It would mean that South Cyprus would join the EU and North Cyprus would have an unenviable existence as an adjunct of Turkey. The situation will be further complicated by the fact that 40,000 Turkish troops will be stationed in Northern Cyprus.
In his closing address UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated, "I hope for a reunited Cyprus to accede to the European Union on May 1. The time for negotiations and consultations is over. The time for decision and action has arrived. The choice is not between this settlement and some other magical or mythical solution. The choice is between this settlement and no settlement".
The most remarkable aspect of the Annan Plan is no doubt the Turkish agreement to virtually withdraw her troops from the island. It is worth recalling that those troops went to Northern Cyprus in 1974, when following a military coup in Greece, the Greek Colonels attempted to swallow the whole of Cyprus in utter disregard of the Agreement of 1960. Through this agreement the British colonial masters agreed to grant independence to the island and Cyprus became a member of the UN. Cyprus became a Federation with rights reserved for the two communities. I was working in the Pakistan Mission to the UN in the sixties and the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots were at daggers drawn. The reason that the British plan did not work was that both the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots looked to Ankara and Athens and the ties of the mother countries were very strong indeed. The Turkish troops that landed in 1974 in Northern Cyprus by virtue of Turkey's status as a guarantor of 1960 Agreement has been providing security to the ethnic Turks on the island.
Much water has flown down the Mediterranean since then. The most meaningful change has taken place with the arrival of the EU on the scene. The ties between the Turks and the Greeks with their mother countries have consequently slackened. The islanders have fixed their gaze on the vast territory of the EU with lucrative economic prospects. There was a referendum in the recent past on Turkish Cyprus and it turned out into a vote of confidence on Turkish Cypriot President Rauf Denktash, who has all along taken a hard line in negotiations with his Greek counterparts. Indeed he is reported to have rejected the Annan Plan.
Prior to the current negotiations extensive consultations took place in New York under the aegis of the Secretary General Kofi Annan. Sensing that the parties might get bogged down in their own rhetorics, the parties had handed down the last word to Kofi Annan. He was given the authority to put the entire question to referendum. That is what he has done by fixing the date on 24 April.
It is going to be a historic day for the 800,000 inhabitants of the island. They will decide if they wish to remain a "United Republic of Cyprus" and join the powerful European Union or land into total uncertainty through a negative vote. The referendum is also going to snap the umbilical cord between Nicosia and Ankara and Athens. From 1 May 2004 Cyprus may have to learn to live by herself.
What about Turkish membership of the EU, which has been hanging fire since long? Among the EU members France and Germany are acknowledged as leaders. Germany seems to have veered round to support Turkish membership of the EU. France seems to keeping her cards close to her chest. Turkey has through decades of unflagging campaigning managed to get a number of countries on her side, mainly the Mediterranean ones. In the Helsinki Summit a little over two years ago, Turkey was promised definite membership. Turkey has been pushing hard for a date to start negotiations in view of her membership. Turkey has taken sweeping steps to bring her at par and better with other member states. She has brought about significant changes in her human rights record.
Although EU has been careful not to establish a link between EU membership and troops withdrawal from Cyprus, the unstated fact is that the EU has driven hard to establish that link. Now that Turkey has gone the extra mile by promising withdrawal of troops and thus leaving the settlement in the hands of the islanders, EU will be hard put to find obstacles to Turkish membership of the EU.
Close on the heels of a Cyprus settlement we may witness dramatic inclusion of a first Muslim country in the EU -- so far a Christian club.