25 August 2004

1. "Turkish watchdog accuses security forces of forcible village evacuation", Turkey's main human rights watchdog on Tuesday accused security forces of forcibly evacuating a village in the southeast of the country, a practice widely used in the past in the fight against armed Kurdish rebels.

2. "Turkey's Kurd militia now a liability", stalwarts in the long war against PKK rebels, Kurdish village guards now pose a problem for EU-oriented Ankara

3. "Two More Conditions by EU", two new articles were added to the Progress Report which would pave the way to the beginning of negotiations between EU and Turkey: Women-men equality and ensuring progress in the issue of the return to village.

4. "One Month Suspension Against Local Radio", the RTUK sanctioned Ozgur Radio for referring in a press review to the front page of the daily Günlük Evrensel that said police in plain clothes had "massacred" members of DEHAP during a wedding in Adana. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has protested that a one-month suspension imposed on a local radio was "too harsh and once again completely disproportionate".

5. "Turkey probes alleged ties between top judge, spy agency and mafia", Turkish authorities are investigating allegations that a senior intelligence official lobbied a top judge on behalf of the country's most notorious mafia boss who had a secret to sell, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said Monday.

6. "First application for ecology to IHD Branch", Murat Aritak appealed to the Van Branch of Human Rights Associations (IHD) stating that sewage drained to a brook that passes through the Ozalp district of Van is a severe threat for people's health and to the cleanness of Lake Ercek.

1. - AFP - "Turkish watchdog accuses security forces of forcible village evacuation":

DIYARBAKIR / 24 August 2004

Turkey's main human rights watchdog on Tuesday accused security forces of forcibly evacuating a village in the southeast of the country, a practice widely used in the past in the fight against armed Kurdish rebels.

Paramilitary troops swooped down on the village of Ilicak, near Beytussebap in Sirnak province last month, and ordered villagers to leave their homes on security grounds, the Human Rights Association (IHD) said in a statement after sending a team to investigate the incident.

"The soldiers said that if the villagers stayed in their homes they might give supplies to the rebels," the IHD's Reyhan Yalcindag, who was on the mission, told AFP.

The 343 village residents were now living in squalid conditions in tents set up a short distance away from the village, the IHD said.

Yalcindag said villagers, after being driven from their homes, were slowly being forced to move further and further away from their properties.

"The real aim to force the villagers to leave the region completely," she said.

The IHD called for the villagers to be allowed back to their homes.

"The security-conscious state view cannot take priority over rights and liberties. Ilicak villagers should at once be compensated, allowed to go back to their homes and be given aid," the group said.

The IHD also called for legal action against those responsible for the action. Local officials were not immediately available for comment.

Forced evacuation of villages was part of a systematic drive by the Turkish army to isolate rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), now known as KONGRA-GEL, and cut off their supplies in the 1980s and 90s.

According to official figures, 3,688 villages were emptied out by security forces in 15 years of heavy fighting with the Kurdish rebels and some 300,000 people were displaced.

Many took to living in shanty towns on the outskirts of larger cities, left for the west of the country or sought to emigrate.

Clashes in the region nearly ceased after rebels announced a unilateral ceasefire in 1999 and withdrew from Turkish territory to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

But fighting has been on the increase since June when the rebels called off their truc, warning foreigners and investors to stay away from Turkey.

2. - Chicago Tribune - "Turkey's Kurd militia now a liability":

Stalwarts in the long war against PKK rebels, Kurdish village guards now pose a problem for EU-oriented Ankara

KARAKOC / 24 August 2004 / by Catherine Collins

Mansur Kaya is a proud man from a proud village. His people have grappled with the harsh landscape of southeastern Turkey for 160 years, eking out a living as shepherds and farmers.

Unlike thousands of Kurdish villages in the region devastated during Turkey's civil war in the 1980s and 1990s, however, Kaya's village prospered.

Karakoc thrived because of a collective decision by its 46 families in 1990 when members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, also known as the PKK and more recently as KONGRA-GEL, descended from the mountains and slipped into the community.

"We told the PKK they were not welcome," said Kaya, standing near a gleaming statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of Turkey's modern republic. "We chose to support the state side of the conflict. It has nothing to do with nationality or which ethnic group we belong to. Every house in our village has at least one village guard."

When Turkey went to war against rebels who wanted to carve out a separate Kurdish state, the PKK fighters already were dug into the rugged mountains along the borders with Iran and Iraq. In response, Turkey created the village guards, a civilian force of 150,000 pro-government Kurds who knew the terrain, the people and the language. Their role was to protect the villages, often by fighting the PKK.

37,000 killed in 15 years

In 1999 after 15 years of fighting that claimed 37,000 lives, the rebels declared a cease-fire. But the end of the war did not mean the end of the village guards.

While some consider the guards patriots, others regard them as a divisive and sometimes violent presence in a region still simmering--and a possible obstacle to Turkey's aspiration to join the European Union.

"The village guard system should never have been established," said Jonathan Sugden, who monitors Turkey for New York-based Human Rights Watch. "The experience of militias worldwide is that they tend to be corrupting and fuel human-rights violations."

The civil war, and the way in which Turkey chose to fight it, is often misunderstood, said former Turkish army Gen. Edip Baser, who until his retirement two years ago was responsible for security in the 17 provinces engulfed by the fighting.

"Any struggle against terrorism has more than one dimension," Baser said.

No one disputes that the village guards played a significant role in the army's campaign to assert control of the eastern region. But five years after the end of the war, the issue has become what to do with them.

The village guards expect their government to show gratitude for their service. But the government in Ankara doesn't have enough resources to hire them or give them pensions.

So the 60,000 remaining guards continue their work, occasionally skirmishing with the PKK.

In Tilseref, a village not far from Karakoc, the village guards say they would be happy to put down their guns if they received retirement benefits and health insurance as other public employees do.

Tilseref's head village guard said he has no land, no animals--only the gun he got from the army years ago. He supports a family of 11 on his government guard salary of $200 a month.

"You can hardly afford to sleep on that," said the guard, who refused to give his name because of a law prohibiting government workers from speaking to reporters without approval.

In Karabucak, another nearby village, a guard on overnight duty in a stone hut alongside the planted fields said he and his comrades made enemies among their people while fighting for the army.

`The state is responsible'

"The state is responsible for what happens to us," he said, holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle, held together with electrician's tape.

The creation of a civilian paramilitary force was a strategy that divided Turkey's 15 million Kurds, often setting village against village. The divisions fester today.

There are about 3,500 empty villages throughout Turkey's southeast. They were abandoned by the estimated 3 million Kurds who fled the violence to live safer, but often impoverished, lives in cities.

In the years since the war, the government has tried, largely unsuccessfully, to resettle them.

Caught in the crossfire of government forces and the PKK, Guzel Tekin's family fled its village in 1993. They ran for their lives, Tekin said, not because of the PKK but because the military tried to force the men of her village to join the village guards.

"My husband said, `I don't want to be a killer,'" she said.

After living for nine years in nearby Diyarbakir, a city whose population quadrupled to 1.5 million during the worst of the conflict, the Tekins heard about a government program to resettle villages.

It took just one bullet from a village guard's gun to shatter Guzel Tekin's face and her dream of returning to her village.

Within moments of driving into Ugrak, the family was surrounded by village guards who had occupied their homes and fields. Shots were fired and Tekin's husband, a cousin and a 5-year-old nephew lay dead on the dusty road.

"The Italian Mafia is nothing compared to the village guards," said Mahmut Veha, a lawyer in Diyarbakir who has brought hundreds of cases against members of the militia in the European Court of Human Rights.

"They have destroyed the very fabric of our society, then occupied the homes, planted the fields and taken the food that belongs to their old neighbors who did not join the village guard system," Veha said.

Resolving the tensions so people can be resettled represents a key step in Turkey's attempt to win the right to start formal negotiations to join the European Union in December. But most human-rights advocates don't think that will happen unless the village guards are dismantled.

Kaya, the chief of the guards in Karakoc, said he finds it unsettling that the EU might not accept Turkey if the guards system isn't abolished.

"If the conflict returns to our region, can we count on Europe in our fight against terrorism?" he asked.

3. - Bianet.org / Hurriyet - "Two More Conditions by EU":

Two new articles were added to the Progress Report which would pave the way to the beginning of negotiations between EU and Turkey: Women-men equality and ensuring progress in the issue of the return to village.

BRUSSELS / 24 August 2004

According to reporter Zeynel Lule, who covers EU news, the writing of the Progress Report to be announced on October 6 by the EU Commission, will start next month.

If the report is positive and advises to commence membership talks with Turkey, then the EU leaders will take the decision to launch the negotiations with Turkey by complying with the advise of the report in December. Here are the deficiencies referred to in the report:

Women: Women-man equality; the strengthening of the position of woman

Village: Progress with respect to the return of the ones who immigrated from their villages.

The other shortcomings mentioned in the report include:

Judiciary: "The renewal of the Criminal Code; the foundation of appeal courts

Religion: Removal of religious obstacles to the non-Muslims; education, foundation, immovables to the non-Muslims

Police: Deterrent measures for the policemen treating people badly.

4. - Reporters Without Borders - "One Month Suspension Against Local Radio":

The RTUK sanctioned Ozgur Radio for referring in a press review to the front page of the daily Günlük Evrensel that said police in plain clothes had "massacred" members of DEHAP during a wedding in Adana.

PARIS / 24 August 2004

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has protested that a one-month suspension imposed on a local radio was "too harsh and once again completely disproportionate".

The Istanbul-based Özgür Radyo went off the air on 18 August 2004 in response to the 30-day ban ordered by the broadcast council (RTUK).

"The RTUK appears to be ignoring democratic reforms undertaken in the connection with Turkish membership of the European Union," the organization said. "It carries on censoring at will those media it doesn't like."

"The supreme power of this body remains a major stumbling block to press freedom in the country", Reporters Without Borders added. It called on the State Minister for the press, Besir Atalay, to intervene so that the RTUK could reconsider its decision.

Özgür Radyo was accused of "incitement to violence, terror and discrimination on the basis of race, region, language, religion or sect or broadcast that gives rise to hatred in society" under Article 4 of RTUK's Law 3984.

The RTUK sanctioned the radio for referring in a press review to the front page of the 27 August 2003 issue of the daily Günlük Evrensel that said police in plain clothes had "massacred" members of the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) during a wedding in Adana, in the country's south.

The RTUK suspension ruling was made on 24 February 2004. The station appealed to an Ankara administrative court that upheld the sentence on 9 June this year. The RTUK has the power to revoke the radio's license in the event of further offences.

The broadcast council regularly announces sanctions against media that are either pro-Kurd or highly critical of the government, ranging from warnings to revoking of licenses.

In one instance, local Günes TV in Malatya, in the east of the country, had to stop broadcasting for a month from 20 March 2004.

The RTUK had accused it of "harming the existence and independence of the state, the indivisible unity of the state from its people and the reforming principles of Ataturk" (Article 4 of RTUK's Law 3984).

On 22 May 2003, a journalist, who was instantly sacked by the station, had offered his sympathy to the family of a young extreme-left militant who died after accidentally detonating an explosive charge she was carrying.

RTUK invoked the same article to suspend local ART television in Diyarbakir in the southeast for one month on 1 April 2004 for broadcasting two Kurdish songs on 16 August 2003.

5. - AFP - "Turkey probes alleged ties between top judge, spy agency and mafia":

ANKARA / 23 August 2004

Turkish authorities are investigating allegations that a senior intelligence official lobbied a top judge on behalf of the country's most notorious mafia boss who had a secret to sell, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said Monday.

"A probe is being carried out by several authorities," Cicek said, adding that the issue was beyond the scope of government powers. The affair has made the headlines in the Turkish press, but the government has so far stayed mum on the issue.

At the center of the controversy is Alaatin Cakici, a former far-right militant said to have been sub-contracted by Turkey's intelligence services for secret missions in the 1970s. He turned into a mob leader in the 1990s.

Cakici, 51, was arrested in Austria in July while on the run and is awaiting possible extradition to Turkey. He managed to flee abroad with a false passport in May, reportedly just hours before judicial authorities issued an arrest warrant for him.

According to media reports, the appeals court dragged its feet in sending to related authorities a confirmation of a jail sentence ruled against Cakici for ordering an armed attack on a rival gang in Istanbul in 2000, which allegedly gave him the time to organize his escape.

A senior agent, aided by a contractor building a villa for the head of the appeals court, Eraslan Ozkaya, reportedly contacted the top judge and told him they would like to see Cakici remain at large for some time because he held an important secret and the intelligence agency wanted to obtain it.

Ozkaya and another official from the appeal court reportedly kept the agent and the businessman informed about how Cakici's file was being handled at the court.

Both sides deny they intended to help the mafioso. Cakici is no stranger to political controversy: the government of former prime minister Mesut Yilmaz collapsed after a no-confidence vote in 1998 prompted by allegations that it resorted to Cakici's services in scaring off unwanted bidders in the privatization of a state bank.

6. - DIHA - "First application for ecology to IHD Branch":

VAN / 24 August 2004 / by Can Özdemir

Murat Aritak appealed to the Van Branch of Human Rights Associations (IHD) stating that sewage drained to a brook that passes through the Ozalp district of Van is a severe threat for people's health and to the cleanness of Lake Ercek.

The brook that comes from villages of Ozalp passing through the district centre and draining off into the Lake of Ercek threatens residents of the district. The wool and the wheat washed in the brook threatens people's life. Stating that many animals had already died because of this brook, Murat Aritak appealed to the Van Branch of the IHD demanding
to take some precautions.

'We should create an Ecological Society'

Stating his aim as to create ecological society, Aritak said, "This brook that carries drains of 6 villages and the district passes through the city. Hundreds of animals die every year. Wheat and wool are washed in this brook, this pollution threatens people's life. Children swim in this brook, people cannot stay silent in this situation. I try to
protect ecology."

'Put an end to destruction of the environment'

Stating that he will continue his struggle, Aritak said, "We should prevent this massacre of the environment. The health of tens of thousands of people are threatened by the brook. This brook should be ameliorated. Moreover, the ratio of people who died because of cancer is very high. The brook also pollutes the Lake Ercek."

'First application of its kind'

Executive of Van Branch of IHD, Omer Isik who informed us about the application said this was the first application to prevent the destruction of environment. He added, "This issue is under responsibility of Ozalp and Ercek Municipalities. The protection of Lake Ercek and Lake Van is very important. We will start preparations to establish an association."