3 August 2004

1. "Mine Blast Kills Turkish 4 Soldiers", 4 Turkish soldiers were killed and some got injured in Sirnak's Beytüssebap district as a military vehicle crushed into a mine, which caused a huge explosion.

2. "Kurdish guerrillas killed in southeast Turkey", four Kurdish guerrillas have been killed in two separate clashes between rebels and Turkish security forces, officials said on Monday.

3. "Hungry Children who Work 12 Hours a Day", a research conducted by Prof. Alphan and researcher Avci, showed that working children in Turkey suffer from malnutrition and are underdeveloped due to working conditions. 72 percent of the children surveyed skip at least one meal a day.

4. "In Turkey, Muslim headgear covers a whole political and cultural world advertisement", Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government finds itself in an ironic situation. Some of its core supporters strongly support Turkey's drive for European Union membership in the hopes that Europe's liberal, pluralist ways will force the Turkish government to relax the ban on head scarves.

5. "Iran, Turkey: Erdogan in Teheran to resolve business spats, get help against Kurdish rebels", Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Teheran last week for talks he hoped would smooth over a series of business disputes and boosting cooperation in the fight against Kurdish rebels.

6. "Kurd-Arab tension rising over property disputes in Iraq", the US-led coalition in Iraq failed to settle property disputes between displaced Kurds and Arab settlers in Iraq's north, leaving a situation that "could soon explode into open violence," an international human rights organization warned Monday.

1. - DIHA - "Mine Blast Kills Turkish 4 Soldiers":

SIRNAK / 2 August 2004

4 Turkish soldiers were killed and some got injured in Sirnak's Beytüssebap district as a military vehicle crushed into a mine, which caused a huge explosion.

A military vehicle exploded in the Setkar region close to Beytüssebap because a mine, supposedly placed by guerillas of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) exploded. The other soldiers in the vehicle got injured and were taken to Sirnak Military Hospital. Large-scale military operations were started in the region.

2. - Reuters - "Kurdish guerrillas killed in southeast Turkey":

DIYARBAKIR / 2 August 2004

Four Kurdish guerrillas have been killed in two separate clashes between rebels and Turkish security forces, officials said on Monday.

Three members of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) died during prolonged fighting in a remote mountainous part of Tunceli province in southeast Turkey which began on Sunday.

A fourth PKK militant was killed on Monday morning in a forest near the town of Bingol, also in the southeast.

The region has seen an increase in violence since the PKK called off a unilateral, six-year ceasefire on June 1. More than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the PKK first took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 but fighting had dropped off sharply with the capture and jailing of rebel commander Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.

The renewed violence has claimed more than 60 lives in the past two months, a leading Turkish human rights group says.

Last week, rebels killed a watchman and wounded two other men in their first attack in Diyarbakir, the main city in the region, in about a year.

3. - bianet.com - "Hungry Children who Work 12 Hours a Day":

A research conducted by Prof. Alphan and researcher Avci, showed that working children in Turkey suffer from malnutrition and are underdeveloped due to working conditions. 72 percent of the children surveyed skip at least one meal a day.

ISTANBUL / 2 August 2004

Professor Emel Alphan, head of Education at the Health Education Faculty of the Marmara University, and Researcher Suleyman Avci, conducted a survey on 186 children frequenting the Kartal Technical Education Center.

The children were aged between 15 and 19, and 76 of them were girls. It was found that the children, both girls and boys, were "considerably" underweight and much shorter than average.

The survey, conducted in May 2003, demonstrated that 62 percent of children working in confectionery and hair dressing, worked more than 12 hours a day. It also showed that three out of four children skipped one meal a day.

The working children, who mainly feed on cakes, biscuits, bread, soup, rice and macaroni, do not have enough intake of minerals such as calcium, and proteins in their teenage years, when they the fastest pace of growth takes place.

Nutrition is moth important for growth

Prof. Alphan said growth was affected by factors such as genetical structure, sexuality, hormones, environmental factors, and social-economical conditions. However, she added that the most important factor is nutrition.

Alphan said inadequate nutrition and energy, negatively affects the concentration and attention of the workers and increases the risks of accidents at the workplace.

56 percent of the children and their mothers were elementary school graduates, while 39 percent were uneducated. 64 percent of fathers were elementary school graduates, and 15 percent were uneducated. Almost all mothers were "housewives," whereas 37 percent of fathers were laborers.

Six percent of the children surveyed worked eight hours a day, while 62 percent worked more than 12 hours. When calculated through the Body Mass Index (BMI), 39 percent of the girls, and 29 percent of the boys were "underweight." The girls were an average 160.8 centimeters tall, and the boys were 169.8 centimeters. The girls weighed an average 51.6 kilograms and the boys weighted an average 58.4 kilograms.

4. - AP - "In Turkey, Muslim headgear covers a whole political and cultural world advertisement":

ISTANBUL / 2 August 2004

Sema Kopuz considers her Islamic head scarf a symbol of freedom, but others would call it a symbol of oppression. The colorful cloth that covers her hair has made it easier for her to study medicine, but impossible to practice it.

All over Europe, the head scarf has come to define the clash between conservative Islam and secular societies, nowhere more so than in overwhelmingly Muslim but vehemently secular Turkey. Here it's so sensitive that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends some government functions alone. His wife wears a head scarf, and her presence could offend secularists.

Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government finds itself in an ironic situation. Some of its core supporters strongly support Turkey's drive for European Union membership in the hopes that Europe's liberal, pluralist ways will force the Turkish government to relax the ban on head scarves. Yet head scarves are just the sort of thing that reinforces Europeans like German opposition leader Edmund Stoiber, who says, "Turkey comes from a very different religious and cultural tradition" and "would disrupt Europe's community bond."

Recent events have been discouraging for the pro-scarf camp. In February, French legislators voted overwhelmingly to ban the scarves in public schools, and last month the European Court of Human Rights ruled against a Turkish student who claimed her rights were violated by Turkish restrictions on wearing scarves at universities.

Turkey's sensitivity to headgear dates to the 1920s, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk set out to Westernize the country overnight. He Latinized the Arabic alphabet, mandated Western dress, forced men to abandon their fez hats and spoke out against veils. The military considers itself the guarantor of the staunchly secular constitution, and as recently as seven years ago it helped drive an elected Islamic-oriented government from power.

Kopuz, who wears a green, white and black head scarf, said she had hoped that as Turkey drew closer to Europe, the ban would be relaxed. "Now, after the decision in France, that hope has also vanished," she said.

Huseyin Emre Altinisik, head of The Association for Ataturkist Thought, strongly supports the ban, saying that going soft on head scarves "will lead to Turkish women becoming second- or third-class citizens."

For Kopuz, 29, the decision to wear a head scarf was deeply personal.

She was born into a religious family in the Black Sea coast city of Rize, but did not wear a head scarf while growing up. "I liked to do my hair and put on makeup," she said.

But conservative neighbors questioned her morality. "Your daughter is uncovered," she remembers them telling her father. "What will be her fate?"

When she came to college in Istanbul she met other women from conservative backgrounds who wore head scarves, and began to do likewise.

She said it liberated her from family pressure. "Before I covered my hair, my family tried to control my life," Kopuz said. "Now that I cover my hair I have lots of freedom. They trust my decisions and don't question me a lot."

"I am also more comfortable on the streets. Those unwanted looks, those unwanted approaches went away."

The head scarf isn't just for appearances. Kopuz is an observant Muslim who prays regularly. And she has paid for her choice. Turkey has long had restrictions on women wearing head scarves in universities and government offices, and Kopuz and other women said these were tightened in 1998 and they were forced to leave their universities.

Kopuz finished her studies in Azerbaijan but cannot practice medicine in Turkey because women wearing head scarves are barred from taking the medical board examination.

She is now active in a support group for head-scarved women.

Prime Minister Erdogan has an overwhelming majority in parliament but faces the constant suspicion, no matter how much he denies it, that his Justice and Development Party has a hidden Islamist agenda. So even so simple an issue as headgear is watched as a bellwether of his intentions.

Officials have said that changing the ban on head scarves is so sensitive that any change will have to come as a result of a national consensus, which is unlikely to come soon.

Meanwhile, Erdogan said after attending a state reception last year (minus his wife Emine), "We will suffer patiently and continue serving."

5. - Monday Morning - "Iran, Turkey: Erdogan in Teheran to resolve business spats, get help against Kurdish rebels":

2 August 2004

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Teheran last week for talks he hoped would smooth over a series of business disputes and boosting cooperation in the fight against Kurdish rebels.

The visit came amid growing political and economic ties between the two neighbors, whose warming relations have nevertheless been beset by deep-rooted ideological differences.
The Turkish leader was to have talks with President Mohammad Khatami and several ministers as well as a string of other officials.

He arrived for the two-day visit, accompanied by a high-level political and economic delegation including some 130 businessmen.

Erdogan said earlier that he would ask Iran to put a Turkish Kurd rebel group on its list of terrorist organizations during the talks. “We will reiterate our demand that the terrorist organization is included on the terrorist list”, he told reporters in Istanbul.
He was referring to the former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a 15-year separatist war in predominantly Kurdish Southeast Turkey. The group, now known as KONGRA-GEL, ended a five-year unilateral cease-fire with the government on June 1.

Turkey and Iran have recently boosted their cooperation on security matters, including against the PKK, and Foreign Ministry officials in Iran said the matter was due to be discussed in depth.

Iran also has a Kurdish minority and shares Turkey’s concerns that any moves towards greater autonomy by the Kurds in Northern Iraq could spark unrest among their cousins in neighboring countries.

The talks on the issue signal a major change in tone following several years of tensions as the two states traded accusations of sheltering dissidents.
Turkish officials had also accused Iran of aiming to “export the Islamic revolution” to Turkey, a mainly Muslim but strictly secular state that also recognizes Iran’s regional arch-enemy Israel.

Economic cooperation was also high on the agenda of Erdogan’s talks with Iranian leaders. According to official figures, trade between the two countries has increased dramatically in recent years, and was valued at 2.4 billion dollars in 2003, a 90 percent increase on the previous year. Iran says the figure could surge to 10 billion dollars in the coming years.

But trade relations have been badly damaged by a disagreement over the price of natural gas Turkey is importing from Iran under a 1996 deal. Turkey halted imports, complaining of poor quality and asking Iran to reduce the price. There has also been an embarrassing dispute over a contract to operate Teheran’s new international airport won by a Turkish-led consortium.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shut down the sprawling capital’s new showpiece airport on May 8 after just one flight landed. The Guards argued that the contract with Tepe-Akfen-Vie (TAV), an Austrian-Turkish consortium, endangered the Islamic republic’s security because the operators also had business dealings with Israel.

President Khatami, a reformist, said in mid-July the dispute had been resolved and the airport could now reopen, but top conservative deputies have said they will to impeach the transport minister if the deal goes ahead.

6. - AFP - "Kurd-Arab tension rising over property disputes in Iraq":

NEW YORK / 2 August 2004

The US-led coalition in Iraq failed to settle property disputes between displaced Kurds and Arab settlers in Iraq's north, leaving a situation that "could soon explode into open violence," an international human rights organization warned Monday.

Human Rights Watch said in a 78-page report that there was increasing frustration among thousands of Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrians living in "desperate conditions" as they wait for answers regarding their property claims.

"If these property disputes are not addressed as a matter of urgency, rising tensions between returning Kurds and Arab settlers could soon explode into open violence," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division.

Kurds, Turkomans and other non-Arabs were kicked out of their homes under Saddam Hussein's "Arabization" program, which Human Rights Watch said was "effectively an ethnic cleansing campaign to permanently alter the ethnic make-up of northern Iraq."

The report describes how "the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority failed to act even as the situation grew more volatile," the New York-based organization said in a statement.

The rights group urged the interim Iraqi government, which took over power from the Americans June 28, to "urgently" implement a judicial system to resolve the disputes and bring humanitarian aid to the displaced Kurds and other non-Arabs.

Kurds and other groups have returned to Iraq's north to reclaim their properties since Saddam's fall in April 2003, the report said. Arab families who were forced from their homes since last year also need help, Human Rights Watch said.