22 January 2004

1. "A Test of Vision", the Kurds must be guaranteed the freedoms they already enjoy - in a loosely federated Iraq. And the historically Kurdish, oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which suffered so gravely from Saddam's ethnic cleansing and his programs to Arabize minority homelands, must be included within the borders of Iraq's Kurdish territories.

2. "Turkish diplomacy", Turkey is pushing aggressively for closer ties with Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia - a diplomatic drive that highlights the nation's changing role as a bridge between the region and the United States.

3. "Kurdistan diary: Day Three", Sulaymaniyah is in the heart of Kurdistan, where people have a grasp of history that betrays their patriotism for the Kurdish nation. On the third day of his trip into northern Iraq, Alastair Leithead explores what makes the Kurds so different.

4. "Fischer warns against keeping Turkey out of the EU", speaking during an official visit to Ankara on Wednesday (21 January), Mr Fischer said a "high price" would be paid if this were to happen adding that, for Europe's security, Turkey is more important than a "missile defence system".

5. "Kurdish Women Demonstrate Against Threat to Their Rights", thousands of Kurdish women marched in northern Iraq on Wednesday against an interim Governing Council decision to repeal long-standing secular family laws, once the most advanced in the Arab world.

6. "Erdogan: Kurdish hopes threat to Iraq", the Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan has said Kurdish control of an autonomous area in a future Iraqi state would threaten the stability of the country.

7. "Solana: Civilian-military relations must meet EU standards", the imposition of civilian authority over the military, the independence of the law and the enhancment of basic human rights will definitely bolster Turkey's membership aspirations, says Solana.

8. "Turkey, US, UNHCR hold talks on return of Turkish Kurds from Iraq", officials from Turkey, the United States and the UN refugee agency met here on Wednesday for talks on plans to allow the return of thousands of Turkish Kurds living as refugees in Iraq, UN sources said.

1. - New York Post - "A Test of Vision":

22 January 2004 / by Ralph Peters

A BRITISH military maxim holds that "experience enables you to recognize a mistake the second time you make it." By that standard, the United States should have no difficulty recognizing a grave foreign-policy error in the making. We've repeated the same mistake, over and over again, for half a century.

From our amoral support of the Shah of Iran to our unholy alliance with the Saudis, from our ill-judged backing of Saddam in the '80s to arming Islamic fanatics in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, America's great strategic sin has been to do that which is expedient, rather than that which is more difficult, but wise.

In diplomacy, as in personal affairs, there are always plenty of "good" reasons to go for the quick fix and avoid short-term consequences. During the Cold War, expedience distorted our foreign policy at the expense of our highest ideals.

Faced with Communist aggression, our behavior was often understandable. But for a decade after the Soviet collapse, we continued, from force of habit, to support regimes as odious to their citizens as they were ultimately detrimental to our interests.

With our war of liberation in Iraq, we turned a historic corner, embracing again the core American vision of advancing freedom and the rule of law.

However flawed the public rationale for going to war, the destruction of Saddam's regime was a worthy act.

Now we're in danger of undoing much of the good our soldiers achieved. Once again, our government threatens to promote injustice for the sake of convenience.

The people of Iraq were blessed to be liberated by Americans, but cursed to be liberated by Americans in the build-up to a presidential election. After behaving with courage and vision, President Bush is in danger of committing a great executive folly: Retreating into traditional wisdom, instead of marching forward.

This administration led a strategic revolution. Now, in a nervous pursuit of votes, Bush is on the verge of resurrecting the failed, unjust practices that abetted tyranny throughout the Middle East and aided the rise of extremism.

The test in Iraq is our treatment of the Kurds. Given the reluctance of local governments to count minorities honestly in the Middle East, we know only that 25 million to 37 million Kurds live between the Persian Gulf and the Caucasus, between Ankara and Teheran. More than 80 percent of them suffer political, physical or cultural oppression.

Kurds have been murdered en masse, imprisoned, driven from their homes, denied elementary freedom and human rights - and even forbidden the public use of their language.

Yet in place of outraged protests, we heard only the icy tones of Realpolitik: Any recognition of the Kurds would antagonize our Turkish "allies." The Kurds were incapable of forming a viable state. Kurdish independence would be destabilizing (the greatest sin of all in the eyes of diplomats). And now, Iraq must stay whole.

Nonetheless, the 5 million Kurds of northern Iraq were able to build a de facto state over the past decade. Despite the smug warnings of the "experts," the Kurds overcame their factional differences, inaugurated the rule of law and made their long-impoverished homeland flourish.

Iraqi Kurdistan became exactly what we claim to want for the rest of Iraq and the Middle East: a hopeful land on the path to democracy, respectful of human rights and gleefully market-oriented.

Denied recognition as a sovereign state, Iraqi Kurdistan is, in fact, the most progressive political entity in the Muslim Middle East. We should be doing all we can to amplify its success. Instead, worried pols in the Bush administration seem all too willing to sell out the Kurds to achieve a house-of-cards "success" in Baghdad before November.

As justification, we're told that a generous federal status for the Kurds - semi-autonomy within Iraq - would be intolerable to Iraq's neighbors. In other words, the interests of the mullahs in Iran, the treacherous regime in Turkey and the sponsors of terror in Syria are more important than the welfare and freedom of our Kurdish allies.

This is folly. The Bush administration must demonstrate the courage to follow through on what it has begun. The Kurds must be guaranteed the freedoms they already enjoy - in a loosely federated Iraq. And the historically Kurdish, oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which suffered so gravely from Saddam's ethnic cleansing and his programs to Arabize minority homelands, must be included within the borders of Iraq's Kurdish territories.

The alternative to recognizing Kurdish practical and moral claims to Kirkuk is to leave the city and its oil reserves under the control of Iraq's Sunni Arabs - who are doing their best to kill our soldiers and frustrate the emergence of democracy. In which strategic universe can that be deemed sound policy?

Of late, much attention has focused on southern Iraq, where one canny Shi'a cleric is twisting the knife in the flesh of Bush's political advisers. As a result, we're in danger of embracing claptrap "solutions" that squander the best hopes for positive change and justice.

As the cliché goes, if you want it bad, you get it bad.

Prospectively facing a strong Democratic ticket (Kerry-Edwards?), President Bush's best chance of re-election would come from unwavering leadership, not a collapse into destructive expedience. Our president needs to live up to his promises.

Freedom should not be negotiable.

2. - Associated Press - "Turkish diplomacy":

Can the nation develop closer ties with Mideast and keep U.S. good will?

ISTANBUL / 22 January 2004 / by James C. Helicke

Turkey is pushing aggressively for closer ties with Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia - a diplomatic drive that highlights the nation's changing role as a bridge between the region and the United States.

Turkey's government this month held high-level talks with Syria and Iran, countries that the United States has accused of terrorism. Also, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently headed to Saudi Arabia for a regional economic forum, ahead of talks with President Bush in Washington later this month.

The diplomatic drive comes as Turkey tries to mobilize Iraq's neighbors to oppose Iraqi Kurds' plans for a federation that would include a self-governing Kurdish zone in the north. Turkey and neighbors Syria and Iran fear Iraqi Kurds eventually might push for independence and bring instability to their borders.

Many countries in the region long have been suspicious of Turkey, a predominantly Muslim NATO ally, because of its close ties with the United States and Israel.

But some of those suspicions softened last March when the Turkish parliament, facing widespread public opposition to a war in Iraq, refused to allow U.S. troops in the country ahead of the Iraq invasion. The decision upset relations with Washington but was hailed by others in the region who also strongly opposed the war.

"Regional countries perceived what Turkey did as standing up to the U.S.," said Soner Cagaptay, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

But now Turkey's Islamic-rooted governing party is eager to restore relations with the United States as it seeks influence in Iraq. U.S. support for Turkey's economy also is important and in 2001 was crucial in helping Turkey secure $16 billion in loans from international lenders amid a crippling economic crisis.

The simultaneously improving ties with Washington and states in the region are increasing the Turkish influence and could make it a conduit between Washington and nations like Syria and Iran, which are increasingly edgy about Iraq's future, analysts say.

U.S. officials, including Bush, have spoken of Turkey as a model of a secular democracy in the region.

Syrian President Bashar Assad flew to Ankara earlier this month to discuss concerns about Iraq in the first visit to Turkey by a Syrian head of state.

The visit raised hopes that Syria could use warming relations with Turkey to ease friction with Washington and develop contacts with Israel.

"Iraq is becoming a unifying factor in the region," said columnist Somi Kohen of the daily Milliyet. "Turkish diplomacy is trying to mobilize public opinion in the region now. This gives Turkey the opportunity to play the role of a regional power."

In an effort to improve relations with Washington, Turkey agreed after the war to open its air bases to the U.S.-led coalition for logistical support. It even offered to send peacekeepers to Iraq, an offer that was shelved because of strong Iraqi opposition to the deployment.

Turkey also is allowing more than 100,000 U.S. troops to pass through a southern air base in the coming months in a major rotation of U.S. troops.

"Turkey's geography gives it an opportunity to serve as a bridge," Kohen said.

Turkey also has been careful to emphasize that the new relations do not mark a shift away from the United States.

During Assad's visit to Ankara, for example, Erdogan helped support U.S. diplomatic efforts by relaying a message from U.S.-ally Israel that it was willing to sit at the table and negotiate with Syria. Syria and Israel technically are at war.

Kohen said Assad also told him in an interview that he planned to give Erdogan a message to give to Bush.

Diplomats say the United States doesn't appear alarmed by Turkey's new diplomatic status. But they add it's too say early to say if Turkey succeed in pushing countries like Syria or Iran to reform or if the United States is willing to use Turkey as an intermediary.

3. - BBC - "Kurdistan diary: Day Three":

SULAYMANIYAH / 22 January 2004 / By Alastair Leithead

Sulaymaniyah is in the heart of Kurdistan, where people have a grasp of history that betrays their patriotism for the Kurdish nation. On the third day of his trip into northern Iraq, Alastair Leithead explores what makes the Kurds so different.

It took the dancers two hours to get ready, the men strapping their feet and twisting the belts around their baggy trousers, the women wrapping the golden material around their waists.

The music system was a bit dodgy, and the music kept cutting out, but they performed their traditional Kurdish dance with passion and precision.

In fact their director and teacher pointed out it was a dance with steps only performed in Sulaymaniyah, as each Kurdish area has its own specific style.

The performance was at the city's youth centre and while the four men and three women practiced their dance moves, others in jeans whizzed around the courtyard on their roller blades, not quite confident enough to use them outdoors.

Culture is hugely important to Kurdish people, especially in Sulaymaniyah, but there is a strong pull to the west - the modernisation and consumerism - driven perhaps by the satellite televisions they have had access to since they started running their own affairs.

Make-up and heels

A McDonalds restaurant has not yet opened, but "MaDonal", complete with golden arches does brisk business.

And at the university, students mill around the campus, chattering with each other and doing some last minute cramming for their exams. Remarkably in this part of Iraq, the war only stopped lectures for a few weeks.

There are probably more women than men and they are happy to air their views to anyone who asks.
They are dressed in bright and fashionable colours and jeans, make up and heels - a truly different picture to the rest of Iraq.

In the main square where the old men in their traditional Kurdish costume sit in the afternoon sun, beads in hand, putting the world to rights, the statues and murals of famous historical Kurds keep an ever watchful eye on them.

Ask anyone in the street for a potted history of the first Kurdish king, the original extent of Kurdistan and the importance of Kurdish culture and you soon discover a patriotism which runs deep.

Hot topic

People are proud, and after decades of abuse, maltreatment and victimisation, the last 10 years of freedom has given back to Iraq's Kurds the dignity which was taken from them by Saddam Hussein.

They were killed - some by chemical weapons - and dumped in mass graves, ordered from their homes and their land and banished into the mountains. Now they have their own region, working for them and working well - they are not going back.

At the local TV station I managed to grab an interview with the editor and presenter of a show that is popular in Kurdistan.

Every week an hour long programme paves the way for a referendum on the future of Kurdistan. Academics and politicians make their points in the studio and the people call in - it is a hot topic of discussion.

"Maybe 90% of the people want independence," he says. "But the politicians talk about a federation - that's the least we can have, but we want the Americans, the British, the UN, anybody to give us our referendum and let us decide our own future."

And anyone who knows their history, knows the Kurds have been let down before.

4. - EUobserver.com - "Fischer warns against keeping Turkey out of the EU":

22 January 2004

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has warned against keeping Turkey out of the EU.

Speaking during an official visit to Ankara on Wednesday (21 January), Mr Fischer said a "high price" would be paid if this were to happen adding that, for Europe's security, Turkey is more important than a "missile defence system".

However, he also told the Turkish paper Hürriyet that Germany and other countries in the EU had both rational and emotional objections against Turkey that have to be dealt with.

The German Foreign Minister stuck close to the line of the European Commission by insisting on the importance of solving the Cyprus problem.

"The resolution of the problem as soon as possible will create a very favourable environment", Mr Fischer told reporters after meeting his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gül.

Turkey, a candidate for EU membership since 1999, will hear by the end of the year whether is has achieved the political criteria for Union membership.

Whether it gets a date to start accession negotiations has been closely linked to the Cyprus question. If no solution is found, Turkey risks being considered an occupier of EU soil when Cyprus joins the EU on 1 May.

Turkey has kept soldiers in northern Cyprus since its 1974 invasion in response to a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

"There is a very important opportunity here and I think both sides on the island should seize it. Everybody here knows what needs to be done", said Mr Fischer.

For his part, Mr Gül said that his country would "do whatever possible" to get the peace talks, which broke down earlier this year, up and running again.

Their words come just before the Turkish National Security Council is expected to meet on Friday (23 January) to finalise a policy document which will set Ankara's line on the Cyprus issue.

This document is expected to detail changes to a UN plan, presented in November 2002, to reunite the island. It will set Turkey's tone in the forthcoming negotiations on the issue.

5. - AFP - "Kurdish Women Demonstrate Against Threat to Their Rights":

SULEIMANIYAH / 21 January 2004

Thousands of Kurdish women marched in northern Iraq on Wednesday against an interim Governing Council decision to repeal long-standing secular family laws, once the most advanced in the Arab world.

At the same time, about 500 veiled women gathered in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf to support the decision that still has to be passed into law by US chief administrator Paul Bremer.

Some 5,000 women marched in the city of Suleimaniyah, said organisers from the Kurdistan Women's Union, affiliated to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is headed by council member Jalal Talabani.

"It's a heavy blow for women of Iraq and Kurdistan," said the union's chairwoman, Kafia Souleiman, accusing those who took it of "ignoring the long struggle of women in this country".

Last December, under then chairman Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, head of the fundamentalist Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the Governing Council voted to scrap secular family laws and place them under Muslim religious jurisdiction.

The 1959 code was once considered the most progressive in the Middle East, making polygamy difficult and guaranteeing women's custody rights in the case of divorce.

"This decision is unacceptable for an overwhelming majority of Iraqi people. It violates not only the rights of women of Iraq and Kurdistan, but also international conventions," said Takhshan Zangala, head of the Kurdistan Women's League, affiliated to the communist party.

6. - Al Jazeera - "Erdogan: Kurdish hopes threat to Iraq":

22 January 2004

The Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan has said Kurdish control of an autonomous area in a future Iraqi state would threaten the stability of the country.

In an exclusive interview on Wednesday, the PM has said he will raise his concerns when he meets President George Bush at the White House this week.

Turkish leaders have repeatedly warned that expanding Kurdish self-rule in northern Iraq could lead to the country breaking apart and threaten the stability of Iraq's neighbours with their sizeable Kurdish minorities.

"Let me be open and very frank with you," Erdogan said. "Any federal system based on ethnicity is not going to be healthy and will damage the future of Iraq."

"This is the idea that is emerging in countries like Iran and Syria as well."

Point of concern

Kurds are demanding autonomy in northern Iraq within a unified state and are asking for control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, a step that Turkish leaders condemn as unacceptable.

Erdogan said that "all resources of Iraq should belong to all people of Iraq." The soft tone contrasts with recent stronger statements by one Turkish general.

Deputy chief of staff General Ilker Basbug warned last Friday that "Iraq's future might be very bloody if there was a federal structure."

The warning comes amid the country's strong desire to repair relations with the United States that have been strained by the Iraq conflict.

Ankara refused to allow in US troops for the Iraq war, alienating itself from its most important ally. But earlier this month, Turkey began allowing the United States use a Turkish air base to rotate troops for Iraq.

Impotence

However there is little that Turkey can do to push the United States to moderate Kurdish demands.

Northern Iraq is one of the more stable areas of the country and Washington is keen not to undermine that stability.

US leaders, however, have repeatedly said they would not accept a Kurdish state in northern Iraq, meeting Ankara's key demand.

"Turkey is not in a position to play a strong card in Iraq," said Ilnur Cevik, editor-in-chief of the Turkish Daily News. "Bush needs the Kurds."

Erdogan last visited the White House on 10 December, a little more than a month after his party won a massive majority in Turkish elections.

7. - Cihan News Agency - "Solana: Civilian-military relations must meet EU standards":

The imposition of civilian authority over the military, the independence of the law and the enhancment of basic human rights will definitely bolster Turkey's membership aspirations, says Solana

BRUSSELS / 22 January 2004

Javier Solana, the secretary-general of the European Union Council and high representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), said relations between civilian and military authorities in Turkey should meet European standards.

Turkey is hoping to open entry talks with the EU at the end of 2004 and has adopted a series of EU harmonization packages including political and economic criteria to meet membership requirements.

Last week, EU Commission President Romano Prodi had praised reforms enacted by Turkey and said that the country was closer than ever to EU membership.

In reference to the opening of accession talks with Turkey, Solana, noting that the process was still under way, said the key to the issue was not only in the hands of the EU Commission but also in the hands of Turkey.

"If Turkey is determined to join the European Union like other member countries, it can also pave its way to the European Union by implementing reform packages," the EU high representative said in an interview with daily Zaman on Tuesday.

Asked if the 30,000 Turkish soldiers stationed in northern Cyprus would be considered invaders of the EU if the Cyprus conflict were not solved, Solana said that both sides -- the Turkish and Greek elements of the island -- should attempt to solve the problem on the basis of the Annan plan that was waiting on the negotiating table.

Turkey favors a solution in divided Cyprus before May 2004, when the Greek part of the island is to join the EU as the island's sole representative, in order to smooth its path towards EU membership.

"What we want to see now is the two parties sitting at the negotiating table to finalize negotiations on the basis of the Annan plan," Solana said.

As to Turkey's new initiative on the Cyprus issue, which proposes certain amendments to the plan, Solana said that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would decide on whether to accept or reject Turkey's new initiative.

"The sides must accept the changed plan and should put it into practice," he said.

Asked if the Sept. 11 attacks had brought Turkey's EU membership any closer, Solana said that Turkey's candidacy to the EU had been already declared at the Helsinki summit in 1999.

The imposition of civilian authority over the military, the independence of the law and the enhancment of basic human rights would definitely bolster Turkey's membership aspirations, Solana said.

8. - AFP - "Turkey, US, UNHCR hold talks on return of Turkish Kurds from Iraq":

ANKARA / 21 January 2004

Officials from Turkey, the United States and the UN refugee agency met here on Wednesday for talks on plans to allow the return of thousands of Turkish Kurds living as refugees in Iraq, UN sources said.

The talks are aimed at drawing up a joint document on the "voluntary and safe return in dignity of Kurds from Turkey who have taken refuge in Iraq, the UNHCR spokesman in Ankara, Metin Corabatir, told AFP.

However, differences emerged in the talks, Corabatir said without elaborating.

Since the early 1990s, thousands of Kurds from Turkey's southeast have fled across the border into Iraq to escape a bloody conflict between the Turkish army and Kurdish rebels who, in 1984, launched an armed campaign for self-rule in the area.

The 15-year conflict, which has claimed more than 36,000 lives, saw the Turkish army forcibly evacuate villages in a bid to cut off supplies to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants hiding in the mountains.

Other families, who sympathised with the PKK, also crossed into Iraq.

The Turkish Kurdish refugees, numbering 12,700, currently constitute the third largest refugee group in Iraq. There are also some 80,000 Palestinians and 18,700 Iranians there, according to the UNHCR.

More than 9,000 of the Turkish Kurd refugees have been living in the Mahmour refugee camp, located near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, since

Ankara for years has demanded that the UN-controlled camp be closed down, claiming it is controlled by PKK rebels and that families who want to return to Turkey are prevented from doing so.

Besides the Mahmour camp, there are several other refugee camps near the northern Iraqi cities of Dahuk and Arbil, sheltering 3,700 Turkish Kurds.

Since 1997, some 2,200 refugees have returned home to Turkey with assistance from the UNHCR.