1 June 2004

1. "Kurdish rebels want peace, but ready for war", Ocalan’s latest writings emphasise the importance of winning rights for the Kurds through political rather than armed struggle. This encouraged the rebels to establish a new political wing known as KONGRA-GEL in November 2003.

2. "Kurd Rebels Kill Three Turkish Soldiers", suspected Kurdish rebels killed three Turkish soldiers on Monday in the latest flare-up of violence in the country's troubled southeast.

3. "Two Kurdish rebels killed in southeastern Turkey", Turkish security forces killed two suspected Kurdish guerrillas in the country's southeast on Wednesday in the latest episode of violence after the rebels called off a ceasefire this month.

4. "EU rights court condemns Turkey over expulsion of Kurds", the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Turkey for expelling about 15 Kurdish villagers from their homes under a 1994 state of emergency and for preventing them from recovering their property.

5. "Public debate on Turkey to come", the Dutch EU Presidency has pledged to be fair on the question of whether Ankara is ready to start EU membership negotiations amid concerns that the EU may not be ready for Turkey.

6. "Turkey and EU becomes the latest battleground for Chirac and Bush", Turkey's bid to join the European Union was at the centre of a new transatlantic rift yesterday, as the French president, Jacques Chirac, accused George Bush of meddling by supporting Turkey's push for membership.

7. "European Court upholds Turkish headscarf ban", the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Turkish state universities had the right to ban the Muslim headscarf to uphold the principle of the division of religion and state.

8. "Amnesty condemns jail sentences for Kurds in "unfair" Syria trial", Amnesty International on Tuesday condemned the jail sentences slapped on seven Kurds in an "unfair trial" in Syria and called for their immediate release. It also protested against the alleged torture and ill-treatment of Kurdish minors who it said had been held for several months without trial.

1. - Reuters - "Kurdish rebels want peace, but ready for war":

QANDIL MOUNTAINS / 30 June 2004 / by Seb Walker

High in the mountains of northern Iraq, Kurdish rebels play volleyball in the afternoon sun after a day of political education classes.

Guerrillas keep watch over the valley for signs of intruders, while others stack up their Kalashnikov rifles and hand-grenade pouches and join the game, leaping around the improvised court in identical uniforms.

The Turkish Kurd rebel group formerly known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) announced the end of its six-year unilateral ceasefire with Turkey on June 1, telling investors and tourists to stay away from the country.

The declaration raised fears of more violence in the rebel’s push for Kurdish rights, but guerrillas reaping the benefits of peace say they would much rather continue their education programmes than rush back to the battlefield.

"Everybody here is physically prepared for war, but mentally we are ready for peace," said Helin Garza, a 28-year-old female Kurdish guerrilla from Turkey, who has been wounded four times since joining up at the age of 14.

"We tried to alter our ideas, we decided enough blood had been spilled," Garza said. "We don’t want to fight and we will go back if Turkey gives us our rights -- we believe they might stop fighting after we end the ceasefire."

NEW IDEAS

Turkey has made some concessions to its more than 10 million Kurds since the ceasefire ended, freeing a prominent activist suspected of PKK ties and granting limited rights for Kurdish language broadcasts on state television.

But there is no sign that Turkey has abandoned the military option. Turkish troops have fought guerrillas in recent weeks and U.S. President George W. Bush pledged in June to work with Turkey and Iraq’s interim government against the group, which Washington lists as a "foreign terrorist organisation".

More than 30,000 people were killed in a 15-year conflict between Turkey and Kurdish rebels before the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999 led to a ceasefire and the withdrawal of rebel fighters from Turkey.

About 5,000 are now believed to be based at camps in the mountains of northern Iraq which house the fighters, 40 percent of whom are women.

Ocalan’s latest writings emphasise the importance of winning rights for the Kurds through political rather than armed struggle. This encouraged the rebels to establish a new political wing known as KONGRA-GEL in November 2003.

Military training has continued, but guerrilla leaders say their fighters now receive twice as much instruction on political and cultural education than they did a few years ago.

"These last six years have been very good for us -- we know ourselves better than before and we are more prepared ideologically and psychologically," said Cicek Jazeera, the training camp’s 36-year-old commander.

"This makes the guerrilla even stronger, we used to get just 15 days training, now we’ve been learning for six years."

READY FOR DIALOGUE

The movement’s military leadership says it is ready to fight, but will not launch offensive operations if the Turkish government takes "positive steps towards a peaceful and democratic solution" of the Kurdish question in Turkey.

Kurdish rebels, split into various factions, have made demands ranging from the release of Ocalan to protection for the rights of their community, which occupies southeast Turkey and parts of Iraq, Iran and Syria.

"The Turkish state’s approach will be the most important thing -- war is not the only way," Suleiman Sahin, a member of rebel military’s central command, told Reuters in a telephone interview from another mountain stronghold.

Guerrillas who feel their lives have changed for the better since the ceasefire echo the words of their commanders, but say they have little appetite for more bloodshed.

"It’s our duty to defend the rights of the Kurds, if necessary we will fight again," said Nawzad Aro, a 27-year-old Turkish Kurd who joined the guerrilla movement in 1993. "But even if you ask the Turkish soldiers, they don’t want a war either."

2. - Kurdistan Observer - "Kurd Rebels Kill Three Turkish Soldiers":

Suspected Kurdish rebels killed three Turkish soldiers on Monday in the latest flare-up of violence in the country's troubled southeast.

TUNCELI / 28 June 2004

The clash in Van province near the Iranian border coincided with a trip to Turkey by U.S. President George W. Bush in which Turkish leaders urged the United States to crack down on Turkish Kurdish guerrillas operating out of northern Iraq.

Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) opened fire on a Turkish convoy in the town of Gurpinar, injuring three security officers, a military official said. Minutes later, a remote-controlled bomb was detonated at the same site, killing three soldiers.

Helicopter gunships and thousands of soldiers have been deployed to the region for an operation against the rebels and are policing the rugged border with Iran, the official added.

"We have witnessed intense activity by the (PKK) in recent days, and we believe there are more who want to cross the border. An operation is continuing in the region," he said.

Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan pressed Bush to take "concrete steps" against the PKK when they met on Sunday ahead of a NATO summit.

Relations between the close NATO allies have been strained by Turkey's fears that Iraqi Kurds could cement their autonomy in northern Iraq and rekindle separatism among Turkey's own 12 million Kurds.

Washington has promised to take action against the PKK, which it calls a terrorist organisation, but observers say it may hold off for fear of overstretching itself and stoking instability in the relatively peaceful north.

Fighting between the PKK and security forces has been on the rise since the rebels called off a six-year unilateral truce on June 1.

But security officials now estimate nearly 2,000 rebels are in Turkey after crossing back in recent months from northern Iraq, often via Iran and Syria.

3. - Reuters - "Two Kurdish rebels killed in southeastern Turkey":

TUNCELI / 30 June 2004

Turkish security forces killed two suspected Kurdish guerrillas in the country's southeast on Wednesday in the latest episode of violence after the rebels called off a ceasefire this month.

Soldiers exchanged fire with about eight members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), killing two of them in a mountainous area of Kahramanmaras province, Governor Ilhan Atis was quoted as saying by the Anatolian news agency.

Kahramanmaras had been spared the violence of recent weeks. It is further to the west than other provinces that have seen clashes, but does have a sizeable Kurdish population.

Atis also said no PKK fighters remained in Kahramanmaras, but a security official in the region said an operation against the guerrillas was still underway.

The security official said the PKK appeared to have plans to move beyond the southeast to the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions.

Clashes have been on the rise in the mainly Kurdish southeast since the PKK ended its six-year unilateral ceasefire on June 1, threatening a fragile peace in place since the 1999 imprisonment of PKK commander Abdullah Ocalan.

Before his capture, more than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, were killed in the conflict that began in 1984 when the PKK launched its campaign for an ethnic homeland in the southeast.

Most PKK fighters are based in northern Iraq, but security officials estimate more than 1,000 rebels have crossed back into Turkey in recent months, often via Iran and Syria, where there are also Kurdish populations.

Turkish leaders pressed U.S. President George W Bush during his official visit to Ankara last weekend to do more to quash the PKK, on the State Department's list of groups it considers terrorist organisations.

4. - AFP - "EU rights court condemns Turkey over expulsion of Kurds":

STRASBOURG / 29 June 2004

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Turkey for expelling about 15 Kurdish villagers from their homes under a 1994 state of emergency and for preventing them from recovering their property.

The decision is the first with a bearing on the inability of hundreds of Kurds to return home to their villages in southeastern Turkey until July 2003.

Ankara "had the essential duty and responsibility of guaranteeing the conditions -- and providing the means -- to allow the plaintiffs to return home of their free will, in security and with dignity ... or to voluntarily make a new home elsewhere in the country," the court ruled.

Some 1,500 similar demands have been brought before the court, about one-fourth of the total cases it is hearing against Turkey, which hosted a two-day NATO summit in Istanbul that ended Tuesday.

Ankara, bidding to join the European Union, has faced an uphill struggle over its human rights record.

The European judges Tuesday ruled unanimously that Turkey infringed the right to the protection of property and failed to respect family rights.

The plaintiffs were expelled from the village of Boydas, near Hozat, during clashes between security forces and Kurdish separatist sympathizers.

The villagers "were deprived of all the resources essential to their livelihood," the court said, adding that the Turkish authorities failed to provide alternative housing.

The court noted that draft legislation on compensation for damages resulting from the "fight against terrorism" was still under consideration and offered no remedy.

Southeastern Turkey was for 15 years the scene of heavy fighting between the Turkish army and rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Partyseeking self-rule in the mainly Kurdish region.

The PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire in 1999 and withdrew from Turkey, but its successor, the Kongra-gel, announced last month that it was ending the truce as of June 1.

Clashes have been on the increase in the region.

5. - The EUobserver - "Public debate on Turkey to come":

THE HAGUE / 1 June 2004 / by Honor Mahony

The Dutch EU Presidency has pledged to be fair on the question of whether Ankara is ready to start EU membership negotiations amid concerns that the EU may not be ready for Turkey.

"The Netherlands feels a responsibility to make sure that our decision is well-reasoned and rock-solid", said Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende on the eve of the Dutch EU Presidency.

While the European Commission will decide in the autumn whether Ankara has met the political criteria for joining the 25-nation block, Mr Balkenende says this is just one of two types of debate that will take place.

The Dutch leader said that discussion on the political criteria is "technical".

The second discussion amongst the European public is likely to centre around whether "an Islamic country belongs to Europe".

However, the Dutch are insisting that this debate, as well as whether the EU is actually ready for a country the size of Turkey, should not be additional criteria.

"We need fair play … the rules of the game are clear", said Mr Balkenende referring to the fact that if the European Commission decides that Ankara is ready, it will then be up to leaders in December to actually decide, on the basis of the report, to open negotiations without delay.

Late debate

With French leadership ambivalent on Turkish EU membership, the opposition Christian Democrats in Germany actively opposing it and the Austrians also making negative sounds, the Dutch do feel that a debate will come - it is just later than it should have been.

Referring to 1999, when EU leaders actually decided to give Turkey candidate status, Dutch Europe minister Atzo Nicolaï said, "that was the time for debate".

He added, "I think the leaders knew what they decided but the public didn’t know".

However, it is too late for the "principle debate" of whether Turkey should join the EU, he concluded.

"We have to realise Turkey has to be ready and the European Union has to be ready".

Mr Nicolaï also conceded that there is a risk that the planned Dutch referendum on the Constitution, which is set to happen in the same timeframe as a decision on Turkey, may be linked to the issue.

"That is always a risk", he said.

6. - The Independent - "Turkey and EU becomes the latest battleground for Chirac and Bush":

ISTANBUL / 29 June 2004 / by Stephen Castle

Turkey's bid to join the European Union was at the centre of a new transatlantic rift yesterday, as the French president, Jacques Chirac, accused George Bush of meddling by supporting Turkey's push for membership. With a decision due in December on whether the EU will start negotiations with Ankara over its efforts to join, Turkey's application is at a highly delicate stage.

M Chirac warned the US president to mind his own business and said Mr Bush had gone too far , when he said at the weekend that the US believed Turkey was ready to take up EU membership. "If President Bush really said that the way I read it, well, not only did he go too far but he went into territory which is not his own," M. Chirac said at a Nato summit in Istanbul.

The decision on whether to start membership negotiations with Turkey is the most sensitive issue facing EU leaders. Its population of nearly 70 million would make Turkey the second largest country in the bloc, and the first mainly Muslim nation. With a new voting system based in part on population size due to come into effect under Europe's constitution, Turkish membership would have profound implications for the EU's power balance.

To qualify for membership talks, the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has embarked on ambitious reforms to meet the so-called "Copenhagen criteria" on human rights and democracy. Whether or not it has achieved these goals will be assessed by the European Commission prior to a decision on membership talks by the EU leaders in December.

But on Saturday, after an EU-US summit at Dromoland Castle in western Ireland, Mr Bush prejudged that assessment when he argued: "Turkey meets the EU standards for membership. The EU should begin talks that will lead to full membership for the Republic of Turkey."

Washington has a long-standing alliance with Turkey through Nato, but EU membership is in a different category since the countries inside the 25-nation bloc share legislative powers. An EU diplomat said: "It's one thing to be an ally in Nato, and something else to join the EU where we make laws together."

In 1999 the EU finally granted Turkey candidate status and, 18 months ago, Turkey was promised that its progress would be reviewed towards the end of the year. In the run-up to that decision, Ankara mishandled matters by trying to persuade Washington to lobby on its behalf, a move that proved counter-productive.

France and other EU states have warned that negotiations on Turkey's membership of the EU are likely to go on for years. Never the less the opening of formal discussions would mark a huge moment in Turkey's efforts to join the EU; no nation that has started negotiations has been refused entry.

Despite his attack on Mr Bush, M. Chirac was at pains not to oppose the principle of Turkish membership. The French President reaffirmed recent remarks backing Turkish membership when it has completely fulfilled entry criteria, adding that Turkey had an "historic European vocation".

7. - Aljazeera - "European Court upholds Turkish headscarf ban":

29 June 2004

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Turkish state universities had the right to ban the Muslim headscarf to uphold the principle of the division of religion and state.

In what could be a precedent-setting decision, the Strasbourg-based court rejected appeals by two Turkish students who said the ban and their subsequent exclusion from class violated their freedom of religion.

Turkey is a majority Muslim society but instituted a rigid secular state in the 1920s after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Its secular establishment views the headscarf as a challenge to this separation of church and state.

Turkey argued before the court that headscarves violated the secular nature of its state.

"The principle of secularism was surely one of the founding principles of the Turkish state," they added. "Safeguarding this principle can be considered necessary for the protection of the democratic system in Turkey."

Implementation of the ban has intensified since 1997 when the military delivered an ultimatum to the government of the day.

Supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party would like the government to lift the ban, but it dares not defy the military on this sensitive matter, which the military sees as a touchstone of modern Turkey’s secular identity.

Criticism

The decision brought stinging criticism from right group Human Rights Watch.

The Turkish government's heavy-handed interference in universities, coupled with a strict ban on headscarves for students and teachers, inhibits academic freedom, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report.

Human Rights Watch report

The 46-page report analyses the state-imposed ban that has excluded thousands of women from higher education. Hundreds of others have been suspended or discharged from teaching posts as a result.

The subject is of even greater contention in Turkey than elsewhere in Europe. Many of Turkey's secularists believe that the religious parties plan to eliminate secularism bit by bit, and that the headscarf is the first step.

Violations

Moreover, the restriction of women's dress is discriminatory and violates their basic human rights, right to education, their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and their right to privacy, added the report.

It accused the Turkish government of imposing the headscarf ban in the name of secularism when in fact the protection of religious freedom is fully consistent with secularism in state institutions.

"Requiring or forbidding students to wear visible religious dress is a failure in the duty of the state to avoid coercion in matters of religious conscience", said the rights group.

Women's rights

Human Rights Watch urged the government to lift the headscarf ban as part of a broader strategy for remedying shortcomings in the protection of women and improving their access to education and employment.

"The Turkish government has still not dispelled the coercion and self-censorship that pervade academic life," said Rachel Denber, Acting Executive Director, Europe and Central Asia Division-Human Rights Watch. "Professors continue to be disciplined for challenging state practices."

"The Turkish authorities say they want to protect women who choose not to wear the headscarf," said Denber. "But bullying women out of higher education because of the way they choose to dress is a poor way to protect women's freedoms."

A similar approach has been suggested by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

The Human Rights Watch report questions the zero-sum assumption that the broadening of the rights and freedoms of devout Muslims would necessarily narrow those of non-Muslims and secularists.

The report also highlights the efforts of groups working within Turkish society toward a genuinely pluralist approach to ensure that women are able to make their own free choice whether to wear the headscarf.

8. - AFP - "Amnesty condemns jail sentences for Kurds in "unfair" Syria trial":

BEIRUT / 29 June 2004

Amnesty International on Tuesday condemned the jail sentences slapped on seven Kurds in an "unfair trial" in Syria and called for their immediate release. It also protested against the alleged torture and ill-treatment of Kurdish minors who it said had been held for several months without trial.

The London-based prisoners' rights organisation, in a statement received here, "condemned the unfair trial by the supreme state security court of seven Kurdish prisoners of conscience" who were convicted on Sunday in Damascus.

It called for their "immediate and unconditional release" and for charges to be dropped. The Kurds, arrested during a June 2003 demonstration in Damascus, were jailed for between one and two years, the Syrian Human Rights Association (ADHS) said. Among them was lawyer Mohammed Mustafa.

Foreign diplomats, including from the United States, the European Union and Canada, were observers at the trial. The defendants were found guilty of belonging to a secret group and trying to annexe part of Syria to a foreign state, it added. Four of the Kurds jailed for one year were released for time already served behind bars.

The arrests were made at a demonstration near the Damascus offices of the UN children's fund UNICEF to mark International Day for Children's Protection. The demonstration was organised "to call for the rights of Syrian Kurds to be respected including their right to be taught in the Kurdish language", according to Amnesty.

It said the trial of the seven men amounted to "a violation of their right to freedom of expression and assembly as guaranteed" by articles of the Syrian constitution and international conventions signed by Damascus.

Amnesty International was also "gravely concerned" by reports that Kurdish children arrested in the wake of deadly unrest in Kurdish areas of northern Syria in March 2003 had been tortured. The organisation had received names of more than 20 children who had been subjected to torture that caused broken noses, perforated ear drums and infected wounds, it said.

Syria, like Turkey which also has a sizeable Kurdish minority, is strongly opposed to moves towards greater autonomy by the Kurds of neighbouring northern Iraq. Syria's Kurdish population is estimated to total 1.5 million, and most live in the north near the Iraqi border.