22 July 2004

1. "Talks With Turkey Next on EU Agenda", outlining his goals for his country's six-month EU presidency before the European Parliament, Dutch Premier Jan-Peter Balkenende has called for fairness in deciding whether to start accession talks with Turkey.

2. "Turks woo France with Airbus deal", politics and the aircraft business have never been strangers but they appeared particularly closely wedded on Wednesday when Turkey's national airline announced it would buy 36 planes worth nearly $3 billion from Airbus and fewer than half that number from Boeing.

3. "Islam 'must not cloud Turkey bid'", Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has said Islamophobia must not affect the possibility of Turkey's entry to the European Union.

4. "Syria: political prisoners released", lawyer, the Syrian authorities also released 100 Kurds detained following clashes that took place in march in al-Qamishli in the northern part of the country as well as several persons escaped the military service.

5. "Iraq's president says he supports Kurdish autonomy", Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar assured the country's Kurdish population on Wednesday that their existing autonomy would be preserved within the context of a future federal Iraq.

6. "Kurds live with pain inflicted by Saddam", Some survivors would like to see Saddam's trial held in their villages even though they know that possibility is remote.


1. - DW - "Talks With Turkey Next on EU Agenda":

22 July 2004

Outlining his goals for his country's six-month EU presidency before the European Parliament, Dutch Premier Jan-Peter Balkenende has called for fairness in deciding whether to start accession talks with Turkey.

Speaking before the newly elected parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, the Christian Democrat said EU countries must not be guided by a fear of Islam when deciding about the bloc's future relationship with Turkey.

"Resistance towards a religion is not consistent European values," Balkenende said. " Our resistance has to be focussed on people who abuse worshipping God to propagate violence."

In December, EU leaders will decide whether Turkey meets the political and economic criteria to begin negotiations towards joining the bloc at some point in the future. That process is expected to take at least 10 years.

Balkenende said Turkey's readiness for negotiations should be judged honestly but strictly on the existing criteria of human rights, democracy and the rule of law without inventing new conditions.

Refuting bin Laden

Martin Schulz, the leader of the European Socialists, agreed with Balkenende. He added that the EU had raised Turkey's hopes to join the union and could not switch gears at this point.

"Islam isn't the problem," Schulz (photo) said. "If it were possible to show that Western values and an Islamic society are not mutually exclusive, the arguments of the world's bin Ladens would be refuted. The increase in the level of security that Europe could gain from this should not be dismissed lightly."

But Hans-Gert Pöttering, Schulz's political opponent as leader of the conservatives in the European Parliament, said that the union should offer Turkey a special partnership but not full membership.

France is on the fence

Earlier this week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (photo) visited France to lobby for Paris to support Turkey's accession to the EU.

French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday reaffirmed his support for Turkey's eventual membership of the European Union, without specifying any time frame.

According to a Chirac aide, the president said that "Turkey's integration into the EU is welcome as soon as it becomes possible...Turkey has made considerable progress. It must continue and intensify the implementation of democratic and economic reforms."

Chirac has previously said he believes the path to Turkish membership is "irreversible," but he is at odds with many in his own Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party and the public who believe the predominantly Muslim country has no place in the club of 25.

The debate over Turkey's right to join the EU has been particularly robust in France, where there is strong opposition both from those who fear its implications for immigration and Europe's cultural heritage, and those who say it will mean the end of their vision for a politically integrated continent.

Abstention rather than opposition?

The nationalist leader Philippe de Villiers on Tuesday condemned Erdogan's visit and what he described as Chirac's "determination" to see Turkey join the EU. He said he would ensure Turkey's membership is at the "heart of the debate" ahead of next year's planned referendum on the EU constitution.

As Britain, Germany and Spain already lean towards supporting commencing negotiations with Turkey, some think that it's unlikely that France would block such a step.

"France will either fight for the opening of negotiations or abstain, because it doesn't want to oppose the main European countries which have already come out clearly in favor," Didier Billion, an expert on Turkey and the deputy director of the Paris-based Institute for International and Strategic Relations, told Reuters news agency. "I don't think that France will risk taking a position that would spark a crisis within the European Union."

2. - The International Herald Tribune - "Turks woo France with Airbus deal":

PARIS / 22 July 2004 / by Thomas Fuller

Politics and the aircraft business have never been strangers but they appeared particularly closely wedded on Wednesday when Turkey's national airline announced it would buy 36 planes worth nearly $3 billion from Airbus and fewer than half that number from Boeing.

Word of the contract for the French-based aircraft maker came as Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, completed an official three-day visit to France, where he was lobbying political and business leaders to support Turkey's entry into the European Union.

France is playing an especially important role in determining whether Turkey will be allowed to begin membership negotiations with the EU because it appears to be the sole European heavyweight deeply divided on the question.

The French president, Jacques Chirac, says he supports Turkish entry but several senior members of his party are opposed.

The chief executive of Airbus, Noël Forgeard, played down the politics behind Wednesday's deal, telling reporters at the Farnborough air show in Britain, "It's basically commercial, even if the politics go in the right direction."

Turkish media accounts said that Chirac and Erdogan had discussed the Airbus deal over lunch Tuesday and reached a tentative agreement then.

But their main topic had been Turkey's entry into the Union.

Chirac did not speak to reporters afterward, but his office released a statement saying that the French president had told Erdogan that "Turkey's entry into the European Union was desirable as soon as it would be possible."

In the deal on Wednesday, Airbus not only received twice as many aircraft orders as Boeing but sold five wide-body, long-distance A330/200s. These aircraft are much higher in value than the single-aisle B737/800 that Turkish Airlines said it would purchase from Boeing.

The Boeing deal was said to be worth about $900 million, or about one-third as much as the Airbus contract.

The current Turkish Airlines fleet is mostly made up of Boeing aircraft.

During his visit to France, Erdogan both pitched his country's membership in the EU and urged French companies to increase their investments in Turkey.

In a meeting with business leaders on Tuesday he said Turkey was planning nuclear power projects and would discuss these plans with France, Europe's largest producer of nuclear energy.

"We are going to take concrete steps in this direction," he told the business leaders, according to Agence France-Presse.

Ernest-Antoine Seillière, the president of the French employers association who met with Erdogan, said the French business sector was "very much sympathetic" with Turkey's efforts. Speaking on France Inter radio, he said he was "very much behind Turkey to present its application."

Louis Schweitzer, the head of French carmaker Renault, said Turkish membership would provide Turkey with "continuity and stability."

Erdogan also met with the politicians who have come out against Turkish membership, but seems to have had less success in selling his cause. A spokeswoman for François Bayrou, the president of the centrist UDF party, and an opponent of Turkish membership, said Bayrou's position had not changed after meeting Erdogan.

Opinion polls have shown that a majority of French people oppose Turkey's joining the Union.

Outside France, Turkey can count on Britain, Germany and Italy, all of which have repeatedly said they would like to see Turkey begin talks. The United States also backs Turkish membership, although previous lobbying attempts by Washington have been resented in Europe and may have backfired.

The Turks also appear to have the backing of the Netherlands, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.

The European Commission will release a report in October stating whether it believes Ankara has fulfilled the political, economic and human rights criteria to join the Union.

On the basis of that report leaders will decide at a summit meeting in December whether to start membership negotiations with Turkey.

3. - BBC - "Islam 'must not cloud Turkey bid'":

21 July 2004

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has said Islamophobia must not affect the possibility of Turkey's entry to the European Union.

Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, he attacked Muslim groups, which he said were sowing hatred, and promised new anti-terror measures.

Mr Balkenende was outlining the plans of the Dutch presidency of the European Union over the next six months.

The newly enlarged parliament is meeting for the first time this week.

BBC European affairs correspondent William Horsley says Mr Balkenende's comments were unusually harsh and blunt from a European head of government, especially one who speaks for the whole EU.

Same criteria

The Dutch prime minister said Turkey's possible entry into the EU troubled many European citizens.

But he said the decision on whether to open EU membership talks with Turkey, due to be taken in December, must be strictly on the basis of whether or not Turkey meets the agreed standards of human rights and democracy.

There was not a problem that Turkey was a Muslim nation, he said.
"The decision must be arrived at honestly, under the ground rules to which we previously, in 2002, firmly committed ourselves," he said.

"That means strict application of the criteria laid down, but without inventing new criteria.

"We must not allow ourselves to be guided by fear, for example of Islam."

He said the problem was the misuse of religion to sow hatred and to repress women.

Repatriation

The train bombing attacks in Madrid in March, which killed 191 people, have been blamed on Islamic militants.

Mr Balkenende also promised to see through tough new measures to curb terrorism more effectively by forging closer co-operation among the police and security services of all EU states.

As part of this policy he said the EU would develop common procedures for forcibly repatriating illegal immigrants and for better integrating people from minority communities inside Europe.

Mr Balkenende said EU citizens had a right to expect protection against terrorism and organised crime.

Our correspondent says that with unusual frankness the Dutch leader acknowledged a widespread popular mistrust among ordinary Europeans of the European Union structures and the integration process.

European politicians had to show that the EU really belongs to them, he said.

The meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg is the first since the EU expanded to include 10 new member states.

MEPs have already elected Spanish socialist Josep Borrell as the new president of the parliament.

They will vote on a European Commission leader on Thursday.

4. - Arabic News - "Syria: political prisoners released":

21 July 2004

In a statements issued yesterday the " Syrian human rights society" said that the Syrian authorities released 28 Islamic political prisoners with some of them were spending life imprisonment sentences since the 1980s, noting that all released persons belong to the banned " Muslim Brothers movement and the " Islamic liberation party."

Lawyer, Anwar al-Bunni, one activist for human rights said that it is expected, according to a presidential amnesty on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of President Bashar al-Assad in power on July 15, 2000 to release 257 political prisoners in all most of them are Islamists.

The Syrian authorities also released 100 Kurds detained following clashes that took place in march in al-Qamishli in the northern part of the country as well as several persons escaped the military service.

Al-Bunni ruled out the release of Damascus spring' prisoners including the two Syrian parliamentarians Riad Seif and Mamoun al-Homsi and the economic expert Aref Dalila who were detained in 2001.

5. - AFP - "Iraq's president says he supports Kurdish autonomy":

SALAHADDIN / 21 July 2004

Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar assured the country's Kurdish population on Wednesday that their existing autonomy would be preserved within the context of a future federal Iraq.
"We will support this experience of autonomy by all means," said Yawar during a visit to the tourist village of Salahaddin, north of Arbil, where he met Kurdish leader Massud Barzani.

"Federalism is a way to bring the diverse groups in our country together."

After the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurds broke away from the central government in Baghdad to set up their own administration in the north under British and US protection. They have continued to enjoy wide autonomy.

Yawar, a Sunni from the northern city of Mosul, said the federal nature of Iraq as outlined in the country's interim fundamental law passed under the administration of the US-led occupation "would be respected word-for-word."

For his part Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, hailed Yawar as "a friend of the Kurdish people".

Barzani's stronghold is in Arbil while that of his rival, now turned ally, Jalal Talabani is Sulaymaniyah.

6. - "Kurds live with pain inflicted by Saddam":

SULAIMANIYAH / 21 July 2004 /
by Sarhang Hama and Shabaz Jamal

Aziz Ali, 53, lost his sight 17 years ago when Saddam Hussein's air force bombarded his village with poison gas. He now seldom leaves his mud brick house. But now, Ali wants to go to Baghdad to witness Saddam's trial.

"I want to stand against Saddam and tell him, 'You are guilty,' " said Ali.

Ali lives in Sheikh Wasanan village, about 80 miles north of Sulaimaniyah.

The villages of Sheikh Wasanan and Balisan, a little more than a mile away, were targeted in the opening salvo of Saddam's genocidal campaign against the Kurds. On April 16, 1987, the two villages were bombarded with chemical weapons.

Of the 2,000 Kurds who lived in the villages, 400 were killed, while dozens more suffered severe damage to their skin, nerves and eyes. The memory of those attacks remains strong.

In Sheikh Wasanan, a sign outside a new concrete building that looks over the village reads, "The hall to honor the martyrs of the Sheikh Wasanan chemical bombardment."

Inside, visitors stand barefoot as they recite the opening verse of the Quran to the souls of the victims, whose black-and-white pictures are posted on the four walls of the hall. Photos of flowers stand in place of those for whom there is no photo.

Others died on the road as they fled the poison gas. And the bodies of some were buried by the attacking Iraqi soldiers in mass graves in undisclosed places, or left unburied where they died. The bodies of many victims are still unaccounted for. After the chemical bombardment, some of the villagers were quickly buried by their families.

Under the pictures of some of the victims, several lines of verse tell the story of the person on the day of the gas attack.

"Haji Sadiq, his wife, Fatima, and his daughter-in-law, Rahima, blinded by the chemical, fled but were martyred by the helicopters of the regime on the way," reads the inscription under the photo of an old man wearing the traditional Kurdish turban.

Not surprisingly, many villagers said they wanted to see Saddam suffer as they have over the last 17 years.

"Saddam deserves more than death," said Fatima Mustafa, 54, angrily pointing to pictures of her three brothers and parents, who were all killed in the attack.

While the death penalty has been reinstated, Mustafa thinks even execution is not enough for the man responsible for such heinous crimes. Others would like to take revenge in their own hands.

"We do not want him executed," said Asmar Hassan, 39, a widow whose husband died in the chemical attack. "We want him tied up, and we take away part of his flesh every day."

Hameen Wasu, who also lost several of her relatives, echoes that sentiment. "If Saddam were to be put at my disposal, I would cut him into pieces," she said.

Ahmed Hussein, 48, agrees that Saddam should not be executed, but for a different reason.

"Saddam should stay in prison forever," he said. "And every day in the prison would be like going through death."

But some worry that any verdict handed down by a court that is part of an unelected government will not stand.

"We cannot rule out the possibility that with the end of this government's reign, Saddam's sentence will be dissolved," said Jawhar Kamal, 27, a police officer who lost five uncles during the chemical attacks.

Hama Amin, 50, is from Balisan village and has been a Kurdish fighter for 20 years. He does not believe the Arabs can hold a fair trial of Saddam.

"Saddam is an Arab, too, and I do not think they will give him a fair punishment," said Amin.

Some survivors would like to see Saddam's trial held in their villages even though they know that possibility is remote.

"We would like Saddam put at our disposal and tried in our village," says Khajij Mustafa, 42, who lost four brothers, both parents and 12 of her nieces and nephews.

Barring that, some like Ali are hoping to travel to Baghdad to confront the man they hold responsible for causing them so much pain.

Sarhang Hama Ali and Shabaz Jamal are Iraqi journalists. They wrote this story for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting in London, http://www.iwpr.net.