3 June 2004

1. "Turkey 'plagued by crimes of honour'", up to half of all women in Turkey are subjected to "scandalous" levels of violence, mostly from their own families, Amnesty International claimed yesterday in Istanbul.

2. "Turkish Kurds cancel unilateral truce", 'The Turkish state has never complied with the ceasefire - up until now their operations are continuing,' said Zubeyir Aydar, president of KPC.

3. "Kurdish rebels attack Turkish troops a day after truce ends", the rebels opened fire on Turkish troops in the southeastern province of Tunceli, wounding a noncommissioned officer near the town of Ovacik, Anatolia said.

4. "Syria warns Kurds their parties will not be tolerated", Syrian authorities recently warned top Kurdish leaders their unofficial movements will no longer be tolerated, amid a crackdown on the minority, a human rights activist said Thursday.

5. "Vote on Annan Plan Results in Reversal of Fortune for Turkish, Greek Cypriots", April may well have turned out to be the cruelest month for many on the divided island of Cyprus, as Turkish and Greek Cypriots voted in opposite directions on the latest U.N.-brokered reunification plan.

6. "Turkey's Problem With Europe", the matter rapidly exceeded reconciliation, and became a fervor, as they saw in that Europe, described as a pluralist democracy that respects human rights, a shield that would protect them from the oppression of their secular military institution.

1. - The Guardian - "Turkey 'plagued by crimes of honour'":

ATHENS / 3 June 2004 / by Helena Smith

Up to half of all women in Turkey are subjected to "scandalous" levels of violence, mostly from their own families, Amnesty International claimed yesterday in Istanbul.

Despite the country's eagerness to join the EU, the government and judicial authorities not only tolerated but even endorsed heinous "crimes of honour", the human rights group said.

Recently, the number of young girls being forced to commit suicide in the predominantly Muslim nation had increased. Some had even been taught the fundamentals of how to hang themselves with a rope and a chair, the report noted.

"The authorities rarely carry out thorough investigations into women's complaints about violent attacks, murders or suspicious suicides," said the watchdog's UK Director Kate Allen.

"Women must no longer be failed by Turkey's police and Turkey's courts."

Underpinning the violence in the 70 million-strong country was the "discrimination that denies women equality with men in every area of life," Amnesty said.

Acknowledging that Turkey's modernising government had taken the most dramatic steps yet to reform the country's penal code, the group said it was still questionable whether the new laws would be implemented.

The code, which introduces articles of gender discrimination for the first time, is expected to be passed next month by the Turkish parliament.

"Given that the government has failed to ensure effective implementation of existing legislation, we fear that further reforms will also be resisted by the courts and other parts of the criminal justice system," Ms Allen added.

Listing the abuse females in Turkey are forced to endure, the report quoted a local human rights activist who said women could be attacked for as little as "saying hello to male friends on the street".

Ankara hopes to secure a start date for membership talks with the EU this December. In violation of EU norms, Turkish courts still commuted the sentences of rapists if they pledged to marry their victim. Citing figures from Ankara's ministry of interior, the report said some 546 convicted rapists had received reduced sentences in 2002, after promising to wed females they had assaulted.

Although honour killings had taken place for generations, it was not until March last year that the first life sentences for such crimes were handed down by Turkish tribunals, Amnesty said.

The report highlighted the case of a man who, given a 24-year prison term for stabbing his partner, recently succeeded in having the sentence dropped to two and a half years after producing "provocative" photographs of the woman with another man.

2. - Aljazeera - "Turkish Kurds cancel unilateral truce":

2 June 2004

The Kurdistan People's Congress (KPC) has called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Turkey, saying it will renew the fight for a Kurdish homeland.

The unilateral truce was never recognised by the Turkish army which continued its campaign to crush the PKK.

US forces in neighbouring Iraq said they would hunt down the rebels in their mountain stronghold near the Iranian border. Iraqi Kurdish groups are also hostile to their ethnic kinsmen..

"The Turkish state has never complied with the ceasefire - up until now their operations are continuing," said Zubeyir Aydar, president of KPC.

"During the ceasefire they have not taken a step forward, but instead adopted a harder line." He said some 500 rebels had been killed by Turkish forces in the last six years.

Some 30,000 people, most of them Kurds, were killed in the conflict up to 1999.

Ocalan

The group is the successor to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which led a 15-year campaign for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. About 37,000 people have died in the unrest.

Following the capture of PKK leader Abd Allah Ocalan in 1999, the rebels announced a truce and an estimated 5,000 fighters withdrew into the mountains of northern Iraq.

Aydar said a "hardening" of Ocalan's prison conditions in Turkey and Ankara's failure to grant more rights to its large Kurdish population had also provoked an end to the truce.

Fighting in the region has been only sporadic over the past few years.

'Terrorists'

Turkey said the decision by the KCP to call off the truce "is clear proof that it is an armed terrorist organisation.

"Its discourse contains elements against Turkey's unity and security," said foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan.

What we expect of the "terrorists" is that they hand in themselves and their arms to security forces and be tried in court," he added.

He called on the United States and the European Union - which both include KCP on their list of terrorist organisations - to strengthen "cooperation with Turkey in the fight against international terrorism".

3. - Associated Press - "Kurdish rebels attack Turkish troops a day after truce ends":

ANKARA / 2 June 2004 / by Selcan Hacaoglu

Kurdish guerrillas attacked Turkish troops in the southeast Wednesday, a day after the rebels announced an end to a five-year unilateral truce, the news agency Anatolia reported.

The rebels opened fire on Turkish troops in the southeastern province of Tunceli, wounding a noncommissioned officer near the town of Ovacik, Anatolia said.

Although there has been sporadic fighting since the rebels announced a cease-fire in 1999, the attack in Ovacik were the first clashes between the rebels and soldiers since the end of the truce.

Hundreds of Turkish commandos reinforced the troops from the air with attack helicopters, launched an operation to hunt down an estimated 150 Kurdish rebels hiding in rugged area, a local military official said on condition of anonymity. The official said the offensive came to a halt at nightfall but he indicated that the operation might continue later.

Kurdish rebels fought a 15-year war for autonomy before declaring a cease-fire shortly after the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, by Turkish forces in 1999. Some 37,000 people died in the war.

The rebel group said Tuesday it was ending the truce and warned foreigners and investors to avoid Turkey, saying the government has failed to respond to their truce.

Turkey has ruled out dialogue with the rebels, whom it regards as terrorists. It has vowed to maintain its military drive until all rebels are killed or surrender.

Namik Tan, a spokesman for Turkey's Foreign Ministry, said the end of the truce showed that the rebels were committed to armed struggle.

Tan noted that both the United States and the European Union have branded the rebel group as a terrorist organization. "We expect countries committed to the fight against international terrorism to strengthen solidarity and cooperation in this field," Tan said.

Turkish authorities have recently complained the United States failed to act against the Kurdish rebels holed up in mountain bases in northern Iraq despite promises.

4. - AFP - "Syria warns Kurds their parties will not be tolerated":

DAMASCUS / 3 June 2004

Syrian authorities recently warned top Kurdish leaders their unofficial movements will no longer be tolerated, amid a crackdown on the minority, a human rights activist said Thursday.

"The security services called in the Kurdish leaders to tell them their political parties were illegal and to stop all political activities," lawyer Anwar al-Bunni said in a statement.

The Yakiti party's Fuad Alliko, Aziz Daud of the Kurdish Progressive Democratic Party and Kurdish socialist leader Saleh Kaddo were warned to "wait for the passing of a new law on political parties" before resuming activities.

Bunni questioned whether the warning was "the start of a campaign of repression against opposition parties, human rights groups and unauthorized civil groups."

Deadly clashes between Kurds and security services in Kurdish areas in March sparked a crackdown against the minority.

Syrian Kurdish groups complained authorities continued with the repressive measures, making hundreds of unfair arrests, although more than 300 have been freed in the past two weeks.

Syria's Kurds, estimated to total 1.5 million, represent around nine percent of the population and live mainly in the north.

5. - Washington Report On Middle East Affairs - "Vote on Annan Plan Results in Reversal of Fortune for Turkish, Greek Cypriots":

June 2004 / by Jon Gorvett*

April may well have turned out to be the cruelest month for many on the divided island of Cyprus, as Turkish and Greek Cypriots voted in opposite directions on the latest U.N.-brokered reunification plan. To many, the outcome seemed like the final confirmation of what had long been suspected, but never owned up to—that the island’s two ethnic communities simply could never be brought back together again.

Yet such a conclusion glosses over much and, in so doing, conceals many of the real changes that have taken place in recent years both on and off the island. Indeed, these shifts have been responsible for the dramatic change in international sympathies, with the Turkish Cypriots now emerging in a positive light, as the Greek Cypriots suffer angry denunciations from the U.S., the EU and beyond.

On April 24, the two communities voted simultaneously on the U.N.’s Annan Plan, which had evolved through several versions and a great deal of diplomatic posturing over the previous month and a half.

After an extraordinary amount of arm-twisting by the U.S., EU and UK, the plan had ended up on the table earlier this year as a basis for negotiation between Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and his Greek Cypriot counterpart, President Tassos Papadopolous. The fact that both previously had campaigned against the plan, however, left these negotiations fairly meaningless. When the talks failed, responsibility was passed on to Greece and Turkey. They then joined the negotiations, yet also were unable to agree on a final draft. The buck next was passed to the U.N., which was charged with filling in the not-inconsiderable blanks, and finally stopped with the Cypriots themselves—who had to vote on a plan to which none of the heads of state concerned, except Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan, had wanted to affix their signature.

With high turnouts on both sides, Turkish Cypriots on April 24 voted 64.9 percent to 35.1 percent in favor of accepting the plan, while Greek Cypriots voted 75.8 percent to 24.2 percent against.

The result was greeted with statements of official disappointment, along with anger at the Greek Cypriots, by the U.N., the EU and the U.S. EU Commissioner for Enlargement Gunter Verheugen even went so far as to accuse the Greek Cypriots of lying to him when they earlier had given their commitment to reunification. Indeed, the EU’s strong backing of the U.N. plan led Greek Cypriot “no” campaigners to ban Verheugen from making an address on the subject on Greek Cypriot TV during the run up to the vote.

The Greek Cypriot government also accused the EU of trying to interfere in its domestic affairs, an allegation that an aghast Verheugen then claimed had “never been made before in EU history.”

Following the vote, EU ministers and parliamentarians agreed to open an office in the Turkish Cypriot north of the island, along with providing $260 million in aid. Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat called for the EU to freeze the scheduled May 1 accession of Cyprus to the European body.

The EU’s decision to allow Cyprus to join in its May 1, 2004 round of expansion effectively set a concrete deadline for the U.N. referendum, presenting as it did the final chance for the two sides to come together again before the island took up membership.

Yet the EU agreement to let Cyprus join on May 1 also bolstered the argument of many Greek Cypriot diplomats and politicians that a “no” vote was the sensible one—because, once inside the EU, Greek Cypriots would be in a much stronger position in any negotiations over reunification. As a member, Cyprus would have a powerful weapon in its arsenal: a possible veto over Turkey’s effort to join the EU, which is due to be decided upon by EU leaders at their summit this December.

As a result, no main Greek Cypriot party, except for the liberal DISY of former President Glafkos Clerides, advocated a “yes” vote on the Annan Plan. Instead, every leading figure and grouping—from President Papadopolous to AKEL, the Greek Cypriot Communist party—urged a “no” vote. The politically powerful Orthodox Church also weighed in, with the Bishop of Paphos even claiming that “yes” voters would go to Hell, while his Episcopal colleagues denounced the plan as a U.S.-Zionist plot and its most prominent supporters as British agents.

Under the circumstances, it was hardly surprising that the “oxi” camp won the majority of Greek Cypriot votes. The “nai” campaign was also criticized by many of its members for being badly organized and late—with campaigning for a “yes” vote starting only a week before the referendum itself.

Many “yes” advocates also complained that the “no” campaign had received a massive amount of funding from the church and Greek Cypriot businesses likely to lose out in any reunified island. Meanwhile, the latter group were also held by “no” campaigners to be behind the “yes” campaign—only this time, the businesses were those likely to profit from reunification.

Whatever the case, however—and both allegations might easily be true—what was obvious in Greek Cyprus on the day of the referendum was that hardly anyone was voting on the Annan Plan itself. Instead, there was an emotional venting over just about every case of injustice perpetrated by Turks against Greek Cypriots—and Greeks—that anyone could remember; and many Greek Cypriots’ memories are long, if highly selective. This reporter found voters casting a “no” because they were against Turkey’s 1974 invasion of the island, or against the 1923 expulsion of the Greeks from Smyrna (now Izmir), or because they were against the potential looting of their shops by Turkish paratroopers. Few remarked that they were against the plan because of its actual provisions, which generally remained obscure.

“I don’t feel Greek Cypriots were ready for this,” said Jean Christou, of the Nicosia-based Cyprus Mail. “It all came too fast and they couldn’t handle it. People had become comfortable with the status quo and needed more time.”

In contrast, Turkish Cypriots appear to have made up their minds about the plan a long time ago—perhaps even before it was written. The “yes” majority in the north of the island reflected a long process of political change that began to break the surface in 2000. Back then, a financial crisis, coupled with what was widely seen as government intransigence at the economic plight of many Turkish Cypriots, led to the first-ever mass protests against the Denktash administration.

Since then, Turkish Cypriot separatism has grown increasingly stronger, with clear identity-based politics developing. In 2002 municipal elections, this showed itself in victory for Talat’s opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP)—which then went on to win last December’s Turkish Cypriot general elections. The CTP has always favored reunification and opposed Denktash’s Turkish nationalism.

Most Turkish Cypriots see themselves as Europeans, with a future firmly locked into a reunited island and the economic and social opportunities that would provide. For many, these benefits are also tantalizingly close, as, if they were born on Cyprus, they are entitled to Cypriot passports—and, after May 1, to EU ones. Many already work in the Greek Cypriot south, or live abroad. Indeed, with more Turkish Cypriots living in Britain than on the island itself, a long-standing Turkish Cypriot joke finds a family listening to Denktash talking about the “mother country”—and concluding he must be talking about Hackney.

Meanwhile, a major political shift also has occurred in mainland Turkey. Prime Minister Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made major efforts to move the country toward EU accession, and has succeeded in undermining support for the military and nationalist circles that traditionally backed Denktash.

Yet no parallel process has occurred south of the Green Line. While the Greek mainland also has shifted away from a confrontational stance toward Turkey, Greek Cypriots still seem largely stuck with a history that begins and ends in the summer of 1974. While over the years there has been much longing for a reunified country, few will acknowledge the suffering of Turkish Cypriots on the island before the Turkish invasion, or the changes in the region that have occurred since.

Now, however, the Greek Cypriots are in the doghouse. Papadopolous also is in a tricky position, as his strategy of renegotiating from strength within the EU may easily backfire—particularly if Washington, Brussels and London keep up the pressure for Greek Cypriots to vote again—and again and again, until they get it right. Any “new” plan that the Cypriot president might offer would need to have something substantially new in it if he is to avoid allegations of a U-turn. At the same time, there seems little reason for Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots to agree to anything more than they have already.

Turkish Cyprus even may begin unilaterally implementing the Annan Plan. The European Court also will be under pressure to refer Greek Cypriot property claims—one of the main sources of pressure on the Turkish Cypriots—to a special commission. Meanwhile, the north’s campaign for recognition as a separate state seems unlikely to succeed, but an end to punishing economic sanctions against the north is widely forecast.

The result may well be the de facto partition of the island, as Turkish Cypriots give up on reunification and start to enjoy more normal conditions, while Greek Cypriots remain fixed against anything short of a return to the pre-1974 status quo. This would be an ironic turn of events, especially considering that neither community thought that was what it was voting for on April 24.

* Jon Gorvett is a free-lance journalist based in Istanbul.

6. - Al-Hayat - "Turkey's Problem With Europe":

2 June 2004 / by Hazem Saghieh

During the past decade, a very important development on an Islamic scale occurred in Turkey; the Islamists, who found in their stance of opposing Europe one of their reasons of existence, started to reconcile with this latter. The matter rapidly exceeded reconciliation, and became a fervor, as they saw in that Europe, described as a pluralist democracy that respects human rights, a shield that would protect them from the oppression of their secular military institution. And just as they changed, this institution changed as well; after its enmity with Europe was one of its main reasons of existence, now reservation about it has become a part of its new motto.

The fact is that the Justice and Development Islamic Party, still follows the same policy, asking for a date to start negotiations concerning joining the European Union (EU). It strengthened this policy with its positive stance from the principle of the Cypriot unity and the referendum two months ago.

Despite that, there is in the horizon a sign of change in this dual relation; and even if Europe is responsible for this and not Turkey, nevertheless the compliance of this latter will be important.

During the last two months, a new problem emerged between most of the old countries of the EU, and its new ones, most of which had got out of a Communist system, concerning the setting of the European constitution. The coalition with Italy, the center of the Papacy, wanted the constitution of the newborn EU to be based on religious (Christian) values. It was normal that secular states like France, and pluralist states like Britain, which are concerned about their Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and other citizens, would refrain from this demand.

It is known, on the contrary, that Poland and other East European countries, constitute of a sweeping majority of Catholics, did not live through a wide range of deep impacting religious reforms, of the type that Western Europe experienced. Reform there was restricted to what they received from these Western countries. Moreover, religion constituted one of their lethal weapons in resisting the Communist regimes, when no alternatives of strong liberalism of totalitarian thoughts and methods existed.

Anyway, there is a debate that could not concern anyone other than Turkey, and concerns it profoundly. As it is described to be a country looking forward to merge with Europe, preceded by its immigrant workers, Turkey will find within it all the compassion with the seculars and pluralists of the EU, those who refuse to link it to Christianity. And as a country "ruled" by an Islamic party, which among the Turkish forces is the most enthusiastic about the union, it will find within it all the solidarity with European believers, who do not consent to the treatment of religious symbols the way the veil was treated in France.

Turkey remains silent concerning this issue, leaving it to its holders, the "native" people of the EU. But this Turkey which sneaks in to listen to the sounds coming from the battle of the constitution, cannot afford to remain silent for long. As for its military, it could then amusingly monitor the hesitation of its fundamentalist politicians.

Thus, after much ink was spent in describing the European dilemma with Turkey, the next step could require even more ink in order to describe the Turks' dilemma with Europe.