17
March 2004
2. "Israel Should Support the Kurds Against Syria", In 1982, the Syrian government carried out mass murder against it's own citizens, killing over 20,000 people in the Syrian city of Hama.
3. "EU could hold accession talks with Turkey next year", The European Union could be ready to start accession talks with Turkey as early as next January if Ankara meets all the political and economic conditions required to open them, the EU has said.
4. "Syrian Kurdish conflict will not spread to Turkey", There was no possibility of the current spate of Arab-Kurdish clashes in Syria being repeated in Turkey, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül.
5. "Turkish Cypriot leader threatens to quit to lead opposition to Annan plan", Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash is threatening to quit as president of his self-declared republic to lead the opposition to a UN plan on reunifying the island if his side's interests are ignored.
6. "Kurdish hopes rise, spark riots", It's the worst domestic unrest in Syria in two decades. Over the weekend and into Monday, Kurds rioted in several Syrian towns adjacent to Iraq and Turkey, prompting swift intervention by Syrian troops.
1.
- Associated Press - "Kurds Mark Saddam's '88 Chemical Attack":
HALABJA (Kurdistan / Iraq) / By MARIAM FAM / 16 March 2004
Clutching pictures of relatives they lost, survivors of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s 1988 chemical weapons attack gathered in this northern town Tuesday to remember the thousands who died.
They were joined by the top administrator in Iraq (news - web sites), L. Paul Bremer, at a ceremony marking the 16th anniversary of the infamous bombing. The memorial was the first since Saddam was toppled by the U.S.-led coalition and it resonated with references to the war.
"This day reminds us of our grief ... (But) it's also a day of happiness because the dictatorship has collapsed," said Drakshan Kakasheik, who lost her husband, brother and three children, including a 5-month old son who died in her arms.
"We smelled a foul smell and my brother went out and said: 'We're doomed. These are chemical weapons,'" she recalled tearfully.
An estimated 5,000 people were killed and another 10,000 injured by the poisonous bombs Iraqi forces dropped on Halabja on March 16, 1988.
"For those in my country and elsewhere who ... still wonder if the war was worth fighting, I say, 'Come to Halabja,'" Bremer said. "Look in the faces of the survivors here today. See how a peaceful village was turned into a hell overnight by evil."
Bremer said the coalition would establish a $1 million fund for Halabja, where Saddam Hussein's "government turned its own power and might on its own people."
Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main Kurdish parties, said the attack on Halabja is proof of the use of "mass destruction arms by the Iraqi dictator."
"I call all those who are not believing in it, 'Please come to Halabja to see how mass destruction arms (were) used,'" he said. "We are now free ... thanks to the coalition forces."
Bremer, surrounded by families clutching photos of relatives they lost, said those behind the attack would be held accountable.
"I can promise you that justice will be done against the men who committed these acts," Bremer said. "At the appropriate time, Saddam Hussein ... and all the other criminals will face justice before the special tribunal."
Bremer was speaking outside the Halabja Monument, built in honor of the victims. He chatted with relatives of those killed and toured the building, looking at photos of disfigured residents and lifeless children piled on top of each other.
In one room, statues replicate scenes from the attack. One shows a man using his own body as a shield to protect his baby. Both were lying dead at a doorstep next to a dead sheep. The names of victims are inscribed in white on the black marble walls of a circular hall.
During the ceremony, Kurdish forces surveyed roads leading to Halabja from atop rolling green hills and squat brick houses. Others manned checkpoints and searched vehicles.
Two suicide bombers killed 109 people at the offices of the two Kurdish
parties in Irbil on Feb. 1. A little-known group, Jaish Ansar al-Sunna,
claimed responsibility for the attack. Some officials linked the group
with Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish extremist movement with alleged ties
to al-Qaida. 
2. - Michnews - "Israel Should Support the Kurds Against Syria":
By Ariel Natan Pasko / March 17, 2004
In 1982, the Syrian government carried out mass murder against it's
own citizens, killing over 20,000 people in the Syrian city of Hama.
Since 1976, Syria has occupied its neighbor to the west, Lebanon,
viciously suppressing any sparks of freedom. Now Syria has carried
out a new massacre, murdering almost 100 Kurds and arresting thousands.
Israel should speak out loudly about these Syrian atrocities, and
support the Kurdish minority against Syrian Arab violence.
It all started as riots between Arabs and Kurds at a soccer game in
Qamishli - in the northern Kurdish region of Syria - but quickly spread
to several northern cities. Pro-Assad, Baath Party loyalists responded
by murdering Kurds in several towns. It's been reported that Syrian
security services conducted mass arrests. Kurdish sources claim that
some 2000 people have been detained in Damascus and Aleppo, and that
in Damascus, almost every male Kurd over the age of 16 has been arrested.
The Kurds in Syria, Iran and in Turkey are severely repressed. In
Turkey, even their identity as Kurds is still denied; they are called
Mountain Turks. In Syria, they are denied most civil and political
rights. About 2 million Kurds live in Syria. But the seething anger
that exploded in Qamishli is generated most, by the fact that almost
200,000 Kurds are denied citizenship outright. They cannot vote, own
property, go to state schools or get government jobs. Kurds in Iran
live under similar repressive conditions. With the rise of an autonomous
region in a post-Saddam federated Iraq, the question of Kurdish rights
in other parts of the region looms large.
As the discussion of "democratization" of the Middle East
continues, an important point that must be made time and time again,
is the importance in building structures that liberate the minorities
of the region from oppression. Non-Arab and Non-Muslim minorities
live throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Contrary to the
propaganda that the region is Arab/Muslim, these minorities are remnants
of the indigenous peoples, before the great Arab imperialist wars
of the 7th century, and "Islamicization process" that followed.
Non-Arab Muslims like the Kurds in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran;
the Berbers in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, have all resisted
"Arabization" for over 1,000 years. Non-Muslims like the
Assyrian Christians in Iraq - who argue that they are not Arabs -
the Copts in Egypt, Christian Lebanese - many who claim not to be
Arab but Phoenician - the Christians in Sudan, and other Christians
throughout the region, have been persecuted minorities, since the
rise of Islam. Others like the Druze and Jews have also been persecuted
by Arab/Muslim regimes throughout history. And we can now see, from
the recent Sunni terror attacks on Shiites in Iraq - and Bin Laden's
recent statements that Shiites are heretics - that even some Muslims
- Shiites and other non-Sunnis - are persecuted minorities in parts
of the Middle East.
Only Israel, the Jewish State, has fully liberated itself - in the
political sense - from this Arab/Muslim oppression, although it still
suffers from physical violence against her people. Israel should take
the lead - in it's foreign policy - to support "democratization"
and "regime change" throughout the region. Israel shouldn't
wait until countries of the region "reform," but should
pro-actively support the legitimate aspirations of the oppressed minorities
of North Africa and the Middle East, and build alliances with them.
Kurds were brutally suppressed by Saddam's Baathist regime through
his "Arabization" program, expelling Kurds from their traditional
areas and replacing them with Arab settlers. It's no secret that close
relations existed between Israel and the Kurds throughout most of
the sixties and into the seventies, until the collapse of the Kurdish
revolt in Iraq, in 1975. Reflective of this, and that Moledet Party
founder and former leader Rechavam Ze'evi was involved in Israeli-Kurdish
relations, the 1996 Moledet Party Platform, Chapter 9: Foreign Policy,
paragraph 17, states "Israel will act against the oppression
of peoples like the Kurds..." Ze'evi - as a military officer
- had been to Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani had
even been to Israel. With this in mind, Israel should actively revive
the former policy of support for the Kurdish people.
The idea of reviving this relationship hasn't been missed by Kurds
themselves, as Kawa Bradosti wrote - in Kurdish Media - back in Sept.
2003, "...the potential is there for Israel and the Kurds to
have a much closer relationship especially when considering the often
hostile attitude of the neighboring countries in the region both to
Israel and to the Kurds. It would be good common sense for the two
nations to support each other and to forge an alliance together."
Some might ask about Israel's relationship with Turkey, and how will
active support for the Kurds, be seen in Ankara - since Turkey also
oppresses upwards of 15 million Kurds. I believe that Israel's relationship
with Turkey is mature enough to weather the storm. I don't see Turkey
throwing tantrums at the US for its role in Iraq, helping the Kurds
there. Turkey, I believe in the long run, will come to see the benefits
of a re-structured Middle East, where the threat of Islamic radicalism
and terror - also directed at Turkey - is greatly reduced.
Turkey also has its problems with Syria. If the Kurds, Israelis, and
Turks (along with a democratic Iraq?), could come together, Syria
- the bad boy of the neighborhood - could be put in her place for
good.
For a while now, I've written about Syria's oppression of the Lebanese
(see my article, "Lebanon's Real Economic Woes Are Syrian Induced").
I've written about Syria's help for the former Saddam Hussein regime
in Iraq (see my article, "Syria, UN resolution 520, and the Security
Council"). I've written about how Syria has pushed drugs, supported
terror, and needs to be forced back to its "natural" size
and influence in the region (see my articles, "Free Lebanon Now"
and "Israel, Don't Hit Hizbollah, Hit Syria!"). And in a
recent article, I've called on the Israeli government to say ("It's
time for Syria to get out of Lebanon"). Now we need to turn a
magnifying glass onto their behavior towards their Kurdish minority.
In the past I've written a survey article, "Democracy in the
Middle East," about the oppression of minorities in the region.
Now I'm calling on the Israeli government to make a policy decision
to actively support the Kurds and other minority groups, to build
a non-Arab and non-Muslim regional alliance for change.
Till now, I haven't mentioned the so-called "Palestinians,"
and I won't beyond saying, that they are part of the problem, not
part of the solution. Aren't they an oppressed minority? No, as Arabs,
they are part of the greater Arab Nation who since the 7th century
has conquered, oppressed, and occupied everyone else in the Middle
East and North Africa. As radical Muslims, everyone can see that Hamas,
Islamic Jihad, and the other terror groups are continuing down the
same path as Bin Laden. In fact, recently Hamas "spiritual leader"
Sheikh Yassin, has begun speaking about the "Global Jihad"
in Bin Laden and al-Qaeda type terms. Hezbollah has also been working
in the "Palestinian" administered territories for a while
already, as evidenced by Israel's recent capture of a Hezbollah cell
in Gaza. So, they are part of the regional oppression network, not
the future liberty and freedom alliance that Israel should work to
build with other minorities in the area.
Israel's Foreign Policy toward Syria should be built on the demands
that it leave Lebanon unconditionally, end it's support for Hezbollah
and "Palestinian" terror groups, dismantle it's Weapons
of Mass Destruction, and keep it's hands off the Kurds. Israel's greater
regional policy should be based on supporting the rights of minorities
in the area. Only that way, based on democratization, liberation from
oppressive regimes, and encouraging freedom, will the Middle East
and North Africa be transformed into a region worthy its millennia
old history.
A pre-Arab and pre-Muslim history I might add!
Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst & consultant.
He has a Master's Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis.
His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank
websites, in newspapers, and can be read at:
www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko
3. - The Financial Times - "EU could hold accession talks with Turkey next year":
By Judy Dempsey in Brussels / 17 March 2004
The European Union could be ready to start accession talks with Turkey as early as next January if Ankara meets all the political and economic conditions required to open them, the EU has said.
"We see no reason why talks could not start as soon as possible if EU leaders at their December summit give us the green light," said a senior Commission official. "We would be ready to start on January 1. We have our team." Negotiations could take seven years. If successful, it would mean the EU's new neighbours would be Iran, Iraq and Syria.
The decision by the 25 countries is supposed to be based on the Commission's special report on Turkey, which is due to be published in October. It will spell out how Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has implemented reforms of the judiciary and human rights, as well as rights for the country's large Kurdish minority.
"We will be ready. We are speeding up the implementation of reforms," said Ogüz Demiralp, Turkey's ambassador to the EU. "We have made a strategic decision to join the EU."
Some commissioners, including Fritz Bolkestein, responsible for the internal market, are opposed to Turkey ever joining the EU, but most are expected to back starting talks.
Diplomats yesterday said the big question was how France would vote at the December summit, where decisions require unanimity.
Overhanging the decision is Cyprus, where the United Nations is working against the clock to broker a deal over the divided island before Cyprus joins the EU on May 1. Greek and Turkish foreign ministers and senior Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials are scheduled to meet in Switzerland next week to speed up talks.
The UN wants to wrap up talks by early April so that it has time to prepare public opinion for a referendum on a deal that could end Turkey's 30-year-old occupation of the north. Diplomats in Cyprus, however, said yesterday that Raul Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader, showed few signs of compromise. "Much depends on Erdogan. If he committed to a deal in Cyprus, the talks cannot be left solely to Denktash," said one.
Most Turkish Cypriots back a settlement, since it would mean both parts of the island could join the EU together.
In contrast, Greek Cypriots, led by Tassos Papadopoulos, would at
present vote against a deal they claim falls short on the return of
refugees forced to flee the north after the Turkish army occupied
it in 1974.
4. - MSNBC - "Syrian Kurdish conflict will not spread to Turkey: Gül":
16 March 2004
Talks were continuing to establish at what level the four countries
sceheduled to take part in the next round of negotiations on Cyprus
would be represented at, the Foreign Minister said.
There was no possibility of the current spate of Arab-Kurdish clashes
in Syria being repeated in Turkey, according to Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gül.
The incidents in Syria should not be depicted as some sort of “Kurdish-Arab
War”, Gül said on Tuesday. He added that Turkey would provide
any held as requested by Damascus to help calm the situation.
“In order not to have problems in the region grow we have to
help,” Gül said. “A Kurdish-Arab conflict is of no
benefit to anyone.”
Gül made his comments during a meeting with Ahmet Vural Ocaksönmez,
a young Turkish boy who helped save a number of people who had been
injured in last November’s suicide bombings in Istanbul.
5.
- AFP - "Turkish Cypriot leader threatens to quit to lead
opposition to Annan plan":
NICOSIA (Cyprus) / 16 March 2004
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash is threatening to quit as president
of his self-declared republic to lead the opposition to a UN plan
on reunifying the island if his side's interests are ignored.
Addressing a delegation of hardline nationalists who called on him
to resign his official duties to lead opposition to the plan put forward
by UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan, Denktash said late Monday such a move
could be on the cards.
"You know I will do that if necessary," he told the delegation.
"We will all see whether this becomes necessary or not,"
he added.
Denktash is currently engaged in negotiating the plan with Greek Cypriot
President Tassos Papadopoulos, but talks appear to be deadlocked despite
UN mediation efforts.
Denktash is due to fly to Ankara on Sunday to take part on Monday
in a summit meeting with Turkish leaders on Cyprus.
UN envoy Alvaro de Soto has been shuttling between the two Cypriot
leaders in a bid to resolve differences. But he has acknowledged there
is no chance of a deal being concluded before Greece and Turkey step
in and add their weight to the process on March 22.
Turkey and Greece, as the "mother countries" of the two
communities, will then have until March 29 to try to push the process
forward.
The four-way negotiation process is scheduled to take place in Lucerne,
Switzerland.
If the Swiss talks fail, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will "fill
in the blanks" on his plan to produce a draft accord that will
be voted on in
separate referendums on the island on April 20.
The Annan plan calls for a Swiss-style confederation of two autonomous
regions and a weak central government, with the aim of a united Cyprus
entering the European Union on May 1.
Cyprus has been divided for 30 years following an invasion of the
north by Turkish soldiers in response to an Athens-engineered Greek
Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
Denktash declared the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983.
It is recognised only by Ankara.
6. - The Christian Science Monitor - "Kurdish hopes rise, spark riots":
BAGHDAD / 17 March 2004 / By Nicholas Blanford
It's the worst domestic unrest in Syria in two decades. Over the weekend and into Monday, Kurds rioted in several Syrian towns adjacent to Iraq and Turkey, prompting swift intervention by Syrian troops.
At least 14 Kurds died in riots which began Friday in Qamishli during a brawl between Kurdish and Arab soccer fans. The violence reportedly began when Arab fans began chanting support for Saddam Hussein. According to diplomats in Damascus, Syrian security forces fired on the crowd, killing six people. Three children were trampled to death in the ensuing panic. Rioting the next day killed five people in Hasake, a town of Arabs and Kurds 50 miles south of Qamishli.
Violent outbursts by Syria's Kurdish minority reinforces concerns that recent political gains by Kurds in Iraq will embolden Kurds in neighboring lands to seek greater recognition. Some analysts see Kurdish ambitions for independence as a regional powder keg. Kurds have been a significant minority in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran since the early 1900s, when Kurdish lands were divided as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated.
The US-led war in Iraq was opposed by Syria and Iran, in part due to the potential ramifications of a resurgent Kurdish community in Iraq's north. Turkey, a regional ally of Washington, was also worried about the way the war's aftermath would impact its own Kurdish population.
Recent developments in Iraq have done little to dispel those concerns. Kurds in Iraq have enjoyed near autonomy for the past 12 years under a US and British protective umbrella. And Iraq's interim constitution, passed last week, formally recognized Kurdish control over three provinces in northern Iraq, prompting jubilant Kurds to take to the streets in Iranian cities.
The growing influence of Iraqi Kurds has apparently struck a chord with Syria's Kurdish population. Violent demonstrations such as the one over the weekend rarely happen in Syria, where the ruling Baath Party maintains tight control over signs of dissent.
"We have noticed that the Kurds have become more vocal in the past two years," says a European diplomat in Damascus. "They see developments in Iraq as an opportunity to press for more rights."
After the riots began, Syrian troops sealed off Qamishli, imposed a curfew, and closed the town's border crossing into Turkey. Despite an increased military presence in northeast Syria, 11 people were reportedly killed in clashes Monday between Arabs and Kurds. A Kurdish tribal leader was among five people killed during fighting in Ras al-Ain. Six people, including four police officers, died when Kurdish groups attacked a police station in Ammouda, according to Reuters.
Syria's state-run broadcasts said the violence had damaged "the stability and security of the homeland" and were the fault of "some intriguers" who had adopted "exported ideas," an apparent reference to Kurdish nationalism.
A statement released in Damascus by the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party called on Kurds to "exercise maximum self-restraint ... not to be dragged into these harmful and useless acts, and to halt their demonstrations."
Of the 1.3 million Kurds in Syria, some 225,000 are designated as "foreigners," carrying only a red identity card for domestic travel. Another 25,000 are categorized as "unregistered." They are forbidden to own property and travel abroad. Syria's Kurds were subjected to an "Arabization" policy in 1962 that stripped citizenship for some 120,000 of them. In the early 1970s, thousands of Arabs settled in Kurdish villages along the Turkish frontier. Kurdish place names were replaced by Arab names and the Kurdish language was banned from schools.
Restrictions on the Kurds gradually eased under Syrian President Hafez al-Assad who died in 2000. In September 2002, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad became the first head of state ever to visit Hasake. Kurdish residents hoped the visit marked the beginning of a new approach by the government toward the Kurds.
"Nothing has happened at all since then," the diplomat says. "There are no signs that the issue is being dealt with."
But Syria's Kurds insist that they are not seeking autonomy from Damascus. Instead, they say they want the full rights enjoyed by other Syrian citizens. They are demanding "recognition of the Kurdish identity and culture," wrote Saif Badrakhan, US representative of the Kurdistan National Congress, on a Kurdish website. Specifically, the Kurds want education in the Kurdish language, human rights, an end to Arabization and forced assimilation policies, and an end to treatment as second class citizens, says Mr. Badrakhan.
Syria is under intense pressure from Washington over its backing of militant anti-Israel groups and its alleged pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. President Bush is expected soon to announce sanctions against Damascus.
Analysts say that Damascus will have little tolerance for outbursts of domestic unrest while dealing with the challenge posed by Washington. Less certain is whether the Syrian government will appease the Kurds with greater recognition or mount a crackdown against dissension.
"It's time that the Kurds who were born in Syria are recognized
as Syrian nationals by law," says Mohammed Aziz Shukri, a professor
of international law at Damascus University. "We should give
the Kurds their legitimate rights."