22 March 2004

1. "Turkey's Kurds celebrate New Year in peace", tens of thousands of Kurds in southeast Turkey celebrated peacefully on Sunday the Newroz, their traditional New Year which has been marred by tensions and bloodshed in the past.

2. "3,000 Syrian Kurds defy leadership call", in a peaceful rally, 3,000 Syrian Kurds celebrated the Kurdish New Year in the city of Qamishli, after many people were killed in clashes with security forces last week.

3. "Protestors Denouce Syrian Treatment of Ethnic Kurds", protesters marched through the streets of Washington Sunday, condemning the Syrian government for its treatment of ethnic Kurds. The demonstration came after a week of violence between Kurds and Syrian security forces left dozens of people dead.

4. "Qamishlo on Day 8th, from a Turkish point of view", a Kurdish teacher in Qamishlo: "We, the Kurds, were born only to be killed by others. This is our fate."

5. "Local elections will overwhelm the opposition", if the ruling AK Party becomes the single dominant party in the March 28 local elections, there will be changes of leadership, splits, efforts to unite and the birth of new parties in all opposition parties, especially in the CHP. Commentators expect the intensification of efforts to merge the center-right DYP and ANAP, Ecevit quitting as the leader of the DSP and the MHP starting to look for a new leader.

6. "Guenter Verheugen gave Turkey a possible start date", EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen gave Turkey a possible start date of spring 2005 for talks on joining the European Union, provided it has made enough progress in democratic reforms by the end of the year.

7. "Turkey demands exceptions to EU rules in Cyprus settlement", Turkey is demanding that any settlement agreement on Cyprus contain exceptions to EU rules, with the possibility of retaining some divisions between the two communities.

8. "Greek Cypriot concerns cloud unification hopes", the US, Britain and several other European Union countries are becoming increasingly alarmed over growing opposition by the Greek Cypriot leadership to theUnited Nations-brokered peace plan, according to diplomats close to the negotiations.

1. - AFP - "Turkey's Kurds celebrate New Year in peace":

DIYARBAKIR / 21 March 2004

Tens of thousands of Kurds in southeast Turkey celebrated peacefully on Sunday the Newroz, their traditional New Year which has been marred by tensions and bloodshed in the past.

Police stepped up security measures in the region, whose predominantly Kurdish population has often used the day to demonstrate in favor of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 15-year war against the Ankara government.

Tensions have markedly abated in recent years as the rebels scaled down their armed campaign and Ankara granted the Kurds a measure of cultural freedoms as part of democratization reforms aimed at boosting the country's EU membership bid.

Underscoring the thawed atmosphere, even some police officers -- on duty at the festivities -- joined the celebrations.

The biggest gathering -- which drew some 100,000 people -- took place in Diyarbakir, the main city of the southeast.

About 3,000 riot police kept watch as Kurdish men and women danced and sang around traditional bonfires to the sound of music blaring from loudspeakers.

Some of the revellers chanted slogans in favor of the PKK and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan and many waved green-yellow-red flags, whose colors symbolize the PKK, but police did not intervene.

Many Kurds who openly supported the rebels have ended up in police custody in the past.

In the nearby province of Sirnak, one of the most restive in the region, authorities allowed locals to mark the Newroz for the first time in 12 years.

In the southern city of Adana, a group of police officers -- on duty for the Newroz -- were seen enjoying the festival.

A footage on CNN-Turk television showed the policemen, in their riot gear but without their helmets, dancing hand-in-hand with the Kurds, to the beat of a traditional drum.

Authorities have often banned Newroz celebrations in the past because of concerns that they could degenerate into pro-PKK demonstrations and trigger unrest.

In 1992, about 50 people were killed by security forces during Newroz clashes. Two men were crushed to death and dozens injured in a police clampdown on Newroz demonstrations in 2002.

Tension and fighting in Turkey's southeast has subsided considerably since September 1999, when the PKK said it was ending its armed campaign to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Newroz is a pagan festival of Zoroastrian origin. It marks the awakening of nature at the March 21 equinox, and is also celebrated in Iran and other Muslim communities in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

2. - Aljazeera - "3,000 Syrian Kurds defy leadership call":

21 March 2004

In a peaceful rally, 3,000 Syrian Kurds celebrated the Kurdish New Year in the city of Qamishli, after many people were killed in clashes with security forces last week.

The gathering marking the Kurdish and Iranian New Year was organized by the Kurdish Democratic Union, a Turkish separatist group which broke ranks with a call by the Kurdish minority's political leadership in Syria for the celebrations to be abandoned out of respect for the dead.

Speakers called in both Kurdish and Arabic for the Kurds arrested during the six days of clashes, which erupted here on March 12, to be released.

Among the crowd were people wearing black armbands and traditional Kurdish scarves.

Some also carried portraits of Massud Barzani, the leader of Iraq's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and Abdullah Ocalan, Turkey's jailed Kurdish rebel leader.

There was not a Syrian flag in sight.

"We want to demonstrate that Kurdish celebrations do not aim to create trouble and that there is no suspect foreign interference in our ranks," Issa Ezoo, a KDP official told AFP.

Little girls dressed in traditional Kurdish outfits of green, yellow and red, carried black banners scrawled with: "Long Live the Martyrs" and "Nowruz Mourns its Martyrs".

"Free the Prisoners," "Give us our Nationality" and in Kurdish, "Long Live the Kurdish-Arab Brotherhood," were written on others.

"What should we be afraid of? We are ready to fight back if anyone attacks us," said 18-year-old Fowd Sharif Dawd when asked by a journalist if he was not frightened to attend the celebration in the wake of the recent unrest.

"We are only afraid of God. Besides, what do we have to lose? We have nothing and our rights are ridiculed," said Shirine Khaled, a 22-year-old housewife, carrying her three-year-old daughter on her shoulders.

On the roofs of mudbrick houses in the working-class area of Hylalia, a crowd gathered to watch the procession in the stadium.

Unobtrusive Syrian security forces were deployed at the main intersections of Qamishli, 600 kilometers (375 miles) north of Damascus, where the troubles broke out on March 12 at a football match.

Then, Arab tribesmen taunted Kurds with slogans against Iraqi Kurdish leaders and brandished portraits of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who brutally oppressed the Kurds.

In Aleppo, north of Damascus, and the surrounding area where many Kurds live, Nowruz also passed off peacefully.

An umbrella group of 11 Syrian Kurdish parties had called on Syria's estimated 1.5 million Kurds to refrain from celebrations out of respect for those killed in the clashes.

Kurdish sources dispute the official death toll of 25 dead, including members of the security services, saying some 40 people were killed in the violence, which also involved armed tribesmen from Syria's Arab majority.

In Beirut, more than 1,000 Kurds also gathered to hear speeches marking their New Year under heavy security surveillance, including from riot police.

The ceremony was organized by the Razkari party and other Kurdish associations, but supporters of Barzani and Ocalan, active in Lebanon, were notably absent.

Without actually mentioning the situation in neighboring Syria, Sheikh Khaled Omeirat appealed to the crowd to remember "the Arab-Kurd brotherhood" and stressed "the need to reinforce national unity".

Tens of thousands of Kurds in southeast Turkey on Sunday also peacefully celebrated their traditional New Year which has been marred by tensions and bloodshed in the past.

Police stepped up security measures in the region, whose predominantly Kurdish population has often used the day to demonstrate in favor of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a 15-year war against the Ankara government.

3. - VoA - "Protestors Denouce Syrian Treatment of Ethnic Kurds":

WASHINGTON / 22 March 2004 / by Barry Newhouse

Protesters marched through the streets of Washington Sunday, condemning the Syrian government for its treatment of ethnic Kurds. The demonstration came after a week of violence between Kurds and Syrian security forces left dozens of people dead. The protesters denounced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and called for an end to Kurdish oppression in the Middle East.

Standing in front of the Syrian embassy, some 200 protesters waved Kurdish flags and banners condemning the treatment of Kurdish people in Syria and elsewhere in the region.

Syria, Syria you can't hide, we charge you with Kurdish genocide. Syria out of Kurdistan. Syria out of Kurdistan.

Protesters gathered outside the Syrian embassy before marching several kilometers to the White House. They said the violence last week in Syria has sparked a show of Kurdish solidarity, with similar demonstrations in Europe, Syria and a protest in northern Iraq by thousands of Iraqi Kurds.

"All of our families now in Syria currently and we have to give support to let the world know that the Kurds, whether they're in Syria or other parts of the world, we are one voice we are with you and we have sympathy for all the Kurds who have been terrorized in Syria," says Dara Delbin, who traveled from Boston to join the march.

The violence in Syria began after a riot erupted between Kurdish and Arab fans at a recent soccer match, killing nine people. During the past week Kurds and Syrian police clashed several times in the northeast of the country, where most of the country's Kurdish community lives.

Dozens of people died in the violence and a Syrian Kurdish leader says despite the recent release of 1,200 Kurdish men detained by police, Kurds remain fearful of further persecution by security forces.

The Syrian government has blamed the clashes on what it calls politically-motivated troublemakers. However the U.S. government has criticized the Syrian government for the handling of the riots and accused Damascus of not only killing demonstrators, but cracking down on the Kurdish minority in places where there was no rioting.

Mehmet Akbas said the violence is just the most recent incident in a long history of Kurdish oppression in Syria. "The Syrian regime it's an oppressive regime, it's a criminal regime," he says. "There's no difference whatsoever between Bashar al-Assad and Saddam Hussein or the government policies - the same Baath party that was in Iraq now we have the same thing in Syria."

Banners at the protest linked Syrian President Assad with deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, saying Saddam is gone, Assad is next. Protesters said they want Syria to be accountable for crimes against Kurds, and want oppressive policies in the country to end.

Large Kurdish communities exist in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq - and demonstrators here say the fall of Saddam Hussein, who ordered a chemical attack that killed 5,000 Kurds, is the first step in liberating the group in the entire region.

Kary Karadaghi, the executive director an organization lobbying for Kurdish independence, spoke to the crowd of demonstrators gathered outside the White House.

"Kurdish people in Syria are the most oppressed people, after our brothers and sisters in Turkey and our brothers and sisters in Iran. We have pretty much liberated Kurdistan of Iraq," she said. Don't you agree with me? Now is the time to free Kurdistan of Turkey, Syria and Iran. And nobody can do it except us and them. We have to be united, we'll do it together."

Kurdish people share a common language and culture and many want to establish an independent nation called Kurdistan. More than 26 million Kurds live in the Middle East and altogether they form one of the world's largest ethnic groups without a country. Governments in the Middle East with large Kurdish populations view Kurdish identity as a threat to national solidarity.

4. - Kurdish Media / Hurriyet - "Qamishlo on Day 8th, from a Turkish point of view":

A Kurdish teacher in Qamishlo: "We, the Kurds, were born only to be killed by others. This is our fate."

QAMISHLO / 22 March 2004

Despite the lifting of a three-day curfew by the Syrian government, the streets of Qamishlo had no one but a deadly silence on Saturday, reported a Turkish daily.

The newspaper, Hurriyet, puts the death toll at 50 in Qamishlo alone, and says all together more than 100 people were killed after the unrest spread from Qamishlo to other Kurdish areas and neighborhoods in Damascus and Aleppo.

"We, the Kurds, were born only to be killed by others. This is our fate," a Kurdish teacher in Qamislo is quoted as saying in the Turkish newspaper on Sunday.

"There is a tense wait. City residents are afraid of leaving their houses, streets are empty, shop-owners don’t open their stores," writes reporter Faruk BalikÇi, who claims to be the first journalist to enter the city of 200,000, following "the clashes
between Arabs and Kurds" that erupted 8 days ago.

"Foreigners who enter the city are followed step by step by the Syrian intelligence agency, al Mukhabarat."

The Qamishlo stadium where the clashes began on March 12 has become the center for the military forces sent to suppress "the incidents," reported Hurriyet.

Source: The story is translated -- partially -- from the Turkish original on the Hurriyet Web site by the Kurdishmedia.com

5. - Turkish Daily News - "Local elections will overwhelm the opposition":

If the ruling AK Party becomes the single dominant party in the March 28 local elections, there will be changes of leadership, splits, efforts to unite and the birth of new parties in all opposition parties, especially in the CHP

Commentators expect the intensification of efforts to merge the center-right DYP and ANAP, Ecevit quitting as the leader of the DSP and the MHP starting to look for a new leader

ANKARA / 22 March 2004 / by Ayla Ganioglu

Commentators expect a significant tremor to shake all opposition parties, especially the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), if the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) receives more than 50 percent of the national votes in the March 28 local elections.

When the AK Party won the Nov. 3, 2002 elections with 34 percent of the votes, it won two-thirds of the parliamentary seats. However, because ten million voters did not vote, the AK Party's real support was around 25 percent. Moreover, 65 percent of the nation wa against the AK Party.

The CHP, which entered Parliament with 19 percent of the votes, aimed to represent the entire 65 percent that did not support the government. However, in the local elections that will be held 1.5 years after the AK party formed the government, local elections, instead of strengthening the opposition, have weakened it.

While the CHP, which represented the entire opposition in Parliament lost significant support, the AK Party increased its support. Commentators expect the AK Party to increase its support to around or above 50 percent. This means the AK Party has increased its support from 10 to 20 million votes.

Actually, ruling parties have an advantage over other parties in local elections. However, if the AK Party increases its votes two-fold, this increase will be beyond the advantages caused by being the government. Such a result will be seen as a symbol of the public perceiving the government as being successful, while preceiving the opposition as a failure.

The Motherland Party (ANAP), which had formed the government in 1983 by receiving 44 percent of the votes, received 41 percent support in 1984 local elections.

After the local elections, people expect discussions to center on the failure of the opposition instead of on the success of the government. The opposition parties will try to explain their failure using the same old arguments. However, after the local election results are announced, opposition party's leaders will find it hard to keep their seats. Commentators expect there will be a change of leadership, splits, efforts to unite and the birth of new parties in all opposition parties.

They say the campaign in the CHP to replace current leader Deniz Baykal will intensify and the party will start looking for a new leader. Baykal had forced through new rules that made it hard to replace the leader during the last party congress. However, even with these rules in place, if the elections results in a fiasco, it seems hard for Baykal to remain as the party leader.

Former State Minister Kemal Dervis, who was appointed as the deputy party leader by Baykal himself, is expected to be at the center-stage of the efforts to replace Baykal. Some sources say there are speculations about either Dervis replacing Baykal or resigning from the CHP to establish a "liberal leftist" party.

Baykal is expected to claim that the media has become the voice of the AK Party in order to protect his position. However, during the period after the elections, the party executive being divided among themselves and a significant number of deputies being uncomfortable with the central executive will cause more obstacles to stem the tide.

On the other hand, sources expect the Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader Bulent Ecevit to resign and be replaced by a new figure. However, Ecevit, being against the former Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel or former Finance Minister Zekeriya Temizel replacing him, was interpreted as Ecevit wanting to control the party from behind the scenes after being replaced. Ecevit is expected to influence the DSP, even if he resigns from his post as the party leader.

The center-right True Path Party (DYP) is expected to do better than its rival ANAP in the local elections. This might result in the often repeated efforts to merge the two parties under a single roof. Sources say that a failure in local elections might cause a replacement of party leadership in the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The MHP leader Devlet Bahceli had announced his intention to resign after his party failed to pass the election threshold in the November 3, 2002 local elections. He decided to continue as leader after the party stood by him. However, a second election defeat is expected to speed up the process of a change in leadership.

6. - AFP - "Guenter Verheugen gave Turkey a possible start date":

BRATISLAVA / 20 March 2004

EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen gave Turkey a possible start date of spring 2005 for talks on joining the European Union, provided it has made enough progress in democratic reforms by the end of the year.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, is to decide by the end of 2004 whether to open membership negotiations with Turkey.

"If the commission rules positively, negotiations will start without delay, in spring 2005," Verheugen told a conference on EU enlargement in Bratislava, adding: "I'll repeat that this is conditional."

The mainly Muslim but strictly secular state has been an EU candidate since 1999, but this was the first mention by an EU official of a possible date for the start of accession talks.

Verheugen did not mention a separate council of EU leaders in December, which will have the final say on starting entry talks with Turkey, if the commission rules in favour.

"I think that the treaty on enlargement is very clear, any country that is willing to respect our values can apply for membership," said Verheugen, who has said he would support Ankara's membership bid if it has met the relevant criteria.

Turkey has adopted a raft of significant reforms since 1999 and argues that it has fulfilled the majority of criteria required to open membership talks, but Brussels has said it needs to see the reforms properly implemented first.

Several prominent political figures in France and Germany have spoken out against accepting Turkey into the EU.

One is the former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who chaired a convention charged with drafting a constitution for the EU after it expands to 25 members in May. The other is the leader of Germany's Christian Democratic opposition party, Angela Merkel.

7. - EUobserver - "Turkey demands exceptions to EU rules in Cyprus settlement":

22 March 2004

Turkey is demanding that any settlement agreement on Cyprus contain exceptions to EU rules, with the possibility of retaining some divisions between the two communities.

Turkey’s foreign minister Abdullah Gül wants the EU to grant exceptions to its laws that grant freedom of movement and property ownership throughout the EU, due to fears by the Turkish Cypriot side of a huge influx to the north by the Greek Cypriots, the Associated Press reported.

Mr Gül also insisted that both communities on Cyprus should live separately and that settlers from Turkey, currently staying in the Turkish Cypriot side, should be allowed to stay.

These statements were opposed by both the Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos and the Greek Foreign Ministry, who insist that the Cyprus settlement should comply fully, and without exceptions, with EU norms.

Mr Gül's announcement on Turkey's position after a three-hour meeting yesterday with the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey’s military chief, come ahead of reunification talks held in Switzerland.

Due to lack of progress in the negotiations so far between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sides, Greece and Turkey will now also be present at the negotiating table.

The meeting in Switzerland begins this Wednesday.

If no deal emerges by 29 March, the UN secretary general Kofi Annan has been authorised to ‘fill in the blanks’ himself, and put the deal for a referendum to be approved by both Cypriot sides on 20 April.

A setback to this negotiation round occurred last week when Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said he would not be attending.

8. - Financial Times - "Greek Cypriot concerns cloud unification hopes":

22 March 2004 / by By Judy Dempsey and Kerin Hope

The US, Britain and several other European Union countries are becoming increasingly alarmed over growing opposition by the Greek Cypriot leadership to theUnited Nations-brokered peace plan, according to diplomats close to the negotiations.

With high-level talks entering a crucial phase this week in Switzerland, diplomats said the Greek Cypriot leadership under Tassos Papadopoulos was doing little to prepare its public opinion to accept a referendum on the peace plan, scheduled for April 20.

"Even more alarming is that the Greek Cypriots say they will reject the UN's final word over reaching a settlement," said a senior European diplomat. "If so, chances of making this part of the Mediterranean more stable and secure would be lost. It would be hard to see how the talks could be revived," he added.

At the same time, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, is engaged in a delicate balancing act. He is desperate to seek a deal that could pave the way for the northern part of Cyprus to join the EU with the rest of the island on May 1. But he also has to reassure the military and hardline supporters of Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader, that he has not sold out.

The failure to bridge the gulf in the negotiations has caused concern in Athens and Ankara.

Greek officials have been worried that the Greek Cypriot negotiating team has adopted stalling tactics during the month-long talks chaired by Alvaro de Soto, the UN special envoy, which are due to be wrapped up today.

Moreover, in spite of a public commitment to a settlement by Mr Papadopoulos, senior members of his Democratic party have spoken against reunification ahead of Cyprus's EU accession - reviving Greek Cypriot concerns that the Turkish Cypriot area would effectively become a Turkish province.

At last month's talks in New York, Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders agreed that if they could not compromise on outstanding issues, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, would be the final arbiter.

"The Cypriot Greeks are now saying they will not accept even this, effectively reneging on what they agreed in New York," said another European diplomat.

The US and Britain have stepped up the diplomatic pressure on Athens and Ankara, warning them of the consequences of failed talks.

The Greek Cypriots would lose the chance to have a united island enter the EU on May 1 - and be blamed by the EU for failure - while the Turkish Cypriots might have to wait until Turkey was ready to join the EU. The island has been divided since 1974 after the Turkish army occupied it in response to a Greek-attempted coup.

Diplomats said Mr Erdogan did not want any EU member state to find excuses to blame him for the collapse of talks given that EU leaders would next December decide whether to start accession negotiations with Turkey.

Nevertheless, Turkish officials spent the weekend scrambling to maintain Ankara's united front on the Cyprus issue after Mr Denktash said last week he would not travel to Switzerland. Mr Erdogan failed to persuade Mr Denktash to change his mind.

Mumtaz Soysal, an adviser to Mr Denktash, said in a telephone interview from Cyprus that the Turkish Cypriot leader was unwilling to accept a potentially unpopular settlement.

Mr Denktash's move unnerved the government in Ankara. Mr Erdogan met Turkey's most senior armed forces general on Saturday to try to preserve the fragile consensus he has forged over Cyprus in the face of stiff domestic opposition.

Mr Erdogan and Costas Karamanlis, the new Greek prime minister, are due to travel to Lucerne for the final round of negotiations on March 29, which will also be attended by Mr Annan.

Presenting his conservative government's programme to parliament at the weekend, Mr Karamanlis said achieving a Cyprus settlement was his first priority.

In an effort to build a more positive climate, UN officials have held parallel talks with the Greek Cypriot communist party and the right-of- centre Democratic Rally party. The leaders of both parties would accompany Mr Papadopoulos to Lucerne.

The support of the Communists, the biggest Greek Cypriot political party, would be critical to ensuring a "yes" vote at the April 20 referendum to approve reunification.