5 March 2004

1. "Turkey grapples with legacy of abuse", Turkey has been condemned for rights abuses.

2. "Fischer sees Turkey's membership in EU as part of war on terror", Foreign minister speaks out for EU constitution, against direct democracy.

3. "Fitch: Turkey's EU bid improving but delays still possible", Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, said on Thursday on its website that the while momentum behind Turkey's bid to join the European Union is growing, there is still considerable scope for a disappointing outcome in December this year.

4. "Thousands of Denktash Supporters Greet Him on Arrival in Turkey", Thousands of people have greeted Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash upon his arrival in Turkey and expressed their support for his opposition to a United Nations plan to resolve the division of Cyprus.

5. "The Other Occupation of Iraq (Part One)", looking at the faces of the troops behind the razor wire-fenced four-floor military compound in the center of the Northern Iraqi city of Arbil, at least one fact becomes immediately apparent: its not just George Bush and his "coalition of the willing" that are occupying Iraq.

6. "Kurdish peshmerga fighters determined to remain military unit", a flame from a kerosene heater flickered in the mountain breeze and illuminated the hardened faces of Kurdish militiamen who are the only security force for this northern Iraqi village.

1. - Aljazeera - "Turkey grapples with legacy of abuse":

Turkey has been condemned for rights abuses

ISTANBUL / 4 March 2004 / by Jonathan Gorvett

With several recent reports praising human rights improvements in Turkey, the country seems to be moving away from its status as a place where serious abuses happen.

Yet, rights groups within the country have sounded a strong note of caution – while things are getting better, they say, there is still a long way to go.

"The point we are at now with human rights is not a good one," Mustafa Ercan of the human rights group Mazlum-Der told Aljazeera.net. "It’s just that when compared to the past, it’s a better one."

On 3 March, the 45-nation Council of Europe assembly approved a draft report recommending dropping Turkey from the list of countries it monitors since 1996 for human rights abuses.

The Council says Turkey has come off the list due to reforms the country has introduced since 2001.
It was in that year that Turks were given the most positive news yet on prospects of one day joining the European Union.

Political killings

Meeting EU criteria against torture has been a pressing political task for Turkish governments ever since.

The US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour said in its most recent report on Turkey that there had been “improvements in a number of areas”.

It noted that in 2003 there had been no known political killings, or reports of "disappearances" related to political activity.

Both have plagued Turkey for years, with shootings and disappearances particularly prevalent in the southeast as Turkish troops fought with Kurdish rebels during the 1980s and 1990s.

The same US organisation had reported ten years ago about 33 extra-judicial killings by state security forces in the first ten months of 1994 alone, while 107 people died in "mystery killings".

These were widely attributed to contra-guerrillas, such as the Islamist Hizb Allah, which fought against Kurdish leftist separatists allegedly with government support.

Abuses continue

“Now the situation there is quite different,” said human rights commentator and analyst Erdal Erinc.
However, "largely this is because the war is over – the separatists have been defeated".

But despite these various reports, said Hurriyet Sener of the Istanbul branch of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), abuses are continuing.

"The situation in the country’s prisons isn’t any better, the pressure on Kurdish identity continues. There have been some changes in the appearances of things, but not practical on the ground implementation."

It is a complaint that is widespread despite the government passing an unprecedented amount of legislation to raise standards.
"For us," added Ercan, "it’s better to give importance to actual observations on the ground than to what it says in reports.

Freedom of speech

"This also means that the change we want to see is an overall one – in the practice of the state, the government, the police and in civil society itself."

It is a point also taken up by the US State Department report.

"Several serious problems remained," the report states.

"Security forces reportedly killed 43 persons during the year; torture, beatings, and other abuses by security forces remained widespread. Prison conditions remained poor.

"Security forces continued to use arbitrary arrest and detention … The rarity of convictions and the light sentences imposed on police and other security officials for killings and torture continued to foster a climate of impunity."

The report also singled out a legal structure that "favoured government interests over individual rights, alongside the continued limitation of freedom of speech and press".

Military rule

It adds, "At times, the government restricted freedom of assembly and association. Police beat, abused, detained, and harassed some demonstrators."

Behind this reluctance to actually implement laws passed, lies the nature of the Turkish state itself, said the IHD’s Sener.

"Without the complete civilianisation of the country the problem can’t be changed."

Sener pointed to the continuing role of the Turkish military in the country, which remains powerful, despite recent moves to restrict it.

"We want the generals out of politics. We want the country to become a country of law," she said.
The US report also said there had been abuses against religious freedom.

"The government imposed some restrictions on Muslim and other religious groups," it reads, "and on Muslim religious expression in government offices and state-run institutions, including universities."

Securing rights

The banning of Muslim women who wear headscarves from university campuses and state institutions has been a highly controversial policy in Turkey.

While privately the government may want to abandon this restriction, the country’s powerful secularist establishment is strongly opposed to any change.

But change is also widely welcome – even if it still has far to go.

"At the moment," said Ercan, “there has been a decrease in torture by police – at least in non-political cases. The police attacks on civil organisations have also decreased ... With all these EU harmonisation laws there has been a partial improvement."

However, he added, "What we want now is a public that demands its own rights – a public that does its own human rights monitoring – that has that awareness."

Sener agreed, "Making Turkey a more democratic place is ultimately not just about human rights reports written by foreign organisations.

"It’s about the country’s own internal dynamics. That’s why we’re saying that everyone in this country must play a part in securing these rights – they are things all of us have to bring about."

2. - Frankfurter Allgemeine - "Fischer sees Turkey's membership in EU as part of war on terror":

Foreign minister speaks out for EU constitution, against direct democracy

By Sam Hapgood / 4 March 2004

Late last month, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was in Turkey with the message that the German government would throw its weight behind making the Muslim country a full member of the European Union. The interpretation of this gesture came over the weekend from Joschka Fischer, the foreign minister and one of the chancellor's closest confidants.

Integrating Turkey into the European Union, he said, is an answer to the threat posed by Muslim terrorists. Sept. 11, 2001, “was a declaration of war by a terrorist group whose world view is totalitarian. ...We have a new task that will shape this century: We have to give globalization political contours,“ Fischer told Berliner Zeitung.

For Fischer this means the ability to act as a continent at eye level with Russia, India, China and the United States. “We Europeans must ask ourselves whether we can grow close in order to increase our weight. You have to see the debate about Turkey in this light,“ he said.

At the same time, the finance ministry published a study concluding that Turkey is not ready to join the European Union. “Despite major reforms, it is unlikely that the country will be able to fulfill the required political criteria by the EU Commission's next progress report,“ the study says.

The report also says that Turkey would cost the European Union around EUR14 billion ($17 billion) without a major overhaul of Brussels' subsidy rules. A recent Emnid survey shows that 47 percent of Germans are for, and 47 percent against, Turkish accession, while other surveys have said that as much as 59 percent of the population is against letting the country become a full member.

Fischer said that integrating so many member states would only be possible with a European Union constitution. But although he believes that the majority of Germans are for the EU's political integration, he is against letting Germans vote on adopting the constitution. “We don't have the tradition. What would we have the people vote on? The European constitution, the Treaty of Nice? Who understands all of that?“

3. - Turkish Daily News - "Fitch: Turkey's EU bid improving but delays still possible":

ANKARA / 5 March 2004

Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, said on Thursday on its website that the while momentum behind Turkey's bid to join the European Union is growing, there is still considerable scope for a disappointing outcome in December this year.

In a special report entitled "Turkey and the EU" the agency outlined the current debate surrounding Turkey's accession efforts and sketches various scenarios that could materialize at the end of the year.

The focus on Turkey's EU accession bid has intensified in recent weeks. Ahead of the May 1 EU enlargement, Ankara is pressing hard to reach a resolution for the Cyprus dispute, which is currently seen as a major obstacle to Turkey's own accession aspirations.

A wide-ranging series of political reforms were passed during 2003, designed to address the so-called Copenhagen criteria, which must be met in order to secure an invitation for accession talks. More generally, international support for Turkey's EU bid appears to have strengthened over the past year.

EU members will decide in December this year whether Turkey fully meets the Copenhagen criteria. Depending on this verdict, the EU will either set a date for accession negotiations to begin or press Ankara to undertake further steps towards meeting the political criteria needed to start talks.

Current momentum on Cyprus, together with continued pledges of support from some key EU member states and a clear commitment to the accession process from Ankara, suggests that the chances are increasing that when EU heads of state meet in December of this year Turkey will be given a date to start accession talks probably in 2005.

Notwithstanding recent developments, the extension of a clear invitation to start accession talks is not yet Fitch's base case scenario, and there is a strong possibility that Ankara will be pressed to undertake further political reforms before a fresh judgment is taken, one year further on at the end of 2005. A further year of delay would be disappointing, but not a deal-breaker in Fitch's view, as it is highly unlikely that the EU will totally shut the door on Turkey's accession bid.

EU accession is at the top of the government's political agenda, and in view of the potential benefits to the country, not to mention the boost to the standing of the ruling party, it is unlikely to give up so easily. One more year would allow the authorities to demonstrate clearer progress towards the political criteria and would give the EU much less scope to reject a future bid.

Successful accession is likely to have a disciplining impact on government policy, and the benefits stemming from greater certainty and consensus over economic policy could potentially be very large. FDI would be likely to increase, perhaps substantially if the record of current accession candidates is anything to go by.

Closer political integration with the EU would also carry material financial benefits, and Turkey could qualify for substantial pre-accession funding, and eventually for large EU structural and cohesion funds. Market sentiment could also be expected to strengthen, as investors gain greater faith in macroeconomic stabilization and reform. This would help bring down interest rates, and reduce their volatility.

A sustained period of low interest rates would allow the authorities to reduce the volatility of the government debt burden and to refinance the large amounts of floating and FX-indexed paper with more stable fixed, TL-denominated debt.

4. - Voice of America - "Thousands of Denktash Supporters Greet Him on Arrival in Turkey":

04 March 2004

Thousands of people have greeted Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash upon his arrival in Turkey and expressed their support for his opposition to a United Nations plan to resolve the division of Cyprus.

Shouting slogans backing Mr. Denktash, the crowd carried the flags of Turkey and the self-declared state the Turkish Cypriots have set up on the divided Mediterranean island. In Ankara, the Turkish Cypriot leader is addressing a conference on Cyprus and may meet with some Turkish officials. Only Turkey has recognized the Turkish Cypriot state.

Mr. Denktash's trip to Ankara followed Thursday's meeting in Nicosia with Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos as the latest round of U.N.-sponsored talks on resolving the fate of the island continued.

Both sides have expressed reservations about the U.N. plan which calls for Greek and Turkish Cypriot states on Cyprus, held together by a loose federal government.

Mr. Denktash has said acceptance of the present plan would lead to what he called the destruction of the Turkish Cypriot community. He also echoed statements by the Greek side that the talks could extend beyond the current deadline of May first, when Cyprus is to enter the European Union.

U.N. Undersecretary-General Kieran Prendergast flew to Cyprus Tuesday to assess the status of the talks. Mr. Prendergast said he will return to New York in several days to brief U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on developments.

The Cypriot leaders plan to keep talking until March 22. If there is no deal, Greek and Turkish negotiators will step in for a final week of talks. If there is still no agreement, Mr. Annan will resolve any outstanding issues ahead of referendums on both sides of Cyprus in April.

If there is no deal by May first, only areas controlled by the Greek-led, internationally recognized Cyprus government will enjoy the benefits of EU membership.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the island in response to a coup in Nicosia backed by the military government then in power in Greece.

5. - Pacifica Radio - "The Other Occupation of Iraq (Part One)":

ARBIL (IRAQ) / 4 March 2004

Looking at the faces of the troops behind the razor wire-fenced four-floor military compound in the center of the Northern Iraqi city of Arbil, at least one fact becomes immediately apparent: its not just George Bush and his "coalition of the willing" that are occupying Iraq. The man in the watch-tower is Turkish and so is his commanding officer. But they're not in the mood to talk:

"We don't have any time to talk to you now and we won't in the future," the commander screams in Turkish through a small iron window at the compound throwing my press card into the dirt. He won't give his name. He waves his arms: "Get lost! I never want to see you again." With that, he slams his iron window shut.

These troops have reason to be defensive. They're unwanted guests in Iraq. This fall, the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council refused to accept 10,000 Turkish soldiers approved by Ankara and local Kurdish authorities have ordered this garrison closed. But the Turkish military keeps it open.

A little bit of background is in order.

When the United States, Britain, and France carved out a Kurdish safe haven in North Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, power was split between the two Kurdish leaders, Masoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) -- which got the western part of North Iraq bordering Turkey and Syria -- and Jalal Talabani, whose Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) came to control the eastern part of Iraqi Kurdistan which borders Iran. The two sides got along well in the beginning, but tensions quickly developed over who should receive revenue from the diesel trade with Turkey and money from the United Nations' oil for food program. A war erupted between the two sides and an international force from America, Britain, France, and Turkey stepped in to break up the fight.

When the conflict died down in 1998, the other troops left, but the Turks stayed. "We have said to them 'thank you' but please go," says Nachmad Abdulla, the Deputy Leader of the PUK in the Kurdish Parliament in Arbil. "But they don't respond. They don't say anything and when we ask America to ask them to leave, America says nothing."

But while the Bush Administration hasn't joined Kurdish authorities in demanding the Turkish troops leave, it has also raised the ire of Ankara. Last June, American troops arrested two plainclothes Turkish soldiers and accused them of spying and while Kurdish officials are reluctant to say so on the record, most of them privately say they believe Turkey uses its facility in Arbil as a base for espionage operations.

Turkish leaders are concerned that if Kurds win permanent autonomy in Iraq, their own Kurdish population -- which is about three times as large -- will demand similar rights. During last year's American invasion, the Turkish Army announced it would invade Iraq on its own if Kurdish forces captured the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

This week Kurdish leaders at the negotiating table in Baghdad renounced Kirkuk as a part of their autonomous area to be patrolled by a "Kurdistan National Guard."

6. - Mercury News - "Kurdish peshmerga fighters determined to remain military unit":

TAKYA / 4 March 2004 / by Hannah Allam

A flame from a kerosene heater flickered in the mountain breeze and illuminated the hardened faces of Kurdish militiamen who are the only security force for this northern Iraqi village.

Huddling together for warmth in a stark outpost last week, these members of the peshmerga couldn't imagine why their quiet existence in a remote village is causing so much fuss in Baghdad, more than 250 miles south. The men fought bloody battles against Saddam Hussein's former regime, were the only indigenous force helping the U.S.-led coalition during the war and are heroes to the besieged Kurds they protected.

Now they're fighting against pressure from Baghdad to disband or come under outside control if they're to remain the faces of law and order in an autonomous Kurdish state.

"We don't need extra military forces. We have enough men to protect all of Kurdistan and even further if we need to," said Ahmed Abdullah, a 32-year-old fighter attached to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main political factions in northern Iraq.

"We can't even consider disbanding," he said. "The peshmerga will stay."

The U.S.-led coalition and its handpicked Iraqi Governing Council, however, have other ideas. American administrators in Baghdad repeatedly have said paramilitary forces have no place in the new Iraq. After contentious debate, the council decided to allow peshmerga to keep their weapons - but only as part of a National Guard-style force.

The compromise, part of an interim constitution, didn't sit well with longtime peshmerga. One key concern is that other, far less U.S.-friendly militias will similarly demand to remain intact. Last week, militia members attached to a controversial Shiite Muslim cleric marched through Kirkuk in what many considered a warning to the mostly Kurdish town 180 miles north of Baghdad.

"We have made clear in discussions with the Kurdish leaders and other political leaders that we believe there's no place in an independent, stable Iraq for armed forces that are not under the control of the command structure of the central government," L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. envoy in Iraq, told journalists on Feb. 19. "Kurdish leaders have understood and agreed with that."

But Kurdish leaders continued to push the issue, which helped stall the drafting of an interim constitution. Other Kurdish questions also weighed heavily in sessions that stretched into early morning hours recently as council members debated whether Kurdish should be an official language of Iraq, what level of autonomy Kurds should retain and how the peshmerga will be integrated into a national security force that reports to the central government.

Mahmoud Othman, a council member and leader of the Kurdish National Struggle, said he considers the peshmerga a freestanding army, not a militia.

"Almost half of them have been killed and those remaining have always helped the coalition," Othman said. "You can't tell them, `Go away, that's it, your job is done.' How could the coalition so quickly forget them?"

"Peshmerga" translates as "those who face death" - a label taken seriously by Kurdish fighters whose stories of armed struggle date back more than 50 years. Today, about 60,000 peshmerga remain, funded by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Suicide attacks on both parties' offices Feb. 1 in the Kurdish city of Irbil killed more than 100 people and only fueled demands to preserve the peshmerga. In large, cosmopolitan northern cities, many fighters have traded their traditional baggy pants and Kalashnikovs for police uniforms and AK-47 assault rifles.

"In the last four or five years, we have strongly been acting to keep the militia out of the towns," said Kasim Jemal, deputy director of the KDP office in Sulaimaniyah. "But they remain important to people in the countryside. Some deal has to be made for those people who put their lives on the line for Kurdistan."

On a dusty road filled with fruit stands and donkey carts, Takya villagers said they would resist any attempts to change the peshmerga. Women and children waved to the gun-toting men who walked the streets of the village market.

"Sure, there are probably stronger and better forces out there - but not for Kurdistan," said Osmin Osmin, a 38-year-old shop owner. "We are living in a jungle, so we need a lion. For us, the peshmerga are the lion. Without them, the wolves will come back."