12 May 2004

1. "Is EU ready for Turkey? Muslim world is waiting", where Europe ends, and with it presumably the European Union, has long been a vexed question. Just how vexed will be demonstrated over the next seven months as the EU grapples with a critical decision: whether to begin negotiations leading to Turkish membership.

2. "EU applauds constitutional reform", 'The new package shows once again the strong commitment of Turkey to political reforms and constitutes another step toward compliance with (EU membership) criteria,' Verheugen says.

3. "Turkish PM defends school reforms from army criticism", Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday defended an educational reform bill from military critics who say that making it easier for students of Islamic schools to hold public office will damage Muslim Turkey's strictly secular founding principles.

4. "Turkey and Constitution set to dominate European elections in France", the vexed questions of whether to support Turkey's bid to become an EU member and whether to hold a referendum on the Constitution are emerging as the main issues as the European election campaigns kick off in France.

5. "Denktas opposes new Cyprus referendum", Turkish Cypriots did not give up their rights by voting in favour of reunification, the TRNC President said.

6. "Kurdish Music Takes Wing in Postwar Iraq", Niyaz Zangana loads a selection of CDs on sale in his shop into a high-decibel sound system to show what Kurds are listening to in post-Saddam Iraq.

1. - International Herald Tribune - "Is EU ready for Turkey? Muslim world is waiting":

ISTANBUL / 11 May 2004 / by Roger Cohen*

Where Europe ends, and with it presumably the European Union, has long been a vexed question. Just how vexed will be demonstrated over the next seven months as the EU grapples with a critical decision: whether to begin negotiations leading to Turkish membership.

The EU has just admitted 10 new members without being sure how it will run itself as a 25-member club. So the notion of opening the way for Turkey appears far-fetched. This is a country of close to 70 million people, the vast majority of them Muslims, bordering Iraq, Syria and Iran. Few Europeans associate such dangerous borders with their continent.

But Turkey amounts to a special case. Its links with the EU go back to 1963, when it entered into economic agreements. Ever since, the prospect of possible membership has been dangled with growing specificity before this diverse and determinedly secular state. Now the EU Commission is completing a report on Turkey that will form the basis for a decision by European leaders in December.

The looming verdict will provoke sharp divisions. Tony Blair, the British prime minister, recently expressed strong support for Turkish membership, saying it would bring a "new dimension" to the EU. The German government also appears favorable. But Alain Juppé of France, the leader of President Jacques Chirac's UMP party, said last month that his party opposed opening negotiations with Turkey. Chirac himself has been more evasive, saying Turkey has a "European vocation." Make of that Delphic phrase what you will.

Scrutiny of the EU's next move is intense in the United States, in the Islamic world and in Turkey itself. The American view is straightforward. Europe says it wants good relations with Muslims. That being the case, it cannot slam the door on Turkey.

"If the Muslim world is not an enemy, they have to go through with this," said one American official.

The American idea, of course, is that Turkey's natural role is as a bridge between the West and the Islamic world at a time when suspicion and anger are growing over Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To open talks leading to EU membership would sweep away suspicions of religious and cultural prejudice that have grown as Turkey has waited on the sidelines for four decades. It would show that a Muslim country that is also a secular democracy has its place at the same European table as France, Britain and Germany.

Support for EU membership is strong in Turkey. Saban Disli, the vice-chairman of the governing Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that negotiations should begin in the first half of next year with a view to bringing Turkey into the EU by 2008, or 2010 at the latest.

"If Turkey is left out, close to 1.5 billion Muslims around the world will feel as bad as I will feel," he said. "The clash between Islam and the West will be sharpened."

Erdogan, who leads a party with Islamic roots that some now refer to as "Muslim Democrats" (an echo of Europe's right-of-center Christian Democrats), has worked hard to persuade European leaders that Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is now ready. Just last week, special state security courts sometimes used to try Kurds were abolished, one of a series of amendments to the Constitution.

In general, the army has lost its once dominant behind-the-scenes role; the often trampled rights of Turkey's minority Kurdish population have been bolstered. Erdogan has also pushed hard to reunite the divided island of Cyprus through support for a United Nations peace plan that was rejected last month by Greek Cypriots.

In all this, he has shown himself responsive to European and American prodding. Colin Powell, the American secretary of state, wrote to the Turkish government in February, urging it to do more for judicial transparency. This month, he called Turkey a "very, very secular democracy" (after causing ire earlier by mistakenly labeling it an "Islamic republic").

But resistance to Turkey in Europe remains strong. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president and overseer of efforts to draft a new EU constitution, declared in 2002 that Turkey's entry would mean "the end of Europe." Such views are widely shared, if seldom expressed so directly.

Turkey resides somewhere deep and ambivalent in the European psyche. It was against the westward pushing forces of the Ottoman empire and Islam that Europe long fought. The Ottoman army at the gates of Vienna, the centuries-long battle to put an end to Turkey-in-Europe - these events were marking.

The mingled minarets and church steeples of Bosnia are only the most obvious imprint of the Turkish presence.

Today, that presence is felt most immediately in the large number of Turkish immigrants in the EU, particularly in Germany. The specter of hordes of young Turks moving west troubles many people. Europe remains uncertain about how to integrate its growing Muslim population. The notion of the EU as some sort of Christian club has not been entirely lost. In such a club, of course, Turkey does not fit.

So, many Turks are skeptical. "Turkey is a big thing to swallow," said Lerzan Ozkale, a university professor. "I think the EU prefers us cooperating on the outside." Up to now, it is true, the EU has done well by tantalizing Turkey without admitting it.

But that game now looks exhausted. Turkey is impatient; a world of tensions between Islam and the West is watching. The country has much to offer the EU: its understanding of the Islamic world, its vitality, its large army, its geographic bridge.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the Green politician, spoke this month of the EU as a land of "miracles." The first two were Franco-German reconciliation and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The third, he suggested, could be Europe's rapprochement with the Muslim world through Turkish membership. He had a point. To close the EU to Turkey would be to look backward at a time when a troubling future must be confronted.

* Roger Cohen can be reached at rocohen@nytimes.com.

2. - Turkish Daily News - "EU applauds constitutional reform":

'The new package shows once again the strong commitment of Turkey to political reforms and constitutes another step toward compliance with (EU membership) criteria,' Verheugen says

ANKARA / 12 May 2004

The European Union said it welcomed a set of constitutional reforms that Turkey has recently passed in a bid to meet membership criteria, saying it was another step towards fulfilling the accession conditions.

Turkish Parliament adopted last Friday a sway of constitutional reforms abolishing controversial State Security Courts (DGMs) and introducing civilian supervision over military expenditures.

The reforms also removed military members from boards making university appointments, remove references to the death penalty in national laws and provide for gender equality.

Guenter Verheugen, the EU's commissioner for enlargement, said reforms showed Turkey's "strong commitment" to meeting democratic standards.

"This new package shows once again the strong commitment of Turkey to political reforms and constitutes another step toward compliance with (EU membership) criteria," Verheugen said in a statement in Brussels.

EU leaders will decide on whether to open long-delayed accession talks with Turkey in a December summit. Verheugen's EU Commission will issue a progress report a few months before the summit and recommend if the talks should start.

Verheugen also insisted how that adoption of the reforms must be followed by their implementation.

"The Commission calls upon Turkey to address all the remaining issues under the ... political criteria and to ensure full and effective implementation of these reforms," he said.

3. - AFP - "Turkish PM defends school reforms from army criticism":

ANKARA / 11 May 2004 / by Burak Akinci

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday defended an educational reform bill from military critics who say that making it easier for students of Islamic schools to hold public office will damage Muslim Turkey's strictly secular founding principles.

Erdogan, who came to power after a landslide general election victory on November 3, 2002, told cheering MPs from his Justice and Development Party that "we promised our people" to make it easier for graduates of religious schools to enter university.

But the army -- the self-appointed guardian of Turkey's secular system -- noted that under existing laws "the sole purpose of Islamic schools is to provide an education to people intending to follow a religious calling."

The bill, expected to be debated in parliament this week, seeks to make it easier for graduates of such schools to pass the notoriously complicated university entrance exams, paving the way for them to obtain a degree and hold public office.

In a harshly worded statement on May 6, the army said the bill was a threat to the "principles of unity of education and that of secular education" and warned that "institutions and people who are fully committed to the basic tenets of the republic cannot be expected to support the draft."

On Monday, government spokesman Cemil Cicek hit back, telling reporters that "Turkey is a democratic country." Anyone was free to express an opinion, but "the decision lies with parliament and everyone should respect parliament's decision," he said. Political analysts say if parliament did pass the bill, President Ahmed Necdet Sezer, a committed secularist, could be expected to refuse to sign it.

University teachers weighed in too, saying that the draft law "runs counter to the founding principles of the republic" established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Most newspaper editorialists also criticised the government for creating tension and some spoke of a "crisis" in Turkish politics.

But the stock market, which sank to its lowest level on Monday, bounced back on Tuesday morning while the Turkish lira gained strength against both the dollar and the euro after the central bank intervened to halt its previous slide.

Religious schools in Turkey are regarded by many as hothouses for Islamist political movements and under the existing university entrance system, it is almost impossible for their graduates to win a place at institutions of higher education other than divinity faculties.

Erdogan is himself a graduate of a religious high school, and the government first tried to bring in the reform in October, but it backed down in the face of a wave of criticism from the army and others.
Despite the fears of secularists, the influence of the religious schools appears to be on the wane, at least if enrolment figures are a guide.

After a showdown in 1997 between the army and a former prime minister, Necmettin Erkaban, the number of schools dropped by a quarter, from 600 to 450, while enrolments slumped from 600,000 to an estimated 50,000. Last year, the figure was as low as 23,000. Paradoxically, most of the pupils are girls or young women, who cannot aspire to the role of preacher.

4. - EUobserver - "Turkey and Constitution set to dominate European elections in France":

12 May 2004

The vexed questions of whether to support Turkey's bid to become an EU member and whether to hold a referendum on the Constitution are emerging as the main issues as the European election campaigns kick off in France.

On the first issue, the ruling centre-right UMP party, is steadfastly against Turkish entry.

Its electoral programme, recently cleared by the party membership, says, "Turkey has no business in the European Union", sentiments echoed recently by the UMP leader, Alain Juppe who said last month, "The UMP does not want to see discussions with Turkey at the end of the year".

However the position of the UMP does not seem to be shared by the French President (also UMP) Jacques Chirac, who has recently said that Turkish entry is "desirable".

The opposition socialists (PS) have pounced on what they see as divisions in the centre-right ranks and have accused the UMP of trying to divert attention away from real European issues by playing on people's fears about Turkey's entrance to the EU.

The leader of the PS, Francois Hollande is in favour of Turkey joining the Union, but has concerns over Ankara's human rights record.

Most of the smaller, more eurosceptic parties are also against Turkish entry into the EU.

The President of the anti-EU CNPT party, Jean Saint-Josse, said yesterday (11 May) that Turkey has "no reason to be in Europe".

Another famous eurosceptic, Charles Pasqua - President of the "Rassemblement pour l'Europe des nations" - said that he is against Turkey joining the EU "today, tomorrow and even the day after tomorrow".

Roughly the same position is taken by the President of the "Mouvement pour la France" Philippe de Villiers and, more obviously, by the anti-immigration National Front, led by Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Referendum, please

Both pro-EU and anti-EU parties seem to be in favour of a referendum on the Constitution.

Pro-EU parties tend to be in favour because they hope to give more democratic legitimacy to the Constitutional treaty and anti-EU parties hope it will be rejected in a popular vote.

Both the main parties (UMP and PS) are in favour - the Socialists have taunted Mr Chirac saying that he should not fear the voice of the people.

And it is certainly one of the main campaign themes of Messers de Villiers, Pasqua and Saint-Josse.

But it is Mr Chirac who has the last say on this and he is steadfastly refusing to reveal his hand, saying that he will not decide whether to call a referendum until he knows what Treaty is actually agreed.

5. - MSNBC - "Denktas opposes new Cyprus referendum":

Turkish Cypriots did not give up their rights by voting in favour of reunification, the TRNC President said.

12 May 2004

With reunification rejected by the Greek Cypriots in the April 24 referendum, the staging of a second vote would disregard the will of the people, President Denktas said in an interview with Turkish Cypriot television.

Denktas blamed the European Union for the failure of reunification efforts, saying that if the bloc had not announced it would accept the Greek Cypriots as a member representing all of the island the issue would have been resolved.

It would also be wrong of the international community to consider that the Turkish Cypriots gave up their rights due to the fact that 65 percent of them voted in favour of adopting the reunification plan brokered by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, which he said undermined the rights of Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Cypriot people did not give up their sovereignty, the right to bizonality and the guarantee of Turkey, Denktas said.

The EU would give date to start accession negotiations with Turkey in December because it was the only way it could put pressure on Turkey over Cyprus, he said.

“I think they will give a date to carry on their pressure on Turkey. If they do not give a date, they cannot put pressure on Turkey regarding Cyprus issue,” he said.

6. - Reuters - "Kurdish Music Takes Wing in Postwar Iraq":

ARBIL / 12 May 2004 / by Seb Walker

Niyaz Zangana loads a selection of CDs on sale in his shop into a high-decibel sound system to show what Kurds are listening to in post-Saddam Iraq.

Zangana, manager of the popular Zang record store in Arbil, stocks a wide range of Middle Eastern music, as well as the obligatory Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez albums. But the music blaring from the speakers is a Kurdish dance track.

"Before, Arab music was the most popular, but now even the latest albums aren't selling," he says with a smile, turning up the volume. "Many more people are buying Kurdish music."

Young Kurds, traditionally attracted to better-produced Arabic, Turkish or Farsi records, are starting to favor new Kurdish artists exploiting new technology and postwar freedoms.

"Young people prefer to buy Kurdish music because of everything that's happened," Zangana said.

"The politics is important and new equipment has been imported. Now we have professional recording studios."

Among the Kurdish public, local music is the flavor of the moment for reasons both patriotic and aesthetic.

"My favorite music is Kurdish. It's changed since Operation Iraqi Freedom," said student Waad Efan, referring to the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein a year ago.

"There are more styles," the 17-year-old said, buying the latest album from a well-known Kurdish crooner.

Another young music fan said his favorite song had been released by a local artist after twin suicide bombings in Arbil Feb. 1 killed more than 100 people. It urges Kurds to unite and "defeat the enemy."

NEW STYLES

At the Chwar Chra recording studio, musician Halbas Salah said change had begun in 1991 when Kurds gained control of northern Iraq, allowing the import of equipment and instruments.

"We started to make good Kurdish music. A new generation of Kurdish singers came through with new styles," said Salah, 24, who plays the violin.

"This has an effect on the music's popularity with young people. After the liberation of Iraq many of these artists wanted to express what they felt about the (Saddam) years."

Studio staff said it was hard to meet the surge in demand, despite access to modern mixers and computers. "We're sometimes working night and day. Lots of songs are being produced at the moment," said Akho Omar, who handles post-production.

Kurdish music has several distinct styles, from traditional dance to mournful ballads inspired by a poison gas massacre in Halabja in 1988. Some Kurdish songs, banned in certain countries, are closely linked with Kurdish national issues.

Like many aspects of Kurdish culture, Kurdish music suffered during Saddam's iron rule. Professional artists had no access to recording facilities and aspiring musicians were discouraged from receiving further education in Baghdad.

"We're now doing many things we couldn't do under Saddam. Even music festivals weren't allowed," said Bekir Khaled, music director of the Arbil Fine Arts Institute. "All aspects of our music have been freed so the sound is more developed."

Industry bosses say a new prosperity in Kurdish areas has also helped the music market. Higher salaries mean people can afford original recordings rather than pirated copies.

New albums sell for about $2.50 and the average artist can expect to sell around 5,000 copies in the Kurdish areas.

"Day by day our sales are increasing," said the director of one of the biggest Kurdish recording labels, saying his turnover has risen around 20 percent since the fall of Saddam.

He said the music also appealed to Kurds abroad, where CDs fetched about four times as much as in Iraq.

Artists now shoot music videos, which are replayed on Kurdish satellite television channels to boost sales. CDs are packaged abroad and printed with artwork before being reimported.

On Kurdish city streets, the most important thing is the new availability of a long-overlooked genre.

"Saddam never allowed the Kurdish to have their own music. Now Kurds in the south and Baghdad can listen to it as well," said Ivan Mohammed, owner of the Golden Sound record shop.

"Before 1991 we didn't even have recording studios. Now we have freedom."