13
May 2004
2. "Scrapbook: Break the Iraqi state into three", Patience with the foreign occupation is running out and violent opposition is spreading. Civil war and the break-up of Iraq are more likely outcomes than a successful transition to a Western-style democracy.
3. "Ex-DEP deputies political wing of PKK: Court", The Ankara State Security Court confirmed the 15 years jail term for the former Kurdish DEP deputies after the European Court of Human Rights overturned the previous verdicts.
4. "YOK controversy sour Turkey-EU ties", Foreign Ministry hits back at EU Commission for remarks against the military and says it should respect the codes of conduct regulating how foreign organizations should act in the countries they operate.
5. "Turkish parliament adopts controversial education reform bill", After a long and stormy session, the Turkish parliament on Thursday adopted a controversial higher education reform bill which has been denounced by the powerful military as a threat to the mainly Muslim country's secular order.
6. "Cypriots want a second go", Just over half the Greek Cypriots would back a new referendum on the United Nations-drafted reunification plan, provided they were given sufficient guarantees that the complex deal would be implemented and their security ensured.
1.
- AFP - "Turkish military vehicle destroyed, two dead":
DIYARBAKIR (Turkey) 13 May 2004
Two soldiers were killed and three wounded when their vehicle hit
a mine while on patrol in the Kurdish dominated southeast of the Turkey,
local sources told AFP.
The mine may have been planted by the Kurdistan People's Congress
(KONGRA-GEL), an offshoot of the outlawed group formerly known as
the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), they said.
The authorities also discovered four powerful remote-controlled bombs
on a road in Tunceli, eastern Turkey.
They were the most powerful bombs to have been discovered in the area,
which was the scene of heavy fighting between the separatist PKK and
the military in the 1990s.
2. - The Australian - "Scrapbook: Break the Iraqi state into three":
Former US diplomat in Croatia Peter Galbraith, in the May 13 New York Review of Books
13 May 2004
Patience with the foreign occupation is running out and violent opposition is spreading. Civil war and the break-up of Iraq are more likely outcomes than a successful transition to a Western-style democracy.
The US strategy is to hold Iraq together by establishing a strong central government. So far, all its successes have been on paper. The interim constitution gives the central government a monopoly on military force, control over natural resources, broad fiscal powers and oversight over the judiciary. Little of this will come to pass.
In my view, Iraq is not salvageable as a unitary state. From my experience in the Balkans, I feel it is impossible to preserve the unity of a democratic state where people in a geographically defined region almost unanimously do not want to be part of that state. I have never met an Iraqi Kurd who preferred membership in Iraq if independence were a realistic possibility.
The best hope for holding Iraq together - and thereby avoiding civil war - is to let each of its main constituent communities have, to the extent possible, the system each wants. This, too, suggests the only policy that can get American forces out of Iraq. In the north, this means accepting that Kurdistan will continue to govern its own affairs and retain responsibility for its own security. In the south, Iraq's Shiites want an Islamic state. They are sufficiently confident of public support that they are pushing for early elections. The US should let them have their elections and be prepared to accept an Islamic state, but only in the south.
It is much more difficult to devise a strategy for the Sunni triangle - until recently the location of most violent resistance to the American occupation - because there is no Sunni Arab leadership with discernible political support.
We can hope that if the Sunni Arabs feel more secure about their
place in Iraq with respect to the Shiites and the Kurds, they will
be relatively more moderate. Autonomy for the Sunni Arab parts of
Iraq is a way to provide such security.
3. - MSNBC - "Ex-DEP deputies political wing of PKK: Court":
The Ankara State Security Court confirmed the 15 years jail term for the former Kurdish DEP deputies after the European Court of Human Rights overturned the previous verdicts.
May 12, 2004
Four former parliamentary deputies convicted of separatist activity were members of the political wing of the terrorist group the PKK, the Ankara State Security Court (DGM) said in a statement issued Wednesday.
In its written justification for the confirmation of the 15 year
gaol terms handed down to Leyla Zana and three other former members
of the Democratic Party, the court said the four had used their parliamentary
lodgings as a safe house for members of the terrorist organisation
The four, who have already served nine years of their sentence and
are currently held in the Ulucanlar Prison, are eligible for parole
next year. Their sentences were confirmed in a retrial in April.
“The defendants acted as administrators of the Kurdish state
the PKK sought to establish and visited the group’s leader, Abdullah
Öcalan, in his camp in the Bekaa Valley in order to take orders,”
the statement said. “They have passed on the orders and instructions
given by him to the members of the PKK active in Turkey.”
The statement also said that people were recruited to the terrorist
group inn the parliamentary lodgings and the former deputies put pressure
on Kurdish people in the east and southeast Turkey to join the PKK.
The final statement of the court has been awaited by the European
Parliament and is expected to draw criticism from the western world.
The DGM statement stressed that the decision was in keeping with international
agreements. Defending itself against criticisms of not being fair,
the court stressed that that the DGMS in Turkey were independent courts.
On Friday, the constitutional was amended by the parliament to abolish
the DGM, which deal with cases involving terrorism and drugs, though
the changes have yet to be ratified by President Ahment Necdet Sezer.
It is also expected that the lawyers for the former deputies will
apply to the court of appeals to have the latest decision reversed.
4. - Turkish Daily News - "YOK controversy sour Turkey-EU ties":
Foreign Ministry hits back at EU Commission for remarks against the military and says it should respect the codes of conduct regulating how foreign organizations should act in the countries they operate
ANKARA / 13 May 2004
A bitter controversy on the government's plans to reform higher education appeared to be souring Turkey-European Union ties on Wednesday as the Turkish Foreign Ministry criticized the EU Commission office in Ankara for its comments beating the military for its involvement in the debate.
Hansjoerg Kretschmer, the EU Commission representative in Ankara, criticized the Turkish military in Wednesday's remarks, saying its involvement in the education reform controversy was a step back in the view of Turkey's bid to join the EU.
Political matters such as education in higher education were not where the military should voice its opinion, Kretschmer said, emphasizing that military-civilian relations were deemed very important by the EU.
"There are certain codes of conduct that representatives of foreign countries and organizations should respect in their country of operation. We expect respect for these codes," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan said at a press briefing when asked to comment on Kretschmer remarks.
There was no immediate comment from the EU Commission.
The education reform controversy has put the government and opponents from universities, opposition party and the powerful military against each other in what some commentators have described has the biggest political crisis Turkey has faced in the recent past.
Government defends reform in the higher education system but critics say it is an attempt to undermine the secular order of the state by allowing graduates of religious imam-hatip high schools to enter university on equal terms with students from other high schools.
Last week, the General Staff issued a stern statement, declaring the reform bill contradicted the principle of secularism and that the military was one of the "sides" in the dispute.
Defying criticisms, the government sent the reform bill to Parliament
and said everybody else should respect the lawmakers' decision.
Persona non grata
EU aspirant Turkey has been told by the union to remove military interference in politics and several reforms have been carried out so far to trim the military's influence.
The conservative True Path Party (DYP) also attacked Kretschmer for his remarks against the military involvement. Deputy Chairman Nuzhet Kandemir said in a statement that Kretschmer's remarks were tantamount to interference in Turkey's internal affairs and disrespect for codes of international diplomacy.
Kandemir called on the Foreign Ministry to warn Kretschmer and notify
to him that he would be declared "persona non grata" unless
he was recalled by the EU Commission.
5. - AFP - "Turkish parliament adopts controversial education reform bill":
ANKARA (Turkey) / May 13, 2004
After a long and stormy session, the Turkish parliament on Thursday
adopted a controversial higher education reform bill which has been
denounced by the powerful military as a threat to the mainly Muslim
country's secular order.
The bill seeks to ease restrictions on graduates of Islamic schools
in obtaining university degrees other than in divinity studies, thus
opening the way for them to hold public office.
After 18 hours of debate, opposition parties boycotted the vote on
the bill, which passed with the support of 254 members of the governing
Justice and Development Party (AKP) against four dissenting voices.
The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which unsuccessfully
tried to prevent a vote through procedural delaying tactics, said
the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to give
Turkey an educational system "similar to that of Iran and the
Arab countries."
CHP leader Deniz Baykal accused the government of trying to exploit
religion for political ends and declared "this enterprise will
harm social peace and stability."
Turkey now seems set for a constitutional tussle between Erdogan and
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a strictly secular former lawyer who
is expected to refuse to sign the bill into law.
In that event, the government could return to parliament for a second
vote and the head of state would no longer have the right to withhold
his signature. He could, however, ask the constitutional court to
declare the bill unlawful.
While enrolment numbers have dropped sharply in the past decade, religious
schools in Turkey are regarded by many as hothouses for Islamist political
movements.
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. That effectively bars Islamist-leaning
Turks from obtaining degrees required to hold government jobs.
Erdogan, a graduate of a religious school, promised to reform the
system before the election on November 2002 which swept his party
to power with two-thirds of the members of the 550-seat lower house
of parliament.
But the army has warned the government not to go ahead with a measure
which it sees as a threat to the principles of the secular republic
founded by Mutafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.
6. - Kathimerini (Greece) - "Cypriots want a second go":
13 May 2004
Just over half the Greek Cypriots would back a new referendum on the United Nations-drafted reunification plan, provided they were given sufficient guarantees that the complex deal would be implemented and their security ensured, according to a poll made public yesterday.
Meanwhile, Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos was hospitalized after fainting during a funeral service in Nicosia yesterday.
The telephone survey of 800 Greek Cypriots, conducted by RAI Consultants on behalf of the Politis newspaper and published yesterday, found that 51 percent of respondents wanted a new referendum based on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s plan. But they linked this with sufficient guarantees that the provisions in the deal would actually be implemented, and that Greek-Cypriot concerns over security would be addressed.
Some 20 percent said the Annan plan should be renegotiated, while 29 percent called for new talks from scratch. UN officials have ruled out a new reunification plan, or modifications to the current one.
Some 76 percent of the Greek-Cypriot electorate rejected the UN peace blueprint in an April 24 referendum on both sides of the Green Line — which in the Turkish-occupied north resulted in 65 percent approval for the plan.
Papadopoulos, who came under intense international pressure to back the UN plan, and then, when he opposed it, was subject to heavy criticism, fainted in church yesterday during the funeral of a Cyprus church official. Officials said the president was in good condition and that a series of medical tests conducted after the incident had failed to reveal any health problems.
Costas Zambartas, head of the Nicosia hospital’s cardiology
department, attributed the faint to fatigue and heat in the crowded
church.