27 May 2004

1. "AI: Turkey's torture record still needs improving", there are indeed deficiencies during implementation of the reforms, says Amnesty International in its latest global report.

2. "Turkish EU accession stirs party passions", barely four months ago, it seemed Turkey's aspiration to join the European Union would be the defining theme of the European election campaign in Germany while politicians in neighbouring France were determined to keep the topic off the agenda.

3. "Tension Grows in Turkey Over Education Bill", debate over the role of religion is at the heart of a move to reform university admissions.

4. "Turkish state TV to launch Kurdish language broadcasts", Turkey's state radio and television (TRT) has announced it is preparing to launch Kurdish-language broadcasts, an unprecedented move in line with Ankara's efforts to bring the country closer to European Union (EU) democracy standards.

5. "Syria frees 25 Kurds arrested in deadly riots", Syrian authorities have freed 25 Kurds arrested in connection with deadly ethnic riots in March, according to the leader of one of the country's banned Kurdish parties.

6. "Kurds challenge U.N. proposal", senior Kurdish officials have expressed dismay at a proposed U.S.-British U.N. resolution on Iraq, saying it ignores Kurdish rights and guarantees of federal self-rule that were included in the interim constitution hammered out last March.

7. "Turkey plans to recall envoy from Israel, boost ties with Palestinians", Turkey is planning to temporarily recall its ambassador to Tel Aviv for consultations as part of diplomatic measures to mark its disapproval of Israel's heavy-handed policies against the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Wednesday.

8. "Soldier killed in clash in Tunceli", another soldier wounded in the exchange is being treated in Elazig.

1. - Turkish Daily News - "AI: Turkey's torture record still needs improving":

There are indeed deficiencies during implementation of the reforms, says Amnesty International in its latest global report

ANKARA / 27 May 2004

Amnesty International (AI) released its 2004 (annual) report on Wednesday. The report drew attention to Turkish government's reforms for the protection of human rights in Turkey and for fulfilling the European Union membership criteria, adding, in fact, that some still needed to be done in implementing the reform packages.

"There are indeed some deficiencies during the implementation of the reforms," said Amnesty International in its report.

Expressed in the report that it was still early to conclude that there were any worthwhile developments in the field of human rights after the legislation efforts, it was said, "Even if it seems that some torture methods have been eliminated in Turkey, they would continue to be a huge concern as there still exists mistreatment by police against people in custody along with inproportionate amounts of force used against demonstrators.

It was claimed in the report that people who tried to use their right to stage demonstrations and made radical comments, were still subject to penalties.

Giving detailed information about the reform packages Turkish Parliament has been adopting and implementing to fulfill the EU membership criteria, the report laid down the crucial reforms too, such as the abolition of the death penalty.

Drawing attention to the new laws paving the way to the possibility of the renewal of the trials, especially for the retrials of the outlawed Democratic Party's (DEP) four deputies, the report said that AI believed these four deputies were imprisoned due to their non-violent political works related to the Kurdish question.

Proclaiming that there was information that torture by police still exists but on a smaller scale, the report said there were some elements in the Turkish legal system which eased the act of torture and mistreatment; such as insufficient documentation of inhumane acts in forensic reports, and the courts' acceptance of statements made under severe conditions as reliable sources.

Also mentioning violence within the family including honor killings, the report stipulated that AI supported and would continue to support the female groups in Turkey.

2. - Financial Times - "Turkish EU accession stirs party passions":

BERLIN - PARIS / 26 May 2004 / by Bertrand Benoit and Robert Graham

Barely four months ago, it seemed Turkey's aspiration to join the European Union would be the defining theme of the European election campaign in Germany while politicians in neighbouring France were determined to keep the topic off the agenda.

In the event, the opposite has taken place: in a campaign that has generated little public interest in France, the sole subject arousing passions happens to be Turkey. In Germany, meanwhile, the largest parties have avoided raising the issue.

Early signs that Turkey would occupy centre stage in the German campaign came in February, when Angela Merkel, the Christian Democratic Union leader, broke with her party's 40-year-old line by opposing membership. Instead, she offered Ankara a "privileged partnership", essentially a free-trade agreement.

Then, Edmund Stoiber, head of the Christian Social Union, the CDU's Bavarian sister party, said opposition to Turkish membership would be one of his top campaigning themes for the June 13 poll.

This clashed with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's decision to support the start of accession negotiations this year should the European Commission recommend it.

Before resigning as Social Democratic party chairman in February, Mr Schröder also ensured Vural Öger, a German-Turkish entrepreneur, figured in 10th position on the SPD's list for the EU parliament. This set the stage for what should have been a highly polarised campaign.

Yet while Turkey has indeed become a central topic in Bavaria, and although the "special partnership" figures on the CDU's official platform, Ms Merkel has avoided giving it too much prominence, preferring to take the government to task for the poor shape of the economy.

"This partly reflects the differences between Bavaria and the rest of Germany," says Daniel Höltgen, an SPD candidate based in Bavaria. "The CDU has found it harder to go against the [pro-Turkish] views of its former foreign policy thinkers than the more conservative CSU."

Hans-Gert Pöttering, the CDU's lead candidate, disagrees. "Come to my meetings and you will see I always make the point that Turkish membership would over-tax Europe," he says.

The CDU, however, is split on the issue. Jürgen Rüttgers, CDU head in North-Rhine Westphalia, Volker Rühe, former defence minister, and Ole von Beust, mayor of Hamburg, have all expressed misgivings about the about-turn on Turkey.

"My guess is that the CDU has decided not to bring Turkey to the foreground because it did not need to. It is doing well enough in opinion polls," says Michael Roth, the SPD's EU expert in the Bundestag.

"I hope things stay this way otherwise the campaign could take a nasty populist turn," he says, pointing to the emotions caused by the CDU's change of tack among the 2.6m Turks, including 600,000 German passport holders, who live in the country.

With opinion polls suggesting the electorate, while potentially fearful, is essentially undecided about Turkish membership, the Social Democrats have been equally cautious.

Some candidates, for instance, have sought to add nuance to Berlin's pro-Turkish stance by stressing that the European Council, not the EU parliament, would be responsible for endorsing the start of accession talks.

"We are not in the hot phase of the campaign yet," warns Karl-Rudolf Korte, political scientist at Duisburg University. "I would not be surprised if the debate became somewhat more electrified in coming days."

In France, President Jacques Chirac has done his best to prevent the issue being part of the campaign. He says it is too early to raise the matter and, unlike Mr Schröder, has avoided any firm commitment to back Turkish entry.

Instead he has endorsed eventual membership, provided Ankara meets the necessary criteria of the European club, which will be discussed once a Brussels report on the matter is delivered at the end of the year.

But this has not stopped his own ruling UMP party from taking a contrary stance. The party regards the issue as going to the heart of Europe's future identity, which these elections cannot ignore. The executive of the UMP formally came out against Turkish membership of the EU in drawing up their platform for these parliamentary elections.

The far-right National Front is firmly against membership, as is the moderate centrist UDF party. The Socialists and their allies on the left are less strident and more willing to accommodate Turkey within the EU's fold, providing its human rights record and social policy improve.

However, the Socialists are aware that excluding Turkey is a popular theme that might rally voters. The UMP is driven partly by a desire to placate its own members who feel Turkey is not sufficiently European because of its geography and religion.

But President Chirac's supporters are also anxious to undercut the National Front on the issue, which is presenting Turkish membership as a further erosion of the French vision of Europe and Paris's leverage on the Brussels agenda.

A study published this month by the Louis Harris polling organisation showed 53 per cent were opposed to Turkish entry. On human rights abuses, the treatment of the Kurdish minority and Ankara's refusal to recognise the genocide of Armenians in the early 20th century, between 80 and 90 per cent of respondents found Turkey seriously at fault.

Two-thirds also judged it wrong that the Turkish armed forces intervened in domestic politics. While the survey demonstrated a clear majority ready to accept Turkey, should it improve its human rights record and treat the Kurds better, 49 per cent said they would be unimpressed if Ankara made amends for the massacre of Armenians. This reflected the fact that France hosts the largest group of Armenians in Europe who fled the genocide.

Behind these opinions lies a largely unexpressed fear among the French and German right that Turkey, with its Muslim population projected to reach 100m in the coming decades, will dramatically alter the confessional balance of Europe with its Judaeo-Christian heritage.

Likewise, with Germany and France both large net contributors to the EU budget, there are fears that the addition of such a populous member state which would for the foreseeable future be a net drawer of funds could destabilise the EU's finances.

Whether raising the fear of Turkish entry can really affect the outcome of the vote is unclear, however, since in both countries the election is mainly seen as a chance to sanction the governments in place.

3. - The Los Angeles Times - "Tension Grows in Turkey Over Education Bill":

Debate over the role of religion is at the heart of a move to reform university admissions.

ANKARA / 27 May 2004 / by Amberin Zaman

When Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flies to the United States next month for his son Bilal's graduation from Harvard University, he may well be reminded of his mounting troubles back home.

Bilal went to Harvard, Erdogan said, because he couldn't get into a good school in Turkey.

"Bilal's first choice was not to study in the United States," Erdogan said in a recent interview. "Both he and my two daughters were forced to go to America because of unjust and discriminatory education laws in Turkey."

Erdogan moved to overturn those laws this month, sparking one of the most acrimonious debates over the role of religion in public life since his Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party, or AKP, took power 18 months ago. At the core of the dispute is an education reform bill approved by the AKP-dominated parliament that makes it easier for graduates of state-run Islamic religious high schools to enter secular public or private universities.

National education has long been a battleground for overtly pious Turks and their pro-secular adversaries, who fear that the bill is designed to let religious school graduates rise to positions of influence in the government and the judiciary, which they would use to reverse more than 80 years of determinedly secularist rule introduced by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

Erdogan and his four children graduated from the Islamic schools called imam hatips, where imams and preachers are trained. Entrance exam results from such schools are weighted in a way that makes it difficult for graduates to compete with those from secular schools for admission to Turkish universities.

Tensions grew when Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, chief of the country's ardently pro-secular armed forces, issued a statement May 6 warning of the dangers posed by the proposed reforms. Just hours later, parliament approved the legislation, marking the first time Erdogan had dared to challenge the country's powerful generals so openly.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer is widely expected to veto the bill within days. Should parliament return the bill to him untouched, Sezer could appeal to the constitutional court for its annulment. That could touch off a fresh bout of controversy in which secularists would be likely to challenge Erdogan's claims that he no longer believed in mixing religion with politics.

That may, in turn, jeopardize the government's chances of persuading European Union leaders to set a date to launch membership talks with Turkey when they meet in December. One of the conditions set by the EU for considering Turkey's accession is that the military, which has seized power three times in the last four decades, stop meddling in internal politics.

"If Erdogan doesn't back down, the generals will keep talking, and that won't be helpful," said a European diplomat, who requested anonymity.

Some observers say Erdogan may have been bowing to pressure from his party's right flank. Led by parliament speaker Bulent Arinc, the conservatives have been expressing dissatisfaction over Erdogan's failure to deliver on preelection pledges — among them vows to ease bans on Islamic-style head scarves at government institutions and universities. Others speculate that Erdogan, buoyed by his party's victory in mayoral elections in March and by praise from Western leaders over sweeping democratic reforms enacted by his government, may simply have grown overconfident.

Erdogan dismisses the claims. "This law has nothing to do with symbolizing a new [Islamic] era. It is a matter of correcting an injustice," he said.

The "injustice" he is referring to goes back to 1997, when the army forced the country's first Islamist-led government to step down on thinly supported charges that it was seeking to impose religious rule. The generals then forced the new pro-secular leaders to introduce a grading system for religious school graduates that in effect barred them from admission to colleges other than theological faculties. In a bid to appease conservative voters, the government applied the same rules to thousands of state-run vocational schools.

The reform bill would level the playing field for vocational school graduates in all subjects, while doing so for an estimated 70,000 imam hatip students only in a restricted number of arts and humanities subjects such as philosophy and literature.

More crucially, says Turkey's education minister, Huseyin Celik, the bill would marginalize the role of a body devised by the military in the 1980s to dictate education policy and the appointments of all university staff.

"It is those who fear democracy who stand to lose power that are kicking up a storm," Celik said last week, as pro-secular students waving pictures of Ataturk gathered outside his office to protest the changes.

These students say there is no need for so many religious schools, because Turkey needs only 5,000 new imams a year. Many parents say they send their children not to become imams, a profession closed to women, but because of the schools' environment.

"Sure, I wanted my daughter to learn more about Islam, but I also wanted to protect her from drugs and premature intimacy with boys," said Binnaz Aslan, a chef in Ankara, whose daughter recently graduated from the Tevfik Ileri imam hatip.

Tevfik Ileri, in downtown Ankara, has little to distinguish it from secular schools. Portraits of Ataturk hang on the walls of classrooms where boys and girls study the same subjects taught in secular schools. Girls are allowed to cover their heads only during religious lessons. "We tell kids that our holy prophet was opposed to all forms of violence. We teach them to respect all faiths, to be rational and modern," said Tevfik Ileri's principal, Rami Ozalan, an imam hatip graduate.

A shy ninth-grader who identified herself only as Zehra said: "I want to become a veterinarian because I really love animals, but I also want to learn how to read the Koran. The idea that we are being trained as some sort of Islamic terrorists makes me laugh. By denying us a future, it's almost as if that is what they would have us be."

4. - ABC News - "Turkish state TV to launch Kurdish language broadcasts":

27 May 2004

Turkey's state radio and television (TRT) has announced it is preparing to launch Kurdish-language broadcasts, an unprecedented move in line with Ankara's efforts to bring the country closer to European Union (EU) democracy standards.

TRT chief executive Senol Demiroz told a press conference that the company's board of directors had "unanimously decided to establish the necessary infrastructure for broadcasting programs in languages and dialects reflecting our sub-culture [Kurdish]".

He did not specify when the broadcasts would begin, but said their aim was to promote tolerance and bolster democracy.

However, he made it clear the country's official language was Turkish.

As part of legislative reforms aimed at bringing the country closer to EU democracy standards, the Turkish Parliament had given its green light in 2002 for the broadcast of Kurdish-language programs, several hours a week, on state channels.

But the programs have yet to begin, in part due to bureaucratic hurdles.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has urged authorities to quickly launch Kurdish-language broadcasts, pointing out that the country was at a "critical juncture" in its efforts to begin EU accession talks.

In a taboo-breaking move in 2002, the Turkish Parliament allowed private institutions to teach the language of the Kurdish minority - which makes up roughly 15 per cent of Turkey's 65 million- strong population.

Brussels has told Ankara it wants to see the reforms properly implemented on the ground in order for the mainly Muslim country to begin membership talks with the pan-European bloc.

Turkey, a formal EU candidate since 1999, is hoping to secure a start date for membership talks with the bloc when EU leaders meet in December to assess the country's progress in democracy and human rights.

5. - AFP - "Syria frees 25 Kurds arrested in deadly riots":

DAMASCUS / 26 May 2004

Syrian authorities have freed 25 Kurds arrested in connection with deadly ethnic riots in March, according to the leader of one of the country's banned Kurdish parties.

Aziz Dawd, secretary general of the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party, told AFP that "25 Kurds were released from anti-disturbance prisons in Damascus" on Tuesday. He called on President Bashar al-Assad to free all Kurds who were arrested during the riots.

On Monday, a Damascus juvenile court freed 27 Kurdish minors being tried on multiple charges in connection with the riots, Dawd had said. Between March 12 and 17, Kurds clashed with Syrian security forces and Arab tribes in the north. Kurdish sources said 40 people were killed, while Syrian officials put the toll at 25.

After the riots, Syrian Kurdish groups complained authorities continued with a crackdown, making hundreds of unfair arrests. More than 300 have been freed in the past two weeks. Assad said in an interview earlier this month with Al-Jazeera television that the issue of Syrian nationality for the Kurds was being resolved.

"The Kurds are Syrian citizens who live among us, and Kurdish nationalism is part of Syria's history," he said. The Kurdish community has long demanded the return of the identity cards which were confiscated from almost 200,000 of them in 1962.

Former defence minister Mustapha Tlass said in an interview published Friday that some 20,000 Kurds would be granted Syrian nationality. Syria's Kurds, estimated to total 1.5 million, represent around nine percent of the population and live mainly in the north.

6. - The Washington Times - "Kurds challenge U.N. proposal":

SULAYMANIYAH / 27 May 2004 / by Michael Howard

Senior Kurdish officials have expressed dismay at a proposed U.S.-British U.N. resolution on Iraq, saying it ignores Kurdish rights and guarantees of federal self-rule that were included in the interim constitution hammered out last March.

"This is a negative sign," Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan regional government in Irbil, said in an interview yesterday. "It is very disappointing for the Kurdish people not to have the [interim constitution] and federalism mentioned in the resolution."

Mr. Barzani is a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of the two main factions ruling the Kurdish north and a key ally of the U.S.-led coalition.

Kurds, who make up 20 percent of the Iraqi population, were strong supporters of the U.S.-led campaign to remove Saddam Hussein. But they are reluctant to relinquish the gains they made under 13 years of self-rule that began at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

Despite winning recognition of the federal status of their region in the constitution, growing numbers of Kurds are now wondering whether it was wise of their leaders, Massoud Barzani and his rival, Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), to commit to a post-Saddam Iraq.

Kurdish leaders say U.S. and British officials appear to have bowed to pressure from the influential Shi'ite leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who objected to any reference to the interim constitution, which he opposed, appearing in the U.N. resolution.

Coalition sources said U.S. and British officials needed to move ahead with the political process and took a pragmatic decision to bypass the interim constitution.

The Kurds' concerns highlight the difficulty faced by the coalition and U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in trying to forge agreement among Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious factions on the composition of the interim government and over the future political shape of the country.

According to a plan being finalized by Mr. Brahimi, the transitional Iraqi government that will take charge on July 1 will have a president, a prime minister and two vice presidents.

The Kurdish leaders have demanded that at least one of the top posts should go to a Kurd. Mr. Talabani had been lobbying hard for the prime minister's post, which it now appears will almost certainly go to a member of the majority Shi'ite community.

"Not offering the prime ministership or the presidency to the Kurds proves that we are still dealt with as second-class citizens," Mr. Barzani said.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish politician who sits on the Iraqi Governing Council, criticized the lack of consultation with Iraqis on the wording of the resolution.

"As usual, it was done behind closed doors, and behind Iraqi backs," he said.

Mr. Othman said an Iraqi delegation was heading to New York to lobby the U.N. Security Council on Kurdish concerns and other issues such as debt relief and control over security matters after the turnover.

Many Kurds now openly question how long they can be expected to remain part of the country if the chaos and instability threatens to engulf their own, largely successful region.

"For now we must not cause trouble, but if the mullahs or the nationalists come to power, it will lead Iraq to catastrophe and we will have every right to be independent," said Anwar Majid, a medical student in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah.

Mr. Majid said he was one of 1.7 million Kurds who signed a recent petition calling for a regionwide referendum on self-determination.

"Shi'ite and Sunni Arab violence is aimed at the coalition forces, yet it is really a war for control over future power. Kurds don't want Islamic or Arab nationalist rule because it won't be long before they turn against us," he said.

7. - AFP - "Turkey plans to recall envoy from Israel, boost ties with Palestinians":

ANKARA / 26 May 2004 / by Sibel Utku Bila

Turkey is planning to temporarily recall its ambassador to Tel Aviv for consultations as part of diplomatic measures to mark its disapproval of Israel's heavy-handed policies against the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Wednesday.

The minister signalled that Turkey, which has been Israel's chief regional ally for almost a decade, could also appoint a senior diplomat to head its consulate in Jerusalem as a symbolic gesture to the Palestinians.

"At a time when all these actions are underway and because we are so closely interested in the peace process and (we are wondering) what more we can do to revive the peace process... in order to evaluate all these, our ambassador may come back in the next few days," Gul told journalists.

"He may come, exchange views and go back again," he said, in a joint press conference with visiting Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy. Ankara's initiative follows its harsh criticism of crackdowns on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which claimed many civilian lives.

Last week, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Israel's military operations as "state terror," while Gul warned that bilateral ties would suffer.

Some 40 Palestinians, including children, died and dozens of houses were razed in a week-long Israeli raid in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, which ended Tuesday.

Israel justified the demolitions on the grounds that Palestinian activists dig tunnels under Rafah homes to smuggle weapons from nearby Egypt. A senior Turkish diplomat said the recall of the ambassador from Tel Aviv was being considered as part of steps in the face of increasing turmoil in the Middle East.

He declined to term the planned move as a diplomatic warning to Israel, but added: "If the situation was not that grave, the need for consultations would not have arisen."

In comments on reports that Ankara was also planning to send a diplomat with the rank of ambassador to head its consulate in Jerusalem, which is forging ties with the Palestinians, Gul said that such a move was possible.

"Such things happen in practice. Some countries in Europe appoint to Jerusalem diplomats who have served as ambassadors. This is possible," he said. Gul's remarks came a day after he said that Turkey intended to boost its links with the Palestinians.

In a speech to parliament on Tuesday, Gil also said the government had appointed a former minister as a special representative to coordinate planned efforts to increase economic, social and cultural ties with the Palestinians.

Turkey, a mainly Muslim but strictly secular non-Arab nation, has been Israel's main regional ally since 1996 when the two nations signed a military cooperation accord, much to the ire of Arab countries and Iran.

Observers, however, have recently questioned whether bilateral relations could be on the skids, in the face of Ankara's hardening reactions to the Jewish state.

In April, a visit by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was postponed without explanation, while in November Erdogan turned down a request by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for a brief visit, citing his busy schedule.

And in a meeting with visiting Israeli Infrastructure Minister Joseph Paritzky on Tuesday, Erdogan reportedly delivered a harsh-worded tirade condemning Israel's policies of targeting individuals and civilians.

8. - NTV / MSNBC - "Soldier killed in clash in Tunceli":

Another soldier wounded in the exchange is being treated in Elazig.

26 May 2004

One member of the Turkish armed forces was killed and another wounded during an operation against seperartist rebels in the township of Cemisgezek in the eastern province of Tunceli on Wednesday.

Nesime Akyar, an officer of the Gendarme was killed in a clash between security forces and members of the rebel group PKK/KONGRA-GEL in the Alibogazi district of Cemisgezek.

Another soldier was wounded in the exchange of fire and was taken to the Elaz Military Hospital for treatment.

Operations in the region are continuing in an effort to capture those responsible for the incident.