4 May 2004

1. "Australia cracks down on Kurdish rebel group", Australia moved Tuesday to halt any local funding of a Kurdish rebel movement fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey on the grounds the group is involved in terrorism.

2. "Turks bitter over exclusion from EU big bang expansion", Turks were left feeling bitter over their exclusion from the European Union's big bang enlargement at the weekend despite their 40-year bid to join the bloc, accusing Europe of bias against their mainly Muslim country.

3. "How Far East Can Europe Go?", Turkey wants to join the EU, but some say Europe ends where Islam begins

4. "Torn between secularism and Islam: Turkey bans headscarves", in Turkey, Islamic human rights groups are increasing the pressure on the Government to overturn a ban on headscarves. Despite Turkey's majority Muslim population, the Government has banned headscarves in schools, universities, public offices, and from Government functions.

5. "Turkey has to recognise Greek Cypriot Republic: Papadopulos", the Greek Cypriot leader said that his republic has the same privileges as any other European Union member state.

6. "Kurds hopeful Assad will release hundreds of prisoners", a Syrian Kurdish leader said Monday he was hopeful that President Bashar al-Assad would release the hundreds of Kurds jailed after deadly unrest in March.

1. - AFP - "Australia cracks down on Kurdish rebel group":

SYDNEY / 4 May 2004

Australia moved Tuesday to halt any local funding of a Kurdish rebel movement fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey on the grounds the group is involved in terrorism.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Kurdistan People's Congress, the People's Congress of Kurdistan and Kongra-Gel had been formally listed as aliases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The listing of the groups as terrorist in Australia's Commonwealth Gazette makes it a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison for anyone to provide funds to the three groups or deal in assets they control.

The move came two days after Turkish police rounded up 41 people allegedly preparing to carry out petrol bomb attacks on government buildings for the Kurdistan People's Congress, which is also known as Kongra-Gel.

The Kurdistan People's Congress is an offshoot of the former PKK, which led a bloody 15-year armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule and has previously been listed in Australia.

The rebellion -- which claimed more than 36,000 lives -- has largely subsided since 1999 when PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured and the group declared a ceasefire to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Downer's department said there was no evidence of any fundraising for the listed organisations in Australia, which has a small community of Turkish Kurds.

"The department is not aware of any funds held in Australia either by the PKK or its aliases," a spokeswoman said.

"The purpose behind the gazetting is for relevant financial institutions to identify possible accounts held in these names and arrange for the freezing of their assets if found," she said.

2. - AFP - "Turks bitter over exclusion from EU big bang expansion":

ANKARA / 3 May 2004

Turks were left feeling bitter over their exclusion from the European Union's big bang enlargement at the weekend despite their 40-year bid to join the bloc, accusing Europe of bias against their mainly Muslim country.

"Of course I was sad and envious" when the European Union welcomed into its ranks eight ex-communist states and the islands of Cyprus and Malta in pompous ceremonies, said 43-year-old Adnan Tarhan, who works at a finance company here.

"I believe Turkey is way ahead of those countries, but as long as European countries maintain the mentality of the Crusades, we will never get in," he added.

For Turkey, integration with the Western world is a much-coveted target set by the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, when he built the secular republic on the ashes of the theocratic Ottoman Empire in 1923.

But it looks unlikely to happen anytime soon as the county, declared a formal candidate only in 1999, is still struggling to obtain the go-ahead to begin membership talks with the Union.

EU leaders are set to decide in December 2004 whether Ankara has made sufficient improvement on its crippled democracy and poor human rights record to sit down at the negotiationg Turkey.

Observers say the failure to get a date would cast a shadow on bilateral ties, cause public outrage and have political repercussions for the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan which has declared EU membership as its primary foreign policy target.

Many Turks are united behind their country's persistent drive for EU membership which they say will help push forward the economy, but do not foster much hope they will get a date from the December summit to begin accession negotiations.

"EU leaders will not give us a date because they actually do not want us inside their bloc. They are just keeping us at the end of the line because we are Muslims," said Huseyin Sevinc, a 40-year-old street vendor scraping a meager living by selling eggs and yoghurt.

His words come to the backdrop of doubts expressed by some European leaders that the bloc cannot absorb Turkey, a vast and relatively-poor country of some 70 million people with a strong Islamic faith.

But there are also leaders, such as German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who voice support for Turkey's bid and urge the country to adopt and implement EU-inspired refroms to make good on its aspirations.

The Turkish government has in recent years passed a raft of reforms which it says are enough to win the nod from the European Union for membership talks.

But in early April the European parliament adopted a highly-critical report in which it said Ankara must adopt a brand-new constitution and ensure the proper implementation of reforms among other things in order to show it is serious about becoming an EU member.

For some Turks, the blame for the delay in Turkey's bid lied with politicians who have failed to overhaul the country to fully embrace European norms and wasted years.

"Let us not deceive ourselves. We are at this point in our ties with the EU because we did nothing to meet the Union's criteria and just lay around after making our application," 55-year-old lawyer Akin Nesat Bohca, said.

Murat Polat, a 27-year-old newspaper agent agreed, underlining the vast difference between the wealthier and urban west of the country and its underdeveloped and largely rural east.

"I did my military service in the east. There are places there where there are no schools no teachers. People cannot even find wood to light a fire to warm themselves. Why should the EU let in a country that still lacks in welfare?" he said.

3. - YaleGlobal Online - "How Far East Can Europe Go?":

Turkey wants to join the EU, but some say Europe ends where Islam begins

3 May 2004 / by Shada Islam

An expanding EU has re-drawn the map of Europe, but is there still room for Turkey?

On May 1 one could hear the sound of Champagne bottles popping across Europe. The dream of a unified continent, articulated by 15 nations more than a decade ago, has come true. In the intervening period, the union has been expanded to cover all of Europe's 25 countries - including eight former communist states - so as to mark the beginning of a new era for a once-divided continent. But the new and rapidly changing EU faces even more historic changes ahead. The bloc's leaders will decide in December whether to start membership negotiations with Turkey, a Muslim country and NATO member, which has been knocking on the Union's doors for decades but whose entry application was only formally accepted by the EU in 1999.

Viewing EU entry as the ultimate symbol of Turkey's coming-of-age, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pressing the country's government and business leaders to step up efforts to meet the EU's tough political and economic membership criteria. As a result, Turkey has carried out more sweeping reforms in the last 12 months than in the last 40 years, says Amanda Akçakoca of the European Policy Centre. The Turkish Parliament has acted to reduce the dominant role of the military, abolish the death penalty and granted greater cultural rights to long-oppressed Kurds. Despite the strict conditions attached to EU membership, opinion polls consistently show overwhelming Turkish support for joining the EU, with no major political party in the country opposing the move.

European opinion on Ankara's entry bid remains fiercely divided, however, with politicians across the bloc locked in bitter battle over whether Turkey is too big, too poor, too neglectful of human rights - and too Muslim and Asian - to join the Union.

Religion is an important issue. Although Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) rejects the Islamist label, describing itself as conservative, democratic and pro-western, those against Turkish membership - including centre-right parties in Germany and France - say Ankara's entry will dilute Europe, undermining the club's still-largely Christian character. If Turkey is brought in, it will be "the end" of the EU, according to former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing who recently also chaired an EU constitutional conference.

Critics also claim that the entry of a country as big as Turkey will destabilize current EU power politics, giving the country as many votes as current EU giant Germany in the bloc's decision-making machinery. In fact, on current demographic trends, by 2020, Turkey, with a population of about 70 million could have more people than Germany, which currently counts 80 million people. Given its size and still largely under-developed economy, there is also concern that Turkish accession will mean additional burdens on already cash-strapped EU budgets.

Significantly, however, arguments in favour of Turkish membership are beginning to gain ground. Senior EU policymakers and many independent analysts insist that the EU, seeking to compete with the US and emerging powers like China and India, must acquire more territory, more people - especially young people - and more soldiers. Ankara's entry into the EU will provide all three benefits, says Eberhard Rhein, a former senior official at the European Commission, the EU's executive arm. "In a global world where some will matter and others will not, Europe's political class is very aware of the geo-strategic importance of Turkey," he says.

Far from destroying the EU, pro-Turkey analysts argue that opening the doors to Ankara will help Europe cope with a spate of specific social and civilizational challenges sparked by the September 11 attacks on the US. Turkey as a Muslim nation offers the EU the opportunity to build stronger bridges with the rest of the Islamic world, boost its presence in the Middle East and with an estimated 15 million Muslims already living in the Union, help confirm Europe's emerging multi-ethnic, multi-religious identity. Crucially also for most Muslim nations, the credibility of the EU's calls for a dialogue between the West and Islam hinges on whether or not Turkey gets into the European club.

The already-heated debate on Turkey is getting even more acrimonious ahead of elections to the European Parliament in mid-June, with critics accusing rightist and conservative parties of stirring passions over Turkey in order to capitalise on rising public fears over Islamic radicalism and the presence of Muslim migrants in Europe. Germany, home to more than 2 million Turks, is in the throes of a particularly emotional debate, with the opposition centre-right parties adamantly against allowing Turkey into the EU while the ruling Socialists have pledged to support the move.

German backing is important but not enough. Much to Turkey's dismay, French politicians, once viewed as stalwart defenders of Turkish membership of the EU, appear to be having second thoughts. Turkey does not currently meet the criteria to become an EU member French President Jacques Chirac said on April 29, adding: "Turkey's EU entry is only possible under certain conditions, which do not exist today." Chirac's skeptical comments came only days after Alain Juppe, head of the ruling UMP - and a close friend and advisor to Chirac - stunned Ankara by announcing that he would campaign actively against Turkish entry in the upcoming European polls.

Anxious to keep the discussions on a more objective level, EU policymakers insist that their assessment of Turkey's entry credentials will be purely factual. "Credit will be given where credit is due," European Commission President Romano Prodi promised recently. While commending Turkey's "impressive progress" in meeting EU membership standards, Prodi warned that the Commission would judge Ankara on full and effective enforcement of its new laws.

Given the high political stakes, however, many argue that the Commission will find it impossible to disappoint Ankara by saying no to opening entry talks. For one, the prospect of joining the Union has worked as a crucial spur for reform and helped boost secularism in the country. Removing the goal would strengthen the hand of the army and Turkish nationalists, cautions Akçakoca at the European Policy Centre. "Rejecting Turkey would also have an enormous backlash because it could be seen as rejection of a Muslim state," she adds.

Even if membership talks get the Commission go-ahead, however, actual Turkish entry into the Union is unlikely for another 10 to 15 years. "Nobody wants Turkish accession to take place rapidly," says Rhein. Since a vast amount of work will be needed to bring Turkish legislation up to EU standards - in areas such as human rights, the judiciary, environmental law, gender equality and competition policy for instance - negotiations on membership will not go fast, he says.

The next six months leading up to the EU's make-or-break summit on Turkey in December are likely to be tough for both sides. Ankara will have to make sure there is no slippage in its reform effort and focus its energies on implementing the new laws. European policymakers, meanwhile, will probably engage in more bickering over the merits of Turkey and more soul-searching on the identity and future contours of an expanding EU.

4. - ABC Online - "Torn between secularism and Islam: Turkey bans headscarves":

3 May 2004 / by Mark Willacy

In Turkey, Islamic human rights groups are increasing the pressure on the Government to overturn a ban on headscarves. Despite Turkey's majority Muslim population, the Government has banned headscarves in schools, universities, public offices, and from Government functions.

Many argue that the headscarf is a symbol of radical Islam, and a threat to Ataturk's legacy of secular statehood. But others say some Muslim women are being barred from an education or from working as public servants because of their faith.

This report from our Middle East Correspondent Mark Willacy in Istanbul.

MARK WILLACY: Squeezed uncomfortably between Europe and Asia, Turkey has long grappled with the competing ideals of two worlds. While overwhelmingly Muslim, Turkey is a secular republic which promotes itself as decidedly Western.

At the gates of Turkey's most prestigious university, Habibe Ustejik (phonetic) is again being turned away by the security guard. The 24-year-old chemistry student is banned from the Bosphorus University for one year for wearing a headscarf to class.

HABIBE USTEJIK: I'm a Muslim and I chose to be Muslim. After reading the Koran I saw the verses and the parts about headscarves, about the orders to wear headscarves, so I decided to wear the headscarf because of my religion.

MARK WILLACY: But many Turks see the headscarf not as a symbol of religious modesty, but of radical Islam.

Dr Nahla Fenala is a prominent Istanbul sociologist.

NAHLA FENALA: Around 65 per cent of women in all age groups, they use a type of head covering. Many people, they don't want the Government to lift the ban on headscarf because they see it as a political symbol, especially in the public buildings and universities.

MARK WILLACY: The headscarf has been banned from schools, universities, public offices and Government functions. It's the legacy of the man who swept aside the rubble of the decayed Ottoman Empire, and who founded the new secular Turkish republic.

As part of his program of Westernisation, Attaturk forced Turks to use surnames, he adopted Latin script in the Western calendar, and symbols of so-called 'backwardness' like the Fez were banned.

But Islamic human rights lawyer, Mustafa Urjung (phonetic) says the cost of this program is religious freedom.

"We are fighting cases for more than 10,000 high school and university cases who are victims of this ban", he says.

Many Turkish Muslims had hoped that the rise to power of the Islamist Justice and Development Party would see the headscarf ban overturned. Even the Prime Minister's wife has been prevented from attending official functions because she wears a headscarf.

But the Government knows that the last Islamist party to push a religious agenda was ousted by the military seven years ago. Turkey may be a democracy, but the generals remain the guardians of Attaturk's secular state.

However, ruling party member Ibrahim Yildirim believes things are changing.

IBRAHIM YILDIRIM: I understand the military has some doubts about it, but in the long run I think they're going to realise those people who are wearing headscarves are really ordinary people, they have no political opinions or anything; they just do it as a custom, as a religious thing. They want to do it, they should do it.

MARK WILLACY: Banned from class, Habibe Ustejik (phonetic) is today shopping for a new headscarf. She knows that her stand will cost her a degree from Turkey's most prestigious university, not to mention a lucrative career.

HABIBE USTEJIK: They want me to change my lifestyle, to change my choices. I believe we are the black people of this country, we are the Negroes of this country because being women in Turkey, with a headscarf or without a headscarf, it's very difficult in fact.

MARK WILLACY: Once the seat of power for the Ottoman sultans, Istanbul is now a bustling Western city, but it remains torn between competing faiths of secularism and Islam.

ELEANOR HALL: Middle East Correspondent Mark Willacy in Istanbul.

5. - MSNBC - "Turkey has to recognise Greek Cypriot Republic: Papadopulos":

The Greek Cypriot leader said that his republic has the same privileges as any other European Union member state.

3 May 2004

The leader of the Greek Cypriot administration has called on Turkey to formally recognise his state.

Speaking on Monday, Tassos Papadopulos, whose state entered the European Union on Saturday, said that Turkey had no option but to recognise his country.

This view was also strengthened by comments by Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Yorgos Yakovu, who said that Ankara should look into the issue soon.

“Turkey cannot do otherwise,” Yakovu said. “Turkey has a customs union deal and partnership deal with the EU. Not recognising the Greek Cypriot would lead to constant problems.”

Greek Cypriot papers gave wide coverage to a statement by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan that it would a vain effort in persisting in not recognising the Greek Cypriot state while the world did.

6. - AFP - "Kurds hopeful Assad will release hundreds of prisoners":

DAMASCUS / 3 May 2004

A Syrian Kurdish leader said Monday he was hopeful that President Bashar al-Assad would release the hundreds of Kurds jailed after deadly unrest in March.

Kurdish Progressive Democratic Party head Aziz Daoud, in a statement, also welcomed Assad's comments in an interview with Al-Jazeera television that the issue of Syrian nationality for the country's Kurds was being resolved.

The Kurdish community has long demanded the return of the identity cards which were confiscated from almost 200,000 Kurds in 1962.

Daoud said he hoped the president would now "intervene to secure the release of the hundreds of Kurds who were arrested during the painful events" that took place last March in northern Syria.

"The Kurds are Syrian citizens who live among us, and Kurdish nationalism forms part of the history of Syria," Assad said in an interview broadcast Saturday by Qatar's satellite television Al-Jazeera.

"The issue of nationality that has lasted 42 years will be resolved," the president said.

Between March 12 and 17, Kurds and Syrian security forces and Arab tribes clashed in the north of Syria. Kurdish sources said 40 people were killed, while Syrian officials put the toll at 25.

Since the riots, Syrian Kurdish groups have complained authorities have continued with a crackdown, making hundreds of unfair arrests.

Syria's Kurds, estimated to total 1.5 million, represent around nine percent of the country's population and live mainly in the north.

Kurdish parties on Monday issued a statement condemning the "terrorist" attack which took place in Damascus on April 27 and called for the authorities to identify the perpetrators.

"The Kurdish nationalist movements of Syria condemn forcefully this terrorist and cowardly act and those who are behind this incident," they said in the statement faxed to AFP.

They also called for the perpetrators to be identified "so as to lift any ambiguity" over who carried out the attack in which four people -- two gunmen, a police officer and woman passer-by -- were killed.

The casualties came in a shootout that followed a bomb attack on a former UN office in the Syrian capital.