1 November 2004

1. "Slouching to Brussels", Europe may think Turkey has changed. It's one thing to pass more liberal laws. It's another to enforce them.

2. "Turkey's courts adapting to whole new legal system", family courts are just one product of the sweeping changes that have both transformed and swamped Turkey's legal system. An avalanche of new laws, geared to bring the nation closer to European Union norms, has altered the way the state treats everything from police brutality and juvenile delinquents to commercial transactions and industrial pollution.

3. "Demo in The Hague Against Extradition To Turkey Of PKK Leader", around 3,000 people demonstrated in The Hague Saturday against the extradition to Turkey of Nuriye Kesbir, a senior female member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

4. "Turkey and European Union", the most important thing is that Turkey should become an European country, but Europe shouldn’t become a “Turkey”.

5. "Turkey Denies it Will Intervene in Kirkuk", Turkish Foreign Minister denied charges that Turkey would conduct military operations in Northern Iraq should efforts to change the demography of Kirkuk continue.

6. "Aegean spats could thwart Turkey's EU ambitions: Greece", Turkey's territorial transgressions against Greece in the Aegean Sea could hamper Ankara's bid to become a member of the European Union, a Greek government member said Sunday.

1. - Newsweek International - "Slouching to Brussels":

It's one thing to pass more liberal laws. It's another to enforce them. A progress report on the path to Europe.

Nov. 8 issue / by Owen Matthews

Eren Keskin may not look like a battle-hardened fighter, with her towering beehive hairdo and Cleopatra eyeliner. But the walls of her dingy legal office in downtown Istanbul are filled with mementos from 20 years of bitter courtroom battles with the Turkish state—some won, most lost, both as attorney and as defendant. There's a photo of a lawyer beaten to death by police in 1994. There's an award from a German human-rights group for championing the cause of Kurdish women. But the walls are for history. The future is on her desk, the paperwork of the battles yet to be fought. In pride of place, a sheaf of fresh court summonses charging Keskin with treasonably insulting the state. "Free speech?" she says with a sigh. "Europe may think Turkey has changed. I haven't seen it much in practice."

Cases like these, pitting crusading lawyers like Keskin against Turkey's established order, are the test of how far the recent overhaul of Turkey's old, repressive legal system really goes. In September Turkey's Parliament voted in a liberalized penal code, with more than 450 new articles designed to guarantee freedom of expression, eliminate police torture and bolster the rights of minorities. The result was applause from the European Commission, which recommended that the European Union start accession talks with Ankara. At home, the reception has been more reserved. "The old laws were designed to protect the state against its citizens," says one civil-liberties lawyer in Istanbul, Gulseren Yoleri. "The new laws give the impression of protecting the citizens against the state."

Note his use of the term impression. So far, the reality is proving rather different. Lawyers and defendants alike complain that neither judges nor prosecutors understand the letter—or, more importantly, the spirit—of the new laws. Mehmet P., 26, sits in the foyer of Istanbul's Heavy Penalties Court awaiting a hearing for being a member of an illegal leftist organization. "I complained to the prosecutor that what I had done was not a crime anymore," he says. "He said, 'Does it matter what article we use if you are guilty?' "

Thousands of people are still in jail for crimes that no longer exist. One of them is Hakan Albayrak, a journalist imprisoned last year for writing a poem critical of Turkey's founding father, Kemal Ataturk. Another is Fatih Colak, a radio-show host jailed earlier this year for criticizing the state's ban on Islamic headscarves in school. Then there are the 70 or so antiwar protesters arrested during the June NATO summit and not yet brought to trial. Turkey may be showing a modern face to the EU, says Keskin, but many people are still being convicted for crimes of conscience—which under the European-inspired reforms is no longer supposed to happen. "The new laws are just the old ones," she explains, "rephrased and renumbered."

Just last week, Keskin herself received a court summons on charges of "insulting the Turkish state" under the "reformed" and supposedly defunct Article 312 of the country's criminal code. Her alleged crime: giving a speech in Cologne in 2002 detailing the plight of 206 mostly Kurdish women claiming to have been sexually abused by Turkish soldiers. "Turkey claims to Europe that opinion is no longer a crime," says Jonathan Sugden of Human Rights Watch in London. "That simply isn't true."

There are some promising signs of change. Courts have released more than 400 prisoners held under the former laws. The Supreme Court of Administration has also started pumping out liberal rulings, overturning the expulsion of university students for demanding Kurdish-language lessons (now a legal right) and upholding the right of parents to give their children Kurdish names. Scrutiny from Europe is also helping to speed change. EU observers are following several cases as tests of the new order, including one in which Kurdish refugees are suing the state for evicting them from their homes in the 1990s. All this leaves judges less leeway to cleave to old ways. "There's a lot of inertia in the system," says Selattin Demirtas, a human-rights lawyer in the southeastern city of Mardin. "Change is going to be slow unless Brussels keeps up the pressure."

Ultimately, Turkey has more to lose than face if it fails to make its paper reforms a reality. Corrupt and incompetent courts are cited as a major reason for chronically low foreign investment, and Turkey's old political class still remains untouchable, as witnessed by a series of recent court decisions exonerating rich and well-connected villains from the reach of the law. Turkey's courts have been given a chance to prove themselves, before Europe and their own people. They have yet to pass the test.

2. - The New York Times - "Turkey's courts adapting to whole new legal system":

ANKARA / 31 October 2004 / by Susan Sachs

In Judge Dursun Genel's courtroom, the feuding couples shuttle in and out with stories of exhausted dreams and unhappy marriages.

"We'll never have peace," a young woman recently told the judge, agreeing with her estranged husband that the only solution to their problems was divorce.

"But who will look after you?" Genel asked. "Under the law, you know, you have the right to make a financial claim."

"I don't want anything from him," the woman said. "I just want you to make sure he doesn't threaten me anymore."

So it goes in Turkey's newly established family courts where women now have equal rights in marriage and courts are obligated to put restraining orders on bullying spouses.

Family courts are just one product of the sweeping changes that have both transformed and swamped Turkey's legal system. An avalanche of new laws, geared to bring the nation closer to European Union norms, has altered the way the state treats everything from police brutality and juvenile delinquents to commercial transactions and industrial pollution.

"We all have to work harder to stay abreast of the changes," said Genel, the chief judge of a district family court in downtown Ankara and the host of a new television show that teaches the public about the new laws. "But there have been excellent steps taken, and I think, from the reaction I've seen, that society was ready for them."

The changes started three years ago but were accelerated under Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan, who has used a hefty parliamentary majority to rewrite hundreds of laws since taking office 21 months ago. In addition, a third of the articles in the Turkish Constitution have been amended.

The government's aim was to meet the eligibility criteria for starting membership talks with the European Union, which required stronger protection of free speech and human rights and greater civilian control over the military.

As a result, Turkey abolished the death penalty and the feared state security court. It created intellectual property courts, consumer courts, juvenile courts and family courts.

Treason was redefined, police powers limited, criminal penalties revised, trademark laws created and press laws revamped.

In short, just about every field of law has changed. Even the most experienced lawyers and judges have found themselves cramming like first-year law students and signing up for training seminars while thousands of cases pile up at courthouses.

While complaints about the substance of the changes have been few, the velocity has prompted concern.

"Nowhere in the world have so many laws that effect you from the day you are born until the day you die been passed in such a rush," said Sezgin Tanrikulu, president of the bar association in Diyarbakir.

"Unfortunately the civil code that regulates social and civil life was issued and put into practice in one month and the new penal code changes will come into effect in six months," he said. "This is not enough time for either the judges or for society to adapt."

Overwhelmed

In some courts, the sheer volume of new laws and procedures has overwhelmed the system's ability to absorb and understand the changes. The average processing time for a case at the Supreme Court increased to 283 days in 2003 from 53 days in 2000, according to the Ministry of Justice. Backlogs in the lower courts have increased similarly.

"We used to not even have to look at the codes and read the law books because we knew exactly what article or code was involved in a case," said Hikmet Uyar, chief judge of a district felony court in Ankara. "Now the penalties have changed, the statute of limitations has changed and the article numbers have changed."

More delays seem inevitable. A package changing more than 450 articles in the Turkish penal code flew through the Parliament last month and has been signed by the president. Once it takes effect next spring, the courts will have to reexamine each case to determine whether to apply the old law or the new law, because each defendant is entitled to be judged by whichever would be most beneficial.

3. - AFP - "Demo in The Hague Against Extradition To Turkey Of PKK Leader":

THE HAGUE / 30 October 2004

Around 3,000 people demonstrated in The Hague Saturday against the extradition to Turkey of Nuriye Kesbir, a senior female member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who is wanted for attacks on military targets.

Protestors marched carrying pictures of Kesbir and former PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Dutch authorities last month agreed to a request from Turkey to extradite Kesbir.

The justice ministry said at the time that "the decision was taken after obtaining the express guarantee from the Turkish authorities that (Kesbir) will get a fair trial according to the relevant international treaties."

Turkey accuses Kesbir of being behind at least 25 attacks carried out between 1993 and 1995 on military targets in eastern Turkey, where the PKK is fighting for self-rule.

Kesbir has denied being involved in the attacks and claims she dealt only with women's issues as a member of the PKK's presidential council before she was arrested at Amsterdam airport in September 2001.

She has said she fears she will face an unfair trial and might be tortured if she returns to Turkey, but the Dutch authorities turned down her application for political asylum in the Netherlands.

The PKK led a bloody 15-year armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey, claiming more than 36,000 lives.

4. - Kurdistan Observer - "Turkey and European Union":

30 October 2004 / by Amed Demirhan

In recent months there have been an on going serious debate about Turkey’s membership application to European Union. In principle, I always have been supporter of Turkeys membership to European Union (EU) and North Atlantics treaty (NATO) because I believe this two organizations are gate ways to Western civilization and it’s in Kurdish national interest as well. However, in current condition, instead of Turkey adapting to the EU, it seems EU is willing to grants Turkey specially statues and accommodating to its racist, anti-Semitics, and xenophobic regime with out any change. This is very dangerous for every one. Turkish history is the best witness for this; therefore European should not repeat Arab-Muslim mistakes.

History records that Arab and Muslim greatly contributed to the global civilization from 7th century to the 13th century in many areas like: Mathematics, physic, astronomy, medicine, poetry, literature, architecture, philosophy by translating classical Greeks, and Roman’s literatures. After Turkish Memluks (States Slaves: Children of the state with Turkish origins) and Ottomans tribes took over Muslim countries, the Muslim civilization rapidly declined and become symbols of dictatorship and brutality in three continents. One cannot find a trace of civilization from Muslim world from 14th century to today because of Turkish dominance, therefore one wouldn’t want EU and Western civilizations become another victims of the Turkish regimes and state culture (Not Turkish people).

When one looks to Turkish media, which strongly controlled by the state, still insist on one language, one religion, and one race idea of the state. It strongly oppose to the EU classification of the Kurds and Alavis (a radically different sect of Islam, by some it considered unorthodox) as minority. Interestingly both Alavis and Kurds rejects they are minorities. Kurds are majority in Kurdistan areas of the country that consist of one third of the country’s’ geography and they are about 20-30 % of population. The Alevis are about 20-30 % of the population and consist among different ethnics groups but majority are Kurdish, and they like to be treated as equal with the Sunni majority however, not as minority.

On the other hand the Kemalist and Fundamentalist Turks argue that Turkey only recognized the non-Muslims as minorities: Jewish, Armenian, and Greeks in accordance of July 24, 1923 Lausanne Treaty. However, no one is or willing to say in Turkish press why these three groups were considered minorities and not Muslims? The answer is simple because these three groups during the Ottoman- Ittihat Teraki regime were subject to genocides and so called Muslim in theory and in accordance with Muslim laws considered equal citizens. This was Turkish representatives defense about Muslims in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1924. However, one should remember the Turkish government still hasn’t implemented Lausanne treaty. Contrary to the treaty it has prohibited Kurdish Language and has many restrictions on Greeks and Armenian cultures, properties, and still refuse it committed genocide against Greek, Armenians, and Kurds.

One of the basic requirements for EU membership is the acceptance of the so-called Copenhagen criteria of 1993, http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/intro/criteria.htm) and Turkey is far away from implementing this treaty. The most important thing is that Turkey should become an European country, but Europe shouldn’t become a “Turkey”. All public surveys show people in both EU and Turkey are favoring that Turkey should become European by adopting the EU standard not other way around.

5. - Zaman - "Turkey Denies it Will Intervene in Kirkuk":

31 October 2004

Turkish Foreign Minister denied charges that Turkey would conduct military operations in Northern Iraq should efforts to change the demography of Kirkuk continue.

In a recent edition of "Cumhuriyet", a Turkish daily newspaper, Deputy Foreign Ministry Namik Tan said, "Turkey's conception depends not on reacting to the worst possibilities in Iraq, but collaborating with the international community, and the Iraqi people, to prevent these possibilities.

Tan reiterated Ankara's policy that seeks the preservation of Iraq's integrity and national unity. Sensitivities particular to Kirkuk, he added, were transmitted to the international community through Iraq's entirety.

During a recent meeting within the Turkish Security Council, a plan to enter Northern Iraq with 20000 soldiers was discussed, but only to curtail operations by the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Shortly after the meeting, an MGK statement stressed Turkey's commitment to Iraq's political process, which aims to allow participation from all of Iraq's ethnic constituencies.

6. - AFP - "Aegean spats could thwart Turkey's EU ambitions: Greece":

ATHENS / 31 October 2004

Turkey's territorial transgressions against Greece in the Aegean Sea could hamper Ankara's bid to become a member of the European Union, a Greek government member said Sunday.

"Turkey must realise that we're not the only ones who watch what's happening in the Aegean," Greek deputy foreign minister Yiannis Valinakis told weekly Eleftherotypia in an interview.

"It's natural, that when it (Turkey) displays such a behaviour vis-a-vis a neighbouring country, which is even a member of the EU, doubts arise if it is really in a position to change," Valinakis said.

"The (Greek) government has said that if Turkey does not improve its external behaviour, it will not become an EU member," he added.

Valinakis clarified that Greece did not want to veto Turkey's bid to obtain a date for full membership talks when EU leaders meet in December.

"Our strategic goal is not to be led to such a decision," he said.

But in another interview published Sunday, Valinakis suggested there would be strings attached to Greece's consent to Turkey's road to Europe.

"We're not giving carte blanche to anyone," Valinakis told the Internet edition of Cypriot newspaper Simerini on Sunday.

Greece has protested a string of alleged violations of its airspace and territorial waters by Turkish airplanes and war vessels in the Aegean in recent weeks.

The Turkish foreign ministry has rejected the Greek charges, saying its ships and planes had been carrying out routine training operations in the area.

Although strained ties between the two neighbours, regional rivals and NATO partners have improved significantly since 1999, spats in the Aegean have been frequent for years as Athens and Ankara remain at loggerheads over territorial and air control rights there.

Dogfights between the two countries' fighter planes occur frequently. Greece and Turkey nearly went to war over two disputed rocks in the southwestern corner of the sea in 1996.

Greece has said it supports Turkey's integration in Europe as a guarantee that their bilateral problems in the Aegean will be resolved by peaceful means. But Athens has not publicly confirmed that it will come out in favour of Ankara's request to obtain a date for EU accession negotiations in December.

"Our strategic goal for a European Turkey remains, but this doesn't mean that we'll shut our eyes to what's happening," Greek foreign ministry spokesman Yiorgos Koumoutsakos said earlier this month after the alleged incursions.