12
November 2004
2. "Turkey Warns of Plan to Invade Iraq", Turkey's military has begun preparing for what officials warned could result in a major invasion of neighboring Iraq, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service.
3. "EU Doesn't Have a Common Minority Practice", "In EU countries, the military is a government institution," said EU Expansion expert Aktar. "It doesn't state opinions about political issues. "The important thing is to give the opportunity to minorities to live a decent life," he added.
4. "Minority report controversy", the report called for a revision of the Constitution and relevant laws so that the cultural rights of minorities could be expanded. It also criticized Turkey's reservations to international conventions on the issue.
5. "Dutch police raid Kurdish theoretical training camp", Dutch police on Friday raided a suspected Kurdish training camp in the south of the country, arresting 29 people, the national prosecutor's office said.
6. "Turkey to sign new IMF deal next month", inflation should fall to five percent by the end of 2006, the Economy Minister said.
1. - Turkish Daily News - "Intellectual Initiative for Peace: 'Let's silence the guns'":
Intellectual Initiative for Peace continues to work to stop violence and armed conflict, and create a democratic and peaceful environment in Turkey
A 'Peace Bus' arrives in Diyarbakir to silence the guns. One of the participants Akin Birdal says: 'We hope that the cease-fire will start even if only on one side.' The participants of the Intellectual Initiative for Peace, who will found a 'Peace Chair' on November 19, will also explain the campaign to the European Parliament
ISTANBUL / 12 November 2004
Participants of the Intellectual Initiative for Peace, who left Istanbul on November 10 on two busses to end violence and receive more positive results from the European Union process, arrived in Diyarbakir. A crowded group of people waved off the participants in Tepebasi with rounds of applause. The Intellectual Initiative for Peace was welcomed in Diyarbakir with the slogan "No War, Peace At Once."
The Intellectual Initiative for Peace comprises of members from the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK), the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Union (DISK), the Human Rights Association (IHD) representatives, Peace Mothers, the 78'ers Foundation, Theater Amargi, the Rainbow Association, the Laborers Party (EMEP), the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP), the Freedom and Democracy Party (ODP) members, Bergama villagers, writers, union members, scientists, lecturers, artists and human rights defenders.
The group of nearly 70 people, who went to Diyarbakir from Istanbul, also included European Parliament deputy Feleknas Uca, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) Deputy President Akin Birdal, Mazlum-Der Chairman Ayhan Bilgen, writer Fazilet Culha, producer Gulten Kaya, IHD former Chairman Husnu Ondul, journalists Celal Baslangic and Inci Hekimoglu, Genel-Is Chairman Mahmut Seren, the Diyarbakir Democracy Platform spokesman Selahattin Demirtas, and the Tunceli Cultural and Solidarity Association Chairman Nimet Tanrikulu.
Akin Birdal said that they would found a Peace Chair on November 19 in Ankara and explain why workers, intellectuals, artists, women and young people from all sections of society have asked for peace.
Everybody demands peace
Birdal said that people from the left, socialist, liberal and Greens group in the European Parliament supported the Intellectual Initiative for Peace to silence guns and stop conflict. He said that they would organize a meeting of solidarity on November 22-23 in the European Parliament and also that international nongovernmental organizations would come to Ankara to meet government officials.
Noting that they would organize a meeting on November 29 for the EU Turkey representatives, Birdal said: "We will ask the sides in conflict to silence the guns. We hope that a cease-fire will start even if only on one side." Tanrikulu, who talked to the TDN, said that representatives from all sections asking for democracy and peace participated in the journey. Stating that they received support mostly from the public. Tanrikulu said peace was demanded not only by Kurds but by all people loving their country.
Peace Carnations and Peace Forest
The participants of the Intellectual Initiative for Peace, who call for everybody against war to join the campaign "Let's Silence the Guns," will organize a "Peace Fest" in Diyarbakir. They will throw carnations into the Tigris River, release doves and plant trees for a Peace Forest on November 12.
Birdal, who stated that they would not explain what should be done to solve the Kurdish problem, said the following:
"Many relevant institutes and people have been explaining how
it should be solved for years. The key to the Kurdish problem is obvious.
Peace should replace conflict. Guns should be silenced. Handicaps
in social life should be removed. Nobody should object to peace. Turkey
is not helpless. Conflict is not the only way out," said Birdal.
2. - WorldNetDaily.com - "Turkey Warns of Plan to Invade Iraq":
12 November 2004
Turkey's military has begun preparing for what officials warned could result in a major invasion of neighboring Iraq, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service.
Officials said the Turkish General Staff has drafted plans for an invasion by at least 20,000 troops into northern Iraq in early 2005. They said the General Staff has urged approval from the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and discussed the proposed invasion with the United States.
"The current phase is to show the United States that we're serious," a Turkish government source said. "After the Iraqi elections in January, the Turkish military will be ready to move."
The military has called for a massive operation in northern Iraq to prevent Kurdish militias from controlling the area. The General Staff has been particularly alarmed by the reported Kurdish effort to drive out ethnic Turks from Kirkuk, the oil capital of northern Iraq and long claimed by Ankara.
Under the Turkish plan, the military would deploy at least 20,000 Turkish troops in an enclave south of the Iraqi-Turkish border. The force would focus on eliminating the Kurdish Workers Party and ensure the return of Turkmens to Kirkuk.
About 3,000 PKK fighters are said to be based in northern Iraq and have been sending insurgents and weaponry for attacks inside neighboring Turkey.
The United States has refused numerous Turkish appeals to eliminate the PKK strongholds.
On Oct. 14 Erdogan and his cabinet reviewed the General Staff's plan. That meeting, attended by Chief of Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok and Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, discussed the rapid deployment of up to 40,000 troops in northern Iraq.
A scaled-down version of the military plan was discussed in the national security council on Oct. 27. The officials said that over the last week some units have already been deployed along the Iraqi-Turkish border.
Officials said the General Staff has sought to prepare two army divisions to cross the Iraqi border within 18 hours of any approval of the operation.
The first goal of the ground operation, supported by fighter-jets and attack helicopters, would be to destroy PKK strongholds in the Kandil mountains in northern Iraq.
The General Staff has warned the cabinet that Ankara could no longer ignore the Kurdish threat. Officials said the military has determined that Kurds from Iran and Syria have bolstered support for the PKK.
Iranian and Syrian Kurds, they said, have participated in PKK attacks against police and military targets in southeastern Turkey over the last week.
Officials said the General Staff has sought to obtain U.S. approval for the operation in northern Iraq. But Washington has not provided implicit approval.
The Erdogan government has sought to delay any Turkish military operation until after the European Union summit on Dec. 17. The government intends to spare the EU any pretext to delay a date for accession.
Officials said the Peshmerga are digging tunnels and establishing
outposts outside Dahouk, near the Turkish border.
3. - Bianet - "EU Doesn't Have a Common Minority Practice":
"In EU countries, the military is a government institution," said EU Expansion expert Aktar. "It doesn't state opinions about political issues. "The important thing is to give the opportunity to minorities to live a decent life," he added.
ALGERIA / 11 November 2004 / by Burcin BELGE
Cengiz Aktar, an expert on European Union (EU) expansion, commented on Gen. Ilker Basbug's criticisms of the EU progress report on Turkey. "The General Staff has not been able to correctly evaluate the commission's report," said Aktar.
"In EU countries, the military is a government institution," said Aktar about the General Staff's statement delivered "on behalf of the state." "It does not make statements about political issues. There is such a basic problem here."
"The EU did not set conditions, it made an observation"
"Turkey must comply with the EU standards on the issue of minority rights," Hansjorg Kretschmer, the head of the EU Commission office in Turkey, had said. According to Aktar, there is no such common notion or practice about minorities in Europe that is being implemented in all 25 member countries.
"There is no single notion or implementation of 'minority' in Europe," said Aktar. "Each country finds a solution to such problems in line with its own established practices or traditions. The EU Commission's report should be regarded 'not as a condition, but as an observation."
Aktar said complying with the Copenhagen Political Criteria is vital for Turkey' full membership. "The important thing is to give way to minority rights and grant minorities the opportunity to live a decent life," said Aktar. "This is a general principle. Each country implements this principle in line with their own established practices and traditions."
"There would not be any problems if Syriacs, Keldanis could
go to their churches; if the Armenians could run their foundations
as Muslims do; if Greeks could train clergymen at their own schools;
and if Alavites could bury their dead in line with their own traditions,"
said Aktar. "We should not get pinned on the notion of 'minority.'
We could replace the word 'minority,' with 'those who are not the
majority,' if it would help end the argument."
4. - Turkish Daily News - "Minority report controversy":
A member of the Human Rights Advisory Board urges Chairman Kaboglu and Professor Oran to resign
ANKARA / 12 November 2004
A member of an advisory board for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday urged his colleagues to resign, saying that a highly controversial report they drafted over minority rights in Turkey had cast doubt over the reliability of the board and damaged its reputation.
Erdem Akyuz, the head of the Association for the Sovereignty of Law, complained about the way the report had been prepared and its presentation to the public, saying they had led to a "lack of confidence" in the Human Rights Advisory Board's executive board, the Anatolia news agency said.
"The board members who abused their duties and other minority provocateurs should make use of their last chance and submit their resignations," Akyuz was quoted as saying by Anatolia.
Akyuz said they were getting prepared for a general meeting upon a request from other board members. He added that the meeting's agenda would include dismissing the executive board as well as firing the members of the Minority Rights and Cultural Rights Working Group.
The report was prepared by a sub-committee of the board known as the Minority Rights and Cultural Rights Working Group, headed by Professor Baskin Oran, and was presented to the Office of the Prime Minister. Ibrahim Kaboglun, the chairman of the 78-member board, held a press conference at the beginning of this month in order to respond to weeks-long criticism to the report from its own members, the media and top state officials, including government ministers and the president.
The report called for a revision of the Constitution and relevant laws so that the cultural rights of minorities could be expanded. It also criticized Turkey's reservations to international conventions on the issue.
Critics opposed the report, saying it called for the revision of constitutional articles that ensured the unitary structure of the state and the indivisible nature of the Turkish nation.
Kaboglu was unable to properly present the report and respond to
critics at a press conference after the text of his speech was ripped
into pieces by protesting members of the committee in front of a stunned
audience.
5. - AFP - "Dutch police raid Kurdish theoretical training camp":
THE HAGUE / 12 November 2004
Dutch police on Friday raided a suspected Kurdish training camp in the south of the country, arresting 29 people, the national prosecutor's office said.
"In light of the investigation by the police and the national prosecutor's office into the PKK, a camp site was searched this morning in Liempde," its spokesman Wim de Bruin told AFP, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.
"Police arrested 29 people. The camp site is suspected to have been a PPK training camp," he added.
Early media reports had spoken of a "paramilitary" training camp, but this was downplayed by a local mayor, who said it was "theoretical" training.
De Bruin said a Dutch investigation into the PKK had been ongoing for more than a year and the raid was not linked to the recent crackdown on suspected Muslim extremists after the brutal murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an alleged Islamic radical.
Liempde is in the south of the Netherlands close to Eindhoven. The camp site is located in the middle of a nature reserve surrounded by vast moors, the ANP news agency reported.
The PKK, now also known as KONGRA-GEL, waged a bloody 15-year war
for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish eastern and southeastern parts
of Turkey -- claiming more than 36,000 lives -- before announcing
a unilateral ceasefire in
1999.
The group called off the truce in June this year, threatening to carry out attacks and warning tourists and investors to stay away from the country.
Since then, there has been a sharp increase in clashes between the rebels and government troops.
Two years ago Turkey heavily criticized the Netherlands for their tolerant attitude towards the PKK.
The Netherlands has a large Kurdish community, but numbers are difficult to pin down as official statistics group people according to nationality and Kurdistan, an area linking Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, is not a country.
In 1999 the NRC-Handelsblad said there were between 60,000 and 70,000 Kurds in the Netherlands. The largest part, some 45,000 people, come from Turkey.
Earlier this week, a Dutch judge ruled that Nuriye Kesbir, a senior member of the PKK, could not be extradited to Turkey because there were not enough guarantees that she would be treated fairly.
Turkey accuses Kesbir of being behind at least 25 attacks between 1993 and 1995 on military targets in eastern Turkey, where the PKK party is fighting for Kurdish self-rule.
Kesbir has always denied being involved in the attacks and claims
she dealt only with women's issues as a member of the group's presidential
council before she was arrested at Amsterdam airport in September
2001.
6. - NTV / MSNBC - "Turkey to sign new IMF deal next month":
Inflation should fall to five percent by the end of 2006, the Economy
Minister said.
11 November 2004
Turkey’s Economy Minister has announced his government will sign a new letter of intent with the International Monetary Fund after December 1.
The new agreement will supplant the existing letter of intent with the IMF, Economy Minister Ali Babacan said late Wednesday evening.
“We will sign a letter of intent after December 1, but how long after I cannot say at the moment,” Babacan said. “We will do it as soon as we finish our work.”
The finishing touches were being put to the details of the letter of intent, with issues such as tax reform in particular being worked on, the Minister said.
Currently, Turkey has a $19 billion stand by agreement with the IMF, which is due to expire in February of next year.
According to Babacan, Turkey will see inflation fall to five percent
by 2006 and economic growth of five percent in both 2006 and 2007.