17 November 2004

1. "Turkey: Insufficient and inadequate -- judicial remedies against torturers and killers", Amnesty International is concerned by recent developments in the trials of police officers charged in connection with the torture, and subsequent death in custody, of trade unionist Suleyman Yeter.

2. "Turkey Makes Diplomatic Push For EU Membership", Turkey is pressing ahead with a diplomatic campaign to get the European Union to name a date for the start of accession talks.

3. "Sarkozy calls for EU "partnership" with Turkey", French Finance Minister and future ruling party chief Nicolas Sarkozy repeated his opposition to Turkish membership of the EU Tuesday, saying a decision next month from heads of government should focus instead on "partnership."

4. "'Turkish, German armed forces in broad cooperation'", German Defense Minister Struck says the European Commisson's recommendation for the start of Turkey's entry talks is timely, paving the way for the start of negotiations between Turkey and Germany for the sale of German-made Leopard tanks

5. "Kurds find northern resettlement tough", people who moved north to their original homeland to escape intimidation in the Sunni Arab heartland meet suspicion and indifference.

6. "Kurdish students fear for safety", studying at Iraq’s universities no longer viewed as a good career move.

1. - Amensty International - "Turkey: Insufficient and inadequate -- judicial remedies against torturers and killers":

16 November 2004

Amnesty International is concerned by recent developments in the trials of police officers charged in connection with the torture, and subsequent death in custody, of trade unionist Suleyman Yeter. While the Turkish government has declared a policy of "zero tolerance for torture", Turkish courts appear unable or unwilling to bring appropriate sanctions against torturers. These latest decisions -- which centre on a pattern of torture and ill-treatment at the Anti-Terror Branch of Istanbul Police Headquarters in the late 1990s -- show the ways that police officers, who have carried out torture, can enjoy impunity despite recent legal reforms.

On 10 November the Turkish Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of police officer Mehmet Yutar for his involvement in the death of trade unionist Suleyman Yeter who died in detention at the Anti-Terror Branch of Istanbul Police Headquarters after being tortured in March 1999 (See Urgent Action 57/99, AI Index: EUR 44/28/99). On 1 April 2003, police officers Mehmet Yutar and Ahmet Okuducu (who is on the run) were found guilty by the Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 6 in Istanbul of "the unintentional killing" of Suleyman Yeter and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. However, Mehmet Yutar's sentence was reduced by the court to five years' imprisonment because the offence was carried out by two or more people and the principal perpetrator had not been identified. The court further reduced his sentence to four years and two months' imprisonment because of his "good conduct" of which, under the Law on the Execution of Sentences, he will only have to serve one year and eight months. A third police officer was acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

The lawyers and family of Suleyman Yeter appealed against the low sentence given to Mehmet Yutar and the Chief Prosecutor of the Court of Appeal subsequently requested that the low sentence be overturned. The lawyers and family had also requested in their appeal that the investigation be widened to look at the responsibilities of other police officers including senior officers who may have been ultimately responsible for the death. However, the Court of Appeal rejected the appeal and on 10 November 2004 upheld the original decision.

Meanwhile, cases against nine police officers from the same Anti-Terror Branch of the Istanbul Police Headquarters who were charged with torturing Suleyman Yeter and 14 others in another incident in 1997 were dropped on 11 November, because they had reached the time limit for such proceedings, known as the "statute of limitations". Amnesty International believes that the detention in which Suleyman Yeter died in 1999 may have taken place to impede this court case. Suleyman Yeter had reportedly been detained and threatened several times already because of this trial before he was detained and killed.

In this case, Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 7 had decided on 2 December 2002 to acquit five police officers and handed down sentences of 11 months 20 days each to four others. However, these sentences were suspended by the court because it was of the opinion that the defendants "would not carry out another crime" -- despite the fact that several of them were defendants or had been convicted in other trials for their involvement in torture and had had their sentences similarly postponed by the same court. This decision was appealed by the lawyers of the tortured victims and the Court of Appeal subsequently overturned the decision on 1 April 2004 and ruled that the suspects should be charged again in separate trials. However, the case reached the statute of limitations and the Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 7 ruled on 11 November 2004 that proceedings against the police officers should therefore be dropped.

Asiye Guzel had also been detained in the same operation in 1997 as the fourteen victims and was subjected to torture at the Anti-Terror Branch of Istanbul Police Headquarters including rape and hanging by the arms. This torture was documented by independent medical reports and was mentioned in the above trial by the torture victims who had witnessed it. The court therefore decided to file a formal complaint on 2 March 1999 about this torture -- however, the prosecutor issued a decision not to proceed against the alleged perpetrators on 17 October 2000.

In another trial that has concluded recently, Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No 7 acquitted three police officers on 30 September 2004 on charges of torturing three individuals detained at the Anti-Terror Branch of Istanbul Police Headquarters on 11 November 1998. The court decided to acquit on the basis that there was "insufficient evidence" despite the existence of expert, independent, medical forensic reports that confirmed the detainees' allegations that they had been subjected to torture techniques while in detention including being beaten, suspended from the arms, and given electric shocks. The court's decision stated that: "paying attention to the statements of the defendants that the bruisings and markings on the faces and bodies reported in the medical reports were already present and to the failure to obtain evidence that the suspects perpetrated this crime, it is the opinion of conscience of the court that it is necessary to favour the defendants in this case which is composed of an abstract claim". One of the acquitted defendants is the fugitive police officer Ahmet Okuducu, who was also charged with the death of Suleyman Yeter.

The present government has introduced reforms and measures against the overwhelming impunity that torturers have enjoyed. However, it is clear that much still needs to be done; these legal proceedings illustrate the ways that torturers can still go unpunished thanks to ineffective judicial mechanisms and bodies which resist reform. Failures to adequately investigate complaints, lengthy extensions of trials and their subsequent collapse through reaching the statute of limitations, insufficient and reduced sentences are all ways in which impunity in Turkey continues.

Amnesty International notes that the new Penal Code passed by the Parliament on 26 September 2004 redefines the crime of torture in terms that are closer to those found in international law, lays down heavier penalties to individuals convicted of torture and further extends the statute of limitations in such crimes. However, in the light of the above cases, Amnesty International is concerned that torture trials can still be dropped because of the statute of limitations and draws attention to the fact that the status of torture as a peremptory norm of general international law suggests that there should be no statute of limitations for the crime of torture.

Most importantly, the persistent complaints of torture and ill-treatment which were reported from the Anti-Terror Branch of Istanbul Headquarters in the late 1990s and which often the same alleged perpetrators demonstrate why it is necessary to suspend from active duty police officers or gendarmes under investigation or trial for ill-treatment and torture and dismiss them from the force if they are found guilty. While some of the sentences handed down by courts in the cases above also suspended the convicted police officers from public service for brief periods (for example, three years), these suspensions came far too late. Amnesty International also believes that the roles and responsibilities of commanding officers in cases of torture and ill-treatment should be examined.

2. - Eurasianet - "Turkey Makes Diplomatic Push For EU Membership":

12 November 2004 / by Mevlut Katik*

Turkey is pressing ahead with a diplomatic campaign to get the European Union to name a date for the start of accession talks. An EU summit next month is expected to consider the issue. While Turkish leaders canvass the continent, France, the most influential critic of Ankara’s EU ambitions, may advocate a potential consolation prize – a special EU-Turkish relationship that falls short of full membership.

Turkey’s leaders have not responded directly to French skepticism, emphasizing instead Ankara’s desire to have the EU commit to starting accession talks in 2005. “[The] EU should set a definite entry date for Turkey within 2005 without a new condition or a political decision,” Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul told a November 5 press conference in Brussels, the Anatolia Agency reported. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the European Parliament in October that he expected that date to occur within the first six months of next year.

Erdogan and Gul have packed travel schedules over the next month. Gul alone has nine visits abroad scheduled for the run-up to the December 17 EU summit, along with meetings in Ankara with at least five European prime ministers or foreign ministers, according to Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Namik Tan.

Turkey strives to convince EU member states that conditions outlined in a recent report on Turkey’s membership prospects are unfair. The October 6 report from the European Commission gave conditional support for Turkish EU ambitions, yet it cited the need for additional proof of the Turkish government’s commitment to political and judicial reform. Labor-migration limitations within the EU were also recommended for Turkish citizens – a response to the country’s relatively underdeveloped economic status. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

There is concern in Turkey that an EU decision on accession talks on December 17 could come with even more conditions attached. “What the negotiations process leads to is full membership,” Erdogan told reporters in Ankara on October 25. “Nobody should attempt to impede that.”

So far, Turkey’s campaign to accentuate the positive has won endorsements from the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, Austria, the Czech Republic and longtime foe, Greece, among others. France, home to one of Europe’s largest Muslim populations, has proven a tougher case.

With unemployment and stagnant economic growth two key concerns for French voters, officials and political leaders in Paris have balked sanctioning the entry of a relatively underdeveloped country into the EU’s common market. At the same time, mindful of France’s traditional gravitas with Islamic countries, President Jacques Chirac, when on the international stage, has tried to portray France as enthusiastic about Turkey’s accession. At an October 26 meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the French leader declared that EU membership talks with Turkey were his “dearest wish.”

One week later, though, Chirac sent a contradictory message. On November 5, the French president suggested that “a sufficiently strong link” needs to be found to tie Turkey to Europe that would stop short of full integration. A strategic partnership agreement, similar to the EU’s pact with India, could be one such option, some Turkish observers fear. The agreement, signed on November 9 at a summit in The Hague, provides for expanded trade and investment and cooperation in fighting terrorism with India as a distinct entity from the EU, not as a likely candidate for membership. Both Chirac and Finance Minister Nicholas Sarkozy have also proposed that France hold a referendum on Turkey’s EU membership – up to 10 to 15 years after accession talks are completed.

In response, Ankara has styled the debate within France as a matter that does not concern Turkey. “These debates are about the EU, not Turkey. It is necessary to understand this,” Gul told reporters on November 5.

Ankara’s aim appears to be minimizing the importance of French opinion – at least in public – in the broader EU debate. Turkish leaders also want to avoid giving the impression that they are begging for EU membership. In a November 6 speech to the Turkish parliament, Gul stated that “we do not believe that Turkey should do anything at any cost to join the EU.” If the December 17 summit does not lead to membership talks with Turkey, he said, “[W]e will leave it there.”

Despite the Turkish diplomatic push, many influential analysts in Istanbul and Ankara believe the EU summit is unlikely yield the results desired by Turkey. “[E]ven the Germany-France axis, which is the backbone of the EU, could not display its traditional unity . . . when it comes to Turkey,” wrote Cengiz Candar, a columnist for the daily Tercuman, in reference to the debate over Turkey’s membership bid. “Even if Turkey gets a date on December 17 to start accession talks, the negotiation process will be extremely tough.”

* Editor’s Note: Mevlut Katik is a London-based journalist and analyst. He is a former BBC correspondent and also worked for The Economist group.

3. - AFP - "Sarkozy calls for EU "partnership" with Turkey":

BRUSSELS / 16 November 2004

French Finance Minister and future ruling party chief Nicolas Sarkozy repeated his opposition to Turkish membership of the EU Tuesday, saying a decision next month from heads of government should focus instead on "partnership."

"On December 17 the perspective of partnership must feature in the decision of the council of ministers," Sarkozy told French journalists in Brussels. The 25 leaders are to decide whether to start accession talks with Ankara, as recommended in a recent statement by the EU's executive body the Commission.

Sarkozy, who steps down as minister later this month to head President Jacques Chirac's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), said he opposes Turkish entry "not because it is a Muslim country but because Europe must concentrate on the enlargement which has already taken place."

His opposition to Turkish EU membership has put him at odds with Chirac, who has said its eventual accession is inevitable.

4. - Turkish Daily News - "'Turkish, German armed forces in broad cooperation'":

German Defense Minister Struck says the European Commisson's recommendation for the start of Turkey's entry talks is timely, paving the way for the start of negotiations between Turkey and Germany for the sale of German-made Leopard tanks

ANKARA / 17 November 2004

German Defense Minister Peter Struck, prior to his visit to Turkey, said the broad cooperation between the armed forces of Turkey and Germany has proved itself and now they would focus on new challenges.

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, the German minister said: "Relations between our two countries and armed forces are good. Cooperation between the Turkish and German armed forces covers a broad area and both have proved their compatibility. I believe the cooperation between our two countries will further focus on all areas, especially on the new and joint challenges such as international terrorism."

Struck is due in Ankara today for a two-day official visit.

He said the European Commisson's recommendation for the start of Turkey's accession negotitaions was timely, paving the way for the start of negotiations between the armed forces of Turkey and Germany for the sale of German-made Leopard tanks.

"The Turkish Armed Forces [TSK] already has German made Leopard-I type war tanks. The TSK, in the past, conveyed its interest in the purchase of Leopard-II tanks under the auspices of the federal army. The federal government told the Turkish government that negotiations can be held on this issue when the European Commission presents a positive report," he told Anatolia.

"It will happen given time. If Turkey applies officially the federal government will make a decision by applying regular procedures," Anatolia quoted him as saying.

5. - IWPR - "Kurds find northern resettlement tough":

People who moved north to their original homeland to escape intimidation in the Sunni Arab heartland meet suspicion and indifference.

SULAIMANIYAH / 16 November / by Wirya Hama-Tahir and Amanj Khalil

Hundreds of Kurdish families who fled from Iraq’s Sunni triangle earlier this year say they have had a hard time resettling in the northern Kurdish areas – but they have no plans to go back to towns like Fallujah where they faced threats from extremists.

Karim Abdul-Rahma is one of many Kurds displaced in the first round of fighting in the Sunni Arab city of Fallujah in spring 2004.

“When our house in Fallujah was half-destroyed by an insurgent mortar attack, we packed up and moved to Kurdistan,” he told IWPR.

After the family moved north, their eldest son was killed in a car crash as he followed them north.

Now Abdul-Rahma has no plans to return to his old home in the south.

“We only planned to leave for three months so as to let things settle down,” he explained. “But we won’t go back now, no matter what happens. Even though I can’t find a job here, at least we are safe.”

Most of the families who have fled Fallujah in the past few months see no way back because they felt so intimidated there, and plan to stay on in the Kurdish region.

Said Majid Majeed told IWPR, “We felt completely alienated. After living in fear of Saddam for 25 years, suddenly we were being threatened by Islamic militants instead.”

Majeed sold his house in Fallujah for less than its market value and bought a property in the town of Kalar, south of Sulaimaniyah, where he and his family now intend to stay.

Families like these were originally forced out of their Kurdish homeland by the Baathists in the Seventies, following the collapse of a long-running Kurdish revolt. Their homes were confiscated and they were sent to live in camps around Ramadi and Fallujah.

While most still speak Kurdish and consider themselves true Kurds, they have received a less than warm welcome since returning to their region of origin. Instead of greeting them as fellow-Kurds, local people have treated them with suspicion, addressing them in Arabic rather than Kurdish.

Majeed’s wife says the famility have received no help from the local authorities since they arrived. As it is too dangerous for them to go back to Fallujah to collect the food rations due to them, they are struggling to make ends meet.

“My husband can’t get a job. Things aren’t great here either,” she concluded.

Nevertheless, since the Abdul-Rahma and Majeed families have been able to buy homes, they are in a better position than many other Kurdish refugees from the Sunni triangle.

Some 26 families who fled Ramadi several months ago are still living in a makeshift camp on the Banabora plain close to the Iranian border. Living conditions are poor, and the lack of adequate sanitation leads to frequent outbreaks of typhoid and diarrhea.

Twelve-year-old Pshtiwan Salih was in sixth grade at a Ramadi primary school when his family left the town. He has not attended school since he was displaced to the Kurdish region. “I hate it here,” he said. “We live in tents, we’ve got no school to go to and we’ve all been sick. My kidneys hurt all the time.”

One of the adult refugees in the camp, Azim Muhammed, says that while things may be bad there, the families had no choice but to leave Ramadi, “We were receiving death threats from Arab extremists there. They said that we were cooperating with the United States, and that killing a Kurd was the same as killing an American.”

Hamza Muhammed is just 15 and by rights he should be at school, but instead he travels to the nearby town of Darbandikhan every day to work in the municipal administration.

“We thought that if we went to Kurdistan our lives would be better. We were driven out of our homes because we were Kurds, but nobody here wants to know us,” he said.

With no school to go to, many other children spend their days making the long walk to the Sirwan river to collect water for their families. Two children from the camp have already drowned in the river while trying to fill jerry-cans.

Abdulla Garmian, a representative from the Kurdish regional government’s human right ministry in Sulaimaniyah, made it was clear that the priority was to help survivors of the Anfal – the Baathist regime’s genocidal attacks against the Kurds - and only then would his office turn to the other task with which it is charged: helping displaced people.

Garmian said the authorities were working with United Nations agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross to help some of the refugee families, but warned, “Our priority is still to deal with people affected by the Anfal. Once they are taken care of, we will be able to help the families from Fallujah and Ramadi.”

But for Ramadi refugee Muhammed Salih and others in the Banabora camp, that assistance might come too late.

“If they don’t help us soon, the cold and rain are going to make conditions here even worse. We can’t spend the winter living in tents with children who are already sick,” said Salih.

6. - IWPR - "Kurdish students fear for safety":

Studying at Iraq’s universities no longer viewed as a good career move.

SULAIMANIYAH / 16 November 2004 / by Ayob Kareem

The deteriorating security situation in central and southern areas of Iraq has led to many Kurdish students transferring to universities inside Iraqi Kurdistan following a series of threats.

As a result of these worries, the Kurdistan higher education ministry recently issued a decree allowing students who had graduated from any of the region’s high schools to transfer back to local universities.

After the fall of the Baath regime in April 2003, the Kurdish and Iraqi higher education ministries had passed a bill assigning five per cent of places at central and southern universities to Kurdish students, with the same percentage set aside for Arab students who wished to study in Iraqi Kurdistan.

As a result, almost 4,000 Kurdish students applied for and were given places at Iraqi universities for the academic year 2003/2004.

However, the deteriorating security situation has resulted in just 186 applicants this year. And while some students did return south to continue their studies when classes restarted in October, a significant number chose to take a year out instead.

Goran Hama Qadir is a Kurdish law student studying at Tikrit University in the Salahadeen governorate north of Baghdad, an area known to be a stronghold of Saddam Hussein’s relatives and supporters.

“Tikrit is a hot spot, but fortunately I haven’t been burned yet,” he said. “I’m always slightly afraid of the hatred the Arabs show towards the Kurds. They keep saying [we] had a share in Saddam’s downfall.”

Qadir has been back at Tikrit University for two months but now wants to postpone the rest of his studies this year, “Whenever I come back to Kurdistan at weekends, my family asks me to hold off for a year, until things settle down.”

Safar Sayid Ali was studying Arabic at Baghdad University, but decided to leave after a letter appeared on the college noticeboard describing Kurdish students as American and Israeli agents who should be beheaded.

“We weren’t safe anywhere,” he said. “The place we were living in was a target for the Americans while the Baathist groups were threatening us at school and in the streets.”

Tara Omer, director of the registrar’s office at Sulaimaniyah University, told IWPR, “We don’t have final figures of how many students are taking up this offer, because it’s an ongoing process. But so far around 300 students have transferred.”

Students who have transferred their courses said they were delighted with the decision. “I’ve finished with Baghdad,” said Rako Abdulqadir, who had been studying medicine there. “Our lives were in danger.”

However, not all ethnic Kurds are able to take advantage of the offer. Dyar Hasan, a medical student at Anbar University in the western Iraqi governorate of Al-Anbar, grew up in Khanaqeen district which now lies outside the Green Line and technically belongs to the eastern Iraqi governorate of Dyala.

He hasn’t been to classes since term began because of the security situation in the governorate. “If Sulaimaniyah University doesn’t accept me, I will postpone this year,” he told IWPR. “My father would rather I was at home doing nothing than putting myself in danger.”

Dyar has yet to hear if his application has been accepted, but says he doesn’t want to go back and study with the Arabs he grew up with. “I want to stay near my compatriot Kurds in my homeland,” he said.