18 November 2004

1. "European Parliament to host conference on Kurdish issue", the European Parliament is set to host a conference in Brussels to discuss the controversial Kurdish issue next week, news reports said yesterday.

2. "The Kurds, Turkey’s metamorphosis to a European state", Turkey’s bid and eagerness to join EU is a welcome sign that the country wants to change and shake off its not so glamorous 80 years past of either direct tyrannical military rule or intermittent military-controlled civilian governments.

3. "Turkey: welcome to Europe", there is still much to be done on civil liberties and basic human rights. Turkey also needs to recognise formally the genocide of the Armenians in 1915. And an amnesty will be required for ex-fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to release more than 3,000 of its imprisoned activists, including its leader, Abdullah Öcalan.

4. "Identity politics: Is a Christian or Kurd ’a Turk’?", an advisory council report that calls on the country to broaden its official definition of minorities and to embrace multiculturalism is stirring a bitter public debate here about national identity.

5. "Turkey Cautious On Possible Rapprochement Opening To Armenia", an omission from Armenia’s draft 2005 budget has touched off speculation that a rapprochement with Turkey may be in the offing. The missing line item concerns Yerevan’s long-standing effort to win international recognition for what Armenian officials portray as the genocide of 1915-16.

6. "German defense minister favors tank sales to Turkey", German Defense Minister Peter Struck on Thursday said he favors the sale of German Leopard II tanks to Turkey, just five years after his country rejected a similar request by Ankara on grounds that the weapons could be used against civilians in eastern Turkey.

1. - Turkish Daily News - "European Parliament to host conference on Kurdish issue":

ANKARA / 18 November 2004

The European Parliament is set to host a conference in Brussels to discuss the controversial Kurdish issue next week, news reports said yesterday.

The two-day conference on Nov. 22 and 23, called "The European Union, Turkey and the Kurds," is expected to be chaired by Nobel Peace Prize Winner South African Bishop Desmond Tutu via a video-link.

Several non-governmental organization representatives from Turkey are to attend the conference that is officially sponsored by the Kurdish Human Rights Project, a group based in London. Norway-based Ratfo Foundation and Germany-based Medico International are also among sponsors of the conference.

On the opening day the issue of those who had to endure the abandonment of their villages, torture, unwanted reforms, together with the situation of women and children, international human right standards and press freedom in Turkey will all be addressed in the discussion sessions.

Turkey-EU relations, international society and the Kurdish issue are among the topics to be discussed on the second day of the conference.

Former lawmakers of the now-defunct Democracy Party (DEP) Selim Sadak and Hatip Dicle, Vice President of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues Akin Birdal, Human Rights Association (IHD) Chairman Yusuf Alatas, Southeastern Turkish Province of Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir and Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) Chairman Tuncer Bakirhan are expected to attend the conference.

EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Co-Chairman Joost Lagendijk and Europe United Left Group leader Francis Wurtz are among European parliamentarians expected to attend the conference.

Mark Muller, one of the lawyers for the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK/Kongra-Gel) Abdullah Ocalan and who represented him at the European Court of Human Rights, will also participate in the conference.

2. - The Kurdistan Observer - "The Kurds, Turkey’s metamorphosis to a European state":

18 November 2004 / by Adil Al-Baghdadi

Turkey’s bid and eagerness to join EU is a welcome sign that the country wants to change and shake off its not so glamorous 80 years past of either direct tyrannical military rule or intermittent military-controlled civilian governments.

The heirs of Ataturk and the despotic Ottoman rule, which fought the Europeans for centuries and stopped the flow of renaissance to reach regions within its domain - especially the Middle East - are now knocking at every European door and begging for an admission.

However, it seems that Turkey’ military and civilian leaders do not realize, just like Ataturk didn’t, that being a European means more than wearing a suit and a tie.

And acting like one is certainly nothing to do with the fact that their country has a bit of a territory within the European continent, which in fact was an integral part of Greece.

To be part of Europe and declare one is European is not also by joining the Eurovision contest and parade scantly clad and beautiful young Turkish women.

There is more to it than that, in fact there are more than 600 years of it to be precise.

As throughout many centuries of the despotic Ottoman rule Europe went through complete social, political and cultural transitions, especially during the renaissance era, the likes of which have not yet being tried in Middle East let alone Turkey.

This era has shaped Europe to what it is now, a collection of countries that has strong adherence to democratic principles, unwavering conviction in human and equal gender rights rights and above all tolerance towards anything that is different, be it ethnic and religious groups, homosexuals and others.

By contrast, the present Turkey, which is a by-product of Ataturk supremacist, Kurdish-hating and jingoistic mentality still has a very long way to go to convince even its ardent supporter in Europe that it has changed, but not on the cosmetic level.

Many reports in Turkish dailies frequently caries news about the Turkey that everyone has come to know, that’s to say a Turkey that is intolerant towards the Kurdish population in northern Kurdistan and Kurdish gains in southern Kurdistan.

The underlying tone of such articles and reports describe the inexplicable derision and mistrust towards people who contributed greatly to creating Turkey - which afterwards denied their existence for more than 80 years – and who will yet again contribute to Turkey’s accession to European Union.

In one such report the Turkish Human Right Organization head, Yusuf Alatas, describes the current situation in Turkey regarding the supposedly newly found rights for Kurds to broadcast and teach Kurdish.

In it he says: “Has the problem of broadcasting in native language been solved with a half-hour broadcast, when in fact watching private TV channels in the same native language is not allowed? And will people attend Kurdish courses where they have to undergo interrogation?

Are people asked personal questions when enrolling in English language courses? After all they pay money to attend these courses”.

Turkey should not expect to qualify to the much-prized club membership by applying a trimmed down versions of EU adaptation packages.

What’s more, it should not assume to be treated like a European state when it still relapses back to its tyrannical past in between now and then.

To behave, act and think like a European takes centuries.

It would be a tall order and implausible demand, however desirable and beneficial that maybe, to ask Turkey to enrol en-masse all of its military and civilian leaders in courses ranging from studies in European history, human rights, multi-ethnic societies in democracies and rights of nations for self-determination.

They even may find it useful to enrol in courses in basic decorum such as tolerance and respect towards others.

Also it would be a far-fetched request to ask Turkey’s establishment and its military leaders to take long sessions with European psychiatrists to rid themselves from the Kurdo-phobia, which has besotted them and has gripped Turkey for centuries and up until now.

But, heaven to be hold, there is a short cut for Turkey to become a modern European entity that is by embracing and helping the Kurds in Northern Kurdistan to achieve political and cultural rights.

And by owning up to the genocide of Armenians and by granting cultural and political rights to Turkey’s substantial Arab, Greek, Assyrians and Laz population and others.

This would convince even its staunchest opponent in Europe and millions of Kurds that Turkey is on the right track to become a true European country.

The travesty of justice for Turkey is that the very people whom she disowned, decimated, humiliated and culturally annihilated for more than 80 years are now the most critical factor in deciding whether Turkey can be part of Europe or not.

3. - Le Monde Diplomatique - "Turkey: welcome to Europe":

November 2004 / by Ignacio Ramonet

The debate about Turkey’s impending membership of the European Union - planned for 2015 - has been characterised by overblown rhetoric and lack of finesse. Framed in terms of the "clash of civilisations", it testifies to the identity crisis of western societies when faced with Islam. It also reveals the anti-Islamic sentiment lurking in almost every sector of the political classes.

Some have advanced "technical" arguments against Turkish entry, reckoning that Europe will instinctively reject the membership of a large country with a Muslim majority. They argue that Turkey should be disqualified because of its geography, since much of the country is in Asia Minor. This is absurd. French Guyana in Latin America and Réunion in the middle of the Indian Ocean are both part of the European Union.

We should remember that the Aegean coast of Turkey, the location of ancient Troy, was the east wing of ancient Greece, the cradle of European civilisation. (We wonder what "technical" arguments will be put forward to prevent the membership of two other countries with Muslim majorities, Bosnia and Albania, whose geographic place in Europe is undeniable.)

Others invoke history. The European commissioner Frits Bolkestein recently went so far as to say that if Turkey is admitted to the EU "the liberation of Vienna [after the siege by the Turks] in 1683 will have been in vain" (1). (During that siege the Viennese, known for their excellent bakeries, had to ration flour; they made small bread rolls shaped like the crescent moon symbol of the Ottoman empire. Most people think of these familiar pastries - croissants - as typically French.)

The Ottoman empire, as successor to the Byzantine empire, had ambitions to dominate the Mediterranean and Europe, a project that was shattered several times, especially at the Battle of Lepanto in 1521. But such ambitions do not mean that Turkey is anti-European by nature. Other countries - notably Spain, France and Germany - also cherished projects for subjugating the continent, and nobody would suggest that they are not truly European.

Like the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires, which vanished from history, and the colonial empires, which were all dismembered, overextended military campaigns wore out the Ottoman empire by the beginning of the 20th century (which is why it was called "the sick man of Europe"). Having lost its possessions in the Balkans and the Arab world, the new Turkey founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk embarked resolutely on Europeanisation.

No country has ever agreed to sacrifice so many fundamental aspects of its culture in order to affirm its European identity. Modern Turkey went so far as to abandon its old Arabic alphabet, replacing it with Roman letters; Turks were obliged to abandon traditional dress and wear western clothing; and, in the name of an official secularism inspired by a law passed in France in 1905, Islam ceased to be the state religion.

Throughout the 20th century Turkey continually consolidated its European character. In the early 1950s it joined Nato and later the Council of Europe. By 1963 General de Gaulle and Chancellor Adenauer had recognised its suitability as a candidate for membership of Europe. A customs treaty was signed in 1995. Once the European Council meetings in Helsinki (1999) and Copenhagen (2002) had confirmed that Turkey could apply for membership (2), Ankara embarked on silent revolution to fulfil the necessary criteria.

Turkey has made progress in enacting democratic reforms. The state security courts are about to be dismantled; the death penalty has been abolished; juridical tolerance of crimes of honour against women is no longer allowed; a proposed law for criminalising adultery has been abandoned. In Kurdish territories the state of emergency has been lifted; teaching in the Kurdish language is now permitted; a Kurdish-language TV channel has been set up; and four former MPs imprisoned for political activity have been released.

There is still much to be done on civil liberties and basic human rights. Turkey also needs to recognise formally the genocide of the Armenians in 1915. And an amnesty will be required for ex-fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to release more than 3,000 of its imprisoned activists, including its leader, Abdullah Öcalan.

But the prospect of EU membership has already reinforced Turkey’s democratisation, secularism and respect for human rights. For the other major countries of the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey’s membership will provide a concrete message of hope, peace, prosperity and democracy.

4. - The Christian Science Monitor - "Identity politics: Is a Christian or Kurd ’a Turk’?

ISTANBUL / 18 November 2004 / by Yigal Schleifer

An advisory council report that calls on the country to broaden its official definition of minorities and to embrace multiculturalism is stirring a bitter public debate here about national identity.

It has become so heated, in fact, that when the head of the council tried to present the document at a press conference Nov. 1, another council member tore the notes out of his hands and publicly denounced the report, forcing the event to be canceled.

Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, meanwhile, have distanced themselves from the report.

The document, which cites a lack of cultural rights and freedoms in Turkey for minorities, comes on the heels of a recent European Union progress report on Turkish political and human rights reforms which detailed problems with the country’s treatment of Kurds and non-Muslims.

The overwhelmingly Muslim country, meanwhile, is pinning its pro-West dreams on an EU summit Dec. 17, when a final decision will be made on its pending membership in the organization.

Some of the backlash to the advisory council’s work appears to be fueled by a fear that further highlighting human rights shortcomings in Turkey could jeopardize its EU bid.

But analysts here say the debate reflects something much deeper.

The struggle, they say, is between a Turkish national identity forged in the crucible of World War I and its aftermath, and the growing desire to create a more inclusive, multicultural society.

It is something akin, they say, to a second modernizing - and sometimes difficult - transformation for the country.

"The search is for a democratic reconceptualization of what a Turk is," says Etyen Mahcupyan, a researcher on democratization at the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), an Istanbul think tank. "We need to redefine what a Turk is based on citizenship, not any single ethnic identity."

Officially, the only minorities in Turkey are Jews, Greeks, and Armenians, as spelled out by the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, which led to the establishment of the Turkish Republic after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

But the board’s report says Turkey has fallen behind modern norms in its understanding of minority communities.

It calls for Turkey to recognize groups such as non-Sunni Muslims, Assyrian Christians, and cultural and linguistic minorities. It also calls for constitutional changes to protect individual and minority rights.

Elcin Macar, a political scientist at Istanbul’s Yildiz Technical University, who specializes in the study of Turkey’s minorities, says the report’s recommendations have tapped into long-held Turkish fears that trace their roots to the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, when European powers tried to carve up its territory through appeals to the empire’s minority groups.

As the report puts it, there is a widespread "paranoia" in Turkey that giving minorities equal rights will lead to the country’s breakup.

"The Turkish republic still sees minorities as a tool of other powers. This is a legacy that still lives in the mind of the Turkish bureaucracy," Mr. Macar says.

Indeed, the reaction by Turkey’s political elite to the report’s suggestions was a dismissiveness verging on hostility. "The definition of the concept of minority is clearly written in the Lausanne Treaty. It won’t change," Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said in Ankara.

General Ilker Basbug, second chief of staff of Turkey’s powerful military, was even more explicit. "The Turkish Republic is unitary and it is wrong to create minorities in it. The Turkish Army cannot approve such a thing," he said.

Critics of the report, and even European diplomats in Turkey, point out that many EU countries themselves struggle with the question of pluralism. Sweden, for example, recognized the existence of minorities in the country only three years ago. France still does not recognize Breton as a minority language. Athens, meanwhile, is the only EU capital without an official mosque.

But in many ways, the reforms put in place by Turkey’s EU process have already started to create significant changes in terms of minority cultural rights. For example, radio and television broadcasts in Kurdish, once banned, are now allowed, along with those in Bosnian, Arabic, and Circassian.

"I think groups are looking at the EU process as something that will let them express their cultural rights more easily," says Ingmar Karlsson, Sweden’s consul general in Istanbul.

Dogan Bermek, one of the founders of the Cem Foundation, an organization that advocates on behalf of Alevi Muslims, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, says Turkey’s engagement with the EU has given his group’s demands for equal treatment as Sunni Muslims more traction.

Although Alevis are estimated to represent some 20 percent of the Turkish population, the government does not provide them with funds to build prayer houses, as it does for Sunni mosques.

"What we have been asking for for the last 10 years, and now the European Union is asking for it also, is for the country’s Religious Affairs Department to be reorganized to reflect all the beliefs in this country," says Bermek.

"Any culture and any belief that exists in this country should be accepted and should be supported to the best ability of the society," he adds.

That kind of multiculturalism may not be difficult to achieve, says TESEV’s Mahcupyan. During 600 years of Ottoman rule, Turkey was one of the most culturally diverse places on the planet, he notes.

"It’s not a question of going back, but remembering what was there and recognizing ... that it still exists today and also opening the road to these cultures for their own politics," Mahcupyan says.

5. - Eurasianet - "Turkey Cautious On Possible Rapprochement Opening To Armenia":

17 November 2004 / Mevlut Katik*

An omission from Armenia’s draft 2005 budget has touched off speculation that a rapprochement with Turkey may be in the offing. The missing line item concerns Yerevan’s long-standing effort to win international recognition for what Armenian officials portray as the genocide of 1915-16. Some observers interpret the dropped genocide reference as an effort to extend an olive branch to Turkey.

Even if the interpretation accurately reflects Yerevan’s intention, both Armenian and Turkish officials indicate that they will proceed with extreme caution in trying to end decades of mutual hostility. At the same time, regional analysts say both states have powerful economic and political incentives to explore ways to normalize bilateral relations. The normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations has the potential to create a new geopolitical order in the Caucasus.

After details of the Armenian draft budget became public, Turkish and Azerbaijani media outlets in early November went into a frenzy of conjecture on the implications of the genocide-recognition omission. Armenian officials moved quickly to squash speculation that Yerevan was substantially changing its position.

Yerevan contends that Ottoman Turkish forces systematically killed ethnic Armenians in 1915-16. According to some Armenian estimates up to 1.5 million of the 2.5 million Armenians then living in the Ottoman Empire died during this timeframe. Ankara has recognized that Armenians died en masse, but says Yerevan overstates the number of victims. In addition, Turkish officials steadfastly deny that the deaths were the result of a coordinated government policy, and, thus, the tragedy cannot be considered as a case of genocide as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention. Contemporary Turkish officials note that the deaths occurred during World War I, adding that Armenians were caught in the middle of the bitter fight going on at that time in the Caucasus between Ottoman Turkish forces and Russian troops.

On November 9, the Arminfo news agency quoted Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Gamlet Gasparian as insisting Yerevan’s stance on the genocide issue had not changed. "The issue of international recognition of the Armenian genocide does not concern only Armenia and the Armenians; this is a universal issue and cannot be lessened to the limits of any budget or similar financial documents," Gasparian said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry responded the next day, adopting a wait-and-see stance. ""Except for the news reports, we have not received any official information about such a change in Armenia’s [genocide-recognition] stance," the Anatolia news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan as saying.

Turkish officials say the genocide issue is just one of several obstacles blocking the normalization of bilateral relations. Other issues, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, also must be addressed before Ankara can fully repair its relationship with Yerevan, they add. Turkey has staunchly backed Azerbaijan during the stalemated search for a Karabakh peace settlement. Ankara, for example, is maintaining a trade embargo on Armenia until Armenian forces withdraw from occupied Azerbaijani territory situated outside Karabakh proper. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Another factor influencing the normalization question is Turkey’s bid the join the European Union. Representatives of the Armenian Diaspora in France are reportedly putting pressure on the French government to withhold its approval for Turkish membership in the EU until Ankara addresses Yerevan’s genocide claim.

While the obstacles to normalization appear formidable, regional economic circumstances are exerting strong pressure on all parties involved to compromise. For Turkey and Azerbaijan, a Karabakh peace settlement would boost the profit potential of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which is scheduled to start conveying natural resources from the Caspian Basin to Western markets in 2005. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The normalization of ties between Turkey and Armenia also would reassure EU member states as they contemplate Ankara’s entry into the organization.

The pressure on Armenia to alter the status quo may even be stronger. Some analysts believe it is in Armenia’s vital economic interest to secure the lifting of Turkey’s embargo, thus opening up avenues for trade needed to fuel continued Armenian development. Other observers point out that normalization of ties with Turkey would aid Armenia’s effort to improve relations with NATO and, in a broader sense, the West. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Armenia’s draft 2005 budget contained language urging the government to take action to improve ties with Georgia, Iran and Turkey, Arminfo reported. Thus, the omission of the genocide reference in the same document may well represent the start of a process by Armenia to search for common ground with Turkey.

Many policy-makers and opinion-makers in Turkey remain skeptical over whether the genocide-recognition omission in the Armenian budget represents an initiative to engage Turkey on the issue. The general consensus appears to be that Turkish leaders should wait and see if Yerevan takes any follow-up action before buying into the notion that Armenia is truly open to altering its stance on the genocide issue.

If a rapprochement eventually comes about, the geopolitical landscape in the Caucasus could be significantly altered. Armenia has traditionally been Russia’s strongest ally in the Caucasus. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The normalization of Turkish-Armenian ties, which would presumably accompany a Karabakh peace settlement, could prompt Armenia to reorient Armenian political and economic policies towards the West, or, at the very least, weaken the special relationship now binding Yerevan to Moscow.

The potential ramifications of the genocide-recognition omission do not seem to have been lost on Russia, which, in recent months, has expressed displeasure in various ways over Armenian diplomatic efforts to balance Yerevan’s relations with Moscow with improved ties with the West. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

During a public appearance November 10, the Russian ambassador to Armenia, Anatoly Dryukov, appeared to discourage Armenia from getting too close to the West.

Referring to the recent efforts to by Armenian leaders to cultivate better ties to the West, Dryukov said: "If Armenia prioritizes its national interests, then the vector of relations [i.e. Armenia’s special relationship with Russia] will remain correct," the Mediamax news agency reported.

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

6. - AFP - "German defense minister favors tank sales to Turkey":

ANKARA / 18 November 2004

German Defense Minister Peter Struck on Thursday said he favors the sale of German Leopard II tanks to Turkey, just five years after his country rejected a similar request by Ankara on grounds that the weapons could be used against civilians in eastern Turkey.

"If Turkey makes a request (to purchase the tanks), as minister of defense, I would give a favorable opinion to the (German) chancellor and the foreign minister," Struck said.

He told a joint press conference here with his Turkish counterpart Vecdi Gonul that Turkey, a NATO member and a candidate for membership in the European Union, had undergone major changes since the initial German refusal.

"An entirely different process has been under way in Turkey over the past five years," Struck said, referring to the slew of reforms Ankara has adopted over the past few years to bring its legislation up to the standards of the EU, which it hopes to join as a full member.

Germany had cancelled a deal to sell weapons, including tanks, to Ankara five years ago, saying it feared the Turkish army could use them against civilians in its 15-year war against Kurdish rebels in eastern and southeastern Turkey.

But Struck stressed that the aim of his two-day visit was "not to sell used tanks to Turkey," which already has a number of earlier generation Leopard I tanks.

"If there is a request, we will look at it," he said.

Gonul said what Turkey really wants is to build its own "Turkish-type" tanks as part of efforts to modernize its army, the second largest in NATO after that of the United States.

"But this will take time," he acknowledged, "and we are studying interim solutions."

The German army, also in the midst of a modernization process, plans to reduce by 350 the number of its Leopard II tanks, which currently stands at 850.