19
November 2004
1. "Torture was Set Free", a Turkish court acquitted two police officers, who were being charged for torturing.
2. "30-day "DEHAP" punishment to Hakkari FM", RTUK gives a 30-day closure to Hakkari FM because of Democratic People Party's chair Suvagci's words. In the program he condemned the closing of the party, those missing while under arrest and he wants a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue.
3. "No tank purchase deal with Germany", 'No hands have been shaken over the purchase of tanks,' says Defense Minister Gonul after meeting his German counterpart.
4. "Ankara examines Kurdish poll move", Turkish authorities see that Iraqi Kurdish groups' plans to delay local elections in Kirkuk may not be possible to implement, while Turkmens say the attempt is designed to ensure a majority in the city to secure victory in polls.
5. "Militants try to stir Arab-Kurd violence", insurgents battling U.S. and Iraqi forces in the northern city of Mosul have been trying to drag the Kurdish minority into their fight and set off a sectarian war, Kurdish and Arab officials say.
6. "Turkish FM rules out Cyprus recognition", Turkey does not intend to recognise EU member Cyprus despite veiled threats by Nicosia to veto Ankara’s bid to join the European Union, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in an interview published on Thursday.
1. - Bianet - "Torture was Set Free":
A court acquitted police officers Ismail Icen and Mustafa Yucel, who were being charged for torturing Daslik. Her lawyer appealed the case at the Supreme Court of Appeals. Icen, who stood another trial for torture, was acquitted in recent months.
DIYARBAKIR / 18 November 2004 / by Mahmut Oral
A Turkish court acquitted police officers Ismail Icen and Mustafa Yucel, who were standing trial in Diyarbakir for torturing Remziye Daslik.
Daslik was detained on February 27, 2002 by police officers from the Diyarbakir Anti-Terrorism Unit of Police Headquarters, after her house was searched. Daslik was released pending the outcome of her trial after spending two days under detention.
Daslik, who was acquitted, submitted a complaint to the Diyarbakir Prosecutor's Office, saying police officers Ismail Icen and Mustafa Yucel of the anti-terrorism unit, tortured her during questioning.
The police officers stood trial under article 243 of the Turkish Penal Code for "torturing an individual to make him/her confess to a crime," and faced up to eight years in prison.
"No adequate evidence"
The prosecutors told the court that there was not enough evidence, apart from the claims of Daslik, to prove that the police officers indeed tortured her during her detention, and asked the court to acquit Icen and Yucel.
The defendants presented the court photographs and video recordings that showed Remziye Daslik attended protests after being released, as evidence. The court acquitted Icen and Yucel.
Defendant Ismail Icen stood another trial for torturing Gokhan Bicer, who was detained on September 2, 2002, and was acquitted in recent months.
Lawyer Sila Talay applied to the Supreme Court of Appeals and asked that the court decision to acquit the police officers is overturned.
"It's against laws"
Talay argued that the defendant police officers were trying to legitimize torture during their defense. Talay said the following in her appeal:
"The court's ruling is against laws and international conventions signed by Turkey. Fighting torture is only possible through determined, judicial, administrative and legal regulations. Any other measure would be just for show, and would not have any effect on the essence of the problem.
Our laws, constitution, and all international conventions we have signed bans torture and dishonoring treatment. All these laws however, could not prevent torture for being used as a widespread and systematic questioning method in Turkey.
Legal amendments about torture are positive. But we need law enforcement
officials to implement these laws and punish the torturers."
2. - Bianet - "30-day "DEHAP" punishment to Hakkari FM":
RTUK gives a 30-day closure to Hakkari FM because of Democratic People Party's chair Suvagci's words. In the program he condemned the closing of the party, those missing while under arrest and he wants a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue.
HAKKARI / 18 November 2004 / Erol Onderoglu
Hakkari FM has been closed for 30 days by Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) because of an interview with Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) Hakkari chair Selahattin Suvagci, it has been announced.
Hakan Tas, manager of the radio station, has asked RTUK chair Fatih Karaca, for a 20-day postponement because of the Ramadan holiday but he has not received a response to his request.
Suvagci told Bianet he talked about the need to find a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem on the program. During the program, Suvagci talked about the disappearance of Ebubekir Deniz and Serdar Tanis while under arrest and that he had not been able to hear from them since that time. Suvagci himself has been arrested five times in the last five years, he said.
Tas said that station has been punished because of the show, Gundem, which aired on March 22, but that the radio station gave equal time to all party representatives before local elections. There was nothing on the show that would hurt the people, he said.
Who will give the news?
"We have to cover the news, not just the music on our radio station because there is only one radio station in our town," Tas said.
Hakkari FM has been given the 30-day closure under Code 3984, which will begin in early October.
Citing the code, the reason for the punishment was, "Provoking
violence, terror or ethnic separatism," "inciting hostility
among the people," and using broadcasting to "incite hatred."
3. - Turkish Daily News - "No tank purchase deal with Germany":
'No hands have been shaken over the purchase of tanks,' says Defense Minister Gonul after meeting his German counterpart
ANKARA / 19 November 2004
Turkey said yesterday that there was no decision to purchase tanks from NATO ally Germany, as it was still considering available options for modernization of its land forces.
"No hands have been shaken today over the purchase of tanks," Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul told a a press conference after talks with German Foreign Minister Peter Struck, who was on a two-day visit to Turkey.
Struck's visit came amid media reports indicating that Turkey was considering Leopard tanks from Germany. Germany in the past has refused to deliver tanks to Turkey because of concerns that they could harm civilians if used by Turkey's military in its fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in southeastern Anatolia.
However, German officials have said Berlin is considering loosening restrictions it has placed on arms exports to Turkey after the country begins negotiations to join the European Union.
Struck himself said he had not come to Turkey to sell tanks but said he would not object to their sale to a NATO ally.
"If there is a request ... as the defense minister, I would recommend that we respond positively," Struck had said after talks with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on the first day of his visit on Wednesday.
Gonul said Turkey aimed to eventually build its own tanks but was considering purchasing tanks for the interim period. He said tanks from Germany was one option which the government was considering.
"Where there is a seller there is a buyer, but there are other sellers," Gonul joked.
"Nothing has been decided. We are still also debating how useful tanks are," he added.
Struck's visit was for discussion of bilateral ties as well as the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Turkey is set to take over the command of a NATO peacekeeping force in February.
Leaders of the 25 EU countries will meet in December to decide whether
Turkey should start the talks. Germany is a firm supporter of Turkey's
EU membership aspirations.
4. - Turkish Daily News - "Ankara examines Kurdish poll move":
Turkish authorities see that Iraqi Kurdish groups' plans to delay local elections in Kirkuk may not be possible to implement, while Turkmens say the attempt is designed to ensure a majority in the city to secure victory in polls
ANKARA / 19 November 2004 / by Tama Demirelli and Emine Kart
Turkey said it was examining a move by two Kurdish groups running northern Iraq to delay municipal polls in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, whose control is disputed among Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs.
Leaders of the two major Iraqi Kurdish groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), have agreed on the necessity of delaying the January municipal elections in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk until the government settles the issue of Kurds returning to their former homes.
Massoud Barzani, leader of the KDP, and Jalal Talabani, head of the PUK, reached an agreement during talks on Wednesday about the election, said Azad Jindyany, director of the PUK media office.
"It's too early to say anything. Let's first get first-hand information," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters yesterday when asked to comment on the Kurdish move.
Turkish officials said the relevant documents regulating the election calendar in Iraq would be examined to see whether a delay in the January elections would be possible. But they commented that the Kurdish proposal did not seem feasible.
The request by the KDP and the PUK is to be assessed by an autonomous election board supervising the Iraqi polls. Local elections are due to be held in each Iraqi province simultaneously with parliamentary elections across the country.
"An agreement between the two Kurdish parties is not enough," said the Ankara office of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC), an umbrella organization for Iraqi Turkmens.
"The only institution authorized to delay or postpone elections in Iraq is the Iraqi Higher Commission for Elections, an independent body," a statement faxed to the Turkish Daily News said.
Barzani and Talabani were to meet with Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to discuss the election issue, but the meeting had not taken place before the TDN went to press.
The ownership of the city is a disputed matter among Kurds, Arabs and the Turkmens, who have close relations with Turkey. Turkish officials frequently warn that Ankara would not let the city fall under the control of a single group, namely the Iraqi Kurds.
Fair play
Kurdish leaders would like more Kurds to return to ethnically mixed Kirkuk before the election. A large Kurdish vote in the election would reaffirm the Kurds' claim that the city should be part of the Kurdish autonomous region.
The Kurds revoked Article 58 of Iraq's interim Constitution, which states that all Iraqis, including the Kurds displaced under Saddam Hussein's regime, have the right to return to their homes and receive compensation.
"They agreed that elections should not take place unless the government addresses the Kurds' problems first according to Article 58 of Iraq's interim Constitution, which ensures the Kurds' normalization in Kirkuk," Jindyany said.
Regional sources said elections would weaken the Kurdish grip on Kirkuk's municipal assembly if they were held in January as planned. Kurdish groups currently control 70 percent of the assembly and have firm control over the local administration.
"It seems they want this postponement because they see they will not manage to get the desired outcome in Iraq and northern Iraq in elections," the ITC said, describing the Kurdish request as a move to ensure a majority before going to polls. "We deem this to be a lack of trust for the people of Iraq."
Kurds also want a local election commission to be disbanded, seeking a greater representation in it.
The commission is authorized to determine who is eligible to vote in local elections, and Kurds fear the commission will not let thousands of Kurds who have recently returned to Kirkuk vote because they do not have residence records in Kirkuk.
Only one member of the eight-member commission is Kurdish.
5. - AP - "Militants try to stir Arab-Kurd violence":
19 November 2004 / by Mariam Fam
Insurgents battling U.S. and Iraqi forces in the northern city of Mosul have been trying to drag the Kurdish minority into their fight and set off a sectarian war, Kurdish and Arab officials say.
Violence against Kurds has escalated in recent days, officials say. The offices - and officials - of Kurdish political parties have been attacked. Insurgents fired on a truck carrying Kurdish peshmerga fighters. And at least one Kurd was said to have been beheaded in Mosul, a largely Sunni Arab city.
"They are trying to ignite the flames of sedition between Arabs and Kurds," Khasro Gouran, Mosul’s Kurdish deputy provincial governor, said by telephone from Mosul. "They want the Kurds to react and the peshmerga to come in (from outside Mosul) so there would be sectarian strife in the city."
"They won’t succeed because the Kurdish leadership is aware of their plans," Gov. Duraid Kashmoula, an Arab, said of the insurgents.
The Kurds are not the only ones under attack. During the latest bout of violence, masked men have stormed police stations, looting and burning some. They’ve also set up their own checkpoints and set cars ablaze, prompting the Americans to launch military operations to oust fighters from their stronghold in the city.
Gouran said that in recent days three Kurds were killed, including at least one whose decapitated body was discovered with the head placed on the back.
The two main Iraqi Kurdish parties are mostly secular U.S. allies that have a bloody history of animosity with some militant Islamic groups and Baath Party loyalists, both believed to be active in the Mosul insurgency. The parties have long been targets.
The Kurdish minority generally lives in peace with Mosul’s Arab majority, although land and property disputes have in the past created some tensions.
When the militants overpowered Mosul’s police force, which U.S. and Iraqi officials say is infiltrated by insurgents, the local government called in reinforcements, some of which came from the mostly quiet Kurdish region.
Gouran said some of the Iraqi National Guard reinforcements rushed
to the city came from the Kurdish provinces of Dohuk and Irbil. He
said many of their members were former peshmerga, a term that refers
to the Kurdish militia that fought former Baghdad governments.
In addition, Kurdish political parties called in peshmerga fighters
to guard their offices. The Kurdish militia proved harder for insurgents
to overpower than the police - in some cases killing or capturing
their attackers.
The solution offered its own problems: The fact that many of the National Guardsmen were Kurds and former peshmerga members didn’t sit well with some of the city’s Arab residents.
Kurdish and Arab officials took pains to stress that National Guardsmen were members of Iraq’s security forces regardless of their ethnicity or their religion and that no peshmerga fighters were patrolling the streets.
"The Kurds have no intention to take over Mosul or to `Kurdicize’ it," Gouran said. "The relationship between Kurds and Arabs in Mosul is strong."
Such assurances fail to ease the concerns of some.
"There has been an escalation in armed attacks against the Kurds and this proves that the Arabs don’t agree to let the Kurds control the situation in the city, " said Salem Ghanim Aziz, an Arab resident.
He said that having Kurdish forces could complicate matters, arguing that Arab residents might want to take revenge against the Kurdish fighters from the north that some blame for taking part in the looting that swept through Mosul when it fell during last year’s U.S.-led invasion.
"This is an Arab city and we don’t accept strangers," said another Arab resident, who identified himself only as Abu Omar. He said he doesn’t accept the presence of Kurdish National Guardsmen any more than that of the militants.
Some Kurdish residents said they heard Arab neighbors gloating over recent attacks on the Kurdish parties.
Officials say such sentiments are not widespread and mostly come from Arabs who belonged to the former regime, pointing to Arab-Kurdish intermarriages and amicable relations in the city.
"People say that the Kurds have ethnic designs on the city," said an Arab provincial council member who didn’t want his name used for fear of retaliation. "But some of these people have Wahhabi thoughts and others are the disadvantaged members of the former regime who wear the mask of Arab nationalism."
Similarly, he said, some were circulating rumors that other security reinforcements dispatched from Baghdad were Shiites coming to rule over the Sunni majority.
He said the reinforcements were only trying to "prevent Mosul from becoming another Fallujah."
Many in Mosul say they are tired of the violence that has shattered the normalcy of their lives and restricted their movement under a curfew imposed on the city.
One Arab resident who asked that his name not be used said he wanted calm to return to Mosul, be it at Kurdish or Arab hands.
"Don’t they say this is a unified Iraq? Let them come from the north or the south as long as they restore security," he said. "Let’s forget this talk about ethnicity and religion."
"We’re living in hell," he said. "We want to
able to go out to the market. We’re sick of this."
6. - The International News - "Turkish FM rules out Cyprus recognition":
ANKARA / 18 November 2004
Turkey does not intend to recognise EU member Cyprus despite veiled threats by Nicosia to veto Ankara’s bid to join the European Union, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in an interview published on Thursday. Gul also warned EU leaders, who will decide on December 17 whether to start accession talks with Turkey, that Ankara will reject any proposals other than full membership in the European bloc.
Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos last week called for bilateral talks on issues that could hurt Turkey’s EU bid-namely its refusal to acknowledge the internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot government of the divided island.
Asked whether Ankara might recognize Papadopoulos’ government, Gul told the conservative daily Zaman: "No, no. We have already done our part in a very couragous manner."
He was referring to an April referendum to resolve the 30-year division between Cyprus’ Greek and Turkish communities, which would have resulted, among other things, in the withdrawal of most of the 30,000-odd Turkish troops stationed in the Turkish-populated north since 1974.
The referendum failed after the Greek Cypriots voted down a UN settlement plan to reunite the island before it joined the EU on May 1, while the Turkish Cypriots-strongly encouraged by Ankara-gave it overwhelming support.
The outcome ensured that the Greek Cypriots alone joined the EU as the internationally-recognised side of the island, leaving the breakaway Turkish Cypriots out in the cold and drawing criticism from Brussels. Asked about suggestions that the EU might offer Turkey a special partnership status rather than full membership, Gul said such proposals would be rejected.
"For us, negotiations mean negotiations for full membership. No other alternative is possible for us," he told Zaman. Turkey’s opponents, who maintain that the vast Muslim-majority nation is not fit for EU membership, say Ankara should be given a special partnership status rather than full membership.