1. "Turkey reassesses treatment of its minority religions", nationalists fear ending curbs may divide the country.

2. "'Honor killings' help-center founded in Diyarbakir", the Woman Center (KA-MER), the first such organization established in Diyarbakir, will hold a one year campaign in the Southeast Anatolian province of Diyarbakir to draw attention to "honor killings" and to seek public support against the practice.

3. "Last meeting Turkey-EU before December EU summit, vital for accession talks", 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. Turkey has made it clear that such a status would be unacceptable.

4. "Two suspected Kurdish rebels killed in Turkey clash", two alleged Kurdish rebels suspected of plotting attacks on government targets were killed in a shootout with security forces in southeastern Turkey, local authorities said Monday.

5. "Cyprus split clouds Turkey's EU ambitions", Diplomatic skirmishes have intensified between Greece and Turkey as the European Union prepares to decide at a Dec. 17 summit whether to set a date for talks on Turkey's membership application.

6. "Deployment of Kurdish troops in Mosul alarms Arabs", as U.S. forces try to regain control of Iraq’s third largest city, they are turning to their old allies the Kurds to keep the peace in Mosul.

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1. - New York Times - "Turkey reassesses treatment of its minority religions":

Nationalists fear ending curbs may divide the country

ISTANBUL / 20 November 2004 / by SUSAN SACHS

In the cavernous Panayia church, one of the few Greek Orthodox churches still active in Turkey, ceiling panels dangle precariously over the choir loft. Flying glass has pitted the frescoes of biblical scenes. Musty carpets are rolled up and stored like logs beside the elaborate Byzantine iconostasis.

The building, which celebrates its 200th anniversary today, has been scarred for a year, since terrorists bombed the nearby British Consulate and the force of the explosion shattered dozens of the church's stained-glass windows.

Orthodox leaders, following Turkish law, asked for government permission to make repairs but received no response. Rain seeped in. Paint peeled. Mildew grew.

After a few months, they surreptitiously replaced the broken church windows. But they hesitate to start renovations because the Turkish authorities, as frequently happens in such cases, still have not acknowledged their request.

"That's the usual tactic," said Andrea Rombopoulos, a parishioner who publishes a newspaper for the small Greek Orthodox community in Istanbul. "They don't give a negative answer. They don't give any answer at all."

Turkey has long viewed its non-Muslim minorities with a certain ambivalence, defending individual freedom of worship while tightly regulating the affairs of religious institutions. Christians of Greek and Armenian descent, in particular, have said they are blocked from using, selling and renovating properties that have been in their churches' hands for centuries.

Now, under pressure from the European Union and local civil rights advocates, Turkey has started to cautiously reassess the way it has treated religious minorities since the state was founded 81 years ago.

Relaxing the rules

Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan's government has prepared legislation that would give Christian and Jewish foundations more freedom to manage their own assets and elect their board members. Parliament is expected to vote on the bill before Dec. 17, when EU leaders are to decide whether to open accession talks with Turkey.

For the first time, senior Turkish officials have also broken a long-standing taboo and broached the idea of allowing the Greek Orthodox patriarchate to reopen a 160-year-old seminary that once served as a leading training center for priests.

The school, perched on a hill on an island in the Sea of Marmara off Istanbul, was closed in 1971 when the state took control of all private universities. Erdogan's aides have suggested that it could be permitted to operate again, as a gesture to the EU, if Turkey's membership bid advances.

Some legal constraints on religious foundations have already been relaxed over the last three years although European and American human rights monitors, citing cases like the Panayia church, have reported that local officials have been reluctant to carry out the changes.

Still, Christian leaders here said they were more hopeful than ever.

"What has changed is that we don't have that hostility anymore from the authorities," said Elpidoforos Lambriniadis, an aide to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. "As the patriarchate, we don't doubt the good will of the government. But we know the government is not controlling everything in this country."

Fears of division

For many Turks, even a discussion of religious or ethnic minorities raises fears of separatism. Some have argued that lifting government controls on religious institutions, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, would undermine Turkey's secular foundations. And Turkey's president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, recently warned that drawing attention to Turkey's sectarian or cultural diversity harmed the state.

The delicacy of the issue was highlighted earlier this month when a government-sponsored commission released a report criticizing Turkey's definition of itself as a "single-culture nation-state" and urging an end to all restrictions on the expression of minority languages and cultures.

When the report was presented at a news conference, a dissenting member of the commission ripped a copy from the hands of the presenter and tore it up. Later, the Erdogan government, which established the commission, also disowned it.

For some hard-line nationalists, even the term "minority" is anathema, suggesting dual loyalties and the betrayal of the country's cherished ideal of an indivisible Turkish identity.

"In the end, there will be lots of small groups feeling different and trying to identify their differences as separate identities on basis of religion, race or language," said Mehmet Sandir, a spokesman for the Nationalist Movement party. "And at times of economic or political crisis, our country will immediately turn into a `minority hell' of internal strife."

Turkey's enemies, he added, could exploit those differences to split the nation, as the European allies and Russia did after World War I.

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2. - Turkish Daily News - "'Honor killings' help-center founded in Diyarbakir":

22 November 2004

The Woman Center (KA-MER), the first such organization established in Diyarbakir, will hold a one year campaign in the Southeast Anatolian province of Diyarbakir to draw attention to "honor killings" and to seek public support against the practice.

"The Honor Killings Project Campaign," organized by KA-MER, will start with a meeting on Nov. 22 at the Dedeman Hotel, Diyarbakir.

According to information received from KA-MER officials, meetings will be held for the members of civil societies and public organizations, with support from the British Council, on Nov. 22 in Diyarbakir and on Nov. 23 in Mardin.

The authorities said that in the meetings the things they can do about violence and their contribution would be considered, adding: “We are planning to form a public opinion concerning honor killings. The campaign will last one year and be assisted by posters in addition to meetings."

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3. - AFP - "Last meeting Turkey-EU before December EU summit, vital for accession talks":

THE HAGUE / 21 November 2004

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul travels to the Netherlands, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, on Wednesday for a final ministerial meeting before the EU summit on December 17 that will decide whether to open accession talks with Ankara.

The European "troika" -- comprised of the current and future presidency, Luxembourg, and the European Commission -- and Turkey meet twice a year but all parties have stressed the importance of Wednesday's meeting.

"We will exchange views and see where we stand ahead of December 17," a senior Turkish diplomat told AFP. "We expect to learn from the (Dutch) presidency about the positions of other member nations (on Turkey's EU bid) since the presidency was collecting their views."

Turkey, an official membership candidate since 1999, demands that accession talks start in the first half of 2005.

"We will also renew our concerns that emerged with the report of the European Commission," the diplomat said.

He referred to an October 6 report by the EU executive arm, which recommended that EU leaders open membership negotiations with Turkey, but at the same time made some proposals that irked Ankara, mostly about ensuring the freedom of religion.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot recently said "if we start the negotiations in 2005, if there are no unforeseen circumstances (...) and if Turkey goes on the way of reforms, and I don't see any reason why they should not be able to fulfil the criteria, we estimate that the negotiations could last about 10 years."

Asked pointedly whether Turkey's entry into the EU by 2015 was realistic, Bot replied "yes".

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. Turkey has made it clear that such a status would be unacceptable.

The meeting will also look into a recommendation to compare Turkish laws with European legislation before the official opening of accession talks, diplomatic sources in Brussels said.

Ankara said it has already completed such a screening and sees the recommendation as an attempt to push back the actual start of membership talks.

The screening procedure means that candidate countries present the actual state of their legislation in the different areas that will be discussed during the accession negotiations.

The European Commission will then compare this to the EU laws and the candidate country is told which measures will have to be taken to meet the criteria.

Ankara recalled the Copenhagen summit of December 2002, which specified that if it was decided to open accession talks this December, they would have to be opened "without delay".

For other candidate EU-members the screening took place just after the official opening of membership negotiations, a European diplomat said.

Another issue snagging the possible membership talks that will be discussed in the meeting is Turkey's refusal to acknowledge the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government of EU member Cyprus. Cyprus has hinted that it could use its veto right to stop accession talks.

Aside from Gul and his Dutch counterpart Bot, Dutch European Affairs Minister Atzo Nicolai and the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana will participate in the meeting.

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4. - AFP - "Two suspected Kurdish rebels killed in Turkey clash":

DIYARBAKIR / 22 November 2004

Two alleged Kurdish rebels suspected of plotting attacks on government targets were killed in a shootout with security forces in southeastern Turkey, local authorities said Monday.

The gunbattle broke out at a house in the town of Kiziltepe in Mardin province after residents alerted security forces that armed men were seen in the area, Mardin Governor Temel Kocaklar said in a statement carried by the Anatolia news agency.

The house belonged to a man who had earlier been convicted for membership to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), now also known as KONGRA-GEL.

The shooting erupted when the two men, who were spotted outside the house, opened fire when ordered to stop.

They were armed with two AK-47 assault rifles, two hand grenades and six cartridge clips, the statement said, adding they were planning attacks on the local police and paramilitary gendarmerie headquarters.

The PKK, which waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey between 1984 and 1999, called off a five-year unilateral truce with Ankara on June 1.

Since then, the group has been blamed for a series of deadly attacks on security forces and the bombings in August of two hotels in Istanbul, in which two people were killed.

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5. - The Washington Times - "Cyprus split clouds Turkey's EU ambitions":

NICOSIA / 22 November 2004 / by Andrew Borowiec

Diplomatic skirmishes have intensified between Greece and Turkey as the European Union prepares to decide at a Dec. 17 summit whether to set a date for talks on Turkey's membership application.

The pre-summit climate also was marred by what Greece says are increasing violations of its Aegean Sea airspace by Turkish warplanes and a hardening of Turkey's views on its EU membership credentials.

Cyprus, an EU member since May, periodically hints that it might use its veto to prevent the summit participants from setting a date for the start of negotiations on Turkey's accession. Those negotiations could last as long as a decade.

Greek-Cypriots insist that unless Turkey recognizes their government, it has no legal right to join the 25-nation European community.

This stance is backed by Greece, with Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman George Koumoutsakos saying that "nonrecognition of an EU member by a candidate country is a political and institutional absurdity."

Various EU officials have warned of mounting problems in the path of Turkey's European aspirations, an attitude that the country considers provocative.

Statements from Ankara indicate a hardening of its position on EU requirements and a rejection of suggestions that Turkey recognize the Greek-Cypriot government as the legitimate government of this East Mediterranean island.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has stressed that Turkey will not be satisfied with lengthy negotiations nor a "special relationship" short of full membership, as suggested by several EU member nations.

"For us, negotiations mean negotiations for full membership," Mr. Gul told the Turkish daily Zaman. "No alternative is possible for us."

Officially, Greece and the internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot government say that entering the European Union would make Turkey more amenable to compromise on difficult issues. In practice, however, both are concerned about Ankara's stand on Cyprus.

Turkey is the only backer of the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), where Ankara maintains 30,000 troops.

Turkey feels that Turkish-Cypriots should be rewarded by the international community for their acceptance in April of a U.N. plan for Cypriot unity. Greek-Cypriots in a referendum rejected the formula put forward by Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations.

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6. - Reuters - "Deployment of Kurdish troops in Mosul alarms Arabs":

MOSUL / 21 November 2004 / by Luke Baker

As U.S. forces try to regain control of Iraq’s third largest city, they are turning to their old allies the Kurds to keep the peace in Mosul.

That has caused resentment among some Arabs and Kurdish troops have been killed in at least one incident -- three Kurds were found shot dead in the mainly Arab city on Sunday.

In the 10 days since Sunni Arab insurgents overran parts of Mosul, looting, burning and in several cases blowing up police stations, reinforcements have been sent in from across the nearby northern Kurdish region, especially Dohuk and Arbil.

A battalion of Iraq’s paramilitary National Guard has been sent in from both those towns and another could soon join them, raising the total to around 1,800 men, U.S. commanders say.

While now in National Guard uniform and answerable to the Iraqi Defense Ministry in Baghdad, most of the Kurds were until recently "peshmerga" fighters, a well-organized and feared force set up by Kurdish leaders in the mountains who, with U.S. help, fought Saddam Hussein’s army to a standstill after the Gulf War.

Their deployment has provoked consternation among some Arab residents who fear that the Kurds, who want a fully independent state in northern Iraq, are trying to expand their territory onto the oil-rich plain to the south of their strongholds.

"Nobody wants the Kurdish army here," said Abeet Ranam, 40, an Arab storeowner in an upscale neighborhood of northeastern Mosul. "There have been Kurds living here for centuries and that is fine. But we do not want the Kurdish army."

In the west of the city on Sunday, a Reuters reporter saw the bodies of three National Guards, shot in the back of the head. A note by the bodies read: "These are peshmerga soldiers."

The U.S. military said troops found the bodies of nine National Guards in Mosul on Saturday, similarly shot. It was not clear whether they were Kurds. An Arab guerrilla group posted a video on a Web site saying it showed two Kurdish "spies" being shot in Mosul.

Another group said it had beheaded two National Guards.

ETHNIC MIX

Mosul’s two million people are among Iraq’s most ethnically and religiously diverse communities. As well as Arabs and Kurds, who mostly share a common Sunni Muslim faith, there are also Turkish-speaking Turkmen, Christian Assyrians and Yazidis.

The city, in the far north of Iraq on the banks of the Tigris, has its roots in the 8th century when it was an important stopover on the caravan route from the Mediterranean to India.

"The people of Mosul don’t like outsiders, that’s it. Whether it’s Kurds or Arabs from outside, they are not welcome," said Ala, a translator for U.S. forces who is half Kurdish and half Arab.

For the U.S. military, the public suspicions about the Kurdish National Guard units have created a conundrum.

For well over a decade, the Kurds have been Washington’s strongest ally in Iraq against Saddam. Now, with Mosul threatening to turn to chaos after most of the city’s 4,000 police deserted, the Kurds are again proving staunch allies.

"They’re well-organized, fierce and get the job done," said Captain Robert Lackey, a company commander with the U.S. Stryker Brigade, which is responsible for northern Iraq.

"They understand how we operate and what we need to do, so it’s great to have them working with us."

Out on the streets of Mosul, the Kurdish National Guards are far more effective than Arab peers, U.S. commanders say. Many Arab Guards are simply not turning up to work, partly out of fear of reprisals by insurgents against them or their families.

"For the Kurds, this isn’t their neighborhood, this isn’t their town, so they have nothing to fear," said Lieutenant Noel Rodriguez, a Stryker Brigade platoon commander.

In one southeastern neighborhood where a police station was blown up last week, Kurdish National Guard units have moved in.

The Kurdish commander was barely able to communicate in Arabic. One man in the street pointed in alarm to the Kurdish flag on the commander’s uniform -- and absence of Iraqi symbols.

U.S. commanders say they are aware of such sensitivities but dismiss suggestions that they could stoke ethnic conflict.