1. "Turkey and EU speak 'different languages' on minorities, says minister", Turkey, which the European Union says must improve its treatment of its 25-million-strong Kurdish population before it can join the bloc, and the EU speak "different languages" on minorities, the country's justice minister said Thursday.

2. "Minorities Comment on "Report on Minorities", members of Turkey's minority groups denounce violent reactions against the Prime Ministry's working group on "Rights of Minorities". Lawyer Bakar calls for full implementation of Laussane Treaty, while Alevite researcher Sener welcomes the debate.

3. "Draft Law Legalizes Torture", the Draft Law on Execution of Penalties, introducing forced labor, uniforms, defining silent protests as disciplinary crimes and imposing solitary confinement aimes at legalizing psychological torture, say human rights activists.

4. "Turkish parliament passes new reform demanded by EU", the Turkish parliament Thursday passed a law expanding the freedoms of civic associations, a reform demanded by the European Union ahead of a crucial December 17 decision on Turkey's membership bid.

5. "Another EU crisis brewing", parliamentary sub-commission decides to include a new article in the CMUK amendment proposal to ensure medical examinations of female suspects are conducted by female doctors.

6. "Kurds Walk Political Tightrope", many Iraqis fear ethnic Kurds in the north want full independence.

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1. - AFP - "Turkey and EU speak 'different languages' on minorities, says minister":

ANKARA / 4 November 2004

Turkey, which the European Union says must improve its treatment of its 25-million-strong Kurdish population before it can join the bloc, and the EU speak "different languages" on minorities, the country's justice minister said Thursday.

"We must not engage in a debate which would call into question the unity of Turkey," Cemil Cicek told a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Anatolia news agency reported.

Such a debate would only benefit Kurdish extremists who seek division of the country, added Cicek, who is also the government's spokesman.

He said each country had different methods for meeting EU criteria, particularly concerning the protection of the rights of minorities.

The Turkish definition of a minority is based on religion and not on ethnicity. Turkey had long resisted demands for more Kurdish freedoms.

It feared that such rights could fuel nationalist sentiment among the minority and constitute a reward for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), whose 15-year campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey has claimed more than 36,000 lives.

But Turkey has in recent years undertaken several major reforms to broaden the cultural freedoms of the Kurdish minority as part of its campaign for EU membership.

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2. - Bianet - "Minorities Comment on "Report on Minorities":

Members of Turkey's minority groups denounce violent reactions against the Prime Ministry's working group on "Rights of Minorities". Lawyer Bakar calls for full implementation of Laussane Treaty, while Alevite researcher Sener welcomes the debate.

ISTANBUL / 5 November 2004

Individuals from minority groups denounce attacks against the controversial Report on "Minority Rights and Cultural Rights” drafted by the Minority Rights and Cultural Rights Study Group of the Prime Ministry’s Advisory Board for Human Rights.

The group’s groundbreaking proposals challenging the present established concept of Turkish citizenry what excludes recognition of ethnic minorities other than non-Muslim religious minorities, arouses angry reactions by nationalist circles.

The group’s spokesperson Prof. Ibrahim Kabaoglu, and Prof. Baskin Oran, author of the draft report are publicly charged as “separatists” by their critics for having proposed recognition of various ethnic identities under the super-identity of “Citizen of Turkey” rather more than “Turkish Citizen”

Members of Turkey’s various ethnic communities expressed their opinions to bianet on the ongoing controversy.

Lawyer Diran Bakar, an ethnic Armenian from Istanbul, said their views on the Minority Report was generally positive but added they were disturbed by the fact that the report did not refer to the minority articles in the Lausanne Peace Treaty.

1924 Lausanne Peace Treaty signed between Turkey and the Allies of the 1st World War recognizes the rights of non-Turkish speaking “Trukish nationals” as well as non-Muslim religious communities.

Alavite researcher-writer Cemal Sener said the report should not be attacked so harshly no matter what. "I do not agree with everything in the report either," said Sener. "But there is no reason for attacking it like that."

Hrant Dink, editor in chief of the bi-lingual (Armenian-Turkish) Agos weekly said the report was not actually a "minority" report, but instead, a "Turkey" report. According to Dink, the report depicts an accurate picture of Turkey.

Cumhur Bal, the secretary-general of the Circassian Federation, said they voted for the Minority Report as members of the Prime Ministry Human Rights Advisory Board.

"Articles of Lausanne should be implemented"

Lawyer Diran Bakar said the Report on Minorities should have referred to the articles of the Lausanne Agreement. Bakar added that although they did not individually have any complaints about their life in Turkey, the memories of past incidents, the incidents of September 6-7, 1957 were still fresh. Bakar complained that the institutions belonging to his community were still under pressure. They were still barred from ecclesiastic training, or from opening up schools or hospitals.

Sener: The report was not strongly defended

Alavite researcher-writer Cemal Sener is of the opinion that even Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Kabaloglu, the head of the commission, could not defend his own report properly against attacks. Sener said:

* Due to political implications of the concept “minority” the Alavites are uncomfortable of being categorized as a “minority”. In Turkey claiming minority status is almost regarded as opposing the secular republic. Yet, Alavites have always supported the secular republic as opposed to Sharia, caliphate, Ottoman monarchy and the like.

* The concept "minorities" is usually used to define non-Muslims. Alavites were not regarded as minorities during the Ottoman rule because they were Muslims. They could neither benefit from the majority rights, nor those of the minorities. The situation continued after the establishment of the Turkish Republic. There is no mention of a legitimate Alavite religion in any formal document. Alavites were first mentioned in the EU Progress Report and the Prime Ministry Human Rights Advisory Board's report. It is positive that it is being discussed, instead of being ignored."

"The essence of the report is the essence of Turkey"

Hrant Dink is of the opinion that those who drafted the Minority Report should be congratulated. Denouncing the ultra-nationalist member of the group who tore the report to protest its content during a press conference Dink said: “Maybe a copy of the report had been torn down. But the essence of the report is the essence of Turkey and the reality remains there.”

Dink continued as follows:

* The understanding of "minorities" in Turkey is different from the understanding of "minorities" in Western democracies.

* The concept "minority" in Turkey is moulded with security concerns. "This is an inferior notion, an inferior status, and so we cannot be minorities." However, there are minorities in this country even if they are regarded as inferior or second-class. And I am one of them.

* In the same way the state looks at non-Muslims as a security problem, but I feel insecure of my own future.

Cumhur Bal said they did not approve the behavior of the public workers union Kamu-Sen representative, who tore the report during the press conference. "This report was voted on and accepted. He may not agree with the report, but he doesn't have the right to act violently."

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3. - Bianet - "Draft Law Legalizes Torture":

The Draft Law on Execution of Penalties, introducing forced labor, uniforms, defining silent protests as disciplinary crimes and imposing solitary confinement aimes at legalizing psychological torture, say human rights activists.

ISTANBUL / 4 November 2004

The draft Law on Execution of Penalties is a legal device aimed at turning pressure and torture into systematic acts, believe Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) activists.

Eren Keskin, head of IHD Istanbul branch, and Huri Vayic from the organization’s Prison Commission, warn that Turkish parliament will soon pass the draft Law on Execution of Penalties which IHD argues for providing legal justification for systematic psychological torture.

In a public statement, IHD criticizes the draft Law on Execution of Penalties on those points:

* By regarding the convicts and prisoners as individuals who are stripped of rights, and who are in need of rehabilitation; and by regarding prison management as the representative of absolute truth and goodness, and by accepting it as the curative authority, the draft law aims at building the state-individual relation of the fascist ideology in the prison,

* By introducing prison uniforms, the draft law aims at stamping the oppressed individuals also through their outfits and at extending oppression over every second of the day,

* Through compulsory education, the draft law forces imprisoned individuals to adopt a specific ideological stand,

* Through forced labor, the law aims at maximizing the abuse of labor, and at oppressing the individual once again by stripping from the right of determining how to use his/her time and productivity,

* By forbidding even silent protests, the law denies the prisoners' right to pursue personal rights and regards them as slaves,

* The maximum security F-type prisons with 1 to 3 people-cells legalizes isolation, and turns torture through isolation into a strong item of the legal system.

* The law also lifts the distinction between detainees and convicts. Apart from imposing forced labor, the draft law similarly threatens the detainees even in harsher terms such as accepting visitors with the approval of the prosecutor and the judge, incarceration in isolation cells, and handcuffing in prison.

IHD reminded that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently during the opening of a courthouse in Alanya had said: "Torture does not only take place under detention. The unhealthy prison conditions should also be regarded as torture."

"Today, the conditions of the prisons in our country, and especially isolation, are a type of torture for the prisoners."

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4. - AFP - "Turkish parliament passes new reform demanded by EU":

ANKARA / 4 November 2004

The Turkish parliament Thursday passed a law expanding the freedoms of civic associations, a reform demanded by the
European Union ahead of a crucial December 17 decision on Turkey's membership bid.

Legislators first passed the bill in July, but it was vetoed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on the grounds that several provisions breached the constitution.

Now that parliament has passed the law for a second time without changes, Sezer does not have a second veto right, but reserves an option to ask the constitutional court to cancel the bill.

Speaking after the vote, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said the new law was transforming associations "into institutions that should be encouraged and trusted from institutions that should be kept under (state) scrutiny," Anatolia news agency reported.

The law is part of several amendments, including also reforms that would remove legal snags hampering the work of non-Muslim religious foundations, establish a judicial police and amend criminal procedures, which the EU expects Turkey to adopt in the short-run.

Those amendments were mentioned as outstanding issues in an October 6 report by the European Commission, the EU executive arm, which recommended the opening of accession talks with Turkey.

EU leaders will decide on December 17 whether to start negotiations with the mainly Muslim nation, a membership candidate since 1999.

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5. - Turkish Daily News - "Another EU crisis brewing":

Parliamentary sub-commission decides to include a new article in the CMUK amendment proposal to ensure medical examinations of female suspects are conducted by female doctors

ANKARA / 5 November 2004

The Criminal Procedures Law (CMUK) Amendment Proposal is gradually becoming a new point of contention that may lead to a serious breach between Turkey and the European Union.

The bill was sent to a sub-commission by the Justice Commission and according to a new article added to the bill by a parliamentary sub- commission, medical examinations of female suspects taken into custody will be carried out by female doctors -- if possible. If not another woman, then a friend will have to be present while the examination takes place. This article was described as sexual discrimination and a violation of medical ethics.

Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, speaking to the Turkish Daily News on the controversial article, said the move was lifted directly from the German Criminal Procedures Law, adding, "A similar bill sent to Parliament by the previous government included the same article verbatum."

He said German law was the guide to their reform efforts.

He said the proposal submitted by the government in charge in 2001, before the Justice and Development Party (AKP) had even been formed, included the same clause, and asked if those who accused them of fundamentalist intentions would have said the same to the government of 2001.

Cicek said currently judges decide who receives medical examinations and by whom. But when the article becomes law the judge will need to take the female suspects' wishes into account, said Cicek, calling on those who tried to create controversy to utilize the freedom of information law.

Cicek asked the media to obtain all the information before commenting on what was actually happening.

The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) objected to this new article, with CHP deputy Feridun Ayvazoglu saying: "We are opposed to this article. Don't think everything is settled."

The reason behind this article was explained as, "An amendment corresponding to the general moral principles has been included in the law."

AKP deputies in the commission called on CHP deputies not to think there was a hidden incentive behind every proposal, adding, "We will delete it if necessary."

CHP's Orhan Eraslan said the article would be a violation of medical ethics, adding, "Reforms can't be passed in such a medieval way."

The sub-commission's legal expert Professor Bahri Ozturk said the article was not unusual, noting that many European countries had a similar law. He said: "If the female suspect is not against being examined by a male doctor, it can take place. If this article results in a misunderstanding, it can be withdrawn."

Government sources say the article was included to counter sexual harassment complaints filed by suspects and the German Criminal Procedures Law was prepared for it. They said the article aimed to protect doctors, prison personnel and suspects.

After the sub-commission completes its work on the proposal, it will be submitted to the Justice Commission. The proposal is expected to be passed before the EU summit on Dec. 17.

CHP opposes fundamentalist agreement

The CHP has warned the government not to call a vote in Parliament on an international agreement on the development of the Islamic private sector. CHP parliamentary group deputy leader Kemal Anadol said the agreement would be used to gradually erode the secular regime in Turkey.

Speaking at a parliamentary press conference, Anadol accused the government of trying to turn the country towards Tehran and Jeddah instead of Europe. He noted that three CHP deputies had included their written objections to the agreement during the discussions on the document at the Industry and Trade Commission. He said the document would later be presented to the Foreign Affairs Commission, asking Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to withdraw the article, claiming it was in violation of articles two and 24 of the Constitution.

Anadol said the agreement aimed to develop an Islamic private sector under the supervision of the Islamic Development Bank of which would to be run in accordance with the principles of Shari'ah. Anadol said his bank would not support any investment that was not already approved by the Shari'ah Committee.

Anadol said that according to article 90 of the Constitution, valid international agreements had precedence over the Constitution and could not be contested, adding that any reservations noted would be useless once it was passed.

He claimed the agreement aimed at establishing a huge Islamic capital reserve in Turkey, as well as strengthening the existing ones. He said the strong Islamic capital would later be used to gradually change the existing secular system.

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6. - Al-Jazeera - "Kurds Walk Political Tightrope":

Many Iraqis fear ethnic Kurds in the north want full independence

3 November 2004 / by Roshan Muhammed Salih

A series of demonstrations in northern Iraq has highlighted the chasm that has developed between Iraqi Kurds and their compatriots.

Last week hundreds of Kurds protested in Kirkuk to demand that the oil-rich northern city form part of Iraqi Kurdistan.

They threatened to boycott national elections planned in January unless Arabs who were resettled in Kirkuk by ousted president Saddam Hussein left the city.

The protest followed other recent rallies by Iraqi Kurds in favour of full independence from Iraq - a policy rejected by Kurdish leaders who back extensive autonomy.

But many Iraqis are deeply suspicious of these moves.

A common view is that the Kurds are out of step with other Iraqis who do not share their pro-American views.

And many Iraqis predict the Kurds will achieve full independence in the near future and take Kirkuk's precious oil with them.

Kurdish-Arab tensions

Iraqi Kurdistan has a different feel compared with the rest of the country.

An oil-rich region, it has four million people - about 20% of Iraq's population - and has been virtually self-ruled since 1991 under US protection.

Its pro-Western leaders, Jalal Talabani and Masud Barzani, were instrumental in helping the Americans topple Saddam last year.

The region itself is verdant and mountainous, the people speak a different language, dress differently and fly their own national flag.

Economically and security-wise, Kurdistan is better off than the rest of Iraq - and the people are quick to thank the Americans for that.

Turi Munthe, a Middle East expert at London's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told Aljazeera.net there is clearly some resentment between Kurds and Iraqi Arabs in particular.

"They have a separate identity to a certain extent and for many years now there has been little contact between the two groups," he said.

Kirkuk dispute

"Kurdistan is the only bit of Iraq that was relatively well off before the invasion and the Kurds want it to remain that way. They do not want to get sucked into the insurgency that exists in the middle of Iraq and in the south."

Munthe says resentment towards the Kurds is particularly prevalent among thousands of Arabs and Turkmen who have been forced to leave historically ethnically-diverse Kirkuk and surrounding areas.

The Kurds say the expulsions were a response to Saddam's "Arabisation" policy, which they say the former Iraqi president launched to consolidate his grip over the region.

This entailed the resettling in northern Iraq of tens of thousands - some say hundreds of thousands - of Arabs from central and southern Iraq, and the expelling of a similar number of Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians.

Iraqi Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish groups dispute these figures and say each side is exaggerating the extent of resettlements and expulsions.

Nevertheless, this issue, according to Munthe, could be the powder keg that sets off a wider conflict because Kirkuk's natural resources are coveted by all, and could make an independent Kurdistan a viable entity.

Ali al-Quradaghi, a Kurdish expert at the University of Qatar, also acknowledged the Kurds have striking differences with other Iraqis.

He told Aljazeera.net that most Kurds considered themselves to be Muslims first, Kurds second and Iraqis only third.

Historical injustices

But al-Quradaghi said you cannot talk about Iraqi Kurds without first understanding the historical injustices perpetrated against them.

"The Kurds were one people under the Ottoman empire," he said.

"But the 1916 Sykes-Picot deal between the British and the French carved up the Kurdish territories and distributed the Kurds into five separate states.

"None of the problems we see today with Kurdish rebellions and subsequent reprisals would have happened had the Kurds been given their own state like everyone else at that time," he said.

Denied a state of their own, the Kurds have waged a struggle against Baghdad for most of the century.

And the struggle has been at considerable cost.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), tens of thousands of Kurds were killed and hundreds of thousands fled into exile during a campaign of "extermination" by Saddam's forces in the 1980s.

Kurdish rebellion

The rights group reported that in 1988 alone, Iraqi forces razed thousands of villages - destroying the traditional rural economy and infrastructure of Iraqi Kurdistan - and killed tens of thousands of its inhabitants.

However, Saddam's government denied the allegations.

The government said its campaign was a justified response to repeated challenges to its rule over Iraq's northern provinces.

It said it targeted Kurdish fighters who were being harboured by towns and villages and assisted by Iranians to destabilise the country.

But only four years later, in 1992, Iraqi Kurds held elections under US and British protection.

The vote was split almost evenly between Masud Barzani's KDP and the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), headed by Jalal Talabani.

Soon after, the CIA recruited Kurds for an anti-Saddam army, and the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a US-backed opposition group, set up base in Kurdistan.

But fighting within the nationalist parties greatly hindered a concerted campaign against Saddam, and in 1994 tensions between the KDP and the PUK erupted into civil war.

Civil war

During the conflict the KDP allied itself with the Iraqi government against the PUK and the INC, who were supported by Iran and the US respectively.

After four years of fighting, Barzani and Talabani signed a peace accord in Washington in 1998, but northern Iraq remained split between the adversaries.

Moreover, since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, allegations have surfaced over the Iraqi Kurds' relationship with Israel which goes back to the 1970s when Israel helped them to fight Baghdad.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper has said Israeli officials have held meetings with Barzani and Talabani, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has confirmed Israel has good relations with the Iraqi Kurds.

More recently, the New Yorker magazine alleged that Israeli intelligence and military forces were active in Kurdish areas of Iran, Syria and Iraq, running secret operations that could destabilise the entire region.

Iraqi Kurd leaders denied these allegations.

Independence or autonomy?

Given this historical background, al-Quradaghi says the only way the Kurds would get their rights is if they pushed for their own state.

"The situation for Iraqi Kurds has improved considerably since 1991," he said.

"So it is not in their interests to fight the Americans like other Iraqis would like them to."

But he added: "If the Kurds wanted independence they would have already asked for it.

"They are realistic people. They know that neighbouring states will never tolerate Iraqi Kurdish independence because that would encourage their own Kurdish minorities to revolt."

Nevertheless, many groups, Shia-based organisations prominent among them, remain suspicious of Kurdish designs, believing them to be a recipe for Iraq's break-up.

Muthana al-Dhari, a spokesman for the influential Iraqi Muslim group Association of Muslim Scholars, said talk of Kurdish independence is exaggerated.

Iraqi unity

He told Aljazeera.net that in these turbulent times, the priority should be Iraq's national unity.

Muthana al-Dhari, Association of Muslim Scholars spokesman

"The Iraqi state was built on ethnic and religious diversity and the Kurdish people have been one of the pillars of the Iraqi state," he said.

"We don't have any problem with the Kurds getting all their national and human rights. Self-rule in the context of an Iraqi state is acceptable, but a state split upon ethnic lines is unacceptable."

He added: "The Kurds have nothing to be afraid of. They opted out of central government when it was controlled by one person [Saddam Hussein], but now things are different.

"They are part of the central government and they will have a say in national affairs."

For al-Dhari, an ethnically divided Iraq would simply play into the hands of foreign powers who he said were intent on dividing Iraqis in order to rule them more effectively.

"The Kurdish question is an Iraqi question and there can be no future for Iraq without an end to occupation," he said.

"Iraqis have historically been able to bridge religious divisions and live side by side. Sunnis and Shia have fought together in places like Falluja and Balad and Salah al-Din province to get rid of foreign occupation.

"It is not true that civil war will break out once foreign forces leave Iraq. I think the potential for national unity will be stronger without occupation."