1 September 2004

1. "Kurdish guerrilla command denies government’s casualty figures", the press liaison office of the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), the Kurdish guerrilla group loyal to Abdullah Öcalan, has issued a statement in which it denies the Turkish government’s claims as to the ostensible death of 11 guerrilla fighters in recent clashes in Bait al-Shabab (Beytüssebap) near Hakkari in outmost southeast Turkey.

2. "Iraqi Kurdistan Heats Up", Turkey has long threatened to take out the PKK themselves, after it became clear that American promises to "deal with" the rebels wereall talk and no action.

3. "Bring The Junta to Justice", the "Seventy-eighters Initiative" urges for prosecution of the leaders of the 1980 military coup. Labor unions, political parties and professional chambers join in a rally, "Bring Them to Justice", on the 24th year of the military take over.

4. "Verheugen promises 'factual and fair' report on Turkey", the EU's Commissioner for Enlargement has promised that next month's assessment report on Turkish membership of the Union will be "thorough, factual and fair".

5. "The Plight of the Kurds in South-West (Syrian) Kurdistan", by Moustafa Rechid, Vice-President, Kurdish PEN Centre. Speech at the meeting “End repression of the Kurds in Syria”, 18 May 2004, chaired by Lord Rea, House of Lords, London.

6. "8 thousand 600 petitions for Ocalan to Adana Governorship", a five hundret people group from Free Citizens' Movement organized a protest march to Adana Governorship and despite of police intervention they submitted 8 thousand 600 petitions to the governorship to demand freedom of Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Ocalan.

1. - MHA - "Kurdish guerrilla command denies government’s casualty figures":

BEHDINAN / 31 August 2004

The press liaison office of the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), the Kurdish guerrilla group loyal to Abdullah Öcalan, has issued a statement in which it denies the Turkish government’s claims as to the ostensible death of 11 guerrilla fighters in recent clashes in Bait al-Shabab (Beytüssebap) near Hakkari in outmost southeast Turkey.

The statement says that while the Turkish army’s operation against guerrilla units in Kato Marinos and Gabar, two areas in Hakkari, was still continuing, the guerrilla forces have not suffered any casualties in it.

The governor of Hakkari, Erdogan Gürbüz, had announced earlier on today that two soldiers and 11 guerrilla fighters had lost their lives in military confrontations. The HPG press office, in its turn, had stated yesterday that 36 Turkish soldiers were killed by its fighters in several clashes in Katos Marinos, Gabar and Cudi.

2. - AntiWar.Blog - "Iraqi Kurdistan Heats Up":

31 August 2004

Turkey has long threatened to take out the PKK themselves, after it became clear that American promises to "deal with" the rebels wereall talk and no action.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul reiterated a call for the United States to take action against Turkish Kurdish rebel bases across the border in Iraq.

"Of course, we expect international cooperation in this issue," Gul told private NTV television. "But we know how to deal with our enemy."

Asked whether Turkey would consider boosting forces in northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels, Gul said: "We would do whatever is necessary for our security."

Turkey already has 1,500 troops backed by tanks and other armor in northern Iraq to monitor rebel actions and prevent cross-border infiltrations.

Gov. Erdogan Gurbuz of Hakkari province said two soldiers and 11 rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, now known as KONGRA-GEL, were killed in the clashes that began Saturday.

An official speaking on condition of anonymity said over 1,000 Turkish troops have participated in the offensive. The troops, backed by U.S. made helicopters, were chasing the guerrillas near the city of Hakkari, where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey meet.

Turkey is home to an estimated 12 million Kurds. Half of them live in the southeast.

Kurdish rebels had waged a 15-year war for autonomy, in which some 37,000 people were killed. They declared a unilateral cease-fire in 1999 after the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, but ended it after five years on June 1, saying Turkey had not responded in kind.

Rebels intensified attacks in the southeast after calling off the cease-fire, killing more than 20 Turkish soldiers or police.

Turkey has ruled out any dialogue with the rebel group, considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department and the European Union, and vowed to maintain its military drive until all rebels surrendered or are killed.
The US has refrained from moving against the PKK because it will anger the Kurdish population of northern Iraq, the only ethnic group that is pro-American, and in the only region that is even slightly peaceful. Attacks against the occupation and those perceived as collaborators, as well as ethnic clashes in the north have continued relentlessly while the eyes of most of the world were glued to the drama in Najaf.

3. - Bianet - "Bring The Junta to Justice":

The "Seventy-eighters Initiative" urges for prosecution of the leaders of the 1980 military coup. Labor unions, political parties and professional chambers join in a rally, "Bring Them to Justice", on the 24th year of the military take over.

ISTANBUL / 31 August 2004

The “Seventy-eighters Initiative”, urging for the prosecution of the leaders of the September 12, 1980 military coup brings together more than 30 groups, including labor unions, left-wing political parties and professional chambers in a rally in front of the Ankara Radio, the first state office taken over during the coup.

The rally is expected to start with a “Democracy Announcement” vis-à-vis that of the junta’s announcement of blanketing the whole country under martial law from the Ankara Radio.

"Under the temporary 15th Article of the Constitution, these leaders of the coup who darkened Turkish history for all of us, can not be prosecuted. We still feel the effects of the coup under the 12 September Constitution and we want to remind the country of the tyranny of the 12 September coup," told Ruþen Sümbüloðlu spokesperson for the “Seventy-eighters Initiative” bianet.

The initiative comprises of the victims of the military rule, most of whom have entered political activity in the year 1978, hence the “Seventy-eighters Initiative.

Although the coup leaders in Argentina, Greece and Chile have been prosecuted and brought to justice after the turn of these to democracy, Turkey is yet ruled under the same Constitution introduced by the military rule, which in spite of later amendments still provides legal immunity for military command that organized the coup.

According to the Ministry of Justice figures, after the 1980 coup, 650 thousand people were arrested. 98, 404 people were prosecuted in military courts and 21,764 people were sentenced for a total of millions of years.

According to the fact and figures provided in “12 September Chart” by “Seventy-eighters Initiative”:

* 1 million people were arrested. 1 million 683 thousand people were filed by the police. In 210 thousand separate cases, 230 thousand people were prosecuted. Almost 100 thousand people were prosecuted under charges of affiliation with “illegal organizations”. The prosecutors indicted 7 thousand people for death penalty, 517 of whom were sentenced to life. 259 of these files were sent to the Parliament for approval, 50 of whom were actually executed.

* Erdal Eren who was 17 at the time of his “crime”, although the law prohibits execution of those under 18, was executed as the military court insisted that he should be charged as an adult. Thousands of people received the life sentence.

* 30 thousand people had to go into exile. 14 thousand people lost their Turkish citizenship. 380 thousand people were denied their passports. 30 thousand people lost their jobs since they were deemed 'objectionable'.

* 117 people were proved to have died under torture. Hundreds of people, who lost their lives under torture, were kept officially unrecorded. Thousands of people were handicapped after being subjected to torture and thousands of others suffered serious psychological problems.

* 14 people lost their lives during hunger strikes to protest treatment in prisons. More than ten people burned themselves to death, protesting the prison conditions across the country.

* 300 journalists were attacked. Three journalists were killed. Prosecutors asked for a total of 4000 years of imprisonment for journalists. 303 separate cases were brought against 13 big newspapers.

* Journalists received a total of 3 thousand 315 years and 6 months of prison sentences. Newspapers were banned from publication for 300 days. 49 tons of newspapers, magazines and books were destroyed for being 'objectionable'. 23 thousand 667 associations had to stop their activities. 937 films were banned for being 'objectionable.'

4. - EUobserver - "Verheugen promises 'factual and fair' report on Turkey":

BRUSSELS / 31 August 2004 / by Honor Mahony

The EU's Commissioner for Enlargement has promised that next month's assessment report on Turkish membership of the Union will be "thorough, factual and fair".

Günter Verheugen told MEPs on Tuesday (31 August) that the report, which will look at whether Ankara has met the political criteria for joining the 25-nation bloc, will also contain "one or two surprises".

The Commissioner went on to say that he was against the idea, proposed recently by the Dutch government's advisory council, that Turkey be given the green light for EU membership but that negotiations only begin in two years.

"I think that would amount to a further two years delay", said Mr Verheugen.

Instead, he gave a more definite timeline.

He referred to a statement made by member states in Copenhagen in 2002 which said that if a positive decision is reached on Turkey then negotiations should be opened "without delay".

"Without delay means between four and six months", said the Commissioner.

Mr Verheugen rejected calls by some MEPs for a partnership agreement between the EU and Turkey reminding them that Union has committed itself to Ankara's membership and that the only issue now is whether it fulfils the EU's political criteria.

Institutional effects

The Commission's report - due out on 6 October - will also look at the effect of Turkish membership on the EU's institutions.

One of the big issues is how Turkey and the rest of the member states will fare under the decision-making system foreseen in the new EU Constitution, where decisions will be taken according to a set majority of population and a set majority of member states.

By the time Turkey is likely to join the EU, it is expected that it will have the largest population of all EU member states.

However, Mr Verheugen said that he did not believe that it would have an "unbalancing effect".

5. - KNK (London) - "The Plight of the Kurds in South-West (Syrian) Kurdistan":

27 August 2004 / by Moustafa Rechid

First of all, I should like to express my gratitude to the organisers of this meeting for having invited me to speak about the situation of the Kurdish people in what is known as Syrian Kurdistan, although I prefer another term - South-West Kurdistan. I appreciate this wonderful opportunity to elaborate the problems our people face and denounce the oppression we suffer from the totalitarian Syrian regime.

The Kurds are one of the most ancient peoples in the Middle East. The 40-million-strong Kurdish nation belongs to the four major regional nations together with the Arabs, Persians and Turks. As you may know, until the First World War, our homeland, Kurdistan, had been divided between the Ottoman and Persian Empires. After the war, Kurdish lands from the Ottoman Empire were divided among the three new states, that is, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. South Kurdistan, then referred to as the Mossul Vilayet, because of its oil reserves, was attached to the newly created Iraq. Another part that had been located south of the Berlin-Baghdad railway line became part of Syria, another newly created state. The borders between these states were broadly based on the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Since then the names of these two diplomats, an English and a Frenchman, are invoked whenever the Kurds are dissatisfied by unjust borders.

Unfortunately, these two gentlemen paid no attention to the ethnic composition of these regions and drew the borders simply using a pen and a ruler. One is still able to see their drawings on the current political map. Thus, the Sykes-Picot Agreement created the modern Syrian state and attached to it part of our homeland.

The Kurds live in the northern part of Syria, in the border region between Syria and Turkey on the one hand and Syria and Iraq on the other. Nevertheless, the Kurds have always played a significant role in Syrian history. Many aristocratic and well-to-do Kurdish families occupied major positions in Damascus, Aleppo and other cities. It is known that a lot of families in the district of Horan and even some Druze are of Kurdish origin. The historians of Syria could attest that until 1958 a large number of important Syrian politicians came from these families. I limit myself with mentioning the Defence Minister Yusif al-Azma (during the French invasion), Ibrahim Henano (a patriotic symbol of anti-French resistance), Muhammad Al? al-Abid (the President of the Syrian Republic in 1936) as well as other Presidents Husni al-Zaim, Fawzi Silo and Shukri al-Quwatli. There were a number of other important politicians including Muhsin Berazi, Reshad Bermeda, Rushdi al-Kikhiya, Tawfiq Nizameddin and the famous Jumblat family of Lebanon. It would be reasonable to agree with the President of Syria Mr. Bashar al-Asad when he stated on Al-Jazeera TV that "the Kurdish nation is one of the basic elements of Syrian society”.

During the Second World War, when Syria and Lebanon had been occupied by the French, assisted by the British troops eager to support General de Gaule, many Syrian Arabs sought to defy France and Britain by expressing sympathy with Nazi Germany. As a result, in 1942 educated Arab nationalists, following the notorious example of the National-Socialist Party of Germany, created the Arab National-Socialist Party widely known as al-Baath. Before long, the Baathist ideology and political organisation became dominant in Syria and Iraq. The main reasons of such an unfortunate development were:

1) The Baath strengthened nationalist sentiment among the Arabs by promising to create a pan-Arab Union. That made people believe that the Baathists were able to contribute to the positive changes in Arab economies and society;

2) The West European states and the USA, fearing the penetration of Soviet influence in the Middle East via local Communist parties, preferred the Baathists.

After the Baathists came to power in Syria and Iraq, they carried out the following policies: in foreign relations they moved between the West and the Soviet bloc whereas in domestic affairs they adopted many National-Socialist principles.

1958 was the year of important changes in both Syria and Iraq. In Syria, the policy of Arabization was applied to state symbols, organisations and even chemistry and mathematics. Thus, the name of the Syrian Republic was changed to the Syrian Arab Republic, the national anthem became the Syrian Arab National Anthem, the Syrian Army was renamed to the Syrian Arab Army with the TV acquiring the title of the Syrian Arab TV.

The atmosphere was created when only people shouting Arab nationalist slogans were accepted by the state. Everything Arabic was regarded as sacred. However, this could not and did not change the mosaic of Syrian society. The Kurds remained the second largest group in Syria and other sizeable minorities continued to exist such as Aramaic-speaking Christian groups (embracing Assyrians, Syriacs and Chaldeans), Turkomans, Circassians, Armenians and Jews. The official ideology in no way fitted the multilinguistic and multi-religious Syrian society.

During the short-lived Union of Syria and Egypt, the Arab Socialists nationalised banks, factories and the whole private sector. In accordance with the official ideology, Arabs were regarded as fuller citizens than non-Arabs. It is sufficient to adduce one example: the Syrian state took away the estates of the Kurdish landlords and give them not to the Kurdish peasants, but to Arabs brought in from other regions.

In 1962, the Syrian government under the supervision of the Baathist official Muhammad Talab Hilal started a pogrom against the Kurds which ended thus:

1) The Kurds living within 10-15 kilometres distance from the Turkish border had to be replaced by Arabs. Thus, Kurdish inhabitants who resided there for hundreds and thousands of years were forced to leave and Arabs from other regions grabbed their land and belongings.

2) The number of Kurds were reduced at any cost.

A) An emergency census was conducted in 1962 and around 150,000 Kurds were deprived of their Syrian citizenship. Several generations of these Kurds remain stateless. To compare the Syrian population which was 5 million in 1962 with 17,5 million nowadays, we may assume that the number of the stateless Syrian Kurds has increased from 150,00 to 500,000 people today. The stateless Kurds are deprived of every right, including the right to possession of land. They cannot build houses, they are not treated in the state hospitals and are banned from visiting hotels.

B) The Syrian state erects barriers to obstruct the social and cultural development of the Kurds while encouraging them to leave Syria and become refugees in Europe or elsewhere.

1) The Syrian state methodically obliterates the traces of Kurdish names and identity: Kurdish cities and villages receive new Arab names, the Kurdish language and publications are illegal with the Kurdish children banned from bearing their original names and forced to adopt Arab ones.

2) Those Kurds who preserve their identity are not allowed to enter the civil service or the army. To illustrate this, the people who display their Kurdish identity will never become generals or fly military airplanes.

Between 1963 and 1970, the Baathists enjoyed power but the power struggle between various clans and grouping did not disappear. One dictator had been replacing another until 1970, when General Hafiz al-Assad succeeded in establishing total control over the state apparatus and army. To hold onto power, al-Assad created three competing security organisations, namely, the State Security Office, the Political Security Office and the Military Security Office. These three organisations prevented any form of political and economic change in the country.

To be fair, there has been a period of democracy in Syria, albeit a very short one between 1954 and 1957. Up to the present time the whole population has been oppressed. Yet, it is the minorities who face more discrimination and are persecuted. The Syrian regime is no friend of human rights and freedom of the press. Sadly as it sounds, the outside world is only aware of only about 10 per cent of the events which take place in Syria.

The Damascus regime and the moribund tyranny of Saddam Hussein have the same ideological premises, although they may hate each other. The reason for this is that the Syrian and Iraqi Baathists competed in a ghoulish game of Arabisation. Now faced with the real threat to their political foundations, the Syrian authorities are currently doing everything possible to bring the Iraqi Baathists back to the power in Iraq.

After the Iraqi Constitution was signed on the 8 March, 2004, and gave the Kurds an official status within the Iraqi Federation, the Syrian regime lost sense of reality. The Syrian Baathists are afraid that one day the Kurds in Syria and their language will achieve a level similar to that in Iraq. In such a hostile atmosphere the state security personnel contributed, if not provoked, the dramatic events started on the 12 March. You might be aware of the consequences of the attacks against the Kurds: scores of them were killed, hundreds wounded and thousands are still detained. Every day one group of the Kurds is arrested and another released. There are widespread tortures aimed even at teenagers between 12 and 17 years old. Some people have been killed and buried by the police while the relatives have not been informed. Let me tell you of one example: A Kurdish mother wanted to see and kiss her slain son before he was to be buried. When she approached him to kiss his face, she saw that his chin had been cut off. There are other cases of slain Kurds whose eyes were gouged out. These are not horror stories replayed in Alfred Hitchcock films; unfortunately these are the realities facing Kurds in Syria.

To protest against such deadly attacks, the Syrian Kurds demonstrate in Europe. Although the Damascus regime is anxious about following the fate of the Iraqi state criminals, there should be no doubt that the Syrian authorities are not afraid of the Kurds. These Kurds constitute 16 per cent of the country’s population with a part of them having already left South-West Kurdistan to move to other regions of the country. The Kurds are keen to use democratic and non-violent methods of struggle. It is an open secret that they lack a better coordination to be able to seriously demand human rights for them and other citizens of the country. The Syrian opposition operating in civil society is unfortunately still weak. Against such a background, the Syrian Kurds and other democratic forces are simply not capable of turning Syria into a modern and democratic state. What we really need is backing from democratic forces from abroad. The oppressive Assyrian Empire, the cruelty of Nero and Caligula during the late period of the Roman Empire, the Third Reich of Hitler, the regimes of Pol Pot in Cambodia and Saddam Hussein in Iraq - all of them were destroyed from outside forces.

Let me demonstrate the importance of outside interference. One and a half years ago, a Syrian Kurdish poet Marwan Osman together with his friend were detained after staging a peaceful demonstration in Damascus. The Syrian state court accused them of separatism and was going to jail them for 15 years. Then, the Kurdish PEN Centre, where I am a Vice-President, informed other PEN Centres of the threat to our member Mr. Marwan Osman and the 69th PEN International Congress in Mexico, 2003, adopted a special resolution demanding his unconditional release. Our colleagues from the English PEN Centre organised an impressive campaign by collecting 202 signatures from famous English writers and sending a protest letter to the Syrian President and other officials. English PEN encouraged the involvement of the UK diplomats and that compelled the Syrians to drop their absurd charges and release Marwan Osman together with his colleague. I want to use this occasion to thank the English PEN Centr e and PEN International for their invaluable help.

It must be underlined that the Kurdish voice alone is not sufficient. In order to stop the killings, attacks and tortures against the Kurds in Syria, I beg you for help. Only your support can make Syria more democratic and only with your support can the Kurds obtain their democratic rights.

Let me be frank with you. We are well aware of the fact that Syria has a very important geo-political and psychological position in the Middle East and the Arab World. If this country starts democratic changes, it will influence the whole region. Our hopes are:

A) With regard to the Syrian state:

1) Military and dictatorial rule and one-party system must be abolished;

2) The State Constitution must reflect the religious and ethnic diversity of Syria, guarantee the rights of women and a multi-party system;

3) Peaceful relations with all its neighbours and respect for international law.

4) The State Constitution and other laws must provide for Arabs and Kurds as the main nations and guarantee to the rights of other minorities;

5) Economic liberalisation and removal of the socialist planned economy with its crippling bureaucracy inherited from 1960s and 1970s;

6) New functions for central power, regions and local government. The regional and local governments must be elected and deal with local issues;

7) Independence of the judiciary and freedom of opinion and mass media;

A) With regard to the solution of the Kurdish issue, I refer to the statement of President Bashar al-Assad who stated that a wrong policy towards the Kurds of the last 40 years must be corrected:

8) The results of the emergency census of 1962 must be abolished and the Kurds must get back their Syrian citizenship unconditionally;

9) The Kurds must be allowed to return to their villages which are now illegally occupied by Arabs. Those Arabs are also victims of an ill-fated policy and it is the duty of the state to facilitate their return to their native villages;

10) The policy of Arabisation of historical names of cities, villages and personal names must be reversed and corrected;

11) In the Kurdish regions, the Kurdish language must become the second official one alongside Arabic;

12) The Kurdish language and culture shall be free in other regions of Syria as well: especially in the universities and in the mass media;

13) There must be no discrimination against Kurds as well as other minorities in the army, government, education, social and political life.

Ladies and gentlemen!

We see how the new communication facilities, as well as cultural, political and social contacts bring the nations of the world together. People speak of the “world village”. I can compare it with a ship in the sea. If some harm comes to the ship, it will affect and endanger everyone. It is only by taking care of the ship, that humanity can survive.

Moustafa Rechid, Vice-President, Kurdish PEN Centre

* Speech at the meeting “End repression of the Kurds in Syria”, 18 May 2004, chaired by Lord Rea, House of Lords, London.

6. - DIHA - "8 thousand 600 petitions for Ocalan to Adana Governorship":

ADANA / 31 August 2004

500- people group from Free Citizens' Movement organized a protest march to Adana Governorship and despite of police intervention they submitted 8 thousand 600 petitions to the governorship to demand freedom of Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Police interfere with the group and did not allow people to enter the building of governorship. Then petitions that were collected from Seyhan district of Adana were submitted to the Governorship by a five- people committee of Gulistan Demir, Hasan Iraz, Murat Derince, Ferhat Aslan and Sima Dorak. Member of Free Citizens' Movement Hasan Iraz released a press statement after the committee entered the building.

'Our leader is Ocalan'

Iraz said in the press statement: "Our leader is Kurdish people's leader Ocalan. So his freedom is the freedom of Kurdish people. We want legalization of Kurdish people's cultural demands on constitutional ground. We also want Turkish Republic to apologize from Kurdish people because of its unfairness and anti-democratic applications."

Petitions were submitted

5-people committee' attempt to submit petitions to Adana Governorship was blocked by competent who said, "Submit these petitions to Adana Police Station. We do not receive them." Then the group took the 8 thousand 600 petitions to Governorship Document Receiving Service and submitted them.