30 April 2003

1. "The Kurds' Long Nightmare", an investigation into the discovery this month of several hundred graves near an Iraqi military headquarters building will determine whether the bodies are those of Kurds who may have been tortured and then executed by Saddam Hussein's regime.

2. "Kurdish gun culture falls from favor", the fall of Saddam Hussein, the presence of nervous American forces and a government crackdown on illegal weapons in Sulaymaniyah have helped introduce a new concept to a people used to casually slinging Kalashnikovs over their shoulders: gun control.

3. "Kurds go back to the future", life in Iraqi Kurdistan is returning to normal, with prices falling, and students returning to school.

4. "Verheugen says Turkey can start talks in 2005", but this is conditional on Turkey's fulfilling political criteria of membership by the end of 2004, including trimming the role of the military in politics.

5. "Cyprus sees ‘Berlin Wall’ begin to crumble", after three decades of division, Cyprus saw its “Berlin Wall” begin to crumble yesterday. Thousands of islanders continued to cross the “green line” and Greek Cypriots were allowed to stay up to three days a week in the north.

6. "Expanding Turkish-Georgian Strategic ties rankle Russia", Turkey seeks to expand its security presence in the Caucasus, and Georgia has expressed interest in the possible implementation of a Turkish military training program.

1. - The Washington Post - "The Kurds' Long Nightmare":

30 April 2003 / by James Zumwalt*

An investigation into the discovery this month of several hundred graves near an Iraqi military headquarters building will determine whether the bodies are those of Kurds who may have been tortured and then executed by Saddam Hussein's regime. In all likelihood, the victims were Kurds. If so, it would not be the first time Iraqi executioners, in order to reduce the logistical burden of having to transport victims' bodies long distances for burial, decided to locate a graveyard adjacent to their headquarters so that they could easily dispose of such remains. Unfortunately, the incident sparks memories of a similar fate that befell another group of Kurds 12 years earlier.

In May 1991, having served in the Persian Gulf War with the Marines, I volunteered for further duty in Provide Comfort -- a joint military operation designed to assist in the relocation of Kurdish refugees into northern Iraq. Assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, I was flown to the city of Zakho, where the unit was establishing its headquarters in and around an abandoned Iraqi divisional headquarters building. The building was drab, with the exception of several dozen rose bushes surrounding it.

As the Marines began digging defensive positions and putting up tents, a grisly discovery was made. Heavy equipment had unearthed myriad body parts; hands, arms, legs, etc., were uncovered in what was determined to have been a mass grave. Most telling among this evidence of inhumanity was an infant's sandal.

The body parts were reburied immediately after their discovery, but for many days the stench of rotting flesh lingered in the air until all the remains were located and reburied. It was later learned from the Kurds that about 70 of their tribesmen had been taken into this Iraqi divisional HQ and that none had come out alive. The victims were brutally tortured and executed, their remains then thrown into a common grave. A Kurdish chieftain, pointing at the rose bushes around the building, suggested their beauty belied the evil that had taken place but would, tragically, forever be nurtured by the remains of his brethren buried there.

Kurdish children were taught at a very early age that Saddam Hussein exacted a heavy toll from those who defied him. One young Kurd shared his experience as a 7-year-old schoolboy. He and his schoolmates were ordered outside their classroom one day by Iraqi military authorities. As they walked into the schoolyard, they were instructed to look up in the trees around them. To their horror, they saw several corpses strung up in the branches. They were then warned, "This is what happens to those who do not follow Saddam Hussein." One can only imagine the fear that gripped these children forced to witness such a sight.

I received additional insights into Hussein's hatred toward the Kurds during Provide Comfort. One of my assignments was to identify relocation sites for returning Kurdish refugees. Using a dated military map, I had located a Kurdish village near a water source that might well have served just such a purpose. Giving the map coordinates of the village to my helicopter pilot, I asked him to take me there to assess the site. Upon reaching the coordinates, however, we were unable to locate the village. Only later I learned from Kurdish leaders that Hussein had driven the Kurds out of the village and razed it, so that no sign of it would remain.

During the past 12 years, I have often wondered how the thousands of Kurds we helped relocate in Iraq during Operation Provide Comfort were faring. Undoubtedly, many were subjected to retribution after U.S. forces withdrew from the region and Hussein reestablished control over it. I've wondered how many more rose bushes are nurtured by the remains of a people brutalized by the Butcher of Baghdad. Now, with the tyrant's shadow no longer over them, perhaps the Kurds can appreciate the roses solely for their beauty rather than be reminded of the fear and brutality Hussein once visited upon them.

*The writer is a retired Marine officer who served in the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.

2. - The Washington Post - "Kurdish gun culture falls from favor":

30 April 2003 / by Borzou Daragahi

The fall of Saddam Hussein, the presence of nervous American forces and a government crackdown on illegal weapons in Sulaymaniyah have helped introduce a new concept to a people used to casually slinging Kalashnikovs over their shoulders: gun control.

"Now that the war is over, we don't need weapons anymore," says Raza Hamid Qarib, a 34-year-old trying to sell a Chinese-made Kalashnikov rifle he took from Iraqi troops during the 1991 uprising against Saddam. "We need freedom instead."

Just days after the April 10 collapse of Baghdad's authority in northern Iraq, the Sulaymaniyah-based autonomous Kurdish government declared all buying and selling of weapons in the city illegal. The breakdown of Saddam's regime and the collapse of his army had brought an influx of weapons and dangerous characters into the bazaar, prompting citizen concern and an angry reaction against the omnipresent firearms.

"We'd received so many complaints, that we shut the gun market down," said Sarkawt Kuba, a high-level police official. "We'll let them sell guns somewhere else, outside of the city."

Even licensed dealers had their permits revoked. Gun dealers in the informal gun bazaar within the labyrinths of the main Sulaymaniyah bazaar said police several days ago arrested some gun dealers, confiscated their inventories and ordered them to appear before trial.

"You're supposed to hand your weapons in to the government," said Mr. Qarib.

The ever-growing presence of American troops here has also put a clamp on gun culture. U.S. forces patrolling northern Iraqi cities have set up checkpoints on key roadways to look for guns. At a checkpoint on the road between Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk, young, fresh-faced American soldiers of the Army's 173rd Airborne division stop vehicles and inquire about guns.

Ordinary Kurds are now trying make a profit off the restrictions.

Though a bent old man, Haji Ahmad Abdul Qader fancies himself an able gunslinger. Standing in a shadowy corner of the Sulaymaniyah bazaar, he pulls out a handgun. But it's not a stick-up. It's a deal.

For just $35, Mr. Qader wants to sell a finely crafted Canadian revolver.
Still, old habits die hard in Iraq, which has a tribally based gun culture and a long obsession with weaponry. Checkpoints have not stopped random gunfire punctuating the night in cities such as Mosul and Kirkuk. Nor have checkpoints around cities halted gunplay between Arab tribesman and Kurdish bandits on the long, unguarded roads through the desolate countryside.

But the U.S. presence and the Kurdish crackdown have convinced marginally law-abiding citizens such as Mr. Qarib to pare down their weapons. "Guns have become a hassle," he said.

The sharp drop in gun prices offers some evidence of success in reducing the local taste for firearms.
Before the war, standard-issue Kalashnikovs sold for $400 apiece and were scarcely available in the gun bazaar, established in 1991 immediately following the establishment of the Kurdish autonomous enclave in the north of Iraq. Last week, they were selling for a little more than $100, and there were no buyers.

Mr. Qader, wearing the traditional baggy pants and colorful cummerbund of the Kurdish peshmerga warrior, complained that he couldn't sell his Canadian revolver, despite the low price. "It's old quality, an original," he said.

Ahmad Mohammed tried to sell a near-new Iraqi Tariq 7.65 mm pistol. "The prices are collapsing," he said. "The day before yesterday, a Tariq went for $250 dollars. Today, it's selling for $175."

The government crackdown on the gun trade has made many dealers nervous and suspicious of strangers, though it hasn't stopped them from carrying on their business.

And though many Kurds say the coming of peace and the end of Saddam's regime mean they do not need guns anymore, it will be hard to change a culture steeped in the myths of war and martyrdom. Mr. Qarib, the young man selling a Kalashnikov, admitted he kept another one at home.

"That one's not for sale," he said.

3. - Kurdish Media / Institute War and Peace Reporting - "Kurds go back to the future":

Life in Iraqi Kurdistan is returning to normal, with prices falling, and students returning to school

PIRMAM / 30 April 2003 / by Ali Sindi*

Nearly three weeks from the liberation of Iraq, and the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan is very stable. Security and safety have never been better. In marked contrast with the rest of Iraq, students are back to schools and universities after missing a total of 21 days. The prices of food and fuel are coming down.

Yesterday I was talking to an American soldier in a shop in Erbil. "How safe do you feel here in Iraqi Kurdistan?" I asked. "Safer than in many places in the United States!" he replied. It is very normal to see one or two American soldiers, men or women, walking or driving inside or between Kurdish cities and towns.

The duties of the Kurdish administration have increased. Until this war, nearly a third of the total Kurdish area was under the control of the previous Iraqi government. The Arabization policies followed by Saddam’s regime resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Kurds from villages, towns and cities like Mosul and Kirkuk. Most have not yet been allowed to return to their homes. The Americans, remembering similar ethnic issues from Kosovo and other places, are obviously afraid of acts of revenge, or even chaos, resulting from a mass return.

The leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan have asked Jay Garner, America’s Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator in Iraq, to set up committees representing all ethnic groups to work on the return process for the displaced, and so far he has been very positive. Garner, whom the Kurds know from the last Iraq war, has been received as a liberator in Iraqi Kurdistan. Young students and families and relatives of the victims of the Anfal - Saddam’s genocidal campaign that killed more than 100,000 Kurds - threw flowers on his convoy as it passed through the streets of their towns.

At a time when Kurds are accused by nearly all the Arab satellite television stations of supporting the Americans in the process of toppling Saddam, every one of the three universities and every one of the 25 hospitals in Iraqi Kurdistan are sending materials and teams from their teaching and medical staff to the center and south of the country - with no regard for the shortages already existing in the Kurdish region. They are offering help and support to the currently non-functional hospitals and schools in Baghdad and other Arab areas of Iraq.

Contrary to the propaganda put out by the countries that border us, the Kurds are acting as a national, and normalizing, factor in Iraq. One of the very few.

The looting that happened in Baghdad and other Arab cities immediately after liberation came as no surprise. It is a direct result of the way Saddam ruled Iraq and its people. His oppression of the Iraqi people over several decades created a big gap between ordinary citizens and whatever belongs to, or represents, the government. Here in Iraq people have grown up hating the government - and assuming that the government hates them too. What is rightly called public property in democratic countries was not genuine public property in Iraq. Gangsters and thieves, who proliferated because of the poverty in which Saddam kept the Iraqi people, seized what they saw as an unmissable opportunity.

I felt sorry for all the chaos. But with the removal of Saddam, the Kurds feel as they are going to have golden times and golden days after tens and hundreds of years.

* Ali Sindi, a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, is a Kurdish surgeon and former deputy minister of health in the Kurdish government.

4. - Turkish Daily News - "Verheugen says Turkey can start talks in 2005":

But this is conditional on Turkey's fulfilling political criteria of membership by the end of 2004, including trimming the role of the military in politics

ANKARA / 30 April 2003

Turkey can start accession talks with the European Union in the first half of 2005 if it meets political criteria, the union's enlargement chief said late on Monday.

EU leaders declared Turkey a candidate in 1999 but a series of problems breaking out on the Cyprus issue and European objection to Turkish plans to send troops to northern Iraq for security reasons have severed ties. In December 2002, the EU leaders refused a Turkish demand for an early date for the beginning of accession talks and said talks would start "without delay" if Turkey's membership performance by December 2004 is found satisfactory.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen's remarks came as a signal that the EU commitment for the beginning of talks with Turkey in late 2004 remained in place despite the recent troubles.

Verheugen said the talks could not start before early 2005 because of technical reasons. He also said the EU would expect Turkey to fulfill political criteria by the autumn of 2004.

The EU Commission prepares annual reports on performance of candidate countries to meet membership criteria. The report that will be released in 2004 autumn will be of critical importance in the EU leaders' decision in December 2004 whether or not to start accession talks with Turkey.

Reforms needed by late 2004
Verheugen advised Turkey to quickly implement all political reforms, mainly with respect to human rights and said he would like to see the problems solved by next year, which means Ankara should start implementing reforms by the end of this year.

The Turkish government decided Monday to speed up the reform process and enact all the needed reforms by the end of this year, so that the implementation phase can begin as of next year. A new reform package is due to be presented to Parliament soon.

But some reforms might prove to be problematic. Verheugen said Turkey should take steps to address EU concerns over the role of the military in Turkish politics. He said the military should not be represented in institutions regulating education or broadcasting and added that the Constitution should be amended to make sure that the role of the military in Turkey is up to European standards.

On another sticky issue, Cyprus, Verheugen said he was optimistic and added that a united Cyprus could be admitted in May 2004.

Turkey's membership is related to the Cyprus issue. As the current situation stands, only the Greek part of the island will integrate into the EU structures in 2004 but Verheugen indicated that the whole of Cyprus could join at any moment if the Cypriot problem is resolved.

The decision for the accession of the whole of Cyprus can easily be taken by the Council of Ministers on the basis of a proposal forwarded by the European Commission.

Speaking at the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels, the EU Commissioner for enlargement said that the European Commission agreed that Turkey's membership has important geopolitical advantages -- but warned it could also bring some problems as well.

Verheugen was referring to the impact that Turkey's membership will have on the EU institutions and their policies. Turkey will have the same rights as any other member, he explained, therefore one has to anticipate the possible implication on the Common Agriculture Policy, for example on the structural funds.

5. - The Times - "Cyprus sees ‘Berlin Wall’ begin to crumble":

KYRENIA / from Michael Theodoulou

AFTER three decades of division, Cyprus saw its “Berlin Wall” begin to crumble yesterday. Thousands of islanders continued to cross the “green line” and Greek Cypriots were allowed to stay up to three days a week in the north.

The two peoples will be brought closer together today when the Greek Cypriot authorities announce measures to improve living standards among the breakaway Turkish Cypriots.

The package, which comes after remarkable scenes of reconciliation, is expected to help Turkish Cypriots to work and trade in southern Cyprus and to gain access to healthcare and other state benefits.

Thousands of people, bearing gifts and brimming with goodwill, have crossed the island’s green line in both directions since the surprise announcement last week by the Turkish Cypriot authorities that they would open checkpoints for day trips.

Greek Cypriots left clutching cherished family photographs that they thought had been lost forever. Others held bunches of flowers and fruit cut from ancestral gardens.

Yesterday the Turkish Cypriot authorities said that Greek Cypriots would be allowed to stay for up to three days a week in the north after popular demand and in a further attempt to build confidence.

The island has a population of just over 750,000 and in six days 108,000 Cypriots have crossed the buffer zone.

Lellos Demetriades, a former mayor of Nicosia, Europe’s last divided capital, said of the crossings: “This is now in the hands of the people. The politicians will follow.”

Over the Orthodox Easter holiday Greek Cypriots were queueing for up to 18 hours at the main crossing point in Nicosia to drive across the ceasefire line. British peacekeepers from 47 Regiment, Royal Artillery, are manning the buffer zone with a UN peacekeeping force. More crossing points are planned to ease congestion.

Greek Cypriot families travelled in two or three cars, ferrying generations back to homes that they had been forced to flee nearly 30 years ago.

The island has been divided since Turkish troops invaded the north in 1974, after a short-lived coup in Nicosia engineered by the military junta then ruling Greece. Many houses were found to be inhabited by Turkish Cypriots who had once lived in the south; others had been taken by settlers from mainland Turkey.

However, in the first demonstration since restrictions were eased, about 200 Greek Cypriots stormed a UN checkpoint yesterday in an attempt to return to their homes. The Greek Cypriots overwhelmed the small UN force east of Kato Pyrgos in an attempt to reach their former homes in the Turkish-held village of Limnitis. UN soldiers formed a human chain to prevent them reaching Turkish soldiers on the far side.

In Kyrenia yesterday Michael Pilis, a 50-year-old businessman enjoying the experience of sipping a beer in the spring sunshine, said: “I feel happy, but confused. The Turkish Cypriots have been so polite and friendly, but we really want a solution so that we don’t have to come here as tourists. I am a refugee.”

Turkish Cypriots crossing south were offered coloured eggs and traditional Easter biscuits by Greek Cypriots. “I’m indescribably happy,” Mustafa Kasap, a 52-year-old Turkish Cypriot worker, said as he stood in Eleftheria (Freedom) Square in southern Nicosia. “I know these streets well. I have been watching and missing them from afar for 29 years.” The partial lifting of restrictions by the Turkish-held north, unimaginable even a month ago, has been welcomed by the Cyprus Government, which is represented internationally by the Greek Cypriots, and the European Union.

Both have insisted that it should not be a substitute for a comprehensive peace deal, but many analysts are confident that the new contacts will enhance the chances of solution. “We’re still not there in terms of the political solution, but nothing like this has happened since 1974,” Nicos Anastasiou, a school teacher involved in bicommunal activities, said. “The Berlin Wall of Cyprus is now full of cracks and holes. Thirty years of prejudices and stereotypes have collapsed in days, along with the myth that there was no trust between the communities.”

The deadlock began to ease last month when the Greek-Cypriot south secured accession to the European Union.

History of a divided island

Cyprus gained independence from the UK in 1960 after a bloody campaign by Eoka (National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters), which called for enosis, a union with Greece

A constitution protected the Turkish minority, but many controlling measures were removed by the President, Archbishop Makarios, who had been elected by Greek Cypriots

Intercommunal fighting broke out in 1963; in 1964 UN peacekeepers were deployed on the island

In 1974 the military junta controlling Greece supported a coup in Cyprus to remove Makarios and force enosis. Turkish government troops took control of the north of the island and thousands of Greek Cypriots fled; many “disappeared”

UN peacekeepers have maintained a buffer zone since

6. - Eurasianet - "Expanding Turkish-Georgian Strategic ties rankle Russia":

25 April 2003 / by Igor Torbakov*

Turkey seeks to expand its security presence in the Caucasus, and Georgia has expressed interest in the possible implementation of a Turkish military training program. Closer strategic ties between Ankara and Tbilisi are rankling Russian leaders, who have already cautioned Georgia against taking “steps that violate the existing balance of forces in the Transcaucasus.”

A large Turkish delegation, led by military Chief of Staff Hilmi Ozkok, flew to Tbilisi on April 18 for wide-ranging talks on security issues, focusing on “ways to develop the existing military cooperation,” the Anatolia news agency reported.

Participants divulged few specifics of their discussions. According to Turkish and Georgian media, Ozkok and Georgian Defense Minister David Tevzadze explored “in detail” the training of the Georgian military personnel by the Turkish military experts, the issue of Turkish financial assistance to the Georgian army in 2003-2004, and the renovation of a Georgian military air facility. Turkey also indicated that it would assist in training a marine anti-terrorism unit for Georgia’s Black Sea flotilla, a Georgian official said.

Turkish leaders appeared satisfied with the security talks. “Military cooperation between Turkey and this key Caucasus country is very strong,” the Turkish Daily News said in a commentary. Georgian officials noted the parameters for the training program would be similar to a US initiative known as “Train and Equip.”

US-Georgian security cooperation has been a source of rising tension between Tbilisi and Moscow, which is keen not to see its strategic influence in the region erode to the benefit of the United States. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The Turkish delegation’s visit has further inflamed Russian sentiment, political analysts say. Georgian officials have suggested that Tbilisi’s strengthening military ties with the United States do not pose any particular threat to a third country. But a strongly worded resolution, approved by the Russian State Duma on April 16, is indicative of Moscow’s lack of trust in Georgia’s strategic intention. The Duma resolution, adopted by an overwhelming majority, sharply criticized the expansion of the US-Georgian strategic cooperation. “It is impermissible for the Georgian leadership to take steps that violate the existing balance of forces in the Transcaucasus and contradict the good-neighborly nature of Russian-Georgian relations,” the resolution said.

Some influential Russian MPs openly portray Georgia as a US military vassal in the Caucasus. The Georgian-US security agreement “is humiliating for Georgia,” says Konstantin Kosachev, the Deputy Head of the State Duma International Relations Committee. It “turns the relationship between Georgia and the United States into the de-facto relations between the powerless satellite and an [all-powerful] metropole,” he added.

Clearly, most Russian analysts and policy-makers perceive the expansion of security cooperation between Washington and Tbilisi as a serious security threat. The US military presence in Georgia “might not be that dangerous had it not been for the proximity of Georgia to Russia,” said Anatoly Chekhoyev, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for the Relations with the CIS Countries. “Russian national security is being threatened …especially in light of the recent developments in Iraq.”

Some Georgian officials are dismissive of Russian expressions of concern. Fears that Tbilisi’s strategic moves threaten Russian security are “complete rubbish,” said Zviad Mukbaniani, chairman of the Georgian parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee. “Russian lawmakers have apparently forgotten that Georgia is a sovereign state and has the right to independently decide which accords to sign and with whom,” added Irakli Batiashvili, head of the Defense and Security Committee.

The intensification of Turkish-Georgian strategic ties appears to irritate the Russian strategists no less than Tbilisi’s defense cooperation with the United States. Russian officials were quick to show their displeasure, directing their ire not only at Georgia, but also at Turkey.

Soon after the Turkish delegation’s visit, the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office sent a new letter to the Turkish Ministry of Justice demanding the extradition of the Chechen radical ideologue Movladi Udugov. Russia tried to secure Udugov’s extradition from Turkey a year ago, but Ankara rebuffed the request.

An unnamed diplomat at the Turkish Embassy in Moscow recently told Interfax that he did not know whether Udugov was currently in Turkey. Udugov is believed to have been living in Qatar since January 2002. The influential Moscow daily Izvestiya asserts, however, that “Russian law-enforcement agencies believe he [Udugov] is still hiding in Turkey.” Quoting well-informed sources, the newspaper wrote that for some time Udugov’s website Kavkaz-Tsentr was operating from Turkey.

Another indirect signal of Moscow’s anger seems to be the publication in a mainstream political weekly of an article with clear anti-Turkish overtones. The commentary in the journal Konservator discusses the potential threat posed by the concept of pan-Turkism to Russia’s territorial integrity. “Of all the major irredentist movements in Europe, pan-Turkism is the only one that is active today,” says the commentary. The article also warns that “the ideas of pan-Turkism are being openly disseminated in Russia.”

* Editor’s Note: Igor Torbakov is a freelance journalist and researcher who specializes in CIS political affairs. He holds an MA in History from Moscow State University and a PhD from the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He was Research Scholar at the Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow; a Visiting Scholar at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC; a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, New York; and a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. He is now based in Istanbul, Turkey.