14
March 2003
2. "Kurdish Rights Groups Demand Retrial for Rebel Chief", Kurdish rights activists are calling on the Turkish government to grant Abdullah Ocalan a new trial following Wednesday's ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that the rebel chief's 1999 trial and sentence to death were unfair.
3. "EU Commissioner: Turkish army will becomne occupying force in Cyprus", Guenter Verheugen, the European Union Commissioner for Enlargement, said yesterday that units of Turkish military in Cyprus would become an "occupying force" if there was no settlement.
4. "European Commission concerned at Kurdish party ban in Turkey", the European Commission said Friday that it was gravely concerned by a ban imposed on the main Kurdish political party in Turkey on grounds that it threatened national stability.
5. "Kurdish effort to recruit disloyal Iraqi soldiers pays off", a Kurdish political leader who commands thousands of Peshmerga fighters said Thursday that more than 100 Iraqi army officers and intelligence agents in Kirkuk have responded to his underground letters.
6. "Cyprus issue is still open, Simitis says", the Cyprus issue remains open and is Greece's top foreign policy priority, Prime Minister Costas Simitis said yesterday in his most extensive comments on the issue since UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the failure of his effort.
1.
- AFP - "Kurdish rebel leader warns Ankara not to invade Iraqi
Kurdistan":
ISTANBUL / 13 March 2003
Imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has warned of a spiral of fighting between Turks and the Kurdish population should Ankara send soldiers into northern Iraq in a US-led war.
The fighting could last "at least 100 years... if both Turkey and (Iraqi Kurdish leaders Jalal) Talabani and (Massoud) Barzani insist on taking the nationalist route to solve the problem," Ocalan told his lawyers on Thursday during their first meeting in four months.
Ocalan, 55, the leader of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is serving a life term in an isolated prison on the island of Imrali. He led the PKK's armed campaign for self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, which has left more than 36,000 people dead since the rebels took up arms in 1984.
Ankara is planning to send its soldiers into Iraqi Kurdistan in the wake of the American forces ff US troops are allowed to open a northern front into Iraq from Turkish soil.
Ostensibly aimed at stopping an influx of refugees from Iraq, Turkish deployment is also aimed at dissuading Iraqi Kurds from using the chaos caused by the war to declare an independent Kurdish state.
Talabani is head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) while Barzani heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the two leading political groups in Iraq's Kurdish-controlled north. Ocalan appeared to be in good health, his lawyers said during a press conference in Istanbul.
The rebel leader also urged Turkey's future prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to work towards "the full and true implementation of unrestricted democracy" in the country.
"At a time when Erdogan is choosing his government, he must
work to open up a dialogue for peace," Ocalan added. His lawyers
also welcomed the European Court of Human Rights ruling on Wednesday
that Turkey had failed to give Ocalan a fair trial.
2. - OneWorld.net - "Kurdish Rights Groups Demand Retrial for Rebel Chief":
WASHINGTON, D.C. / March 13
by Jim Lobe,OneWorld US
Kurdish rights activists are calling on the Turkish government to grant Abdullah Ocalan a new trial following Wednesday's ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that the rebel chief's 1999 trial and sentence to death were unfair.
The ruling poses a new challenge to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, having just been installed in that position Tuesday, is trying to form a new government while under serious pressure from the United States to permit its forces to use Turkish airspace and territory as a launching pad for invading Iraq.
Turkey has not formally reacted to the non-binding ruling, which can be appealed to a larger panel of judges at the court in Strasbourg, France. But authorities did permit Ocalan's attorneys to visit him for the first time in 15 weeks.
"We welcome the court's judgment that Turkey violated the European Convention on Human Rights once again," said Kerim Yildiz, director of the London-based Kurdish Human Rights Project. "We now expect the Turkish state to implement fully the court's judgment and to grant a retrial."
Ocalan, who led the Kurdistan Workers Party, was seized by Turkish commandos in Kenya in 1999 and returned to Turkey, which charged him with leading a 10-year insurgency in the Kurdish-dominated southwestern part of the country in which more than 30,000 people, most of them Kurdish civilians, were killed.
Held in a special island prison since his capture, Ocalan, whose party declared a ceasefire after his seizure, was tried by a three-judge panel and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life in prison with no possibility of parole last October when Turkey abolished capital punishment as one of a series of reforms required by the European Union (news - web sites) (EU) for eventual membership.
Ocalan's attorneys nonetheless pursued an appeal against the trial and the sentence to the European Court, and it ruled Wednesday that Ocalan's rights had been violated in several respects: he had not been tried before an independent tribunal; he was not permitted access to his lawyers during police interrogation, and neither Ocalan nor his attorneys were permitted adequate access to the 17,000-page case file.
The Court also found that the length of time between his detention and his arraignment before a judge violated his rights, although it denied his claim that the conditions under which he was held were inhuman.
Finally, the Court ruled that the imposition of the capital sentence was itself inhuman and, in sweeping language, went on to assert that capital punishment has come to be regarded as "an unacceptable form of punishment" that can "no longer be seen as having any legitimate place in a democratic society."
The effect of the decision on the turbulent state of Turkish politics remains to be seen. Erdogan, who has strongly supported Turkey's membership in the EU, is juggling a number of difficult issues, including the collapse of U.N.-led negotiations Tuesday over a permanent settlement in Cyprus. The breakdown of the talks means that the Greek-led government in Nicosia, which Turkey has refused to recognize, should be admitted to the EU next year and will be in a position to veto Turkey's entry.
Wednesday's decision by the court could also inflame anti-EU sentiment in Turkey. Indeed, the judge who presided over Ocalan's 1999 trial was quoted by Turkish news services as saying that the court's decision "has once again shown how it uses double standards against Turkey."
More pertinent could be the reaction to the decision--and whether the government decides to hold a new trial--within the Kurdish population in Turkey. While the government has eased its long-standing suppression of the public expression of the Kurdish language and culture in recent months, it is very worried about any developments that could rekindle the insurgency.
In that respect, it is very concerned about the possibility that
a war in Iraq, which Washington is pressing Turkey to join, could
result in an attempt by Iraqi Kurds to secede and sponsor a similar
secession effort across the border in Turkey.
3. - KurdishMedia.com - "EU Commissioner: Turkish army will becomne occupying force in Cyprus":
LONDON / March 14, 2003
Guenter Verheugen, the European Union Commissioner for Enlargement, said yesterday that units of Turkish military in Cyprus would be an "occupying force" on European Union member soil if a settlement on the issue couldn’t be reached before May 2004, the date when the Greek Cyprus administration is scheduled to become an EU member.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Abdullah Gul criticised Verheugen’s
statements saying that they were unfortunate and unacceptable. "Turkish
Armed Forces’ presence on the island is legal under an agreement
as Turkey is a guarantor state," stated Gul.
4.
- AFP - "European Commission concerned at Kurdish party ban
in Turkey":
BRUSSELS / March 14, 2003
The European Commission said Friday that it was gravely concerned
by a ban imposed on the main Kurdish political party in Turkey on
grounds that it threatened national stability.
"We are particularly preoccupied because it is a verdict that
goes against the spirit of reforms undertaken by Turkey recently,"
said a spokesman for the EU executive referring to human rights reforms
taken by Anakara to boost its bid to join the European Union.
"We have doubts whether this verdict is compatible with the sort
of pluralistic vision that characterized a modern democracy,"
he said.
Turkey's constitutional court on Thursday, ruling in favor of a government
request, banned the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) for links with
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels, who have waged a
15-year armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey's southeast near the
Iraqi border.
The court said a sister party, the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP),
was also under the threat of a ban.
5. - Minneapolis Star Tribune - "Kurdish effort to recruit disloyal Iraqi soldiers pays off":
SULAYMANIYAH, IRAQ / March 14, 2003
by Paul McEnroe
A Kurdish political leader who commands thousands of Peshmerga fighters said Thursday that more than 100 Iraqi army officers and intelligence agents in Kirkuk have responded to his underground letters requesting that they identify the names, locations and assignments of key Iraqi commanders in the city.
The campaign to secretly recruit disloyal Iraqi soldiers and agents has resulted in up-to-date intelligence on how well the city and its outlying oil refinery and oil fields are being defended, Muhammad Haji Mahmood said. It also has helped his forces target people for retribution for their roles in ethnic cleansing and brutality against the Kurds, he said.
Mahmood, head of the Kurdistan Social Democrat Party (KSDP) since 1993 and recognized throughout Kurdistan as a legendary fighter, said that the letters from the disloyal Iraqis indicate that the Iraqi military is unlikely to put up stiff resistance in defense of Kirkuk.
"I think the city will fall in a day because of what we are learning," he said. "They do not want to fight when it comes down to it."
Mahmood said that extra care has been taken to provide the helpful Iraqis with ways to protect themselves from being killed during an attack.
"They will have in their pockets the letters that were signed and sent out by me, which contain their code names and numbers for them to show when they are surrendering," Mahmood, 49, said. "It will show our forces during the attack that these are the people who cooperated with us before the attack and that they should not be harmed."
He added that on Wednesday he signed 500 letters that were then sent out to recruit more Iraqis.
Sitting in his office in a heavily armed compound in Sulaymaniyah, Mahmood pulled a large bundle of letters from his briefcase, summarizing some of the Iraqi replies to his entreaties.
"You'd be amazed at how high-ranking some of these people are who are cooperating," he said as he read portions of a letter from a Baath political leader in Kirkuk. The politician provided names and addresses of other party leaders targeted by Mahmood's Peshmerga fighters. The man's letter contained the code name he'd use when surrendering.
Scanning another letter, he outlined how an informant in one sector of Kirkuk identified that sector's head of security.
Mahmood also said that shepherds in the Kirkuk area have reported being contacted by Iraqi soldiers planning their surrender. "They asked the herders to bring civilian clothes back to them," so they could get out of their military uniforms as quickly as possible and avoid becoming targets, he said.
No promises
Despite their cooperation, Mahmood said he could not rule out future punishment for the Iraqi informants if they have committed atrocities.
"I cannot promise amnesty for those hands colored by the blood of the Kurds. I believe there should be some kind of justice," he said.
At one point during the wide-ranging interview he said his informants were cowards because of their unwillingness to fight.
"Brave people will not do this," he said. "Only the cowards are doing this."
Discussing another military front, Mahmood said he was told by high-ranking government sources in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) that a group of American advisors met Monday with Peshmerga officers in the Halabja area to plan an attack on the terrorist group Ansar-al-Islam, based in a valley bordering Iran. That report could not be confirmed.
Ansar has been linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida network. In the last two years, Mahmood's forces have fought Ansar guerrillas.
"We know they [the Americans] have had meetings with the military leadership of the PUK, and we heard they went down there to get detailed information on Ansar's weak points, their defense systems," he said. "There is a plan for some kind of air attack."
He said he did not know whether the plans called for an attack prior
to a U.S.-led attack on Iraqi forces outside the Kurdish boundaries.
6. - Kathimerini - "Cyprus issue is still open, Simitis says":
Warns Turkey of EU obstacle
Athens / 14 March 2003
The Cyprus issue remains open and is Greece's top foreign policy priority, Prime Minister Costas Simitis said yesterday in his most extensive comments on the issue since UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the failure of his effort to reunify the island last Tuesday. Addressing the Cabinet, Simitis warned Ankara and Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash that the failure of the talks would have negative consequences for them.
«It must be made clear to all that the other side's tactics and aims will never be accepted,» Simitis said, according to government spokesman Christos Protopappas. «If Mr Denktash and certain people in Ankara think that they can make legitimate the fait accompli of the invasion of 1974 through continually making new and unacceptable demands, they are mistaken,» Simitis said. This was in reference to Denktash's demand that the breakaway state he leads in northern Cyprus be granted international recognition.
«I stress that the Cyprus issue remains open despite the failure of Mr Annan's effort. Without a viable, functional solution within the acquis communautaire (of the EU) there is no future in Europe for Turkey,» Simitis said. Stressing that Athens would continue to support the leadership of the Republic of Cyprus, he added, «The Cyprus issue remains our top priority in foreign policy.»
Meanwhile, opposition leader Costas Karamanlis accused Simitis of handling Cyprus policy «in a simplistic and experimental manner,» claiming the PM had overemphasized that the UN plan was the island's last chance to unite in the face of international fatigue with the problem, and had leaned too heavily on the Cypriot government.
«If the prime minister thought the international community was tired (of the Cyprus issue), instead of seeking to have the island's division legalized he should have pointed out that the international community was obliged to pressure the perpetrator, and not the victim of the invasion,» the New Democracy chairman said.
«If his choice of words was intended to pressure the Greek
Cypriots and their leadership then he committed a serious impropriety.”