2 May 2003

1. "Turkey's fears prove unfounded", the Red Line that Turkey had drawn around Kurds before the Iraq war is no longer very red, or even much of a line anymore. Fears of a Kurdish secession inspired by Kurds in northern Iraq are proving unfounded.

2. "No positive development on human rights in Turkey in first three months of 2003", the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD), in a new evaluation report on the situation of human rights in Turkey covering last three months, said: "There are no positive developments in the implementation of human rights during the term between January and March 2003."

3. "Erdogan to assess prospects for island pact", Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish prime minister, is due to visit northern Cyprus tomorrow to assess prospects for a settlement with Greek Cypriots following the lifting of barriers dividing the island since 1974.

4. "Beware These Greeks? No, They're Bearing Cash", the people of Kyrenia, with its perfect horseshoe harbor, know something about invaders. The list reads like a Who's Who of Eastern Mediterranean history. Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Byzantines, Crusaders, Venetians and Ottomans have all held this strategic and pretty spot. The last was the army of Turkey, which landed 29 years ago and never left.

5. "Kurds Offer a Model -- but Also a Challenge -- for Postwar Iraq", if the Bush administration is seeking a model for postwar Iraq -- one that is secular, pluralistic and rooted in democratic institutions -- it could do much worse than the fledgling society that Iraq's 3.6 million Kurds have cobbled together in the country's rugged north over the past dozen years.

6. "U.S. shuts down last major military mission in Turkey", the United States is shutting down its last major military mission in Turkey yesterday amid an important shift in the U.S. military presence in the Middle East that puts Ankara's strategic importance in question.

1. - The Asia Times - "Turkey's fears prove unfounded":

ISTANBUL / 2 May 2003 / by Nadire Mater

The Red Line that Turkey had drawn around Kurds before the Iraq war is no longer very red, or even much of a line anymore. Fears of a Kurdish secession inspired by Kurds in northern Iraq are proving unfounded.

Kurds from Northern Iraq did cross that Red Line around what Turkey said should remain their confines when they took control of Mosul and Kirkuk early last month. But Turkish Kurds, particularly Kurdish guerrillas, have distanced themselves from the new Kurdish leadership in northern Iraq.

The Turkish government has done no more than send a dozen observers into northern Iraq, instead of an army. The observers are working out ways of cooperation with the new leadership.

An official document issued in Turkey last year had warned that "ethnic minorities in Iraq should be prevented from establishing separate administrations" and that an attempt to do so would mean crossing the "Red Line". The Turkish line around Kurds was both regional and political. A clause in the official document code-named B.020 said, "Declarations in this direction will be a cause for intervention on our part."

It is Turkey's attitude to developments in northern Iraq that will determine Kurdish responses within Turkey, says lawyer Kemal Parlak from the independent DEMOS (Democratic Reconciliation and Solution to the Kurdish Question). Parlak dismissed the prospect that Kurdish autonomy in Iraq might incite Turkish Kurds to demand an independent state. "Should Turkey implement democratic reforms, grant cultural rights to Kurds and other ethnic groups and reinforce the authority of local governments, Turkey's Kurds would stick to their Turkish citizenry," he said.

Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish guerrilla leader who is serving a life time sentence in the maximum-security prison on Imrali Island about 50 kilometers south of Istanbul, has sharply criticized the new Kurdish administration in northern Iraq. "Two paths exist before the Kurds in the Middle East," Ocalan said in a letter issued from his prison. "The nationalist dead-end, and the democratic alternative that I have been pursuing." The democratic alternative "does not necessarily aim to establish a Kurdish state but urges democratic reforms in the particular countries where Kurds live", he said.

Kurds were divided into four countries after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. Of an estimated total of 16 million Kurds now, 12 million live in Turkey. Two million Kurds live in northern Iraq, a million in Iran and close to a million in Syria.

The PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which declared war against the Turkish government in 1984 to demand self-determination, had built support bases in northern Iraq and recruited Iraqi Kurds. Ocalan led the PKK struggle from his headquarters in Damascus.

PKK influence in northern Iraq grew considerably after the Gulf War in 1991. This was seen by the Turkish government as a dangerous development, and it extended operations deep into northern Iraq. Turkish forces staged countless cross-border operations. The biggest came in 1996 when Turkish troops killed or injured about 2,000 PKK guerrillas. The1996 incursion considerably undermined the strength of the PKK.

The conflict between Turkish troops and the PKK left more than 30,000 dead, and a devastated countryside. The conflict came to a standstill in 1999 when Ocalan was extradited from Damascus, and later handed over to Turkey by the Kenyan police, apparently under US supervision. Ocalan was sentenced to death in July 1999, but the sentence was converted to life imprisonment in 2001 under the amended Turkish law.

The PKK declared a unilateral truce and disbanded itself. Its members regrouped under the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK).

Turkish Kurds will inevitably follow a different path now because living conditions in Turkey are different, says leading Kurdish lawyer Hasip Kaplan. "Iraq and Turkey are different," he said. "Turkey has lived through 15 years of armed conflict between Kurdish guerrillas and the government, but the country has been able to avoid the kind of grave traumas Iraq suffered under Saddam's rule."

Iraqi Kurds are concentrated mainly in Suleimania and Irbil. Turkish Kurds are scattered around Turkey as a result of migration that was in part enforced by the Turkish government between 1984 and 1999. "A period of uncertainty haunts the region," said political analyst Merdan Yanardag from Istanbul. "The situation is still inflammable." But Kurds are looking to a better future with Turkey, not with northern Iraq.

2. - Human Rights Association (IHD) - "No positive development on human rights in Turkey in first three months of 2003":

April 2003

The Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD), in a new evaluation report on the situation of human rights in Turkey covering last three months, said: "There are no positive developments in the implementation of human rights during the term between January and March 2003."

"We had to take the fact of torture in this report as it has been previously. Unfortunately, we can not observe any progress in this field. Again in the field of freedom of expression, we observe that public prosecutors and judges do not interpret the codes in favor of freedom," the IHD added.

Below are the data of the IHD's report:

Torture:

"183 people were subject to torture and ill treatment in detention during this period. The number of people who were beaten and injured by security forces in demonstrations is 73. 33 people were subject to torture and degrading treatment in prisons. 50 people were threatened and forced to be reporter. 53 people were subject to torture and ill treatment in their houses or streets. Thus, the total number of people who were subject to torture and ill treatment in different places and times reached 392.

"A new category in our report is concerned about the violence against women and children. In this frame, women suicide and honor killings persist. We were able to identify 11 suicide and 5 honor killings, because it is too difficult to document the facts in this field. Two trials have continued about sexual exploitation on women and especially girls. The N.Ç.(13) trial in Mardin and Z.T.(14) trial (also named second N.Ç. trial) reflect only a small part of sexual exploitation on women and girls. The headquarters of the Human Rights Association is determined to monitor these trials and fight against violation and sexual exploitation faced by women and children.

"Human Rights Association also began to observe proceedings against torture perpetrators. In this frame, a fact-finding study on impunity of the torture perpetrators have been carried on and will be presented to the public opinion soon.

Freedom of Expression:

"The situation in the freedom of expression is not cheering. The approaches of various administrative authorities and judicial functions to the freedom of expression are appears as follows:

"4 radios and 1 local television were suspended 180 days from broadcasting by the High Council for Radio and Televisions (RTUK). 6 newspapers and journals were closed 79 days. 9 journalists were taken under detention. 7 books, 17 journals, 7 newspapers and 3 posters were confiscated and banned.

"The number of banned activities is 11. These activities include press release, theatre, panel and competition.

"The number of individuals who are demanded imprisonment and fine as they expressed their thoughts is 50. Penal suits were launched against 23 people out of 50 on the grounds of the Article 159 of the Turkish Penal Code, 5 people on the grounds of the Anti-Terror Law, 3 people on the grounds of the Article 312 of the TPC, 19 people on the grounds of the Article 169 of the TPC. 35 people were prosecuted to 46 years, 9 months and 7 days imprisonment in this term.

"During the period of reporting, amendments were made in following 15 laws relating to the human rights and freedoms. Laws No: 4778, 4779, 4780, 4787, 4789, 4793, 4806, 4809, 4810, 4817, 4826, 4829, 4838, 4841 and 4842. We will present our technical evaluation on these amendments as a report in following days. However, we can immediately say that, the constitutional and legal system of Turkey can not be democratic with such partly amendments which involve mostly changing the same article in several times. Turkey's constitution and legal system need a radical democratic change and transformation. The society of Turkey also expects this change from the political power. The changes to response the missings and demands of society can only come true with the participation and contribution of the segments of the society. The political power must be definite, clear and determined in democratic standards.

IHD's position concerning the war in Iraq

"The IHD had exhibited its position against war clearly on July 2002, before the USA and its allies attacked Iraq. During the term January-March 2003, we took part in platforms againist war and also made our activities on this issue. The attack and invasion of Iraq by the USA and its allies are crimes committed against to the peace. Basic principles of the Humanitarian Law are being violated with the War and Invasion. Plundering was encouraged in the name of "freedom" by the official invasion forces. Historical and cultural assets were destroyed and ransacked. Depleted Uranium Weapons caused civilian massacres and also damaged the environment in Iraq. Civilians became military target.

"Peoples of the world took a position against the War with a great sensibility. The people of Turkey took the side of world-wide peace coalition. Currently the war could not be prevented. the War and the Invasion. However, people from each nation, each color, each belief and idea could come together around the ideal of Peace. The conscience of humanity rebelled against the modern barbarism. The decision allowing the deployment of USA troops in Turkey was rejected by the Turkish Parliament (TBMM) as a result of the strong opposition of the society of Turkey. It is illegal to appoint governor to Iraq by the USA and its allies and to ignore the will of the people of Iraq. It is also unlawful to award the USA companies for re construction of Iraq and operation of resources which belong to Iraqi people. The Invaders must leave Iraq immediately, pay compensation for the damages they made and respect to the self-determination right of Iraqi people for their own future. The USA and its allies borrow an apology to the peoples of Iraq and World and also they should immediately withdraw from Iraq.

Human rights on Turkey and European Union

"The European Union declared the new Accession Partnership. The new document does not have a new element in comparison with the previous one released on November 2000. This situation shows that the problems with regard to the harmony of the political criteria have continued for three years. The comprehension of the IHD with a view to respect to human rights, primacy of the law, democracy, and cultural rights is not limited to the framework set down by the EU. However, all the problems which the EU Commission pointed out have remained unsolved. Therefore, the political power shouldn't use the question of human rights and basic freedoms as an element in foreign affairs with a statist approach, but it should fulfill the necessities required for the respect to the human rights and freedoms.

"As a human rights organization, we are sorry for that the political power of Turkey use our people's human rights and freedoms as an element for bargaining with the EU. Therefore, we invite the political and bureaucratic staffs to respect to the human rights and freedoms. We call them to leave their bargaining attitudes.

"We warn the political power because of its practice at the last three months. The protection of human rights and basic freedoms requires the maximum responsibility and determination. First of all, all the institutions of the State and their staffs should respect the human rights.

"The ones who have been reported in the 3 monthly balance sheet are human beings. The story of trauma which was experienced by each covers books. These traumas are too deep that can not be regarded as a tool for internal or external politics.

3. - The Financial Times - "Erdogan to assess prospects for island pact":

ANKARA-NICOSIA-ATHENS / 2 May 2003 /
by Leyla Boulton, Andreas Hadjipapas and Kerin Hope

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish prime minister, is due to visit northern Cyprus tomorrow to assess prospects for a settlement with Greek Cypriots following the lifting of barriers dividing the island since 1974.

The island has been swept by a tide of euphoria since the Turkish Cypriot north allowed free movement in and out of the enclave.

Yesterday Greek and Turkish Cypriot trade unions held a joint Mayday demonstration on the Greek side of Nicosia. Demetris Christofias, secretary general of the Cyprus communist party, told the crowd the events of the past week "have demolished the myth that Greek and Turkish Cypriots cannot live together."

Greek Cypriots visiting their former homes in the north made up the majority of the 160,000 people who have crossed the UN-patrolled Green Line on day trips. Turkish Cypriots came south to apply for passports and look for jobs.

The idea to open the border originated in Ankara and was agreed reluctantly by Rauf Denktash, the veteran Turkish Cypriot leader, with encouragement from his son, Serdar, tourism and culture minister in the north.

It enabled Ankara and the Turkish Cypriots to regain credibility after a damaging failure to approve a United Nations peace plan that would have allowed a united island to sign a treaty of accession to the European Union last month.

Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, has said he will not resume efforts to help broker a solution "without solid reason to believe that the political will exists for a successful outcome". This week, Alvaro de Soto, Mr Annan's special adviser on Cyprus, said he was delighted yet astonished by the Turkish move. "It runs counter to everything Mr Denktash has been telling us all along - that Greek and Turkish Cypriots cannot live together." But he warned it did not address underlying problems.

Resolving the island's division is essential for Turkey to advance its candidacy for membership of the EU. Progress on the EU front would in turn boost the reformist Justice and Development party's position at home, acting as a counterweight to an army suspicious of the government's Islamist roots.

Since the collapse of the UN-brokered talks, Turkey has approached Greece, its fellow-guarantor power on Cyprus and holder of the EU presidency, with a view to reopening negotiations on the peace plan. But Athens is reluctant to push Greek Cypriots to accept the Turkish proposal for a system of "global exchange and compensation" for properties abandoned by Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The Annan plan had proposed a combination of compensation and limited restitution, with the latter described by Mr Denktash as a recipe for chaos.

Greece already faces difficulty in persuading Tassos Papadopoulos, president of the Greek Cypriot-controlled south, to maintain his earlier commitment to the terms of the Annan plan.

Mr Papadopoulos has announced a package of confidence-building measures, agreed with the European Commission, to boost trade between the two sides of the island and provide jobs in the south for Turkish Cypriots.

The Greek Cypriot government will now accept official documents issued by the Turkish north, including car registrations, that will allow Turkish Cypriots to travel to the south in their cars. The crush at the three crossing points has been so great that many people have been forced to wait overnight.

To ease the situation, UN peacekeepers on Wednesday demolished barbed wire barricades and earth embankments on either side of the buffer zone splitting the capital, Nicosia, and the rest of the island, to provide additional crossing points.

But yesterday Mr Papadopoulos appeared to sidestep the UN plan by asking the Turkish side to hand over to the UN the abandoned tourist resort of Varosha and to start the gradual withdrawal of Turkish troops from the north. Both moves were part of the Annan package.

Turkey is working on a plan to transfer to a compensation board in northern Cyprus thousands of Greek Cypriot property claims that would otherwise flood the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

4. - The New York Times - "Beware These Greeks? No, They're Bearing Cash":

KYRENIA / 1 May 2003 U by Marlise Simons

The people of Kyrenia, with its perfect horseshoe harbor, know something about invaders. The list reads like a Who's Who of Eastern Mediterranean history. Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Byzantines, Crusaders, Venetians and Ottomans have all held this strategic and pretty spot. The last was the army of Turkey, which landed 29 years ago and never left.

But no one here had expected the latest fleet, composed not of galleons or helicopters, but motorbikes and cars zooming down from the mountains behind the town.

In the past week, since Turkish Cypriots eased travel across the buffer zone that has divided the island since 1974, some 160,000 people have rushed to visit the other side. The majority have been Greek Cypriots, who outnumber the Turkish population by almost four to one. Many have come to celebrate in this little port, a place of medieval walls and a magical reputation.

Kyrenia has not kept count, but every day the cafes along the harbor have been full of Greeks, eating, drinking, laughing. Turks have joined them as though there never was a war that tore them apart. Overnight, the "Jewel of the Levant," as it was known in ancient times, has been jolted from its languid ways.

Hamit Topal, the harbor master, was among the Kyrenians who looked overwhelmed.

"I've not seen so many people in my life," said Mr. Topal, whose normal duties involve registering the few British or German yachts that might float into town. Now he was on the quay, handing out advice, directions and tourist maps to crowds.

Behind him, empty fishing boats bobbed in the sun. Mr. Topal pointed to the cafes and restaurants lining the harbor. The fishermen, he said, had all been drafted as waiters to cope with invading Greeks.

The flood of people has overtaken the long-term projects of politicians and diplomats who have agonized about reuniting the island with orderly plans, only to see them fail time after time. Among the unresolved questions is the issue of how to deal with the huge economic gap between the poor Turkish north and the richer Greek south.

This first exhilarating week, though, has produced some impromptu answers of the kind that beat a well-planned government program. Free-spending Greek Cypriots have already poured close to $2 million into the tiny northern economy, according to unofficial estimates. Eager to see their land, their birthplaces, or merely the long-forbidden, they have spent almost $200,000 just on obligatory car insurance at the border. They have shopped in the maze of back streets, paid for gasoline, and bought souvenirs and designer knockoffs, a hallmark of the region. The waiters confide that diners have celebrated with great quantities of freshly caught snappers and squid, accompanied by many rounds of beer and whiskey.

"We are doing more than 20 times our normal business," said Hussayin Mustafa, a restaurant owner here. Taxi drivers have found new prosperity, making large sums with inflated prices. Business was up 1,500 percent in the past week, according to the taxi drivers union.

Kyrenians agree that this bonanza may fade as the excitement wears off. But for now they are thriving on "the big bang," as some locals have christened the sudden event.

It is hard to tell who is more excited, the Turks or the Greeks. Some Greek families said they had spent the night in their car at the checkpoint in the buffer zone, afraid to lose their place in line. Now they were telling their life stories to perfect strangers in the harbor cafes.

Kyrenians seemed eager to listen. "We are all in a dream, in a state of shock," said Ayla Djemal, whose Turkish family had just made friends with Greeks arriving from the southern port of Limassol. "It's marvelous," she said. "Our lives were far apart, but we all shared the same dividing wall."

Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader, has warned that "the honeymoon season" between the two sides "may not last forever" because such difficult issues as the return of refugees and of property still have not been settled.

On the Greek Cypriot side, officials have made it clear they resented Mr. Denktash's "spectacular" but "unruly" move to lift a travel ban he had imposed in the first place. They have urged him to open additional checkpoints to relieve the long wait at the Turkish posts where every visitor must obtain a stamped visa before crossing.

In an attempt to regain the initiative, they announced some long-awaited steps today, including reopening telephone lines and clearing minefields between the two sides as well as removing trade barriers on Turkish goods and granting work permits and health benefits to Turkish Cypriots.

Beneath the good will and new found fraternity, though, other, less visible, emotions linger. For instance, Soulla and Irini Mathiti, two Greek sisters, came back to Kyrenia after visiting a small village in the mountains. When their family fled south in the war, their father, an Orthodox priest, had insisted on staying, refusing to abandon his church and his flock. He was never seen again.

This week, for the first time, his daughters returned to his little church, now a mosque. Inside, the imam heard them sobbing. He apologized and embraced them, then he led them to a small room in the mosque.

"He gave us my father's books, he gave us his Bible," Soulla said. Now, the sisters said, they can mourn their father at last.

5. - Newhouse News Service - "Kurds Offer a Model -- but Also a Challenge -- for Postwar Iraq":

WASHINGTON / 1 May 2003 / by John Hassell*

If the Bush administration is seeking a model for postwar Iraq -- one that is secular, pluralistic and rooted in democratic institutions -- it could do much worse than the fledgling society that Iraq's 3.6 million Kurds have cobbled together in the country's rugged north over the past dozen years.

At the same time, regional experts say, there is no single minority group in Iraq's complex ethnic quilt with more potential to create instability in the region if the new government that emerges in Baghdad does not recognize the autonomy and social progress Kurds have achieved.

The anti-American Shiite protests in southern Iraq last week showed how fractious the country's body politic can be, analysts say. But the Kurdish situation underscores how quickly trouble could affect Iraq's neighbors -- namely, Turkey, Iran and Syria, all of which are home to Kurds.

"The Kurdish issue is going to be the next big problem in the Middle East," predicted Henri Barkey, a former member of the U.S. Department of State's policy planning staff and an expert on Kurdish politics and history at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. "The more they taste freedom, the more conscious they become, and the more they will demand."

Described often as the largest stateless nation in the world, the estimated 25 million Kurds who inhabit the swath of land between the Mediterranean and Caspian seas have maintained a distinct culture and language for more than a millennium, despite numerous efforts -- most notably by the Turks -- to suppress their ethnic identity.

The Kurds' failure to achieve statehood through their long history is partly a matter of geography; spread out in small villages across an unforgiving landscape, they have never developed a political center. They also have been divided by great powers: by the Ottomans and Persians for almost 500 years, and by the Allied victors after World War I.

During Saddam Hussein's reign, the Kurds of Iraq suffered mightily. According to Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog group, the Iraqi government systematically destroyed 4,000 to 5,000 Kurdish villages from 1977 to 1987. Then, in a series of attacks in the late 1980s, Saddam's forces slaughtered more than 100,000 Kurds.

After the Kurds mistakenly believed the U.S. military would support an insurrection at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991, they were brutally suppressed yet again. The Kurds' first real glimpse of autonomy came later that year, when U.S. and British warplanes began enforcing a no-fly zone in northern Iraq.

In an area roughly the size of Switzerland, the Kurds have created the building blocks of civil society in short order, including democratic institutions with opposition parties, dozens of lively newspapers and satellite TV stations, and unfettered access to the Internet and international telephone lines.

Politically, the Kurdish territory has been split into two regions, one controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Massoud Barzani, the other by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by Jalal Talabani. After fighting a four-year civil war during the 1990s, the two parties are still not on the best of terms.

So far, despite their differences, the Kurds have proven the best of allies for the United States, fighting beside U.S. soldiers to oust Saddam's Republican Guard troops from northern Iraq, and staging a celebratory rally last week for Jay Garner, the retired general who leads the U.S. effort to rebuild postwar Iraq.

"What the Kurds have accomplished in 12 years is extraordinary, and they don't want to lose it," said Judith Kipper, director of the Middle East Forum at the Council on Foreign Relations. "That accounts for their extremely good behavior so far. They are relying on the Americans to preserve the gains they have made."

Already, though, tensions have become apparent. In the days since the U.S.-led war drew to a close, Kurds have pushed into areas previously controlled by Iraqi authorities. South of Mosul and Kirkuk, Kurdish fighters have evicted thousands of Arabs from villages the Kurds claim as their own.

These events have been watched closely by Turkish authorities, who reached a cease-fire with Kurds in southeastern Turkey in 1999, after a 15-year struggle that left 37,000 people dead. The Turks fear an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq -- or even quasi-autonomy in a federalized Iraqi state -- could once again spark rebellion.

The existence of vast oil reserves in Kurdish areas adds urgency to Turkey's concerns. Turkey believes it has a historical claim to the legendary oil fields in the Mosul and Kirkuk provinces, which Turks ruled during the Ottoman era. Iraqi Kurds believe they should have control of these areas, along with their energy resources.

Turkish authorities also worry about the possible persecution of northern Iraq's 1 million ethnic Turkmen, who live primarily in the cities of Mosul, Kirkuk and Erbil. Largely middle class, Iraqi Turkmen have exercised broad influence over the cultural and political life of those cities -- influence that some Kurds have had reason to resent.

"If these cities are going to be integrated into a Kurdish region, Turkey will want to see how that plays out," said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "The Turks are very concerned about the welfare of Turkish-speaking communities in their neighborhood."

Another concern in Ankara is the continued presence of 4,000 to 5,000 Turkish Kurds, guerrillas known as the PKK, in northern Iraq. Although relations between the Turkish government and the Kurds of southeastern Turkey are better than they have been for decades, the existence of these armed fighters is viewed as an ever-present threat.

The problem for Turkish leaders is that the government's recent decision to deny the United States permission to base ground troops in Turkey has severely reduced Ankara's sway over the Bush administration's plans. Had Turkey cooperated, Turkish troops would likely have joined the action in northern Iraq.

"The way things have turned out, Turkey has been left almost completely out of the development of northern Iraq, despite historically close ties with Washington," said Sabri Sayari, director of the Institute for Turkish Studies at Georgetown University. "They have literally been left on the other side of the fence."

This has not gone down well with Turkey's military, which exerts powerful influence over national affairs. According to Time magazine, U.S. units in northern Iraq caught a Turkish special forces team last week as it infiltrated the country on a mission to stir up ethnic Turkmen and provide a pretext for sending troops into the region.

Col. Bill Mayville, commander of the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade, told the magazine that the soldiers "did not come here with a pure heart." Rather, he said, "their objective is to create an environment that can be used by Turkey to send a large peacekeeping force into Kirkuk."

In the meantime, said Barkey of Lehigh University, the Kurds of northern Iraq will work hard to preserve whatever independence they can under the federal system of government envisioned by planners in the Bush administration. "They have worked very hard, and suffered a lot, to get where they are," Barkey said. "The danger is, if there are setbacks, they could bolt."

*(John Hassell is a staff writer for The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. He can be contacted at jhassell@starledger.com.)

6. - Associated Press - "U.S. shuts down last major military mission in Turkey":

2 May 2003

The United States is shutting down its last major military mission in Turkey yesterday amid an important shift in the U.S. military presence in the Middle East that puts Ankara's strategic importance in question.

The United States also said this week that it also would quit bases in Saudi Arabia -- a major shift in American focus in the Persian Gulf.

U.S. officials said the outcome of the Iraq war made missions to monitor no-fly zones in the north and south of Iraq obsolete.

But analysts said the moves reflect underlying trouble in U.S.-Turkey relations -- particularly after Ankara refused to allow the United States to base its troops there to open a northern front against Iraq or to use the southern Incirlik Air Base in raids on Iraq. The base was a key staging point during the 1991 Gulf War.

The U.S. military will wrap up Operation Northern Watch in a ceremony yesterday at Incirlik, from which it has already withdrawn some 50 jets and refueling planes and 1,400 personnel. Another 1,400 U.S. soldiers, serving under a NATO mission, will remain at the base.

"The fact that the U.S. is decreasing its military presence in Turkey means that the U.S. now feels like it will not need Turkey strategically in the future," said Ilnur Cevik, editor-in-chief of Turkish Daily News.

Incirlik has been a key air base for U.S. operations for decades. The base has provided training to thousands of U.S. pilots, enabling them to fly with live ordnance and engage in real fighting against Iraqi defense sites that challenged the patrols over northern Iraq.

Relations between longtime NATO allies Turkey and the United States were strained following Turkey's March refusal to allow 62,000 U.S. combat troops to invade northern Iraq from bases in Turkey. Turks overwhelmingly opposed the war in Iraq, saying it would destabilize the economy and the region.

Turkey granted the U.S. overflight rights in the early stage of the war but most analysts agree it was too little, too late.

Turkey's refusal led the United States to diversify its military assets in the region with Romania and Bulgaria opening bases for U.S. military use during the war.

Robert Wexler, a U.S. congressman from Florida, said Monday that some in Washington were questioning whether Turkey was changing direction in its foreign policy following the war in Iraq.

"There are some in Washington ... who want to be assured that certain commitments remain the same ... that the Turkish-U.S. strategic partnership is still viewed as a strategic alliance that is worth working for," Wexler said after meeting with Turkish leaders.

Many analysts say Turkey will likely remain an important U.S. ally. Turkey borders Iraq as well as Iran and Syria, two other countries accused by the United States of sponsoring terrorism.

"The relations have been hurt. But they have not ended. They are not at a point where they cannot be mended," said Ilter Turan, a political analyst with Istanbul's Bilgi University.

Turkey, NATO's sole Muslim member, has close military and trade ties with Israel, and Washington has often showcased Turkey as an example of an overwhelmingly Muslim country that is secular, democratic and Western.

On Tuesday, the United States announced that it had moved control of military flights in and around Iraq from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, and said most of the 5,000 U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia would leave by summer's end.

The presence of American forces in Saudi Arabia had long been an irritant for Saudi rulers facing strong anti-American sentiment among a growing and increasingly restive population.