13 April 2005

1. "Ankara's Problem Of Re-trying Ocalan", the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is going to announce its final decision next week about Ocalan's case (i.e., the rejection of Turkey of an earlier ECHR ruling on the application of Ocalan's lawyers); and it is not going to accept the arguments of Turkey.

2. "Nationalist Violence Spreads", aggression erupts in Sakarya yesterday, n the wake of nationalist violence targeted at supporters of prisoners rights NGO TAYAD in Trabzon last week. Members of the Sakarya Youth Association protesting against the incident faces attempetd lynching.

3. "What’s Happened To Erdogan Since December?", why has Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan changed since December 17?

4. "'Human Shields' arrested", 70 activists were detained for the second time as a group of human shields made a new attempt to reach the village of Sebe in the Derik area of Mardin where two guerrillas had recently been killed.

5. "Conscientious Objector Faces Military Court", the case of conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan, pending trial at the Military Court, sparks debate about the legality of refusing the mandatory military service.

6. "Turkey and IMF reach accord on $10bn loan", Turkey and the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday they had reached agreement on a $10bn loan arrangement after weeks of haggling over the progress of economic reforms and a controversial regional aid spending plan.

1. - Turkish Press - "Ankara's Problem Of Re-trying Ocalan":

12 April 2005

Vatan daily's journalist Bilal Cetin discusses in his article today an important problem that is pending on the government's agenda for a period of time. Cetin affirms that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is going to announce its final decision next week about Ocalan's case (i.e., the rejection of Turkey of an earlier ECHR ruling on the application of Ocalan's lawyers); and it is not going to accept the arguments of Turkey.

The ECHR had earlier ruled that Turkey violated Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is related to the right to fair trial. Upon Turkey's rejection, the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, which acts like an appeals court, has re-discussed the case and it is going to announce its verdict next week which will clearly open the way for a retrial of Ocalan, Cetin says.

Cetin writes in his article that the government has been discussing the issue (of Ocalan's retrial) behind the closed doors since mid-February when the Foreign Ministry was informed that the ECHR would probably ask Turkey to retry Ocalan as the Court thinks that his right to fair trial was violated under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Cetin writes ''The government brought the issue to the agenda of the National Security Council (NSC) in its monthly meeting on February 25th, thinking that a 'state decision' (which would clear the way for a retrial of Ocalan) is necessary. The government officials told at the NSC meeting that if Turkey doesn't abide by the ECHR decision, this would probably break off the ties with the EU before October 3rd (when entry talks between Turkey-EU starts).''

''However the government couldn't get what it expected. President Sezer and the military members of the NSC said that the issue was a political one and the authority to make a decision on the issue belonged to the government. Then PM Erdogan got in contact with opposition leader Deniz Baykal asking him to cooperate with the government to lift the obstacle for a retrial of Ocalan. Baykal said such a decision could only be made by the government, adding his party would not cause problem if government opts for such a step. As a conclusion both the high ranking state officials and the opposition party leader refrained from sharing the political and social risk and burden of giving permission to Ocalan's retrial,'' Cetin comments.

Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK was captured in an operation in Kenya on February 16th, 1999 and brought to Turkey. Ocalan's case was based on the indictment prepared by Ankara State Security Court No 2 and he was sentenced to death penalty on June 30th, 1999 under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code as he was found guilty for treason. Later Ocalan's punishment was commuted to life imprisonment within the scope of EU adjustment laws adopted by the Turkish parliament.

2. - Bianet - "Nationalist Violence Spreads":

Aggression erupts in Sakarya yesterday, n the wake of nationalist violence targeted at supporters of prisoners rights NGO TAYAD in Trabzon last week. Members of the Sakarya Youth Association protesting against the incident faces attempetd lynching

ISTANBUL / 13 April 2005

Seven activists of northwestern town of Sakarya Youth Association were Tuesday attacked by a group of 30 when they made a public declaration to “end provocations”, protesting against rising nationalist violence across the country.

The activists particularly referred to attempted lynching of the members of TAYAD (Association of Solidarity of the Families of the Imprisoned and the Convicts) in northern town of Trabzon last week.

Five members of TAYAD, who distributed leaflets to protest against maximum security prisons, hardly survived a mob lynch when yet unidentified persons provoked the people against the activists, charging them with “burning the national flag”. City police forces hardly rescued the activists from the hands of the enraged mob in an armored carrier.

Tension remains in Trabzon

Meanwhile, tension remains in Trabzon, the biggest Black Sea port city. Albeit five activists have been arrested under charges of “instigating disturbances”, TAYAD members have continued protest on Monday, yet facing a second lynch attempt raged with the slogans of ‘Trabzon is Turkish and will remain Turkish”. Four activists were injured.

Hüseyin Yavuzdemir, governor of Trabzon accuses the members of TAYAD with disturbing the public order. The governor also demanded that the people of Trabzon remain calm. Meanwhile, a four people investigative delegation from the Human Rights Commission of the Grand National Assembly was sent to Trabzon. The delegation interviewed the jailed TAYAD members and issued a statement declaring that “Distributing pamphlets is a democratic right”.

Nevertehless, the lynching attempts were cherished by some columnists of Trabzon local media, who preached that “Taking lives are sacred and justified in certain cases”.

Petition of the intellectuals

A group of academics, artists, NGO leaders, intellectuals and journalists have issued a joint petition to raise the public awareness against the dangers implied by brewing ultra-nationalist upsurge The petition signed by 190 people cautioned that the positive atmosphere of democratization and reform is endangered by the rise of violent nationalism.

The petition pointed out that the recent efforts to legislate amendments to the Criminal Code would limit the civil rights of freedom of media and freedom of information. It is also stated at the petition that the public nationalism campaign inflamed after the burning of the Turkish flag by a group of minors at Mersin during the Nevroz celebrations paves the way to “mass nationalist hysteria”.

3. - Sabah - "What’s Happened To Erdogan Since December?":

12 April 2005 / by Mehmet Barlas

Why has Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan changed since December 17? Although he was the one who managed to get a date for our country’s European Union membership talks, his remarks and attitudes on the EU have done a complete turnaround since that pivotal date. Why?

I wonder if he started to believe that the EU would never accept Turkey after seeing Brussels’ vexing pressure on Ankara about the Cyprus issue. Or whether he’s beginning to see his party’s future lying in a ‘nationalist’ discourse. Maybe he’s quite upset about our media’s recent comments? Maybe that’s why he has yet to appoint a chief negotiator? Or maybe that’s why he’s not tackling the rise of nationalism but choosing to neglect it in silence? Is this a metamorphosis in a Kafkaesque sense?

The change he’s undergone is obvious. ‘The Intellectuals Warning Declaration’ bearing 200 signatures underlines this situation very clearly and warns the government about recent trends.

‘Recent developments concern us greatly because they could constitute significant obstacles to our country’s democratization efforts,’ the declaration said. ‘The new penal code has oppressive articles to restrict the freedoms of the press and expression. The reaction against the Newruz incidents has taken a turn into racial and ultra-nationalist attitudes. The rise of such extremist movements could result in tension and violence. We’re concerned that our country will be plunged into a new spiral of violence and conflict. A district governor overstepped his authority and launched a campaign against a novelist [Orhan Pamuk] to confiscate his books, echoing the Nazi reigme’s suppression of freedom of expression. The issues of a so-called genocide and minority rights which are being debated in the international arena could also raise this tension in Turkey.

‘We believe that under these circumstances peaceful policies are necessary and they should be regarded not as concessions, but rather indispensable for rationality and common sense. We cannot allow a separatist, oppressive mentality to dominate our country, which is why we’re calling on all state officials to act with common sense and do their utmost not to dim our hopes for democracy and human rights’.

4. - KNK News - "'Human Shields' arrested":

12 April 2005

70 activists were detained for the second time as a group of human shields made a new attempt to reach the village of Sebe in the Derik area of Mardin where two guerrillas had recently been killed. Some people were also injured. Those detained were brought before a judge and 27 of them were ordered to be arrested and taken to Derik prison.

A whole group of human shields was also detained in Sirnak. The 27 activists and their two drivers had been on their way to Mount Cudi, where intensive military operations are taking place at the moment. The activists were brought before a judge and arrested.

Events protesting against the arrests took place at the Human Rights Associations in Ankara and Istanbul. Various political parties and civil society organisations took part, and it was announced that efforts for peace and democracy would be intensified in the face of the recent wave of Turkish nationalism. The AKP government was called on to answer the appeals for peace. In Adana Hatice Aydemir from the Socialist Platform of the Oppressed (ESP) called for support for the “Human Shields” initiative “until the military operations are ended”.

One of the speakers in Istanbul was Daniel Hübner from Hamburg. Another activist from Hamburg, Martin Dolzer, had been deported after his arrest, and, back in Hamburg, gave an interview to Junge Welt:

Why were you arrested in the Kurdish area of Turkey?

I took part in an action by human shields and my arrest was a violation of the right to demonstrate. People in Turkey are using such forms of peaceful action to show their support for a peaceful and democratic solution of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. Several such actions have taken place this year. On each occasion the participants were illegally detained. At present the military is engaged in the largest operation against the guerrillas and the civilian population for six years, and causing great damage to the environment by the use of napalm and arson.

What happened?

A column of peace activists making their way to a village in the mountains was stopped by soldiers. One of the six buses, containing 20 people, was separated from the others. I was detained when I asked to speak to others who had been detained. We were held for 10 hours in a police station, and we were insulted, sworn at and hit. Then the judge decided that all those detained should be released the next day.

Some might say you were treated leniently. But you wouldn’t agree with that?

27 of us were arrested again the following day and expected to be in prison for a month and that we would face torture. During the night I was separated from the rest of the group and pushed violently into a car.

Were the people who did that to you in uniform?

No, they were in plain clothes. They drove me round minor roads and tracks, and did not tell me where they were taking me.

What did you think then?

In the past a lot of people, almost all Kurds, disappeared in the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, and were never seen again. I think they took me on that trip in order to intimidate me. In the end they took me to the police unit in Mardin that deals with aliens, and I was told that I was going to be deported. After twelve hours in a police station where it was impossible to sleep, I was interrogated for twelve hours. It was insinuated that I was member and ringleader of a terrorist organisation. I was unable to call a lawyer, I was interrogated without a break, and I went thirty hours without sleep.

What happened in the end?

On the evening of the second day of questioning, two higher ranking officials appeared. They also tried to insinuate that I had some link with terrorism. In the end I was sent on a twenty hour bus journey to Istanbul. Throughout the journey I was accompanied by a policeman with a gun visible. From Istanbul I was deported to Hamburg.

Are you going to mount a defence against this treatment?

Yes I shall take legal action, and will go to the European Court of Human Rights if need be.

What happened to the other people?

Apart from the twenty-seven people in our group who were arrested, seventy demonstrators were brutally beaten and arrested in Adana, and a sixty-plus year old woman was badly injured. I am very worried about those who were arrested, they have a lot more to fear than anything I went through. Human rights are still being trampled underfoot in Turkey.

Source: OP, MHA, JW, ISKU

5. - Bianet - "Conscientious Objector Faces Military Court":

ISTANBUL / 12 April 2005

The case of conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan, pending trial at the Military Court, sparks debate about the legality of refusing the mandatory military service. While Tarhan’s lawyer argues that conscientious objection is legal under the Turkish legal system, supporters stage peaceful demonstrations for his cause.

Tarhan was taken under custody in the Western coastal town of Izmir last Friday and was shipped to his military unit in the Central Anatolian town of Tokat. He is transferred to another Central Anatolian town, Sivas today, to be tried at the Military Court for his rejection to serve his mandatory military service.

All male Turkish citizen’s older than 20 are obliged to join the army for 15 months military service. Conscientious objection is not recognized as a right while objectors rarely come out in the open as those who refuse to complete the mandatory military service are punished by Military Courts.

Tarhan’s case is unique as he is readying to demand the recognition of the legality of conscientious objectivity. Tarhan is currently solitarily confined pending trial at military court. Tarhan’s lawyer Abdullah Öztürk is expected to apply for launching legal procedures say Anti-War Association officials.

Mehmet loves peace!

Two peaceful demonstrations were staged in Izmir and Istanbul in the weekend to support Tarhan’s case, A civic initiative, “Initiative for Solidarity with Mehmet Tarhan”, also advocates his stance for conscientious objection in a campaign named “Mehmet loves Peace”.

The most common male name in Turkish Menhmet is also used to denote ordinary private.

They will be launching a long standing international campaign to protest against his imprisonment, say the initiative activists.

During the demonstration in Izmir, Tarhan’s lawyer Öztürk stated that the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the European Union Citizenship established by the Maastricht Treaty, and the Copenhagen Criteria, which the European Union have put before its candidates demanding certain reforms to be made prior to integration, deems conscientious rejection possible.

Öztürk affirmed that “Turkey has adopted all these international documents and agreements. When the 10th Article of the Turkish Constitution (which states that everybody is equal before the law regardless of their political thoughts and philosophical beliefs) is viewed under the light of these international legal documents, conscientious objection should be recognized as legal. Enforcing military service in spite of the will of individuals is a violation of human rights norms’.

The recent amendments made as part of the adaptation of the European Union legal norms in the 1982 Constitution of Turkey have established the supremacy of the international legal documents over the Turkish legal code. Nonetheless, the 72nd Article of the Constitution, adopted after the military coup of 1980 rules that military service is a part of the mandatory civil duties of the citizens of Turkey.

6. - Financial Times - "Turkey and IMF reach accord on $10bn loan":

ANKARA / 12 April 2005 / by Vincent Boland

Turkey and the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday they had reached agreement on a $10bn loan arrangement after weeks of haggling over the progress of economic reforms and a controversial regional aid spending plan.

Both sides said a final round of talks on the arrangement had been successfully completed and a letter of intent updated and finalised. They said the board of the IMF might consider signing off on the loan in the first half of May. Agreement in principle on the loan was announced in December but the conditions for its disbursal have only now been met.

Ali Babacan, treasury minister, said legislation reforming social security, the banking sector and the tax administration would be passed by parliament soon. These are the conditions for the new three-year loan, which is the successor to a $19bn (€14.7bn, £10bn) arrangement put in place after a severe financial crisis in 2001 that brought the economy to its knees.

The $10bn arrangement is seen by the financial markets as essential to maintaining the pace and consistency of Turkey's recovery from that crisis.

Although it is one of the world's fastest-growing economies, analysts said the country still needed a “road map” to ensure that it achieved sustained rather than boom-and-bust economic growth.

However, the agreement was almost derailed earlier this year by a dispute between the Turkish government and the IMF over a plan to increase regional aid spending. Ministers said the spending was essential to create new jobs. The IMF argued that it was outside the remit of the 2005 budget on which the December agreement was based.

It was not clear on Tuesday whether that dispute had been resolved.

Reza Moghadam, head of the IMF's Turkey desk, said “positive developments” had been achieved on the issue and that the cost of the incentives had been reduced.

Analysts said it was unlikely the IMF would have agreed to Tuesday's announcement unless it was satisfied that the government would not break its budgetary commitments in going ahead with the aid programme, which it appears determined to do.

Markets were little moved by the news of the agreement, and analysts said the outcome, and the delay in reaching it, had been priced into bond and stock prices.

The deal is politically important for the government. It is the 19th arrangement between Turkey and the IMF and one of thefew that any administration in Ankara has willingly accepted without a currency or other crisis forcingits hand. Mr Babacan was keen to make this pointand to emphasise the extent to which the deal was acceptable to Turkey and would reduce its debts to the IMF.

Mr Moghadam praised the economic progress since 2001, saying prospects for the Turkish economy were “the best in a generation”.