04
April 2005
1. "Three killed in Kurdish rebel
violence in Turkey", at least two Kurdish guerrillas and
one village guard were killed in clashes in southeastern Turkey on Saturday,
a military official said.
2. "Analysis: Turkish penal reform woes",
Turkey has again postponed the introduction of a revamped penal code
- just hours before it was due to come into force. The two-month delay
is all strangely redolent of the first parliamentary passage of the
code.
3. "Turkish-Kurdish Party on the Way",
the political version of this dream is for Turks and Kurds to form a
party together. On the Kurdish side now, Leyla Zana, Orhan Dogan, Feridun
Yazar and a 14 person team are trying to start a party by the name of
Democratic Action Party. This party is different from Kurdish parties
of the past. It carries the ideals of a Turkish party.
4. "Turkey allows a first New Year for a tiny minority",
a windswept hilltop here in southeastern Anatolia has become the site
for a reunion that once would have been unthinkable, as thousands of
Assyrians from across the region have converged to openly celebrate
their New Year in Turkey for the first time.
5. "'Mein Kampf' a best-seller, causing concern
in Turkey", Turkish bookshops have a best seller, but some
of them are hesitant about giving it too much display.
6. "Survey on Problems of Homosexuals",
Lambdaistanbul is planning to conduct a survey on violence and discrimination
against homosexuals. The survey will be a first in Turkey. The results
will be compiled in a book. All stages of the survey will be carried
out by homosexuals. 
1. - Reuters - "Three killed in Kurdish rebel
violence in Turkey"
TUNCELI / 2 April 2005
At least two Kurdish guerrillas and one village guard were killed in
clashes in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, a military official said.
Another village guard and three security officers were also wounded
after rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) attacked a group
of soldiers in a remote area of Bingol province in the largely Kurdish
southeast, the official said.
Village guards are local militia armed by the state to fight the PKK.
Some 50,000 still patrol rural areas of the southeast.
"Clashes are continuing in the region. According to our information,
at least two PKK were killed," the official said on condition of
anonymity.
A large-scale operation with support from helicopter gunships was underway,
he added.
There was no comment from the PKK. The militant group launched an armed
campaign for an ethnic homeland in 1984, since when more than 30,000
people, mainly Kurds, have been killed.
The violence has subsided since 1999, when rebel commander Abdullah
Ocalan was captured, but fighting has escalated since the PKK called
off its unilateral ceasefire last year.
There were other clashes on Saturday between security forces and rebels
in Sirnak province near the border with Iraq, another official said.
It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed or wounded.
Separately, authorities accused the PKK on Saturday of causing minor
damage to an oil pipeline in a bomb attack in Batman province..
2. - BBC - "Analysis: Turkish penal reform woes"
ISTANBUL / 1 April 2005 / by Jonny Dymond
Turkey has again postponed the introduction of a revamped penal code
- just hours before it was due to come into force.
The two-month delay is all strangely redolent of the first parliamentary
passage of the code.
Last September and October all seemed set fair for the passing of a
new penal code to top off the extraordinary process of legislative reform
that Turkey has put itself through over the past four years.
The code was to be passed just before the European Commission issued
its final report on Turkey's fitness for entry into the EU - and the
new code was crucially important because the old one was so badly riddled
with sexual discrimination.
But then the new code hit a huge snag. Within it was a clause proposing
the criminalisation of adultery - and a row broke out.
Opposition
The government's critics accused it of backwardness and Islamism.
The EU made clear its displeasure.
And then, just as the measure was about to go to parliament, the entire
code was pulled. Surgery took place.
The revised code made no mention of criminalising adultery. Instead
it looked - and looks - like a thoroughly modernising measure.
Most dramatic are the changes made to the law as far as violence against
women are concerned.
Rape within marriage has been made a crime. Leniency for rapists who
marry their victims has been abolished. The difference between women
and girls in sexual assault cases has been abolished.
Provocation is no longer a defence in "honour killings" -
the murder of women accused of illicit affairs by their relatives.
Attacks on women that were once handled as attacks on the family or
as creating disorder in society, will now be treated as attacks on individuals.
Discrimination outlawed
The statute of limitations for major corruption cases, especially involving
government and business, has been abolished.
All laws will have to be in accordance with the international agreements
that Turkey is party to. Discrimination on religious, ethnic and sexual
grounds has been made a crime.
Privacy has been protected - the police will be punished for entering
homes without good reason, the interception of telephone calls and the
gathering of personal information restricted.
And heavy penalties have been introduced for environmental destruction.
At the time there was some muttering about problems with the code -
that it was not clear in some areas and insufficiently progressive in
others.
But by and large it was welcomed as the sort of thing that would keep
the EU happy.
And it did. The Commission pronounced itself satisfied that Turkey had
met the criteria for memebership negotiations to start. And the member
states duly declared in mid-December that those negotiations would open
in October this year.
With a few months to ponder, it now looks as if the doubters had a point.
Media anxiety
It is the media that are protesting now. They say that several clauses
are so vaguely worded that they are left open to legal action from some
of Turkey's rather zealous prosecutors.
In particular they point to a clause which bans publication of material
that might be contrary to Turkey's "fundamental national interest".
An explanation of what this fundamental national interest might be gives
the example of "propaganda" promoting the withdrawal of Turkish
troops from northern Cyprus or acknowledgment of the heavily disputed
"genocide" of Armenians during World War I.
There are other problems too.
The old press law forbade criticism of certain state institutions; the
new penal code has a clause, albeit rewritten, that does much the same
thing.
And journalists believe that a clause on obscenity could be used against
them in ways which it is impossible to foresee.
For a couple of weeks now journalists have been demonstrating, arguing
and lobbying. Late last week Amnesty International weighed in, expressing
its concern. The government indicated some sympathy but only now has
made its move.
So this postponement looks - though it is never good to be too confident
about anything in Turkey's legislative process - as if it is just that:
a delay in implementation whilst the government and parliament work
out what to do with what many now say is a hastily and badly drafted
piece of media regulation.
Alarm bells may have been set ringing by the announcement of postponement.
The EU has said that it will monitor Turkey's human rights situation
all through the membership application process.
But this does not look like a step back. Instead it looks more like
the government taking time to reconsider, and perhaps acknowledge the
shortcomings of its original legislation.
3. - The Anatolian Times - "Turkish-Kurdish Party
on the Way"
2 April 2005 / by Yalçin Dogan
"Since '92 there's been bitterness inside me" says Leyla Zana.
Orhan Dogan finishes her thoughts like this: "Miss Leyla would
like, along with Ismail Hakki Karadayi, visit the mothers of those injured
during the time of fighting, serve them food, visit them". She
wants to sit at the table with the mothers of those shot in the mountains.
She wants to give direction to her life. But why Karadayi? Says Leyla
Zana: "Karadayi is a peace lover. When he was Head General of the
Army, I was never bothered by his style. I was not able to form a link
with him. But I wish that I could-I don't know if he would want to,
but if he acccepted, I would head straight over to talk to him."
The other night in Istanbul, I spoke for about three hours with Leyla
Zana and Orhan Dogan. That day Ertugrul Ozkok wrote an article entitled
"Karadayi and Zana are in the same party." Ozkok stressed
in the article that in order for peace in the society, opposites must
transcend their differences.
My conversation with Leyla Zana and Orhan Dogan began on this note.
I too keep on repeating to myself how I wish such a meeting could take
place, between Zana and Karadayi. But what a fantasy!
It seems that in order to turn dreams in reality, it is necessary to
break old assumptions and leave the past behind.
The political version of this dream is for Turks and Kurds to form a
party together. On the Kurdish side now, Leyla Zana, Orhan Dogan, Feridun
Yazar and a 14 person team are trying to start a party by the name of
Democratic Action Party. This party is different from Kurdish parties
of the past. It carries the ideals of a Turkish party.
There are around 8 million Kurdish voters in Turkey. But Kurdish parties
never get more than 2 million votes or so. Kurds don't vote for Kurdish
parties. In Turkey there are around 17 million social democrat votes.
But social democrats don't vote for leftist parties. Now is the time
to embrace both of these sides. A pro-peace party that will synthesize
with other leftist parties, now is the time for the Turkey party. Turkey
is not searching for opposition, it's searching for direction.
But when? June 9th. On this date, it will be the one year anniversary
of Leyla Zana and the other DEP MP's release from prison. Maybe June
9th could be the official introduction day for the Turkey Party!
The will is there, but before the dream is realized, there are some
important points that need to be recognized.
4. - The New York Times - "Turkey allows a first
New Year for a tiny minority"
MIDYAT / 1 April 2005 / by Katherine Zoepf
A windswept hilltop here in southeastern Anatolia has become the site
for a reunion that once would have been unthinkable, as thousands of
Assyrians from across the region have converged to openly celebrate
their New Year in Turkey for the first time.
Like many other expressions of minority ethnic identity, the Assyrian
New Year, or Akito, had been seen by Turkey as a threat. But this year,
the government, with an eye toward helping its bid to join the European
Union, has officially allowed the celebration by the Assyrians, members
of a Christian ethnic group that traces its roots back to ancient Mesopotamia.
Yusuf Begtas, one of the celebration’s organizers, said that because
most of Turkey’s tiny Assyrian population - about 6,000 people
in all - lives in a heavily Kurdish region that has seen frequent clashes
between the Turkish government and Kurdish militias, strong assertions
of Assyrian ethnicity have long been politically impossible. But Turkey’s
political culture has been changing rapidly.
"Turkey is showing itself to the E.U.," Mr. Begtas said. "When
we asked the authorities for permission to celebrate this year, we knew
it wouldn’t be possible for them to deny us now. Turkey has to
show the E.U. that it is making democratic changes."
The festivities here on Friday were the culmination of a celebration
that started on March 21, the first day of the Assyrian New Year. Behind
Mr. Begtas, on a raised stage near the wall of the Mar Aphrem monastery,
a balding baritone sang in Syriac, the Assyrians’ language, a Semitic
tongue similar to Aramaic.
He was followed by a group of girls wearing mauve satin folk costumes,
dancing in lines with their arms linked. They were cheered on by an
audience of about 5,000, including large groups of visiting ethnic Assyrians
from Europe, Syria and Iraq.
Iraq, where Akito is celebrated openly, has the world’s largest
population of Assyrians, about a million. Most of Turkey’s Assyrians
were killed or driven away during the Armenian massacres early in the
last century, and the bullet scars on some of Midyat’s almost medieval-looking
sandstone buildings still bear witness to those times.
In recent years, Assyrians have suffered quieter forms of persecution
and discrimination. Since the 1980’s, under those pressures, thousands
of Assyrians have emigrated abroad. Kurds, with whom Assyrians have
long had a tense relationship, are now a majority in Midyat, which until
just a generation ago was 75 percent Assyrian.
Haluk Akinci, the regional governor of Nusaybin, a district next to
Midyat, suggested that the Turkish government might see allowing the
New Year celebration as a partial atonement for past persecutions.
"In the past, freedoms for minorities were not as great as they
are now," he said, though he noted that in years past, private
Assyrian New Year celebrations had generally been ignored by the authorities.
"The Turkish government now repents that they let so many of these
people leave the country."
After years of intense political and population pressure, the Turkish
Assyrians say, public celebrations like Akito have huge emotional significance,
and the participation of Assyrians from abroad has become particularly
meaningful.
Terros Lazar Owrah, 60, an Assyrian shopkeeper from Dohor, in northern
Iraq, said he had driven 14 hours for the opportunity to attend the
celebration. "So many of us are leaving the region," he said.
"It’s very important for Assyrians from everywhere to get
together in one place."
Thanks in large part to greater political freedoms granted recently
in Iraq and Turkey, the Assyrians say, a sense of pan-regional Assyrian
identity seems to be gathering strength. And though Turkey does not
have any legal Assyrian political parties, there are those who would
like to turn this rapidly developing sense of solidarity into a political
voice, even into a discussion of nationhood.
Representatives from several overseas Assyrian political parties were
present at the celebration.
Emanuel Khoshaba, an Iraqi Assyrian who represents the Assyrian Democratic
Movement in Damascus, pointed out that Midyat lies between the Tigris
and the Euphrates, the Mesopotamia that the Assyrians believe to be
their rightful homeland.
"Protecting our national days is as important to us as preserving
the soil of our nation," Mr. Khoshaba said. "Whether they
live in Iraq or Syria or Turkey, our goal is to bring Assyrians together
as a nation."
That is unlikely to happen. With countries in the region increasingly
wary of the flowering of Kurdish nationalism in northern Iraq, smaller
nationalist movements seem to have even less of a chance of finding
political support in the region.
Still, the relaxation of Turkish antagonism toward the New Year’s
celebration was a significant enough start for many who attended.
"It’s about coming together in spite of our rulers,"
said Fahmi Soumi, an Assyrian businessman who had traveled from Damascus
to attend the Akito festivities. "When we unite like this, there
is no Turkey, no Syria and no Iran. We are one people."
5. - AP - "'Mein Kampf' a best-seller, causing
concern in Turkey"
ISTANBUL / 3 April 2005 / by Murad Sezer
Turkish bookshops have a best seller, but some of them are hesitant
about giving it too much display.
It's "Mein Kampf."
The popularity of Adolf Hitler's book, filled with anti-Jewish diatribes
and dreams of world domination, is puzzling some Turks. Does it reflect
rising anti-Semitic or anti-Western sentiment in Muslim Turkey? Or anger
over Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and the war in Iraq? Is
it a backlash against the country's moves to join the European Union?
Or does it simply offer a cheap thrill?
At least two new Turkish-language versions are out in paperback and
selling for as little as $4.50, but they could run into legal trouble.
They were published without the permission of the Finance Ministry of
the German state of Bavaria, which was given control of Hitler's estate
after World War II and is keen to suppress the book.
German diplomats in Turkey have been told to explore court action. "The
book 'Mein Kampf' should not be reprinted," says Bavarian Finance
Minister Kurt Faltlhauser. "The state of Bavaria administers the
copyright very restrictively to prevent an increase of Nazi ideas."
In February the ministry said it was seeking legal action to stop the
book's publication in Poland.
"Mein Kampf" — meaning "My Struggle" —
was written in the 1920s and has long been widely available in Arab
countries, but no increase in sales has been noted there lately. So
Turkish analysts are hard put to explain why tens of thousands of copies
have been sold here in recent months.
Lina Filiba, executive vice president of Turkey's 25,000-member Jewish
community, called it "disturbing."
She said price and media attention were major factors, but also pointed
to a "worrying trend" of anti-Semitic publications such as
"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" being sold even in bustling
department stores.
"Metal Storm," by Orkun Ucar and Burak Turna, a novel imagining
a war between Turkey and the United States, is Turkey's top seller.
Conspiracy-theory books sell well, and the press is extremely critical
of the United States and Israel.
Filiba tied the phenomenon to the European Union's Dec. 17 decision
to open membership talks with Turkey, a move long sought by Turkish
governments but unpopular among those who fear it will expose their
country to permissive European influences.
"I think there's an increase in anti-Semitic, anti-American, and
anti-foreigner feeling that has paralleled Dec. 17," Filiba said.
Umit Ozdag, writing in the daily Aksam, worried that Turks feel ill-treated
by the West and are anxious as ethnic Kurds in Turkey and neighboring
Iraq are increasingly assertive. Some Turks, he wrote, are finding comfort
in Hitler's claims that Germany lost the first world war because of
the Jews.
"Turks think they are being exploited. They are angry with the
demands of the European Union and United States. But those who anger
them the most are Kurdish nationalists," he wrote. "Turks
who think they're are being stabbed in the back read Hitler. That is
a ... very dangerous development."
At least two publishing houses, Emre and Manifesto, have released cheap
versions of "Mein Kampf."
Oguz Tektas of Manifesto said it had sold at least 25,000 of its print
run of 30,000.
"It has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Our only aim was commercial,"
Tektas said.
Esin Aka of the D and R bookshop chain said that the Emre book, released
in February, was No. 2 recently, after "Metal Storm." Senol
Bilginan of the Bilgi store in Ankara said it was No. 3.
"The price is of course low. And the fact that it has been ordered
confiscated in some countries also helped," he said. "Everyone
is buying it. ... Young people have an intense interest."
Still, it's not always easy to find. One D and R shop in Istanbul buried
it on a low shelf. The Dost bookshop in Ankara put it on a high shelf,
where Hitler's photo on the cover couldn't be seen.
"I saw the book on TV and got curious about Hitler's life and decided
to buy it," said Asli Ugur, 20, a university student. She also
bought a book about Che Guevara.
6. - Bianet - "Survey on Problems of Homosexuals"
Lambdaistanbul is planning to conduct a survey on violence and discrimination
against homosexuals. The survey will be a first in Turkey. The results
will be compiled in a book. All stages of the survey will be carried
out by homosexuals.
ISTANBUL / 1 April 2005
Lambdaistanbul (The Homosexual Non-Governmental Initiative) will, for
the first time in Turkey, conduct a survey about violence and discrimination
against homosexuals and compile the results in a book.
Serdar Soydan from Lambdaistanbul said homosexuals will be responsible
for all stages of the project, from preparing the questions to interpreting
statistics.
"We are facing many social problems," said Soydan, "But
there are no statistical data to prove this. Academics sometimes publish
data but we find those to be partial".
The survey to be conducted face-to-face among 400 people in Istanbul,
will take two months.
"Have your voice heard"
Lambdaistanbul is calling on people to participate in the survey to
help reflect the enormity of the problems to the society:
"Let's have our voices heard by answering questions on the 'violence
and problems we face,' survey. Let the outcome of the survey be our
evidence. Let the society know about our problems. We are having our
voices heard. Speak up!"
The following are the information Lambdaistanbul gave about the research:*
The survey will be conducted face-to-face by gay, lesbian and bisexual
Lambdaistanbul members.
* Women will conduct the survey among women, and men among men.
* The survey will take an hour on the average.
* All information gathered during the survey will only remain on paper
and there will be no release of identity.