14 February 2005

1. "Thousands of Kurds demostrate for release of Kurdish rebel leader", thousands of Kurds from across Europe demonstrated in this eastern French city on Saturday to demand the release of Turkey's jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

2. "Over 50 Kurds go on hunger strike in Syrian jail", more than 50 Kurdish detainees have begun a hunger strike to protest "inhuman treatment and torture" they suffer in a northern Syrian jail, a human rights activist said Saturday.

3. "Syria releases 55 political prisoners: rights group", Syrian authorities have released 55 political prisoners, including two Lebanese, an Iraqi, a Tunisian and five Palestinians, a human rights group said in a statement on Saturday. The releases were announced as dozens of jailed Kurds continued a four-day-old hunger strike to protest against the "torture and inhumane treatment" they have suffered behind bars, said prominent lawyer and rights activist Anwar Bunni.

4. "Turkish Troops in Iraq will Facilitate Kerkuk Intervention", the Wall Street Journal reported in its Friday edition that Turkish military troops, located at four different points within the Iraqi borders , mostly at the Barmani Airport, about 25 km south of Turkish border, will facilitate a possible intervention if the Kurdish administration takes the control of Kerkuk (Kirkuk).

5. "Kurdish aims for a post-election Iraq", provisional results from last week’s elections indicate that the Kurdish list has secured about a quarter of the votes. This places them behind the Shia United Iraqi Alliance list, but ahead of any other list, including that of incumbent interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

6. "Kurds win majority in Iraq's disputed Kirkuk province", Kurds in Kirkuk on Sunday celebrated absolute victory in local council elections in Tamin province -- home to the disputed Iraqi oil city -- flying Kurdistani flags and shooting into the air.

7. "Turkey Expresses Concern Over Iraq Vote", Turkey urged Iraqi electoral officials and the United Nations to examine what it claimed were skewed Iraqi elections results released Sunday, saying it was particularly concerned about vote tallies in the oil-rich and ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk.

8. "Iraqi Kurds Flex Political Muscle", the Kurdish political alliance in Iraq could end up with a decisive role in the formation of a new government.

1. - AFP - "Thousands of Kurds demostrate for release of Kurdish rebel leader":

STRASBOURG / 12 February 2005

Thousands of Kurds from across Europe demonstrated in this eastern French city on Saturday to demand the release of Turkey's jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Around 9,000 protestors, according to police - 15,000 according to organisers -- left the square in front of the station in mid-morning to march on the city's stadium and adjoining car park for a series of events, including speeches and cultural events scheduled to last until the end of the afternoon.

Most of the protestors were from Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Hundreds brandished posters and photographs of the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), now known as KONGRA-GEL, and chanted his name or nickname "Apo". Some unfurled banners bearing slogans in Turkish.

Ocalan was captured by Turkish undercover agents in Kenya in 1999 and put on trial in Turkey for separatism for which he was sentenced to death. His sentence was later commmuted to life imprisonment in the context of reforms aimed at enhancing Turkey's chance of eventually being allowed to join the European Union.

Ocalan is being held in isolation on the island prison of Imrali in northwest Turkey. His supporters systematically denounce the conditions of his detention.

Kurds from France, Germany and the Benelux countries have taken to rallying in Strasbourg to demonstrate around the anniversary of the date on which Ocalan was arrested. At least 20,000 of them took to the streets of the city in February 2003 and 2004.

The PKK, which waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in southeastern Turkey between 1984 and 1999, called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Ankara last June and sporadic fighting has resumed but with less intensity than before.

2. - AP - "Over 50 Kurds go on hunger strike in Syrian jail":

12 February 2005

More than 50 Kurdish detainees have begun a hunger strike to protest "inhuman treatment and torture" they suffer in a northern Syrian jail, a human rights activist said Saturday.

Anwar al-Bunni, a lawyer and a member of the Human Rights Association in Syria, said the detainees, including 10 women, belong to the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party, PKK. They were arrested in May 2004 in a campaign against the PKK following an improvement in Syrian-Turkish relations and have not yet been brought to trial.

In a faxed statement, al-Bunni said the Kurds, all Syrian citizens, are forced to sleep on the floor and endure daily beatings. They began the hunger strike Tuesday at the Adra prison 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Damascus, he said.

Syria's crackdown on the PKK includes the Dec. 26 conviction of a Kurdish man for belonging to the outlawed group. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

It was the first conviction in Syria of a member of the PKK, whose leader Abdullah Ocalan is imprisoned in Turkey.

The conviction appeared to be an attempt by Syria to further consolidate its relations with Turkey, which remained strained for much of the 1980s and 1990s when Turkey accused Syria of harboring Turkish Kurd guerrillas, including Ocalan.

Relations improved after 1998 when Syria, bowing to Turkish pressure, expelled Ocalan. The following year Ocalan was captured and imprisoned in Turkey.

There are about 1.5 million Kurds in Syria, Turkey's southern neighbor, including 160,000 who are denied citizenship in Syria, a nation of 18.5 million. They have long complained they lack basic rights and say the government neglects the region of northern Syria where they live.

3. - AFP - "Syria releases 55 political prisoners: rights group":

DAMASCUS / 12 February 2005

Syrian authorities have released 55 political prisoners, including two Lebanese, an Iraqi, a Tunisian and five Palestinians, a human rights group said in a statement on Saturday.

The releases were announced as dozens of jailed Kurds continued a four-day-old hunger strike to protest against the "torture and inhumane treatment" they have suffered behind bars, said prominent lawyer and rights activist Anwar Bunni.

"Fifty-five political prisoners were transferred from Saydnaya prison (near Damascus) to a branch of military security where they were released," said the Syrian Human Rights Association.

The association "welcomes this measure, and calls for the step to be completed by releasing all prisoners of conscience and to stop illegal arrests," the group said, publishing the names of 46 of those released.

Last December, 112 Syrian political prisoners, most of them members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, were released following a presidential pardon.

Meanwhile, more than 50 Kurds, including 10 women, from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), pushed on with a hunger strike begun Tuesday to protest against the torture they say they have suffered in jail, Bunni said.

The group was arrested in May 2004 during an anti-PKK crackdown in Syria.

Damascus backed the PKK -- renamed the Kongra-Gel -- in its armed struggle against the Turkish authorities in the southeast of the country until 1998.

Syria then expelled Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and signed a security deal with Ankara, pledging to stop supporting the PKK.

Rights groups estimate there around 2,000 political prisoners in Syria, including 200 Kurds.

4. - Central Standard Time - "Turkish Troops in Iraq will Facilitate Kerkuk Intervention":

12 February 2005

The Wall Street Journal reported in its Friday edition that Turkish military troops, located at four different points within the Iraqi borders , mostly at the Barmani Airport, about 25 km south of Turkish border, will facilitate a possible intervention if the Kurdish administration takes the control of Kerkuk (Kirkuk).

A news article by the Journal reported that about two millions Kurdish electors voted for independence in an unofficial referendum held during the Iraqi elections and noted that the Kurds' insistence that they want to preserve the independence obtained since 1991 has caused alarm bells to ring in Turkey. According to the Journal, Turkey has warned Kurds not to take control of Kirkuk and deprive the Turkmen of their rights; stating they would facilitate necessary intervention in Kirkuk. The Journal also noted that the Turkish army had formed military bases in Barmani and three others towns in northern Iraq in order to monitor the activities of the terrorist organization the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) eight years ago and asserted that although the PKK was oppressed, Turkey would not withdraw from these bases.

5. - Forbes.com - "Kurdish aims for a post-election Iraq":

10 February 2005

Provisional results from last week’s elections indicate that the Kurdish list has secured about a quarter of the votes. This places them behind the Shia United Iraqi Alliance list, but ahead of any other list, including that of incumbent interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

The elections will almost certainly result in the dominance of political parties loyal to the Shia religious establishment and the Kurdish nationalist leadership, with very limited Sunni Arab or secular Iraqi nationalist presence. With the Transitional National Assembly (TNA) tasked with drafting a permanent constitution, the political destiny of the country lies in Shia and Kurdish hands for the first time.

The Kurds have entered the post-Saddam era as the most politically and militarily organised of Iraq’s communities. As such, their key demand is to maintain the high levels of autonomy enjoyed during the 1990s and to augment them by existing in a federal Iraqi state, with the contested city of Kirkuk as the capital of the proposed Kurdistan region.

The Kurds, who number approximately 20% of Iraq’s population, managed to enshrine this federal position in the Transitional Administrative Law of March 2004, which included what came to be known as "the Kurdish veto", allowing two-thirds of the population of any three governorates to block the progression of the permanent constitution to be drafted following last week’s elections.

The Kurdish position, which also includes a demand that Iraq must be a secular state, ran into opposition from parties associated with the Shia religious establishment. Objections concerned the levels of autonomy demanded by the Kurds; whether Iraq should be federal or unitary in structure; the concession of the Kurdish veto; and the role of Islam in the state.

There is also perennial concern about the status of the city of Kirkuk. Keenly aware that control of the oil city would give the Kurds the wherewithal to secede from the state, the Shia (and Sunni Arab) parties have continued to oppose the attempts of the Kurds to include Kirkuk within their region’s boundary. This opposition is particularly strong since a considerable proportion of the Arab population settled in Kirkuk during Saddam Hussein’s Arabization policy were Shia, and the other ethnic group present in numbers in the city--the Turkmen--is also, predominantly, Shia.

Two elections occurred on Jan. 30. One was for the TNA, which would be tasked with writing the constitution. The second was a local one, selecting governorate assemblies, including one for Kirkuk governorate. In addition, the Kurds also held elections for their own Kurdistan National Assembly.

The national election was organized according to a system of proportional representation, with Iraq being classed as a single constituency. The simplicity of the arrangement, which reflected the immense problems of conducting an election, has also strengthened parties that identify themselves according to communal identity at the expense of smaller parties or even individuals. This factor, combined with a very low turnout in Sunni Arab areas and a high turnout in Kurdish areas, means that the Kurds are likely to enjoy greater representation in the TNA than their actual population numbers would imply. Whatever happens, the Kurds will have considerable power in the TNA to ensure that their position regarding federalism and secularism cannot be ignored.

The provisional results of the governorate election of Kirkuk are even more spectacular from a Kurdish perspective. Following a ruling by the Independent Electoral Commission allowing 72,000 returnee Kurds to vote in Kirkuk’s election, the Kurdish list secured a massive victory, with approximately two-thirds of the vote, giving it about 26 out of 41 seats in the governorate’s assembly.

With this majority, there is little now preventing the Kurdish parties from legitimately pursuing the incorporation of Kirkuk governorate into the Kurdistan region. The leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Jalal Talabani, has adopted a reasonably conciliatory note and has emphasised the need to proceed cautiously. However, his counterpart in the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Masoud Barzani, has been keen to emphasise the Kurdish identity of Kirkuk, much to the concern of Ankara.

This difference of tone highlights the fact that, for all the united front the KDP and PUK put forward in the national elections, all is not well between them. Following successive bouts of interfactional fighting in the 1990s, which resulted in Iraqi Kurdistan effectively being partitioned between the two parties from 1994 onwards, there was always a question mark over whether the Kurds could project a unified front in the political negotiations in post-Saddam Iraq for long.

Until recently, they not only maintained this unity, but actually appeared to be working very closely together across a range of issues. However, during the elections, tensions have again resurfaced. Faced with what is probably the biggest prize for the two parties--the undisputed leadership of the Kurdish region--the two parties have been trading accusations of irregularities in the elections for the Kurdistan National Assembly (in which all parties competed independently) on Jan. 30, along with the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and the Kurdistan Independent Democratic Solution Party.

It is noteworthy that the last conflict between the KDP and PUK started as a result of contested election results following the KNA elections of 1992. The difference this time is that the parties are as focused on relations with Baghdad as they are on the local rivalries, and thus have strong incentives to stay united. It is unlikely therefore that the KDP and PUK will fall out over this dispute, but it highlights the longer-term dangers resulting from the fact that the level of trust between these two parties remains, at best, tenuous.

The Kurds are now in a strong position to ensure that the new Iraqi constitution will be drafted with their interests in mind. This does not, however, guarantee that they will secure their demands for autonomy, as the Shia parties will form by far the largest component of the new TNA. As both the Kurdish and Shia groupings consider themselves to be victors in the elections, it is possible that neither will be willing to compromise on what they regard as key issues. For the Kurds, this is their demand that Kirkuk is recognised as the capital of a Kurdish autonomous region. For the Shia, it would probably be curtailing the levels of autonomy demanded by the Kurds, and an enhanced position for Islam within the constitution.

The coming months are likely to witness intense political activity and brinkmanship, possibly including Kurdish threats to secede and Shia threats to use their parliamentary majority. Negotiations will not be helped by the continuing Sunni Arab insurgency aimed principally against the institutions of the new Iraqi government and intended to provoke a Shia backlash. However, with a two thirds majority needed in the KNA to approve the Presidency Council, the Kurds are well placed to define their interests. Furthermore, although their interests and those of the Shia are in some cases opposed, there are forces encouraging compromise, including the fact that the Kurds will withdraw from the transition process if the TAL is not observed.

6. - AFP - "Kurds win majority in Iraq's disputed Kirkuk province":

KIRKUK / 13 February 2005

Kurds in Kirkuk on Sunday celebrated absolute victory in local council elections in Tamin province -- home to the disputed Iraqi oil city -- flying Kurdistani flags and shooting into the air.

The Kirkuk Brotherhood list of the two main Kurdish parties -- the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party -- won 58.4 percent of votes, or 237,303 out of 405,951 ballots cast, the electoral commission said.

The Kurds want Kirkuk to be added to the three autonomous provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan. Thousands of Kurds displaced from the city by the former regime were allowed to return to vote on January 30.

Kurds celebrated the results in style, driving through northern Kirkuk with Kurdistani flags flying, shooting in the air and blaring their horns.

The Turkmen minority represented by the Turkmen Front came in second place with 16 percent of the vote, or 73,791 ballots.

Several Arab and Turkmen organisations denounced alleged irregularities in the historic January 30 vote even before final results were announced.

Sunni Arab and Shiite parties withdrew from the vote in Tamim to protest against displaced Kurds being allowed to return to vote.

7. - AP - "Turkey Expresses Concern Over Iraq Vote":

ANKARA / 13 February 2005 / by Suzan Fraser

Turkey urged Iraqi electoral officials and the United Nations to examine what it claimed were skewed Iraqi elections results released Sunday, saying it was particularly concerned about vote tallies in the oil-rich and ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk.

Turkey has long complained that Kurdish groups were illegally moving Kurds into Kirkuk, a strategic northern city, in an effort to tip the city's population balance in their favor.

Turkish officials did not make direct reference to the Kurds on Sunday, but the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that voter turnout in some regions was low and charged that there were "imbalanced results" in several regions, including Kirkuk.

"It has emerged that certain elements have tried to influence the voting and have made unfair gains from this," the statement said, in an apparent reference to the Kurds. "As a result the Iraqi Interim Parliament won't reflect the true proportions of Iraqi society."

Ankara fears that Kurdish domination of Kirkuk and oil fields near the city would make a Kurdish state in northern Iraq viable. Such a state, Turkish officials warn, could further inspire Turkey's own rebellious Kurds, who have been battling the Turkish army in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd who is Iraq's interim foreign minister, said Turkey had no cause for concern over strong Kurdish showing in Iraq's elections.

"Definitely all their fears are misplaced," he told CNN. "Iraq will remain united. This Kurdish participation in this Iraqi elections and in the regional election is reaffirmation of their commitment to a national unity of the country."

He said Kurds were seeking a democratic and pluralistic within a federal and united Iraq.

"There is no conspiracy here," he said. "Turkey should have no fears whatsoever about the future of Iraq remaining a friendly country to them, united but respecting the diversity of Iraqi society."

The Turkish statement called on the election board to seriously consider objections to the vote and urged the United Nations to take a "more active role" and ensure that "the flaws, the disorder and irregularities" of the poll were not repeated when Iraqis vote on a new constitution later this year.

Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims won nearly half the votes in the Jan. 30 election, giving the community significant power but not enough parliamentary seats to form a government on its own.

Two key Kurdish parties gained just over a quarter of votes cast, giving them considerable support in the national assembly to preserve Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq.

In Kirkuk, Kurds took to the streets to celebrate the results of the election. Cars sped through the streets blaring their horns and waving Kurdistan flags through a city that is fiercely divided between Sunni Muslim Arabs and Kurds.

8. - VOA - "Iraqi Kurds Flex Political Muscle":

12 February 2005

The Kurdish political alliance in Iraq could end up with a decisive role in the formation of a new government. It is looking likely that the main Shiite coalition will win the most seats in the National Assembly, but because the choice of president and prime minister need to be approved by two-thirds of the members, the Shiites will probably need a coalition partner. That could be the Kurds, who have a different set of political ambitions.

It is too soon to say what the final Iraqi election results will be, but it appears the Kurdish alliance is on track to become the second-largest group in the interim National Assembly. Leaders of the Shiite religious slate known as the United Iraqi Alliance say they expect to win more than 50 percent of the final vote. But the Shiite coalition is unlikely to get the two-thirds majority it will take to form a government, and so the Kurds may find themselves in the position of kingmaker.

Kurdish leaders could choose to align themselves with the Shiites or with a more secular group led by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi currently in third place. Rowsh Nuri Shawis is one of Iraq's two interim Vice Presidents and a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, one of the two main Iraqi Kurdish political groups.

When VOA asked him about the likelihood that Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani could become the Iraqi president, he said the new Iraq will be built on what he called the reality of its multi-ethnic population. "It is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious composition," said Rowsh Nuri Shawis. "But the main component is the Arabs and the Kurds, and that is why it is very normal that the main positions in the government should be shared between both these main components."

The main task of the interim National Assembly will be writing Iraq's new constitution. Some leaders of the Shiite religious alliance say they envision a constitution that is consistent with Islamic law, or Sharia. Mr. Shawis laid out the Kurdish priorities for Iraq's constitution, which may not mesh well with what the Shiites want. "First of all, the federal issue is one of the most important issues," he said. "Second, the democratic issue - this federal state should be democratic and secular. At the same time there are specific issues which concerns the Kurdish area, for example the disputed areas, the solving of the problem of the disputed areas like Kirkuk and so on."

The Shiite leaders have downplayed the idea that they will have trouble reaching an agreement on some aspects of the constitution, particularly those regarding the extent of the Sharia influence. Mr. Shawis acknowledged that the process will be difficult, but he says it is necessary for representatives of all the Iraqi people to work together and find that consensus.

On election day, news reports from the northern Kurdish areas indicated that many Kurdish voters went to the polls with one thing on their minds - independence. The issue was not on the ballots, but it has long been the dream of many Kurds. Mr. Shawis was diplomatic in addressing the topic. "Well, the Kurdish people have voted due to the law of election," explained Rowsh Nuri Shawis. "A huge majority have voted for a new Iraq, for a federal and democratic Iraq. Nobody has voted for sovereignty or separation from Iraq. But if you ask me whether the Kurdish people has the right to decide their own future, or their own dignity, that is another thing. They have these rights just like other people in the world."

The neighboring states of Iran, Syria, and Turkey have their own large Kurdish populations. All three countries are anxious about possible Kurdish moves toward independence, or toward forming a united Kurdistan. Mr. Shawis said those fears arise because people, in his words, do not understand the real situation. "I mean, the people who have fear from the development in Iraq, they are thinking there will be the possibility of separation, and creating a Kurdish state, which is not realistic," he said. "Because the Kurdish population do not work in this direction. We are all working in direction of a democratic and federal Iraq."

The United States has strongly discouraged talk of Kurdish independence. On her first visit to Europe and the Middle East over the past week, new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Turkish leaders that America is fully committed to a unified Iraq. Mr. Shawis, like other Kurdish leaders, stresses the term federal, using it at least a dozen times in a 15-minute conversation. "Well, what we are seeking is a federal democracy," said Rowsh Nuri Shawis. "We are seeking a unified Iraq, built on a basis of federalism and democracy. And I think this means that not only the Kurdish population in Iraq, but every component of the Iraqi people will benefit from that. At the same time, its impact on other countries will be no more than democratic solutions, or no more than supporting democratic way of thinking, of dealing, of administrating. And I don't believe that should make people fearful of that."

Another key issue for the Kurds is believed to be maintaining their own unity. The Kurdistan Alliance that was on the ballots on January 30 brings together the two main factions, the Kurdish Democratic Party, which Mr. Shawis belongs to, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by presidential contender Jalal Talabani.

The two groups have feuded bitterly in the past, but since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq have managed to put aside their differences and forge a political alliance, albeit a sometimes tense one. Mr. Shawis thinks their ties will only get stronger. "I am optimistic," he said. "There is very wide consensus among the Kurdish population that unity and unification of the goals, the actions of both main groups in Iraqi Kurdistan is wanted and is the main guarantor of reaching the goals of the Kurdish population."

The Kurdish Democratic Party has agreed to back Mr. Talabani for the presidency in exchange for the leadership of the Kurdish region. Mr. Shawis says any Kurds who take up positions in the national government will represent the interests of the Kurdish region, but will also work toward a more united Iraq.