13
January 2005
2. "Women Insecure at Home, at Work, on Street", Turkey's women unionists, after a recent tape case, urge the government introduce protective measures to safegurad women workers from sexual harassment.
3. "Children of Turkey in 2004", during 2004 child negligence and homelessness were frequently covered. The "Juvenile Justice System" failed to be implemented. Child labor and the futility of Child Protection Agency was not addressed. More girls started school but most remained negliged.
4. "Turkey criticised by Europe’s rights court over treatment of journalist", Turkey was criticised by the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday over its treatment of a journalist who reviewed books dealing with the sensitive Kurdish southeast of the country.
5. "Armenian genocide: Probe sought", Armenians say 1.5 million people were killed by Turkish forces.
6. "Leyla Zana reaches settlement with Turkey", Turkey's award-winning Kurdish activist Leyla Zana has reached a "friendly settlement" with the Turkish state at the European Court of Human Rights.
7. "Turkey, EU and the Kurds", by Latif Serhildan.
8. "Turkey-Israel Military Arrangement", the Turkey-Israel military arrangement initiated in 1996 is not in the best interests of the United States nor is it in the best interests of Israel.
1. - The New York Times - "U.S. Tells Turks it won't fight Kurds":
ISTANBUL / 12 January 2005 / by Susan Sachs
The commander of American forces in the Middle East told the Turkish government on Tuesday that he could not spare any troops to meet its request for an assault on Kurdish guerrillas who have been using northern Iraq as a base for attacks on Turkish forces.
Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the Army's Central Command, said during a visit in Ankara that the United States considered the main Kurdish rebel group, the P.K.K., a terrorist organization. But, he added, "wealso understand - all of us understand - that our troops have a lot of work to do there along with the Iraqi security forces, and we agree that, over time, we must deal with the P.K.K."
The general's statement, little different from the assurances given by other American officials over the last year, was unlikely to ease either government or public hostility in Turkey toward American policy in Iraq.
Turkey has complained for months that the United States has done little in Iraq to discourage Turkey's Kurdish rebels, to stop the eviction of the Turkmen population from the disputed city of Kirkuk, or to prevent frequent kidnappings and killings of Turkish workers and truck drivers in Iraq.
The government also fears that an overwhelming victory by Iraqi Shiites in the elections this month could lead Iraqi Kurds to solidify their semiautonomous status in northern Iraq.
A separate American delegation, headed by Laura Kennedy, a deputy
under secretary of state, also met with Turkish and Iraqi officials
in Ankara on Tuesday to talk about the P.K.K. incursions. A statement
issued after the meeting underscored that the United States preferred
to see the Iraqis and Turks work out the problem together. 
2. - Bianet - "Women Insecure at Home, at Work, on Street":
Women unionists, after a recent tape case, urge the government introduce protective measures to safegurad women workers from sexual harassment. Nurse N.T. was raped on the way home after she left the night shift in an Istanbul hospital.
ISTANBUL / 12 January 2005
Women unionists from Confederation of Public Workers Unions (KESK) urge for rapid action to safeguard working women against rape and sexual violence.
Sevgi Göyçe of Health Workers Union (SES) during press meeting at the headquarters of the KESK told journalists that violence towards women workers varies from “constant verbal abuse and degrading behaviour to systematic/mass rapes”.
Health Ministry silent
Referring to a recent rape case against nurse N.T of Istanbul’s Okmeydani SSK Training and Research Hospital, Göyçe charges the ministry of health with hiding behind a thick veil of silence whereas violence towards women is “the most common form of violation of human rights across the world.”
The attack against nurse N.T. can not be seen as a simple criminal case, believes Göyçe: “Long working hours, night shifts and poorly illuminated streets, along with the lack of social rights increase the danger.”
Demands
Göyçe urges that hospital managements should provide transport for their woman workers, and further develop policies to protect against sexual harassment.
Recalling the government’s responsibilities, emanating from international treaties Göyçe urges the government should set forth policies against rape and violence towards women:
* The government must provide independent local women’s shelters, psychological and legal counseling centres, and also free medical and legal assistance,
* City planning should introduce considerations to prevent women from sexual violence,
* Training and education programs for health workers, teachers, social workers, psychologists, child development specialists, and police forces must include specific guidelines on violence towards women and children
* Victims of sexual violence must be protected throughout the legal
process.
3. - Bianet - "Children of Turkey in 2004":
During 2004 child negligence and homelessness were frequently covered. The "Juvenile Justice System" failed to be implemented. Child labor and the futility of Child Protection Agency was not addressed. More girls started school but most remained negliged.
ISTANBUL / 12 January 2005 / by Erhan Ustundag
Child abuse in the family and in social service institutions made news numerous times in 2004.
Reportedly, 5 out of 10 children were victims of child abuse, to which socio-economic status and regional differences contributed.
Even though the media tried to keep the issue alive, the stories and broadcasts were usually problematic in terms of journalistic ethics and of law.
Violence compounded by poverty and migration was reported with direct relation to children living on the street while the reaction from the public was to view homeless children as pickpockets. This misperception also led to warped proposals for solution.
The Turkish parliament set up a commission around the issue and the increased attention led to some positive outcomes.
Children in the fields and in the factories
Child labor continued to be a big problem and laws on this matter were still ignored. Unions failed to recognize the problem even on Mayday.
Estimates on the number of children within the industry were around 900 thousand and the number of girls deemed invisible, those who work in the fields or doing household chores, couldn't even be estimated.
The juvenile justice system forgotten
Even though the amended Turkish Penal Code brought many improvements, there was no "implementation of a separate juvenile justice system and laws pertaining solely to children" as suggested by legal experts and defenders of child rights.
Criticisms made during the revisions to The Turkish Penal Code, the Penal Execution Code and Criminal Court Procedures Code were also ignored.
The Judiciary system was not improved but the number of child criminals and the number of children appearing in court continued to increase. Figures from the Ministry of Justice also show that in the recent economic crises years the number of children who commit crimes has been increasing.
Child rights aren't part of the Copenhagen Criteria
The European Union (EU) summit eagerly awaited all year ended with the announcing of a start date for negotiations but the progress report published beforehand only referred to children, there was no mention of the implementation of rights.
Social services and child protection agency crippled
The only institution in the country with authority on the matter, The Social Services and Child Protection Agency continued to lack financial resources and specialist personnel.
Unlike other examples around the world, independent associations were yet to be permitted to open care centers while there exists only a single school in Turkey to train social services specialists.
Not much was done for disabled children or in the name of helping them integrate into society.
Lots of discussion around education, some hope for girls
Education was one of the most debated topics in 2004. The results of the Student Placement Exam remained a source of constant debate.
The "Girls, Let's Go to School” campaign, implemented in cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) resulted in many girls, who had previously left primary education, returning to schooling. It is still early to make any final assessment towards whether not the still ongoing campaign has broken through the tradition and poverty barriers.
Children of the world: No improvement
The earthquake that took place in Southeast Asia at the end of 2004 took the lives of tens of thousands of children in a region already suffering from poverty and with serious problems such as child soldiers and prostitution.
In different parts of the world the situation of refugee children was similar. Refugee camps housing children forced to leave their native land had little of anything resembling children's rights.
While the conditions of children living under occupation in Iraq deteriorate daily, it was obvious that children in the previous target of the United States of America (USA), Afganistan, saw no benefit from the "exported democracy" this year.
The Balkans, once invaded by NATO, became one of the centers for trafficking of women and children. The money spent on Istanbul NATO conference to "take important initiatives for the future", could have changed the lives of hundreds of children in need.
According to UNICEF, the African countries continued to have the worst conditions for children in 2004.
While HIV/AIDS continued to be a nightmare for children devoid of any rights, Western industrialists continued to refuse production geared towards children because it wasn't "profitable enough" and to strangle the countries that did produce them within the framework of the "global economy".
In 21 conflict zones around the world some 300 thousand children
continued to be exploited as soldiers. The conflicts translated as
rape for girls, fighting for boys and death for all children yet the
UN continued to be ineffective.
4. - AFP - "Turkey criticised by Europe’s rights court
over treatment of journalist":
STRASBOURG / 11 January 2005
Turkey was criticised by the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday over its treatment of a journalist who reviewed books dealing with the sensitive Kurdish southeast of the country.
One of the books reviewed by Attila Halis in January 1994 was written by convicted Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, for many years Turkey’s most wanted man.
Rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been held responsible by Ankara for a 15-year civil conflict that claimed more than 30,000 lives in southeast Turkey.
Ocalan was captured by Turkish undercover agents in Kenya in 1999, brought back to Turkey and sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
Halis was given a one-year jail sentence and a heavy fine in March 1995 for disseminating propaganda after a trial presided over by a Turkish military judge.
After losing an appeal Halis went on the run, but the Turkish police caught up with him in March 2002. His sentence was finally suspended in July the same year.
The European court declared that Ankara had violated the European Convention on Human Rights in two areas: the right to freedom of expression and the right to a free and fair trial.
"The applicants conviction was disproportionate to the aims pursued and, accordingly, not necessary in a democratic society," the court declared.
The article was never actually published, as the 2 January 1994 edition of the paper, Ozgur Gundem, was seized before it was distributed.
At a historic summit in Brussels in December, Turkey was invited by the European Union to begin membership talks in October. But the country was advised that it must ensure that recent legislation adopted to improve human rights was applied at all levels.
The president of the European Court of Human Rights Luzius Wildhaber
recently declared that Turkey’s once widely faulted legal practices
were approaching European standards.
5. - Reuters - "Armenian genocide: Probe sought":
Armenians say 1.5 million people were killed by Turkish forces
12 January 2005
As Armenians prepare to mark the 90th anniversary of what they say was a genocide of their people by Ottoman Turkish forces, a leading Turkish historian has called for a multi-national inquiry into what happened.
Armenia says 1.5 million of its people died between 1915 and 1923 on Ottoman territory in a systematic genocide and says the decision to carry it out was taken by the political party then in power in Istanbul, popularly known as the Young Turks.
Ankara denies genocide, saying the Armenians were victims of a partisan war during the first world war, which also claimed many Muslim Turkish lives.
Turkey accuses Armenians of carrying out massacres while siding with invading Russian troops.
"I think we historians, Turkish, American, French, British and Armenian, must come together and form a commission to investigate this issue objectively," Yusuf Halacoglu, head of the Turkish Historical Society, said on Wednesday.
EU issue
Halacoglu, who endorses the mainstream Turkish view of the events and rejects the genocide claims, said setting scholars to work together was all the more important for his country because the genocide issue threatened to complicate Turkey's entry talks with the European Union.
The European Parliament and France, home to Europe's largest Armenian community, have both urged Turkey to recognise the killings of Armenians between 1915 and 1923 as genocide.
Armenians this year mark the 90th anniversary of the events on 24 April and Turkey is to start EU entry talks on 3 October
Halacoglu said the commission would ideally work under the auspices of the United Nations or another international body to help ensure impartiality and to encourage all states concerned to open up their archives to the panel.
He was due to discuss his research on the period on Wednesday with
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and said he hoped for official Turkish
backing for a commission.
6. - EurActiv - "Leyla Zana reaches settlement with Turkey":
Turkey's award-winning Kurdish activist Leyla Zana has reached a "friendly settlement" with the Turkish state at the European Court of Human Rights.
13 January 2005
Under a "friendly settlement" reached at the European Court of Human Rights on 11 January, Kurdish human rights activist Leyla Zana, along with two other Turkish nationals, will receive financial compensation from the Turkish state for the latter's violation of the applicants' right to free expression.
Zana, a former member of the banned Democratic Party (DEP) and a recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, spent ten years in prison for speaking Kurdish in the Turkish parliament. She, along with Veysel Turhan, the former president of the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), and Hamit Geylani, HADEP's secretary general, appealed against a 16-month prison sentence and a fine meted out to them by the Turkish national security court for allegedly publishing separatist propaganda in a 1997 issue of HADEP's monthly journal. Zana was also sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a fine for allegedly inciting hatred and hostility.
The "friendly settlement" was reached after the applicants
challenged the court ruling, arguing that the procedure and the decision
had constituted a violation of their freedom of expression. Zana will
now receive 9,000 euro for damage and for costs and expenses. Turhan
and Geylani will each receive 7,000 euro for damage and 1,500 euro
jointly for costs and expenses.
7. - Flash Bulletin - "Turkey, EU and the Kurds":
13 January 2005 / by Latif Serhildan*
Economic implications, regional relations and cultural mores are
all significant questions surrounding Turkey’s proposed accession
to the EU, but the issue that will be the deciding factor of that
state’s ability to aclimatize to European political norms is
the fate of the Kurdish population. The treatment of Kurds in Turkey
cannot and should not be reduced simply to a question of security
or of human rights, a barometer of implementation of legislative change
or a threat to border security. The Kurdish question goes to the very
root of Turkey’s existance and will not disappear by ignoring
it, despite Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recently
expressed beliefs to this effect.
From Ireland’s point of view there are good arguments to support
Turkey’s application: the opening of a new internal market of
70 million people; the large, young, motivated and mobile population;
and the strategic location of Turkey in terms of energy supply are
the most frequently cited economic reasons. The fact that the sources
of the water supplies that feed Iraq and Syria will be within an EU
member-state’s territory is also of relevance. Socially, the
debate that must inevitably take place about the nature of the EU
itself with regard to secularism, cultural standards, issues of interculturalism
and integration will ultimately strengthen the democracy that we value.
The provision of a new perspective on what our Union means will enrich
our own self-understanding and give a necessary sense of ownership
of the institutions that govern our lives.
Just as this re-evaluation is taking place withing Europe, it must
be permitted to happen in Turkey too. The appalling mistreatment of
the Kurdish population, which has only served to weaken the Turkish
state since its foundation, must be
acknowledged and corrected without fear. Kurdish leaders stress that
Kurds cannot be described as a minority within Turkey, but rather
that they are a constituent element of the state, which would never
have gained the influence or strength to make a claim for independent
statehood from the ruins of the Ottoman empire had Kurds not thrown
their weight behind Ataturk’s efforts in return for the promise
of equal recognition within the new nation. The Kurdish representative
at Lausanne, Ismet Pasha, declared: "The Kurds and the Turks
are the essential components of the Republic of Turkey. The Kurds
are not a minority but a nation." However, after the signing
of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) Ankara's policy rapidly changed.
The structures of the new state were designed wholly in accordance
with ethnic Turkish interests. The Kurds' existence was denied. The
Kurdish language, the practice of Kurdish culture, even the concepts
of Kurd and Kurdistan were forbidden. The constitution as well as
official ideology was based closely on the model of Mussolini’s
Italy.
Being European was then identified with abandoning traditional attire
and donning a suit. This cosmetic adaptation is still evident in the
much-lauded but little implemented legislative changes that took place
in line with the Copenhagen political criteria for accession. The
same official denial of fact is seen also in the unwillingness of
Turkish negotiators to recognize Cyprus. This is typical of Turkish
officialdom’s alternative perception of reality. After more than
forty years of striving for a solid commitment to accession the Turkish
representatives were willing to risk the ground gained in this manner.
Can we really cope with leaders who refuse to recognize the current
political reality of the Union by denying the legitimacy of a member-state?
The rights of the Kurdish population, without the protection of statehood
and EU membership, or indeed representation of any kind at national
level, continue to be likewise denied.
The ethno-centric focus of the Turkish state is not conducive to a
functioning democracy. Since the time of Ataturk European leaders
have paid lip service to the modernisation without examining the reality
of that top-down revolution which was enforced through brutality and
state-terror, which served to drive a wedge between the ruling elite
and the masses, which provided the retrospective legimation of the
genocide of Armenians and the extermination or displacement of other
minorites and the legacy of which continues today in the omnipresent
reminders of the single legitimate ethnicity of the state. Such ubiquitous
slogans as “Happy is he who can call himself a Turk” and
the image of Ataturk, “the father of the Turks”, are visibly
increasing instead of fading away the closer that Turkey gets to EU
membership.
Enforcing secularism should not be confused with introducing democracy.
Religion is a hugely devisive issue today in Turkey as it was after
the introduction of forced secularisation. Sunni Islam remains as
the religion of the majority and is increasingly supported by the
State to the detriment of other faiths. It is estimated that the Christian
population, including Greeks and Armenians, in Turkey has diminished
from 4,500,000 at the beginning of the twentieth century to just about
150,000. Persecution against the Islamic sect of Alewis, and against
those Kurds who profess the syncretic, dualist faith of Yezidism is
well documented.
Presient Woodrow Wilson understood the Kurds’ right to self determination,
and the Treaty of Sevres paved the way for the creation of an independent
Kurdish state. This was later superceeded by the Treaty of Lausanne,
which created Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Kurds understand the historical
imperative on European leaders to ensure that the rights that have
been trampled for the last seventy four years as a result of these
negotiations are honoured.
Irish people must ask of our leaders what economic and social implications
Turkey’s accession will have on the union, how it will impinge
on us as farmers, as workers, as entreprenuers and as company directors.
We must understand the implications for trade, for the labour forse,
for security, for oil and water resources and for geopolitical standing.
But we must also ask how it will effect us as European citizens to
admit a country which has not yet begun to address the inequalities
and paradoxes of its historical and social reality, which continues
to disenfranchise one third of its population (the Kurds), which uses
its economy to ensure the sustained underdevelopment of a specific
ethnic group (the Kurds) within its population. Our leaders must ensure
that the Turkish administration has fulfilled the Kurdish criteria
which aim to enshrine equality and democracy in Turkey. Ultimately
if the Kurdish question is not satisfactorily addressesd before accession
negotiations are begun then Turkey’s problem becomes our problem
too."
* (Latif Serhildan is currently completing doctoral research at the
Centre, Department of Food Business, Development, UCC, into the economic
and agricultural effects of militarism in South-East Turkey. He is
the co-ordinator of Kurdistan Solidarity Ireland.)
8. - Hellenic News of America - "Turkey-Israel Military Arrangement":
10 January 2005 / by Gene Rossides
The Turkey-Israel military arrangement initiated in 1996 is not in the best interests of the United States nor is it in the best interests of Israel.
That arrangement was initiated primarily to obtain profits for Israel's arms industry, and not for reasons related to Israel's security as a nation.
The late Professor Amos Perlmutter, a Middle East expert, stated on June 21, 1999 at an American Hellenic Institute noon forum that the goal of the military cooperation understanding from Israel's viewpoint was to provide jobs and profits for the Israeli arms industry.
In response to a question he stated it was not aimed at Greece. It was simply arms cooperation with Turkey for profits. In 2003, Defense News ranked Israel number 3 in arms exports based on 2002 contracts including significant sales to Turkey.
Israel does not need Turkey to defend itself. As was astutely observed long ago by Israeli General Moshe Dayan, Turkey is not within Israel's defense perimeter. Turkey is thus of limited value to Israel.
The Turkey-Israel military arrangement can be considered harmful to Israel as it has been an impediment to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the road map because of its misguided emphasis on the military instead of diplomacy.
It is also tragic that part of the understanding between Israel and Turkey was that Israel would continue to deny the Armenian Genocide and would not comment on Turkey's human rights violations against Turkey's 20% Kurdish minority.
Furthermore, Israel's military cooperation with Turkey makes Israel an accessory to Turkey's ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocide against its 15-20 million Kurdish minority. It should also be noted that the U.S. military and economic assistance to Turkey these past decades has made the U.S. the prime accessory to Turkey's massive human rights violations against the Kurds.
Israel's failure to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide mirrors those nations and individuals who do not acknowledge the Jewish Holocaust. Unfortunately, Israel does not stand alone in this regard: the U.S. Executive Branch has also failed to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. The U.S. and Israel also need to acknowledge the genocide by Turkey between 1914-1923 of 350,000 Greeks of the Pontos, Black Sea region.
The attempts to deny the Jewish Holocaust have been vigorously denounced and rightly so by Israel and the U.S., in books, articles, speeches and in the media. Yet where is the outcry against Turkey's and Israel's denial of the Armenian Genocide? And where is the outcry against Turkey's horrendous crimes against its Kurdish minority?
It is imperative that the U.S. change its policy towards Turkey. If nothing else, Turkey's refusal on March 1, 2003 to allow U.S. troops to use bases in Turkey to open a northern front on Iraq should have resulted in a critical review of U.S. policy towards Turkey. The successful prosecution of the war by the U.S. against Iraq without Turkey's help proved Turkey's marginality as a strategic resource in the region.
Unfortunately, a critical review of U.S.-Turkey relations has been blocked by the handful of Turkey's proponents to the detriment of U.S. interests. The handful of Turkey's proponents is comprised of present and former U.S. officials, think tank advocates and Turkey's paid U.S. foreign agents registered with the Department of Justice.
Leading the pack are Defense Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Defense Under Secretary for Policy, Douglas Feith, former Defense Advisory Board member Richard Perle, State Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Marc Grossman and U.S. registered foreign agents for Turkey, former Congressmen Bob Livingston (R-LA) and Stephen Solarz (D-NY) who are paid $1.8 million annually by Turkey. Mr. Feith is a former paid agent of Turkey who headed International Advisors Inc. (IAI) from 1989-1994 and received $60,000 annually. IAI was initiated by Richard Perle and was registered with the U.S. Department of Justice as a foreign agent for Turkey. Mr. Perle is a former paid consultant for Turkey in his capacity as a paid consultant to IAI at $48,000 annually.
U.S. policy regarding Turkey is not being run on the basis of what is best for the U.S., but on the basis of what Israel's proponents believe is best for Israel, which they then equate with what is best for the U.S. How else can one explain the decades long appeasement and double standards applied to Turkey on aggression, the rule of law and human rights. The Cold War has been over for 15 years.
The overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans recognize the Armenian Genocide and are appalled by Turkey's horrendous human rights abuses against its Kurdish minority and citizens generally.
A critical review of U.S. policy towards Turkey and a termination
of the Turkey-Israel military arrangement is needed in the best interests
of the U.S. Included in such a review should be a strong recommendation
for support of Turkey's human rights organizations and its leaders.