1. "Turkish nationalists gatecrash Orthodox Bosporus celebration", Turkish nationalists chanting slogans and waving the flag of an extreme right-wing party Thursday tried to disrupt a Greek Orthodox religious ceremony here called the benediction of the waters of the Bosporus, eyewitnesses said.

2. "IRAQ: Survey suggests widespread female circumcision in north", A ground-breaking survey done by a German NGO of 40 villages in the rural Germian region of Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq has revealed that nearly 60 percent of the area's women have undergone circumcision (also known as female genital mutilation, FGM).

3. "Turkey turns attention to repairing frayed ties with the United States", There is no rest for weary Turkish diplomats. Having secured a commitment from the European Union to open accession talks, Turkish leaders have turned their attention to repairing frayed relations with the United States.

4. "From Israeli Agent, To War Of Words With Armitage", Wherever Turkey looks in the Middle East, it sees the United States. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is currently trying to sound out the Israelis and Palestinians to gauge their views on Turkey’s possible ‘facilitator’ role in the region.

5. "Massoud Barzani: carrying out the poll fruitless" Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani Wednesday cast doubt on the feasibility of holding elections in Iraq under prevailing insecurity and mounting violence.

6. "Turkey pledges support in rebuilding Gaza", Turkey's foreign minister pledged aid for the Palestinians during talks in the West Bank Wednesday after offering to help reconstruct the Gaza Strip when Israel pulls out of the territory.

---

1. - TurkishPress.com / AFP -"Turkish nationalists gatecrash Orthodox Bosporus celebration"

ISTANBUL / 6 January 2005 / (AFP)

Turkish nationalists chanting slogans and waving the flag of an extreme right-wing party Thursday tried to disrupt a Greek Orthodox religious ceremony here called the benediction of the waters of the Bosporus, eyewitnesses said.

As part of a tradition dating back to Byzantine times, a crucifix is thrown into the waters and young divers plunge in, competing to recover it.

Some 60 nationalists interrupted the proceedings waving flags of the National Action Party (MHP) and chanting: "This is Turkey here, like it or leave it."

Hundreds of members of Istanbul's Greek Orthodox community attended the traditional ceremony held every January 6, the date of the Orthodox Christmas, on the banks of the stretch of water known as the Golden Horn, which cuts into the western side of the Bosporus dividing the city's European and Asian sides.

Police held the intruders back, and they later made an equally unsuccessful attempt in fishing boats to invade the section of water where the ceremony took place.

Istanbul has a Greek Orthodox community several thousand strong.

The Istanbul patriarchate is a regular target of demonstrations organised by Turkish nationalist movements. A home-made epxlosive device was thrown into the Patriarchate gardens last October, but caused only minor damage.

---

2. - Reuters Alert Net - "IRAQ: Survey suggests widespread female circumcision in north":

SULAYMANIYAH / 6 January 2005 / IRIN

A ground-breaking survey done by a German NGO of 40 villages in the rural Germian region of Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq has revealed that nearly 60 percent of the area's women have undergone circumcision (also known as female genital mutilation, FGM).

Of 1,544 women and girls aged over 10 interviewed by members of WADI's locally-based mobile medical team, 907 said they had undergone the operation, the so-called "Sunna" circumcision, which involves the partial excision of the clitoris; 637 said they had not.

"We knew Germian was one of the areas most affected by the practice," WADI Director Thomas von der Osten-Sacken told IRIN in Sulaymaniyah. "But these results were a real shock."

Although banned in the West, the practice of FGM is common in other Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East, and in Africa in particular, where there are regular calls for it to be stopped. Health experts say it can cause major problems, including various forms of scarring and infertility in some cases.

The procedure, when performed without any anaesthetic, can lead to death through shock or excessive bleeding. The failure to use sterilised medical instruments can lead to infections and the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Girls who have not been circumcised are considered "unclean" in many of the cultures where practised, and are often treated as sex workers.

Long known to exist in Iraqi Kurdistan, particularly in certain rural areas of the southern Sulaymaniyah governorate, FGM has been the object of more than a decade of campaigning by local women's organisations, as well as NGOs such as WADI.

In the total absence of statistics, though, estimates of the prevalence of the practice varied wildly. Some claimed as many as 40 percent of all women in Sulaymaniyah governorate were circumcised. Others suggest that it was around 10 percent.

WADI's small study will not be enough to put an end to that controversy. But it offers the first solid evidence that FGM is, at least locally, a major problem in Iraq.

The NGO is now planning a second, much larger survey of this practicse, which could turn out to be a lengthy process.

"You can't just go into a village and ask women if they've been circumcised," WADI mobile team doctor Suheila Hidayat Qadir told IRIN in Sarqalla, a small town in Kifri sub-district. "This is a practice that goes on in secret. Nobody talks openly about it."

In the 40 Germian villages, the surveying itself took less than two months, in October and November 2004. But members of WADI's team had been visiting locals for over a year and are known to them by providing medicine to the sick and health advice to women and children.

"These people are very poor; what they want most is money, not advice," said team leader Assi Frood Aziz. "They only began to trust us when they saw we actually intended to carry on helping them."

Dr Qadir and her colleagues include information about FGM among the health advice they gave villagers. They remind villagers of the dangers of infection immediately following the operation along with other serious health issues.

They also point out that circumcising a girl reduces her chances of experiencing a healthy and fulfilling sex life when older.

Trust or no trust, though, they have found persuading the people of Germian to give up the practice difficult for the simple reason that many are convinced it is a religious Islamic obligation, although this has been debated.

As one campaigner against FGM in Pizhdar, an eastern district of Iraqi Kurdistan, put it: "When you ask villagers why they circumcise their daughters, they tell you that if they don't, even the water she carries back from the well will be 'haram' [impure]."

No senior Sunni cleric has ever outright condemned female circumcision. In Iraqi Kurdistan, however, the fight to end the practice was made easier in 2001 when liberal clerics in Sulaymaniyah agreed to issue a "fatwa" (religious order) against it.

Members of WADI's Germian team say that clerics in the region are far more cooperative than in the past. But they add that the remoteness and backwardness of many of the villages has slowed the speed with which attitudes change.

"The Sulaymaniyah clerics have talked on TV several times about female circumcision," said Aziz. "But few of these villages have electricity, let alone radios or televisions. How are villagers supposed to hear what they say?"

He and other medical team members have taken to carrying copies of the fatwa around villages to show inhabitants. In the future, he says, they may swap that for a video and television.

"The ideal would be to interview one of the senior clerics in Sulaymaniyah about circumcision, and screen the results in each of the villages," he said.

---

3. - eurasianet.org - "Turkey turns attention to repairing frayed ties with the United States"

6 January 2005 / by Mevlut Katik

There is no rest for weary Turkish diplomats. Having secured a commitment from the European Union to open accession talks, Turkish leaders have turned their attention to repairing frayed relations with the United States. Turkish politicians and pundits believe the recent visit by US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage was a step in the right direction in the effort to reestablish strong bilateral ties.

Relations were strained for much of 2003-2004, with tension sparked by the Turkish parliament’s decision not to provide temporary bases for American troops prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Leaders of the two countries set aside differences in mid-2004, prior to US President George Bush’s state visit in June. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Even so, a chill continued to hover over what was, before 2003, a close bilateral relationship. Bush’s re-election in November, however, prompted Ankara to renew efforts to fully restore ties.

Armitage was in Ankara on January 2-3 for talks with top Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and military chief Gen. Hilmi Ozkok. Discussions focused on current conditions in Iraq. Following the meetings, Turkey and the United States agreed to hold a tripartite meeting, along with Iraqi authorities, to discuss stabilization efforts in Iraq. That meeting, which could occur as soon as mid-January, could address Turkish concerns about the ongoing presence of Kurdish militants from the PKK/Kongra-Gel in northern Iraq.

"Both Washington and Ankara know that they need partnership and cooperation," said Zeyno Baran, the director of international and security programs at the Washington-based Nixon Center. "This [the Armitage visit] is a new start for the next four years."

Ankara has repeatedly urged the United States to use American troops in Iraq to crack down on the estimated 5,000 Kurdish militants who are active in northern areas of the country. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. With American occupation forces stretched thin by a spreading insurgency, US officials have been slow to act on the Turkish appeals. At a January 3 joint news conference, Armitage expressed hope that the upcoming talks would "discuss the whole question of the PKK."

US and Turkish officials also discussed the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections, scheduled for January 30. Ongoing violence, along with Suuni Muslim dissatisfaction with the electoral process, has raised doubts about the potential success of the vote to assist in Iraq’s stabilization. At the joint news conference, Gul stressed that Turkish officials had "talked with all the groups in Iraq to help the election process," striving to use all of Ankara’s influence to diminish the violence.

Armitage’s talks with Ozkok, the Turkish armed forces chief, reportedly focused on Turkish military involvement in Afghanistan. Turkey is slated to assume leadership for the second time of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, known as ISAF, in February. Armitage later praised Turkey for its "strenuous efforts" to promote democratization in Afghanistan.

In addition, Armitage at the news conference confirmed that he had raised the Middle East question with Turkish officials, mentioning that a "window of opportunity" existed for the revival of peace efforts. Meanwhile, in Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said that Ankara "could play a positive and constructive role" in helping to promote "engagement between Israelis and Palestinians." Turkey’s identity as a secular Muslim state could allow it to serve as a go-between, some Turkish political analysts said. Indeed, following Armitage’s visit, Gul embarked on a two-day visit to Israel, where the Turkish foreign minister delivered a message from Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, then pledged to pass on Israel’s reply.

Turkish political analysts generally praised the outcome of the Armitage visit. Widely respected political commentator Sami Kohen, writing in the Milliyet daily on January 5, said the two countries were once again moving in the right direction. "No concrete results came of this [Armitage’s] short visit," Kohen wrote, "but the decision to continue the dialogue and contacts raise hope that a new process is starting – aimed at fine-tuning [common] interests."

At the same time, Kohen cautioned that, as it tries to renew the traditional friendship, the United States should "see the fact that much has changed in Turkey." He went on to say that "doubts and discontent" continue to exist in Ankara with official US policies, while "spreading anti-Americanism [is prevalent] on the public level."

One major geopolitical change in recent months is the EU’s December 17 decision to open what promises to be a lengthy membership process for Turkey. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. In the months leading up to the EU decision, Turkish leaders engaged in a determined effort to sway opinion in EU member states.

Baran, the Nixon Center expert, downplayed the notion that Turkey could get caught in the middle of what has lately been a tense US-EU relationship. "The United States believes that Turkey’s EU accession process will make Turkey stronger and, de facto, a better ally and regional power," Baran said.

"What we see is a number of EU countries that had distanced themselves from Washington are now realizing that Bush will be in power for another four years, and they [must] try to repair trans-Atlantic relations," Baran added. "Turkey has not fallen into any crack in this, nor does it [Ankara] have to choose one [side] or the other."

Such sentiment was echoed by Turkish political analyst Cuneyt Ulsever. In a commentary published January 3 in the Hurriyet daily, Ulsever criticized both Ankara and Washington for "mutual mistakes" made in 2003-04. "I hope that in 2005 Turkey realizes once again that she needs the United States more than ever at the door of the EU, and the United States realizes once again that she cannot establish a new order in the Middle East without Turkey," Ulsever said.

Editor’s Note: Mevlut Katik is a London-based journalist and analyst. He is a former BBC correspondent and also worked for The Economist group.

---

4. - TurkishPress.com - "From Israeli Agent, To War Of Words With Armitage":

6 January 2005 / by Zeynep Gurcanli

STAR- Wherever Turkey looks in the Middle East, it sees the United States. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is currently trying to sound out the Israelis and Palestinians to gauge their views on Turkey’s possible ‘facilitator’ role in the region. The Turkish delegation wants to discuss not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also what Ankara could do to help Israeli-Syrian relations recover.

Meanwhile, in an interesting story, Israeli daily Haaretz recently reported that during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent visit to Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asked him to convey a message to Israel. It concerned the possible return of the body of an Israeli Mossad agent who was caught and executed in Syria in 1965. Gul is now expected to convey Syria’s conditions on the issue to Israel. Highly committed to the principle of looking after all of its citizens, including the deceased, Israel has for years been using every possible means to get back the body of its intelligence agent. Therefore, Israel places a high premium on both Syria’s message and Turkey’s ‘facilitator’ role in the region. However, Israel’s sole condition to accept Ankara as a facilitator is Washington’s approval, and here we find the real problem.

Unfortunately, we can’t really characterize this week’s visit to Ankara of US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as positive or constructive. Armitage reportedly held intense meetings and discussions with Turkish officials. They focused on Ankara’s disapproval of US policy towards the PKK in northern Iraq, namely Washington’s lenience on the terrorists and Kurdish groups there.

Armitage’s most heated conversation was with Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc. According to reports, after Armitage said that Washington was shocked by Parliament Human Rights Commission head Mehmet Elkatmis’ recent blasting of US operations in Iraq as ‘genocide,’ Arinc responded that although Ankara doesn’t necessarily agree with Elkatmis’ exact words, it could not understand and tolerate the killing of thousands of Iraqi civilians. ‘Our commission has gotten dozens of letters protesting US soldiers’ actions in Iraq, and I ask you to convey our dissatisfaction to your government,’ Arinc said. At that Armitage got very angry, thundering, ‘Saddam Hussein killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq. Did Mr. Elkatmis react to these killings?’ Arinc replied that Ankara had indeed protested these, stressing that Turkey always believed that Saddam Hussein was a dictator who did the greatest damage to his own people. ‘You can’t accuse us of being silent about the crimes committed in Iraq,’ he concluded.

In addition to this war of words between Arinc and Armitage, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul seemed to refuse to shake hands with the US official in front of the TV cameras. One can easily see how tense Turkish-US relations are. What do you think? Do you really believe Washington will allow Ankara to assume a ‘mediator’ role in the Middle East?

---

5. - Kurdishmedia.com - "Massoud Barzani: carrying out the poll fruitless"

BAGHDAD / 5 January 2005

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani Wednesday cast doubt on the feasibility of holding elections in Iraq under prevailing insecurity and mounting violence.

Barzani who heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party was quoted by the party’s daily, al-Taakhi, as saying "carrying out the poll under the existing unstable security situation is not feasible and is fruitless."

He stressed, however, that Iraqi Kurds will take part in the elections if the government insists on holding them as scheduled on Jan. 30.

Barzani made the comments as he received a delegation from the Iraqi National Council who visited him in Erbil in the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq.

He also lashed out at the independent Higher Commission for Elections which he accused of being dishonest and biased.

---

6. - Borneo Bulletin (AFP) - "Turkey pledges support in rebuilding Gaza":

RAMALLAH / 6 January 2004

Turkey's foreign minister pledged aid for the Palestinians during talks in the West Bank Wednesday after offering to help reconstruct the Gaza Strip when Israel pulls out of the territory.

"The Turkish people will continue to give strong support to the Palestinian cause," Abdullah Gul told a news conference after meeting Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath in Ramallah.

"Turkey will expend great efforts to contribute to the peace process and Turkey is also preparing programmes to help in the economic and social needs of the Palestinian people."

Like a host of other foreign ministers who have visited the West Bank since Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in November, Gul said he detected an opportunity to open a new chapter in the troubled Middle East peace process.

Late Tuesday, Gul said Ankara was keen to assist in the revitalisation of Gaza after Israel pulls its troops and 8,000 settlers out of the territory by the end of the year.

"I think Turkey can help (in the rebuilding of Gaza) and we can work together," he said.

A Turkish delegation will arrive in the region on January 31 to discuss concrete assistance, the minister told reporters.

Asked what contribution Turkey could make, Shaath pointed to the need to shore up Palestinian security forces "but above all to continue pushing the peace process, to end settlement activity and move towards negotiations.

"In that matter we would welcome a role by Turkey," he said Wednesday.

Turkey sees itself in a perfect position to play a key mediating role, enjoying good relations with both Israel and the Palestinians.

"I believe that Turkey can make important contributions to the peace process as one of the rare countries which has the trust of both sides," Gul said.

He went on to meet prime minister Ahmed Qorei and acting president Rawhi Fattuh, ahead of a separate session with negotiations minister Saeb Erakat.

In an address to the Palestinian parliament, Gul said "violence and terrorism served only the opponents of peace" and said both sides had an "historic responsibility to end this atmosphere in the shortest possible time".

"I also believe that utmost efforts by the Palestinian administration to fulfil its obligations in the field of security are important for peace in the region."

He was also expected to meet with PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas, the overwhelming favourite to win Sunday's presidential election to replace Arafat.

The meeting was initially scheduled to take place in the early evening but sources said it was not expected to happen until at least 8.30pm (2.30 am Brunei Time) after Abbas's return from campaigning in the southern West Bank was delayed.

A senior Turkish diplomat said Israeli leaders had welcomed the idea of Turkish involvement in Gaza during meetings with Gul on Tuesday.

"The Israelis encouraged us to encourage the Palestinians in their reforms to establish their democratic structures and institutions," he said on condition of anonymity.

"The Turkish side is also willing to help in the economic development of Gaza, and a government agency is planning to provide them with technical expertise, education and small loans."

Ankara has not held back from criticising Israel's conduct in the Palestinian territories.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit out at what he called "state terror" after a deadly Israeli operation in the Rafah region of southern Gaza last May, and Ankara temporarily recalled its ambassador.