14 July 2005

1. "Turkish troops, rebel Kurds renew regional war", one military operation, one insurgent attack at a time, the fighting has returned to this mostly Kurdish region, with casualties on both sides. Although the army hasn’t released official figures, a tally of the deaths on the state-run Anatolian News Agency indicates that about 100 rebels and soldiers have been killed in the last three months.

2. "Kurdish rebels attack Turkish army", Kurdish rebels have fired rockets at a Turkish battalion in eastern Turkey in an overnight raid.

3. "HPG captured a Turkish commando soldier", HPG guerrillas setting up a road block on July 11 at the Dersim Pulumur Highway has captured a Turkish gendarmerie commando soldier. The commando soldier became the first prisoner of war captured by HPG in six years.

4. "EP MPs of Turkish Descent Call on to 'End Violence'", European Parliament (EP) deputies of Turkish descent have asked for an "end to the violence" in a written statement they released Wednesday, July 12, addressing both the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish government.

5. "Isolation at Prisons Should be Eliminated", the Istanbul Chamber of Physicians (ITO) has called on the government to improve the physical and psychological health conditions of the inmates, especially of those at the maximum-security F-type prisons. The Chamber has also asked the government to cooperate with the chambers of physicians when needed.

6. "Ankara wants nothing short of full membership", Turkey's EU negotiator told MEPs Ankara wants nothing short of full membership, with Brussels and London backing the bid in the teeth of French and German opposition.

1. - Chicago Tribune - "Turkish troops, rebel Kurds renew regional war":

DIYARBAKIR / 14 July 2005 / by Catherine Collins

Turkey -- Her 19-year-old daughter "left for the mountain" 10 days ago, the woman explained in proud tones, using a euphemism for joining the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.

The daughter’s decision was driven by the recent death of a friend who was a guerrilla with the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish army in the country’s volatile southeast.

The daughter, asked to prepare the body for burial, washed and wrapped the corpse in a shroud but "could not wash away the marks of torture and she was never the same after, talking about nothing but revenge," the mother said.

The 50-year-old mother of eight agreed to talk only if her name were not revealed so authorities couldn’t identify her or her daughter. It is her hope that after training, her daughter will return from the mountain -- and go to war.

"You never know how you will be asked to serve," she said. "It may be that she will work in the kitchen. But in my dreams, I see her carrying a gun and avenging the deaths of her friends."

One military operation, one insurgent attack at a time, the fighting has returned to this mostly Kurdish region, with casualties on both sides. Although the army hasn’t released official figures, a tally of the deaths on the state-run Anatolian News Agency indicates that about 100 rebels and soldiers have been killed in the last three months.

The violence has been accompanied by increased recruiting by the PKK in southeastern Turkey, according to interviews with people familiar with the group’s tactics.

One switch has been the effort to draw young women into the group.
Although women’s organizations challenge the notion of the PKK as being in the forefront of women’s rights, this mother said: "In our houses, our villages and tribes, Kurdish women are oppressed by tradition. But in the PKK, women are truly equal. After serving in the PKK, women can take that authority back to their communities."

During a 15-year conflict that ended when the PKK called for a cease-fire in 1999, an estimated 37,000 people died, thousands of Kurdish villages were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes.

In the last five years, Turkey has undertaken a series of reforms, including allowing Kurdish to be taught in private schools and used in television and radio broadcasting.

But local political leaders say Ankara’s efforts, partly the result of pressure from the European Union, are insufficient. They demand further political and cultural freedoms, such as allowing the teaching of Kurdish in public schools and a general amnesty for PKK militants.

The PKK called off its truce last summer, citing dissatisfaction with the government’s efforts. Now the conflict is intensifying. The army has beefed up its outposts, redeployed fighting units and set up armed checkpoints on the roads.

This month, the military launched another operation in the eastern province of Bingol. During the funeral for Ahmet Okur, a PKK commander killed during the operation, his father shed no tears but berated the Turkish government, whose soldiers pelted the funeral with tear gas.

"I want peace and no more bloodshed," Haydar Okur was quoted in the Turkish press as saying. "But the state is still denying the Kurds their full rights."

Since the military attack in Bingol, the PKK has blown up a train, killing five soldiers and injuring a dozen. A second attack on another freight train resulted in injuries to railway staff. Last weekend, five soldiers died in two land mine incidents and three police officers were injured during an attack on the provincial governor’s home in Hozat. On Monday, Kurdish guerrillas abducted a Turkish soldier in the southeast, government officials said.

Each side blames the other.

The PKK is acting only in "self-defense," said Hasan, a former PKK commander who asked that his full name not be used. "Rising Kurdish nationalism can be blamed directly on rising Turkish nationalism."

Serdar Irmek, director of the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency, said the government has missed an opportunity to bring about a permanent solution to the Kurdish problem.

"The PKK has done all it can to resolve the problems," Irmek said. "It declared a cease-fire, its fighters left the country and they are willing now to return to normal civilian life with a general amnesty. But the Turkish government sees democracy for all its citizens as a threat."

2. - Al Jazeera - "Kurdish rebels attack Turkish army":

13 July 2005

Kurdish rebels have fired rockets at a Turkish battalion in eastern Turkey in an overnight raid.

It was not clear on Wednesday whether there were any casualties or damage, officials said.

The guerrillas attacked the infantry battalion based in the town of Digor, in the province of Kars, close to the Armenian border.

Kurdish fighters have become increasingly active and their attacks increasingly bold over the past several months.

Hikmet Ozyunlu, mayor of Digor, told the Anatolia news agency that he heard loud explosions, followed by machine-gun fire which caused panic in the small town surrounded by rocky hills.

"Later, we learned that they attacked the military unit. The telephone lines were also cut in the town. They broke the peace in Digor," Ozyunlu said.

Earlier this week, guerrillas set up a roadblock and captured a Turkish soldier in eastern Turkey. Turkey sent more than 1000 troops on a mission to look for him, but the soldier's whereabouts remain unknown.

Kurdish guerrillas have been fighting for autonomy in the country's east and southeast since 1984. The clashes have left more than 37,000 people dead since then.

3. - DozaMe.org - "HPG captured a Turkish commando soldier":

KURDISTAN / 13 July 2005

HPG guerrillas setting up a road block on July 11 at the Dersim Pulumur Highway has captured a Turkish gendarmerie commando soldier. The commando soldier became the first prisoner of war captured by HPG in six years.

HPG had been informed that the Turkish army was moving troops with civilian vehicles in the Dersim area, according to a statement by the HPG Press and Liaison Center (HPG-BIM). Upon this information, the guerrillas decided to set up a road block on the Dersim Pulumur Highway. The road block was set up at 17:00 (5 pm EEST) and was held until 20:30 (8:30 pm EEST).

HPG guerrillas checked the identity of 300 people and explained to them the reason of the guerrillas blocking the highway. During the identity control, the HPG guerrillas discovered the civilian clothed Gendarmerie Commando Private Coskun Kirandi (21). The Turkish soldier was doing his military duty at the Adiyaman Province Gendarmerie Commando and the HPG guerrillas were told that he was heading to Trabzon on a short-term leave from his unit.

The guerrillas decided to capture Kirandi and take him to their base in the Dersim province, according to the statement by HPG-BIM.

The HPG Headquarter Commandership issued a separate statement giving Kirandi the status of P.O.W (Prisoner of War) and insured the public that Kirandi would have all the rights of a P.O.W according to international laws of war.

The HPG Headquarter Commandership also denied the accusations made by the Turkish media that their guerrilla units by force had taken money and material from people stopped at the road block.

Turkish army units have been dropped down by helicopters into the Harçik valley, Dokuzkaya and Uzun to search for the P.O.W. Most of the units have now been pulled back but a number of Turkish scout units remains in the area, according to HPG-BIM.

4. - Flash Bulletin - "EP MPs of Turkish Descent Call on to 'End Violence'":

14 July 2005 / source: Zaman

European Parliament (EP) deputies of Turkish descent have asked for an "end to the violence" in a written statement they released Wednesday, July 12, addressing both the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish government.

The statement issued by four Turkish origin deputies Emine Bozkurt, Vural Oger, Cem Ozdemir and Feleknas Uca emphasized their concerns over the violence resuming in the Southeast Anatolia. The deputies addressing both parties demanded a peaceful solution to the problem.

5. - Bianet - "Isolation at Prisons Should be Eliminated":

ISTANBUL / 12 July 2005

The Istanbul Chamber of Physicians (ITO) has called on the government to improve the physical and psychological health conditions of the inmates, especially of those at the maximum-security F-type prisons. The Chamber has also asked the government to cooperate with the chambers of physicians when needed.

Through legal amendments, the government has left the people's right to a healthy life to the mercy of the market, the ITO board of directors said in a written statement. "This is also affecting the prisoners."

ITO said that tens of people have chosen to die since the "returning to life" operation 4.5 years ago. It cited the complaints of the families of inmates and added that health conditions at the F-type prisons are threatening the lives of the prisoners.

"The prisoners are forced to live in physical and social isolation," said the statement. "From the increasing number of complaints from their families, it can be told that the prisoners are deliberately left to die. Prison authorities are preventing treatment although some inmates have serious health problems. They are only transferred to hospitals at the very last stage of their sickness. They are even prevented from using medicine."

ITO had earlier applied to the Justice Ministry and proposed that an independent group of physicians, under the supervision of the Turkish Physicians Association, inspect the health services in prisons. The Justice Ministry rejected the proposal saying "health services are being provided in the related units," according to ITO.

Media is silent about the issue

"Media's silence about what's going on in the prisons is interesting," said ITO, adding:

"The pressure and insults the inmates and their families are faced with at the F-type prisons are unacceptable and cannot be kept in the dark anymore. They virtually have no rights. It is clear that hiding this problem would only lead to the creation of a cruel political regime and would have no contribution to the democratization of our country."

6. - EUobserver - "Ankara wants nothing short of full membership":

BRUSSELS / 12 July 2005 / by Elitsa Vucheva

Turkey's EU negotiator told MEPs Ankara wants nothing short of full membership, with Brussels and London backing the bid in the teeth of French and German opposition.

Speaking in the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee on Tuesday (12 July) Ali Babacan said "No document signed between Turkey and the EU nor any other EU decision envisages any other option".

Mr Babacan was responding to voices in the EU in favour of granting Turkey a "privileged partnership" status instead of full membership.

In Germany, the Christian Democrat opposition (CDU), which is likely to win early legislative elections in September, is against Turkish accession.

"We want to support the democratic and economic development of Turkey, with whom we are bound closely in security policy through NATO, through a privileged partnership not with an unrealistic perspective of membership", the CDU said in their electoral manifesto published on Monday (11 July).

Other opponents to Ankara's membership include French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who might be the next French president in 2007, according to French media.

However, Mr Babacan made it clear that "we [EU and Turkey] already maintain a special relationship" anyway, so the so-called privileged partnership is not an option.

Commission against "privileged partnership" too EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn expressed the same view in Berlin on Tuesday, after meeting CDU leader Angela Merkel.

"Whatever more that [privileged partnership] could mean I'm willing to listen, but I have not yet heard very convincing answers", he was reported as saying by Reuters.

"Therefore my aim is to start negotiations on 3 October and create the conditions for Turkey to continue its bold and significant reforms", he added.

Like Mr Babacan, the commissioner stressed that the EU already enjoyed cooperation with Turkey, as it has a customs union with Ankara, Turkey participates in EU research and education programmes and Turkish forces are serving as part of the EU's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The commission last month adopted guidelines on which accession negotiations with Turkey will be based - the so called 'framework for negotiations'.

The document, which now has to be approved by member states, confirms that the goal of the accession talks remains full membership of the EU for Turkey.

But it also underlines that the negotiations are "an open-ended process".

And if Turkey starts EU talks on 3 October as planned, the process is set to go on for no less than ten years.

Straw calls for "digestion" pause

Also speaking before MEPs at the foreign affairs committee yesterday, UK foreign secretary Jack Straw called for a "digestion pause" before the EU has the "capability and capacity" to expand further.

However, Mr Straw, whose country holds the rotating six-month EU presidency since 1 July, reiterated that the 25-member bloc had to respect its commitments to existing applicants.

"We've made commitments to Turkey, we've made commitments to Croatia, my view is that we have to follow those commitments through", he said.

The foreign secretary also made it clear that he opposed the idea of privileged partnership, saying that the negotiations should lead to full membership and "not to some intermediate status".

The UK is one of the biggest supporters of EU expansion, including Turkey.

"Let us embrace them [Turkey] instead of rejecting them", Mr Straw said, calling for recognition of the progress Ankara had achieved so far.