4
July 2005
1. "Kurdish Rebels Derail 2 Trains in Turkey", Kurdish guerrillas set off bombs Saturday in eastern Turkey, derailing two trains and killing six soldiers, officials said. The second train was bombed as it rushed to help the first.
2. "HPG War Balance for June 2005", the Kurdish HPG guerrillas presented their war balance for June, 2005. The war balance indicates an increasing amount of clashes between Turkish forces and HPG guerrillas; especially in provinces like Erzurum. A total of 141 Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with HPG guerrillas in June, 2005.
3. "Three policemen wounded in Turkey after bomb blast", three Turkish police officers were injured after a bomb blast on Friday night in an outer suburb of Diyarbakir in the Kurd-dominated southeast of the country, a local official said Saturday.
4. "Turkey is Not a Role Model for the Middle East", Turkey is far less repressive than many other Muslim countries. But it is a nation with such serious problems that it should not serve as a role model, even for fledgling Islamic democracies. Torture and mistreatment are commonplace in Turkey. In 2004, citizens from all parts of the country reported that local police departments beat them while in custody. Many others reported incidents of electric shock, sexual assault, attempted drowning, and partial hanging.
5. "Kurds, Emboldened By Lebanon, Rise Up in Tense Syria", Syria's 1.5 million Kurds are the country's largest ethnic minority and historically its most downtrodden. Eschewing the Arab identity at the core of the Baath Party, the Kurds have become the most organized opposition to the embattled government.
6. "Austria has dossier implicating Iranian president-elect in 1989 murder case", the Austrian government has documents implicating the Iranian president-elect in the 1989 assassination of a Kurdish opposition leader in Vienna, an interior ministry spokesman said Saturday.
1. - AP - "Kurdish Rebels Derail 2 Trains in Turkey":
ANKARA / 2 July 2005 / by Selcan Hacaoglu
Kurdish guerrillas set off bombs Saturday in eastern Turkey, derailing two trains and killing six soldiers, officials said. The second train was bombed as it rushed to help the first.
Six railway guards were killed in the first attack when the bomb exploded under their car, railway officials said.
The blast sent seven cars flying off the rails in the province of Bingol, 600 miles southeast of the Turkish capital, Ankara, injuring 12 passengers and crew members, some of whom were trapped under the train cars.
The militants derailed the second train by detonating a similar remote-controlled bomb. Authorities provided no information about how many people were on the second train or if there were any casualties.
A third bomb, not far from the site of first attack, was found and detonated by Turkish troops who launched an operation to hunt down the rebels in the rugged area.
Military helicopters ferried the injured to local hospitals, the Anatolia news agency said. All 45 passengers and 11 crew members were evacuated by Turkish troops.
In another bombing, suspected rebels injured three Turkish police officers in the southeastern town of Kulp, police said. The bomb went off as the police approached to check out a suspicious package left in the street.
Military helicopters ferried the injured from the first train bombing to local hospitals, the Anatolia news agency said. All 45 passengers and 11 crew members were evacuated by the army.
Kurdish insurgents have increasingly used remote-controlled bombs in stepped-up attacks since the start of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Turkish officials have said.
Autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels ended a five-year unilateral
cease-fire last summer in the overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast, saying
Turkey had not responded in kind. The clashes have left 37,000 people
dead since 1984. 
2. - DozaMe.org - "HPG War Balance for June 2005":
KURDISTAN / 1 June 2005
The Kurdish HPG guerrillas presented their war balance for June, 2005. The war balance indicates an increasing amount of clashes between Turkish forces and HPG guerrillas; especially in provinces like Erzurum.
In a statement together with the war balance, the HPG reports that the Turkish army now has adapted a much harsher attitude toward Kurdish civilians that openly have showed support for the Kurdish movement by claiming and looking after the bodies of martyred HPG guerrillas.
Turkish army forces recently clashed with Kurdish civilians during demonstrations and killed one young Kurdish protester in Van and wounded tens of other protesters. Turkish soldiers showed same ruthlessness by stopping and attacking a burial ceremony in Amed (Diyarbakir), wounding tens of participants.
A total of 141 Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with HPG guerrillas in June, 2005. Botan with 11, is still the area where the highest number of clashes have occured. An unusual, but likely a more common phenomena is Erzurum on second place with 10 clashes (in 4 Turkish military operations and 1 HPG retaliation) and with a total of 28 Turkish soldiers killed (two of them officers).
HPG WAR BALANCE - JUNE, 2005
Total amount of Turkish operations: 44
Total amount of clashes in these operations: 33
Amount of contacts where the results are known: 17
Amount of contacts where the results are unknown: 16
Retaliations by HPG: 24
Amount of retaliations where the results are known: 18
Amount of retaliations where the results are unknown: 6
Enemy forces killed: 141
Officers: 12
Soldiers: 128
Intelligence agent: 1 (HPG reported the execution of a captured JITEM
agent named Atilla Kanda on June 22.)
Destroyed enemy military vehicles: 4
Destroyed enemy APC (Armoured Personnel Carriers): 1
Material confiscated from dead soldiers: 2 (Both of them were M-16 automatic rifles.)
Martyred HPG guerrillas: 10
In the Botan province: 5
In the Erzurum province: 4
In the Dersim province: 1
3. - AFP - "Three policemen wounded in Turkey
after bomb blast":
DIYARBAKIR / 2 July 2005
Three Turkish police officers were injured after a bomb blast on Friday night in an outer suburb of Diyarbakir in the Kurd-dominated southeast of the country, a local official said Saturday.
The remote-controlled bomb was set off as a police patrol approached a suspect package, the official said.
Three police officers were taken to hospital but their conditions were not known, he said.
Violence in the mainly Kurdish southeast has increased sharply over the past few months after the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) called off a five-year unilateral truce in June 2004 on grounds that reforms undertaken by Ankara to expand Kurdish freedoms were insufficient.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed about 37,000
lives, most of them between 1984 and 1999, when the PKK waged a bloody
campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the region.
4. - The Free Press - "Turkey is Not a Role Model for the Middle East":
1 July 2005 / by Gene C. Gerard*
In recent weeks President Bush has given several speeches promoting Turkey as the type of democracy that Iraq and Afghanistan should strive to emulate. Mr. Bush even went so far as to state, “Turkey’s democracy is an important example for the people in the broader Middle East.” Turkey is far less repressive than many other Muslim countries. But it is a nation with such serious problems that it should not serve as a role model, even for fledgling Islamic democracies.
Torture and mistreatment are commonplace in Turkey. In 2004, citizens from all parts of the country reported that local police departments beat them while in custody. Many others reported incidents of electric shock, sexual assault, attempted drowning, and partial hanging. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture issued a report after visiting Turkey documenting, “consistent reports of electric shock…and medical evidence consistent with beatings.” The report noted that in southeastern Turkey the majority of citizens detained by the police are denied access to legal representation.
Both governmental and non-governmental organizations in Turkey have detailed many instances of recent torture. The European Commission issued a report in 2003 noting, “torture cases persist.” The Human Rights Directorate of the Office of the Prime Minister received 50 complaints of torture in the first four months of 2004. The Turkish Human Rights Association reported 692 incidents of torture or mistreatment in the first half of 2004. And the Turkish Human Rights Foundation received requests for medical treatment from 597 individuals who were abused in prisons during the first eight months of 2004.
In most cases, torture and mistreatment of Turkish citizens go unpunished. A report by the European Commission last year documented that, “numerous cases of ill-treatment including torture still continue to occur and further efforts will be required to eradicate such practice.” Torture is most common in rural areas, where police departments have little supervision.
In 2002, when Turkey sought admission to the European Union (EU), it was turned down, largely due to its human rights record. The EU cited a failure to promote “the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities.” Although President Bush maintains that Turkey can serve as a role model for other Islamic countries, the U.S. State Department has acknowledged that it is a known human rights offender. In 2003, the State Department’s Human Rights Report on Turkey concluded, “security forces reportedly killed 43 persons during the year; torture, beatings, and other abuses by security forces remained widespread….The rarity of convictions and the light sentences imposed on [the] police …for killings and torture continued to foster a climate of impunity.”
Turkey has had a longstanding battle with its Kurdish population. In the 1990s almost 400,000 Kurds were forcibly expelled from their villages in southeast Turkey by government forces. Most of the Kurds have not been able to return to their homes because the Turkish government has not made an effort to assist them. Many of their villages lack electricity, schools, and hospitals. Yet prior to their expulsion, most villages had electricity and access to a school system. When Kurds do return, government-sponsored village guards frequently beat them and steal their property. The mistreatment has resulted in domestic armed campaign by the Kurdish Workers Party, which the Turkish government maintains has killed over 30,000 people.
Turkey has a poor record on civil liberties. A law adopted last year makes it a crime to insult the government. Numerous activists and writers were imprisoned in 2004. Nevin Berktas is presently serving a three-year prison sentence for writing a book critical of the prison system. Hakan Albayrak was sentenced to a fifteen-month prison sentence last month for writing a book about Turkey’s founder, Ataturk.
Discrimination against women is common. According to a report issued last year by the Turkish government, domestic abuse is widespread. The organization Human Rights Watch cited a recent study that determined that 39 percent of women have been the victims of physical abuse. The murder of a woman believed to have dishonored her family, referred to as “honor killings,” is a frequent occurrence. Typically, a family will encourage a brother to kill his sister for engaging in premarital sex or infidelity. According to the Turkish Human Rights Association, at least 40 women were the victims of “honor killings” in 2003.
The level of illiteracy is high among women. A recent report concluded that nationally, 23 percent of females are illiterate, compared to six percent of men. In rural regions, a study determined that 63 percent of women had never been to school, or were not permitted to finish their education.
President Bush’s recent praise for Turkey is undoubtedly linked to the war on terrorism. Turkey is the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid, since it is a principal ally in the war on terrorism. This year, Congress granted $37 million in military aid and weapons, and the Bush administration has requested $28 million for 2006. And although the Turkish Parliament would not allow U.S. fighter planes to use an airbase near Iraq during the initial invasion, the Turkish and American governments are currently in discussions to house fighter planes at the base.
Turkey has undertaken some efforts in recent few years to become more democratic. And the Bush administration is correct to support those efforts. But Turkey still has considerable progress to make before it should be regarded as a model for the Middle East, especially for nascent democracies like Iraq and Afghanistan.
* Gene C. Gerard taught history, religion, and ethics
for 14 years at a number of colleges in the Southwest and is a contributing
author to the forthcoming book “Americans at War,” by Greenwood
Press.
5. - The New York Times - "Kurds, Emboldened By Lebanon, Rise Up in Tense Syria":
QAMISHLI (Western Kurdistan) / 2 July 2005 / by Hassan M. Fattah
Here on the fringes of Syria's agricultural heartland, the veneer of normalcy is all around.
A statue of former President Hafez al-Assad, which was brought down during riots last year, has been rebuilt in a traffic circle. Slogans scrawled on walls still call out for him. Few signs remain of the violence that struck the city just weeks ago.
But as Syria endures heavy international and domestic pressure to change, storm clouds are gathering here once again. In this predominantly Kurdish city on Syria's border with Turkey, a growing movement of Kurds is demanding recognition and representation in Syria's government.
Emboldened by their brethren in Iraq and inspired by Lebanon's opposition movement, which helped force Syria out of that country, some advocates are even calling for Kurdish administration of Kurdish areas.
"There is a kind of anxiety and restlessness now," said Hassan Salih, secretary general of the Yekiti Kurdish party based in Qamishli. "We are disappointed with all the unfulfilled promises."
Tensions in this city of 150,000 reached new levels this month after the body of a prominent cleric, Sheik Muhammad Mashouk al-Khaznawi, was found halfway between here and Damascus. Days later, protesters calling for an international investigation of the sheik's killing clashed with security forces, who beat women and fired at demonstrators, Kurdish politicians say.
One police officer was killed, a dozen protesters were wounded, dozens more remain in custody, and Kurdish businesses were looted, they say. A day after, Kurdish hopes were dashed when Syria's governing Baath Party passed on calls to grant Kurds more rights and freedoms at its 10th Congress, ending the meeting with little more than platitudes, Mr. Salih said.
"Lebanon affected us a lot, and we learned from it that demonstrating can achieve many things without violence," he said. After riots flared in Qamishli in 2004 after a brawl at a soccer match, he said, "the regime sought to frighten us, but the assassination of the sheik has made us rise up again."
Syria's 1.5 million Kurds are the country's largest ethnic minority and historically its most downtrodden. Eschewing the Arab identity at the core of the Baath Party, the Kurds have become the most organized opposition to the embattled government.
But tensions have simmered since 1962, when a census taken by the government left out tens of thousands of Kurds, leaving them and their children - now hundreds of thousands in all - without citizenship and denying them the right to obtain government jobs or to own property. They now carry red identification cards identifying them as "foreigner."
The government also resettled thousands of Arabs from other parts of the country into areas along the border to build a buffer with Kurdish areas in neighboring Iran, Iraq and Turkey, pitting Kurds against Arabs. A long-running drought has not helped, as many in the farming region, especially Arab sharecroppers, have seen their incomes and tolerance for one another plummet.
In 2004, a soccer game incited the brawl between Arab and Kurdish fans that grew into the country's worst civil unrest in decades, spreading to many other cities in Syria and leaving at least 36 people dead, some of them policemen. President Bashar al-Assad, in an effort to cool tempers, visited the region for the first time and called for national unity, while pardoning 312 Kurds who were accused of taking part in the violence. But Kurds say the ethnic rifts remain.
Sheik Khaznawi, a charismatic 47-year-old cleric who began denouncing the Syrian government in sermons in recent months, came to embody the Kurdish political opposition. To some, he was a reformer who pushed a more thoughtful, inclusive brand of Islam; to others, he was an apostate willing to reach out to other faiths and challenge long-held Islamic mores.
But to Syria's government, he was the ultimate threat: a religious figure who appeared to be seeking to tie Syria's listless Kurds to the feared Muslim Brotherhood, which led a ferocious revolt in Syria in the 1980's.
"He was able to play a moderating role and create dialogue between Kurds and Arabs," said Ammar Abdelhamid, a Syrian political analyst. "They saw him setting up a real opposition to the regime."
Sheik Khaznawi rattled nerves in February when he met with leaders of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood in Brussels, signaling even deeper collusion between the two forces.
"The sheik used to say that he was surrounded by a minefield and that his role was to dismantle the mines," said Murshid al-Khaznawi, the sheik's son. "He crossed many red lines that others did not cross."
On May 10, the sheik disappeared while on a trip to Damascus. Rumors circulated that he had been arrested by the Syrian secret police, and demonstrators in Qamishli called for his release. But the government denied having him in custody.
Then on June 1, the authorities led his sons to a grave in the predominantly Sunni Arab town of Deir ez Zor. A government statement said the sheik had been kidnapped and killed by radical Islamists who were against his reformist approach.
Days later, the authorities broadcast a 15-minute recording of interviews with two suspects in the killing, one identifying himself as an imam from Deir ez Zor and a graduate of Sheik Khaznawi's institute. They said they had smothered the sheik with a pillow and buried him at the cemetery.
"There wasn't just one reason for his kidnapping; there were many," said Muhammad Habash, a member of Syria's Parliament and confidant of the sheik, who pointed to differences between the sheik and his relatives as one possible reason. Mr. Habash added that the political parties in Qamishli were capitalizing on the death of the sheik, insisting that there are few clear indications of a government hand in the killing.
But the sheik's sons, who acknowledge that there have been financial disagreements in the family, countered that Mr. Habash was serving the interests of the government, which they blame for the killing. They said, for instance, that the sheik's body showed few signs of decomposition, though the government has said he had been buried for more than two weeks. They added that his teeth were broken and his skin burned when they found him, not the signs of suffocation.
Days later, the demonstration in Qamishli met fierce resistance from the government. The Khaznawi sons and others said security forces encouraged an Arab mob to help beat the protesters and loot Kurdish storefronts, though there was no confirmation of those assertions.
"There are issues and problems, and it's time they are solved," Mr. Salih said. "As a Kurdish society, we have gotten past the culture of fear."
Even the sheik's sons, who said they were not overtly political before, have taken a hard political stand.
"After the assassination of the sheik, we have begun
to support Kurdish movements from the bottom of our hearts," Mr.
Khaznawi said.
6. - AFP - "Austria has dossier implicating Iranian president-elect in 1989 murder case":
VIENNA / 2 July 2005
The Austrian government has documents implicating the Iranian president-elect in the 1989 assassination of a Kurdish opposition leader in Vienna, an interior ministry spokesman said Saturday.
"A dossier concerning Mr. Ahmadinejad was submitted to the Federal Counter Terrorism Agency, which handed it over to the public prosecutor's office," Rudolf Gollia told AFP.
He said the documents had been compiled by the Austrian Green party's spokesman on security, Peter Pilz, adding that so far no investigation had been opened.
Vienna's public prosecutor's office was not available for comment on Saturday.
Austrian daily Der Standard quoted Pilz on Saturday as saying "there are strong suspicions that Ahmadinejad was involved in the assassination of Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou in Vienna in 1989."
Ghassemlou was the leader of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan -- an Iranian opposition party outlawed by Tehran -- before he was slain on July 13, 1989 along with two colleagues by never-apprehended commandos.
Pilz said that his evidence included testimony from an Iranian journalist he met on May 20 in Versailles, France.
The unnamed journalist claimed to have a detailed account of the assassination from one of the supposed members of the hit-squad -- Revolutionary Guard General Nasser Taghipour -- who died three years ago.
Pilz said that the source provided details that could only be known by someone present at the scene of the crime, and that they confirmed former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani had ordered the killings.
Friday, the Czech daily Pravdo published the account of a Iranian Kurdish opposition leader, currently exiled in Iraq, that claimed Ahmadinejad was involved in supplying the killers with arms used in the Vienna assassination.
The allegations against Ahmadinejad follow other recent accusations by former American hostages, who say that he was among the militant students who took them captive from the US Embassy in Teheran in 1979.
Close aides to Ahmadinejad insisted Saturday that he played
no role in the seizure of the hostages, dismissing allegations of his
involvement as a "propaganda war".