11 March 2005

1. "EU Parliament Asks for Probe of Turk Police Brutality", MEPs slam 'brutal' Turkish police.

2. "Rehn: Turkey's EU Membership Attainable, But Reforms Must Continue", Olli Rehn, the EU's new enlargement commissioner, paid his first visit to Turkey earlier this week. Amid discussions of "reform fatigue" and a controversy over a police crackdown on demonstrators, he expressed optimism about Turkey's prospects but stressed the need to push ahead with change.

3. "Middle East: Syria Urged To End Abuses Against Kurds", Amnesty International has issued a new report urging the Syrian government to end human rights abuses against the country's Kurdish population. The rebuke comes one year after bloody clashes between Kurds and authorities left more than 30 people dead. The rights group says the government in Damascus should open an investigation into last year's incidents.

4. "Syrian demonstrators chase activists", Syrian Kurds have long complained they lack basic rights, and that the areas of northern Syria where they live are neglected by the government. There are around 1.5 million Kurds in Syria, a country of 18.5 million. About 160,000 Kurds are denied Syrian citizenship.

5. "The Kurdish crisis", the northern Iraqi oil-rich city of Kirkuk has emerged as the focus of Kurdish political ambitions.

6. "New strategy for Turkoman bloc", after losing badly in the Iraqi elections, the Turkoman Front signals a more nuanced approach to the Kurds’s federalism demands.

1. - Bloomberg - "EU Parliament Asks for Probe of Turk Police Brutality":

MEPs slam 'brutal' Turkish police

10 March 2005

The European Parliament called for a European Commission investigation into the use of force by Turkish police in breaking up a women's rights demonstration.

The parliament ``strongly condemns the brutality of the Turkish police'' against civil rights activists in Istanbul on March 6, according to a resolution passed in Strasbourg, France today by 434 votes to 52 with 53 abstentions.

Turkish police were filmed beating protesters at the march for international women's day, renewing concerns over the treatment of dissidents and minorities that have clouded Turkey's bid to join the European Union.

On the day after the incident, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn urged Turkish leaders to take steps to strengthen democracy and respect for human rights. Turkey is scheduled to start the 10- to 15-year process of EU membership talks in October.

The parliament, which has no formal powers over EU enlargement, called for a ``full report'' by the Brussels-based commission. The commission is awaiting a report of the incident promised by Turkey, spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said.

Members of the Istanbul police had acted ``emotionally'' during Sunday's demonstration and the Interior Ministry was investigating who was to blame, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. He accused the media of exaggerating the extent of police violence and said some of the demonstrators had deliberately provoked police officers.

Erdogan Complaints

``Why don't our nation's media report on similar events that happen in other parts of the world?'' Erdogan said at a televised news conference in Ankara. ``Why doesn't the European Parliament examine and evaluate those events as well?''

The U.S. and Britain say the EU must embrace Turkey, which is 99 percent Muslim, to help win the war on terror and promote democracy in the Middle East. Politicians including Angela Merkel, the leader of Germany's main opposition Christian Democrats, say Turkey's isn't European enough in terms of its history and culture to become a member.

Turkish police on Tuesday used ``excessive force'' against women at marches marking International Womens' Day in the towns of Malatya and Tarsus, the Ankara-based Human Rights Association said in a statement. Police used batons and pepper gas against demonstrators in Malatya and arrested seven people, including an employee of the association, the CNN Turk television reported.

Turkey in December won a date to start accession talks with the EU after taking steps to strengthen its democracy, including cultural and language rights for the nation's 12 million Kurds.

2. - Southeast European Times - "Rehn: Turkey's EU Membership Attainable, But Reforms Must Continue":

Olli Rehn, the EU's new enlargement commissioner, paid his first visit to Turkey earlier this week. Amid discussions of "reform fatigue" and a controversy over a police crackdown on demonstrators, he expressed optimism about Turkey's prospects but stressed the need to push ahead with change.

10 March 2005 / by Robert Herschbach

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn struck a mostly positive tone during his three-day visit to Turkey earlier this week, assuring the country that its goal of joining the Union is attainable. But he also warned against a lull in the reform process, urging the government to press ahead with changes needed to meet EU criteria.

"In the reform process the critical thing will be the change of mentalities which will entrench and anchor the legal and political reforms in Turkey," Rehn told reporters as he prepared to depart Ankara Tuesday (8 March), wrapping up his first official visit to the country since succeeding Guenther Verheugen in the commissioner's post. He led a delegation of the so-called "EU Troika", which included Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn and British Minister for Europe Denis McShane.

Addressing the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association earlier the same day, he said Ankara needs to do more to fulfil its commitments to the EU on economic questions -- particularly by preventing breaches of intellectual property law and removing restrictions on free trade in areas such as ceramics, textiles, meat products and telecommunications.

"The EU is not just a rose garden, it is also a level playing field for all European companies," Rehn said.

Trade relations between Turkey and EU member states are presently covered by a 1996 customs agreement. To secure a date for launching accession talks, however, the country pledged to sign a new deal with the Union. In doing so, it will take a step it has long resisted -- recognising Cyprus, which joined the EU in the latest enlargement.

Turkey's accession talks are set to begin in October. A month later, the EU is scheduled to issue a report on the country's progress in meeting the membership criteria.

Although its candidacy has received strong support from Britain and many EU leaders, including German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, it also faces potential opposition within a number of EU member states. Overcoming this opposition may well depend on how successfully Turkey convinces Europe that it is not only implementing changes on paper, but also putting them into action.

Rehn's visit began amid an uproar over the breakup by Istanbul police of an unauthorised demonstration marking International Womens' Day -- an incident that resulted in criticism from Brussels. The commissioner made human rights a focal point of his trip, paying a visit to an Ankara centre for the rehabilitation of torture victims and calling for authorities to follow a "zero tolerance" policy towards the practice.

Political leaders have shown the will for reforms, Rehn said, but this needs to be "translated fully also into the mentality of law enforcement agencies and state administration".

While in Turkey, he met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other top officials, as well as with representatives of NGOs.

3. - RFE/RL - "Middle East: Syria Urged To End Abuses Against Kurds":

Amnesty International has issued a new report urging the Syrian government to end human rights abuses against the country's Kurdish population. The rebuke comes one year after bloody clashes between Kurds and authorities left more than 30 people dead. The rights group says the government in Damascus should open an investigation into last year's incidents.

PRAGUE / 10 March 2005 / by Golnaz Esfandiari

Last year's unrest was sparked during a football match in the northeastern city of Qamishli.

On 12 March 2004, a violent dispute erupted between rival Arab and Kurdish fans. Security forces responded by firing into the crowd, reportedly only into the Kurdish section. Several people were killed. The next day, police forces fired on a funeral procession and demonstration. Then protests and riots spread rapidly to other cities.

Amnesty International says at least 36 people -- almost all Kurds -- were killed. Some 2,000 people, mostly Kurds, were arrested. Dozens of Kurdish students were expelled from their universities and dormitories for participating in peaceful protests.

There are no signs that any official investigation took place to determine the root causes of the incidents.

Neil Sammonds is an Amnesty International researcher on Syria. He says there is still a lot of confusion about last year's events. "We think there needs to be an immediate investigation into what really happened and into the security forces' use of lethal force against apparently non-armed protesters," Sammonds said. "And there's been a huge amount of report of torture, which we have received, and these need to be investigated. There have been people held in communicado for months and months without charge."

The vice president of the Human Rights Association of Syria, Sali Kheir Bek, told RFE/RL that 230 Kurds remain in jail after their arrests during the clashes last March.

Kheir Bek said a peaceful demonstration was due to be held on Thursday in front of Damascus' main court for the release of all political prisoners in the country, including Kurdish political prisoners. "We are asking (the government) to cancel acting by the emergency law," Kheir Bek said. "(We are) asking (the government ) to free the political prisoners, to get all the political people outside of Syria to comeback without any kind of trial or something like this, and to issue a law to form parties and associations and to declare a [date] for free elections."

Amnesty International in its new report urges the Syrian authorities to investigate allegations of unlawful killings, deaths resulting from torture, ill treatment in custody and torture of Kurds that have come to light since March 2004.

Amnesty researcher Sammonds says that during the past year, there have been an increase in the number of reported deaths of Kurdish prisoners as a result of torture in custody. "We've had about nine reported cases of death in custody," Sammonds said. "Five of these are Syrian Kurds, and we've seen medical reports of several of these people who've had their skulls crushed, eyes grouched out, legs broken in a couple of places."

The report highlights cases of Kurdish activists who have suffered arrest, torture and unfair trial for promoting human rights.

Syria has a population of 18 million people. There are about 2 million Kurds among them.

Amnesty International says Kurds, who constitute Syria's second largest ethnic group, suffer from it describes as "identity-based discrimination."

About 250,000 of the Kurds are denied Syrian citizenship. They lack basic rights.

The organization is calling on Syria to end prohibitions on the use and practice of the Kurdish language and culture. Neil Sammonds. "We need to see some attempt by the authorities," Sammonds said, "to look at the discrimination against the Kurds in terms of their social and economic rights, such as equal access to education and the use of their language in schools -- and even for perhaps 300,000 of the Kurds who are seen as stateless in the eyes of the authorities, these [people] are unable to get full access to hospitals or to have education beyond the age of about 14."

There has been no official reaction by Syrian authorities to Amnesty International report.

4. - AP - "Syrian demonstrators chase activists":

DAMASCUS / 10 March 2005

About 100 activists trying to stage a sit-in demanding greater freedoms were chased from a downtown square Thursday by hundreds of pro-government demonstrators carrying large pictures of the Syrian president, a human rights committee said.

Some of the activists were also beaten, according to the statement of the newly formed National Coordination Committee for Basic Freedom and Human Rights.

The committee, which was established earlier this year, denounced the actions as "repressive and uncivilized behavior which threatens civil peace."

Syria's official news agency, SANA, said the pro-government university students ran into "a group of citizens who were staging a sit-in expressing some demands." It said police intervened to "prevent any clashes."

The incident comes a day after hundreds of thousands marched in support of President Bashar Assad in the face of intense international pressure on him to withdraw his military and intelligence units from Lebanon.

Thursday's sit-in was organized to mark the 42nd anniversary of the declaration of emergency laws in Syria and also coincided with the first anniversary of Kurdish riots in northeastern Syria in which 25 people were killed and more than 100 injured.

Shortly after the activists began their sit-in, at least 500 pro-government demonstrators arrived, waving Syrian flags and pictures of Assad and shouting, "We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, oh Bashar!"

The demonstrators overtook the activists, threatening them with the sticks holding their flags and forcing them to move to a nearby square, where they were also overwhelmed and chased away.

The sit-in "was met with a flood of security agents and surrounded by marchers armed with sticks and clubs in a provocative attempt ... aimed at preventing the opposition from peacefully expressing its calls for democracy, human rights and respect of basic liberties," the statement said.

It called on the government to abolish emergency laws and release all political prisoners as well as "unleash general, basic freedoms without any slowdown."

The statement also demanded the government find "a democratic and just solution for the Kurdish question and return citizenship to the Kurdish citizens who were stripped of it."

Hassan Abdul Azeem, an official with the committee, told reporters at his office in downtown Damascus that the Syrian government "still insists on its totalitarian course and on its continuous attempts to cancel and suppress the other's opinion."

Syrian Kurds have long complained they lack basic rights, and that the areas of northern Syria where they live are neglected by the government. There are around 1.5 million Kurds in Syria, a country of 18.5 million. About 160,000 Kurds are denied Syrian citizenship.

Last March, clashes broke out between Kurds and authorities over a soccer match between a mainly Arab and a predominantly Kurdish team. At least 25 people died and more than 100 were wounded in riots that began in the northeastern city of Qamishli and spread to other Syrian cities.

According to Amnesty International, more than 2,000 people, almost all of them Kurds, were arrested in the past year.

5. - AL-Ahram Weekly - "The Kurdish crisis":

The northern Iraqi oil-rich city of Kirkuk has emerged as the focus of Kurdish political ambitions.

10 - 16 March 2005 / Issue No. 733 / by Abbas Kadhim

Iraqi politicians who are in the process of framing the future of their country find it convenient to stick their heads in the sand whenever the Kurdish crisis comes up. It is about time the truth is spelled out: the Kurds are not interested in being part of Iraq. Every move they have made so far is geared towards independence. Between now and a bold declaration of the state of Kurdistan there is precious time to create facts on the ground maximising the chances for a viable state. The crown jewel of this endeavour will be the annexation of Kirkuk. Failure to deal with this murky situation from the outset will surely be to the detriment of a unified Iraq.

The Kurdish approach to the problem of the oil- rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk has been carefully plotted. The Kurds spare no effort to change the demographics of the city. This process involves the re-settlement of Kurds by the tens of thousands and, at the same time, driving out the Arab population at gunpoint. Kurdish officials bluntly declare that they do not want Arabs in their territories. This plot will guarantee the annexation of Kirkuk under the federal arrangement that will give any city the option to join any province it chooses by a majority vote. The 30 January elections provided a clear example of this kind of fraud that went on with impunity.

The Kurdish leadership is using the gains in the elections to intimidate, or maybe bribe, their Arab rivals who need their support to form the new government. They will also do so when the new constitution is written, exploiting their favourite three- province veto clause in the transitional administrative law. They will veto any constitution that reduces their chances of independence. Mindful of the hostile geo-political atmosphere, they realise that Kirkuk's oil is their only guarantor of viability for their separatist dreams.

Hence, the new federalism they have in mind will not allow an Iraqi Arab to relocate in a Kurdish city. It is also a unique form of federalist arrangement that gives the national government no sovereignty in the Kurdish territories. At the present time, the national government has no power to extend its laws, curfews or troop movement anywhere in Kurdistan. If this relation is enshrined in the permanent Constitution, the only function the national government will serve is transferring block grants to the Kurdish government without the ability to enforce any form of accountability. This is not like any form of federalism in the world.

When the conditions for a Kurdish separation materialise, Iraq will soon become three states, but not the ones many analysts predict -- a Kurdish state in the north, a Sunni Arab state in the middle and a Shia state in the south. Indeed, the chances of fragmentation in the Kurdish territory are much higher than the odds in the rest of Iraq.

Not only will the demographic overlap in the Shia and the Sunni populations glue the Arab territories together, but also their political dynamics. The Sunni Arabs have a lot to lose should they elect to establish a state in their three provinces. Since ruling over the Shia is out of the question now, they would have to leave all the oil for the Shia and claim the silicon of the western desert. On the other hand, the Shia of Iraq possesses a strong national identity as Iraqis. There is no separatist southern identity in Iraq. The theological disputes between the two sides are not strong enough to mandate the painful separation.

The situation is different up in the north. The Kurds of Iraq are indeed two different groups who speak two different languages and fall under the authority of two rival parties who displayed unthinkable brutality towards their opponents. In the aftermath of the 1991 uprising the Kurds were given autonomy over their territories from the central government of Iraq. But their first order of business was to wage war against one another, where one faction made an alliance with the Saddam Hussein regime to crush their own brethren, conveniently forgetting all the atrocities of the dictator.

The recent cosmetic reconciliation between the two Kurdish parties must not be taken as foundation for a new era. It is the temporality of a common cause that will soon be over and there will be a resurgence of the true feeling held by Jalal Talibani and Masoud Barzani that Kurdistan is too small for both of them. The prize over which they are fighting with the rest of Iraq -- Kirkuk -- will soon be their own causus belli. The faction with Kirkuk on its side will have many friends, while the other faction will have Turkey on its side.

6. - IWPR - "New strategy for Turkoman bloc":

After losing badly in the Iraqi elections, the Turkoman Front signals a more nuanced approach to the Kurds’s federalism demands.

KIRKUK / 10 March 2005 / by Soran Dawde*

The main Turkoman political group in Kirkuk is rethinking its strategy as a result of its failure to make gains in the January elections.

In a dramatic turnaround, a leading official in the Turkoman Front indicated the group was now willing to countenance a federal Kurdistan, as long as the disputed city of Kirkuk retained a special separate status that gave all ethnic groups a say in how it is governed.

The front, a major Turkoman political force which is aligned with Turkey, has come under pressure to change since the January 30 ballot, and now looks set to reform itself.

The oil-producing area around Kirkuk makes the city a highly desirable asset, and many Kurds view it as the future capital and economic heart of a future autonomous Kurdish entity. But as Iraq’s boundary lines are currently drawn, the city lies outside the three governorates that together make up the Kurdish-administered region.

Besides the Kurds – tens of thousands of whom have returned to the area after being forced to move by Saddam Hussein’s ethnic policy of “Arabisation” - there are significant Turkoman, Arab and Assyrian communities who all have an interest in the city’s future.

Leading Turkoman political groups, in particular, have always opposed the Kurds’ plan to win more autonomy and to claim Kirkuk as their own.

Like other Iraqis, Kirkuk voters took part in two ballots on January 30 - one for the National Assembly and for the governorate council, in this case of Taamim province.

The latter was won by the Kirkuk Brotherhood List – a 12-member coalition that was set up specifically for this region and included the two main Kurdish parties plus Turkoman and Arab representatives. The list got 26 of the 41 seats in the provincial council.

The major Turkoman political bloc, the Turkoman Front, performed worse than it had hoped at both provincial and national levels, winning only eight seats on the local council.

In the National Assembly vote, the front won only three seats in the 275-member body, making it an insignificant player compared with the victorious Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish Alliance List, which came second with 75 seats.

Riyadh Sari Kahya, who heads Turkmen Eli, a leading party in the Turkoman Front and one of the winning candidates, admits that he had been hoping to see the bloc win 30 seats in the national legislature.

With these hopes dashed, Kahya now says the Turkoman Front would accept a federal arrangement when the National Assembly drafts the new constitution.

The Kurds have been pressing for Iraq to be reorganised so that large federal units such as a Kurdish region – possibly expanded to take in Kirkuk – would become the basic sub-national entity, rather than the current 18 governorates.

“The Turkoman now accept a federal solution,” said Kahya, “but they want Kirkuk to be a [separate] federal entity, administered by Kurds, Turkoman and Arabs.”

In terms of national strategy, Kahya said the Turkoman Front had decided to join forces with the United Iraqi Alliance in the transitional parliament, having turned down a coalition offer from the Iraqi List, the group led by interim prime minister Ayad Allawi which came third in the ballot.

But he said the front would also be seeking to open up a dialogue with the Kurdish parties in the hope of building a new relationship with them.

He said it was now up to those parties to take the initiative, especially the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan led by Jalal Talabani, who is tipped to become Iraqi president.

While still advocating separate status for Kirkuk rather than accepting that it should be incorporated into a Kurdish federal entity, Kahya’s comments signal a significant softening of the Turkoman Front’s line because it embraces the idea of a federal Iraq in which the Kurds would get their own region.

That change of position may have been prompted by a new policy in Turkey, which has lent the Turkoman Front political and diplomatic support since the group emerged in 1995.

The Turks have until recently opposed Kurdish demands for a federal entity in northern Iraq, for fear it could inspire secessionists at home to push for parts of southeast Turkey to be attached to an emerging state of Kurdistan.

As well as its concerns about the political future of the Kurds and Kirkuk, Turkey has maintained a strong relationship with the Turkoman minority in Iraq because of common ethnic bonds.

Last week, Talabani met a visiting high-ranking Turkish delegation headed by the country’s special envoy to Iraq, Fahri Koruturk. According to the Turkish newspaper Zaman, delegation members told Talabani that Turkey no longer objects to the Kurds’ call for federalism, as long as there are guarantees that Iraqi’s territorial integrity is maintained and Kirkuk is given special status.

Apart from forcing a radical change of tack, the election outcome could prove to have far-reaching consequences for the Turkoman Front itself.

Media reports have circulated in both Iraq and Turkey that the bloc is considering dissolving itself in the wake of its ballot-box failure.

But Kahya denied the rumours, saying that plan was instead to go back to the drawing board. A wide-ranging Turkoman Congress scheduled for April 22 would discuss “all options”, he said.

He added that in all likelihood the umbrella group’s constituent parties – his own Turkmen Eli plus the Turkoman National Party, the Independent Turkoman Movement, and Turkmen Ocagi – would coalesce into a single political party.

Although there appears to be greater flexibility on the issue of Kurdish self-rule, Turkoman politicians outside the front as well as in it appear determined to prevent Kirkuk being subsumed into a future Kurdistan.

Younis Bairaqdar, a political independent who was a member of the outgoing provincial assembly, highlighted his community’s wish to maintain its own identity, especially given widespread fears that Kirkuk could be vulnerable to “Kurdification”.

Tahseen Kahya, a former head of the same regional council who represents the Islamic Union of Iraqi Turkoman – which was part of the United Iraqi Alliance in the national-level ballot – underlined that the question of who governs Kirkuk remains highly sensitive because of the area’s complex mix of ethnicities and sects.

The only way that the city could be merged into the Kurdish region to the north, he insisted, would be through a democratic and constitution-writing process that involved all of Iraq’s citizens. In that case, he said, "We will accept the people’s decision no matter what it is."

* Soran Dawde is a correspondent for al-Hurah Television.