20 April 2006

1. "Reasons, Perpetrators for Violence Unclear in Turkey", the latest small bomb to explode in Istanbul detonated in a trash bin, blowing shards of plate glass into the faces and exposed limbs of shoppers crowded into the narrow passageways of a teeming marketplace in the fading light of a warm Sunday evening.

2. "There is no military solution to the Kurdish question", the Kurdish question has gained momentum, both in regional and international arenas. Therefore, it begs the question for how long the states ruling over Kurdistan will continue to deny the Kurdish rights.

3. "Rights Groups: Abuses On the Rise in Turkey's Kurdish Regions", Turkey has in recent years adopted a series of democratic reforms in an effort to meet European Union standards for membership. But human rights groups say they are seeing increasing human rights abuses in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of the country that could undermine Turkey's membership negotiations. The concerns arise from increasing violence between security forces and rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK.

4. "Turkey Allows: "Bury Where You Kill", Prof. Dr. Fincanci says Turkey may be sentenced at ECHR for burying those killed in clashes without proper autopsy. IHD's Alatas warns practice may allow cover-up of suspicious deaths, says it's a blow to confidence and unity.

5. "50 Pro-Kurdish DTP Executives Arrested", the pro Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) calls roundup of 50 party executives "unlawful and arbitrary". Five of those arrested are provincial chairman and nine are district chairman. The arrested are accused of implication in guerrilla PKK activity.

6. "Iran police kill two Kurd rebels", Iranian police have killed two members of a banned Kurdish rebel group operating close to the border with Turkey, state television reported Wednesday.

1. - The Washington Post - "Reasons, Perpetrators for Violence Unclear in Turkey":

ISTANBUL / 20 April 2006 / by Karl Vick and Yesim Borg

The latest small bomb to explode in Istanbul detonated in a trash bin, blowing shards of plate glass into the faces and exposed limbs of shoppers crowded into the narrow passageways of a teeming marketplace in the fading light of a warm Sunday evening.

No witnesses saw the percussion grenade being placed in the bin, and no group asserted responsibility for the attack that injured 31. But within minutes of the explosion, the crowd milling angrily amid the damage decided this was the work of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a shadowy organization of ethnic Kurdish rebels known by the initials PKK.

Young men shouted, ``Damn PKK.'' Agitated bystanders decided that a man was acting suspiciously and, in mere seconds, they formed into a lynch mob that pursued its terrified quarry down a side street.

Police fired in the air, pushed back the crowd and declared the man innocent. The situation was nearly calm when youths from a Turkish ultranationalist party showed up and began chanting obscene things about ``the mothers of separatists.''

``It is definitely the PKK,'' said Nazif Cakir, 29, whose women's shoe shop was damaged by the blast. ``It is, of course.''

But such assumptions are slippery things these days in Turkey. In a country where small explosions are becoming more frequent, the point of the violence is growing more elusive.

``Who benefits from this upsurge of violence, which is a blind violence, without ideology?'' asked Dogu Ergil, a political scientist at Ankara University who specializes in Kurdish issues.

Experts do see the involvement of militants in several of the attacks. Of the most recent incidents in Istanbul, the first occurred late last month, coinciding with rioting by Kurdish youths in the cities of southeastern Turkey in which at least 16 people were killed. A firebomb hit a city bus in Istanbul, killing three people when it lurched onto the sidewalk.

A PKK splinter group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, asserted responsibility for a bomb left in a bus stop garbage can March 31 that killed one and injured 30. Five days later, the same group said it planted the bomb that exploded at the doorstep of an office of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

Police soon announced finding 20 pounds of plastic explosives in a graveyard, allegedly secreted by Kurdish militants. One was charged with involvement in the bombing of a tourist bus on the Aegean coast last July that killed five.

``It's nothing new,'' said Mehmet Ali Kislali, a newspaper columnist and author of the book ``Low Intensity Conflict in the Southeast.'' ``It seems that some factions of the PKK decided to do something in the big cities because they failed in the southeast.''

But other factors cloud the picture, including evidence that elements of Turkey's security services have planted at least one bomb in the recent past.

Last Nov. 9, local authorities arrested two Turkish soldiers and a PKK informant in the southeastern town of Semdinli after witnesses said they saw the informant plant a package that exploded outside a bookstore, then race to a waiting car containing the soldiers, members of a paramilitary intelligence unit. One bystander was killed in the incident, which underscored the belief, widely held in Turkey, that Kurdish militants are not the only ones provoking a fight.

Among the conspiracy theories spawned by the unexplained violence, one scenario holds that hardened elements of the Turkish government are promoting a conflict that justifies a stern, militaristic response.

Turkey's security forces fought the PKK for 15 years until a 1999 cease-fire. With Kurds accounting for most of the 30,000 war dead, few of Turkey's largest ethnic minority say they seek a resumption of the conflict. But hardened PKK elements resumed sporadic attacks two years ago, and the recent spike in tensions may endanger a crucial shift by Turkey's elected government away from stern measures. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared last year that the solution to ``the Kurdish question'' lay in democracy and relieving Kurds' acute economic problems. This month, however, the Turkish military deployed additional troops to the southeast as casualties spiked.

The new tension, Ergil said, ``remobilizes the militaristic system and re-transforms Turkey into a national security state when it has been gradually emerging from that into a civilian system.''

Kemal Kirisci, a political scientist at Bosporus University in Istanbul, said, ``What's going on is typical terrorist tactics: polarize society, raise tensions and raise anti-Kurdish reactions.''

Both experts see evidence that the overwhelming majority of Kurds prefer to share in Turkey's recent economic and political growth. The PKK no longer preaches separatism, Ergil noted. And Kirisci said Turkey's tentative moves toward accepting a Kurdish identity, such as allowing broadcasting in Kurdish, provides ``a framework under which this Kurdish problem could be managed.''

2. - Kurdish Media - "There is no military solution to the Kurdish question":

19 April 2006 / by Dr Hussein Tahiri

The Kurdish question has gained momentum, both in regional and international arenas. Therefore, it begs the question for how long the states ruling over Kurdistan will continue to deny the Kurdish rights.

Over a century of suppression and attempts at elimination of the Kurds, both physically and culturally, it has been proven that there is no military solution to the Kurdish question. If a military solution was a viable option, by now, the Kurds in Northern Kurdistan (Turkey) who demanded Kurdish cultural and political rights would be eliminated and other Kurds would have been Turkified. A similar scenario would have happened to the Kurds in Eastern Kurdistan (Iran). The Kurds in South Kurdistan (Iraq) would have been physically eliminated by successive Iraqi governments and the Kurds in Western Kurdistan (Syria) would have been Arabised.

However, as we have seen the opposite is true in all parts of Kurdistan. The Kurdish demands for cultural and political rights in North, East and West Kurdistan have grown stronger than ever and in the South the Kurds have been able to impose a Kurdish federal government on the new Iraqi government. The Kurdish self-consciousness has reached an unprecedented level in Kurdish history and there is no return to previous state of affairs. Thus, the only way forward is to try to find a political solution to the Kurdish question in all parts of Kurdistan.

Unfortunately, successive rulers of Kurdistan cannot understand this fact and they insist on a military solution to the Kurdish question. For the last several years the suppression of the Kurds in the West (Syria) has increased. More recently, the Turkish military used force to suppress Kurdish demonstrators which resulted in the killing of 16, several of whom were children under ten years old. The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan who leads a doctrine of ‘Kemalist Islamism’ does not seem to see any other solution to the Kurdish question other than military force. During the Kurdish demonstrations in Diyarbekir and other Kurdish towns to legitimise their suppression, he called the demonstrators ‘the pawns of terrorism’ and said if necessary they would shoot at women and children. It seems that the rulers of Kurdistan are determined to solve the Kurdish issue through military means which has thus far proven unsuccessful. Is there any way out of this vicious circle?

Turkish, Persian and Arab intellectuals have a duty in trying to promote a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question as an alternative to military force; a duty that they have failed to fulfil so far. This duty falls on them not only as a responsibility that they have towards the Kurds as a nation who need to fulfil their national aspirations but as intellectuals who are responsible for the future of their own people.

Since Kurdistan was subdivided among Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, the Kurds in different parts of Kurdistan have been subject to suppression and they have been deprived of their basic human rights. Kurdish demands for cultural and political rights have been met with oppression, persecution and genocide. Suppression of the Kurds has increased the human rights abuses in Kurdistan by the ruling states. Thousands of Kurds have been detained and imprisoned each year. Historically, all parts of Kurdistan have been treated as military camps. Kurds have been tortured, imprisoned, raped and executed by the military apparatus of the ruling states.

Alongside the Kurds even non-Kurdish population such as Turks, Persians and Arabs have suffered. In response to the Kurdish question the military organs of the states ruling over Kurdistan were empowered and given unlimited authority. These organs have become intolerant of any dissidents within these countries. They have suppressed their own people to maintain their grip on power and opposed democratisation of their societies. In this process, not only Kurds have suffered human rights abuses but the dominant nations in these countries as well.

Furthermore, the states ruling over Kurdistan have spent billions of dollars each year buying weapons to suppress the Kurds. Fighting between the ruling governments and Kurdish forces has cost thousands of lives on both sides. Alternatively, these governments could invest their financial and human resources to build and advance their own country rather than the suppression of the Kurds. These are issues that the Turkish, Persian and Arab intellectuals have failed to understand. A peaceful solution to the Kurdish question is not only to do with the Kurds but it is essential for progress, development and prosperity of the dominant nations.

In searching to find a solution to the Kurdish question one could talk about political boundaries, geography, geopolitics, geostrategic issues and many other ‘geos’ but in reality the Kurdish question is not as complex as some people try to portray. It is simply the question of a nation of over 40 million people with their own distinct history, language, and culture who have been suppressed for decades. As we enter the 21st century, ruling states continue to deny the Kurds their basic human rights. They still deny that a Kurdish nation with its own distinct identity exists, and do not consider granting the people any of their legitimate rights.

Therefore, decades of suppression, persecution, genocide and destruction of Kurdistan and denial of Kurdish identity have taught the Kurds that they can no longer live under suppression. They need to determine their own future so they can nurture their culture and plan their own future, free from persecution. Self-determination is the legitimate right of the Kurdish nation. Sooner or later there will be an independent Kurdish state.

The Kurdish nation has suffered for decades and deserves to live in peace and security. Kurds should be able to determine their social, political, economic and cultural rights. These rights have been recognized by the United Nations. Article 1:1 of the UN International Human Rights Covenants states, “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

Why should there be more bloodshed? The states ruling over Kurdistan have to accept that a united independent Kurdistan is an inevitable fact. They should work with the Kurds to find a peaceful solution to the issue. Above all, having friendly neighbours are in their interests.

It also falls upon the Kurds (in fact it is long overdue) to form a coordinating body to promote understanding among various Kurdish political parties and organisations: a body that will promote social, political, economic and cultural development of Kurdish society; a body that would represent national aspirations of the Kurds and act as a voice for the Kurds in all parts of Kurdistan. Only then can the Kurds have a strong political voice to promote their cause on regional and international levels and push for a political and democratic solution to the Kurdish question.

3. - AP - "Rights Groups: Abuses On the Rise in Turkey's Kurdish Regions":

BATMAN / 19 April 2006 / by Amberin Zaman

Turkey has in recent years adopted a series of democratic reforms in an effort to meet European Union standards for membership. But human rights groups say they are seeing increasing human rights abuses in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of the country that could undermine Turkey's membership negotiations. The concerns arise from increasing violence between security forces and rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK.

Reyhan Yalcindag is the deputy chairman of Turkey's Human Rights Association. A long-time government critic, she acknowledges that recent reforms introduced by the ruling Justice and Development Party have bolstered Turkey's shaky democracy.

"As human rights defenders, we gave very big importance to the last legal amendments, for example, abolishing the death penalty, lifting the state of emergency situation, etc., to decrease the period of detention, these were all very positive steps," she said.

Such changes helped Turkey persuade the European Union last October to launch negotiations that Turkey hopes will lead to its membership in the 25-member bloc in the next 10-to-15 years.

But, as clashes between Turkish security forces and rebels of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party spread across the impoverished southeast region, human rights defenders say the kinds of abuses that were long cited by the EU for rebuffing Turkey's bid for membership are once again on the rise.

The violence resumed when the PKK, citing the government's refusal to negotiate a lasting peace, ended a five-year truce in June 2004. Scores of rebels and Turkish soldiers have died in the fighting.

Yalcindag cites violent demonstrations that erupted in the region's largest city, Diyarbakir, and neighboring Batman last month during the funerals of four PKK fighters. Though the government has never issued a statement on how many people died in the violence, human rights monitors say at least 13 civilians, four of them children, died in clashes with police.

"You have to respect the right to life of the demonstrators, I mean," she added. "The result must not be 10 people killed in Diyarbakir, or one child killed in Batman. Two persons were killed in Kiziltepe [Mardin province]. Hundreds of people were wounded or transferred to prisons and tortured. We do have medical reports."

The London-based rights group, Amnesty International, has joined calls for the Turkish government to investigate allegations of abuse during the protest rallies. In a statement, the organization said, "in light of the reported decline in the use of torture in recent years" Amnesty International was "particularly disturbed at allegations of torture, or ill treatment of detainees, including beatings, death threats and being stripped naked and sprayed with cold water."

Abdullah Gul is Turkey's foreign minister and a leading proponent of Turkey's membership in the EU. In a recent interview, Gul told VOA that there was no question of his government slowing the pace of reforms. Gul says the PKK is seeking to provoke his government into conflict, in order to derail the reform process, because, he says, the reforms have weakened the PKK's appeal among the Kurds.

"We believe democracy will isolate the terrorists," he said. "So, that is the best way to fight terrorists. Of course, we will take more efficient and effective measures to fight terrorism, but, we will keep this line very consciously."

Proposed measures to deal more effectively with the PKK include stiffening Turkey's controversial anti-terror law.

Under the proposed amendments, carrying pro-PKK banners would be deemed a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Spreading PKK propaganda would carry a maximum penalty of five years.

Huseyin Kalkan is the mayor of Batman, and belongs to Turkey's largest pro-Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party, which controls the majority of municipalities in the Kurdish region.

Kalkan says there is growing concern that Turkey is slipping back into what he calls "the scary days."

Kalkan says he and scores of his fellow party members are already facing a slew of court cases under existing laws. Prosecutors are seeking a 10-year sentence for Kalkan on charges of "aiding a terrorist organization". He says his alleged offense was calling on PKK demonstrators in Batman to disperse peacefully after exercising their democratic right to protest.

Kalkan cautions that such legal crackdowns may help the PKK find new recruits.

Kalkan concludes that, in the absence of a full democracy, some young Kurds may once again turn to the mountains, where the rebels are based, in the hope of finding a solution to their problems.

4. - Bianet - "Turkey Allows: "Bury Where You Kill":

Prof. Dr. Fincanci says Turkey may be sentenced at ECHR for burying those killed in clashes without proper autopsy. IHD's Alatas warns practice may allow cover-up of suspicious deaths, says it's a blow to confidence and unity.

ISTANBUL / 18 April 2006 / by Tolga Korkut

Reacting to the wave of incidents that swept through Southeast Turkey during and after the March 28 funeral ceremonies conducted for PKK militants killed in clashes, the government has launched its new practice of burying dead suspects where they are killed without bringing them back home for a proper autopsy.

The first example of the policy change was witnessed recently in the Southeast province of Sirnak although it was decided upon during a Counter-Terrorism Supreme Commission meeting earlier this month following the Southeast unrest.

Professor Doctor Sebnem Korur Fincanci who previously headed the Istanbul University Forensic Medicine Department told Bianet in an interview that the practice itself was a violation of international human rights and that Turkey could be convicted at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for it.

Human Rights Association Chairman Yusuf Alatas said that aside from being in clear breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, burying the dead where they were killed should also be seen as "one of the greatest blows that can be delivered to the unity of the country."

Fincanci: Autopsy is a must

Fincanci told Bianet that in each and every death resulting from clashes, a formal autopsy needed to be conducted and that only this could reveal the true reason of death.

"Only an autopsy can answer questions such as whether a person was killed in a clash, or was he killed while running away, or was the death result of torture after being captured. If international regulations of conflict are being violated, these can only be revealed by an autopsy."

She argued that bodies of the dead could not be buried where they were killed and added "an autopsy must certainly be carried out at a center, by forensic medicine experts."

She referred to the international Mennesota Autopsy Protocol covering the effective investigation of extrajudicial killings saying, "the conditions of an autopsy are clearly stated in this protocol accepted by the United Nations. Because these conditions are not being met, Turkey could be sentenced at the ECHR for failing to conduct an effective investigation".

Fincanci added that according to the Turkish Penal Code, no matter who the deceased was, respect had to be shown to their funerals and the bodies had to be surrendered over to their families.

Alatas: How are suspicious deaths going to be revealed?

IHD Chairman Alatas recalled on his part that there were numerous allegations related to the killing of PKK militants in the recent months and stressed that almost no one knew what was going on in the conflict zone.

"There are claims that the bodies are being mutilated, that their organs are being cut off, that even if they are caught alive, they are tortured and killed as well as allegations that chemical weapons are being used. How are these going to be investigated?" he asked.

"This comes to the same meaning as the state saying, I have the right to kill you without being monitored" Alatas added.

The IHD Chairman argued that the practice also meant punishing those relatives and families that had a right to the bodies and noted, "this is something that does not even happen in wars. It is a general rule to respect those bodies of the deceased and to surrender them over to their families. What happens to the body is an issue that concerns the family".

Pointing out that this new practice effectively meant violation of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which governs respect towards family and private life, Alatas concluded, "in essence this is a practice to punish the Kurdish people. It is a practice that provokes enmity and hatred, which means the cutting off of sentimental feelings between the people and their state. This is one of the greatest blows that can be delivered to the unity of the country.

5. - Bianet - "50 Pro-Kurdish DTP Executives Arrested":

Pro Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) calls roundup of 50 party executives "unlawful and arbitrary". Five of those arrested are provincial chairman and nine are district chairman. The arrested are accused of implication in guerrilla PKK activity.

ANKARA / 19 April 2006

Turkey's pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) announced that the number of party executives places under arrest throughout the country had reached 50 and branded the crackdown on its ranks as "unlawful and arbitrary".

"In an environment where Turkey enters an election atmosphere we regret the attacks and detentions stemming from the Prime Minister's attitude of showing our party as a target" a written statement by the DTP Executive Board said.

The statement noted that unlawful and arbitrary practices against party executives and mayors were on the increase and said party buildings were being raided, executives being detained and arrested after PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other state officials made the DTP a target.

Arbitrary practices concerning

The DTP stated that five provincial and nine district party chairmen were among the 50 DTP executives arrested so far and said this practice cast shadows on the democratic future of Turkey.

The statement said arbitrary practices would not defer the DTP from its democratic political struggle and warned against attempts to remove Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir from his seat, warning that the consequence of such an act would be to pour oil on a burning fire.

6. - AFP - "Iran police kill two Kurd rebels":

TEHRAN / 19 April 2006

Iranian police have killed two members of a banned Kurdish rebel group operating close to the border with Turkey, state television reported Wednesday.

The two, killed late Tuesday, were described as members of the Pejak group who were trying to infiltrate Iran's West Azerbaijan province.

Iran says Pejak is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 15-year insurgency against Ankara for self rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.

Reports have said at least 120 Iranian police were killed and scores wounded in Kurdish rebel attacks last year, many of them blamed on Pejak.

Iran is bound by treaty with Turkey to fight PKK militants on its soil in return for Turkey fighting the Iranian armed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen.

Iran has blamed US-led forces in neighbouring Iraq for a recent upsurge in violence among the Kurdish and Arab communities in its western border provinces.