10 February 2006

1. "Turkish blast claimed by Kurdish rebels leaves 16 hurt", a radical Kurdish militant group, blamed for bomb attacks in the past, took credit for an explosion Thursday that injured 16 people in an Internet cafe frequented by police officers in Istanbul.

2. "Öcalan heart attack claim denied", jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan is in good condition and reports that he suffered a heart attack in prison are not true, Turkish officials said on Thursday. "The prosecutor assured us about his good health on behalf of the state, but we don't know what has happened," Irfan Dündar told AFP.

3. "Trial of Five Journalists Adjourned", trial of journalists Murat Belge, Haluk Sahin, Erol Katircioglu, and Ismet Berkan of the daily Radikal, and Hasan Cemal of the daily Milliyet appeared before the court amidst nationalist scuffles. Court was postponed.

4. "Commission urges broad action against 'honor' killings", Parliament commission probing 'honor' killings proposes Religious Affairs Directorate produce leaflets, TV shows to boost public awareness of domestic violence and discrimination against women.

5. "Turkish youths threaten to kill Catholic friar", a group of Turkish youths threatened to kill a Catholic friar, grabbing him by the throat and shouting "God is Greatest", just days after a Catholic priest was shot dead in Turkey, the friar said on Friday.

6. "HRW: State Council's Decision is Worrying", Human Rights Watch (HRW) has spoken out against the decision by the State Council to expand the headscarf ban applied in state offices to the streets.

1. - AFP - "Turkish blast claimed by Kurdish rebels leaves 16 hurt":

ISTANBUL / 9 February 2006

A radical Kurdish militant group, blamed for bomb attacks in the past, took credit for an explosion Thursday that injured 16 people in an Internet cafe frequented by police officers in Istanbul.

The police chief in Turkey's biggest city, Celalettin Cerrah, said they suspected a bomb caused the blast that rocked the Bayrampasa district on the European side of the city straddling the Bosphorus Strait.

"It looks like it (the blast) was caused by explosives," Cerrah told reporters at the scene, the Anatolia news agency said.

The Europe-based, pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported on its website that an anonymous person claimed responsibility for the blast on behalf of the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) in a telephone call to the agency.

No other details were available. The agency often carries statements by Kurdish rebels.

The explosion ripped through the cafe located behind the local headquarters of the riot police and frequented by officers at 2:05 p.m. (1205 GMT), blowing out the windows of nearby buildings.

Following initial reports that 17 people were injured, the government's emergency office and Cerrah put the number hurt at 16, including seven policemen and nine civilians, two of whom were in serious condition, Cerrah said.

Turkish officials say TAK is a cover group used by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to carry out attacks on civilian targets that would draw international condemnation.

The PKK, however, denies any link to TAK, which was blamed for a series of bomb attacks last year, including one in the Aegean resort of Kusadasi in July that killed five people, including two foreign tourists.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Turkey, has been fighting the Ankara government since 1984 when it picked up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast. The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives.

Unrest in the southeast of Turkey has increased markedly since last year after the PKK called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire in June 2004.

Thursday's blast followed reports that PKK's jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan had suffered a heart attack in prison, which Turkish officials denied.

The PKK and its sympathizers have often expressed concern over Ocalan's health and staged violent protests calling for him to be removed from solitary confinement on the prison island of Imrali in northwestern Turkey, where the 57-year-old rebel chieftain is the sole inmate.

A senior PKK commander said Thursday that anger was boiling within the group over Ocalan's conditions.

"Our anger is at a peak point, the guerrilla forces are outraged," Duran Kalkan told the Firat news agency. "Those who have put Ocalan into a process of annihilation are playing with fire."

2. - Turkish Daily News - "Öcalan heart attack claim denied":

ANKARA / 10 February 2006

Jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan is in good condition and reports that he suffered a heart attack in prison are not true, Turkish officials said on Thursday.

Öcalan, 57, who launched a armed campaign in southeastern Turkey in 1984, was sentenced to death in 1999 for treason, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002 after Turkey abolished capital punishment as part of efforts to align with European Union democracy norms.

"Öcalan undergoes medical check-ups every day," a senior Justice Ministry official, Turker Tok, told Agence France-Presse. "He has neither cardiological problems nor other serious health problems." Ankara has informed the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture on the state of Öcalan's health, he said.

The prosecutor for the prison island of Imrali in northwestern Turkey, where the 57-year-old Ocalan is the sole inmate, has also denied the reports, one of Ocalan's lawyers in Turkey said.

"The prosecutor assured us about his good health on behalf of the state, but we don't know what has happened," Irfan Dündar told AFP.

The prosecutor gave the lawyers a medical report on Öcalan's health dated Feb. 7, the day he allegedly suffered the heart attack, which did not mention any cardiological problems, Dündar said.

"We know that he has been having respiratory difficulties for some time and that he also developed some dermatological problems recently," he said.

Lawyers says Öcalan is in serious condition:

Öcalan had a heart attack on Tuesday in his prison on the Turkish island of Imrali, said his Italian lawyers Giuliano Piasapia, Luigi Saraceni and Arturo Salerno. The lawyers said he was in serious condition after suffering the attack, Italy's ANSA news agency reported Wednesday. They appealed to the European Union and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to allow both them and his family to see Öcalan.

Öcalan last month formally asked to be retried in Turkey after the European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that his trial was unfair.

Öcalan's demand poses a legal challenge to the government because current laws do not allow for his retrial, but Ankara is under pressure to comply with the rulings of the court, another of his lawyers, Ibrahim Bilmez, said.

Recommending a retrial, the court ruled in May that the Turkish court that convicted Öcalan was not impartial because it included a military judge during part of the trial and because Öcalan and his lawyers were denied the necessary time and facilities to prepare their defense.

Ankara said it will respect the ruling, but the authorities have so far failed to clarify how they will proceed.

3. - Bianet - "Trial of Five Journalists Adjourned":

Trial of journalists Murat Belge, Haluk Sahin, Erol Katircioglu, and Ismet Berkan of the daily Radikal, and Hasan Cemal of the daily Milliyet appeared before the court amidst nationalist scuffles. Court was postponed.

ISTANBUL / 8 February 2006

Scuffles erupted between riot police and Turkish nationalist lawyers at the start of the trial today of five journalists in a freedom of speech case given prominence by Turkey's European Union application.

After more than two hours of courtroom chaos, the judge adjourned the hearing until April 11 to allow the prosecution time to study a barrage of defense objections to charges stemming from articles that criticized a ban on a university conference about the mass killing of Armenians during World War I, a powder keg issue in Turkey.

Journalists Murat Belge, Haluk Sahin, Erol Katircioglu, and Ismet Berkan of the daily Radikal, and Hasan Cemal of the daily Milliyet were charged in December under Article 288 of the penal code with attempting to influence the outcome of a trial through their writing. All except Berkan also face prosecution under Article 301 for publicly denigrating Turkish identity and the institutions of the Turkish state. If convicted, they could face prison terms of six months to 10 years.

Hundreds of riot police ringed the courthouse in the outlying district of Bagcilar to prevent nationalist demonstrators from entering. Several nationalist lawyers inside the courtroom began shouting as the trial opened and called for all foreigners and EU observers to be ejected. They ignored the judge's repeated orders to keep quiet and scuffled with police who tried to remove them.

The defendants gave the court written and oral explanations of their articles, which took issue with Turkish court orders blocking a conference to discuss the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks. Armenians contend that the killings constitute genocide, a characterization that Turkey rejects.

"I used my right to criticize as a journalist," Cemal, a widely read columnist, told the court.

After the adjournment, Cemal told CPJ that he expected he and his codefendants would eventually be acquitted, noting that Turkey had been making efforts to adopt European law as part of its EU membership bid. An Istanbul court dropped Article 301 charges in January against internationally acclaimed Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk for remarks about the Armenian killings.

European Member of Parliament Joost Lagendijk of the Netherlands told reporters that if the five are convicted "it will have consequences for the EU accession process." Lagendijk, who was monitoring the proceeding for the EU, had himself faced similar charges in Turkey for comments about the Turkish military. Turkish prosecutors dropped the case last week.

"Turkey is on the way to removing curbs on the media as it seeks to join the European Union, but cases like this undermine that progress," Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said from New York. "We urge the court to dismiss all charges against these five journalists when it reconvenes in April."

CPJ Senior Editor Robert Mahoney monitored the court proceedings in Istanbul. The charges, filed on December 2, 2005, stem from columns published in Radikal and Milliyet that strongly criticized Turkish court rulings banning an academic conference last year on the Armenian massacres. Court orders stopped the conference from taking place at two Istanbul universities, in May and again in September, but organizers held the conference on September 24, 2005, by moving it at the last minute to a third, Bilgi University. Three of the five defendants teach at Bilgi.

4. - The New Anatolian - "Commission urges broad action against 'honor' killings":

ANKARA / 10 February 2006

Parliament commission probing 'honor' killings proposes Religious Affairs Directorate produce leaflets, TV shows to boost public awareness of domestic violence and discrimination against women.

A Parliament commission set up to probe "honor" killings yesterday released a report calling on the state's Religious Affairs Directorate to take the initiative on the issue.

The report, the fruit of four months of investigation, asked for the contribution of universities, business circles, labor unions and security forces, as well as the Religious Affairs Directorate, to combat “honor” killings and domestic violence. “The Religious Affairs Directorate should release leaflets and prepare TV programs to boost public awareness about 'honor' killings, domestic violence and discrimination against women,” read the report.

The report also argued that the Article 82 of the new Turkish Penal Code (TCK) should be amended to include “honor” killings, which would in turn raise the prison sentence for this crime. The new TCK was criticized while it was being amended as it didn’t stipulate “honor” killings as an organized murder.

The commission stated that a 24-hour “Violence hotline” across the country is needed to be set up and committees are to be established at the local level with the cooperation of governor’s offices, police, gendarmerie, municipalities, mufti office, universities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The report also suggested that a permanent commission on gender equality be set up in Parliament and shelters for women should be improved and spread throughout the country.

5. - Reuters - "Turkish youths threaten to kill Catholic friar":

ISTANBUL / 10 February 2006

A group of Turkish youths threatened to kill a Catholic friar, grabbing him by the throat and shouting "God is Greatest", just days after a Catholic priest was shot dead in Turkey, the friar said on Friday.

Martin Kmetec, a Franciscan friar from Slovenia, opened the door of his house on Thursday to find seven or eight angry men in their twenties.

"He took me by the throat and pulled me inside and said 'we're going to finish you off' ... he also said Allahu Akbar (Arabic for God is Greatest)," Kmetec told Reuters by telephone from his church in the province of Izmir.

Kmetec closed the door on the youths, who said they were nationalists and the group, after trying to break the door down, left.

A local police spokesman said they were investigating.

Turkey, a secular state with an overwhelming Muslim majority, was shocked last Sunday by the shooting of a 61-year-old Italian priest, Andrea Santoro, in his church.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with the murder, which coincided with an international uproar over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

Turkey's government, which is under pressure from the European Union to improve minority religious rights, strongly condemned the shooting and invited Pope Benedict this week to visit.

6. - Zaman - "HRW: State Council's Decision is Worrying":

BRUSSELS / 10 February 2006 / by Selcuk Gultasli

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has spoken out against the decision by the State Council to expand the headscarf ban applied in state offices to the streets.

Jonathan Sugden, the Turkey representative for the New York-based committee, in a statement he made to Zaman called the decision "very worrisome".

The HRW official pointed out the decision aims at expanding the headscarf ban, adding the latest decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) might have "encouraged" Turkish officials.

"I wonder whether the State Council was encouraged by the ECHR's decision on Sahin. If it has been, this is wrong. If it is taken to ECHR, the case will be overturned as it is an unjust and discriminative intervention in how a woman may dress in the public sphere, even taking the Court's current conservative attitude into consideration," Sugden said.

The HRW official emphasized the committee is against all approaches intervening in a women's dress code.

Sugden reiterated that the HRW also opposed the compulsory veiling in Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as the ban on veiling in Turkey, Uzbekistan and France. Sugden pointed out women with headscarves cannot get a driver's license, enter museums, nor attend their children's graduation ceremonies.

"These women have already been excluded from schools, universities, public service buildings yet Parliament State officials had agreed that women were free to wear the headscarf outside the governmental sphere. This reason was an unacceptable explanation at that time as well, but it has now turned out that even this is not true," HRW's researcher for Turkey said.

Sugden said governments must stop pressuring women on what to wear, and said the energy must be spent on how secular, non-Muslim and Muslim people live together in society. The HRW had criticized ECHR's decision on Sahin as well.