10 January 2006

1. "…And the people of southeast Turkey are still neglected", it's been several months since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared there's a Kurdish problem in Turkey . It's one thing to say there's a problem but it's something else to actually solve it. We say with sadness that since the prime minister accepted there's a Kurdish problem nothing has been done to resolve the issue or find solutions to the growing hardships of the impoverished people of southeastern Turkey.

2. "New EU leader Schuessel warns over Turkey talks", Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, whose country took over the presidency of the European Union on Jan. 1, said on Monday that the door remains open to Ankara but warned that Turkey's accession talks will be tough.

3. "Iran and Turkey can act as link between East and West: Ahmadinejad", President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said here on Monday that Iran and Turkey can act as a link between the East and the West in various economic, political and security fields.

4. "Turk police detain 7 Kurd rebels, seize explosives", Turkish police said today they had detained seven suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) with more than 12 kg of plastic explosives in their possession.

5. "Dissolution remains the principal antidote to ethnic conflicts", the tussle for self-rule in Kurdistan has exerted a pull on world focus. The Kurds are a nation in a region of many nations. Turkey, Iran and Syria view Kurdish polarization as a geopolitical “domino” threatening their disintegration. Kurds hail for national self-determination and cultural revival.

6. "Kurds Overcome Disputes for Joint Administration", the two main Kurdish parties in Iraq have reportedly overcome disputes over the formation of a single administration in the north of the country.

1. - The New Anatolien - "…And the people of southeast Turkey are still neglected":

10 January 2006 / by Ilnur Çevik

It's been several months since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared there's a Kurdish problem in Turkey . It's one thing to say there's a problem but it's something else to actually solve it. We say with sadness that since the prime minister accepted there's a Kurdish problem nothing has been done to resolve the issue or find solutions to the growing hardships of the impoverished people of southeastern Turkey.

When the Justice and Development (AK) Party came to power in 2002 it won seats from southeastern Turkey that it didn't deserve. The pro-Kurdish candidates won landslide victories in each province but because their party was unable to pass the 10 percent threshold they didn't win seats in Parliament while AK Party candidates entered the assembly instead of them …

At the time we pointed out in very clear terms that the AK Party didn't deserve these seats and thus has a moral responsibility to work twice as harder to serve the people of southeastern Turkey .

Ever since then we've heard promises but no action. Despite this the people of southeastern Turkey voted for AK Party mayors in local elections and extended an olive branch to Ankara . But even that didn't do the trick. Since then we haven't seen much in the form of improving the living conditions in southeastern Turkey and solving the chronic unemployment crisis.

The people of southeastern Turkey still rely on the 60,000 people receiving salaries from the state as village guards, which is a highly dangerous subject on its own, and on the income generated from the Habur border gate which is the only outlet to the lucrative Iraqi market. There are no industries in the region to provide jobs or any agriculture to sustain a living.

Even the military has warned the government that only security measures and the use of arms won't defeat the movement led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and that social and economic measures are vital to help solve the Kurdish issue. The European Union has also made such warnings, saying Ankara needs a policy and a strategy to solve the problems of southeastern Turkey .

The government has come up with some innovative ideas on Cyprus that have parted from the traditional policies of Ankara and led to international support. We feel it's time the government came up with similar innovative ideas on the Kurdish issue.

It's time that Ankara started looking at the "Kurdish problems" from a different angle where the people of the region are treated as first-class citizens with equal privileges. That means they should be given the means to send their representatives to Parliament. It also means Ankara should encourage investment in the region for industries that can supply

Export goods to Iraq . Wouldn't it be good if we set up a cement factory at the border area near Cizre, Nusaybin or even Silopi that could supply cement to Iraq ?

But instead we see inactivity, both on the part of local Kurdish politicians and Ankara . Ankara isn't doing anything to encourage meaningful investment in the area while local Kurdish politicians and businessmen are also inactive and aren't cooperating to do something. We see with sadness that while serious measures were taken in the western regions of Turkey to fight bird flu we see that this isn't the case in southeastern Turkey where open negligence has led to the deaths of at least three children.

But instead of all this we're bogged down in meaningless debates on our national identity, our sub-identity and primary identity simply to allow people to say "I'm Kurdish." Isn't all this sad?

2. - AFP / Turkish Daily News - "New EU leader Schuessel warns over Turkey talks":

ANKARA / 10 January 2006

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, whose country took over the presidency of the European Union on Jan. 1, said on Monday that the door remains open to Ankara but warned that Turkey's accession talks will be tough.

“The door remains open, in line with past decisions. But we've got to pay close attention to compliance with European rules,” Schuessel, known to be skeptical about Turkey's bid to join the bloc, told reporters as he launched Austria's plans for its half-year at the EU helm.

“We can't overtax Europe,” he said.

The EU launched full membership negotiations with Turkey on Oct. 3, yet the EU decision concerning Turkey arrived after a dramatic period as Austria abandoned its opposition to launching full membership talks with Turkey in exchange for a promise on the admission of Croatia.

Vienna gave its 11th-hour approval only after its EU counterparts agreed to also start talks with Austria's neighbor, Croatia, despite the fact that a key war crimes suspect had not at that point been captured.

Turkey hopes accession talks could start in the first months of this year, when Austria holds the EU presidency. However, Vienna played down Turkish expectations, suggesting instead that the talks could be delayed to the second half of the year.

The negotiations with Turkey are expected to last at least a decade, but Schuessel said: “It's not helpful to attempt to set out time plans for the end of negotiations. That would not ... be realistic in any way.”

While displaying caution toward Turkey's expectations, the Austrian government is expected to focus the eyes of Brussels on the Balkans during its helm at the EU. It is looking to move accession negotiations with Croatia forward and will play a key role in deciding whether Romania and Bulgaria -- where Austria is the largest foreign investor -- meet the EU's entry requirements and can join next January or must wait a further year.

Most recently, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik has insisted that bloc reaffirm its commitment to take in the western Balkans and ensure the continent is secured.

“We can't just arbitrarily put the brakes on and say to our partners, ‘We don't want to hear from you anymore',” Plassnik said in an interview that appeared yesterday in the Austrian weekly magazine Profil.

3. - MNA - "Iran and Turkey can act as link between East and West: Ahmadinejad":

TEHRAN / 9 January 2006

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said here on Monday that Iran and Turkey can act as a link between the East and the West in various economic, political and security fields.
Speaking with the outgoing Turkish ambassador to Iran, Bozkurt Aran, the president said that Iran and Turkey enjoy extensive historical ties.

Besides cultural affinities, Iran and Turkey hold very similar interests in national, regional and international issues, he noted.

Ahmadinejad stated that Tehran and Ankara play a decisive role in the region, the world of Islam and the international arena. The president stressed the necessity to expand bilateral ties in all fields in an effort to fulfill the expectations of the Iranian, Turkish and all Muslim nations.

“In view of huge potentials for promotion of ties and the determination of the officials of the two countries, we are waiting for a jump in bilateral relations,” he observed.

Ahmadinejad also called for joint efforts to implement previous security agreements reached between the two neighbors.

For his part, the Turkish ambassador said that the determination of the high-ranking officials of the two countries to expand ties has led Tehran-Ankara relations to grow significantly especially in commercial and economic fields.

Expressing gratitude over Iran’s favorable stance toward Turkey’s membership in the European Union, Aran stressed cooperation between Iran and Turkey would boost stability and security in the volatile Middle East region.

4. - Reuters - "Turk police detain 7 Kurd rebels, seize explosives":

ISTANBUL / 9 January 2006

Turkish police said today they had detained seven suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) with more than 12 kg of plastic explosives in their possession.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since they launched an armed struggle in 1984 for a separate Kurdish homeland in the southeast of the country.

The state Anatolian news agency quoted Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah as saying those arrested had been planning a ''sensational action'' in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.

He said they had received training in ''military and political camps abroad'', but he did not say where.

In addition to the explosives, Cerrah said police had also seized eight electrical detonators, 2,000 euros, some U S dollars, fake identity cards and bullets.

The PKK has stepped up attacks on Turkish security and civilian targets since calling off a unilateral ceasefire in 2004.

The group's leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in 1999 and jailed for life.

5. - Kurdish Media - "Dissolution remains the principal antidote to ethnic conflicts":

9 January 2006 / by Baqi Barzani

The tussle for self-rule in Kurdistan has exerted a pull on world focus.

The Kurds are a nation in a region of many nations. Turkey, Iran and Syria view Kurdish polarization as a geopolitical “domino” threatening their disintegration. Kurds hail for national self-determination and cultural revival.

Following a long tradition, the Turkish government has defined the conflict prevailing in the region of Southeast as a scuffle against banditry and terrorism—much as it was done in Central Asia in the 1920s and early 1930s and in Afghanistan in the late 1970s and 1980s. This legitimizes Turkish course of actions, however ruthless the means, as a police function in the name of public order. The Kurds, meanwhile, refer to their war as a “struggle for national and political liberation”.

Since the end of the Second World War, there has been a marked escalation in ethnic warfare. In fact, the visible upsurge is due to the steady accumulation of established conflicts. In other words, it is becoming increasingly difficult to reach a lasting resolution in some affected states. In recent years, several analytical findings suggest the division of a larger state into smaller, more ethnically homogenous ones - be used to counter this trend.

Partition is the only solution that addresses the core security dilemma present in ethnic conflicts: the fear of destruction, literally, culturally, of one ethnic group by another. A set of circumstances swaying in nations as: Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

The critics claim that partition does not solve the underlying ethnic conflict, but simply transform a civil war into an international war.
Further, the partition may even expand violence and further partition. For proof they look towards the tenuous partitions between India / Pakistan and Israel / Palestine.

Unlike critics, partitioning has frequently been put forward as a resolution to ever-growing number of unresolved ethnic conflicts in the world. It is the only solution that can address the security dilemma that underlies these conflicts. For proof, we can refer back to the vivid cases of Azerbaijan and Bosnia.

In indistinct partitions, the situation is further thorny and convoluted and the result is a never-ending confrontation among the diverse ethnic, religious, sectarian entities. The resolution of Israel/Palestine or Pakistan /India is not about partitioning but the red tap of the partition.

At this critical stage, the time has come for an honest and realistic assessment of the problems facing the most subdued nation in the world.

Kurdish mêlée has culminated in lingering commotion and civil war in flanking zones for more than decades. Too much time and energy has been squandered, and too much blood has been spilt, in the fruitless pursuit of throttling the voice of the Kurds. The decisive antidote to the fluid ethnic conflict engulfing Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq is the well-defined division of ethnic boundaries.

6. - Cihan News Agency - "Kurds Overcome Disputes for Joint Administration":

ERBIL / 9 January 2006

The two main Kurdish parties in Iraq have reportedly overcome disputes over the formation of a single administration in the north of the country.

Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) regional hall members announced all obstructions were put aside.

A draft report will be submitted to the National Assembly following the religious holiday, Eid Al-Adha, which has already started, and within a month unification will technically be achieved. The issue of the prime ministry, one of the main sources of the dispute, has already been resolved and the KDP's Najirvan Barzani will be in office until December 2007; in the same year, the status of Kerkuk (Kirkuk) will be determined and a new prime minister will be chosen.

Both parties agree that KDP leader Massoud Barzani will be administrator of the regional government

KDP has control of Erbil and Dohuk, while PUK has Suleymaniyah.

Both parties disagreed over who will be the first prime minister and on the term of his duty.