3 January 2006

1. "Turkish Journalists Charged With Helping Kurd Rebels", Turkish state prosecutors on Monday charged nine people, including a journalist who works for Reuters news agency, with spreading propaganda on behalf of Kurdish rebels.

2. "Turkey Mulls Charges Against Pro-Kurdish Mayors", more than 50 mayors in southeast Turkey could face criminal charges after sending a letter to Denmark's prime minister urging him not to shut down a pro-Kurdish television station, officials said today.

3. "Kurdish mayors urge Denmark not to 'silence' Kurdish TV station", fifty-six mayors from Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast have appealed to the Danish government to resist Ankara's efforts to have a Denmark-based Kurdish TV station banned for alleged links to armed Kurdish rebels.

4. "Turkey hopes to start opening EU chapters in March", Turkey hopes to start the process of opening chapters of the EU acquis communautaire in March, according to Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking on Friday.

5. "Turkey: EU Says 'Freedom Of Religion' Or Else", the European Union has given Turkey a mandate. It is to open the entire country to freedom of religious expression.

6. "Iran Kurds form reformist front", thousands of ethnic Kurds in Iran, headed by a prominent former MP, have created a movement aimed at obtaining rights they say have been "neglected" by the Islamic Republic during the past 26 years.

1. - Reuters - "Turkish Journalists Charged With Helping Kurd Rebels":

ANKARA / 3 January 2006

Turkish state prosecutors on Monday charged nine people, including a journalist who works for Reuters news agency, with spreading propaganda on behalf of Kurdish rebels.

If found guilty the nine, who include other journalists and human rights activists, face up to three years in jail.

Turkish national Ferit Demir, a stringer for Reuters based in the eastern town of Tunceli, was detained last August when he observed the handover of a soldier abducted by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels to representatives of a human rights group.

He and the other men were then freed pending investigations.

Journalists have often fallen foul of Turkish authorities over coverage of a conflict in the southeast that has cost some 30,000 lives. A government pursuing European Union entry has eased curbs on the media and on Kurdish language and culture, but the judiciary remains a conservative force.

In its indictment, the Tunceli prosecutor's office accused the nine of using the kidnapped soldier to promote the cause of the PKK, which has waged an armed struggle against Turkish security forces in the impoverished southeast since 1984.

Demir denied the accusations.

"It is absolutely out of the question that I conducted PKK propaganda. I was only doing my job as a journalist," he said.

The prosecutors set March 3 as the date for the first hearing in the trial.

PKK rebels held the soldier captive for nearly four weeks in a remote region of the southeast before releasing him.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths and economic damage inflicted on the region over two decades. Violence eased after the 1999 capture of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan but has grown again since PKK ended a five-year unilateral cease-fire in 2004.

2. - Reuters - "Turkey Mulls Charges Against Pro-Kurdish Mayors":

DIYARBAKIR / 2 January 2006

More than 50 mayors in southeast Turkey could face criminal charges after sending a letter to Denmark's prime minister urging him not to shut down a pro-Kurdish television station, officials said today.

Turkey says Copenhagen-based Roj TV is a mouthpiece for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), blamed by Ankara for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it began an armed campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

In their letter, 56 mayors urged Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to resist pressure from Ankara to close down Roj TV, saying it would hurt the needs of their people for Kurdish language broadcasting.

''The chief prosecutor's office will decide whether to launch an investigation after examining the full letter,'' an official told Reuters in Diyarbakir, the main city of Turkey's southeast.

''If a crime is found to have been committed, an investigation will be opened against the mayors for making propaganda on behalf of an illegal organisation and for praising the crime and the criminal,'' the official said.

The move comes just days after Turkey, in line with commitments made to the European Union which it aims to join, gave the green light to private television and radio stations to broadcast in minority languages including Kurdish.

The broadcasts are scheduled to begin this month, but the issue of boosting minority languages remains politically sensitive in Turkey, a highly centralised state which once denied the very existence of a separate Kurdish language.

Many Turks fear bolstering the Kurdish identity will embolden the PKK and lead to the break-up of their country.

Last November, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan angrily boycotted a news conference he was due to attend in Copenhagen with his Danish counterpart Anders Fogh Rasmussen in protest over the presence of a Roj TV journalist at the gathering.

Rasmussen argued that excluding the correspondent would have violated European principles of free speech.

In their letter, the mayors, who include Diyarbakir's Osman Baydemir, said: ''Unfortunately we see that there are still fundamental differences between Turkey and European civilisation over freedom of the press and of expression.'' ''Closing Roj TV will not contribute to our efforts towards building a truly pluralist and democratic life in Turkey.'' Turkey began EU entry talks last October. It has overhauled much of its legislation to meet EU demands on human rights but the EU says much more remains to be done, especially in the field of protecting minorities such as the Kurds.

Kurdish is an Indo-European language unrelated to Turkish, though it contains many Turkish words. There are at least 12 (20) million Kurds in Turkey, in a total population of 72 million.

3. - AFP - "Kurdish mayors urge Denmark not to 'silence' Kurdish TV station":

DIYARBAKIR / 30 December 2005

Fifty-six mayors from Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast have appealed to the Danish government to resist Ankara's efforts to have a Denmark-based Kurdish TV station banned for alleged links to armed Kurdish rebels.
"For a truly democratic life to flourish in Turkey, ROJ TV should not be silenced," read the letter in English sent to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on December 27 and obtained by AFP on Friday.

"The elimination of the voice of Roj TV would mean the loss of an important vehicle in the struggle for democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms of democratic civilization," the mayors said.

They said the government's efforts to press Denmark into banning Roj TV fell foul of its Turkey's professed aim to improve its rights record as it seeks to gain entry into the European Union.

Turkey has asked the Danish authorities to revoke Roj TV's broadcasting license on the grounds that it has ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Ankara charges that the channel, on the air since March 2004, incites hatred by openly supporting the PKK, which has been fighting the Ankara government for self-rule since 1984.

Denmark's broadcasting watchdog ruled at the beginning of the year that Roj TV's programming contained no incitement to hatred of Turkey.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said last month that he had seen no proof of the station's links to the PKK.

4. - Financial Mirror - "Turkey hopes to start opening EU chapters in March":

3 January 2006

Turkey hopes to start the process of opening chapters of the EU acquis communautaire in March, according to Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaking on Friday.

Turkey has 35 chapters to ‘negotiate’ between now and membership, although as others have pointed out, negotiations are somewhat of a misnoma, since all of the acquis communautaire has to be implemented.

Erdogan said that Turkey was now in the screening process. “I believe actual negotiations will start in March,” he said in a televised address.

Turkey has been engaged in the screening process since November, after EU leaders agreed in October that negotiations could go ahead.

However, progress could start slowly, since the chapter openings begin during the Austria Presidency of the EU.

Last September abd October Austria was pushing for an explicit alternative to Turkey’s EU membership in the form of a privileged partnership status.

Cyprus is also expected to block progress owing to Turkey’s continued blockade of Cyprus-flagged ships and aeroplanes.

Turkey is not expected to join the EU before 2013 at the very earliest.

5. - The Post Chronicle - "Turkey: EU Says 'Freedom Of Religion' Or Else":

3 January 2006

The European Union has given Turkey a mandate. It is to open the entire country to freedom of religious expression.
Now of course Muslims rule and Islam is the nation's religion. Those of other religions live constantly with discrimination in various dimensions. But if Turkey ever hopes to enter the EU membership, it will have to comply with the following, according to Asia-News/Forum 18:

The European Commission specified the following measures for Turkey to take:

· it must fully protect "freedom of religion" by adopting a law comprehensively addressing all the difficulties faced by non-Muslim religious minorities and communities in line with the relevant European standards;

· "suspend all sales or confiscation of properties" belonging to non-Muslim religious community foundations pending the adoption of the above law;

· adopt and implement as soon as possible provisions concerning "the exercise of freedom of thought, conscience and religion by all individuals and religious communities in line with the ECHR, taking into account the relevant recommendations of the Council of Europe's Commission against Racism and Intolerance;

· establish conditions for the functioning of these communities, in line with the practice of Member States, including legal and judicial protection of the communities, their members and their assets, teaching, appointing and training of clergy, and the enjoyment of property rights;

· protect the right of each community to organize itself in ways other than as a foundation and to choose its leaders free from government interference. (The government has often removed individuals from boards of directors, something that the Armenian Apostolic and Greek Orthodox foundations know all too well.)"

6. - AFP - "Iran Kurds form reformist front":

TEHRAN / 2 January 2006

Thousands of ethnic Kurds in Iran, headed by a prominent former MP, have created a movement aimed at obtaining rights they say have been "neglected" by the Islamic Republic during the past 26 years.
"A large number of prominent Kurdish activists and NGOs have come together in an independent front to peacefully demand the rights that the Kurds have been denied," the founder of the reformist Kurdish United Front, Bahaeddin Adab told reporters Monday.

One of the group's aims was "to raise awareness among Kurds of their rights and help them choose the right representatives in town councils and the parliament as these are the only ways they can get through to the authority," Adab said.

Adab, an outspoken former MP who was barred from running again in 2004 when the Guardians Council disqualified him and thousands of other candidates, said the group had attracted around 3,000 supporters.

He insisted that the front was not a formal political party or NGO, which need to be authorized by the state if they are to advertise, hold meetings and take new members.

Rights activists including the Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi have complained of obstruction by the interior ministry that is in charge of issuing permits for such organizations.

"The Kurds have had very little say in the decisions made about them and they have been denied their rights mentioned in the constitution," he said, citing the soaring unemployment and addiction rates in Kurdish populated provinces and the restrictions on Kurdish language press.

One of the largest ethnic groups in Iran, more than six million Kurds live in the western border provinces, which are among the most underdeveloped in Iran.

Adab said the Front would not pursue separatist goals, unlike most Kurdish opposition parties which seek autonomy and self-determination in a region which has large Kurdish populations in neighboring Iraq and Turkey.

"We insist on working within the framework of law and avoiding violence," he said, adding that the decision was hastened by August 2005 clashes with authorities in at least two western provinces with a substantial Kurdish population.

Several Kurdish rights activists and journalists have been arrested and jailed in past years, with a number of them given long jail sentences following the recent clashes.

The Kurds had a high turnout at the presidential elections that swept reformist Mohammad Khatami to office in 1997 and 2001.

But according to Adab, "the government did not do enough to meet the Kurds' demands and they showed their dissatisfaction by not taking part at the (recent) election".

He hoped the government would accept the newly formed "peaceful" group and not try to widen the gap by taking security measures in the region, "as it will cost both the authority and the people".

"You cannot keep a country together by bullying. If there is freedom and equality, separatist movements die," he added.

Among the Kurdish parties which are banned in Iran are The Kurdistan Organization of Communist Party of Iran (Komala) and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, which are based abroad but have sympathizers in Iran.

Iranian authorities say a Kurdish rebel group known as Pejak is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey.