4
July 2006
1. "Kurdish Rebels announced its June Report", in accordance with its report of clashes in Turkey's during the month of June 2006.
2. "Policeman killed in bomb blast in southeast Turkey", a policeman was killed in an accidental explosion Sunday in southeastern Turkey as a bomb believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels was being defused, a local official said.
3. "Iraq ready to revive talks with Turkey over Kurdish rebels", Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Monday the new Baghdad government is ready to revive three-way talks with neighboring Turkey and the United States to discuss measures to curb Turkish Kurd rebels based in the northern of his country.
4. "EU's Rehn plays down Turkey reform setback", European Union enlargement chief Olli Rehn has played a setback for Turkey's faltering reforms but urged Ankara to press ahead with political and legal changes.
5. "Cyprus still awaits a thaw", the Cypriot president and the Turkish Cypriot leader have had their first meeting for more than two years - but it failed to break the ice.
6. "Thousands Commemorate 'Sivas Massacre'", the death of 37 people in Sivas arson attack 13 years ago was commemorated in meetings in several cities. Istanbul rally hears demands for truth behind massacre to be revealed while Sivas meeting delivers severe criticism to government.
1. - ANF - "Kurdish Rebels announced its June Report":
BEHDINAN / 2 July 2006 / translated by International Initiative
In accordance with its report of clashes during the month
of June 2006 :
•77 operations were held by the Turkish and Iranian armies in which;
•5 military officers, 2 village guards, 2 policemen, 32 Iranian
soldiers and 102 Turkish soldiers died
•And 24 guerrillas lost their lives
•People’s Defence Force’s (HPG) Central Commandership
has declared that 66 operations have been held by the Turkish Army which
has declared an all-out war. These operations have concentrated mainly
around the provinces of Diyarbakir, Botan, Serhat, Garzan, Erzurum,
Dersim and Amanos.
•10 operations have been held by the Iranian army and another one
has been held jointly with the Turkish army.
•Within the 77 operations held there were 70 clashes altogether
•Military equipment and supplies were captured by the guerrillas
•9 vehicles and 12 railway cars were targeted by the guerrillas
The People’s Defence Forces (HPG) have declared that they shall, on the basis of legitimate defence rights laid down by the international conventions retaliate against any offensives on the Ocalan, Kurdish people and the guerrilla forces.
HPG have also reminded that the guerrilla Abbas Emani
who was captured last year, then executed and burnt with 6 other guerrillas
is just another example of state terror in Kurdistan.
The Commandership stated that especially since 1 June 2004 they have
adhered to all the rules of war and made many sacrifices in order to
keep this. However that the Turkish state and its army have implemented
all variations of state terror and have not adhered to the rules of
war at all. The Turkish army has used chemical weapons many times and
has executed prisoners of war. They have used civilian vehicles in war
and have left explosives arbitrarily in the open land hence caused civilian
deaths.
We inform all of the state terror and violations of rules
of law by the Turkish state. We also call upon all the relevant institutions,
organistations and NGO’s to be highly sensitive and to come and
inspect the region on the spot. We also declare that we as the People’s
Defence Forces are also open for examination by the same institutions,
organisations and NGO’s. 
2. - AFP - "Policeman killed in bomb blast in
southeast Turkey":
ANKARA / 2 July 2006
A policeman was killed in an accidental explosion Sunday in southeastern Turkey as a bomb believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels was being defused, a local official said.
The explosion took place near the entrance to the town of Kocakoy, to the northeast of Diyarbakir, the biggest city of the mainly Kurdish region, Diyarbakir governor Efkan Ala told the Anatolia news agency.
Ala said the bomb was laid by "terrorists", the official jargon used to describe rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in southeast.
The rebels have stepped up their violent campaign this
year and are blamed for a number of deadly bomb attacks in urban centres
this year.
3. - AFP - "Iraq ready to revive talks with Turkey
over Kurdish rebels":
ANKARA / 3 July 2006
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Monday the new Baghdad government is ready to revive three-way talks with neighboring Turkey and the United States to discuss measures to curb Turkish Kurd rebels based in the northern of his country.
"We discussed the need to re-activate the trilateral discussions ... on containing the PKK activities on the border region," Zebari told reporters after talks with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul here.
"These will be activated in the near future ... to be followed by some other measures, hopefully, in order to reinforce our joint cooperation in this area," he said.
Ankara has long pressed the United States and Baghdad to purge northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) whose armed militants have found refuge in the mountainous region since 1999.
The issue has grown more important for Ankara this year amid mounting PKK violence, with the army shifting thousands of troops to the Iraqi border to stop what it has described as increasing infiltration of PKK militants.
Much to Ankara's anger and frustration, both Baghdad and Washington have been reluctant to take military action against the PKK, arguing that their forces are swamped by violence in other parts of conflict-torn Iraq.
During a visit to Ankara in April, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Turkey against cross-border operations to pursue the PKK in northern Iraq and called for the revival of the trilateral meetings, which have stalled since January 2005.
Last month, the US ambassador in Turkey said Washington has started talks with the new Baghdad government on "effective action" against the PKK.
"It is not possible for the Iraqi government to allow its territory to be used for acts that endanger the security of neighboring countries," Zebari said Monday.
Gul, for his part, expressed support for a national reconciliation plan revealed on June 25 by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in a bid to end a raging anti-US insurgency and sectarian violence.
"We hope the international community and other friendly
nations will also lend their support to Iraq," Gul said. "Iraq's
peace and stability is important not only for Iraq, but for the whole
region."
4. - Reuters - "EU's Rehn plays down Turkey reform
setback":
HELSINKI / 3 July 2006
European Union enlargement chief Olli Rehn has played
a setback for Turkey's faltering reforms but urged Ankara to press ahead
with political and legal changes.
In a Finnish television interview, Rehn said a veto by Turkish President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer of a bill establishing an ombudsman as required by
Brussels as part of Ankara's EU membership bid was not the end of the
story.
"It's not maybe as dramatic as it appears, because he often uses
the veto which the parliament overturns with its own decision,"
Rehn told MTV.
"The post of an ombudsman is a cornerstone of a European constitutional
state and we expect Turkey to create this post."
The EU, which Turkey is negotiating to join, believes an ombudsman will
boost the fight against corruption, increase transparency and allow
better control of military spending.
Sezer, who sees himself as defending Turkey's secular order against
the ruling Justice and Development Party which has roots in political
Islam, said the post contravened the constitution by extending to parliament
powers it had no right to exercise.
Rehn said he would discuss Turkey and the Cyprus issue in talks on Monday
between the European Commission and the Finnish government, which took
over the 25-nation bloc's revolving presidency for six months on Saturday.
The Turkish parliament went into summer recess on Friday without enacting
a reform package sought by Brussels and is unlikely now to reconsider
the ombudsman bill before Rehn is due to report on Ankara's progress
in October.
5. - BBC - "Cyprus still awaits a thaw":
NICOSIA / 3 July 2006 / by Tabitha Morgan
The Cypriot president and the Turkish Cypriot leader have had their first meeting for more than two years - but it failed to break the ice.
Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said the talks had been good, but added that they had stuck to the question of missing persons. They did not touch on broader political issues.
He met Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat at the United Nations headquarters in the buffer zone dividing Nicosia.
The two men later declined to appear together in front of the waiting reporters and no date was set for another meeting.
Lost victims
On the face of it, the occasion was always meant to be ceremonial rather than politically substantial.
Mr Papadopoulos and Mr Talat came together to launch a new phase of a UN mission to search for the bodies of some 1,900 people from both communities in Cyprus who are officially designated as missing. Most were killed at the time of the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974, or in the sporadic outbreaks of ethnic violence that preceded it.
Peace talks have been stalled since the 2004 referendum
Cyprus has been split into the Greek Cypriot-controlled south and the
Turkish-occupied north since Turkey's invasion, in the wake of an abortive
coup by supporters of union with Greece.
The highly sensitive missing persons issue has remained unresolved for decades, with each side seeking to maximise political capital from it. Now there appears at last to be a new determination by both sides to settle the matter.
But the hope of diplomats here was that when the Cypriot president and Turkish Cypriot leader were once again in the same room together they might agree to resume negotiations on the island's future.
EU bid
Talks on the reunification of Cyprus came to a halt in April 2004 when Greek Cypriots rejected a UN-sponsored plan to end three decades of division.
Today the continued partition of Cyprus has broader political implications. Turkey's progress towards European Union membership has been vastly complicated by the Cyprus problem and could even be blocked by it.
In October the EU will assess the degree to which Turkey has complied
with measures leading up to accession. These include allowing Cypriot-registered
ships and planes into Turkish ports and airports.
The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists that it will not lift an existing ban on Cypriot traffic unless the EU allows trade direct trade with northern Cyprus. The northern part of the island is unrecognised by any country other than Turkey and has no political or trade relations with the world at large.
With the October deadline so close diplomats admit that they cannot think of a way of eliminating the Cyprus problem from the complicated question of Turkey's EU aspirations. It was against the background of this level of desperation that diplomats were hoping something more substantial would emerge from today's meeting.
But the brief and formal encounter does not suggest that the two men will be able to offer much in the way of hope to UN Deputy Under Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari when he arrives on the island later this week.
Mr Gambari will find that even in these hottest days of
summer in Cyprus the political atmosphere remains as icy as ever.
6. - Bianet - "Thousands Commemorate 'Sivas Massacre'":
The death of 37 people in Sivas arson attack 13 years ago was commemorated in meetings in several cities. Istanbul rally hears demands for truth behind massacre to be revealed while Sivas meeting delivers severe criticism to government.
ISTANBUL / 3 July 2006 / by Emine Ozcan
The death of 37 people by suffocation and fire in a July 2, 1993 arson attack on the Madimak Hotel in the eastern Turkish city of Sivas was commemorated on Sunday marking 13 years where truths behind the incident have never been fully revealed.
In Istanbul's Kadikoy square alone some ten thousand people came together protesting the massacre and demanding the truth while meetings and ceremonies to mark the anniversary were also held in Ankara, Tunceli, Diyarbakir, Izmir and Amasya.
The 4-hour Istanbul meeting heard demands from the government to reveal the truth behind the massacre and 'account for' the incident in which 37 intellectuals lost their lives.
In Sivas, location of the massacre, Republic Peoples Party (CHP) organised the anniversary meeting with Sivas depoty Nurettin Sozen explaining they had applied for the Madimak Hotel to be made into a museum but saying that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had rejected this proposal.
Sozen claimed the government itself was made up of representatives of those who 13 years ago planned the massacre.
Under heavy security measures were entrances into the city were controlled by the police, participants gathered and marched to the Madimak Hotel under the slogan "Sivas will be a grave for Fascism". Criticism of the government continued during the meeting held in front of the hotel with union executive Veli Hasgul making a speech on behalf of the Sivas Democracy Platform.
"The Prime Minister who pretends not to see the Madimak Massacre and the rights of the people in his own country", said Hasgul, "goes to Strasbourg to attend the Civilizations Cooperation meeting. Those who ignore the massacre against their own people have no right to pass judgement on other civilizations".
A similar meeting held at Ankara's Abdi Ipekci Park demanded
all points of the massacre to be revealed while an meeting in Izmir
protested the massacre. Anniversary and commemoration ceremonies were
also held in Tunceli, Amasya and Diyarbakir.