14 March 2006

1. "Bomb allegations threaten Turkey’s uneasy balance", the military officer tipped to become Turkey’s most senior general later this year is at the centre of a political and legal storm over allegations that he tried to disrupt the country’s bid to join the European Union.

2. "Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals meet over Kurdish issue", Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals alike called for the PKK to lay down their arms at a gathering this weekend. Tight security surrounded the gathering of Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals who came together to discuss a peaceful resolution to the 22-year old Kurdish conflict in the southeast of the country.

3. "Baydemir says Kurdish question has socioeconomic aspects", addressing a conference on the unrest in Turkey's Southeast known as the Kurdish question,” Osman Baydemir, mayor of the predominantly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir, said the problem has economic, social, political and cultural aspects.

4. "Clashes Between Protesters And Security Forces In Piranshahr Leave Casualties", clashes between protesters and security forces in Piranshahr leave casualties: Hundreds of protesters arrested, dozen injured. Several thousands of Kurdish population of the city of Piranshahr (Iranian Kurdistan) protested against the killing of Fayegh Rajabi a Kurdish toiler by security forces of Iran.

5. "Syria Arrests Dissidents On Anniversary Of Kurdish-Arab Clashes", security forces on Sunday arrested a former opposition MP and several Kurdish demonstrators who were marking the second anniversary of deadly clashes in northern Syria, human rights advocates said.

6. "Syrian Kurdish groups begin conference, draft unified list of goals", meeting on the two year anniversary of the Kurdish uprising in against the Syrian Ba’athist regime, a number of Syrian Kurdish parties kicked off the two day Kurdish American Committee for Democracy in Syria conference in Washington, DC.

1. - Financial Times - "Bomb allegations threaten Turkey’s uneasy balance":

ANKARA / 13 March 2006 / by Vincent Boland

The military officer tipped to become Turkey’s most senior general later this year is at the centre of a political and legal storm over allegations that he tried to disrupt the country’s bid to join the European Union.

General Yasar Buyukanit, currently the commander of land forces, has not been charged with any crime. But a prosecutor investigating a bomb attack in Kurdish-dominated south-eastern Turkey last November has alleged that he obstructed justice by intervening on behalf of a soldier implicated in the attack.

Rogue elements of the security forces were blamed by locals for planting the bomb in the town of Semdinli, killing one person and leading to some of the worst civilian unrest in the south-east since the fight against Kurdish separatism officially ended in 1999. The prosecutor’s investigation resulted from EU pressure on Turkey to investigate the attack and the allegations against the military.

The allegation against Gen Buyukanit has caused such a fuss in part because it breaks a longstanding taboo in Turkey that decrees that the military top brass is untouchable. It also impinges on the sensitive issue of the conduct of the armed forces in the fight against Kurdish separatism. Perhaps for these reasons, the prosecutor’s motive in making the allegation has been questioned.

The government has ordered an investigation into the prosecutor. The opposition has accused the government of fomenting the controversy to try to block Gen Buyukanit’s elevation to chief of the general staff, a post he is due to assume in August. Deniz Baykal, leader of the opposition Republican People’s party, said Turkey was facing “a conspiracy” against the general staff.

The controversy has not only distracted from the investigation into the Semdinli incident. It has disturbed the balance between the political and military realms in Turkey, where the position of the armed forces is undergoing a significant change. Reforms made with the encouragement of the EU mean the military is no longer first among equals in the constitutional settlement, and its role in the political arena, through its domination of the national security council, has been diminished.

Because its position is shifting, the military may feel vulnerable to criticism or political and legal meddling. Commentators say this may explain why the general staff’s reaction to the prosecutor’s investigation, and the allegation he has levelled against Gen Buyukanit, has been so defensive, and why the media has rallied around.

Cengiz Aktar, an academic and newspaper columnist, said: “Leaving aside who is right and who is wrong [in the case], the fact that such an investigation can be started at all is something new in Turkey. We do not yet know where it will lead, but it is a very symbolic moment.”

Diplomats said the government, rooted in political Islam, and the military, which sees itself as the guardian of Turkey’s secular state, had a constructive relationship that has made sweeping constitutional reform possible. “They see eye to eye on many things, and neither side would want that to change,” one diplomat said.

Still, commentators say, Gen Buyukanit, the most outspoken of Turkey’s senior generals, may be less of a consensus figure than the current chief of staff. The relationship between the military and the government may indeed change when he takes up the job. Burak Bekdil, a writer and military affairs analyst, said the most obvious effect of the prosecutor’s allegations against the general was that they “raised the stakes in the cold war between the two opposing ideologies that rule different offices in Ankara.”

2. - Hurriyet - "Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals meet over Kurdish issue":

13 March 2006

Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals alike called for the PKK to lay down their arms at a gathering this weekend. Tight security surrounded the gathering of Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals who came together to discuss a peaceful resolution to the 22-year old Kurdish conflict in the southeast of the country. Speakers voiced the crisis on both sides of the debate: "There is a crisis of confidence between the two sides," Kurdish rights campaigner Sertac Bucak said. "There is a Kurdish phobia in Turkey."

More than 45 Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals, politicians and journalists of various political convictions were taking part in the conference, entitled "The Kurdish question in Turkey: ways for a democratic settlement".

The event was designed to promote ways in which Turkey can end the conflict to aid smoother membership into the European Union. Attendees were searched by police as they entered Bilgi University, and riot police were on guard outside the venue. The strict security measures were imposed by police after nationalists threatened to disrupt the two-day event.

Organizers said the conference could adopt a final declaration on Sunday, appealing to the government for more reforms to resolve the conflict, which has claimed some 37,000 lives since the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) began fighting for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984.

Significant progress in the area of human rights for Kurds was acknowledged by speakers at the conference, driven by Turkey's EU membership aspirations, but said more reforms were needed to fully guarantee the minority's cultural and political freedoms.

Ankara has in recent years lifted emergency rule in the southeast and allowed the Kurdish language to be taught at private courses and used in television and radio broadcasts. It is also compensating villagers who have been displaced and suffered material losses during the conflict.

"There are also things the Kurds must do," Bucak said. "The PKK should unconditionally renounce violence because violence breeds violence and plays into the hands of those who favour the status quo," adding that, "He argued that the ultimate solution lay in a federal settlement that would grant the Kurds autonomy."

3. - Turkish Daily News - "Baydemir says Kurdish question has socioeconomic aspects":

ANKARA / 13 March 2006

Addressing a conference on the unrest in Turkey's Southeast known as the Kurdish question,” Osman Baydemir, mayor of the predominantly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir, said the problem has economic, social, political and cultural aspects.

“To me the problem is economic, social, political and cultural. It has a legal basis. In order to overcome this problem there is a need for a project or a roadmap encompassing all of those details,” Baydemir was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency on the second day of a conference at Istanbul's private Bilgi University, where Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals discussed a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish problem.

Baydemir said the opening up of the Kurdish Question to discussion by academics was a step forward. “If we can overcome the Kurdish problem and start a process of discussing the problem through peaceful means, we will have the chance of opening the path of democratization to a great extent,” he added.

When devising a culture policy, Baydemir said, one should start with language. “In my opinion, being a very different, multicultural and multilingual society should not be reason for division. To the contrary, it is necessary to understand that this can only emerge as a result of diversity, unity and solidarity,” he said.

Ankara lifted emergency rule in southeastern Anatolia in recent years and has allowed the Kurdish language to be taught in private courses and used in television and radio broadcasts.

It is also compensating villagers who were displaced during the security forces' fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the 1990s.

More than 45 Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals, politicians and journalists of various political leanings participated in the conference, titled “The Kurdish Question in Turkey: Ways for a Democratic Settlement.” The two-day event, which opened on Saturday under strict security measures after nationalists threatened to disrupt it, was designed to promote ways of ending the problem, which has long impeded Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.

During the “Minority Concept” session of the same conference, prominent Turkish academic Baskin Oran said the Kurds in Turkey were claiming minority rights although they rejected the concept.

Oran, a professor of political science at Ankara University, emphasized that the Kurds in Turkey were not a minority but a constituent element of the country.

Another speaker at the conference, retired Ambassador Ilter Türkmen, said there should be no room for violence during a solution to existing problems. “Everyone who wants to make progress on this [Kurdish] problem should refrain from using violence,” Türkmen said.

The fight with the PKK has claimed some 37,000 lives since the terrorist group began agitating for self-rule in southeastern Turkey in 1984.

In a landmark speech in August 2005 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised that the Kurdish problem would be resolved with “more democracy,” but the government has since failed to introduce any concrete measures and PKK terrorists have intensified their attacks.

Mithat Sancar, an academic from Ankara University, said the Kurds in Turkey should ask first whether they want a solution on the basis of integration of the society in which they live or disintegration. “It's not enough to say, ‘We're in favor of unity',” he added.

4. - Kurdistan Observer - "Clashes Between Protesters And Security Forces In Piranshahr Leave Casualties":

12 March 2006

Clashes between protesters and security forces in Piranshahr leave casualties: Hundreds of protesters arrested, dozen injured.

Several thousands of Kurdish population of the city of Piranshahr (Iranian Kurdistan) protested against the killing of Fayegh Rajabi a Kurdish toiler by security forces of Iran.

Thousands of Kurdish residents of the city of Piranshahr in West Azerbayjan province, Iranian Kurdistan, protested over the killing of a Kurdish toiler by security forces on Saturday, March 11, 2006.

Security forces opened fire to control the demonstration, which resulted in the injury of dozens of protesters. Reliable sources from the city stated that the conditions of some of those injured are critical, as they are in hiding fear of persecution by the security forces. Furthermore, over 200 people are arrested by the security forces. Angry protesters set fire to the authorities’ vehicles and stoned government buildings. The Gharz al Hasane bank of government was set on fire by the protesters.

Piranshahr has been under Marshal Law since Saturday.

Since July 2005, over 50 Kurds have been killed by the Special Forces of the Islamic Republic during numerous demonstrations in the Kurdish cities and towns. To date, approximately two thousand people have been arrested and over 500 people have been injured. In a single incident, the security forces killed at least 10 Kurdish demonstrators in the city of Maku on February 15th, 2006.

The ongoing human rights violation in Iranian Kurdistan is not isolated incidents. It is rather a result of persistence and systematic oppressive policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran against Kurdish people and the people of Iran in general.

PDKI urges the International community, in particular EU, United States and members of Security Council to take the human rights situation of the Kurdish people of Iranian Kurdistan very seriously. Condemning the human rights violation against Kurds by the Iranian regime is the minimum that the Kurdish people expect from the International community.

5. - AFP - "Syria Arrests Dissidents On Anniversary Of Kurdish-Arab Clashes":

DAMASCUS / 13 March 2006

Security forces on Sunday arrested a former opposition MP and several Kurdish demonstrators who were marking the second anniversary of deadly clashes in northern Syria, human rights advocates said.

Riad Seif was detained along with at least five members of the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party during a sit-in near a Damascus government building, said a statement by the Syrian Organization for Human Rights.

Security forces beat and then detained some of the demonstrators, after three of those taking part in the sit-in attempted to deliver a message to Prime Minister Naji Otri, said human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni, adding that several demonstrators had been wounded.

The rights group also said some demonstrators had been wounded, and expressed its "concern over the violent behavior of security services toward peaceful protestors who are asking for the release of political detainees."

Bloody clashes, initially sparked by a riot between rival fans at a football match, pitted mainly Kurdish protestors against security forces and Arab tribesmen in the northern Syrian towns of Qameshli and Aleppo in March 2004.

Forty people were killed during several days of violence according to Kurdish sources, though Syrian authorities said 25 people had died.

Seif, 54, had been released in January after nearly five years in prison for participating in a short-lived "Damascus spring" of liberalization in 2001 by President Bashar al-Assad.

He was briefly rearrested last month after serving time on charges of working "to change the constitution through illegal means."

6. - Kurdish Media - "Syrian Kurdish groups begin conference, draft unified list of goals":

WASHINGTON / 13 March 2006

Meeting on the two year anniversary of the Kurdish uprising in against the Syrian Ba’athist regime, a number of Syrian Kurdish parties kicked off the two day Kurdish American Committee for Democracy in Syria conference in Washington, DC.

Representatives of the Syrian Kurdish groups each drafted a basic list of key goals and demands and discussed these demands to finally agree on a unified list supported by all groups involved. This list of major goals and demands, which states that the Kurds are one of the two major ethnic groups of Syria and reserve the right to self determination but wish to remain part of Syria and also demands a reversal of Arabization of Kurdish land in Syria and compensation for Arabization, will be formally presented today at a larger conference at the Russell Senate Office Building, which bears the theme “Democracy in Syria and Kurdish Human and National Rights” and will be attended by a number of Kurdish and Arab Syrian oppositionists as well as human rights groups and think tanks.

The conference yesterday received a number of letters of support, which will also be presented later today. Among these letters was one from former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam, a leading Ba’athist official until his defection and relocation in 2005, after which he stated his intention to oust Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. In this letter, Khaddam affirmed his support for Kurdish rights in Syria.