21
March 2006
1. "Thousands mass for Kurdish festival in Turkey amid tight security", tens of thousands of people gathered in southestern Turkey Tuesday to celebrate Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, as police beefed up security over fears that radical Kurds may use the event to stir unrest in the already tense region.
2. "EU Raps Ankara For Pace Of Reforms", the Turkish government has ducked a confrontation with the military over Kurdish unrest -- at the price of incurring fresh criticism from the European Union that it is not making needed reforms.
3. "Turkey: Army rejects allegations against top general", Turkey's military rejected a prosecutor's call to investigate a top Turkish general for allegedly creating a secret force to fight Kurdish rebels, saying the accusations against the military commander were politically motivated.
4. "Not Many "New Approaches" for Armenian Issue", "New Approaches in Turkish Armenian Relations" conferance will continue for 3 days witnessed the reproduction of nationalist reflexes and unscientific propositions: "There is not more noble a nation in the world than the Turks."
5. "Kurds celebrate New Year with hopes for peace", Iraq's predominantly Kurdish northern provinces celebrated New Year or Newroz on Tuesday with dancing and singing amid tight security as violence wracked the rest of the country.
6. "Trouble in Kurdistan", long the example of how a prosperous Iraq might look, the northern region's ugly side comes to the fore in a series of violent outbursts.
1. - AFP - "Thousands mass for Kurdish festival
in Turkey amid tight security":
DIYARBAKIR / 21 March 2006
Tens of thousands of people gathered in southestern Turkey Tuesday to celebrate Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, as police beefed up security over fears that radical Kurds may use the event to stir unrest in the already tense region.
The largest crowd was gathering in Diyarbakir, the main city of the region, where the celebrations, marred by bloodshed in the past, drew some 120,000 people, according to police.
Organisers said they expected up to 250,000 people to attend the festivities at the Fair grounds, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the city center, under close surveillance by some 3,000 policemen.
Newroz day has become a platform for Turkey's Kurdish minority to demand greater freedoms or demonstrate support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has beeen fighting for self-rule in the southeast since 1984.
The conflict, which has claimed more than 37,000 lives, has long hampered Turkey's bid to join the European Union and continues to cast a pall on its commitment to democracy and human rights.
"We did our best to ensure that Newroz passes peacefully this year," Ahmet Turk, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), the organizer of the festivities, told AFP.
Although celebrations have been relatively calm in recent years, the authorities fear Kurdish militants could try to fuel unrest this year as part of increased PKK violence in the southeast.
Tension in the region has also escalated over the November bombing of a Kurdish-owned bookstore in the town of Semdinli, which two soldiers and a Kurdish informer are accused of perpetrating.
The incident sparked deadly riots and accusations that Ankara has failed to purge rogue groups in the security forces accused of summary executions, extortion, kidnappings and drug-smuggling in the 1990s, when the PKK campaign in the region was at its peak.
The celebrations kicked off in other parts of Turkey at the weekend, including Semdinli, where the bombed bookstore was re-opened in a DTP-organized ceremony.
In some cities, demonstrators threw stones at the police, but no major incidents were reported.
Keen to boost its image in EU eyes, Turkish police in recent years have often tolerated open displays of support for the PKK and its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
In Tuesday's festivities here, participants brandished giant posters of Ocalan and the PKK, as well as placards that read: "There is still a chance for peace".
Many people queued up to sign a petition declaring the PKK leader to represent the "political will" of their community.
"If millions of people accept Ocalan as a leader, then the state must see him as an interlocutor. There can be no peace as long as he is in jail," one of the organisers of the petition campaign told AFP.
The PKK has called on the Kurds to "shake off their lethargy" on Newroz, which traditionally marks the arrival of spring, and "to step up and radicalize the uprising."
In the bloodiest festival so far, about 50 people were killed by security forces in 1992 during clashes across the southeast.
More recently, two men were crushed to death in a police clampdown on violent Newroz demonstrations in 2002 in the Mediterranean port of Mersin, home to particularly militant community of migrant Kurds.
Newroz marks the awakening of nature at the March 21 equinox.
It is also celebrated in Iran and other Muslim communities in the Caucasus
and Central Asia. 
2. - The Washington Times - "EU Raps Ankara For Pace Of Reforms":
NICOSIA / 30 March 2006 / by Andrew Borowiec
The Turkish government has ducked a confrontation with the military over Kurdish unrest -- at the price of incurring fresh criticism from the European Union that it is not making needed reforms.
Signals from Ankara indicate the problem is likely to surface again as the EU presses Turkey for changes in the treatment of the Kurdish minority and the role of the military.
The EU said recently that Turkey "has lost its appetite for reform."
Tension remained high yesterday in southeastern Turkey, where security forces were reinforced as Kurds prepared to celebrate the Newroz spring holiday tomorrow.
Authorities in Diyarbakir, one of the centers of Kurdish unrest, banned civil servants from taking part in the festivities, warning violators of disciplinary action. Newroz is not an official holiday in Turkey.
At the same time, the government authorized two regional radio and television stations to start limited programs in the Kurdish language, use of which was until recently banned in public statements. The EU wants Turkey, a membership candidate, to eliminate all such restrictions.
Relations between the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the military have been strained by a report that a leading general had organized a special autonomous military force to fight Kurdish nationalist guerrillas.
When a prosecuting judge called for an investigation of the report, Mr. Erdogan ordered a probe of the judge instead, saying, "No one will gain anything by making the country's military appear weak."
"The army is one of our most important institutions," he added, in what was seen by diplomats as an effort to placate the military.
The general involved, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, is head of Turkey's land forces and is due to take over as chief of general staff in August. He publicly supports Turkey's bid to join the EU, but thinks certain reforms demanded by the union would threaten Turkish society and traditions.
Since the creation of the republic in the 1920s, the army has served as the ultimate guardian of the republican system. In 1997, it forced the resignation of Necmettin Erbakan, Turkey's first openly Islamist prime minister.
The relationship of the military and Mr. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party has undergone periodic strains, mainly because of the party's Islamist roots and some government measures seen by the army as encouraging fundamentalism.
Prodded by the EU, Turkey has limited the army's role in the National Security Council, accepted the concept of civilian control over military finances and reduced the army's judicial autonomy.
But the EU says the reforms fall short of expectations
and has asked for the appointment of an ombudsman to fight corruption
and an easing of property restrictions for non-Muslim minorities.
3. - AP - "Turkey: Army rejects allegations against top general":
20 March 2006
Turkey's military rejected a prosecutor's call to investigate a top Turkish general for allegedly creating a secret force to fight Kurdish rebels, saying the accusations against the military commander were politically motivated.
Earlier this month, a prosecutor demanded that a military
court investigate whether Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, the head of land forces
and the general slated to take over as chief of the military staff in
August, set up a secret group to fight autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels.
Such a move could undermine the country's bid to join the EU.
The accusations raised fears of a new conflict between Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government and the country's secular
military, which has led three coups since 1960.
Buyukanit is considered more of a hardliner than the current chief of staff, and some newspapers and politicians have called the prosecutor's accusation an attempt by the government to block Buyukanit from becoming the next chief of staff. Many observers have speculated that Buyukanit would be more likely to clash with the Islamic-rooted governing party.
The military statement said the accusations against Buyukanit
were "more political than legal and aimed at harming the Turkish
Armed Forces." It said there was no need for an investigation into
the general.
4. - Bianet - "Not Many "New Approaches" for Armenian Issue":
"New Approaches in Turkish Armenian Relations" conferance will continue for 3 days witnessed the reproduction of nationalist reflexes and unscientific propositions: "There is not more noble a nation in the world than the Turks."
ISTANBUL / 17 March 2006 / by Talin Suciyan
On the first day of the international symposium entitled "New Approaches in Turkish Armenian Relations" organized by Istanbul University as the Science and Literature Faculty Cemil Birsel Meeting Hall that started on Wednesday, the symposium stayed far away from bringing new approaches to the issue. Old formulaic narratives were repeated.
The symposium witnessed the reproduction of nationalist reflexes and unscientific propositions.
Propositions and questions such as "The Armenians had sold their masters", "deportation is a form of crisis management", "how could one compare those who die from deportations with those who die from the flu", "there is no nobler nation on earth than the Turks" were repeated.
A 25-page anonymous brochure printed by Istanbul University entitled "The Attack of the Genociders and the Reactions One Must Give to Them" was introduced at the last minute at an unnamed exhibit.
The symposium started with a practice inappropriate for an academic meeting, namely with the reading of the National Anthem and the March of the 10th Year Celebrations of the Turkish Republic. Then there was a moment of silence observed for those who had lost their lives during World War I.
The National Anthem was sung by Katya Hallacoglu from Ferikoy Armenian Elementary School who was elected the best national anthem singing student and the Tenth Year (of The Republic) March was sang by the Surp Takavor Choir. The same choir then sang some Armenian pieces.
The Brochure with the unknown author and publisher
Among the various bookstands in the hall way were the publications of the Prime Minister's Office, Ataturk Research Center and the Gomidas Institute. During the first panel, there was added next to the books of the Gomidas Institute a brochure stand for a 25-page brochure entitled "The Attack of the Genociders and the Reactions One Must Give to Them."
The name of the author was someone named "Holdwater" and the translator the Turkish Forum member Fatma Sarikaya who had attended the Bilgi University conference in September 2005. Vice Rector Safak Ural stated that the brochure had been printed by the Istanbul University Press right before the symposium but it had not yet been accepted as an Istanbul University publication because it had not been examined adequately.
There was no information in the brochure that it had been printed by Istanbul University. The entire content of the brochure whose writer is unknown has been taken from the website www.tallerarmeniantale.com and translated by Fatma Sarikaya.
On the first day of the conference that will continue for three days, a total of 18 presentations took place under the themes "Armenians under Ottoman Adminsitration," "Deportation according to Archival Documants" and "Great Powers and the Armenian Issue."
Even though the original title of the paper of Yair Auron who participated in the symposium from Israel was "Armenian Genocide during World War I According to the Narrtives of the Witnesses and Jewish Documentation," it appeared in the program as "Armenians under Ottoman rule according to the archival documents of the Yishuv (the Palestinian Jewish community)." This misprint was corrected at the end of the presentation by Yusuf Halacoglu.
Auron: "1915 is a Genocide"
As could also be understood from his paper title, Yair Auron gave a presentation on the proofs of the Armenian genocide in the Jewish sources. Auron stated that he had been researching genocides for 30 years and the Armenian genocide for 20 years and that he employed the term genocide not to offend anyone but because he interprets 1915 within the scientific and legal conceptualizations as genocide.
Saray: "Armenians and Greek were used as Tools for Selfish Purposes"
Mehmet Saray who presented in an emotional tone a paper entitled "Armenians and the Ottoman conception of the state" said the following at the end of his paper: "The Turkish nation is the most noble nation of the world; friends, it is not possible for such a nation to commit genocide." Saray also stated that the Armenians and Greeks were used by the Britain, France and Russia as 'tools.'
Bozkurt: "Non-Muslims prevented equality"
In her talk entitled "non-Muslims in Ottoman Law," Gülnihal Bozkurt said that the legal differentiation between the Muslims and non-Muslims occurred because the Ottoman state was a religious state and the legal system applied a religious one. She claimed that the non-Muslims did not support the application of the reforms that gave them more rights but also more responsibilities and that was why the introduction of an egalitarian understanding (to Ottoman society) was prevented directly by the non-Muslims.
Ali Arslan who defended the view that the Armenian church and the Armenian problem were interconnected stated that the (activities of the) churches had to be observed very carefully and that he wished the churches were centers of peace and love.
"Armenians have sold their Masters"
Erol Kurkcuoglu who stated while giving his paper that "the Armenian problem is an artificial (non-existent) issue created by the Russians and Western powers" referred to the Russian historian Velichkov in stating that Armenians always had masters. He narrated that these "master"s'were respectively Romans, Byzantines, Iranian, British, French and Germans. He concluded his talk by stating that "Armenians have always changed their masters in history and have sold them (the masters)."
Deportation as Crisis Management
Hikmet Ozdemir stated that his talk searched for the answer to the single question: 'what are the reasons for the deportation?' and pointed out that he had "the right to ask to know what his colleagues at Bilgi and Sabanci Universities thought about this." Ozdemir listed various rebellions to argue that deportation emerged as a crisis management technique during war.
Why did Gomidas go abroad?
In his paper entitled "Deportation according to Ottoman documents", Yusuf Sarinay gave the example of Gomidas, the first ethnomusicologist of Anatolia, stating how helpful the state elite had been in sending him abroad for his medical treatment.
Sarinay did not state that Gomidas had lost his mental health because of what he had lived through and witnessed.
Sarinay also argued that Armenians had been sent south in order to move them away from the warfront to settle them at a secure place.
"Comparison of deportation and flu deaths"
Yusuf Hallaçoglu argued in his talk entitled "population loss due to deportation and migrations" that the number of casualties due to sickness, travel, hunger was 227 500 and that this could be compared to those in England who died from the flu.
The Activities of the Missionaries and the Armenians are Different from One Another
Hilmar Kaiser who presented a paper entitled "Merzifon, 1915: Ottoman Armenians and American Missionaries during times of Crisis" stated that one should not equate those who performed missionary activities with the Armenians because Armenians sometimes converted to Islam to escape genocide and this (conversion) would not be acceptable to the missionaries.
As proof for his argument that the purposes of the two groups were entirely different, Kaiser relayed from the memoirs of the wife the negative reaction received by the Armenian doctor who had become the director of the Merzifon missionary hospital.
Kaiser stated that Merzifon was totally cleansed of Armenians except for the Protestant Armenians who were disabled or working at the American mission.
The symposium that has not been well attended will continue
at the same place Thursday and Friday.
5. - AFP - "Kurds celebrate New Year with hopes
for peace":
ARBIL / 21 March 2006
Iraq's predominantly Kurdish northern provinces celebrated New Year or Newroz on Tuesday with dancing and singing amid tight security as violence wracked the rest of the country.
But traditional wishes for a happy new year took on additional urgency on the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq with the country teetering on the edge of civil war.
"I hope that this coming year will strengthen federalism in the country and strengthen brotherhood between Kurds and Arabs," Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said in a new year's message.
"I hope that this year will bring a federal, democratic Iraq free from terrorism and murder," he added, repeating a key Kurdish demand that Iraq remain a federal republic granting Kurds widespread autonomy in their three northern provinces.
The violence wracking the center of the country is largely absent here as families headed to mountainside resorts over the four-day holiday, but the turmoil elsewhere remained on people's minds.
"I wish in my heart that there will be peace and happiness in Iraq and the country will be rid of terrorism," said Soma Karim, who stayed in Arbil for the holidays.
Government buildings in Arbil were draped in festive holiday bunting.
"I hope a united national government will be formed and Iraq and the Kurds will get their rights," said Shelan Ahmed.
Negotiations to form a new national government, which took a week-long break just before the holiday, are still deadlocked more than three months after Iraqis went to the polls.
On Monday night, Kurds gathered in the center of town to mark the beginning of the holiday carrying candles while dancing and singing traditional songs for the occasion.
The Kurds' Newroz is similar to neighboring Iran's Noruz and has been celebrated for at least 3,000 years, long predating Islam.
Rooted in Iran's native Zoroastrian religion, the festival is celebrated throughout large stretches of Asia where the Persian Empire was historically influential.
Police and peshmerga fighters, the heavily armed Kurdish militia, were on high alert for any kind of insurgent attack during the holidays, Arbil governor Nuzad Hadi told AFP.
"The Kurdish authorities implemented very strict security measures to ensure the celebrations could take place peacefully and quietly," he said.
Cars without license plates were also banned from circulating in the streets of Arbil.
While insurgent attacks are rare in the northern provinces, the Kurds have their own woes as witnessed by recent riots in Halabja, when thousands of Kurdish students protested government corruption and a lack of services.
The administration of the autonomous region's three provinces remains divided between the two main Kurdish parties. Despite numerous pledges to unify, the parties remain arch rivals.
"With this year, all of Kurdistan eagerly awaits
the unification of the two administrations and the commencement of the
mission to provide its citizens better services," the Arbil-based
regional parliament said in a statement.
6. - Time Magazine - "Trouble in Kurdistan":
Long the example of how a prosperous Iraq might look,
the northern region's ugly side comes to the fore in a series of violent
outbursts
ERBIL / 21 March 2006 / by Andrew Lee Butters
Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish Autonomous Region of northern Iraq, is less than an hour’s flight from Baghdad but almost a world away. While the insurgent-plagued airport road in Baghdad is known as the “Highway of Death,” the road from the newly opened Erbil International Airport, plagued by nothing more dangerous than cyclists in spandex, wends through construction for a real estate development called “Dream City,” a planned community of several hundred California-style detached single-family homes, a supermarket and an American school. Fueled by oil wealth from rich fields in the region, Kurdistan has all the appearance of a budding market economy, with many of the appurtenances of Western capitalism.
But the safety and progress in northern Iraq has come at a cost — and the Kurdish government may be paying for it now. While the Kurdistan Regional Government has a parliament and a president, the administration of Kurdistan is carved up between two rival political parties the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the adjoining Dohuk governorates, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Suleymania Governorate. The two parties monopolize power in their respective territories and their despotic tendencies threaten civil liberties and the fledgling democratic process, creating an environment that is rife with corruption and repression. Frustration at this dual monopoly appear to have been behind a violent outburst yesterday at Halabja, the town on which Saddam Hussein inflicted a barbaric chemical attack in 1988, killing 5,000. It was the anniversary of the atrocity, and the mob destroyed the government-sanctioned shrine to the victims of the attack. While the KIU played a role in inflaming political debate ahead of the election by accusing their rivals of being American and Israeli stooges, the incident reflected the fact that the KDP and PUK rule Kurdistan in part by force and fear.
Police State
Kurdistan is a veritable police state, where the Asayeesh — the military security — has a house in each neighborhood of the major cities, and where the Parastin “secret police” monitors phone conversations and keeps tabs on who attends Friday prayers. While these security measures are an important part of why Kurdistan has largely kept jihadi and resistance cells from forming within its borders, security measures are often used by the ruling parties as an excuse to crack down on opponents and independent civil organizations, according to these groups. “Our members are regularly thrown in jail for seven or eight months at a time without cause,” said Hadi Ali, the Minister of Justice, the token KIU minister in the KDP-dominated Erbil administration. “When they get out I tell them that they are lucky to be alive and to keep quiet.”
The KDP and PUK each have their own militias, which are essentially the armies of the local governments. According to the Minister of Justice, the courts in the region are almost completely politicized, with judges often rubber-stamping party decisions. The secret police even have their own judges, he said. During each of Iraq’s three elections in the past year, police officers openly campaigned for the ruling parties. Schools, hospitals and other government building carry portraits of the respective party leaders, and access to education, jobs and career advancement is often determined by party affiliation. Demonstrations are banned unless they are party-sponsored. “Kurdistan isn’t a civil society, it’s a partisan society,” says Rebwar Ali, head of the Kurdistan Student’s Development Organization. “The presidents of the universities, the university council, the deans and the heads of the departments should all be members of one of the main parties, KDP or PUK. Admissions aren’t based on merit, they are based of membership in one of the two parties. Scholarships are only for party members.” Big business contracts depend on connections and political affiliations as well, leading to a pandemic of corruption, according to Kurdish businessmen and anti-corruption groups.
The KDP and PUK do include some smaller parties in their governing coalitions and on their electoral lists, especially those composed of ethnic and religious minorities, such as Assyrians Christians and Turkomen. But established opposition parties say that these small parties have either been bought off or wholly invented by the ruling parties, in order to give the appearance of diversity and broad support. “It’s the old Middle Eastern mentality — that it’s not enough just to win an election, they want to win by 99%,” says Salim Kako, an official with the Assyrian Democratic Party. “Everyone has to agree. You are not allowed to have your own opinion.”
A Hundred Small Saddams
Sunni-dominated Kurdistan is a tolerant refuge for religious minorities, who are free to worship as they please, these groups say. But the ruling parties keep tight rein over the Muslim religious establishment through the Ministry of Awqaf, an institution that was created by Iraq’s British overlords in the 1920s to control mosques, mullahs and what gets said in Friday sermons. The Baathists maintained the Awqaf as a useful tool of coercion, but it was disbanded by the American-appointed Governing Council in 2003 and forbidden by Iraq’s new constitution. Yet Ministries of Awqaf still exist in Kurdistan, and are still used to enforce political orthodoxy. “Instead of one big Saddam, we have a hundred small Saddams in Kurdistan,” says mullah Ahmed Wahab, a member of the Iraqi parliament for the KIU and the head cleric of mosque in Erbil until he was fired by the Erbil Awqaf on the pretext that he held two jobs.
The media in Kurdistan is extremely partisan and prone to propaganda. There are no independent television stations in the region, and the future is grim for independent radio news, according to Kurda Jamal, head of US-funded Radio Nawa. “Kurdistan isn’t suitable ground for a free media,” he said. “If America wasn’t here and if America wasn’t funding us, the parties would move to shut us down.”
The lack of protection for free speech and the politicization of the security services and judiciary in Kurdistan were made apparent by the case of Dr. Kamal Said Qadir, a jailed law professor and journalist. Dr. Kamal, who is also an Austrian citizen, criticized Masoud Barzani, who is both the President of Iraqi Kurdistan and the head of the KDP, and other members of the Barzani family, calling them “traitors to the Kurdish issue” in articles published on an opposition website run by Kurdish expatriates. When Dr. Kamal returned to Erbil last October, he was arrested and tried in secret. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for threatening the security of Kurdistan.
Dr. Kamal’s sentence is likely to be drastically
reduced after appeal. In an interview, Barzani to TIME that the laws
under which he was charged need to be changed. Says Barzani: “Although
he has been very aggressive and libelous against me personally I have
forgiven him personally for what he has written about me and ask other
people whom he has been writing against to forgive him as well.”
Still, the treatment given to Dr. Kamal sent a clear signal to journalists
and government critics. “There are red lines that you cannot cross,”
said Saman Fawzi Omer, a professor of law at Sulymania University. “You
cannot criticize the leading members of the PUK and KDP or this is what
happens to you.”