9 March 2006

1. "Two killed in blast in eastern Turkish city", three people were killed and 16 wounded on Thursday in an explosion possibly caused by a suicide bomber in the eastern Turkish city of Van, officials said.

2. "Prosecutor Who Accused Turkish General Faces Probe", a prosecutor who accused Turkey's land forces commander of acting outside the law in the fight against separatist Kurdish rebels is to face a probe into his conduct, Justice Minister Cemel Cicek said Wednesday.

3. "Turkey's General Staff: Civilians can't meddle with military", in response to serious allegations against one of their own from a public prosecutor the General Staff yesterday issued a statement on legal procedures regarding the prosecution of military personnel.

4. "Turkey's Rights Record Mixed, U.S. Says", the U.S. State Department today noted the persistence of serious human rights problems in EU-hopeful Turkey, despite steps taken by its government to improve conditions.

5. "Lawyers to Object to Reporters' Arrest", DIHA reporters Dengiz and Yazar were detained as they were covering the demonstrations staged on the anniversary of Ocalan's arrest. They have been at the Mersin E-type prison for the last 10 days. The lawyers will object to the arrestation. DIHA officials, who made a press statement on February 20 in the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, said that the accusations are unacceptable and claimed that the reporters were arrested through a police plot.

6. "Acquitted for Greeting in Kurdish", Handan Caglayan, who stood trial for saying "My Dear Sisters" in Kurdish at a demonstration during a local election campaign, has been acquitted. The Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a local court's decision. The local court in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa had sentenced Caglayan to seven-month in prison and had fined her 513 new Turkish liras (USD 380).

7. "Limited Kurdish broadcasts approved", three channels to start limited broadcasts.

8. "Turkey must keep up reform momentum, says EU", EU officials meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Vienna on Wednesday urged Turkey to persist with economic and social reforms.

1. - Reuters - "Two killed in blast in eastern Turkish city":

DIYARBAKIR / 9 March 2006

Three people were killed and 16 wounded on Thursday in an explosion possibly caused by a suicide bomber in the eastern Turkish city of Van, officials said.

Police said the blast was near the office of Van's governor. They said an investigation was under way into the cause of the explosion but gave no further information.

"We think it may have been a suicide bomber targeting a vehicle belonging to the municipality in the center of Van at 9.06 am (0706 GMT)," the deputy governor of Van, Mustafa Yavuz, told CNN Turk television.

He added that two of the dead had been identified but the identity of the third remained unclear.

Tensions have been running high in Van, a city with a mainly ethnic Kurdish population near the Iranian border.

A Van-based state prosecutor triggered a crisis this week between Turkey's powerful military and the civilian authorities by accusing a top general of abusing his position and setting up an illegal group he said was trying to foment unrest in the Kurdish southeast in order to harm Ankara's EU membership bid.

His claims have outraged the military and embarrassed the government, which has distanced itself from the prosecutor's allegations and defended General Yasar Buyukanit, who heads Turkey's land forces.

Buyukanit, tipped to become the next chief of the military general staff in August when incumbent Hilmi Ozkok is due to retire, served in southeast Turkey between 1997 and 2000.

Turkish troops and security forces have been battling separatist Kurdish rebels in the region since 1984 in a conflict which has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

There is much less violence now than at the height of the conflict in the 1980s and 1990s. But a series of bomb blasts in the region in recent months has stirred fears the conflict could be rekindled.

The European Union, which began membership talks with Turkey last October, has urged Ankara to do more to relieve poverty in the southeast and to bolster the cultural rights of its large Kurdish population.

2. - AFP - "Prosecutor Who Accused Turkish General Faces Probe":

ANKARA / 8 March 2006

A prosecutor who accused Turkey's land forces commander of acting outside the law in the fight against separatist Kurdish rebels is to face a probe into his conduct, Justice Minister Cemel Cicek said Wednesday.

"I have given my approval for inspectors to carry out an inquiry," he told the Anatolia news agency, days after prosecutor Ferhat Sarikaya announced his action against General Yasar Buyukanit.

The accusations were on the indictment of two soldiers and a Kurdish informer over the November 9 bombing of a bookstore in the town of Semdinli owned by a former Kurdish guerrilla, which claimed one life and sparked deadly Kurdish riots in the restive southeast.

The bombing raised questions of whether Turkey has succeeded in purging rogue elements from the security forces accused of summary executions, extortion, kidnappings and drug-smuggling in the southeast in the 1990s, the peak years of a Kurdish rebellion there.

The European Union is closely watching the investigation as a test of the supremacy of law in Turkey, a candidate for membership of the bloc, where the army still wields immense influence.

The prosecutor, based in the eastern city of Van, accused Buyukanit and several subordinates of setting up a criminal organization and of abuse of power, according to the Turkish press.

The accusations, which relate to the 1990s when Buyukanit was a regional commander in the southeast, appeared to imply that he had a role in illegal groupings within the army also responsible for the Semdinli bombing.

The accusations were reportedly based on the testimony of a single person, a local businessman with a murky past.

The prosecutor also argued that Buyukanit attempted to influence the judiciary when he said after the blast in Semdinli that he knew one of the suspects as "a good guy."

He demanded that military prosecutors launch a probe into the general.

Newspapers quoted military sources as saying the prosecutor had abused his powers and the army might retaliate by filing a complaint against him to the justice ministry.

Buyukanit is perceived as a hawk in an army which remains a powerful force in Turkish politics and sees itself as a guardian of the mainly Muslim country's strictly secular system.

The army has several times clashed with the ruling Justice and Development Party, a conservative movement with Islamist roots.

It has been suggested that the accusations against Buyukanit might be aimed at discrediting the general just months before he is expected to take over as chief of staff.

The indictment also demands life imprisonment for two non-commissioned officers and a former Kurdish rebel who was acting as an informer for the soldiers.

3. - The New Anatolian - "Turkey's General Staff: Civilians can't meddle with military":

ANKARA / 9 March 2006

In response to serious allegations against one of their own from a public prosecutor the General Staff yesterday issued a statement on legal procedures regarding the prosecution of military personnel.

Land Forces Commander Gen.Yasar Buyukanit has been accused of establishing a crime gang in the southeast and protecting a non-commissioned officer who's one of the suspects in the Semdinli bombings last November.

The statement read that generals can only prosecuted by military prosecutors with the permission of the General Staff.

The Semdinli indictment, that sparked tension between the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the government early this week and prompted Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok to hold a series of private meetings with high-ranking officials, continued to shake Ankara yesterday.

After Ozkok’s meeting with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Tuesday, military officials at the General Staff's headquarters spend the night scrutinizing the indictment and working on the official response of the military.

The statement also criticized Van Chief Public Prosecutor Ferhat Sarikaya, who prepared the indictment, without mentioning his name. The General Staff underlined that public prosecutors should send indictments, in which generals or admirals are in some way implicated, to the General Staff headquarters.

Other important points in the statement are as follows:

“According to Article 15 of the Establishment of Military Courts and Military Trial Procedures Law tip-offs or complaints submitted to public prosecutor’s offices against top military personnel like admirals and generals regarding military offences should be delivered to the General Staff'S headquarters which is authorized to take legal measures against them. Complaints against other lower-ranking military personnel should be submitted to military commands or other relevant military institutions where a military court can be established to try the accused.

“Only military prosecutors can try generals and admirals with permission from and at the orders the General Staff.

“Under the law, indictments cannot make charges against any personnel before prosecution.”

“The chief of General Staff asks legal counselors to examine allegations and evaluates the outcomes before deciding whether to quash the allegations or to start legal procedures. A military prosecutor, who is responsible for a prosecution, decides whether to drop a case or hear it.”

After laying out the procedures for military prosecutions, the General Staff's statement also said that they haven’t received a tip off or complaint from Van Public Prosecutor’s Office so far and that Van's Third Heavy Criminal Court’s acceptance of the indictment for preliminary examination has nothing to do with the trial of generals.

It concluded by saying that as soon as the public prosecutor’s office sends the required files against the general, the General Staff will open an inquiry and then announce the outcome.

4. - RFE/RL - "Turkey's Rights Record Mixed, U.S. Says":

PRAGUE / 8 March 2006

The U.S. State Department today noted the persistence of serious human rights problems in EU-hopeful Turkey, despite steps taken by its government to improve conditions.

Among problems the State Department mentions in its annual report on human rights worldwide are poor prison conditions, torture, arbitrary detentions, impunity and corruption, lengthy pretrial detentions, and restrictions imposed on religious and press freedom.

The State Department says violence and discrimination against women, as well as child labor, also remain concerns.

The report notes persisting restrictions on the use of Kurdish and other minority languages in radio and television broadcasts. It also mentions criminal proceedings launched against a number of individuals -- including novelist Orhan Pamuk -- who either publicly referred to the killing of more than 1 million Armenians in 1915, or published books on Turkish-Armenian relations that were deemed “insulting” to the state.

5. - Bianet - "Lawyers to Object to Reporters' Arrest":

DIHA reporters Dengiz and Yazar were detained as they were covering the demonstrations staged on the anniversary of Ocalan's arrest. They have been at the Mersin E-type prison for the last 10 days. The lawyers will object to the arrestation.

MERSIN / 8 March 2006 / Erol Onderoglu

Reporters Evrim Dengiz and Nesrin Yazar of the Dicle News Agency, were detained as they were covering the demonstrations staged on the anniversary of Abdullah Ocalan's arrest in the Akdeniz city of Mersin. They have been in prison for the last 10 days.

The reporters, who were arrested on February 18, are being accused with keeping Molotov cocktails in their car.

Lawyers to object to the arrests

The reporters, who are at the Mersin E-type prison, are being charged with "putting all or a part of the state's territories under the rule of a foreign state, destroying the unity of the state, separating a part of territory from the rule of state, and weakening the independence of state," as stated in article 302/1 of the Penal Code.

With the demand of the Mersin Republic Prosecutor, the judge took a confidentiality decision on the file. Thus, the lawyers were not able to study the file. The lawyers will object to the arrest after studying the file.

DIHA officials, who made a press statement on February 20 in the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, said that the accusations are unacceptable and claimed that the reporters were arrested through a police plot.

DIHA: Yazar had been threatened

DIHA Agency said that reporter Yazar had been harassed threatened by the police after preparing a news story on Umit Gonultas, who had been killed during the February 15 protests last year.

Dengiz and Yazar were taken to the Mersin Republic Prosecutor's Office after remaining under detention for two days. The reporters, who used their right to remain silent at the police station, were sent to the judge before making a deposition. Dengiz and Yazar were arrested after long hours of questioning.

6. - Bianet - "Acquitted for Greeting in Kurdish":

SANLIURFA / 8 March 2006

Handan Caglayan, who stood trial for saying "My Dear Sisters" in Kurdish at a demonstration during a local election campaign, has been acquitted. The Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a local court's decision. The local court in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa had sentenced Caglayan to seven-month in prison and had fined her 513 new Turkish liras (USD 380).

The Supreme Court of Appeals asked for Caglayan's retrial on grounds of the amended Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

Women's organizations had launched a signature campaign to protest Caglayan's conviction for greeting the demonstrators in Kurdish during the demonstration by the party HADEP in the Yukari Goklu neighborhood of the Halfeti region of Sanliurfa.

Caglayan, who attended the demonstration as the DEHAP deputy head, said she used that expression because most of the demonstrators were women who did not speak Turkish.

Women representatives from women's platforms and bar associations in the neighboring provinces, members of the Human Rights Association and women's rights activists attended the hearing.

"Mine was not a propaganda speech," said Caglayan following the acquittal. "It was just a greeting. The court ruled this does not constitute propaganda."

"The provincial head has been penalized again for speaking in Kurdish. I believe it's very important that we already have the positive outcome of women's solidarity in such a short period of time. Long live women's solidarity," said Caglayan.

7. - Turkish Daily Nes - "Limited Kurdish broadcasts approved":

Three channels to start limited broadcasts.

ANKARA / 9 March 2006

The Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK) has approved broadcasts in Kurdish for two television channels in Diyarbakir -- Gün TV and Söz TV -- and a radio station in Sanliurfa, Medya FM, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The channels will only be able to start their broadcasts after signing a protocol.

Turkey, working toward European Union membership, changed its laws in 2002 to allow limited broadcasts in Kurdish and other minority languages, and state television has been airing programs in two Kurdish dialects for a half-hour each week.

As part of EU-oriented reforms, Parliament in 2002 also granted limited rights for Kurdish to be taught at private language institutions. Although Kurds at first welcomed the schools as a first step toward greater rights, these schools have since closed down due to dwindling interest and Kurdish demands for the language to be part of the regular state school curriculum.

8. - DPA - "Turkey must keep up reform momentum, says EU":

VIENNA / 8 March 2006

EU officials meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Vienna on Wednesday urged Turkey to persist with economic and social reforms.

'We hope that there will not be a decline of the reform momentum in Turkey,' Ursula Plassnik, Foreign Minister of Austria which currently holds the EU presidency, said after the talks.

Gul rejected speculation that reforms were grinding to a halt in Turkey, saying they were still being carried out 'because the Turkish people need them.

'It\'s not happening under pressure,' he added.

Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country is set to take over the EU presidency from Austria in July, and EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, also attended Wednesday\'s talks.

At a press conference, Plassnik said the goal was 'a Turkey committed to European values' and pointed out that the pace of membership negotiations with Turkey did not depend on the EU alone.

Gul said that his first meeting with the EU since the formal start of Turkish membership negotiations last October had been 'positive and successful' while warning the talks must not become embroiled in 'political questions.'

EU Commissioner Rehn said Cyprus had been an important factor in the talks.

Greek Cypriots rejected a UN plan for the reunification of the island in a May 2004 referendum and Turkey\'s refusal to recognise EU member Cyprus has been a sticking point in talks on Ankara\'s bid to join the European Union.

Asked whether a Turkish failure to open its sea- and airports to Cypriot ships and aircraft by the end of 2006 would lead to the membership negotiations being suspended, he said: I would see it as failure if we had to make use of a veto.'

Turkey had promised to open the ports if restrictions on Turkish Cypriots are lifted by the Greek Cypriot government.

The EU was following the situation closely, said Rehn.