20 April 2007

1. "It is time to realize the Kurdish reality", threats to Kurds and their belittlement by Turkey are not options.

2. "Turks clamp down on PKK", Turkish security and military forces have placed five hundred members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) under siege.

3. "A Turkish tangle", the argument over the presidency of Turkey turns even nastier.

4. "Police Acquitted on Killing Father and Son", in the landmark case where four police officers were tried with intentionally killing a father and his son in Mardin, in 2004, the court acquits the suspects on grounds of self-defense. Saying the court failed to comply to evidence, family lawyers appeal.

5. "Killings show Turkey unfit for EU-European right", Italian and German conservatives on Thursday said the killing of three Christians at a Bible publishing house in Turkey showed Ankara could not control violent Islamists and was thus unfit to join Europe.

6. "Christians in Turkey fear more attacks", the slayings of three Christians in this eastern town highlight Turkey's uneasy relationship with its minorities, and Christians expressed fear Thursday that growing nationalism and intolerance could lead to more violence against them.

1. - The Globe - "It is time to realize the Kurdish reality":

Threats to Kurds and their belittlement by Turkey are not options.

19 April 2007 / by Behrooz Shojai

The ever-growing power of southern Kurds should put the Turkish state on notice that Kurdistan is no longer their "backyard" for military adventures.

After last weeks' verbal mêlée between Turkish and Kurdish authorities, initiated by frequent Turkish groans about the fate of post-Saddam-discovered 5 million (!) Turkmen in Kurdistan, particularly in Kirkuk, the Turkish military chief's turn came to reveal a somewhat nostalgic revelation: Northern Iraq has to be conquered! The flying Kurdish flags in Sulaimania and elsewhere in Kurdistan were too much to accept for a Turkish military that once upon a time ruled over their loyal Kurdish subjects, who nowadays, incidentally, offer insolent resistance against their overlords.

It is a pity to think of our neighbors in these terms, but if they continue to psychologically live in the past Ottoman days of glory, it is inevitable that one day, in spite of reality, they will come out with profoundly irrational statements, statements that can jeopardize the security and peace of the entire Middle East. The reactions in Europe and the U.S. prove that Kurdistan is not Turkish generals' backyard for military adventures. Not long ago, I wrote that the Turkish regime's intention in southern Kurdistan is not tackling PKK's bases in Qandil. Their top priority is preventing the formation of a Kurdish polity here in the south. And it is wise to respect the democratic will of the people of Iraq. They have voted for a constitution in which a federal body with shared sovereignty will be the foundation of the state. It may collide with the Turkish notion of sovereignty, in which the central government with the clear-cut Turkish ethnic identity monopolizes the sovereignty. There is no Iraqi ethnicity or even an Iraqi language, but a multitude of Iraqi identities, and these identities are reflected in the new Iraqi constitution. The Kurds have their share of it, both in safeguarding their national identity and sharing the sovereignty with the central government. While in Turkey, there is a ruling identity--the Turkish identity--and practically a suppressed one, the Kurdish identity, which has no legal rights.

It is understandable that the Turkish state fears the growing Kurdish power in the south. Their own Kurdish population may one day also demand the respect and dignity that southern Kurds have gained. However, the solution is not belittling Kurds in general and specifically southern Kurds, or worse, threatening them with military operations. Why not try mastering their Kurdish question with non-military means? Acknowledging their human rights in the first instance would be a very healthy step forward. Sharing the sovereignty with them would be another constructive step toward preventing violence and safeguarding internal peace. PKK is the result of a suppressive policy after the formation of the Turkish Republic against Kurds; not surprisingly, PKK itself is as suppressive as its own suppressors. Perhaps some elements within the so-called deep state wish to maintain the status quo of denial-resistance-suppression, because it is in their interests. And keeping PKK alive would be a perfect way of maintaining such a state.

However, our Turkish neighbors should decide who is in charge within its decision-making institutions. Is it the generals or civilian politicians? Accordingly, they also should decide the course of their politics: democracy, human rights, respect for human rights and sharing sovereignty, or suppression, denial, and a centralized notion of sovereignty safeguarded by nostalgic Turkish military chiefs.

2. - Press TV - "Turks clamp down on PKK":

19 April 2007

Turkish security and military forces have placed five hundred members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) under siege.

According to Turkey's Zaman newspaper at least twenty thousand Turkish security and military forces have participated in the Sirnak operation where 500 PKK members are currently under siege in Sirnak.

The incident comes in the wake of a Turkish security crackdown against the rebel in the southeastern province of Sirnak located near the Iraqi border.

Meanwhile, more than 30,000 people have died since the PKK launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

The US, however, is on the brink of losing Turkey as a strategic partner due to the inefficiency of US forces in Iraq which has led the PKK to secure its guerrilla encampments in northern Iraq.

The PKK is now carrying its fight into Turkey from these camps and the US has been ignoring pleas from Turkey to push the PKK out of northern Iraq.

3. - The Economist - "A Turkish tangle":

The argument over the presidency of Turkey turns even nastier.

ANKARA AND ISTANBUL / 19 April 2007

WAS it another provocation by the “deep state”—the shadowy alliance of rogue security forces and ultra-nationalist thugs—aimed at stopping Turkey's Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, from becoming the country's new president? Or the work of Islamist extremists? Speculation raged after yet another attack, on April 18th, on Christian targets, this time a publishing house that distributes Bibles in the city of Malatya. The killers bound the hands and legs of three men and then slit their throats. Two of the victims, one of them German, died immediately; the third died in hospital.

Turkey's Christians are saying they no longer feel safe. The interior minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, declared that the real target was the country's stability. Last year an Italian priest was shot by a nationalist teenager in the Black Sea city of Trabzon. In January another teenager shot dead an Armenian news editor, Hrant Dink.

The latest attack took place as Mr Erdogan was meeting fellow leaders of his ruling AK Party to decide if he should replace President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a fiercely secular former judge, when his seven-year term ends in May. They urged Mr Erdogan not to run, but instead to lead the party into November's parliamentary election. Some aides reckon that Mr Erdogan may not declare his intentions until just before the April 25th registration deadline.

Yet the longer he waits, the greater secular opposition becomes. In the past two weeks, the chief of the general staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, has said that the new president should be pro-secular not only “in words” but also “in spirit”. Days later Mr Sezer repeated an assertion by the general that secularism “faces its gravest threat” since Ataturk founded the republic 84 years ago. The main opposition party is threatening to boycott the parliamentary vote for president if Mr Erdogan runs.

On April 14th over 300,000 Turks, chanting anti-government slogans and waving Turkish flags, marched on Ataturk's mausoleum in Ankara. It was one of the biggest public rallies in recent history. Citing “public sensitivities”, Arzuhan Yalcindag, president of TUSIAD, Turkey's big industrialists' lobby, said she did not believe Mr Erdogan would become president. “It was a polite way of advising him not to,” said a fellow businesswoman.

Yet contrary to claims by the hotchpotch of retired generals, nationalists and anti-European Union activists who organised the rally, many attendees seemed less concerned by Mr Erdogan's supposedly Islamist agenda than by a general malaise over their future. This reflects several things: worries over globalisation, violence in neighbouring Iraq, renewed Kurdish separatism, a feeling of being slighted by the EU. Many are also disgruntled by the rampant corruption of some AK officials that Mr Erdogan has failed to curb.

The bigger worry among Turkey's Western friends is Mr Erdogan's waning interest in human rights. Neither he nor anybody in his cabinet uttered a peep when 50 policemen recently stormed the offices of a liberal weekly, Nokta. Acting on orders from a military prosecutor, they copied the contents of every single computer, including journalists' personal e-mails, on the ground that they might contain “official secrets”. The order came after Nokta had published an internal military document blacklisting selected journalists.

The magazine is also under investigation for running excerpts from a retired admiral's diary. In it he describes two planned coups against Mr Erdogan in 2004 cooked up by four top military commanders. Codenamed “Moonlight” and “Blonde Girl”, the plots failed to gather support from fellow officers, the admiral wrote, “because the Turkish people don't want coups anymore.” Nokta's managing editor, Alper Gormus, says the only sympathy he has had is a bouquet of chrysanthemums from a local AK official. Yet the government could have prevented the raid if it wanted to, he says, “because it was the justice minister who gave the final nod.”

4. - Bianet - "Police Acquitted on Killing Father and Son":

In the landmark case where four police officers were tried with intentionally killing a father and his son in Mardin, in 2004, the court acquits the suspects on grounds of self-defense. Saying the court failed to comply to evidence, family lawyers appeal.

ESKISSEHIR / 19 April 2007 / by Tolga Korkut

Eskisehir High Criminal Court acquits four police officers blamed for killing a father and his 12 year-old son in 2004, in eastern city of Mardin.

Security forces presented the deceased as "terrorists" but it human rights activists protested the event and independent investigation into the incident revealed that they were murdered without responding back.

The case then received vast international and public attention.

The police officers claimed that both Ahmet and Ugur Kaymaz responded with gunfire during an raid into their rural house in November 21, 2004.

The court complied with the public prosecutor's demand and decided that the police officers acted on "self-defense", killing the father and the son.

Kaymaz family lawyer Erdal Kuzu expressed his perplexion regarding the ruling and said they will appeal.

His associate Heval Yildiz noted that looking at the progression of the case "this ruling was evident but unwanted".

Tahir Elçi claimed that the forensic medicine reports provided concrete evidence against the testimonies of the police officers and blamed the court of "failing to provide justice".

Wife's testimony

Makbule Kaymaz, the 30-year-old wife of Ahmet Kaymaz, and the mother of Ugur, spoke to the Turkey's Human Rights Association (IHD) group, which visited the scene and prepared a report about it, about the incident:

"My husband Ahmet was a truck driver. He transported goods with the truck which did not belong to us. My son Ugur was born in 1992 and was an elementary school student. He used to sometimes accompany his father to work. The day after the incident, my husband was scheduled to go to Iskenderun to pick up his load. He was getting prepared for the journey.

On the day of the incident, at about 4:30 p.m., we had prepared the table for dinner. My husband took a blanket and other things he would need for the journey and carried them to the truck with my son Ugur. They both had slippers on. They were going to put those things in the truck and come back inside to have dinner. The truck was parked some 40-50 meters from the house near the highway.

We heard gunshots soon after they went outside. My three other children and my mother-in-law were also in the house with me. We got scared when we heard the gunshots and jumped into the backyard of our next door neighbor, who is also our relative. At that moment, I saw that my son Ugur was kneeling in front of the truck facing the ground (I recognized his white trousers). Gunshots continued. In a short while police officers came and searched our house. The prosecutor took and questioned us. Later, I found out that my husband and my son had been killed."

13 bullets

The IHD group's report also summarizes the autopsy report and emphasizes that the bullets were fired from a very short distance.

* In the autopsy report; it is stated that there were a total of 13 bullets in Ugur Kaymaz's body. Four of them were in his right and left hands, and nine on his back. It was determined that nine of the 13 bullets were fired from a very short distance (less than 50 centimeters). Ugur had gunpowder marks on his body. Ahmet Kaymaz had eight bullets in his body.

Two of them were in his thigh and left hand, four in his chest, and two on his back. All eight bullets in Ahmet Kaymaz's body were fired from a short distance and he also had gunpowder marks on his body.

* According to the autopsy findings; it was determined that the bullets were not fired from different directions. After the first bullets hit the victims' bodies, the rest of the bullets were fired from the same direction and landed into the bodies in the new position they took after each shot.

5. - Reuters - "Killings show Turkey unfit for EU-European right":

ROME / 19 April 2007 / by Philip Pullella

Italian and German conservatives on Thursday said the killing of three Christians at a Bible publishing house in Turkey showed Ankara could not control violent Islamists and was thus unfit to join Europe.

'Yet another attack against Christian values. Turkey should forget about the European Union,' said Massimo Polledri, a senator from the anti-immigrant Northern League.

The three Christians, including a German, were found with their throats slit on Wednesday at the Zirve publishing house in Malatya, a city in the predominantly Muslim country's southeast.

Alessandra Mussolini, a parliamentarian who is granddaughter of Italy's wartime dictator, urged Italians to sign her petition to the EU condemning the killings and stating the 'refusal of Italian citizens to allow Turkey into the European Union'.

'After this the question of Turkey's EU entry cannot be just a bureaucratic decision,' she said, also referring to last year's killing of an Italian missionary priest in Turkey.

Ankara began membership talks in October 2005 but the EU has frozen negotiations in eight of the 35 policy areas because of a row over Cyprus.

'Turkey has once again shown itself not to be worthy of the values and standards of Europe,' said Wolfgang Boernsen, a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, adding that 'Europe's and the Christian West's cultural identity is being challenged'.

Germany's conservative Christian Democrat Union (CDU) and its sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) oppose full membership and instead favour a 'privileged partnership.'

Opinion polls in predominantly Catholic Italy show that many people oppose Turkey in the EU because of its Muslim background and human rights record.

'The government must send a clear signal to the Turkish government – that the violation of religious freedom and human rights are incompatible with any hypothesis of Turkish membership in Europe,' said Luca Volonte, from the UDC party.

He said Ankara tolerated 'Islamist extremists ... who see Christians as sacrificial animals whose throats should be slit'.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi, on a trip to Asia, said the killings 'certainly will not help' Turkey's EU bid but that such incidents should not be allowed to influence 'policy regarding long-term horizons'.

6. - AP - "Christians in Turkey fear more attacks":

ANKARA / 20 April 2007 / by Benjamin Harvey

The slayings of three Christians in this eastern town highlight Turkey's uneasy relationship with its minorities, and Christians expressed fear Thursday that growing nationalism and intolerance could lead to more violence against them.

Police detained five more suspects Thursday in the attack at a Christian publishing house that distributes Bibles. Some reportedly said they carried out the killings to protect Islam.

The three victims — a German man and two Turks who converted to Christianity — were found with their hands and legs tied and their throats slit. The victims had bruises on their faces and cuts on their wrists from the ropes that bound them.

The attack Wednesday added to concerns in Europe about whether the predominantly Muslim country — which is bidding for European Union membership — can protect its religious minorities.

Christian leaders said they worried that nationalists were stoking hostilities against non-Turks and non-Muslims by exploiting growing uncertainty over Turkey's place in the world.

The uncertainty — and growing suspicion against foreigners — has been driven by the faltering EU bid, a resilient Kurdish separatist movement and by increasingly vocal Islamists who see themselves — and Turkey — as locked in battle with a hostile Christian West.

"Our lives are in danger because of this mind-set," the Rev. Ihsan Ozbek, pastor of the Kurtulus Church in Ankara, told a news conference in Malatya. He said there was a "witch hunt" under way against Christians and other minorities.

Nationalists, who have long dominated public debate in Turkey, have also begun to call for Turkey to withdraw its EU bid and make its own way in the world. Some young men indoctrinated with a vision of Turkish greatness — and with a view of the West as intent on keeping the Islamic world weak — view non-Muslims with suspicion.

"The problem is our education and our media," Mustafa Efe, head of Mujde FM, or Miracle FM, a Christian broadcasting station, said after traveling to Malatya to meet Protestant pastors. "They always say Christianity is dangerous because Christians are trying to break up Turkey."

Christians make up just a fraction of 1 percent of Turkey's population of 71 million.

"There is this general atmosphere of fear — that Turkey will be segmented," said Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a human rights lawyer who represented one of the slain Christians, Necati Aydin, 26, in an earlier court case. Aydin was charged with insulting Islam and spent a month in jail after he was found distributing Bibles in the Aegean city of Izmir.

Hurriyet newspaper quoted one unidentified suspect as saying: "We didn't do this for ourselves, but for our religion. Our religion is being destroyed. Let this be a lesson to enemies of our religion."

Besides the five suspects detained Thursday, four others were taken into custody at the publishing house Wednesday, as well as a fifth who underwent surgery for head injuries after he apparently tried to escape the crime scene by jumping from a fourth-story window. All were in their late teens or early 20s.

Since last year, Turkish youths have killed a Roman Catholic priest while he prayed in a church in Trabzon, threatened other priests and killed a prominent Armenian Christian editor in Istanbul.

The latest violence comes ahead of presidential elections next month, a contest that highlights fears among Turkey's secular establishment that a candidate from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party, or even Erdogan himself, could win the job and strengthen Islamic influence on the government.

Erdogan has rejected the label of "Islamist," citing his commitment to Turkey's effort to join the EU.

Christians and other minorities have watched Turkey's struggling EU bid with alarm. Many worry the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, who when he was still a cardinal spoke against Turkey's bid for membership, would only contribute to their problems.

Italian Premier Romano Prodi told the ANSA news agency that while the attack "certainly does not help" Turkey's EU bid, "tragedies like this should not influence" the decision as there are "political guidelines that are looking at long-term prospects."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat Party — which opposes Turkey's bid — said the attacks showed the country's shortcomings in protecting religious freedoms.

The German man, identified as 46-year-old Tilman Ekkehart Geske, had been living in Malatya since 2003. His family wanted to bury him there, and his German wife Susanna, speaking Turkish, told ATV television she would stay and raise her children in the gritty textile and agriculture city famous for its apricots.

A large Turkish flag hung from a window of the students' residence where five of the suspects lived. The curtains were drawn and the door was locked.

Ozbek, the pastor from Ankara, said most Christians were committed to life in Turkey.

"We'll stay where we are. We are Turkish citizens," he said. "We have nowhere else to go."