14 February 2007

1. "Anxiety grips Turkish intellectuals after journalist's slaying", hated by ultranationalist groups for their dissident views, liberal Turkish intellectuals have grown even more anxious due to increasing threats and hate mail following the murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

2. "Gun Ceremony deepens fears of growing nationalism in Turkey", fresh intimidation by Turkish Military Agents.

3. "Multiculturalism in Turkey: Just shoot a gun!", or no one can be safe in a country where even the chief of the security forces is not safe.

4. "Opposing Journalist Imprisoned w/o Evidence", Editor-in-chief of Guney magazine Mehmet Bakir's prison sentence is approbated by the High Court despite harsh criticism by human rights groups. AI, IHD, ÇGD, TIHV and Initiative for Association of 78s called for action against this "legal scandal".

5. "Women's rights in Turkey: MEPs say improvements still needed", Turkey's legal framework on women's rights "has in general been satisfactory, but its substantive implementation remains flawed", says the European Parliament in its second report on women's role in social, economic and political life in Turkey. The report emphasises that respecting human rights, including women’s rights, is a condition sine qua non for Turkey's membership of the EU.

6. "In northern Iraq, another war looms", while the world focuses on Baghdad's security, a series of bombings here may be the long-feared start of a second deadly war in Iraq - this one between Kurds and Arabs, both with claims on a territory atop one of the world's largest oil reserves.

1. - AFP - "Anxiety grips Turkish intellectuals after journalist's slaying":

13 February 2007 / by Burak Akinci

Hated by ultranationalist groups for their dissident views, liberal Turkish intellectuals have grown even more anxious due to increasing threats and hate mail following the murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Speculation has been rife here that Orhan Pamuk, the winner of the 2006 Nobel Literature Prize, has fled the country over security concerns ever since he left for New York last month to teach at Columbia University, where he is a fellow.

Pamuk has chosen to remain silent over his departure which came two weeks after Dink, 52, was gunned down outside the offices of his weekly newspaper in Istanbul by a 17-year-old suspected nationalist.

The novelist's close friends and publishers in Turkey deny claims that he has fled or gone into a temporary exile after receiving threats, similar to those sent to Dink before his killing.

"He did not escape from Turkey, there was nothing extraordinary in his departure and he will be back," a close colleague said on condition of anonymity.

Dink had become a hate figure for describing as genocide the 1915-1917 massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire and had been given a six-month suspended sentence under a controversial penal code article which penalises insulting "Turkishness".

Like Dink, Pamuk had also been tried under the same article for contesting the official state line on the World War I massacres which categorically denies they constituted genocide.

The case was dropped on a technicality but turned Pamuk into a "traitor" for ultra-nationalists.

One of the eight men charged over Dink's murder warned Pamuk to watch out and "come to his senses" while he was being brought to court last month.

Pamuk is among more than a dozen intellectuals and journalists who were assigned bodyguards not long after Dink's murder.

Another one is Baskin Oran, a professor of political sciences and author of a controversial government-sponsored report in 2004 which made radical recommendations to the government to improve the rights of the restive Kurdish community and non-Muslim minorities.

The report was branded treasonous by nationalists, disowned by the government and led to Oran facing charges of insulting the Turkish judiciary of which he was acquitted.

Oran, who has been receiving threats since then, wrote in a recent newspaper column that there was a "culture of lynching" in Turkey and argued that the state had to protect its citizens without waiting for them to request protection.

"Did I ask for protection? No. I do not demand it, it is the state's principal duty," said the academician who recently filed a complaint over the threats he received.

"The prosecutor summoned me and asked whether it would be possible for me to reconcile with those who threaten me. I said no," he wrote.

Erol Onderoglu, the representative in Istanbul of media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders, said that police, already under fire for their handling of the Dink case, finally assigned protection to intellectuals so as not to face any more embarassment.

Turkish newspapers have accused police of receiving intelligence last year of a plot to kill Dink, but failing to act on it, while a video leaked to the media two weeks ago showed security forces posing with Dink's alleged assailant for "souvenir pictures" shortly after his capture.

"When police are able to put thousands of officers on duty at football matches, could they not also assign bodyguards to these intellectuals," said Onderoglu, who described the threats against intellectuals not as isolated acts but an organised campaign.

Since Dink's killing, a group of 10 non-governmental organisations have presented a proposal to amend the penal code article -- under which Dink was convicted -- in order to limit its scope and boost freedom of expression.

Facing both presidential and general elections this year amid a rising wave of nationalism, the government has yet to give its view on the proposal to change the article.

2. - Zaman / Kurdistan Observer - "Gun Ceremony deepens fears of growing nationalism":

Fresh intimidation by Turkish Military Agents

11 February 2007

The footage, broadcasted on a satellite channel, shows members of the Kuvayi Milliye Association (National Forces) taking an oath by putting their hands over two pistols and Koran in a ceremony held at a public building generally used for wedding ceremonies in the Mediterranean province of Mersin. Chairman of the group, retired colonel Fikri Karadag, quotes from a speech made by the founder of modern-day Turkey Kemal Ataturk and says, "Dear friends; you may get killed, you may kill in this endeavor."

Prosecutors in neighboring Antalya have launched an investigation into the group after the footage was broadcasted.A similar ceremony took place in the Kemer district of Antalya late last year, but prosecutors then did not take any action.

The footage comes amid fears of rising nationalism, something experts say had a role to play in the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink by a 17-year-old assailant. The assailant reportedly told the police he had killed Dink because he had “insulted Turkish blood.” The Kuvayi Milliye members say they are pure Turks “born from a Turkish father and a Turkish mother and have no converts among their ancestors.” “I am aware of the historic responsibility I take on my shoulders. I swear on my honor and dignity that I shall work determinedly for the peace, wellbeing and eternal existence of my nation and my state in order to make the Turkish nation the master of the world… and to willingly sacrifice my life when necessary for the homeland, the Republic and the flag.”

In a statement published in a local newspaper in Mersin, Kuvayi Milliye Association provincial representative Kemal Canay said Karadag had identified some 13,500 “traitors” across Turkey and vowed to make them account for their actions.
Canay also quoted Karadag as saying that “Mersin has been invaded by Zionists and the outlawed PKK.” Karadag also said 90 percent of criminals in Mersin come from southeastern Anatolia because “Turkish children don’t commit crimes.” Responding to accusations in the media at a press conference on Saturday, Karadag said these 13,500 people were “important people” and that he would not announce their names before confirming certain information.

Karadag also said the guns used in the ceremony were air guns. He said the oath taking ceremonies would continue across Turkey. “I don’t understand why this bothers you,” he told reporters at the press conference. “One day we will see tens of, hundreds of thousands of people take this oath.”

3. - Turkish Daily News - "Multiculturalism in Turkey: Just shoot a gun!":

9 February 2007 / by Burak Bekdil

"No one can be safe in a country where even the chief of the security forces is not safe."
(Hüsamettin Cindoruk, veteran politician, commenting in the mid 1990s on news that the lady interior minister had ordered policemen to break the locked door to the office of the chief of the security forces because she wanted to search it. It was around midnight, and her search for documents to verify anti-government activity proved futile.)

Sadly, Cindoruk's prophesy has been proven correct too many times since then, and, as he guessed, without discriminating between important or unimportant men, between types of ideology or between types of fanaticism. A bullet shot in the name of a wedding ceremony, a football victory; the same bullet shot to defend many just causes: independent Kurdistan, Greater Turkey, Turkishness, Muslimness, honor, and even peace.

The police chief of Diyarbakir, the head of a human rights group, the toddler, the 20-year-old soldier, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) suspect and his children, the young man who just walks on Istiklal, the Kurdish girl who had been raped, the curious journalist, the inquisitive academic, the senior judge who had ruled against the headscarf and the Armenian journalist Ogün Samast and Alparslan Arslan have and don't have things in common. Samast was an unemployed teenager; Arslan was an adult lawyer. They were both devout Muslims one killed the judge because of a verdict that looked like an overdose of secularism and the other killed Hrant Dink after joining the crowd at the nearby Friday prayer. Samast and Arslan felt attached to a 21st century reincarnation of a doctrine mixing various doses of ethnic (Turkish) and religious (Muslim) fascism. Samast was more ethnic in his extremism and motives, and Arslan was more religious. In fact, they are the same thing.
Samast belongs to less than half of the Turkish population (if opinion polls are correct) who identify themselves as Turkish before every other categorization; and Arslan belongs to the more than half who identify themselves as Muslim first and foremost. Samast is as religious as Arslan is nationalist and vice versa. The truth is Samast and Arslan reflect different tones of the same color.

Samast's father, a municipality worker, was brave enough to tip off the police that the assassin of the Turkish Armenian journalist was his son. Arslan's father, a Ministry of Education inspector, threatened that anyone who does not respect this society's (ethnic/religious) values would be punished.

The police failed to protect the judge. They failed to protect the journalist, too. Like they often fail to protect the others including the chief of the police force more than a decade ago, or the police chief of Diyarbakir, or Özdemir Sabanci, or other better-known names in addition to an ocean of less-known ones.

Samast, in fact, is the alter ego of Arslan. He is the young PKK man who detonates the bomb that kills soldiers or soldiers' children; he is the young soldier who kills the innocent villager; he is the Kurdish radical Islamist who bombs synagogues, banks and consulates in Istanbul; he is the same man who stabs the rival football team's fans; he is the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) assassin. Samast is thousands of football fans who chant "We are all Ogun!´"

He is the leftist militant who, during a peace demonstration, angrily beats flowers and plants with his revolutionary stick; the liberal who threatens a group of ladies who wanted to join Dink's funeral with a Turkish flag; the “nationalist” who attacks a photo exhibition featuring the unpleasant incidents of Sept. 6-7; the tribal father who commissions his non-adult sons for the murder of his own daughter for matters of tradition and honor; he is the revolutionary militant who murders a businessman just because the man is a businessman.
Samast is the alter ego of millions of young men living in these lands who are programmed to resort to violence for whatever cause they deem just and sacred: Turkishness, Kurdishness, Islam, secularism, nationalism, fascism, communism in fact, any “ism” as well as non-“isms” like football, tradition, honor, a traffic brawl, money, opposite sex and many more.
Tolerance? What tolerance? Turkey's most reformist, most liberal, most EU-friendly ever prime minister also keeps the title of being the prime minister with the record number of charges against critical writers, journalists, cartoonists and others. Only recently, the prime minister sued an opposition politician for insulting him because the defendant had called him "arrogant."

No one can be expected to be tolerant to the other in a country where even the prime minister cannot tolerate the other.

4. - Bianet - "Opposing Journalist Imprisoned w/o Evidence":

Editor-in-chief of Guney magazine Mehmet Bakir's prison sentence is approbated by the High Court despite harsh criticism by human rights groups. AI, IHD, ÇGD, TIHV and Initiative for Association of 78s called for action against this "legal scandal".

ISTANBUL / 12 February 2007 / by Erol Onderoglu

International press cardholder journalist and editor-in-chief of "Güney" magazine Mehmet Bakir goes today to serve a two and-a-half-year prison sentence handed town with regard to now abolished article 7 of the Prevention of Terrorism Law (TMY).

He's convicted with seven others, of being a member and/or supporting the "illegal Bolshevik Party North Kurdistan/Turkey" organization.

Human rights groups criticized the Supreme Court of Appeals decision to approbate the local court ruling.

They claim that lack of any concrete evidence against Bakir as well as a reasoned decision by the Supreme Court amounts to a "legal scandal".

Amnesty International (AI) issued an alert, calling for solidarity with Bakir while Human Rights Association (IHD), Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇGD) and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV) declared their deprecation of the trial process.

Despite the counterview of the prosecution, Bakir was condemned by Izmir 8th High Criminal Court to a prison sentence as well as a fine and a ban from public duty and leave of country, on March 16, 2006.

Article 7 of the notorious TMY, which was used to suppress dissident voices since it came into effect in 1991, has been abolished in July 2006 as a part od the reform process for Turkey's bid to join the EU.

Lawyers say Bakir and his codefendants were condemned of "moral duress", a term that doesn't comply with contemporary principles of law.

"This case shows once again that despite all reforms, expression of dissident opinions are evaluated as terrorism in this country", Initiative for Association of 78s said in an announcement.

5. - Europea Parliament - "Women's rights in Turkey: MEPs say improvements still needed":

13 February 2007

Turkey's legal framework on women's rights "has in general been satisfactory, but its substantive implementation remains flawed", says the European Parliament in its second report on women's role in social, economic and political life in Turkey. The report emphasises that respecting human rights, including women’s rights, is a condition sine qua non for Turkey's membership of the EU.

The own-initiative report by Emine Bozkurt (PES, NL) and adopted with 522 votes in favour, 15 against and 53 abstentions, which follows up Parliament's July 2005 resolution on women's role in Turkey, highlights key areas of concern. It welcomes the start of active EU accession negotiations with Turkey, but "regrets the slowing down of the reform process in Turkey over the last year and the persistent problem with women's rights" and reiterates Parliament's call for "full and effective implementation of the Community acquis in the field of women's rights, particularly in the poorer regions of the country".

Implementation of legislation

MEPs urge the Turkish Government to speed up implementation of the new legislation on women's rights so as to ensure that it is absolutely in line with the requirements of the Community acquis and that it is effectively implemented in practice.

Even though MEPs acknowledge that the new Penal Code (in force since 2005) substantially strengthens the basic rights of women, they also note with concern that (unsuccessful) attempts have been made to repeal legislation on women's rights. MEPs also deplore the fact that, in parts of south-east Turkey, girls are not registered at birth. MEPs note that this hampers the fight against forced marriage and "crimes in the name of honour", since the victims have no official identity, and they urge the Turkish authorities to continue taking all necessary measures to ensure that all Turkish children are registered at birth.

Availability of data

MEPs note that there is still a lack of accurate data on the situation of women in Turkey and that existing data do not yet cover all problems relating to the situation, role and rights of women. In that respect they welcome the initiative launched at the beginning of 2007 by the Turkish State Institute of Statistics to provide 'gender statistics' relating to social, cultural and economic life, including data on the gender pay gap.

Tackle violence against women

The report condemns "instances of violence against women, including honour killings, domestic violence, forced marriage and polygamy". It calls on the Turkish Government and the Commission to tackle "violence in general and honour crime in particular" as a priority and to set up special high-security shelters. The report also "stresses the importance of systematic investigation and effective punishment" and therefore the training of police and judicial authorities in gender equality issues and the fight against violence. MEPs call on Turkish institutions to build alliances with all groupings - civil, social or religious in society so as to initiate awareness-raising campaigns against violence against women and children.

Women in politics

The report notes that the political participation by women in Turkey is too low and that there is an absolute need for female role models in positions of power and decision-making. MEPs point out that discrimination against women can sometimes best be remedied by temporary positive discrimination measures. MEPs also urge the political parties in Turkey, starting from the upcoming elections in 2007, to include more female candidates on election lists.

Gender equality in access to education and labour market

Parliament expresses concern about the Commission's observation that women remain vulnerable to discriminatory practices in Turkey, due inter alia to a lack of education and a high illiteracy rate. UNICEF estimates that each year between 600,000 and 800,000 girls are either prevented by their families from going to school or do not attend it because of logistical difficulties. MEPs therefore call on the Turkish government to ensure gender equality in access to education and the labour market, especially in the south-eastern regions. The female employment rate in Turkey is just under 25%, compared to the average women's employment rate in EU-25 of 55%.

Lastly, MEPs note that they intend to evaluate the progress in the field of women's rights in Turkey on a regular basis in addition to the yearly progress report of the Commission.

6. - AP - "In northern Iraq, another war looms":

KIRKUK / 13 February 2007 / by Bassem Mroue and Kathy Gannon

While the world focuses on Baghdad's security, a series of bombings here may be the long-feared start of a second deadly war in Iraq - this one between Kurds and Arabs, both with claims on a territory atop one of the world's largest oil reserves.

If the escalating violence in Kirkuk erupts into all-out fighting between heavily armed Kurdish and Arab groups, it could spark a wider conflict involving Turkey or Iran. That risk puts the United States in a bind, caught between ally Turkey, which is on the side of Arabs and ethnic Turkomen here, and the Kurds, another strong U.S. ally.

The issue is coming to a head because of a provision in the Iraqi constitution that calls for a referendum by year's end on Kirkuk's future. Arabs and Turkomen, backed by Turkey, want to put the vote off - worried about Kurdish dominance and more violence if the referendum is held and Kurds win.

But Kurds are determined to press ahead. They deny it's because of the black gold in the ground.

"We will have Kirkuk - not for its oil, but because it is our history," said Rizgar Ali Hamajan, a Kurd who is chief of the local provincial council.

In the past two weeks, the city 180 miles north of Baghdad has suffered a wave of bombings, including six car bombs on one day alone. One targeted a main Kurdish political organization. Another bomb this week seriously wounded a Kurdish teacher. Some Kurds claim that Sunni Arab groups with al-Qaida links are now operating here, but Turkomen and Arabs also have been hit by violence.

The dispute centers on whether this ancient city should become part of the semi-independent Kurdish zone in northeast Iraq, or remain as it is, part of broader Iraq, governed by the Arab-led coalition government in Baghdad. The referendum, whose date has not been agreed upon, would settle that by asking residents which they preferred.

Unlike in Baghdad, in Kirkuk there are sharp lines between the warring sides, a legacy of a battle for dominance here that predates the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

On one side of the divided city are people like Abdul-Karim Wadi, a Shiite Arab, who got what amounted to thousands of dollars in cash and a free apartment to move to Kirkuk from Baghdad 18 years ago. He was part of Saddam Hussein's campaign to flood the city with Arabs and cleanse it of Kurds.

Now, Wadi says, Kirkuk is his home and he has no plans to leave. He says he had no idea about Saddam's intentions when he moved here.

On the other side are people like Soham Qadir, a plump Kurdish woman with a quick smile, who lives in a two-room house made of mud and stone on the city's northwest fringe. Driven out of Kirkuk in 1995 by Saddam's plan, she and her family returned in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion - encouraged to do so by Kurdish politicians.

"We have the right to Kirkuk. It belongs to the Kurds," Qadir said.

Chillingly, each side has increased its warnings that it is armed and ready to fight.

Kurds, in particular, have well-armed, highly trained peshmerga militias with years of experience fighting in the past conflicts of northern Iraq.

But Arabs too say they are ready to fight. "We tell the Kurdish political parties to have a clear understanding, that if they try to make Kirkuk a part of Iraqi Kurdistan, then war is coming here," warned Sheik Abdul Rahman Munshid, a Sunni Arab leader.

"They should know we are ready, we are already organized," said Munshid, speaking in his palatial white marble home hidden behind high walls. Munshid's neighborhood is known for its links to Saddam's loyalists and Sunni insurgents, some with al-Qaida links, according to residents.

A powerful ally of the Arabs are the Turkomen, a minority in Iraq concentrated in the north. They accuse Kurds of intimidation bombings and kidnappings against them. They say that by resettling their people, the Kurds are changing the city's ethnic balance and taking away Arabs' and Turkomen's voting rights.

"If Kirkuk goes to Kurdistan, we will fight. I will fight," warned Ali Mehdi Sadiq, a representative of the Turkomen. Such a war, he warns, "will bring in other countries in the region, Turkey and Iran. They care about what happens here."

American experts agree that the referendum carries high risks.

The U.S. Iraq Study Group, the panel led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, said in its report in December that "given the very dangerous situation in Kirkuk ... a referendum on the future of Kirkuk would be explosive and should be delayed."

So far, President Bush's administration has not supported canceling or delaying the vote.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has warned Turkey against interference.

So far, Turkey has held its fire, despite what is says are frequent provocations. Turkey has been fighting a Kurdish independence movement within its borders and has faced harassing attacks by Kurdish guerrillas, aided by allies who cross the border from Iraq.

Turkey and Iran also fear an economic boom in Iraq's Kurdish region. Should Iraqi Kurds gain control over the Kirkuk oil fields, it could embolden and finance the Kurds inside their own countries to push harder for autonomy. Kirkuk has six oil fields containing one of Iraq's largest oil reserves of about 8 billion barrels.

Both Iran and Turkey have sent additional troops to their borders this year, and fights between Kurdish guerrillas and Iranian security forces also are up.

There are no accurate figures of the numbers of Kurds to return to Kirkuk in the last three years, but estimates range as high as 300,000. Most believe Kurds are now a majority here.

The last ethnic-breakdown census in Iraq was conducted in 1957, well before Saddam began his program to move Arabs to Kirkuk. That count showed 178,000 Kurds, 48,000 Turkomen, 43,000 Arabs and 10,000 Assyrian-Chaldean Christians living in the city.