15 January 2007

1. "Ocalan tells Turkey it can help itself by granting regional autonomy to Kurds", jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan urged Turkey on Friday to grant its Kurdish community regional autonomy in order to resolve a 22-year conflict and avoid the kind of turmoil seen in Iraq. "I believe it is vital for Turkey to have a strategic alliance with the Kurds," Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said in a statement relayed by his lawyers, who met him on the prison island of Imrali.

2. "Kurdish rebel killed in clash in SE Turkey-agency", a Kurdish guerrilla was killed in a clash with Turkish security forces in southeast Turkey, the state Anatolian news agency said on Sunday.

3. "Diyarbakir's Kurdish webpage probed by Interior Ministry", the municipality recently announced that the webpage of the municipality, www.diyarbakir.bel.tr, will be posted in Kurdish and English in addition to Turkish.

4. "Turkey launches legislative onslaught", Turkey has vowed to mount a “do-it-yourself” legislative onslaught to prepare for European Union membership, in spite of the fact that significant parts of the accession talks were suspended last month.

5. "Turkey's mystic minority seeks acceptance", Alevis viewed as heretics because they shun Islamic rituals followed by Shiite majorities in Iran and Iraq.

6. "Plan would add Kurds to civil war mix", many fear deploying northern troops to the capital would expand the conflict between Shiite and Sunni Arabs.

1. - AFP - "Ocalan tells Turkey it can help itself by granting regional autonomy to Kurds":

ANKARA / 12 January 2007

Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan urged Turkey on Friday to grant its Kurdish community regional autonomy in order to resolve a 22-year conflict and avoid the kind of turmoil seen in Iraq. "I believe it is vital for Turkey to have a strategic alliance with the Kurds," Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said in a statement relayed by his lawyers, who met him on the prison island of Imrali.

"What I mean is for Turkey to make peace with the Kurds living on its territory and recognize their democratic autonomy," he explained. "Let the Kurds have regional parliaments and governments."

Ocalan argued that such a step would not damage Turkey's territorial integrity but actually strengthen it.

"Otherwise, Turkey will turn into another Iraq," he warned.

The rebel leader said that he had no desire for independence, but added that Kurds in the region would opt for breaking away if Turkey, Iran and Syria insist on what he called their policies of oppression.

"This is not an option we desire because we know it will not provide a solution but bring about a disaster," Ocalan said.

Ocalan's PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984 for independence in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast in a bitter conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Since his capture and conviction for treason in 1999, Ocalan has said on several occasions that he wants greater political and cultural rights for the Kurds and denied intentions to carve up an independent Kurdish homeland.

The Ankara government categorically rules out Ocalan and the PKK as an interlocutor in the Kurdish conflict and is cool to suggestions to give its Kurdish community any measure of autonomy.

2. - Reuters - "Kurdish rebel killed in clash in SE Turkey-agency":

ANKARA / 14 January 2007

A Kurdish guerrilla was killed in a clash with Turkish security forces in southeast Turkey, the state Anatolian news agency said on Sunday.

It said a Turkish soldier was also wounded in the clash in the mountainous province of Bingol. It did not say when the incident took place but added military operations against the Kurdish rebels were continuing in the area.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in fighting between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) since the group launched an armed campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

The PKK called a unilateral ceasefire last October but Turkey has dismissed the move as irrelevant and clashes have continued, though at a lower intensity than before.

The United States and the European Union, like Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation". Up to 5,000 PKK fighters are believed to be holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq.

3. - The New Anatolian - "Diyarbakir's Kurdish webpage probed by Interior Ministry":

ANKARA / 13 January 2007

Diyarbakir's mayor defended the city's new Kurdish webpage offerings in written answers to Interior Ministry questions on Friday.

The municipality recently announced that the webpage of the municipality, www.diyarbakir.bel.tr, will be posted in Kurdish and English in addition to Turkish.
This led to the Interior Ministry to assign inspectors to look into how much the multilingual offering costs as well as its content. In his testimony, Diyarbakir Municipality Mayor Osman Baydemir said that they added Kurdish to better explain municipal services to locals and English to help people all over the world follow their work.

Stating that both the English and Kurdish sections say that same thing as the original Turkish pages, Baydemir said the municipality spent 22,420 YTL for translations of the webpage.

4. - Financial Times - "Turkey launches legislative onslaught":

BRUSSELS / 14 January 2007 / by George Parker

Turkey has vowed to mount a “do-it-yourself” legislative onslaught to prepare for European Union membership, in spite of the fact that significant parts of the accession talks were suspended last month.

The move is being welcomed by Brussels as a positive reaction by Ankara to the partial breakdown of the talks.

Volkan Bozkir, Turkey’s ambassador to the EU, said Ankara would respond to last month’s setback by “accelerating” reforms, so that it was ready to join the EU when the political climate changed.

Mr Bozkir told the Financial Times that Ankara had taken the latest blow to its accession prospects in a “calm and professional way”. He said: “It shows Turkey wants to maintain its relationship with the EU.

“It would have been easy for Turkey to react strongly and to freeze part of its relationship or to express some kind of broken-hearted psychology.”

In December the EU suspended membership talks in eight policy areas because of Turkey’s refusal to open its ports to Cyprus – an EU member since 2004 – whose Greek Cypriot government Ankara refuses to recognise.

Last week Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s foreign minister, convened more than 150 senior officials from different government departments to order them to draw up detailed legislative plans to prepare the country for EU membership.

Mr Bozkir said legislative plans for the years up until 2013 would be submitted by the end of January and would then be prioritised, with the aim of bringing the country’s laws and norms up to EU standards.

The plan would cover 32 outstanding subject areas of the membership negotiations, including the eight frozen last month. He hoped preparatory work would be almost complete when the EU finally decided to open detailed talks.

Recognising the risk of political deadlock with presidential and parliamentary elections looming this year, he said: “We will use this dangerous period – this year and next year – so that we do not allow precious time to be lost.”

But Mr Bozkir said there would be no amendments to the controversial Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code – which makes it a crime to insult Turkey or its officials – before this year’s elections. He said courts needed to build up jurisprudence to defend freedom of speech, which would be more effective than changing the law.

Olli Rehn, EU enlargement commissioner, told the FT: “We certainly welcome Turkey’s decision to pursue the reforms on the ground, although the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

“But overall this is a positive initiative, which shows they are doing these reforms for the sake of the citizens of Turkey, not just because of the EU.”

Mr Bozkir said Ankara expected the EU to show goodwill in return by opening negotiations on several subject areas – or chapters – during the German presidency of the EU.

Some EU officials believe the chapter covering enterprise and industry could be opened by March and that talks on two or three more could start before the German presidency ends on June 30.

5. - AP - "Turkey's mystic minority seeks acceptance":

Alevis viewed as heretics because they shun Islamic rituals followed by Shiite majorities in Iran and Iraq.

ISTANBUL / 13 January 2007 / by By Benjamin Harvey

It's Sunday and prayer leader Bektas Akkaya is twanging a Turkish version of the electric banjo, working some 200 members of this country's largest religious minority into a trance.

Women in headscarves slap their knees, sway to the music and wipe tears from their eyes. A young man swings his arms wildly and beats his chest, his head gyrating like a bobblehead doll until he collapses.

Here, there is no imam, minaret or call to prayer. But for an estimated 20 percent of Turkey's 71 million people, this is Islam.

The worshippers are Alevis, followers of a tradition rooted in the beliefs of the Shiite branch of Islam -- but which diverges greatly from Shiite majorities in neighboring Iran and Iraq. The Alevis incorporate shamanistic rites such as singing, ritual chanting and dance, and shun many customary Islamic practices, including the separation of men and women in prayer and the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

"Without women, without dancing, and without a song, you can't have an Alevi ceremony," smiled Cemal Sener, a spokesman for the Alevi community in Istanbul.

He likened the followers to "Islamic Protestants" for their focus on the message and intensity of Islam rather than its rituals. But Muslim traditionalists have other names for the Alevis -- calling them heretics and outcasts -- and have made them a target of discrimination in Turkey.

The strains are now drawing the attention of the European Union, which has made religious liberties a condition for Turkey's troubled bid for membership. The latest EU progress report on Turkey, issued in November, cited "no developments" in addressing Alevi claims, including difficulties opening their houses of worship and obtaining state funds for religious facilities.

The plight of the Alevis was not mentioned in Pope Benedict XVI's pleas to improve the lot of religious minorities during his Nov. 28-Dec. 1 visit. But their fate is a good barometer of Turkey's willingness to tolerate free religious practice at a time when conservative Islamic sentiments are on the rise.

"They want to act like Alevis don't exist," said Sener, an author of more than 20 books on Alevism. "They see us as perverts, heretics."

Sonmez Kutlu, a professor of divinity at Ankara University, said that much of the antagonism against Alevis has origins in the centuries-old rivalries among Islamic groups -- a fact still relevant across much of the strife-torn modern Muslim world.

But he also acknowledges that there is a general feeling that the Alevis are simply wrong. Traditionalists see this as a threat to their way of life and an obstacle to their ideal of creating a pious society built around the Quran.

"From the standpoint of practices, like regular prayers, fasting and the hajj, Sunnis see the Alevis' religious level as being lower," Kutlu said.

Adherents of Alevism, which is mostly confined to Turkey, complain of discrimination in business and education, barriers to getting government jobs and forced assimilation through mandatory courses on Sunni Islam -- the overwhelming majority faith in Turkey and one that accounts for about 85 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims.

Alevis are denied funding from the powerful religious affairs directorate, or Diyanet, which uses state funds for nearly 80,000 mosques. The "cem houses," where Alevi ceremonies are held, are seen as illegitimate and un-Islamic.

"A Muslim prays in a mosque," the Diyanet president, Ali Bardakoglu, said in an interview aired earlier this month.

Bardakoglu claimed Turkey's problems with religious minorities were being hyped as groups tried to exploit the EU spotlight for their own political or material gain.

"To say there's no religious freedom in Turkey by exaggerating some isolated problems that need to be solved with debate is unfair," he said.

But earlier this year, he said the state did not have funds for "supporting mystical worship."

Estimates of the number of Alevis vary, but by any measure they are significant. Alevis themselves claim to represent nearly a third of Turkey's Muslims -- or more than 20 million people. The U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for Turkey estimates Alevis number at least 15 million people, or about 20 percent of the population.

6. - Los Angeles Times - "Plan would add Kurds to civil war mix":

Many fear deploying northern troops to the capital would expand the conflict between Shiite and Sunni Arabs.

BAGHDAD / 14 January 2007 / by Louise Roug

Already a dangerous battleground for an array of forces, Baghdad soon could be flooded with another volatile element: thousands of Kurds from northern Iraq.

As part of President Bush's new strategy for Iraq, 8,000 to 10,000 Iraqi troops will deploy to Baghdad in the coming weeks, American and Iraqi officials said, and as many as 3,600 could be Kurds. It would be the first time such a large number of Kurdish forces have been sent to the capital.

The impending deployment has raised fears among Kurds, most of whom live in a protected autonomous enclave, that they are being dragged more directly into Iraq's bloody and complex civil war.

Most of the fighting in Iraq is between Shiite and Sunni Arabs, but Kurds, most of whom are Sunni Muslims, fear that could change if they are seen as players in the country's main struggle.

"I don't think it's wise," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker in Baghdad. "This is a Sunni-Shiite conflict."

Most Kurdish troops are not acquainted with Baghdad, many speak neither Arabic nor English, and their participation could create an even deeper conflict between Kurds and Arabs, he said.

Large numbers of Kurds mix with Arabs in the Kirkuk and Mosul areas of northern Iraq, and a small number live in the capital, but Arab politicians also question the wisdom of bringing Kurdish soldiers into the conflict.

"I advise the Kurdish people to apply pressure on their leaders to prevent this step," said Mohammed Daini, a lawmaker with a major Sunni bloc. Kurdish forces, he said, "will face firm resistance from both the Sunnis and the Shiites."

Sheik Abdul Razzaq Naddawi, an aide to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, agreed that Kurdish troops would not be welcome.

"The Kurds, frankly speaking, consider themselves superior to other Iraqis," he said. "Would they allow troops from the middle or the south to arrive in Kurdistan?" he asked. "Their borders are closed, and they are practically independent."

The idea of using Kurdish troops to quell violence in both Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods of Baghdad originated in backroom talks among the country's main power brokers. With a chance to live their dream of autonomy, Kurdish lawmakers were extremely reluctant to take part in the plan. But Iraqi officials as well as U.S. military and political officials argued that if they failed to participate, it would show their lack of commitment to the nation.

Word of the planned deployment took Kurds by surprise. In their small but prospering northern enclave, they shook their heads over the prospect of getting involved in a conflict that has bedeviled the most powerful army on Earth.

"If America and the Arabs aren't able to stop Sunnis and Shiites from killing each other indiscriminately, then what use will it be to send in our forces?" asked one Kurd in an online forum.

"We do not need to have our young men getting killed in a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites," read another posting. "They are both our enemies."

Allegiances and neutrality

The Iraqi government has planned for a 50% troop increase in Baghdad, adding the equivalent of an entire division. U.S. and Iraqi officials say two or three predominantly Kurdish brigades will participate.

A U.S. advisor to the Iraqi Defense Ministry acknowledged that language was a concern, but said the problem would be mitigated by the mix of Arab, Kurdish and American troops in Baghdad.

Politicians in favor of the deployment say Kurdish troops are more impartial than security forces currently in the capital.

Khaliq Zenghana, a Kurdish lawmaker, suggested that Kurdish forces could help protect ministries and government institutions, now mostly run as fiefdoms by sectarian militias.

"The Kurds are neutral in that we do not concern ourselves with the Sunnis or Shiites," he said. "That must be understood by the Arabs here in Baghdad: We do not want to come to protect a neighborhood over another one."

However, many Kurdish soldiers are loyal first to leaders of their own ethnic group, even if they wear the uniform of the national army.

The late Saddam Hussein's regime oppressed the Kurds, killing thousands in a military campaign and sowing division between Kurds and Arabs. After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the U.S. enforced a no-fly zone over semiautonomous Kurdistan.

Although most Kurds are Sunni, they have been natural allies of the Shiites, with both groups fighting Hussein's Sunni Arab-dominated army.

After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the historic mistrust between Kurds and Arabs deepened as political groups fought over resources and government posts. Sunni Arabs complained of heavy-handed tactics by Kurdish soldiers who took part in offensives against insurgents in Tall Afar and Fallouja. Also, Kurds and Arabs are locked in a dispute over the future of the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk.

In Kirkuk, as well as Mosul, Kurdish soldiers wear Kurdish insignia on their Iraqi army uniforms and openly proclaim their desire to annex these ethnically mixed cities to their Kurdish region farther north.

Calling on the militia

Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki have promised that Iraqi security forces will go after Sunni and Shiite gunmen alike. Until now, however, the Shiite-dominated security forces have focused mostly on capturing Sunnis.

The allegiance of Shiite soldiers and policemen often lies with sectarian rather than national leaders. Renegade Shiite security forces have tortured and killed Sunni civilians. Sunni rebels, for their part, have hunkered down in certain neighborhoods, also menacing civilians and fighting off the security forces.

Kurdish officials said that the Americans also have asked for the participation of the Kurdish militia, known as peshmerga, but the request was still being debated in the regional parliament.

Concern about the possible participation of the peshmerga already has been expressed within Sadr's Al Mahdi militia.

"They are doing a good job inside Kurdistan, so they should stay there," said one militiaman who identified himself only as Abu Karrar.

Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Askari said the army brigades coming to Baghdad would answer to Iraqi army commanders rather than militia leaders.

Far from the civil war raging in Baghdad, residents in the quiet Kurdish city of Irbil were not enthusiastic about the deployment.

"It's an Iraqi issue and Iraq contains all of us, although I think this will cause problems for Kurds and if there was any possible way not to participate, I would prefer that," said Rezgar Taha, 34.