19 January 2007

1. "Ocalan calls for independent panel to 'disclose truth' of 22-year war", jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has asked for an independent commission to look into the bloody 22-year conflict with Turkey to pave the way for reconciliation, the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported Wednesday.

2. "Kurdish rebel leader issues 'peace plea'", Parliament deputies yesterday received a letter from the inmate leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) urging a "permanent peace" to leave the Kurdish problem behind.

3. "EU court clears way for PKK terror-list challenge", the European Union's top court ruled on Thursday that the brother of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan had the right to fight the inclusion of the group on the EU's terrorist list.

4. "US seeks to soothe Turkish anger over rebel haven in Iraq", a senior US official promised "serious efforts" to curb Turkish Kurd rebels based in northern Iraq, an issue that has long poisoned US ties with Turkey.

5. "US rejects Turkish calls on Kirkuk", in line with Kurds' demand, State Dept. urges Iraqi gov't to implement plan for referendum on oil-rich city's future.

6. "Turkey's parliament rejects censure motion against foreign minister", Turkey's parliament on Thursday rejected an opposition motion to censure the foreign minister over accusations of mismanaging the country's foreign policy.

1. - AFP - "Ocalan calls for independent panel to 'disclose truth' of 22-year war":

ANKARA / 17 January 2007

Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has asked for an independent commission to look into the bloody 22-year conflict with Turkey to pave the way for reconciliation, the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported Wednesday. "Let us mutually forgive each other. Let us not just forgive each other, but also bring to light, confess our mistakes and disclose the truth," the agency quoted Ocalan as saying in a letter he sent to members of Parliament and civic organizations last week.

"That is the only way for reconciliation," said Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who is serving a life prison term.

He proposed a "Truth and Justice Commission"comprising intellectuals, jurists and academics that would advance a unilateral cease-fire declared by his rebels and open the way for the PKK to lay down arms.

"If we come to the point of laying down arms, we can do so only through this commission," Ocalan said.

He did not elaborate on the commission, but said it should "ensure and promise justice." Lawyers for Ocalan said there had so far been no response to his letter.

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 out an independent Kurdish homeland.

The PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire on October 1, which Turkey rejected.

2. - The New Anatolian - "Kurdish rebel leader issues 'peace plea'":

ANKARA / 18 January 2007

Parliament deputies yesterday received a letter from the inmate leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) urging a "permanent peace" to leave the Kurdish problem behind.

The letter from Abdullah Ocalan, which came through his lawyers' agency, came days after a high-profile conference where several intellectuals and civil group representatives discussed possible solutions to the Kurdish problem and put an emphasis on consistent use of democratic means to this end.

The letter, nearly the full content of which was made available by the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency, asked for further rights for the Kurdish people and proposed the establishment of a commission to investigate history.

In the letter, Ocalan also argued that he has made efforts in the past to put an end to the clashes, adding all had backfired due to misperceptions of the state, which saw the calls for peace as tactical maneuvers. Underlining that there is no chance to resolve the problem through military means, the inmate PKK leader said that peace will bring Turkey the opportunity to become a principal actor in Middle East politics.

3. - Reuters - "EU court clears way for PKK terror-list challenge":

LUXEMBOURG / 18 January 2007 / by Michele Sinner

The European Union's top court ruled on Thursday that the brother of jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan had the right to fight the inclusion of the group on the EU's terrorist list.

This was the second legal success in weeks for a group challenging the EU terrorist list. A lower court recently annulled an EU decision freezing the funds of an exiled Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahideen.

The European Court of Justice ruled a lower court was wrong in 2005 to dismiss a lawsuit by Osman Ocalan seeking to have the PKK removed from the list requiring EU states to freeze an organisation's assets.

It ordered the Court of First Instance, the EU's second most senior court, to re-examine the case.

"The Court of First Instance wrongly deduced from examination of Mr Ocalan's statements that the PKK no longer existed and could thus no longer be represented by him," the higher court ruling said.

"The Court of Justice concluded that Mr Ocalan is acting validly on behalf of the PKK and can also instruct lawyers to represent it."

The PKK case is politically sensitive because Turkish nationalists accuse Brussels of promoting Kurdish separatism by insisting on cultural rights such as broadcasting and schooling in the Kurdish language as conditions for EU membership.

The Turkish government blames the PKK for more than 30,000 deaths since the group launched an armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. Attacks have increased since the PKK called off a unilateral ceasefire in 2004.

The United States, like the European Union, blacklists the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

After the ruling in the Iranian case last month, the EU Council's Secretariat, representing member states, said it would consider appealing on points of law to the higher European Court of Justice.

It played down the implications, saying the court had not annulled the regulation establishing the terrorism list, or other persons or entities named on it.

The Dutch office of the Al Aqsa Foundation, a group with alleged ties to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, is also challenging inclusion on the terrorist list.

It argues, like The People's Mujahideen, that EU member states erred in not giving the reasons for their decision, depriving the group of a chance to defend itself.

4. - AFP - "US seeks to soothe Turkish anger over rebel haven in Iraq":

WASHINGTON / 18 January 2007

A senior US official promised "serious efforts" to curb Turkish Kurd rebels based in northern Iraq, an issue that has long poisoned US ties with Turkey.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said after talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Washington would continue to support Ankara's struggle against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Referring to a search conducted Wednesday by Iraqi and US forces at the Mahmour refugee camp in northern Iraq, which Ankara says is under PKK control, Burns said he hoped it was "the beginning of a serious effort to close the camp and make sure that northern Iraq is not used by the PKK to attack in Turkey."

Ankara says Kurdish-run northern Iraq has become a training ground for the PKK, where the rebels enjoy unrestricted movement and are easily able to obtain weapons and explosives.

Earlier this month, Erdogan accused Washington and Baghdad of failing to keep promises to curb the rebels and asked whether the appointment of a US envoy to coordinate joint efforts against the PKK in August was "a tactic" to distract Turkey.

Ankara has threatened a cross-border military operation to crack down on the PKK if Washington and Iraqi forces fail to take measures.

Burns sounded less supporting on another Turkish concern regarding Iraq -- the future of the ethnically mixed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which the Iraqi Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region in northern Iraq.

"We understand the importance of this issue, we understand how sensitive it is," he said.

"We'll be very pleased to listen to the Turkish authorities but it's gonna be most important for the Iraqi authorities to deal with this question in the first place," he added.

Kirkuk has a significant population of Turkmen, a community of Turkish descent backed by Ankara.

Turkey accuses the Iraqi Kurds of having moved thousands of their people to Kirkuk and its environs since the US-led invasion in 2003 in a bid to change its demographic structure in their favour ahead of a referendum on the city's status, planned for 2007.

Ankara fears that Kurdish control of Kirkuk and its oil reserves will boost what it sees as Kurdish ambitions to break away from Baghdad, a scenario that is likely to fan separatism among its own Kurds in adjoining southeast Turkey.

Burns was in Ankara on the first leg of a regional tour, the latest in a string of top-level US officials sent to sell President George W. Bush's new Iraq plan to anxious allies.

He was scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and military officials Friday.

5. - Turkish Daily News - "US rejects Turkish calls on Kirkuk":

In line with Kurds' demand, State Dept. urges Iraqi gov't to implement plan for referendum on oil-rich city's future

WASHINGTON / 18 January 2007 / by Umit Enginsoy

U.S. President George W. Bush's administration on Tuesday put its weight behind Iraqi Kurds, flatly rejecting Turkey's calls for a delay in a referendum planned later this year for the fate of the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a tense mix of ethnic groups.

"There are mechanisms in the Iraqi constitution for determining the status of Kirkuk, and we certainly expect the Iraqi government to continue with those plans," State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

Casey was referring to a provision in Iraq's 2005 constitution that calls for a census in Kirkuk before the end of this year to determine the area's future.

Iraqi Kurds view Kirkuk, which sits on nearly 40 percent of the country's oil, as capital of their region. But in addition to Kurds, Kirkuk is home to Sunni Arabs, Turkmen and Christians, and all non-Kurdish groups seek a special status for the strategically important area.

Casey's remarks were the first clear on-the-record statement by the U.S. administration on Kirkuk after Bush last week announced his new Iraq strategy, under which Washington will send more than 20,000 troops in an effort to boost security mainly in Baghdad.

In a related development, the United Nations on Tuesday warned of a "looming crisis" in Kirkuk where it said ethnic Turkmen and Arabs were being intimidated by Kurdish forces, Reuters reported from Baghdad.

Bush's new Iraq strategy has once again raised tensions between Turkey and the United States, as top U.S. officials represent the possibility of a Turkish intervention into neighboring northern Iraq among potential regional catastrophes.

On the problem regarding the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) presence in northern Iraq, Casey said that Bush, in his new strategy, had outlined "his Iraq policy about the importance he personally places on seeing that Turkey and Iraq can work better together in cooperation with us to deal with any security issues presented along their common border." "That's a pretty firm commitment by the president," the spokesman said.

6. - AP - "Turkey's parliament rejects censure motion against foreign minister":

ANKARA / 18 January 2007

Turkey's parliament on Thursday rejected an opposition motion to censure the foreign minister over accusations of mismanaging the country's foreign policy.

Abdullah Gul's Justice and Development Party easily defeated the censure motion filed by the opposition center-right Motherland Party.

The party had accused the minister of "making concession to the European Union," of harming ties with the United States, failing to pursue farsighted policies over Iraq and Cyprus and of failing to counter Armenian efforts to push for the recognition as genocide of mass killings of Armenians at the time of the Ottoman Empire.

The legislators held the vote — which was defeated by a majority show of hands in the 550-member parliament — before discussing Turkey's policy over Iraq.

Opposition parties have called for troops to be sent in to northern Iraq to wipe out Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there and to prevent Iraqi Kurds from assuming control over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Turkey is concerned over the spiraling violence in neighboring Iraq, and has expressed dissatisfaction with U.S. and Iraqi efforts to contain separatist Turkish Kurdish guerrillas who Ankara says have been using bases in Iraq to fight for autonomy in Turkey's southeast.

Thursday's preliminary discussions on Iraq would be followed by wider and closed-door debates on the issue amid growing calls from the main opposition Republican People's Party to allow the military to carry out a cross-border offensive against Kurdish guerrillas.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns to discuss Iraq and Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Also on Thursday, Turkey called on Iraqi and U.S. authorities to shut down the Makhmur refugee camp in Iraq. The camp houses an estimated 9,000 Turkish Kurds who fled to Iraq in the early 1990s during fighting between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels. Turkish authorities accuse Kurdish guerrillas of indoctrinating children in the camp to become rebels.

Erdogan on Tuesday warned Iraqi Kurdish groups against trying to seize control of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, saying Turkey will not stand by amid growing tensions among ethnic Turkmens, Arabs and Kurds in Iraq's oil-rich north.

Iraqi Kurds, who claim the region as their own and hope to eventually include Kirkuk in a region of self-rule in northern Iraq, accused Turkey of interfering in Iraqi internal affairs.

Turkey fears Iraq's Kurds want Kirkuk's lucrative oil to fund a bid for independence that could encourage Kurdish guerrillas in Turkey, who have been fighting since 1984 for autonomy.

Kirkuk, an ancient city that once was part of the Ottoman Empire, has a large minority of ethnic Turks as well as Christians, Shiite and Sunni Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, thousands of Kurds pushed out of the region under Saddam Hussein's rule have returned.

Kirkuk lies just south of the autonomous Kurdish region stretching across Iraq's northeast. Kurdish leaders want to annex the city, and Iraq's constitution calls for a referendum on the issue by the end of next year.