4 July 2007

1. "Struggle Between Turkish Security forces and Kurdish Freedom Fighters Is Escalating", along the Turkish-Iraqi border, the struggle between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants is escalating. The Turkish press has released testimonies from captured Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants who claim to have witnessed U.S. armored vehicles supplying weapons to a PKK base on Mount Qandil (The New Anatolian, July 2).

2. "US military warns Turkey off Iraq raid", the US military warned Turkey Tuesday against destabilizing northern Iraq by carrying out a threatened cross-border raid on Kurdish rebels.

3. "Top Turkish Ruler Criticizes Lack of International Cooperation Against Kurdish Freedom Fighters", Turkey's military chief criticized what he said was a lack of international cooperation in combatting a "terrorist" Kurdish guerrilla organization based in northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan).

4. "Turks widen probe of journalist's death", a Turkish court has decided to broaden the investigation into the killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist to consider allegations of official negligence in the slaying, a lawyer said Tuesday.

5. "Politics heat up in Turkey", with upcoming parliamentary elections, the largely Muslim nation is embroiled in political struggle.

6. "Kurdish forces accused of human rights abuses", security forces run by the two ruling parties in Iraq's Kurdistan region are holding up to 1,200 detainees without charge or access to lawyers and routinely use physical and psychological torture on them, Human Rights Watch reported today.

1. - Kurdistan Observer - "Struggle Between Turkish Security forces and Kurdish Freedom Fighters Is Escalating":

3 July 2007 / by Andrew McGregor

Along the Turkish-Iraqi border, the struggle between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants is escalating. The Turkish press has released testimonies from captured Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants who claim to have witnessed U.S. armored vehicles supplying weapons to a PKK base on Mount Qandil (The New Anatolian, July 2). Regardless of its ultimate veracity, this news is being widely reported in the Turkish press and is inflaming the already slowly deteriorating relations between Turkey and the United States. There has been talk for months regarding an expected Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, but preparations along the border indicate that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) are also intent on developing a permanent security zone in the Iraqi border region.

Despite the concentration of government forces in southeastern Turkey, PKK attacks have increased by 65% over previous years. Half of the attacks were enacted through the use of landmines or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) (Terrorism Focus, June 26). This year, 64 soldiers, many of whom were conscripts fulfilling national service, have been killed. The Turkish military alleges that "terrorists" and munitions have been crossing into the Kurdish areas of southeastern Turkey from the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. In response, 20,000 troops have been relocated to the 300 kilometer-long border, establishing mobile military response teams and temporary observation posts (Milliyet, June 13).

In recent years, a Turkish military force of 1,000 to 2,000 men was stationed at or near border control points inside northern Iraq (mainly in the Sulaymaniyah area) to collect intelligence and monitor insurgent movements; these were withdrawn in June, however, due to the declining security situation and confrontations with Kurdish troops (Milliyet, June 13). At the same time, border guards belonging to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) were also pulled back five kilometers from the border. Kurdish troops are now being deployed at six new Iraqi government outposts in the Zakho District, bordering Syria and Turkey (Terrorism Focus, June 19). Turkey's military concentration along the border is undoubtedly behind the efforts of Kurdish leaders in Iraq to make a regular army from the 100,000 peshmerga guerrillas of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) (Terrorism Focus, June 19).

In early June, three "interim security zones" were established in the Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari provinces of southeastern Turkey. Kurdish militants are active in all three regions, where restrictions on non-military activities will be in place until September 9. A ban on air traffic in the area was partially directed at the United States, which had been sending F-16 aircraft, helicopters and surveillance drones into the zone of operations. The F-16s are alleged to have violated Turkish airspace (Hurriyet, June 8). There is speculation that Turkey intends to create a permanent "buffer zone" 15 kilometers deep and 120 kilometers long, with reports that the Turkish government is prepared to offer compensation to the thousands of Kurdish civilians who would be forced to abandon their homes under the scheme (Milliyet, June 14). Shells continue to fall in and near Kurdish Iraqi border towns in an apparent effort to drive out their population before creating an uninhabited buffer zone. Turkish shelling near the Iraqi towns of Dohuk and Erbil was protested by the Baghdad government and elicited a warning from Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who declared that the Kurds were part of the Iraqi people and promised that "we will not be silent in the face of this threat" (Daily Star [Beirut], June 13).

The TSK also intends to increase the number of thermal cameras capable of detecting the nighttime movement of insurgents across the border. Numerous tanks positioned on the border already carry infra-red devices. Until recently, Turkey was the recipient of U.S. satellite surveillance of the Iraqi border region, but it is presently taking steps to increase its own surveillance capabilities. The TSK has one unmanned surveillance drone active in the border region and is renting another from Israel until it can take delivery of 10 Israeli-made drones next year (Cihan News Agency, June 27). On June 22, Turkish Chief of Staff General Yasar Buyukanit briefed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the PKK's acquisition of anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles (al-Sabah, June 22). Two days later, Kurdish militants reported attacking a Turkish Sikorsky helicopter (ROJ TV, June 24).

In anticipation of a Turkish attack, PKK militants are pulling back as far as 15 kilometers from the border. Cemil Bayik, one of the PKK's two top commanders in northern Iraq, threatens that a Turkish incursion will soon become a "political and military disaster," adding that Turkish operations would allow Iran to "interfere in Iraq." Bayik has his own views on the Turkish chief of staff's motivations in calling for cross-border operations. He stated, "General Buyukanit wants everyone to be a happy Turk. And those who don't agree he brands as a traitor. He wants first to smash the Kurdish regional government in Iraq. He wants second to ruin any chances of a referendum being held on Kirkuk, and the PKK issue is really only third on his list of priorities." Bayik insists that the PKK are freedom fighters rather than terrorists and that the movement has abandoned separatism and the aim of establishing a Marxist-Leninist Kurdish state in favor of demands for linguistic, cultural and individual freedoms within a Turkish state (ROJ TV, June 24).

2. - AFP - "US military warns Turkey off Iraq raid":

WASHINGTON / 3 July 2007

The US military warned Turkey Tuesday against destabilizing northern Iraq by carrying out a threatened cross-border raid on Kurdish rebels.

The US armed forces have a "great relationship with the military of Turkey," said Brigadier General Perry Wiggins, deputy director for operations of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

But he cautioned: "As the secretary of defense (Robert Gates) has said, any disruption up in northern Iraq would not be helpful at this time."

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Friday his country had drawn up plans for an eventual incursion into neighboring northern Iraq to pursue rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) taking refuge there.

Gul warned that Turkey would activate its plans if the Iraqi authorities or the United States failed to curb the PKK, which is listed as a terror organization by both Ankara and Washington.

"Unfortunately, the level of cooperation by the United States is below our expectations," he said in remarks published by the Radikal daily.

Army chief Yasar Buyukanit has long been calling for a strike against PKK rebels based in Kurdish-run northern Iraq where, Turkey says, the PKK enjoys free movement and obtains arms and explosives for attacks on its soil.

But US officials, fearful of havoc in the only part of Iraq that has enjoyed relative calm, are anxious to forestall any Turkish intervention.

"We hope there is no unilateral military action taken on the other side of the Iraqi border," Gates said on June 3.

On June 18, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Ankara that the United States and Iraq were against any "terrorist" actions conducted from Iraqi territory against Turkey.

3. - AP - "Top Turkish Ruler Criticizes Lack of International Cooperation Against Kurdish Freedom Fighters":

ANKARA / 3 July 2007

Turkey's military chief criticized what he said was a lack of international cooperation in combatting a "terrorist" Kurdish guerrilla organization based in northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan).

Gen. Yasar Buyukanit made his remarks during a security conference in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, a week after he asked the government to set political guidelines for an incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish guerrillas targeting Turkey.

Last week, Buyukanit criticized the United States and Iraq for inaction against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has escalated attacks on Turkey from neighboring Iraq.

"While we maintain our struggle against this terrorist organization and expect international cooperation in this struggle, we are having difficulty in understanding some positions and attitudes that we face," Buyukanit said Tuesday in Antalya. "These attitudes do not only disappoint us but hurt the basic understanding that combating terrorism requires better cooperation."

The government is likely to consider military action only as a last resort. Asking parliament to approve an incursion would strain ties with Washington and Iraq, which oppose any unilateral Turkish action.

On Tuesday, Deniz Baykal, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party, said he would back any bill authorizing a military cross-border operation into northern Iraq, if the government were to decide to summon parliament from its recess to vote on the issue.

Opposition parties have criticized the government — which faces elections later this month — for not authorizing an incursion, which they say demonstrates that it has been too soft on terrorism.

Kurdish guerrillas have escalated attacks on the military this year, killing at least 67 soldiers so far. More than 110 rebels were killed in the same period.

Ankara has been battling separatist Kurdish rebels since 1984 in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.

During the 1990s, Turkish troops penetrated Iraqi territory several times, sometimes with as many as 50,000 troops. The Turkish forces withdrew, leaving behind about 2,000 soldiers to monitor rebel activities.

4. - AP - "Turks widen probe of journalist's death":

ISTANBUL / 3 July 2007

A Turkish court has decided to broaden the investigation into the killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist to consider allegations of official negligence in the slaying, a lawyer said Tuesday.

After a 12-hour hearing on Monday, the court released four of the 18 suspects implicated in the killing of Hrant Dink, who was gunned down on Jan. 19, until the resumption of the trial on Oct. 1.

The killing led to international condemnation and debate within Turkey about free speech. Dink was hated by hardline nationalists for describing the mass killings of Armenians early in the last century as genocide.

The trial is taking place behind closed doors because the alleged gunman, Ogun Samast, is a minor.

Lawyer Bahri Belen, representing Dink's family, told reporters that the court agreed to broaden the investigation.

Two of the key suspects, Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, claimed they worked for the security forces. The alleged gunman had remained silent during the trial.

Tuncel, who is suspected of masterminding the killing, reportedly told the court that he was paid by police for gathering intelligence, according to a lawyer who attended Monday's hearing.

The court decided to ask police to provide a list of Tuncel's telephone calls.

Critics have accused authorities of failing to act on reports of a plot to kill Dink, and it is unclear whether allegations that could potentially be embarrassing for top officials will be explored in the trial.

Hayal's lawyer Fuat Turgut said that his client and the gunman were "manipulated by certain forces because of their patriotic feelings."

Turkey had vowed a thorough investigation, and the governor and police chief of the Black Sea city of Trabzon, the hometown of Samast, were removed from office because of negligence. Some security officials who posed for photographs with the gunman as he held a Turkish flag were also dismissed.

There has been no evidence that directly implicates any police or government official in the slaying of Dink outside his office, however.

Many Turks are convinced that a so-called "deep state" — a network of state agents or ex-officials, possibly with links to organized crime — periodically targets reformists and other perceived enemies in the name of nationalism.

Dink sought to encourage reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. But he was prosecuted under Article 301 of Turkey's penal code, which bans insults to Turkish identity, for his comments on the mass killings of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century.

5. - FORTUNE Magazine - "Politics heat up in Turkey":

With upcoming parliamentary elections, the largely Muslim nation is embroiled in political struggle.

3 July 2007 / by Telis Demos

With parliamentary elections scheduled for July 22, Turkey has been embroiled in political crisis. Talk of constitutional amendments and a military coup is in the air, and the country's secular nationalists, who want to keep Turkey from adopting a more Islamist course, have taken to the streets.

The secularists, who have backing from the military, fear that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will choose Foreign Minister Abdullah Gill, whose wife wears a headscarf, as President.

The AKP, under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has angered many Turks by raising taxes on alcohol, adding more religion to state schools and trying to criminalize adultery.

But the party has also delivered on the economic front - GDP growth last year was 5.2 percent - and is seen as pro-Western and pro-reform. Erdogan has privatized industries ranging from tobacco to energy and has been a darling of the IMF and the World Bank, as well as of the rising business elite. He also has been willing to compromise on territorial disputes with Greece over Cyprus, hoping to gain the trust of the European Union and secure Turkey's admission to it.

The nationalist secular parties fear that further privatization, especially of the oil-refining industry, will put Turkey on an irreversible Western course.

More demonstrations are planned in the coming weeks in the hope of persuading voters to narrow the ruling party's majority and force it to choose a compromise candidate. But the AKP is betting that a majority of Turks will be thinking of their pocketbooks, not the Koran, come election time.

6. - The Guardian - "Kurdish forces accused of human rights abuses":

IRBIL / 3 July 2007 / by Michael Howard

Security forces run by the two ruling parties in Iraq's Kurdistan region are holding up to 1,200 detainees without charge or access to lawyers and routinely use physical and psychological torture on them, Human Rights Watch reported today.

"We are surprised that the Kurdish security forces are practicing such violations after they were victims of torture during the Saddam era," Sarah Leah Witson, Middle East Director for the organisation, told a news conference in the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil.

She was speaking at the launch of a new report detailing abuses at Kurdish security facilities. The report, entitled Caught in the Whirlwind, is based on interviews conducted from April to October last year with more than 150 detainees, particularly those arrested on suspicion of terrorism-related offences.

It documents what it says are violations of both international human rights law and Iraq's criminal codes.

The report urged the Kurdish authorities to take immediate action to stop the practices - which included beatings with metal rods and hosepipes and confinement in cramped facilities - and either charge or release the detainees, some of whom have been locked up for five years. It recommended an independent panel be set up within the next 10 days to review the prisoner's files. It also said that those found guilty of torture should be punished, and appealed to Kurdish leaders to speak out against the use of torture during interrogations.

Many had not been informed of the reason for their arrest and have not been granted access to their families. In addition, some detainees had been captured during joint US-Iraqi operations outside the Kurdish controlled region and were then "dumped" in overcrowded facilities inside the autonomous area.

Iraq's Kurdish region has been in charge of its own security since self-rule began 1991. Following the fall of Saddam it has been the country's most stable and peaceful area, but it has been struggling to build democratic institutions free of the influence of the control of the main political parties: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Massoud Barzani, who is also the president of the Kurdistan region, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani. Each party maintains its own security forces, known as that operate outside the control of the regional government's ministry of interior.

"We appreciate the efforts by the Kurdistan government to combat terrorism and secure Kurdistan, but we see that such violations against prisoners are not a good thing," said Ms Witson.

She nevertheless praised the Kurdish authorities for granting her organisation's researchers access to prisoners - "unlike the US refusal to grant us access to Guantánamo Bay" - and welcomed Kurdish promises to reform the justice system in the region.

Fuad Hussein, a senior aide to President Barzani, described the report as "constructive" and said the Kurdish authorities would implement some of its recommendations in the next few weeks. "We are seriously busy with overhauling our prison system," he said.