14 March 2007

1. "Tension over Kurds rises in Turkey ahead of spring festival", Turkey is bracing for a new wave of trouble with Kurdish activists who, in years past, have seized on a spring festival as a rallying cry for their struggle.

2. "US: "We are against Turkey's cross border operation in Iraq", US Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Tom Casey has answered Turkish Land Forces General Basbug's explanations about Turkey's possible cross border operation on Northern Iraq.

3. "Turkey - Leaked reports show army and government abuse accreditation system", leaked reports published by the Turkish media on 8 and 9 March show that the army and the prime minister's office punish and reward journalists according to their "loyalty."

4. "Turkey's Roma People Struggle for Rights", "Improving the Rights of Roma People in Turkey", a project co-organized by hYd, EDROM and ERRC reveals the apalling conditions of Roma people as well as providing an insight into the pluralist Roma society and their struggle for rights.

5. "Poisoning Ocalan does not give peace a chance", now it is official: what the Kurdish people believed for a long time. Mr. Ocalan is poisoned by chemicals, chromium and strontium, by the Turkish State.

6. "Kurdish women struggle to advance", women in Iraq’s Kurdistan are using the relative calm in their region to make slow progress towards equal status with men – but there is still a long way to go, according to activists.

1. - The Associated Press - "Tension over Kurds rises in Turkey ahead of spring festival":

ISTANBUL / 13 March 2007

Turkey is bracing for a new wave of trouble with Kurdish activists who, in years past, have seized on a spring festival as a rallying cry for their struggle.

The March 21 festival of Nowruz comes amid court verdicts against Kurdish leaders, and an uptick in fighting in rugged terrain near the Iraq border.

Turkey's Kurdish minority is likely to gather in celebrations across the country, from Istanbul on the European side of the Bosporus to isolated villages in the mountains to the southeast, where Kurds constitute a majority of the population. In the past, such rallies have often degenerated into violence.

Nowruz, the Farsi-language word for "new year," is an ancient Persian festival, celebrated on the first day of spring in countries including Afghanistan and Iran. The festival is mainly marked by Kurds in Turkey.

After a relative lull, tension between Turkey and Kurds, who make up roughly 20 percent of the country's 70 million people, are again on the increase. A number of prominent Kurdish leaders were recently sentenced to jail for speaking respectfully of the imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

In the latest dispute, Turkey said Monday that tests on Ocalan's hair, urine and skin samples showed no signs of poisoning despite allegations by his lawyers.

"From now on, nobody should go after such lies," said Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, who also serves as the government spokesman. "No one should take such games seriously. Turkey is a state of law and Turkey has nothing to hide."

Ocalan's lawyers in Italy recently said an analysis of his hair showed large amounts of strontium and chromium, both of which are toxic in high doses. It was not clear how the lawyers allegedly acquired the samples, though Ocalan's lawyers frequently complain about his conditions in confinement.

Ocalan, 58, remains an influential figure for many of Turkey's disaffected Kurds, and an object of intense hatred for many Turks. He was sentenced to death after his capture in 1999, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison after Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2002. He is the sole inmate in a prison on Imrali, in the Marmara Sea off Istanbul.

Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, has waged war for autonomy in Turkey's southeast since 1984. The group has staged cross-border attacks from bases in neighboring Iraq and operates small bands of rebels inside Turkey.

Also this past weekend, a Turkish general said up to 3,800 Kurdish rebels were positioned in northern Iraq near the Turkish border and he reasserted his country's right to cross the border to hunt separatist Kurds who launch attacks from bases in Iraq.

"Turkey can always take the appropriate measures against the separatist terrorist organization in northern Iraq," Land Forces Commander Gen. Ilter Basbug said during a visit to Diyarbakir.

Basbug said, however, that the issue of possible Turkish military operations should "not feature more than it is necessary in the public agenda" — a sign that the military did not want the issue to stir tension with Iraq.

Many Turks, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have expressed frustration with the level of U.S. help in rooting out PKK rebels holed up in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The United States has warned Turkey against incursions into Iraq, fearing such a move could lead to tension with local Iraqi Kurdish groups, a key U.S. ally.

Turkey plans to host a high-level international conference on Iraq next month, suggesting that Turkey believes diplomacy is the best option for now.

2. - Sabah - "US: "We are against Turkey's cross border operation in Iraq":

US Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Tom Casey has answered Turkish Land Forces General Basbug's explanations about Turkey's possible cross border operation on Northern Iraq.

Casey said the US does not "wish" for Turkey to conduct such an operation.

In a regular meeting where Casey informed the press about the latest developments, a reporter asked Casey what the State Department thinks about Turkey's right to conduct a cross border operation on Northern Iraq.
Stating that the State believes in the integrity of lands in Iraq, Casey said the US supports Turkey in its struggle against the PKK but the United States is clearly against any type of cross border operation which may be conducted by Turkey. "The US does not "wish" this," said Casey.

3. - CNW - "Turkey - Leaked reports show army and government abuse accreditation system":

Leaked reports published by the Turkish media on 8 and 9 March show that the army and the prime minister's office punish and reward journalists according to their "loyalty."

MONTREAL / 13 March 2007

Leaked reports by the army high command and the prime minister's office that were published in the Turkish press on 8 and 9 March show that the news media are classified according to their support for government policies and that the procedures for issuing press accreditation are used to undermine critical newspapers and journalists and reward those that support the armed forces, Reporters Without Borders said today

"We condemn this use of black-lists and these attempts to neutralise journalists by depriving them of their raw material, information," the press freedom organisation said. "The armed forces like to portray themselves as the guardians of society and yet they try to gag those journalists they consider to be troublesome. Such procedures are not compatible with democratic principles. The Turkish should abandon such practices aimed at influencing the media."

Reporters Without Borders said it supported the protests voiced by the Turkish Association of Journalists (TGC), the Contemporary Association of Journalists (CGD), the Union of Journalists of Turkey (TGS) and the Press Council (Basin Konseyi) against the methods of the army high command and the prime minister's office.

Noting that these organisations said the accreditation system had always been problematic in Turkey, Reporters Without Borders added: "Like them, we hope that the outcry about these reports will help to shake up this system and change these practices."

The aim of the leaked high command's report, written in November 2006 by the army's departmental directorate for public relations and published on 8 March, was to evaluate the "loyalty" of the media towards the Turkish Armed Forces (FAT) and to ban those regarded as weakest from attending or participating in military activities such as news conference and guided tours.

The report's authors were fully aware of the harm done by a refusal to issue accreditation. The report included this comment: "Not granting accreditation to media regarded as not very credible has also contributed to these media being held in low esteem by the public."

The report analysed the editorial line of 19 daily newspapers, 18 TV stations, eight magazines and five news agencies. There is no mention of any pro-Islamist media as the army refuses to grant them any accreditation as a matter of principle.

A footnote said this about the daily Radikal: "This is a newspaper that the FAT should follow closely. It is liable at times to differentiate itself on the subject of the FAT. During the period March-July 2005, the newspaper employed the term 'death' for the FAT martyrs. This elicited criticism. The subject was raised on 21 July 2005 during a briefing for the media and the newspaper has since improved its editorial line thanks to the sensitivity of the managing editor, Ismet Barkan."

As a result, the army recommended that the newspaper's accreditation should be renewed but that the four columnist who had criticised the FAT - Nuray Mert, Yildirim Turker, Murat Belge and Hasan Celal Guzel - should not receive individual accreditation.

The army report recommended that accreditation of the UK-based Jane's Defence Weekly should be maintained but that its correspondent, Lale Sariibrahimoglu, should not be invited to FAT activities for journalists.
Her accreditation had already been cancelled by the army when she wrote for the conservative daily Bugun.

In a final example, the report noted that Erol Mutercimler, the presenter of the programme "Press Club," was a fierce critic of the army, even getting into conspiracy theory. It recommended that his TV station's accreditation should be provisionally suspended and that the station's owner, Ufuk Guldemir, and some of its journalists, should be barred from military activities for the press.

On 9 March, the day after the leaked report was first published, the army issued a press release announcing a judicial investigation, without saying whether it was an internal investigation or one targeted at the media that had published the report.

The same day, the daily Cumhuriyet published an article on the "Monthly report by the prime minister's office," consisting of a sort of classification of the media. The prime minister's press office described the article as "unreal and deliberate" and insisted that "no such report has ever been submitted to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan."

According to the newspaper, the report even included the fact that journalists Nuray Basaran, Enis Berberoglu, Oral Calislar and Gungvr Uras drank 2002 vintage Syrah Calvet French red wine during a visit to Lebanon on 5 July 2005.

The Islamist daily Yeni Safak (New Dawn) is identified in the report as an essential support for Prime Minister Erdogan and his government. The committed Islamist daily Vakit (Time) is praised for "deflecting criticism of the government over the Muslim headscarf"and the Islamist daily Zaman is praised for being "free of prejudice towards any group or person."

Other newspapers are not held in such high esteem. The republican Cumhuriyet is "rarely objective," the liberal centrist Millyet is said to have improved after Sedat Ergin became its editor and "the articles and content became more positive." The liberal right daily Sabah (Morning) is accused of becoming more negative, publishing fewer stories about the government and putting them on the inside paged when it did.

As for the liberal right newspaper Hurriyet (Freedom), the report says it "no longer puts the government's activities on its front page since its leading journalists were not allowed on the prime minister's plane during and his US visit, and the reports on the government are quite short."

The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has said Turkey will not be able to meet democratic standards as long as the army continues to exercise influence over non-military matters. The Turkish Armed Forces, which often portray themselves as a bulwark against Islamism, have seized power three
times, the last one in 1980.

Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has
representatives in Bangkok, London, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.

For further information: Emily Jacquard, Canadian office representative, Reporters Without Borders, (514) 521-4111, Cell: (514) 258-4208, Fax: (514) 521-7771, rsfcanada@rsf.org

4. - Bianet - "Turkey's Roma People Struggle for Rights":

"Improving the Rights of Roma People in Turkey", a project co-organized by hYd, EDROM and ERRC reveals the apalling conditions of Roma people as well as providing an insight into the pluralist Roma society and their struggle for rights.

ISTANBUL / 12 March 2007 / by Tolga Korkut

Roma are probably the single group mostly subjected to discrimination in the society. It's estimated that there are 2,5 million Roman people in Turkey; that's the most crowded population around the world.

The populations add up to 20 million in Europe. Not only in Turkey or in Eastern Europe, Roma people are discriminated against even in developed Western democracies.

In Turkey, it's mainly their rights to access shelter, justice, education or health services that are violated. They are forced to work on the black market, without any social security or benefits.

Urban reformation projects threaten their livelihoods and without any official residency, Roma children are left out of the educational system. In short, poverty aggravated with deprivation, Roma people suffer from a cycle of prejudices that recreate the very conditions, which deprive them of basic human rights.

A meeting to evaluate the first year of the "Improving the Rights of Roma People in Turkey" project has been held in Istanbul last weekend. European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Helsinki Citizens' Assembly (hYd) and Edirne Roma Culture Research Improvement and Solidarity Association (EDROM) co-organize the project.

The final aim of the project is to materialize the discrimination against Roma people and defend their rights against such violations.

On one hand, a field research is conducted regarding the situation of Roma people in the society and on the other hand a legal battle to make the establishment recognize the rights of the Roma is in place.

"We didn't know the ways to defend our rights. Now we gain the ability to report rights violations" said EDROM chair Erdinç Çekiç. "If one doesn't raise up to his/her own problems, all exterior efforts are doomed to rest ineffective".

Coordinator of the field research, Adrian Marsh prefers to call himself a Gipsy as it's more comprehensive a term: "It's important to dispose a sense of self pride; to say 'We can overcome discrimination'".

While the research has still a way to go, Marsh gives out some preliminary results: First of all, Roma are not a heterogeneous group; there's an aspect of multiculturalism among them.

Most Roma in Tukey define themselves above all as "Turks", then as "Muslims" and lastly as Roma/Gypsies. They're reluctant to pursue legal action against rights violations.

There are three different languages used by Gypsies in Turkey. Marsh adds that numerous dialects also exist. Again, while most Gypsies are Sunni Muslims, there exists Alevites, Sufis and Armenian Catholics and Christians.

Despite all clichés about the vocation of Gypsies, the common denominator is poverty, says Marsh. They live under adverse conditions, lack basic hygienic conditions such as access to drinking water.

Because they lack official papers in most cases access to education or health services are jeopardized. Roma women and children can be victims of arbitrary violence.

"It was considered absurd during 90's for a Roma to sue a police officer for bad treatment and than take the case to the European Court of Human Rights" says Saverina Danova.

Since around 500 hundred cases had been launched concerning rights violations both on national and international level. Around 220 of them resulted in favor.

5. - Kurdish Media - "Poisoning Ocalan does not give peace a chance":

10 March 2007 / by Hadi Elis

Now it is official: what the Kurdish people believed for a long time. Mr. Ocalan is poisoned by chemicals, chromium and strontium, by the Turkish State.

Mr. Abdullah Ocalan, who is the POW of Turco-Kurdish civil war and insistently calls for peace in Turkey and Kurdistan, is illegally abducted on February 16, 1999.

Kurdish people pursue to live in peace and democracy where their ethnic identity and rights are respected and recognized. This was the main reason for Kurdish people’s resistance to the Turkish States’ assimilation and annihilation policy. This must end, and international community has an obligation to prevent renewal of Turco-Kurdish Civil War, due to its burden is already too costly for all of the sides involved.

Mr. Ocalan is the imprisoned leader of Kurdish people at Imrali Island Prison, (also the only prisoner there) told his visiting lawyers about his concern of health related issues.

After the Test’s done on his hairs, by two independent groups, in France by Dr. Pascal Kintz and in Norway by Dr. Jan Alexander; both experts acknowledged the existence of the chromium III and VI, which are 7 times higher than normal medium volume and strontium about 100 times more in normal medium volume.

As usual Turkish State choose the path of denial, as they accustomed to do since 1923, of health problems of Mr. Ocalan. The Turkish State must allow international independent medical teams to investigate the situation.

Kurdish people are demonstrating all around the World to show their solidarity with him, and calling on UN, Western Governments’ and NGOs to act immediately on this core issue of life and death of peace and democracy in Turkey, where its’ consequences could be used by Turkish Military for the continuation of civil war between Kurdish and Turkish people.

When Kurdish people are getting ready to celebrate Newroz, Kurdish New Year, during which the patriotic Kurdish sentiment gets high, this provocation by the Turkish state shows its intention of War.

Mr. Abdullah Ocalan acts with the responsibility and sensitivity of a statesman, where he can not find a counterpart in Turkish State to receive a response his calls for peace and democracy for Kurdish and Turkish People.

6. - IRIN - "Kurdish women struggle to advance":

13 March 2007

Women in Iraq’s Kurdistan are using the relative calm in their region to make slow progress towards equal status with men – but there is still a long way to go, according to activists.

Abuse by men pushed 538 women to commit suicide last year, according to Sara Qader, a journalist with the weekly Awina newspaper.

“Some of these women are still facing violence from their husbands or families and honour killings still exist in some rural areas of Kurdistan. These forced 538 women to commit suicide in 2006 alone,” Qader said.

She added that non-governmental agencies advocating women’s rights have had no impact. ”Some of these women’s organisations are affiliated to political parties and that makes it more difficult for women to advance and have rights equal to those of men,” Qader said.

Kurdish women have 29 seats in the Kurdistan parliament and three portfolios.

“But as a tribal society, social pressures are still being applied by men on the women which keep them from getting their rights,” said Parwa Ali, a social researcher and activist.

However, there is hope – 24 years ago, poverty forced Afrah Abdullah to abandon her education to help her family. Now the 34-year-old mother-of-four is returning to school to continue her studies.

“My father died when I was 10 and as I was the eldest of my three sisters, I had to abandon school to help my mother to sew to earn our living,” Abdullah said.

“It is really embarrassing when someone doesn’t know how to read or write. I couldn’t even follow up on my children’s education,” she added.

Social restrictions, war and population displacement deprived Abdullah and many other Kurds in northern Iraq of an education as children.

Omed Kaka Rash, director of the Illiteracy Eradication Programme in the Kurdistan Regional Government, said 27 percent of people over the age of 10 are classed as illiterate in Kurdistan – 281,992 women and 446,668 men.

"A broader literacy campaign is under way in Kurdistan now and everyone who is illiterate will be able to read and write within the next three years," Rash said.

"Kurdistan's education ministry is providing textbooks, desks and other materials, and will recognise the school's leaving certificate, meaning graduates will be able to go on to higher education," she added.

The schools accept women regardless of age and put them on an accelerated learning programme where, for example, the standard primary school course of six years is cut to three.

Most of the adult education facilities are in the city of Suleimaniyah, about 350km north of Baghdad.

Now, tens of illiterate women are joining the Accelerated Learning School in Chamchamal, a poor town 60km south of Suleimaniyah.

“I feel as if I'm coming back to life again; being illiterate is something like being blind, dumb or paralysed,” said Maryam Salih, a 34-year-old mother of three.

“We were a poor family and my father couldn't afford send me to school. I will continue studying until I finish school and get a job so I can earn my own income and help my husband," she added.