25 May 2007

1. "Turkey plans for attack on Kurds", the war drums are getting louder in Turkey, and they can be heard next door in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, and across the globe in Washington as well.

2. "Six Turkish soldiers killed in landmine blast", six Turkish soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded in southeastern Turkey Thursday in a landmine explosion blamed on Kurdish rebels, security sources said.

3. "PKK: We have absolutely no relation with the explosion in Ankara", the Chairmanship of the General Council of Koma Komalen Kurdistan (KKK) has declared that they have no relation with the explosion occurred yesterday in Ankara.

4. "Shadows and doubts surround Ankara’s suicide bombing", accusations against the PKK followed a little too quickly and the rebel group vehemently denies involvement. The attack comes after a spate of violence which seems bent on derailing the reform process which the country is struggling to implement.

5. "The politics of Turkey", some say that Turkey is like an ocean liner steaming east with a well-meaning minority running aft on the deck so that they can continue moving westward toward the European Union.

6. "Kurdish singer on trial in Turkey for song praising Kurdish leader", a prosecutor on Tuesday demanded that a Kurdish singer be sentenced to five years in prison for performing a song that praises imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, the government-run Anatolia news agency reported.

1. - CNN - "Turkey plans for attack on Kurds":

ANKARA / 24 May 2007

The war drums are getting louder in Turkey, and they can be heard next door in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, and across the globe in Washington as well.

Many Turkish officials and citizens -- enraged by Tuesday's deadly bombing -- want the Turkish military to hit back at the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, the hard-line Kurdish group thought by many in the government and on the street to have staged the blast and other militant actions.

At least six people died and more than 100 were injured in the rush hour bombing at an Ankara shopping district.

Senior Turkish officers have said that operations against the PKK would require troops to cross into the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, which many PKK militants -- also long situated in southeastern Turkey -- have chosen as their base.

The PKK denies involvement in the Ankara attack, and a U.S. State Department spokesman cautions that the investigation into the attack is "ongoing."

However, the outrage in Turkey toward the PKK has been boiling over.

On Thursday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that if the military were to request a retaliation, the parliament, which is dominated by Erdogan's AK party, would support it.

Turkey's army chief, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, said recently his troops are ready to attack what he calls Kurdish rebel camps in northern Iraq. And retired Turkish Gen. Edip Baser told CNN he believes an operation could be just weeks away.

As late as two weeks ago, there were an estimated 150,000 Turkish soldiers on or near the Turkish-Iraq border, and the PKK has stepped up cross-border attacks into the Kurdish region of Turkey now that snows have melted in the border mountains.

Seven Turkish soldiers were killed in the volatile southeast this week.

Six Turkish soldiers died and 10 were wounded Thursday when a roadside bomb detonated near the town of Siirt, the Turkish military said. Another soldier died Wednesday in an accident near Van during a search operation.

July election

The tough talk in Ankara comes two months before a general election, in which Erdogan's party, a movement with Islamist roots, faces a challenge from secularist parties. The vast majority of Turks are Muslims, but there has been a strict separation of mosque and state since the Turkish republic came into being in 1923.

Supporters of Turkey's secular heritage have been demonstrating for weeks against the plan by Erdogan's governing party to vote one of its own members to the Turkish presidency.

Some analysts think that in the run-up to the election, Erdogan's AK party will use a war against Kurdish separatists to rally public opinion and downplay its differences with the military.

Mustafa Aydin -- professor of international relations at Ankara University and the National Security Academy -- said the government would "try to use this to rally Turkish people around the government, around the people. They will most likely try to use nationalistic themes and terms during the propaganda."
U.S. support

Nationalist feelings in Turkey are running high. Many Turks are disappointed with the lack of U.S. support for this long-time ally on the issue of operations against the PKK -- and resent U.S. support for Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq.

The United States is not deaf to the problem, but is caught between the competing interests of vital regional allies.

Two months ago, the special U.S. envoy working with Turkey on the threat of the PKK testified before a House committee. Retired Gen. Joseph Ralston said that Turkey is a "sovereign state with a responsibility to defend its people. Ultimately, the Turkish government will have to take the steps it thinks are necessary to protect its citizens."

He pointed to efforts to close a refugee camp in northern Iraq that has become a refuge for fighters and to get a "cessation of hostilities."

"Diplomatic progress on this issue has come grudgingly and with great effort, but there has been progress," Ralston testified in March. He could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey cautioned that the Turkish authorities have not come to any final conclusions about who is responsible for the blast and that their probe into the blast continues.

At the same time, he said, "we believe, as does the Iraqi government, that the PKK represents a real threat, and it's a threat that needs to be dealt with."

Ralston's appointment as special envoy shows the importance of the issue, he said.

Casey said the "best way to deal" with the PKK is through "continued cooperation" between Turkey and Iraq, with the help of the United States.

"And we certainly don't think unilateral military action from Turkey or anyplace else would solve anything," he said.

Iraq backs Turkey

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the Iraqi government has expressed a willingness to work with Turkey on the issue of PKK.

Baser, a former special Turkish envoy on the PKK, has called the issue a "testing ground of Turkish-American relations."

The PKK has backing, with many Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey supporting a dream of an independent state. One PKK sympathizer, Faik Kaplan, told CNN that inviting the PKK to lay down its arms would be a better way to go than Turkish troops crossing the border.

But Turkey says it won't talk to PKK militants, and that stand resonates on the streets. Mustafa Ersoy, an Ankara shopkeeper, said: "The special message the flag carries is that the Turkish people are one body. And there is no power that can split the Turkish people into pieces."

The PKK has been fighting for what it calls Kurdish rights since the early 1980s. More than 30,000 people have lost their lives in the violence. The last incursions made by Turkey into Iraq came in the early 1990s.

* CNN's Paula Hancocks, Phil Black, Talia Kayali, Joe Sterling and Elise Labott contributed to this report.

2. - AFP - "Six Turkish soldiers killed in landmine blast":

DIYARBAKIR / 24 May 2007

Six Turkish soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded in southeastern Turkey Thursday in a landmine explosion blamed on Kurdish rebels, security sources said.

The explosion occurred about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border with Iraq, during a security sweep against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Sirnak province, the sources said.

The initial toll of five dead and nine wounded rose after two more injured soldiers were brought to hospital and one of them later died, they said.

More than 37,000 people have died since the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.

Ankara says thousands of PKK rebels have found refuge in the north of neighbouring Iraq, where they obtain weapons and explosives for crossborder attacks into Turkey.

The army said last month it had launched large-scale operations in the southeast against the PKK at the start of spring, when the thaw makes it easier for rebels to infiltrate across the frontier.

3. - Kurdish Aspect - "PKK: We have absolutely no relation with the explosion in Ankara":

BEHDINAN / 24 May 2007 / by Giovanni

The Chairmanship of the General Council of Koma Komalen Kurdistan (KKK) has declared that they have no relation with the explosion occurred yesterday in Ankara.

Turkish press acts provocatively

KKK has stated: ‘After the explosion in Ankara, Turkish media tried to show as it was made by the PKK, even if there was neither evidence nor information about it'. KKK has even stated that the attack was brought against all nationalities, in order to cause provocations and reactions among Turks and Kurds: 'These statements, made by Turkish authorities and by Turkish press, are all big lies and provocations'.

Military Chief of Staff Buyukanit wants to send troops on the other side of the border

In the KKK statement is even told like this: ‘Turkish authorities, as it is already known, even before, intended to put pressure on the US and the Government of Iraqi Kurdistan, so that they fight the PKK guerrillas. Chief of Staff Buyukanit has said that it's possible another attack in metropolitan cities; by this way, he means to make people afraid, and bring them to a situation in which they are forced to do what military authorities want. Anyway, the Chief of Staff must explain to the whole people what he knows. There is another important aspect: the Turkish Coordinator for Actions concerning PKK, Edip Baser, was fired from his role just the day before. It's so clear, then, that Turkish press and high military officers are trying to render us as the main suspect, even if they don't have any precise information. The aim behind their statement consists in preparing the way to a situation in which, by a war, they can attack and massacre our moverment and our people'

4. - AsiaNews - "Shadows and doubts surround Ankara’s suicide bombing":

Accusations against the PKK followed a little too quickly and the rebel group vehemently denies involvement. The attack comes after a spate of violence which seems bent on derailing the reform process which the country is struggling to implement.

ANKRARA / 24 May 2007

Gunes Akkus, a twenty eight year old from Sivas, with a criminal record for involvement in clashes with police in Istanbul dating to May 1996. A militant member of the illegal Turkish communist revolutionary party (TIKB). His family believed him resident in Holland these last nine years since his relapse from prison. This is the suicide bomber who blew himself up on Tuesday evening in the grand bazaar in the commercial heart of Ankara’s historic centre.

A short distance away from this five story building the defence industries annual International Expo is underway. On the very evening of the explosion, numerous top ranking foreign military officials were to have taken part in an inaugurating cocktail party.

A violent explosion, shattered windows, six dead and hundreds injured, followed by the immediate intervention of the Chief of Staff Yasar Buyukanit who, with one glance at the devastation announces that it was a professional job, provoked by a sophisticated devise with high explosive potential. A few hours later the bomb squad announce the discovery of traces of A-4 plastic explosive, commonly used by PKK rebels, giving rise to the first instances of suspicion that the Kurdish Workers Party were also behind this latest violence.

Yesterday, however, this party vehemently denied all involvement in the suicide attack which targeted ordinary citizens: a young man who was at the bazaar to buy his weeding suit, a nineteen year old who was taking a last wander around the centre before leaving for military service, a shop assistant who supported her family on her wage, the owner of a watch shop…..

“We have no involvement in the Ankara attack”, stated the separatist group in a declaration published by the Firat (“Eufrate”) news agency.

Is there reason to doubt this?

Thus the question pends regarding the identity of the true authors of this vicious and cruel attack, which could have been truly ferocious had the target been, as many believe, the International Weapons Fair and had Gunes detonated his devise before he panicked at the sight off a policeman coming towards him.

Who provided the explosive, what motivated this young man to such an act, remains a mystery. What is certain is that the Kurds remain as always the scapegoat. And today the daily Gunes published right across its front page the title: “PKK, this is what you are” describing the daily existence of the explosions’ victims.

Unfortunately in this country violent methods are becoming more commonly used by all groups: the secular groups, the Islamic groups, the PKK, the “grey wolves” and the “Hezbollah”. A worrying symptom: despite efforts towards concrete democratic reform, violent methods have not stopped, they even seem to have taken on new forms to target and indeed impede this very process of reform (bombs against Istanbul’s synagogue in 2003, the murder of Christians, murder in court, murder of journalists and threats to free thinkers).

In Turkey a social transformation is underway to modify the traditional relationships between army, state and society. The institutional authority is in crises and there are sectors of society which are really losing their status and fear losing their power in a more competitive, emancipated, freer society, thus these sectors of society are trying to legitimatize their resistance to change by condemning the loss of the secular states and by grabbing on to conservative and authoritarian positions.

In recent weeks we have witnessed the military’s threats to intervene in the face of Turkey’s political crises. Already in the past the danger of communism was used to legitimize armed intervention in Turkish society, there has long been opposition to the Kurdish separatist threat, despite the fact that the Kurds have repeatedly sought a platform for dialogue towards a peaceful solution to the complex “question”.

The question as to who the next victims would be has long abounded: and now we have the bitter answer, the nation’s secular sphere, the ordinary and defenceless.

An unsettling interrogative is now being raised: if as reported by Sabah newspaper, that threats of violence against tourist resorts, shopping centres and buses first reached the ears of authorities over two and a half months ago; if it is true that over the last two months police have sequestered over 200 kilogram’s of explosives in a series of raids on PKK; seeing that the bazaar is at such a close proximity to the international armaments fair, thus a risk area, why then was this attack not foreseen by security forces, as was the case in Adana were they claim to have stopped a 31 year old women carrying 11 kilos of explosives in her bag?

All attention is now focused on the Kurdish rebels, but is it not perhaps more opportune to turn our thoughts to the State within the State? To that labyrinth of connections between the security establishment, nationalists and the world of organized crime dedicated to destabilizing the nation in order to divide the government, military and people and thus smash the delicate equilibrium brought about under great strain by the process for democratic reform? To those who attempt to smash this with violence which can reach a foreign Catholic priest or the historic bastion of kemalist secularism, the daily “Cumhurriyet” (Repubblic) with equal ease; which can kill a high court judge for having confirmed a ban on the veil, explode a bomb among Kurdish pacifists or in the beating heart of the capital, or kill an Armenian journalist or protestant missionary? It is not by chance that these are events which raise tension levels and insinuate doubts regarding the governments ability to maintain the secular nature of the state, which seem to once again legitimize the (re) militarization of Turkish politics, in order to guarantee public security, without any attempts to try other more democratic avenues or broader horizons.

5. - International Herald Tribune - "The politics of Turkey":

ISTANBUL / 24 May 2007 / by H. D. S. Greenway

Some say that Turkey is like an ocean liner steaming east with a well-meaning minority running aft on the deck so that they can continue moving westward toward the European Union.

The Islamic-based government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan , and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), have been striving to push through democratic reforms that would make Muslim Turkey more attractive to the EU. But each year Europe seems to make it just a little more difficult for Turks to run westward. Meanwhile, the number of Turks who see joining Europe as worthwhile continues to shrink.

The present constitutional crisis over electing a president, in what the Turkish Daily News called the "white-knuckle" politics of Turkey, will give heart to Turkey's foes in Europe. Erdogan may have over played his hand in pushing his foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, for the presidency. But the growls of the Turkish Army reserving the right to again intervene in the name of secularism, triggered by Gul's candidacy, creates doubts about Turkey's stability. Millions massing in the streets against Islamization are a sign of secularist strength. Yet nothing would end Turkey's EU accession faster than an army coup.

The so-called secular elite - thoroughly Westernized Turks for whom secularism is a religion - views the Erdogan government with deep suspicion because of its Islamic roots. Yet the AKP has been more open-minded and pro-Europe than many of its secular opponents. But for secularists, especially women who stand to lose most by creeping Islamization, electing Erdogan's man, Gul, to the presidency would put too much power in the hands of a religiously based party.

Turkey's modernization began as a response to military defeat. The long decline of the Ottoman Empire, and the constant defeats at the hands of Christendom, led the military to modernize, and then insist that the state follow suit. As in Christian Europe, anti-clericalism rose with modernization.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the World War I military hero, made the great leap toward secularism, creating a modern republic out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. He changed the written script to Roman letters, and banned traditional eastern dress, in order to lift what he saw as the dead hand of Islam and tradition from the politics of Turkey.

The Europeanized, secular class has resisted anything that smacked of religion in politics ever since. For them, the ruling political party might be allowed to have Islamic roots, but the presidency is "the house of Atatürk," and any attempt by the AKP to control it is seen as upsetting the checks and balances of the Kemalist state.

It would be a mistake, however, to describe the secularists as uniformly democratic.

Some are anti-Europe, and would be happy to see the army step in and sweep Islam out of Parliament. In Turkish tradition, religion serves the state not the other way around. But, according to the historian Ilber Ortayli, a tradition of civil society is still lacking.

One of the secularist raps against the thoroughly modern and moderate Gul is that his wife wears a head scarf. Secular Turks are almost fanatically against head scarves, and see them as the camel's nose under the tent that promises the whole Islamic beast may soon follow. Head scarves have become politicized on both sides.

Yet this is not just a tussle between religious and secular parties. It has to do, also, with country versus city folk, tradition versus modernity, poor against rich. Much of the AKP's strength lies in the crowded slums that surround Turkey's cities as countrymen move to town. To complicate the matter, there is a rising class of traditionalist businessmen who have made money in the new Turkey, but are not of the secularist elite.

The AKP seems "more familiar" with the plight of traditionalist Turks who are religious and often poor, says Bilgi University's Ilter Turan, "more quick to recognize the needs of these people."

And so it seems to be throughout the region. Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: Religious parties often seem to "get it" while secularists are slow to understand, and slower to respond to people's needs. In the East, democracy may favor Islam if votes are free.

Europe should consider itself lucky to have such a moderate, nonviolent, and pro-Western party - Islamic, but not Islamist - in charge here. If the AKP is denied power undemocratically, the ship of state will pick up alarming speed steaming eastward, and the EU will close its ports.

* H. D. S. Greenway's column appears regularly in The Boston Globe.

6. - AP - "Kurdish singer on trial in Turkey for song praising Kurdish leader":

ANKARA / 24 May 2007

A prosecutor on Tuesday demanded that a Kurdish singer be sentenced to five years in prison for performing a song that praises imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, the government-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Zulfu Kizildemir, also known as Xemgin Birhat, was detained in March after performing his Kurdish-language song "Mezin Apo," or "The Great Apo," at a spring festival traditionally used by Kurds to assert separatist demands. Apo is short for Abdullah.

In the opening trial on Tuesday, the prosecutor asked that Kizildemir be sentenced to five years in prison on charges of engaging in propaganda in favor of Ocalan's banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Kizildemir rejected the charges and said because he had lived in Germany for the past 30 years, he was not aware of Turkey's anti-terrorism laws, Anatolia reported.

The trial was adjourned until a later date, the agency said. Court officials were not immediately available to confirm the report or give additional information.

Ocalan is in isolation on a prison island in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul. He led the insurgent Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, until Turkish agents captured him in 1999 in Kenya, where he was seeking refuge.

He remains a symbol of Kurdish separatism and several Kurdish politicians are being prosecuted for allegedly praising him in recent speeches.

The politicians say they are victims of a campaign against them ahead of general elections in July when their Democratic Society Party seeks to circumvent the 10 percent election barrier by fielding independent candidates who would then regroup as a party after winning seats.

The conflict between autonomy-seeking Kurdish guerrillas and the government has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people since the guerrillas took up arms in 1984.

Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in Turkey and are denied rights granted to other minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and education in the Kurdish language, but critics say the measures do not go far enough.