·  KURDISH NAMES ON TRIAL ­ BY JUDGE WHO HAS KURDISH NAME.
The first hearing before the High Court in the small
town of Dicle, in Diyarbekir Province, of a case referred to it by the
Dicle gendarmerie on 21 December 2001, demanding that 21 Kurdish children,
of between 18 months and 15 years, be obliged to "Turkify" their first
names, gave rise to a disconcerting and ludicrous spectacle. The Presiding
Judge, who would have had to give a ruling on the question at issue,
himself had an unquestionably Kurdish first name: Sirvan Ertekin.  Sirvan
means "milkman" in Kurdish    The Turkish daily Radikal, in its 19 April
issue headlined the news "Sirvan tries Berivan" (i.e. "The milkman tries
the milkmaid").

The Public Prosecutor, Alpaslan Karabay, had demanded, despite repeated
legal precedents to the contrary, (ruling on Berfin 1989/1520 and ruling on
Rojda 1992/1351) that the following first names be disallowed and altered:
Berivan, Zilan Rojda, Baver, Velat, Serhat, Kendal, Zilan, Hebun, Baran,
Rojhat, Agit, Zelal, Zozan. Defence Lawyer Firat Anli, asked the Court, in
view of the legal precedent of previous rulings, that the Court dismisses
the case as inadmissible. The hearing was postponed pending a decision by
the Academy of the Turkish Language, to which the Court had applied for a
ruling as to whether these first names "conformed to the national culture,
morals and customs" of Turkey.
 

·  CONTROVERSIAL TURKISH AMBASSADOR TO PARIS
REPLACED.  The Turkish official Gazette of 14 April published the new
Turkish diplomatic appointments. Thus the Turkish Ambassador to Paris,
Sonmez Koksal, who is none other than the former head of the Turkish secret
service (MIT) during the period marked by the waves of "unsolved murders"
and "extra-judicial executions" in Turkey, has been recalled to Ankara. He
will be replaced by Uluç Ozulker, Turkey's permanent representative to the
OECD.

A dozen other appointments were announced by the official Gazette,
including Turkekul Kurttekin as Turkish permanent representative to the
United Nations in Geneva, Ahmet Uzumcu as representative to NATO.
 

· 13 KURDS KILLED BY STARVING WOLVES IN VAN. According to
the  Kurdish daily Brayati of 17 April, 13 bodies left in the open country have been
found at Noblen, in Van Province ­ all Iraqi Kurds trying to emigrate.
According to the Turkish  authorities, 418 Iraqi Kurds who were trying to
cross the Irano-Turkish border on 15 April were attacked by starving wolves
who killed 13 people.
 

· CHINESE  PM  ANKARA VISIT OVERSHADOWED BY UIGOUR
  QUESTION.   Zhu Rongji, the first Chinese Prime Minister to make an
official visit to Ankara for 16 years, was widely questioned about the
Province of Xinjiang, mainly inhabited by Turkic speaking Moslems, like the
Uigours, and which Turkey describes as "Eastern Turkistan". Husnu Yusuf
Gokalp, Minister of Agriculture and Tunca Toskay, Under-Secretary of State,
both members of the National Action Party (MHP ­ neo-fascist) even arrived
very late for the ceremonial signing of four bi-lateral Sino-Turkish
agreements as a sign of protest against Chinese policy regarding the
Uigours. In the course of a Press Conference on 16 April, the Chinese Prime
Minister asked Turkey not to support groups carrying on separatist
activities in Xinjiang ­ about a hundred yards from an anti-Chinese
demonstration by a handful of Turkish Uigours.

Ankara, that prefers to ignore the 15 plus million Kurds and refuses to
allow the word "Kurdistan" to be pronounced, feels no shame is trying to
give lessons in minority rights and the right of peoples to self
determination, even unilaterally calling the province  inhabited by Uigours
"Eastern Turkistan".
 

· FOUR  PKK  ACTIVISTS  SENTENCED  TO DEATH.  On 18 April, a
State Security Court (DGM) sentenced four members of the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) to death. The judge sentenced the four, one of whom was a
woman, on the grounds of a clause that provides for capital punishment for
"those who try forcibly to remove from the State's administration any
portion of the territory under national sovereignty".

According to the Turkish Press Agency, the four people sentenced were
accused of being involved in violent actions, including three attacks with
explosives in Istanbul, which had caused four deaths.

Capital punishment has not been abolished in Turkey, but there have been no
judicial executions since 1984.  On the other hand, there have been over
4,000 "extra-judicial executions" of Kurds in opposition since 1992.
 

· LUXEMBURG:  COUNCIL OF ASSOCIATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND E.U.
On 16 April, the Council of Association between Turkey and the European Union
(EU), meeting in Luxembourg, encouraged Turkey to develop freedom of
expression. Gunter Verheugen, European Commissioner responsible for its
enlargement, declared that negotiations for membership could begin if
Turkey conformed to the Copenhagen criteria. Mr. Verheugen also stressed
the concern of the E.U. regarding Turkey's Human Rights record, adding that
Ankara ought to go further in the area of ethnic minority rights. The E.U.
also asks for the abolition of the death sentence and limitations on the
Turkish Army's political influence.

Turkey, represented by its Foreign Minister, Ismail Cem, is trying to
secure a date for the start of negotiations : it hopes for a signal from
the Seville summit next June and an approximate or specific date at the
Copenhagen summit in December.
 

· PKK CHANGES ITS NAME AND BECOMES KADEK. Following its 8th Congress,
the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) announced a change of name and strategy:
 the movement, henceforth called KADEK (Congress for Freedom and Democracy
in Kurdistan) abandons violence in favour of peaceful struggle for more
rights for the Kurdish minority. "Armed struggle is ended" declared Riza
Erdogan, European spokesman for the new KADEK. "We have no intention of
changing the borders of the countries in which live the Kurdish people" he
added, explaining that KADEK does not intend to struggle for separation
from Turkey, but for improving the rights of the Kurdish people in that
country as well as in Iraq, Iran and Syria. KADEK will not be a political
party as such, but will help parties and organisations supporting a
"democratic solution to the Kurdish question". The Kurdish rebel chief,
Abdullah Ocalan, jailed on the Turkish island-prison of Imrali, was named
President of KADEK, the spokesman specified. According to him, "KADEK is
the sole legitimate heir of the PKK". It does not want to "dethrone" those
states but "to seek to make them undergo a democratic change" in the
framework of a vast "Democratic Union of the Middle East". "The 20th
Century system" based on "nationalism, divisions and partitions" is "out of
date" and is "the prime source of present day conflicts" in KADEK's view.

The abandoning of armed struggle is confirmed and KADEK recommends
"peaceful political uprisings". The PKK armed activists will continue to
form a "self-defence" force, belonging to KADEK and renamed "people's
defence units" ­ they will only act in the event of attacks on the Kurds
the KADEK  spokesman stressed. These activists "will join the civilian
movement at the right time", specifically when the Turkish State will have
abolished the death sentence and recognised Kurdish cultural rights, he
stressed.

Their transformation into a political force under a new name is unlikely,
however, to change the situation or soften the position of the Turkish
State regarding them. The powerful Turkish Army had already rejected their
unilateral cease-fire after Abdullah Ocalan's arrest, describing it as a
"man uvre". The Turkish authorities immediately reacted by stating that
these decisions changed nothing. The Turkish Foreign Minister, Ismail Cem,
at a  Press Conference at the end of a meeting of the Turkish-E.U.
Association Council in Luxembourg, judged that the PKK's change of name
"does not alter its nature". "I do not think that a change of name alters
the PKK's nature. For the moment, in my opinion, there is no change at all
in the situation at all" he declared. "A change of name is not important
What counts is that the pay for what they have done in the past", stressed
Defence Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu. "Whether the PKK changes its name
or its form, it still remains a terrorist organisation for us" said
Industry Minister Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu.

According to Professor Dogu Ergil of the Ankara University Faculty of
Political Science, "the PKK is entering now into a new field. It will be a
test for Turkish democracy". "The Turkish government is very much afraid
lest it become a political force. Its mentality is built round the struggle
against terrorism. They do not know how to deal with a political
organisation. So they try to block this attempt" he considered.

In the view of Nihat Ali Ozcan, expert on terrorism at the Centre for
Eurasian Strategic Studies "the PKK realised as from the 1990s that it
could not reach its aims by force and began searching for a new field, a
trend accelerated by Ocalan's capture. And, since 11 September, continuing
to pursue political ends by terrorism and violence has become very
dangerous". "They needed to move onto a fresh field where they could be
recognised by the international system and where they could be stronger
than the State and that is the political area" he continued. But, he
considered that "Turkey will never accept them as interlocutors (for the
settlement of the Kurdish question)". Mr. Ozcan specified that "no one will
make any concessions just because the PKK has taken these decisions. Turkey
will, no doubt authorise publications and radio/TV broadcasts in Kurdish,
but not because of the PKK but because of the evolution through which it is
going, linked to its application for membership of the European Union".

Furthermore the spokesman of the People's Democratic Party (HADEP), that is
struggling for Kurdish cultural rights, Murat Civiroglu, judged these
decisions "positive" and hoped that the Turkish State would "take concrete
measures and act for democratisation and for Kurdish rights".
However, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, heading a liberal
government that will be presiding over the E.U. as from 1 July, stated, in
Copenhagen on 17 April that the PKK's change of name "in no way changed its
nature", maintaining his wish to have the ex-PKK placed on the E.U.'s list
of terrorist organisations. "In my view, it is not the name bur the content
that counts" he stressed. Mr. Rasmussen recently showed that he wanted the
E.U.'s list to be aligned on that of the USA, provoking a controversy in
the Centre/Left opposition in Parliament, critical of this will to align
Copenhagen on Washington. The head of the Government reminded everyone,
moreover, that he was on a special E.U. Committee to decide which
organisations and individuals should be on these lists.
 

· US AIR RAID ON IRAQ FROM  AIR BASE IN TURKEY. On 19
April, American and British planes patrolling the air exclusion zone over
Iraqi Kurdistan bombed Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries in response to shots
from AA batteries, according to American officials. The bombs were dropped
after Iraqi shots were fired at an air patrol East of Mossul, the American
Command in Europe specified. American planes take off from the American
base at Incirlik, in Turkey.

These are the first air raids in Northern Iraq since February and the third
since the beginning of the year, the American officials stated, as many
were asking themselves if Iraq was going to be the USA's next target in the
context of that the Bush Administration describes as a struggle against
terrorism.

Washington let it be understood that a military campaign could be launched
against Saddam Hussein if the latter persisted in refusing to allow the UNO
disarmament inspectors to return. They have been kept out of Iraq since
1998. Discussions between Iraq and UNO on the return of the inspectors
should have begun mid-April, but Iraq asked for postponement of the meeting
arguing that they would be dominated by the Israelo-Palestinians conflict
if they took place at  that date.

The Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in its 20 April number reported that
American representatives and the chiefs of the two Kurdish organisations
that control Northern Iraq had met "secretly" this week near Berlin to
prepare strikes against Iraq "before the end of the year".  According to
this paper, Jalal Talabani, chief of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
and Massoud Barzani, chief of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) took
part in this three day meeting which ended near Berlin with the
participation of officials of the American Army, the State Department, and
the Intelligence Services (CIA). The meeting has not been confirmed by the
two leaders in question.
 

· TURKISH GENERAL RECOMMENDS HANGING EXTRAVAGANT MPs
 Retired General Osman Ozbek, who had declared a week ago, in
the course of a meeting of the Association for Kemalist Thought at
Zonguldak that "Members of Parliament who have spent 70 billion Turkish
lire for medical treatment should be hanged in the gardens of the National
Assembly" has been openly criticised by some M.P.s including Mehmet
Elkatmis, head of the Turkish parliament's accounts control.

"Law N° 4375 of 1998 allows all public servants to have medical treatment
abroad. This law was drawn up for one particular person. General Ozbek was
then still on duty. If, instead of insulting the Prime Minister he had
spoken about the person for whose benefit the law had been drafted, I would
have congratulated him. The law was drafted for one of his colleagues, a
General" (Editor's Note : the law in question was drafted for the benefit
of Admiral Guven Erkaya, former Commander in Chief of the Turkish Navy)
stated Mr. Elkatmis, adding that "Parliament works under the control of the
people. In Turkey there are, unfortunately organs that are controlled by no
one. In fact, it were better to control them".

The Turkish General Staff riposted the next day by declaring that the
Member of Parliament's statement aimed at the Turkish Armed Forces had been
examined closely and that "people who have such points of view will not be
able to shake our nation's confidence in the Turkish Army because they will
never have the power to do so".
 

· CEM AND PAPANDREOU ON SYMBOLIC MISSION TO NEAR EAST.
On 24 April, the Greek Foreign Minister, George Papandreou and his Turkish
opposite number Ismail Cem began a symbolic but unprecedented mission to
the Near East in the hope of proving that even centuries of hostility could
be overcome to work for peace. The two ministers "have no illusions" on
their capacity to resolve the situation but "we can give some hope by
showing that it's possible for two countries to resolve their differences
peacefully" declared Mr. Papandreou.