·  PKK AND DHKP-C ADDED TO  EUROPEAN UNION'S LIST OF TERRORIST
ORGANISATIONS.  On 2 May, in response to some of Washington's concerns, the
European Union added 11 more groups to its list of terrorist organisations.
Amongst these were the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish
movement the Revolutionary People's Liberation Front-Party (DHKP-C) whose
members are on hunger strike for better detention conditions in Turkey
During a confidential meeting between diplomats of the Fifteen on 29 April,
they agreed on the organisations to be added to the list, which has been
sent to all European capitals for their final agreement. A key NATO ally
and candidate for membership of the European Union, Turkey has thus been
rewarded for its faithful adherence to all the US options, from the Gulf
War to the Afghan war. The Spanish Foreign Minister, Josep Piqué, said that
other groups might be added to the list in coming weeks.

The PKK has changed its name to KADEK (Kurdish Party for Freedom and
Democracy) and abandoned armed struggle but the European Union has accepted
the line of Turkish Foreign Minister, Ismail Cem, that the nature of the
organisation has in no way changed. For Osman Ocalan, Abdullah's brother
and leading member of the PKK, the decision by the Fifteen, that had not
wanted to take this step last December, will lead to fresh clashes in
Europe and will be indirectly to blame for them. "The inclusion of the PKK
on its terrorist list will be seen as a declaration of war and we are
preparing ourselves and we are preparing form the strongest resistance in
this matter based on legitimate self-defence" he declared to the Kurdish
Television channel Medya-TV. "Let me stress that the countries of the
European Union will be responsible for this war. The Kurdish people must
know that Europe is responsible for this war", he added. Brussels stressed
that the E.U. had, indeed, named the PKK and that KADEK was not on the
black list because "it has only been in existence for a few days".

The terrorist list drawn up on 27 December 2001, after the 11 September
attacks on the World Trade Centre, was updated to align it with that of the
United States, in preparation for a US/EU Summit next Thursday in
Washington. The summit will bring together President Bush, the European
Commission President, Romano Prodi, and Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar
who is currently filling the rotating Presidency of the E.U. It promises to
be one of the tensest of recent years, despite close cooperation in the
struggle against terrorism since 11 September.

The Turkish press greeted the placing of the PKK and DHKP-C on the E.U.'s
terrorist list, calling on the Turkish government to accelerate the reforms
required for E.U. membership ­ in particular the abolition of the death
penalty, "The assassins are on the list" of the European Union, headlined
the mass circulation daily Hurriyet. "The EU has finally corrected its
mistake. The PKK and DHKP-C are on its list of terrorist organisations"
headlined for its part the popular daily Sabah that points out, in its
editorial, that "Turkey must accelerate its reforms to open negotiations
for membership. Capital punishment blocks Turkey's way". The editorial of
the liberal daily Radikal, for its part, recalls that Turkey is the only
member country of the Council of Europe that has retained the death penalty
amongst its laws. "It is now up to Turkey to act. Capital Punishment and
education in a language other than Turkish (Kurdish) must now be put on the
agenda" of the government and Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, it wrote

The terrorist list now carries 27 names, mostly of individuals, nearly all
active in the Basque armed organisation ETA or of its political arm
Batasuna, but also of organisations, of which ETA, the armed wing of the
Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad, some Greek armed groups, The Irish
Republican Army (IRA ­ not on the US list ) and a number of Northern Irish
Protestant armed groups.
 

·  TURKISH PRESIDENT VETOES SECOND LAW TO AMNESTY AUTHOR OF
ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF POPE ­ BUT EXCLUDE POLITICAL PRISONERS.
On 27 April, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer vetoed an amnesty law
which would benefit Mehmet Ali Agça, extreme right activist who had
attempted to kill Pope John-Paul II in Rome in 1981.

Ali Agça , who had spent nearly 20m years in jail in Italy for his action,
is at present detained in Turkey, under a 17-year sentence for murdering a
journalist and a burglary in 1979, for which he has been sentenced to 17
imprisonment. He has already served two years of this term and could be
freed in five years time, if amnestied, according to his lawyer, Can Sevket Ozbay.

The amnesty law was approved by parliament on 25 February  but the
President criticises it, in particular for granting drastic reductions of
sentence without taking into account the prisoners behaviour while in
custody and because it was passed by a simple majority and not a 60%
majority as should be the case for exceptional amnesties.

Under this law the majority for those serving sentences ­ except political
prisoners or those sentenced for their opinions ­ could be freed ten years early.

Parliament must, therefore, review its position. If it passes the same Bill
again, without alteration, the President is obliged to sign it ­ but could
ask the Constitutional Court to annul it.
 

· MAY DAY BANNED IN KURDISH TOWNS, BUT NO INCIDENTS REPORTED IN
ANKARA AND ISTANBUL. The 1st May demonstrations in Turkey were banned in
several Kurdish provinces, where thirty arrests are reported, but took
place before a massive police turnout in Ankara and Istanbul, where some
15,000  police were deployed. There were no incidents reported, and
thousands of demonstrators assembled in the squares designated in advance
by the authorities. The slogans centred on the serious economic crisis
facing the country, but also the Israelo-Palestine conflict, the Kurdish
question and gay rights.

In Diyarbekir, the politico-cultural capital of Turkish Kurdistan, the
police rapidly smothered attempts to assemble and ten people were arrested,
according to police sources.

In Tunceli (Dersim) another kurdish city, there were clashes between police
and 1,500 demonstrators. About twenty people were arrested, including the
local leader of the pro-Kurdish HADEP party, Alican Unlu, after having
attempted to make a public statement.
 
Diyarbekir and Tunceli are amongst the many provinces whose population is
mainly Kurdish, where demonstrations are banned in the context of the state
of emergency decreed in1987.
 

· TWO KURDISH REFUGEES FROM  SANGATTE REFUGEE CENTRE VICTIMS OF
"PUNITIVE EXPEDITION" BY  AREA YOUTHS. Three young men, aged
between 24 and 25, from the Boulogne area, who had fired on and wounded two
Kurdish refugees from the Sangatte Red Cross Refugee Centre, near Calais,
were detained on 1st May for questioning on charges of attempted murder.
Armed with .22 LR carbines, they had organised, on the evening of 29 April,
a "punitive and xenophobic expedition against refugees with whom they said
they had quarrelled a fortnight earlier" explained Gérald Lesigne, the
Public Prosecutor of Boulogne. The three young men then targeted refugees,
wounding two Iraqi Kurds with their bullets. The first was hit in the foot
while in the centre of Calais town, the second was seriously injured in the
back while walking near Sangatte town hall. The aggressors had already
organised a first punitive expedition that had been interrupted by the
police a week earlier.

This is the first time that such serious incidents have occurred between
refugees from the Sangatte Red Cross Centre and inhabitants of the Calais
coastal area. Last summer a guard had fired on and wounded a refugee during
an assault by a dozen illegal immigrants trying to enter the railways site
at Frethun (Chanel Tunnel), near Calais. The guard, who was not authorised
to carry weapons, explained that he had panicked.

The Sangatte Centre, opened in September 1999, at present houses 1,400
people, mainly Iraqi Kurds and Afghans, who are trying to enter Great
Britain illegally, via the Chanel Tunnel. On 15 April, a refugee (a young
Iraqi Kurd) died in a riot inside the centre.
 
 

·  TURKISH CONTINGENT IN COMMAND IN AFGHANISTAN. The Turkish contingent
will have to run the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) for
the next six months. Washington "will strongly support Turkey's directing
role in the ISAF and will work closely with the Turkish government, the
Interim Afghan authority and others to ensure the success of the force
under Turkish command" declared the State Department's spokesman, Richard Boucher.

Turkey has already sent 267 soldiers to Afghanistan and has announced that
it could send more to join the ISAF, which totals 4,500 men. The only
Moslem member of NATO, it takes over from Great Britain at the head of this
force. Turkey has said it was ready to take command, provided it secured
clarification on its composition, on the scope of its mandate a financial
backing from the Allies. Discussions between Turkish, American and British
military and civilian officials regarding Turkey's direction of the ISAF
took place in March in the Turkish capital.
 

· ORHAN BIÇAKÇIGLU, ONCE SENTENCED TO 24 YEARS IMPRISONMENT, IS TODAY AN
ULTRA-NATIONALIST MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT. According to revelations in the
Turkish daily Hurriyet of 3 May, Orhan Biçakçioglu, today Member of
Parliament for Trabzon with the National Action Party (MHP ­ neo-fascist)
had been sentenced to 24 years imprisonment for "attempted murder with
premeditation" by a Turkish Assize Court in 1979.  Sentenced for having
fired, on 18 May 1977, with a gun for which he had no licence, on someone
hiding under a minibus Orhan Biçakçiglu had then, in the course of his
detention, benefited from various laws that reduced his sentence and
regained his civic rights in 1996.

Leyla Zana and her colleagues, imprisoned since 1994, unfortunately do not
enjoy the same rights as a common criminal who, today, is sitting in the
Turkish Parliament