· EUROCOURT REJECTS  TURKEY'S APPEAL IN CASE OF DEP MPs.
On 6 November the Upper Chamber of the European Human Rights Court declared
irreceivable the Appeal by Turkey against the European Court's decision of
11 June 2002  finding Ankara guilty in the case of the 13 Kurdish Members
of Parliament of the Party for Democracy (DEP). The European Human Rights
Court had found Turkey guilty of having "violated the right to free
parliamentary  elections by stripping the 13 M.P.s  of  their seats" and
set their compensation at 50,000  euros for each of the 13 M.P.s. Turkey
also has to pay 19,500 euros legal costs.
 

· ELECTIONS:  ROUT OF COALITION PARTIES, OPPOSITION VICTORY.
The coalition that has governed Turkey since 1999 was massively rejected at the 4
November General Elections. The three parties making up the coalition,
which ntogether had scored 53.2% of the votes in 1999 this time only scored
a total of 14.6%. The steepest drop was that recorded by Prime Minister
Bülent Ecevit's so-called "Democratic Left" Party (DSP) which dropped in
three years from 22.1% to 1.1%. The outgoing Premier this ends a long
political career, marked by an intolerant Turkish ultra-nationalism and a
visceral hostility to minority, especiallt Kurdish, rights, in a
humiliating rout. His extrteme Right coalition partner, the National Action
Party (MHP ­ neo-fascist), despite its chauvinist demagogic overbidding,
lost half its electorate and all its seats eith 8.3% of the poll. Mesut
Yilmaz's Motherland Party (ANAP), despite his pro-European committments and
its more open attitude to certain Kurdish cultural demands, was equally
punished for its participation  in a Government which had led to to the
impoverishment of the great majority of the population and the enrichment
of a tiny minority of wheeler-dealers who, with the government's
connivance, has plungered the country's riches. With a score of 5%, as
against 13% in 1999, the ANAP was also eliminated from the new Parliament.

The unquestioned winner of the 3 November poll is the Justice and
Development Party, formed by the former mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, that won 34.3% of the votes. The Turkish electoral system,
specially designed for excluding the parties that the Army considered
undesirable (Kurdish, Moslem and Left wing) and amplifying the
representation of the Turkish Nationalist parties, back-fired and this time
enabled the AKP, an offshoot of the Islamic movement, to have a comfortable
majority of seats in Parliament (363 out of 500). This party, which claims
to be conservative and pro-European, is thus called upon to run the
country. It has also amnaged, in passing, to marginalise its more
traditionalist Islamic rival, the Happiness Party (SP)founded byu faithful
followers of former Islamist Prime Minister, Necmettin Erbakan, which  just
scraped togewther 2.2% of the votes. In total, the two parties derived from
the old Refah party (banned, as usual) won a total of 36.8% and, in the
three years since the last election have doubled the votes of the Islamic
trend. This additional AK vote seems mainly to have been won from
traditionally ANAP and Tansu Çiller's DYP (True Path Party) voters. The
latter, although it was in opposition for the last three years, also failed
to pass the 10%  threshold and is thus also absent from Parliament. Its
electorate seems to still hold bad memories of the Çiller government's misrule.

Finally the New Turkey Party, recently created by the former Foreign
Minister Ismail Cem, with 1.4% of the vote seems doomed to disappear from
the political scene. The young GP party, organised by the media magnate Cem
Uzan ­ acting the part of a Turkish Berlusconi, holding free concerts and
banquets to attract an electorate ­ was only able to break the 10% barrier,
despite massive support from his TV channels. However his 7.5% score could
encourage him to persevere and prepare for future opportunities.

In Kurdistan, the main election battle was between AKP and the pro-Kurdish
DEHAP party. The latter arrived first in the Provinces of Agri, Bitlis,
Diyarbekir, Hakkari, Mardin, Mus, Kara, Siirt, Dersim, Van, Batman, Sirnak
and Igdir. As against that, the AKP led in Adiyman, Bingöl, Elazig,
Erzincan, Erzurum, Antep, Maras, Kilis and Malatya.

DEHAP's score, taking the country as a whole, was 1,953,627  votes, i.e.
6.2% of the votes cast ­ it thus failed to break the 10% barrier and will
have no M.P.s.  Whereas AKP won 73 seats in the Kurdish provinces and the
CHP, despite its poor score, will have 24 seats.

As a result of a particularly unfair electoral system, nearly half of the
voters (45%) will not be represented in the Ankara Parliament. A more
equitable system, say one setting the threshold at 5%, would have produced
a Parliament with the following composition : AKP 266 seats, CHP 117 seats,
DEHAP  51 seats, DYP 43 seats, MHP 33 seats, GP 28 seats, ANAP  8 seats and
Independents 4 seats.

Pending the formation of a new government, the Bülent Ecevit cabinet has
the task of dealing with  matters in hand.
 

· ABDULLAH  GUL  NOMINATED  PRIME MINISTER.
On 16 November, Abdullah Gul, Vice-President of the Justice and Development Party (AK) was
nominated Prime Minister in place of the head of the party, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, who was unable to claim this position because of his parliamentary
ineligibility. Mr. Gul, who immediately promised reforms to reflaot the
economy and promote democratic standards, was nominated by President Ahmet
Necdet Sezer, but selected by the Charismatic Erdogan, who remains head of
the AK party. Indeed, Mr. Erdogan virtually stole the limelight from Mr.
Gul by calling a press conference on his party's political objectives, an
hour before the latter's nomination, as his arrival at the Presidency was
almost eclipsed on the televison channels. "We will introduce measures to
fight the use of torture, and human rights and freedoms will be raised to
international standards in the process of  joining the European Union" Mr.
Erdogan said in particular, before leaving the country for a short visit to
the Turkish Cypriot community of Northern Cyprus. "All obstacles to
education will be lifted" he also stated, raising the problem of the
Islamic head-scarf, wearing of which is forbidden in the Universities and
public administration because of its association with political Islam. Mr.
Gul, 52 years of age, who is an economist with a pro-Western discourse,
stated he was prepared to accept the challenges with which the country is
faced, particularly those of the state of the economy, prime cause of the
defeat of Bülent Ecevit's coalition government.

This 58th Turkish government was formed on 18 November. With three deputy
Prime Ministers, the government has 24 members, including one woman.
 

·  ARMED FORCES CHIEF OF STAFF VISITS WASHINGTON.
The Chief of the Turkish General Staff, Hilmi Ozkok, visited the United States on 4
November, at the invitation of the American authorities, so as to meet the
Secretary of State, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State for
Defence, his assistant, Paul Wolfowitz, and Mrs. Condolezza Rice, head of
national security. The real boss of Turkey, General Ozkok, negociated with
Washington on the conditions for Turkish collaboration in theevent of
American military action against Iraq, without bothering wait for the
formation of the newly elected government
 

· VALERY GISCARD D'ESTAING:  TURKEY'S EU ENTRY " END OF THE EU".
Valery Giscard d'Estaing, President of the Euopean Convention charged with the preparation
of a Constitution for the enlarged Europem has set the cat amongst the pigeons with a
vengence during an interview published to the French daily Le Monde on 8
November at a time when the 105 members of the convention were finishing
their plenary session devoted, in particular, to a social Europe. "Turkey
is a country close to Europe, an important country, which has a real elite,
but it is not a European country" he declared in an interview with four
journalists, including one from Le Monde. "Its capital is not in Europe,
95% of its population lives outside Europe".  Its membership would
represent "the end of the European Union" since it would then become
impossible to say "No" to a number of other countries, like Morocco, that
are nursing the idea of joining.

The reactions to his statements were not long in coming, even if the
subject was not discussed in the Convention. The representatives of the
Turkish Parliament did not hide their anger at being treated by "their"
president as second class members who had no say in the matter. "He is like
the Moslem fundamentalists" declared Ali Terkin, an M.P. of the Motherland
Party (ANAP) who represents his country at the Convention but will soon
loose his seat following the victory of the moderate Moslem party. "He is a
Christan fundamentalist. He thinks the Union is a Christian club". The
Vice-President of the Convention, Jean-Luc Dehaene (Belgium) implicitly
citicised this contribution which, he said, was certainly "made in his
personal capacity" though Valery Giscard d'Estaing did not specify this.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing does, indeed, take a stand opposed to the official
position of the E.U. which declared in 1999, at the Helsinki Summit, that
Turkey "is a candidate country that is due to join the European Union on
the basis of the same criteria as those applying to other candidates".
 

· SEKAN KARABULUT:  58th VICTIM OF PRISON HUNGER STRIKE
An extreme Left detainee has died in Turkey from the consequences
of his hunger strike, bringing to 58 the number of people who have died in
this protest movement against detention in high security sections. Serkan
Karabulut, 32, died on 8 November in an Ankara hospital. He was serving a
36 year prison sentence for membership of the People's Liberation
Revolutionary Party (DHKP-C). S. Karabulut has been fasting for 400 days,
only taking vitamins and sugared water.

The extreme Left prisoners and their families launched their movement in
October 2000 to protest at their transfer to isolation cells, where they
would be entirely at the tender mercies of their wardens. The prison
authorities consider that detention in large blocks where hundreds
prisoners live together is uncontrolable and, in fact, serves as
ideological training camps.