· IMPRISONED KURDISH EX-MPs ASK TO BE FREED IN
ACCORDANCE  WITH NEW LEGISLATION. On 4 February, Leyla Zana,
Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak, the four former Kurdish members of
Parliament, who have been incarcerated for nearly 9 years now, in the
Ankara Central Prison, officially lodged an appeal with the Turkish
authorities in line with a new law adopted by the Turkish Parliament
authorising a fresh trial for prisoners whose sentences had been disallowed
by the European Human Rights Court.

The European Human Rights Court had ruled their trial unfair and in January
the Council of Europe had called upon Ankara to review their trial.

Mr. Yusuf Alatas, the former M.P.s' lawyer, also applied to the court to
suspend the sentences on his clients passed in 1995 and free them pending
the new trial : the decision is expected within the next few weeks.
 

· ANKARA  SEEKS  TO  DISMANTLE DEMOCRACY IN IRAQI KURDISTAN.
The Turkish Army is sending troops to its borders with Iraqi Kurdistan while declaring that
these are just "precautionary measures" that should not be perceived as a threat to Iraq.
Turkey plans to sent tens of thousands of troops into Iraqi Kurdistan in
the pretext of wishing to ensure humanitarian measures, in particular to
keep on Iraqi territory a flood of refugees going towards its borders.

Ankara made a big show of its alignment with Washington on 6 February, when
the Turkish Parliament authorised american engineers and technicians to
work on Turkish airports to bring them up to standard for possible use by
US troops. Turkey intends to allow 300 American planes to use its bases in
the event of military action against Iraq, and is itself preparing to send
some 80,000 soldiers into Iraqi Kurdistan, wrote the Turkish daily Milliyet
: "If we stay out of the equation at the start of operations, we will no
longer be able to control developments at the end" explained Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). "The Turkish
Armed Forces will not go to fight in Iraq" but their presence could be
necessary "to prevent massacres, waves of refugees and the setting up of an
independent (Kurdish) State" affirmed, for his part, the Turkish Prime
Minister, Abdullah Gul.

However, the Turkish press has been reporting for several days that the
United States are hostile to the idea that the Turkish troops be commanded
by a Turk. At the end of his "post-Saddam" discussions with Turkish leaders
and several representatives of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and
the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), including Jalal Talabani, leader of
the PUK and Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Erbil Kurdish regional
government, Zalamy Khalilzad, the American President's representative to
the Iraqi opposition, warned Turkey, on 7 February against any unilateral
military intervention, stating that "any action and conflict in Iraq must
be carried out in the context of a coalition command".  On 10 February, Mr.
Erdogan replied that Turkey would consider an "insult" any American
proposal to command Turkish troops in Iraqi Kurdistan in the event of a
military invasion of Iraq. "Such a thing would be an insult to the
(Turkish) people. We would consider any proposal in that sense as an
insult" he commented. Mr. Erdogan stressed that the Turkish Army had
acquired the experience and the forces necessary for carrying out missions
in this region and stressed Turkish military presence in Iraqi Kurdistan
over several years.

Moreover, Turkey could decide to postpone the vote authorising tens of
thousands of American soldiers to base themselves in Turkey. The Turkish
Parliament is due to meet on 18 February to vote this authorisation, but
the Turkish Foreign Minister, Yasar Yakis, stated, on 16 February that it
would be "very difficult" to keep to this timetable. "There are
difficulties about the agenda   We have explained that we could not be able
to bring this matter before Parliament at such short notice" declared Mr.
Yakis at a Press Conference with the Economic Affairs Minister, Ali
Babacan. Mr. Yakis was speaking on his return from Washington where he had
met various leading officials. Turkey and the United States had failed to
reach agreement on the extent of economic aid that the United States could
provide to cushion the impact of the Iraqi conflict on Turkey, Mr. Babacan
explained for his part.
 

Estimates of the number of American soldiers carry from day to day, but the
Turkish press gives the impression between 10,000 and 20,000  would be
authorised to enter Iraq from Turkey, whereas the bulk of the American
forces would reach Baghdad from the Gulf. According to the Turkish press,
Ankara hopes that the number of Turkish troops in Iraqi Kurdistan be
greater than the Americans and that on no account would the British ­
accused by Ankara of being pro-Kurdish ­ be allowed to be deployed in this
area.

For Turkey, the Iraqi Kurds (who enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy
since they have taken control of the area) must, above all else, be
prevented from declaring their independence or any sort of autonomy. If
Turkey had occupied Iraqi Kurdistan during the Gulf War "we would not have
lost so many human lives and the terrorist organisation (the PKK) would not
have been able to take root and develop" stated Mr. Gul. To reassure their
neighbours the leaders of the two Kurdish parties that govern the country
have proclaimed loud and clear their commitment to a united Iraqi State.
Jalal Talabani, reaffirmed this week in Ankara that when "the American Army
liberates us from the Iraqi dictatorship there will be no question of (our)
secession".

The Kurds are vehemently opposed to the idea of the Turkish Army crossing
the border alongside the American forces and gaining a lasting foothold in
this sensitive region on the pretext of a war against Saddam Hussein.
"There is no reason for a Turkish Army, or that of any other country of the
region, coming here ­ no good would come of it to us and we will not accept
it" warned Sami Abdoul Rahman, Deputy Prime Minister of the Erbil Kurdish
regional government at a Press Conference on 12 February. "The Turks have
no intention of fighting the Iraqis, they simply want to enter (Iraqi
Kurdistan) by the back door" considered Mr. Abdoul Rahman, who rejected the
humanitarian argument : "If they want to help refugees, they only have to
send NGOs or the International Red Cross, but not soldiers". Mr. Abdoul
Rahman further added "The Americans have promised that they won't let us
down again this time".
 

·  PKK CALLS FOR "ARMED RESISTANCE". The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
warned that it would take up arms against the Turkish Army and the Iraqi
Kurds if there was any attempt to expel them from Iraqi Kurdistan, where
they have sought asylum, according to a report in the daily Ozgur Politika.
 According to the paper, the PKK commander Osman Ocalan stated that if
Turkish troops entered the region, the PKK fighters would re-enter Turkey.
"If Turkey    launches a war of extermination ( ) our armed resistance will
be waged over the widest area possible" he declared. The PKK set a 15
February deadline to an ultimatum demanding that the Turkish authorities
authorise Abdullah Ocalan's lawyers to visit him (they have been prevented
from doing so for the last 11 weeks). Several dozen people were taken into
detention following demonstrations in Batman and Mardin.

Furthermore a delegation from the Council of Europe, visiting Istanbul on
17 February to enquire into the conditions of A. Ocalan's detention, was
prevented from meeting the prisoner, officially because of unfavourable
weather conditions. The delegation includes members of the Council's
Committee against Torture.

Thousands of Kurds demonstrated in Turkey on 15 February, but also in
France, and Greece, to demand the liberation of A. Ocalan. The
demonstrations in Turkey were marked by several clashes, and over a hundred
people were pulled in for questioning in this fourth anniversary of the
capture of the PKK chief.
 

· NATO  CRISIS OVER  QUESTION  OF AID TO  TURKEY.  After a week of
unprecedented crisis between the allies, NATO reached and agreement on 16
February authorising the planning of measures to protect Turkey in the
event of war in Iraq. "The solidarity of the Alliance has won" said the
General Secretary of the Alliance, George Robertson, after this agreement
extracted after intense negotiations within NATO's Defence Planning
Committee, of which France is no longer member since it left the Alliance
in 1966.

In a last defiant gesture, France, Belgium and Germany, that had previously
vetoed NATO aid to Turkey stated, in a joint declaration, that this
agreement "did not prejudice efforts under way" for a peaceful settlement
of the Iraqi crisis. In this declaration, the three countries "particularly
stress that the use of force could only be a last resort and that all
possibilities of Resolution 1441 have not yet been exploited".
 

The measures to aid Turkey concerned principally the preventive deployment
of batteries of Patriot anti-missile missiles, provided by member States,
and AWAC anti-plane radar in the hands of the Alliance. Lord Robertson,
nevertheless assured that these measures were "purely defensive". "NATO's
inability to adopt a common stand on the Turkish question has not
consequences on Turkish security" considered the Turkish Foreign Minister,
Yasar Yakis, on 14 February, adding that his country would obtain whatever
it needed to protect itself by bi-lateral agreements. "The Turkish Army is,
in any case, very strong. We have no need of them. Our forces are amongst
the strongest of the world" boasted the Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul
in the daily paper Hurriyet on 12 February.

Furthermore, on 16 February Turkey welcomed the Iraqi deputy Premier Tarek
Aziz, on his return from Rome. He had unplanned discussions of one hour at
Istanbul airport with his Turkish opposite number, Mehmet Ali Sahin, and
with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to the Turkish press.

The Iraqi question will be the subject of tough discussion at the European
Union summit called for 17 February in Brussels by the Greek presidency, so
as to reach some common position. Kofi Annan, UNO General Secretary will
also be present.
 

·  REPORT: TURKISH PM OFFERS ASYLUM  TO  SADDAM  HUSSEIN.
According to the Turkish press, Prime Minister Abdullah Gul offered guarantees for
the survival of Saddam Hussein to Taha Yasin Ramazan, Iraqi Deputy Premier,
during a lightning secret visit to Ankara on 10 February.

The Turkish daily Hurriyet, in its 12 February issue related that Mr. Gul
assured Saddam Hussein every guarantee of his survival in the event of
exile in Turkey or any other country "We offer you every guarantee you may
require" the Prime Minister is said to have declared to his Iraqi opposite
number. Despite the Prime Minister's denials, his entourage confirm the
news saying "It would be undiplomatic of the Prime Minister publicly to
confirm such a thing".
 

· EUROCOURT UPHOLDS: RULINGS ON FORMER PM ERBAKAN, REFAH.
On 13 February, the European Human Rights
Court rejected the petition of the Prosperity Party (Refah ­ Islamist),
dissolved by a decree of the Turkish Constitutional Court of 16 January
1998, on the grounds that it had become "a centre of activity against the
principle of secularism". The European Court ruled that "there are
convincing and imperative reasons that could justify the dissolution of
Refah and the temporary stripping of political rights of other
petitioners". As a consequence, the dissolution of Refah can be considered
"necessary in a democratic society".

The Court considered that interference in the freedom of association of the
petitioners, recognised by Article 11 of the Convention, was provided for
by law and could not be considered disproportionate to the objectives aimed
at. The Court stressed that a "political  party can promote  a change in
legislation or in the legal  or constitutional structures of the State on
two conditions:  firstly that the means used for this be legal  and
democratic  and secondly that the changes themselves be compatible with
fundamental democratic principles. It, therefore, necessarily follows that
a political  party whose leaders incite the recourse to violence and
propose a political project that aims at the destruction of these
principles, as well as ignoring the rights and liberties that they embody,
cannot claim the protection of the Convention against sanctions inflicted
for these reasons.

The Court further considers that the constitution and programme  of a
political  party cannot be taken into account as the sole criteria to
determine its objectives and intentions. For this reason the Court recalls
that it cannot be excluded that the political  programme hides objectives
other than those publicly declared"