• TURKEY NEGOTIATES IRAQ TROOP DEPLOYMENT; MAJORITY OF TURKISH, IRAQI PUBLIC FIRMLY OPPOSED.  Turkish civilian and military leaders met on 19 September to discuss the possible sending of a “peace-keeping” force to Iraq — an idea being insistently peddled by the government, but which is far from being unanimously accepted. According to the government, the meeting was just to hear the views of the Armed Forces members of the National Security Council (MGK) prior to a cabinet meeting on the subject.

The Turkish government, while not linking its decision to UN approval, hopes that the Americans will convince the UN Security Council to support the idea of an international peace-keeping force in Iraq, which would strengthen the legitimacy of any Turkish deployment, especially in the eyes of the members of Parliament who, in the last resort, have to approve such an operation. The government, that is anxious to revive cooperation with the United States after the cold spell provoked by the refusal by parliament to support the American war effort, is having great difficulty in convincing the country of the validity of such an operation. The opposition MPs are against, those of the majority are not at all convinced and 6 Turks out of 10 are opposed, according to a recent opinion poll. Officially, the MGK is due to study the reports of the fact finding missions recently sent to Iraq to evaluate the situation and hear the views of the local population.

The majority of the Iraqi respondents — starting with all the members of the transition government — have publicly expressed their opposition to any deployment of Turkish troops. Fearing to revive the appetites of this former imperial power that occupied the region for so many centuries. The Iraqi Kurds are particularly hostile. The Turkish TV News channel, CNN-Turk, reported on 26 September that Turkey had asked the Americans for control, within the Iraqi stabilisation force, of a section of Iraqi territory covering 30,000 square Kilometres between Mossul, Suleimanieh and Baghdad. This zone would begin at the junction of the Tigris and Great Zab rivers, South of Mossul, and go up to the Altun Kopri junction, on the Little Zab, between Irbil and Kirkuk, skirt the South of the latter city to continue almost to Suleimanieh before going South again towards the capital, Baghdad.

“The idea of sending Turkish soldiers to Iraq enjoys no support from any Iraqi group” stressed the President of the Turkish Employers’ Federation (TUSAID), Tuncay Ozilhan on 19 September. “It therefore seems hardly reasonable to imagine that the presence of Turkish troops would contribute to stability in that country” ha added.

The Turkish government is considering the deployment of 10,000 troops, making it the third largest foreign force, after that of the Americans and the British. “Of course no one like to see foreign troops in their country (…) but, if foreign troops should be deployed, the Iraqi people would prefer that they be Turkish soldiers rather than British, Russian, American or Polish” asserted Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who considers that the population would rather welcome Moslem troops.

Colin Powell, head of the U.S. Foreign service, for his part, recognised that “the question of sending Turkish troops (to Iraq) is a very sensitive issue”.

The United States, who are shortly to release the first instalment of an $8.5 billion loan to Turkey, have also been asked by Ankara to take action against the PKK fighters, who have sought refuge on the Iraqi-Iranian border. Washington has promised its support, but may well refuse any military action before February — the date at which Ankara’s amnesty offer to PKK members expires. On 25 September, the Turkish Minister of Justice, Cemil Cicek, let it be understood that this would be its price for taking part in the international peace-keeping force in Iraq: “We want to go (to Iraq) because of our own interests but, in exchange, it is clear that we have special expectations from the people with whom we will be cooperating” stated the Minister, who is also the government spokesman, on the Turkish national channel NTV.

Mr. Cicek stated that the fight against the PKK was a priority for his government and that discussions had taken place with the Americans on this subject in the context of negotiations on Turkish participation in the Iraqi peacekeeping force. However, “in my opinion, some of these questions have not yet been satisfactorily settled” he added. “We have difficulty in explaining (to Turkish public opinion) that they have not even handed us over two or three individuals from this region” Mr. Cicek stressed.
Turkish and American leaders are due to meet on 1 and 2 October to discuss what measures to take. The American delegation to these talks, to be held in the Turkish capital, will be led by Joseph Cofer Black, counter-terrorism co-ordinator for the State Department.

• LEYLA ZANA’S LAWYER DENOUNCES RETRIAL AT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT.  On 23 September, speaking at the invitation of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Commissions, the lawyer representing Leyla Zana, winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Spirit, sentenced to fifteen year jail in 1994, considered that the former MPs new trial, that began in March 2003, was not an equitable one. “We had a real hope, at first, that this trial would be equitable. But, at the end of eight hearings, none of our expectations have been realised,” declared Mr. Yusuf Alatas.  “We are not at all optimistic. We are faced with a purely formal retrial — Turkey just is going through the motions of applying the decisions of the European Court for Human Rights” continued the lawyer, who was also speaking before a delegation of the mixed EU-Turkey Parliamentary Commission.

In 2001, the European Court for Human Rights had ruled that Mrs. Zana’s first trial, at which she was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, together with three other Kurdish ex-MPs, had been inequitable. The Ankara State Security Court (DGM) finally decided, in February 2003, to take action on the petition for a retrial made by the ex-MPs’ lawyers, but had rejected the appeal for their release. Mr. Alatas particularly denounced the difficulties encountered in trying to have witnesses for the defence heard, and the refusal to release the former MPs on bail, after having served 9 years of a sentence that had never been justified.

When the retrial opened, the some Members of the European parliament had called for their release, while the European Commission had indicated that it would follow this trial “very closely”. The European Union is due to decide, at the end of 2004, whether or not to open negotiations with Ankara on membership of the European Union.

• PRO-KURDISH POLITICAL LEADERS, MUSICIANS DETAINED FOR TAKING PART IN KURDISH FESTIVAL IN GERMANY.  The Presidents of two pro-Kurdish parties, hauled before the Ankara State Security Court on 23 September, will be tried with three musicians for “helping an illegal armed organisation” because they took part in a Kurdish festival in Germany. The President of the Democratic People’s Party (DEHAP), Tuncer Bakirhan, and of Ozgur Toplum (Free Society Party) Ahmet Turan Demir, were heard by the court for six hours, after having already spent 36 hours in detention. The Public Prosecutor had demanded that they be incarcerated till their trial, but the court decided to release them in the course of the afternoon. “This is a most unhappy event” declared Mr. Demir, who denounced “a country where, on the one hand they pass laws of harmonisation (with European democratic criteria) and on the other this sort on incident persists”.

They are accused of having helped Kurdish fighters in Turkey by participating in a concert, given in Germany 10 days earlier by a Kurdish cultural association suspected of supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (renamed KADEK).

A famous Turkish rock singer, Haluk Levent, and his two musicians will also be tried for having performed at this event at which some of the spectators had brandished placards supporting the PKK and its chief, Abdullah Ocalan.  The singer, Haluk Levant, deplored the fact that “in this country the police come to fetch people from their homes to give evidence before the courts” adding that he had had “no separatist ulterior motives” in taking part in this concert.

Furthermore, in the course of the same morning, fifteen members of the pro-Kurdish DEHAP party, amongst who was the president of the regional branch, were hauled in for questioning at Urfa. Members of the Democratic People’s Party were holding a press conference in front of the Party premises in the town centre, with some 150 people present, but the police considered this gathering was in contravention of the regulation on demonstrations.

• THREE PKK FIGHTERS KILLED IN TOKAT.  On 23 September, the Turkish Army announced that three fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, renamed KADEK) had been killed in the course of an operation by the Turkish Army in the Tokat region, in the centre of the country, where such operations are unusual. According to the officials, the three men did not obey an order by the gendarmerie to surrender and were shot down. No details were given as to the date of this operation.

Leaders of the PKK had announced in September that they intended ending their four-year unilateral cease-fire because of Ankara's refusal of any political dialogue with them.

• OCALAN PROTESTS DETENTION CONDITIONS.  Abdullah Ocalan has decided to refuse his daily exercise walks as protest against his detention conditions and to demand more regular contact with his lawyers, his defenders reported on 30 September. He will refuse his daily walk (in a walled enclosure, foursquare metres in area and with a metal grid ceiling) and his lawyers will not try to visit to the island prison of Imrali (to the South of Istanbul), they declared at a Press conference. Messrs Hatice Korkut and Behiç Asçi recalled that the total isolation of the chief of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party — renamed KADEK) had lasted “nearly five years and was harming his health”.  Ocalan, who was arrested in Kenya, “has breathing problems, finds difficulty in recognising tastes and smells, is suffering from insomnia and problems due to his immobility and allergic problems” they stated.

According to them, the authorisation to meet once a week has, in practice, been reduced to once a month because of excuses “that are hard to believe”, such as bad weather or break-downs on the boat. They also denounced the fact that the Ministry of Justice was refusing to show them the medical report made after the visit of six specialists or say whether any medical treatment had been recommended.

Furthermore, six members of the members of the pro-Kurdish party DEHAP, including the regional leader of the party, were arrested at Gaziantep on 19 September, for having protested about the conditions of Abdullah Ocalan’s detention. Those arrested are accused of “giving assistance to an illegal organisation”.  Four other people were pulled in on the same day in Tunceli for having organised a hunger strike in the party’s premises as a protest against Ocalan’s conditions of detention.

• AUTHORISATION OF USE OF KURDISH NAMES BANS USE OF LETTERS  “X, W AND Q”.  On 24 September, Ankara ordered Turkish local authorities to allow Kurdish families to give Kurdish names to their children, a further formal step by the Ankara authorities to improve their chances of joining the European Union. The latter require that Turkey grant wider cultural rights to its substantial Kurdish minority.

However, the Turkish Ministry of the Interior specifies, in its circular, that names containing letters that are not used in the Turkish alphabet, like “x, w and q” which are widely used in Kurdish, cannot be chosen. “First names given by our citizens, in accordance with their traditions, shall be formed on the basis of the Turkish alphabet, be in line with moral values (…) and not be offensive nor violate the law of civil registration” the circular goes on to specify. It was sent by the Ministry of the Interior to local authorities throughout the country.

Last year, in response to European Union requirements, the Turkish Parliament passed a series of laws allowing children to be given Kurdish names, and authorising the Kurdish language to be taught. But they had not been put into effect at grass roots level. Kurdish families complained that certain local authorities had refused to register Kurdish first names, and had brought the matter before the European Human Rights Court.

•  COURT CONFIRMS SENTENCE OF PRO-KURDISH DEHAP PARTY LEADERS.  On 29 September, the Turkish Court of Appeals confirmed the sentences passed on the former President of the Democratic People’s Party (DEHAP), Mehmet Abbasoglu, and three other former leaders. The sentences were of 23 months imprisonment for “having falsified documents concerning the opening of local organisations in the country so as to be able to present candidates at the November 2002 General Election”. The DEHAP leaders were found guilty of fraud for having claimed to have organisations in 63 of the country’s 81 provinces whereas the Turkish courts considered they only had branches in 6. Turkish legislation specifies that a political party must be organised in at least half of the country’s provinces before the elections, in order to be able to participate.

DEHAP has long been a standing target of the Turkish courts, who have been trying to ban it for “presumed links with the Kurdish rebels”. DEHAP, having its roots essentially in the Kurdish provinces, was founded in 1997 by former supporters of the pro-Kurdish HADEP party, which at the time feared that it would, in its turn, be banned by the Constitutional Court for “organic links” with the PKK. HADEP, which did not take part in the elections for fear of being banned in the middle of the election campaign (but which called on all its supporters to vote for DEHAP) was, indeed, banned in March 2003.  DEHAP, for its part, won nearly two million votes, or 6.2%  — less than the 10% required by law to have any seats in Parliament. Since then, pressures on DEHAP have been increasing.

To parry the eventuality of their party being banned, many DEHAP supporters have just formed yet another new party, the Free Society Party (Ozgur Toplum).

The European Commission has expressed concern at the consequences of the Turkish Court of Appeals’ verdict. In a Press statement on 29 September Jean-Christophe Filori, spokesman for European Commissioner for enlargement of the EU, Guenther Verheugen, declared: “We shall analyse this ruling very closely, because it could have not inconsiderable consequences on the political system in Turkey, which go far beyond the case in question”. “The Commission very much hopes that this ruling will not compromise the reforms begun in Turkey, and vigorously pursued by the present government”, added Mr. Filori. “The Commission recalls that everything must be done to ensure that the reforms are carried into effect by deeds” he also added.

The Turkish Court of Appeals ruling, moreover, risks provoking an open political crisis in Turkey and even fresh general Elections, according to some observers. The Court’s ruling could ricochet, bringing about fresh General Elections by altering the distribution of seats in Parliament, at the expense of the AKP, that swept into office in November 2002 after an overwhelming election victory. It has, at present, 367 out of 550 seats.

The True Path Party (DYP) has seized on this ruling to apply to the High Election Council (YSK) asking for a revision in the seat distribution at the National Assembly. The DYP had won 9.5% of the votes, just a shade under the 10% needed to win seats in Parliament. It is asking for the invalidation of the nearly two million votes won by DEHAP and a new calculation based on effective votes cast, which would then enable it, according to some specialists, to claim 66 seats in Parliament.

Tarham Erden, a political analyst, together with many journalists states that “the shadow of fraud is now looming over Parliament” and calls on the MPs to call fresh elections. Bulent Arinc, a member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), in office, for his part excludes any calling into question of the results of then elections, considering that it would be impossible to redistribute the seats.

In the YSK, a commission of seven judges could either invalidate the elections, or only invalidate the two million votes won by DEHAP, or yet again ask Parliament to decide, according to many experts. According to one former Vice-President of YSK, Sabri Coskun, the Turkish Courts cannot over-rule the results of elections, since the verdict against the former lead of DEHAP, not against DEHAP itself.

In the event of a redistribution of seats, AKP, which at present has 367 seats, would lose 44 and the principal opposition party, the People’s Republican Party (at present 175 seats) would lose 22 — in both cases to DYP. But AKP has let it be known that it would call general elections in the event of redistribution in favour of the True Path Party.