Thus the Turkish judge, for the 9th time, rejected the petition for the release on bail of Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak, who have been in prison since 1994.   In their petition to the Human Rights Court, dated 20 November, the former M.P.s complain that is clearly showing favour to the prosecution and ignoring evidence in their favour. “We have ended up believing that the Court will do nothing to ensure an equitable trial” deplored Mr. Yusuf Alatas, the leading advocate for the defence.

In 2001, the European Human Rights Court had ruled that their original trial had been conducted in an inequitable fashion, and the four ex-M.P.s had seen their application for a retrial accepted, as part of the “democratisation” process set up by Turkey to secure admission to the European Union.

The four ex-M.P.s are, at any rate, due for release from prison in June 2005, under normal provisions for reduction of sentences under Turkish law.

Furthermore, on 25 November, the Paris Council unanimously voted for a request, presented by Mrs. Khadidja Bourcart, Deputy Mayor of Paris responsible for Integration and non-E.U. foreign residents, regarding Leyla Zana. Mrs. Bourcart and the Green Group in the Paris Council, “very worried over the fate of Leyla Zana” expressed their “support (…) for the imprisoned Kurdish M.P.s in their struggle for democracy, freedom and brotherhood” and recalled “the highly political dimension of this trial”. Mrs. Bourcart asked the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, to “intervene with the Turkish authorities” and asked him to grant her “honorary citizenship” of the City.

• PESHMERGAS ARREST THREE TURKS AS SUSPECTS IN KIRKUK SUICIDE BOMB ATTACK.  On 23 November, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) announced the arrest of three Turks, suspected of being involved in the suicide bomb attacks perpetrated on 20 November against the headquarters of Kurdish parties in Kirkuk “Our peshmergas, in cooperation with the Iraqi Bureau of Investigation, have arrested three Turks suspected of being involved in the attack” declared Ramdan Rashid Mohieddin, the PUK’s second in command in Kirkuk, adding that the suspects were caught on the very day of the attacks, near the offices targeted. “The Turks had Turkish passports and satellite telephones when arrested” he specified.

Five Iraqis, including three children, were killed and over thirty injured by the explosion of a car bomb that crashed through a barricade near the offices of the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

Since the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime, members of the Turkish Special Forces suspected of preparing such attacks so as to destabilise Iraqi Kurdistan have been arrested on three occasions. The arrest, last June, of 13 of them by the Americans had provoked an open crisis in Ankara’s relations with Washington.

•  KURDISH INSTRUCTION HINDERED BY EXCUSES: LETTERS “W, Q  AND  X” FOUND ILLEGAL.  The first Kurdish language private courses in Turkey have still not received any official authorisation, the authorities multiplying bureaucratic obstacles. The latest excuse was the absence of an emergency staircase in complying with safety regulations, stated Aydin Unesi, the owner of the school. The staircase, in fact, does exist, but was not mentioned in the file applying for approval, according to Mr. Unesi.

Earlier, the courses had been refused authorisation because the doors were five centimetres (2 inches) narrower than the current standards. “I am increasingly convinced that the courses are being deliberately blocked because the authorities are demanding little details” stressed Mr. Unesi, who says he is determined to continue his demands till the courses begin “because this in a right granted by law”.

Turkey, whose application for membership of the European Union depends principally on its progress in matters of individual freedoms, has, officially, passed a law allowing the Kurdish population to study its own language, but it has still not been applied in practice, provoking criticism from the E.U.

Furthermore, on 21 November, a court in Hakkari rejected a request by officials of the provincial branch of DEHAP party for registering their first names in Kurdish on the grounds that the letters “w, q and x” are not part of the Turkish alphabet. The Hakkari Public prosecutor, however, had not opposed the application, indicating that he saw no legal grounds against this, but the judges did not follow his advice.

• CLASHES BETWEEN PKK AND TURKISH ARMY: SEVEN PKK MEMBERS EXTRADITED BY  IRAN.  Nine Kurdish PKK fighters were killed in two days of fighting in the Ordu Province, on the Black Sea coast, stated the Turkish Army on 24 November, adding that three others had been captured. Last week 14 PKK fighters were killed in Bingol Province in clashes with the Army.

Moreover, seven members of the PKK were arrested in the course of the last few months in Iran by the police in the province of Western Azerbaijan, indicated the head of the border guards of this Iranian province, Colonel Vali Salehi, adding that those arrested since March had been handed over to the Turkish authorities. “Iran will not allow these individuals to penetrate into its territories,” he said. Three new control posts had been set up along Iran’s borders “to intensify the fight against the PKK” he added.

• TURKISH PRESS: SINCE 1950, TURKISH STATE HAS SUPPORTED ISLAMISTS.   After the bomb attacks against the British Consulate and the HSBC bank, causing at least 30 deaths (including the two suicide bombers) and the two suicide attacks against the city’s two synagogues five days earlier — a total of 55 deaths and over 700 wounded — the Turkish government still refuses to talk about Islamist terrorists and prefers to look for guilty foreigners. It still refuses to examine its own internal policy regarding Islamist organisations that have long been pampered and encouraged by the Turkish authorities. Bekir Çoskun, a staff journalist on the mass circulation daily Hurriyet, denounced in his column of 21 November, the policy of political seduction, defence and support of radical Islamists by the Turkish authorities under the headline of “Our task is difficult”.  Here are extensive extracts from his article:

“Even if comparison with the 11 September attacks in the United States would be excessive, our work is proving more difficult than that of the Americans regarding the attacks that have just been perpetrated.

Because our terrorists do not come from somewhere else. They are well and truly our own. To perpetrate these attacks, they do not need to go to another country, to learn another language, to change their identity or to disguise themselves under the appearance of another religion. They only need to leave their house in the morning, go to the nearest supplier of fertiliser, and carry out their bomb attack the same afternoon.

Moreover, those who have taught them, are of our own country.

With great skill, protecting them with great energy. Firstly, from birth, their fathers and mothers cut a sheep’s throat and dabbled the blood on their foreheads with their fingers. Instead of going to the Republic’s schools, their education begins in classes peculiar to their sects. They are taught that all those who differ from them are “impious unbelievers”.

Since 1950, they have been supported by different governments. The Presidents and the governments … not only by letting these establishments give these teachings …  but also in financing them out of secret funds. Then in officially taking the defence of those who burnt alive these “impious unbelievers”, intellectuals, musicians, and writers (Editor’s Note: in 1993, the Islamists burnt down a hotel in Sivas where Alevi intellectuals, including the famous humorist Aziz Nesin, were holding a reception. The Turkish police prevented any rescue work.) Others, to save the religious terrorists decreed amnesty laws such as those of a few weeks ago …

(…) The Islamists may well seek guilty parties abroad, they are in fact here amongst us — they are our own”.