CAMPAIGN TO BOYCOTT SINGER WHO DARED SING IN KURDISH, HIS MOTHER TONGUE
The most popular singer in Turkey, Ibrahim Tatlises, famous both in his own country and throughout the Middle East, is the target of a campaign of boycotting and pressure from nationalist circles after having sung a song in Kurdish. The Great Unity Party (BBP — ultra nationalist) had asked the singer (who is of Kurdish origin but has never before sung in his own language so as to build a flourishing career) to “apologise to the Turkish nation”.“The people can forgive him if he proclaims that he is against all form of terrorism and separatism and that he will defend the indivisible integrity of our country” declared Ismail Turk, one of the leaders of the BBP. The Youth Association of the National Action Party (MHP — neo-fascist) had earlier launched a campaign to boycott the singer's discs, cassettes and other products, accusing him of being a “black stain”.

During his participation in a TV broadcast last week, the singer had expressed his satisfaction that the government had passed laws allowing audio-visual programmes in Kurdish, considering that it was “a first step”. Immediately after, several dozen ultra-nationalists held a meeting before his home to protest against this statement. In the daily paper Cumhurriyet of 12 December, the singer (who is also one of the richest business men in the country) retorted that he “loved his country” and wanted its “unity”.

SENIOR AKP MEMBERS  DESCRIBE TURKISH COURTS AS BIASED AND PARTISAN
Just after Parliament decided to sue before the High Court of Justice the former Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and five other former ministers — Husamettin Ozkan, Cumhur Ersumer, Zeki Cakan, Recep Onal and Gunes Taner — accused of “corruption, favouritism nepotism and irregularities” the President of the Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry on the issue of immunity, Husrev Kutlu, simply declared, on 11 December, that “since the Judiciary was not independent, they had decided not to alter the legislation on immunity”. Commenting on these remarks, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mehmet Ali Sahin, a member of the same Justice and Development Party (AKP), added that “the members of parliament doubt the independence of the Courts” giving the example of the former Public Prosecutor of the Court of Appeals, Vural Savas, who in a recent book “recognised that he has expended considerable energy to bar the road to office of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan”.Immediately the President of the Court of Appeals, Eraslan Ozkaya and his opposite number on the State Council, Nuri Alan, reacted sharply. Mr Ozkaya declared that “those who are no longer in power, the simple citizen and the bureaucrat are brought before the courts … We cannot import courts from elsewhere or replace them by some other body … No one can have the luxury of saying they will not go to such courts … justice is not perfect but you are doing nothing to improve it and allow yourselves to criticise it”. The Vice-President of the People’s Republican Party (CHP) — the sole opposition party in the Turkish Parliament — Kemal Anadol reacted by stating: “thus there are only two things to do: either we send all the courts in the country on leave or else all the 70 millions of our citizens must benefit from immunity by becoming members of parliament. In other words, it means that our citizens are in danger faced with these courts”.

THE 2003 ASSESSMENT OF  HUMAN RIGHTS IN TURKEY
On 2 December, the Turkish Human Rights Association published a recent evaluation of the Human Rights situation in Turkey in the context of the 6th and 7th harmonisation package passed by Ankara with a view to joining the European Union. Here are some extracts of this assessment that covers the January to September periods of the last five years.
Number of people having been tortured or been victims of inhuman and degrading treatment:

- January to September 1999 — 472
- January to September 2000 — 508
- January to September 2001 — 762
- January to September 2002— 456
- January to September 2003 — 770

Attacks on freedom of expression —number of people sued:

- January to September 1999 — 103
- January to September 2000 — 254
- January to September 2001 — 1921
- January to September 2002 — 2432
- January to September 2003 — 1292

Furthermore, the Association shows that the number of political organisations, publishing houses and cultural centres raided and searched were 250 in 1999, and 48 in 2003. The number of publications confiscated or banned were 242 in 1999 and 102 in 2003.

EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER RESPONSIBLE FOR ENLARGEMENT, GUNTER VERHEUGEN, DECLARES PRESENT SITUATION IN CYPRUS AN OBSTACLE TO TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP.
In an interview given to the Turkish daily Zaman, the European Commissioner responsible for the enlargement, Gunter Verheugen, declared that it would be difficult for Turkey to begin negotiations for membership of the European Union so long as Turkish soldiers were illegally deployed in Cyprus. Here are extensive extracts from this article, published on 4 December at a time when the parliamentary elections in the Turkish part of the island produced no majority though the Opposition parties, with 48% of the vote won 25 seats (11 in the outgoing assembly) as the supporters of the status quo, who only won the support of 46% of the electors.

“It was first of all with my Turkish friends that I spoke about this problem. No one should be surprised today (…) I said, at my first meeting with Denktash in 2000, that Cyprus would join the European Union on 1st May 2004. I had already said this to Ismail Cem in 1999. I insisted on the fact that, as from 1 May 2004, the strategic situation would no longer be the same. We still have some time, but resolving this problem is above all in Turkey’s interests”.

Questioned as to whether the Commission had given in to Greek blackmail, Gunter Verheuven replied: “This is not a matter of blackmail but a political reality … I told Denktash that 105 million Europeans were not waiting for him to condescend to find a solution with Clerides. Thus he knew it, but preferred not to believe me …I still hope that Denktash, at his age, will take decisions that are right for his people”.

Gunter Verheugen refused to describe the solution of the Cyprus question as a “condition” for Turkey, but preferred to speak about an “obstacle”, adding “Cyprus is a political reality. If the situation does not change, I will be unable to convince 15 or 25 countries to start negotiations with a Turkey that is the only country in the world that does not recognise one of our future member states. The whole world knows that the UN Security Council has judged the permanent stationing of Turkish troops on the island to be illegal. Do you imagine that we could engage in negotiations for membership with a country whose troops are permanently stationed on the territory of one of our members? For my part I do not believe it … I have always said so. We were obliged to since if Turkey were to discover the extent of this obstacle at the last moment it would have been too surprised”.

The European Commissioner was unsparing in his criticism of Rauf Denktash, declaring that “ it is not being a statesman to play games with the electoral registers just before elections …” . “You only have to look at the figures. This year there were 20,000 more electors than in 1998.There are 4,000 more than last September. This is obviously not due to any increase in the birth rate! Everyone knows the number of Turks to whom Denktash has given Cyprus nationality (…)” he added, pointing out that “we do not recognise the Turkish Republic of Cyprus as a sovereign state. Nor do we recognise its assembly. Thus we cannot compare its elections with those of sovereign and democratic countries. They have, nevertheless, political importance”.

Günter Verheugen also dealt with the non-application of the reforms adopted by Ankara, declaring with regard to the letters “q, x and w” that it is important to highlight “the problems of applying laws in Turkey”. “No one is asking for the Turkish alphabet to be changed, but what we would simply say is that there should be an end to all these obstacles to registering Kurdish names”.

RENEWED FIGHTING BETWEEN PKK AND TURKISH ARMY
Two Kurdish fighters were killed by the Turkish Army at Diyarbekir on 3 December. The Turkish forces surrounded a house and opened fire on activists who refused to surrender, explained the local police chief Attila Cinar. Elsewhere, five soldiers were killed and four wounded when their vehicle hit a land mine at Nusaybin, in Mardin province. The day before a policeman was killed when armed men opened fire on a police station in Dargecit, further North in the same province — always according to the Turkish authorities.

The PKK, that has retreated to Iraqi Kurdistan, on the Iranian border, nevertheless announced, in the 2 December issue of the pro-Kurdish daily Ozgur Politika, that it would extend its unilateral cease-fire for an indefinite period so as to give a further chance for Turkey to declare, in its turn, an end to the violence. The clashes with the Army had fallen off, over the last few years, to a level “close to zero” according to the previous chief of Staff, but have since shown a certain increase.

Furthermore the United States declared on 4 December their agreement to cooperate with Ankara in its fight against terrorism, indicated the Assistant Chief of Staff of the American combined forces, General Peter Pace, on a two-day visit to Ankara. He also stressed the special importance his country attached to the “anti-terrorist struggle, in the first place against the PKK and its successors” according to the semi-official Turkish News Agency, Anatolya. In this context, there is a community of view between the United States and Turkey on the manner of fighting all terrorist organisations and on the methods, aims and resources for this struggle, according to the same source.

TURKISH PRESS: JOURNALISTS ARE “CLIENTS” OF  TURKISH INTELLIGENCE SERVICES (MIT)
The Editor in Chief of the Turkish daily Hurriyet, Ertugrul Ozkok, in his column of 9 December, tells of an ordinary briefing organised by the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) for some Turkish journalists, who were described as “clients” by the MIT chief. The journalist, who was not unduly troubled by this label, returned to the subject the next day, revealing the names of the “client” journalists summoned by the MIT for the briefing and giving the MIT boss’s explanation of the term: “We use the word client for individuals who have been the subject of enquiries and are on file with our services … amongst the 10 client journalist, 4 are filed as “marxist”, 2 as “grey wolves” and 4 as “reactionaries””.The journalist concluded by saying he was curious to know who were the 4 journalists classed as “clean” by the MIT. Here are extensive extracts from this short article published on 9 December.:

“The chief of the Turkish Intelligence (MIT), Senkal Atasagun, last Thursday invited 14 journalists in Ankara from national papers. As from the start he said jokingly “I was looking at the guest list, 10 of the 14 here are clients of ours”.At this dinner were 14 journalists (…) The aim of the dinner was a briefing to correspondents of different papers on the latest developments in Turkey, and before the journalists left it was specified that the remarks made could be used, but without attribution of source. However, the next day, a phone call from MIT insisted that all that had been said was “off the record” and thus asked us not to use the information. … Our correspondent in Ankara, Sedat Ergin, was unable to take part in the dinner (…) but was able to secure and bring me the contents of the discussion…

Personally I wasn’t too bothered by the word “client”. Atasagun didn’t specify what exactly he meant by this word, and probably knowing the import of this word, my colleagues didn’t ask him for more details …I must imply either papers that receive the MIT’s indiscretions or papers “accredited” by them. The MIT chief then added “We also know that there are some amongst you who talk to people of foreign Secret Services”. And that was the sentence that disturbed me the most”.