Medya-tv, which had started broadcasting on 30 June 1999, had applied to the CSA for a licence to broadcast, but the French Television regulatory body had refused to grant it one. The State Council, to which the channel’s lawyers had appealed, handed down its decision on 12 February by confirming the CSA’s position and by calling on the ABSAT company to immediately put an end to all the channel’s broadcasts.
The officers of the channel, which is broadcast to 77 countries, criticised this decision, stressing that the silencing of Medya-tv will be used by Mr. Chirac, who is expected in Ankara in a few months time, to negotiate future contracts with the Turkish authorities.
• LEYLA ZANA AND COLLEAGUES SEND CONDOLENCES FOLLOWING IRBIL BOMB ATTACKS. The former Members of Parliament of the Party for Democracy (DEP — banned) imprisoned in Turkey for the last 10 years — Leyla Zana, Orhan Dogan, Hatip Dicle, and Selim Sadak — sent their condolences to Massud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, respectively President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and General Secretary of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) over the bomb attacks committed on 1 February in Irbil against Kurdish representatives, causing 109 deaths.
“We offer our condolences for our brothers who were killed and wishes for a speedy recovery to those who were wounded in this attack. We offer our condolences to our people and condemn with aversion, this felonious attack. We share your pain and that of your people in our heart. Our pain is collective” the former M.P.s write in a letter written in Kurdish.
No one should be unaware that no force, no attack and no provocation can make our people retreat from its goal. We think and hope that the feelings of union and of solidarity of our people, dispersed to the four corners of the world, will be still further strengthened. Our people will overcome the obstacles liable to hinder the path to peace by union, reciprocal solidarity and support and will join the democratic world … We share your pain, with feelings of a warm solidarity and once again offer our condolences. With all our feelings, our respects and our friendship …” the jailed M.P.s concluded.
The M.P.s’ message was read in full on the TV news programmes of both the Kurdish satellite TV channels, Kurdistan TV and Kurdsat, broadcasting from Iraqi Kurdistan and widely vied by Kurds in the Near East and Europe.
The next hearing of the “retrial” of Leyla Zana and her colleagues is set for 20 February. The Turkish Court had, on 16 January, rejected — for the 10th time — their request to be released on bail. Romano Prodi, on an official visit to Ankara at the time, had himself stressed, in a speech before the Turkish Parliament, that the E.U. was following this retrial with great attention. Asked about the Court’s decision to refuse bail, the President of the European Commission, who was taking part in a Press Conference in Istanbul along side the Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, declared “I am very, very disappointed and sad”. The four ex-M.P.s are due, in theory, to be released in any case in June 2005, as Turkish law provides for automatic reduction of sentences. Today, they are the only remaining political prisoners in the Ulucanlar Central Prison. All the other political prisoners have been transferred, over the last few months, to the new Type-F high security prisons, vehemently opposed by the prisoners and their families with a hunger strike that resulted in over a hundred deaths.
• BARHAM SALIH VISITS ANKARA, AS EGYPT AND TURKEY WARN IRAQI KURDS. Barham Salih, Prime Minister of the Suleimaniah Regional Government, arrived in Ankara on 9 February for discussions with the Turkish authorities. In the course of his discussion with Osman Koruturk, the Turkish special coordinator for Iraq, B.Salih indicated that an autonomous Kurdish region would not tolerate the presence of the PKK operating on its soil. “We are ready to work to displace all kinds of elements that constitute a threat to our neighbours” he declared.
A few weeks earlier, Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Irbil Regional Government had called for the withdrawal of Turkish troops stationed in Iraqi Kurdistan. Questioned on the subject, B. Salih declared that there was no question of using force to expell the Turkish troops and that “friendly discussions can be held with the United States, Great Britain and Turkey and a solution found”.
Berham Salih also asked for hospital treatment for eight more of the wounded victims of the bomb attacks carried out simultaneously against the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Irbil, which had caused over a hundred victims. The week before a first group of seven had been transported to hospital in Ankara for treatment.
Furthermore, Abdullah Gul, Turkish Foreign Minister, declared in Warsaw on 9 February, in discussions with his Polish opposite number, that Turkey would take part in NATO’s stabilisation of Iraq. NATO will meet next June in Istanbul to decide the means of its participation in the stabilisation of Iraq.
On the other hand, during a visit to Ankara by Egyptian President Hosni Moubarak on 11 February, Turkey and Egypt issued a joint warning against any attack on Iraq’s territorial unity, thus stressing their fears that increased autonomy might be given to the Iraqi Kurds. “We are of the opinion that the preservation of the territorial integrity of Iraq is a necessity and that attempts that might lead to the dislocation of Iraq are dangerous” declared the Egyptian Head of State, who was speaking to the Press at the end of his discussions with his Turkish opposite number Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
Representatives of neighbouring countries — Syria, Jordan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt — are due to meet in Kuwait on 14 and 15 February for discussions on Iraq. Mr. Moubarak’s last visit to Ankara was back in 1998, when he went to try and mediate between Turkey and Syria, at that time on the brink of war because of Syria’s support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who saw Mr. Moubarak in the evening, had stated, in February last year, that his country was ready to play the role of mediator between Syria and Israel. Turkey has hoped for years to host an international conference to contribute to a solution to the Near East conflict.
• BUSH WELCOMES ERDOGAN TO WASHINGTON AND REASSURES ON IRAQ INTEGRITY. On 28 January, President George W. Bush assured the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as to the United States’ determination to maintain the territorial unity of Iraq. “I assured him that the United States’ ambitions were for a peaceful, democratic and territorially intact Iraq” Mr. Bush declared after their meeting at the White House. The American President described his interlocutor as “a straight forward man” with whom he shared an understanding of the terrorist danger and that the latter had welcomed the American decision to maintain, on the list of terrorist organisations, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK — separatist Kurds of Turkey) and KONGRA-GEL.
In a note published by the official Federal Register on 13 January, the State Department had considered that the Congress of the People of Kurdistan (KONGRA-GEL) was just a new incarnation of the PKK and that, consequently, it should remain on this list. During a Press Conference after their meeting, Mr. Erdogan indicated to the Turkish Press that the American authorities had reaffirmed their commitment to punish the PKK, who had entrenched themselves in Iraqi Kurdistan. “They told us that they would not give them no respite” he specifically indicated.
The American President sought to reassure Turkey by affirming that Washington was not in favour of the expansion of the autonomy of the Iraqi Kurds. The fact remains, however, that Washington considers that any decision regarding Iraqi Kurdistan must be taken by the Iraqis themselves, when they had regained their full sovereignty.
They both also dealt with the Cyprus question, divided for 30 years between a Greek part and a Turkish occupied part. Ankara has asked for fresh negotiations on the basis of the plan proposed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The Cyprus Republic (the Greek part, which alone has international recognition) is due to join the European Union on 1st May 2004. If Cyprus is not re-united by that date, Turkey’s application for membership of the E.U. is in danger of becoming even more difficult.
• AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF REFORMS AND RELEASE OF IMPRISONED KURDISH EX-M.P.s. A delegation from Amnesty International, led by its General Secretary Irene Khan, visited Turkey on 8 February, including Istanbul and Ankara where it met the Prime Minister, Mr. Erdogan, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Gül, the Minister of the Interior, Abdulkadir Aksu, members of the State Council, the Presidents of the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeals, the Parliamentary Commission for Human Rights and the Parliamentary Commission for Harmonisation with the European Union. Before returning to London, the members of the delegation went to Diyarbekir on 13 February to meet some women’s groups and Human Rights Defence groups with whom they discussed the specific problems of the region.
In the course of her discussions with the Prime Minister, Irene Khan handed him a note in which Amnesty International recognised the progress achieved while stressing the concerns it continued to have regarding the observance of Human Rights in Turkey. In this note, the organisation particularly denounced the case of torture and ill-treatment, for which the authorities responsible for applying the laws were still being accused, as well as the impunity that the latter enjoyed (hence the necessity to settle the problem of the heritage of violations committed in the past), the restrictions that still weighted on free expression, the criminalisation of non-violent dissident opinion and violence against women.
Irene Khan also asked Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the release of all persons imprisoned for having expressed their opinions in a non-violent manner, including the defenders of Human Rights, Leyla Zana and her colleagues. The Prime Minister, once again, unhesitatingly compared his 3-month incarceration with Leyla Zana’s situation (10 years already!) reproaching Amnesty and Europe of applying “double standards”. He reproached the latter for not having visited him in prison whereas during the imprisonment of the Mayor of Diyarbekir, Feridun Çelik, five Foreign Ministers came from Europe. He criticised the Human Rights defence organisations of dressing Human Rights “in an ideological l shirt”.
Furthermore, on 12 February Amnesty International published a document regarding the “repressive legislation, arbitrary application: Human Rights defenders faced with pressures”. According to this document, “despite legal and constitutional reforms that have recently taken place in Turkey, human rights defenders remain, in this country, the targets of acts of harassment and intimidation from agents of the State and continue to come up against a horde of laws and Parliamentary documents that limit their activity”. “As fast as the old laws are repealed, the authorities find new strategies for obstructing the activity of Human Rights defenders” declared Amnesty International.
Amnesty International reiterates its appeals for a fundamental reform of the legislation and practices with the concern to guarantee freedom of expression, of association and of assembly in the country.
• FINANCING OF THE BAKU-TBILLISI-CEYHAN OIL PIPELINE CLINCHED. The financing of the future Baku-Tbillisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which is to transport Caspian oil towards world markets via Turkey, was finally clinched on 3 February, with the signature of an agreement definitive agreement between the international lenders and the Azerbaijani authorities. The lenders, who include International institutions like the European Bank for reconstruction and development (BERD) and public financial agencies, major commercial banks are contributing up to 70% of the construction costs of this project, set at $ 2.95 billion. The remaining 30 % have already been advanced by the members of the consortium that will own the BTC pipeline.
The BTC, the construction of which began last year, and which is due to come into use in 2005, is designed to carry up to a million barrels of crude oil from Azerbaijan to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, passing through Georgia. About 1,760 Km long, the route of the pipeline was designed to avoid passing either through Russia, Armenia or Iran, and has been enthusiastically supported by the American authorities.
The owning and operating consortium is led by the British oil group BP, and includes, in particular, the Azerbaijani oil company Socar, the French Total, the Norwegian Statoil, the Italian Eni, the Japanese Itochu, the American Unocal, ConocoPhillips, and Amerada Hess companies. The financing of the project by the international lenders had been delayed because of concern over the ecological consequences of the project, in particular because it passes through the Borjomi Valley in Georgia, which contains a famous mineral water spring.
• LEGISLATED COMPENSATION TO KURDISH VILLAGERS SEEKS TO DETER APPLICATIONS TO EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS COURT. On 19 January, the Turkish Ministry of Justice published a Bill providing for granting compensation to the victims of the bloody clashes between the PKK and the Turkish Army in the country. The Bill is part of the government’s efforts to improve its image on matters of Human Rights so as to gain entry to the European Union.
Published on the Ministry’s Internet site, the Bill stipulates that compensation may be paid to those who suffered damages or losses “from the actions of terrorist organisations and the measures taken by the State to fight them”.
Over three thousand Kurdish villages were forcibly evacuated and destroyed by the Turkish Army between 1992 and 1999. The villagers were driven away to Kurdish town, or Turkish industrial metropolitan areas where they live in abject poverty and insecurity.
The petitioners may be able to claim compensation for injuries or loss of lives as well as for material damages or loss of cattle, according to the Bill.
This Bill is aimed at sparing Turkey the embarrassment of many condemnations from the European Human Rights Court.