[Media-watch] another couple of things

[Billy Clark]

david
these are digests of Turkey stories which chiefly focus on the Kurdish issues - might be of interest to the group - before that is some more statewatch links.

billy



1. Massive majority in European Parliament against deal with US on access
to passenger data: Full report, resolution and amendments and verbatim
debate, see: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/mar/12epvote.htm

2. UK: Home Office consults on data retention and access to communications
data
see: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/mar/11comm.htm

3. European rights court condemns Turkey in Ocalan case
see: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/mar/09ocalan.htm

4. EU: Mediterranean joint patrols fail to stop migrants
see: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/mar/08med.htm

5. European Journalists support Irish fight to maintain open government
see: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/mar/07irl.htm

6. UK: Terror policing brings many arrests but few charges - survey by the
Institute of Race Relations
see: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/mar/06arrests.htm

------------------------------------------

1.  Turkey Blasted by Euro Court for Unfair Ocalan Trial (Reuters) 03/12
2.  Euro Court Rules Ocalan Trial Unfair (Associated Press) 03/12
3.  Turkey Angered by Ocalan Ruling (BBC) 02/12
4.  Press Release on Euro Court‚s Ocalan Ruling (KHRP) 03/12
5.  Turkish Court Agrees to Retrial of Jailed Kurd MPs (Reuters) 03/01
6.  Rejection of Acquittal of Former DEP Deputies Unlawful (Kurdish
Observer) 03/03
7.  Euro MPs Denied Permission to Visit Leyla Zana (Turkish Daily News) 03/6
8.  PKK Said Shooting Itself in Foot (Turkish Daily News) 03/06
9.  Education Ministers Seeks to Prevent Kurdish Displays at Newroz
(Turkish Daily News) 02/27
10. Justifications for Turkish Intervention in N. Iraq Outlined (Turkish
Daily News) 03/02
11. PKK Continues Arming (Turkish Daily News) 03/08
12. Kinzer: Kurdish Identity Crosses Borders (New York Times) 03/02
13. Kurdish Rebels Ready to Fight to the Death for their Cause (Daily
Telegraph) 03/10
14. PKK Will Fight if Turkey Enters Iraqi Kurdistan (The Times) 03/10
15. Without GIs Present, Turks, Kurds May Battle (Salt Lake City Tribune) 03/09
16. Turkish Kurds Ambivalent about War with Iraq (Jerusalem Post) 03/02
17. Post-Saddam Era to Foster Economy in Southeastern Turkey (Turkish Daily
News) 03/07
18. Turk Court Frees Spy Suspects from German Foundations (BBC) 03/04
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Turkey Blasted by Euro Court for Ocalan Trial
Reuters
Reuters
March 12, 2003
By Gilbert Reilhac

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights on
Wednesday ruled Turkey's 1999 trial of Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan
unfair, dealing Ankara a new blow as it battles crises over Iraq and its
bid to join the EU.

The court criticized the trial because a military judge was present for
some of the hearings and because Ocalan, who was condemned to death but
whose sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in October last year, was
only given restricted access to his lawyers.

The ruling by the court, comprising seven judges, means Turkey should in
theory be obliged to try Ocalan again, but it is not binding. The ruling is
open to appeal by a bigger chamber comprising 17 judges at the European
Court of Human Rights.

"The Court held by six votes to one...that the applicant was not tried by
an independent and impartial tribunal," the court said of Ocalan, blamed by
Turkey for 30,000 deaths in a 16-year campaign by his Kurdistan Workers
Party for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.

"The applicant did not have a fair trial," the court added.

It said Turkey had violated articles in the European Convention on Human
Rights on the provision of adequate time and facilities for defense
preparation and the right to legal assistance.

The European Court of Human Rights is independent of the European Union,
but Turkey is under pressure from the 15-nation bloc to improve its human
rights record as it bids to join.

The aim of Ocalan's original appeal was to lift the death sentence, but he
still contested the conditions of his arrest, trial and imprisonment,
saying his treatment was "inhuman and degrading."

However the court ruled against Ocalan on this issue.

"The Court held, unanimously, that there had been no violation of Article 3
of the Convention, concerning the conditions in which the applicant was
transferred from Kenya to Turkey and the conditions of his detention on the
island of Imrali," it said.

Ocalan, who was caught in Kenya in February 1999, is held in solitary
confinement on the island of Imrali near Istanbul.

Last October an arm of the Council of Europe -- which could lend support to
Turkey's aim to join the European Union -- urged Turkey to end Ocalan's
solitary confinement, saying he should have access to a television and
telephone like other prisoners.

IRAQ CRISIS

The court ruling on Ocalan has highlighted Turkish fears over Kurdish
separatism, revived by the crisis over neighboring Iraq.

Ankara, which has been locked in tortuous negotiations with Washington over
the deployment of U.S. troops on its territory to invade Iraq, fears Kurds
in northern Iraq could use the chaos of war to declare independence.

That would rekindle separatism among Kurds in southeast Turkey, where
fighting dropped off sharply after the capture of Ocalan, who ordered his
followers to withdraw into north Iraq.

While Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq, who have controlled the region
since the 1991 Gulf War, back any U.S.-led war to topple Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein, Kurds in Turkey fear war could ravage the country's
poverty-stricken southeast.

During Ocalan's original trial, Turkey removed a military judge from the
three-man panel after criticism by the European Court of Human Rights and
replaced him with a civilian one.

Despite Turkish reforms such as the abolition of the death penalty,
Ankara's bid to join the EU was hurt again this week by the collapse of
Cyprus peace talks.

After the talks failed on Tuesday, when minority Turkish Cypriots rejected
a deal, the EU reaffirmed plans to admit a divided Cyprus into the EU in
May 2004 after the signing of an accession treaty next month.

Only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Cypriot statelet in northern Cyprus,
where it has 30,000 troops stationed since invading in 1974 in response to
a pro-Greek coup in Nicosia.

An EU candidate country since 1999, Turkey has yet to open accession talks
due to continued concerns over its human rights record.

-----

2) Court: Kurdish Leader's Trial Not Fair
Associated Press
12 March 2003

BRUSSELS Europe's top human rights court on Wednesday upheld a complaint by
Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan that he did not receive a fair trial in Turkey.

``The Ankara State Security Court, which convicted the applicant, had not
been an independent and impartial tribunal,'' said the European Court of
Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

On some of the other 11 complaints lodged by lawyers of the jailed rebel
leader, the court ruled
in Turkey's favor. It rejected charges that Ocalan's conditions of
detention were inhumane or that
he had been illegally detained.

Both sides have three months to lodge an appeal.

The panel of seven European judges awarded Ocalan $110,000 in costs.

Ocalan was snatched by Turkish commandos in Kenya in 1999 and flown to
Turkey. Since his
trial he has been the only inmate on the prison island of Imrali.

Turkey blames Ocalan for leading a 15-year insurgency against Turkey that
left 37,000 people
dead. The rebels declared a cease-fire after his capture.

At his trial in 1999, Ocalan was sentenced to death. The sentence was
commuted to life in
prison last year when Turkey abolished capital punishment, but an appeal by
opponents of
Ocalan is pending in a Turkish court against that ruling.

In answer to Ocalan's lawyers' complaints against the death sentence, the
court found there had
been no violation of articles in the European Convention of Human Rights
guaranteeing the right
to life and prohibiting ill-treatment.

However, the judges voted 6-1 that the imposition of the death penalty
following an unfair trial
was a violation.

Turkey will not have to make any immediate changes to Ocalan's situation
pending an appeal. If
the verdict is upheld by the European Court's Grand Chamber, Turkey would
be under pressure
to grant a retrial.

----

3) Ocalan verdict angers Turkey
Turkey is planning an appeal after judges ruled that the country had
violated the human rights of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
BBC
March 12, 2003

The Turkish foreign ministry declared that the European Court of Human
Rights had not "thoroughly considered" aspects of the case and that the
judges' reasoning was therefore not "sound".

The court ruled that Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence as the sole
inmate on the prison island of Imrali, did not receive a fair trial.

The ruling is not binding, but Turkey will come under immense pressure to
hold a retrial if the European Court's 17-member Grand Chamber upholds the
verdict on appeal.

Analysts say that pressure will be all the greater given European Union
concerns about Turkey's human rights record and Ankara's keenness to join
the Western club.

Long delay

Ocalan was originally sentenced to death in June 1999 for his role in a
16-year guerrilla war against the Turkish authorities in which more than
30,000 people were killed.

In October last year the death sentence was commuted to life in prison,
with no chance of parole.

Now the court in Strasbourg has ruled that Ocalan was "not tried by an
independent and impartial tribunal".

It also found that Ocalan's rights had been violated by the long delay in
bringing his case to court.

But on other complaints lodged by Ocalan's lawyers, the court ruled in
Turkey's favour.

The seven judges rejected charges that Ocalan's conditions of detention
were inhumane or that he had been illegally detained.

Both sides have three months to lodge an appeal.

Wanted man

Ocalan, who was captured in Kenya by Turkish authorities in February 1999,
led the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The group, which sought
a homeland in south-east Turkey, later declared a ceasefire.

Ocalan was Turkey's most wanted man for two decades. He lived in exile from
the early 1980s, mostly in Syria.

In October 1998 he was expelled from Syria and from there went to Greece,
Russia, Italy, then again Russia and Greece, before going to Kenya, where
Turkish officials finally caught up with him.

His arrest prompted demonstrations across Europe, as many Kurds were
indignant about the way in which the Turkish state paraded their captured
leader before TV cameras.

The aim of Ocalan's appeal to the Strasbourg court was to lift the death
sentence. When the death sentence was commuted, he continued to contest the
conditions of his arrest, trial and imprisonment.

Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2001 as part of reforms aimed at
boosting its chances of joining the European Union.

-----

4) OCALAN'S DEATH PENALTY VIOLATES EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS,
RULES EUROPEAN COURT
Press Release
12 March 2003
Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP)

The imposition of the death penalty on Abdullah Ocalan violated the
prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment under the European
Convention on Human Rights, the European Court has ruled in one of the most
significant cases to be decided for many years.

It held that the imposition of the capital sentence on Mr Ocalan must be
considered, in itself, to amount to inhuman treatment and that capital
punishment has now come to be regarded as "an unacceptable form of
punishment" which can "no longer be seen as having any legitimate place in
a democratic society".

The Court also found that Mr Ocalan's rights under Article 6 of the
Convention had been violated in several respects.  It ruled that he was not
tried before an independent and impartial tribunal, that he was not allowed
access to his lawyers while being questioned in police custody and that
neither he nor his lawyers were able to obtain adequate access to the
17,000 page case file.  The Court found that the overall effect of his
treatment "so restricted the rights of the defence that the principle of a
fair trial was contravened".

Finally, the Court ruled that Mr Ocalan's rights under Article 5 of the
Convention had been violated, holding that the length of his detention
before being brought before a judge and the inability to challenge his
detention at the domestic level violated both Article 5(3) and Article 5(4)
of the Convention.

Abdullah Ocalan was abducted from Kenya in 1999 and sentenced to the death
penalty.  It was clear from the outset that if condemned by the European
Court, Turkey would be forced to make a humiliating climb-down in the
treatment of its longstanding opposition in order to accede to the EU.  It
is widely believed that this concern played a part in prompting Turkey to
commute Mr Ocalan's death sentence to life imprisonment with no chance of
parole or amnesty in 2002 but in the event the original imposition of the
death penalty was still held to have violated Mr Ocalan's rights under
Article 3 and the Court made its strongest statements yet in condemning
recourse to the death penalty.

Kerim Yildiz, Executive Director of the Kurdish Human Rights Project,
comments, "We welcome the Court's judgment that Turkey has violated the
European Convention on Human Rights once again.  We now expect the Turkish
state to implement fully the Court's judgment and to grant a retrial."

Mark Muller, Mr Ocalan's lawyer and Chairman of the KHRP says, "This is one
of the most significant judgments ever to have come out of the European
Court.  In a landmark judgment the Court has confirmed that the death
penalty is no longer acceptable in the 21st Century. It has upheld the
universal applicability of basic fundamental freedoms and the right of all
detainees to have a fair trial and not be subject to inhuman treatment
irrespective of their ethnic or political status."

He continues, "Abdullah Ocalan was unlawfully abducted, vilified and
subjected to a humiliating and unfair trial.  His lawyers were continually
threatened and harassed throughout these proceedings.  The European Court
has upheld the violations alleged by Mr Ocalan against Turkey. We now call
upon the state of Turkey to recognise and fully implement the terms and
effects of this judgment.  Furthermore, we call upon the Turkish state to
give us full and unconditional access to our client who has been held in
solitary confinement for over 3 years. No legal representative has been
able to see Mr Ocalan  for the last 15-weeks.  In our view this is totally
unacceptable and constitutes a further breach of his human rights."

Tim Otty, co-legal representative and a member of the Legal Team, says,
"This decision represents a major landmark in the progress towards
worldwide abolition of the death penalty.  As far as Mr Ocalan's own
position is concerned it safeguards him against any risk of execution and,
we believe, should lead to the Turkish authorities granting him a complete
retrial before an independent and impartial tribunal with full defence rights."

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

1.       On 14 December 2000, the European Court of Human Rights declared
admissible the complaints under Articles 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14,
18 and 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
2.       An oral hearing of the parties' submissions took place on 21
November 2000.
3.       Ocalan's legal team includes, from Britain, Sir Sydney Kentridge
QC (formerly Nelson Mandela's lawyer), Mark Muller, Tim Otty, Gareth
Peirce, Louis Charalambous, Kerim Yildiz, Philip Leach and from Turkey,
Hasip Kaplan, Irfan Dundar and Dogan Erbas.
4.       The death penalty still remains in Turkey "in times of war or
imminent threat of war".
5.       A full copy of the Court's judgment is available at
http://www.echr.coe.int/

For further information please contact:
Kerim Yildiz, Executive Director / Anke Stock, Legal Officer / Rochelle
Harris, Public Relations Officer
Kurdish Human Rights Project / 2 New Burlington Place / London W1S 2HP
Tel: 020 7287-2772 / Fax: 020 7734-4927 / email:  khrp at khrp.demon.co.uk
/  www.khrp.org

Mark Muller, Legal Representative
10-11 Grays Inn Square / Grays Inn / London WC1 5JD
Tel: 0207 405 2576 / Fax: 0207 831 2430

-----

5) Turkish Court Agrees to Retrial of Jailed Kurd MPs
Reuters
March 1, 2003

ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish court ruled on Friday in favor of retrying
four jailed Kurdish politicians in a move prompted by legislation
harmonizing Turkey's legal system with the European Union, the state-run
news agency said.

Leyla Zana, a Nobel Peace Prize candidate in 1996, is the best known of
four members of the now banned Democracy Party who were given 15-year jail
sentences in 1994 for activities related to the separatist Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK).

Anatolian news agency said a State Security Court in Ankara accepted the
request for a retrial of the four who remain in prison and have long been a
source of friction in dealings with the EU, which Turkey seeks to join.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Turkey denied them a fair
trial.

The agency said the court committee accepted the retrial application with a
majority of votes. A request for their release from prison was rejected
unanimously.

The trial of the four was expected to begin in Ankara in the coming days,
Anatolian said.

In January, Turkey passed a set of changes that will allow retrials in
cases where the European Court of Human Rights finds fault with Turkish
verdicts. Previously the European court could only order Turkey to pay
compensation.


The EU will review NATO-member Turkey's progress in meeting membership
criteria at the end of 2004 and has promised to start the accession process
without delay if Turkey passes.

Brussels has cited Turkey's shaky human rights record as a main stumbling
block to entry talks.

Zana entered prison in 1994, when fighting raged between the Turkish army
and separatist PKK rebels, who in 1984 launched a violent campaign for an
ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey.

More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict, but the clashes have
subsided since the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.

-----

6) Rejection of acquittal of former DEP deputies is unlawful
Kurdish Observer
03 March 2003

Ankara State Security Court No.1 consented to retry former DEP deputies
Leyla Zana, Selim Sadak, Hatip Dicle and Orhan Dogan in line with new laws.
Their lawyer Yusuf Alatas stated that they had applied to the court for
their acquittal considering their inprisonment. "But it rejected the
acquittal request of them on the grounds of an ordinary justification
saying 'the case dossier and evidence'. I find it unlawful," said the lawyer.

Alatas continued to say the following: "The court approved the retrial only
on procedural grounds. If it is to be re-held on the principles of the
case, the last verdict should be disregarded. It is positive as far as
retrial is concerned but extremely negative and unlawful as far as
rejection of acquittal."

"They should take the imprisonment period into consideration"

Alatas attracted attention that it was not possible to undo the injustice
of putting one into prison unjustifiably: "The case is to be held, then the
old verdict ceases to be an ultimate one. And as these people have been in
prison for 9 years, the retrial with arrest will cause unjust consequences.
Even if they rule the same verdict at the end it is always possible to put
them into prison again for the rest of their sentences. But if the court
does not release them and the case continues for 2 more years, even if they
give less sentences it will be impossible to remedy the negative consequences."

We will file an objection petition against the non-acquittal rule next
week, said the lawyer. Alatas had this to say as well: "The first hearing
will be held on March 28. I think it will take several hearings." Reminding
that the deputies were sentenced to 15 years in prison, Alatas said the
following: "There is no possibility to give a heavier sentence. It is
legally impossible. Therefore an acquittal or a lighter sentence is at issue."

9-year-imprisonment

Now closed DEP deputies from Amed, Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle and deputy from
Sirnak Orhan Dogan were detained on March 4, 1994 and put into Ankara
Closed Prison on March 17, 1994. Sirnak deputy Selim Sadak, however, was
detained on July 1, 1994 and arrested on July 12, 1994.

They were sentenced to 15 years in prison under the article 5 of the
Anti-Terror Law dealing with "membership of an illegal organisation".

The DEP deputies applied to the European Court of Human Rights in 1996 and
the court ruled a retrial on July 17, 2001 on the grounds that they were
not prosecuted fairly.

-----

7) MEPs refused visit to Leyla Zana
Turkish Daily News
March 6, 2003

Members from the Women's Rights and Equal Affairs Committee in the European
Parliament were refused permission by the Turkish authorities to visit
Leyla Zana last week.

Zana was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 1994 after defending the
rights of the Kurdish population in Turkey.

Zana, a former Kurdish Member of Parliament, was also the winner of the
1995 Sakharov Price awarded for Freedom of Thought by the European
Parliament -- a prize which she was unable to receive personally.

According to a report of the www.euobserver.com news portal, the head of
the European Parliament
Women's Rights Committee, Greek Socialist Anna Karamanou, said the
committee wanted to express
solidarity and support with Leyla Zana and also ask the Turkish government
for her release.

But it appears that not all the members of the delegation wanted to visit
Zana in prison as was planned in their three-day programme in Turkey.

"Not all the members of the delegation wanted to see Zana. Karamanou did
not consult us. She should
know the release of Zana is not a matter to be decided by the government,
but by a court," Conservative
Luxembourg MEP Astrid Lulling said.

"It is ridiculous what Karamanou wanted," she said. "I regret that Leyla
Zana is in prison and I hope that she gets the opportunity to have a fair
trial. But it is not up to us to decide."

In July 2001, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Leyla Zana's trial
unfair.

In its bid for EU membership, the Turkish government adopted numerous
reforms in August 2002, among them the right of Turkish citizens to
judicial review of any verdict in a trial judged unfair by the European
Court of Human Rights.

Turkey is under pressure to free its political prisoners, being one of the
criteria that it has to fulfil in order to start accession negotiations
with the EU. Member states will decide whether to grant Turkey a date to
start these negotiations in 2004.

------

8) PKK to shoot itself in the foot
Turkish Daily News
Serdar Alyamac
March 1, 2003

Admittedly, Turkey has made strides in its progress in terms of human
rights within the last year. The Turkish people waited for human rights'
reform for years as bloody clashes between Turkish armed forces and
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists caused nearly 36,000
deaths.

In any case, Turkey's main strategy on human rights in her struggle with
these autonomy-seeking PKK terrorists has been based on the priority of
exterminating terrorism nested in the mountains of southeastern Turkey and
then all of Turkey. After 1999, when PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was
captured in Kenya, the PKK scattered. The foremost human rights' reforms
were triggered by the former coalition government of Bulent Ecevit last
year, and then finalized by Prime Minister Abdullah Gul's government as
essential to the success of Turkey's candidacy for full membership in the
European Union.

Within the framework of these human rights' reforms, bans on Kurdish
broadcasting and Kurdish language education were lifted. This reform
perhaps hasn't brought about more rights, but it is an indicator of a
future in which we may reach a desired Turkey. The attitude of the Justice
and Development Party (AK Party), Turkey's ruling party, assumed on human
rights is the forerunner of this.

After 1999, the PKK started to give priority to political efforts trying to
justify its struggle and legitimize its position as a "liberation movement"
rather than a terrorist organization. Propaganda in the international arena
and diplomacy have become its main instruments. Some European countries
have obviously supported the PKK; furthermore, they have held their
meetings in those countries that proclaim themselves defenders of human rights.

Given this, the as-yet-unhealed wound of the Kurdish people in Southeastern
Turkey who were exhausted by blood, pain and tears is being reopened
through this new strategy of the PKK that proclaims a "War of Defence",
using uprisings in the chaotic atmosphere caused by the looming U.S.-led
war on Iraq. According to the statement of Osman Ocalan of KADEK, the new
version of the PKK; cities, villages, all parts of Turkey and, in
particular, Southeastern Turkey, that have been the stage for bloody
clashes in the past, will become a battlefield. Ocalan added in his
statement that all institutions of the system would be targets. "It will
include not only military targets but the whole of life." These words of
Ocalan will mean a nightmare for people living in Southeastern Turkey if
they come true.

The answer as to why uprisings will create serious problems underlies
KADEK's position in northern Iraq, Syria and Iran. KADEK has not been met
with open arms in northern Iraq, which is dominated by Kurdish groups PUK
and KDP. Besides this, military operations organized by Iran and Syria on
their own soil close to the Turkish border targeted KADEK and if the
Turkish army is to cross into the northern Iraq during the probable
U.S.-led war on that country, it will also aim to destroy KADEK units
deployed in the mountains of northern Iraq.

According to KADEK, the main reason for breaking the peaceful atmosphere of
the last four years is the bad treatment meted out to Abdullah Ocalan and
delayed Kurdish rights. However, KADEK, in this impasse, is also trying to
show that they are still powerful in spite of the capture and imprisonment
of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

One result of KADEK's activities is of course that security measures will
be correspondingly increased to provide calm throughout Turkey, including
increased measures against the inflow of KADEK terrorists onto Turkish
soil. Eventually the government will declare emergency rule in Southeastern
Turkey. As a result, the people of Southeastern Turkey, who were only able
to draw a fresh breath after 1999, will open their eyes to bloody, painful
days again. What will happen will happen to innocent people.

This blood, pain and tears will not add value to the so-called liberation
movement. When we looked at the strategy promulgated by KADEK, that has
fallen into limbo after Abdullah Ocalan's capture, the decision to leave
their guns behind and seek a political and diplomatic solution to the
question seemed logical instead of pushing people, especially in the
backward Southeastern Turkey, into the same hell.

Turkey made remarkable progress in human rights by legislating the human
rights' reform related to the Kurdish question within the framework of her
EU candidacy. These reforms may have been suspended because of the looming
U.S.-led attack against neighboring Iraq, but these reforms were
appreciated and more were expected by the EU and some European countries
that supported the PKK anyway; they will be back on track after the
standoff in Iraq.

Under this new strategy, KADEK, added to the list of terrorist
organizations by the U.S., may not get the support of those countries that
don't want to be in the dilemma of supporting KADEK while appreciating the
reforms in Turkey. KADEK is also aware of this danger, so they are calling
their upcoming attacks a war of "defense", using am uprising by KADEK
sympathizers and supporters. This is not anything other than an attempt to
escape from an impasse in northern Iraq.

However, the reaction of the people, who have tasted peace after two bloody
decades, to this unrest should not be dismissed lightly. So KADEK, or the
PKK, will shoot itself in the foot.

-----

9) Mumcu takes measures against PKK propaganda in Nevruz
Turkish Daily News
February 27, 2003

Education Minister Erkan Mumcu asked primary, secondary and high school
administrations across Turkey not to allow the raising of any banner or
flag except the Turkish flag during celebrations for the approaching Nevruz
day.

Nevruz is marked on March 21 every year and it has been a scene for clashes
between security forces and groups demonstrating in support of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

No banner containing separatist slogans will be allowed in Nevruz
celebrations, Mumcu said in a circular sent to schools attached to his
ministry.

He said Nevruz was a traditional Turkish feast and added celebrations to
mark the day would be held in state schools across Turkey.

"Nevruz celebrations are as important as a national day. No banner or flag
other than the Turkish flag will be allowed in celebrations," Mumcu said in
his circular.

Packages containing aid materials will be prepared for delivery to primary
school students in impoverished southeastern Anatolian provinces.

A group of students and teachers from schools in eastern and southeastern
Anatolia will arrive in Ankara on March 21 for special Nevruz Day
celebrations here.

Students will be encouraged to send their drawings and articles to national
Nevruz Day contests to be held by the Culture Ministry.

Governor's offices will be in charge of organizing official Nevruz
celebrations in every province.

-----

10) Fight against PKK is out of question in case of a war
Turkish Daily News
Murat Unlu
March 2, 2003

As a war in the region seems inevitable, Turkey will apparently try to take
maximum advantage from the U.S.'s wish to wage a war against Iraq, deeming
this an occasion to secure its national interests in the region.

Very first of all, Turkey has continuously declared that establishment of a
Kurdish state in northern Iraq is a "casus belli" for it, deriving lessons
from it's 15 year long fight against separatist terrorist organization
Kurdistan Workers' Party.

Turkey's main reasons for intervening in northern Iraq is being voiced by
officials as to prevent the possible establishment of a Kurdish state and
eradicate PKK militants in the region, besides humanitarian aid in case of
a possible refugee flow.

Clashes between the PKK and the Turkish army have fallen off dramatically
since the 1999 capture and imprisonment of terrorist chieftain Abdullah
Ocalan. Most of the PKK have withdrawn to northern Iraq, which is run
beyond Baghdad's control.

The PKK, which also goes by the name KADEK, launched an armed campaign for
an ethnic homeland in the southeastern part of Turkey in 1984. Over 30,000
people died in the conflict, most of them Kurds.

Military analysts say there is still a thousand PKK militants inside
Turkey, while northern Iraq is a lair for 4,000 militants.

Kandil mountain is being indicated as the main lair of the PKK which is 100
kilometers as the crow flies from the Turkish border and 150 kilometers by
road.

"PKK is not Turkey's priority in the region. I think Turkey will not target
the PKK directly, because there would be very important strategic changes
in the region," said military analyst Ali Nihat Ozcan.

"The geography of the region is so appropriate for terrorists conducting a
guerilla war, and Turkey needs 200,000 soldiers to fight 4-5,000
militants," said Ozcan, and added, "If Turkey engages in that problem may
miss its main targets in northern Iraq."

The deal, designed to persuade Turkey to allow U.S. troops to use its bases
for an attack on Iraq, foresees that Turkish troops will cross the 218-mile
Turkish-Iraqi border along with U.S. troops and proceed at least 121-122
miles into the rugged Kurdish-inhabited hills to prevent a flow of refugees
into Turkey and maintain stability and security in the region.

Armagan Kuloglu, a retired Turkish general with the Center for Eurasian
Strategic Studies, told the Washington Post that the Turkish military would
stay back and see if U.S. troops follow through on U.S. promises, but would
not hesitate to move beyond the 121.5-mile limit to protect Turkey's
interests if it believed the United States was not doing so.

Kuluglu said the mission of the Turkish military would be to stop Iraqi
Kurds from seizing oil fields near Kirkuk and Mosul that would give them
economic power to establish an autonomous state.

"We're talking about Turkey's security. We can't entrust our security
entirely to another party. We have to be ready to take steps ourselves if
necessary," he said. "The mission would be to control northern Iraq,
temporarily."

Abdullah Ocalan still ordering PKK from prison

At the latest, a report prepared for Abdullah Ocalan on the recent and
possible developments was found inside the newspapers that was being
carried by one of his lawyers who was visiting him. Turkey had allowed this
visit after weeks, delaying the previous visits because of heavy weather
conditions making it difficult to reach Imrali island prison which hosts
the terrorist chieftain.

Asked, is Abdullah Ocalan still ordering the terrorist organization from
prison, Ozcan said, "Abdullah Ocalan is still the leader of the terrorist
organization, and the PKK is not doing anything without taking orders from
Abdullah Ocalan."

"The PKK had some problems taking decisions because they couldn't establish
contact with their leader.

Turkish authorities did not give permission to them to establish contact
for a long time," indicated Ozcan.

Asked on the possible actions of the terrorist organization in a possible
war atmosphere, Ozcan said Turkey will consider that they may embark on
terrorist actions also inside Turkey.

"Also the terrorist organization may be forced to change its format by
Turkey. The discussions would go on as the militants has no task to do,"
indicated Ozcan.

"I think the PKK problem must be solved by the U.S. after a possible war,
since the U.S. made commitments to eradicate terrorism in the world."

Asked on a possible alliance between the Kurdish factions and PKK, Ozcan
said an alliance is not possible between the PKK and the Kurdish factions
in the region in the case of a chaotic atmosphere.

"Since, the structure of the groups are completely different. Kurdish
factions are depending on tribes made up of villagers, on the other hand
the PKK is claiming that it has national bases. There is a party perception
in the region, that Turkish people had difficulties in understanding this,
their organization structure is very different," stated Ozcan.

------

11) PKK continues arming
Turkish Daily News
March 8, 2003

Terrorist organization the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), with its new
name Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK), continues arming,
Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

The PKK earlier threatened to take up arms again against Turkey, which they
claimed would use a war in Iraq to crush their movement.

The terrorist organization brought 60 SA-7-alike air defense weapons, hand
grenades, kalashnikovs and ammunition, 500-meters of explosive fuses and
500 detonators to the Sinath-Haftanin region thanks to smugglers in
northern Iraq.

The terrorist organization's member responsible for weapons and equipment
was reported to have bought 420 Kalashnikovs, 250,000 bullets and 500 hand
grenades from the smugglers and paid their money in U.S. dollars in advance.

The organization is also claimed to be seeking gas masks. It's reported
that the organization has missiles and Stingers. The missiles were located
in the organization's defense region in northern Iraq, while the
Kalashnikovs and hand grenades were sent to Kandil Mountain.

Meanwhile, it's reported that the terrorist organization has some 5,000
members, 700 in Turkey and the rest in Iraq, while the terrorists, who were
in Turkey, were moved to camps in northern Iraq.

Clashes between the terrorist organization and Turkish security forces led
to the death of more than 30,000 people since 1984. The terrorist
organization is no longer the force they were in the 1980s and 1990s and
have largely withdrawn to northern Iraq since Turkey captured Ocalan in 1999.

------

12) Forget Hussein. Iraq's Kurds Are Free Already.
New York Times
By STEPHEN KINZER
March 2, 2003

ON March 21, Kurds everywhere will celebrate Newroz, a traditional spring
holiday that brings people together to share songs, folk dances and special
cakes. In the Kurdish enclave of northern Iraq, the only place in the world
where Kurds govern themselves, thousands of men will make the traditional
leap over a blazing fire as their friends wave Kurdish flags.

Across the border in Turkey, the celebration will be different. Newspapers
are required to call the holiday Nevruz, because that is the Turkish rather
than Kurdish spelling. It cannot be officially described as a Kurdish
holiday, only as a national day for all Turks. And under a government
directive issued last week, no Kurdish flags may be displayed, only the
flag of Turkey.

While Kurds in Turkey still live under a web of restrictions, those in
northern Iraq govern themselves and have almost unlimited freedom to
embrace their communal identity. So it is no surprise that Iraqi Kurds have
erupted in protest at the news that thousands of Turkish soldiers would
enter their enclave if the planned American invasion of Iraq takes place.
Some have burned Turkish flags. Others have declared themselves ready to
fight if Turkish troops move more than 12 miles inside their territory, a
limit the Turks have tentatively accepted.

The Kurds, a non-Arab ethnic group, most of whom are Muslims, number about
30 million. But they have never had a state of their own and live in a
half-dozen countries in the Middle East and southern Caucasus. Now, of all
the dramas that could be played out after an American invasion of Iraq, the
one in that country's Kurdish provinces might turn out to be the wildest.

"It's very, very easy for this to blow up," said Henri J. Barkey, who has
written about the Kurds and is a former member of the State Department's
policy planning staff.

In the 11 years since the end of the gulf war, Kurds in northern Iraq have
built their enclave into a surprisingly prosperous democracy. If Saddam
Hussein is overthrown, they will insist on holding onto their autonomy
rather than submitting to rule from Baghdad. That prospect deeply troubles
some of their neighbors, especially Turkey, which fears that a thriving
Kurdistan on its border would be seductive to its own large Kurdish population.

"Turkey wants to be sure that the Kurds in northern Iraq don't get autonomy
or a federal state within the new Iraq," said Siamend Hajo, a Kurdish
researcher based in Berlin. "The Kurds will insist on getting exactly that,
and they have 100,000 highly motivated fighters."

In the fourth century B.C., the Greek commander Xenophon encountered
tribesmen who were probably ancestors of today's Kurds, and wrote that they
"were very warlike and did not obey the king." For centuries, most Kurds
saw themselves more as members of a particular clan or tribe than as a part
of a Kurdish nation. That made it easy for others to divide and suppress
them. In the last few decades, however, many Kurds have developed a keen
sense of Kurdishness, and yearn to redeem their people from what they see
as bondage at the hands of hostile powers.

Most countries in the Middle East, including Iraq, are creations of
European statesmen, who drew their borders without concern for ethnic or
regional identities. Arabs embraced nationalism early in the 20th century.
Jewish nationalism later led to the creation of Israel. Now the Kurds
believe it is their turn.
In seeking wide-ranging autonomy within a new Iraq, the Kurds can argue
that they have built the only democracy that has ever existed on Iraqi
soil, one that could be a model for the rest of the country.

Leaders of Middle Eastern countries, however, worry that regional autonomy
is too dangerous an idea to introduce in the Middle East. They point to
Yugoslavia and Lebanon as examples of what autonomy can produce, and fear
that Kurdish nationalism in Iraq will encourage a resurgence of separatism
among their own Kurdish populations.

There are 12 million Kurds in Turkey and millions more in Iran and Syria.
If a Kurdish enclave is allowed to thrive in northern Iraq, might these
Kurds give it their loyalty and abandon their ties to the countries in
which they live? Might they even ask to join it? These questions terrify
the leaders of Turkey, Iran and Syria.

By a quirk of history, American preparations for an invasion of Iraq began
just as a new government took power in Turkey that seemed ready to embrace
Kurdish aspirations. Last year the Turkish Parliament eased restrictions on
Kurdish education and broadcasting. Now, with Turkey`s fears of nationalism
again aroused, that policy is suspended.

"The Turkish state was finally on a track toward reconciling itself with
Kurds and their identity," said Kemal Kirisci, a political scientist at
Bosphorus University in Istanbul. "That's all in jeopardy now."

Under other circumstances, Kurds might be a stabilizing factor in the
Middle East. Allowing them to develop a regional center in northern Iraq
would give leaders there an ability to influence Kurds elsewhere. They
demonstrated that several years ago by helping to persuade Kurds in Iran to
live at peace with the Iranian government. But with various Kurdish leaders
vying for power in northern Iraq and emotions running high, the idea of
allowing Kurds to become regional power brokers terrifies every regime in
the neighborhood.

Arabs have not forgotten that Turks ruled them for centuries when what is
now Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire. The specter of Turks again using
military power to try to influence events in an Arab country touches many
delicate nerves.

"This situation," said John E. Woods, director of the Center for Middle
Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago, "is looking more Ottoman all
the time."

------

13) Kurdish Rebels Ready to Fight to the Death for their Cause
Telegraph
Mar 10, 2003

They recognise no God, seek no payment and kill with revolutionary
fervour. When they die their bodies are buried in mountain meadows far
from their grieving families.

Their pin-ups are Che Guevera, Ho Chi Minh and Lenin, their heroes
women who have set fire to themselves to publicise the cause and
young men who have been tortured to death in Turkish prisons.
Welcome to the ranks of the PKK, the Kurdish Workers' Party.

The guerrillas, ideologically-committed and battle-hardened, are
readying themselves for battle with Turkey, and, if necessary, the
Western allies to defend their dream of a Kurdish homeland.

For 14 years the PKK has survived a war with the Turkish state that
has claimed 20,000 lives, left 4,000 Kurdish villages destroyed and
displaced more than two million Kurds from their homes.

In 1999 they suffered an almost fatal setback when Abdullah Ocalan,
their founder, leader and spiritual guide, was captured.

But high in the rugged Qandil mountains of northern Iraq in places
accessible only by foot or horse, the comrades are back on the warpath.

The PKK leaders are furious with the allied war plan to allow Turkish
troops to fan out in northern Iraq and the insistence that Kurds drop
demands for regional Kurdish autonomy in a post-Saddam Iraq.

Last week - the first time Western journalists have been allowed into
the PKK's mountain strongholds in more than a year - I and a colleague
visited them.

Reaching the PKK's remote camps involved a perilous journey. From the
small town of Raniyah in northern Iraq, we were taken on a terrifying
hour-long drive across no man's land.

The road was narrow and slippery and barely clung to the
mountainside. Each side of the rutted mountain track was mined.

Officials had warned us to take bodyguards to protect against highway
robbers, but none was willing to come. First one of our cars broke
down, then the other. For the last stretch, we shouldered our packs
and walked.

The guerrillas were polite, but unsmiling. In these parts Britain is
remembered for reneging on a promise to grant the Kurds their own
homeland after the First World War.

Osman Ocalan, the fugitive younger brother of Abdullah and a leading
member of the 11 man PKK central committee was our host. He told
us: "If the Turks come it means they are here to destroy the freedom
of the Kurds. We will launch a new guerrilla war.

"We will take military actions throughout Turkey, in the countryside
and in the cities. We will attack Turkey's economy, its military and its
bureaucracy." Western planners would be unwise to take the PKK
threat lightly. In two decades the Turkish army has failed to destroy
the group, which at 10,000 men is smaller but far tougher than the
leading Iraqi Kurdish militias, the PUK and KDP.

It already has a proven terrorist record - in the early 1990s the group
targeted Turkish army bases and tourist destinations and kidnapped
Western tourists.

Both America and the European Union still list it as a terrorist
organisation, despite a name change a year ago to the Kurdish
Freedom and Democracy Congress.

Mr Ocalan added: "We don't want to oppose America and we will tread
very carefully. But if they don't change our label as terrorists we will
oppose them with all our means. We will never allow ourselves to be
disarmed as long as the Kurdish issue is not settled." The PKK's core is
heavily indoctrinated with Marxist theory and units are overseen by a
Soviet-style political officer.

Akif, a Kurd who was brought up in Britain and Germany but returned to
the mountains to fight for the cause, said: "In Europe I would always
be looked down on. Here I am free and ready to die for what I believe in."

Cuma Ali, 27, half-Macedonian and half-Turkish, joined the PKK
because of its Socialist ideals. He said: "The central committee is our
will. Whatever it says is necessary for the millions of Kurds in Kurdistan
we will do, even if that means fighting America."

-----

14) Kurds will fight back if Turkey enters Iraq
The Times
10 March 2003
>From Anthony Loyd in Northern Iraq

THE most powerful Kurdish militant group has threatened to resume its war
with Turkey, should
Ankara's Armed Forces enter northern Iraq.

"We will undertake military actions throughout Turkey, in the countryside
and cities, on military,
economic and bureaucratic targets," said Othman Ocalan, 47, a commander of
Kadek, the
Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, formerly known as the PKK.

A bear-like figure who said that he possessed nothing but the uniform in
which he stood and a
.38 Smith & Wesson seized from a dead Turkish commando officer, Mr Ocalan
was speaking in
his Qandil Mountain stronghold in Iraq.

The younger brother of the group's imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, and
a leading member
of its Central Committee, Othman Ocalan withheld support of a US invasion
of Iraq and
rejected the proposed postwar disarmament of Kadek while the Kurdish issue
remained
unsolved.

"Until the British and American policy on Kurdistan clears we won't back
them," he said. "There
will be no Kadek disarmament if the US demands it. In this instance we will
resist them very
strongly."

With some 10,000 fighters deployed inside Turkey, Iran and northern Iraq,
Kadek also wields
great power among the Kurdish diaspora in Europe, where it can put
thousands of Kurdish
activists and demonstrators on the streets.

Mr Ocalan made clear that for him the future of the Kurds was paramount and
the fate of
Saddam Hussein almost incidental.

Although other Kurdish rebel armies claim larger gross numbers than Kadek,
Mr Ocalan's
group is a full-time, professional army. Espousing a mix of
Marxist-Leninist ideology with
pan-Kurdish nationalism, members of the armed wing are lectured by
political cadres on the
outlook of figures such as Ché Guevara, Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong for up
to six hours a
day. Sex and marriage are discouraged and fighters have neither pay nor
possessions other than
their uniform and weapons.

"I never hung out in bars with girls, even during my years in Europe," said
Akif, a 27-year-old
fighter, who spent his teens in Wood Green and Westminster. "For me the
cause was always
more important than possessions, and after the bad treatment I received by
officials in Britain I
wanted to return to my Kurdish roots in this clean ideological environment
and participate in the
struggle."

The indoctrination and hardiness of its fighters and leadership was vividly
apparent in their snowy
Qandil Mountain base. The terrain, accessible only by foot, mule or
pack-pony, was a natural
fortress of cloud, buttressed peaks and plunging ravines. Eight Kadek
fighters died in a recent
avalanche here - they are said to be commonplace.

Fighters armed with Ak47 and M16 rifles could be seen ascending valleys in
patrol-sized groups
on their way to bases at higher altitude, where they have been
strengthening positions and
distributing ammunition in anticipation of action. Word of the potential
Turkish entry to northern
Iraq appeared to have galvanised them with a new morale. The cult-like
atmosphere, with its
emphasis on self-sacrifice, was enhanced by a shrine to Kadek dead at the
foot of the Qandil
range. Dominated by the portrait of Abdullah Ocalan and the organisation's
red and yellow flag,
photographs of assassinated leaders, slain fighters, suicide bombers and
self-immolating
protesters hung from whitewashed walls.

"For us martyrdom is the bridge between the people, the comrades, and the
cause itself: the
cement of unification," explained Raperin, a 34-year-old Syrian Kurd
fighter and one of the
women who comprise a third of Kadek's strike forces.

In 1997 the United States named the PKK as one of the world's top 30
terrorist organisations.
To date it has not struck American targets, but Othman Ocalan did not rule
out a change in
strategy. "We don't want to oppose America and in this matter we will tread
very carefully. But
if they don't change our label as terrorists then we will oppose them with
all means," he said.

"Kurds in the east, in the north, in Europe will back Kadek. Any force
which does not find a
solution for all parts of Kurdistan will gain our antipathy."

Formed in 1978 to counter the repression of Kurds living in Turkey, in 1984
the PKK began a
guerrilla campaign. Some 20,000 people died as the group's militant wing
attacked Turkish
security forces, judicial figures, teachers, landowners and local
authorities. The Turkish Army
responded with equal brutality, using tactics not unlike those of Iraq
against Kurdish guerrillas.
Up to

3,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed or emptied by the authorities during
the creation of a
security zone in southern Turkey, while two million Kurds were displaced
northwards.

After Abdullah Ocalan's arrest in 1999, the PKK changed its tactics.
Renaming itself Kadek in
2002, its leadership contended that the armed struggle was on hold pending the
"democratisation" of Turkey, a decision that it declared to be reversed
last month.

-----

15) Without GIs There, Turks, Kurds May Battle for Oil BY SCOTT CARRIER
Salt Lake City Tribune
March 9, 2003

CIZRE, Turkey -- The Internet cafe is on the second floor of a decrepit,
concrete building in Cizre, southeastern Turkey, close to the borders with
Syria and northern Iraq. The Tigris River is a couple hundred yards down
the road.

It's 9 p.m., and the room is smoky and dimly lit by fluorescent tubes. It
is packed with 15 old computers, all used by Kurdish boys playing the same
video game of urban warfare, complete with sound effects of explosions and
gunfire.

Outside on the street below, oil tankers rumble and growl through the mud
and deep pools of water from the rain and snow that have been falling for
days. It's cold in here.

The tankers have come from the oil fields of northern Iraq and head west to
the Mediterranean Sea -- about 40 trucks in one hour alone crossing the
bridge over the river. There are no trucks headed in the other direction,
toward Iraq. Turkey has shut off all traffic in that direction. No one can
get through, including the 62,000 troops the United States wanted to deploy
in Turkey.

Polls here indicate that 90 percent of the Turkish people are opposed to a
war with Iraq, and today there were 50,000 of them protesting in the
streets of Ankara.

The situation is complicated.

First, the topography. Cizre (pronounced jeez-re) is about 5,000 feet above
sea level, close to the elevation of Salt Lake City, and there are
mountains in every direction. These are the eastern Anatolian Mountains,
10,000 to 12,000 feet high and the headwaters for the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers that flow south through Iraq to the Persian Gulf.

The Tigris River is the color of the Colorado and holds about the same
volume of water as at the confluence with the Green in Canyonlands. Nobody
floats on the river here, though, as there are guard towers on both shores
-- Turkish troops on one side and Syrian troops a few miles downstream on
the other.

Cizre has a population of about 70,000. It is crowded and dirty; trees are
scarce. In the morning, women go up on rooftops and pull tiny twigs from a
pile to make a fire.

The people who live here are predominantly Kurdish, and Cizre is more or
less in the center of what is sometimes called Kurdistan. There are 25
million Kurds, spread out in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, as well as
scattered about Europe and the United States. They have their own language
and culture, and they would like to have their own country.

Since World War I, Kurds have fought wars for independence with Iran, Iraq
and Turkey -- all failures ending with dismal consequences. The latest
insurrection began in 1984 here in southeastern Turkey and was led by the
Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). Some 30,000 people on both sides were
killed. The Kurds have been living under martial law conditions ever since.

Until Turkey began easing up on the Kurds as part of its campaign to enter
the European Union, it was forbidden for a Kurd to speak with a foreigner.
A Turkish policeman said that the Kurds are not human; a Kurdish man used
the same words to describe Turks.

However, the Kurds living south of here, in northern Iraq, have been
protected within the northern no-fly zone since 1991. They have set up
their own democratic government and are prospering from the food-for-oil
program within the U.N. sanctions on Iraq. They say things have never been
better.

So what will happen now that the United States will not be allowed to
deploy its troops in Turkey?

The main part of this question is who will control the oil fields around
Kirkuk and Mosul, the Iraqi cities just south of the northern no-fly zone.
These fields produce one-third of Iraq's oil at a cost of 75 cents per
barrel; it goes for $37 or so at present on the open market.

Turkey believes this area historically belongs to it. It insists Kirkuk and
Mosul were part of the Ottoman Empire, but that they were lost under a bad
treaty signed in the 1920s.

The Kurds also have historic claims to the cities, stating that the great
Kurdish military leader Salah al Din was born in Kirkuk in 1138, during the
era of the Christian Crusades.

The plan was that the U.S. troops would move into the area, take the oil
fields and keep the Kurds and Turkish military from starting a war with
each other. Now there may well be such a confrontation.

People in Cizre are worried. They are afraid that the Turkish military will
launch an offensive on Kirkuk and Mosul in order to prevent the Iraqi Kurds
from taking control of the area. And they are fearful that Saddam Hussein
will send biological and chemical warheads to Cizre once the war begins.

During the 1991 Gulf War, everybody left Cizre, leaving only "chickens and
dogs in the streets." None of them want war. They know from experience that
when war begins they die, for real, not like in a video game.

Scott Carrier is a freelance writer from Salt Lake City who is attempting
to get into Iraq.

-----

16) Turkish Kurds ambivalent about war with Iraq
Jerusalem Post
MATTHEW GUTMAN
March 2, 2003

SILOPI, ON THE TURKISH-IRAQI BORDER As their brethren convened in
Kurdish-held northern Iraq Thursday to discuss the fate of Iraq after the
coming war, Turkey's Kurds remained fiercely ambivalent about the prospects
of another one with their neighbor to the southeast.

Yet the war loomed ever nearer as Turkey bolstered its forces in the
southeast and the Turkish ambassador was recalled from Baghdad.

Dozens of Turkish Army trucks filled with soldiers pushed eastward toward
Iraq down this sleepy town's central drag, Ipek Yol, as tankers rumbled
westward back into Turkey.

It is a war that few in Turkey want, including the 15 million Kurds in this
nation of 70 million polls indicate 94 percent of the population oppose the
war.

Here in the southeast, the deployment of troops has left Turkey's largest
majority anxious. In the Silopi headquarters of the People's Democracy
Party (HEDEP), affiliated with the Kurdish Workers Party terrorist group,
the mood was grim.

Unemployed men sitting on wobbly plastic chairs and puffing on hand-rolled
cigarettes stared off into space or flipped through old newspapers.

"Bush's war will be bad for us," says Ismet Tokay, a reporter from the
occasionally banned Ozgur Gondam Kurdish weekly, nodding his head toward
the truck full of soldiers carefully monitoring those who enter the party
offices.

Tokay and his comrades fear the southeast will once again become a
militarized zone as it was during much of the 1980s and 1990s, when Turkey
fought a bloody war against the PKK and its now jailed leader Abdullah
Ocalan. As many as 30,000 people died and whole villages were wiped out in
skirmishes and as a result of Turkey's efforts to crush the terrorist group.

Turkey, which only a decade ago recognized the existence of the 25 million
Kurds as a separate ethnicity, said this week it intends to post tens of
thousands of troops in northern Iraq to prevent the destablization of the
border area.

Local Kurds speak of the avarice of the Turkish government eyeing Iraq's
oil. Those who once hoped to see the establishment of a Kurdish state in
northern Iraq had their hopes dashed this week when Turkey announced that
it will position up to 60,000 troops in the area to prevent just that.

Turkey has coveted the oil-rich region since the European powers drew the
state's final borders in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, lopping off what was
once part of the Ottoman Empire.

While statelessness and tribal warfare have been constants for the Kurds
since the first written mention of the people 26 centuries ago, so has
trade. Like other towns in the area, Silopi served as a stop on the ancient
Silk Route, and until September 11 attacks slowed trade with northern Iraq
to a crawl as many as 1,000 tankers a day crossed into Iraq from this town
of 50,000 to buy gasoline and sell it at hiked rates in Turkey.

Silopi has thrived on the illicit but largely condoned gasoline trade
between Iraq and Turkey. During the late 1990's Kurds paid Turkish
officials a 10% surcharge to cross the border and then sold the gas to the
government-owned TPIC fuel concern.

Across the street from the Silopi's stately government building, Kamil, 24,
tapped on the glass case displaying cheap silver trinkets in his jewelry
shop. "War would end our trade with northern Iraq," he stated matter-of-factly.

The conversation was interrupted for a few minutes when two members of the
secret police visited the store.

Kamil and some of the half dozen men crammed into his smoky shop had
chipped in to buy a truck. One load of gasoline could earn them as much as
$1,000. It is a kingly wage in an area where most workers often net no more
than $350 a month.

Now his truck lies among the rusted hulks of abandoned tankers littering
the road to Silopi by the thousands, soon to be relics of what appears to
be inevitable regional upheaval.

However Silopi governor Unal Cakici said that the government is "prepared
to protect its citizens under any eventuality."

Mehmet Sever, the squat proprietor of the Ciragan restaurant off Ipek Yol
thumped his chest, "I am a proud Kurd but this war is already a disaster
for us."

The image of 500,000 Kurds tumbling over the murky Habor River from Iraq
and into this sleepy town remain embedded in the minds of local Kurds.

But the anti-war sentiment here is hardly unanimous. At the Cagal barber
shop, Jalal Turk said bluntly: "Saddam deserves to die, you will find no
mercy for him here," tracing a finger across his neck to illustrate his
point. "He has killed too many Kurds."

While estimates vary wildly Kurds put it at 180,000 it is known that from
1988 to 1991 Saddam was responsible for the deaths of scores of thousands
of Kurds and the destruction of dozens of villages.

"Anyway, the sooner the war starts the sooner it will end. And this end is
what we are all waiting for. Perhaps God will help America beat Saddam," he
said.

----

17) Post-Saddam Era to foster economy in Southeastern Turkey
Turkish Daily News
by Serdar Alyamac
March 7, 2003

Businessmen of the southeast region that plunged into economic crises
because of a war atmosphere in the last three months caused by the looming
the U.S.-led attack against neighboring Iraq hold out hopes for a
post-Saddam period. However, southeastern businessmen believe that the
economic plights deepened with Parliament's refusal over the deployment of
U.S. troops on Turkish soil.

One of the most important sectors in the southeast region of Turkey is the
border trade which has been relapsed due to the embargo implemented against
Iraq over a United Nation resolution. The economy of the region that has
been stage for the bloody clashes between Turkish security forces and
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), was in plight for about 16
years. The sources of livelihood in the region, stockbreeding and
agriculture were thrown into a very bad recession that crippled the region.

The region's businessmen, who already felt the impact of the war atmosphere
with war on Iraq, are hoping that after the U.S. ousts Saddam Hussein, the
leader of Iraq, the U.N. will lift embargoes and border trade will foster
again. They also believe that Parliament's refusal over the deployment of
U.S. troops extended the economic plights in the region.

The southeast region Industrialists and Businessmen Association Chairman
Bedrettin Kmaraboga, talking to the Turkish Daily News, said that
Parliament's refusal over the deployment of U.S. troops on Turkish soil
would damage Turkey. "With the disapproval of Parliament over American
troops' deployment on Turkish soil, Turkey will not have a say in the
economic and political rebuilding of Iraq. This decision of Parliament
damaged the region's economy too, so that the economic balances were shaken
seriously."

Stating that southeast region has been in a war for about 16 years,
Karaboga said, "We know the damage of war on society. We do not want a war.
However, it is inevitable, Turkey should also take its position in this war."

Talking about the scenarios on whether Turkey takes place in this war on
Iraq, Karaboga said, "If Turkey takes a role in this war and Saddam is
ousted, Turkey would be very profitable. However, If Turkey remains out of
this war and Saddam is ousted, Turkey would have nothing. Furthermore, in
any case a Kurdish state is established, Turkey will implement embargoes
against Iraq and what will happen to our economy?"

The Chairman of Sirnak Chamber of Industry and Commerce Kamil Ilhan also
said that Turkey has a structure dependent on the U.S. "We expected that
Parliament approve the deployment of U.S. troops on Turkish soil, however
they did not. We are economically damaged," said Ilhan.

Stating that a second bid on the U.S. demand for deployment of troops
should not be passed from by Parliament, Ilhan said, "Our economy was
already damaged with the refusal decision of Parliament. If the second
motion come on the agenda of Parliament, our honour will be damaged this time."

The name of war was enough to damage the region's backward economy, said
Ilhan. He added, "We have been in a war atmosphere for three months when
the U.S. started to deploy its troops in the Gulf region. The government
has already closed the border gate. If this process is prolonged, it will
be chaos for us. If this war occurs, it should be as soon as possible."

Diyarbakir Chamber of Industry and Commerce chairman Kutbettin Arzu also
stressed that they appreciated the decision of the Parliament rejecting the
deployment of U.S. troops on Turkish soil. "If there would be a war, we
should not be in that. Of course we will encounter economic plight, but
Turkey is a great country."

Emphasizing that there was already no economy in the southeast region, Arzu
said that the region's economy has been crippled for a long time. "The
economy of the region has relapsed. The real problem is indefinites.
Everything is in limbo at the moment. Whatever will happen should happen.
In any case, Turkey has the power to compensate the damages of a war on Iraq."

-----

18) Turkey court frees spy suspects
BBC
March 4, 2003

Representatives of four Germanm foundations have been acquitted of
activities against
the Turkish state by a court in Ankara.

The state security court rejected charges that the 15 defendants - nine
Germans and six
Turks  had formed a "secret alliance" with local groups to undermine and
spy on the
Turkish state.

The case had stirred tensions between Germany and aspiring EU member
Turkey, as
all the foundations had strong links to established German political blocs.

The defendants had vigorously denied the charges, with one describing them as
"outrageous and completely ill-founded".

Mine allegation

The charges appeared to relate to civil activities - such as assisting with
campaigning
and educational activities in Kurdish communities.

One charge alleged that some of the foundations, which have a similar civil
role as
non-governmental organisations, helped communities in the west of Turkey
mount a
campaign against gold mining in the area on environmental grounds.

The charge said this aimed to prevent Turkey from exploiting its natural
resources.

Our correspondent in Ankara, Jonny Dymond, says the foundation
did indeed provide support to a local campaign against a mine -
but that most governments recognise this type of civil activity as legitimate.

The foundations also assisted in the running of Kurdish language programmes.

The court seems to have agreed with the defendants that none
of these activities could be construed as spying or an attempt to
undermine the state.

Anti-EU theory

Our correspondent says the extremity of the charges prompted
another theory regarding the true motivation of the charges.

This suggests that anti-EU elements in Turkey manipulated the
charges to breed hostility in Germany toward Turkey's bid to join the EU.

The charges were instigated by a nationalist prosecutor who has
since retired, says news agency Associated Press.

Another prosecutor last week recommended the charges be
dropped, it reports.