Droits de l'Homme / Human Rights

Erdoğan reste fidèle aux méthodes sinistres de ses prédécesseurs

Malgré aux apparences, la Turquie vit en ce moment une des pages la plus noire de son histoire: les violations massives des droits de l’homme, les pratiques anti-démocratiques dont la censure des médias et l’incarcération de dizaines de journalistes, la répression menée à l’égard du peuple kurde à tous les niveaux, y compris l’emprisonnement des enfants par centaines, accusés d’être membre et/ou d’avoir créé (sic) une organisation terroriste.

Le Premier ministre turc, M. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a déclaré la guerre totale à l’égard de toute personne qui ne pense pas comme lui. Pour ce faire, il a commencé à mettre au pas les médias d’opposition avec des censures, amendes très elévées, arrestations et condamnations des journalistes et dirigeants de ces dernières.

Actuellement, 57 journalistes dont 11 rédacteurs en chef ou directeurs de publication sont incarcérés. Ainsi, la Turquie tient le triste record du monde dans l’incarcération des journalistes. Aujourd’hui, seules les médias qui se font la porte parole du gouvernement ne sont pas inquiétées en Turquie.

 Les prisons turques sont devenues une cimetière. Selon les données officielles, en 2010, 161 détenus sont décédés en raison de manque de soins et 38 autres se seraient suicidés. A l’heure actuelle, 385 prisonniers malades, dont l’état de santé de 122 d’entre eux nécessite un traitement urgent, attendent toujours d’être soignés. Faut-il le rappeler, on compte près de 7’000 prisonniers politiques dans les géoles turques et des milliers d’arrestations arbitraires chaque année (plus de 7’000 en 2010) qui indiquent le degré des politiques anti-démocratiques et répressives du gouvernement turc.

Toujours en 2010, 6 personnes ont été tuées sous la torture en garde à vue et 1349 personnes se sont plaintes d’avoir été torturées ou subis des mauvais traitements dans des lieux de détention.

L’aide humanitaire à la Somalie, des bombes pour les villages Kurdes

Le Premier Ministre turc s’est récemment rendu à Mogadischo, accompagnées de quelques vedettes de showbizz et d’un groupe de journalistes turcs, pour apporter de l’aide humanitaire aux affamés du corne de l’Afrique.

Au même moment, les chasseurs turcs, en concertation avec l’armée iranienne, bombardaient les villages kurdes en Irak faisant 7 victimes parmi les civiles, dont 4 enfants et 1 femme, et détruisant totalement 126 villages.

Famille kurde irakienne décimée lors des bombardements de l’armée turque

Il semblerait que le Premier Ministre turc n’a pas digéré la victoire électorale du parti BDP (pro-kurde) qui a obtenu 36 sièges au parlement turc lors des élections législatives du 12 juin 2011. Et ce, malgré une répresion féroce contre les élus, cadres et dirigeants de ce parti (1600 d’entre eux ont été incarcérés avant les élections avec des accusations fallacieuses) et une loi électorale défavorable aux minorités. D’ailleurs, 6 d’entre eux, élus au parlement lors des élections précitées, n’ont toujours pas été libérés. De plus, le gouvernement turc a fait annulé l’élection d’un des parlementaires kurdes emprisonnés (M. Hatip Dicle) en le remplaçant par un membre du parti de M. Erdogan, AKP. Ces exemples indiquent que les autorités turques, malgré leur discours officiel, n’ont aucune volonté politique de reconnaître les droits fondamentaux de ce peuple. Seule solution envisagée pour elles reste, comme depuis près d’un siècle, l’option militaire et le terrorisme d’Etat à l’égard du peuple kurde.

Pourtant, le PKK a proclamé depuis 1993 plusieurs fois un cessez-le-feu unilatéral. La réponse des autorités turques a été toujours l’intensification des opérations militaires non seulement contre les guérilleros du PKK mais aussi à l’égard des civiles kurdes. Il convient à cet égard de souligner le double langage du gouvernement turc qui, d’un côté, mène depuis plus d’une année des pourparles avec le leader du PKK, M. Abdullah Öcalan, et de l’autre, qualifie officiellement le PKK de groupe terroriste. D’ailleurs, M. Öcalan a déclaré récemment qu’il avait proposé à M. Erdogan de réunir dans un endroit sécurisé tous les guérilleros kurdes. Selon lui, une semaine suffirait à régler la question kurde en Turquie, mais M. Erdogan resterait silencieux à ses appels. M. Öcalan accuse le Premier Ministre turc d’être contre la paix et la solution démocratique alors qu’il déclare avoir accordé au gouvernement turc toutes les facilités pour une solution pacifique.

L’attitude du gouvernement turc actuel accrédite les propos de M. Öcalan. En effet, toutes les demandes du peuple kurde et de ses dirigeants en faveur de la paix, de la fraternité et d’une cohabitation avec le peuple turc reçoivent comme réponse de la part des autorités turques la guerre, la destruction, les massacres et la négation des droits élémentaires du peuple kurde.

Pourtant, il est clair qu’en un siècle de guerre, de négation, de destruction et de massacres, l’Etat turc n’a réussi ni éliminé ni assimilé complètement le peuple kurde. Durant ces 28 dernières années, l’armée turque a mené 26 opérations au nord de l’Irak pour massacrer et intimider les Kurdes. La dernière opération lancée le 17 août dernier, en concertation avec les autorités iraniennes, a le même but et se veut une menace contre l’unité d’un peuple écartelé entre la Turquie, l’Iran, l’Irak et la Syrie.

L’Histoire nous enseigne qu’aucune armée, aussi puissante soit-elle, ne peut vaincre ni arrêter un peuple soif de liberté qui lutte pour ses droits fondamentaux.

La question est de savoir si les Etats-Unis et l’Union européenne continuerons à fermer les yeux sur les violations graves des droits de l’homme voir des crimes contre l’humanité commis par leur allié turque à l’égard du peuple kurde, comme ils l’ont fait avec certains Etats arabes ces dernières décennies, ou tireront des leçons de leurs erreurs ?

Genève, le 25 août 2011    

Maison Populaire de Genève
http://www.assmp.org

Propaganda Trial for Hopa Protestors

Seven people who were arrested in the course of unrests before and after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Hopa in June this year are now being tried in Erzurum under allegations of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization". The defendants stand accused of "making propaganda for the Turkey's People's Liberation Party-Front (THKP-C). Erdoğan had visited the city on the eastern Black Sea coast during the run-up to the general elections.

The reasons given in the four-page indictment are slogans, marches, banners and raising the left fist. In the previous ruling, the prosecutor had written that the defendants "had no connections to an illegal organization".

Lawyer Gülşen Uzuner, Secretary General of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD) Ankara Branch, told bianet, "The people of Hopa are being punished because they defended their right to life and their right for water and because they have revolutionary opinions".

Hundreds of people demonstrated against hydroelectric power plants in Hopa (Artvin) on 31 May, the day of Erdoğan's rally in the city. 54-year old retired teacher Metin Lokumcu died of a heart attack when the police intervened against the demonstrators with the massive use of tear gas. Police officer Servet Erkan was injured when he fell off a vehicle.

A total of 36 people were arrested in Hopa, Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir during protests against Lokumcu's death and the police intervention. Only in Hopa 14 people were arrested, seven of whom are now on trial under Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) related to propaganda for an illegal organization.

The indictment prepared by Special Authority Public Prosecutor Rasim Karakullukçu was accepted this Wednesday (24 August). It demands prison sentences of between one and three years each for defendants Ali Aksu, İbrahim Aksu, Görgü Demirpençe, İdris Akbıyık, Erhan Köse, Şafak Ustabaş and Önder Öner. The first hearing before the Erzurum 4th High Criminal Court is set for 14 September.

The indictment mentions that the legal action started upon the statement of the Artvin Provincial Police Anti-Terror Branch Directorate claiming that "the incidents in Hopa were organized by illegal left-wing organizations". It is furthermore said that members of the legal organizations of the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) Hopa District Organization, the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) and the Community Centres gathered to protest the rally of PM Erdoğan.

It is put forward that the demonstrators attacked the police with clubs. After explaining the rationale for the intervention, the indictment emphasizes that the group shouted the slogan "Mahir, Hüseyin, Ulaş - war until the liberation".

The other reasons for the alleged offence are listed as chanting the "Gündoğu March"; posting certain banners and shouting slogans during the demonstration and at the funeral of Lokumcu; covering his coffin with a flag "supposedly belonging to the THKP-C Revolutionary Path terrorist organization"; "raising their left fists" during a minute's silence in commemoration of Lokumcu at his funeral and "organizational speeches" of ÖDP Chair Alper Taş and independent MP candidate Birsen Kaya.

Two files for one incident

Lawyer Uzuner pointed out that a group of people including the defendants of the trial on subject were in detention in the context of the investigation launched in Hopa. They were arrested under allegations of "resistance against the police, preventing the police from carrying out their duty, harming public property and opposing the law on meetings and demonstrations". However, they are now being tried in the scope of a separate case in Erzurum. Uzuner drew attention to the lawlessness of the process.

The lawyer underlined that the offences imputed to the defendants in the investigation in Hopa did not require an arrest warrant. He reminded that Prosecutor Karakullukçu decided for lack of jurisdiction regarding "membership of an illegal organization" on 8 August.

Uzuner explained, "No indictment has been prepared yet for the investigation run in Hopa which does not include a crime pertaining to the jurisdiction of a special authority court. A confidentiality decision has been issued for both files. We were not able to review the file. We are trying to prepare a defence by guessing the offences and evidence. It should not create any trouble to voice demands for democratic rights with slogans, marches, Turkish folk songs or by mourning. We expect [the defendants'] acquittal in the scope of using this freedom". (BIA, Ayça SÖYLEMEZ, 26 August 2011)

Leading socialist intellectual Mihri Belli passes away

Turkey's most senior living socialist leader Mihri Belli died at his home in Istanbul on Tuesday afternoon. He was 95.

Born in 1916 in Silivri Istanbul, Belli got acquainted with Marxism in the United States, where he went to study economics in 1936. He participated in the US labor movement and continued so upon his return to Turkey in 1940. At the time, he got involved at the Turkish Communist Party (TKP).

He worked with Prof. Fritz Neumark at Istanbul University Faculty of Economics between 1943 and 44. Belli founded and organized the Progressive Youth Solidarity at the university. Consecutevely he was arrested and condemned to two years in prison.

In 1946 he left Turkey to join the ranks of Democratic Army -the military branch of the Greek Communist Party- during the Greek Civil War, where he commanded troops.

In 1950, he was arrested for illegal entrance to Turkey and possessing weapons. Next year, he was once again detained during the infamous police operation targeting the TKP. Belli was tried and condemned to seven years in prison.

During the 1960s, he got the chance to write and speak without using aliases for the first time. He was part of the group who published the magazines "Türk Solu" and "Aydınlık Sosyalist Dergi". Durign those years, he served time in prison because of several articles and speeches.

At the time, he formulated a thesis dubbed as the "National Democratic Revolution" or MDD. He got into contact with the revolutionary youth leaders such as Deniz Gezmiş and Mahir Çayan.

Following the military coup in 1971, he left the country and briefly joined the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Then, he lived in Europe until returning back to Turkey in 1973, when the social democrats came into power.

After the amnesty of 1974, he was among the founders of the Turkish Proletarian Party (TEP). TEP was closed by the Constitutional Court because of a reference to "Kurds" in its bylaws.

Belli lived in the Middle East and Sweeden for 11 years following the military coup in 1980. He was among the founders of the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) in 1996 and the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP) in 2002. In 2002 elections, he was a candidate for MP in Istanbul. (BIA, August 17, 2011)

Mihri Belli laid to rest in peace

Mihri Belli, one of the iconic names in the Turkish leftist movement, was laid to rest in Istanbul’s Şişli district Thursday following a funeral that drew a number of leftist politicians.

“Not just for the Turkish left, Belli was also an important name for the Kurdish left. He supported the Kurdish socialist movement as early as 1982 and voiced the just demands of the Kurds even in those years. He took side with the Kurdish left in the Democratic Resistance Front set up against the Sep. 12 junta,” said Ragıp Zarakolu, a close friend of Belli and the founding member of the Human Rights Association, or İHD, as well as the head of the Freedom in Publications Committee of the Turkish Publishers Association.

Zarakolu said Belli had a “militant soul” and added that they met right after the Sept. 12, 1980, coup. Even though they did not agree on several matters, he added, Belli was a very important name for the Turkish left.

The most sensational activity Belli became involved in was his action against Prime Minister Şükrü Saraçoğlu, who was in power from 1943 to 1946.

“Mihri Belli was an assistant at Istanbul University’s Economy Department. In order to protest Saraçoğlu’s sympathy toward Nazi Germany, Belli placed a banner right across Süleymaniye Mosque in Vefa, Istanbul, with the words ‘Saraçoğlu is a fascist’ written on them,” Zarakolu said.

Belli was the person that reversed the “local, provincial” aspect of the Turkish left, according to the secretary general of the Turkish Writers’ Trade Union, Tevfik Taş.

“The Turkish left had a ‘small-town mind. Belli was a person that reversed these perceptions completely with his education, clothes and his stance,” he said. (Hürriyet Daily News, August 18, 2011)

Opening of mass grave stops hunger strike

A Turkish man quit his nine-week hunger strike following the opening of the mass grave of militants who were allegedly killed by tank fire in clashes with government forces in the nearby eastern province of Tunceli in 1997.

Hüsnü Yıldız, who has been on a hunger strike demanding that his brother Ali Yıldız’s supposed grave be exhumed, may have found closure for his missing kin.

The decision regarding the opening of the graves came last week after Yıldız went on a hunger strike to find his deceased militant brother’s body. On the 66th day of his strike, Yıldız announced that he stopped.

“The graves were opened and 15 people’s bodies were found there. I am not sure whether my brother’s body was among them or not. The DNA test results will show that. Still, all of the buried are my brothers and therefore I am quitting my protest,” Yıldız said.

Some of the buried bodies were missing organs and had broken bones, daily Radikal reported. The report said some of the bodies were also found with clothes and jewelry, which gave the impression that they were not buried properly.

Following the work on the graves, 15 people’s bodies were found. The digging of the graves has temporarily been stopped in order to perform DNA tests.

Two members of the outlawed radical leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or the DHKP-C, and 16 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were allegedly killed by tank fire in Tunceli in 1997. (Daily News with wires, August 15, 2011)

Découverte des restes de 15 rebelles dans des fosses communes

Les autorités turques ont découvert samedi les restes de 15 présumés rebelles kurdes ou militants d'extrême gauche dans des fosses communes de l'est de la Turquie, ont annoncé des responsables de sécurité locaux.

Un procureur avait ordonné mercredi des fouilles à Cemisgezek, dans la province de Tunceli, afin de trouver les restes d'une vingtaine de personnes présumées appartenir au Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) et au Front révolutionnaire pour le salut du peuple (DHKP-C).

Un parent d'un des rebelles portés disparus avait demandé au procureur d'exhumer les corps à la suite de la dénonciation d'un témoin affirmant qu'ils avaient été jetés dans une fosse commune après avoir été tués lors d'affrontements avec les forces de sécurité en 1997.

Les autorités prélèveront des échantillons d'ADN sur les restes afin de les identifier, ont indiqué les autorités.

Les fouilles ont commencé à trois endroits différents autour de la ville. Selon l'agence Anatolie, les restes de sept personnes ont été trouvés à proximité du quartier général de la Police militaire.

Récemment, les restes d'une douzaine de personnes avaient été découverts dans la ville de Mutki, dans la province de Bitlis, dans le sud-est du pays.

Selon l'armée turque, il s'agissait de rebelles du PKK.

La recherche de fosses communes a commencé en septembre dernier en liaison avec le procès de sept personnes, dont un ancien colonel de la police, accusées d'avoir pris part à l'exécution sommaire d'une vingtaine de personnes dans les années 90 alors que la tension dans la région était à son comble. (AFP, 14 août 2011)

Pro-Kurdish deputies join protest against (DK) trial

Demonstrators march in central Istanbul to protest the Revolutionary Headquarters case that is trying 57 suspects. DHA photo
A group of demonstrators that included pro-Kurdish deputies gathered Thursday in Beşiktaş to protest the Revolutionary Headquarters (DK) case that is trying 57 suspects, including the head of the Socialist Democracy Party, or SDP, and a former police chief.

 “Our friends have been kept in prison for nearly a year through entirely fabricated, silly and false claims by depicting [them] as having allegiance to a cause they never ascribed to either in their lives or in their thoughts,” said Ertuğrul Kürkçü, who was elected as an independent deputy from the Mediterranean province of Mersin with the backing of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP.

A group of protesters, including former BDP deputy Akın Birdal, as well as Sebahat Tuncel and Levent Tüzel, who were elected along with Kürkçü from the BDP-backed Labor, Democracy and Freedom bloc, gathered behind a banner bearing photographs of some suspects, and chanted slogans against the trial.

The banner also had the words “Whose turn is it?” printed on it, according to Doğan news agency, or DHA.

The suspects include SDP leader Rıdvan Turan, as well as Hanefi Avcı, a former police chief. The 57 are accused of membership in an alleged outlawed leftist organization.

Birdal said in a press statement that their friends who had engaged in democratic and legitimate politics had been apprehended on false pretenses.

Kürkçü also said six of their deputies from their bloc had been imprisoned and added that they were showing solidarity with the suspects being tried in court.

Those accused were facing the most irrational trial in the history of the Turkish Republic, he said.

The Revolutionary Headquarters case in Istanbul was part of the “same play” being staged in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır for the Kurdish Communities Union, or KCK, trials, said Tuncel. The KCK is accused of being the urban wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community.

Thursday’s hearing was still continuing as the Hürriyet Daily News went to print late in the day. (Hürriyet Daily News, August 11, 2011)

Mass grave in Dersim to be opened on Friday

The mass grave in Çemişgezek/Dersim where Ali Yıldız is said to have been buried after losing his life in a clash in 1997 will be opened on Friday, it has been revealed.

Today a one-day hunger strike was announced in Ankara, while in Dersim the brother of Ali Yıldız, Hüsnü Yıldız is on his 57th day of the indefinite hunger strike he has undertaken to demand the opening of the mass grave where his brother is buried.

Dersim political parties, Bar Association and NGOs’ have applied to the Çemizgezek Public Prosecutor to obtain permission to open a mass grave where 19 PKK members are thought to have been buried together in Çemişgezek following an armed clash on April 1, 1997.

Dersim Bar Association Chair Fatma Kalsen underlined the many allegations about mass graves in Dersim which are still waiting to be answered to and condemned the government for not trying to reveal the truths.

“We have never accepted “no” as an answer since we have learned that our children were lying there. We, as all families of 19 PKK members, are asking a grave stone for each one of them. We will not quit fighting for it,” added Kalsen.

The Malatya Special Authorized Public Prosecutor rejected a previous petition by the families of the victims. Interestingly, the prosecutor did not deny the mass grave’s existence when deciding not to open an investigation about it.

Today it has been revealed that finally the mass grave will be opened on Friday. (ANF, 10 August 2011)

913 prisoners died because of illness between 2000-2010

Holding a press conference to draw attention to the situation of sick prisoners, Diyarbakir Chamber of Physicians, IHD, TIHV, TUHAD-FED and SES called on all circles to fulfill their responsibilities about a solution to the problem of sick prisoners. The statement reminded that 913 prisoners died in prison between the years 2000-2010 due to their diseases and emphasized that still nine prisoners are dying and have to be released as soon as possible.

Reading the press release on behalf of the institutions, Şemsettin Koç, Chairman of Diyarbakir Chamber of Physicians, said the followings; “The situation of sick prisoners, who are waiting to die in prisons, is following a process which prick the humanity conscience and cannot be accepted by religion and ideology.

The lack of health teams, medical equipment, problems resulting from procedures during the referral to hospital, the extreme difficulties in traffic to hospital, lack of prisoner wards in official healthcare organizations or not finding a bed, late diagnosis and treatment of sick prisoners lead to an irreversible health problem in detained patients. The continuation of imprisonment of prisoners, who suffer from late diagnosis and treatment, is regarded by the 'European Convention on Human Rights as torture. Besides, the legislations in our country say that the sentence of a sick prisoner is to be suspended if the disease constitutes a danger to his/her life.”

The last victim of this situation is Gülay Çetin with a stomach and ovarian cancer who lost her life in Antalya Prison due to the insensitivity of administrators and misleading of the legal process. Administrators are committing a crime against humanity by waiting the death of Mehmet Aras and other sick prisoners.

The letter of Gülay Çetin needs to be understood well; ‘The phrase that overcoming a bias is more difficult than the fission of atom has shown us that the attitude of a doctor towards a prisoner patient is not any different from the attitude of the system’.

The prisoners with terminal diseases or those needing a close follow-up have to be released immediately, otherwise, within the framework of national and international regulations, the institutions that do not fulfill the requirements of this process will be deemed guilty of committing a crime against humanity.

According to 2000-2010 data from the Ministry of Justice, 913 prisoners lost their lives in Turkish prisons due to diseases, while at present nine prisoners with serious diseases are to be released urgently. The names of these prisoners are; Mehmet Aras, Hasan Alkış, M. Emin Akdağ, Hüseyin Aslan, Avni Uçar, A. Samet Çelik, Halil Güneş, Lokman Akbaba, Hediye Aksoy.”

Following Koç’s statements, IHD Diyarbakir Branch Secretary Raci Bilici added that they will be a close follower of the issue as defenders of human rights. Bilici called on relevant state institutions to carry out their duties in this particular. (ANF, 10 August 2011)

Deux policiers tués dans deux attaques dans le sud-est kurde

Deux policiers ont été tués dans deux attaques distinctes dans le sud-est de la Turquie, dont la population est majoritairement kurde, a rapporté lundi l'agence turque Anatolie.

Un agent de police a succombé lundi à l'hôpital à ses blessures, le véhicule dans lequel il se trouvait ayant sauté dimanche sur une mine posé par de présumés rebelles kurdes dans la province de Hakkari, a précisé l'agence.

Trois autres policiers ont été blessés dans cet attentat.

Lundi, un policier qui faisait des courses dans la ville de Hakkari, chef-lieu de cette province située à la frontière avec l'Iran et l'Irak, a été abattu par un agresseur masqué non identifié, a annoncé le gouverneur Muammer Turker, cité par Anatolie.

Les affrontements entre les forces de sécurité et les rebelles du PKK se sont multipliés depuis les élections législatives du 12 juin.

Le 16 juin, 13 soldats ont été tués dans des combats avec le PKK dans la province de Diyarbakir, les pertes les plus lourdes pour l'armée turque dans ce conflit depuis octobre 2008. Sept rebelles ont également été tués. (AFP, 8 août 2011)

Appel à soutenir Husnu Yildiz en jeûne de la mort

Depuis près de deux mois l'association des familles de prisonniers TAYAD mène campagne pour l'ouverture des fosses communes et en particulier pour l'exhumation et le droit de sépulture d'Ali Yildiz, un combattant du DHKP-C tué en avril 1997 par des tirs de tanks et enterré dans un charnier avec 18 autres guérilleros.

Son grand frère, Hüsnü mène depuis 56 jours un "jeûne de la mort" sous une "tente de la résistance" dressée sur la place centrale de Tunceli (Dersim en kurde) pour exiger des autorités turques l'ouverture de la fosse commune où se trouve Ali selon les règles internationales concernant le traitement des restes humains (protocole de Minnesota de 1989).

Le 14 juillet dernier, Sadullah Ergin, le ministre de la justice, aurait tenu en coulisse aux avocats de la famille Yildiz les propos suivants: "Les charniers sont un crime contre l'humanité. Elles sont l’œuvre d'organisations criminelles. Il faut laver cette honte." (Radikal, 1er août 2011) ce qui suscita un certain espoir parmi ses soutiens mais depuis des semaines, rien n'a été fait.

Devant le silence radio des autorités, Taylan Tanay, l'avocat de la famille a déclaré qu'ils allaient passer à l'offensive, c'est-à-dire constituer une équipe composée d'archéologues, d'anthropologues, d'avocats et de médecins légistes avec le soutien du docteur Ümit Biçer, président de l'association des experts médicolégaux et Sebnem Korur Fincanci, présidente de la Fondation turque des droits de l'homme (TIHV). 

Si rien ne bouge avant le 20 août, les experts en la matière solidaires de la famille Yildiz vont entamer les fouilles, extraire les corps, inventorier l'ensemble des restes humains, les consigner dans des bodybags et les remettre au procureur de Cemisgezek (l'endroit où se trouve le charnier) pour mettre les autorités devant le fait accompli.

Le plus grave dans l'histoire est que l'État reconnaît l'existence de ce charnier mais officiellement, les victimes enterrées sont toujours "vivantes".

Nous réitérons notre appel à soutenir la famille Yildiz dans son combat légitime.

Tayad Komite
Le 4 août 2011
tayad.europe@gmail.com

Pour signer la pétition : http://toplumezarlaracilsin. com/addsite.asp veuillez indiquer les données suivantes: Adi (prénom), Soyadi (nom), Meslegi (profession). Veuillez ensuite enregistrer en cliquant sur Kaydet (enregistrer).

Vous pouvez également téléphoner à Hüsnü Yildiz au numéro suivant 0090 533 300 96 07
ou lui faire parvenir un message de solidarité : cenazemiziistiyoruz@gmail.com

Veuillez envoyer vos lettres de protestation aux autorités suivantes :

H.E. Mr. Sadullah Ergin
Minister of Justice (Ministre de la Justice)
Adalet Bakanligi 06659 Kizilay ANKARA-TURKEY
Phone: +90 312 419 33 70
Fax: +90 312 419 33 70/ +90 312 417 71 13
Email: sadullah.ergin@tbmm.gov.tr ; ozelkalem@adalet.gov.tr


H.E. Mr. Abdullah Gül
Président
Cumhurbaskanligi Cankaya Kosku
06550 Cankaya ANKARA-TURKEY
Phone: +90 312 470 11 00/+90 312 470 23 08
Fax: +90 312 470 13 16
Email: cumhurbaskanligi@tccb.gov.tr

H.E. Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Premier ministre
Basbakanlik Merkez Bina
06640 Kizilay ANKARA-TURKEY
Phone: +90 312 413 70 00
Fax: +90 312 417 04 76
Email: bimer@basbakanlik.gov.tr ; ozelkalem@basbakanlik.gov.tr

H.E. Dr. Ahmet Davutoglu
Ministre des Affaires étrangères
Dr. Sadik Ahmet Cad. No: 8 Balgat 06100 ANKARA-TURKEY
Phone: +90 312 292 10 00
Fax: +90 312 292 27 55
Email: info@mfa.gov.tr ; duygu.duzgun@mfa.gov.tr

H.E. Mr. Ertugrul Apakan
Ambassadeur et Représentant permanent de la Turquie auprès de l’ONU
Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations
821 United Nations Plaza, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10017 USAhone: + 1 212 949-0150
Fax: +1 212 949-0086
Email: turkey@un.int

H.E. Mr. Nazif Murat Ersavci
Ambassador to Belgium (Ambassadeur auprès de la Belgique)
Embassy of Turkey to Belgium
4, Rue Montoyer
1000 Bruxelles, Belgique
Phone: +32 2 5134095
Fax: +32 2 5140748
E-mail: turkemb.brussels@mfa.gov.tr

H.E. Mr. Selim Kuneralp
Ambassadeur et Représentant permanent de la Turquie auprès de l’Union européenne
4 Rue Montoyer
1000 Bruxelles Belgique
Phone: +32 2 289 62 40
Fax: +32 2 511 04 50
E-mail: info@turkdeleg.org ; skuneralp@mfa.gov.tr

Teachers Commemorating Killed Student Arrested

Four teachers and members of the Education and Science Workers' Union (Eğitim-Sen) were arrested and taken to prison on charges of "making propaganda for an illegal organization" because they attended the commemoration gathering for twelve-year-old Uğur Kaymaz. The student was shot dead together with his father Ahmet Kaymaz by the police in the Kızıltepe district of Mardin (south-east) on 21 November 2004.

Kızıltepe Eğitim-Sen Representative Salih Kuday, Eğitim-Sen executive Abdülkadir Demir, former executive Mehmet Ali Çiçek and union member Erdal Çam were taken into police custody on Tuesday (2 August) under allegations of attending a demonstration on 24 November 2010 and on charges of "spreading propaganda for an illegal organization".

"There only 'crime' is attending a commemoration"

According to the Dicle News Agency (DİHA), the Eğitim-Sen members were interrogated and then brought to the Kızıltepe Criminal Court of First Instance with the request for their arrest. The teachers gave their statements at court. Subsequently, they were arrested and taken to the Mardin E Type Closed Prison because they allegedly attended the demonstration organized to commemorate Uğur Kaymaz and on charges of "making propaganda for an illegal organization".

Erdal Kuzu, lawyer of the four arrested teachers, said that his clients' arrest was based on Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law. Kuzu also noted that the other reason stated by the court was the commemoration ceremony for Uğur Kaymaz. The lawyer also mentioned that footage of the police did not even show slogans or applauding. (BIA, Ekin KARACA, 3 August 2011)

Teacher Sanctioned for Criticizing Students' Oath

38-year-old Nihat Aksoy has been a primary school teacher for 16 years. He teaches Social Sciences at the Bingöl 100th Year Primary School (south-eastern Turkey) and is responsible for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students.

In 2010, Aksoy prepared a program together with his students as representatives of children rights on the international Human Rights Day on 10 December. The students read poems and articles and texts they had prepared themselves on the historic background and the importance of the day. The teacher performed the closing speech. In the context of rights violations, Aksoy referred to the students' oath primary school students were made to listen to every day.

Students' oath contrary to human rights?

Aksoy said in his speech, "Dear children, today is the International Human Rights Day. Unfortunately, human rights are being violated in our country and in many places all over the world. Also the students' oath read to students at school every day constitutes a violation of universal human rights. I personally do not support the reading of this oath".

Thereupon, three colleagues who were supervising the students on that day wrote a report about Nihat Aksoy. The record was processed by the school administration and an investigation was launched about Aksoy subsequently. It was forwarded to the Provincial National Education Directorate. The punishment, a deduction of salary, was determined by the Discipline Branch President, Hasan Başubay.

Aksoy's salary is cut by 3.3 percent because of his opinion on the oath. The sanction will be applied as of August 2011. Hence, his salary of TL 2,250 (approx. € 1,100) will be cut by TL 75.

In an interview with bianet, Aksoy made clear that this was much more of a non-pecuniary issue than a financial matter. He reminded that this sanction would enter his personal record. Aksoy added that he did not take personally the attitude displayed by his colleagues and the school administration.

"Everybody acted according to their personal stance and did what they knew was the right thing to do. We do not have a personal problem. My speech was deemed contrary to the regulations. The sanction is in line with the rules. But in legal aspects not everything was handled fairly. Some rules are problematic in a conscientious sense", Aksoy expounded.

In Aksoy's opinion, many people of different ethnic origins live in Turkey and thus it is not just to start every day by saying "I am a Turk, I am right, I am industrious". He is going to file an appeal with the National Education Disciplinary Board on Tuesday (2 August).

The board may also find Aksoy's sanction appropriate or might convert the sanction into a reprimand.

Aksoy announced that in case the sanction would be upheld he would apply to the Regional Administrative Court and would go as far as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) if necessary. (BIA, Ekin  Işıl CİNMEN , 2 August 2011)

Pression sur les médias / Pressure on the Media

63 journalists still in Turkish prisons at Ramadan Feast

According to a study carried out by the Ministry of Justice upon the request of the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS), 18 out of 63 journalists in prison are convicted. The TGS submitted a list with the names of a total of 72 persons to the Ministry of Justice and requested information on these people's situations. TGS President Ercan İpekçi told bianet that the difference in numbers was corrected after a comparison of data.

The Ministry announced that the argument saying "press freedom in Turkey has been restricted in recent times" did not reflect the truth.

The Ministry declared, "The Turkish Journalists Union had a list of 72 names defined as detained and convicted. Three of them were not registered in any prison; six persons were released. 63 people of the list are still being imprisoned. Trials were opened against 36, 18 of whom were convicted. Investigations about 27 people are still going on. 18 of the 63 persons in prisons hold a press card; 45 people do not have a press card".

TGS President İpekçi reminded that Turan Özlü, General Publications Director of the National Channel who was arrested this week, constituted number 64 on the list. The Ministry declared that the number of journalists imprisoned on the grounds of their writings amounted to four. The list also includes the owner of Kanal B, Mehmet Haberal.

İpekçi indicated that the majority of people on the list had not been considered as journalists until today. "The Ministry is denying itself with this statement", he said and criticized the Ministry for claiming that "it is impossible to interpret the decisions on detentions and convictions that are not based on allegations related to journalistic activities as violations of press freedom".

The Solidarity Platform of Imprisoned Journalists (TGDP) reminds that more than 60 journalists and writers in the prisons as the country is going to celebrate Ramadan Holiday. TGDP calls all to visit them in prison or to send them the messages of sympathy and solidarity.

The below list indicates the names of these prisoners with the mention of the media for which they had worked and the prison where they are kept:

* Abdulcabbar Karadağ, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Mersin Temsilcisi, Mersin E Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi
* Ahmet Akyol, DİHA Adana Muhabiri, Adana Kürkçüler F Tipi Cezaevi
* Ahmet Birsin, Gün TV Genel Yayın Koordinatörü, Diyarbakır D Tipi Cezaevi
* Ahmet Şık, Gazeteci-Yazar, Silivri 2 Nolu L Tipi Cezaevi
* Ali Buluş, DİHA Mersin Muhabiri, Karaman-Ermenek M Tipi Cezaevi
* Ali Çat, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Mersin Çalışanı, Mersin E Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi
* Ali Konar, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Elazığ Temsilcisi, Malatya E Tipi Cezaevi
* Baha Okar, Bilim ve Gelecek Dergisi Editörü, Tekirdağ 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi
* Barış Açıkel, İşçi-Köylü Gazetesi Eski Sahibi ve Yazı İşleri Müdürü, Kandıra 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi, KOCAELİ
* Barış Pehlivan, Odatv İnternet Sitesi Genel Yayın Yönetmeni, Silivri 1 Nolu L Tipi Cezaevi
* Barış Terkoğlu, Odatv İnternet Sitesi Haber Müdürü, Silivri 1 Nolu L Tipi Cezaevi
* Bayram Namaz, Atılım Gazetesi Yazarı, Edirne 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi
* Bayram Parlak, Gündem Gazetesi Mersin Temsilcisi, Karaman-Ermenek M Tipi Cezaevi
* Bedri Adanır, Aram Yayınları Sahibi ve Genel Yayın Yönetmeni, Kürtçe Hawar Gazetesi Yazı İşleri Müdürü, Diyarbakır D Tipi Cezaevi
* Behdin Tunç, DİHA Şırnak Muhabiri, Diyarbakır D Tipi Cezaevi
* Cihan Gün, Yürüyüş Dergisi çalışanı, Sincan 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi, ANKARA
* Coşkun Musluk, Odatv İnternet Sitesi Yazarı, Silivri L Tipi Cezaevi
* Dılşa Ercan, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Mersin Çalışanı, Adana Karataş Kadın Kapalı Cezaevi
* Dilek Keskin, Atılım Gazetesi Muhabiri, Karataş Kadın Kapalı Cezaevi, ADANA
* Doğan Yurdakul, Odatv İnternet Sitesi Yazarı, Silivri L Tipi Cezaevi
* Emine Altınkaya, DİHA Ankara Muhabiri, Sincan Kadın Kapalı Cezaevi, ANKARA
* Ensar Tunca, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Iğdır Çalışanı, Iğdır Kapalı Cezaevi
* Erdal Süsem, Eylül Dergisi Editörü, Edirne F Tipi Cezaevi
* Erdoğan Altan, DİHA Batman Muhabiri, Diyarbakır D Tipi Cezaevi
* Erol Zavar, Odak Dergisi Sahibi ve Yazı İşleri Müdürü, Şair, Sincan 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi, ANKARA
* Faysal Tunç, DİHA Şırnak Muhabiri, Mardin E Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi
* Feyyaz Deniz, DİHA Ankara Muhabiri, Sincan 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi
* Füsun Erdoğan, Özgür Radyo Eski Genel Yayın Koordinatörü, Kandıra 2 Nolu T Tipi Cezaevi, KOCAELİ
* Hakan Soytemiz, Red ve Enternasyonal Dergilerinin Yazarı, Tekirdağ 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi
* Halit Güdenoğlu, Yürüyüş Dergisi Sahibi ve Yazı İşleri Müdürü, Sincan 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi, ANKARA
* Hamdiye Çiftçi, DİHA Hakkari Muhabiri, Bitlis E Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi
* Hasan Coşar, Atılım Gazetesi Yazarı, Sincan 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi, ANKARA
* Hatice Duman, Atılım Gazetesi Sahibi ve Yazı İşleri Müdürü, Gebze M Tipi Cezaevi, Gebze/KOCAELİ
* Hıdır Gürz, Halkın Günlüğü Gazetesi Yazı İşleri Müdürü, Adana Kürkçüler F Tipi Cezaevi
* İsmail Avan, Halkın Günlüğü gazetesi İzmir Muhabiri, Kırıklar F Tipi Cezaevi/İZMİR
* Kaan Ünsal, Yürüyüş Dergisi çalışanı, Sincan 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi, ANKARA
* Kadri Kaya, DİHA Diyarbakır Bölge Bürosu Temsilcisi, Batman M Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi
* Kenan Karavil, Radyo Dünya Yayın Yönetmeni, Adana Kürkçüler F Tipi Cezaevi
* Mahmut Güleycan, Özgür Halk Dergisi Çalışanı, Van F Tipi Cezaevi
* Mehmet Karaaslan, DİHA Mersin Muhabiri, Karaman-Ermenek M Tipi Cezaevi
* Mehmet Karabaş, Batman Postası yazarı, Batman M Tipi Cezaevi
* Mehmet Yeşiltepe, Devrimci Hareket Dergisi Çalışanı, Gazeteci-Yazar, Tekirdağ 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi
* Musa Kurt, Kamu Emekçileri Cephesi Dergisi Yazı İşleri Müdürü, Sincan 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi, ANKARA
* Mustafa Gök, Ekmek ve Adalet Dergisi Ankara Temsilcisi, Sincan 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi, ANKARA
* Müyesser Yıldız, Odatv İnternet Sitesi Yazarı, Silivri L Tipi Cezaevi
* Nedim Şener, Milliyet Gazetesi Muhabiri, Silivri 2 Nolu Kapalı L Tipi Cezaevi
* Nuri Yeşil, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Tunceli Çalışanı, Malatya E Tipi Cezaevi
* Ozan Kılınç, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Eski İmtiyaz Sahibi ve Yazı İşleri Müdürü, Diyarbakır D Tipi Cezaevi
* Sait Çakır, Odatv İnternet Sitesi Yazarı, Silivri 2 Nolu L Tipi Cezaevi
* Sedat Şenoğlu, Atılım Gazetesi Genel Yayın Koordinatörü ve Gazeteci- Yazar, Edirne 1 Nolu F Tipi Cezaevi
* Seyithan Akyüz, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Adana Temsilcisi, Adana Kürkçüler F Tipi Cezaevi
* Sinan Aygül, DİHA Bitlis Muhabiri, Muş E Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi
* Soner Yalçın, Odatv İnternet Sitesi İmtiyaz Sahibi, Gazeteci-Yazar, Silivri 1 Nolu L Tipi Cezaevi
* Şahin Baydağı, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Çalışanı, Mardin E Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi
* Turan Özlü, Ulusal Kanal Genel Yayın Yönetmeni, Silivri 2 Nolu L Tipi Cezaevi
* Vedat Kurşun, Azadiya Welat Gazetesi Eski Yazı İşleri Müdürü, Diyarbakır D Tipi Cezaevi

CONTACT: Necati ABAY-TGDP Spokesperson, GSM: 0535 929 75 86
E-mail: info@tutuklugazeteciler.com, necatiabay@gmail.com,
Blog: http://tutuklugazeteci.blogcu.com/,

Ramadan last day should be day of peace, say intellectuals

Seven intellectuals including Rakel Dink, Orhan Pamuk and Serif Mardin published peace message for Ramadan Feast

Seven intellectuals including Rakel Dink, Orhan Pamuk and Serif Mardin have published a message for the coming Ramadan Feast which they defined as “the day of peace and not the day of war”.

Ishak Alaton, Prof. Dr. Halet Çambel, Rakel Dink, Prof. Dr. Şerif Mardin, Orhan Pamuk, Prof. Dr. Turgut Tarhanlı and Prof. Dr. Nermin Abadan Unat have published a message to demand the ending of war and the progression of the dialogue environment through taking the necessary steps. Intellectuals also remarked that the BDP’s (Peace and Democracy Party) participation in the process will be of critical importance.

The message of the intellectuals is as follows;

The Ramadan Feast is the day of reconciliation, not fighting, conflicting, suppressing, assimilating and destroying! The resumption of a conflict which has killed and deeply hurt thousands for thirty years is unacceptable.

The problem can be solved through a commonsensical dialogue, not through war, conflict, operations, weapons, mines, artillery, guns, fire, gunpowder, imprisonment and threats. A permanent peace cannot be reached by making people kneel down. The way of peace goes through a rights-based reconciliation, not through shows of force and mass funerals.

The solution of the Kurdish problem requires an immediate process of making peace and all political parties and circles, the government in particular, should make a contribution to this process.

We, who resort to making peace, not war, call on the parliamentary parties to come together without waiting the opening of the Parliament. We invite them to take the necessary steps to make up the environment of a permanent dialogue. We are of the opinion that the BDP’s participation in the process will be of critical importance.

We hope that this Feast will conduce to the realization of peace and hope." (ANF, 27 August 2011)

Justice Ministry says journalists not jailed for journalistic activities
 
The Turkish Justice Ministry said on Thursday in a statement released in order to “answer media allegations regarding jailed journalists” that nearly 70 journalists have been arrested or convicted because of their writings, saying 59 out of the 63 journalists currently in jail have been arrested or convicted because of criminal activities other than their writings.

The Washington-based Freedom House labeled the Turkish press “partly free” in its report titled “Freedom of the Press 2011: A Global Survey of Media Independence.” According to the report, Turkey ranked 112th among 196 countries. Since Turkey was listed as a country in Western Europe, it ranked at the bottom of the list of these countries with regard to freedom of the press.

Other international media watchdogs also previously harshly criticized Turkey for still retaining laws that restrict freedom of the press. Lawyers claim there are at least 20 provisions in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) that give prosecutors the leeway to launch a case against journalists.

The ministry's statement  said most of the complaints in the media are voiced by the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS) and that the Justice Ministry earlier demanded the union submit a list of jailed journalists. It said the union submitted a list on Aug. 2 on which 72 names were alleged to be those of journalists currently in jail.

The ministry's statement said only four arrested or convicted suspects have been accused of crimes that could be regarded as being related to their writings -- disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization. The Justice Ministry underlined that 32 arrested or convicted journalists are currently jailed for reasons not related to their journalistic activities. The statement said ongoing investigations into 27 suspects who are currently under arrest are secret and that it will be possible to see what criminal activities they are accused of when their indictments are ready.

The Justice Ministry said it believes all 27 suspects are accused of being a part of a terrorist organization. The statement urged media outlets to be attentive when releasing the numbers of jailed journalists and asked them to evaluate their arrest or conviction based on the crimes they are accused of committing. It also said it is impossible to define the situation as a violation of freedom of the press.

The statement added that it is not a correct to assess the arrests as if the government is putting pressure on the media, as the arrests were made based on investigations launched by independent judicial organs. The statement lauded the government's “pro-freedom” legal amendments enacted in recent years to further advance freedom of the press and expression in Turkey. (TODAY'S ZAMAN, 26 August 2011)

Presiding judge objects to remand of five journalists

Istanbul 11th HCC by majority refused the release demands of journalist Ahmet Şık and 4 others while the presiding judge Şeref Akçay objected to the decision thus:

* The investigation is not independent, objective, fair, and commensurate with human conscienciousness

* how the suspects will tarnish the evidence is unsure at the station.

* the defendant’s book is not even published. Yet legally it is not possible to state that he is considering to publish and therefore is in cahoots with the organisation.

* To date, nationally there is no ruling concerning being a member of an organisation for a publisher or a writer.

Akçay reminded that their only activity was to write and in the book even if Ergenekon was praised this did not come under membership but propaganda. The presiding judge also said how they are to tarnish the evidence at the police was unexplained. (http://www.antenna-tr.org/sites.aspx?SiteID=48).

Another book confiscated pre publication

TYS (Writers Union of Turkey) made an announcement and criticised the Sincan Prison Management who have confiscated Halil Gündoğan’s manuscript. TYS General Secretary Mustafa Köz says to judge thoughts even before actions is not democracy but fascism.
 
Writer Halil Gündoğan who is incarcerated in Sincan had published a book in 1988 titled "Metris'ten Munzur'a Bir Firarinin Öyküsü". He wrote the second volume in jail in 2005 and handed the manuscript to the prison authority to pass it on to his visitors, however the management decided to study the work and confiscated it and never reached the author’s relatives.

Halil Gündoğan heard about his book on the 5th of August. The management was decreeing its disciplinary decision: “Confiscation is decided because the manuscript as a whole praises the terrorist organisation and its members and their illegal activities.” (http://www.antenna-tr.org/sites.aspx?SiteID=48).

Three years imprisonment demanded for a news coverage

A three year sentence is being asked for one of the suspects in remand at the Ergenekon investigation, odatv.com site news editor Barış Terkoğlu for a news piece at the site. The title of the piece is “These photos will cause sensation” where the prosecutor preparing the indictment at Ergenekon and the judges of the same case are shown all together at a iftar dinner in İstanbul Security Directorate Intelligence Rureau.
 
At the hearing in İstanbul 12th HCC on the 17th of August Public prosecutor Mehmet Ali Uysal when asked said the piece claimed that the police and prosecutors and judges collaborated to start the lawsuit of Ergenekon and the comments in aliases targeted surpassing boundaries of criticism. According to Uysal Terkoğlu should be tried under Antiterrorist Code 6/1 andreceive 1 to 3 years of imprisonment. Terkoğlu defended himself saying the photographs were taken by the security forces and were published since they did have a news value. Trial will continue for the defense statements
 
Information received from you is essential in keeping tabs at ÇeTeLe (http://www.antenna-tr.org/Sites.aspx?SiteID=50) and displaying Turkey’s practice in freedom of expression. We are anticipating your feedback on freedom of expression cases. (http://www.antenna-tr.org/sites.aspx?SiteID=48).

Poet Can Yücel’s tomb vandalized

Poet Can Yücel’s grave in southern town Datça was vandalized by some people the day after AKP local head Ahmet Sedat Deniz condemned the pouring of wine on his grave.

The grave of Turkish poet Can Yücel was vandalized Friday, leading some to accuse the government’s local branch head of inciting the act through his criticism of people who poured wine over the writer’s tomb during a recent ceremony.

The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has been spreading the seeds of hatred in society and is killing tolerance, the head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s, Muğla branch, Murat Tevfik Ülkü, said Friday. The poet’s resting place was reportedly desecrated with a sledgehammer early Friday.

The poet’s resting place in “the graveyard of tolerance” – so called because of the number of people from various religions buried there – was reportedly desecrated with a sledgehammer early Friday in the southwestern province of Muğla’s Datça district.

Datça Mayor Şener Tokcan said he was very sad to see such an incident in Datça given the noted societal harmony in the area.

During a commemoration ceremony being held for Yücel on the 12th anniversary of his death on Aug. 12, a group of people poured win on the poet’s grave, saying the ritual was in accordance with the departed’s wishes. The act was later criticized by local AKP head Ahmet Sedat Deniz.

Speaking Friday to the Hürriyet Daily News, Deniz denied that his rebuke of the wine-pouring incident incited the vandalism, saying, “I reproach the incident, but there is no connection between the vandalism and my recent statements.”

Yücel never asked people to pour wine on his graveyard, Deniz was quoted as saying by Doğan news agency, or DHA, on Thursday.

Noting that the sign placed by the poet’s family in front of the graveyard said, “Please do not place anything except flowers,” Deniz said, adding that the AKP administration was not fighting against the consumption of alcohol.

“People can drink alcohol whatever they want, they can become drunk,” said Deniz, but added that they would raise their voice against people who insulted “traditions and morals” through their actions.

“In order to prevent these kinds of actions, we will do everything and track the steps of officials on the issue,” Deniz said.

The poet’s daughter, Su Yücel, also said the family did not approve of people pouring wine on her father’s graveyard. “However, the response cannot be given like that, Are they trying to kill my father second time?”

She asked whether the people responsible for the vandalism would be happy if the same thing were to happen to their relative’s grave.(Hürriyet Daily News, August 19, 2011)

Police detain eight Ulusal Kanal, Aydınlık workers
 
Counterterrorism units raided the offices of the Workers' Party (İP), Ulusal Kanal TV station, which is known for its connections to the İP, and Aydınlık magazine, reportedly as part of an investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal network charged with plotting to overthrow the government, and detained eight suspects on Friday.
 
Police were searching İP headquarters in Ankara as well as the home of İP Deputy Chairman Bedri Gültekin and that of Mehmet Perinçek, the son of İP leader Doğu Perinçek, who is currently jailed as a key Ergenekon suspect.

Initial reports said the home of Ulusal Kanal News Editor Turan Özlü and that of İP İstanbul branch Chairman Erkan Önsal are also reportedly being searched.

The police reportedly acted on claims that the suspects had the transcript of a 2004 phone conversation between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) President Mehmet Ali Talat. The conversation was a cover story for the Aydınlık newsweekly -- a publication put out by the İP -- in 2009, which suggested that Ergenekon had wiretapped Erdoğan.

Police found recordings of phone conversations Erdoğan had between 1999 and 2004 on a CD seized during a raid of Aydınlık's offices in 2009. There were also recordings of İstanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş; Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek; ministers Ali Babacan, Hilmi Güler, Egemen Bağış and Cemil Çiçek; businessman Remzi Gür; former UN Special Envoy to Cyprus Alvaro De Soto; aide to Prime Minister Erdoğan Cüneyd Zapsu; and journalists Murat Yetkin and Hakan Aygün. ( TODAY'S ZAMAN, 19 August 2011)

Printing Press owner convicted of disseminating terror propaganda

For the first time in Turkey the owner of a printing press has been convicted of disseminating propaganda.

Sadık Daşdöğen, the ownder of Berdan Printing Press, has been sentenced by an Istanbul court to nine months in prison for printing a book that included interviews with the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, Abdullah Öcalan. The book’s author and publisher, however, were both acquitted by the court.

“I am truly nonplussed. This book is neither the first nor the last political book I have printed. As a printing press, our job is to print books. I have yet to understand this penalty,” said Daşdöğen.

The 14th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes convicted Daşdöğen of “making propaganda for a terror organization” after they printed ‘Abdullah Öcalan’s Memoirs – At the Sun’s Table.’ Author Gülseren Aksu and Abdülrezzak Güngör, the owner of Çetin Publications, were both acquitted by the court.

Daşdöğen said he was fined 489 Turkish Liras after he testified on April 21. A while after paying the fine, however, Daşdöğen learned his case was still underway. He said he had no chance to appeal to a higher court, as he was led to believe the case had already been closed after paying the fine.

Daşdöğen will go to prison to serve his sentence starting Nov. 2.

Legal responsibility for the book falls primarily on the author and the publisher, said Ragıp Zarakolu, president of the Freedom of Publication Commission of the Turkish Publishers’ Union. The conviction of the printer, rather than the publisher and the writer, demonstrates the randomness of the court’s decision, Zarakolu added. Moreover, Daşdöğen was also told that a suit was not going to be filed against him, provided that he paid the monetary fine, he noted.

“This penalty inflicted upon the printer for printing a book, I believe, is a first in Turkish jurisprudence. Unless the Justice Ministry intervenes in this situation, printing houses may not want to print every book for fear of being tried and going to prison for the books they print. This, in turn, would lead to a sort of auto-censuring mechanism,” said Metin Celal, president of the Turkish Publishers’ Union.

Author Ahmet Ümit also said such incidents cast doubt over the prospects of Parliament’s framing of a new libertarian constitution in the coming term. (Radikal, August 16, 2011)

Ouverture du procès de la chaîne kurde Roj TV à Copenhague

Le procès de la chaîne kurde de télévision Roj TV, basée à Copenhague et accusée de soutenir le "terrorisme" auprès de la population kurde dans les 68 pays où elle émet, s'est ouvert lundi dans la capitale danoise.

Après cinq années d'enquête, le Parquet danois a demandé en 2010 l'interdiction de cette chaîne en estimant qu'elle soutenait le Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) qui figure sur la liste des organisations terroristes de l'Union européenne (UE), des Etats-Unis et de la Turquie.

Dès l'ouverture du procès, l'avocat de la défense Bjoern Elmquist a demandé l'abandon des poursuites, arguant du fait que les accusations étaient trop vagues, selon l'agence danoise Ritzau.

"Il n'y a rien (dans les accusations) sur la date" où les crimes présumés ont été commis et "ce que Roj TV est supposé avoir fait n'est pas clair non plus", a plaidé l'avocat.

La cour a rejeté la demande et un responsable du tribunal a indiqué à l'AFP que le procès pourrait durer jusqu'à 25 jours, compte tenu du grand nombre de témoins appelés à la barre tant par le Parquet que par la défense.

Lundi, un petit groupe de manifestants s'était réuni devant le palais de justice pour affirmer que "les Kurdes devraient aussi pouvoir jouir de la liberté d'expression".

D'autres demandaient "Pourquoi Roj TV devrait payer pour le poste d'Anders Fogh (Rasmussen, ndlr) à l'Otan ?", en référence aux révélations du site WikiLeaks selon lesquelles la Turquie avait menacé de mettre un veto à la candidature de l'ancien Premier ministre danois au poste de secrétaire général de l'Alliance, si Copenhague ne faisait pas fermer la chaîne kurde.

M. Fogh Rasmussen a été désigné en avril 2009 et a pris ses fonctions à l'Otan en août de la même année. (AFP, 15 août 2011)

BDP call to support Roj TV

The BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) has issued a press release in which it calls on people at home and abroad to support the Kurdish television channel RojTV.

The trial of Roj TV will resume on 15 August in Denmark. The satellite channel is accused of making propaganda for the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party).

In their statement the BDP signatories say that "multilingual broadcast of independent establishment Roj TV, followed intensively in Kurdistan, Middle East, Caucasia and Europe, has increased the dialogue among peoples. Besides, the principal anti-censorship stance, which bases on the tradition of free press that Roj TV grounds on, provides a great service to the information society targeted by the EU".

The BDP statement then refer to the fact that "the Turkish government, which adopts a freedom restrictive attitude in many political and social issues, the Kurdish problem in particular, expect other countries to display the same attitude in foreign policy as well. However, it is obvious that the disregard of covered secret negotiations by EU member countries, despite their legal sensitivity in press, will create a great despair for not only the Kurdish people, but also all the peoples of the Middle East and the democratic world public opinion. Therefore, Roj TV  trial in Copenhagen is regarded as an important test for democracy and freedom of press".

The BDP statement ends with a call: "We the Kurdish society and the democracy powers in Turkey expect the EU countries, particularly Denmark, who adopt democracy, human rights and freedom of press as a principle, to provide contribution to Roj TV to meet the conditions of a free broadcast. In this sense, we ask all intellectuals, the elected and every individual in the world, who dignify democracy and the peoples’ freedom of mother-tongue, to give their support by signing this text as a party to the freedom of press against the unacceptability of this case".

SupportROJtv.com
http://supportrojtv.com/petition

Also see news: Roj TV nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
http://supportrojtv.com/category/news

Survey reveals that journalists recognize media censorship

A very high percentage of journalists in Turkey accept that there is censorship and self-censorship in Turkish media, a recent report prepared by Istanbul Bilgi University Professor Esra Arsan has revealed.

After surveying 67 journalists from various media outlets, such as Milliyet, Hürriyet, Zaman, Taraf, Sabah, Habertürk and Sözcü, 85.1 percent of the journalists surveyed said censorship and self-censorship are definitely common in the Turkish media while 14.9 percent said it was fairly common.

When it comes to the actors intervening in the news-making process, 95 percent of the journalists surveyed said the government intervenes and 89 percent said the media owners do. The report also highlighted the change in the shift of power actors that intervene in the news-making process. The report said in the past the military had a strong influence on controlling news stories; however, now the power seems to have shifted toward the police.

“This was one of the most interesting outcomes in the report for me,” Arsan, who acts as the Media and Communication Systems Program coordinator at Bilgi University, told the Daily News. “I was expecting the military influence to be diminished, yet I didn’t expect it to be replaced by the police and religious groups.”

The survey also posed questions to the journalists such as whether they ever soften the tone of their stories or what subjects they think are censored the most.

According to the report, while more than 50 percent said they softened their tone because they are afraid of government and media boss pressure, 64.5 percent said they were afraid that they might be taken to court for the content of their articles.

When asking what topics journalists think are most censored, 92 percent said relationship between the media owners is not revealed in the media. Meanwhile, 67 percent said stories that cause other journalists to go to jail are censored. None of the surveyed journalists disagreed with stories about the gathering of religious groups in state affairs being censored.

Arsan said she finished the report a couple of months before the general elections of June 12. Forty-one percent of the surveyed journalists were in higher positions such as head editors, 25 percent were editors and 10 were columnists.

“I made a list of head editors, columnists and reporters who were experts in their fields and who were from media outlets with different perspectives. Although the number of participants may not sound high, they were people whom I think have a large influence on Turkish media.”

The report also contained civil disobedience acts, such as protests against hydro power plants or Internet bans or disobedience acts of Kurdish groups in Turkey and underlines that to sustain a healthy society these acts should be recognized by the media.

The report also talked about the lack of unionization among journalists, citing that only 21 percent of the people who took the survey were members of the Journalists Union. Also, 89 percent said the legal regulations protecting media freedom were not enough. (Hürriyet Daily News, August 10, 2011)

Etre journaliste ou écrivain au Kurdistan

Ahmet DERE, Journaliste-écrivain

Selon le Reporters Sans Frontières, la Turquie est à la 138e place sur 178 pays du classement mondial concernant la liberté de la presse. Selon l’Association des Droits de l’Homme de Turquie, au moins 45 journalistes et écrivains sont toujours en prison, aucune amélioration n’a été constatée malgré les reformes dans le cadre de la liberté d’expression et de la presse.

« Aucun media n’a été réduit au silence depuis 8 ans du pouvoir AKP » avait déclaré le 18 février dernier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, le premier ministre, lors d’une réunion de son parti, malgré les démentis des organisations de défense des droits de l’homme et de la presse.

Après cette déclaration du premier ministre turc, un rapport de la branche d’Istanbul de l’Association des Droits de l’Homme a publié un rapport dans lequel on dément le premier ministre : Cinq journaux ont été suspendus pendant 120 jours, un revue a été saisi trois fois, 13 sites d’information et de partage de vidéos ont été bloqués à Istanbul au cours de l’année 2010.

Selon un autre rapport de cette association, au cours des neuf premiers mois de 2010, 197 journalistes ont été jugées dans le cadre de la liberté d'expression. Ainsi, au moins 12 journaux ont été suspendus, pour la plupart kurdes, et des milliers de sites d'internet ont été interdits pendant les mêmes périodes.

Le 24 février derniers deux journalistes kurdes,  le correspondant de l’agence Dicle, Vedat Yildiz et celui du journal Guney Dogu Ekspres, Lokman Dayan ont été condamnés chacun à 7 ans et 11 mois de prison par la 4e cour d’assise de Diyarbakir pour « appartenance à une organisation terroriste » et « violation de la loi sur les rassemblements et les manifestations ».

Le correspondant de l’agence Dicle avait été violemment tabassé par des policiers lors d’une manifestation organisée le 21 octobre 2008, en faveur du leader kurde Abdullah Ocalan. Ces deux journalistes avaient été arrêtés par la police alors qu’ils couvraient la manifestation.

Le 15 avril 2011 le corespondant de l’agence d’DİHA de Diyarbakir Kadri Kaya et le corespondant de Batman Erdoğan Altan ont été arrêtés. Depuis cette date là ces deux journalistes kurdes sont détenus dans prison de Batman. Jusq’à maintenant le procè n’a pas commencé et ni eux ni leurs avocats ne savent ils sont détenus pour les quelles raisons.

Le journal Azadyia Welat est dans la ligne de mire des autorités depuis qu'il sort de manière quotidienne en 2006. Il a déjà été suspendu huit fois par la justice turque et au moins neuf journalistes du quotidien sont actuellement en prison, dont deux anciens rédacteurs en chef.

L'Institut international de presse (IPI) a fait part de son inquiétude sur le sort d'un journaliste kurde, M. Vedat Kursun, qui était menacé de 525 ans de prison lors d'un procès en Turquie. Mais le 13 mai 2010, Vedat Kursun a été condamné à une peine de 166 ans de prison.

La justice turque avait condamné le 30 décembre 2010 à 138 ans de prison Emine Demir, ancienne rédactrice en chef d'Azadiya Welat, pour « appartenance à une organisation terroriste » et «propagande en faveur de cette organisation » à travers des ses varticles publiés.

Selon un rapport du Plateforme "Liberté pour les journalistes" (GÖP), 68 journalistes, dont 10 femmes, sont derrières les barreaux en Turquie. La plupart des journalistes en prison sont des kurdes.

Le 9 février 2011, Ozan Kilinç, propriétaire et rédacteur en chef du seul quotidien en langue kurde, Azadiya Welat, a été condamné par contumace à 21 ans et 3 mois de prison, et privé de ses droits civiques. Dès la troisième audience du procès, la 5e chambre de la cour d’assises de Diyarbakir l’a reconnu coupable de "propagande en faveur du PKK" et de "crime commis au nom de l’organisation", sans même qu’il en soit membre.
Ozan Kilinç devient ainsi la dernière victime de la Loi antiterroriste N°3713 (LAT), formidable outil répressif entre les mains des franges conservatrices de l’Etat turc. Selon le site d’information spécialisé sur les questions de droits de l’homme Bianet.org, 47 personnes, dont 22 journalistes, ont été jugées en vertu de cette loi en 2009. Les condamnations prononcées totalisent 58 ans de prison et 9 740 livres turques (environ 4 640 euros) d’amendes. Le rédacteur en chef d’Azadiya Welat était aussi inculpé en vertu de l’article 220 du nouveau code pénal ("propagande d’une organisation à visée criminelle").
En Iran la situation n’est pas différente

Depuis le 4 juillet 2007, le journaliste et défenseur des droits humains kurde Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand est détenu dans un lieu inconnu, qui pourrait être la section 209 de la prison d’Evin. Il a été arrêté le 1er juillet 2007 sur son lieu de travail, à Téhéran, par des membres des forces de sécurité en civil. Amnesty International a déjà publié ses craints qu’il ne soit torturé ou soumis à d’autres formes de mauvais traitements et pense qu’il s’agit très probablement d’un prisonnier d’opinion, détenu uniquement pour avoir exercé de manière pacifique son droit à la liberté d’expression et d’association.

Un journaliste kurde, Kemal Serifi, est en prison d’Iran depuis 2009. Il est culpabilisé d’être aussi mebre du Parti Demicratique du Kurdistan et est condamné à une pain de prison pour 30 ans.

Adnan Hassanpour, écrivain et journaliste kurde a été emprisonné et condamné à mort le 11. 07. 2007.

La situation en Irak et au Kurdistan Irakien

Les agressions et les arrestations arbitraires pleuvent contre les journalistes, rendant le travail de la presse impossible au Kurdistan irakien.

Au mois de Novembre 2008 Dr. Adel Hussein, journaliste et médecin, a été condamné à six mois de prison pour avoir écrit un article sur l'homosexualité. Il a commencé à purger sa peine dans la prison centrale d'Erbil. L'Union des journalistes kurdes a condamné cette décision de justice et a demandé aux autorités kurdes d'Irak d'intervenir.

Le 18 avril 2011, 12 journalistes couvrant le rassemblement organisé à Erbil ont été agressés par les forces de l’ordre et certains d’entre eux ont été arrêtés.

Ahmed Mira, rédacteur en chef et propriétaire de Lvin Magazine, connu pour ses positions militantes en faveur de la liberté de la presse, a été attaqué à Kalar, le 14 avril 2011, par des membres de Asayesh, les forces de sécurité de l’UPK, alors qu’il participait à la commémoration du 23ème anniversaire de l’Anfal, où des populations kurdes avaient été massacrés par le régime de Saddam Hussein en 1988.

La Situation en Syrie n’est pas aussi différente que les autres parties du Kurdistan

La chaîne Al-Arabiya a annoncé l’arrestation, le 7 avril 2011, d’un journaliste norvégien, d’origine kurde de Syrie, Mohamed Zaid Mistou, correspondant pour le site d’informations Al-Arabiya.net Le journaliste d’origine kurde était en Syrie quelques jours avant le début des manifestations dans le pays. Il a alors couvert le mouvement de protestation, publiant de nombreux articles sur le site de la chaîne Al-Arabiya.net.

Le 8 mai 2006, la cour de justice de Dêrik, Kurdistan de Syrie, a condamné l'écrivain kurde Ednan Besîr à un mois de prison. L'écrivain avait participé à une conférence à Dohuk (Kurdistan irakien) et s'est vu retirer son passeport syrien pour la peine.

Le nombre des journalistes et écrivains kurdes qui sont en prions de Syrie n’est pas déterminé.

Une partie de la liste des journalistes et ecrivains kurdes en prison de Turquie

1-Abdulcabbar Karadağ ( Azadiya Welat, prison de Mersin Tipe E)
2-Ahmet Akyol (DİHA, Prison d’Adana Kürkçüler Tipe F)
3-Ahmet Birsin (Gün TV, prison de Diyarbakır tipe D)
4-Ali Buluş (DİHA, prison de Karaman-Ermenek tipe M)
5-Ali Çat (Azadiya Welat, prison de Mersin tipe E)
6-Ali Konar (Azadiya Welat, prison de Malatya tipe  E)
7-Bayram Parlak (Gündem Gazetesi, prison de Karaman-Ermenek tipe M)
8-Bedri Adanır (Aram Yayınları et le Journal Hawar, prison de Diyarbakır tipe D)
9-Behdin Tunç (DİHA, prison de Diyarbakır tipe D)
10-Cihan Gün (Yürüyüş Dergisi, prison de Sincan Ankara tipe F)
11-Dılşa Ercan (Azadiya Welat, prison d’Adana)
12-Emine Altınkaya (DİHA, prison de Sincan Ankara)
13-Ensar Tunca (Azadiya Welat, prison d’Iğdır)
14-Erdoğan Altan (DİHA, prison de Diyarbakır tipe D)
15-Faysal Tunç (DİHA, prison de Diyarbakır tipe D)
16-Feyyaz Deniz (DİHA, prison de Sincan tipe F)
17-Hamdiye Çiftçi (DİHA, prison de Bitlis tipe E)
18-Kadri Kaya (DİHA, prison de Diyarbakır tipe D)
19-Mahmut Güleycan (Özgür Halk Dergisi, prison de Van tipe F)
20-Mehmet Karaaslan (DİHA, prison de Karaman-Ermenek tipe M)
21-Nuri Yeşil (Azadiya Welat, prison de Malatya tipe E)
22-Ozan Kılınç (Azadiya Welat, prison de Diyarbakır tipe D)
23-Seyithan Akyüz (Azadiya Welat, prison d’Adana Kürkçüler tipe F)
24-Sinan Aygül (DİHA, prison de Van tipe F)
25-Şahin Baydağı (Azadiya Welat, prison de Mardin tipe E)
26-Vedat Kurşun (Azadiya Welat, prison de Diyarbakır tipe D)

(http://farasinfr.blogspot.com)

The trial against RojTV to open next Monday in Denmark

The trial of RojTV will on 15 August in Denmark. The satellite channel is accused of propaganda for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

While RojTV does not have any studios in Denmark it was granted broadcasting license by the Danish authorities. The current trial should established whether the Kurdish television will stay open or not. The Turkish government is putting a lot of pressure on the Danish authorities as it wants the channel to be closed.

Roj Tv was born as Med Tv on 30 March 1995. On 14 April of that year it broadcast the founding congress of the Kurdish Parliament in exile. Over the years in the four parts of the divided Kurdistan (Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria) as well as all over the world the satellite dishes grew like mushrooms to receive the precious signal which was coming from Europe to give the Kurds everywhere images and voices of their country. Med Tv was broadcasting from Belgium and soon Turkish pressures convinced the local authorities to act against the television. In September 1996 with a massive police operation Med Tv is raided, its staff detained, archives seized.

In February 1997 the MGK (Turkish National Security Council) asks once again for the closure of Med Tv. But is after the arrest of the Kurdish leader, Abdullah Ocalan, that things turn for the worst for the television. On 22 March 1999, a month after the capture (as a result of an international plot) of Ocalan in Kenya, the English ITC revokes the license and Med Tv cannot broadcast anymore. But the Kurds don't accept this abuse and open a new television channel, Medya Tv, this time in France. It does not go too well, but a new license is obtained by CTV based in the Vatican. And after a short period it is Denmark that give the new licence. The Kurdish channel begins broadcasting once again, first with the name Mesopotamia Tv and then with the name Roj Tv.

Roj Tv has a very various programming, from news, to in depth investigation programs, from live music programs to live debates. It broadcasts in Kurdish (Sorani, Kurmanci and Zazaki) as well as in Turkish.

The last big operation was on 4 March this year. Dozens of arrests were carried out once again by the Belgian authorities acting on request from Turkey. And indeed Turkish policemen took part in the raid at Roj Tv studios which were destroyed. The television as a result of this clearly politically motivated operation suffered a €1.2 million loss in material damage.

Roj Tv is always under attack. From the Turkish state to begin with, but also from the United States, which have often act on behalf of the Turkish requests (and pressures) to an often embarrassed and embarrassing silent Europe. The requests are of course for the "immediate closure" of Roj Tv. In 2005 it was the Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan who, at a press conference in Denmark with his Danish counterpart, suddenly left the room when he saw among the crowd of journalists two Roj Tv reporters. "There is room only for one of us: if they don't leave I will", said an angry Erdogan. And it was him who had to leave the room, after the polite but firm reply by the Danish authorities, "For us freedom of the press is a value to respect and to uphold. We will not censor any journalist". In other words, sorry Prime Minister, but it's you who should go. And Erdogan did leave, but he has been holding a grudge against the Danish government since.  (ANF / COPENAGHEN, August 9, 2011)

Berivan film, banned in Turkey but presented at Cannes

The "Berivan / An Epic of Revolt" documentary film by Aydın Orak, which wasn’t allowed for distribution in Turkey by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, was exhibited in the representation of Turkey on Turkey's stand at the Cannes Film Festival. The Ministry of Culture announced that the film doesn’t represented Turkey but the film's director Aydın Orak contradicted the Ministry, saying; “The presentation and information of the film was given in the first page of the catalogue designed for Turkey.”

FIRST EXHIBITED, THEN DENIED BY THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE

Banning the documentary film, the Ministry of Culture exhibited Berivan at the stand opened to introduce Turkish films at one of the world's most prestigious festivals, Cannes Film Festival. Following the denial of the news in press and media organs, the Ministry of Culture made a statement this week and said that it's not even a matter of discussion that Turkey is represented by that documentary at the Festival.

The statement of the Ministry said; “The 1st April dated unanimous decision of the Evaluation and Classification Board, which consists of sector representatives, university faculty members and officials from the Ministry, is as follows; ‘The documentary film was unanimously not found appropriate for commercial availability and representation for containing components that distort historical events to affect the public order adversely; commove grudge, hate and hostility in the society and spreads PKK propaganda to disrupt the unity and solidarity of the Turkish nation’. In compliance with international conventions, it is not possible for the board to make any other decision regarding the display of the film at festivals.”

CATALOGUE CONTRADICT THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE

Speaking to ANF about the situation at Cannes Film Festival, the process of its prohibition in Turkey and its consequences, director Aydın Orak said the followings; "The Turkish Ministry of Culture opens a stand at Cannes Film Festival each year, which exhibits the films, documentary and short films shot in Turkey during the year. However, the Ministry of Culture denies that Berivan appeared in Turkey’s this year’s catalog as it doesn’t represent the country. There is no sense in denying the truth that Bêrîvan's presentation and information was given on the first page of the catalog.”

WHY THE FILM WAS PROHIBITED

Speaking about the process when the film was banned by the Ministry, Orak said; “The film was shown at the 30th International Istanbul Film Festival as well as in many European countries. The film was going to be opened in Turkey after Istanbul Film Festival. We also applied to the Ministry of Culture for the document of production operation.”

According to Orak, the film was banned for ‘distorting historical events’, ‘commoving grudge, hate and hostility in the society’, ‘disrupting the unity and solidarity of the Turkish nation’ and ‘containing components that make propaganda for the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).”

YOU CANNOT REVERSE THE HISTORY

“I never understood where the need to ban a film arises from. On one side, you are banning a film; on the other side, you are representing it in Europe. Banned inside, unconstrained outside! I wonder if you are trying to appear democrat and progressive to Europe, hiding how repressive and reactionary you are inside.

I hope that the Ministry of Culture will withdraw its decision to ban the film which needs to be embraced in Turkey as well for representing the country at the Cannes Film Festival.

You cannot reverse the history. There is no need to be afraid of this film which tells a real event with real scenes and witnesses. Turkey has to face the slaughters it made, if it will be a normal country.”

FILM CONSISTS OF REAL IMAGES

"Bêrîvan, Destaneke Serhildanê”, which was fictionalized with real images of the bloody repression during Newroz celebrations in Cizre town of Şırnak in 1992, at the same time tells the story of 17-year-old Bêrîvan's struggle. Orak said the followings regarding the film; “It is about the Cizre Newroz in 1992. It documents the massacre carried out by the state in Cizre where security forces slaughtered 17 people. The film consists of real images of this slaughter and not even a single fictional dialogue or screen. All images are real."

Berivan has so far been released in more than 10 European countries as well as at the 30th International Istanbul Film Festival.

Translation: Deniz Firat
(MAXIME AZADI - ANF, 8 August 2011)

Kurdish Question / Question kurde

23-Year Prison Threat for Kurdish Politician

Altan Tan, Diyarbakır MP for the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) is facing imprisonment of 23 years and six months.

The indictment of the trial against Tan was prepared by the Public Chief Prosecution of Diyarbakır (south-eastern Turkey). The allegations are based on Tan's attending the funeral ceremony of members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who were killed in clashes with security forces in Pazarçık (Kahramanmaraş) on 23 April 2011. He is also alleged of having joined a group that was chanting slogans in the favour of Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the PKK.

Tan supposedly did not make any attempt to stop the group from shouting the pro-Öcalan slogans and thus allegedly contributed to the offence they were committing.

Furthermore, the indictment put forward that Tan participated in the three-day mourning announced by the PKK on 16 May and that he attended a press release and a commemoration ceremony for the killed PKK members.

The indictment seeks prison terms of 23 years and six months in total on the grounds of the three incidents. Tan is charged twice with "making propaganda for the PKK" and twice with "opposing the Law of Meetings and Demonstrations". Moreover, he is tried under allegations of "committing a crime on behalf of an illegal organization without being a member of the organization".

The trial will be heard before the Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court. (BIA, 25 August 2011)

KCK trial to resume in 103 days

If there was any doubt about the political nature - and consequently the total emptiness of the accusation - of the so called KCK trial, the decision today to postponed the trial to the 6 of December says it all.

The court decided to suspend the hearings for an amazing 103 days. The 152 Kurdish politicians and activists under trial have been denouncing all along the unfairness of this action and the spurious allegations against the accused.

In his writing lawyer and president of the Human Rights Association in Diyarbakir, Muharrem Erbey, underlines that when he went before the public prosecutor and judge responsible for his case, he admitted to all of the activities (with the exception of being a KCK member) the prosecutor indicated as amounting to "propaganda for the PKK" (these includes speeches about human rights at the UN and several European Parliaments and sites). Not only that, Erbey said that he stands behind them and has no regrets, and stated that he will do them all again when he will be out of prison. Because this is the bottom line: the Kurdish politicians and activists are in prison for doing their job. Mayors for being mayors and looking after their citizens, human rights activists for exposing human rights violations.

To postpone the trial to the 6 of December is yet another blow to any fragile hope peace still has in Turkey.

Long statement by the Kurdish politicians and activists under trial

Once again the prisoners in the so called KCK (Confederation of Kurdish Communities) trial have expressed their worries for a trial which is so clearly a bluff and unmotivated trial that the only way to keep it going is to continue to postpone it. Two years have passed since the first arrests of many Kurdish politicians and activists and yet to date not a single "evidence" has been produced in court. Because there is no "crime" and so there could be no evidence. The operation was designed to be a "preventive" operation: indeed thousands of politicians and activists have been arrested in the hope that after their detention some kind of evidence of some kind of crime would come up.

Of course it could work like that. And yet scores of politicians, elected representatives, activists are being kept in prison for the sake of it. Or rather with the precise aim to prevent them from doing what they have been elected to do, run the cities, municipalities, councils, civil society organisations. In this sense, yes, the operation succeed in being 'preventive'.

The prisoners, in a long statement write that “This concept of attack on the democratic political struggle of the Kurdish people has been implemented with the approval of Prime Minister Erdogan himself and through police force, militants of the Gulen Sect, and judiciary support. The main purpose of these operations, as the democratic public opinion knows, is to break the will of Kurdish people and to make them submit through their leading institutions and administrators. The attempt to attack on the Kurdish language, culture, identity and demands with all kinds of special warfare methods is the intention to reach a definitive conclusion failed by the September 12 military coup which was trying to destroy the awakening conscience of the Kurdish people".

Similarly, the statement reads, "April 14 coup aimed at making Kurds disorganized and weak. The mentality is two of a kind in terms of perspective and purpose. Therefore, the trial judging is a conjuncture result of a plan with strategic goals. The trial is therefore an unlawful political conspiracy, as we have expressed many times. Through us, the case intends to judge a people’s struggle for freedom and equality, the democratic politics and all achievements obtained on this democratic ground. This reality necessitates a political approach to the case.”

The prisoners of the KCK trial further state that “Despite everything, in order to respond to the accusation which was ordered to keep the truths hidden, to adjust the reversed facts and to decipher the political conspiracy, we prepared our defenses written both in Kurdish and Turkish so that we could take advantage of our right of defense which we individually regard as divine. We also issued a common defense speech which in the same way reflected our common thoughts. However, our demand and right to express ourselves in our mother tongue was denied at the first hearing which first took place 18 months after our imprisonment. Our language was despised and recorded as “unintelligible language”. We once more faced the naked face of the policy of denial and ignore. Our demand for translator was also rejected. We were exposed to unjust accusations and lie allegations and insults during the reading of the indictment which lasted for days. When we were after a very long time allowed to speak, the court didn’t let us to defend ourselves in our mother language. We were forced to abandon our “language and identity”.

The statement continued as follows:

"The AKP has decided on a total warfare against the Kurdish people and it is making massacre plans with the most fascist methods at military, political, legal and psychological fronts. The AKP has carried out uninterrupted operations even during the unilateral ceasefires and led to the deaths of tens of Kurdish and Turkish children of poor laborer families. Kurdish people, young and old alike, were targeted and put in prisons, exposed to systematic tortures which are no longer applied in secret as in past, while Kurdish politicians are sentenced to more than 10 years imprisonment penalties for just speaking and expressing their opinions. Implementing all these applications on one side, the AKP is on the other side trying to use confederate and surrendered Kurds as a tool. This kind of attacks by this mentality are applied in a multiplied and more fascist way in prisons where we face with a mindset that violates its own aged laws. Kurdish Revolutionary prisoners are recently exiled to the furthest western provinces of Kurdistan.

Besides insulting our language, culture, belief and personalities, they are creating new lawlessness and scandals. We have not been allowed to express a single defense word for 2.5 years as the fascist spirit of “Speak Turkish” mindset was updated in a tragicomic way at the court. The court board and the main forces behind the matter are applying to new tactics every day against the approach, attitude and resistance of the defendants. The hearings in the file were unlawfully divided into groups and only six defendants have attended the hearings for the last eight months, while the rest of us (98) aren’t taken to the hearings. 25 of the defendants have been exiled to Bingöl for factitious reasons.

In the same way, the demands put forward by our lawyers since the first day have all been rejected and their objections were not accepted. They weren’t given a chance to perform their job as well as being subjected to threats and duress. They were openly threatened by police in the courtroom many times but the complaints and demands of our lawyers in this regard weren’t considered by the court board.

In the August 12 dated trial, the court prosecutor demanded the referral of our trial files to another province. This situation is an open expression of sinking into a deadlock and a nonresistance intended to be exposed through this kind of threats and duress. It should be known that we will under any circumstances sustain our resistance against the fascist courts that have no power to try us. We announce that we will act with the mark “resignation leads to betrayal, resistance to victory” at any court in any province. We will continue to raise our resistance even more as long as the judicial system and the state’s denialist and destructive conception exist. We would like the public to know that we will resist up to the end in every ground and place against the policies of resignation and subdue imposed on us.” (ANF, 24-25 August 2011)

Les Kurdes savent qu’ils ne peuvent compter que sur eux-mêmes
 
André Métayer
 
Nous avons publié le 3 juillet dernier l’interview d’un député kurde parue en mai 1994 dans les colonnes d’Ouest-France : "depuis l’arrivée au pouvoir du Premier ministre Tansu Ciller, depuis ces deniers mois surtout, écrivait le journaliste Michel de Carné, la guerre a pris un tour implacable... La Turquie, cette éternelle candidate à l’Union européenne, viole allégrement les droits de l’homme, ne reculant devant rien pour mener à bien ce véritable nettoyage ethnique". 17 ans plus tard, la Turquie se dirige à nouveau vers la guerre totale.

La montée de l’escalade date d’avril 2009 avec le début des arrestations massives de militants politiques et associatifs dans le but d’éradiquer toute expression démocratique kurde : ce fut la façon très particulière d’un dirigeant turc, le premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan, de tirer les enseignements d’élections locales et régionales du 29 mars qui ont mis en place, dans les régions kurdes, un véritable maillage d’élus souhaitant poser la question de l’identité kurde et la résoudre dans le cadre d’une négociation politique. Le parti kurde DTP (Parti pour une Société Démocratique) a été dissout le 11 décembre mais le BDP (Parti pour la Paix et la Démocratie) était déjà prêt pour continuer le combat politique. Aujourd’hui plus de 4 000 membres actifs de ce parti, dont six maires et des élus locaux et régionaux, sont toujours incarcérés dans les prisons turques surpeuplées (le nombre de détenus est passé de 60 000 en 2002 à 120 000 en 2010).

Le résultat des élections législatives de juin 2011 n’a pas dénoué la crise. RT Erdogan, refusant, une fois de plus, le verdict des urnes qui a fait passer de 20 à 36 le nombre de députés BDP, a fait invalider l’élection de Hatip Dicle [1]. Cinq autres élus députés sont également maintenus en détention malgré l’immunité parlementaire à laquelle ils peuvent prétendre. En réponse, les députés BDP, entamant un bras de fer avec le pouvoir, refusent de se rendre à Ankara pour prêter serment. Ils siègent es qualité au Congrès pour une Société démocratique (DTK), considéré aujourd’hui par les Kurdes comme "leur" Parlement. Le DTK s’est prononcé le 14 juillet 2011, lors de son 2° congrès à Diyarbakir, pour une "autonomie démocratique" dont le but est d’organiser la société kurde dans le cadre d’une organisation confédérale, à travers 8 dimensions fondamentales : politique, juridique, auto-défense, sociale, économique, culturelle, écologique et diplomatique.

RT Erdogan s’en est pris également à Abdullah Öcalan qui, du fond de sa prison, s’est dit lassé des discussions stériles avec les émissaires du gouvernement, en faisant suspendre les visites des avocats. La tension est encore montée d’un cran quand, le PKK ayant mis fin au 8ème cessez-le-feu qu’il avait décrété unilatéralement, les accrochages et les attaques de convois se sont multipliés et ont provoqué de sérieuses pertes humaines dans les rangs de l’armée turque. La Turquie et l’Iran s’unissent pour combattre la résistance armée kurde basée dans la région autonome du Kurdistan irakien : l’aviation turque pilonne les positions du PKK tandis que les troupes iraniennes au sol violent la zone frontalière.

Le 17 août, RT Erdogan a sommé le BDP et le DTK de prendre leurs distances avec les "terroristes", prélude, selon la presse turque, à la mise en application d’un plan prévoyant l’arrestation de plusieurs centaines de personnes dont certains députés kurdes nouvellement élus.

La guerre est également déclarée aux medias kurdes : 70 journalistes, la plupart kurdes, sont embastillés dans les geôles turques, de nombreuses publications sont interdites, les réseaux sociaux s’en mêlent et la Turquie, avec l’aide active des Etats-Unis, a réussi à mettre la pression sur le Danemark pour faire ouvrir un procès visant à interdire ROJ TV, la télévision kurde en exil émettant depuis ce pays.

Et tout ceci dans l’indifférence générale : les Kurdes savent depuis longtemps qu’ils ne peuvent compter que sur leurs propres forces, politiques et combattantes. (andre-metayer@orange.fr, 23 août 2011)

KCK: Acts of violence cannot produce any results

In a written statement, KCK (People’s Union of Kurdistan) has pointed out that none of the violent methods of the AKP government will produce any results, adding that the current war will on the contrary bury the colonialism in Kurdistan. KCK underlined that the Kurdish movement and people have the power and possibilities to defend themselves.

Remarking that the AKP government is drawing away from the solution of the Kurdish question and speaking of the Tamil sample to prepare the ground for a massacre, KCK reminded that the AKP is in a struggle for developing pressure and threat on Ocalan.

The statement said;“In its recent acts, the Turkish government has once more revealed its chauvinist, racist and slaughterer reality. However, the AKP government can in no way solve the Kurdish problem through violence in the present situation. The Revolutionary People's War and the resistance of Kurdish people and our movement will defeat the violence policy of the AKP state, actualize the solution with the perspective of Democratic Autonomy and liberate our Leadership.

The patriotic people of Kurdistan should strengthen the national unity by exhibiting a dignified stance and resistance against the total war developed by the AKP state, because this attack of colonialism is carried out against all the achievements of the Kurdish people. It is the duty of the Kurdistan people to unite and resist against the colonialist and destructive mentality which responds to out peaceful calls and efforts with violence. Our people should raise the revolts, exhibit their social reactions, practice the Democratic Autonomy system and display the will of the solution. We call all patriotic-democratic institutions in Kurdistan to get into the act for the solution of the Kurdish problem in consideration of the last call by our Leadership and to raise the struggle of gaining the impending freedom. We call all the circles that side with Turkey's unity and peace to not to remain silent in the face of this double-standard violence policy of the AKP, to protest the state terror in Kurdistan and to adopt the peace and democratic solution line.” (ANF, 22 August 2011)

La Turquie s'éloigne d'un règlement pacifique de la question kurde

La Turquie s'éloigne d'un règlement pacifique de la question kurde et risque d'entrer dans un nouveau cycle de violences, estimaient vendredi des analystes au troisième jour de raids aériens turcs contre des bases des rebelles kurdes en Irak.

L'armée a déclenché ces frappes en riposte à une embuscade meurtrière des rebelles du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) dans le sud-est de la Turquie.

"Nous entrons dans une ère où le langage de la guerre et de la violence va l'emporter", jugeait l'éditorialiste Soli Ozel dans le quotidien Haber Turk, avertissant des conséquences d'une recrudescence de la violence.

"Le plus dangereux, c'est de laisser dans le désespoir les Turcs, les Kurdes, la majorité des gens qui vivent dans ce pays, alors même qu'à chaque occasion ils montrent avec leurs votes qu'ils n'en peuvent plus de la terreur et de la guerre", poursuivait-il.

Le gouvernement islamo-conservateur du Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan avait adopté une politique plus conciliante sur la question kurde, entamant des contacts avec le chef rebelle kurde Abdullah Öcalan, emprisonné à vie.

Un changement qui avait laissé espérer des progrès vers une issue au conflit qui a fait 45.000 morts depuis que le PKK a pris les armes contre les forces d'Ankara en 1984 pour la création d'un Etat kurde indépendant dans le sud-est, peuplé majoritairement de Kurdes.

Cette revendication s'est muée en demande d'autonomie au sein d'un système fédéral, défendue par la principale formation kurde, le Parti de la paix et de la démocratie (BDP).

Et lors des législatives de juin dernier, le "bloc kurde" soutenu par le BDP, a réalisé un score historique, remportant 36 députés contre 20 au Parlement sortant.

Le parti de M. Erdogan, l'AKP, a toutefois largement remporté le scrutin.

Fin juillet, Abdullah Öcalan a accusé Ankara d'intransigeance et exigé sa libération. Puis, après une série d'attaques lancées par le PKK, le gouvernement a choisi la manière forte.

Le PKK, qui a officiellement décrété un cessez-le-feu, dit de son côté qu'une quarantaine de ses combattants ont été tués depuis le scrutin du 12 juin.

Après la nouvelle embuscade qui a tué mercredi neuf membres des forces turques dans le sud-est de la Turquie, M. Erdogan a lancé: "Notre patience est à bout".

Signalant un raidissement, il a évoqué "une nouvelle ère", avertissant que "ceux qui ne s'écartent pas du terrorisme vont en payer le prix", un message adressé aux politiciens kurdes jugés trop proches du PKK.

Il a ensuite réuni le Conseil national de sécurité (MGK), qui rassemble les plus hautes autorités politiques et militaires, qui s'est également prononcé en faveur d'un durcissement contre le PKK.

Aucune activité qui pourrait menacer l'unité indivisible de la nation turque ne sera tolérée, a assuré le MGK, soulignant que la lutte contre "le terrorisme du PKK sera poursuivie avec détermination, sans pour autant renoncer aux principes de l'Etat de droit".

La politologue Nuray Mert affiche son pessimisme. "Une nouvelle atmosphère, un cadre politique dans lequel ceux qui veulent la paix où ne pensent pas comme le gouvernement sont ciblés émerge clairement", dit-elle.

Au contraire, l'éditorialiste Ismaïl Kucukkaya juge dans le quotidien Aksam que les responsables turcs ont "commencé à tracer deux voies parallèles en faisant la différence entre la lutte contre la terreur séparatiste et la poursuite de la politique de démocratisation" des institutions du pays.

"L'organisation terroriste veut un nouveau cycle, veut la guerre, et cherche à verser davantage de sang. Le gouvernement prend des mesures pour briser ce cycle", estime-t-il.

Le député kurde Aysel Tugluk juge pour sa part que "le Premier ministre utilise sa victoire électorale pour défaire ses adversaires". "Les espoirs d'un solution se sont sérieusement amenuisés", dit il, estimant que les Kurdes ont perdu confiance dans le gouvernement. (AFP, 19 août 2011)

KNK: A Dangerous Concep for the Kurdish Question

Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) issued the following statement on 18 August 2011:

Since yesterday (17 August 2011) Turkish warplanes have been shelling the border area in southern Kurdistan (North-Iraq). According to initial reports settlement areas were hit. On the pretext of destroying PKK forces Turkey has bombed the area countless times.

For a long time the Turkish AKP government has been preparing itself for a new war. While the AKP promised at the national elections on 12th June as a priority to prepare a new democratic constitution, Turkey is now carrying out cross-border military operations and setting up a broad political operation against Kurds in the country. For weeks politicians, judiciary, security forces and media have created the basis for such a war of extermination.

The Turkish prime minister declared at any given opportunity that no one should expect good will. The knife has reached the bone, a point has been reached when words have lost their meanings. Turkey will take action with a new strategy and new methods against the PKK as well as everybody who is not distancing
themselves from the PKK will pay a high price, said Erdogan.

Simultaneously with the inciting of the public against the Kurds, the Turkish media has been discussing the “Tamil solution” to the Kurdish question. This “Tamil solution” means a military solution with many thousands of deaths.

These cross-border operations are part of a master plan. Since 16th July the Iranian military has been also carrying out cross-border operations in southern Kurdistan. That Iran will not start an occupation offensive separate from Turkey was clear. It was expected that over time the Turkish military would join in actively. The target is the siege of southern Kurdistan. Both Turkey and Iran see the existence of a Kurdish regional government as a threat and therefore they want to bring the area under their control. Furthermore, the efforts of the Kurdish opposition and of the Kurdistan National Congress for national unity are to be suppressed. It is no secret that Turkey has been trying to involve military forces from South-Kurdistan. They try to attack the Kurdish guerrilla at the same time from three sides to destroy them. Turkey can be sure that it has the support of the international community. It had already stayed calm during the Iranian military operation.

It is also a serious concern that the attacks against the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan on the prison island Imrali have again increased. Since July 27 visits from his lawyers were banned for arbitrary reasons. Only a few days ago the certificates of four of his attorneys were withdrawn.  Kurds explain again and again that the attitude against their leader is the same as the attitude towards the Kurdish question. The AKP government blocks all opportunities for the political solution. The BDP is pushed from parliament with the withdrawal of electoral mandates and arrests; the DTK is being criminalized and is threatened by severe sanctions. The initiated dialogue with Abdullah Öcalan is abused as a delaying tactic.

Turkey is playing with fire and with the future of the region as well as with the chance for peaceful coexistence between the Turkish and Kurdish peoples.
We call on the international community of states, primarily the European Union, to take action against the cross-border military operations undertaken by Turkey since these represent a clear offence against international law. The solution of the Kurdish question should not be addressed through military measures, but within the framework of a democratic constitution and democratic actions.

Furthermore, we call on the German Government and all political parties, NGOs, peace movements and democratic forces to speak out clearly against this illegal war against the Kurds and to implement measures to stop it. (http://www.kongrakurdistan.net)

Air strikes throw Turkey into chaos

The Turkish Air Force bombed heavily on Wednesday and Thursday regions under the control of the Kurdistan Workers' Party in northern Iraq, causing extensive damage to the villages. Hours before the attack, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had openly threatened the Kurdish political and armed organizations, announcing his war plan that includes cross-border operations and mass arrests of Kurdish militants, according to Kurdish and Turkish media .

Since the parliamentary elections of June 12, won by the AKP, the Islamic-conservative party of Prime Minister Erdogan, the winds of war have been blowing through the country. Refusing to release more than 4,000 active members of the main Kurdish party BDP, including six mayors and elected officials, the government also rejects the claims of the Kurdish people for a democratic self-government.

RISK OF CIVIL WAR

If steps towards peace are not taken quickly, the risk of civil war is real. The Kurds are already victims of racist lynchings in several cities. But, no racist attack has been sanctioned, on the contrary the government is encouraging the attacks by calling them "citizens' reactions."

Ignoring the daily repression and gross violations of human rights, Erdogan systematically points the finger at the Kurdish party BDP and the Congress for a Democratic Society (DTK), a platform for Kurdish associations and movements, which recently proclaimed the democratic autonomy. According to the BDP, the government plans a massive operation against the DTK, while the media close to the government speak of a Tmail scenario.

On August 17, Prime Minister Erdogan has threatened the BDP, without naming it, "if it does not distance itself from terrorism", saying his country was "running out of patience" Following an ambush by the PKK against the Turkish special forces who were conducting an operation. At least 11 soldiers, including a major, and a militiaman were killed and 11 others injured in the Aug. 17 ambush Cukurca (Hakkari Province).

War planes bombed heavily Wednesday from 21h the five regions under control of the PKK; Qandil, Xinere, Xakurke, Metin and Zap, after Erdogan's threats. The bombing lasted all night and resumed on Thursday morning Lolan, Xakurke, and Kani Xinere Qirej.

Many Kurdish villages were targeted by aircraft, according to Kurdish sources. The Youth Centre in the town hall in the village of Qandil Zergele and a house belonging to Koxe Qadir, a resident of same village, were destroyed by the Turkish Air Force.

The PKK has provided in its ranks have recorded no losses. The Turkish army said it had struck 60 goals on Wednesday night by aircraft, while the Turkish artillery bombed 168 targets.

PLAN IS READY FOR WAR

Three days before the bombing, August 14, the Prime Minister announced that his government was considering military action and tougher enforcement against the PKK with the end of Ramadan. According to Turkish media, among these measures shall include cross-border operations and sending in the combat zones of special forces, known for their practice room in the War of the 1990s. The plan of the war also include the arrest of 800 to 1400 people, and some members of the DTK Kurdish journalists, the paper Haberturk.

This plan recalls the time of Tansu Ciller, former prime minister between 1993 and 1996. Making use of secret funds to finance a secret organization, had compiled a blacklist of Kurdish businessmen to cut down on suspicion of financing the PKK. In 1994, the offices of the Kurdish newspaper, Ozgur Ulke had been bombed on the orders of the Prime Minister.

BPD: ERDOGAN must distance with fascism

Kurdish organizations have already mentioned that the AKP government was preparing a major operation against the DTK, saying the country is heading towards chaos and civil war. Strongly condemning the threats of the Prime Minister, the chairman of the BDP, Selahattin Demirtas said that the BDP is not responsible for the rising tensions, calling Erdogan to take "distance itself from fascism. "

PKK: GOVERNMENT PLANS FOR MURDER

For his part, Murat Karayilan, the lead PKK announced in an interview granted to the Kurdish Firat news agency that the AKP government is planning assassinations against leaders of the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan. "Elements of Special Forces were sent to Rania, in Sulaimaniya province. But we are not afraid and they will not work. "

Stressing that the Kurds are no longer afraid of the threats of the government, he warned: "The Prime Minister should know that we have mobilized only 5% of our forces. We are conducting a war of defense under control. If we give the formal order of war (total), they disrupt Turkey. "

Recalling the eight cease-fire the PKK unilaterally rejected by the Turkish state, Karayilan said that the only way to silence the weapons is a cease-fire bilaterally.

BALANCE OF DEMOCRACY OR FASCISM?

On August 16, the head of government promised to solve this problem "without making concessions on democracy and freedom," which leads us to wonder about this "democracy."

The number of inmates in prisons have argued for 100%, from 60,000 in 2002 to 120,000 in 2010. Violence against women reached alarming proportions, with an increase of 1400%. Today, about 70 journalists, mostly Kurds, are in prison, making it the country's biggest prison for journalists. Hundreds of newspapers, magazines or books were banned by the authorities. 73 Kurdish children were killed by security forces since 2002, according to the initiative "Bir Göz Sen Ol 'who published the names of 477 Kurdish children killed in the last 20 years.

More than 4000 active members of the BDP, including mayors, elected officials, trade unionists and defenders of human rights have been behind bars since 2009, as part of the case KCK, the Union of Kurdistan (KCK), an organization accused of "terrorism" and "complicity" with the PKK. Those who advocate for the Kurdish cause are likely to be arrested in connection with this case, viewed as a political plot by the Kurdish organizations.

ARRESTS compared to the 1990s

Mass arrests are reminiscent of the 1990s and are comparable to the time Ciller. According to statistics compiled from reports on the situation of human rights, 21 612 people were arrentées in 2002 against 14,473 in 1994. In 2007, the beginning of second term of Erdogan, 7191 people were arrested and 16 000 arrests were made in 2010. A report from the Association of Human Rights (IHD) indicates that 4015 people were arrested during the first half of 2011, in the Kurdish region only, against 2,430 during the same period of 2010. The report found 16,482 violations of human rights in the first six months of this year, against 13,219 cases in 2010. The same report also noted 1010 cases of torture and ill-treatment to six months in the Kurdish region, against 433 in 2010.

HOW TO DEFINE ERDOGAN?

So, if Turkey is an "advanced democracy", as claimed by Erdogan and media, how to explain these figures? Can we speak of "respect", of "zero tolerance to torture", "democracy" or "political civil"? If this is the advanced democracy, how to define new measures of war announced by the government? Finally, how to define an Erdogan who intends to "pay" for the Kurdish politicians? As Saddam Hussein? Milosevic? and his dear friend Omar al-Bashir?

AKP PLAY WITH FIRE

Erdogan's government is playing with fire, spreading fear and declaring war to destabilize and destroy the Kurdish movement which is able to mobilize millions of people in four parts of Kurdistan and Europe. A war will lead to the breakup of the country, but now the Kurds are calling for a democratic self-government without touching the borders.

The history of colonization has a vast experience in this kind of war. Turkey will never win this unjust war against the Kurds even if it kills all PKK fighters. The colonial war in Algeria is one example. (ANF, August 18, 2011)

La Turquie a de nouveau frappé le PKK dans le nord de l'Irak

L'aviation turque a mené de nouveaux raids jeudi soir contre des caches de rebelles kurdes situées dans le nord de l'Irak après avoir adopté une "nouvelle stratégie" de lutte préconisant un durcissement contre le Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK).

Plus d'une dizaines de chasseurs ont bombardé plusieurs positions de rebelles dans la montagne irakienne, ont rapporté les médias turcs et l'agence de presse pro-kurde Firatnews.

Il s'agit du deuxième pilonnage des repaires du PKK en Irak depuis mercredi soir, quelques heures après une embuscade sanglante des rebelles qui a coûté la vie dans le sud-est de la Turquie à neuf membres des forces turques.

Avant mercredi, la Turquie n'avait pas pilonné les caches du PKK en Irak depuis plus d'un an.

Les raids de jeudi ont visé des cibles du PKK dans le mont Qandil, proche de la frontière avec l'Iran, où se trouve un centre de commandement, a affirmé Firatnews, très bien renseignée sur le PKK.

Selon l'agence de presse turque IHA, 16 chasseurs F-16 ont décollé vers 19h00 GMT de leurs bases en Turquie en direction du nord de l'Irak.

L'état-major avait averti jeudi, en confirmant les bombardements de la veille que ces raids se poursuivraient si nécessaire.

Un porte-parole du PKK, Dozdar Hammo, a déclaré à l'AFP vers 20h00 GMT que les bombardements turcs continuaient et visaient les bases rebelles situées en territoire irakien dans les zones de Qandil al-Zan et de Khowakirk, près de la frontière avec la Turquie.

Il a affirmé que ni les raids de mercredi ni ceux de jeudi n'avaient fait de victimes.

Par ailleurs, deux soldats turcs ont été tués et quatre autres ont été blessés jeudi soir dans une attaque à la roquette de rebelles kurdes visant un poste de gendarmerie à Eruh, dans la province de Siirt, ont rapporté les chaînes de télévision.

Le bureau du président de la région autonome du Kurdistan irakien, Massoud Barzani, a déploré la nouvelle flambée de violence et appelé au dialogue.

"Nous condamnons cette période de conflit et la reprise de la violence en général", a-t-il déclaré dans un communiqué. "La guerre, la confrontation militaire et les bombardements ne mènent qu'à des catastrophes et ne bénéficient à aucune des deux parties".

"Nous espérons que les combats et la violence cesseront et que les parties engageront le dialogue et discuteront tous les problèmes", a ajouté le bureau de M. Barzani.

La multiplication des attaques du PKK ces deux derniers mois, qui ont fait plus de 40 morts dans les rangs de la police et de l'armée, a poussé la Turquie à mettre en oeuvre des mesures "plus efficaces" dans le cadre d'une "nouvelle stratégie" pour lutter contre le PKK.

Les autorités politiques et militaires turques réunies mercredi pendant près de cinq heures autour du Conseil national de sécurité (MGK) se sont prononcés en faveur d'un durcissement contre le PKK.

La déclaration publié au terme de la réunion appelle aussi les pays voisins de la Turquie "à prendre leurs responsabilités" pour éradiquer la présence de rebelles sur leur territoire, sans citer nommément un pays.

Selon Ankara, 2.000 rebelles sont retranchés en Irak, d'où ils s'infiltrent en Turquie pour mener des attaques.

Le MGK préconise une "meilleure coordination" des moyens militaires et policiers engagés pour lutter contre le PKK, tout en insistant que la lutte contre "le terrorisme du PKK sera poursuivie avec détermination, sans pour autant renoncer aux principes de l'Etat de droit" et aux normes démocratiques.

Avant la réunion, la presse avait spéculé que les mesures envisagées prévoyaient le déploiement dans les zones de combat d'unités spéciales de la police et de troupes militaires entièrement professionnelles.

M. Erdogan, excédé par l'intensification des attaques du PKK, a réagi avec virulence au guet-apens de mercredi: "Notre patience est à bout", a-t-il dit.

Il a aussi signalé un raidissement de son gouvernement vis-à-vis de la question kurde, évoquant "une nouvelle ère", et a averti que "ceux qui ne s'écartent pas du terrorisme vont en payer le prix", un message adressé aux politiciens kurdes jugés trop proches du PKK.

Les Etats-Unis, qui considèrent le PKK comme une organisation terroriste, ont indiqué qu'il continueraient de fournir leur soutien à Ankara pour combattre les rebelles. (AFP, Burak AKINCI, 18 août 2011)

L'aviation turque a pilonné des positions du PKK en Irak

L'aviation turque a pilonné mercredi de nombreuses positions du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) dans le nord de l'Irak, après une embuscade tendue par des rebelles kurdes qui a fait 11 morts dans les rangs des forces turques, selon l'agence pro-kurde Firat.

Les frappes auxquelles ont participé 13 avions de chasse turcs ont eu lieu vers 18H00 GMT, affirme l'agence, citant des sources du PKK dans cette zone. Elle précise qu'au moins cinq cibles ont été visées dans les zones montagneuses de Qandil et de Zap, où le PKK dispose de camps.

L'agence n'indique pas si ces bombardements ont fait des victimes.

Les précédents pilonnages des bases du PKK en Irak par l'aviation turque remontent à l'an dernier.

Selon Ankara, 2.000 rebelles sont retranchés dans les montagnes irakiennes d'où ils s'infiltrent en territoire turc afin d'y attaquer les forces de sécurité.

11 membres des forces de sécurité tués dans une embuscade du PKK

10 soldats turcs et un milicien kurde ont été tués mercredi dans une embuscade tendue par des rebelles kurdes dans le sud-est de la Turquie, a annoncé le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan, qui a affirmé que son pays, en émoi après l'attaque, était "à bout de patience".

"Nous sommes maintenant au bout de notre patience", a dit M. Erdogan aux journalistes à Istanbul, indiquant qu'outre huit soldats, un "gardien de village", nom donné aux membres d'une force paramilitaire défendant les intérêts d'Ankara, avait perdu la vie dans l'attaque.

Onze soldats ont été blessés, a ajouté M. Erdogan.

Interrogé sur d'éventuelles nouvelles mesures envisagées par son gouvernement contre les rebelles, il a répondu : "Vous verrez quand cela se produira".

L'attaque s'est déroulée à Cukurca (province d'Hakkari), à la frontière avec l'Irak, a indiqué le ministre.

Des renforts ont été envoyés dans la zone où des combats ont été signalés, a-t-on souligné de source locale à Hakkari. Selon ces sources, au moins deux explosions ont eu lieu sur une autoroute, vraisemblablement des mines dont l'explosion a été déclenchée à distance, au passage d'un convoi militaire.

"Nous riposterons avec la plus grande fermeté", a souligné M. Yilmaz, accusant le Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) de vouloir "éprouver la patience" de la Turquie.

Le 16 juin, 13 soldats avaient été tués dans des combats avec le PKK dans la province de Diyarbakir, la plus importante du Sud-Est anatolien peuplé majoritairement de Kurdes. Ce sont les pertes les plus lourdes de l'armée turque dans ce conflit depuis octobre 2008.

M. Erdogan a récemment annoncé que son gouvernement envisageait des mesures militaires et policières plus sévères contre les rebelles avec la fin du mois de ramadan, fin août.

Selon la presse, parmi ces mesures figurerait l'envoi dans les zones des combats de forces spéciales de la police et d'unités composées essentiellement de soldats de métier dans le cadre d'une réorganisation de l'appareil sécuritaire mis en place dans l'Est et le Sud-Est anatoliens.

Les Etats-Unis se sont dit "attristés" par l'attaque, indiquant qu'il continueraient de fournir leur soutien à Ankara pour combattre la rébellion kurde.

"Nous sommes aux côtés de la Turquie dans sa lutte contre le PKK, une organisation terroriste qui a tué des dizaines de milliers de Turcs", a indiqué la porte-parole du département d'Etat Victoria Nuland.

Les Etats-Unis continueront de travailler avec le gouvernement turc" pour combattre le PKK", a-t-elle ajouté.

L'Iran va poursuivre ses opérations contre les rebelles Kurdes

Les Gardiens de la révolution vont poursuivre leurs opérations contre le groupe rebelle PJAK dans le nord-ouest de l'Iran, à la frontière irakienne, a annoncé un responsable de l'armée idéologique du régime iranien.

"Nous allons poursuivre les anti-révolutionnaires pour assurer la sécurité de nos frontières en empêchant les terroristes de s'infiltrer pour s'attaquer à nos concitoyens", a déclaré mercredi le colonel Hamid Ahmadi, officier des Pasdaran, lors d'une conférence de presse.

"Nous disons à l'Amérique et aux autres puissances que nous ne reculerons pas, les Gardiens n'ont pas peur du martyre, nous sommes responsables de nos frontières", a-t-il ajouté.

Les Gardiens de la révolution ont lancé le 16 juillet une vaste offensive dans le nord-ouest du pays contre les bases des rebelles kurdes du PJAK (Parti pour une vie libre au Kurdistan), un mouvement indépendantiste armé lié au PKK.

"Nous n'avons pas posé un pied sur le sol irakien et nos opérations étaient concentrées sur la frontière elle-même mais si nous voyons trois ou quatre terroristes infiltrer notre frontière nous les combattrons franchement", a ajouté M. Ahmadi. (AFP, 17 août 2011)

Court bans Öcalan's lawyers from representing PKK leader for one year

A Turkish high criminal court on Wednesday banned four lawyers representing Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), from serving as lawyers for the PKK leader for one year due to an ongoing case in which the lawyers have been accused of abetting the PKK.

Lawyers Ergün Canan, Servet Demir, Cengiz Çiçek and Davut Uzunköprü stand trial on charges of abetting the PKK without being included in the organization's hierarchical structure. The İstanbul 11th High Criminal Court on Wednesday decided to ban the four lawyers from defending and representing the convicted leader of the PKK, taking the evidence in the case into consideration.

According to Article 151 of the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK), the lawyer of a suspect or a convict can be banned from defending his client if he or she faces terrorism charges.

Öcalan was captured in Kenya on Feb. 15, 1999, while being transferred from the Greek Embassy to Nairobi International Airport in an operation conducted by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). He was sentenced to death the same year, but his sentence was suspended and later commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished in Turkey in August 2002. He has been serving a life sentence on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara. He has regular meetings with his lawyers, through whom he is suspected of delivering messages to his supporters. (Today’s Zaman, 17 August 2011)

Twenty BDP officials detained for PKK propaganda

Twenty officials from a local pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) office in the southern province of Adana were detained on Tuesday on charges of disseminating the propaganda of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
 
The Anatolia news agency reported that the suspects were detained as part of an investigation launched into a demonstration by the BDP's Ceyhan office held to condemn the killing of 10 PKK members by security forces in May.  The demonstration was reportedly held without the permission of local authorities and police say the press statement made during the demonstration was an example of PKK propaganda.

The chairman of the BDP's Ceyhan office, Seyfettin A., is also among the detainees, Anatolia said. Five of the suspects were reportedly released after being interrogated by police.

Many other BDP officials are also under arrest over allegations of disseminating PKK propaganda. The BDP does not deny links with the terrorist organization.

A large number of Kurdish politicians, including several BDP mayors, have also been taken into custody as part of an investigation into the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), an organization that allegedly functions as the urban arm of the terrorist PKK. (TODAYSZAMAN.COM,16 August 2011)

Erdogan's menace for the end of Ramadan

DTK (Democratic Society Congress) co-chair and Van MP Aysel Tuğluk has responded to the Prime Minister remarks. Speaking about recent clashes and losses suffered by the army Erdoğan had said that "the cost of this will be heavy for them". The Prime Minister avoided saying that in fact military operations have increased and become heavier in the past few weeks, despite the call for peace from the Kurdish side and the despite the fact that the PKK is still in an active defense position.

Deliberately ignoring this the Prime Minister also hit out at the BDP and DTK saying that "those who fail to distance themselves from the separatist terrorist organization in this country are also abetting this crime. They are also doomed to pay the price for that".

Going back to the usual threatening war language Erdoğan said that "We are maintaining our patience because of our respect for Ramadan. But, everyone should know that the beginning of peace will be more different after this month of peace and solidarity".

Aysel Tuğluk remarked that "both the DTK and BDP have won consensus among the people and the Prime Minister has to accept this".

The Van deputy also added that "there are two roads which can be pursued if one wants to deal with the Kurdish question: you can chose to take the road to solve the Kurdish question through dialogue and so recognizing the existence and rights of the Kurdish people and find ways in which two people can live together enjoying the same rights, or you can chose to ignore the Kurds and continue on the path of one state, one people, one language, one flag. In doing so, you simply continue on the path taken in the '90s which is a path of war and sorrow". Tuğluk added that "listening to Prime Minister Erdoğan'words, it appears clear that the AKP has decided not to chose the first path, the path towards peace". (ANF, 15 August 2011)

"KCK Case A Peculiar Example on Language Rights"

The massive case against Kurdish politicians and rights activists, who are tried for 'being members to the urban organization of the Kurdish rebel group PKK, the KCK', is still stuck following its 27th sitting yesterday in Diyarbakır.

Following the court's decision to restrain defendants from using their mother tongue Kurdish, defense lawyers withdrew from the case and the Diyarbakır Bar Association declined to assign any lawyers. The court postponed the case to August 25th and will consider moving the case to another city.

With more than 2 thousand defendants, the case is one of the biggest in Turkey's history. Lawyer and rights activist Ergin Cinmen argues that the case clearly depends on political motives.

He notes that the investigation against the defendants has been conducted by the police and by judges with special authorities. All in all, he concludes that the case is forced to block a peaceful solution to the decades-long Kurdish issue.

"Elected mayors, lawyers that deal with rights violations and prominent intellectuals of the region are charged in this case."

He says that the court's decision to disallow defense in Kurdish clearly contradicts national and international legislation. "Such an attitude should have been left in the past. A state owned TV channel broadcasts in Kurdish yet the judges continue to define Kurdish as 'an unknown language'. Code of Criminal Procedure states that the defendants can defend themselves in the most convenient language and the Lausanne Treaty also secures this right."

State's failure to allow a group of its citizens to use their mother tongues in courts could cause Turkey to be condemned in the European Court of Human Rights, Cinmen says.

He was among the lawyers who had visited a group of defendants in prison in mid-July. "None of them thinks they have done anything against the law," he quotes.

He holds the government responsible from the situation and adds that under such circumstances it would be impossible to make progress in the Kurdish issue. (BIA, Ekin KARACA, 11 August 2011)

Two-year Prison Sentence for Kurdish Politician Tuğluk

Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk, independent Deputy for Van, was handed down a two-year prison sentence on the grounds of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" in one of her speeches. The charges stem from a speech she delivered on 17 March 2010 in the Yüksekova district of Hakkari, a Kurdish-majority province on the south-eastern tip of the country.

The correspondent investigation was run by the Special Authority Public Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Van. The related trial was heard before the Van 3rd High Criminal Court.

As reported by the ntvmsnbc.com news website on Tuesday (2 August) , Tuğluk said in a statement after the final hearing, "What does a politician do? A politician talks and declares her opinion".

Tuğluk continued, "This may disturb others. People must be able to talk about everything very openly and clearly unless violence is included. If we had been able to talk about the Kurdish question in this country 15 to 20 years ago things would have developed very differently. Perhaps we would not have experienced that much suffering. I am being punished for a speech in which I called for peace as a politician. What did I say in that speech? Did I say that Öcalan [imprisoned leader of the armed outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party] should be addressed? The state itself is talking to Abdullah Öcalan. Is it a crime that I talked about Öcalan's status?" Tuğluk criticized.

She went on, "It is said that Turkey is changing but if we encounter this when we express different opinions in this country we have to ask the Prime Minister who talks about freedom of thought what kind of democracy that is". (BIA, 3 August 2011)

More Kurdish politicians to face trial

A court in Diyarbakır has decided to file criminal complaints against 300 lawyers as well as the Diyarbakır Bar Association on accusations of obstruction of justice.

The court’s move came on the same day a prosecutor said he would put 106 more Kurdish politicians on trial for allegedly making propaganda on behalf of a terrorist organization.

The suspects, including Diyarbakır Metropolitan Mayor Osman Baydemir, had called for an improvement in the prison conditions of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Prosecutors have claimed that the comments amount to terrorist propaganda.

Many of the 300 lawyers who are representing a number of Kurdish politicians in the Kurdish Communities Union, or KCK, case continued their boycott of the trial Wednesday with only Diyarbakır Bar Association head Mehmet Emin Aktar and another lawyer participating in the hearing. The lawyers said the court’s decision not to allow the suspects to give testimony in Kurdish denied the right of the accused to defend themselves.

The KCK is accused of being the urban wing of the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Since the beginning of the KCK trial, the court has rejected the suspects’ demands to make their defense in Kurdish, even though this has been accepted at Turkish courts in the past, Aktar said.

“We are not participating in the hearing because the court has no respect for our professions, we are not courthouse props,” the bar association head added.

After a brief recess, the court decided to file a complaint against 300 lawyers and the executives of Diyarbakır Bar Association on accusations of obstruction of justice.

There are currently 152 suspects in the KCK case, including 12 mayors of several Southeast Anatolian provinces who were all elected from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP.(Daily News, August 3, 2011)

Trois soldats tués, un fonctionnaire blessé dans une attaque armée

Trois soldats turcs ont été tués et trois autres personnes, dont un sous-préfet, ont été blessées lundi dans une embuscade tendue par des rebelles kurdes dans le sud-est de la Turquie, ont affirmé des sources locales de sécurité.

Un groupe de rebelles du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) a ouvert le feu sur un convoi près de la ville de Baskale, tuant trois soldats et en blessant un autre, ainsi que le sous-préfet de Baskale et un de ses gardes du corps, ont indiqué ces sources.

Les affrontements entre les forces de sécurité et rebelles du PKK se sont multipliés depuis les élections du 12 juin dernier.

Le 16 juin, 13 soldats ont été tués dans des affrontements avec le PKK dans la province de Diyarbakir. Ce sont les pertes les plus lourdes pour l'armée turque dans ce conflit depuis octobre 2008. (AFP, 1 août 2011)

DTK Congress: The challenge of Democratic Autonomy

The Democratic Society Congress (DTK) has met in Diyarbakir for its two days congress. Over 800 people joined the meeting at the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) building.

The Congress developed while outside serious events happened. On the one hand the continuous aggression by the Iranian army which aims to "eradicate" the Kurdish guerrillas from Kandil mountains ignoring international law as far as sovereignity is concerned. So for the past two weeks Iran has been bombing villages in the Kurdistan Federal Region without anyone protesting against it. Indeed Turkey and the United States are partner in this aggression and they are sharing intelligence with Iran. Turkish troops have been deployed to the border, near the city of Semdinli and are waiting to see which way the operation will turn.

At the same time the Turkish army has remained without heads. In a sudden but not completely unexpected move the Turkish General staff, Işık Koşaner, and the air, navy and land commanders resigned. The move came ahead of an important meeting in which new generals will be nominated. The army wanted some generals indicted under the Ergenekon investigation to be nominated. The government was not that keen. Indeed Prime Minister Erdogan moved swiftly to resolve the crisis and appointed Gendarmerie General Commander Necdet Özel Commander of the Army and Deputy Chief of General Staff.

But the DTK congress was held also while in all of the Kurdish region operations, arrests, attacks are going on. Military operations intensify in the past weeks. So did detentions. And there is fear of a new imminent political operation.

Indeed at the Congress many delegates stated that what has been going on since the local election on March 2009 amounts to nothing less than a political genocide. Thousands of politicians, activists, party members, civil society association members have been arrested and are under trial. Tomorrow, Tuesday, there will be a new hearing of the so called KCK (Kurdish Communities Confederation) trial. Detentions continue and indeed after the general elections of 12 June six democratically elected MPs are still in prison. Hatip Dicle, not only remains in prison but in an incredibly undemocratic move, has been denied his mandate. He has been replaced by the AKP (the ruling Justice and Development Party) candidate for Diyarbakir and imposed as deputy, with total disregard for people's choice.

The Congress has addressed many issues. The Iranian aggression was discussed at lenght, and so was the latest reflections by Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. In this context the assembly decided to launch an inititiative for the freedom of Ocalan, who need to be able to act for peace in an adequate environment.

Also on the agenda was the need for a national conference. This was an idea first launched last year and then postponed both for the elections in iraq and for the election in Turkey. In their last visit to Erbil, though, the BDP representatives have underlined the importance and urgency of such a conference. The plan is to held it before the end of 2011. Events in Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq as well underline how urgent it is to have such a conference.

The core of the congress debate though was the Democratic Autonomy. Announced on 14 July, the project was discussed at lenght at the weekend by delegates. On 14 July Aysel Tugluk MP said: "We are announcing our power and will to govern ourselves. Democratic autonomy is not for the Kurdish people alone, but is rather a model for a solution that will allow all of Turkey's peoples to freely express their beliefs and culture."

At the weekend the concept of Democratic Autonomy was further explicitated. "Democratic Autonomy is the sociology of freedom, it develops a new and free life against the monolithic, dominant and totalitarian paradigm of the capitalist modernity. It is based on the paradigm of the 21st century; unity of differences, the diversity's right for autonomy, self-governance of all social groups and the right and philosophy to provide defense and freedom. The spirit of the time is in the act ofa rebellion on this axis".

In this context it was stated in the final document that "Democratic Autonomy, which is a unity in diversity, never means to build up a power against the power and the state. It means an organization of the society out of the state against being socialized and nationalized, in other words it means less state and more society. In this sense, democratic autonomy is in a process of a continuous development and construction just like a living organism. With a method of bilateral law, it designs and secures the state which will block its free development and legal structure".

From this point of view, the declaration of Democratic Autonomy has to be seen as "a declaration of intention and the works to build democratic autonomy is to build up the self-governance of sociality. The Kurdish people base their political status upon the freedom perspective described below. There exist an attitude and attack as if Kurds and the DTK have declared and a separate land. Discussions are intended to be distorted to another course. It is known very well that this is not a declaration of establishing a state or being separated".

DTK spokesperson Cemal Coşkun remarked that "It is known only too well that Kurds seek a common living. To express the situation once again in a very clear and open way; we have made the declaration of our social democratic solution model in the face of the statalist mentality and structures that impose a deadlock on all issues, on the Kurdish problem in particular. We project the autonomy for the Kurdish people and all peoples. The democratic autonomy is the status that Kurdish people have determined for themselves in the geography of Kurdistan. All the developments lived after the declaration have showed that the declaration of Democratic Autonomy is a very historical step and decision. This decision of the Kurdish people and their the most legitimate and comprehensive enactment DTK has initiated a new process and invited everyone to show its true colors in this process. In addition, works will be continued to build and institutionalize the democratic autonomy regardless of the approaches and responses to this declaration of intention. The struggle will continue to include this solution in the new constitution to be prepared."

The work in the coming weeks will be to trying theory into practice. To do so the DTK is also exploring the different form of autonomy present around Europe. In addition to that the DTK congress has listed a five point proposal to facilitate the beginning of a dialogue leading to a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question.

So far no reactions have been detected from the government, ministers or other parties. It remains to be seen whether the government will be ready and willing to stand up to the political, ethical and philosophical challenge posed by the Democratic Autonomy project. (AFP, 1 août 2011)

Minorités / Minorities

Turkish gov’t to return properties to minorities

The Turkish government has signed a historic decree to return property taken away from minority foundations 75 years ago, a decision announced ahead of the prime minister’s Ramadan fast-breaking dinner Sunday with minority group representatives.

Published in the Official Gazette on Saturday and made by the order of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the decision also states that minority groups will be paid market value for property that was sold to third parties.

The Treasury or the General Directorate of Foundations will be responsible for the payments, with the amounts to be determined by the Finance Ministry.

Under the new decree, the minority properties that were claimed in the 1936 proclamation but had been registered as public or foundation property will be returned to their rightful owners.

According to information obtained by the Anatolia news agency from the General Directorate of Foundations, minority groups gave the government a proclamation in 1936 detailing their immovable property. However, over the years, these properties were not registered under the minority foundations’ names, and some were even sold to third parties.

In 2008, the government took steps toward remedying this problem, but the efforts fell short and caused some foundations to take their cases to the European Court of Human Rights. The court ruled in favor of the minority groups and sentenced Turkey to pay large sums in compensation to the foundations.

The new decree, while labeled “revolutionary” and a step toward “equal citizenship” by the foundations’ lawyer Kezban Hatemi, is still seen as insufficient by those who think the properties sold to third parties should also be returned to their rightful owners.

The problem stemmed from the 1936 proclamation, and the European court did not find it enough to define real estate by that alone, said Rıza Türmen, a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP.

Some of the property set to be returned to Armenian, Greek and Syriac foundations include schools, churches, stores, hundreds of houses, buildings and apartments, cemeteries, factories, and even nightclubs.

Minority foundations have 12 months to apply, with the Foundations Assembly set to review each case before making the final decision to return the property to its rightful owner. (Hurriyet, August 28, 2011)

Minority Newspapers Struggle in Turkey

The Press Advertising Association took minority newspapers on its agenda after the news had spread that the Greek newspaper Apoyevmatini was going to shut down. Apoyevmatini has been published in Istanbul for 86 years. Now the results of the association's meetings on aid for minority newspapers were announced.

The Press Advertising Association was established as a tool for the publication of formal advertising of public institutions and organizations.

The proposal for support by the association for newspapers published by the Armenian, Greek and Jewish societies in Turkey was accepted. It was indicated that the most effective support for minority newspapers was the publication of formal advertising. However, the association emphasized that there were legal obstacles before this. First of all, Decision No.67 of the General Assembly related to formal advertising would have to undergo necessary changes, the association concluded.

The Press Advertising Association decided for financial help for the minority newspapers "until Decision No.67 of the General Assembly will be changed fundamentally". Hence, the newspapers will receive financial support of TL 250,000 (€ 120,000) from the "Fund for Various Tasks". The money will be paid to the minority newspapers in line with certain criteria to be defined by the administrative board of the association.

"We appreciate the decision but it is insufficient"

Mihail Vasiliadis, owner of the Apoyevmatini newspaper, appreciated the financial support but noted that this sum was not enough to provide continuity. "It helps but is not sufficient to provide employment. The amount merely serves as a base so the newspaper does not have to be closed. Further efforts are needed to find the rest [of the money]".

Vasiliadis evaluated the financial aid he is going to receive and explained that he spent TL 20,000 (€ 9,000) from his own money on top of the newspaper's budget since the beginning of the year. He noted that he was going to make a loss of € 150 on every day the paper would be printed until the end of the year. According to Vasiliadis, the anticipated financial support will be used to pay this new debt.

Vasiliadis underlined "continuity" as one of the crucial points. "This newspaper has to provide a minimum income to the person who is going to take it over in the future. Otherwise, why should my son take over when he will not be able to sustain his family?"

"Our problems might not be solved but this is a good support for us", Vasiliadis said and indicated his appreciation for the decision. He also reminded that legal amendments were necessary in order to be able to publish formal advertisements.

Legal obstacles

Legal regulations are the basic reason for not being able to publish formal advertisement in Apoyevmatini and other minority newspapers. The papers must comply with the related regulations so that the Press Advertising Association can publish announcements. According to these regulations, the newspapers must be published on a daily basis, comprise a minimum of eight pages and a circulation of 5,000 copies at least besides employing at least seven people.

The Press Advertising Association is worried about possible abuse once the regulations will have been changed. The President of the Press Advertising Association Istanbul Branch, Mehmet Köşker, said in an interview with bianet last month, "Let's say we changed the regulations in order to support the newspapers in this difficult situation. What are we going to do if 50 people with a one-page 'newspaper' come up then? Therefore, we have to include certain criteria such as the duration the newspaper has been published already".

Along with the Greek Apoyevmatini newspaper, another five newspapers will benefit from the financial support, i.e. the Greek newspaper İho, the pre-dominantly Armenian newspapers Jamanak, Marmara and Agos and the Şalom newspaper published by Turkish Jews. (BIA, 23 August 2011)

Minorities condemn ‘Our Pledge’ but fear speaking out

All children attending Turkey’s primary schools are expected to read aloud the “Our Pledge” every morning when they come to school. DHA photo
Representatives of Turkey’s minorities are critical of Turkey’s “Our Pledge,” the oath recited every morning by primary school students, but are hesitant to voice their opinions on the matter, according to community representatives.

Many commentators who spoke to the Hürriyet Daily News on the issue asked for their names to remain anonymous, fearing they could face a serious backlash in case they openly propagate their views as members of the Kurdish political movement have done.

 “[The pledge is] an assimilating slogan that [aims for] uniformity; it is rhetoric that causes the individual to draw away from his or her own culture, starting in childhood. This situation is causing damage to the people’s [sense of] self,” B.Ş., a prominent Syriac Christian, told the Hürriyet Daily News by phone.

“Everyday I was forced to say ‘I am a Turk,’ whereas I had storms brewing in me not to say that I am a Syriac. Once, I yelled that I am a Syriac. For that reason, I was attacked with the [derogatory term] ‘gavur.’ This state of affairs has to come to an end,” B.Ş. said.

Protests against the pledge

All children attending Turkey’s primary schools are expected to read aloud the “Andımız” (“Our pledge”) every morning when they come to school. The oath begins with the phrases, “I am a Turk; I am honest; I am hardworking. Let my entire being serve as a gift to Turkish existence.”

The recitation of the pledge has been protested by pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, leader, Selahattin Demirtaş, who said that he did not want his children to recite the oath.

Armenian and Greek community leaders, however, said they have no opportunity to express their thoughts as comfortably as the Kurds.

“I am irritated by all pronouncements pertaining to nationalism. We cannot express our thoughts as comfortably as the Kurds. If we did that, we would completely attract all the wrong attention,” E.O., a prominent figure within the Armenian community, told the Daily News.

E.O. also said he experienced great difficulties during his military service, just as in school. If someone from his own community had requested him to take the oath “Let my entire being serve as a gift to Armenian existence,” he would still object to it, E.O. added.

A.P., who spent about 40 years of his life as a lecturer in Greek minority schools, agreed. “If you ask me whether it is necessary or not, I do not think it is right for [the oath] to be recited every day; not in terms of nationality, [but because] I do not think it contributes anything to the child in terms of [their] education,” A.P said.

Meanwhile, B.C., the manager of a minority school who preferred not to publicly reveal his community identity, said there were more pressing concerns. “We have much deeper issues than [whether] to recite [the oath] every day. Our priority is to solve those issues [first.],” he said.

On the other hand, Marissa Gormezano, a Turkish citizen of Jewish descent, who became a deputy candidate from the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, during the 2011 general elections but was not included on the final election list, disagreed with other minority representatives.

“When [modern Turkish founder Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk said, ‘Happy is the one who calls himself a Turk,’ he was defining everyone who is a Turkish citizen. The opposing stance [rests on] a narrative that corrupts [Kemalist] nationalism,” Gormezano told the Daily News. (Hürriyet Daily News, Vercihan Ziflioğlu, August 15, 2011)

Plaintiffs Score Early Victory in Armenian Genocide Lawsuit                   

LOS ANGELES, CA. -- A U.S. federal district court in Los Angeles handed Armenian plaintiffs an early victory in what will surely be a difficult legal battle over reparations for land seized from Armenians in Turkey during the Armenian Genocide (Alex Bakalian et. al vs. Republic of Turkey, the Central Bank of Turkey, and T.C. Ziraat Bankasi et. al, Case Number 2:10-CV-09596, December 15, 2010). Nearly eight months after the complaint was filed, the court determined that all three defendants, in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in the United States, had been lawfully served.

The lawsuit, filed by descendants of Armenian Genocide victims, accuses the defendants of stealing and then profiting from land that was illegally seized during the Armenian Genocide, when the Ottoman Turks drove Armenians from the Adana region of southern Turkey. The property at issue in the lawsuit is currently part of a strategic U.S. airbase in southern Turkey.

Representing the plaintiffs are the Yeghiayan Law Firm in Glendale, Schwarcz, Rimberg, Boyd & Rader, LLP in Los Angeles and Michael Bazyler from Chapman University School of Law in Orange.

The plaintiffs have spent recent months attempting to serve all the defendants, and then to have the court affirm their service efforts. In the August 2 order, the court denied Central Bank of Turkey and Ziraat Bank’s motion to dismiss the complaint for insufficient service of process. The court acknowledged that the plaintiffs presented “credible evidence that their process servers made several attempts to serve the bank defendants at addresses in “New York City… were repeatedly denied access to the buildings and …misdirected as to Ziraat Bank’s actual location.”

The court further found that the banks’ security guards had “engaged in behavior apparently designed to thwart service of process.” The banks did not deny having actual knowledge of the pending lawsuit, and thus the court ordered them to serve a responsive pleading to the complaint by August 19.

The court additionally recognize that the Republic of Turkey had also been recently served with the complaint through diplomatic channels–a lengthy process involving high-level contacts between the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and the Turkish Foreign Ministry–and must also file papers responding to the complaint by August 19.

“From the outset, the banks have sought to make it as difficult as possible to litigate this lawsuit,” says Vartkes Yeghiayan with the Yeghiayan Law Firm. “Finally, after months of maneuvering and numerous attempts to evade service, the U.S. federal court has required all three defendants to respond to the Armenians’ complaint.”

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For a copy of the complaint and court order, contact Diane Zakian Rumbaugh at diane@rumbaughpr.com, 805-493-2877.

Center for Armenian Remembrance

CenterAR News
info@centerar.org

The Jihad Against the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christians

By Janet Levy
American Thinker

In Germany, where Holocaust denial is punishable by up to five years in prison, Stuttgart University recently capitulated to pressure from resident Turkish Muslims and canceled an event entitled, "Persecution, Expulsion and Annihilation of Christians in the Ottoman Empire 1912-1922." Ironically, this occurred in a country that was forced to confront its own genocidal past, educate its population and pay restitution to victims. University officials explained that they wanted to "remain neutral" on the subject of the nearly 100-year-old, well-documented Turkish massacre of more than two million Christians. Citing neutrality in the face of crimes against humanity is deeply troubling, particularly in light of Germany's Holocaust past and the missed opportunity the event represented to educate students about genocide and potentially prevent its recurrence.

Equally troubling is Turkey's continued denial and banning of information about these crimes, not only within its own borders, but, as exemplified in Germany, within other countries as well. In contrast to Germany where laws since the end of World War II seek to prevent a Holocaust from ever happening again, the Turkish government under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, passed in 2005, makes it a crime punishable by up to two years imprisonment to insult the Turkish state. This provision prevents any public commemoration or consideration of the Turkish Muslim atrocities committed against Ottoman Christians.

This silencing and strong-arming of other nations by a country that is majority Muslim represents Islamization embedded within a national policy of Turkification. Turkey's past aggression, labeled the "Armenian Genocide," follows the Islamization pattern that exists today: annihilation of all non-Muslims, no matter their religion, ethnicity or national origin. It was a jihad against Anatolian Christians. Further, Turkey destroyed genocide documentation, many of its killers went unpunished, restitution was never paid to victims and the perpetrators are eponymously commemorated in the naming of landmarks, cities and streets. Tragically, Hitler was inspired by the Turkish extermination of Armenian Christians and justified his "Final Solution" with a statement that "no one remembers the Armenian Genocide."

In fact, the world does remember but is held at bay because of continued denial of historical truths, insistence on the Islamic point of view and political pressure to silence others with opposing views, prevalent throughout the Muslim world today on other fronts and continuing today in the jihad against the Anatolian Christians.

The "Armenian Genocide"

Most historians regard 1912 to 1925 as a time of massive Christian annihilation and relocation by the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Although commonly given the misnomer "Armenian Genocide," the atrocity was a carefully planned ethnic cleansing to rid Asia Minor of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and other minorities in order to establish an exclusively Muslim Turkish state. Some scholars date the first phase of the Christian genocide from the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid and his Hamidian Massacres of 1895-1897 through the Istanbul Pogrom of 1955 .

The Hamidian massacres attempted to assert Muslim supremacy and advance the cause of Turkification. French ambassador Pierre Paul Cambon described Turkey at the time as "literally in flames" with "massacres everywhere" and Christians murdered "without distinction." Marauding Kurdish chieftains in the region were encouraged to join in and channel their aggression into the killing, pillaging and raping of non-Muslim populations. Estimates of the number of Christians who perished during the reign of Sultan Hamid range from 100,000 to 300,000.

From the 1900's to 1922, the Christian population declined from 25% to less than 5% within Anatolia. Under Islam, Christians had few rights, paid exorbitantly high taxes - the jizya - and enjoyed limited political representation and access to government services. Their testimony was inadmissible, no provision existed for their legal protection, they were prohibited from owning firearms, and their property, wives and children were vulnerable to spontaneous attacks.

Approximately 2.5 million Armenians[1], Assyrians[2] and Greek Christians[3] were massacred during this period. Kurds were encouraged to settle in Christian territory, demand the payment of tributes and illegally seize land. They were given free rein against local Christians in exchange for their loyal service to the Ottoman government.

Origins

The Turkish campaign began five years prior to World War I, when the Young Turks, a secret society of students and military officers, seized control of the Ottoman government. Initially, in an attempt to solidify their control, the Young Turks promised equality for all non-Muslims. Once in power, they rescinded this policy and devised a scheme of plunder to obtain much needed economic resources for the declining Ottoman Empire. To encourage and justify the attacks, they promulgated rumors that Christians were traitorously assisting the Empire's enemies. A fatwa[4] was declared against Christians and was announced in mosques throughout the empire. A two-fold plan[5] was devised to homogenize Turkey through: 1) the assimilation or dilution of non-Turkish Muslims by dispersing them throughout the empire and 2) the elimination of non-Muslims who were deemed infidels and enemies of Islam. Convicts were released from prison to staff the Special Organization[6], which was formed to carry out the final solution to the Christian problem. Escorted by military troops, they raped, robbed and killed innocent Christian men, women and children.

The Christian genocide was a three-phase process. First, able-bodied men were rounded up and deported for labor battalions. Second, community leaders and influential people were publicly executed. Then, defenseless women, children and the elderly were massacred or resettled and enslaved.

Ethnic Greeks

Ethnic Greeks, uprooted from their ancestral home of 3,000 years, were the first to be victimized in what in Greece is called, the "Great Catastrophe." During the first six months of 1914, a concerted effort began to exterminate Greeks with the goal of clearing them out of Asia Minor to make room for Muslim refugees from the Balkans. All Greek men, aged 18 to 50, were ordered to report for military duty. They were incorporated into the Ottoman army then transferred to labor battalions where they died by the thousands of exposure, cold, hunger and deprivation.

House-to-house searches were conducted for firearms. Greeks were taken from their homes, deported and massacred. Greek men and women were tortured and accused of disloyalty to the Ottoman government. Women and girls were raped and forced to convert to Islam. Boys and girls were kidnapped and transported into the interior of the Empire. The government was more reserved in its treatment of Greeks than the Armenians, Assyrians and other minorities and did not subject them to general massacre. That's because the Greek government had expressed concern for the welfare of the victims and the Turks were afraid that Greece would enter World War I on the side of the Allies.

Armenians & Other Minorities

In 1915, the Young Turks moved against the Armenians, Assyrians and other minority groups. All non-Turks were disarmed and troops dispatched to collect weapons. In the process, the Young Turks murdered men, raped women and burned houses. Armenians and Assyrians serving in the army were removed from combat ranks and forced to serve in labor battalions. Non-Muslim leaders were removed from the community under the pretext that they were conspiring against the government. Imprisoned and marched out of town, they were roped together and forbidden to bring any possessions or bid farewell to their families. Once the population was disarmed and the men removed, the reign of terror began, similar to the Greek Genocide.

Published compilations at the time provided details of the deliberate massacre of innocent Christians from eyewitness accounts by diplomats and missionaries from various parts of the Ottoman Empire as well as from American, German, Italian, Scandinavian, Greek, Kurdish, Russian, Assyrian and Armenian witnesses. Volumes included the British Blue Book, "The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916," "The Black Book of Sufferings of the Greek People" and "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story" by the American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913-1916, who witnessed the genocide of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek population.

Descriptions of the atrocities were horrific. Witnesses observed villages surrounded and often set ablaze with no possible exit for villagers. Property, livestock and homes were confiscated by the authorities. Children were poisoned or murdered with injections of morphine and entire schools pumped with toxic gas. Women and children were loaded into boats and taken out to sea to be capsized or thrown overboard. Women and girls were striped naked, beaten with tree branches, raped in full view of family members and skinned and burned alive. The bellies of pregnant women were bayoneted and fetuses tossed into the air and impaled on swords. Some victims were injected with live typhus and suffered a slow death from the ravages of disease. Others were made to march naked with horseshoes nailed to their feet. No water or food was provided and they endured constant beatings by the gangs that escorted them. People were tied to horses and dragged to their deaths or had their bodies torn in half by being tied to opposite tree limbs. Others were crucified, hacked to death and sawed into pieces.

Churches were ransacked and priests beaten and made to march naked as they were massacred. Men were beaten on the soles of their feet until they swelled and burst and their limbs required amputation. The Turks pulled out facial hair, extracted nails, ripped out tongues, applied hot irons to the chests of victims, poured hot butter into their wounds and taunted them about Christ coming to their aid. The Ottoman Turks even reviewed the records of the Spanish Inquisition to come up with ideas for torture.

Some Christians were deported with the idea that they would die en route without food or water. During the journey, they were robbed, whipped, bayoneted and murdered by Muslims who prohibited them from stopping for water. Others were hit with saws, hammers and clubs and left to be devoured by wild animals.

Christian victims who weren't killed were enslaved in harems, kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam. Surviving women were required to remand their children to the government to be raised as Muslims.

Postwar & Modern Genocide

After World War I and during the Greco-Turkish War 1919 to 1922, assaults against the Greeks continued as hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Christians were killed and expelled. Again, conflict between Muslims and Christians was misidentified, this time with a nationalist label as most Greeks were Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Treaty of Lausanne, which contained the terms to end the Greco-Turkish war, included a compulsory exchange of population - Greek and Turks - as well as a provision forcing Greeks to relinquish their rights to pursue compensation for the victims of genocide and deportations. Successive legislation harmed the economic prospects of Greeks in Turkey by barring them from certain trades and professions and imposing a significant wealth tax on their earnings.

In September 1955, further efforts of Turkification led to the Istanbul Pogrom directed at the Greek minority. Triggered by Greece's appeal to the United Nations for self-determination for the island of Cyprus, Turkey falsely claimed that Greece was planning to attack Cyprus. Turkish forces set off a bomb[Ukendt fo9] at the birthplace of Mustafa Kemal in Thessaloniki, blamed Greek residents and initiated the Pogrom. Turkish mobs were supplied with shovels, pickaxes, crowbars and other tools and transported into the city to attack the Greek community. Following the pogrom, Greek emigration accelerated.

Tragically, the Greek population in Turkey decreased from 120,000 in 1927 to 7,000 in 1978 and 2,500 in 2006. Today, the Greek government avoids the topic of Cyprus as well as the genocide in order to maintain good relations with Turkey. Neither Greek nor Turkish schools teach the Greek Genocide.

The Christian population in Turkey today is less than 1%. Before World War I, Turkey was 33% Christian. Today, fewer than 10,000 Assyrians, 60,000 Armenians and 2,000 Greeks live in Turkey. Turkey has been allowed to avoid punishment and has kept the spoils of the victims of its mass genocide. Whenever the Christian genocide is mentioned, Turkish officials express anger at having Turkey's national honor besmirched[Ukendt fo10] . Western reluctance to "humiliate" Turkey with charges of genocide aid and abet the denial of any wrongdoing by the Turkish government which has eliminated all traces and references to the Christian genocide from Turkish history.

Along with persisting in its policy of denying its history of jihad against Christians and minority genocide, Turkey continues to pursue its goals of Turkification and Islamization. Discriminatory practices against minorities continue unabated. Full political participation, equal rights and freedom of expression and religion are curtailed by the Islamist Erdogan government. The denial of the well-documented historical truth and the memorializing of its murderers perpetuate the crime of genocide and is an affront to its victims, families and survivors. The descendants of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek victims deserve nothing less than full recognition of this atrocity and a full apology by the Turkish government. Western governments, which like Stuttgart University, fail to speak up and plead neutrality to avoid offending Turkey, should recognize they are abetting a jihad, which has persisted for nearly 100 years and will only expand worldwide.

[1] Taner Akcam, A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, Metropolitan Books, 2006.
[2] Hannibal Travis, Native Christians Massacred: The Ottoman Genocide of the Assyrians During World War I, Genocide Studies and Prevention, Vol. 1, No. 3, December 2006, pp. 327-371.
[3] Constantine G. Hatzidimitriou, American Accounts Documenting the Destruction of Smyrna by the Kemalist Turkish Forces: September 1922, New Rochelle, New York, Caratzas, 2005, p. 2.
[4] David Gaunt, Jan Bet-Sawoce, Racho Donef, Massacres, resistance, protectors: Muslim-Christian relations in Eastern Anatolia during World during World War I, Gorgias Press LLC, 2006, p. 62.
[5] Raymond Kevorkian, The Extermination of Ottoman Armenians by the Young Turk Regime (1915-1916), Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence, June 2008.
[6] Vahakn, Dadrian, The Documentation of the World War I Armenian Massacres in the Proceedings of the Turkish Military Tribunal, International Journal of Middle East Studies 23, pp. 549-76.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/the_jihad_against_the_armenian_assyrian_and_greek_christians.html

Syriacs outline problems to EU, ask for removal of obstacles

The total population of Syriacs who emigrated to the European Union numbers around 250,000, according to figures provided by the European Syriac Union, or ESU.

Turkey should remove obstacles preventing Syriacs from returning to the country and provide constitutional protection for their status and identity, according to a Syriac group that presented a report detailing the community’s problems in Turkey to the European Commission last week.

“Our message is clear. The obstacles that lie before the return [of Syriacs to Turkey] must be removed. An atmosphere of trust has to be established. Syriacs did not willingly desert the lands where they lived for centuries. Syriacs sought a solution abroad because they ran out of choices,” David Vergili, a spokesman for the European Syriac Union, or ESU, an umbrella organization that brings together 11 Syriac organizations based in Europe, recently told the Hürriyet Daily News by email.

Last week, the ESU presented a report to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement on Turkey detailing a number of problems experienced by Syriacs in Turkey in terms of ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and other rights, as well as the right of return. The ESU also addressed the contentious topic of the “Seyfo” – the name Syriacs give to what they claim was genocide perpetrated against them by the Ottomans in 1915. The report is expected to make its way into Europe’s agenda in September.

“The Syriac [community] was plundered during World War I, and [they] were subjected to genocide like other Christian peoples. There are many reasons why no ventures were ever undertaken to seek their rights until this day. Contrary to the official narrative and literature, Syriacs in Turkey could neither become first-class citizens nor take advantage of their rights granted to them by the [Treaty of] Lausanne. Constitutional guarantees must be given back first,” Vergili said.

“The case [of the Syriac Mor Gabriel Monastery in the southeastern province of Mardin] is still underway. The monastery bears great significance for Syriacs. As the European Syriac Union, we recognize that this process is a political, rather than a judicial one. This view is further clarified both by the feudal village guard organization that makes itself felt in the region, as well as by the lack of enthusiasm in Ankara’s attitude. The Mor Gabriel Monastery case is a test of democracy, good will and the project to live together,” Vergili said.

In 2008, the nearby villages of Yayvantepe, Çandarli and Eğlence filed a lawsuit claiming that the 1,700-year-old monastery was occupying the land of adjacent villages. The case is still underway.

“Dozens of villages were evacuated; people were displaced. A huge wave of emigration took place,” Vergili said in relation to the troubles faced by Syriacs during the 1990s when the Kurdish problem was at its height. Many people became the victims of unresolved murders, he added.

‘We left unwillingly’

News about the return of Syriacs in Europe back to Turkey were frequently circulated in the press several years ago, but contrary to expectations, no one has returned, save for a few exceptions, he said.

The total population of Syriacs who emigrated to the European Union numbers around 250,000, according to figures provided by Vergili. The number of Syriacs in Turkey, on the other hand, amount to around 15,000 people, official figures indicate, with most Syriacs being concentrated in Istanbul.

“The nationalist wave mounting across Europe is also affecting us negatively. These problems are mainly issues [we] face in daily life, rather than being systemic [problems,]” Vergili said, adding that the Syriac community stood up against problems not just in Turkey but also in Europe.

The fact that Syriac had entered UNESCO’s list of World Languages in Danger pointed to a vital problem, he added.

“Our community of 15,000 in Istanbul cannot set up schools and has to make do with a single church. Our region has been the center of attraction for repressive, outdated policies of annihilation and denial for decades,” he said.

Turkey’s Syriac community also cannot use their Syriac last names due to the Patronymics Law enacted in 1934, Vergili said. “Syriacs have begun using Turkish names for a lack of any other options.”

A Turkish citizen of Syriac descent, Favlus Ay, filed a lawsuit last year to change his first and last names to Syriac. Ay requested permission to change his last name to “Bartuma” and his first name to “Paulus.” The suit was filed to annul a provision in the Patronymics Law of 1934 that bars Turkish citizens from adopting foreign names. The case was first brought before a court in Mardin’s Midyat district before being passed to the High Court where the appeal was rejected, with eight judges voting in favor and nine against. (Hürriyet Daily News, VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU, August 3, 2011)

Politique intérieure/Interior Politics

Leyla Zana writes to Obama and Ban Ki-Moon

Diyarbakir deputy Leyla Zana has sent a letter to the U.S. President Barack Obama, NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, President of the Council of Europe, Herman Van Rompuy and Turkish President Abdullah Gül regarding the most recent policy implemented against the Kurdish people. While Turkey’s air strike continues in southern Kurdistan, Leyla Zana, in a letter to the leaders of the world, criticized the silence over the growing attacks against Kurds.

Text of Leyla Zana’s letter

“While the world is going through a very fast process of change and transformation and the Middle East is witnessing new developments, our people who are deprived of the fairness of the history still continue their struggle for “existence” at the cost of their lives.

When it comes to the Kurds and their political status, the world opinion keeps remaining silent and condoning the right and boundary violations, bombings on villages, houses and people, regardless of women, men and children, cross-border operations and the ongoing aerial operations. This situation is greeted with great astonishment by our people and considered difficult to understand.

The constant attack position of these powers and their intention to destroy all the values of Kurds do not comply with the character of the 21st century and the principles of fairness in the world.

The latest aerial attacks on Kandil, which have killed a civilian family in the region, are defended by Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey which is currently trying to set an example of a “model country” to the Middle East and conducting negotiations to be a member of the EU. In a statement to a national newspaper, the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, saying that “the operations are legitimate and true”, didn’t abstain from defending the attacks which target civilians. (Bülent Arinç/Cihan News Agency/22.08.2011)

I would like to express my regret that the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey is increasing the policy of violence against Kurds as the Western world is holding up him as an example to the Middle East. I am greatly worried that we may face a modern dictatorship while the dictatorial regimes in the Middle East are falling down. The state’s attitude which forces the whole society to think the same with itself and the closure cases against the worldwide multilingual Roj Tv need to be accepted as a sign in this regard.

In brief, the military, political, diplomatic attacks launched against the Kurds and most importantly, the boundless attacks on our civilian people are in front of the eyes of the world public opinion. It is possible to foresee how the destruction of an oppressed people’s children will deepen the deadlock. All efforts of the Kurdish side are intended for finding a democratic and political solution to this problem. Although Mr. Ocalan has many times silenced the weapons since 1993 and created opportunities for obtaining the rights of the Kurdish people on a democratic ground as well as convincing his public that the problem can be solved in this way, the state has negated all these processes with a negative attitude and turned a blind eye to these opportunities. Resisting extraordinarily about defining the problem, the state has at every turn considered and applied violence as the single method of solving the Kurdish problem.

Mr.President,

In the testimony of the whole world’s humanity, the geography which has been in a conflict environment for two hundred years is now expecting peace and quiet. Kurdistan’s geography should not be a second Palestine and the Sri Lanka simulation shouldn’t even be associated with the situation in Turkey. Otherwise, a social chaos and an ethnic war among the peoples will be unavoidable, which will no doubt drag the world peace and humanity into more disaster. I expect and wish that you will meet the requirements of your both conscience and position.” (MESOP, August 28, 2011)

Un élu régional kurde tué au cours d'une manifestation

Un responsable politique kurde a été tué dimanche dans le sud-est de la Turquie au cours de la dispersion d'une manifestation de protestation contre les raids aériens de l'armée turque contre les bases rebelles kurdes en Irak, ont annoncé des sources des services de sécurité et des témoins.

Yildirim Ayhan, membre de l'assemblée de la province de Van (sud-est) est mort lorsqu'une cartouche de gaz lacrymogène au poivre l'a atteint à la poitrine, au moment où la police militaire tentait de disperser une foule de manifestants dans la ville de Cukurca, selon ces sources.

"Les officiers ont soudain donné l'ordre aux soldats qui nous faisaient face d'intervenir. Ils ont commencé à tirer des gaz lacrymogènes. L'une des cartouches a atteint Ayhan et nous l'avons vu en train de s'effondrer", a déclaré un témoin à l'AFP.

"Le sang coulait de sa poitrine", a raconté un autre témoin.

Plusieurs milliers de personnes venues de seize provinces avaient entamé samedi une marche en direction de la frontière turco-irakienne afin de protester contre les bombardements de l'armée turque visant les bases des rebelles du Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) dans le nord de l'Irak.

Parmi les manifestants figuraient des élus du parti pro-kurde Parti de la Paix et de la Démocratie (BDP) dont Yildirim Ayhan était membre.

Des photographies de Yildirim Ayhan gisant au sol, avec une plaie sanglante à la poitrine, ont été publiées dimanche par les médias favorables à la cause kurde.

L'armée turque a déclenché le 17 août une campagne visant des positions du PKK au Kurdistan irakien, à la suite de la mort de neuf membres des forces de sécurité dans l'attaque d'une unité militaire par les rebelles à Cukurca. (AFP, 28 août 2011)

CHP: ‘What happened to old terror strategy?’

Turkey’s main opposition party harshly criticized the government for attempts to adopt a new anti-terror strategy on Thursday, with a top party official asking for details on what the ruling party has done to fight terror during its eight-year reign.

“Is your conscious comfortable? Can you sleep well at night? Can you look your children in the eyes?” asked Republican People’s Party, or CHP, speaker Birgül Ayman Güler, targeting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with her words.

Güler spoke at a press conference on Thursday following the CHP’s first Central Executive Board meeting where the escalating terrorist attacks were discussed. Gürsel Tekin, whose status in the party was downgraded this week, did not attend to the meeting due to a friend’s funeral in Istanbul.

“The prime minister said they would start a new strategy after the Ramadan holiday. What happened to the old strategy? The problem is that the prime minister relied on his meetings with the terrorist leader and disregarded the requirements of being a government,” said Güler.

“And if bombing the terrorists was the solution, then why was it not done before? And it it’s not the solution, then are you not ashamed of trying to console the people with pointless operations?” asked the CHP speaker.

Opposition ready to help government against terror

Regardless of the criticism, Güler added that the CHP has always been prepared to help the government with the fight against terror, but that they still had the right to ask the government what they have done to fight terror in the eight years they have been in power. “This is a national problem that should not be turned into a political polemic” added Güler.

Meanwhile, CHP’s new decision-making body, or MYK, has convened under the leadership of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for the first time after the party witnessed a surprise reconstruction Wednesday. (Hürriyet Daily News, August 18, 2011)

CHP sets 2012 deadline for Turkish president

Parliament’s top priority should be to pass a law regulating the referendum to elect Turkey’s next president, the leader of the main opposition said Thursday, calling for President Abdullah Gül to step down in 2012.

Gül’s tenure will end Aug. 28, 2012, though some ambiguity remains about its length.

“Mr. President should no longer sit in this chair after 2012,” Republican People’s Party, or CHP, chief Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview. “His five-year term is nearing its end. Therefore Parliament should immediately adopt a law regulating next year’s referendum.”

A constitutional amendment in 2007 reduced the president’s tenure to five years from seven years with a chance to be reelected through a popular vote, and Parliament’s mandate from five years to four. Some members of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, argue however that as Gül was elected before the constitutional amendments his tenure should be seven years. Legal arrangements must be made before the next referendum can take place.

“The position of the Justice and Development Party is not important. It’s up to the president. Mr. President should stand and announce that his term is for five years,” Kılıçdaroğlu told the Daily News. “He should do this in the name of protecting the credibility of this post. I believe Mr. President will be sensitive in protecting this post. Otherwise he would disregard the importance of his post.”

Referring to the opinion held by some AKP officials that Gül’s mandate will end in 2014, the CHP chief asked: “Why is that? Then why did the mandate of the deputies [of the former Parliament] end in four years? Consistency is the basis of the law. Tenures of deputies and the president were set in the same constitutional amendment. There is no amendment for a specific person. If it’s four years for a deputy, the president’s tenure is five years.”

“Are you afraid of the people? No. Don’t you trust in the people’s common sense? No. Then let’s pass this law and let’s give the chance for Mr. Gül to be reelected for his post this time through a referendum,” he added.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s statement is likely to spark renewed debate over the presidential mandate ahead of the constitution-making process that will start with the opening of the new parliamentary term Oct. 1. The CHP chief said, however, that these two issues are not linked and that addressing the presidential mandate was not a precondition for writing the new charter.

“This has nothing to do with the constitution-making process. It will have a separate track. If we do respect the people’s foresight then we should adopt it [the law on the presidential referendum] immediately after the opening of the Parliament,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

AKP-BDP alliance for new charter?

The CHP already started work on rewriting Turkey’s constitution even before the June 12 general election, Kılıçdaroğlu said, adding that the party’s aim was “to reach a charter that would get the consent of all Turkish citizens.”

Claims have been made that the AKP and CHP, the country’s two largest parties, which obtained 76 percent of the total votes, could agree on a new constitution even if other parties opposed it. Kılıçdaroğlu denied these claims and said he was seeking the largest possible societal contract for the charter.

“Each citizen should be able to embrace the constitution,” he said, adding however that the AKP could seek an alliance with the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, if it fails to obtain the backing of the CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP.

“Do not pay too much attention to the current cold winds between them [the AKP and the BDP]. They can cooperate. My view is based on the fact that the talks with İmralı brought three consecutive cease-fires,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, referring to the island where outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, leader Abdullah Öcalan is serving a life sentence.

The CHP chief argued that the declarations of truces by the outlawed terrorist organization were the results of some promises given by the government. “AKP officials and the prime minister emphasized the new constitution after each postponement. We do not know [what happened] backstage but the AKP and BDP know,” he said.

Responding to Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ’s call for parties to appoint figures capable of compromise to the parliamentary commission that will write the new charter, Kılıçdaroğlu said there was no need to start the process with prejudices. “The task of the commission is to find consensus. Therefore there is no need to hurry,” he said. “Let’s keep the process in a healthy way and let’s not rush. We will analyze in-depth the constitutions of other countries and the realities of Turkey to draft a new charter.” (Hürriyet Daily News, August 11, 2011)

Hatip Dicle, deputy in prison, applies to European court

Pro-Kurdish politician Hatip Dicle has applied to the European Court of Human Rights following a decision by Turkey’s top election board to strip him of his deputyship in the wake of the June 12 election.

“The applicant [Dicle] wants the violations of the [European Convention of Human Rights] to be [rectified] and for Turkey’s national law legislation to be brought in line with the convention’s provisions,” said the petition.

Dicle was elected in the June 12 election with the backing of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, but was prevented from becoming a deputy by the Supreme Election Board, or YSK, which stripped him of the status because he had been sentenced to 20 months in prison for “disseminating propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK].”

The petition, which was filed by the politician’s lawyer, Levent Kanat, asked for compensation for pecuniary losses and emotional damages due to “unlawful judgments,” as well as court fees.

Dicle was convicted of the terrorism charges in 2009 by the Ankara 11th High Criminal Court, while the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the decision in March. The politician is currently incarcerated as part of the case against the Kurdistan Communities’ Union, or KCK, which is accused of being the urban wing of the PKK, itself a terrorist organization according to Turkey, the United States and the European Union.(Hürriyet Daily News, August 12, 2011)

CHP Leader asks Çiçek to act on jailed MPs

The chief of the main opposition party has called on the parliamentary speaker to do his duty for parliamentarians who were not released after being elected on June 12 general elections.

“Mr. Cemil Çiçek should do his job,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, chief of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview Thursday in his office. Two CHP deputies, former journalist Mustafa Balbay and medical Dr. İbrahim Haberal, are in prison on charges of being members of an alleged gang, known as Ergenekon, that allegedly tried to topple the government in 2003 and 2004. Apart from these two CHP deputies, one elected member from Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, and five elected members from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, are in jail, because the courts rejected their appeals to be released after the elections.

“Those who are in jail are members of the legislative body. Their imprisonment is against universal principles of law and also article 90 of the constitution. The parliamentary speaker cannot turn a deaf ear to these calls,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Last week, an Istanbul court, which rejected the releases of Balbay and Haberal, informed Parliament that the prosecutions of these deputies were set to continue. Former Parliament Speaker Hüsamettin Cindoruk criticized Çiçek for not responding to the court in a move to protect the rights of the jailed deputies. However, sources said Çiçek interpreted the court’s move as being only informative, and did not require an action from Parliament. According to Turkish law, the power of the parliament speaker is purely symbolic and does not entail taking action.

“Mr. Çiçek says he has no right to take action. This is correct. But having symbolic power should not mean he can ignore the rights of jailed deputies,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

“If he continues to remain inactive, then he can no longer do his job in this post. Being elected to this post with the votes of the ruling party should not necessarily let him turn into the Parliament Speaker for only the ruling party. If he is the head of Parliament, then he is the speaker for all deputies, including those behind bars,” he said.

The CHP deputies at first refused to take their oaths as long as Balbay and Haberal were still behind bars. The conflict caused a severe crisis in Turkish politics, but was overcome when the CHP and the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, signed a protocol regarding the status of the jailed deputies. The BDP deputies, however, have yet to take their oaths. (Hürriyet Daily News, August 12, 2011)


Opposition slams gov’t for ‘serving US’

Turkey’s government is acting on the directives of foreign powers, the main opposition said Tuesday, referring to the foreign minister’s trip to Damascus following talks with the United States.

“Turkey is not pursuing an independent foreign policy; it is following sovereign powers’ directives,” Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said Tuesday, adding that Turkey had become a pawn of Western countries. “We don’t oppose to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s visit to Syria. He should do so. He should say that more strong moves should be initiated. Turkey should contribute to the process. We have no problem with it. The problem is Turkey’s displaying an interfering stance,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, group chairman Selahattin Demirtaş also criticized the ruling party for allegedly serving the purposes of the U.S. “Davutoğlu is in Syria not only as a foreign minister but also as the representative of the United States,” he said.

Davutoğlu was traveling to Damascus on Tuesday to hold a crisis meeting following a request from the U.S. that Ankara put pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stop its bloody crackdown on protesters. Ankara has also expressed its frustration in recent days at the negligible pace of reforms in Syria.

Earlier in the day, CHP Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairman Emine Ülker Tarhan likewise accused the ruling party of being a messenger of the United States in the Middle East. “Is Turkey on the way to becoming a pawn of the United States?” asked Tarhan, referring to Davutoğlu’s visit to Syria. Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized the ruling party for not informing the opposition about the process and Turkey’s plans with regard to Syia while keeping the United States informed of the whole process. “What is Turkey’s road map for Damascus? Are there efforts to make the region a center of problems again? Will Turkey be pushed into a close fight with its neighbors? We want these questions to be addressed,” Tarhan told reporters. “The prime minister says Turkey’s patience with Syria is running out. What will Turkey do? Will it engage in a military operation? He should explain the reasons that led Turkey to run out of patience,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. Tarhan said rhetoric from the Turkish prime minister that Syria “is a domestic issue for Turkey” should be well-explained and that that the opposition should be briefed about Turkey’s steps and plans with regard to the developments in Syria. “If the tension in Syria spreads to Turkey, the responsibility belongs to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The main opposition party, CHP, criticisez Turkish government for acting as the ‘aide and messenger of US’ referring to the foreign minister’s trip to Damascus following talks with the US. “Is Turkey on the way to becoming a pawn of the United States?” asked CHP Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairman Tarhan. (Hürriyet Daily News, August 9, 2011)

Forces armées/Armed Forces

Armée turque : une défaite politique de plus !

En démissionnant le 29 juillet en compagnie de ses principaux collaborateurs, l’ancien chef d’état-major, Işık Koşaner, pensait peut-être qu’au moins ce départ lui permettrait d’entamer une retraite plus paisible que les derniers mois qu’il avait vécus à la tête des forces armées. Erreur ! Le général Koşaner s’est peut-être évité d’avoir à supporter le triomphe d’un premier ministre dominateur, présidant seul le Conseil militaire suprême (YAŞ), qui s’est tenu au début du mois d’août, mais il n’en est pas quitte pour autant.

Le 23 août 2011, en effet, une bande sonore a été postée sur la plateforme Dailymotion, révélant des propos tenus par l’ancien chef d’état-major, lors d’une réunion en novembre 2010. Sur ce document le général Koşaner pointe un certain nombre d’erreurs commises par l’armée turque dans la lutte qu’elle mène contre la rébellion kurde. L’ex-chef d’état-major reproche notamment au commandement de ne pas être capable de prévenir les attaques menées par les rebelles lorsqu’elles sont signalées antérieurement par des drones aériens. Il estime que les check-points protégés par des sacs de sable, que l’armée turque a pris l’habitude de construire dans le sud-est, constituent des cibles faciles pour la guérilla, il reconnaît que des erreurs de commandement ou de formation amènent des membres des forces armées à s’entretuer, et il révèle que les champs de mines sont parfois disposés sans qu’un relevé topographique précis en ait été fait et dans des endroits dangereux (proximité d’habitations civiles ou de casernements militaires).

Comme si cela ne suffisait pas, deux jours plus tard, une seconde bande sonore a été publiée sur Dailymotion. Cette fois, le général Koşaner va encore plus loin, il évoque la fameuse affaire Balyoz qui, depuis 1 an et demi, a relégué Ergenekon au second rang des affaires de complot. Rappelons que le Plan Balyoz, révélé par le quotidien Taraf en janvier 2010, aurait consisté en une suite d’opérations destinée à déstabiliser le gouvernement de l’AKP nouvellement élu, allant de l’accomplissement d’attentats à la bombe contre des mosquées à l’organisation d’incidents aériens sur la frontière grecque. Loin de laisser entendre, comme l’a toujours dit l’armée, pour sa défense, que ces opérations sont des simulations d’école, les propos de Koşaner les valident implicitement, en regrettant surtout que les documents, qui les décrivaient, soient tombés dans des mains «inappropriées», notamment celles d’un journaliste de Taraf. «Nous ne pouvons nous en prendre qu’à nous-mêmes», conclut l’ex-commandant en chef des forces armées, avant de mettre en cause le commandement de la 1ère Armée, au sein de laquelle avait été élaboré le plan Balyoz, en 2003. Plus loin le général Koşaner, se basant sur le fameux article 35 du Code des forces armées, justifie le droit de regard de l’armée sur la vie politique et son devoir d’intervention, le cas échéant.

Plusieurs observations peuvent être faites quant à cette affaire. Après quelques jours d’incertitude, le 27 août 2011, l’intéressé a lui-même confirmé l’authenticité de ces documents sonores, en disant qu’il ne comportait rien d’illégal et que ses propos étaient essentiellement une autocritique destinée à faire réagir ses collaborateurs. On remarque aussi que ces révélations sur les insuffisances de l’armée dans la lutte contre la rébellion kurde ou la confirmation de son implication dans l’affaire Balyoz au plus haut niveau, surviennent à point nommé. Au cours du mois et demi qui vient de s’écouler les forces armées turques ont perdu plus d’une trentaine d’hommes dans des embuscades meurtrières du PKK, tandis que parallèlement le procès des accusés de l’affaire Balyoz s’est ouvert et que de nouvelles arrestations ont eu lieu dans les milieux militaires les plus élevés.

Mais plus encore que sur le fond, dans la mesure où ce ne sont en fait que des secrets de polichinelle qui sont en l’occurrence révélés (carences de l’armée face à la rébellion, implication dans des complots…), cette affaire est importante pour une autre raison. En effet, ce que regrette le général Koşaner dans ces deux bandes, c’est que l’armée ne puisse plus protéger ses secrets, qu’elle soit devenue une passoire, et le comble , c’est qu’au moment même où il le regrette, il est lui-même enregistré ! Ainsi cette affaire aboutit donc surtout à mettre en relief l’incurie de l’armée.

La réaction de l’AKP à cette nouvelle est assez significative. Le parti gouvernemental ne s’est pas indigné des révélations faites, mais s’est essentiellement inquiété de la provenance des fuites, en y voyant une manœuvre venue de l’étranger. La ficelle peut paraître un peu grosse, elle vise néanmoins là-encore à faire sentir que l’armée n’est pas capable de tenir un secret et pour tout dire qu’elle manque désormais de fiabilité, en bref, que ses frasques ne suscitent même plus l’indignation mais qu’elles appellent presque la pitié !

Il est difficile de se prononcer sur la provenance des fuites, comme l’a fait le MHP qui a immédiatement mis en cause le gouvernement, en rappelant que sa direction a été récemment décimée par la publication de vidéos compromettantes sur Internet. Mieux vaut observer que la Turquie n’a cessé de «fuiter», au cours des dernières années, et particulièrement depuis 2007 et l’affaire des carnets de l’amiral Örnek. Révélation de complots véridiques ou grossis, ouverture de dossiers noirs de l’histoire turque, publication de documents secrets, découverte de caches d’armes, révélation incessante de conversations téléphoniques, mise en ligne de vidéos compromettantes… Ce grand déballage est-il l’œuvre d’une main maléfique ou n’est-il pas le résultat de la mise à jour d’une société et d’un pays longtemps maintenus dans l’ombre ou plutôt dans la grisaille d’un système de démocratie contrôlée. Comme toute ouverture débridée survenant après des années de contrôle de l’information, ce fuitage généralisé a comporté sa part d’excès, de manipulation ou de contradiction… Mais il a surtout sonné le glas du système de la Constitution sécuritaire de 1982. Les médias se sont mis à publier des documents ou des analyses qui leur auraient valu antérieurement la censure, l’armée a vu ses coups tordus dévoilés au grand jour et, à son tour, elle a fait l’objet de coups tordus. Pour finir, le dernier YAŞ et l’affaire  des bandes sonores du général Koşaner marquent la défaite d’une vieille garde de généraux qui se considéraient comme propriétaires de la République.

Ce faisant, une nouvelle phase est en train de s’ouvrir dans le mouvement de démilitarisation en cours. Dès lors que l’influence de l’armée sur le gouvernement civil est anéantie, il s’agit de savoir comment sera repositionner l’institution militaire dans le système qui est en train de s’établir. Autre bastion de l’Etat kémaliste, la justice turque s’est transformée, au cours des dernières années, parce que sa base s’est progressivement éloignée d’une hiérarchie restée fidèle aux thèses de l’establishment. Une telle évolution est difficile à concevoir pour ce qui est de l’armée, car celle-ci constitue un ensemble beaucoup plus soudé, qui se considère comme un monde extérieur à la société. Prendre d’assaut cette forteresse présente le risque de la déstabiliser, pour un gouvernement qui en a besoin, dans le contexte actuel d’une effervescence politique régionale accrue et d’une recrudescence des affrontements avec la rébellion kurde. La priorité n’est donc pas pour le gouvernement de prendre le contrôle formel du commandement comme il a pris celui de la justice ou de la hiérarchie universitaire. Les membres de la vieille garde qui auront échappé au procès, comme le nouveau chef d’état-major, Necdet Özel, pourront donc achever leur carrière, à condition qu’il se montre désormais coopératif. Necdet Özel vient d’ailleurs fort opportunément de céder au président Abdullah Gül la présidence des cérémonies de la victoire, qui  était traditionnellement dévolue au chef d’état-major le 30 août de chaque année. Tout un symbole qui voit la hiérarchie militaire continuer à devoir supporter stoïquement son déclin et qui n’empêchera pas le gouvernement d’engager une mutation progressive, mais certaine du fonctionnement de l’institution militaire.

La mise en exergue des carences de l’armée dans la lutte contre la guérilla kurde, ou des défaillances de son système d’information, justifiera en effet une réflexion technique sur les nouvelles missions de l’armée qui mettra progressivement ses cadres actuels hors jeu. Car l’armée turque de demain sera une armée de nouveaux professionnels qui se délaissera probablement du poids de la conscription, et se dotera d’armements sophistiqués de plus en plus souvent produits par la Turquie. Cette armée-là devra relever des défis considérables : harmonisation ou non de son système d’information avec celui de ses alliés, engagement de ses forces sur des théâtres extérieurs, participation à des stratégies de défense intégrées comme l’extension du bouclier antimissiles américains. Ce sont de tels enjeux qui transformeront progressivement le commandement, en induisant une formation de plus en plus technique de son personnel et une carrière de moins en moins basée sur l’ancienneté et la cooptation automatique de la hiérarchie. Reste à savoir, si ces futurs cadres seront au service d’un gouvernement ou de la démocratie. La question de la place de l’armée dans le nouveau système qui est en train de s’établir en Turquie, rejoint bien sûr celle de la nature de ce système en question.  Mais cela est une autre histoire… (Jean Marcou, http://ovipot.hypotheses.org/6511 - 28 août 2011)

Trois soldats et un milicien tués dans le sud-est

Trois militaires et un milicien turcs ont été tués dans deux attaques dans le sud-est de la Turquie, ont indiqué dimanche des sources au sein des forces de sécurité et l'agence de presse Anatolie qui imputent les attaques aux rebelles kurdes.

Trois soldats ont péri à l'aube dans l'explosion d'une mine télécommandée au passage de leur véhicule à Semdinli, près de la frontière avec l'Iran et l'Irak.

Trois autres soldats ont été blessés, selon les forces de sécurité, qui ont accusé le Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK).

Par ailleurs, un milicien a été tué et trois autres blessés dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche lors de l'attaque d'un poste de police à Midyat, près de la frontière syrienne.

Selon l'agence Anatolie, des rebelles du PKK ont ouvert le feu sur les miliciens - des villageois armés assurant la sécurité avec l'armée turque contre les rebelles.

Deux rebelles sont morts dans l'explosion d'une mine qu'ils tentaient de poser à Yuksekova. (AFP, 28 août 2011)

Former military chief Kosaner admits illegal actions by military

Following the emergence of a voice recording allegedly featuring the voice of former chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner, in which the former military chief confessed several shortcomings of the Turkish military in its fight against terror, Koşaner admits in a second voice recording published online on Thursday that the military did violate laws.
 
A second voice recording that includes alleged statements made by former military chief Gen. Işık Koşaner and posted online refers to a number of ongoing investigations into alleged anti-democratic efforts by some members of the military to destabilize the civilian government through acts of chaos in the society

The first recording dropped onto Turkey’s agenda like a bombshell as the alleged voice of Koşaner was heard listing the reasons behind the military’s fatal failures in the fight against terrorism. The second recording was again posted online on dailymotion.com and included shocking comments by the former military chief on a number of issues.

Koşaner allegedly confesses in the recording that the Turkish military transgressed the law on many issues, but that “some betrayers” within the military revealed these illegal actions. Addressing a group of military officers, the voice in the recording refers to him as “I, Işık Koşaner,” which may indicate that the voice indeed belongs to the former military chief. Koşaner has not denied the two recordings so far.

“The reason for our problematic situation today is ourselves. We made mistakes. We did wrong things. We did not take our job seriously. We could not protect our documents; we let them be stolen. They heard our speeches. We spoke here and there. We did not pay attention to what we signed. We stored unnecessary information on our computers. They [civilian prosecutors] came, searched and found many things. Now we are unable to give account for those things. We acted outside the law and regulations. We thought we could go ahead like that. But betrayers emerged among us. We cannot find them, unfortunately. Yes, we did act outside the law. We had to do so during some periods.

But we continued to do so and used the things we are not authorized to have. We still have them. But some corrupt colleagues emerged among us. We cannot find them either,” he says. The alleged voice refers to a number of ongoing investigations into alleged anti-democratic efforts by some members of the military to destabilize the civilian government. Currently, there are dozens of military officers, including retired and active duty generals, under arrest as part of these investigations, which were mainly launched thanks to whistleblowers within the military.

Another striking part in the recording is the one in which the alleged voice of Koşaner confirms that documents detailing the Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan, which mentions a systematic plan by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to create chaos in society by bombing mosques and attacking popular museums with Molotov cocktails, are authentic. The recording comes as yet another refutation of earlier claims that the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup plan was fabricated and that the records of a 2003 military seminar were manipulated to discredit the armed forces.

Koşaner says in the recording that all the documents regarding the Sledgehammer plan were thought to have been destroyed by the military, but they saw them in the indictment prepared by civilian prosecutors into the plan. “The aspect of the Sledgehammer story that upsets us is that we got all we have in the 1st Army stolen. We got all we had regarding the seminar stolen, including our voice recordings, were obtained by unauthorized people. This is the real shame. How could this happen? The guys have everything we spoke about. We were involved in this shame. There can also be criminal parts of the story. I have doubts about that,” he says.

According to the Sledgehammer documents, the desired result of the plan was to increase pressure on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government for failing to provide security for its citizens. The attacks were to eventually lead to a military coup. The plan was drawn up in 2003 and discussed in a seminar held at the General Staff’s Selimiye barracks in March of that year. The General Staff has denied that the Sledgehammer plot was the subject of a seminar, saying they have no record of such an incident, and it defended itself by claiming the Sledgehammer plan was merely a war game.

Currently, there are nearly 200 retired and serving members of the TSK who are under arrest on charges of involvement in the Sledgehammer plan. All of the suspects are accused of a failed attempt to destroy Parliament and overthrow the government. Such a charge calls for a jail sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

‘We do not need a written Article 35 to protect our people’

The recording, if it indeed features the voice of Koşaner, also reveals the military’s unwillingness to a change or abolish Article 35 of the TSK’s Internal Service Code, which gives the military the authority to take measures “to protect and guard the Republic of Turkey.” The law is believed to offer legal justification for the several coups the military has carried out in the past decades.

“It does not matter who says what. They are saying they would abolish Article 35 or bring another one. This does not need to be written anywhere either. We, as the TSK, exist for that purpose [to guard the Republic]. This is our natural and historical duty. Nobody can advise us on that issue. Nobody can oppose this either,” Koşaner says. The article has long been a matter of controversy in Turkey as it served as a legal basis for past coups and there are growing calls from the public to abolish the article.

‘We are working for tax exemption of OYAK’

Mentioning “some other issues that put the TSK in trouble nowadays,” Koşaner also revealed that the military seeks to maintain the privileges provided for Turkey’s military-run Turkish Armed Forces Assistance Center (OYAK), which is exempted from a number of taxes and levies. Unlike other companies, OYAK does not pay corporate tax, inheritance tax, income tax or stamp and excise duty.

OYAK, originally established by the military officers who overthrew the government on May 27, 1960 with a view to providing additional income for members of the TSK, has now become one of the largest conglomerates in the country. “They [the government] want to accept OYAK as a public institution. You know we are exempted from some taxes. But, if we become a public institution, that is what the [Public Procurement Authority] KİK wants and a court already ruled against us; we will be obliged to pay taxes and there will be a decrease in our pension salaries by about 15 percent. We are now working to prevent that. I want you to know that,” he says.

In the recording, Koşaner also warns a group of military officers he addresses against a recently amended law that enables civilian oversight of military expenditures. “You know the Law on the Court of Accounts has changed. Be very careful. The money issues are now more serious. The Court of Accounts will inspect us. There may be problems. Never go beyond what the regulations say,” he warns.

It has long been a controversy whether military dining facilities (orduevi), night clubs and canteens in Turkey are being operated efficiently. The new Law on the Court of Accounts, which went into effect after its approval by President Abdullah Gül late last year, has subordinated the Higher Inspection Board (YDK), which audits State Economic Enterprises (KİTs), to the Court of Accounts. Now all state institutions, including the TSK, can be inspected by the Court of Accounts.

‘Stay out of the media, do not tell journalists anything’

The former military chief also dwells on the relations of military officer with the media and advises them to have no contact with journalists, at whom he directs insulting remarks. “Stay out of the media. Journalists sell their own mother to report a story. Never say anything to journalists because they will make a big deal out of what you said. We are telling the press what it is necessary to tell,” he says.

General Staff pursues post-recording strategy of silence

Although alleged statements by former Chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner, in an audio recording in which he confessed to the military’s flaws in the fight against terrorism, have found extensive coverage in the Turkish media since Tuesday, neither Koşaner nor the General Staff or the Defense Ministry have yet made any statements denying the recording. The silence by Koşaner and the commanders with whom he spoke in the recording has led to comments that this may be part of a strategy to allow the allegations to be forgotten over time, the Radikal daily reported on Thursday. As a routine procedure, the General Staff launched an investigation into the allegations about the voice recording and civilian prosecutors have compiled the news reports about the voice recording and handed them to the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office. If the prosecutor’s office takes action, the cour-se of major cases in which military members are being tried may be changed, said Radikal. İstanbul Today’s Zaman (TODAY'S ZAMAN, 25 August 2011)

Shocked by Kosaner's confessions, martyrs’ families demand legal action

Families of martyred soldiers, who were outraged by statements made by former Chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner in a voice recording indicating that some soldiers are killed for nothing, have demanded legal action for those who are behind the killing of their sons.
 
The voice recording that includes alleged statements made by Koşaner and posted online earlier this week shocked the nation as the former military chief explains the reasons behind Turkey’s failure in its fight against terrorism. In the recording, addressing a group of military officers, the alleged voice of Koşaner says the situation is “shameful,” as the military fails to effectively use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to prevent terrorist attacks, plants mines randomly, lacks discipline in its hierarchy and even soldiers are killed by other soldiers due to insufficient training.

Undoubtedly, Koşaner’s statements caused great outrage amongst the families of the dead soldiers, who already had suspicions about the killing of their sons because of negligence in the military.

Hasan Say, father of martyred Spc. Sgt. Ayhan Say, who said he was shocked when he heard the voice recording, claimed that a commander, who fled when a clash broke out with outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists, was a lieutenant in Hantepe. Say’s son, Ahmet, is one of six soldiers that were killed in a PKK attack on the Hantepe outpost in the Çukurca district of Hakkari in 2010.

The recording admits that the military failed to prevent the terrorist attack on the Hantepe outpost even though UAVs had detected the terrorist group in the area 15 minutes before the attack. “There is an opportunity to receive images from UAVs but we cannot coordinate our efforts. We failed to intervene [in the Hantepe attack] in a timely manner. The team’s commander left his rifle and fled,” the voice says. A Turkish daily newspaper claimed that Heron UAVs informed 30 security units -- including the General Staff -- every second of the attack, but security forces failed to take any action against the terrorist group. (TODAY'S ZAMAN, 25 August 2011)

Ground Operations Alert in Iraqi Kurdish Region

The Kurdish Regional Administration reportedly warned inhabitants of the Sidekan region to leave their villages saying that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) are going to carry out a ground operation. Sidekan is a mountainous area in Northern Iraq, an area where many hideouts of the armed militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) are located.

According to information conveyed to Fırat News Agency by local sources, officials of the Kurdish Regional Administration visited villages in Sidekan and warned them about the "ground operation". The officials encouraged the locals to leave their villages since the administration would not be able to protect them. It was said that the villagers did not follow their request.

Massoud Barzani, President of the Iraqi Kurdish Region, said in an announcement made on Tuesday (23 August), "In case of a ground war in their region, they will resume the necessary attitude. Yet, right now diplomacy is important".

The TSK started sending personnel to the border region on Tuesday. It was announced that 2,000 commandos were sent. The TSK has also done logistic transfers before.

Peace Marches of Democratic Society Congress and workers

The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Congress (DTK) announced after the evaluation meeting of the DTK Organizing Committee to organize a mass walk to the border.

The DTK declared that the south-eastern provinces of Şırnak, Siirt, Mardin, Diyarbakır, Bingöl, Elazığ, Dersim and other provinces will conduct a mass peace march to the borderline on 27 August. The provinces of Hakkari, Van, Iğdır, Kars, Ağrı, Erzurum, Muş, Bitlis and others will make a peace march to the Turkish-Iraqi border of the Hakkari province.

Workers will march as well

The Confederation of Trade Unions of Public Employees (KESK) also announced to carry out a march on 27 August when the workers will walk to the border. Seyfettin Polat, current spokesman of the KESK Branches Platform, told bianet, "The workers want peace. (...). Sources allocated to war are being wasted in a country were the hunger threshold has been significantly raised."

Polat underlined that the march to the border was a move of peace. "We are against the killing of civilians, against shedding the blood of young people and destroying the nature", he said.

"We must not refrain from the axes of security for a peaceful and democratic solution. We want to draw attention to peace by walking to the border. We walk to the border so that the blood of our brothers and sisters will not be shed. A huge crowd of regional people walks to the borderline and the workers will walk with them". (BIA, 25 August 2011)

Human Rights Association Condemns Air Raids

The Human Rights Association (İHD) condemned the bombing of the Qandil region by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in a press release.

At a gathering in Taksim (Istanbul) people displayed photographs of the seven civilians who were killed in air raids showing them before and after their deaths.

İHD Istanbul Branch President Abdülbaki Boğa said that he sincerely apologized to the families of the deceased civilians for publishing the pictures of their relatives who were torn into pieces by the bombs. However, Boğa pointed out that he had to do so in order to make everybody understand that the war had to end.

"The people on these pictures are neither soldiers nor guerrillas but civilians who have nothing to do with war", Boğa underlined and noted that 124 houses were evacuated as the result of the air strikes and that the balance of nature has been destroyed.

He claimed that all people in Turkey wanted this war to end and that the government had to listen to the demands for peace instead of suppressing them with violence.

"The Anti-Terror Law shaped according to the Constitution of 1982 and the other prohibiting laws should be abrogated. Liberal laws have to be enacted that embrace all differences to enable everyone to express their differences equally within the framework of a democratic constitution".

Boğa emphasized that weapons on both sides should fall silent immediately and called on the government to find a solution via negotiations.

The İHD branch president also addressed the media saying that they had to refrain from a language of war that aestheticised death.

The announcement was supported by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the Workers Movement Party (EHP), The Socialist Solidarity Platform (SODAP), the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) and the Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party (DSİP). (BIA, 25 August 2011)

L'armée dit avoir tué une centaine de rebelles kurdes en Irak

L'armée turque a annoncé mardi que les raids aériens menés depuis plusieurs jours dans le nord de l'Irak ont tué près d'une centaine de rebelles kurdes, tandis que Massoud Barzani, président de cette région irakienne, a réclamé la fin des opérations turques.

Le gouvernement turc a ordonné ces bombardements le 17 août en riposte à une attaque des rebelles kurdes à la frontière irakienne de la Turquie qui a coûté la vie à neuf membres des forces de sécurité.

Ils marquent une nette escalade dans le conflit kurde, qui dure depuis que le Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) a pris les armes en 1984 contre les forces d'Ankara et a fait quelque 45.000 morts.

L'aviation turque n'avait pas bombardé les repaires du PKK en Irak depuis plus d'un an.

Entre 90 et 100 rebelles kurdes ont été tués et 80 autres blessés dans les bombardements, a affirmé l'état-major dans un communiqué en ligne.

Il s'agit d'un premier bilan fourni par l'armée turque sur ses bombardements de cibles appartenant au PKK dans la montagne irakienne. La Turquie estime à environ 2.000 le nombre de rebelles retranchés dans cette zone.

Le communiqué précise que 14 installations, 8 dépôts de vivres, un autre de munitions, neuf canons de DCA, 18 cavernes et 79 refuges ont été frappés lors des opérations qui ont visé un total de 132 cibles "soigneusement déterminés à l'avance grâce à une analyste méticuleuse pour épargner les zones de peuplement civil".

L'armée ajoute que si nécessaire, les raids aériens se poursuivront, en Turquie et à l'extérieur des frontières.

Les rebelles ont nié avoir subi autant de pertes.

"Seulement trois combattants du PKK ont été tués dans la province de Dohouk. Pour l'instant aujourd'hui il n'y a pas eu de raids. Tout est calme", a assuré à l'AFP Ahmet Deniz, un porte-parole du PKK en Irak.

Le président de la région autonome kurde d'Irak s'est de son côté inquiété dans un communiqué publié lundi des pertes civiles et a dénoncé les opérations turques.

"Je demande à la Turquie d'arrêter ces opérations (...) aucune action blessant les gens et détruisant leur propriété ne peut être justifiée", a souligné M. Barzani.

Selon les autorités kurdes, sept civils, dont des enfants, ont été tués alors qu'ils tentaient de fuir les raids

Depuis début juillet, les attaques du PKK en Turquie ont coûté la vie à une quarantaine de soldats et de policiers, poussant le gouvernement d'Ankara a adopter une ligne plus dure dans ce conflit malgré une initiative pro-kurde lancée en 2009 par le Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Tôt mardi, un groupe de rebelles a attaqué avec des fusils mitrailleurs un poste de gendarmerie à Ergani (sud-est de la Turquie), tuant un soldat et blessant trois autres, a-t-on indiqué de source de sécurité locale.

La Turquie a adopté jeudi dernier une "nouvelle stratégie" qui prévoit notamment de combattre les rebelles avec des troupes militaires entièrement professionnelles mais aussi avec des unités spéciales de la police, lourdement armées.

Outre des opérations aériennes, depuis le début des années 1990, l'armée turque a mené plusieurs incursions terrestres dans le nord de l'Irak pour pourchasser les rebelles dont la dernière, longue de huit jours, remonte à 2008. (AFP, Burak AKINCI, 23 août 2011)

Four soldiers injured in Diyarbakır PKK attack

Four soldiers were injured on Tuesday in an attack by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) at a gendarmerie outpost in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.
 
A group of PKK militants attacked the gendarmerie outpost in Değirmendere village, Ergani district, with long-barrel guns. Initial reports said one soldier died and three others were injured in a clash that erupted following gendarmes' response to the attack. The soldier who was initially pronounced dead as his heart stopped at the scene was brought back to life by doctors. Diyarbakır Governor Mustafa Toprak said the soldier is still in critical condition.

The injured soldiers were taken to Ergani State Hospital. News reports said there are still clashes between terrorists and security forces in the region. A large-scale operation was launched in the region with the inclusion of gendarmerie special operations units and village guards. (Journaux turcs, 23 August 2011)

General Staff holds workshop to secure release of coup suspects

According to newspapers including the Yeni Şafak, Bugün and Taraf dailies, the workshop took place at the Legal Consultancy Office of the General Staff. The newspaper reports named several legal advisors participating in the meeting including General Staff legal advisor Deputy Col. Şakir Aytaş, Land Forces legal advisor Col. Ahmet Vurucu, Gendarmerie legal advisor Capt. Hakan Kandemir and Judge Lt. Özkan Doğu of the Air Force. The dailies also indicated that two others, Judge Capt.Kurtuluş Kaya and Judge Col. Doğan Uysal, known to be close to Maj. Gen. Hıfzı Çubuklu, who was arrested on Aug. 17, suspected of involvement in a plan to destabilize the government via an Internet campaign, also participated in the meeting. Meanwhile, Aytaş is expected to replace Çubuklu as legal advisor to the General Staff.

As the judicial process continues in the cases of several alleged plans to overturn the government, there are reports that Land Forces Commander Gen. Hayri Kıvrıkoğlu has been working on a solution allowing the active duty military officers implicated to be tried without arrest.

The newspapers claimed that Gen. Kıvrıkoğlu is working on an “exit plan” for the release of active duty officers, and in accordance with that the legal advisors discussed some changes to the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK). One of those changes is reported to be a regulation shortening the length of time suspects whose trials are pending may be held under arrest. Lengthy arrests are a major problem in the Turkish legal system, and the outcry about this issue has been louder since the arrest of a number of high level military personnel.

Another topic of discussion at the meeting, alleged by the newspapers, was in relation to the office of the special prosecutor, which is conducting the investigations into most of the alleged coup plots. The dailies claim the legal advisors pondered the question of pressuring the government for the removal of those special prosecutors. While Taraf’s report suggested that the General Staff plans to “empty” the Hasdal Miltary Prison, Yeni Şafak said that the meeting could be called a “Sledgehammer Workshop.” Bugün described Gen. Kıvrıkoğlu as coming “to the rescue of [the jailed] officers.”

In August an İstanbul court issued arrest warrants for 14 suspects, including seven generals, as part of an investigation into allegations that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had set up websites to disseminate anti-government propaganda. An indictment in the case was accepted by the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court late last month, and the prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for the 14 suspects implicated in the case immediately after the indictment was accepted by the court.

On Aug. 17, the court accepted the request and ordered the arrest of the suspects, who include former 1st Army Commander retired Gen. Hasan Iğsız, Maj. Gen. Mustafa Bakıcı, the General Staff’s legal counsel Maj. Gen. Çubuklu, Lt. Gen. Mehmet Eröz, Vice Adm. Otuzbiroğlu and Lt. Gen. İsmail Hakkı Pekin. There are also several other retired and active duty military officers who are currently under arrest in the cases of Sledgehammer, an alleged coup d’état plot, and Ergenekon, a political crime network allegedly preparing to topple the government. In June, with the arrest of Adm. Mücahit Şişlioğlu, the commander of the Naval Forces Command, the total number of generals and admirals under arrest at Hasdal Military Prison has reached 34. This means a significant proportion of Turkey’s top military personnel are in custody on attempted coup charges.

General Staff responds to claims

The General Staff acknowledged on Monday that a meeting of legal advisors to the General Staff and force commanders did take place on Aug. 19, but added that the meeting was only “technical,” and said it is “wrong” to attribute any meaning to the meeting as some newspapers did.

“The meeting was held by order of the chief of General Staff, and was coordinated by the General Staff’s legal advisors with the participation of the legal advisors to the force commanders,” Monday’s General Staff statement said.

“At that meeting, evaluations were made of possible changes to be made to the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK) at the new parliamentary session. This was a technical activity which aimed at clearly defining the institutional views of the military on the changes. Therefore, it is wrong to attribute to the meeting the meaning that was attributed to it in [some newspaper] articles,” the statement concluded.

The General Staff has drawn criticism for the Aug. 19 meeting from jurists, who said the meeting was illegal and the participants in the meeting committed an offense. A military judge, Veysi Savaş, said the TSK overstepped its authority by engaging in plans to secure the release of military officers who are suspects in several coup cases.

“It is not the duty of the TSK to propose legal amendments for the ongoing cases. It is obvious what institutions are responsible for preparing laws. The actual duty of the General Staff is to command the armed forces,” he said. Cahit Özkan, the head of the Jurists’ Association, said the workshop reveals that the TSK stands behind the Sledgehammer suspects and is openly intervening in an ongoing case. Özkan said the TSK’s actions are unacceptable. (TODAY’S ZAMAN, 22 August 2011)

Sept morts dans un raid aérien de l'armée turque

Un raid aérien de l'armée turque, mené dans le cadre d'opérations contre des séparatistes kurdes, a fait sept morts dimanche dans un village du nord de l'Irak, a annoncé un responsable local à l'AFP.

"Sept personnes, dont des femmes et des enfants, ont été tuées dans un raid de l'armée turque contre une voiture civile dans le village de Kortek" dans la région autonome du Kurdistan irakien, a déclaré Hassan Abdallah, responsable du secteur de Qalat Dizah, en évoquant un bilan encore provisoire.

Selon lui, l'armée turque a également bombardé dimanche des positions rebelles kurdes aux alentours de Sidakan et Choman, dans la province voisine d'Erbil.

L'armée turque bombarde pour le cinquième jour consécutif le Kurdistan irakien. C'est la première fois que des victimes sont recensées.

Un porte-parole du PKK, Ahmed Denis, a indiqué dimanche que l'aviation turque avait bombardé les secteurs de Qandil, Khowakirk, Haftan, Jabal Mattine et Jabal Karra, le long de la frontière irako-turque.

L'artillerie a également mené dimanche matin des bombardements contre les localités de Khowakirk, Zakarus et Ifsahim, a-t-il dit.

Le porte-parole a indiqué qu'il pensait que l'armée turque était en train de préparer une incursion dans le nord de l'Irak.

"L'armée turque est en train de se préparer à la frontière avec le Kurdistan irakien, pour lancer une attaque contre le Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan", a-t-il estimé.

124 VILLAGES DESERTES

117 villages d’Amediye, dans la région de Dohuk,  ont été désertés sous les bombardements turcs au cours de ces cinq derniers jours, ainsi que sept autres à Sidekan, à 100 km au nord-est d'Erbil, et à Qandil, écrit le site du journal Rudaw.

Mais, certaines sources affirment que les 170 villages d’Amediye ciblés par les bombardements seront évacués.

Un journaliste kurde dans la région, cité par l’agence Firat, a dit que les habitants des villages de Mêrga Çiya, Yekmalê, Hêsê, Xirabe, Şêlaza, Dergelê, Pîrka, Bêşîlê, Bêlîzanê et de Bazê, dans la région de Metina, ont été forcés à quitter leurs maisons. 10 à 15 villages de la région de Haftanin seraient aussi désertés, selon des sources locales.

Plusieurs villages ont été touchés depuis début de l’opération qui a causé d’importants dégâts matériels.  Un pont a été détruit à Berwari Balan, dans la région d’Amediye, lors des bombardements du 21 aout.

DES INCURSIONS TERRESTRES ENVISAGEES

Selon les analystes, la Turquie et l’Iran envisageraient des incursions terrestres après le Ramadan qui se termine fin aout.  Des dizaines de milliers de soldats turcs, dont la plupart sont des forces spéciales, ont été positionnés sur la frontière avec l’Irak.  Le régime iranien, en coordination avec la Turquie, poursuit ses opérations tout au long de la frontière, et bombarde le Kurdistan irakien, depuis 16 juillet. (AFP-ANF, 21 août 2011)

2 Admirals and 3 Colonels Arrested

Five out of six active soldiers who were taken to court in the scope of the investigation into the Sledgehammer Coup Plan were arrested by the Istanbul 10th High Criminal Court in Beşiktaş (Istanbul) on Saturday (20 August). Rear Admirals Şafak Yürekli and Osman Kayalar are among the arrested active military personnel.

The "Sledgehammer" coup plan was plotted by a group of people within the armed forces in 2002/03. It was aimed at creating disorder in the country by bombings of mosques, crashing a Turkish jet plane and warplanes flying over the parliament, which should eventually lead to martial law and a coup.

The six soldiers were taken to court in the context of an investigation that was a launched on the basis of documents allegedly found during the search of the Gölcük Fleet Command Intelligence Branch in December 2010. They were interrogated by Hüseyin Ayar, the Public Prosecutor who is running the Sledgehammer investigation, on Friday (19 August).

The soldiers, among them Yürekli, Kayalar and Naval Colonel Aşkın Öztürk as un-detained defendants of the Poyrazköy trial and a case on military espionage, were taken to the court on duty with the demand for their arrest.

The court decided for the arrest of Rear Admirals Yürekli and Kayalar and Naval Colonels Erhan Şensoy, Cem Okyay and Gürsel Çaypınar. (BIA, 22 August 2011)

Turkish aircrafts bombed civilian areas in Iraq

The Ministry of Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) of the autonomous region of Kurdistan has denounced the bombing of "civilian areas" by the Turkish Air Force since Wednesday, while committed to exercise its right of self-defense in case of attack against the Kurdish region. The Kurds in Turkey tomorrow form a human shield on the border to protest against the bombing.

"Above all, the bombing of the territory of Kurdistan is illegitimate," said Jabbar Yawar, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Peshmerga, in an interview Friday, August 19 Kurdish Diha to the agency, based in Turkey.

The Turkish air force and artillery shelling since Aug. 17 areas under the control of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which are also hundreds of villages far from the positions of the guerrillas.

AREAS OF THE PKK

PKK areas extend for hundreds of miles between Turkey, Iran and Iraq, covering seven areas: Qandil, Metin, Zap, Xakurke, Xinere, Haftanin and Zagros. The guerrillas have no fixed camps, and most of PKK fighters are inside the Turkish border.

Turkey has launched 25 cross-border land operations against the PKK, which premiered in 1983 and the last in February 2008. The goal of each operation was the final liquidation of the PKK, but this armed organization, which is considered a "terrorist" group by many countries, has emerged stronger after each ground, winning the sympathy of millions of Kurds in all parts of Kurdistan and Europe.

352 GOALS BY ARMY BOMBS

Turkish planes bombed 28 targets and artillery pounded 96 others in the region during the attacks Thursday, according to the Turkish military authorities, who claim to be "attention to the protection of civilians." The Turkish army said it had struck 60 goals on Wednesday night by aircraft and 168 others by artillery.

BOMBING OF THE KURDISH VILLAGES

"There are several villages in the bombed areas and the inhabitants of those villages are civilian," said senior Kurdish. "The attacks result in the destruction of several houses of the villagers, killing their livestock, causing damage on farms and forcing the inhabitants to leave their homes. "

According to local sources, the bombing on August 19 at 9:30 Qandil area caused the fire in the farms of the village of Kozin, causing extensive damage and depriving people of electricity. During the August 17 bombing against the village of Zargele in the region of Qandil, a house was destroyed.

Kwestan Ahmed, the head of the region Werte, always Qandil, said homes built far from the villages by the residents were the target of attacks by the Turkish Air Force, agency quoted Kurdish Firat. "It's cruel," he said, saying the attacks have caused extensive damage in the villages.

THE PROBLEM IS POLITICAL, NOT MILITARY

The Secretary General of the Ministry of Peshmerga has warned that the Kurdish government undertakes to exercise its right of self defense in case of attack against the Kurdish region. "As a Kurdish government, we consider these attacks as a violation of the rights of our citizens. We believe that this problem will never be solved by airstrikes and artillery. This is a political problem and ultimately it will be resolved through dialogue, according to the federal government of Kurdistan. "

HUMAN SCHIELD AGAINST BOMBING

The Kurds of Turkey will form Saturday, 20 August a human shield against the bombing, organizing a march to the border of the autonomous region of Kurdistan. This is the fourth human shield action since 2004. The march will begin Saturday in Hakkari and Sirnak, two border towns.

PREPARATIONS MILITARISM ON FRONTIRE IRANIAN

Moreover, the Iranian army deployed reinforcements on the border with Iraq, Kurdish sources said. July 16, the Iranian regime had launched a major operation in coordination with Turkey along the border under the pretext of fighting the PJAK, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, a Kurdish political and military organization that calls for autonomy a democratic confederal system.

Heavy fighting took place for about three weeks that have resulted in the death of such three generals and seven high-ranking military officials in the ranks of the Iranian army. PJAK claimed to have killed over 250 soldiers, rejecting all attempts to cross the Iranian border in the region of Qandil.

At least three Kurdish civilians, including a ten year old child, were killed by shelling the villages of Iranian Hajj Omran Sidekan and, in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Eleven other civilians were injured, 35 villages and damaged hundreds of people displaced, according to Kurdish authorities. (MAXIME AZADI - ANF, 20 August 2011)

Le MGK adopte une "nouvelle stratégie" de lutte contre le PKK

La Turquie a décidé jeudi de mettre en oeuvre des mesures "plus efficaces" dans le cadre d'une "nouvelle stratégie" pour lutter contre les rebelles kurdes qui ont tué la veille neuf membres des forces de sécurité turques dans le sud-est du pays.

Les autorités politiques et militaires turques réunies pendant près de cinq heures autour d'un Conseil national de sécurité (MGK) se sont prononcés en faveur d'un durcissement contre le Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan qui a intensifié ses attaques ces deux derniers mois contre les forces d'Ankara.

Le MGK, dirigé par le chef de l'Etat Abdullah Gül, préconise dans un communiqué publié au terme de la réunion, une "meilleure coordination" des moyens militaires et policiers engagés pour lutter contre le PKK, tout en insistant que la lutte contre "le terrorisme du PKK sera poursuivie avec détermination, sans pour autant renoncer aux principes de l'Etat de droit" et aux normes démocratiques.

"Aucune activité susceptible de porter atteinte à l'unité indivisible de la nation turque ne sera tolérée", souligne le document, sans donner de précisions concrètes sur les mesures qui seront mises en oeuvre.

Le texte appelle aussi les pays voisins de la Turquie "à prendre leurs responsabilités" pour éradiquer la présence du PKK sur leur territoire, sans citer nommément un pays.

En riposte à l'attaque de mercredi à Cukurca, à la frontière avec l'Irak, l'aviation turque a pilonné le soir même les repaires des rebelles kurdes dans le nord de l'Irak.

Il s'agit des premiers raids menés par la Turquie en Irak depuis un an.

L'état-major a averti que ces raids se poursuivront si nécessaire.

Selon Ankara, 2.000 rebelles sont retranchés en Irak, d'où ils s'infiltrent en Turquie pour mener des attaques. (AFP, 18 août 2011)

Nouvelle étape judiciaire contre des militaires accusés de complot

Des militaires dont plusieurs officiers ont caomparu lundi devant un tribunal d'une banlieue d'Istanbul dans le cadre de la deuxième étape des poursuites engagées pour un complot présumé qui visait à renverser le gouvernement islamo-conservateur turc.

Au total 28 militaires, dont 21 sont incarcérés, sont jugés dans un centre de détention près d'Istanbul pour leur participation à l'"Opération masse de forgeron", conspiration présumée datant de 2003 et qui aurait visé, selon l'acte d'accusation, à commettre des attentats pour semer le chaos et justifier un coup d'Etat contre le parti de la justice et du développement (AKP), issu de la mouvance islamiste, du Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan, au pouvoir depuis 2002.

Les suspects risquent 15 à 20 ans de prison.

Le plus important des suspects est le général quatre étoiles Bilgin Balanli, ex-chef des académies militaires turques, qui devait devenir commandant des forces aériennes cette année avant d'être arrêté en mai. Il est actuellement le plus gradé des militaires d'active arrêtés et écroués dans le cadre de plusieurs complots présumés visant le gouvernement.

Le général Balanli a dénoncé à l'ouverture du procès un "lâche complot" pour ternir l'image de l'armée turque, affirmant que les accusations pesant sur lui et ses compagnons d'armes étaient "contraires à la raison", a rapporté la chaîne d'information NTV.

Son avocat a réclamé que son client soit libéré, affirmant que les preuves établies à son encontre, notamment des documents saisi dans sa caserne, avaient été "falsifiés", selon l'agence de presse Anatolie.

Le procès a été ajourné au 3 octobre. Certains suspects ont réclamé que les juges se désistent de cette procédure.

L'an dernier, le premier volet de cette enquête avait entraîné la comparution d'environ 200 militaires d'active ou de réserve. L'enquête, qui constitue une menace contre l'institution militaire, jadis acteur politique de premier rang en Turquie, a mis en cause une quarantaine de généraux ou amiraux, soit un dixième de la haute hiérarchie militaire.

Les inculpés prétendent que le plan incriminé était un scénario pédagogique parmi d'autres, décrivant une situation fictive de tension pour évaluer les meilleures façons d'y faire face. Ils mettent également en cause l'authenticité de certains documents présentés comme des preuves.

Fin juillet, l'état-major des armées a dû faire face à une démission collective des principaux commandants, dont le chef de l'état-major, une situation inédite en Turquie, sur fond de crise entre les militaires et le gouvernement sur la détention prolongée des militaires soupçonnés de complots.

Depuis 1960, l'armée, qui se voit comme le rempart contre toute atteinte à la laïcité, a évincé quatre gouvernements.

Après la démission du chef d'état major, le gouvernement, peu impressionné, a immédiatement nommé un successeur, le général Necdet Özel.

Le conflit entre le gouvernement et larmée dure depuis près de dix ans, et la démission de létat-major pourrait en être lune des dernières étapes.

Ces dernières années, le gouvernement turc a mis en oeuvre des réformes demandées par l'Union européenne, à laquelle souhaite adhérer Ankara, afin de circonscrire le rôle de l'armée à des tâches militaires.

Les réformes ont réduit l'influence des généraux dans la vie politique.

Cette prise en main de la justice civile depuis 2007, applaudie au départ, rencontre aujourd'hui des critiques: une partie des accusations est floue et cinq ans après les premières arrestations, aucune condamnation n'a encore été prononcée. (AFP, 15 août 2011)

Trois soldats turcs tués dans une embuscade

Trois soldats turcs ont été tués dans un accrochage entre l'armée et des rebelles kurdes dans le sud-est de la Turquie, a annoncé samedi une source militaire.

Des rebelles du Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) a tendu une embuscade sur une route, dans la province de Sirnak (sud-est), contre une patrouille militaire qui revenait d'une opération contre le groupe armé, a indiqué à l'AFP cette source qui a requis l'anonymat.

Les faits se sont produits à 10 kilomètres de la ville de Beyttussebab.

Le 16 juin, 13 soldats avaient été tués dans des affrontements avec le PKK dans la province de Diyarbakir. Il s'agissait des pertes les plus lourdes pour l'armée turque dans ce conflit depuis octobre 2008.

Le PKK revendique l'attentat contre un gazoduc irano-turc

Les rebelles kurdes de Turquie ont revendiqué samedi l'attentat qui a endommagé jeudi soir un gazoduc irano-turc dans l'est de la Turquie, coupant les livraisons de gaz iranien à la Turquie.

Les rebelles du Parti des Travailleurs du Kurdistan (PKK) ont saboté le gazoduc, à cinq km de la province d'Agri, vers 20H00 GMT jeudi, a annoncé le HPG, branche armée de l'organisation, dans un communiqué rendu public par l'agence pro-kurde Firat.

Un responsable du ministère turc de l'Energie avait indiqué vendredi que les réparations avaient débuté et qu'elles pourraient durer une semaine, durant laquelle la Turquie sera privée de gaz iranien..

La Turquie reçoit entre 15 et 18 milliards de mètres cubes de gaz par jour du gazoduc iranien, qui relie la ville de Tabriz, dans le nord-ouest de l'Iran, à Ankara. (AFP, 14 août 2011)

ECHR Condemns Turkey’s Military Discipline Practice

European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Turkey to damages amounting to 9 000 Euros regarding a disciplinary containment practice -dubbed as 'disco'- by the military.

The Strasbourg court's ruling can set a precedent about the widespread practice, causing fear among regulars doing their compulsory military service and often used as a threat by military commanders.

Restraining of liberty can be ruled only by a court and a procedure of appeal against the decision must be present, the ECHR ruling said.

The ruling brings about questions regarding the Military Criminal Code, former military judge Ümit Kardaş told bianet.

According to Article 171 of the code, superior ranking military officials even have the right to temporarily arrests on grounds of disciplinary action. Kardaş argues that the Military Criminal Code should be scrutinized and abolished.

He says that only military offences such as desertion and disobedience to orders could be included in the Military Criminal Code. On the contrary, the current legislation has duplicated many articles of the Criminal Code, thus rendering them as military offences.

According to Kardaş, stripping disciplinary superior officers from their authority to rule punishments would solve the problem.

"From now on, the ECHR will condemn Turkey in each case regarding this practice. Therefore, it's no longer possible to employ Article 171 of the Military Criminal Code as it will be directly condemned in Strasbourg."

The case in question dates back to 2007, when a soldier left barracks without permission and was condemned to seven days imprisonment according to Article 171. The soldier's appeals against the ruling were turned down by superior officers and he had filed an application to the ECHR.  (BIA, Ekin KARACA, 11 August 2011)

Retired General Arrested on ''Black Propaganda''

Former Commander of the 1st Field Army, retired General Hasan Iğsız has been arrested today on allegations regarding the establishment of faux web sites in order to propagate against the government.

Iğsız is among the 14 military personnel for whom the court has issued a warrant of arrest recently.  Retired Colonel Fuat Selvi had surrendered to authorities yesterday and was also arrested.

The investigation into the "Internet Memorandum" was initially launched upon an e-mail sent to the prosecutors of the Ergenekon trial. It was alleged in the e-mail that the General Staff Presidency had established 42 internet sites with the aim to spread black propaganda against the government and religious congregations.

It was also written that the Information Support Department that is affiliated with the General Staff constantly observed 430 domestic and foreign internet sites. Additionally, the so-called "Internet Memorandum" was included in the e-mail.

After having completed the investigation, Special Authority Public Prosecutor Cihan Kansız sent the indictment to the 13th High Criminal Court. The indictment also requested a merger of the investigation with the trial on the "Action Plan against Reactionary Forces". Colonel Dursun Çiçek is detained defendant of the latter case under allegations of having signed the "Action Plan against Reactionary Forces".

Colonel Çiçek is alleged to have had the anti-government websites prepared. As reported by the nationwide Radikal newspaper, Çiçek sent a three-page petition to the prosecutor's office in order to correct certain parts of his statement he gave in the scope of the investigation in June. Thereupon, the prosecution summoned Çiçek again to give his revised statement.

Çiçek stated that the duty to audit the websites was his as much as it was his superiors'. He mentioned commanders Lieutenant General Mehmet Eröz, Lieutenant General İsmail Hakkı Pekin and Major General Hıfzı Çubuklu.

While General Eröz claimed in his statement that 'there were problems with the contents of the sites that he did not know about', Çiçek stated that his superiors did have knowledge about the contents. (BIA, 11 August 2011)

La justice ordonne l'arrestation de sept officiers

La justice turque a ordonné la détention provisoire de sept généraux et amiraux accusés d'avoir comploté contre le gouvernement islamo-conservateur, a rapporté l'agence de presse Anatolie lundi.

On compte parmi les suspects le commandant en chef des écoles militaires et le chef du renseignement à l'état-major, a indiqué pour sa part la chaîne de télévision NTV.

Selon Anatolie, l'ancien commandant de la première armée figure au nombre des officiers visés par la mesure.

La justice avait inculpé 22 personnes le mois dernier pour tentative de putsch contre le gouvernement dirigé par le parti pour la Justice et le Développement de l'AKP, une des branches du mouvement islamiste.

Les officiers ont été accusés d'avoir créé des sites pour diffuser une propagande anti-gouvernement.

Environ un dixième des généraux de l'armée est déjà en prison, accusé d'avoir fomenté un coup d'Etat en 2003, juste après l'arrivée au pouvoir de l'AKP en 2002.

Les accusés risquent 15 à 20 ans de prison, alors que planent de sérieux doutes sur l'authenticité de certains documents censés prouvés la culpabilité des officiers.

La semaine dernière, l'Etat-major a dû faire face à une série de démissions sur fond de crise entre les militaires et le gouvernement islamo-conservateur.

Depuis 1960, l'armée, qui se voit comme le défenseur de la laïcité dans le pays, a évincé quatre gouvernements, dont celui du mentor de l'actuel Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Necmettin Erbakan en 1997. (AFP, 8 août 2011)

 Compromis dans le marchandage entre les militaires et le gouvernement

La Turquie a nommé jeudi les nouveaux chefs de son armée après une série de démissions causées par une crise entre les militaires et le gouvernement islamo-conservateur, qui a marqué de son empreinte le nouvel état-major en évinçant des officiers réputés hostiles.

Quant à la controverse entre les généraux et l'exécutif civil portait sur le sort d'officiers en détention provisoire dans le cadre d'enquêtes sur des complots présumés contre le gouvernement, Erdogan a donné une concession par le maintien des officiers incarcérés dans leurs fonctions, sans promotion ni bannissement.

A l'issue de quatre jours de réunion du Conseil militaire suprême (YAS), un organe réunissant autorités civiles et militaires pour examiner chaque année l'évolution des carrières dans l'armée, le porte-parole de la présidence Ahmet Sever a rendus publics les noms des nouveaux responsables de l'état-major.

Le général Hayri Kivrikoglu, qui commandait la 1re armée, prend désormais la tête de l'armée de terre, une promotion qui bouleverse l'ordre de préséance hiérarchique et dans laquelle les médias reconnaissent la volonté du gouvernement d'écarter les officiers qui lui sont le plus hostiles.

Le poste de chef de l'armée de terre devait en effet théoriquement revenir au général Saldiray Berk, responsable de l'éducation et de la doctrine de l'armée de terre, mais celui-ci est visé par des poursuites dans une affaire de complot anti-gouvernement.

Selon la chaîne d'information CNN-Türk, le général Berk a demandé à prendre sa retraite.

Deuxième candidat possible dans l'ordre hiérarchique, le général Aslan Güner, actuel numéro deux de l'état-major, avait refusé de serrer la main à l'épouse voilée du président Abdullah Gül, selon le quotidien Milliyet.

Le général Güner a été nommé jeudi à la tête des académies militaires, a rapporté l'agence de presse Anatolie.

L'amiral Emin Murat Bilgel, le général Mehmet Erten et le général Bekir Kalyoncu prennent respectivement la tête de la marine, de l'aviation et de la gendarmerie, a indiqué M. Sever.

"Concernant la nomination du chef d'état-major, nous attendons une décision du conseil des ministres, mais il est évident qu'il n'y a pas de problème", a affirmé le porte-parole, laissant entendre que le général Necdet Özel, nommé vendredi soir chef d'état-major en exercice après la démission du général Isik Kosaner, serait confirmé dans sa nouvelle fonction.

Le chef d'état-major Isik Kosaner et les généraux commandant l'armée de terre, la marine et l'aviation ont démissionné vendredi en raison du refus du gouvernement de laisser les militaires en détention dans l'attente de leur procès bénéficier de promotions, au bénéfice de la présomption d'innocence.

Jeudi, M. Sever a annoncé que les 14 généraux actuellement en détention provisoire étaient maintenus dans leur fonction, sans promotion ni mise à l'écart. "Un an de prolongation pour les 14 généraux", a-t-il dit.

Autrefois intouchable et incontournable dans la vie politique, l'armée turque est depuis plusieurs années la cible de critiques et d'accusations, dont celle de complots visant à renverser le gouvernement du Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Quarante-deux généraux, soit plus d'un sur dix, et plusieurs dizaines d'officiers d'active ou à la retraite, sont actuellement incarcérés dans le cadre de complots présumés visant le gouvernement. (AFP, Nicolas CHEVIRON, 4 août 2011)

The new Chief of Staff: Chemical Necdet Ozel

Turkey's new Chief of Staff Necdet Ozel was recorded commanding an operation near Ballıkaya (Bilika) village where 20 PKK guerrillas were killed with chemical weapons in 1999 following a clash where the Turkish army suffered tens of losses.

The video of the operation with chemical weapons had been leaked by a soldier.

While the video broadcast on Roj Tv records an intense bombardment on a cave close to the Bilika village, a high-ranking military officer, standing by the corpses lined in front of the cave after the bombardment, admits the use of chemical weapons with the following statements;

"This is a warrior from Kangal district of Sivas. And this one was from Syria. There are six women down there who are at the moment facing the danger of poisoning due to the hand grenades thrown by our soldiers. However, they are still entering the cave in a monstrous and heroic way. They have started to take the bodies out of the cave where there are seven women more and a total of 13 bodies.”

The video shows that the operation is commanded by Necdet Ozel who is currently the vice Chief of General Staff and is expected to be the new Military Chief in the coming period. (ANF, 2 August 2011)

Top Army Commanders Involved in "Internet Memorandum" Trial

The investigation into the "Internet Memorandum" was initially launched upon an e-mail sent to the prosecutors of the Ergenekon trial. It was alleged in the e-mail that the General Staff Presidency had established 42 internet sites with the aim to spread black propaganda against the government and religious congregations. It was also written that the Information Support Department that is affiliated with the General Staff constantly observed 430 domestic and foreign internet sites. Additionally, the so-called "Internet Memorandum" was included in the e-mail.

After having completed the investigation, Special Authority Public Prosecutor Cihan Kansız sent the indictment to the 13th High Criminal Court. The indictment also requested a merger of the investigation with the trial on the "Action Plan against Reactionary Forces". Colonel Dursun Çiçek is detained defendant of the latter case under allegations of having signed the "Action Plan against Reactionary Forces".

"If I am guilty my superiors are too"

Subsequent to the completion of the investigation, Prosecutor Kansız requested arrest warrants about 22 suspects, among them retired General Hasan Iğsız and Aegean Army Commander General Nurset Taşdeler who attended the annual High Military Council (YAŞ) on Monday (1 August).

Colonel Çiçek is alleged to have had the anti-government websites prepared. As reported by the nationwide Radikal newspaper, Çiçek sent a three-page petition to the prosecutor's office in order to correct certain parts of his statement he gave in the scope of the investigation in June. Thereupon, the prosecution summoned Çiçek again to give his revised statement.

Çiçek stated that the duty to audit the websites was his as much as it was his superiors'. He mentioned commanders Lieutenant General Mehmet Eröz, Lieutenant General İsmail Hakkı Pekin and Major General Hıfzı Çubuklu.

While General Eröz claimed in his statement that 'there were problems with the contents of the sites that he did not know about', Çiçek stated that his superiors did have knowledge about the contents.

It was furthermore reported that Çiçek also criticized the statement of Lieutenant Gen. Pekin. Pekin apparently said that they closed the websites on subject because they had not been in line with the current legislation. Çiçek stated on the other hand, "The commander who gave the order to shut the websites down could have suspended them from publication before".

The Judicial Council of the General Staff read Major General Çubuklu's statement to Çiçek. Çubuklu had mentioned that the sites 'might have been closed because some people maybe withdrew from certain issues'. Çiçek said, "Çubuklu is a more competent authority. He knows better than me what was withdrawn from. This has to be explained". It was reported that Çiçek eventually said to his defence, "If am guilty in this matter my superiors are just as guilty". (BIA, 2 August 2011)

Army is now at the state' service, says BDP co-chair

BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) co-chair, Filiz Koçali, has released a statement about the recent resignation by four top army commanders, included the Chief of General Staff. "Following the resignation of the generals, - Koçali said - the Supreme Military Council Meeting has been gathered under the authority of the government, which thus ended the "anti-democratic autonomy" of the army. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has now entered into the service and domination of the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the military tutelage has thus come to an end".

Koçali points out that now the question which need to be answered is what kind of a regime will follow?

"The answer - she said - to this question cannot be sought and found in abstract Constitutional promises, such as the Prime Minister's address to the nation. The concrete steps to be taken on the Kurdish question will be the most concrete sign of whether a real democratic regime or a "militarist-police state" regime will replace the military tutelage regime in Turkey".

According to Koçali "If the government doesn't end the dirty "Turkey-Iran, anti-Kurdish alliance", take the decision of mutual inertia and take concrete steps towards Mr.Ocalan's freedom to enable his re-inclusion in the "negotiation process, this attitude will be a sign of a tendency to a "militarist-police state" because a state with a democratic and civilian constitution and dominated by rights and freedoms will never folllow a deadlock policy in the Kurdish issue through a war".

Koçali underlines that "the dilemma that Turkey is facing nowadays when generals are under inspection, is; either a progression into a militarist-police state on the way of war and solutionlessness, or a going towards democracy on the way of peace and solution...The "democracy" and the "war and lack of a solution" cannot exist side by side".

According to the BDP co-chair "The AKP can no more hold up anyone with the demagogy that the army is an obstacle before the initiatives he will take for peace and solution. The army now means the AKP which dominates all the institutions of the state, the judiciary, police, intelligence and the army. The Prime Minister will either officially announce the policy of "war and deadlock" and thus declare the progress into a militarist-police state or lean to real democracy with an intention to peace and solution in a dialogue with all relevant subjects in the Kurdish issue".

Ending her statement the BDP co-chair remarked that "Turkey is facing greater dangers than thought. The attack of the Iranian state, backed by Turkey as well, aims to purge the Kurdish liberation movement in these two states and to establish a sovereignty over South Kurdistan.

Such a goal opens all the doors to a civil war in Turkey and a interstate war in the region. Real powers are face to face now; the ruling AKP government on one side, and everybody seeking for peace and solution on the other side". (ANF, 1 August 2011)

YAS convenes under exceptional circumstances to draw new command

Members of the Supreme Military Council, who convened under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, visit the mausoleum of Atatürk on the first day of the summit.
The Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) on Monday convened for an annual meeting to shape the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) new command echelon in a key meeting that witnessed many firsts. The meeting comes shortly after four top military commanders, including the chief of General Staff, requested their retirement. The generals’ move came in protest of the government’s determination not to promote members of the military who are suspects in ongoing coup cases.
 
The council, which convenes every August to discuss promotions and dismissals within the armed forces, convened for this year’s YAŞ meeting early on Monday with nine generals, the prime minister and the defense minister in attendance. PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presided over the meeting.

In a first for a YAŞ meeting and contrary to the situation in 2010, when Erdoğan sat beside the armed forces chief, he sat alone on Monday at the head of the table, a symbol of civilian authority over the generals. The symbolism of the seating scheme delivered the message that Turkey’s military, which once staged coups and presided over the writing of the constitution in the early 1980s, had lost another battle in a power struggle with a government with strong electoral support.

The council used to include 14 generals, but this year’s YAŞ will only have nine generals since four retired early and one is under arrest as part of a coup plot probe.

Erdoğan’s government has been curbing the military’s clout since it came to power in 2002, and Friday’s resignations have strengthened his hand. The government is poised to fill the leadership vacuum by officially appointing Gen. Necdet Özel, the gendarmerie general commander, as chief of General Staff. Özel is presently serving as acting chief of General Staff and army commander. The positions for commander of the navy, air force and gendarmerie are also vacant.

Last Friday, Chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner, Land Forces Commander Gen. Erdal Ceylanoğlu, Naval Forces Commander Adm. Eşref Uğur Yiğit and Air Force Commander Gen. Hasan Aksay requested their retirement in protest of the government opposition to the promotion of coup suspects at the YAŞ meeting.

Currently there are 195 suspects, all retired and active duty members of the armed forces, in the ongoing “Sledgehammer case,” a suspected coup plan devised at a military gathering in 2003 which allegedly sought to undermine the government in order to lay the groundwork for a military takeover. More senior military personnel were recently arrested and have been jailed on charges of links to the subversive coup plan. The government is against the promotion of 41 Sledgehammer suspects who are active TSK members. Led by Erdoğan, YAŞ members paid a visit to Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, at noon on the first day of the YAŞ meeting.

Will Gül’s reservations continue?

Among the participants in the YAŞ meeting were Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Aslan Güner, who turned his back on first lady Hayrünnisa Gül and did not shake her hand, ostensibly because she wore a headscarf, as he bid farewell to the president at Ankara Esenboğa Airport in 2007, and 1st Army Commander Gen. Hayri Kıvrıkoğlu. At the 2010 YAŞ meeting, President Abdullah Gül expressed his reservations over Güner’s promotion.

Gen. Hüseyin Nusret Taşdeler, the commander of the Aegean Army Corps and a suspect in the probe into an alleged Internet campaign to destabilize the government, was also among the participants in Monday’s YAŞ meeting, along with Gen. Saldıray Berk, head of the Land Forces’ Training and Doctrine Command, who faces charges of putting into operation a suspected military plot in the eastern province of Erzincan. Titled the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, the plot was intended to undermine the power of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), eventually leading to a military coup. Berk is expected to retire at the end of the YAŞ meeting due to mandatory age limits.

Balanlı not allowed to express his views

War Academies Commander Gen. Bilgin Balanlı, who was arrested in late May as part of an investigation of the Sledgehammer coup plot, asked to express his views for the YAŞ meeting in writing; the government, however, did not welcome Balanlı’s request.

YAŞ members who cannot make it to a YAŞ meeting are usually allowed to express their views regarding the meeting in writing; however, because Balanlı is the prime suspect in the indictment of a coup case, which was approved by an İstanbul court in June, the government has not allowed him to express his views in this manner. The government said a YAŞ member who faces heavy charges can express his views only after he is cleared of the charges.

In the meantime, the dismissal of military officers for disciplinary or other reasons is expected to be taken up at the YAŞ meeting in December. Since a government-sponsored reform package in 2010 opened YAŞ decisions to judicial review, a drop is expected in the number of military officers who are dismissed from the military.

Gül to host iftar

The YAŞ meeting is to be concluded on Thursday, and the decisions taken by the council will be presented to President Abdullah Gül for approval on the same day. Gül will host an iftar (fast-breaking dinner) for members of YAŞ at the Çankaya presidential palace on Wednesday. The president will not host a luncheon as he has in past years, since this year’s YAŞ coincides with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast. (TODAY'S ZAMAN, 1 August 2011)

Ministry to reinstate former military officers kicked out by YAS
 
Individuals who were dismissed from the military by arbitrary decisions taken during previous Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) meetings will be reinstated, Labor and Social Security Minister Faruk Çelik has announced.
 
Çelik, in an interview with the Sabah daily published on Monday, said, “We'll take a new turn on our road to democracy.” He added that Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) personnel who have been expelled by the army will have their rights reinstated along with the rights and benefits enjoyed by other officers who served in the same term before their expulsion. If the peers of an officer are retired, for example, the expelled person will be entitled to full retirement benefits when they are reinstated. Those not eligible for retirement will be recruited by a special research unit.

Çelik said 2,199 YAŞ victims have so far applied for their rights to be restored after constitutional changes that opened YAŞ decisions, previously closed to appeal, to further judicial examination. The state opened 2,000 new positions for these individuals, saying work regarding the openings will be completed within the next 45 days.

Following the approval of a constitutional reform package in a referendum last year, Parliament passed a law in March which sought to reinstate the rights of former members of the military who were expelled by YAŞ. The constitutional reform package included an article that allows ex-military members to appeal their expulsion before a judicial body. Before the referendum, YAŞ decisions were closed to judicial review.

Çelik recalled that the law includes YAŞ victims who were dismissed during the military interventions of 1971 and 1980 as well as the 1997 postmodern coup. There had been some concerns that members of the military dismissed following YAŞ decisions during the Sept. 12, 1980 and March 12, 1971 coups d'état may miss out.

The changes brought about by this law mean that if a YAŞ victim is found to have been unfairly expelled from the military, then all of his rights will be reinstated. If he is old enough to retire, he will be granted a monthly pension. If not, he will be allowed to obtain employment in a state institution. Previously, personnel dismissed from the military were ineligible for employment in state institutions. In the case of YAŞ victims who have passed away, their rights will be transferred to their legal heirs. In other words, their pensions and compensation, if any, will be passed on to their legal heirs.

“In extraordinary times like March 12 [1971] and Sept. 12 [1980], many were dismissed from the military with YAŞ decisions, without any judicial review. Turkey has been rapidly normalizing over the past few years. Undoing injustices is one of the most important indicators of normalization. All of the relationships between state agencies are changing and are now normal, as they should be.”

According to Çelik, 2,199 people have applied to benefit from the law passed in March. “The Ministry of Defense is working on these applications. The State Personnel Department has created 2,000 positions. Once the procedures are complete, recruitment for the posts will begin within 45 days.” (TODAY'S ZAMAN, 1 August 2011)

Affaires religieuses/Religious Affairs

Le Kirghizstan a extradé un journaliste turc, soupçonné proche d'Al-Qaïda

Le Kirghizstan a extradé vers son pays un journaliste turc soupçonné d'être membre d'un groupe extrémiste proche d'Al-Qaïda, qui avait été arrêté en mai dans cette république d'Asie centrale, a indiqué jeudi à l'AFP un représentant du parquet kirghiz.

"Le citoyen turc Ali Osman Zor a été remis le 4 août à la Turquie", a indiqué Talant Konokbaïev, porte-parole du parquet.

Les autorités ont extradé le journaliste sur la base de la Convention des Nations-Unies pour la répression des attentats terroristes à l'explosif, après lui avoir refusé sa demande d'asile, ont indiqué des sources au sein du parquet et du ministère kirghiz du Travail et des Migrations.

Tcholpon Djakourova, dirigeante de l'organisation kirghize de défense des droits de l'homme Adilet, qui avait soutenu sa demande d'asile, a critiqué cette décision, estimant que cela allait "altérer l'image internationale du pays".

Ali Osman Zor avait été arrêté au Kirghizstan le 2 mai à la demande de la Turquie, où il est soupçonné de complicité de terrorisme.

Arrivé au Kirghizstan en avril 2010, M. Zor y travaillait comme correspondant pour des médias turcs. Fin 2010, il y a demandé l'asile politique, en raison de poursuites engagées contre lui par les autorités turques.

La Turquie accuse le journaliste de soutenir les Combattants du front du Grand Orient islamique, qui prônent le remplacement du gouvernement laïc turc par un khalifat (Etat) musulman.

Ce groupe a notamment revendiqué les attentats contre deux synagogues à Istanbul en 2003, qui ont fait 24 morts et 255 blessés. (AFP, 11 août 2011)

Woman assaulted for smoking on the street in Erzurum

A woman was attacked by two people for smoking openly on the street during Ramadan in the eastern province of Erzurum on Saturday. She had to take shelter in a nearby men’s dormitory building and call the police for help.

The incident happened on Esat Paşa Yokuşu Street in the Yakutiye district before iftar, the evening fast-breaking meal. The woman, identified by her initials Z.B., works for an international company. She lit a cigarette on the street while walking with her boyfriend, identified as İ.M. when two people, identified as M.Y. and B.G., approached them, saying, “Put out your cigarette. You are shameless.” Z.B. answered: “I might not be able to fast. I might have chosen not to fast. Why does this matter concern you?” After this reply, M.Y. and İ.M. allegedly advanced toward the couple.

Assaulted by the two and seeing that a crowd was gathering, the couple took shelter in a nearby men’s dormitory building and called the police. Police had a hard time calming down the crowd and taking the four to the police station. There were small clashes between the police and an angry crowd that had gathered on the street. All four people involved filed complaints about each other and were freed after their statements were taken. (DHA, August 7, 2011)

Socio-économique / Socio-economic

Former Lighthouse prosecutor hits back

The prosecutor, Mehmet Tamöz, was removed from the case along with two other prosecutors after former Supreme Board of Radio and Television, or RTÜK, head Zahit Akman, a suspect in the Lighthouse investigation, filed a criminal complaint to the HSYK regarding the prosecutors’ alleged mishandling of documents.

Tamöz and the two other prosecutors, Nadi Türkarslan and Abdulvahap Yaren, submitted a 19-page written defense regarding the HSYK’s decision and said the truth behind the complaint that was filed to the board had already been assessed by their supervisors.

“The complaint petition that was filed by the suspect’s [Akman’s] lawyer to the HSYK was also given to Parliament, the Justice Ministry and the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and was already checked by ministry supervisors in 2010. I wonder if the supervisors’ opinions have changed since then,” Tamöz said.

The prosecutor added that he did not do his job to win favor with anyone and said if it is necessary, he will go back to his family business of selling lemons. “Among the members of the judiciary, I believe there is a general understanding to perform their duty to ingratiate themselves to others but I believe that is where justice ends. This may break my heart or hurt my courage and if this continues I cannot stay in this position [as prosecutor] and [will] go back to our family business of agriculture,” Tamöz said.

Republican People’s Party, or CHP, chief Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu meanwhile slammed the government over the HSYK decision and said the removal of prosecutors from their posts has hindered judicial independence. “In no state can this happen; from now on, no prosecutor can open a court case against someone who has greeted the prime minister,” he said.

A former prosecutor of the controversial “Deniz Feneri” (Lighthouse) charity fraud case has hit back at the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, or HSYK, for removing him from his post Friday.

The prosecutor, Mehmet Tamöz, was removed from the case along with two other prosecutors after former Supreme Board of Radio and Television, or RTÜK, head Zahit Akman, a suspect in the Lighthouse investigation, filed a criminal complaint to the HSYK regarding the prosecutors’ alleged mishandling of documents.

Tamöz and the two other prosecutors, Nadi Türkarslan and Abdulvahap Yaren, submitted a 19-page written defense regarding the HSYK’s decision and said the truth behind the complaint that was filed to the board had already been assessed by their supervisors.

“The complaint petition that was filed by the suspect’s [Akman’s] lawyer to the HSYK was also given to Parliament, the Justice Ministry and the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and was already checked by ministry supervisors in 2010. I wonder if the supervisors’ opinions have changed since then,” Tamöz said.

The prosecutor added that he did not do his job to win favor with anyone and said if it is necessary, he will go back to his family business of selling lemons. “Among the members of the judiciary, I believe there is a general understanding to perform their duty to ingratiate themselves to others but I believe that is where justice ends. This may break my heart or hurt my courage and if this continues I cannot stay in this position [as prosecutor] and [will] go back to our family business of agriculture,” Tamöz said.

Republican People’s Party, or CHP, chief Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu meanwhile slammed the government over the HSYK decision and said the removal of prosecutors from their posts has hindered judicial independence. “In no state can this happen; from now on, no prosecutor can open a court case against someone who has greeted the prime minister,” he said. (Hurriyet, August 28, 2011)
Fenerbahçe exclu de la Ligue des champions

Les autorités turques ont rejeté l'appel formulé jeudi par le club de football de Fenerbahçe, champion de Turquie en titre, pour son exclusion de l'édition 2011-2012 de la Ligue des champions en raison d'une enquête judiciaire sur les matches arrangés, ont rapporté les médias.

L'avocat du club stambouliote Haluk Burcuoglu avait déposé une requête d'appel dans la matinée auprès du comité d'arbitrage de la Fédération turque de football (TFF).

La TFF avait décidé mercredi d'exclure Fenerbahçe de la C1 qui a été remplacé en phase de poules par un autre club turc, Trabzonspor, a annoncé l'UEFA.

"Cette décision n'a rien à voir avec la justice (...) La TFF n'a pas autorité à exclure un club de la Ligue des champions", a affirmé l'avocat aux journalistes.

Le comité d'arbitrage a jugé que la décision de la TFF était "conforme aux règles" et a rejeté l'appel, précise l'agence Anatolie.

Le club turc n'a d'autre option que de saisir désormais le Tribunal arbitral du sport (TAS), souligne-t-on de source proche de Fenerbahçe

Dans des déclarations à la presse turque le président de la TFF, Mehmet Ali Aydinlar, a précisé que si Fenerbahçe, visé par d'importans soupçons, n'était pas exclu de la C1, l'UEFA "aurait pu exclure la Turquie pendant 8 ans" des compétions internationales.

La presse sportive estime à 25 millions d'euros le manque à gagner de Fenerbahçe en raison de cette exclusion.

La TFF a expliqué sa décision par des avertissements qui lui ont été envoyés par l'UEFA. L'instance européenne du football a indiqué qu'une exclusion du club stambouliote serait une sanction qui lui permettrait de ne pas ouvrir elle-même une enquête disciplinaire.

La TFF a choisi de retirer Fenerbahçe, car le club refusait de se désengager de lui-même.

Fenerbahçe a dénoncé avec virulence son exclusion, accusant la TFF d'avoir cédé "à la position illégale de l'UEFA".

Trente personnes ont été inculpées et emprisonnées depuis juillet en attendant d'être jugées dans le cadre d'une enquête inédite concernant des matches truqués et le versement de pots-de-vin.

Le président de Fenerbahçe, Aziz Yildirim, figure parmi les suspects.

Jeudi, le vice-président de Fenerbahçe Nihat Özdemir a démissionné, en signe de protestation à la décision de la TFF. (AFP, 25 août 2011)

Attentat contre un gazoduc avec l'Iran

Un attentat a endommagé jeudi soir un gazoduc irano-turc dans la province d'Agri (est de la Turquie), frontalière de l'Iran, ont affirmé vendredi les autorités locales, et les réparations pourraient durer une semaine, selon des sources au ministère de l'Energie.

"Les travaux se poursuivent pour éteindre l'incendie. Il a été établi que l'incident a été causé par une attaque terroriste", ont déclaré les services du gouverneur d'Agri dans un communiqué cité par l'agence de presse Anatolie.

L'explosion est survenue jeudi vers 23H10 (20H10GMT) à deux kilomètres de la ville d'Agri, provoquant un incendie, selon Anatolie.

De nombreuses unités de pompiers ont été dépêchées sur les lieux et les vannes du gazoduc ont été fermées, a ajouté l'agence, indiquant que l'incendie avait été éteint vendredi matin.

Interrogée par l'AFP, une source au ministère de l'Energie parlant sous le couvert de l'anonymat a indiqué que les réparations avaient débuté et dureraient environ une semaine, durant laquelle la Turquie sera privée de gaz iranien.

Cette perte sera compensée par une augmentation des achats de gaz azerbaïdjanais et de gaz russe transitant par le gazoduc sous-marin Blue Stream, qui relie la Russie à la Turquie via la mer Noire, a ajouté cette source.

La Turquie reçoit entre 15 et 18 milliards de mètres cubes de gaz par jour du gazoduc iranien, qui relie la ville de Tabriz (nord-ouest de l'Iran) à Ankara. (AFP, 12 août 2011)

Australian activists complain about animal mistreatment in Turkey

Animal rights activists in Australia have alleged that Australian sheep and cattle are being mistreated in Turkey and stated they will voice their claims at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, an Australian newspaper said on Wednesday.
 
According to The Australian, animal rights investigators will present fresh claims of sheep and cattle being mistreated in Turkey to Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig on Wednesday ahead of a Senate hearing into the live export industry.

The daily said Animals Australia, a federation of civil society groups that deals with animal welfare and animal rights issues, has new video footage of livestock being handled and slaughtered in ways that breach international animal welfare standards.

The footage was reportedly taken recently after the group went to Turkey to investigate the treatment of Australian animals for the Senate inquiry into the issue and the independent investigation of the trade being carried out by former diplomat Bill Farmer.

According to the report, investigators said they were unable to confirm that animals documented in the footage were Australian, only that Australian livestock was slaughtered at the Turkish facilities. (TODAYSZAMAN.COM, 10 August 2011)

La Turquie doit maîtriser ses déficits pour être mieux notée

L'agence de notation financière Moody's a prévenu mercredi la Turquie que la maîtrise de ses déficits était nécessaire pour être mieux notée.

"Les déséquilibres croissants internes et externes, s'ils restent sans contrôle, vont commencer à affecter négativement la trajectoire de notation de la Turquie", a affirmé l'agence dans un communiqué.

Rappelant que la belle résistance de la Turquie à la crise mondiale avait conduit en octobre à un relèvement de la perspective de sa note souveraine (Ba2) de stable à positive, Moody's souligne que "l'absence d'action corrective sur les déséquilibres (...) pourrait bloquer ce mouvement positif de notation".

"Les déséquilibres internes et externes ont progressé. Le vaste déficit des comptes courants de la Turquie est un problème particulier, le gouvernement finançant à présent son déficit en utilisant des sources de financement qui sont plus volatiles", relève l'agence, estimant que le pays est dès lors d'avantage à la merci de "chocs soudains ou de changements de cap des investisseurs".

Moody's appelle notamment Ankara à "améliorer d'avantage ses fondamentaux fiscaux, avec des mesures (...) incluant une réduction du déficit des comptes courants".

En 2009, plongée dans la récession du fait de la crise mondiale, l'économie turque s'était contractée de 4,8%. La croissance turque a cependant fortement rebondit, atteignant 8,9% en 2010 et 11,0% au premier trimestre 2011.

Cette croissance a creusé le déficit des comptes courants, alors que les importations ont grimpé et que la progression des exportations vers l'Europe s'est tassée, le déficit étant comblé notamment par des capitaux spéculatifs à court terme, dits "hot money".

Pour décourager les investissements spéculatifs à court terme, la Banque centrale turque a baissé de manière significative les taux d'intérêt, et a imposé aux banques un relèvement de leurs montants minimaux de réserves, pour limiter leurs capacités de crédit à la consommation.

Ces mesures ont fait chuter la livre turque, avec comme objectif de favoriser les exportations et réduire les importations. (AFP, 3 août 2011)

Le Canada et la France en outsiders pour une centrale nucléaire en Turquie

Le ministre turc de l'Energie Taner Yildiz a affirmé jeudi à Ankara qu'un partenariat avec le Canada ou la France pourrait être envisagé pour la construction d'une centrale nucléaire dans le nord de la Turquie en cas d'échec de négociations avec le Japon après le retrait de Tepco.

Interrogé par des journalistes, le ministre a expliqué que la compagnie japonaise Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), dont il a annoncé mercredi le retrait des négociations, était l'opérateur pressenti pour la nouvelle centrale, dans un plan japonais comprenant également la construction et le financement.

Les négociateurs japonais tentent maintenant de "renforcer une offre dont un des trois piliers est ébranlé, qui reste sans opérateur", a déclaré M. Yildiz, cité par l'agence de presse Anatolie.

"Est-ce que cette offre pourra être renforcée ou pas? Dans quelle mesure? C'est ce que nous allons constater avec nos évaluations au cours de la période à venir", a-t-il ajouté.

Interrogé sur ses intentions en cas d'échec de la proposition japonaise, le ministre a répondu: "Dans ce cas là, des pays producteurs (d'énergie nucléaire, ndlr) comme le Canada ou la France évalueront la situation."

La Turquie projette de construire trois centrales nucléaires d'ici cinq ans.

Elle a conclu un accord en 2010 avec la Russie pour construire une première centrale à Akkuyu, dans la province de Mersin (sud).

Pour la deuxième centrale, prévue à Sinop (nord), elle a d'abord eu des tractations infructueuse avec la Corée du Sud, puis a signé en décembre 2010 avec le Japon un protocole d'accord sur la coopération dans le nucléaire civil, premier pas non contraignant vers la construction de la centrale.

Le violent séisme suivi d'un tsunami qui a frappé le Japon le 11 mars, provoquant un grave accident nucléaire dans la centrale Fukushima Daiichi (220 km au nord-est de Tokyo), n'a pas remis en cause son projet.

Il a en revanche plongé Tepco, la première compagnie d'électricité du Japon, qui exploitait la centrale, dans une crise sans précédent. (AFP, 4 août 2011)

La Turquie abaisse son taux directeur à 5,75% en prévision d'une stagnation

La Banque centrale a abaissé jeudi de 0,5 point son taux directeur et relevé de 1,5 point son taux d'emprunt au jour le jour pour faire face aux difficultés de l'économie mondiale et éviter une éventuelle stagnation en Turquie.

Le comité de la politique monétaire de la Banque centrale a annoncé dans un communiqué diffusé sur son site internet avoir abaissé son taux directeur, le taux d'emprunt à une semaine, de 6,25% à 5,75%.

"Le comité a opté pour une baisse mesurée du taux directeur dans le but de faire baisser le risque de stagnation de l'activité économique domestique créé par les problèmes croissants de l'économie mondiale", affirme le document.

La Banque centrale a dans le même temps relevé son taux d'emprunt au jour le jour de 1,5 point, à 5%, afin de "réduire la volatilité" face aux doutes sur la croissance mondiale.

"Les inquiétudes relatives au problème de la dette publique de certains pays européens et la croissance mondiale ont gagné en force (...). Dans ce contexte, le comité a décidé de rétrécir le corridor du taux d'intérêt en augmentant de manière importante le taux d'emprunt au jour le jour pour réduire la volatilité", indique le communiqué.

La décision de la Banque centrale intervient dans un contexte de forte croissance économique en Turquie.

En 2009, plongée dans la récession du fait de la crise mondiale, l'économie turque s'était contractée de 4,8%. La croissance turque a cependant fortement rebondi, atteignant 8,9% en 2010 et 11% au premier trimestre 2011.

Cette croissance a creusé le déficit des comptes courants, alors que les importations ont grimpé et que la progression des exportations vers l'Europe s'est tassée, le déficit étant comblé notamment par des capitaux spéculatifs à court terme, dits "hot money".(AFP, 4 août 2011)

Moody's: La Turquie doit maîtriser ses déficits pour être mieux notée

L'agence de notation financière Moody's a prévenu mercredi la Turquie que la maîtrise de ses déficits était nécessaire pour être mieux notée.

"Les déséquilibres croissants internes et externes, s'ils restent sans contrôle, vont commencer à affecter négativement la trajectoire de notation de la Turquie", a affirmé l'agence dans un communiqué.

Rappelant que la belle résistance de la Turquie à la crise mondiale avait conduit en octobre à un relèvement de la perspective de sa note souveraine (Ba2) de stable à positive, Moody's souligne que "l'absence d'action corrective sur les déséquilibres (...) pourrait bloquer ce mouvement positif de notation".

"Les déséquilibres internes et externes ont progressé. Le vaste déficit des comptes courants de la Turquie est un problème particulier, le gouvernement finançant à présent son déficit en utilisant des sources de financement qui sont plus volatiles", relève l'agence, estimant que le pays est dès lors d'avantage à la merci de "chocs soudains ou de changements de cap des investisseurs".

Moody's appelle notamment Ankara à "améliorer d'avantage ses fondamentaux fiscaux, avec des mesures (...) incluant une réduction du déficit des comptes courants".

En 2009, plongée dans la récession du fait de la crise mondiale, l'économie turque s'était contractée de 4,8%. La croissance turque a cependant fortement rebondit, atteignant 8,9% en 2010 et 11,0% au premier trimestre 2011.

Cette croissance a creusé le déficit des comptes courants, alors que les importations ont grimpé et que la progression des exportations vers l'Europe s'est tassée, le déficit étant comblé notamment par des capitaux spéculatifs à court terme, dits "hot money".

Pour décourager les investissements spéculatifs à court terme, la Banque centrale turque a baissé de manière significative les taux d'intérêt, et a imposé aux banques un relèvement de leurs montants minimaux de réserves, pour limiter leurs capacités de crédit à la consommation.

Ces mesures ont fait chuter la livre turque, avec comme objectif de favoriser les exportations et réduire les importations. (AFP, 4 août 2011)

Relations turco-européennes / Turkey-Europe Relations

GB: risques aux frontières de l'UE en cas d'adhésion de la Turquie

Les députés britanniques ont fait part lundi de leur inquiétude sur les risques aux nouvelles frontières de l'UE en cas d'entrée de la Turquie dans l'Union européenne, estimant cependant que l'adhésion de ce pays apporterait à long terme des avantages.

L'entrée de la Turquie dans l'UE repousserait les frontières orientales de l'Union européenne à la Syrie, l'Iran et l'Irak, "ce qui pose un risque considérable en termes de sécurité", affirme la commission de l'Intérieur de la Chambre des Communes britannique.

Selon la commission, les trafiquants de drogue et les passeurs d'immigrants illégaux, actifs notamment en Turquie, représentent "une menace substantielle" pour la sécurité interne de l'Union européenne.

Bruxelles doit appliquer "une série de conditions très rigoureuses pour la sécurité aux frontières" que la Turquie doit remplir avant son accession à l'UE, estime la commission.

"Si aucune mesure n'est prise maintenant, il deviendra encore plus simple pour les migrants de pays comme l'Afghanistan et l'Iran d'entrer dans l'UE une fois que la Turquie en fera partie", a mis en garde le président de la commission, Keith Vaz.

Mais sur le long terme, les "bénéfices potentiels (d'une adhésion de la Turquie) l'emporteront" sur les questions de sécurité, selon le rapport qui cite notamment la possibilité d'une collaboration accrue entre la Turquie et l'organisation européenne de coopération policière Europol.

Si la Turquie n'entre pas dans l'UE, il existe aussi "un risque" que les autorités turques ne fassent plus de la lutte contre la criminalité une priorité, alors que la criminalité "affecte davantage les pays membres de l'UE que la population" turque, prévient la commission. Le rapport cite notamment le cas des migrants illégaux qui arrivent en Turquie mais ne font que transiter par ce pays avant de rejoindre un Etat de l'UE.

Les négociations d'adhésion de la Turquie avec l'UE ont débuté en 2005. Elles piétinent en raison de l'opposition de la France et de l'Allemagne à une pleine adhésion turque, mais aussi du blocage politique sur l'île divisée de Chypre, Ankara refusant d'ouvrir ses ports et aéroports à la République de Chypre, pourtant membre de l'UE. (AFP, 1 août 2011)

Turquie-USA/ Turkey-USA

Obama et Erdogan réclament une "transition" en Syrie

Les Etats-Unis et la Turquie ont durci le ton jeudi contre la Syrie, évoquant la nécessité d'une "transition démocratique", alors que la poursuite de la répression a fait encore au moins 14 morts dans le pays.

La contestation ne s'essoufle pas non plus. En plus des défilés quotidiens pendant le mois sacré du ramadan, les militants ont appelé sur Facebook à une forte mobilisation vendredi, autour du slogan "Nous ne nous soumettrons qu'à Dieu".

Jeudi après-midi, les autorités ont arrêté le président de la Ligue syrienne des droits de l'Homme, Abdel Karim Rihaoui. Grâce au réseau de militants de la Ligue dans le pays, M. Rihaoui est une source essentielle d'informations pour la presse étrangère, dont les mouvements sont très limités en Syrie.

Au cours d'une conversation téléphonique, le président américain Barack Obama et le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan ont évoqué jeudi soir "leur conviction de la nécessité de répondre à l'exigence légitime d'une transition démocratique de la part du peuple syrien", selon la Maison Blanche.

Les deux hommes ont insisté "sur la nécessité de mettre fin immédiatement au bain de sang et à la violence contre le peuple syrien" et se sont engagés à "suivre de près les actions entreprises par le gouvernement syrien et à se consulter étroitement ces prochains jours".

Des responsables américains ont aussi déclaré jeudi que Washington envisageait d'appeler explicitement Bachar al-Assad à quitter le pouvoir, un pas qu'ils n'ont pas franchi jusqu'à présent pour la Syrie, à l'inverse de leurs appels répétés en ce sens au dirigeant libyen Mouammar Kadhafi.

Mais les pressions internationales ne semblent pas faire fléchir le régime de Bachar al-Assad, qui s'est dit résolu à venir à bout de la révolte même s'il a admis mercredi avoir commis des "erreurs" au début du mouvement mi-mars.

Jeudi, l'armée est intervenue à Qousseir, dans la province de Homs (centre) et à Saraqeb, dans celle d'Idleb (nord-ouest), selon des militants.

A Qousseir, des dizaines de chars ont pénétré à l'aube et au moins 11 civils ont été tués, des dizaines d'autres blessés et une centaine de personnes ont été arrêtées, selon un militant à Homs, ville à la pointe de la contestation où 17 personnes avaient été tuées mercredi.

"Les habitants ont fui à travers champs et toutes les communications sont coupées avec la ville", a-t-il expliqué.

Dans l'est du pays, à Deir Ezzor, au moins trois personnes ont été tuées par des tirs des forces de sécurité dans le quartier d'Al-Matar et plusieurs maisons et magasins ont été incendiés, a indiqué Rami Abdel Rahmane, chef de l'Observatoire syrien des droits de l'Homme (OSDH).

Et dans le nord-ouest, des chars de l'armée et des véhicules de transport de troupes accompagnés de bus transportant des forces de sécurité ont pénétré dans Saraqeb, procédant à des perquisitions et à plus d'une centaine d'arrestations, a ajouté M. Abdel Rahmane.

L'électricité a été coupée dans cette localité où des manifestants défilaient chaque soir pour réclamer la chute du régime.

Mercredi, l'armée avait pourtant annoncé son retrait de la région d'Idleb, tout comme de celle de Hama, après dix jours d'offensive sanglante pour tenter de faire plier la ville rebelle après d'immenses rassemblements contre le régime.

Comme la veille, Hama était silencieuse jeudi, les magasins étaient fermés et les rues quasi-désertes portaient encore les traces des violences: véhicules carbonisés, façades criblées de balles, selon un journaliste de l'agence turque Anatolie qui a participé à une visite organisée par les autorités.

Le pouvoir ne reconnaît pas l'ampleur de la contestation et assure recourir à la force pour pourchasser des "groupes terroristes armés" qui sèment le chaos et attaquent les civils.

Selon des organisations de défense des droits de l'Homme, plus de 1.600 civils ont été tués depuis le 15 mars dans la répression. De son côté, le pouvoir a fait état de la mort de 500 membres des forces de l'ordre.

Pour maintenir la pression, les Occidentaux souhaitent une nouvelle réunion la semaine prochaine avec des responsables onusiens chargés des droits de l'Homme, estimant appropriées des "actions supplémentaires".

Mais leur élan risque d'être stoppé par la Russie qui, malgré son appel à l'arrêt de la répression, veut favoriser "le dialogue et les réformes". (AFP, 11 août 2011)

Washington demande à Ankara de faire pression sur la Syrie

La secrétaire d'Etat américaine Hillary Clinton a demandé dimanche au ministre turc des Affaires étrangères de demander à la Syrie de "renvoyer ses soldats dans leurs casernes".

Au cours d'un entretien téléphonique avec Ahmet Davutoglu, Mme Clinton a évoqué la situation en Syrie et les appels de la communauté internationale pour que cesse la répression militaire contre les opposants.

"La secrétaire Clinton a discuté de la position américaine selon laquelle la Syrie doit immédiatement renvoyer ses soldats dans leurs casernes et libérer tous les prisonniers", a déclaré le porte-parole du departement d'Etat Mark Toner.

"Elle a demandé au ministre des Affaires étrangères de répercuter ces messages au gouvernement syrien. Elle a également réitéré le soutien américain en faveur d'une transition démocratique en Syrie", a-t-il précisé.

Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan avait annoncé samedi que le chef de la diplomatie Ahmet Davutoglu se rendrait mardi en Syrie pour transmettre "avec détermination" au régime de Damas les "messages" d'Ankara, "à bout de patience" face à la violence de la répression dans ce pays.

"Nous sommes arrivés à bout de patience et c'est pourquoi j'envoie mardi le ministre des Affaires étrangères en Syrie", a déclaré lors d'un repas de rupture de jeûne du ramadan M. Erdogan, cité par l'agence de presse Anatolie.

"Il aura des entretiens là-bas au cours desquels il transmettra nos messages avec détermination", a-t-il poursuivi.

Le Premier ministre a estimé que la Turquie "ne peut pas rester spectatrice" face à des événements survenant dans un pays avec lequel elle partage "une frontière de 850 km, des liens historiques, culturels et familiaux".

"Nous ne considérons pas les problèmes en Syrie comme une question de politique étrangère mais comme une affaire intérieure", a-t-il estimé. "Nous devons écouter les voix qui viennent de là-bas, nous les écoutons et nous faisons le nécessaire".

Ankara, dont les liens avec la Syrie se sont resserrés ces dernières années, a appelé le président syrien Bachar al-Assad à entamer des réformes, sans aller toutefois pour l'instant jusqu'à réclamer sa démission.

En juin, M. Erdogan, a accusé Damas d'avoir commis des "atrocités" à l'encontre des manifestants. Un terme dont la Turquie n'avait jamais usé auparavant pour critiquer la répression en Syrie.

Depuis le début le 15 mars de la contestation en Syrie, plus de 1.600 civils ont été tués et au moins 12.000 arrêtés, selon des organisations de défense des droits de l'Homme. (AFP, 7 août 2011)

"US-Turkey security ties will remain unchanged"

Security relations between Turkey and the United States will remain unaffected by the recent resignation of Turkey’s top brass, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone said Wednesday at a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“We look forward to working with the new [military] leadership. The security relationship, though, goes beyond individuals, it is based on institutions. Turkey is a state of law and strong institutions that are durable even though they are dynamic and in change. I have every confidence that our security relationship will continue to be strong, that our military leaders will meet with the new Turkish military leaders... I am very confident things will be just fine,” Ricciardone said.

Ricciardone has been acting as the envoy to Turkey, but his appointment must still be approved by the Senate.

Commenting on the resignation of Turkey’s chief of General Staff and top force commanders, Ricciardone said there was always turnover in the military leadership around this time of the year.

“This turnover happened in a different way by means of a resignation under evident protest for particular reasons articulated by Gen. [Işık] Koşaner,” he said, adding that he was “very, very confident” that this situation had not caused any setbacks in security relations between the two countries.

“During my 33-year career in the Foreign Service, I’ve had the pleasure and the privilege of previously having served in Turkey three times. And through this period, I’ve observed Turkey’s continuing transformation into a more democratic, more open and more economically vibrant modern state, and as a player with growing influence on the world stage,” he said. “Throughout this change in development, there has been one constant, and that has been Turkey’s continued commitment to its partnership with the United States and the NATO alliance. It’s also a member of the G-20 now, and having one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.”

 Ricciardone also highlighted Turkey’s role as a majority Muslim nation and as a secular democracy, while drawing attention to the intensive cooperation that has taken place between Turkey and the U.S. for decades in diverse areas, ranging from trade and regional stability to countering terrorism and strengthening democracy.

“Just last month, Turkish security officials arrested an alleged al-Qaeda cell that was plotting to bomb Western interests in Turkey, including the United States embassy. We support Turkey’s own foremost security objective of defeating the terrorist violence, which the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] continues to perpetrate and which has led to the deaths of over 30,000 Turks since the 1980s. We strongly support Turkey’s efforts to improve the human rights and economic situation for the Kurds, and their democratic participation as full citizens, and the rights also of other communities of vulnerable groups in Turkey,” he was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.

The U.S. backs Turkey’s aspirations to join the European Union, while the U.S. will also continue to press for the reforms required for Turkey’s accession, he said.

“I’ve been privileged to serve in Ankara during the Arab Spring, during which I’ve strived to enlist Turkish support for the NATO role in Libya, for a successful transition to democracy in Egypt, and in collaboration with my colleague and friend next door in Syria, to pressure the regime in Syria to cease its brutal repression and to heed the will of its people,” he added.

 “On missile defense, Turkey did support, of course, the NATO statement at Lisbon. They support the NATO effort to have a phased adaptive approach radar system. We’ve moved well beyond that generality to have detailed technical discussions and legal discussions with the government of Turkey,” Ricciardone said.

 Senator Robert Menendez, known for his critical stance toward Turkey, criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statements on the issue of Cyprus and inquired about Ricciardone’s views on the matter. Ricciardone replied that the U.S. wanted a solution based on a bi-zonal and bi-communal federation on the divided island.

Menendez also inquired about Ricciardone’s views on Armenian allegations of genocide regarding the bloody events of 1915. “I stand behind President [Barack] Obama’s characterization of the Yeds Meghern, as the Armenians themselves call it, the tragic massacre, murder of, you know, a million and a half men, women and children marched to their deaths in 1915. But I stand behind our characterization of that and our efforts of what we’re trying to do now,” he said.

 Ricciardone also pointed out that any instability in Syria could have direct security and economic repercussions on Turkey’s vital national interests. The Turkish government did not see religious minorities as a threat and was pleased over religious diversity in the country, Ricciardone said, adding that the Turkish government had been exerting efforts to alleviate the problems of religious minorities.

Touching on Israel, he said: “I feel very certain, having discussed this at length with the prime minister and the foreign minister, certainly the military leadership, that all these Turks, whatever their feelings, misgivings, irritation, issues over the terrible flotilla incident of last year, over events in Gaza, they understand that to influence events in the region, to be part of a more peaceful and prosperous region, which is in their vital national interest, they need to have a normal, fruitful, respectful, full diplomatic dialogue with Israel, and they want to get back to that,” he said. (Daily News with wires, August 3, 2011)

Relations régionales / Regional Relations

L'Irak exige la fin des raids aériens turcs dans le nord

L'Irak a demandé à un émissaire turc à Bagdad d'exiger la fin immédiate des raids menés par Ankara sur des bases de rebelles kurdes dans le nord de l'Irak, a indiqué un communiqué du ministère des Affaires étrangères obtenu jeudi.

La protestation formelle a été transmise mercredi par le sous-secrétaire du ministère, Mohamed Jawad al-Dorki, à un envoyé spécial turc à Bagdad Murat Ozcelik.

M. Dorki "lui (Ozcelik) a fait part de la protestation du gouvernement irakien contre les violations de la souveraineté irakienne, les bombardements des zones frontalières et le fait de cibler d'innocents civils, et demandé la suspension immédiate de ces opérations", selon le communiqué.
 "L'ambassadeur a remis une note de protestation à cet égard", a-t-il ajouté.

L'armée turque a annoncé mardi que les raids aériens menés depuis plusieurs jours dans le nord de l'Irak ont tué près d'une centaine de rebelles kurdes, tandis que Massoud Barzani, président de cette région irakienne, a réclamé la fin des opérations turques.

Le gouvernement turc a ordonné ces bombardements le 17 août en riposte à une attaque des rebelles kurdes à la frontière irakienne de la Turquie qui a coûté la vie à neuf membres des forces de sécurité.

L'Irak opposé à toute attaque contre l'Iran: responsable kurde

Le vice-président de la région autonome du Kurdistan d'Irak, Nechirvan Barzani, a assuré jeudi que l'Irak s'opposerait à toute attaque contre l'Iran depuis son territoire, alors que Téhéran intensifie ses opérations contre les rebelles kurdes dans la région frontalière.

M. Barzani, fils du Massoud Barzani, président de la région autonome, était en visite à Téhéran, où il a été reçu par le président iranien Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"L'Irak, en tenant compte des relations historiques et stratégiques avec la République islamique d'Iran, s'opposera à toute action contre la sécurité de l'Iran", a déclaré M. Barzani, selon le site internet de la présidence iranienne.

"Nous estimons que la sécurité de l'Iran est aussi importante que celle de l'Irak et les problèmes doivent être réglés par la coopération", a-t-il ajouté, sans mentionner explicitement les interventions iraniennes en territoire kurde irakien.

Les Gardiens de la révolution ont lancé le 16 juillet une vaste offensive dans les régions frontalières avec l'Irak contre les bases des rebelles kurdes iraniens du PJAK (Parti pour une vie libre au Kurdistan), un mouvement indépendantiste armé lié au PKK turc.

L'Iran a annoncé avoir détruit plusieurs camps des rebelles en territoire irakien, et critiqué Massoud Barzani, accusé d'avoir mis à la disposition du PJAK un vaste territoire le long de la frontière.

L'Iran a annoncé également son intention de poursuivre ses opérations "pour assurer la sécurité de ses frontières en empêchant les terroristes de s'infiltrer".

Pour sa part, M. Ahmadinejad a déclaré à M. Barzani que Téhéran soutenait "un Irak développé et stable (qui) est dans l'intérêt de l'Iran et de la région".

Parallèlement aux opérations iraniennes contre le PJAK, la Turquie a bombardé ces derniers jours les bases du PKK au Kurdistan irakien et affirmé avoir tué une centaine de rebelles.(AFP, 25 août 2011)

Des opposants syriens forment un "Conseil national" à Istanbul

Des personnalités de l'opposition syrienne réunies à Istanbul ont annoncé mardi avoir mis sur pied un "Conseil national" destiné à coordonner leur lutte contre le régime de Damas.

La décision a été prise au terme de quatre jours de discussions dans cette métropole turque, ont précisé plusieurs de leurs participants au cours d'une conférence de presse.

"Nous avons eu des martyrs et certains d'entre nous ont été blessés (...) Mais ces efforts et ces sacrifices ont permis d'aboutir à une unité", a souligné l'un des militants, Ahmad Ramadan, en annonçant la formation du "Conseil national", dans des propos en arabe traduits en turc.

Les discussions d'Istanbul qui devaient initialement durer deux jours, samedi et dimanche, ont été prolongées jusqu'à mardi.

"Le Conseil doit se réunir dans environ deux semaines afin d'élire les membres de sa direction et son secrétaire (...) Lorsqu'il se réunira, il adoptera aussi ses statuts", a indiqué à l'AFP Louay Safi, un politologue vivant aux Etats-Unis.

Le conseil mis sur pied regroupe des représentants de l'ensemble de l'opposition syrienne, de l'intérieur et de l'extérieur de la Syrie, ont tenu à insister les participants.

"L'union de tous les groupes d'opposition est une nécessité en dépit des dangers. Les fondateurs de ce conseil appartiennent à des tendances politiques opposées", a souligné Halis Halihi qui a lu la déclaration finale, adoptée au terme des réunions

"Vous pouvez considérer ce conseil comme une étape vers la création d'un organe représentatif" de la révolution syrienne, a souligne de son côté, Yaser Tabbara, un avocat habitant aussi aux Etats-Unis, présent à Istanbul
 "Notre principale priorité est la chute du régime du président Bachar al-Assad", avait dit ce même militant dimanche.

La réunion d'Istanbul était survenue au lendemain de l'annonce par l'opposition syrienne de la formation d'une coalition baptisée "Commission générale de la révolution syrienne".

La "Syrian Revolution General Commission" (SRGC) est le fruit de la fusion de 44 groupes et comités de coordination qui animent depuis cinq mois la contestation en Syrie.
 La SRGC avait toutefois appelé "dans l'intérêt national et l'intérêt de la révolution syrienne au report de tout projet qui vise à représenter l'ensemble du peuple syrien, tant qu'il n'y pas d'accord entre les différentes composantes du peuple", vraisemblablement un message adressé aux opposant réunis à Istanbul.

Plusieurs réunions d'opposants syriens ont été organisées jusqu'à présent en Turquie.

Partageant une longue frontière avec la Syrie, la Turquie a appelé le régime de Damas à la retenue et à des réformes, sans pour l'instant réclamer le départ du président al-Assad.

Lundi, le Haut-commissaire des Nations unies aux droits de l'Homme, Mme Navi Pillay, a fait état de 2.200 personnes tuées en Syrie depuis le début de la crise en mars.  (AFP, 23 août 2011)

Israël maintient son refus d'excuses à la Turquie

Le Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahu a réaffirmé dimanche soir le refus d'Israël de présenter des excuses exigées par Ankara pour l'abordage meurtrier du bateau turc Mavi Marmara, le 31 mai 2010, selon un communiqué officiel.

"Le Premier ministre n'a pas changé sa position selon laquelle Israël ne présentera pas d'excuses", rapporte le communiqué, au sujet de la controverse provoquée par la mort de neuf passagers turcs du bateau venu briser le blocus imposé par Israël sur la bande de Gaza.

Par ailleurs, le Premier ministre a affirmé dans le communiqué que c'est la Turquie (et non Israël) qui "réclame un report de la publication du rapport de l'ONU" sur cet incident.

Suite au raid israélien dans les eaux internationales sur le Mavi Marmara, la Turquie a rappelé son ambassadeur à Tel-Aviv et assuré que les relations bilatérales ne seraient "plus jamais les mêmes", tout en exigeant des excuses.

Le chef de la diplomatie turque Ahmet Davutoglu a encore prévenu samedi que si Israël s'obstinait à ne pas s'excuser pour l'abordage, les rapports bilatéraux se détérioreraient davantage.

"Il ne peut y avoir de normalisation avec Israël sans que les demandes de la Turquie soient respectées", a déclaré le ministre, au cours d'une visite en Afrique du Sud.

Israël s'est dit prêt à exprimer ses regrets et à verser des fonds "à titre humanitaire" aux parents des victimes mais a refusé de présenter ses excuses pour ne pas exposer ses soldats à des poursuites judiciaires. (AFP, 22 août 2011)

Erdogan à la rencontre des victimes de la sécheresse à Mogadiscio

Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan a effectué vendredi à Mogadiscio une visite sans précédent, afin de sensibiliser la communauté internationale à la plus grave sécheresse en Somalie depuis deux décennies, a constaté un journaliste de l'AFP.

Le chef de gouvernement turc est le premier responsable étranger de ce niveau à se rendre dans la capitale somalienne depuis le début de la guerre civile dans ce pays en 1991, exception faite d'une visite du président ougandais Yoweri Museveni en novembre dernier.

Le président américain George Bush avait effectué début janvier 1993 une visite express à Baidoa, une ville à 250 km à l'ouest de Mogadiscio particulièrement frappée par la famine, sans aller dans la capitale.

M. Erdogan a annoncé à cette occasion devant la presse que son pays "allait ouvrir une ambassade en Somalie" afin notamment de mieux pouvoir coordonner l'aide à ce pays.

"La tragédie qui se déroule ici est un test pour la civilisation et les valeurs contemporaines", a-t-il ajouté. "Le monde occidental doit passer ce test avec succès, pour montrer que les valeurs occidentales ne sont pas qu'une réthorique creuse".

Le Premier ministre turc a promis que son pays allait "faire des investissements" en Somalie, dont la remise en état d'un hôpital, de la route reliant l'aéroport à la capitale, la constructions d'écoles et de puits.

Accompagné notamment de son épouse Emine et de quatre ministres, dont celui des Affaires étrangères Ahmet Davutoglu, Erdogan a été accueilli à son arrivée par le président somalien Sharif Cheikh Ahmed.

A l'aéroport de Mogadiscio, où est stationnée la force de l'Union africaine (Amisom) dont les 9.000 hommes protègent le fragile gouvernement de transition somalien, les deux hommes ont écouté les hymnes nationaux sur un podium revêtu d'un tapis rouge, derrière le drapeau rouge turc et bleu somalien.

M. Erdogan a ensuite effectué une visite en ville, pavoisée du drapeau turc et où les mesures de sécurité avaient été renforcées pour l'occasion. Il a rencontré à nouveau le chef d'Etat somalien à Villa Somalia, le palais présidentiel, puis a visité un hopital bénéficiant d'une aide turque, avant de quitter Mogadiscio en début de soirée.

La Turquie a déployé une grande activité humanitaire et diplomatique pour répondre à la sécheresse en Somalie, pays musulman comme elle, où 3,7 millions de personnes, soit la moitié de la population, a besoin d'une aide d'urgence.

Une réunion ministérielle extraordinaire de l'Organisation de coopération islamique, tenue mercredi à Istanbul à l'appel d'Ankara, a annoncé l'octroi immédiat d'une aide de 350 millions de dollars à la Somalie.

La Turquie a déjà envoyé quatre avions remplis de dizaines de tonnes de vivres et de médicaments destinés aux Somaliens.

"Nous sommes très reconnaissants au gouvernement et au peuple turcs pour leur assistance infatigable. Nous n'oublierons jamais qu'ils sont restés à nos côtés comme des amis en ce temps de désastre humanitaire", a déclaré le président somalien lors d'une conférence de presse.

Mogadiscio a été ces dernières années le théâtre de violents affrontements entre les troupes progouvernementales soutenues par l'Amisom et les insurgés islamistes shebab, jusqu'au retrait surprise de la capitale somalienne par ces derniers le 6 août.

Les shebab contrôlent toujours la plus grande partie du centre et du sud du pays, dont ils interdisent l'accès à de nombreuses agences humanitaires qu'ils accusent de visées politiques destinées à les affaiblir.

Le président américain George Bush avait effectué début janvier 1993 une visite express à Baidoa, une ville à 250 km à l'ouest de Mogadiscio particulièrement frappée par la famine qui ravageait à l'époque déjà la Somalie (plus de 200.000 morts au total), au point d'être surnommée "la cité de la mort".

M. Bush avait alors salué les troupes américaines arrivées le mois précédent dans le cadre de l'opération "Restore hope" pour protéger l'aide internationale dans une Somalie livrée à la guerre civile et aux pillages. Cette opération militaro-humanitaire s'était avérée un échec et les forces américaines avaient été contraints de se retirer après avoir perdu 18 hommes dans la bataille de Mogadiscio, les 3 et 4 octobre 1993. (AFP, 19 août 2011)

Israël refuse de présenter des excuses malgré une requête américaine

Israël a rejeté une demande américaine de présenter des excuses à la Turquie pour l'abordage meurtrier d'une flottille internationale ayant tenté de forcer le blocus de Gaza, qui avait coûté la vie à neuf passagers turcs en mai 2010, a rapporté la radio militaire israélienne.

La radio militaire a affirmé que la secrétaire d'Etat américaine, Hillary Clinton, avait téléphoné mardi au Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu pour lui demander de présenter des excuses à la Turquie, requête qui a été repoussée par M. Netanyahu.

"Il a répondu qu'Israël n'avait aucune intention de présenter des excuses pour le moment et attendait la publication du rapport du secrétaire général de l'ONU" sur l'incident maritime du 31 mai 2010, a indiqué cette radio.

L'autre grande station israélienne, la radio publique, a précisé que Mme Clinton avait "recommandé que le Premier ministre résolve la crise avec la Turquie car une telle démarche serait également dans l'intérêt des Etats-Unis".

Le département d'Etat américain a de son côté qualifié mercredi d'"inexactes" les informations selon lesquelles les Etats-Unis ont demandé à Israël de présenter de telles excuses à la Turquie.

Une source israélienne a confirmé, sous couvert de l'anonymat, que le Premier ministre israélien s'était entretenu mardi avec Mme Clinton, mais sans vouloir révéler le contenu de cet échange.

La source a néanmoins admis que les Etats-Unis exerçaient des pressions sur Israël et la Turquie pour régler ce contentieux qui a provoqué une grave crise diplomatique entre ces deux pays anciennement alliés.

"Les Américains veulent boucler cette histoire. Ils ont mis la pression à la fois sur la Turquie et sur Israël pour parvenir enfin à clore ce chapitre", a-t-elle dit à l'AFP.

Selon le quotidien populaire israélien Yediot Aharonot, le gouvernement Obama est embarrassé et irrité par la querelle israélo-turque -deux pays alliés de Washington- qui gêne les efforts américains pour gérer la crise syrienne.

Aux yeux des Américains, des excuses pourraient contribuer à apaiser les frictions entre Israéliens et Turcs.

Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan a déclaré mercredi qu'il était "impossible" à la Turquie de normaliser ses relations avec Israël tant que ce pays ne présenterait pas ses excuses pour l'abordage sanglant du ferry turc Mavi Marmara, et ne lèverait pas le blocus de Gaza.

"Nous sommes très décidés (...) Pas question de faire marche arrière. Tant qu'Israël ne présentera pas des excuses à la Turquie, ne versera pas des compensations aux familles des victimes, et ne lèvera pas le blocus de la bande de Gaza, une normalisation des relations sera impossible", a-t-il dit à des journalistes à Istanbul.

M. Erdogan a ajouté que la Turquie envisageait "certaines mesures" contre Israël, sans dire lesquelles.

Selon des diplomates turcs, Ankara se prépare à durcir sa position face à Israël : la Turquie, qui a rappelé son ambassadeur à Tel-Aviv après l'opération israélienne et dispose actuellement d'un chargé d'affaires dans ce pays, pourrait réduire davantage encore son niveau de représentation.

Elle pourrait aussi ne pas donner son agrément au remplaçant de l'actuel ambassadeur d'Israël à Ankara.

Israël s'est dit prêt à exprimer ses regrets et à verser des fonds "à titre humanitaire" aux parents des victimes du Mavi Marmara, mais a jusqu'ici obstinément refusé de présenter ses excuses pour ne pas exposer ses soldats à des poursuites judiciaires.

Initialement, le rapport de l'ONU sur cette affaire devait être publié vers le 8 juillet, mais cette publication a déjà été reportée à deux reprises et est désormais prévue pour le 20 août. (AFP, 18 août 2011)

Ankara exhorte Damas à arrêter la répression, prévient d'une détérioration

Le chef de la diplomatie turque Ahmet Davutoglu a vivement dénoncé la poursuite de la répression en Syrie, appelant le président syrien Bachar al-Assad à "mettre fin immédiatement aux opérations" militaires visant la population civile.

"Les opérations doivent immédiatement cesser (...) Sinon nous n'aurons plus rien à discuter", avec le régime syrien, a souligné le ministre lors d'un point de presse, semblant prédire une dégradation des rapports bilatéraux, autrefois excellents, entre les deux pays voisins qui partagent une longue frontière.

"Il a eu certains pas positifs", a poursuivi M. Davutoglu, de la part du régime de Damas dans les premiers jours qui ont suivi sa visite dans la capitale syrienne, le 9 août dernier, mais après, a-t-il dit, "au lieu d'un arrêt des opérations, au contraire celles-ci se sont intensifiées".

M. Davutoglu a condamné les opérations syriennes à Lattaquié.

"Nous appelons une nouvelle fois l'administration syrienne à mettre fin tout de suite aux opérations qui font couler le sang (...) Ces opérations ne peuvent en aucun cas être justifiées", a ajouté M. Davutoglu.

Ankara, dont les liens avec la Syrie se sont resserrés ces dernières années, a critiqué avec une virulence croissante la violence de la répression menée par le régime de Damas depuis la mi-mars, sans aller toutefois pour l'instant jusqu'à réclamer la démission du président al-Assad. (AFP, 15 août 2011)

The Role of Turkey and Israel in Syrian Crisis

Michel Chossudovsky

Both Ankara and Tel Aviv are involved in supporting an armed insurgency. These endeavors are coordinated between the two governments and their intelligence agencies.

Israel's Mossad, according to reports, has provided covert support to radical Salafi terrorist groups, which became active in Southern Syria at the outset of protest movement in Daraa in mid-March. Reports suggest that financing for the Salafi insurgency is coming from Saudi Arabia. (See Syrian army closes in on Damascus suburbs, The Irish Times, May 10, 2011)

The Turkish government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan is supporting Syrian opposition groups in exile while also backing the armed rebels of the Muslim Brotherhood in Northern Syria.

Both the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) (whose leadership is in exile in the UK) and the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation) are behind the insurrection. Both organizations are supported by Britain's MI6. The avowed objective of both MB and Hizb-ut Tahir is ultimately to destabilize Syria's secular State. (See Michel Chossudovsky, SYRIA: Who is Behind The Protest Movement? Fabricating a Pretext for a US-NATO "Humanitarian Intervention", Global Research, May 3, 2011).

In June, Turkish troops crossed the border into northern Syria, officially to come to the rescue of Syrian refugees. The government of Bashar Al Assad accused Turkey of directly supporting the incursion of rebel forces into northern Syria:

"A rebel force of up to 500 fighters attacked a Syrian Army position on June 4 in northern Syria. They said the target, a garrison of Military Intelligence, was captured in a 36-hour assault in which 72 soldiers were killed in Jisr Al Shoughour, near the border with Turkey.

“We found that the criminals [rebel fighters] were using weapons from Turkey, and this is very worrisome,” an official said.

This marked the first time that the Assad regime has accused Turkey of helping the revolt. ... Officials said the rebels drove the Syrian Army from Jisr Al Shoughour and then took over the town. They said government buildings were looted and torched before another Assad force arrived. ...

A Syrian officer who conducted the tour said the rebels in Jisr Al Shoughour consisted of Al Qaida-aligned fighters. He said the rebels employed a range of Turkish weapons and ammunition but did not accuse the Ankara government of supplying the equipment." (Syria’s Assad accuses Turkey of arming rebels, TR Defence, Jun 25 2011)

The Israel-Turkey Military Cooperation Agreement

Israel and Turkey have a military cooperation agreement which pertains in a very direct way to Syria as well to the strategic Lebanese-Syrian Eastern Mediterranean coastline (including the gas reserves off the coast of Lebanon and pipeline routes).

Already during the Clinton Administration, a triangular military alliance between the US, Israel and Turkey had unfolded. This "triple alliance", which is dominated by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, integrates and coordinates military command decisions between the three countries pertaining to the broader Middle East. It is based on the close military ties respectively of Israel and Turkey with the US, coupled with a strong bilateral military relationship between Tel Aviv and Ankara. ....

The triple alliance is also coupled with a 2005 NATO-Israeli military cooperation agreement which includes "many areas of common interest, such as the fight against terrorism and joint military exercises. These military cooperation ties with NATO are viewed by the Israeli military as a means to "enhance Israel's deterrence capability regarding potential enemies threatening it, mainly Iran and Syria." (See Michel Chossudovsky,"Triple Alliance": The US, Turkey, Israel and the War on Lebanon, August 6, 2006)

Meanwhile, the recent reshuffle within Turkey's top brass has reinforced the pro-Islamist faction within the armed forces. In late July, The Commander in Chief of the Army and head of Turkey's Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Isik Kosaner, resigned together with the commanders of the Navy and Air Force.

General Kosaner represented a broadly secular stance within the Armed Forces. General Necdet Ozel has been appointed as his replacement as commander of the Army the new army chief.

These developments are of crucial importance. They tend to support US interests. They also point to a potential shift within the military in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood including the armed insurrection in Northern Syria.

"New appointments have strengthened Erdogan and the ruling party in Turkey... [T]he military power is able to carry out more ambitious projects in the region. It is predicted that in case of using the Libyan scenario in Syria it is possible that Turkey will apply for military intervention." ( New appointments have strengthened Erdogan and the ruling party in Turkey : Public Radio of Armenia, August 06, 2011, emphasis added)

The Extended NATO Military Alliance

Egypt, the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia (within the extended military alliance) are partners of NATO, whose forces could be deployed in a campaign directed against Syria.

Israel is a de facto member of NATO following an agreement signed in 2005.

The process of military planning within NATO's extended alliance involves coordination between the Pentagon, NATO, Israel's Defense Force (IDF), as well as the active military involvement of the frontline Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Egypt: all in all ten Arab countries plus Israel are members of The Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.

We are at a dangerous crossroads. The geopolitical implications are far-reaching.

Syria has borders with Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. It spreads across the valley of the Euphrates, it is at the crossroads of major waterways and pipeline routes.

Establishment of a base in Tartus and rapid advancement of military technology cooperation with Damascus makes Syria Russia's instrumental bridgehead and bulwark in the Middle East.

Damascus is an important ally of Iran and irreconcilable enemy of Israel. It goes without saying that appearance of the Russian military base in the region will certainly introduce corrections into the existing correlation of forces.

Russia is taking the Syrian regime under its protection. It will almost certainly sour Moscow's relations with Israel. It may even encourage the Iranian regime nearby and make it even less tractable in the nuclear program talks.( Ivan Safronov, Russia to defend its principal Middle East ally: Moscow takes Syria under its protection, Global Research July 28, 2006)

World War III Scenario

For the last five years, the Middle East-Central Asian region has been on an active war footing.

Syria has significant air defense capabilities as well as ground forces.

Syria has been building up its air defense system with the delivery of Russian Pantsir S1 air-defense missiles. In 2010, Russia delivered a Yakhont missile system to Syria. The Yakhont operating out of Russia's Tartus naval base "are designed for engagement of enemy's ships at the range up to 300 km". (Bastion missile systems to protect Russian naval base in Syria, Ria Novosti,  September 21, 2010).

The structure of military alliances respectively on the US-NATO and Syria-Iran-SCO sides, not to mention the military involvement of Israel, the complex relationship between Syria and Lebanon, the pressures exerted by Turkey on Syria's northern border, point indelibly to a dangerous process of escalation.

Any form of US-NATO sponsored military intervention directed against Syria would destabilize the entire region, potentially leading to escalation over a vast geographical area, extending from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with Tajikistan and China.  

In the short run, with the war in Libya, the US-NATO military alliance is overextended in terms of its capabilities. While we do not forsee the implementation of a US-NATO military operation in the short-term, the process of political destabilization through the covert support of a rebel insurgency will in all likelihood continue.

(From the author's article: A "Humanitarian War" on Syria? Military Escalation. Towards a Broader Middle East-Central Asian War?)

Full text:  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25955

Réponse à Ankara: Assad déterminé à réprimer la contestation

La répression a fait au moins 34 morts mardi en Syrie où le président Bachar al-Assad s'est dit déterminé à mater la contestation populaire malgré près de cinq mois de pressions et protestations internationales.

Il s'exprimait après une rencontre avec le ministre turc des Affaires étrangères Ahmet Davutoglu, dépêché à Damas pour exhorter le président syrien à cesser sa répression, reflétant les demandes de la communauté internationale.

Une mission de l'Inde, du Brésil et de l'Afrique du sud, est attendue mercredi à Damas pour de nouveaux efforts afin d'obtenir du régime syrien qu'il mette fin à la répression sanglante et dialogue avec les opposants.

Mais pour l'instant le président syrien reste inflexible. Il a affirmé vouloir venir à bout des "groupes terroristes", accusés par son régime de semer le chaos dans le pays. "Nous n'allons pas fléchir dans la poursuite des groupes terroristes", a-t-il dit, cité par l'agence officielle Sana.

A son retour à Ankara, M. Davutoglu a dit avoir eu un entretien de six heures et demi avec le président syrien. "Nous avons eu l'occasion de parler de façon claire et nette des mesures à prendre pour que l'armée et le peuple ne se retrouvent pas face à face", a-t-il dit.

"Les développements, qui surviendront dans les prochains jours, seront décisifs quant aux attentes de la Turquie et du peuple syrien", a-t-il ajouté sans autre précision.

La Russie a aussi insisté auprès de Damas pour un arrêt des violences et la mise en oeuvre de réformes politiques lors d'un entretien téléphonique du ministre des Affaires étrangères Sergueï Lavrov avec son homologue syrien Walid Mouallem.

Plus incisive, l'Egypte a ajouté sa voix au concert des appels contre la répression en Syrie en déclarant que Damas s'orientait vers "un point de non retour". Son ministre des Affaires étrangères Mohammed Amr s'est dit très inquiet de la situation qui se détériore "dangereusement".

Les organisations des droits de l'Homme Human Rights Watch et Amnesty International ont appelé le Conseil de l'ONU à adopter une résolution pour amener le régime syrien à cesser sa brutale répression.

Sur le terrain, les forces de sécurité ont poursuivi leurs opérations de ratissage et perquisitions dans plusieurs villes et le bilan des morts s'est alourdi, selon l'Observatoire syrien des droits de l'Homme (OSDH).

Trente-quatre civils ont été tués, dont 17 dans la ville de Deir Ezzor (est) "prise d'assaut par les chars et des véhicules militaires", a précisé l'ONG syrienne. 50 personnes y ont été blessées dont certaines grièvement.

"Les cadavres sont dans les rues. Des chars se trouvent sur la place al-Hourriya où d'énormes manifestations se sont déroulées" ces dernières semaines, a-t-elle ajouté en faisant état de "nombreuses arrestations" à Deir Ezzor (430 km au nord-est de Damas).

Cinq personnes ont été tuées, dont un enfant de 13 ans, à Binnech dans la région d'Idleb (nord-ouest), six à Hama (nord), deux dans la région de Damas, un à Lattaquié (nord-ouest) et deux à Homs (centre), selon des militants.

Un homme de 35 ans est par ailleurs mort après avoir été torturé par les forces du régime, ont affirmé ses proches.

A Hama, théâtre de vastes opérations menées par l'armée, "la situation est insupportable, l'armée empêche toute entrée de produits alimentaires comme les légumes, le pain ou la farine", a indiqué un militant sur place.

Sur le plan diplomatique, une initiative l'Inde, du Brésil et de l'Afrique du sud, qui siègent comme membres non permanents au Conseil de sécurité, doit souligner au gouvernement syrien la "nécessité de dialogue avec la population, la nécessité de mettre fin à la violence et de respecter les droits de l'homme", a indiqué un porte-parole brésilien.

Selon les organisations de droits de l'Homme, plus de 2.000 personnes sont mortes en Syrie depuis le début de la contestation populaire le 15 mars.

Le régime paraît de plus en plus isolé, lâché ces derniers jours par trois monarchies du Golfe dont l'Arabie saoudite et condamné par la plus haute institution de l'islam sunnite Al-Azhar.

Seul l'Iran, un allié du régime syrien, a apporté de nouveau son soutien à M. Assad en accusant les Etats-Unis de chercher à déstabiliser la Syrie.

"Nous devons aider la Syrie pour ne pas laisser les Etats-Unis s'ingérer dans les affaires de la région", a dit en Egypte Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chef de la commission parlementaire des Affaires étrangères.

Depuis le début du ramadan, le 1er août, des manifestations appelant à la chute du régime ont lieu tous les soirs en Syrie. (AFP, 9 août 2011)

Protests at Iranian border against military operations

The protest action of more than a thousand people at the Esendere border crossing on the Turkish-Iranian border was brought to an end on Tuesday evening (2 August). The protestors demonstrated against operations that have been continued for one month in the mountainous Kurdish region in north-western Iran. This is the region where the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) which is targeted by the operations has several bases.

The crowd protested for three days. More than a thousand people gathered at the Esendere village in the province of Hakkari to protest Iran for the attacks that reportedly also caused the death of civilians. The protestors announced that even though this particular action was ended, their protest would continue as long as the operations were going to continue.

A thousand people came from Şırnak to Iran

YuksekovaHaber reporter Ömer Oğuz who was on the ground evaluated the situation for bianet. He said that a group of an estimated thousand people coming from Şırnak started the protest three days earlier.

After three days, the military talked to Özdal Üçer, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Deputy of Van, BDP Hakkari Provincial Chair Orhan Koparan and Yüksekova District Chair Osman Dara. The three politicians were told that the military was going to intervene in case the protest action was going to be carried on.

Hence, the protest was brought to an end for now. Oğuz reported that the demonstrators said in a press release that they were going to continue their protest nevertheless as long as the military operations were going to continue. According to Oğuz, the people of Yüksekova will protest again against the operations at the border on Wednesday (3 August).

"İran is responsible"

"People in Hakkari, in Yüksekova, in Şemdinli and in Çurkurca are slowly picking up on the protest. As long as the operations are being continued these protest actions will not stop" Oğuz indicated and added that Iran had closed the border during the three-day protest.

"No procedures could be done at the border because Iran closed the border crossing. I talked to the Governor of Hakkari yesterday [Monday]. I told him about the bad situation of the people and said that families cannot see each other since they are not able to cross the border. He said that there was no trouble on the Turkey side but that Iran was responsible for closing entries and exits", Oğuz explained.

Oğuz also spoke to Üçer, the BDP Deputy for Van. He reported that the actual aim of the delegation was to cross the border and protest the operations on Iranian territory.

Oğuz emphasized that the protest would not have lasted that long if Iran had given permission to the delegation for crossing the border.

"TSK vehicles allegedly entered Iran with Iranian licence plates"

Oğuz furthermore had the opportunity to talk to the people in the region. He was told that vehicles belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) got Iranian licence plates at the border and entered Iran that way.

Oğuz observed that he people have become very tense. He noticed the widespread opinion among the people that the operations that are said to be carried out by Iran are actually a joint operation of Turkey and Iran.

Oğuz underlined that the people said that they do not want anyone to be killed any more, neither soldiers nor policemen nor civilians or members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Oğuz summarized that the people are fed up with war and that they want to live in peace. (BIA, Ekin KARACA, 3 August 2011)

Ankara condamne les violences en Syrie, espère éviter l'internationalisation

La Turquie a condamné lundi les violences en Syrie et appelé le régime à Damas à entamer des réformes afin d'éviter une "internationalisation" de la crise qui secoue ce pays.

"Nous condamnons fortement", a déclaré le chef de la diplomatie turque, Ahmet Davutoglu, en évoquant l'attaque dimanche de manifestants par l'armée syrienne dans la ville de Hama qui a fait une centaine de morts parmi les civils, selon les organisations des droits de l'Homme.

"L'opération était une erreur" à cause de "l'utilisation de chars et d'armes lourdes dans un environnement civil" et du "timing, un jour avant le ramadan, qui est un mois de paix dans le monde musulman", a-t-il dit à Oslo, lors d'une conférence de presse avec son homologue norvégien, Jonas Gahr Stoere.

M. Davutoglu était venu spécialement en Norvège lundi pour participer à Trondheim (ouest) aux funérailles de Gizem Dogan, une jeune femme d'origine turque, tuée dans la fusillade perpétrée le 22 juillet par l'extrémiste Anders Behring Breivik.

"Nous avons appelé le gouvernement syrien de réaliser plus de réformes basées sur les demandes du peuple syrien, d'alléger les tensions et de ne pas seulement recourir à des mesures sécuritaires", a-t-il dit.

"Nous espérons que ce problème sera résolu sans internationalisation", a-t-il répondu, alors qu'on lui demandait sa position sur éventuelle intervention extérieure.

"Mais aujourd'hui, on vit dans un nouveau monde. Tous les événements sont suivis par tout le monde. Il n'y a plus de société fermée, et nous devons donc agir de façon responsable", a-t-il conclu.

Si la Turquie, dont les liens avec Damas se sont renforcés au cours des dernières années, fait pression sur le président syrien Bachar al-Assad pour qu'il mette en oeuvre des réformes, elle s'est abstenue jusqu'ici de demander son départ. (AFP, 1 août 2011)

Chypre et la Grèce / Cyprus and Greece

Athènes se lance dans la construction d'une clôture barbelée

Le lancement d'une procédure pour la construction d'une clôture en fil barbelé à la frontière gréco-turque pour réduire le flux migratoire, a été annoncé vendredi par le ministère grec de la Protection du citoyen.

Co-financé par le Fonds européen de protection des frontières de l'Union européenne (UE), le projet en discussion depuis plusieurs mois à Athènes coûtera 5,498 millions d'euros et un appel d'offres sera lancé d'ici fin septembre, a précisé à l'AFP Efstathia Latifi, ingénieur du département technique du ministère.

La clôture "comprendra deux barrières parallèles en fil barbelé longues de 10,3 km chacune et d'une hauteur de 2,5 à 3 mètres et sera construite sur la ligne frontalière près de Kastanies", dans le secteur le plus fréquenté par les migrants pour traverser le fleuve Evros qui sépare la Grèce et la Turquie, selon un communiqué du ministère.

La frontière terrestre gréco-turque, longue de quelque 150 km, est devenue le principal point de passage des sans-papiers vers l'UE avec près de la moitié des entrées illégales détectées.

La Turquie ne s'est pas opposée à ce projet mais la Commission européenne avait initialement émis des réserves quand Athènes avait annoncé début janvier la construction d'un mur pour empêcher le flux des sans-papiers.

"Les murs ou les grillages sont des mesures à court terme, qui ne permettent pas de s'attaquer de manière structurelle à la question de l'immigration clandestine", avait alors déclaré Michele Cercone, porte-parole de la commissaire européenne chargée de la sécurité Cecilia Malmström.

Après les révoltes dans plusieurs pays arabes, certains Etats européens ont plaidé pour le durcissement des mesures contre l'immigration.

Le quotidien grec Ta Néa avait révélé il y a une semaine que la Grèce était en train de construire une tranchée de 120 km près de l'Evros pour protéger la région des crues récurrentes du fleuve et empêcher l'immigration clandestine.

Cette tranchée, décidée après une étude de l'Université de Salonique (nord), est un ouvrage "d'irrigation et d'assèchement" à l'intérieur du pays, qui pourrait complémentairement servir de dissuasion pour les sans-papiers, avait indiqué une source du ministère de la Défense, chargé du projet, ayant requis l'anonymat.

Vendredi, Ankara a jugé dans un communiqué que ces mesures n'étaient que des "palliatifs".

"Pour arriver à une solution plus efficace, la Grèce aurait dû choisir une coopération accrue avec la Turquie sur le problème de l'immigration clandestine, plutôt que des propositions qui ne sont que des palliatifs", a déclaré le ministre turc pour les Affaires européennes, Egemen Bagis.

Ces propositions "ne prennent pas le problème à la racine et comportent le risque de devoir faire face à des problèmes plus graves encore dans l'avenir, comme l'a montré la crise financière", a-t-il ajouté en référence à la grave crise que la Grèce traverse actuellement.

La Turquie travaille sur "des réformes structurelles et des mesures pour mieux gérer ses frontières", pour "faire face aux défis des flux migratoires et créer un système d'asile valable et efficace", a expliqué le ministre turc. (AFP, 5 août 2011)


Immigration / Migration

Pas d’obligation d’intégrer pour les immigrants turcs aux Pays-Bas

« Les Turcs n’ont pas l’obligation de s’intégrer » titre le Trouw. Le journal évoque la décision du Centrale Raad van Beroep, l’instance judiciaire suprême aux Pays-Bas pour une partie des litiges administratifs, qui a statué que les Pays-Bas ne peuvent pas obliger les immigrants turcs de suivre des cours d’intégration.

Une telle obligation serait en contradiction avec un accord entre la Turquie et l’Union européenne qui stipule que des immigrants turcs ne doivent pas être contrariés dans leur recherche d’un logement ou d’un emploi.

Le ministre des Affaires intérieures, M. Donner, a déclaré qu’il regrette cette décision : « il est essentiel que toute personne qui habite ici parle la langue néerlandaise et connaisse nos usages ». Le ministre à l’intention d’explorer la possibilité de prendre d’autres mesures telle que l’enseignement obligatoire à toute âge ».

Le journal précise que « le gouvernement a déjà annoncé dans l’accord de gouvernement qu’il s’emploiera pour une adaptation de l’accord avec la Turquie ». (http://www.ambafrance-nl.org/spip.php?article13242, Mercredi 17 Août 2011  16:00, transmis par Pierre-Yves Lambert)

35 suspects extradited to Turkey since 2010

Thirty-five suspects have been extradited to Turkey from various countries since 2010, while the number suspects extradited by Turkey to other countries was four, according to data provided by the Ministry of Justice.
 
According to statistics published by the Ministry of Justice in 2010, European countries have extradited less than 10 percent of terrorism suspects Turkey has requested from them in the past decade.

Turkey received a positive response for only 15 of the 158 extradition requests it made since 2000. Among those 15, there is not a single suspect from the two main terrorist groups Turkey has been battling against for many years, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C).

The same statistics suggest only Germany, Romania, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were partly receptive to Turkey's requests to extradite terrorism suspects, whereas France, Belgium and Holland were the least compliant.(TODAY'S ZAMAN, 14 August 2011)

Turkish shopkeepers protect streets from London rioters
 
In the face of widespread destruction and violence across London, hundreds of Turkish men living in Dalston, many armed with broken billiard cues, took to the streets and faced down mobs on Monday night to protect their businesses and homes from the violence that has engulfed many cities in the UK.
 
“They created a barrier and chased the kids back,” Burcu Bay, who works as a waitress at Tugra, a Turkish sweet shop and cafe on Dalston's main thoroughfare, was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. “It was like being in a war,” she added. The daily said what happened in Dalston, an area defined by its large Turkish and Kurdish immigrant community, was a rare instance of locals uniting to defy the wave of violence that has swept London in recent nights.

According to the Wall Street Journal article, the clashes in Dalston, a ramshackle neighborhood of pawn shops, Turkish social clubs and kebab joints, began when a gang of about 50 youths approached the area from the east, setting fire to a bus and smashing in the windows of a chain restaurant, a bank and an electrical goods shop. “Dozens of local men came out on the street to block their progress. Over the course of the evening, they pushed back the heavily outnumbered troublemakers in three separate surges, driving them away from a cluster of Turkish-owned shops and businesses. Women and elderly men sought refuge in local cafés to watch the clashes from a safe distance,” the article said.

On the self-defense of Turks in London, The Guardian reported that before Monday evening's events there were warnings that Turkish shopkeepers in Tottenham were forming “protection units” to prevent their businesses from being looted, while retailers in nearby Wood Green were said to have equipped themselves with crowbars and other weapons after holding emergency meetings.

“When the trouble came, hairdressers, sales assistants and butchers were among the scores of Turkish and Kurdish workers who stood outside their businesses in Green Lanes, Haringey, from 8 p.m., having been warned by police to expect trouble,” The Guardian said.

“I was here with my brother and my boss waiting for them until about midnight,” 16-year-old Hüseyin Beytar was quoted as saying by the British daily. “If some guy ever breaks a window in this street, all the Turkish Kurdish people come down to protect the shops. We're like a family.”

“We have to do things for ourselves,” said Hüseyin. “We have to look after each other. If they come here tonight there will be a fight, a big fight.”

Explaining what happened in Dalston on Monday night, an Al Jazeera reporter said, “Police were on the scene, but it seemed the Turks were in control of the situation. Minutes later, as many came trickling back, the shopkeepers claimed victory. ‘The Turks kick them out of the scene, bruv,' one  shouted. ‘That's it. All done'.”

The Al Jazeera reporter said on Tuesday night the sidewalks of Dalston's Kingsland High Street were again teeming with Turkish men, some carrying sticks that could be used as weapons. Police, highly visible elsewhere across the city, were keeping a low profile. “Unlike many high streets in the capital, where businesses brought down the shutters in the early afternoon to minimize the risk of looting, many of the restaurants and shops in Dalston were defiantly open,” the report said. (TODAYSZAMAN.COM, 10 August 2011)

Extradition d'une activiste de gauchde recherchée par Berlin

La justice grecque a décidé mercredi l'extradition en Allemagne d'une extrémiste turque présumée, arrêtée à Salonique (nord) sous mandat européen émis par Berlin pour "participation à activité extrémiste".

La cour d'appel de Salonique a décidé l'extradition en Allemagne de Gulaferit Unsal, 42 ans, accusée de participer au Parti-Front révolutionnaire de libération du peuple (DHKP-C).

Mme Unsal ainsi qu'un de ses compatriotes avaient été arrêtés début juillet à leurs domiciles à Salonique après une opération de la police antiterroriste sur la base d'informations faisant état de trafic d'armes.

La police avait alors indiqué avoir découvert de faux passeports et saisi leur matériel informatique pour enquête. Son compatriote, poursuivi pour constitution de faux a été acquitté et libéré.

Mme Unsal a indiqué à la cour qu'elle était poursuivie dans son pays en raison de "son activité syndicaliste".

Elle a rappelé qu'elle était l'un des membres fondateurs du syndicat des fonctionnaires "Bemsen" à Ankara, où elle travaillait en 1992 comme urbaniste à la municipalité.

Après avoir été emprisonnée avec son mari en Turquie, elle a demandé l'asile politique en Allemagne en septembre 1999.

"Le mandat d'arrêt de Berlin contre moi est aberrant (...). Tout d'un coup ils se sont souvenus de moi alors que ça fait dix ans que j'ai quitté l'Allemagne. La décision vise à m'expulser en Turquie", a déploré Mme Unsal dans un document de défense déposé à la cour. (AFP, 10 août 2011)

Davutoglu aux obsèques d'une victime en Norvège

Le chef de la diplomatie turque Ahmet Davutoglu et des centaines d'autres personnes ont pris part lundi à Trondheim (ouest de la Norvège) aux obsèques de Gizem Dogan, jeune femme d'origine turque tuée dans les attaques du 22 juillet dans le pays nordique.

"Gizam a gagné le statut d'héroïne dans le coeur des Turcs", a dit M. Davutoglu, devant près de 2.000 personnes rassemblées autour du cercueil blanc et fleuri, tourné vers La Mecque, la ville sainte des musulmans.

"C'est notre devoir à son égard et celui des autres personnes qui sont mortes de nous engager à plus de démocratie, de tolérance et d'ouverture", a-t-il ajouté, sur le terrain de football utilisé pour la célébration, la mosquée locale étant trop petite pour contenir toute l'assemblée.

Décrite comme une élève brillante et politiquement très engagée, Gizem Dogan est morte à l'âge de 17 ans, le 22 juillet, lorsque l'extrémiste de droite Anders Behring Breivik a ouvert le feu sur un rassemblement de jeunes travaillistes sur l'île d'Utoeya, près d'Oslo.

Outre Ahmet Davutoglu, arrivé dans une cohue de journalistes, le vice-Premier ministre turc Bekir Bozdag et le ministre norvégien du Commerce et de l'Industrie, Trond Giske, ont assisté aux funérailles, célébrées dans un quartier à forte population immigrée de Trondheim.

Sur la pelouse du terrain de football, de très jeunes enfants chahutaient près du cercueil, a rapporté une journaliste de l'AFP.

Après la cérémonie religieuse célébrée en plusieurs langues selon le rite musulman, le cercueil devait être mis en terre dans le carré musulman d'un cimetière de l'Eglise protestante de Norvège.

Plusieurs musulmans figurent parmi les 69 personnes qui ont péri dans la fusillade perpétrée par Behring Breivik, un "croisé" autoproclamé qui se dit en guerre contre "l'invasion musulmane" en Europe.

Huit autres personnes sont mortes dans l'explosion peu auparavant d'une camionnette piégée près du siège du gouvernement, à Oslo. (AFP, 1 août 2011)

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