The EP draft report, authored by Dutch Christian Democrat Ria Oomen-Ruijten and expected to be discussed at the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament next week, will “reiterate the EU’s firm and strong condemnation of terror [perpetrated] by the PKK,” asking member countries “to intensify cooperation with Turkey in the fight against terrorism.” The draft report is expected to be discussed at the Committee on Foreign Affairs Commission (AFET) on Thursday next week and to be adopted at the Plenary session by the end of March.

The draft obtained by Today’s Zaman also calls on the commission and the member states to facilitate adequate informative dialogue and exchange of information with Turkey on extradition requests by Turkey. The draft warns the EU that these requests “cannot be furthered on legal or procedural grounds.” Extradition procedures are extremely complicated because of legal hurdles and bureaucratic obstacles. European nations have for years claimed that difficulty in extradition does not stem from their lack of will but the legal system. The draft also calls on Turkey to find a political solution to the Kurdish problem.

The nine-page draft is very critical of Turkey’s record on freedom of expression and press, focusing on the arrests of journalists and a tax case involving the Doğan Group. On Cyprus, the draft, as in previous years, largely reflects the Greek Cypriot position, and the rapporteur this year calls on Turkey to transfer Famagusta to the United Nations, an issue Turkey considers to be a part of the final solution to the Cyprus dispute but not a confidence building measure. The draft, which supports the Greek Cypriot position on an oil exploration dispute with Turkey, also regrets Turkey’s decision to suspend talks with the EU when the Greek Cypriots take over the helm of the EU in the latter part of 2012.

On the controversial issue of visas, the draft underlines that Turkey is the only candidate country which does not have a visa liberalization agreement with the EU and calls on the EU to facilitate the access of businessmen, academics, students and representatives of civil society.

On cases like Ergenekon and Balyoz, the draft report states that these trials should demonstrate “the strength and proper, independent, impartial and transparent functioning of Turkish democratic institutions.” While praising Turkish foreign policy and dubbing the Turkish model as “an example for democratizing Arab States,” the draft calls on Ankara to coordinate its foreign policy with Brussels.

The main components of the report

PKK: Reiterates its firm and strong condemnation of the continuing terrorist violence by the PKK, which is on the EU list of terrorist organizations and expresses its full solidarity with Turkey; calls on the EU member states, in close coordination with the EU counterterrorism coordinator and Europol and with due regard for human rights, fundamental freedoms and international law, to intensify cooperation with Turkey in the fight against terrorism and in the fight against organized crime as a source of financing of terrorism; calls on the Commission and the member states to facilitate adequate informative dialogue and exchange of information with Turkey on extradition requests by Turkey, which cannot be furthered on legal or procedural grounds.

Kurdish issue: Calls on Turkey to demonstrate resilience and intensify its efforts for a political solution to the Kurdish issue and asks all political forces to work in alliance towards the goal of reinforced political dialogue and a process of further political, cultural and socio-economic inclusion and participation of citizens of Kurdish origin; takes the view that constitutional reform provides a very useful framework to promote a democratic opening; recalls that a political solution can only be built upon an open and truly democratic debate on the Kurdish issue and expresses concern at the large number of cases launched against writers and journalists writing on the Kurdish issue and the arrest of several Kurdish politicians, locally elected mayors and members of municipal councils and human rights defenders in connection with the [Kurdish Communities Union] KCK trial.

Freedom of press: Reiterates its concern on the practice of bringing criminal prosecutions against journalists who communicate evidence of human rights violations or raise other issues in the public interest as a contribution to the debate of a pluralistic society; considers the criminalization of opinions as a key obstacle to the protection of human rights in Turkey and deplores the disproportionate restriction of the freedoms of expression, association and assembly.

Ergenekon: Stresses [that] the investigations of alleged coup plans such as the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases must demonstrate the strength and the proper, independent, impartial and transparent functioning of Turkish democratic institutions and the judiciary and their firm, unconditional commitment to the respect of fundamental rights.

Civilian-military relations: Welcomes the continued efforts to improve civilian oversight of the military, in particular the adoption of the Law on the Court of Accounts in December 2010 to ensure civilian oversight of military expenditure.

Constitution: Recalls the need to continue to work on the implementation of the 2010 constitutional reform package; expresses its full support to the drafting process of a new civilian constitution for Turkey as an opportunity for true constitutional reform promoting democracy, the rule of law, fundamental rights and freedoms, pluralism, inclusiveness and unity in Turkish society; welcomes the decision to ensure equal representation to all political forces in the Constitutional Conciliation Committee and the pledge to base the drafting process on the broadest possible consultation of all segments of the society in the framework of a process closely associating civil society.

Judiciary: Stresses [that] the reform process of the judicial system must be at the forefront of Turkey’s efforts to modernize and that such reform must lead to a modern, efficient, fully independent and impartial judicial system; welcomes in this regard the adoption of legislation on the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors and on the Constitutional Court in close consultation with the Venice Commission.

Foreign Policy and Cyprus problem

Foreign policy: Stresses Turkey’s strategic role, politically and geographically, for the foreign policy of the European Union and its neighborhood policy; recalls Turkey’s role as an important regional player in the Middle East, the Western Balkans, Afghanistan/Pakistan, the Southern Caucasus and the Horn of Africa and Turkey’s role as an example for democratizing Arab states; supports Turkey’s firm stance and commitment to democratic forces in Syria and recalls its important role for the protection of Syrian refugees; calls on the EU and Turkey to reinforce their existing political dialogue on foreign policy choices and objectives of mutual interest; encourages Turkey to develop its foreign policy in the framework of dialogue and coordination with the EU and to progressively align its foreign policy with that of [the] EU with a view to creating valuable synergies and reinforce[ing] the potential for positive impact.

Cyprus: Strongly supports the ongoing negotiations on Cyprus reunification under the auspices of the secretary-general of the United Nations; stresses that a fair and viable settlement of the Cyprus issue is now urgent and calls on Turkey and all parties concerned to work intensively and with good will for a comprehensive agreement; calls on the government of Turkey to begin with withdrawing its forces from Cyprus and to transfer Famagusta to the UN in accordance with Resolution 550 (1984) of the UN Security Council; calls, in parallel, on the Republic of Cyprus to open the port of Famagusta under EU customs supervision in order to promote a positive climate for the successful solution of the ongoing negotiations for reunification and allow the Turkish Cypriots to trade directly in a legal way acceptable to all.

Cypriot presidency: Regrets Turkey’s statements that it would freeze relations with the Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2012, if a solution to the Cyprus issue [is] not … found by then.

Oil and natural gas dispute: Emphasizes that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has been signed by the EU, the 27 member states and all other candidate countries and that it is part of the acquis communautaire; calls, therefore, on the Turkish government to sign and ratify it without further delay; recalls the full legitimacy of the Republic of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone in accordance with UNCLOS.

NATO-EU cooperation: Calls on Turkey to allow for political dialogue between the EU and NATO by lifting its veto on EU-NATO cooperation, including Cyprus, and consequently calls on the Republic of Cyprus to lift its veto to the participation of Turkey [in] the European Defense Agency.

The committee held a meeting titled “Investigation of Violation of Human Rights in Counterterrorism Operations,’ and they listened to the concerns of Mehmet Karakaya, the father of a deceased terrorist. The meeting was led by Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Manisa deputy Naci Bostancı.

Mehmet Karakaya spoke to the committee’s deputies, and he said that one of his sons, Ahmet Serif Karakaya, who joined the terrorist organization in 2005 when he was 18 years old, was killed in a clash between Turkish security forces on Gabar Mountain in Şırnak, bordering northern Iraq, in 2009. Mentioning that his other son is currently a PKK militant, Mehmet Karakaya asked for peace between the PKK and the Turkish state.

Saying that his son’s body was not given to his family by the state, Mehmet Karakaya said, “I tried taking my son’s dead body [from state officials], but I was insulted by them. We don’t even have a grave for our son that we can go to and read him prayers. The individuals who refused to give me my son’s dead body should stand trial.”

He added that, despite all the issues he and the other families of terrorists are facing, he still see himself as part of the Turkish state. Mehmet Karakaya asked for the state to take care of the families of deceased PKK terrorists like it does the families of soldiers and police killed in clashes with the PKK.

“From now on, everyone [in the country] shall hug each other. Let’s [Turks and Kurds] become close relatives like we have been for thousands of years. If I have to sacrifice my life for this, I am ready for it as long as peace takes place in the country. When there is peace in the country, I’ll forget all my sorrow,” Mehmet Karakaya said.

Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast has been plagued by violence for more than 27 years since the PKK took up arms to fight for independence. Some 40,000 soldiers, PKK members and civilians have been killed since then.

Since Turkish special forces seized its leader in 1999, the PKK has tempered its demands — seeking autonomy and greater rights for Kurds. But despite steps by Erdoğan’s party, in power since 2002, to grant cultural freedoms for Turkey’s Kurds, the fighting drags on with almost daily casualties.

Turkey, the United States and the European Union all class the PKK as a terrorist organisation, but leaks to the media have suggested that at least some Ankara officials have held a series of direct talks with the group to try to negotiate a peace.

“We have declared what are aims are; a democratic and autonomous Kurdistan,” said Surbuz Peri, a member of the PKK executive council, in the mountains of northern Iraq.

“The Kurdish people’s basic demand is autonomy and this autonomy should have a place in the Turkish constitution which is being changed,” she told Reuters in an interview.

Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government plans to liberalize the constitution introduced under military rule in 1982 and has been negotiating with opposition lawmakers, including pro-Kurdish deputies, to get the support it needs to pass it through parliament.

But the arrests in recent months of thousands of Kurdish politicians and activists accused of links with the PKK, and relentless military operations against the terrorist group inside Turkey and in their northern Iraq base, have derailed any chance of success, Peri said, and fighting would continue.

“We think the changing of the constitution is an opportunity, but the AKP government in power at the moment does not intend to make the constitution more democratic,” said Peri, dressed in khaki fatigues, her Kalashnikov assault rifle propped against a nearby wall.

“The AKP government is not consistent, it is not sincere … they are playing a game of political deception,” said Peri, a 17-year veteran of the fighting. The PKK has good many women fighters, but does not permit relationships to develop.

“We don’t want much, just a change to the constitution, not the division of the state, not the rejection of the flag, not the rejection of the Turkish language,” she said.

But attacks such as the one in October last year when the PKK killed 24 soldiers in southeast Turkey only serve to inflame the hatred felt by many Turks towards the group and bolster calls from politicians for a renewed military drive to wipe it out.

Meanwhile incidents such as last week’s air strike in which Turkish planes killed 35 civilians, apparently mistaking smugglers coming from Iraq for PKK infiltrators, have incensed many Kurds and led to widespread protests in Turkey’s southeast.

Even with NATO’s second biggest army, Turkey has been unable to destroy PKK forces even inside its own borders, let alone in the group’s headquarters in the towering Qandil mountains, too far inside Iraq for land troops to mount an operation without provoking Iraqi Kurds who control the area in between.

Peri acknowledged there could be no military victory for either side in the conflict, but said eight unilateral ceasefires announced by the PKK as a gesture aimed at fostering dialogue had been ignored by Turkey.

“We have called a ceasefire many times, but the Turkish state interpreted it as weakness,” she said.

“If we want the problem to end of course we need a ceasefire on both sides and the guns to be silenced,” Peri said. “Our leader has said this many times as have we as a movement. This is what we believe.”

The isolation of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in a Turkish island prison, the jailing of Kurdish members of parliament, and the arrests of scores of activists and journalists all showed the lack of political will in the Turkish government to solve the conflict, she said.

“They want us to just surrender, but our struggle has come too far for that,” she said. “The Kurdish people must increase their resistance even further because the Turkish state has now moved against the Kurdish people’s struggle in every arena.”

The ceremony was held in the Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı Cultural Center. Speaking at the ceremony, Diyarbakır Governor Mustafa Toprak stated that people must work together to strengthen unity in Turkey.

“The grief caused by this deadly attack is still fresh in our hearts. Surely, the parents of the victims must be feeling an even greater pain. It is interesting that the mothers of those who have killed civilians also cry after their sons or daughters are killed as a result of working with terrorist groups. When deadly force is used [to combat terrorism], these families protest against the actions of the state. However, they do not attempt to stop family members participating in terrorist organizations when the state is not using force. I call on the families of people who have joined the terrorist organization to call their children home. Families should be telling their children that violence and terrorism will not succeed,” said the Diyarbakır governor.

Eren Şahin, son of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Diyarbakır deputy Oya Eronat, was one of the six students killed in the attack. Eronat, who was in attendance at the ceremony, explained that she misses her son more as each day passes.

The intended target of the bomb was a passing military vehicle containing a number of personnel. A total of 52 people were wounded and seven killed, including the six students who were studying at a university examination preparation center nearby.

In a related development, police on Tuesday arrested a total of 55 suspects as a result of operations in İstanbul and Şanlıurfa against the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), an organization that allegedly functions as the urban arm of the terrorist group, the PKK. Following illegal demonstrations held in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa on Tuesday, police detained 40 suspects, including 14 women. Interrogation of the suspects continued until Tuesday night, after which they appeared in court. Twelve of them were arrested on suspicion of holding demonstrations in support of the PKK.

Turkey to adopt Molotov cocktail bill

Referring to Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) sympathizers’ attack on a municipal bus loaded with passengers on Sunday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated on Tuesday that his party will submit a bill to Parliament that will propose Molotov cocktails be treated as weapons.

In an angry speech delivered at his party’s parliamentary group meeting Tuesday, Erdoğan said: “How can you have the right to make dozens of people face death by setting busses on fire? This is not an innocent act. We have lost many people like Serap [Eser],” a 17-year-old who died in a Molotov cocktail attack.

In November of last year, a court made a landmark decision to categorize Molotov cocktails as weapons. The court handed down jail sentences of 12 years and six months to each of two men who had been arrested for the possession of 16 fireworks and four Molotov cocktails during protests in support of the PKK and its jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan.

The court stated that the Molotov cocktails and fireworks the men had prepared were intended for use against security forces, public buildings and private property during pro-PKK protests and thus constituted a crime of “providing weapons to a terrorist organization.”

The court recalled the 2009 incident in İstanbul’s Küçükçekmece district in which Eser succumbed to injuries sustained when a group of PKK supporters threw a Molotov cocktail into a municipal bus. “This incident shows that even a single Molotov cocktail can lead to serious consequences for people’s lives and society,” the court said in its explanation of its ruling.

Eser died at the hospital where she had received treatment following the assault. Her death in a Molotov cocktail attack spurred debates in the country about the way Molotov cocktails are legally defined.

Star’s Ahmet Kekeç argues it is true that many changes need to be made to laws and regulations before Kurds are truly equal to other Turkish citizens. However, Kekeç points out that it is not demands by the PKK or BDP that we must think of. These two organizations’ aims are more than just to preserve Kurdish roots. Rather, they focus on secession from Turkey and creating a new nation altogether. As a matter of fact, Kurdish culture and tradition are deeply established and have existed for about a thousand years. However, another fact that should not be ignored is that Kurds and Turks are blood brothers, family and neighbors. We share more than our land; we share our past, our lives. The Kurdish problem is not about granting the rights and freedoms sought by the BDP and the PKK, says Kekeç. If it were, they would have welcomed government initiatives for the Kurdish people, such as allowing the publication of books in Kurdish, meetings between the state and PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and the state and PKK bases in the Kandil Mountains, the preparations for a new constitution and much more. None of these made BDP deputies happy. Kekeç asks what will make them happy — is it leaving southeastern provinces under PKK control and domination? The problem is, according to Kekeç, whether Kurds and Turks will be able to live together without fighting, and he believes it is the Kurdish people themselves who will answer that question.

Radikal’s Oral Çalışlar notes that what we call the Kurdish problem is mainly about the democratic deficiencies Turkey suffers. The ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) plans and projects and the fact that almost 50 percent of the people living in southeastern provinces voted for the AK Party in the last elections led us to hope for a permanent solution to these shortcomings. However, the party carried on with a different strategy than the one it said before the elections it would adopt. The strategy they follow instead is mainly making war with terrorists. Çalışlar points out that sticking to the efforts to draft a new constitution will solve many problems, along with the Kurdish problem, while the war will create nothing but more problems.

Habertürk’s Fatih Altaylı said that in order to solve the Kurdish problem we have to understand thoroughly that neither the PKK nor the BDP represents Kurdish identity. If we can seek to understand more about that identity or what the people of that identity want, we have to ask the Kurds themselves.

What the mothers, who have lost either a child or a relative during the conflict between the military and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), demand from Erdoğan is an end to the fighting so other mothers will not have to go through what they did. I would support them if they really meant what they say and nothing more. But the group was founded on Sept. 1, 1999, the day when PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s case was waiting to be concluded by the Supreme Court of Appeals. And on that day, “mothers” gathered “for their dead children.” I do not believe this was their purpose. Their only intent must have been to save Öcalan. The mothers’ statements to the media about the aims of their protest prove me right as well. “We are seeking peace and the release of our leader, Öcalan,” they said. They want freedom for the man that killed their children. I want to ask these mothers: If you cannot say “leave your guns” to your own children, how can you say “stop operations [against terrorists]” to the government?

Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) took over facilities of the Joint Staff Electronic Systems Command (GES) based 20 kilometers south of Ankara officially as of Jan. 1, but case officers, engineers and technicians started their workday as of 9 a.m. Jan. 2.

This is not an ordinary bureaucratic shift; on the contrary, it is one of the strongest symbols of increasing civilian control over the Turkish military. The GES facilities, known as the “Bayrak” (Flag) Garrison, played an important role in the planning phase of the Sept. 12, 1980 coup d’etat by the Joint Staff; so important that Kenan Evren and fellow generals had code named the whole coup operation as the “Bayrak” operation.

Established in the 1950’s as a NATO communications facility by the U.S. in order to collect intelligence on Soviet activities and then transferred to Turkish army, the GES facilities have the most sophisticated electronic communication and thus eavesdropping devices in the Turkish system. Its capacities completely for military purposes, such as sustaining the communications with Turkish troops abroad from Afghanistan to Somalia and Kosovo or field intelligence for army commands in Turkey, will continue to stay under the Joint Staff. But the rest, all those cutting edge technology listening devices which have been and could be used for civilian purposes are under MİT as of yesterday; the consolidation work started almost a year ago.

It is important for the MİT, which is going to mark its 85 anniversary on Friday Jan. 6, since up until 15 years ago it used to be mostly under military control; a three star army general used to rule it with many key posts being under military officials. Today, the MİT is working under its fourth civilian undersecretary (directly reporting to Prime Minister) and engulfing military intelligence in national capacity.

Yet those important developments take place amid a series of controversies about the Turkish secret service’s performance for the last year, after the appointment to the leading post of Hakan Fidan, who opposition parties have regarded as a political appointee of PM Tayyip Erdoğan.

A few months ago, secret MİT talks with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) representatives in Europe (probably in Oslo, Norway) were leaked to the internet media. Nowadays, MİT is again the target of criticism because of providing misleading information to the military which ended up of killing of 35 small-scale smuggling villagers at Turkish-Iraqi border, mistaken as PKK militants.

The whispers in the security community claim there is a competition from the police intelligence who don’t want to be under MİT control, on the contrary seeking a separate FBI-style domestic intelligence structure which indirectly contributes to the discrediting leak stories. The sources say the competition is especially on sharing the intelligence on the PKK; the most sensitive issue for Turkey’s security now.

Nevertheless, civilian intelligence taking over the control of the military facilities has an important significance in Turkey’s painful politics and military relationship and will be marked as such.

The government’s “dismissive attitude” after a botched air raid killed 35 civilians in Southeast Anatolia has led to a drastic shift of sentiment among peaceful, non-militant Kurds in the area, a senior Republican People’s Party (CHP) official has said.

“It was a disaster in which the most advanced of aircraft killed innocent civilians, but the government adopted a dismissive attitude. It is a breaking point. The government’s attitude profoundly hurt the people in the region,” CHP deputy chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.

Tanrıkulu, himself a Kurd, traveled to the area after the Dec. 28 bombing and accompanied CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on the weekend when he visited the families of the victims in the village of Gülyazı to convey his condolences.

Tanrıkulu said the slain youths did not have any incendiary political inclinations and the settlement provided “village guards,” or government-armed men who support the army in the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“The identity of those killed is not of a nature that would have provoked a huge outburst of anger. There were village guard families there. The youths were living in the village and had not gone to the mountains [to join the PKK]. But the way the government reacted after the incident led to an outburst of anger,” he said.

‘Deliberate strike’

“The government underestimated the incident,” Tanrıkulu said. “The people now have the perception that no matter what they do, they are being killed brutally. They are left with the impression that the strike was deliberate.”

The CHP deputy chair said the government could still win over the region by taking political responsibility for the raid and determining those responsible for the misleading intelligence that prompted the bombing.
He declined to comment on how the incident might have unfolded, but argued that negligence could not be the only cause.

“I would not speculate but I think there are factors beyond negligence. When warplanes take off, the risk of an error must be zero. But it in this incident, it seems that the possibility of no error was close to zero,” he said.
The 35, who were smuggling diesel in from northern Iraq, were killed Dec. 28 when the military bombed the group after mistaking them for members of the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The indictment, which alleges that Duman was preparing to go to the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) training camps in Arbil, northern Iraq, with two DK members, Bayram Aydoğdu (codename Ali Haydar) and Şemdin Şimşir (codenamed Faruk), has added to the controversy surrounding the DK’s links to the PKK, which were brought to light in February. Additionally, Duman has admitted to being the perpetrator of an attack on the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association’s (MÜSİAD) Beyoğlu office on July 30 and that 200 grams of explosives seized in his house belonged to him, according to the indictment.

The document also indicates that Kılıç contacted Duman on the orders of Şimşir, who is another client of Kılıç. Following an investigation into Kılıç, his relationship with Şimşir was found to be different from that of lawyer-client and based on a command hierarchy after cryptic phone conversations were deciphered between the two.

The indictment demands a prison sentence for Duman ranging between 37.5 years to 105 years on charges of being a member of a terrorist organization and possessing explosives, while a seven-and-a-half to 15-year prison sentence was demanded for Kıyamçiçek and Kılıç.

The DK was involved in a deadly shootout with police in İstanbul in 2009 that left one police officer and two civilians dead. The shootout took place in front of an apartment building in the city’s Bostancı district and resulted in the death of police officer Semih Balaban, Orhan Yılmazkaya, an alleged terrorist, and a civilian bystander, Mazlum Şeker.

A previous indictment in the case issued in February also suggested that the DK brought together members of various terrorist groups as part of a strategy to become an “umbrella organization” for all terrorist groups. This indictment includes a document seized from Yılmazkaya’s computer. The document, titled “Unallocated Clusters-1311,” states that the terrorist organization had decided to embrace members of other terrorist groups as part of a strategy to become an umbrella organization and stand close to the “Kurdish national movement.” With the Kurdish national movement, Yılmazkaya was referring to the terrorist acts of the PKK.