Mainstream news on Kurdistan

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: Mainstream news on Kurdistan
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl


Turkey Renew Mandate For Iraq Force
      ANKARA, Turkey (Reuter) - The Turkish parliament Tuesday renewed
permission for a Western air force based in Turkey to patrol the skies of
northern Iraq to protect Iraqi Kurds.

    Parliament voted by 202 to 153 to allow U.S., British and French planes
to use the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey for a further six months
starting June 30.

    Around 80 Western planes enforce a no-fly zone in northern Iraq above the
36th Parallel. They also deter government ground forces from entering
Kurdish-held areas.

    The force, known as Provide Comfort, has been stationed in Turkey since
Iraqi Kurds took control of northern Iraq from Baghdad shortly after the 1991
Persian Gulf War.

    The Turkish parliament's support for the force has waned in recent years
because Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels fighting Ankara have established
bases in northern Iraq in the absence of an Iraqi government presence.

    ``We know the PKK has tried to take advantage of the authority vacuum
that appeared after the Gulf War,'' Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu told
parliament.

    ``But the real issue is how to get rid of the authority vacuum. All the
possibilities except a formula for a lasting and peaceful solution between
the regional people and Iraq's central authority could bring Turkey undesired
results,'' he said.

    Inonu said hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Kurds might flee to the Turkish
border, as happened after government troops attacked the Kurds in 1991, if
Provide Comfort were scrapped.

    About 35,000 Turkish troops swept 25 miles into northern Iraq in March to
strike PKK bases near the border.

    The six-week operation, as well as Turkey's human rights record in the
fight against the PKK at home, has been criticized by Ankara's NATO partners.


    ``Everywhere we go we have to pay a price. Under such pressure the
government says, 'We'll extend Provide Comfort for six months and win some
more time','' main opposition Motherland Party (ANAP) MP Dogancan Akyurek
said.

    Northern Iraq has been split into two zones of Kurdish control since the
two main Kurdish guerrillas factions began fighting each other late last
year.

    A tentative cease-fire declared between the rival Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in April has largely
held.

Ex-Minister Predicts Failure of Democratic Reforms
      By Suna Erdem

    ANKARA, June 27 (Reuter) - A Turkish cabinet minister who quit over the
government's slow democratic reforms said on Tuesday that parliament had no
interest in backing reforms sought by Europe in exchange for a lucrative
trade pact.

    ``There is a complete lack of political will for this,'' Ercan Karakas
told Reuters in an interview. Social democrat Karakas resigned on Friday as
culture minister in the ruling coalition.

    ``Forget making the rooted democratic reform the country really needs, we
cannot even make a few weak improvements. The constitution needs to be
changed from top to bottom, but parliament is not managing to change 21
articles of it.''

    The European Parliament has linked democratic reforms -- long promised by
Prime Minister Tansu Ciller -- to approval of Turkey's coveted customs accord
with the European Union, due to go into force next year.

    Turkey has so far failed to deliver any tangible progress but French
President Jacques Chirac seems confident the European Parliament will give
Ankara the green light when it votes on the trade pact by October.

    Chirac has proposed that Turkey be invited to an EU summit in Madrid in
December for the first time after the customs union is ratified, aides of the
French leader said on Tuesday.

    Members of the Turkish parliament, bogged down by party splits, personal
rivalries and squabbling, have taken two weeks to provisionally approve five
changes out of a 21-amendment liberalisation package to the military-era
constitution.

    ``Amendments that have gone through have been watered down,'' Karakas
said. ``What is happening with the constitution shows that if anything comes
out of this process it will be very weak and not in line with international
democratic norms.''

    Karakas expressed ``no hope'' for Ciller's announced plans to lift
article eight of the tough anti-terror law.

    The article has enraged Western opinion by sending scores of writers and
intellectuals to jail for writings and speeches, mainly perceived as
criticism of the treatment of Turkey's Kurds and state policy against an
11-year-old Kurdish insurgency.

    Ciller has said repeatedly when abroad that article eight was a disgrace
to the country and would be lifted soon.

Chirac: Invite Turkey to Madrid Summit
      CANNES, France, June 27 (Reuter) - French President Jacques Chirac has
proposed that Turkey be invited to a European Union summit for the first time
once the European Parliament ratifies a landmark customs union with Ankara,
aides said on Tuesday.

    Presidential spokeswoman Catherine Colonna told a news conference that
Chirac wanted Spain, when it takes over the EU presidency in July, to make
contact with Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller with a view to possibly
inviting her to the next regular summit in Madrid in December.

    ``He expressed the wish...that once the European Parliament has approved
the customs union, the 15 should plan to invite Turkey with a special status
to one of the next European summits, perhaps the next one,'' she said.

    ``Everything depends on the pace at which things go,'' she added.

    The General Affairs Council approved the historic customs pact in March
but the prospects for ratification remain uncertain because of concern over
human rights in Turkey and the treatment of the Kurdish minority there.

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 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)