ANKARA, April 25 (AFP) - 12h29 - The Dutch head of a European parliament delegation called again Friday for the immediate release of four Turkish Kurdish deputies, including Leyla Zana, who have spent nine years in prison in a case widely criticized as unfair.
The four are being retried in a closely watched case that could have a bearing on Ankara's bid to join the European Union.
"I think they should be released today," said Joost Lagendijk, head of the European parliamentary delegation in Ankara to observe the new proceedings.
"I think they're entitled to that after nine years in prison," Lagendijk said.
Both Lagendijk and the four defendants requested their conditional release pending a new verdict when the case opened late last month.
Zana, 42, and the three others -- Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak -- were jailed for 15 years in 1994, at a time of high tension between Ankara and its restive Kurdish minority, on charges of collaborating with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in its armed struggle for self-rule in southeast Turkey.
The four owe the new trial to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that the first trial was unfair, as well as to a Turkish parliamentary decision authorizing new trials for people whose sentences were condemned by the Strasbourg-based court.
It is the first trial of its kind since the Turkish parliament adopted reforms in January to address numerous shortcomings in its democratic system to bring itself in line with European standards.
EU leaders are due to gather next year to review Turkey's progress and decide whether to open formal membership talks.
NEW YORK (AP) American forces caught a Turkish special forces team trying to sneak into the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, Time magazine reported Thursday on its Web site.
The magazine reported that a dozen Turkish soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes and trailing an aid convoy, were detained Wednesday by the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade.
Col. Bill Mayville, the brigade commander, was quoted as telling Time that he believed the Turkish team was sent in to inflame local ethnic Turks, who already have tense relations with the city's Kurds and Arabs.
''They did not come here with a pure heart,'' Mayville was quoted as saying. ''Their objective is to create an environment that can be used by Turkey to send a large peacekeeping force into Kirkuk.''
U.S. Central Command heard reports of the alleged detention of Turkish forces entering Kirkuk and was looking into them, Lt. Cmdr. Charles Owens told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The magazine reported the Turkish team put up no resistance when they were stopped at a checkpoint. Time said the Turks carried AK-47s, grenades, body armor and night-vision goggles in their cars.
American commanders in the city believe the covert Turkish team was meant to inflame these kind of tensions. "These [Turkish]
forces are tied in to Turkoman groups in the city," says Col Mayville. The 173rd Airborne commanders suspect an amalgam of local Turkoman parties under the banner of the Iraqi Turkoman Front (ITF) were to be used by the covert team to wreak havoc. "In this first convoy was real aid. They'd do this two or three times then money or weapons would have started flowing in. We suspect their role was to strongarm or discipline the members of the ITF. What they're doing is crystallizing the ITF along the Turkish agenda," says Col. Mayville.
By Wednesday U.S. paratroopers were holding 23 people associated with the Turkish Special Forces team. Some were drivers and aid workers. But a dozen of them, says Col. Mayville, were identified as soldiers. "We held them for a night, brought them in, fed them and watched their security. After all," he says wryly, "they are our allies." Early Thursday morning American troops escorted the Turkish commandos back over the border.
STRASBOURG, April 24 (AFP) The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday condemned Turkey for torture following the death of a young Turkish Kurd while in police custody.
Yakup Aktas, a tradesman of Kurdish origin, died in November 1990, a week after he was detained on suspicion of providing money and arms for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Two police officers were subsequently charged with beating him to death during his interrogation, but were acquitted in May 1994 for lack of evidence.
The European court sided with the victim's brother, ruling that Turkey had violated several rights laws, including the ban on torture, the right to life and the right to proper appeal.
The claimant, who filed his appeal in June 1994, was awarded 317,340 euros (350,440 dollars) in damages.
"The Court found it proven beyond reasonable doubt that (Aktas) had been subjected while in police custody to extreme violence which had directly caused his death," the ruling stated.
Two doctors reports "showed that the injuries described had been consistent with mechanical asphyxiation," such as that caused by tightly binding the victim's arms to his chest, the text said.
Given the lack of any hospital record of his death, the court inferred that Aktas had died in police custody and had been "the victim of inhuman and degrading treatment".
The ruling also reproached Turkey for failing to fully cooperate with the court's investigators.
Turkey has been criticised for its human rights record, one of the main obstacles to its long-standing and troubled bid to join the European Union.
It has often come under fire from international rights organisations for a string of violations, including torture and restrictions on personal liberties.
Friday, April 25, 2003 06:11 p.m.
دولت ترکیه باید به خواست کردها توجه کند
عضو شورای رهبری و برادر رهبر زندانی حزب آزادی خلق کرد ترکیه کادک (پ.ک.ک سابق) گفت: دولت ترکیه چاره ای جز توجه و رسیدگی به خواسته کردها ندارد. عثمان اوجالان در پیامی افزود: حزب آزادی خلق کرد حدود 25 سال است که با دولت ترکیه برای احقاق حقوق کردهای این کشور مبارزه می کند و در صورت عدم توجه این دولت مبارزات این حزب و کردها همچنان ادامه خواهد داشت. اوجالان در پیام خود، اضافه کرد: حزب آزادی خلق ترکیه در این سالها با ملایمت با دولت ترکیه برخورد کرده اما دولت این کشور نه تنها به خواسته کردها توجه نکرده بلکه بارها به سرکوبی این حزب با استفاده از روشهای مختلف اقدام کرده است
As Jay Garner, the retired US general charged with administering Iraq, continued his tour of the north on Wednesday, Kurdish and US officials announced a commission to oversee the return of Kurds displaced by the former regime in favour of Arabs.
"There will be a committee later representing all sides under the guidance of the United States," said Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
A US official accompanying Mr Garner said the commission would be similar to one used to undo ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, where a UN co-ordinating body was set up under the Dayton peace accord. After three years' work this has resolved about three-quarters of the 229,235 claims presented.
There are no accepted figures for the number of Kurds displaced in Iraq, though the total may be as high as 500,000. On the ground, "arabisation" has already gone into reverse, amid sporadic reports of intimidation.
At Tapa Chermu, near the Iranian border north-west of Khanaqin, members of the Palani clan returned to their homes at the weekend, 28 years after they were uprooted to camps in Anbar province, near the border with Jordan.
"Watan, watan ('homeland')," said Samir Jamil Habib, a jubilant man in his 60s. "This is where I'd like to die."
"Ten of thousands of Arabs have left," said Abdullah Anwar, mayor of Khanaqin. "They came from the south and from Tikrit and now they have gone back to their own lands. Any problems can be solved - people have kept their title deeds."
Arabisation began in the 1970s, when the ruling Ba'ath party cleared huge areas to drain support for Kurdish guerrillas. In the city of Kirkuk, arabisation was intended to overturn the Kurdish majority in a province rich in oil.
Mr Garner was warmly welcomed when he arrived yesterday in Arbil, headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
"I think things are going incredibly fast, and I think they are going a lot better than has been portrayed," he said. "I have a good feeling about this - I'm sort of a glass half-full guy, not a glass half-empty guy."
In an apparent reference to the more ambivalent welcome he received in Baghdad, as well as anti-US demonstrations during religious festivities in the Shia south, he added: "I think security is getting better, I think public services are getting better, and I think in very short order you'll see a change in the attitudes and will of the people in the south."
The UK government on Wednesday sought to play down expectations that production sites for weapons of mass destruction would be found intact in Iraq. Officials stressed the UK's belief that the deposed regime had spent much of last year hiding such facilities.
Geoff Hoon, defence secretary, however denied that the government - which has staked its credibility on WMD being in Iraq - was being forced to change its tack. Visiting British troops in southern Iraq, Mr Hoon said the government "knew all along the Iraqis were using this vast country as a hiding place".
Mr Hoon also claimed Mr Hussein was probably still in Iraq. Asked if the deposed leader was still in the country, he said: "In the end we don't know, but it is still our best judgment that he is."
IRBIL, KURDISTAN-Iraq, 23/4 2003 (AP) -- Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general overseeing Iraq's reconstruction, acknowledged widespread discontent among Iraqis because of the postwar chaos, but predicted: ``In a very short order you'll see a change in the attitudes.'
``I think things have gone incredibly fast and I think they've gone a lot better than has been portrayed, so I have a good feeling about this,' he said on the second day of a visit to northern Iraq's Kurdish region.
Garner's humanitarian work with the Kurds has made him widely respected among them, and his welcome has been far warmer than it was in Baghdad, where he arrived on Monday to begin full-scale establishment of his Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
In 1991, he directed a U.S. military mission to protect hundreds of thousands of Kurds who fled their homes when Saddam Hussein put down an uprising following the 1991 Gulf War.
Garner acknowledged that security in Iraq has yet to be fully established and that discontent among Iraqis is high in the chaotic aftermath of Saddam's fall, with looters pillaging cities and utilities and municipal services barely working, if at all.
Asked how soon life could return to a semblance of normalcy, Garner said, ``Everything has to be done in a secure environment and ... I think security is getting better every day.'
Anti-American demonstrations have been frequent in Baghdad and the south, but Garner said he believes those passions will cool.
``The majority of people realize we are only going to stay here long enough to start a democratic government for them, we're only going to stay here long enough to get their economy going ... to get their oil flowing back to the people and the revenue back to the people,' he said.
In Irbil, the administrative capital of the Kurdish region, Garner was met by Massoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the two main groups in Kurdish Iraq that have often been at odds. A day earlier, Garner visited Sulaymaniyah, the center of support for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and its leader Jalal Talabani.
On Tuesday, Garner praised the Kurds' efforts to establish democracy as a model for all of Iraq. The Kurds formed a regional government in 1991 under the protection of U.S. jets patrolling northern Iraq's no-fly zone.
He skirted discussions of Kurdish desires for independence -- a sensitive issue for neighboring Turkey, which fears a possible uprising of its own Kurds -- and Talabani said that the Kurds, for now, aspired to be part of a democratic Iraq.
Talabani said a commission would be established to mediate disputes between Arabs and Kurds who were displaced from their homes under Saddam.
ARBIL, Iraq, April 23 (AFP) - 15h30 - Jay Garner, the man with the task of overseeing the post-Saddam reconstruction of Iraq, rallied Kurds on Wednesday to the American vision of democracy on the second day of a triumphant visit to northern Iraq.
"Our purpose here is to create an environment ... where we can have a democratic process where Iraqis can choose their own leaders and ... Iraq has a government that represents the free, elected will of Iraq," he told Kurdish leaders.
The retired US general, known for his blunt talking and folksy manner, was last in Kurdistan 12 years ago following the 1991 Gulf war, when he helped administer aid for Kurds facing a counter-assault by Saddam Hussein's forces.
He arrived here by helicopter, guarded by special forces with machine guns, then toured a school where hundreds of people waved Kurdish, US and British flags as they threw flower petals at him, ululating and chanting his name.
Garner's arrival in the region on Tuesday had been markedly warmer than the at-best polite reception he had received the day before in Baghdad, which has seen almost daily anti-American protests since US troops captured the city on April 9.
Wearing his trademark open-necked shirt at a meeting here of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Garner praised the Kurds for building their own de facto autonomous state within Iraq since the last Gulf war.
"Through your energy and intelligence and with your democratic process, you've done more in the last ten years than was done in the previous 20," the 65-year-old said.
"You can be the model for your brothers and sisters in the south. We have this small moment in time where we can make all of Iraq democratic ... You must grow to work with them to create a great democratic Iraq."
The KDP, based here in Arbil, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), whose headquarters is further north in Suleimanyah, where Garner arrived Tuesday, have controlled most of Iraqi Kurdistan since it was removed from Saddam's control in 1991.
The two parties have a long-standing rivalry that degenerated into civil war in the late 1990s. But they have since been reconciled and last October the full Kurdish parliament convened for the first time in eight years.
Tens of thousands of Kurds were displaced from northern areas that remained under Baghdad as Saddam pursued a policy of Arabization. Many of these are now seeking to return to homes now occupied by Arabs, raising communal tensions particularly in the key oil cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.
PUK leader Jalal Talabani said Wednesday he had agreed with Garner to set up a committee to ensure an orderly return of the displaced. Talabani and KDP leader Massud Barzani both met Garner on Tuesday and again Wednesday.
A US official travelling with Garner said: "What we've asked and tried to get a commitment for, and Talabani said yesterday, was to ask people to pursue things legally and not go back and seize their property by force," he said.
Garner insisted Wednesday that most Iraqis still appreciated the US presence despite a series of anti-American demonstrations.
"I think what you see right now are some staged demonstrations but below that the majority of people are glad we are here," he said.
"One month ago they would not have been able to demonstrate. Demonstrations are one of the properties of freedom. They are free to demonstrate. We don't discourage that."
Garner was later due to move to northern Iraq's main city, Mosul.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003 10:30 p.m.
اعزام نيروهاي نظامي تركيه به عراق
آنكاراـ تركيـه اعـلام كـرد, بـراي انجـام ماموريت هاي صلح باني , نيروي نظامـي بـه عراق اعزام مي كند.
به گزارش خبرگزاري فرانسه, وزيرامورخارجه تركيه گفت : كشورش از پيشنهاد واشنگتن به آنكارا براي اعزام سرباز و كارشناس نظامي به عراق استقبال ميكند.
عبدالله گل گفت : آنكارا هفته آينـده بـه طور رسمي , واشنگتن را از آمادگي خودبراي اعزام سرباز و كارشناس مطلع خواهد كرد.
وي افزود: دولت تركيه پس از اينكه آمريكا درخواست خود را با جزييات دقيـق آن اعـلام كرد , تصميم نهايي را خواهد گرفت.
تركيه پيش از اين اعلام كرده بـود: مـايـل نيست هزينه ماموريت هاي پس ازجنگ درعراق را بپردازد
A Turkish policewoman will appear in court for torture next month in what will be the first trial of a woman officer on such charges in the country.
A prosecutor in the south-eastern province of Mardin has demanded up to eight years in jail for five police officers, one of them a woman, for torturing a female detainee last year.
A forensic report found that Hamdiye Aslan, a mother of five, had been tortured after being taken into police custody in May 2002 in Kiziltepe town, on suspicion of aiding and sheltering armed rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Aslan was sexually abused, given electric shocks, sprayed with pressurized water, beaten with truncheons and kicked in the kidneys, according to the mass-circulation daily Milliyet newspaper.
Torture has long marred Turkey's human rights record and hampered its progress towards much-coveted membership of the European Union.
The government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which came to power last November, has pledged "zero tolerance" of torture.
Earlier this month, the court of appeal upheld jail sentences of up to 11 years, passed on 10 policemen for torturing a group of teenagers and young adults, at the end of a high-profile case closely monitored by the EU and international rights groups.
Sunday, April 20, 2003 11:33 p.m.
آوارگان كرد ايرانی در مرز اردن
سازمان ملل متحد نسبت به بروز بحران بشری در مرز عراق و اردن هشدار داده است. بيشتر آواره های ايرانی در مرز اردن کرد هستند
حدود يک هزار ايرانی و فلسطينی که ناچار به ترک خانمان خود شده اند در بخش بی طرف ميان اردن و عراق در منطقه موسوم به کرمه چادر زده اند و امدادرسانان وضعيت آنان را تشويش آميز توصيف می کنند.
گزارشها حاکی از آن است که برخی از اين اشخاص به زور افراد مسلح عراقی ناچار به ترک خانمان شده اند.
اردن با وجود در خواست سازمان ملل متحد حاضر نشده است به آوارگان اجازه عبور از مرز خود بدهد.
کوفی عنان دبيرکل سازمان ملل گفته است اين افراد ممکن است به آوارگانی در داخل عراق تبديل شوند.
پيتر کسلر، يکی از مسئولان کميساريای عالی پناهندگان سازمان ملل متحد که در اردن حضور دارد در گفت و گو با بخش فارسی بی بی سی شمار آوارگانی را که در مرز اردن گرد آمده اند را بيش از 870 نفر برشمرده که بيش از 130 تن از آنان فلسطينی اند و آنها را بی تابانه در انتظار غذا و ديگر کمکهای بشردوستانه توصيف کرده است.
به گفته آقای کسلر بيش از چهارصد نفراز اين افراد کودکند که تعدادی از اين کودکان پدر و مادر خود را از دست داده اند.
آقای کسلر می افزايد وضعيت اين آوارگان رو به وخامت است؛ برخی از آنان که تازه رسيده اند مشکلات جدی جسمانی دارند و بايد در بيمارستان بستری شوند، زن آبستنی نيز ميان آوارگان حضور دارد که انتظار می رود ظرف چند روز آينده وضع حمل کند، چند فرد سالخورده نيز ميان آوارگان ديده می شود.
آقای کسلر می گويد کردهای ايرانی که اکثريت اين آوارگان را تشکيل می دهند در اردوگاه "تش" در استان انبار در غرب عراق ساکن بوده اند که تا پيش از حمله آمريکا و متحدانش به عراق دوازده هزار کرد ايرانی را در خود جای داده بوده است.
وی به نقل از ايشان می گويد که تعدادی از آنان به دليل تهديد مردم عراقی محل ناچار به ترک خانمان شده اند و بقيه نيز به دليل تمام شدن ذخيره غذاييشان چاره ای جز روانه شدن بسوی مرز اردن نيافته اند.
به گفته آقای کسلر، همه ايرانيهايی که در مرز اردن آواره اند کرد نيستند بلکه حدود شصت نفر از آنان افراد سالخورده يا ميانسالی اند که سابقه پناهندگی در کشورهای اروپايی و آمريکا و کانادا دارند و می خواهند به کشورهايی که قبلاً در آنها پناهنده بوده اند بازگردند.
آن گونه که آقای کسلر می گويد فلسطينيهای آواره با وضعيت وخيمتری بی خانمان شده اند.
او به نقل از آنان می گويد ظرف چند روز گذشته افراد مسلح عراقی به شکلی سازمان يافته به فلسطينيهايی که در محله های بيجی و بلديات در بغداد و همچنين شهرک حريت زندگی می کردند حمله کرده و به آنان گفته اند اگر خانمان خود را رها نکنند مردانشان را کشته و به زنانشان تجاوز خواهند کرد.
آقای کسلر می گويد کارکنان کميساريای عالی پناهندگان سازمان ملل پتو و برخی ديگر از نيازهای اوليه در اختيار آوارگانی که تازه به مرز اردن رسيده اند گذاشته اند و برخی ديگر از مؤسسه های خيريه و امدادرسان نيز به کمک رسانی به ايشان پرداخته اند.
BAGHDAD, April 18 (AFP) - 19h48 - The Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) said it distributed 10,000 free copies of its newspaper in Baghdad on Friday in a gesture to show its hopes for a free and united Iraq.
"We want a federation and a multiparty system and a united Iraq," said KDP official Jamal Mohammed Ali as he handed out copies the Arabic-language Karbat at the Palestine Hotel where the US military and many foreign correspondents here are based.
"It is a message that media here are free and can now tell the truth."
He added the paper had opened five distribution offices in Baghdad this week and that the KDP aimed to become a major weekly in the capital with a print run of some 100,000 copies. It was published in the northern city of Arbil.
The KDP led by Massoud Barzani has controlled an enclave in northern Iraq with its rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan since the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf war.
Distributing its newspaper in the Iraqi capital would have been unthinkable under Saddam's regime, which kept the ethnic minority under its thumb and killed thousands of Kurds in brutal crackdowns following the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and the 1991 conflict.
Saturday, April 19, 2003 12:17 p.m.
راه حل طالبانی برای رهايی از 'بن بست غم انگيز'
جلال طالبانی رهبر اتحاديه ميهنی کردستان عراق طی نامه ای سرگشاده به سی تن از اعضای سابق سازمان مجاهدين خلق پاسخ گفته است که بتازگی طی نامه ای از او برای نجات جان بازماندگان اين سازمان در عراق کمک خواسته بودند.
نامه سرگشاده ای که آقای طالبانی به آن پاسخ گفته در واقع خطاب به دبيرکل سازمان ملل متحد نوشته شده و رونوشت آن، علاوه بر وی برای رئيس جمهور آمريكا، نخست وزير بريتانيا، سازمان عفو بين الملل، حزب دمكرات كردستان عراق و فرمانده نيروهای تحت رهبری آمريکا در عراق نيز ارسال شده است.
پاسخ آقای طالبانی که متن آن از طريق برخی منابع خبری اينترنتی انتشار يافته لحنی بسيار دوستانه دارد و در آن، رهبری سازمان مجاهدين خلق را دارای نقشی مخرب و مزدورانه در خدمت به حکومت ساقط شده حزب بعث در عراق و دشمنی با مردم کرد دانسته است.
در اين نامه با اشاره به نقش سازمان مجاهدين خلق در سرکوب قيام کردهای عراق در سال 1991 به خانواده های آن دسته از اعضای اين سازمان که هنوز در عراق مانده اند اطمينان داده شده است که مردم کرد و اتحاديه ميهنی کردستان عراق قصد انتقامجويی و خونريزی ندارند.
وی خبر داده است که تشکيلات تحت رهبری اش در کردستان عراق گفت و گوهای سازنده ای با بقايای سازمان مجاهدين خلق در عراق انجام داده و دو گزينه برای رهايی ازآنچه بر آن نام "بن بست غم انگيز" نهاده است، پيش رويشان نهاده اند.
اين دو گزينه حاکی از اين است که مجاهدين خلق بايد ميان ايران و آمريکا يکی را برگزينند.
جلال طالبانی نوشته که حاضر است برای آن دسته از اعضای سازمان مجاهدين خلق که خواهان بازگشت به ميهنشان باشند از مقامهای ايران درخواست عفو کند و برای آنهايی نيز که خواهان اقامت در ديگر کشورهای خاورميانه يا اروپا باشند با مسئولان آمريکايی وارد گفت و گو شود.
آقای طالبانی اعلام کرده که افراد تحت فرماندهی او در جريان انتقال اعضای سازمان مجاهدين خلق به خارج از عراق نه تنها به روی آنان آتش نخواهند گشود بلکه "جوانان و فرزندان مردم ايران را همچون جوانان و فرزندان خلق خود حمايت و پاسداری" خواهند کرد.
او در عين حال نوشته که اعضای سازمان مجاهدين خلق در مقابل خلق بدهکارند نه طلبکار و از دريافت کنندگان نامه اش خواسته است به آنان توصيه کنند به جای آنچه وی لجاجت و خودفريبی و تهمت پراکنی خوانده است به جاده واقعبينی و تدبير و دورانديشی و مصلحتجويی گام نهند.
آقای طالبانی تأکيد کرده است که اتحاديه ميهنی کردستان عراق با بازماندگان سازمان مجاهدين خلق در عراق دشمنی ندارد و برنامه ای عليه آنها در دست ندارد چرا که آنچه وی جنايت عليه خلق کرد خوانده مستقيماً از جانب دستگاه رهبری سازمان مجاهدين خلق بوده است.
سازمان مجاهدين خلق که مهمترين گروه مسلح مخالف حکومت جمهوری اسلامی در ايران به شمار می رود از سال 1986 در کشور عراق استقرار يافت که در آن هنگام با ايران در حال جنگ بود و با پشتيبانی حکومت صدام حسين در اين کشور پايگاههای نظامی برپا کرد.
نيروهای تحت رهبری آمريکا در پی حمله به عراق، در روزهای اخير پايگاههای اين سازمان را نيز هدف حملات خود قرار دادند که بنابر گزارشها به کشته شدن تعدادی از اعضای آن انجاميد.
ژنرال وينسنت بروکس، سخنگوی نيروهای آمريکايی در منطقه عراق و خليج فارس در عين حال از مذاکراتی با بازماندگان اعضای اين سازمان در عراق جهت چاره انديشی در مورد آينده آنان خبر داده است.
London (KurdishMedia.com) 15 April 2002: As part of the campaign against Kurds, the Arabic Al-Arabiya Satellite TV station interviewed members of the Iranian Mujahideen Khalq armed opposition group (People’s Mujahideen - MKO), which was harboured by Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. They are currently active in Iran-Iraq border regions.
The objective of the interview was clear: to condemn Kurds for the attack on MKO.
In a cheaply produced news item by Al-Arabiya, a member of the MKO said that those who attacked them were "speaking Farsi with a Kurdish accent."
This is part of an ongoing campaign of sleaze by the Arab media and Arab regimes against Kurds for partnering with the coalition forces to liberate Iraq from Saddam’s regime.
MKO have been acting as part of the Saddam’s oppression apparatus and during the 1991 they massacred thousands of Kurds and Shiia Arabs.
MKO is on the international list of terrorist organisations.
The former defeated Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit said yesterday that the Turkish government should dispatch Turkish troops to Southern kurdistan as soon as possible.
Meeting the leader of Iraqi Turkmen Support Group, Metin Karaaltun, in Ankara, Ecevit said that the ugly treatment of Turkmens being perpetrated by Kurdish parties, PUK and KDP, in Southern Kurdistan was very sad.
"I neither trust nor believe the United States on this issue," said Ecevit, stressing that despite its promise the US has not been able to provide security for the Turkmens. Insisting that the government should immediately take necessary measures of deploying Turkish troops into the Kurdish city Kirkuk and Mosul.
Ecevit added that he was not satisfied with the statements of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul concerning the Turkmens' security.
In related news, Turkish Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal said yesterday that the new shape of Southern Kurdistan to be established after the war would not please Turkey. He added, "Even if Turkish troops had joined the American against Saddam regime, Turkey still would not have had any role in the restructuring of Iraq and in Kirkuk's future, anyway."
Speaking at his party's parliamentary group meeting, Baykal said that the promises given to Turkey for Iraq's future have not been kept.
"If we had launched our troops on northern Iraq, the promises would not have been forgotten so easily. Troops would be there as a guarantee of the promises given Turkey."
Ankara has issued a warning to the Kurdish parties in Southern
Kurdistan not to expand the territory under their control and not to
oppress the rights of the minority Turkomen community in the region.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry called in the Ankara-based
representatives of the two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), on Wednesday.
Both the KDP's Safeen Dizayi and the PUK's Bahros Galali said after
the meeting that the Turkish Foreign Ministry officials had reminded
them that Ankara had drawn a so called red line, beyond which neither
party should try to expand their territory in Southern Kurdistan.
According to experts on the Turkish military, Turkey has been
impotent in carrying out its threats against Kurdistan for fear of
angering the Americans.
By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer
SALAHUDDIN, Iraq - Kurdish forces are helping U.S. troops secure Mosul and will leave the predominantly Arab northern city once resistance ends, a Kurdish spokesman said Thursday.
"There is still tension in Mosul," Hoshyar Zebari of the Kurdish Democratic Party told reporters at the party's mountain stronghold in northern Iraq (news - web sites). "Our forces are trying to assist the Americans."
He said that when their work with U.S. forces is done, the Kurds will depart Iraq's third-largest city. The Kurds only came into Mosul "at the request of U.S. forces," Zebari said.
He said there was still resistance from "die-hard Baath Party members" in Mosul, adding that several members of Saddam Hussein former regime were spotted in the city this week.
U.S. troops are also dealing with the outrage of Mosul residents after a number of Iraqis were killed in confrontations with American forces this week — according to local hospital officials, 14 people on Tuesday and three on Wednesday.
U.S. Central Command said a gunbattle Tuesday killed about seven Iraqis, some of whom were trying to storm a U.S. position.
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks said the violence Wednesday involved an exchange of fire between Marines and some suspected bank robbers. But residents said some of those hit by bullets were doing no wrong, including a police officer trying to maintain order.
One man whose son was wounded called for Saddam's return. "At least there was security," said Zahra Yassin, at a hospital with his son.
Zebari said he was aware of possible conflicts between the Kurdish forces and Arabs in Mosul, where Kurds are a minority. "We are sensitive to their feelings," he said of Arabs.
The Kurdish Democratic Party, led by Massoud Barzani, is one of two parties that control separate sectors of the autonomous region of northern Iraq established in 1991 under U.S. protection. The Baghdad-controlled Kurdish oil city of Kirkuk was the great prize of the war for the Kurds.
"The concerns now are to get some authority in Mosul and Kirkuk," Zebari said of the cities that fell last week to Kurdish and American forces.
Small numbers of Kurdish fighters moved into Mosul last week; violence and vandalism quickly escalated. U.S. troops arrived and improved security, but political and ethnic dissension has apparently contributed to growing violence.
Zebari, asked about accusations that Kurds are responsible for looting and vandalism in Mosul, said his group was quick to condemn those activities.
"We have set up a committee to collect the properties (and) vehicles ... to be returned to their owners," he said.
Zebari said several senior members of Saddam's leadership were still at large in Mosul.
For the first time in three days, there was no trouble Thursday between U.S. forces and the people of Mosul.
Mashaan al-Juburi, an ally of Barzani, assumed the governorship after the city fell. Some residents believe he was installed by the Kurds or the Americans, which Zebari denied.
"We assured the Mosul people that this is not occupation," he said. "We don't decide who is chosen as governor or mayor."
Ideally, he said, Mosul would have a predominantly Arab city council.
KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi Kurds discovered near the northern city of Kirkuk what they suspect might be a mass grave according to initial evidence, an AFP correspondent at the site reported.
The suspected mass grave, south of here, is more like a collection of about 2,000 to 2,500 mounds and about a dozen unmarked concrete tombs over an area of about two hectares (six acres).
According to the Patriotic Union for Kurdistan (PUK) party, which seized control of Kirkuk last week, the site might be for victims of deposed-President Saddam Hussein anti-Kurd campaign in 1988, which Kurds refer to as Anfal and which includes the infamous chemical gas attack on Halabja.
PUK authorities were led to the site by the local population. It is about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) on the road toward Saddam's former powerbase of Tikrit in the heart of an industrial zone and right behind a military camp accessed by a bumpy road.
The road to the camp is littered with burnt tanks and destroyed military vehicles, a reminder of the punishing US air strikes unleashed on the Iraqi regime since the start of the war on March 20.
Eyewitnesses said US soldiers dug up the remains of a woman in civilian clothes from one of the graves, which might exclude the possibility that this is a military burial grounds.
There was another empty grave nearby, but no information was available on what was found there.
Kurds, who live mostly in northern Iraq , estimate that about 180,000 people were killed and 4,500 villages destroyed during Saddam's Kurdish purge. Kirkuk has particularly suffered from the regime's forced Arabization drive.
ARBIL, 15/4 2003 — Turkey's formerly separatist Kurdish Workers' party (PKK), regarded by the US as a terrorist organisation, wants to establish a dialogue with Washington on joining its campaign of democratisation in the Middle East, according to a member of the movement's collective leadership.
Nizamettin Tas, a member of the nine-member leadership council, has outlined a radical shift in the strategy of a movement that fought a 14-year war against Turkish forces in the south-east of the country, which cost 30,000 lives.
Mr Tas, interviewed by the Financial Times in northern Iraq, said the movement had shelved its ambitions for a unified state for all Kurds and would instead campaign for equal rights for all citizens in Turkey.
The shift in policy has been under way since the movement's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was captured by Turkey and sentenced to death in 1999.
The PKK changed its name last year to Kadek, Congress for Freedom and Democracy, although Mr Tas sticks doggedly to the old initials.
After his capture, Mr Ocalan called on his supporters to lay down their arms and turn to political activity.
But Mr Tas said the movement had 10,000 fighters in the mountains of northern Iraq, ready to resume the armed struggle if nec-essary.
Their presence has created an uneasy relationship with Iraqi Kurdish parties and the PKK has fought them in the past.
Mr Tas claimed Turkey tried to persuade the PKK three months ago to renew the conflict with the Iraqi Kurds in order to provide Ankara with a pretext to intervene in northern Iraq. In return, the government offered to make political concessions to Turkish Kurds, he said.
"We said they should first give us freedom and then we would act as responsible Turkish citizens."
Mr Tas's comments reflect both the PKK's belief that the US controls the fate of the region since the overthrow of the Iraqi regime and its desire to be seen as being on the winning side.
"The Kurds can play a big role in favour of democracy, not only in Iraq but also in Syria, Turkey and Iran," he said.
"We believe the US cannot work on its own. It also needs us."
Explaining how the traditionally Marxist-Leninist PKK could seek an understanding with the US, he said: "Middle East politics has changed. Old enemies are now friends and friends are now enemies. It's not only we who have changed. The US supported Saddam for 15 years and they also changed."
The PKK wants to play on US disillusionment over Turkey's lack of co-operation in the Iraq war to urge Washington to push for an end to anti-Kurdish discrim-ination.
"Turkey has no democratic tradition," said Mr Tas.
"They can't believe the Ottoman empire is over. They try to assert their own rights in the Balkans and yet they don't even want the Kurds to have their rights in Iraq.
"But what has Turkey got to do with what happens in Mosul or in Arbil?"
LONDON, April 15 (AFP) - 2h29 - Turkey's formerly separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered to be a terrorist group by Washington, wants to open dialogue with the United States and work towards democracy, a leading member told the Financial Times Tuesday.
"We said they should first give us freedom and then we would act as responsible Turkish citizens," said Nizamettin Tas, a member of the PKK's nine-member leadership council.
"The Kurds can play a big role in favour of democracy, not only in Iraq but also in Syria, Turkey and Iran," he said.
The conflict between the PKK and the Turkish government cost the lives of over 36,000 people between 1984 and 1999, when the PKK said they would seek a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish question.
"We believe the US cannot work on its own. It also needs us," he said.
The Turkish army, however, has brushed aside the PKK's truce as a ploy and continues to pursue the rebels.
"Turkey has no democratic tradition," Tas told the Financial Times.
"They can't believe the Ottoman empire is over. They try to assert their own rights in the Balkans and yet they don't even want the Kurds to have their rights in Iraq," he said.
"But what has Turkey got to do with what happens in Mosul or Arbil" -- two cities in northern Iraq taken by Iraqi Kurdish forces and US marines during the war in Iraq -- he asked.
Turkey repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily if Kurdish forces remained in control of Mosul and other northern Iraqi cities.
Iraqi Kurdish forces withdrew Sunday from the northern Iraq cities they had captured in line with assurances given by the United States.
Turkey is concerned that a move towards independence by Iraqi Kurds could spur unrest among its own sizeable Kurdish population, which fought a 15-year rebellion for independence from Ankara.
On 12 April 2003 the Secretary-general of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK Mr Jalal Talabani made a historic visit to Kirkuk and held a meeting at the offices of Kirkuk governorate with the representatives of Kurds, Turkoman, Arabs and Chaldo-Assyrians in the city.
Mr Talabani stated that the aim of his visit was "to clarify some truths with you for the purpose of consolidating fraternity, security and tranquillity and, God willing, to end all the phenomena of looting and disorder with the participation and cooperation of all groups."
Mr Talabani stressed that Kirkuk is the city of multi-national fraternity because it is the city of Kurds, Turkomans, Arabs and Chaldo-Assyrians. This city must be the symbol of fraternity of peoples of Iraq and of real Iraqi citizenship based on equality."
Mam Jalal added, "The [toppled] regime implemented policy of discrimination and division among the Iraqis. It developed the policy which is known as Arabization. This meant throwing out the Kurds and Turkomans from their places and stripping them of the right of citizenship in this city and forced some Arab tribes and groups to settle in this city. This policy was against Islam and against fraternity of Kurds, Arabs and against all the international human rights’ laws."
Mam Jalal added, "We support the rights of Turkomans more than we support the rights of Kurds because the Turkomans have suffered a great injustice. The Iraqi government has not even recognised Turkomans as an ethnic group. That is why we must stress this point until we achieve real equality."
He stated, "We as Kurds have a good relationship with Turkey and we have taken into account Turkey’s concerns while acting in Kirkuk. But when we act as Iraqis this is another issue. The Iraqis consider Turkey, Syria and Iran as their neighbours. When we were a number of parties we had relations with these countries. But when the democratic Iraqi state is established we will not allow any one to say a word about Iraq. Iraq is an independent sovereign state. Its peoples determine the future of Iraq and its shape. We will not allow our neighbours to interfere, for example if Syria says, "Mogul is an Arab city," Turkey says, "Kirkuk is a Turkoman city, "and the Iranians say, "Karbala and Najaf are Persian cities, ". These statements will not be accepted.
He said, "These countries must talk with the democratic Iraqi state after it has been established. He gave an example, "If Syria opens Mosul file, the Kurds will also open Qamishli file. If the Iranians open the door of Karbala and Najaf, the Kurds will open the doors of Sinandaj and Kirmashan. If Turkey opens the door of Kirkuk, the Kurds will open the door of Dyarbakr and other cities. This will lead to anarchy in the Middle East.
Mam Jalal reiterated, "We want a united Iraq based on federation or any other option. The Iraqi parliament, which will be elected freely, will decide this issue. No one outside Iraq is entitled to say, "No."
He said, "A number of peshmarga will stay in Kirkuk for the protection of district at the request of coalition forces. Apart from this no peshmargas will stay in the city. We withdrew a large number yesterday and today we will withdraw the rest."
He said, "We have proposed the formation of a committee from Kurds, Turkomans, Arabs and Chaldo-Assyrians under the supervision of the US to undertake the administration of Kirkuk until local or parliamentary elections are held or a new government is formed in Baghdad."
Mam Jalal pointed out, "Every Iraqi citizen is entitled to settle in any part of Iraq provided that this will not violate other people’s rights."
Then Mam Jalal listened to the views of a number of Arab and Turkoman brothers and answered their questions. He highly appreciated their proposals and demands and promised them necessary measures will be taken to strengthen the spirit of fraternity and peace and security in Kirkuk.
In the meeting Mr Faraydun Abd-al-Kadir, minister of interior, stated, " We follow up the private and other [looted] vehicles. So far we have recovered about 30 vehicles and a lot of private property. We have instructed tightening inspection at checkpoints outside and inside Kirkuk. Now there are several patrols guarding all districts to protect the peace and security of citizens.
At the meeting it was decided to form a committee of 21 people from all formations of Kirkuk to undertake the civil administration of the City.
According to the plan of the War Academy, which trains cadres for the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), the Kurds must be finished off by the year 2010 by causing them to fight one another. OZGUR POLITIKA obtained the TSK's "Northern Iraq 2010" plan.
By RONi ALASOR / CEMAL UCAR
It has come out that the Turkish military, famed for its "Andic" (memorandum) plan aimed at conspiring against the democratic public, intellectuals, and politicians in Turkey, has prepared another memorandum for South [Iraqi] Kurdistan. It is brought out in military reports that Turkey, which is occupying South Kurdistan by carrying out military operations and at the same time benefiting from military, political, and intelligence support from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democrat Party (KDP), is inciting enmity between the Kurds there. The "South Kurdistan Memorandum" prepared by the Military Academies Command foresees causing the Kurds to become enemies of one another within a 14-year time span.
The War Academies Command, which produces graduates for the Turkish Armed Forces and plays an important role in determining Turkey's military strategy, sets out plans in its strategy book entitled "Northern Iraq 2010" to "finish off" the PKK by "prevention" of alliances between the KDP and PUK and other Kurdish parties in South Kurdistan. This in-service report has served to uncover that Turkey, which has appeared to be a "mediator" in negotiations between the KDP and PUK in the Dublin, Ankara, and Washington process, has actually been striving for years to achieve just the opposite.
The foreword of the analysis by Col. Yilmaz Tezcan, PhD., chairman of the main administrative branch of the Land War Academy, was written by Commander Atilla Ates, the land forces commander who threatened Syria with war in September 1998 while he was in Hatay.
Ates, who was Commander of the War Academies in 1996, when the analysis was written, calls in his foreword for the concerned offices in Turkey to "make use" of the book, and continues to say the following: "It is very important that threats against Turkey's development be determined beforehand and that the necessary precautions be taken." The book which was prepared in April 1996 and is presented as an analysis to serve as a reference to all of Turkey's strategic institutions lists "precautions" to be taken against the Kurds one after the other.
'Let there be no Kurdish unity'
It comes out in the War Academy's analysis that Turkey's Kurdish policy is entirely based on division of the Kurds and on them being in conflict with one another. Actions that the state must take in South Kurdistan are listed as follows: "A unit to coordinate all the organizations that are carrying out activities against Northern Iraq must be established and, rather than having those persons in a position of leadership in this region meeting directly with the President or the Prime Minister, they must suffice with meeting with the chairman of this unit. So-called support given by these same persons must be prevented from becoming a matter of bargaining in the struggle against outlaws. Additionally, alliances that the Kurdish groups in the region (the KDP, PUK, etc.) might form amongst themselves must be prevented."more...
The leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Jalal Talabani, in Khaneqin on Friday called on the people to stop their looting of cities, warning that the Patriotic Union will punish those found guilty of taking advantage of the current situation, the PUK satellit TV Kurdsat reported.
Addressing the people while visiting the liberated city of Khaneqin, Talabani praised its residents for their cooperation with US forces and Kurdish Peshmergas in liberating the city.
The TV channel quoted the PUK leader as saying "the defense of our homeland and resistance to aggressors is our main
duty."
A Kurd holds a portrait of Kurdish leader Jalan Talabani in the centre of the Southern Kurdistan city of Kirkuk April 12, 2003. The man stands outside the building where Talabani held talks with the U.S. military over the handover of control of the city. Kurdish fighters continue to control most of the city after Iraqi forces collapsed on Thursday, but the U.S. military is gradually increasing its presence.
ISTANBUL, April 13 (AFP) - 14h22 - Iraqi Kurdish forces have withdrawn from Kirkuk and Mosul in northern Iraq in line with assurances given by th United States after the two oil cities fell, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Sunday.
"The forces which were there have withdrawn," Gul told Turkish television channel CNN-Turk, without elaborating.
He added that Ankara was monitoring the situation across the border in Iraq very closely. Turkey is concerned that a move towards independence by Iraqi Kurds could spur unrest among its own sizeable Kurdish population, which fought a 15-year rebellion for independence from Ankara.
"We want tranquillity to be assured and for that we are in contact with the Americans if necessary and with the British if necessary," Gul said.
He added that the heads of the two Kurdish parties controlling part of northern Iraq -- Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Jalal Talabani who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) -- were also in permanent contact with the ministry.
Gul said he had discussed the situation with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw by telephone on Saturday.
"There is always a risk of clashes in Iraq, the biggest being between Arabs and Kurds," said Gul.
Turkey has repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily in northern Iraq if Kurdish forces remain in control of Kirkuk and Mosul.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell assured Gul last week that Washington would replace Kurdish fighters in the two cities with US troops.
