EU PARLIAMENT REPORT SAYS TURKEY SLOW ON PROMISED LEGAL REFORMS
Katerina Ossenova at 11:16 AM ET
JURIST
Aug 6 2006
[JURIST] The Foreign Affairs Committee [official website] of the
European Parliament [official website] approved a report Monday taking
Turkey to task for slow progress on a variety of legal and other
reforms agreed to by Ankara as part of its bid [EU backgrounder] for
membership in the European Union [JURIST news archive]. Among other
things, Turkey was criticized [press release] for its “persistent
shortcomings in areas such as freedom of expression, religious and
minority rights, the role of the military, policing, women’s rights,
trade union rights and cultural rights.”
The parliamentary committee also called for Turkey to acknowledge
responsibility for the Armenian genocide [JURIST news archive] that
took place during World War One, an admission Turkey has until now
rejected. On the positive side, however, the report also acknowledged
Turkey’s progress [EU Observer report] in opening the first chapter
of EU legislation, introducing new laws to fight corruption and
broadcasting in minority Kurdish.
The text of the report will be debated by the full European Union
Parliament [official website] in September and a formal progress report
on Turkey’s accession progress is due on October 24; the EU has urged
Turkey to make tangible improvements by that time. The European Union
Parliament has never vetoed a past accession bid but if the reform
process is not “reinvigorated,” the accession talks could be placed
on hold.

TURKEY VOTES TO DEPLOY TROOPS IN LEBANON
Ya Libnan, Lebanon
Aug 6 2006
Beirut & Ankara- Turkey became the second Muslim country to commit
troops to Lebanon to monitor a tense cease-fire between Israel and
Hezbollah after a parliament vote in favor of the deployment despite
widespread protests.
Parliament voted 340-192 in favor of the deployment with one lawmaker
abstaining. The decision came more than two hours after U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Ankara. The government has
not specified the number of troops. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul
said the number of Turkish troops is not likely to exceed 1,000.
Many Turks regard the expanded U.N. peacekeeping mission as a dangerous
adventure that could lead to clashes with fellow Muslims.
But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party insisted on
contributing to an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force arguing that it
would raise European Union-membership aspirant Turkey’s profile on
the international stage.
Armenians in Lebanon protested against Turkish UN peacekeepers
Lebanese Armenians demonstrated in front of the United Nations House
in Beirut, Lebanon on Aug. 31, 2006 against the participation of the
Turkish troops in the peacekeeping force in Lebanon. Armenians say
up to 1.5 million Armenians died or were killed over several years
during World War I as part of a genocidal campaign to force them out
of eastern Turkey.
Top Picture: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left,
talks with his deputy and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul during a
meeting at the parliament in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2006

AUTHOR FACES JAIL FOR SAYING HERO DRESSED AS WOMAN
>From Suna Erdem in Istanbul
The Times/UK
September 05, 2006
THE author of this summer’s Turkish bestseller is to stand trial for
allegedly insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the country’s revered
founding father, in her popular revisionist biography of Latife,
his wife.
The case is the latest in a series of high-profile lawsuits initiated
against writers and intellectuals that has brought attention to the
shortcomings of the supposedly reformed Turkish legal system with
regard to freedom of expression in the European Union candidate
country.
Ipek Calislar, the respected journalist and writer, has been charged
by an Istanbul prosecutor over an anecdote in Latife Hanim in which
Ataturk dons a woman’s chador to leave his besieged house with a
party of women and children, bringing back reinforcements to foil an
assassination attempt. Latife remains inside and communicates with
the attackers to give them the impression that Ataturk is still there.
The previously unrecorded version of the attack by “Lame Osman”,
which took place in April 1923, was told to Mrs Calislar by one of
Latife’s surviving relatives, who heard it from her sister, Vecihe,
an eyewitness.
However, it aroused the ire of a reader of Hurriyet newspaper, which
ran extracts of the book. The reader, Huseyin Tugrul Pekin, applied
to the prosecutor ‘s office in the Istanbul district of Bagcilar,
on the grounds that “To claim and write that Mustafa Kemal Pasha,
whose courage no man, nor any of us, could dare to doubt, did such a
thing is the greatest insult to him, his nation and particularly to
myself”. Mrs Calislar now faces 4½ years in jail for infringing the
special laws in place to protect Ataturk. The trial begins on October
5. An editor of Hurriyet will also be tried.
Mrs Calislar said that her book was not intended to belittle
Ataturk, lamenting that “the most striking report in the book for our
male-dominated society turned out to be of Ataturk disguising himself
in a chador in order to evade an assassination attempt”. She told The
Times: “If a leader is under siege, his ability to break this siege
with an ingenious method does not diminish him .”
Mrs Calislar’s account of Ataturk’s wife overturns the long-held
belief that Latife was a shrewish woman whose tantrums ended their
marriage. Instead, we get the portrait of a Western-educated woman
who spoke several European and Oriental languages, played the piano
to concert standard and was a driving force behind many of Ataturk’s
reforms for the emancipation of women, including giving them the vote
well before some EU countries. The book has had nine print runs in
two months.
Mrs Calislar joins Elif Safak, who will go on trial next month over her
popular novel The Bastard of Istanbul, in which a fictional Armenian
character refers to “Turkish butchers” who killed large numbers of
Armenians in Turkey during the First World War. Similar charges of
“insulting Turkishness” also put Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s most famous
author, in the dock this year. Perihan Magden, a journalist, stood
trial for her support of conscientious objection.
Mrs Calislar said that Turkey did not deserve such trials as hers. Most
are thrown out of court but the violent environment created outside
the courthouse makes writers’ lives very difficult, she added. At
Mr Pamuk’s trial, supporters were heckled not just by protesters but
also by violent nationalist lawyers in the courtroom itself.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Government points to the
high acquittal rate from these trials. Ms Magden and Mr Pamuk were
both acquitted, but a High Court decision this month to convict a
Turkish-Armenian journalist on similar charges proved that the show
trials are not just empty threats.
–Boundary_(ID_yh/3XYACVLp0SiorIbL9lg)–

MEPS: TURKEY MUST RECOGNISE CYPRUS AND OPEN ITS BORDERS TO CYPRIOT VESSELS
Financial Mirror, Cyprus
Cyprus News Agency
Aug 5 2006
The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee urged Turkey to
recognize the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state since May 1,
2004, and open its borders to Cypriot vessels and airplanes.
In a report adopted on Monday, the Committee urges Turkey “to take
concrete steps for the normalization of bilateral relations with
Cyprus as soon as possible” and refers to the EU Council declaration
of 21 September 2005, which said that continuing negotiations would
depend on Turkey opening its borders to Cypriot vessels and airplanes
and that the recognition of Cyprus is a necessary component of the
negotiating process.
Regarding Cyprus itself, MEPs welcomed the meeting between the leader
of the Greek Cypriot community Tassos Papadopoulos and the leader
of the Turkish Cypriot community Mehmet Ali Talat, that led to the
agreement of 8 July, 2006.
The Foreign Affairs Committee called on Turkey to recognize the
Armenian genocide as a precondition for its EU accession and although
welcoming the start of the accession negotiations with Turkey, it
expressed regret that the reform process in Turkey has slowed down.
The report, prepared by Camiel Eurlings (EPP-ED, NL) and adopted
by 53 votes in favour to six against with eight abstentions, notes
“persistent shortcomings” in areas such as freedom of expression,
religious and minority rights, the role of the military, policing,
women’s rights, trade union rights and cultural rights. It urges
Turkey to “reinvigorate” the reform process.
MEPs repeated that negotiations do no lead automatically to accession
and said that whether or not negotiations are successfully concluded,
Turkey must remain “fully anchored in European structures.”
It also called for a lowering of the threshold of ten percent of
the votes below which political parties cannot enter the Turkish
parliament.
The text will be debated by the whole Parliament during the EP plenary
session of 25 – 28 September.
Before the start of the vote, Eurlings said that “unfortunately,
reforms have clearly slowed down” and expressed hope that the Turkish
government would regard his report “as a signal and an incentive to
reintroduce the vigorous speed of reform it had shown in the year
before accession negotiations started.”
President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Talat
agreed on July 8th 2006, during a meeting here in the presence of
UN Undersecretary General for political affairs Ibrahim Gambari,
to begin a process of bicommunal discussions on issues that affect
the day to day life of the people and concurrently those that concern
substantive issues, both contributing to a comprehensive settlement
to the Cyprus problem.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT REPORT CRITICAL OF TURKEY
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Aug 5 2006
The report was also damning in its condemnation of the terrorist
group the PKK, which has stepped up its activities targeting Turkey.
Guncelleme: 21:36 TSÝ 05 Eylul 2006 SalýSTRASBOURG – The European
Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs has adopted a report
prepared by Christian Democrat MEP Camiel Eurlings that criticises
Turkey’s slow pace of implementing reforms as part of its European
Union accession process.
In a vote held Monday evening, 52 committee members voted in favour
of accepting the report, while six voted against and eight abstained.
A general session of the European parliament will vote on the report
sometime between September 25 and 28.
The report said that Turkey has slowed down its program of putting
in place reforms required by the EU as part of its membership process.
It also called on Turkey to recognise the so called genocide committed
by the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian citizens. The report
also claimed that Turkey committed genocide against Pontus Greeks
and Syrians.
The slow pace of enacting reforms strengthening human rights, freedoms
of expressions, and religious rights for minorities was also cited
in the report.
–Boundary_(ID_YGJpizyXdYfWaA6LpVdSww)–

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY REPORT NOT BINDING ON TURKEY: ERDOGAN
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Aug 5 2006
Turkey’s position on the so-called Armenian genocide is clear, the
Prime Minister said.
Guncelleme: 21:36 TSÝ 05 Eylul 2006 SalýANKARA – Turkey’s Prime
Minister has dismissed elements of a report adopted by the European
Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on his country’s progress
towards meeting the criteria of European Union membership.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the European Parliament
was dreaming if it felt that Turkey would change its position on issues
such as accepting claims that the Ottoman Empire had carried out an
act of genocide against its Armenian population during World War One.
“The resolutions adopted by the European Parliament are not binding,”
Erdogan said during a press conference in the Turkish capital. “We
have not accepted anything about the so-called Armenian genocide. Our
stance on that issue is obvious.”
The report, tabled Monday evening and approved by the EP’s
Foreign Affairs Committee, chided Turkey for not doing enough to
strengthen human rights, freedom of expression and religious rights of
minorities. It also had articles added to it saying that recognition
by Turkey of the so-called Armenian genocide should be a condition
of Ankara’s accession process.
–Boundary_(ID_MklfSi9TzQOSDxIgFEjfqg)–

EP REPORT: “ANKARA’S NEGOTIATIONS MAY COME TO A HALT”
Press Review
Turkish Press
Aug 5 2006
A new report prepared by European Parliament Turkey Rapporteur Camiel
Eurlings harshly criticizes Turkey, claiming that it isn’t ready for
the European Union membership. A warning that Ankara’s negotiations
could slow down or even stop if Turkey doesn’t open its ports and
harbors to Greek Cyprus is the most important part of the report. The
report also states that improvements in freedom of expression have not
been satisfactory, and it adds that neighborly diplomatic relations
should be opened with Armenia without any preconditions.
Meanwhile, EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Commission Co-Chair Joost
Lagendijk criticized the report’s language and that the EU should
fulfill its commitments to the Turkish Cypriots.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BRUSSELS STALLS ON CYPRUS TO KEEP TURKEY TALKS
MSNBC
Aug 5 2006
All Financial Times NewsBrussels is seeking to prevent a complete
breakdown in Turkey’s 43-year-quest to join the European Union by
deferring one of the most explosive issues until after the country’s
elections next year.
Officials fear that with the pace of reform slowing in Turkey and
worries continuing within the EU about further enlargement, Turkey’s
membership talks might never start again if they were to stop now.
But a dispute with Cyprus, which is an EU member state but is not
recognised by Turkey, threatens to bring the whole process to a halt.
“We need a plan B to limit the damage and avoid a complete suspension
of negotiations, because that would kill the momentum,” said a senior
Commission official. “We have to find ways and means to muddle through
until after the Turkish elections.”
The EU has given Ankara a deadline of the end of this year to open
up its ports and airports to Cyprus. But Turkey has declared it has
no intention of doing so, because of the EU’s failure to end the
isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community in the north of the island.
President Jacques Chirac of France has warned Turkey that membership
talks will be jeopardised if Ankara fails to comply with the EU’s
demand. Although the Commission hopes that only talks on related
issues will be affected, Cyprus has made clear its plans to veto all
further stages of the negotiations unless Turkey opens up its ports.
As concern mounts within the EU that the suspension of Ankara’s
negotiations could prove disastrous for the country’s ties with the
west, Olli Rehn, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, is seeking to
persuade both Turkey and Cyprus to hand the ports case to the European
Court of Justice.
That way, the Commission believes, the issue could be put on ice
until after Turkey’s parliamentary elections next year, when both
sides Turkey would have more scope to negotiate.
Officials in Ankara had no immediate comment on the Commission’s
initiative. But diplomats said Turkey would be reluctant to refer the
case to the courts. EU officials add that it is overwhelmingly likely
to lose any case. Cyprus is also resisting such a course of action,
since it would water down the EU’s demand that Turkey act this year.
The Commission hopes that pressure from the EU’s three big powers –
France, Germany and the UK – will push both sides to agree to scale
down the dispute.
Other attempts to defuse the tension, notably EU-sponsored talks
between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, have failed. Greek Cypriot
objections have also prevented the EU’s fulfilling a promise to allow
northern Cyprus to trade directly with the rest of the EU.
YesterdayAnkara rejected a demand by the European parliament that it
recognise the mass killings of Armenians during the first world war
as genocide. Turkey rejects the charge. Recep Tayyip Erdo­gan, the
prime minister, said: “Our position regarding the so-called Armenian
genocide is very clear, and nobody should expect us to change it.”
–Boundary_(ID_hNlsjGAcpsygC7r8X1Wq6g)- –

LEMKIN’S HOUSE TO HOLD TALKBACKS IN SEPT. AND OCT.
Broadway World, NY
Aug 5 2006
Tuesday, September 5, 2006; Posted: 12:55 PM – by BWW News Desk A
series of talkbacks will follow select performances of Catherine
Filloux’s award-winning play Lemkin’s House. Jean Randich directs
the return engagement of the show, which will play through September
13-October 8 at the McGinn-Cazale Theatre (2162 Broadway)
Presented by Body Politic Theater and Vital Theatre Company, the
show’s official press opening is set for September 17.
Talkback participants will include former Manhattan Borough President
Ruth Messinger; Human Rights activist Dr. William Korey; film-maker
Kavery Kaul (The Long Way from Home); and others.
Lemkin’s House is billed as “a thought-provoking drama about the
horrors of genocide,” according to press notes. “Winner of the 2006
Peace Writing Award from the OMNI Center for Peace, the play centers
on Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer who invented the word “genocide”
and dedicated his life to having it declared an international crime.
In Ms. Filloux’s play, Lemkin is bombarded by people bursting into
his home with complaints of more recent genocides in Rwanda and
Bosnia. Lemkin must recognize that even his law is not enough to
change the world. He weighs his ethical accomplishments against his
guilt for deserting his own doomed family, ultimately seeking not only
justice but also forgiveness. In Lemkin’s House it is the living who
haunt the dead.”
Lemkin’s House had its U.S. premiere at the 78th Street Theatre Lab
in February, 2006, opening to strong critical and audience response.
John Daggett returns as Raphael Lemkin. He is joined by original cast
members Christopher Edwards, Laura Flanagan, Christopher McHale, and
Connie Winston. The production also reunites its original design team:
Sue Rees (set design); Matthew Adelson (lighting design); Camille Assaf
(costume design); Robert Murphy (sound design).
The talkbacks are as follows (additional talkbacks and panelists TBA):
Wednesday, September 13: Panel on Darfur Former Manhattan Borough
President, Ruth Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service
which is currently involved in seeking justice for the Darfur genocide;
John Prendergast, Senior Advisor of International Crisis Group;
and Jayne E. Fleming, California Lawyer of the Year for Pro Bono
Representation of Women victimized through violence.
Thursday, September 14: A Peaceful Tomorrow Panel: Genocide and
Reconciliation H.E Widhya Chem, Ambassador, Permanent Representative
of the Kingdom of Cambodia to the United Nations; Jean Baptiste
Ntakirutimana, Country Director of Orphans of Rwanda, Inc.; Father
Michael Lapsley, Institute for Healing of Memories, South Africa;
and moderator Adele Welty, Steering Committee, Peaceful Tomorrows.
Friday, September 15: Panel in conjunction with 9/17 “Save
Darfur” Rally Jim Fussell, Executive Director of Prevent Genocide
International; and Mohamed Adam Yahya, Chairman, Damanga: Coalition
for Freedom and Democracy.
Saturday, September 16: Women’s Commission on Refugees and Children:
Darfur Megan McKenna, Senior Coordinator, Media and Communications
(Education in Emergencies); Sarah Chynoweth, Program Manager in
the Reproductive Health Program; and moderator Carolyn Makinson,
Executive Director of Women’s Commission.
Wednesday, September 20: Understanding the Perpetrator: Genocidal
Mania — The Psychology of Mass Hatred and Treating the Victims Gerald
Martone, Director of Humanitarian Affairs at the International Rescue
Committee; and Ruth Rogers, “Easing the Impact of Trauma through
Integrative Medicine.”
Thursday, September 21: What Have We Learned?
David Scheffer, Former US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues;
Juan E. Mendez, President, ICTJ. Special Advisor to the Secretary
General (UN) on the Prevention of Genocide; Justice Richard Goldstone
Chancellor, University of the Witwatersrand and Former Justice,
Constitutional Court of South Africa; Dr. William A. Korey, Human
Rights scholar and activist; Roger S. Clark, Board of Governors
Professor, Rutgers School of Law; Moderated by Dr. Yael Danieli,
Co-President, International Network of Holocaust and Genocide Survivors
and Their Friends.
Sunday, September 24: Detering Future Genocides: The Importance of
International Criminal Court to Raphael Lemkin’s Legacy Dr. Roy
S. Lee, Special Senior Fellow, the United Nations Institute for
Training and Research, and former Executive Secretary to the
International Criminal Court Conference; John Washburn, Convenor,
American NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC);
Richard Nsanzabaganwa. Outreach Liasion for Africa, Coalition for
the International Criminal Court (CICC).
Wednesday, September 27: Professor Sheri Rosenberg and Dr. Jack Saul
Professor Sheri Rosenberg, Director, Human Rights and Genocide Clinic
and Program in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies, Cardozo School of
Law; Dr. Jack Saul, Director, International Trauma Studies Program,
Columbia University; Moderated by Kenneth Jacobson, Senior Associate
National Director, Anti-Defamation League.
Thursday, September 28: Religious Perspectives on Genocide Rabbi
Daniel S. Brenner, Director, Center for Multifaith Education, Auburn
Theological Seminary; Other panelists TBA.
Friday, September 29: For the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes
against Humanity: A United Nations Emergency Peace Service Panelists:
TBA; moderated by Waverly de Bruijn; Coordinator, Global Action to
Prevent War; Sponsoring Organizations: Global Action to Prevent War,
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, World Federalist Movement.
Saturday, September 30: Audience Conversation with Dr. Yael Danieli and
Lemkin’s House artists Dr. Yael Danieli, Co-President, International
Network of Holocaust and Genocide Survivors and Their Friends, the
cast and creators of Lemkin’s House
Sunday, October 1: Hidden Genocide in Uganda Presentation by Daniella
Boston, co-founder and executive director of uNight: for the Children
of Uganda; Panelists: TBA.
Wednesday, October 4: Violence or Empowerment Arn Chorn-Pond and John
Burt, Cambodian Living Arts; Kavery Kaul, Filmmaker and Producer,
The Long Way From Home; and Michele Tayler, Women Against Violence
Everywhere.
Saturday,October 7: The Armenian Genocide Professor Henry Theriault,
Professor of Philosophy at Worcester State College, Armenian National
Committee.
Filloux’s other plays include The Beauty Inside, Eyes of the Heart,
Silence of God and Mary and Myra.
The show runs: Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8pm; Sundays at 7pm. Talkbacks
directly follow select performances. Tickets are $25 (group
discounts are available). For reservations, call 212-352-3101 or
visit
ewcolumn.cfm?colid=11970

ARMENIAN PROFESSOR DECLARES WAR TO TURKISH, GEORGIAN, TURKMEN, UKRAINIAN AND AZERBAIJANI HISTORIANS
Today, Azerbaijan
Aug 5 2006
Artyom Khachaturyan, professor of the Yerevan Slavic University called
Turkmenistan’s President Saparmurat Niyazov “successor of barbarians.”
Armenian professor states in his article published in Russian
“Political class” journal Saparmurat Niyazov did not stand against
one’s interest by calling Seljuk Turkish Empire Turkmen state.
“No state protests against Niyazov’s position. Because, no one wants
to be the successor of the ‘barbaric Empire’,” Khachaturyan underlined,
APA informs.
The Armenian researcher attempted to distort the histories of turkey,
Georgia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Azerbaijan as well. Accusing
Ukrainian historians of appropriating Russian history, Khachaturyan
said the claims that Ukraine is the first Slavic state and the Kyiv
Russian State belonged to Ukrainians are groundless.
He also introduced poet Azerbaijani poet Nizami as Persian. He said
Nizami never wrote in Azerbaijani but in Persian.
The Armenian professor also raised claims against Turkey related to
its denial of the so-called “Armenian genocide”.
Ukrainian and Turkmen historians have not yet reacted to Khachaturyan’s
article written by the order of Russian and Armenian political circles.
Artem Khachataryan is holding an active campaign in the forum section
of the countries.ru website for introducing Azerbaijani poets Nizami
Ganjavi and Khagani Shirvani as Persian. He also called it nonsense
that Armenians killed many Jews in Guba, Azerbaijan saying that the
world community is fed up with Jews trying to create an image of
suffering nation.
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