Here you'll find reports from the Turkish dailies, some stuff from international papers and anything else we think is relevant. Please remember that this is a country involved in a full scale guerilla war and not all the news is printed. Please comment.

Politics - With the recent elections generating a fair bit of stuff we've moved domestic politics to a page of its own.

Apo Trial to begin - With the trial of Abdullah Ocalan set for 31st May many eyes will be turned to Imrali Island. Follow the story here.

• Government formed? - It seems the!various factions of the various parties have manage to extract the concessions they were seeking from each other are are now in the final steps of formulating a coalition government for the country. The DSP, MHP, ANAP (Democratic Left, Nationalist Action and Motherland Parties). The agreement reached by the party leaders needs to be ratified by the executive boards of the three parties. Might just be a done deal. 27/05/99

• Saz player released - Before the Youth holiday (May 19th) last week Istanbul police issued several warnings accompanied by photographs of Mehmet Yapistiran who they named as a suicide bomber. Mr. Yapistiran was taken into police custody, interrogated for two days and then transferred to the Public Prosecutors office. He maintaine throughout this time that he was a musician with no connections to any terrorist or extremist organisation. Released today he returns to his job of Saz player at the Mesopotamiam Cultural Centre where he has worked for the past 3 years. 27/05/99

• Turkey steps up role in Yugoslavia - Turkey has finalised agreements with NATO to provide three bases from which air strikes against Yugoslavia can be launched. Turkey will also begin to play a more active part in the air campaign itself. Reports that Turkish planes are already being used in a bombing capacity remain unconfirmed by the Foreign Ministry in Ankara. The basing agreement with Turkey will allow 75 F-15's and F-16's to fly out of Turkey and contributr to the establishment of a 'second front' in the campaign. The planes are expected to be in place by the end of May. 19/05/99

• Death toll continues to rise - The Genreal Secretariat of the Office of General Staff announced that 77 people had been killed during the last 6 days in clashes between Turkish Security forces and Kurdish rebels in the south east of the country. Turkey is maintaining a consderable military presence in Northern Iraq and seems to be making a concerted attempt to eradicate pockets of resistance in the area. 19/05/99

• Author jailed - Six years after being charged with breaking the anti-terrorism laws respected journalist and author Oral Calislar has been inprisoned for 13 months. Mr.Calislar had interviewed Abdullah Ocalan and moderate Kurdistan Socialist Party leader Kemal Buray. He published the interviews in a book which was immediately banned. Mr Calislar has presented a petition to appeal to a higher court. 19/05/99

• Kavakci's fate to be debated - After being stripped of her citizenship last week one might think that Merve Kavakci future in parliament was over. It probably is but the Supreme Election Board has announced that it does not have the power to 'unelect' Ms. Kavakci and that parliament will have to make the decision to remove her from office. 19/05/99

• Merve no longer Turkish - The citizenship of Merve Kavakci (see below) is to be revoked as a result of the concealment, on her part, of her recent US citizenship (and it probably has a little bit to do with all this headscarf stuff as well). That seems to be the general consensus. On Wednesday Ms. Kavakci lawyer's denied the allegations and claimed that the only "evidence" that their client was indeed a citizen of the US was an insignificant document leaked from a goverment office in Texas. Prime Minister designate, Bulent Ecevit, announced that a cabinet decree revoking Kavakci's nationality had been approved. It is believed that the process will be hurried through. 16/05/99

• More clashes in the East - Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels continue to die in the south east of the country. More than 50 combatants have died in Turkey and in Northen Iraq this week. Iraq recently expressed it's concern at the build up of Turkish forces within it's northern border.16/05/99

• Titfer spat with Iran - (Apologies for that terrible pun). President Demirel made some remarks in the wake of Merve Kavakci's appearance in the parliament building last week that suggested that her decision to challenge the secular 'deep society' of Turkey by wearing her headscarf may have been encouraged by "links with foreign countries."
  Sensitive as a result of previous allegations made by Turkey, Iran summoned the Turkish Ambassador in Tehran to explain these remarks.
  The headscarf row has featured prominently in Iran's media. Newspapers and political groups have expressed support for Kavakci and condemned the secularists, but the protests have been low-key.
  Throwing a little wood on the fire, acting Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit indicated yesterday that he believed Iran was trying to promote radical Islam inside Turkey. In a quote that made me smile he added "I believe that President Khatami is trying to bring about a modern regime, but I suppose there are certain contradictions within Iran,". 10/05/99

• How many times do I have to tell you... - Just in case anyone had forgotten, General Sami Zig issued a warning to Islamist politicians on Sunday reminding them that the military will continue to safeguard the traditions of secularism enshrined in the Turkish Republic.
  "(The Turkish armed forces) are the defenders, preservers and guardians of Ataturk's principles and reforms," the Cumhuriyet newspaper quoted General Sami Zig as saying. "While we are here, radical Islam stands no chance." 10/05/99

• 6 charged with negligence - University entrance procedures have been thrown into chaos this month as the second round of examinations were cancelled following the discovery that 2 Theology examination papers had been tampered with at Marmara University last week. Sacks containing the examination papers were slit open with a razor blade and "1 or 2 papers removed". Police have taken 6 people into custody, all of them employees at the University involved with moving and securing the sacks. The indefinite postponement of all examinations for University entrance within Turkey was announced on prime time television shortly after the tampering was detected. 10/05/99

• FP to be closed? - In an unsurprising move, Vural Savas, Turkey's Chief Prosecutor and an enthusiastic secularist, has asked the Supreme Court to bring charges against the Islamicist Virtue Party. If the Court does so, and that seems likely at the moment, the party will probably face closure. This is an issue with far reaching implications, for more coverage please check the Political News. 8/5/99

• Cyprus - Encounters between planes of the Turkish and Greek Air Forces in the air over Cyprus have thrown some more fuel on the smouldering issue that the island presents. Turkey's accusation that Greece is acting in a provocative manner has been responded to in kind by a representative of the Greek Cypriot administration. 8/5/99

• Clashes continue30 Kurdish rebels are reported dead after the latest in a series of skirmishes in Turkey's troubled South East. The clash took place on the border of the Tunceli and Bingol provinces and it is reported that Turkish ground troops were supported by attack helicopters.8/5/99

• RTUK speaks - The Supreme Board of Radio and Television, an official media monitoring and regulating body, announced it's latest round of penalties this week:

  • BTV, Channel E, Interstar, Channel 7 - one day blackout, broadcasting in violation of the principals of justice and neutrality and showing disrespect to the law.

  • BTV, Flash TV - one day blackout, insulting and humiliating institutions and individuals in a broadcast

  • ETV - 7 day blackout, broadcasting against the moral values of Turkish society.

  • Radyo Press - 7 day ban, broadcasting against the territorial and national integrity of the Turkish Republic

  • Radyo Foreks - charged with inciting people to terrorist activities and ethnic discriminations, this in relation to a re-broadcast of a BBC Turkish Service programme which quoted from a PKK representative.

• Ahmet Kaya defends himself - Popular singer and entertainer, Ahmet Kaya, responded eloquently to charges he is currently facing. Mr. Kaya is charged with performing in front of a PKK poster during a German concert 6 years ago and for making remarks of a divisive nature during a speech made to the Magazine Journalists Association. Mr. Kaya submitted his own 7 page defense statement to the court in which he accused the press of publishing inaccurate information and persecuting him. "I am a Turkish singer and have given hundreds of concerts and sold millions of cassettes for over 15 years in this country. At every one of my concerts I have said that this country cannot be divided. Now, how can such a person spout divisive propaganda?" The presiding judge ruled an adjournment while documents submitted to the court were re-examined. If found guilty Mr. Kaya may face up to 10 years in prison. 02/05/99

• 459th Annual Manisa Festival - Last week saw the city of Manisa (near Izmir) thronged by visitors, many of them hoping to receive some of the 100 kgs of Mesur Macunu, a paste made of up to 41 different spices, which were thrown from the top of the city's main mosque. The 14,000 visitors also attended a variety of cultural events during the annual festival. The paste is thought to have been developed in the 16th century by an Ottoman physician and is supposedly possessed of aphrodisiac powers. The actual distribution of the paste, the culminating event of the festival, attracted the biggest crowd and several people were injured in the crush that surrounded the mosque. 01/05/99