(Webpublicapress/New York) – According to German Radio Deutsche Welle India has officially recognized dolphins as non-human persons, whose rights to life and liberty must be respected. Dolphin parks that were being built across the country will instead be shut down. India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests has advised state governments to ban dolphinariums and other commercial entertainment that involves the capture and confinement of cetacean species such as orcas and bottlenose dolphins. In a statement, the government said research had clearly established cetaceans are highly intelligent and sensitive, and that dolphins “should be seen as ‘non-human persons’ and as such should have their own specific rights.”

The move comes after weeks of protest against a dolphin park in the state of Kerala and several other marine mammal entertainment facilities which were to be built this year. Animal welfare advocates welcomed the decision.

“This opens up a whole new discourse of ethics in the animal protection movement in India,” said Puja Mitra from the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations (FIAPO). Mitra is a leading voice in the Indian movement to end dolphin captivity.

Indian officials say it is morally unacceptable to exploit cetaceans in commercial entertainment

“The scientific evidence we provided during the campaign talked about cetacean intelligence and introduced the concept of non-human persons,” she said in an interview with DW.

Indiais the fourth country in the world to ban the capture and import of cetaceans for the purpose of commercial entertainment – along with Costa Rica, Hungary, and Chile.

Dolphins are persons, not performers

The movement to recognize whale and dolphins as individuals with self-awareness and a set of rights gained momentum three years ago in Helsinki, Finland when scientists and ethicists drafted a Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans. “We affirm that all cetaceans as persons have the right to life, liberty and well-being,” they wrote.

Dolphins are naturally playful and curious,

which has made them popular with aqurium visitors

The signatories included leading marine scientist Lori Marino who produced evidence that cetaceans have large, complex brains especially in areas involved in communication and cognition. Her work has shown that dolphins have a level of self-awareness similar to that of human beings. Dolphins can recognize their own reflection, use tools and understand abstract concepts. They develop unique signature whistles allowing friends and family members to recognize them, similar to the way human beings use names.

“They share intimate, close bonds with their family groups. They have their own culture, their own hunting practices – even variations in the way they communicate,” said FIAPO’s Puja Mitra.

But it is precisely this ability to learn tricks and charm audiences that have made whales and dolphins a favorite in aquatic entertainment programs around the world.

Seaworld slaughter

Disposable personal income has increased in India and there is a growing market for entertainment. Dolphin park proposals were being considered in Delhi, Kochi and Mumbai.

“There’s nothing like having a few animals on display, particularly ones that are so sensitive and intelligent as these dolphins,” said Belinda Wright from the Wildlife Protection Society of India in an interview with DW. “It’s a good money making proposition.”

But audiences are usually oblivious to the documented suffering of these marine performers.

“The majority of dolphins and whales in captivity have been sourced through wild captures in Japan, in Taiji, in the Caribbean, in the Solomon Islands and parts of Russia. These captures are very violent,” Mitra explained.

“They drive groups of dolphins into shallow bay areas where young females whose bodies are unmarked and are thought to be suitable for display are removed. The rest are often slaughtered.”

Mitra argued that the experience of captivity is tantamount to torture. She explained that orcas and other dolphins navigate by using sonar signals, but in tanks, the reverberations bounce off the walls, causing them “immense distress”. She described dolphins banging their heads on the walls and orcas wearing away their teeth as they pull at bars and bite walls.

Tanks terminated

In response to the new ban, the Greater Cochin Development Authority (CGDA) told DW that it has withdrawn licenses for a dolphin park in the city of Kochi, where there have been massive animal rights demonstrations in recent months.

Will the ban on captive dolphin exploitation lead to more protection for other highly intelligent non-humans?

“It is illegal now,” said N. Venugopal, who heads the CGDA. “It is over. We will not allow it anymore.”

He said the government hadn’t lost money on the development but declined to comment on how much the dolphin park was worth.

Boost for Ganges River dolphin

It’s possible that India’s new ban on cetacean captivity will lead to renewed interest in protecting the country’s own Ganges River dolphin.

“I hope this will put some energy into India’s Action Plan for the Gangetic Dolphin, which is supposed to run until 2020,” said Belinda Wright from the Wildlife Protection Society of India. “But there’s been very little action.

She said the ban was a good first stop, but warned against excessive optimism. “I’m very proud that India has done this,” she said. “I’m not trying to be cynical but I have been a conservationist in India for four decades. One gets thrilled with the wording, but I don’t think it’s going to turn to the tables.”

“But dolphins for now are safe from dolphinariums, and that’s a good thing,” she added.

DW.DE

Ban Ki-moon u Ateni (UN Photo/Mark Garten)

Its rise has vexed critics in a country famed for its unrelenting resistance to the Nazis in World War II and where most of the Jewish population was exterminated.

Samaras, whose coalition government has been split over an anti-racism bill, vowed a crackdown on the group in a speech in March marking the 70th anniversary of the first deportations of Thessaloniki’s Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

The Greek government will enact legislation that will be “completely intolerant to violence and racism,” Samaras said, noting that with neo-Nazi parties on the rise again in Europe, governments have to “be very careful not to let them gain ground as they did in the 1930s.”

But the bill stalled amid worries it could backfire and give Golden Dawn more support. The EU’s human rights chief said there is enough evidence for the party to be outlawed.

“This party is very dangerous for Greek democracy … they made themselves very attractive to Greeks suffering from a deep economic crisis and attract the unemployed,” Victor Eliezer, a member of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, told SETimes.

“The political conflicts between the parties are now stronger and they see it as more important than a common position toward anti-Semitism and xenopohobia in Greece,” he said.

The board complained to the head of a Greek TV station that held interviews with four Golden Dawn MPs, expressing “great indignation at the broadcasting, promotion and dissemination of the extremely racist sentiments displayed by Holocaust denialists and proponents of Nazism in Greece.”

The party members wear shirts bearing an ancient Greek meander that resembles a Swastika. Leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos said the Holocaust was fiction and has directed tirades at immigrants, Jews, bankers and capitalists, along with opposition to austerity measures being imposed by the government on orders of the EU-IMF-ECB Troika in return for bailouts. He denied the party is Nazi-influenced.

Antonis Klapsis, head of research for the Konstandinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy in Greece, said the government faces a dilemma on how to handle Golden Dawn despite what he said is its extremism.

“Their anti-Semitism is the basis of all their other ideas and how they built their anti-immigrant policies. They are neo-Nazis,” he told SETimes.

Golden Dawn officials did not respond to requests for comment.

“The problem is that no matter what the government does it looks like Golden Dawn is getting more and more support because of the financial crisis,” Klapsis said. “They have managed to convince thousands of people they have all the answers for the problem but they don’t have any answers for any problems.”

Ilias Panagiotaros, a Golden Dawn MP, told Australian television SBS that the party is modeling itself after the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon that is backed by Syria and Iran, which wants Israel wiped off the map.

“Golden Dawn wants to become, and will become, like Hezbollah in Lebanon,” he said.

Golden Dawn has gained support with free food giveaways but requires citizens show IDs to prove they are Greek.

Alex Sakellariou, a researcher and sociologist at Panteion University in Athens, said there’s reason for worry.

“Anti-Semitism, either covered or open, is becoming step-by-step a common and acceptable ideology that finds its expression mainly through Golden Dawn. Any kind of reaction and public condemnation of Golden Dawn and its anti-Semitism is useful because this is one of their main and ideological elements that we should not forget.”

Do you think the Golden Dawn party should or should not be outlawed? Make a comment in the space below.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has been privileged to participate in these conferences, and looks forward to joining multilateral organisations, NGOs and global leaders for the third Women Deliver conference in Kuala Lumpur this weekend.

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin. Credit: UNFPA

Our focus this year will be on two issues that affect not just women and girls, but development in general, because research shows that voluntary family planning and maternal health are two key vectors for lifting developing nations out of poverty.

We will unveil new initiatives for each and seek to galvanise the world community for both programmatic and financial support. UNFPA has promoted voluntary family planning since it began operations in 1969, and if we have learned anything in the decades since, it is that the ability of women to plan when and at what intervals they will have children is essential to national progress in everything from education to health to economic prosperity.

Equally important, we have learned that family planning is about more than just condoms and other family planning commodities. It’s about human rights, information and education.

At the Women Deliver conference, UNFPA will launch a new partnership with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) to increase access to family planning in some of the world’s most hard-to-reach areas. In cooperation with IPPF, we will seek to galvanise political commitments from 13 nations with statistically low contraceptive prevalence rates in order to increase support for programmes to educate women and men about the benefits of family planning.

UNFPA’s second major initiative will actually take place in the days leading up to Women Deliver, when we will co-host a symposium on the crucial, frontline role midwives play in lowering maternal deaths, reducing disabilities related to childbirth, and improving overall national health indicators.

More than 230 midwives will be joined by leading U.N. agencies, civil society representatives, policy makers and officials from donor nations to discuss ways to increase the numbers and improve the skills of midwives in developing countries.

At the symposium, UNFPA, alongside its partners from Intel, the World Health Organization and Jhpiego, the NGO affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, will roll out a new online training module for frontline maternal health workers to help train them to deal with issues such as pre-eclampsia, excessive post-birth bleeding and prolonged and obstructed labour. These medical complications can be matters of life and death for women giving birth in the developing world, so this is a critically important initiative.

But it is clear that these family planning and maternal health initiatives will succeed only if they are embraced by government leaders in a position to fund and support them. And there are often obstacles to that embrace.

The first obstacle, of course, is money. Governments struggling to meet the basic needs of their citizens face severe competition for scarce resources. But family planning and maternal health are so critically important to long-term development that they should be among the top spending priorities for developing nations’ governments.

And because helping underdeveloped nations rise out of poverty is so vital to international security and the global economy, voluntary family planning and maternal health should be investment priorities for developed nations as well.

The second obstacle standing in the way of family planning initiatives, in particular, are some cultural practices. The sad fact is that some societies still deny the human rights of half of their populations in the name of cultural traditions that do physical, social and psychological damage to women and girls.

As UNFPA sees it, the time has long passed when men can or should be allowed to dictate the reproductive rights of women. Young girls should not be forced into marriage. Sex should always be un-coerced. And every woman should have the means to enjoy her human right and freedom to choose if or when she will have children, and how many she will have.

We will be raising these issues at Women Deliver in Kuala Lumpur, and I hope all who attend will come away from the conference with a re-energised commitment to the central role these issues play in humanity’s future and to address the challenges of family planning and maternal health forthrightly.

*Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin is a United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund

Umberto Ecco (Courtesy photo – edu.only)

(Webpublicapress/Istanbul) – In an exclusive interview with the Anadolu Agency made in April when he visited Istanbul, acclaimed Italian philosopher, semiotician and author Umberto Eco gives ‘not-so-cliche’ answers to a number of ‘cliche questions’ by AA:

Q: If you had the power, what would be three things you would change?

A: To abolish interviews! Well, others are so trivial that to have the peace in the world which does not concern me so much because I have still little time to live but it is for my grand children and so forth… I don’t have a third thing to change, more or less the world bad or good can go on like that.

Q: If you were to get stranded on an island, what would be the three items you would take with you?

A: Ah, three things. Because they usually ask what kind of book. My answer is the phonebook. So many names that I can invent a lot of new stories. Once I have the phonebook, let’s say maybe one of my block flute records because alone on an island you need something to do. I can’t take my computer because there is no electrical power. So a block flute recording (whistles a tune) I can make Bach. The third, a swimming suit to swim. For breaking the coconuts I think I can find some stone on the island. Provided that I have my eyeglasses. If not, I need my eyeglasses.

Q: Is there a book you read again and again throughout your life?

A: Many. The phonebook first of all. There is a book that I read since my youth. I made classes in the university in Italy, America and France. And, finally I translated it into Italian. “Sylvie” of Gerard de Nerval. Well-known in this city. A short story that I have always considered marvellous. Every time I re-read it I discovered something new. Even when I read it for last time in order to translate it I found secret rhythms that were inside, that escaped me before. So that I finished translating it 8 or 9 years ago I feel very sad because I don’t know what to do with that.

Q: Is there a movie you watch again and again throughout your life?

A: “Stage Coach” by John Ford. 1939. It is the quintessence of movies. If I have to save a movie for another planet in order to teach martians what film is, I would bring it. Two weeks ago I had my grandchild in my country house, he is twelve years old, new generations, they are unable to watch old movies because the rhythm is too slow for them, but I practically obliged him to watch it and he said at the end “It was worthwhile.” All the movie techniques, all the movie ideas are there. 1939. After that, practically it was useless to do other movies.

Q: If you were to come to world again, what profession would you choose?

A: A piano bar player. These people that work after midnight with a cigarette in mouth and a whisky. They play piano in a night club, in a hotel. With possibly face of Humphrey Bogart.

Q: What is one thing that you wonder the most about?

A: Being a philosopher by profession I am always concerned with questions that have not yet an answer. So I could speak for hours and hours. The most terrible is: Do you exist really? Or you are a pigment of my sick imagination?

Q: Do you believe in the afterlife?

A: After me there will be a lot of lives around. I have not a good answer because I have not yet been there. But when I go I’ll keep you informed.

Q: What was the most basic advice you have given to your children?

A: I think that a father or also a mother, gives the real basic advice in the moment they do not realise it. In the moment you are not thinking you are teaching something to your son or daughter. In that moment probably you give them the most important advice and information.

Q: If you were given chance to meet some historical figure, who would you choose?

A: I never tried to meet with persons that I admired very much. I refuse to meet them, not to disturb or destroy my image. So I am not interested in meeting them. They will not tell me something more than that they already have in their books or in their paintings or in their compositions. So I don’t know any reason to meet Bach, it is enough what he left to me. Otherwise, it would be mere pop cult.

Q: What’s your favourite place in Istanbul?

A: Practically [...] from lacernas to the Asian coast [...] I went every where. What impressed me most, I don’t know, but since I wrote then many things in my novel Baudolino about Constantinople, probably the element that struck my imagination were the cisterns. But I like subterranean always. That might be the memory of the womb of my mother.

Serbian FM Community (Courtesy photo – edu. only)

(Webpublicapress/New York) – Vincent Degert, head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, said it was necessary to establish regulatory bodies and a legal framework to combat hate speech on the internet. ”After the adoption of a set of media laws, I expect the media to be more responsible when using and posting information on the Internet,” Degert told a conference entitled “Hate speech on the internet” on Wednesday.  

A Serbian media strategy, adopted in September 2011, envisions a set of media-related laws being adopted in the coming months.

According to Degert, hate speech in the Serbian media is now “more of an incident than a practice” compared to the Nineties when the media played a key role in “raising tensions” in ex-Yugoslavia.

However, “stigmatization of certain groups, particularly all members of the Roma minority and LGBT, people is still present in Serbia,” Degert added.

Peter Burkhard, head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, said that Serbia “does not need a hammer but a scalpel” to solve the problem of hate speech on the internet.

“We should regulate the use of the internet in order to protect fundamental rights and freedoms”, Burkhard said.

Adeline Hulin, of UNESCO, said it was important to adequately punish those who spread hate speech.

“The media must comply with the standards and … a code of ethics which regulates their behaviour,” Hulin said.

According to research conducted by journalism professor Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic, hate speech on the net is more present in comments than on internet portals in Serbia.

The research showed that hate speech was widespread on the internet during the May 2012 elections.

Two months ago, Serbia formed a national committees aimed at combating hate speech on the internet.

The conference was organised by the OSCE Mission to Serbia, the European Commission, UNESCO, the South East European Network for Professionalization of the Media and the Media Center.

(Source: BIRN)

Young women on a Damascus street. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS

By Thalif Deen — UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) - When thousands of participants from around the world gather in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur next week, the primary focus will be on health and empowerment of girls and women.

The meeting, scheduled for May 26-30 under a banner titled Women Deliver, will zero in on a longstanding unanswered question: how does the international community meet the massive unmet needs for contraception by over 222 million women in the developing world?”

The U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) points out that increased contraceptive use and reduced unmet needs for contraception are central to achieving three of the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – improving maternal health, reducing child mortality and combating HIV/AIDS – heading towards the 2015 deadline.

Currently, she said, it is estimated 222 million women have an unmet need for family planning, and in many countries most women still continue to have more children then they desired.

“Investing in reproductive health and reproductive rights requires investment in a number of interventions by U.N. agencies, governments and donors,” she added.

Since UNFPA began operations back in 1969, the average global fertility has been cut in half. UNFPA says it has been a “critical catalyst” in this success by responding to requests by developing countries.

Asked how best the contraceptive needs could be met, Dr. Purnima Mane, president and chief executive officer ofPathfinder International, told IPS the United Nations and the international community need to continue advocating for increased funding – domestic and international – for access to contraception and for the integration of family planning into universal health coverage in all possible forums and through broader partnerships across sectors.

While it is true that investments in women’s education are essential to this effort, she said, much more needs to happen to change the situation of women.

Community-oriented work to change social norms around gender and enabling social and economic policies are essential to prevent early marriage, to keep girls in school, and to help women to space their births and give birth safely, when they want to bear children, said Dr. Mane, who heads an organisation described as the global leader in sexual and reproductive rights.

She argued that based on historical evidence, political will is, and will be, the most critical element of success for strong family planning programmes.

“However, we need to be vigilant about the voluntary nature of such programmes and the quality of the care provided,” Mane added.

At this time, she said, the most critical priority is for the global community to come together to address the contraceptive and sexual and reproductive health information and service needs of the growing youth population of over three billion under the age of 25.

“There is no easy fix and we all know that. What we need is to address the multiple factors that impact on this issue rather than focus on any one aspect alone,” she said.

The Kuala Lumpur meeting, the third Women Deliver conference launched originally in 2007, is touted as the largest global event of the decade – primarily of government leaders, policymakers, healthcare professionals, representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), corporate leaders, and global media outlets.

The event will include a Youth Pre-Conference, a Minister’s Forum and a Parliamentarians Forum.

Asked about investments in reproductive health, Thanenthiran told IPS these include interventions around delaying the age of marriage and the age of first pregnancies, which include investments in girls’ education especially at the secondary and tertiary levels.

Interventions such as making available a range of contraceptive methods and ensuring women receive the right information so that they can make informed choices about the method that best suits them, and that health service providers treat women with kindness and provide quality care and service are essential in increasing trust towards family planning programmes, she added.

Naturally this requires funding and political commitment, but the health of women and girls is well worth safeguarding, Thanenthiran added.

Asked how the U.N.’s post-2015 economic agenda could underline reproductive health, Dr. Mane told IPS human rights principles of the International Conference on Population and Development (which took place in Cairo in 1994) can be embedded constructively in a variety of ways in the new set of development goals, but given that the relevant MDGs are especially lagging, “more explicit attention to the unfinished agenda is needed as we go forward.”

Population dynamics are also often left out of important discussions about future needs and development scenarios. For example, population growth may be mentioned but not in relation to access to contraception as a solution, she added.

She said universal health care is a start, if coverage of the broadest range of sexual and reproductive health care is explicitly included to move the unfinished agenda forward.

“Only then will we achieve sustainable development,” she said.

“My organisation, Pathfinder International, stands behind confronting inequality by advocating with other civil society partners for better governance which not only addresses inequality but holds policymakers accountable for failing to address preventable deaths among women and children,” Dr. Mane declared.

Thanenthiran said it is essential that access to comprehensive, quality sexual and reproductive health services, as promised to women and committed to by governments in the Cairo ICPD Programme of Action, is prioritised in the post-2015 development framework.

The ICPD Programme of Action (PoA) is going to be 20 years in 2014, and women are yet to enjoy in full the promises made to them during that time, she pointed out.

In the MDGs, some attention was given to the agenda under MDG 5 (on improving maternal health), and those working in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights are hoping to see a more comprehensive approach with more reproductive health issues and indicators being covered in the new goal on reproductive and maternal health.

This would be the best way to go about to ensure government commitments to the ICPD are fulfilled, and initial investments made during the MDGs are continued and fully realised in the new development framework, she declared.

Turkish flag on boat in Istanbul (Webpublicapress – by Hajat Avdović)

agenda when they met at the White House last week. The Syria crisis was top of the list. The peace process between Turkey and the PKK was also a priority.

The United States can help address both problems by removing the PKK from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). Sequencing is important. Delisting the PKK should occur at a time when it has maximum impact on events in Syria, as well as Turkey’s domestic peace process.

The situation in Syria is urgent. Delisting the PKK would open the door to discussions with the Democratic Union Party (DYP), the PKK’s affiliate in Syria, about joining the opposition to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. It would also boost the peace process in Turkey by rewarding the PKK for its recent decision to cease hostilities and withdraw fighters from Turkish soil, maintaining momentum and setting the stage for negotiations aimed at a full final solution to Turkey’s Kurdish question. Waiting would leverage the PKK’s continued cooperation, but risks diminishing the impact of delisting on regional events.

The PKK conflict is rooted in history. Kurds are the largest stateless minority in the world, with an estimated 30 million in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. More than half live in Turkey, where they represent 20 percent of the population. Though the 1920 Sevres Treaty promised Kurds a state of their own, it was replaced with the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which denied the national aspirations of Kurds. The 1925 and 1937 insurgencies were brutally suppressed. Turkey denied the very existence of Kurdish culture and language, banning geographical place names in Kurdish and calling Kurds “Mountain Turks.” After the 1980 military coup, the junta adopted a draconian constitution banning all demonstrations of Kurdish identity. It also established martial law in the Kurdish regions of Southeast Turkey, pursuing a scorched earth policy that displaced millions of Kurds.

Abdullah Ocalan founded the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 1974 as a Maoist proletarian movement. The PKK’s charter “condemned the repressive exploitation of the Kurds” and called for “a democratic and united Kurdistan.” Kurds in Turkey revere Ocalan for fighting the military and demanding social justice.

Correspondingly, Ocalan is reviled by many Turks who hold him responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 civilians that spanned three decades. The PKK initially targeted Kurds working for state institutions, as well as pro-government militias. By the mid-1990s, however, the PKK shifted tactics, focusing its military operations on the security services and regime symbols. It also abandoned its goal of a Kurdish homeland, seeking instead greater political and cultural rights in Turkey.

At Turkey’s urging, the United States listed the PKK as an FTO in 1997. The European Union added the PKK to its list of terror organizations in May 2002. NATO and more than 20 countries also classified the PKK as a terror group. FTO designation stigmatizes and isolates designated terrorist organizations. It also carries travel bans and financial restrictions. The 2011 Anti-Terrorism Act makes it a criminal offense to provide material resources or counsel to terrorist organizations and prohibits their representatives from entry to the United States.

Arduous procedures are required for an organization to get off the FTO list. Under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the FTO may file a petition for revocation two years after its designation. It must provide evidence that the circumstances are sufficiently different to warrant revocation. The Secretary of State may delist at any time if the circumstances have sufficiently changed, or if the national security of the United States warrants revocation.

Delisting is essentially a political decision. Technical reasons for listing the PKK as an FTO have changed. So has the political context, given the current peace process and the crisis in Syria. In consultation with Turkey, the Obama administration should consider when delisting of the PKK would have maximum impact. I recently asked a senior Turkish official about delisting (who was not authorized to speak on the record). He replied, “Why not?”

A strong case can be made for delisting sooner than later. Ocalan was arrested in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison. From his cell on Imrali lsland, Ocalan has become an advocate for peace and reconciliation among Turkish citizens, including those of Kurdish origin. Proclaiming the recent peace initiative on March 21, 2013, Ocalan wrote: “We reached the point where weapons should go silent and ideas speak.”

Turkey is at a historic crossroads. Erdogan has promised greater political and cultural rights to Kurds. In return, Ocalan endorsed a cease-fire and withdrawal of PKK fighters from Turkey after lengthy negotiations. The deal was hammered out during negotiations between Ocalan and Erdogan’s special envoy, Hakan Fidan, who heads Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency. Public opinion polls indicate that 70 percent of Turks support the peace process. There has been no PKK-related violence for more than 4 months.

The United States has delisted FTOs before to incentivize peace. Other groups removed from the list during a peace process include the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Groups have also been delisted when circumstances change. Even the Mujahedin Khalq, which was responsible for hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, was recently delisted.

Attitudes in Europe are also evolving. In April of 2008, the Luxembourg-based Court of First Instance said that decisions made by EU governments in 2002 and 2004 to list the PKK as a terror group and freeze its assets were illegal under EU law. On April 24, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe changed its terminology for describing PKK militants to “activists.” The European Parliament is also debating a resolution to remove the PKK from the EU’s terror list.

The Syria crisis is a big factor in Erdogan’s approach. Last week’s attack in the Turkish town of Reyhanli, which killed more than 50 Turks, underscores the potential spillover of conflict from Syria. Erdogan wants the U.S. to use its military capacity for regime change in Syria. But this will not happen until the Syrian opposition coalesces around a plan for governing Syria after Assad.

The Syrian National Council, the leading opposition group, must involve Syria’s minorities — Kurds, Allawites, Druze, and Christians. Kurds represent 15 percent of the population. However, factionalism limits inter-Kurdish cooperation, Kurdish engagement with other minorities, and the broader opposition.

Engaging the PYD would be a big step towards forging consensus. Neither the United States nor the EU will act without Turkey’s blessing. To this end, a deal could be made for the U.S. and EU to delist the PKK. In exchange, Ocalan would instruct the PYD to work with the opposition. The PYD has an effective fighting force on Turkey’s border near Qamishli in the North and East of Syria. Engaging the PYD would establish a buffer between the war in Syria and Turkey, enhancing Turkey’s security, and fostering a common vision for governance and regional cooperation when Assad is deposed.

(Positions stated in this article represent those of the author and not necessarily of the WPP.)  

Mr. Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights.

(Webpublicapress/Sarajevo) – The Chairman of the Bosnian  collective Presidency Mr. Zeljko Komsic, president of

President Zeljko Komšić — Photo archive WPP

Democratic Front party and member of the Presidency of BiH, stated on Central Newsreel with Senad Hadzifejzovic on Face TV that there are indications that the question of immobile military assets could be solved in the next two and a half months. This would mean that BiH can then activate the Membership Action Plan (MAP).

Advantage to NATO

- I feel that there is a kind of mood, even requests, that this question is not to be talked about overmuch but instead to solve the problems, to get the BiH moving as far as that question is concerned – said Komsic, who mentioned BiH membership in NATO several times during the interview.

Komsic commented on Hadzifejzovic’s statement that Serbs in BiH are not for NATO because „Russians are closer to them“, saying that a couple of years ago, in the building of BiH Presidency, Russian minister of foreign affairs told them that they respect BiH’s choice to head towards NATO.

- In my opinion, it is irrational to refuse NATO. It brings security and besides, membership will also bring new money and investments, new jobs will be created – Komsic pointed out.

He added that he is not a eurosceptic but that NATO is more important to BiH at this time.

Hadzifejzovic then asked Komsic to comment on the recent events in the Federation of BiH (FBiH), mentioning the arrest of Zivko Budimir, and then, as he put it, „non-functioning of the Government of FBiH, blockades, war between SDA and SDP“…

- I speak honestly and as plainly as I can. Remove the coating of dust from all these events! Do you know what you will get? You will get public companies, tenders, resources, who will be in charge of all that… This entire war is about that, you can see it. What I will now say may be an unwise political statement, but the only one who at the moment is not involved in these dealings on our political scene is Fahrudin Radoncic. He is the only one who is not involved in those struggles, for resources, public companies, tender announcements. The rest of them… Everyone is fighting over such things! That is where all the fights and low punches and the chaos in Federation stems from. It has nothing to do with political dealings or human rights or „Sejdic-Finci“ case or NATO, none of it! Who is in charge of electrodistributions, forests, water, energy resources, that is what the entire battle is about – Komsic stated.

The Prosecution makes the arrests

When asked by Hadzifejzovic if that means that „everyone has interests, everyone takes and steals but for Fahrudin“, member of BiH Presidency confirmed the statement.

- Yes, he is simply not involved in those cases. For Gods sake, he is nowhere to be found in all these dealings. He is nowhere in public companies, I notice that, I know this and I can see this – Komsic firmly emphasized.

When asked if he will come to harm because of such a statement, Komsic said:

- It is entirely possible that such a statement will harm me but I am sick and tired of pretenses, guises and affectations. None of them care one whit about „Sejdic-Finci“. Radoncic took over the ministry of security, he took over serious obligations of such a function and he has the guts to do some things. Whoever resents my statement, well, there is nothing I can do about it, that is just the way things are“.

Hadzifejzovic then asked him if Radoncic is behind the recent arrests.

-    No, he cannot make any arrests, he does not have the authority to arrest people. Budimir was arrested by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH. There is no (political, a.r.) warrant. You can only stand behind the police. Budimir was arrested by the Prosecution – he added, clarifying that the Prosecutor’s Office is responsible for its work.

Dedication to development of country

When Hadzifejzovic stated that the political openness he exhibits will politically either „bust everything“ or fail, Komsic said that he has been ready for that since the beginning.

- I cannot take it anymore. We are stocking our heads into the sand like we are ostriches and then we wait for some Inzko, or Americans, or Europeans or Turks to solve things for us. They will not solve them, we have to do that. And we can only solve them if we are honest and dedicated to making this country a better place, instead of trying to earn as much money as we can. That is the only way. Everyone loved money and loves to have it but that cannot be the main goal of a public engagement. Take up the responsibility of what will happen to this country – Komsic stated.

Kosovo belong to us (WPP photo archive)

By Biljana Pekusic – During a recent visit to northern Kosovo, Serbia Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic urged Kosovo Serb leaders to accept the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, and to “leave the past and think about the future.”

Belgrade is facing a challenge in getting Serbs in northern Kosovo to consent to the implementation of the agreement, which was forged last month in Brussels.

“For 10 years, Serbs in northern Kosovo are living by any legal rules, do not pay taxes to either Serbia or Kosovo, they have … no restrictions,” Predrag Simic, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, told SETimes.

“It adds to the fear of losing that privilege, just as great as the accusing the government of betraying their interests,” he added.

Kosovo Serbs said the agreement will cancel their current parallel institutions of trade, judiciary, education and health care, and will put the minority group under Kosovo law.

“It means that we will live in the state of Kosovo, not Serbia,” Milutin Zdravkovic, a Serb living in Mitrovica, told SETimes. He, like many of his compatriots in the area, said the agreement will never be accepted.

Vucic visited the four Serb municipalities in Kosovo, in order to garner support for implementing the agreement.

“We have to start to change, in our minds, we need to leave the past and to think about the future,” Vucic told residents in Leposavic earlier this month. “Serbia has no other people, and that only with its people can prosper, but part of our nation cannot prosper without the state of Serbia.”

He said that by the end of the year, local elections will be held in the municipalities and communities can be formed.

Holding elections in accordance with Kosovo law is “the most difficult and most painful concession” of Serbs, Vucic said, but he added that there would be plenty of “painful things Albanians will have to swallow.”

According to the agreement, 98 out of 100 police officers in the north will be Serbs.

Belgrade will help finance the health and education systems, economic development and spatial planning, and the community of Serb municipalities will fully oversee it, Vucic said.

Vucic said Belgrade has the ability to apply the agreement without the people’s support, but the government is hoping to avoid that.

The presidents of four municipalities agreed to continue joint activities to harmonise their position on the agreement.

When asked whether Serbs were going to be transferred to Kosovo’s constitutional and legal framework, Vucic said that “it is not exactly like that” because Serbia does not recognise Kosovo.

“Therefore, Kosovo will not get a seat in the UN or anything like that,” he said.

What can Belgrade do to make agreement more attractive to Kosovo Serbs? Post your thoughts below.

Children in Syria innocent victims (Courtesy photo – edu.only)

By  John J. Metzler  - UNITED NATIONS — Decrying a rising death toll and an escalation of violence, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly called yet again for progress towards a political transition to defuse Syria’s civil war, now in its third year. Though the resolution strongly condemns the Syrian government of Bashar Assad for its increased use of heavy weapons, it equally condemns “widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” on all sides.

The Assembly vote, not surprisingly, saw 107 in favor of the resolution which saw support from most of the Arab world, the United States and Europe and much of Asia.

Twelve countries opposed the resolution including Russia and Mainland China, the Assad regime’s staunchest backers as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela. There were 59 abstentions including nearby Lebanon, and states such as Brazil, India, South Africa (the BRICS) and Singapore. The resolution is non-binding.

As Syria’s violence spirals, the country is splitting along sectarian fault lines; the Sunni Muslim majority is supported by Turkey as well as most Arab states, the Assad family dictatorship’s Alawite minority is supported by Iran, Iraq and elements in Lebanon’s ethnic patchwork. Syria’s embattled Christian minority looks to Lebanon as an escape route. Indeed the sectarian bloodbath has taken in excess of 80,000 lives. Ethnic enclaves and fiefdoms are forming and being reinforced by militias.

General Assembly President Vuk Jeremic, himself a Serbian, warned, “Violence is begetting more violence; hatred, more hatred, carving deeper and deeper wounds into Syria’s society.” He added, “If we are unable to do anything to stop this tragedy, then how can we sustain the moral credibility of this Organization…it is high-time to say ‘enough is enough.’ ”

Jeremic warned, “Succumbing to the despondency of the status quo is a prescription for a disastrous future” of multiplying crisis in Syria and the wider Middle East region.”

Let’s look at the human cost to Syria so far; 80,000 mostly civilians killed, more than a million refugees living in camps in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Over four million people have been internally displaced inside the country; in other words forces from their homes but still living inside Syria.

Days earlier Navi Pillay, UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights advised, “We should not reach the point where people become numb to the atrocious killing of civilians…the increasingly brutal nature of the conflict makes international efforts to halt the bloodshed imperative.” She decried human rights violations from both sides in the conflict.

The humanitarian aid and human rights mechanisms such as the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) perform a notable humanitarian service to the displaced, but let’s face it, the UN only solves the symptom, not the problem. The problem is political. Sadly Syria’s fractious opposition confronting the Assad dictatorship are fragmented, factionalized and shadowed by fundamentalist factions tied to Al Qaida.

Desultory diplomatic efforts towards dialogue have fallen on Syria’s hard scrabble and rocky earth; both sides have entrenched their position while outside powers become entwined in this bouillabaisse of factions. The Russians and Iran back Assad. The Arabs, especially Qatar and Saudi Arabia support the rebels largely on sectarian grounds. Neighboring Turkey, which hosts 400,000 refugees and fears spillover of the war, needs a solution sooner rather than later.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have agreed to support renewed peace talks between notable factions of the government and the rebel opposition. Washington and Moscow are wise to defuse this political bomb in Damascus before the crisis widens and threatens to bring Syria to the brink of failed state.

Trying to create a stable and pluralist Syria (remember this was a secular Arab regime), sadly borders on the realm of political fantasy. The primary issue is stopping the violence before it spreads into Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey or before Syria implodes into a frenzy of wider killing, refugees, and the morbid fascination of Al Qaida violence.

Syria borders six countries: Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Iran. Barring a credible ceasefire, the conflict will spill-over and create additional regional instability.

This is not a call for the USA to intervene militarily in another Mideast conflict, but an attempt to help midwife a long-overdue serious political transition through creative diplomacy to pull Syria back from the brink.

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for WorldTribune.com.