Gülcan, Nevin, Polat grab golds for Turkey at 10 10 Helsinki 19 Israeli hawk Yitzhak Shamir, who Mursi becomes Egypt’s first freely first balked at American calls to trade elected president, faces dangerous occupied land for peace, dies at age 96 task to wrest power from military Your Way of Understandıng Turkey MONDAY, JULY 2, 2012 WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM TL 1.50 page03 26 military officers detained in espionage probe Revised CMK to affect special court cases against coup, terror suspects Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) the trials dealt with by special courts have spiraled announced on Saturday that a govern- submitted amendments to existing laws to out of control, with many defendants spending LEYLA ZANA ‘OBLIGATION TO SEEK PERMISSION’ ment plan to revise three articles of the Parliament's General Assembly on Sunday after- years in custody with no verdict in sight. Turkish Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK) will noon. It was not clear whether the amendments had Bozdağ said Articles 250, 251 and 252 of the CMK MAJOR SETBACK TO RULE OF LAW affect ongoing coup and terror cases, adding to been passed at the time Today's Zaman went to are set to be abolished and added: “Currently, there Legal community argues that forcing prosecutors to obtain permis- KURDISH DEPUTY LEYLA existing concerns over the future of proceedings. print. The amendments, backed by the government, are 22,000 [case] files [at special courts], and these sion from relevant institutions to investigate senior officers will serve The deputy prime minister said courts hearing was drafted by the Office of the Prime Minister last will be dealt with in accordance with new principles. as a major setback to the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law and result in the release of a large number of prominent coup ZANA: OSLO NEGOTIATIONS these cases will continue to do so, but they will no month and aims to narrow the scope of authority of [With the CMK revision] we are taking a step to and terror suspects from prison. With a law that seeks to abolish longer be called “specially authorized courts,” and these courts, which deal with constitutional crimes, strengthen the defense testimonies of defendants.” three articles of the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK), the AK Party cases will be dealt with in accordance with the organized crime, terror and drug trafficking. There is Some of the key cases being dealt with by special government plans to make it an obligation for prosecutors to seek SHOULD CONTINUE “new principles” the government is hoping to growing concern that a change to the special courts' courts are the Ergenekon and Balyoz coup cases, as the permission of related institutions to investigate officers at a Leyla Zana, an independent pro-Kurdish number of top state bodies, including the General Staff, the National pass through Parliament. According to Bozdağ, powers or abolishing them altogether may result in well as the trial of the Kurdistan Communities Security Council (MGK), the Interior Ministry, the National deputy from Diyarbakır who met with Prime however, the new principles will not have negative severe setbacks to the process of democratization. Union (KCK), the urban branch of the terrorist Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the police force. CONTINUED ON PAGE 05 Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday, said or retrograde effects on the ongoing cases. Critics of the courts, on the other hand, say Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). CONTINUED ON PAGE 05 the Oslo negotiations should continue so that they can find a viable solution to the decades-old Kurdish issue. Zana, who elicited some harsh criti- cism from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy EUROPEAN UNION Residents carry the body of a girl Party (BDP) earlier in June when said she believes who protesters say was killed by shelling Erdoğan can solve the Kurdish issue and that she by forces loyal to the Assad regime, during REUTERS has never lost faith in him, held a press conference, her funeral in Deraa on Sunday. TURKEY HAS A LONG her first at Parliament in 21 years, on Sunday. PHOTO Amid ongoing debates over how to handle the TO-DO LIST, LONG WAY decades-old Kurdish issue as armed conflicts con- tinue to escalate in southeastern Turkey, Zana had a TO GO BEFORE VISA meeting with Erdoğan to discuss the issue on Saturday. The meeting lasted for more than an hour. LIBERALIZATION She assessed the meeting for the press and shared her views about it. She told reporters that the meet- SELÇUK GÜLTAŞLI, BRUSSELS ing with the prime minister was very positive and Turkey has to comply with quite a long list that she hopes the talk would contribute to breaking of conditions and do a lot of work at home the deadlock over the Kurdish issue. CONTINUED ON PAGE 06 before its citizens will be able to step on Euro- pean soil without a visa, according to the draft of an action plan reviewed by Today's Zaman. Prepared by the European Commission, the 15-page document, entitled “Dialogue and Cooperation Framework on Justice and Home Affairs between the EU and Turkey: Action Plan Towards Visa Liberalisation” sets out numerous conditions while carefully avoiding any refer- ence to a possible date for visa-free travel to the EU for Turkish citizens. The draft makes it clear that the process is a “gradual” one with “a long- term perspective,” stressing visa liberalization is highly conditional “on an effective and consis- tent implementation by Turkey of those require- JENNY WHITE ments vis-à-vis the EU and its Member States.” Turkey has insisted it will not sign the Read- mission Agreement, which will oblige Turkey to ANTHROPOLOGIST WHITE: Syrian opposition groups on Sunday rejected a UN-brokered peace plan for a political transition in Syria, readmit any illegal immigrants proven to have SYRIAN OPPOSITION calling it ambiguous and a waste of time and vowing not to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad or members entered the EU from Turkey, the most impor- of his “murderous” regime. The disappointed reaction underlined the seemingly intractable nature of the Syrian TURKISH MUSLIMHOOD tant condition for the EU to initiate visa-free GROUPS REJECT UN conflict, which this week saw some of the bloodiest violence since the start of the uprising against Assad's REPLACING ISLAMISM TRANSITION PLAN regime in March 2011. Activists said dozens of people were killed and wounded in a powerful explosion on travel, until it fi rst sees the action plan. The draft, Saturday evening that hit a funeral procession in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus. CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 prepared by the Home Affairs of the European YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN, İSTANBUL / ABANT Commission, will fi rst be sent to the relevant DAVUTOĞLU: TRANSITIONAL GOV’T PROPOSED AS SOLUTION IN SYRIA, IMPORTANT FIRST STEP PAGE 04 directorate-generals of the Commission for their According to Jenny White, an anthropologist input and then member countries. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 specializing in Turkey, Turkey's national identity has been in a process of redefinition, and during this process the notion of Muslimhood has replaced Islamism. “Muslimhood implies a different understanding of personhood. If you are a pious 04 Turkey denies WSJ’s ‘warplane 17 TSK scrambles jets to patrol 11 Eastern US storms kill at Muslim and you enter politics, the assumption is hit in Syrian airspace’ claim airspace near Syrian border least 13, cut power to millions that you become an Islamist. But the theologians Turkey has dismissed reports from US intelli- The Turkish Armed Forces announced that they Millions across the mid-Atlantic region sweltered behind the Muslimhood model ask: ‘Why should gence showing that the Turkish jet shot down by had dispatched two F-16 fighter jets from the in the aftermath of violent storms that pummeled that be so? Do Christian politicians become denial Syrian forces was downed in Syrian airspace. İncirlik air base on Saturday to patrol the Syrian the eastern US with high winds and downed trees, Christianists when they enter politics?'” she told tension Turkey maintains it happened in international border. The TSK statement said the jets flew near disaster killing at least 13 people and leaving 3 million Today's Zaman for Monday Talk. White's new book dealing with the issues related to Turkey's national airspace. Prime Minister Erdoğan denied The the border after a Syrian Mi-17 helicopter appro- without power during a heat wave. The outages identity, “Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks,” Wall Street Journal’s claims, calling them “false.” ached within four miles of Turkish airspace. will not be repaired for several days. will come out in November. MONDAY TALK CONTINUED ON PAGE 09 Featuring news and articles from ‘ ‘ 02 TODAY’S ZAMAN ‘ MONDAY, JULY 2, 2012 PRESS REVIEW FOOD FOR THOUGHT QUOTE OF THE DAY WORDS OF WISDOM columns Assad will still have to go. What we have done Time is running out. The conflict Maybe all one can do is Davutoğlu and Syria here is to strip away the fiction that he and those [in Syria] must be resolved through hope to end up with the MUSTAFA ÜNAL ZAMAN with blood on their hands can stay in power. peaceful dialogue and negotiations. right regrets. It has been 10 days since Syria downed a Turkish military jet. The whereabouts of our two pilots is unknown. The cri- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Peace envoy Kofi Annan Arthur Miller sis has deepened. What has taken place in the 10-day peri- od? How has Turkey managed the crisis? Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has been in crisis-management mode since the very beginning.