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CONTENTS:
       • Top Court Annuls Parts of Constitutional Reform Package
       • Obama Urges EU to Accept Turkey as Member
       • Report Faults Israeli Military over Flotilla Raid
       • Israeli and Turkish Generals Still Talking Amid Row
       • NATO Chief Slams EU over “Unfair” Treatment of Turkey
       • US to Investigate Turkish Aid Foundation

Top Court Annuls Parts of Constitutional Reform Package
 
Turkey's top court Wednesday annulled parts of a government-sponsored package of constitutional changes curbing the powers of the judiciary. The government criticized the court for exceeding its authority with the verdict, but said the amendments were still a major reform despite the changes and would go to a referendum on September 12 as planned. The opposition said Thursday that the adjustments made in the ruling did not go far enough and has vowed to campaign against the reforms in the referendum.

In its verdict, the court rejected a demand to scrap the whole of the amendment package, but annulled parts of amendments dealing with the court itself and a key judicial body that appoints judges and prosecutors, the court's president, Hasim Kılıç, told reporters in Ankara. The ruling gives top courts a wider choice in determining candidates to sit on the Constitutional Court and restricts the pool of those eligible to serve on the Supreme Board of Prosecutors and Judges, or HSYK, a body that has often clashed with the AKP, Kılıç said.

While Kılıç stated the amendments untouched by the court would go to a referendum, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said the articles changed by the court would also be put to the vote in September in their edited form. The AKP says the changes to the Constitution, the legacy of the military rule of the 1980's, will improve democratic standards and boost Ankara's bid to join the European Union. The main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, charges that the AKP designed the package to tighten its grip on power by extending government control over key judicial bodies and undermining the system of checks and balances. The country's top judges have also objected to the changes, which they say encroach on the independence of the judiciary and violate the separation of powers.
 
The constitutional amendment package limits the jurisdiction of military courts and allows civilian courts to try military personnel in peace time for coup attempts and offenses related to national security and organized crime. Another measure paves the way for the military chief and his top four aides to be tried at the Supreme Court. The amendments also allow for the trial of the leaders of the 1980 coup, give civil servants the right to collective bargaining, but not the right to strike, and expand women's and children's rights. /Hurriyet/

Obama Urges EU to Accept Turkey as Member
 
US President Barack Obama Thursday made a cautious appeal to the European Union to accept Turkey as a member, warning that Turkey could end up seeking alliances outside the West if the EU keeps it dangling over its bid for membership. "Although we are not EU members, we have said as a matter of opinion that we think it would be wise for the EU to accept Turkey," Obama said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Obama stated he did not believe the slow pace of EU accession or backtracking in the membership process is the "sole contributor or even a predominant contributor in some of the changed orientation that we've seen in Turkey...  But it is inevitably destined to play a role in how the Turkish people see Europe. If they do not feel themselves part of the European family, it is natural that they should end up looking elsewhere for alliances and affiliations." He added that some of the change "has to do with their [Turkish] democracy operating and reflecting changing attitudes within Turkey."
 
Separately, Obama repeated the US unease over Turkey vote against new UN sanctions on Iran, saying Turkey's "attempt to deal with Iran on the nuclear issue" was "unfortunate." But he added: "I think some of that was also guided by the fact that they have a long border with Iran, and they don't want any kind of conflict in that region. Some of it has to do with them flexing their muscles. I think the most important thing we can do with Turkey is to continue to engage, continue to hold out the advantages for them of integration with the West, while still respecting their own unique qualities and not acting fearful about the fact that they are Muslim." /Turkish Press Review/

Report Faults Israeli Military over Flotilla Raid
 
A military probe has found Israel's armed forces to have committed serious errors in preparing and carrying out the deadly boarding of a Gaza-bound aid ship in May. The 150-page Eiland Commission report presented to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi on Sunday said mistakes were committed at all levels of command, from top officers to commandos, the daily Yediot Aharonot reported. The investigators said the navy failed to sufficiently consider the possibility the troops could encounter violent resistance during the May 31 operation, but also praised the commandos involved and found the use of force had been the only way to stop the flotilla.

The findings, to be formally released on Monday, said the clashes occurred partly because the navy had failed to deploy enough forces on the deck of the Mavi Marmara. They also said the military failed to coordinate sufficiently with intelligence agencies in preparing for the raid, and that some of the information used was faulty. The military probe is separate from the Tirkel Commission, which is looking into the legality of the raid and of Israel's four-year-old blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense officials said Israel's first internal report on the deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla is expected to criticize the planning and intelligence gathering that preceded the operation, not the commandos who conducted it. The report was not expected to recommend dismissals, but some senior officers could be ousted or demoted in the ensuing shake-ups, stated the officials, who were familiar with the report but spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of its formal release. /Hurriyet/

Israeli and Turkish Generals Still Talking Amid Row
 
Israel's military chief said on Tuesday he had been in contact with his Turkish counterpart in an effort to maintain relations in the midst of a diplomatic row over the deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza aid ship. Turkey responded to Israel's killing of nine Turkish activists on board the ship on May 31 by withdrawing its ambassador, suspending joint defense exercises and closing Turkish airspace to Israeli military planes.

Briefing Israeli lawmakers behind closed doors, Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi said he had been "personally in touch" with the Turkish chief of staff since the high seas interception, which Israel defended as part of its blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza. Ashkenazi said he thought there was a limit to Turkey's change of political direction because as a NATO member it was dependent on Western military hardware, according to a parliamentary official who briefed reporters. On a military level, Ashkenazi thought Israeli-Turkish ties could be maintained as before. "Relations are important, and we must maintain them during turbulent times," the commander said. "Contact with the military is continuing despite the fact that some exercises have been canceled," he added. "I gained the impression that on the military level there is no problem and nothing to prevent continued meetings."

Turkey's powerful military has long been the guardian of the secular constitution, leading to tension with the Islamist-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "I do not know where Erdogan's path is leading them," Ashkenazi said. Israel is a major defense exporter to Turkey, with annual sales of around $2.5 billion, an Israeli defense official reported. In a $180-million deal, Turkey ordered 10 surveillance drones from Israel. Six were delivered before the ship crisis, the official said, with the rest to follow "in coming weeks." As a security precaution, Israel withdrew its defense advisers from Turkey last month, relocating the training of Turkish drone operators to Israeli bases. The official said he believed the advisers would return to Turkey soon. /Sabah/

NATO Chief Slams EU over "Unfair" Treatment of Turkey
 
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen criticized the European Union Wednesday for what he called its "unfair" treatment of Turkey. Writing in Danish center-left daily Politiken, Rasmussen advised the EU to "take a series of pragmatic steps to improve relations with Turkey, entirely outside the negotiations" between Ankara and Brussels over Turkey's EU membership. In particular, the former Danish prime minister urged the EU to give Turkey more of a role in decision-making for military missions it is involved in, and come to an agreement on Turkey's request to join the European Defense Agency. Rasmussen said it was "unfair" to exclude Turkey from the military research and development body, pointing out how Norway is involved even though, like Turkey, it is a member of NATO but not the EU. "This is not reasonable," he said, appealing to the EU to "send out a clear message" to Turkey regarding its role in the West. Maintaining a close partnership with Turkey is important, Rasmussen said, "not only as a valued NATO ally, but also with the EU." /Turkish Press Review/

US to Investigate Turkish Aid Foundation
 
The United States is investigating whether to add the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or İHH, to its official list of terrorist organizations, a State Department spokesman has said. Acting deputy spokesman Mark C. Toner told reporters at a daily press briefing Wednesday that the inquiry began after a bipartisan group of 87 senators called on U.S. President Barack Obama to consider putting the İHH on the list of foreign terrorist organizations. The senators' letter to the president came shortly after Israeli commandos raided an İHH aid ship bound for Gaza, killing eight Turks and one American citizen of Turkish descent. In response to a question from a reporter about whether the Department of State's investigation was ongoing, Toner downplayed the inquiry. "I believe we're looking at the İHH, but it's a long process to designate something - an organization - a foreign terrorist organization and there's nothing to announce on that," Toner said. /Hurriyet/