TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News excerpts (January 8, 1996)

From: TRKNWS-L <trh@aimnet.com>

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 8 January 1996

[01] Parliament opening with oath marathon

ANKARA- The 20th legislative term of Parliament opens today with a marathon swearing-in ceremony expected to last 18 hours or longer with each of the 550 newly-elected deputies taking turns to walk up to the rostrum and declare their allegiance to the unity of the Republic and to the secular and democratic principles written into its constitution.

Welfare party (RP) Istanbul Deputy Suleyman Arif Emre, as the oldest member, will reside over the swearing-in ceremony. Emre will maintain his temporary post until the election of the new Parliament Speaker. Ali Osman Sonmez from the True Path Party (DYP) will serve as temporary deputy-speaker of Parliament.

The opening of the new legislative term will start at 2.00PM with Emre and other temporary Speaker's Council members laying a wreath at Ataturk's Mausoleum.

Once they take their seats in Parliament at 3.00 pm , the newly-elected deputies will be called according to the province they represent and the alphabetical order of their surnames and will take the oath in the manner stipulated by constitutional Article 81.

President Suleyman Demirel will attend the swearing-in ceremony, but reportedly will not deliver a speech during the first session of Parliament.

Once the deputies are sworn in, candidates for speaker will have a 10-day deadline to declare their candidacy. Parliament will convene again on Jan.20 for the election of the new speaker.

The six youngest deputies will become temporary members of the Speaker's Council. Democratic Left Party (DSP) deputies Serif Cim from Bilecik and Bayram Firat Dayanikli from Tekirdag, the youngest deputies of Parliament will serve as secretarial members of the Speaker's Council during the first session of Parliament.

RP Deputy Celal Esin from Agri, DSP Deputy Adil Asirim from Igdir, Motherland Party (ANAP) Deputy Erkan Mumcu from Isparta, and DSP Deputy Tamer Kamber from Balikesir will serve as secretarial members of the Speaker's Council on a rotating basis. President Suleyman Demirel will meet with political party leaders on Tuesday (tomorrow) to discuss the formation of the new government.

Meanwhile, the political parties are continuing their efforts regarding the formation of the new government. RP Deputy Chairman Recai Kutan told a press conference that he and his colleagues believed that Demirel would take democratic precedents into consideration and give the assignment to RP leader Necmettin Erbakan.

In response to reports that the president would not give the assignment to the RP, Kutan said his party had written to the office of the president for clarification of this issue and that it was now waiting for a reply. DYP Deputy Chairman Ismail Kose denied claims that DYP Chairwoman Tansu Ciller had made a proposal to the RP for the formation of a government under her premiership. In a press conference at DYP headquarters, Kose also said he and his colleagues, did not favor the formation of a national consensus government.

On the other hand, CHP Chairman Deniz Baykal said ANAP's possible coalition partnership with the RP had become the subject of discussion now.

DSP leader Bulent Ecevit, referring to Ciller's press conference last Friday, said Ciller had distorted the facts and that she had tried to conceal the great economic problems which her policies had caused. Ecevit said Ciller had also failed to explain how she planned to solve the problems. He said Ciller had just drawn a rosy picture of the current economy.

[02] Baykal accuses Syria of harboring terrorists

ANKARA- Against a backdrop of accelerating tensions in Turco-Syrian ties, the foreign minister accused Damascus on Sunday of harboring terrorists. "This should be said clearly and I am doing so, in my role as foreign minister, the headquarters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is in Damascus," he said during a program on Interstar, called "Kirmizi Koltuk."

"How can you reconcile this with good neighborliness? How can you keep the head of a terrorist organization in your capital?" he asked.

He said that the Syrian policy was unacceptable and had to be changed.

PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is believed to be living in Damascus. Although the Syrians publicly deny this, two German officials who wanted to talk to Ocalan met him in Damascus. Ankara, irked by the meetings, divided its rage between Germany and Syria. Baykal also denied that Turkey ever deprived Syria of water and invited both Syria and Iraq to discuss Turkey's three-stage plan to work out and equitable allocation of water resources. "How can they ask us not to have damns on the Tigris and the Euphrates," he asked during the program. "Our Southeast needs electricity and we need to do something. How can this be interpreted as a hostile move?"

[03] Kandemir praises improvement in the Turkish-US relationship

By Ugur Akinci

Turkish Daily News

WASHINGTON- Nuzhet Kandemir, Turkish ambassador to the United States, has summed up developments in Turkish-U.S. relations in 1995 at a press conference held on Friday at the Turkish Embassy for the Turkish press. Kandemir said he believed bilateral relations were on a much better footing now compared to the year before. He especially noted the fact that the issue of human rights, which almost became a stumbling block in bilateral relations at the beginning of 1995, seemed no longer to be the central focus of relations between the two NATO allies.

Surveying a wide panorama of international issues, Kandemir singled out the following four issues as the success stories of 1995 as far as Turkish foreign policy is concerned: Turkey's participation in UNPROFOR; participation in IFOR; participation in the Steering Group in Bosnia; and Turkey's emerging role in the training of the Bosnian military. "We are proud to say that we have been right about Bosnia all along.," he said.

He added that by becoming a member of the European Customs Union, Turkey became a "bridge of stability" between East and West in 1995. "We are happy that we received support from the United States way beyond our expectations on the customs union issue," he said. He also cited U.S. support on Caspian oil pipeline routes and the description of Turkey by the U.S. Department of Commerce as one of the ten Big Emerging Markets in the world.

Despite congressional and NGO opposition, Kandemir also expressed his pleasure at the way the Clinton administration marshalled its support for Turkey's purchase of military equipment from the United States.

Divergent views

As to the issues on which the two allies held "divergence views," Kandemir cited the Azeri-Armenian conflict; the sanctions on Iraq; the attitude toward Russia and its violation of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) flank limitations; the Cyprus issue; Turkish-Greek relations; and the various controversies between Turkey and Syria.

Among the policy areas that Turkey and the United States will continue to cooperate on in 1996, Ambassador Kandemir cited the following: Bosnia; Central Asia and the Caspian oil pipelines; NATO expansion; relations with the European Union; the expansion of bilateral economic cooperation and trade relations. "On these issues our mutual interests coincide," he said.

Concerning the Cyprus issue, Kandemir downplayed Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke's publicly stated intention to launch a "big push" on the issue. He said that Holbrooke's upcoming visit to Athens, Ankara and Nicosia did not hold any special significance as far as Turkey was concerned. " I am not aware of a plan that he will be taking with him. If he has such a plan, we certainly have no knowledge of it. He is just visiting," he said. " The United States is well aware of our parameters on the Cyprus issue. They know we haven't changed our stance at all.

We are for a bi-zonal, bi-communal federated state. We would welcome all initiatives within the boundaries of our parameters," he said.

Although acknowledging the crucial role of the U.S. election in 1996, Ambassador Kandemir nevertheless maintained that he did not expect the election to have any impact on bilateral relations. " I don't think there will be any significant changes in the way the United States will approach our relationship once the newly elected members of the Congress are over the 'warm up' period," he said. He added that he did not detect any concern on the part of Clinton administration officials in relation to the outcome of the Dec.24 election, which saw the pro-Islamic Welfare Party emerge as the top vote-winner.

On the postponement of the visit of a Turkish delegation to Washington headed by Ali Tuggan, which was expected to hold talks in Washington on the future of Operation Provide Comfort, Kandemir said the postponement decision was taken by Ankara, and not by Washington. "We can't say that 'the political authority vacuum in Turkey payed a role in the postponement," Kandemir said.

Concerning the controversy with Syria over the water issue, Kandemir said "it is not possible to go anywhere (with the peace talks) by walking all over Turkey." He said he had talked with Ambassador Dennis Ross of the State Department, the chief U.S. negotiator at the Israeli-Syrian peace talks at the Wye Plantation, Maryland, and that Ross was fully aware of Turkish policy vis-a-vis Syria's unjust demands and accusations.

Kandemir also confirmed that Commerce Secretary Ron Brown's trip to Turkey in the second half of January might be postponed due to budgetary reasons, and that President Suleyman Demirel might be visiting the United States in the "first half of 1996," as promised previously.

[04] Istanbul gold bourse rises on world prices in thin volume

LONDON- Prices on Istanbul's gold bourse rose in line with higher world levels in the morning session of the week's last trading day, but volume slumped as traders were sidelined, dealers said.

Gold closed Friday at 760,500 lira per gram after 754,000 on Thursday. There were no dollar deals. Only 75 kilos of gold changed hands, down sharply from 235 kg on Thursday. 70 kilos were traded in the mornin.

Brokers said sellers and buyers were sidelined as the lira continued to firm against the dollar and world gold prices started to ease in the afternoon, although the key $400 an ounce target was still in sight.

"The $400 an ounce target caused sellers to hold onto their gold. They also did not want to sell because the dollar fell in the domestic currency markets," said Nilgun Kayin from Esbank. "Buyers meanwhile, are waiting for easier world prices. There was no gold demand from the Covered Bazaar (Turkey's unofficial gold and currency trade center), " she added.

The lira firmed to 59,200 to the dollar from Thursday's 59,400. Officially the lira appreciated by one percent against the dollar this week after last week's 3.8 percent loss amid political uncertainty after the inconclusive general elections.