TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News excerpts (January 11, 1996)

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

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 11 January 1996

[01] RP conciliatory but rivals near deal

ANKARA- Prime Minister-designate Necmettin Erbakan on Wednesday announced a conciliatory position in order to find partners for a coalition government to be led by his Welfare Party (RP) Islamists, but the secularist center-right rivals looked on course for a compromise of their own to take the country's helm into their own hands. Sources said the center-right leaders were about to agree on a rotating premiership formula.

Addressing a news conference after meeting with his party aides, Erbakan, assigned by President Suleyman Demirel to form the new government on Tuesday after RP emerged with a slight edge over the mainstream center right in the Dec. 24 election, said he was ready for any compromise.

The RP also announced Erbakan will start the formal talks for the formation of a coalition, meeting with True Path Party (DYP) leader Tansu Ciller at 11 a.m. today.

"We will not seek to implement our own program. A coalition protocol will be worked out and this is what will be implemented," Erbakan told a packed room of reporters after the key meeting with his party executives.

"We have no preconditions. We will begin with a clean slate.

Rationality, the way of the mind, and experience: these will be our guiding principles," Erbakan said, but made clear that he was not open to proposals that would keep him from leading the government personally.

He said the initial round of talks with party leaders will take a week, after which a second round might be required. But he indicated he would not cling to his mandate too long if he fails to attract partners and would return it to President Suleyman Demirel.

The split vote in the Dec. 24 election made a coalition inevitable, as neither the RP, nor the two quarrelling center-right parties could approach a majority in the 550-seat Parliament. Erbakan's Islamists bagged 158 seats in the legislature, followed by Tansu Ciller's True Path Party (DYP) and the Mesut Yilmaz's Motherland Party (ANAP) which captured 135 and 132 seats respectively.

Although Erbakan looked ready to concede from his anti-secular program and dropped his anti-Western outlook, DYP sources said the center-right partners were near an accord that would enable a coalition with ANAP -- with at least passive support from the left. Caretaker Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's insistence on staying in her post, had been blocking the way for the DYP-ANAP coalition despite an earlier meeting between the two leaders.

But in a bid to solve the issue of who will lead the projected alliance, Ciller has said she prefers a "rotating premiership, DYP sources told the Turkish Daily News.

She agreed on the leaders of the two parties taking turns at the head of the government for six-month terms -- after Yilmaz reportedly agreed to her preference for two-year periods.

The sources said Ciller's proposal had been taken to the ANAP leader by Ali Osman Sonmez, a businessman who was elected from the DYP list, getting a favorable response from Yilmaz. The issue now has become who will lead the government in the first six months, but Ciller was ready to push Yilmaz forward, the same sources told the TDN.

After a meeting between Ciller and her executives, a senior DYP politician said the "general inclination of the party leadership is not to leave the country without a government. As the DYP, we will adopt a constructive stance," said Ismail Karakuyu, the DYP deputy chairman.

"Our earlier statements -- about DYP's categorical opposition to a partnership with the RP -- are still valid," Karakuyu said, indicating that today's meeting between Erbakan and Ciller will just be a formality.

Addressing her newly-elected deputies on Wednesday, Ciller said on Wednesday that she and her colleagues would remain loyal to their earlier pledge that they would not form a coalition with Erbakan.

Ciller urged ANAP to display the same determination and fulfill its earlier commitment on this issue. She said if ANAP honored its pledge, a new government model would come onto the agenda in a very short time.

Meanwhile center-left Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal, who addressed his own deputies on Wednesday, said another early election could be tried if the efforts for the formation of the government resulted in failure although he said the new poll would lose Turkey another year.

Baykal repeated his earlier views that the new government should be formed by a coalition between ANAP, DYP and the Democratic Left Party (DSP).

But DSP leader Bulent Ecevit who spoke in a press conference organized by his party's provincial organization in Adana said that the most reasonable solution to surmount the government crisis would be a coalition government to be formed among DYP, ANAP and CHP.

Ecevit said that the soft stance which the RP had assumed recently did not instil confidence.

Of the two rival leftist parties trying to push each other into a center-right led coalition to reap the benefits of staying in opposition in turbulent times, DSP captured 76 seats and the CHP, 49 in the Dec. 24 election.

But the DSP lost a defector just days after the new parliament was sworn in, with Igdir deputy Adil Asirim resigning on Wednesday with the declared intent of joining the ANAP.

[02] Police name suspects in murder of Sabanci

ISTANBUL - As the apparently cold-blooded assasination of two prominent business executives of Sabanci Group, Ozdemir Sabanci and Haluk Gorgun, and private secretary of Sakip Sabanci, chairman of Sabanci Group, Nilgun Hasefe, sent shockwaves throughout Turkey, the hunt for their murderers was launched on Wednesday by police who disclosing the identities of three people believed to be the executors.

Orhan Tasanlar, Chief of Istanbul Police, said in a press conference early Wednesday that two men and one woman of a young age were being sought in relation to the murders. They were named as Ismail Akkol and Mustafa Duyar and Fahriye Erdal and photos of the alleged murderers were distributed to the press.

Stating that the identities were discovered from files and video recordings made at the main gates of Sabanci Towers, Tasanlar explained the murderers apparently entered the bulding through a gate without detectors.

"They used 7.65 handguns and silencers, which were brought to the building before in a bag. The bag was found at the scene.

Nobody heard the shots", Tasanlar said.

According to Tasanlar, the two male murderers were helped by Fahriye Erdal, who was working in the building for some six months. She let them into the building by giving them two guest cards, Tasanlar explained.

The search for the three alleged murderers had begun late Wednesday at their last know addresses.

Sabanci funeral today

Ozdemir Sabanci, younger brother of Sakip Sabanci, will be buried in his hometown of Adana today, his family stated. The coffin will be flown to Adana early Thursday and burial ceremony will take place after the noon prayers. The funeral of Nilgun Hasefe will take place in Istanbul, while the family of Haluk Gorgun is still to decide on the date of his internment.

[03] Netas secures TL 2.1 tr deals with national telephone company

ANKARA- Turkish telecommunications firm Netas Northern Elektrik Telekomunikasyon A.S., owned 51.85 percent by Canada's Northern Telecom Ltd, signed two deals worth a total of 2.1 trillion lira with national telecom company Turk Telekom, which is seen as core of Turkey's crawling privatization program.

Netas said in a statement Wednesday that a TL 1.3 trillion contract was signed to supply digital urban switches (DMS) to Turk Telekom this year It said a separate TL 800 billion worth contract covers the supply of transmission equipment.

Netas has put into service 3.5 million DMS lines in Turkey since it started producing them in 1984.

Its products made up about 65 percent of the systems used in Turkey's telecommunication network at the end of 1995, Netas added.

The company earlier said it was expecting a 25 percent advance payment next week as part of a $1.6 million contract signed with Kazakhstan in September to set up a turn-key communication network in and around Baykonur space station.

Shipment of telecommunication equipment to Kazakhstan will start after the advance payment. Netas had planned a $150 million turnover, including $40 million of exports last year.

[04] Turkish papers denounce Sabanci assassination

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Turkish newspapers denounced the assassination of prominent businessman Ozdemir Sabanci and his two colleagues, saying that terrorism was escalating in Turkey.

"Shock: Terrorism has reached the twin-towers of Sabanci Holding" read daily Hurriyet's headline. Hurriyet claimed that the main target of the attack was Sakip Sabanci, elder brother of Ozdemir Sabanci, and the head of the holding company.

The police started searching for a tea lady recently employed at the Sabanci Center as the main suspect of the assassination, according to Hurriyet.

The newspaper's chief columnist Oktay Eksi compared the assassination with the widespread terrorist attacks in Italy, Germany and the United States in the '70s, and said these attacks were far from achieving the goals set by their organizers.

Ertugrul Ozkok, Hurriyet's editor-in-chief, reported that a meeting among Turkey's top businessmen was earlier planned to be set on the assassination day in Sabanci Center, but took place a day earlier. "If the meeting had convened on Tuesday, then Turkey's most prominent businessmen would have been killed," Ozkok said.

Sabah said the assassination shook Turkey. "The assassin is the tea lady" said Sabah's headline. The newspaper urged True Path Party Chairwoman Tansu Ciller and Motherland Party leader Mesut Yilmaz to cooperate against terrorism. "The Ministry of the Interior and Justice, as well as the Police Directorate are not being run properly because a new government hasn't been formed yet. We urge Ciller and Yilmaz to form a coalition government immediately. History may not forgive you," Sabah's editorial said.

"Terrorism doesn't forgive lack of authority," Milliyet's headline said. Milliyet reported that the high-security system in the building had failed. The newspaper's editorial said, "The assassins will not be able to send Turkey to a dark age.

Democracy in Turkey will improve, despite the threats." "Bloody plot" and "Terrorism is escalating" read Yeni Yuzyil and Cumhuriyet's headlines. Yeni Yuzyil blamed the lack of authority since the election for the assassination, while Cumhuriyet said political leaders were busy with personal conflicts, instead of giving priority to national concerns.

[05] Turkish offices in Europe attacked

ANKARA- Unknown attackers firebombed three Turkish travel agencies in France and another in Germany on Tuesday night, in a series of attacks that are believed to be linked to prison unrest in Turkey.

The three travel agencies in Strasbourg were seriously damaged after the attacks, the Anatolia news agency reported.

A travel agency in Berlin's Kreuzberg district was destroyed by fire but no one was hurt, according to Reuters.

At a Turkish bank across the street from the agency, authorities found a fake firebomb and Turkish-language poster that, roughly translated, read: "Whatever happens in Turkey will be avenged in Germany," the police spokesman said.

In another incident, a grocery store owned by a Turkish citizen was burnt down by unknown attackers in Wiesbaden.

A Turkish bank in Stuttgart was briefly occupied by a group of nine. The group was later detained by the police.

Meanwhile a group of Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) supporters protesting the conditions in Turkish prisons attacked a Turkish mosque in Cologne. German police arrested 50 of the supporters.

The rioting prisoners in Turkey's three jails on Tuesday released the hostages they were holding and returned to their cells, after five days of unrest sparked by the death of three prisoners.

[06] International convention being prepared for water question

By Nazlan Ertan

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- The tricky water question will be brought to the attention of the United Nations through a draft prepared by the International Law Commission (ILC) on the non-navigational uses of international watercourses.

The ILC agreed to recommend to the UN General Assembly that the finalized text of the draft articles constitute a framework convention. It is agreed that at the beginning of its session on Oct. 7, 1996, the sixth committee, which will have prepared the final draft, will convene as a working group of the whole for three weeks, to elaborate a convention on the non-navigational uses of international watercourses on the basis of the draft articles. It is estimated that the formulation of the draft will take several years. In comparison, the controversial law of sea took nearly two decades until it became operational.

Turkey, like other countries, will present their legal views on these draft articles before July 1, 1996. The Turkish Foreign Ministry, still in the process of formulating their reply, has asked more than a dozen Turkish international law experts to formulate their views for the ministry's consultation.

The draft is particularly important for Turkey which is an upstream country, in respect of several international watercourses, which includes the Tigris and Euphrates -- a source of tension between Turkey, Iraq and Syria. According to Turkish diplomats, the final draft has both advantageous and disadvantageous points for Turkey.

It is the article on settlement of international disputes on water that combines both. Article 33(a) of the draft, on the settlement of disputes, urges disputing states to enter into consultations and negotiations, with a view to arriving at equitable solutions of the dispute, making use of any joint watercourse institution that may have been established by them.

But in part (b) of the article, it mentions the possibility of employing "impartial fact finding, or, if agreed upon by the states concerned, mediation or conciliation." Syria, within its own interpretation of the Article 33 (b), wants to take the water dispute to the International Court of Justice, which Turkey is against. Damascus also demands the presence of international observers in the talks between basin states.

Ankara carefully noted the wording on "equitable solutions," saying it corresponds with the Turkish thesis of equitable use for the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates, as opposed to Syrian claims of acquired rights through historical use.

Also, "a joint watercourse institution" may be interpreted as the Turkish proposal of a technical delegation from the three countries to study the water question, as foreseen in Turkey's three-staged plan.

Another point of pleasure for Ankara is that the ILC, since the beginning, has categorically refused the idea that an international watercourse is a natural resource that can be shared. This is in line with the Turkish view that no country can automatically claim "acquired rights" in a waterway.

The draft also says that "transboundary rivers must be utilized in an equitable, reasonable and optimum manner." This wording is particularly important to Ankara, which accuses Syria and Iraq of "wasting water" because of their primitive irrigation systems.

"Some of the Syrian lands are completely destroyed due to wrong irrigation techniques. It is impossible to reclaim them," a Turkish diplomat said. "Their desire for more water for those waste lands is neither equitable nor reasonable." Ankara also likes the new wording on the draft on "significant harm." In the second reading of the draft, the ILC decided to change the key concept of "appreciable harm" in the first draft into "significant harm." Thus, the wording raises the threshold, thus recognizing that the damage caused to the lower riparian state should be significant.

Article 7, another key point for Turkey, has been completely changed during the second drafting. The article, which has the title "Obligation not to cause appreciable harm" has been amended to add the concept of "due diligence," foreseeing that the riparian countries to a transboundary watercourse have been obliged to act with "due diligence" in not causing significant harm.

The framework convention, which will have an inspirational, rather than direct effect on solving possible disputes on transboundary watercourses, also has a point that irks Turkey on "notification concerning planned measures with possible adverse effects." The draft foresees that a state which implements or permits the implementation of planned measures, which may have a "significant adverse effect" upon other watercourse states, "shall provide those states with timely notification there of." Ankara says that "information" is fine, but asking the other state for "approval" is unacceptable. It also fears that the draft enables the notified state to keep the project from taking place for six to 12 months.

[07] EU testing waters for a wider role in Cyprus

By Yusuf Kanli

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Turkey, traditionally opposed to the European Union playing a major role on the Cyprus issue, has promised to support the policy of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) regarding the appointment of a "European" personality as the U.N. secretary-general's new Cyprus envoy.

The question of a new envoy has come on the agenda as the term of Joe Clark, the former Canadian prime minister, runs out.

There is a possibility of a "European" to take over the post and therefore create a natural link between the U.N. secretary-general's goodwill mission and the European Union, which has included Cyprus in its enlargement plans.

Failing to get the recognition of Ankara and Turkish Cypriot President Rauf Denktas for neither its "Cyprus coordinator" nor the bid to establish a "liaison office" between Brussels and the United Nations Secretariat on the Cyprus issue, the European Union has now sounded out Ankara and the TRNC on the replacement of outgoing special Cyprus envoy Joe Clark of U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali with a "European" personality.

Despite flotation of the idea unofficially for some time at junior levels, the pulse of Ankara on the issue was tested during the recent visit to Turkey of the European Union's current term president, Italy's Deputy Foreign Minister Emanuele Scammacca, who received a rather cold reception.

Foreign Ministry sources told the TDN yesterday that the Italian deputy foreign minister explained during the talks that the procedure for the appointment of the special Cyprus envoy requires the consent of the two communities on the island for the candidate. The sources said only after the two parties on the island give their consent to a possible name would the views of Turkey and Greece as "concerned countries" be sought.

"Turkey's position on the issue is known. We have disclosed that we support the stand of President Denktas and he has been stating that he is against a European name for the post because Greece is a member of the European Union while Turkey is not," a senior source told the TDN.

Turkish officials reportedly told the Italian deputy foreign minister that Turkey was committed to supporting the efforts of the U.N. secretary-general to find a negotiated and lasting solution in Cyprus acceptable to both sides on the island.

According to sources, Scammacca explained that Turkey was against the appointment by the European Union of a special Cyprus coordinator and had never recognized Serge Abou, despite his particularly good ties with Ankara, in that capacity. The Italian deputy foreign minister was further warned that if Europe insists on the replacement of Clark with a European personality it would amount to abandoning the United Nations as a platform on which to seek a Cyprus solution and replacing it with the European Union of which Ankara is not a member whereas Athens enjoys the privilege of membership.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Omer Akbel rejected claims yesterday that Scammacca had presented Ankara with a proposal on the issue during his visit. "He neither launched a European Union initiative, nor presented us any proposal," he said.

Akbel said Scammacca explained that Ankara believed the handling of the Cyprus problem on platforms other than the good offices mission of the U.N. secretary-general could be counterproductive. Akbel added that Ankara had not been presented with "any names of candidates" but the final decision on who would be Clark's successor required the approval of the two peoples on the island.

Besides the recent visit of Scammacca to Turkey, Greece and the two sectors of the island earlier this month, the next term president of the European Union, Ireland's Foreign Minister Dick Spring, started a 48-hour visit to Cyprus Tuesday night.

Spring met yesterday with Greek Cypriot leader Glafkos Clerides and other senior officials on the appointment of a European Union representative for Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot leader Denktas, who is opposed to the appointment of an EU representative for Cyprus, will be meeting with Spring today.

The appointment of an EU representative for Cyprus will be handled at a meeting today in Athens between Greek Foreign Minister Carolos Papoulias and Italian Foreign Minister Susanna Agnelli.

The Turkish Cypriot side claims that the recognition of the Greek Cypriot administration as the sole legitimate government of the entire island has been the key factor preventing a settlement on the island for the past 32 years and thus claims that appointment of a EU representative would not be a constructive development.

Commenting on the latest Cyprus report of American President Bill Clinton to Congress, the Turkish Cypriot Foreign Ministry said in a written statement that the reference to Greek Cypriot leader Clerides in the report as "president" and the reference to Denktas as "communal leader" was unacceptable.

The statement said it was that approach and mentality that had delayed a settlement in Cyprus for 32 years.

Meanwhile, it was reported that the scheduled Jan. 22-23 visit to Cyprus by Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. assistant secretary of state, was postponed to an unspecified date in February because of the government problem in Turkey and the unclear political situation in Greece because of the continued hospitalization of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou.