TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News (February 26, 1996)

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

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 26 February 1996

[01] Ankara focuses its attention on Greek moves in Brussels

TDN with wire dispatches

ANKARA- Eyes in Ankara are turned today toward the meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels to see what, if any, headway Greece makes in its self-declared aim to put obstructions in the path of the Turkey-EU customs union.

Reports from Brussels indicate that Athens has already been successful in effectively blocking a vote on EU aid to Turkey, which had been part of the customs union accord.

Both Prime Minister Tansu Ciller and Foreign Minister Deniz Baykal promised, with broad inter-party support, to respond in kind to every move taken by Greece to harm Turkish interests.

Prime Minister Ciller is expected to travel to Rome later today for talks with her Italian counterpart on Tuesday on these developments.

Turkey formally asked E.U. term president Italy over the weekend what it proposed to do about Greece's attempts to obstruct the customs union.

Turkish officials consider the customs union accord as having been signed sealed and delivered, especially since it was ratified by the European Parliament in December.

They say that Greece's plans to obstruct this accord is not a problem between Ankara and Athens but a problem between Greece and the E.U.

Saying that at this stage the aid earmarked under the customs union accord is of "symbolic nature," Turkish officials are looking mainly to see if Athens manages to secure political statements of support from EU foreign ministers.

They say that Athens is trying to complement the statement of "full solidarity with Greece" it got from the European Commission recently following its dispute with Turkey over the Kardak rocks, a small islet in the Aegean.

"What we will be asking for is the expression of solidarity of our partners towards our country in view of the aggressiveness of Turkey," a Greek spokesman told Reuters on Sunday.

Some press reports from Athens on Sunday suggested that Greece may have decided against an anti-Turkish initiative at the foreign ministers' meeting, not wanting to risk isolation from its EU partners.

But officials in Ankara were not giving these reports much worth.

Greece's EU partners were reported by Reuters as having "been infuriated" by moves from Athens to block funding programs of benefit to Turkey.

The main project at issue is a five-year, 375 million European currency unit ($487 million) aid package to help Turkey adjust to the customs union that came into effect with the EU in January.

At a meeting last week, EU ambassadors told Greece its actions violated the deal and threatened Cyprus' chances.

"We made a deal and we have to stick to that deal," one EU diplomat said. "People are afraid that if we let this go on, it will be (another) 14 years of blockage." Diplomats said ambassadors also criticized Greece at the meeting for threatening to hold up a package of EU funds for Mediterranean countries on the grounds that some of the money was destined for Ankara.

The customs pact is not only opening up the huge EU market to Turkish goods, but also it allows much greater access for European goods to an ever-growing Turkish market.

The decision by Greece to block aid packages for Ankara -- the latest in years of Greek vetoes of European Union Turkish policies -- has also intensely irritated EU countries which are keen to build security along the 15-nation bloc's southern flank.

"We are ready to try to help Greece," an EU diplomat said last week. "But we will no longer accept blackmail." Another added: "All member states will be arguing that to maintain the block is damaging to everyone's interests. I know of no (other) member state that is in favor of the block." Analysts say that Greece will most probably be at odds with its EU partners in Brussels if for no other reason than the European foreign ministers will be trying to undertake the crucial but delicate task of putting the Balkans back together and tying the region to Europe to avoid a repetition of the Yugoslav war.

With this being the focus of attention for the foreign ministers it is highly unlikely, they say, that Greece will be allowed to "rock the Balkan boat." Especially when most European governments remember that Athens has been at odds with Europe over Bosnia by supporting the Serb nationalists and by imposing an embargo on Macedonia at a delicate moment in the Yugoslav crisis.

Greece also has uneasy relations with Albania and is said to have some currently dormant but potentially problematic historic differences with Bulgaria going back to the time of the Balkan Wars.

[02] Search swings back to 'Motherpath' formula

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- "Exploratory" talks were underway over the weekend between caretaker Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's True Path Party (DYP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP) of Mesut Yilmaz for a government partnership following the latter's failure on Saturday to work out an arrangement for a coalition with the pro-Islamic Welfare Party (RP).

These efforts are said to be aimed at reviving the prospects for a "Motherpath" coalition after the possibility for such a partnership floundered weeks ago on Ciller's insistence on holding the premiership and Yilmaz's refusal to accept this condition.

Some claims have been circulating, based on a conciliatory tone adopted by Ciller, that she may have given up on this condition. There are also suggestion of a meeting to take place today between Ciller and Yilmaz.

Referring to the contacts between the two parties, ANAP deputy for Gaziantep Mustafa Tasar said on Sunday that "the talk have been going well so far." Tasar was talking to reporters after visiting Yilmaz at home to brief him about contacts that were held between DYP and ANAP executives on Sunday evening.

But despite Tasar's optimism neither party was giving out much information as to whether there was a real prospect for agreement or not.

The talks between the sides continued on Sunday afternoon.

The deputy head of the DYP's parliamentary group Yalim Erez, his ANAP counterpart Ulku Guney and Mustafa Tasar were attending these talks held at Yilmaz's residence.

Reflecting her conciliatory tone over the weekend, Ciller expressed her happiness that an RP-ANAP coalition had not been formed and said there was still the possibility for a DYP-ANAP partnership.

"The country today is faced with important problems. What is important in this respect is the formation of a workable government," Ciller told reporters on Saturday night in Uludag where she was staying for the extended Bayram holiday.

"We have never insisted on the chair. The public has understood this much better after the latest developments," Ciller said, referring to reports that she wants to be prime minister in any coalition arrangement.

Continuing with her conciliatory tone, Ciller said that the DYP was ready to do all that it had to so that the country does not remain without a government.

She did not clarify, however, whether these remarks mean that she has given up on her previous insistence that she become prime minister, or at least prime minister first in the event that a rotational premiership is decided on.

Reflecting the sigh of relief that echoed in many quarters around the country following the end of coalition talks between the RP and ANAP, Ciller claimed that such a government would have been risky for the country's future.

"A very large segment of public opinion in Turkey and abroad have started breathing again after this outcome," Ciller said.

Preliminary talks between the DYP and ANAP started almost immediately after Mesut Yilmaz announced at a press conference on Saturday afternoon that they had failed to come up with a formula for establishing a coalition with the RP.

ANAP's Ulku Guney, met with his DYP counterpart Yalim Erez and ANAP Gaziantep Deputy Mustafa Tasar first in Mesut Yilmaz's office and later moved to Tasar's house for dinner.

Following the dinner all three deputies brushed off reporters' questions of why they had met by suggesting that this was merely a gathering of friends.

Party sources on both sides informed members of the media that these meetings were being conducted "with the full knowledge" of the ANAP and DYP leaders, confirming in this way that what was going on was more than just "a gathering of friends." The same sources said they expected Ciller and Yilmaz to meet today.

These sources also claimed that significant progress had been made in these exploratory talks on the subject of a DYP-ANAP coalition based on a rotational premiership in which Yilmaz becomes prime minister first.

In the meantime, briefing reporters after a meeting of ANAP executives in the early evening on Saturday, party spokesperson Imren Aykut said that "anything is possible at this stage." While not letting out much of what the ANAP executives had talked about, Aykut merely acknowledged that they were receiving "soft signals" from the DYP.

[03] Turkish businessmen abroad to meet in Istanbul

ANKARA- Turkish businessmen abroad will meet in Istanbul on Feb. 27, the Anatolia news agency reported over the weekend.

The "World Turkish Businessmen Meeting" will be the first to gather Turkish businessmen from throughout the world. Six hundred fifty Turkish businessmen from 34 countries will attend the meeting which will be headed by Sakip Sabanci, the chairman of Sabanci Holding, which is the second biggest business cooperation in Turkey.

The meeting will be held under the auspices of President Suleyman Demirel and will host 46 Turkish businessmen from Germany and many from the United States, China, the Republic of South Africa and Singapore. Also 350 Turkish businessmen from 28 provinces in Turkey, most small- and medium-size company (KOBI) representatives, will join the meeting.

The main objective of the meeting is to gather Turkish businessmen abroad and in Turkey. The topics to be discussed are the customs union with the European Union, foreign investment in Turkey, build-operate-transfer model applications, privatization, KOBIs and the organization of Turkish businessmen abroad.

Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Onur Oymen, Foreign Trade Undersecretary Nejat Eren, Industry and Trade Ministry Undersecretary Ersan Yavuz, Privatization Board acting Chairman Metin Ersoy, Economic Development Foundation Chairman Meral Gezgin Eris, Association for Foreign Capital Coordination (YASED) Chairman Yavuz Canevi, Professor Dr. Tamer Muftuoglu and Ishak Alaton from Alarko Holding will make speeches at the meeting. On the second day of the meeting workshops on textile, food, tourism, construction, banking and production industries will be held. The businessmen attending the meeting will also visit the organized industry areas in Gebze, Cerkezkoy and Tuzla.

[04] What is Greece after?

The tension between Turkey and Greece appears to have reached the highest point with the latest Kardak (Ikizce) crisis. But it would be naive to expect that the high point has been reached and that this tension between the two countries will now begin to decline.

Although Costas Simitis has won the race for leadership within PASOK that followed Andreas Papandreou having to give up the premiership due to health reasons, developments following the Kardak crisis have highlighted once more the political struggle within PASOK and the rivalry between the Greek armed forces and PASOK.

Air force commander Gen. Atanasios Tzoganis, known for his closeness to PASOK, was appointed to replace Adm. Hristos Limberis as chief of the general staff after Limberis fell out with Prime Minister Simitis over the Kardak policy being pursued had refused to resign as he was asked to.

The Simitis government, while on the one hand changing at lighting speed the commanders of the navy and the land forces, along with the chief of the general staff, is on the other hand now debating whether to raise the period of military service from 18 months to 20 months.

While Defense Minister Arsenis, who is competing with Simitis for the leadership of PASOK, and hence the premiership, is cold to this suggestion, Aegean Affairs Minister Antonis Kotsakas wants civilians armed against a possible attack by the Turks.

Chief of General Staff Tzoganis, for his part, started to fling threats at Turkey the minute he started his new job.

Referring to the "more than apparent threat to Greece from Turkey," Tzoganis has said that they will "do away with Turkish propaganda and efforts at sabotage." Because Tzoganis' words do not reflect the truth in any way, one is left wondering if by referring to "sabotage" Greece is preparing the groundwork for another act of provocation.

At a time when Greek and Turkish public opinion was preoccupied with the Kardak crisis, the Kurdistan Political Center in Limassol was bombed on Feb. 10.

The initial claim is that the perpetrators of this bombing belong to the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Massoud Barzani.

But the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK-guided Med-TV, in its news bulletin on Feb. 15, denies this claim and says the attack was carried out by the Turkish secret service.

In fact, when keeping the developments in Greece in mind, it is clear that it is either the Greek military secret service EIP or national secret service KIP which carried out the bombing in Limassol.

There are serious suspicions now that the Greek secret service is preparing "multi-functional" acts of provocation in order to prepare the groundwork for an attack against Turkish diplomats in Athens. It is thought the bombing in Limassol is aimed at preparing the environment for such a cowardly attack.

The basis of this plan is to blame the Kurds living in Greece for the attack and also, in this way, to drive a deeper division between Turks and Kurds.

As it is, the Greek press has for some time been carrying reports of imminent attacks against the Turkish and American embassies in Athens. With the recent rocket attack against the American Embassy, the first stage of this plan can be considered as having been realized.

The fact that the rocket used in this attack was one of those "stolen" from the Sikourio military base recently indicate that the suspicions voiced above are not unfounded by any means.

We are sounding a serious warning. Athens cannot overlook the fact that it is responsible for the preservation of the lives and properties of diplomats working in Grece. If we recall that a considerable number of Turkish diplomats have been martyred in Greece to date, the Greek government has to activate its security forces to take serious precautions against another such attack.

If it does not, and such an attack is carried out, then the sole responsibility for this will rest with the Greek authorities, and this incident will contribute further to the growing image of Greece, which is already being seen as the "spoiled child of Europe," as a terrorist state.