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Turkish Press Review 96-05-23Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>CONTENTS
TURKISH PRESS REVIEWTHURSDAY MAY 23, 1996Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning[01] PRIME MINISTER VISITS SARAJEVOPrime Minister Mesut Yilmaz will pay a one-day visit to Bosnia- Herzegovina tomorrow. Y=FDlmaz will meet with President Aliya Izzetbegovic, President of Bosnian-Croatian Federation, Kresimir Zubak and Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic. Yilmaz will offer concrete solutions to the leaders to resolve the continuing problems of the region. One of the most important projects that Yilmaz will bring to the table is the reconstruction of Bosnia-Herzegovina.The Turkish government has decided to extend credit up to $80 million for building houses for Bosnian refugees that return to their country. $20 million of this credit will be used within this year. Experts from Emlak Bank have already gone to Bosnia-Herzegovina to prepare a feasibility report for the project. The Emlak Bank project is for the construction of one thousand houses. A Turkish company will undertake the construction work. The Sarajevo administration also wants to spend some of the credit on food. /Hurriyet-Sabah/ [02] GONENSAY: "AGREEMENT WILL BE REACHED ON PROVIDE COMFORT"Foreign Minister Emre Gonensay said yesterday that Turkey and the US would reach an agreement on prolonging the mission of the Provide Comfort Operation in Turkey in line with the demands of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA), and Turkish public opinion.Returning home after completing a two-day working visit to the US, Emre Gonensay briefed press members at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, saying that some elements related to Turkey's security would be changed and added that he had had contacts on oil pipelines, Turco-Greek relations and on "Cobra" helicopters, the sale of which to Turkey has been postponed. Gonensay said that the mandate of the Provide Comfort Operation would be prolonged in line with the political demands of Turkey, including the prevention of political formations in northern Iraq, protection of the territorial integrity of Iraq, blocking the activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist terrorist organisation and protection of Turkish borders with electronic surveillance systems"./Cumhuriyet/ [03] MOLDOVA AND TURKEY TO ENHANCE RELATIONSPresident Mircea Snegur of Moldova, who arrived in Ankara yesterday as the official guest of Turkish President Suleyman Demirel, expressed explicit support for the re-election of President Boris Yeltsin. Snegur has held official talks with President Demirel and signed a number of documents that will enhance a previously signed defence and cooperation accord. The agreements between the two countries include cooperation in the field of tourism, the judiciary, technology and education.Arriving in Ankara, Snegur described President Demirel as a "close personal friend" and said that the dialogue between the two countries, launched during Demirel's visit to Moldova in 1994, would be furthered during his own visit to Turkey. Demirel, for his part, thanked Snegur for the Moldovan policy on the Gagauz, Turkish-Speaking people in Moldova who are Christians. "Our relations have made speedy progress in the last four years. Now that we have completed the infrastructure, we will look for ways to improve our economic and trade ties" he said. After making separate statements, the two presidents went on to hold official talks. Snegur also met with Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz. Demirel gave a banquet in Snegur's honour yesterday. /Cumhuriyet/ [04] GERMAN INTELLIGENCE NAMES PKK 'NO. 1 TERROR PROBLEM'A top German intelligence director has pointed a finger at the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as Germany's "number one terror problem". The PKK has recently threatened German sports celebrities, as well as German tourists intending to visit Turkey. Also talking at the same event in Washington, Mehmet Eymur of the Turkish MIT intelligence organization, pointed out the dangers posed by the support the PKK receives from Syria. "The PKK is financially self-sufficient. It is involved in drug smuggling activities not only in Germany but in Australia, Russia, all over Europe, and even South Africa" Eymur said.Klaus Grunewald, director of the counter-terrorism division of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said at a conference on "fighting terror in democracies" that the PKK had 9,000 "activists" in Germany, of which about 500 to 1,000 were "fanatics" who would even burn themselves alive for the PKK cause. Two Kurdish women did so in Mannheim in 1994. "The PKK is the most dangerous organization in my country" Grunewald said. Like Eymur, Grunewald also confirmed that the PKK has reached a stage where it is largely self-sufficient from a financial point of view. Mehmet Eymur, director of counter-terrorism at the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT), also addressed the Washington Institute conference participants, and said unless there was an international consensus on a common definition of terrorism it was not easy to counter the danger. Eymur pointed to the historical role played by the Soviet Union in the 1960s to foster the first wave of Marxist-Leninist terror organizations in Turkey. Today Russia continued to support the PKK, he said, by allowing PKK conferences in Moscow. Eymur echoed the declaration of President Demirel at the Sharm el-Sheik anti-terror summit of the need for the establishment of an internationally acknowledged centre which would collect and classify information on terrorist organizations, their supporters, and their operational methods and financial sources, and that would secure multinational coordination". /Sabah/ [05] KURDISH MILITANTS KILL TWO IN BOLD TURKISH CITY ATTACKSuspected Kurdish militants have killed two people in a daring attack on a Turkish police social club packed with local dignitaries and security officials, police said yesterday. Attackers, believed to be Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, opened fire with automatic weapons at the club from a nearby construction site in the city centre of Batman, southeast Turkey, late on Tuesday night, they said.One policeman and a civilian died and one person was wounded. The province's governor and police chief and a local air force commander were in the building at the time at a function to celebrate Istanbul team Fenerbahce winning Turkey's first division soccer league at the weekend. Police fired back but the attackers fled the scene. ANKARA DENIES IT IS UNHAPPY WITH ISRAELI ACCORD Turkey yesterday denied reported remarks by Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz that a recently concluded military accord with Israel could be reviewed and said that there were no problems concerning this accord. The Foreign Ministry made this announcement in a statement following reports in Wednesday's press that said Yilmaz had told his parliamentary group the day before that the accord had "brought more harm than good". The accord has been strongly criticized by traditonally anti-Israeli Islamist groups in Turkey and by a host of Arab countries. /All papers/ [06] SOLANA IN ANKARANATO Secretary-General Solana came to Turkey yesterday for a one-day visit. Solana, who supports the implementation of confidence building measures between Turkey and Greece, met with Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and Foreign Minister Emre Gonensay yesterday. In a statement after his arrival, Solana said: "First of all, I want to thank the Turkish nation and the Turkish government for their support for NATO". /Milliyet/[07] NO BLOCK TO TURKEY'S EU MEMBERSHIPA special two-page report in Britain's Independent newspaper says that there is nothing to stop Turkey's full membership in the European Union (EU). According to the report, prospects for Turkey look quite bright, and the Independent strikes an optimistic note when it comes to Turkey's future.The report, which examines relations between Turkey and the EU, also looks at economic developments in Turkey and notes that despite negative attitudes on the part of some other EU member countries, achieved customs union and now looks set to move on to even greater successes. /Sabah/ [08] EU WARNS GREECEThe European Parliament has sent a message to Greece warning that efforts to try and block anything to do with Turkey is not in line with EU policy. This especially in connection with EU development loans that Turkey is entitled to through the customs union agreement.Athens persistently tries to veto many of the programmes that should include Turkey, but EU parliamentarians have grown tired of Greek obstinacy in these areas of EU political and economic activity. /Milliyet/ [09] MOSCOW DEFINES CONNECTIONS WITH PKKOfficials in the Russian Federation have declared that they are still of the opinion that the separatist Kurdish PKK organization is "not a terrorist organization."Through the Turkish Embassy in Moscow, Ankara has strongly criticized the Russian Federation attitude of complacency in connection with the PKK which is condemned as a terrorist organization by most European countries. Turkish diplomats in Moscow are amazed that Russian officials appear to be so misinformed about the aims and methods of the PKK. /Milliyet/ [10] SWISS TURN ON HEAT AGAINST PKKSwitzerland is being forced to become more aware of terrorist PKK activity there through the revelations of the Bern representative of the Democrat Radical Party, Guillaume Albert Houriet.Houriet has started up a one-man campaign against the infiltration into Switzerland of the PKK starting with evidence that the PKK has been running a training camp right in the heartlands of Switzerland. He also claims that because of his anti-PKK reports he has received death threats and other threatening communications from the PKK. Because of his determination to uncover PKK activities in Switzerland, the authorities there are being forced to take action and stop their passive toleration of the PKK. /Milliyet/ [11] TURKISH TURSEM JOINS BIG LEAGUETursem, a Turkish tourism agency, is among the 10 biggest tour agencies in the world. Tursem, which sends tourists to Morocco, Tunisia, the Canary Islands, Kenya, Egypt, Thailand and India, has just joined the "World Tourism Champion League".Tursem provides services to 1,200,000 tourists annually by means of its offices in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Britain, Germany and the US. Tursem has 200 employees and its annual turn-over is $500 million. /Sabah/ [12] SUCCESS OF TURKISH EXPORTERSTurkish Foreign Trade Association (TURKTRADE) Chairman Onol Akalin was elected member of the Board of Directors of the Confederation of International Trading Houses (CITHA) during the CITHA Annual General Assembly held in Mantova, Italy, on May 16-17.The foreign trade associations of twelve countries are represented in CITHA. The confederation is a forum for discussion of the problems faced by the member-countries in their foreign trade dealings. CITHA is an adviser to teh EU on foreign trade issues, and has undertaken the coordination of EU export promotion activities. In a statement Onol Akalin noted that CITHA was realizing various projects on behalf of the EU, and added that within this framework TURKTRADE will actively participate in CITHA programmes implemented in Ukraine and Russia. The fact that Turkey is represented on the board of directors of an international professional institution such as CITHA will bring benefits not only with respect to commercial matters, but will also contribute to the international promotion of Turkey, and to the improvement of both commercial and social relations, Akalin said. /Hurriyet/ [13] TURKISH JOURNALIST MISSING IN BAKUTRT journalist Isa Yasar Tezel have , who was in Baku to follow the visit of Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz to Azerbaijan, has been missing since April 16. In a written statement, Tezel's wife, Sevinc Tezel, claiming that her husband was wrongly arrested and tortured for supporting former Azerbaijani leader Penah Huseyinov, said that the accusations were groundless because Tezel was in no position to have access to sources that would enable him to engage in such activities. She stressed that his political affiliations would not allow him to take sides in such political struggles, and that "Under these circumstances, when human rights, international law provisions and press freedom are unscrupulously violated, I am concerned about the life of my husband." All applications and requests made by Turkish officials and by the Turkish Embassy in Azerbaijan, have so far been of no effect. /Hurriyet/Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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