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Turkish Press Review, 98-11-13Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>13.11.98Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morningCONTENTS
[01] CENSURE MOTIONS AGAINST YILMAZThe Virtue Party (FP), the True Path Party (DYP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) have submitted censure motions against Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz over a scandalous privatization deal. It is expected that the censure motions will be debated in Parliament.Meanwhile, President Suleyman Demirel, on a visit to Turkmenistan, said there was nothing to worry about. "The problem will be solved through legitimate means on a legitimate platform" he stated. The president said Turkish laws have defined the rules and regulations regarding the functioning of the state and state organs. /All papers/ [02] ANKARA MAYOR TAKEN INTO CUSTODYAnkara Mayor Melih Gokcek was taken into custody yesterday by an anti-terrorist team associated with the Ankara Security Department following an order from State Security Court (DGM) Prosecutor Nuh Mete Yuksel. Gokcek was taken into custody as part of an investigation into bidding contracts that the Muradiye Foundation was granted by the Ankara Municipality, Ankara Security Department Chief Cevdet Saral said. Gokcek is accused of 'founding an establishment to commit crimes and corruption in the contract bidding process of the Ankara Municipality'. /Milliyet/[03] NEW ISTANBUL MAYOR GURTUNAThe chair vacated by Recep Tayyip Erdogan who was removed from the mayoralty of Istanbul because of a speech he made and who faces a jail sentence is still with the Virtue Party (FP). An election was held in the Istanbul city hall's assembly hall late Thursday. The three candidates were the FP's Ali Mufit Gurtuna, Motherland Party (ANAP) candidate Maltepe Mayor Bahtiyar Uyanik and Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Ozkan Yigici. Gurtuna won by a wide margin, receiving 111 votes out of a possible 196. /All papers/[04] CEM COMMENTS ON EU REPORTTurkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem declared yesterday with the recent European Commission report, Turkey had been treated as a candidate. Speaking to the press on his way back from a Latin American tour, the minister assessed Turkish foreign policy developments. Cem said that Turkey had to admit that the report was a basis for ties, although Turkey did not believe that all the assessments made in the report were fair. Nevertheless, he added, this was a significant development, because the EU now treated Turkey as a candidate. /All papers/[05] BULGARIAN MINISTER APOLOGIZES TO TURKSFlanked by Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Veselin Metodiev apologized yesterday to the ethnic Turks in the country for the cruel assimilation campaign that the former Communist administration carried out against them in the second half of the 1980s. Metodiev and Ecevit were visiting the southern Bulgarian province of Kircaali.Earlier in the day, Ecevit said that the state of Turco-Bulgarian relations has reached an examplary level in recent years. Ecevit, on an official visit to Bulgaria, met with President Stoyanov in Sofia, and speaking to reporters after the meeting said that the talks were 'extremely positive and productive'. Ecevit also stated that Turkey and Bulgaria have agreed to open another border gate between the Turkish district of Hamzabeyli and the Bulgarian town of Elhovo. /All papers/ [06] GURUN RESIGNS FROM DTPGencay Gurun, Democratic Turkey Party (DTP) deputy from Izmir, resigned yesterday from her party. In the letter of resignation she presented to Parliament, Gurun did not give a concrete explanation why she had chosen to leave the party. After Gurun's resignation, the number of deputies from the DTP in Parliament dropped to 17 and the number of independent deputies increased to 17. /Milliyet/[07] IMMIGRANT SHIP SEIZED IN CANAKKALE STRAITSNearly one hundred would be illegal immigrants trying to enter the Mediterranean were apprehended when the ship 'Poisk' was stopped in the Akas region of the Canakkale Straits by craft from the Coast Security Group Command. The ship's origin and registration were not identified. /Milliyet/[08] SECURITY FORCES KILL 85 TERRORISTSThe Turkish military killed 64 members of the PKK terrorist organization in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq, close to the Iranian border. The military has been continuing operations in northern Iraq in order to capture terrorists fleeing from Syria who are trying to cross the border into Iran. Syria has begun a crack-down on the PKK. Turkish officials noted that a great part of the operations in northern Iraq has been completed.In a separate development, security forces have killed 21 PKK terrorists in recent operations in the Southeast. The regional official sources said that 18 of the PKK members were killed during clashes around the Kulp district of Diyarbakir where the terrorists did not heed the calls by security forces to surrender. Three terrorists were killed in the rural areas of Bingol and Tunceli. /All papers/ [09] HAKTANIR TO VISIT INDIAForeign Ministry Undersecretary Ambassador Korkmaz Haktanir will visit India on November 15 to hold political negotiations. According to a statement made by the Foreign Ministry, during his visit Ambassador Haktanir will exchange views on bilateral relations, regional and international problems concerning Turkey and India will be taken up. Haktanir and an accompanying delegation will return to Turkey on November 18, the Anatolia news agency reports.[10] US AND TURKISH MAYORS MEET IN DIYARBAKIRMayors from the US and Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) region come together in Diyarbakir on November 12-13. According to a statement made by the US Embassy in Ankara, during a conference attended by US and Turkish mayors, common issues such as urban development, housing, environmental and municipal services are taken up, the Anatolia news agency reports.Attending the US delegation visiting the GAP region, US Ambassador to Ankara, Mark Parris said that there were American energy and agriculture companies which would like to invest in the GAP region adding that they were going to open an American business centre in Ankara. He noted: "Representatives of the Caspian Trade and Investment Finance Centre, the US Export and Import Bank, Offshore Private Investment Company and the US Trade and Development Centre will give services in the centre and they will exert great efforts to realize the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline and Caspian region natural gas pipeline. We regard the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline as the best political and environmental choice to carry the Caspian oil to world markets. The US supports Turkey's development efforts." /Hurriyet/ [11] GERMAN SUPPORT FOR TURKEYGerman State Minister Gunter Verheugen stated that he supported Turkey's full EU membership. In a statement to the German Reinische Post newspaper yesterday, Verheugen pointed out that connecting Turkey to Western democracies would also benefit Germany and he described former German Prime Minister Helmut Kohl's and his government's policy regarding Turkey as 'wrong and harmful'. Verheugen noted that closing the EU door for a country because it does not have a Christian culture was wrong and said: "If want Turkey to change, then we should present it a perspective", the Anatolia news agency reports.[12] TURKISH GOODS IN USHead of the International Exporters' Federation Phillip Byrd said in a statement that the effect of Turkish goods on American consumers is increasing day by day. Byrd noted that if Turkish exporters sent more products to the US, American consumers would purchase them.US exports to Turkey were $653 million in 1996, they increased by 22 % in 1997 and reached $3.5 billion. US imports from Turkey, which totalled $342 million in 1996, increased by 19.2 % and amounted to $2.1 billion in 1997. /Milliyet/ [13] FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES INCREASE BY $428 MILLIONCentral Bank foreign exchange reserves have reached $21.393 billion. Foreign exchange reserves, which increased by $428 million between October 30 and November 6, amounted to $21.393 billion on November 6. Central Bank foreign exchange reserves were $20.965 billion on October 30. /Milliyet/[14] FOREIGN EXCHANGE DEPOSITS IN EUROTurkish banks will be able to open foreign exchange deposits in Euro as of January 4, 1999. Euro will be used as a foreign exchange by the new year.Meanwhile, the Central Bank is trying to furnish information regarding Euro to markets. Within this framework, the Central Bank has prepared a book on the "Problems and Answers on Euro". Information about the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is also given in the book. /Sabah/ [15] TURKEY'S DEMAND REJECTEDTurkey's demand for the extradition of Kursad Yilmaz, who is a leading figure in criminal activities and has been under arrest for 3.5 months in the Varna prison of Bulgaria, has been rejected. It is reported that Bulgaria did not accept Turkey's demand because of serious missing points in his file. /Milliyet/[16] FIRE ON ATATURK'S BUSTA Greek Cypriot living in a village on the Green Zone controlled by the United Nations Peace Force in Cyprus opened gunfire on the bust of Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, on November 10. Dimitri Sotiri, who fired two gunshots on the bust in Pile, was taken into custody. Pile is one of the villages on the island where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots live together. /Sabah/[17] SEPARATIST SENTENCED TO 3.5 YEARS IN GERMANYMustafa S. (26) tried by the Stuttgart High Court for being a member of the PKK terrorist organization, wounding and abducting people was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. It was noted that the suspect was among the leaders of the separatist organization in Germany and had ordered the punishment of three members who had left the organization in Stuttgart. The suspect had already confessed some of the crimes he had committed. /Sabah/[18] AMERICAN PPG FIRM INVESTS IN BURSAAmerican automobile and industry paint producer Pittsburg Plate Glass (PPG) made an $11 million investment in Bursa. Vice-President of PPG, Roderick Watters said yesterday in an opening ceremony of the factory in Bursa that their investment was the sign of their trust in the Turkish economy and automobile industry. He added: "Turkey is an important country with its high population and rich natural resources. Turkey is also a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. Turkey's potential is very positive. The biggest automobile producers have investments in Turkey and that it is inevitable for us to open a factory in Turkey." /Hurriyet/[19] BONN: "WE WILL ARREST OCALAN IF HE COMES TO GERMANY"Germany Federal Police Institution assured Turkish Chief of Security Necati Bilican, who is still on an official visit to Germany, that if the leader of the PKK terrorist organization, Abdullah Ocalan comes to Germany, they would immediately arrest him. After the meeting German police officials said that they would not like to see Ocalan in Europe and that they did not let him come and stay in Germany.Meanwhile, it was announced that Turkey and Germany decided to establish a special working group to struggle against drug smuggling, terrorism and organized crime. /Hurriyet/ [20] CETIN RECEIVES THAILAND REPRESENTATIVESpeaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA), Hikmet Cetin yesterday received the Deputy Speaker of the Thailand House of Representatives, Abdulakhat T. Jalilov in his office in the TGNA. At the meeting, Cetin said that there were not any problems between the two countries; however, Turkey-Thailand relations were not at a satisfactory level. Expressing his pleasure over welcoming Jalilov in Turkey, Cetin noted that there was great potential both in Turkey and Thailand to increase bilateral relations. /Cumhuriyet/[21] KAZAKH OIL THROUGH BLACK SEAIt is announced that final agreement for the construction of the oil pipeline to carry the Kazakh oil from Russian Novorossisk Harbour to the Black Sea will be signed on 24 November. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) reported that the construction of the oil pipeline to carry the Kazakh oil produced in Tengiz region to the world markets would start next year and it would be finished in 2001.Meanwhile, President Suleyman Demirel, who is continuing his contacts in Turkmenistan, visited the investments of Turkish firms in that country. Regarding the oil pipeline, Demirel said that there would be a meeting within this month to establish a consortium which would construct the oil pipeline and run the Turkmen natural gas. /Cumhuriyet/ [22] CAPPADOCIA PREPARES TO HOST 3 MILLION TOURISTSCappadocia which is very famous with its historical and natural assets, prepares to host 3 million tourists in 2000, the Anatolia news agency reports. Velettin Birsoz, Provincial Director of Tourism in Nevsehir, told the Anatolia news agency correspondent that more than 350 churches, monastries and chapels have been found in Cappadocia.Meanwhile, according to research conducted by the World Travel and Tourism Council, the number of tourists around the world during the year 2000 will be 661 million, and the number of those tourists who will come to Turkey will increase to 15 million that year. Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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