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Turkish Press Review, 00-06-22
From: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>
22.06.00
Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning
CONTENTS
[01] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS
[02] PRESIDENT SEZER IN TRNC
[03] PRESIDENT SEZER: "POLITICAL STABILITY SHOULD NOT BE DISTURBED"
[04] TGNA VOTES ON COMMISSIONS REPORTS
[05] REACTION TO ESDI'S DECISION
[06] SURPRISE MEETING BETWEEN YILMAZ AND OZKAN
[07] FEHRIYE: A PROBLEM FOR BELGIUM
[08] BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA TO HEED TURKEY'S CALL
[09] FOREST FIRES
[10] PEACE WATER PROJECT
[11] CONTENTION IN THE U.S.A TROUBLES TURKEY
[12] APPROVAL FOR MOSQUE IN ATHENS
[13] TURCO-PALESTININAN WORK COUNCIL ESTABLISHED
[14] PRIVATIZATION OF TURKISH AIRLINES NEARS COMPLETION
[15] CAPITAL MARKET EYES THE PARLIAMENTARY VOTE
[16] REPAYMENTS OF OBLIGATIONS IN THE EARTHQUAKE HIT REGIONS
[17] WORLD BANK RELEASED REFORM CREDIT
[18] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS
[19] SHADOW-BOXING BY TURKEY BY SEMIH IDIZ (STAR)
[01] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS
[02] PRESIDENT SEZER IN TRNC
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer will leave for the Turkish Republic
of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) today. At the invitation of the
President Rauf Denktas, Sezer will pay an official visit to TRNC
on June 22-23 accompanied by Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and
Minister of State, Sukru Sina Gurel. /Turkiye/
[03] PRESIDENT SEZER: "POLITICAL STABILITY SHOULD NOT BE DISTURBED"
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has relieved businessmen who were
worried about an economic and political unstability. During the
reception of Zafer Caglayan, the Chairman of Ankara Chamber of
Industry, Sezer stated, "The continuation of the stability in
economics and politics is very important for Turkey." Expressing
businessmen's uneasiness about the discussions on an early
election, Caglayan said, "In addition to Turkish industrialists,
foreign investors, who have already invested or planning to
invest in Turkey are concerned with the uncertainty." President
Sezer stressed that he had called on the government to preserve
the stability and added that should it be necessary, he may meet
with the leaders again. /Sabah/
[04] TGNA VOTES ON COMMISSIONS REPORTS
Today the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) will take up
seven commissions' reports including SEKA investigation
commission. Parliamentarians will vote on whether to approve the
commmissions decision to send Motherland Party (ANAP) Leader
Mesut Yilmaz to the supreme court or not. Yilmaz has been accused
of abusing office when he was prime minister between 1997 and
1998. The accusations are related to a GSM state tender and the
free transfer of land known as SEKA case. Today's vote will not
only effect Yilmaz's political destiny, but also define the
future of the coalition. In the meantime, Prime Minister Bulent
Ecevit stated that the vote was a crucial stage for political
stability and the harmony of the government would not be the same
after the balloting even if the Parliament doesn't approve the
decision of the commission. /Cumhuriyet/
[05] REACTION TO ESDI'S DECISION
Turkey's reaction to European Union's decision which was taken
during the EU summit in Feria, Portugal on June 19-20 on the
European Security and Defense Identity (ESDI), is getting
stronger. Stating that the exclusion from ESDI was a disrespect
to Turkey, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit stressed that the
decision might be a new source of tension between Turkey and EU.
Following a meeting with the Chief of General Staff Gen. Huseyin
Kivrikoglu, Ecevit said that Turkey might not attend the meeting
between the EU and six NATO members which will be held on July
3rd. /Cumhuriyet/
[06] SURPRISE MEETING BETWEEN YILMAZ AND OZKAN
It was learned that the Chairman of the Motherland Party (ANAP)
Mesut Yilmaz and Deputy Prime Minister Husamettin Ozkan met two
days before the important voting at the Turkish Grand National
Assembly. The two leaders did not comment on the meeting but it
was stated that they had discussed the critical voting to take
place at the Parliament today and the developments concerning the
EU full-membership process. /Hurriyet/
[07] FEHRIYE: A PROBLEM FOR BELGIUM
Fehriye Erdal who is accused of Ozdemir Sabanci's murder became a
problem for the European countries just as Ocalan had been
before. It was learned that Belgian Government which denied the
request of Erdal for political asylum, has contacted other
European countries to send her out of the country. However,
European countries did not want Erdal as both Turkey and the
powerful Sabanci family were after her. Belgium had thought of
extraditing Erdal to Turkey, but as capital punishment had not
been abolished in Turkey, decided against it. /Hurriyet/
[08] BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA TO HEED TURKEY'S CALL
Bosnia-Herzegovina has officially stated to Ankara that it has
decided against opening an Embassy in the Greek-Cypriot
Administration. The Bosnian Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic has
assured Foreign Minister Ismail Cem that they will not open an
Embassy in the Greek-Cypriot Administration and would not allow
Greek-Cypriots to open an Embassy in Bosnia-Herzegovina. During
the talks, the two Foreign Ministers signed agreements to
cooperate on the fight against terrorism, drug-trafficking and
organized crime. /Hurriyet/
[09] FOREST FIRES
After the fire which destroyed more than 400 hectares of forest
in the Torba district of Bodrum, yesterday, in Serik, Antalya,
another fire broke out. Regarding the fires started at five
different places at the same time, officials are investigating
the probability of sabotage. The Minister of Forestry prohibited
lighting a fire in forests until September 30 to prevent fires.
Meanwhile, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer issued a message on the
recent fires. Stating that it was the responsibility of everybody
to protect Turkey's rich flora, Sezer called on all citizens to
be more sensitive on the protection of forests. /Turkiye/
[10] PEACE WATER PROJECT
Turkey and Israel has reached a compromise on the water-selling
deal. After the meetings, lasting two years, Yakov Efranti, the
Undersecretary of the Israelian Ministry of Infrastructure, who
came to Turkey with an eight-person delegation at the beginning
of the week, met with Cumhur Ersumer, the Minister of Energy and
Natural Resources. Following the meeting Ersumer stated that they
reached a compromise on the sale of Manavgat waters. Replying to
a question, Ersumer stressed that the price of water depended on
the amount of the water to be sold and the duration of the sale.
When "Peace Water Project" which envisages water sale to Middle
East, is implemented Turkey will be able to sell water to the
countries in the region, mainly to Israel. /Cumhuriyet/
[11] CONTENTION IN THE U.S.A TROUBLES TURKEY
Before the presidential election which will be held in the US in
November, the tense contention between the Republican and
Democrat Parties puts Turkey in a hot spot. While two parties are
trying to change the situation in their favour, the votes of
lobbies against Turkey -Armenian, Greek-Cypriot and Greek- have
become important. The lobbies have increased their activities to
be able to enact draft laws, against Turkey, before the end of
Clinton Administration. /Cumhuriyet/
[12] APPROVAL FOR MOSQUE IN ATHENS
The Greek Assembly ratified the proposal of the government for
construction of a mosque in Athens for the first time in 170
years, since the end of the Ottoman Administration in the
country. /Cumhurriyet/
[13] TURCO-PALESTININAN WORK COUNCIL ESTABLISHED
Turco-Palestinian Work Council was established within the
framework of Foreign Economic Relations Council. Serif Egeli who
was assigned to the chairmanship of the organization, stated that
Palestinian Autonomous Region wanted to improve trade relations
with Turkey and with the establishment of peace in the Middle
East new opportunities had risen for Turkey. Noting that trade
with Palestine was conducted mainly over Israel, Egeli expressed
his belief that with the improvement of direct relations with
Palestine, exports to Palestine and Jordan would increase to a
great extent. /Hurriyet/
[14] PRIVATIZATION OF TURKISH AIRLINES NEARS COMPLETION
Chairman of the Privatization Administration Ugur Bayar said that
the preparation for the selling of Turkish Airlines (TA) shares
has neared to final stages and will be completed in the year
2000. He explained that some of the shares of the company was
planned to be offered to its own personnel in order to make them
participate in the administration, Bayar added that they will
apply a combined system which includes both `block selling' and
`public offering'. He explained detail that %20-25 of the TA's
capital will be offered in the form of block selling and another
portion of %20-25, will be sold in the foreign and domestic
capital markets. /Hurriyet/
[15] CAPITAL MARKET EYES THE PARLIAMENTARY VOTE
Capital Market of Turkey eyes carefully the parliamentary vote
today which will decide if Motherland Party Leader Yylmaz to be
sent to the Supreme Court or not. The volumes of transactions in
the ISO (Istanbul Stock Exchanges) market has decreased
dramatically in the last days since investors are waiting the
results of the critical voting at the TGNA. /Hurriyet/
[16] REPAYMENTS OF OBLIGATIONS IN THE EARTHQUAKE HIT REGIONS
Trade and Industry Minister A. Kenan Tanrykulu announced that the
trade chambers and commodity exchanges in the regions hit by
earthquakes can postpone the repayments of their due obligations
to the higher chambers and commodity exhanges they are affiliated
to. /Star/
[17] WORLD BANK RELEASED REFORM CREDIT
It was announced that the first slice of the loan, $384 millions,
allocated by the World Bank for the reforms in Turkish economy
will be available for the use of Turkey's Treasury next week. The
total amount of the loan is $759 millions. /Aksam/
[18] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS
[19] SHADOW-BOXING BY TURKEY BY SEMIH IDIZ (STAR)
Columnist Semih Idiz comments on the recent developments
concerning the European Security and Defence Identity. A summary
of his column is as follows:
"Boxing with an imaginary rival is called shadow-boxing. I
believe that Turkey's stance concerning the European Security and
Defence Identity (ESDI) seems like shadow-boxing. It was apparent
that ESDI would be institutionalized at the EU Feira Summit in
Portugal. It was also known for a fact that the EU members which
were also members of NATO would automatically confer the military
sources of the Alliance to the use of ESDI. The NATO member
countries which were not members of the EU would be excluded from
the decision-making mechanisms. If we sum it all up, nothing has
changed since the very beginning. The EU is following the route
it has drawn for itself. Meanwhile, the EU also wants to enjoy
special relations with the NATO member countries which are not in
the EU, even if it does not include them into decision-making
mechanisms of ESDI. The EU is stating to these countries that
they could participate in certain operations, express their
opinions within that framework but it will have the final say on
the matter.
On the other hand, it was no secret that Turkey was upset by this
situation from the very beginning and was saying to its NATO
allies that if they did not take it into the decision-making
mechanisms they could not avail themselves of NATO's sources
automatically. That is to say, there has been no change in
Turkey's stance.
However, the Foreign Ministry has stated that it would not allow
for the automotic use of NATO sources by ESDI. However this
statement does not include anything new. Furthermore, if an
operation is made by the ESDI in the future and Turkey's help is
sought, Ankara will be hard pressed to say no. National Defence
Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu has said that Turkey would not use
the power of veto in NATO at present. In fact Turkey has such a
powerful trump card, as such a decision can only be taken
unanimously at the Northern Atlanic Treaty Organization.
It has been learnt that NATO member countries which were excluded
from ESDI will get together in the near future and determine a
strategy among themselves. This meeting may have great
significance as a decision to automotically veto allocating
NATO's sources to ESDI may be accepted. However, it is not yet
clear if countries such as Turkey, the US, Norway, Canada,
Hungary and Poland which have differing interests can agree on
the issue. Therefore, shadow-boxing should be left aside and
serious steps towards the EU membership should be taken. The
military attaches great importance to ESDI"
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