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Wednesday, 18 December 2024
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Turkish Press Review, 00-11-13Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>13.11.00Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morningCONTENTS
[01] RELATIVES OF 33 MARTYRS ATTEND THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AS INTERVENORS[02] ERSUMER: "TURKEY CAN OVERCOME THE ENERGY SHORTAGE IF SAVINGS CONTINUE"[03] BIDDING FOR CONSTRUCTION OF TUBE PASSAGE UNDER THE BOSPHORUS IS IN MARCH[04] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS... PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT HAS TO INTERVENE BY SUKRU ELEKDAG[05] (MILLIYET)[06] SEZER'S MESSAGE ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF DUZCE QUAKEPresident Ahmet Necdet Sezer, in his message issued on the first anniversary of the Duzce earthquake, said Turkish state would definitely solve all the problems of the quake victims. Mr. Sezer said works for permanent houses are continuing fast and will be completed on time. "We will never forget the lessons learned from August 17 and November 12 earthquakes.", said the President. /Cumhuriyet/[07] YILMAZ WARNS GREECEDelivering a speech at a meeting titled, "New Policies in the New Century", Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz said, "Greece should give up using the EU as a shield." Stressing that Turkey will completely implement a national programme prepared in agreement with the Accession Partnership Document, Mr. Yilmaz said, "The EU wants a solution to the problems between Turkey and Greece, icluding the Cyprus issue. We are also eager to solve them. However, this does not mean the problems will be solved if concessions are made only by Turkey. Our Greek friends should comprehend this fact." /Turkiye/[08] TURKEY REJECTS UN CYPRUS PROPOSALSSaturday Turkey said the UN proposals at the Cyprus talks were a step backwards pursuant to a settlement for the divided island. Turkish-Cypriot President Rauf Denktas was quoted as warning he might shun a further round of talks. Comments by Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit came three days after the European Union urged Turkey to "strongly support" UN efforts to resolve the Cyprus issue as part of a reform blueprint for membership talks. Mr. Ecevit, however, repeated his assertion that Turkey acknowledges no link between Cyprus and the membership process. "The Turkish side cannot be expected to take seriously the statements made in this paper.", Mr.Ecevit said. The UN special envoy to Cyprus Alvaro de Soto said Mr. Annan had made verbal remarks to both parties and provided them with a transcript. Mr. Denktas said the paper amounted to allowing Greeks to return to the northern part of the divided island, an idea Turkish Cypriots reject as dangerous to their future. UN resolutions call for a bi-zonal federation, involving a far stronger central administration and greater integration between the two sides. "Annan's paper calls for a confederation which is worse than a federation.", Mr. Ecevit said. /Turkish Daily News/[09] NINTH ISLAM SUMMITThe Islamic Countries Ninth Head of States and Governments Summit began in Doha, capital of Qatar. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, accompanied by Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, is attending the meeting. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas joined the meeting as an observer. The Palestinian-Israelian conflict has been the primary topic at the meeting. Delivering a speech, Palestinian Head of State Yaser Arafat said Palestinians will continue rioting until an end to the Israeli occupation is reached. Addressing the meeting, President Sezer emphasized that the Middle East has not yet reached the longed-for peace. He said, "We are deeply sorry for the bloody clashes which occured at the most holy places of Islam. It is unacceptable. At the same time, we cannot tolerate violence against civilians. I am calling for Israel to stop the usage of excess force and blocage against Palestinians." Additionally, Mr. Sezer met with Syrian Head of State Besar Esad and Egyptian Premier Atef Ebed. Foreign Minister Cem also met with TRNC President Rauf Denktas and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Regarding Annan's declarations on Nov. 8 in Geneva, Mr. Cem reportedly told Mr. Annan, "If you continue to accept only the Greek-Cypriot Administration as a legitimate government, this may lead to a new intifada on Cyprus and the situation may turn into Bosnia and Kosovo. As a guarantor country Turkey will not allow this to happen." /Turkiye/[10] GUREL'S STATEMENT ON ACCESSION PARTNERSHIP DOCUMENTState Minister and the Speaker of the government Sukru Sina Gurel evaluated the latest developments in Turkey's accession period to the EU. Pointing to the paragraph concerning the Cyprus issue in the accession partnership document, Mr. Gurel said, "The EU should change its stance towards Turkey concerning the Cyprus issue. If the EU insists on putting forth certain conditional issues irrelevant to being an EU member, Turkey will do what is necessary." Stating that the EU should change its intentions, Mr. Gurel said Turkey would never accept perception of the Turkish-Cypriots as minorities on Cyprus. /Cumhuriyet/[11] PAPANDREU: "WE DO NOT KNOW TURKEY WELL"Evaluating Turco-Greek relations for the daily Elefterotipia, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Yorgo Papandreu said there were significant deficencies in Greece on informing the public about Turkey. Mr. Papandreu said Turkey had different approaches and stances on certain issues related to Turco-Greek relations and these differences should be paid attention to. Emphasizing the importance of the EU in the bilateral relations between Turkey and Greece, Mr. Papandreu said he believed that the two countries should improve its relations on issues related to common interests by maintaining the rapproachment period. He added, "I believe we should always be in a dialogue with Turkey, as we are now. We are now trying to outline the framework of the dialogue." /Cumhuriyet/[12] TOUGH WEEK AHEAD FOR PARLIAMENTParliament has a tough program ahead this week. The priority will be the 2001 budget debate. In addition bills -first seen as decrees but later annulled or vetoed- enabling public banks to be privatized and civil servants to be dismissed for engaging in reactionary or separatist activities will be discussed. The former decress pertaining to amendments to be made to Article 125 of the Civil Servants Law and another decree, issued much earlier, will be seen this week by the Planning-Budget Commission. If passed, both will then be seen by Parliament. /Turkish Daily News/[13] MUMCU IN BRITAINMinister of Tourism Erkan Mumcu traveled to Britain to attend the "World Tourism Fair" to be held in London between November 13 and 16. Speaking at the airport before departing, Mr. Mumcu said, "Turkey will be a big participant in the fair. This fair is important as it is the first activity of the 2001 tourism season." /Cumhuriyet/[14] RELATIVES OF 33 MARTYRS ATTEND THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AS INTERVENORSThe relatives of the 33 soldiers killed in clashes with the terrorist organization PKK will attend the hearing of Abdullah Ocalan in the European Court of Human Rights as the intervenors, in Strasbourg. The lawyers of Abdullah Ocalan applied to the court on the premise that Ocalan would not get a fair trial in Turkish courts. /Milliyet/[15] ERSUMER: "TURKEY CAN OVERCOME THE ENERGY SHORTAGE IF SAVINGS CONTINUE"Addressing the ceremony organized by Biga Trade and Industry Chamber, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Cumhur Ersumer, said if citizens' support continue, Turkey can overcome its energy bottleneck. He said, "We feel our citizens' support. Our energy saving target is 20 million KWH and thus far, we have reached 15 million KWH, through everyone's support." /Turkiye/[16] BIDDING FOR CONSTRUCTION OF TUBE PASSAGE UNDER THE BOSPHORUS IS IN MARCHTransportation Minister Enis Oksuz said the foundation of the Bosphorus tube passage will be laid in May 2001. The 13.3 km. Marmaray Project includes a 1.8 km. underwater track joining the two continents. Japanese credit institution JICA will give credits totaling $800 million to finance the project. Mr. Oksuz said the passage will be opened before 2005. /Milliyet/[17] ISBANK PAYS FIRST INSTALLMENT FOR THE THIRD GSM OPERATORIs-Tim Telecommunication Services will pay $500 million for the first installment of the third GSM operator it purchased via a tender organized by the Transportation Ministry. Is-Tim was established through a partnership of Isbank and Telekom Italia. The general director of the Is-Tim, Gluseppe Farina said they do an important investment in Turkey and create new job opportunities for young people. Farina said the aim to establish a creative structure to meet the customer demands. /Milliyet/[18] WEB SITE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISESMinistry of Trade and Industry is preparing a web site in six languages so small and medium scale enterprises (KOBIs) can engage in e-commerce. Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmet Kenan Tanrikulu stated product and service classification codes approved by the EU would be used in the web site, adding that Turkish KOBIs would catch up with the standards of the EU. /Cumhuriyet/[19] THY TENDER TO BE HELD IN DECEMBEROfficials of the Privatization Administration Board (OIB) said the tender for the block sale of 51 percent shares of Turkish Airlines(THY) will be held in December. /Star/[20] TREASURY BIDDING IS TODAYThe treasury is expecting a sele of 238 trillion in the three month term bond adjudication. This amount covers 15 per cent of the internal dept payments for November. The treasury will realise a 13 month-term state transfer tomorrow. /Star/[21] BIM OPENS NEW STORES EVERYDAYThe marketing chain BIM, a partnership of Azizer Holding, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch International Bank, has increased its stores to 530. BIM entered the sector five years ago with three stores and will now open almost one store a day until the end of the year. BIM is planning to increase its stores to 580 this year and to 800 next year. BIM plans to open stores abroad and offer to the public. /Aksam/[22] THIRD INTERNATIONAL CINEMA-HISTORY MEETING IN ISTANBULThe third Internationa Cinema-History Meeting organized by the Turkish Cinema and Audiovisual Culture Associaiton (TURSAK), under the aegis of Ministry of Culture and with the sponsorship of Is Bank, began the day before yesterday in Istanbul. Delivering a speech at the opening ceremony, Minister of Culture Istemihan Talay said the meeting was a great opportunity to view the most deserving films in the cinema. This year's honor award was given to director Dusan Makvejev. /Cumhuriyet/[23] CULTURE TRAIN COMES BACK TO TURKEY"The Culture train", after visiting Bulgaria and Greece, returned to Istanbul. The president of the TGNA Turco-Greek Friendship group, Turhan Tayan, said "The Culture Train built a friendship bridge between Turkey and the countries it visited. People on the train said, "Our aim was to establish an environment of peace, friendship and brotherhood and we achieved our aim." /Hurriyet/[24] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...[25] PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT HAS TO INTERVENE BY SUKRU ELEKDAG (MILLIYET)Retired Ambassador Sukru Elekdag comments on the Accession Partnership Document announced last week. A summmary of his column is as follows:"The Turkish public is being misinformed and misled regarding the Accession Partnership Document (APD). The APD is presented by the Government to the press as the basis for the National Program (NP) Turkey will prepare. They are saying there could be deviation in the NP from the Accession Partnership Document. Such opinions are mistaken and misleading, as the APD states the compulsory priorities necessary to move forward on the road to full EU membership. During the accession process, the EU will assess Turkey's performance in light of this main document. The National Program has to include the aims and priorities of the APD. Turkish officials do not have the authority to change them. However, Turkey can lengthen the implementation period for the aims and, priorities and by penning them in uncertain terms, may try to palliate the sensitivities of certain circles. The most important point the Government is ignoring and misleading the public about,concerns Cyprus. In the Government statement, the document is accepted as is, even though strong opposition is expressed over the Cyprus question being included on short-term problem list. The government stated Turkey will accept the Helsinki Declaration and Lipponen letter on the issue. The APD certainly has to be changed. Otherwise, even though Prime Minister Ecevit states a link between Cyprus and full EU membership cannot be tolerated, the Cyprus issue becomes a pre-condition. At every opportunity for Turkey to begin full-membership negotiations, it could be placed before us by saying, 'Turkey has not given the necessary support to the efforts of the UN Secretary General.' Less than two weeks is left until the APD is finalized. The situation is very crucial indeed. Therefore, for initiatives to change this document to have an impact, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit must intervene and visit the leading European countries to discuss this question at a high level. In fact, in those countries which succeeded in becoming full members, the charisma and political influence of their prime ministers played an important role. Striking examples for this are Karamanlis for Greece, Gonzales for Spain and Juareez for Portugal. Furthermore, there are points which should be directly clarified by Ecevit's counterparts. For example, if Turkey fulfils the short-term priorities mentioned in the APD, can it begin full membership negotiations? Do Verheugen's statements : 'The negotiations with Turkey cannot begin before 2005' and 'Turkey's readiness is not important, the EU has to be ready for the negotiations as well' reflect a growing negative attitude in Europe regarding Turkey's membership to the Union? It is of crucial importance for Prime Minister Ecevit to meet and discuss these issues with the European leaders." [26] ARGUMENTS OVER CYPRUS BY MUSTAFA BALBAY (CUMHURIYET)Columnist Mustafa Balbay comments on the Accession Partnership Document and the Cyprus question. A summary of his column is as follows:"The last minute inclusion of the Cyprus problem to the Accession Partnership Document has greatly changed the climate. When we add up the results with the inclusion of Cyprus a different picture appears. Let's take a glance at the situation without considering the Cyprus issue for a minute. Both the European delegations coming to Turkey, and those who received the Turkish delegations in Brussels created an expectation that there would be nothing to offend Turkey in the document and tha the Cyprus question would not be a pre-condition. All messages given to the Turkish public just hours before the announcement of the Document pointed to this. However, we saw that at the last minute an article was added to the document to please Greece. It said, 'The Cyrus question should be solved within a year. Turkey should support more strongly the UN efforts on the issue. The article is handicapped on three accounts. First, asking for the solution of a 50 year old problem within a year, shows malintent and insincerity. Second, giving Ankara the impression that Cyprus will not be a pre-condition, then including it at the last minute among the short-term goals, lends an air of piracy to the document. Third, the request to support UN efforts to find a solution to the problem is itself problematic. The duty of the UN is to bring the two parties closer. The UN is not the centre of the talks. The day when the EU requested Turkey to increase support for the UN efforts, the UN Secretary General's proposals were leaked to the press by the Greek-Cypriots. The news in the press included the proposals resulting in Turkish complaints. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's proposal envisions a great number of Greek-Cypriots going to the North, without adversely affecting the people living there. According to the State Minister Responsible for Cyprus Sukru Sina Gurel, UN Secretary General is overstepping his limits. Although his duty is to bring the sides closer, he is bringing up proposals and saying, 'We shall talk about these. Do not bring up new proposals.' Gurel also states that an effort is being made to reduce Turkish-Cypriots to a minority status. Prime Minister Ecevit, who must be aware of the situation made a strong statement, saying they would evaluate the APD except for the article on Cyprus. It seems the last minute goal scored by Greece is an off-sides foul. However, the referee seems to have said play on. In addition, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who should have remained neutral on the issue seems to have entered the field. It seems as though he has left his role as a judge to the EU. Turkey is continually warning Greece on the issue. However, there is no need to warn someone who may already be vigilant on the issue. All jokes aside, let's dwell on probabilities. A year's time given to Turkey may be enhanced on November 20. Next year, when the question is still not resolved, they may say Turkey could not fulfill the conditions. Following that, the Greek-Cypriot Administration may be admitted in to the Union. Then, Turkey may do what is necessary by saying that the division of the island is ratified." 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