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Turkish Press Review, 05-03-28Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr><LINK href="http://www.byegm.gov.tr_yayinlarimiz_chr_pics_css/tpr.css" rel=STYLESHEET type=text/css> e-mail : newspot@byegm.gov.tr <caption> <_caption> Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning28.03.2005FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNSCONTENTS
[01] ERDOGAN TO TOUR TUNISIA, MOROCCOPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due this week to start a four-day tour of the north African countries of Morocco and Tunisia. A large group of businessmen will accompany the premier on his tour. Earlier this month, Erdogan also paid visits to Ethiopia and South Africa to strengthen Turkey’s economic ties with African countries. /Turkish Daily News/[02] PROCESS OF TURKEY’S EXTENDING EU PROTOCOL TO NEW MEMBERS BEGINSThe European Union Commission sent a letter to Ankara late on Friday initiating the process of Turkey signing of 1963 Association Agreement to 10 new EU members, including the Greek Cypriot administration. The letter reportedly agreed to Ankara’s two reservations: Turkey will sign the protocol, but this will not entail recognition of the Greek Cypriot administration, and Greek-Cypriot flagged ships as well as Greek Cypriot planes will not be allowed to use Turkish harbors or airports. Turkey is now expected to send a letter in reply to Brussels confirming that it is ready to sign the protocol. In later stages, the text will have to be approved by the Council of Europe, compromising ministers from all 25 EU member states. The signing of the protocol by Turkey and the EU term president is not expected to take place for at least two months. /Turkiye/[03] CLERIDES: “TURKEY SIGNING THE ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL WON’T MEAN OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF GREEK CYPRUS”Even if Turkey signs a protocol extending the country’s Customs Union to the 10 new European Union members, including Greek Cyprus, this would not mean that Ankara officially recognizes the Greek Cypriot administration, said former Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides over the weekend. Appearing on Greek Cypriot TV, Clerides argued that since signing a pact and actual practice are two different matters, Turkey might accept the Ankara Agreement’s protocol but may still continue to deny Greek Cyprus official recognition. Clerides also rejected Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iacovou’s recent prediction that Turkey’s negotiations would be suspended if the country fails to implement the protocol in the first three months, citing how Greece started to put its own protocol into practice only two or three years after signing it. /Hurriyet/[04] PARLIAMENT DUE TO DEBATE TCK AMENDMENT THIS WEEKA bill proposing amendments to the new Turkish Penal Code (TCK) is due to be debated by Parliament this week. Supporters of the bill reportedly hope it will improve freedom of the press and eliminate allegedly oppressive provisions and restrictions on freedom of expression in the new TCK. Professional journalists’ groups recently protested the new law and sent a letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urging changes. /Sabah/[05] SOME TURKS EVACUATED FROM KYRGYZSTANA Turkish Foreign Ministry delegation headed by Ambassador Metin Goker yesterday continued its meetings with Kyrgyz officials in Bishkek conveying Ankara’s readiness to help to end the turmoil in the country following last week’s fall of the Askar Akayev government. In addition, the delegation and Turkish Ambassador to Bishkek Serpil Alpman held a gathering with Turkish businessmen and students. Alpman advised businessmen to resume normal operations only under tightened security measures. In related news, a total of 117 Turkish citizens were returned to Turkey on Saturday, and Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan said yesterday that another plane departed on Sunday to evacuate a group of Turks, including students and academics living in the country, adding that the situation was quickly returning to normal. /Turkiye/[06] DENKTAS: “THOUGH TURKISH CYPRIOTS ACCEPTED THE UN PLAN, THE INTL COMMUNITY HASN’T KEPT ITS PROMISES”Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas yesterday criticized the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, saying that it had supported the UN Cyprus plan and directed the Turkish Cypriots to vote for it. He further stated that though the Turkish Cypriots had accepted the UN plan, the international community had failed to keep its promise to bring the TRNC’s international isolation to an end. “Some 65% of those who voted for the plan now regret it,” claimed Denktas. “The AKP government has forsaken Turkish Cypriots.” He stated that after leaving the presidency on April 17, he would establish a new organization called “Turkish Cypriots’ National Cause,” a group he said would be above political parties. /Aksam/[07] AGAR: “THE NATION ISN’T PLEASED WITH THE AKP GOVT”Speaking at a meeting of his party yesterday, True Path Party (DYP) leader Mehmet Agar criticized the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, saying that the nation wasn’t pleased with its rule. He stressed that unemployment was still Turkey’s most pressing problem. “Nothing has changed since the AKP came to power, and the nation has run out of patience,” he said. “A great majority of the nation is struggling with difficult living conditions.” /Turkiye/[08] EMINE ERDOGAN: “THE PROGRESS OF WOMEN WILL DETERMINE TURKEY’S DEVELOPMENT”Addressing a symposium organized by a businesswomen’s association yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s wife Emine Erdogan said that women’s progress in Turkey would also determine the country’s development, adding that she hoped the symposium would be a guide for all the world’s women. Erdogan further briefed the participants on recent steps to end discrimination against women, adding that this was not only a problem of Turkey, but in fact of all humanity. /Turkiye/[09] IN BATMAN, TENS OF THOUSANDS RALLY TO CONDEMN FLAG-BURNING ATTEMPTTens of thousands of people rallied over the weekend in Batman to condemn an attempt to burn the Turkish flag at Nevruz celebrations last week. The demonstration was organized by the Batman governorship. In related news, in Tunceli and in Diyarbakir, the attempt was also protested by people in “Respect the Flag” rallies. /Turkiye/[10] PALESTIAN LEADER ASKS TURKEY TO REBUILD GAZA AIRPORTPalestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has asked Turkey to build Gaza Airport, a facility devastated by Israeli tanks some four years ago. Upon his request, the Foreign Ministry’s Directorate General of General and Bilateral Relations dispatched to Palestine a group of experts to assess the operations of the international airport, which is also known as the Yasser Arafat airfield. The team prepared a report on the general state of the airport and what needs to be done next to bring it up to working order. /Hurriyet/[11] SABANCI URGES MORE WOMEN IN WORK FORCE, ALL-OUT EU EFFORTAddressing a symposium organized by a businesswomen’s association yesterday, Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD) Chairman Omer Sabanci said that boosting women’s participation in the nation’s workforce, which currently stands at 25%, would help Turkey’s social welfare and development, adding that this would require the removal of hurdles to women’s education, work, and political involvement. Touching on Turkey’s European Union membership bid, Sabanci urged an all-out effort by Ankara for the nation’s EU accession. “The EU process requires patience and acting with dispassionate common sense,” he said. Sabanci added that TUSIAD’s duty was to help Ankara successfully get through its EU accession talks, which are set to begin this Oct. 3. /Cumhuriyet/[12] TUZMEN TO TRAVEL TO BULGARIAState Minister Kursad Tuzmen and an accompanying delegation of businessmen are set to travel to Sofia on April 11-13 to hold meetings with Bulgarian officials in an effort to improve bilateral trade relations. “Our trade volume with Bulgaria rose to $1.84 billion in 2004,” he said over the weekend. “We’re expecting it to exceed $2.5 billion this year.” /Star/[13] TOURISM MINISTER KOC: “SOME 20 MILLION TOURISTS WILL VISIT TURKEY THIS YEAR”Culture and Tourism Minister Atilla Koc over the weekend said that his ministry was expecting some 20 million foreign tourists to visit Turkey this year. “Some 600,000 tourists have already come to Antalya even before the summer season,” he noted. “Our country is always praised at international tourism fairs for its high-quality tourism services.” /Star/[14] NBC APOLOGIZES FOR INACCURATE PORTRAYAL OF TURKEYJeff Zucker, president of the NBC television network, and John Wells, executive producer of NBC series The West Wing, sent a letter to Turkey’s Ambassador to Washington, Faruk Logoglu, apologizing for NBC’s inaccurate portrayal of Turkey in a recent episode of the show. The episode in question portrayed Turkey as a country ruled by Islamic law which had ordered the beheading of a woman for the crime of adultery. Zucker and Wells offered their apologies to Logoglu for the unflattering portrayal and wrote that they had been misinformed about Turkey and its laws. In an effort to correct the defamation, many Turkish politicians and diplomats, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself, had criticized NBC and sought an apology. “In the future, we will not only visit Turkey, a country that we admire, but also present a better and correct portrayal of your country,” added Zucker and Wells. /Hurriyet/[15] MARMARIS MARITIME FESTIVALThe Marmaris International Maritime Festival will begin on April 27 and will last through May 1. As the first festival of its kind in Turkey, it will bring together most of the nation’s maritime organizations and institutions, both private and public, as well as domestic and international swimming, diving, sailing and yachting clubs, covering a wide range of activities, competitions, shows, concerts and entertainment activities. A number of foreign warships and tall ships are also taking part in the festival. The festival is organized and coordinated by the Marmaris Head Official District and Marmaris Municipality with assistance from the Turkish Navy, the Association of South Aegean Tourist Hotel Managers, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) and many other private sector firms and organizations. /BYEGM/[16] FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS[17] JUSTIN MCCARTHY: A ONE-MAN ARMY BY TUFAN TURENC (HURRIYET)Columnist Tufan Turenc comments on the recent visit to Turkey of historian Justin McCarthy. A summary of his column is as follows:“It’s obvious why we can’t disprove the Armenian allegations, because we don’t know what happened in the years 1915-16. Moreover, unlike the Armenians’ fervent belief in their allegations, we don’t have a strong belief in the fact that we are right. As with every issue, we are so lazy that we prefer to stay silent instead of fighting. I was thinking about this when I was talking with Justin McCarthy from the University of Louisville after his conference at Marmara University. ‘The Armenian allegations are a great lie and their documents are false. Turkey has to fight these slanders, but I have to admit I’m not positive that it will do so,’ he told me. I asked McCarthy how he began his research on the issue. As a Ph.D. student at the University of California Los Angeles in 1976, McCarthy found out that 3 million Muslims had been killed in the Balkans and Turkey, and he started to look into this. His studies drove him to research the Armenian genocide allegations. ‘I have to say that until then I also believed the Armenian genocide allegations, but as I looked deeper into the issue the truth came out,’ he said frankly. ‘As my research continued, I found out that the documents of the Armenians were fake. The Turks were facing a great lie and slander.’ McCarthy came under pressure. He was threatened with losing his job if he continued his research. His family had to get police protection. This didn’t intimidate McCarthy. Many of his colleagues who signed an open letter published in The Washington Post saying that there was no genocide withdrew after receiving threats and gave up their research on the allegations. Only McCarthy stood firm. ‘I would always say the same things, because they’re true,’ said McCarthy. He also exposed that the people and accounts in ‘The Blue Book’ by British historian Arnold Toynbee were nothing more than fiction. He found out that there had been no genocide at the places mentioned in the book. ‘Toynbee did it wrong. He wasn’t honest in his profession,’ said McCarthy. ‘I think he was embarrassed. History can’t be written with such lies, because this isn’t history.’ I believe that McCarthy’s honesty and courage won’t let him give up his fight.” ARCHIVE <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript" src="http:/_www.byegm.gov.tr_statistic/countcode.js"> </script> Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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