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Turkish Press Review, 05-04-26Turkish 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 morning26.04.2005FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...CONTENTS
[01] BUMIN VOICES OPPOSITION TO LIFTING BAN ON HEADSCARVES IN STATE INSTITUTIONSConstitutional Court Chief Justice Mustafa Bumin yesterday said that both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Turkish Constitution ban the wearing of headscarves at universities and state institutions. Speaking at a ceremony marking the 43rd anniversary of the founding of the Constitutional Court, Bumin said the headscarf had become a political symbol abused by various groups. He dismissed rumors about the lifting of the ban on headscarves, claming that such reports were either due to ignorance of court decisions or were attempts to gain political advantage from such false reports. He added that he personally believed the problems of the judiciary were getting worse and that the media was ignoring this. A group of top officials, including President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and many others attended the ceremony. In addition, Bumin hosted a reception in Parliament last evening to mark the anniversary. Erdogan, though scheduled to attend, did not make attend the reception but instead travelled to Istanbul. In related news, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials, Gul and Erdogan slammed Bumin’s remarks. Gul said that the headscarf issue would be resolved in line with universal rights and freedoms. Arinc, for his part, stated that certain people were trying to impose additional bans at a time when in fact more freedoms are needed. “No country will make progress with bans,” he added. Furthermore, commenting on the remarks before leaving for Istanbul, Erdogan said, “In Turkey, there is a compromise of the people and a compromise of the institutions representing the people. But, as we see, there is not yet a joint compromise.” He added that Turkey could not ignore universal rights and values. /Milliyet/[02] GUL TO ATTEND TURKEY-EU COUNCIL MEETING IN BRUSSELSForeign Minister Abdullah Gul yesterday left for Brussels to attend a meeting of Turkey-European Union Partnership Council to start today. During the talks, Ankara’s performance on the road to EU membership will be taken up. Speaking to reporters before his departure, Gul said, “Turkey has been constructive so far and will continue to be so. We’re expecting the same constructive attitude from the EU as well.” Concerning an extension of the use of Incirlik Airbase, Gul said that the bill proposing a one-year extension had been sent to the president after being signed by the Cabinet ministers. /Turkiye/[03] CICEK: “AFTER YEARS OF LEAVING THE ‘GENOCIDE’ ISSUE TO HISTORIANS, IT’S TIME FOR TURKEY TO DISPROVE THESE ALLEGATIONS”Speaking after yesterday’s six-hour Cabinet meeting, during which recent political and economic developments were discussed under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Justice Minister and government spokesman Cemil Cicek said that after many years of leaving the issue of the so-called Armenian genocide to historians, it is now time for Turkey to start disproving all the allegations on the international stage. “For centuries Armenians lived happily and in a rich environment in the Ottoman Empire,” said Cicek. “Then, against the background of World War I, Armenians began rising up against the Ottoman government with the incitement, encouragement and promises of certain countries, and they massacred Muslim Turks, leading to mutual incidents of violence.” He added, “Many Turkish organizations, individuals, and nongovernmental organizations [NGOs] are working to disprove the Armenian allegations. We may establish a coordination center so as to put up the best possible fight against the baseless Armenian allegations.” Touching on Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mustafa Bumin’s statements yesterday that any attempt to lift the headscarf ban would be a violation of the Turkish Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights, Cicek said that these were Bumin’s personal views. /Star/[04] AGAR: “THE AKP IS GOVERNING THE COUNTRY UNDER IMPOSITIONS FROM ABROAD”Speaking at a meeting of his party in Mersin yesterday, opposition True Path Party (DYP) leader Mehmet Agar criticized the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, charging that it was governing the country under impositions from abroad. “We should be governed from those who live in Turkey,” he said, adding that the AKP believed that it couldn’t hold power without support from abroad. /Cumhuriyet/[05] SCHROEDER TO ATTEND TURKISH-GERMAN ECONOMIC CONGRESS IN ISTANBULGerman Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is due to arrive in Istanbul on May 4 to attend a Turkish-German Economic Congress, jointly hosted by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB) and the German-Turkish Industry and Trade Chamber. During his stay in Turkey, Schroeder will be accompanied by some 600 German businessmen. /Sabah/[06] GREEK LAND FORCES COMMANDER SENDS LETTER OF APOLOGY TO BUYUKANITAdm. Mucahit Sislioglu, the head of the General Staff’s Cyprus and Greece Department, said yesterday that Greek Land Forces Commander Gen. Nikolaos Ntouvas had sent a letter to his Turkish counterpart Gen. Yasar Buyukanit apologizing for the recent flag desecration incident at the Greek War Academy. Recalling the General Staff’s April 16 press statement about the incident, Adm. Sislioglu said that the General Staff had asked Greek authorities to issue an official apology and punish the perpetrators. He added that Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok had said the same in his speech last Wednesday. “We welcome the sensitive attitude of Ntouvas and we believe that the perpetrators will be found as soon as possible and punished,” added Sislioglu. /Star/[07] SOYER ASSIGNED TO ESTABLISH TRNC GOVERNMENTTurkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Mehmet Ali Talat, the former leader of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), yesterday appointed CTP Deputy Chairman Ferdi Sabit Soyer to establish a new government. Soyer is expected to form his government within the next two weeks. /Turkiye/[08] THOUSANDS ATTEND CEREMONIES IN GALLIPOLISome 200,000 people including Australians and New Zealanders yesterday attended a ceremony to mark the 90th anniversary of the devastating World War I campaign on the battlefields of Gallipoli. Britain’s Prince Charles, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark also attended the ceremonies. People prayed for the thousands of Australian, New Zealand and Turkish soldiers who lost their lives in the battles. In Sydney yesterday, Australians also commemorated their soldiers through ceremonies. /Hurriyet/[09] CB GOVERNOR WARNS OF HIGH CURRENT ACCOUNTS DEFICITCentral Bank Governor Sureyya Serdengecti yesterday briefed the Cabinet on recent economic developments, warning of Turkey’s high current accounts deficit, but predicted that this deficit wouldn’t lead to an economic crisis. “The high deficit results from our high growth,” he said. “It’s difficult to face a crisis due to the deficit since we aren’t pursuing a fixed rate.” Serdengecti said that last year, Turkey attracted $14.2 billion in hot money, adding that the inflow and outflow of hot money were not dangerous for the economy, but sudden outflows could do damage. Serdengecti also touted economic indicators, adding that the government had achieved its targets for inflation, growth, exports, and interest rates. /Milliyet/[10] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...[11] FORGOTTEN GENOCIDES BY GUNDUZ AKTAN (RADIKAL)Columnist Gunduz Aktan comments on the Bosnia-Herzegovina genocide. A summary of his column is as follows:“Following the recognitions of Slovenia and Croatia, the European Union also recognized Bosnia-Herzegovina, a country which declared its independence on March 3, 1992. The United States then had to follow the EU, and the Balkan wars flared up. Serbia was aiming to seize all of the territories where Serbians were living, and then it started to perpetrate ethnic cleansing to expel other groups from the country. The weapons embargo imposed under the September 1991 United Nations Security Council Resolution 713 deprived other groups of arms to fight the Serbian Army. The US chose not to intervene in the region for a long time, arguing that it was an internal European matter. In the meantime, Europe was split into two. On the one hand, Britain, France and Russia were tolerant of Serbia’s actions, and on the other, Turkey, Germany and Austria were defending the rights of the victims. In February 1992, the EU established aid corridors in the region’s residential areas with the help of UNPROFOR, a force made up of British and French troops. It declared some of the regions ‘safe zones’ to protect the cities that the Serbian Army was attacking. However, as no armed measures were taken, these efforts were doomed to failure. Brussels then tried to find a solution to the problem with a series of international conferences. UNPROFOR failed to protect the civilian population. Since the UN refused to lift its weapons embargo, it gave these people no chance to defend themselves. Approximately 2.5 million people, most Muslims, were forced to migrate to other countries. Some 250,000 innocent people were slaughtered and 50,000 women were raped. The Serbian soldiers burned the villages, destroyed the mosques and deprived the people of food and water in concentration camps. Their bodies were buried in mass graves. From the very beginning, Turkey knew that this wasn’t simply another war. The ethnic cleansing wasn’t the result of the war but it was Serbia’s ultimate aim. It was truly a genocide. Turkey called on the UN Human Rights Commission to convene for a special session in December 1992. The commission decided that Serbians were perpetrating crimes against humanity and the victims were the Muslim Bosnians. The UN General Assembly then agreed that ‘ethnic cleansing’ is a type of genocide. In June 1993, the World Human Rights Conference approved a resolution calling on the Security Council to put an end to the genocide in Bosnia- Herzegovina. However, the secretary of the conference lost the text of the resolution, and then Turkey had to stop the meeting until the text was found! However, the result was the same. By July 11, 1995, the Serbians had slaughtered 8,000 Bosnians. Then, NATO, led by the US, intervened in the region and overpowered the Serbian troops. The Bosnian-Herzegovina incidents reminded us of a century-long ethnic cleansing against the Balkan Turks. Now, I’d like to call on French President Chirac to recall these events, and the fact that the perpetrators killed and tortured thousands of innocent people virtually next door. He must think well to remember these events. And we too, we mustn’t forget this genocide, its perpetrators and collaborators either.” [12] ORPHANS OF FUKUYAMA BY OZDEMIR INCE (HURRIYET)Columnist Ozdemir Ince comments on Francis Fukuyama’s latest book “State- Building” and neo-liberals in Turkey. A summary of his column is as follows:“I’m surprised to see that neo-liberals in Turkey haven’t yet shown much interest in Francis Fukuyama’s latest book ‘State-Building’. How can they ignore such a man who has provided the basis for their arguments for decades? That’s what I call unfaithfulness. To tell the truth, I like Fukuyama for his open style, and especially his frankness. ‘State-Building’ begins with an explanation of why it’s impossible to renounce the ‘nation-state.’ Turkel Minibas of Cumhuriyet describes what Fukuyama means by nation-state: ‘The nation-state Fukuyama speaks of acts as the guardian of global capital and removes troubles caused by the globalization of capital as well.’ In Fukuyama’s next chapter ‘Weak States and International Legitimacy,’ there’s a warning for us all: ‘Since the end of the Cold War, weak or failing states have arguably become the single most important problem for international order. Weak or failing states commit human rights abuses, provoke humanitarian disasters, drive massive waves of immigration, and attack their neighbors. Since September 11, it also has become clear that they shelter international terrorists who can do significant damage to the US and other developed countries.’ Fukuyama argues that Somalia, Haiti, Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo and Western Timor are examples of such states. Considering that Afghanistan was ruled by the terrorist organization Al- Qaeda and Iraq by a dictator, the US had to review its foreign policy, and decided to create a new world order in which weak states could govern themselves or put the blame on the rest of the world in case of failure. Fukuyama has named this prospect ‘The New Empire.’ The US judges it necessary to destroy weak states deemed dangerous to the developed world and build new nation-states to replace them. But Fukuyama argues that the US government doesn’t possess the necessary skills to rebuild states. Therefore, state building is also necessary for the US, as well as weak Third World countries. Is Fukuyama trying to tell us that the US is eventually going to create (or has already created) a Frankenstein in Iraq?” 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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