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Turkish Press Review, 05-07-26
From: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr>
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Summary of the political and economic
news in the Turkish press this morning
26.07.2005
FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…
CONTENTS
[01] ERDOGAN TO TRAVEL TO BRITAIN
[02] CABINET DISCUSSES UNEMPLOYMENT, TERRORISM
[03] US CHARGE D’AFFAIRES: “THE US STANCE AGAINST THE PKK IS CLEAR”
[04] ANKARA EXPECTED TO SIGN ADDITIONAL CUSTOMS PROTOCOL
[05] TURKMEN TELL UN ENVOY THEIR CONCERNS ABOUT IRAQI CONSTITUTION
[06] TUGCU ELECTED FIRST FEMALE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT HEAD
[07] UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS TO 10% IN APRIL
[08] FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…
[09] A TRAGEDY BY ISMAIL KUCUKKAYA (AKSAM)
[01] ERDOGAN TO TRAVEL TO BRITAIN
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to fly today to Britain for an
official visit. During his stay in London, Erdogan is expected to meet with
his British counterpart Tony Blair to discuss bilateral relations, regional
issues, developments in Iraq and the recent wave of terrorist attacks
throughout the world. Erdogan is also expected to tell Blair that terror
has no religion or race and that relations with Muslims living in Britain
should be handled more sensitively. The two premiers are also expected to
discuss Turkey’s European Union membership bid, with Erdogan reiterating
that Ankara’s accession talks should begin as scheduled on Oct. 3.
Following their meeting, Erdogan and Blair will hold a joint press
conference. Britain holds the EU term presidency through the end of this
year. /Turkiye/
[02] CABINET DISCUSSES UNEMPLOYMENT, TERRORISM
Speaking following yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Justice Minister and
government spokesman Cemil Cicek said that a number of issues, including
the recent wave of attacks of the terrorist PKK and unemployment, had been
discussed at the gathering. Cicek said that unemployment was one of most
pressing problems of developing countries, adding that Turkey’s
unemployment rate so far this year stands at 10%. “This means that
unemployment has fallen, but this is not enough,” he said. “We have to
implement multifaceted policies to create new jobs, and we need to achieve
sustainable growth.” Touching on the threat of terrorism, Cicek said that
terrorism was a crime against humanity under which the Turkish nation had
suffered for years, adding that some countries had not supported Ankara’s
fight against terrorism. “We long stressed that all countries need to
cooperate in fighting terrorism, but some of them ignored this, although
others took it into consideration,” said Cicek. “Now it is certainly clear
that terrorism is a threat to humanity.” /Turkiye/
[03] US CHARGE D’AFFAIRES: “THE US STANCE AGAINST THE PKK IS CLEAR”
Speaking at a photo exhibition yesterday, US Charge d’Affaires in Ankara
Nancy McEldowney said that Washington and Ankara were cooperating against
their common enemy terrorism, adding that a double standard was
unacceptable. “The US considers the PKK a terrorist group,” said McEldowney,
adding that the US stance against the terrorist group was clear. “We
condemn the recent terrorist attacks in Turkey.” She further stated that
the US was trying the capture the leaders of the PKK. McEldowney is heading
the US Embassy in Ankara till this fall, when a new ambassador is due to
arrive. /Aksam/
[04] ANKARA EXPECTED TO SIGN ADDITIONAL CUSTOMS PROTOCOL
Turkey is expected today to sign the additional Customs Union protocol, a
precondition to begin its European Union accession talks on Oct. 3.
According to diplomatic sources, Turkey’s permanent representative in
Brussels will sign the document on behalf of Ankara. Turkey will also issue
a declaration saying that signing the protocol does not entail recognition
of Greek Cyprus. /Milliyet/
[05] TURKMEN TELL UN ENVOY THEIR CONCERNS ABOUT IRAQI CONSTITUTION
Iraqi Turkmen parliamentary deputies yesterday told United Nations Special
Envoy to Iraq Ashraf Qazi their concerns about the country’s new
constitution, which is now being written. Visiting Qazi at his office in
Baghdad, the deputies said that the new constitution was not transparent
and requested his help to make changes to it. Speaking following their
meeting, the deputies said that they had also requested help concerning the
status of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. /Turkiye/
[06] TUGCU ELECTED FIRST FEMALE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT HEAD
After Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mustafa Bumin stepped down due to
his reaching mandatory retirement age, elections for a new head which
started at the beginning of this month finally bore fruit yesterday. Tulay
Tugcu was elected the first female head of the 44-year-old Constitutional
Court. Tugcu said she would continue her work on the basis of human rights
and freedoms, Ataturk’s principles and revolutions, and the democratic and
secular state of law under the Constitution. /Cumhuriyet/
[07] UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS TO 10% IN APRIL
The State Instýtute of Statýstics (DIE) yesterday announced that Turkey’s
unemployment rate fell to 10% this April, with the ranks of the unemployed
decreasing by 155,000. According to the DIE, the number of people employed
also rose to 21.99 million from 21.2 million. /Aksam/
[08] FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…
[09] A TRAGEDY BY ISMAIL KUCUKKAYA (AKSAM)
Columnist Ismail Kucukkaya comments on Parliament’s rejection in March 2003
of a motion for US troops to use Turkey as a base for a northern offensive
onto Iraq. A summary of his column is as follows:
“If we take a good look at our rejection of the motion back on March 1,
2003, we can perceive important things. We started to pay the price for
this rejection. The roots of terrorism’s revival are certainly related to
Iraq. Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug stressed last week
that the terrorism had stepped up its revival since 2003. This date
indicates the war in Iraq. Everything started on March 1, 2003. Many
influential sources both in Washington and Ankara interpret the recent
situation of the terrorist group PKK as follows: ‘It can’t be said that the
US is tolerating the terrorist PKK. However, it isn’t fighting it
effectively because the US has different priorities in Iraq. Before, the US
would have included such a vital request of Turkey among its priorities.
Now it’s ignoring this because it wants Ankara to understand and even
experience the negative results of its rejection. We should consider its
tolerant stance towards Kurds along the same lines.’
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) had enjoyed good relations with the
US up to that time. The warm dialogue which started even before the
November 2002 elections reached the top level with Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
visit to Washington before he became prime minister. In this respect,
Turkey’s rejection froze these relations instantly. Although this was later
partly redressed, they’ve never been the same. As long as the US has
difficulties in Iraq, the pain of Turkey’s rejection will always live and
Turkey will continue to pay the price for this. From what I can tell, the
US thinks that Erdogan didn’t favor the rejection. Of course the military
didn’t want it. However, for the first time in our history, our military
chose not to become a party in the decision-making mechanism. They acted
just like in democratic countries. When the president took the same stance,
the National Security Council made its decision. The military considered
this a political decision because it thought that the political powers
should deal with the results of a political decision. The military believed
that the Parliament wouldn’t reject the motion. However, Turkey rejected it
and they were obliged to cancel all their plans. Tragedy is something like
this. Whatever you choose, the result is certainly disappointment. If the
AKP hadn’t rejected it, each martyr’s corpse [if Turkish troops had been
sent to Iraq, also under the motion] would have brought their end closer.
However, this time corpses started to arrive due to terrorism. This is
called tragedy.”
ARCHIVE
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