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Turkish Press Review, 06-03-02
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
02.03.2006
FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…
CONTENTS
[01] ERDOGAN VISITS MONACO, ATTENDS EUROPEAN CREDIT CONFERENCE
[02] GUL SIGNS PACT WITH UKRAINIAN FM TO BOOST ECONOMIC TIES AND COOPERATIVE ANTI-TERROR EFFORTS
[03] MUMCU CRITICIZES TALABANI’S OPPOSITION TO IRAQI PM’S VISIT
[04] AL-JAAFARI: “MY VISIT TO TURKEY WAS LEGAL”
[05] US REITERATES PKK IS TERRORIST GROUP
[06] EU ENLARGEMENT SPOKESWOMAN: “WE’RE PLEASED WITH CYPRIOT LEADERS’ WILLINGNESS TO START DIALOGUE ON TECHNICAL ISSUES”
[07] ERDAL ON THE RUN AFTER BELGIAN CONVICTION
[08] FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…
[09] NEW OPENINGS IN OUR IRAQ POLICY BY HASAN CELAL GUZEL (RADIKAL)
[01] ERDOGAN VISITS MONACO, ATTENDS EUROPEAN CREDIT CONFERENCE
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, currently in Monaco for an official
visit, yesterday met with Monaco’s Prince Albert and Prime Minister Jean-
Paul Proust to discuss bilateral relations. Later Erdogan attended the
European Credit Conference. Addressing the gathering, Erdogan briefed the
participants on recent developments in Turkey’s economy, saying that it is
now the world’s 17th largest. Touching on Ankara’s European Union
membership bid, Erdogan said that the EU decision’s last fall to begin
accession talks with Turkey was very important, adding that by making such
a decision the EU proved that it would be a global power. Stressing that
the screening process had begun last October, Erdogan said that Ankara
wanted to successfully complete the entire accession process. “I trust my
country and the nation,” said Erdogan. “Of course the EU’s responsibility
shouldn’t be disregarded. If the talks fail, this will hurt the Union’s
global aspirations as well as Turkey.” The premier added that the screening
process would be completed later this year. /Aksam/
[02] GUL SIGNS PACT WITH UKRAINIAN FM TO BOOST ECONOMIC TIES AND
COOPERATIVE ANTI-TERROR EFFORTS
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul yesterday met with visiting Ukrainian Foreign
Minister Boris Tarasyuk to discuss a number of issues, including bilateral
relations. During their meeting, the two ministers signed a 15-article
action plan aimed at several issues, including boosting economic ties and
cooperation in fighting terrorism. The plan also includes a new investment
fund and a working group to explore avenues of cooperation issues in the
energy field. During the meeting, Gul said that Ankara supported the reform
process in Ukraine and its integration with European Atlantic institutions.
For his part, Tarasyuk praised Turkey’s recent proposal for resolving the
Cyprus issue. /Turkiye/
[03] MUMCU CRITICIZES TALABANI’S OPPOSITION TO IRAQI PM’S VISIT
Speaking at his party’s group meeting yesterday, opposition Motherland
Party (ANAVATAN) leader Erkan Mumcu harshly criticized Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani’s reaction against Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s
visit to Turkey this week, claiming that Talabani was trying to hurt
Turkey’s prestige. Mumcu said that no one should forget that the nations of
the region couldn’t protect their identities without the support of Turkey.
Also criticizing the government’s stance on the Cyprus issue, Mumcu said
that Ankara had lost its place to take the initiative on the issue.
/Cumhuriyet/
[04] AL-JAAFARI: “MY VISIT TO TURKEY WAS LEGAL”
Iraqi Prime Minister al-Jaafari, back in his country after completing his
contacts in Turkey, yesterday called his visit “legal and in accordance
with the law,” adding that ties between Turkey and Iraq had been
strengthened by his visit. Al-Jaafari said that he was pleased with the
results of his visit. /Star/
[05] US REITERATES PKK IS TERRORIST GROUP
US State Department Iraq Coordinator James Jeffrey said Tuesday that the US
had nothing to do with the terrorist PKK. During a State Department
briefing on aid in Iraq, a reporter asked if militants attached to the
terrorist PKK were patrolling alongside US military forces in Iraq’s Kirkuk
and Mosul. Ambassador Jeffrey replied that the US considers the PKK a
terrorist organization and that it has nothing to do with the group.
Jeffrey said that the violence in Iraq over the last week had not brought
the country closer to a civil war and that the situation was normal for now,
by Iraqi standards. /Turkey/
[06] EU ENLARGEMENT SPOKESWOMAN: “WE’RE PLEASED WITH CYPRIOT LEADERS’
WILLINGNESS TO START DIALOGUE ON TECHNICAL ISSUES”
European Union Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn’s spokeswoman
Krisztina Nagy yesterday said that he was pleased with recent statements of
Cypriot leaders towards resuming dialogue on technical issues. Stressing
that the confidence needed for a resolution could be ensured through talks,
Nagy said that Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos’s recent meeting
with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had been satisfactory. /Turkiye/
[07] ERDAL ON THE RUN AFTER BELGIAN CONVICTION
Terrorist Fehriye Erdal disappeared yesterday, one day after a Belgian
court convicted her of belonging to a terrorist group and handed her a four-
year prison term. She had been under house arrest in Belgium since 1999,
but when police came to formally arrest her she was missing, the Belgian
Justice Ministry announced yesterday. “We’re actively looking for her,”
prosecution spokeswoman Lieve Pellens told Reuters. “She is being sought
nationally and internationally.” Turkey has long sought Erdal’s extradition
for her role in a 1996 assassination in Istanbul. /Turkish Daily News/
[08] FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…
[09] NEW OPENINGS IN OUR IRAQ POLICY BY HASAN CELAL GUZEL (RADIKAL)
Columnist Hasan Celal Guzel comments on developments in Iraq and Turkey’s
policy. A summary of his column is as follows:
“During a conference I recently participated in, a person in the audience
asked if I thought our March 2003 rejection of US troop deployment for the
Iraq war was still working against us in terms of the latest developments
in Iraq. I replied that on the contrary, these developments reaffirmed how
our views concerning Iraq policy were appropriate. Unfortunately, we
couldn’t explain to officials that the active foreign policy which we
should apply in Iraq isn’t a walk-on role for the US but that it should
mean protecting our national interests and security by benefiting from a
historic opportunity. Actually, three basic principles employed by Turkey
in its Iraq policy drew an outline for a reasonable policy in favor of the
US, the region and Turkey. The protection of Iraq’s territorial integrity,
benefiting equally from natural riches and recognizing a special status in
Kirkuk was a policy of balance which was necessary for Iraq and the Middle
East. However, it was impossible for Turkey to play a regulating role
without using its power and taking a risk. It was out of the question for
us to participate in the game without entering the field with the ‘red
lines’ which remained only on paper. Consequently, we were gotten rid of,
while we were planning to be impartial.
Firstly, we failed to give the support to the US that we promised. However,
it was necessary for us to enter Iraq and have a regulating position for
our national interests, even if the US didn’t want it. If we were in Iraq
today, the massacres in Fallujah and Talafar wouldn’t have happened, our
Iraqi kin wouldn’t be subject to outrages, Kirkuk and Mosul wouldn’t be
invaded by peshmerga and there wouldn’t be any developments endangering our
integrity and security in northern Iraq. Then we became a mere onlooker to
our exclusion with the influence of our embarrassment and timidity towards
the US. Ignoring the nearly 4 million Turkmen population, the Kurds’ policy
of rebellion in Kirkuk which is also supported by the US, fraudulent
elections, our soldiers whose heads were put in sacks and offices opened by
the terrorist PKK were insufficient to spoil this silence. Now Iraq is on
the brink of a civil war. In this situation, Iraq will be fragmented and
three separate states will emerge. There will be blood not only in Iraq,
but all over the Middle East.
The New York Times wrote this week that Turkey could enter Iraq to protect
the Turkmen. This interpretation, which was found strange by most people,
actually expresses a normal political reaction. If one becomes the greatest
state in the region and has the strongest army and continues to be an
onlooker to an incident changing the map of the region, then can a normal
democratic country be an onlooker? We consider Turkey’s new openings in
Iraq policy that it’s trying to develop with its own initiative as positive
and believe they should continue. Even if belated, inviting Iraqi Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr and holding
contacts with Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani were appropriate moves, in
spite of certain drawbacks. However, we shouldn’t consider these diplomatic
contacts sufficient but rather continue with them by expanding them. In
this sense, we shouldn’t shrink from using force, if necessary. If Turkey
again loses its influence in the new era in Iraq, this time it will find
itself in a process it can’t recover from.”
ARCHIVE
The news and articles issued in the Turkish Press Review
may be quoted from provided due acknowledgement is made.
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