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Turkish Press Review, 06-04-07
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
07.04.2006
FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…
CONTENTS
[01] ERDOGAN CONDEMNS TERRORISM, CRITICIZES MEPs’ LETTER
[02] ESTONIA FAVORS CYPRUS DEAL UNDER UN AUSPICES
[03] AT FUNERAL OF COMMANDO SLAIN BY TERRORIST PKK, BUYUKANIT SAYS FIGHT AGAINST TERROR WILL DETERMINEDLY CONTINUE
[04] EU BLASTS PKK, TERRORIST ATTACKS
[05] COUNCIL OF STATE VOTING ON NEW CHAIRMAN
[06] NY TIMES: “CLASHES STEER KURDS AND TURKEY BACK ON A ROCKY PATH”
[07] KRETSCHMER: “SOME PROSECUTORS HAVEN’T GRASPED THE SPIRIT OF REFORMS”
[08] MAIN BRANCH OF TURKISH-GREEK BANK TO OPEN IN JUNE
[09] FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…
[10] UNNECESSARY OBSTACLES BY FERAI TINC (HURRIYET)
[01] ERDOGAN CONDEMNS TERRORISM, CRITICIZES MEPs’ LETTER
Speaking at the General Assembly of the Turkish Milk, Meat, and Food
Industrialists’ and Producers’ Union (SET-BIR) yesterday, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply condemned terrorism and the terrorist group
PKK, saying that there was a definition of terrorism on the international
stage. Commenting on a letter sent this week by a number of European
parliamentarians blaming Turkey’s state and military for the recent unrest
and saying that the problem couldn’t be solved by violence, Erdogan said
that first they needed to live in Turkey to understand the problem. “Such
letters are the individual views of their authors,” he said. “Our security
forces, gendarmerie, and military have adapted an approach of tolerance.”
In related news, European Union Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn
commented on the MEPs’ letter, saying that there was no need to erect
“unnecessary obstacles” to Turkey’s EU negotiating process. /Sabah/
[02] ESTONIA FAVORS CYPRUS DEAL UNDER UN AUSPICES
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said yesterday that his country
favored a solution to the deep-seated Cyprus problem under the auspices of
the United Nations. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with his Turkish
counterpart Abdullah Gul in Ankara, Paet said that Estonia hoped that the
Cyprus talks would begin in a short period of time under UN auspices. The
visiting foreign minister emphasized that the negotiations over Cyprus
should include all the sides involved. He also made assurances that his
country would extend support to Turkey’s European Union aspirations in
return for Ankara’s support for Estonia’s NATO membership bid. /Turkish
Daily News/
[03] AT FUNERAL OF COMMANDO SLAIN BY TERRORIST PKK, BUYUKANIT SAYS FIGHT
AGAINST TERROR WILL DETERMINEDLY CONTINUE
Five soldiers who were killed in Sirnak by the terrorist group PKK were
laid to rest yesterday. Attending the funeral of Gendarmerie Commando Cpl.
Mukremin Basaran in Haymana, Land Forces Commander Gen. Yasar Buyukanit
said that the fight against terrorism would continue determinedly. “We’ll
end this suffering,” he said. “These terrorists will be punished.” Also
present at the ceremony were Gendarmerie General Commander Gen. Fevzi
Turkeri, Ankara Governor Kemal Onal, and a number of other generals and
officers. Other soldiers were laid to rest in Mersin, Kocaeli, Sinop, and
Ordu. /Star/
[04] EU BLASTS PKK, TERRORIST ATTACKS
During yesterday’s session of the European Parliament on the recent unrest
in southeastern Anatolia, European Union commissioners condemned the outlaw
PKK and its terrorist attacks. Markos Kipriyanu, the EU commissioner in
charge of health and consumer protection, said that the PKK was a terrorist
group included on the EU’s list of terrorist organizations. Stressing that
terror could in no way be justified, Kipriyanu said that as a result of the
PKK’s provocation, the situation had grown more tense, adding that the
people of the region did not want violence but rather peace and prosperity.
/Turkiye/
[05] COUNCIL OF STATE VOTING ON NEW CHAIRMAN
During a number of rounds of voting yesterday, none of the seven nominees
to become the new head of the Council of State was able to get enough
votes. A total of 48 votes, an absolute majority of its 95 members, is
needed to take the helm. Voting will continue today. /Hurriyet/
[06] NY TIMES: “CLASHES STEER KURDS AND TURKEY BACK ON A ROCKY PATH”
Issues making headlines in Turkey such as the terrorist PKK, headscarves
and the European Union process are also making news in the Western press.
An article written by Ian Fisher for the New York Times yesterday said,
“Violent clashes between Kurds and security forces in Turkey over the past
week have jolted memories here back to an old conflict that remains a
dangerous barrier on the nation's path toward greater prosperity and
democracy. After a decade of calm, at least 15 people have been killed in
protests in recent days, most in the guerrilla battleground of the Kurdish
southeast, but some in cosmopolitan Istanbul. Among the dead were a 6-year-
old boy and a 78-year-old man, Halit Sogut, whose relatives asked on
Tuesday how such violence was still possible in a nation that considered
its rightful place to be as a member of the European Union.... ‘I neither
want state terror, nor terror of any kind,’ said one of Mr. Sogut’s
relatives, who would not give his full name because he is a public employee,
and talking politics could cause him trouble. ‘More than 30,000 people
died. This is enough. There should be a solution.’... Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has at least acknowledged the problems Kurds face, something
that past prime ministers have been reluctant to do. In confronting the
current crisis, his government’s approach has been to offer hope to Kurds
not eager for a resumption of the rebel group’s violence.” /Cumhuriyet/
[07] KRETSCHMER: “SOME PROSECUTORS HAVEN’T GRASPED THE SPIRIT OF REFORMS”
Speaking at a conference on “Judicial Reform in the EU Accession Process,”
European Union Commission Representation to Ankara head Hansjoerg
Kretschmer yesterday said that Turkey is facing problems in expanding
freedom of expression. “We see that some prosecutors in Turkey have yet to
comprehend the spirit of reforms as they continue to file charges without
respect for freedom of expression,” he said. He added that the judicial
system in Turkey faced harsh criticisms and the independence of the
judiciary was still in question, and cited as examples the cases of Yuzuncu
Yil University Rector Yucel Askin and would-be papal assassin Mehmet Ali
Agca. Kretschmer said many journalists appeared before court under Article
301 on freedom of expression and thought, and argued that judges and
prosecutors in Turkey frequently use this article, separating Turkey from
the EU member countries. “Articles restricting freedom of expression should
be reworked. Such problems should be resolved within the negotiation
process,” said Kretschmer. /Milliyet/
[08] MAIN BRANCH OF TURKISH-GREEK BANK TO OPEN IN JUNE
The main branch of the Business Aegean Bank established jointly by a
Turkish-Greek initiative is set to open in June. Founding bank partner and
Greek-Turkish Chamber of Commerce Chairman Panayotis Kotsikos said that an
application had been made to Greece’s Central Bank for the initial
allowance of the bank, which aims to boost trade and investment between the
two countries. He added that though the bank was planned to be founded with
60 million euros with an equal partnership, they later decided to boost
this capital to 100 million euros after seeing great interest. /Turkiye/
[09] FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…
[10] UNNECESSARY OBSTACLES BY FERAI TINC (HURRIYET)
Columnist Ferai Tinc comments on unnecessary obstacles in our relations
with the European Union. A summary of her column is as follows:
“Reports from Brussels show that the member countries mostly have the
impression that Turkey is reluctant. In order to put everybody into action,
EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn is trying to encourage both
parties. He tells Europe not to impose unnecessary obstacles to Turkey, and
tells Ankara not to exaggerate the problems. For example, there are
unnecessary obstacles in the chapter on education and research in which our
screening ended. France got certain countries’ support and wanted this
chapter linked to human rights criteria. Ankara said that it opposed this.
Term President Austria is trying to convince France, and formulas are being
developed. Those who say that it’s unnecessary to link this article with
the human rights criteria also say that problems which Turkey wants to
avoid will be on the agenda. Exaggerating the problems means making the
solution more difficult in the steps needed to be taken at any point of the
process of membership talks. Let’s consider the problem about the education
chapter. The reason for Ankara to object to the human rights criteria in
the education article is clear. It doesn’t want the issue of education in
mother tongues to come up. So can we avoid this? No. We can’t do this as
part of European Union membership talks, because if not for the education
chapter, the issue will already be on the agenda of the negotiations in
other chapters which are directly linked to the human rights criteria.
The second reason is that there’s no avoiding this issue coming up in terms
of the course of inner dynamics. Can a state deprive its citizens of the
right of education in their mother tongue? There might be only one problem,
that is, the material problem of training the teachers and covering other
expenses. Of course, when these issues are brought up, the situation and
examples in Europe will be discussed as well. Our reluctance in the process
of reforms has been attracting attention for a long time. However, warnings
from Brussels started to come towards the second half of the year. When a
European official said that the impression of Turkey’s reluctance for
reform was widespread in European countries, he cited the examples of the
Customs Union. There are serious problems in the Customs Union. For example,
this isn’t the Cyprus issue, but alcoholic beverages. They say that no
progress was made on problems concerning patent rights and that if Ankara
doesn’t meet its obligations in an agreement, this stance won’t encourage
us for new agreements. At the first sight, it seems that the only problem
with Europe is Cyprus. However, there’s more than that. Turkey couldn’t
enter the atmosphere of membership talks. After we got a date for
membership talks, there was the impression that a merely technical process
had started. Of course, it’s possible to do reforms without carrying out
political work, telling people about the EU and determining the needs, but
wouldn’t this be in vain?”
ARCHIVE
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