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Turkish Press Review, 06-05-29
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
29.05.2006
FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS... FROM THE COLUMNS...
CONTENTS
[01] IN IZMIR, MANISA, ERDOGAN CUTS RIBBON ON NEW HOUSING PROJECTS
[02] ISRAELI FM VISITS TURKEY
[03] TURKEY TO RECEIVE SWEDISH KING
[04] TURKISH RED CRESCENT SENDS AID TO INDONESIA
[05] AGAR: “THE OPPOSITION CRITICIZES THE GOVT ON BEHALF OF THE NATION”
[06] FORMER GREEK PRESIDENT: “THE HAGUE IS THE ONLY PLACE TO SOLVE AEGEAN DISPUTES”
[07] BUSH: “WITH THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE, TURKEY WAS SAVED FROM COMMUNISM”
[08] WILSON: “THE US IS CONTRIBUTING TO TURKEY’S FIGHT AGAINST THE PKK”
[09] TOBB HEAD CALLS FOR ISLAMIC COUNTRIES TO COOPERATE AND BECOME GLOBAL ECONOMIC LEADERS
[10] FIRST CRUDE OIL ARRIVES IN CEYHAN
[11] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS... FROM THE COLUMNS...
[12] THIS IS THE MIDDLE CLASS BY TAHA AKYOL (MILLIYET)
[01] IN IZMIR, MANISA, ERDOGAN CUTS RIBBON ON NEW HOUSING PROJECTS
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday cut the ribbon on housing
projects of 416 units in Manisa and Izmir. Speaking to assembled crowds,
Erdogan stressed that Ankara was determined on the nation’s European Union
membership bid. Later, addressing a meeting of his Justice and Development
Party (AKP), Erdogan touted the work of his government, saying that some
asked what the government had done to fight poverty and corruption. “Let me
answer them with figures,” said Erdogan. “When we came to power, inflation
was at 30%, but now it’s 7.7%. Our gross national product (GNP) has risen
from $180 billion to $361 billion. We take appropriate advice from the
International Monetary Fund, but have never accepted their inappropriate
advice.” Commenting on the government’s work for education, Erdogan said
that they would distribute free books to high schools. /Star/
[02] ISRAELI FM VISITS TURKEY
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, at the invitation of her Turkish
counterpart Abdullah Gul, yesterday arrived in Istanbul. In her first trip
abroad since taking her post, Livni is expected to meet with President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as Gul.
During their talks, in addition to bilateral ties, the Palestinian issue
and dispute over Iran’s nuclear program will be discussed. /Sabah/
[03] TURKEY TO RECEIVE SWEDISH KING
Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf XVI and Queen Silvia are set to arrive in Ankara
today to pay an official visit to Turkey at the invitation of President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer. The king and the queen will be accompanied by Swedish
Deputy Premier Bosse Ringholm and a number of businessmen. During the four-
day stay, the two sides are expected to seek ways to develop bilateral
relations. /Turkiye/
[04] TURKISH RED CRESCENT SENDS AID TO INDONESIA
The Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay) is preparing to send aid to Indonesia
following Saturday’s magnitude 6.2 earthquake which struck the island of
Java. Kizilay will donate $100,000 in emergency funds to help relief
efforts. A mobile clinic and a medical team are also expected to be sent to
the region to help the survivors. /Turkiye/
[05] AGAR: “THE OPPOSITION CRITICIZES THE GOVT ON BEHALF OF THE NATION”
Opposition True Path Party (DYP) leader Mehmet Agar yesterday responded to
criticisms of his appearing being hand-in-hand with Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader
Deniz Baykal at the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges
(TOBB) General Assembly, saying that his actions were appropriate since
political relations should be conducted on a civilized basis. “But this
doesn’t mean that we won’t criticize the government,” said Agar. “The
opposition is meant to criticize the government on behalf of the nation.”
/Aksam/
[06] FORMER GREEK PRESIDENT: “THE HAGUE IS THE ONLY PLACE TO SOLVE AEGEAN
DISPUTES”
After last week's collision of Turkish and Greek jets over the Aegean Sea,
Athens should accept the existence of problems other than the continental
shelf, said a senior Greek statesman yesterday. Former Greek President
Constantine Stephanopoulos said that Turkey and Greece should go to The
Hague for a solution. In an interview in Sunday’s Greek daily Kathimerini,
Stephanopoulos said that the existence of problems such as airspace, the
Flight Information Region (FIR) line and the disarmament of islands should
be accepted. “There is only one way out," he added. "I mean recourse to the
International Court at The Hague … Dialogue has taken place, and it has
failed." /Cumhuriyet/
[07] BUSH: “WITH THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE, TURKEY WAS SAVED FROM COMMUNISM”
US President George W. Bush said over the weekend that the US had rescued
Turkey and Greece from falling into the hands of communism after World War
II. Speaking at the graduation ceremony at West Point on Saturday,
President Bush said, “This academy went through a similar period of change
six decades ago, at the end of World War II ... In the early years of that
struggle, freedom's victory was not obvious or assured. In 1947, communist
forces were threatening Greece and Turkey, the reconstruction of Germany
was faltering, mass starvation was setting in across Europe ... Fortunately,
we had a president named Harry Truman, who recognized the threat, took bold
action to confront it, and laid the foundation for freedom's victory in the
Cold War. President Truman set a clear doctrine. In a speech to Congress,
he called for military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey, and announced
a new doctrine that would guide American policy throughout the Cold War. He
told the Congress: 'It must be the policy of the United States to support
free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or
by outside pressures.' With this new doctrine, and with the aid to back it
up, Greece and Turkey were saved from communism, and the Soviet expansion
into Southern Europe and the Middle East was stopped.” /Cumhuriyet/
[08] WILSON: “THE US IS CONTRIBUTING TO TURKEY’S FIGHT AGAINST THE PKK”
US Ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson said over the weekend that his country
has contributed a great deal to Turkey’s fight against the terrorist PKK.
Wilson, currently on a visit to the southeast to take the pulse of the
region, made the remarks in Diyarbakir before proceeding to Mardin on
Sunday. Referring to the long friendship between Turkey and the US, Wilson
described Turkey as an important ally of the US in the fight against
terrorism. He also said that his country has no plans to establish a new
military facility in Turkey. “Despite Turkey’s economic, security and
employment problems, the country has made progress in solving these
problems. However the region has problems with the development of
democratic institutions,” Wilson told reporters. /The New Anatolian/
[09] TOBB HEAD CALLS FOR ISLAMIC COUNTRIES TO COOPERATE AND BECOME GLOBAL
ECONOMIC LEADERS
Addressing a conference yesterday, Turkish Union of Chambers and
Commodities Exchanges (TOBB) head Rifat Hisarciklioglu said that the trade
volume between predominantly Islamic countries was only about 13%. Saying
that the world was becoming global, Hisarciklioglu stated that businessmen
in Islamic countries should cooperate and become leaders in the world
economy. Later, addressing another conference, Hisarciklioglu said that
historical Silk Road should be revived and added that work was being done
towards this goal. Also addressing the gathering, State Minister Kursat
Tuzmen said that while in 1992 trade volume between Turkey and Eurasia was
less than $2 billion, it was about $22 billion by the end of last year,
adding that the share of Eurasian countries in Turkey’s total trade volume
was more than 10%. Tuzmen added that total value of projects done by
Turkish contractors in Eurasian countries was more than $30 billion.
“Turkey has become a brand name in the construction field,” stressed
Tuzmen. /Aksam/
[10] FIRST CRUDE OIL ARRIVES IN CEYHAN
The first crude oil from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline last night
arrived in Turkey's southern coastal town of Ceyhan. The oil has begun to
be stored in tanks in the facility. The loading of the oil to British
tanker the Hawtharne, which has been waiting offshore, is expected to be
done within this week. Ceyhan is the last stop of the 1,768-kilometers
pipeline, 1,076 kilometers of which travels over Turkish territory. The
pipeline will transfer Caspian oil to world markets. /Turkiye/
[11] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS... FROM THE COLUMNS...
[12] THIS IS THE MIDDLE CLASS BY TAHA AKYOL (MILLIYET)
Columnist Taha Akyol comments on the weekend Turkish Union of Chambers and
Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) meeting. A summary of his column is as follows:
“Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and opposition party leaders Deniz
Baykal and Mehmet Agar … They are naturally at odds. Conflict is in the
nature of democratic politics. Only a totalitarian regime has just one
policy. There is conflict in democracy, but somebody should balance this
conflict. They even should be together on certain issues. Nobody could make
peace between the party leaders in the 1950s and ’80s. We lived through
three coups. And the '90s went on with a divided politics. Now the Turkish
Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) President Rifat
Hisarciklioglu is hand in hand with the conflicting political leaders and
makes the picture of the century. I call this the picture of the century,
because the ‘entrepreneurial middle class,’ which we've been trying to
establish for a century, is now for the first time getting the power to
balance politics.
My colleague Serpil Yilmaz wrote that for the first time, the TOBB meeting
was held with the attendance of 3,000 people. Earlier, only the delegates
would attend the meeting, and now city council members of the cities have
joined in. Hisarciklioglu's words explain both the power and the vision of
the entrepreneurial middle class: ‘Turkey does 65 percent of the exports in
a region where 1 billion people live. And we're not doing this trade with
our natural resources, but with industrial products. We're the only country
in this geography which develops with the private sector.’ This is a global
vision. If the latest political incidents hadn't happened, then the topic
of the meeting would be ‘Turkey, political actor’ is willing to become a
‘global actor’ with its spirit for enterprise and business mentality.
Turkey is not an introverted third world country.
The number of industrialists and merchants registered in the TOBB is more
than 1.2 million, which is a great number. This is the success of the
market economy. The entrepreneurial middle class knows better than anyone
else that their profits will fall if the political conflict goes too far.
Therefore they are rational. Since they have attained a certain power, they
made the leaders shake hands. Hisarciklioglo’s personal contribution is
also obvious, but he's the president of a social power. That power is the
developing entrepreneurial middle class. Thanks to this, not the state, but
the people are the pioneer of modernization. Thanks to this, today’s
democracy is more powerful than yesterday’s.”
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