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Turkish Press Review, 09-06-01
From: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr>
Summary of the political and economic
news in the Turkish press this morning
01.06.2009
CONTENTS
[01] TURKEY TO PRESIDE AT UN SECURITY COUNCIL
[02] KEY AGREEMENT ON NABUCCO PROJECT TO BE SIGNED LATE THIS MONTH
[03] RUSSIA'S PUTIN TO VISIT TURKEY
[04] NORTHERN IRAQI OIL FLOW VIA TURKEY TO START TODAY
[05] ISTANBUL TO HOST TURKISH-ARAB ECONOMY FORUM
[06] TWO INDISPENSABLE FILES FOR DAVUTOGLU
[01] TURKEY TO PRESIDE AT UN SECURITY COUNCIL
Turkey is today set to take over the rotating presidency of the United
Nations Security Council from Russia for a month term. In related news,
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday went to New York, US to meet his
US counterpart Hillary Clinton, executives at the White House, Department
of State, Senate and House of Representatives. Speaking to reporters before
his departure, Davutoglu said that Turkey would take over the rotating
presidency of the United Nations (UN) Security Council as of this month.
Davutoglu described the presidency as an important and big responsibility
and expressed Turkey's determination to be a fairly active president for a
month. Stating that all international issues including Iraq will be
discussed at the Security Council under Turkey's presidency for one month,
he stressed that Turkey would do its parts within a month to actively deal
with international issues, wherever they happen. /Star/
[02] KEY AGREEMENT ON NABUCCO PROJECT TO BE SIGNED LATE THIS MONTH
A key intergovernmental agreement is expected to be signed late this month
to launch the construction of the long-planned Nabucco natural gas pipeline
project that will transfer gas from the Caspian basin to Europe via Turkey.
After bridging their differences on the project in the last month's South
Corridor summit in Prague, Czech Republic, which holds the EU's rotating
term presidency, Turkish and EU officials, and other partner countries of
the project agreed to sign the intergovernmental agreement on June 25 to
start the construction of the pipeline on which the EU places great
importance to reduce its dependence to the Russian gas by diversifying the
bloc's energy supply resources. During the South Corridor summit, Turkey
insisted on collecting a tax on the gas being pumped through the pipeline
and demanded 15 percent of the transit gas at discounted prices but later
agreed to a cost-based transit deal. A dispute earlier this year between
Russia and the gas transit country Ukraine, which left European customers
without supply for two weeks in the coldest days of winter, gave added
urgency to the project. The US supports the project as well. The 3,300-
kilometer Nabucco pipeline is a project of nearly €8 billion. The
construction of the pipeline is scheduled to start in 2011 and the first
deliveries are expected in 2016 with an initial annual capacity of 8-10
billion cubic meters. In its full capacity, the pipeline is planned to
transport a maximum of 31 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.
More than half of the pipeline is to be located in Turkey, making it the
gatekeeper of Europe's energy supplies. Besides the Nabucco project, the
efforts to carry out another pipeline project, the Arab natural gas
pipeline that will transport Egyptian natural gas to the Middle East and
Europe via Jordan, Syria and Turkey, are continuing. Turkey also plans to
transport Iraqi natural gas to Europe. When all these projects are
completed, Turkey will be the fourth biggest natural gas supplier of Europe,
after Norway, Russia and Algeria. /Turkiye/
[03] RUSSIA'S PUTIN TO VISIT TURKEY
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who will host a meeting between
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan
this Saturday in Moscow, is expected to visit Turkey on June 25. According
to diplomatic sources, Putin's visit to Turkey is important in terms of
relations between the two countries, as well as solving the Azeri-Armenian
dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. /Cumhuriyet/
[04] NORTHERN IRAQI OIL FLOW VIA TURKEY TO START TODAY
Northern Iraqi regional administration is set to start crude oil exports
through Kirkuk-Yumurtalik oil pipeline today. Defining the beginning of
export as a historic moment, officials said two northern Iraqi oil fields
will officially start pumping crude oil today, which will be transported by
the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
This will be the first time for the northern Iraqi regional administration
to export oil via Turkey. The regional administration and the Iraqi central
government have long been in dispute over the management of oil fields. But
a deal was worked out to allow the administration to ship oil through the
government's northern pipeline, a major breakthrough in the dispute. As
specified by the Iraqi Constitution, northern Iraqi regional administration
will take 17 percent of oil income derived from the exports of northern
Iraqi crude oil. The beginning of oil exports is also a sign of growing
trust in the regional administration's ties with Turkey. The oil flow will
begin at about 40,000 barrels per day and increase to 60,000 barrels per
day by October. /Turkiye/
[05] ISTANBUL TO HOST TURKISH-ARAB ECONOMY FORUM
The fourth Turkish-Arab Economy Forum (TAF'09) will be held in Istanbul on
June 11-12. The forum will be held by Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group (AIWA) in
cooperation with Turkey's Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) and the
Arab league. A DEIK statement said that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
State Minister and Chief EU Talks Negotiator Egemen Bagis, Finance Minister
Mehmet Simsek, Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister Mehmet Mehdi Eker,
Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) head Rifat
Hisarciklioglu and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mossa are expected to
participate in the forum. /Today's Zaman/
FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS…
[06] TWO INDISPENSABLE FILES FOR DAVUTOGLU
BY FERAI TINC (HURRIYET)
Columnist Ferai Tinc comments on the Europe and Middle East files which are
considered indispensable by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. A summary of
her column is as follows:
"Ankara, a temporary member to the United Nations' Security Council for one
month, wants to accelerate the course of its Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan
files. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu went to New York, but he has
another important visit to pay to Iraq. The new developments will occur,
when the US soldiers start to withdraw from Iraq as from the end of this
month. Obviously, this withdrawal doesn't mean that the US will
leave the region completely, but a new era full of uncertainties will start
in the Middle East. The US and some other countries in the region are
concerned about the possibility of a stronger and challenging Iran in the
upcoming era.
The possibility of Hezbollah's establishing a government alone in
parliamentary elections to be held in Lebanon this week causes concerns, as
Iran might increase its influence in the region. But Turkey has been
indoctrinating the US and Europe to respect the election results.
Furthermore, it's getting ready for training the Lebanese army and selling
American-made weapons. Turkey's initiation to take an active role about
security issues in the region isn't limited to Lebanon. Its relations with
Syria are also experiencing the warmest era of its history. The common
maneuvers which were organized last month show the dimension of this
approach. Washington doesn't reject the common maneuvers between Syria,
which is included in the US' list of terrorist countries and about which US
President Barack Obama made a decision to continue the sanctions, and the
NATO member Turkey, because the development of military cooperation between
Turkey and Syria will decrease this country's military dependence to Iraq.
The Obama administration favors Turkey's having relationships with all
countries in the region, including Iran. Some US officials say that they
will be able to conduct certain activities, about which they can't get
permission from the Congress, through Turkey for stability in the region.
These activities include getting Hamas involved in the Middle East talks
and ensuring that Taliban's moderate elements are included in elections to
be held in Afghanistan. Turkey means the NATO's extension into the region.
While giving the message that Turkey would be accelerating its EU
membership bid soon, Davutoglu talked about the importance of two files,
namely, the Europe and Middle East files. His approach pointed out that
unless working on these two files, Turkey wouldn't yield the desired
results in Europe and the Middle East. It is considered that Turkey, which
takes the EU process into seriously, will come into prominence in the
Middle East as an effective player. Obviously, this situation will have a
positive impact on its EU process. But can a country, which is unable to
ensure its domestic stability, become an indispensable player for stability
of the world? Unless Turkey can create an atmosphere of reconciliation
inside, it would be unable to affect the developments in Iraq and the
Middle East. Is it too hard to establish the atmosphere of reconciliation?
No, it's not. The future shouldn't be considered from the prism of daily
political interests in order to maintain our hold over the Europe and
Middle East files, which are described as indispensable by Davutoglu."
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