Cyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot Press and Other Media, 01-03-20

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From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/>

TURKISH CYPRIOT PRESS AND OTHER MEDIA

No. 54/01 -- 20.3.01

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Turkey/s National Programme for adoption of EU Acquis Announced yesterday.

[02] Mehmet Ali Talat: Let us use the EURO instead of Turkish Lira.

[03] Turkish Foreign Minister to visit the occupied areas on 17-18 April

[04] Per Capita Income in Turkey Below 3000 Dollars.

[B] COMMENTS AND EDITORIALS

[05] Chief Editor of AVRUPA newspaper fears for his life.

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Turkey/s National Programme for Adoption of EU Acquis announced yesterday.

KIBRIS and other Turkish Cypriot newspapers publish a summary of the Programme and a press conference given in Ankara by the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Mesut Yilmaz, after presentation of the Programme.

The excerpt of the programme on Turkish-Greek relations and the Cyprus problem is the following:

``Turkey will pay attention to improving its relations with its neighbours within the framework of its peaceful foreign policy, thus it will continue its efforts and initiatives to bring solutions to its problems with Greece through dialogue.

Turkey will continue to support the efforts of the UN Secretary - General within the framework of his mission of good offices for establishing a new partnership in Cyprus on the basis of a mutually acceptable solution, based on equal sovereignty of the two sides in Cyprus and the realities on the island.''

Following is the statement made by Mr. Yilmaz on the National Programme during his press conference and his reply to a question on Cyprus:

In line with the candidacy status accorded to Turkey during the Helsinki summit held in December 1999, the EU is applying a pre-accession strategy on Turkey, alongside the other 12 candidate countries other than Turkey. The pre-accession strategy incorporates the policies to be mutually pursued by Turkey and the EU until Turkey's full membership. The pre-accession strategy has three documents. Two of them are documents approved by the EU, namely the Accession Partnership Document and the framework agreement that regulates financial cooperation. Both these documents were prepared by the EU and rendered legally effective after being approved by the authorized organs. As you know, last week the EU Council approved the framework agreement as well. Consequently, in addition to the Accession Partnership Document, which was previously approved during the Nice summit, the framework agreement also went through all the levels of the EU and became official. It was also published in the official gazette of the EU.

The document that Turkey is charged with preparing in this pre-accession strategy framework is the National Programme. The National Programme must satisfy the aspects expected from Turkey within the Accession Partnership Document as well as incorporate the measures Turkey pledges to adopt before full membership. The National Programme is a document of some 1,000 pages. It consists of three main parts, apart from the introduction. The first is Political Criteria, the second Economic Criteria, and the third Harmonization with the Acquis. These are not of equal weight. The difference between them is that full membership negotiations cannot start unless the political criteria have been fulfilled, but the economic criteria and the section on harmonization with the acquis can be fulfilled during the course of the accession negotiations and in certain special cases even after accession. Therefore, compared with the other sections, political criteria have priority. A country that has not fully met the political criteria cannot begin accession negotiations.

This National Programme, which we approved at the Council of Ministers meeting today, envisages hundreds of administrative decisions in the form of directives, statutes, decrees, and laws. In other words, Turkey must institute many changes in its administrative structure. Among these are 94 law amendments and 89 new laws that must be enacted. Therefore, as of today a very intense working period starts for the Turkish Grand National Assembly and the Turkish Government with a view to fulfilling the commitments detailed in the programme.

The programme speaks of the short and medium terms. The short term denotes one year, while the medium term is a period of over one year, the period until the beginning of the accession negotiations. This period must not exceed five years. We discern from other EU Affairs practices, from its statements concerning the negotiations with Turkey, and from its general timetable regarding enlargement that the medium term should under no circumstances exceed five years.

This leads to the conclusion that Turkey must definitely fulfil the political criteria needed to launch accession negotiations within this timeframe. The commitments pertaining to the economic criteria and the harmonization with the acquis can also be fulfilled during accession negotiations.

After approving the programme in the Council of Ministers today, we sent it to the political parties represented at the Assembly. During the Assembly session on 22 March, I will brief the parliament on the National Programme, after which the political parties will expound their views on the matter. On 26 March, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and EU Affairs Secretary General Volkan Vural will present Turkey's National Programme to the EU Commission in Brussels. This process will thus have been legally launched.

We will now answer questions.

Question: A while ago, you said that all candidate countries are being subjected to the same strategy. I want to refer to the Cyprus issue, which is included in the political criteria section. You are speaking of a solution based on the sovereign equality of the two sides and on the realities on the island. The Greek Cypriot side stands to accede to the EU in a year or two. Is the pressure that is applied on Turkey with regard to the Cyprus issue also applied on the Greek Cypriot side? Will the EU accept Turkey/s position on the Cyprus issue as outlined in the National Programme?

Answer: In this programme, we are merely reiterating our usual stand with regard to Cyprus. It is not possible at this stage to discern the stand to be adopted by the EU with regard to the full membership of the Greek Cypriot administration of south Cyprus. One can only speculate in this regard. However, in the past our government announced to the whole world what Turkey/s stand would be if the Greek Cypriot administration of south Cyprus is admitted into EU, leaving no room for speculation. Consequently, we are hoping that the EU will resolve this matter with common sense and in a way that will not harm the Turkish-EU perspective.

[02] Mehmet Ali Talat: Let us use the EURO instead of Turkish Lira According to KIBRIS (20.3.01) the leader of the Republican Turkish Party

In statements to the press on his meetings Talat said that his party is having contacts with labour and other organizations in order to exchange views on what should be done in the face of the chaos existing in occupied Cyprus and accused the pseudo-government of taking no measures to relieve the Turkish Cypriots from the hardships of the economic crisis, the lack of democracy and the Cyprus problem.

Recalling that his party has already made public his views on the economic measures needed to improve the standard of living of the Turkish Cypriots, Talat said: We must do away with the Turkish Lira which is unstable and is petering out. Even in the Turkish Republic the introduction of the EURO is seriously being debated''.

[03] Turkish Foreign Minister to visit the occupied areas on 17-18 April According to AVRUPA (20.3.01), the Foreign Minister of Turkey, Mr. Ismail

[04] Per Capita Income in Turkey Below 3000 Dollars According to Turkish Daily News (19.3.01) Turkey/s national per capita

National per capita income, which exceeded the limit of $2,000 for the first time in 1990 with an amount of $2,710, has overcome the limit of $3, 000 in 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2000 - five times in the last 11 years.

According to predictions from the Turkish State Planning Organization the national per capita income that was supposed to be $3,060 would have increased to $3,242 in 2001. But the black February 21 night on which the decision to float the currency rate was taken made this plan impossible to realize for the Turkish economy. Turkey has never been able to exceed the $4,000 national per capita income limit.

According to the economic programme $1 should be worth 714,000 Turkish liras. But the current devaluation has resulted in the higher dollar rate, TL 924.656. In case of a rise in the inflation rate the average currency rate might be higher, but it will not have a negative effect on national income in terms of the US dollar. Together with inflation the national income will increase as Turkish lira, and as a result, they will be separate from the US dollar. Therefore, because of the current devaluation the national per capita income will decrease to $2,503, writes Turkish Daily News.

[B] COMMENTS AND EDITORIALS

[05] Chief Editor of AVRUPA newspaper fears for his life Sener Levent, Editor in Chief of AVRUPA, writing in his column ``Angle'' in

``A friend of mine whom I have not seen for a long time puzzled me.

He told me - `Let me tell you a secret/.

Go ahead.

You got off lightly.

Why?

Worse than a spying conspiracy could have happened.

How? Would they have killed me?

Yes they were going to kill you, but not on this side, on the other side. Which side?

In the Greek Cypriot side! I said - `You are making up/.

He said: Well, it is up to you to think it like that, and he left. Really.

What would happen?

If a Turk living in the north is killed in the Greek Cypriot side. Or a Greek Cypriot living in the South became a victim of a stray bullet....

Who from whom would suspect? Who would accuse whom? Would anybody think that it is the Turks who killed the Turk while he was in the South, that it is the Greek Cypriots that killed the Greek Cypriot while he was in the north? And what would happen if the assassins stood up and defended the killed ones and built a monument for them.

It will be a mess, no one will be able to sort it out.

I have asked one of the famous intelligence chiefs of our underground times who is retired now.

Could, under the present conditions the Turks in the Greek Cypriot side, the Greek Cypriots in the Turkish side, resort to provocations and acts of sabotage?

He said, of course they could and added:

But is there a need for such acts? The Cold War ended.

Today the court will read the sentence for Tekogul who is being tried in the Greek Cypriot side for allegedly being involved in narcotics smuggling.

I was surprized when I saw the tight security measures taken by the Greek Cypriot police.

What is happening?

The Greek Cypriot police armed with automatic rifles formed a chain around the walls of the court house. Tekogul is brought to the court in a bullet proof car.

For whom were these measures taken?

Whom, the Greek Cypriot police is afraid off?

It is from our MIT, as written by a newspaper of ours, which has strong relations with the army?

In 1960s both TMT and EOKA scored great successes in resorting to provocative actions for undermining the Republic of Cyprus. We exploded bombs on the other side, and they on this side.

The possibility of suspecting the Greek Cypriots for the bombs planted in our side and us for the bombs planted in the Greek Cypriot side was dismal.

Despite this, both sides/ leaderships agreed on a bombing event.

The place which was bombed was Denktash/s Law office at the Sarayonu and the year was 1962.

There was no major damage. The TMT/ist Denktash and the EOKA/ist Georgadjis who arrived at the scene, agreed on the bombing suspects.

Both of them said: This was done by Communists. However Georgadjis was more cautious.

He said Turkish communists.

What did the organizers of the Canakkale Rally do?

They have asked for help from the army to maintain Law and order! It would be understandable had the leftists asked for help.

What are the rightists afraid off?

In the annals of this country the left never resorted to terrorist acts. It neither threw bombs nor fired bullets.

It did not commit any sin than writing on the walls in the nights and distributing pamphlets.

From the Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office (PIO) Server at http://www.pio.gov.cy/

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