Cyprus PIO: Turkish Press and Other Media, 06-05-03

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

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] The American Ambassador visited projects financed by the U.S. in occupied Lefkosia

[02] Thirteen Turkish Cypriot Civil Society organisations held contacts in Brussels aimed at the lifting of the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots

[03] Gul continues to mislead the world about Turkey´s occupation of Cyprus. Bahrain supports the Action Plan and lifting of the isolations

[04] Desalination contract was signed between the TRNC and the Israeli firm Tahal

[05] Foreign dignitaries to visit Turkey in May

[06] Italian firm to construct pipeline to carry Russian and Kazakh oil through Turkey

[07] Syrian maps including Hatay escalate tension

[08] Iran is reportedly targeting PKK on Kandil mountains. Northern Iraq the centre of the fight against PKK

[B] COMMENTARIES, EDITORIALS AND ANALYSIS

[09] Columnists describe the population census as fiasco and support that its aim was to register the illegal Turkish settlers in the occupied part of Cyprus; The CTP is accused of separatism

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] The American Ambassador visited projects financed by the U.S. in occupied Lefkosia

The Mayor of Lefkosia Kutlay Erk and the United States Ambassador to Lefkosia Ronald Schlicker toured the Arabahmet Quarter in Lefkosia today to inspect restoration work carried out on selected old style buildings with historical and cultural value, with funds provided by the United States government.

Speaking at the end of their tour of the quarter, the Mayor of Lefkosia Kutlay Erk said that he had found the opportunity to exchange views with the US Ambassador about new projects for the improvement of the Arabahmet area.

Mr Erk also expressed hope that the United States will continue to provide more uninterrupted support for the realization of these new projects.

For his part the US Ambassador Ronald Schlicker expressed satisfaction to see the new restoration work on the spot in the area and said that cultural heritage could only be inherited by future generations if it was protected.

Expressing support for the Lefkosia Urban Master Plan, Mr Schlicker said that the cooperation in the implementation of such projects by the two sides was an important contribution to the efforts aimed at finding a solution to the Cyprus problem.

[02] Thirteen Turkish Cypriot Civil Society organisations held contacts in Brussels aimed at the lifting of the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots

Speaking about the contacts they held, the chairman of the Turkish Cypriot Physicians Association, Dr Bulent Dizdarli, stated that the European civil organisations told them that the fact that the Turkish Cypriots said yes at the 24 April referendum has been forgotten after a short time. We do not know you enough, they European organisations stated, and added that the Greek Cypriots continuously are having contacts in Brussels but the Europeans do not see the Turkish Cypriots. They also said that if the Turkish Cypriots do not hold contacts there will be no one in Brussels to remember them and therefore the relations are not lasting. The demonstration held here must be more organised, quite more persons must participate in them and they must take place more often, the European organisations said to the Turkish Cypriots.

The delegation held contacts with various influential civil society organisations and some parliamentarians in Brussels. As Turkish Cypriot daily KIBRIS newspaper (03.05.06) reports, the thirteen Turkish Cypriot organisations, met with the following during their contacts in Brussels: Quaker Council for European Affairs, International Crisis Group and European Policy Centre.

[03] Gul continues to mislead the world about Turkey´s occupation of Cyprus. Bahrain supports the Action Plan and lifting of the isolations

Gul said the Amir of Bahrain would visit Turkey next week, and noted that talks with al-Khalifa are essentially focused on preparations of this visit.

Indicating that the two countries are willing to improve bilateral relations, Gul emphasized that regional issues, the situation in Iraq, Iran's nuclear program, the Palestinian-Israeli problem and Cyprus were discussed at the meeting, in addition to bilateral relations.

FM Gul also indicated that several agreements would be signed to boost relations.

Replying to a question, Gul said economic relations between the two parties were solid, indicating that Bahrain businessmen are investing in Turkey. He added that Turkish contractors were successful in the construction sector in Bahrain.

As regards news reports affirming that Turkey warned Massoud Barzani through U.S. State Department, Gul said the views of Turkey on Iraq were obvious.

Underscoring that Iraq's unity and integrity was very important, Gul said this country should not harbor terrorists on its territory.

On the other hand Bahrain FM Sheik Khalid bin Ahmad al-Khalifa said his country advocated the Cyprus Action Plan of Turkey. "We want the blockade on Turkish Cypriots to be lifted. Bahrain will exert necessary efforts on this issue," he added.

Asked if an agreement was reached on Iran's nuclear program, al-Khalifa indicated that actually the Middle East has many problems, adding that nuclear weapons are not welcomed in the region.

"International Road Transportation Agreement", "Maritime Agreement," and a Memorandum of Understanding between the foreign ministries´ Strategic Research Centers of the two countries were signed following the news conference.

On the meeting illegal Bayrak television (02/05/06) broadcast the following:

The Bahraini Foreign Minister Seyh Halid Ahmed Bin Muhammed El Halifi has expressed his countrys support to Turkeys `Action Plan` on Cyprus.

The Bahraini Foreign Ministers words came during a joint press conference at the end of his meeting with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul in Ankara where regional issues including the Cyprus Problem were discussed.

Answering a question, Mr. Halifi said that his country supported Turkeys new initiative on Cyprus, as was the case earlier, for a solution to the Cyprus Problem on the basis of the Annan Plan.

We want the unjust international isolation of the Turkish Cypriot people to be removed he said adding that Bahrain will do all it can in that direction.

[04] Desalination contract was signed between the TRNC and the Israeli firm Tahal

Speaking at the ceremony, the self-styled Minister of Interior Ozkan Murat said that an agreement was signed between the TRNC government and the Israeli undertaker company Tahal that specializes in desalination projects, to supply potable water to the newly built Bafra Holiday Resort and the surrounding areas.

The system with an estimated cost of over 1.5 million dollars is planned to be completed within 5 months.

The desalination plant will supply more than 2 thousand cubic meters a day to the Bafra Holiday resort as well as to the surrounding villages of occupied Ayios Theodoros, Gastria, Vokolida and Monarga.

The project is under the BOT system and the water will be sold to the Water Department at $0.97 cent per cubic meter.

[05] Foreign dignitaries to visit Turkey in May

Ali Larijani, national security chief of Iran, will pay a visit to Turkey on May 8th.

Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem of Algeria is expected to visit Turkey between May 9th-10th, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain between May 11 -12, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen of Finland and Foreign Minister Carolina Barco of Colombia between May 16th-18th, King Carl Gustaf of Sweden between May 29th and June 1st.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia is also expected to arrive in Turkey in May.

[06] Italian firm to construct pipeline to carry Russian and Kazakh oil through Turkey

"I am satisfied as the project will guarantee the transport of crude oil from Russia and Kazakhstan," Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni said in a statement.

"The next step in the process of authorization of the project is the approval by (Turkish) President Ahmet Necdet Sezer", the statement added.

Calik Enerji's CEO Erdal Celik expressed satisfaction for ENI's participation in this strategic project, which will bring significant economic and environment benefits to Turkey.

"ENI and Calik Enerji have the necessary resources, experience and competence to bring this very important project to a successful end," Celik said.

The two companies have studied the project since 2003 and in 2005 decided to join their forces for the construction of the pipeline, which according to the Italian group will allow the transport of crude oil from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan "in a secure and economic way". The pipeline will also boost the security of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles Straits.

ENI and Calik Enerji have already completed the project's feasibility study, inspected the sites and plan to continue their collaboration to open the partnership to third-party companies from the sector. Upon completion of the project, the Ceyhan terminal will become "an important hub for oil commercialization in international markets," the statement said.

[07] Syrian maps including Hatay escalate tension

A Syrian official using maps incorrectly showing the southern Anatolia province of Hatay as within the boundaries of Syria has sparked problems during an economic meeting in Istanbul, reported the Anatolia news agency yesterday.

While making a presentation with regard to the Syrian economy during a Turkish-Syrian Business Council meeting yesterday, Mustafa El Kifri, head of the Syrian Investment Agency, used maps that included Hatay as within his country's borders. Syrian officials could not understand what was happening when the translator announced that Fatih Karamanc1, head of the Turkish-Syrian Business Council, wanted to take the floor after having seen the maps.

There was a problem over Hatay province between our governments but this is not a problem any longer. The maps shown by El Kifri during his presentation reflect the [geographic] situation before the resolution of the problem, Karamanc1 said.

I want to describe this issue as a technical shortcoming and hope that correct maps will be used in future presentations, he added.

Hatay is a province of southern Turkey situated between the Mediterranean to the west and Syria to the south and east. Until 1938 it was a province of Syria and was known as Iskandarun Province; its annexation to Turkey in that year remained a cause of tension in relations between the two neighboring countries until recently, when the Syrian government let go of the issue. Some Syrian maps still show it as Syrian territory.

This is nothing to do with a problem over the maps. They've been in this form through the years, Bahaeddin Hasan, co-chairman of the Turkish-Syrian Business Council, said.

Hasan said he hoped the maps will not lead to a problem with our brothers and friends because we are a family. Another map crisis with Syria was sparked two months ago when a Syrian opposition group, among which were some ethnic Kurds, distributed a brochure in a U.S. Senate office building that included a section of Kurdistan.

The map reportedly included parts of Turkey, notably Ankara and Antalya, as within the boundaries of Kurdistan, news reports said at the time.

Muhammed Hallak, the head of the Syrian-Turkish Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group, who visited Turkey in March, criticized the map incident and said: As the Turkish and Syrian peoples, we do not accept this. Neither Turkey nor the Syrian government accept as a fait accompli the presentation of this map.

[08] Iran is reportedly targeting PKK on Kandil mountains. Northern Iraq the centre of the fight against PKK

The weekly quoted in its most recent issue angry officials at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry as saying that Turkish commandos had briefly crossed 15 kilometers into Iraqi territory in hot pursuit of PKK members.

Turkey has not confirmed cross-border activity but Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök recently said Turkey has the right to carry out such operations under international law if necessary.

Signaling possible tension, Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani said yesterday that entry into northern Iraq by other countries' forces was unacceptable.

Iraq's borders are red lines, and no country should cross them, he was quoted as saying by NTV.

Talabani also said recent visits by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were indicative of the U.S. position that there should be no interference in Iraq's internal affairs.

Rice, when she visited Turkey late last month, warned that any cross-border operations would have a destabilizing effect on Iraq's security.

Newsweek said Washington was caught between two allies -- NATO member Turkey, its closest friend in the Muslim world, and the Iraqi Kurds, its closest ally within Iraq.

According to the magazine Washington has been trying to pressure Iraq's Kurds to crack down on the PKK themselves before Ankara steps up its campaign, but the Kurds are not doing so because they are much more confident today than they were in the Saddam Hussein era, when their autonomy was dependent on Ankara's goodwill. It also said Kurds were more willing now to support the nationalistic aspirations of their 14 million countrymen living in Turkey.

In another column under the title PKK under fire from Iran Turkish Daily News (02/05/06) reports that Iranian forces shelled outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases located in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq, a news report said yesterday.

F1rat News Agency, known for its close links to the PKK, said Iranian shelling throughout Sunday night targeted the Kandil Mountains, which Turkey says hosts PKK bases. In addition to the PKK bases, Iranian military attacked villages in northern Iraq, the report said.

Separately, an Iraqi official from Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said Iranian forces shelled targets north of Ranya, on the outskirts of Kandil. The area is 25 kilometers inside Iraqi territory.

Shelling was heavy in the night and it has continued sporadically since 7:30 a.m., Aref Ruzhdi, a senior official with PUK was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse yesterday.

Ruzhdi said the Iranian operation forced hundreds of Kurdish families to flee to safer places and added that a school and a vehicle had been destroyed in the bombardment of the mountainous area.

On Sunday Iraq's Defense Ministry said Iranian forces had entered Iraqi territory and shelled PKK positions over a period of 24 hours, but Iran on Monday neither confirmed nor denied that its troops had crossed into Iraqi soil.

I do not confirm the entry of our forces into the territory of neighboring countries, notably Iraq, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters in Tehran.

We have security cooperation accords with neighboring countries, and we act within the framework of these accords. There is no cause for concern over this kind of thing with neighboring countries, he said.

AFP said Iranian shelling in the region continued for a second day on Monday as well.

Subtitle: No coordination with Turkey

The Kandil bases are believed to shelter a few thousand PKK terrorists who have been increasingly infiltrating into Turkey to attack Turkish targets in southeastern Anatolia as snows melt with spring, making passage through mountain crossings easier.

Turkey has been pressing the United States and Iraq to crack down on the PKK but there has been no U.S. or Iraqi action so far. Turkey has deployed tens of thousands of additional troops to its border with Iraq in a move which officials say is a routine measure to prevent PKK infiltrations.

Ruzhdi claimed Iranian forces were acting in coordination with the Turkish military, but a Turkish official dismissed any coordination with the Iranian side.

A PKK leader in Iraq, Rustom Judi, told AFP earlier that there was coordination between Turkish and Iranian military.

Turkey and Iran have mechanisms of consultation on issues of terrorism, organized crime and other security matters and committees are regularly meeting to discuss issues of common concern. But there is no specific agreement committing the two countries to take action against terrorist groups.

On Sunday Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said the security and interests of Iran and Turkey were interlinked.

Referring to recent activities of terrorist groups in Iran and Turkish borders, he said the saboteur groups infiltrate the common borders to inflict damage but that they should not be permitted to achieve their goals and endanger the security of the two countries. We take full advantage of our forces to secure Turkish territory from any attacks across our borders, he said, as he received Turkish Ambassador to Iran Gürcan Türkolu.

Türkolu expressed satisfaction with the level of security cooperation and said Turkish troop reinforcements on the border with Iran and Iraq were meant to deal with common threats, dismissing rumors that they were aimed at Iran.

[B] COMMENTARIES, EDITORIALS AND ANALYSIS

[09] Columnists describe the population census as fiasco and support that its aim was to register the illegal Turkish settlers in the occupied part of Cyprus; The CTP is accused of separatism

Under the title Fiasco, Kamil Ozkaloglu writes, inter alia, the following:

250 thousand citizens of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have been imprisoned in their houses for fifteen hours. The visitors, tourists and foreigners who were in the country have also been imprisoned. Very well, why did this collective imprisonment happen? For the conduction of a complete census with a low percentage of mistake. What we heard after the census was not pleasing at all. As far as we understood, the census officers did not visit the houses of many thousands of citizens. Even regions, neighborhoods and villages did not have the honor to be counted. As far as we understood from listening yesterday to the memories of the citizens on the census, it seems that the officers who conducted the census have not been trained sufficiently and have not been informed at an adequate level. In brief, it seems that those who conducted the census did not take this job seriously. May be the units of the state which planned this census worked well, but in practice this was a fiasco.

Essentially, it seems that the reason of the census was not to establish the population of the TRNC. The questions which have been asked show this openly. What they were more interested in is the structure of the Turkish Cypriot people. And the proprietorship of the settlement units in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. .

Mr Ozkanoglu concludes his column by giving an example of an officer who during the census asked a 72-year old lady whether or not she is thinking of having another child.

Furthermore, writing in VOLKAN (03.05.06) Mrs Ayla Berkin expresses the opinion that the census was conducted in order to put the settlers from Turkey under the microscope.

Mrs Berkin writes, inter alia, the following under the title The reality lying under the census:

The conducted census has put those from Turkey, who are called settlers, under the microscope. The questions which the citizens were asked during this census show once more that the RTP-DP government and Talat have not abandoned the you will go away just like you came mentality. This census is a census conducted for the establishment of how many persons from Turkey are on the Island. Otherwise, the place of birth and the citizenship of these people would not be asked. This order came from the EU and the Greek Cypriot authorities. The reason for which it (the census) had been postponed earlier is the fact that these special questions were not ready. Or this census, which had been postponed because of new arrangements as (these questions) did not meet fully the wishes of the Greek Cypriots, was conducted after ensuring the full approval of the EU and the Greek Cypriots. I want to ask the RTP-DP government, which does not consider us as citizens, a question regarding this census. Why this information was written with a pencil? I wonder, is it in order to be able to make the changes they want afterwards? .

Moreover, Serhat Incirli in his column Letter from London in the Turkish Cypriot daily AFRIKA newspaper (03.05.06) under the title Do not consider me in the census strongly attacks the self-styled regime in the occupied territories of the Republic of Cyprus and the census held on 30 April 2006. Serhat writes that he refuses to be considered as TRNC citizen and adds that he is a Cypriot and citizen of Cyprus.

Accusing the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) of separatism Serhat writes: The CTP leadership, you are on the wrong path. You are after a separate state. Starting from the removal of the embargo whatever you do is absurd, it is in vain. Whom are you trying to cheat?

The demographic structure in north Cyprus has been violated. The demographic structure has been knowingly and deliberately changed.

The method is wrong. The method is a war crime, an injustice and against the international law.

Mr. Incirli goes on and writes that a day will come and these settlers will be sent back to Turkey because no one will approve of this illegality. If you think that one day the Greek Cypriots will approve what you have done then you are mistaken says Mr. Incirli and concludes by urging the CTP leadership not to consider him as a TRNC citizen. He says: I am a Cypriot .I was born as the citizen of Cyprus and I will die as the citizen of Cyprus.

(I/Ts, MHY)

EG/

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