Cyprus PIO: Turkish Press and Other Media, 06-12-21

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

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Erdogan invited the new U.N. Secretary-General to Turkey.

[02] Avci to meet Erdogan.

[03] COREPER gives green light for Enterprises and Industrial Policy Chapter.

[04] Deadly casino incident in the occupied areas extends to the Susurluk case and opens debate over gambling.

[05] Turkish women basketball teams will not participate in a tournament held in the occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus.

[06] Action Committee for the Turkish Cypriot genocide was established.

[07] Ertugruloglu said that a solution in Cyprus can be achieved only with a confederation.

[08] A statue of Ecevit will be built in the occupied Lefkosia.

[B] COMMENTARIES, EDITORIALS AND ANALYSIS

[09] Columnist in TDN examines the Turkish political scene for 2007.

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Erdogan invited the new U.N. Secretary-General to Turkey

(ITs)

[02] Avci to meet Erdogan

Deputy Prime Minister- Foreign Minister Turgay Avci is leaving the Republic for Istanbul tomorrow morning for a meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The meeting will take place at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul at noon.

A meeting scheduled to take place between the two men on the 18th of October was postponed because of Mr Erdogans sudden illness.

Mr Avci will return to the Republic on the same day.

[03] COREPER gives green light for Enterprises and Industrial Policy Chapter

The Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) gave Turkey green light on Wednesday for the start of negotiations on enterprises and industrial policy chapter.

COREPER wanted Turkey to submit its position paper on the related chapter.

Turkey will not be asked for position papers on other chapters, (financial control, statistics, economic and monetary policy) on which screening process and technical works completed, because of the objection of countries like Holland, France and Greek Cypriots.

Following the presentation of Turkey's position paper, EU common position paper has to be approved by member countries to start negotiations.

If it is approved, EU President will invite Turkey to Intergovernmental Conference to open related chapters.

[04] Deadly casino incident in the occupied areas extends to the Susurluk case and opens debate over gambling

AFRIKA newspaper refers to the issue describing it as bloody settling of accounts of Susurluk suspects who made their life in northern Cyprus. Under the title Northern Cyprus is a nest of mafia, the paper writes that Yasar Oz, one of the persons arrested, had been convicted in the Susurluk case in Turkey. According to CNN Turk, Yasar Oz is a well-known name of the underground world. The administrator of Deniz Kizi Casino, Melih Turgut is known by the nickname Kurt Ahmet in Turkey and it is noted that he was involved in the incident of the killing of Umut Dedeman in 1993. AFRIKA wonders how these persons, who are very well known names of the underground world, settled in the occupied part of Cyprus, who protects them and who made them administrators of casino. The paper reports that the permits of these casinos will not be renewed. According to self-styled Prime Minister Soyer, the doors of the TRNC are open for everyone who wants to conduct business. Mr Soyer promised freedom to everyone who conforms to the rules of the democratic law. The self-styled minister of economy and tourism, Enver Ozturk has suggested that the casinos should be taken out from the gambling sector and be turned into a tourism and fortune games sector.

KIBRISLI newspaper reports that, according to reliable sources, a meeting will take place today at the presidential palace between the Turkish Cypriot leader Talat, the self-styled Prime Minister Soyer, the commander of the security forces and the ministries concerned with the public order. The sources said that Talat and Soyer are determined to take all the necessary measures for the peace and security of the people. The issue of the struggle against mafia and the measures to be taken are expected to be discussed at the meeting today.

OZGUR DUSUNCE newspaper reports that addressing the assembly yesterday during the discussion of the budget of the ministry of public works and transport, the leader of the Peace and Democracy Movement (BDH), Mustafa Akinci reminded that they have been saying that the occupied areas would be turned into Texas and added that unfortunately these incidents began to happen. The paper reports that Yasar Oz is a drug trafficker. He had been arrested bearing a document saying that he was a security expert with the signature of Mehmet Agar, Turkeys former Minister of Internal Affairs and former General Director of the police. He has green passport. He had been arrested in the US for drug trafficking. He was set free upon instruction by Agar, in spite of the fact that he had been arrested with forged documents, passport and guns.

The issue of the casino incident is covered by the Turkish press as well.

HURRIYET (internet edition) writes that in a fight between the men of Yasar Oz, who is well known in the underworld of occupied Kyrenia, and Idris Melih Turgut, who is the son of Ahmet Turgut, who has the nickname Kurt Ahmet, two persons were killed and one person was injured. Yasar Oz, who was one of the suspects in the Susurluk scandal, got married three days ago at the Saint Tropez Restaurant in Kyrenia with Nergiz Oz, who is the daughter of a Cypriot hotel owner family. The couple started its honey-moon at the Grand Ruby Hotel. The previous evening Idris Melih Turgut and his men who went to the Ruby Casino which belongs to Yasar Oz, they started arguing with Yasar Oz and his men over an issue. A fight was started after one of Ozs men, Huseyin Donmez put out his weapon. Musa Cakmak and Huseyin Donmez, who were heavily injured, died at the hospital while another person, with the name Necdet Kaan Kanmaz, was injured lightly.

The paper also writes that the self-styled police arrested the following persons after the incident: Yasar Oz, the managers of Denizkizi Casino Idris Melih Turgut and Necdet Kaan Kanmaz, Akin Ulug, Izzet Dincer, Durmus Erkanli and Cemal Serdar Yilmaz.

The paper writes that Yasar Oz was sent to prison for 4 years in the past because of the Susurluk case and for 15 years because of drug trafficking.

MILLIYET (internet edition) reports on the same issue under the title Fight at Gambling Houses: Two died and writes that two persons were killed after a fight between the workers of Ankarali Kurt Ahmet (Kurt Ahmet from Ankara) and Yasar Oz who are owners of Casinos in occupied Cyprus. As the paper writes, after an armed fight between the workers of the Deniz Kizi Casino and Ruby Casino on issues of give and take, two persons died and another one was injured. The paper, invoking sources, writes that Yasar Oz, who owed 425 thousand dollars to Deniz Kizi Casino, did not pay his dept on the fixed period of time. Idris Melih Turgut, who is the son of Kurt Ahmet met with Yasar Oz asking him to pay the money. The fight occurred after Oz and Turgut, along with their men met at the Ruby Casino, the owner of which is Yasar Oz. The licences of the two casinos were cancelled by the self-styled council of ministers, writes the paper.

(ITs/CS)

[05] Turkish women basketball teams will not participate in a tournament held in the occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus

(ITs)

[06] Action Committee for the Turkish Cypriot genocide was established

(ITs)

[07] Ertugruloglu said that a solution in Cyprus can be achieved only with a confederation

(ITs)

[08] A statue of Ecevit will be built in the occupied Lefkosia

(ITs)

[B] COMMENTARIES, EDITORIALS AND ANALYSIS

[09] Columnist in TDN examines the Turkish political scene for 2007

Our political scene has already stepped into 2007. We are confronted by issues related to the upcoming presidential election and the general elections. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan obviously wants the new president to be chosen by the current Parliament prior to the general election so that he can be elected to the top position. However, if the pressure on him becomes unbearable, he may nominate someone else for that position, a person to be handpicked by him. Thus, even if his Justice and Development Party (AKP) loses the general elections, it will still have a hold on the seat of power by way of the presidency.

It seems that during that process Erdogan will not be seeking a consensus either with the opposition or with civil society and institutions. Just like their leader, AKP officials cite on TV programs examples from the presidential elections of the past to justify their argument that one does not necessarily have to have any such consensus. They ignore the fact that there is a widely held view in this country to the effect that their party has problems with the republic.

Erdogan claims that the path he is taking is in line with mandatory provisions in the Constitution. Yet, a mandatory provision is a provision that bars actions to the contrary. Having the president elected by the incumbent Parliament and staging general elections every five years are not such rules.

In reality, Erdogan has personally admitted that support for the AKP has declined to 26 percent from 34 percent in the 2002 elections and 41 percent in the by-elections. He must be predicting that downward trend to continue, even gain momentum, in 2007.

By the time the AKP came to power the PKK had halted its activities and the separatist Kurds were saying that they would be content with the rights to be obtained in the framework of Turkish membership in the European Union. Now the PKK and the Democratic Society Party (DTP) have started advocating a confederation or separation from Turkey. The concessions Erdogan made from the fundamental principles of the republic and from the Turkish identity in the face of these demands have made no one but the European Parliament happy. Meanwhile, Ocalan has said, commenting on the PKK's cease-fire declaration, that the AKP is being given time until May 2007, until the presidential election, to satisfy the Kurdish demands

At the time the AKP came to power the Cyprus issue was a still unsolved problem. Since then, despite all the concessions made by the Turkish side, it has actually become an insurmountable obstacle in the way to EU membership and has even started to threaten our Western vocation. Erdogan's religious foreign policy rhetoric on Middle Eastern issues has worsened this situation. Meanwhile, Ankara is reverberating with the rumor that Erdogan has made certain concessions to the United States and the EU to be able to become president.

When the AKP came to power, issues such as secularism, the headscarf, imam-hatip training schools and the Higher Education Board (YOK) were waiting in the background. By now, these issues have gained a new dimension, overshadowing the country's critically important problems and endangering the regime. The way official positions have been filled with AKP followers, Erdogan and Parliament Speaker Bulent Ar1nç's statements that reflect a desire to empty secularism of its essential content, and the attack staged on Council of State judges are three developments that have shed light on the true dimensions of the danger.

When the AKP came to power, the military carried almost no weight in Turkish politics . Today, despite all the changes made in the law to comply with the Copenhagen criteria (in fact, in reverse proportion to these changes) the military's shadow cast on the political scene is getting darker, with coup rumors in the air.

When the AKP came to power, the worst part of the economic stability program was over. Although structural reforms are still far from being completed, the AKP has at least displayed the courage and wisdom needed to go on implementing that program. However, since domestic savings are not at an adequate level, this neo-populist economic model, maintained at the cost of incurring a big current account deficit, is now going bankrupt. The sharp slowdown in the growth rate may result in a crisis by the end of 2007. On top of all this, there is the fact that due to the failure to strip the deputies of their legislative immunity, there has been an increase in corruption claims.

Under such circumstances any party capable of acting with even a minimum amount of political foresight would have stopped issuing the kind of challenges that no one seems to take seriously. It would have decided to hold early elections so as not to lose any more votes. In the course of a process where the political balance of forces have been shifting against it, such a party would have realized that, practically, it would not be possible for Erdogan or some other person selected by him to become president without destabilizing the country.

Yet, as have seen in the past, in Turkey party members, especially from the right, sometimes do tend to jump off a precipice, following the party leaders whom they seem to worship as a religious leader. Despite all those experiences of the past, it seems that this time, too, this slavish spirit will push the country into great trouble once again. And then we will hear all those exasperating laments about having been wronged, victimized.

/SK

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