Cyprus PIO: Turkish Press and Other Media, 08-09-24

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

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Turkish President addresses UN General Assembly. Reference to Cyprus

[02] Babacan insists on the 1960 guarantee system and implementation of Kofi Annans report on Cyprus

[03] Ercakica described President Christofias statements as manipulation movement and image building operation

[04] Kalyoncu argued that the target of the UBP is the continuation of the non-solution and the official registration of the division

[05] The TDP accused the self-styled government of leading the illegal airlines to bankruptcy, while the UBP is seeing chaos in all the important fields in the occupied areas of the Island

[06] A reception was given last night in the occupied areas of Cyprus in honor of the new US ambassador to Nicosia

[07] The number of the travelers, who entered the occupied areas of Cyprus through the illegal sea and airports during the period of January-August 2008, increased by 3.3%

[08] Adal held a telephone conversation yesterday with FIFA officials

[09] The inhabitants of the occupied part of Nicosia are uneasy because of a fire started yesterday at the Dikomo garbage dump

[10] The police announced the name of the person wanted for the murder of Mustafa Akmador

[B] COMMENTARIES, EDITORIALS AND ANALYSIS

[11] Columnist supports that the negotiation process is not progressing so well

[12] From the Turkish Press of 23 September 2008

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Turkish President addresses UN General Assembly. Reference to Cyprus

Turkish president said on Tuesday that Turkey was accepted as an emerging donor country by the international community and the country contributed effectively to the improvement of peace thanks to its role facilitating dialogue in regional issues.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul delivered a speech at the inauguration of the 63rd term UN General Assembly meeting in New York, USA.

Gul said in his speech that it was of vital importance to fight against terrorism, racism, xenophobia and all kinds of religious discrimination and extremism. We need to be more awake against the risk of estrangement between different cultures and religions, Gul said, adding that the Alliance of Civilizations initiative was an important tool in this respect.

Turkey will continue to be a leading country that will help this initiative achieve its goals, he said.

Commenting on the problems of developing countries, Gul said that such countries should be supported within the framework of a renewed global development agenda and through foreign investments and expanded commercial opportunities.

Gul also said that Turkey offered special financing opportunities for development, health, education and agriculture projects carried out in various parts of the world.

Thanks to such aid programs, Turkey is now acknowledged as an 'emerging donor country' by the international community, he said.

Referring to the regional political problems as well, Gul said that Turkey contributed to the improvement of peace in its region.

In this context, I believe that the 'Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform' proposed by Turkey would constitute a useful framework for the formation of a reliable atmosphere that would make it possible to discuss common regional issues in a democratic arena, Gul said.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Tuesday that his country extended full support to the efforts to find a political settlement in Cyprus, adding that any settlement should be based on a new state with two founding states of the equal status.

The initiative should be based on the UN parameters which favour the principle of bi-communal structure and the political equality of the two sides, Gul told the 63rd term UN General Assembly meeting, urging the international community to ease economic limitations on the Turkish Cypriots.

Gul also asked for support from the General Assembly for Turkey's candidacy for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council.

Turkey has not been represented at the Council for nearly half a century. We believe that the tenets of our foreign policy and our economic, social and cultural characteristics will help us make contributions to the efforts of the Council, Gul said.

[02] Babacan insists on the 1960 guarantee system and implementation of Kofi Annans report on Cyprus

Mr Babacan made these statements at the US Foreign Affairs Council where he explained the priorities and the views of the Turkish foreign policy. Mr Babacan said the year 2008 is a window of opportunity for the solution in Cyprus and asked for the implementation of the report of the former UN Secretary General Kofi Anan which was providing for the lifting of the so-called isolation of the Turkish Cypriots. Replying to a question, Mr Babacan said that there is no difference of views between the Turkish government and the Turkish army regarding the Cyprus problem. He noted that the Annan Plan was supported by Turkey and absolutely no difference existed.

Turkish Cypriot daily Sozcu newspaper (24.09.08) covers the statements by Mr Babacan under the title Babacan: The Turkish Armed Forces will remain on the Island as long as it is needed.

(I/Ts.)

[03] Ercakica described President Christofias statements as manipulation movement and image building operation

We are face to face with a manipulation movement, an image building operation, alleged Ercakica claiming that the cool-headed stance exhibited by Mr Talat in front of all these should be appreciated.

As we have struggled with the initiatives to violate the 21 March Agreement and launched the comprehensive negotiations, we are determined to lead the solution process until the end, he stated and called on the Greek Cypriot side to tell them what it is that they say in a different manner inside the negotiations and what otherwise outside of them.

Mr Ercakica said that the next meeting between the two leaders will be held on 10 October because of contacts of President Christofias abroad and added that during that meeting, issues such as the executive organs, their composition and the way they will be functioning will be discussed. He noted that the powers of the central government were discussed during the previous two meetings.

Mr Ercakica stated that the day before yesterday Mr Talat met with representatives of the political parties and added that at certain stages of the negotiations he will also be briefing the assembly. He said that during the stages that their stance should be determined, they will make the necessary works at the assembly.

Referring to the criticism made by President Christofias that Mr Talat says different things inside the negotiations and different things outside, Mr Ercakica argued that these statements are a great shame. He alleged that during their last meeting when Mr Talat asked President Christofias to tell him how the Turkish Cypriot leader has violated the blackout, as President Christofias had stated, the latter gave no answer.

Mr Ercakica said that the decision for blackout concerned the content of the negotiations and added that the leaders, who revealed only the titles of the subjects until today, gave no information regarding the details.

Mr Ercakica said that President Christofias is following well the sensitivity of the Turkish Cypriots for a solution and alleged that with such statements the President is trying to create a chaotic situation by provoking these sensitivities. He argued that such statements are obstacle for the solution process. He alleged that the Turkish Cypriot side is determined not to be carried away by such provocations.

Replying to a question, Mr Ercakica said that there is no development on the issue of opening other crossing points and added that they are waiting for the Greek Cypriot side to give them the necessary information about its view especially on the occupied Limnitis area crossing point.

Mr Ercakica said that Mr Talat will depart for Strasbourg on 30 September in order to address the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and have various contacts.

(I/Ts.)

[04] Kalyoncu argued that the target of the UBP is the continuation of the non-solution and the official registration of the division

In a written statement issued yesterday, Mr Kalyoncu noted that this statement of Mr Ertugruloglu is sign of an antidemocratic mentality. He noted that the real aim of Mr Ertugruloglu is to prevent the efforts towards finding a solution in Cyprus. He argued that the leadership of the UBP is uneasy because of the commencement of the negotiating process and it is obvious that it will exert every effort to torpedo it.

Mr Kalyoncu said that this target is hidden behind the demand for early election and added that the elections in the occupied areas will be held in 2010.

Referring to the uneasiness of the UBP, Mr Kalyoncu said: The reason of the uneasiness is the solution policy. Mr Ertugruloglu has not been uneasy from the non-solution is the solution policy followed for many years by Mr Denktas in harmony with the UBP government, because his target is the continuation of the non-solution and the official registration of the division.

(I/Ts.)

[05] The TDP accused the self-styled government of leading the illegal airlines to bankruptcy, while the UBP is seeing chaos in all the important fields in the occupied areas of the Island

Mr Cakici said that the illegal Turkish Cypriot airlines have not paid their dept to third counties except Turkey. These debts consist of $ 4 million to third countries for upkeep, $ 2.5 million to Singapore and $ 8 million for FIR using rights and stop over expenses.

Halkin Sesi further reports that Unal Ustel, deputy general secretary of the National Unity Party (UBP) issued a statement yesterday accusing the self-styled government of leading the occupied areas into chaos in important fields such as education, health, agriculture, trade, tourism, industry and the constructions. He reiterated the view of his party that the government should resign as soon as possible.

(I/Ts.)

[06] A reception was given last night in the occupied areas of Cyprus in honour of the new US ambassador to Nicosia

The self-styled prime minister, Ferdi Sabit Soyer, the minister of education, Canan Oztoprak, the ambassador of Turkey to the occupied part of Nicosia, Turkekul Kurttekin, the former Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktas, political party officials and journalists attended the reception.

(I/Ts.)

[07] The number of the travellers, who entered the occupied areas of Cyprus through the illegal sea and airports during the period of January-August 2008, increased by 3.3%

According to the statistics report, the number of the travellers, who entered the occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus through the illegal sea and airports during the period of January-August 2008, increased by 3.3 % compared to the same period of last year and reached 536,242. The travellers, who came from Turkey, increased by 4.8% compared to last year, but at the same time the number of the travellers from third countries decreased by 2.2%.

It is also announced that there was an increase of 100% of Syrian and Greek travellers, who entered the occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus through the illegal sea and airports. At the same time, there was a decrease of 52% in the number of the German travellers compared to last years data. There was an increase of 10.4% in the number of the British citizens excluding the Turkish Cypriots who live in Britain.

An increase of 14.4%, 21.1% and 89.9% respectively was also observed in the number of Kazakh, Azeri and Russian citizens. Increase was also recorded in the number of the visitors from the Scandinavian countries. The increase reached 25.4% in the visitors from Denmark and 76.4% from Norway. However, a decrease of 4.3% was seen in the number of the visitors from Sweden.

The number of foreign citizens, who entered the occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus from the crossing-points, increased by 21.2% and reached 1,084,197 persons. There was an increase of 41.3%, 44%, 34.6%, 42.5%, 70.5%, 103.8% and 138% respectively in the number of the German, Austrian, Italian, Israeli, French, Dutch and Romanian citizens.

(D/P)

[08] Adal held a telephone conversation yesterday with FIFA officials

According to the paper, FIFA has proposed to the Turkish Cypriot Football Federation to become member of Cyprus Football Association (CFA), in order to be able to play friendly matches abroad, but the Turkish Cypriots rejected this suggestion and made a counterproposal on this issue.

(C/S)

[09] The inhabitants of the occupied part of Nicosia are uneasy because of a fire started yesterday at the Dikomo garbage dump

According to Kibris, the fire yesterday seemed like sabotage. The inhabitants of Nicosia are uneasy because of the fire at the garbage dump, which increase in the past few days, writes the paper and publishes complaints by the people who say, that they are playing with our health; they are poisoning us every day.

(I/Ts.)

[10] The police announced the name of the person wanted for the murder of Mustafa Akmador

(I/Ts.)

[B] COMMENTARIES, EDITORIALS AND ANALYSIS

[11] Columnist supports that the negotiation process is not progressing so well

It is not a radical boost, but according to circulation reports, there is a sizeable increase in the circulation of newspapers that the prime minister has asked the members and supporters of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to boycott because they were critical of the government or were reporting on developments that the premier wanted not to be exposed to the public. The daily circulation of Hurriyet, for example, reportedly increased by some 15,000 copies.

Obviously everyone - including many supporters of the AKP - who are committed to democracy, freedom of expression and the right to get informed or the press freedom were annoyed with the boycott call of the premier that exposed his tyrannical behavioural pattern.

The AKP headquarters was reportedly applying the boycott and none of those "hazardous" newspapers the premier has asked his "followers" not to let into their homes. However, it was not certain whether there was a party decision or the boycott was a de facto result of the grocer of the neighbourhood cutting newspaper supply to the AKP headquarters because of the failure of the accountant of the party headquarters to pay timely for the newspaper purchases from the grocer. Apart from that, however, there is no credible report from any corner of the country demonstrating that the call of the premier was abided by our people.

It appears that the boycott call of the premier will not have much effect on the circulation of either the "hazardous" media or the obedient media - which by the way suffered a slight decrease according to last week's circulation figures - but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will make into history as the first-ever Turkish premier who was anti-democratic enough to call for a boycott of newspapers.

Subtitle: Not much progress in Cyprus talks

The comprehensive talks between the two leaders of the two peoples of Cyprus are apparently not progressing so well ... The last meeting was held on Sept. 18. Because of the upcoming religious holiday the next round will be held (though originally scheduled for Oct. 8) on Oct. 10. The leaders coming together once a week was a very slow pace already, but postponing talks for two weeks with the pretext of a religious holiday could best be evaluated as a demonstration that neither of the two leaders are in an effort for a quick end to the process though Turkish Cypriot Mehmet Ali Talat keeps on stressing that he wants a resolution of the Cyprus problem by the end of this year.

For some time Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias has been publicly complaining that Talat has been talking with one language at the closed-door negotiations and with a different language to his people and the media and that no progress could be achieved with such a hypocritical attitude. Talat, on the other hand, has been countering Christofias saying the Greek Cypriot leader should better look into the mirror to see who is having double tongue.

The present image is that Christofias is considering Talat as an adversary rather than a negotiating partner in awareness that he is still unprepared for comprehensive talks in the fashion the Turkish Cypriot side has been demanding, while Talat is insisting on keeping the process alive.

The "by accepting a federal settlement Makarios made the biggest concession we could make" statement Christofias indeed declared his lack of preparation for a painful compromise on the basis of the political equality of the two peoples of the island with the aim and intention of producing a new partnership state which will came to being as a "virgin birth" and which will derive its sovereignty from its two "founding states" rather than upgrading the Cyprus republic into a federal state.

It is clear that Christofias could not find the Talat of 1995 who as the leader of the opposition socialist Republican Turks' Party, or CTP, of northern Cyprus was talking peace with a Christofias who was the secretary-general of the communist Progressive Party of The Working People of Cyprus, or AKEL. Christofias is having difficulty in developing a "common language" with Talat who long abandoned his past socialist slogans and romantic rhetoric and as president of Turkish Cypriots is trying to serve best to the national interests of his people.

In summary, people with insight of the negotiations process are telling us that there are sharp differences between the two sides as regards "Administration and Power Sharing" discussions and not much progress was achieved so far.

[12] From the Turkish Press of 23 September 2008

a) Lighthouse Investigation:

Fikret Bila outlines former Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener's views on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reaction to reports on the Lighthouse investigation in Germany, in which some of the supporters of the ruling AKP [Justice and Development Party] are said to be involved. In a column in Milliyet, he quotes Sener as saying: The culprits must be severely punished. The matter cannot be forgiven. Measures must be taken against it... The case has brought to light a chain of corrupt activities. However, the prime minister and the other ministers are trying to cover up the case.

Melih Asik criticizes the way RTUK [High Council for Radio and Television] Chairman Zahid Akman has tried to defend himself against allegations that he is linked with the Lighthouse corruption case. In a column in the same newspaper, he notes that Akman is seen in documents related to the Offenbach and Frankfurt Construction Cooperative as one of the leading officials of the organization until July 2006 and urges him to attend the court case against him in Germany to clear his name.

Commenting on the Lighthouse case in Germany, Enis Berberoglu criticizes the Turkish Government, including the police, for failing to contribute to the Lighthouse investigation in that country. In a column in Hurriyet, he argues that the German officials asked their counterparts in Turkey twice to provide information on the corrupt activities of a number of Turkish officials in the past and wonders whether the AKP administration now believes that it should avoid doing anything to facilitate the judicial process since it failed to take steps to comply with Germany's requests..

According to Hikmet Bila in Istanbul Cumhuriyet, the call Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made for a boycott on a section of the newspapers in Turkey for publishing reports on the Lighthouse investigation in Germany created a serious threat to democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of press, and Turkey's bid to join the EU. In a column, he lauds the domestic and foreign reaction to the call and quotes Oktay Eksi, chairman of the Turkish Press Council, and Orhan Erinc, chairman of the Association of Turkish Journalists, expressing regret and describing it as an approach that harms democracy.

Murat Yetkin addresses a letter to RTUK Chairman Zahid Akman in Istanbul Radikal on the statements he makes to defend himself against allegations that he has been involved in corrupt activities in Germany. Disagreeing with Akman's effort to deny being involved in any corrupt activity, he urges him not to harm himself and the RTUK anymore by insisting on remaining at the head of the organization.

In an article entitled "Two blots: Boycott and Deniz Feneri", Yeni Safak columnist Ali Bayramoglu criticizes Prime Minister Erdogan's call for a "boycott" against the Dogan media group as an unacceptable move that amounts to a flagrant violation of the freedom of the press and "democratic ethics." He claims that to the extent that this move has victimized the Dogan group, it has allowed the Dogan news media to start posing as the representative of press freedom in Turkey. He also slams Erdogan for refraining "inexplicably" from ordering an investigation into the "Turkey dimension" of the corruption scandal involving the charity called Deniz Feneri [Lighthouse] and asks whether the Government and the prime minister may not be aware of the significance of The Economist magazine's publication of an article entitled "Less Than White," which says that the Deniz Feneri case has tainted the AKP's image of cleanness symbolized by its acronym.

b) Economic:

Gungor Uras criticizes Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for only informing the journalists on positive economic developments at his recent press conference. He argues in a column in Milliyet that Erdogan might be underestimating the serious economic problems and notes: He failed to touch on the draft national program for the EU, the economic measures that have to be taken in a short time, the initiatives that have to be made to deal with the shortage of foreign currency, the question of unemployment, and the problem of energy. He concludes by warning Erdogan that ignoring the importance of similar problems might create an economic deadlock.

In an article entitled "Tectonic crisis starts for real", Milli Gazete columnist Hasan Unal calls attention to warnings by Professor Nouriel Roubini, who predicted the latest financial crisis in the United States, that the $700 billion market bailout plan will fail to curb the recession and that the ongoing nationalization measures are set to throw the US economy off track. Unal asserts, pondering the possible effects of the crisis on Turkey, that the current "false paradise" in Turkey has been possible thanks to the money invested in Turkish markets by foreign entrepreneurs and that the crisis means that these "money merchants" do not have sufficient liquidity any more to seek interest earnings in Turkey.

c) Ergenekon Case:

According to a report in Istanbul Hurriyet, the police have detained journalist Tuncay Ozkan in connection with the Ergenekon investigation today. Six other people were also detained in connection with the investigation.

In an article entitled "What is missing in the Ergenekon investigation", Zaman columnist Mumtazer Turkone recalls how the General Staff released a statement on 16 January, 2006 expressing displeasure at what it described as efforts to link the Special Warfare Command to "counter-guerrilla" groups, Gladio-type organizations, and the "deep state" and referring to the Special Warfare Command as an organization established during the Cold War period with a view to carrying out important "missions" against possible attacks on Turkey. Turkone proceeds to claim that the Ergenekon indictment served as a response to this statement by describing Ergenekon as a corrupt version of the Special Warfare Organization. He asserts that the military elements in Ergenekon used their professional expertise in conducting the "terrorist" activities of Ergenekon, adding that there is enough evidence in this sense to warrant a comprehensive internal investigation within the Turkish Armed Forces. He also asks whether the General Staff continues to endorse the views it expressed in the 16 January statement.

According to a news story in Vakit entitled "Is it general Tolon's turn now?", Retired General Hursit Tolon, an imprisoned suspect in the Ergenekon probe, could be released soon based on a health report that will represent Tolon as suffering from a cardiovascular disease. The report claims in a sceptic tone that Ergenekon suspects are "falling ill one by one."

d) Proposal for new election system:

In an article in Todays Zaman entitled "Government to propose new system of deputy election for fair representation", it is reported that the ruling AKP is planning to launch "a new system of deputy election that will allow parties which fail to pass the election threshold to be represented in Parliament."

EG/

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