Cyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review, 12-12-06

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

[A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS

[01] Debate on the occupation regime's budget has been launched; statements by Tatar

[02] Reactions against the "economic program" continue; Turkey's interferences are condemned

[03] Economic protocol between Turkey and the breakaway regime was not prepared by Turkish Cypriots but by Turkish officials

[04] KTOS accused AKP of putting the secular state of Turkish Cypriots in danger

[05] Prosecutor seeks lifting BDP deputy's immunity over 'call for armament'

[06] Merkel's Deputy calls on Turkey to improve religious freedoms

[07] Abbas to visit Turkey for 'special thanks' over UN support

[08] Ban to visit Turkey on Friday

[A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS

[01] Debate on the occupation regime's budget has been launched; statements by Tatar

"The economy, financial budget and planning committee" had completed the drafting of next year's "budget" on the 23rd of November before passing it onto the so-called assembly for debate.

The "draft budget" which stands at 3.4 billion Turkish Liras will be debated in the so-called assembly until the 17th of December.

The debate started today with the "head" of the "economy, financial budget and planning committee" Afet Ozcafer reading out the committee report on the "draft budget".

This was followed by a presentation by the so-called minister of finance Ersin Tatar.

Point by point discussions and debate on the "draft budget" will begin as of tomorrow.

Meanwhile, according to Turkish Cypriot daily Gunes (06.12.12), the so-called minister of finance Ersin Tatar, in statements yesterday at the so-called assembly while presenting the "draft budget", said, inter alia, that the biggest resources from the "budget" will be allocated to the education sector. He said that in 2013 the amount to be allocated for education has been increased by 8.98% and thus it will reach to 489 million TL. The second biggest amount to be allocated will be for the sector of labor and social security, the third to the sector of health, and then to the reel sector and to the sector of agriculture.

(AK)

[02] Reactions against the "economic program" continue; Turkey's interferences are condemned

Yorgancioglu noted that Turkey should not interfere in the affairs of their "country", but it interfered even in the congress of the (UBP). He argued that authority should be given to the "people" in order for a new political will to be established.

Addressing the same meeting of the "assembly", Mehmet Cakici, chairman of the Social Democracy Party (TDP), said that the economy of the occupied area of Cyprus is becoming more and more bound to Turkey. Cakici noted that he was informed from the television that "prime minister" Kucuk and his "ministers" would go to Ankara in order to sign the "protocol", which he described as "package", the content of which they found pout from the internet after it had been signed.

Cakici noted that with this package the rights of the employees will be pruned, the electricity and telephone "authorities" will be privatized and only one person will be employed in the place of every four persons who retire. Cakici argued that the "country" has collapsed. He expressed the belief that the Turkish Cypriot "people" will punish those who lead the "country" to collapse and added that their struggle is "the struggle of liberty of the Turkish Cypriots, the struggle of standing upright". Cakici described this "budget" as the "budget of the status quo, the budget of continuing the status quo".

In statements during the same meeting, Serdar Denktas, chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), argued that the most important problem of the breakaway regime right now is the fact that it has the "most worthless government of all times". He said that the best thing for this "government" to do is to resign and hold "elections".

Moreover, the New Cyprus Party (YKP) issued a statement yesterday describing the new "economic protocol" as "the package of disaster" and called on all organizations to actively struggle against this package. "The place of rejecting this protocol is not the assembly, but the streets", noted the YKP pointing out that the package could not be changed in the "assembly".

Meanwhile, Aslan Bicakli, chairman of Turk-Sen trade union, has said that his trade union rejects the package signed between Turkey and the breakaway regime, noting that this package will annihilate all "organizations and institutions", which belong to the "people and the community. In a written statement issued yesterday, Bicakli noted that they will not refrain from organizing any kind of action against this package together with other organizations, including going on strike for an indefinite period of time. Bicakli argued that the UBP "government" has no right to administrate the "country" by itself and to sign any "protocol" or agreement on behalf of the "people".

Finally, Ahmet Kaptan, the chairman of KTAMS, trade union of the employees working in the "public" sector, has said that they will unite with all parts of the society which are against this "protocol" and struggle. In a written statement issued yesterday, Kaptan said that this package was signed without anyone in the "country" to know anything about it. He argued that even "ministers" and "MPs" were not informed about the content of this package, which had been announced the day before yesterday. He expressed the view that when someone looks at the package it seems that "the details of the devil are hidden".

(I/Ts.)

[03] Economic protocol between Turkey and the breakaway regime was not prepared by Turkish Cypriots but by Turkish officials

These are the Bilal Kendirci, undersecretary at the Turkish Prime Ministry on Cyprus Issues, Ertan Tosun who is a Turkish employee at the "Turkish embassy" of occupied Lefkosia and an employee of BUMCO, Turkish Auditing and Budget Control in the Turkish Ministry of Finance.

The paper notes that it used the aid of technology to order to find the true authors of the protocol since Yeni Duzen's journalist Sami Ozuslu found from the properties section in the world documents about the persons who prepared the documents for the economic protocol.

[04] KTOS accused AKP of putting the secular state of Turkish Cypriots in danger

The paper reports about a press conference organized yesterday by the Turkish Cypriot Primary School Teachers Union (KTOS) and the Turkish Cypriot Secondary School Teachers Union (KTOEOS) where the practices used by the Turkish government in the breakaway regime are strongly criticized.

According to KTOS, the self-styled undersecretary of the "ministry of education", Ali Yonel, upon an instructions by the "Turkish embassy" to occupied Lefkosia, circulated two letters dated 23rd of November in which there are indications that the secular status of the Turkish Cypriot community is put under danger.

The first letter gives instructions and put regulations, mainly to the teachers and secondary to the students, about the way they dress at school. KTOS suggest that this issue is connected to the recent decision of the Turkish government to lift the regulation for obligatory uniform at schools and aimed to pave the way for the use of turbans at Turkish schools. In the letters regulations are put also for the use of social media by the teachers.

As regards the second letter which gives information about the International Turkish Olympics which are taking place every year, KTOS notes that the bibliography includes a book of Islamist Fethullah Gulen. KTOS notes that these developments are related to the policy followed in Ankara, that whatever takes place in Turkey, will take place in occupied Cyprus and adds that is also related to the Quran lessons for students and the construction of mosques in the breakaway regime.

(Tr. Note: Fethullah Gulen is a Turkish author, educator, and Muslim scholar. He is the founder of the Gulen Islamic movement which is a transnational civic society movement inspired by his teaching about hizmet (altruistic service to the "common good") and aims to the promotion of Islamic faith. The movement is mainly active in education and interfaith dialogue however has also aid initiatives and investments on media, finance, and health.

[05] Prosecutor seeks lifting BDP deputy's immunity over 'call for armament'

A video broadcast by Turkish media last week shows Ucer telling people to arm themselves against security forces at the funeral of a member of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

After the video went live on the Internet, the Van Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into Ucer's remarks and submitted on Wednesday a motion to the Ministry of Justice to divest Ucer of his parliamentary immunity on charges that he has links to a terrorist organization.

The BDP earlier dismissed the video as "psychological warfare" against the party and its officials.

In a written statement, the party said Ucer did not call on people to take up weapons against security officials but rather against some unidentified armed people who had entered the funeral tent and pointed guns at those gathered.

The BDP also said the incident took place about a month ago and that it is interesting that the circulation of the video coincided with a number of detentions of BDP officials in Van province. On Monday, several BDP officials were detained by police for their suspected links to the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization that encompasses the PKK.

Another motion that seeks to divest 10 BDP Deputies of immunity was submitted to Parliament for discussion last week. The motion followed the release of a video showing BDP deputies and members from the PKK chatting and hugging one another along a highway in Semdinli, a district of the south-eastern province of Hakkari, in August.

An investigation was launched into the incident by prosecutors, who said the meeting appeared to have been a prescheduled one, contrary to the BDP's claims that it happened spontaneously when the terrorists blocked a road along their route.

BDP deputies are the subject of frequent investigations by prosecutors but are immune from prosecution while they are in office, unless the assembly votes in favor of lifting their immunity.

[06] Merkel's Deputy calls on Turkey to improve religious freedoms

Volker Kauder, leader of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) in Parliament, in statements at his party congress said that he expected a "clear signal" on the issue from the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan before membership talks could continue. "A country that wants to be part of Europe must accept the basic principle of religious freedom," he said, adding: "That means, that we expect Christians in Turkey to be able to build churches without any restrictions, just as Muslims build mosques here in Germany".

Kauder's comments were seen as more of an appeal to members of his party who are skeptical about letting a Muslim-majority country into the EU, rather than an active attempt to block Turkey's membership talks, which are already stalled.

There was no immediate reaction from Ankara. The EU has in the past criticized Turkey's treatment of its Christian minorities, including Greek Orthodox and Armenians.

But recent EU reports on Turkey's accession talks have not referred to any restrictions on building places of Christian worship.

(?)

[07] Abbas to visit Turkey for 'special thanks' over UN support

Turkish news agency IHA reported on Wednesday that Abbas is expected to have talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Abdullah Gul and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Turkey, one of the staunchest supporters of Palestinian efforts for statehood, has helped Palestinians in their lobbying attempts to upgrade the Palestinian Authority's observer status at the world body, from "entity" to "non-member state."

Davutoglu, who went to New York to personally lobby for UN recognition of Palestine as a non-member state ahead of the vote, rushed to embrace Abbas to congratulate him right after the UN vote. Erdogan also phoned Abbas to congratulate him, becoming the first world leader to congratulate.

Speaking at the reception in New York, Abbas thanked the Turkish leaders for standing by the Palestinians in their quest for UN recognition as a state.

Recognition of Palestine will also be celebrated by a reception organized by Palestinian Embassy in Ankara next week.

The Israeli treatment of the Palestinians has been a major issue of contention between Turkey and Israel, once regional allies. Turkey has repeatedly condemned Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory and expelled the Israeli ambassador in protest of Israel's refusal to apologize for an Israeli raid that killed nine Turks on an aid ship that was trying to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza in 2010. The lifting of the Gaza blockade is one of the Turkish conditions for normalization of ties with Israel.

The Palestinian status at the UN was upgraded with a 138-9 vote at the 193-member UN General Assembly on Thursday.

[08] Ban to visit Turkey on Friday

In a statement released on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Ministry stated that Ban Ki-moon would visit one of the container cities in the southern Turkey where Syrian people have been staying after fleeing their country due to violence in Syria.

"Afterwards Ban Ki-moon will proceed to Ankara and meet Turkish President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. During those meetings, the latest developments in the region and international arena are likely to be discussed," the statement said.

Ban Ki-Moon is set to leave Turkey on Saturday. TURKISH AFFAIRS SECTION

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