Antenna: News in English (PM), 98-05-14

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

Last Updated: Thursday, 14-May-98 22:06:08

CONTENTS

[01] Tsochatzopoulos' reply to Demirel

[02] Kiouchouk-Birdal

[03] PASOK meeting about social policy

[04] Private sector pay raises

[05] Polish anniversary

[06] Soccer

[01] Tsochatzopoulos-Demirel

President Souleiman Demirel made the comment during a reception at the Turkish War Academy in Constantinople.

Turkish president Suleiman Demirel is once again all but threatening Greece with war over the small uninhabited Greek isles in the Aegean. Turkey has been laying claim to those isles for some time, even though internationally- recognised treaties give them to Greece.

Ankara wants to negotiate over the isles. Greece says there's nothing to talk about.

"Turkey's patience is not a product of weakness", Demirel warned during his latest statements in Constantinople. "Turkey is strong and IT will decide when to display its force, carefully choosing its enemy, and the time and place".

Demirel went on to say that Greek-Turkish relations are fragile because of the isle issue.

Driving home the threat that Turkey may use its military might to get its way if Greece doesn't agree to negotiate over the Aegean isles, Demirel quoted Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state: "War is a crime unless there is an acute need for it".

Greek government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said the Turkish leader's tough talk was arrogant and a sign of weakness, not strength.

After meeting with his Polish opposite number, Greek defence minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos said Demirel's comments moved in the direction of open threats of war.

Whoever chooses to use threats of violence, he added, shows himself to be the major factor for destabilising peace and security in the region.

Greece and the rest of the international community will not tolerate such talk, Tsochatzopoulos said. The Greek armed forces are ready to defend the nation and its sovereign rights.

Turkey, he concluded, must at last realise that there is nothing to negotiate over in the Aegean.

[02] Kiouchouk-Birdal

Two men shot Akin Birdal six times in the chest and leg Tuesday. His life is out of danger.

But the perpetrators are still at large.

Kiouchouk, a professor of political science living in self-exile in Paris, says the attack fits in with state policy.

One obvious question that arises from the attempt on the life of Akin Birdal, chairman of the Human Rights Association, is "How could two assailants enter the offices of the Human Rights Association in Ankara, fire 13 shots, and get away, in a country where the police are notoriously efficient?"

Antenna's Sophia Iordanidou put that question to Yialtsin Kiouchouk.

"This is a crime committed by the agents of the Turkish state....We don't doubt".

Kiouchouk goes even further, insisting that the authorities want everyone to know - off the record - they are responsible for the assassination attempt.

"In Turkey the slogan is war inside the country, war in the world. These bullets are a declaration of civil war in Turkey. By the Turkish state on the people, on the intelligentsia".

Days before he was shot, the police refused to renew the passport of Birdal, who wanted to attend a human rights meeting in Germany.

Kiouchouk claims that Birdal, and two journalists - Ali Birand and Chagins Chadar - are the targets of a dirty campaign being run by the authorities, unhappy with their refusal to voice support of state policies. Birand and Chadar have lost their jobs because of a confession Kurdish Workers' Party - or PKK - guerrilla Semdin Sakik made to the police. In his confession, Sakik says both journalists are on the PKK payroll.

Kiouchouk says it's all nonsense.

"This is not a confession, but a book written by the Turkish generals to punish them. Supposedly Sakik confessed he's on the PKK payroll. Sakik was just a guerrila, who was always up in the mountains. It's not possible for him to know what's going on in the PKK. He's also been thrown out of the PKK. I believe it's not a confession....that he assassinated Olaf Palme....don't need PKK money....on the basis of the lie two good journalists were fired".

The reason why the authorities are after Birand, Chadar, and even he himself, says Kiouchouk, is that they are independent and outspoken.

Birand and Chadar were lonely voices in the press when they openly disagreed with the military's recent move to outlaw the Islamicist Party. In the past, they also expressed support for a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish issue.

During a lecture at Athens' Padio University Wednesday, Kiouchouk said the Turkish authorities are unlikely to search in earnest for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.

The war against the Kurds, he maintains, is a justification for all the conservative, authoritarian ways of the regime in Ankara.

Kiouchouk says the emergence of an aggressive, imperialistic foreign policy in Ankara over the past couple of decades marks a departure from the principles that guided the peaceloving Ataturk.

During his lecture, the Turkish intellectual also denounced the Turkish Mafia, saing it has close ties to the rulers of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

Kiouchouk was visibly moved when he talked about the barbaric invasion of Cyprus by Turkey in 1974. An invasion he participated in as a Turkish officer.

"There were incidents that made me cry", he said.

[03] PASOK meeting about social policy

At the centre of discord is Pasok's plans to privatise a number of public sector enterprises, plans which have upset the trade unions.

Friday's meeting will be the first joint session of the MPs and the central committee since the government's last controversial move: the devaluation of the drachma in March.

MPs opposed to the government's policies say they will state their views on the long-term policy goals at the meeting.

There is also disagreement with government policy on the central committee; some of its members are trade unionists.

[04] Private sector pay raises

The GSEE and the employers are calling for raises

of 4.7 per cent this year, and 2.8 per cent next year.

Inflation was running at 5.5 per cent in April. But the forecasts are for it to fall to 2 per cent by the end of 1999.

[05] Polish Constitution

The Polish Center in Nea Smyrni, an Athenian suburb. held a celebration attended by Polish Defence minister Yiannous Oniskievitch.

Poland's constitution was the first in Europe to embody the principles of the 18th century French revolution, which enshrined the rights of man.

Oniskievitch said it was an honour to be able to celebrate Poland's constitution in Greece. "Democracy was born in Greece and it was from here that democratic principles spread to the rest of the world", he said.

Also attending the celebration were Greek deputy defence minister Dimitris Apostolakis and the Polish ambassador to Greece.

Ending the evening's festivities, pianist Aris Hatzinikolaou played several pieces by Polish composers Chopin and Paterefski.

[06] Soccer

It added another victory to its win column Wednesday, taking its record to 29 wins, 3 losses, and a draw.

Panachaiki is the victim Wednesday. It gets the first goal of the match, but Olympiakos gets the next three, including two from Ilia Ivich, both off penalties.

Elsewhere, Panathinaikos picks up its 29th victory, and Ethnikos surprises Paok. Proodevtiki, Panionios, and Xanthi triumph at home. Kavala and Ionikos are road winners. And Ofi and Aek end in a split decision.

(c) ANT1 Radio 1998

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