Antenna: News in English (PM), 98-06-18

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

Last Updated: Thursday, 18-Jun-98 21:55:35

CONTENTS

[01] Turkey-Cyprus

[02] Biliana Plavsic

[03] Poll

[04] Tsiklitiria 98

[01] Turkey-Cyprus

The Turkish provocation, which came two days after Greece refused to cave into European and American pressure to make it easier for Turkey to get closer to and receive funds from the EU, was extended to the Aegean, when jets violated Greek air space there.

Six Turkish fighters landed in northern Cyprus Thursday, in response to the dispatching of four Greek fighters to Pafos in free Cyprus a few days earlier.

Reports are that Ankara also intends to send a plane full of staff officers to Cyprus too.

During Thursday's flyovers, rattled Greek-Cypriots in Nicosia said the fighters flew in low, at an altitude of no more than 30 meters at times.

While Turkish prime minister Mesout Yilmaz was quoted as warning his country will retaliate against any threatening Greek military activity on the island, Athens remained firm in its intention to work together with Cyprus in defence matters.

Yilmaz considers the mere presence of Greek planes threatening.

And Turkish foreign minister Ismail Cem says he considers Greek and Cypriot defence cooperation a threat to his country.

Yilmaz says he will ask Britian to help put an end to that cooperation, enshrined in the Greece- Cyprus joint defence doctrine.

But Greek government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said Greece has no intention of shelving the doctrine.

Ankara also flashed its military hardware directly at Greece Thursday: 11 jets violated Greek and Greek- monitored air space in the central Aegean, sparking five dogfights with Greek fighters between the islands of Chios and Mitilene.

Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos told reporters that Turkey has no legal right to send planes to northern Cyprus, which it is in illegal occupation of.

Pangalos was asked about US president Bill Clinton's attempt to persuade Greek premier Kostas Simitis to allow Turkey to be named as a candidate for EU membership, and to lift Greece's veto over EU development funds for Turkey.

During Clinton's phone call to Simitis in the midst of the EU summit earlier this week, the American president said that if Greece didn't back down over Turkey's relations with the EU, then there could be increased tension in the Aegean.

Pangalos said the suggestion that Greece's position could lead to conflict was not well- advised. "It wasn't based on a real assessment of the situation", explained Pangalos. "Turkey is starting to understand the way the EU works.

What the EU has said in the past is that Turkey must improve relations with Greece, help solve the Cyprus problem, and end its human rights violations before it can hope for EU membership.

Greece resisted not only US, but also European pressure at the EU summit to let those EU conditions be erased.

Despite Greek firmness, there have been reports that some EU members, among them Britain, are determined to find a way of circumventing the Greek veto over Turkey's EU funds.

Pangalos says, "That's ridiculous. There have been been attempts to find a way of bypassing the freeze on the protocol funds and getting the money to Turkey through other programmes. But the European Commission checked out the possibilities and found out they are legally untenable.

Pangalos went on to say that only the Greek press has given credence to the erroneous view that Turkey is going to get its funding over Greek objections. He also said that it was a Greek who worked with the European Commission who made the proposal to get the money to Turkey.

Calling the attempt to help Turkey in that way the act of a traitor, Pangalos chalked it up to a desire by the individual concerned to be seen in the EU as being above national interests.

[02] Biliana Plavsic

Biliana Plavsic met with Greek leaders in Athens Thursday, discussing Kosovo and the state of the Dayton Accord which ended the recent war in her native Bosnia.

After separate meetings with the Greek prime minister and foreign minister, Bosnian Serb president Biliana Plavsic said that whatever has happened in the Balkans should serve as a reminder that prevention is the best way to prevent war in the Balkans.

As Plavsic spoke there was more fighting between Serbian forces and ethnic- Albanian separatists in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Serbian sources claim that at least ten Albanians were killed as they tried to smuggle guns and explosives to Kosovo's rebels from Albania.

Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic agreed to restart dialogue with the moderate ethnic Albanians Monday, but the Albanian side says Yugoslav security forces must leave the province before any talks can begin.

Nato, threatening military intervention against the Serbs, also wants the Serbian forces to withdraw.

But the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, who has first- hand experience of what escalation and war mean, warns that the worst thing anyone could do would be to up the military stakes in Kosovo.

While there is discussion anything can be achieved

says Plavsic. But war, though easy to start, is difficult to stop.

The Bosnian Serb leader also talked about the Dayton Accord, the treaty that ended the Bosnian war.

Under the accord, Bosnia's Serbs and Muslims live in a loose federation.

Plavsic says she accepts the existence of Bosnia Herzegovina as a single state with two nations containing the two peoples. But she lashed out at those in the international community now contending that the "spirit" of Dayton is not being kept.

"We want to follow the letter of the accord", she says, not the "spirit". Those who talk of the "spirit" are implying that all parties in Bosnia must agree to everything, and that's the road back to war.

Asked whether the letter of the Dayton accord means handing over Serbs wanted by the international tribunal for war crimes, Plavsic replied that the tribunal is the best forum for those accused to clear their names, which is why those who have turned themselves in have done so.

[03] Poll

The semi-annual survey shows New Democracy maintaining a steady lead over Pasok.

Asked how they'd vote in a national election now, 24 per cent of those surveyed said Pasok, 29 per cent opted for New Democracy.

The Demoractic Movement weighs in at 6 per cent, while the two left-wing parties - the communist party, or KKE, and the Left Coalition could count on a grand total of around 10 per cent of the voters.

The share of votes going to Political Spring, which failed to elect a deputy in the last parliamentary elections, has slipped to just 1.6 per cent.

Almost a third of those polled said they'd vote for none of the main parties or don't know how they'd cast their ballot.

New Democracy has a significant edge over Pasok when it comes to holding on to it traditional voters.

84 per cent of the main opposition party's voters from the last elections say they're still with New Democracy. For Pasok that figure is at 61 per cent.

In the personal rating column, the Left Coalition's Nikos Konstantopoulos and Dimitris Tsovolas of the Democratic Movement are the frontrunners among party leaders. Behind them are New Democracy's Kostas Karamanlis, prime minister Kostas Simitis, Political Spring's Antonis Samaras, and The KKE's Aleka Papariga.

But the new orthodox archbishop of Athens and all Greece, Christodoulos, is way ahead of all the politicians. 73 per cent of poll respondents say they have a positive opinion of the archbishop.

32 per cent of the survey participants believe Christodoulos should concern himself only with church-related matters. 28 per cent say he should intervene in non-church issues in exceptional circumstances, and 39 per cent would like to see him playing an active role in non-church matters.

[04] Tsiklitiria 98

Boldon finished first in both the 100 and 200 metre races. The runner was disappointed with his failure to set a new world record in the 100 meters.

Trinidad's Ato Boldon brought down the house and won rave press reviews with his 9.86 second finish

in the 100 meter race at Athens' Olympic stadium.

That's two-tenths of a second off the world mark, which Boldon says he could've broken with a little help from the wind. The sprinter said he felt that his Athens run was destined to be a world- record setter, but it wasn't to be.

Namibia's Frank Fredericks finished second in the race - he said he'd have been happy with his time if he'd finished first.

It was Boldon who shone in the 200 meters too, which he ran in 19.18 seconds.

Great Britain's Colin Jackson placed first in the 110 hurdles with a time of 13.16 seconds.

He said it was a pleasure to be in Athens and to have run well.

Nurentin Morseli was also satisfied after his first-place time of 3 minutes, 34.44 seconds in the 1500 meters. He said the Athenian crowd was great, making him feel right at home.

Yugoslvaia's Tobich edged Greece's Lambros Papakostas out of the gold in a dramatic high jump finale. Tobich cleared the bar at 2.32 meters; Papakostas's best jump was 2.3 meters.

In the women's events, Katerina Thanou stood out for Greece, winning the 100 meters with a time of 11.11 seconds.

(c) ANT1 Radio 1998

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