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Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 97-10-12

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr>

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 12/10/1997 (ANA)


MAIN HEADLINES

  • Turkey's Yilmaz at CoE: the EU and Greece
  • Turkish minister blames EU for Cyprus deadlock
  • Albanians kill soldier, wound woman friend
  • Local government reform bill unveiled
  • Prime Minister's message to SMEs
  • EOT to boost conference tourism
  • Greece defends security record
  • Greece, Cyprus hold exercises
  • Greek equities end week flat
  • Weather
  • Foreign Exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Turkey's Yilmaz at CoE: the EU and Greece

A Turkish delegation, headed by Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, on Saturday wound up its broad round of diplomatic contacts on the sidelines of the Council of Europe summit with thinly-veiled hints against Greece and without any apparent willingness for consultations with the Greek side.

In statements to Turkish journalists, Mr. Yilmaz reported that in his contacts he drew attention to mainly three issues, first, the threat posed to Turkey by the installation of Russian-made S-300 missiles on Cyprus, secondly, the pressures which, according to his opinion, the European Union should exercise on Greece for there to be progress in Greek-Turkish relations, and thirdly on the need for the EU summit in Luxembourg to send a clear message on Turkey's European prospects.

In his speech to the summit, Mr. Yilmaz also made an unspecified but obvious reference to Greece -not contained in the official text distributed by the Turkish delegation- regarding what he called the unacceptability of member-states of the Council of Europe supporting terrorist organisations.

Turkish and European diplomatic sources said the reaction of European leaders and officials whom Mr. Yilmaz met, such as the French and Dutch PMs, Lionel Jospin and Wim Kok, was rather guarded.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told Greek and Turkish reporters regarding Mr. Yilmaz's references to terrorism that relevant evidence did not exist and he could not imagine that it was possible that a member-state of the European Union supported the carrying out of terrorist activities in another country.

Continuing, Mr. Juncker said efforts should be made, chiefly by the two countries concerned, for a de-escalation of the tension between Greece and Turkey, and that the current EU Presidency wished to make a positive contribution in that direction.

Turkish minister blames EU for Cyprus deadlock

Turkish foreign minister Ismail Cem has accused the European Union of creating a deadlock in the Cyprus problem by initiating the procedure for membership of the island-republic.

"It is big mistake (...) which has brought the Turkish Cypriots in a very difficult position," he said in statements to the Turkish NTV network on Saturday.

Referring to the order of Russian-made S-300 missiles by Cyprus, Cem claimed it was an even more serious mistake.

"It is one of the most serious mistakes that could have been committed. No one should expect that we shall remain indifferent," he warned.

Finally, the Turkish foreign minister called on the EU to stop "always asking Turkey to settle its differences with Greece".

"It takes two parts to reach a settlement of a bilateral dispute," he said.

Albanians kill soldier, wound woman friend

A manhunt is under way for a gang of armed men, allegedly Albanians, who shot and killed an off-duty soldier and wounded his girlfriend near Oreokastro, Thessaloniki Friday night. Police suspect the attackers may be the same men that robbed another couple in the same area early Thursday.

Constantine Gidaris, 21, and his girlfriend Evangelia Kostarela, 22, were in a car parked in the forest when Gidaris saw the armed men approaching them and began reversing the car in an attempt to get away. The men then fired on the car with Kalashnikov rifles, killing Gidaris and shooting his friend in the leg. The car overturned and the attackers ran off.

Ms. Kostarela managed to limp three kilometres to the village of Oreokastro. According to coroner Samuel Zaou, Gidaris was killed instantly.

Local government reform bill unveiled

Interior Minister Alekos Papadopoulos on Friday unveiled the government's comprehensive draft bill on the compulsory merger of the multitude of small local government entities around the country to the leadership of the Central Union of Municipalities and Communities (KEDKE).

The bill (named after modern Greece's first executive head of state, Ioannis Capodistrias) provides for the creation of 804 new municipal councils, which together with existing ones in the Attica and Thessaloniki prefectures, and the 133 community councils which re main intact, will lower the total number of local government organisations (OTA) to 1,033, from 5,775 today.

The reform will be financially supported with 1.025 trillion drachmas until 2002. The bill retains all tax privileges for the residents of small villages and the existing definition of mountainous and disadvantaged areas.

Mr. Papadopoulos reiterated that there would be no changes in the planned mergers, but promised there would be a full debate on all other aspects of the bill, which, he said, was only the beginning of far-reaching administrative reform.

"This great institutional incision and reform begins, rather than ends today. It will require at least five years of hard work so that we may found a different kind of strong municipalities, for the countryside to be revitalised, for life to take root in our declining villagesI" he emphasised.

Prime Minister's message to SMEs

Prime Minister Costas Simitis addressed a PASOK meeting of small business operators from all over Greece today on government policy in the sector.

Mr. Simitis expressed his satisfaction with government achievements in the economy, referring to decreases in the public sector deficit and inflation and the increase in growth rate above the European Union average. The premier stressed that these goals were achieved "without being accompanied by a spread of social distress - because we did not want just to improve certain indices, certain figures, we wanted to improve the lives of citizens, the lives of all of us".

Mr. Simitis also said that for the governent, the survival and dynamic growth of the average SME means strength in its ability to deal with competition, and to expect support from artificial sources. He said that this would be achieved by increasing the size of enterprises, improving on product quality, business administration and access to the international market.

Finally the premier indicated that the government has nearly completed the legislative framework for free competition that will rid the market of restrictive practises which undermine competitiveness.

EOT to boost conference tourism

Greece will soon be the "capital" of conference tourism in Europe, Greek Tourism Organisation (EOT) secretary general Nikos Skoulas said today.

"We are beginning now, together with private enterprise, the effort to achieve this goal. We'll succeed in upgrading both general tourism and conference-business tourism," he said at the opening of the 1st Conference Forum in Athens today.

He called on private enterprise to rally round EOT's new policy which involves qualitative upgrading, appropriate training, and the creation of ultra-modern units.

Greece hosts about 2,500 conferences annually.

"With the right organisation and planning, our country can host more than 10,000 conferences a year," said Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos in his address to the forum.

The event is taking place in parallel with the first exhibition on conference tourism, travel incentives as well as professional and exhibition tourism, entitled "Meetingreece-ICB '97", which opened at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Faliro today. The exhibition will last till Monday.

Greece defends security record

"It is well known that November 17 and the Revolutionary Popular Struggle (ELA) are terrorist organisations and must be dealt with decisively," government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said yesterday. He made the statement when asked to comment on the list made public by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Thursday, which contained both organisations.

Mr. Reppas underlined however that Greece had a much better level of security than other countries which "supposedly have more advanced systems and mechanisms for combatting such phenomena".

"In Greece we do not have indiscriminate and mass attacks," Mr. Reppas said, adding that terrorist targets here were specific individuals.

Greece, Cyprus hold exercises

The medium-scale air and naval exercise of the Greek armed forces, codenamed "Toxotis", got under way Friday east of Crete with the participation of three frigates, three torpedo and missile carriers, two submarines and Hellenic Air Force units.

"Toxotis" is being held in conjunction with the Cypriot armed forces exercise "Nikiforos" which is already in progress in the island republic.

The exercises will be watched by National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos who is scheduled to visit Cyprus on Monday.

During his stay on the island, Mr. Tsohatzopoulos will have talks with Cyprus' political leaders and state officials.

Both exercises will end on October 15.

Greek equities end week flat

Share prices ended the week with minor changes on the Athens Stock Exchange despite the fact that the market set two new record closes and the general index breached the 1,800 level intra-day.

A drop in consumer price inflation to 4.9 percent in September, the lowest in two decades, followed by a cut in interest rates by the central bank and the state-owned National Bank of Greece gave the market new impetus and pushed prices higher.

But then a wave of interest rate increases in Europe, led by a 30 basis point rise in the repo rate by the Bundesbank on Thursday, dampened sentiment.

Traders said that a trend of higher interest rates in Europe would narrow the scope for a rapid relaxation of monetary policy in Greece.

The Athens general share index ended the week 0.10 percent off, and the FTSE/ASE index dropped 0.24 percent.

Trading remained heavy throughout the week and turnover totalled 160.073 billion drachmas at a daily average of 32.01 billion drachmas, up from 29 billion the previous week.

Weather

Scattered showers mainly in western and northern areas and a gradual strengthening of southerly winds will be the main features of the weather scene today and tomorrow. Athens will have light cloud, and rain is likely in Thessaloniki. Monday's temperatures in Athens will range from 17-26C, in Thessaloniki from 14-22C.

Foreign Exchange

Friday's closing rates - buying US dlr. 274.125 Pound sterling 445.141 Cyprus pd 530.404 French franc 46.853 Swiss franc 188.922 German mark 157.421 Italian lira (100) 15.959 Yen (100) 228.163 Canadian dlr. 199.400 Australian dlr. 201.344 Irish Punt 403.805 Belgian franc 7.628 Finnish mark 52.450 Dutch guilder 139.759 Danish kr. 41.338 Swedish kr. 36.361 Norwegian kr. 39.182 Austrian sch. 22.369 Spanish peseta 1.867 Port. Escudo 1.549

(Y.B.)


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