Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 97-10-25

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 25/10/1997 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Heavy rain damages homes in Patras
• Foreign Minister: agenda for EU summit
• Alternate FM's talks at State Department
• Premier receives Turkish business leaders
• Pangalos calls on Ankara to behave with greater seriousness
• Vartholomeos arrives in NYC
• Apostolopoulos Group forges ahead with Balkan investment
• Turkey's Ecevit interviewed on Mega
• Kaklamanis at Central European Speakers' meeting
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Flooding by heavy rain damaged tens of shops and houses in the southern Greek town of Patras earlier today.

The floods were caused when a small stream broke its banks sending a torrent of water into an estimated 350 homes and shops.

Torrential rains also caused some flooding in Athens, turning side-roads into mini-rivers and causing serious disruptions in traffic.

Heavy rainfall is expected this evening in many parts of the country.

Foreign Minister: agenda for EU summit

Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos on Friday said he would be supporting the position in favour of the simultaneous commencement of negotiations for all countries seeking European Union membership at Saturday's informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

Pangalos said discussion at the meeting would focus on EU enlargement against the background of the Commission's "Agenda 2000", the Union's financial resources and the modernisation of Community institutions.

On the issue of accession negotiations, Pangalos said the matter would not be settled at the meeting because the majority of member-states and the European Commission were in favour of initially beginning negotiations with six countries, including Cyprus.

He expressed the view that the issue would be referred to the Council of Ministers meeting in Luxembourg in December.

Pangalos said Greece's position was connected with the country's specific interests "since we want negotiations to commence with Bulgaria and Romania" and Athens' general conviction that "under no circumstances should we allow a climate of discrimination to be created among the aspiring members".

Replying to questions on the possible establishment of a permanent European forum in the case that the proposal for simultaneous negotiations is rejected, Pangalos said:

"If such a forum is created, it will have to be of such a general nature that it will be meaningless."

The only reason why the proposal for the creation of such a forum exists, Pangalos said, "is because some people want to give little mirrors and beads to Turkey", noting that this constituted insulting behaviour to the Turkish people.

The minister said an "advanced relationship" should be created between the EU and Turkey which "covers" the conditions clearly set by the EU on 15 July last year and contained in the common declaration of the "15" at the last EU-Turkey Association Council on 29 April.

Alternate FM's talks at State Department

Greece was expecting a "strong message" addressed to Ankara by all its partners because, "as you know, we are in favour of Turkey's European prospect but the conditions depend on Turkey itself", Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou said on Friday.

He told reporters after a meeting at the State Department that the United States had "finally taken a strong position on the unacceptable events that took place in our region with the harassment of the plane carrying the National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos by Turkish aircraft".

Papandreou said he had had the opportunity, during his separate talks with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs "to discuss this unacceptable stance of Ankara and, naturally, to put forward questions on the manner the manner in which Turkey has been acting recently".

He said he also discussed European issues, the enlargement of the European Union and NATO, Akara's relations with the EU and the prospect of commencement of Cyprus accession talks with the EU in April.

Papandreou's meeting with Talbott was also attended by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Mark Grossman, State Department special coordinator for Cyprus Thomas Miller, the head of the southeastern Europe desk at the State Department, and Greece's Ambassador to the U.S. Loukas Tsilas.

Premier receives Turkish business leaders

Prime Minister Costas Simitis yesterday met with Turkish business tycoons Rahmi Koc and Sarik Tara, after the end of the fourth Greek-Turkish business forum in Athens.

Discussion at the meeting focused on the potential for promoting economic cooperation between the two countries, both in the form of investment as well as through the development of trade relations. The prospects for a normalisation of bilateral relatio ns were also discussed.

During the sessions of the forum, it was decided to promote cooperation in the development of joint ventures in tourism and the utilisation of special Community programmes to boost cross-border exchanges.

The next such forum has been scheduled to take place in Istanbul in May next year.

Pangalos calls on Ankara to behave with greater seriousness

Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos said yesterday that any country which intentionally creates a serious incident in the Aegean would be opening "the door to the lunatic asylum".

"Despite the fact that I do not have the greatest respect for Turkey's institutions, Turkey is nevertheless a major country, and I consider it highly unlikely for Ankara to open the door of the lunatic asylum," Pangalos added, replying to reporters' questions on the possibility of a serious incident between Greece and Turkey.

Pangalos dismissed as "un-important" an incident on Wednesday, in which a Turkish patrol boat harassed a Greek minesweeper in the Aegean's international waters.

The "excitement" which had been caused by the incident, he added, was exaggerated.

Noting that there had been 10-20 such occurrences during the current year, Pangalos said Turkey's exploitation of the incident illustrated its intention to create a "diversion" in view of the very poor impressions created by the recent harassment of an aircraft carrying National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos to and from Cyprus by Turkish warplanes.

Commenting on Ankara's claims that the Greek vessel had tried to ram and sink a Turkish submarine, Pangalos expressed puzzlement. "How could a wooden minesweeper, with a speed no greater than nine (nautical) miles per hour, sink a submarine which, moreover, was supposed to be below the surface at the time?" he asked.

Stressing that the Turkish vessel was much more powerful than the Greek one, Pangalos described as "Turkish naval prowess" the manoeuvring of the Turkish captain, which resulted in his vessel touching the Greek minesweeper.

Pangalos likened the action of the Turkish captain to "a bully's display of irresponsibility" and called on Turkey to behave with greater seriousness "because such acts can easily get out of hand and create a crisis".

Replying to questions on the forthcoming meeting between Prime Minister Costas Simitis and his Turkish counterpart Mesut Yilmaz on the sidelines of the Balkan Summit in Crete early next month, Pangalos said he did not know whether Yilmaz would want private talks with the Greek premier.

He said Simitis, as host, had requested bilateral talks with all the leaders of the Balkan countries but did not know "if Yilmaz wants to see Simitis".

Pangalos expressed pessimism about the outcome of any Greek-Turkish talks in Crete, but said he would have no problem talking to any representatives of the Turkish government or Turkish society, even about the two countries' differences, provided th e discussion had a clear legal framework and clear proposals regarding the legal institution which will eventually undertake to resolve the differences.

In a related development, National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos accused Turkey of fabricating "a non-existent incident" in an effort "to cover up its sole responsibility for the tens ion in the region".

Tsohatzopoulos told reporters that Turkey alone had created the tension in the Aegean over the past few months by acting like a "trouble-maker".

"This behaviour of Turkey is beginning to make a lot of countries -not just Greece - think seriously," he added.

In the meantime, the United States encourages Greece and Turkey to proceed to their forthcoming meeting at the sidelines of the Crete Balkan summit, since any similar contact can contribute to improved relations, special US presidential emissary for Cyprus Richard Holbrooke said on Friday according to an ANA despatch from Washington.

In comments made to the private Greek television station "Antenna", Mr. Holbrooke added that the problems dividing both countries relate to the Aegean, overflights of Cyprus, the Law of the Sea issue and the Cyprus problem.

Vartholomeos arrives in NYC

Former Archbishop of North and South America Iacovos, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, clergymen and a large crowd welcomed Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos yesterday, according to an ANA dispatch from Washington.

Vartholomeos, on a month-long visit that began this past week, arrived at midnight local time from Baltimore, where he had officiated at the Orthodox Church of the Assumption and at the Roman Catholic Auxiliary Church in the city.

Yesterday, Mr. Giuliani had planned a ceremony to rename 79th Street in New York City to Patriarch Vartholomeos Street.

Apostolopoulos Group forges ahead with Balkan investments

Greece's Apostolopoulos Group, which is carrying out a 26-billion drachma investment plan in the Balkans, is close to starting work on the construction of medical units in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Bulgaria.

Talks nearing completion in FYROM will lead to the signing of an agreement for construction of a diagnostic centre in Skopje. It will be housed in an old hotel that has already been designated.

An agreement has been signed with Bulgaria's health ministry allowing construction of a diagnostic unit in Sofia. The Group is expected to complete construction in early 1999 of a 300-bed inter-Balkan medical centre in the northern Greek city of Thessal oniki. The unit will eventually have a hotel to house patients' relatives.

Turkey's Ecevit interviewed on Mega

Greece and Turkey could settle their own differences and it would be better if they were left alone to do so, Turkish deputy premier Bulent Ecevit said in a televised interview on Thursday night.

In an obvious reference to the United States, Ecevit told the correspondent of private Greek Mega television station that "if the world leaves us alone, then the two sides may come to agreement and establish a close cooperation".

Ecevit said Turkey was "concerned and anxious" over the rapid armament" of the Greek Cypriot side, claiming that he did not find convincing the Cypriot government's argument that it was boosting its self-defence.

Turkey, he said, remained firm in its decision "not to allow the transport" through Turkish territorial waters or airspace of Russian-made S-300 medium range ground-to-air missiles to the Republic of Cyprus

Ecevit warned that if Cyprus went ahead with the deployment of the missiles, which he claimed posed a threat to Turkish, Israeli and Turkish Cypriot security, and if the "door remains open" for Cyprus' accession to the European Union, then Ankara would strengthen its relations and cooperation with the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus -- recognised only by Turkey -- and proceed with specific countermeasures.

"And, naturally, we would have to increase our own military presence on the island," he added.

Kaklamanis at Central European Speakers' meeting

Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis left yesterday for the Adriatic port city of Trieste, Italy to attend a meeting of House speakers of the Central European Initiative.

In statements shortly before leaving, Kaklamanis said it was an honour for the Greek parliament to be invited to attend the meeting.

"The invitation is a result of the (Greek) parliament's intense activity in the area of regional co-operation," Kaklamanis said, citing the three parliamentary conferences organised this year in Athens.

At the Trieste meeting, the parliament presidents will discuss the efforts of national assemblies to combat organised crime and drug trafficking.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(M.S.)

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