MPA NEWS IN BRIEF (20/06/1996)

From: Macedonian Press Agency <mpa@philippos.mpa.gr>

Macedonian Press Agency Brief News in English Directory

BRIEF GREEK NEWS BULLETIN BY MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCY

Thessaloniki, June 20, 1996

TITLES

NEWS IN DETAIL

[01] PRIME MINISTER DEPARTS FOR FLORENCE TO PARTICIPATE IN SUMMIT MEETING

Prime Minister Kostas Simitis will depart for Florence, Italy this afternoon where he will participate at the Conference of European socialist leaders and the European Union's Summit meeting.

Accompanying Mr. Simitis will be the Minister of Interior, Public Administration and De-centralization Akis Tsohatzopoulos as well as other ministers.

[02] EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ISSUES RESOLUTION DENOUNCING TURKEY'S STANCE

In view of the European Union Summit meeting to be held this weekend in Florence, the European Parliament issued a resolution yesterday denouncing the turkish provocativeness in the Aegean Sea, and emphasized that the repeated threats for the use of force against a country-member of the European Union constitute a serious danger for this country's territorial integrity and the stabiltity in the Aegean Sea.

The European Parliament has called on the EU countries which will be participating at tomorrow's Summit to address Turkey's aggressive stance against Greece.

Meanwhile, a memorandum indicating Ankara's intransigence was issued recently to the italian-held EU Presidency warning the Union not to accept Greece's request regarding european solidarity and protection of external borders.

Greek government spokesperson Dimitris Reppas stated that Prime Minister Kostas Simitis will promote the issues regarding greco-turkish relations and the Gavdos island issue during the Summit.

In turn, the Italian presidency has indicated that it will bring up during th eFlorence Summit discussions the issue of the Meda financing program for which Greece has exercised a veto over Turkey's inclusion to the funding.

[03] ASSOCIATION OF BALKAN NEWS AGENCIES TO MEET IN ATHENS

The Second General Assembly of the Association of Balkan News Agencies (ABNA) will begin in Athens on Saturday with the participation of the national news agencies from Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, FYROM, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia.

Attending the conference will be the general directors from each news agency, which are Macedonian Press Agency (in Thessaloniki) Spyros Kouzinopoulos, Athens News Agency Andreas Christodoulides, Anadolu (Ankara) Mehmet Akarca, ATA (Tirana) Ilir Zhilla, BIP (Sofia) Stefan Velev, BTA (Sofia) Milen Vaikov, MPB (Skopje) Milova Stefanovski, Rompress (Bucharest) Neagu Odroiu and Tanjung (Belgrade) Slobodan Jovanovic. Also present will be two observers, Fevzi Khraman, general-director of the Ankara-based independent IHA news agency and Ali Ibranimoglu, IHA's news coordinator.

The conference will address issues such as the progress of MPA's Diavlos program, which envisions the creation of an inter-Balkan news data bank based in Thessaloniki, as well as the preparation for the exchange of financial information between ABNA members.

The Conference's general assembly will begin at 9 am on Saturday at the Asteras resort in Athens' seaside suburb of Vouliagmeni. A dinner will be held on Saturday, honoring the general directors, who will visit Sounio on Sunday. The events are sponsored by the Athens Medical Center.

[04] TURKEY'S "SEAWOLF" EXERCISE HAS UNPRECEDENTED SIZE OF ARMAMENTS

The unprecenteded armament size in Turkey's "Seawolf" aeronautical exercise is viewed as an effort to show off Ankara's military might.

According to reports, four turkish submarines have circled Cyprus, while six more have skirmished in the north, central and south Aegean. Also, eight frigates, four destroyers and five missile-carriers have sailed into the shores of southeastern Turkey.

[05] OLYMPIC FLAME TO ARRIVE IN WASHINGTON TODAY

The Olympic Flame is expected to arrive in the United States capital today, after having crossed over most of the country since it was lit in Greece's Ancient Olympia on April 27.

The Flame will arrive in Washington this afternoon and will be passed through the city's Greek Embassy where it will be received by Greek Ambassador Lukas Tsilas and a crowd of Greek-Americans.

Meanwhile, more than 40,000 Greeks living in Tampa, Florida are feverishly preparing festivities for when the Flame will arrive at their city on July 3. The Panhellenic Federation of Greek Unions of FLorida, in cooperation with the Olympic Games Committee, will host a series of events at the city's Conference Center. The Federation has also programmed a one-page ad at the St. Petersburg Times (daily circulation 400,000) which will promote the Olympic spirit, as well as Greece's national issues, The ad's $10,000 price tag will be paid by contributions of Greek-American citizens and businessmen.

[06] CYPRIOT PRESIDENT'S PROPOSAL ON MISSING IS A STEP FORWARD, SAYS US

Cypriot President Glafkos Clerides' proposals on the issue of the missing persons is positively viewed as a step forward which could bring the two communities closer to one another, stated the US State Department spokesperson Nicholas Burns.

According to Mr. Burns, the issue of the missing persons was brought up during the recent discussion held between US Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Mr. Clerides.

"Mr. Clerides indicated that Cyprus is ready to exhume the remains of the missing Turk-Cypriots if they are ready to do the same for the Greek- Cypriots," stated Mr. Burns and added that both Mr. Clerides and Mr. Christopher agreed that the investigation on the missing persons should continue.

Also, the two men discussed the efforts currently exerted by the US investigative committee which is looking into the fate of the five Americans missing in Cyprus, since the crisis.

Complete archives of the Macedonian Press Agency bulletins are available on the MPA Home Page at http://www.mpa.gr/ and on the U.S. mirror at http://www.hri.org/MPA/