Anadolu Agency: News in English, 99-11-28

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From: The Anadolu Agency Home Page at <http://www.anadoluajansi.gov.tr/>

[01] AA Daily

28 November 1999 Sunday

[02] TURKEY-PRESS SCAN

HURRIYET (LIBERAL)

''TURKEY TO BECOME BRIDGE BETWEEN EU AND EAST MEDITERRANEAN''
EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Commission's Co-President Daniel Cohn-Bendit told Hurriyet that Turkey's membership will act like a bridge between the EU and the East Mediterranean therefore change the whole nature of the EU. Cohn-Bendit who will visit Turkey in the coming days said the biggest obstruction in front of Turkey was the democratization problem. The military has great authority on the government which prevents Turkey from becoming a democratic country, he noted.

GERMANY'S HESSEN STATE INTERIOR MINISTER:
''THE STATE WILL NO LONGER SUPPORT TURKISH LANGUAGE''
Volker Bouffier, the Interior Minister of Germany's Hessen State said that the Hessen government will make dramatic changes in their policy for foreigners. Bouffier said foreigners who live in Germany must learn German. Bouffier complained that Turks who live in his country read Turkish newspapers, watch Turkish television and support Turkish teams. ''Their football teams ''Turkspor'' play football like they were fighting in a war and planting seeds of discrimination. These teams must also include non- Turkish players and become a multi-cultural environment,'' he said. ''I don't want foreigners to isolate themselves from the German society. I don't want to see foreigners who lived here for 30 years and still need their 7 year old child to interprete for them,'' Bouffier noted.

He also criticized the German government for bringing Turkish people 30 years ago from Turkey to Germany without thinking of its consequences.

MILLIYET (LIBERAL) INTERIOR MINISTRY TO ALLOW TRANSEXUALS TO WORK IN BARS
The Interior Ministry said the transexuals will be allowed to work in public places which sell alcoholic drinks to prevent uncontrolled prostitution. The transexuals will benefit from women's rights. Transexuals who are employed at these places will be required to take a test every six months to prove that they don't carry any sexually transmitted diseases.

HALF OF ISTANBUL CANNOT SLEEP
A research done in Istanbul showed that 43.4 percent of Istanbulians is suffering from insomnia caused by earthquake anxiety. A total of 1,687 people were interviewed including 827 women. 35.8 percent of those who answered the questions said they ''were affected a little'' while 20.8 percent of them said they ''were not affected at all''. Another result of the survey is that 60 percent of women inhabitants of Istanbul said their general phsychology was negatively affected by the quake rumours.

SABAH (LIBERAL) 1000 TANKS FOR THE HEAD OF APO
Impudent proposal from German Government. Respectable German ''Der Spiegel'' magazine disclosed this unbeleivable proposal. German Chancellor Shroder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer decided to relate tank purchase to the head of Apo. German government listed two other conditions for the purchase of Leopard-2 tanks. They are: giving up violence policy against Kurds, and the other is not obstructing to the European Union membership of Southern Cyprus.

MHP WARNS EUROPE
Devlet Bahceli, Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said it was not right to relate entrance process to European Union (EU) with the death sentence given to Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the terrorist organization. Bahceli expressed regret over the statements issued by Western European countries which include double standarts.

CUMHURIYET (LEFT)

70 TERRORISTS KILLED
Security forces killed 70 terrorists in cross border operations carried out in Northern Iraq for five days. Nearly 2,000 peshmergas, under the control of Iraqi Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), supported the operation.

RADIKAL (LEFT)

THE LAST TWO DAYS IN PREFABRICATED HUTS
Kutluay Oktem, Coordinator Governor of Disaster Region, said prefabricated huts will be delivered on November 30.

SAKARYA: 2,358 of 5, 578 prefabricated huts are completed. 882 of them have been delivered.

YALOVA: 2,358 of 5,578 prefabricated huts are completed. 543 of them have been delivered to quake survivors.

KOCAELI: 935 of 13,930 prefabricated huts were completed. Only 563 of them have been delivered.

BOLU (including Duzce and Kaynasli): 3,978 prefabricated huts will be constructed. 394 of them were completed and 344 of them were delivered earlier. Construction of the rest is under way.

TURKIYE (RIGHT) ADDITIONAL TAX IS ON THE WAY OF CANCELLATION
True Path Party (DYP) and Virtue Party (FP) will apply to Constitutional Court on grounds that it contradicts with equality principle. Tansu Ciller, leader of DYP, said they initiated efforts to annul quake tax. Meanwhile, FP also thinks that most of the articles in the draft contradict with the Constitution. Kutan defined additional tax as ''an ıllegal charge on people''.

TAX GESTURE TO BLUE STREAM PROJECT
The protocol agreement on the Blue Stream Natural Gas Pipeline project was signed between Turkey and Russia. The protocol includes tax facilities related with ''Blue Stream'' which is among the projects that will make Turkey an energy center.

Rem Vyahirev, the Chairman of Gazprom, Russia's natural gas company, described the protocol as the ''final agreement'' and said the construction works of the pipeline would begin.

ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE) WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF CASH
Like Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit promised, all the donations and spendings are broadcast on the internet. There is only 14 trillion Turkish Liras (TL) left in the account. The Prime Ministry was able to meet only the most urgent needs of the quake survivors and build prefabricated dwellings for them with people's donations. However, four fifth of the cash has been spent. A government authority said ''I wish we had given 6 billion TL to every family who was affected by the quake'' which might have been a better solution.

[03] FIVE TERRORISTS KILLED IN TUNCELI

Emergency Rule Regional Governorship said the terrorists were killed when security forces encountered a group of terrorists in rural region of Mazgirt county.

Security forces killed five terrorists in the ensuing clash.

A person from security forces died during the first shots.

Operations under way in the region.

[04] PRESIDENT DEMIREL CONGRATULATES NATIONAL DAY OF ALBANIA

Presidential Press Center said in the message Demirel expressed his best wishes to Albanian President and Albanian people due to the National Day on behalf of Turkish nation.

In the message Demirel expressed belief that perfect relations and cooperation between the two countries will continue in the direction of mutual benefits.

[05] BLUE STREAM PROTOCOL SIGNED BETWEEN TURKEY AND RUSSIA

Nabi Sensoy, the Turkish Ambassador in Moscow and Alexander Avdayev, the Deputy Foreign Minister signed the protocol on behalf of their countries.

Saturday's protocol guarantees the approval of the Agreement to Prevent Double Taxation by the Russian Parliament which was earlier only approved by the Turkish Parliament. The protocol is expected to be approved by both Turkish and Russian parliaments.

Sensoy who spoke at the ceremony said ''the signing of the protocol showed that some speculations regarding the Blue Stream project were baseless.''

''The Blue Stream Project will be a good example to Turkish-Russian cooperation in the 2000's. I believe that this project would serve to the interests of both countries and help to strengthen the political relations as well as economic and trade relations,'' he went on to say.

Because of the parliamentary elections which will be held in Russia in December, the Parliament's sub-department Duma will have its last session on December 3 and then will abolish itself. Therefore the Russian Parliament must pass the protocol from Duma till December 3.

Agreement to Protect and Encourage Mutual Investments between Turkey and Russia which was also approved by the Turkish Parliament but not by Duma was not covered by Saturday's protocol.

Russia wanted to sign the protocol when Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit visited Moscow between November 4 and 6, 1999 however Ankara wanted to discuss the issue first within the Turkish Government.

Ecevit, before leaving Russia, had said if ''Duma approved the agreements on double taxation and mutual investments, the protocol would be easily signed and take effect immediately.''

The Russian Gazprom company had signed the necessary agreements related to the Blue Stream natural gas pipeline and its financement with the contractor companies on November 23. However they protocol did not take effect until the protocol was signed on Saturday.

[06] JAPANESE KURATA AND BRITISH ANDERSSON DECIDE TO LEARN TURKISH AFTER GETTING TO KNOW TURKISH CULTURE

Kurata who is 26 years old said he found the Turkish culture very different than European or Japanese cultures and he was very touched by the Turkish hospitality. Kurata visited Turkey before and toured Istanbul, Denizli, Ankara, Fethiye and Cappadocia.

Kurata met Taner, a tourist guide in Trabzon who invited him to stay with his family. After spending 2-3 weeks with Taner's big family, he was impressed by the Turkish culture and traditions. ''I have been in Turkey for 4 months. I will return to Japan when my visa expires and then come back to Turkey,'' Kurata said.

After living with Taner's 3 year old son, his mother and his grandmother who did not speak a word in English, Kurata decided to learn Turkish. ''They are my second family, I feel at home when I am with them,'' Kurata said.

''Sometimes your traditions can be very strict and restricting and I find it hard to adjust. But I like that challenge and I am curious about your culture because you are different. I wouldn't have stayed in Turkey if we were the same,'' Kurata noted.

Gunilla Andersson who is the manager of Summer Institute of Linguistics in Britain visited Turkey three times and has many Turkish friends both in her country and in Turkey. She said she was learning Turkish to communicate with Turks easier.

''I have made friends with people from at least seven countries and I believe that if we try to understand each other international relations will be better. If you try to little bit learn the language of the country you are visiting, those people will open their hearts to you and this will reflect to all relations,'' she said.

Andresson is currently in Trabzon and said she was very much enjoying herself despite the not so good weather conditions. ''I am here for the people. They are very friendly and helpful. I like your family structure. You live together and protect each other. You accept life as it is. This is something that we, the Europeans must learn from you,'' she noted.

-<B>ECONOMIC COOPERATION ORGANIZATION DAY</B>

ANKARA - President Suleyman Demirel said on Sunday that Turkey is resolved to continue its sincere interest and contributions to Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in Eurasia geography including brotherly Turkish republics.

Presidential Press Center said Demirel issued a message due to ECO Day.

In the messsage Demirel congratulated the foundation anniversary of ECO which expanded and strengthened with the participation of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Turkey, Iran and Pakistan are the three founder members.

Demirel said regional economic cooperation groups, which has an important share in world trade, gained importance with the contributions it made to the spreading of economic developments, regional and global peace, stability and prosperity of member countries.

In the message Demirel said, ''Economic Cooperation Organization carries out multilateral and effective cooperation process in fields like trade, transportation, communication and energy, by bringing 10 regional countries whose population is more than 300 million and which has historical, social and cultural ties.''

[08] TURKEY HAS 928 AIDS PATIENTS INCLUDING 624 CARRIERS

Prof. Huseyin Sipahioglu, the Chairman of Protection Against Aids Association told A.A that there were still 36 million AIDS patients in the world which is expected to rise to 40 million in 2000. Every year 16,000 people catch AIDS, he reminded.

AIDS was a very fast spreading disease in the US and the Western countries in the beginning but its spread has slowed down in the US due to the measures taken against the disease while it has become common in Asia and Far East.

Some medicine which is supposed to increase sexual power will cause the disease to spread among the elderly both in the world and in Turkey, Sipahioglu noted.

He noted that AIDS can be only caught through sexual intercourse, blood transfusion, organ transplant and drug usage and stressed that a person cannot catch AIDS by sharing the same dishes, clothing or swimming in a public pool.

The most effective way to combat the disease is to have a single partner and use condoms in extra-marital relations, he reminded and said there was no cure for AIDS but the patient can live 4 to 6 years more with the right treatment.

''The necessary measures should be taken before AIDS spreads more in Turkey. The people must be informed about the disease and the young generations must learn about AIDS at school. The media must show educative programmes,'' Sipahioglu said.

According to the official figures of the Health Ministry, there are 928 AIDS patients in Turkey as of June 30, 1999. 304 of them are clinical patients while 624 are only carriers. 682 of the AIDS patients are men and 246 are women in Turkey. Ten percent of the women who come to Turkey for prostitution from Russia, Ukrania and Romania have AIDS, Sipahioglu explained.

-<B>GERMAN WELFARE INSTITUTION CAP ANAMUR OPENS</B> VILLAGE OF 350 CONTAINER DWELLINGS
SAKARYA - The German welfare institution, Cap Anamur presented 350 container dwellings they built in Adapazari to Sakarya Governorship with a ceremony held on Sunday.

Rupet Noydek, the founder of Cap Anamur said their institution was supported by donations and helped people who were in need. Cap Anamur built ten thousands of dwellings for people in Kosovo and Chechnya to spend the winter. The village they formed in Adapazari has a capacity to host nearly 3,000 people, Noydek said.

Christiane Geisler, the German Counselor in Istanbul, said he was in Germany on August 17 and witnessed the sorrow of German people when the quake hit the Marmara region. Many Germans wanted to visit the quake struck area for help and did not know how to send supplies, he explained. Cap Anamur is a big welfare institution and was the first organization which brought aid supplies to the area.

The village formed of 350 container dwellings also have a school, sports fields and social facilities. Each container measuring 21 squaremeters has a capacity to host 8 people and has a shower and a toilet.

-<B>LENGTH OF MOTORWAYS OPENED TO</B> SERVICE THIS YEAR REACHES 1,749 KM

ANKARA - A total of 1,749 km have been completed in motorways which became the favourite of the secure and rapid transportation. The remaınıng 117 km ıs waitıng for a loan.

A total of 14 trillion lira has been envisaged to be allocated from the 2000 year budget for motorways and express ways. Ministry of Housing and Public Works preferred company loans to construct these roads after realizing that it was impossible to complete the motorway network with existing allocations.

A total of 129 km motorways and connection roads are expected to be opened to service next year.

If 760 million U.S. dollars loan is provided to General Directorate of Highways in addition to budget allocations, these roads can be completed in the planned time, and will contribute to the economy of the country.

[11] WTO THIRD MINISTERS CONFERENCE

Foreign Trade Undersecretariat said the conference will take place in Seattle city of the U.S. between November 30 and December 3. General principles of world trade, which will give shape to 21st century, will be reviewed.

A delegation, headed by Tunca Toskay, Minister of State, will represent Turkey during the third WTO Ministers Conference, which is the highest decision taking organ of WTO.

A total of 135 countries, representatives of more than 30 countries who are in participation process, more than 750 non-governmental organization representatives, and more than 2,500 press officials from 80 countries will participate in the conference.

Review of implementation of Uruguay Round agreement, facilitating trade, electronic trade, trade and environment, competition and investment and issues to increase world trade are expected to be discussed during the conference. A joint declaration is expected to be issued at the end of the conference.

Tunca Toskay, State Minister, is expected to hold bilateral talks with the ministers of various countries on trade and economic relations.

[12] US AMBASSADOR IN ATHENS BURNS: ''WASHINGTON EXPECTS GREECE NOT TO BLOCK TURKEY'S EXPECTATIONS FROM EUROPE''

Burns told the Greek Katemerini Newspaper that Greece would benefit in the long term if Turkey's EU membership is approved, therefore it should vote 'yes' for Turkey's membership.

''We want our friends Turkey and Greece to resolve the problems between them. However, if they fail to do so, the problems can always be discussed at the international court,'' Burns noted.

The contacts which started between the two countries in various fields will be the beginning of a long lasting peace, Burns said, and added that Greece took important steps to improve relations. Burns said he hoped Turkey would also respond in a similar way.

Warming of relations between the Turkish and Greek people following the quake disaster is a good opportunity to develop relations at diplomatic level and both countries should work not to miss this opportunity, Burns said.

[13] AUSTRALIA'S BIGGEST MOSQUE OPENS TO WORSHIP

Turkish Ambassador to Australia, Umut Arik opened the Mosque named 'Gelibolu' in Auborn city. The mosque was completed in 13 years.

Turkish craftsmen were employed to do the interior decoration of the mosque. The mosque has a capacity of 5,000 people and its minarets can be seen from almost all the districts located in west Sydney.

[14] A.A

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