Anadolu Agency: News in English, 00-09-24

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NEWS

24 SEPTEMBER 2000 Sunday

CONTENTS

[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCAN

[02] KONRAD ADENAUER FOUNDATION TURKEY BRANCH CHAIRMAN: ''HELSINKI DECISIONS

[03] TURKS LIVING IN U.S. START SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN TO BLOCK BILL'S APPROVAL AT

[04] EU INTERIOR AND JUSTICE COMMISSION MEMBERS VISIT KAPIKULE

[05] SYRIAN INTERIOR MINISTER DUE IN TURKEY

[06] C-130 CARGO PLANES MODERNIZATION PROJECT

[07] PRECIPITATION IN SOUTH EAST AND EASTERN

[08] EUROPEAN QUALITY AWARDS TO BE GIVEN IN ISTANBUL ON SEPTEMBER 27

[09] TURKEY-ARMENIA RELATIONS AND GENOCIDE RESEARCH CENTER OPENED IN ERZURUM

[10] TURKEY-U.S. COMMERCIAL RELATIONS

[11] FP LEADER KUTAN LEAVES FOR BRUSSELS

[12] INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN GAP REGION

[13] FRENCH PRIEST WITH DONKEY CARRIAGE ARRIVES IN NEVSEHIR

[14] 187 HOUSES AND WORK PLACES FLOODED IN ISTANBUL DUE TO HEAVY RAINS

[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCAN

HURRIYET (LIBERAL)

DSI:''POWER OUTAGES IS INEVITABLE''
State Water Works (DSI) General Director Prof. Dogan Altinbilek said economizing is not enough to overcome the energy crisis Turkey is facing. ''A saving programme until 2003 is inevitable,'' Altinbilek said. After visiting the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) region which supplies 60 percent of Turkey's electricity demand, Altinbilek said Turkey has to invest 4 billion U.S. dollars annually in order to meet its energy need until 2007.

MILLIYET (LIBERAL)

EU DELEGATION INSPECTS DEREKOY AND KAPIKULE BORDER GATES
Thirteen members of the EU Interior and Justice Commission visited Derekoy border gate in Kirklareli and Kapikule border gate in Edirne on Saturday. The delegation members asked questions about illegal entrances to Turkey, passport and visa procedures.

SABAH (LIBERAL)

Onal said he would invite Kohler to Turkey despite Kohler's heavy schedule.

TURKEY COMES 16TH IN ECONOMIC CREATIVITY
According to the World Economic Forum, Turkey left behind many countries in economic creativity and became the 16th on the list. The United States comes first in the economic creativity list of the world and it is followed by Finland. The economic creativity and technology level in a country is calculated by considering many criteria including growth opportunity of small companies. Turkey, despite its high inflation, left behind many countries such as Brazil, China, Russia, Greece, Argentina and Taiwan. There is a very little difference in economic creativity between Turkey and France, which is categorized as a developed country.

CUMHURIYET (LEFT)

TURKEY CAN APPOINT AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ
After the approval of bill on so-called genocide on Armenians by a House subcommittee, Turkey is getting prepared to increase its diplomatic representation level to embassy in Iraq to intimidate United States. Turkey has been using appointment of an Ambassador to Iraq as an element of bargaining with the United States for a long time while the United States doesn't positively approach development of relations between Turkey and Iraq.

RADIKAL (LEFT)

CLINTON ADMINISTRATION IN DESPERATE STRAITS
Sources said that the bill on so-called genocide on Armenians which had been approved by a House of Representatives subcommittee would absolutely be approved by a higher committee. It is legally impossible for the Clinton administration which felt concern that the relations with Turkey would worsen, to intervene in this process.

YENI BINYIL (LIBERAL)

FORMER AMBASSADOR KANDEMIR SAYS ALL TURKISH CITIZENS IN THE U.S.
SHOULD FIGHT AGAINST ARMENIAN BILL
Former Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Nuzhet Kandemir said that Turkish and U.S. administrations displayed a weak reaction to the bill against the so-called genocide on Armenians. ''Our reaction as public and government is very weak,'' Kandemir said and added that ''unfortunately, there is a possibility that the bill might pass.'' Kandemir said that the U.S. administration also did not make enough effort to prevent the bill's approval. ''It is too early to take drastic measures such as closing down the Incirlik base in Adana, but our citizens living in the United States can protest the bill through fax, telephone and letters to the deputies,'' Kandemir said.

TURKIYE (RIGHT)

POWER OUTAGE TO CONTINUE FOR THREE YEARS
The State Water Works (DSI) General Director said that savings measures should be taken in short term and investments should be increased in long- term in order to overcome the energy shortage. ''Scheduled power outages are inevitable. There are now 114 power plants but there is a need for 289 new power plants. The power outages will continue for three years,'' he said.

EARTHQUAKE IN ESKISEHIR
Eskisehir province in central Anatolia was rocked by an earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale at 17:24 on Saturday. There were not any casualties but roof tiles of some buildings dropped down.

TURKISH DJ'S RECORD
Turkish DJ Hakan Doganay living in Izmir made a live broadcast by radio for 64 hours and 23 minutes, breaking the world record. This record was recorded in the Guinnes Book of Records.

ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)

DANGER OF SO-CALLED GENOCIDE
Although it seems impossible, approval of the bill on so-called genocide on Armenians by the U.S. Congress and administration will mean a start for a tough compensation period for Turkey. United States will be followed by firstly France and than other countries. The Turkish history will be ''disreputed'' and this will be followed by compensation demands that will continue without a break. Even if Turkey rejects those demands, its assets in the countries which approve so-called genocide will be endangered.

[02] KONRAD ADENAUER FOUNDATION TURKEY BRANCH CHAIRMAN: ''HELSINKI DECISIONS CANNOT BE TAKEN BACK''

''Helsinki decisions cannot be taken back,'' Wulf Schonbohm, the foundation's Turkey branch chairman said at the meeting.

Noting that Helsinki decisions created a new perspective, Schonbohm said ''our responsibility will be to support Turkey in every field.''

Responding to some criticisms against Turkey, Charge d'Affaires in the Turkish Embassy in Berlin Hakan Okcal said the Turkish goverment is supporting the Turkish citizens who are interested in becoming German citizens. Okcal also said Turkey wants these people to become well adapted to the German society.

Turkey Research Center Deputy Chairperson Cigdem Akkaya said Turkish citizens in Germany play an important role in Turkey's EU membership process.

[03] TURKS LIVING IN U.S. START SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN TO BLOCK BILL'S APPROVAL AT A HIGHER COMMITTEE

The signatures that are collected at the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA), the Federation of Turkish-American Associations, and the Turkish Forum will be presented to the Congress on Monday.

ATAA also called on the Turks living in this country to show their reactions by telephoning and sending letters to the Congress members.

The bill on the so-called Armenian genocide will be discussed at the House International Relations Committee this week. It is almost certain that the bill will be approved at this committee since a majority of the committee members are supporting the bill.

The bill had been approved last Thursday at the House International Relations and Human Rights subcommittee. The bill urges the U.S. administration to familiarize the U.S. State Department Personnel and other government personnel about the so-called genocide of Armenians committed by Turks beginning of last century. The bill also urges the U.S. President to make an official statement about the genocide on April 24 every year to commemorate the deaths.

[04] EU INTERIOR AND JUSTICE COMMISSION MEMBERS VISIT KAPIKULE

Edirne Deputy Governor Necati Senturk briefed the delegation members about the border gate.

Patrick Sinonnet who is in charge of relations with Turkey in the EU Commission said they are carrying out inspections in the 13 EU candidate countries.

He said their visit aims to compare Turkey's and EU's customs laws and added that they are collecting information about operation of police, and fight against crimes at border gates.

When a reporter asked Sinonnet about his impressions, he said ''we didn't come here to make criticism.''

Noting that they will prepare reports on Turkey, Sinonnet said these reports will be kept confidential and they will be presented to Turkish authorities.

Senturk briefed the delegation members about combat against drug smuggling and organized crime at Kapikule, forgery in documents and international immigration.

The delegation also has experts from Britain, Germany, Greece and France.

[05] SYRIAN INTERIOR MINISTER DUE IN TURKEY

A written statement released by the Interior Ministry on Sunday said that Turkish and Syrian delegations would mainly discuss security matters.

Authorities would also focus on development of cooperation between the two countries, it said.

Harba, during his stay in Turkey, will visit Deputy Prime Minister Husammettin Ozkan.

Harba and his delegation will also have several contacts in Ankara and Istanbul before they leave Turkey on September 29.

[06] C-130 CARGO PLANES MODERNIZATION PROJECT

Sources said on Sunday that the works on the seven C-130 cargo planes avionic modernization project (Erciyes Program) that the Defense Industry Undersecretariat had placed in prior projects list in previous years had reached the final stage.

The Undersecretariat invited fourteen companies to the renovation tender which aimed at granting these seven cargo planes of the Air Forces intercontinental flight capacity.

Within scope of the project which will be financed by equity capital of the Defense Industry Undersecretariat, air traffic and flight indicators of these cargo planes will be renovated and their systems will be modernized.

Within scope of the project, software, software modification and integration capability will be transferred.

After the recent invitation to the companies which are interested in the tender, a supplementary period of 45 days has been given to those companies regarding the renovation program in question.

In accordance with this, those companies will submit their bids on October 16, 2000, and the company to win the tender will be announced by the end of 2000.

The modernization project will be implemented at Air Forces Commandership's air-base in Eskisehir province in central Anatolia.

Israel Aircraft Industies Limited, Rockwell-Collins, Radom Aviaton System Limited, Marshall Aerospace, Memphis Internatýonal Inc, Lockheed Martin Aircraft and Logistics Centers, Singapore Technologies Aeerospaca, Honoywell, Casa, Mae Systems, Thomson-CSF International, Albit Systems Ltd, Sogerma and Certified Aircraft Parts Inc are expected to bid for the project.

[07] PRECIPITATION IN SOUTH EAST AND EASTERN

State Meteorology Directorate General said on Sunday that they also observed a 12 percent decrease throughout Turkey in 2000.

Seyfullah Celik from the State Meteorology General Directorate Weather Forecast Department said the reason for the decrease in precipitation was that low pressure lines did not enter Turkey from the Mediterranean in the last two years and the precipitation generally occurred in the northern parts.

Celik also noted that the temperatures this summer were over seasonal averages and this increased evaporation. ''We lived the hottest days of the last century,'' Celik said.

Celik said they are expecting precipitation at normal levels in September, October and November in Turkey and one or two degrees increase in the temperatures. He stated that they are not expecting drought in any of Turkey's regions.

[08] EUROPEAN QUALITY AWARDS TO BE GIVEN IN ISTANBUL ON SEPTEMBER 27

The winners will be announced at the ''Forum of Excellence'' which will be organized at Lutfi Kurdar International Congress and Exhibition Hall in Istanbul.

The European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) will organize the event. Arcelik, Eczacibasi Vitra and Marmara University's Engineering Faculties are among the candidates.

''Management of Differences'' will be the theme of this year's forum. Interactive workshops and an exhibition will also be parts of the forum.

Turkish companies have won six awards since 1995 in the competition.

[09] TURKEY-ARMENIA RELATIONS AND GENOCIDE RESEARCH CENTER OPENED IN ERZURUM UNIVERSITY

Deputy Director of the Center Dr. Erol Kurkcuoglu said on Sunday that their goal in opening this center was to make various documents showing Armenian cruelty accessible to all people in the world.

Noting that they have carried out several studies on this subject, Kurkcuoglu said they want to make better use of these researches.

Since the Erzurum University is located in a region where the Armenian cruelty took place, the university carries out the most comprehensive research on this subject among other Turkish universities, he noted.

Kurkcuoglu said they did excavations in various villages in eastern Erzurum and Igdir provinces and organized panel discussions and conferences about their findings.

During the excavations, they obtained important data which will be used in the Turkey-Armenia Relations and Genocide Research Center, he said.

''We had a very strong foundation on this matter but we were not organized, '' he went on to say. ''This is why we set up this center. We don't want anyone to use Turkey-Armenia relations and the genocide to use as a political tool. We want to shed light on the history through our documents. We have many documents which we obtained from Russian, Ottoman and Armenian archieves,'' he said.

The Research Center will organize conferences which will be attended by Turkish and foreign scientists. The official opening of the center will take place on October 4.

[10] TURKEY-U.S. COMMERCIAL RELATIONS

According to the information compiled from the Treasury and Foreign Trade Undersecretariats, a total of 26 billion 754.7 million U.S. dollars of foreign capital inflow had been permitted as of end of June, 2000, and 3 billion 41.2 million U.S. dollars of this inflow belonged to the United States while France had a share of 5.3 billion U.S. dollars and Germany haa a 3.5 billion U.S. dollars stake.

According to the Treasury Undersecretariat's Foreign Capital Directorate General data, a total of 1 billion 202 million U.S. dollars of foreign capital inflow had been permitted in the first half of 2000, and 30.6 million U.S. dollars of this amount belonged to the United States.

As of end-June 2000, a total of 5,129 foreign capital companies were operating in Turkey, and 318 them were American-rooted companies.

As of the same date, total capital of foreign capital limited companies in Turkey reached 2 quadrillion 220 trillion Turkish liras (TL) while 1 quadrillion 178 trillion 963 billion TL of this amount belonged to foreign capital companies.

The share of foreign capital in total capital of foreign capital limited companies is 53.12 percent.

The total capital of Turkish companies which set up partnerships with American companies is 264 trillion 460.3 billion TL, and 57.36 percent or 151 trillion 685.6 billion TL of this capital belongs to American companies. The share of American companies in total capital of foreign companies is 12.87 percent.

As of end-June 2000, the U.S. became the second country with which Turkey mostly traded.

According to the statistics, in the first half of 2000, total exports from Turkey was 13 billion 353.4 million U.S. dollars, and 1 billion 489 million U.S. dollars of those exports were made to the U.S.

In the January-June period of 2000, exports to the U.S. increased 26.44 percent when compared to same period of 1999.

In the same period last year, total exports from Turkey to the U.S. was 1 billion 177.6 million U.S. dollars which was equivalent to 9.2 percent of total exports from Turkey.

In the first half of 2000, a total of 25 billion 24.2 million U.S. dollars imports were made, and 1 billion 962 million U.S. dollars which was equivalent to 7.8 percent of total imports were made from the U.S.

With this amount of imports, the U.S. ranked second after Germany.

Imports from the U.S. increased 40.22 percent in the first half of 2000 when compared to same period of 1999. In the first half of 1999, 7.6 percent of total imports had been made from the U.S.

The U.S. considers Turkey one of the ten rapidly growing and emerging markets in the world and Turkey attributes great importance to foreign trade with the U.S.

Total imports from U.S. in 1999 had been 3 billion 80 million U.S. dollars while total exports to this country from Turkey had been 2 billion 436.6 million U.S. dollars.

In 1998, total exports from Turkey to the U.S. had been 2 billion 233.3 million U.S. dollars while total imports from this country had been 4 billion 53.7 million U.S. dollars.

[11] FP LEADER KUTAN LEAVES FOR BRUSSELS

Kutan said that he would have contacts with Belgian government authorities, EU representatives and NATO Secretary General in Brussels.

When they visited the United States last year, Kutan said that their slogan was ''know about us through asking us,'' and their visit to Brussels would also have a similar purpose.

When asked whether or not he was going to Belgium to seek for support regarding amendment to Article 312, Kutan said they would express their views on this article and the closure of the Welfare Party (RP) if they were asked any questions on these matters by the Belgian authorities.

[12] INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN GAP REGION

GAP Regional Development Management Directorate data shows that two OSBs in Gaziantep, one OSB in Sanliurfa and one OSB in Mardin have been finalized.

Although the construction of OSBs in Diyarbakir and Kilis is under way, some factories have started production.

The data shows that 136 enterprises in Gaziantep-1 OSB, 107 enterprises in Gaziantep-2 OSB, 49 factories in Mardin OSB and 83 factories in Sanliurfa OSB started production.

Twelve factories in Diyarbakir OSB, fourteen factories in Gaziantep-3 OSB, and four others in Kilis OSB started production.

A total of 30 thousand people were employed at these OSBs.

In the scope of investment program, construction of Adiyaman OSB, Batman OSB, Diyarbakir OSB, Gaziantep-3 OSB, Gaziantep-4 OSB, Nizip OSB, Kilis OSB, Siirt OSB and Sanliurfa-2 OSB was foreseen.

With the finalization of construction of these OSBs, the number of factories will increase to 121 and number of employed people will reach 97 thousand.

Meanwhile, eighteen small industrial zones consisting of 5,514 business places were finalized in the provinces and townships in GAP region, and 33 thousand people were employed.

There are 19 projects consisting of 4,527 business places in the investment program.

With the finalization of these projects, 37 small industrial zones with 10, 041 business places will be opened, and 60 thousand people will be employed.

[13] FRENCH PRIEST WITH DONKEY CARRIAGE ARRIVES IN NEVSEHIR

Grenapin's final destination is Israel.

The 60-year old priest told the A.A correspondent that he travelled 5,115 kilometers and did not face any dangerous situation on the way.

''God was my biggest sponsor and helper,'' Grenapin said. He stated that Turkish people offered him help in everything since the moment he entered the country.

Some people fed his donkey while others shared their food with him, he said. Grenapin said he sometimes found it difficult to travel in Turkey due to the land's hilly structure.

''My biggest dream in my youth was to go on such a trip, now I am doing that,'' he said. ''Despite my old age, I started feeling very young during this trip.''

Grenapin said he was going to Israel only to worship there and he was expecting to reach this country by the end of this year.

Grenapin will pass from Nigde, Adana, Hatay, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan before he reaches his final destination. The French priest will return to his home with a ferry early in 2001.

[14] 187 HOUSES AND WORK PLACES FLOODED IN ISTANBUL DUE TO HEAVY RAINS

The rains started at midnight and lasted for three hours.

In the meantime, a total of 143 traffic accidents were reported both in Anatolian and European sides of the city during the rains.

Seven of these accidents resulted in injuries while others caused material damage.

Meteorologists said they were expecting the rains to continue also on Monday and Tuesday.

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