Anadolu Agency: News in English, 00-10-04

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ANADOLU AGENCY

NEWS

4 OCTOBER 2000

Wednesday

CONTENTS

[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCAN

[02] APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION ON SOCALLED GENOCIDE ON ARMENIANS

[03] RESOLUTION ON SO-CALLED GENOCIDE ON ARMENIANS

[04] TURKISH-U.S. BUSINESS RELATIONS TO BE DISCUSSED IN NEW YORK

[05] TURKEY, ISRAEL, EGYPT AND GREECE TO HAVE COOPERATION IN TOURISM

[06] NEW TURKISH JUDGE TO ECHR

[07] INTERNET USERS MAY REACH HISTORICAL FACTS ON SO-CALLED GENOCIDE

[08] TURKEY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO U.N. PEACE-KEEPING

[09] DROUGHT NEGATIVELY AFFECTS ENERGY PRODUCTION IN DAMS

[10] PUBLIC INVESTMENTS EXPECTED TO BECOME

[11] GERMAN-TURKISH TRADE AND INDUSTRY CHAMBER DELEGATION TO

[12] INTERIOR MINISTER TANTAN SAYS FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IS

[13] 5TH INTERNATIONAL BURSA CHILDREN'S AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S

[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCAN

HURRIYET (LIBERAL)

Interior Minister Saadettin Tantan and Zekeriya Temizel, the Head of Banking Regulation Supreme Board, launched the ''Kasirga'' (hurricane) operation against the administrators of the banks which had been transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund. Temizel found out that the corruption in these banks was made eight months before the banks were transferred to the state. Later, the Ankara State Security Court (DGM) Chief Prosecutor's Office decided to carry out the investigation into Egebank, one of the banks transferred to the fund, jointly by the policemen working in the Smuggling Department and the banking experts. Murat Demirel, the former owner of Egebank, was detained on September 28.

LAST CALL TO U.S.
Ankara warned Washington D.C. by saying that the last step in the adoptation of the resolution on the so-called genocide on the Armenians is the U.S. full House and that the result that will come out of the full House will be a determining element in bilateral relations. The high- ranking officials of the Foreign Ministry who met with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Faruk Logoglu, decided to wait for the decision of the U.S. full House before launching the 30-article action plan which will lead to radical changes in the relations.

MILLIYET (LIBERAL)

DECISION NOT TO PROSECUTE ERDOGAN
The Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Vural Savas decided not to prosecute former Istanbul major Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the end of the investigation opened due to Erdogan's words against him. Therefore, the file on Erdogan was cancelled.

SABAH (LIBERAL)

MARMARA FAULT LINE HAS THREE PIECES
The research carried out by the French Suroit Ship in the Marmara Sea ended. Recent information has been achieved about a possible earthquake during the research which started on September 12. Xavier Le Pichon, the French scientist said that the fault line in Marmara Sea has three pieces, not two pieces as it was known before.

CUMHURIYET (LEFT)

INFLATION RISE IN SEPTEMBER
The inflation rate in September has been around the expected one; however, it seems that the government won't reach its inflation target by the end of this year. The monthly increase in consumer prices has been 3,1 percent and the wholesale prices has been 2,3 percent in September.

RADIKAL (LEFT)

REGIONAL COOPERATION FOR THE TURKISH STRAITS
Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) launched an initaitive within the framework of International Black Sea Partners, to lessen the transportation of hazardous substance through the straits. NGOs from Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia,Georgia, and Turkey convened on September 21 and decided to impose pressure on national and international scale to prevent the negative outcomes of possible accidents in the straits.

YENI BINYIL (LIBERAL)

CEM WARNS ARMENIA AND U.S.
Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, who was in Uzbekistan when the U.S. House International Relations Committee adopted the resolution on the so-called genocide on the Armenians, warned both Armenia and the U.S. Cem said, ''if the resolution is passed from the U.S. full House, it will have serious effects not only on Turkey's relations with Armenia and the stability initiatives in the Caucasus but also on Turkish-American relations.'' A written statement of the Foreign Ministry called on the members of the U.S. House of Representatives to evaluate the final stage very well.

TURKIYE (RIGHT)

HEROIN WORTH OF 100 BILLION TL SEIZED
Security forces seized 11 kilograms of heroin which was brought from Iran in an operation carried out jointly by the Van and Sanliurfa police organizations. The smugglers wanted to take the heroin worth of 100 billion Turkish Liras (TL) to Gaziantep via Yuksekova, Baskale, Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, and Sanliurfa and smuggle it from Gaziantep to foreign countries.

ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)

[02] APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION ON SOCALLED GENOCIDE ON ARMENIANS

Speaking to a group of journalists, Irtemcelik said that the development within the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee was not an unexpected thing, adding that the Turkish parliamentary delegation was sorry by the approval of the resolution.

''Nothing has finished yet, the resolution has been transfered to the full House. We'll monitor the developments there. Our mission here is both to explain the sensitivity of Turkey about the issue, and also contribute to the protection of the Turkish-American relations,'' said Irtemcelik.

Turkey does its best for Turkish-American relations and for the regional stability, said Irtemcelik adding that Turkey's counterparts should also act in a responsible way like Turkey.

Reminding the reporters that there is no real document about the claims of genocide on Armenians, Irtemcelik noted that ''the Turkish nation will never accept the charge because it didn't happen.''

The other members of the parliamentary delegation also expressed sorrow over the approval of the resolution and hoped that it wouldn't be accepted by the full House.

[03] RESOLUTION ON SO-CALLED GENOCIDE ON ARMENIANS

Reeker noted that if the resolution is passed from the U.S. House of Representatives, the peace and stability efforts in the Caucasus and the Turkish-American relations can be damaged.

Such drafts and resolutions make settlement of dialogue in the region more difficult, Reeker stated.

Reeker stressed that Turkey is an ally which has vital importance in the critical region.

They want to exert joint efforts with Turkey to reach the common targets, Reeker said.

That the resolution should not have negative effects on the bilateral relations, is for the benefit of two countries, he said.

The Turkish-American relations have a strong base, Reeker added.

[04] TURKISH-U.S. BUSINESS RELATIONS TO BE DISCUSSED IN NEW YORK

The conference will be held in the New York Municipal Board Hall by the concerted efforts of the Turkish-American Business Forum and officials of New York Municipality.

Officials of the Forum told A.A correspondent on Wednesday that the conference will enable the Turkish and U.S. businessmen to meet with the administrators of New York and officials of other organizations.

Mark Parris, the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey; Peter Vallone, the New York Mayor; Jerome O'Donovan, the Chairman of Economic Development Committee; and Orhan Taner, the Chairman of the Turkish-American Business Forum; will speak in the conference.

[05] TURKEY, ISRAEL, EGYPT AND GREECE TO HAVE COOPERATION IN TOURISM

Aslantas told A.A correspondent that regional promotion and marketing are important in tourism sector.

The chairpersons of Travelling Agencies Unions of Egypt, Israel, Greece and Turkey convened in Istanbul, Aslantas said.

Aslantas noted that these four countries have launched efforts to form East Mediterranean Travelling Agencies Union Federation and that the pre- protocol of the federation was signed in Istanbul.

The mentioned countries put forward some new proposals, Aslantas stated.

Aslantas stressed that agreement reduction committee was formed and that the final protocol will be signed in Istanbul in the end of November.

They think that the cooperation will be beneficial to the four countries, Aslantas said.

Aslantas emphasized that Turkey and Israel carried out joint promotion campaign in the U.S. last year.

''Our joint initiatives with Israel will continue. We exchanged views with Israel in September regarding the 2001 tourism season. We plan to continue the cooperation,'' Aslantas added.

[06] NEW TURKISH JUDGE TO ECHR

There are certain criteria which should be abided by Turkey while choosing its new judge candidate. The election process will start on November 1, and firstly the government has to declare its election date. At the second stage, three names among the applicants will be determined and then the Foreign Ministry will inform the Council of Europe (COE) Secretariat General about these candidates.

The candidates should be experts in the human rights field, they have to know English and French and one of them has to be a woman.

The COE gives one year period to 41 member countries to determine their candidates. The COE will be informed about the candidates till the end of February and finally the COE Parliamentary Assembly will elect one of the candidates within 2,5 months.

[07] INTERNET USERS MAY REACH HISTORICAL FACTS ON SO-CALLED GENOCIDE

The site could be reached from ''www.ermenisorunu.gen.tr'' and ''www.armenianterror.com'' adresses in Turkish, English and German.

Istemihan Talay, the Culture Minister, said that they provided a link from their website to ''Armenian Issue'' site prepared by Forsnet and by doing so, they were aiming at providing the historical facts on Armenian issue.

[08] TURKEY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO U.N. PEACE-KEEPING

Turkey contributes to the U.N. general budget by 0.44 percent and to the peace keeping operations budget by 0.088 percent. U.N. sources said that the contribution of Turkey to the U.N. budget can increase when taken into consideration the recent developments in Turkey's economy and the views saying that Turkey is the 16th biggest economy of the world.

Turkey, which actively participates in the U.N. peace keeping operations of the U.N., has 18 police officers in East Timor, 118 in Kosovo and 29 in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Turkey has six observers in Iraq-Kuwait monitoring force, five observers in Georgia force and two observers in East Timor force. The total contribution of Turkey to these mission forces is 165 police officers and 13 observers.

Safak Gokturk, the Turkey's Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. who spoke in the fifth committee, said that Turkey started to get more power at the international and regional level in the peace keeping operations and it won't refrain from taking more responsibilities if necessary.

[09] DROUGHT NEGATIVELY AFFECTS ENERGY PRODUCTION IN DAMS

The water level in Keban Dam and in other dams in Fırat (Euphrates) Basin, which have an important share in Turkey's energy production decreased due to insufficient rain.

Officials said that Keban, Karakaya and Ataturk dams had to produce 18,3 billion kilowatthours of energy in the first nine months of this year, but they only produced 12,9 billion kilowatthours of energy. An energy loss of 5,4 billion kilowatthours emerged in the three dams in this period.

Officials noted that the water levels in dams decrease and the energy production will stop if it does not rain much in the coming 1,5 months, adding that islets started to appear in Keban Dam lake.

''If the reservoir level further decreases in these three dams, energy production can be suspended,'' they added.

[10] PUBLIC INVESTMENTS EXPECTED TO BECOME

This year, a total of 327.4 trillion TL had been allocated to the communication investments which won't be included in 2001 year investment program as the Turkish Telekom's public economic enterprise status was lifted in accordance with the newly legalized Telecommmunications Law.

Meanwhile, almost 750 trillion TL expenditure was demanded for the earthquake expenses which were not included in the public investments this year, and nearly 600 trillion TL source was planned to be allocated to the earthquake expenditures in 2001.

It was foreseen that 400 trillion TL of this source will be normal allocation while the remaining 200 trillion TL will be kept as a reserve allocation.

The definite figures for those investments will become clear after the meeting of Higher Planning Board (YPK) in coming days.

-HISTORIAN YALCINKAYA SAYS NO ACADEMIC OR SCIENTIFIC STUDY
CAN PROVE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
TRABZON - Head of the History Department at the Karadeniz Technical University (KTU), Dr. Mehmet Alaaddin Yalcinkaya has said that Armenians held important positions as bureaucrats and statesmen in the Ottoman Empire throughout the history. Yalcinkaya told A.A correspondent that Turkish- Armenian relations first started when Seljuk Turks came to Anatolia and to South Caucasia through Azerbaijan.

''Before the Seljuks, Armenians rebelled during the time of the Basil I under the Byzantian rule. Following this, some Armenians were sent to Cukurova region. Later, Armenians lived under the rule of Akkoyunlu, Karakoyunlu, Ilhanli, Ottoman and Seferis.''

Majority of the Armenians living under the Ottoman rule were Ottoman citizens and they were enjoying a high level of peace and prosperity, Yalcinkaya said. ''They were the minority who benefited most from the rights that were granted to non-Muslims. Armenians held important positions as bureaucrats and statesmen in the Ottoman Empire. Especially following the Greek uprising in 1821, Armenians replaced Greeks in Ottoman bureaucratical, commercial and cultural affairs.''

Noting that the Berlin Agreement included an article which envisaged to make radical reforms in the regions inhabited by Armenians, Yalcinkaya said after this agreement, Russia and Britain provoked Armenians in order to gain dominance over the region. ''Russians wanted to go down to the Persian Gulf and East Mediterranean and the British wanted to prevent Russia from doing so through the support of Armenians. It is a known fact that Armenians became organized and rebelled against the Ottoman Empire by taking strength from the western countries.''

During the World War I, Armenians cooperated with Russians and they were involved in gang clashes against Turks and other Muslim minorities.

''The gangs started butchering Turks and Muslims. Acting upon this, the Ottoman Empire took the decision to send some of the Armenians who cooperated with Russians away from the region to stop the clashes and give an end to the Armenian-Muslim war in the region. The Ottomans tried to do this carefully in order to prevent Armenians to suffer any losses. However, some people perished on the way because of the poor constructed roads, and economic problems faced by the country.''

Stating that Britain, France and the United States started an investigation regarding the deaths, Yalcinkaya said these western countries failed to find any evidence of a genocide despite the material and archive they possessed. In the later years, the British government further studied the incident and saw that no such thing as a genocide took place. However, the resentful western powers which failed to reach their goals through the Sevres Treaty have been systematically bringing this subject up against Turkey. No academic or scientific study can prove a genocide committed against Armenians.''

[11] GERMAN-TURKISH TRADE AND INDUSTRY CHAMBER DELEGATION TO

The delegation will later be given a briefing about the last stage reached in GAP.

After visiting the Ataturk Dam and the Hydro-Electric Power Plant, the delegation will leave the region on the same day.

[12] INTERIOR MINISTER TANTAN SAYS FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IS

Prior to the conference, the Intelligence Deparment gave an audio-visual presentation about fundamentalist terrorist organizations. The presentation included detailed information about the ''Malazgirt'' operation carried out against Hezbollah, ''Umut'' operation which shed light on the murders of intellectuals like Muammer Aksoy, Bahriye Ucok, Ugur Mumcu, and Ahmet Taner Kislali, and the latest ''Hedef'' operation.

The Hedef operation was started in 30 provinces against the Malatyalilar Group which aimed to set up a system in Turkey based on the Islamic law. A total of 309 members of the group have been taken into custody and 30 of them were later arrested. Police released 194 of them while the interrogation of 85 people is still continuing. Police also seized five Kalashnikovs, one automatic gun, seven guns of various types, five rifles, one hunting rifle, six hand granades, 5,745 bullets, and a significant amount of equipment used in bomb making.

Tantan said security forces increased operations against organizations which exploit religion to change the constitutional system and set up a system based on the Islamic law.

When asked if the National Intelligence Service (MIT) was involved in the operation against the Malatyalilar Group, Tantan confirmed that the MIT, which did not take part in Hezbollah and Umut operations, cooperated with the police in the Hedef operation.

Regarding the ''Kasirga'' operation which resulted in the arrest of Yahya Murat Demirel, Tantan said ''the government has always supported his ministry's activities.'' When asked if there was any political pressure from the government, Tantan said ''there was no pressure from the government, on the contrary the government encouraged us.''

Tantan said fundamentalist organizations lose their mobility as a result of the operations carried out against them by the security forces. Tantan complained that other institutions fail to perform their duties in combat against fundamentalist organizations.

''Fight against corruption is a priority for us and it will continue uninterruptedly,'' Tantan said answering another question. He stressed that everybody has to obey the law without any exceptions.

[13] 5TH INTERNATIONAL BURSA CHILDREN'S AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S

BKSTV Secretary General Melek Apaydin said at a press conference that 12 drama groups including four Turkish groups will participate in the conference.

Istanbul Greater City Theater, BKSTV Children's Theater, Tiyatro Tempo, and Anatolia are the Turkish drama groups participating in the festival. Other participating drama groups are from Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Tunisia, Denmak and Russia.

Apaydin said that the participants were chosen among 25 applicants by the World Children and Young People Theaters Association's (ASSITEJ) Turkey office.

The festival, Apaydin said, aims to discuss and find solutions to problems regarding children's theaters.

The Russian St.Petersburg State Theater will perform Polyanna on the first day of the festival which will be held at the Teyyare Culture Center.

Workshops and training sessions will also take place as a part of the festival.

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