Anadolu Agency: News in English, 00-10-16

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ANADOLU AGENCY

NEWS

16 OCTOBER 2000

Monday

CONTENTS

[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCAN

[02] SEVEN DETAINEES OF EGEBANK SCANDAL TRANSFERRED TO ANKARA DGM

[03] SPORTS - BODY-BUILDING

[04] U.S. ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES TO BLOCK RESOLUTION

[05] BAKU-CEYHAN OIL PIPELINE PROJECT

[06] COUNCIL OF MINISTERS MEETING ENDS (3)

[07] IP LEADER PERINCEK MEETS WITH CHINESE STATE COUNCIL MEMBER ISMAIL AHMED

[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCAN

HURRIYET (LIBERAL)

ONE MORE HUMANITARIAN AID TO IRAQ
A plane carrying humanitarian aid of Altaylar Company, left for Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Two doctors and five officials from the company also left for Baghdad. The humanitarian aid includes baby food and vaccine.

DEMONSTRATION HELD TO PROTEST RESOLUTION ON SO-CALLED GENOCIDE
A demonstration was held in northwestern Tekirdag province to protest the resolution on so-called genocide on Armenians which was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittees. Nearly 1,500 demonstrators marched from Martyrs Cemetery to Ataturk's Monument in the city center. The demonstrators carried flags and banners.

MILLIYET (LIBERAL)

SABAH (LIBERAL)

TURKEY'S SHARE IN TEXTILE TO INCREASE
DuPont Lycra's Turkey, Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe Sales and Marketing Director Berkeley Miller said that Turkey's share in the world textile industry would grow, both in European and U.S. markets. Noting that they will hold the first leaders summit of the millennium in Istanbul, Miller said the reason they prefer Turkey for the meeting is that this country has been the fastest growing country within Dupont in the last two or three years.

INVESTIGATION OPENED AGAINST PROSECUTOR WHO FEEDS CATS IN PRISON YARD
An investigation was opened against Izmir Selcuk Prosecutor Cengiz Tasdemir for feeding about 200 cats in the yard of the Selcuk Prison. Tasdemir who was appointed to the prison a year ago brought along the 30 stray cats he was feeding in the street. Later, the population of cats rose to 200. The Ministry started an investigation about Tasdemir after one of the inmates complained about him last month. Prosecutor Tasdemir who is spending most of his salary for cats, said he is also having them neutered to prevent their breeding. Tasdemir who said ''cats are his everything,'' also hired two people to look after the cats. Inhabitants of Selcuk district reacted to the investigation and said they could not understand why the ministry is dealing with such an issue while there are several criminals walking freely in the streets.

CUMHURIYET (LEFT)

TURKISH PROFESSOR GETS TRANSLATION AWARD
Prof. Necdet Adabag from the Italian Language department of the Language, History and Geography University won an award at the International Translation Contest organized by the Italian Culture Ministry leaving behind his 100 competitors. Adabag's translation of a poem called ''the Songs'' by the Italian classical poet Giacoma Leopardi was a factor in the jury's decision. The poem is composed of 5,000 lines.

RADIKAL (LEFT)

MILLER: ''TURKEY'S SHARE IN WORLD TEXTILE INDUSTRY WILL GROW''
DuPont Lycra's Middle East, Africa and East Europe Sales and Marketing Director Berkeley T. Miller said that Turkey's share in the world textile industry would increase. Fifteen top executives of DuPont Lycra visited the International Textile Fair in Istanbul. The executives will hold their first leaders summit in Istanbul. Miller said that Turkey had been the fastest growing country in DuPont in the last two or three years, which is the reason why they are having the first leaders summit in this country. Noting that they regard Turkey as a growing market in the global textile industry, Miller said that there were many influencial textile factories in Turkey which have the capacity to compete with the world.

YENI BINYIL (LIBERAL)

ECEVIT AND BAHCELI TO SUGGEST YILMAZ TO WITHDRAW BASESGIOGLU
The coalition partners will convene today on the eve of tomorrow's third round of vote for election of new parliament speaker. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, the leader of the Democratic Left Party (DSP), and Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), will suggest Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, the leader of the Motherland Party (ANAP), to withdraw Murat Basesgioglu from candidacy. Yilmaz dismissed previously Prime Minister Ecevit's and Deputy Prime Minister Husamettin Ozkan's requests on the issue.

NARCOTICS TEAMS CONFISCATE 5.3 KG OF HEROIN
Narcotics teams confiscated 5.3 kg of heroin having a market value of nearly 50 billion Turkish liras in Nokta village in southeastern Sanliurfa province. Two people were taken into custody in the operations. Sources said that the drug was brough in Turkey from Iran.

TURKIYE (RIGHT)

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME TO END ON OCTOBER 29
The daylight saving time will end on October 29. The summer-time implementation which started at 01.00 a.m. on March 26 by advancing the standart time by one hour, will end at 02:00 a.m. on October 29. The implementation which was adopted together with the European countries, last for nearly seven months this year. More than 15 trillion Turkish liras have been gained by energy saving. Nearly 650 million kilowatt hours of energy, which was saved by summer-time implementation, is equal to one-year capacity of a middle-size thermic power station.

ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)

EVERY CHILD IN TURKEY BORN WITH 1.6 BILLION TL OF DEBT
The amount of debt per every individual in Turkey reaches 1.6 billion TL. In other words, every child is born with a debt of 2,436 U.S. dollars including Turkey's domestic and foreign debts, revealed a study carried out by Miners Union (Maden-Is). In 1990, this figure was 1,262 U.S. dollars.

[02] SEVEN DETAINEES OF EGEBANK SCANDAL TRANSFERRED TO ANKARA DGM

Nuh Mete Yuksel, the Republican Prosecutor of the Ankara DGM, will interrogate Kevin Hood, the Deputy Director General of Egebank for off- shore banking; Husnu Barbaros Olcay and Pembe Jale Oktay, the members of Egebank's Executive Board; Emine Mehtap Ceylan, the Deputy Director General of Egebank, Bekir Ozer, the chauffeur of Yahya Murat Demirel; and Demirel's bodyguards Aydin Ataman and Ender Keskin.

Yahya Murat Demirel, the former owner of the Egebank, Gokalp Basturk, Aysenur Demirel Esenler, Turan Turanoglu, Saban Ayhan Tatligil and Sevtap Arslan were earlier arrested.

[03] SPORTS - BODY-BUILDING

[04] U.S. ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES TO BLOCK RESOLUTION

Besides Clinton's personal efforts, the U.S. administration is also working very hard to prevent the resolution's passage.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Secretary of Defense William Cohen wrote a joint letter to the resolution's supporter House Speaker Dennis Hastert and clearly asked him not to pass the resolution.

Observors said that U.S. State and Defense departments normally do not carry out joint initiatives, therefore their joint letters indicate a common state policy on the Armenian resolution.

Head of the House Intelligence Committeee Porter Goss who is from the Republican Party is also regularly conveying his worries about the resolution to Hastert.

While the U.S. administration is fervently continuing its activities to block the resolution, it is not yet clear when the resolution would be debated at the House floor.

The resolution is not included in the full House's Tuesday and Wednesday agendas, however the Armenian lobby is exerting pressure on Hastert to hold a vote as soon as possible.

Observors said it is for Turkey's advantage that no date has been scheduled for the resolution's debate, but they also noted that Hastert could bring up the resolution to debate any moment he likes. Under these circumstances, the resolution could be voted only a few hours after Hastert opens it to discussion.

Despite Turkey's warnings about its negative repercussions and Clinton's intensive efforts, political observers in Washington, D.C. are still thinking that the resolution is likely to pass by the full House.

[05] BAKU-CEYHAN OIL PIPELINE PROJECT

The representatives of the sponsor group and the officials from the host states will sign the Transit Government, Host Government, Turn-Key Delivery and Guarantee Document Agreements in Baku on Tuesday, in Tbilisi on Wednesday and in Ankara on Thursday.

The host states agreement will be signed by Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey while the turn-key delivery agreement will be signed by the AIOC consortium which will be the owner of the pipeline, and by the investor company MEPCO and BOTAS.

The guarantee document agreement will be signed by the officials from the governments of the same countries, AIOC and MEPCO while the host government agreement will be signed by Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

The sponsor group is composed of BP-Amaco, DeltaHess, Socar, Itochu, Ramco, Statoil, TPAO and Unocal which have shares in the international consortium AIOC that operates the Azeri, Cirak and Gunesli oil beds in Azerbaijan.

According to the feasibility report of the German PLE company, the project will cost 2.4 billion U.S. dollars excluding financing expenses and the crude oil.

The pipeline will start from Sangachal terminal near Baku and end at southern Ceyhan province following the Erzurum-Erzincan-Kayseri route via Georgia.

The pipeline is planned to be 1,730 kilometers in length while 468 km part of it will be in Azerbaijan, 225 km in Georgia and 1,037 km in Turkish territories.

Two control and command centers, one in Baku and the other one in Ceyhan, and a monitoring center in Tbilisi were foreseen to be constructed.

Three transfer stations were planned while the data transmission and communication will be provided through satellite systems or a fibre optic cable which would be installed together with construction of the pipeline.

Construction of nine pumping stations, two in Azerbaijan, three in Georgia and four in Turkey, was foreseen.

In accordance with the agreement, 55 cent per barrel transit fee will be collected in first 16 years and there will be a 20 cent tax.

The pipeline will work with 50 percent capacity for the first 16 years and later it will gradually increase and start operating with 100 percent capacity.

The construction of pipeline's part in Turkish territories and Ceyhan terminal will be carried out by BOTAS with turn-key delivery method in return for 1 billion 307 million U.S. dollars.

-COUNCIL OF MINISTERS MEETING ENDS
-GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: ''THERE WILL BE TEN PERCENT INCREASE
IN CIVIL SERVANTS' SALARIES IN FIRST HALF OF 2001''
ANKARA - State Minister and Government Spokesman Sukru Sina Gurel said on Monday that the salaries of civil servants would be increased by ten percent in the first half of 2001. Meanwhile, if the increase in consumer prices exceeds the increase in civil servants' salaries, the difference will be reflected into salaries together with two percent prosperity share.

The Council of Ministers decided that the 2001 year budget would be 48.4 quadrillion Turkish lira (TL).

Making a statement following the meeting, Gurel gave information about the 2001 year budget.

Stressing that the Council of Ministers had approved the decisions of the Higher Planning Council (YPK) and the proposed budget amount, Gurel said that the Council of Ministers had decided that the 2001 year budget would be 48.4 quadrillion TL.

Noting that the 2001 year budget would be presented to the Parliament on Tuesday, Gurel said that there would be a ten percent increase in civil servants' salaries in the first half of 2001.

''As the government, our basic principle is to prevent the public workers from suffering damage due to inflation. As you know, we had earlier reflected the difference together with a two percent prosperity share into civil servants' salaries as the rate of increase in consumer prices exceeded the rate of increase we pledged for the civil servants' salaries. Everybody should not doubt that we will continue this implementation in the next budget year,'' he said.

[06] COUNCIL OF MINISTERS MEETING ENDS (3)

Gurel said that the difference would be reflected into civil servants' salaries if the rate of inflation exceeded the proposed salary increase for the second half of 2001.

Gurel said that almost 12 quadrillion of the 48.4 quadrillion of the budget would be allocated to personnel expenditures.

Gurel added that State Minister Hasan Gemici had briefed the Council of Ministers on the recent firedamp explosion in an illegally operated mine in Zonguldak which killed four workers.

Noting that the explosion had proved that Zonguldak was encountering serious economic problems, Gurel said that the Council of Ministers had decided to take all necessary measures.

-COUNCIL OF MINISTERS MEETING ENDS (4)
-STATE MINISTER GUREL RESPONDS TO QUESTIONS
ANKARA - State Minister and Government Spokesman Sukru Sina Gurel said on Monday that if the increase in the consumer prices (TUFE) is more than the increase given in the wages of civil servants, the difference will be reflected to the wages at the end of the year together with the 2 percent prosperity share. Responding to questions of journalists after the cabinet meeting, Gurel said that the whole country has to make some self-sacrifices, adding they believe if this is the case, Turkey's economic and social conditions will improve.

When journalists asked whether or not the additional taxes have come to the Council of Ministers' agenda, Gurel said ''no.''

Gurel noted that the Finance Minister Oral issued a detailed statement after the High Planning Council meeting and the figures and ratios in these statement have been submitted to the cabinet.

Gurel said that the budget draft law was discussed as a whole and they didn't discuss the details.

Government Spokesman Gurel stressed that the governemnt is resolved to implement the economic programme.

Gurel said that the budget defecit is 5,2 quadrillion liras, adding that the cabinet didn't discuss the appointment that will be the Capital Market Council.

[07] IP LEADER PERINCEK MEETS WITH CHINESE STATE COUNCIL MEMBER ISMAIL AHMED

Following the meeting, Ismail Ahmed hosted a luncheon in honor of Perincek and the accompanying delegation.

Perincek and the accompanying delegation who came to Beijing as guests of the Chinese Communist Party on Sunday met with Chinese Communist Party Foreign Relations Bureau Deputy Chairman Li Chengreng early on Monday.

Sources said that developments in Asia and the world, friendship and cooperation between Turkey and China, and relations between political parties had been discussed in the meetings.

The IP delegation will later proceed to Shanghai and Chansha.

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