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Anadolu Agency: News in English, 01-12-11Anadolu Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Anadolu Agency Home Page at <http://www.anadoluajansi.com.tr/>Anadolu AgencyANADOLU AGENCY NEWS 11 December 2001 Tuesday CONTENTS
[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCANThese are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkey's press on December 11, 2001. The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.HURRIYET (LIBERAL)72 OF EVERY 100 CARS EXPORTEDThe automotive sector stood on its feet in 2001 year due to exports. The sales in domestic market decreased by 74 percent, but the share of exports in total production in Jan-Nov. 2001 reached 72 percent. A total of 72 of every car produced in the country was exported abroad. The exports in automotive main industry reached 1,5 billion dollars in the same period. IT WILL BE RAINY IN RAMADAN HOLIDAY ''BRAVE MUFIT'' APPOINTED AS TURKISH AMBASSADOR TO AFGHANISTAN MILLIYET (LIBERAL)TURKISH PEOPLE SUPPORT EU MEMBERSHIPAccording to a survey of the EU Commission, Turkish people want Turkey to join the EU. The EU Commission's institution which carries out public surveys, Eurobarometre, recently announced that 59 percent of Turks support Turkey's membership and 68 of them noted that they would say ''yes'' to membership if a referendum was held. Twenty percent of the population is against EU membership. In Romania, 80 percent of the people support Romania's membership to the EU. The survey also revealed that Turks don't have much information about EU or EU membership. PRESIDENT SEZER SAYS MINUMUM WAGE IS AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS SABAH (LIBERAL)''WE ARE AFRAID''Tarsus mayor Burhanettin Kocamaz said about the flood disaster in his town that he was afraid of suicides. Noting that southern Mersin province is exposed to flood disaster for days, Kocamaz said that the infrastructure in the city collapsed. Mersin Mayor Macit Ozcan said that ''there are still 2, 000 inundated houses in the city.'' Tarsus mayor Kocamaz said that 15 villages are inundated, and that the cultivated fields were destroyed. Mersin mayor Ozcan asked Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit to postpone the debt of his municipality to Provincial Bank for 2-3 years. ''WE SHIFT GEARS!'' CUMHURIYET (LEFT)ECEVIT SAYS TURKEY RESPECTS HUMAN RIGHTSPrime Minister Bulent Ecevit said that Turkey respected the universal values covered by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the same resolution and determination for 53 years. ''Turkey is also determined to ensure better life standards to its citizens,'' Ecevit said. Reminding that Turkey was one of the first countries which adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Ecevit said that Turkey also comes among the first countries which extended support to the fight with terrorism. IRAN GAS ARRIVES IN TURKEY AT LAST RADIKAL (LEFT)DIFFICULT DAY IN SUSURLUK CASEThe Supreme Court of Appeals General Council will vote for the second time the objection of Chief Prosecutor Sabih Kanadoglu to Susurluk verdict. According to the Law of Supreme Court of Appeals, at least two thirds of the members of the Court had to cast votes for rejection or acception of the objection, but this majority was not provided in the first round held last week. If the General Council of the Supreme Court of Appeals accepts the objection of Kanadoglu by simple majority this time, the Eighth Penal Chamber will discuss the case in its merits. CAY SAYS HE WENT ABROAD FOR 44 TIMES TURKIYE (RIGHT)SEZER CALLS FOR HUMAN RIGHTSPresident Ahmet Necdet Sezer said that permitting people's earning their living with the minimum wage they get is a violation of human rights. Sezer noted that deputies can't freely express their views when they are with their leaders, adding that there is a leadership sultanate in Turkey. Minimum wage is a crime against humanity, said Sezer who received the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission Chairman Huseyin Akgul yesterday. Sezer stressed that custody period decreased to four days with the amendment in the Constitution, noting that this period is not respected in regions where there are emergency rule. CAKAN SAYS NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS MUST BE CONSTRUCTED ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)GREECE RESISTS EUROPEAN ARMYGreece put a reservation on the text on which Turkey, Britain and the U.S. reached a compromise regarding the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). Greece announced at the EU General Affairs Council in Brussels yesterday that it still had reservations on the issue. Thus, the solution of ESDP issue has been left to Laeken summit which will be held at December 14-15. Greece is particularly uneasy about the guarantee given to Turkey by the EU and the U.S. telling that EU army would not intervene with the conflicts between two NATO member states. -TALKS START WITH IMF DELEGATION ABOUT LETTER OF INTENT The most important part of the draft letter of intent is the calendar of the Prior Actions. The studies on the calendar of Prior Actions, which is important for Turkey's getting the tranches from IMF earlier, continue. Turkey will get the financial aid worth of totally 14 billion dollars in tranches till 2004. If Prior Actions are undertaken, Turkey will get an important part of this aid in 2002. Officials said that Turkey will get at least 10 billion dollars of loan from IMF next year. An important part of the talks with IMF will be completed before the Ramadan Holiday. If the talks are not completed, the studies will continue till the IMF Executive Board Directors meeting in January. Either an IMF delegation will come to Turkey again or the talks will be carried out by telephone and e-mail communication. -WB TO WAIT FOR IMF MEETING'S RESULT TO APPROVE USD 1.3 BILLION LOAN Sources said on Tuesday that World Bank would wait for the result of the IMF Executive Directors Board meeting expected to be held in January 2002. Officials said that the World Bank which had delayed the loan as some structural measures could not be fulfilled completely would take the IMF meeting's result as the basis of approval of 1.3 billion U.S. dollars loan to Turkey. IMF Board will take up Turkey's new letter of intent in its meeting in January. Meanwhile, sources said that World Bank continued its works on composition and tranches of nearly 3 billion U.S. dollars it would give to Turkey next year within framework of country assistance strategy (CAS), and that it could give this money to Turkey within first half of 2002. -GUREL:''THERE'S STILL HOPE FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST DESPITE NEGATIVE Speaking at Ankara's Esenboga Airport uppon his return from Qatar's capital Doha on Tuesday, Gurel pointed out that a declaration was issued at the end of the Organization for Islamic Conference (OIC) foreign ministers meeting expressing concerns about the peace of the region. ''We explained Turkey's position to the related authorities,'' Gurel said and added that both President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit spoke on the phone with the leaders from both sides. ''Despite all these negative circumstances, there is still hope for peace in the Middle East,'' Gurel said and added that the participants of the meeting called on both Israeli and Palestinian sides to start a dialogue which appears to be the only way out. ''Turkey is very concerned about the escalating violence and continuing incidents that kill people from both sides,'' he stressed, adding that Turkey would continue requesting both sides to start peace talks. ''Israel's military operations would definitely not help to the maintenance of peace. On the other hand, terrorist acts would definitely not help the rightful cause of the Palestinian nation. The only solution is to first maintain peace and then start a political dialogue,'' he concluded. -STATE MINISTER DERVIS TO ATTEND MONACO WORLD SUMMIT Sources said on Tuesday that Dervis who would be one of the prominent and distinguished speakers of the summit would deliver a speech on ''Turkey: Key Actor in Mediterranean and Asia'' on December 20. Eczacibasi Holding Director Bulent Eczacibasi, Dogus Holding Director Ferit Sahenk, Central Bank Deputy Governor Fidan Esen, Deputy Foreign Minister Mithat Balkan and journalist Tulu Gumustekin will also represent Turkey in the summit meeting. Dervis will meet with Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Algerian Coordination of Reforms Minister Noureddine Boukrouh and European Union representative Robert Madeline at breakfast on December 21. Kemal Dervis had also attended the forum's annual meeting held under auspices of Prince Albert of Monaco in Crans Montana. -FINANCE MINISTRY APPROVES MARMARAY PROJECT As the next step, the Avrasya consortium which undertook contracting services of the project will do the personnel training, system running and maintenance tests of the project. Japanese international cooperation bank JBIC is financing the project. The consortium is formed by Pasiic Consult Int. Yuksel Proje, Oriental Consult Co. Ltd and Japan Railway Technical Services. The railway system which will transport 70,000 passengers in one hour in Istanbul is estimated to cost 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. Some 650 million U.S. dollars of this amount will be used for the tube passage which will unite the two sides of the Istanbul Straait and the remaining money will be used to construct the railways. The project includes a large number of tunnels and stations. The 70-kilometer long system is expected to be completed by the end of 2005. -IMF BELIEVES TURKEY'S ECONOMY WILL START GROWING AGAIN IN 2002 Kiekens visited Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) Chairman Rifat Hisarciklioglu. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Kiekens said that they had discussed insufficient domestic demand, financial restructuring and reforms in tax system. Noting that revival of the economy had started as a result of government's successful implementations, Kiekens said that especially restructuring of state banks was quite successfull. Kiekens said that IMF talks were now focusing on restructuring of weak companies, and that they were also taking up how the tax system could be developed in their meetings. Willy Kiekens said that they had also discussed what could be done to increase direct foreign investments required by the economy. Kiekens added that they were hopeful that the ongoing talks between IMF delegation and economy officials would be finalized until next week. -PARLIAMENT SPEAKER IZGI MEETS WITH HIS ROMANIAN COUNTERPART DORNEANU At their meeting with Dorneanu, Izgi and accompanying delegation said that there was not any problem between Turkey and Romania. Stressing that relations between Turkey and Romania were being carried out within framework of friendship and cooperation, Izgi and Dorneanu said they supported both countries' EU membership process and Romania's NATO membership. Izgi and Dorneanu stressed that multilateral relations within framework of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) should be developed, and decided to increase both interparliamentary relations and political contacts with this objective. Within this framework, Izgi invited Dorneanu and Romanian Senate Speaker N. Vacaroiu to Turkey. Later, Izgi met with members of Turkish-Romanian Friendship Group at the Romanian parliament and Metin Cerkez, the representative of the Turkish minority in the Romanian parliament. -DENKTAS:''NOBODY SHOULD THINK ABOUT BRINGING THE MILITARY WING Responding to reporters' question, Denktas stressed that no military units except for Turkish, Greek and U.N. soldiers should be in a new mission in the U.N. Peace Force. Cyprus should not become a battle field and it should not be armed, Denktas said. ''British bases already possess a sufficient amount of weapons. Apart from them, Turkish and Greek units equipped with small weapons should be controlling the island,'' he pointed out. He underlined that all the efforts of the Greek Cypriot side were to take Cyprus out of Turkey's control by using the EU. ''I hope they would quit these efforts,'' Denktas continued. ''Because Turkey clearly announced that it would not allow this to happen. We hope that compromise replaces conflicts and Cyprus would turn to a bridge of peace between Turkey and Greece as we aimed by the 1960 agreement.'' -ANKARA EXPECTS ESDP PROBLEM WILL BE SOLVED WITHIN EU Recalling that the document on which a compromise had been reached at the end of the fourth round talks in Ankara had been submitted to the EU, sources said that the ball was now in the EU's court and Ankara was waiting for the time being. Noting that Greece was in contact with the EU officials particularly with the EU Term President Belgium within framework of overcoming the problem, sources said that Ankara had been given satisfactory assurances about security during the talks, and that they expected that Greece would be persuaded. Greece wants revision in the document for protection of its national interests and is getting prepared to bring the matter to the Leaken summit. Before the EU General Affairs Council meeting, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said that Greece would make a mistake if it opposed to the agreement and NATO-EU cooperation as Turkey would never want to confiscate or damage interests of Greece or any other EU member. -FLOODS DESTROY 119 THOUSAND SQUARE AGRICULTURAL LANDS IN ICEL Some 7,000 families who earn their living from farming suffered losses in the floods. Icel Deputy Governor Mehmet Demir said that the teams were working to estimate the damages in the region. Salim Ongun, Chairman of Icel Chamber of Agriculture, noted that the disaster occured at the same time with the harvest time putting the farmers in a very difficult situation. He said that greenhouses were also destroyed due to the floods. Pointing out that the farmers had already some difficulties because of their debts to Ziraat Bankasi and Agriculture Credit Cooperation, Ongun said that they asked the state to delay the debts of the farmers without interests at least three years. Tarsus Chamber of Agriculture Chairman Ali Ergezer said that the agricultural lands in 21 villages were damaged due to heavy rainfall and the floods in Tarsus township. Ergezer stated that the farmers in Tarsus were in a very bad condition because of the disaster, saying that they had debts to Ziraat Bankasi for 3- 4 years. Ergezer noted that the government should help the people who suffered from the floods in Tarsus. Ali Ergezer asked the government to freeze the debts of the farmers and said that the new credits should be opened and the financial aid should be offered to farmers in Tarsus. -TURKEY 2001 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT RELEASED Witschi-Cestari briefed reporters about the UNDP 2001 Human Development Report for Turkey prepared by Turkish experts by the support of the UNDP Turkey Representation. He indicated that economic growth was not enough for human development and access to information played an important role in human development. Drawing attention to the importance of the technology in the 21st century, Witschi-Cestari said the gap between the people who have access to technology and those who don't was widening every day. The report stated that economic criteria were not the biggest obstacle in front of Turkey's EU membership and that Turkey has to work hard to make improvements in its social and political life. Eradication of poverty has an important place in Turkey's development program, he pointed out and said that Turkey, in the 1970s, Turkey rose from lower human development category to medium human development category. The report also gives details about the increasing life expectancy and education expenses throughout the years in Turkey. The report says that if Turkey, could continue its pace in human development, the country will reach to high human development categoy in 11 years. An international comparison revealed Turkey Turkey was behind other nations in the access to information category. There are only three countriew which have lower literacy rates than Turkey and these are Saudi Arabia, Libya and Moritania. The report pointed out that increasing income played an important role in the fight against poverty in Turkey but unbalanced education and income levels led to sharp income increases among a certain class and widened the gap between social classes.
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