TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News (April 22, 1996)

From: TRKNWS-L <trh@aimnet.com>

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 22 April 1996

[01] Moscow summit results important for Turkey

By Nazlan Ertan

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- From prevention of nuclear disasters to Russia's reluctance to halt the sale of nuclear reactors to Iran, the Moscow summit was filled with important issues for Ankara.

The meeting of the G-7 group of industrialized nations with Russia and Ukraine in Moscow took place on the eve of the 10th anniversary of Chernobyl, which had its adverse effects on Turkey.

Although Turkey was in the area influenced by the clouds of radioactivity billowing across Europe after the Chernobyl meltdown, the exact effects were never known fully, as the Motherland government of the time sought to hide the precise figures of radiation in order not to create panic. Three years ago, newspapers reported a 100 percent rise in leukemia cases in the Black Sea the area most subjected to the Chernobyl disaster but this could not be supported by scientific information as no accurate data pre-Chernobyl existed for comparison. A "nuclear inquiry commission" established in 1993 said no effects from Chernobyl in water, land, the main Black Sea crop, tea, or even among the residents of the area could be detected, although nuclear activists still blame the government for insensitivity.

Given this backdrop, Ukraine's commitment to shut down the Chernobyl nuclear plant by the year 2000 is important for Turkey. So are the statements of French President Jacques Chirac, who made a reference to two other nuclear plants around Turkey.

"Some dangerous stations have not been closed down: certain reactors considered dangerous have even been put back into service," he said, singling out the Kozloduy reactor in Bulgaria and the Medsamor station in the former Soviet republic of Armenia. "We must consider closing down nuclear reactors which cannot be sufficiently modernized," he added.

The statement reflects Turkey's very acute concern with the two unsafe nuclear plants in neighboring Bulgaria and Armenia.

Although the two countries were not parties in this "nuclear summit" in Moscow, the declaration made at the end of the summit may form a precedent for increased global pressure on Sofia and Yerevan.

The declaration says the participants are determined "to work together to ensure the safety of nuclear power and to promote greater security for nuclear materials." It also underlines the importance of nuclear safety, which may be interpreted as a thinly-veiled warning against Russian cooperation with Yerevan for the reopening of the Medsamor power plant, which is close to Turkey's border and deemed as not meeting international safety standards.

Two years ago, Russia and Armenia signed a bilateral nuclear cooperation treaty that provided for Russia supplying technical help and nuclear fuel to run the plant which lies in an earthquake region.

Another important issue in the summit was the restatement of Moscow's decision to go ahead with a deal to sell nuclear reactors to Iran, Turkey's neighbor. In this case, Turkey found an ally in the United States.

"Yes, (the sale) is a bad idea. We are against any sales to Iran for one simple reason we believe they are trying to develop a bomb, notwithstanding what they say," President Bill Clinton told a news conference at summit end.

Russia has repeatedly said it would not back down from nuclear deals with Iran, under which it will build three reactors at the Bushehr power plant and complete a fourth begun in the 1970s.

[02] PM Yilmaz says Syria will pay if it does not stop anti-Turkish policies

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Using some of the strongest language to date, Turkey issued a warning to Syria at the highest level over the weekend and effectively told Damascus that it would "pay dearly" for supporting separatism in Turkey.

The significance of the warning by Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz was that it was issued from Antakya, the capital of Hatay province which Syria still claims belongs to it, and which is included as Syrian territory on all of its maps.

Hatay joined Turkey in 1939 as a result of a complex internationally-recognized arrangement between Ankara and Paris the governing body of the region at the time. The decision to have Hatay become part of Turkey also was the result of a plebiscite in the region.

Syria maintains, however, that all of this was done behind its back and argues that Silica, which the Turks have named Hatay, is a part of "greater Syria." Turkish officials believe that this issue, as well as Syria's belief that Turkey will deprive it of the waters of the Euphrates through a massive network of dams it is building, is sparking anti-Turkish underground activities by Damascus.

These activities, say officials, involve Syrian support for the PKK whose leader Abdullah Ocalan is known to reside in Damascus and travels between the capital, the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley and Latakia on Syria's Mediterranean coast.

Prime Minister Yilmaz, who was addressing a crowd on Saturday during the inauguration of the "Municipal Palace" in Antakya, referred obliquely to "a neighbor which is harboring those who want to divide Turkey." Yilmaz's remarks were echoed almost identically by Foreign Minister Emre Gonensay on Saturday during a parliamentary debate in Parliament on his ministry's budget.

"Now this neighbor will either stop from actions of enmity towards us, or, it will sooner or later be punished for the enmity it is displaying towards us," Yilmaz said.

Going on to say that the central authorities in Turkey were trying to bring services to all corners of the country, Yilmaz accused Syria, without naming it again, of trying to disrupt this effort.

"While we are trying to do this some neighboring countries are working to ensure that our efforts do not amount to anything. In fact they go even further and harbor the bandits that want to spoil Turkey's territorial integrity," he said.

"Unfortunately these efforts have started to be concentrated in our province of Hatay for some time now. I want to call on these neighbors of ours. Those who want to block Turkey's path, those who want to harm Turkey, those who harbour feelings of enmity towards Turkey will have to do their calculations once more," he added.

"We Turks are a very patient nation. But when our patience ends, then we can be very hard. We do not covet even a strip of anyone's lands. But the whole world has to know this well. We do not have even a strip of land to give to anyone. On the contrary, there are 60 million people ready to die in order to protect every strip of our land," Yilmaz said in some of the hardest-hitting comments on this issue to date.

On the matter of the waters of the Euphrates, Yilmaz said Turkey was giving to Syria the amount that it had promised under a protocol concluded in 1987 in which Ankara took the responsibility to supply an average 500 cubic meters/second (cm2/s) each month.

Yilmaz, who was inaugurating the Antakya stock exchange building, said that Syria, however, was refraining from addressing any of the grievances Ankara has about its polluting and holding back the waters of the Asi (Orontes) river which flows from that country into Turkey.

Underscoring Ankara's position on the water issue once again in categoric terms, Yilmaz said Turkey has no intention of sharing the waters that originate on its lands with anyone.

While Turkey is closed to "sharing" the water of the Euphrates it has suggested "optimal joint usage" to Syria and Iraq based on rational techniques of irrigation and electricity production.

Turkey says the Syrian technique of open irrigation has not changed since Sumerian times and this leads to nearly 50 percent evaporation whereas the modern irrigation techniques in Turkey lead to no such losses.

Turkey also says that outmoded Russian technology for Syrian dams means there is always a need for water to run the turbines placed inappropriately high on the dam for this climate, which also caused massive wastage of water.

Ankara has proposed cooperative schemes for meeting Syria's water requirements on rational lines but Damascus has so far refused.

Diplomats say this refusal stems from an unwillingness to give Turkey the political leverage it will have by controlling the water in this way.

[03] Turkey to send aid to Lebanon

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Turkey will be sending a plane load of aid to Lebanon for civilians who have been affected by the Israeli operation against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon, the Anatolia news agency reported over the weekend.

The aid consists of food, clothing and medicine and will be sent on a C-130 military transport plane, which is expected to land in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday.

Anatolia said that the Turkish embassy in Beirut had applied to the Lebanese authorities on Saturday for the necessary landing rights for the aircraft.

Quoting embassy sources, Anatolia said there are up to 400,000 refugees from southern Lebanon being sheltered in substandard conditions in schools and hospitals in Beirut. They indicated that Turkey's aid would only go part of the way in helping these refugees, whose needs require a concerted international response.

Embassy sources were also quoted as saying that none of the small number of Turks in Lebanon, most of whom are there in connection with Turkish companies assisting in reconstruction efforts following the civil war, have been injured or suffered any consequences from the Israeli operations.

These sources added, however, that Turkish companies had temporarily suspended their work in Sidon and the Bekaa valley for safety reasons until the Israeli operation ends.

[04] Turkey: A popular tourism destination

ANKARA- Turkey, after Italy, ranks second among all European countries in terms of tourist bookings for the coming summer season, the Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday.

Quoting Tourism Ministry officials, the agency said that bookings by Belgian visitors had increased 80-120 percent for this summer compared to last year.

The Belgian newspaper L'Echo, in a recent article, reported that Turkey had achieved a 99 percent increase in bookings, and had thus emerged as the second most popular destination in Europe.

The same article said that Turkey was followed by Greek Cyprus, Spain, Greece, and Portugal.

[05] UN commission adopts Turkish drafts on racism and xenophobia

ANKARA- Two draft resolutions which list racism and terrorism as violations of human rights submitted by Turkey to the United Nations' Human Rights Commission in Geneva have been adopted unanimously, the Anatolia news agency said over the weekend.

The resolution on racism condemns the xenophobia that has emerged in various societies in recent years and calls on governments to take effective measures against this phenomenon.

The resolution also calls for an extension by three years of the mandate of the United Nation's special rapporteur appointed to follow racism and xenophobia.

It also categorically condemns publications and broadcasts that foment these attitudes.

Pakistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Benin, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Israel, Angola, the Korean Republic, and Uruguay cosponsored the draft submitted by Turkey, Anatolia said.

The second resolution, adopted unanimously by the Human Rights Commission, stated that all forms of terrorism represent a violation of human rights and calls on members of the United Nations to cooperate in combatting this phenomenon.

Referring to the recent anti-terrorism summit held at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, the resolution said that terrorism cannot be used as a means of promoting human rights.

It calls on all members states to send data on terrorism to all multinational organizations, including the United Nations, and said this data should be compiled by a special rapporteur and working groups into reports.

Countries cosponsoring the anti-terrorism resolution submitted by Turkey, include Azerbaijan, Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, Malaysia, Peru, the Republic of Korea, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Algeria, and India, according to Anatolia. Western nations, although appearing strongly opposed to terrorism, were notably absent from the list of sponsors.