Turkish Daily News, 96-06-24

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From: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>

TURKISH DAILY NEWS
24 June 1996

CONTENTS

[01] Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz returns pleased from Florence

[02] Cevheri: New government to be formed within week

[03] Ambassador Ozdem Sanberk says Greece principle block in Turkey's EU path

[04] Yilmaz: Turkey needs $3 billion annually to avoid energy crisis

[01] Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz returns pleased from Florence

TDN with Wire Services

ANKARA- Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz returned to Turkey on Sunday pleased with the results of a meeting with European Union leaders the previous day in Florence following a summit hosted by the Union's outgoing term president Italy.

Clearly referring to the successful manner in which Greece has obstructed a Turkish presence at previous Union summits, Yilmaz told reporters his meeting in Florence was "an achievement in itself in our relations with the European Union."

Yilmaz also said he had given assurances to the European leaders at the meeting that even if the pro-Islamic and anti-European Welfare Party (RP) came to power in Turkey, the nature of Turkish democracy was such that it would not be able derail Ankara's drive for full integration with Europe.

The meeting with Yilmaz was hosted by the prime ministers of Italy, Spain and Ireland, the "troika" of current, previous and next holders of the EU presidency, at the end of the EU's two-day summit in Florence.

The fact that only French President Jacques Chirac, out of the remaining members, took up the invitation from Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi to attend the meeting with Yilmaz, led to some disappointment in the Turkish camp which was also expecting German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to turn up.

But Chirac's presence at the meeting, and the fact that he once again gave strong support not only for Turkey's customs union with the EU, but for its overall integration with Europe, was warmly welcomed by the Turkish side, coming as it did from such a key member of the Union.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, who had made an attempt to block the meeting with Yilmaz, sent his deputy foreign minister, George Romeos, to attend the gathering "My main aim here was to inform and to create a better climate for Greece, which has been done despite the fact that some countries wish to ignore problems created by Turkish demands," Simitis claimed earlier when talking to reporters.

Greece, which accuses Ankara of making claims on several Aegean islands, has blocked, to the anger of other EU members, a 375 million ECU ($465 million) aid package to Turkey designed to help it adjust to a market-opening customs union with the Union that came into effect in January.

Because of objections to Turkey's inclusion, Athens is also holding up the so-called MEDA regulation which needs to be approved before EU financing can begin for projects in non-EU Mediterranean states.

Yilmaz told reporters after Saturday's meeting that Turkey was prepared to take the dispute with Greece to arbitration and eventually to the International Court of Justice as long as Athens first ended its blocking tactics.

"Unfortunately we have not got a positive response from the Greek government," he said.

Talking to Turkish reporters on Sunday in Florence Yilmaz, who was accompanied by Foreign Minister Emre Gonensay, said that one of the key topics of interest for European leaders was the course that Turkish domestic politics was taking with the rise of the pro-Islamic Welfare Party.

"I told them that Turkish democracy is deep rooted, contrary to what is thought, that all democratic institutions in the country were operating fully, that even if a party opposed to the EU came to power, that this will not effect our relations with the EU," Yilmaz said.

He added that his interlocutors had questioned him whether Turkey could go the way of Iran or Algeria.

Yilmaz said that he had told the European leaders that he himself had engaged in coalition talks with the RP but had seen that his Motherland Party (ANAP) and this party have very diverse views on two topics in particular.

He said the first of these was the question of integration with Europe, and the second was on the question of a liberal economic setup.

Yilmaz said that French President Chirac had come up with "very positive and constructive remarks" with regard to Turkey and its relations with the EU and Greece.

"He repeated some of his concerns and reiterated that they would continue to support very strongly democratic Turkey's taking its rightful place in Europe."

Yilmaz said that Chirac had also expressed concern over the state of Greek and Turkish relations and had indicated that they were prepared to provide all the help needed to solve the problems between the two countries.

[02] Cevheri: New government to be formed within week

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- True Path Party (DYP) Deputy Chairman Necmettin Cevheri said on Sunday that he believed the new government would be formed by the end of the coming week -- "though with difficulty." He added, "This may be a DYP-RP or an ANAP-RP government."

Commenting on Saturday's and Sunday's press reports to the effect that talks were under way to form a second Motherpath government, Cevheri confirmed that he had met with ANAP Deputy Chairman Ilker Tuncay but rejected the allegation that they had discussed extra stipulations put forward by the leaders of the two parties or a new draft coalition protocol. "There are no such stipulations," he said. "No proposal has been made in the first place. To whom is (ANAP leader Mesut) Yilmaz supposed to have relayed these conditions?"

Cevheri denied press reports that in order to form a second Motherpath government, DYP leader Tansu Ciller had sought guarantees from ANAP that she would be "saved from the danger of having to appear before the Supreme Court." He said, "I do not know of any such thing."

Similarly, he denied the press reports that DYP officials had called State Minister Eyup Asik of ANAP and asked him not to cause any more DYP deputies to defect to ANAP. "Who exactly called?" he asked. "No such thing happened as far as I know." Cevheri repeated that the DYP wanted a three- or four-party coalition.

Later in the day the DYP head office issued a statement formally denying a daily Milliyet report which said that Ciller had offered to form a coalition with Yilmaz provided that the latter promised not to send her to the Supreme Court to face corruption charges, but that Yilmaz had rejected the offer outright, saying he would not even discuss it. The statement called this report "an ugly lie and a distortion of the truth," and a particularly significant one considering that another daily, Hurriyet, had carried a similar report the previous day and the DYP had denied it.

The DYP statement said that Ciller had not sent any such message to Yilmaz, and that it was out of the question for her to ask Yilmaz to "save her." On the contrary, it said Yilmaz had sent the DYP a message to stop the parliamentary probes from having a political character, but Ciller did not reply to this or discuss it. The DYP statement further accused the ANAP leader of misleading newspaper columnists via his ministers, and attempting to deceive the public -- mainly, it said, because Yilmaz was afraid of being sent to the Supreme Court himself to face corruption charges related to the "Civangate" investigation. "These erroneous and biased leaks to the press show clearly that no one should have confidential talks with the ANAP leader or those around him. Milliyet should reinvestigate and make a sound announcement to the public," the statement said.

DYP founders urge Ciller to resign

Cevheri was asked to comment on a press report which said that the founders of the DYP had urged Ciller to step down. He said this was a campaign which a group opposing Ciller had been conducting all along. He stressed that it was not a fresh call, adding: "That is their opinion. Can a chairman possibly comply with such a request? Some of these people are congress delegates. In about 20 days the DYP congress will be held, and we will see."

Ozgur resigns

Meanwhile Fatih Ozgur, one of the founding fathers of the DYP and a member of the party assembly, announced in Adana on Sunday that he had resigned from the party to protest leader Tansu Ciller's attempts to form a government with the Welfare Party (RP), which has Islamist views.

Ozgur issued a statement which stressed that the DYP was losing votes and prestige, and that he was saddened by the fact that the party had been reduced to this state despite all the well-intentioned efforts to prevent it. "Unfortunately today the DYP has discarded its historic mission," he said. "It (the party leadership) has alienated the masses, who were its main source of support, as well as the party rank and file. The in-party democracy, which could have provided a democratic opportunity to have that erroneous attitude dropped, has been suspended. Tansu Ciller and those around her are stubbornly making the DYP proceed on that wrong path. And the Turkish voters' reaction to that path is all too obvious."

Ozgur said that the party's cooperation with the RP and its attempts to form a coalition with the RP were beyond comprehension or explanation, as could be seen from the reactions these were drawing from the general public. "At the point we have reached because of that attitude, the DYP has nothing left in common with the party we had established years ago, except the fact that the two bear the same name," he said.

[03] Ambassador Ozdem Sanberk says Greece principle block in Turkey's EU path

By Orya Sultan Halisdemir
Turkish Daily News

LONDON- Turkey's Ambassador to Britain, has said that the European Union should not be allowed to be used as Greece's main weapon against Turkey.

Sanberk said that the answer to the question as to why Turkey was not on the EU enlargement agenda today, was that Ankara's bid for membership had been systematically undermined over many years by another member state, namely Greece.

Sanberk, was speaking at a conference on Turkey's ties with Europe at the London School of Economics on Friday, which was also attended by a large number of Turkish politicians, academics and analysts.

Also addressing the conference, Mumtaz Soysal, a former foreign minister and now a deputy from the Democratic Left Party (DSP), suggested that the fervently anti-European pro-Islamic Welfare Party (RP) is probably the only party that has a clear and consistent idea about the European Union and Turkey's relations with it.

Soysal also questioned whether Turkey should be knocking so vehemently on Europe's door and indicated that it was wrong to have elevated the customs union, which is basically a commercial arrangement Ankara has concluded with the EU, to undeserving political heights.

In his address to the conference, Sanberk devoted the better part of his presentation to the question of Greece and its determined efforts to block Turkey's path in Europe.

"I do not believe that it is in anyone's interest, including those of our neighboring countries, to maintain this kind of campaign or for the EU to permit itself to be used as Greece's main weapon against Turkey," Sanberk said.

He went on to emphasize that Greece did not need such "weapons" against Turkey because "Turkey has never tried to invade or attack Greece. Although the same is not true the other way round."

Sanberk told his audience that the ardent desire of everyone in Turkey was to live not just in peace with Greece but in a state of active co-operation with this country.

"There are many benefits we could share if we worked together in tourism, trade and similar areas," he said.

He went on to describe the list of "front runners" for early EU membership -- which does not included Turkey -- as an "injustice" and referred to the long-term relations between Ankara and the Union.

He pointed out that Robert Schumann and Jean Monet's aim in establishing the EU was to secure peace between their two countries, and to promote prosperity through co-operation, Sanberk said this was why Turkey was continuously appealing to Greece for dialogue, and for some sort of direct contact, on bilateral issues whether these involve the Aegean or on other problem areas.

"But they have rejected this appeal. They say that they cannot negotiate over their sovereign rights. This is rather disingenuous. Every international dispute involves a sovereignty issue to some extent. But exercise of sovereignty is qualified by the principles of international law and international agreements," he said

Sanberk said Greece's dream was of "permanent confrontation where Europe is mobilized against Turkey on behalf of Greece."

He went on to renew Turkey's call for dialogue with Greece. He said this dialogue should be held between two mature nations without the need to resort to the Americans, the European Union or anybody else"

[04] Yilmaz: Turkey needs $3 billion annually to avoid energy crisis

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Turkey should invest $3 billion annually to overcome its electricity problem over the next 15 years, said caretaker Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of gas-fired power plant in Tekirdag on Saturday.

Yilmaz accused former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller of neglecting the requirements of energy sector.

"In order to solve the problems derived from three years of neglect, we introduced a new model based on private initiative," Yilmaz said.

Recalling that Turkey's per capita electricity consumption was less than half of the world average, Yilmaz said they have given priority to the energy sector among other development projects.

"Energy consumption increases 9 percent annually. In order to meet this demand Turkey should build five power plants every year," Yilmaz explained.

The new power plant near the Marmara Ereglisi will have an established capacity of 480 Megawatts and will generate 3.6 billion Kilowatts of electricity per year. The plant that is going to be built by a group of companies from Britain, Japan, Belgium and Luxemburg will cost around $600 million.

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