Turkish Daily News, 96-07-03

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

TURKISH DAILY NEWS
3 July 1996

CONTENTS

[01] General Staff: Deal with Israel has no risks but great benefits

[02] Erbakan to US: Our talks are among friends

[03] Pro-Kurdish TV off the air

[04] Violation of Turkish minority rights in Greece

[05] Turkish merchant fleet 16th largest in world

[01] General Staff: Deal with Israel has no risks but great benefits

By Hayri Birler
Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Officials from the Office of the Chief of General Staff said that the Military Training and Cooperation Agreement signed between Turkey and Israel had been distorted deliberately, whereas in reality this agreement bore no risk for Turkey but provided great benefits.

Officials said that Operation Provide Comfort had provided training for Turkish pilots in mid-air refueling and that thanks to the agreement with Israel, Turkish pilots would learn electronic warfare techniques.

Officials said that there was no difference between the agreement signed with Israel and similar agreements signed with other countries. However, they noted that the issue had been distorted so it would become a subject of controversy in the public mind.

"With this agreement we wanted to have these two Middle East, democratic countries to show an example to the other countries in the region. However it has been exploited and distorted," they said.

The officials from the General Staff explained the benefits which the agreement will provide to both countries as follows:

"Our pilots will go to Israel and acquire all the experiences of Israel on electronic warfare. That is to say, it will, in a way, be a technology transfer, because particularly the air force is based on electronic war. Our pilots will undergo training both within the airplane and also on the systems which integrate the system within the airplane with the system outside of the airplane. Four-times a year, they will come and undergo flight training over Turkey. Yes, when an airplane takes off in Israel within five minutes it passes the border and flies over the sea, but flight training over sea and over land aredifferent. In Turkey, we will provide this opportunity for them and in return our pilots will learn advanced electronic warfare."

Pointing out that the Israeli warplanes would not be loaded with weapons or bombs during the training flight and that they will be firing only dummy ammunition, the general staff officials also said that it would be impossible for Turkey to be drawn into an encounter which was against its will.

"Those who write such scenarios, who do they think we are? Will we never allow Israeli pilots with loaded planes? Will the Turkish Armed Forces ever make a mistake? This agreement has no risk from Turkey's point of view. On the contrary, it has very big benefits. For example, during Operation Provide Comfort all Turkish pilots have completed mid-air refueling. Can there be a bigger benefit than this? What a nice thing. Now they will learn electronic warfare from Israel -- in the most sophisticated way. Why is Greece disturbed? However, there are also those in Turkey who are disturbed. Knowingly or unknowingly, some people distort this issue."

Training for foreigners in return for money

Defending that the Turkish Armed Forces was today capable of competing with the military schools of the United States and that an Education and Doctrine Command had been founded with this purpose, the General Staff officials said that "the education at the war colleges and war academies, starting from military high schools, draws the attention of foreigners, both from the point of the system and the quality. They come just like a foreign tradesman who comes to purchase goods. They visit our schools, examine and see the situation and want us to train their students. At present, in our schools there are officers and future officers from more than 30 countries who undergo training. Since this is the case, we have considered to give this education in return for money. Why not? We are now working on this project and will launch it in the next couple of years. Our training system has really been very successful and well-established."

[02] Erbakan to US: Our talks are among friends

By Ilnur Cevik
Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan informed a visiting American delegation that Turkey wanted to further expand its friendly ties with the United States and continue cooperating with this country.

Erbakan, receiving a delegation led by U.S. Undersecretary of State Peter Tarnoff and Assistant Undersecretary of Defense Jan Lodal, told the visitors that his government was aware of the importance of the United States and was determined to maintain good ties with this country.

This was the first time Erbakan had received a foreign delegation as prime minister.

Turkish sources who attended the meeting between Prime Minister Erbakan and the U.S. delegation said the talks, which concentrated on the future of Operation Provide Comfort, had been very fruitful.

"The prime minister was satisfied with the talks, which he felt had been held in a warm atmosphere," a leading official told the Turkish Daily News. He asked not to be named.

The official said originally the meeting had been scheduled for half an hour but was extended to a full hour.

The prime minister stressed this was a meeting among friends and said at times friends have to speak about bitter truths. Erbakan was quoted as telling the visiting delegation that while the Americans have their Congress, Turkey has its Parliament and thus cannot do anything without its approval.

He reportedly explained that Provide Comfort was not an issue simply for the government but had become a state issue, and thus the Parliament would have to decide on its future. So he urged the visiting delegation to convince the parliamentary committees who will have to approve the extension of the mandate of Provide Comfort on Turkish soil.

Erbakan pointed out that the Turkish public felt Provide Comfort had served as an umbrella for the separatists in Turkey, and said this belief had to be dispelled. He said measures had to be taken to overcome these fears, like shifting the military coordination center from Zakho in northern Iraq to a location inside Turkey on the border. Erbakan also said the so-called U.N. refugee camp in Atrush in northern Iraq had turned into a base for Turkey's PKK separatists and thus had to be closed down.

Erbakan also said there was still no state authority in northern Iraq and thus Turkey could not find a responsible authority in this region to halt terrorism.

The prime minister stressed Iraq's national unity and territorial integrity should be preserved.

Erbakan also told the visiting delegation that the opposition to Provide Comfort in Turkey should not be regarded as "anti-Americanism."

According to government spokesman Abdullah Gul, a state minister, the prime minister also talked about Middle East peace but added this could not be achieved through the lone efforts of one side. "We feel Israel should withdraw from all occupied territories, including the Golan Heights, as a first step for a comprehensive peace," he added.

Gul said Erbakan had also said that Turkey wanted to lend a helping hand to all Islamic countries and help them develop in a stable environment which would thus serve world peace.

Gul said the prime minister had also told the American delegation that he felt the customs union was useful as long as it served the mutual interests of Turkey and the European Union. However, he pointed out that the fact that Europe could not provide the necessary financial help to Turkey due under the customs union deal had spoilt the balance of obligations between Turkey and the EU.

Gul also said the prime minister had told the Americans Turkey had no territorial ambitions on Greece but stressed the West should not tolerate threats and blackmail by Greeks.

He said Greek fighters had violated Turkish airspace in the Gulluk region in the Aegean, and stressed such acts were unacceptable. He said that Turks had agreed to the NATO secretary-general's calls for halting military exercises in the Aegean between July 1 and Sept. 1, but that the Greeks had not responded.

Erbakan reportedly said the United States had a role to play in bringing the Greek government to an acceptable line of action, no longer harming Turkey's interests.

Erbakan also said Turkey would not accept any solutions that endangered the future of the Turkish Cypriots. He said Cyprus was a national issue for Turks and stressed that a solution on the island could not be reached by forcing resolutions in international forums through propaganda and pressures.

Gul said Erbakan told the visitors that the sovereignty of Azerbaijan and the Central Asian republics should be preserved and the West should not allow the resurrection of the Soviet Union.

Erbakan also said Armenia should end its occupation of Azeri land and lamented that international efforts on this issue were ineffective.

The prime minister also said it was sad that the United States had delayed the delivery of Cobra helicopters to Turkey which Ankara had partially paid for in advance and which would be used to combat terrorists.

He said it was hard to explain the attitude of the United States to the Turkish people especially because of the fact that the Americans too suffered from terrorism.

He said Turkey might order more helicopters and arms from the United States provided the Americans met their current obligations.

[03] Pro-Kurdish TV off the air

ANKARA- The London-based MED-TV, widely believed to be run by Turkey's separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has ceased its broadcasts, the pro-Kurdish daily Demokrasi reported on Tuesday, quoting station officials.

The Kurdish-language TV went off the air after the unnamed country which was providing satellite communications facilities, unilaterally terminated the contract, the paper said. It added that the station would fight what they said, was a violation of contract.

The sudden cessation of the broadcasts, beamed via satellite for more than two years, followed Turkey's persistent efforts to persuade European governments not to allow them.

Turkish officials recently told the TDN that many European countries that were reluctant to intervene, altered their stance when Ankara provided documentary proof, backed by recordings of programs, that the station violated accepted norms of transboundary broadcasts.

The officials explained that the channel was launched in April 1994 in London by PKK supporters who were naturalized British citizens. In the same year a transponder was rented from France Telecom for $6.5 million. Two companies set up in Belgium would cypher the broadcasts and beam them back to London for final broadcasting via the Copernicus satellite. This was eventually replaced by a U.S.-operated communications satellite, the officials explained.

After Ankara's repeated protests, France Telecom refused to renew the transponder contract when it expired, upon which MED-TV officials hired a transponder from a Portuguese company which provided limited broadcasting time.

The Turkish officials, noting that the MED-TV needed at least $25 million to start broadcasting and employed 200 people across Europe, said the money was easily collected by the separatist organization through the illegal drugs trade and money extorted from the large community of Turkish citizens living in European countries.

But the main factors playing into the PKK's initial success with the TV experiment were the European governments' ignorance of the links between the separatist group and its array of front organizations, or their toleration of its activities.

It took patient efforts on the part of Ankara to persuade these governments to stop their direct or indirect assistance, the officials said. This required careful homework in mastering the complexities of TV broadcasting and legal procedures in view of the sympathy felt by local authorities in some countries to the separatists.

"Specific countries when confronted by us say they cannot prevent MED-TV broadcasts because they are unable to track its source," one official said.

"But every time they say this now, we give them a file. We also go beyond this. Before they would say 'give us evidence that this station incites violence and we will act because this is against our law also.' Because we did not know how to compile this evidence then, we could not give the necessary data," he added.

"But we are no longer novices in this game and now provide them not just with written evidence, but visual evidence through cassette recordings of MED-TV programs which are in violation of, say, the ITC's own regulations," this official said.

He also noted that sometimes the Turkish diplomats had to point at restrictions these countries had been implementing against their own separatists.

He recalled the restrictions there are today on carrying reports on TV in Great Britain which promote the point of view of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and the "gagging order" that existed on Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams until recently, whereby his remarks could not be given in his own voice.

[04] Violation of Turkish minority rights in Greece

ANKARA- The Greek state has tried to take control of the Turkish minority's foundations at Gumulcine in Greece by designating administrators for these foundations, the Anatolia news agency reported. The Turkish minority gathered at the Yeni Mosque today in order to discuss how to combat this move. The Greek authorities sent police forces to prevent the gathering and closed mosques in the surrounding area.

Greek police surrounded the mosques and the foundation building of the Turkish minority, as well as nearby streets, thus raising the tension considerably. The police were reinforced by additional forces brought from other cities.

The gathering was organized by the Minority Information Council and was attended by Ahmet Faikoglu and Ismail Rodoplu, independent deputies in the Greek parliament, and the appointed muftis of Iskece, Ibrahim Serif and Mehmet Emin Aga. Also present were the Turkish administrators of certain townships, the Turkish chairmen of various associations and the Turkish members of the municipality councils of Iskece and Gumulcine.

Members of the Turkish minority also came from suburban areas and from local villages to participate in the gathering.

The Yeni Mosque was under the control of the mufti previously appointed by the Greek government.

It is not known who gave the order to close the mosques.

The Turkish minority decided to defend their right to designate their own administrators for their foundations, and they seem determined to fight any arrangements which would take this right away from them.

The Greek government has removed from the statute books the previous law, which gave the minorities the right to choose these administrators, and replaced it with a new one which undermines this right. It then arbitrarily appointed a group of administrators and sent them to Gumulcine.

[05] Turkish merchant fleet 16th largest in world

ANKARA- The Turkish merchant fleet, which went through a crisis in the 1980s, has made a quick recovery and its prospects are extremely bright, according to a government report.

The report, released by the Prime Ministry's Maritime Undersecretariat, said that Turkey's merchant fleet ranked 16th in the world in terms of capacity. The report put the Turkish fleet's cargo volume at 84.2 million tons during 1995, up 12.6 percent from the previous year.

The imports through maritime trade increased by 21.6 percent while exports declined by 8.7 percent. The share of ships carrying the Turkish flag declined to 41.8 percent by dropping 7.7 percent.

The report said that crude oil imports, with 34 percent, was the most traded commodity, followed by industrial products, 28.7 percent; coal, 11.9 percent and mineral ore with 6.1 percent. Other commodities made up 19.3 percent.

For exported commodities, industrial products made up 57.2 percent, followed by mineral ore, 18.2 percent; oil products, 12.1 percent and grains with 5.2 percent grain. Other commodities made up 7.3 percent.

The Turkish merchant fleet consists of 1143 ships with capacity of 10.311 million deadweight tons and has the capacity to reach 11 million tons with hired ships, the report said.

The fleet is largely owned by the private sector, 91.5 percent, with only 8.5 percent being owned by the public sector.

The report said that there are 39 docks, 35 of which are owned by the private sector.

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