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Thursday, 21 November 2024
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TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review (21 Nov. 95)From: TRKNWS-L@MIT.EDU (trh@netcom.com)Turkish News DirectoryCONTENTS[01] PM CILLER, BAYKAL BOTH OFF TO EUROPE[02] CILLER-BAYKAL AGREEMENT[03] TURKEY CONDEMNS ATTACK ON EGYPT'S EMBASSY IN ISLAMABAD[04] TURKEY URGES RUSSIA TO COMPLY WITH CFE TREATY[05] PKK MILITANTS KILL VILLAGE HEADMAN, WIFE AND SON[06] TURKEY ASKS BONN TO EXPLAIN MEETING WITH PKK LEADER OCALAN[07] WEU OFFICIAL VISITS TURKEY[08] EUROPEANS VOICE THEIR SUPPORT[09] 103 KGS OF HEROIN SEIZED IN ISTANBUL[10] GREEK EXPORTERS SHOW GROWING INTEREST IN TURKEYTURKISH PRESS REVIEWTUESDAY NOVEMBER 21, 1995Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish pressthis morning[01] PM CILLER, BAYKAL BOTH OFF TO EUROPEPrime Minister Tansu Ciller starts her visit to London tomorrow, where she will not only meet her counterpart, John Major, but also Labour Party leader Tony Blair. She will also address the Confederation of British Industrialists (CBI), speaking about the Turkish economy and foreign policy. She will make a speech at the European Parliament Foreign Relations Commission which will gather tomorrow to discuss the date of a meeting planned to be held in December for Turkey's entry into the CU. While Ciller visits London, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Deniz Baykal will be in Bonn to participate in a meeting of the foreign ministers of Turkey, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain. The meeting, which originally was to be between Turkey, Germany and Britain, was later extended to include the other three. The agenda of the meeting will be Turkey's relations with the EU. /Cumhuriyet-Hurriyet/
[02] CILLER-BAYKAL AGREEMENTTrue Path Party (DYP) Chairman and Prime Minister Tansu Ciller yesterday spoke with her coalition partner leader, Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Deniz Baykal. Both leaders agreed to hold the elections on December 24, as previously endorsed. Accord was achieved also on the election law. The law retains the d'Hondt version of proportional representation to determine the allocation of seats to various parties. According to the national and regional thresholds, political parties that obtain less than 10 percent of the total valid votes cannot be assigned any seats in the assembly. The DYP and CHP further agreed to extend the period of submitting lists of candidates to the Supreme Electoral Board by five more days after November 21. /Milliyet/
[03] TURKEY CONDEMNS ATTACK ON EGYPT'S EMBASSY IN ISLAMABADTurkey condemned the blast of a suicide bomber that killed 15 people and wounded about 60 in the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad. "Turkey condemns any terrorist action" a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry said yesterday. "We regret the attack that lead to the death of many people". /All papers/
[04] TURKEY URGES RUSSIA TO COMPLY WITH CFE TREATYTurkey yesterday urged Russia to get in line with the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which Moscow is technically violating by failing to reduce its military strength near Turkey's borders. "Turkey has strictly complied with all the treaty obligations. It is Turkey's most natural right to request the same positive approach from all parties" Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Nurettin Nurkan told a news conference. "Turkey, paying special attention to her security requirements, shall actively participate in the search for a resolution of the issue" Nurkan said.Meanwhile, a delegation headed by US Defence Department Assistant Undersecretary, Susan Koch arrived in Ankara yesterday to meet Turkish Foreign Ministry officials on the CFE issue. Prime Minister Ciller said yesterday that Turkey would make no compromise with the Russians on the terms of the European Reduction in Conventional Forces Treaty. Ciller has written a note to that effect to President Clinton stressing that Turkey would not compromise regional peace to please the Russians. /Milliyet-Cumhuriyet/
[05] PKK MILITANTS KILL VILLAGE HEADMAN, WIFE AND SONMilitants of the PKK terrorist organization have killed a Kurdish village chief, his wife and son, and wounded five more people in their separatist campaign in southeast Turkey, security officials said yesterday. PKK militants shot the three in the village of Erduragi in Siirt province on Sunday night, they said. Mehmet Cangir was the village "muhtar", or headman. The regional governor's office said security forces killed one PKK militant in fighting after the attack. /Hurriyet/
[06] TURKEY ASKS BONN TO EXPLAIN MEETING WITH PKK LEADER OCALANTurkey has sought information from Bonn on a report in a German weekly magazine, Focus, which said that a member of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Party (CDU) had met with Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is outlawed in both countries, Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Nurettin Nurkan said. Nurkan told a regular press briefing in Ankara yesterday that the only reports they had on the subject were those carried by the Turkish press. Underlining the fact that Germany considers the PKK to be a terrorist organization and has banned its activities in its territory, Nurkan said that if such a contact had taken place, Turkey would "greet this with sadness".Ankara is disturbed over talks between German Christian Democrat Party member, Heinrich Lummer, and the leader of the terrorist PKK organization Abdullah Ocalan in Damascus during the last few days of last month. The Ankara government has asked Bonn for more details of the talks, especially as German government officials claim that they knew nothing about Lummer's visit to Damascus, and add that no government would knowingly join in talks with a terrorist organization. Ankara has conveyed its views on the matter to the German government. /Cumhuriyet/
[07] WEU OFFICIAL VISITS TURKEYAdm.Rafael De Morales, the newly-appointed director of the planning department of the Western European Union (WEU), is visiting Turkey as part of a series of visits to WEU member countries. Turkey is an associate member of the WEU. During his two-day visit to Turkey, Morales will visit Chief of General Staff, Ismail Hakki Karadayi. They are expected to discuss the operations of the union and Turkey's contributions to WEU forces. Morales will leave Turkey after visits to F-16 production complexes and to the joint US-Turkish defence venture FMC Nurol. /All papers/
[08] EUROPEANS VOICE THEIR SUPPORTEuropean experts and academicians attending the Istanbul meeting of the European Association of Turkish Academics (EATA) have mostly come out in support of the customs union between Turkey and the European Union (EU).Professor Jurgen Gramke noted that everyone was "positive" about the union and expected good results in the future. He said that he could "guarantee" there would no negative comment in Brussels during the last few weeks leading up to a final signature. Professor Eero Rantala, a member of the European Parliament Liberal group, noted that although the Liberals and Greens were decided on the way they would vote, the influential Socialist group was not yet convinced. Another member of the European Parliament, Wolfgang Von Nostiz, said that the EU member countries "supported Turkey's efforts" with most groups, institutions and parties promising to vote in favour of Turkey. He noted that much of the positive support had come from the huge effort Turkey had recently made to promote its case in Europe. The European Union needs Turkey as a key political and economic ally to contain the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in Europe, a senior German member of the European Parliament, Christian Democrat, Peter Kittelmann told the conference. The group, based in Berlin, represents mainly second generation Turkish university students in the EU countries. Kittelmann said conservative deputies in the assembly will vote largely in favour of a customs union between Turkey and the EU next month because Turkey had made the necessary legal changes to further democratize the country and protect human rights. The two-day conference ended yesterday. /Milliyet/
[09] 103 KGS OF HEROIN SEIZED IN ISTANBULFive drug smugglers were caught with 103 kilograms of heroin by Adana police teams in Istanbul, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Police officials said that they followed the smugglers from Adana to Istanbul and five suspects were taken into custody. Mehmet Gundogdu, Adana police chief, said that Turkey has been successfully combatting drug smuggling and that Turkey was cooperating with other countries in the fight against drugs.Meanwhile, eight international drug-smugglers, who are members of the PKK terrorist organization, were caught with 9.5 kgs of heroin by the police directorate's anti-smuggling department in Van. Police said that the street value of the heroin was TL 20 billion and the suspects were trying to smuggle the heroin from Iran to Greece. The leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Mesud Barzani said at a press conference that the PKK acted as a "mafia" in drug smuggling and described the leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan as a drug smuggler and secret agent who served the interests of secret services of some countries. /Sabah-Milliyet/
[10] GREEK EXPORTERS SHOW GROWING INTEREST IN TURKEYA "New business opportunities in the Black Sea region and Middle East" conference organized by the Union of Greek Exporters started today in Athens. High level bureaucrats and economists from the Middle East and Black Sea countries will participate in the conference. Turkey is represented by a delegation headed by Prime Ministry Advisor and Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Bank for Trade and Development, Chairman Ersoy Volkan. The agenda of the conference includes a speech by Ersoy Volkan on the establishment of the BSEC Bank for Trade and Development, that will start operations in March 1996. /Sabah/
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