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Turkish Press Review, 98-02-25
From: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>
25.02.98
Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning
CONTENTS
[01] THY PLANE HIJACKED
[02] KARADAYI TO VISIT MOSCOW
[03] BLAIR WARNS GREEK CYPRIOTS ABOUT S-300 MISSILES
[04] 20 PKK MILITANTS KILLED
[05] DEPAR STARTS POLITICAL LIFE
[06] ATHENS AGAIN POINTS TO ICJ
[07] MULTILATERAL DISCUSSION ON BAKU-CEYHAN
[08] DORON IN TURKEY
[09] TL 1 QUADRILLION ALLOCATED FOR EDUCATION
[10] TURKISH EXPORT GOODS IN HONG KONG
[11] MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS IN WASHINGTON
[12] TURKISH DIPLOMACY WINS ADMIRATION
[13] FP EMERGES AS MAIN OPPOSITION PARTY
[14] TUSIAD MEETING ON HUMAN RIGHTS
[15] TURKISH MINORITY IN GERMANY
[16] UN SECRETARY-GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGES TURKEY
[17] OECD DEFINES NEW PRINCIPLES IN COMPETITION
[18] TURKISH-LIBYAN RELATIONS TO BE RESTORED
[01] THY PLANE HIJACKED
An RJ 100-type Turkish Airlines (THY) passenger plane, which
took-off from Adana last night for Ankara, was hijacked and forced to
fly to Diyarbakir. The hijacker, Mehmet Dal (31), was overpowered by
the crew and passengers in the aircraft at 02:00 a.m. /Milliyet/
[02] KARADAYI TO VISIT MOSCOW
Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen.Ismail Hakki Karadayi is
planning to visit Moscow as the guest of the Russian Chief of General
Staff. Gen.Karadayi attended a celebration party yesterday night at the
Russian Embassy in Ankara on the occasion of the Russian Federation Army
Day.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem will go to Jordan
tomorrow for a two-day official visit. Cem will meet with the Jordanian
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Cem will also come together with
Jordanian King Hussein at a luncheon. /Milliyet/
[03] BLAIR WARNS GREEK CYPRIOTS ABOUT S-300 MISSILES
Following the US, Britain has also declared that Russian-made S-300
missiles should not be deployed in southern Greek Cyprus. According to
Greek Cypriot radio, British Prime Minister Tony Blair sent a message to
Greek Cypriot Leader Glafkos Klerides and tried to persuade him not to
deploy S-300 missiles on the island. Blair also called upon Klerides to
demonstrate "good intention" with regard to the rightful demands of
Turkish Cypriots for equal political status.
President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Rauf
Denktas, has stated that he will not meet with Cyprus Special Envoy for
Britain, Sir David Hannay, who is expected to arrive in Cyprus tomorrow.
Denktas noted that visa restrictions imposed by Britain on only Turkish
Cypriots and not Greek Cypriots, was unfair. /Milliyet/
[04] 20 PKK MILITANTS KILLED
Twenty militants of the PKK terrorist organization have been killed
in overnight clashes, government officials in southeast Turkey said
yesterday. During the clashes, two Turkish soldiers also died. The
office of the emergency rule region said clashes broke out in mountains
near Diyarbakir, when PKK separatists shot at an army patrol on Monday
night. Fighting continued into the morning. The bodies of 20
militants, along with their weapons, were recovered Tuesday morning, the
office said in a written statement. /Milliyet/
[05] DEPAR STARTS POLITICAL LIFE
The Changing Turkey Party (DEPAR), formed under the chairmanship of
the former Democratic Left Party (DSP), and now led by independent
deputy Gokhan Capoglu, has submitted a petition for establishment to the
Interior Ministry. With the founding of DEPAR, the number of political
parties in Turkey has gone up to 35. Capoglu said that with the
establishment of the party, choices will be made even clearer to the
undecided segment of the population. /All papers/
[06] ATHENS AGAIN POINTS TO ICJ
Greece yesterday conveyed its official response to Turkey's
five-point initiative for peaceful settlement of all current Aegean
disputes, in which it focused again on the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) in The Hague as the forum where bilateral disputes should
be solved.
Turco-Greek disputes in the Aegean include the following basic
issues: territorial waters and airspace, the continental shelf, Flight
Information region (FIR) lines, militarization of the Aegean islands and
the ownership of some islands. However, Greece maintains that the
continental shelf is the only issue of friction. /All papers/
[07] MULTILATERAL DISCUSSION ON BAKU-CEYHAN
An important meeting will be held in Istanbul on March 1 for a
broad discussion of Turkey's proposal for the construction of an oil
pipeline extending from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Turkey's
southern port of Ceyhan. With the participation of the foreign
ministers of Kazakhstan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey,
the countries involved will exchange ideas and seek a common consensus
on the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. /Milliyet/
[08] DORON IN TURKEY
Chief Rabbi of Israel Bakshi Doron and the delegation accompanying
him called on Mehmet Nuri Yilmaz, head of the General Directorate of
Religious Affairs, on Monday at his Ankara office, as a part of their
visit to Turkey. Doron said that rather than political and military
relations, cultural and religious rapprochment between Turkey and Israel
was an essential element. Doron also commented that Jews in Turkey live
in a peaceful and tolerant environment which he admired.
Yilmaz said, for his part, that this year a peace conference would
be organized on Mount Ararat at the suggestion of the European Churches
Union. Later on Tuesday afternoon, Doron visited Culture Minister
Istemihan Talay as well. /All papers/
[09] TL 1 QUADRILLION ALLOCATED FOR EDUCATION
Speaking at a meeting held in Ankara to evaluate the capital
investments planned for the eight-year compulsory education programme,
Education Minister Hikmet Ulugbay stated that in order to provide a
modern infrastructure for primary education, a total TL 1 quadrillion in
resources had been allocated from the investment budget of the 1998
ministry consolidated budget. /Hurriyet/
[10] TURKISH EXPORT GOODS IN HONG KONG
The Hong Kong Trade Development Council Representative in Turkey
discussed applications directed towards increasing the economic trade
potential of Turkey in Hong Kong in a seminar on "Hong Kong, the Best
Trade Partner in the Far East". Turkish Representative of the Council,
Yakup Barouh said that Hong Kong was still the best country in the Far
East with which to trade and added that products of companies which
would like to export to Hong Kong could be exhibited free in a fair to
be organized there. European Director Joseph Lee and Chairman of the
Istanbul Chamber of Trade Mehmet Yildirim, also attended the seminar.
/Sabah/
[11] MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS IN WASHINGTON
Minister of Communications Necdet Menzir went yesterday to the US
to attend a American-Turkish Council Meeting. Before his departure,
Menzir said that they would explain the "Bosphorus Railway Tube Tunnel"
or "Marmaray" project and the "Gebze-Halkali Underground Road Projects"
at the Council. /Sabah/
[12] TURKISH DIPLOMACY WINS ADMIRATION
Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem's efforts to ensure a regional
cooperation agreement in the Middle East is still being talked about in
Baghdad. Cem's efforts during the crisis have gained more importance
now the crisis is over. Diplomatic circles have noted Turkey's
cooperation with France and Russia to end the crisis. Accordingly,
Cem's Jordan visit to be realised this weekend is being closely followed
by Baghdad. Iraq welcomes Turkey's stance against a military solution.
/Sabah/
[13] FP EMERGES AS MAIN OPPOSITION PARTY
More than 100 deputies from the outlawed Welfare Party (RP) joined
yesterday the newly established Virtue Party (FP). FP officials applied
yesterday to the Parliamentary Administrative Council for the
establishment of a party group and held their first party group meeting.
The FP is now the largest opposition party in Parliament. /Sabah/
[14] TUSIAD MEETING ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The Turkish Businessmen`s and Industrialists' Association (TUSIAD)
held yesterday a meeting on democratization in Turkey. Parliament
Speaker Hikmet Cetin also attended the meeting and said that the duty of
the state to protect human rights ought to be included in the
Constitution. He called on political parties to agree on passing the
necessary legal regulations for initiating a drive for democratization
and protection of human rights in Turkey. /Cumhuriyet/
[15] TURKISH MINORITY IN GERMANY
According to the Turkish Research Centre based in Germany, the
number of Turks migrating to Germany has increased greatly since the
1960s. Turks living in Germany number more than two million, and
represent three percent of the total German population. Officials from
the Turkish Research Centre say that Turks in Germany could be regarded
as a minority. /Cumhuriyet/
[16] UN SECRETARY-GENERAL ACKNOWLEDGES TURKEY
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has averted a possible
military attack against Iraq, expressed yesterday his gratitude to
several statesmen, including Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, for
their support in finding a peaceful solution to the Iraq-UN crisis.
/Hurriyet/
[17] OECD DEFINES NEW PRINCIPLES IN COMPETITION
A Common Trade and Competition Group Meeting of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is being held in
Paris, took a series of decisions having impact on foreign companies
investing in Turkey. At the meeting, where Turkey was represented by a
delegation from the Competition Council headed by Aydin Ayaydin, new
principles concerning foreign banks were also agreed on. Aydin Ayaydin
noted that all these new decisions and principles were obligatory for
Turkey as well as the other OECD members. According to Ayaydin's
statement, underlying principles are based on equality between foreign
and domestic investments, and confidentiality of information submitted
to the competition councils. The new principles lift several
restrictions on foreign companies and banks expanding abroad.
/Hurriyet/
[18] TURKISH-LIBYAN RELATIONS TO BE RESTORED
Turkey's relations with Libya have been restored officially.
Relations with this country long since damaged by remarks made by Libyan
Leader Kaddafi when former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan visited that
country, have slowly been improving. President Suleyman Demirel
yesterday received the new Libyan Ambassador to Ankara, when he
presented his creditentials. /Hurriyet/
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