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Turkish Press Review, 98-06-12Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>12.06.98Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morningCONTENTS
[01] ANNAN: "BOTH SIDES IN CYPRUS DO NOT ABIDE BY THE COUNCIL'S WISHES"[02] CETIN IN SWEDENTurkish Parliament Speaker Hikmet Cetin, who has gone to Stockholm, Sweden, to attend a Conference of Speakers of the European Parliament, met with Swedish Foreign Minister Lena Hjelm Wallen and First Deputy Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Anders Bjorck. In a statement to journalists about his meetings, Cetin noted that they had talked about Turco-EU relations and the difficulties being encountered in those relations. /Cumhuriyet/[03] BASESGIOGLU ATTENDS PANEL MEETING IN NEW YORKTurkish Interior Minister Murat Basesgioglu said that drugs seized in Turkey constituted 60 % of those seized in Europe and 40 % of those seized in the whole world. Basesgioglu, who recently represented Turkey at a UN summit for the struggle against drugs in New York, attended a panel meeting organized by the American-Turkish Journalists' Association. He noted that the PKK terrorist organization had a huge network, which included narcotics trafficking in Europe and, said that in recent months the PKK had also been involved in illegal refugee movement to European countries. Basesgioglu stressed that narcotics trafficking and terrorism were closely connected to each other and he blamed Western countries for not revealing information about those involved in drug trafficking in European countries. /Cumhuriyet/[04] TURKEY VOLUNTEERS AS KOSOVO LINKTurkey has stated that it will contribute to a NATO intervention if the Kosovo problem is not solved through dialogue. Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem sent a letter to the term-president of the Western Contact Group (WCG) and British Foreign Minister Robin Cook and proposed that a communications mechanism should be established between the WCG and regional countries. A WCG meeting will be held in London today. Meanwhile Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ambassador Necati Utkan held a press conference yesterday and recalled that the defense ministers of NATO countries had convened in Brussels to review the Kosovo problem and discuss the issue of military intervention.Utkan said: "We have expressed our wish to establish a mechanism that will provide a powerful flow of information and that this view of ours, as well as the outcome of the Istanbul meeting concerning Kosovo, be presented also to the other ministers of the Contact Group". He also noted that the clause concerning Kosovo could not be put into the final declaration of the Istanbul meeting, 'due to the objections of the Yugoslav delegation at the meeting and which have announced under the title of the Chairman's Summary'". /All papers/ [05] RUSSIA STARTS SHIPPING S-300 MISSILES TO CYPRUSAccording to high level diplomatic and military sources in Ankara, Russia has started transferring S-300 missiles to the Greek Cypriot Administration. Three delegations of Russian military experts arrived in Cyprus to prepare the bases for the missiles including control panels and five radars, sent to the island as the first step. Russia has transported the supplies via a number of ships which were interchanged at several Mediterranean ports. /Hurriyet/[06] FOREIGN MINISTRY RECEIVES FRENCH MESSAGES CAUTIOUSLYSpeaking during his weekly press conference, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Necati Utkan said yesterday that his ministry had doubts about French messages which declared that a draft resolution about an alleged massacre of Armenians by Turks during World War I, will not be brought to the agenda of the French Senate. Utkan also declared that all the agreements with French firms slated to sell defence equipment to Turkey had been suspended following the approval of the draft resolution in the French Parliament.Also reacting against the draft resolution is the Turkish Associations' Union in France which declared yesterday that its members will march in Invalides Square, Paris, on June 20 to protest the draft resolution. /Hurriyet/ [07] FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES UPCentral Bank foreign exchange reserves increased by $656 million over the last week and reached over $26 billion, setting a new record. /Hurriyet/[08] WORLD BANK EXTENDS CREDIT FOR DISASTER AREAIn a letter to Turkish Foreign Minister Mesut Yilmaz, World Bank president James D. Wolfenson states that the bank plans to extend $100 miilion in credit to help relieve people in the Western Black Sea region where a devastating flood occurred in May. /Hurriyet/[09] ITALIAN MISSILES FOR GREEK CYPRIOTSThe Greek Cypriot Administration is launching initiatives to bring Italian ASPIS-330 missiles to southern Cyprus. These highly developed missiles with a 150-km range are expected to be brought to the island in the forthcoming weeks.Meanwhile, President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Rauf Denktas said in a statement regarding the missiles that with a missile agreement made with the Greek Cypriot Administration, Italy was supporting an anti-Turkish policy together with Head of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin. Turkish Foreign Ministry officials also warned the Italian government and called for the annulment of the missile order. /Cumhuriyet/ [10] ANNAN: "BOTH SIDES IN CYPRUS DO NOT ABIDE BY THE COUNCIL'S WISHES"UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has stated that the two sides on Cyprus are not complying with the demands made by the Security Council to reduce their military spending and the number of soldiers on the island. Annan said: "The Greek Cypriot Administration is insistent on the deployment of Russian-made S-300 missiles despite Turkish and Turkish Cypriot protests. Annan, who has sent a request to the Security Council for the extension of the deployment of the peace force on the island, noted that the Greek Cypriot Administration would abandon their missile project if development was achieved in negotiations for the solution to the Cyprus problem or for a total disarmament on the island. /Cumhuriyet/RED CRESCENT CELEBRATES ITS 131st ANNIVERSARY Kizilay, the Turkish Red Crescent Association, is celebrating its 131st anniversary. Kizilay General Manager Kemal Demir held a press conference yesterday to mark the occasion and discuss the group's ongoing projects. Demir told reporters that Turkey this year had already endured six floods, three landslides, and four earthquakes and, in response to these disasters, Kizilay had contributed TL 458.2 billion to emergency relief funds. In addition to the money donated for domestic relief, Demir said the fund has given TL 85 billion for humanitarian aid abroad. /All papers/ [11] $270 MILLION WORLD BANK CREDITThe Executive Board of the World Bank has approved a $270 million credit to Turkey to be used for beefing-up the capacity of national energy lines. According to World Bank officials, the credit will be used in the construction of transformer units and cable conduction lines. The credit, interest free for the first four years, will be paid back in 17 years. /Sabah/[12] TURKEY TO PRODUCE BUSES IN UZBEKISTANTurkish Koc Corp. and Uzbek Uzavtoprom joint investment will produce buses and lorries in Samarkand. Joint venture capital is declared as $47.5 million. Deputy chairman of the venture, Suleyman Urakov said that they aimed to produce 300 vehicles by the end of 1998 and 500 in 1999. He added that following 2000 the number would be increased to four thousand a year. The project will be the second biggest vehicle producer in Uzbekistan. /Sabah/[13] ERCEL: "STRUGGLE AGAINST INFLATION HAS BEEN STEPPED UP"Head of the Central Bank, Gazi Ercel, said that they would more strictly apply monetary, rate of exchange and interest policies in the last third of the year to sustain the downward trend in inflation. Ercel, who met with the deputy chairman of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Stanley Fischer and the European Director of the IMF, Michael Deppler last weekend in Istanbul, said that they had already intensified measures to maintain the decrease in inflation. /Sabah/[14] FOREIGN EXCHANGE FROM HAZELNUT EXPORTS REACHES $879 MILLIONTurkey obtained a total of $879 million in foreign exchange from hazelnut exports during the 1997-1998 export season starting on September 1, 1997, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Officials from the Black Sea Hazelnut Exporters' Union said that they had exported 193 thousand 991 tons of hazelnuts and that nearly 178 thousand tons of these exports had gone to European countries. They noted that they expected foreign exchange income would reach $1 billion by August 31, 1998, the last day of the 1997-1998 export season.Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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