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Turkish Press Review, 02-05-14Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr><LINK href="http://www.byegm.gov.tr_yayinlarimiz_chr_pics_css/tpr.css" rel=STYLESHEET type=text/css> <map name="FPMap1"> <_map> Press & Information Turkish Press Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning14.05.2002CONTENTS
[01] TRILATERAL SUMMIT BEGINS IN CESME TODAYThe presidents of Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria are to attend today a trilateral summit in Cesme. According to a statement issued by the Presidential Press Office, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer is to travel to Cesme today for the summit. Romanian President Ion Iliescu and Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov are also to attend the gathering. /Star/[02] ECEVIT DELAYS RETURN TO OFFICEPrime Minister Bulent Ecevit said yesterday that he would spend two or three more days away from the Prime Ministry office to recover from his illness. "I'm getting better every day, but so as not to set back that process, I plan to spend two or three days more working at home," Ecevit said in a written statement. The prime minister was hospitalized a week ago due to an intestinal infection and has been working at home since then. /All Papers/CEM TO MEET WITH ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTERS Th foreign ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia will tomorrow attend a NATO meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland. Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Vilayat Guliyev and Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian are to discuss "Peace and Partnership" with the permanent members of NATO. Turkey is a founding member of NATO, while the two ex- Soviet republics do not belong to the alliance. /Hurriyet/ [03] ANNAN VISITS CYPRUSUnited Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will arrive in Cyprus today in order to contribute to the direct talks between Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas and Greek-Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides. After meeting with Denktas and Clerides separately, Annan will bring the two leaders together at a dinner. Annan told reporters that he hoped that his visit would contribute to the process of finding a settlement to the Cyprus issue. /Turkiye/[04] CAKMAKOGLU TRAVELS TO BELGIUM FOR DEFENSE MINISTERS MEETINGDefense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu left for Brussels, Belgium, yesterday to attend a European Union defense ministers meeting. Before his departure Cakmakoglu told reporters that in addition to EU member countries' defense ministers, six candidate countries' ministers would attend the meeting, including Turkey's. After his visit to Brussels, Cakmakoglu will proceed to Rome on Thursday to attend a Western Europe Armament Group's defense ministers meeting. /Turkiye/[05] IMF DELEGATION TO VISIT TURKEYAn International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation headed by Turkey Desk Chief Juha Kahkonen is to arrive in Istanbul tomorrow as part of the IMF's second review. The delegation will stay in Turkey for two weeks, and will hold meetings with high-level officials and private sector representatives. Following the meetings and implementation of the necessary pre-conditions, the IMF Executive Board is to meet in June to evaluate the second review and is expected to extend a $1.150 billion loan tranche to Turkey. /Turkiye/COUNTRIES PLEDGE SUPPORT FOR TURKISH-LED ISAF A meeting was held at the Office of the Chief of the General Staff late last week in Ankara with the participation of 26 countries to discuss recent developments concerning the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Even as current participating countries stated that they wanted to continue to support the force, a number of predominantly Muslim countries such as Malaysia and Bangladesh also conveyed the message that they wanted to contribute to the ISAF. Diplomatic sources remarked that the number of countries supporting the ISAF might increase and that another meeting to discuss the technical details would be held this Friday, May 17. Most of the countries agreed to continue to take part in the ISAF under the leadership of Turkey. /Cumhuriyet/ [06] VURAL RECEIVES WORLD BANK'S CHHIBBERTransportation Minister Oktay Vural yesterday received World Bank Turkey Director Ajay Chhibber. Among the major issues discussed at the meeting were the rehabilitation of the state railways and the privatization of state landline monopoly Turk Telecom. /Cumhuriyet/[07] GOVERNMENT PREPARES FOR IMF REVIEWWhile an International Monetary Fund team is expected to arrive in Turkey tomorrow for its second review visit, Turkey's economic administration is trying to fulfil its commitments to the body. Those commitments need to be fulfilled in due time and policy implementation must begin before the end of the May to forestall any possibility of a hitch. State Minister Kemal Dervis said yesterday that there had been two meetings with the finance minister and high-ranking economy bureaucrats to make preparations. The due commitments on structural reforms before the economy bureaucracy are bank recapitalization, corporate debt restructuring (Istanbul Approach), a Public Procurement (Bidding) Law, determining the number of redundant staff in public enterprises, privatization in the energy sector, improved conditions for foreign investment, and transparency of resource allocations in public administration. The IMF officials will also focus on the achievements of government budget and monetary policy targets to date, which make up the other leg of the commitments. /Milliyet/[08] THEATRE GROUPS TO MEET IN TRABZONThe Black Sea city of Trabzon is set to host the weeklong third "International Black Sea Theatre Assembly" beginning tomorrow. Culture Minister Istemihan Talay will preside over a ceremony to open the festival, which runs through May 23. /Cumhuriyet/ISTANBUL WELCOMES FRANCO MORETTI Istanbul Bilgi University is set to host prominent man of letters Franco Moretti today and tomorrow. Moretti, a well-known critic in the field of comparative literature, is currently working at California's Stanford University in the United States. Among his notable works are "The Way of the World," "Signs Taken for Wonders" and "Atlas of the Novel." /Cumhuriyet/ [09] FROM THE COLUMNS... FROM THE COLUMNS... FROM THE COLUMNS...[10] OUR DEMOCRACY WOULD BE ENDANGERED BY YILMAZ OZTUNA (TURKIYE)Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna comments on Turkey's EU membership bid. A summary of his column is as follows:"If Turkey had pursued a sound policy, it would have become a member of the European Union at the same time as Greece (in 1981), and before Spain, Portugal, Austria, Sweden and Finland. Membership was not as difficult and complicated before. It is predictable that our incredible clumsiness and incompetence in this area would have negative results. What else did we expect? So we shouldn't cry, complain or blame other people. We should recognize our mistakes and work to correct them. Just like every great nation, we should criticize ourselves. One cannot gain honor through self- praise. If things go awry in Brussels at the end of this year, everything will change in Turkey. Obviously Europe will be harmed, too, but it has the ability to put up with even such appalling harms. But Turkey, in such a case, would suffer great economic and politic losses. What's more, our democracy will be put in a worse situation, because they will go against poor Turkey, excluded from Europe, blaming it and completely dependent on Washington. For example, they might stir up the Armenian and Kurdish issues and anger us. If they go against us, our system will become tougher and our freedoms will be restricted. The nation will become poorer and will be on strained terms with the government. Finally, Turkey will display the typical characteristics of a Third World country. There are those in foreign quarters who would like Turkey to be reduced to such a state. Even today Turkey has such ruthless and merciless enemies and rivals. Many countries would like to prevent a strong Turkey's establishing firm relations with other Turkic-speaking countries. Ankara's common sense and calm and our ability to act rapidly can save us from falling into traps set by such countries." [11] IF YILMAZ WERE IN DENKTAS'S PLACE BY ORHAN BIRGIT (CUMHURIYET)Columnist Orhan Birgit comments on statements by Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas. A summary of his column is as follows:"Mesut Yilmaz is not a common citizen, he has been in politics since 1982 and he is among the founders of the Motherland Party (ANAP) together with Turgut Ozal. He is ANAP's Rize deputy. He was tourism minister, state minister and foreign minister. Then he became the prime minister and today he is deputy prime minister. He has knowledge on all the documents of the government. He has a say and a vote in the determination of national strategy at the National Security Council (MGK). When he recently called for TRNC President Denktas to be 'more compromising' in the meetings between Denktas and Greek Cypriot administration leader Glafcos Clerides, he must have looked before he leapt. Deputy Prime Minister Yilmaz made this pronoucement in the leadup to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's visit, which is expected to be paid to the island this week in order to evaluate the state of the Cyprus issue. In other words, the secretary-general and of course EU officials can base their arguments that Denktas is 'not compromising enough' on this ill-timed declaration by Yilmaz. Denktas, who learned about Yilmaz's statement while he was in Ankara as President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's guest, accused Yilmaz of having not read the package of proposals dated April 29 which he had sent to Clerides. Wasn't his sarcastic manner just what was called for? In his reply to Yilmaz, Denktas felt obliged to add that the package was prepared in cooperation with the Turkish government. The proposals dated April 29, which were sent by Denktas to Clerides, of course were approved by the MGK. While Yilmaz was saying that he was expecting Denktas to adopt a more compromising manner concerning these proposals, Denktas, unable to hide his bewilderment, found it necessary to explain the island's strategic importance for Turkey once more on news channel CNN Turk yesterday. Then he tried to remind the Turkish public and Yilmaz of the London-Zurich agreement which was signed in 1960. In summary, Denktas said the following: - The 1960 Constitution clearly set forth the Turkish side as a founding member of the joint government. But the incidents of July 15, 1974 destroyed this partnership, and a total of 103 villages were demolished in order to put the island under the sovereignty of Greek Cypriots. - The existence of two nations and the necessity for two separate zones were put into the UN documents after July 20, 1974. In the same documents, the distribution of property was accepted. We want Turkey to continue to be a guarantor state on the island. - We have not considered withdrawing from the meetings. We consider the EU as the union of the countries constituting the center of civilization, and of course we want to be included in this phenomenon. However, we don't want to be reduced to a state of minority and would like in fact to become a nation. We have been excluded from the budget for 39 years. We want the example of Belgium to be practiced in Cyprus. What would happen if Yilmaz were in Denktas' place? Our current government is getting odder and odder. Of course it is unthinkable that a coalition government can be in full agreement on all matters. However, what can we say when faced with the comedy of contradictions which is on display concerning Cyprus?" ARCHIVE <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript" src="http:/_www.byegm.gov.tr_statistic/countcode.js"> </script> Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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