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Turkish Press Review, 03-09-08Turkish 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> e-mail : newspot@byegm.gov.tr <caption> <_caption> Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning08.09.2003ERDOGAN, BERLUSCONI DISCUSS TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP BID GUL ATTENDS EU FOREIGN MINISTERS’ MEETING IN ITALY NEW IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER ZEBARI: “TURKEY WILL HAVE A ROLE IN IRAQ’S RECONSTRUCTION PROCESS” SIMITIS: “PROGRESS ON CYPRUS, AEGEAN WILL FIGURE HEAVILY IN TURKEY’S EU PROSPECTS” GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER SCHILLY TOUTS TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP AS TONIC AGAINST TERRORISM PAPANDREOU: “LET’S WORK ON ANNAN’S CYPRUS PLAN AGAIN” INDUSTRY AND TRADE MINISTER COSKUN LEAVES FOR NORTH-SOUTH DIALOGUE MEETING IN CROATIA HEALTH MINISTER AKDAG TRAVELS TO WHO MEETING IN AUSTRIA TUZMEN: “CUSTOMS PROCEDURES WILL BE MODERNIZED TO HANDLE A $500 BILLION TRADE VOLUME” GOVERNMENT, CIVIL SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES TO MEET AGAIN ON THURSDAY TURKEY DEFEATS LIECHTENSTEIN 3-0 FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS THOSE SEEKING TO SPOIL TURKISH-US RELATIONS BY YILMAZ OZTUNA (TURKIYE)CONTENTS
[01] ERDOGAN, BERLUSCONI DISCUSS TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP BIDPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday returned to Ankara from Italy, where he had attended the weekend Ambrosetti Forum. “I believed Turkey, the only country where Islamic culture and democracy co-exist, will change the image of the Islamic world for the better,” Erdogan told reporters. During his meeting with Erdogan, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that Turkey was a rare example of democracy in a region where democratýc government was all but unknown. He stressed that Ankara’s recent passage of EU harmonization packages was good for both itself and Europe, adding that this proved Turkey’s desire to join the ranks developed nations. “The EU’s enlargement is a necessity,” said Berlusconi, whose nation hold’s the Union’s rotating presidency through year’s-end. “Turkey has been a member of NATO for years and is a shining beacon of democracy in a region where democracy, one of the basic pillars of Europe's system, hardly exists.” /All papers/[02] GUL ATTENDS EU FOREIGN MINISTERS’ MEETING IN ITALYThe European Union’s foreign ministers convened on Friday for a two-day informal meeting in the Italian town of Riva Del Garda to debate the draft of a European constitution, seek common ground on Iraq, and discuss the Middle East peace process. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul attended the meeting to tell his European counterparts of Turkey’s plans through next year for its EU membership bid. Speaking to reporters accompanying him on the plane trip to Italy’s Lake Garda, Gul stated that the gathering was a key one for Turkey, since it was the first EU foreign ministers’ meeting since Ankara’s approval of the seventh EU adjustment package this summer. Gul said that he would tell his Union counterparts that Turkey had fulfilled its responsibilities on its path towards EU membership and would continue to do so. During the meeting, Gul met with the German, Greek and Spanish foreign ministers and laid out for them Turkey’s Iraq policy, underlining that Ankara had reluctantly arrived at its willingness to send troops there. “All Turkey wants is to help Iraq establish peace and stability,” said Gul. Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told Gul that he did not believe that France and Russia would oppose the United Nations sending a peacekeeping force to Iraq. Gul also stated that Fischer had made very positive and constructive statements on Turkey’s EU membership bid. /Cumhuriyet/[03] NEW IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER ZEBARI: “TURKEY WILL HAVE A ROLE IN IRAQ’S RECONSTRUCTION PROCESS”Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s new foreign minister as selected from its 25-member Governing Council, said yesterday that the nation’s neighbors Turkey, Syria, and Iran would all have roles to play in Iraq’s reconstruction process. Speaking to Iraqi daily Ezzaman, Zebari said that Iraq would appoint ambassadors to the US and Britain by the end of this year, and called on other countries to re-open their embassies in Baghdad. Last week, Zebari, an ethnic Kurd and former foreign policy chief for the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (IKDP), said that he opposed the deployment of troops from Turkey, or indeed any neighboring state. /Aksam/[04] SIMITIS: “PROGRESS ON CYPRUS, AEGEAN ISSUES WILL FIGURE HEAVILY IN TURKEY’S EU PROSPECTS”Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis yesterday called on his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to clear away whatever remaining domestic obstacles stood in the way of solving the Cyprus and Aegean continental shelf issues. “We can solve these issues by December 2004,” Simitis told a Salonica press conference. “The EU’s setting a date for accession talks [at its 2004 summit] will depend on progress on these two issues.” Regarding his expectations from Ankara, Simitis said, “We know that Turkey’s current government wants to follow a different course on human rights and social matters from that of its predecessors.” Ankara also wants to gain EU membership and has recognized the need to solve certain chronic problems, said the Greek premier, adding that the government had passed several reform packages to harmonize with the EU. “However,” he said, “in order to begin accession talks with the Union, the problems between Turkey and Greece, including the Cyprus issue and continental shelf, should also be solved.” He added that during his meetings with Erdogan to date, he got the impression that the Turkish premier was resolved to take steps to solve the issues. /Hurriyet/[05] GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER SCHILLY TOUTS TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP AS TONIC AGAINST TERRORISMGerman Interior Minister Otto Schilly stated over the weekend that Turkey’s EU membership would contribute to the Union’s fight against terrorism. “If Turkey joins our ranks, the EU will than have proven that different faiths can live together in peace and stability despite their unique views, beliefs and traditions,” said Schilly. “Turkey’s membership would constitute proof for the world that multi-religious groups can survive with the help of democracy and tolerance.” /Star/[06] PAPANDREOU: “LET’S WORK ON ANNAN’S CYPRUS PLAN AGAIN”Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou over the weekend called on the two nations on Cyprus to work once again on the peace plan proposed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He argued that Annan’s plan was the only path to a permanent and sustainable solution on the island. /Star/[07] INDUSTRY AND TRADE MINISTER COSKUN LEAVES FOR NORTH-SOUTH DIALOGUE MEETING IN CROATIAIndustry and Trade Minister Ali Coskun yesterday travelled to Croatia to attend the fourth session of the European Union North-South Dialogue Meeting hosted by the Turkish-Greek Business Council. Speaking before his departure, Coskun said that the meeting was important for Turkey’s EU membership bid. He added that the meeting’s agenda included economic relations among various countries, especially southern and northern European countries, investment opportunities, infrastructure, energy, telecommunication, and tourism. /Anatolia News Agency/[08] HEALTH MINISTER AKDAG TRAVELS TO WHO MEETING IN AUSTRIAHealth Minister Recep Akdag yesterday left for Vienna, Austria to attend the 53rd meeting of Regional Committee for Europe of the World Health Organization (WHO). Speaking before his departure, Akdag told reporters that the main issues at this year's meeting would be mental health, children and adolescents' health in the WHO European Region, the methodology for updating the regional health for all (HFA) policy framework, the regional office's country strategy, and the strategic orientations of the regional office's work with geographically dispersed organizational entities, including country offices. /Anatolia News Agency/[09] TUZMEN: “CUSTOMS PROCEDURES WILL BE MODERNIZED TO HANDLE A $500 BILLION TRADE VOLUME”State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said yesterday that Turkey’s customs procedures would be revamped and modernized in expectations of a $500 billion trade volume in the years to come. “A foreign trade volume of $500 billion by the year 2020 is no fantasy,” said Tuzmen. Stressing that present customs procedures were sufficient for the current trade volume, Tuzmen added that a substantially larger volume should be prepared for through such measures as sped-up computerized transactions. /Hurriyet/[10] GOVERNMENT, CIVIL SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES TO MEET AGAIN ON THURSDAYGovernment and civil service representatives are set to meet again on Thursday in contract talks for next year. During the meeting chaired by State Minister Ali Sahin, the sides are set to discuss a Conciliation Council report proposing a salary hike for next year as well as to sign an agreement. Sahin told reporters that the council’s proposal on the whole seemed difficult to meet on the government’s part, adding that the final decision on the matter would rest with the Cabinet. /Turkiye/[11] TURKEY DEFEATS LIECHTENSTEIN 3-0On Saturday Turkey’s national football team beat Liechtenstein’s national team by 3-0 in the 12th European Football Championship Qualifying Tour. Turkey is next set to face off against Britain in Istanbul on October 11. /All Papers/[12] FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS[13] THOSE SEEKING TO SPOIL TURKISH-US RELATIONS BY YILMAZ OZTUNA (TURKIYE)Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna comments on certain circles which want to spoil Turkey’s relations with the US. A summary of his column is as follows:“The primary aim of those who don’t want Turkish soldiers to be sent to Iraq is to spoil the strategic alliance between Ankara and Washington. The common ground between our countries bothers them. Our enemies fear Turkey’s having an international say and having Iraq do what it says, and they shudder to hear the word ‘Turk.’ Turkey has fallen into the trap of its enemies not only in its period of empire, but also in the republican period. Our economic situation is the clearest indicator of this. We should distinguish between on the one hand, those who want to spoil our relations with the US and on the other, those having difficulty comprehending and accepting the conditions of the third millennium but who actually love Turks. We separate those acting to put Turkey and the US at loggerheads due to our opposition to any Kurdish state from these idealists who support the status quo. However, I should also say that they are also preventing the improvement of Turkey’s lot. The recent statement of Iraq’s foreign minister (ethnically Kurd), ‘We don’t want Turkish soldiers here’ shows that he lacks moral fiber. Obviously Turkish-US relations and cooperation is being distorted for the sake of an independent ‘Kurdistan.’ If the US doesn’t act unsteadily and instead emphasizes its willingness to cooperate with us, our soldiers will go to Iraq and we’ll have a place at the table for Iraq’s reconstruction.” 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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