|
|
Turkish Press Review, 07-09-12
From: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr>
Summary of the political and economic
news in the Turkish press this morning
12.09.2007
FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS…
CONTENTS
[01] GUL VISITS VAN
[02] ERDOGAN RECEIVES MEMBERS OF INDEPENDENT COMMISSION
[03] PARLIAMENT SPEAKER TOPTAN MEETS WITH TRNC’S TOP OFFICIALS
[04] EMINE ERDOGAN MEETS WITH AKP DEPUTIES’ WIVES
[05] US EMBASSY: “THE US DOESN’T LEND SUPPORT TO THE PKK”
[06] POLICE FORCES PREVENT BOMB ATTACK IN ANKARA
[07] ANTI-TERROR SUPREME BOARD TO CONVENE TODAY
[08] SERBIAN TOP COMMANDER VISITS ANKARA
[09] VOTING ON REFERENDUM BEGINS
[10] TUSIAD DELEGATION MEETS WITH EU ENLARGEMENT COMMISSIONER
[11] BABACAN TO VISIT BULGARIA
[12] COMMENTS ON RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
[01] GUL VISITS VAN
After his recent election as Turkey’s 11th President, Abdullah Gul paid
his first domestic visit to the eastern city of Van yesterday where he was
welcomed by many enthusiastic residents. Gul, who was accompanied by
Education Minister Huseyin Celik, met with Van Governor Ozdemir Cakacak and
afterwards with representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Gul also visited military officials and Yuzuncu Yil University. /Star-
Aksam/
[02] ERDOGAN RECEIVES MEMBERS OF INDEPENDENT COMMISSION
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday received members of the
Independent Commission on Turkey in Ankara. The commission, headed by
former Finnish President Matti Ahtisaari, was established by the Open
Society Institute in 2004 to support Turkey’s European Union membership
bid. The delegation was also received by President Abdullah Gül. /Turkiye/
[03] PARLIAMENT SPEAKER TOPTAN MEETS WITH TRNC’S TOP OFFICIALS
Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, on his first official visit to the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) yesterday held a series of
meetings with top officials. After meeting with President Mehmet Ali Talat,
Toptan held talks with former President Rauf Denktas, Turkish Ambassador to
Lefkosia Turkekul Kurttekin and Lt. Gen. Hayri Kivrikoglu, commander of the
Turkish Peace Forces in Cyprus. /Turkiye/
[04] EMINE ERDOGAN MEETS WITH AKP DEPUTIES’ WIVES
Emine Erdogan, wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, yesterday held
a meeting with Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) women deputies and
deputies’ wives at the party’s headquarters in Ankara. Speaking at the
gathering, Erdogan called on women to back their husbands during their
political efforts. In addition, the women decided to establish groups to
aid and pay visits to families in Ankara’s poor districts during Ramadan.
/Star/
[05] US EMBASSY: “THE US DOESN’T LEND SUPPORT TO THE PKK”
The US Embassy in Ankara denied an assertion that US officials were
frequently holding meetings with PKK terrorists on the Mt. Kandil. A
written statement released yesterday underlined that the US accepts the PKK
as a terrorist group, and that the country never lends support to
terrorists. It added that those kind of allegations aimed at harming
friendship between the US and Turkey. /Hurriyet/
[06] POLICE FORCES PREVENT BOMB ATTACK IN ANKARA
Police forces prevented a bomb attack in Ankara yesterday, finding a
minivan packed with explosives near a multi-storey car park. 300 kilos of
explosives were rendered inactive after three-hours of efforts by security
teams. Police evacuated houses, cordoned off the area near the multi-storey
car park, the natural gas supply of the area was cut off and ambulances and
fire trucks stood by in case of an explosion. Shops and offices in the area
were also quickly emptied. “A possible disaster has been prevented,”
said Ankara Governor Kemal Onal adding that there was a general police
alert as Sept. 11 and Sept. 12 are sensitive days. Ankara Governor’s
Office stated that explosives were same with the ones found in operations
in Mersin and Sirnak, Uludere against the terrorist PKK. /All papers/
[07] ANTI-TERROR SUPREME BOARD TO CONVENE TODAY
The Anti-Terror Supreme Board is set to convene this afternoon. The meeting
will be chaired by State Minister Cemil Cicek in Ankara. /Turkiye/
[08] SERBIAN TOP COMMANDER VISITS ANKARA
Serbian Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Zdravko Ponos, on a visit to Ankara,
yesterday met with his Turkish counterpart Gen. Yasar Buyukanit. It was the
first encounter between the two armed forces since the dissolution of
Yugoslavia and foundation of Serbia. The two top commanders exchanged views
on regional military issues and Ponos reportedly asked for Ankara’s
backing in his country’s NATO membership bid. /Turkiye/
[09] VOTING ON REFERENDUM BEGINS
A referendum on a package of Constitutional changes, including popular
election of the president, got its first votes yesterday at Turkey’s
border gates. The main referendum will be held on Oct. 21. /Milliyet/
[10] TUSIAD DELEGATION MEETS WITH EU ENLARGEMENT COMMISSIONER
Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD) delegation
chaired by Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag, yesterday met with European Union
Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn. During the visit, Rehn said that
Turkey was losing friends because of its slow pace to reform the Article
301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). “You are losing the political and
economic support of those member countries,” said Rehn, adding that
Turkey was shooting itself in the foot on not amending the Article 301
immediately. TUSIAD delegation also met with European Parliament (EP)
President Hans Gert Poettering. Poettering said that Turkey would be able
to move toward membership as long as it pursued reforms. /Cumhuriyet/
[11] BABACAN TO VISIT BULGARIA
Foreign Minister and Chief European Negotiator Ali Babacan will travel to
Bulgaria to attend the informal meeting of foreign ministers of the South
East European Co-operation Process (SEECP). Releasing a statement yesterday,
Foreign Ministry announced that the meeting would be held during a train
journey from Sofia to Plovdiv on Sept. 14. /The New Anatolian/
FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS…
[12] COMMENTS ON RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
BY ISMAIL KUCUKKAYA (STAR)
Columnist Ismail Kucukkaya comments on recent developments in Turkey. A
summary of his column is as follows:
“The businessmen stand in the foreground among those who are trying to
understand these incredibly important historic events. They are curious
about the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and current conditions in
Turkey and the world and trying to see how and why certain developments
occurred and predict the future by making healthy analyses. The Turkish
Association of Contractors is one of the institutions which have been
making similar efforts for a long time. It invites journalists to its
monthly meeting of the board of directors, ask them to make a speech and
provide the opportunity of making evaluations mutually. I was invited to
its meeting of September and thus seized the opportunity of mentioning my
views and evaluations on developments which occurred particularly during
the last year in Turkey to a group of businessmen. I tried to conclude my
speech on the basis of such questions as why did the AKP won the elections,
why Abdullah Gul was elected the president, how will be the course of
civilian-military relations and what will happen between Gul and Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from now on.
I can summarize the speech that I made yesterday as follows: ‘Turkey has
been going through great change since 1980. We are constantly under the
influence of domestic migration. We can’t understand the truth about AKP,
unless we see social, economic, cultural and political dimensions of this
wave. Turkey’s extraordinary transformation intersected with the concept
of globalization. The flow of capital accelerated greatly and such
countries as Turkey started to seem more attractive following the Sept. 11
attacks in the US. The AKP got free of all the ideologies and it was
integrated with the world’s finance markets from a completely pragmatic
perspective. In addition, it followed fully liberal policies. While doing
this, AKP defined itself as conservative-democrat and claimed on the
Washington-Brussels line that it can be role model for the Islam world.
They said that a country with a majority Muslim population can live in
democracy. Thus, they presented an alternative prescription for the tension
between the West and East in the world and displayed a strong engagement to
Turkey’s European Union bid, unexpectedly. They were also supported from
outside and made health and education reforms and conquered the people
living in rural areas and the poor people in cities. The welfare was
ensured relatively in the country thanks to the great amount of liquidity
provided by the world conjuncture. They became a sort of executer of social
policies with their grants of coal and food, course books and provided
everybody with the opportunity of benefiting from the health system. They
could operate this strategy, as mayors of metropolitan municipalities have
been from the AKP for the last 15 years. Now it’s in the position of
supra-ideologies, but it could also easily win sympathy of a wide range of
voters in Anatolia. This is another fact in Turkey. This entire picture was
meaning a ruling party with an expectation of nearly 35 percent of votes
for the AKP during the elections held in this year’s July 22 in Turkey.
In addition, adding the influence of things which happened during the
process of presidential elections, the rate climbed to 47 percent. This
result proves that the nation doesn’t believe that the regime is
endangered. It’s certainly wrong that most of the nation doesn’t
protect the Republic’s values.’
Erdogan has an understanding that as AKP can win elections thanks to
economic stability, this road should be maintained. He established his
Cabinet with this understanding. Although they are different political
figures in terms of their perspectives about the world and styles of doing
politics, I don’t expect that a great tension will occur between Gul and
Erdogan. They might disagree with each other sometimes, but they will be
able to solve these problems without any reflection on the nation. I think
there will be no problem in AKP’s operations and Gul’s stance during
the course of his presidency, in terms of the Republic’s acquisitions,
particularly secularism. I also think that the military is interpreting all
these developments and taking its stance as part of this. Within this
framework, normalization will be ensured step by step.”
|