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Turkish Press Review, 08-11-12Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr>Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning12.11.2008FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNSCONTENTS
[01] TURKEY-SWITZERLAND MARKS 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONSPresident Abdullah Gul and his visiting Swiss counterpart Pascal Couchepin yesterday attended a ceremony at a historical museum in Ankara along with other high level Turkish and foreign officials as part of celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of Turkish-Swiss diplomatic relations. Speaking at the ceremony, Couchepin said that Switzerland considered Turkey a strategic partner, and expressed his hope that the cooperation between the two countries would continue. Pointing to his gladness about signing the Treaty of Lausanne that the boundaries of modern Turkey were recognized through, Couchepin underlined that symbols are also important for ties between the two countries. Couchepin said that he brought the table, on which the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, from his country to give as a gift to Turkey. For his part, Gul characterized the table morally "important", and said that this table will be displayed the best way. /Star/[02] ERDOGAN: "NOBODY HAS POWER TO DIVIDE TURKEY"Speaking to his Justice and Development Party's (AKP) parliamentary group meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that remarks in his recent visit to Hakkari was misunderstood, adding, "I never use such expression like that 'either love or leave'. Those kinds of discourses belong to the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), not the AKP." Stating that he always emphasized "one nation, one flag, one motherland and one state," he asked, "Is there anyone who opposes that? Nobody has power to divide Turkey." He said that the government places great emphasis on education, and that they opened a university in Hakkari. In related news, speaking his party's extending meeting of provincial heads, Erdogan criticized Democratic Society Party (DTP), asking, "If you tried to overshadow the services, won't you isolate the people living there?" Reiterating that this soil, this country belong all of us, he added that they will help these people relieve from the ignorance. /Star-Aksam/[03] ERDOGAN TO TRAVEL TO THE USPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will fly to the United States today to attend a meeting of G-20 countries and hold bilateral talks. Erdogan will host a reception in New York to thank the permanent representatives of the United Nations member countries for electing Turkey as a non-permanent member to the U.N. Security Council recently. Erdogan will be accompanied by State Ministers Nazim Ekren and Mehmet Simsek as well as Undersecretary of the Treasury Ibrahim Canakci while attending the meeting of the G-20 countries, comprised of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and the European Union. The G-20 meeting will focus on the global economic crisis. /Hurriyet Daily News/[04] AT HIS PARTY'S GROUP MEETING, BAYKAL SLAMS ERDOGANMain opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal yesterday stated that Ataturk was commemorated with great enthusiasm throughout Turkey on the 70th anniversary of his death. In his speech at his party's group meeting, Baykal touched on the recent US presidential election, the ongoing Ergekon trial and criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his recent remarks about the Constitutional change. /Cumhuriyet/[05] MHP'S BAHCELI CALLS FOR CAUTIOUS STANCE TO THE NEW US ADMINISTRATIONAt his party's group meeting, opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli yesterday started his speech by mentioning Ataturk on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of his death. In his speech, Bahceli criticized those who exaggerated Barak Obama's election as the new US president and accused them of being in an intellectual crisis. Bahceli stated that they were in a prudent optimism about the policies which will be pursued by Obama on the issues regarding Turkey, and that the new administration's approach on the Iraq, Cyprus and Armenian issues are very important for them. "To this end, I think it will be better to stay away from binding engagements with the new American administration without actually seeing its new approach in fields that closely concern Turkey," he said. /Cumhuriyet/[06] US AMBASSADOR WILSON BIDS FAREWELL TO TURKEYOut-going US Ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson bade farewell to members of the diplomatic community and government officials at a large gathering in Ankara late Monday. "My family and I had very good time in Ankara. I will never lose my interest in Turkey," he said in his brief remarks. Wilson will leave Turkey next week for Washington D.C. He bade farewell to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Monday and to Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan yesterday. Wilson was appointed to Turkey in 2005 and his first task was to repair the damaged ties between the two allies. James Jeffrey, who previously served in Turkey on three occasions and speaks Turkish fluently, will replace Wilson. /Hurriyet Daily News/[07] ITALY'S BERLUSCONI: "WE CANNOT IMAGINE THE EU WITHOUT TURKEY"The First Intergovernmental Summit between Turkey and Italy will begin today in Izmir. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will chair the meeting that will be attended by many ministers from the two countries' governments. During the event, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan are expected to sign an agreement to establish a Turkish- Italian university in Istanbul. Speaking to Sabah daily yesterday in Rome prior to his departure to Izmir, Berlusconi said that Turkey and Italy enjoy good political and economic relations, characterizing Turkey as one of the most important European partners of his country. Supporting Turkey's EU accession bid, Berlusconi warned European leaders that excluding Turkey from the union would be an inexcusable mistake. "The EU is the natural destination of Turkish democracy. We cannot imagine the EU without Turkey. Turkey has a secular state organization with a predominantly Muslim population. It is the most important example that Islam can be in conformity with secular and democratic institutions. Turkey's this character is a great advantage for the union." Declaring yourself Turkey's advocate in the EU, Berlusconi dismissed any alternative for Turkey's full membership bid, and expressed his expectation that negotiations on the half of the frozen eight chapters would restart by the next year's June. On the Cyprus issue, he said, "Starting of comprehensive negotiations on the issue is a very positive step. Of course there are some problems and primarily Greek Cypriots should make efforts to solve those problems. Italy will do its part to contribute to the solution within the frame of the UN and EU." /Sabah/[08] TUZMEN STRESSES NEW MARKETS' IMPORTANCE FOR TURKEY AT A TIME OF GLOBAL CRISISSpeaking at the Fourth Turkquality Vision Seminar, State Minister for Foreign Trade Kursad Tuzmen said yesterday that Turkey should focus on exporting high added value products and creating new brands to secure high- level market segments. Stating that Turkey's foreign trade enjoyed a remarkable growth trend for the last seven years, Tuzmen stressed that expanding new markets in foreign trade and good management are of great importance for Turkey during the current global crisis. He said that Turkey's exports to new markets were rising in recent years thanks to the government's policy aiming to raise market diversification, adding that export/import coverage ratio will be 70 percent by several months. /Turkiye_[09] FINAL WAR VETERAN DIESThe last surviving Turkish veteran of the Independence War (1919-1923) died yesterday in Istanbul at the age of 105. Mustafa Sekip Birol joined the Turkish national forces following his graduation from Edirne Kuleli Military School. He retired from the army as colonel in 1952. Sekip will be laid to rest on Friday in Istanbul. Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug is also expected to attend his funeral. President Abdullah Gul issued a message on Sekip's demise, saying that all soldiers fought during the nation's Independence War had a very special place in the nation's heart. "We all protect our country with the same will and determination forever," said Gul. /Hurriyet/FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS [10] PUBLIC'S CONTROL AND SUPERVISIONBY I. HUSEYIN YILDIZ (AKSAM)Columnist I. Huseyin Yildiz comments on the financial economic crisis in the world, the public's control and supervision and Turkey's relation with this. A summary of his column is as follows: "The countries have been taking various measures to overcome the economic recession in the entire world and trying to establish an atmosphere of confidence through packages which are announced one after the other and remove the difficulty of credit flow (liquidity) since the beginning of the global financial crisis. So could this crisis have been prevented or was it possible to forecast the risks that are faced now? The answer to this question shows that there is weakness in the regulations and_or operation of the current public control and supervision in the market economy. Of course, the capitalist system has serious deficiencies, as required by its nature. These deficiencies even increase in complicated global financial markets which are dependent on each other, as well as in the investment banking and unregulated by-product markets. Accordingly, no matter how good is the system of control and supervision in financial markets, they can't prevent the crises alone, but decrease the possibility of crises. At this point, it's clear that there's a direct relationship between the sufficient and effective operation of the public control and supervision and the process of determining the risks. Among the important reasons of financial crisis which started in the US and other developed countries is the failure to conduct the operations of financial markets in transparent, fair and regular markets without paying regard to long-term common good. In other words, there is the lack of public control and supervision. So the operation of regulations, practices and institutions related with the control and supervision of capital and financial markets will be reviewed and new regulations will be made. What's more important, in an atmosphere in which financial markets are integrated into each other, the control, supervision and tax regulations become global as well. The regulations aimed at comprehending them on the global level are needed in an atmosphere in which investment vehicles and the capital can move rapidly. Otherwise investors will be treated unjustly. In parallel to this situation, the need for working with international common standards is increasing in practices of accounting and independent external audits. Moreover, the question of if the risks related with the crisis could have been predetermined will be on the agenda again. So the state's authority will intervene in practices of accounting and supervision standards and the supervision of supervisors more and supervision firms' relations with their customers will be reviewed again. It should be remembered that the majority of today's accounting and supervision institutions or regulating_controlling authorities were established following economic crises and company scandals. It has been on Turkey's agenda for a while now to make the system of public control and supervision effective as a whole. As part of this, I can mention the draft Public Supervision Institution and the draft Turkish Trade Act which were sent to the Parliament. These efforts which were initiated in order to approximate international standards and regulations will be dealt with in higher priority in terms of the crisis in the world and its results. But Turkey is likely to go to the extremes in the process of making certain regulations in all of these fields. We saw that it has happened before and now I'm concerned about the same. For example, there are certain regulations which can be considered exaggerated in the current Public Supervision Act and the Turkish Trade Act. Furthermore, the operation of the market mechanism shouldn’t be prevented in order to increase the public's function of control and supervision. At this point, the basic aim is to make the market operate in an effective, productive, fair and transparent way, away from unfair competition in line with the long-term common good. The important thing should be ensuring the institutionalization of the market. Otherwise an inoperative market wouldn't be useful." Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |