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Turkish Press Review 96-06-05Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>CONTENTS
TURKISH PRESS REVIEWWEDNESDAY JUNE 5, 1996Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning[01] TURKISH PRESIDENT TO VISIT BOSNIATurkish President Suleyman Demirel will visit Sarajevo this month. President Demirel has postponed his visit twice due to security reasons during the Bosnian war. Rehabilitation of Sarajevo and Turkish support for Bosnia will be discussed during the official visit on 17-18 June. Turkey pledges $80 million in project credits for the Bosnia-Herzegovina Rehabilitation Plan. /Hurriyet/[02] YILMAZ REMINDS EU OF ITS OBLIGATIONS TO TURKEYPrime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, who in Brussels, yesterday urged the European Commission to carry out its contractual obligations toward Turkey, despite the obstacle created by Athens. Yilmaz gave two main messages to European Commission President Jacques Santer on Turkey's links with the EU. The first of these messages was Turkey's desire to achieve step-by-step integration with the EU. The second message was that the customs union, which suffered a blow due to the Greek blockade of financial funds, should be implemented fully, with the Fourteen taking a clear stand on this matter. To both of those messages, Santer had the same answer. "We are committed to the customs union package, which was accepted on March 6. We hope we can release the package" he said at a joint press conference with Yilmaz. He added: "It will be right to solve the problem between Turkey and Greece at the Court of Justice in The Hague". Meanwhile, Term-President Italy invited Turkey to the summit which will be held in Florence on 22-23 June at the level of EU heads of state and prime ministers. Turkey was also invited to the conference to be held between governments in Luxembourg on 11 June. Foreign Minister Emre Gonensay will attend this meeting.Yilmaz began his contacts in the Belgian capital by visiting Klaus Haensch, president of the European Parliament, in the morning. Yilmaz and Haensch made brief statements after their meeting, both underlining the need to have more dialogue between Turkey and the European Parliament. Pointing out that some of the EP resolutions stemmed from lack of information about Turkey, Yilmaz stressed that he hoped the revitalization of the joint parliamentary commission would prevent the recurrence of such events. Haensch, in return, said: "Our aim is to get closer to Turkey, not get further away" he said. He also underlined that the EP considered the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a terrorist organization and condemned terrorism. Yilmaz later attended a reception which Turkish Permanent Representative to the EU, Ambassador Uluc Ozulker give in his honour. Late on Tuesday, Yilmaz opened the Brussels office of the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD. /Sabah-Milliyet-Cumhuriyet/ [03] BIR MEETS HIS ISRAELI COUNTERPARTDeputy Chief of the Turkish General Staff, General Cevik Bir, met his Israeli counterpart Major General Matan Vilnai in Ankara yesterday. Bir said that the Turkish Armed Forces were developing foreign relations in line with new developments in the Middle East, and added that this was the context of the relationship with the Israeli Armed Forces. Cevik Bir recalled that a "memorandum on Military Aircraft and Training" had been concluded with Israel on September 18, 1995, and that on February 23, 1996 "The Agreement on Military Training Cooperation" was signed. He said that both agreements had been approved by the Council of Ministers.Armed Forces General Secretary Erol Ozkasnak, also present during the meeting, tried to clarify to journalists aspects of the military cooperation agreements between Israel and Turkey. He said that Turkey had to date signed similar agreements with 27 countries other than Israel. He also added that none of these accords represented any hostility towards any third country. Vilnai was also received by Turkish Chief of General Staff General Ismail Hakki Karadayi and Land Forces Commander General Dogu Aktulga. /Sabah-Milliyet-Cumhuriyet/ [04] HABITAT II TAKES OFFThe Second UN Conference on Human Settlements, Habitat II, is going on at full speed. In opening the conference, UN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali described the Habitat Agenda to be approved by the delegates as a "global plan of action that embodies our vision of human settlements, our vision of the common future." Participants at the conference amount to 15 thousand, including 8,500 foreign guests. This figure is about half the number realistically expected to come to Istanbul. However, Ayman El-Amir, the UN Secretary General's Spokesman, pointed out that the figure excluded those involved in "parallel activities" outside the "conference valley", including many NGO representatives, delegates still to arrive (including those coming to the three-day "high-level segment" of heads of state and government next Wednesday), and family members staying as tourists in Istanbul. /All papers/[05] SLOVAKIA'S INTERIOR MINISTER ARRIVES IN ANKARALudovit Hudek, Slovakia's interior minister, has arrived in Ankara as the official guest of Interior Minister Ulku Guney. Hudek will pay a visit to Guney this evening, and will attend a meeting at the General Directorate of Security after his visit to Anitkabir, the Ataturk Mausoleum, on Thursday. Hudek will visit the president of the Police Academy on June 7 and depart from Turkey the same day. /All papers/[06] INTENSE CONTACTS UNDERWAY FOR OPERATION PROVIDE COMFORTFollowing Defence Minister Oltan Sungurlu's visit to the US, US Ambassador Marc Grossman paid a call on opposition Democratic Left Party (DSP) Chairman Bulent Ecevit yesterday. Before the government takes a final decision on the Operation Provide Comfort (OPC), the Turkey-based multinational relief force for the northern Iraqi Kurds, the mandate for which expires at the end of the current month, Sungurlu will reportedly have another meeting with US Defence Secretary William Perry at the NATO Defence Planning Committee meeting scheduled to take place on June 13.Accompanied by two diplomats, one of them the embassy counsellor, Ambassador Grossman had a 75-minute meeting with Ecevit at the latter's office in Parliament at noon yesterday. Assessed at the meeting was the "regional security plan" recently proposed by the DSP. The US ambassador reportedly referred to certain steps taken in the direction sought by Turkey, and asked the DSP to agree to a further renewal of the OPC mandate. /All papers/ [07] 10 PKK MILITANTS KILLED IN SOUTHEASTSecurity forces have killed 10 PKK militants and captured three alive in operations in Southeast Anatolia. Five other militants surrendered to the security forces. Meanwhile four militants, one a woman, members of an illegal organization, were also captured. Weapons, bullets, a cordless telephone, counterfeit identity cards and other documents were found in locations revealed by the terrorists. The security forces also captured three people who had supplied the PKK with weapons in Mardin's Midyat district. Meanwhile, 20 supporters of the PKK terrorist organization have been arrested in Brussels. /Sabah/[08] AEROSPORTS '97 TO BE HELD IN TURKEYThe first World Aviation Games, organized by the Turkish Aviation Institute (THK) and Federation of Aviation International (FAI), will be held in Turkey on September 13-21, 1997, the Anatolia news agency reported. About 4,000 sportsmen from 75 countries are expected to participate in Aerosports '97. It is reported that Professor Atilla Tacoy, chairman of THK, has been named as the head of the organization committee. /All papers/[09] MAGAZINE FOR TURKS IN EUROPE PUBLISHEDThe first issue of Anadolu, a monthly magazine published by a group of journalists living in Europe and Turkey which will be distributed especially in Western Europe, has gone on sale this week in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, the Anatolia news agency reported.Dolunay Uluc, editor of Anadolu magazine, said that they had planned to present the first issue to Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, who is in Brussels, and added: "We have published, with great effort, a magazine which will reflect Turkish-EU relations, which will establish communication between European Turks and Turkey, and which is devoted to Ataturk's principles". /All papers/ [10] TURK MARITIME TRADE GROWINGDuring the last ten years Turkish maritime trade has grown 2.5 times over. During the same period Turkey's place in world listings has gone up from 27th to 16th. Representatives in the shipping sector say that by the year 2000 they want to be 10th in the list.During 1995, the Turkish shipping sector secured five billion dollars in foreign exchange with a maritime fleet of eighteen cargo vessels. Sector leaders said yesterday that they were exerting every effort to boost Turkey's place in international shipping markets and that new markets in luxury yacht production were being developed. /Sabah/ [11] GREECE STIRS UP ANOTHER ISLAND CONTROVERSYIn what looks at first like a storm in a teacup, Greece has taken issue over the small island of Gavdos, just off the southern end of Crete. Greece now wants to involve this small island, with a population of only three hundred, in a battle over whose sovereignty it lies underjust like the still unresolved question regarding the Kardak islets in the Aegean Sea.Turkey is already involved in sovereignty issues with the Greeks and sees this latest ploy by Athens as a continuation of the Kardak dispute. Turkey has been obliged to voice its opinions over Greek claims of sovereignty over Gavdos because of the NATO "Dynamic Mixed" exercises planned for September in the area around Crete. /Milliyet/ [12] MOVES TO BEEF UP LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONSteps are being taken to present to the Interior Ministry and the Cabinet draft bills on seven new regional administrations and the funding needed to support them. The idea is to reinforce local administration in housing, services and other areas by ensuring hat certain sectors share in meeting costs. Thus a certain percentage will come from transport tax, advertising, investments, natural gas charges, entertainment and state lotteries. /Milliyet/Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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