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Turkish Press Review, 97-01-28Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>CONTENTS
TURKISH PRESS REVIEWJANUARY 28, 1997Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning. [01] CILLER IN ROME FOR TALKS WITH EU MINISTERSTurkish Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller is scheduled to attend a meeting in Rome on Wednesday with her British, French, Italian, Spanish and German counterparts to discuss Turkey's relations with the European Union and a host of other issues.Ciller is expected to ask the European Union not to exclude Turkey from the enlargement process and will reiterate Turkey's demand for an immediate meeting of the Turkey-EU Association Council. She will also express Turkey's concern about the Cyprus question. During her three-day visit to Rome Ciller will also attend Turco-Italian meetings. She plans to meet Italian President Luigi Scalfaro and Prime Minister Romano Prodi./Cumhuriyrt/ [02] TURKISH POLICE SLAM EUROPEAN HYPOCRICYS ON DRUG WARTurkey has reacted strongly to allegations that there are connections between international drug smugglers and the Turkish state itself, as well as slamming claims that the government is not doing enough in the war against drugs.Tuncay Yilmaz, head of the police Anti-Smuggling Department, blamed the drug trade in Turkey on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party and accused European countries of not doing enough themselves to halt the drug trade. [03] AZERBAIJAN GROUP CALLS FOR TURKEY TO CO-CHAIR OSCE MINSK GROUPThe Azerbaijan Popular Front has called for Turkey to be given one of the chairmanships of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk group in order to provide a more balanced leadership.[04] GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTRY: 'KINKEL ASKS FOR CONTINUED GOOD RELATIONS'The German Foreign Ministry confirmed that Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel spoke by telephone with his Turkish counterpart Tansu Ciller and asked for the continuation of good relations between the two countries despite claims from a German judge that Turkey was involved in drug trafficking. Because of this claim Turkey has asked for an immediate apology from Germany and has decided to take legal action against the judge. Turkey strongly denied the judge's claims. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Omer Akbel at his weekly press conference on Monday said that Kinkel had called Ciller and expressed his regrets.[05] EU STILL WANTS TO BE PARTNERSDespite recent negative responses from some European Union (EU) member countries, member of the EU Foreign Relations Commission Hans Van den Broek said yesterday that no one should think that Turkey would be a bad partner for the EU.In answer to questions about current ties with Turkey from a Greek member, Van den Broek said that the EU was exerting every effort to improve ties with Turkey, and that partnership with Turkey was something that would never change. /Sabah/ [06] NEW ENERGY PLANS FOR TURKEYEnergy and Natural Resources Minister Recai Kutan said on Monday that "we will increase natural gas consumption from 8 billion to 27 billion cubic meters by the year 2000."Kutan said that Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan and Iranian officials would lay the foundations in March for the oil pipeline to transfer Iranian natural gas to Turkey. Kutan added: "Turkey buys 6 million cubic meters of its natural gas supplies from Russia, and 2 billion cubic meters from Algeria. Turkey has also natural gas deals with Iran and Turkmenistan." Turkey also has other natural gas deals with Algeria , Egypt and Nigeria./Cumhuriyet/ [07] ISTANBUL EXCHANGE SETS NEW RECORDSIn a press release dated Monday, January 27, the Istanbul Stock Exchange reported that the National-100 Index, the main index of the Exchange, closed at an all-time high of 1,700 after heavy trading all day Monday. This was up by 197 points or 13.11% higher than Friday's close of 1,503.Exchange officials also noted that trading volume in US dollars also reached a new peak of 609.47 billion TL. /All papers/ [08] GREECE RETALIATESIn retaliation to the fact that Turkey sent three warships to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Greece announced yesterday that Greek war vessels would visit Southern Cyprus. In addition, Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration have declared that they were ready to organize new military maneuvers in the region within the framework of the joint defence doctrine adopted by them.Greek Cypriot administration Spokesman Yannakis Kassulides described the arrival of the Turkish vessels to the island as a "provocation" and said that Greek military vessels would in turn visit the Larnaka and Limasol ports in Southern Cyprus. /Hurriyet/ [09] NATO ROLLS UP ITS SLEEVESFollowing the US and the EU, NATO has rolled up its sleeves in efforts to ease Turco-Greek tension and establish a dialogue between the two countries. NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana will visit Ankara and Athens in February. Solana, who has received full EU support regarding this issue, will propose the establishment of a red telephone line between Turkey and Greece to prevent a probable conflict in the Aegean. Solana wants the line to be set up between the chiefs of general staff of the two countries and in case a crisis looks likely, the two chiefs will keep in touch with each other and have the opportunity to prevent the crisis.Ankara has accepted this proposal. Meanwhile, Athens says that the line should be established between the foreign ministries of the two countries and wants NATO to be a bridge. However NATO Secretary-General Solana considers that a NATO connection through NATO headquarters in Brussels would not meet the needs of the situation. /Hurriyet/ [10] NEW $150 BILLION MILITARY AGREEMENT WITH ISRAELIt is reported that Turkey wants to sign a new $150 billion military agreement for a 25-year period with Israel in order to strengthen the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). According to the French AFP agency, one of the advisers of the TSK Foundation, Retired Gen.Sitki Orun, made statements in the Israeli Jerusalem Post newspaper regarding this new agreement. Orun stated that Turkey, which signed an agreement worth $600 million with Israel last month for the modernization of 54 Turkish jets, is trying to convince Israel to cooperation in this new big project. /Hurriyet/END Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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