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Turkish Press Review, 02-01-07
From: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr>
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Press
& Information
Turkish
Press
Turkish
Press Review >>
Foreign
Press Guide
Summary of the political and economic
news in the Turkish press this morning
07.01.2002
CONTENTS
[01] PARLIAMENT TO RATIFY UN CONVENTION BEFORE ECEVIT'S US
VISIT
[02] PARLIAMENT WORKS TO PASS BILLS BEFORE VISIT
[03] CEM ON US VISIT, AFGHANISTAN, AND IRAQ
[04] VERHEUGEN: "GREEK CYPRUS MAY BECOME EU MEMBER
ALONE"
[05] CILLER CRITICIZES GOVERNMENT
[06] NATURAL GAS SUMMIT TO WRESTLE PRICE SPIKES
[07] MEETING TO CONVENE OVER NEW TURKISH AIR CORRIDOR
[08] TURKEY TO MAKE $170 MILLION IN DEBT REPAYMENTS
[09] JAPANESE LOANS TO HELP ANKARA WATER PROJECT
[10] COLD AND SNOW TO CONTINUE
[11] WEATHER, HEAVY TRAFFIC JEOPARDIZE TURKISH STRAITS
[12] TURKISH MEDICAL SCHOLAR RECEIVES HONOR
[13] NAZIM HIKMET TO BE COMMEMORATED
[14] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE
COLUMNS
[15] STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP BY SUKRU ELEKDAG (SABAH)
[16] THE OTTOMAN CITADEL BY YILMAZ OZTUNA (TURKIYE)
[01] PARLIAMENT TO RATIFY UN CONVENTION BEFORE ECEVIT'S US
VISIT
Prior to Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's visit to
the US on Jan. 15, the Parliament is expected to ratify the UN
Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, which
was signed last September as a part of the UN's action against
terrorism. The Convention lays out what financing of terrorism means
in detail by defining it as a separate crime, and it calls on the
countries to take appropriate measures for the detection, freezing or
seizure of any funds used or allocated for the purposes of committing
acts of terrorism. The convention covers the offence of involving or
complicity in the collection of funds with the intent that the funds
may be used in committing acts of terrorism described. Additionally,
the convention defines the collection of funds as an offence whether
or not the funds are actually used to carry out the envisioned acts.
/Cumhuriyet/
[02] PARLIAMENT WORKS TO PASS BILLS BEFORE VISIT
Parliament has a week of hard work ahead of it in
order pass certain bills before Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's visit
to the US on Jan. 15. During tomorrow's plenary session, the deputies
will debate a controversial bill which proposes the transfer of
resources to the financial sector and the restructuring of the real
sector's debts to the finance sector. Discussions between the
government and the IMF on the bill may continue up to the last minute.
The government wants to increase the number of the banks to benefit
from the finance transfer, while the IMF is asking that the finance
transfer supply only to banks which have 1% share in the sector.
Parliament passed the Tobacco and State Bidding Bill last week after a
heavy schedule. /Turkiye/
[03] CEM ON US VISIT, AFGHANISTAN, AND IRAQ
Appearing on state TV channel TRT 1 yesterday,
Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem offered his thoughts about Prime
Minister Bulent Ecevit's upcoming visit to the US on Jan. 15 and of
recent developments regarding Turkey's foreign policy. Remarking that
he placed great importance on Ecevit's trip to the US, Cem stated that
he believed Turkey's role in restructuring Afghanistan's future would
be clarified in the course of the visit. "Whether the US will
take an active role in restructuring Afghanistan's future will also
determine Turkey's policies over the issue," said Cem. Commenting
on the Iraq issue, Cem remarked that so far the US had not put any
pressure on Turkey concerning the matter. "The US' main target is
to topple the current regime in Iraq," said Cem. "However,
Turkey's priority is to protect the territorial integrity of Iraq and
to prevent the country from being plunged into chaos. Turkey wants
Iraq to be a more democratic country." Calling on Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein to act in line with UN resolutions, Cem said, "The
Gulf War had justifiable grounds. However, what the US has in mind
today is unclear. The reasons for a possible US intervention in Iraq
and what is planned for the future should be expressed very
clearly." In addition, Cem also offered his views on the issue of
terrorism and Turkey's relations with the European Union. He said,
"Although Turkey has taken significant steps in its relations
with the EU, the issue of terrorist organizations remains a problem.
The way the EU prepared its recent list of terrorist organizations is
unjust and unacceptable." /Cumhuriyet/
[04] VERHEUGEN: "GREEK CYPRUS MAY BECOME EU MEMBER
ALONE"
EU Commisssioner Responsible for Enlargement
Guenter Verheugen said yesterday that Greek Cyprus could become a
member of the EU by itself if necessary. In a statement on Germany's
Deutschland radio, Verheugen said, "We never doubted that Greek
Cyprus would enter the EU. However, its entering alone is not the
solution we particularly wanted." He also expressed his
satisfaction at recent developments between the two leaders on the
divided island. Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President
Rauf Denktas and Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides have agreed to
begin to direct talks on Jan. 16. /Turkiye/
[05] CILLER CRITICIZES GOVERNMENT
Yesterday, True Path Party (DYP) leader Tansu
Ciller criticized the government's performance. Claiming that far from
moving forward Turkey's situation was worse than it was five years
ago, Ciller stated, "The government told us that they were aiming
for a 10% wholesale price inflation rate.Yet their policies produced
instead inflation of nearly 87%. We have been deceived."/Turkiye/
[06] NATURAL GAS SUMMIT TO WRESTLE PRICE SPIKES
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Zeki Cakan
will meet in Ankara today with the mayors of Ankara, Istanbul, Izmit,
Bursa and Eskisehir as well as authorities from the state-owned BOTAS
pipeline company to discuss natural gas supply-demand policies and
pricing. Recently, there has been an outcry in the public and the
media over large rises in natural gas prices, with spikes of 226%
recorded over last year. Today's meeting is expected to bring about an
agreement for natural gas price reductions. /Turkiye/
[07] MEETING TO CONVENE OVER NEW TURKISH AIR CORRIDOR
A meeting of Turkish officials is slated tomorrow
to discuss possible new air corridors through Turkish airspace. A host
of airline companies whose passengers and income fell sharply
following the Sept. 2001 attacks are asking for such corridors to be
opened. Such corridors, they argue, would decrease travel time for
some journeys by 20 minutes and reduce costs as well. Turkey selected
new corridors and large airlines began to lobby for them. Following
protests from Athens over these developments, European air traffic
administrators called Turkish and Greek representatives to an urgent
summit to be held in Brussels on Jan. 15. In the leadup to that
meeting, a Turkish group made up of officials from the Directorate
General of Civilian Aviation, Office of the General Staff, Air Forces,
Foreign Ministry and Transportation Ministry will convene on Tuesday
to determine a strategy. With the new air corridors, some flights will
be made through Turkey instead of Athens, thus making flights from
Europe to the Far East, Africa and the Middle East shorter. If this
new route is accepted, every day an average of 600 planes will use
Turkish airspace. European air authority Eurocontrol and the
International Air Transporters' Union have welcomed Turkey's proposal,
saying they consider it vitally important for the airlines. /Aksam/
[08] TURKEY TO MAKE $170 MILLION IN DEBT REPAYMENTS
Turkey is set this week to make foreign debt
repayments totaling $170 million. The Treasury announced yesterday
that it would repay $22.7 million today, $7.9 million tomorrow, $1.2
on Wednesday, $4.4 on Thursday and $133.7 million on Friday. Including
this week's repayments, the total foreign debt repayments for the
first half of Jan. 2002 will total $216.2 million. /Milliyet/
[09] JAPANESE LOANS TO HELP ANKARA WATER PROJECT
The same Japanese lenders who are helping to fund
Istanbul's tube passage project are now stepping forward to aid in a
water purification project for Ankara. Japanese lender JBIC met with
Turkish officials in Ankara over the weekend to discuss both the tube
project and the Greater Ankara Municipality's second Merhale Gerede
System Project for water. The amount and conditions of loans for the
latter are to be determined later this year. /Aksam/
[10] COLD AND SNOW TO CONTINUE
The State Meteorology Institute said yesterday that
heavy snowfall and falling temperatures would continue to plague
Turkey through the end of this week. The new snowfall will be coming
from the Black Sea region. /H�rriyet/
[11] WEATHER, HEAVY TRAFFIC JEOPARDIZE TURKISH STRAITS
The Istanbul and Dardanelles Straits are in
jeopardy due to Turkey's recent bad weather and heavy fuel tanker
traffic, with three accidents attributable to these factors last week.
Some 135,000 ships passed through the Istanbul straits last year, -
eight time the number of ships passing through the Suez Canal - and
this number is expected to increase in 2002. /Aksam/
[12] TURKISH MEDICAL SCHOLAR RECEIVES HONOR
A pre-eminent Turkish medical scholar has been
chosen to be admitted to the prestigious US-based World New
Discoveries Foundation (WNDF) and the group's executive council. Uner
Tan, the chairman of Karadeniz Technical University Medical School's
Physiology Department and a prominent researcher, was chosen by the
WNDF following a rigorous selection process evaluating the number and
quality of various scientists' discoveries. Over 150 discoveries are
attributed to Tan's work. _Sabah7
[13] NAZIM HIKMET TO BE COMMEMORATED
Famous Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet will be
commemorated nationwide tomorrow on 100th anniversary of his birthday.
Prominent writers such as Erik Stinus, Richard Mckane, John Berger and
Cengiz Aytmatov are expected to attend the "International Nazim
Hikmet Symposium" to be held in Istanbul. /Cumhuriyet/
[14] FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE COLUMNS...FROM THE
COLUMNS
[15] STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP BY SUKRU ELEKDAG (SABAH)
Retired Ambassador Sukru Elekdag writes on
Turkish-US relations and the concept of strategic partnership. A
summary of his column is as follows: "The US is defining its
relations with Turkey as a strategic partnership. This definition
shows the special importance Washington is attributing to another
country and the privileged allied relations it maintains with that
country. It is a fact that the US is protecting some of Turkey's
interests within this framework. However, it is hard to say that it is
fulfilling all the requirements of a strategic partnership. Strategic
partnership covers cooperation on trade, cultural matters; the economy
and many other fields in addition to the military and political
spheres. This privileged alliance envisages the establishment of
bilateral institutions to protect each others's interests as well as
the sharing of intelligence, and it provides for political and
military consultations at all levels. The US sees nothing wrong in
giving sophisticated, high-tech weapons to countries such as Great
Britain, Canada and Israel with which it enjoys strategic partnership
relations. When loooked at closely, we can see that the strategic
partnerships with these countries are based on human, ethnic, social
and historical ties. The most important point of them all, is that the
American public has adopted these common interests. However, as the
Turkish presence in the US is still marginal, there is no group
defending the interests of Turkish-American common interests. In fact,
the anti-Turkish lobbies in the US are so influential that they are
still able to derail Washington's policy regarding Turkey and
seriously damage bilateral relations. Therefore, if the anti-Turkey
ethnic lobbies are not neutralized, it will be very hard to base the
relations between Turkey and the US on a strategic partnership.
However, increasing the trade volume between our two countries as well
as the number of investments by three or fourfold may be a way of
neutralizing these lobbies. As a result, there will be groups and
lobbies which will defend common interests in both countries. The
present situation seem ripe for taking necessary steps. Washington has
realized that Ankara has the potential to steer the Islamic
sensibilities away from fundamentalism using its
'secular-democatic-republican' administrative system, and also that
Turkey is of pivotal importance in its strategy against terrorism.
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's visit to the US is an important
opportunity to revitalize the 'no aid, but trade' policy together with
increasing of investments in Turkey."
[16] THE OTTOMAN CITADEL BY YILMAZ OZTUNA (TURKIYE)
Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna writes on the destruction
of Ottman architectural works throughout the world. A summary of his
column is as follows: "Over nine-tenths of Ottman architectural
work in the Balkans has already been destroyed. The remaining ones in
Bosnia-Herzegovina were ruined by savage murderers who bombed them
systematically. Last year, Afghanistan's Taliban destroyed gigantic
Buddha monuments that had been protected by their Muslim ancestors.
This led to the fury of a billion Buddhists and countles admirers of
Buddha.This action was a smear against all Muslims. A few days ago, a
follower of bin Ladin who calls himself a Muslim threatened India by
saying that he would put a bomb in the Taj Mahal. This mentality does
not view Taj Mahal as the pearl of Islamic civilization and a
highwater mark in aestheticism. Wahhabi gangs have been unable to
erase all Ottoman arichetctural works of art from the face of earth by
destroying them but not through lack of trying .A few days ago, they
destroyed the Otoman Citadel in Mekke through setting off TNT. They
will build a hotel in its place. This enmity against the Ottoman
legacy, is the classic demonstration of animosity towards the Turks.
We denounce all those who are trying to insult our fathers and
grandfathers.It is our duty to protect and repair the Hittite,
Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine works remaning on our soil with the
utmost care. Fanaticism is evil no matter where it shows it
face.Therefore, there is no difference between someone threatening the
Taj Mahal, planning action against Hagia Sophia, destroying the
Ottoman Citadel or firing mortars at the Mostar bridge. The people of
the 21st century should not fall into these traps."
ARCHIVE
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