Cyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review, 10-08-24

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From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/>

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Ozersay: Expectations have been raised

[02] DP criticizes Ozersays statements

[03] Kucuk: Greek Cypriots are not honest

[04] Happiness equals solution and EU

[05] After Varosha Morfou

[06] E-state system to be used in the occupied areas

[07] Atun visits Ankara

[B] COMMENTARIES, EDITORIALS AND ANALYSIS

[08] Turkish and Russian Presidents hold a telephone conversation

[09] Russia, Iran, Iraq, Greece no longer national threat to Turkey

[10] Highlights: 23 August 2010

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Ozersay: Expectations have been raised

Noting that Sweden and Denmark support the negotiation process, Ozersay said: They gave us the message that as international players, they will do whatever they can do in order that the process is successful. He added that they might support the negotiation process with concrete steps and not just with words.

Ozersay said that the main aim of their contacts abroad is for the voice of the Turkish Cypriots to be heard throughout the international community.

Ozersay said that an international conference on the Cyprus issue could only be materialized after the necessary progress is made especially on the Property Chapter and if some convergences are clear.

He said that his statement to the press in Sweden, regarding the property issue, was understood wrongly and added that he did not say that the stance of the Greek Cypriot in the negotiations is uncertain. He noted that the Greek Cypriot sides proposal regarding the property issue includes ambiguities.

(DPs)

[02] DP criticizes Ozersays statements

(DPs)

[03] Kucuk: Greek Cypriots are not honest

Specifically, Kucuk said that the Turkish Cypriot side is more persistent in reaching a solution, whereas the Greek Cypriots behave dishonestly and an agreement can be reached by the end of the year, always with the support of motherland Turkey.

(IS)

[04] Happiness equals solution and EU

Commenting on Eroglus recent statements that if there is no solution by the end of the year, everyone will go on its own way, Eraslan said: Which is our way? Where does it take us?... Because the path that we have been following for 36 years is not a path. The loot has finished, there is not any Greek Cypriot property left to distribute. Turkish Cypriots have reached a point of extinction walking down this path. This path turns our youth to unemployment, drugs and migration. Cant you see this? Walking this path crushes our youth under the sport embargos, our producers cannot sell their products, nightclubs and casinos ruin our social life. This path destroyed the state economic enterprises, closed the Cyprus Turkish Airlines, bankrupted the Industrial Holding and the ones working in the tourism sector are catching flies.

(IS)

[05] After Varosha, Morfou

The newspaper also reports that it is said, that the inheritors of the Memis Pasa vakif live in Turkey and prepare to start an initiative with the TRNC in order to claim the lands of their ancestors.

(IS)

[06] E-state system to be used in the occupied areas

Speaking during the signing ceremony, Yildirim said that the aim of the project is to widen the use of e-state in the TRNC. With this protocol, the TRNC will replace bureaucratic state with an electronic state, Yildirim noted.

On his part, Cicek said that the Cyprus issue is a national cause for Turkey and it will continue to provide every kind of support to the TRNC. He added that the e-state project would help to provide more effective and contemporary government services in the TRNC.

Reporting on the same issue, Turkish daily Todays Zaman newspaper (24.08.10) writes that Cicek further said: Our contributions to the TRNC were around 400 million USD the previous year, and they will be around 600 million USD this year.

[07] Atun visits Ankara

(IS)

[B] COMMENTARIES, EDITORIALS AND ANALYSIS

(IS)

[08] Turkish and Russian Presidents hold a telephone conversation

[09] Russia, Iran, Iraq, Greece no longer national threat to Turkey

() The biggest change, according to the newspaper, is the removal of four neighbouring countries from the national threat list. Russia, Iran, Iraq and Greece are no longer being described as threats, but as allies, based on cooperation and a shared vision.

Where Iraq was previously seen as a threat based on the existence of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the north of the country, in addition to internal divisions and instabilities, the new document focuses on the cooperation between Turkey and the central Iraqi government on issues including energy and the fight against terror.

Greece, once a primary threat to Turkey, has been dropped from the list due to growing bilateral economic and political relations that have decreased the military threat of war in the Aegean Sea.

Iran, once a primary threat to Turkey based on its regime and potential nuclear weapons, has also been demoted. The country is no longer a threat, and according to sources directly linked to the new document, is being referred to as a possible ally in the fight against the PKK, Milliyet reported.

Russia, previously a threat due to communism, has been highlighted in the document as sharing a vision with Turkey based on economic cooperation, trade, energy potential and stability in the Caucasus region.

[10] Highlights: 23 August 2010

a) Constitutional referendum

Referring to the spat between the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association (TUSIAD) and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, regarding the latters failure to declare its stand on the upcoming constitutional referendum, Joost Lagendijk writes in Hurriyet Daily News: In the Erdogan-TUSIAD row, the prime minister has missed an opportunity to remain silent when faced with dissenting views. TUSIAD, on the other hand, has used its right to remain silent but by doing so, missed a golden opportunity to support an important step in the direction of more democracy.

Commenting on the decision of the PKK and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) to boycott the constitutional referendum, Taha Akyol claims that this is a method used by the Kurds to pressure the government to capitulate to its demands. In his article in Milliyet, Akyol states that in the current conjuncture, the prime minister should not make any concessions to the Kurds, because if the image that they were scared of the boycott' is created, this will lead the BDP to pursue more excessive politics. It would steer the party toward more unmeasured attitudes regarding the imposition of the totalitarian project they call democratic autonomy. According to Akyol, the BDP and the PKK do not represent all the Kurds, and going to the polls would be a democratic act against totalitarianism.

b) Kurdish issue

Referring to the allegations that the government is conducting negotiations with the PKK, Hurriyets Fatih Cekirce outlines the moves undertaken with regard to the Kurdish issue in the past years. Cekirge states that the political actors were persuaded to abolish the death penalty in Turkey, which actually saved Abdullah Ocalans life, with the argument that if Ocalan lives he will be under our control. We can direct him as we like. This is possible only by talking to him, Cekirge adds. He claims that since that time, various contacts were held with Ocalan, including the project to bring the militants down from the mountains. The cease-fire declared now is also an opportunity in this regard, Cekirge opines, expressing understanding for the Nationalist Action Partys (MHP) criticism given its nationalistic ideology. Cekirge says that the social democratic Republican Peoples Party (CHP) on the other hand, should not adopt the same attitude of accusing the government of betrayal for negotiating with the PKK. He concludes by saying that terrorism cannot be solved through military means alone or by terrorizing politics.

In an article in Star, Mustafa Karaalioglu criticizes the opposition -- namely the CHP, the MHP, and what he calls the partisan media, for blaming the government regarding the Kurdish issue, no matter what happens. Karaalioglu says that the opposition blamed the government when terrorist attacks started again, and even now, when the PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire. He charges that the opposition benefits from war and the resulting deaths, because soldiers funerals give them a chance to conduct chauvinist policies at their expense. This group, Karaalioglu claims, does not believe in democratic methods or solving problems through dialogue.

Ferai Tinc, writing in Hurriyet, welcomes the temporary cease-fire declared by the PKK, but says that policies conducted under the threat of violence will not yield any solutions. Proposals such as democratic autonomy cannot be debated under the threat of weapons that will be used again if this project is not accepted, she argues. Tinc concedes that a final end to the violence will naturally be achieved via negotiations, and it is up to the political echelons to conduct such talks. Basing herself on recent statements by Kurdish leaders and Ocalan, Tinc states that the Kurds may change their position on the constitutional referendum if the AKP takes steps like lowering the election threshold. She concludes by saying that the weapons must be totally silenced if we are to return to the essence of the problem and discuss our issues.

Under the headline, Apo saved from the gallows by Bahceli, Vakit carries a front-page report which asserts that Nationalist Action Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli, who is accusing the Government of making a secret deal with the PKK, officially endorsed a government decision in 2000 not to execute PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

In an article entitled A game within a game, Todays Zaman columnist Ekrem Dumanli dismisses claims that the PKKs latest cease-fire is the result of a secret agreement between the ruling AKP and PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and Hanefi Avcis allegation that the Turkish police force is controlled by a religious community as so much information pollution intended to mislead the public ahead of the referendum on the constitutional amendment package in September.

c) Turkish-US relations

Writing in Milliyet, Semih Idiz examines the upcoming contacts of a Turkish Foreign Ministry delegation led by Feridun Sinirlioglu in the United States in a bid to convince its US counterparts that the goals of the two countries largely overlap. Pointing out that Turkish-US relations are in serious need of repair, Idiz argues that even if the delegation succeeds in convincing the US Administration, it is doubtful whether it will be able to influence the US Congress.

In an article entitled American Islamophobia, Obama and Turkey, Zamans Washington correspondent Ali H. Aslan argues that the debate on the plan to establish an Islamic centre near Ground Zero in New York has shown the limits of the American people's tolerance for the other as well as causing President Barack Obama to withdraw from his initial stance favouring the project and assume an non-committal attitude. He also argues that Obama will raise doubts about the amount of his loyalty to the libertarian US Constitution if he refrains from making sympathetic gestures toward Muslims. He also claims that the increase in Islamophobia in the United States has the potential to impact US-Turkish relations negatively.

d) Decision not to invest in Iran's South Pars region

A report by Bahadir Selim Dilek in Cumhuriyet states that Ankara informed a visiting US delegation that the Turkish Petroleum Corporation decided not to invest in the South Pars region for commercial reasons. According to the report, this threatens the Nabucco pipeline project, which envisaged the delivery of Iranian gas to Europe via the Nabucco route. The report says: Even though the AKP voted against the sanctions on Iran at the UN Security Council, it was forced to bow to Washington's pressure. Consequently, the Nabucco project, which AKP was planning to use as a strategic card against Europe, was also dealt a significant blow. TURKISH AFFAIRS SECTION http://www.moi.gov.cy/pio

/EG

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