Antenna: News in English, 96-11-21

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: [email protected]

News in English, of 21/11/1996

TITLES

• Turkey continues its provocative behaviour
• Prime minister Simitis is in Italy for bilateral cooperation talks
• And, a great book on a great female writer is launched.

DEFENSE

The defense minister also met with the British ambassador in Athens, while earlier in the day he informed the leader and the vice-president of the main opposition party on the government's ambitious multi-year armaments programme.

Sources say New Democracy top members Miltiades Evert and Ioannis Varvitsiotis were also informed by the defense minister about the NATO military headquarters issue. It has been reported that NATO has proposed the formation of a NATO headquarters in every Southern member of the Alliance, in Italy, Greece and Turkey, but without specific limits of authority.

After the meeting with the defense minister, New Democracy vice-president Ioannis Varvitsiotis said, "Our party supports the country's effort of its defense arming".

TURKEY

Greece has repeatedly called on Turkey to stop using shows of military might and threats to bully Greece in the Aegean.

In the Western European Union members meeting which was hold in Ostend, Belgium Tuesday, Greece, represented by its defense and alternate foreign ministers, blocked the Alliance's plan to deploy NATO task forces in the Western European Union to deal with peacekeeping operations. Greece's refusal to let Turkey contribute to NATON's Combined Joint Task Forces Programme irritated Turkey to the point that its defense minister TourhAn TayiAn made some "hot" statements after the meeting. He repeated the old Turkish call for dialogue between Greece and Turkey on all issues over the Aegean.

He said, "We want to talk about all the bilateral problems existing between Greece and Turkey. We can't separate a part of them, and refer it to the international court. We can't leave the rest of them, because they ALLEGEDLY affect sovereign rights. The problems, which Greece is mainly responsible for, are not new. They are old and numerous: from the delimitarisation of the Aegean islands to the political integration of the Turkish minority in western Thrace. There is the problem of the eventual expansion of Greece's territorial waters, the airspace matters, as well as matters of judicial interpretation of the Lausanne Treaty's clauses".

Meanwhile, Turkish foreign minister Tansu Ciller told an english-speaking Turkish daily that the simultaneous dealing with all bilateral problems is an important condition for talks between the two countries.

Turkey has been trying to convince Greece to sit on the negotiating table to discuss the Aegean status quo in the past.

But, Greece has rejected that call, saying it will not negotiate away its territorial rights, as international treaties back the country up in its sovereign rights in the region.

In a press conference he gave Wednesday, Greek defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos said, "There is no matter to negotiate over the Aegean and nowhere else. Everybody, and especially Turkey, should understand that there has been a legal framework for decades, the Lausanne's Treaty, which, if implemented, can resolve many of the matters Turkey considers as problems in the Aegean".

Turkey has doubted the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which determines the country's borders from the Black Sea to the eastern Aegean, and extends to Iraq and Iran.

SIMITIS

Accompanied by foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos, premier Kostas Simitis discussed with his Italian counterpart, Romano Prodi, the formation of a common course between the two countries to the EU's inter-government summit on the revision of the Maastricht Treaty.

The Greek premier will meet with the Italian Left Democratic Movement, Massimo D'Alema, about the status of Pasok's president. Both parties are members of the International Socialist Leaders Union, like Pasok.

ECONOMY

The Civil Servants' Union has already announced a one-day strike for November 28th, in cooperation with the General Workers Union.

Unions' top members say there could be more strike action to follow, if the government doesn't decide to be a little more generous next year.

Pensioners were also unhappy with the government's modest raises and announced protest movements for December 10th.

All of the opposition parties also say the government's policies will strike a blow to the middle and lower classes.

TRANSPLANT

53-year-old Thanassis Giogkoudis received a new heart, while 56-year-old Dimitris Lykopoulos new lungs. Doctors said all their patients' organs were working well following the transplant.

22-year-old Stefanos Chalios underwent a liver transplant. He had had no hope of living long before the doctors told him they had found him a new liver.

Another two patients, Christos KandOras, 50 years old, and Dina GeorgIa, 29 years old, received the donor's kidneys.

After talking it over with doctors, the family of donor CharA Kitsiou agreed to draw life out of death, by giving the organs to those who need them.

BOOK

The book was presented by the writer's great grand-son who worked on its publication. Alekos ZAnas explained that the book includes excerpts from Delta's diary, personal letters and stories written by her. "Memories 1921" also refer to the legendary love story between Penelope Delta and well- known politician Ion DragOUmis, as it includes excerpts from his diary as well.

The book, which started to be written one year after the murder of DragOUmis, also depicts the cosmopolitan way of life of Greek intellectuals at the time.

©ANT1-Radio 1996

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