Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review (April 19, 1995)
Businessmen and officials accompanying Prime Minister Ciller on her visit to the States, report that US fi- nance and
business centres are looking with renewed interest at new investment in Turkey.
According to Turkish businessmen, their US counter- parts think that the 1994 economic crisis will soon end-and
without too much damage to the economy. Lead- ing Turkish bankers have also been at pains to explain that the Turkish
banking sector entered 1995 with a stronger infrastructure than ever before. New and better commercial connections
suggest that the US is giving Turkey the "green light". /Cumhuriyet/
Prime Minister Tansu Ciller will meet today with US President Bill Clinton at the White House. The Kurdish
issue, withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq, a solution to the Cyprus problem, Azeri-Armenian relations,
and the democratization process in Turkey are some of the issues on the agenda of the American side.
Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrook and Chief Prime Ministry Counsellor Emre
Gonensay met in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel two days ago to exchange views on the framework of the Clinton-Ciller
meeting.
Chief-Adviser Emre Gonensay, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ambassador Ozdem Sanberk, Deputy Undersecretay of Foreign
Ministry Ambassador Volkan Vural, General Director of the NATO Department and Adviser to the Prime Ministry Yalim
Eralp and Turkey's Ambassador to Washington Nuzhet Kandemir will attend the meeting.
The American side will be ready at the meeting with a delegation of eight, with Presidential Aide Al Gore and
Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
After the "White House meeting", Ciller will visit the Pentagon to meet with Defence Secretary William Perry.
Ciller will be welcomed to the Pentagon with a military ceremony.
Prime Minister Ciller has so far been interviewed by "ABC News", "The Washington Times", and "Newsweek", and visited
editors of the "New York Times" newspaper and "Time" magazine. /Hurriyet/
Just prior to the Clinton-Ciller meeting one of the US leading newspapers, the "Washington Post" has given space to
Turkish Prime Minister Ciller's visit on its first page. A report, by-Lined John Pomfert, said: "The way that Turkey
chooses, is important to America. Turkey is still the only democratic Muslim country in the Islamic world. Turkey,
which joined NATO in 1952 and blocked Soviet Union moves, is taking over the responsibility for struggling against
Islamic fundamentalism and the Russian threat against the Central Asian Republics. Further, Turkey has a key role in
imposing economic embargos successfully against Saddam." /Hurriyet/
The visit of Prime Minister Ciller is being widely reported on in the New York press. The New York Times has already
devoted a lot of space to the visit and the issues under discussion with the US administration.
Most of the reports and comment centre around the Turkish military operation in northern Iraq, and when Turkey intends
to withdraw its troops. Nevertheless, in a "Turkish Day" edition of the New York Times, Turkey was seen as a partner
for prosperity and freedom. /Milliyet/
Russia and Turkey are sitting round the conference table in Moscow to hammer out a deal on the proposed pipeline project
to carry oil from the Caspian oilfields to European outlets.
First impressions on the way the talks are going indicate that Russia and Turkey could divide up the project on a
fifty-fifty basis, with both sides getting an equal share.
Russian Federation Deputy Foreign Minister Albert Chernishev is heading the Russian delegation, while the Turkish side
includes top economic counsellor Temel Iskit and an official from the BOTAS pipeline administration. /Milliyet/
The PKK terrorist organization is taking some heavy blows at the hands of Turkish security forces in the Tunceli region.
Reports on the fighting between PKK groups and military units say that large numbers of terrorists are being killed,
and that quite a few are surrendering.
A number of female terrorists have confessed that they joined the PKK while students at university. After months
of hardship in PKK camps and in conflict with security forces, they and other terrorists now in the hands of the
security forces say they were mislead by PKK propaganda. /Milliyet/
During her visit to the US, Prime Minister Ciller has promised that laws on crimes of thought will be done away
with. Noting that punishments inflicted on writers and journalists under the excuse of "crimes of thought" brought
nothing but shame to Turkey, Ciller said that this system must be brought to an end.
Ciller has also promised her audiences in the States that democratization will be speeded up along with other reforms
involving human and social rights. She is also doing her best to convince her listeners that Turkey has done the
right thing with a military incursion into northern Iraq.
Reports from the US say that despite the issues at stake, she has been well received and that the Pentagon will
receive her with pomp and ceremony-a first for a Turkish prime minister. /All papers/
A top US official from the Drugs Control Department, Lee Brown, will come to Ankara tomorrow for a briefing on PKK
controlled drug trafficking. While in Turkey, Brown will have meetings with high level Turkish security officials
including Chief of Security, Mehmet Agar.
US officials are concerned about the increase in PKK drug trafficking, and condemn the PKK for using drugs to fund
terrorist operations. /Milliyet/
Last President of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mikhael Gorbachev will make his first visit to
Turkey as the guest of the Yapi ve Kredi Bank. Gorbachev will arrive in Istanbul on April 24 and will have talks with
Turkish Grand National Assembly Speaker Husamettin Cindoruk and other top level officials. Gorbachev will also meet
with students from Bogazici University and the Middle East Technical University (METU). Gorbachev will meet with
President Demirel at a banquet in Ankara. Gorbachev will then return to Istanbul and leave for his own country on
April 30. /Hurriyet/
Prime Minister Ciller has sent Murat Karayalcin to Cyprus as a special envoy. Talking with the party leaders, Karayalcin
will try to contribute to a Denktas success in the presidential elections. In a statement before flying to
Lefkose, Karayalcin said that he did not want to make an evaluation prior to the elections, but Denktas would appear
set to win the elections if an assessment were to be made from the standpoints of quantity and policy. Suggesting
that the election could be a turning point in the search for a solution to the Cyprus problem, Karayalcin stressed that
the European Union (EU) pressed for a federal solution to the problems of the two communities on Cyprus during talks
on 6 March. Karayalcin openly supported Denktas by saying that Denktas had been very successful in the first round of
the elections. Following talks with Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas, Karayalcin
also met Osker Ozgur, leader of the CPB (Republican People's Party) and Mustafa Akinci, leader of the TKP (leftist
Communal Liberation Party). Karayalcin will return home today. /Hurriyet/
Attacks against Turkish owned properties continued also during the Easter holiday. Flammable materials were thrown
at a Turkish sports club in Ditzingen near Stuttgart and at a Turkish worker's union in Backnang yesterday night.No
deaths were reported following the attacks, but damage to the Turkish worker's union in Backnang has been estimated at
350,000 mark. /Cumhuriyet/
Prime Minister Tansu Ciller is coming to Washington "this time with a better plan for northern Iraq", according to an
informed Pentagon source. The Pentagon will welcome Ciller at a noon ceremony today, and she will lunch with Secretary
of Defence William Perry and other senior officials following her meeting with President Clinton at the White
House. The Pentagon source said "the initial withdrawal from northern Iraq has already started".
Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, who has already begun her contacts in the US, on Monday delivered the opening speech
at a business seminar jointly organized in New York by the Turkish-American Association and the Foreign Economic
Relations Council. Declaring that Turkey was maintaining her stability in her region despite the grave problems
around her, Ciller said: "Let us jointly assure an end to the savagery in the Caucasus and let us struggle together
against international terrorism which greatly threatens democracy and communities". Ciller confirmed Turkey's
decision to withdraw troops from northern Iraq. Ciller said: "We will continue this carefully staged withdrawal in
the coming weeks as we seek to bring maximum stability and security to this difficult territory". Ciller praised the
US for its support of "Operation Steel" against PKK terrorists in northern Iraq, but castigated some western
media reports for accusing Turkey of holding to a "double standard". She said Turkey was fighting terrorism the way
Japan was fighting gas attacks in subways, and the way the US was defending itself against the bombings like that of of
the World Trade Centre. /All papers/
Turkey cautioned the Netherlands yesterday that it would take action if that country did not block separatist Kurds
who have set up a parliament in-exile. "If they do not stop this movement we will take other measures and they will have
to bear the consequences" Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu said. Inonu said Turkish government protests had stopped Belgium
from allowing the Kurds to set up their parliament there. /All papers/
ACTIVITIES OF PKK SUPPORTERS
The Interior Minister of Germany's Baden-Wurttemberg province said yesterday that his province had launched an
inquiry into the PKK's alleged involvement both in bringing illegal workers into Germany and in drug smuggling.
Visiting minister Frieder Birzele, meeting with Turkish Inetrior Minister Nahit Mentese in Ankara, said 170 cases
had been opened in Baden-Wurtttemberg against PKK supporters believed to be involved in these crimes since Germany banned
the PKK two year ago. Germany also has recently decided to expel illegal immigrant workers. /All papers/
Defence Minister Mehmet Golhan said on Monday that all provisions of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty
should be preserved with no changes until a planned CFE Review Conference meets next year to consider possible
amendments. Speaking on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) radio about Russia's demands for early amendments to
the treaty, Golhan said it had taken a long and painstaking process to prepare the 1990 CFE treaty, the most
comprehensive arms control agreement in the history of Europe. Urgent amendments to the treaty would hurt the
spirit of the CFE, he added.
Moscow complains that limitations demanded by the CFE treaty for its forces in southern Russia has led to increased
threats to the country's security. /All papers/
Turkish organizations in Germany, Belgium and Holland are planning a march in The Hague on April 23 to protest against
the Dutch government's decision to permit the establishment of a "Kurdish Parliament in-exile", the Anatolia news agency
reported yesterday. These groups are concerned that anti-Turkish violence may spread from Germany into Belgium
and the Netherlands.
Turkish Minister of Culture, Ercan Karakas, has left for the April 20-30 International Houston Festival, the Anatolia
news agency reported yesterday. 120 Turkish artists and their work are on exhibition at the festival as well as
treasures from Topkapi Palace.
Following in the wake of the Turco-New Zealand Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting, the two countries are
expected to sign an agreement today, the Anatolia news agency reported. Attending the meeting yesterday, State
Minister Nafiz Kurt said he was encouraged by the volume of trade between the two countries, which has increased from
$38 million in 1988 to $81 million last year. Kurt suggested that Turkey could become a focus of attention
following its integration into the customs union beginning 1996. He therefore urged for accelerated programs to build
the infrastructure necessary for harmonization with the union. The New Zealand delegation is headed by Deputy Prime
Minister Charles Donald McKinnon, who is also Trade and Finance Minister.
REUTER (April 5, 1995)
"Washington considers the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the target of Ankara's military operation, to be a
terrorist group and 'we do not object to the Turkish government dealing with a terrorist organization seeking to
dismantle the territorial integrity of Turkey,' (Assistant Secretary of State) Holbrooke said."
ARAB NEWS (April 11, 1995)
"Action had to be taken because the vacuum of authority in northern Iraq created as a result of the Gulf War was
encouraging the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to engage in cross-border raids against Turkey from northern Iraq. This
had caused loss of life and damage to civilian installations in Turkey. In spearheading the drive against the PKK
forces, Turkey was seeking to neutralize their command-and-control system, search out and destroy food and
weapons storage sites, and flush them out of their hideouts."
(March 28, 1995)
"The State Department is making a mistake in urging early withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq.
Turkey is a democracy challenged by a vicious terrorism seeking the breakup of the country. It is the only Muslim
country with separation of church and state. It is a member of NATO. A Turkish battalion fought alongside U.S. troops
in Korea. Turkish bases were vital in winning the Persian Gulf
War, a war that exposed Iraq's brutal treatment of its minorities, especially the Kurds.
The cause of an independent Kurdistan can never justify terrorism. The Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK, is a terrorist
group pure and simple, every bit as vicious as Hamas or the Islamic Jihad. It finances its oprations with drug running.
Amnesty International has documented its terror tactics against other Kurds.
The PKK's latest outrage, the killing of 15 Turkish soldiers in an ambush near the Iraqi border on March 18, led
to Ankara's decision to send 35,000 soldiers into Iraq to root out PKK bases and units.
Turkey is a longtime member of NATO and an aspiring trade partner of the European Union. It was a stalwart ally
in the Persian Gulf War. It is a pivotal nation, poised between the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the
Middle East. Not only in its battle against the violent men of the
PKK, but also in its quest to forge a modern secular democracy in an Islamic nation, Americans should wish it
well."
THE WASHINGTON TIMES (March 29, 1995) (Andrew Borowiec)
"The PKK profited from the chaos in predominantly Kurdish northern Iraq to establish a network of bases.
There is no uniform administrative structure in the region, which, with U.S. encouragement, broke away from Iraq after
the Gulf war, and where the militias of Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani battle over villages."
END