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Turkish Press Review, 05-07-13Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr><LINK href="http://www.byegm.gov.tr_yayinlarimiz_chr_pics_css/tpr.css" rel=STYLESHEET type=text/css> e-mail : newspot@byegm.gov.tr <caption> <_caption> Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning13.07.2005ERDOGAN TO TRAVEL TO RUSSIA, THEN RECEIVE KARAMANLIS AND ASSAD GUL: “THE WORLD SHOULD UNITE FOR JOINT EFFORTS AGAINST TERRORISM” GERMAN FM FISCHER: “WE CANNOT CLOSE THE EU’S DOORS TO TURKEY” ITALIAN FM FINI: “MODERN TURKEY IS IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE EU” BRITISH FM STRAW: “TURKEY CARRIES GREAT IMPORTANCE FOR EUROPE” BABACAN SPEAKS AT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CHIEF OF STAFF OZKOK MEETS WITH JORDANIAN COUNTERPART CICEK: “WE SUPPORT FOREIGN CAPITAL” TURKEY REQUESTS EXTRADITION OF TWO TERRORISTS FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… RACISM IN EUROPE BY MURAT CELIKKAN (RADIKALCONTENTS
[01] ERDOGAN TO TRAVEL TO RUSSIA, THEN RECEIVE KARAMANLIS AND ASSADPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to visit Sochi, Russia and Mongolia later this month, his spokesperson Mehmet Akif Beki said yesterday. Beki told a press briefing that Erdogan would pay an informal visit to Sochi this Sunday, July 17 as the personal guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and later proceed to Mongolia to meet with the Mongolian president, Parliament speaker and prime minister. He is expected to return to country on July 21. The premier will also receive two important guests this month. First, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will pay an informal visit to Ankara with his wife. In August, Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is also expected to come to Turkey. Beki said that both leaders would visit Ankara as Erdogan’s personal guests. /Star/[02] GUL: “THE WORLD SHOULD UNITE FOR JOINT EFFORTS AGAINST TERRORISM”On a visit to London, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul yesterday told a press conference that the world should establish a joint platform to fight terrorism, which, he argued, is a common responsibility of all countries. “No acts of terrorism can be justified,” Gul said. “Terrorism is a crime against humanity, so we should all condemn and fight against it.” Gul stressed that Islam and terrorism are incompatible and called on countries to act with common sense. He also reiterated that Turkey was determined to start its European Union membership talks on Oct. 3, as scheduled. /Turkiye/[03] GERMAN FM FISCHER: “WE CANNOT CLOSE THE EU’S DOORS TO TURKEY”German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer yesterday said that the European Union could not take the risk of closing its doors to Turkey. Fischer stressed Turkey's importance for the EU and warned Germany’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU) leader Angela Merkel not to make a strategic mistake by trying to exclude Turkey from Europe for the sake of domestic political concerns. “Turkey is key to European security, and its accession process must go ahead,” he added. "After more than four decades of promises, it is very short-sighted to slam the door in Turkey's face. It would be a very high price that we would have to pay if that happened.” Fischer’s words came one day after Germany's conservative opposition, the Christian Democrats (CDU_CSU) alliance, expressed serious reservations about Turkey's EU membership. /Milliyet/[04] ITALIAN FM FINI: “MODERN TURKEY IS IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE EU”A democratic, modern Turkey which shares the values of Europe is in the best interest of the European Union, Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said yesterday. ''I am aware of several reservations about Turkey,” he added. “However, the reasons which pushed Brussels to decide starting entry talks with Turkey are still valid. The EU heads of state and government who convened on June 16-17 said in their final communiqué that the European Council is determined to fulfill its commitments towards candidate countries, including the start of membership talks with Turkey on Oct. 3.” Fini is expected to pay an official visit to Turkey today as the official guest of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. /Turkiye/[05] BRITISH FM STRAW: “TURKEY CARRIES GREAT IMPORTANCE FOR EUROPE”British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw yesterday rejected calls for a delay in the planned start of negotiations on Turkey’s membership in the European Union, reiterating that Ankara’s membership talks must start in October as scheduled. "We should open talks with Turkey in October," Straw told the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday. Straw, whose nation holds the EU presidency through year’s-end, stressed the strategic importance of Turkey's EU membership and said that the EU should keep its promises. He also added that Turkey should remain within the framework of the EU, adding that this would be in the best interests of both Turkey and the bloc. “Turkey is of great importance to Europe,” he stressed. “Europe ends at the eastern border of Turkey.” /Sabah, Milliyet/[06] BABACAN SPEAKS AT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTState Minister Ali Babacan yesterday spoke at the European Parliament for the first time with the title of chief negotiator, saying that Turkey had no alternative besides full European Union membership. Speaking to the European Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee, Babacan thus had his first test before an EU body, and faced a host of questions from MEPs on subjects such as religious freedom for non-Muslims and the southeast, Cyprus and Armenian issues. Babacan called the reforms which have been implemented in Turkey over the last three years a “silent revolution.” Babacan said that steps had been taken on education and broadcasting in certain dialects and languages and that criticisms of certain elements of the new Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which came into force on June 1, could be removed in practice. /Hurriyet/[07] CHIEF OF STAFF OZKOK MEETS WITH JORDANIAN COUNTERPARTChief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok yesterday met with his Jordanian counterpart Gen. Khaled J. al-Sarayhed in Ankara. Gen. Ozkok welcomed Gen. Al-Sarayhed with a military ceremony at the General Staff headquarters. Their meeting was closed to the press. /Star/[08] CICEK: “WE SUPPORT FOREIGN CAPITAL”There is no disagreement within the government about foreign capital, said government spokesmen and Justice Minister Cemil Cicek yesterday, in an attempt to clarify State Minister Abdullatif Sener’s warnings this week that foreign capital could create a medium-term crisis in Turkey. The Cabinet yesterday discussed Sener’s statements and the fight against both international and domestic terrorism. Cicek added that the unstable situation in Iraq is the source of terrorism in Turkey. /Cumhuriyet/[09] TURKEY REQUESTS EXTRADITION OF TWO TERRORISTSThe Justice Ministry has officially requested the extradition from Iraq of two terrorists suspected of involvement in the November 2003 bomb attacks in Istanbul, which killed 61 people and injured 600 others. After the attacks, members of al-Qaeda living in Turkey fled to Iraq. Then three months ago a lawyer told a Turkish court that a relative of one of the terrorists had said that the duo, Abdulkadir Karakus and Burhan Kus, were in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. In response to an inquiry, the US Embassy in Ankara stated that the two terrorists had been captured during an operation in Baghdad and were indeed at Abu Ghraib. The extradition request followed, but so far there has not yet been a reply. /Aksam/[10] FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS…[11] RACISM IN EUROPE BY MURAT CELIKKAN (RADIKALColumnist Murat Celikkan comments on racism in Europe. A summary of his column is as follows:“Although certain newspapers wrote that al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden organized last week’s terrorist attacks in London, the perpetrators of the attacks and their organizational links are still being investigated. Of course the result might be al-Qaeda and bin Laden, but let’s not forget that Iraq was invaded on allegations of weapons of mass destruction, which later turned out not to exist, and Saddam Hussein’s links with al-Qaeda, which weren’t proven. At that time, certain newspapers emphasized the threat of WMDs and Saddam’s links with international terrorist groups. On Sunday, discussing last week’s London attack, British daily the Observer published photographs of people holding the Koran in their hands. The Sunday Times daily said that 1.6 million Muslims were living in Britain and that 16,000 of them might be terrorists. Then four mosques were set on fire. Verbal assaults against Muslims increased, and offices, cars and houses started to be attacked. Italy detained 142 people in operations around Milan following the London attacks. Over 80 of those who were detained were immigrants who had had to leave their countries due to similar pressures. Anti-racism group SOS Racism recently announced that in a recent study, in 40% of places in Paris and more than half of 80 Parisian discos, they found racism and discrimination. Insecurity and fear due to the London attacks has inflamed racism in Europe. The US administration shapes its occupation policies based on the violations and fear it inspires in the US people. This situation holds in certain European countries as well. They think that potential terrorists are from the Middle East or Muslim. This is the state policies’ reflected in the public eye. In Turkey today, there will be the Culture and Art Festival in Antakya’s district of Samandag, and the Munzur Festival will start in Tunceli at the end of this month. Tunceli seems to have returned to its old days of tension. There is a state of emergency there. At a Women’s Mayors Meeting about a month ago, 10 women mayors wanted to have a picnic, but they were prevented by the gendarmerie. Their ID cards were checked and confiscated. There are efforts to put Turkey into a hostile atmosphere, in spite of the public’s longing for peace. These conflicts are related with the policies of occupation and brutality nearby. Those who want to establish links are actors in a play. We have seen this play before. If we don’t want to see it again, efforts for peace should be redoubled.” ARCHIVE <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript" src="http:/_www.byegm.gov.tr_statistic/countcode.js"> </script> Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |