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Turkish Press Review, 07-09-12Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr>Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning12.09.2007FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS…CONTENTS
[01] GUL VISITS VANAfter his recent election as Turkey’s 11th President, Abdullah Gul paid his first domestic visit to the eastern city of Van yesterday where he was welcomed by many enthusiastic residents. Gul, who was accompanied by Education Minister Huseyin Celik, met with Van Governor Ozdemir Cakacak and afterwards with representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Gul also visited military officials and Yuzuncu Yil University. /Star- Aksam/[02] ERDOGAN RECEIVES MEMBERS OF INDEPENDENT COMMISSIONPrime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday received members of the Independent Commission on Turkey in Ankara. The commission, headed by former Finnish President Matti Ahtisaari, was established by the Open Society Institute in 2004 to support Turkey’s European Union membership bid. The delegation was also received by President Abdullah Gül. /Turkiye/[03] PARLIAMENT SPEAKER TOPTAN MEETS WITH TRNC’S TOP OFFICIALSParliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, on his first official visit to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) yesterday held a series of meetings with top officials. After meeting with President Mehmet Ali Talat, Toptan held talks with former President Rauf Denktas, Turkish Ambassador to Lefkosia Turkekul Kurttekin and Lt. Gen. Hayri Kivrikoglu, commander of the Turkish Peace Forces in Cyprus. /Turkiye/[04] EMINE ERDOGAN MEETS WITH AKP DEPUTIES’ WIVESEmine Erdogan, wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, yesterday held a meeting with Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) women deputies and deputies’ wives at the party’s headquarters in Ankara. Speaking at the gathering, Erdogan called on women to back their husbands during their political efforts. In addition, the women decided to establish groups to aid and pay visits to families in Ankara’s poor districts during Ramadan. /Star/[05] US EMBASSY: “THE US DOESN’T LEND SUPPORT TO THE PKK”The US Embassy in Ankara denied an assertion that US officials were frequently holding meetings with PKK terrorists on the Mt. Kandil. A written statement released yesterday underlined that the US accepts the PKK as a terrorist group, and that the country never lends support to terrorists. It added that those kind of allegations aimed at harming friendship between the US and Turkey. /Hurriyet/[06] POLICE FORCES PREVENT BOMB ATTACK IN ANKARAPolice forces prevented a bomb attack in Ankara yesterday, finding a minivan packed with explosives near a multi-storey car park. 300 kilos of explosives were rendered inactive after three-hours of efforts by security teams. Police evacuated houses, cordoned off the area near the multi-storey car park, the natural gas supply of the area was cut off and ambulances and fire trucks stood by in case of an explosion. Shops and offices in the area were also quickly emptied. “A possible disaster has been prevented,” said Ankara Governor Kemal Onal adding that there was a general police alert as Sept. 11 and Sept. 12 are sensitive days. Ankara Governor’s Office stated that explosives were same with the ones found in operations in Mersin and Sirnak, Uludere against the terrorist PKK. /All papers/[07] ANTI-TERROR SUPREME BOARD TO CONVENE TODAYThe Anti-Terror Supreme Board is set to convene this afternoon. The meeting will be chaired by State Minister Cemil Cicek in Ankara. /Turkiye/[08] SERBIAN TOP COMMANDER VISITS ANKARASerbian Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Zdravko Ponos, on a visit to Ankara, yesterday met with his Turkish counterpart Gen. Yasar Buyukanit. It was the first encounter between the two armed forces since the dissolution of Yugoslavia and foundation of Serbia. The two top commanders exchanged views on regional military issues and Ponos reportedly asked for Ankara’s backing in his country’s NATO membership bid. /Turkiye/[09] VOTING ON REFERENDUM BEGINSA referendum on a package of Constitutional changes, including popular election of the president, got its first votes yesterday at Turkey’s border gates. The main referendum will be held on Oct. 21. /Milliyet/[10] TUSIAD DELEGATION MEETS WITH EU ENLARGEMENT COMMISSIONERTurkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD) delegation chaired by Arzuhan Dogan Yalcindag, yesterday met with European Union Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn. During the visit, Rehn said that Turkey was losing friends because of its slow pace to reform the Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). “You are losing the political and economic support of those member countries,” said Rehn, adding that Turkey was shooting itself in the foot on not amending the Article 301 immediately. TUSIAD delegation also met with European Parliament (EP) President Hans Gert Poettering. Poettering said that Turkey would be able to move toward membership as long as it pursued reforms. /Cumhuriyet/[11] BABACAN TO VISIT BULGARIAForeign Minister and Chief European Negotiator Ali Babacan will travel to Bulgaria to attend the informal meeting of foreign ministers of the South East European Co-operation Process (SEECP). Releasing a statement yesterday, Foreign Ministry announced that the meeting would be held during a train journey from Sofia to Plovdiv on Sept. 14. /The New Anatolian/FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… [12] COMMENTS ON RECENT DEVELOPMENTSBY ISMAIL KUCUKKAYA (STAR)Columnist Ismail Kucukkaya comments on recent developments in Turkey. A summary of his column is as follows: “The businessmen stand in the foreground among those who are trying to understand these incredibly important historic events. They are curious about the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and current conditions in Turkey and the world and trying to see how and why certain developments occurred and predict the future by making healthy analyses. The Turkish Association of Contractors is one of the institutions which have been making similar efforts for a long time. It invites journalists to its monthly meeting of the board of directors, ask them to make a speech and provide the opportunity of making evaluations mutually. I was invited to its meeting of September and thus seized the opportunity of mentioning my views and evaluations on developments which occurred particularly during the last year in Turkey to a group of businessmen. I tried to conclude my speech on the basis of such questions as why did the AKP won the elections, why Abdullah Gul was elected the president, how will be the course of civilian-military relations and what will happen between Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from now on. I can summarize the speech that I made yesterday as follows: ‘Turkey has been going through great change since 1980. We are constantly under the influence of domestic migration. We can’t understand the truth about AKP, unless we see social, economic, cultural and political dimensions of this wave. Turkey’s extraordinary transformation intersected with the concept of globalization. The flow of capital accelerated greatly and such countries as Turkey started to seem more attractive following the Sept. 11 attacks in the US. The AKP got free of all the ideologies and it was integrated with the world’s finance markets from a completely pragmatic perspective. In addition, it followed fully liberal policies. While doing this, AKP defined itself as conservative-democrat and claimed on the Washington-Brussels line that it can be role model for the Islam world. They said that a country with a majority Muslim population can live in democracy. Thus, they presented an alternative prescription for the tension between the West and East in the world and displayed a strong engagement to Turkey’s European Union bid, unexpectedly. They were also supported from outside and made health and education reforms and conquered the people living in rural areas and the poor people in cities. The welfare was ensured relatively in the country thanks to the great amount of liquidity provided by the world conjuncture. They became a sort of executer of social policies with their grants of coal and food, course books and provided everybody with the opportunity of benefiting from the health system. They could operate this strategy, as mayors of metropolitan municipalities have been from the AKP for the last 15 years. Now it’s in the position of supra-ideologies, but it could also easily win sympathy of a wide range of voters in Anatolia. This is another fact in Turkey. This entire picture was meaning a ruling party with an expectation of nearly 35 percent of votes for the AKP during the elections held in this year’s July 22 in Turkey. In addition, adding the influence of things which happened during the process of presidential elections, the rate climbed to 47 percent. This result proves that the nation doesn’t believe that the regime is endangered. It’s certainly wrong that most of the nation doesn’t protect the Republic’s values.’ Erdogan has an understanding that as AKP can win elections thanks to economic stability, this road should be maintained. He established his Cabinet with this understanding. Although they are different political figures in terms of their perspectives about the world and styles of doing politics, I don’t expect that a great tension will occur between Gul and Erdogan. They might disagree with each other sometimes, but they will be able to solve these problems without any reflection on the nation. I think there will be no problem in AKP’s operations and Gul’s stance during the course of his presidency, in terms of the Republic’s acquisitions, particularly secularism. I also think that the military is interpreting all these developments and taking its stance as part of this. Within this framework, normalization will be ensured step by step.” Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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