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Turkish Press Review, 08-06-02Turkish 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 morning02.06.2008FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNSCONTENTS
[01] GUL TO VISIT JAPANPresident Abdullah Gul and his wife will travel to Japan tomorrow to pay an official visit upon the invitation of Japanese Emperor Akihito. State Ministers Kursad Tuzmen and Mehmet Simsek, Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) head Rifat Hisarciklioglu and a large delegation consisting of Turkish businessmen will accompany Gul. During his five-day stay, the president will meet with Emperor Akihito, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, President of the House of Councilors Satsuki Eda and House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono in Tokyo. Gul will also attend Turkish- Japanese Business Forum in Osaka and meet with representatives of leading Japanese companies to evaluate investment opportunities in Turkey. He will later proceed to Kushimoto town, where a Turkish frigate called "Ertuğrul" sank on September 16, 1890, to attend a memorial ceremony at Ertugrul Martyr Monument. Gul's visit will be the first presidential-level visit from Turkey to Japan. /Sabah/[02] ERDOGAN: "NOBODY SHOULD EXPECT POPULIST POLICIES FROM GOVT"Addressing the 63rd General Assembly meeting of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) in Ankara over the weekend, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the world's attention was on Turkey. He said that wherever he or his cabinet members went in the world, journalists, politicians and academics had showed great interest in the development that Turkey carried out in recent years and had confirmed Turkey's influence on the world matters. "We are now working to reach $1 trillion gross domestic product. The per capita income in Turkey will reach $10 thousands in 2008 and the government is making efforts to increase this amount to $15 thousands," Erdogan said. He said that the government would never adopt populist policies in the economy. "Nobody should expect populist policies from the government ahead of the upcoming local elections." /Star/[03] ERDOGAN: "NOTHING CAN DESTROY THE AKP"Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was backed by the Turkish people and that it would never collapse. On the last day of his party's three-day meeting in Kizilcahamam, addressing the AKP deputies, Erdogan said that his party would never forsake serving the nation. "They thought they could destroy AKP with the first blow. Do not make vain efforts. A building based on the citizens will never collapse. They are really disappointed. This building has the nation in its foundation. I believe that we've been the hope for all Turkish citizens for a long time," Erdogan said. Criticizing opposition parties' claims that they had done nothing for the development of the country, the premier said that citizens would teach them a lesson during the elections. /Turkiye/[04] FM BABACAN: "TURKEY'S EU BID IS DIFFERENT THAN OTHER COUNTRIES"In an interview with German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan spoke about Turkey's European Union bid. Asked whether he was pleased about the progress of negotiations, Babacan said, "Turkey's EU membership won't be like other enlargements," adding, "Turkey won't be the 28th or 29th member only. We share values of these countries more and more. Islam and democracy get united in Turkey." Asked when Turkey will be full member, Babacan said, "Reform process can continue unless a time is determined by the EU." /Turkiye/[05] ALGERIAN ZIARIS TO HOLD CONTACTS IN TURKEYAlgerian Parliament Speaker Abdelaziz Ziaris, currently in Turkey, today is set to meet with his Turkish counterpart Koksal Toptan. As a part of his visit, the Parliamentary Turkish-Algerian Friendship Committee will host a dinner for the guest delegation. Later, Ziaris will visit President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. /Turkish Daily News/[06] TURKISH AIR FORCES CELEBRATES 97TH ANNIVERSARYParliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday issued messages marking the 97th foundation anniversary of the Turkish Air Forces (THK). Gul said that THK, one of the oldest military aviation organizations in the world, is the most important element for the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) through its qualified staff and deterrent force and that air forces would continue to accomplish its duty through dynamic and modern structure in a determined way, as before. It also stated that air forces are praised for its contribution to world peace and stability. For his part, Toptan said that THK strengthened the TSK's deterring role through its brave and self-disciplined staff and modern equipment. Erdogan also stated that the THK was powerful and deterring more than ever and that it was shown to our friends and enemies during cross- border operations as part of the fight against terrorism. /Turkiye/[07] GREEK CYPRIOT PARTY VISITS TRNCMembers of the Greek Cypriot United Democrats Movement (EDI) paid a visit to the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) headquarters over the weekend, the largest partner of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) government. After their meeting with an EDI delegation, CTP chairman Ferdi Sabit Soyer, said that they had agreed to extend full support to peace talks. /Turkish Daily News/[08] ISTANBUL HOSTS TURKISH OLYMPICSThe 6th International Turkish Olympics ended with a ceremony in Istanbul. The Olympics gathered 550 students of different cultures from 110 countries under the roof of a common language. Sending a message to the meeting, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "This olympics turned our language Turkish into a language of peace and friendship and it also established a bridge which brings civilizations together." Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, Education Minister Huseyin Celik, State Minister Mehmet Simsek, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler and Metropolitan Mayor Kadir Topbas presented awards to winner students in fields of poem, general knowledge and writing. In addition, Hatice Alizade from Azerbaijan came first at the singing contest, while Turkmenistan's Abadan Halmedova and Tajikistan's Suman Kurbanova ranked the second and third, respectively. /Turkiye/FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS…FROM THE COLUMNS [09] REASON FOR TENSION BETWEEN TURKEY AND FRANCEBY SEMIH IDIZ (MILLIYET)Columnist Semih Idiz comments on a news story on Turkey and France, published by the Reuters news agency last week. A summary of her column is as follows: "Just a few weeks before France's EU term presidency, French Ambassador to Turkey Bernard Emie is trying hard so that this period can be experienced softly in terms of bilateral relations between Turkey and France. That's why it should be considered natural that the news story which was published by Reuters last week and used by the Milliyet Daily agitated him. The mentioned news story wrote that President Nicholas Sarkozy spoke to the Polish daily Dziennik, saying that even if Turkey is secular, it's not European. As these statements of Sarkozy weren't put in quotation marks, it was understood later that these words actually belong to the Reuters news agency. But the French Embassy's statement indicates that actually Sarkozy said the following: 'My stance about Turkey's candidacy is known and still the same. The issue of the European Union's borders forms the basis of the issue. Should the EU have borders, which I think it should have, and if yes, where should be these borders?' In short, for Sarkozy, Turkey is outside European borders and thus it can't become an EU member. Even if his views aren't new, of course it's striking that he's reiterating it before France's term presidency. This general political stance reflected by Paris is actually making things harder for Ambassador Emie and the interpretations and news covered by the Turkish press are agitating him. Certain EU diplomats with whom I spoke admit that it's wrong to claim that some statements were made by Sarkozy, though they weren't. But they also said that they weren't surprised at all, when they read the news based on Reuters. In sum, even if the media never makes the same mistake again, we don't think that problems suffered by Ambassador Emie will decrease, because the problem doesn't derive from Ankara, but from Paris. This tension might even increase this week, because of the referendum article that French conservatives want to make obligatory for Turkey's EU membership. This article which was added to the new draft constitution was passed by the Parliament's sub-wing last week. The article makes it obligatory to hold a referendum for countries with a population less than ten percent of the EU's population. Even if it doesn't indicate a name directly, everybody within the EU admits that this article openly targets Turkey. Even the euobserver.com which is among the most popular news sites about the EU wrote last week about this issue that French deputies had approved the article against Turkey. If the article is approved during the voting to be held on the entire constitutional bill tomorrow and approved by the Senate in 10 days, things will be clearly harder for Ambassador Emie. If the constitutional bill is accepted as it is during the common voting to be held by two wings of the Parliament next month, the discrimination that France wants to apply on Turkey would be confirmed just at the beginning of Paris' terms presidency. In sum, I wish the problem with France was only the wrong news, which can be easily corrected. But unfortunately this is not the case." Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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