Cyprus PIO: Turkish Press and Other Media, 01-10-29

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From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/>

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Statements by the Turkish Cypriot leader after meeting Thomas Weston.

[02] The pseudostate/s budget 43% higher than last year/s.

[03] Mehmet Ali Talat calls on the pseudogovernment to abandon the «bill on passports» and try to solve the Cyprus problem.

[04] Turkish Airlines may cut fleet by half.

[05] Salih Tunar: «If we do not produce we will be vanished».

[06] Erhan Arikli wanted by Interpol.

[07] Turkey said to be working for a solution in Cyprus in the next couple of years.

[08] Forty-two Iraqis entered the occupied areas.

[09] NPM is asking for a change to the system in the occupied areas. B. COMMENTS AND EDITORIALS

[10] Columnist in YENI SAFAK warns the US that it will cry for its sins.

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] Statements by the Turkish Cypriot leader after meeting Thomas Weston

Denktas said that he did not want to mention what they debated but that the main issue of their meeting was the Cyprus question.

``The beginning of the Cyprus question was not 1974, it was in fact 1963. The question began when a partnership was demolished. If this question is to be solved, the new conditions of this partnership should be based on the principle of existence of two states and in a way that this partnership will not be demolished again,`` Denktas said.

Alleging that the European Union (EU) membership of Cyprus was a step which would push the region and Cyprus into an adventure, Denktas criticized EU Commission President Romano Prodi for not crossing over to the occupied areas and listen to Denktas/ views.

They had heard that Alvaro de Soto, «the U.N. Secretary-General`s Special Envoy to Cyprus requested help from Turkish diplomats for a `fine tuning/», Denktas said and added:

«Those who will make preparations and fine tuning, irrespective of whether it is Turkey or us, should know what the preparation is. So, we will not go anywhere to discuss a document prepared by De Soto or any other person by himself alone. We should also know for what they want the fine tuning.``

Denktas alleged that his pseudostate and the Cyprus Government were equal and that the Cyprus question could not be solved without the signature of the Turkish side.

``A formula which is not accepted by us will not solve the Cyprus question. The idea of the Greek Cypriot administration to take the whole of Cyprus under a false title of `the government of Cyprus` and to achieve this through the European Union is a big mistake. This is a step which will push the region and Cyprus into adventures,`` Denktas alleged.

Denktas noted that the pseudostate considered the solution of the Cyprus problem as the priority issue and went on saying: ``We want some initiatives to lay the groundwork for the settlement of the issue. What does laying the groundwork mean? It means that two former partners and two equal sides want, adopt and accept to found a new partnership. The Greek Cypriot administration does not even say the word `partnership.` It sees itself as the government of the whole Cyprus and it thinks that it can enable everybody to walk behind it by convincing the EU and our people. We always see and know about these tricks. You know that we will not be deceived by these tricks.``

[02] The pseudostate/s budget 43% higher than last year/s

In a statement after the meeting, Salih Miroglu, «Council of Ministers spokesman and Public Works and Transportation minister», said that the «government» adhered to the principle of maximum saving with regard to transfers, adding that the resources to be secured will primarily be allocated to the production sector.

Pointing out that the budget is 43 percent larger compared with the previous year, Miroglu expressed the belief that the fiscal 2002 budget will be a realistic and sincere one. In accordance with «constitutional provisions», he said, the budget bill will be submitted to the «Assembly» as of 29 October.

The budget, which was approved as 637,542 billion TL, allocates 250,752 billion TL to personnel expenditures and other salaries and allowances, 31,713 billion TL to other current expenditures, 90,000 billion TL to investment projects, 60,000 billion TL to transfer payments, and 50,000 billion TL to defense expenditures. The income is composed of 351,000 billion TL from local sources, 45,000 billion TL from various funds, 200,000 billion TL from Turkey's assistance, and 41,000 billion TL in borrowing.

[03] Mehmet Ali Talat calls on the pseudogovernment to abandon the «bill on passports» and try to solve the Cyprus problem

In a written statement on Friday Talat also criticized the remarks of Tahsin Ertugruloglu, the so-called foreign affairs and defense minister, regarding the passport draft bill. Talat said that Ertugruloglu's remarks explaining that the bill was withdrawn on the grounds of inadequacy actually incorporates an admission by the Denktas-NUP [National Unity Party-DP [Democratic Party] mentality that it is unable to justify itself even vis-a-vis the Turkic republics and the Islamic countries.

Also criticizing Communal Liberation Party [CLP] leader Huseyin Angolemli's statement, Talat called on Angolemli to inform the public with regard to the bills drawn up during the NUP-CLP coalition «government» term that are still pending.

[04] Turkish Airlines may cut fleet by half

«Up to 12 planes may be withdrawn from the fleet in 2002 and up to 18 in 2003 due to developments in Turkey and around the globe», a company statement handed to reporters at an Istanbul news conference said.

The company, slated for eventual privatisation under pledges to the International Monetary Fund, has already announced plans to sell seven of its Airbus A310/300 aircraft by 2003, leaving it with 61leased planes.

In an earlier statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB), the airline said it had decided on Monday to lay off 335 temporary employees and would not renew the contracts of 450 part-time staff when they came up for renewal on April 14, 2002.

A further 338 employees qualifying for retirement would also depart en masse, the company said.

[05] Salih Tunar: "If we do not produce we will be vanished"

Addressing the 16th Congress of the Chamber, Mr Tunar noted that the development of the pseudostate passes though the increase of the production. Mr Tunar expressed the opinion that this period is both politically and economically very crucial for the pseudostate.

KIBRIS writes that among the guests of the Congress were Dervish Eroglu, so-called "Prime Minister" and chairman of the Nationalist Unity Party (NUP), Salih Cosar, so-called "Deputy Prime Minister", "Minister" responsible for the economy and chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), Mehmet Ali Talat, chairman of the Republican Turkish Party (RTP) and Tahsin Mertekci, so-called "MP" of the Communal Liberation Party (CLP).

[06] Erhan Arikli wanted by Interpol

Commenting on the issue, Ali Osman of "Avrupa" (27.10.01) writes, among other things, the following: ".Erhan Arikli lived for years in Azerbaijan. It is obvious why he has gone there. He is a soldier of Pan- Islamism and Pan - Turkism who is in love with the Turkic world, like Denktas.".

Meanwhile, Asaf Ertac of "Kibrisli" (27.10.01) argues that Mr Arikli should have treated those who talk against Turkey and its occupation army in the northern part of Cyprus in more hard manner.

[07] Turkey said to be working for a solution in Cyprus in the next couple of years

"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's remarks, "Each party speaks for itself and not for the other," have been seen as sufficient to start a UN process aimed at a solution on the island, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Diplomatic sources in Washington said these remarks would be enough to resolve the deadlock and that there were no problems involving getting both the Turkish and Greek Cypriot parties together. Annan's remarks had first received reaction from the Greek Cypriots, who threatened to withdraw from the talks. While it is being maintained in diplomatic circles that a solution is required for both parties, it is also being stated that Turkey is working the hardest for a solution.

Diplomatic sources noted that Turkey intends to use the following couple of years to find a solution on Cyprus, that it supports the taking of a decision on a solution by both parties but that it does not look kindly upon foreign impositions. Observers in Washington state there are two major factors to any solution: one of them is the American idea of "any solution, just as long as there is a solution," which changes all the balances and puts the Greek Cypriots in a corner. The second is the European Union position, "We are going to make Cyprus a full member but if there is no solution it could cause problems." Both viewpoints are said to be helping efforts towards a solution."

[08] Forty-two Iraqis entered the occupied areas

[09] NPM is asking for a change to the system in the occupied areas

The paper writes that to this end NPM is establishing the New System Movement.

[B] COMMENTS AND EDITORIALS

[10] Columnist in YENI SAFAK warns the US that it will cry for its sins

«The United States has lifted the embargo it applied an Azerbaijan ever since 1992, due to its relations with Armenia. This means that Azerbaijan entered into the area of interest of the United States to a great extent.

The United States, because it entered into its area of interest to a great extent, had also removed the embargo, which was originally applied to Pakistan with the justification of Pakistan having the atom bomb.

The United States has also made a significant restoration in its relations with Turkey, and lifted the covert weapons embargo that it had applied, due to both the Cyprus problem and human rights.

The United States understood that these policies were wrong only when a different self-interest account came onto the agenda.

It left Eastern Europe to the Soviet influence at the Yalta Conference. These countries almost remained outside of history for 45 years up until the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It was a sin committed by the United States... The United States also cried later on for what it had done in Vietnam...

I wonder if it cried for its sins in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I do not know... The United States, after 11 September, within the searches for alliance, appeared to almost abandon Eastern Turkestan to the mercy of China and the Caucasus to the mercy of Russia. The opposing Islamic groups in Uzbekistan remained under the Kerimov dictatorship.

Kashmir remains in-between, because the United States does not know what to do with it between its alliances with India and Pakistan. India below, Pakistan above... The mind of the United States is also confused on the subject of Iran, with which it is in severe conflict, because if you are an enemy of Iraq, then you cannot also carry the burden of being an enemy of Iran.

The United States somehow cannot decide how it can be saved from integrating with Israel, which has been carrying out a bloody operation in Palestine almost ever since 11 September.

The United States is also undecided on the subject of what kind of a government should be formed in Afghanistan. It is faced with an impossible dilemma.

In the meantime, it is as though applications like the footsteps of the "global 28 February" project are being displayed. The institutions arranging aid organizations to the Islamic countries with various pretexts are accused of "supporting terrorism" and it is attempted to erode their esteem. In one sense, this has the meaning of pulling the rug out from under the "innocent Muslim communities". As a matter of fact, people in Turkey who want to help Afghanistan merely for humanitarian purposes are helpless and frustrated. The last prime minister of Eastern Turkestan, the late Isa Alptekin, had said that he sent thousands of Holy Korans to his country through the Rabita organization. The Rabita had paid the salaries of the Turkish imams serving in Europe in the 12 September period, also within the knowledge of the military administration. The imams provided the service to the Turkish citizens and the cost was paid by the Rabita... Now, all of these became a crime. Whereas, if there is a Turkish presence in Eastern Turkestan today, this has been thanks to their becoming acquainted with the Holy Koran and keeping their own identities alive. The preservation of the Turkish presence in Europe is also closely related to its identity. Religious sensitivity has a very vital share in the sensitivity of identity.

Abandoning Eastern Turkestan to the mercy of China has a separate spiritual and strategic dimension for Turkey, but has it been thought that this would be of importance for the United States? If Isa Alptekin was alive, he would shout this until he almost exploded the heads of the American administrators. Abandoning Turkestan to the mercy of China is an unforgivable sin for the United States and we can say that the United States will cry for this sin years later. One day, when China becomes an uncontrollable power, then one day, the request for the independence of Eastern Turkestan will come onto the agenda of the United States.

One day, the United States will cry for what it is doing today in Chechenya, namely, it will also cry that it stamped the Chechen resistance as "terrorism". The same lament will also be written in the book of Turkey. At the conference organized by the TESEV [Economic and Social Studies Foundation of Turkey] in Brussels on the subject of "The Search for Stability in Caucasia", Ismail Cem, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, by alluding to the initiatives of Russia aimed at the Chechens and Georgia after 11 September, said, "The Caucasus cannot be anyone's backyard". A right warning. These are the problems that emerged before things settled down... Every step taken is building the future and in our opinion it is building it incorrectly, because the Islamic areas are receiving a blow, while the relations between the Islamic world and the United States are being deeply wounded, in the meantime, the giants of the region, such as China and Russia, are obtaining strategic gains.

The Islamic communities will not forget the shrapnel bombs poured on Afghanistan, despite the shy warnings of the UN and the civilian deaths whose numbers are in the hundreds (perhaps even in the thousands, because the Afghans are in such a state of oppression that they cannot even count their dead) and the dismembered corpses of children.

The Islamic communities will not forget that while the United States was shedding blood in Afghanistan, the tanks of Israel put their signature on the most cruel bloodthirstiness in history in the Palestinian villages and these will also be included in the American file.

It is observed that the mind of the United States is seriously confused. And for this reason, they end up committing great sins that burn the Islamic countries-communities in the end. This geography is not a checkerboard, which can be played on this easily. Even if it is a super power, the action made does not have the meaning of a divine order, and for that reason, it is not possible to obtain an absolute submission. The United States is obliged to read how the action it made is perceived in the Islamic communities and to make its investments for the future accordingly. I believe that at the moment, in the Islamic countries, that even the most insensitive people to the pain experienced in other Muslim communities, have experienced a wrench of the heart, even if the real death images from Afghanistan have not been broadcast sufficiently. The articles of those defending the bombing by the United States are turning red with shame, at least this should be understood.

Eastern Turkestan, which was sacrificed to China, as it did not have any bargaining power, was written in the list of sins of the United States. Chechenya, which was presented to Russia, is the same... The file of sins composed of the murders committed in Palestine will be included in the settling of old scores of history with the United States.

I do not know how many years later, during a period of crisis, they will say "I am sorry" to these Islamic countries, just as was said to Azerbaijan, to Pakistan and to Turkey...

I think that we have a right to expect a sensitivity exceeding itself from Turkey. Just as with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, the Caucasus (that is, Chechenya) and all of the Turkish geography in Asia (naturally, Eastern Turkestan) are the defense walls of Turkey. Turkey should set forth the first and most clear attitude on the subject of sacrificing these to someone else. At least with humanitarian concerns»...

KV/SK

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