Antenna: News in English, 97-02-22

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

News in English, 22/02/97

TITLES

• The prime minister tells Turkey to be a good neighbour, or find itself left out of Europe.
• A Greek doctor's DNA search for the cures to hereditary diseases.
• And, Yankee joins Greece's crisis response unit.

SIMITIS

Kostas Simitis told Pasok's central committee that he's committed to defending the country's borders against Turkish expansionism.

He added that Turkish insistence on its aggressive treatment of Greece, will prevent further tightening of its relations with the European Union.

At the conference, Kostas Simitis also took on critics within his own party, over his handling of foreign policy and the economy.

Prime minister Simitis made it clear to everyone that Greece will not negotiate over its sovereign rights in the Aegean. He told the Pasok central committee that "not a single metre of Greek land, coastal waters or air space will be put on the bargaining table".

Turkey has long aspired to drag Greece into bi-lateral talks over the status quo in the Aegean, and set the stage for chipping away at Greece's territorial integrity.

But Simitis says Turkey and the rest of the world should understand that Greece's rights are not open to discussion. If Turkey insists on trying to push Greece into talks through threats of military confrontation - as it did during the Imia crisis a year ago - then, says the Greek leader, Turkey can expect to get a cold shoulder when it tries to draw closer to the European Union.

The EU has already stalled moves to bring Turkey closer because of Imia and Turkey's human rights record.

Kostas Simitis came in for criticism at the central committee meeting. Five MPs submitted a text questioning his cabinet's handling of foreign policy issues.

It marks the first time that the prime minister has been faced with the criticism of a group within his party.

Sifis Valerakis, Antonis Kotsakas, Thanasis Papageorgiou, and Nora Katseli complain that government ministers have different views on and approaches to foreign poicy issues, giving the impression that the government is straying from the unified strategy formulated by Pasok.

The five MPs also criticise the government's record on the economy. They say Simitis appears to be concentrating mainly on collecting more taxes, and has left articulating a new plan to promote economic growth by the wayside. Yet a plan for growth is vital to the nation's future prospects, they add.

Kostas Simitis says repeatedly that Pasok is a government of the majority. He's taken a tough stand with groups demanding more money - like farmers and teachers. He says the country can't afford to start borrowing money to pay for lavish handouts.

But the five MPs say many government ministers appear to be indifferent to those protesting tight economic policies. That, they add, conflicts with the party's declared socialist aims, its commitment to social sensitivity.

The critics return to a theme that's been around for several months, claiming that people close to the prime minister are brushing aside party and governmental institutions, and trying to run the country on their own.

That, they say, raises questions as to how committed certain people are to a united Pasok, in which all members are called on to participate in politics.

Giannis Haralabous agrees with the five. "Some people are trying to run the whole show", he says. "We demand that all of Pasok's members work together in tackling the country's problems, because those problems are enormous".

Despite the criticisms of the government, the mood at the central committee meeting was one of general consensus around the way the prime minister is handling the major issues before the country.

And consensus is something the prime minister wants to build encourage.

During his central committee address, Kostas Simitis took issue with claims that Pasok is divided, between a left and a right wing, between patriots and non-patriots.

The premier rejected what he called labels, insisting that there are simply party members.

And he appealed to everyone to unite behind his government. "We shouldn't be misled by the protests or moves of small groups, to mistakenly take the small group for the whole".

It was a tack Simitis followed with the protesting farmers recently, dismissing them as a minority. He told the central committee members they should be asking themselves what the majority of people in the country wants.

ND

MP Kostas Karamanlis, nephew of the party founder, is the latest candidates' list near-entry. 31 party MPs came out in his support earlier this week. Asked at a party gathering if he'll run for the top slot Friday, he answered in a jocular vein: "The worst thing you can do is ask a Karamanlis to reveal something before he's ready to".

Yet, all indications are that he intends to run for the leadership. Those behind him point to him as a young man who can break with the past. He himself says, "At some point, this party has got to take on a pioneering role".

Nikos TsiartsiOnis, one of his supporters, says a Karamanlis candidacy would add a new dimension to things in the party, a dimension the other two candidates can't provide.

The other two candidates referred to are current leader Miltiades Evert - who hasn't officially declared his intention to run - and MP Giorgos Souflias - who has.

He wouldn't comment on the prospect of a Karmanlis candidacy. But he told supporters in Iannena that he'll always fight for party unity.

Souflias held a meeting with MPs Dora Bakoyianni and Stephanos Manos. Manos is still behind Souflias; it is unclear what Bakoyianni intends to keep on supporting him.

Bakoyianni, say some, could withdraw from the Souflias camp if Evert decides NOT to run because Karmanlis decides to enter the race.

Evert supporter Gerasimos Yiakoumatos says if Evert is not a candidate, then it should be taken for granted that his supporters will file up behind Karamanlis.

ÅU

At the centre of his discussions was Russia's ratification of the international energy charter.

The agreement seeks to provide a framework for long- term cooperation among nations in energy development, to the benefit of all sides.

Papoutisis made the introductory speech at an energy seminar organised by the Russian parliament. He also met with government officials and businesspeople.

Russia is one of the EU's most important energy suppliers. Russian natural gas accounts for 20 per cent of the EU's supplies, a percentage that's expected to grow.

DNA/CANCER

At the cutting edge of the research is a Greek doctor, heading programmes at Harvard University and the University of Athens.

Ben first noticed a slight hearing problem a few years ago. Now, at the age of 25, he's nearly deaf.

He and a group of other people who started losing their hearing in their early twenties are being studied by a team of researchers at Harvard University, led by a Greek doctor, Evangelos Manolis.

"They had no problems up to the age of 21", he tells Antenna's Maria Papapanaiotou. "By the time they're 25, they can't hear at all. That obviously causes them tremendous problems".

Manolis and his team discovered that all sufferers of the mysterious and tragic syndrome have a specific gene in their DNA, which they believe is the hereditary culprit. The goal of the researchers is to find a way of correcting the genetic abnormality, if there is one, or supplying a missing protein, if that's the problem.

And success may not be far off. Manolis recently started a programme at the University of Athens, the purpose of which is to study the genetic aspects of a number of hereditary illnesses.

The most important of these, is cancer. Manolis says that soon a family will be able to find out if it's carrying a deficient or otherwise abnormal gene that can make members of that family ill.

"Take the case of colon cancer", explains Manolis. "When we know from our genetics research that it's hereditary, we can operate on a small, seemingly insignificant problem like a polyp, when a person is 21, and anticpate later cancerous development, or even catching the cancer before its spreads".

Manolis's research at Harvard one him an award from the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology in 1996.

The findings of his team were published in one of the world's most respected research journals: the Oxford University Journal of Human Molecular Research".

His research is considered pioneering because it opens the way to hereditary disease prevention through an understanding of DNA.

EMAK/DOG

Greece's crisis-response unit - EMAK - has acquired the services of a labrodor from France, named Yankee.

The three-year-old dog will help Greek rescuers locate people trapped under earthquake rubble, or in the debris left by other disasters.

Trained by firefighters in Nice, Yankee got a warm welcome from his new unit.

Handing him over to his new owners in Greece, his French trainers said they plan to give EMAK three more trained dogs soon. The future additions will be stationed in northern Greece.

B.BALL

The basketball team's not exactly in a crisis, but things could be going better for it in the European championship tournament.

Olympiakos gets roughed up physically by Maccabee in Israel. The refs take a "no harm, no foul" approach - that's no help to the Greek team, and the Tel Aviv team wins it push-me pull-yuh style, 82-78.

Of course the complaints are for the books that now one will ever read. What's important for Olympiakos is that following that second round loss, it now meets Yugoslavia's Partizan in the next round. And Partizan will have the home court advantage in that best-of-three battle for a slot in the quarterfinals.

The other Greek team advancing to the next round is Panathinaikos. Pao finished the second round with the best record of all 24 teams participating, and will have the home court advantage in ITS best-of- three series against France's Limoge.

© ANT1 Radio 1997

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