Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 05-10-03

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From: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.

CONTENTS

[01] TURKISH PROBLEM

[02] COMMITMENTS WILL BE MET

[03] "PEACE VILLAGES" AGAINST VIOLENCE - A PEACE WALK FROM EUROPE TO ISRAEL

[04] INFOSYSTEM TO BE INAUGURATED BY THE INTERIOR MINISTER

[05] THE BALKAN MAYORS TO HOLD THEIR NEXT MEETING IN ANKARA

[06] KOUMOUTSAKOS: THE NEGOTIATING FRAMEWORK FOR TURKEY SHOULD NOT CHANGE

[07] GJIROKASTRA ON UNESCO'S WORLD HERITAGE LIST

[08] INCENTIVES FOR INVESTMENTS IN GREECE

[01] TURKISH PROBLEM

No agreement has been reached on Turkey's EU accession negotiation process, according to the British President of the EU General Affairs Council which is trying since yesterday to reach a compromise solution on the issue.

Earlier, Austria stated that during the night it was isolated and pressured after the obstacles it had raised to the approval of the negotiating framework necessary for the opening of negotiations.

Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis stated that it will be a mistake if Turkey misses this historic opportunity commenting in response to the reactions in Ankara as a result of the EU skepticism regarding Turkey's European course, while the Turkish Prime Minister reiterated that the EU must choose between being a world protagonist by opening negotiations with Ankara or a closed Christian club by rejecting its bid to become an EU member.

Thousands of Turkish nationalists protested against the EU in Ankara yesterday.

The British EU Presidency postponed the examination of Croatia's file until an agreement is reached on Turkey.

[02] COMMITMENTS WILL BE MET

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis addressing the governing New Democracy party Parliament deputies on the occasion of the Parliament's plenary session stated that there will be no bargains on everything his government has pledged to do and all commitments undertaken will be met.

Minister of Finance Giorgos Alogoskoufis will also address the New Democracy Parliament deputies and will refer to the state budget's draft plan to be presented in Parliament today.

Mr. Alogoskoufis has expressed optimism that deficit in 2006 will be cut to 2.8% without the adoption of new measures for taxpayers.

Main opposition Socialist Party leader Giorgos Papandreou stated referring to the New Democracy government that as a result of the policy they follow they have overshot the mark on everything.

[03] "PEACE VILLAGES" AGAINST VIOLENCE - A PEACE WALK FROM EUROPE TO ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

Sabine Lichtenfels, a German author and one of the 1,000 women for peace worldwide nominated together for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, launched a peace tour on June 18 that will end in Israel and Palestine. The message she carries with her in her long journey she makes on foot that started from Germany is that the walls built to keep people and nations apart is not anymore the way to bring freedom, coexistence and peace in any region torn by war.

People believe to be the reality only what they watch on television. Namely, war and violence, stated to ANA-MPA the well-known peace activist, stressing that actions to the opposite direction or alternative ways of life and thought are not being promoted. It is not enough to say that we are opposed to the existing political situation. The globalization of violence must be replaced by a globalization of peace and this cannot be done in one day. It is something that people learn when you show them in practice that they can live in new social structures and when they themselves try to create a different community where they won't need to think that they are enemies, said Sabine Lichtenfels who arrived in Thessaloniki within the framework of her peace tour.

Sabine Lichtenfels managed to found the model ecological village of Tamera in Portugal where a total of 100 people live and work. She says that it is a therapeutic reserve, a peace village, and believes that such a village can be founded in every region where there is poverty such as India, Africa, Colombia, and the Middle East given the fact its cost for 2,000 people, is as high as the cost of an armored vehicle. The village is energy self-sufficient thanks to a new energy production unit using solar energy. The unit was invented and built by researcher Jurgen Kleiwachter and is based on the use of vegetable oils. The cost is low and its energy capacity is enough to meet the needs of entire industry plants.

Life is simple not deprived of comforts and the people living in the village work with the land, are involved in research, promote environment protection and build environmentally friendly houses, while children have medical care and education. Also, seminars are being held for researchers or simple people looking for alternative ways of life.

She hopes to manage to found a similar village in the Middle East as a cacophony of peace in the everyday routine of violence. To promote this goal she is walking as a peace pilgrim through European and Balkan countries with Israel and Palestine her final destination. She is already in cooperation with peace organizations in Israel and Palestine to make sure that she will receive the necessary permits and assistance to materialize her initiatives.

On November 1, she will travel again on foot together with a group of actors who will perform the play We refuse to be enemies in a total of 15 cities (Haifa, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jerusalem and others). It is the story of a man who is getting ready to set himself ablaze inside a night club. On November 9, the fall of the Berlin Wall anniversary, she will be at the West Bank wall and her peace walk will end in Jerusalem on November 27 with the slogan the money for the purchase of an armored tank is enough to build a peace village.

Sabine Lichtenfels will be in Athens on October 16-19 where she will hold information meetings on the peace villages.

A three-year program, the so-called peace school, will get underway in Tamera in May 2006, to teach the construction of environmentally friendly houses and alternative sources of energy.

[04] INFOSYSTEM TO BE INAUGURATED BY THE INTERIOR MINISTER

The 19th International Exhibition on Computers, Telecommunications and Digital Technology, Infosystem, to take place in Thessaloniki on October 6-9 will be inaugurated by Minister of Interior Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

The so-called Digital House will be presented for the first time in northern Greece while the ExpoPartenariat institution, concerning prescheduled business meetings, will be adopted for the first time.

HELEXPO President Aristotelis Thomopoulos, organizer of the exhibition, stated in a press conference that a total of 555 exhibitors will participate (131 direct and 424 indirect exhibitors) compared to 469 in 2004. The exhibition will cover a total of 8,150 sq meters, while exhibitors will come from Greece (Thessaloniki, Athens, Piraeus and Xanthi) and other 30 countries compared to 28 last year.

[05] THE BALKAN MAYORS TO HOLD THEIR NEXT MEETING IN ANKARA

The Balkan mayors gave their next rendezvous in Ankara wrapping up their annual Summit meeting for this year in Craiova, Romania.

This year's Balkan City Network Summit meeting could be characterized as historic given the fact that its proceedings were opened by Romanian President Traian Basescu who made a special reference to the importance of the institution of Local Administration and the momentum of the Balkan City Network.

The BALCINET Summit in Craiova ended with the approval of a resolution on the need for cooperation at local and government level to combat crime and drug trafficking, an issue that will be further dealt with in the 2006 Ankara Summit.

Thessaloniki mayor Vasilis Papageorgopoulos addressed the Summit on the issue of drug trafficking and stressed, among others, the network's will to sensitize local communities while, at the same time, activating inter-municipal cooperation.

[06] KOUMOUTSAKOS: THE NEGOTIATING FRAMEWORK FOR TURKEY SHOULD NOT CHANGE

Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos stated that the negotiating framework text prepared by the EU for Turkey that was agreed upon 15 days ago and which, according to Greece's opinion, meets and fully guarantees the objectives and priorities of the Greek side should remain as is.

He said that Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis has reiterated this position in all the meetings he had with the British EU Presidency.

Commenting from Luxembourg on the negotiations in progress to determine the negotiating framework text for Turkey, Mr. Koumoutsakos also referred to the discussion held in the Council meeting and the efforts made to amend paragraph 5 of the text that describes the framework inside which negotiations for Turkey's EU accession will move.

Mr. Koumoutsakos stressed that it has been made clear that any attempt to change the agreed upon text would open Pandora's Box.

[07] GJIROKASTRA ON UNESCO'S WORLD HERITAGE LIST

UNESCO Deputy Director-General for Culture Mounir Bouchenaki delivered to the mayor of Gjirokastra the formal registration inscription of the museum-city of Gjirokastra on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Present in the ceremony held last Saturday was Albanian President Alfred Moisiu.

The historic town of Gjirokastra, in the Drinos river valley in southern Albania, is a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town, built by farmers of large estate.

The 13th-century citadel provides the focal point of the town with its typical tower houses (Turkish kule). Characteristic of the Balkan region, Gjirokastra contains a series of outstanding examples of kule, a type of building which crystallized in the 17th century. But Gjirokastra also features some more elaborate examples from the early 19th century. The kule has a tall basement, a first floor for use in the cold season, and a second floor for the warm season. Interiors feature rich decorative details and painted floral patterns, particularly in the zones reserved for the reception of visitors.

The town also retains a bazaar, an 18th-century mosque and two churches of the same period. UNESCO based its decision on the fact that the old city of Gjirokastra is an exceptional testimony to a long-lasting, and almost disappeared society and life-style, influenced by the culture and tradition of Islam in the Ottoman period and also, because the historic town of Gjirokastra is a rare example of a well-preserved Ottoman town, built by farmers of large estates, around the 13th-century citadel. The architecture is characterized by the construction of a type of tower house (Turkish 'kule'), of which Gjirokastra represents a series of outstanding examples.

According to one version, the city got its name from Argiros one of the descendents of the founders of Dropolis.

Gjirokastra was an important cultural center for the Greeks, with Greek printing house, a Greek newspaper and radio station.

Before the 1990s Greeks made up 20-25% of the overall population and today the ethnic Greeks living in Gjirokastra are estimated to be around 2,000. The biggest Greek public school is there with 170 students as well as the only secondary education Greek public school. Also, the local university offers a Greek Language and Literature Department.

Gjirokastra is the second cultural monument in Albania placed under the protection of UNESCO. The first one was the archaeological site of Butrint (Vouthrotos) close to the city of Sarante.

Inhabited since prehistoric times, Butrint has been the site of a Greek colony, a Roman city and a bishopric. Following a period of prosperity under Byzantine administration, then a brief occupation by the Venetians, the city was abandoned in the late Middle Ages after marshes formed in the area. The present archaeological site is a repository of ruins representing each period in the city's development.

[08] INCENTIVES FOR INVESTMENTS IN GREECE

The Greek Americans must rest assured that a new environment for investments is being created in their homeland free of the red tape of the past, stated Minister of Development Dimitris Sioufas, who was on a visit to the United States.

In an interview with the New York-based Greek American newspaper Ethnikos Kirikas, Mr. Sioufas also referred to Greece's comparative advantages, the measures adopted to cut red tape and simplify investment procedures, the new challenge for economic development after the Olympic Games and the broad prospects as a result of the opening of the energy market and high-tech investments. He also referred to the incentives for investments enacted in Greece, as well as to the Greek American community and its contribution while he left open the likelihood for the participation of Greek American students in student competitions in Greece.

Meanwhile, in a conference on technology and investments in Greece organized by the United Hellenic American Congress (UHAC) and the World Council for Greeks Abroad (SAE) on September 29 in Chicago, Mr. Sioufas announced that the Greek Ministry of Development will finance the establishment of a non governmental organization that will help businessmen have access to know-how necessary for the establishment of new businesses and Greek-US collaborations.

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