TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News (February 8, 1996)

From: TRKNWS-L <trh@aimnet.com>

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 8 February 1996

[01] Turkish-German group wins $70 m power deal

ANKARA- A consortium containing Turkish and German firms has won a $70 million build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract to build underground mechanization systems at a thermal power plant, the Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.

The underground mechanization of Cayirhan power plant will be built by a consortium of German SAARTECH and Turkish Park Energy and will become operational in one year. At first, coal produced by the underground mechanization system will be used in the third and fourth units of Cayirhan power plant.

Foreign firms will finance the construction of the mechanization system, and national coal company TKI will purchase the coal produced. the maturity of BOT agreement will be 15 years.

The system will minimize labor usage and will provide high quality coal with modern production techniques. Similar systems were built in the Tuncbilek and Soma lignite plants last year.

[02] Turkey worried about ethnic tensions in Bulgaria

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Ankara has expressed its concern over the rising "anti-Turkish" campaign in Bulgaria and called on Sofia not to allow any raising of tensions regarding the ethnic Turks in the country.

The Turkish expression of concern came after Kircaali Court took a decision to annul the result of the municipality election in Kircaali, a town mainly populated by ethnic Turks of Bulgaria, where Rasim Musa, the candidate of pro-Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, had won the elections. The court decision came late on Monday, after a two-month long trial.

"We understand that the legal process is still continuing as the case has been given to court of appeals," Omer Akbel, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Wednesday. But he added that the "anti-Turkish elements" had been dominant in the campaign since the local elections.

Referring to the ethnic Turks as the "loyal citizens of Bulgaria," Akbel said that he hoped "people who have been part of the inhuman assimilation campaign in the past" would not be permitted to raise tensions again through anti-Turkish campaigns.

Relations between Turkey and Bulgaria soured in late 1980s, when ethnic Turks, forced to change their names under a severe assimilation campaign, fled to Turkey. Many of them, disappointed over the lack of economic opportunities, however, were forced to turn back.

After Communist leader Theodor Zhivkov was toppled, bilateral relations and the standard of living of the ethnic Turks improved. But many members of the Turkish minority contend that they are still subject to overt or covert pressures from Bulgarian authorities in their daily lives.

Last year's elections, however, caused a new friction between the two neighbors when Sofia accused Turkish diplomats of interfering in Bulgaria's local elections.

In a written statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that during the recent local elections, Turkish diplomats had acted completely in keeping with the status of "international observer" granted to them by the Bulgarian authorities.

"It is without doubt that our diplomats in Bulgaria will, as they have to date, act in accordance with Bulgarian regulations," the statement added.

There are over one million Bulgarian citizens of Turkish origin in Bulgaria today.

The Foreign Ministry statement said that respect for the rights of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria would be important regarding the future of the ties between the two countries.

Akbel's statement on Monday says that Turkey was eager to further its ties with Bulgaria in all fields, adding that the respect of human rights and the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural structure was essential for this country's integration with Europe.

[03] Former American envoy doubts Cyprus settlement this year

ANKARA- The former U.S. ambassador to Cyprus, Raymond Ewing, said he did not believe a Cyprus settlement in 1996 is discernible.

In an article published in the Washington Report, Ewing drew attention to the "gigantic" economic disparity between northern and southern Cyprus, and commented that contrary to the, "1996 will be a year of big push for Cyprus," literature, it would be a great surprise if a Cyprus resolution happens this year.

The former American envoy recalled that a "Dayton-type" approach to the Cyprus issue came on the agenda recently, and he cautioned, that although the "Dayton exercise" worked to settle the Bosnian bloodshed, there is a need for patience and hard work in reaching a resolution to the Cyprus problem.

He stressed that contrary to Bosnia, there has been peace on the island since the 1974 Turkish intervention.

Ewing, who served as ambassador to Cyprus from 1981 to 1984, commented that his country has refused, right from the very beginning, to recognize the status-quo on Cyprus, and that it has been trying to settle the problem with the view that it constitutes a potential threat to Turkish-Greek relations.

Writing in the same magazine, the Turkish Cypriot envoy to Washington, Namik Korhan, on the other hand, commented that the 1974 Turkish intervention on Cyprus was the "greatest humanitarian operation" of the past 50 years, as it successfully ended 11 years of bloodshed and, since it was staged, there has been peace and stability on the island.

Korhan said there were some similarities between the Serbian atrocities, in the former Yugoslav territories, and Greek Cypriot atrocities. He said that to attain a "greater Serbia" utopia, the Serbs did not hesitate from butchering thousands of civilians in the former Yugoslav territories, while in Cyprus, the Greek Cypriots did not hesitate from butchering hundreds of Turkish Cypriots from 1963 to 1974 in order to achieve their national aim of Hellenizing the island and achieving union with Greece (Enosis).

[04] What's in a name?

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- A new name for the Kardak rocks which has crept into the news articles brought a hasty explanation from the Turkish Foreign Ministry Wednesday that Ikizce was the "local name" for the twin rocks which created last week's crisis.

"Ikizce is the name used by the local people," Foreign Ministry spokesman Omer Akbel said. "Kardak is the name used in the official documents." Greece, which claims ownership of the inhabited group of rocks, calls them the "islet of Imia." "The official name will be clarified in the coming days," Akbel said.

Asked about press reports that Greece had mobilized its naval forces in the Aegean, Akbel said that part of the so-called mobilization was a search for three pilots of a Greek helicopter that crashed in the region last week.

Akbel also denied a Greek allegation that a Turkish patrol boat had opened fire on Greek fishing boats in the Aegean Sea days after the NATO allies engaged in a military standoff there.

"It is out of the question that Turkish gunboats would open fire randomly," spokesman Akbel told a news briefing.

Greece protested to Turkey on Monday over the alleged incident in which it said a Turkish patrol boat shot at two fishing boats and tried to ram them near the Greek island of Samothraki in the Aegean on Saturday.

Last week, the two countries came to the brink of a military confrontation, with their warships facing off over a small rocky outcrop in the eastern Aegean which they both claim as their own.

The feuding neighbors withdrew under U.S. pressure, but relations remain tense particularly in view of Greek threats to block European Union aid to Turkey.

However, the European countries are carefully quiet on the conflict. The only official statement has come from France so far, in its call to both countries to work together to make the Aegean Sea a "sea of peace." "France has always called on Greece and Turkey to resolve problems through dialogue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yves Doutriaux told reporters.

Expressing concern at "recurring tensions between two allies at the heart of the NATO alliance," he added: "We call on these two countries to cooperate to make the Aegean Sea a sea of peace."

[05] Turkmen president starts visit to Turkey

ANKARA- Turkmen President Saparmurat Turkmenbasi started Wednesday a five-day visit to Turkey.

A brief statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the Turkmen leader arrived in Istanbul as the first part of his visit. He is expected to stay in Istanbul for four days and hold a meeting with Turkish businessmen who have contacts in Turkmenistan.

Turkmenbasi will arrive in Ankara next Monday to hold consultations with his Turkish counterpart Suleyman Demirel. The two presidents will also sign a protocol "on the principals of long-term cooperation between Turkey and Turkmenistan." While in Ankara, Turkmenbasi will be given honorary citizenship of Ankara and the golden key of the city by the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality.

[06] Demirel sends envoy to Ter-Petrosian, Aliyev

ANKARA- President Suleyman Demirel has sent a special envoy to Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian and Azeri President Haydar Aliyev to express the Turkish desire for a solution to the Karabakh conflict.

According to a statement from the Presidential Press Office, Demirel sent Ayhan Kamel, Turkey's special Karabakh envoy, to the region as his special representative.

Kamel, a senior diplomat whose last post was as Turkey's ambassador to Moscow, went to the region carrying messages to both leaders.

President Demirel also made two phone calls to Ter-Petrosian and Aliyev.

While the phone calls and the special envoy to Baku are hardly surprising, the message to Armenian capital Yerevan carries a special importance, given that relations between Turkey and Yerevan have been minimal.

Ankara recognized Armenia at the same time as all other former Soviet states, but, unlike others, did not establish diplomatic ties. During the Azeri-Armenian conflict when Armenian forces occupied one-eighth of Azerbaijan, Turkey imposed a blockade on Armenia, but relaxed it last year.

The message, according to diplomatic observers, is related to the Karabakh issue, rather than bilateral relations.

Turkey is part of the Minsk group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which aims at a political settlement to the Karabakh problem between the two countries.