TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News (February 16, 1996)

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

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 16 February 1996

[01] RP, ANAP try to keep road open

TDN Parliament Bureau

ANKARA- Pro-Islamic Welfare Party (RP) leader Necmettin Erbakan and Motherland Party (ANAP) Chairman Mesut Yilmaz failed to untie the Gordian knot during their second round of talks on Thursday.

After a meeting lasting nearly two hours, which followed Wednesday's three-hour marathon, the two leaders did not disclose a final decision.

Erbakan and Yilmaz did not close the door on an RP-ANAP coalition. They decided to hold another meeting tomorrow in a final attempt to form a government; that meeting will follow assessment of the situation at the two parties' executive boards today.

ANAP Deputy Chairwoman Imren Aykut said the fact that both leaders had decided to meet for the third time did not mean that progress had been achieved. Aykut said the decision to meet again indicated the leaders' willingness to continue their efforts.

After Thursday's meeting, Erbakan and Yilmaz held a joint press conference in Parliament. Yilmaz said he would visit President Suleyman Demirel, who appointed him to form the new government on Feb. 3, to brief the latter about his efforts, and in particular about the present status of his negotiations with Erbakan.

During his meeting with Erbakan, Yilmaz reportedly proposed a rotating premiership with him taking the first turn, and also a rotating minority government, again on the condition that his party go first for a period of at least one year. Erbakan reportedly agreed to the ANAP leader's offers, provided that he should take over the premiership from Yilmaz in September.

Yilmaz reportedly wanted all ministries governing the economy, defense, the interior, foreign affairs and education, as well as religious affairs, to be allocated to his party. He reportedly also wanted the remaining term of the premiership to be determined in a protocol to be concluded between the two parties.

In a statement after the meeting, Yilmaz said he and Erbakan had made significant progress on the issues they had discussed so far, and that both believed they were nearing a consensus.

Erbakan said there was no deadlock in the talks and that it was essential to discuss all issues during the process of forming a coalition government. He said the parties entering a coalition would maintain their respective aims, but that the program on which a consensus was reached would be implemented.

He added that if he and Yilmaz reached an agreement in principle, commissions would be set up to conduct detailed coalition negotiations.

As was the case after their first meeting, both leaders refused to answer any questions on the content of the second.

Yilmaz met twice with Erbakan when the Islamist leader was trying to form the new government. At the time, Yilmaz said he was not prepared to commit ANAP to a coalition with the RP, and that he would first seek a joint government with the True Path Party (DYP).

Later, Erbakan failed to find partners and had to give up his attempts to form a government. Eventually, President Demirel asked Yilmaz to try. Yilmaz and the DYP's Tansu Ciller rebuffed each other and failed to form a partnership. Yilmaz has met every leader except Erbakan in his bid to form some kind of coalition between the center-right and center-left.

Ecevit's criticism of Erbakan

Democratic Left Party (DSP) Chairman Bulent Ecevit, who addressed his colleagues at the DSP parliamentary group meeting, said Erbakan had made remarks which should not be taken seriously. Ecevit said if such a person became prime minister, it would cast a big shadow over Turkeys's position in the world.

Ecevit said the secular-democratic republic would be severely tested under a coalition government led by the RP.

Referring to Erbakan's earlier statements concerning an "Islamic NATO" or an "Islamic United Nations," Ecevit said such institutions would lead to polarization in the world.

[02] Yilmaz drags his feet, Ciller uneasy

By Kemal Balci

TDN Parliament Bureau

ANKARA- Mesut Yilmaz's talks with Welfare Party (RP) leader Necmettin Erbakan are being prolonged reportedly because the Motherland Party (ANAP) leader is using the time element as a weapon to divide Tansu Ciller's True Path Party (DYP) and to eliminate Ciller as party leader. Following his Thursday meeting with Erbakan, Yilmaz announced they would have another meeting, their third, leading to speculation that the RP-ANAP talks will extend into the forthcoming religious holiday.

Well aware of the uneasiness this creates in Ciller, Yilmaz is planning to further play on Ciller's fears by asking President Suleyman Demirel at their meeting today to give him an extra week to try to form a new government.

Caretaker Prime Minister Ciller, on the other hand, met with Demirel yesterday, asking him to help her upset this plan aimed at causing division in the DYP.

Time has become the crucial element in the war of nerves Yilmaz started waging against Ciller prior to the Dec. 24 election. The ANAP and DYP deputies are tense because according to the Constitution the president can dissolve Parliament and hold a new election if a new government is not formed within 45 days after the election of the Parliament speaker and his deputies. The DYP deputies are getting more and more worried about the possibility of the DYP losing its chance to remain in power as a result of the RP-ANAP talks.

Yilmaz has made a proposal to Erbakan which is hard to accept.

He said that with the introduction of a rotating premiership he should be the first one to serve as prime minister, not Erbakan.

Apparently this is a tactic. With that proposal he rendered formation of an RP-ANAP government more difficult. Not only has he made an "impossible" demand he has also spread the coalition talks with Erbakan over several meetings without making a substantial announcement to the public. This serves his main aim, that is, fuelling the tension in the DYP.

Ciller has become aware of Yilmaz's attempt to gain time to divide the DYP, and declared: "No one should base his plans on the DYP. Let him go and return the mandate to form a government.

This is because the DYP will not be divided. The DYP is the guarantee of this country's indivisibility." In an attempt to prevent the dissenters in the ranks of the DYP from speaking against her, Ciller is equating a division in the DYP with a division in the country. Her words indicate that if the dissidents speak up, she will accuse them of "dividing the country."

During her meeting with President Demirel on Thursday, Ciller complained about Yilmaz basing his plans on the possibility of a division in the DYP, and asked the president not to permit any such attempt.

During the part of the DYP parliamentary group meeting which was closed to the press, Yilmaz's tactic of prolonging his talks with the RP with the hope that this will trigger a series of developments which would topple Ciller from party leadership was mentioned. The DYP circles were preoccupied with a potential "division in the DYP ranks" with discussions on this subject involving a number of deputies close to Ciller. Drawing attention to that risk, Necmettin Cevheri, Ciller's closest associate, said: "In the past there were those in this party who were after (former DYP chairman) Suleyman Demirel's neck. But they failed. Now the same circles are after Tansu Ciller's neck.

But they will not succeed. Because we will not let this party be divided. This responsibility belongs to us all."

Two other DYP figures known for their closeness to Ciller, Sedat Aloglu and Turhan Tayan, took the floor during the DYP parliamentary group meeting to say that the most important duty was to preserve unity and togetherness in the party in the face of attempts aimed at dividing the DYP. They emphasized that the threat of division prevented the dissidents from speaking out at the meeting.

Meanwhile, ANAP leader Yilmaz is expected to extend his talks with RP leader Erbakan as much as possible. He will try to get an extra week to reinforce the impression that an "RP-ANAP agreement is possible" without actually bringing the coalition talks to a conclusion. He was scheduled to make an assessment of the situation with his aides on Thursday evening. On Saturday, he will have another meeting with Erbakan.

If Yilmaz manages to get a signal from President Demirel indicating that he may get the extra week he seeks, a joint committee to be formed by the RP and ANAP groups in Parliament will work on this issue for another week. During that period the developments in the DYP will be closely monitored. In the end Yilmaz will probably give up his attempt to form an RP-ANAP coalition since the dispute as to who should be prime minister first, Yilmaz or Erbakan, would have remained unsolved.

After that, Yilmaz can be expected to make another move aimed at causing division in the DYP ranks. He may, for example, ask President Demirel to ask a DYP deputy other than Tansu Ciller to form the new government.

If all these efforts do not bring about the kind of developments he seeks, Yilmaz will, according to one argument, either engage in fresh coalition talks with the RP or agree to the holding of an early election in June.

[03] The route of the Turkmen natural gas will be determined by working group

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- A joint Turkish-Turkmen working group has been formed to implement the recent natural gas accord signed between the two countries, Turkey's pipeline authority BOTAS said on Thursday.

The working group formed by representatives of BOTAS and Turkmen Oil and Gas Ministry will evaluate the technical and economic aspects of possible transport routes for Turkey's natural gas purchase, which is to be 2 billion cubic meters (m3) annually.

The group will also make all the necessary arrangements with transit countries to transport Turkmen natural gas which will be delivered at the Turkish border via a pipeline system, BOTAS Deputy Chairman Isik Eyuboglu said in a written statement.

The pricing of the Turkmen natural gas and the final purchase agreement is still to be settled.

According to the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries on Feb. 14, Turkmenistan will supply Turkey with up to 15 billion m3 of Turkmen natural gas by 2020.

"Turkey will purchase 2 billion m3 of natural gas in 1998, 5 billion m3 between 1999-2004, 10 billion m3 between 2005-2009 and 15 billion between 2010-2020," the statement said.

Turkey has previously proposed the construction of a pipeline to carry Turkmen natural gas to Europe beneath the Caspian Sea and via Transcaucasia and Turkey, a route which bypasses Iran.

Details of the proposal were introduced in a BOTAS report last year.

Russian natural gas project

Meanwhile the plans for a pipeline carrying Russian natural gas via Georgia, Armenia and Turkey to Israel is still under discussion, BOTAS Deputy Chairman Eyuboglu said in an interview with the Anatolia news agency.

"Russia's two pipeline routes -- the one running from Armenia to 10 kilometers inside Turkish borders or the other reaching Tbilisi, Georgia -- will be extended to a Mediterranean port in Adana. Then the pipeline will run via the Mediterranean Sea to Israel," Eyuboglu said.

He explained that between 8 billion-10 billion m3 of Russian natural gas will be purchased by Turkey and 4 billion-6 billion m3 by Israel. The pipeline project will be revised, if the transit countries, such as Cyprus, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon would like to purchase natural gas.

A consortium between the Canadian Transcanada, Israel's Del Men and Botas has been formed to carry the Russian natural gas to third countries via Turkey.

The pipeline between Russia and Israel is expected to run 1,600 kilometers, of which 1,120 kilometers is on Turkish land.

The pipeline carrying up to 16 billion m3 gas will cost $3.46 billion.

Turkey's proposal to carry Russian natural gas is still being discussed by Israeli officials. Israel is considering alternative routes for supplying natural gas. The first is carrying natural gas from Egypt and the other is purchasing liquid natural gas from Qatar. The Russia-Turkey-Israel pipeline is more economic than these two projects, Eyuboglu said.

[04] Turkey will benefit if Iraq-UN oil talks succeed, diplomats say

ANKARA- Iraq will import food and basic products from Turkey if its oil talks with the United Nations on partial oil sales succeed, Turkish diplomats quoted by the Anatolia news agency said.

Diplomatic sources predict the United Nations could insert an article on Iraq's food purchases into a possible agreement.

"Food and basic goods could easily be supplied from Turkey, if the relations between Turkey and neighboring Iraq are considered," diplomats said.

The talks between the U.N. and Iraqi negotiators that started last week, emphasize an easing of the ban on oil sales. The curbs on Iraqi oil exports will only be lifted if Iraq fully adheres to terms related to the dismantling of its weapons of mass destruction, according to the Gulf War cease-fire.

The talks are expected to intensify with the possibility of negotiations over the weekend, U.N. sources said.

[05] FM strongly rejects criticism of Turkish civil aviation safety

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Referring to recent criticism of Turkish civil aviation safety by German officials following the crash of a Turkish Boeing 757 off the Dominican coast, Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Nurettin Nurkan said on Thursday that such criticism was turning into a smear campaign targeting Turkish airline companies.

Ten days ago an airliner owned by Istanbul-based Birgen Air carrying German holidaymakers plunged into the sea after taking off from the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 aboard. Birgen Air had leased the jet to Alas Nacionales of the Dominican Republic.

Nurkan said that after the crash, Turkish airline companies had started to lose customers as a result of a smear campaign by German authorities. He added that the damaged companies had the right to file suits for compensation against critics who had caused the loss of money.

Nurkan said that the allegations were baseless. The Boeing 757 with the TC-GEN tail-code had flown in Germany 1,100 times under the Birgen Air insignia. Nurkan added that the pilots of the aircraft were well experienced, with thousands of flight hours under their belts.

Contrary to German officials claims, the aircraft's insurance would expire on Jan. 18, 1997, Nurkan said, pointing out that the flight had followed standard procedures and that the substitution of the 757 for the scheduled aircraft had been cleared by the related officials before take-off.

The spokesman said that it was unfair to smear the Turkish airline industry before the aircraft's flight recorder (the "black box") had been found and an investigation completed.

Nurkan also extended his ministry's condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives in the crash, the Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday.

Transport Ministry says civil aviation in Turkey conforms to ICAO standards In the meantime, the Ministry of Transport said in a written statement that civil aviation in Turkey conformed to the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a branch of the United Nations.

Turkish pilots and technicians are educated and trained under the supervision and control of experts from the General Directorate of Civil Aviation and the flight-worthiness and licenses of planes are strictly monitored by officials from the Ministry of Transport, the statement said.

Turkey also obeys the Joint Aviation Rules (JAR), applied by the Joint Air Authority (JAA), an institute of the European Union related to civil aviation.