TRKNWS-L Turkish Daily News (April 15, 1996)

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

Turkish News Directory

CONTENTS

TURKISH DAILY NEWS / 15 April 1996

[01] Armenia signals its desire for better ties with Turkey

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- In response to a message of President Suleyman Demirel to Yerevan, his Armenian counterpart Levon Ter-Petrossian sent his envoy to Ankara over the weekend to underline Armenia's desire to mend fences with Turkey.

Jirair Libaridian, the adviser of the Armenian president, said that Armenia would be happy with "any step that would improve the relations between Turkey and Armenia." But a basic difference of point of view remains between Ankara and Yerevan on how the relations can be improved. While Armenia says that bilateral relations with Turkey must not be under the influence of "third-party issues," Ankara, which has historical and cultural links with Azerbaijan, maintains that any significant improvement in bilateral ties may occur after Armenia withdraws from Azeri territory, one-eighth of which it has occupied.

Ankara has seen prospects of improvement in the Azeri-Armenian conflict as both sides, under the auspices of the United States and Russia, work on a "Declaration of Principles" that would be the framework agreement of peace.

Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz declared last month that Turkey would open its Alican border post with Armenia after the two sides agreed on a declaration of principles. After three years of closed-border policy to Armenia, Ankara opened its airspace to flights to and from this country last year, but this did not give the necessary push to the peace process as Ankara intended.

President Suleyman Demirel, who visited the United States just after Yilmaz's declaration, reiterated this in Washington and stressed that Armenia had to withdraw from the Azeri territory it had occupied and enable the displaced Azeris to return to their homeland.

But Libaridian, in an interview with daily Milliyet, suggested that Turkey's linkage of two issues -- the opening of the Alican border gate and an agreement on declaration of principles -- may backfire.

"Given the emotional attitude of Baku to the maintenance of the embargo, the link between improvement of Turco-Armenian relations and the solution to the Karabakh conflict may make Baku more reluctant to take steps toward a solution," Libaridian said.

He described Turkey's attitude in the last few months toward Armenia as "constructive." Turkey has changed its attitude of unconditional support to Azerbaijan, Libaridian said, adding Turkey's "objective assessment of the situation" helped the peace process.

But he also indicated to Milliyet that the declaration may not be agreed upon by mid-April as Ankara had hoped because the status of Karabakh continued to be the stumbling block.

Despite its adoption of a softer tone, Ankara remains committed to the idea of "maintenance of Azeri sovereignty and territorial integrity." Turkish diplomats say that the requests by the Karabakh Armenians extend well beyond "maximal autonomy," which is as far as Azerbaijan will go in the declaration.

The issues of the Karabakh conflict and Turco-Armenian rapprochement are expected to be taken up in detail during Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz's visit to Baku which started on Sunday.

[02] 'Mad Cow' craze grips Turkey

ANKARA- The "Mad Cow" disease in Turkey did not stop at causing a loss of revenues for red-meat restaurants, it also caused a TV producer to quit his job.

"Mad Cow" disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is thought to have been passed to cattle through feed containing the remains of sheep suffering from a similar brain disease.

The scare began after Britain said scientists had found a likely link between BSE and a new strain of its lethal human equivalent, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome (CJS).

Reports that Turkey imported some British beef created a panic in the Turkish public, who, only 10 years ago, did not hesitate to consume contaminated tea after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Turkish restaurants, particularly those whose menu mainly consist of red meat, have suffered a 20 percent drop in customers, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The same restaurant owners said the demand for poultry and fish had increased. Making use of this trend, the price of poultry has risen at least three times in the last month.

"Their meat has turned sour," an ad given by a Turkish meatball restaurant chain, called Sultanahmet Koftecisi, advertised for its "pure Turkish meat" products.

But a more unusual consequence of the "Mad Cow" disease was seen on a program on private TV channel Atv. Presenter Okan Bayulgen had aimed to have a cow on his program "Child of Television" but the administrators of the Atv building would not allow the cow to enter the studio. Bayulgen and the show's producer Safak Bakkalbasioglu were told by the Atv to go on with the show despite the cow.

Saying the order to go on without the cow was irreconcilable with professionalism, Bayulgen and Bakkalbasioglu resigned.

[03] Turkey, Israel and the Arabs

Turkey is a country, like Israel, which is a victim of terrorism. Thus when Israel launched an effort to hit terrorism at the source many Turkish newspapers united in applauding the raids on Hizbollah bases in Lebanon...

Israel cornered Yasser Arafat when it pushed him into "dealing" with Hamas and its suicide bombers. Now the Jewish state is trying to force Lebanon to deal with Hizbollah, which has launched rocket attacks into northern Israel. This may prove a "mission impossible" in view of the fact that Lebanon is a sovereign state only in appearance but in the literal sense this unfortunate country is being held hostage by several extremist groups as well as by Syria, not to mention Israel's occupation of the southern regions of this country...

Turkey, on the other hand is applauding every move that deals a blow to terrorists. The fact that the PKK terrorist group receives shelter both in Damascus and the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and that its leader Abdullah Ocalan "receives" guests in both locations is a matter of deep dissatisfaction for Turkey and a sticking point in our relations with Syria. Many Turks feel Turkey should follow Israel's example and knock out the terrorists in their shelters... That is why there seems to be deep sympathy for Israel's latest raids against Hizbollah.

However, we feel Israel should not carry its attacks too far and should not target innocent civilians like in the incident on Saturday where an Israeli helicopter gun ship bombed an ambulance in Lebanon killing four children and two women...

This is where Turkey's dilemma begins. While voicing its understanding of the Israeli raids, Turks feel the attacks should not be indiscriminate. Besides this Turkey is also concerned that the raids may be used by the enemies of the Middle East peace process to drum up anti-Israeli sentiment across the Middle East. That in return would halt the peace process in its tracks which is one thing Turkey does not want.

Besides all this, Turkey is also trying to come to grips with the deep concerns being voiced by Arab countries over its growing ties with Israel. The recent military agreement between Turkey and the Jewish state has created some resentment among Arab countries and it was surprising that it was Egypt, which has similar agreements with Israel, which raised most of the objections, claiming this would wreck the balances of power in the region...

What the Arabs seem to forget is the deep resentment in Turkey both at the government level and among the public about the lack of understanding and support shown by many Arab countries to Turkey's security needs.

Turks still remember how the Arabs rallied to support Syria over a rather artificial water controversy. Turks also remember the inactivity and at times the negative attitude of the Arab countries regarding the plight of Muslim Turkish Cypriots...

The fact that Syria uses the terrorist card against Turkey while all other Arab countries remain silent has not escaped Turkish public attention either.

All in all the Arabs should realize that Turkey, as a regional economic, political and military power, has to take care of its own interests. Whether these interests converge with those of our Arab brothers depends on them as much as us...

Maybe Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Musa should keep this in mind as he flies to Turkey for a quick visit on Tuesday...

[04] Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz visits Azerbaijan

Turkish Daily News

ANKARA- Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz on Sunday sought closer economic ties between Turkey and Azerbaijan as well as "sacrifices" for the settlement of its ethnic conflict with Armenia at the start of an official visit to the oil-rich Caucasus state. Speaking before official talks with President Haydar Aliyev, Yilmaz paid tribute to Azerbaijan's progress in democracy highlighted by its first free parliamentary elections. He said Azerbaijan's current economic difficulties stemmed from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which has resulted in Armenian occupation of a fifth of its territory. Stressing Turkey's efforts towards a peaceful settlement, Yilmaz said, however, "that peace might require certain sacrifices, which, can be speedily recouped once the economic development takes off."

Yilmaz said despite the close relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan, they lagged behind the actual potential. "Azerbaijan should not be content with oil deals and pipeline projects alone. It should attach equal importance to development in every area, and here, Turkey is open to every form of cooperation," Yilmaz said, calling for Azerbaijan's support to small and medium-scale Turkish projects. Aliyev said Azerbaijan was ready to recognize widest possible autonomy to the Nagorno Karabakh Armenians on the basis of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. But for that, he said Armenia should first end its occupation of Azerbaijani territory. "We are ready for negotiations within this framework and on this, Turkey is our greatest insurance and support," Aliyev added. Yilmaz's visit takes place against a backdrop of increased international efforts for the settlement of the ethnic war over the mainly-Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh which caused Armenian occupation of a fifth of Azerbaijan's territory and left 1.5 million Azerbaijanis homeless. Despite the Western mediation, through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the sides have not been able to resolve their differences to allow a "declaration of principles."

Ankara has made it clear to Yerevan that a fair settlement would pave the way for closer relations between Turkey and Armenia, starting with the lifting of the current embargo and the opening of a customs point on the border. In his pre-departure statement, Yilmaz underlined the importance his government attaches to Turkey having a stake in the pipelines projects to carry oil from the Caspian fields to be developed by a Western consortium. Turkey is competing with Russia to have the pipeline cross its territory in order to gain added political influence in the region besides royalties from the transported oil. In order to keep alive the hopes for the Baku-Ceyhan line, Turkey has backed a Georgian project for a pipeline link from Baku to the Black Sea port of Soupsa, to draw at least part of the oil from an existing pipeline to the Russian port of Novorissisk. Ankara has also elicited the support of the United States for the Turkey route for the Azeri oil. But for early oil, at least, recent reports said Georgians were not favorable to the Turkish terms for the early-oil link. In symbolic tribute to the developing economic cooperation, Yilmaz will attend a ceremony Monday for the inauguration of a bank set up by a Turkish businessman. Baybank, to be the first bank in Azerbaijan with totally foreign capital, is to be operated by Turkey's Bayraktar Holding Co., which is also engaged in housing, construction and Agro-industry projects in Baku. In a statement to Turkey's Anatolia news agency, Huseyin Bayraktar, president of the industrial group, disclosed another agreement for the revitalization of a dormant automotive factory in Baku for the production of small buses and said a deal had been signed already with the Baku municipality for the sale of 350 buses. Koc Holding, Turkey's leading industrial group, is also finalizing preparations to open a supermarket in Baku, while other private sector firms have invested in the oil industry in Azerbaijan.

Despite the multiplying number of realized projects, mutual grievances impede cooperation on a much broader scale. Baku officials lament that the Turkish private sector does not invest in Azerbaijan as energetically as it does in other Turkic republics in Asia, and even in Russia. Turkish officials, meanwhile have been critical of Baku's performance in paying back Eximbank loans and Turkish businessmen have been objecting to the bureaucratic impediments for investments as well as the rigid visa regulations for travel.

[05] White House on Kardak: Hague is not only solution

Turkish Daily News

WASHINGTON- A White House official told TDN on Friday that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is not the only venue where the Turkish-Greek dispute over the Kardak islet can be resolved. "The ICJ is standing by ... is readily available for that," said David Johnson, deputy spokesman for White House. "But," he added, "other states in other times when they were challenged ... submitted issues like that for a decision to individuals or bodies other than the ICJ."

"And we certainly don't want to foreclose that being an option in this case either," Johnson said.

Turkish-Israeli agreement

When TDN asked Johnson his evaluation of the joint military training agreement signed on Feb. 23 between Turkey and Israel, he said he was not aware that such an agreement existed. He said he had no information about the talks between Greece and Syria to deploy Greek fighter jets on Syrian territory either. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns, on the other hand, said the United States was not in a position to criticize the Turkish-Israeli agreement, like Egypt and Iran did.

Spirit of the times

"I would just note that Turkey and Israel are independent countries," Burns said on Friday. "Turkey in its relationship with Israel ... is obviously consistent with the international spirit of the times, and that is that Israel is beginning to develop its relationships with countries, not only in the Middle East, Arab countries in the Middle East, but other countries.

It's certainly not inconsistent in that sense to see Turkey and Israel develop relationships that they both deem to be in their mutual interest."

"We are in no position to criticize this type of relationship," Burns concluded.

Super Cobras

When TDN asked David Johnson why there was no progress on the sale of Super Cobra helicopters to Turkey, he suggested to "concentrate on the positive," and mentioned the approved transfer of three frigates to Turkey. But he confirmed that the sale of ten Super Cobras was a matter still "very much under consideration," as President Clinton told President Demirel a short while ago. Human rights and arms control groups, and certain ethnic lobbies, alleging that the helicopters would be used against Kurdish civilians by Turkish security forces, launched a campaign against the sale.

Competition

TDN reminded Johnson that Turkey, frustrated with the lack of a "notification" notice from the State Department to the U.S. Congress, was already shopping for French and Russian helicopters. "We're aware that there are other competitors," Johnson said.

"We are also aware that they are the finest helicopters flying," he added.