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TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review (October 13, 1995)
From: hristu@arcadia.harvard.edu (Dimitrios Hristu)
Subject: TRKNWS-L Turkish Press Review (October 13, 1995)
CONTENTS
[01] GOVERNMENT PROGRAMME DEBATE TODAY
[02] OYMEN HAS CROWDED AGENDA IN WASHINGTON
[03] ANKARA POLICE THWART PKK BOMBING CAMPAIGN
[04] TURKEY SLAMS SYRIA OVER PKK ESCALATION
[05] TURKEY WITHDRAWS TEN AIRCRAFT
[06] ANKARA ACCUSES GREECE OF ISSUING THREAT
[07] TURKISH-IRANIAN SECURITY MEETINGS END
[08] CULTURAL AGREEMENT WITH BELARUS
[09] PKK MILITANTS KILLED ON MOUNT ARARAT
[10] IBRD TO LEND TURKEY $60 MILLION TO UPGRADE FISCAL SYSTEM
[11] TECHNICAL LEVEL CU LOOKS "GOOD"
[12] NO POSTPONEMENT SAYS EU
[13] TURKISH-RUSSIAN TOURISM COOPERATION
[14] ANKARA 72 YEARS AS CAPITAL
[15] GREECE EXTENDS OLIVE BRANCH
TURKISH PRESS REVIEW
OCTOBER 13, 1995
Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish
press this morning
[01] GOVERNMENT PROGRAMME DEBATE TODAY
The programme of the 51st government will be debated today in
Parliament. The minority government set up under the
direction of Prime Minister Tansu Ciller has already outlined
its programme in a more than forty page long document. Now
the party groups will take up the issues starting at midday.
Each party group will be allowed fifteen minutes to state its
case against the government. /Hurriyet/
[02] OYMEN HAS CROWDED AGENDA IN WASHINGTON
US State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns said that he
expected Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Onur Oymen to
discuss the following topics during his meetings with US
officials in Washington: Bosnia, Conventional Forces in
Europe, Turkey's involvement in Central Asia, Operation
Provide Comfort and Cyprus. "The US and Turkey have a very
strong relationship and the agenda these days is very full"
Burns said. /All papers/
[03] ANKARA POLICE THWART PKK BOMBING CAMPAIGN
Two members of the PKK terrorist organization -believed to be
a bomb squad- were caught by Ankara police anti-terrorism
teams. Police officials said that they have been following
the bomb squad for four months and that they caught the two
members, Zana Mazak and Hasan Ozgenc, in possession of 306
grams of the RDX type of explosive in the militants' house.
Officials added that the two were preparing to carry out a
bombing campaign in Ankara. It was stated that Mazak joined
the PKK in 1992 when he was a student at Diyarbakir's Dicle
University in the Southeast and he has so far participated in
eight clashes with security forces. Mazak said that he had
been trained at the Lavrion camp in Greece. Ozgenc said that
he had been active in the PKK in the Netherlands and received
a political education in Amsterdam and Denhag. /Sabah/
[04] TURKEY SLAMS SYRIA OVER PKK ESCALATION
Concerned with escalating terrorist acitivities in its
southern border areas, Turkey has once again warned Syria, and
asked Syrian authorities to take the necessary measures, the
Foreign Ministry stated yesterday. The statement said that
the Syrian Ambassador to Ankara was summoned to the Foreign
Ministry on Wednesday and the issues of terrorist infiltration
and border incidents were brought to the attention of the
Damascus government. "The PKK terror organization's Syria-
sourced activities are carefully monitored by Turkish public
opinion and our government. The strong evidence which
indicates that the leaders of the terror organization find
shelter in Syria and the territories under its control was
several times brought to the attention of Damascus" the
statement noted. It added that the incidents such as border
violations, also were brought to Syria's attention. "But, it
is observed that there has been a certain escalation of these
incidents this year. Despite our initiatives these incidents
have not decreased" the statement declared. Meanwhile, US
State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns said that Syria had
been warned over the PKK issue and pointed out that the
Damascus government's support for the PKK was unacceptable.
Burns noted that US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who
met with Syrian Foreign Minister Faruk El Sara last week had
especially taken up the PKK issue at the meeting.
/Hurriyet-Sabah/
[05] TURKEY WITHDRAWS TEN AIRCRAFT
Turkey has recalled 10 of its military aircraft, deployed in
Italy to support NATO operations to prevent flights by Serb
planes in Bosnian airspace, due to the improving situation in
war-ridden Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Foreign Ministry said in a
statement yesterday. The ministry also said Greece, which in
the past had not allowed the Turkish military aircraft to use
its airspace on their way to join the NATO force, once again
did not give permission to the planes returning home. "We
regret this Greek move which inevitably defies the credibility
of the UN and NATO (policies on Bosnia) and which undermines
solidarity within the NATO alliance" the statement added.
After the return of the 10 planes, Turkey now has eight F-16
fighter aircraft left in Italy's Ghedi air base, headquarters
of the NATO operation. A 1,500-strong Turkish battalion is
also deployed in Zenica in central Bosnia as part of a UN
peacekeeping force. /Cumhuriyet/
[06] ANKARA ACCUSES GREECE OF ISSUING THREAT
UN General Assembly has become a platform in the fighting
between Turkey and Greece which accuse each other of posing a
threat to peace across the Aegean Sea that divides the two
NATO allies. After a statement by Greek Foreign Minister
Carolas Papoulias in the General Assembly last week, Turkish
Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Tuluy Tanc said it
was Greece which threatened Turkey on the Aegean issue, rather
than vice versa. Papoulias had accused Turkey of using
threats to prevent Greece from extending its territorial
waters beyond six miles, which the Greek Minister called "a
right that is given to Greece through international
agreements". "If Greece extends its territorial waters beyond
six miles, it would have 73 % of all Aegean waters" Tanc said.
He noted that the issue was more than right of navigation, it
also involved issues such as continental shelf and flight
information regions. He said that Greece could not use
against Turkey an agreement that Turkey had not signed.
/Hurriyet/
[07] TURKISH-IRANIAN SECURITY MEETINGS END
The 12th ordinary meeting of the Turkish-Iranian Joint
Security Committee held between 7-12 October ended in Tehran
yesterday. Turkey and Iran agreed to conduct joint operations
"against terrorists" along the border between the two
countries. Turkish officials, who attended border security
talks with the Iranian side in Tehran, said that the two
countries had signed an accord to jointly fight terrorism in
coordinated operations along the border. /Cumhuriyet/
[08] CULTURAL AGREEMENT WITH BELARUS
A Cabinet decision, approving an agreement between Turkey and
Belarus regarding cooperation in education, science, culture
and sports, was published in the Official Gazette yesterday.
The aim of the agreement is to develop contacts between
television companies, radio stations, educational, cultural
and technological organizations. The agreement will be
effective for five years.
[09] PKK MILITANTS KILLED ON MOUNT ARARAT
Six militants of the PKK terrorist organization were killed
during military operations on Mount Ararat in Igdir and Agri
provinces in eastern Turkey. Three bazookas, six rockets,
three automatic rifles and many illegal documents were
confiscated.
[10] IBRD TO LEND TURKEY $60 MILLION TO UPGRADE FISCAL SYSTEM
The World Bank (IBRD) and the Turkish government have signed a
deal under which the former will lend $60 million to finance
the upgrading of the latter's public finance administration,
Turkish officials said in the US capital. Aydin Karaoz, head
of the foreign economic relations at the Treasury, said the
loan will also be used to finance the upgrading of Turkish
customs gates to European standards, a move to help ease a
proposed customs union with 15 nations of the EU. The World
Bank's board last month approved the loan to Turkey.
Meanwhile, Treasury Undersecretary Ayfer Yilmaz is scheduled
to meet World Bank (IBRD) President James Wolfensohn today. A
Turkish delegation of key economic planners has been in
Washington to attend the annual meetings of the World Bank and
its Bretton Woods twin IMF. It has been proposed at the
meeting between US Treasury Undersecretary for International
Affairs Lawrence Summers and Yilmaz that the Turkish economy
will have a closer cooperation with the IBRD for the
encouragement of foreign investments and the private sector.
Delivering a speech at the annual meetings of the IBRD and
IMF, US President Bill Clinton praised Turkey while he was
talking about the importance of aid which the International
Development Agency (IDA) connected to the IBRD extended to
poor countries. Noting that the IDA, which was set up with
the initiatives of the former US President Eisenhower, had
contributed the world economy for many years, Clinton
criticized the Republicans in the Congress for their trend to
suspend financial support for the IDA. Clinton said: "Many
people in the Congress seem to forget that countries such as
Turkey, South Korea, China and Chile, which obtain aid from
the IDA have become the most important commercial and
strategic partners of the US today". /Milliyet/
[11] TECHNICAL LEVEL CU LOOKS "GOOD"
Technical level talks in connection with Turkey's customs
union with the member countries of the European Union (EU)
will result in a positive "good" for Turkey. According to
sources in the EU, the round of technical level conference
will end with a report in favour of Turkey's membership in the
customs union. Most of the technical level preparations have
now been completed-all that is left is the legal and
democratic adjustment that Turkey itself must make.
/Cumhuriyet/
[12] NO POSTPONEMENT SAYS EU
Reports from Strasbourg yesterday suggest that European Union
(EU) leaders see no reason to delay Turkey's membership in the
customs union because of current domestic issues. In reply to
a Greek proposal that Turkey's membership should be shelved
for the time being, Spanish term president Carlos Westendorp
sharply replied that Turkey was a politically important
country for the EU. He then added that there was no reason to
delay the procedure for admitting Turkey into the customs
union. /Cumhuriyet-Sabah/
[13] TURKISH-RUSSIAN TOURISM COOPERATION
Turkey and Russia have stepped up cooperation to develop
tourism opportunities between their two countries. According
to a statement from the Turkish Union of Chambers (TOBB),
there will be a seminar on the subject in Antalya on October
17-18. It is expected that a large number of tourism
professionals and experts from both countries will attend.
/Cumhuriyet/
[14] ANKARA 72 YEARS AS CAPITAL
Ankara awoke to a gun salute this morning in celebration of 72
years as the nation's capital. During the day, political
party leaders will make speeches and there will be a walk in
which residents of the capital will participate. /Cumhuriyet/
[15] GREECE EXTENDS OLIVE BRANCH
Acting on the instructions of Greek Prime Minister Andreas
Papandreu, Greek Ambassador to Ankara Dimitris Nezeritis has
approached Foreign Ministry Advisor Inal Batu with the
proposal that "peace" talks between Greece and Turkey should
be re-opened. For some time now, there has been considerable
tension between Turkey and Greece, but there are indications
that Greek leader Papandreu has softened his stance against
dialogue with Turkey. New dialogue between Turkey and Greece
would do much to defuse regional tensions and dissolve many
critical issues. /Sabah/
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