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Turkish Press Review, 96-10-11Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>CONTENTS
TURKISH PRESS REVIEWFRIDAY OCTOBER 11, 1996Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning[01] DEMIREL STRESSES IMPORTANCE OF DEMOCRACYSpeaking at an awards ceremony for successful industrialists and businessmen organized by the Balikesir Chamber of Industry, President Suleyman Demirel said that there were institutions and rules in Turkey. He stressed that the people of Turkey should maintain the present national atmosphere, where citizens could freely express their own views. He said that was the virtue of democracy. Demirel noted that Turkey was a country which applied pluralist democracy and that the existence of political parties carried importance. He said there were efforts underway to disconnect the link between political parties and economic progress. Demirel cited Italy, which he recently visited, as an example of a country that never sought alternatives- which had seen governmental changes 50 or 55 times. He said that in that country there was a belief in democracy. /All papers/[02] ERBAKAN DEFENDS HIS POLICIES ON TVPrime Minister Necmettin Erbakan yesterday defended his government's domestic and foreign policies in a televised address. Erbakan said his goverenment's efforts to forge friendly relations with its neighbours and Muslim countries were in Turkey's interests and accused the West of employing double standards in their approach to Turkey. He said that the Islamist-conservative coalition he leads had been set up in keeping with democratic traditions and stressed that its formation had ended six months of government crisis. He thanked Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller, his coalition partner and leader of the True Path Party (DYP) for "her harmonious cooperation within the government and her mature, patriotic and steadfast stance in the face of subversive attempts from some known quarters".He said contrary to accusations, he had not compromised Turkey's honour and dignity in Libya, saying that national honour was not protected by fuelling enmities but by correcting misconceptions and errors and thereby increasing support for national interests. He said that was what he had done in Tripoli. Erbakan defended his Libya visit saying that some circles who do not like Turkey improving her relations with Muslim countries, and had tried to cast a shadow over his trip. [03] LIBYA TAKES A STEP BACKThe Libyan Foreign Ministry has a sent a note to the Turkish Embassy in Tripoli saying that Libyan leader Gaddafi's recent words about Turkey had been "misunderstood." The note underlined that the Libyan leader's comments to Prime Minister Erbakan about the Kurdish situation during his visit to Libya last week, had been misconstrued and that Gaddafi himself was against all forms of terrorism.The note, couched in diplomatic terms, comfirmed that ties between Turkey and Libya had to be maintained. /All papers/ [04] COOL REPLY FROM CILLERTurkish Foreign Minister Ciller has responded coolly to a note from the Libyan Foreign Ministry claiming that leader Gaddafi's words about Turkey and the Kurds had been wrongly understood. Informed about the note by Ates Balkan, Turkish Ambassador to Tripoli, Ciller commented that Kaddafi was a "desert Bedouin." /All papers/[05] BRUSSELS EASING TOUGH STANCEThere are signs that Brussels has begun to soften its attitudes towards Turkey. Various political and economic circles have noted with some reservations that the European Union's (EU) latest report on Turkey contains indications that the EU is looking with more favour in Turkey's direction.The tone of the report appears to be more reasonable, giving hope that in the future there will be smoother dialogue between the two sides. However, despite the optimism there is the human rights issue which stills casts gloom over any progress in relations. /Milliyet/ [06] CENTRAL BANK OBJECTS TO CRITICISMThe Central Bank (CB) has objected to criticisms about the bank in the foreign press. CB president, Gazi Ercel, said in a reply yesterday that foreign reports on the bank were based on wrong or insufficient information.Bank President Ercel defended CB policy and declared that the bank was doing the best possible according to the current domestic situation, and noted the positive developments in CB related operations during the past few months. /Hurriyet/ [07] TWO GOOD IDEAS FROM GREECEIn a new move to reduce Turkey-Greece tensions, a Greek company has come up with a good proposal. The Greek Heliostat company has suggested that it could cooperate with Turkish experts to solve sewage and water purification problems in the seaside town of Cesme, not far from Izmir. Heliostat company representatives have already been in touch with Cesme town officials, who will soon go to Athens for more talks.Further, there are tentative suggestions from the Greek side that Cesme could be a sister city to Iskece. Reaction to this idea in Cesme has been positive, with Mayor Nuri Ertan saying that he was most happy with the proposal and that it would be responded to in the same friendly way that the proposal had been made. /Sabah/ [08] TOURISTS DIE IN ROAD DISASTERTen foreign tourists died yesterday when the bus they were in skidded off the road into a deep ravine during stormy weather near the seaside resort of Antalya.The mostly Dutch and German tourists were on their way from Antalya to the hot water springs of famous Pamukkale, when their intercity bus spun off a road made slippery with rain. Tourism Minister Bahattin Yucel left at once for the site of the accident when the news of the crash reached his office. Yesterday in Turkey, 35 people died in road accidents and 67 others were injured. /All papers/ [09] NEED FOR MORE DIALOGUE WITH EUAccording to the president of the Turkish Economic Development Council, Meral Gezgi Eris, there needs to be more dialogue between Turkey and the EU, and a regeneration of interest in mutual benefits.Eris said yesterday that lack of sustained dialogue had led to a loss of trust on both sides despite the efforts of some parties to keep new initiatives alive. /Cumhuriyet/ [10] FOREIGN CURRENCY CB RESERVES HIT NEW RECORDThe foreign currency reserves of the Turkish Central Bank hit a new record in the first week of this month. The foreign currency reserves of the Central Bank reached $17.332 billion on October 4, according to the figures released by the Central Bank. The figure was calculated to be slightly exceeding $17.263 billion one week before. Therefore, the foreign exchange reserves increased by $69 million in one week.On the other hand, the total reserves of Turkey, including the foreign exchange reserves, as well as the gold reserves, and the foreign exchange reserves in the portfolios of the commercial banks- rose to $27.68 billion by September 20. Meanwhile, Turkey repaid $126.5 million of its outstanding external debts, within the first week of this month. Therefore, the total repayments of foreign debt has reached a total of approximately $6.9 billion, since the beginning of this year. /Cumhuriyet/ [11] CEYHAN LINE HAS A CHANCE IN KAZAKH OILA commentary published in Azerbaijan's newspaper Azatlęk suggested that transporting Kazakh oil via the Azerbaijan-Georgia route initially would "prepare the climate" for ultimate connection with a proposed main Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. This latter route, through Turkey to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, is still under discussion. The Turkish government and Turkish companies are strongly in favour of this Baku-Ceyhan line option, which eliminates the problem of oil transport from the Black Sea via the congested Bosphorus. /Sabah/[12] "CYPRUS IS A BIG PROBLEM"Anthony Lake, President Clinton's national security adviser, said in a talk he gave at Georgetown University that he regretted the administration's inability to solve the Cyprus problem during the last four years. When asked if the Cyprus situation could be considered one of the top ten "outrages" in the world, Lake said, he did not want to "get into a contest of what are the top ten outrages in the world. But I think probably among those ten is the fact that it is now over two decades that the Cyprus dispute has not been resolved, and that UN peacekeepers are still there after all these years".Calling the furor over Kardak_Imia in January an "unnecessary dispute" Lake also criticized both Greece and Turkey for making the Cyprus issue harder to solve. Lake also added that Cyprus will continue to be among the top priority agenda items in a second Clinton administration. In a related development, the State Department announced on Wednesday that Ambassador Jim Williams, the department's special coordinator for Cyprus, will be leaving his job for a different post. "I can tell you that Ambassador Jim Williams is going to move on to other duties in the State Department after what we all believe is very distinguished service as special Cyprus coordinator" said Nicholas Burns, State Department spokesman. /Sabah/ [13] BILICAN'S STATEMENT REGARDING PKKEmergency Rule Region's Governor Necati Bilican said that 2,093 terrorists have been killed during the operations carried out in the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey since the beginning of this year. /Cumhuriyet/[14] SCHMOLD: "WE SHOULD DEVELOP OUR RELATIONS"Chairman of the German Chemistry, Paper and Ceramic Workers' Union, Hubertus Schmold stated that they supported Turkey's full membership in the European Union and said: "As workers, we must strengthen unions, develop our relations at the international level and increase cooperation". Schmold, who is in Turkey as the official guest of Lastik-Is, an affiliated organization of the Turkish Revolutionist Workers Unions' Confederation (DISK), has delivered a conference on "Recent developments in unionist acts in Germany and Europe". /Cumhuriyet/[15] UN OWES $28 MILLION TO TURKEYIt is reported that the United Nations owes $1.44 billion to 81 countries including Turkey due to UN peace force operations. The UN owes $28 million to Turkey. Countries, which have sent soldiers to UN peace force operations, pay for their own outlay and later they receive money from the UN. Turkey has sent 40 people including 30 policemen and 10 military observers to UN operations in addition to a 1,460-person military force to Bosnia. /Milliyet/[16] AUTOMOTIVE EXPORTS EXCEED $1 BILLIONTotal exports of the Turkish automotive industry during the January-September 1996 increased by 24 % and reached $1.23 billion. This figure was $825 million in the corresponding period of last year. Exports by the main sectors automotive industry increased by 41 % and reached $418 million while exports by subsidiaries increased by 14 % and reached $604 million. Bus exports soared by 98 %. /Sabah/[17] INVESTMENT CALL FROM DENKTASPresident of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Rauf Denktas, who is in Germany, has called on Turkish businessmen in Germany to invest in the TRNC. Noting that he was very proud of the success of Turkish businessmen in Europe, Denktas said that they should also invest in the TRNC especially in textiles and tourism which would highly benefit Turkish Cypriots. /Cumhuriyet/[18] DEV-SOL LEADER IN HOLLANDThe Dutch quality newspaper De Telegraaf has reported that the ringleader of the extreme leftist Turkish terror organization Dev-Sol, Dursun Karatas, was a frequent visitor to Holland. The report said that Karatas was often seen in the Limburg region visiting a young lover. It has been claimed that her house was used as a storage depot for Dev-Sol arms and ammunition. The report in De Telegraaf pointed out that Karatas is on Interpol's red bulletin list. It also said that Dutch intelligence consider Dev-Sol to be an extremely dangerous terrorist organization. /All papers/[19] INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND COOPERATION CONFERENCE IN ANTALYAThe 7th International Security and Cooperation Conference, Turkish-Atlantic Council starts today in the southern resort city of Antalya. High-ranking Turkish civilian and military officials -including Parliament Speaker Mustafa Kalemli, Defence Minister Turhan Tayan and Deputy Chief of General Staff. Gen.Cevik Bir- will join the parliament speakers of Albania and Croatia, and senior NATO figures to discuss the expansion of stability and coooperation among European security organizations. Turkey's central role under the axis of the NATO and Western European Union (WEU) security and defence identity is also expected to feature in the five-day meeting. /All papers/[20] AN OLD FRIEND DEPARTS FROM ANKARAFollowing his three-year tour of duty, Spanish Ambassador in Ankara Carlos Carderera will depart from Turkey to a new posting in Buenos Aires. Before his departure, Carderera said: "There may be some circles in Europe which want to exclude Turkey from Europe. I believe that most of the European people do not want this. I cannot imagine Turkey outside Europe". He added that Turkey's full membership in the EU would benefit Turkey's relations with the Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. /Milliyet/END Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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