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Turkish Press Review, 97-08-15Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>CONTENTS
TURKISH PRESS REVIEWAUGUST 15, 1997Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning.[01] TALABANI ASSURES ANKARA ON PKKDuring wide-range talks in Ankara, Jalal Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), assured Turkey of his group's cooperation in the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).Talabani was received by Foreign Minister Ismail Cem before having lunch with Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry Onur Oymen. Briefing reporters on the foreign ministerial meeting with Talabani, Oymen said that it had been fruitful, and cited Talabani's remarks about his commitment to Turkey's struggle against the PKK. There is consensus between Turkey and the PUK against allowing northern Iraq to turn into a "terror base", Oymen told reporters. /Cumhuriyet/All papers_ [02] 27 SEPARATISTS KILLED IN THE SOUTHEASTSecurity forces killed 27 separatists from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in an operation in Sirnak province near the village of Beytulsebap in southeast, the Anatolia news agency reported. The Emergency Rule Governor's Office said that during the operations, one soldier from the security forces was killed in the line of duty while another six were injured. Meanwhile, one terrorist was captured in Batman and three others surrendered to the security forces. /Sabah/[03] RUSSIAN EXTREMISTS HOLD DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST TURKEYA group supporting the extreme nationalist Russian Liberal Democratic Party headed by Viladimir Jirinivski held a demonstration in front of the Turkish Embassy in Moscow, hindering the routine functioning of the embassy. The Anatolia news agency said in its report that this was the fourth demonstration in the last four weeks and the demonstrations are being carried out with the knowledge of the Russian authorities.[04] IRAQ STARTS PUMPING OIL TRHOUGH PIPELINEIraq resumed pumping oil through the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan early on Thursday, an Iraqi oil ministry source said. "Today oil pumping from Kirkuk (in northern Iraq) to the Turkish port of Ceyhan has started," the source said.An official at the state pipeline company Botas said that the first tanker began loading from Ceyhan at 21:00 GMT on Wednesday and the work would take 39 hours. He added that the destination of the oil was destined for the United States. /Milliyet/ [05] PARLIAMENT APPROVES 'PARTIAL PRESS AMNESTY'Parliament on Thursday approved the bill granting 'partial amnesty' for press members currently serving prison sentence. The bill grants conditional amnesty only for newspaper editors who have been charged or convicted for publishing material containing criminal elements, by suspending their sentence for three years.The Chairman of the Turkish Press Council, Oktay Eksi thanked all political parties and parliamentarians who were instrumental in having the Press Amnesty Law, passed. [06] TURKEY-WB-IMF MEETINGSA high ranking economic delegation from Turkey is expected to participate in Autumun meetings of World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that will be held in Hong Kong by the end of September, the Anatolia news agency reported.State Minister Gunes Taner, Isin Celebi, Undersecretary of Treasury Mahfi Egilmez, Director of Central bank Gazi Ercel, Undersecretary of State Planning Organization (DPT) Orhan Guvenen and other high ranking officials will attend the yearly meeting of IMF-WB. [07] "IMMUNITIES OF PARLIAMENTARIANS AND MINISTERS WILL BE LIMITED"Council of Ministers reached a consensus of opinion concerning limitation of legislation immunities of parliamentarians, ministers and prime ministers, reported the Anatolia news agency on Wednesday.Adressing a press briefing, State Minister and Government Spokesman Ahat Andican said that Justice Minister Oltan Sungurlu informed the Council of Ministers about the constitutional changes which are at the agenda of the parliament. Recalling that a change in Article 83 of the Constitution is in question concerning the limitation of immunities of parliamentarians, Andican stressed that the Council of Ministers agree that the immunities of parliamentarians can also be valid for ministers and prime ministers in a similar way.He added that the draft law would be discussed in the Parliament within this week. [08] HISTORY ATTRACTS TOURISTSThe popular historical sites in Antalya continue to attract many tourists. The total number of tourists who visited the museums and ancient ruins in Antalya totalled 1,581,672 comprising 1,145,231 foreigners and 436,441 native tourists. An income of TL 316 billion has been gained from tourists. Officials said that Aspendos Theatre attracts the highest number of tourists. Alanya castle is another popular historical site.On the other hand, TURSAB Chairman Talha Camas told the Anatolia news agency that all reservations were fully booked until the end of October. The only problem the tourist industry was suffering from at the moment was under capacity. The Tourism Ministry announced that the July tourist figures were at an all-time high with 1.2 million foreign tourists coming to Turkey's sunny shores, an increase of 10 percent over last July. German tourists are still the largest group to visit with 287,335 coming in July. The Commonwealth of Independent states was next on the list followed by the UK, the Netherlands, Austria, the United States, France, Iran, Denmark, Romania and Isreal. /Hurriyet/ [09] YAPI KREDI SIGNS $ 150 MILLION EURODOLLAR BONDOne of the country's largets private and retail banks, Yapi Kredi, completed on Thursday its five-year $ 150 million debut Eurobond issue via lead manager United bank of Switzerland (UBS). The Eurodollar issue is a debut transaction for Yapi Kredi Bank in the international markets and the first U.S. dollar non-soveriegn Turkish issue in the U.S. dollar Eurobond markets. /Sabah/[10] INTERNATIONAL IZMIR FAIR OPENED ON 26 AUGUSTThe International Izmir Fair will be opened on 26 August. Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Erkan Sahtiyanci said that the fair would stay open till 10 September and added that Palestine, Japan, Nigeria, Vietnam, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Morroco, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Romania, Macedonia, Kazakhistan and 21 other countries would participate in the fair. /Sabah/[11] $ 100 MILLION FOR FORESTSThe World Bank will donate "forestry credit" to Turkey. The $ 100 million credit will be given to use in forestry. The Forestry Ministry officials said that the credit would be given by the end of 1997.Meanwhile, the forest fire in the province of Semdinli in the Southeast continues to burn out of control. Rough and inaccessible terrain has made controlling the fire difficult. The latest estimates revealed that so far six hundered hectares of oak forest have been destroyed the fire. President Suleyman Demirel visited Marmaris yesterday to investigate the forest fires in the region. Forestry Minister Ersin Taranoglu has prepared a report on the fire to submit to President Suleyman Demirel. Officials are currently investigating the cause for the fire. The Governor of Marmaris, Fikret Deniz, said that three boats, which were in the inlet of Tuzla close to where the fires began, were located. Suspecting arson, the officials questioned the crew and owner of the boat. A search is still underway for the two remaining boats. /Milliyet/Sabah_ [12] SECURITY TIGHTENED AGAINST PKK ATTACKS TO COINCIDE WITH AUGUST 15Abdulkadir sari, Governor of the Emergency Rule region (OHAL), said that security has been tightened in the southeast region of Turkey to coincide with August 15, the date on which the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) launched its first terrorist action in 1984. Empahsizing that the separatists are unable to take action because of the successful measures taken by security forces, Sari said, and added that the most common activity of the separatists nowadays was looting villages. /Cumhuriyet/[13] SHORT AND LONG-TERM TRANSACTIONS BEGINThe "Short and Long-Term Transactions Market of the Istanbul Gold Exchange", which is Turkey's first short and long-term transactions market, will be opened today. The Short and Long-Term Transactions Market will extend contemporary services to various sector's inclusive of jewelers, the Turkish financial market, institutional and small-scale investors. General Secretary of the Istanbul Gold Exchange, Rasim Kaan Aytogu, said in a statement that up to date, transactions for 437,387 kgs of gold have been made worth $5.2 billion. Aytogu stated that short and long-term markets had important advantages compared to spot markets such as lower transactions cost and high liquidity. He pointed out that short and long-term transactions market based on gold would be a new financial centre in the world after the big markets in Newyork (Nymex) and Tokyo (TOCOM). /Sabah/[14] SYRIA IS AFRAIDThe military cooperation between Turkey and Israel is being interpreted as a threat to their own security by the other states of the Middle East. Syria, in particular, expresses the view that the alliance is directed against them. An article in the Wall Street journal has the following: Syrian Head of State Hafiz Esad is bent on implementing various strategies to prevent Israel from entering into good relations with the oil-rich countries in the area. Esad is also undertaking plans to have Turkey come to its assistance in the event of a possible war with Israel. The article stated that Syria is establishing alliances with her eastern neighbours. /Sabah/[15] FIRST ROUND IS OVERThe complete draft covering eight-year uninterrupted compulsory education was accepted by vote of 273 for and 238 against in Parliament yesterday. 17 deputies of the True Path Party (DYP) did not attend the voting. /Hurriyet/[16] MEASURES AGAINST MONEY LAUNDERINGThe Central Bank has taken additional measures for the prevention of money laundering and these were published in the Official Gazette dated August 14, 1997. /Hurriyet/[17] FRIGATES TO BE DELIVERED TO TURKEYThe delivery to Turkey by the US of three frigates which had been postponed due to the Kardak crisis will be now affected within the month of March. The frigates presently are stationed at the Philadephia Naval Base where Turkish naval personnel is undergoing training. /Hurriyet/END Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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