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Turkish Press Review, 00-07-25Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>25.07.00Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morningCONTENTS
[01] FROM THE COLUMNS... FROM THE COLUMNS... FROM THE COLUMNS[02] SEZER MARKS THE 77TH ANNIVERSARY OF LAUSANNE TREATYSpeaking on the 77th Anniversary of Lausanne Treaty, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said that Lausanne Treaty was one of the founding documents of the Turkish Republic. Stating that Lausanne Treaty consisted of the main principles of the Turkish Republic, President Sezer said that the Treaty gave the Turkish Republic the international recognition of its presence and independence. /Cumhuriyet/[03] SEZER SPEAKS ON 92ND ANNIVERSARY OF ABOLITION OF PRESS CENSORSHIPPresident Ahmet Necdet Sezer issued a message on the 92nd anniversary of the abolition of the press censorship and the Press Day. Sezer said that it impossible to talk about democracy and human rights in a state where there is no freedom of speech. Sezer said, "We have to work to maintain democracy", and added, "One of the main bases of Turkey's claim to be democratic and modern state depends on a free and well-established press". /Cumhuriyet/[04] NIGERIAN HEAD OF STATE IN ANKARANigerian Head of State and Chief Commander of Armed Forces, Olusegun Obasanjo came to Ankara yesterday for an official visit. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer hosted a dinner at Cankaya Presidential Palace on the honour of his guest. During his speech at the dinner, Sezer said that relations between Turkey and Nigeria dates back to 400 years and they had improved beginning from 1960, after the independence of the Nigeria. Stressing that it was the first visit of a head of state from Nigeria, Sezer said, "This visit will be a milestone in our relations". The Guest Head of State also emphasized that Turkey was not a country only at the intersection point of Asia and Europe, but also near Africa through the Middle East. /Turkiye/[05] ECEVIT RECEIVES DISK DELEGATIONA delegation of Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Union (DISK) visited Prime Minster Bulent Ecevit yesterday. DISK Chairman Vahdettin Karabay and a delegation from DISK Executive Council voiced their complaints on the current employment laws. Critisizing DISK's stance about the Economic and Social Council, Prime Minister Ecevit said that DISK's opposition to participation to the Economic and Social Council is nothing but a protest. Ecevit stated that he believed the solutions could be found through participatory and democratic processes. Karabay spoke to the press after the meeting and said, "The meeting was not satisfactory for us. We were punished simply because we rejected participating in the council." /Cumhuriyet/[06] DENKTAS' REPLY TO THE UNThe second stage of the third round of Cyprus proximity talks, which was given a break due to the fact that the President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Rauf Denktas, returned to the TRNC for the celebrations of 20 July, started in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday. During the first day of the talks, which started with an interdict of giving information to the press about the content of discussions, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General's Special Cyprus Envoy, Alvaro De Soto, met the Greek-Cypriot leader Glafkos Klerides and Denktas respectively. Denktas stated that whatever the result of these talks, it will be presented to the referandum in both sides. Denktas added that he had brought an article of thirthy pages as an answer to the suggestions that were presented to the parties by De Soto during the first round of proximity talks. /Milliyet/[07] YILMAZ: "DEMOCRACY IS THE MOST SUITABLE ADMINISTRATION FOR ISLAM"Head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs Mehmet Nuri Yilmaz left for Bosnia-Herzegovina to attend the "Fourth Eurasian Islamic Council Meeting". Before boarding the plane Yilmaz said that the meeting would continue until July 28 and 47 representatives from 26 countries and 10 special regions or republics were expected to attend the meeting. He emphasized that Turkey should use all its means to provide religious support to her Muslim brothers both in the Turkish Speaking Republics, the Caucasus and the Balkans. On the subject of Islam and democracy, Yilmaz said, "The best form of administration for Islam is democracy. There is no better system than democracy." /Turkiye/[08] YOK TENSION CONTINUESHead of Higher Education Board (YOK) Kemal Guruz returned the canditate list of rectors without any changes to President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Prof. Guzin Gokmen and Prof. Dr. Orhan Uslu who were included in the candidate list by YOK in spite of the fact that both had taken one vote conveyed their withdrawal decision to the President. Uslu said that they believe that their withdrawal would end the tension between YOK and the President. He added, "Our withdrawal doesn't mean that the wrong practices within the system has ended. Main problem is the system itself." As President Sezer refused to meet Head of YOK Kemal Guruz, the tension continues. YOK's General Council will hold another election in accordance with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's wishes. /Cumhuriyet/[09] GENERAL KIVRIKOGLU'S STATEMENTChief of the General Staff, General Huseyin Kivrikoglu, supported the suggestion that the National Security Council (MGK) should be enlarged with civilian members and said, "It is not a problem for me even if there are a hundred civilian members". Kivrikoglu answered the questions of 'Milliyet' daily before the banquet at Cankaya Presidential Palace in the honor of the Nigerian President Olesegun Obasonjo and said, "They can increase the number of the civilian members in the MGK as much as they can. They asked my opinion on the issue, and I said that it was not a problem for me. In fact, the decisions are taken not by vote at the MGK. Everyone says his opinion and the President summarizes them and, thus, is reached a consensus. I have attended 34 MGK meetings before and have not faced any problems. To sum up, I believe that this time the MGK will reach a consensus on the issue again". /Milliyet/[10] DEATH PENALTY FOR CAGRICIOne of the suspects in the murder of Cetin Emec, Turan Dursun and Iranian Ali Akbar Gorbani, Irfan Cagrici, a member of the illegal Islamic Movement Organization, was sentenced to death. Four other suspects, Ekrem Baytap, Mehmet Ali Seker, Cengiz Sarikaya and Tamer Arslan, among 41, were sentenced to life imprisonment during the trial held yesterday in Istanbul State Security Court. /Turkiye/[11] DECISION ON THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT TO BE GIVEN TODAYPrime Minister Bulent Ecevit stated that the nuclear power plant bidding will be discussed during the meeting of the Council of Ministers today. /Aksam/[12] KIZILAY AND THE US RED CROSSChairman of the American Red Cross, Dr. Bernadine Healy, who arrived in Turkey as the guest of the Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay), said, "There are too many things to be shared between Kizilay and the American Red Cross. I appreciate Kizilay as it is an institution that takes lessons from the bad situations". Healey also described Great Ataturk as a person who dedicated himself to improving evertything. Healey also met the Deputy Prime Minister Husamettin Ozkan. /Aksam/[13] GAP PROJECT TO RECEIVE AWARD OF MILLENIUMInternational Water Resources Association (IWRA) deemed the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) to be worthy of the Award of Millenium, which is decided to be given this year. Chairman of IWRA, Benedito Braga, sent a letter to the Chairman of the Administration of GAP, Olcay Unver, and stated that GAP was worthy of this award. This award will be given to Olcay Unver during the "Water Symposium" that will be organized in Stockholm on 17 August. /Star/[14] TANK PROJECTAfter the election of the firm for the production of 145 attack helicopters to strengthen the logistic structure of the Turkish Armed Forces, attentions were drawn to the 1000-tank joint supply project. Firing tests of the tanks, proposed by five firms to the Defense Industry Undersecretariat (DIU), will be completed on July 28. Test results will be presented to the DIU Execution Committee. In addition to the test results, Turkey's share in the production and proposals of the firms about the subject will be effective in the election of the licence. /Turkiye/[15] AMBULANCE-HELICOPTERSThe Ministry of Health completed its work to start "ambulance-helicopter" implementation which came to agenda especially after Aug. 17 earthquake. The Ministry has divided Turkey in 15 centers to deploy ambulance-helicopters and a tender will be opened for the purchase of 10 ambulances for the first five pilot centers. Helicopter-ambulances will be used especially on critical points on highways where traffic accidents occur frequently. /Turkiye/[16] IMF ANNOUNCES THE "FINANCIAL TRANSPERANCY REPORT"International Monetary Fund (IMF) published the "Financial Transperancy Report" concerning Turkey for the first time. In this report, it was suggested that Turkey should reorganize its budget a more comprehensively and added, "Turkey had taken many steps in order to give is public finance a transparent structure. However, there are still many aspects lacking concerning this issue. These shortcomings in the budget arrangement come from budget preparation stages." In this report, it was further stated that the problems concerning the budget classification, accountancy systems and the budget procedure should be solved as soon as possible. /Star/[17] WALL STREET JOURNAL'S ARTICLE ABOUT TURKEYIn an article in the "Wall Street Journal", which is the American finance circles' newspaper, the activities of the European, American and the Japanese companies in Turkey were mentioned. In this article, in which Turkey was described as the "New Mexico of the US", the following was written: "Siemens and Philips began to use Turkey as the 'centre of export'; Renault Turkey will begin to produce 100,000 engines for the French and Spanish markets; Italian Fiat Company will invest 184 million US dollars in a facility that envisages an export of 85,000 automobiles annualy; Japanese Toyota and Mitsui Companies will export 100,000 automobiles that they produce to the European and the Middle East countries; Daimler-Chrysler Company will produce some of the buses and lorries, which will be exported to Europe, in Turkey; Mercedes Company is producing its symbol, that is, a star with three legs, in Turkey; Ford Company will produce 150,000 vehicles in Turkey in 2003 and will export 66% of them. /Aksam/[18] MOODY'S TO INCREASE TURKEY'S CREDIT RATINGOne of the international rating companies, Moody's, began to observe Turkey closely for a possible increase in its long-term barrowing and the maximum bank deposit, which is B1 and B2. In a statement issued by Moody's, it was stated that as a result of this, the bonds and papers that were exported by the Republic of Turkey began to be observed, too. Moody's stated that they had taken this decision after the structural reforms within the framework of the stability programme that was supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the improvement in the area of financial harmonization. /Milliyet/[19] IMPROVEMENT IN KOCAELI INDUSTRYCapacity usage of industrial companies in Kocaeli, where there was a huge amount of damage due to the earthquake in August 1999, has reached to the levels before the earthquake. Secretary General of Kocaeli Industrial Chamber (KIC) Hamdi Dogan said that 73 percent of capacity usage ratio had decreased to 32 percent in the companies suffering damages due to the earthquake. Today in those companies whose scope of production comprise chemical and petrochemical materials, iron and steel, metal goods and electrical apparatus, there is a 75 percent capacity usage. The total material loss of these companies was calculated $3.5 billion and according to the pool prepared by KIC, only 65 out of 87 affected firms which answered the pool had the insurance for their losses. However only 36 companies could get money totalling $115 million from their insurance companies. /Sabah/[20] BOOM IN TEXTILE INDUSTRYTurkish textile and ready to-wear companies receive huge amount of offers from foreign companies. In the sector, there are news about international commercial agreements and it was said that US quotas on Turkish textiles are about to be filled. Chairman of Turkish Cloth Industry Association Gungor Kesci said that exports in ready to-wear industry has increased 3.3 percent in the first half of the year. Kesci added that in June exports increased 13 percent and a 13-14 percent increase is expected in July. "If we could use all the quotas we would export $1.5 billion worth of textiles. /Sabah/[21] SHORTAGE IN ENERGY SECTORMinistry of Energy declared that energy demand increased 10 percent in the first half of the year and if the demand goes on, there will be a shortage of 7.5 billion kws comprising 20 percent of 45 billion kws total energy generated. In order to meet the increasing demand, an agreement was signed with Bulgarian authorities. Chairman of Bulgarian Energy Agency Ivan Silyaski announced that a new eletricity connector line, 400 kilovolt in power, will be built between the two countries. /Sabah/[22] UGUR BAYAR: 2 BILLION DOLLARS OF PRIVATIZATIONChairman of Privatization Administration U?ur Bayar, said that during the first six months of the year they reached the targets to the year 2000 privatization programme and the commitments made to the IMF; but they did not consider the level reached as satisfactory.He said: "Until the year ends, we must complete about $2 billions of privatization auctions. We have just begun to work for the privatization. Especially the year 2001 is expected to be as fully engaged and successful as the year 2000. One of the main pillars of the program to fight against inflation is privatization, which is also very important in view of the re-definition of the role of State in economic activities, improvement in public finance, decreasing the charge of internal debts"./Sabah/ [23] VAKIFBANK WILL BE PRIVATIZED IN OCTOBERMinister of State responsible for privatization, Yuksel Yalova said that according to the authority decree taken before the summer recess for TGNA began,a decree in the force of law which allows Vakifbank shares to be offered to public was prepared and opened to signature by the Council of Ministers.Minister Yalova added that they planned the procedures of the public offer of %20 of the capital of Vakyfbank to be completed by October, of which they expect $500-800 million from the privatization./Sabah/ [24] ISBANK LOOKING FOR FOREIGN LOANIs Bank gave authority to 22 banks so that they can arrange a syndication loan amounting to $ 200 million. Among these 22 banks, which will arrange this loan for the financing of exports, are Bank of New York, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Barclays Capital, Chase Manhattan and Citibank. /Milliyet/[25] LOAN TO BE EXTENDED TO THE EARTHQUAKE VICTIM INDUSTRIALISTSVakiflar Bank's General Director to the Project Loans, Nese Aslan Kayacan, stated that the 150 million euros of the loan amounting to 600 million euros, received from the European Investment Bank, will be extended to the industrialists, who suffered damages in the earthquake. /Milliyet/[26] TUBITAK SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS TO BE ANNOUNCEDThe winners of Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Institution (TUBITAK) Science, Service and Encouragement Awards were announced. Prof. Emel Arinc was given the Main Sciences Award, Prof. Erhan Piskin took the Engineering Award and the Medical Sciences Award went to Prof. Gazi Yasargil. Head of TUBITAK Prof. Namik Kemal Pak said, "These awards are a token of thanks to those who devoted their lives to improving Turkey's position in the scientific community". Emphasizing the defining role of the science and technology in people's daily lives and in the economy, Professor Pak stated that science and educational faculties and knowledge in Turkey had developed greatly but had not been readily accepted by people. /Hurriyet/[27] NEW HOPE FOR SALVATION OF ZEUGMATurkish Touristic Enterprises Association and Turkish Travel Agencies Association (TURSAB) are combining forces on a joint project "Zeugma Initiative" to salvage historical remains. The project will welcome every individual and institution in Turkey and abroad. /Sabah/[28] FROM THE COLUMNS... FROM THE COLUMNS... FROM THE COLUMNS[29] PHANTASIES OF YEREVAN BY SEMIH IDIZ (STAR)Columnist Semih Idiz writes on the dreams of Yerevan concerning the Treaty of Sevres. A summary of his column is as follows:"Yerevan which has surrendered itself to the hands of Dashnaks settled in the US, seems to have taken another decision directed to burning all its bridges with Turkey. The Government led by Andranik Markarian is preparing to celebrate 80th anniversary of the Treaty of Sevres as if to approve the impossible. Armenian Government Information and Public Relations Department which issued a press release concerning the issue, stated that Prime Minister Markarian also sent an instruction to Yerevan Municipality to name one of the streets of the capital after one of the US Presidents Woodrow Wilson. With this instruction, Prime Minister Markarian has given a message to the Dashnak supporters in the US. During the First World War, Wilson plans for the post-war era envisaged the establishment of an independent Armenia covering a wide area of Eastern Anatolia. This, in turn became the basis for the Treaty of Sevres which was the spark igniting Turkey's War of Independence. However, in the words of politician attending the negotiations at Sevres, a suburb near Paris and famous for its crystals, the treaty was more fragile than Sevres crystals. Therefore, it was still-born and could never be implemented. According to many historians, the borders drawn up at Sevres were completely arbitrary and it would prepare the grounds for a conflict which would go on for years between the Kurds and the Armenians. Many historians believe that it was one of the main reasons why countries like France which had fought against Turks during the First World War signed agreements with them. In order to hold the territory they had gained at the division of the Ottoman Empire a a stable Anatolia was necessary. This in turn, necessitated support for Turks who were the main factor in the region. However, there is another point on which all Western historians agree and that is the Treaty of Sevres was still-born. The question may well be asked why such a treaty had to be made. The answer to it lies in the fact that great powers using Armenians for their own purposes during the First World War had to clear their conscience. In short, if the Treaty of Sevres, which some insist on keeping alive, represents a groundless fear, in Armenia dreams of many concerning the Sevres Treaty cannot be anything but fantasies. Notwithstanding the fact, a group of Armenian academicians who launched an initiative by Prime Minister Markarian stated in the letter they sent to the Government on the issue that they fervently believed in taking steps to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Treaty of Sevres throughout the country.'In addition to its historical importance, we believe that the Treaty has a political importance which would strengthen the international arguments of our country.' The Markarian Government not only appproved of this decision but also decided to commemorate the anniversary of the Treaty, asked the Yerevan Municipality to name a street of the capital after one of the former US Presidents Woodrow Wilson, and called on the Armenian National Sciences Academy to hold an academic conference on the issue. As can be recalled, the Treaty of Sevres was signed by the Ottoman Government in addition to France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Czechoslovakia after negotiations. It is a matter of curiosity whether independent academicians from these countries will be invited to this conference. It will be very interesting for the Armenians to see the papers they will submit. They will have to face a picture where they are deserted after being exploited. The Western countries who shed crocodile's tears for Armenians did not blink an eye during the negotiations in Lausanne when they were faced with realities. Unfortunately, the Armenians who still live in the past insist on not seeing the facts." Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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