Cyprus PIO: Turkish Press and Other Media, 02-04-03

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From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/>

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] More statements by Rauf Denktas exploiting the Palestine-Israel clash ignoring that Turkey is the occupying force in Cyprus.

[02] Nilgun Orhon to be the candidate of the "European Party" in Nicosia during the forthcoming "municipal" elections.

[03] Turkish mayors will illegally visit the occupied areas of Cyprus.

[04] KTOEOS demands "more active opposition" by CLP and RTP.

[05] NUP describes the recently established EP as "Trojan horse".

[B] COMMENTS AND EDITORIALS

[06] The foreseeable, but not preventable death of statism.

[07] Bulent Ecevit: The Jewish lobby is working in our favour.

[08] Turkish Cypriot columnist says that soon there will be no Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus,

[A] NEWS ITEMS

[01] More statements by Rauf Denktas exploiting the Palestine-Israel clash ignoring that Turkey is the occupying force in Cyprus

Denktas said recording a progress during the process of the direct talks depended on the things, which the third sides would tell the Greek Cypriots.

Pointing out that the government of the Republic of Cyprus is recognized as the only legal government of Cyprus, and that the Greek Cypriots wanted to amend the constitution and overcome the things by giving some rights to Turkish Cypriots, Denktas said: ``They want to enter the European Union (EU) as a whole, and they want to continue the uneasiness within EU saying we would not abide by the EU norms.``

Denktas alleged they wanted to prevent these and protect their rights, noting that they wanted to set up a new partnership with a lasting agreement that will not pave the way for 1963-1974 incidents.

Denktas said he was criticized as he was insistent on a lasting agreement, stressing that defending sovereignty was an indispensable principle.

Pointing out that the Greek Cypriot side criticized his attitude regarding the issue of refugees, Denktas said the Greek Cypriots wanted a very big part of territory, and the return of 100,000 refugees to their homes and properties, which they were forced to abandon in 1974 when Turkey invaded Cyprus.

Denktas said the Greek Cypriot side also wanted to change the guarantee and alliance agreement, noting that the existence of the Turkish Cypriots, their sovereignty, equality, guarantee, and the alliance agreement could not be an issue of discussion. ``Our administration in our region also can not be discussed,`` Denktas said, stressing that setting up an effective organization with the Greek Cypriots under equal conditions is the most rational way.``

Denktas went on: ``Foreign diplomats tell us to discuss the issue of sovereignty in the final part. They tell us to establish the roof at first and see the results. They did the same thing to Arafat. The result can be seen now. If a solid agreement had been made between Israel and Palestine, these would not be experienced today. We expect understanding from the Greek Cypriot side not to make Cyprus a new Israel-Palestine.``

Alleging that the Greek Cypriot side did not feel the need of setting up a new partnership with the Turkish Cypriots on Cyprus, and that the reason of this was the approach of the EU, Denktas reiterated his call on the EU to make an equal treatment to the Turkish Cypriots.

Warning the EU not to take steps that would disrupt what he calls Turkish-Greek balance in the region, Denktas said the Turkish Cypriot side would not give up its sovereignty, equality and freedom for the Greek Cypriot side to enter the EU.

Denktas said he thought progress could be recorded between the two sides till June in case a joint vision could be established between the two sides, noting that a joint vision could not be set up so far.

[02] Nilgun Orhon to be the candidate of the "European Party" in Nicosia during the forthcoming "municipal" elections

Referring to her candidature Mrs Orhon said that it must be seen as "an act against the occupation regime in the road of the struggle of the Turkish Cypriots for freedom and independence".

[03] Turkish mayors will illegally visit the occupied areas of Cyprus

The paper writes that the delegation, which will be headed by the mayor of Adana, Aytac Durak, will participate in a seminar regarding the municipal affairs. The delegation will also meet with the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktas.

[04] KTOEOS demands "more active opposition" by CLP and RTP

During a meeting yesterday with Huseyin Angolemli and Ozal Ziya, Chairman and General Secretary of the Communal Liberation Party (CLP), Ahmet Barcin, Chairman of KTOEOS, demanded more pressure to be exerted on the pseudogovernment because of the problems, which the community faces in the fields of the economy and democracy.

On CLP's behalf, Mr Angolemli assured KTOES that his party is "equally sensitive" and added that they have realized the problems and therefore recently they started searching for ways of unifying the Turkish Cypriot left.

Mr Angolemli noted also that recently some so-called "draft laws" are being sent to the pseudo-assembly, which aim at eliminating the activity of the trade unions.

[05] NJP describes the recently established EP as "Trojan horse"

[B] COMMENTS AND EDITORIALS

[06] The foreseeable, but not preventable death of statism

The Institute of State Statistics has announced the figures for the "2001 crisis."

According to the figures, Turkey has put up with the second largest shrinking of the economy since World War II, i.e. the economy shrunk in 2001 by 9.4 percent!

The level of Gross National Product (GNP) was $201.3 billion in 2000, but decreased to $148.166 billion in 2001, i.e. Turkey lost around $53 billion last year.

Agriculture shrunk by 6.1 percent, industry by 7.5 percent, construction by 5.9 percent, trade by 9.4 percent, financial institutions by 9.9 percent, etc..

Interestingly enough, house ownership has grown by 2.1 percent and state spending by 1.5 percent!

Some people were able to afford to buy new houses, and the State was still able to find money to increase its spending level, in a year when import taxes fell by 25.1 percent!

As a consequence, income-per-capita fell by 27.2 percent, shrinking by $826 dollars per person. The figure went down to $2.160/person in 2001 from the figure of $2.986/person in 2000.

Turkey is not expected to "catch" the figures of 2000 before 2004!

Turkey has clearly buried itself 4-5 years into the grave.

Why?

The simple answer is, "because there is an economic crisis !"

Then why has there been an economic crisis?

My personal answer to this question is that statism, in a coma for the last 20 years at least, finally died last year.

Let us take a look at the previous figures. Let us take the figures from 1999-2000, which I often use to verify what I mean..

1) Turkey gives agricultural subsidies at the level of $11.5 billion per year. 45 percent of the population is in agriculture, but the level of production is even lower than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries where the percentage of population in agriculture is 1.5!

Holland's total land mass is less than the Turkish city of Konya, but Holland's agricultural exports are bigger than Turkey's total exports.

A special breed of so called "Holstein" cows produce milk in Holland at the level of 7 tons/year, but one cow in Turkey produces milk at the level of 1 ton/year.

Although 45 percent of the population is in agriculture, roughly 5 percent of the agricultural enterprises own 65 percent of the land, and 60 percent of the enterprises own only 5 percent!

Thus, it is clear that with the agricultural landlords who live in big cities there is a coalition manipulating the so-called "depot of election votes", i.e. the villagers.

2) The 500-largest industrial enterprises in Turkey have increasingly made their "profits," not out of production, but out of the interests they earned from lending money to the government.

In fact, the share of "interest earnings" in their profits has risen from around 50-60 percent -- already a high percentage -- in 1995-6, by a mere 223 percent in 1999. In the same year, the share of production in the profits was -32 percent!

3)There are 2.7 million government bureaucrats and workers in the country, out of which at least one million are obsolete.

The figures for 2001 are shocking, but the symptoms of the crisis have been there since the establishment of the Republic. The cause of the crisis is merely:

The most unproductive apparatus to be used in the economic arena:

THE STATE !

[07] Bulent Ecevit: The Jewish lobby is working in our favour

"Palestine is bleeding.

We have been watching the bloodshed, things reaching this point, step by step. It was as if we have an ongoing live broadcast. Everything took place before our eyes.

I do not want to list all the developments, but here is a summary:

* Israel failed to comply with the peace process. Putting forth various kinds of arguments it refrained from giving the Palestinians their due. It kept in limbo the agreements it had signed.

* As a result, Palestinian leader Arafat initiated the Intifada, that is, an uprising. His aim was to force Israel into accepting the peace process.

* When things did not work, the United States brought together at Camp David Arafat and Barak, the Israeli prime minister at the time. Just when an agreement was about to be reached, Arafat could not take the final step. He rejected the peace offer.

* Sharon, who stepped into Barak's shoes, adopted hardline policies, speeding up the way the vicious cycle operated. The more Israel struck, the more numerous suicide bombers the Palestinians sent out. The more the suicide commandos struck, the more Israel escalated the occupation.

* Seeing this simply as a case of "fighting against terrorism" the Bush Administration watched on as the escalation took place, supporting Sharon and encouraging him.

* The Arab leaders also preferred to watch the developments from a distance. They cried out heroic slogans but did nothing else. They set a shameful example in sheep-like behaviour.

This is how we reached this point.

Is not everybody responsible to some extent? If we stopped to demand a reckoning when we take a look at the overall scene, it would be easier for us to see more clearly those who played a part in this tragedy.

Ariel Sharon is one of the main actors that caused the bloodbath in the country and in the region. His basic approach is one of beat up and humiliate the Palestinians into submission and then sit down for peace talks. To date, whenever he took a decision-making position, he caused bloodshed as a rule. He has always seen the Palestinians as a group of people that must be crushed.

Yasser Arafat has always remained as the leader of the Fatah group. He has never managed to become a statesman. He has preferred to make concessions to those factions that caused him problems within the group. Rather than taking the bold steps needed to solve the Palestine problem, he tried to preserve the status quo.

George W. Bush approached this issue as if that was a war between the Indians and the cowboys. The white men, that is, cowboys, were always right while the Indians were in the wrong regardless of what they did. He reduced this issue to a case of fighting against terrorism. His basic line is that "terrorists are doing wrong."

In this tangle, what upsets me most is the stance maintained by the "glorious" Arab countries. When they start talking they make high-sounding statements indeed. However, when the time comes to take joint action, they are nowhere to be seen.

If you asked me who betrayed the Palestinians, I would point a finger at them without any hesitation. If the rich Arabs, who spend money so lavishly, really wanted, all the Palestinian refugees would now be living in modern apartment houses. They contented themselves with giving the Palestinians just aid enough to enable them to survive to ensure that Israel would not be able to stand tall, that Israel would always be in a state of war.

The Americans know what kind of game is being played by those Arabs. This is why they are not concerned at all about the Arab reaction. The Americans remain unruffled no matter how loudly the Arab capitals cry out.

Is Turkey really a friend? Let us be frank. Turkey's stance is no better than that of the Arabs. You witness the same kind of hypocrisy in Ankara as well.

There is only one difference.

Turkey at least does not raise all that hue and cry on behalf of Palestine.

Turkey does not make high-sounding statements, and the Turkish public does not display an interest in this affair beyond a certain point. The way the Defence Industry Undersecretariat hastily signed a multi-million dollar tank modernization deal with Israel, was a typical example of this attitude.

Do you know why the agreement was signed?

According to newspaper reports, the Prime Minister said, "The Jewish lobby works in our favour!" and the military have come up with a terrific (!) argument, "The Greeks are obtaining new tanks and we are lagging behind. We would be even more tardy if we did not sign today."

To sum up, we are performing in a very poor manner.

I go mad when I see all this.

I get so angry when I hear about those trying to be heroes without doing what that entails.

What makes me grieve most, however, is the fact that people lose their lives, and the poor things will be forgotten. Only their mothers will remember them. The rest will continue to give themselves certain airs as if they are heroes".

[08] Turkish Cypriot columnist says that soon there will be no Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus

Under the title "Clerides is clever", Mr Afsaroglu alleges that the Greek Cypriot side sees that it will accede to the European Union, with or without a solution and then every single Turkish Cypriot will be able use the rights of the EU citizens having the status of a minority. "In any case, they also see that the Turkish Cypriots are being eliminated and they feel unbelievably happy about it, because they will get rid of the crazy Turks once and for all", supports Mr Afsaroglu who continues as follows: ".However, things are not like this. The stupidity of our neighbours starts at this point. They have not yet understood what Denktas is trying to do. However, Denktas made his calculations 28 years ago. And got this calculation approved by the hawks in Ankara. As if Denktas cared much about the Turkish Cypriots. For exactly 28 years Denktas repeats the same thing: 'Those who go are Turks and those who come are also Turks'.

While the number of the Turkish Cypriots is continuously decreasing in Northern Cyprus, the total population has been increasing. According to unofficial data, the total population is 350 thousand. A lot of them have not yet become citizens (translator's note: citizens of the pseudostate), but this is not important. Like it or not, their children who are borne here are regarded as citizens!

The only thing Denktas wants is for Northern Cyprus to maintain its status until Turkey accedes to the EU that is at least for another 25 - 30 years. If the existing status quo is preserved by the signing of an agreement, what a great thing it will be. If, however, they do not agree again there will be no problem. The integration policy will be continued, but the TRNC will not be annexed.

And 25-30 years later the population of the TRNC will be more than the Greek Cypriots. Meanwhile the Turkish Cypriots will be completely eliminated, but who grieves about it? Will Clerides care about the Turkish Cypriots, for whom Denktas does not care? But he must care, because then our neighbour will be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire and will be anxiously searching for a Turkish Cypriot to make an agreement with but he will not be finding one".

KV/SK

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