Date: Tue, 19 Oct 93 21:48:21 EDT Subject: News (in ENGLISH)- Tue, 19 Oct 1993 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa). Athens News Agency bulletin, October 19, 1993 Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - The government yesterday flatly rejected Turkish press reports of alleged "secret contacts" between Athens and Ankara to arrange a Davos-style summit meeting between their respective governments. Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos described the report, published in the Turkish daily Milliyet, as "absolutely groundless". The Swiss resort town of Davos was the site of a January 1988 meeting between the then-prime ministers of Greece and Turkey. Mr Venizelos said that a congratulatory message to Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou had been sent from his Turkish counterpart, Tansu Ciller, through the foreign ministry, adding that all acknowledgements would be made public. Responding to press questions, Mr Venizelos said a date had not been set yet for a visit by Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides and deferred questions on the government's position on the convening of a "pan-national congress" until after the official presentation of the government's programme to parliament. United Nations, 19/10/93 (ANA - M. Georgiadou) - UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali special representative Cyrus Vance has named October 25 as the date for the resumption of direct contacts between Athens and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Mr Boutros Ghali's spokesman Joe Sills said at a regular press briefing yesterday. The talks were discontinued on September 28 due to the Greek general elections. Mr Sills said he will enquire into whether Mr Boutros Ghali has received a letter from the new Greek government on the Skopje issue. Paris, 19/10/93 (ANA - O. Tsipira) - The nine signatories to the Schengen agreement will open their internal borders to free movement of persons on February 1 and not December 1, after a decision taken by ministers and secretary generals responsible for EC matters in Paris yesterday. Alain Lamasour, presiding over the 26th regular meeting of the Schengen group, told reporters one of the main reasons for the postponement was technical difficulties in the electronic Schengen Informatics system in Strasbourg. The system by which the nine countries' external borders will be monitored will not be operational on December 1. The postponement suits Greece, which is lagging behind in its preparation, according to Alternate Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos, who attended the meeting. Referring to the Schengen agreement, Mr Pangalos yesterday said Greece "will remain loyal to the aims of this agreement and procedures will be speeded up" for the country's preparation. Greece has delayed ratifying the agreement in parliament. Speaking to reporters, Mr Pangalos said efforts will be made to have the agreement ratified in the first quarter of 1994. Moreover, the ratification of a law safeguarding individual rights, a necessary condition to implement the agreement, is still pending in Greece. Mr Pangalos said there are great delays in technical infrastructure and primarily in the Informatics system concerning integral information and the granting of licences. He referred to tendering conducted for the Informatics system when tenders were accepted without letters of guarantee resulting in "complete legal confusion" at present. Asked to comment on the atmosphere created by his colleagues during his first trip, Mr Pangalos said he felt very comfortable and had met many of them in the past, which the French chairman pointed out. "There is no problem. We will try to promote Greece's positions to the degree local conditions will permit. We will do well overseas. What remains to be seen is what will happen at home", Mr Pangalos said. Mr Pangalos was due to fly to Brussels from Paris last night for a series of contacts with Greek and foreign officials. Mr Pangalos's contacts will include EC Commissioner Jacques Delors this afternoon and Greek Commissioner Ioannis Paleokrassas. Brussels, 19/10/93 (ANA - G. Daratos) - Alternate Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos flew to Brussels yesterday after attending the Schendgen meeting in Paris, for talks with EC officials. Mr Pangalos will meet this morning with Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes, who presides over the EC foreign minister's council. At noon, he will confer with European Commission President Jacques Delors and, later, with Greek Commissioner Ioannis Paleokrassas. "We shall re-establish links with the institutional agencies of the Community", Mr Pangalos told Greek journalists. "Greece's economic convergence plan is set. We have never considered it a concession to the Community. The Greek economy needs restorative measures. But the pace at which the convergence plan will be implemented and its relation to our development policy, our export policy and our aim for full employment, falls within the exclusive competence of the Greek government and no one else", he said. Mr Pangalos said National Economy Under-secretary George Romaios was in charge of the Delors II Package as is the second half of a Community loan to Greece so he would not be at liberty to discuss either with Mr Delors. Mr Pangalos will meet with the secretary general of the council of ministers, Mr Erlsberl, on technical matters mainly relating to the manner of exercising the Greek rotating presidency of the EC which begins on January 1, 1994. Athens, 19/10/93(ANA) - The Greek Orthodox Church yesterday urged Greeks to send up a prayer in hopes of solving the severe drought threatening the capital. The Holy Synod, in a statement issued to the press yesterday, said Archbishop Serapheim of Athens and All Greece had ordered parishes in the greater Athens area to hold masses and pray "for God to send the beneficial rain to earth because of the extended period of drought". According to Athens Water and Sewerage Company (EYDAP) estimates, reserves at the Mornos and Yliki reservoirs have dwindled to a record low of 121,000,000 cubic metres of water - enough to meet the capital's needs for just over than 30 days. Government officials last month suggested they would consider an artificial rain stimulation programme if the drought continued. A programme to "bombard" the clouds over the Mornos dam was successfully implemented earlier this year. Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - Police yesterday arrested six Turkish illegal immigrants and the two men driving them to Athens from Evros on the Alexandroupolis-Orestiada motorway. The two men smuggling the immigrants into the country were identified as Kuntocu Cinar, 38, and Alatin Kaslni, 36. The smugglers and the illegal immigrants admitted a fare had been paid for their transport to Athens but refused to disclose the exact amount paid. Police said the six illegal immigrants entered Greece at midnight by swimming across the Evros River. Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - The honorary head of the Navy General Staff General Leonidas Vasilikopoulos has been appointed National Intelligence Service (EYP) chief, government Spokesman Evangelos Venizelos announced yesterday. Major-General Christos Dendramis has been appointed director of EYP operations, he said. Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - Christos Protopappas has been elected the new president of the Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE), a GSEE announcement said yesterday. It said Mr Protopappas, currently president of the public phone company union, OTOE, was expected to resign his OTOE post at the union's meeting which begins Sunday. Mr Protopappas takes over the leadership of Greece's largest labour group from Lambros Kanellopoulos, who was elected to parliament in the October 10 general elections. Mr Kanellopoulos will remain a member of the confederation 's executive board, GSEE said. Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - Alexandros Kimisis assumed his post as the Greek National Tourism Organisation's new secretary general at a special ceremony yesterday. At the ceremony, Mr Kimisis said he would do his job to the best of his power. He called on the EOT staff "with passion and knowledge to lead Greek tourism to a course worthy of the expectations of the Greek people". Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - Michael Stylianou, general director of the Athens News Agency, yesterday submitted his resignation to press under-secretary and government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos. Mr Venizelos said he would accept Mr Stylianou's resignation, adding that a successor would be named shortly. The departing ANA director, meanwhile, released the following review of the national news agency's accomplishments during the last four years; "Austerity, growth and meritocracy were the principles steadfastly and with unselfishness upheld. Thus, "1. The ANA's financial health was restored. Annual deficits were erased and cumulative debts totalling 440 million drachmas paid off in 1990, then the ANA - then the recipient of a 750 million drachma subsidy - faced difficulties making its payments. "2. Despite the required austerity, the ANA developed its services and entered the radio and television news bulletin market as well as the data bank market. It expanded the production of its special English service and transformed the layout and contents of its daily English-French Bulletin so that it may fulfil its mission as a means of informing the foreign diplomatic community and foreign press and a forum for the condemnation of disinformation against Greece. "3. It was technologically upgraded to the level of a news agency of an average Western European country, with the universal application of data processing in the introduction, editing and distribution of news. Aided by grants received through European Community projects, the ANA supplies its subscribers and the provincial media with equipment to electronically receive not only news wires but pictures and graphics as well. "One example of this technological leap is that Greek-language radio stations abroad (e.g.. New York, London) 'access" the ANA's mainframe computer via telephone line and in less than a minute retrieve a complete radio-television news bulletin ready for broadcast. Moreover, the ANA's English-language bulletin is entered into the US electronic network, InterNet, via the Ottawa press office. "4. The political impartiality, objectivity and seriousness of the ANA's news output is proved beyond a doubt by the fact that 27 radio and TV stations of all political hues pay monthly subscription fees of up to 200,000 drachmas for its new bulletins. "5. During the last four years, there was not a single "favour" or "patronage" appointment not was any attempt made to interfere in the agency's work. Deserving and diligent employees were promoted regardless of political orientation and sense of responsibility restored to the staff and an awareness instilled, at least to a segment, of the news agency's national mission. "Thus the self-serving scandal-mongering was forced to content itself with unimportant (issues) or innuendo and always received an irrefutable response. "The ANA's departing general director hopes the national news agency will continue its upward course under its new director, with the same steadfast devotion to the fulfilment of its mission which is the promotion of national positions and rights abroad and, at home, the provision of reliable and impartial information and contribution to the restoration of the language and ethos of communication". Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) which won 46.88 per cent of the national vote in the October 10 elections, has had its comfortable parliamentary majority reduced by one seat. A recount of votes cast in the Athens first electoral district led to the switch of one seat from PASOK to the defeated New Democracy conservatives. Actress Eleni Anousaki's seat will switch to New Democracy's Vassilis Korahais, cutting the government's majority to 170 seats and raising the conservative delegation to 111 deputies in the 300-seat unicameral chamber. Interior Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos said the final ruling would be issued by the electoral court, which will also rule on appeals filed concerning the electoral results in the Evrytania and Messinia districts. Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou yesterday received Australia's former prime minister Sir Edward Gough Whitlam, who is in Athens at the invitation of the Athens Academy. Athens, 19/19/93 (ANA) - Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis yesterday lifted restrictive measures enforced yesterday in Athens to deal with prevailing high smog levels. Mr Laliotis told reporters that, according to a National meteorology Service (EMY) report, the weather was expected to change and the measures, which he described as "aspirin", would no longer be necessary. Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - US head of mission James Williams today paid a courtesy call on National Defence Minister Gerasimos Arsenis. Mr Arsenis was introduced to the embassy's new defence co-operation bureau chief, military attachi and political adviser. Mr Williams termed the 45-minute meeting "very good". Today, Mr Williams is scheduled to meet with Political Spring party leader Antonis Samaras at 12.30 p.m. Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - President Constantine Karamanlis has sent a message to South African President Frederik De Klerk and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela congratulating them on their selection as co-recipients of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. "Please accept my warm and sincere congratulations for your selection to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace. The conferral of this award constitutes international recognition of your diligent efforts for the peaceful end to the apartheid regime and the creation in South Africa of a new, democratically structured society, rid of the hatreds of the past", he said. The Nobel prize committee on October 15 announced the award of the 1993 peace prize to the two South African leaders "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for the laying of the foundations of a new, democratic South Africa". Athens, 19/10/93 (ANA) - President Constantine Karamanlis yesterday received the new ambassadors to Athens of Ireland, Liam Rigney, Bulgaria, Filipov Petrov and South Africa, Paul Kruger Kutzi who delivered their credentials to him. The ceremony was attended by Foreign Under-secretary George Papandreou and Presidency secretary General Petros Molyviatis.