Antenna: News in English (PM), 98-06-19

Antenna News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

Last Updated: Friday, 19-Jun-98 21:48:41

CONTENTS

[01] Turkish provocations

[02] Employees-Commercial bank

[03] Andreas Papandreou

[04] Constantinos Karamanlis

[05] Tsiklitiria 98

[06] Avramopoulos-"Healthy Cities"

[01] Turkish provocations

The Greek prime minister says he his country will not allow itself to be drawn in to the hostile arena Turkey is trying to generate.

Kostas Simitis adds that provocative behaviour from Ankara is normal after European Union summits.

But the new tension in the region has US officials worried.

US state department spokesman James Rubin expressed concern over renewed tensions in Cyprus. On Thrusday, six Turkish fighters strafed the island and landed at a base in the occupied north. The low overflights alarmed Greek-Cypriots.

The Turkish provocation was a warning to Greece and Cyprus to cancel their joint defence pact. Greece sent four fighters to the island earlier in the week.

Rubin said the dispatch of planes to the island does not help promote peace.

He accused both sides of stepping up the tension in Cyprus and the wider region, to the detriment of international efforts to solve the Cyprus issue and improve Greek-Turkish relations.

Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon is also keeping an equal distance from Greece and Turkey.

He's more or less asking for Cyprus to cancel its plans to deploy Russian surface-to-air missiles this summer. Bacon says the US opposes all destabilising military activity in the region.

Newly-appointed US ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke is looking for the person who will succeed him at his current post of US Cyprus envoy. Holbrooke is pessimistic about the prospects of Cyprus being reunited in the near future.

Despite the concerns, Ankara appears set to continue raising the stakes. The Turkish daily Millyet reports that Turkish military leaders are preparing for exercises this summer near the Greek Aegean island of Samos, and that the Turkish forces taking part will fire live rounds.

[02] Employees-Commercial bank

Dissatisfied bank employees descended on the Athens hotel where the meeting to discuss the Ionian sell- off was to be held and caused a ruckus.

That sent a shock wave through the Athens stock exchange, which registered a two per cent drop. After things settled down though share prices rallied back - shares in the Ionian Bank even managed to gain 30 cents.

At a meeting of top Pasok officials met Friday, prime minister Kostas Simitis and his aides looked at ways of preventing the protesters from stopping shareholders from going about their business.

The trouble at the meeting began when the directors of the Ionian and prospective buyer Commercial Bank showed up. Trade union leaders are angry at Commercial Bank refusal to commit itself to not shedding any jobs at Ionian.

[03] Andreas Papandreou

A number of politicians attended the launch of a book about Papandreou's political career.

"Andreas Papandreou: the Breech" is an account of Papandreou's political activities during the 1960s, when he came to prominence as a representative of radical reform in Greece.

The keynote speaker at the event, MP Yiannis Haralabopoulos, stands outside the camp of Papandreou's successor, current prime minister Kostas Simitis. But Haralabopoulos praised Simitis's refusal to back down before US and European pressure to ease Turkey's way into the European Union earlier this week.

US president Clinton warned Simitis that there could be trouble with Turkey in the Aegean if Greece didn't soften its stand. Simitis said it's Turkey that must change its aggressive ways.

"It was the right position to take", says Haralaboupoulos. "It's the only way to deal with threats of that nature.

Apart from Pasok MPs, Papandreou's widow Dimitra and his sons Giorgos and Nikos also attended the book launch.

[04] Constantinos Karamanlis

The man who founded New Democracy and served as prime minister and president during his long career has left everything to his three nephews and the foundation that bears his name.

Karamanlis's nephews inherit two homes and a car. The Karamanlis foundation gets the late statesman's library, archives, medals, and the official gifts he received while in office.

[05] Tsiklitiria 98

Tsiklitiria 98, held last Wednesday, scored more points than all the other 30 meets did last year.

Revived after 19 years, Tsiklitiria got off to a grand start, getting a total of 83.447 points from the critics.

The top three European events rated last year would all have finished behind Tsiklitiria: Hekskel in Belgium finished with just over 82 points; Jena in Germany got 81.4 points; and the Lucerne meet in Switzerland finished with just 80.9 points.

On a world-wide basis, Tsiklitiria would have finished 14th in a field of 42 events. In first place last year was Zurich, with 87.5 points.

[06] Avramopoulos-"Healthy Cities"

Athens mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos talked about the "Healthy Cities" programme on the eve of the opening of the four-day conference in Athens.

Avramopoulos said the programme's aim is to promote an outlook and making cities better for those who live in them.

The programme, in which the World Health Organisation is taking part, places emphasis on the development of local strategies to improve life.

This growing movement already takes in one thousand cities across Europe.

(c) ANT1 Radio 1998

Antenna News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article