Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 2000-03-17
MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Thessaloniki, March 17, 2000
SECTIONS
[A] NATIONAL NEWS
[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS
NEWS HEADLINES
[A] NATIONAL NEWS
[01] NEW OPINION POLL GIVES A SMALL LEAD OF 0.6% TO PASOK
[02] THE NEW DEMOCRACY PLATFORM CONFERENCE OPENS TODAY
[03] THE MAYOR OF ISTANBUL WILL VISIT ATHENS IN APRIL
[04] NATO FORCES WILL GO TO KOSOVO VIA THESSALONIKI
[05] GENETICALLY ALTERED COTTON SEEDS IN GREECE
[06] THE MERGER OF EUROBANK - ERGO BANK WILL TAKE PLACE BY JUNE
[07] LARGE NUMBERS OF TURKISH TOURISTS VISIT THESSALONIKI
[08] GAINS OF 1.79% IN THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE
[09] PROSPECTS OF COOPERATION BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY
[10] PAPANDREOU-BURNS MEETING
[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS
[11] BRITISH MPS ARE IN FAVOR OF THE RETURN OF THE PARTHENON
MARBLES TO GREECE
[12] KOSTOV-OTE-KPN MEETING
NEWS IN DETAIL
[A] NATIONAL NEWS
[01] NEW OPINION POLL GIVES A SMALL LEAD OF 0.6% TO PASOK
New opinion poll conducted by the polling company "ALCO"
after the announcement of cooperation between the Liberals of
Stephanos Manos and right-wing main opposition party of New
Democracy and the decision by Political Spring party not to run in
the April 9 elections gives a small lead of 0.6% to the governing
socialist party of PASOK.
The outcome of the opinion poll was published in the Athens
newspaper "TO ETHNOS" and according to it, PASOK gets 34.5%, New
Democracy 33.9%, the Communist Party 4.8%, the Democratic Social
Movement 4.4% and Coalition of the Left 3.8%, while the undecided
are 11.9%.
In the wider Athens region, PASOK leads with 39.4% followed
by New Democracy 28.8% while in the rest of Greece New Democracy
is leading with 36.7% compared to PASOK's 31.8%.
According to another opinion poll conducted by "ALCO" on
behalf of the Athens radio station "Alpha News" on a daily basis,
the undecided voters are 11.6% and 60% of them are women, mostly
of a young age.
On the popularity of the political party leaders Coalition of
the Left leader Nikos Konstantopoulos is leading with 55.5%,
followed by prime minister and PASOK leader Kostas Simitis with
48.1%, Democratic and Social Movement leader Dimitris Tsovolas
with 46.9%, New Democracy leader Kostas Karamanlis with 40% and
Communist Party general secretary Aleka Papariga with 24.2%.
[02] THE NEW DEMOCRACY PLATFORM CONFERENCE OPENS TODAY
The proceedings of the extraordinary conference of right-wing
main opposition party of New Democracy platform conference will
open in Athens this afternoon with the speech of its leader Kostas
Karamanlis and will be completed on Sunday.
The speeches of New Democracy honorary president Konstantinos
Mitsotakis and former party leader Miltiadis Evert are expected
with great interest and the climate of the conference will be
purely within the pre-election campaign framework. Athens mayor
Dimitris Avramopoulos will not attend the conference as he had a
previous engagement in Paris.
[03] THE MAYOR OF ISTANBUL WILL VISIT ATHENS IN APRIL
Istanbul mayor Ali Mufit Gurtuna will be in Athens in April
for a formal visit. Mayor of Athens Dimitris Avramopoulos met with
Mr. Gurtuna within the framework of the international conference
of city mayors in Paris.
The Turkish newspaper "Sabah" writes that the two mayors have
stated that they and their families have become friends and they
intend to take their summer vacation together starting with a
cruise from Istanbul to Athens.
[04] NATO FORCES WILL GO TO KOSOVO VIA THESSALONIKI
Special NATO forces that will take part in the alliance's
military exercise in Kosovo, code-named "Dynamic Response 2000",
will arrive at the ports of Thessaloniki and Litochoro.
The estimated 2.000 soldiers will be from the United States,
Argentina, Poland, Holland and Romania. They will bear light arms
and will be accompanied by light vehicles and tanks. The exercise,
the preparation of which started in September, will take place
throughout Kosovo starting on March 23 and will continue during
the month of April having as a goal to test the readiness of the
NATO forces to reinforce the peacekeeping force deployed in the
region in case of an emergency.
[05] GENETICALLY ALTERED COTTON SEEDS IN GREECE
The Greek farmers and the ministry of agriculture were
alarmed by the revelation that genetically altered cotton seeds
have been imported to Greece, according to the Athens radio
station "Flash". This was confirmed by an analysis of samples in
two Greek and a German research centers.
The Greek ministry of agriculture called on all import
companies to submit by March 26 the documents certifying the
country of origin of their imports and that their imported
products have not been genetically altered.
[06] THE MERGER OF EUROBANK - ERGO BANK WILL TAKE PLACE BY JUNE
The legal merger of the Greek banks EFG Eurobank and Ergo
Bank will be completed by June.
The new bank organization will have 7.500 employees, a
network of 330 branches across Greece, a capital of 600 billion
drachmas, total assets of 5 trillion drachmas and funds under
management, including mutual funds, reaching 7.6 trillion
drachmas.
It will be the third in size bank group in the Greek market
and the fifth company in capitalization terms trading in the
Athens Stock Exchange.
[07] LARGE NUMBERS OF TURKISH TOURISTS VISIT THESSALONIKI
Thessaloniki was visited this week by more Turkish tourists
than ever before, a fact that is proven by the number of visitors
to the house of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey,
located at the yard of the Turkish consulate.
According to facts provided by the Turkish consulate in
Thessaloniki, the number of Turkish tourists who visited the house
of Kemal Ataturk on March 13-16 were over 3.500 and by the end of
the week is expected to be over 5.000.
Turkish vice-consul Aida Eroglu stated to MPA that in
previous years the number of people visiting the house of Kemal
Ataturk were about 5.000-6.000 annually. The increase in the
number of visitors is the result of the improvement in the Greek-
Turkish relations and also due to the religious Muslim feast, the
Kurban Bairam.
[08] GAINS OF 1.79% IN THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE
Gains were recorded again today in the Athens Stock Exchange.
The main index increased by 1.79% closing at 4.845,08 points,
while the volume of transactions reached 215.6 billion drachmas.
The transactions were held in a positive climate and the main
element of today's session was the increased purchase interest.
[09] PROSPECTS OF COOPERATION BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY
The new climate that has been created between Greece and
Turkey opens the way for cooperation in the sector of
transportation, according to the Turkish Railways officials, who
met yesterday with minister of Macedonia-Thrace Yiannis Magriotis
in Thessaloniki.
In the meeting it was stressed that the goal of the Turkish
side is to put in operation the Thessaloniki-Istanbul railway line
by May as well as the Pantirma-Volos sea line from where most of
the Turkish goods will be channeled to western markets, via the
Greek Railways, instead of the ports of France and Italy.
[10] PAPANDREOU-BURNS MEETING
The situation in Kosovo was the main issue of discussion in
the meeting today of Greek foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou
with US ambassador to Athens Nicholas Burns, while they also
discussed issues concerning the NATO military exercise that will
be held in Kosovo.
Mr. Papandreou also had a telephone communication today with
his Yugoslav counterpart.
Greek government spokesman Dimitris Reppas stated that the
NATO military exercise will be held in accordance with the UN
Security Council decisions in agreement with the big powers and
Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. The developments in Kosovo
will be discussed in the EU foreign ministers council meeting that
will be held on Monday.
[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS
[11] BRITISH MPS ARE IN FAVOR OF THE RETURN OF THE PARTHENON
MARBLES TO GREECE
Two out of three British parliament deputies, namely 66%,
would have been in favor of the return of the Parthenon Marbles to
Greece in case of a free vote today, according to a research
conducted by the newspaper "The Economist". Only the conservatives
disagree, while prime minister Tony Blair and culture minister Mr.
Smith refused to respond.
British Committee for the Return of the Parthenon Marbles
secretary Elena Cubitt stated to radio station "Flash 961" that
the fact that the research was conducted by a magazine that had
never backed the return of the marbles is especially positive.
[12] KOSTOV-OTE-KPN MEETING
Bulgarian prime minister Ivan Kostov met with Greek
Telecommunications Organization, OTE, executive general director
Georgios Simeonidis and Dutch KPN company board of directors
member Marten Peters.
Mr. Peters stated that the goal is to sign an agreement soon
for the privatization of the Bulgarian Telecommunications
Organization, BTK. He also expressed the hope that prime minister
Kostov was persuaded that the candidate Greek-Dutch OTE-KPN joint
venture has the ability to contribute to the development and
upgrading of telecommunications and computer technologies in
Bulgaria.
From his side, Mr. Simeonidis underlined that different views
of the two sides were discussed in the meeting and stressed that
the negotiations appear to have entered their final phase.
Bulgarian communications minister Antoni Slavinski clarified
that there are certain problems on which negotiations still
continue.
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