Anadolu Agency: News in English, 00-01-04

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[01] AA News

04 January 2000 Tuesday

[02] TURKEY-PRESS SCAN

HURRIYET (LIBERAL)

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT DOSSIER IN PRIME MINISTRY
Dossier of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the terrorist organization, was sent to Prime Ministry from Justice Ministry on Monday. Thus, the government got the initiave as execution process of the capital punishment operates. Leaders' summit, which will take place on January 12, will decide whether to wait for the decision of European Court of Human Rights.

MILLIYET (LIBERAL)

CIGARETTE BECOMES PRODUCT MOSTLY INCREASED IN PRICE
The price of nonfilter cigarette was increased by 300 percent in 1999. The price filter cigarette was increased by 126.9 percent, and the price of raki was increased by 180.8 percent. Price of kerosene was increased by 207.8 percent; petrol by 163.4 percent; egg by 112.7 percent; mail service by 116.2 percent; travel with passanger bus by 104.5 percent; sugar by 66.4 percent; tea by 75.3 percent; travel with ship by 87.6 percent; pistachio by 58.6 percent; travel with plane by 95.8 percent; natural gas by 79.8 percent; house rent by 94.6 percent; lentil by 93.7 percent; macaroni by 48.7 percent; bread by 68.5 percent, electricity by 82 percent.

SABAH (LIBERAL) INVESTIGATION AGAINST ISMAIL CEM
State Security Court (DGM) Chief Prosecutorship opened an investigation against Foreign Minister Ismail Cem on grounds that he made separatism propaganda. The investigation was opened within the scope of Article 8 of Anti-Terrorism Law. Cem earlier said every body must have the right to broadcast in his own language.

HAKKARI PLANE IS AFFECTED BY THE EVIL EYE
Airbus A-340 type ''Hakkari'', a New York-bound Turkish Airlines plane, was forced to return to Istanbul airport Monday due to technical problems.

The plane landed without incident and the passengers were flown to New York on a different aircraft. The plane returned shortly after its first take off due to a technical problem.

CUMHURIYET (LEFT)

GOVERNMENT FAILS TO ACHIEVE INFLATION TARGETS
The rate of inflation in consumer prices became 68.8 percent although it had to be decerased to about 20 percent in accordance with the Staff Monitored Agreement signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The government had changed its targets for the economic figures for 1999, and in accordance with this, the wholesale prices index (TEFE) had to be 57 percent and the consumer prices index (TUFE) had to be 52.2 percent at the end of 1999. According to the figures announced by the State Institute of Statistics (DIE), the inflation in TEFE became 6.8 percent and the inflation in TUFE became 5.9 percent at the end of 1999.

TOWARDS DECISION ABOUT KAVAKCI
The hearing of Merve Kavakci, who became a U.S. citizen without a permission of Turkey, will be held today at the Council of State Department no:10. Kavakci filed a lawsuit to annul the Council of ministers' decision to denaturalize her.

RADIKAL (LEFT)

ANTI-EXECUTION REPORT
Prior to the leaders' summit at which the execution of Ocalan will be discussed, a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy Mujdat Kayayerli submitted a report to Devlet Bahceli of the MHP proposing him to wait for the decision of the ECHR and abolishment of death sentence. Apo's dossier was transferred to the Prime Ministry.

DANGEROUS CURVES IN EU ROAD
Execution of Ocalan is the first critical curve in the road for the EU process. The President, Prime Minister and the leader of the Motherland Party (ANAP), are trying to persuade the MHP for not allowing the transfer of the dossier to the Parliament.

TURKIYE (RIGHT)

WE ARE READY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
President Suleyman Demirel said on Monday that Turkey was ready for the 21st century, and that it will shoulder the burden of this century, and that it will reach the targets of the new century.

President Demirel inaugurated a new international airport that will replace Istanbul's overcrowded facility with one capable of handling 14 million passengers a year.

Addressing the ceremony Demirel said, ''we have entered to 21st century by overcoming a great shock after great pains. We should heal our wounds, solve our problems, and prepare ourselves for a better future. If you have dreams, hopes, and self confidence, you can reach your targets. This installation is a proof that Turkey may reach its goals.''

ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)

DIRTH WORTH OF ONE MILLION U.S. DOLLARS
Cleaning in Marmara Sea will continue for 10 years. The Russian registered tanker, which split in to two last week in the Strait, costed one million U.S. dollars to Turkey. Experts said dirt will last for 8-9 months, and that the cleaning may last for 10 years.

[03] AFTERSHOCKS CONTINUE - TWO TREMORS RECORDED IN AEGEAN IZMIR PROVINCE

Bogazici University Kandilli Observatory and Seismology Institute said an aftershock measuring 2.6 on the Richter scale, occurred at 00:41 local time on Tuesday. The epicenter of the aftershock was Hendak township of Adapazari.

Meanwhile, it was reported that two separate tremors measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale, were recorded at 21:01 and 22:15 local time on Monday in Odemis township of Izmir.

[04] TEAMS CONTINUE TO SEARCH FOR WRECKAGE OF CARGO PLANE

Teams couldn't find any trace in their searches since December 29, 1999. The searches which were paused on Monday due to bad weather conditions, resumed on Tuesday.

Officials said a total of six units including 45 military personnel, and almost 400 people living in surrounding villages were participating in the searches.

Officials said it was very difficult to find the wreckage as they believed the cargo plane crashed into the Black Sea.

Officials said there was a heavy snow and sometimes snowstorm in Inebolu township of Zonguldak, negatively affecting the searches.

Gendarme officials said vessels and coast guard boats continued their searches.

[05] CAKICI'S WARD CHANGED DUE TO SECURITY REASONS

Huseyin Boyrazoglu, Kartal Republican Chief Prosecutor, confirmed that the ward of Cakici was changed due to security reasons.

Cakici is also expected to be brought to State Security Court (DGM) on Wednesday to be interrogated.

[06] TURKEY NOT TO ACCEPT PRESSURE ON WATER QUESTION

Ankara said it extended full support to peace between the two countries of the Middle East, yet gave the message to the concerned sides that this peace can not be reached through Turkey.

Speaking to A.A correspondent, the diplomatic sources recalled that Turkey in its official statements always announced the importance and support it attributed to Israeli-Syrian peace. Diplomatic sources also clarified the concerns on water question.

Diplomatic sources said despite this support of Ankara, Turkey's making concessions on water issue was out of question for the improvement of peace process, and noted that ''Israeli-Syrian peace can not be reached through Turkey.''

Sources said this view of Turkey has been conveyed to the sides many times and in many levels, adding that Ankara did not have a new initiative apart from this.

Pointing out that Turkey will not accept pressure on water issue, the sources said anyway there was no signal coming from the U.S. and Israel to Turkey to this end. They said Israel and the U.S. were respectful to the position of Turkey.

Diplomatic sources pointed out the dangers of exclusion of Syria from the U.S.'s list of countries supporting terrorism before Syria cuts all its support to terrorist PKK organization.

Meanwhile, Defense News, magazine of the U.S. defense circles, claimed that Turkey was concerned over ''several results'' of Israeli-Syrian peace talks.

Alan Makovsky, Turkey Director of a think-tank organization named ''The Washington Institute for Near Eastern Affairs'', who disclosed his views to the magazine, said Turkey's concerns were focused on ''water, security, terrorism, future of relations with Israel''.

[07] PRESIDENT DEMIREL SENDS MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCES TO SPANISH KING

Presidential Press Centre noted that Demirel sent the message upon the demise of Maria De Las Mercedes, the Countess of Barcelona.

[08] TURKEY'S ECONOMY - ECONOMY GREW BY 3.75 PERCENT ANNUALLY BETWEEN 1977- 1999

This number is good, but not enough for Turkey which is a developing country and whose population increases. Turkey has to reach a growth rate of 7-8 percent annually to join the developed countries in the first quarter of the 21st century.

Turkey's Gross National Product (GNP) increased by 124.9 percent, while its national income per capita increased by 45.9 percent in the period between 1977-1999.
Turkey which had a national income of 36,9 quadrillion Turkish liras in 1977 due to the prices of 1999, reached 83,1 quadrillion Turkish liras in 1999.

Turkey's population increased by 54.1 percent and it reached 64,3 millions from 41,7 million dollars during the same period. Its GNP increased from 62, 1 billion dollars to 199,9 billion dollars and from 1488 dollars to 3106 dollars per capita.

If the growth rate in the period between 1977 and 1999 continues as it is, Turkey's Gross National Product (GNP) in 2025 will increase by 160.4 percent and reach 520,7 billion dollars.

The population, GNP and income per capita in Turkey in 1977, 1999 and the projection for 2025 are as follows:

. Conjectural Projection

. 1977 1999 2025
------------------------------ --------- -------- ----------
Population (Million) 41,768 64,385 87,900

GNP(CurrentPrice-Million Dollar)62,151 199,980 520,748

GNP(Current Price- 1,488 3,106 5,924

Per capita-Dollar)

GNP(Trillion TL) 36,959.8 83,124.0 216,455.0

GNP(Per Capita-Million TL) 884.9 1,291.0 2,462.5

GNP(Current Price-Million Dollar) ... ... 801,014

GNP(Current Price-Per capita-Dollar). ... 9,113

PPP*-GNP (Million Dollar) ... 405,008 1,094,331

PPP*-GNP (Per Capita-Dollar) ... 6,383 12,450

PPP*-GNP(Current Price- ... 405,008 1,711,534

Million Dollar)

PPP*-GNP(Current Price-Per Capita ... 6,383 19,471

-Dollar)

</pre> *Parity due to Purchasing Power

[09] PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT RECEIVES MERAL, CHAIRMAN OF TURK-IS

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit received Meral and the Executive Board of Turk- Is the same day.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Meral said that he conveyed certain urgent problems to Ecevit.

One of them is the need to increase the minimum wage which was determined as 80.6 million Turkish liras, he said.

''Particularly we focused on the privatization. I told Ecevit that certain persons benefitted from privatization, but thousands of people were dismissed. No proceedings were undertaken till today to increase the production and employment and to renew the technology. We asked Ecevit to stop privatization for a while and discuss its consequences. Mr. Ecevit said that he would think about it.''

[10] PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT: ''THREE PARTY LEADERS WILL MEET ON JANUARY 12 AS IT IS THE MOST CONVENIENT DAY''

Responding to questions of journalists, Ecevit said that the three party leaders will come together on January 12 after the religious holiday.

Ecevit pointed out that the behaviour of the coalition partners regarding the file of Ocalan, the head terrorist, will be clear on January 12.

Upon a question saying that the inflation rate was higher than expected, Ecevit said ''it is not higher than I expected. The inflation rate can be higher in first months of this year, but we believe that it will start to decrease fastly later on. Meanwhile the rapid decrease in interest rates is a positive sign.''

Ecevit added that they will find "a way in line with law" to solve the disputes that can come out between renters and landlords.

[11] ANKARA DGM GIVES A DECISION NOT TO PROSECUTE FOREIGN MINISTER CEM

Ankara DGM Chief Prosecutor Talat Salk gave the decision not to prosecute Cem and noted that there was no need to start an investigation about him.

Abdülkadir Geylani Aksümer, a Turkish citizen filed a suit about Cem in connection with his statement to Hurriyet newspaper published on December 14, 1999.
The decision of the Prosecution noted that Cem told CNN Turk Television Channel regarding the EU that "nobody wants Turkey to create minority, everybody can speak his/her mother tongue easily in Turkey and they should also speak their own languages in television broadcasts."

The decision further noted that such an issue can always be discussed in a democratic society and putting forward such views does not constitute an offence under the Turkish laws.

[12] TRNC PRESIDENT DENKTAS: ''PEOPLE SHOULD NOT RUSH INTO BANKS''

Responding to questions of journalists about the operation regarding banks in TRNC, President Denktas noted that there are not any problems in banks except two of them whose banking activities were stopped.

Denktas said they are in contact with Turkey about the issue, adding ''people should accept that there is no banking problem in TRNC.''

TRNC government ceased the activities of Cypriot Yurtbank till January 12 and Everestbank till January 19, 2000.

[13] CAKICI TO BE INTERROGATED ON WEDNESDAY

Speaking to reporters after meeting with his client on Tuesday, Yuzuak pointed out that he didn't know whether Cakıcı would give testimony to Istanbul DGM. ''I only reminded him the laws, he will decide what to do,'' he said.

Yuzuak stated he told Cakıcı that if he gives testimony, before France gives permission, this can be used against him.

The health of Cakıcı is fine, said Yuzuak, stressing that there is no case against Cakıcı which can be dismissed by way of prescription.

[14] PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT REQUESTS PEOPLE TO MAKE SACRIFICE

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit received Bayram Meral, the Chairman of Turk-Is and the Executive Board members the same day.

The Executive Board members also presented a report to Prime Minister Ecevit in which they listed the problems of workers including ther criticisms about privatization practices and wages.

[15] 650 TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS TAKE PLACE IN ANKARA TODAY DUE TO ICY ROADS

In other days the number of traffic accidents in Ankara is usually between 100-150, but this number increased to 650 today due to the snowfall which has been continuing for two days.

[16] PRESIDENT DEMIREL RESPONDS TO QUESTIONS: ''I BELIEVE THAT GOVERNMENT WILL SOLVE ISSUE OF OCALAN'S DEATH PENALTY''

Responding to questions of journalists, President Demirel said that ''stability is very important for Turkey. These three political parties had provided this stability. Even if one party governed the country, there would be different views in it. Mr. Ecevit called the coalition leaders to a meeting on January 12 to discuss this issue.''

Upon a question about Turkish-Russian relations following the resignation of Yelstin, President Demirel said ''these relations don't depend on persons. Both the two countries are big countries in the region. Particularly after 1990, the bilateral relations have been very good. We have a big trade volume reaching nearly 10 billion dollars and there are many Turkish firms working in Russia. We know the value of our relations with Russia, the same is true for them.''

Demirel said that the visit of Putin, ''a young person'' to Chechnya in the new year's eve is Russian own business.

''Bloodshed in Chechnya should stop, because there is state and its official armed forces on the one side and the citizens of the same state on the other side,'' he said.

[17] APPEAL REQUEST REGARDING CAKICI CASE RECEIVED BY SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS

Ferzan Citici, the Chief Prosecutor of Istanbul requests the Supreme Court to repeal the verdict of Istanbul Criminal Court No. 6. Cakıcı, who was extradited to Turkey from France on condition, was tried by that court for inciting persons to injure Hıncal Uluc, a journalist.

The Chief Prosecution of the Supreme Court of Appeals submitted the file to a Supreme Court's Prosecutor for examination.

The appointed Supreme Court's Prosecutor will prepare his written recommendation about the request of appeal first and then send the file to the concerned court. This court will give the decision about the appeal request.

If the court accepts the appeal request, Cakıcı will be tried at Istanbul Criminal Court No. 6 for that offence. If the reverse is true, the case will end.

[18] A.A

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