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Anadolu Agency: News in English, 00-08-16Anadolu Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Anadolu Agency Home Page at <http://www.anadoluajansi.com.tr/>Anadolu AgencyANADOLU AGENCY NEWS 16 AUGUST 2000 Wednesday CONTENTS
[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCANThese are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkey's press on August 16, 2000. The Anadolu Ajansi does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.HURRIYET (LIBERAL)GOOD DAYS ARE BACK IN TOURISMThe number of tourists who visited Turkey increased by 28.5 percent in the first six months of the year compared to last year. There are no empty beds lefts in Antalya's five star hotels. The State Statistics Institute stated that a total of 3 million 910,000 tourists visited Turkey in the first half of the year. This number was 3 million 42,000 last year. DALLARA:''YOU ENTERED CRITICAL STAGE IN INFLATION'' MILLIYET (LIBERAL)TREASONOya Akgonenc, Ankara Deputy of the Virtue Party (FP), became the first parliamentarian who harsly accused her own country at the United Nations. Akgonenc caused a scandal with her speech at the United Nations Human Rights Sub-Commission meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Addressing the meeting on behalf of ''Association of People Who Are Under Threat'', Akgonenc claimed, ''minorities have no rights at all in Turkey. Freedom of expression of all journalists and thinkers have been restricted. Necmettin Erbakan is among those who were sentenced to imprisonment terms in accordance with the Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code. We want you to urge Turkey to change its anti-democratic system.'' DEBATE ON KURDISH BROADCAST PRESIDENT SEZER TO RECEIVE PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT SABAH (LIBERAL)FOUNDATION OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS EXECUTIVES INDULGEIN HAJJ TRIP WITH 120,000 U.S. DOLLARS WORTH OF VEHICLE It was found out that Foundation of Religious Affairs executives went to Hajj with Chevrolet Chevy One GMS, which is one of the most expensive and delux vehicles of the world. The 120,000 U.S. dollars worth of vehicle has video, television, a dinner table for four people and a mini refrigerator inside. The car is very rare in Turkey and consumes 600,000 TL worth of gas every kilometer. Extravagance is considered as a sin in Islam. CHANGE OF MILLENNIUM CUMHURIYET (LEFT)AN IMPORTANT STEP TOWARDS FULL MEMBERSHIP TO EUTurkey has taken its first important step towards full membership to the European Union (EU) by signing ''Convention on Political Civil Rights'' and ''Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights'' of the United Nations. These two conventions were signed by all other candidate countries except for Turkey. The conventions will come into force after they are approved by the parliament and signed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. SECURITY FORCES IMPOUND 300 LITRES OF ACID ANHYDRIDE CASE ON ''ISLAMIC JIHAD ORGANIZATION'' CONTINUES FIRE IN FERRY BOAT RADIKAL (LEFT)TURKEY, DO NOT SLEEP TONIGHTTurkish people will not sleep tonight to commemorate those who lost their lives when a massive earthquake jolted Marmara region for 45 seconds at 03:02 a.m. on August 17, 1999. PEACE SUMMIT IN EPHESUS YENİ BİNYIL (LIBERAL)ARM WRESTLING AT PRESIDENTIAL PALACEPresident Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit will finally come together on Wednesday. Neither of the sides wants to step back and they will try to convince each other. During the meeting Ecevit will explain the reasons for the decree one more time and he might present Sezer some confidential files. Ecevit will ask Sezer to sign the decree immediately after the meeting. STATE MINISTER YILMAZ GIVES HOPE FOR ZEUGMA TURKIYE (RIGHT)KARADAYI HAS HEART ATTACKIsmail Hakki Karadayi, the former Chief of General Staff, had a heart attack in Bodrum township of Aegean Mugla province. He was rushed to the Private Bodrum Hospital. Ayhan Azizoglu, the chief doctor of the hospital, said that Karadayi was taken under intensive care and his general health condition was stable. SIX-MONTH PERFORMANCE OF IS BANKASI ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)FEHRIYE LOOKING FOR A THIRD COUNTRYBelgian Interior Minister Antoine Duquesne decided to send Fehriye Erdal to a third country. Erdal who has been claimed to be on a hunger strike for 20 days in Belgium's Bruges prison lost the case she opened in order to be released. It was stated that she will be sent to a third country immediately as soon as a country is found for her. Belgian Foreign Ministry said that this could be one of the African countries although it is not certain yet. RELATIONS WITH TURKISH REPUBLICS TO BE DISCUSSED [02] FIRE BREAKS OUT IN A CHEMICAL PLANT IN IZMITIZMIT - A fire broke out in a chemical plant in the Esme-Uzuntarla region near the D-100 motorway in Izmit province in Marmara region late on Tuesday.Fire-brigades are spraying foam on the fire at the plaster production unit of the factory. Witnesses said they heard sounds like explosion inside the factory while fire-brigades are concerned about spread of flames to the paint tanks 15-20 meters from the factory. [03] TURKEY-LIBYA FRIENDSHIP GROUP'S CONTACTSTRIPOLI - Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and his Libyan counterpart Abdel Rahman Mohammad Shalgham are expected to come together at the UN's Millennium summit in New York in September.Turkey-Libyan Friendship Group is continuing its contacts in Libya. During Tuesday night's meetings, Cem was invited to Libya and the two ministers agreed to meet in New York in September. Shalgham, during the talks, noted that Libyan people have a special symphathy for Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit who has Libyan blood from his mother's side. Noting that a power vacuum appeared in the Central Asian countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Shalgham said this led to the strengthening of some radical and fundamentalist trends. ''Only a secular Turkey can prevent these trends from getting more powerful,'' he said. Stressing the importance of Turkey-Libyan relations, Shalgham said there could be some problems ''within the family'' but they could be overcome. On the last day of their stay in Libya, Turkey-Libyan Friendship Group members will issue a joint decleration aimed to strengthen cooperation with their Libyan colleagues. [04] FIRE IN A CHEMICAL PLANT IN IZMIT TAKEN UNDER CONTROLIZMIT - Fire which broke out in a chemical plant in the Esme-Uzuntarla region near the D-100 motorway in Izmit province in Marmara region, was taken under control on Wednesday.Fire-fighting teams sprayed foam on the fire at the plaster production unit of the factory, and expended great effort to prevent the fire from spreading to the paint tanks in the Ser Chemical Plant. Meanwhile, two workers who were poisoned by the smoke, were taken to hospital for medical treatment. The D-100 motorway was re-opened to traffic after the fire was taken under control. [05] IN FIRST SEVEN MONTHS, 178.5 MILLION U.S. DOLLARS OF TEXTILE PRODUCTS EXPORTED FROM GAP REGIONGAZIANTEP - Exports of textile products from Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) region in the first seven months of 2000 increased 10.1 percent to 178 million 538 thousand U.S. dollars. In the same period last year, the region exported 162 million 82 thousand U.S. dollars of textile products.Officials at the Southeastern Anatolia Exporters' Union, told the A.A correspondent on Wednesday that in the first seven months of the year, they exported 77 million 534 thousand U.S. dollars in thread; 91 million 325 thousand U.S. dollars in cotton fabric; and 9 million 679 thousand U.S. dollars in various textile products. The majority of the goods were exported to Syria, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Jordan, Spain, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, the U.S., Romania, Israel, Portugal, Greece, France, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Russia, Germany and Sweden. [06] FEHRIYE ERDAL TO BE RELEASEDBRUSSELS - Fehriye Erdal, a member of illegal Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) and one of suspects of assasination of businessman Ozdemir Sabanci in 1996, will be released conditionally and temporarily later on Wednesday.The Belgian Interior Ministry said that it decided to release Erdal who had been on hunger strike for 24 days, due to health reasons. Koen Dasse, the Spokesman of Belgian Interior Ministry, stated that the Ministry's decision to release her conditionally, was a temporary decision. Dasse noted that works were underway to send Erdal to a third country. He added that Erdal would be obliged to give a residence address in Belgium and to be under permanent surveillance of the Interior Ministry. [07] FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE -PRESIDENT SEZER TO VISIT QUAKE-STRICKEN AREAANKARA - President Ahmet Necdet Sezer will pay a visit to the quake- stricken area on Thursday on the first anniversary of 7.4-magnitude earthquake which devastated northwestern Turkey on August 17, 1999. President Sezer will be briefed on construction of permanent dwellings in Sakarya province.Later, President Sezer will attend inauguration of ''Kayseri District'' which will be constructed by Kayseri Municipality. He will proceed to Yalova province after wrapping up his visit to Sakarya to visit ''Contemporary Life Prefabricated Huts Region''. Later, President Sezer is expected to left Yalova for Golcuk, and pay a visit to the Fleet Commandership. Sezer will be briefed by the Disaster Coordination Center officials in Kocaeli province. He will also visit tent-cities in the quake-stricken area. President Sezer is expected to return to Ankara later in the same day. [08] SECURITY FORCES CAPTURE 104 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTSNURDAGI- Security forces captured on Wedneday 104 NorthernIraqi people in Nurdagi township of southeastern Gaziantep province who had entered Turkey illegally. The immigrants were taken into custody for violating the Turkish borders and the passport law. Officials told the A.A correspondent that the illegal immigrants would be deported once the legal proceedings were completed. [09] OFFICIAL BALANCE SHEET OF MASSIVE EARTHQUAKES ON AUGUST 17 AND NOVEMBER 12, 1999ANKARA - A total of 18,374 people were killed while 48,901 others were injured in tho massive earthquakes that hit northwestern Turkey on August 17 and November 12, 1999. According to the Natural Disaster Regional Coordination Department of Interior Ministry data, death toll and provinces which affected by the 7.4-magnitude earthquake which devastated Marmara Region on August 17 are as follows:Provinces Death Toll --------- --------- Bursa 268 Eskisehir 86 Istanbul 981 Kocaeli 4,093 Golcuk 5,384 Sakarya 3,891 Yalova 2,504 Zonguldak 3Total : 17,840A total of 43,953 people were injured in the quake disaster. The death toll, number of injured people and provinces affected by the 7.2- magnitude quake on November 12 are as follows: Number of Provinces Death Toll injured people --------- ---------- ------------- Akcakoca 2 96 Beykoy 9 120 Cumayeri - 39 Duzce 478 2,800 Konuralp 34 408 Golyaka 1 68 Gumusova - 34 Cilimli - Kaynasli 314 544 Yigilca - 42 Zonguldak 3 189 Eskisehir 1 Adapazari 4 168 Kocaeli - 27 Golcuk - 34 Yalova 1 25Total: 894 4,948Death toll and number of injured people in the both disasters are as follows: Number of Death Toll injured people ---------- ------------- November 12 894 4,948Total: 18,374 48,901A number of dwellings and business places were damaged in the quake disasters. According to the data, 285,211 dwellings and 42,902 business places suffered damages in the quake. A total of 29 tent-cities erected in the wake of the disasters. 26,729 quake survivors benefited from the tent-cities. A total of 42,616 prefabricated huts were assembled in Kocaeli, Sakarya, Bolu, Duzce and Yalova provinces in order to provide shelters for the quake survivors till construction of permanent dwellings is finalized. Meanwhile, 1,071 earthquakes ranging from 2.5 to 5.9 on the Richter scale were recorded in the first six months of 2000. A total of 3,470 earthquakes occurred in 1999. [10] TWO MILLION PEOPLE MAKE DONATIONS FOR QUAKE SURVIVORS IN TURKEY AND ABROAD IN ONE YEAR FOLLOWING DISASTERANKARA - Two trillion Turkish liras (TL) from the donations which were collected for quake survivors were given as a commission to the Iller Bankasi which is a public institution.A commission formed by inspectors was appointed to inspect the expenses. Commission members who started working in last September completed a big part of their research and they published two separate reports in the Official Gazette about their activities. During this time, the commission scanned all donation accounts one by one. They found about 1,000 accounts at Ziraat Bankasi which were not transferred to the central account. In some cases, even the bank directors were not aware of these accounts. More than 2 million people and institutions deposited around 152 trillion TL at 2,383 accounts in Turkey and 576 accounts abroad. This amount increased to 159 trillion TL with the interest. Iller Bankasi took 1 trillion 925 billion TL part of this money in return of counseling services which caused reactions by the commission. Iller Bankasi General Director Irfan Onal told A.A correspondent that the commission they took was completely in line with the legal regulations. ''The bank is an institution with a private budget,'' Onal explained. ''It meets its expenses without taking money from the Treasury. Our bank undertook to build all the infrastructure in the quake hit region. It is not possible to do this from our budget. We are taking a share in return of controlling and counselling services. This is a legal situation. Iller Bankasi sent its teams to the earthquake area immediately after the disaster and we spent much more than the commission we took.'' After the earthquake, many donation accounts were opened under the supervision of Turkish embassies in 87 countries. These banks sent 8 trillion 242 billion TL, 18 million 434,000 U.S. dollars, 3 million 947,000 German marks, 16 million 752,000 Belgian francs, 992 million 600,000 Japanese yens to the central account at Ziraat Bankasi. Donations which were collected in other countries were also sent to the central account through the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Below are the countries which sent donations for quake survivors in Turkey: Germany, the United States, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Algeria, Czech Republic, the People's Republic of China, Denmark, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Morocco, the Phillipines, Finland, France, South Africa, Georgia, Croatia, India, the Netherlands, Iraq, Britain, Iran, Ireland, Spain, Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Canada, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Cuba, Libya, Lithuania, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Hungary, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Egypt, Mongolia, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Chili, Tailand, Tunusia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Jordan, Vatican, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, New Zealand, Yugoslavia and Greece. [11] CONDITIONAL RELEASE OF FEHRIYE ERDALBRUSSELS- Fehriye Erdal, a member of illegal Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) and one of suspects of assasination of businessman Ozdemir Sabanci in 1996, will be released from Bruges Prison, and kept under custody in a secret house.Lieven Vanmele, the Press Spokesman of Belgian Interior Ministry, said on Wednesday that Erdal would be released from the prison and kept under custody in a secret house. Noting that they were seeking for a third country through the Foreign Ministry, Vanmele said that if they could find such a country, they would sent Erdal immediately. Stressing that the third country would not be a member state to the European Union, Vanmele told reporters that negotiations were continuing with African countries and countries which had not signed extradition agreement with Turkey. [12] INTERNATIONAL NEMRUT FOUNDATION CHAIRMAN CRIJNS SAYS THEY ARE WAITING ORDER FROM CULTURE MINISTRY TO START WORKS TO RESCUE NEMRUTKAHTA/GAZIANTEP - International Nemrut Foundation Chairperson Maurice Crijns said on Wednesday that the meeting they held under the supervision of Culture Ministry Monuments and Museums General Director Dr. Alpay Pasinli raised hopes for the future of Nemrut's ruins.Crijns said they made important progress towards the implementation of a project which aims to save the big god sculptures which belong to Commagene Kingdom on top of the Nemrut Mountain. The Nemrut Mountain is known as the place where the sunrise and sunset can be best watched in the world and UNESCO has added the mountain to its list of World Cultural Heritage. Crijns said they are waiting to be given a task to rescue this unique historical heritage. Together with Crijns, German Archeology Institute Director and International Nemrut Foundation Restoration Project Archeology Department Chairman Prof. Herals Hauptman also attended the meeting in Ankara. Crijns said after struggling for three years, they have come to a very important point to save Nemrut. Noting that there are hundreds of people visiting Nemrut to watch the sunrise and sunset, Crijns said they are waiting for the order of the Culture Ministry to start the project which will help to leave the Nemrut to next generations. ''As the International Nemrut Foundation, we are determined to save the Nemrut with financial support and scientific data. We were pleased to see the supportive attitude of the Culture Ministry in this field. We are resolved to save, restore and leave these objects to next generations,'' Crijns said. Crijns said the equipments that are needed are available in Athens and added that they could start their works this year as soon as the legal procedures are completed. The rescue works are expected to last for a decade. [13] PRIME MINISTER ECEVIT:''MR. PRESIDENT HAS JUST COMPLETED ITS EXAMINATION ABOUT THE INFORMATION NOTE WE SUBMITTED TO HIM ABOUT KHK ON CIVIL SERVANTS''ANKARA - Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Wednesday that the President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has just completed his examination about the information note submitted to him for the second time regarding the Decree Having the Force of Law (KHK) on dismissal of civil servants. Speaking after his meeting with President Sezer which continued for nearly 25 minutes, Ecevit said that he discussed the general problems of the country and he gave information to the President about the quake.Ecevit pointed out that Sezer will go to the quake region tomorrow and make observations there as it is the first anniversary of the Marmara quake, adding ''I can't say anyhing for the issue regarding the KHK for the moment.'' Prime Minister Ecevit pointed out that when the President completes his examination, he will act according to his own appreciation. When asked whether or not he repeated the reasons verbally to the President regarding the submission of the decree to the Presidential office for the second time, Ecevit said ''yes we did that in a degree, but we didn't enter into the details.'' ''Did the President explain you his reservations?'' asked a journalist to Ecevit, who said that ''please don't insist on the details.'' ''We didn't discuss the time. Certainly Mr. President will complete his studies and announce it to the public when he reaches a certain result. He will also inform the cabinet about it.'' ''Mr. Sezer told me that he can meet with me anytime. I told him that I didn't focus on that. I briefly stressed the urgency of the situation regarding the KHK,'' Ecevit said. When asked whether or not the Council of Ministers meeting will be open to the press or not, Ecevit said that ''a detailed information will be given in the opening of the cabinet meeting. Besides a comprehensive book was prepared. It will be submitted to you, too. Later the cabinet will hold its regular meeting. The agenda of this meeting will be the quake.''
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