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Anadolu Agency: News in English, 01-12-25Anadolu Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Anadolu Agency Home Page at <http://www.anadoluajansi.com.tr/>Anadolu AgencyANADOLU AGENCY NEWS 25 December 2001 Tuesday CONTENTS
[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCANThese are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkey's press on December 25, 2001. The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.HURRIYET (LIBERAL)MINISTER WHO ALLOWS SNATCHING OF LEADING ROLE GOESDeputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli dismissed State Minister Abdulhaluk Mehmet Cay who caused snatching of ''leadership role'' by former President Suleyman Demirel at the Turkish Convention. Cay, a state minister from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), organized the 9th Turkish Convention under the auspices of Suleyman Demirel as MHP leader Devlet Bahceli had not allocated fund to the convention due to the economic crisis. LEADERS FAIL TO REACH AGREEMENT ON ''ADJUSTMENT'' TURKISH OFFICERS AT AFGHAN HEADQUARTERS TURKEY SAVES DAMASCUS MILLIYET (LIBERAL)BAHCELI MAKES CAY GO VERY FASTState Minister Abdulhaluk Mehmet Cay angered his leader Devlet Bahceli who earlier insisted on not removing Transportation Minister Enis Oksuz and Public Works and Settlement Minister Koray Aydin from their offices. Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Bahceli did not forgive Cay's political mistake and he dismissed Cay who organized Turkish Convention together with former President Suleyman Demirel. MHP'S CONCERNS TO BE REMOVED MINIMUM WAGE: 183 MILLION LIRAS SABAH (LIBERAL)HERE PEOPLE'S OPINIONSA public survey carried out by the Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen (TUSIAD) revealed that people lost their confidence in politicians: ''election system is bad, all political parties are the same and politicians follow business.'' The survey gives the message that necessary reforms should be made as soon as possible because, ''80 percent of people attended the public survey thinks that election and political parties system is bad. 89 percent of them believes that parties are defending interests of their supporters and follow their business. 80 percent of them says that there is not any difference between all political parties. 86 percent of them thinks political parties do not represent people. 85 percent of them believes that casting votes to a candidate although people do not approve and like, constitutes an important reason for lack of interest in politics. 84 percent of them thinks that there is not democratic functioning in political parties. 78 percent of them are bothered of seeing same leaders. 61 percent of them thinks that leadership is dominant in political parties. 84 percent of them believes that political parties are managed with dictatorship. 80 percent of them wants publicly announcement of donations made to political parties. 80 percent of them thinks political immunity should be lifted. 86 percent of them believes that the main reason for the currently existing problems, is the election system. 63 percent of them believes that this election system would not allow a political party to come to power alone in near future. 66 percent of them thinks that Turkey would be governed by a coalition for a few years more. 72 percent of them believes that coalition governments would not be successful and 62 percent of them opposes to abolition of ten percent election threshold.'' CUMHURIYET (LEFT)ALSO TURKEY TO BE AFFECTEDExperts think that borrowing costs of emerging markets would increase in coming period. Koc Holding's head Rahmi Koc called on the government to give careful attention to expenditure of 10 billion U.S. dollars of IMF loan by taking the Argentina example into consideration. Prof. Dr. Erinc Yeldan stressed that following the latest developments, both the Turkish finance sector and Treasury would face the danger of borrowing with higher costs. PURSE-SNATCHERS STAB A GIRL RADIKAL (LEFT)REPUBLIC OF FOUNDATIONSPublic institutions obtain trillions Turkish liras (TL) of non-budgetary source by offering their regular services by collecting money through foundations. Health, security, justice, public registration and traffic services, procedures and transactions are the main sources of income of foundations. 412 of the 4,571 foundations belong to the state. National Education Ministry has 215, Prime Ministry has 51, Health Ministry has 43 and Interior Minstry has 31 foundations while only 65 inspectors supervise these foundations. Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Mesut Yilmaz said public and state foundations should be closed down. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said that tradition of foundation should continue while President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said that re-intrepretation of foundation understanding was obligatory. TURKIYE (RIGHT)LOTTERY MADNESSThe National Lottery's good luck inspired citizens who are distressed by the economic crisis, with hope. People who buy lottery tickets madly have a burning desire for the 5 trillion Turkish liras (TL) of prize money which will be give to only one person. Citizens who form long queues in front of ticket sellers say, ''this is our only hope.'' People have spent 56 trillion TL on tickets while the total prize money will be 33 trillion 95 billion TL. JAPANESE GIRL KUNI NOT LIKE CANDIDATES X-FILES SENDS LETTER TO ECEVIT ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)TURKISH MEN WANT TO MARRY FOREIGN WOMENSocial sensitivities of Turkish men are gradually being changed. Each year, 20 thousand Turkish brides ahd bridegrooms go especially to Germany, and two-thirds of this number are the bridegrooms who take offense at living with his wife's parents. PEOPLE LIVING IN METROPOLIS TO PAY MORE TAX -DISMISSAL OF STATE MINISTER CAY PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL GAZETTE In accordance with the decision, State Minister Faruk Bal will act as the State Minister for Relations With Turkic Republics until an appointment. -IRANIAN MAJLES SPEAKER KARUBI DUE TO TURKEY State Minister Mehmet Kececiler who is in Tehran to attend the Turkish- Iranian Joint Economic Commission (JEC) 16th term meetings and accompanying parliamentarians met with Turkish-Iranian Interparliamentary Friendship Group Co-Chairman Ali Aqbar Agahi. Speaking to the A.A correspondent, Kececiler said that Iranian Majles Speaker Mahdavi Karubi would visit Turkey in first half of January. Noting that the date of Karubi's official visit had not become clear yet, Kececiler said that Agahi would organize the schedule. Kececiler said that development of relations between the Turkish and Iranian parliaments and removal of obstacles in front of improvement of bilateral commercial relations had been discussed at the meeting, and that Agahi had told them that he would personally follow the Iranian Majles' taking necessary steps to this end. Kececiler said they had stated at the meeting that infrastructure of transportation should be formed within framework of the Organization for Economic Cooperation (OIC), enabling formation of an economic bloc among OIC member states like the European Union (EU) and that Turkey and Iran which were founding members of OIC had important responsibilities to this end. State Minister Kececiler said they had proposed organization of train tours by the two countries for transportation of containers and cooperation in issue of Istanbul-Tehran-Tashkent train tours. -MINIMUM WAGE FIXING COMMISSION TO HOLD ITS SIXTH MEETING ON WEDNESDAY At the previous meetings, the commission decided to fix a single new minimum wage for manufacturing and agriculture sectors and set a different minimum wage for the workers below 16 years of age. The commission also conveyed its recommendatory decision on exemption of half of the new minimum wage from tax to the government. Meanwhile, it was claimed that the State Institute of Statitstics (DIE) had calculated the new gross minimum was as 251 million Turkish liras (TL). The gross minimum wage is now 167 million 940 thousand TL and net minimum wage is 122 million 186 thousand 520 TL. -STATE PLANNING ORGANIZATION EXPECTS POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS IN GDP IN Q4 DPT said that it expected that developments in the gross domestic product (GDP) and its sub-categories would be more positive as a result of the optimistic atmosphere in November. The latest monthly report of the DPT stressed that special consumption in the third quarter of 2001 reduced by 9.4 percent due to the increasing atmosphere of uncertainty, umployment and decreasing real wages after the February crisis. According to the report, the decrease in special consumption in 2001 reached the minimum level in the second quarter and there was a relative revival in the third quarter. The atmosphere of uncertainty and difficulties caused by economic crises deeply affected the special consumption expenditures more than the private fixed capital investment expenditures. Decreases in production and sales of durable consumer goods in October increase the expectation of a revival in the economy in the last quarter. According to the statistics of the Exporters Associations, total exports in October and November rose by 20.2 and 17.6 percent respectively, increasing the total exports in the January-November period 15 percent to 28.6 billion U.S. dollars. According to the DPT's report, the net capital inflow excluding the reserves was 10.9 billion U.S. dollars in the January-September period of 2000 while there was net 10.6 billion U.S. dollars of outflow in the same period of 2001. Although there was 2.1 billion U.S. dollars of direct investment inflow in the same period, there was 7.9 billion U.S. dollars of short term capital outflow and 4 billion U.S. dollars of portfolio investment outflow. There had been a 6 billion U.S. dollars of net portfolio investment inlfow in first nine months of 2000 while there was 4 billion U.S. dollars of net portfolio investment outflow in the same period of 2001. There had been 2.9 billion U.S. dollars of net long term capital inflow in first nine months of 2000 while there was 885 million U.S. dollars of net long term capital outflow in the same period this year. There was 381 million U.S. dollars of net capital inflow excluding reserves in September. A total of 2 quadrillion 656 trillion Turkish liras (TL) of money was obtained through external borrowings in first ten months of 2001 while total external debt principa payments was 6 quadrillion 139 trillion TL. The average maturity in domestic borrowing auction held in the first ten months of the year reduced to 142 days while the average composite interest rate increased to 103.4 percent. -ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY UNDERSECRETARY GIL'S VISIT TO TURKEY POSTPONED Gil was scheduled to pay a visit to Ankara on December 26. Sources said that Gil's visit had been postponed as Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres needed him. A new schedule would be set for Gil's visit to Ankara under the light of developments in the region. Gil was scheduled to meet with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal within framework of his contacts in Ankara. -TWO SYRIAN DEPUTY MINISTERS IN ISTANBUL Speaking to reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, Balat said that they would attend a conference at the Bogazici University (BU) on Wednesday as speakers and explain the relations between Turkey and Syria. ''I believe that we would further develop our relations with a new understanding.'' Noting that Turkish-Syrian relations had a one thousand year-history, Balat said, ''we have many things and factors in common. With this respect, I believe that we can do and achieve many things in favor of our peoples. We were late to fulfil these, but we will compensate them and develop our bilateral relations. I believe that all problems will be solved and our relations will be developed through dialogue.'' Meanwhile, Omar Karmo said that the best way to develop relations was to set up close cultural relations. Karmo said that the Syrian Higher Education Minister would visit Turkey in March and hold contacts on further development of relations between the Turkish and Syrian universities. Recalling that many Syrian students were studying at universities in Turkey, Karmo said they were pleased with education and successes of Syrian students at Turkish universities. -BRSA RELEASES ASSESSMENT REPORT ABOUT BANKING SECTOR Releasing an assessment report about the banking sector, the BRSA noted, ''as the economic activity has been continuing to narrow in the third quarter of the year, monthly price increases purified from the seasonal impacts, were higher than expected.'' ''A great progress has been recorded in performance criteria about finance and monetary policies within the framework of the economic program in the July-September period of the year. Interest rates decreased generally throughout the period except the delays in some structural reform in early July following the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001,'' it said. The report added that performance of the banking sector improved in the July-September period of 2001 after interest rates decreased and foreign currency positions dropped considerably. -C-130 TYPE CARGO PLANE HITS ENGINE BUILDING IN KAYSERI Sources told the A.A correspondent that the left wing of the C-130 cargo plane hit the nearby engine building as officials were trying to take it to the hangar for maintenance. Fire-fighting teams extinguished the fire before spreading to fuselage. An engineer was slightly injured in the accident. -TURKEY'S PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO EU AKYOL ASSESSES 2001 (1) When asked his views about the goal of the EU, Akyol said that the EU will become a significant power within the coming decade. ''A focus of power will come out after sorting out problems within itself, and by protecting its nation-state character and using the advantages of joint administration in many fields,'' said Akyol. ''EU will speak as a single voice in economic and financial issues in the international society and it will act as an element of balance in diplomatic field regarding the protection of strategic interests valid in the new world order,'' he said. He said observers say that the Union has many advantages in turning into a new focus of power, listing these advantages as respect to human rights, democratic administration order and the solidarity among its members. Noting that certain states within EU can act with the goal of a faster integration and these ''key states'' can take initiative to develop special integration models outside EU, Akyol said that EU which will become bigger as a result of the enlargement process can turn into a ''region centered'' structure. Such a development can bring advantages for Turkey, he stressed. EU came to a new turning point with the decisions it took at Laeken summit, said Akyol and noted that ''the Convention which will start its studies in March will prepare the necessary institutional reforms to better administer the Union, will direct the legal infrastructure necessary for new stages of the enlargement and seek an answer to the question 'what kind of a union will EU be?' and clarify the discussion on the final target of the EU. In my opinion the Union will be re-defined, it will maintain its nation-state character and will have a structure to which Turkey will easily adjust.'' An important character of the EU will be to represent the European continent, Akyol said and commented that the EU will take place of former institutions like NATO which were founded following the Second World War. If Turkey can't join the EU, there can be negative developments for Turkey such as: ''-The central position of NATO in the international security atmosphere erodes. In spite of the gurantees we can achieve, if Turkey stayed out of the European Security and Defense Identity (ESDP), it could not prevent certain initiatives. Yet we have assured the necessary guarantees today. -EU which started to show itself in the Balkans, Russia, and the Caucasus, can restrict Turkey's activities in these geographies in a certain aspect. -Turkey can also be exposed to the threat of losing market and foreign source in economic and commercial field, adding that the customs union can negatively be affected from this atmosphere. It is not very possible for Turkey to compensate this by making trade with third countries. -Finally member states can ignore implementing integration policies for Turkish citizens living in their territories.'' -TURKEY'S PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO EU AKYOL ASSESSES 2001 (2) Akyol said, ''relations between Turkey and the EU were put on the right track at the Helsinki Summit Meeting in 1999. Since then, Turkey has taken many steps within framework of preparations for the full membership. However, some developments occurred in the same period leading us to think that Turkey's status was different from the other candidates. Some of these developments were that Turkey was excluded during the Nice Summit Meeting and we were not invited to some meetings.'' ''Having regard to that enlargement negotiations with other candidates will be almost finalized in 2002, our government launched a series of initiatives to improve our relations with the EU on the basis of Turkey's target to become a full member of the EU. Turkey asked the EU to put forward a more clear and frank membership perspective. Our initiatives aimed at recording progress in our full membership process as soon as possible,'' he noted. Stressing that the Laeken Summit Meeting held between December 14 and 15, yielded important results, Akyol said, ''first of these developments was that heads of state and government of the EU countries signed a paragraph saying, 'Turkey has made progress towards complying with the political criteria established for accession, in particular through the recent amendment of its constitution. This has brought forward the prospect of the opening of accession negotiations with Turkey.' This attribution to the beginning of the full membership negotiations shows that both sides have begun to overcome an obstacle having political and psychological characteristics. Meanwhile, the Article 12 of the Final Declaration of the Laeken Summit Meeting will constitute a beneficial elemet of pressure on public opinions and governments of member countries and on the EU Commission and the European Parliament in regard to our final goal.'' ''According to my point of view, constitutional amendment package approved by our parliament was one of the most important developments leading heads of state and government of EU countries to talk about beginning of full membership negotiations with Turkey. On the other hand, acceleration in our foreign policy on the issues of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) and the Cyprus question helped the EU leaders to take this decision, '' he noted. ''The second important development at the Laeken Summit Meeting was the decision to include Turkey in the convention within framework of the same conditions and rights with other candidate countries. Our country will join actively the discussions about the future of Europe. Also, Turkey will participate in a work that will have positive impacts on our full membership process. The decision about Turkey's inclusion in the convention was a development strengthening our full membership persective,'' he said. Noting that Turkey's flexibility on the issue of the ESDP was appreciated by member countries to the EU, Akyol said, ''although the expected progress cannot be recorded as a result of Greece's attitude, it is striking that the member countries had supported our full membership process within political framework.'' Nihat Akyol added that results of the Laeken Summit Meeting revealed that Turkey had been recording important progress in its relations with the EU. -TURKEY'S PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO EU AKYOL ASSESSES 2001 (3) Quoting Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit as saying after his arrival from Belgium that the Turkish government was determined to take necessary steps for the EU full membership, Akyol said, ''Prime Minister Ecevit gave the message that the reform progress which was started in political and economic fields would continue without any interruptions. I believe that we could make additional reforms including the new constitutional amendment package and the adjustment laws, in the first three months of 2002. This will constitute an important opportunity to accelerate our full membership process. In that case, the EU countries may extend a new and more sound support to Turkey during the Association Council envisaged to be held end- April of 2002. Earlier, Spain stated that it would expend efforts to further strengthen existing dynamic in our relations with the EU during its term presidency.'' ''During this period, works to be carried out in cooperation with the EU Commission will be of great importance. We will start the new year by making a balance sheet of the Pre-Accession Strategy at the Association Committee. We have to expend more efforts to put into practice some parts of this strategy like financial cooperation,'' he said. Akyol said that the first year in implementation of the Accession Partnership and National Programme for Adoption of Acquis (NPAA) will be completed in April, adding that ''Turkey has to encourage EU's starting full membership negotiations with Turkey by the 2002 Year Progress Report to be written by the EU Commission in Fall and it has to undertake additional structural reforms to this end. I think it will be beneficial if the EU Commission states its suggestion about the date of the negotiations with Turkey by putting forward certain conditions just like it did for other candidate states in the past.'' Recalling that the EU Commission said in the Turkey Progress Report published in November last year that a new period would start for implementation of the Pre-accession Strategy for Turkey, Akyol indicated that Turkey would launch efforts to put this commitment into practice. ''The issues of the progress to be recorded by Turkey for full membership perspective in 2002 and the Cyprus issue will tried to be sorted out together. The 1960 Treaties has clear provisions on the issue. A formula has to be found which will protect our rights and legitimate interests in Cyprus and which does not close the way to Turkey's full membership. Yet I would like to stress that a 'give and take' relation can't be founded between these two important issues,'' he said. Akyol ended his words saying that ''Turkey helped the EU in taking an important decision in Laeken summit with its increasing geopolitical importance, with its strong will to become a full member and without damaging its national interests. Now, Turkey has to attribute importance to harmony with the EU with a concrete calendar and performance. The target in 2002 should be to fix the date on which full membership negotiations would start. I believe that we will succeed in that.''
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