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Turkish Press Review, 98-06-12
From: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs <http://www.mfa.gov.tr>
12.06.98
Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning
CONTENTS
[01] ANNAN: "BOTH SIDES IN CYPRUS DO NOT ABIDE BY THE COUNCIL'S
WISHES"
[02] CETIN IN SWEDEN
[03] BASESGIOGLU ATTENDS PANEL MEETING IN NEW YORK
[04] TURKEY VOLUNTEERS AS KOSOVO LINK
[05] RUSSIA STARTS SHIPPING S-300 MISSILES TO CYPRUS
[06] FOREIGN MINISTRY RECEIVES FRENCH MESSAGES CAUTIOUSLY
[07] FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES UP
[08] WORLD BANK EXTENDS CREDIT FOR DISASTER AREA
[09] ITALIAN MISSILES FOR GREEK CYPRIOTS
[10] ANNAN: "BOTH SIDES IN CYPRUS DO NOT ABIDE BY THE COUNCIL'S
WISHES"
[11] $270 MILLION WORLD BANK CREDIT
[12] TURKEY TO PRODUCE BUSES IN UZBEKISTAN
[13] ERCEL: "STRUGGLE AGAINST INFLATION HAS BEEN STEPPED UP"
[14] FOREIGN EXCHANGE FROM HAZELNUT EXPORTS REACHES $879 MILLION
[01] ANNAN: "BOTH SIDES IN CYPRUS DO NOT ABIDE BY THE COUNCIL'S
WISHES"
[02] CETIN IN SWEDEN
Turkish Parliament Speaker Hikmet Cetin, who has gone to
Stockholm, Sweden, to attend a Conference of Speakers of the European
Parliament, met with Swedish Foreign Minister Lena Hjelm Wallen and
First Deputy Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Anders Bjorck. In a
statement to journalists about his meetings, Cetin noted that they had
talked about Turco-EU relations and the difficulties being encountered
in those relations. /Cumhuriyet/
[03] BASESGIOGLU ATTENDS PANEL MEETING IN NEW YORK
Turkish Interior Minister Murat Basesgioglu said that drugs
seized in Turkey constituted 60 % of those seized in Europe and 40 %
of those seized in the whole world. Basesgioglu, who recently
represented Turkey at a UN summit for the struggle against drugs in
New York, attended a panel meeting organized by the American-Turkish
Journalists' Association. He noted that the PKK terrorist
organization had a huge network, which included narcotics trafficking
in Europe and, said that in recent months the PKK had also been
involved in illegal refugee movement to European countries.
Basesgioglu stressed that narcotics trafficking and terrorism were
closely connected to each other and he blamed Western countries for
not revealing information about those involved in drug trafficking in
European countries. /Cumhuriyet/
[04] TURKEY VOLUNTEERS AS KOSOVO LINK
Turkey has stated that it will contribute to a NATO intervention
if the Kosovo problem is not solved through dialogue. Turkish Foreign
Minister Ismail Cem sent a letter to the term-president of the Western
Contact Group (WCG) and British Foreign Minister Robin Cook and
proposed that a communications mechanism should be established between
the WCG and regional countries. A WCG meeting will be held in London
today. Meanwhile Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ambassador Necati
Utkan held a press conference yesterday and recalled that the defense
ministers of NATO countries had convened in Brussels to review the
Kosovo problem and discuss the issue of military intervention.
Utkan said: "We have expressed our wish to establish a mechanism
that will provide a powerful flow of information and that this view of
ours, as well as the outcome of the Istanbul meeting concerning
Kosovo, be presented also to the other ministers of the Contact
Group". He also noted that the clause concerning Kosovo could not be
put into the final declaration of the Istanbul meeting, 'due to the
objections of the Yugoslav delegation at the meeting and which have
announced under the title of the Chairman's Summary'". /All papers/
[05] RUSSIA STARTS SHIPPING S-300 MISSILES TO CYPRUS
According to high level diplomatic and military sources in
Ankara, Russia has started transferring S-300 missiles to the Greek
Cypriot Administration. Three delegations of Russian military experts
arrived in Cyprus to prepare the bases for the missiles including
control panels and five radars, sent to the island as the first step.
Russia has transported the supplies via a number of ships which were
interchanged at several Mediterranean ports. /Hurriyet/
[06] FOREIGN MINISTRY RECEIVES FRENCH MESSAGES CAUTIOUSLY
Speaking during his weekly press conference, Foreign Ministry
Spokesman Necati Utkan said yesterday that his ministry had doubts
about French messages which declared that a draft resolution about an
alleged massacre of Armenians by Turks during World War I, will not be
brought to the agenda of the French Senate. Utkan also declared that
all the agreements with French firms slated to sell defence equipment
to Turkey had been suspended following the approval of the draft
resolution in the French Parliament.
Also reacting against the draft resolution is the Turkish
Associations' Union in France which declared yesterday that its
members will march in Invalides Square, Paris, on June 20 to protest
the draft resolution. /Hurriyet/
[07] FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES UP
Central Bank foreign exchange reserves increased by $656 million
over the last week and reached over $26 billion, setting a new record.
/Hurriyet/
[08] WORLD BANK EXTENDS CREDIT FOR DISASTER AREA
In a letter to Turkish Foreign Minister Mesut Yilmaz, World Bank
president James D. Wolfenson states that the bank plans to extend
$100 miilion in credit to help relieve people in the Western Black Sea
region where a devastating flood occurred in May. /Hurriyet/
[09] ITALIAN MISSILES FOR GREEK CYPRIOTS
The Greek Cypriot Administration is launching initiatives to
bring Italian ASPIS-330 missiles to southern Cyprus. These highly
developed missiles with a 150-km range are expected to be brought to
the island in the forthcoming weeks.
Meanwhile, President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
(TRNC) Rauf Denktas said in a statement regarding the missiles that
with a missile agreement made with the Greek Cypriot Administration,
Italy was supporting an anti-Turkish policy together with Head of the
Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin. Turkish Foreign Ministry officials
also warned the Italian government and called for the annulment of the
missile order. /Cumhuriyet/
[10] ANNAN: "BOTH SIDES IN CYPRUS DO NOT ABIDE BY THE COUNCIL'S
WISHES"
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has stated that the two sides on
Cyprus are not complying with the demands made by the Security Council
to reduce their military spending and the number of soldiers on the
island. Annan said: "The Greek Cypriot Administration is insistent
on the deployment of Russian-made S-300 missiles despite Turkish and
Turkish Cypriot protests. Annan, who has sent a request to the
Security Council for the extension of the deployment of the peace
force on the island, noted that the Greek Cypriot Administration would
abandon their missile project if development was achieved in
negotiations for the solution to the Cyprus problem or for a total
disarmament on the island. /Cumhuriyet/
RED CRESCENT CELEBRATES ITS 131st ANNIVERSARY
Kizilay, the Turkish Red Crescent Association, is celebrating its
131st anniversary. Kizilay General Manager Kemal Demir held a press
conference yesterday to mark the occasion and discuss the group's
ongoing projects. Demir told reporters that Turkey this year had
already endured six floods, three landslides, and four earthquakes
and, in response to these disasters, Kizilay had contributed TL 458.2
billion to emergency relief funds. In addition to the money donated
for domestic relief, Demir said the fund has given TL 85 billion for
humanitarian aid abroad. /All papers/
[11] $270 MILLION WORLD BANK CREDIT
The Executive Board of the World Bank has approved a $270 million
credit to Turkey to be used for beefing-up the capacity of national
energy lines. According to World Bank officials, the credit will be
used in the construction of transformer units and cable conduction
lines. The credit, interest free for the first four years, will be
paid back in 17 years. /Sabah/
[12] TURKEY TO PRODUCE BUSES IN UZBEKISTAN
Turkish Koc Corp. and Uzbek Uzavtoprom joint investment will
produce buses and lorries in Samarkand. Joint venture capital is
declared as $47.5 million. Deputy chairman of the venture, Suleyman
Urakov said that they aimed to produce 300 vehicles by the end of 1998
and 500 in 1999. He added that following 2000 the number would be
increased to four thousand a year. The project will be the second
biggest vehicle producer in Uzbekistan. /Sabah/
[13] ERCEL: "STRUGGLE AGAINST INFLATION HAS BEEN STEPPED UP"
Head of the Central Bank, Gazi Ercel, said that they would more
strictly apply monetary, rate of exchange and interest policies in the
last third of the year to sustain the downward trend in inflation.
Ercel, who met with the deputy chairman of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), Stanley Fischer and the European Director of the IMF,
Michael Deppler last weekend in Istanbul, said that they had already
intensified measures to maintain the decrease in inflation. /Sabah/
[14] FOREIGN EXCHANGE FROM HAZELNUT EXPORTS REACHES $879 MILLION
Turkey obtained a total of $879 million in foreign exchange from
hazelnut exports during the 1997-1998 export season starting on
September 1, 1997, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.
Officials from the Black Sea Hazelnut Exporters' Union said that they
had exported 193 thousand 991 tons of hazelnuts and that nearly 178
thousand tons of these exports had gone to European countries. They
noted that they expected foreign exchange income would reach $1
billion by August 31, 1998, the last day of the 1997-1998 export
season.
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