AS SEEN FROM NATO BY NILGUN CERRAHOGLU (CUMHURIYET)
After Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's statement," The high rates of interest which the IMF criticized is the result of the fluctuating exchange rates which they proposed to us.", the Central Bank Governor Sureyya Serdengecti and the Treasury Undersecretary Faik Oztrak visited him. While Serdengecti informed the Prime Minister about the foreign exchanges, Oztrak also did so about the debt management. Meanwhile, Ecevit said, "My statement has been misunderstood. Our promises on the program will be kept. There will be no concession of the program. However, we need a better mutual understanding." /Sabah/
Israeli Minister of Defense Binyamin Ben Eliezer will come to Turkey today for a one-day visit. Reportedly, Elizer will present new proposals to Ankara on matters of strengthening Turkish-Israeli security relations. /Turkiye/
Azerbaijan Parliament Speaker Murtuz Aleskerov will arrive to Turkey today, as the official guest of Parliament Speaker Omer Izgi. The Azerbaijani delegation will attend several meetings during their five days in Turkey. The Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker first will meet with Omer Izgi in Parliament today, and will participate in a dinner to be given by Omer Izgi in his honor. The delegation members will visit the True Path Party (DYP) Chairwoman Tansu Ciller, state Ministers and Deputy Prime Ministers Mesut Yilmaz and Devlet Bahceli, on July 10. Aleskerov will be received by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on the same date. /Turkish News/
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is scheduled on Tuesday to make the final review of a complaint filed by members of the defunct Welfare Party (RP), the Anatolia News Agency reports. ECHR will not immediately disclose its ruling, but is expected to announce it in the last week of July. /All papers/
Ambassador Volkan Vural, the Prime Minister's Secretary-General for EU Affairs, said Turkey is at the half-way point in terms of the EU membership. Stating that teh first goal concerning the European Union was full membership negotiations, Vural said Turkey has been working to fulfill the requirements for this. In remarks to the Anatolia News Agency in Gaziantep, Vural said that after accomplishing the needs for full membership negotiations, Turkey will have more experience than other candidate states. /Turkish Daily News/
The Constitutional Court is expected to begin the reviewing process of the requests filed by various local courts to have certain articles in the Conditional release and Sentence Postponement Law cancelled. The initial review of the requests is to take place on Jul.10. If the requests are found to be valid and the relevant provisions of the amnesty are cancelled, the scope of the amnesty will be broadened. Anybody still in prison under the terms of these articles will be released and trials still in progress will be conditionally postponed. /Turkish Daily News/
A government committee of jurists presented a draft of a new Criminal Code to the Minister of Justice Hikmet Sami Turk. The draft introduces novel amendments to the Turkish Criminal Code (TCK) and, in addition to many things, abolishes capital punishment, defines "genocide" as a crime for the first time and increases punishment for torture. According to Turk, who spoke at a ceremony on the occasion of the presentation of the draft by the committee, the draft is meant to simplify the language of the TCK, and to overhaul the definition and length of crimes to update them. /All papers/
The attempts to reach a solution in the problem of Telekom Management which resulted in a crisis between the IMF and Turkey have entered a new phase and accelerated after Minister of State Kemal Dervis returned from Washington. Dervis met with bureaucrats from economical sector in Ankara soon after his arrival. Dervis had said in Washington, "I think we might reach a solution on Monday but I cannot say anything definite for the moment." Last night, Dervis met with Treasury Undersecretary Faik Oztrak, Central Bank Governor Sureyya Serdengecti and Banking Regulation and Supervision Board (BDDK) Chairman Engin Akcakoca. /Cumhuriyet/
The Chairman of the Turkish Young Businessmen Association, Muharrem Yilmaz supported State Minister Kemal Dervis for his activities. Stressing that the government should first ensure the state financial equilibrium and keep stand in the banking sector, Yilmaz said the short term debth burden should be spread to a long term. Emphasizing that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans are important for other financial sources to trust Turkey, Yılmaz said politicians should act and speak very carefully in a period that is of vital importance for Turkey. /Turkiye/
The Treasury will carry out a TL 500- trillion borrowing auction for eight months tomorrow.
Meanwhile, it will hold a repayment on Wednesday for TL 1.468 quadrillion. /Milliyet/
Turkey begins to pick up fruits from the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) for which Turkey allocated a big share for it from her budget. From the dams in scope of the GAP about $10.6-billion energy was obtained by the end of this past June. Meanwhile, recently, a diversity in the agricultural production is observed in the region. /Turkiye/
An important step was taken for the realization of the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. The international tender opened for detailed engineering studies for the pipeline was won by a consortium led by a German company.The detailed engineering studies will be undertaken by a consortium of German ILF and Turkish engineering companies Yuksel-Temel-Su. An expenditure of $16 million will be made for the detailed engineering works, which is said to be the most important part of the construction. /Turkish Daily News/
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), which manufactures the F-16 Fighting Falcon licensed by General Dynamics, as well as playing a major role in the planning process for Turkey's military and civilian aerospace projects, is to be one of the main participants in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)project. The JSF is one of the worlds most promising fighter-ground attack aircraft and will have the speed of the F-15 Eagle, the agility of the F-16 Falcon, the operations ability of the F-18 Hornet and some of the unique talents of the AV-8 Harrier, all of which it is designed to replace. Work on the project began in 1998 and once the preliminary engineering and production development studies have been completed, the winning company and actual aircraft design will be announced in November 2001. /Turkish Daily News/
The Bosch Industry and Commerce will make new investments in Turkey. The Company is expected to invest DM 875 million in the new facility to be built in Bursa by 2004. The number of people employed by the Bosch Company is expected to reach 4,700. Bosch's Director General Dr. Klus Peter Fouquet said, "We sell products to international producers. The purchase volume of these companies would not be affected by the regional crises such as the recent one in Turkey." /Sabah/
For the first half of this year, the EU countries have been the group of countries which Turkey exported the most. The number of exports to the EU countries reached $8 billion 130 million by increasing 13.4 %. Italy, France and Germany are the countries which Turkey exported the most. /Sabah/
The Minister of Tourism Erkan Mumcu said over the weekend that Turkey should increase its tourism target to 13 million visitors this year. Mumcu said that 5 million tourists had visited Turkey in the first half of this year, some 21.9 percent higher than when we compared to the same period of last year. He said Turkey was competing very well with other Mediterranean countries. "We are expecting to reap $10 billion in tourism revenues, but there is no reason why this could not be increased to $20 billion." /Turkish News/
A delegation of 80 French businessmen from the French Businessmen's Associaton (MEDEF) will pay a visit to Turkey on Wednesday. The Co-Chairman of the Turkish-French Businessmen's Council Louis Schweitzer is also the Head of the Renault Company.
The MEDEF aims at strengthening the relations between Turkey and France which have
deteriorated following the so-called Armenian genocide law which was approved by France. /Hurriyet/
The Ministry of Culture has allocated some 1.5 trillion TL from its budget to restore historical structures in Diyarbakir, the Anatolia News Agency reports. The Diyarbakir Rampart is the second longest rampart in the world after the Great Wall in China. Some 360 billion TL of the 1.5 trillion TL restoration budget will be spent on the Keci Tower repair works. Another 200 billion TL will be spent on the Haburman Bridge and the Behram Pasha Mansion. /All papers/
The Second Agirnas Culture and Tourism Festival was held in Agırnas, Kayseri. Istanbul Greek Patriarch Bartholomeos, accompanied by a delegation of 40, also joined the festival. Bartholomeos said they are trying to strengthen the friendship between Turkey and Greece. /Turkiye/
Trabzon's Surmele tonwship's, Camburnu district beach, has won the first Blue Flag of the Black Sea. This award is given by Europe's Environment Education Foundation to clean beaches and marinas every year, the Anatolia News Agency reports. The Governor of Trabzon Adil Yazar said in the presentation of the Blue Flag that he was very pleased for Camburnu. /All papers/
New houses in Karamursel's Inebeyli village, which were restored or built by the Netherlands' aid institution Cordaid after the Marmara earthquake in 1999, were delivered to their owners, the Anatolia News Agency reports. Kocaeli Deputy Governor Fahri Keser expressed his thanks to Cordaid and the Dutch people for their support to the project. /All papers/
The Zeugma Web site designed by the Gaziantep Chamber of Industry (GSO) is being visited by an increasing number of people. The Web site contains over 500 pages, over 100 photographs and maps, and historical information for the visitors. The site promotes Zeugma via articles, essays, poems and stories. It received the best content design award at the 2000 Web Design Contest organized by the Yildiz Teknik University. The address is the following: http://www.zeugmaweb.com /Cumhuriyet/
The historical Haskoy Dockyard was included to the Rahmi M. Koc Museum after being restored. The new part of the museum was opened on July 5. /Cumhuriyet/
Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna comments on relations between Turkey and the IMF. A summary of his column is as follows:
"Certainly the IMF carries half the blame for the economic crisis, which has been going on close to six months. The other half of the responsibility lies with the Government and its incapable bureaucrats and circles nourished by high profits. The US $, or foreign exchange for that matter could not have a fixed price more than a few months. The first IMF program was prepared contrary to this principle. We liked the idea of decreasing the rate of inflation as soon as possible. However, Turkey crashed into the hard wall of economy.
The second program was prepared completely in contrast with the principles mentioned in the first IMF Program. Tacitly, it was stated that the first program was wrong. We could not guess that keeping the dollar under its value could not drop the rate of inflation, that our economy would run into trouble and give more chance to opportunists. The rate of inflation could be decreased by savings made in the budget, reducing the number of civil servants and paying them more salaries than workers, implementing privatization, taking out all State Economic Enterprises from being sources of trouble for the nation and State. It is necessary to pass on to a free market economy from a strict socialist, etatist economy. All obstacles standing in way of foreign capital should be abolished.
It is necessary to be able to take out the underground economy to surface and tax them, to punish those who are the champions in earning high profits from interests and repo. In brief, we must pass to a modern, democratic system working without a hitch leaving Oriental mentality aside. In the words of the Prime Minister, we must come out by arranging Telekom and solving the IMF crisis from the week we entered with the veto on the tobacco bill. We should not give letters of intent any more in minute detail or distribute money with populist policies. Let us continue with the enactment of the reform bills and reach a state where we would not be in need of the IMF."
Columnist Nilgun Cerrahoglu writes on Turkey's relations with NATO. A summary of her column is as follows:
"During our visit to NATO as the guest of the Turkish-Atlantic Council we got the impression that everyone believes Turkey has to be realistic, should not force her hand in bargaining and go on harping on the issue any longer. An important part of our meetings were made on the European Security and Defense Identity, which closely concerned Turkey. ESDI is a new concept for the Turkish public. It is a new structure formed within the framework of the EU with the mission of policing the world. The ESDI will come into the fore regarding issues where the EU wants to take initiatives independent from the US. Within this structure, there is a question of loss and uncertainty for Turkey who is not yet a member of the EU and therefore is excluded from the decision-making mechanisms of the ESDI. Turkey who was integrated into the defense systems of the West can be considered an excluded and lonely state in operations, which do not concern NATO. Therefore, Ankara wants to put the breaks on the ESDI process. Even though the US is not eager for the formation of such a structure, she seems to support the ESDI for now not to alienate the EU countries. At the point reached, the NATO circles are saying, 'Be realistic. The EU is an important power today. For the first time in its history, it has larger economic opportunities than the US. ESDI is nothing more, but the reflection of this reality in security and foreign policy areas. Resisting ESDI would
break the ties between NATO and the ESDI, and lead to a search for totally independent defense structure. The US would not like the choice of such an alternative. ESDI under the umbrella of NATO is in Turkey's interests. Turkey will not have any say in ESDI completely independent from NATO. Therefore, you have to reach a compromise and should not insist on conflicts.'
A NATO official said in brief that Turkey could not become a member of the EU by clashing on the issue of ESDI. Turkey is right in her concerns. However, she has to know where to stop in bargaining. If you extend the process too long, then the results may be contrary to what you have wanted. The compromise point is increasing the number of consultation meetings with the EU member countries and allies who are not members. Within the framework of a compromise, the ESDI is required to give guarantees not to enter operations against Turkey's strategic interests and recognize equal rights with the other EU countries to Turkey in operations it has invited Turkey to participate in ESDI. In case ESDI wants to utilize the NATO facilities in Turkey, it has to give additional guarantees to Turkey.
This is a cooperation, which relies on mutual trust. The most difficult problem for Turkey, who has experienced crises of trust with the EU, is focused on this point. Experts say it will be ten years before the project can be implemented. When seen from Brussels' point of view, the only alternative for Turkey seems to be either being engaged in the EU membership or reviewing her defense strategy altogether. Everyone accepts the fact that Turkey's fears are not groundless. However, a new world is being constructed just beside us, and it is a new world, which cannot be understood or overcome by the cold war parameters. "
