A NEW PERIOD IN IRAQ
BY TURKER ALKAN (RADIKAL)
Addressing his party’s group meeting yesterday, Prime
Minister and Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey could never allow a
chaos in its neighboring country Iraq. “Now elections are
held in Iraq and constitutional process has begun in the
country,” said Erdogan, adding, however, that some circles
didn’t participate in the elections. Erdogan stressed that
balance between all parts should be established. “It’s very
important that no ethnic group dominates others,” he said,
adding that Iraq’s resources should be divided equally among
the whole nation. “Every step which doesn’t consider Turkey
will create negative developments in the region and these
will bother all countries of the region.” /Aksam/
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul yesterday left for People’s Republic of
China to pay an official visit. Before his departure, at a
press conference at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, Gul told
reporters that the Kirkuk issue concerned all neighboring
countries and the United Nations. Stressing that all peoples
in Iraq were brothers of Turkish people, Gul said that
Turkey wanted them to be in peace. “Turkey helped and
received Kurds with open arms when they were in trouble, and
now if other brothers are in trouble, we have a right to ask
their peace as a neighboring country,” said the foreign
minister. After arriving in China, Gul met with Deputy Prime
Minister Huang Ju. During a series of contacts with in
Chinese officials, Gul will seek ways to boost bilateral
relations. /Turkiye/
US Defense Department Undersecretary Douglas Feith, who is currently in
Turkey for an official visit, said yesterday that he reached
compromise with Turkish officials on such issues as Iraq’s
unity and territorial integrity. “Iraq’s territorial
integrity is priority of both Washington and Ankara,” he
said, adding that Iraq’s territorial integrity was important
for stability and peace in the region. He stated that he
discussed with Turkish officials the situation in Kirkuk and
other issues concerning Iraq. Feith added that Iraqi
elections didn’t only contribute to Iraq’s political process
but also to its security. /Aksam/
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel’s Chief of
General Staff Gen. Moshe Ya’alon both arrived in Ankara
yesterday. Visiting Turkey after talks in Russia,
Palestinian new leader Abbas met with President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and then Turkish
Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB) chairman
Rifat Hisarciklioglu. The focus of the talks was prospects
for the Middle East peace process. In addition, after
meeting with his Turkish counterpart Gen. Hilmi Ozkok,
Israel’s top military official Gen. Ya’alon was received by
Sezer. During their talks, bilateral military relations,
including a $1 billion deal to let Israel upgrade Turkish
fighters and tanks reportedly were taken up. /Turkiye/
EP's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality came to
Turkey to prepare a report on violence towards woman,
women's business life and their participation into civilian
politics. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday
received the committee headed by Anna Zaborska. The
committee members requested Erdogan to take affirmative
action on Turkish women politicians, meaning to set a quota
for female members of the civilian politics. Thanking
Erdogan for his government’s efforts to improve woman
rights, Zaborska asked Ankara to take measures to ensure the
effective implementation of the reforms. For his part,
Erdogan said that this issue was a matter of conscious and
the level of women’s participation into politics should be
increased not by setting quotas but increasing the level of
awareness. /Hurriyet/
Jean-Christophe Flori, spokesman of European Union Commissioner for
Enlargement Olli Rehn said yesterday that a document
proposing a frame for Turkey’s EU accession negotiations
would be ready by end of June at the latest. He stated that
Turkey must sign a protocol extending Ankara agreement to 10
new EU members including Greek Cyprus before Oct. 3, the
date Ankara is supposed to begin talks. Stressing that any
political resistance would jeopardize the talks, Flori said,
“That is very clear and definite, talks cannot begin without
signing the protocol.” /Turkiye/
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher yesterday
denied the US government was indifferent to the actions of
the terrorist group PKK in northern Iraq. “We have made
clear our position on terrorism and the PKK in the north,
we're not in any way countenancing their activities,''
Boucher said. “And we continue to work, ourselves, against
terrorism throughout Iraq, as well as coordinating closely
with the Turkish government.” Earlier this week, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan argued that Washington failed
to crack down on the activities of the Kurdish minority that
threatens the stability of the region. /Hurriyet/
Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc yesterday met with his
Kazakh counterpart Oral Muhammedcanov in Ankara.
Muhammedcanov said that his country fully supported Turkey’s
European Union membership bid. For his part, Arinc praised
the bilateral relations between the two countries.
Muhammedcanov was also received by Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. /Star/
Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (IPUK) head Jalal
Talabani yesterday stated that they would take the Brussels
model as an example for the demographic structure of Kirkuk.
“Kirkuk will be a city of brotherhood for Kurdish and
Turkmen groups,” he said. “We want to establish a strong
coalition government, and we believe that we will have good
relations with Turkey. The Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab groups
have been living in peace for a long time, and that’s how it
will be in the future. We support the Turkmen participation
in the national assembly.” /Sabah/
French parliament members yesterday voted for a compulsory
referendum allowing new European Union admission bids, which
will be applied to Turkey if its EU negotiations are
completed. The parliamentarians adopted the Article 2 of the
bill to modify French constitution by stipulating that
future EU admission bids should be necessarily submitted to
referendum. According to French Justice Minister Dominique
Perben, the article is helpful to clarify debates on the
thorny issue of the Turkish bid for EU. The parliament will
vote later article 4 of the bill, which stipulates that this
referendum will be applied only after the admission of
Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. /Sabah/
Addressing his party’s group meeting yesterday, opposition Republican
People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal said that the Sisli
auto park mafia was responsible for the unfortunate scenes
at the extraordinary congress broadcast nationally, noting
that a commission would investigate the incidents. “Scenes
from the congress upset all CHP members,” said Baykal,
adding that the party was insulted. “But who was responsible
for these acts? You can’t ignore what happened. This was a
first for our party. Those responsible for this violence had
proclaimed that they would be the ones that would resolve
all of the CHP’s problems.” Baykal stated that he would
handle the matter and the party will be refreshed after this
process, adding that the CHP will reborn in its beautiful
image. /Cumhuriyet/
Greek Cypriot leader Tasos Papadopoulos said yesterday that signing the
Customs Union Protocol was Turkey’s obligation for the
European Union. “Turkey signs the protocol or its EU
accession membership talks will not begin,” he added. “The
EU should undertake a proactive role on the Cyprus issue.”
In related news, appearing on Greek Cypriot television
yesterday, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Prime
Minister Mehmet Ali Talat said that he was ready to meet
with Papadopoulos to discuss Cyprus, adding that if a
resolution couldn’t be reached now, then it would be more
difficult in the future. “We’ve done our best for a
resolution,” added Talat. Greek Cypriot government spokesman
Kipros Hrisostomidis said that there was no reason for
Papadopoulos to meet with Talat at this point, claiming that
Talat wanted to meet with Papadopoulos to provide political
gains. /Cumhuriyet/
The European Union Commission Economy and Finance Directorate yesterday
warned of Turkey’s high current accounts deficit. An economy
and finance expert from the EU predicted that if the high
current accounts deficit continues in 2005, this could
create a crisis in the country. “Turkey grows rapidly and
this is not sustainable in the long term,” he added.
/Cumhuriyet/
Columnist Turker Alkan comments on last week’s elections in Iraq. A
summary of his column is as follows:
“It’s difficult to predict if last weekend’s elections in
Iraq will be a step towards democracy, or cause new
confusions. However, they made certain issues clear.
Firstly, the position of terrorist insurgents, who were
trying to find an armed solution to conflicts, must have
been weakened because the rate of participation in elections
was more than expected. Of course, results of elections are
open to discussion, but the result isn’t the violence and
the violence isn’t approved by the people. We will see if
terrorist insurgents will end the attacks by evaluating
these results. Secondly, the high rate of participation in
elections will decrease the hesitation concerning the
legality of occupation forces. The people approved the
suggested political solution in principle by voting in these
elections. However, it wouldn’t be right to suggest that the
people approved the occupation by depending on it. However,
they elected the most bloodless way to end the occupation.
In addition, this process might accelerate the departure of
allied forces from Iraq.
The disagreements to occur concerning the legality of
elections, the way to share the political power, the policy
to be followed by the administration and basic
characteristics of the constitutional order in the
government to be established following the elections might
cause new conflicts, even a civil war. These elections seem
to be the beginning of a new process. Arabs’ unfamiliarity
with the culture of consensus, the lack institutions which
can ensure the democratic consensus, Iraq’s religious and
ethnic dividedness and neighboring countries’ tendency
towards creating problems by benefiting from this
dividedness will force the political power. Considering this
atmosphere from a wide perspective, although Iraqis have a
reason to be happy, this shouldn’t be more than a careful
optimism. The establishment and implementation of democracy
with all its institutions and processes require a long and
difficult process. Iraqis took the first undecided step. I
hope this will continue. A new page is being opened in the
Middle East.”
