AFTER SO MUCH SELF
SACRIFICE...
BY CUNEYT ARCAYUREK (CUMHURIYET)
Addressing
the second day of the Council of Europe
summit in Warsaw, Poland, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday rebuked
Armenian President Robert Kocharian for
raising the issue of the alleged genocide
during his speech on Monday. Stressing that
Europe could not be constructed on the basis
of historical enmity, Erdogan called on the
parliaments of certain countries to evaluate
the issue in line with documents in
historical achieves. “We don’t appreciate
these efforts to lobby on the claims with no
basis on historical documents and facts,”
said Erdogan, adding that the politicians
should act after joint efforts by
historians, jurists and political scientists
on the issue. In addition, the Turkish
premier met separately with European Court
of Human Rights (ECHR) head Luzius Wildhaber
and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Accompanied by his Polish counterpart Marek
Belka, Erdogan also opened a trade center
build by Turkish firms in Warsaw. After
completing his contacts, Erdogan returned to
Ankara last night. /Hurriyet-Turkiye/
The Greek Cypriot administration
yesterday discussed a new bill that would
give Turkish Cypriots living in the south of
the island the right to vote and be voted
for in elections which are held in “free
zones.” If the bill is approved, for the
first time in decades, Turkish Cypriots will
be able vote for the president, though they
cannot stand for the post. The Greek Cypriot
Parliament Interior Committee yesterday
discussed how Turkish Cypriots would soon be
able to vote in local and national
elections, including parliamentary and
presidential elections, and stand as
candidates in all elections expect for the
presidential ones. Turkish Cypriots who
permanently reside in such “free zones”
would also be incorporated into the existing
electoral rolls. /Star/
British Prime Minister Tony Blair
yesterday unveiled his agenda for his
historic third term. Blair's agenda, which
was presented by Queen Elizabeth at a
ceremony at the House of Lords, contains 45
bills and five draft bills. Queen Elizabeth
also laid out Blair’s foreign policy goals,
underlining Turkey’s European Union
membership negotiations as one of the
premier’s priorities. “Britain as the EU’s
term president will give priority to a
successful start of Turkey’s membership
talks on Oct. 3,” she said. Britain assumes
the six-month presidency on July 1.
/Milliyet/
Addressing
his party’s group meeting, main opposition
Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Deniz
Baykal yesterday lambasted the European
Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling on
terrorist Abdullah Ocalan and the
government’s attitude towards the ruling.
“The government acts as if there is nothing
to be done except accepting the ruling,” he
said. “However, the ECHR didn’t even call
Ocalan and his group ‘terrorist.’ We cannot
accept such attitudes. A retrial will never
be easy. If we look at the EU’s own history
and practices, we can easily see that the
high court applies double standards to
Turkey. The court’s ruling offers Turkey
three options. Therefore, retrial isn’t our
only choice. I warn the government not to
retry Ocalan.” /Aksam/
Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc is set to
pay an official visit to the US on next
Tuesday, May 24, at the invitation of House
of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Arinc will be the first Turkish Parliament
speaker to visit this country. /Hurriyet/
Representatives of the World Tribunal on
Iraq (WTI) yesterday issued summonses for US
President George W. Bush and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair to appear at the
five-day final hearing of the tribunal set
to take place in Istanbul starting on June
23-27. The Istanbul session is expected to
reach a final conclusion by examining the
results of previous sessions as well as new
reports and testimonies. The WTI is a
worldwide initiative aiming at recording the
crimes and violations that were committed
during and after the Iraq war. /Cumhuriyet/
In the runup to his visit to Ankara,
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
yesterday pledged to cooperate with Turkey
to fight the terrorist group PKK in northern
Iraq. Al-Jaafari is expected to visit Ankara
tomorrow. Remarking that he is very proud to
be paying his first official visit to
Ankara, the Iraqi premier stressed that his
country places a high premium on its
relations with Turkey, one of its most
important neighbors. “We take Turkish
democracy as a role model,” he added. “As
long as Turkey doesn’t intervene in our
internal affairs, we won’t intervene in its
domestic politics. Besides, we would never
accept anything that is against Turkey’s
national interests.” /Cumhuriyet/
The number of Islamist radicals based in
Germany rose last year, German Interior
Minister Otto Schily yesterday told a news
conference for the release of the 2004
report by the country's security agency.
According to the report, the largest radical
Islamist group in Germany is Milli Gorus
(National View) with 26,500 members, which
aims to establish an Islamic republic in
Turkey. Nearly 32,000 Islamist radicals were
residents in the country at the end of last
year, said the report, underlining that most
of them were Turks. /Milliyet/
Turkish-German
Friendship Group head Claudia Roth, visiting
Turkey, yesterday met with Parliament Human
Rights Commission head Mehmet Elkatmis.
During their talks, when Roth criticized
Turkish police actions towards demonstrators
at a March 6 rally in Istanbul for World
Women’s Day, Elkatmis presented a number of
photographs from newspapers abroad showing
German and France police using force on
students, including girls. He said that
those photos had not been seen by European
Union countries and only Turkey was
condemned. /Turkiye/
In the runup to a referendum in France on
the European Union Constitution, French
ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)
party leader Nicholas Sarkozy, a leading
presidential candidate and opponent of
Turkey’s EU membership, yesterday made a
surprise call to the people to cast their
votes to say “yes.” Sarkozy, speaking to Le
Monde daily, said that in order to
strengthen cooperation between European
institutions, the Constitution should be
supported. If the EU Constitution is
approved in France, an important obstacle to
Ankara’s EU membership bid will be
eliminated, say EU circles. /Turkiye/
European Investment Bank (EIB) President
Phillippe Maystadt yesterday remarked that
Turkey would become the “growth engine” of
Europe with its approximately 10 percent
growth rate. Noting that Turkey has achieved
a stable growth rate over the last three
years, Maystadt said that economic growth
would be sustained as long as positive
macroeconomic developments continue. He
added that the more Turkey fulfills the
requirements of its EU membership bid, the
more foreign capital will flow into the
country. “Ankara’s standby deal with the
International Monetary Fund will also
enhance foreign investors’ confidence in the
Turkish economy,” he said. “The EIB wants to
boost its relations with Turkey, especially
after the country’s EU negotiations begin.
Our bank will lend its full support to
Turkey to raise the country’s economic and
social standards to the European level.”
/Star/
Columnist Ismet Berkan comments on
Turkish-Armenian relations. A summary of his
column is as follows:
“There has been a great revival in
Turkey’s initiatives concerning Armenia with
recent efforts from both Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Foreign
Ministry. The reason for this revival isn’t
developments in Armenia or on the
international stage, but Ankara’s
initiatives. Actually, Turkish-Armenian
relations are the same as they were, for
example, five years ago. In other words, at
that time both Armenia and other countries
under its influence wanted Turkey to open
its border with Armenia, and today the same
thing holds. At that time, Turkey said the
reason for the closed border came from the
Nagorno-Karabagh issue and Armenia’s
invasion of Azerbaijani territories; it’s
saying the same thing today.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian has
been emphasizing the so-called Armenian
genocide since the day he took the office.
Former Armenian President Levon Ter
Petrosyan talked about the same thing as
well. The word ‘genocide’ makes the
relations of two countries more difficult.
Indeed, since Kocharian became president,
Turkey’s embargo on Armenia has grown
harsher. The Armenian people are suffering
under this embargo and there are great
economic problems in this small country.
Besides, Kocharian’s uncompromising stance
has brought the country to a serious
economic collapse, because the population is
fleeing the country. Turkey used to only
watch this situation. However, recently
Turkey started to seek dialogue with
Armenia, maybe in order to impress European
Union member countries, or due to other
reasons. In the past, Armenia was pursuing
Turkey, but now there’s an impression that
the situation is just the opposite due to
the ignorance and carelessness of certain
columnist in the Turkish press. However,
there’s nothing new in this confusion. The
key for Turkish-Armenian relations is the
Nagorno-Karabagh issue and Armenia’s
occupation of one-fifth of Azerbaijan’s
territory. If the occupation ends and
Armenia and Azerbaijan reach an agreement,
this situation would relieve
Turkish-Armenian relations as well. At
least, both countries would be able to talk
about their bilateral relations. The issue
of the so-called genocide is a political
matter not only between Turkey and Armenia,
but also between Turkey and the Armenian
diaspora living in the West. If one day
Turkish-Armenian relations were normalized,
the pressure of the genocide allegations on
Turkey would be lighter.”
Columnist Cuneyt Arcayurek comments on
Turkey’s cooling relations with Europe and
the United States in recent months. A
summary of his column is as follows:
“Publications and statements which sing
Turkey’s praises, say that we will add to
the prosperity of Europe, and stress that we
are a secular country that will serve as a
bridge between the East and the West --
well, they said this before last December’s
European Union summit, but no longer!
Relations with the United States are
tense, and EU countries are not behaving the
way they did four or five months ago.
Now we see gloomy and negative reports in
the media.
For example, US officials tell the
Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s
Association (TUSIAD) delegation visiting the
US that relations with Turkey are still
doubtful and uneasy.
Former Ambassador to Ankara Mark Parris
says that the special relations between the
two countries are regressing.
The European media wants Abdullah Ocalan
to be retried. Our EU membership bid is
being used as a tool.
In Warsaw and Budapest, people in the
streets greeted Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan with banners that read: ‘The
EU Constitution and the Koran gives
different rights to women. Which do you
prefer, Sir?’
Meanwhile, it’s not only the media of the
US and Europe that are pressing for the
retrial of Abdullah Ocalan without even
bothering to investigate what the ruling of
the European Court of Human Rights really is
about. Some of us also favor the same
method.
Nobody says, ‘Let’s investigate this
ruling, determine which doors it opens and
which it closes, and then take the necessary
measures.’
The ECHR for example, called Ilich
‘Carlos the Jackal’ Ramirez Sanchez a
terrorist, but elaborately avoided writing
that Ocalan, the murderer of 35,000 people,
is the head of the terrorist group PKK.
We are at such a stage that they are
trying to make Turkey become a country which
bows to all kinds of pressure. However,
after so much self sacrifice, we have
nothing left to give.”
TO OUR READERS: In observance of
the May 19 commemoration of the Ataturk,
Youth and Sports Day holiday, the Turkish
Press Review will not appear tomorrow.
Please join us again on Friday.
