INSIDE AND OUTSIDE TURKEY
BY CUNEYT ARCAYUREK (CUMHURIYET)
Celebrations were held yesterday throughout
Turkey to mark May 19, Atatruk, Youth and Sports
Holiday. Top officials headed by President Ahmet
Necdet Sezer visited Anitkabir, the mausoleum of
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the
modern, secular Republic of Turkey. Parliament
Speaker Bulent Arinc, Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, Constitutional Court Chief
Justice Mustafa Bumin, Chief of General Staff
Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, Republican People’s Party
(CHP) leader Deniz Baykal, Deputy Prime Minister
Mehmet Ali Sahin, Deputy Prime Minister
Abdullatif Sener, members of the Council of
Ministers, Land Forces Commander Gen. Yasar
Buyukanit, Naval Forces Commander Adm. Ozden
Ornek, Air Forces Commander Gen. Ibrahim
Firtina, Gendarmerie Forces Commander Gen. Fevzi
Turkeri, Supreme Court Chief Justice Osman
Aslan, Council of State Chairman Ender
Cetinkaya, Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Erkan
Mumcu and a number of deputies were present at
the ceremony. They laid a wreath at the tomb of
Ataturk, and observed a minute of silence in his
memory. Later, President Sezer inscribed the
mausoleum’s commemorative book, writing,
“Turkish youth is determined to preserve
Ataturk’s reforms and principles. The secular
and democratic Republic of Turkey will live
forever.” /All papers/
Appearing on television yesterday, Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul said that he believed that
the government would prefer reopening and
reviewing the Abdullah Ocalan case to retrying
the terrorist head. “I believe Turkey will
handle this issue appropriately,” he said. “We
need to be calm. In order not to cause new
problems, we must take firm steps. I believe we
can easily handle this issue if we act with
common sense.” /Milliyet/
Congolese Foreign Minister Raymond Ramazani
Baya yesterday paid an official visit to Turkey.
Baya was received by President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer and then met with Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul and State Minister Mehmet Aydin in
Ankara. Stressing that the Republic of Congo
takes Turkish democracy as a role model, as do
all African countries, Baya called on the
Turkish government to improve commercial
relations between the two countries. “My country
supports Turkey’s European Union membership
bid,” he added. “Turkey could also play an
important role in the reconstruction of our
war-torn country. We’re closely following
Turkish businessmen’s successful ventures in
foreign countries. I hope they will also help us
to reconstruct Congo. Turkish firms can have
full confidence in the support of the Congolese
government because we’ll do our utmost to
improve our investment conditions.” /Turkiye/
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
yesterday arrived in Ankara to pay a two-day
official visit to Turkey as a guest of Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Iraqi
ministers of finance, commerce, oil, electricity
and industry are also accompanying al-Jaafari.
“Our ministers will discuss with their Turkish
counterparts ways to improve bilateral relations
and cooperation between our two neighboring
countries,” al-Jaafari said. “Turkey and Iraq
share common interests, particularly on water
and oil resources.” The Iraqi premier will meet
with Erdogan today and attend a banquet tonight
held by Erdogan in his honor at the Prime
Ministry Official Residence. The two leaders are
expected to review current bilateral relations
and explore new ways of boosting bilateral
cooperation in Iraq’s reconstruction. The
Turkish side is also likely to underline the
importance it attaches to Iraq’s territorial
integrity and request that al-Jaafari take
stronger measures both to ensure the safety of
Turkish truck drivers working in his country and
to crack down on the terrorist PKK in northern
Iraq. /Turkiye/
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
on Wednesday underlined that Washington
continues to view the PKK as a terrorist
organization. “We continue to see Abdullah
Ocalan as a terrorist who belongs in prison, and
that's a view we've had and it hasn't changed
and we think has long been clear,” he told
reporters in Washington. Referring to the recent
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling on
a retrial of Ocalan, he added, “We certainly
take note of the European court's decision. We
leave it to Turkey, I think, to handle the
matter in an appropriate way.” /Cumhuriyet/
In an interview this week with a Spanish
daily, State Minister for the Economy Ali
Babacan said that Turkey’s ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) isn’t an Islamist
political party but a conservative one. “We’re
not Islamists and we don’t want to establish an
Islamic republic in Turkey,” he stressed. “My
party is both democratic and conservative.
Turkey has already proved that Islam and
democracy can coexist peacefully.” He also
underlined that there is no direct connection
between the May 29 French referendum on the EU
Constitution and Turkey’s EU membership bid. “If
France rejects the constitution, it won’t be the
end of the world,” Babacan added. “We’ll
continue on our path towards full membership.”
/Milliyet/
Incoming United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) head Kemal Dervis yesterday attended a
conference entitled “Turkey: A Candidate Country
on the Verge of Membership Talks” at Istanbul’s
Bogazici University. “Turkey’s ultimate target
is to become a full EU member,” stressed Dervis,
a former Turkish parliamentarian and economy
minister. “No other option can be acceptable for
Turkey.” /Star/
State Minister Kursad Tuzmen yesterday
traveled to Finland as the official guest of
Finnish Foreign Trade and Development Minister
Paula Lehtomati. In Helsinki, Tuzmen and an
accompanying business delegation attended a
reception held in their honor by Turkey’s
Ambassador to Helsinki Osman Paksut. Speaking to
reporters at the meeting, Tuzmen underlined the
importance of the security and supervision of
customs. “We need to improve our customs to
fight smuggling,” he said. “During such critical
times when terrorism is more and more
globalized, better measures are needed at
customs, particularly to prevent nuclear
trafficking.” /Hurriyet/
Speaking to daily The Tehran Times, Iranian
Deputy Oil Minister Hadi Nejad Hossein argued
that Turkey and Iran were no longer able to
resolve their natural gas problems on their own.
“Natural gas issues between Ankara and Tehran
have become a serious problem that seems
impossible to resolve,” he claimed. “However,
Iran still considers Turkey an efficient route
along which Iranian natural gas can be
transported to Europe.” /Milliyet/
Columnist Cuneyt Arcayurek comments on the
Wall Street Journal’s reaction to last week’s
ruling on a retrial of PKK leader Abdullah
Ocalan. A summary of his column is as follows:
“A strong reaction that our media should have
shown to the decision of the European Court of
Human Rights (ECHR) on Abdullah Ocalan’s retrial
came yesterday from the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper described the statements that
the head of the PKK terrorist organization had
not been tried justly as ‘incredible.’
The Journal wrote that the court went too
far. International lawyer David Rivkin denounced
the decision as ‘political, and despicable in
its arrogance and hypocrisy.’
However some writers in the Turkish media are
arguing that we must abide by the ECHR’s
decision.
The United States reiterated this week that
it considers Ocalan a terrorist. However, a
known circle in Turkey has no aim besides giving
Europe whatever it wants, as they believe they
can become Europeans this way.
As we are discussing the ECHR decision,
Ocalan is commanding his terrorist organization
from Imralý and the PKK is continuing to shed
blood.
The government isn’t telling the truth about
the PKK abroad, nor is it questioning the
Europeans, nor are the Europeans dealing with
the renewed terrorist campaign.”
