THIS IS THE MIDDLE CLASS BY TAHA AKYOL (MILLIYET)
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday cut the ribbon on housing projects of 416 units in Manisa and Izmir. Speaking to assembled crowds, Erdogan stressed that Ankara was determined on the nation’s European Union membership bid. Later, addressing a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP), Erdogan touted the work of his government, saying that some asked what the government had done to fight poverty and corruption. “Let me answer them with figures,” said Erdogan. “When we came to power, inflation was at 30%, but now it’s 7.7%. Our gross national product (GNP) has risen from $180 billion to $361 billion. We take appropriate advice from the International Monetary Fund, but have never accepted their inappropriate advice.” Commenting on the government’s work for education, Erdogan said that they would distribute free books to high schools. /Star/
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, at the invitation of her Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, yesterday arrived in Istanbul. In her first trip abroad since taking her post, Livni is expected to meet with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as Gul. During their talks, in addition to bilateral ties, the Palestinian issue and dispute over Iran’s nuclear program will be discussed. /Sabah/
Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf XVI and Queen Silvia are set to arrive in Ankara today to pay an official visit to Turkey at the invitation of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer. The king and the queen will be accompanied by Swedish Deputy Premier Bosse Ringholm and a number of businessmen. During the four-day stay, the two sides are expected to seek ways to develop bilateral relations. /Turkiye/
The Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay) is preparing to send aid to Indonesia following Saturday’s magnitude 6.2 earthquake which struck the island of Java. Kizilay will donate $100,000 in emergency funds to help relief efforts. A mobile clinic and a medical team are also expected to be sent to the region to help the survivors. /Turkiye/
Opposition True Path Party (DYP) leader Mehmet Agar yesterday responded to criticisms of his appearing being hand-in-hand with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal at the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) General Assembly, saying that his actions were appropriate since political relations should be conducted on a civilized basis. “But this doesn’t mean that we won’t criticize the government,” said Agar. “The opposition is meant to criticize the government on behalf of the nation.” /Aksam/
After last week's collision of Turkish and Greek jets over the Aegean Sea, Athens should accept the existence of problems other than the continental shelf, said a senior Greek statesman yesterday. Former Greek President Constantine Stephanopoulos said that Turkey and Greece should go to The Hague for a solution. In an interview in Sunday’s Greek daily Kathimerini, Stephanopoulos said that the existence of problems such as airspace, the Flight Information Region (FIR) line and the disarmament of islands should be accepted. “There is only one way out," he added. "I mean recourse to the International Court at The Hague … Dialogue has taken place, and it has failed." /Cumhuriyet/
US President George W. Bush said over the weekend that the US had rescued Turkey and Greece from falling into the hands of communism after World War II. Speaking at the graduation ceremony at West Point on Saturday, President Bush said, “This academy went through a similar period of change six decades ago, at the end of World War II ... In the early years of that struggle, freedom's victory was not obvious or assured. In 1947, communist forces were threatening Greece and Turkey, the reconstruction of Germany was faltering, mass starvation was setting in across Europe ... Fortunately, we had a president named Harry Truman, who recognized the threat, took bold action to confront it, and laid the foundation for freedom's victory in the Cold War. President Truman set a clear doctrine. In a speech to Congress, he called for military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey, and announced a new doctrine that would guide American policy throughout the Cold War. He told the Congress: 'It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.' With this new doctrine, and with the aid to back it up, Greece and Turkey were saved from communism, and the Soviet expansion into Southern Europe and the Middle East was stopped.” /Cumhuriyet/
US Ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson said over the weekend that his country has contributed a great deal to Turkey’s fight against the terrorist PKK. Wilson, currently on a visit to the southeast to take the pulse of the region, made the remarks in Diyarbakir before proceeding to Mardin on Sunday. Referring to the long friendship between Turkey and the US, Wilson described Turkey as an important ally of the US in the fight against terrorism. He also said that his country has no plans to establish a new military facility in Turkey. “Despite Turkey’s economic, security and employment problems, the country has made progress in solving these problems. However the region has problems with the development of democratic institutions,” Wilson told reporters. /The New Anatolian/
Addressing a conference yesterday, Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB) head Rifat Hisarciklioglu said that the trade volume between predominantly Islamic countries was only about 13%. Saying that the world was becoming global, Hisarciklioglu stated that businessmen in Islamic countries should cooperate and become leaders in the world economy. Later, addressing another conference, Hisarciklioglu said that historical Silk Road should be revived and added that work was being done towards this goal. Also addressing the gathering, State Minister Kursat Tuzmen said that while in 1992 trade volume between Turkey and Eurasia was less than $2 billion, it was about $22 billion by the end of last year, adding that the share of Eurasian countries in Turkey’s total trade volume was more than 10%. Tuzmen added that total value of projects done by Turkish contractors in Eurasian countries was more than $30 billion. “Turkey has become a brand name in the construction field,” stressed Tuzmen. /Aksam/
The first crude oil from the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline last night arrived in Turkey's southern coastal town of Ceyhan. The oil has begun to be stored in tanks in the facility. The loading of the oil to British tanker the Hawtharne, which has been waiting offshore, is expected to be done within this week. Ceyhan is the last stop of the 1,768-kilometers pipeline, 1,076 kilometers of which travels over Turkish territory. The pipeline will transfer Caspian oil to world markets. /Turkiye/
Columnist Taha Akyol comments on the weekend Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) meeting. A summary of his column is as follows:
“Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and opposition party leaders Deniz Baykal and Mehmet Agar … They are naturally at odds. Conflict is in the nature of democratic politics. Only a totalitarian regime has just one policy. There is conflict in democracy, but somebody should balance this conflict. They even should be together on certain issues. Nobody could make peace between the party leaders in the 1950s and ’80s. We lived through three coups. And the '90s went on with a divided politics. Now the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) President Rifat Hisarciklioglu is hand in hand with the conflicting political leaders and makes the picture of the century. I call this the picture of the century, because the ‘entrepreneurial middle class,’ which we've been trying to establish for a century, is now for the first time getting the power to balance politics.
My colleague Serpil Yilmaz wrote that for the first time, the TOBB meeting was held with the attendance of 3,000 people. Earlier, only the delegates would attend the meeting, and now city council members of the cities have joined in. Hisarciklioglu's words explain both the power and the vision of the entrepreneurial middle class: ‘Turkey does 65 percent of the exports in a region where 1 billion people live. And we're not doing this trade with our natural resources, but with industrial products. We're the only country in this geography which develops with the private sector.’ This is a global vision. If the latest political incidents hadn't happened, then the topic of the meeting would be ‘Turkey, political actor’ is willing to become a ‘global actor’ with its spirit for enterprise and business mentality. Turkey is not an introverted third world country.
The number of industrialists and merchants registered in the TOBB is more than 1.2 million, which is a great number. This is the success of the market economy. The entrepreneurial middle class knows better than anyone else that their profits will fall if the political conflict goes too far. Therefore they are rational. Since they have attained a certain power, they made the leaders shake hands. Hisarciklioglo’s personal contribution is also obvious, but he's the president of a social power. That power is the developing entrepreneurial middle class. Thanks to this, not the state, but the people are the pioneer of modernization. Thanks to this, today’s democracy is more powerful than yesterday’s.”
