American Ambassador Robert Pearson hosted Economy Minister Kemal Dervis at a dinner to thank him for his achievement in implementing the IMF’s economic program for Turkey. They briefly discussed the QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zones) question. Even though Washington’s excluding clothing and textiles from QIZ arrangements undermined the success of this project from the outset, Turkish private enterprise is still exerting strenuous efforts to promote exports to this biggest market of the world. TUSIAD (The Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association) has opened an office in the USA to this end. Abdullah Akyuz, TUSIAD’s representative in the United States, said on Tuesday (14th) that QIZ was the only concrete result they had received in promoting exports to the United States and even that was not very bright because the American side seemed lacking “political will” for trading with Turkey. Also, the Ecevit Government’s new measures about easing foreign capital formalities had not made any impact on American business circles. Turkish private enterprise was still trying successfully to enter the American market through personal contacts, he said.
The Ford car exports to America from Turkey will be an occasion for a showy demonstration of these efforts. Main page
It is apparent that such an outlook would be racist and totally against today’s globalisation principles, let alone the EU’s liberal rules. If Turkey and the TRNC want to be part of the EU as full members they have to observe the European Union’s work and settlement rules among the member countries and this principle would preclude any intention not to allow a single Greek Cypriot in the Turkish sector.
The claim attributed to Denktas about not having a single Greek Cypriot back in the TRNC seems to be concerned with the exchange of population that necessarily took place in 1974 and 1975 following the Greek Cypriot coup on the island and the pursuant Turkish intervention that created today’s TRNC.
Denktas rightly argues that the Turkish Cypriots suffered a lot under the Greek Cypriot oppression between Christmas 1963 and July 1974 and that there should no longer be such population exchanges in the new settlement. A massive population exchange involving some 50,000 Greeks and 30-35 thousand Turks necessarily took place in 1974-75 and there can be no question of reversing it after a quarter of a century. If there is any Greek Cypriot with claims of lands in the Turkish sector in the north, justified claims may be compensated through payments to them, according to Denktas’s argument, and who can claim that this is not a justified stance. Besides, admitting tens of thousands of Greek Cypriots back to the Turkish sector today would involve terrorism risks by the Greek Cypriots in the TRNC. European Union diplomats maintain that most of the Greek Cypriots would not return to the Turkish sector any way as they have been settled to new homes and businesses in the south or elsewhere.
As for individual settlements in the TRNC by the Greeks or Greek Cypriots when Turkey and the island enters the European Union, no one can prevent it and it is evident that Denktas’s objection to admitting the Greek Cypriots back to the TRNC concerns only the displaced Turks and Greeks after the 1974 upheavals and that it has nothing to do with rejecting the EU’s work and settlement rules among its members. Main page
It is probably wrong to claim that the American chemist has invented fuel from borax derivates because it is common knowledge that the Soviets had borax in their solid fuel used in their spacecraft, since they launched their first sputnik in 1957. Making spectrum analyses out of the fumes that emerge from sputniks the Americans discovered half a century ago that the secret solid fuel the Soviets used in their spacecraft contained borax. They immediately included that item in NATO’s Cocom list which contained strategic items that were forbidden to be sold to Warsaw Pact countries, but because the Americans and western scientists could not manufacture fuel from borax they eventually took it out of the Cocom list, thus providing Turkey with an opportunity to promote trade with its superpower neighbour.
The reputable American science magazine describes the borax-based fuel as “the cleanest fuel imaginable” and if this discovery eventually proves to be a commercial fuel to replace or support petrol Turkey may receive enormous economic benefits. Of the 600 million tons of borax deposits in the world 420 million tons are in Turkey and they have been exploited very reservedly so far, while the American companies concerned accounted for most of the borax sales in the world hitherto. Main page
Thanks to the abundant rainfall this year, agriculture is expected to boom and power generation to rise with the reservoirs filling up. The estimates for the cereals yield increases in the Konya plain, Turkey’s breadbasket, are at least double this year in some important crops, namely wheat.
Energy generation may leave behind the bottleneck this year with the expected commencement of the Blue Stream natural gas pipeline from Russia any day and increased foreign investments in this sector in Turkey. American Ambassador Robert Pearson signed an agreement in Ankara last Monday for American investments in hydro-plant constructions in eastern Turkey and the Energy Ministry has presented a bill to Parliament for a structural change in the energy sector.
Energy
Minister Zeki Cakan told a press conference on Monday that the Economy
Minister Kemal Dervis had signed the Petroleum Market Bill and that it would
be presented to Parliament this week after PM Ecevit’s signature. Cakan
said, “With the legislation of this
bill, the Energy Market Board will be able to fulfil its duties. The free
competition system in the energy market will establish the supply-and-demand
balances, lowering the energy prices and the energy sector will thus be
spurred on. It will also increase foreign investments in this sector.”
State Minister Sukru Sina Gurel announced yesterday that they would give a boost to contracting services abroad by eliminating this sector’s difficulties. The key in this regard is the letter of guarantee from Turkish banks to Turkish contractors. Kemal Dervis was objecting to accord the Treasury guarantee in this regard, but with a report to be presented to the Government by a team headed by Sukru Sina Gurel by May 20th, this hurdle will be overcome, according to Gurel. Main page
CYPRUS STATEMENT ATTRIBUTED TO AMB. FOGG IS BAD JOURNALISM (May 8th, 2002 )Today’s press and last night’s media hit the headlines about a statement on Cyprus attributed to the European Union’s outgoing representative to Ankara, Karen Fogg who allegedly invited the Turkish Cypriots to rebel against President Denktas and Turkey. She also described PM Ecevit and Deputy PM Devlet Bahceli as hardliners who make Turkey’s Cyprus policy adamant, according to this press report.
That these views are those of the West, that is to say, the United States and the European Union, is obvious. Any in-depth analysis of the Cyprus crisis and recent years’ developments clearly indicate that the West has such ambitions even plans for it, as has been written in Pulse’s latest article published two days ago. Ambassador Fogg may have even voiced these views in private at a gathering in Istanbul, but to make these words out to be a public statement by an ambassador level diplomat is truly bad journalism prejudicial to Turkey’s national interests. “There can be no question of my making such a public statement,” said Fogg to Milliyet and it should be taken as the real truth at this delicate moment of Turkey’s EU and Cyprus relations. Main page
“Turkey’s political life has been in the balance for a long time. They can turn topsy-turvy over night,” commented Milliyet columnist Hasan Cemal. He also wrote, “Turkey is rapidly approaching a crossroads. The remedy will emerge from the ballot box, and not in the distant future.”
Fikret Bila’s column next to it contained a much more serious and reliable assessment under the heading “Understanding Ecevit” and described these “illogical and unrealistic scenarios” as the work of those who seem not to know Ecevit at all. Fikret Bila correctly dismisses the claim and wish of certain circles that “Ecevit will retire for the good of Turkey” and comments that such an eventuality is neither for Turkey’s good, nor would it yield political stability through early elections. It would only generate political and economic chaos in the country, he noted. Main page
According to Kazan, President Weizman of Israel visited Turkey in June 1996 for the Habitat international conference and told journalists on board the aircraft that an RP Government should not be formed in Turkey and that Iran and Islamic fundamentalists would be delighted if agreements between Turkey and Israel were cancelled.
Continuing with his revelations of the Erbakan-Ciller coalition’s functioning between June 1996 and June 1997, Kazan writes that the then Deputy PM Tansu Ciller sent her defence minister Turhan Tayan, General Karadayi and his Deputy, General Bir to Israel to make up for Israel’s disfavour of the coalition.
Kazan’s controversial revelations and views about the 28 February coup coincides with General Huseyin Kivrikoglu’s remark that the 28 February process will continue for 1000 years and AKP Chairman Tayyip Erdogan’s constant expressions of regret for his previous harsh statements against the military and secular regime.
Invited
to comment on Tayyip Erdogan’s recently revealed 10-year old tape
recordings, DYP chairperson Tansu Ciller said in Ankara yesterday, “I
am revealing here for the first time my political position. I say that it is
impossible for a political outlook, which calls the military hangmen and which
sees Hizbullah as a saviour to achieve stability in the country, because 80%
of the people will be up against that outlook. So what should we do? We should
amend the election system in a way to achieve political stability in line with
the French election system.”
Tansu Ciller made this statement in answer to a question if she could have a coalition with the AKP after the elections.
(NB – Kazan is what the English proverb says all right, but Tayyip Erdogan is definitely neither an “angel” nor an orator any wiser. - Pulse) Main page
According to the report dated February 5th, 2002 and signed by General Yasar Buyukanit, Deputy Chief, TGS, this TL330 trillion worth of smuggling, TL200-250 trillion from crude oil and TL82.26 trillion diesel oil, finds its way to the PKK and finances its political and illegal activities in the Southeast. It calls for totally banning this frontier trade within the more comprehensive Action Plan for Northern Iraq.
The report notes that the chemicals needed for illegally refining this crude oil in the small work shops mushrooming around big TUPRAS refineries is stolen from the refineries. The Batman and Kirikkale refineries presented the government false reports to cover up this illegal operation, it stresses. Main page
Minister of Tourism Mustafa Tasar is expecting to break a record in tourism this year, surpassing last year’s record of 11,618,969 tourists. He is working on an ambitious program to make Turkey a leading country in this sector. Main page
The Under-Secretary of Customs, Nevzat Saygilioglu, said at the ceremony that Gurbulak is an important export gate for Turkey with 75,000 TIR trailers and 330,000 people passing through it every year. State Minister Mehmet Kececiler said that they were renewing all the frontier gates of Turkey within a program and introducing automation in frontier trade. They were modernising a new frontier gate each week and this modernisation drive of the frontier gates would be completed before the elections, he said.
UND (the International Transporters Association of Turkey) is raising the necessary funds for this investment within a 15-year BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) arrangement. Mesut Yilmaz promised that they would complete the Yazici, Murat and Seker dams in Agri and it would change the fate of this underdeveloped province. They would also open a university in every province, including Agri. They would present a bill to Parliament for it, he said. Main page
AFTER
A TOUGH 1ST QUARTER, BUDGET WILL RELAX IN REST OF YEAR
As against this dark picture for the first quarter, the budget has a bright future for the rest of the year. In the remaining three quarters, the Government will repay TL26.3 quadrillion debts. In other words, only 47% of the total budget revenue will go to debt servicing in the April-December period this year.
It is expected that economic growth will begin as from the third quarter of the year. Main page
The
President of the Turkish External Trade Foundation, Ertugrul Onen, said that
no matter where one went in the world today one found Turkish businessmen and
their associations. In 2010 there would be over 100,000 Turkish businesses in
only Germany with 650,000 employees and over $100 billion turnover, he
stressed. “Above and beyond being an
occasion for spiritual solidarity, the convention bears tangible fruits as the
biggest and most comprehensive economic form of Turkey,” he said.
The third convention in Istanbul in 2000 brought together over 130 Turkish businessmen’s associations from 52 countries. The forthcoming convention will be even more comprehensive with Turkey’s top rulers ranging from PM Ecevit and his deputies, to Economy Minister Kemal Dervis to voice their views about Turkish businesses the world over. Main page
Tayyip Erdogan advised the press to be used to the revelation of such recorded tapes as some mysterious forces wanted to cut the ground from under his feet to forestall his premiership.
Another
such development during the week came from the Constitutional Court, which
ruled with a small margin of five to six votes that Tayyip Erdogan can neither
be a founder of a party nor its chairman. The ruling also prevented Tayyip
Erdogan from having another trial of his already served one-year sentence
under Article 312 of the TPC. It may mean the end of his political career,
according to competent judicial opinion.
Ismail Cem did not share Deputy PM Mesut Yilmaz’s optimism that “signals” were coming from the EU that they would include the PKK and other Turkish terrorist organisations in the EU’s list of terrorist organisations.
Surprising news came from Amsterdam over the resignation of the Dutch Government. The Wim Kok Government in the Netherlands resigned on Tuesday for what the PM called “the blackest chapter in my political career”. It was over an official report, which said that politicians, diplomats and military leaders bore a large responsibility for the failure of Dutch peacekeeping troops to prevent the slaughter of more than 7,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in Bosnia in 1995.
Just like today when the Turkish public and media are up in the air about the support of Europe to Turkish terrorists, in 1995 too they were equally excited over the Dutch forces standing by and watching the massacre of Muslims in Bosnia.
The Turks are coming to believe that the West today is inflicted with a malady that can be called “double standards”. On one hand, the Dutch Government resigns over a seven-year old fault which belongs to another Dutch Government, on the other it persists on excluding terrible terrorists from the list of terrorists today. Main page
Following the death of 13 people at riots in Caracas, Hugo Chavez resigned on Friday as Venezuela’s president under pressure from Army commander General Efrain Vasquez, and businessman Pedro Carmona became the head of the civilian junta to rule in that country. The first thing the new ruler did was to dissolve the National Assembly and the Supreme Court. Another top priority was naturally to terminate an oil supply agreement with Cuba. The ousted Chavez Administration had signed it two years ago.
Needless to say, instrumental in this military coup was President Chavez’s support of Iraq’s move to suspend oil exports for a month over the Israeli atrocities in Palestine. It is a pity that military coups in the “Free World” of the West have become so overtly cheap and a prominent tool of the Americans’ self interests, devoid of any subtlety. Paradoxically, it is an assurance for Turkish democracy because no Turkish commander could possibly take such a step in order to defend foreigners’ interests or would find no followers from Ataturk’s Army if anyone did. Main page
The Minister noted that the compound interest rates had gone up to 200% following the crisis in February last year, but they were 69.54% for one-year bonds now. “Despite the heavy blow of the crisis, the period ahead will be bright for the Turkish economy. Until the summer months ahead the economy will continue to dress its wounds and resume the growth process in the second half of the year,” he said Main page
This important economic decision coincided with Iraq’s announcement of suspending oil exports for a month and the consequent rise in crude oil prices in the world. OPEC will hold a meeting tomorrow to consider Iraq’s decision. The first reactions to Saddam’s move were a conditional approval by Libya and a flat rejection by Kuwait. Its first impact on the Turkish economy was to stop the up-trend in the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) and cause a fall in the index from the resistance point of 12,000. At the moment all these trends are far from radical moves. The markets have received these important economic developments with a cautious expectation. Main page
This move, clearly designed and being executed by President Demirel, will be a big blow to Tansu Ciller’s DYP first and then the AKP’s chairman, Tayyip Erdogan. At a gathering of her party officials in Antalya on Saturday Ciller had already begun to advise her fellow party officials to beware of the “imitation of imitations of the DP-JP legacy”.
This step by the Demirel-Sezgin-Bayar team will most definitely jeopardise the DYP’s chances of passing the 10% threshold at the next general elections in April 2004, given the fact that Tansu Ciller and her party just got through the threshold by the skin of their teeth at the April 1999 general elections.
Mehmet Ali Bayar will also strip the AKP chairman, Tayyip Erdogan, of the advantage of being a new untested party leader for the people who are sick and tired of the same politicians for decades. Demirel was wise in his move that brought him into active politics without being a party chairman, as his nephew Murat Demirel’s banking scandals had discredited the former president. Main page
Even though a “reconnaissance team” under Major General Akin Zorlu has been in Kabul since April 3rd for this purpose, the first thing the General said on arrival in Afghanistan was that it was not certain that they would take over the ISAF command.
The reason for this hesitation on the part of Turkey is that Ankara wants these security arrangements in Afghanistan to be deep-rooted and lasting so that the 19th century’s Great Game between Moscow and London does not continue in the 21st century under other axes. The key for this is the foundation of a national army and breaking the ground for economic restructuring in that country regardless of their racial and religious descents and affiliations.
To this end Turkey has three requests of the Anglo-Americans – heavy cargo aircraft under its command for the necessary shipments to that country, access to the sophisticated communication devices for this region and heavy work machinery like graders and bulldozers for the construction of the infrastructure of this heavily devastated country. To make sure that these commitments are solid Ankara insists on written agreements about them and the United States and the UK do not comply. Why?
The answer to the question from the West’s angle is a mystery to the Turks, but the answer to the question from Turkey’s angle, that is to say why Turkey is insisting on a written agreement for it is quite simple. The Afghan question is a turning point for Turkey’s Eurasia policy, which is the second pillar of its foreign policy, the first being EU membership. In other words, Ankara has no intention of wasting its time and resources for power struggle arrangements in that unlucky country by supporting one tribe against the other. If there is to be peace, security and development in Afghanistan it will happen by creating a national army working for the Afghan people regardless of their races. In this regard, the Shanghai Security Organisation (SSO) seems to be a good basis for lasting security arrangements for the region, rather than Washington’s unknown designs that were as misguided in the past as creating the Taliban Frankenstein.
Ankara knows that the Bush-Putin cooperation may facilitate these arrangements in the Caucasus and it is also aware of the fact that the United States is interested in and toying with the idea of cooperation with, if not joining in, the Shanghai security arrangements. Hoping that these promising developments on the part of Washington may facilitate its future Eurasia policies, Turkey is making arrangements with Moscow and Beijing about the SSO and economic cooperation between the two far ends of Asia, without American participation, if necessary. Main page
The reason for this 4-month delay in implementing the Action Plan was that the Government made some alterations on the initial plan prepared by the military. That is why the program was put to force in low profile and it is still going on in that trend.
The nearly 2-year performance of this Action Plan aimed at bringing the underdeveloped East and Southeast to the contemporary civilisation level shows some promising results. A report on the one year performance from March 2001 to March 2002 indicates that the number of 8-year primary education schools increased by 4576 or 12% and the number of teacher in these schools by 29,760 or 13%. The increase in Lyceum level schools was a modest 4% or 271 schools. But the increase in the number of teachers and students were more prominent – 5200 or 8% for teachers and 107,197 or 13% for students.
A pleasing outcome of the Action Plan is that the tendency to keep girls away from schools in these places is being broken. The number of girl students and pupils doubled.
The program started in June 2000 to ensure the return of displaced people to their villages during the 15-year PKK uprising yielded productive results and 38,017 people returned home. As 3000 villages were evacuated during the uprising this program will have to go on for quite some time. Main page
WHO
IS SCRATCHING THE WOUND – ANAP OR MHP?
Was Aslan acting individually in his remark or was the Party Chairman Mesut Yilmaz behind it with his position as a Deputy Prime Minister? Mesut Yilmaz told the daily Milliyet that he was not in favour of the move because it was against Turkey’s legislation under today’s Constitution, though he did not think why Turkey should not have the same rule for its girl students equal to the Christians’ nuns.
He also said that there were too many girl preacher schools in Turkey. There were 130,000 girls being trained as female preachers in these schools and it was far above Turkey’s needs and possibilities of employment for them, said Mesut Yilmaz.
ANAP has also broken its recent bad luck in losing blood through persistent resignations from the party in Parliament. On Wednesday (3) Ahmet Ozal (Independent-Malatya) entered the party with his special weight for ANAP followers, as the eldest son of the late President Turgut Ozal, the founder of the party. Main page
HOW
EFFECTIVE IS IMF LOANS IN TURKEY’S FOREIGN POLICY
A couple of hours before these remarks, State Minister for foreign trade Tunca Toskay (MHP-Antalya) told a press conference in Ankara that Turkey’s exports to Iraq would continue without any influence by the external objections to them. He had just had a two-hour audience with President Saddam Hussein and presented PM Ecevit’s verbal message to him concerning his suggestions about the steps that should Iraq take to avoid a American military action against itself.
Toskay flew to Beijing after the press conference along with 60 Turkish businessmen in preparation for the visit to Ankara by the Chinese Prime Minister within a fortnight. Tourism Minister Mustafa Tasar (ANAP-Gaziantep) will go to Beijing shortly after these mutual visits as part of Turkey’s drive for having a fair share from the Chinese market and tourism opportunities. Main page
TURKISH
MAJOR WAS KILLED IN ELHALIL DELIBERATELY
The TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) where Major Cengiz Toytunc was serving when he was killed along with a Swiss observer, Catherine Berreux, has dismissed the claim that the assailant was wearing a Palestinian uniform and that there were no Israeli soldiers on the spot. According to the TIPH report, two Israeli jeeps were on the spot and took part in the shooting out which caused the murders.
At the autopsy in Ankara on Major Toytunc’s body no bullet was found and it proved that the murder was committed from a very short distance, 5 meters or so, and that its was a deliberate murder, rather than an accident. This, for its part, brought up the question of “which side wants to get rid of the TIPH?” It is common knowledge that the TIPH is the only international presence in the troubled West Bank and that it is the desperate Palestinians’ last hope of reflecting the truth to the world, now that Israel is sealing off the area and not allowing foreign journalists there.
Ankara is gradually getting tougher and tougher against the Sharon Administration in Palestine while it was initially paying the utmost care about trying to appear even-handed in the dispute. This change is because of Israel’s outright violations of international law and justice in Palestine as Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said on Monday. Turkey’s tougher stance against Israel is expected to go beyond issuing statements about this war after closed-door debates in Parliament according to the opposition’s demand. Main page
This aim is understandable as indiscriminate killing of innocent civilian people by suicide bombers is clearly unacceptable for any nation.
However, is the Israeli Army’s target of eradicating the infrastructure of terrorism a feasible one, especially in today’s world on the path of globalisation?
The Turkish war of independence (1919-1923) was hailed by the entire oppressed peoples of the colonies of Europe as precedence for their wars of independence. If the war led by Ataturk is still an example for the nations seeking independence PM Sharon is wasting his time and spilling the blood of both sides in vain.
In the heat of Ataturk’s war of independence, in April 1921, France send its envoy, Franklin Bouillon, to Ankara to seek arrangements for peace with the Turks, after some achievements of the Ankara Government such as the first and second Inonu victories. Ataturk and his colleagues did not even have proper plates and cutlery to host the foreign guest at a dinner. The Ankara Government’s Foreign Minister Tingirsek suggested to Ataturk to borrow the necessary outfit from some wealthy local people of Ankara. Ataturk’s answer was:
“No, we will hide nothing from the French envoy. When he arrived at Ankara train station we received him with a platoon standing in honour, but our ten soldiers did not even have proper boots on their feet. Didn’t he see that some had plastic shoes, some had torn boots and some were bare foot? Our strength is not in material things and equipment, but our moral values and spirit for independence. Take him to Parliament’s dining room and let him see how our MPs are eating rice with wooden spoons from the cauldron on the table.”
It is a pity that the present Israeli rulers led by a hawk like PM Sharon does not see this moral strength of the Palestinian people against the Israeli Army’s mighty armada and causing sufferings for its own people as well as the Arabs. The victory will eventually belong to the 16-year old pretty Arab girl who gave up her life as a suicide bomber against the Israeli tanks. Turkish rulers are reluctant to speak out against Israel’s legitimately elected Prime Minister, but it is high time for all, especially the Israelis themselves to realise that the Sharon mentality will never bring peace to anyone, let alone victory. Main page
The first problem will be tackled at the NSC sitting tomorrow and will most probably be solved under the formula of “education in the mother tongue” instead of education in Kurdish as was explained in yesterday’s “Breaking News” of Pulse.
The other thorny question in Turkey’s domestic politics is the capital punishment problem, because, at the April 1999 general elections, the MHP accused the ANAP-DSP coalition of being too timid to hang the “master terrorist” Abdullah Ocalan with its slogan, “MHP, urkek degil, erkek parti” (“The MHP, not a timid, but a manly party”) that rhymes in Turkish. That is why the MHP has now been opposing abolishing the capital penalty for Abdullah Ocalan and the formula found for it at the amendment of the 35 provisions of the Constitution on October 3rd, 2001, was to ban the death penalty other than in war, imminent war or terrorism cases. The first two conditions already exist in the EU itself, so it was no problem, but Europe opposed excluding terrorist crimes from the capital penalty ban.
This issue caused a rift in the tripartite coalition, especially between ANAP, the champion of EU accession, and the MHP, “the manly party,” that was loath to appear as a timid chicken before its electors.
Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk (DSP-Trabzon) has found a way out of this controversy by preparing a bill about the capital penalty ban for excluding terrorist crimes from the death penalty without requiring another constitutional amendment, which is impossible to pass due to the MHP’s special position. The Minister’s formula was that the recent constitutional amendment excluded terrorism from the capital punishment ban, but it did not stipulate that terrorist crimes would necessarily be subjected to death penalty. So if a bill now recounts the cases of death penalty and omits the word “terrorism”, Ocalan’s death penalty will be unenforceable, because Article 1 of the Penal Code says, “There can be no crime or penalty without specific provision of law.”
The soft belly of the Justice Minister’s formula was whether the Judiciary would accept this interpretation or not. That is why the Justice Ministry applied to Danistay, the highest administrative court, for a verdict and got it affirmatively on Wednesday (27). It is now a matter of passing the Justice Minister’s bill for the implementation of the October 3rd, 2001 constitutional amendments and by all indications this will be done without much difficulty. Main page
According to the Japanese linguist, Kurdish and Zaza are two different languages. Ambassador Aktan says that if the Kurds are permitted to have education in their mother tongue, the Laz and Boshnak communities should also have the same right. He also suggests that the Turkish Government should supervise and control teaching in mother tongue and should not allow one Kurdish to be imposed on the others. If it is left free, such enormous financing could arrive from the European Union that one Kurdish could dominate the others, notes Aktan. He said to Milliyet (27), “Let me give you an interesting example about the efforts to bring about a single Kurdish. In France they held a lecture on the single Kurdish worked out by the Kurdology Institute in Paris, but the language was so artificial that no one could understand a word.” Main page
FM Cem’s disturbance over public statements on the EU accession is not restricted to the EU Commissioner, but also includes the coalition partner ANAP and Deputy PM Mesut Yilmaz. He notes that while PM Ecevit and himself were at the Barcelona Summit of the EU, Mesut Yilmaz held press conferences in Turkey “to capture the agenda” and to distract attention from the Barcelona Summit’s all-important topics. Cem believes that Yilmaz did not help Turkey’s cause of EU membership by escalating certain sensitive questions such as the death penalty with the other coalition partner, the MHP. It is apparent that the Foreign Minister is disturbed by Mesut Yilmaz’s leading the campaign for Turkey’s accession to Europe.
Invited to command on that remark, Defence Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu said on Saturday that they were loyal to the National Program for Turkey's accession to the EU, but the Europeans should also be mindful of Turkey's special conditions and sensitivities. Main page
During his visit to Brussels for talks with the EU, Mesut Yilmaz made conciliatory remarks and said that it is Turkey that should change itself to conform to European standards. “What we should seek is not an alternative to the EU membership, but the ways of preserving our European values. Unfortunately our brains are not yet adjusted to it, ,” he remarked. Yilmaz dismissed the idea of Iran as a partner for Turkey in any way.
With a $228 million financing to Turkey for this purpose and with his assurance that ISAF will only be required to operate in the vicinity of Kabul, and not have any expended role in other parts of that country, Cheney eliminated the last points of hesitation for the Turkish Army to play a historic role in the restructuring of this country devastated with 23 years of wars.
The U.S Vice-Presdent’s official visit to Ankara coincided with Turkey’s contacts in Kabul for the economic reconstruction of that country. Since 17 March State Minister Sukru Sina Gurel was heading a Turkish economic delegation to Kabul for Turkish investments there. Gurel said on his return to Ankara on March 20th that Interim PM of Afghanistan Hamit Karzai had told him that he wanted to see Turkey as the leader country in ISAF. Turkish contractors’ achievements in the world would determine Turkey’s share in the economic restructuring of Afghanistan with the international community’s donations in accordance with the Tokyo conference, said Gurel. Main page
With a population of 67.4 million, Turkey has $202.6 billion GDP (Gross Domestic Product) with current prices and it corresponds to $3600 per capita income.
Saudi Arabia is second with $171.4 billion GDP, but is first with a per capita income of $8255, as its population is 20.8 million, while Turkey ranks 13th on per capita revenue, according to the OIC figures.
Indonesia, Egypt and Iran follow Turkey and Saudi Arabia in that order in wealth in the Islamic world.
These figures of the OIC researchers, however, yield results further in favour of Turkey when the more realistic figures are taken into account on purchasing power parity (PPP) basis of the OECD.
The World Fact Book 2001 of the CIA, for instance, puts Turkey’s GDP at $444 billion (2000 estimate) and the per capita GDP at $6800.
Saudi Arabia’s GDP, according to CIA figures, is $232 billion (2000 estimate) and the per capita GDP is $10.500 on PPP basis.
In other worlds, Turkey’s national revenue is almost twice that of Saudi Arabia on the basis of the realistic calculations on purchasing power parity and the rest of the Islamic countries remain far behind.
PULSE ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT NEWS (4)..........NOVEMBER 21st, 2001
These optimistic developments were partially due to the commencement of the return of foreign capital to Turkey. Foreign capital accounted for 36% of the total at its lowest ebb with about $3 billion ($2988 million to be exact) and rose to $39.68% last week. With a $754 million increase in October the foreign capital in ISE rose to nearly $4 billion ($3754 million) at the end of October. It is expected that foreign capital will rise to 50-60% in ISE with the continuation of this optimistic development in the weeks ahead.
Market improvements are due to start de-dolarisation in Turkey
Even though Dervis’s optimistic forecasts of $10 billion additional financing from the IMF next year triggered off these constructive developments, the real reason for the up-trend is much more deep-rooted. It is due to the free market economy mechanism’s functioning as explained in the next article entitled “Turkey is still in the balance with optimistic developments”.
Indeed, whether or not $10 billion will promptly arrive in Turkey at all, the supply-and-demand mechanism has begun to function for de-dolarisation of the Turkish economy. In view of the appreciation of the TL in its dollar parity and drop of the interest rates to 3-4% for foreign exchange time deposits, the people have begun to sell their dollars and invest their Turkish Liras in the ISE, starting with banks in London.
PM Ecevit seems unaware of this new trend in the economy and said on 17 November that the additional $10 billion from the IMF would be a timely godsend and that it would save the Turkish economy next year. On the other hand, Dervis is very much aware of the facts. The Economy Minister said the same day in Canada, “They think that the solution of our economic problems are dependent on these additional resources from abroad, but in fact the real solution is our own resources and strength. Certainly, additional external financing, especially with suitable terms and cost, will be useful, but Turkey is not a country that will seek additional external financing every six or eight months. It is only needed for transcending over the transitional crisis that broke out last February.”
Dervis also made bilateral contacts with France, Italy, Japan, India, China and Germany in Ottawa. The team under Kemal Dervis is now working on passing from the floating foreign exchange system to targeted inflations rates in 2002. Rather than transitional drops in interest, dollar and inflation rates, stable lowering of these rates capable of resisting domestic and external shocks is the target of the economy rulers. One has reason to believe that the lack of confidence in Kemal Dervis is now proving to be unwarranted and unjust with the commencement of the healthy functioning of the free market economy in Turkey.
PULSE ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT NEWS (3)..........OCTOBER 27th, 2001
NO HORSE-TRADING WITH RELIGION IN POLITICS
The Inter-parliamentary Reconciliation Committee’s final decision about the bill for forestalling the referendum was a categorical rejection of horse-trading with Islamic parties.
On
Friday (26th) the bill for the constitutional amendment regulating
MPs’ salaries and pension payments was presented to Parliament with 315
signatures from the three coalition parties, plus the official opposition
party, the DYP. The biggest support to the bill came from the MHP with 103
signatures, followed by the DSP’s 95, ANAP’s 77 and the DYP’s 40.
Chairperson Tansu Ciller’s absence among the DYP members was a question mark
about the reliability of the DYP votes at the final voting, but parliamentary
circles were confident that “our
parliamentarians will act with due responsibility for forestalling a
referendum for their salaries and quickly remove this question from the
agenda.”
This move was very significant for the following points:
PULSE ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT NEWS (2)..........SEPTEMBER 21st, 2001
TURKEY ACTIVATES NATO RESOLUTION ABOUT ARTICLE V
It
took Turkey 11 days to make up its mind about how to assist the United States
in putting into force the NATO resolution that brought terrorism within the
jurisdiction of Article V of the NATO Charter which stipulates that an attack
against one member is an attack against all. This resolution adopted in
Brussels a day after the 11 September tragedy enjoyed Turkey’s prompt and
full support, but determining Turkey’s contributions to the response to the
attack,
as Article V calls for every member, was much slower. It took ten days and
after top-level meetings of military and civilian rulers in Cankaya, PM Ecevit
finally informed President Bush in a letter on Friday (21st) that
Turkey would accord the following facilities to the Anglo-American forces who
were already moving to the Gulf and Indian Ocean over the Afghan crisis:
PM
Ecevit’s letter to and President Sezer’s subsequent telephone talk with
President Bush hint at or expressly stress certain points in addition to the
above commitments of Turkey within Article V. These points include the
importance of strategic partnership between Turkey and the United States
within NATO. It tacitly expresses Ankara’s expectation that Washington will
refrain from a hot war against the Afghan people, but will try to eliminate
the archaic Taliban regime through support to its Afghan opponents in the
North. Ankara expects the Anglo-Americans not to take any drastic action in
the region without prior consultations with the allies in Brussels. President
Sezer advised President Bush to be careful about military action. “It is
already a powerful political message that NATO is treating terrorism within
Article V,” he emphasized.
Ankara
was especially emphatic in this ten-day decision-making period that war should
be avoided in Afghanistan. Spreading it towards the so called rogue countries
- Iran, Iraq, Libya is especially unacceptable to Ankara and PM Ecevit said it
in so many words that he did not even want to hear about the word war. Other
than some military instructors and intelligence staff, who are already there,
Turkey will not send forces to the region. The military instructors, logistics
and intelligence cooperation with the Americans will certainly be reinforced
as the letter expressly promises.
Even though the decision-making period about implementing Article V took Turkey 10-11 days, translating it into action was prompt and did not even take 10-11 hours. The military aid to Northern Afghanistan from the Turkish airfields is already on the Uzbek-Afghan frontier. As for the background, scope, nature, significance and possible consequences of the Turkish involvement in the Afghan affairs, it will be explained in “turkpulse indebt analysis 50” tomorrow.
PULSE ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT NEWS (1)..........SEPTEMBER 21st, 2001
CONSTITUTIONAL
AMENDMENTS FOR EU ACCESSION
After two years of preparations, Parliament has taken up the parcel of 37 articles of the Constitution in order to make amendments in line with the European Union’s legislation in an attempt to pave the way for Turkey’s accession to the Union. The first day (17th) of the emergency session held for this purpose was devoted to out of context speeches by political parties to express their views on President Bush’s call for war against terrorism. As expected, they were all expressing support to the American appeal and initiative, but also calling for caution about being “more American than the Americans themselves” as had been the case in the late President Ozal’s officious behaviour during the Gulf War.
The
other was the exact opposite. Paradoxically, the American tragedy made an
unbelievable impact on all six political parties represented in Parliament and
they unanimously passed 14 of these 37 amendments on the first day (19th)
at the Constitutional Committee.
The
difficulty about abolishing the death penalty was done by adding a provision to
Paragraph 7 of Article 38, which reads, “general confiscation shall not be
imposed as penalty.” After the legislation of the amendments it will read,
“General confiscation and other than the cases of war, imminent war and
terrorism, death sentence shall not be imposed as penalty.” Thus the MHP
has saved itself from the criticism that it was commuting Ocalan’s capital
punishment.
Pres.
Sezer warns government about retaining supremacy of constitution