TURKPULSE No:71..........May 19th, 2002
PM
Ecevit confirmed on Thursday (16th), with a new document he
issued from his home, that TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological
Institute) comes under the Deputy PM Devlet Bahceli with all its external
activities and contacts. This document was issued at a time when the Turkish
economy was turning topsy-turvy with the unfounded news by the daily
Aksam that the American Ambassador Pearson had told Kemal Dervis
that Ecevit would resign on Saturday and that there would be early elections
in November. What was it that induced the Prime Minister to take that
initiative at a time when interest rates were going up, the dollar passed
the TL1.4 million limits and the Istanbul Stock Exchange was plummeting with
disinformation?
The
Communication Ministry is working on an investment to make Turkey the
satellite-broadcasting centre for the Caucasus and Central Asia by filling
these “blind” areas for TV, radio, Internet and data transfer services.
These services will especially cover the former USSR lands, including
today’s Russian Federation, the Turkic Republics, as well as the Caucasus.
Ankara-based modern satellite communication for Eurasia
At the
moment communication services of these countries are run by land
communication installations of Moscow and the entire system requires large
investments for modernisation. The modern communication facilities Turkey is
planning to set in motion for these services through its Turk-sat
communication satellites will be an enormous improvement for vision and
sound broadcasts, as well as interactive Internet and data transfer services
in Eurasia.
The
“Eurasia Vision” project of Turkey stretching as far as China will be
patterned after EBU’s (European Broadcasting Union) Eurovision broadcasts
and will make it an international force in satellite broadcasting. It will
cover Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
the TRNC, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyztan, Mongolia and Afghanistan. These
countries will be linked to the entire world thanks to these satellite
services for communication. Even
though Central Asia and the Caucuses are the centre of this project it will
cover large areas including China. It will be a breakthrough for these
countries in the economic, cultural and technological fields.
The
project will be totally financed by Turkey and it will amortise itself
within five years. TIKA (Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency) will be
the backbone and authorised government agency in charge of it, but Isbank,
Turk Telecom, the Ministry of Communication and the Higher Council of
Turkish Telecommunication Institutions will also contribute to it in many
domains.
Communication
Minister Oktay Vural said that the areas to be covered by this project were
totally “blind”, meaning having no communication services. It would be a
cultural based technical service with economic consequences. From this new
network these countries would be able to get healthy vision, sound and data
transfer services in communication and broadcasting. Ankara would be the
centre of the project, which would be interactive, he said. Also the
pictures to be received from these areas would be marketed in the world. It
would make Turkey the window opening to the world for Eurasia. Turkish would
be the central language in these services. An investment of half a million
dollars would be needed for each country covered by this project, said the
Minister.
EBU’s
working principles will be the guideline in the functioning of the system.
The TRT and other broadcasting systems of the countries concerned will
contribute to its functioning.
MHP gets down to brass tacks to make Turkey the centre of Eurasia
This is
the first major technological project linking Turkey to central Asia, but
not the only one. For the last three years when they have been in power, the
MHP wing of the Ecevit coalition has been working on comprehensive projects
making Turkey one of the main centres of Eurasia and linking all the Turkic
republics together. These projects are now coming to fruition. In addition
to this communication project, there will be others, especially scientific
and technological research projects for Eurasia, linking the central Asian
Turkic republics to Europe and the entire world, with Turkey as the main
centre for all these activities.
PM
Ecevit’s instructions on Thursday (16th) was to confirm that
Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli is in charge of TUBITAK as well as the
projects for scientific and technological activities, including multilateral
cooperation especially for linking the Western world to Eurasia.
After
communication, broadcasting and research it will be the turn of transport,
contracting services and exports. These projects are also ready and they are
waiting for the settlement of the macro economic balances, which the Economy
Minister Dervis claims to have been achieved and which most people take with
a bit caution. The coming to life of these projects is also concerned with
the stability of this region extending from Palestine to the Gulf, the
Caucuses, Afghanistan and Central Asia, as well as the subcontinent and
China. That is why Turkey is keen on solving the international disputes and
upheavals in these troubles areas.
Transport leg of cooperation marks time
The most
important side of this multilateral cooperation that will eventually make
Eurasia another European Union around BSEC (Black Sea Economic Cooperation)
is transport networks of highways, railways, airways and maritime lines, but
these projects requiring enormous financial investment move forward very
slowly, mostly because of disputes and hot confrontations in these regions.
The main
transport projects, which concern Turkey among these projects to make it
“a natural transport terminal among the continents” are: the Eastern
Black Sea motorway, the Bosphorus tube crossing for railways and the
Kars-Tbilisi railway projects.
The
first one of this for eastern Black Sea motorway and for improving the
transport links of the port of Samsun have covered quite some distance,
mostly thanks to Deputy PM Mesut Yilmaz’s personal interest in developing
the highways of his constituency. But the two economic crises in November
2000 and February 2001 delivered a blow to its completion. Still quite some
progress has been made in that project.
The tube
rail crossing from under the Bosphorus has been one of the main
preoccupations of the Communication Minister Oktay Vural and he has reached
an agreement in principle with the Japanese for its construction. Again the
efforts to overcome the economic crisis are preventing the Government from
taking quick steps for achieving this vital project.
As for
the Kars-Tbilisi railway project, it has not gone any further than piles of
paper work and several agreements signed between Turkey and Georgia for the
last 5-6 years. Armenia sees it as part of the Silk Road project stretching
from the Balkans to China all through Asia, by excluding itself from these
multinational transport projects. Mostly because of the Armenian
Diaspora’s influence on Washington this relatively simple and easy project
has been marking time with not a single concrete step taken for its
commencement.
Nevertheless,
Deputy PM Devlet Bahceli’s contacts in China and Central Asian Turkic
republics are going on for the elimination of these difficulties, as soon as
Turkey’s economic conditions improve sufficiently.
“Comprehensive
partnership” with Russia and Ukraine for Eurasia
At a
televised interview about a year ago, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said, “We
have two basic targets. The first is to become a full member of the European
Union and the other is to be the cutting edge of Eurasia. There are two
countries with a claim to be the core of Eurasia. One is Turkey and the
other is Russia. With Russia’s constructive approach we are now jointly
carrying out technical work on the Eurasia project.”
It
concerns the agreement signed by the Turkish and Russian Foreign Ministers
on November 16th, 2001 for an “Action Plan for Cooperation on
Eurasia.” The joint work group established within this agreement held its
first meeting in Moscow on April 9th, 2002 with Deputy Under
Secretary of MFA, Ambassador Ali Tuygan and his Russian counterpart Sergei
Razov leading the two delegations. The in-depth exchange of views at this
first meeting of the joint group proved that there were great similarities
in the outlooks of the two countries about the action plan for the best
interest of Eurasian countries. It was decided to raise mutual relations to
a “comprehensive partnership level.” A subcommittee was established for
the economic dimensions of this cooperation in Southern Caucasus. Intensive
work was devoted to economic cooperation of this action plan. The second
meeting of the joint group will be held in Ankara in the second half of the
year. It is expected that the Turkish economy will improve sufficiently by
that meeting to enable these two locomotive countries of Eurasia to take
more tangible steps on the projects prepared by mostly the MHP wing of the
coalition.
Ukraine
is another key country for these Eurasian activities. On February 3rd,
2002, on the tenth anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between
Turkey and Ukraine, the two foreign ministers exchanged messages to confirm
their intentions to further the relations, which they described to be “at
the constructive partnership level.” They noted that in the last ten years
the contractual foundations of mutual relations had been laid and that they
should now take steps for the “realisation of their strategic aims.”
While
these constructive developments were taking place in Turkey’s Eurasia
policy, the European Parliament issued a declaration on February 288th,
2002 on “The European Union’s relations with South Caucuses within the
framework of partnership and cooperation agreements.” The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs in Ankara protested to the declaration which made a
reference to the alleged “Armenian genocide” and which accused Turkey of
enforcing an embargo on Armenia. The MFA pointed out that the
Yerevan-Istanbul-Yerevan line was open to airlines and that Turkey had
opened its airspace to Armenia. Far from enforcing an embargo on Armenia,
Turkey is exerting efforts to work out peace arrangements between Azerbaijan
and Armenia for the sake of improved cooperation in Southern Caucuses.
Foreign Minister Ismail Cem held meetings with his Armenian counterpart at
the latest NATO meeting in Reykjavik only a few days ago and his efforts
were intended to help the Minsk group’s similar efforts within the OSCE
for the Caucuses. uras@ada.net.tr
- May 19th, 2002