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Athens News Agency: News in English, 96-12-10

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.forthnet.gr/ape>


NEWS IN ENGLISH

ATHENS, Greece, 10/12/1996 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

  • Prime minister meets with protesting pensioners
  • Greek-Turkish business cooperation meeting continues in Athens
  • Academic reveals evidence of Turkish recourse to courts over Imia
  • 4,000 jobs at stake in flooded, blockaded Thrace
  • Cabinet meets today as farmers' protests enter 13th day
  • Greek, Cypriot defence ministers continue talks
  • Culture minister to visit EU counterparts

    NEWS IN DETAIL

    Prime minister meets with protesting pensioners

    Prime Minister Costas Simitis interrupted a Cabinet meeting he was chairing today to meet with representatives of protesting pensioners who had stood in the rain for two hours outside Parliament.

    After the meeting, pensioners' representative Christos Triantis and Undersecretary to the Prime Minister's Office George Paschalidis told reporters that the dialogue between pensioners and the competent minister, Miltiades Papaioannou would continue at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

    Triantis said the prime minister had reiterated that the state of the economy did not allow the satisfaction of pensioners' demands for higher benefits.

    He said he had responded by pointing out that the government had ''given away'' hundreds of billions of drachmas to oil companies and football clubs.

    Paschalidis underlined that ''the road to dialogue'' was that which would bring results.

    Local gov't can help create new climate between Greece, Turkey

    Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos today told a visiting delegation of Turkish businessmen that local government in Greece and Turkey could play an important role in the creation of ''a new atmosphere'' in both countries.

    Avramopoulos received the delegation at the town hall this morning. The 60- member delegation is one of the largest of Turkish businessmen ever to travel abroad.

    The delegates are attending a two-day conference of the Greek-Turkish Business Cooperation Council which opened here yesterday.

    ''The time has come to pave the way for closer cooperation,'' Avramopoulos said, calling on the business world to act as a ''channel'' for closer bilateral relations.

    He stressed in particular the need to overcome the problem of what he called ''the psychological factor'' which impedes closer ties between the two neighbours.

    Avramopoulos asked the Turkish delegates to try and understand that there were specific political problems which must be resolved, the ''key'', as he put it, being the continuing Turkish occupation of Cyprus.

    ''The Turkish government must at long last provide a solution, in order to substantially open the way for an improvement in bilateral relations,'' he said.

    At the same time, Avramopoulos urged ''the raising of the flag for better cooperation in the economic sector'', as well as for common interests and common areas for action to be identified ''in order to place yet another brick in the wall which will protect us''.

    During the meeting, which took place in a good atmosphere, Avramopoulos described the Turkish businessmen as ''the European expression of contemporary Turkey.

    He urged them to unceasingly link the future of their country with the European Union and expressed the hope for even closer cooperation with his local government counterparts in Turkey.

    The head of the Turkish delegation, Rahmi Koc, who is the president of Turkey's biggest business conglomerate and also President of the Turkish- Greek Business Council, said he was convinced that rapprochement between the two countries would be reality ''in the not too distant future''.

    Before the meeting with Avramopoulos, the Turkish delegation was received by US Ambassador in Athens Thomas Niles.

    According to informed sources, Niles urged the businessmen of both countries to implement specific business plans, expressing the view that this would undoubtedly lead to a substantial improvement in the political climate prevailing between Greece and Turkey.

    Academic reveals past Turkish recourse to international court over Imia

    A distinguished academic today shed further light on the background to the Imia issue, announcing that he had discovered evidence that Turkey had in the past agreed to refer the matter to the International Court at the Hague.

    The announcement serves as further proof of the groundlessness of Ankara's disputing of Greece's sovereignty of the Aegean islets, which brought the two countries to the brink of war in January this year.

    In an interview with the Macedonian Press Agency (MPA), Professor of International Law Dimitris Constantopoulos said he had discovered a 1929 agreement between Turkey and Italy to refer the Imia issue to the International Court, in order for the latter to decide whether the islets belonged to Greece or Turkey.

    ''Meanwhile, Italy and Turkey signed a treaty in 1932 and a protocol in December the same year which clearly state which islets belong to Turkey and which to Greece. So, in 1933 Italy and Turkey withdrew their recourse to the International Court,'' Constantopoulos said, stressing that the 1932 treaty and protocol both recognized Greek sovereignty of Imia.

    ''This has not been announced in the past. Perhaps apart from the Turkish government it was known only to the Italian foreign ministry,'' Constantopoulos added.

    4,000 jobs at stake in flooded, blockaded Thrace

    An industry representative in Xanthi warned today that over 4,000 workers, craftsmen and employees would be out of a job if a solution was not found within the week to problems caused in Thrace by recent floods and the farmers' blockade of roads.

    ''We have no raw materials to operate our enterprises. Orders worth millions of drachmas have been cancelled. Exports have come to a halt because the borders with Turkey and Bulgaria are closed,'' Dimitris Bezermelis, President of the Industrialists' Association of Xanthi told the ANA.

    ''Through no fault of our own, we have been labelled insolvent by the importers with whom we cooperate. If the state does not help us immediately, we shall be forced to close our businesses and this will be a particularly severe blow for our region which already has a high rate of unemployment,'' Bezermelis added.

    The presidents of industrial and commercial associations of Xanthi have meanwhile sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Costas Simitis requesting immediate financial assistance amounting to 50 per cent of the total losses incurred from the floods.

    They are also requesting favourable bank loans by the end of the year to cope with the other 50 per cent of losses, a two-year suspension of undertakings' outstanding debts to banks without the calculation of default interest and other accommodations.

    Farmers protests force temporary lay-off of 2,000 workers

    In a related development, the Vice-President of the Panhellenic Association of Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Dimitris Maratzidis told the ANA that over 2,000 workers in fruit standardization and export companies had been temporarily laid off since the start of the farmers' protests almost two weeks ago.

    Maratzidis said many businessmen in the branch were considering taking legal action against ''all persons responsible'' for the financial losses they have incurred.

    ''Each day that passes, we are losing orders from major supermarkets in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. Meanwhile, the Spanish are rushing to fill the gap. The situation is so bad that many companies will not be able to pay their employees the Christmas bonus,'' Maratzidis said.

    He maintained that the farmers' protests were not only hitting companies active in the processing, standardisation and export of fruit and vegetables but also the producers themselves.

    ''This is because the refrigerated trucks stranded (by the farmers' blockades) in northern Greece which were headed for abroad are loaded with fruit and vegetables which will reach European markets at a considerably increased cost, due to the delays, and also because of the higher freight charges since in some cases the trucks have had to travel from Piraeus to Thessaloniki by ferry-boat,'' Martatzidis said.

    Most of the workers laid off are believed to be in the prefectures of Imathia and Pella, where many of the fruit standardization and export companies are based.

    Farmers' protests continue as cabinet meets

    The Cabinet meets today to discuss the prospect of serious disruption in traffic and distribution of goods arising from almost two weeks of farmers' roadblocks throughout the country, as both sides refused to budge from their stated positions yesterday.

    The government, through its spokesman, Dimitris Reppas, reiterated its readiness to enter into structured dialogue after the farmers removed the roadblocks.

    Other ministers, and most prominently National Economy and Finance Minister Yiannos Papantoniou, stressed that the government would not yield to blackmail, and it was inconceivable that the hard-won efforts for a drop in inflation would go wasted due to a group of farmers.

    Farmers are demanding higher crop prices, increased subsidies, cheaper fuel for agricultural use, the favourable settlement of outstanding debts and lower fertiliser prices.

    President Kostis Stephanopoulos and main opposition New Democracy (ND) party leader Miltiades Evert expressed concern over the continuing protests.

    Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said later that the government was ready for "an institutional dialogue of a national nature" on the problems of Greek agriculture, but only on the condition that the farmers lift their blockades of the country's roads and rail links.

    Mr. Reppas said that the Cabinet would meet today, chaired by Prime Minister Costas Simitis, to discuss the new uniform pay scale for civil servants. He clarified that the issue of the farmers' protests would also be examined at the meeting.

    Greek, Cypriot defence ministers continue talks

    National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos had two hours of talks this morning with his Cyprus counterpart Costas Iliades which, according to informed sources, focused on the implementation of the two countries' joint defence doctrine.

    After the meeting, both ministers declined to make any statement.

    Tsohatzopoulos and Iliades, who met for talks recently in Cyprus, are expected to continue their discussion at the National Defence Ministry tomorrow.

    Culture minister to visit EU counterparts

    Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos will have a series of meetings this week with his European Union counterparts, it was announced today.

    Venizelos is due to meet with culture ministers of southern Europe in Paris before travelling to Copenhagen for talks with his Danish counterpart and events marking the end of Copenhagen's term as Cultural Capital of Europe.

    While in the Danish capital, Venizelos will officially take the ''baton'' for Thessaloniki's assumption of Cultural Capital of Europe for 1997.

    He will present the programme for the northern Greek port city in Brussels on 16 December before flying to Rotterdam for the inauguration of the architecture exhibition ''Town and Sea''.

    WEATHER

    Overcast with rainfalls in most parts of Greece and rainstorms in the west. Same weather in the Ionian and northern Aegean sea and the mainland with backed by strong winds. Athens will be overcast with rainfall later in the day and temperatures ranging from 11-15C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 6-12C.

    SPORTS

    Results of three Greek First Division soccer matches played Monday:Paniliakos - Kalamata 4-0, Athinaikos - OFI 0-0 and Edessaikos - Kavala 0-0.

    FOREIGN EXCHANGE

    (Closing rates -buying) U.S. dlr 242.484, Can. dlr.178.282, Australian dlr. 193.619, Pound sterling 398.387, Irish punt 399.677, Cyprus pd 517.626, French franc 46.235, Swiss franc 183.421 Belgian franc 7.577, German mark 156.190, Finnish mark 52.231, Dutch guilder 139.297, Danish Kr. 40.811, Swedish Kr. 35.543, Norwegian Kr. 37.398, Austrian Sh. 22.197, Italian lira (100) 15.851, Yen (100) 214.113, Spanish Peseta 1.856, Portuguese Escudo 1.547.

    (M.P.)


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