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Anadolu Agency: News in English, 00-09-19Anadolu Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Anadolu Agency Home Page at <http://www.anadoluajansi.com.tr/>ANADOLU AGENCYNEWS 19 SEPTEMBER 2000 Tuesday CONTENTS
[01] TURKEY-PRESS SCANThese are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkey's press on September 19, 2000. The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.HURRIYET (LIBERAL)NATIONAL LOTTERY GETTING READY TO GIVE FIVE TRILLION ATNEW YEAR DRAWING While the National Lottery Administration was getting ready to give 2 trillion TL in the new year's drawing, State Minister Fikret Unlu proposed to raise this figure to 5 trillion to increase the sales of lottery tickets. Lottery ticket sellers supported Unlu's proposal. FOCUS:''TURKEY MADE HIGHEST PROFIT FROM TOURISM THIS YEAR'' MILLIYET (LIBERAL)KUTAN STARTS HIS CONTACTS ON ARTICLE 312Virtue Party (FP) leader Recai Kutan has started his meetings in order to prevent Necmettin Erbakan from being sent to prison. Kutan had his first meeting with Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Monday. During the meeting Kutan said ''the Parliament should discuss Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) separately from other amendments in the TCK. Ecevit replied that Article 312 can be debated together with some other constitutional changes. During the meeting, Kutan denied that FP's trips to foreign countries aimed to ask for support for Article 312. He said they were travelling foreign countries to promote their party. CENTRAL BANK CHAIRMAN GAZI ERCEL WARNS PRIVATE SECTOR ON EURO Drawing attention to the value loss of Euro, Ercel said ''the private sector should see this and act accordingly. It should not depend on only one kind of currency.'' SABAH (LIBERAL)WARNINGS FROM BAHCELIDevlet Bahceli, the Deputy Prime Minister, and the leader of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), asked, ''are those who put abolishment of capital punishment as a pre-condition in front of Turkey's full membership to the European Union (EU), try to set up a trap,'' and wanted response to his five questions. - Britain, Norway, Greece, and Denmark abolished the capital punishment long after they entered to the EU. Why is this a pre-condition for Turkey? - Although every country lifts capital punishment in time according to its own internal structure, what lies behind the statements made to Turkey saying, ''you should abolish them immediately, or else the roads will be closed.'' - Is the insistency to put abolishment of capital punishment as a pre- condition really related with the EU, or related with separatist activity. - Immediately after human rights are brought to the agenda, an ethnic group said ''capital punishment should be lifted soon,'' why did this happen. - Are we face to face with a trap which we can not realize? Everybody should think of this. And he said: ''I don't accuse or blacken anybody. However, you should think of the future and past of the things you are doing. Turkey is ours.'' SUMMER COMES BACK State Meteorogy Affairs General Directorate told A.A that temperatures will increase on Tuesday. Warm weather will be influential till the weekend, and rain is not expected. The temperatures will decrease at the weekend, and will be at seasonal averages. CUMHURIYET (LEFT)''NO SPECIAL AMNESTY FOR ERBAKAN''Hikmet Sami Turk, the Justice Minister, said the works for the constitutional changes were misunderstood, and that, ''efforts to issue a private amnesty for Necmettin Erbakan, the former leader of the banned Welfare Party (RP), is out of question.'' Coalition parties are not willing to include Erbakan to the scope of amnesty with a constitutional change. 42 PEOPLE DIE IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS RADIKAL (LEFT)SUMMIT FOR AMNESTY AND 312Mesut Yilmaz, the Deputy Prime Minister, and leader of the Motherland Party (ANAP), said leaders of the coalition partner parties will convene soon to discuss amnesty and Artice 312 of the Constitution. Yilmaz also called on the ANAP administration not to leak information to the press. ANAP Chairmanship Council had a meeting yesterday under the leadership of Yilmaz and discussed constitutional amendment, and proposal of Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk, for amnesty. POSTPONEMENT TO ASLITURK CASE Lawyer of Asliturk, who spoke at the hearing that took place in the Bow Street Magistrate Court, pointed out that there were three accusations against his client, yet noted that Turkish government made a supplementary to the 150-page extradition dossier, including six new accusations. The lawyer said they could not get prepared for the six new files as they could not get them on time, and requested time to discuss the extradition file as a whole. YENİ BİNYIL (LIBERAL)OTTELINI:''ACT FASTER TO FORM INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE''Intel's Deputy Chairman Paul Ottelini said that Turkey can benefit from the internet's advantages greatly, but added that Turkey has to rapidly complete its telecommunication investments to achieve this. Resembling Turkey to Spain with its young population and its quick adaptation to technology, Ottelini said internet offers new employment opportunities. GOVERNMENT TO ANNOUNCE BASIC ECONOMY POLICIES AND MEASURES FOR TURKIYE (RIGHT)ARTICLE 312 STIRS ANKARADiscussions regarding amendment to the Article 312 of the Constitution gains a new dimension every day. Recai Kutan, leader of the Virtue Party (FP) who began to tour the leaders, and met with Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit on Monday. Making a call to Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Kutan said, ''this sword may one day cut you also. Let us amend it soon.'' ''OLYMPIA SHOW OF TURKISH HAIR DRESSERS'' Nine Turkish hairdressers working under the supervision of Orhan Bademli expressed Mevlana's philosoply in the hair styles they created, receiving a lot of applause. Turkish designer Ugur Dervis who lives in Australia designed the outfits the models wore during the show. ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)AKBULUT IN SOFIAParliament Speaker Yildirim Akbulut, who is currently on an official visit to Bulgaria, called on the Bulgarians to declare PKK as a terrorist organization, and wanted them to prevent the activities of the terrorist PKK organization in this country. He said Bulgaria should declare PKK as a terrorist organization like Germany and France. COOPERATION WITH UZBEKISTAN [02] ZEUGMA ON INTERNETGAZIANTEP - Zeugma ancient city in Gaziantep's Nizip township is promoted on the internet to the whole world.The webpage, which can be reached through www.zeugma2000.com, includes information about the city's history, archeologic map, preservation of historical objects, Gaziantep Museum, the Culture Ministry, South East Anatolia (GAP) Management and other institutions which contributed to the project to save Zeugma. It was also stated that the rescue works in Zeugma are financed by the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI). The webpage calls Zeugma 2000, ''an an archaeological rescue project dedicated to documenting the Roman frontier city of Zeugma on the Euphrates river.'' ''Under the auspices of the Turkish Ministry of Culture, the South-eastern Anatolia Project (GAP) and the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) have organized an ambitious international emergency rescue project at Zeugma during the summer of 2000. The Roman city is remarkably well preserved beneath thick layers of hillwash, which almost completely obscure its former grandeur. It is not surprising that many have labelled Zeugma the "Turkish Pompeii!" ,'' it says on the webpage. ''Multinational teams of archaeologists and specialists have come to Zeugma to join forces with their Turkish colleagues. This rapid response team is composed of rescue and specialist archaeologists and conservators working together following a common strategy. The aim of the project is to record and to understand better the sectors of the ancient city due to be inundated around October 2000, following the completion of the massive Birecik Hydroelectric Dam.'' [03] FOREIGN MINISTER CEM IN BRUSSELSBRUSSELS - Foreign Minister Ismail Cem left for Brussels on Tuesday morning to hold contacts within the framework of the European Union (EU).On the first day of his contacts, Cem will have meetings with European Parliament Turkey rapporteur Philippe Morillon and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the Co-Chairman of Joint Parliament Commission, which maintains the dialogue between the EP and the Turkish parliament. Cem will later visit European Parliament's Foreign Relations Commission Chairman Elmar Brok and the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. On Wednesday, Cem is scheduled to meet with Enrique Baron Crespo, the EP Socialist Group Chairman; Paul Lanoye, the Co-Chairman of the Greens Group; Hans Gert Pottering, the Chairman of the Christian Democrat Group; Patricx Cox, the Chairman of the Liberal Group, and Guenter Verheugen, the EU Commissioner responsible for enlargement. Cem is expected to return to Turkey on Friday after meeting with Romano Prodi, the Chairman of the EU Commission, and Nicole Fontaine, the Chairperson of the European Parliament. [04] UNICEF TO GIVE TURKEY 20 MILLION U.S. DOLLARSNEW YORK - UNICEF decided to provide financial assistance of 20 million U.S. dollars to children in Turkey in the next five years, during a meeting in New York on Monday.The cash will be used to bring solutions to children's educational and health problems and to start vaccination against several diseases. UNICEF Executive Committee has also agreed on its Turkey programme. The programme foresees benefiting from non-governmental organizations to make improvements in the lives of women and children; correct the social and economic inbalances among Turkey's different regions, and inspecting implementations in the field of children's rights. UNICEF had earlier carried out a research on 450 children who live in the streets in six cities. It also contributed to efforts to provide good medical service, education, rehabilitation and nourishment to children who were affected by the Marmara earthquake. Prof. Ihsan Dogramaci, former Chairman of Higher Education Council (YOK) who represented Turkey at the meeting thanked to UNICEF authorities. [05] TUBITAK EXTENDS SUPPORT TO 55 PROJECTS IN GAPSANLIURFA - Symposium titled, ''Agricultural Research Projects Supported in GAP Region,'' staged by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), will take place in southeastern Sanliurfa province.The program, carried out by the administration of TUBITAK's Agriculture, Forest, and Food Technologies Research Group, extends support to 55 projects in Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) Region. A total of 200 scientists, researchers, and experts will attend the symposium which will last for two days. Officials said 23 of the projects, which are carried out with the 750 billion lira support provided by the World Bank, will be under discussion. [06] DELUX HOTELS AND HOLIDAY RESORTS IN ANTALYA ARE BOOKED UPUNTIL BEGINNING OF WINTERANTALYA - Ahmet Barut, Chairman of the Association of Mediterrenean Touristic Hotels (AKTOB), said on Tuesday that delux hotels and holiday resorts in Antalya are booked up until the beginning of winter. Tourism authorities said tourism season in 2000 was fruitful and that they were also expecting a profitable winter season. Ahmet Barut noted that 2,5 million tourists visited Antalya in the last eight months and this number is likely to exceed 3,5 million by the end of November 2000. Barut noted that some hotels in Antalya were closed during the winter months and said ''the hotels which have winter facilities could increase their customer number by offering their customers more options such as golf, congress, and culture tourism. I believe that the hotels will start making profit also in winter as of this year.'' [07] TURKEY-WORLD BANKWORLD BANK OFFERS 27 MILLION U.S. DOLLARS FOR ''FARMERREGISTRATION SYSTEM'' WHICH WAS ESTIMATED TO COST 250 MILLION U.S. DOLLARS BY AGRUCULTURE MINISTRY ANKARA - World Bank offered 27 million U.S. dollars support to the ''Farmer Registration System'' which was estimated to cost 250 million U.S. dollars by the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Ministry. Sources said on Tuesday that the Turkish side and the World Bank side had different opinions also about the criteria for the support to farmers regarding the issue of ''Direct Income Support''. World Bank officials believed that the support should be extended according to the ''area of the arable field'' while the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Ministry officials defended that the support should be evaluated within scope of the ''assets of the enterprise, amount of production, number of cattle and general structure of the economy'', sources said. Stressing that the ''Letter of Intent'' which had been submitted to the IMF included the factor of giving the start for the ''Direct Income Support'' in 2001, officials said that it would become difficult to put this system into practice in 2001 under those conditions. Noting that the project would be taken up by the World Bank Board in December, officials said that effective extension of loans could start in March 2001 under those conditions. Stressing that opening and finalization of an international tender for the infrastructure of the ''Farmer Registration System'' could take a long time, officials said that the ''Direct Income Support'' system should start in 2001. [08] BUDGET RESULTSANKARA - Finance Minister Sumer Oral said on Tuesday that the non-interest budget surplus in the first eight months of 2000 reached 6 quadrillion 980 trillion Turkish liras (TL).Releasing a written statement on the budget performance in the January- August period of 2000, Oral said that the total revenues had been 22 quadrillion 155 trillion TL including 17 quadrillion 517 trillion TL tax income. Stressing that the state had paid a 17 quadrillion 296 trillion TL interest, and the total budget expenditures had become 32 quadrillion 471 trillion TL, Oral said the budget expenditures excluding interest payments had become 15 quadrillion 175 trillion TL. Oral said that within this framework, the budget deficit had become 10 quadrillion 316 trillion TL, and the non-interest budget surplus had reached 6 quadrillion 980 trillion TL. The Finance Minister said that the income collection had increased 102.3 percent, the tax collection had risen 104.2 percent and expenditures had increased 83.7 percent in August 2000 when compared to August 1999. Noting that interest expenditures had increased 129.2 percent, Oral said that non-interest budget expenditures had risen 50.3 percent and the budget deficit had increased 53.5 percent. [09] CAPACITY UZTILIZATION IN AUGUSTANKARA - The State Institute of Statistics (DIE)explained on Tuesday the result of the monthly tendency survey which reflects view of the establishments in manufacturing industry about production, sales, stocks and prices for the relation in August 2000. According to the statement of the DIE, rate of capacity utilization that is weighted by production value, increased from 69.9 percent in August 1999 to 75.8 percent in August 2000, from the primarily provisional result of 540 large scale manufacturing industrial establishments. Comparison of the reasons for not working in full capacity to the same month of the previous year is summarized below: In August 1999 In August 2000 -------------- --------------- from 13.5 percent to 10.4 percent Shortage of demands in foreign market from 2.1 percent to 2.4 percent Financial problems from 2.6 percent to 3.9 percent Shortage of raw domestic materials from 2.5 percent to 3.3 percent Labor problems from 0.7 percent to 1.1 percent Shortage of raw imported materials [10] MILD EARTHQUAKE IN YALOVAISTANBUL/KADIKOY - A mild earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale rocked Yalova on Tuesday.Bogazici University Kandilli Observatory and Seismology Institute officials said that the quake which happened at 12:22 was centered on Yalova. The earthquake was also felt in Istanbul and the surroundings. [11] ''CONSTRUCTION 2000 ANKARA FAIR'' TO BE OPENED ON WEDNESDAYANKARA - The ''Construction 2000 Ankara Fair'' will be opened in Altinpark Expo Center on Wednesday.A statement of the Construction Industry Center said on Tuesday that 180 local and foreign companies will join the fair. Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz is expected to open the fair. [12] ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES MINISTER ERSUMER:''I WILL INFORM COUNCIL OF MINISTERS ABOUT DECISIONSTAKEN IN THE MEETING HELD IN BOTAS'' ANKARA - Cumhur Ersumer, the Energy and Natural Resources Minister, said on Tuesday that a meeting was held in the Pipeline Transportation Corp. (Botas) regarding the energy savings on Monday and that he will inform on Thursday the Council of Ministers about the decisions taken in the meeting. Following his meeting with Shiferaw Jarso, the Ethiopian Water Resources Minister who is paying a visit to Ankara, Ersumer told reporters that stories saying that water will not be released to the Firat basin are not correct. Ersumer said that 1999 and 2000 were the driest years experienced in Turkey in the last two decades and that they hope this year will be last dry year in Turkey. There will not be any problems in irrigation in the following term, Ersumer noted. A meeting was held in Botas on Monday about the energy deficit and measures taken to prevent energy shortage in November, December, January and February, Ersumer stated. Ersumer added, ''administrators of institutions like the State Water Works (DSI), Turkish Electricity Distribution Inc. (TEDAS), Turkish Electricity Production and Transmission Inc. (TEAS), and Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKI) attended the meeting. I will give information on Thursday to the Council of Ministers about this meeting.'' [13] 22TH INTERCONTINENTAL EURASIA MARATHON TO BE HELD ON OCTOBER 15ISTANBUL - The 22th Intercontinental Istanbul Eurasia Marathon will be held on October 15.Ali Mufit Gurtuna, the Mayor of Istanbul, told a press conference on Tuesday that this marathon is the only marathon which is run between the two continents. Gurtuna said that the Intercontinental Eurosia Marathon is bringing people together with olympic ideal and without making any discriminations. ''Istanbul's new target is hosting the 2008 Olympics. We consider both this marathon and other sports activities as a preparation for the Olympics. We are sure that we will host the 2008 Olympics very well,'' said Gurtuna. Gurtuna emphasized that this is the only event which gives people the chance to cross the continents by walking. Gurtuna noted whole Europe and the world can watch Istanbul's historical, geographical and cultural beauties for almost two and a half hours through the television channels broadcasting the Eurosia Marathon. Gurtuna added, ''humanity saw other dimensions of violence that the Serbians did in Bosnia by the Eurosia Marathon. This marathon was started in 1995. We ran for street urchins in 1996, for Eurasian Forest in 1997, for poor kids in Southeastern Anatolia in 1998 and for the quake survivors in 1999. This year, we will run for the Olympics in which bring together people of different language, culture, religion and race. The revenue of this year's marathon will be donated to the charities.'' [14] TOTAL OF 20 RESEARCHERS TO JOIN SECOND INTERNATIONAL SEA STUDIESANKARA - A total of 20 researchers will join the Second International Sea Studies which will be held in the Black Sea between September 21 and October 11.Gul Goktepe, the administrator of Regional Technical Cooperation Project carried out within scope of ''Environmental Studies In the Black Sea'', said on Tuesday that the studies will be carried out by the Ukranian- flagged research ship named ''Prof. Dr. Vodyanitsky.'' Goktepe noted that sea water samples should be taken by 32 stations set up in the Black Sea. Radio-activity, physicochemical and heavy metal analysis will be made on the samples, Goktepe added. The studies will end on October 11.
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