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Turkish Press Review, 09-05-28Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information <http://www.byegm.gov.tr>Summary of the political and economic news in the Turkish press this morning28.05.2009CONTENTS
[01] TURKEY, KYRGYZSTAN TO BOOST TRADE TIES, UNDERLINE POLITICAL COOPERATIONAs part of his official visit to Kyrgyzstan, President Abdullah Gul yesterday met with his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiev in Bishkek. Speaking at a joint press conference afterwards, President Gul voiced satisfaction over the current course of bilateral political relations between Turkey and Kyrgyzstan, adding that the two countries have been supporting each other on international platforms. "I'm pleased to see that the two countries have the same stance on regional and international issues, and place great importance on the stability in Afghanistan," said Gul. “We have a joint will in regards to both our bilateral and multilateral relations. We share the conviction that we attach great importance to the stability of Afghanistan in particular and that we should provide all kinds of assistance regarding this issue." Stating that they had also discussed ways for further improvement of Turkish-Kyrgyz bilateral trade relations, Gul stressed that both countries had necessary will to boost trade ties. To this end, there is a great potential in energy-related business areas such as electricity production and construction of medium scale power plants, Gul added. He also said both countries place great importance on cooperation in education. For his part, Bakiyev reiterated that Kyrgyzstan and Turkey share the same opinion on many regional and international issues, particularly on Afghanistan. Stating that a joint statement by Gul and himself is one of the productive examples of the bilateral cooperation between the two countries, Bakiyev said that it confirmed activities to be carried out by Turkey and Kyrgyzstan hand in hand in the coming period. Bakiyev also pointed at the great economic potential between the two countries and called on Turkish businessmen to invest in his country. Prior to the press conference, a cooperation agreement on environmental protection was signed between the two countries. President Gul yesterday also held talks with Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinow and attended a meeting of the Turkish-Kyrgyz Business Council. Addressing the meeting, Gul said that further improvement of economic relations between Turkey and Kyrgyzstan was the most important goal that his visit aimed to reach. "I was pleased to hear that 90 companies from Turkey and 200 companies from Kyrgyzstan held meetings as part of the business council meeting," Gul said. He said, "Everyone is aware of the brotherhood between Turkey and Kyrgyzstan. We are on the soil of our ancestors." Also speaking at the meeting, Kyrgyz Prime Minister Chudinov said that bilateral trade volume between the two countries witnessed a remarkable development in the last four years, adding his country's desire to boost trade ties. "The Kyrgyz government calls on Turkish businessmen to invest in areas such as energy, communications, agriculture, tourism and mining," Chudinov said. President Gul also participated in a ground breaking ceremony for Turkey's new embassy building in Bishkek, and was bestowed the title of honorary professor by Jusup Balasagun Kyrgyz National University. /Sabah/[02] FOURTH TURKISH-ASIAN CONGRESS BEGINSOrganized by the Turkish-Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM) with the theme of Regional Organization, Institutionalization and Cooperation in Asia, the Fourth International Turkish-Asian Congress began yesterday in Istanbul. Top executives of many international organizations, numerous experts, academics and media members from countries across Asia are attending the event. Addressing the opening session of the congress, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekemeleddin Ihsanoglu said the world’s economic power balance center’s changing place from the West to the East has naturally increased the interest in the developments of Asia. Recalling that while Asian share in international trade volume was 19 percent in 1950, this figure has reached 34 percent in recent years, Ihsanoglu said Asia would soon have a stronger place in the world economy with a share of 44 percent in international trade. In parallel with its remarkable economic development in the last three decades, the Asia continent has also gained more importance in the world politics, he said. Ihsanoglu added, "Together with the globalization process that has been rapidly continuing around the world, the process of regionalization is also spreading out day by day. Various countries have focused on cooperating with each other in different areas, with economy being in the first place. The OIC aims to create a region free from nuclear weapons to promote a stable and secure environment for economic development." /Turkiye/[03] PUTIN, CLINTON TO VISIT TURKEYRussian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will visit Turkey in one week, after meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian in Moscow earlier in June. The process of dialogue between Azerbaijan and Armenia and common steps taken in line with the Organization for Cooperation and Development's (OSCE) Minsk process, which aims to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, as well as regional issues and energy cooperation, are expected to be discussed during the meeting. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will also pay her second visit to Turkey late July. /Aksam/[04] BRITAIN'S MILIBAND HOLDS BILATERAL TALKSForeign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday met with his visiting British counterpart David Miliband. Afterwards, Miliband told a joint press conference that everyone wants to see Turkey making strides towards reforms. He also reiterated his country's support for Turkey's accession to the EU, despite opposition from leaders in France and Germany, saying that Turkey's membership would bring economic dynamism into the bloc. Touching on the Cyprus issue, Miliband expressed his country's support for the ongoing negotiation process between Turkish and Greek Cypriots. "The ongoing status quo in Cyprus should be changed, and Britain urges the two sides not to suffer from the solution," he added. For his part, Davutoglu said that the two countries had similar stance on issues such as Turkey's full EU membership process and the future of Cyprus. Referring to the Cyprus issue, Davutoglu called this year the chance for a comprehensive solution to the issue." Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Miliband, with Davutoglu also in attendance. /Aksam-Star/[05] LAGENDIJK: "IT WAS A MISTAKE TO ADMIT GREEK CYPRIOTS WITHOUT A SOLUTION"The European Union had made a serious mistake by accepting Greek Cypriots as EU members without solving the problem on the island, said Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission Co-chairman Joost Lagendijk yesterday. Speaking to the Star daily, Lagendijk added that the EU would carefully follow the negotiation process between the two sides. He also expressed his expectation from Turkey to accelerate its EU reform process. /Star/[06] MHP'S BAHCELI VISITS GERMANY, NETHERLANDSNationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli will travel today to attend the 26th Greater Turkish General Assembly and then proceed to the Netherlands on Sunday to attend the 8th Greater Turkish General Assembly. /Cumhuriyet/[07] CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHES GIFT BOOK FOR PROF. KAGITCIBASICambridge University Publications has published a gift book for Koc University's Psychology Prof. Cigdem Kagitcibasi's 40th year of her academic career. Koc University held a ceremony to celebrate the book titled Perspectives on Human Development, Family and Culture. Some of the foreign academics who contributed to the book with their articles also attended the ceremony. /Milliyet/[08] SABANCI: "TURKEY IS BECOMING A PLURAL SOCIETY"The 2009 International Sabanci Research Awards were presented to their owners yesterday during a ceremony in Istanbul. Three researchers got their prizes from Sabanci Holding CEO Guler Sabanci. This year's theme for the awards was Pluralism in Today's Turkish Society and Politics. Speaking at the ceremony, Sabanci said, "Turkey is becoming a more and more culturally and politically colorful and rich society. This situation enables us to achieve our goal to reach beyond the level of contemporary civilization, a goal set by Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, for us." She also stressed the importance of cultural, political and religious pluralism to create a democratic society, where everyone has the right to freely express their views and live in peace and harmony and trust each other. /Star/FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… FROM THE COLUMNS… [09] TURKEY-ARMENIA RELATIONS WORKSHOPBY NASUHI GUNGOR (STAR)Columnist Nasuhi Gungor comments on the Turkey-Armenia Relations Workshop, organized by the Foundation for Political, Economy and Social Research (SETA) in Istanbul on May 26-27. A summary of his column is as follows: "We aren't used to follow the important steps taken in Turkey, but leave them to their destinies easily. Important developments occurred recently in Turkish-Armenian relations. The public followed the course of incidents from its tabloid side due to the stance of media in relevant countries to a certain extent. The discussions which emerged in Turkey and Armenia, as well as Azerbaijan, were like this. But there is a process which has already started and the healthy progress of this process is vitally important for our geography. Turkey is facing one more great difficulty, along with all these negative sides. We attended a meeting in Istanbul yesterday which contributed to this process. The Turkey-Armenia Relations Workshop, organized by the Foundation for Political, Economy and Social Research (SETA) on May 26-27, hosted a great many figures from the two sides on the discussion table. Of course, there are serious disagreements between the parties. What's more, Turkish and Armenian participants reflected different opinions in their own countries. The usual theses were sometimes reiterated in the meeting. But the details aren't important here. This meeting greatly contributed to the process of normalization, because the discussions which are made on such issues only by the state or through diplomatic possibilities aren't enough. The bases which are established by the civilian society ensure that theses are put forth more boldly and the parties talk to each other without official covers. We saw it once more in the meeting that Turkey's responsibilities in this field are considerably heavy. Actually, a definition which became prominent in our small talks there reflects this fact. Turkey has to manage 'parallel processes' correctly. Of course, relating the opening of Armenian border to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue makes the process more difficult. But the difficulties suffered by Ankara have started just at this point, because Turkey can't ignore the disadvantages to be caused by excluding Azerbaijan from this process. What's more, in such a case, Armenia might become the part of a more important problem, which would make no contribution to efforts for peace in the region. Of course, nobody should expect a rapid progress to occur in a problem which hasn't been discussed thoroughly and which remained on the curtain of mist in history. Furthermore, it's not easy to progress in a field in which intellectuals from both parties have a great many prejudices and wrong information about the issue. This initiative, made by SETA, is important in a few respects. Firstly, discussing the issue on the basis of civilian society provides everybody with the opportunity of expressing themselves comfortably. Such bases should be quickly increased. Secondly, the people who were brought together should have necessary qualifications to discuss the issue in a versatile way. The participation of the academic world, as well as the media, was planned in a way to feed this situation. Of course, this work will encourage and pave the way for similar initiatives in the future. The contributions made for the continuation of this process are important as well. Each effort exerted for sustaining the normalization process is valuable." Turkish Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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