TURKISH CYPRIOT AND TURKISH MEDIA REVIEW
No. 78/13 24/4/13
C O N T E N T S
1.
Eroglu says the barricades opened to show that “the two peoples can live side
by side in peace”
2.
Tatar: 30% of the electric power stations in the government-controlled area of
Cyprus belong to the Turkish Cypriots
3.
Self-styled minister to participate in international congress in Istanbul
4.
How the Turkish Cypriot press covers ECHR’s decision in favor of Turkey on
Greek Cypriot Eleni Meleagrou case
5.
An international symposium will be held in occupied Keryneia
6.
“The two faces of the Feast”
7.
Downer: “Sensitivity should be shown to the crisis”
8.
Erdogan: “I will visit Gaza after my US trip”
9.
Turkey, Israel agree on methods to calculate compensation
10.
Caglayan: “Turkey does not need the EU, but EU needs Turkey”
11.
Council of Europe’s Turkey report calls PKK militants 'activists', sparking
outcry
12.
Turkey's Star Media Group sold to Azeri oil giant Socar
1.
Eroglu says the barricades opened to show that “the two peoples can live
side by side in peace”
Turkish Cypriot daily Gunes newspaper
(24.04.13) reports that the Turkish Cypriot leader, Dervis Eroglu has evaluated
the completion of ten years from the opening of the barricades in Cyprus and
the partial lifting of the restrictions on the freedom of movement on the
island. In statements yesterday in occupied Lefkosia after a ceremony on the
occasion of the celebrations for Turkey’s national day, Eroglu argued that the
barricades opened “in order to show that the two peoples could live side by
side in peace”. Eroglu expressed the view that this message has been received
by everybody.
Eroglu said that this process should be
concluded with an agreement and reiterated the allegation that the Turkish
Cypriot side sits at the negotiating table having the will to reach an
agreement, something which is allegedly not exhibited by the Greek Cypriot
side.
Referring to the issue of the gold of
the Republic of Cyprus, Eroglu argued that this gold had been purchased based
on the Turkish-Greek partnership according to the 1960 agreements and claimed:
“The 1960 agreement was clear. If the Greek Cypriot side says that we have no
right in this gold, they will be rejecting the past”.
Commenting on information that the
Republic of Cyprus will demand the cost of electricity which has been free of
charge providing to the Turkish Cypriots, Eroglu argued that “the bankrupted
merchant rummages through his old account books” and alleged that asking from
the Turkish Cypriot side to pay the cost of this electricity would be
“unreasonable”.
(I/Ts.)
2.
Tatar: 30% of the electric power stations in the government-controlled area
of Cyprus belong to the Turkish Cypriots
Turkish Cypriot daily Gunes newspaper
(24.04.13) reports that the self-styled minister of finance of the breakaway
regime, Ersin Tatar has alleged that 30% of the electric power plants in the
government-controlled area of Cyprus belong to the Turkish Cypriots.
In statement yesterday to illegal TAK
news agency, Tatar commented on the information that the cost of the
electricity, which the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) has been free of
charge providing to the Turkish Cypriots within the period 1964-2012, reached to
one billion and 18 million euros, including the interest rate.
Tatar said that when the Republic of
Cyprus was established, the electric power stations were transferred to the
people by Britain and argued: “30% is already ours”. He alleged that the
statements that the Turkish Cypriots owe money to the Greek Cypriots for this
electricity are not correct and added: “If they gave us electricity, we gave
them water”.
Tatar said that these issues will be
discussed on the basis of an agreement and alleged that after the Turkish
Cypriots had been sent away from the Republic of Cyprus by force and migrated
to the north part of the island, made big investments with the help of Turkey
and realized their own power plants that produce electricity.
(I/Ts.)
3.
Self-styled minister to participate in international congress in
Istanbul
Under the title “Cooperation between
TRNC and Interpol”, Turkish Cypriot daily Gunes newspaper (24.04.13) reports
that the self-styled minister of finance of the breakaway regime, Ersin Tatar
will participate in the 7th Global Congress of the Forum for
Struggle against Forgery and Piracy, which will be held in Istanbul tomorrow
and last for two days. Tatar said yesterday that he will participate in the
congress with bureaucrats from his “ministry” upon invitation from the Turkish
Minister of Customs and Trade, Hayati Yazici.
Tatar claimed that in cooperation with
Turkey, the breakaway regime exerts efforts to prevent smuggling in the
occupied area of Cyprus and that it has “made significant progress on this
issue”.
Tatar said: “I want to stress that the
TRNC is working with all international organizations such as the Interpol and
we are cooperating with both the police and the customs authorities of
countries such as Britain. Our participating in the global congress is
important from this point of view…”
(I/Ts.)
4.
How the Turkish Cypriot press covers ECHR’s decision in favour of Turkey on
Greek Cypriot Eleni Meleagrou case
Under the title “ECHR did not recognize
the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus”, Turkish Cypriot daily Vatan and Volkan newspapers (24.04.13) refer to information published in the
Greek Cypriot press and report on their front pages that in a decision taken on
2 April 2013 regarding the application filed by a Greek Cypriot refugee named
Eleni Meleagrou against Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
adopted Turkey’s views by not recognizing the title deeds given by the Republic
of Cyprus’s Land and Surveys Department.
With this decision, says Volkan, the ECHR closed the way for the
Greek Cypriots, who want to apply to the above-mentioned court regarding their
properties in the occupied part of Cyprus and showed that it does not want this
issue to come onto the agenda again.
Other Turkish Cypriot newspapers
(24.04.13), which also publish information from the Greek Cypriot press, cover
the issue under the following titles:
Kibris:
“Rejection for the Greek Cypriot title deeds” and “ECHR did not recognize the
sovereignty of the ‘Republic of Cyprus’ in the TRNC”
Haberdar:
“Sovereignty shock by the ECHR for the neighbours!”
Afrika,
Yeni Duzen and Bakis: “ECHR did not recognize the
sovereignty of the ‘Republic of Cyprus’”
Kibrisli:
“ECHR did not recognize the Greek Cypriot
title deeds”
Star
Kibris: “ECHR decision shocked”
(I/Ts.)
5.
An international symposium will be held in occupied Keryneia
Turkish Cypriot daily Haberdar newspaper
(24.04.13) reports that a symposium under the title “International Local
Administrations” will be held on 25 and 26 April at Merit Park Hotel in
occupied Keryneia. Representatives from Kazakhstan, Ukraine-Crimea,
Moldova-Gagauz, FYROM, Kosovo and Turkey will participate in the symposium,
which is organized by the “Turkish Cypriot Municipalities’ Union” with the
support of Turkish World Municipalities’ Union.
According to a statement issued by the
Turkish Cypriot “Municipalities’ Union’, the self-styled prime minster Irsen
Kucuk, the so-called ambassador of Turkey to occupied Lefkosia, Halil Ibrahim
Akca and the general secretary of the Turkey’s Municipalities’ union, Hayrettin
Gungor will address the symposium which will start tomorrow at 09.00 o’ clock.
(I/Ts.)
6.
“The two faces of the Feast”
Under the above title, Turkish Cypriot
daily Halkin Sesi newspaper (24.04.13) reports that ceremonies and various
activities were organized yesterday everywhere in the occupied area of Cyprus
on the occasion of Turkey’s “23 April National Sovereignty and Children Day”. The
paper writes that children dressed with their colourful clothes and dancing
celebrated with enthusiasm this feast.
However, says Halkin Sesi, yesterday
there were also children who were working and trying to earn their living at
the same places where other children were celebrating.
“Their only concern was bread and
butter. They were concerned with taking
bread home, some of them by holding a broom, some of them by holding a weighing
machine”, reports Halkin Sesi adding that scenes, which the Turkish Cypriots
have not been used to seeing, existed yesterday at the Gate of Keryneia in the
occupied part of Lefkosia. “A mother,
who was begging sitting on the pavement with her little girl by her side, was
asking for money all day long from people who were passing by”.
(I/Ts.)
7.
Downer: “Sensitivity should be shown to the crisis”
According to illegal Turkish Cypriot
news agency (“TAK”) (24.04.13), UN Secretary-General Special Advisor in Cyprus
Alexander Downer met this morning with the Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis
Eroglu. The meeting lasted about an hour.
Present at the meeting were also the UN
SG Special Representative in Cyprus, Lisa Buttenheim, Eroglu’s special
representative Osman Ertug, Eroglu’s undersecretary Hasan Gungor as well as
members of the negotiation committee.
Speaking after the meeting with Eroglu,
Downer said that sensitivity should be shown to the crisis in the Republic of
Cyprus, adding that the life standard has dropped rapidly and the unemployment
has been increased.
Downer further said: “If we don’t look
this situation with sadness, then we cannot be humans”, adding that there is
consensus that the process should proceed in order to find a solution in the
negotiations.
Noting that Turkish Cypriot leader
Eroglu and Cyprus President Anastasiades will come together for a dinner next
month, Downer said that the agreement by both leaders is expected in order to
determine the date of this dinner.
Downer will visit Ankara on Monday after
his visit in Athens and on Tuesday will return to Cyprus. At the same day, he
will evaluate these meetings in separate meetings with Eroglu and Anastasiades.
He concluded by saying that he hopes his above mentioned visits to be
constructive in order to be able to proceed with the process.
8.
Erdogan: “I will visit Gaza after my US trip”
According to Ankara Anatolia news agency
(24.04.13), Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking to reporters
after he received children in the scope of April 23rd National
Sovereignty and Children's Day celebrations at the central building of Prime
Ministry in Ankara on Tuesday, said that postponement of his planned Gaza visit
was out of question.
“Anyway, I said that I was going to go
(to Gaza) after my US visit. There is no postponement,” Erdogan added.
When reminded of the words of US
Secretary of State John Kerry as saying, “I think, it would be better if Prime
Minister Erdogan postpones his Gaza visit,” and Turkish Prime Minister said: “I
wish he had not said such a thing. It was indecorous, yet our Government
Spokesman and Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc gave him the necessary reply.
We have a planned US trip, we could have discussed this there.”
Upon another question, Erdogan said, he
was planning to travel to the US on May 14.
9.
Turkey, Israel agree on methods to calculate compensation
Turkish daily Today’s Zaman (online,
23.04.13) reports that Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, said on
Monday that Turkey and Israel have agreed on the "methods and
principles" of working out compensation payments for the victims of a
deadly 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, after their first
meeting in a full three years, part of an effort to mend deteriorated
diplomatic ties between the former strategic partners.
An Israeli delegation led by Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror,
met in Ankara for talks with Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun
Sinirlioglu that could lead to an exchange of ambassadors between the two countries
and other diplomatic moves.
Speaking to reporters at the end of a
Turkish Cabinet meeting, Arinc said the two sides had agreed on “the methods
and principles, the basics and parameters” for working out the compensation,
but said the amount to be paid had not yet been determined.
"The meeting was positive, in
general," Arinc said. "When the amount of compensation is determined,
when an agreement is reached and is approved by authorities in both countries,
we will have reached an important phase for relations to be fully
restored."
Arinc was quoted as saying that the
amount of compensation was not among the topics discussed, while Sinirlioglu
stated that a draft text as to the amount was agreed between the delegations.
Arinc also said a second and possibly
third meeting would be held in order to resolve the issue, important for the
rapprochement between the two nations. Arinc said the two sides would meet
again in the next few days.
During the talks with the Israeli group,
it was agreed to pay compensation not only to the families of the nine dead
activists, but also to the 70 passengers injured in the bloody Israeli raid
while they were on their way to Gaza in May 2010. According to the preliminary
agreement, the compensation amount, although not yet stated, will be kept high.
Israel will send the flotilla compensation to a specially designated fund
controlled by Ankara which will then make the distribution.
To determine the amount of compensation
for each victim, it was agreed between the parties at the talks that the age,
education, financial status of the family and specific injuries sustained would
be taken into consideration.
10.
Caglayan: “Turkey does not need the EU, but EU needs Turkey”
According to Ankara Anatolia news agency
(23.04.13), Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, who spoke during 2013
European Seafood Exposition (ESE) in Brussels, said that Turkey did not need
EU, but EU needed Turkey. He accused EU of being hypocrite and insincere.
Caglayan said that Turkey was the first
country which had been pursuing its EU full membership negotiations for 50
years, and had been in customs union for 18 years.
“Turkey does not need the EU, but EU
needs Turkey strongly”, said Caglayan, adding that while one of each three or
four people in Spain and Greece was unemployed, Turkey, on the contrary to
Europe, employed five million more people in the past four years.
Regarding 2013 ESE, Caglayan said that
15 Turkish companies were attending the fair. World seafood export volume was 120 billion
USD, said Caglayan, adding that Turkey's share in this figure was 546 million
USD.
11.
Council of Europe’s Turkey report calls PKK militants 'activists', sparking
outcry
Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News
(online, 23.04.13) with the above title, reports the following:
“The Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe’s (PACE) latest assessment on Turkey published April 23
praised the reforms in the country but sparked debate by changing the
terminology for describing the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
militants to activists.
During the discussion sessions on the
report, the Council of Europe deputies voted in favour of Peace and Democracy
Party’s (BDP) deputy Ertugrul Kurkcu’s motion to change a sentence which stated
that ‘PKK terrorism has claimed over 40,000 victims’ to ‘the conflict between
PKK and the Turkish state’.
Deputies representing the ruling Justice
and Development Party (AKP) as well as the opposition parties slammed the use
of the wording ‘PKK activists’ in the explanatory memorandum prepared by the
rapporteur on Turkey Josette Durrieu.
‘I comment on this with a lot of anger.
There is an ongoing resolution process. That’s why there is an attempt to
soften the atmosphere. But the PKK is a terrorist organization. And the members
of this organization are called terrorists. I can’t understand why they refrain
from admitting or saying that,’ AKP’s representative at the Council of Europe,
Nursuna Memecan was quoted by the Anatolia news agency. ‘This [ends up] with
the question that [for the Council of Europe] the others' terrorists can be
called activists,’ she added.
Main opposition Republican People’s
Party (CHP) Spokesman Haluk Koc also described the changes as ‘unacceptable’.
‘The expressions presenting the PKK as equal to the [Turkish] state are
unacceptable. It’s is not possible to approve the expression calling terrorists
activists,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu said that the report would not change the fact that the PKK was
on the European Union’s designated terrorist organizations list. ‘If you read
the report, you will see that there are many sentences that define PKK’s
activities as terrorist activities,’ Davutoglu said, adding that Turkish
deputies had voiced the appropriate reaction to the report. ‘Therefore it’s not
right to make such significance of this, but we always respond in the due way,’
he said.
The resolution, the first in five years,
welcomed Turkey’s progress in many areas, including bringing its legislation
into line with the European Convention on Human Rights, advancing the ongoing
peace process, promoting the cultural and linguistic rights of the Kurds,
stepping up dialogue with religious communities and establishing the
institution of ombudsman.
However, it also spells out the steps
Turkey still needs to take if it is to successfully complete its reform
program, such as further reform of the Constitution and continuing revision of
the Criminal Code, as well as progress on freedom of expression, pre-trial
detentions, local and regional decentralization and resolving the Kurdish
question.”
Furthermore, Ankara Anatolia news agency (23.04.13)
reports that Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) spokesman Levent
Gumrukcu, Commenting on the report of
the PACE on Post-Monitoring Dialogue with Turkey, said Turkey's firm
determination shall continue on further improving fundamental rights and
freedoms, democratization and the workings of justice.
“The resolution contained in the report
which was voted by the plenary session of the PACE evaluates the issues covered
by the post-monitoring dialogue process, within the framework of the
developments made in Turkey in the field of human rights, democracy and the
rule of law, the comprehensive reforms realized, the new Constitution and
judicial reforms. By the resolution, it has been decided that, following the
next parliamentary and presidential elections, a report be prepared on the
post-monitoring dialogue with Turkey,” he said.
12.
Turkey's Star Media Group sold to Azeri oil giant Socar
According to Turkish daily Hurriyet
Daily News (online, 24.04.13), Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR has agreed
to acquire Turkey’s Star Media Group, sources from both parties have announced
without specifying any details of the price.
Star Media Group’s partner Fettah
Tamince, also the founder of Rixos Hotels, a tourism sector giant active in
eight countries, confirmed earlier this week that they were in discussions
about the sale of the media group, however, he said that they had not arrived at
a final agreement yet.
Tamince is known for his close links to
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who usually spends his holidays at one of
the Rixos Hotels.
Star Media Group, which comprises Star
Newspaper and Kanal 24, is owned by Fettah Tahmince and Tevhit Karakaya.
Star daily, founded by the Uzan Group in
1999, was transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) in 2004. The
group was first bought by Turkish Cypriot businessman Ali Ozmen Safa in a
tender in 2006 and was later sold to Ethem Sancak. Tamince is a partner of the
group since 2009.
Baku-based energy company Socar had
purchased Turkey’s petrochemical company formerly owned by the state in 2008.
The Socar-Turkey ties include the
Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline that carries Azeri crude to Turkey’s
Ceyhan Mediterranean oil hub, and the South Caucasus Pipeline that runs
parallel to BTC and carries Azeri gas to Turkey and on to Greece.
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