TURKISH CYPRIOT AND TURKISH MEDIA REVIEW
No. 99/13 28/5/13
1. The EU called Turkey to
implement the Additional Protocol; Reaction statement by Davutoglu; he insisted
that Turkey’s EU bid and the Cyprus problem are separate issues
2. Ongoing debate over the
“motion of no confidence” for the “ruling” UBP
3. More “citizenship” granting by the breakaway regime
due to “elections”
4.
Turkish daily suggests that a Greek Cypriot firm is making 50-million dollars
investments in Turkey
5. The Cyprus problem to be
among the matters of discussion between Turkish and Italian Foreign Ministries’
delegations meeting
6. Dr Gunsel was declared
honorary professor by the Crimea State University
7. Turkey’s Yildiz said that
Turkey plans to operate 3rd nuclear power plant with national resources
8. Occupied Lapithos
municipality became a sister municipality with Antalya Kemer; statements by
Eroglu on the Cyprus problem
9. Turkey staged
Denizkurdu-13 Navy exercise
10.
Turkey to produce its own fighter; it
will be ready by 2023
11. CHP to hold rally
against AK Party's bans
12.
Main opposition CHP wants to reduce
election threshold to 3%
1.
The EU called Turkey
to implement the Additional Protocol; Reaction statement by Davutoglu; he
insisted that Turkey’s
EU bid and the Cyprus
problem are separate issues
Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News
(28.05.13) reports that Turkey has rebuffed the European Union which offered to
turn its “one-flower policy” into a "flourishing garden" of several
chapters, if Turkey fulfills its obligation to fully implement measures that
would open its ports to all EU members, including “Greek Cyprus”, as the
Republic of Cyprus is called by the paper.
A Foreign Ministry official, speaking on
the condition anonymity, told the Hurriyet Daily News yesterday, that there was
no change in Turkey’s
Cyprus
stance and that Ankara
did not see the Cyprus
issue as a problem in the negotiation process with the bloc.
The statement from Brussels came after
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said more than one flower was necessary for
spring, referring to the opening of only Chapter 22 on regional policy and the
coordination of structural instruments.
Davutoglu made the comments in a press
conference at the meeting of the 51st EU-Turkey Association Council, attended
by Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore and EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan
Fule.
Chapter 22 is set to be the first
chapter opened by Ankara
in three years.
Under the Additional Protocol to the
Association Agreement, Turkey
must open its ports and airports to “Greek Cypriots ships and planes.
“Seventeen [of the 35 negotiating
chapters] are blocked for political reasons. We have to unblock this process
because at this rate, it will take 50 years to finish. When the world is
changing, we need more dynamic relations between Turkey and the EU,” the Foreign Minister
said, criticizing the EU’s pace on negotiations.
Responding to Davutoglu’s speech, Fule
underlined the bloc’s determination to implement the additional protocol by Turkey to all
member states. “I have also underlined that the implementation of the
Additional Protocol would inject new life into the accession process. Several
chapters could be opened and some even closed relatively quickly. In relation
to this, we could turn this ‘one-flower policy’, Minister Davutoglu was
mentioning in the context of the possibility to open one chapter soon, into a
flourishing garden of several chapters,” Fule said.
The Foreign Ministry said also that
Davutoglu pointed out that Cyprus
and the membership process were two separate issues and that there was
divergence on the implementation of the protocol. Davutoglu also called for
talks on the external relations chapter, saying it was time for a new
“strategic perspective in our relations.”
“Without Turkey, the EU will not be
complete, it will not have strategic or geographic continuity,” he said.
Echoing Fule’s statements, the bloc also said the EU noted with deep regret
that Turkey, despite repeated calls, continued to refuse to fulfil its
obligation to fully implement the Additional Protocol toward all member states.
“The EU underlined that meeting this
obligation could provide a significant boost to the negotiation process,” it
said. The bloc, however, praised Turkey’s reform process, with Fule
saying he welcomed the current momentum in the accession negotiations.
2.
Ongoing debate over the “motion of no confidence” for the “ruling” UBP
Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris (28.05.13),
in its front page under the title “Towards to elections without a government”,
reports that the third session of the “assembly” will convene on Thursday to
vote for the “early elections” on the 28th of July and to discuss
the “motion of censure”, which has been submitted against the National Unity
Party (UBP) self-styled
government.
The eight “deputies”, who were expelled
from the UBP, submitted yesterday
in the “assembly” their resignation from the UBP.
As a result the discussion of the “motion of censure” passed yesterday in the
“assembly” with only 20 “votes” against.
The paper reports that according to
political observers, it is more likely the breakaway regime to enter a period
until the “early elections” without a “government”.
The leader of the Republican Turkish
Party – United Forces (CTP-BG) Ozkan Yorgancioglu, addressing yesterday the
“assembly”, said that UBP
self-styled government has lost its legitimacy for a long time now and it does
not represent any more the political will of the people.
The so-called prime minister Irsen
Kucuk, in his part, said that they will hold “early elections” on the 28th
of July and called the “assembly” to act in common sense and not leave the
“country” without a “government” for two months.
Moreover, the leader of the Democratic
Party (DP) Serdar Denktas, replying to reporters’ questions in the “assembly”,
said that the works to create a new formation with the 8 “deputies”, who have
resigned from the UBP, are in the
stage of completion. He added that they are planning to hold an extraordinary
general assembly on the 5th of June.
Denktas explained that for the time
being DP has only 2 “deputies” and the final decision of the party will be
finalized at the extraordinary general assembly of the party.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Communal
Democracy Party Mehmet Cakici, in a written statement yesterday, evaluating the
approval of the “motion of censure” in the “assembly”, said that although the
“government” has lost its majority in the “assembly” uses fearlessly any kind
“state resources”, including the “citizenships” in order to remain the power.
3. More
“citizenship” granting by the breakaway regime due to “elections”
Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen newspaper (28.05.13) reports that while the date of the forthcoming “election” in the breakaway regime is approaching, the queue of persons who apply for the “citizenship” is becoming even longer.
Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen newspaper (28.05.13) reports that while the date of the forthcoming “election” in the breakaway regime is approaching, the queue of persons who apply for the “citizenship” is becoming even longer.
The paper, which publishes in its front page a photo
in which the long queues are shown, writes that the number of persons increased
every passing day.
The paper also writes that 115 new “citizenships” were
granted in only four days during last week.
4. Turkish daily suggests that a Greek Cypriot firm
is making 50-million dollars investments in Turkey
Turkish daily Sabah newspaper (28.05.13) reports that
despite the fact Turley does not politically recognize “south Cyprus” as it
calls the Republic of Cyprus, a Greek Cypriot firm is making investments in
Turkey with the aid of the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's
Association (TUSIAD).
According to the paper, Dolphin Capital firm, which
was established in 2005 by Miltos Kambourides and Pierre Charalambous, using
the aid of the deputy chairman of TUSIAD’s Higher Council Committee Cem Duma,
is constructing villas in Turkey and made a 50-million dollar investment at the
Antalya-Kalkan area for the construction of 50 villas.
The paper also writes that the firm’s headquarters are
in Virgin Islands and that is activated in the
Republic of Cyprus, Greece, the Dominique Republic
India and Panama
with earnings totally to 750 million dollars.
5.
The Cyprus
problem to be among the matters of discussion between Turkish and Italian
Foreign Ministries’ delegations meeting
According to Turkish website
worldbulleting.com (28.05.13), in a written statement released on Monday, the
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)
said that Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and Italian MFA's Secretary General Ambassador Michele
Valensise, will head the respective delegations on Tuesday.
Bilateral relations, issues pertaining
to the EU, the Cyprus
problem as well as current regional and international issues will be handled
during the consultations on Tuesday.
6.
Dr Gunsel was declared honorary professor by the Crimea State
University
According to Turkish Cypriot daily Vatan
(28.05.13), the founding dean of the illegal Near East University (YDU) Dr Suat
Gunsel, who is continuing his contacts in Crimea,
was declared yesterday by the senate of the Crimea State
University honorary
professor due to his contribution in the world on fields of education and
health.
Mustafa Cemil, Chairman of the Crimean
Tatar nation, informed the members of the senate of the Crimean State
Engineering Pedagogical
University that within
the framework of a signed protocol between the illegal YDU and the Crimean
Tatar Assembly, every year many Tatar students study at “YDU”. Cemil stressed
that “YDU” contributes a lot to the promotion of the “TRNC” in the world.
7. Turkey’s Yildiz said that Turkey plans to
operate 3rd nuclear power plant with national resources
Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News
(28.05.13) reports that Turkey has announced plans to operate its third nuclear
plant, most of the parts of which are planned to be built by national sources,
but it acknowledges that it must be patient and cautious in kicking off the plans.
Turkey’s
Energy Minister Taner Yıldız told the Hurriyet Daily News in an interview on
May 24 the following: “Our plan is to be able to operate our third plant, and
to build the majority of this plant - whether 60 or 80% of it I don’t know yet
- depending on the performance of our first two nuclear plants”.
Turkey
recently concluded two major nuclear plant tenders with a Russian and
Japanese-French consortium, and is thus planning to reduce its natural gas
imports over the next decade as the plants become operational.
According to Yıldız, the government has
already started making plans on the third nuclear plant, as the growing
domestic energy needs are unlikely to be met by the first two.
“We will not rush to decide on the third
plan, but we have already prepared our negotiation dossier. We could swiftly
conclude the procedures, but our Prime Minister gave us another target,” Yıldız
said, adding that this target was to build the third plant mostly using the
country’s own national sources.
Acknowledging that it would not be
possible for Turkey
to construct 100 percent of a nuclear plant, Yıldız said a good majority could
be made with national resources.
The plans for the third plant are still
vague, but Yıldız said that the government would not be waiting until the first
two nuclear plants’ become operational to decide on the third one, as even
choosing a site for the construction takes two years.
Targeting the building of a local
nuclear plant with own resources, would also help Turkey upgrade its industrial
base and allow it to move to another league, he argued. “Nothing can be
achieved without first setting targets. I could put 2025 as target, and someone
may say it can’t be done before 2035. Whatever we say, we should first set a
target. Turkey’s
nuclear energy projects are very important for the further industrialization of
the country, as it will set a new market in the country,” Yıldız said.
Addressing criticisms from anti-nuclear
energy circles, Yıldız said Turkey
was obliged to diversify its energy sources given its growing economy and
simultaneously increasing energy needs. “They ask why there is no investment in
solar energy or wind energy? This is because when the wind does not blow or the
sun does not shine you cannot produce energy. This is what we call energy
diversification,” he said.
Turkey
is also working to diversify energy source countries, even making calls to
southern neighbors Israel
and “Greek Cyprus”, as the Republic
of Cyprus is called, to
say it is open to cooperation with them to allow both natural gas and oil to
flow via Turkey,
once political stability is achieved in the region.
According to Minister Yıldız, Turkey will
reduce the amount of imported natural gas worth $7.2 billion with the operation
of its first two nuclear plants.
Another achievement of entering into the
nuclear energy world is that, Turkey
could get know-how and train its own experts and scientists in due course.
Yıldız said the deal with Japan
for the construction of the $22 billion-worth second nuclear plant also
includes the establishment of a Turkish-Japanese
Technology University,
in which Turkey
could benefit from Japanese nuclear energy technology. “To what extent could
this technology be shared? Maybe not of all of it in the first year, because it
has also its own culture. Our students, academics, engineers will take benefits
from it step by step, which will perhaps take 10 or 20 years,” he stressed.
This technology base will serve at an
axis between central European and Gulf countries, Yıldız said, giving
particular emphasis to Middle Eastern countries which have long suffered from
internal conflicts and failed to create their own industrial capacity. “This
region is not going to be in the same way forever. Countries like Iraq and Syria, who are
tired [of turmoil], will surely find their correct regimes. They will also
adopt industrial regimes. The [industrial] production base of these countries
will be Turkey.
This is the most serious investment we are making for the future,” he said.
Turkey’s
deal with a Japanese-French consortium for the construction of the second
nuclear plant has also received praise from the United States, Yıldız said. “From
the technological perspective, our deal with Japan was very meaningful, the
Americans told us,” he said. He had talks with acting Secretary of Energy
Daniel Coleman and the U.S.
president’s special envoy, Carlos Pascual, on May 16 in Washington.
8.
Occupied Lapithos municipality became a sister municipality with Antalya Kemer; statements
by Eroglu on the Cyprus
problem
According to illegal Bayrak television
(27.05.13) a delegation from the Antalya
Kemer Municipality
headed by the Mayor of Kemer Mustafa Gul carried out yesterday several contacts
in the occupied area of Cyprus.
Within the framework of its contacts the delegation met with the Turkish
Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu and the “speaker” of the so-called assembly Hasan
Bozer.
Speaking during the meeting, Eroglu pointed
to the importance of cooperation between municipalities in Turkey and in
the “TRNC” and added that he is also doing his best in order to improve
relations between Turkey
and the “TRNC”.
Referring to the Cyprus problem,
Eroglu reminded that the negotiations aimed at solving the Cyprus problem
have been continuing for 48 years and added that Turkey had always given its support
to the Turkish Cypriots.
Noting that the Turkish Cypriot side
wanted to solve the Cyprus
problem as soon as possible, he, however, alleged that the Greek Cypriot side
did not share the same intentions.
(…)
Meanwhile, the occupied Lapta [Lapithos]
“municipality” and the Antalya
Kemer Municipality
signed a sister municipality protocol this morning at the “municipality union”
building in occupied Lefkosia
9.
Turkey
staged Denizkurdu-13 Navy exercise
Turkish daily Today’s Zaman (27.05.13)
reported that a record number of people attended a public demonstration to mark
the Denizkurdu-13 Navy exercise, the largest military exercise in Turkish naval
history.
(…)The exercise is being staged in the
Marmara, Aegean and eastern Mediterranean seas
and involves 94 ships, 23 helicopters and more than 5,000 officers. The
exercise started on May 20 and will end on June 3.
10.
Turkey to produce its own fighter; it will be
ready by 2023
According to Turkish website world bulletin.com
(27.05.13), Turkish daily Zaman newspaper reported on Monday, that Turkey is
already completing the design of its first domestic fighter jet.
This week three projects to build a
fighter will be submitted to the Department of Defence Industry of the Defence
Ministry of Turkey, when a preliminary project will be selected.
A special feature of the Turkish fighter
will be its equipment with a system that will avoid radar detection. It is
expected the fighter jet to be ready for operation by 2023.
Two engines will be used in the jets to
enable them to stay in the air longer and gain more speed.
After selecting a project in 2021, the
production of the fighter will begin, and in 2023, it will be handed over to
the Turkish Armed Forces.
The Turkish defence industry has
recently focused on the development and production of its own products. The
country has managed to achieve a 54% self-sufficiency level in the defence
industry.
11.
CHP to hold rally against AK
Party's bans
According to Turkish daily Today’s Zaman
(27.05.13), Deputy Chairman of main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Gursel Tekin said on Monday that his party is
organizing on Saturday a demonstration in Istanbul’s Kadıkoy district, against
bans imposed by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.
Speaking at a press conference at the CHP Istanbul provincial branch, Tekin said: “We
will hold this demonstration against the bans and despotism of the AK Party
government.”
Tekin said that the AK Party claimed
that it came to power to eliminate the bans in the country, but he said things
have turned out differently and now everything in the country is decided by one
man, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We call on people to join this
demonstration for the sake of freedom, democracy and peace,” Tekin said.
The party's leader, Kemal Kılıcdaroğlu,
will join the demonstration in Kadıkoy.
The AK Party government has recently
drawn the ire of secular circles in particular due to a bill it has pressed
ahead seeking limitations on the sale and advertising of alcoholic beverages.
Among other things, the bill bans the
sale of alcoholic beverages between 10
p.m. and 6 a.m.
and it bans the advertising of these beverages and all forms of their
promotion. The bill also introduces heavy sanctions for those violating it. The
bill is waiting for the approval of President Abdullah Gül to become law.
(…)
12.
Main opposition CHP wants to reduce election threshold to 3%
Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News
(28.05.13) reports that the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has made a bid to open a debate in the
Parliament with the aim of reducing the election threshold to 3%, from the
current 10%, with CHP Deputy Chair
Sezgin Tanrıkulu deeming the proposal a test for democracy.
“Voting on whether to put the law on the
Parliament’s agenda is also a test day for Deputies. This test is a test to
distinguish between those who want democracy and peace, and those who do not,”
Tanrıkulu said in a written statement released yesterday, while urging the
public to supervise the process and take a stance on the side of democracy.
Tanrıkulu defined the threshold as an
obstacle in front of democracy and hence called for it to be abolished. He
further argued that the threshold hindered a significant portion of the society
from organizing and being represented, which obstructed the societal peace, due
to the resentment of not being fairly represented.
“Tuesday May 28, 2013, will be a historical day for
democracy, justice and societal plurality to be reflected on the Parliament.
Because the bill on the ‘reduction of the 10% election threshold to 3% we
submitted to the Parliament, will be discussed in the General Assembly,”
Tanrıkulu said.
Another party in the Parliament, the
Peace and Democracy Parliament (BDP) is also known to have long criticized the
105 threshold, arguing that it blocks the full representation of the people. As
a method to bypass this, for the past two elections, the party-led bloc
submitted independent candidates, in order to later gather under the roof of
the BDP.
(…)
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