26 September 2001, Copyright © Turkish Daily News

Turkish-Mongolian cooperation ahead

Turkey-Mongolia Joint Economic Board (KEK) Protocol was signed in Ankara, after three days of constructive meetings between the two parties.

State Minister Abdulhaluk Mehmet Cay repeated Turkey's stance by stating the protocol will contribute to the trade and economic relations between Turkey and Mongolia. Cay added that the cooperation should not be limited with the protocol. Cay said, therefore, new areas of cooperation must be sought and determined by the relevant institutions of both countries.

The Mongolian Education, Science and Culture Minister Tsanjid, who signed the agreement on behalf of the Mongolian government, told reporters that the protocol also reflects the will to cooperate.

The protocol includes the provision for enhancement in trade relations in the, banking sector, small and medium sized enterprises, mining, agriculture, meteorology, transportation, customs, standardization and education. The protocol also introduces improvement in the construction sector.

Ankara - Turkish Daily News

Ciller calls Sezer to declare economic emergency rule

Main opposition True Path Party (DYP) leader Tansu Ciller said that she has called President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to declare economic emergency rule by activating his constitutional authority during her visit to President Sezer on Monday.

A DYP delegation led by Ciller payed a visit to Ankara Chamber of Drivers yesterday. "The economic difficulties of people should be primary issue of the government," Ciller stated during this visit and claimed that, "Turkey will be the country which will be most affected by the current global crisis, because Turkey is caught in a crisis in a weak situation."

After summarizing the current situation of the economic crisis Ciller continued to say that: "It is an urgent necessity to emancipate people from this government. I invited the President to the do his duty. He should use his authority immediately. Turkey cannot overcome such a situation without a proficient driver at the wheel. Without such a driver Turkey cannot develop into a big state, neither in economy, nor in foreign policy and the global struggle against terrorism. The honest thing that the Prime Minister should do is resign."

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Minister Tasar: 'Terrorist attacks against America won't affect Turkey much'

Tourism Minister Mustafa Tasar said that the terrorist attacks on September 11 against the United States will not affect Turkey as much as it is expected.

Tasar who is in Hamburg stated that they were organizing tours for tourists to introduce Turkey and they are visiting foreign and Turkish tour operators.

Stating that the terrorist attacks in the United States will not affect Turkey negatively because America's target is Afghanistan, Tasar continued, "Our country has no relation with this situation because Afghanistan is 4,000 kilometer away from Turkey."

Tasar said that every year thousands of Germans visit Turkey for vacations and because of this touristic potential Germany declared Turkey as a "partner country," and continued: "Austria declared Turkey as one of the safest countries, China counted Turkey as one of the countries to send tourists to, the United States didn't include Turkey among the countries which are dangerous to visit after the attacks. We are against terrorism as a country who have experienced and suffered from terrorism. The European Union and all world countries should hand over the terrorists which belong to other countries. If the United States can't be quick, this will be a victory of terrorism."

The Tourism minister said that everything was running as normal in Turkey and there is no decline in tourism and that hotels are full until the end of October.

Ankara - Turkish Daily News

IDEF opens tomorrow

The Fifth International Defense Industry, Aviation and Navigation Fair (IDEF) is to open in Etimesgut, Ankara tomorrow. Some 243 companies will participate at the Fair, among which 75 are national entities.

The opening rehearsal of the Fair, organized by the CNR International Fair Organization, directed by Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) Charity Foundation, and supported by the Defense Ministry, was made today. Meanwhile, Bilgi Buyukunal, TSK Charity Foundation General Director, briefed the press members on the Fair.

Buyukunal told reporters that the fairs were organized by private companies between 1987 and 1993, however, the authorization had been given to the Foundation after 1993. Buyukunal stated that this was the greatest number of participants so far.

Buyukunal noted that it was apparent that national companies were deeply affected by the economic crisis, because they hired smaller places this year. Buyukunal said the IDEF is among the most expensive fairs in the world in regards to price per square meter, which is between $650 and $690. However, Buyukunal added, this is a 15 percent discounted price from the previous fair in 1999.

TSK Charity Foundation General Director stated that Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu had invited 89 defense ministers to the fair, of which 11 responded positively. He said delegations from 44 countries will attend.

As regards the terrorist act against the United States, he stated that no companies had cancelled their reservations after the recent global developments, however, there might be changes in the content of the attending delegations. Furthermore, he added, the security of the fair has been tightened as well, when compared to the previous years.

Ankara - Turkish Daily News

Protestants in Izmir want historical church to open for services in Izmir

The Historical church in Buca, the neighbour of Izmir, should be opened to service to support faith tourism in Izmir, said Ertan Cevik, the pastor of Izmir Independent Protestant Church. Cevik added that if the church was permitted to be opened for services they would have restored the church.

Cevik also said that Turkey could be the second faith tourism center after Jerusalem. He underlined that besides the importance of churches in Turkey for Christianity, churches also played an important role in attracting more foreign visitors for faith tourism activities.

Cevik stated that the Culture and Foreign Ministries indicated positive responses but the Interior Ministry did not reply to the application for the opening of the church. He said: "We are supporting the project which was started to introduce Turkey as a prominent faith tourism center. There are 600 Protestants in Izmir now. It is deplorable that the Protestants have no worship center in Izmir. We hope that the church will be permitted to be opened."

Cemil Seboy, mayor of Buca, said he was in favour of opening the church for Protestants to worship.

Izmir - Turkish Daily News

'Yes' votes exceed 400 in votes on articles of the most comprehensive constitutional reform package to date

Strong support underlines will of parties for reforms

To the surprise of political analysts who were anticipating that the legislation of the constitutional reform package in Parliament would be an uphill task, an a comment by the country's top judge that "This Parliament cannot legislate these reforms," the first full day of debates in Parliament Tuesday on the articles of the package revealed a strong political will.

The first article of the 37-Article reform package was approved in Parliament Tuesday with a 426-vote support, with 24 deputies voting against, ten deputies abstaining and six votes declared invalid. The situation further improved in the vote on the second article of the reform package with 437 deputies voting 'yes' while 17 deputies opposed and eight deputies abstained. Ten votes were declared void. The vote on the third article of the package did not produce a different outcome. The 'yes' vote stood at 422, while the 'no' vote was at 19, abstained was at six and three were declared void.

The situation was not much different for the other articles voted on Tuesday. Coupled with the 428 'yes' votes on Monday evening for the opening of debates on the articles of the package, the strong 'yes' votes underlined the existence of a strong political will at the six parties represented in Parliament in favor of legislation of the reform package, long on the country's agenda and asked for by Turkey's Western allies.

According to the Constitution, constitutional amendment drafts should be secretly voted on. Again, according to the Constitution at least 330 votes (a three-fifths majority of the 550-member Parliament) are required for each and every article of the package and for the overall package. If an article fails to tally the 330-vote support during the first vote, but gets over 330 in the second vote, provided that the overall package gets the support of at least 330 deputies it is considered accepted, pending a referendum. But, if an article gets less than 330 votes in both the first and second votes on it, it automatically is deleted from the package irrespective of the support vote for the overall package.

Still, if the amendment package is approved with a vote in-between three-fifths and three-quarters majority, that is in-between 330 and 366 votes, the amendments can enter into force only after they are approved by the nation in a national referendum.

If the second vote on the overall package produces 367 or more yes votes, then it is up to the president whether to sign the amendments and put them into force or call a referendum on the reforms.

In Tuesday's debates, the deputies accepted to make an amendment in the preamble of the Constitution and thus enhanced individual liberties. In the preamble of the Constitution the stipulation considering "thought" to be sufficient for a crime was deleted and "action" was inserted in compliance with the sensitivities of the military on the issue. Article 14 which regulates individual rights and liberties was amended and the sentence considering thought as a crime was totally scrapped. Still, the article with its amended form said individual rights and liberties cannot be used for actions contrary to the territorial and national integrity of the country, democratic system and secular republic.

In debating the amendment to Article 13 of the Constitution, a joint motion by all parliamentary group chairmen of the six parties, made an alteration in the text and the expression "Democratic and secular social order" was altered with "Democratic social order and secular Republic." The change in the text was made after all parties established a consensus that individuals were not required to be secular.

Turkish NGO stands against war

Turkish Human Rights Foundation (HRFT) Chairman Yavuz Onen joined the anti-war nongovernmental organization (NGO) front, saying, "We say no to war that would lead the way to killing people, and do nothing but increase the pain."

Onen claimed that the political power holders always follow a policy of inciting a people against the other, exploiting either national or religious differences.

In his written statement, Onen noted the attack against the United States as a crime against humanity, therefore it is not only a task of the governments, but also of individuals, to form a stable and strong global public opinion against this act of violence.

He stated that public opinion is being manipulated to justify the retaliation to the attacks against the United States. Onen continued: "We strictly oppose the policy of the power holders to incite the people of the world against each other, and to the war, because it would serve nothing more than increasing the pain. The value of a human being is the same anywhere in the world, and the basic task of a state is to preserve this value. We are further concerned that the reactions to this act of violence would be turned against the peace, democracy and human rights advocates and to the political opposition, in such a way to set our democratic life aback."

Ankara - Turkish Daily News

Prime Ministry says they have done nothing wrong

Prime Ministry Press Office made a statement concerning news in the Hurriyet newspaper that Sezer sued Ecevit with the allegation of the abuse of power.

In the statement, it was noted that transactions of Vakifbank have been inspected by the Prime Ministry Inspection Board, however, no illegal transaction has been reported. The statement follows:

"On the other hand, the Presidency also denied the news, stating the headlines are not consistent at all with the content of the news, and the report has nothing to do with Prime Minister Ecevit."

'We paid a high price, but still nothing wrong'

Prime Ministry Press Office noted that Turkey has an approximate investment of $500 million with 6,500 companies and 15,000 businessmen. Press Office further noted that Romanian President requested the Turkish government to help Banca Turko Romana (BTR), a joint venture bank, overcome its mounting financial problems.

According to the statement, this development has been assessed by a series of meetings among the Central Bank, Banking Supervision and Regulation Agency (BDDK) and Treasury officials, and it has been concluded that, in case BTR went bankrupt, both the other Turkish banks and the Turkish entrepreneurs would have been affected negatively. Therefore, support from two Turkish banks, Vakifbank and Is Bank was called for.

The statement follows, "Vakifbank bought some company shares from the Turkish partner of BTR, partially to cover its credits, and partially to transfer to BTR in Romania, in order to solve the bank's liquidity problem."

"These transactions have been monitored by the State Supervision Board and a report was prepared afterwards."

"The value of the shares, which were bought under the price projected by independent consultant companies such as Arthur & Andersen and Deloitte & Touche, have been reevaluated by an expert from the State Supervision Board."

The Prime Ministry noted that the expert found the price was still high, and a consequential report has been sent both to the Prime Ministry, and to the relevant prosecution office.

These transactions have been inspected by the Prime Ministry Inspection Board, which has concluded there was no breach in the transactions, the Prime Ministry Press Office adds.

The statement also claims that the 57th government will take the measures to protect the foreign credibility and to support the Turkish entrepreneurs abroad whenever necessary.

Ankara - Turkish Daily News

Update from Incirlik

The traffic in the Incirlik Base in Adana, where top-level security measures have been taken after the terrorist act in the United States, continues. Some 16 fighter planes including F-15s, F-16s, Jaguars and Prowlers, two Awacs, four tankers, one cargo and one staff plane set out yesterday.

Furthermore, the hangar doors have been kept open for the last couple of days, and a lighting system is under construction in the hangar area.

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