Turkish press 29 April 05
BBC Monitoring Service – United Kingdom
Apr 29, 2005
The following is a selection of quotes from editorials and
commentaries published in 29 April editions of Turkish newspapers
available to BBC Monitoring
Turkey/USA
Hurriyet [centre-right, largest circulation] “Frankly speaking, the
situation [concerning the Turkish-US relations] is far more serious
than it is supposed in Turkey. Turkish-American relations are
poor. Opposition to Turkey in the US media goes deeper than the
anti-Turkey insults in a couple of [American TV] series and
programmes. …It seems that issue will not be as easy to resolve as
it might appear. However, everybody is of the opinion that the prime
minister’s visit to Israel [next week] will be an important step in
terms of normalizing the relations [with the USA].” (Commentary by
Fatih Altayli)
Cumhuriyet “As the USA wants to use whole of Turkey as a base,
indirectly it can find the efforts of a terrorist organization [the
PKK] directed against Turkey as something targeting democracy… The
last [US] report [on terrorism] shows that with this country, Turkey
must carefully establish balanced and controlled relations. In order
to keep Turkey under its control, the USA wants to pull different
strings ranging from terrorist organisations to economic
administration. Clearly, the USA sees Turkey as an aircraft carrier
which it can use in the way it wants. It wants it neither to sink, nor
to go to another port.” (Commentary by Mustafa Balbay)
Armenian issue
Posta [tabloid] “Ankara is not changing its position either. It
remains adamant about its conditions for the start of the talks
(Armenia giving up its genocide claims, recognizing the borders and
signing a peace agreement [with Baku] by pulling out of
Azerbaijan)… Actually, putting forward so many conditions is not
different from telling Armenians ‘I am not ready yet to sit at the
negotiation table with you’.” (Commentary by Mehmet Ali Birand)
EU
Milliyet “[During his interview with Milliyet] Erdogan stated that he
was certainly decisive about two subjects: The EU project and the IMF
programme… He made it clear that the political determination of the
government regarding the EU continued and there should be no doubt
regarding their determination to continue and support the [EU]
project… The prime minister also does not have any doubts that the
EU membership talks will begin on 3 October.” (Commentary by Hasan
Cemal)
“As the member countries’ national interests always include a
contradiction, today there is not any common foreign policy of the
EU. Thus, there is not any contradiction in Erdogan declaring his
commitment to the EU membership target on the one hand and presenting
relations with the USA as one of the key areas of foreign policy on
the other. As long as the [EU] target and relations [with the USA]
serve Turkey’s national interests, Turkey’s both keeping strong
relations with the USA and aiming at the EU target are not processes
contradicting but supporting each other.” (Commentary by Erdal Guven)
Cumhuriyet [secular, Kemalist] “Joining the EU is not something that
can never be given up. I am not against the legal changes,
harmonization with EU Basic Rights Agreement… However, I am
completely against the special conditions which are put before
Turkey. I am against Turkey having been treated as a second class
country.” (Commentary by Oztin Akguc)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress