BBC Monitoring quotes from the Turkish press 12 Jul 06

BBC Monitoring Service – United Kingdom;
Jul 12, 2006

Turkey and USA

Hurriyet (centre-right) "Northern Iraq is totally under the control
of the USA. The PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] is flourishing there;
totally under the protection of the USA. And then every day in Turkey
we see funeral ceremonies for martyrs [people killed by PKK members
infiltrating across the border]." (Commentary by Emin Colasan)

Radikal (centre-left) "The USA is now making preparations for its own
Kurdish state that will be used to guard vitally important energy
resources and their transport routes." (Commentary by M. Ali Kislali)

Anti-Western feeling in Turkey

Hurriyet "In Turkey, enmity against the West and Christianity has
increased to a level not seen in other countries. In enmity against
the West, those who declare themselves secular and Ataturkist are
walking arm in arm with the most open opponents of secularism. Any
step that will divide Turkey from the West will prove fatal. We will
be stuck either with the religious quagmire of the Middle East or
military coups d’etats." (Commentary by Ertugrul Ozkok)

Problems with reforms

Milliyet (centrist) "In Turkey, reforms always have a caesarean
birth. It is not public welfare that decides which law is made and
which is not. It is the interests of small groups. In such an
atmosphere, no reforms are made without arm-twisting." (Commentary by
Metin Munir)

Sentence on Armenian writer Dink

Radikal "The term of [Armenian intellectual] Hrant Dink’s sentence
has been fixed. For the first time, the crime of ‘denigrating
Turkishness’ has been punished. I expect parliament will convene
before its normal opening date, 1 October, and it will debate and
pass nine EU reform packages into law. Changing Article 301 [of the
new Turkish Penal Code, cited in Dink’s punishment] must be included
in these packages as a matter of urgency." (Commentary by Ismet
Berkan)

Israelis and Palestinians

Zaman (moderate, pro-Islamic) "It is clear that Arab regimes are not
sincere about the Palestinian issue… Sincerely or not, it is only
Iran which has put this issue in the top of its agenda. Iran gains
big advantages from this issue." (Commentary by Ali Bulac)

Yeni Safak (liberal, pro-Islamic) "Apart from shame, what does the
Israeli state bring the Jews with the massacres it has been carrying
out? Why is it trying to settle in Israel the successors of Jews who
have shown the world the ugly face of fascism? Is it to show them the
dismembered bodies of Palestinian children? Is this the sight that
the people who experienced the ‘Great Fire’ [Holocaust] present to
their children?" (Commentary by Salih Tuna)