USA SHOULD WITHDRAW FROM IRAQ – TURKISH PREMIER

Anatolia news agency
17 Jul 07

["TURKEY THINKS OF ITS OWN INTERESTS FIRST, ERDOGAN" – AA headline]

ANKARA (A.A) -17.07.2007 -"Turkey thinks of its own interests in the
first place," Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late on Monday
when commenting on Turkey-Iran natural gas deal.

"There is an interesting proposal submitted by Iran, offering us three
gas wells without tender," Erdogan announced in a live programme
broadcast on private NTV channel. "The USA will review its stance,
and I guess it will look at it with sympathy," he added.

Regarding the US-made weapons seized by security forces during fight
against terrorism, Erdogan said, "unfortunately, most of the weapons
we have seized so far are US-made. Authorities say that they were
the weapons that were left there when the Americans withdrew. But of
course, it is not possible to deem them (these remarks) as convincing."

"The USA should withdraw from Iraq and make public its schedule. It
won’t be right if we say it has to withdraw right now. Iraq will be
relieved if a schedule is set and if the USA withdraws gradually,"
Erdogan stated.

-SUNDAY’S ELECTIONS-On the other hand, Erdogan said that "his party
(Justice & Development -AK Party) will define itself successful if it
wins only one vote over those it won in 2002, and unsuccessful if it
stays below the level of votes it collected in the previous elections".

However, Erdogan noted, the polls indicate AK Party’s probable vote
percentage over 40 p.c. on July 22nd elections.

Erdogan stated that presence of independent MPs who can set up a group,
as well as the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the parliament as
a result of the elections may cause tension in Turkey. "Therefore,
votes to be cast in the elections is very very important," he added.

-PETKIM’S PRIVATIZATION-"PETKIM (Petrochemical Holding) was purchased
by a Kazakh Turk. And, this guy also bought a certain percentage of
the stocks of Sekerbank. But, this Kazakh Turk was accompanied by a
Russian company due to PETKIM’s area of operation.

There are people from different nationalities, like Armenians, in
the administration of this Russian firm. In case the sale of PETKIM
to this Kazakh firm is ratified, it will collect all the shares and
predominantly run the business," Erdogan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress