TURKISH OPPOSITION LEADER CONTINUES TO CRITICIZE GOVERNMENT POLICY ON TERROR

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Oct 9 2007

"CHP group meeting -‘Does Turkey have to wait for PM Erdogan to visit
Washington next month to take measures against terror?’ Baykal"

ANKARA (A.A) -09.10.2007 -"Does Turkey have to wait for Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan to visit Washington next month to take measures
against terror?" asked main opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP) Chairman Deniz Baykal on Tuesday.

Speaking at his party’s weekly group meeting at the parliament,
Baykal indicated that Turkey has lost 27 of its citizens due to
terrorist attacks. He argued that to this day Turkey has not taken
decisive measures against terror.

He harshly criticized the ruling Justice & Development (AK) Party for
its policies on terror. "What happened to the special representative
in the fight against terror? What are the representatives doing? Why
have we lost 1.5 years? How did the special representatives contribute
to the fight against terror? Can these questions be answered? There are
no answers but many dead citizens and martyrs instead," told Baykal.

Touching on the recent agreement signed by Turkey and Iraq on war on
terror, Baykal stressed that "Turkey has lost 27 of its citizens before
the ink got dry on this agreement. This shows that such agreements
are useless. These are agreements to distract the Turkish people."

Baykal added that the "Turkish government must show its reaction to a
bill in the US House of Representatives supporting Armenian allegations
regarding the 1915 incidents, by not sending unauthorized deputies
but by direct intervention of top level government representatives."