Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 13 2010

Cyprus, Ergenekon, Kurdish issue covered most by foreign media

Turkey continued to be a growing focus of interest for the foreign
media in 2009 and received extensive coverage from international media
outlets for its foreign policy and domestic political developments,
the Prime Ministry’s General Directorate of Press and Information
(BYEGM) has pointed out in a report.

According to the report, in 2009 over 1 million stories, comments and
programs were published about Turkey by foreign media outlets followed
by the BYEGM. The Cyprus situation was the top issue covered by the
foreign press, followed by political developments in Turkey, Turkey’s
relations with Middle Eastern countries and the Armenian issue,
including Turkish-Armenian ties.
In 2009, the most news articles on Turkey were written by
Ä°stanbul-resident German journalist Kai Strittmatter for the
Süddeutsche Zeitung and Tages Anzeiger newspapers, as in 2006 and
2007. German journalist Gerd Höhler, who filed the most news stories
on Turkey in 2008 for the papers Frankfurter Rundschau and Kölner
Stadt Anzeiger, came second in 2009. After being second behind
Strittmatter in 2007, Arab journalist Usame Abdalaziz, who writes for
Al-Ahram, dropped back to 11th both in 2008 and 2009. Sixteen out of a
total of 25 journalists with the most news articles on Turkey in 2009
were residents in Turkey. These 16 journalists wrote 10 percent of the
total number of news stories on Turkey published with a byline in
2009.

According to the BYEGM report, foreign media coverage of Turkey last
year predominantly focused on the Kurdish issue, new detentions and
the ongoing hearings in the Ergenekon case along with new munitions
caches unearthed during excavations in various parts of the country
connected to the probe, claims of the illegal wiretapping of members
of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court of Appeals, statements
made by military officers on various occasions and an alleged plot to
assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç and its related
developments.

Among the items that drew the greatest foreign media attention
concerning Turkey’s foreign policy were Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an storming out of a World Economic Forum panel discussion after
a heated exchange with Israeli President Shimon Peres over Israel’s
onslaught in Gaza, and subsequent developments; Barack Obama paying
his first official overseas visit to Turkey after being sworn in as US
president; an Alliance of Civilizations meeting held in Ä°stanbul;
ErdoÄ?an’s official visits to the US and a number of Middle Eastern and
regional countries during the year; Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu’s
busy schedule of official visits abroad; the signing of the
intergovernmental agreement on the Nabucco natural gas pipeline
project in Ankara; the historic rapprochement protocols between Turkey
and Armenia; and developments concerning the normalization of
diplomatic ties and the opening of the shared border between the two
countries.

13 February 2010, Saturday
AYÅ?E KARABAT ANKARA