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| Europe |
| Turkish Press News |
| 2003-12-18 |
| These are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkey’s press on December 18, 2003. WHERE IS THE WARNING? It was revealed that the U.S. forces, who launched operations against the camps of the al-Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan following September 11th events, sent information to Turkey about Turkish supporters of al-Qaida. In its report, the United States informed Turkey two years ago that Habib Aktas, Feridun Ugurlu and Ilyas Kuncak, who were involved in Istanbul bombings in November could have connections with al-Qaida. However, this information was not sent to the Security Department. The police identified Turkish supporters of al-Qaida from testimonies of detainees. Somebody filed the report and forgot about it, sounds like our FBI. JAPAN MAY BEGIN IMPLEMENTING VISA Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul, who is currently paying an official visit to Japan, has said, ’’Japan may start implementing visa because of unregistered Turkish citizens living in Japan.’’ Speaking at a meeting at the Turkish Embassy in Tokyo, Gul said, ’’Japan is the only country among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members which does not implement visa for Turkish citizens. However, unregistered Turkish citizens in Japan have been damaging the esteem of Turkey recently.’’ Referring to his meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, Gul said that the issue of co-operation in Iraq was high on agenda of their meeting. "damaging the esteem of Turkey" Hummm, wonder if they are talking about normal criminals in the sex and drug trades, or those reports of al-Qaeda suspects seen scouting targets in Japan? Here’s more on the meeting in Japan. Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul, who is currently in Japanese capital Tokyo on an official visit, was received by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan on Thursday. Recalling that Japan had taken a decision to send its soldiers to Iraq, Gul said, ’’Prime Minister Koizumi wanted to learn Turkey’s views and to benefit from Turkey’s experiences. I told him that Turkey has become a center of humanitarian aid to Iraqi people. I also informed him on possible role of Turkish and Japanese firms in rebuilding process of Iraq. He was very interested.’’ Meanwhile, Japanese press showed great interest in Gul’s visit. In an interview with the Yomiuri Shimbun daily, Gul said about capture of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, ’’a new era has begun in Iraq. Turkey has welcomed capture of Saddam Hussein. All obstacles in front of democracy in Iraq have been removed. Now, necessary measures should be taken to accelerate the process of democratization.’’ Gul told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper that they would allow Japanese defense forces to use facilities in Turkey for humanitarian purposes. That’s good, it’ll give the Japanese a logistics hub. Noting that Turkey had been carefully monitoring all separatist activities of Kurds in northern Iraq, Gul stressed, ’’the new constitution of Iraq should not include any characteristics that can lead division of the country.’’ Code for seperate independent Kurdish state. Referring to the United States’ request from NATO to strengthen its role in providing security in Iraq, Gul said, ’’it is not certain yet whether or Turkey would send military troop to Iraq as an ally of NATO. All I can say at this points is that Turkey has been supporting NATO’s contribution to Iraq from the very beginning.’’ The Iraqis said "Thanks, but no thanks" to troops. |
| Posted by:Steve |