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Last updated 20:13 |
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Turkey relieved; Armenian conference
ends without incident
Turkey is breathing a deep sigh of relief this week with the calm, uneventful ending of the controversial Armenian conference at Bilgi University. Despite cancellations, court orders, and protests featuring tomatoes and eggs, the conference went on, and following its closure, participants were universal in their pronouncement that an enormous responsibility had been lifted from Turkey's shoulders. |
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Speaker of Parliament Arinc says joint Turkish-Armenian commission to be formed soon
Speaker of the Turkish Parliament (TBMM), Bulent Arinc, told reporters in Manisa yesterday that a letter from Ankara to Yerevan proposing the formation of a joint commission on the so-called Armenian genocide matter has received a positive response from Armenian President Robert Kocharian. Arinc said that was likely that sometime in the near future, Turkey and Armenia would be working to put together a group of people to work on the commission. |
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Wide foreign coverage of
Istanbul's Armenian conference
Coverage of the Armenian conference in Istanbul made its way to the pages of foreign newspapers all over the world. The French newspaper Liberation carried a headline proclaiming "The Armenian taboo has been broken in Turkey," and an article attesting that the discussion of a "1915 massacre" was finally possible in the country. |
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Bush friend and advisor Karen Hughes
on her way to Ankara
The flow of high ranking visits from Washington, DC to Ankara continues this week with the arrival of US President George W. Bush's close friend and image advisor Karen Hughes. Hughes, who will be hosted in Ankara by the Foreign Ministry, is currently on a tour of the Middle East, having already passed through Egypt and Saudi Arabia accompanied by a large group of US based journalists and television correspondents. |
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A critical week; Vienna the only barrier to October 3 start talks
It appears that the only barrier between now and the start of the October 3 EU accession talks for Turkey is Vienna. The makeup of the roadmap for the talks, or the Accession Talks Framework Document, has taken shape. The only thing left to face is Austria's request that the choice of "priviliged partnership" be added to the document which will guide the talks. Austria's persistence with this particular request is widely perceived to be a play to get a promise on the start up of EU accession talks for Croatia, which were themselves postponed awhile ago. |
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Le Figaro: Sarkozy surprisingly soft on Turkey at weekend UMP conference
The French newspaper Le Figaro has speculated that the question of Turkish EU membership has turned into a tactical struggle between French President Jacques Chirac and Interior Minister and leader of the People's Movement Party (UMP), Nicolas Sarkozy. Wide coverage in Le Figaro of a weekend conference sponsored by the UMP highlighted a much softer stance by Sarkozy towards Turkey than had been previously expected. |
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Religious leaders condemn violence, military build-up at Hatay's "Meeting of civilizations"
At the "Meeting of Civilizations" conference held in Hatay, a panel entitled "Religious Contributions to Civilization" was led by Ali Bardakoglu, the president of Ankara's Religious Affairs Directorate. Sitting on the panel with Bardakoglu were Ishak Haleva, the religious leader of Turkey's Jewish community, Patriarch Bartholomeus, the leader of the Greek Fener Orthodox community, and Pariarch Mutafian, the leader of the Armenian Orthodox community in Turkey. |
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Star TV sold to Dogan Group
The Turkish media were surprised on Monday, when Isil Television Broadcasting Corp. of Dogan Media Group offered the highest bid of $306.5m at the auction of Star TV. The estimated value of the Star TV channel was originally set at $155m. Participants who missed out on the deal were: Ciner Television and Radio Enterprises, CGS Television and Radio Broadcasting Corp. and Atlantic Press and Publication Corp. |
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Human Rights watch criticizes Turkey
An organization in Turkey that supports the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people's rights in under threat from being shut down. Human Rights watch said on Monday that this violates basic freedoms of association and expression. The deputy governor of Ankara, Selahattin Ekremoglu, wrote a letter to the human rights group Kaos GL on September 15, stating that a complaint had been filed and a court procedure had been opened to close down the organization. |
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Two dead and one injured in mine accident
Two mine workers were killed and one was injured when an illegal coal mine in Gelik hamlet – an area of the Black Sea city of Zonguldak – when its ceiling caved in on Monday. The two dead have been identified as Serkan Bayram and Serkan Guney, while Selim Turkmendal was injured in the collapse. |
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Alaboyun: Turkey does not want EU talks locked on Cyprus
Turkey does not want EU talks to be locked over Cyprus. Ali Riza Alaboyun, deputy chairman of Turkish Parliamentary EU Adjustment Commission, said on Monday.''We don't want EU (full membership) negotiations to be locked on Cyprus.'' Alaboyun and other members of the commission met Hubert Haenel, head of the French Senate's EU Delegation, in Turkish capital of Ankara. |
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Two village guards killed by PKK
Two village guards have been killed by Kurdish militants in the southeast of Turkey close to the Iraqi border, officials said on Monday. The village guard came under attack on the main road linking the towns of Sirnak and Hakkari late on Sunday night, read a statement by the local governor's office. "The terrorists escaped after the attack using the cover of darkness," the statement said, "security forces have launched a large search operation for the culprits." |
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