www.todayszaman.com - June 4, 2008

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Lake Van’s north shore offers an array of beautiful sites, including Ahlat, with Seljuk remains

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2008 WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM YTL 1.50

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Classical music for everybody at Ýstanbul festival

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Officials in bid to avoid a new import ban crisis with Russia over Turkish agricultural products

Yo u r Wa y o f U n d e r s t a n d ý n g T u r k e y

CÝHAN

page10 US general takes over Afghan command

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GOV’T DECIDES TO SIGN KYOTO PROTOCOL TO REALIZE FULL POTENTIAL IN CARBON MARKET

Turkey set to gain from carbon trading YONCA POYRAZ DOÐAN, ÝSTANBUL

Nechirvan Barzani

Turkey's annual emission reduction efforts will be facilitated by sustainable energy development projects funded by voluntary carbon funds, with the number of these projects reaching 30 in the first quarter of 2008, resulting in a greenhouse gas reduction of approximately 5 million tons, equaling about 20 million euros in gains, if these energy companies engage in a carbon trading scheme, according to an internation-

al environmental organization's Turkey office.

Yunus Arýkan, the senior project manager for the Turkey office of the Hungary-based Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), says: "Based on information acquired

by REC-Turkey, as of October 2007, there are nine projects in Turkey that have been involved in the voluntary carbon trade, which accounts for a total of 700,000 tons of carbon emission reduction annually.

However, recently acquired data show the number of projects is 30, accounting for approximate-

ly 5 million tons in carbon emission reduction."

Speaking to Today's Zaman, Arýkan said both the number and volume of projects make Turkey one of the pioneering countries in this emerging market. He also said the fact that Turkey hosts the first "gold standard" verified emission reduction project globally qualifies Turkey for such a position, but that if Turkey is excluded from the world compulsory carbon market in the postKyoto period, it might lose these investments.

The Turkish government has decided to ratify

the Kyoto Protocol and will send a bill on the issue to Parliament, government spokesman Cemil Çiçek said at a news conference on Monday. The Kyoto Protocol binds 37 industrialized countries to put limits on their greenhouse gases blamed for the rise in global temperatures.

The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries which ratified it committed to reduce their emissions by an average of 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

Evidence shows dirty deals between CHP and KanalTürk A newly discovered document shows the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) transferred funds totaling $3.5 million to the Kanaltürk TV station in return for exclusive and preferential broadcasting. Star daily published on Tuesday a copy of the contract between Kanaltürk managers and CHP deputies signed in 2004. According to provisions of the agreement, Kanaltürk agreed to run party commercials at primetime for four years and accepted to host proCHP experts and analysts in its programming ranging from music to sports. The channel also promised to allocate no less than seven hours in news programs to CHP officials and agreed to give broad coverage to campaign tours by party leaders across the nation.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the CHP by its secretary-general, Önder Sav, who recently came under fire after being embroiled in two other scandals and by former CHP General Auditor Mahmut Yýldýz.

The signatures of former Kanaltürk owner Tuncay Özkan and three other top managers also appear on the document obtained by Star daily. CONTINUED ON PAGE 05

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The prime minister of Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region in the country's north said on Tuesday he saw no threat from Turkey, which regularly strikes members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) based in northern Iraq, and was optimistic about future ties. The Turkish military has regularly attacked PKK positions this year in the mountains of northern Iraq, where several thousand PKK terrorists are believed to be based.

"We are optimistic on future relations with Turkey, which is the major trade partner with Kurdistan," Nechirvan Barzani told a news conference in Dubai. "We don't feel any threat." The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 with the aim of establishing an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern region of Turkey. The PKK is already listed as a terrorist organization by a large majority of the international community.

The EU and the United States are keen for NATO-member Turkey, which says it is defending itself against a terrorist organization, to keep its attacks in northern Iraq limited to avoid destabilizing Iraq and the wider region. CONTINUED ON PAGE 04

BURAK KILIÇ

Iraqi Kurdish PM sees no threat from Turkey

04 FORMER SWEDISH AMBASSADOR HITS BACK AT TÜSÝAD

Ann Dismorr claims many members of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association support the closure of the governing AK Party.

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CHP’S SAV DEFIANT IN FACE OF CALLS FOR RESIGNATION

CHP Secretary-General Önder Sav has said he doesn't understand why some are pressuring him to resign over his failure to prove “bugging” allegations.

Bridge of Hearts off to warm start from Diyarbakýr

"Most? I want to see the Bosporus Bridge. I'm really curious about it," says Mehmet Gezer, a 10th grader from Diyarbakýr. He is among the 140 students on their way to Ýstanbul by bus as part of the "Bridge of Hearts" project. The project aims to establish relations between the students of Turkey's east and west, and will send 100,000 students on trips to other cities during June and July.

Students in grades 7-10 from eastern cities will visit western cities for five days and vice versa. The Education Ministry project, sponsored by Turkcell, began in Diyarbakýr yesterday, when Mehmet and his friends left for Ýstanbul. By AYÞE KARABAT CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

Turkey enters Far East výa Japan ABDULLAH BOZKURT, ÝSTANBUL Scheduled to meet with Japanese Emperor Akihito this week in Tokyo, President Abdullah Gül will be the first Turkish president to pay an official visit to Japan, if the late President Turgut Özal's attendance at Emperor Akihito's enthronement 18 years ago, in November 1990, is not taken into consideration.

The presidential visit, from June 4-8, comes at a time when the Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) has issued a warning on Turkey, saying its "political

and economic environment has turned more serious" in its latest "Sovereign Quarterly Review" report. The JCR rated the Turkish economy "BB- but stable" in its latest report, released in May, by downgrading it from "B+" to "BB-/Positive." The report listed several negative factors that needed to be watched: a closure case filed against the ruling party, a widening current account deficit, a falling consumer price index and rising inflation.

According to a copy of the quarterly report provided to Today's Zaman by JCR chief analyst Yoshihiko

Featuring news and articles from

Tamura, Turkey was praised for positive factors such as improving macro indicators, its completion of International Monetary Fund (IMF)-backed programs, progress on reforms geared toward EU membership and the country's geopolitical importance. The JCR report notes the significance of the completion of the IMF programs and adds, "Despite a challenging external environment, the Turkish economy has continued to perform reasonably well, with its economic activity showing resilience and foreign direct investment [FDI] inflows staying buoyant." CONTINUED ON PAGE 07

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02 TODAY’S ZAMAN

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F OOD FOR THOUGHT

N. Iraqi Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani

f.disli@todayszaman.com

W ORDS OF WISDOM

The efforts for reaching a truce in Gaza are a little bit complicated, but we hope that we will be able to reach a positive result.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.

Raymond Hull

press roundup AA

FATMA DÝÞLÝ

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So-called wýretappýng ýncýdent reveals CHP partýsanshýp ýn medýa The fact that some media outlets blew out of proportion recent allegations by the Republican People's Party (CHP) that the telephone of its secretary-general was wiretapped by the state's secret service and the content of conversations disclosed to the Vakit daily -- allegations later on proven to be baseless -- showed the biased and partisan approach prevailing among some Turkish media outlets.

This problematic approach has surfaced on many other occasions, but this time the media outlets were caught redhanded, many Turkish columnists say, describing the shameful and desperate situation they have fallen into by plunging into the CHP's allegations so quickly and blindly.

Yeni Þafak's Fehmi Koru says some media outlets which objected to being labeled pro-CHP media are now anxious because they fear this adjective will stick to them forever. "They are right to have such concerns because they have been caught red-handed," says Koru, referring to these media outlets' immediate adoption of the CHP wiretapping allegations and engaging in a war against the government. He suggests that these media outlets should now remove the desperation façade because they know very well what they should have done before rushing to publish the CHP's allegations without asking any questions. "They were never suspicious of the CHP's allegations. Instead of demonstrating a natural journalistic reflex, they carried the party's allegations to their columns and pages. This is characteristic of the CHP media," alleges Koru. In his view, this so-called wiretapping incident served one good purpose; namely, some media outlets that had managed to hide their partisanship for the CHP have shown their real faces. "It has been really helpful. The CHP secretary-general's telephone served for this purpose," he contends.

Bugün daily's Ahmet Taþgetiren thinks this so-called wiretapping incident has turned into a source of shame for media outlets which have a tendency to immediately embrace anything that is against the government. He accuses them of helping the CHP lay the groundwork for this fiasco. "Interestingly enough, [CHP leader Deniz] Baykal, who has failed to be an efficient main opposition leader, can only exist with their help. Baykal and they are now in trauma. However, they were full of enthusiasm when they first brought forward these allegations. They hoped to deal a severe blow to the [Justice and Development Party] AK Party. They thought they had caught a big opportunity to finish off the AK Party," says Taþgetiren, now referring to the disappointment in both the CHP and these media organs after their wiretapping allegations proved unfounded.

Sabah daily's Nazlý Ilýcak talks about a general tendency among some, labeling some media outlets as proAK Party and some pro-CHP, emphasizing that she finds such a differentiation very wrong. She suggests adopting a different perspective. "There are some newspapers that are open to the world, defend liberal values and a democratic secularism, reinterpret Turkey's red lines as part of international relations and oppose any military interference in politics. On the other hand, there are other newspapers that prepare the groundwork for a regime debate, constantly put forward allegations such as that the principle of secularism is being violated, make efforts to prevent the dissolution of an authoritarian and ideological state apparatus and see military interventions in politics as sometimes necessary.

Such a classification is more realistic," explains Ilýcak.

PRESS REVIEW

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CROSS READER

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Q UOTE OF THE DAY

In Kirkuk, as Kurds, we are ready for power-sharing. We are pushing for a solution, not especially a referendum.

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columns Mother killers, Olympic performances ÖZLEM ALBAYRAK, YENÝ ÞAFAK We were introduced to the eighth killer at the end of May. The perpetrator, who choked and stabbed his victim before chopping her body into pieces, has a Web page that highlights worldfamous mass murderers such as Charles Manson and Albert Fish as well as various torture scenes; he apparently identifies himself not as a Satanist, but instead as being "anti-religion." And thus it was through this piece of news, which emerged on May 30, that Turkey was introduced to its eighth mother killer in the past four months. This comparison came to mind while I was watching the Turkish Language Olympics -- can you imagine any of the youths competing in the Turkish Language Olympics murdering their mothers?

I cannot. The key words here are moral foundation. And believe me, there are those in this nation who would prefer to see killers rather than a population with a moral foundation.

Magnifying glass MAHÝR KAYNAK, STAR When you look at an object through a magnifying glass, the parts of the object you see appear larger than they really are, but you don't really pay attention to the other dimensions of that object.

People generally view political and social events through a magnifying glass of sorts. What they view looks larger than it really is, while the other aspects of the events around them appear less significant than they really are. Leaders are always under a magnifying glass. They are thus seen as very different from other people. This difference is so great that it cannot even be compared to the normal differences that exist between people. A person who before becoming a leader may have seemed the same as everyone else suddenly turns into someone who possesses all sorts of superior qualities. When these same leaders lose their battles, they seem ordinary again; while if they represent the victorious side in a struggle, they turn into legends. Death is not an end for either the losing side or the winning side; while the winning side makes their leader immortal, the other side turns their dead into banners for a new struggle.

The red-dotted nation ERGUN BABAHAN, SABAH

Eighty students, in Turkey for the 6th International Turkish Language Olympics, on Tuesday traveled to the eastern city of Erzurum, where they joined in a march for peace and brotherhood.

radikal:

"We are all terrorists in the court decision," read the daily's lead headline yesterday, referring to a recent court ruling that granted the right to the Security Directorate and gendarmerie to listen to phone conversations of the general public. Turkish Bar Association (TBB) leader Özdemir Özok said if a state ignores the freedoms of its citizens in the name of providing public security, such an approach will pave the way for the establishment of a police state. "According to the basic rules of law, you can't treat people as suspects without any reason," the daily quoted Özok as saying. Professor Gökhan Antalya, dean of the faculty of law at Ýstanbul's Marmara University, termed the case a violation of freedom of speech, saying that phone conversations of the general public can only be listened to when there is suspicion of criminal activity.

taraf:

A front-page article in the daily yesterday covered a visit that main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal will pay to southeastern Turkey. Baykal, who has been criticized by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan for failing to go beyond the capital, will visit Diyarbakýr and Þanlýurfa. During

this visit, he will meet with representatives from nongovernmental organizations, reported the daily.

sabah:

"Debt list and six letters," read the daily's top headline yesterday, referring to what Abidin Cevher Özden left behind after committing suicide on Monday in his Kadýköy office by shooting himself in the head. Özden, who was charged with defrauding millions of lira from thousands of people in the 1980s and who was also known as "Banker Kastelli," in a suicide note, wrote, "I never meant to deceive or cheat anyone." The note, which was placed in an envelope with a piece of paper reading "To be given to the prosecutor," said he had been falsely accused of fraud and embezzlement and that the press had been merciless toward him.

yeni þafak:

A Turkish barber in Saudi Arabia, Ersin Taze, who was arrested for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, was released by Saudi authorities, read the lead story in the daily yesterday. Turkish Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Naci Koru's efforts convinced the Saudi authorities to release the barber, reported the daily.

We are in the Swedish city of Goteborg for the annual meeting of the World Newspaper Congress of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). The meeting this year began on Monday with an official opening speech by the Swedish king. The king, as the leader of a nation which recognized and legislated the concept of freedom of the press in 1766, underscored in his remarks the importance of this freedom. And in truth, the report that was presented after the king's speech about the state of press freedom around the world was striking in terms of how it revealed the rapid narrowing of freedom of the press in many world nations, as well as the increase in attacks against journalists. As for countries where attacks against journalists are frequent, these were indicated in the report by a red dot placed on the country.

Unfortunately, Turkey was one of those "red dot" nations, along with nations like Myanmar and Russia. It was, of course, through one of these attacks that ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was killed. The only consolation is that it the report also highlighted the fact that following Dink's murder, more than 100,000 people poured into Istanbul's streets to condemn this attack.

How happy is he who can say 'YouTube is banned!'

MUTLU TÖNBEKÝCÝ, VATAN

turkey ýn the foreýgn press Asýa Týmes Onlýne

Internatýonal Herald Trýbune

Peacemaker Turkey faces new threat An intensifying fight between Turkey and a reorganized Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) threatens to introduce a new element of instability to the Middle East. And this at a time when some of the most serious crises in the region are taken on by regional actors, ironically with Turkey itself playing a key role as a peace mediator. That has left the United States in a dilemma over whether to continue with its traditional policy of giving a green-light for a militaristic approach by Turkey to deal with the long-standing Kurdish issue, or to pressure its longtime ally to try harder for a political

solution. Turkish and PKK sources have claimed since the start of this year to have killed hundreds and dozens from the other side, respectively, signifying the resurgence of old hostilities in the region. The fight between the PKK and Turkey has claimed about 40,000 lives over two decades. The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Ankara and dozens of Western countries, including the US and European Union members. Now, after years of relative inaction, all signs indicate the PKK has made a strong comeback and is gaining renewed momentum in Turkey and abroad.

US, Turkey reach nuclear energy deal The United States and Turkey are moving toward cooperation on civilian nuclear technology.

The US State Department says the two countries concluded a deal that would allow them to exchange nuclear technology, material and reactor equipment. US law requires that foreign governments agree to nonproliferation safeguards as a prerequisite to some kinds of U.S.

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nuclear cooperation. Both countries are parties to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday that the deal would boost nuclear energy development and enhance security.

The agreement must be submitted to the US Congress, which would have 60 working days to block it with legislation if it objects.

There is a phenomenon these days called YouTube. Well, actually, no there isn't, since currently it is banned in Turkey. A comprehensive ban has been placed on this Web site because of a few videos out of tens of thousands which insult Atatürk -- well, they don't even really insult him. Our criminal courts are working away like busy bees, maþallah! The minute one ban is lifted, another one comes around to replace it. In fact, sometimes you can even navigate to the YouTube Web address only to see all four bans from the various courts at one time. I think that every criminal court that wants to become famous in Turkey should try forcing this site to be shut down at least once. After all, there is no such thing as bad advertising. And thanks to these criminal courts, not only are we getting to know our own nation better, but we are also learning where all our criminal courts are located. And so we can sing, "Way over there is a criminal court, far, far away, and whether or not we are tried there, it is our own criminal court!"

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ÝSTANBUL ANKARA ÝZMÝR ANTALYA ADANA ERZURUM EDÝRNE TRABZON KAYSERÝ

German ambassador’s wife receives mother of the year award TARIK ÖZTÜRK

ticularly women and mothers, who are active in the social sphere. Yenimata-Kritiku said she was very happy to hear that Cuntz was selected for this year's award, being a very close friend of her. She said she believed Cuntz certainly deserved the award.

Gümüþdoðrayan briefly spoke about the association and some of its activities. He said of the foreign mother of the year award, "This shows our association's appreciation for people who have set an example for society without discriminating between religions or races, and for people who try to join with others on the basis of common values instead of discussing differences."

He said Cuntz was chosen as the mother of the year because of the activities she organized for children, such as a series of concerts for visually impaired kids.

Nimet Çubukçu, the Turkish state minister for women's affairs, was also awarded a plaque at the ceremony. Social Services and Child Protection Agency's (SHÇEK) Deputy General Manager Nurdan Tornacý accepted the award for her. The IIS was founded in 2006 by a group of Turkish and foreign teachers and businesspeople to promote cultural exchange and friendship. Ali Aslan Kýlýç Ankara

Athina Yenimata-Kritiku presents Ursula Cuntz (R) with her Foreign Mother of the Year 2008 award.

KONYA ÇANAKKALE DÝYARBAKIR SAMSUN BURSA GAZÝANTEP ESKÝÞEHÝR MALATYA KOCAELÝ

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Belýeve ýt or not, Turks spend the most týme wýth newspapers

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Ursula Cuntz, the wife of German Ambassador to Turkey Eckart Cuntz, has been selected Foreign Mother of the Year 2008, an annual awarded organized by the International Interaction Society (IIS).

IIS President Mesut Gümüþdoðrayan, members of the IIS and a large number of domestic and foreign diplomats participated in the award ceremony yesterday held at the German Embassy in Ankara. Last year's winner, Athina Yenimata-Kritiku, the wife of Greece's ambassador to Turkey, gave Cuntz her award. In a speech delivered in Turkish, Cuntz said she was greatly honored by the award. "I would like to accept this plaque in the name of all mothers. Nothing is more important than our children. Our children are our future," Cuntz said.

Cuntz said her own mother, who had seven children, always found the time to help others despite her busy workload at home.

She said the feeling of protectiveness was inherent in motherhood. "I don't want to show my protectiveness to my family only. I want to help others in need," Cuntz said. She told the audience about her planned charity projects that would serve this purpose. She also congratulated people in Turkey, par-

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The annual World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and World Editors Forum (WEF) congress provides us with access to the latest information from the press sector. At the congress, where the results of the latest surveys and research projects conducted on subjects relevant to journalism are revealed, we sometimes get very surprising news. For instance, this year we were surprised to hear that Turkey is the nation that spends the longest time reading newspapers, although we always thought that Turks were bad readers.

During the congress, held in the Swedish town of Göteborg and attended by 1,800 editors-in-chief, editors and high-ranking managers from the press sector from 113 countries, WAN CEO Timothy Balding released the results of a survey, and according to this report, Turks spend the most time -- 74 minutes each day on average -- with their newspapers. Turks are followed by Belgians, with 54 minutes, and the Finns and Chinese, both with 48 minutes each.

However, the Japanese remain the world's greatest newspaper buyers, with 624 daily sales per 1,000 adults. They are followed by Norway, with 580 sales per 1,000 adults, Finland, with 503, and Sweden and Singapore, both with 449.

The good news revealed to us at the initial sessions of the WAN-WEF congress wasn't limited to this. According to the same report, worldwide newspaper circulations rose by 2.57 percent in 2007, while the rapid growth of free dailies and online platforms is expanding the reach of newspapers everywhere. Thus, global newspaper sales reached a new high of more than 532 million daily. With free dailies added, the daily circulation increases to more than 573 million, a 3.65 percent increase from the total circulation in 2006 (a 14.3 percent increase over 2003). The average readership is estimated at more than 1.7 billion people each day.

One more piece of good news comes from the advertising sector. Advertising revenues in paid dailies were up 0.86 percent last year from the previous year and up 12.84 percent over 2003, WAN said. Print remains the world's largest advertising medium, with a 40 percent rise. Newspaper advertising revenue increased by 0.86 percent in 2007 over 2006, and was up 9.39 percent over 2003.

Meanwhile, the total number of paid-for daily titles in the world was up by 2.98 percent in 2007 and up 11.02 percent since 2003, hitting a record 11,926 titles. The total number of paid and free titles increased by 3.65 percent in 2007 over 2006 and by 14.3 percent over 2003.

It was interesting to learn that 74 of the world's 100 best-selling dailies are published in Asia. China, Japan and India are home to 62 of them. The five largest markets for newspapers are China, with 107 million copies sold daily; India, with 99 million copies daily; Japan, with 68 million copies daily; the United States, with nearly 51 million; and Germany, with 20.6 million.

In the European Union, paid dailies saw a 2.37 percent drop in 2007 from 2006 and a 5.91 percent drop compared to 2003. Combined

BÜLENT KENEÞ b.kenes@todayszaman.com

with free dailies, however, circulation in the EU rose 2 percent over 2006 and 9.61 percent over 2003. The circulation of US dailies fell 3.03 percent in 2007 compared with 2006 and 8.05 percent compared to 2003. Most of the decline came in evening dailies, which saw a year-onyear circulation decline of 10.08 percent, compared with the 1.97 percent drop for morning dailies. In Japan, newspaper sales fell by 0.96 percent in 2007. Compared with five years ago, sales are down 2.70 percent. However, China's newspaper sales continue to perform well, up 3.84 percent over 2006 and 20.69 over 2003.

Indian newspaper sales increased 11.22 percent in 2007 and 35.51 percent over 2003.

Despite a surge in the number of ads in newspapers, newspapers' share in the world ad market in 2007 fell slightly to 27.5 percent in 2007 from 28.7 percent in 2006. Nevertheless, newspaper remain the world's second largest advertising medium, after television, with more revenue than radio, cinema and the internet combined. When newspapers and magazines are combined, print is the world's largest advertising medium, with a 40 percent share, compared to 38 percent for television. Newspaper advertising revenues -- excluding free dailies, for which consistent data is not yet available -- increased in all regions except North America, where they fell 2.77 percent in 2007.

The WAN report points out that the real boom in the world ad market came about on the Internet. Internet advertising revenues were up 32.45 percent last year over 2006 and 200 percent over 2003. Most of the revenue is generated in the US, western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. In Europe, internet advertising revenues now surpass classified revenues, while searches remain the largest advertising market online. Online newspaper revenues are forecast to more than double in the next five years and will account for 12 percent of total newspaper advertising by 2011.

A total of 312 free daily newspapers had a combined circulation of 41.04 million, a circulation increase of 20 percent over 2006 and 173.2 percent over 2003. The six largest free dailies are Leggo in Italy (1.95 million copies), Metro in the UK (1.37 million copies), 20 Minutos in Spain (1 million copies), Metro in Canada (990,000 copies) and Que! and ADN in Spain (959,000 copies each).

The number of newspaper Web sites also grew by 13.77 percent in 2007 and by 50.77 percent over 2003. However, a study in the US shows that newspaper Web site users also read the print editions: 81 percent of online newspaper readers also read a printed newspaper at least once a week.

That's the news about news from the WAN-WEF Congress.

Summer season to bring Antalya hotels to peak occupancy Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TÜROFED) Chairman Ahmet Barut has said Antalya's hotels will begin to see traditionally high summer occupancy rates beginning this month. "Beginning to operate at high occupancy levels in June, Antalya's hotels are expected to reach peak occupancy rates in July and August -- and finding rooms during those months will be difficult," he told the Anatolia news agency.

Noting that hotels in Antalya tend to reach maximum occupancy during the summer season regardless of how many stars they have, Barut said tourists prefer hotels with the best service and pricing. He said fivestar hotels in Antalya also have the biggest bed ca-

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pacities, adding: "Antalya's 186 five-star hotels provide an advantage for Turkey against rival countries.

Yet the hotels must be designed with different concepts to maintain Turkey's grip on regional tourism."

According to data provided by the Antalya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the total number of tourism facilities in Antalya has reached 843, including tourism-certified hotels, boutique hotels, boarding houses, camping resorts, private accommodations and golf facilities, while tourism-certified bed capacity has increased to 346,821. The bed capacity of Antalya's 186 five-star hotels is 141,750. The province's 14 holiday resorts have 10,228 beds. Antalya Today's Zaman

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Iraqi Kurdish PM Nechirvan Barzani sees no threat from Turkey contýnued from page 1 The United States has considerably toughened its stance against the PKK, and President George W. Bush declared the group a "common enemy" for the United States, Turkey and Iraq at a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan in November. The Turkish military has been launching aerial strikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq since Dec. 17, and the United States supports Turkey's anti-PKK efforts, providing intelligence about the group and airspace clearance for Turkish jet fighters taking part in the aerial operations. Troops were also sent to northern Iraq in a major ground offensive against the PKK in February. In parallel to the US-Turkish cooperation against the PKK, relations between Ankara

and the Iraqi Kurds, accused in the past by Turkish officials of supporting the terrorist group, have also improved recently. Two senior officials met with Barzani in May in the first direct high-level contact. Barzani recently returned to northern Iraq from a key visit to Washington last month, during which he met with Bush, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other senior administration officials.

In Dubai, Barzani also said yesterday that Iraqi Kurds were willing to share power with Arabs in the city of Kirkuk -- a focus of rivalry between ethnic groups, largely because of its considerable oil wealth.

Kurds, a minority in Iraq as a whole, see Kirkuk as their ancient capital and had led the push for a referendum to establish control. Arabs

encouraged to move to Kirkuk under Saddam Hussein want it to stay under Baghdad's control.

The dispute could threaten the relative stability in the largely Kurdish north, spared some of the ravages suffered by the rest of the country, but it also resonates beyond Iraqi borders. Turkey fears extension of Kurdish control to Kirkuk and surrounding oil fields would spawn a wealthy, and hostile, Kurdish state that could foment separatism in its Southeast.

Barzani said the Kurdish regional government that controls the north was pushing for a solution over the status of Kirkuk but that this did not necessarily have to come in the form of a referendum.

The regional Kurdish parliament voted in December for a six-month delay in a proposed referendum, partly to give the United Nations

time to come up with proposals for settling the issue.

"In Kirkuk, as Kurds, we are ready for powersharing," Barzani told Reuters in Dubai. "We are pushing for a solution, not especially a referendum.

We have asked the UN to be technically involved because the situation is complicated," he said.

A referendum had been due by the end of 2007 to decide the settlement of multi-ethnic Kirkuk's fate.

There were fears a referendum could stoke ethnic conflict by delivering power to one side or the other, or lead to disruptive movements of population as groups maneuver for influence. UN Special Representative to Iraq Staffan de Mistura said in April a peaceful settlement must be found through a political formula, not a hastily organized referendum that could trigger violence. Ankara Today's Zaman with Reuters

US, Turkey agree on peaceful nuclear cooperatýon PHOTO

Turkey and the United States have begun a 15-year nuclear energy cooperation agreement with the exchange of diplomatic notes by officials from the two countries. The two countries agreed to cooperate on civilian nuclear projects with the "USTurkey Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation," according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the US State Department.

Turkey and the US had signed the cooperation agreement in Ankara on July 26, 2000, but it was only brought into force on Monday due to problems in the ratification processes, a statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

"The agreement -- mindful of the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which both countries have long been parties, and of the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency's [IAEA] security inspections in preventing proliferation -- sets up a framework for the peaceful use, development and inspection of nuclear energy," the statement said.

The ministry also indicated that the agreement permits the transfer of technology, information, materials, equipment and components for nuclear research in such areas as medicine and agriculture, as well as for nuclear power production.

The agreement does not permit transfers of sensitive nuclear technology and restricted data. In a similar statement the US State Department's Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs said: "The agreement establishes a firm foundation for mutually beneficial cooperation in the important field of peaceful nuclear energy for many years to come. It opens up opportunities for US and Turkish nuclear industries to cooperate in this field."

The agreement has an initial term of 15 years, with a provision for automatic renewal in increments of five years each unless either party decides to terminate it. "By bringing the Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation into force, the United States and Turkey have taken an early step in what they both expect will be a very long and fruitful partnership in efforts to enhance their energy options and promote their energy security," the US statement said.

Sedat Laçiner, the head of the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (ISRO/USAK), told Today's Zaman that the agreement shows the extent of the trust that the United States has for Turkey. "Nuclear materials are highly sensitive products. There is a danger that they can be sold to third countries on the US black list,

AP

YONCA POYRAZ DOÐAN ÝSTANBUL

Iraqi Kurdish news report: Iraqi Kurds ban PKK-linked party The regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq has refused to grant licenses to 22 political parties, including one that has been a source of serious uneasiness in Ankara due to its links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), according to Iraqi Kurdish media reports.

"The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have agreed to not give licenses for the foundation of any political party or group in Kurdistan. A number of people who have made applications to have political parties licensed have not received any answers and have been prevented from opening their offices," an anonymous source was quoted as saying by Rozhnama, a Kurdish newspaper published in Sulaimaniya.

The original Rozhnama report was actually published late last month, but the English version of the report aired on several English-language Kurdish news portals yesterday.

The Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PGDK), which is known to be close to the PKK, is among those 22 political parties that have been banned by the regional Kurdish administration, according to the Rozhnama report.

Ankara has longcalled on US and Iraqi authorities to close down organizations that it sees as affiliated with the PKK. Turkey urged at the time Iraqi and US authorities to ban the PGDK before the Jan. 30, 2005 elections in Iraq, but the Turkish appeals were unproductive and the party participated in the elections. It won just 15,000 votes and no seats in parliament. In November 2007, around one and a half months before the Turkish military began launching aerial strikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq, the regional Kurdish administration shut down the offices of the PGDK. In August 2005, the PGDK of Iraq received public attention after Turkish media reported the opening of a PGDK office in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk adorned with PKK flags and posters of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Fouad Hussain, the head of the office of Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, said at the time that the PGDK offices in the region had been shut down because the party did not have a license to operate. The PGDK had offices in Arbil, Sulaimaniya, Dahuk, Mosul and Kirkuk.

The head of the party, Faik Gulpi, then said that the party shared the aims of the PKK but did not provide it with any military support.

"My party will continue to support the free revolutionaries in Turkey's Kurdistan," he was quoted as saying by Iraqi media at the time.

Rozhnama quoted judge Tariq Gardi, the general director of the office of Interior Ministry, as saying that the ministry refused to give the PGDK a license because "there are three points in their program that contravene the Law of Political Parties in the Kurdistan region." Ankara Today's Zaman

Greek Cyprus drops legal action against EU aid to KKTC Turkey and the United States have started a 15-year nuclear energy cooperation agreement, according to State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack. such as Iran. So the White House cannot by itself approve selling nuclear technology. It goes through a process of approval by Congress," Laçiner said.

He also said American companies have a stronger hand in this agreement than others, such as French and Canadian firms, which are most interested in Turkey's nuclear development projects, because the agreement involves technology transfer, mutual production of materials and the education of Turkish engineers in the field of nuclear production. "If other countries' companies cannot provide these things, American firms will have an upper hand," he said.

In January US President George W. Bush

approved a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Turkey, saying that private-sector proliferation worries have been addressed.

Then Bush sent the US Congress a July 2000 agreement, signed by then-US president Bill Clinton, which would clear the way for cooperation with Turkey's planned civilian atomic sector.

"In my judgment, entry into force of the agreement will serve as a strong incentive for Turkey to continue its support for nonproliferation objectives and enact future sound nonproliferation policies and practices," Bush said in a letter to lawmakers on Jan. 23. "It will also promote closer political and economic ties with a NATO ally, and

provide the necessary legal framework for US industry to make nuclear exports to Turkey's planned civil nuclear sector," Bush also said.

The deal stalled shortly after being signed in July 2000 because US agencies received "information implicating Turkish private entities in certain activities directly relating to nuclear proliferation," the White House said, adding that those "issues have been sufficiently resolved."

The US Congress still has to approve the agreement. The agreement will facilitate Ankara's September tender to build the first of three planned nuclear power plants that will provide Turkey with an additional 5,000 megawatts of electricity.

Turkey’s Mideast efforts worthy of applause, says US The US capital has encouraged Turkey's role as mediator between Israel and Syria via strongly worded statements, suggesting that Turkey's efforts have been worthy of applause.

The praise came on Monday from US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack at a daily press briefing when he was asked a question referring to remarks from Syrian President Bashar Assad suggesting that the support of the US as a broker was needed for the success of talks with Israel.

McCormack first noted that none of the sides had requested such a thing from the United States. "If the sides and all the parties to this, you know, want the United States to participate, it's something we would consider. To my knowledge, we haven't been requested to participate in the process," he said.

"As a matter of fact, the Turkish government should be applauded for the fact that they're work-

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ing to further the cause of peace in the region. We have made very clear our views that if both sides to this issue, Syria and Israel, would like to try to explore something, then they should do so. Our only admonition is that that shouldn't be a substitute or in any way take away from the direct negotiations that are currently under way on the IsraeliPalestinian track," the spokesperson added.

Earlier on Monday, Assad said indirect peace talks with Israel would eventually need "international sponsorship" from the United States.

"The success of these negotiations is dependent on Israeli intentions and political changes in the world," he was quoted as saying by the United Arab Emirates' official WAM news agency while on a visit to Abu Dhabi. "During later stages, the negotiations will need international sponsorship, particularly that of the United States in their role as a

superpower with strong and special relations with Israel," he said, noting that the current Turkish-brokered indirect talks were at a "preliminary stage."

Israel and Syria confirmed last month that they had resumed peace negotiations after an eight-year break. Israel said that they began through Turkish intermediaries in February 2007. The last round of peace talks broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981 in a move not recognized by the international community. Those talks were hosted by the United States.

The announcement of Turkey-brokered talks came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert found himself mired in yet another corruption probe -the fifth investigation into his conduct since he took office in 2006. Analysts and opposition lawmakers suggested the new announcement was de-

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signed to divert attention from Olmert's legal woes.

Another problem is that a possible peace deal that would require Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria is highly unpopular in Israel. A recent poll revealed that only 19 percent of Israelis are willing to cede the entire Golan Heights, down from 32 percent a month ago.

McCormack, meanwhile, was asked about the agenda of an upcoming meeting between Turkey's visiting Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to take place on Thursday. He was also invited to elaborate on what Turkey's exact role in the Middle East process was.

"Turkey can play a very important role. It's got a lot of influence. It's an important country. It has a lot of resources. And moreover, it can be a voice for -- has been and can be a voice for peace in the region," McCormack replied. Ankara Today's Zaman

Greek Cyprus has dropped legal action to block part of an EU financial aid package to the Turkish Cypriot community in the ethnically divided island's north, an official said Tuesday.

Greek Cyprus has withdrawn lawsuits filed with the European Court of Justice to annul eight tenders worth 10 million euros ($15.5 million) in total, Greek Cypriot government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said.

The "supplies and services" tenders are part of a 259 million euros ($402 million) EU-approved aid package to the Turkish Cypriots. The wording of the disputed tenders was amended so as not to imply recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), Stefanou said.

Greek Cyprus "wants to ease the provision of financial assistance to the Turkish Cypriot community in a way that does not imply recognition of a separate state entity," Stefanou said.

The Mediterranean island's rival Greek and Turkish Cypriots have launched preparatory talks before the first formal round of peace talks in four years. Cyprus has been divided since Turkey intervened in 1974 after a failed coup aimed at a union with Greece.

Greek Cyprus joined the EU in 2004 as the official representative of the entire island, but only the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot south enjoys the bloc's benefits.

The EU aid package, approved in February 2006, aims to boost the economic development of the Turkish Cypriots, who have for decades been stuck in a legal vacuum. The KKTC, founded in 1983, is recognized only by Turkey.

More than 100 million euros ($155 million) has already been tendered -- without objection from the Greek Cypriot government -- for an array of infrastructure projects to better prepare Turkish Cypriots for hoped-for reunification with the more affluent south. The entire amount must be tendered by the end of 2009 or it will be reabsorbed into the EU budget. Ankara Today's Zaman with AP

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Evidence shows dirty deals between CHP and Kanaltürk contýnued from page 1 The paper described the agreement as “unethical” and said “it showed the dirty side of the relationship between politics and the media.”

The agreement includes a special clause stipulating that the TV station cannot enter into similar agreements with other political party leaders or entities during the period the contract is in effect for. In addition to production and broadcasting favors, the contract calls for the appointment of a CHP member to Kanaltürk’s Board of Directors. The TV station also agreed to transfer 40 percent of its shares as collateral to the CHP. While acknowledging the existence of such an agreement, CHP General Auditor Mustafa Özyürek defended the party’s actions yesterday, saying: “There was no illegal activity here.

It was a contract between the CHP and Kanaltürk and both parties fulfilled their obligations, so the case was closed.” Özyürek also

noted that the contract’s continwas believed to have established gency clauses, including the Kanaltürk to support the CHP in transfer of shares or the appoint2004. However, in a surprise move ment of a CHP member to the last month, he sold Kanaltürk to station’s Board of Directors, had the Koza Davetiye Group, owner never been utilized. He claimed of liberal Bugün daily. that those articles were placed in The CHP now stands accused the contract as a preventative of having violated a provision of measure to ensure that the the Law on Political Parties that agreement was complied with. prohibits political parties from A state prosecutor filed a legal carrying out activities “outside inquiry with the Constitutional the stated purpose.” According to Tuncay Özkan Court in April, seeking a probe of other articles of the same law, the CHP and its past money giving or receiving donations, transfers to Kanaltürk. A possible Constitutional loans or credit in violation of the law makes Court verdict may order the CHP to reimburse party officials liable to a sentence of six months the Treasury for the amount of undocumented to one year in prison. The case might be money. However, party leaders could then be grounds for closure under the Constitution. The tried individually, experts note.

Constitutional Court is expected to announce a decision when it finishes reviewing the acÖzkan, known for his ultra-nationalist stance,

counts; however, the party administration has so far denied any wrongdoing.

CHP leader Deniz Baykal acknowledged in a program on CNN Türk in April 2007 that his party transferred money to Kanaltürk.

“Nothing disturbs us about this money transfer. We signed a deal with Kanaltürk for the CHP’s promotion and publicity activities. The money transfer is not in violation of our legal system. We will sign similar deals with Kanal D and ATV in the coming months,” Baykal is alleged to have said.

In a similar case of unaccounted-for political party funds in 1997, a criminal complaint was filed against the Welfare Party (RP) with the top court.

When YTL 2.6 million of the party’s funds allocated from the Treasury ended up in private bank accounts, RP leader Necmettin Erbakan was barred from engaging in politics and sentenced to time in prison along with several other party officials.

CHP secretary general defiant in face of calls for resignation AA PHOTO

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal has criticized Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, who, speaking in the European Parliament in Brussels last week, said not only nonMuslim minorities but also the Muslim majority is faced with limits on religious freedom in Turkey.

Speaking to his party’s parliamentary group yesterday, Baykal said he could not swallow Turkey’s ministers insulting and disrespecting Turkey abroad, in remarks targeting Babacan.

“Can a foreign minister who is responsible for standing up for his country and defending his country against unjust treatment from other countries take part in a spate of unjust treatment toward Turkey by criticizing his country more than others?” asked Baykal.

He claimed that Babacan’s statements were also echoed by other Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan. “It is reckless to say that Islam is under pressure in Turkey,” stated Baykal.

In the meantime, Baykal continued to accuse the government of wiretapping CHP Secretary-General Önder Sav’s phone line and revealing the content of his conversations to the Vakit daily, allegations proven to be unfounded by phone company records.

He stated that 5,000 employees at the Telecommunications Administration (TÝB), which was established following enactment of a law in Parliament in 2005, were engaged in listening to private phone conversations and that the government was involved in nepotism in recruiting its employees. Ankara Today’s Zaman

Court to consider appeal to scrap headscarf law

CHP Secretary-General Önder Sav and CHP leader Deniz Baykal shake hands prior to the party’s Tuesday parliamentary group meeting. cost of these to the CHP,” he stated.

Sav said the same people calling on him to resign were suspicious of interceptions of their communication lines. “They say this. It is obvious that under the AK Party these incidents have increased, and it is also obvious that communications of only one segment of society are being monitored. In such a situation, this should be questioned, not us. I don’t understand why the CHP’s stance is being questioned,” he stated.

Parliamentary probe into eavesdropping claims When journalist Bila recalled that there was criticism of the CHP for leveling its accusations without thoroughly investigating the matter,

Sav replied: “Of course we will have misled those who supported us if there is no bugging involved. Perhaps this is why they are reacting,” in reference to calls for his resignation.

“But the essence of the problem should not be forgotten. Thousands in Turkey suspect that their phone communications are being monitored. Is that not true? Hasn’t it been proven with a recent document that all phone records are being monitored?” Sav said, referring to court orders recently made public allowing the National Intelligence Organization (MÝT), the police and the gendarmerie to track callers’ identity, location, call time and call duration for any phone number. However, none of the orders allow for monitoring the content of a

phone conversation, which in Turkey can be done only by a court order granted separately for each unique phone number.

The CHP, which earlier submitted a censure motion, has backpedaled on that and withdrawn the motion. Instead, it will be requesting a parliamentary probe into bugging allegations. In response to a question on whether he believed this could be considered a retreat, Sav said: “It is obvious that a motion wouldn’t have worked. They would reject it with the larger number of seats they have and prevent its discussion. This is why we decided that a parliamentary probe would be better. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to investigate, find out some new information.” Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman

MHP leader says ballot box the solution for Turkey An early election is the way out of Turkey’s ongoing political deadlock, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has said, while complaining that the nation has been plunged into scandal, conflict and disaster scenarios following the filing of a closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

Speaking to his party’s parliamentary group yesterday, Bahçeli said: “No individual or party is indispensable in democracies. Politics will certainly find a solution in its own domain, and the stones of democracy will settle through the common sense of the voters. This is what we hope. In this ambigu-

A Turkish man arrested in Saudi Arabia for insulting the Prophet Mohammed has been released, according to the Cihan news agency. Ersin Taze was released Monday afternoon after being arrested by Saudi authorities about a month ago for insulting the Prophet Mohammed. Originally from Turkey’s southern Hatay province, Taze had been working as a barber in Riyadh for 11 years.

The Turkish Embassy in Riyadh put forth great effort to secure Taze’s release, with Turkish Ambassador Naci Koru sending a letter to Saudi officials, including Riyadh’s emir, asking them to resolve the matter. A statement from the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Turkey said Koru’s letter played a significant role in the Turkish man’s release.

Another Turk working in Saudi Arabia, Sabri Boðday, was sentenced to death on grounds of blasphemy after an argument with a Saudi client and an Egyptian neighbor. An appeals court recently upheld the death sentence against Boðday, who had worked in Jeddah for 11 years as a barber.

The sentence can still be reversed by a higher legal body or by a royal pardon. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman

Baykal slams Babacan for freedom remarks

CHP Secretary-General Önder Sav simply forgot to end the call on his cell phone when he received his guest, leaving the phone connected for nearly an hour. Türk Telekom records seem to prove the truth of this scenario as they show a 44-minute phone call between a phone at the Vakit daily and Sav’s cell phone Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Secretary-General Önder Sav, who recently accused the government of bugging his party’s building and phone lines, has said he doesn’t understand why some are pressuring him to resign over his failure to prove his accusations.

When the Vakit daily last week published details of a private conversation between Sav and a former governor, Sav claimed his party’s headquarters had been bugged. The CHP backed the allegation, reasoning that there was no other way the daily could have obtained information on the conversation. The CHP argued that a group close to the government within the police force was gathering intelligence for the ruling party. In response to the accusations, Vakit said its reporter had called Sav on his cell phone for a statement on the day of the meeting and that Sav simply forgot to end the call on his cell when he received his guest, leaving the phone connected for nearly an hour. A record of the call from Turk Telekom seemed to prove the truth of this scenario, as it showed a 44-minute connection between a phone at Vakit and Sav’s cell phone.

Many, including Hürriyet’s chief columnist Oktay Ekþi, known for his pro-CHP stance, and Eþref Erdem, a former CHP member who used to be a close ally of CHP leader Deniz Baykal, have called on Sav to resign after the phone records provided by Turk Telekom were made public. Turkcell, the mobile phone company that Sav subscribes to, also confirmed the connection yesterday evening.

However, Sav still insists that his phone lines were tapped and that all his conversations are being monitored. “I know my communications are being monitored. No document can change this,” he told Milliyet’s Fikret Bila in an interview yesterday, adding that even if his mobile phone company Turkcell issued a similar document, this would be no proof that his conversations are not being monitored.

He said he was going to apply for a court order allowing a detailed search for bugging equipment in party headquarters. Sav said he would never resign. “Should I resign to make someone happy?

The phone tapping incidents have occurred.

These incidents have simply gone overboard during the term of the Justice and Development Party [AK Party]. There are attempts to bill the

Saudi authorities release Turkish barber

ous environment, Turkey will certainly reach a solution through the ballot box -- by remaining in the domain of democracy -- and the nation will put an end to the years-long deception.”

The MHP leader also criticized remarks made recently by Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in the European Parliament, primarily because the minister’s comments were made outside of Turkey.

Babacan had said not only non-Muslim minorities but also the Muslim majority in Turkey faced limits on religious freedom. Bahçeli questioned what Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, who backed Babacan’s remarks, had done to

solve the problems of the Muslim majority with respect to religious freedom during the past six years in which his party has been in power.

GAP and Kurdish TV criticism Bahçeli also slammed the government for its plans regarding the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) -- a major sustainable development project formulated decades ago to resolve agricultural and economic challenges facing Turkey’s Southeast but which has been mired in neglect and financial difficulties -- and television broadcasts in Kurdish.

On the GAP project, he said the project was

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launched by the government of 30 years ago and that the 57th government in 2000, of which the MHP was a coalition partner, drafted the action plan. Voicing support for the action plan announced by the government last week, Bahçeli criticized Erdoðan for portraying GAP’s completion as a magical formula to rid Turkey of its terrorism problem. He also said it was unacceptable for his party to approve full-day Kurdish broadcasts on a television channel linked to the state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), as recently pledged by the prime minister. Ankara Today’s Zaman

A judicial official says Turkey’s top court will consider this week whether to cancel a law allowing Islamic headscarves in universities. Two opposition parties have asked the Constitutional Court to abolish the law. Many secular Turks see the Islamic headscarf as an emblem of political Islam. The judicial official, speaking Tuesday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, says the court will likely meet Thursday and could issue a decision the same day. Last month, a legal adviser recommended the court reject the appeal. A ruling in favor of keeping the law would give a morale boost to the Islamic-rooted governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which also faces a closure case at the same court. Ankara AP

Top court rules Turkish teachers’ right violated The European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday that two Turkish teachers who were dismissed from their posts for refusing to remove their headscarves during lessons were subjected to unfair trials.

The court announced yesterday that Fatma Karaduman and Sevil Tandoðan, who were dismissed from their posts as high school teachers in 2001on the grounds that they refused to take off their Islamic headscarves during lessons, were deprived of their right to a fair trial as they had not been allowed to respond to the opinion of the principal state counsel at the Council of State on the issue.

The court referred to previous cases in which a complaint similar to that of Karaduman and Tandoðan had been submitted and it had found a violation of the right to a fair trial. It also ruled that Karaduman and Tandoðan would not be granted any pecuniary damages by Turkey. The two had demanded that Turkey pay them a total of 400,000 euros. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman with wires

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General Staff broadens defýnýtýon of “enemy” PHOTO

MUSTAFA ALTINTAÞ

The General Staff is to widen the definition of what constitutes an enemy to encompass more individuals and agencies and will also change the scope of responsibility of the Mobilization Research Council Administration

Turkey bids martyred soldier farewell A funeral was held at Ankara’s Kocatepe Mosque on Tuesday for Mehmet Tarlacý, a noncommissioned officer who died on Monday at the Van Yüzüncü Yýl University Medical Faculty Hospital. Tarlacý was taken to the hospital on Sunday after being wounded in the eastern province of Van in a collision between a military vehicle carrying detainees and a truck. State Minister Mustafa Sait Yazýcýoðlu, Grand Unity Party (BBP) leader Muhsin Yazýcýoðlu and Fourth Army Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Aslan Güner and many other army officers participated in the ceremony. Tarlacý’s body was conveyed on a cannon carrier and buried at the Cebeci Military Martyrs Cemetery in Ankara. Today’s Zaman with wires

The General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) will be widening the definition of what constitutes an enemy to include a larger number of individuals and agencies, according to a series of reports published by Taraf daily on Monday and Tuesday.

According to the daily’s report, which included scanned pictures of an army document that redefines certain concepts and reads “strictly confidential” on top of the page, the General Staff will also change the scope of the responsibilities of the Mobilization Research Council Administration (STKB), a unit of the General Staff active since 1977.

The STKB and several other units of the General Staff, known as administrations of “Disorderly Warfare,” are secretive departments that are generally deemed to be units structured as organizations which carry out undercover operations -- physical and psychological -- to fend off danger from perceived enemies.

According to the daily’s report, the most recent briefing on the disorderly warfare units, relayed to sources of the General Staff in print and on a CD, expands the duties of these units, assigning them the duty to fight any individual, institution or agency “attempting physical, economic, psychological or political occupation of the homeland.”

The definition is too vague -- any agency from the European Union to the government of the Republic of Turkey can be perceived as an enemy, warned strategist Sedat Laçiner, who heads the Strategic Research Organization (USAK).

In an interview with Taraf, Esat Canan, a former Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy, said the concept of disorderly warfare was an attempt to annihilate democracy.

Mesut Deðer, another CHP deputy, said STKB-like organizations in the military and similar organizations, which he labeled “counter-guerilla,” were responsible for most of the politically motivated and unresolved murders in Turkey over the past few decades.

“They want unlimited power,” said Laçiner.

Under the new plan, the number of STKB administrations will increase to 24 by 2012 from

Turkey a model for solution of Central Asian water crisis YUSUF BULUT ANKARA

The 5th World Water Forum, held May 28-29 in Kyrgyzstan, focused on the Turkish experience in resolving its own water crisis as a model for settling ongoing conflicts over water usage in Central Asia. Countries participating in the World Water Forum discussed Turkey’s experience in resolving its water crisis with its neighbors, extracting lessons to be applied in order to prevent possible water wars among the nations of Central Asia over limited water resources. Environment and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroðlu spoke about how Turkey had begun to solve its problems in terms of sharing water resources with neighboring countries.

There are 214 water sources in the world that flow through more than one country. Sixty-nine of them are in the Americas, 57 are in Africa, 48 are in Europe and 40 in Asia. Nations with water sources flowing through them and at least one neighboring country number 145. Forty percent of the world population has to share their water with citizens of at least one other country. This obligation to share water resources, combined with increased drought due to global warming is increasing the tension between water-sharing countries daily.

The first big water wars are expected to take place among the nations of Central Asia, as their diplomatic relations are underdeveloped and they have been severely affected by global warming.

Turkey, with its serious water-sharing problems with Syria and Iraq due to the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, which begin in Turkey and flow to the Shatt al-

Arab via Syria and Iraq, settled the problems by a launching a new strategy to discuss and solve the water problem with the participation of all parties. The three countries -- Turkey, Iraq and Syria -- began scientific studies to form a water institute at Turkey’s Atatürk Dam, built on the Euphrates River, to resolve the water-sharing problems.

During the World Water Forum, Turkish Environment and Forestry Minster Eroðlu spoke about the agreement, the process for which was initiated

by Turkey, to resolve the problems with its neighbors and added that third-party countries, which may have their own interests in this water problem, should not be included in the multilateral talks among countries to share water resources.

The topics of climate change in Central Asia and water resources management and capacity development were covered in the forum, where Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran were represented at the ministerial level.

There are major problems between Central Asian countries over cross-border sources of water; Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan have an acute problem over the use of water and land ownership at Ferghana. This problem escalates into armed conflict from time to time, and resolution of the issue is complicated by the legacy of Soviet Russian migration policies: all Central Asian countries are home to ethnic minorities from neighboring nations. If the water-sharing problems among these Central Asian countries is not solved, major conflicts are in order, Central Asia experts say.

the current 12. Another revision to the disorderly warfare strategy is a change to the job specifications of the administrations, which are being expanded to include the vaguely defined task of “preventing every kind of element that threatens the integrity of the country.”

The document also notes that the individuals from outside the military to be chosen for a mission of these units should have “strong patriotic feelings.” The signature of Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaþar Büyükanýt can be seen under the documents printed alongside the Taraf story.

Taraf’s report noted that the new concepts - which have not been fully and officially approved yet -- are extremely ambiguous. A source working at the General Staff headquarters said, “Since it is not clear how ‘occupying’ is defined in the enemy definition and since the scope of the physical, political or economic occupation is not explained, it could actually be any legal or civilian formation unwanted by the sovereign power. Such organizations or individuals might be subject to the General Staff’s disorderly war activities.”

Disorderly war now Under the current STKB regulations, disorderly war is defined as “Military and semi-military operations mostly carried out with the support and strength of the local people in a target country or in a land occupied by enemy forces to destroy or weaken the dominant authority and prevent its operations to eventually control the region in question.” But why is this expression being changed? According to the same source, the reason is the emergence of “new balances in the world” after the end of the Cold War. “The Cold War’s end, the US becoming the sole superpower, new nuclear threats, changing balances with increasing energy needs, Russia’s energy policies, the change in the conceptualization of terrorism and developments in the Middle East have created a new perception of threats. This is why the necessity to change the definitions regarding disorderly war arose.” Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman

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Religious Affairs Directorate presses YÖK to found international faculty of theology ERCAN YAVUZ / ALÝ ASLAN KILIÇ ANKARA

The Directorate of Religious Affairs continues, as it has for quite some time, to press the Higher Education Board (YÖK) to establish an international faculty of theology, a project devised for the improvement of relations between different religious and cultures, according to the directorate’s deputy director, Mehmet Görmez.

Speaking to Today’s Zaman, Görmez said: “This project is one of the greatest dreams of our directorate. We call on YÖK to give urgent attention to our demand. There is great demand from prospective students of this faculty.” The faculty when established would accept not only Muslim students but also students of other religions. The languages of instruction will be Turkish, English and Arabic.

Görmez said that -- if established -- the international faculty of theology would become a bridge between different religions and cultures.

“The faculty will not only accept students from Turkey; it will also accept students from different nationalities and religions. We plan to designate the languages of instruction in this faculty as English, Arabic and Turkish,” he said.

Görmez said his directorate hoped to train students with a good knowledge of foreign languages. “Some European countries are unwilling to issue a visa for religious officials who cannot speak the language of these countries.

The establishment of the planned international faculty of theology will contribute to the development of language skills of the students who study [there]. The room and board of the students of this faculty will be provided by the Directorate of Religious Affairs,” he explained.

He noted that there are programs in the faculties of theology at universities in Ankara and Marmara that are similar to their project.

“Ankara University’s Faculty of Theology opened an international theology program two years ago. This program has been very successful and it has doubled the number of its students in its second year. More and more students want to enroll. Turkish citizens residing in European countries and Muslims living in Balkan countries in particular wish to participate. We want our project to become a reality quickly so we can meet these people’s demands,” Görmez said. He added that this faculty will help improve relations between different cultures and nations across the globe. He said it would introduce real Islam to the whole world. “In this way, Turkey will share its religious experience with other countries,” he added.

Reopening of Halký seminary?

The initiative to establish an international faculty of theology has been interpreted as a significant step for Turkey by various circles. Many say it is a positive development that the foundation of such a faculty is being discussed at a time when the European Union is pressing Turkey to reopen the Halký Seminary on the island of Heybeliada in Ýstanbul. The seminary once trained generations of Greek Orthodox leaders, including the current patriarch. It was closed to new admissions in 1971 under a law that put religious and military training under state control and the Greek Orthodox Church in Ýstanbul has subsequently been forced to import its priests from Greece. The seminary remained open until 1985, when the last five students graduated.

The Greek Orthodox Church expects the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to take the necessary steps regarding articles 130 and 132 of the Turkish Constitution, which need to be amended if the seminary is to be reopened.

Turkish hackers attack NASA's Phoenix site Turkish hackers over the weekend attacked the official Web site of the Phoenix Mars Lander, an exploratory vehicle that safely touched down on Mars just over a week ago.

The group, which calls themselves “sql loverz crew 2008,” hacked the official Web site of Phoenix late Friday night; the Web site is hosted by the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL).

The Zone-h.org group, which collects evidence on and logs such attacks, found out that two hackers breached the security wall of http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/ twice and that both of these hackers were based in Turkey.

After the site was hacked, visitors were redirected to another site that displayed the Turkish flag and various messages, including “pwned by BLaSTER - Cr@zy_king” and “nasa teach ariz0na pwn3d??” according to Zone-h.org.

Arizona University LPL spokeswoman Sara Hammond said the site went offline for several hours after the attack and was back up by Saturday afternoon. “This was the public site,” Hammond stressed. “None of the scientific data was ever at risk.” The Phoenix Mars Mission Web site offers news, images and other information about the Mars Lander. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman with wires

CM Y K

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BUSINESS

TODAY’S ZAMAN 07

W E D N E S D AY, J U N E 4 , 2 0 0 8

Japan-Turkey relatýons: Just a fantasy i.ozturk@todayszaman.com

President Abdullah Gül is on an official visit to Japan this week between June 3 and 8. This will be the first visit to Japan by a Turkish head of state. What is the agenda of this visit and what should be expected from it?

When I think of the recent past, I am afraid there will be no surprises after this visit. There is no doubt that Turkey's primary focus is improving economic relations. In this respect, Turkey wants to attract more Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) to Turkey and increase trade volume, particularly exports, to Japan. Let me briefly provide some recent economic figures and then continue elaborating on what should be expected.

Japan's place in Turkey's foreign trade is simply insignificant, both in terms of exports and imports. Turkey's place in Japan's foreign trade is even worse. Although trade volume is dramatically low, in terms of trade balance, the situation dramatically favors Japan. The current trade deficit, which exceeds $3 billion, constitutes a significant part of Turkey's $30

700,000 miss out on premium incentives while avoiding late retirement ÝSA YAZAR ANKARA

is the message given to the Turkish side, which complains about the low number of Japanese tourists to Turkey.

However, while close to 20 million tourists visit Turkey each year, Japan is not among the top 10 tourist destinations of Turks.

Obviously, none of these explanations are sufficient to hide the fact that economic relations between the two countries are far from reflecting the potential. In this regard, there are other explanations. Japan does not favor importing from Turkey. They have even created some artificial problems in import procedures, regarding which Japan has made an infamous impression all over the world. In the eyes of the Japanese, Turkey is part of the Middle East. Of course Turkey has never been a part of the Middle East. Turks came from Central Asia and expanded toward Europe

for many centuries. After the conquest of Istanbul, then the capital of East Rome, the Ottomans formed an empire, undertaking the responsibility of becoming a world state as a part of Europe. In this age, Turkey is a part of Europe in terms of economic relations (more than 60 percent of trade is with the EU), political alliances and cultural interaction. In addition to the existing customs union with the EU, Turkey is negotiating with the EU for full membership.

Historically the Japanese thought that only they had succeeded in becoming a Westernized country at "the East end of the West," and that other Asian countries could not be considered a part of Europe. It is this bizarre perspective of the Japanese that still places Turkey in the category of Middle East countries on its Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Web site.

contýnued from page 1 It states Turkish authorities responded to turmoil in the global credit market and inflation by taking important steps to bring their economic program back on track. It especially singles out "the adoption of a social security reform as a major achievement that will contribute to long-term sustainability of public finances." It welcomes recent actions taken to strengthen tax administration, reform the energy sector and enhance the soundness of banking operations.

Gül's visit includes a host of meetings with Japanese officials and businessmen with whom Gül will be making a sales pitch for more direct investment in Turkey, which already stands at almost $7 billion from Japan. Foreign Trade Minister Kürþad Tüzmen and Economy Minister Mehmet Þimþek are also accompanying him. Gül will meet with CEOs of major Japanese corporations and talk with leaders of trade and commerce organizations.

What is important here, analysts argue, is applying the "Gateway Model" in Turkey's expansion into the Far East in terms of boosting economic ties with the region, in which Japan is a leading economy. It is obvious that Japanese carmakers establish their bases in Turkey to export more cars to Europe by using a customs union agreement between Turkey and the EU. Likewise Turkey can use its partnership with Japan to enhance its economic ties with the greater Far East region.

As it stands right now Turkish exports to Japan were only $247 million in 2007, a low figure if you look at the $3.7 billion in Japanese exports to Turkey last year. It is by and large very difficult for Turkish goods to enter into the market because of high costs associated

PHOTO

Turkey hopes to expand into Far East market via Japan

Japanese carmakers establish their bases in Turkey to export more cars to Europe by using a customs union agreement between Turkey and the EU. with brand marketing and advertising in Japan. As a result not many Turkish products are known in Japan. What complicates export prospects is the difficulty encountered in standards in packaging and labeling. The bulk of Turkish exports come from food items, especially fish, amounting to $64 million in 2006.

Japan is also a funding source for major infrastructure projects in Turkey. The Japanese Bank for International Cooperation has provided $7.5 billion in loans since 1972. Over the last two decades, the extension of credit and loans

has grown at unprecedented levels, with Japanese companies partnering in and providing funds for a number of technical projects. The Japanese government opened a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) office in Ankara in 1995 to further relations with Turkey. Among major projects is the Marmaray Project, a 13.3-kilometer tunnel, part of which will run underneath the Bosporus.

President Gül's agenda includes increasing travel and tourism opportunities for the Japanese. He hopes the top-level visit will en-

OECD-FAO report: Turkey’s growth will surpass India’s by 2017 Turkey's growth rate is expected to rank third after China and India in coming years and to pass India and take the second spot by 2017 among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries, according to a new report.

The 14th edition of the Agricultural Outlook, prepared jointly by the OECD and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), notes that Turkey grew an annual average of 7.2 percent between 2002 and 2006. The report also predicts a 5.4 percent growth rate in Turkey for 2008 and 5.7 percent for 2009. According to the report Turkey's annual average growth rate will be 5.5 percent between 2010 and 2017.

The Agricultural Outlook report estimates that China's growth rate will drop to 8.2 percent from double digit rates after 2010. Turkey is expected to rank third for growth rate in the next 10 years, right

SALÝH HAMURCU

ÝBRAHÝM ÖZTÜRK

billion trade deficit, excluding energy imports.

Why don't Turkey and Japan trade more with each other? Japan and most of the EU countries, particularly Germany, are substitute countries for Turkey in terms of the basic imports of the latter. Considering proximity, certain cultural elements and familiarity in business practices, Turkish companies prefer Germany.

In order for Japan to eradicate these disadvantages, FDI is a priority. Germany makes significant FDI in Turkey and this triggers further trade between the two countries. But when we examine existing Japanese investments in Turkey's automobile industry, we see that despite Toyota and Honda's significant place in this sector -- they are amongst the top players in both domestic and export markets -- low levels of FDI from Japan indicate the low level commercial relations between the two countries. When the Turkish side mentions a trade deficit, the Japanese side automatically reacts by saying that Japanese car manufacturers in Turkey are making large exports from Turkey, correcting the trade deficit in favor of Turkey.

Moreover, the Japanese will also mention quite confidently that each year almost 100,000 Japanese tourists visit Turkey, staying from two to four days, and that their spending is more than double compared to visitors from elsewhere. This

after India and China. India will see a higher growth rate than Turkey until 2014; then, the report predicts, its annual growth rate will decline to 5.3 percent while that of Turkey will continue to climb, exceeding this rate. Russia is expected to rank directly below Turkey in the next 10 years.

The report also provides estimations for population growth rates. The rates of population increase in countries that are currently seeing rapid growth are expected to decline sharply. The population growth rate of one of the fastest growing countries, India, is estimated to decrease to 1.22 percent in 2017, while it is currently close to 1.50 percent. South Korea's population growth rate is expected to decline to 0.09 percent from its current level of 0.36 percent. Turkey's population growth rate is expected to be 1.28 percent this year and to drop to 1.01 percent by 2017. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman

courage more Japanese to spend their vacations in Turkey. About 17 million Japanese spend their holiday abroad every year; Turkey attracted only 170,000 of them last year even though Japan declared 2003 "The Year of Turkey" and organized more than 165 activities across Japan to commemorate the friendship between the two nations. The Turkish government is reciprocating by declaring 2010 "The Year of Japan." President Gül will extend an invitation to Emperor Akihito to lead ceremonies in Turkey that year.

Investment to be facilitated with one-stop service The government has introduced a plan to utilize local governorships in efforts to encourage investment by speeding up bureaucratic procedures.

Under the plan, so-called one-stop investment desks will be established by local governorships to help investors through the necessary paperwork. The desks are scheduled to begin operations in two months.

The related decision, signed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, was published in yesterday's Official Gazette. Industrial entities and entrepreneurs who want to invest in Turkey will benefit from these services by having their problems addressed locally and quickly before and during the investment

process. A manager will be appointed to the desk by the local governor, and personnel will be employed as necessary, depending on the city's potential and investment conditions.

Aside from addressing investors' problems, the desks will also point out and promote investment opportunities in the region. The process of establishing this service will start immediately, and the contact information for the desks will be announced through various forms of media.

After beginning operations, the desks will prepare activity reports at three-month intervals and submit them to the Turkish Investment Support and Promotion Agency.

Ankara Today's Zaman

Some 700,000 people who had rushed to register in the social security system to avoid the loss of favorable retirement conditions that have come with a new social security reform law have been deprived of a major employment privilege.

A recent law passed by Parliament in May, known as the employment package, had introduced incentives for employing men between the ages of 18 and 29 and women of any age above 18, by assigning the Treasury to subsidize their premium payments for a five-year period. This will only be valid for one year starting from May 2008, and to benefit from this incentive a person must have been unemployed for six months prior to beginning their new job, requiring most people to wait for six months to become eligible.

In the first four months of 2008, 703,000 people applied to be registered under the old social security system; in April alone the number was 438,000. Social Security Institution (SGK) officials note that almost 90 percent of these applicants were applying for the first time. In contrast, only 285,000 new applications for registration with the system were filed in 2003. This number was even lower in 2004, with only 263,000 applications. However, the number soared in 2006, reaching 1.41 million soon after rumors about the new system started circulating.

The pension determination rate declines to 2 percent from 3 percent with the new law; the pensions of retirees, determined using their last monthly wage multiplied by years of service plus 3 percent -- now 2 percent in the new law -- is set as a pension. With this new form of calculation, a person insured under the old system will receive roughly 10 percent more pension than a person insured after the implementation of the new law. A person was also able to continue working after retirement. In the new system, if a person wants to work after he or she retires, they must relinquish their pension. These changes led to the general rush of people attempting to register themselves with the old system.

However, those who rushed to get registered will remain outside of the scope of the incentives introduced in the new employment package for women and young men. The incentives for these people are only valid if they were unemployed for six months prior to beginning their new jobs. Experts believe that companies will possibly hire workers to benefit from the incentives of the employment package in the first months following implementation of the law. In other words, those who applied to SGK to avoid later retirement will likely miss out on the opportunity of finding a job this year since companies will probably seek to hire those who have been unemployed in the last six months Minister of Labor and Social Insurance Faruk Çelik believes that people unnecessarily hurried to the previous system due to the exaggerated comments published by some newspapers.

Farewell to single-digit inflation, 12-month rate 10.7 pct as of May Inflation rates continued to rise in May, distorting short-term expectations and plans, according to price index data released yesterday by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat).

The inflation rate of the last 12 months as of the end of May hit 10.74 percent in consumer prices and 16.53 percent in producer prices.

The monthly producer price index (PPI) increased by 2.12 percent while the consumer price index (CPI) increased by 1.49 percent, representing a 1.51 percentage point increase over the CPI for April 2007 and a 9.39 point increase in the PPI. According to year 2003 base prices, the rate of inflation in the first five months of the year stood at 6.38 percent for the CPI and 13.39 percent for the PPI. For last month, out of 454 items in the CPI, the average prices of 96 items remained unchanged while the average prices of 293 items increased and the average prices of 65 items decreased. Out of the 756 items in the PPI, the average price of 200 items remained unchanged while the average price of 318 items increased and the average price of 238 items decreased.

The highest monthly increase in terms of main expenditure groups was 11.99 percent in the CPI for clothing and footwear. The indices rose by 1.57 percent for transportation; by 1.66 percent for hotels, cafes and restaurants; 0.25 percent for food and non-alcoholic beverages; 0.41 percent for housing; and 0.82 percent for miscellaneous goods and services.

The PPI for agriculture increased by 3.49 percent over the same month last year. The PPI of the industrial sector increased by 1.79 percent compared to the same period of 2007. Ankara Today's Zaman

T08-04-06-08.qxd

03.06.2008

19:04

Page 1

08 TODAY’S ZAMAN

PHOTO

AP

W E D N E S D AY, J U N E 4 , 2 0 0 8

BUSINESS

BANKING

Britain favors stepping into Islamic finance

UN chýef: food productýon must rýse 50 percent by 2030 however, said in an interview ahead of the gathering that a draft document that could be the basis for a final summit declaration doesn't promise to overhaul subsidy policy.

The US Congress last month passed a five-year farm bill heavy on subsidies, bucking White House objections that such aid in the middle of a global food crisis wasn't warranted.

Heading the US delegation to the summit, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer insisted on Monday that biofuels contribute only 2 or 3 percent to a predicted 43 percent rise in prices this year.

Figures by other international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, show that increased demand for biofuels is contributing by 15-30 percent to food price increases, said Frederic Mousseau, a policy adviser at Oxfam, a British aid group.

"Food stocks are at their lowest in 25 years, so the market is very vulnerable to any policy changes" such as US or European Union subsidizing biofuels or mandating greater use of this energy source, Mousseau said. Brazil is another large exporter of biofuels, and its president, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva was expected to defend biofuels at the summit.

Washington's ambassador to the Rome-based U.N.

contýnued from page 1 World food production must rise by 50 percent by 2030 to meet increasing demand, UN chief Ban Ki-moon told world leaders Tuesday at a summit grappling with hunger and civil unrest caused by food price hikes. The secretary-general told the Rome summit that nations must minimize export restrictions and import tariffs during the food price crisis and quickly resolve world trade talks. "The world needs to produce more food," Ban said. "Food production needs to rise by 50 percent by the year 2030 to meet rising demand."

The Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization is hosting the three-day summit to try to solve the short-term emergency of increased hunger caused by soaring prices and to help poor countries grow enough food to feed their own.

In a message read to delegates, Pope Benedict XVI said "hunger and malnutrition are unacceptable in a world which, in reality, has sufficient production levels, the resources, and the know-how to put an end to these tragedies and their consequences." He told the world leaders that millions of people in unstable countries were looking to them for solutions. Ban said a UN task force he set up to deal with the crisis is recommending the nations "improve vulnerable people's access to food and take immediate steps to increase food availability in their communities."

That means increasing food aid, supplying small farmers with seed and fertilizer in time for this year's planting seasons, and reducing trade restrictions to help the free flow of agricultural goods.

"Some countries have taken action by limiting exports or by imposing price controls," Ban said. "They only distort markets and force prices even higher." The World Bank calculates that there has been an 83 percent increase in prices in the last three years.

Price speculation, the increasing diversion of food and animal feed to produce biofuel, and sharply higher fuel costs have conspired to help to shoot prices upward, experts say. UN officials said on Monday that they also intend to request the United States and other nations phase out subsidies for food-based biofuels, including ethanol. But in his speech Tuesday, Ban only called for "a greater degree of international consensus on biofuels." That, however, could be difficult: Participants on the eve of the conference did not even agree on how much a role biofuels play in driving up prices.

The United Nations is encouraging summit participants to start undoing a decades-long legacy of agricultural and trade policies that many blame for the failure of small farmers in poor countries to feed their own people "We're calling for a renaissance," said Jim Butler, FAO's deputy director general. He told leaders that "it is time to reinvest, reevaluate agricultural" policies.

That's an ambitious goal, considering a previous pledged aim of halving world hunger by 2015 has proven elusive. FAO director-general Jacques Diouf told the delegates that at the current rate the target "would not be reached in 2015 but in 2150."

Critics contend that subsidies for farmers in wealthy nations are hurting farmers in poor countries by stifling competition. Butler,

food agencies, Gaddi H. Vasquez, predicted in an interview that the summit would be a "critical first step in a global conversation on issues related to food security that will continue beyond the summit," including at this summer's G-8 in Japan.

But on Monday, several participants indicated they wouldn't even be talking to each other.

Australia's foreign minister decried as "obscene" Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's participation in the summit. The longtime African leader has presided over the collapse of his former breadbasket nation into an agricultural basket case.

The Dutch ministry for overseas development pledged to "ignore" Mugabe during the summit.

Schafer, asked about the presence of the Zimbabwean and Iranian leaders, told reporters in Rome that the two were welcome to attend the summit, but that US delegates would not be meeting with them. Jewish leaders and some Italian politicians were among those denouncing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's attendance at the meeting. On Monday, Ahmadinejad said Israel, which is also taking part in the summit, "has reached the end of its function and will soon disappear off the geographical domain."

Ahmadinejad was scheduled to speak to the summit in early afternoon and give a news conference a few hours later.

EU sanctions against Mugabe because of Zimbabwe's poor human rights record forbid him from setting foot in the bloc's 27 nations, but those restrictions don't apply to UN forums. Rome AP

UN Chief Ban Ki-moon

GE ecomagination sparks innovation in Turkey TEOMAN KIRAÇ ÝSTANBUL

that ecomagination had increased its product portfolio from 17 products in 2005 to 60 products.

Kürþat held a press conference Tuesday morning in Ýstanbul to share the latest ecomagination financial figures. Kürþat discussed GE's commitments to Turkey and addressed the country's key environmental issues, indicating that the three biggest environmental concerns for GE Turkey were shortages of electricity, water and natural gas. He expressed confidence, however, that a strong relationship between GE and Turkey would help alleviate environmental problems and shortages. Kürþat also emphasized that a combination of incre-

General Electric (GE) has increased funding for research and found a niche for unique product development that is more efficient and marketable in its third and most intensified year of ecomagination, GE's aggressive environmental initiative aimed at reducing waste and focusing on energy and electricity conservation while cutting carbon emissions.

In the past year GE saw $14 billion in turnover on environmentally friendly products. GE Turkey Manager Özkan Kürþat said they had increased their annual revenue target for ecomagination from the current $20 billion to $25 billion for 2010. He added

mental change in infrastructure and technology investment was key to Turkey's success.

As for the current directions Turkey is taking for a future of greener living, Kürþat said wind power in Turkey would be one of the most rewarding energy infrastructures, speculating that new GE turbines and hybrid technology would be invaluable and certainly a direction Turkey should pursue.

Nuclear energy and desalination technologies, according to Kürþat, are technologies not as cost effective now but certainly worthy prospects. "Every couple of years these technologies advance and become more feasible, but the training process be-

comes complicated. The need now is to openly share these technologies and allow research to play its role," he said.

The five commitments for GE ecomagination are to increase revenue, double R&D to $1.5 billion by 2010, reduce greenhouse emissions and improve the energy efficiency of GE operations, reduce water use by 20 percent by 2012, improve water usage and keep the public informed of new cost-efficient technologies.

Kürþat also said that utilizing grey water more efficiently in Turkey, especially in Ýstanbul, would be a worthwhile means to curb water consumption as summer begins to see water cuts.

Britain's treasury announced Monday that it favored wading into the world of Islamic finance, saying it wanted to eventually raise some 2 billion pounds ($4 million) through Shariah-compliant bonds. But it warned that some obstacles would still have to be overcome before the government made a final decision on the matter. The British government has been looking for ways to tap into the market for Islamic finance, whose rapid expansion has been driven by soaring energy revenues in the Persian Gulf and Muslims' preference for the growing range investment products allowed under the Shariah, an Islamic code of law drawn from the Quran and other sources. London -- already home to the largest Islamic finance market in the Western world -- is particularly interested in consolidating its head-start in the area. Economic Secretary Kitty Ussher said the British Treasury was leaning toward the idea of issuing sukuk, or Islamic bonds, through the government's conventional bill program.

Normal bonds pay interest and are therefore forbidden

by Shariah, which condemns usury. But sukuk work like investment certificates, giving buyers a proportional share of an underlying physical asset, such as leased land, as well as the income that it generates. London AP

TECHNOLOGY

Apple iPhone encore expected next week June has arrived and for Apple Inc fans and investors that means just one thing -- a new iPhone. The encore to the original iPhone, which launched nearly a year ago amid unprecedented industry buzz, is widely expected to be the main attraction when Chief Executive Steve Jobs takes the stage at Apple's developers' conference next Monday. The new iPhone will be accompanied by support for corporate e-mail and a slate of new programs that could help boost sales of the devices, which sport a touchsensitive screen, wireless Internet access and iPodstyle media functions. The thing for Apple is to be able to leverage the iPhone for further innovation, or they run the risk of being the next (Motorola) RAZR, which was iconic in its own way, but for which innovation did not come fast enough, Shiv Bakhshi, director of mobility research for market research firm IDC. Apple has declined to comment on what Jobs will announce, but analysts are betting he will show off a long-rumored phone running on a so-called 3G, or third-generation, network. San Francisco Reuters

DISSENT

Lorries, taxis block Paris motorway in fuel protest Dozens of lorries and taxis blocked a motorway leading into Paris's main financial district on Tuesday in a protest against high fuel prices. Hundreds of farmers also blocked the largest oil depot in France's second city Lyon and truckers continued to blockade an oil refinery near the Mediterranean port city of Marseille.

Fishermen, truckers and farmers have staged numerous protests over the past month to try to pressure the government into helping them after oil costs doubled in a year. President Nicolas Sarkozy has offered some aid, especially to the fishing industry, but his room for manoeuvre is limited by the European Union which is opposed to targeted state subsidies or cuts in fuel tax.

Around 60 lorry and taxi drivers brought morning rush hour traffic in Paris to a standstill on a major route leading to the La Defense business district, which houses the headquarters of French oil giant Total. "We wanted to make the public and government really aware of the extremely critical situation faced by the haulage industry," said Gilles Mathelie-Guinlet, head of the OTRE truckers group. Paris Reuters

MEETING Daily Monthly Change (%) Change (%)

Close

Yearly Change (%)

YTD Change (%)

MCAP (million YTL)

1-Y Av.Volum

Country

İMKB-100

40.452

0,8%

-6,8%

-13,0%

-27,2%

205.707

1.297

Hang Seng

İMKB-30

49.218

0,9%

-9,0%

-14,8%

-30,1%

146.777

993

Nikkei 225

İMKB-IND

35.574

1,0%

-3,7%

-6,0%

-12,3%

72.328

356

Cac 40

İMKB-BANK

74.679

0,6%

-11,9%

-19,2%

-37,8%

77.013

698

DAX

DJIMT

10,95

1,4%

-3,1%

-1,8%

-7,6%

110

0,55

FTSE 100

CALENDAR

AT A GLAN

CE

June 4 forecasts ment prior index of e Announce Confidenc actual Con. PER 1 RE Britain CO of Euro Retail sales r PMI of Germany, cto Service se d Euro Britain an ufacturing index of an ISM nonm USA 2 COREPER

TurkDEX US$/JP¥ EU€/JP¥

NASDAQ 50.000 1,238

S&P

1,68% -0,24%

BOVESPA

IDB governors to fight global food crisis

Level

H.Kong

-1,83

24.375,8

Japan

-1,60

14.209,2

France

0,82

4.975,8

0,02

7.010,2

Germany

Dow

Change (%)

UK

0,28

6.024,7

USA

0,26

12.540,0

USA

0,48

USA

0,19

1.388,4

Brasil

-1,70

70.677,9

70.20 57.33

51.1 42.67 29.80

21,7 7.09

9.52

Native

Foreign

2.016,4 Number of Shares

Native

M.cap

Daily Close Change (%)

Foreign

Number of Shares

Monthly Change (%)

Yearly Change (%)

M.cap

Ticker

Price

Daily Change (%)

Ticker

Volumes

US$/JP¥

105,2

126,34

126,34

126,34

PEGYO

1,42

-14,46%

GARAN

176,3

5,7

-45,71

YTL / €

1,910

0,8%

-1,9%

8,8%

EU/JP¥

162,65

878,00

878,00

878,00

TAVHL

10,00

-4,76%

ISCTR

108,3

5,2

-26,75

YTL / $

1,225

0,4%

-2,7%

-6,3%

EU/US$

1,5457

Ticker

Price (YTL) Daily Change (%)

Price (YTL) Yearly Change (%)

3,58

CIMSA

5,00

-3,85%

DOHOL

105,4

1,6

-28,83

DOHOL

1,58

6,76%

GLYHO

0,92

-3,16%

HURGZ

54,5

2,1

-41,99

ANHYT

4,36

6,34%

DGGYO

1,03

-2,83%

IHEVA

53,4

3,1

12,41

3,58

3,58

ÝMKB 100

ÝMKB 30

ÝMKB IND

P.CHEM.

TUPRS

PTOFS

PETKM

AYGAZ

--

--

11.760,5

6.235,4

2.410,0

1.195,2

863,7

12,8x

12,6x

11,9x

8,0x

9,3x

12,8x

25,2x

3,0x

P/E 2007/06t

8,9x

11,4x

11,0x

5,7x

6,9x

9,4x

13,2x

1,5x

P/E 2007/09t EV/EBITDA 2006/12

8,4x 8,2x

8,5x 8,4x

8,7x 7,7x

6,0x 6,6x

6,9x 7,3x

8,9x 5,4x

13,2x 6,7x

1,5x 5,2x

EV/EBITDA 2007/03t

7,6x

7,6x

6,9x

6,1x

6,2x

5,1x

5,0x

5,6x

EV/EBITDA 2007/06t

8,4x

7,1x

7,0x

6,3x

6,4x

5,2x

5,3x

6,1x

Mcap YTL

--

P/E 2006/12

CM Y K

Price ($) Light C. Oil Gold Copper

126,34 878,00 3,58

Way

Change (%) 126,34 878,00 3,58

High 126,34 878,00 3,58

Low 126,34 878,00 3,58

P/E: Share price divided by earnings per share is a measure of the price paid for a share relative to the income or profit earned by the firm per share.

EV/EBITDA: Enterprise value divided by earnings before interest, tax and amortization; “t” stands for trailer and means the data over the last four quarters. (*) Yesterday's closing (**) Updated at 6 p.m. by GMT+2 Disclaimer: The information in this report has been prepared by BMD, Bizim Securities from sources believed to be reliable. All the information, interpretations and recommendations covered herein relating to investment actions are not within the scope of investment consultancy. Therefore investment decisions based only on the information covered herein may not bring expected results.

The 33rd meeting of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) governors began yesterday; the governors plan to discuss current global problems and ways to improve the social and economic development of IDB member countries. The sessions, opened by Saudi King Abdullah in Jeddah, will conclude today.

Addressing the audience at the beginning of the meeting, IDB President Ahmed Mohamed Ali said the world is facing various crises in this century including food, petroleum and funding reconstruction projects and added that the IDB has supplied $2.07 billion in standby loans to various projects and $5.5 billion for commercial and other types of projects.

"We decided to support more projects in 2008 compared to previous years. Our executive board stressed the universal food problem at its meeting a few days ago. We will work on it and take precautions against it. Many countries have been affected by famine, particularly in Africa. We need to produce solutions," he said. A delegation led by Treasury Undersecretary Ýbrahim Çanakçý is representing Turkey at the meetings. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires

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Lake Van and its hinterland are the highlight of any visit to Turkey's East. Set at an altitude of 1,750 meters, ringed by rugged, snow-capped peaks, blessed with a wealth of unusual historical sites and home to some rare and beautiful wildflowers, it is easy to see why the ancient Armenians said of the region and its 4,000 square kilometer alkaline lake "Van in this world, paradise in the next." Few visitors, however, stay long enough to fully explore the lake and its environs. Most visit the southern shore and make a fleeting visit to the wonderful Armenian Church of the Holy Cross on the island of Akdamar, or explore the Urartian citadel just outside the city of Van on the lake's eastern shore. But the northern shore, east of (admittedly uninspiring) Tatvan and west of the equally dull town of Ercis, is if anything even more spectacular and dramatic than the lake's picturesque southern shore.

So what is there to see? First off is the dramatic volcanic peak of 3,050-meter-high Mt. Nemrut (no, not the one with the colossal heads on, that's further west near Adýyaman) around 15 kilometers north of Tatvan. The eruption of this peak some 6,000 years ago blew the top off the mountain -- and at least some of this debris landed right on top of a natural funnel where the westward flowing river exited a wide basin into the narrows of the Bitlis gorge. Thus a natural "dam" was formed -- leading to the creation of beautiful Lake Van. As a bonus the eruption resulted in two lakes forming in the caldera of the volcano. It is possible to visit the seven kilometer diameter crater either with your own vehicle or by taxi or minibus from Tatvan as a dirt road snakes its way up the north side of the mountain -- but be warned, as late as early summer (especially after a harsh winter) the dirt road becomes treacherously boggy with snow-melt. Snow-filled in winter and early spring, the crater is vividly green in spring, with beech, aspen and juniper trees in abundance -- plus reeds fringing the lakes. Many migrating birds stop-off here in spring including stilts, ducks, herons and the scarce black velvet scoter. You can swim in the warm waters of Sýcakgöl (hot lake) or even, in the heat of August, those of Soðukgöl (cold lake) in the western part of the crater. On your way up or down from the crater, look out for the black goat-hair tents of transhumant Kurdish families grazing their flocks on the apparently barren volcanic slopes of the peak.

Assuming you have your own transport, it's possible to exit the crater via the eastern rim and follow a tortuous dirt road down to the shore of Lake Van not far from the lakeside town of Ahlat. Spread amongst the sprawl of the modern town of Ahlat is a site every bit as distinctive as Akdamar -- a vast cemetery going back to the time of the Seljuk Turks. Here, dating from between the 11th and 16th

Travel tips How to get here and travel around: Nearest airport: Van. Regular flights from Ankara, Ýstanbul and Antalya. Intercity buses from most major towns to either Tatvan or Van, or by train (3 weekly) from Ýstanbul. Both Hertz and Avis have agents in Van. Where to stay: Tatvan: Kardelen Hotel, Tel: (434) 827 9500.

Ahlat: Selçuklu Hotel, Tel: (434) 412 5697. Adilcevaz: Otel Park, Tel: (434) 311 4150.

Van: Tamara, Tel: (432) 214 3296; Merit Hotel, 12km from Van, Tel: (432) 312 3060; www.merithotels.com Admission and opening hours: Ahlat Museum. TuesSun 8 a.m.-noon & 1 p.m.-5 p.m.

Books, maps and Web sites: “The Rough Guide to Turkey,” “Lonely Planet's Trekking in Turkey (0/P),” “Kartographischen Verlag Reinhard Ryborsch map series No: 6.”

centuries, are literally hundreds of finely carved headstones sticking-out from flower-strewn graveyards. The tombstones, some tilted at improbable angles, are beautifully aged and covered with flowing calligraphic Arabic script (mainly in the Persian and Arab languages) and liberally splotched with green-grey lichen. Visit at sunset, with the incised inscriptions thrown into vivid relief and the tombstones throwing a patchwork of ever-lengthening shadows across the parched yellow grass, for best effect. A small but well-laid out museum holds a number of fascinating artifacts from the Urartian era onwards. There are also a number of kümbet tombs, shaped very much like the drum on Akdamar church, with polygonal sides and a conical roof. Up to four bodies could be interred in each tomb, in a semi-underground chamber beneath the main structure (which was used as a prayer hall for the deceased). Some of these tombs were for Mongol chieftains and their relatives, others for Seljuk Turkish or Turcoman notables. There's a decent hotel right on the lake to the east of the town and an excellent restaurant in the center.

An hour east of Ahlat is the charming town of Adilcevaz. There's not a lot to see here, but the town is set amongst lush orchards irrigated by water tumbling down from the slopes of towering 4,058-meter Mt. Suphan, Turkey's third-highest peak a short way north and east. In the hills to the north, a wonderful half-day outing from the town, is the half-collapsed ruin of Skantselorgivank Church. Set on a hilltop but dominated by higher peaks, this once-beautiful medieval Armenian church is built from attractively contrasting black basalt and red sandstone.

Above it are the scant but impressive remains of a once mighty Urartian citadel -- Kefkalesi -- best reached by taxi from Adilcevaz. The town's lakefront hotel is passable and

there are a number of decent restaurants both in town and on the lakeside. A crumbling Seljuk castle, impressively set on a spur extending towards the lake from the mountains behind, makes a great adventure if you are confident on rough terrain -- and the views of the lake and peaks from the top are fantastic. Easier to visit is the diminutive Tuðrul Bey mosque at its foot, a typically Ottoman domed and minareted structure made from the local stone.

To reach the summit of Mt. Suphan you must allow two days and be both fit and experienced. Although not technically difficult, this is a real mountain, with sudden storms a possibility even in the summer and the soft and friable volcanic rock and sand making walking hard going in places. Having said this, there is none of the rigmarole of applying for a permit (necessary to climb the region's other -- and Turkey's highest -- major volcanic peak of Aðrý) and the views from the top over Lake Van and the waves of peaks running all the way south to the Iraqi border, are arguably more impressive. There are even a couple of attractive lakes tucked into the slopes of the peak and two more in the crater itself. For the really hardy, winter ascents are possible and the peak is attracting an increasing number of ski-mountaineers -- but you'll have to be prepared for temperatures of minus 30 degrees!

The town of Ercis is unprepossessing but it does give access to the fascinating village of Ulu Pamir, 30 kilometers to the north. It is hard to believe that you are in Turkey here as the people are Kirghiz, with distinctive Central Asian features and many still sporting the traditional dress of their original homeland -- heelless leather boots and kalpak hats for the men and scarf-topped pillbox hats for the women.

Their journey to these remote highlands (Ulu Pamir is set in a dramatic, green mountain valley which certainly looks like parts of the upland areas in Central Asia) is a story in itself.

Fleeing the conflict in Afghanistan in the late 1970s, they set up home in Pakistan. Unsettled, they appealed to their ethnic kin in Turkey -- and in 1982 the Turkish authorities generously airlifted both them and their livestock to "the homeland" in 1982. Of course Ulu Pamir is not a tourist destination in the normal sense -- there are no hotels or facilities -just the home of this indomitable people (some with felt yurt tents still pitched in their gardens) but each June the village holds a festival. Falconry, horse-riding displays and folk dancing take center stage and visitors are welcomed.

You'd need at least two days (and preferably more) to drive from the city of Van around the lake and visit all the places mentioned here -- not allowing time for walks and climbs of course. But the scenery here rivals that of anywhere in the world for sheer austere beauty -- and an everimproving infrastructure is making it accessible to more and more people -- so get there before the crowds and discover Lake Van's forgotten northern shore for yourself.

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RIDVAN YAVUZ

Lake Van with the Van Castle in the background.

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A Seljuk cemetery in Ahlat

The Akdamar Church

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Lake Van’s forgotten north shore

Seljuk remains in Ahlat

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Historic structures in Tatvan

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10 TODAY’S ZAMAN

W E D N E S D AY, JUNE 4 , 2 0 0 8

CRIME

Russian investigators on Tuesday cleared another detainee in the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and said their overall investigation should wrap up by June 20, prosecutors said in a press statement. Shamil Burayev was released on bail under a signed bond not to leave his registered address after prosecutors said he posed no obstacle to further investigations, the Russian Prosecutor General’s office said. Burayev, a former head of the Achkoi-Martan region of Russia’s breakaway Chechnya province, had been charged with passing Politkovskaya’s address to others involved in the killing. Prosecutors cleared him of that charge on Tuesday. Politkovskaya, a Kremlin critic and lone figure in documenting many of the abuses on both sides of the two Russian wars in Chechnya, was shot dead in 2006 outside her Moscow apartment.

Authorities have yet to try anyone for her killing.

“By June 20 we plan to declare an end to preliminary investigations and present criminal case materials to the plaintiff (Anna Politkovskaya’s son) and then to the accused,” prosecutors said. Moscow Reuters

ACCIDENT

Brother of UAE president dies in air crash The brother of the United Arab Emirates president died when his helicopter crashed into the Gulf overnight, the official WAM news agency said on Tuesday. Sheikh Nasser bin Zayed alNayahan will be buried later on Tuesday, it said.

Officials declined to immediately say what caused the crash or how many people were on the aircraft. Sheikh Nasser did not hold public office and there will be no closure of public or private sector institutions during the three days of official mourning, an official said. Sheikh Nasser was the brother of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nayahan, the president of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi emirate. He was the son of Sheikh Zayed, the Gulf Arab country's first president who is widely regarded as its founding father. Dubai Reuters

er, to stop nuclear work has prompted three rounds of UN sanctions since 2006.

“The Iranian nation has announced a number of times that we are not after nuclear weapons. Everybody knows this and logic also confirms this,” Khamenei said.

The UN nuclear watchdog said in a report last week that Tehran’s alleged research into nuclear warheads was a matter of serious concern and it should provide more information on its missile-related work. The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said on Monday Iran seemed to be holding back information needed to clarify intelligence reports that it researched nuclear bombs in secret and he demanded full disclosure by Tehran.

Iran has rejected the intelligence as baseless, forged or irrelevant. “Today no

US general takes over NATO command ýn Afghanýstan

Afghan President Karzai, right, shakes hand with incoming NATO commander David D. McKiernan.

Afghanistan to oust the Taliban for hosting al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

He takes command during a period of heightened violence and a spiraling opium poppy heroin trade in Afghanistan. More than 8,000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks in the country last year, the most since the 2001 invasion.

But McKiernan will also have more Afghan army troops and police -- about 130,000 -- working alongside ISAF forces than any previous commander.

As a three-star general in 2003, McKiernan commanded the US land

forces during the invasion of Iraq. Around the country, three policemen, a private security guard and at least 10 Taliban were killed in Afghanistan’s latest violence: In the Murja district of Helmand province, Taliban fighters attacked a police patrol Monday and killed one policeman, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal. Police counterattacked, killing eight Taliban.

In the eastern province of Khost, gunmen assassinated a district intelligence Tuesday, said Mujib Rahman, the district chief of Alishar.

In the southern Zabul province, Taliban fighters ambushed a NATO logistics convoy and killed one private security guard, said provincial police chief Saridullah Khan.

US-led coalition forces killed “several” militants during an operation in the Garmser district of Helmand province Monday, the coalition said. Militants attacked the coalition troops while they were searching a compound, and the troops responded with gunfire, mortars and air strikes, killing the militants, the coalition statement said.

US Marines moved into Garmser in early May, and NATO officials say that militants who used to operate there are starting to flee the region.

In Herat province’s Ghoryan district, Taliban attacked a police checkpoint, killing one officer and kidnapping six, said Haji Raouf Ahmadi, police spokesman for western Afghanistan. Kabul AP

SECURITY

Palestinians get new police stations in West Bank Israel gave the Palestinian Authority permission on Tuesday to open three police stations in the northern West Bank as part of a US-backed security campaign meant to ready the Palestinians for statehood. Washington sees the campaign as a chance for Palestinian forces to show they can exert control and rein in militants. A Palestinian police official, Major Mohammed Tayem, said 105 policemen would be stationed in the new stations in three villages near the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. The policemen will be armed with assault rifles and handguns, the official said. "Israel had authorized the opening of some 20 new Palestinian police stations across the occupied West Bank. The three in the Jenin area will officially open on Sunday" Tayem said.

Hundreds of members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces were deployed last month in Jenin, long seen as a militant bastion. Israel has said it will maintain overall security responsibility despite the Palestinian deployment. Jenin Reuters

A day after a bomb attack outside the Danish Embassy, Pakistani investigators questioned residents and tested the residue of the explosives used, while security analysts were divided over the likely motive.

Monday’s suicide car bombing in the capital, Islamabad, followed a relative lull in militant attacks since a new government made up of parties opposed to President Pervez Musharraf came to power after February elections.

Though all those killed were Pakistanis, the blast will heighten concern about the safety of foreigners in Pakistan. One security analyst saw the attack as an open-and-shut case of jihadis fulfilling an open-ended threat to attack the embassy, because of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that Danish newspapers published in late 2005.

“It was to be expected that they would do something or the other,” said Ikram Sehgal, chairman of the Group Four Securicor (G4S) companies in Pakistan. The cartoons, considered blasphemous

by Muslims, sparked deadly protests and attacks on Danish missions. The embassy in Islamabad was temporarily shut in 2006 after protests and it was reported to have received threats.

“Soft vulnerable targets in a porous society like ours, one expects something to happen now and then,” said Sehgal. “These things will keep happening.” The Netherlands Embassy relocated from a nearby residential area to a well-protected hotel last month, because of similar threats leveled after an anti-immigration lawmaker made a film regarded as anti-Muslim. Norway’s embassy, round the corner from the Danish mission, has been closed since the attack. Islamabad Reuters

David D. McKiernan takes command during a period of heightened violence and a spiraling opium poppy heroin trade in Afghanistan. More than 8,000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks in the country last year, the most since the 2001 invasion The American general who led the ground invasion of Iraq took command of the 40-nation NATO-led campaign in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Army Gen. David D. McKiernan took charge of the 51,000-member International Security Assistance Force from Gen. Dan McNeill, who will retire from the US Army after 40 years.

Addressing a change of command ceremony on Tuesday, McKiernan said he was “honored to walk alongside our Afghan brothers.”

“While today marks a transition in commanders, the mission must continue without missing a beat,” he said, listing security, reconstruction and development as the types of support that Afghanistan deserves. “Insurgents, foreign fighters, criminals and others who stand in the way of that mission will be dealt with.”

Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed McKiernan to the country.

“Your task will not be easy,” Karzai warned. “But I’m sure as good a soldier as you are, you will serve it well, together with Afghan officers and the Ministry of Defense.” He asked McKiernan and other military commanders to continue to equip and train Afghan security forces so the country can eventually stand on its own. McKiernan, whose previous assignment was as commander of the US Army in Europe, inherits the largest ISAF force since the international military partnership was created in 2001, shortly after the US-led invasion of

Soldiers carry an Afghan flag, left, and a blue and white flag of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, second left, along with those of NATO’s member countries during the ISAF change of command ceremony at NATO’s headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday.

logical person or officials go after nuclear weapons. The Iranian nation oppose these kind of weapons,” Khamenei said in the speech to mark the 19th anniversary of the death of late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“Nuclear weapons do not bring a nation any power because it cannot be used,” he told the crowd that had gathered at the shrine where Khomeini is buried near the capital Tehran. Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for power plants or, if refined much further, provide material for bombs. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council -the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia -- as well as Germany agreed on their updated offer last month but have yet to present it to Tehran. Tehran Reuters

Deadly Danish Embassy bomb raises concerns

Kennedy faces recovery at hospital before going home for chemotherapy

AP

Politkovskaya casework near end, prosecutors say

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran will not bow to Western pressure and stop its nuclear program, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday. “Iran is not after nuclear weapons. It is after peacefully using nuclear energy ... we will follow this path and ... will reach it,” Khamenei said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

World powers have prepared an enhanced package of trade and other incentives for Iran if it suspends nuclear enrichment, something the Islamic Republic has consistently refused to do.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is expected to travel to Tehran soon to submit the package.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear arms. The refusal of Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil produc-

PHOTOS

INQUIRY

REUTERS

A man in his 30s was being questioned by police on Tuesday after a 15-year-old schoolgirl, who was found stabbed in a lift, became the 16th teenager to die violently in London this year.

Officers found the girl, who has not been named by police, on Monday suffering from multiple stab wounds in the lift of a block of flats near Waterloo Station. Scotland Yard said detectives were keeping an open mind about a motive for the attack but ruled out it being gang-related.

Police said they had arrested the man in the Lambeth area but gave no further details of the suspect. Media reports said the suspect, who has not been named, could have been obsessed with his victim and been stalking her. A police spokesman said on Tuesday he was still in custody and being questioned by detectives. The girl, who was still in her school uniform, was found by a woman and her eight-year-old daughter suffering at least 10 stab wounds to her chest, neck and back, media reports said. A post mortem was due to be staged later. She had lived with her parents and older twin-siblings and had celebrated her birthday at the weekend, newspapers said.

London's ambulance service said on Monday it had dispatched a helicopter and ground ambulance to the scene shortly before 4 p.m. "Sadly, despite extensive efforts to resuscitate the patient, she was pronounced dead at the scene," an ambulance service spokeswoman said. London Reuters

Khamenei: Iran to press ahead with nuke program PHOTO

Man arrested after 15-year-old girl stabbed

WORLD

Telling his wife he feels “like a million bucks,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is recovering from risky surgery that experts said was designed to reduce his brain tumor and give chemotherapy and radiation treatments a chance to work.

The 76-year-old Democratic senator, a brother of late President John F. Kennedy, was expected to stay at the North Carolina hospital for about a week before returning home to Massachusetts for further treatment. In the following days, Kennedy will probably be given drugs to prevent brain swelling and seizures, which are possible complications of the surgery. The senator will also be closely watched for bleeding and blood clots, because strokes are also a risk, though they are uncommon.

“After a brief recuperation, he will begin targeted radiation at Massachusetts General Hospital and chemotherapy treatment,” his doctor, Dr. Allan Friedman, said in a statement following Monday’s procedure. “I hope that everyone will join us in praying for Sen. Kennedy to have an uneventful and robust recovery.” Doctors gave few details about the surgery, and did not say how much was removed. The procedure lasted about 3 1/2 hours.

The sole surviving son of America’s most glamorous and tragic political family was diagnosed last month with a malignant glioma, an often lethal type of brain tumor discovered in about 9,000 Americans a year. Details about Kennedy’s exact type of tumor have not been disclosed, but some cancer specialists have said it is a glioblastoma multiforme -- an especially deadly and tough-to-remove type -- because other kinds are more common in younger people. Cutting a tumor down to size -- or “debulking” it -- is extremely delicate because of the risk of harming healthy brain tissue that governs movement and speech.

But Friedman, who is the top neurosurgeon at Duke and an internationally known tumor surgeon, said Kennedy should not experience any permanent neurological effects. Durham, N. Carolina AP

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RANSOM

Somali hijackers demand $1.1 million for Dutch ship Gunmen holding a Dutch ship in northern Somalia demanded a $1.1 million ransom for the vessel on Tuesday, a day after the UN Security Council gave countries the right to combat piracy off the Somali coastline. The MV Amiya Scan, managed by the Dutch Reider Shipping BV, was hijacked by Somali pirates on May 27 as it made its way to Romania from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. "The pirates holding the Dutch ship demand a ransom of $ 1.1 million while the owners say they are willing to pay $700,000," said a close ally of the pirates who gave his name only as Abdullahi.

The company was not immediately available to comment. "Negotiations are ongoing and the crew are in good health," Abdullahi added about the nine Russian and Filipino crewmembers. Abdullahi said he takes food and other goods to the gunmen who are holed up in Eyl, a fishing town along the Indian Ocean.

Hijackings are common in the chaotic country's un-patrolled waters, where pirates normally treat their hostages well in anticipation of hefty ransoms. Bosasso Reuters

Accusations that students died in the May 12 quake because of shoddy school construction have galvanized anger and grabbed the public’s attention, and also worry the government. President Hu has repeatedly been shown visiting children in makeshift schools Chinese police dragged away hundreds of parents on Tuesday while they were protesting the deaths of their children in poorly constructed schools that collapsed in last month’s earthquake.

The parents, many holding pictures of their dead children, were pulled down the street away from a courthouse in Dujiangyan, a resort city northwest of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. “Why?” some of them yelled. “Tell us something,” they said as black-suited police wearing riot helmets yanked at them. The parents had been kneeling in front of the courthouse yelling, “We want to sue.” Their children attended a high school in Juyuan, near Dujiangyan, where 270 students died. The Southern Metropolis News quoted a rescuer as saying last month that rubble from the school showed that no steel reinforcing bars had been used in construction, only iron wire.

“The parents were here to give their report to the court,” said one police officer who refused to give his name. Calls to local police were not answered on Tuesday. Accusations that students died in the May 12 earthquake because of shoddy school construction have

galvanized anger and grabbed the public’s attention, and also worried the government.

President Hu Jintao and other top leaders have been shown repeatedly on state television visiting children in makeshift schools.

The government says the May 12 earthquake destroyed 7,000 classrooms. Many parents have accused contractors of cutting corners when building the classrooms, resulting in schools that could not withstand the 7.9-magnitude quake. Pictures of collapsed schools surrounded by buildings still standing have fueled anger. Tuesday’s protest happened while Chinese leader Li Changchun, the country’s fifth-ranked ruler, was touring other parts of the city. The official Xinhua News Agency said Li was checking heritage sites damaged in the earthquake.

An official from the foreign affairs office of the local government, Zao Ming, said “this is not a good place to do interviews. ... In a disaster like this, there will be a lot of opinions. The government will solve their problems.” There were several Japanese reporters at the courthouse. One witness who did not want to be identified said the police told the parents “the Japanese are reporting bad things about you.”

Hillary Clinton

‘Hillary Clinton set to concede delegate race to Barack Obama’

An Associated Press reporter and two photographers covering the protest were forcibly dragged up the steps into the courthouse by police trying to prevent them from seeing the demonstration. The confirmed death toll for China’s worst disaster in three decades was raised on Tuesday to 69,107, an increase of about 90 from the previous day, with more than 18,200 people still missing, the government said. The quake also left 5 million people homeless.

Meanwhile, Xinhua said authorities have delayed for two days a bid to divert water from a huge lake formed when the quake sent landslides tumbling into a river in Beichuan in northern Sichuan. Water levels in the lake had been rising steadily and threatened to flood surrounding areas, prompting authorities to evacuate nearly 200,000 people already uprooted by the quake.

But Xinhua said with little rain forecast for the next several days, rescue workers were not likely to start draining off the water until Thursday. The work had been expected to start on Tuesday. Workers have already used heavy earth-moving equipment to dig a runoff channel to remove the water. Dujiangyan AP

EMERGENCY

EU goes on offensive over 112 phone number All European Union states except Bulgaria have fully introduced the pan-EU 112 emergency phone number but most people don't know they can use it everywhere in the 27-nation bloc, a EU official said on Tuesday. Since 1991 EU states have to make the call-free 112 number available across all their territory, the aim being that when any of the bloc's 490 million citizens need emergency help, they know what number to call even outside their home state. EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding unveiled a website to inform citizens about the benefits of 112 as they prepare to head off for their summer holidays. "The main problem is the lack of awareness. Making citizens aware is the responsibility of national administrations. It's not a job well done so far," Reding told a news conference. A survey showed that just over a fifth of people were aware they could use the 112 number outside their home state while only 41 percent knew it was available in their own country. Reding dismissed a British newspaper article that said Britain would be forced to give up its 999 emergency services number in favor of 112. "112 does not replace national emergency numbers. It's an additional number targeted at those travelling to other countries," Reding said. EU states were also urged to increase the number of languages offered with the 112 number. Brussels Reuters

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Chinese police drag away parents protesting bad school construction

AP

International aid groups pressed Myanmar on Tuesday to stop closing cyclone relief camps as southeast Asian experts kicked off a mission to pin down the scale of the devastation a month after the storm. Cyclone Nargis, the world's most deadly natural disaster since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, is officially thought to have left 134,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million destitute. "But many survivors have not yet been reached and Western nations and foreign aid groups complain the relief effort is being hampered by the inflexibility of Myanmar's military rulers. They've had a cyclone but they're not changing the rules. It's business as usual," said one official at an aid agency in Yangon, who asked not to be named. Cumbersome regulations were blocking more vehicles and boats being used to distribute vital aid and even access to satellite communications was being made difficult, the official added. Authorities have pushed ahead with a campaign, condemned by human rights groups and deemed "unacceptable" by the UN, of evictions of displaced people from government shelters. "If populations are on the move all the time, it's very hard to reach them," said Chris Webster, a spokesman for the charity World Vision in Yangon.

Closing the camps, usually clusters of tents around schools or other buildings, meant that growing numbers of displaced were returning to areas where the situation was already bad, said the first aid worker. Yangon Reuters

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Aid groups press Myanmar on camp evictions

Chinese police officers take away parents who lost children to the May 12 quake and kneeled outside the court house in Dujiangyan, southwestern China's Sichuan province, on Tuesday. Parents with pictures of their children who died are demanding justice for corrupt officials.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was due to concede on Tuesday night (early on Wednesday in Turkey) that Barack Obama had the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the United States’ first female president.

Obama was 40 delegates shy of clinching the nomination, but he was widely expected to make up the difference on Tuesday with support from party insiders known as superdelegates and votes in South Dakota and Montana.

Once he reached the magic number of 2,118, Clinton was to acknowledge that he has secured the necessary delegates to be the nominee. The former first lady would stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City. She would pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care.

But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign was over.

Most campaign staff would be let go and would be paid through June 15, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge her plans.

The advisers said Clinton has made a strategic decision to not formally end her campaign, giving her leverage to negotiate with Obama on various matters including a possible vice presidential nomination for her. She also wants to press him on issues he should focus on in the fall, such as health care.

Universal health care, Clinton’s signature issue as first lady in the 1990s, was a point of dispute between Obama and the New York senator during their epic nomination fight. Clinton was at home in Chappaqua, New York, with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and was placing calls to friends and supporters.

On NBC’s “Today Show,” Clinton campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe said that once Obama gets the majority of convention delegates, “I think Hillary Clinton will congratulate him and call him the nominee.”

In a formal statement, the campaign made clear the limits of how far she would go in Tuesday night’s speech. “Senator Clinton will not concede the nomination,” the statement said.

Clinton field hands who worked in key battlegrounds said they were told to stand down, without pay, and await instructions. Speaking not for attribution because they didn’t want to jeopardize their job searches, many said they were peddling resumes, returning to their hometowns or seeking out former employers.

Clinton officials have said they would not contest the seating of Michigan delegates at the convention in Denver this August. The campaign was angry this past weekend when a Democratic National Committee panel awarded Obama delegates it thought Clinton deserved. Washington AP

CONFIRMATION

Israel says remains from Hezbullah belong to soldiers Israel has confirmed that human remains it received from Lebanese militant group Hezbullah this week belonged to five of its soldiers killed in the 2006 Lebanon war. Israel released a Lebanese man who had completed a six-year jail term for spying for Hezbullah on Sunday and expelled him to Lebanon. On the same day, the Iranian-and Syrian-backed group said it had transferred body parts belonging to Israeli soldiers.

Israel said at the time it would inspect the remains.

"This evening ... the IDF updated five bereaved families ... about the results of the soldiers' tissue examinations," an Israeli military source said late on Monday.

Sunday's exchange raised speculation of progress in indirect talks between Israel and Hezbullah over a broader prisoner swap. Lebanese political sources said last week that the talks had made major progress. Four of the five soldiers were air crew members killed when their helicopter was shot down by Hezbullah two days before the end of the 34-day conflict. Jerusalem Reuters

Italian foreign minister rejects criticism of immigration measures

Israeli parliament may vote on early election to replace embattled Olmert

government which have caused concern in Europe Italy’s foreign minister shrugged off the latest that they might foment racism. It proposes to concriticism of draft legislation to make illegal fiscate apartments rented to illegal immigrants, immigration a jailable offense, saying the country speed up expulsions, extend the time they can be would be in good company once it came into law. held and turn some camps for immigrants into deFranco Frattini said illegal immigration was already tention centers. Outgoing United a criminal offence in France, Nations human rights chief Louise Germany, Sweden and the United Arbour criticized the measures on Kingdom. “Should the bill be apMonday, describing them as an exproved, I will be in fine company ample of repression and intolersince the ... (measure) is already in ance. The Vatican also came out force in important countries of the against them. Archbishop Agostino (European) Union,” he said in an Marchetti telling Radio Vaticana interview published on Tuesday in that illegal immigrants should not Il Messaggero newspaper. The be treated as criminals because proposal is part of a package of those who worked were making a measures against illegal immigraFranco Frattini contribution to society. Rome Reuters tion drafted by Silvio Berlusconi’s

tion partner Labor have submitted separate resoThe Israeli parliament may vote on June 18 lutions to dissolve the Knesset, or parliament, eion whether to dissolve itself, forcing an early ther of which could be passed if Olmert’s main election in November that could replace embatcoalition partners voted with the opposition. The tled Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, parliamentary resolution would need 61 lawmakers out of 120, officials said on Tuesday. Olmert has vowed to which could be achieved if Labor stay in office and continue to lead members and fellow coalition his Kadima party unless indicted, partner Shas joined right-wing brushing aside pressure to step Likud and other smaller opposidown over a corruption investition parties. A spokeswoman for gation. He has denied wrongdolawmaker Silvan Shalom, who ing in the case of a New Yorksubmitted the bill on behalf of based financier who testified in Likud, said the Knesset could hold court last week that he gave a preliminary vote as early as June $150,000 to the Israeli leader 18, with subsequent votes by the while he held previous public end of parliament’s summer sespositions. Both opposition party Ehud Olmert sion late in July. Jerusalem Reuters Likud and Olmert’s junior coali-

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Who says ýt’s uncouth?

During a recent national holiday in China, many local tourists visiting the Chinese capital Beijing were instructed on "proper etiquette." Most non-Beijing Chinese resented being told their normal behavior was uncouth. After all, this is how they were raised, so why is it wrong now?

Haven't you heard the Olympics will begin soon? Well, Chinese officials want to impress their international guests. If you have ever worked or studied in an international setting you may have noticed that there are conflicting opinions on what is proper and what is uncouth. It all depends on where you come from. In fact, this can vary within a culture to some degree depending on socio-economic background.

The Chinese were raised to believe that there is nothing wrong with littering or spitting on the street. After all, public spittoons are provided in public places. However, it seems now that China is hosting the Olympics, this behavior has become unacceptable.

Well, it is downright uncouth! Says who? Posters posted in almost every train station, bus stop, hotel and scenic spot instruct local tourists how to behave. This has of course left Chinese adults feeling like little children, reprimanded for bad behavior. Hygiene and etiquette lessons should begin being taught in the home as a child and not by banners, billboards and leaflets hanging throughout the city.

If you can read Turkish you might have noticed the occasional

banners hanging across the main streets of neighborhoods instructing locals how to throw away their garbage. Or maybe you have noticed a billboard in the public toilets illustrating how to use the toilet, how to keep it clean and how to wash your hands. Individuals who do not speak Turkish might assume the pictograms are not for them but instead target the lower educated classes since they are in picture form with very little written instruction.

In some parts of the world, jumping the line, spitting, littering and clearing one's throat loudly in public are normal behavior and not something that is rude. But these same behaviors are considered unacceptable and rude in other parts of the world. Let's consider some rude behavior in the West.

Have you ever noticed how non-English speakers memorize the words of English songs and play popular songs with English lyrics with no clue about what is being sung? I've known some Westerners who have been in shops in Turkey and commented on the music to the shop attendant, informing the person that it is not appropriate music for the setting.

In the West, although some may think swearing is cool, profanity on the job is considered unacceptable. In Hugo Fink's barbershop in Huntingburg, Indiana, he has a sign that reads "Profanity is the effort

CULTURAL CORNER

CHARLOTTE McPHERSON of a feeble mind to express itself forcibly."

Cynthia Lett, the president of the consulting firm Creative Planning International, explains the impact of profanity on other staff in her article "The F Word Means You're Fired!"

Lett points out in order of importance in her article the top 10 UK office etiquette offenses deemed unacceptable by senior managers: 1. Bad hygiene -- smelly breath and dirty clothes, etc.

2. Bad language 3. Bad habits -- flossing teeth with paperclip, picking nose, etc.

4. Wastefulness 5. Not offering to share chores 6. Eating smelly food in the office 7. Eating someone else's food out of the fridge/from their desk 8. Messy desk/office area, littering, etc.

{{ STARTING UP IN TURKEY {{ ABDURRAHMAN BÜYÜKKESKÝN PHOTO

Tacklýng envýronmental ýssues ýn Turkey Raising public environmental awareness tops the agenda of nearly every nation today, and Turkey has also decisively enforced its environmental protection practices in recent years.

It is still not always easy for people in Turkey, disoriented foreigners in particular, to actively protect the environment.

Nevertheless, you can still go to sleep with a clear conscience, because Today's Zaman has collected for you the most important guidelines of environment protection in Turkey, as well as some tips and tricks for an ecologically minded everyday life.

Sure, proper environmental management in Turkey it is still a ways away.

However under the influence of the accession talks with the European Union, a lot of environment legislation has already been harmonized with the Aquis Communitaire, the existing body of EU regulations and practices candidate countries are expected to take over if they want to join the union. This comprises over 200 legal acts covering water and air pollution, management of waste and chemicals, biotechnology, nature protection, industrial pollution and risk management, noise and radiation protection. You can follow the Turkish government's program for the alignment with the acquis, scheduled from 2007-2013, on the Web site of the Turkish Secretariat General for EU Affairs (www.abgs.gov.tr). The PDF-document

you find in the Web site's "Environment" section includes an extensive and systematic table on all respective laws and responsible institutions in this regard.

Furthermore, you can inform yourself about the most Turkish recent efforts related to ecology on the Web site of the Turkish Environment and Forestry Ministry (www.cevreorman.gov.tr). Unfortunately, the site is only available in Turkish. Alternatively, you can visit the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (www.kkgm.gov.tr), the General Directorate of Forestry (www.ogm.gov.tr) and the State Waterworks Authority (DSÝ) (www.dsi.gov.tr) which is the institution responsible for the utilization of all water resources in Turkey. NGOs active in the environmental arena also exist, like the World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org.tr) and the Turkish Foundation for Combating Erosion, for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats (TEMA).

However, before we get lost here in the jungle of abstract laws and regulations, let's get down to the basics and think about what we can do to lead an ecology-minded existence in all aspects of life in Turkey. Today's Zaman spoke with Daniel from Germany, Simon from Sweden and Agata from Poland, all expats living in Turkey, and asked them about their experiences and recommendations.

All agree that it goes without saying that you shouldn't litter; that you should try to minimize use of plastic bags and bottles; and that one should be very careful with using natural resources, especially water.

"Packaging my purchases in thousands of plastic bags at the supermarket's checkout point gnaws at my conscience time and time again," states Daniel. "Same for me," agrees Simon, who says she tries to use rucksacks whenever possible. She used to often forget to bring a bag along from home -- until one day someone told her most of the plastic bags produced in Turkey are extremely harmful to health, especially the black ones.

"Still, I don't know if this is true. At any rate, such a rumor might also help to raise environmental awareness. If it concerns selfhealth, people are more careful," she says.

Avoiding plastic bottles is easy too, the group finds. "Sure, just little drinks in Turkey are sold in glass bottles. But in nearly every neighborhood there is at least one shop selling these big 20-liter water cans with refundable deposits.

They even bring them to your house and still, it costs no more than buying single bottles from the supermarkets. And you can fill up water on your own in a re-usable bottle," Agata states.

But how to save water? The trio shrugs its shoulders. "Simply by using as little as you can," Agata says. Simon recalls once seeing a house on one of the islands close to Istanbul that had a rainwater collection system. "It should be possible to build something like this for city houses as well, shouldn't it? Or simply put an empty bucket on the balcony and use the water for the flowers or to flush the toilet," she adds.

The biggest problem in Turkey, the trio finds, is the lack of possibilities for waste separation. "Paper, glass, organic waste -- throwing everything in the same container is impos-

sible," emphasizes Daniel. So he created his own waste separation system: Collecting the rubbish at home in different bags, he puts them separately in front of the garbage containers on the street. "Istanbul's rubbish collectors are pleased if you do the work for them and they don't have to search in the dirt for papers, metal or even clothes," he says.

Nevertheless, even a cursory Internet search shows that there are more possibilities.

Bugday, for example, is a surprisingly large organization, active across Turkey, advertising an "ecological approach" based on "producing and consuming without damaging the environment." You can check their activities, including ecological farm stays and an e-marketplace, on their Web site, www.bugday.org.

You can purchase almost anything there, from food to clothes to wind generators!

And Simon has another idea, if all that isn't enough. Invited at several marriages over the last year, she learned of a new trend: Instead of accepting gifts, some couples request their wedding guests take part in the "10 Billion Oak Acorns Projects" started in 1998 by TEMA. In cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the organization has already planted 850 million oak acorns to date, with the support of citizens and the private and public sector. The program is to continue until 2023. This way, Simon has become the proud owner of three trees already. "I could even choose which region of Turkey they are planted in, maybe I will visit them one day," she laughs, showing off her official deed of ownership.

NOTE: Today's Zaman intends to provide a lively forum for expatriates living in Turkey. We encourage you to contact us at voice@todayszaman.com and share your experiences, questions and problems in all walks of life for publication in Today's Zaman.

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Note: Charlotte McPherson is the author of “Culture Smart: Turkey, 2005.” Please keep your questions and observations coming: I want to ensure this column is a help to you, Today’s Zaman’s readers. Email: c.mcpherson@todayszaman.com

LEGAL CORNER

Recycling in Turkey is harder than in North America, but it’s still possible to take easy measures, such as choosing paper over plastic, to minimize environmental damage.

KRISTINA KAMP ÝSTANBUL

9. Loud talking 10. Blackberries in meetings Etiquette, in public or at work, is much more than knowing which fork to use or how to greet clients. If you want to avoid offending your local host and any embarrassment, you really should consider learning the skills needed to present yourself as a professional and be taken seriously.

China, like other non-Western nations, is trying to do this -helping its citizens gain the knowledge and experience needed to give them the confidence to perform as international hosts. After all, as Huang Xiaohui, a tour guide with a Beijing-based travel agency, said, "The Olympics are coming, and we don't want to get disgraced."

As an anthropologist, sometimes I have to stop and ask myself, "What is correct behavior?"

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit." -- Aristotle

BERK ÇEKTiR

Annulment of marrýage (2) Last week I received an interesting e-mail from a reader and wrote about this topic on Monday.

Since it is a complex subject, I will touch on this topic again today and conclude next Monday.

Let me continue with some significant conditions necessary to annul a marriage: A marriage may be annulled if a mistake was made. This may be a little difficult to explain and we are talking about a very, very rare scenario, but nevertheless, it does happen. In some very traditional families, the future spouses do not see one another before they get married. They only know one another's name and the rest is arranged by the families. Sometimes there may be misunderstandings and misrepresentations.

For example, one side may believe that the groom will marry the youngest daughter of the bride's family, but the family of the bride is under no such impression (or pretends to not understand). There is a real life story in which the groom was married to the oldest daughter of a family and did not become aware of the situation for a few days. In a scenario such as this one, a mistake was made and the groom was married to someone other than the intended person (in his view). The reverse is certainly also a possibility: The groom might have been presented as a young man, but may in fact be old.

In cases such as this, the wills and intent of the parties do not match and the marriage can be annulled by the court, with the parties going back to their single lives as if no marriage had taken place.

Another valid reason to annul a marriage is if one of the spouses got married while under the influence of drugs, alcohol or suffered mental incompetence such as temporary loss of memory or a temporary decision-making incapacitation.

In this case the marriage may be annulled.

If the spouse has lied or been fraudulent about their past, the marriage can be annulled.

For example, if the bride used to be a prostitute, but told the groom that she was a librarian, the groom may ask for the marriage to be annulled upon finding out that his wife used to be a prostitute.

If one of the spouses was coerced into the marriage by the other spouse or a third party, this also constitutes grounds for the annulment of the marriage. Although rare, one of the spouses may be coerced by the other spouse and their family into the marriage. Although difficult to comprehend why anyone would do this, I did have to give the example.

If one of the spouses has a disease that may endanger the health of the couple's children or the other spouse, this is also cause for annulling the marriage. For instance, if one of the spouses has AIDS but has not informed the other spouse prior to their marriage, this marriage may be annulled. I should note, however, that the courts are reluctant to rule for annulment in these cases.

The final article in this series will come next Monday.

NOTE: Berk Çektir is a licensed attorney at law and available to answer questions on the legal aspects of living in Turkey. Send enquiries to b.cektir@todayszaman.com. The names of the readers are disclosed only upon written approval of the sender.

DISCLAIMER: The information provided here is intended to give basic legal information. You should get legal assistance from a licensed attorney at law while conducting legal transactions and not just rely on the information in this corner.

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CULTURE&ARTS

The Bo Diddley beat will continue on J. FREEDOM DU LAC Mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca

Conductor Rengim Gökmen

Pianist Helene Grimaud

Flautist Emmanuel Pahud

Clarinetist Michel Portal

Classical music for everybody at month-long Ýstanbul festival The physical benefit of listening to classical music will once more be underlined, if not scientifically, with an increased number of delighted Ýstanbulites on the streets of this crammed city this month when the annual Ýstanbul International Music Festival gets under way in only two days.

Organized by the Ýstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (ÝKSV) with support from Borusan Holding under the slogan "Classical music has benefits for everybody," the 36th edition of the festival runs from June 6-30, offering a glittering lineup of over 500 musicians from Turkey and abroad. The festival will feature 22 performances, among them two symphonic concerts, six chamber music concerts, three instrumental recitals, four vocal ensemble concerts, one family concert and an Ottoman and Baroque music concert.

Opening the festival Friday night will be a concert by the Vienna Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra at the historic Haghia Eirene. The award-winning ensemble, under the baton of conductor and founder Claudius Traunfellner, will feature young cellist Benyamin Sönmez as soloist at the concert. The orchestra will take the stage at the same venue the following night for its second performance, featuring Venezuelan-American piano virtuoso Gabriela Montero, who has won praise for her improvisational talent, as soloist.

Other world-class performers scheduled to take stage at the festival include accomplished young German cellist Johannes Moser, who will be performing his first concert in Ýstanbul as part of the festival, accompanied by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. The Kremerata Baltica, billed as one of the world's foremost chamber orchestras, will once again present an impressive program, featuring violinist Gidon Kremer as soloist.

The Ýstanbul Symphony Orchestra will perform an open-air concert titled "Classical Meets Jazz" in the Ýstanbul Archaeology Museum's garden, featuring pianist and composer Leonid Chizhik as soloist.

In the concert titled "3 Pianists, 3 Concerti," Alexander Melnikov, Özgür Aydýn and Muhiddin Dürrüoðlu, accompanied by the Milli Reasürans Orchestra, will interpret three piano concertos. Under the direction of Saim Akçýl, the Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra with harpist Þirin Pancaroðlu will present the premiere of Hasan Uçarsu's "Concerto for Çeng and Harp" in a concert titled "Old World, New World."

Mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca, the rising star of the opera stage, will also be performing in Ýstanbul for the first time, accompanied by

the Borusan Ýstanbul Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Karel Mark Chichon. Austrian mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager, Italian contralto Sara Mingardo, countertenor Andreas Scholl and soprano Hélène Guilmette will be offering the vocal treats of the festival.

In the first of a series called "Festival Encounters," exceptional violinist Laurent Korcia will perform at Topkapý Palace together with pianist Michael Wendeberg and multi-faceted classical and jazz clarinetist Michel Portal. Emmanuel Pahud, one of today's most prominent flautists, will interpret Bach's flute sonatas together with harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock and cellist Jing Zhao.

French pianist Hélène Grimaud, who will be taking the stage at the festival for the first time; Renaud Capuçon, one of the young generation's most accomplished violinists; and Clemens Hagen, a cellist with the Hagen Quartet, will come together to form a trio for this festival. In a concert titled "Dream Garden," the Borusan Quartet, founded in 2005 by members of the Borusan Ýstanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, will join forces for the first time with Hüseyin Sermet, who has established himself as one of Turkey's most prominent pianists.

Pianist Emre Elivar takes part in the festival with a concert titled "Romantic Variations."

German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann will once more visit Ýstanbul to present a program that ranges from Bach to Webern.

Turkish classical music pieces from four centuries ago will be given new life with a special project called "Müsenna," which takes as its point of departure the manuscripts of Ali Ufki -a 17th century musician and composer in the sultan's service at Topkapý Palace. French baroque ensemble La Turchesca and the Ýzmirbased Cevher-i Musiki ensemble will present the project, which connects European baroque music and Ottoman court music of the same period with baroque and traditional folk dances. The Doðuþ Children's Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Rengim Gökmen, is also in the lineup.

The festival venues this year include Topkapý Palace, the Süreyya Opera in Kadýköy, the Ýstanbul Archaeology Museum, the Türker Ýnanoðlu Maslak (TÝM) Show Center, the Haghia Eirene Museum and the Bulgarian church in Fener along the Golden Horn. Ticket prices range from YTL 15 to 300.

For a detailed program, visit www.iksv.org /muzik/english/index.asp. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman

CONCERT

EXHIBITION

Komitas String Quartet set for Ýstanbul performance

Shepherd painter marks 45th year of artistic career

The Komitas Quartet, which claims to be the oldest string quartet in the world with a history of over 80 years, will perform a concert on June 13 at the Ýstanbul Technical University (ÝTÜ) Maçka campus.

Founded in Moscow in 1924 by four Armenian students of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the quartet today consists of Eduard Tadevosyan, Syuzi Yerits-yan, Aleksandr Kosemyan and Aram Talalyan. Tickets can be purchased at Biletix.com.

Painter Süleyman Þahin, best known by his selfproclaimed nickname, the "Shepherd Painter," celebrates the 45th year of his career with an exhibition that is currently on show at the Denizatý Art Gallery in Ýstanbul's Beyoðlu. The self-taught artist, known for his pastoral paintings in which he depicts the Anatolian countryside, has held over 40 solo exhibitions around Turkey to date. His latest exhibition will remain open until June 18. Tel: (212) 251 6294

FESTIVAL

Three-day rock music festival at Parkorman Ýstanbul's Parkorman from June 20-22 will host the Uni-Rock Open-air Festival. Featuring live gigs by famous rock acts from Turkey and abroad such as Pentagram, Opeth, Testament, Malt, Catafalque, False in Truth and Soul Sacrifice, the festival is particularly aimed at university students, and it also offers a chance to camp for three days at the festival site. The festival will open its doors on June 20 at 10 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at www.biletix.com.

ALBUM

Marc Anthony recording new album with Billy Joel Latin superstar Marc Anthony is currently working on three studio albums. One of them is a new tropical album, the second one includes Spanish ballads and the third one is an English-language pop album on which Anthony is collaborating with the likes of Billy Joel and Babyface, Billboard music magazine said on its Web site. "We are aiming to release them simultaneously by the end of the year," Billboard quoted Anthony as saying.

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A moment of silence for Bo Diddley?

Impossible. One cannot think of Bo Diddley without hearing his calling card: That primal, propulsive "Bo Diddley beat," one of the most easily identifiable -- and oft-imitated -- rhythms in rock-and-roll history. Bomp-abomp-a-bomp. Bomp-bomp.

Diddley died Monday at 79. He worried about his legacy to the very end, fearful that he wouldn't receive proper recognition as one of the true architects of rock-and-roll. He fretted that people might be puzzled by his occasional nickname, the Originator.

"They don't know who I am," he lamented to The Washington Post in late 2006. That might have been a shocking thing to hear from a guitarist and singer who had one of rock's cornerstone rhythms named after him, except that it was a recurring theme: He often argued that he wasn't receiving enough credit for his role in shaping rock -- that a paternity test on the genre would surely find his musical DNA. "Little Richard came two or three years later, along with Elvis Presley," he told the Sydney Morning Herald last year. "In other words, I was the first dude out there."

With no gold albums and just a single Top 40 pop hit ("Say Man"), Diddley never quite reached the broad commercial heights of some of his pioneering counterparts. And yet, among students of the music -- many of whom became superstars themselves -- Diddley's place in the pantheon was never in doubt.

"He was a wonderful, original musician who was an enormous force in music and was a big influence on the Rolling Stones," Mick Jagger said Monday in a statement. "We will never see his like again."

Diddley, who was born in Mississippi, raised in Chicago and based for a seven-year spell (1959 to 1966) in Washington, D.C., was an innovative guitarist whose rhythmic playing and electric-guitar effects -- reverb! tremolo! distortion! -- were particularly influential.

As a lyricist, he could be ribald, adding levity to the nascent rock genre; he was also audaciously boastful, naming his epochal 1955 single after himself. And he had a distinctive look: thick-rimmed glasses; black Stetson; rectangular guitar, forever slung low.

But Diddley's signature was the syncopated rhythm with Afro-Cuban roots and its own American history as the "hambone" and "shave-and-a-haircut / two bits" beats.

"Heyyyyy, Bo Diddley."

Bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp. Bomp-bomp.

"He will forever be known for popularizing one of the foundational rhythms of rock-androll," according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which enshrined Diddley in 1987.

"The most plagiarized rhythm of the 20th century," Rolling Stone magazine called it. Buddy Holly used the Bo Diddley beat on 1957's "Not Fade Away," which became a breakthrough hit for the Rolling Stones when they covered it seven years later. Elvis Presley borrowed the beat for "His Latest Flame." The Who rode the rhythm in "Magic Bus," Bruce Springsteen in "She's the One," U2 in "Desire." "Faith" by George Michael, "I Want Candy" by the Strangeloves, "1969" by the Stooges, "Willie and the Hand Jive" by Johnny Otis -- all propelled by variations of the Bo Diddley beat. Bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp. Bomp-bomp.

Even others went straight to the source: the Woolies and George Thorogood both had hits with Diddley's "Who Do You Love?" and additional Diddley compositions were covered by the Doors, Aerosmith and the Yardbirds, along with the Stones, who had a history with Diddley.

Before they became one of the world's biggest rock bands, the Stones opened for Diddley on a 1963 UK tour with the Everly Brothers. "Watching Bo Diddley was university for me," Keith Richards recently told Rolling Stone. Jagger said Monday that Diddley "was very generous to us in our early years and we learned a lot from him."

A decade ago, Diddley received a lifetime achievement Grammy from the Recording Academy. In a statement Monday, Academy chief Neil Portnow hailed Diddley as one of rock-and-roll's "true pioneers" who "leaves an indelible mark on American music and culture." He added: "The Bo Diddley beat surely will continue on." Bomp-a-bomp-abomp. Bomp-bomp. © The Washington Post, 2008

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BAYHAN

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2008

Turks and Kurds [1]: sad Mesopotamýa ABDÜLBAKÝ ERDOÐMUÞ*

I do not know of any other issue that is so complicated and intricate.

This issue is called the "Southeast question" by some, while others prefer to refer to it as the "ethnic or Kurdish problem." For some, it is an entirely economic and social matter.

Maybe it is possible to propose other definitions. As noted by former commander retired Gen. Necati Özgen: "We have a Southeastern question; but it is not an ethnic problem. It is a social, economic and cultural question; [involving] issues like health, school, groundwork and water."

Yes, you may find all these problems in the Southeast; but are there no such problems in any other parts of Turkey? Undoubtedly, these problems may also be found in Central Anatolia and the Black Sea region, as well. However, it is not possible to talk about an insurgency or rebellion in these regions. So why is this happening in the Southeast? Maybe it is something hidden beneath the notion of the Southeast that we have chosen to overlook or ignore.

Actually, the discussions focus on the definition of the problem. There is no consensus in the discussions about the Kurdish issue because of denial and pressure, whereas there are visible differences in the definitions held by intellectuals, separatist Kurds and Kurdish nationalists.

This, of course, stems from an anti-democratic atmosphere and anti-democratic legal arrangements. The historical perspective plays a great role in our approach to the Kurdish problem. Why is it that the Ottoman state didn't have to deal with such a problem, while the current Turkish state must allocate significant resources to address this serious problem?

Kurds in the War of Independence It is not possible to get sound ideas about the Kurds without understanding OttomanKurdish relations. A brief review of the Ottoman era reveals that there was no problem at all between the Ottoman state and the Kurds in connection with ethnic issues

until the Tanzimat Era. The Kurds remained loyal to the state until the 34th Ottoman sultan, Abdülhamid II. Under an agreement between the Kurds and the state signed in 1516, Kurdistan emerged as an autonomous region subordinate to the central state and governed by local administrations based on a tribal structure. Despite significant changes in this governance structure, the rule maintained by the said agreement persisted through the early 20th century. Some problems emerged in connection with attempts by the Ottoman authorities to centralize administration. As part of its efforts toward modernization, the Ottoman state repealed the autonomy of the Kurdish region and eliminated the local administrations, which had survived for more than three centuries.

With the introduction of the Tanzimat reforms, nationalist movements gained strength. Different ethnic groups started defining themselves as Arabs, Kurds or Turks. They attempted to transform this into the emergence of a national identity.

They assumed they had a right to have a substantial share in the government of the country and the rule over the other ethnic groups in the country. This was the initial factor beneath the division. For instance, the fact that the Ottoman Empire was composed of Turks or that the official language was Turkish had never been a problem for the Kurds who fought in the Ottoman army in the wars in various parts of the Ottoman territories, including the Balkans, Yemen and northern Africa.

The only reason for this voluntary cooperation and loyalty to the Ottoman state was the Muslim identity shared by both groups. The Kurds were not significantly influenced by the nationalist ideas and movements that became prevalent with the advance of nationalism in Europe and the introduction of the Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman state. Despite nationalism's rising influence in the Ottoman state due to the activities of Young Turks, who attracted a few Kurdish intellectuals, mainstream Kurdish population never showed interest in such actions. It would be unfair to blame the Kurds without making reference to these facts. I would

recommend that those who ask "Where did these Kurds come from?" should take a look at the War of Independence.

The period between 1919 and 1922 was when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk attempted to make sure that the Kurdish tribes would take part in the war on the side of Turkish army.

The Kurds supported the Independence War from the beginning. This support continued through the liberation of the country from the enemy occupation. Despite the face that there were demonstrations in various parts of the country, there had been no Kurdish insurgencies -- with the exception of Koçgiri upheaval in 1921 -- until the Sheikh Said insurgency. The Kurds were represented in the first national assembly that convened on April 23, 1920 with about 70 deputies.

Atatürk made frequent references to Islam, considering that the Kurds had remained committed to their Islamic values and precepts for centuries. In return, the Kurds did not consider separation from the country because of their respect for religious leaders and Islam. They did not even consider calling themselves a minority. As a consequence of this, the southern provinces, including Maraþ, Urfa and Antep, were liberated without any substantial support by the central government. In return for this contribution by the Kurds, the central government guaranteed their racial and social rights under the protocols signed following meetings in Amasya on Oct. 29, 1919.

Kurds chose to remain brothers with Turks In telegrams addressed to local opinion leaders, Atatürk noted that the Turks and Kurds would remain brothers as long as strong, honest religious leaders remained influential in the region. The Kurds chose to remain brothers with the Turks in the early 20th century despite the prevalent separatist and nationalist movements in the world. Thus, it should be acknowledged that the responsibility for the current problems lies with the mentality that regards demands for brotherhood and a common fate as separatism.

The Kurds, who were always praised and mentioned next to Turks up until the Lausanne Treaty, became uneasy with the

e.dumanli@todayszaman.com

Never wýthout empathy If we continue approaching the headscarf issue with generalizations it will remain a problem forever because the solution to a problem lies in displaying empathy toward those who suffer from it. If the parties to the problem manage to transcend themselves and try to understand the other side, a positive step can be taken.

Otherwise, the mutual obstinacy will persist and the resulting damage of the conflict will be incurred by those who are somehow victimized, not those who strut around like philosophers.

As we saw in Ayþe Arman's interview with Reyhan Gürtuna, published in the Hürriyet daily on June 1, we have a human being before us, a person who started wearing a headscarf at 17 and who decided to stop wearing it at 47; a woman who started to cover her hair at a young age decided to take her headscarf off after 30 years. It should be an interesting topic for Arman. Hürriyet has been following this closely for a long time. When Gürtuna developed her own way of covering her hair two years ago, she made Hürriyet's headlines. I guess her husband, Ali Müfit Gürtuna, the former mayor of Ýstanbul, plays a key role in the core of this interest. The religious sensitivity of the political tradition in which Mr. Gürtuna entered politics makes Mrs. Gürtuna an even more striking attraction for the media, so much so that one can't help but to adopt a suspicious approach to the subject and ask -- following the lead of certain publications -- "whether Mrs. Gürtuna is being made into a role model?"

Personally, I did not read Mrs. Gürtuna's answers to Arman's masterly, sometimes brief and sometimes trenchant questions by making a generalization, such as the answers given by "a covered lady," "a non-covered lady," or by a "lady who used to be covered and who decided to start exposing her hair." When you view the answers from such a generalized perspective, you confine yourself to stereotypical human categories such as "good," "bad," "bad although s/he was good in the past," or "good although s/he was bad in the past."

We eventually have a personal choice in front of us. The goodness or badness of this choice concerns first and foremost the person who has made it. Making generalizations by turning a blind eye to this reality, creating "ideal types" or making generalizations in the reverse direction and talking about "bad types" is very wrong.

Let's approach the matter from this perspective if you like: Let's suppose that Ali Müfit Gürtuna doesn't hail from a religiously conservative background and that he has always appeared on the political scene as someone from a staunchly secular group; and let's suppose that his wife appears to be representing the same values as him. One day Mrs. Gürtuna changes her style of 30 years and decides to wear the headscarf; who would adopt what sort of attitude toward that? For instance, would "some segments" approach her with a high level of warmth?

Arman achieves this with her own particular way of being sympathetic.

She displays the same attitude during the interviews she has with covered women in the past, and she must even think that both covered and non-covered women somehow pay a heavy price because in fact I remember interviews by her in which she showed empathy to both sides.

How do we create a culture of empathy? Wearing or taking off the headscarf is a decision every woman should be free to make themselves. Those who impose pressure on all the young covered women with the generalization that "they all cover their hair under pressure from their families" are making a mistake. True, families may have requests and demands regarding this issue; however, the system works both ways -- that is, there are families who put pressure on their daughters who want to wear the headscarf.

Eventually, the majority of people decide how they want to dress of their own free will after reaching a certain age. There may be those who stop wearing the headscarf at 47, but there may also be those who start wearing it at the same age. The fundamental mistake here is the strict categorization of people as good or bad through generalizations. This is the problem Turkey has been striving to fix and which has been preventing Turkey from becoming fully free.

We have to accept the country's reality and internalize it. There are non-covered as well as covered female citizens in this country; what's more, some are in the same family, same building and on the same street. If suicide commandos don't come between these people who have achieved empathy and sympathy between themselves, social peace will be the country's greatest dynamic. Let those who don't believe me take a look at Türk Telekom's fabulous commercial. Look at the mothers of the players of our national football team; they were gathered by Telekom, the main sponsor of the national team -- some of them are covered, some are not.

That scene is a reality in Turkey. The story of each individual in that reality is different, and here lies Turkey's richness.

dagistancetinkaya@todayszaman.com.tr

Owner on Behalf of Feza Gazetecilik A.Þ

ALÝ AKBULUT Chief Executive Officer

EKREM DUMANLI Editor-in-Chief

BÜLENT KENEÞ

Ankara Representative Diplomatic News Editor Business News Editor Culture & Arts Editor Features Editor Chief Copy Editor General Manager Chief Marketing Officer Deputy Chief Marketing Officer Brand Marketing Responsible Manager and Representative of the Owner

*Abdülbaki Erdoðmuþ is a retired mufti and a former Diyarbakýr deputy.

EKREM DUMANLI

Daðýstan Çetinkaya

Thýnk tank cafe´ Established on January 16, 2007 NO: 0482 Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Executive Editor Managing Editors

Republican modernization and improper implementation of the nation-state project. The founders of the Turkish Republic were eager to modernize Turkey and make it a modern and Western state.

Actually, modernization and Westernization had already begun with the Tanzimat reforms. A number of institutions, including the army, had already been modernized. However, this project was an integrated endeavor and no serious progress was possible without further reforms. This is the basic difference between the Republican and Ottoman modernization projects. The Ottoman state never interfered with the daily life, traditions or religious beliefs of the local communities, while the Republican state sought to change the entire society with coercive measures. This transformation was envisaged as a rapid change; the society was not offered an adjustment period or, for that matter, any alternatives.

However, the Kurds supported the Republican idea because they viewed it as a pluralist project like the Ottoman Empire. With the emergence of the Republic as a project meant to develop a modern nation-state, Kurds began expressing their dissatisfaction simply because they came to the realization that the pioneers of the new project had kept their real intentions vis-à-vis the Kurds and the religious people hidden throughout the process of the birth of the Republic.

The Kurds have voiced their opposition since then. The failure of the founders to include the Kurdish community in the project of the Republican state, despite their support and contribution to the Independence War, disappointed the Kurds because they had always considered the Turks as real brothers and supporters of Islam. They proved their assertion of brotherhood when they denied the British proposal that promised an independent Kurdish state. However, they felt desperate in the new situation. This was the reason for the Sheik Said Insurgency.

OPINION

ABDULLAH BOZKURT OKAN UDO BASSEY FATMA DEMÝRELLÝ EMRAH ÜLKER KERÝM BALCI YONCA POYRAZ DOÐAN ÝBRAHÝM TÜRKMEN YASEMÝN GÜRKAN PINAR VURUCU HELEN P. BETTS FARUK KARDIÇ YAKUP ÞÝMÞEK BEYTULLAH DEMÝR HAYDAR DURUSOY ALÝ ODABAÞI

Public Relations Contact Information: Publication Type: Periodical, Daily Headquarters: Today’s Zaman, 34194 Yenibosna, ISTANBUL. Phone Number: +90 212 454 1 444 Fax: 0212 454 14 97, Web Address: http://www.todayszaman.com, Printed at: Feza Gazetecilik A.Þ. Tesisleri. Advertisement Phone: +90 212 454 82 47, Fax: +90 212 454 86 33. Today's Zaman abides by the rules of press ethics.

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COLUMNS

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W E D N E S D AY, J U N E 4 , 2 0 0 8

US versus Iran Is the Bush administration still mulling over air strikes against Iran, which it sees as the main impediment to Pax Americana in the Middle East and the Islamic world?

News reports are to that effect. Looking at Iran take defensive precautions, there must be some truth to these reports, and many officials in Washington of the right mindset are reportedly opposing presidential efforts to widen what may be called Gulf War II. About every six months news concerning American preparations for strategic bombing raids against Iran is floated in the US capital. There are two sources of conflict between the two countries. One is Iran's ongoing nuclear program, which the Bush administration accuses of being geared to manufacturing nuclear weapons despite Iranian officials' claims that their nuclear research is aimed at enhancing their civilian energy production capacity.

The second is Iran's involvement in Iraq, labeled a "malignant influence" by Gen. David Petraeus, because Iran's support of insurgents there makes it hard to establish a Pax Americana. Yet none of these factors are conducive to a military confrontation with Iran because this

YAVUZ BAYDAR

DOÐU ERGÝL d.ergil@todayszaman.com

country simply does not directly threaten American security in any significant way.

Reports indicate that there is a blueprint for selective strikes inside Iran that would aim at crippling Iran's ability to do the things that it does today. To put more teeth to just talk, the Bush administration has already sent a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf.

While it seems like President Bush may reach for his gun to fire at Iran at any moment, his short term left in office makes it difficult for him to act. Furthermore, recent US intelligence estimates on Iran have crippled his eagerness when they revealed that Iran's nuclear capability was not threatening enough to go to war over. Yet the classic neoconservative mentality still hangs over the issue.

Before Bush leaves office in eight months the neocons want to seriously deter Iran from achieving nuclear power status. Their passion is further fuelled by the belief that the next president -- most likely a Democrat -- will either be hampered by ideological weakness or there will be too many constraints within his or her party and constituency.

So history calls on them to down this unruly enemy.

That is why the Bush administration has systematically provoked the Iranian regime in order to establish a foundation for an attack against this country. However, Iranian leaders have so far acted in a relatively restrained manner, especially after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad toned down his belligerent rhetoric against the US and Israel.

Nowadays the Bush administration is trying another way to corner Teheran. The US government is doing its best to convince the UN Security Council to tighten sanctions on Iran by frightening reluctant European countries.

US officials are using their diplomatic skills to convince members that if they fail to go ahead with stronger sanctions, Iran will be unstoppable as a formidable security threat and the United States will have to deliver a military

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GUATEMALA, AP

y.baydar@todayszaman.com

AMANDA AKÇAKOCA a.akcakoca@todayszaman.com

Another campaýgn agaýnst Turkey

Messages of deep concern to Condoleezza Rýce It will be a rather pessimistic Foreign Minister Ali Babacan visiting the US. His government is being squeezed tightly by the closure case against his Justice and Development Party (AKP); it is under political siege by non-elected state actors who would very much like to see a "guided" political class rather than one that acts in the spirit of the "elected."

According to a couple of polls, the governing AKP is losing support. It seems to have lost between four and seven percentage points, down now to 40 percent. The interesting trend is that as the parties are also losing support and the Turkish voter in general is exhibiting a weary mood vis-à-vis signs of the impasse of democracy, support for full European Union membership is rising. It is around 62-63 percent, according to a survey by Ankara-based MetroPOLL. Strikingly, around 64 percent of those polled do not appreciate the closure case filed against the AKP. At a very critical juncture, the timetable is on: On June 5, the top court may deliver its verdict on the constitutional amendments to Articles 10 and 42, which deal with "freedom of education."

In the full context laid out here, it is of utmost importance what the message of the US administration, publicly and in the talks with Mr. Babacan, will be.

Senior EU figures have been rather outspoken, clear, persistent and nuanced in their critical assessment of the nature and consequences of the closure case against the AKP (and that against the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party [DTP]). Although they were fiercely attacked by some "democracy-skeptics" in the Turkish media in distorted interpretations, the message of the EU as a whole has been based on the premises of the Copenhagen criteria and the principles on party closures presented by the Venice Commission.

Has the US, then, been "clear enough" in its emphasis on the importance of "first-class democracy" in Turkey? Has the Bush administration been willing to be truly vocal in its support for the EU line on Turkey?

The answer is "no," in boldface.

The US administration approach is swinging wildly back and forth, giving mixed and misleading signals about the developments here. Instead of speaking with more than one clear voice, there is a cacophony, with many understatements and "buts," which in turn encourage all the circles in Turkey that have been working in stiff determination to hit the brakes in political and economic reform, to undermine all efforts to ease tensions with some of Turkey's neighbors, to freeze the ongoing negotiations with the EU, to turn the strategic focus away from the US and EU, and to go back to a model of authoritarianism reasserted by the old model of bureaucratic-juristic tutelage.

If the voices against democracy and reform are louder in Turkey today, it is the undecided stance of Washington, D.C., that is to blame. The argument of "we don't take sides, it is an internal debate" does not hold. The US should side with democracy, full stop.

The senior EU figures who have been fiercely targeted in some parts of the Turkish press are aware of the vacuum created by the US and have voiced concern. The minimum expectation is that the Bush administration declare in clear terms that they "support the EU stance regarding the importance of the democratic process, the future of negotiations and possible consequences of party closures." Unless this happens, the prospect of internal tension and instability will only be stronger.

Moreover, the reluctance to stand clearly by democracy may put even more kerosene on the fire of anti-Americanism and trigger further mistrust of Europe and the West in general. Losing Turkey is an option.But Turkey is not just another ally for the West. It is the key ally, whose process of transition to first-class democracy, however painful it may be, will define the future of world stability.

Recently, some prominent EU ministers boldly and "in great lucidity" told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice what their concerns were and their expectations "in speaking and acting in unity" regarding Turkey. These private talks should help, hopefully. Babacan is also expected to raise the issue, asking for clarity in the US position.

Rice must have gotten the message that came from various directions. It is understandable that US is turning inward due to the upcoming elections. But in such an atmosphere, one should not lose focus on a key ally. Many answers, therefore, depend on the content of the messages by Rice, and, one hopes, from Vice President Dick Cheney.

attack on Iranian targets on behalf of the "civilized world."

Fortunately, both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are opposed to military action at this time. They both know that even limited air strikes would immediately bring about an escalation by the Iranians, who have declared they would do so in the presence of an American target.

Proving to be a man of reason, Gates delivered a speech to retired diplomats recently where he questioned the Bush team for their neglect of diplomatic initiatives to engage Iran to work jointly for the stabilization of Iraq.

He noted that there had been "missed opportunities" of working with Iran when it had a reformist president in office (in 2004).

In the middle of this uncertainty, Britain's The Independent revealed in its April 14 issue that there have been multiple informal sessions for the exchange of opinions between various Iranians and Americans (mostly former officials and academics) in the last few years. Will these pave the way to open talks between the two countries' diplomats in a Democratic administration? Don't we all hope so?

France, country of ýnventýons BERÝL DEDEOÐLU b.dedeoglu@todayszaman.com

France's Turkey policy necessitates a high level of creativity. In this context, several inventions have been developed to sustain an attitude of "anything but Turkey's EU membership." Thus Turkey has become a factor to test France's intellectual capacity.

France's first invention was to offer Ankara privileged partnership status, the substance of which nobody seems to know. Moreover, this is not a category that exists within the current EU structures or that is compatible with EU ethics. As such a bizarre status couldn't be proposed officially by the EU, certain people hoped that Turkey would accept it by itself.

However, Turkey has categorically refused even to discuss this unethical proposition.

Then, the second invention was put forward, i.e. the Mediterranean Union. France has proposed the establishment of a union of Mediterranean states, granting Turkey the pivotal country role. The purpose of this bright idea was to convince Turkey that the Mediterranean Union is better than the EU. Turkey never understood why it should renounce EU membership for the sake of this strange organization, and it has refused to view it as an alternative to its official EU candidate status. Furthermore, other EU members have also become suspicious of France's real intentions. After a long quarrel, the Mediterranean Union became the Union for the Mediterranean, and every involved actor affirmed that it cannot and will not be used to replace Turkey's EU full membership.

The third invention was to remove the words "membership" and "accession" from EU official documents about Turkey. In other words, France has already asked the EU to

CM Y K

adopt a negative stance on Turkey's membership while the latter engages in negotiations as a candidate country. The idea was to give Turkey's candidacy dubious status, expecting Turkey to negotiate without knowing the final objective of negotiations. As expected, Turkey strongly opposed this stance and many EU member countries have declared that this inappropriate attitude was unworthy of the EU. Hence the fourth invention was announced -- to transfer the authority of the final decision on Turkey's membership from Brussels to Paris. Thus even if all other EU member states approve Turkey's full membership, the verdict will come from French voters.

Under current laws France has to organize referendums for every future enlargement, but Paris doesn't want to risk Croatia's or Kosovo's future membership.

In brief, French decision makers don't want their nation to refuse everybody, just specific ones. As they cannot give country names, they search objectivelooking criteria that would differentiate Turkey from Bosnia, Croatia or Kosovo. They can't call this criteria "religion" because that would be shameful for secular France, nor "culture" because that would be racist.

They can't determine a geographical limit either because in that case they would face interrogations about Cyprus. Finally they have noticed that Turkey is a populous country and thus they have said "population." Countries with populations larger than 5 percent of the EU population will have to make it past the referendum if they want to become an EU member. This means that decisions about countries with less than 20 million inhabitants will be made by the politicians, and for the rest the French people will be consulted. So, the solution is simple for France: head counting. Maybe the next invention will be about the shape and the diameter of people's skulls. It's obvious that there are politicians in France eager to "protect" their country from crowded "eastern nations." One wonders when the French people will get fed up with the scare tactics of these politicians.

As I was walking into work earlier this week I noticed an announcement for a meeting taking place on the Kurds and international law in the same building as my office. Being an inquisitive person and keen to hear new developments on Kurdishrelated issues I decided to gatecrash and quietly took a place at the back of the room.

In a very short time it became clear that it was something of a lobbying effort for the removal of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from the EU terrorist list. There was a panel made up of four academics -one Kurdish woman, Widad Akrawi from Denmark, but originally from northern Iraq; a German, a Swede and an American. These four presented facts to support their view that the PKK is not a terrorist organization but rather a combatant organization currently carrying out an "armed conflict" with Turkey and acting in accordance with international laws and treaties.

They presented a long list of reasons why the PKK should not be classed as a terrorist group -apparently in line with international humanitarian law -- including: belonging to an organized armed unit or force which forms part of a belligerent party, serving under organized and responsible command, fighting openly on military battlefields, having a fixed and clear distinction from civilian persons (e.g., wearing uniforms that have distinguishing insignias), carry out traditional military operations, carrying arms openly, having military bases and fighting in accordance with the laws and customs of war. I have to say that I was rather surprised by these arguments given that the PKK fighters I have seen never seem to wear any type of uniform, and I would hardly call planting bombs under sun beds or on buses in accordance with the laws of war, never mind the significant number of innocent civilians that have been killed by the PKK. Indeed PKK operatives regularly target areas where there are no Turkish soldiers in sight. It would be hard to define such acts as anything other than terrorism, and I found it hard to believe that well-educated academics were putting their reputations on the line to argue the contrary.

The aim of this campaign is to have the PKK removed from the EU list of recognized terrorist organizations by means of lobbying EU governments and their permanent representations in Brussels, the European Parliament and others with influence as well as by holding such events as this. Needless to say the speakers viewed the move earlier this year by the European Court of Justice to exclude the PKK from the EU's list of terrorist networks as a step in the right direction. However, as EU leaders later clarified, it had been something of a procedural mistake on their part that had led to the court's decision, and the PKK was still very much on the list; there seems very little chance of that changing in the near future.

The speakers, who saw the PKK and Turkey's own Kurdish issue as one and the same, portrayed the EU as only seeing the plight of Turkey's Kurds through Ankara's eyes, with their role being far too weak. They stressed that the EU needs to push Turkey far more vis-à-vis its reform program towards the Kurds, while at the same time the EU should also push Turkey to have face-to-face talks with the PKK. In short the speakers believed that the EU's decision in 2002 to list the PKK as terrorist organization has become a major reason for the continued failure to find a peaceful solution to the problem, given that Turkey continues to refuse to negotiate with terrorists, and asserted that as a result Kurdish people continue to face serious violations of human rights.

I think these people will never be taken seriously, not least because they try to legitimize the actions of the PKK. It is highly unlikely they will find any support in Brussels -- or anywhere else -for such a ludicrous campaign.

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2008

LEISURE

tv guýde

Gregorian Calendar: 4 June 2008 C.E. Hijri Calendar: 30 Jumada al-Awwal 1429 A.H. Hebrew Calendar: 01 Iyyar 5768 calendar@todayszaman.com On this day 91 years ago, Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, Florence Hall, Jean Jules, Herbert B. Swope were the very first persons to be honored with the Pulitzer Prize, an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements and musical composition. It is administered by Columbia University in New York City. The prize was established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. A portion of his bequest was used to establish the university’s school of journalism in 1912.

Today is also International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. In 1983 the United Nations decided to commemorate this day annually to remind people throughout the world that there are many children suffering from different forms of abuse and that there is an urgent need to protect the rights of all children. Each year some 10 million children under the age of five die from preventable diseases and malnutrition and 10,000 children become victims of landmines. Children in 87 countries live among 60 million landmines. There are some 25 million children who are refugees or have been displaced from their homes because of war or aggression.

Today is the national day of Tonga, an independent archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean. Tonga became a British protectorate under the Treaty of Friendship, signed on May 18, 1900, when European settlers and rival Tongan chiefs tried to oust the sec-

movýe guýde

‘La Zona’

88 MINUTES ÝSTANBUL: Niþantaþý Citylife: 11:45 14:15 16:45 19:15 21:45 Fri/Sat: 24:15 Caddebostan AFM: 11:45 14:15 16:45 19:15 21:50 Fri/Sat: 24:20 ANKARA: Cinebonus Panora: 12:00 14:35 17:00 19:25 21:50 Fri/Sat: 24:15 ÝZMÝR: Konak AFM Passtel: 11:45 14:15 16:45 19:15 21:30 ANTALYA: Cinebonus Migros: 11:30 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:30 Fri/Sat: 24:15

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CHIKO

E2

jority of these deaths were not in the square itself but rather in the streets leading to the square.

Today is the Flag Day of Finland. The Flag Day of the Finnish Armed Forces celebrates the birthday of Marshall Carl Gustaf Mannerheim (1867-1951), the commander-in-chief of Finland’s Defense Forces, marshal of Finland and the sixth president of the country.

On this day in 1898 arguably the greatest Turkish wrestler of all time, Koca Yusuf, died in a ship that sank in the Atlantic Ocean. Koca Yusuf (b. 1857) won all his matches in Turkey, Europe and the United States. His first success was to dethrone 27-time Kýrkpýnar Olive Wrestling Championships champion Kel Aliço. He reportedly did not die during the sinking but was instead killed by people in the lifeboat he tried to climb into out of fear that his huge body would sink it.

On this day in 1933 the outstanding representative of the symbolist movement in Turkish literature, poet Ahmed Haþim, passed away. Believed to be born in 1884 in Baghdad, Haþim was influenced by French literature, particularly by Henri de Régnier. His poem “Staircase” is one of the best-known poems ever written in Turkish: Slowly you will ascend these stairs, A bundle of sun-colored leaves on your skirt, And once you look, crying, at the skies...

The waters blanch… as your face pales curtain-like, As evening comes, observe the reddened air...

ond king. Within the British Empire, which posted no higher permanent representative on Tonga than a British Consul (1901-1970), it was part of the British Western Pacific Territories from 1901 until 1952. The Treaty of Friendship and Tonga’s protectorate status ended in 1970 under arrangements established prior to her death by Queen Salote Tupou III. Tonga joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970 and the United Nations in September 1999.

On this day in 1989, the Tiananmen Square protests ended. These were a series of demonstrations led by students, intellectuals and labor activists in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which started on April 15, 1989.

While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants were generally critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and voiced complaints ranging from minor criticisms to calls for full-fledged democracy and the establishment of broader freedoms. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but largescale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which stayed peaceful throughout the protests. In Beijing, the resulting military crackdown on the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or injured. The toll ranges from 200-300 (PRC government figures) to 400-800 by The New York Times and to 2,000-3,000 (Chinese student associations and the Chinese Red Cross), although the PRC government asserts and most independent observers agree that the ma-

By Kerim Balcý

Short story becomes 9/11 novel for Dubus

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Sudoku

AP PHOTO

Andre Dubus, the author of “The Garden of Last Days.” portrayal of a 9/11 hijacker. “That was my biggest concern when I turned this book in,” he said. “Who the hell wants to read about this character?”

Early reviews were good. “His book doesn’t ask you to see the terrorists as brave or cowardly; it forces you to see them simply as men, as human. Ballsy move,” Esquire wrote. The Boston Globe called it “storytelling of the finest kind.” Dubus weaves the stories of several people over the course of one foreboding night just before 9/11 -- a stripper

who takes her child to work, the anxious hijacker, a drunk patron tossed out of the club for touching a dancer and the landlady who was to baby-sit but fell ill.

The son of the late short-fiction writer Andre Dubus, the Massachusetts resident never expected to earn a living writing and his career has taken many unexpected turns. Over the years the 48-year-old took a series of part-time jobs to pay the bills as he wrote: bartender, actor, counselor to criminals, private investigator, bounty hunter. He also dropped out of an academic doctoral program after just a few days and trained to be a boxer.

“It all sounds so wrong but the truth is there is some truth to all of it,” he said. “I was slogging away for ... years,” he said.

“I never expected to make any money writing and to this day I am shocked that someone can make a living dreaming a tale that people want to read. It’s quite a blessing that I never saw coming and I still quite frankly don’t believe it.”

Everything changed for him when talk show host Oprah Winfrey chose “House of Sand and Fog” as her book club pick in late 2000. It sold more than 2 million copies and was made into a hit movie. Next up for Dubus is a series of writing projects -- a book-length essay on masculinity and violence, and completing some novellas before knuckling down on a new novel next year. After tackling 9/11, what’s the topic of his next novel? “I have no idea, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” said Dubus, noting that no matter how many years it takes him to write a book he never utters a word about it to anyone, not even his wife. New York Reuters

Cem Kýzýltuð

Mr. DýploMAT!

481

c.kiziltug@todayszaman.com

HARD

HARD

7

3

6 1 4 9 5 8 7 3 2 2 3 7 1 6 4 8 5 9 8 5 9 2 3 7 4 1 6

1

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7 2 6 3 4 5 1 9 8 5 4 1 8 9 2 6 7 3 3 9 8 7 1 6 2 4 5

4 6

2

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1 6 5 4 2 3 9 8 7 9 8 3 6 7 1 5 2 4 4 7 2 5 8 9 3 6 1

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481

Crossword

2 4

9 8 7

3

4

2

2 5

3

3 6 5

8 1

8

9 1

3 6

7

4

1

4

5

3 9 1 7 6 2 8 5 4 7 8 6 4 9 5 3 2 1 5 4 2 8 3 1 9 6 7 4 7 9 6 2 3 1 8 5 6 1 8 5 7 4 2 9 3 2 3 5 9 1 8 4 7 6 1 5 7 3 8 9 6 4 2 8 6 3 2 4 7 5 1 9 9 2 4 1 5 6 7 3 8

9

2 2

EASY

Yesterday’s Solution

6

3 7

9 2

1

HOW TO PLAY? : The objective of the game is to fill all the blank squares in a game with the correct numbers. There are three very simple constraints to follow. In a 9 by 9 square Sudoku game: Every row of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order Every column of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order Every 3 by 3 subsection of the 9 by 9 square must include all digits 1 through 9

travelers’ s.o.s

EASY

6

4

18:10 Scrubs 18:50 Desperate Housewives 20:00 The King of Queens 20:30 How I Met Your Mother 21:00 Dexter 22:00 Amnesia 24:00 The King of Queens 00:30 How I Met Your Mother 01:00 Dexter 02:00 Amnesia

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TRT Tourýsm Radýo

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Cnbc-e Best-selling novelist Andre Dubus III says he never intended to write a 9/11 novel but instead set out to craft a short story about a stripper. Despite that, Dubus’ new book “The Garden of Last Days” became an epic novel featuring a 9/11 hijacker seeking comfort at a grungy Florida strip club just four days before he would make his dark mark on history in the Sept. 11 attacks.

“This may sound kind of crazy but I honestly was not trying to write about 9/11,” Dubus, best known for his 1999 novel “House of Sand and Fog,” told Reuters in an interview. “But I had an image in my head which I was curious about; I kept seeing cash on a bedroom bureau.”

As he wrote, Dubus realized that image came from reading that some of the 9/11 hijackers spent time in a Florida strip club just days before the attacks. “I was fascinated about that,” he said. “What would it be like to be a woman who had danced for these guys? What’s it like to have some of their blood money in your possession?”

Still, for more than two years as the story developed he resisted allowing the hijacker become a major player in his book before eventually relenting when the story demanded it. So he stopped writing for four months to research Islam, al Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks before returning to writing the book and fleshing out the character he named Bassam.

What started as a short story became a 535-page novel that took 5-1/2 years to write and was published on Monday by W.W. Norton. Now Dubus worries that some Americans may not be ready for a sympathetic

FUNNY GAMES US

6

08:00 Rachael Ray Show 09:00 The O.C. 10:00 The Martha Stewart Show 11:00 The O.C. 12:00 Ellen DeGeneres Show 13:00 Hollyoaks 13:30 Rachael Ray Show 14:30 The Martha Stewart Show 15:30 The O.C. 16:30 Ellen DeGeneres Show 17:30 Hollyoaks 18:00 The Martha Stewart Show 19:00 The O.C. 20:00 Cheers 20:30 Hollyoaks 21:00 Footballers' Wives 22:15 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 23:00 Late Night with Conan O'Brien 24:00 Celebrity Poker 01:00 It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 02:00 Footballers' Wives

Ambulance: 112 Fire: 110 171 Police: 155 156 Maritime: 158 Unknown numbers: 118 Turkish Airlines: 444 0 849, U.S. Embassy: 0312 455 5555 U.S. Consulate: 0212 2513602-3-4 Russian Embassy: 0312 439 2122 Russian Consulate: 0212 244 1693-2610 British Embassy: 0312 455 3344 British Consulate: 0212 293 7540 German Embassy. 0312 455 5100 German Consulate: 0212 334 61 00 French Embassy: 0312 455 4545 French Consulate: 0212 292 4810-11 Indian Embassy: 0312 438 2195 Pakistani Embassy: 0312 427 1410 Austrian Embassy: 0312 419 0431-33 Austrian Consulate: 0212 262 9315 Belgian Embassy: 0312 446 8247 Belgian Consulate: 0212 243 3300 Egyptian Embassy: 0312 426 1026 Egyptian Consulate: 0212 263 6038 Israeli Embassy: 0312 446 3605

CM Y K

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T17-04-06-08.qxd

03.06.2008

19:35

Page 1

CONTINUATION

TODAY’S ZAMAN 17

W E D N E S D AY, J U N E 4 , 2 0 0 8

AP

Turkey set to gain from carbon trading PHOTO

contýnued from page 1 A total of 176 countries are signatory to the protocol, but concerned that its ratification before the completion of large-scale energy investments would lead to serious economic and social problems, Turkey chose not to sign.

Contrary to the beliefs of most Turkish critics of Kyoto, ratifying the protocol, set to expire in 2012, will cost Turkey nothing. "Turkey has no emission reduction obligations, and it will incur none even when it is a party to Kyoto. As such, there will be no cost at all. Turkey will not be obliged to reduce gas emissions until after 2012," said Haluk Özdalga, the chairman of Parliament's Environment Commission.

He also said if Turkey does not ratify the protocol, it will not be able to negotiate effectively in the post-Kyoto era. It is still unclear what obligations countries will assume post2012 and that these will be determined in negotiations to be completed in 2009.

However, REC-Turkey warns that Turkey will not be eligible to join the Kyoto Protocol's flexibility mechanisms even if it signs it and that for the time being emission reduction projects in Turkey can only be pursued through voluntary carbon markets.

"Voluntary markets in Turkey shall be designed so as to support Turkey's negotiations and efforts for the country to be considered a carbon seller country by hosting Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) in the post-2012 period. Moreover, Turkey shall consider a more active role for the government in the voluntary carbon process so that the institutional framework and the process of monitoring, permission and registry issues might evolve into a DNA and registry system in the country in the post-2012 period," an REC-Turkey report stated.

While China received sizable funds through CDMs to promote investments based on reduced carbon emissions, Turkey has been ineligible to receive them. Similarly, Turkey-based carbon certificates remain undervalued in international carbon markets.

Carbon emitting companies offset their pollution by purchasing credits from renewable energy investors, which in turn gain financial backing for their projects; trading is more profitable for countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol.

Businessman and Wind Power and Hydro Power Plants Businessmen's Association

(RESSÝAD) President Ümit Tolga Bilgin said he was the first to start carbon emission trading in Turkey in voluntary markets, but complained of low prices.

"Countries that signed the protocol can ask for at least 5 euros per ton, but it is only about 3 or 4 euros because CDMs and its standards do not apply," Bilgin said.

‘Turkey's ratification of Kyoto is of global importance'

Greece suspended from UN Kyoto carbon trading Greece has been suspended from UN carbon trading in an unprecedented punishment for violating greenhouse gas reporting rules that underpin a fight against global warming, officials said on Tuesday.

A group of legal experts enforcing compliance with the UN's Kyoto Protocol also said it was opening proceedings against Canada for alleged violations of rules on accounting for heat-trapping gases.

"Greece is declared to be in non-compliance," the enforcement branch said in a statement distributed by the Bonnbased UN Climate Change Secretariat, the first such ruling since Kyoto entered into force in 2005.

Athens had failed to maintain a proper national system for recording greenhouse gas emissions, key to ensuring compliance with the protocol seeking to slow temperature rises that could bring more floods, droughts, heat waves and rising seas.

The Kyoto Protocol imposes a cap on emissions of greenhouse gases by some 37 industrialized countries but allows them to meet their targets by paying for emissions cuts elsewhere, such as in the developing

world or former East Bloc nations.

The ruling means that Greece is barred from such offsetting except under one track of emissions trading with former communist countries. Greek companies would still be able to take part in a European Union market for carbon dioxide.

Greece's emissions were running some 26 percent above 1990 levels in 2006, slightly above Greece's Kyoto target of no more than 25 percent above 1990 levels between 2008-12. As a result it has little need to buy offsets.

The enforcement branch also said that Canada had failed to provide a proper registry for greenhouse gases and had missed a Jan. 1, 2007 reporting deadline by more than two months.

The Canadian finding was preliminary and needed further research before any final rulings.

Canada's emissions were 25.3 percent above 1990 levels in 2005, far above a Kyoto target of a 6 percent cut by 2008-12.

Canada has said its target is unachievable, as it develops oil sands which involve high carbon emissions. Oslo, London Reuters

Sibel Sezer Eralp, the president of RECTurkey, said when Turkey ratifies the Kyoto Protocol, it will contribute to developments on the global level in the post-Kyoto era.

"Turkey's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol could even provide a more significant contribution to the international debate than Australia joining the Kyoto in 2007 because Turkey, with its own special circumstances, could bring a clear definition to the still unclear developed/developing countries definitions under the UNFCCC," she said.

As an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) country, Turkey was included in Annex I of the UNFCCC in 1992 and even in Annex II, the list of relatively advanced industrialized countries that have committed themselves to financial and technical transfers to developing countries. Following objections from Turkey, it was eventually removed from Annex II. But as a non-signatory to the original 1997 protocol, it was also not included in Annex B, freeing it from emission reduction commitments. At the end, Turkey was ranked as an "advanced developing country" making it comparable to those of other non-EU developing countries within the OECD. "So Turkey, as a non-EU member country and as a country not in Annex B, but as country which is a member of the OECD, could cooperate with all countries like South Korea and Mexico, falling under the category of 'advanced developing country'," she said.

Turkey's per capita emissions in 2003 amounted to 4.1 tons per year, which was twoand-a-half times lower than average per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the then EU-25 and more than three times less than the average for all Annex I countries. Its potential to rapidly increase its emissions is high, however, because it has a high number of development projects.

PHOTO

contýnued from page 1 As part of the project, 3,780 students from Diyarbakýr will visit Ýstanbul, Çanakkale and Balýkesir. From Antalya, 780 students will come to Diyarbakýr.

At the ceremony to send the first group of students off in Diyarbakýr, Education Minister Hüseyin Çelik said the project would help the students get to know their country better.

"The students participating in the Bridge of Hearts project will see that there exist no such differences as some try to underline. We want a Turkey in which there are no blood feuds, no hatred. The important thing is not only being together, but living together. I don't believe that Diyarbakýr's people want to leave. The cracks in hearts are more dangerous. We should not allow those trying to create divisions in hearts," Çelik said.

He advised to the students not only to visit historical and tourist sites, but to also establish "heart bridges" and permanent relations with their peers in the cities they visit. He added that he was quite pleased with the project.

The students participating in the project and their families share the minister's sentiment. Saliha Taþtan, whose 9th grade daughter, Arzu, is going to Ýstanbul, said it would be the first time Arzu, the oldest of six siblings, will visit Ýstanbul alone.

"She used to go to Adapazarý for work during the holidays," her mother says.

Arzu, like many others in eastern and southeastern Anatolia, is employed as a seasonal agricultural worker as soon as the school year ends. But this summer will be different for her.

There are other students on the ceremony platform whose hearts are little bit broken because they are not among the 100,000 students since their marks are not high enough. Only the very hard-working ones and those students whose economic situation is not good enough to allow visits to

AA

Bridge of Hearts give a warm start from Diyarbakýr

Ankara attempts to evade new import ban crisis with Russia EMÝNE KART, ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA

Days before a new ban goes into effect on imports of Turkish agricultural products to Russia, Turkish officials said they have intensified efforts through senior level contacts with their Russian counterparts to avert a potential crisis in relations which could lead to vast losses for Turkish exporters.

Russia's agricultural regulator Rosselkhoznadzor (Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control Service) said last Friday it would suspend Turkish agricultural imports starting June 7, after high levels of chemical fertilizers were found in certain products. The regulator stated that around 4 million tons of agricultural produce that Turkey exported to Russia in 2008 contained pesticides and nitrate traces in "amounts significantly exceeding the maximum permitted levels set by Russian law."

Foreign Trade Minister Kürþad Tüzmen, speaking with Today's Zaman, sounded optimistic yesterday over averting a probable crisis which could lead to vast losses for Turkish exporters, as the implementation of such a ban would spell the stoppage of large shipments of fruits and vegetables en route to Russia. The issue is being closely followed by the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Ministry, and a Russian delegation composed of related officials and experts will come to Turkey in a few days for talks with their counterparts, Tüzmen said. "We will try to solve the problem together through talks. Similar problems were experienced in the past, and I believe this one will be overcome in a short time as well," Tüzmen added, arguing that Turkey's overall export figures would not be influenced negatively in the event that fruit and vegetable exports to Russia are halted.

Back in the spring of 2005 Turkey's agricultural exports faced a significant loss due to a four-month Russian ban on Turkish fruit and vegetable imports. The ban was imposed after Russian authorities had detected the presence of Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata) larvae on some fruits and vegetables imported from Turkey. Russia informed Turkey of the ban at the end of May 2005.

In 2006 a similar crisis loomed but was overcome without the imposition of an official ban by the Russian side; Russia said tomato, zucchini, lemon and tangerine imports from Turkey during the month of February 2006 were contaminated.

Russian officials, meanwhile, told Today's Zaman that Moscow wants to resolve this recurring problem in relations via the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the issue between the two countries.

"Our officials from the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control Service sent a letter to the Turkish Agricultural and Rural Affairs Ministry on the issue on April 25 through the Turkish Embassy in Moscow. In the letter, we notified the Turkish officials that between January and April, we found elements which are dangerous for human health in a total of 56 units of the imports. We also said in the letter that we wanted to sign a MoU with Turkey and we also presented a draft MoU for our proposal, which is similar to the one that was signed between Russia and the European Union on the same issue," a Russian official, who requested anonymity, told Today's Zaman yesterday.

The letter also notified Turkey of a possible ban on vegetable imports due to be imposed as of June 7 in the event of the Turkish side's failure to take the necessary measures, the same official said, highlighting that the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control Service's announcement last Friday should actually not be a "surprising development" for Turkey.

Ankara deplores France's referendum clause

The 'Bridge of Hearts' project, sponsored by the National Education Ministry and Turkcell, has been launched with a ceremony in Diyarbakýr. The project will send a total 100,000 students from all of Turkey's 81 provinces on trips to provinces other than their own. other cities are benefiting from the project.

When the education minister announced that the students would meet with famous soccer players during the trip, the students cheered excitedly, as other children, some of them not even students, looked on enviously.

"I wish I went to school," one whispered.

In Diyarbakýr, thousands of children work in the streets and are unable to receive a proper education.

But the lucky ones are sharing their dreams: "I want to see the sea; I want to see Parliament in Ankara, too."

The students participating in the program will meet with their peers in the cities they visit. They will be the guests of families but will stay in dormitories of the Education Ministry. In every city they will plant trees and in this way, in every city there will be "Bridge of Hearts" forests. Turkcell is covering the transportation, meal and travel insurance costs for the children.

Turkcell General Director Süreyya Ciliv said that as a company of 50,000 workers, they had given their hearts to this project.

CM Y K

"We want to contribute to the future by helping the children to expand their vision. Some of them even have not ever left their villages before. In this way we want them to develop their hopes," he said.

He added that they would invest in Diyarbakýr and were about to open a call center in the city that will employ many; it was the most applauded remark in his speech.

Ninth-grader Kübra Ece summarized the students' feelings: "We know our beautiful country only from pictures. But now we will see it all with our own eyes."

The Turkish capital has labeled French lawmakers' approval of an amendment to constitutional reforms apparently aiming to block any eventual Turkish membership in the European Union as "odd," while warning Paris over the negative consequences of adoption of the clause by the French Senate on "traditional friendship between the peoples of the two countries."

Under the amendment tabled by deputies from the center-right UMP party, holding a referendum would be obligatory for approving the EU accession of any country whose population exceeds 5 percent of the EU population, which stands at about 500 million.

With its population of 70 million, EU candidate Turkey will be affected by the referendum clause.

The French National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, approved the amendment with a 48-21 vote late on Thursday. The provision, if eventually approved by the Senate and a majority of both houses, will make France the first country in the world whose constitution contains clauses specifically targeting a foreign country.

Turkey is annoyed by the "discriminative approach towards Turkey although accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU began with the common target of full membership and with approval of France too," the Foreign Ministry said yesterday in a written statement.

The statement by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Özügergin came in from of a response to an official question.

"It is inevitable that this kind of discriminative approach will harm our bilateral relations and will also have a negative impact on images of Turkey and France in each country as well as on the traditional friendship between the peoples of the two countries," Özügergin said, expressing Turkey's regret over the hostile attitude of certain French politicians. Ankara Today's Zaman

T18-04-06-08.qxd

03.06.2008

16:01

Page 1

18 TODAY’S ZAMAN

W E D N E S D AY, J U N E 4 , 2 0 0 8

TODAY’S LEARNING TIME

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. ” George Bernard Shaw

OSMAN TURHAN

elementary READING

San Marino

advanced

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Close your eyes and imagine this: You are a tourist in San Marino. It's a beautiful warm day in April. This afternoon, you have some free time. Do you want to take a walk? In one afternoon, you can walk across the whole country!

2. San Marino is very small-only 23 square miles. From east to west, it's no more than 6 miles (9 kilometers).

3. What can you see and hear on your walk? Let's begin at the border between San Marino and Italy. You can see farms on much of the land around you. Some of San Marino's farm products are wheat, olives, and grapes. In the center of the country, you can see a mountain. Its name is Mount Titano. There are nine small towns on the mountain. In these towns, you'll see old stone buildings with red roofs.

4. All around you, people speak Italian. Maybe you'll hear other languages, such as Spanish, German, French, and Japanese. Why? You are not the only visitor to San Marino today. This little country has more than two million visitors each year. No one really knows the number. People come and go freely here.

5. Some people come to learn about its history. They want to see the old buildings and find out about the past. Others come to buy coins and stamps. People all over the world collect the beautiful and unusual stamps of San Marino.

6. If you are tired from your walk then it's time to sit down and have a nice, cool drink or a gelato - an Italian ice cream.

Activity:

Activity: BRIDGE

1. Imagine a. be happy

b. make a picture in your mind

c. believe

b. always

c. just

b. some

c. half

b. the top

c. the outside

b. teach

c. believe

CURB FLAG

2. only a. now

LIGHT PAVEMENT

3. whole a. all

PEDESTRIAN

READING

Eggs As a child, eggs were always enticing objects for me. Our family was fortunate to have a small chicken coop, and I would sit for hours watching the hens lay their eggs. I could never understand how they did it without breaking the shell.

Most of these eggs went inside for my mother's use, but several were allowed to incubate for three weeks under one hen's warm feathers.

My brothers and I sometimes painted the eggs for Easter and school activities. When my parents weren't around, we would have egg fights with the rotten ones. Eggs are great for fighting because they don't hurt when you get hit, but cause quite a mess. As I grew into a teenager, these eggs were sometimes directed at a new target- a passing car. Or at windows on Halloween night.

I never really took to eggs very much as a youngster as far as eating them was concerned.. Scrambled, hard-boiled, over-easy, or sunnyside-up. They all tasted yucky to me. As I grew into a young adult, I learned to appreciate them a bit more as long as they had a couple tasty strips of bacon next to them.

And a small plate of hash browns.

Eggs today are getting a bad reputation. Scientists say they aren't good for your health. You shouldn't eat more than a couple a day. Things are full of cholesterol, they say. They clog your arteries. Heck, my grandfather ate at least 3 a day for 75 years, and never saw a doctor once.

I've always wondered what the difference is between a white egg and a brown egg. My father said that the color depended on the breed, but I never bought that idea. I've seen hens that could lay both colors. Dad also said hens that exercise lay tastier eggs. Somehow I could never picture a group of hens doing aerobics!

When we had a surplus, my mother would sometimes sell the eggs to the neighbors. The Tolan family down the tracks used to buy quite a few. Old Mrs. Beardsley would buy them, but only if we could tell her when they had been laid!

All this talk about eggs has given me a hankering for a couple. For dinner tonight, I'm going to fry some bacon and potatoes, and scramble four eggs with onions and cheese. Oops - better make it three.

Got to watch that cholesterol!

RIVER

4. roof a. the front

ROAD SIGN

5. find out a. learn

STREET

ýntermedýate READING

PART 1: Fill in the blanks with the correct letters.

How to write a good resume You graduated from college five months ago. You've sent your resumé to over 25 businesses, but you have been turned down by most, and haven't heard from the others. Your qualifications are surely good enough. Your transcripts indicated you had graduated in the top 5% of your class. Your references are reliable.

So what is the problem?

Few people realize it, but preparing a short but substantive resume is of utmost importance before you even test the job market. It is the object that will open the door a crack; a good interview will do the rest.

How do you prepare a good resume? There are many resume preparation services available; however, it you don't have the time or money, and prefer to do it on your own, then certain guidelines should be observed.

- Determine the business you want to target. Fill in your background info with the target firmly in mind.

- If you just graduated from college, then a one page resume is enough. Make sure to be concise with the information.

1. transcript _____ a. newspaper b. website c. copy of student's grades d. job application form 2. substantive _____ a. considerable c. faulty 3. to target _____ a. to aim at c. to shoot

- There is no need to include a photograph of yourself unless you are involved in an industry such as theater, motion pictures, etc.

- Don't include personal information such as marital status, children, date of birth, etc., if you are applying for a job in the US. - Your name should be in bold print at the top of the resume. Your contact info should be below it. Don't include your cell phone number.

- Use a summary section to give a brief synopsis of your background.

- Include a bulleted section to showcase past accomplishments. Use action verbs as often as possible.

- Use a font size between 10 and 12 for the body section.

- Don't write in a pompous manner.

- Make sure your resume is honest.

A lie can hurt you later.

- Don't include salary info or references.

These are the basics to a good resume. If you are still unsuccessful with your job pursuits, it may be time to find a good resume writing service.

Activity: Complete the sentences with the adjectives given below. knave

extravagant

heir

rich

careless

miser

clever

liar

generous

selfish

1. Someone who steals a lot is ………………..

2. Someone who inherits money is ……………..

3. Someone who tells lie is ………………..

4. Someone who donates his/her money to charities is …………….

5. Someone who often loses things is ………………

6. Someone who wastes his/her money is ……………..

7. Someone who saves most of his/her money is …………..

8. Someone who earns a lot of money is ……………..

9. Someone who invests most of his/her money is …………….

10. Someone who cares about himself/ herself all the time is ………………..

b. to draw d. to pull

4. concise _____ a. long c. detailed

b. humorous d. short

5. synopsis _____ a. article c. shortened version

b. story d. longer version

6. bulleted _____ a. a large question mark for complex questions b. a single set of quotation marks c. killing with a gun d. a heavy dot for marking sentences or paragraphs 7. to showcase _____ a. to brighten c. to highlight

b. to put on TV d. to hide

8. pompous _____ a. funny c. silly

b. arrogant d. crazy

9. pursuit _____ a. follower c. chase

b. market d. failure

PART 1: Fill in the blanks with the correct letters.

Activity: Choose the best choice to fill in the blanks.

1. enticing _____ a. awful c. tempting

b. mysterious d. frustrating

1. Georgia ___________ quietly out of the house before anyone was awake.

2. coop _____ a. nest c. meat

b. egg d. house

a. crept

b. strode

2. We ________ goodbye as they left. a. waved

b. clapped

3. to incubate is to _____ a. hatch b. break c. grow d. give birth to

3. David ___________ round the town, desperately trying to catch the thief.

4. rotten _____ a. unhealthy c. big

b. healthy d. colorful

a. ambled

5. to take to _____ a. to bring to c. to receive

b. to carry d. to like

6. to scramble ____ a. to chop b. to stir c. to mix up d. to pour 7. yucky ____ a. delicious c. spicy

b. raw d. disgusting

8. to clog ____ a. to break c. to flow

b. to block d. to create

9. to buy _____ a. to purchase c. to prefer with

b. to disagree d. to agree

10. surplus _____ a. few c. excess

b. scarcity d. iota

a. pressing

b. shaking

5. The man ___________ him twice and ran away. a. pointed

b. punched

6. Which button do I need to ______? a. press

b. click

7. He kept ___________ his fingers at the waitress, which was extremely rude. a. clapping

b. clicking

8. Would you like to go for a gentle ___________ round the park? a. stroll

11. hankering _____ a. disease b. disgust c. desire d. need

b. raced

4. Stop ___________ me! I'm already awake.

b. sprint

9. She ___________ carefully down the stairs. a. jogged

b. tiptoed

10. Did you ___________ on the door? a. knock

b. slap

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER KEY:

VOCABULARY Specialized Vocabulary Fashion: Flip-flops (noun) are a kind of flat, backless sandal that consist of simple soles held on the foot by a V-shaped strap that passes between the toes and around either side of the foot, attached to the sole at three points.

I love flip-flops for casual wear in the summer.

Entertainment: Extra (noun) is an actor(s) that fills the background of a shot, making the scene look more realistic.

The chariot race in the film Ben-Hur took over three months to complete, using 8000 extras on the largest film set ever built.

Publishing: Blowup (noun) is a photographic or digital enlargement.

The picture of the family was so good they asked the photographer to produce a blowup to hang in their home.

Technology: Hard drive (noun) is a device for storing information in a fixed location within your computer.

The hard drive is used for storing programs and documents that are not being used.

Architecture: Eaves (noun) the underside of a sloping roof projecting beyond the wall of a building.

We have birds nesting in the eaves.

b. intangible d. invisible

Idiom of the Day Be like a red rag to a bull MEANING: If a statement or an action is like a red rag to a bull, it makes someone very angry.

EXAMPLE: For Claire, the suggestion of a women-only committee was like a red rag to a bull.

Phrasal Verbs: Clog up meaning: block (arteries, pipe, drain, well) When something clogs up, it blocks. example: Some types of weed have to be kept in check so that they don't clog up the pond, leaving the fish little space for swimming.

Put by: meaning: to save (money) when you put something by, you put it in the bank or put away, lay aside. example: Alice thought how she'd scrimped and saved over the years just to have a little money put by for when she retired.

Slang: Dork meaning: strange person example: He is such a dork.

Confusing Words In English: Weak vs Week Weak is an adjective that means fragile or not strong.

For example: Because he was weak, the boy was unable to lift the heavy boxes.

Week is a noun that refers to seven days, Sunday through Saturday.

For example: By the end of this week I will have finished my paper.

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ELEMENTARY: (Part 1) 1. F 2. F 3. F 4. F 5. T (Part 2) 1.large 2. empty 3. scientist 4. land INTERMEDIATE: (Reading Part) 1. d 2. b 3. d 4. c 5. b 6. c 7. a 8. c 9. c 10. a (Activity) translation, explanation, choice, concentration, revision, understanding, improvement, expansion, advertisement, experiment ADVANCED: (Reading Part) 1. a 2. a 3. c 4. b 5. c 6. d 7. d 8. c 9. d 10. c (Activity) 1. promote 2. unique 3. fragile 4. insult 5. inflation 6. indicate 7. trivial 8. illuminated 9. radius 10. bribe

In cooperation with English Time

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SPORTS

Johnson to return Olympic relay gold medal Five-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson will return his final gold medal won in the 2000 Sydney Games 4x400-meter relay after a teammate admitted taking drugs. Antonio Pettigrew testified at the trial of coach Trevor Graham that he had taken banned drugs since the 1996 US trials. London, Reuters

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2008

ICE HOCKEY

Sykora breathes new life into Pens title hopes

CYCLING

PHOTO

The Tour de France will run under the jurisdiction of the French Cycling Federation amid a longstanding row with the sport's governing body, race organizers ASO said on Tuesday. The row between the International Cycling Union (UCI) and big tours organizers such as ASO centers on whether organizers or the UCI have the final say over who rides in their races. “We have asked the FFC (French Cycling Federation) that the Tour is organized under their aegis. The AFLD (French anti-doping agency) will therefore be in charge of the doping tests before and during the race,” Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme told a press conference. In March, ASO decided to organize the weeklong Paris-Nice race in agreement with the teams and the French Federation outside UCI regulations, prompting the sport's governing body to open disciplinary proceedings against FFC president Jean Pitallier for his backing of the event. Prudhomme added on Tuesday that ASO also based their decision on the fact that the UCI had not dropped the disciplinary proceedings against Pitallier. Paris Reuters

REUTERS

Tour de France put under French federation

The Czech Republic

SOCCER

Mourinho rules out buying spree at Inter Jose Mourinho said on Tuesday his arrival at Serie A champions Inter Milan would not spark a bonanza of transfer market spending and that he would buy two or three players. He did not rule out bids for some of his former players at Chelsea, however. “When I read the world's press, it seems like I'm going to work with a squad of 60 players. It's not true,” the coach told a packed news conference at the club's training complex the day after the announcement that he had signed a three-year contract. “I like the players (that we have). They're a beautiful team. I don't need a dramatic change in the team. I think we need two or three players to improve and be more competitive.” Chelsea midfielders Frank Lampard and Michael Essien, defender Ricardo Carvalho and striker Didier Drogba have been linked by media in Britain and Italy to a move to Mourinho's Inter, along with Barcelona duo Deco and Samuel Eto'o, among others. Milan Reuters

completion of the group stage without scoring a goal did not hurt too much.

But the match against Portugal in 2000 was especially bitter, especially after Turkey was reduced to 10 men in the first half. Saturday's game, however, should give the Turks a good start in Group A, according to Aurelio. “It's so important because it's the first game,” said Aurelio, who was born in Brazil but became a Turkish citizen in 2006. “If we beat them, then it will be a great motivation.”

Besides facing the fleet-footed Ronaldo and his teammates, Turkey will also have to cope with the injury to Bayern Munich midfielder Hamit Altintop, who hurt his hamstring while training in Germany on Friday. The German club said he is a “doubtful starter” for the game against Portugal. The Turks have other injury worries as well. Galatasaray’s Servet Cetin, the backbone of Turkey’s team, is still recovering from a groin injury.

But the Turkey coach seemed undaunted.

“If we want to succeed, we must overcome all odds,” he said recently.

Portugal is coached by Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari, who claimed last week that Ronaldo could end the tournament as indisputably the best player in the world. “We know that there might be some doubt over which club he might be playing for next season but I don't expect him to have too many sleepless nights over that during the tournament,” Scolari said. “Instead I expect him to have a great Euro 2008 and prove himself to be the best player in the world.”

This should be a timely warning for Terim and his team. Ronaldo must not be let loose. In other words, he has to be closely marked!

Turkey coach Terim (L) gives instructions to midfielder Emre Belözoðlu during a training session.

Still coached by Karel Bruckner, 68, the Czechs reached the semi-finals of Euro 2004, disappointed with a first-round exit at the World Cup two years ago but stormed through their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, finishing ahead of Germany at the top of their group.

Although midfielders Karel Poborsky and Pavel Nedved have now retired and Tomas Rosicky is out injured, the Czechs probably have the world's best goalkeeper in Petr Cech.

Cech was beaten by a Ronaldo header and then saved his penalty in the Champions League shootout when Manchester United triumphed over Chelsea in Moscow last month, and their meeting in Geneva on June 11 should be fascinating.

The Swiss go into the tournament after a two-year diet of friendlies in which they have won nine of the 19 games they have played since the World Cup. Some of their performances have been abject like the 4-0 home defeat to Germany in March and although coach Koebi Kuhn might be hoping that home advantage will boost his side's chances, it would be a surprise if their involvement continued after their last group match against Portugal on June 15.

PHOTO

just won a Champions League and Premier League double with Manchester United. The 23-year-old winger, who scored 42 goals in all competitions for United last season, will be the key for Portugal, no doubt about it.

Turkey is hoping that the third time will be the charm. The Turks have twice lost to Portugal in the European Championship, first in the group stage at Euro 1996 and then in the quarterfinals four years later. “Turkey indeed lost the previous two times against Portugal but we will play the third game,” Turkey midfielder Mehmet Aurelio said Monday. “We are well prepared and we are here to change the course [of history].”

The Turks considered themselves rookies at Euro ‘96. For the players and the fans at home, just playing in Europe's top football tournament was considered a victory, so

Ronaldo trains after having ankle strapped with ice Cristiano Ronaldo practiced normally with his teammates and appeared injury-free Monday despite having ice wrapped around his ankle after an earlier training session. Ronaldo kicked the ball with both feet and participated in all drills in Portugal's second practice, just hours after trainers taped the ice around his right foot before he left to the dressing room. The measure had been a precaution, however, and the winger looked fine during both sessions. He was not limping and did not appear to be in pain. Amid widespread speculations about his future, the Manchester United player is yet to announce where he will play next season. Ronaldo did not talk to the media on Monday and his teammates brushed off all questions on the subject. Neuchatel AP

AP

Euro 2008 kicks off on Saturday with Turkey taking on Portugal in Group A in Geneva and Switzerland locking horns with the Czech Republic in Basel.

The Turks, second runners-up in the 2002 World Cup, failed to qualify for either Euro 2004 or the World Cup two years ago when a post-match brawl in a playoff against Switzerland in Ýstanbul resulted in sanctions from FIFA. Let bygones be bygones! The Turks take on Switzerland in Basel on June 11 in what is likely to be an equally decisive match -hopefully with a more peaceful outcome.

But before the clash against the Swiss, the Turks have to clear the Portugal hurdle. And to accomplish this, they have to rein in prolific Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo, who has

PHOTO

OKAN UDO BASSEY ÝSTANBUL

AP

Turks aým to change the týde ýn theýr favor agaýnst Portugal

Petr Sykora breathed new life into the Pittsburgh Penguins' Stanley Cup hopes by scoring the winning goal in their triple-overtime victory over the Detroit Red Wings. The goal in the early hours of Tuesday morning gave Pittsburgh a 4-3 victory in the fifth-longest championship game and cut Detroit's lead in the series to 3-2. Game Six is in Pittsburgh today. Veteran Sykora, who won a championship with the New Jersey Devils in 2000, was signed by Pittsburgh to add some experience to a largely young, talented team led by captain Sidney Crosby. “We get to live another day, just another game on Wednesday [today],” Sykora said, adding that the come-from-behind victory would put a lot of pressure on Detroit. Sykora, who scored on his only shot on goal, said he had few good bounces in recent games but had predicted he would score. Detroit Reuters

Czechs arrive at their training base for Euro 2008 When the Czech Republic has arrived at its European Championship base, it was a sort of homecoming. Seefeld, a resort town in the western province of Tirol which is surrounded by the rocky peaks of the Alps, has been a reliable safe haven for Czech teams in the past. The Czechs were based in Seefeld ahead of Euro 2000, and they returned under coach Karel Bruckner when he took over from Josef Chovanec after the Czech Republic failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. “It's an ideal place for us,” Bruckner has said. Ahead of Euro 2004, Bruckner brought the team to Seefeld and the team went on to reach the semifinals in Portugal, losing to eventual champion Greece in extra time. Seefeld, Austria AP

BASKETBALL

Fener Ülker on brink of historic three-peat Game five of the best-of-seven Beko men’s Turkish Basketball League (TBL) returns to Ýstanbul’s Abdi Ýpekçi Sports Arena this evening, with defending champion Fenerbahçe Ülker needing victory to complete a historic three-peat. On Sunday Fenerbahçe Ülker took a 3-1 lead by edging Turk Telekom 94-96 in overtime at Ankara’s Atatürk Sports Arena. A win at home today will give Fener an insurmountable 4-1 league as well as the coveted TBL crown. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman

Live on NTV today 20:00 Fener Ülker - Türk Telekom

Mosley wins confidence vote after scandal

Ivanovic races into French Open semifinals

Motor racing's world governing body gave Max Mosley a strong vote of confidence to remain as president on Tuesday despite his involvement in a lurid scandal.

In a secret ballot at an extraordinary meeting of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) general assembly in Paris, the 68-yearold Briton gained 103 votes to 55 against.

The FIA said there were seven abstentions and four invalid votes. Mosley had ignored calls to quit since March when the tabloid News of the World newspaper published details and photographs of his involvement in what was described as a Nazistyle sado-masochistic orgy with hookers.

An FIA spokesman said Mosley, who has been in office since 1993 and has said that he intends to stand down at the end of his current term in October 2009, would be

When Ana Ivanovic hits an especially good shot, she celebrates with a combination leg-kick fist-pump -- and she's doing it a lot at the French Open.

The No. 2-seeded Ivanovic beat No. 10 Patty Schnyder 6-3, 6-2 Tuesday to become the first semifinalist at Roland Garros.

Ivanovic's opponent on Thursday will be the winner of the later match between No. 3 Jelena Jankovic and unseeded Carla Suarez Navarro.

Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced to the quarterfinals for the third year in a row by completing a victory over Victoria Azarenka, 6-2, 6-3.

Kuznetsova's opponent today will be Kaia Kanepi, who became the first Estonian to reach the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam tournament by beating Petra Kvitova 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

In the other women's quarterfinal today,

making no comment on the outcome.

The FIA president, whose father Oswald was the founder of the pre-World War II British Union of Fascists, has denied any Nazi connotations to the scandal and is taking legal action against the News of the World for invasion of privacy.

His win, while welcomed by some national motorsport associations, triggered a hostile response from FIA member organizations representing millions of the world's ordinary motorists.

It was also expected to receive a frosty reception in Formula One, with some major manufacturers and former champions joining commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone in calling for Mosley to quit.

Germany's ADAC, Europe's biggest Automobile Association, immediately announced that they had frozen their participation in FIA working groups. Paris Reuters

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No. 13-seeded Dinara Safina will try to build on her upset victory Monday against topranked Maria Sharapova. Safina overcame deficits of 5-2 in the second set and 5-2 in the second tiebreaker to win 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Safina will next play No. 7 Elena Dementieva, who won another all-Russian matchup against No. 11 Vera Zvonareva, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.

On the men's side, Fernando Gonzalez has beaten Roger Federer only once in 11 tries entering their quarterfinal match Wednesday -- but that was in their most recent meeting. Also advancing was No. 5 David Ferrer, who improved to 8-1 in five-set matches by beating No. 21 Radek Stepanek 4-6, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. Ferrer's opponent today will be unseeded Gael Monfils, the only French player remaining. He defeated No. 28 Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Paris AP

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Widespread vitamin D deficiency poses risk Many young children do not get enough vitamin D, an often invisible deficiency that can show up later as broken bones or a weakened immune system prone to disease, researchers said. Two out of five US children aged 8 months to 2 years who took part in a 380-patient study at Children’s Hospital Boston had less-than-optimal blood levels of vitamin D. Chicago, Reuters

WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2008

Vaccýne doubles survýval of deadly braýn cancer A cancer vaccine more than doubled the survival time of people with the most common and deadly type of brain tumor, US researchers said on Monday. The vaccine, made by Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc and licensed by drug giant Pfizer Inc, enlists the help of the immune system to attack the tumor. Researchers treated 23 patients with a type of brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme. They have lived, on average, 33 months, said Dr. John Sampson of Duke University, who presented the study at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. "That is almost unheard of," Sampson said in an interview.

"We have one woman who has gone on to have two babies now," Sampson said. Patients given standard therapy alone lived on average 14 months. It also took far longer for tumors to grow back after surgery. In people treated with the vaccine, this so-called time to progression was 16.6 months, more than double the usual six months. Avant shares surged on the news, rising nearly $4 or about 28 percent to $17.98 on Monday. Pfizer dipped slightly to close at $19.18. Glioblastoma multiforme, a serious form of brain tumor of a type known as a glioma, kills half its victims within a year and patients rarely survive more than three years.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy was diagnosed with a malignant glioma

AP

A probiotic drink a day may help keep hay fever away, British researchers said on Tuesday.

A small study showed that probiotic, or "good" bacteria in a daily drink can change the immune system's response to grass pollen, a common cause of allergies, and balance antibodies in a way that may provide relief to people with the condition.

"These data show that probiotic supplements modulate immune responses...and may have the potential to alleviate the severity of symptoms," Claudio Nicoletti and colleagues at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, Britain, reported in the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy.

Probiotics contain live micro-organisms, socalled good bacteria that colonize the intestine. They are sold as supplements but are also found naturally in many fermented foods, including yogurt and certain juices. Humans normally carry several pounds of bacteria in their intestines and they are key to digestion, immune system function and possibly play other beneficial roles. They can also out-compete "bad" bacteria that may cause disease.

"The probiotic strain we tested changed the way the body's immune cells respond to grass pollen," added Kamal Ivory, a researcher who worked on the study. In the study volunteers with a history of seasonal allergies drank a daily milk drink with or without Lactobacillus casei -- a bacteria widely studied for its beneficial properties -- over a fivemonth period. The researchers took blood samples before the grass pollen season, at its peak and after the end of season. They found that people who had been drinking the probiotic drink had lower levels of an antibody that help produce allergy symptoms. At the same, these people also had higher levels of a different antibody, called IgG, that may play a protective role against allergic reactions. London Reuters

PHOTO

Study says ‘good' bacteria may ease hay fever symptoms

last month and the vaccine could be one among several options he might try, Sampson said.

"Kennedy may well be a candidate. We don't know if he is interested at this point," Sampson said in an interview. Kennedy underwent a 3-1/2 hour surgery at Duke in North Carolina on Monday, which his doctor described in a statement as "successful." "In order for Kennedy to qualify for the vaccine, the surgery would need to have removed all of the tumor," Dr. Mark Gilbert of the University

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of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center told reporters at a media briefing. The vaccine targets a mutation of a very common structure known as a receptor on the tumor cells, the epidermal growth factor receptor. This mutation is only found in cancer, not in normal tissues. It occurs in about 30 percent of glioblastomas, Gilbert said. The vaccine is coupled with a chemotherapy drug called temozolomide, sold by Schering-Plough Corp. under the brand name Temodar, which is

thought to boost the immune response. "The immune responses these patients are getting are phenomenal," Sampson said. One of the worries about immune therapies is that the immune system may start attacking itself. So far, that has not happened, Sampson said.

A second study of the vaccine that followed a slightly different design and dosing schedule in 21 patients resulted in a median survival time of 26 months, compared to the typical 15month survival for similar patients who just got standard therapy. Gilbert said the results were promising but "very preliminary." A larger randomized study is currently enrolling patients at 24 sites across the United States.The results have been enough to attract the interest of Pfizer Inc, which in April agreed to pay $50 million for rights to the vaccine in a deal that could eventually be worth more than $400 million to Avant if the drug is approved and certain milestones are reached.

Pfizer, whose stock is at a 10-year low, is in need of a big win. "This is probably one of the biggest if not the biggest immunotherapy deals that has been made," Sampson said. "If this works, I think there will be more investment in vaccines," he said. About 22,000 malignant tumors of the brain or spinal cord will be diagnosed this year in the United States, and about 13,000 people will die from them, according to the American Cancer Society. Chicago Reuters