www.todayszaman.com - June 12, 2008

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Mysterious dinner attended by ex-President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in Ankara arouses curiosity

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Kyrgyzstan mourns the death of author Chingiz Aitmatov

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South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vows new start amid massive anti-US beef protests

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

Politicians look to others for first step against court ruling

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Turkýsh gov’t deals fatal blow to chýld labor

ERCAN YAVUZ / ALÝ ASLAN KILIÇ, ANKARA

Although Turkey has not yet succeeded in completely eliminating child labor, policies and 112 programs working to prevent it have reduced the number of employed children from 2.6 million 12 years ago to 958,000 today AYÞE KARABAT, ANKARA

Power cuts could be much more frequent this summer

As the world marks World Day against Child Labor today, Turkey can stand tall after reducing the number of employed children to 958,000 from 2.6 million within 12 years. The International Labour Organization (ILO) points to Turkey as one of the top three countries among 189 that are struggling to eliminate child labor.

As part of its accession to the European Union

process, Turkey, one of the very first countries to join the ILO International Program of Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC), is taking stringent measures to prevent child labor. According to Ministry of Labor reports, the worst form of child labor experienced in Turkey is children working on the street, seasonal agricultural work and work in dangerous small and medium-sized industries.

According to figures released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), 16,264,000 children, aged 6-17, were employed in 2006. The

agricultural sector employed 40.9 percent of these children, and the rest worked in the service, trade and industry sectors. Another 43.8 percent are employed in the family business and receive no salary, while 53 percent get per diem pay and 2.7 percent work as employers.

Comparing statistics from 1994 with 2006 reveals the most significant drop in child labor took place in the agricultural sector, with 74 percent; the service sector saw a decline of 55 percent; and industry experienced a 30 percent drop. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 ALÝ ÜNAL

ÝBRAHÝM DOÐAN, ÝSTANBUL

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Power outages are expected to become more frequent in the coming months due to low water levels in Turkey's dams, with experts warning that the outages will be wide ranging. According to some worst-case scenarios, even subway systems and hospitals will deal with blackouts in July and August.

Power cutoffs will become more frequent over the summer in places with high temperatures, with officials from the Energy Ministry estimating that the duration of such outages will exceed two hours. The National Electricity Load Directorate plans the outages, and nine regional directorates determine local blackouts. It will take years for Turkey to shift any significant portion of its energy needs to wind, solar or geothermal sources and, in the meantime, blackouts are an unfortunate necessity. SEE STORY ON PAGE 06

Alarming rise in drug abuse among Turkish teenagers ÇAÐLAR AVCI, ÝSTANBUL Recent data from the police and drug testing centers have revealed that drug abuse among Turkey's young people is growing at an alarming rate. A firm indicator of this trend is the sharp rise in the number of families who apply to the Forensic Medicine Center of the German Hospital of Ýstanbul for drug screening of their teenagers, said Professor Fatih Yavuz, the director of the center.

Yavuz noted that a majority of the 1,000 people who visited the center last year regarding the drug tests were teenagers brought by parents who suspected they might be using drugs. "In the past, Turkey was merely a country along the world's drug trafficking routes.

Now it has become a target market," said Yavuz. Þevki Sözen, president of the forensic medicine department of Ýstanbul University School of Medicine, also reported an increasing number of parents bringing their kids to the center for drug testing. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

POWER GRID PRIVATIZATION VICTIM TO UNCERTAINTY 07

French Senate delivers blow to anti-Turkey plan ALÝ ÝHSAN AYDIN, PARÝS

turns three 17 provocateur 11 invasion, out to be officer Palestinians killed Priest turned

A former Turkish priest, Ýlker Çýnar, who had been working with foreign missionaries and then converted to Islam was indeed an intelligent officer at the Turkish Land Forces, as revealed by a Turkish daily.

Israel puts off Gaza

violence

provocation

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the French Senate yesterday cancelled a planned constitutional amendment that makes a referendum on the eventual accession of Turkey to the European Union compulsory and which has been described by Ankara as product of "a discriminative approach" toward Turkey by certain French politicians.

Late last month, the French National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, passed a package of constitutional amendments including a provision to make a referendum obligatory for accepting new EU member countries with populations over 5 percent the bloc's total population, which currently stands at about 500 million. With its population of 70 million, EU candidate Turkey appears to be the specific target of the clause.

The provision needed to be approved first by the Senate and a majority of both houses. Yet a French senator had already said last week that a significant number of senators from the French ruling party were opposed to the amendment. CONTINUED ON PAGE 04

Many political party leaders in Turkey are calling for action against the Constitutional Court's decision last week to overturn a government-led reform allowing students to wear headscarves at universities, as the ruling has largely been interpreted as a seizure of Parliament's authority by the judiciary.

But it remains unclear who will take the first step against the court's ruling and what that step will consist of. Ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials have said that the Constitutional Court's decision was not only an act against the AK Party, but against Parliament itself and all of Turkey's political parties. Speaking at his party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan shared with his deputies his thoughts on the Constitutional Court's ruling, which annulled a Constitutional amendment that passed in Parliament in May with the support of 411 deputies voting and would have ended a long-standing ban on wearing the Muslim headscarf in universities. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

Israel decided on Wednesday to suspend plans to invade the Gaza Strip in order to give Egyptian-brokered truce efforts more time to succeed.

The decision came despite a new spike in fighting with Palestinian militants.

Featuring news and articles from

details of 04 arranging PM's Baghdad visit Special envoy

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page10 Sudan probes fatal plane crash, dozens feared dead

Turkey's special envoy to Iraq, Murat Özçelik, had talks with Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi in Baghdad, where the two discussed details of an upcoming visit to the Iraqi capital by Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoðan.

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We strongly believe Turkey ought to be an EU member, and we appreciate Turkey's record of working to realize EU aspirations.

US President George W. Bush

PRESS REVIEW

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W ORDS OF WISDOM

This Parliament, which has been the symbol of our independence, has never accepted a custodian or a shadow over it.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan

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Margaret Millar

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Turkey's top court not only made a controversial ruling on the country's long-standing headscarf problem, an open sore for thousands of covered women who wish to attend courses without being deprived of their religious rights and freedoms, but also put its own legitimacy under the spotlight. While several circles argue that with the headscarf ruling, the Constitutional Court overstepped the legal powers granted to it by the Constitution, giving rise to very grave consequences tantamount to a regime crisis, others say this ruling revealed once again Turkey's deep-rooted problem with its judiciary.

Star's Ahmet Kekeç says by annulling the constitutional amendments that granted equal educational rights to women who wear the headscarf the Constitutional Court proved that it is a political institution in terms of its structure and function. "But what we should discuss is the role of the judiciary in the face of guarantees of a state governed by the rule of law," he notes. Kekeç states that there aren't judicial bodies endowed with extraordinary powers in any democratic country around the world like those in Turkey. "We are face-to-face with an institution that 'produces problems' with its existence and the strategic and political decisions it makes. Can a Constitutional Court put itself in the place of a legislative body and introduce laws? What kind of a judicial mindset is this?" remarks Kekeç. He also notes that the role of the judiciary in Turkey may be improved if some top court members are elected directly

by Parliament. "Will allowing Parliament to elect Constitutional Court members solve Turkey's problem with its judiciary? For me, Parliament should be granted the right to elect some of the top court members. Right now, at once, without losing any time!" he concludes.

Radikal's Namýk Kemal Zeybek argues that the judiciary has seized the authority of the legislature in Turkey with the latest Constitutional Court ruling. "The principle of separation of powers hit bottom with the headscarf ruling. It is very clearly emphasized in Article 148 of the Constitution that its legal power is limited to inspecting such legislation only in terms of form. But the top court turned a blind eye to this article of the Constitution. So what does the scarf ruling mean? Did the judiciary actually assume the role of the legislative body? Yes. That is exactly what happened," states Zeybek. He says this has been the case for a long time in Turkey. "For so long the authority of legislature has been assumed by the judiciary. The top court is engaged in determining which attire students will wear to attend courses in universities. This ruling will, no doubt, be debated a lot. But it is not enough to debate it. We should also resolve the confusion in the principle of separation of powers," he maintains.

Milliyet's Taha Akyol, on the other hand, states that such rulings by the Constitutional Court reflect its "central bureaucratic ideology." "Conservative and pro-status quo decisions on closing down of political parties, privatization, the market economy, freedom of thought, and freedom of religion and conscience are reflections of this central bureaucratic ideology," he says. However, Akyol is hopeful that the judiciary will improve in the years ahead. "Turkey keeps changing. Though these changes do not have direct reflections on the judiciary, the emphasis of democracy in the judiciary is on the rise. This means the understanding of law as part of the central bureaucratic ideology is nowadays considered very conservative [by young legislators]. This is why criticism directed at the judiciary is on the rise," states Akyol.

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Týme to dýscuss turkey’s problem wýth the judýcýary

Even if it examines changes in essence ESER KARAKAÞ, STAR The changes made to Articles 10 and 42 of the 1982 Constitution with the intent of allowing young women to wear their headscarves to university classes if they so wish were annulled in a decision rendered by the Constitutional Court last week.

This decision has, I believe, led the way to arguments over topics that are essentially missing the point. Kemalist factions in Turkey are saying that the decision was a reflexive one aimed at protecting the republic, while those who oppose the decision insist that the Constitutional Court has effectively infringed on the legislative powers of the Parliament and that the concept of "the power belongs to the people of the nation" has been dealt a serious blow. But I think both sides here are missing the essential problem at hand. The real problem does not lie in these debates over constitutional technicalities, but instead in the perception that a covered student receiving an education could actually pose a threat to the secular state order.

The Republican Work Group GÜLAY GÖKTÜRK, BUGÜN

An 8-year-old boy who on Monday was prevented by gendarmerie officers from hugging his father whom he hadn't seen for 22 months visited the latter yesterday in an Edirne prison after special permission was granted to the family by Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Þahin. The two embraced and kissed each other several times.

zaman: Yesterday's top story covered a speech Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan delivered at his party's parliamentary group meeting. The prime minister said Parliament's legislative powers, granted by the Constitution, cannot be taken away in any way and that Parliament cannot transfer its authority to a third party. "Throughout its history, Parliament has never been bound to anyone's will other than that of the nation. When the legislature makes mistakes, they are blocked by the judiciary. If not, the nation will block them at the ballot box. But where does a mistake of the judiciary get corrected? We are seeing now that this question is being debated by the public," he said.

sabah:

"The answer of 411 [deputies]" read the daily's headline yesterday, referring to speeches delivered on Tuesday by leaders of three political parties in Parliament which backed constitutional amendments to lift the headscarf ban on university campuses. Leaders of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Democratic Society Party (DTP) slammed the Constitutional Court for violating the Constitution by exceeding its authority, the limits of which are set by

law. "No one can take away the power the Constitution has given to our esteemed Parliament," they said.

akþam:

The daily's top story yesterday reported on a TV interview of Prime Minister Erdoðan by Hülya Avþar, a famous Turkish celebrity. Avþar asked Erdoðan various questions about his private life. When asked how he would react if his daughter-in-law took off her headscarf, Erdoðan replied: "It is interference in a person's sphere of freedom if you impose things on him or her. Those who wear a headscarf and those who do not should be totally free. No one should interfere in their decisions." Erdoðan also said his son could have married a girl who did not wear the Islamic headscarf. "This is his decision. Interference in such decisions disturbs family peace," he noted.

taraf:

"From Parliament to court: Don't go against the tide," read the daily's top headline yesterday, in particular reference to the speeches of AK Party, MHP and DTP leaders in their parties' parliamentary group meetings on Tuesday.

According to the daily, the three hit back at the Constitutional Court for overstepping its authority with its verdict on amendments to lift a long-standing ban on wearing a headscarf at universities and at the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) for taking efforts to weaken Parliament.

The Taraf newspaper once again in the past few days published documents that, had they been published in any democratic country, would have caused mass fury and would have remained on the public agenda for years to come. These are documents which are not only important, but also point to a grave situation. According to the newspaper, in 2002 a so-called work group was formed as part of the gendarmerie command to take the place of the well-known Western Work Group, which was publicly exposed during the Feb. 28 process. This time the group is called the Republican Work Group. If you ask what exactly it is they are working on, the short answer is that they are working to prepare the groundwork for coups. As we all know, every coup needs the proper societal climate in order to occur. And thus the work of this group is to see the proper climate created. They do this by making contacts with a variety of civil society organizations, by forming various associations and foundations on their own and by making everyone believe that they can hear the sound of Shariah's footsteps coming closer and closer.

What is the MHP suggesting?

KÜRÞAT BUMÝN, YENÝ ÞAFAK Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Ankara deputy Deniz Bölükbaþý said, "After the opening of the court case aimed at the closure of the AK Party [Justice and Development Party], everyone became engulfed in paranoia, thinking that traps had been laid for them." The decision to force the AK Party to shut down lies close on the horizon; the party is basically already closed down, or will be forced to shortly. But as far as Bölükbaþý is concerned, these are simply signs of "paranoia" that we should all stay far, far away from. Bölükbaþý is not the only one who has made a public diagnosis of paranoia; MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli has also voiced similar speculation, saying, "It would help the AK Party if it were to avoid becoming enslaved to paranoia during this process."

Clearly, in the views of both Bahçeli and the MHP, the possibility of the splintering of the AK Party and the sacrificing of the prime minister are not worrisome developments from the perspective of the "future of the democratic regime."

Election preparation OKTAY GÖNENSÝN, VATAN

turkey ýn the foreýgn press Guardýan

Voýce of Amerýca

Turkey says gets 10 bids for power grid tenders Turkey's Privatization Administration has received a total of 10 bids for two electricity grid tenders, it said on Tuesday, far fewer than the number of firms that pre-qualified. Turkey is selling the electricity distribution networks of Ankara and its surrounding region, and of Sakarya, in northwestern Turkey, as the first of a planned 20 grid sales. Foreign interest had been expected to be strong, as 24 companies or consortia had prequalified for the Ankara assets and 30 for the Sakarya grid. Among those handing in bids on

Tuesday were Turkish conglomerate Sabanci Holding, which bid for both grids in partnership with Austria's Verbund, and another local firm, Akenerji, which bid for both with Czech power firm CEZ. Turkey is pressing ahead with its privatization program this year, despite political uncertainty over a court case aimed at banning the ruling party and turbulence on global markets.

It needs to attract foreign direct investment to finance a large current account deficit which is being further swelled by high oil prices.

Turkish PM: Top court overstepped role Addressing his parliamentary deputies, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan gave his first reaction to the overturning by the Constitutional Court of the government decision to ease the headscarf ban at universities. Mr. Erdoðan strongly condemned the decision. He said, "Nobody can put themselves in the place of the lawmaker." He added that blocking the will of Parliament through ideological legal interpretations is tantamount to going against the will of the

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people. The prime minister then went on to criticize the court for not publishing its reasoning behind the verdict. The judge's ruling has been condemned by some legal experts and the government for overstepping its powers. Court head Haþim Kýlýç, speaking to reporters after the ruling, justified their decision because of intense pressure on the court. He said the speculations made on our court in the recent months saddened us, and therefore, we decided to announce the ruling in such way.

The suggestion made in yesterday's AK Party parliamentary group meeting by Erdoðan that the Parliament not go into recess until the decision on the party's closure is handed down by the Constitutional Court shows the direction that preparations are taking. The decision over the possible forced closure of the ruling AK Party, which is expected to emerge in July at the earliest, will no longer be a surprise for anyone.

The top officials in the AK Party have already begun to prepare for this likelihood. Another important signal of election preparations is the recent announcement by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan that he will have a much heavier touring schedule in Anatolia in the coming weeks. It appears that thanks to the political bans that are to be announced along with the decision on the AK Party's closure, there will be at least one round of early elections.

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Muslým to the core, secular to the bone

Mayor Topbaþ says the municipality is working hard to bring more depth to celebrations of Ýstanbul's conquest.

Ýstanbul conquest subject of 3-D panoramic museum The Ýstanbul Municipality has opened a panoramic museum depicting the conquest of Ýstanbul by the Ottomans at City Park in the Topkapý district, where Ottoman soldiers first breached the city walls. Ýstanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaþ told the Anatolia news agency that ever since he took office, the municipality had been working hard to bring more depth to the annual celebrations of Ýstanbul's conquest, noting that the sound, light and laser shows over the Golden Horn had attracted much attention from Ýstanbulites in the past two years. Topbaþ said they wanted to portray Ýstanbul's conquest, which marked the end of the Middle Ages, in a three-dimensional way with authentic materials, to enable visitors to feel as if they were traveling back in time.

Topbaþ said that designers, historians and many others had studied the period meticulously to recreate in detail the clothing of the 15th century. "These studies have taken about three years to complete. This is the biggest panoramic museum in the world. These pictures are 3-D, and they are supported by sound and visual effects as well."

Project manager Haþim Vatandaþ said they created the 3-D museum with the aim of capturing what

I recently read a passage from Mark R. Cohen's "Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages," and it opened up new horizons in my mind about a possible solution to the current stalemate in Turkey.

In the book Cohen refers to an anthropologist named Clifford Geertz, who has studied the Jews of the early Muslim era in Morocco and Andalusia. Geertz, as quoted by Cohen, claims that the Muslim communities had managed to separate between the context where "religious and cultural dissimilarities differentiate the sides [marriage, cuisine, rituals, prayers and education]" and the context where "people are necessarily interconnected and interdependent no matter the level of dissimilarities" and where "these dissimilarities may serve to the peaceful and successful running of the encounter [business, friendship, politics and commerce]."

Geertz and Cohen both claim that this separation of contexts helped the Andalusian and Moroccan Muslim authorities create a working system where different religious or cultural groups would like to interact while keeping their differences. Thus the Jews of Morocco were as Moroccan as the non-Jews and they were also Jews to the core. This made them inheritors of two (or more) traditions that in their personalities became dual, but indivisible. Cohen believes that this dual but indivisible quality was the explanation of why Jews were marginalized and ghettoized in the West and not in the Muslim lands.

The Turkish experience with religiosity and secularism as two dissimilar aspects of our faith-related convictions has come to a point where our dissimilarities that differentiate us are not allowed to differentiate; and our dissimilarities that can serve better to bring us together are not used at all for that end.

The contexts of these dualities are almost the same with those of the MuslimJewish dissimilarity. On issues of marriage, cuisine, rituals, prayers and education, the religious are ready and want to be differentiated from the secular.

But the unfortunate fact in Turkey is that not only the secular state but also some radical-secularist individuals do want them to be able to do so.

They want their side of the dissimilarity to conquer the other. This then leads to the criticism of marriage ceremonies of religious families separating women from men and the derogatory tone about the alcohol-free cuisine of the religiously sensitive. Such people wish to intervene in how and in what

the city looked like on May 29, 1453, the date it was conquered by the Ottomans. Vatandaþ noted that the city fell to the Ottomans at Topkapý, where the biggest battle took place, where the biggest cannons were placed and where Mehmet the Conqueror established his headquarters. The Ottomans did not draw any pictures depicting the exact moment of the conquest, so the project was particularly difficult, he emphasized.

Vatandaþ said they had put a dome on the top of the 3-D panoramic picture in order to create the illusion of a real sky, adding that the museum was the world's only panoramic museum with a dome, which makes the picture seemingly endless both vertically and horizontally. Vatandaþ said that for this reason, visitors perceive the panoramic picture, which is actually a circle 38 meters in diameter, as having a diameter of 1 kilometer or more.

The domed structure housing the panoramic picture is 20 meters high and has 2,530 square meters of picture on its surface. The picture has been mounted so as to be viewed from at least 14 meters away, as the 3-D optical illusion only works at distances of 14 meters away or more. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires

Konya hosts historical cities of the world Turkey's central Anatolia city of Konya is hosting the 11th World Conference of Historical Cities on June 10-13, with the theme "Living Cultural Heritage in Historical Cities." More than 700 representatives from all around the world, including city officials, academicians, art historians and historical ecologists, are participating in the conference, which is organized by The League of Historical Cities. Of this group, 158 are mayors of world cities, including Kyoto, Baghdad and Minsk.

As the representative of the host city, Konya Municipality Mayor Tahir Akyürek delivered a speech for the opening ceremony on Tuesday. "Discussing the cultural heritage of historical cities in 9,400 year-old Konya city is a great honor for me as the mayor of the city and for all residents of Konya." Akyürek also pointed to the hospitality of the historic Anatolian city. "I expect you to see our hospitality in Konya, which is a city of original permanent settlements, a city of culture and history, a city of mysticism and philosophers. In our city you will see a combination of urban modernity and cultural heritage."

Following the address, a concert was given by a mehteran, a type of military marching band created by the Ottomans, and a video about Konya province and its historical background was presented. After that Akyürek saluted the audience and said, "Welcome to Konya, the meeting point of civilizations."

Mehmet Özhaseki, The League of Historical Cities Turkey representative and Kayseri mayor, said history lives in all corners of Anatolia. Daisaku Kadokawa, The League of Historical Cities president and Kyoto mayor, stated that the world becomes different day by day.

"Today we live in a world where there are different nationalities, cultures and religions. For this reason sometimes wars happen among different countries. Here, in Konya, we will discuss many topics, including the problems of world cities, and we will try to keep the cultural heritage of historical cities alive," noted Kadokawa.

The participants conducted round table meetings on the second day of the conference in order to explore solutions to problems that historical cities are facing.

Kadokawa and mayors of other historical cities of the world will make presentations during the conference about the problems they have encountered and the solutions they have found for them. Many distinguished academicians such as Ian Hodder of Cambridge University and Professor Halil Ýnalcýk of Bilkent University will speak at the conference. For the first time this year, students studying architecture and urban planning will also participate in the conference. In this way, the conference will not only serve to keep historical cities alive but will also influence future cities for a better world. Konya Today's Zaman

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KERÝM BALCI k.balci@todayszaman.com

language the religious should pray and when and where they have to perform their rituals. They ask why women should not be imams, why women should not stand in the first line of a congregational prayer and they ask for the headscarf ban. These dissimilarities legitimately differentiate us and they should stay there so that I may say that I am a Muslim to the core.

Look at how often columnists from the self-marginalized daily Cumhuriyet comment on deeply religious issues, quote verses from the Quran, give religious rulings (fatwa) and "guide us, the ignorant religious" to the right path. Look at how often Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal tries to invade the zone of religious-secular dissimilarity that has to be kept differentiated.

The same is true for the threat perceptions of the seculars. If their zone of dissimilarities is or will be invaded by the religious, if on a day in Ramadan they are forced to behave as if they are fasting, if their daughters are forced to veil themselves, if they are asked not to consume alcohol in the vicinity of a mosque, they will lose their fruitful dissimilarity also.

The second context where dissimilarities work for the good of our interactions, namely zones of business, trade, politics and friendship, have also been corrupted in Turkey. They work, on the contrary, to differentiate us.

Justice and Development Party (AK Party) leader Recep Tayyip Erdoðan and Baykal are of two different camps, but that should have helped them make better politics, though they can never be called friends. We all remember the lists of the General Staff labeling some companies as "green capital" or "Islamic capital." They then distributed this list over the Internet and through leaflets, asking secularists not to consume the products of or enter into business deals with these companies. Once again, our dissimilarity, which could have helped us create a better world, was rejected.

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Slowdown in Turkish EU bid not only Ankara’s fault, says Croatia

LALE SARIÝBRAHÝMOÐLU

SÜLEYMAN KURT ZAGREB

President Abdullah Gül on Wednesday said there is "exploitation" of the Turkish EU accession process for political purposes as his Croatian counterpart, Stjepan Mesic, whose country is ahead of Turkey on the path for EU membership, said the slow pace of talks between Turkey and the 27-nation bloc is not to be blamed on Ankara alone.

"Accession of big countries into the EU has never been easy," Gül said at a joint press conference with Mesic during a visit to Zagreb.

"Due to its very nature, political issues are sometimes exploited in such processes."

Gül did not name any specific countries, but he was most likely referring to countries such as France, where politicians and the public oppose Turkey's membership in the EU, saying it is culturally different, and Greek Cyprus, which is frequently accused by Ankara of trying use Turkish aspirations to join the EU to force Ankara to make concessions on its stance on the deep-seated

EU to open talks with Turkey on two more chapters Representatives of European Union member countries are set to give the go-ahead today for the opening of accession talks with candidate Turkey on two more negotiating chapters.

A committee of permanent representatives of EU countries, known as COREPER, is expected to approve the opening of the talks on company law and intellectual property rights chapters without a debate, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

A final decision to start the talks on these chapters is expected to be made at an intergovernmental conference attended by EU ministers and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Luxembourg on June 17. With the beginning of the talks on company law and intellectual property rights Turkey will have opened talks on eight of 35 negotiating chapters with the EU since the talks first started in 2005. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman

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It is true that since 2004, the year that Turkey changed its conception of arms acquisition to boost its poor local defense industry, some gains have been achieved in mobilizing the local defense sector. Though these gains are not sufficient compared with the decades of financial resources earmarked for defense, as well as for arms acquisition, at least there is a strong political will for continuing efforts to strengthen the local defense industry infrastructure.

But official estimates indicating that the local defense industry's reliance on major systems from abroad has gone down from around 75 percent to about 60 percent as a result of a change in the official conception of arms acquisition appear to be misleading.

The recently released 2007 activity report of the Turkish Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM) put the local content in defense acquisitions at around 41 percent, up from 25 percent in 2004.

SSM Undersecretary Murad Bayar also stated in an interview with the Savunma ve Havacýlýk magazine that 41.6 percent of the Turkish Armed Forces' (TSK) defense needs are currently being met by domestic production and that the goal is to reach 50 percent by 2011.

The question is what that 41.6 percent consists of; is it local production of high technology or purely assembly work?

As a matter of fact, in November of last year Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy Mehmet Günal put just this question to National Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül during deliberations over the 2008 fiscal defense budget. He asked whether this percentage consisted of high-tech products or simply assembly work.

While admitting that the defense industry has fallen behind in boosting the local defense industry infrastructure, Gönül responded that it has, however, been moving in the right direction as a locally developed computer system for fighter jets has successfully been tested.

However, for Turkey, for example, to develop national software source codes for fighters, significant emphasis should be placed on research and development activities, which require the allocation of enormous amounts of money and human resources.

Far from developing software source codes, Turkey has not yet even been able to establish a defense industry infrastructure that is able to produce relatively high-tech products.

Countries such as South Korea and Spain, which started building their defense industry infrastructures at almost the same time as Turkey, almost 23 years ago, are already selling high-tech products to Ankara, such as Casa CN 235 helicopters (Spain) and critical parts of land forces equipment (South Korea).

Another problem hindering the improvement of the local defense industry infrastructure has been the heavy bureaucratic nature of around 15 military-owned companies that are still free from the authority of Turkey's political leadership. These companies have for years been operating quite unlike private companies and used as a tool for the employment of retired generals without any expertise in arms procurement. However, the SSM's changes in arms procurement have helped some military-owned companies, such as Havelsan and Aselsan, become more productive.

This column is in a sense a continuation of my previous column published on June 3 under the title "Turkey's vicious circle in arms technology." There, too, I criticized the poor management of the local defense industry, urging Turkish deputies to take action in debating arms purchases at a commission to be set up for the sake of good governance and transparency.

One reader criticized me in a rather rude manner, but fell short of coming up with more constructive ideas.

He cited the development of electronic warfare (EW) systems for 58 F-16 fighters by Aselsan in cooperation with US-based BAE North America as an example of Turkish efforts for boosting the local defense industry.

It is true that Aselsan has been developing EW systems in cooperation with BAE and that they are planned to be completed in 2010.

But a recent decision by the Turkish Air Forces Command to buy off-the-shelf EW systems from US-based ITT to be mounted on the additional 30 F-16 fighters that Turkey decided to buy from Lockheed Martin has inflicted a serious blow on the continuation of the Aselsan developed EW systems for 58 F-16s.

The SSM had insisted on the installation of the EW systems on the additional 30 F-16s so that partial local development of the EW program would continue, contributing to the growth of the local industry. In addition, some from within the military and the SSM argued that through the locally developed EW under license, Turkish control over the national software source codes of F-16s would be higher than with the US ITT systems.

But SSM was obliged to bow to the pressures of the air force.

This example alone displays the difficulties that the SSM's procurement officials have been facing in their efforts to boost the local defense industry.

President Abdullah Gül (L) and his Croatian counterpart, Stjepan Mesic, met in Zagreb yesterday.

Cyprus problem. French President Nicolas Sarkozy firmly opposes Turkish accession, saying Turkey does not belong to Europe, and Paris says it will veto opening of accession talks on five chapters that it views as directly related to acces-

sion. Three other chapters are being blocked by the Greek Cypriots, who insist Turkey should be held responsible for the human rights situation in areas effectively held under its control, referring to northern Cyprus, where Turkey maintains about

35,000 troops. Ankara recognizes an independent Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus, while the Greek Cypriot demand implies that Ankara should be recognized as an "occupier" in Cyprus.

"The fact that accession negotiations are progressing at a slower pace than Croatia is not something to be blamed on the Turkish side only," Mesic said at the press conference. His country and Turkey opened accession talks on the same day in 2005, but Croatia has seen much progress since then, opening talks on 18 of 35 negotiating chapters, while Turkey was able to provisionally open talks only on six chapters; talks have been provisionally closed on only one chapter so far.

The Croatian president backed Turkey's membership in the EU, saying Turkey is a part of Europe. Gül said Turkey would continue its membership efforts with "patience, determination and success." Mesic declined to comment when asked about a closure case against Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and said instead Croatia enjoyed good relations with the government of Turkey.

AP

Turkýsh arms ýndustry faces dýlemma

PHOTO

loglu@todayszaman.com

French Senate delývers blow to antý-Turkey referendum plan contýnued from page 1 While announcing cancellation of the planned amendment in a written statement, the Foreign Affairs Committee said the amendment would deliver serious damage to France's bilateral relations with Turkey.

The amendment "might be considered as being against Turkey, which is a friend and ally country, and thus might deal serious damage to diplomatic relations between France and Turkey," the statement warned.

The committee, discussing the amendment upon a proposal by its chairman, Josselin de Rohan, proposed that the amendment be deleted from the text. The committee decision, however, does not mean that it will be dropped entirely from the agenda of the French legislative body.

During a plenary session debate on the constitutional reform planned to take place next week, a proposal for deleting the amendment will be introduced. If approved by the Senate, the amendment will be pulled out of the reform package without being discussed at the plenary session. Nonetheless, any member of the Senate can introduce a similar amendment and carry this amendment to a plenary session debate at the Senate.

Sources from the Senate say the amendment's eventual fate is closely tied to the stance of Élysée Palace as well as that of the government. Justice Minister Rachida Dati had supported the amendment when it was debated at the French National Assembly, while Prime Minister François Fillon was reportedly annoyed by it. Sources close to the government have added, however, that it was difficult for the government to object to an amendment supported by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy, the former leader of the UMP, is a vocal opponent of Turkey's bid to join the EU, saying it does not belong to Europe.

The constitutional reform package originally abolished a clause calling for a referendum

Syria-Israel talks resuming next week, Turkey expected to be the host Israeli officials close to the talks said late Tuesday that indirect peace negotiations with Syria will resume next week.

The officials said the talks will be in the same form as the previous round, which took place last month in Turkey.

They involved senior aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and their Syrian counterparts, with Turkish diplomats shuttling between them.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press late Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the contacts are secret.

They did not say exactly when the talks would resume or where, though it was assumed the venue would be in Turkey again.

Israel's representatives to the second round of talks are expected to be Prime Minister

Olmert's chief of staff, Yoram Turbowitz, and senior diplomatic advisor, Shalom Turgeman, Israeli news reports said yesterday.

Last month Israel, Syria and Turkey announced that the indirect talks had been in progress for a year. Formal peace negotiations between Israel and Syria broke down in 2000.

Syria demands that Israel return the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 war. In the past, Israel has agreed in principle, but the two sides could not agree on a final border or terms of peaceful relations.

Israeli skeptics charge that the talks are designed to bolster the troubled regimes of the two countries rather than actually making peace. Syria is trying to break out of the isolation that has resulted from its hosting extremist groups while allied with Iran. Jerusalem AP

CM Y K

on all future accessions to the EU and left the decision on the matter to the president. But UMP lawmakers, keen not to lose the vote of the French-Armenian electorate, pressed for guarantees against Turkey's possible accession to the EU and proposed the amendment in question.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a senator from the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and former prime minister of France, last week told French RCF radio that a constitutional provision specifically targeting a certain country was a mistake. "We have talked about this issue in our group. Many members of our group are against this amendment," Raffarin said then. "A certain country cannot be pointed out in a national constitution."

French State Secretary for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet has also warned that the plan to submit Turkey's bid to join the EU to a referendum is an "insult" that could spark a serious rift between Paris and Ankara.

Also last week, the Turkish capital labeled French lawmakers' approval of the particular amendment 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."

Turkey is annoyed by the "discriminative approach toward 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 in a written statement. The statement by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Özügergin was issued in 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.

Özçelik arranging details of Erdoðan’s upcoming visit to Baghdad Turkey's special envoy to Iraq, Murat Özçelik, had talks with Iraq's Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi in Baghdad, where the two discussed details of an upcoming visit to the Iraqi capital by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

The meeting between Özçelik and Hashimi took place on Tuesday and was made public by a written statement released by the Iraqi presidential office yesterday, Anatolia said.

On Tuesday Özçelik also had talks with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. A statement released by Maliki's office following the meeting said then that "Erdoðan has expressed a desire to visit Baghdad and boost his country's support for Iraqi reconstruction."

Maliki's office quoted Özçelik a saying

that Erdoðan has "expressed his readiness to visit Iraq in the near future," without specifying an exact date for the visit. "The Turkish envoy stressed that his country has decided to send the best Turkish companies to contribute in Iraq's reconstruction and development," Maliki's office said. Özçelik has been having talks in Baghdad for more than a week. Over the weekend he met with Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, who hosted a luncheon in honor of Özçelik and Turkish Ambassador to Iraq Derya Kanbay at his presidential residence in Baghdad. Only a few hours after the meeting at the residence Turkish warplanes struck a target of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, on Saturday night. Ankara Today's Zaman with wires

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NATIONAL

TODAY’S ZAMAN 05

T H U R S D AY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 0 8

Mysterious dinners in capital arouse curiosity HABÝB GÜLER ANKARA

Former President Sezer (L) attended a surprise dinner at the house of a retired ambassador on Tuesday evening together with his wife.

A surprise dinner at the house of a retired ambassador was covered with curiosity in all of Turkey’s newspapers yesterday, with later reports showing it was not the first of its kind.

Faruk Loðoðlu, a former ambassador to the United States, played host in his home on Tuesday evening to former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, former Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Sabih Kanadoðlu, former deputy Hikmet Çetin and Özden Toker, the daughter of Ýsmet Ýnönü, one of the founders of the Republic of Turkey. Most of these figures are known for pro-nationalist stances. A Constitutional Court decision made last year that had temporarily blocked then Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül’s path to the

presidency was masterminded by Kanadoðlu. Some university rectors also attended the dinner, reports said.

Loðoðlu, who currently heads the Eurasian Strategic Research Center (ASAM), hosted a similar dinner on June 5, with guests including Social Democratic People’s Party (SHP) leader and former Foreign Minister Murat Karayalçýn and former deputies Mehmet Ali Ýrtemçelik, Talat Hamlan and Tayyibe Gülek. During the dinner, sources said, the topic of discussion was Turkey’s current political atmosphere. SHP leader Karayalçýn defended his opinion that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), currently facing a lawsuit that might shut it down, would not be closed by the Constitutional Court. A number of retired ambassadors

also attended the dinner, sources said.

The guest at Tuesday’s dinner denied that there had been any talk of politics. “We talked about soccer,” said Tunçalp Özgen, a member of the Higher Education Board (YÖK) and former Hacettepe University rector. Özgen continued: “Hikmet Çetin talked about Pakistan and Afghanistan.

We talked about soccer. Some supported [national team technical director] Fatih Terim, some were against him. Nothing about politics was mentioned.”

Ankara University Rector Nusret Aras seconded Özgen’s claims. “There was no talk of politics at all. We talked about the national team and Euro 2008,” he said.

“It was only a friendly dinner,” Çetin said when asked. “It wasn’t a dinner with a special purpose or a political agenda.”

ALÝ ÜNAL

Parliament to skip summer recess for rapid mobilization of deputies Parliament will not go into recess this summer to give deputies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which is facing possible closure, the ability to rapidly convene Parliament in case it becomes necessary to call early general elections.

Parliament usually goes into recess on July 1 of every year for a period of 45 days.

The AK Party is currently facing a closure case in the Constitutional Court on charges of eroding secularism. The indictment, first filed by a prosecutor in March, also requests a ban from politics on 71 founding members of the AK Party, including the prime minister.

“The closure case against our party is still under way,” said AK Party parliamentary group deputy leader Nihat Ergün in an interview with Today’s Zaman. “There is a critical process ahead of us. The local elections are approaching. We don’t think we will be shut down, but if we are, organizing a new party will be a time-consuming process. It will be easier to reorganize if we are together. If we work a little harder this summer we can pass certain laws that could protect Turkey from negative developments,” he said.

Ergün dismissed rumors that the prime minister had decided to call off Parliament’s summer recess to stave off the risk of AK Party being divided by keeping its deputies close at hand. “We have no such concern. Our deputies work with our local branches in their own cities when they are not in Ankara,” he said.

The government has yet to plan what reforms or bills Parliament will be working on during the summer session, since the idea of not having a recess came about suddenly and unexpectedly. “Priority areas for Parliament’s summer sessions have not yet been determined,” Ergün said, but he stated that a bill on clearing land mines, ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, a bill governing the allocation of financial resources to municipalities, legislation on electronic communications and a bill on property sales to foreigners, which

PHOTO

ALÝ ASLAN KILIÇ ANKARA

Parliament will skip this year’s summer recess to give AK Party deputies the opportunity to rapidly convene in case it needs to call early general elections. was vetoed by the Constitutional Court, could be reviewed during the summer. “We will outline the summer agenda in further detail in the days ahead,” he noted.

No vacation for deputies However, not everyone was happy about the new schedule. Republican People’s Party (CHP) Trabzon deputy Akif Hamzaçebi said: “This new schedule is not very appealing. It is not nice to say, ‘I’m keeping Parliament open; I’m not sending anyone on vacation.’ I am used to working day and night from my days in public office. I don’t care about working hard. But the logic is wrong here.

The reason why they are doing this is to be able to call early polls if necessary. ‘Oh, there’s a lot of work to do, we need to work’ is not what their real concern is.”

Democratic Society Party (DTP) Þýrnak deputy Hasip Kaplan also reacted negatively to the no-recess decision. “Parliament cannot work according to the whim of some party.

Deputies, too, are human beings,” he said, adding, “Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits slavery and forced labor.” Kaplan recalled that Turkey is a signatory to that convention. “When will we have the time to visit our constituencies?” he asked.

CHP deputy group leader Hakký Suha

Okay criticized the decision at a press conference yesterday, saying, “I am finding it hard to understand why it is making the entire Parliament work because of its own problems.”

Noting that parliamentary activities are not limited to legislating, Okay said: “Deputies have a relationship with their organizations and electorate. This is why there is a schedule for the working days of Parliament.

Parliament normally works very intensely.

Plus, the judges of the Constitutional Court also have 45 days off in the summer. Forcing Parliament to work with a very unclear agenda for this court process is not very logical.”

DTP to submit defense at Constitutional Court today AYÞE KARABAT ANKARA

The Democratic Society Party (DTP), facing a closure case against it based on allegations of its being a focal point of separatist activities, will today present its defense to the Constitutional Court.

The defense is based on political and judicial arguments, Nursel Aydoðan, DTP deputy chairwoman and head of the team that prepared the defense, told Today’s Zaman yesterday.

“We will make a definition of terrorism, because an important part of the indictment is based on the idea that we refuse to defame the [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK as a terrorist organization. In our defense, we will explain why we do not call it a terrorist organization,” Aydoðan said.

Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçýnkaya had filed charges

against the DTP for being “against the indivisible integrity of the state and the nation” and had called for the party’s permanent closure last year. Yalçýnkaya also requested a ban on 221 DTP supporters, including eight deputies, engaging in politics for the next five years.

Aydoðan recalled that the indictment concerning the 221 DTP supporters was mostly related to the labeling of the PKK and also addressing PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan as “Mr. Öcalan.” Aydoðan said in defense that referring to Öcalan as “mister” was a matter of freedom of thought.

The indictment also claims Öcalan established and directs the DTP. Aydoðan said that in its defense the party points out that the DTP was not established by Öcalan but is inspired his ideas.

“He declares his ideas at regular meetings with his lawyers and from there, they are [communicated] to the public. His ideas do not de-

fend violence and are based on the improvement of democracy. As a political party, we are inspired by any idea, regardless of who is saying it, if they are for the improvement of democracy. In our defense we will explain this,” Aydoðan stated.

The defense will also include the history of the Kurdish problem, suggestions to solve it and examples of ethnic conflicts from around the world.

The DTP had previously sought more time to prepare its defense, and the top court granted it. The deadline for the DTP to submit its defense is today.

According to procedure, the Constitutional Court will determine a day for the verbal defense, and the Supreme Court of Appeals chief prosecutor will submit his opinion. Then the court rapporteur will submit a report to the members of the court for final decision. The entire procedure is expected to take two to three months.

CM Y K

DTP begins preparations for second party congress Meanwhile, the DTP began preparations yesterday for its second party congress this year, to take place on July 20. DTP Deputy Chairman Kamuran Yüksek said the Turkish political system was going through a reshaping process. At a press conference he asserted that at the end of this reshaping, Turkey would either become more democratic country or even more conservative. “Our party is a mission party. It has a responsibility to contribute to the republic’s democratization and the solution of the Kurdish problem through peaceful means. We will be able perform this responsibility with this congress,” Yüksek said.

He added that a preparation committee had been established and the application period for candidates for the party administration began yesterday.

The DTP will elect important officials of the party at the congress, including its leader.

FEHMÝ KORU f.koru@todayszaman.com

Clear and present danger Hülya Avþar is a national treasure. She started her career as a movie star, and as a movie star, she is a local Sharon Stone. She later evolved to become a singer and entertainer a la Beyonce. Now in her 40s, she’s embraced television, interviewing celebrities; a kind of Turkish Barbara Walters. An ordinary Turk can benefit from her talent in all fields: While watching her movies and soap operas, he can listen to her sweet voice on his iPod and enjoy her interviews on TV. She became a center of attraction once more after she managed to receive Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoðan on her TV show this week. Erdoðan has been her only political guest so far. With this experience, Hülya Avþar can no doubt go on hosting other politicians and dignitaries on her show.

When you agree to appear on a TV show you also agree to endure most any kind of treatment.

Her show with Prime Minister Erdoðan revolved around questions pertaining to conceptions or misconceptions about him and his party. She asked if he was in favor of a “Shariah state” for example, or forcing women to cover their heads. She also inquired about the root of fears about the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) policies. She also, at one point, directed an intimate question at Prime Minister Erdoðan regarding his son’s wife, whether he would let her uncover her head if she so desired.

As far as I gathered from the press coverage afterward, the prime minister passed the test on secularism with flying colors, although some journalists didn’t find Avþar persistent enough. Looking at her direct questions and follow-ups, I see no uncovered areas worth covering.

The only objection I have is this anachronism: The questions asked by Avþar are all pertinent to a period before the AK Party’s ascendance to power. The AK Party has been running the country for more than five years now, and the person who is its driving force in almost all those five years has proven himself to be a real democrat, a statesman respectful of the existing constitutional set-up of his country. The questions about Shariah and Erdoðan’s stance on secularism have been answered by him hundreds of times previously.

I don’t criticize Avþar for her tardiness -- no, far from it -- she has asked the questions that reemerged in the public mind after the party closure case was opened by the Constitutional Court and the recent verdict on headscarf issue by the same body. Some people don’t take deeds into account, but words, and not the words uttered by the prime minister himself, but by his opponents.

We are back to square one, as if the AK Party hadn’t single-handedly governed the country for five years and as if Erdoðan is still suspected of having a hidden agenda.

This is most annoying. The government has done nothing to deserve this harsh treatment at the hands of judiciary. Almost all the evidence submitted by the chief prosecutor in his indictment is either unproven accusation and false news or the utterances of minor politicians.

The country and its constitutional setup haven’t changed a bit during the AK Party rule.

The AK Party and Erdoðan don’t deserve to be treated as if they present a real threat to republican principles, but its opponents for their part represent a clear and present danger for the democratic system.

We now know how the Constitutional Court justices have come to their decisions on the headscarf issue. According to reliable sources from the Constitutional Court speaking to Doðan Media Group papers (Hürriyet and Vatan), the justices asked three questions in their deliberations: 1. What if a party that has reached the maximum majority in Parliament tries to change the Constitution all by itself? 2. How is it possible to stop that party from overhauling the Constitution? 3. What if the same party announces that it will hold elections in 20 years?

All these questions are based on false premises and the result -- what the Constitutional Court did after deliberations, which lasted no more than six hours -- is stretching its constitutional mandate into unacceptable limits in any given democracy. The 1982 Constitution gives the Constitutional Court only a mandate of supervising the laws enacted by Parliament. The court doesn’t have a mandate over constitutional changes. In its latest verdict, the Constitutional Court decided to take up the essence of the issue by overstretching its constitutional mandate.

On the one hand, the government has done nothing that can be portrayed as attempting to change the constitutional framework of the secular state, but the same government and its leaders are charged with exactly what they haven’t done; while on the other hand, the Constitutional Court has adopted a new mandate with little regard to the rule of law as depicted in the Constitution itself.

Some consider the AK Party to be presenting a danger to the secular set-up of the country, although it hasn’t done any harm to it over the last five years, but they don’t look at the clear and present danger to the constitutional framework emanating from the latest decision by the Constitutional Court.

I can hardly wait for Hülya Avþar to invite either the president of the Constitutional Court or the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals to her TV show.

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BUSINESS

TODAY’S ZAMAN 07

T H U R S D AY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 0 8

Turkey’s concern must be ýnnovatýon rather than ýnflatýon The current International Monetary Fund (IMF)-based economic stabilization program has made significant contributions to structural transformation and macroeconomic stability in Turkey. However, recent data on productivity, profitability, the current account deficit and inflation have shown that structural rigidities are a major obstacle to the sustainability of recent achievements and eradication of the abovementioned vulnerabilities. What I would like to note is that rather than relying upon short-term monetary and fiscal policies in containing the temporary surge in inflation and controlling the current account deficit, Turkey needs to focus on a long-term market-conforming, merit-based transformation approach in the manufacturing and services industries.

The graph below shows that Turkey is dramatically lagging behind major innovation drivers. Under these circumstances it is unlikely that Turkey could catch up and close the development gap with the leading countries. In order to open the way to innovation for the economy, Turkey needs to fortify the economy by emphasizing microeconomic reforms, the so-called second generation reforms. Today, I will briefly introduce a summary of findings released by Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economists.

ÝBRAHÝM ÖZTÜRK i.ozturk@todayszaman.com

In order to enhance the growth potential of the economy amid increasing competition from low-wage countries, Turkey needs to implement a broad-based strategy of improving structural conditions for all types of firms. In this regard, the country should focus on reducing labor market regulations and labor costs, improving competition in product markets and improving infrastructure, which would not only enhance the productivity of formal firms in the sector, but would also facilitate the creation of new firms and the movement of the large population of informal firms to the formal sector.

These economists offer a strategy of regulatory simplification and formalization. A layered regulatory and tax framework with a unified, low-cost, level-playing and much more flexible formal

structure takes the central priority in this regard. The resulting streamlined business environment, they argue, would: stimulate the productivity and competitiveness of large-size, dynamic medium-size and micro-scale firms alike facilitate resource shifts between these groups according to their true underlying efficiencies rather than according to their uneven exposure to legal and tax liabilities The argument is that these measures would: reduce the heavy regulatory burden on formal-sector firms, particularly in the areas of costly product and labor market regulations help informal micro operators to become normal business firms by enhancing their capacity to build up physical and human capital break the glass ceiling that is currently impeding the performance of dynamic medium-sized firms by permitting them to expand and by giving them access to the funding, technology and marketing resources that they need In fact, in order to create such an environment, the government has been carrying out quite painful reforms at a time of difficult domestic as well as global conditions.

Power grid privatization falls victim to political uncertainty With demand increasing by 8 to 9 percent annually, Turkey is heading toward an energy crisis in its electricity supply, which is the main ingredient for healthy industrial development, industry observers argue. Turkey has launched a series of privatization programs to create a competitive market to drive down costs, which have been a major burden on Turkish companies for some time. Doing away with state involvement in the sector will also bring a cash infusion, which is very much needed to build and expand new electricity capacity. The Energy Ministry is expecting $130 billion in investment by 2020.

The launch of the two new tenders, coupled with the delayed sale of two other grids launched earlier, marks an acceleration in Turkey's broad sell-off program following several delays. Turkey's ÖÝB opened tenders for Bedaþ, in Ankara, and Sedaþ, in the province of Sakarya in northwestern Turkey.

The tenders were opened on Aug. 31, 2006. The two were meant to be sold in 2007 as the first of 20 grids slated for sale, but the auctions were postponed until after a parliamentary election, and the date was set for June 10, 2008.

A new tender announcement for the sale of two more electricity distribution companies, in Meram in central Turkey and Aras in the East, was made on April 30, with a bidding deadline set for July 15, 2008. The bidding is still open on these grids.

ABDULLAH BOZKURT ÝSTANBUL

Bidders in recent electricity distribution tenders

PHOTO

AP

Amid growing political uncertainty, the first leg of the privatization of electricity distribution grids in Turkey has been met with lukewarm demand from investors worldwide.

As of the deadline for bids on Tuesday, Turkey's Privatization Administration (ÖÝB) had received a total of 10 bids for grids in Ankara and Sakarya. While the officials expected strong interest in the tenders, which are valued at over $2 billion, only 10 companies and joint ventures submitted binding bids. Twenty-four companies and consortiums had pre-qualified for the Ankara assets and 30 for the Sakarya grid. Analysts point out that soaring food and energy prices, coupled with the increasing uncertainty in the Turkish political system after a Constitutional Court's ruling on constitutional amendments that would have paved the way for more democratic equality in Turkey, have played a role in dampening interest in privatization.

In the face of criticism about the price of electricity in the country being well below the world market price, reducing the sector's appeal to potential investors, Turkey approved a price hike of 12.7 percent last week. The increase will go into effect on July 1, when an automatic electricity pricing scheme will also kick in. It appears, however, the move, which was intended to sweeten the deal, did not help much in increasing the number of bidders.

Among those turning in bids for the Baþkent and Sakarya grids on Tuesday were Turkish conglomerate Sabancý Holding, which bid for both grids in partnership with Austria's Verbund, and another local firm, Akenerji, which bid for both with Czech power firm CEZ. Doðan Holding, a Turkish media-to-energy conglomerate, also bid in both in separate consortia. Park Holding, part of Turkey's unlisted Ciner Group, bid alone in both.

Despite the uncertainty in the market, Turkey is pressing ahead with its privatization program this year simply because it needs to attract foreign direct investmen to finance a large current account deficit that is being further swelled by high oil prices.

CEZ last week announced its intention to bid in the tender for the distributors, which annually distribute 8 terawatt hours (TWh) and 10 TWh of electricity, respectively, in northern Turkey. The company said it will take a 50 percent stake in the venture, with Akenerji taking 45 percent and its parent group, Akkok, taking the remaining stake, if successful in the tender.

Doðan Holding said in a statement to the Ýstanbul Stock Exchange (ÝMKB) it had bid for the Sakarya tender with the unlisted Doðuþ Holding, Unit Investment BV and Anadolu Industrial Holding -- a partner of listed Yazýcýlar Holding. It bid in the Baþkent tender with Saray Halý A.Þ. and Kantur Akdaþ Construction A.Þ. it said.

Baþkent Electrical Distribution 1. Hema Industry A.Þ.

2. Ak-Cez Joint Venture 3. Sabancý Holding & Österreichische Elektrizitatswirtschafts-Aktiengesellschaft (Verbund)Enerjisa Energy Production Joint Venture 4. Doðan Holding-Saray Hal? A.Þ.-Kantur Akdaþ Construction Joint Venture 5. Park Trading A.Þ.

Sakarya Electrical Distribution 1. Aslim Alarko Industry and Commerce A.Þ.

2. Ak-Cez Joint Venture 3. Sabancý Holding & Österreichische Elektrizitatswirtschafts-Aktiengesellschaft (Verbund)Enerjisa Energy Production Joint Venture 4. UDDA Joint Venture 5. Park Holding A.Þ.

Turkish budget surplus offsets deficit Turkey's budget ran a surplus of YTL 3.389 billion ($2.7 million) in May, after a deficit of YTL 1.076 billion in April, Finance Minister Kemal Unak?tan said on Wednesday.

The budget surplus has risen by 66.4 percent over May of 2007. Unak?tan stressed that unlike last year, revenues collected in 2008 met 94.8 percent of expenditures, excluding interest payments.

The primary surplus, which excludes interest payments on government debt, was YTL 5.070 billion in May, compared to a surplus of YTL 3.09 billion in April.

For the first five months of the year, Turkey had a primary surplus of YTL 17.538 billion and a budget deficit of YTL 2.060 billion. Turkey has a budget deficit target for this year of YTL 18 billion. Unak?tan said in May the deficit will be a few billion lira less than the target.

In May 2007 the budget showed a surplus of YTL 2.04 billion and a primary surplus of YTL 6.64 billion, according to data released last year.

"A major increase in budget expenses comes from personnel salaries," the finance minister noted, adding that

"salary increases will be adjusted according to rising inflation figures in July."

Turkey's economy has grown at an average of 7 percent a year since a financial crisis in 2001. But growth is slowing while inflation is back in double digits, and the current account deficit is forecast by the market to be as high as $46.8 billion this year.

Unakýtan warned agencies that had turned in a supplemental budget request upon hearing that the budget had witnessed a surplus and said, "There is no money to be given." He also repeated his concerns over political uncertainty in Turkey. "The possibility that a major ruling party will be shut down is creating uncertainty," he noted, adding that "political uncertainty leads in turn to economic risk."

Responding to questions from the press, the finance minister expressed his dislike of "the transfer of some of the revenue collected from a special consumption tax on gas to local municipalities." Noting that the proposal is being debated in Parliament, he stressed that the ministry is trying to find a solution to keep fiscal policy intact. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman

TRADE

Car exports prominent in Turkish foreign trade Volume indices, produced by provisional foreign trade data, rose in April following an increase in the amount of sales in motor vehicles and trailers.

The April export and import volume index for motor vehicles and trailers increased by 27.8 percent and 23.5 percent, respectively, over April 2007 In the recent April figures -- using 2003 as the base year -- the overall export and import volume indices in Turkey increased by 11.1 and 8.8 percent, respectively, when compared to the corresponding month in 2007.

The April figures also revealed that the overall export and import unit value indices rose approximately by 23.3 and 27.1 percent. The export unit value index for agriculture and forestry, fishery, mining and manufacturing also increased by 20.4, 22.3, 16.4 and 23.6 percent, respectively.

The import unit value index for agriculture and forestry, mining and manufacturing, rose by 41.9, 62.5 and 19.6 percent.

From April 2007 to April 2008, the export unit value index for textile and apparel, the major components of the index, increased by 12.5 and 26.2 percent, respectively.

For the fabricating of basic metals, the export and import unit value indices for the sector rose by 33.9 and 23.2 percent, respectively.

Industrial goods account for more than 90 percent of Turkey's exports, and the automobile sector has the most-sold items in this category.

Turkey is increasingly becoming a crossroad to European and Asian markets, with the world's leading auto manufacturers opting to use Turkey as a base for operations. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman

SCANDAL

Siemens refutes bribery allegations to officials Siemens Turkey CEO Hüseyin Gelis has denied allegations that his company offered bribes to Turkish officials.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul on Tuesday, Gelis refuted claims published by Turkish daily Vatan under the headline "Who did Siemens hand out bribes to?" accusing Siemens of having given 57 million euros in bribes to Turkish authorities.

"Our company has been greatly saddened by this unfounded news report," Gelis remarked. "The allegations are unsubstantiated, false statements. There is a clear discrepancy between the headline and the content of the news article and, within this context, we would like the public to know that we are ready to collaborate with the relevant authorities and that we will commence all necessary legal actions," he said.

The company ran into difficulties last year when in March a Siemens board member was arrested and accused of illegally financing a business friendly labor association that was in competition with the union IG Metall. Moreover, Siemens is currently being investigated by authorities in Switzerland, Italy and Greece related to allegations of bribery and corruption in its telecommunications division. The company said it was also being investigated in China, Hungary, Israel, Russia, Norway and Indonesia. In the US, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice are also investigating the company on bribery allegations. Siemens said it is cooperating in all of the investigations. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman

ENERGY

Toyota promises plug-in hybrid vehicle by 2010

Parliamentary committee gives green light to Kyoto Parliament's Environment Committee on Wednesday adopted a bill allowing Turkey to join the Kyoto Protocol.

The bill to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the UN-led global climate pact on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, was submitted to Parliament on June 5.

Adopted on Dec. 11, 1997 at a meeting in Kyoto under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), it entered into force in 2005. The countries that ratified it committed to reducing their emissions by an average of 5 percent from 1990 levels

CM Y K

by 2012. A total of 176 countries are signatories to the protocol, but due to concern that its ratification before the completion of largescale energy investments would lead to serious economic and social problems, Turkey chose not to sign it at the time.

"Contrary to the beliefs of most its Turkish critics, ratifying the protocol, set to expire in 2012, will cost Turkey nothing. Turkey will not be obliged to reduce gas emissions until after 2012," said Haluk Özdalga, the chairman of Parliament's Environment Committee. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires

Toyota promises plug-in hybrid vehicle in Japan, US, Europe by 2010 Toyota is introducing a plug-in hybrid with nextgeneration lithium-ion batteries in Japan, the U.S. and Europe by 2010, under a widespread strategy to be green outlined Wednesday.

The ecological gas-electric vehicles, which can be recharged from a home electrical outlet, will target leasing customers, Toyota Motor Corp. said. Such plug-in hybrids can run longer as an electric vehicle than regular hybrids, and are cleaner.

Lithium-ion batteries, now common in laptops, produce more power and are smaller than nickelmetal hydride batteries used in hybrids now.

The joint venture that Toyota set up with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic products, will begin producing lithium-ion batteries in 2009 and move into full-scale production in 2010, Toyota said.

Toyota also said it's setting up a battery research department later this month to develop an innovative battery that can outperform even that lithium-ion battery.

Japan's top automaker, which leads the industry in gas-electric hybrids, has said it will rev up hybrid sales to 1 million a year sometime after 2010.

Hybrids reduce pollution and emissions that are linked to global warming by switching between a gas engine and an electric motor to deliver better mileage than comparable standard cars.

Their popularity is growing amid soaring oil prices and worries about global warming. Tokyo AP

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08 TODAY’S ZAMAN

T H U R S D AY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 0 8

KÜRÞAT BAYHAN

Why the oýl prýce crýsýs ýs a threat PHOTO

With brutal efficiency, the oil price is beginning to duff up a monster of the 20th century: globalisation. Those great tentacles that gripped our world in a hideous embrace are suddenly weakening and the multinational octopus is looking a bit pale and sickly. The extraordinary rise in the price of crude oil is wrecking outsourced business models everywhere and distance from your customer is no longer merely a matter of dull logistics. Whether you are selling coiled steel or cut flowers, the cost of transport is a problem.

America’s steel industry is enjoying an unexpected revival, its competitive edge sharpened by the tariff wall erected by the cost of shipping heavy, low added-value products across the Pacific. We hear fewer complaints from Americans about Asian steel-dumping; instead, it is Asian exporters who are feeling the pinch and the pressure is from inputs as well as shipping to customers.

China needs to import iron ore and coking coal, but the cost of shipping a tonne of ore from Brazil to China now exceeds dollars 100, a cost that is equal to the value of the mineral itself. The oil overhead for passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific is proving to be a powerful bargaining chip in negotiations between some Australian iron ore mining companies and their Chinese steel mill customers. Antipodean miners are holding out for a higher price, arguing that some of the benefit of lower carriage costs belongs to producers. Proximity is suddenly more profitable and local solutions begin to look less like the expensive option. It would be rash to predict a revival of the Yorkshire textile mill and the demise of the Guangdong sweatshop, but you have to ask whether it makes sense to ship stuff from China when the price of a sea voyage from Shanghai represents half of the value of the product.

The economics of long-distance supply chains are being rewritten; if it is small and expensive drugs and sophisticated electronics, for example fuel costs have little impact, but bulky goods are under the cosh. Furniture, footwear, basic machinery, building materials - this is the stuff that China exports in vast quantities to America and it was very cheap, until now. Economists at CIBC World Markets reckon that globalisation might go into reverse if the escalation in fuel costs continues. The

The extraordinary rise in the price of crude oil is wrecking outsourced business models everywhere and distance from your customer is no longer merely a matter of dull logistics. Whether you are selling coiled steel or cut flowers, the cost of transport is a problem. ing becomes more expensive.

A more likely outcome than localisation will be regionalisation - Asian, Latin American and African manufacturers will be forced to look to neighbouring markets for opportunities if the cost of long-haul markets becomes prohibitive.

An expansion of regional trade would be good for the world as it might open opportunities for neighbours of giants, such as China and India to sell their wares.

However, it may not be good for Britain, which has thrived on London’s role as a global trading mecca. It would not be illogical for trade in financial services to follow the regionalisation of trade in goods - we may see more dispersal of financial markets to the Far East, the Middle East and, eventually, to Latin America and Africa. In such a world, where travel is expensive and financial capital more dispersed, Britain’s advantage might be more difficult to sell. © The Times, London

ue. Too bad, say the anti-globalisation brigade. Do without roses in January. Eat turnips, wear scratchy English tweeds, save the planet and blow a raspberry at global capitalism. Unfortunately, it will not work like that because without the benefit of cheap global trade, we will be at even greater risk of exploitation by big companies.

Inexpensive fuel has made life in Britain very easy for the great majority, bringing with it not just cheap clothes and appliances from Asia but also very cheap food. The tariff wall of expensive marine and jet fuel will favour domestic manufacturers, but it will punish consumers, who will find themselves once again at the mercy of a reduced number of suppliers. These will expand their profit margins, comfortable in the knowledge that the overseas competitor is suffering a critical cost disadvantage.

It is not clear that Britain will gain much from a localised world. A nation that depends heavily on trade is unlikely to profit when trad-

freight cost of importing goods into America represented an effective tariff of 3 per cent when the oil price was dollars 20 per barrel in 2000; it is now more than 9 per cent and will rise to 11 per cent if oil hits dollars 150, CIBC says.

The revenge of localisation will be good for some but not for others and, just as globalisation had its victims, so will the gradual retreat by big business from the air and the high seas.

The business of airfreighting perishable goods is going seriously awry. Most of the cut flowers sold in Britain come from East African and Latin American plantations. This trade has been a key target for climate change campaigners, who worry about so-called food miles and advocate local sourcing to reduce the carbon footprint of produce.

British flower importers complain about 40 per cent increases in freight rates. In the case of carnations, a commodity product, the cost of airfreight from Kenya or Colombia now accounts for half of its val-

Outbreak puts American tomato industry in crisis

Yearly Change (%)

YTD Change (%)

MCAP (million YTL)

1-Y Av.Volum

İMKB-100

38.238

-1,1%

-9,0%

-14,8%

-31,1%

196.635

1.298

Hang Seng

İMKB-30

46.391

-1,2%

-10,4%

-16,6%

-34,2%

140.247

995

Nikkei 225

İMKB-IND

34.195

-1,1%

-8,0%

-7,2%

-15,7%

69.003

355

Cac 40

İMKB-BANK

69.932

-1,3%

-13,4%

-21,5%

-41,7%

74.451

700

DAX

DJIMT

10,60

-0,5%

-7,8%

-2,8%

-10,5%

106

0,55

FTSE 100

Daily Monthly Change (%) Change (%)

Close

CALENDAR

AT A GLAN

CE

June 12 p. of USA Unemp. Ap of USA Retail sales unt balance co ac n Current CB of Japa Meeting for oduction Of Euro Pr Industrial

TurkDEX US$/JP¥ EU€/JP¥

46.550 1,274

were also feeling the pain.

“U.S. consumers have started to reject orders that have already been promised or sent and it is causing a lot of damage to producers,” said Mario Robles, who directs the investigation arm of the vegetable association in the state of Sinaloa.

Mexico sends nearly 700,000 tonnes of tomatoes a year to the United States in a business worth $900 million, according to a Mexican vegetable exporters association.

Exports of Mexican agricultural products soared after the United States, Canada and Mexico lifted all tariff barriers under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

But the benefits can easily be wiped out by a sanitary scare like the one in 2000, when the FDA identified a strain of salmonella in Mexican melons and banned their import.

That cut the $200 million annual export business down to around $3 million, said Robles, and Mexican growers fear the same could happen to tomatoes. Miami Reuters

sold with the vine still attached but those account for only a tiny portion of the industry.

The FDA has said it does not know where the contaminated tomatoes originated. The infections have struck most often in New Mexico and Texas.

The FDA said there had been 167 reported cases as of Tuesday, including at least 23 hospitalizations, related to the outbreak since midApril. The infections were caused by Salmonella Saintpaul, an uncommon type of the bacteria.

Salmonella bacteria are frequently responsible for food-borne illnesses. Symptoms generally appear within 12 to 72 hours after eating infected food and include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

With the tainted spinach scare of 2006 still fresh in their minds, buyers and consumers were unwilling to take chances, growers said. Three people died and more than 200 were sickened by eating spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

Mexican growers, who produce 84 percent of the tomatoes imported by the United States,

certain raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes, and products containing those tomatoes. Major restaurant and grocery chains stopped selling those varieties, and some stopped selling all raw tomatoes entirely.

California was already on the FDA’s cleared list, but some supermarkets still rejected tomatoes from that state, which is the No. 2 U.S. producer with $400 million in annual sales.

“The reality is that the entire tomato industry is being impacted,” said Ed Beckman, president of the California Tomato Farmers. “It wasn’t really clear that round and Romas from California are safe to eat. That’s part of the problem.”

U.S. growers produced $1.28 billion worth of tomatoes last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Florida produces an annual crop valued at $500 million to $700 million, and supplies more than 90 percent of the nation’s tomatoes this time of year, Brown said.

The FDA has said that it is safe to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes

Tomato growers in Florida, California and Mexico are having trouble selling their crops as U.S. regulators hunt the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to certain tomato varieties, growers said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday added parts of Florida, the No. 1 U.S. tomato producer, to its cleared list of states not associated with the outbreak.

But it was unclear whether the move came in time to salvage $40 million worth of Florida tomatoes that an industry official said were in danger of rotting after picking and packing were halted on Saturday.

“The stuff that should have been harvested over the weekend won’t survive more than another day or so. The stuff we have in storage is getting riper every minute and at some point it will have to be disposed of,” said Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange.

The FDA warned U.S. consumers on Saturday that the outbreak was linked to eating

Country

Change (%)

Level

H.Kong

-0,21

23.327,6

Japan

1,16

14.183,5

France

-1,81

4.675,1

Germany

-1,67

6.657,9

UK

-1,73

5.726,3

Dow

USA

-0,96

12.160,0

NASDAQ

USA

-1,28

1.947,2

USA

-1,10

1.343,5

Brasil

-0,71

67.290,7

S&P

-0,53% 0,75%

BOVESPA

70.39 57.32

50.1 42.68 29.61

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3,3

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61,2

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0,38

2,70%

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Price (YTL) Daily Change (%)

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Ticker

Price

Price (YTL) Yearly Change (%)

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ÝMKB IND

P.CHEM.

TUPRS

PTOFS

PETKM

AYGAZ

--

--

10.745,1

5.931,7

2.093,8

1.019,3

760,9

12,2x

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8,2x 8,0x

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P/E 2006/12 P/E 2007/06t P/E 2007/09t

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Price ($) Light C. Oil Gold Copper

134,70 876,20 3,57

Way

Change (%) 2,58 0,96 0,10

High 134,90 876,80 3,57

Low 131,35 869,50 3,56

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.

BUSINESS

Is there a new Washington consensus?

OPINION

By Dani Rodrik* TODAY’S ZAMAN Two and a half years ago, senior staff members of the World Bank approached Nobel laureate Michael Spence to ask him to lead a high-powered commission on economic growth. The question at hand could not have been more important. The “Washington consensus” -- the infamous list of do’s and don’ts for policymakers in developing countries -- had largely dissipated. But what would replace it?

Spence was not sure he was the man for the job. After all, his research had focused on theoretical issues in advanced economies; he had been dean of a business school; and he did not have much experience in economic development. But he was intrigued by the task. And he was encouraged by the enthusiastic and positive response he received from the commission’s prospective members. Thus was born the Spence Commission on Growth and Development, a star-studded group of policymakers -- including another Nobelist -whose final report was issued at the end of May. The Spence report represents a watershed for development policy -- as much for what it says as for what it leaves out. Gone are confident assertions about the virtues of liberalization, deregulation, privatization and free markets. Also gone are the cookie cutter policy recommendations unaffected by contextual differences. Instead, the Spence report adopts an approach that recognizes the limits of what we know, emphasizes pragmatism and gradualism, and encourages governments to be experimental.

Yes, successful economies have many things in common: They all engage in the global economy, maintain macroeconomic stability, stimulate saving and investment, provide market-oriented incentives and are reasonably well governed. It is useful to keep an eye on these commonalities, because they frame the conduct of appropriate economic policies. Saying that context matters does not mean that anything goes. But there is no universal rulebook; different countries achieve these ends differently.

The Spence report reflects a broader intellectual shift within the development profession, a shift that encompasses not just growth strategies but also health, education and other social policies. The traditional policy framework, which the new thinking is gradually replacing, is presumptive rather than diagnostic .

It starts with strong preconceptions about the nature of the problem: too much (or too little) government regulation, too poor governance, too little public spending on health and education, and so on.

Moreover, its recommendations take the form of the proverbial “laundry list” of reforms and emphasize their complementary nature -- the imperative to undertake them all simultaneously -- rather than their sequencing and prioritization. And it is biased toward universal recipes -- “model” institutional arrangements, “best practices,” rules of thumb and so forth.

By contrast, the new policy mindset starts with relative agnosticism about what works. Its hypothesis is that there is a great deal of “slack” in poor countries, so simple changes can make a big difference. As a result, it is explicitly diagnostic and focuses on the most significant economic bottlenecks and constraints. Rather than comprehensive reform, it emphasizes policy experimentation and relatively narrowly targeted initiatives in order to discover local solutions and it calls for monitoring and evaluation in order to learn which experiments work.

The new approach is suspicious of universal remedies. Instead, it searches for policy innovations that provide a shortcut around local economic or political complications. This approach is greatly influenced by China’s experimental gradualism since 1978 -- the most spectacular episode of economic growth and poverty reduction the world has ever seen.

The Spence report is a consensus document, and therefore an easy target for cheap shots. It has no “big ideas” of its own, and at times it tries too hard to please everyone and cover all possible angles. But, as Spence puts it with regard to economic reform itself, you need to take small steps in order to make a big difference in the long run. It is quite a feat to have achieved the degree of consensus he has around a set of ideas that departs in places so markedly from the traditional approach.

It is to Spence’s credit that the report manages to avoid both market fundamentalism and institutional fundamentalism. Rather than offering facile answers such as “just let markets work” or “just get governance right,” it rightly emphasizes that each country must devise its own mix of remedies.

Foreign economists and aid agencies can supply some of the ingredients, but only the country itself can provide the recipe.

If there is a new Washington consensus, it is that the rulebook must be written at home, not in Washington. And that is real progress. * Dani Rodrik is a professor of political economy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was the first recipient of the Social Science Research Council’s Albert O. Hirschman Prize. His latest book is “One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth.” © Project Syndicate 2008

Page 1

A miracle lying beside the River Han with a special tie to Turkey

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10 TODAY’S ZAMAN

Japan's unpopular Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda suffered an unprecedented censure in parliament's upper house on Wednesday, but the embarrassing opposition move was not expected to force him to resign or call a snap poll soon. The opposition Democratic Party and smaller allies approved the non-binding censure motion by a vote of 131-105, the first against a prime minister under the current 1947 constitution, in an effort to build momentum for an early lower house election. Ruling party officials brushed off the motion, which comes less than a month before Fukuda hosts a Group of Eight summit, as a political gesture. "If I am pushed, I would have to say that they are putting on a performance for the end of the parliament session," Kazuo Kitagawa, secretary general of the ruling coalition's junior partner, the New Komeito Party, told a news conference before the vote. No election for the powerful lower chamber need be held until September 2009, but Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa has made no secret of his desire to force an early poll in the hope of ousting Fukuda's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan for almost all of the past six decades. Tokyo Reuters

ARMS

Taiwan urges US to sell it advanced F-16 jets

South Korea’s Lee vows new start amid beef protests South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said on Wednesday his government intends to make a fresh start after his entire Cabinet offered to resign in response to weeks of rallies against the planned resumption of US beef imports.

His remarks came hours after about 80,000 people demonstrated into early on Wednesday morning in Seoul in the largest demonstration yet against the beef deal, part of nationwide protests tied to the anniversary of pro-democracy protests in 1987.

"I thought about a lot of things while watching protests last night," Lee told leaders of small companies on Wednesday morning, according to South Korean media pool reports. "The government intends to make a start with a new determination."

Lee also said he was concerned the Cabinet resignations might cause "a vacuum in state affairs" amid rising oil prices and other economic difficulties.

Lee has not yet said whether he will accept the resignations, but he was expected to reshuffle a few ministers -- which would not affect his ability to serve out his single, five-year term.

South Korean media have reported Lee was considering naming his popular chief rival in the ruling party as prime minister to win back public confidence. Aides to Park Geun-hye, daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, said they would persuade her to take the post if Lee officially proposes it, according to reports.

Presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said

Taiwan's envoy urged the United States on Tuesday to clear the sale of advanced Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighter jets as soon as possible, putting the Bush administration in an awkward spot ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

The potential $4.9 billion deal for 66 advanced F-16 C/D models is strongly opposed by China, as are all US arms sales to Taiwan. Critics say the Bush administration has been stalling, at least until after the summer games starting Aug. 8 that Bush is scheduled to attend. "We hope that the US administration will approve the requested sale as soon as possible," Joseph Wu, the outgoing chief representative in Washington, told Reuters in an emailed reply to a query. "We believe that Taiwan's acquisition of additional F-16s ... will do much to enhance Taiwan's air defense and at the same time improve stability across the Taiwan Strait," he said. Wu said it was also in US interests, an apparent reference to the danger that a crossstraits conflict might draw in US troops. Wu, who is to leave in coming weeks, was speaking for the government of Taiwan, said Eddie Tsai, a spokesman for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, the de facto embassy. The new F-16s would supplement 150 F-16A/B models sold to Taiwan by George W. Bush's father, the first President Bush, in 1992. Washington Reuters

Workers from the Korean Metal Workers’ Union scuffle with riot police as police try to block their rally against the rise of prices and government privatization plans for utility companies in Seoul. nothing has been decided, though Park's appointment is one of the ideas under consideration to resolve the national crisis.

The Cabinet's offer to resign on Tuesday was an attempt to defuse the beef crisis that

has sparked weeks of protests and paralyzed Lee's government less than four months after the former Hyundai CEO took office following a landslide election win.

What started as a trickle of small protests against

Sudan probes fatal plane crash, dozens feared dead An official says at least 29 people were killed inside the burning plane, while 171 managed to escape, adding that 14 still remained unaccounted for. Many passengers fleeing the burning plane did not bother to pass through customs, making the toll initially difficult to ascertain, he added Sudanese investigators on Wednesday were trying to determine what caused a jetliner that had just landed in a thunderstorm to veer off a runway and burst into flames in Sudan's capital.

At least 29 people were killed inside the burning plane, while 171 managed to escape, said Sudan Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Abdel Hafez Abdel Rahim Mahmoud to The Associated Press, adding that 14 still remained unaccounted for.

Many passengers fleeing the burning plane did not bother to pass through customs, making the toll initially difficult to ascertain.

By Wednesday morning, the fire has been completely extinguished and civil defense officials were now examining the wreckage to determine the causes of the crash, police spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed Abdel Majid al-Tayeb told the official SUNA news agency. The Sudan Airways jetliner appeared to have gone off the runway after landing at Khartoum International Airport, and several loud explosions resounded as fire raced through the aircraft, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.

The roaring blaze dwarfed the Airbus A310's shattered fuselage as firefighters sprayed water, Sudanese TV footage showed.

OBITUARY

Ambulances and firetrucks rushed to the scene, and media were kept away. One survivor said the landing was "rough," and there was a sharp impact several minutes later.

"The right wing was on fire," said the passenger, who did not give his name. He said smoke got into the cockpit and some people started opening the emergency exits. Soon, fire engulfed the plane, he told Sudanese television. Passenger Kamal Eddin Mohammed said that "as we landed, the engine burst into flame -- I was sitting right next to it."

"It was horror inside the plane," Mohammed told Al-Jazeera TV. A sandstorm had hit the area with 20 mph winds between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. and there was a thunderstorm and similar winds at the time of the crash around 9 p.m. local time, said Elaine Yang, a meteorologist with the San Francisco-based Weather Underground, a private weather service.

But there were differing reports on the role weather played. The head of Sudanese police, Mohammad Najib, said bad weather "caused the plane to crash land, split into two and catch fire." Youssef Ibrahim, director of the Khartoum airport, disputed that bad weather was to blame and told Sudanese TV that the plane "landed safely" and the pilot was talking

to the control tower and getting further instructions when the accident occurred.

"One of the (plane's) engines exploded and the plane caught fire," Ibrahim said. He blamed the accident on technical problems, but didn't elaborate. Airbus said in a statement that it was sending a team of specialists to Khartoum to help in the investigation. It said the plane involved in the accident was 18 years old and had been operated by Sudan Airways since September.

France's Inquiry and Analysis Bureau, known by its French initials BEA, is also taking part in the inquiry because the plane was made by France-based Airbus.

Civil aviation asked its counterpart in Amman, Jordan, the origin of the flight, for the passenger manifest to determine who was actually on the flight, as the original was destroyed in the crash, SUNA reported.

Khartoum airport reopened on noon Wednesday. Sudan has a poor aviation safety record. In May, a plane crash in a remote area of southern Sudan killed 24 people, including key members of the southern Sudanese government. In July 2003, a Sudan Airways Boeing 737 en route from Port Sudan to Khartoum crashed soon after takeoff, killing all 115 people on board. Khartoum AP

Bangladesh frees Hasina from custody Bangladesh's military-backed government released ailing former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday after nearly a year of detention on corruption charges.

Prison chief Zakir Hasan said Hasina was released for eight weeks to obtain "better medical treatment abroad." Hasina was freed from a special prison on Parliament's premises and driven to her residence in central Dhaka under heavy security.

Hundreds of jubilant supporters, many bearing flowers, greeted Hasina outside her residence, where she was arrested on July 16 last year.

Hasina is likely to leave for either the United States or Canada early Thursday for treatment of eye and ear problems and high blood pressure, said a spokesman for her Awami League party, Syed Ashraful Islam.

Hasina's children live in the United States.

Earlier Wednesday, the head of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, signed an order exempting Hasina from appearing in person during her corruption trial for medical reasons, the United News of Bangladesh news agency said.

"Her release is temporary and conditional," said Abdul Karim, the top official in the Home Ministry. Dhaka AP

PHOTO

Pakistan condemns ‘cowardly’ US attack

SECURITY

Pentagon to present White House top security issues Facing the first White House transition in wartime since 1969, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a team to identify issues and potential security crises the next president and Pentagon chief must be prepared to deal with on their first day in office. Gates also said on Tuesday he asked civilian leaders inside the Defense Department, mostly Republican political appointees, to stay in their jobs, if asked by the next president, until their successors are confirmed by the US Senate."That could ensure some continuity in management of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as other issues, he said.

"That's obviously up to the new president but I hope that they'll have at least a choice of having some continuity while the confirmation process goes forward so that a new secretary (of defense) doesn't arrive and find that on the civilian side, he's all alone," Gates added. "This is the first transition in wartime in 40 years and I just want to make sure that we don't drop the baton in wartime," he told reporters. Washington Reuters

a beef deal with the US has swelled into a torrent of anti-government street rallies, invoking the memory of pro-democracy movements in the 1980s that brought down the then-military dictatorship.

Rallies continued until early on Wednesday, but no clashes or injuries were reported. Police said they arrested about 20 protesters on charges of occupying major Seoul streets and causing traffic congestion.

Lee, a pro-American conservative, agreed in April just before a summit with US President George W. Bush to reopen the country's beef market -- resolving the issue that had long been an irritant in bilateral ties.

South Korea was the third-largest overseas customer for US beef until it banned imports after a case of mad cow disease -- the first of three confirmed in the United States -- was detected in 2003.

Lee's government said it has asked the US not to export beef from older cattle, considered at greater risk of mad cow disease. But he has rejected calls for a complete renegotiation of the accord, citing possible diplomatic and trade disputes with the US. "We're not considering a renegotiation," South Korean Deputy Trade Minister Ahn Ho-young told reporters Wednesday. "If we break our promise, the consequences are enormous. South Korea will become an unreliable country."

Both Seoul and Washington insist US beef is safe, citing the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health. Seoul AP

AP

Former Vietnamese PM Vo Van Kiet dies Former Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, an economic reformer who led the Communist nation away from poverty and isolation and backed the normalization of ties with the United States, died on Wednesday. He was 85. Kiet, who was prime minister from 1991 to 1997, died in a hospital in Singapore, where he was taken Saturday after suffering a stroke, government officials said.

His body was transported later on Wednesday to Ho Chi Minh City, the city in southern Vietnam where he held a number of top Communist Party and government posts.

Born into a peasant family in southern Vinh Long province on Nov. 23, 1922, Kiet fought the French and Americans for almost four decades, joining Communist revolutionary forces at the age of 16. As prime minister, Kiet helped craft policies that attracted billions of dollars in foreign investment, vastly expanded trade and enabled the economy to grow at an annual rate of better than 8 percent. Impatient with Communist Party functionaries trying to protect their own turf, Kiet argued that the party could only stay in power if it loosened its tight hold over the government and business, allowing them to become more efficient. Although his first wife and two children were said to have been killed by US forces during the Vietnam War, Kiet was a firm supporter of normalizing relations with the United States, finally achieved in 1995. Hanoi AP

REUTERS

Japan PM censured, but unlikely to quit

PHOTO

WOES

WORLD

T H U R S D AY, JUNE 1 2 , 2 0 0 8

REUTERS

11.06.2008

PHOTO

T10-12-06-08.qxd

Authorities inspect the scene the morning after a Sudanese jetliner veered off a runway after landing amid thunderstorms and exploded into flames, at the airport in the capital Khartoum, Sudan, on Wednesday. Dozens of passengers reportedly were killed.

CM Y K

Pakistan said on Wednesday an "unprovoked and cowardly" air strike by US forces had killed 11 Pakistani soldiers on its border with Afghanistan and undermined the basis of security cooperation.

The soldiers were killed at a border post in the Mohmand region, opposite Afghanistan's Kunar province, late on Tuesday as US coalition forces in Afghanistan battled militants attacking from Pakistan, a Pakistani security official said.

The US military said in a statement issued on Wednesday that it had coordinated the artillery and air strike with Pakistan, but was investigating further. The incident came as frustration is rising in Kabul and among Western forces in Afghanistan over Pakistani efforts to negotiate pacts to end militant violence on its side of the border. NATO says such deals lead to more violence in Afghanistan.

In its strongest criticism of the US military since joining the US-led campaign against terrorism, the Pakistani military condemned the killing of the 11 paramilitary soldiers, including an officer. If confirmed, it would be the most Pakistani soldiers ever killed in an attack by US forces.

"The attack hit at the very basis of cooperation and sacrifice with which Pakistani soldiers are supporting the coalition in the war against terror," the military said. "Such acts of aggression do not serve the common cause of fighting terrorism," it said in a statement. Islamabad Reuters

18:56

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Page 1

12 TODAY’S ZAMAN

EXPAT ZONE

T H U R S D AY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 0 8

Rose fever No matter where someone lives in the world, they are almost certain to have a favorite time of year, a season that they look forward to with particular anticipation. When I lived in the UK, my favorite time of year was probably the spring when the daffodils burst into bloom, transforming parks and grass verges into a veritable sea of yellow. I also had an especially soft spot for late autumn, in particular for the days in early November when the air hung heavy with the smoke from a thousand Guy Fawkes' bonfires, a smell that always aroused a nostalgic yearning for some half-imagined childhood in me.

When you live in a beauty spot, however, it can be harder to settle on a favorite season when they all bring something special.

Now that I live in Göreme, I find myself struggling to settle for just one. There are those rare and glorious days in winter when the sun shines down from a bright blue sky on a landscape

swathed in silent whiteness. And there are those lovely days of early autumn when the sun is still shining but there's a nip in the air and my neighbors are busy with their preparations for winter - boiling blood-red salça in vast vats, pouring golden-brown pekmez syrup back and forth between a myriad utensils, picking seeds from yellow pumpkin shells that always remind me of skulls and chopping endless firewood.

Forced to decide, I'd probably have to plump for the rose season, which means for where we are now. Recently I was wandering around a part of the village I rarely visit now that most of the old houses have been turned into hotels. Suddenly I found myself brought up short by the most wonderful sight -- a waterfall of red roses tumbling down the stone walls of the Cappadocia Cave Suites Hotel. A few steps further on and I came to the Sarýhan Hotel, a less successful cave conversion but one which now had

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CAVE LIFE PAT YALE

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" I said to the dolmuþ driver who used to run a local restaurant which always boasted a fine display of roses in early summer.

"Yes, but they've only planted three varieties," he said, and proceeded to tick them off for me on his fingers. Really, he was not the sort of man I would have fancied for a rose lover, but just at that moment a picture flashed in front of my eyes -- Þiblizade Ahmed's famous portrait of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror sitting cross-legged and wearing an impressive turban and fur-lined kaftan, his delicate fingers holding a rose to his nose with a refinement that belied his renown as the man who finally wrested Constantinople from the Byzantines.

bed upon glorious bed of roses lined up in front of it.

Tulips may be the flower with which Nevþehir prefers to associate itself, but in reality with every passing year it is the rose that is winning the flower show. This year, in a valedictory performance before its almost certain demise next year, Üçhisar Belediyesi has planted roses all along the median strip that runs through the new part of town.

Pat Yale lives in a restored cave-house in Göreme in Cappadocia

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EXPAT PROFILE

Ýstanbul Office of Mufti publishes informative, multi-lingual brochures on Islam

‘I have had opportunities here that I might not ever have had,’ says architect Esbie van Heerden

KATHY HAMILTON ÝSTANBUL

Turkey and South Africa are geographically far removed from each other, but expat Esbie van Heerden finds many similarities. Gazing out from her apartment in Arnavutköy with its view of the Bosporus, the area she considers to be the best part of Ýstanbul, van Heerden says she often feels privileged to be surrounded by so much beauty and woken by church bells in the morning. This part of town, to her, reflects a sense of bygone Ýstanbul with its multiple cultures and faiths.

Musing on her connection to the two countries, she said, "Both countries have had a tumultuous history and have a cosmopolitan aspect to it. They are both countries that know poverty as well as incredible riches. Although there are few cultural and business links, these stark contrasts that you find in life in Turkey are familiar to me.

Both are countries in flux, countries that have had problems with their neighbors and at times have had a complex relationship with the international community. Actually, one of the most important reasons why the Portuguese first sailed around that Cape of Good Hope, and the reason the Dutch, my ancestors, created a halfway station there, was the control that the Ottomans had of the spice route."

A long-time resident of Ýstanbul, van Heerden has been coming and going from Turkey for well over 10 years. In South Africa she studies architecture at the University of Pretoria. In the course of her studies she took a course in Islamic architecture from the renowned authority, Professor Schalk le Roux. Amazed by the architecture of the Ottomans she was especially drawn to the work of master architect Mimar Sinan. Recounting her first visit to Ýstanbul, which sparked her love for the country, she explained: "My first visit to Turkey was as a student and I will never forget my magical arrival to Ýstanbul. I arrived on the train from Athens to Sirkeci after a harrowing 48-hour train trip. It was winter and we arrived just before sunrise. I was traveling with a female friend and we stood confused in Sirkeci, eventually making our way up to the park between the Haghia Sophia and the Sultan Ahmet Mosque.

We sat on a bench and waited for the sun to come up. It is hard to describe how exotic it was for us when the call to prayer sounded and slowly the sun came up shining on the minarets and domes around us. I think this is where my love affair with Turkey started."

Following that first visit to Turkey, she finished her degree, and like many South Africans decided to head to London to seek employment. However, on the way to England she stopped in Ýstanbul again, this time to visit a friend of hers who was living here.

Offered a job at an architect's office, she decided to stay. Eventually she did go to London for further studies with the Architectural Association, but after living in Ýstanbul she found London a cold and harsh place and she returned quickly to Turkey. She worked for several firms until she was offered a job with a South African construction company that was doing work in Ýstanbul. It was dur-

ing this time that she met the man she refers to as the love of her life, at the Marmara Hotel. While it was the romantic beauty of old Ýstanbul that drew her here at first, it is love that has kept her here.

As most foreigners discover, life as an expat has its ups and downs. Van Heerden is no exception to that rule. Ýstanbul is home to people from around the world, but there is often a transient nature to friendships forged in the expat community as many families are here for just a few years and then move on to their next assignments.

Discussing this aspect of her life, she explained: "The loss of good friendships is particularly painful. Friends play the role here that your family plays in your home country. Since I have been here on a permanent basis I have been a member, and am now currently serving on the board of the International Women of Ýstanbul (www.iwitr.org). This has been a lifeline for me and I have met very many fascinating people from all over the world, many that have settled here too. Turkish people are known as very hospitable and although I do not want to dispute the fact, Ýstanbul is now a world city where loneliness and alienation is a problem for all of us, Turk and foreigner alike. However, it has been possible for me to turn a negative into a positive by getting involved with an organization like IWI and sharing my watercolor painting hobby with other enthusiasts."

Another challenge for her has been in her professional life. In South Africa it is difficult to become an architect, but she discovered that in Turkey there are many more architecture graduates and they are often willing to work very long hours for very little pay. Always more interested in design on a household scale, she has found limited opportunities in Ýstanbul for such work. However, she points out: "I have had opportunities here that I might not ever have had.

The construction industry is very dynamic, I have been able to do restoration projects and work on really huge projects too. I was very lucky to have been a co-recipient of the 2002 Turkish Chamber of Architects and Engineers Mimar Sinan Award for Protection and Rehabilitation for the restoration of an old wooden house in Arnavutköy." One of her favorite historic sites in Ýstanbul is the courtyard of the Sokullu Mehmet Paþa Mosque, a place she considers a gem, built by Mimar Sinan. While van Heerden makes Ýstanbul her home, she is also intrigued by the area around Assos, particularly the town of Behramkale with the temple of Athena above it.

Her fascination with the area is apparent as she describes what draws her there, "On the terraces descending to the sea are agoras, a gymnasium and a theater. From the northern corner of the acropolis you can see a mosque, a bridge and fortress, all built in the 14th century by the Ottoman Sultan Murat I." As for many foreigners, learning Turkish has proven to be a challenge, but one she has coped with well. While she admits her Turkish is by no means perfect, she learned a lot from working here. At first she listened and imitated people and memorized phrases. She advises those with Turkish speaking spouses to learn at least enough of the language to mange on their own. She elabo-

rates on this point by saying: "The over-helpful spouses who do everything are often more of a hindrance in learning Turkish. Ask yourself, what self-respecting woman will get her husband to call up the cable guy and do every little thing for her? You will always be complimented when you try to speak Turkish; people here are very appreciative of your efforts. But, don't underestimate the length of time it takes and beat yourself down if you have been here a few years and cannot really speak that well."

Her earlier days of living in Turkey without a good grasp of the language led to one of her more amusing introductions to Turkish hospitality. A friend of hers had her heart broken, and they got together to commiserate. Very proud of the fact that they knew enough of the language to call and put in an order at the neighborhood shop, they phoned the corner bakkal and placed an order for a long list of all the items needed to comfort broken hearted girls: chocolate, potato chips and drinks. Unbeknownst to them, they had actually phoned the local taxi stand instead and the driver was unable to communicate to them that they had dialed the wrong number. As they waited for their delivery they realized their mistake and called the correct number for the corner store and proceeded to place their order anew.

Minutes later two bags of supplies arrived at their door -- one from the bakkal and one from the taxi driver who had gone out and purchased what they had ordered from him by accident. Embarrassed, they paid for both deliveries and van Heerden never forgot the kindness of the driver who went out of his way to be helpful. For a long time afterwards whenever she called for a taxi he would jokingly ask her if she needed any groceries along with the cab.

Van Heerden has learned to deal with Turkish culture in both her professional and personal life. Her husband is Turkish and was educated abroad in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Together they have blended their backgrounds to create their own unique third culture at home. Her advice for foreigners facing similar situations is simple: "The best advice is to be respectful and not try to change each other. Many relationships fail because one spouse may be expected to completely fit in. This is an unbearable pressure that will always lead to unhappiness. It has been difficult for me to get used to how closely knit Turkish families are. Responsibility plays a big role, whereas independence and self-sufficiency are not encouraged. This is diametrically opposed to my culture. But, I am very lucky that women in his family are very strong; his mother and her sisters have had a business at Atatürk Airport since 1967 and they are examples of modern, liberated Turkish women. I think the underlying important thing is to get to know the culture you are living in, but to also be strong and know yourself. Don't be afraid to ask questions, but be clear with what you are comfortable with and what you are uncomfortable with. This way you will get respect."

From South Africa to Ýstanbul, van Heerden was drawn to the city first by its Ottoman past. She continues to stay because of the hold it has on her heart.

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.

CM Y K

OSMAN ÇOÞKUN

South Afrýcan archýtect drawn to Turkey through Ottoman archýtecture

The Office of the Mufti of Ýstanbul has started publishing brochures in a number of foreign languages to answer the questions about Islam often asked by tourists.

The office first determined the five topics most often asked about by tourists and then provided detailed, but brief explanations about them in brochures in English, French and Spanish for each topic.

The informative brochures will first appear at stands to be placed at the entrances of the major religious tourist attractions in Ýstanbul, such as the Sultanahmet, Süleymaniye and Beyazýt Mosques.

The mufti of Ýstanbul, Prof. Mustafa Çaðrýcý, said they would send the brochures to mufti offices in Mediterranean and Aegean holiday resort towns to reach as many foreign tourists as possible and to help eliminate preconceived views on Islam.

The first set of questions directed at tourist guides during mosque visits are always about the meaning of prayer in Islam, the function of mosques, the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran. Mufti Çaðrýcý stressed that tourist guides were not knowledgeable enough to provide satisfactory answers, adding: "That's why we felt obliged to publish these brochures. After seeing the great interest shown in the English brochures, we immediately published the French and Spanish versions and the German, Italian, Russian and Japanese brochures are on their way.

Our foremost concern was to use the right visual elements in harmony with the topic and to make the brochures readable and portable as much as possible." The front page of the brochures is also clearly marked, "This brochure has been prepared for you and is available free of charge."

"Prophet Muhammad," "Islam, Prayer and Mosques," "What is Islam?" "Quran: Final Revelation" and "Jesus and Mary" are the titles of the brochures.

"We provide very concise and informative answers in the brochures. We tried to provide answers that are as short as possible. A foreign tourist who reads it will have an accurate concept of Islam in only five minutes," Çaðrýcý said. Çaðrýcý also pointed out that they have received requests from Turkish citizens to publish the brochures in Turkish as well.

PHOTO

PHOTO

MEHMET ALÝ POYRAZ

MÜKREMÝN ALBAYRAK ÝSTANBUL

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T14-12-06-08.qxd

11.06.2008

16:46

Page 1

14 TODAY’S ZAMAN

THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008

OPINION

BALANCING ASIA’S RIVALS

The European Court of Human Rýghts and polýtýcs

JOSEPH S.NYE*

ERGUN ÖZBUDUN*

PHOTO

REUTERS

As may be recalled, the 1982 Constitution stipulates with regard to political party closures that deputies whose actions and statements are found by the relevant court to be legal grounds for banning the party will be removed from office (Article 84), and party members whose actions and are found by the relevant court to be legal grounds for banning the party cannot become involved with another political party for five years (Article 69). The wording of these two articles included more radical provisions in the original text of the Constitution. Under the previous wording of Article 84, not only those deputies whose actions and statements were found by the relevant court to be legal grounds for banning the party, but also all party members at the time of the closure case's deposition would be required to step down from office. The former articulation of Article 69 prohibited the creation of new political parties with more than half of their members the former members of a banned party. These harsh prohibitions were changed through constitutional amendments in 1995.

However whether the articles' current forms are compatible with European human rights standards is doubtful. In relation to this matter, in a lawsuit filed by Resul Sadak (a former Ýdil mayor who asserted the 10 percent threshold to enter Parliament was violation of human rights) and others at the European Court of Human Rights against Turkey, concluded on June 11, 2002, the court viewed the removal of all the deputies in the party from office as a harsh measure and a disproportional punishment. The court found the punishment dealt to those who brought their case to the Constitutional Court to be unfair.

Therefore the court held that the said measure was in violation of the sovereign power and will of the voters who elected the deputies to Parliament (paragraphs 34-40). While the court noted the constitutional amendments in 1995, it stated no view on the matter because of its irrelevance to the case.

The second decision was made on Nov. 29, 2007, upon application by Bekir Sobacý. As is known, Sobacý and Nazlý Ilýcak were removed from the office of deputy following the closure of their party by the Constitutional Court. In its decision, the European Court made reference to the Sadak judgment first and further concluded that the sanction was too grave and could not be regarded as proportional to the sought goal, and that Article 3 of Protocol 1 was violated by the Turkish state. The court held that the sanction introduced by the Constitutional Court violated the essence of the applicant's right to fulfill legislative and elective duties and the sovereign power of the voters who elected the applicant to Parliament (paragraphs 31-33).

The three decisions made by the court in 2007 are supportive of each other. In Kavakçý (application no. 71907/01) and Sýlay (application no. 8691/02), the court viewed deprivation of political rights as a grave sanction and violation of the applicants' right to be elected, further concluding that the introduced sanction was disproportional (Affaire Kavakçý c. Turquie, paragraphs 45-49). In the Ilýcak case (Affaire Ilýcak c. Turquie, April 5, 2007, application no. 15394/02), the court, similarly, saw the sanction of removal from deputyship as a grave measure and disproportionate to the sought goal, further concluding that the sanctions violated Article 3 of Protocol 1 because of the breach in the sovereign power of the voters who elected the applicant as parliamentarian (paragraphs 35-37). In all these judgments, the European Court considered that the introduced measures sought to protect the secular structure of the Turkish state whereas it also underlined that the measures were disproportionate and non-mandatory based on the needs of the social order.

Turkey is one of the founding members of the Council of Europe. It signed the European Convention on Human Rights on May 18, 1954; acknowledged the right to individual application to the European Court on Jan. 22, 1987; and approved the binding effect of European Court rulings on Sept. 25, 1989. The convention and the supplemental European Court rulings were made superior to domestic laws and regulations through a constitutional amendment made to Article 90, underk which Turkish judicial institutions are obligated to consider the convention provisions and European Court judgments and give priority to these instruments in their decisions.

Interpreting the current constitutional provisions in a way that expands the sphere of prohibitions and bans while the inconsistency of the said provisions with the Convention was visible is a clear example of how the law is distorted based on ideological goals. While the prohibition from political activity as outlined in Article 69 has nothing to do with candidature for independent deputyship, interpreting the ban in way to include the said option or asserting that the concerned person may run for candidacy in general elections alone is not based on a legal ground or justification. There is no provision against independent candidature for deputyship in the Constitution or other legislation.

Article 95 of the Political Parties Law notes that these persons may not be nominated by political parties in elections. Likewise, no distinction is made between general or local elections in terms of eligibility of the members of a banned party to run for political posts. Interpretation of the prohibitive provisions in a restrictive way is a basic standard in legal reasoning and interpretation. Expansive interpretation to broaden the sphere of the prohibitions will be in violation of Article 13 of the Constitution, which underlines that freedoms and liberties may be restricted by law only. * Dr. Ergun Özbudun is an instructor at Bilkent University.

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

*Joseph S. Nye is a professor at Harvard and author, most recently, of "The Powers to Lead."© Project Syndicate, 2008.

Daðýstan Çetinkaya

Thýnk tank cafe´ Established on January 16, 2007 NO: 0488 Thursday, June 12, 2008

Executive Editor Managing Editors

George W. Bush is approaching the end of his presidency mired in low popularity ratings, which partly reflects his policies in the Middle East. But Bush leaves behind a better legacy in Asia. American relations with Japan and China remain strong and he has greatly enhanced the United States' ties with India, the world's second most populous country.

In 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepared a visit to Delhi by Bush the following year in which he announced a major agreement on US-Indian civilian nuclear cooperation, as well as a variety of measures for commercial and defense cooperation. The nuclear cooperation agreement was criticized in the US Congress for not being strict enough on non-proliferation issues, but it looked likely to pass. In India, the Communist Party, a small (but important) member of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ruling coalition, has blocked the agreement. But as one Indian friend explained to me, this is mainly symbolic politics for India's left. Even if the nuclear agreement fails, the improvement in US-India relations is likely to continue. Some attribute this to the fact that India and the US are the world's two largest democracies. But that was true for much of the Cold War, when they frequently talked past each other.

More importantly, with the end of the Cold War the Soviet Union was no longer available as an Indian ally and the US began to assess India and Pakistan in terms of separate interests, rather than as a pair linked in a South Asia balance of power. As Evan Feigenbaum, the top State Department official for South Asia, recently said: "The world of 2008 is not the world of 1948.

And so India really has the capacity and, we think, the interest, to work with the United States and other partners on a variety of issues of global and regional scope." This change began under the Clinton administration and is likely to continue regardless of who is elected president in 2008.

Personal contacts between Indians and Americans have increased greatly. There are now more than 80,000 Indian students studying in the US, and many have stayed to establish successful companies. The Indian diaspora in the US constitutes roughly 3 million people, many of whom actively participate in politics. For example, Louisiana's governor is of Indian origin and has been mentioned as a possible running mate for John McCain. In addition, India's economy has begun to grow by 8 percent annually, making it more attractive for foreign investment. Trade between India and American is increasing and reached $26 billion (11 percent of India's total trade) in 2006.

In addition to these practical reasons for the improvement in bilateral relations, the rise of China poses a strategic consideration. As Bill Emmott, the former editor of The Economist argues in his new book "The Rivals,": "Where Nixon had used China to balance the Soviet Union, Bush was using India to balance China. Like Nixon's move, with hindsight Bush's approach to India made perfect sense." And the concern is reciprocated on the Indian side. As a senior foreign ministry official told Emmott in 2007: "The thing you have to understand is that both of us [India and China] think that the future belongs to us. We can't both be right."

Official pronouncements stress friendly relations between India and China and some trade analysts argue that given their rapid growth, the two giant markets will become an economic "Chindia."

When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited India in 2005, he signed 11 agreements, including a comprehensive five-year strategic cooperation pact. In addition, Wen announced that China would support India's inclusion as a permanent member of an expanded United Nations Security Council, and oppose Japan's inclusion, which the US supports. As Singh put it during Wen's visit, "India and China can together reshape the world order."

The two countries' recent rapprochement marks a considerable change from the hostility that bedeviled their relations following their 1962 war over a disputed border in the Himalayas. Nevertheless, strategic anxiety lurks below the surface, particularly in India. China's GDP is three times that of India, its growth rate is higher, and its defense budget increased by nearly 18 percent last year. The border dispute remains unsettled and both countries vie for influence in neighboring states such as Myanmar.

China's rise has also created anxiety in Japan, again despite professions of good relations during Chinese President Hu Jintao's recent visit to Tokyo. Thus, Japan has increased its aid and trade with India. Last year, the US suggested quadrilateral defense exercises including US, Japanese, Indian, and Australian naval units, but the newly elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pulled his country out of such arrangements.

Rudd wisely believes that the right response to China's rise is to incorporate it into international institutional arrangements. Or, as Robert Zoellick, currently the president of the World Bank, put it when he was a State Department official, the US should invite China to become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system.

Improved relations between India and the US can structure the international situation in a manner that encourages such an evolution in Chinese policy, whereas trying to isolate China would be a mistake. Handled properly, the simultaneous rise of China and India could be good for all countries.

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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T15-12-06-08.qxd

11.06.2008

19:03

Page 1

COLUMNS

TODAY’S ZAMAN 15

T H U R S D AY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 0 8

The end of the reform era ýn Turkey?

The decision by the Turkish Constitutional Court on June 5 to annul the amendments of Articles 10 and 42 was a turning point in the country's legal and political history.

With this radical and unprecedented decision, the possibility of lifting the headscarf ban at Turkish universities is out of the question. But the court's decision goes way beyond the headscarf issue.

There are three immediate consequences to consider.

First of all, this is a major setback for civil liberties and individual freedoms in Turkey. The militant secularist establishment in Turkey believes in the law as a way of protecting the state from individuals. The judiciary is seen as the last bastion of secularism to maintain the status quo. The Constitutional Court has openly declared that it considers the headscarf, a basic religious right under normal circumstances, to be a violation of secularism. This extremely narrow interpretation of secularism proves that Turkish secularism has little concern for basic human rights and civil liberties when it comes to the security of the state.

Secondly, the decision is a major blow to the authority

BÜLENT KORUCU

ÝBRAHÝM KALIN i.kalin@todayszaman.com

and powers of Parliament. Remember, the amendments of Articles 10 and 42 were proposed and supported by 411 deputies from four different parties and one independent.

This is more than 80 percent of the Turkish Parliament. In a parliamentary democracy, the parliament represents the will of the people. On the question of lifting the headscarf ban at universities, there was a perfect match between the popular will and Parliament in Ankara, with many polls conducted over the last four to five years confirming over and over again that about 80 percent of the Turkish people support lifting the ban. By overturning the amendments, the court has declared itself to be above Parliament and the popular

will. From now on, Parliament will be under the constant tutelage of a juristocratic regime.

Thirdly, the court decision is also a decision about the closure of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). I believe the AK Party was already politically banned on June 5. If we remember that a good part of the indictment is about the headscarf issue, it would not be farfetched to say that the AK Party is certain to be closed by this court.

If there are still some among AK Party ranks thinking that the court may not go for the ultimate punishment, they should think again.

After this decision, it would be better for the AK party to be closed down than live under the constant fear and tutelage of a militant and irresponsible judiciary. Giving a partial punishment to the AK Party (such as excluding it from state funds) short of total closure would cripple the AK Party and its leadership. It would also send a similar message to other political parties that may support the reform process. But in such a scenario there would be no new beginning for the AK Party. The AK Party would be tamed -- i.e., turned into an

No Comment

NEW YORK, REUTERS

ANDREW FINKEL a.finkel@todayszaman.com

b.korucu@todayszaman.com

US, Turkey and unconventýonal wýsdom

Parlýament’s rýght to resýst The fact that the Constitutional Court violated the Constitution, though it is expected to uphold it, has made the loopholes in the system visible. The main problem is that the judiciary steals from the domain of the legislative and executive branches, even replacing them. With its latest decision, the Constitutional Court usurped the legislative power of Parliament. This decision consists of a number of violations, including exercising powers not granted to them by the Constitution, acting as a lawmaker and the way they announce their decisions. The alarm bells are ringing for the parliamentary system. If we do not look at these as isolated, individual incidents, we should be able to find solutions to systematic faults. Extended discourse can be voiced on the amendments to Articles 10 and 42 of the Constitution, which have been annulled. But this is already what those who seek justification for the annulment have been doing. They expect us to puzzle over absurd and irrational possibilities, such as what if the majority party decides one day to hold parliamentary elections every 20 years? These what-ifs cannot be heard even in the UK, which does not have a written constitution. If we start to ponder such absurd propositions, we will pave the way for the ever-increasing pressure of the judiciary on Parliament. We must, instead, concentrate on the question "Can there be an uncontrolled power in a democracy?"

Receiving "no" as answer, we can move on to the second question: "Then, what can be proposed as checks and balances for the judiciary?" The shortest answer is: law. Actually, if democratic conventions and written rules, i.e., law, were functioning, then there would be no problem. If the texts on which the judiciary bases their decisions were drafted by the legislature, there would be no problem. The system consists of the legislature that passes the laws, the executive that implements them and the judiciary that audits both of them. By sending Constitution booklets to 11 members of the Constitutional Court, the Foundation of Jurists' Union did the right thing. The solution was and is in the Constitution. When the Constitutional Court, acting as the maker of the Constitution, attempted to steal the powers of Parliament, the crisis started. Now what we must do is to try to find a safe way out of this situation.

The suggestion made by Ahmet Ýyimaya from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the head of the parliamentary Justice Commission, is a good one that might provide us with such a solution. Government spokesperson Cemil Çiçek was wrong to rule it out without much discussion.

The government and the AK Party officials did not do anything more than reiterating the criticism voiced by journalists and academics. Everyone is aware of the problem, but we are losing time in finding a solution to it. Professor Ýyimaya has considerable experience in constitutional law. It would be useful to discuss his ideas from a renewed perspective. Ýyimaya suggested that the Constitutional Court's decision, which openly violates the Constitution, should be suspended by Parliament.

The limits of constitutional judicial review and the alternatives to possible violations of these limits have been repeatedly discussed by the academics working on the theory of democracy.

From the perspective emphasized by Ýyimaya, we must discuss Parliament's right to resist the decisions of the court.

Parliament has such a right with the president's veto as it can send the vetoed bills back to the president without making any changes. If the president stands firm, then the bill is referred to an arbitrator, which comes in the form of a referendum or judicial review. Why shouldn't such a procedure be implemented between the Constitutional Court and Parliament? If the Constitutional Court does not back down from its position in the face of Parliament's objection, then arbitration by the nation, which is the single source of sovereignty, can be invoked. If Parliament turns to an arbitrator when it fails to elect a president, it should be able to do the same when it fails to pass any laws. At the least, we should discuss alternatives and possibilities.

Although this deserves a separate essay, I must touch upon it here. The thesis on the constituent assembly is hurting democracy. The assembly set up by the masterminds of the military coup of Sept. 12 can draft a constitution, or more correctly, propose a constitution, and Kenan Evren and his colleagues can have the final say, but the Parliament that represents 90 percent of the nation is seen as counterfeit. This is truly regretful.

ineffective, ordinary, right-wing conservative party. The AK Party would "make peace with the system" but this would only mean stopping the process of reforms, democratization and the expansion of liberties in Turkey.

What needs to be done is obvious -- making every effort for full democracy. First of all, Erdoðan and other leaders should initiate a new democratization package, introduce new amendments to be followed by a new constitution and start a gradual process of judicial reforms. The "let's not anger the judges" policy has lost its meaning at this point. Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan should be more active and clear about what he wants from the other party leaders. Inviting them for a cup of tea without a clear agenda would be a waste of time.

It is up to Toptan to protect the rights of Parliament.

The AK Party cannot afford to become a tamed political party of the right. This would not only be the end of the AK Party and the Erdoðan era but also the return of the ancient regime of Turkey -- a semi-democracy under the tutelage of military-civilian democracy backed by a professional juristocracy.

Democracy -- ýt won’t come easy HÜSEYÝN GÜLERCE h.gulerce@todayszaman.com

If a football coach fails to analyze a match correctly, he will never be successful. In this country, there has been a match going on marked by social, political and cultural aspects for about two centuries. If the representatives of the political will were able to correctly analyze this match, there would not have been so many accidents involving democracy. In this country, it would be better for a political party leader to have 10 good consultants than to be a prodigy. Neither the late Adnan Menderes nor the late Turgut Özal had 10 such consultants. Or they had these consultants, but failed to listen to them.

Today, Turkey is again writhing in the pangs of uncertainty, confrontation and conflict. Asking why all this happened or who is to blame will not solve the existing problem.

Suppose that the Constitutional Court violated the Constitution. What sanctions do we have for this? Suppose we asked about the reasons for the court's decision. They might argue: They wanted to amend unamendable articles of the Constitution. It is not possible to do this formally. Thus they tampered with the spirit of the Constitution. Then what can we say? Therefore, we must analyze the match correctly. In this action -- whether you call it a judicial coup or not -- the Constitutional Court is not acting alone. In this respect, it is much more important to be able to realize from where -- instead of justice -- the judiciary draws its support.

The leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) said: "The national will is the constituent will, and this is well-reflected in the Constitution. Therefore the Constitutional Court is the same as the national will. Parliament is the place where the political will manifests itself, and it has a limited jurisdiction." In other words, he declared openly what everyone already knows: The CHP does not give a damn about your reactions and protests.

Therefore we must analyze the match correctly. Considering that it is crowing and bullying as if it is the single-party government, one can conclude that it must be getting encouragement from some groups. The CHP is not alone. The CHP has nothing to do with elections; the CHP has already bid farewell to that

CM Y K

business. In this respect, it is much more important to be able to realize from where the CHP draws its support other than the nation. Therefore we must analyze the match correctly. In a manner that nobody in a democratic country could have even imagined, an indictment has been prepared with much fanfare for the closure of a ruling party that garnered 47 percent of the national vote in the last elections. The court has accepted it, and even given the nod to involving the president in the process. This is an extraordinary case. One can see the determination to do something. They say that we will conquer this hill at all costs. The Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State have issued statements. One can conclude that the judiciary is on the move. There is a total attack, which is supported by the armed forces, saying this is the open declaration of what is already known. The CHP has already sided with the attackers, assuming the role of conducting the political operations and misinforming the masses. University managements, the driving force of the media and the leading business circles, are giving them logistic support. If all of us raise our voices for democracy, law and stability, can we be successful? I am not saying that we should not do this. We are already doing it. We are trying to uphold human rights, freedoms and universal legal principles, and saying that we should not quarrel with our bread and butter. However we must also realize that the rules of the game have been changed and the referee is not in the least bit bothered by this -- he's actually aware of and involved in the problem.

This country does not have a democracy culture. It has failed to comprehend the essence of democracy. Even those who argue for continuation of the status quo say: "Democracy is not compatible with us. The European Union may implement freedom of religion, but if in Turkey Muslims are given the freedom of religion, they will use these freedoms to destroy secularism, which is our unique lifestyle. Therefore we cannot allow democracy."

What am I trying to say? In this country, it will take time for democracy to settle. Democracy may take root in the next generation, maybe. Tension, confrontation and conflict are wasting our time and energy. We must behave not like a stepmother, but as a true mother. Let us make the great sacrifice of not treading on the toes of those groups who have the true power.

Confronting them will do us no good.

Should I make concessions? No. We must hold ourselves upright, but we must not act sentimentally, but instead try to find a reasonable way out. We must bear in mind that democracy won't come easy.

Ironies are to columnists what Carrara marble is to wannabe Italian renaissance sculptors. Let me start chiseling away. Many of you will still remember the curious spring of 2003, when America marched off to war to liberate Iraq, and did so without the help of their long-standing Turkish ally. The new Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, in its first momentous non-decision, failed to muster a parliamentary majority to permit a second US front through the Iraqi Kurdish north. In the months and now years that followed, Ankara has had to live with the guilty satisfaction of having said "no."

Conventional wisdom is that the Turkish Parliament did the right thing for the wrong reason and that it saved itself a lot of misery by not getting Turkey involved. But of course nothing is quite so misleading as conventional wisdom.

The invasion of Iraq has, of course, had profound repercussions on Turkish-US relations. It is one thing to have a strategic relationship with a country all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, and another to have a superpower overseeing control of your southeastern border. Turkey failed (it was never conceivable that it would succeed) in preventing the destruction of the pre-war status quo. The irony (!) is that Ankara is now addicted to the post-war status quo it did its best to prevent. It is now just as nervous about a new US president becoming disinterested in Iraq as it was about the initial invasion. A timetable for withdrawal, as far as many in Turkey are concerned, would be a timetable for an independent Kurdish north.

However Ankara's reluctance to support the US back in 2003 had other and less easily defined consequences. I have expressed the opinion in this column before that the Turkish Parliament's 11th-hour failure to license American troops access through its territory was a perverse recognition, more than a decade after the fact, that the Cold War was finally over. Ankara shocked itself by its own bravery, and the reverberations of its declaration of geopolitical independence still continue. I believe that a great deal of the confusion in domestic politics is a consequence of Turkey trying to adjust to a lonelier universe. If decoupling itself from the US in 2003 was almost an act of patricide as far as Turkey was concerned, Washington did not see the issue in such primal terms. Some, of course, do bear a grudge. My colleague Yavuz Baydar wrote in his column yesterday about neocon commentator Michael Rubin, who pursues his "Kill Tayyip" mission in the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal, with the florid hypertension of a crazed Tarantino obsessive. Those in America who provided ideological backing for the Iraq war and who risk the perpetual contempt of history have reason to see the AK Party government as part of an Islam-inspired betrayal. However policymakers in the US have been, on the whole, far more pragmatic. They still tried to keep Ankara on side, and did so by emphasizing that Turkey was important not because its bases were still important to American troops in Baghdad (which they are), but because Turkey represented a role model for the region. "Buck up, chaps! If Turkey can sustain a working democracy and a functioning economy, then you can do it too," is the message. But of course herein lies more of those ironies.

While American goody-two-shoes are busy endorsing the compatibility of democracy and Islam, a powerful group within Turkey is doing its best to prove the proposition false. Allow the people to decide, they paraphrase Rubin, and you will end up with a government that hates America's guts. They go one step further than Rubin in saying that they don't really like America either.

Washington is named as a virtual accomplice in the indictment to shut down the AK Party, itself trying to undermine the secular character of the Turkish state.

A final irony. Having failed to back the Bush administration in its 2003 hour of need, the AK Party wouldn't actually mind if Washington came to its rescue in 2008. Even then, the party must know this is a proposition easier said than done.

T16-12-06-08.qxd

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T17-12-06-08.qxd

11.06.2008

18:57

Page 1

CONTINUATION

TODAY’S ZAMAN 17

T H U R S D AY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 0 8

Turkish government deals fatal blow to child labor PHOTO

ALÝ ÜNAL

contýnued from page 1 Turkish law prohibits children under the age of 15 from working; however, 42 percent of children employed in 1994 were younger than 14. In 2006 this percentage was reduced to 33 percent, or 318,000 children.

In order to achieve this success, Turkey trained labor inspectors on child labor laws and implemented policies to monitor child labor. The Ministry of Labor has also prepared and is implementing long-term polices and programs for public awareness of child labor and the elimination of poverty. One such program includes vocational training courses for parents of working children.

ILO-IPEC national coordinator Nejat Kocabay said a downward trend has been observed with respect to child labor but that this does not mean the problem has been solved.

He noted that apart from 112 projects operating in various cities, the government's decision to extend compulsory education from five years to eight had contributed considerably to the prevention of child labor.

"After compulsory education was extended to eight years, the drop in child labor figures sharpened. EU progress reports and national development program meetings regularly highlight the correlation. Public awareness has increased, too. In 1992 only ILO and IPEC funded projects to eliminate child labor, but today many national and international establishments, including the United Nations and the EU, provide funds for the efforts," Kocabay said.

ILO Turkey Director Gülay Aslantepe, in her foreword in a report on child labor in Turkey recently published by the Ministry of Labor, added that there now exists a culture of "struggle against child labor" in Turkey.

"The determined attitude of the government, civil society organizations, local administrations, universities, unions and employer organizations has played an important role in

this decisiveness," she said.

Dr. Sýddýk Topaloðlu, former head of the Ýzmir team for the prevention of child labor, explained the group's philosophy as being to

save as many children as possible and prevent them from joining the workforce.

"One day the shore was covered by starfish.

A child began taking the starfish one by one to throw them back into the sea. As we passed by, some people asked, 'How many of them can you save?' The child responded, 'As many as possible.' This is our philosophy, too," Topaloðlu said.

Several projects have been set up to prevent child labor, including vocational training courses with an employment guarantee for families. Additionally, social support centers have been opened throughout the country, including in Ýzmir, Ankara, Bursa and Gaziantep, and are instrumental in monitoring children who escape child labor, directing them to schools and vocational training. The centers are also concerned with the health of working children and organize cultural and physical events.

Labor Inspection Board director Faik Arseven said the success seen in the battle against child labor can only continue with an effective monitoring system which can ensure that the affected children are not returning to the labor force, but are progressing academically.

The Ministry of Education has also established a system to monitor children dropping out of school and joining the work force as well as to find ways to prevent such occurrences.

Kocabay says that in order to eliminate child labor entirely, he supports the idea of extending compulsory education to 11 years.

"Measures supporting the education of girls and improving the vocational education system will further contribute to the prevention of child labor," he said. "Turkey has a national program to fight child labor and this program shows promise for ending the worst forms of child labor by the end of 2014."

Alarming rise in drug abuse among Turkish teenagers Forms of testing

is legal for a center to test a suspicious pill found in a teenager's possession.

Drug tests can be done by screening hair, blood or saliva samples, with hair samples usually giving the most conclusive results. Each 1.5centimeter segment of hair can attest to whether a child has been using a certain kind of drug or not in the past month, which makes it possible to determine the duration of drug abuse, particularly in children with longer hair.

Other screening tests can only detect drug use in the previous week. It usually takes a week for the results to be ready. Only selected personnel

have access to test result information. Statistics from these centers show that ecstasy pills are the most commonly found narcotic substance among Turkish youths between the ages of 16 and 20, followed by marijuana.

According to police data, 115,060 juveniles were taken into custody for various offenses across the country in 2007. Of this group, 28,446 were regular smokers while 2,276 were "frequent" drug users. Furthermore, 38,000 of the juvenile delinquents were referred to the court last year, with 1,830 of those detained younger than 10 years of age.

Turkey as a new market for smugglers

AA

In the drug testing centers of health institutions, making the child aware of the process is a requirement. In other words, it is impossible for parents to secretly steal hair samples from the child. The amount of hair needed for screening, doctors explain, is much more than a person could furtively cut off from a child's head. Secondly, the consent of the person to be tested is required by law. Both the family and the child have to fill out a number of separate forms before a screening test can be performed. However, it

Though once the last transit country along a 20country route for heroin from Afghanistan before the narcotics were transported to Europe, data from the National Police Department show that Turkey has indeed become a target country.

And this is in spite of all the efforts of Turkey's narcotics teams, which seize an annual amount of narcotics much higher than the combined 19 other countries along the route. In 2003, 3,546 kilograms of heroin were seized in narcotics operations in Turkey. That figure had risen to over 9,000 kilograms as of 2007, with hundreds of police raids. Also in 2007, the police seized 510 kilograms of opium, 29 kilograms of morphine base, 114 kilograms of cocaine, 13,439 kilograms of marijuana and 1,007,577 ecstasy pills.

PHOTO

contýnued from page 1 "Families should be most careful.

They should make sure their children know that they are there for them.

They should stand by their children. It is very important that the child can trust you," Sözen said.

Yavuz agreed with Sözen's statements, warning parents to show their children that they care. He said the youngest person to be brought in by parents to their center so far was 14. He noted that drug test results are an important initial step for getting rehabilitative treatment, adding that when the results do come out positive, parents will often check their children into a rehabilitation center.

"After that point, it is basically about legal liability. Parents who refuse to take their children to rehab may face legal troubles."

Sözen said there is a checklist parents should go through before taking their child to a testing center. "First they have to closely monitor the behavior of the child. They should ask whether any modification in the behavior of the child is not a mere consequence of puberty. They should first seek the help of an expert, who could be of tremendous help in determining whether drug addiction is the real problem. If drug screening is called for, then the child has to be informed of that. Screening should be done after gaining the trust of the child," he explained.

Politicians look to others for ‘first step’ against court ruling contýnued from page 1 Erdoðan has accused the Constitutional Court of violating the Constitution by exceeding its authority as established by law.

"This Parliament, which has always been the symbol of our independence, has never accepted a custodian or a shadow over it -- nor will it accept such a thing now," Erdoðan told his deputies.

Recep Bozdað, the deputy head of the AK Party's parliamentary group, said it was not right to expect an action against the ruling from the government alone because the court's ruling was not only against the AK Party. "This ruling is of interest to anybody who believes in democracy and the Constitution. We need a mutual reaction to the ruling, first from the parties represented in Parliament and then from the civil society organizations. Everybody should understand what the ruling means," Bozdað told Today's Zaman.

A regime crisis has come about from the upset balance between the legislature and the judiciary as a result of the Constitutional Court's decision, which experts and the govern-

ment say has inflicted significant damage on the country's parliamentary democratic system.

However, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal, who had challenged the headscarf amendment at the Constitutional Court, said he was opposed to any change in the Constitution and asked everyone to act calmly and respect the judiciary. "It is wrong to turn feelings of unhappiness because of the decision into a war against the Constitutional Court," he said.

Democratic Left Party (DSP) members do not find the court's decision problematic, either.

Officials from both the DTP and the CHP declared they will not attend a meeting on the issue called for by Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan.

Sinan Yerlikaya, a former CHP deputy and CHP assembly member, blamed Erdoðan and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which supported the headscarf amendment, for the current deadlock. "Erdoðan should accept his mistakes.

He should not expect any solutions from anybody. If he admits that he was wrong, the crisis would be solved," he told Today's Zaman.

The MHP, on the other hand, expects a clear stance from the government against the court's headscarf ruling. Speaking to his deputies on Tuesday at a parliamentary group meeting, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli criticized the AK Party's reaction to the ruling, qualifying it as shy and fearful. He said the MHP would support the government against the Constitutional Court's attempt to usurp Parliament's authority.

Mehmet Þandýr, the MHP's group deputy head, said it was the AK Party that would suggest solutions to the recent crisis. "We are waiting on the suggestion of Köksal Toptan to have a leaders' summit. The AK Party has made mistakes, too," he told Today's Zaman.

Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputy Hasip Kaplan said political party leaders should come together to produce a solution to the current crisis.

"In order to continue with the democratic system, the principle of the separation of powers should be reaffirmed. The political system should be able to address this issue. A long-lasting solution will come only through the adoption of a new constitution," Kaplan told Today's Zaman.

CM Y K

The headscarf ruling also provides a clue about the future of a separate case currently under way for the closure of the AK Party on charges of anti-secular activities and a ban on 70 of its members, including Erdoðan, in addition to former AK Party member President Abdullah Gül, from belonging to a political party for five years.

The AK Party had established a commission made up of constitutional law experts to draft a new constitution to replace the 1982 Constitution, which was drafted under military rule, but the draft never became a reality. Critics argue that the AK Party should have addressed the ban on the headscarf as a part of other freedom issues to garner more support from society.

Toptan has called on the deputy heads of all the political parties in Parliament to a meeting in Parliament today focused on preventing tension among parliamentarians during debates in Parliament. The deputy Parliament speakers will also attend the meeting, which is unrelated to the call that Toptan made previously for party leaders to discuss the current crisis.

Former priest turned Muslim turns out to be military man A former Turkish priest who had been working with foreign missionaries and then converted to Islam was actually an intelligence officer with the Turkish Land Forces, a Turkish daily has reported, but he has denied acting as a "provocateur."

According to a headline story "Provocateur Specialist Sergeant" published in the daily Bugün on June 11, Ýlker Çýnar, who became famous after publishing a book in 2005 titled "Ben Bir Misyonerdim, Þifre Çözüldü" (I was a Missionary, The Code is Broken), is registered as a "special sergeant" in the Pension Fund's (Emekli Sandýðý) records.

"Records from the Emekli Sandýðý Mersin regional office show that Çýnar had been registered on Aug. 16, 1992 as a 'special sergeant' with the record number of 706661XX and his premiums have been paid regularly," stated the daily.

The story indicated that the Emekli Sandýðý office confirmed that Çýnar is a member of the Turkish Land Forces. The Emekli Sandýðý is only for public personnel and individuals who cannot pay their own premiums.

Speaking to Hilal TV, Çýnar denied that he was a "provocateur" and said he was only reporting on missionary activities in Turkey: "I am a Muslim, I have been revealing missionary activities in Turkey. I haven't done anything illegal." Çýnar had claimed in 2005 that international missionary institutions had allocated $73 billion for Turkey and that the missionaries in Turkey produced 15 million Bibles and distributed them for free. He also said there were 40,000 churchhomes in Turkey, while claiming that foreigners were engaging in illegal missionary activities in Turkey, that they supported Kurdish and Alevi separatism and that they were involved in smuggling of some historical artifacts. Çýnar, who had been a priest in Tarsus and traveled around Turkey for missionary activities, had later devoted himself to anti-missionary work and had spoken extensively about his claims on live Turkish TV talk shows, receiving wide coverage in the media, especially in 2005 after his book came out. Çýnar supported the idea that the missionary activities of foreigners in Turkey have been dividing the country and that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has been contributing to the same goal by passing legislation to harmonize with the standards of the European Union.

Press consultant for the Association of the Turkish Protestant Churches Ýsa Karataþ said they were not concerned about Çýnar's statements as long as such statements do not put forward slanderous information about their community.

"If he is really an informant, this is not a big surprise to us. We know that our churches have been closely watched, we are not complaining about this. We want the state to know what we are really doing but we want such informants -- if there are any -- to report the truth to whatever organization they are working for," Karata? said in a written statement to Today's Zaman.

The Bugün article draws attention to the fact that murders of Christian priests followed Çýnar's allegations.

Italian priest Andrea Santoro was killed by a teenager on Feb. 5, 2006, in his church in the northern Black Sea port city of Trabzon. The teenage perpetrator, O.A., said he was influenced by the debates on television concerning missionary activities in Turkey.

Records that came to light in February as part of another murder case have shown that the priest was under police surveillance when the murder occurred. The piece of information that the priest was actually being monitored by the police was revealed by records that went into the file of Yasin Hayal, whose trial is pending, with the latter being charged as the prime inciter of the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. Dink was shot dead outside his office in January of 2007 by an ultra-nationalist teenager, who is also from Trabzon. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman

Teacher denies news report alleging he was beaten over scarf row A teacher who a Turkish newspaper on Tuesday reported as having allegedly been beaten by unidentified people for refusing to allow headscarved students to attend his courses in a high school in northern Trabzon province has said that the news report has mischaracterized the event.

According to a news report that appeared in the Hürriyet daily on Tuesday, Bekir Himmetoðlu, a teacher at Ataköy High School in Trabzon's Çaykara district, was beaten on Sunday night by unidentified people near his house for allegedly refusing to let covered students attend his classes. "I was attacked by several unidentified people. 'Why don't you allow girls to attend your classes with their headscarves,' they yelled at me and beat me," the daily quoted Himmetoðlu as saying.

However, a statement by Himmetoðlu and the Trabzon governor revealed that the daily distorted facts in the report.

"I don't know who attacked me. They didn't talk. If they had, I would have recognized their voices. I didn't read Hürriyet's report about me being beaten over a headscarf row. My family informed me about the report.

The allegations that I was beaten because I opposed the wearing of headscarves in my school and threatened students who covered their heads with low grades have nothing to do with the reality," Himmetoðlu was quoted as saying yesterday by the Cihan news agency.

Trabzon Governor Nuri Okutan, on the other hand, refuted Hürriyet's report in a statement released yesterday.

"Himmetoðlu was subject to a physical attack on June 8, 2008 in the Ataköy area of our province. An investigation has already been launched into the incident. Himmetoðlu expressed in his testimony that he does not know who the attackers were. He also stated his assailants did not say anything while attacking him. "Thus, the news report quoting the assailants as saying 'Why do you interfere in girls' right to wear the headscarf,' does not reflect the truth," read the statement. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires

T18-12-06-08.qxd

11.06.2008

15:28

Page 1

18 TODAY’S ZAMAN

T H U R S D AY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 0 8

TODAY’S LEARNING TIME

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.” H. L. Mencken

OSMAN TURHAN

elementary READING

From a boy to a young man

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. When you were a child, did you ever play with Legos? Ahmet did. He liked building all kinds of things from those little plastic pieces. Today, he's an architect. He says, "It all started with Legos!"

2. Ahmet grew up in Turkey, in the city of Istanbul. He studied architecture at a university there. Then he went to another university, this one in England. At first, he took courses in English as a Second Language (ESL). In the program, he met interesting people from all over the world. Afterward, he went on with his studies in architecture.

3. After graduation, Ahmet got his first job as an architect. He worked at a ski resort in Vail, Colorado, in the United States. He went there with two friends from Istanbul. All three of them were skiers. "It was a great place to work!" he says. In Vail, they could go skiing even during lunch hour. They were serious about their jobs, but they had a lot of fun, too.

4. Now Ahmet is back home in Turkey. He lives in Istanbul, near the seaside. He walks along the water to get to work. His office is only ten minutes away, and he likes that. His job is with an architecture company. The company works on many different types of projects: houses, apartment buildings, resorts, and so on.

Ahmet likes the variety of projects. He likes the people at the company, too.

5. He doesn't have a regular work schedule. His hours change from day to day, but he doesn't mind.

He usually works long hours - often ten hours a day.

Sometimes he works more than fifty hours a week.

His schedule depends on his projects. He says, "In this profession, there are lots of hours."

Activity: Topic Words

PART 1: True (T) or False (F)

Write the topic word for each group of words.

1. Ahmet studied university in the States. _______

1. 1, 3, 5, 7 -----------

advanced READING

How do you know if a girl likes you?

As I have stated in a previous article, I am the unrivaled conqueror of women's hearts. American women. Korean women. Turkish women. French women. Women from everywhere. They all succumb to my charisma and good looks. With just one wink from my babyblue eyes, they cater to my every whim.

There was a time, however, when this wasn't true. As a young lad, I experienced rejection just like everyone else. I had to work, learn and practice to get to where I am today. When you are just a pup, it is vital to know immediately whether a female likes you or not. You don't want to chase a woman who doesn't want to be chased.

How do you know if a girl likes you? Since they all like me now, it is difficult to give advice on this topic. I will have to dig deep into my formulative years.

- Observe her body language. If she likes you, she will smile at you, lean into you when you talk, and look at you a lot.

- Notice her eye contact. If she enjoys your company, she will try to hold your eye. Her pupils may even dilate.

- Be aware of touching. She might put her hand on your arm. She may not move her leg if yours happens to touch it. She may give you a short hug. These

are all promising things.

- Watch for her to show interest in what you do. If she likes the same type of flicks that you do, she may suggest seeing one together.

- Keep an eye on the way she treats you. Does she tease you? Does she call you playful names to get your attention? It's natural for a girl to tease if she likes you.

- Look for signs of nervousness.

Sweaty palms, fidgetting etc. are all good signs that she is attracted to you.

- Watch how her friends act. They might tease her about you. This is another positive sign.

- Pay attention to how many times she uses your name. People use your first name because they like you.

- Follow your conversations with her. Sometimes when a girl asks you a question, someone else may distract you from answering quickly. If she continues to ask, this means she values your opinion, and fancies you.

Of course, there are lots of other indications that she likes you- she wants to talk to you all the time, she's looking at you when you turn unexpectedly, she always wants to hang out with you etc.

If you want to skip all of this, just ask her to marry you. When she accepts, you know she likes you. Or your wallet.

2. He never liked playing with legos. ______

2. Shakesphere, John Steinbeck, Charles Dickens -------------

3. He is still in Colorado. _____

3. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven 4. onion, radish, spinach, turnip

4. His schedule changes upon his projects. _____

5. London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham

5. It's not a problem for him to work for long hours. _____

ýntermedýate READING

The language of gestures People are talkative beings. We do a lot of things-asking, answering, telling, saying. But we do much of our talking without words. We often use a kind of "body language" to show what we think or feel.

This body language is the language of gestures. We point a finger, raise an eyebrow, wave an arm-or move another part of the body-to show what we want to say. In other words, we "talk" with these gestures.

And we make hundreds of these gestures in a day.

People all over the world use gestures. In every country there are gestures that say "Hello" and "Goodbye".

However, this does not mean that body language is universal. We all may have some of the same gestures, but different countries have different customsand different gestures.

Sometimes the same gesture can mean different things in different countries. For example, Saudi Arabians and some other speakers of Arabic say "Come here" with a gesture that most Europeans use to say "Goodbye." They hold up a hand, palm away from the face, and move the fingers up and down.

Because gestures can say different things in different countries, body language can be a problem for travelers. When Russian leaders visit the United States, they make a common gesture. They hold their hands together over their heads. This is the same gesture that American boxers make when they win a boxing match.

But the Russians are not saying "We won" or "We're the greatest!" They are saying "Thank you for the honor

you show us."

Sometimes the same gesture does not mean the same thing in different countries. However, when people use the gesture may be different. Speakers of English say "this tall" by holding a hand out, palm down. This gesture is okay in Latin America-if you are talking about an animal. If Latin Americans are talking about a person, they hold their hand out too-but with its edge to the ground. To a Latin American, an Englishman who says "My daughter is this tall"-and makes a gesture to show the height of a cowis very funny.

Learning words in a new language is not enough. If you want to talk to people who speak a different language, you might have to learn some new gestures, too.

Activity: Nouns and Adjectives

PART 1: Find the words in the article that mean the

Fill in the missing nouns or adjectives into the correct gaps.

opposite, or almost the opposite, of the words below.

Noun

1. quiet ______________________________________

Adjective

_________________________

sunny

ice

_________________________

Fill in the blanks with the correct letters.

1. unrivaled _____ a. with many enemies b. alone 2. to succumb _____ a. to marry b. to date 3. charisma _____ a. humor b. charm 4. whim _____ a. demand b. question 5. pup _____ a. amateur b. baby dog 6. formulative years _____ a. adolescence b. adulthood 7. to dilate _____ a. to shrink b. to stabilize 8. flick _____ a. music b. painting 9. to tease _____ a. to pick out b. to pick on 10. to distract _____ a. to like b. to be attractive 11. to hang out with _____ a. to spend time with b. to avoid 12. to skip _____ a. to pass out b. to pass by

c. unmatched

d. friendly

c. to win

d. to surrender

c. beauty

d. money

c. desire

d. answer

c. baby cat

d. cute child

c. old age

d. prenatal period

c. to drop

d. to enlarge

c. movie

d. website

c. to pick for

d. to pick with

c. to disturb

d. to magnify

c. to execute

d. to dry

c. to pass through

d. to pass over

2. lower ______________________________________

possibility

_________________________

_________________________

thirsty

3. nowhere ______________________________________ 4. same ______________________________________ 5. unusual ______________________________________

modest

_________________________

_________________________

hilly

_________________________

soapy

_________________________

metallic

8. short ______________________________________

nationality

_________________________

9. serious ______________________________________

_________________________

stormy

10. old ______________________________________

6. separately ______________________________________ 7. worst ______________________________________

VOCABULARY Specialized Vocabulary Fashion: Culottes (noun) are also known as a split skirt or divided skirt. It has also been called a skort (a portmanteau for skirt and shorts). While some garments sold as culottes resemble short trousers, to truly be culottes they need to look like a skirt. Thus they differ from trousers or shorts by being much fuller at the bottom hem than at the waist.

I bought these fantastic 80s vintage culottes on ebay! They're totally great. Very comfortable with a wide elastic waist, super-wide flaring legs, and these nice gold buttons.

Entertainment: Pitch (verb) is the meeting held between key players of a film based on a literary work. In most cases, this is where the writer(s) attempt to "sell" their product to the producers by explaining why their product should be made by that company into a motion picture.

The pitch for the feature film was successful, the motion picture company wanted to make the film.

Publishing: Libel (noun) is written defamation that causes injury to another person.

The newspaper went bankrupt after being sued successfully for libel by the government.

Technology: Modem (noun) is a hardware device for communicating digital information via phone lines.

Julian’s modem was not working properly so he was unable to send or receive emails.

Architecture: Granary (noun) is a storehouse for threshed grain or animal feed.

Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food from mice and other animals.

PART 1: Vocabulary Exercise

Idiom of the Day Hit the roof MEANING: To become extremely angry EXAMPLE: Aysha hit the roof when she saw Tyrone with another girl.

Phrasal Verbs Shake off meaning: When you shake something off, you get rid of it (cold, fever, illness, image, habit, depression) example: I can't seem to shake this cold off.

Squeeze in meaning: When you squeeze somebody in, you have time to see them. example: She told me if I could wait an hour, she would squeeze me in.

Slang: Axe meaning: To eliminate someone from their job; to terminate employment. example: My old company axed me after they found out I had been sleeping on the job.

Confusing Words In English Adverse vs Averse Adverse is an adjective it means opposed to, hostile to; unfavorable, contrary, opposing, negative: For example: "Do not be discouraged by adverse criticism."

Averse is an adjective which means a disliking; unwilling; having a feeling of great distaste or an inclination against something or someone; disinclined, antipathetic: For example: "I do not approve of liquor in any form and I am even averse to drinking wine."

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Activity: American of British English?

American (A) of British (B) 1) He came to Lisbon in the fall of 1995.

2) The car had to stop because of a flat tire.

3) Shouldn't we take the tram?

4) The people went to a sledge race in Alaska.

5) His sister attends the primary school in our town.

6) The air hostess is very nice, isn't she?

7) Jim is our new neighbor.

8) Should we really put the bottles into the boot of the car?

9) Andy and Tom, would you read the dialogue, please?

10) I think, I'll change Mary's nappy.

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER KEY:

ELEMENTARY: (Part 1 Answer Key) 1.b 2.d 3.e 4.c 5.a (Part 2 Answer Key) 1.b 2.d 3.c 4.e 5.a (Activity) 1. b 2. d 3. c 4. c 5. d 6. d 7. b 8. c 9. a 10. c INTERMEDIATE: (Part 1) 1.g 2.c 3.j 4.a 5.d 6.i 7.b 8.f 9.e 10.h (Activity) 1. tidy up 2. washed up 3. wipe down 4. sweep up 5. put out ADVANCED: (Part 1) 1. To put an American on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade. 2.

Neil Armstrong 3. American 4. Water 5. A Gallic communion cake 6. 47.7 pounds 7. Buzz Aldrin's 8. The moon 9. A male-dominated society 10. The first moon landing (Part 2) 1. d 2. b 3. c 4. b 5. c (Activity) 1. cut down 2. give off 3. cut down on 4. give up 5. look into

In cooperation with English Time

T19-12-06-08.qxd

11.06.2008

18:40

Page 1

SPORTS

Greece coach Rehhagel defends cautious tactics Coach Otto Rehhagel defended Greece's cautious approach after their 2-0 Euro 2008 defeat by Sweden on Tuesday. “If we had not played the way we played, it would have been 5-0 against us in the first half,” Rehhagel told reporters. Salzburg, Reuters

REUTERS

THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008

SOCCER

Irate player slaps referee, quits soccer

AP

PHOTO

Upbeat Germany odds-on favorýte agaýnst Croatýa PHOTO

Soccer player Ramazan Basoglu, who slapped a referee at an amateur league game in Zonguldak after he was red-carded, held a press conference following the incident in which he apologized to the referee and further announced that he was quitting soccer. Basoglu, who was playing for Gökçebeyspor, was red-carded at a game with Karamusaspor in the 89th minute. The player was upset by the card and slapped referee Tuncay Uzun.

Basoglu was dismissed from the club following the incident and subsequently headed to the Zonguldak Amateur Sport Clubs Federation building in an attempt to apologize to the referee. At a press conference, Basoglu said he regretted his action. “My family also got mad at me because of the incident. I cannot look anyone in the face. I apologize to Tuncay Uzun and the community of referees. That action did not represent who I am. I decided to quit soccer because of this shame,” he noted.

Basoglu also went to referee Uzun’s room, where he made an apology despite the fact that Uzun did not want to meet with him. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman

David Villa

Villa lights up drizzle, champ Greece crushed

SOCCER

Mehmet Yozgatlý moves to new pastures Mehmet Yozgatlý, who moved to Beþiktaþ from Fenerbahçe last season, has signed a two-year contract with Gaziantepspor. Gaziantepspor Deputy Chairman Ömer Çelik, board member Mehmet Kýzýl and other executives attended the signing ceremony, which was held at Gaziantepspor's Celal Doðan facilities. Speaking at the ceremony, Çelik recalled that all the Turkcell Super League teams are seeking a higher quality of play next season. Mehmet was a member of the Galatasaray squad that won the UEFA Cup in 2000. He signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Fenerbahçe on Jan. 30, 2004, and his debut for Fenerbahçe was on Feb. 1 that year. On June 18 last year he signed a three-year deal with Beþiktaþ but the contract was annulled by the Beþiktaþ club after one season. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman

BASKETBALL

Fener fined YTL 2,000 for misbehavior of fans The Basketball Federation Discipline Board has issued a fine of YTL 2,000 to champion Fenerbahçe Ülker. The board, in its most recent meeting, reviewed the case arising from unpleasant developments that took place during a Beko men’s Turkish Basketball League playoff final series game between Fenerbahçe Ülker and Türk Telekom on June 4. The board imposed a fine of YTL 2,000 on Fenerbahçe because the game was halted after Fener fans threw projectiles and other dangerous objects into the court. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman

CRICKET

England to play Caribbean side in $20-million match

TODAY’S ZAMAN IS AVAILABLE AT THESE FINE HOTELS

England will play a Caribbean all-star team in a Twenty20 match for a record prize pot of $20 million on Nov. 1, Texan billionaire Allen Stanford confirmed on Wednesday. The Antigua match, named the “Stanford 20 20 For 20,” will boast the richest team prize ever for a single sporting contest, guaranteeing the 11 players on the winning side $1 million each. The losers will get nothing. Stanford, who is based in the Caribbean, reached agreement with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for a series of five annual “winners-take-all matches.” The match has been authorized by the International Cricket Council (ICC), although it will be an unofficial Twenty20 international. London Reuters

KORUMAR HOTEL DE LUXE

Phone: 0 256 618 15 30 Gazi Beðendi Mevkii P.K. 18 09400 - Kuþadasý - Aydýn www.korumar.com.tr

German Michael Ballack, 2nd right, and teammates are seen during their recent training session in Tenero, near Ascona, Switzerland.

For the Germans, today's Group B game with Croatia in Klagenfurt, Switzerland, is not just about qualifying for the quarterfinals, it is about proving they are serious contenders for their first title since 1996.

"We'll see what our status is after the Croatia game," captain Michael Ballack said at a news conference on Tuesday. "We know we're going to have to raise our game to beat them." Germany, three-time European champion, beat Poland 2-0 in their opening match but they see the Croatians, who overcame co-host Austria 1-0 in their first game, as a much more important scalp.

"They have high ambitions in this tournament -- they beat England twice in qualifying -- and I think they'll play a much more offensive game than Poland did," Ballack said. If the Germans do improve from the

Poland game they should be too strong for a Croatia side which did not look overly impressive in their first win over the Austrians.

Germany coach Joachim Loew has 23 fit players and his only real dilemma is whether to include Bastian Schweinsteiger from the start or again keep him up his sleeve for the second half. "We have a lot of potential up front," Ballack said. "It's going to be a tough decision for the coach."

While the Germans have never lost against Poland, they have mixed memories of playing Croatia in major tournaments.

Germany beat the Croatians 2-1 in the last eight on their way to winning Euro 96 in England but suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat by them in the World Cup quarterfinals two years later.

Croatia coach Slaven Bilic, who played in both those games, was confident midfielder

Luka Modric would recover from an ankle injury to boost their hopes of a place in the last eight. "This is a chance to move a step closer to the knockout stage and we will have a real go at them because we can match them in every department," Bilic told a news conference." The Croatia coach is likely to introduce one or two changes to the team that scraped past Austria.

"We will show no fear against Germany and if we play our best football I think we have a good chance of beating them," said forward Ivan Rakitic, who could start instead of out-of-form striker Mladen Petric. Ýstanbul/Klagenfurt Today’s Zaman Venue: Woerthersee, Klagenfurt Capacity: 30,000 Referee: Frank de Bleeckere (Belgium) Kickoff: 19:00 (live on atv and Lig TV)

Time to gamble, Hickersberger tells Austria Coach Josef Hickersberger has told Austria to throw caution to the wind against Poland in a Group B game today that will leave the loser perilously close to a Euro 2008 exit.

Austria went down fighting in a 1-0 loss to Croatia in Vienna, while the Poles were outclassed by tournament favorite Germany in a 20 defeat at Klagenfurt in Sunday's matches.

The Austrians, the co-hosts, improved in the second half against Croatia but only looked really dangerous when they surged forward in the final 20 minutes, exposing themselves at the back.

“It is clear to me that this is a decisive game, but it is the same for Poland,” Hickersberger told a news conference on Tuesday. They can again count on plenty of vocal home support at the Ernst Happel Stadium, while Roland Linz and defender Emanuel Pogatetz are both fit

LUSH HOTEL

Phone: +90 212 243 95 95 Sýraselviler No:12 Taksim/Ýstanbul info@lushhotel.com www.lushhotel.com

GROUP B STANDINGS P Germany Croatia Austria Poland

1 1 1 1

W D 1 1 0 0

0 0 0 0

L GF GA Pts 0 0 1 1

2 1 0 0

0 0 1 2

3 3 0 0

to play after minor injuries.

Poland needs to overcome the loss of captain Maciej Zurawski, whose stay in the group stage ended at halftime on Sunday after suffering a thigh injury.

The midfielder might be fit for later, should the Poles reach the last eight, though his team will clearly need to step up a gear after losing.

Poland looked a pale shadow of the side who secured their place at the finals as group winners and there are unlikely to

RAMADA PLAZA ÝSTANBUL

Phone: +90 212 315 44 44 Fax: +90 212 315 44 45 info@ramadaplazaistanbul.com www.ramadaplazaistanbul.com

BERA ALANYA OTEL

Phone: 0 242 510 05 00-444 23 72 Merkez Mah. Kuyumcu Cad. Kulak Mevkii No: 12 Konaklý Alanya www.bera.com.tr

CM Y K

be sweeping changes in the line-up.

Forward Ebi Smolarek, who scored nine times in qualifying and had a goal narrowly disallowed for offside against Germany, should again provide the Poles' main threat down the middle.

Jakub Wawrzyniak is likely to replace Pawel Golanski at left back after the latter struggled against the Germans and was at fault for at least one of the goals. “The goals we conceded against Germany came as a result of individual mistakes and that's part of football,” Poland coach Leo Beenhakker told a news conference on Tuesday.” Ýstanbul/Vienna Today’s Zaman

Spain striker David Villa suggested that his country could put a 44-year record of under-achievement on the big soccer stage finally behind them when he lit up day four of Euro 2008 on Tuesday.

Villa, who found the ideal partner in Fernando Torres, grabbed the first hat-trick of the June 7-29 tournament in dispatching Russia 4-1 in Group D in Innsbruck. Cesc Fabregas scored the other Spanish goal.

Later on Tuesday, surprise Euro 2004 champions Greece succumbed 2-0 to Sweden, in a dull match that only came to life 67 minutes in when forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, long plagued by injury, scored his first international goal since October 2005.

It was also the first time the Greeks had conceded in more than seven hours of play in major tournaments.

Petter Hansson scrambled the second goal five minutes later. The jubilant Swedish team included the evergreen 36-year-old Henrik Larsson, who was returning from self-imposed international retirement for a third time after nearly two years to play a full 90 minutes in Salzburg. The teams were the last of the 16 finals qualifiers to play in the championship hosted jointly by Austria and Switzerland.

Spain coach Luis Aragones cautioned Spain's victory was not as easy as the score suggested, and this is not the first time that Spain have started a big tournament well.

Serious business They also kicked off the World Cup two years ago with a thumping win before petering out - but the signs of a team who mean serious business were unmistakable.

Spain's one and only success in a big event came in the 1964 European Championship.

Villa will do well to match the longevity of Larsson who first graced the big stage 14 years ago at the 1994 World Cup but the Spaniard certainly lit up Innsbruck's Tivoli Neu Stadium with a glittering display of ruthless finishing.

Torres failed to score but looked the part too in helping Villa and Spain cheer their delighted supporters in the rain.

The Netherlands were still celebrating their landmark victory over world champions Italy the morning after Monday's stunning 3-0 win but the debate over their controversial opening goal by Ruud van Nistelrooy was raging on too.

The Dutch striker looked clearly offside to many observers but UEFA said on Tuesday that an Italian defender, lying prostrate off the field, was still playing an "active" role and ensured the goal was legal. Vienna Reuters

GROUP C STANDINGS P

Venue: Ernst Happel, Vienna Spain Sweden Greece Russia

Capacity: 50,000 Referee: Howard Webb (England) Time: 21:45 (Live on atv and Lig TV)

RIXOS BODRUM

Phone: +90 252 337 11 22 Zeytinli Kahve Mevkii Bodrum/Muðla www.rixos.com

HYATT REGENCY ÝSTANBUL

Phone: +90 212 368 1234 Fax: +90 212 368 1000 istanbul.regency.hyatt.com

1 1 1 1

W D 1 1 0 0

0 0 0 0

L GF GA Pts 0 0 1 1

4 2 0 1

1 0 2 4

RIXOS TEKÝROVA

Phone: 0 242 821 40 32 Tekirova Beldesi P.K 137 07995 Kemer/Antalya www.rixos.com

3 3 0 0

T20-12-06-08.qxd

11.06.2008

18:51

Page 1

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