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The privately owned Atlasjet announces it will launch regular flights between Ýstanbul and Arbil
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2008 WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM YTL 1.50
Hirvonen leads title race after Turkey Rally win
Mercan Dede tops European charts for two consecutive months with his latest album
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Yo u r Way o f U n d e r s t a n d ý n g Tu r k e y
ONUR ÇOBAN
page11 Japan quake toll rises to 9, search continues WHILE RATIO FOR DEFENSE BUDGET HAS DROPPED, SHEER NUMBERS SHOW STEADY INCREASE
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Turkey spends more on defense NEWS ANALYSIS
By Lale Sarýibrahimoðlu TODAY’S ZAMAN The Turkish military budget has remained far from meeting transparency criteria, despite existing laws, but when calculations are made from available figures, it is possible to observe a drop in military spending as a part of gross domestic product (GDP) from around 4 percent to about 2
percent. This is mainly because of the growing economy, reducing the percentage of military spending, a Turkish economist has said. Otherwise, military spending figures show a slight but a constant increase, while some of the extra-budgetary fund* figures are still unavailable. A strengthened local currency, the new Turkish lira (YTL), has also benefited the Undersecretariat of the Defense Industry (SSM) -- the main body in Turkey's arms acquisition -- in the past year, since its revenue consists of local currency.
The recently published 2008 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) yearbook has revealed that Turkey, categorized in the middle-income group, had military expenditures within the GDP totaling, in ascending order, 4.4 percent, 5.4 percent, 5.0 percent, 5.0 percent, 4.9 percent and 4.9 percent for the years 1998-2003. As predicted by then-Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök in 2003, the defense expenditure has fallen from around 5 percent of the GDP before 2003 to around 3.3 percent, according to 2005 estimates.
According to the 2007 SSM Activity Report, Defense Industries Support Fund (SSDF) income, mainly comprising revenues from the state-run lottery, reached $2.459 billion in 2007, while $1.581 billion of this amount was spent primarily for arms acquisition, including an amount earmarked for local development of defense systems as part of the Turkish policy aiming to increase the local content of military projects to reduce the reliance on main systems abroad to 50 percent by the end of 2011. CONTINUED ON PAGE 08
YONCA POYRAZ DOÐAN, ÝSTANBUL Professor Niyazi Öktem, who teaches the philosophy and sociology of law at Ýstanbul Bilgi University's law faculty, has said if "so-called Turkish intellectuals" continue to provoke the military and civilian groups against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Turkey might find itself in a situation similar to that of Germany when it was ruled by Adolf Hitler. Öktem warned that German intellectuals at the time had provoked the military and some civilian organizations against the working class to prevent their rise to power. He said this is largely mirrored by circumstances in Turkey today. He suggested that future developments may also bear similarities to the rise of Nazism in Germany: "I am expecting a new neo-nationalist political formation in the society in the form a political party. With the pressure from the military, the judiciary, the civilian bureaucracy and so-called intellectuals, this party is going to rise to power. This is my guess." CONTINUED ON PAGE 06
Report: Only 2 Tuzla shipyards comply with safety rules ERCAN YAVUZ, ANKARA A parliamentary commission inspecting accidents at shipyards in Ýstanbul's Tuzla district, where 98 workers have died in work-related incidents in the past seven years, has found that only two of the 48 shipyards in the area comply with occupational safety regulations. The commission, led by the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) Mehmet Domaç, finished work on the report last week. The report found that most shipyards operate in complete disregard of occupational safety regulations and that some deaths are never reported to the prosecutor. Turkey is one of the most promising shipbuilding countries worldwide, with the world's fastest growth rate in the sector. In 2006 Turkey's shipbuilding exports had reached $1.4 billion, growing to $2 billion in 2007. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
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Öktem: So-called intellectuals pump up fascism in Turkey
MEHMET KAMAN
Niyazi Öktem
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‘JUSTICE MINISTRY HAS NO RIGHT TO DICTATE TO PROSECUTORS’ The Justice Ministry states that it has no authority to give orders to public prosecutors to start legal probes into publications critical of the Constitutional Court.
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RICE SAYS ISRAELI SETTLEMENT BUILDING HURTING PEACE TALKS
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday Israel's continued settlement building was harming peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
1.5 mln students along with three national soccer team players compete in ÖSS
The national Student Selection Examination (ÖSS) was administered yesterday in all provinces and districts of Turkey and in Nicosia, the capital of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), as well as Geneva, where three Turkish national soccer team players took the exam. Some 1.53 million high school graduates planning on pursuing a higher education vied in the three-hour, 15-minute test, which began at 9:30 a.m. The exam included eight sections, each with 30 multiple choice questions, in physics, math, geography, history, literature and biology. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
Rand: AK Party closure wýll deepen dývýde The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan is likely to take a moderate course if it is not closed down by the Constitutional Court and act more cautiously about pressing for measures that could be perceived as changing the secular-religious balance in the country or provoking the secularists into another attempt to remove it from power, a study sponsored by the Pentagon has predicted. The report, sponsored by the undersecretary of defense for policy and conducted by the
International Security and Defense Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, also found that the religious-secularist divide will deepen within Turkey and that Turkey's relations with the European Union will become more problematic if the ruling party is closed. Shutting down the AK Party, however, is unlikely to eliminate it as a political force because "if it is closed, the party is likely to simply reemerge under another name," the report said. "It would, however, sharpen the secularist-
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religious divide within Turkey and could lead some pious Turks to lose faith in the political system. Turkey's prospects of EU membership, already facing serious obstacles, would be further jeopardized," the report, penned by Angel Rabasa and F. Stephen Larrabee, predicted. The AK Party is facing closure on charges of becoming a focal point of anti-secular activities. Its senior members, including Prime Minister Erdoðan, and President Abdullah Gül, a former AK Party member, are also facing political bans. CONTINUED ON PAGE 04
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Q UOTE OF THE DAY
Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first. US presidential hopeful Barack Obama
PRESS REVIEW
columns
W ORDS OF WISDOM
I am very concerned that … the continued building and the settlement activity has the potential to harm the [Mideast] negotiations going forward. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father! Lydia M. Child
Senýor judge’s strange relatýons raýse eyebrows A secret meeting between a senior judge at the Constitutional Court and a top army commander at a politically critical time for Turkey that was uncovered by the Taraf daily last Friday has raised suspicions about the influence of the Turkish military on the court's rulings. According to Taraf's report, Constitutional Court Deputy President Osman Paksüt met in secret with Gen. Ýlker Baþbuð on March 4, 2008, at Land Forces Command headquarters -- seven days after a headscarf amendment sponsored in Parliament by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was challenged at the Constitutional Court and 13 days before a suit against the AK Party was filed at the court seeking to shut it down over allegations that it had become a focal point of anti-secular activity. Paksüt, who had earlier denied that this meeting occurred, confessed to having met with Baþbuð after Taraf's detailed report was published; however, he denied speculation that the two figures communicated information on lawsuits filed with the top court against the AK Party. The inconsistency of his statements has further increased suspicions over the content of this secret meeting. Sabah's Ergun Babahan finds it regretful that a member of the Constitutional Court has come to Turkey's agenda not because of his interpretations of judicial cases but due to a variety of scandals. He recalls Paksüt previously occupying Turkey's agenda for some time due to wiretapping claims. The fact that Paksüt earlier denied having met with Baþbuð to Hürriyet daily but had to admit it after it
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ern Iraq; however, he notes, Paksüt's statements are far from convincing and don't disperse the clouds of suspicion in his mind. Questions will always be asked, says Ünal. Didn't they ever talk about the headscarf issue and amendments? Didn't they talk about the AK Party closure case, which is linked to the headscarf issue? Ünal finds the occurrence of such a meeting very saddening because the influence of this meeting will always be remembered in the future rulings of the Constitutional Court. "It is interesting that Paksüt does not come to Turkey's agenda with his judicial title but with his relations. In all cases, he draws the top court into the center of debates and puts a shadow over its neutrality," argues Ünal. Another Sabah columnist, Nazlý Ilýcak, also finds it very bizarre for a Constitutional Court member to go to military headquarters to meet with a top commander and talk to him for hours at such a critical time, just a short while before a closure case was filed against the AK Party. It seems far-fetched for Paksüt to claim that he and Baþbuð discussed only the operation into northern Iraq. "Such a meeting between senior members of the judiciary and the military not only exhaust the military but also the judiciary, and it has done so. We know from our memories of the coups that coup preparations were made at such seemingly innocent meetings," says Ilýcak. Regarding Paksüt's earlier claims about being wiretapped, she says his suspicions might have been the result of his involvement in such strange dealings.
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FATMA DÝÞLÝ
f.disli@todayszaman.com
was revealed by the Taraf daily and that he said he met with Baþbuð to congratulate him about Turkey's land operation in northern Iraq has raised suspicions about the accuracy of Paksüt's statements. "How can we be sure he is telling the truth? Why did he feel the need to deny this meeting before? If there is nothing wrong with a Constitutional Court member meeting with a top commander, he should have told the truth from the beginning. Paksüt's inconsistent statements about meeting with Baþbuð strengthen the conspiracy theories," says Babahan. In his view, there is a striking overlap between the Constitutional Court's decisions and the attitude of the Turkish military on certain cases, such as the cancellation of the presidential elections last year by the top court with a controversial ruling and a military memorandum directed against the AK Party before the court cancelled the presidential elections. Zaman's Mustafa Ünal says he wants to believe Paksüt's statement that he and Baþbuð talked only about the operation into north-
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REUTERS
press roundup
Conciliation MAHÝR KAYNAK, STAR Conciliation denotes the involved parties reaching a mutual compromise and reaching an agreement around a common denominator by giving up certain things. Achieving conciliation is perceived as a positive; however, both parties seek to be restored to their previous positions before the conciliation whenever conditions allow, since they have both made sacrifices. In this sense, conciliation might be considered a beginning point for new disputes. In reality, disputes stem from waywardness. If everybody stuck to a previously defined set of correct attitudes, there might be no need for seeking conciliation. When a society has too many disputes and the resulting conflicts, people either continually seek conciliation or clash with one another. And this is like trying to walk a tightrope instead of walking a straight road. The first step in coming up with solutions to problems is to lay down rules and to establish mechanisms that will direct their implementation.
Strategic preferences SOLÝ ÖZEL, SABAH The things that sicken people in Turkey, frustrate the country and cast blight on its future are not only limited to the state of domestic policies. A part of the internal fight is connected to Turkey's preferences with regard to its foreign policy. That is, those who want to suspend democracy within the country also seek to distance themselves from the country's established strategic alliances by taking advantage of the anger built up in Turkey toward the West. If Turkey is respected by Russia, Iran and other similar countries today, it is because it is a part of the Western alliance. A Turkey not a part of such an alliance would lose a great deal of strength before Russia and Iran. Secondly, if Turkey attempts to get out of the Western system, it will see that it doesn't possess the natural resources required to defy the world. It doesn't have sufficient oil or natural gas. It is not a country that makes indispensable contributions to the world economy. It would only exhaust itself in such a scenario. And in the event it renounces the democratic system, it would be devastated by instability. Therefore, the Western alliance and democracy have to be two fundamental aspects of Turkey's system.
Shadow over Constitutional Court CEVDET AKÇALI, YENÝ ÞAFAK The Republican People's Party (CHP) had appealed to the Constitutional Court for the annulment of a constitutional amendment that allowed the wearing of the headscarf at institutions of higher education. As is known, the Constitutional Court has the right to inspect the articles in the Constitution only in terms of their form. It cannot inspect the articles in terms of content. The real duty of the court is to decide whether legislation made by the Turkish Parliament is contrary to principles set forward in the Constitution. According to this description of its duty, the court's decision to cancel any article of the Constitution runs counter to all legal rationale. Despite this fact, the court is known to have annulled many constitutional articles. The legal basis for the cancellation is a thesis once put forward by the Turkish media. According to this thesis, countries are free to draft constitutions; yet above constitutions are the laws of nature. The Constitutional Court may annul articles that go against the laws of nature.
Police officers, firefighters and Japanese Self-Defense Ground Force soldiers search for missing persons at the site of a landslide caused by an earthquake at the Komanoyu Hot Springs Hotel in Kurihara, northern Japan.
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The daily's top story yesterday covered reactions from Alevi organizations to Republican People's Party (CHP) Secretary-General Önder Sav, who has failed to apologize over remarks insulting the Prophet Mohammed and the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Holding a press conference on Saturday, Alevi dedes (religious leaders) expressed their disappointment over Sav's remarks, saying that they have been waiting for an apology from him for a month. Cemevi (Alevi prayer house) Associations Federation President Veli Güler said Sav's insults against the Prophet Mohamed disturbed the Alevi community, adding: "It is a virtue for one to show respect to others' beliefs even if they do not have faith." Zeynel Sevim, an Alevi dede, said Sav's insult against the Prophet Mohamed was contemptuous and condemned those who supported Sav.
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"Paksüt loses memory for two days," read the daily's lead headline yesterday, referring to Osman Paksüt, a senior judge at the Constitutional Court, who denied having met with Land Forces Commander Gen. Ýlker Baþbuð two days before the details of the meeting were uncovered by the Taraf daily last Friday. Admitting at a press conference on Saturday to having met with Baþbuð, Paksüt said he had previously denied the allegations about the secret meeting because he and Baþbuð did not talk about the closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), as speculated by the media, or about constitutional amendments to end Turkey's headscarf ban on university campuses.
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Newspapers belonging to the Doðan Media Group, including Vatan, Millliyet, Radikal and Hürriyet, reported the news about a secret meeting between Constitutional Court judge Paksüt and Gen. Baþbuð in a style that would embarrass most journalists due to a lack of professional ethics and democratic common sense, the Taraf daily's top story reported yesterday. While Radikal avoided questioning the content and timing of the meeting, Hürriyet wrote that Paksüt denied having such a meeting with Baþbuð twice. Milliyet did not even bother to question why a meeting took place between a senior judge and a military commander, while Vatan chose to criticize newspapers that saw such a meeting as newsworthy.
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Turkey ýn transýtýon
Father’s Day a source of different emotions for different people MURAD GEZER
much," she lamented. Yesterday's Father's Day was also the source of mixed emotions for the fathers of the more than 1.5 million students who took the ÖSS yesterday. Roughly 1.53 million students vied in the exam for the right to pursue a higher education. "I want to become a teacher. I hope I will give my father a good gift by being successful on the exam," said Aysun Yýlmaz, who sat for the ÖSS yesterday. A Turkish man working as a baker in Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, received what he called the best news of his life this Father's Day, when he learned that his wife had given birth to quadruplets. "We got married four years ago. We already have one son. I gave birth to four others and gave my husband the best Father's Day gift," said Bender Doðru. In the meantime, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan released a message to commemorate the occasion. "Our fathers are the central pillars of the Turkish nation's family structure, which is based on such values as love, respect, tolerance and solidarity. They fulfill their duties with great responsibility. I congratulate [all fathers] on this Fathers' Day, [the fathers who] do not hesitate to make any sort of sacrifice for their families," the message read. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman
b.kenes@todayszaman.com
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Turkish fathers marked this year's Father's Day in many different ways, with some visiting cemeteries to pray for their martyred sons and others waiting excitedly outside examination halls for their children to complete the Student Selection Examination (ÖSS) for university entrance. Though one would normally expect Father's Day to be marked festively nationwide, this was not the case for many Turkish families yesterday. The fathers of thousands soldiers martyred in clashes with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) flocked to cemeteries to pray for their sons. "Today is Father's Day. Normally, sons visit their fathers on such days, but I am the father of a martyr, so I paid a visit to my son today. I am not sad. I am the father of a man who lost his life for his country and flag. I have four other sons. I may sacrifice them for my country, too, if necessary," said Dilaver Karayazý, whose son was killed years ago in clashes with the PKK. Perihan Sucu, the mother of another martyred soldier, said her son was killed on Father's Day in 1995. "I feel the same agony every Father's Day. My son grew up without feeling the tenderness of a father, as my husband passed away when my son was very young. I miss them both so
BÜLENT KENEÞ
The daughter of a soldier who was killed in clashes with the PKK visited her father's grave yesterday to commemorate Father's Day.
Replica of ancient ship to follow part of Argonauts' route A replica of the Argo, the ship that according to legend carried Jason and the 50 Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, sailed Saturday from the central Greek city of Volos on a two-month journey to Venice in Italy. Turkey's refusal to guarantee the 93.5-foot (28.5-meter) wooden ship safe passage through the Bosporus Strait meant that the ship will not reach its ancient predecessor's destination of Colchis, in what is modernday Georgia, at the eastern end of the Black Sea. Its route, instead, will retrace part of the Argonauts' return trip. According to a version of the legend, Jason and the Argonauts, while fleeing from King Aites of Colchis, from whom they had stolen the Golden Fleece, sailed from the Black Sea up the Danube river and then into the Sava and Ljubljanica rivers before continuing their trip on the Adriatic and Aegean seas. Jason is considered the founder of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia: the city's coat of arms includes a dragon, which Jason allegedly slew. The ship's crew comprises 50 oarsmen with another 22 on standby on a ship following the Argo, said Vangelis Constantinou, a spokesman for the project. "We had to reschedule the trip over the last 10 days, following Turkey's refusal," Constantinou added. The city of Volos had to arrange with 23 cities for the ship's overnight stay. The trip will comprise 37 legs and will total some 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 kilometers). The ship was built according to known designs for warships during the Mycenaean era. The Argonauts' trip is said to have taken place in the 14th century B.C., almost 200 years before the Trojan war. The ship includes a ram, used to attack and sink enemy ships. The trip is scheduled to end in Venice on Aug. 11. Athens AP
CM Y K
We have been writing that the Turkish political scene is in shambles. This undoubtedly has economic and social repercussions and will continue to have them. I don't think there is a need to discuss at length how great benefits were brought to the country by the political stability that continued for only a few years between 2002 and 2006 and the resulting economic and social stability, just as there is no need to mention what this deprivation of stability has done to Turkey and made the Turkish nation lose in the last couple of years or to highlight the limitless loss this deprivation will probably bring us in the coming years. I think the main problem is that Turkey is still going through a very radical process of transition. This transition process -- if we are to explain it in Marxist terms -- is not limited to a transition from less democracy to more democracy in politics, which is only a "superstructure," or from less individual rights and freedoms to more of them. I believe it would be more accurate to interpret the socio-political conflict that has reached its peak in the last two years as the tension caused by the transition from the paradigm of an industrial society to the paradigm of an information society. Or more precisely, the level of transformation which Turkey has achieved during this transition period is so high that the resulting tensions are accordingly as high. As is known, processes of change and transformation -- in whatever field they may be -- are traumatic. It is not an easy mission to convince all segments of society of the need for change and transformation. And most of the time, it is not possible to include all the segments in this process of change. It is also quite natural for the strongest resistance to be waged by those who benefited from the current/old system the most and those whose interests lie in the continuation of the system in question. If we are to base our argument on this view, we can state that it is perfectly natural for the military or civilian bureaucracy -- which envisages a bureaucratic and hierarchical society and which benefits the most from the old/current system -- and the bourgeoisie -- which has a symbiotic relationship with the old/current system -- to wildly reject to the bitter end a change that promises less hierarchy and less bureaucracy and that consolidates the initiative for a more equitable distribution of wealth. Now, let me explain what I want to say by borrowing certain terminology from the discipline of business administration. Turkey, like the rest of the world, is suffering the traumas of the transition from an industrial society to an information society, albeit a little differently and more violently. As we have failed to develop our democracy as much as the countries that have crowned their industrialized character with democracy, and as we have always left our democracy sitting in the shadow or the guardianship of the military and bureaucracy, we have failed to save ourselves from the exclusionary bureaucracy and the peremptory military during our transition from industrial society to information society. As is known, industrial society is based on a positivist scientific method, a machine-based production mechanism, a centralized administration, a hierarchical structure, a representative democracy, a military-like organizational model, the economy of scale, IQ, and -- in Douglas McGregor's formulation -- on the rules of Theory X*. However, information society, in which the entire world is seeking a good place for itself, is based on human relations instead of a positivist scientific method, on people instead of machines, on a decentralized administration instead of a centralized one, on a flexible structure instead of a hierarchical one, on participatory democracy instead of representative democracy, on an orchestral structure instead of a military-like organization, on efficiency instead of the economy of scale, on Theory Y instead of Theory X, and on emotional intelligence (EQ) instead of IQ. If you asked me to which of these structures Turkey is closer, I would undoubtedly say the structure of industrial society. However, it is obvious that this structure is no longer meeting society's demands. Turkish people now want to advance toward a socio-political organization as required by an information society and to an atmosphere of freedoms. And retreating from this path that means more democracy, less state influence and more individual rights, no longer seems to be possible; however, strong the resistance of the military and civil bureaucracy may be. (*) Theory X and Theory Y are used in the discipline of business administration and they were formulated by Douglas McGregor. According to Theory X, people/workers (let's say we, the citizens) are lazy by nature and thus should be monitored; they are unreliable, and security is important for this reason; they don't claim responsibility, take initiative or risks, and thus need a hierarchical structure. According to Theory Y, on the other hand, people/workers are aware of their responsibilities; they take the initiative and risks; they are creative, innovative and prefer flexible and loose structures.
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Private Turkish airliner starts regular flights to northern Iraq MUSTAFA GÜN ÝSTANBUL
The privately owned Turkish airline company Atlasjet announced this weekend that it will be launching regular flights between Ýstanbul and the northern Iraqi city of Arbil starting June 29. The flights will initially run five days a week, with the possibility of being increased to six days depending on demand. The airline had long considered Ýstanbul-Arbil flights, but the project had been stalled
many times for various reasons such as security and flight safety concerns. The flights will operate on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. CRJ 900's and Airbus 319 airplanes will be flying between the two cities. The airline plans to transport 3,000 passengers monthly. Airline companies organizing charter flights have traditionally been interested in the Istanbul-Arbil route. The first flights between Turkey and northern Iraq were from Istanbul to Sulaimaniya and started in
1995 by Fly Air after permission from the Foreign Ministry was obtained. Flights to Arbil followed soon after; however, in 2006, Fly Air's lease on two planes making the northern Iraq flights ended, effectively terminating flights to the region. Later, TT Airlines launched some flights, but these were halted due to "technical difficulties." World Focus Airlines, known for its dire financial situation, initially failed to secure the necessary permits but later was able to start flights under the company name Ank Air. However,
its flights were suspended by authorities once again on Friday because of an incident last week in which 150 of its passengers were stranded at Ýstanbul Atatürk Airport for two days. On average, an airline company makes $150,000 a week from Ýstanbul-Arbil flights. Airlines do not serve meals on these two-and-a-half-hour flights. Although Arbil is a high-risk area in terms of security, charter companies have always been interested in flying to the region because of the high profitability.
Pentagon-funded study: AK Party closure wýll deepen dývýde a moderate path. According to the report, there are other scenarios under which the AK Party could pursue a more aggressive Islamist agenda or the military could intervene in the country’s politics, but they look less likely. It noted that there were secularist Turks who were worried that the AK Party would appoint Islamists to state posts and turn away from Europe to create a rival Islamic bloc. But this “creeping Islamization” scenario is unlikely for several reasons: “First, it would lead to greater political polarization and would likely provoke intervention by the military. Second, most Turks support a secular state and oppose a state based on the Shariah. Third, EU membership has been a core element of the AK Party’s
foreign policy,” said the report. As for possible direct military intervention, the report said this would occur only as a last resort in the event that the AK Party presses for an Islamic agenda more aggressively. “A confrontation could take place if the AK Party takes actions seen by the military as crossing important lines. …While direct intervention by the military cannot be excluded from consideration, especially if the AK Party begins to push an Islamic agenda more aggressively, it is not very likely and would occur only as a last resort after the military had exhausted all other options,” said the report. The report noted that the AK Party’s Erdoðan, unlike his Islamist predecessor, Necmettin Erbakan, was oriented toward
Europe and that the party’s electoral success “does not translate into popular support for an Islamist agenda.” Assessing the implications of the AK Party’s pro-European policies, the report said they paved the way for the reconfiguration of Turkish politics as well: “As the West became a tacit ally of the AK Party, formerly pro-Western secularists surfaced as opponents of EU accession. The [main opposition Republican People’s Party] CHP, once the champion of a Western orientation for Turkey, has increasingly moved in a more nationalistic direction and has adopted a more ambiguous attitude toward the West, seeing some aspects of the West’s influence as a threat to the integrity of the Turkish state and Kemalism.”
Barzani sees better relations with Turkey M. ALÝHAN HASANOÐLU ARBIL
Earlier tensions in relations with neighboring countries have been gradually disappearing, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said yesterday, noting that these relations are improving. Barzani was speaking with executives from his Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) offices at a meeting held in Arbil’s town of Salahaddin. Speaking of the regional Kurdish administration’s relations with other countries, Barzani said the largely autonomous administration has enjoyed extremely good relations with the United States, European countries and Arab states. “Tension with some neighboring countries has begun to disappear and relations are changing for the better,” Barzani added, in apparent reference to relations with Turkey. Barzani, meanwhile, reiterated his objection to the content of a plan drafted by Staffan de Mistura, the UN secretary-general’s special representative to Iraq, concerning possible options to resolve internal boundary disputes. Earlier this month, the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) presented its first analysis to the country’s government about possible methods to resolve disputes over internal boundaries. The mission said then that de Mistura had presented separate analytical reports on four disputed districts -- Akre in Ninawa, Hamdaniya in Ninawa, Makhmour in Ninawa/Arbil and Mandali in Diyala -- to five senior Iraqi officials. “Mr. Mistura’s plan is not drafted in the way earlier agreed upon,” Barzani said yesterday.
Iraq says ready to include Turkey in energy tenders
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contýnued from page 1 Assessing the alternative scenarios for Turkish politics, the RAND report said the AK Party will be faced with structural limits for opening space for Islam in the public sphere. One such limitation stems from the fact that “the Kemalist establishment remains largely intact” and that “any government that crosses the lines that define the acceptable role of religion in politics risks accentuating political tensions and possibly provoking intervention by the military.” Other factors, such as Turkey’s Western orientation and the presence of a moderate and pluralistic tradition of Islam that does not embrace rigid interpretations or Shariah rule will also lead the AK Party to take
NATIONAL
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih has expressed willingness to include Turkish companies in new tenders to develop the country’s oil and gas fields, calling Turkey a gateway for Iraq to open up to Europe. In April, Iraq’s Oil Ministry qualified 35 companies to bid for tenders to develop the nation’s oil and gas fields. Turkey’s state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) was not included in the list, disappointing Ankara. “I spoke with Energy Minister Hilmi Güler and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, and I told them that we have been planning to include some major Turkish companies on the list of companies which will invest in the Iraqi oil sector. Both President [Jalal] Talabani and Prime Minister [Nouri] al-Maliki want Turkish companies to be on this list,” Salih was quoted as saying in an interview with news station NTV over the weekend. At a high-profile international gathering held in Ýstanbul last week, Salih said in his address that Iraq was recovering quickly from an authoritarian regime and the US-led war that toppled it, becoming an economically prosperous country integrated with its region and the international community. This new Iraq, which is now projecting $70 billion in oil revenue in 2008, sees Turkey as a “strategic partner,” he said, emphasizing that without cooperation from other countries Iraq could not meet its huge infrastructural needs on its own. “We see Turkey as a strategic partner, and when I say this, I mean it. This is a strategic choice and Iraq wants to go ahead with it,” he said at the Third TurkishArab Economic Forum, in which Erdoðan and Güler also participated. Ankara Today’s Zaman
Obama calls for religious freedom for Fener patriarch The report prepared for the Pentagon states that while the AK Party has Islamic roots, it enjoys broad-based political support that transcends religious, class and regional differences.
Lessons for US: Turkish alliance in Mideast not taken for granted With its renewed focus on Middle Eastern affairs and growing interests in the region, Turkey is likely to avoid offering the United States a blank check for military cooperation, a US study has revealed. The study, sponsored by the Pentagon and conducted by the International Security and Defense Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, said the Turkish policy toward the Middle East is likely to remain a sensitive issue in bilateral US-Turkish relations. “Turkey’s growing interests in the Middle East are likely to make Ankara wary about allowing the United States to use its military facilities for regional contingencies except where such operations are clearly perceived to be in Turkey’s interest,” it said, calling for a diversification of US access options that would provide alternatives to Ýncirlik air base in case Turkey increases restrictions on US use of it or other Turkish facilities. Turkey disappointed the US by refusing to cooperate militarily in the war on Iraq in 2003. Iran, whose nuclear program is viewed with deep suspicion by the US, is expected to be the next issue of contention between Ankara and Washington in the event the US administration decides to go ahead with military sanctions to force Tehran to end its nuclear program.
The RAND report also cautioned the US administration against describing Turkey as a “model” for coexistence of Islam and democracy in its political system because this makes many Turks, particularly the secularists and the military who believe that it pushes Turkey politically closer to the Middle East and weakens Turkey’s Western identity, “uncomfortable.” This, however, does not mean that Turkey is different from other Muslim countries in its long experience with fusing Islam with Westernization. Referring to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the report said: “The ability of a party with Islamic roots to operate within the framework of a secular democratic system while respecting the boundaries between religion and state would refute the argument that Islam cannot be reconciled with modern secular democracy. On the other hand, if the experiment fails, it could lead to greater secular-Islamic polarization, further reducing the middle ground needed to build the moderate Muslim bulwark needed to contain the spread of radicalized Islam.” “Beyond Turkey, the accommodation of Islam with democracy and secularism that has been achieved there is a valuable resource in the current ideological conflict between radical and mainstream interpretations of Islam.
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Mainstream entities in Turkey, therefore, should be encouraged to partner with groups and institutions elsewhere in the Muslim world to propagate moderate and pluralistic interpretations of Islam,” the report also noted. The report dismissed characterization of the current tensions in Turkey as a struggle between “Islamists” and “secularists” and said these tensions were “a part of a struggle for power between newly emerging social sectors and the secularized elite -- a struggle between the ‘periphery’ and the ‘center’-- that has deep roots in Ottoman and recent Turkish history.” It also noted that while the AK Party has Islamic roots, “it enjoys broad-based political support that transcends religious, class, and regional differences” and suggested Washington should remain committed to supporting Turkey’s membership in the EU because this would “rebut the claim that the West, especially Europe, is innately hostile to Muslims.” Future US administrations will need to work closely with congressional leaders to ensure that the Armenian issue does not poison future relations with Turkey, the report said, and urged Washington to follow up with concrete steps in its current cooperation with Turkey against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman
US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has voiced support for the Ýstanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, calling on Turkey to grant religious freedom to the patriarchate. Obama’s remarks came in an interview with the Greek bureau of Voice of America, Greek media reported over the weekend. “[Obama] called on Turkey to give religious freedom to the institution, return the property to the patriarchate and allow the opening of a theological school on the island of Halki,” Greek daily To Vima reported. Ankara does not recognize Patriarch Bartholomew’s international role as the spiritual leader of hundreds of millions of Orthodox Christians worldwide. It rejects his use of the title “ecumenical,” or universal, arguing instead that the patriarch is merely the spiritual leader of Ýstanbul’s dwindling Orthodox community. The Fener Greek Patriarchate in Ýstanbul dates back to the 1,100-year-old Orthodox Greek Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, today’s Ýstanbul, in 1453. Turkey has also been resisting EU pressure to reopen the Halki seminary on the island of Heybeliada near Ýstanbul, which was closed to new students in 1971 under a law that put religious and military training under state control. The theological school once trained generations of Greek Orthodox leaders, including the current patriarch. The seminary remained open until 1985, when the last five students graduated. An ethnic Greek but a Turkish citizen, Bartholomew says the Orthodox community could soon die out in Turkey if the seminary is not reopened. Ankara Today’s Zaman
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NATIONAL
TODAY’S ZAMAN 05
M O N D AY, J U N E 1 6 , 2 0 0 8
AK Party figures willing to close party if best for nation
man Sadullah Ergin says: “There is an problem of irony in regards to the perception of what the AK Party is. We are preparing a comprehensive response to the points in the indictment.” Saying the party line had remained clear and consistent since its formation, Ergin said the AK Party had made the greatest contribution to Turkey’s European Union bid, which has lasted over four decades. Ergin, calling attention to the EU’s secular character, says: “Describing the AK Party as a focal point of anti-secularist activities is a clear contradiction, simply be-
TARIK ÖZTÜRK
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party), in consideration of the start of the one-month response period following submission of the Supreme Court of Appeals chief prosecutor’s legal justification for the closure case against the party, has completed its preliminary work on a response. AK Party legal experts, who have been working without stop to ensure the case is concluded as soon as possible, say they will reference in particular the irony and clear contradiction in the prosecutor’s legal brief. Asserting that a serious perception problem was at hand, AK Party deputy group chair-
cause the EU is an institution that seeks a model of a modern, secular and wealthy society. Our party has repeatedly expressed its commitment to accession to this union, since the beginning, and taken the necessary steps to facilitate the membership process. Our actions are visible. That the prosecutor described our party this way despite these clear facts is a contradiction.” The AK Party’s legal experts stress that a prolonged closure case process will harm the country. Leading AK Party figures, who prefer the closure of their party over damage to the country’s interests, underline that it is difficult to provide services in an environment of uncertainty. The AK Party figures, who note that the harm that the Turkish nation will sustain also concern other actors in the process, assert that the nation will hold to account those who ignited the process. Saying that the chief prosecutor is se-
verely criticized in their response, which includes historical references, AK Party figure said, “The immediate conclusion of this case would be in Turkey’s best interest.” The AK Party, which has decided to keep Parliament working until the case is concluded, is also eager to make preparations to create a new party in case the Constitutional Court rules to shut the party down. A leading AK Party member, also a friend of mine, emphasized that the creation of a new party would take time, and drew attention to the approaching local elections. Another AK Party executive, who stresses that the local elections will carry unusual significance in addition to choosing local administrators and mayors, said: “Our nation will select the local administrators. But it will also give the proper response to those who have violated the basic principles of democracy and rule of law.”
PHOTO
Wars for ministerial posts over water
Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek held a press conference on Saturday in which he denied allegations that water brought form Kýzýlýrmak River to the city was unhealthy. He drank a glass of water to prove that it is healthy.
Amid increasing competition between the AK Party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Democratic Society Party (DTP) to win the upcoming local elections in Diyarbakýr and Ýzmir, the CHP has launched a counterattack to regain the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality in the polls. An Ankara deputy, noting that it became evident last year that the local elections would focus on the issue of water, said: “[Ankara] Mayor [Melih] Gökçek realized this fact and began a campaign to resolve this issue. He was relieved to resolve one of the city’s longstanding issues.” Gökçek, who underlines that his political opponents will seek to rely on a probable water issue in their opposition, says his rate of support decreased during the water crisis in 2007. Asserting that he commands a potential support base of 55 percent, Gökçek told Today’s Zaman: “Public polls have shown that our voter support dropped to 50 percent last year during the water crisis. Our opponents considered this an opportunity to undermine our political base. For this reason, they put pressure on the [Middle East Technical University] METU rector to initiate a
Number of intercity migrants hits 21 million in 35 years in Turkey EMRULLAH BAYRAK DÝYARBAKIR
The number of people who migrated from one Turkish city to another over the last 35 years has exceeded 21 million, according to a report recently posted on the State Planning Organization’s (DPT) Web site. The report, titled “Internal Migration and Characteristics of Migrants between 1965 and 2000,” states that around 21.1 million individuals migrated from one city to another for various reasons between 1965 and 2000. According to the report, prepared by planning expert Tuncer Kocaman, the number of intercity migrants hit 3.2 million between 1965 and 1970 and 4.7 million between 1995 and 2000. The report indicated that Ýstanbul, Ankara, Ýzmir, Diyarbakýr, Þanlýurfa, Konya, Adana, Bursa, Antalya and Ýçel are among the cities that attract the highest number of intercity migrants. Fifteen cities, including Tunceli and Ardahan, on the other hand, see the most migrants heading to neighboring provinces. The report notes that males mostly migrate to other cities for professional reasons, such as finding a better job, while females tend to migrate for reasons of marriage and education. Among those who migrate from one city to another, primary school graduates make up the majority. Males who leave
their hometowns and start living in another province find jobs more easily than females. According to the report, the main reason that leads individuals to migrate to another city is a lack of employment opportunities in their hometowns. “High birth rates in rural areas lead to an increase in unemployment,” the report said, adding that people also leave their hometowns for educational opportunities and access to better health services. Following an increase in intercity migration since 1965, the number of cities whose populations exceeded 1 million reached 18 in 2000, while there were only five cities in Turkey with populations above 1 million in 1970. Terrorist activities in the eastern provinces also led to an increase in the number of individuals leaving their hometowns for larger cities, according to the report. Acts of terror perpetrated by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed separatist group considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, have so far forced thousands of citizens residing in eastern and southeastern Anatolia to migrate to other cities. The separatist PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of acquiring autonomy for Kurds living in the Southeast.
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discussion over arsenic [levels in water]. But they just inflict harm on themselves via their allegations.” Gökçek also criticizes the media for its role in the “water wars,” asserting that the media intentionally overlooks the 40 percent arsenic rate in Ýzmir’s potable water, instead focusing on Ankara water’s 1 percent rate. An outbreak of diarrhea among the fish of Mogan Lake represents a tragicomic dimension of the ongoing water issue. A few days after water from the Kýzýlýrmak River was brought to the lake, newspapers reported that the fish in the lake came down with diarrhea. The message was clear: If the fish had this affliction, the danger for people is huge and imminent. Ankara Waterworks Authority (ASKÝ) General Director Kamil Kýlýç has said that criticism over sulfate in the water was set aside to launch arsenic discussions. Gökçek asserts that these discussions will also be shelved when his opponents realize that their campaign will end in fiasco. It seems that the wars fought over water through the local elections will take on new dimensions with the introduction of new allegations in the coming days.
FEHMÝ KORU f.koru@todayszaman.com
We are the výctýms When veteran politician Hikmet Çetin reaffirmed his statement that he and other dinner guests of retired ambassador Faruk Loðoðlu didn’t get together to conspire against Deniz Baykal, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), with the intention of creating a new “leftist” party, I believed him. “We talked mainly about football. The other matters we touched on very briefly or in passing,” he said on the phone. Ankara is always conspiratorial, as is the case with many capitals of the world, and nowadays stories regarding many prominent personalities are a dime a dozen. Rumors and innuendos are rampant. Even an innocent dinner, its guest list containing an ex-president, a retired high court prosecutor, two prominent professors who happen to be rectors of leading universities and some names close to CHP circles, can create a wave of anxiety in politics. Many are of the opinion that the political turmoil caused by the Constitutional Court’s decision to annul two constitutional amendments will be doubled, if not tripled, when the court announces its decision on the fate of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Those in the know believe that after the closure of the AK Party “the powers that be” will turn their attention to the CHP to make it more radically state-oriented. The guest list of the dinner, including Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Sabih Kanadoðlu and Çetin, was enough proof to support their thesis. Özden Toker, the daughter of Ýsmet Ýnönü, the second president of the republic, and the mother of Gülsün Bilgehan, once a deputy and prospective leader of the CHP, were also among the dinner’s attendees. I believe what Çetin told me, after all those years we spent next to each other, he as a politician and myself as a journalist, I developed a liking and trust for him. The story that caused more turbulence in politics is a completely different matter, since the hero of that story is a newcomer in Ankara, and there is not yet any trust between him and the journalists covering his actions. On the contrary, Osman Paksüt, the deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court, eradicated what little trust he had built among Ankara pundits when he denied the claim that he had visited Land Forces Commander Gen. Ýlker Baþbuð, only to correct himself later. Why does a justice who serves in the Constitutional Court visit a high-ranking officer in his headquarters in an atmosphere that seems to have been taken from the Cold War novels of John LeCarré: The whole floor is vacated and security cameras are blackened to create privacy. Justice Paksüt remembered his visit after the army made its displeasure of the incident’s coverage in newspapers public with an announcement on its Web site. We now know that this was a courtesy visit to congratulate the Gen. Baþbuð on the army’s cross-border operations and that it had nothing to do with the headscarf case opened some days previously or the party closure case that nobody knew would be opened shortly. I have been following political events for a quarter of a century as an established political journalist in Ankara, and I found it very difficult to understand the real meaning of all these developments. I have trouble distinguishing who to trust. I am really sorry for the general public, whose minds are boggled by news bombardment, since very little of that news is reliable. I feel that quite many of them still believe that former President Sezer met with his co-conspirators in a friend’s house to discuss political matters and that Justice Paksüt visited Gen. Baþbuð to discuss matters on the court’s agenda. Thank God, very few articles from the international media reach the shores of Turkey; otherwise, we would get dizzier with each new item. A recent article in the International Herald Tribune, owned by The New York Times Co., is a case in point. The writer is a Turkey expert at the Hudson Institute who is very critical of the AK Party government. Before last year’s unconcluded presidential elections in April, she held a seminar at Hudson and made the participants debate whether there would be some deadly tragic occurrences in Turkey, a bomb here and an assassination of the chairman of the Constitutional Court there, that would force the government to give up. She had also authored an article in Newsweek in late 2006 anticipating a military coup in Turkey. Zeyno Baran, the writer of the piece in the International Herald Tribune, recited many unfounded accusations as if they were universal facts -- accusations not even the most ardent opponents of the AK Party in Turkey dare to raise. The strongest blow came later. Please bear with me and read this paragraph fully: “Another dangerous trend is the systematic undermining of the military, the judiciary and the education system, the three critical institutions of Turkey’s secular and Western identity. Most recently, pro-secular rulings by Turkey’s highest court (based on the Constitution) have been labeled as ‘judiciary coups,’ even by some Turkish liberals and their Western supporters. What these well-intentioned supporters of democracy don’t seem to recognize is that they inadvertently strengthen hard-line Islamists, who argue that the current legal system is illegitimate and that Muslims need to be ruled under Shariah.” I, for one, feel sorry for readers of some Turkishlanguage newspapers who don’t know what to say after all this rubbish appeared in an international paper. We are all victimized.
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06 TODAY’S ZAMAN
INTERVIEW
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2008
Öktem: so-called ýntellectuals pump up fascýsm ýn Turkey PHOTO
ONUR ÇOBAN
‘Hitler came to power with 75 percent of the vote, and this is because the so-called intellectuals gathered support behind him. In pre-Hitler Germany, there was a growing working class -- just like Turkey’s growing religious class. At the time, German intellectuals had provoked the military and certain civilian organizations against this working class to prevent their ascent to power’
Niyazi Öktem He currently teaches the philosophy and sociology of law at Ýstanbul Bilgi University’s faculty of law and co-hosts a political discussion program on Mehtap TV. He was formerly the head of the department of journalism of the school of communication at Galatasaray University. A graduate of Galatasaray Lisesi, a French-language high school, he has been a visiting professor at French universities several times. Since 1981, he worked on the sociology of religions and dialogue between different religions, participating in international symposiums and representing the Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is the author of 10 books and more than 30 articles in Turkish, English and French. Since 1989, he has held the French government’s rank of Chevalier, Ordre des Palmes Academiques.
these institutions need to be legitimate where universal rules of law are concerned. How do you think this legitimacy could be provided? There need to be representatives of different institutions in the Constitutional Court. The number of members of the court could be 21, and two-thirds of them could be replaced every five years. In Turkey we currently face a juristocracy, which is against the spirit of democracy. Where does the Constitutional Court get the power to annul a popular law? When we don’t know where the power comes from; we call this Shariah rule. According to the Quran, the sovereign is God and rulers derive their power from God. This is the idea in Shariah. The Muslim caliphate ruled like this: Sovereignty belongs to God and God gave the power to the Umayyad dynasty. In France, Louis XIV ruled like this: Sovereignty belongs to God and God gave the power to the Bourbon dynasty. The idea of the power of popular will has been developed by the political philosophers to counter
this. In Turkey it seems like we have the sovereignty of the military, the judiciary and the civilian bureaucracy -- the establishment. That’s why we need to increase the number of people in the court and have different segments represented. Going back to the legal change that the Constitutional Court rejected, the law was going to allow women attending universities to wear headscarves, and the court said it violated principle of secularism set in the Constitution. Some people question what if the law included a provision that would put a restriction on wearing headscarves while providing public service, would the result be same? I don’t think it would matter. The establishment is so very determined to finish off the current government that they could find a reason to reject any proposal. And, speaking of secularism, Turkey is not a secular country in terms of what we understand from secularism within the limits of acceptable standards. In the
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PROFILE
contýnued from page 1 He also said that following the most recent decision of the Constitutional Court overturning a change in the Constitution to ease the headscarf ban at universities, the only way to change the Constitution is through a military intervention, because other avenues have been closed. For Monday Talk, Öktem explains what can be expected out of the current deadlock, the similarities between Hitler’s Germany and today’s Turkey and what is likely to happen if the AK Party is closed down. You have indicated that you have seen many periods of political tension in Turkey, but that none of them have been as disturbing as the current one. Why do you say this? There is a group of people who call themselves intellectuals in the society, and they have been supporting political manipulation in Turkey. An intellectual must objectively evaluate the current situation created by the Constitutional Court against the rule of law, but these so-called intellectuals support the crisis. I compare the situation with the pre-Hitler period in Germany. Would you elaborate on that idea? Hitler came to power even though Germany had the perfect Weimar Constitution. Hitler came to power with 75 percent of the vote, and this is because so-called intellectuals gathered support behind him. In pre-Hitler Germany, there was a growing working class -- just like Turkey’s growing religious class. At the time, German intellectuals had provoked the military and some civilian organizations against this working class to prevent their ascent to power. Hitler was able to receive the support he got because of the intellectuals who either remained silent or provoked society against the working class and supported Hitler. What are the other parallels you see between the Turkish and the German cases? In Turkey fascism has been pumped up with the support of the so called intellectuals, as in pre-Hitler Germany. Turkish intellectuals are on the wrong side. After the most recent decision of the Constitutional Court, the only way to change the Constitution in Turkey is through a military intervention. No other power can change the Constitution, because any changes to be made to the Constitution could be seen as being against the unchangeable constitutional principles of the democratic and secular Turkish state, as well as against Atatürkist nationalism. The Constitutional Court has created case law under which the Constitution can be changed only through a military coup. This is a serious situation. The top court’s decision was about a change to the Constitution. But when it comes to passing laws, what has happened? A different but similar situation occurred when former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer vetoed several laws that Parliament had sent him. We have the example of the Law on Foundations. Parliament passed the law, but it was vetoed by Sezer. This time around President Abdullah Gül approved it, but it was then taken to the Constitutional Court by the main opposition CHP [Republican People’s Party]. Think about this: Parliament passes a law to correct a bad situation [Parliament recently passed a law to allow for the return of previously confiscated properties to non-Muslim Turkish foundations] and the CHP takes it to the Constitutional Court to have it annulled. And the court has announced that it will hear the case. What does this say about the composition of the court? That is another difficulty. If eight out of 11 members of the court had been appointed by the late President Turgut Özal instead of by Sezer, the situation could have been different and we might not have had today’s crisis. Turkey’s political fate is in the hands of these 11 people. I am not at all against a Constitutional Court system in the state. On the contrary, I support it because it is a way to provide a system of checks and balances. I do not accept the idea that “the people’s voice is the voice of truth.” However,
world we have three types of secularism: One was the anti-religious system enforced under Soviet rule; another is the Anglo-Saxon secularism; and the third is French laicité. Turkish secularism is sui generis; there is nothing like it. The Turkish state controls all religious activities through the Religious Affairs Directorate, although in all liberal democracies, the state does not interfere in religious institutions. Tarikats were banned after the founding of the Turkish Republic, but they do exist in free and democratic societies. Even though they are banned, tarikats exist in Turkey too… The current president and the prime minister are affiliated with tarikats and some former ones were, too; so, sociologically, they do exist. Unfortunately, our so-called intellectuals ignore this fact and adopt a positivist, Jacobean approach. In my view, Turkey’s understanding and practice of secularism could very well be like French secularism. What that means is that there is a distinction between public service recipients
and providers. If the public service recipient is an adult, that person can carry religious symbols. But the public service provider represents the secular state, so, he cannot. In practice, for example, a judge cannot wear a headscarf or wear the symbol of Alevism as a pin or necklace. Another thing is that in France there are no mandatory religious courses in the state schools, but there are in tarikat schools, which are mostly private. Your example of Germany is quite striking. Do you see more polarization coming into Turkish society? I am expecting a new neo-nationalist political formation in the society in the form of a political party. With the pressure from the military, the judiciary, the civilian bureaucracy and so-called intellectuals, this party is going to rise to power. This is my guess. Why do you think a new party will spearhead this type of neo-nationalism that you predict, rather than the CHP or the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)? The CHP does not have accountability. The new party could include some names from the CHP and the MHP. This new party might also include some pious Muslim names. Another option is that after its closure, the AK Party might be turned into a new political party and include some AK Party supporters in that wagon as well. Would the general public accept such a plot so easily? They could. If we remember how the 1982 Constitution was accepted by a large majority, we can understand how people act. You would bow to the continuation of the military regime if you did not accept the 1982 Constitution. There was also violence and terror in society prior to the military regime’s takeover. Today Turkey doesn’t have that. Do you think similar clashes are likely? Before the military coup of 1980, yes, there were clashes, and the regime was in a deadlock. Parliament was unable to elect a president during the six months preceding the coup. [Political leaders Bülent] Ecevit and [Süleyman] Demirel could not get along. I always remember that the late Ecevit made nine offers to Demirel, and Demirel refused all of them. Now the CHP leader does the same thing. He doesn’t even accept the invitations of the president. The supremacy of law has been possible in post-Cold War Europe only with the elimination of Gladio. Observers argue that Ergenekon -- which is likened to Gladio -- structures should be eliminated in Turkey to establish a true democracy. Can Turkey do that? The deep state is too deep to understand, but I’ll make a Marxist analysis: The ones who hold economic power get the political power as well. Anatolian Tigers [small and medium-sized enterprises, which are owned mostly by conservative entrepreneurs], have a big grip on the economic power and they are pious Muslims. They have the political power, as well. Now they elected a president whose wife wears the headscarf. Those formerly holding the political power cannot accept this fact, like the ancient Roman patricians [group of elite families] who were against the plebeians. Yes, the [former Prime Minister Necmettin] Erbakan period was full of suspicious acts on his part, but people change and evolve. I think there is no going back for the AK Party. Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdoðan has a good saying: The economy has neither a religion nor faith. For Turkey, is democracy a long way off? If the AK Party is going to be closed down, the European Union will end negotiations with Turkey. This can be considered almost an end because, historically, the West has been behind all of Turkey’s democratic reforms. Europe is the guarantee behind Turkish democracy. After the closure of the AK Party, we can expect a crippled democracy with semi-autocratic features. I think freedom of speech would be quite restricted in that period and that intellectuals would suffer a lot. Any hopes? I wonder what would happen if Erdoðan were to invite [CHP leader] Deniz Baykal to discuss a new constitution. The AK Party has been critical of YÖK [Higher Education Board], and so is the CHP. Maybe they could discuss that specifically. My view is that Mr. Baykal would be against that, too, but maybe Mr. Erdoðan would gain something from this search for a middle ground. This could have been done also before electing a president. This is a crisis situation.
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BUSINESS
TODAY’S ZAMAN 07
M O N D AY, J U N E 1 6 , 2 0 0 8
Global fýnancýal prospects of emergýng market economýes and Turkey In the aftermath of the almost one-year-old but still lingering global financial turmoil and in the midst of skyrocketing commodity prices, what does the current international financial environment look like for developing countries in general and for Turkey in particular, and what can we expect it to look like in the future? Can emerging market economies (EMEs) such as Turkey continue to obtain sufficient foreign financing of their development on favorable terms as high-income industrialized countries experience serious slowdowns and their financial institutions continue to suffer significant losses? For the answer to these and related questions we can turn to the World Bank's 173-page report "Global Development Finance 2008: The Role of International Banking" (www.go.worldbank.org/PP2AKPICJ0) published last week. The focus of the annual report this year is on the important but controversial role foreign banks have played in the EMEs' private capital inflows, especially through their international banking services in the EMEs. The recent rapid expansion of foreign banks in the EMEs, such as Turkey, for asset growth and risk diversification through both cross-border and domestic market activities raises questions about the costs as well as the benefits for the EMEs. Furthermore, as the report emphasizes, the reliance of the EMEs on international bank financing can no longer be taken for granted in light of "the current state of heightened market volatility and tight credit conditions." The major findings and projections of the report can be summarized as follows: (1) Economic (real gross domestic product, GDP) growth in developing countries, projected to slow from an exceptional 7.8 percent annual growth in 2007 to 6.5 percent in 2008, is expected to decelerate only slightly to 6.4 percent during 2009-2010. The projected 6.4 percent rate for 2009-2010 is greater than the average annual average rate of 5.6 percent realized during 2000-2005 as well as the average annual rate of 3.4 percent for the 1980s and 1990s. Developing countries seem to have started realizing their underlying growth potential thanks to their more effective macroeconomic and structural policies, coupled with their increasing globalization. However, the recent upward inflationary trend in many of these countries raises serious questions about their ability to arrest that trend through fiscal and monetary stabilization policies before inflation again becomes a major problem as in the 1980s and 1990s. (2) Net private capital inflows, including foreign bank loans, to developing countries reached $1 trillion, with an increase of $269 billion, in
ASIM ERDÝLEK a.erdilek@todayszaman.com
2007, setting a record after rising for the fifth consecutive year, with substantial increases in both private debt and equity components. Since 2002, net foreign bank lending and bond financing has increased from almost zero to 3 percent of GDP, while net foreign direct and portfolio equity inflows have risen from 2.7 percent to 4.5 percent of GDP in developing countries. The bad news is that net private capital inflows are projected to fall to about $800 billion by 2009. As before, only a relatively few larger EMEs will be able attract the bulk of these inflows. A major reason for this projected drop is the credit retrenchment forced on the major financial institutions of developed countries with direct exposure to the US subprime mortgage crisis. The credit retrenchment means tighter and pricier lending as banks try to strengthen their balance sheets by shrinking them. This credit retrenchment could have serious consequences for the overexposed corporate sector borrowers in some EMEs such as Turkey, which are likely to experience substantially restricted and costlier access to syndicated international bank financing. (3) In light of the unfavorable developments noted earlier in the real and financial sectors of developed countries as well their own increasing macroeconomic instability and being faced with rising inflation, developing countries have become much more vulnerable to external shocks. Since mid-2007, two-thirds of developing countries have experienced worsening current account balances, with half of developing countries, including Turkey, running current account deficits in excess of 5 percent of GDP in 2007. (4) Surging commodity, especially energy and food prices, are posing not only a negative macroeconomic pressure on energy and food importing countries but also creating severe social problems for them due to the heavy impact of those prices on the poor, who spend large portions of their incomes on energy and food. The low-income developing countries, especially many in Africa, are the hardest hit by soaring commodity prices, with almost no access to foreign private capital in-
flows and left to rely on limited concessionary foreign financing and stingy foreign aid in the form of grants. (5) The report contains several specific findings and projections relating to Turkey, some of which I will summarize here. (a) Turkey was among the top 10 developing countries receiving cross-border syndicated loan commitments during 2000-2007, with its commitments falling from $11.3 billion to $3.7 billion during 2000-2002 but rising steadily from $4.7 billion to $28.8 billion during 2003-2007. In 2007, it ranked fourth in its commitments, after Russia, India and China. The report notes, however, that the Turkey's Sovereign Emerging Markets Bond Index (EMBI) spread has been widening sharply since the beginning of the global financial crisis in August 2007 -- along with those of Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Kazakhstan -- with the Turkish lira depreciating by 16 percent against the euro in the first quarter of 2008. (b) Turkey was also among the top 10 portfolio equity destination developing countries during 2000-2007, with foreign equity inflows rising, but not steadily, from $0.9 billion in 2003 to $5.2 billion in 2007. The report notes, however, that the Turkish stock market, along with that of China, was among the most volatile in the world, with Turkish equity prices appreciating by over 70 percent during January-October 2007 and then depreciating by almost 30 percent during the next six months. (c) Turkey also ranked among the top 10 foreign direct investment (FDI) destinations among developing countries during 2000-2007, with inflows rising steadily from $1.1 billion to $22.0 billion during 2002-2007. The report emphasizes that countries that rely on FDI inflows more than on other forms of capital inflows are less vulnerable to external financial problems. FDI inflows generally provide a more stable source of external financing than private debt or portfolio equity inflows. The report's real GDP growth forecasts for Turkey are 4.0 percent for 2008, 4.3 percent for 2009 and 5.0 percent for 2010. Its forecasts for the current account/GDP ratios, on the other hand, are -7.3 percent for 2008, -7.5 percent for 2009 and -6.8 percent for 2010. It is noteworthy that although in 2010 the current account deficit ratio is projected to drop below that in 2009, the real GDP growth is expected to accelerate. The report's overall optimistic forecast, which has to be regarded cautiously in light of the severe political instability confronting Turkey, is that "improved fundamentals have made it more likely that Turkey will weather the financial market storm and continue its growth after 2008." Let's hope so.
Turkey's staggering credit card interest rates PHOTO
AP
ERCAN BAYSAL ANKARA
There is currently a heated debate regarding a bill that aims to cap interest rates on credit cards. Bankers argue that there should not be any restrictions in a free market economy. But Ahmet ?yimaya, the Ankara deputy for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the head of Parliament's Justice Commission, who drafted the bill, says that he will not turn back. Any examination of worldwide credit practices shows that Turkish banks apply higher credit card interest rates than those in other countries. The interest rate set by the Turkish Central Bank is 15.75 percent, while the compound interest rate applied to credit cards by banks is five times higher, averaging at more than 70 percent. In the UK, the central bank interest rate is 5 percent and the average credit card interest rate is 15.92 percent. In Australia the central bank rate is 5 percent and the average credit card rate is 19.40 percent. In respect to this ration, the interest rates in Turkey are only comparable to those in the US, where the Federal Reserve's rate is 2 percent and the average annual interest rate applicable on credit cards is 12.47 percent.
Outstanding credit card balances in Turkey total almost YTL 30 billion. The number of people in Turkey who have defaulted on credit card payments or personal loans has increased by 5.3 percent in April compared to the previous month. According to statistics provided by the central bank, the number of such people rose from 64,164 in March to 67,594 in April. The number of people who failed to repay personal loans rose from 9,960 to 11,343, an increase of 13.9 percent, while the number of people who can't pay back credit card debts jumped from 54,204 to 56,251. The number of people who failed to pay their personal loans or credit card debts was 221,712 in the first four months of 2008.
CBT lowers rates to 5.14 percent According to a statement issued by the central bank in early June concerning the maximum interest rates applicable to credit card transactions, the maximum monthly interest rate applicable to credit card transactions was lowered from 4.54 to 4.39 percent for YTL transactions and from 2.59 to 2.54 percent for the dollar transactions, while the rate for euro transactions, 2.30 percent, remained unchanged. The maximum monthly default interest rate was decreased from 5.29 percent to 5.14 percent for YTL transactions Regarding the proposal to cap interest rates, cen-
Outstanding credit card debts nearing YTL 30 billion
Country
tral bank head Durmu? Y?lmaz says credit card interest rates are, on average, 2.5 times higher than consumption loan interest rates in developing countries like Turkey. Noting that credit card interest rates in the US are 1.7 times higher than consumer loan interest rates, Yýlmaz points out that this is about three times higher in Turkey. "This rate is 2.5 times higher
in developing countries such as ours. It is 2.25 in Mexico, but it may it may be 2.5 times higher depending on economic developments," he says. Concerning the caps, Tevfik Bilgin, president of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), argues, "I do not think imposing restrictions in a market mechanism is a proper thing to do."
CB interest rate (%) 2.00 5.00 15.51 19.40 17.20 34.22 20.00 12.00 15.75
US UK Greece Australia Poland Mexico New Zealand Greek Cypriots Turkey
Avg. credit card interest rate (%) 12.47 15.92 10.25 5.75 7.50 8.25 70.00
INVESTMENT
German bussinesmen choosing Turkey German companies are increasingly choosing Turkey as an investment destination, a top German official has said. German Ambassador to Turkey Eckart Cuntz told the Anatolia news agency that "the trade volume between Turkey and Germany has increased remarkably in recent years, reaching almost 30 billion euros." Cuntz said only 24 German companies were operating in Turkey in 1982 but that the figure had since risen to 3,300. He said Turkey attracted the attention of investors thanks to its successful economic and political profile. Noting that Turkey was a major economic partner for his country, Cuntz said German entrepreneurs had full confidence in Turkey and that German investors preferred Turkey because it was a continuously developing country with a dynamic economy, high potential, areas suitable for investment and positioned well in terms of logistics. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires
GROWTH
Turkey to become 10th largest economy by 2023 Turkey will become the world's 10th largest economy by 2023, a top Turkish official declared yesterday. Ministry for Industry and Trade Zafer Çaðlayan said, "Our goal is to list Turkey among the top 10 economies in the world by 2023, when we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the republic." Addressing a group of party members over the weekend, Çaðlayan noted the changes Turkey was experiencing in all sectors, saying: "Just five years ago, we were the 26th largest economy in the world. Now we've jumped to 17th place." He went on to say that the transition did not come easily, citing "a lack of structural reforms and mismanagement in the economy" as major factors preventing Turkey's growth in the past. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires
CRISIS
High oil prices hitting poor High oil prices are hitting those least able to afford it, but an imbalance in demand and supply which is partly behind the price spike could last for years, Britain's energy minister said on Saturday. The sheer scale of the price rises speaks of a clear belief that this supply and demand imbalance will continue for years to come, Malcolm Wicks said in a speech to the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum. Saudi Arabia has called an unprecedented one-day meeting of oil-producing and consuming nations in Jeddah on June 22, which could be attended by some heads of state. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has said current prices are unjustifiable but blamed speculators and a weak dollar. Riyadh has said it will pump an extra 300,000 barrels per day to make up for shortfalls by other OPEC members. Riyadh Reuters
ENERGY
G-8 warn of ‘serious challenges' over oil Finance ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations urged oil producers Saturday to boost output to help stabilize record-high oil and food prices, calling the situation a serious threat to global economic growth. The world economy faces uncertainty and inflationary pressures because of the recent rise in prices, the G-8 ministers said in a joint statement after two days of talks in Osaka. "Elevated commodity prices, especially of oil and food, pose a serious challenge to stable growth worldwide," the statement said. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the spike in oil prices to new heights was a problem of supply and demand, and not caused by speculators. "This is not something that lends itself to short-term solutions," he told reporters after the meeting ended. Osaka AP
PHOTO
SELMAN EÞTÜRKLER
EXPORT
Turkey explores Asia Pacific market The second Turkey/Asia-Pacific Foreign Trade Bridge will open tomorrow at Istanbul's WOW Convention Center. Organized by the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) and supported by the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat and Foreign Ministry of Turkey, the two-day summit will bring Turkish and Asia-Pacific businessmen together to explore investment opportunities. TUSKON Chairman Rizanur Meral told the Anatolia news agency over the weekend that Turkish businessmen are eager to export goods to the Asia-Pacific region. The forum will bring together 465 businessmen from 20 countries, including the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Vietnam,
South Korea and Japan. About 2,000 Turkish businessmen are expected to attend the conference. "The [Asia Pacific] region has a trade volume of $6 trillion. There is a general prejudice that the 'region only sells goods, but does not purchase any.' In fact the countries in the region purchase goods worth nearly $2.9 trillion," Meral said. He noted that of the goods purchased, $2 trillion worth is exported from Western countries, and therefore Turkey could have a place in such a market as well. Meral said Turkey's exports to the region amounted to $4 billion last year and that this figure should be increased to $25 billion over the next five years. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires
Record growth for Turkish paint industry The Turkish paint sector has recorded a 200 percent increase in its exports in the past 10 years, an official from the sector said on Sunday. In an interview with the Anatolia news agency, Istanbul Chemical and Chemical Products Exporters' Association Chairman Murat Akyüz said the Turkish paint industry had a production capacity of 850,000 tons of paint a year and employed nearly 100,000 people. "It was ranked the sixth-largest paint producer in Europe following a rapid growth process. We expect that Turkey will probably become the fourthlargest paint producer in the European Union in the coming years," he said. Bursa Today's Zaman with wires
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08 TODAY’S ZAMAN
M O N D AY, J U N E 1 6 , 2 0 0 8
BUSINESS
Turkey spends more on defense
Military budget trends and events Here are the military budget trends since 2001, when a financial crisis erupted and the International Monetary Fund also sought for the Turkish military to trim its budget. Turkey pledged to the IMF in late December 2000 that it would cut the military budget, one of the main sources of inflationary pressures exerted upon the country's economy. Last year in December, Turkey promised the IMF that it would save $690 million, about 0.3 percent of the country's total GNP, by cutting down extra spending that could have been made from the money normally allocated to the military in a given year but not used within that year. The pledge to trim the military budget was made in return for $7.5 billion in emergency aid from the IMF to stave off a severe financial crisis. The exact size of the military's budget is unknown because of several extra-budgetary funds. A Turkish deputy uncovered in 2001 that about $4.901 billion concealed within civil servants' expenditures in the previous year's fiscal budget of about $67 billion had actually been spent on arms. Turkey had also promised the IMF it would open its defense expenditures to auditing and measurement of the country's performance in the area vis-à-vis the overall disinflation progress, as with any other spending category. Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defense budget was fixed at about $7.1 billion for the fiscal year 2001, again grabbing the highest share in the overall budget. This represents a slight drop from the 2000 Ministry of National Defense budget, due to the rapid loss of value of the Turkish lira against the US dollar. The Ministry of National Defense budget for the fiscal year 2000 was $7.609 billion. Then Turkish Defense Minister Sabahattin Çakmakoðlu said during a debate on the Ministry of National Defense budget at a parliamentary commission that it was the first time after many years that the annual increase in his ministry's budget stood at 23.9 percent, a contrast to the 65 percent increase in 2000. As Çakmakoðlu, explained 31 percent of the Ministry of National Defense budget is for personnel expenditures, while the remaining 68 percent is spent on strategic needs. Among defense expenditures that have not been made public is the money spent by the Turkish Treasury for foreign state credits, totaling about $500 million in 2001. Altogether, the known amount of military spending reaches about $14 billion annually. The Ministry of National Defense saw a drop in its share within the GDP as the Turkish Parliament approved on June 14, 2000, the revised budget for fiscal year 2001 at about $71.9 billion, up from the earlier $67 billion. Under the revised budget, the Ministry of National Defense budget, including other current expenditures of $3.4 billion, is fixed at about $8.102 billion -- 4.4 percent of the GDP and the largest share after the Treasury and Finance Ministry budget. When other expenditures is included in the Ministry of National Defense's 2000 fiscal budget its share within GDP was at around 5.1 percent. For the first time, the Finance Ministry released on its Web site in May 2001 the previously unknown amount of the "other current expenditures" of the military and paramilitary forces as well as intelligence, in line with Turkey's pledge made to the IMF under Article 19 to produce a transparent budget. According to the Finance Ministry, between the years 1993
PHOTO
AP
contýnued from page 1 The SSM spent around a total $1.2 billion in 2007 and the first five months of 2008 for arms acquisition projects, an SSM source has said. The same report noted that defense industry company exports reached around $420 million last year, up from about $100 million in 1997. The turnover of the local defense industry companies -- totaling around 70, including around 15 companies that the Foundation to Strengthen the Turkish Armed Forces (TSKGV) has shares in -- reached about $2 billion by 2007, up from $900 million in 2001, the report said. Forty-five percent of the total $420 million in exports occurred through offset pledges that foreign contractors made as part of their contracts with Turkey. Depending on the project, foreign contractors pledge offset commitments under which they give certain ratio of workshare to local companies. The SSM projects around $1 billion Turkish military product exports by 2011. Domestic manufacturing of arms systems reached 41.6 percent last year, up from around 25 percent in 2004, the same activity report said. However it is unclear what this about 41 percent comprises. R&D projects the SSM contracted with local companies are concentrated in the areas of systems integration, network information, satellite and sensor systems, electronic warfare, missiles, guidance and control projects. As part of efforts to boost the Turkish defense industry, which has seen a poor development trend since the establishment of the SSM in 1985 -- almost 23 years ago -- to set up a sound Turkish defense industry infrastructure, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBÝTAK) Marmara Research Center has earmarked 59.4 percent of its $115.9 million of R&D projects for defense projects. The Submarine Tactical Simulator project, worth around $13.2 million, as well as a mine project have been among some priority R&D schemes developed by TÜBÝTAK in cooperation with the SSM. In 2005, the government took a positive step toward ending its dependence on other countries, which stood as high as 80 percent in terms of the procurement of weapons systems, by allocating a budget of YTL 416 billion to TÜBÝTAK, to be used chiefly for defense projects. The government has stated that by 2010 it targets the allocation of 2 percent of the total gross national product (GNP) to R&D, while at the same time transferring the authority over R&D projects to civilians -- thereby delegating the supervision of such allocations to civilian authority.
and 2000 a total of $20.549 billion was allocated for the Ministry of National Defense in the "other current expenditure" category, covered by Article 53 of the budget law. Article 53 deals with the carryover of unspent funds in defense allocation. Turkey's Ministry of National Defense budget was set at YTL 10.97 billion ($6.8 billion) for fiscal year 2005, a slight increase from fiscal year 2004, when that figure stood at YTL 10.01 billion ($6.2 billion). The total budget for fiscal year 2005 was YTL 155.4 billion ($97.1 billion). Turkey introduced a new Turkish currency unit, the YTL, which replaced the Turkish Lira; one YTL was worth 1 million old lira. The currency went into effect in 2005. This move came as the country's almost three decades of chronic inflation of around 50100 percent per year fell to a record low of 9.9 percent in that year. A further YTL 2.37 billion ($1.4 billion) was allocated for the Gendarmerie General Command (JGK) and YTL 175.9 million ($109.9 million) was earmarked for the Coast Guard Command (SGK). Though affiliated with the Ministry of Interior, the budgets of both commands are overseen by the military, as they generate income for defense. Therefore, the budgets of the Ministry of National Defense, JGK and SGK altogether totaled YTL 13.5 billion ($8.4 billion), marking a 10.67 percent increase for 2005 from 8.15 percent in 2004.
GNP Ratio Decreased The defense budget, including the JGK and SGK, represented 2.8 percent of the GNP in 2005. This represented a slight decrease from 2004. Personnel expenditures within the Ministry of National Defense budget constituted 35.07 percent for 2005 and the second-highest after expenses earmarked for goods and services, which accounted for 56.39 percent. The debate at the parliamentary commission in 2004 was the first test case for the deputies as to whether they would engage in any real debate on the national defense budget after a bill passed by parliament in May 2005 envisaging the military budget falling under the direct scrutiny of the civilian Court of Auditors. But a sensible debate over the military budget has not taken place. The projected Ministry of National Defense budget for fiscal year 2006 was YTL 11.8 billion ($8.6 billion), a slight increase over the previous year (YTL 0.9 billion). This includes YTL 4.3 billion for personnel and YTL 3.6 billion for procurement, representing respective increases of 12.2 percent and 6.2 percent from 2005. The Ministry of National Defense budget made up 6.8 percent of the country's total 2006 budget of YTL 174 billion ($127.2 billion). To increase budget transparency, and at the request of the International Monetary Fund, the Turkish government for the first time made available budget forecasts for all the ministries, including the Ministry of National Defense, for the upcoming three years. The Ministry of National Defense budgets are projected as YTL 12.4 billion and YTL 12.9 billion for fiscal years 2007 and 2008, respectively. These figures do not include extra-budgetary resources allocated for defense. The SSM budget, one of the extra budgetary funds, was made public for the first time since its 1985 creation in the budget forecast for 2006. However this forecast included only administrative budget expenses, such as that for the SSM's personnel, fixed at YTL 23.4 million. This represented almost 1 percent of the estimated SSM fund of $1.5 billion that was not dis-
closed in the 2006 budget breakdown table. Almost 99 percent of the SSM fund, created through various revenues, including lottery games, is spent on military procurement projects. The SSM fund comprises almost one-third of Turkey's overall military modernization efforts. The SSM fund was dissolved in 2007 under the 2003 Law on Public Financial Management and Control. But the fund revenues have continued to be the main resources of the SSM's income. Other disclosed extra-budgetary allocations include YTL 2.6 billion for the JGK and YTL 194.4 million for the SGK, lines of credit extended by a foreign state or company whose repayments are guaranteed by the Turkish Treasury add up to around $500 million or more a year. The combined Ministry of National Defense, JGK and SGK budgets, as well as the SSM and Treasury budgets earmarked for defense amounted to YTL 17.4 billion for 2006, a 7 percent increase from 2005. Thus the available figures earmarked for defense represented around 10 percent of the total fiscal budget of 2006 and 3.2 percent of GDP.
Negligence in budget Disclosure Meanwhile, a Turkish deputy revealed in 2006 that the Ministry of National Defense had failed for many years to include in its declared budgets for each fiscal year the unspent amounts from the previous years. Akif Hamzacebi, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), made the revelation during a debate over the Ministry of National Defense budget for fiscal year 2006 at the Parliamentary Planning and Budget Commission on Nov. 11, 2005. "Since 2001 [the year the Turkish financial crisis erupted] cuts have been made in public expenditures under the ongoing stabilization program to meet the primary surplus target [of 6.5 percent set forth for 2006]. Ministry of National Defense budget cuts also play an important role in meeting this target," Hamzacebi said. But he said that the ratios of the unspent amounts from the previous years that were not made available and not included in the coming years' budgets of the Ministry of National Defense since 1998 have seen an increase from 13.6 percent to an almost 30 percent in 2004. That meant that neither the unspent YTL 4.6 billion from 2004 nor the unavailable amount of the unspent budget portion from 2005 were included in the respective 2005 and 2006 Ministry of National Defense budgets, he stressed. Therefore the total Ministry of National Defense budget for 2005 -- including the unspent YTL 4.6 billion from 2004 -- was YTL 15.5 billion excluding extra-budgetary funds, the same deputy stated. Since the unspent amount from 2005 has not been made available, 2006 budget size and comparisons were based on the disclosed Ministry of National Defense budget figures. Unlike the other ministries, the Ministry of National Defense has the privilege of carrying the unspent amount of its previous years' budget to the following years instead of returning that amount to the Treasury. The European Union has urged Turkey in its yearly progress reports to allow full exante parliamentary oversight of military expenditures. Despite some improvements in the oversight of the Turkish defense budget being made through the adoption of several laws, legislation has not yet been adopted that would allow the Turkish Court of Auditors to audit state property owned by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).
CM Y K
Security-first policies increase military budget Despite some reductions made in Turkey's military budgets over the years, partly because of ongoing economic constraints, the recent increase in terrorist incidents perpetrated by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been forcing the decision-makers to increase the budgets earmarked for defense and security. In addition, it is still not possible to track the exact figures spent for defense, due to the absence of mechanisms of civilian democratic oversight of the TSK. As stated in the latest Progress Report on Turkey, released by the EU on Nov. 6 of last year, there has been no progress made in terms of strengthening parliamentary oversight of the military budget and spending. "The Parliamentary Planning and Budget Committee reviews the military budget only in a general manner. It does not examine programs and projects. Furthermore, extra-budgetary funds are excluded from parliamentary scrutiny, " the report said. As regards auditing, according to the Constitution, the Court of Auditors can carry out external ex-post audits of military expenditures and properties. The report said: "However, the Court remains unable to audit military properties, pending the adoption of the Law on the Court of Auditors. Furthermore, the 2003 Law on Public Financial Management and Control providing for the internal audit of security institutions has yet to be properly implemented. Overall, no progress has been made in ensuring full civilian supervisory functions over the military and parliamentary oversight of defense expenditure." Due to the lack of any progress being made by the civilian authority's oversight over the military's expenditure, a more accurate analysis of the military's spending trends becomes more difficult to make. But parallel to the recent rise in PKK terrorist incidents, some Turkish research results reveal an increase in Turkey's security-related expenditures at the expense of neglecting critical areas such as resources to be allocated for health and social development.
2008 military budget Turkey's Ministry of National Defense budget, comprising the budgets of the ministry as well as those of the Land, Air and Naval Forces Commands, has been fixed at YTL 13.27 billion (around $11.06 billion) for 2008, a 1.7 percent increase from 2007. With the proposed total fiscal year budget for 2008 fixed at YTL 222.31 billion ($185.26 billion), the Ministry of National Defense allocation comprises around 6 percent of the total budget and corresponds to 1.85 percent of the GNP. The Ministry of National Defense budget does not, however, include extra-budgetary figures, of which only some are disclosed. The SSM Support Fund is unofficially estimated to have reached YTL 2.4 billion ($2 billion) in 2008. About 98 percent of this figure goes toward major arms production projects. Other disclosed extra-budgetary allocations include YTL 3.12 billion (a 0.85 percent decrease) for the JGK; YTL 233.31 million (a 1.47 percent increase) for the SGK and YTL 27.4 million for the SSM administrative budget, as well as an estimated YTL 600 million ($500 million) for military projects guaranteed by the Treasury. Thus the known extra budgetary sources earmarked for defense as well as the Ministry of National Defense budget altogether make YTL 19.66 billion for 2008, representing 8.8 percent of the total fiscal budget and 2.74 percent of the GNP.
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FOOD
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TODAY’S ZAMAN 09
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2008
Tastes of the Black Sea region:
Culinary stops in Bartýn and Çankýrý SHARON CROXFORD BARTIN
winter include making sausage (sucuk), drying tomatoes and beans, preparing homemade pasta (eriþte) and dried unleavened flat bread (kuru yufka), drying curd for soup (tarhana), pickling and preserving fruits and vegetables in jams (reçel), making marmalades (marmelat), compotes (komposto) and the thick syrups known as pekmez and storing away bulgur. Both corn and wheat flours are commonly seen, as are walnuts. All along this strip of Turkish soil, walnuts find their way into both sweet and savory dishes. Just 15 or so kilometers from Bartin on the Black Sea coast is Amasra, not to be confused with Amasya in the central eastern Black Sea re-
gion. This attractive town, which rests on a fortified promontory, deserves special mention because of the secrecy that surrounds a salad that hails from the town. About 20 ingredients go into the salad, including cucumber, tomato, carrot, onions, spring onions, lettuce, red cabbage, green pepper, parsley, beans, rocket, radish, purslane, dill, mint, mixed pickles, lemon, vinegar, salt and olive oil. According to the locals, only five people know the exact quantities and method for creating the colorful and highly decorative accompaniment to fish. "Everyone can make a salad, but not an Amasra salad," is the oft-repeated saying. Mantý have become known as Turkish ravioli;
it is advertised as such on restaurant menus and translated the same in food and cookery writing. It is very similar to the ravioli made in Italy in that the dough contains the same ingredients, although quantities can differ and it is prepared in the same way. The filling, however, differs, and the classic preparation seen in most cities sees a sauce of yogurt and garlic spooned over the top followed by a drizzle of melted butter with paprika and a finishing sprinkle of sumac and dried mint. This version from Bartýn uses larger mantý than are often seen, contains a filling of rice and mince and it is cooked in the oven with a small amount of fat before being boiled in a meat stock.
PHOTOS
SHARON CROXFORD
Situated about 80 kilometers east of Zonguldak on the Black Sea, the province of Bartýn is one of the newest provinces created in Turkey. The history of the city itself is centuries old, but it came under Ottoman rule in the 1390s. The cuisine of the area reflects many of the tastes known throughout Turkey, yet over 100 dishes are proudly claimed as local. Fresh produce is used wherever available, especially in the summer, when the season's best is used in a range of vegetable and salad dishes to accompany fish and other meats. At the same time preparations for
Pompom Soup (Pumpum çorbasý) Ingredients (serves 6) 120g coarse grain corn flour (corn meal), 150g butter or margarine, 50g minced meat, 2 slices white bread, crusts removed and cut into cubes, 1200ml water, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 tablespoon grated medium firm yellow cheese Method 1. Place corn flour and water in a large saucepan, set over medium heat and cook, stirring until thickened slightly. 2. Meanwhile in another pan, melt butter or margarine and fry bread cubes until golden then remove and set on paper towel to drain and cover to keep warm. 3. Add minced meat to remaining oil and fry over medium heat until browned. 4. Remove mince and add to corn flour mixture along with half the fried bread cubes. 5. Season with salt and pepper and allow to simmer for several minutes. 6. Mix tomato paste with a little broth from soup. 7. Serve soup in bowls, pour over a little tomato paste mixture and sprinkle with remaining fried bread cubes and grated cheese. Note: 200ml milk may be added (in place of 200ml water), thickened with 1 tablespoon of flour. This recipe is adapted from original Turkish recipe written by Demet Özardýç. Another classic dish from Anatolia, seen in numerous variations, consists of greens, such as boiled spinach, added to saut ed onions -- sometimes with minced meat or pastýrma -and the finishing touch, an egg. In Bartýn, this dish is made with ýsbut, a peppery, slightly bitter hot leafy green. This recipe is a variation on the local version.
Chickpea, spinach and yoghurt soup (Toyga çorbasý) Turkish ravioli made with rice
Turkish ravioli stuffed with rice and minced meat (Pirinçli mantý) of mixture in the middle and fold the corners up to form a parcel. 9. Apply a thin layer of margarine to an oven tray and put the mantý on the tray with the folded corners facing up. Brush a small amount of vegetable oil onto the pieces and wait until they become slightly crisp, then remove the tray from the oven. 10. Place remainder of butter or oil in a large flatbased frying pan and place over medium-low heat. 11.Fry each mantý on each side until slightly golden. 12. Bring a large saucepan of stock or salted water
to the boil, place mantý in pan and cook over medium heat for 6-7 minutes until all have risen to surface. 13. Serve with a little stock poured over hot mantý. Note: Mantý can also be boiled in stock without frying in oil or butter. This recipe is adapted from original Turkish recipe written by Türkan Keleþoðlu. Soups are not just a winter food in Turkey. Many homes will start their main meals of the day with soup come rain, hail or shine. This soup contains the ubiquitous Black Sea corn meal, or mýsýr unu (which translates directly to corn flour, although is not a fine powder).
HÜSEYÝN SARI
3. Add rice and continue to cook for several minutes. Then add water, salt and pepper, cover and cook until rice almost tender. 4. Remove from heat and allow to cool before using. 5. Place flour for dough in a large bowl, make a well in the center and add egg, salt and enough water to form a soft dough. 6. Knead dough for several minutes, then cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes. 7. Divide dough in two and roll each piece out to 23mm thickness. 8. Cut into 7-8cm squares, place 1 level teaspoon
Restaurant review: Cezayir fails to live up to expectations
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Ingredients (serves 6) For dough: 250g flour, 1 egg, ½ teaspoon salt, water For filling: 100g rice, washed and drained, 30ml vegetable oil or 30g (2 tablespoons) butter, 125g minced meat, 75g (½ medium) onion, finely chopped, 100ml water, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, For cooking , Meat or vegetable stock Method 1. Place 15ml oil or 15g of butter or oil in a pan and cook onions slowly to soften. 2. Add minced meat and stir to brown slightly.
Ingredients (serves 4) 125g chickpeas, soaked overnight, 200g plain full fat yogurt, 250ml water , 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoons flour, 250g spinach, washed and finely shredded, 1 garlic clove, pureed, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, salt, freshly cracked black pepper, 30g butter, 1 tablespoon fresh or dried mint Method 1. Rinse chickpeas and place in a large pan of water, bring to boil and cook until soft. 2. Drain and return to clean pan with 100-120ml fresh water, placing back over low heat. 3. Whisk the yoghurt, water, egg yolk and flour together. 4. Add a spoonful at a time of the hot liquid from the chickpeas to the yoghurt mixture, whisking between additions. 5. When liquid is incorporated slowly add back to chickpeas and stir thoroughly. Continue to cook for 5-10 minutes over medium-low heat then add spinach, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. 7. Stir over the heat for several minutes then cover and turn heat off. 8. Melt butter and, while foaming, add mint and pour over soup before serving.
Housed in a restored school building originally built by the Italian Workers' Society in 1901, Cezayir is a restaurant that has been mentioned in many well-reputed journals and newspapers. The New York Times mentions the anchovies, and the Guardian talks about the ambience, while Cornucopia suggests that the names of some of the dishes sound better than they really are. Putting all this to the test, 10 of us set out to sample one of Cezayir's set menus in celebration of a friend's birthday. The hungriest of us could not wait for the full party, so we started early. Minutes after signaling to the waiter that we were ready to start, a staggering array of mezes made their way to the table: bread with olive oil and dried herbs and sesame, a blend originating from Antakya, followed by grilled halloumi cheese and sun-dried tomato pesto in vine leaf rolls (asma yapraðýnda kuru domates pestolu ýzgara hellim), grilled spinach and cheese pastry with home made harissa, a semi-liquid pepper paste, (harissa ýspanaklý peynirli ýzgara paçanga ve kendi harissamýz), chickpea balls with grape mo-
SHARON CROXFORD ÝSTANBUL
The interior of Cezayir Restaurant
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lasses and hot tomato sauce (üzüm pekmezli nohut köftesi), broad bean puree with raký and dill sauce (rakýlý fava, rakýlý dereotu sos ile) and last, but not least, the aforementioned anchovies in a dressing of ginger, lime and coriander (hamsi "ceviche"). It all looked good and almost all of it lived up to our expectations. The anchovies surpassed expectations and certainly deserved The New York Times' accolade. The halloumi dolmas were overly salty and undercooked, leaving us gasping for water. The remainder of dishes sat somewhere in between. We chose between lamb kebab with broccoli puree and jasmine rice (brokoli beðendili kuzu külbastý ve yasemin pilavý) and sea bass, fine-sliced potato tops and rocket risotto (patates pullu kýtýr levrek ve rokalý risotto). I chose the former, reading the Turkish description of the dish and realizing that the broccoli would resemble the smoky eggplant puree of the traditional Hünkâr Beðendi. The lamb was tender, the puree exactly what I expected, but overall cooled to barely lukewarm in temperature. The sea bass disappointed the birthday girl, Özge. The mix of potato and another starch seemed odd.
Dessert of Cezayir's special kadayýf and pudding cake (kadayýflý muhallebi tatlýsý) was mentioned, but none of us had room to spare. Nevertheless, in the name of research, I tried the combination of two classic Turkish desserts. As a huge fan of traditional milk pudding, I ate the pudding without really noticing it, my stomach full to overflowing and my taste buds lulled into sleep from the sheer volume of food that had passed their sensors. My ratings Food: 6.5/10 Ambience: 7.5/10 Service: 6/10, drinks for some took a long time Price: reasonable, our menu YTL 40/person Would I return: Yes, but it would not be for a very special occasion. Cezayir Restaurant Hayriye Caddesi 12 Galatasaray Beyoðlu Istanbul 0212 245 9980
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10 TODAY’S ZAMAN
WORLD AP
M O N D AY, JUNE 1 6 , 2 0 0 8
ORDEAL
Kidnapped Japanese freed in Iran after 8 months Japan thanked Iranian officials on Sunday for their efforts to secure the release of a Japanese student who was kidnapped in the Middle Eastern country's lawless border area last year. Satoshi Nakamura, 23, was released late on Saturday, eight months after he was abducted while traveling alone on Iran's southeastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. "We express our profound gratitude to Iranian officials who provided all-out effort for his release," Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in a statement. In his hometown Toyonaka in western Japan, his father, Kiyotaka Nakamura, told a televised news conference his son called late on Saturday. "I was so relieved that my son sounded the way he was before," Nakamura's father said. "I apologize he has caused so much trouble, and thank you for all your support." Foreign Ministry officials and Nakamura's father were expected to head to Tehran on Sunday to meet him. Iran's Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseini Ejehi said drug smugglers and armed bandits were responsible for the kidnapping, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported. "The Japanese government firmly condemns the contemptible criminal act of kidnapping," Komura said. No other details about Nakamura's release were given, including whether a ransom payment was made. Bandits kidnapped 12 Iranians in the area in August but security forces from Pakistan freed them after clashing with the gunmen. Tokyo AP
Rýce says Israelý settlement buýldýng hurtýng peace talks US Secretary of State Rice is on her sixth trip to the region this year to try to nudge both sides toward a peace deal by the end of 2008 -- a goal widely viewed as unrealistic US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday Israel’s continued settlement building was harming peace negotiations with the Palestinians. At a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas -- who called settlements “the highest hurdle” to a deal with Israel -- Rice said she believed a statehood accord was still possible this year, but would require intensified efforts. Israel said on Saturday it planned to build 1,300 new homes in the occupied West Bank in an area it considers part of Jerusalem. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the move part of “a systematic policy to destroy” the peace process. Rice said both sides should be trying to build confidence, not undermine it. Pointing to Israel’s settlement policy, she said: “I do believe, and the United States believes, that the actions and the announcements that are taking place are indeed having a negative effect on the atmosphere for the negotiation -- and that is not what we want.” She said construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank would not pre-determine the future borders of a Palestinian state, frontiers which Washington believes must be negotiated by the two parties. Asked if she expected Israel to take action to rein in settlement activity, Rice said: “I don’t expect, frankly, any blinding breakthroughs.” Rice is on her sixth trip to the region this year to try to nudge both sides toward a peace deal by the end of 2008 -- a goal widely viewed as unrealistic. “We have a lot of work
to do between now and then if we’re going to get it done. So I expect an intensification of our efforts,” she said. A senior Palestinian official said that as part of a push for a deal in 2008, Rice proposed holding more trilateral meetings with the chief Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Disputes over settlements and a
Reuters seeks answers from Israel over killing Two months after an Israeli tank shell killed one of its cameramen in the Gaza Strip, Reuters has urged the army to release immediately the findings of its internal investigation in the interests of journalists’ safety. Fadel Shana, a 24-year-old Palestinian, was killed on April 16, along with eight bystanders aged from 12 to 20, by darts known as flechettes that burst from a tank shell in mid-air. Shana was filming about 1.5 km (a mile) from two Israeli tanks. The London-based news agency has commissioned an independent report into the incident which found there was no fighting or militant activity in the immediate area where Shana was working in view of the tanks, about 100 meters from a busy road. No other casualty in the attack, in which a tank fired two flechette shells, was armed. London Reuters
Discovery returns to Canaveral after mission
VIOLENCE
Gunfire in Georgia's South Ossetia wounds eight Gunfire on Saturday night in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia wounded eight people, Russian news agencies reported. News agency Interfax said an intense hour of heavy-calibre gun and mortar fire broke out between the Georgian village of Ergneti and the capital of separatist South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, around midnight (2000 GMT). Pro-Russian South Ossetia split from Georgia soon after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. A joint Georgian-Russian peacekeeping force polices a shaky truce in the region and sporadic bouts of violence are not uncommon. Separatist officials said three people in Tskhinvali were seriously injured by the gunfire and another four were in stable condition, news agency Itar-Tass reported. Moscow Reuters
Bush urges UK pullout based on Iraq war progress
corruption scandal that could topple Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have undercut US efforts to reach a deal before President George W. Bush steps down in January, Israeli, Palestinian and Western officials say. Israel insists its settlement projects are consistent with long-standing policies that do not contradict the peace efforts. Palestinians fear the enclaves will deny them a viable state. “It’s clear to everyone that the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem will remain part of Israel in any possible final status agreement,” Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said. “Building inside those Jewish neighborhoods in no way contradicts our commitment to move forward in the peace process,” Regev said. Israel considers all of Jerusalem -- including the eastern part of the city it captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move that did not gain international recognition -- to be its “eternal and indivisible” capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they aim to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel has repeatedly announced plans to build more homes in Jewish settlements it intends to keep in any peace deal, violating its commitments to halt all settlement activity under a 2003 US-backed “road map” peace plan. The road map also calls on the Palestinians to crack down on militants. Rice, who met earlier in the day with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said she planned to discuss road map compliance at trilateral talks today with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Ramallah Reuters
SPACE
Space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven returned to Earth on Saturday and capped a successful expansion job at the international space station, more spacious and robust thanks to a new billion-dollar science lab. The shuttle descended through a few puffy clouds and landed at 11:15 a.m. (1515 GMT), under the control of commander Mark Kelly. Two hours later, all the astronauts -- including Garrett Reisman, looking remarkably fresh and fit after 95 days in space -- walked out, shook hands with NASA's senior managers and admired the ship that safely brought them home. At a news conference later in the day, a first for an astronaut returning from a long space mission, Reisman said he felt better than he expected and attributed that, in large part, to being short. His sensory organs are closer to his center of gravity and his heart is closer to his brain for pumping blood, and he believes that may be why he didn't suffer the typical balance problems. "I think maybe we're on to something here. We need to get more short people in the astronaut office," Reisman said, laughing. "I'm happy that it's finally come in handy for something other than limbo contests." While still in orbit, Reisman described in quite romantic terms how much he missed his wife, Simone Francis -"my favorite Earthling." Their reunion, he said, was "everything I was hoping for." Cape Canaveral AP
President Bush with British PM Gordon Brown.
REUTERS
Lebanon will soon form a national unity government in line with a Doha agreement to end the country's political crisis, Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Sunday. The Doha deal, brokered by Qatari-led Arab mediators last month, led to the election of President Michel Suleiman and pulled the country back from the brink of a new civil war. The agreement stipulates the formation of a government where the Hezbullah-led opposition holds veto power. Security incidents and bickering over cabinet portfolio has held up the mission of Prime Minister-designate Fouad Siniora and raised questions whether the deal would be implemented in full. But Moussa, ending a three-day visit to Beirut that included talks with several leaders, said the wait would be over soon. "I hope that the Lebanese would be pleased with news of agreement to form the government soon. This is our hope," Moussa told reporters at Beirut's airport. Hezbullah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, trounced supporters of the USbacked majority in a military campaign in Beirut and nearby mountains in early May. The fighting, the worst since the 1975-1990 civil war, killed at least 81 people, and led to the Arab intervention. Lebanon had been locked in a power struggle between both camps since November 2006 which left the constitutional institutions largely paralyzed and heightened sectarian tensions. Beirut Reuters
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Arab League chief sees new Lebanese gov't soon
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OPTIMISM
US President George W. Bush urged British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to withdraw forces from Iraq based on conditions on the ground and not an arbitrary timetable, according to an interview published on Sunday. Bush issued his call ahead of a visit to Britain, the final stop of a European farewell tour on which he has won support for ratcheting up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program but he still faced lingering concerns about Iraq war. He said in an interview with Britain’s Observer newspaper that the United States and Britain, Washington’s main ally on Iraq, both obviously wanted to bring their troops home but that could only be done “based upon success.” “Our answer is: there should be no definitive timetable,” said Bush, adding he was “appreciative” that Brown was in frequent touch about what he and his military are thinking. The newspaper described Bush as issuing a warning to Brown, but the White House dismissed that tone, saying there was no disagreement between the United States and Britain on Iraq. It later released a transcript of the interview as clarification and said Iran was likely to figure more prominently in talks. “There is no daylight between the United States and United Kingdom on the strategy for Iraq,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters. “Neither of us are looking for arbitrary timetables, troops will return based on conditions on the ground and will return on success.” Only about 4,200 British troops remain in Iraq, most of them stationed at a base in the south. Britain has indicated it could pull them all out by the end of the year, but with the situation still unstable on the ground, that appears unfeasible. Bush has a more formal relationship with the British leader than with Brown’s predecessor Tony Blair, Washington’s staunchest supporter over Iraq. Brown is battling against poor opinion poll ratings and Iraq is a divisive issue in Britain. After arriving in Britain, Bush and his wife Laura met Queen Elizabeth and tour Windsor Castle near London on Sunday afternoon before attending a dinner with Brown and holding talks with him on today.
New president
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) walks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after their joint news conference in Ramallah.
When Brown visited Washington in April he caused a stir by meeting the 2008 presidential candidates before Bush, a sign of how leaders are increasingly looking towards a new president. The White House was keen to play up the mutual respect of the two men and said they had a lot to discuss, including Iran’s defiance of international pressure, climate change, energy policy, and the situation in both Iraq and Afghanistan.. With much of Europe still smarting over the US-led invasion of Iraq, Bush has spent a lot of his trip trying to forge a united front to press Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium which could be used to build nuclear bombs. London Reuters
Carly Fiorina woos Hillary Clinton’s supporters for Republican McCain
Afghan president threatens to send forces into Pakistan to hunt militants
she took questions from across the country Republican John McCain enlisted the during a McCain campaign “virtual town-hall high-profile help of Carly Fiorina, once meeting.” “Having started as a secretary and the most powerful businesswoman in the eventually become a chief-executive officer, I United States, on Saturday to try to get women not only have great admiration and respect for behind his campaign for the White House. Hillary Clinton and her candidacy Arizona Sen. McCain makes no and her leadership, but I also secret of his wish to attract have great empathy, I must tell women who backed New York you, for what she went through,” Sen. Hillary Clinton’s failed Fiorina said. “I also believe presidential bid, regularly praisthough, if we are striving for a ing her and noting their work gender-blind, color-blind society, and travel together as members that we really ought to be focused of the US Senate. Fiorina, a top on the person that we think will economic adviser and head of a make the right judgments, the Republican get-out-the-vote efright decisions and have the right fort, empathized with the forCarly Fiorina positions.” Washington Reuters mer first lady’s experience when
ring to Pakistan’s top Taliban leader suspected Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatin last year’s assassination of former Pakistani ened on Sunday to send Afghan troops across the border to fight militants in Pakistan, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. “And the other a forceful warning to insurgents and the fellow, (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar of Pakistani government that his country is fed up Pakistan should know the same,” Karzai conwith cross-border attacks. tinued. “This is a two-way road in this case, and Afghans are good Karzai said that Afghanistan at the two-way road journey. We has the right to self-defense, will complete the journey and we and because militants cross will get them and we will defeat over from Pakistan “to come them. We will avenge all that they and kill Afghan and kill coalihave done to Afghanistan for the tion troops, it exactly gives us the right to do the same.” past so many years.” Neither government officials nor a “Therefore, Baitullah Mehsud spokesman for the Taliban in should know that we will go Pakistan could immediately be after him now and hit him in Hamid Karzai reached for comment. Kabul AP his house,” Karzai said, refer-
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WORLD
AUTOCRACY
Mugabe ready to hand power to a party faithful Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was quoted on Sunday as saying he would be willing to hand power to a ruling party ally when he was sure the country was safe from 'sellouts' and from British interference. But the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper said he gave no timeframe and again vowed to stop the opposition taking power. Mugabe is fighting for re-election in a June 27 run-off against Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The opposition leader won the first round in March but not with enough votes to take the presidency. The veteran Zimbabwean leader, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, has threatened to go to war to stop a Tsvangirai victory. The Mail said Mugabe told a campaign rally late on Saturday that his leadership was prepared to relinquish power to those (ZANU-PF officials) that uphold the country's (independence) legacy. "This country cannot be sold at the stroke of a pen," he said, repeating a vow not to let the MDC, whom he has branded as British puppets, rule the country. The Mail said Mugabe urged supporters to concentrate on defending his government's land nationalization and black economic empowerment policies, and not on complaints by what he called "sellouts" that ZANU-PF has been in power for too long. Zimbabwe's agricultural sector, once one of the most prosperous in Africa, has collapsed, and shortages of bread, milk and meat are common. Harare Reuters
TODAY’S ZAMAN 11
M O N D AY, J U N E 1 6 , 2 0 0 7
Iran defiant in nuke row despite sanctions threat Western powers are warning Iran of more sanctions if it rejects an incentives offer and presses on with sensitive nuclear work, but the Islamic Republic is showing no sign of backing down. On Saturday, Iran again ruled out suspending uranium enrichment despite the offer by six world powers of help in developing a civilian nuclear program if it stopped activities the United States and others suspect are designed to make bombs. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after talks in Tehran that Iran should cease enrichment during negotiations on the offer, a precondition it has repeatedly rejected. "The deadlock is still there," one Iranian political analyst who declined to be named said after Solana's visit. The incentives package agreed by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany last month and delivered by Solana to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is a revised version of one rejected by Iran in 2006. Leading member of parliament Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iran will review the proposal but halting enrichment is a "red line" which will not be accepted, the official IRNA news agency said. Solana said he expected a reply soon from Iran, which says its nuclear program is only for the generation of electricity, but Boroujerdi said Tehran was in no hurry. "They will never accept the proposal as it is," one
AP
15.06.2008
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Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, right, and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, gesture, at the start of their meeting in Tehran on Saturday. Solana presented Iran a modified package of incentives. Western diplomat said. "As usual they are playing for time." The United States says it wants a diplomatic solution to a standoff that has helped push oil prices to record highs but has not ruled out military action as a last resort. "A rejection of this package would lead to further isolation of Iran and would lead to further international sanctions," said a senior US State Department official, declining to be named.
Blow to world peace A top British official said before Solana's Tehran trip: "If they were to reject this initiative, then we
would expect there to be further EU sanctions imposed before the end of July." Iran's refusal to stop enriching uranium, which can be used as fuel for power plants or to provide material for bombs, has drawn three rounds of UN sanctions since late 2006. President George W. Bush has spent a lot of time during a farewell tour of Europe over the last week trying to forge a united front to press Iran to suspend such nuclear work. "Our allies understand that a nuclear-armed Iran is incredibly destabilizing, and they understand that it would be a major blow to world peace," Bush said on
Saturday. The incentives package included help for Iran to develop a civilian nuclear program with light water reactors -- seen as less prone to diversion into bomb-making than technology Tehran now has -and legally binding nuclear fuel supply guarantees. "We are offering a proposal which we would like to be the starting point for real negotiations," said Solana. The last three resolutions were relatively limited in scope -- including targeting individuals, some firms with military links and several banks. Flush with record oil revenues that have helped it withstand the sanctions, Iran has long ruled out ending its quest for its own enrichment industry. Tehran argues it is its right under international treaties to master the complete nuclear fuel cycle for civilian purposes -- from mining uranium to enriching it. It aims to start test-running its first nuclear power plant at Bushehr this year. "If the package includes suspension it is not debatable at all," government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham said on Saturday when asked about the incentives offer from major powers. Mottaki suggested Iran was ready to engage in negotiations, but said its response to the major powers depended on their reaction to Tehran's own package of proposals submitted to the EU and others last month that was designed to end the standoff. Diplomats say Iran's proposals failed to allay concerns about its uranium enrichment. Tehran Reuters
'NO' VOTE REUTERS
European Union leaders will press Ireland this week on ways to overcome its rejection of an EU reform treaty, but Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the bloc must also contribute to a solution. Foreign ministers will explore options at a regular meeting in Luxembourg on Monday and the real show-down will come when Cowen meets his EU counterparts at a two-day crisis summit in Brussels starting on Thursday. "As things stand if there is no change, if there are no political developments, if we can't come up with any solutions then obviously this treaty does not proceed," Cowen said on Sunday. President Nicolas Sarkozy said at the weekend France and Germany had British backing for their appeal to capitals to pursue ratification of the text, which backers say is vital to give the bloc more economic and diplomatic clout. As long as Prime Minister Gordon Brown defies domestic calls to suspend ratification, the onus is on Dublin to salvage a treaty already rubberstamped by 18 of the bloc's 27 states. Brussels Reuters
Iraq beefs up its forces for a new crackdown
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EU wants answers from Ireland on treaty impasse
Iraq's government beefed up army and police units in the southern city of Amara on Sunday for a new crackdown on Shiite militias, witnesses said. Convoys including armored vehicles and tanks were moving through the northern side of the city, said a Reuters reporter. The operation, which officials say will start on Thursday, is the latest stage in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's drive to stamp his government's authority on areas previously controlled by Shiite militias or Sunni Arab insurgents. Army Maj.-Gen. Tareq Abdel Wahab, leader of the security operation, told Reuters that government forces had a list of hundreds of "outlaws, criminal gangs and those who violate security" it would hunt down. He said a small number of US forces were available if air cover and logistical support are needed. Amara is a stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who agreed to a cease-fire after US-backed Iraqi forces launched a major offensive on his Mehdi Army militia in Basra in March.Maliki, perceived by some as lacking the resolve and charisma needed to stabilize Iraq, has gained respect at home and abroad with security crackdowns that have helped reduce violence to the lowest level in over four years. Iraqi-led operations underscore his Shiite-led government's desire to take more control of security from the 150,000 US troops in Iraq. Amara Reuters
WEATHER
NEW ERA
Kosovo's constitution goes into force at last Kosovo's constitution went into force on Sunday, handing the newly independent nation's ethnic Albanian government power after nine years of UN administration. The charter -- a milestone that comes four months after leaders declared independence from Serbia -- gives the government in Pristina sole decision-making authority. But it threatens to worsen ethnic tensions between Kosovo's Albanians and Serbs. Security in the divided northern town of Mitrovica was high a day after a gunman attacked a police station, wounding one officer. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders marked the constitution in a low-key ceremony in Pristina later on Sunday that opened with Kosovo's newly approved, instrumental anthem -- but without playing the words to the country's newly approved anthem to avoid offending Serbs. Serbs, who make up less than 5 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million, strongly opposed the ethnic Albanian leadership's decision to declare independence from Serbia after UNmediated talks fell through last year. Pristina AP
Soldiers from the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force and rescue workers search for a man who is buried under a landslide.
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A series of landslides, house collapses and flooding caused by heavy rains have killed at least 21 people and injured dozens of others in India's remote northeast, officials said on Sunday. A two-day respite from the rain allowed rescue workers to pull three more bodies from the debris Sunday, in and around Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh state, government official Bidol Tayeng said. The discoveries took the death toll to 17, Tayeng said. Air force personnel used helicopters to rescue the residents of nearly 300 mud and thatch huts that were washed away along the banks of the Dikrong river in Itanagar, he added. Unexpectedly heavy rains began lashed the area on Thursday and Friday. By Sunday, electricity and water supplies to the area remained cut off, Tayeng said. In neighboring Assam state Sunday, rescuers recovered four bodies after heavy rains flooded 120 villages in the Lakhimpur district where the weather has forced more than 40,000 people from their homes, area Superintendent of Police Ataul Karim said. The respite from the rain in the last two days means the flood waters have started to recede, allowing some villagers to return to their homes, Karim said. Gauhati AP
REUTERS
Heavy rains, landslides kill 21 in northeast India
Japan quake toll rises to 9, searchers dig through rubble Experts say the scope of the quake is far smaller than the one that hit China a month ago and the sparse population and Japan's more strict building codes have also limited damage Rescue workers searched on Sunday for 11 people still missing after a powerful earthquake rocked rural areas of northern Japan, killing at least nine and injuring more than 200. Nearly 400 searchers dug through the remains of a remote hot spring resort that was swamped by a massive landslide, killing three people and leaving another four missing after the 7.2 magnitude quake on Saturday morning. The quake collapsed mountainsides, buckled bridges and swept landslides across roads but casualties were limited by the sparse population in affected areas in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, around 300 km (190 miles) north of Tokyo. However, there have been hundreds of aftershocks and officials warned there could be strong quakes to come. "I don't know where we'll go, or what we will do now," said 80-year-old Naoshi Miura, who with his wife Kirino, 76, and their two dogs was airlifted by helicopter from their mountain home. Rescue workers at the collapsed two-story inn picked their way through
debris on Sunday after carefully crossing a river of mud covered with makeshift wooden boards. They have so far recovered the bodies of two women and a man from the debris, local officials said. In other areas, thousands of troops, fire crews and other relief crews worked to clear narrow mountain roads, restore power and water and confirm the fate of other missing people. "It's a very mountainous area and if the roads are cut, even if you call out the troops, you can't get in," said Masaaki Sakakibara, a military official in charge of coordinating rescue operations in Kurihara, near the quake epicenter "We are very lucky this time because the weather is good, so we can use helicopters. The roads here are very narrow and this limits access."
Scattered and Nine people had been confirmed dead, and public broadcaster NHK said 234 were injured. About 300 people spent Saturday night in evacuation centers. "There's no water and cooking is hard, so we are living on instant food," said 73-
year-old Tokue Takahashi, who came to an evacuation center to get water. Many returned home on Sunday but about 135 people were expected to spend a second night in evacuation centers, local officials said. As is often the case when natural disasters strike rural Japan, many of those affected were elderly, some living alone. "If people live alone, it's a worry for their health," said Minoru Suzuki, a 77-year-old volunteer medical worker. "Stress is a big problem." Medical experts say steps must be made to prevent affected people from suffering mental problems. Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. In October 2004, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Niigata region in northern Japan, killing 65 people and injuring more than 3,000. That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,400. Kurihara Reuters
Iowa river receding, Cedar Rapids flooded The dark, filthy water that flooded Iowa's secondlargest city finally started to recede after forcing 24,000 people to flee, following a series of storms that resulted in 15 people's deaths last week. An estimated 9.2 square miles (24 square kilometers), or 1,300 blocks, were flooded in Cedar Rapids, fire department spokesman Dave Koch said. Early estimates put property damage at $736 million, Koch said. The drenching has also severely damaged the corn crop in Iowa, America's No. 1 corn state, and other parts of the Midwest at a time when corn prices are soaring and food shortages have led to violence in some poor countries. But officials said it was too soon to put a price tag on the damage. While the Cedar River ebbed in hard-hit Cedar Rapids, a levee breach in the state capital of Des Moines flooded a neighborhood of more than 200 homes, a high school and about three dozen businesses. More than 200 homes were evacuated in Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa, as a flood crest headed down the Iowa River. The Iowa City crest is not expected until today or early on Tuesday. At least three deaths in Iowa have been attributed to the storms and subsequent flooding, and 12 more have died in two recent tornadoes. The storms have prompted the governor to issue disaster proclamations for 83 of the state's 99 counties. Cedar Rapids AP
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CONTINUATION
TODAY’S ZAMAN 17
M O N D AY, J U N E 1 6 , 2 0 0 8
Three Turkish national soccer team players, Semih Þentürk, Servet Çetin and Uður Boral, took the test in Geneva, where the team played last night on Sunday against Czech Republic in a final Euro 2008 Group A match. Neriman Özsoy, a player on the Turkish women's national volleyball team, took it in Gianitsa, Greece. Students in Ýstanbul who suffer from disabilities were transported to schools where they would take the test with vehicles provided by the Ýstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Disabled students expressed their gratitude for such the service. "This is the second time I'm taking the ÖSS. Previously there were no such transportation services for the disabled. But this year our municipality extended a helping hand to us. I thank all the municipal officials," said disabled student Kerim Yavuz.
Many parents of the students taking the tests waited anxiously outside the exam halls, some of them praying for their children's success and others criticizing the pressure and stress placed on students ahead of the exam. "My son studied so hard for this exam. I believe he will be successful. I want all students who take the test to be successful. Living conditions get harder every day. Our children have to attend university to cope with such hardships. As parents, we are doing our best to help our children to continue their education. I am at least as excited as my son," said Nazira Aktaþ, whose child was taking the exam. Students who took the test yesterday but wish to pursue their studies in a foreign language will take the Foreign Language Examination (YDS) on June 22. This year's 1.53 million students who competed in the ÖSS represented a drop from last year's 1.77
million. The year 2007 saw 733,000 high school graduates, a figure that dropped to 222,000 this year due to a new law requiring four years of high school attendance rather than the previous three. More than 1.3 million students who took this year's test had already sat for it previously, while only 221,000 students were first time takers. Many students take the ÖSS exam multiple times in hope of improving their score and thereby being offered a greater range of academic opportunities. Some students retake the ÖSS in order to change their majors. Among the 1,530,000 students who competed in yesterday's test, only 800,000 will have the chance to pursue a higher education. Students taking the exam were subject to strict security measures. They were not allowed to bring cell phones, walkmans or other electronic devices into the exam hall. In related news, a minibus carrying students to
ÖSS testing centers collided with an automobile early yesterday in the Saraykent district of the central Anatolian province of Yozgat. Three people in the automobile, Binali Þahin, Nahide Þahin and Fýrat Þahin, were pronounced dead at the scene. Fourteen passengers in the minibus were also injured in the accident. Seven of the injured were students -- Ömer Ayyýldýz, Derya Ertekin, Atilla Baþ, Hüseyin Köse, Songül Sezgin, Rafet Saðlam and Salih Turan -- who were traveling to testing centers. The 14 injured were rushed to the nearby Yozgat State Hospital, where doctors said two of the wounded were in critical condition. Professor Þener Bingöl, a lecturer at Cumhuriyet University who was responsible for monitoring students at a testing center in Sivas died of a heart attack just minutes before the exam started. Bingöl was rushed to a nearby hospital, but physicians were unable to resuscitate him. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires
Real estate extortion gang to appear in court
PHOTO
CÝHAN
Only two Tuzla shýpyards comply wýth safety rules, report shows
Workers protested against the recurrence of fatal accidents at Ýstanbul's Tuzla shipyards yesterday, and labor unions announced that shipyard workers may go on strike as of today.
contýnued from page 1 Including loans extended to Turkish shipbuilders, the shipbuilding, repair and maintenance sector contributes an average of $3 billion to Turkey's economy. The growth of the sector is partially responsible for the rising shipyard fatalities. The number of workers in Tuzla has grown to 23,000 over the past few years from just 3,000 in 2004, with no changes in the infrastructure of the shipyards. There have been 178 deaths in Tuzla since 1985. The report noted that inspectors from the Labor and Social Security Ministry had investigated 25 of the most recent deaths in the area, concluding that two of these were caused by explosions, one by fire, five by large materials that fell on them, five by falling from significant heights and one from a heart condition. Another two of the deaths were suicides, the report found.
Workers with health problems The report also found that 3.7 percent of those em-
ployed in the shipbuilding industry in the past 12 months have had work-related health problems. That figure is 8.1 percent in the mining industry, which registers the highest number of work-related accidents and deaths in Turkey. Turkey has 62 shipyards in total, 56 of which are privately owned. Four shipyards belong to the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and two are owned by the state. Forty-eight of these shipyards, or 95 percent, are located in the Tuzla area, while 41 are members of the Shipbuilding Industrialists' Union (GÝSBÝR). Most shipyards are booked for new orders until the year 2020, the report noted, calling for urgent measures to prevent more deaths at the shipyards. A majority of deaths occurred at shipyards working with subcontractors, the report stated, urging companies to be more careful in choosing their partners. In Tuzla there are currently more than 550 subcontracting companies, the report said. The number of workers directly employed by shipyards is 3,883 compared to 18,042 employed
through subcontractors, the report noted. The work space per individual worker has not been expanded despite an increase from 3,000 workers employed in the area to over 20,000 in the past four years. Working together in narrow spaces greatly increased the risk of accidents, the report stated. The report said 1,061 separate breaches of occupational safety rules and regulations had been detected by inspectors from the Labor and Social Security Ministry. Only two shipyards complied fully with safety rules. The ministry fined the 41 shipyards a total of YTL 196,054 for safefy violations. Three shipyards were briefly shut down by the ministry, the report said. The most appalling finding of the commission's report was that some deaths were simply not reported to prosecutors and that this was done with the consent of the family of the deceased. "It has been claimed that some deaths went unreported, after securing the consent of the families, to the prosecutors. This might cause speculation that the official number of deaths re-
ported could be far from reality," the report noted. Although the Tuzla shipbuilding area has a hospital, it has not yet been opened. The report quoted from GÝSBÝR President Murat Bayrak's testimony to the commission: "There are 10 or 15 accidents on average [per week] at Tuzla, which is far from all hospitals. Workers die before we can make it in time to get them to the hospital. So a hospital was built, but we haven't been able to open it yet because we failed to find doctors." The commission in conclusion cited some recommendations that might improve the situation. It noted that the workers should undergo training on job safety. Employers should fulfill their legal responsibilities in ensuring work safety, set up the necessary units to achieve this and employ technical experts and medical staff as dictated by the law, the report said. It also recommended that the Labor and Social Security Ministry perform more frequent inspections in the Tuzla area. Workers unions should contribute positively to ensuring worker safety at the Tuzla shipyards, the report advised.
‘Justice Ministry has no right to dictate to prosecutors’ The Justice Ministry released a statement on Sunday announcing that it has no authority to give orders to public prosecutors, in response to an appeal from the Constitutional Court for the justice minister to start legal probes into publications critical of the court's recent rulings. The Justice Ministry's statement recalled that on Friday, the Constitutional Court asked the justice minister to give a directive to public prosecutors to start investigations into what it said were "unjust" commentaries about the court's recent decision to annul an amendment that would have lifted a ban on the Muslim headscarf at Turkish universities. The court's decision triggered a major debate followed by a good deal of criticism accusing it of placing itself above Parliament and damaging Turkey's parliamentary democracy. In a written statement released on Sunday, the Justice Ministry recalled that its authority to issue directives to public prosecutors to launch public lawsuits had been abolished by an EU reform law passed in 2004. It also noted that Turkey's Code on Criminal
Procedure (CMK), which went into effect in June 2005, made it very clear that public prosecutors have the authority to file public lawsuits based on complaints made to them or of their own accord after investigating a case. "As has been said above, the justice minister has no power to give orders or directives to public prosecutors to start a preliminary probe or file a public lawsuit," the statement said.
High judge suffers from amnesia Meanwhile, a senior judge whose secret meeting with a top general was exposed by a newspaper admitted that the meeting had indeed taken place two days after denying the claim, newspapers reported on Sunday. The Taraf daily on Friday reported that Constitutional Court Deputy President Osman Paksüt met in secret with Gen. Ýlker Baþbuð on March 4, 2008, at Land Forces Command headquarters. Friday afternoon, Paksüt confirmed Taraf's report that the two figures had indeed met, but denied speculation that they communicated information on lawsuits filed with the top court against the ruling Justice and Development
Party (AK Party). Both Paksüt and Baþbuð on Friday in separate statements stated that the army's operations in Iraq were the only topic of conversation. On Saturday, Enis Berberoðlu, the Ankara bureau chief of Hürriyet daily, wrote in his newspaper that Paksüt had sharply denied that a meeting between him and a general had taken place when questioned by the newspaper's correspondents on Wednesday, only two days before his Friday confession. Taraf's report claimed security cameras located at the headquarters' entry and exit points were tampered with ahead of Paksüt's visit and that the floor where the meeting took place had been completely evacuated. The Taraf article noted that the meeting occurred seven days after a headscarf amendment sponsored in Parliament by the ruling AK Party was challenged at the Constitutional Court and 13 days before a suit against the AK Party was filed at the court, seeking to shut it down over allegations that it had become a focal point of anti-secular activity. Paksüt in his statement on Friday said, "The people who make sure all this gets published in a news-
CM Y K
PHOTO
contýnued from page 1
TODAY’S ZAMAN
1.5 million students compete in ÖSS exam
paper three months after that meeting are monitoring all my moves." Paksüt stated that this proved his earlier allegations that his phone conversations were being monitored had not been mere paranoia. Late last month Paksüt and his wife claimed they were being chased on a particular day after meeting with a former AK Party deputy and even called the Ankara police chief to the scene. He also accused Taraf of "making up" details such as the floor where the meeting was held being cleared out and security cameras being tampered with to add "mystery" to the report. Ahmet Altan, the editor-in-chief of Taraf, was quoted in the press yesterday as saying the idea that people are following Paksüt is absurd. "Paksüt says the security cameras were not blurred. How does he know? Did someone at the command tell you, 'Oh, we still have the cameras on'? When he 'confirmed' our report, he said, 'They are following me.' I don't know if he'd see this as a relief or not, but our source was from within the General Staff and not someone following Paksüt's every move." Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires
Seventeen people, including two doctors and the manager of the Beykoz Land Registry Cadastre Department, who were detained last Thursday for suspected involvement in the extortion of real estate from elderly residents on the Asian side of Ýstanbul are expected to appear in court today. The individuals, who were interrogated at the Ýstanbul Police Department, were found to have links to two deadly incidents. The police operation revealed that the gang had been forcing or blackmailing their victims to hand over their property. If the victims refused, they were hogtied, killed and buried in a forest in Beykoz. Further investigation showed that the gang's method was to infiltrate the households of their victims with someone posing as a domestic worker. The gang would then kidnap their victims and force them to sign contracts handing over their property to the members of the gang. After getting the necessary signatures to appropriate the properties, the gang killed their victims and buried their bodies. The total value of the properties extorted by the gang is reportedly $30 million. The two doctors who were detained in the operation on Thursday are suspected of preparing reports that would show that the gang's victims had died of natural causes. Beykoz Land Registry Cadastre Department Manager Gülten Doðan Temur is suspected of helping the gang sell the real estate they extorted from their victims. Temur was appointed to the Beykoz Land Registry Cadastre Department in April 2007, and it is suspected that he had been helping the gang since then. The police found three bodies buried in the garden of a villa in Beykoz during the operation. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman
3 suspected CCHF cases in Diyarbakýr medical staff Two physicians and an assistant paramedic at the Diyarbakýr Dicle University School of Medicine Research Hospital were quarantined on Sunday for probable contraction of CrimeanCongo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), a disease carried by certain tick species. The university said the three were quarantined as a precaution after treating a CCHF patient who later died at the hospital. The quarantine follows an official announcement last week from Ankara Numune Hospital saying that two of its doctors who had treated a CCHF patient had contracted the infection. The disease can be transmitted through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person. The doctors were most likely infected by direct contact with the patient's blood when it splashed into their eyes as they tried to stop the patient's nose from bleeding, the Ankara hospital said. The doctors, identified as O.U. and A.K., were already displaying symptoms of the disease. The hospital's health staff said on Friday about 20 people suspected of having contracted CCHF were under observation at the hospital. Last Friday, news reports said yet another patient had died of CCHF in the central Anatolian province of Yozgat. So far 500 people in the province have visited area hospitals this year complaining of tick bites. Since first observed in Turkey 2002, 114 people have died of CCHF in the country, including 22 so far this year. The fever is particularly common in central Anatolian and eastern Anatolian provinces, especially Tokat, Çorum, Sivas, Amasya, Yozgat, Gümüþhane, Bayburt, Erzurum and Erzincan. Last year, 717 people were diagnosed with the disease, claiming 33 lives. Experts say people who have come into contact with a tick should be monitored for 10 days following contact and seek professional medical care if symptoms of fever, headache, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea present themselves. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman
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18 TODAY’S ZAMAN
M O N D AY, J U N E 1 6 , 2 0 0 8
TODAY’S LEARNING TIME
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own.” ConfucIus
OSMAN TURHAN
elementary READING
My cat Sammy
ILLUSTRATIONS
Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Smith are sisters. Mrs. Wilson lives in a house in Duncan and Mrs. Smith lives in Victoria. One day Mrs. Wilson visited her sister. When her sister opened the door Mrs. Wilson saw tears in her eyes. "What's the matter?" she asked. Mrs. Smith said "My cat Sammy died last night and I have no place to bury him". She began to cry again. Mrs. Wilson was very sad because she knew her sister loved the cat very much. Suddenly, Mrs. Wilson said "I can bury your cat in my garden in Duncan and you can come and visit him sometimes. Mrs. Smith stopped crying and the two sisters had tea together and a nice visit. It was now six o'clock and Mrs. Wilson said it was time for her to go home. She put on her hat, coat and gloves and Mrs. Smith put the dead Sammy into a shopping bag. Mrs. Wilson took the shopping bag and walked to the bus stop. She waited a long time for the bus so she bought a newspaper. When the bus arrived she got on the bus, sat down and put the shopping bag on the floor beside her feet. She then started to read the newspaper. When the bus arrived at her bus stop she got off the bus and walked for about five minutes. Suddenly she remembered she left the shopping bag on the bus.
PART 1: Comprehension Choose the correct answer for each question. 1. Where does Mrs. Smith live? __ a. in Duncan b. in Victoria c. in a house in Duncan 2. Why is Mrs. Smith upset? __ a. because her sister came to see her cat b. because her cat died c. because Mrs. Wilson was sad __ 3. What did Mrs. Wilson do? __ a. take the cat with her on the
advanced READING
How much sleep do you need? As I get older, am I not supposed to slow the pace down a bit? Pursue diversions in the evenings and on weekends? Relax a bit more, and occasionally get a good night's sleep? It seems this is all but impossible with the increasing number of activities I must cram into a day. The more hectic the day is, the less sleep seems to be a viable reality. Getting fewer hours of sleep at night influences my daily performance. I'm more apt to make a bad decision. Maybe I'll forget something. Maybe I'll fall asleep on the road. It also influences my health. I have read where a lack of sleep can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, weight gain, and heart problems. Sometimes, I am so strung out from my day that it is impossible for me to sleep without a glass of wine before bed. One could very well lead to two or three in the future. Then, substance abuse will become a problem. Not getting enough sleep seems to be
the "in" thing to do. People seem to actually pride themselves on getting little sleep. Sometimes I'll tell people I only need 5 hours of sleep a night to feel like a "macho" man. Fortunately, I haven't given in to the temptation of taking sleeping pills. I have heard where people who use these sleepinducing drugs sometimes suffer from bizarre side effects including sleep-driving, making telephone calls and eating food while asleep. I'm already a sleepwalker, and don't need any of these "extras" to make my nights more exciting. Tips that will supposedly help me get a good night's sleep have never seemed to work. It's impossible to stick to a normal sleep schedule. I don't smoke or drink coffee, so nicotine and caffeine aren't problems. I never take a nap after 3 p.m. I think my boss might get a bit perturbed. The day following 4 hours of sleep is always brutal. The best remedy for me is putting on the headphones and listening to Metallica. At maximum volume.
PART 1: Vocabulary Exercise
b. to be very relaxed c. to be in line d. to be very confused 6. macho _____ a. effeminate b. neutral c. very masculine d. conservative 7. to induce ______ a. to shrink b. to expand c. to cause d. to eliminate 8. bizarre _____ a. normal b. strange c. loud d. peaceful 9. to get perturbed _____ a. to get a ride b. to get a raise c. to get angry d. to get jealous 10. brutal ______ a. enjoyable b. humorous c. sleepy d. harsh
Activity: Opposite Words CROSSWORD
bus b. put her gloves in the shopping bag c. prepare dinner for her sister
ACROSS 1 Opposite of short 4 Opposite of rough
4. Who did Sammy the cat live with? __ a. Mrs. Wilson b. Mrs. Smith c. Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Smith
6 Opposite of soft
5. How did Mrs Wilson go home? a. walked for five minutes before she caught the bus b. read a newspaper on the bus c. took a bus
2 Opposite of wide
9 Opposite of full 10 Opposite of dry DOWN 3 Opposite of tight 5 Opposite of light 7 Opposite of messy 8 Opposite of closed
Fill in the blanks with the correct letters.
ýntermedýate READING
PART 1:
The haunted house in Rome
Underline the synonyms of these
We loved the house when we first moved in. It was a small but beautiful house in Rome. We moved there because of my husband's business. In the first few months everything was quiet and normal. Then one night I suddenly woke up from my son's voice. He was screaming in the next bedroom. He said he had seen someone walking through the wall from his room. I thought it was a nightmare but I was wrong. Each member of my family, except my husband Henry, started to see strange things at home. It was terrible. Particularly my little son was always talking about an imaginary girl. He believed that she was his friend and I could feel that girl watching me all the time. The problem was that I couldn't convince Henry that the house was haunted. He
words in the text 1.to collect 2.especially 3.to view 4.to get someone to believe 5.cuff
1. diversion _____ a. literature b. hobby c. limit d. happiness 2. to cram into _____ a. to fill tightly b. to empty c. to pack loosely d. to filter out 3. viable _____ a. impossible b. untrue c. possible d. frequent 4. apt _____ a. abnormal b. unlikely c. ready d. likely 5. to be strung out _____ a. to be very stressed
PART 2: Comprehension Questions
insisted on staying and blamed me for frightening them. It was strange that he couldn't see or hear the things around us. We did not like living in the house anymore. So I decided to move back to England without Henry. At that night I woke up and went to the kitchen to drink some water. Henry was standing in front of the fridge without moving and his face
was white. I needed to slap him on the face to pull him together. He was so scared that I hardly convinced him to stay in the house that night. The other morning we gathered everything and moved back to our hometown. It is two years now and nobody talks about the haunted house anymore. However, I still feel as if there are eyes watching me.
1.Why did the family move to Rome? 2.Did Henry see the ghosts at first? 3.Where is their hometown? 4.Did Henry see the ghost in the bedroom? 5.Why did the woman slap her husband on the face?
Activity: CROSSWORD FUN with VERBS
PART 3:
ACROSS
True (T) or False (F)
6 Give the meaning of a word or idea
1.Henry liked ghosts so he wanted to
7 Become or get smaller
stay. ___
9 Keep on your attention on one thing
2.The little son thought the girl was
10 Study something again
his friend. __
DOWN
3.The ghost walked through the
1 Become or get larger 2 Change from one language to another
wall. __
3 Know the meaning of something
4.The family's hometown was in
4 Get better
England. __
5 To control
5. The family still talks about the
8 Select from different possibilities
haunted house. __
ACROSS 1 A hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war 6 The process of decomposing organic matter 7 The men and women who man a vehicle (ship, aircraft, etc.) 8 A social division of (usually preliterate) people 10 A drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving
DOWN 2 Show or affirm to be just and legitimate 3 The grade of particle fineness to which a substance is ground 4 Dignified and somber in manner or character and committed to keeping promises 5 Someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent) 9 An arrangement of objects or people side by side in a line
FRIDAY’S ANSWER KEY:
VOCABULARY Specialized Vocabulary Fashion: Fashionista (noun) is a complimentary term used to describe an avid follower of fashion, one working in or deeply involved with the high-fashion industry. All the fashionista were at the Paris fashion show last month. Entertainment: Outline (noun) the outline breaks down the major beats within the story. Like a street map without names of the street, the outline focuses on structure over character. Its main function is to establish each of the major scenes and illustrate where plot twists and reveals take place. At the first meeting, we gave her only the outline of the new film scirpt. Publishing: Washup (noun) The process of cleaning the rollers, plate, or ink fountain of a printing press. Before printing the photography book the printer was given a thorough washup. Technology: Icon (noun) is a picture or symbol that appears on a monitor and is used to represent a command, as a file drawer to represent filing. Maria was very confused by all the icons on the computer screen and what each one did. Architecture: Mortar (noun) is a material used in masonry to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between them. The brick wall was very unsteady as the builder had not applied the mortar properly.
Activity: Practice Your English CROSSWORD
Idiom of the Day Bet my bottom dollar MEANING: bet all one has on something EXAMPLE: would bet my bottom dollar that the accounting manager will be late again today.
Phrasal Verbs: Fall behind meaning: When you fall behind or something falls behind, it remains at the same level or standard. example: Your schoolwork has fallen behind. Fall off meaning: When you fall off something, you separate from it and fall down. example: He fell off his bike and hurt himself. Slang: See ya meaning: A way of saying "good-bye". example: Matt yelled "See ya!" as he left the house. Confusing Words In English : sea vs see Sea is a noun which means a large body of water. For example: He threw a bottle into the river and watched as it drifted out towards the sea. See is a verb which means to observe For example: It was Kelly's astigmatism not the poor lighting in the room that made seeing difficult for her.
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ELEMENTARY: (Part 1) 1.b 2.d 3.c 4.d 5.c 6.d (Part 2) 1.F 2.T 3.F 4.T (Activity) 1.c 2.c 3.d 4.b 5.a 6.d 7.b INTERMEDIATE: (Part 1) 1.F 2.T 3.T 4.F 5.T (Part 2) 1. b 2. e 3. d 4. a 5. c (Activity) 1. b 2. c 3. a 4. c 5. c 6. b 7. c 8. a 9. b 10. a ADVANCED: (Part 1) 1.F 2.T 3.F 4.T 5.F 6.T 7.T 8.F (Part 2) 1.g 2.j 3.a 4.i 5.d 6.b 7.e 8.c 9.f 10.h (Activity) 1.divorce 2.revolution 3.justice 4.ignore 5.grin 6.betray 7.suicide 8.neat 9.confession 10.patience POP Quiz Answer Key : (Part 1) 1.moved out 2.shake off 3.read on 4.hit the roof 5.quietened down 6.reined in 7.owned up 8.all-nighter 9.squeeze in 10.pack away (Part 2) 1.bizarre 2.averse 3.absolution 4.bazaar 5.culottes
In cooperation with English Time
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SPORTS
Scotland ends losing run against Pumas Scotland ended a run of seven successive defeats against Argentina by winning the second test 26-14 in Pumas' lock Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe's final international. Lobbe was given a standing ovation by the 40,000 crowd at the Velez Sarsfield Stadium after a career in which he played 65 matches and scored six tries. Buenos Aires, Reuters
MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2008
Youkilis hits homer in hometown Cincinnati
PHOTO
Austrýa seeks another mýracle of Cordoba
Cincinnati native Kevin Youkilis hit a tie-breaking solo home run in the 10th inning to lift the Boston Red Sox to a 6-4 win over the Reds on Saturday. A baseball standout at the University of Cincinnati, Youkilis was cheered on by some 150 friends and relatives. He singled, doubled and homered to help the American League East leading Red Sox even the weekend series. Youkilis said it was a “great honor and great thrill” to hit the homer in Cincinnati. In other games it was: Chicago Cubs 6, Toronto 2; Detroit 12, L.A. Dodgers 7; St. Louis 3, Philadelphia 2; Tampa Bay 4, Florida 1; Minnesota 9, Milwaukee 4, 12 innings; NY Yankees 8, Houston 4; San Diego 8, Cleveland 3, 10 innings; Colorado 2, Chicago White Sox 0; Baltimore 8, Pittsburgh 7; Kansas City 12, Arizona 3; Oakland 4, San Francisco 0; Atlanta 9, LA Angels 4; Washington 5, Seattle 2; Texas at NY Mets, ppd., rain. Cincinnati Reuters
REUTERS
Poland coach Beenhakker, who dismissed Poland's chances of progressing after Thursday's 1-1 draw with Austria, has changed his mind. “We still believe we can reach the knockout stage and we are completely focused on the task,” said the Dutchman
PHOTO
Holder Greece bites the dust, Spain in last 8
SOCCER
Scolari: Money only one reason for Chelsea move Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said on Saturday money matters were only one of his reasons for joining Chelsea after Euro 2008. Scolari, whose appointment was announced by Chelsea on Wednesday, began a news conference by making a statement about his move to the English Premier League. “I would like to close a topic that has already been concluded by both parties,” said the Brazilian. I have to work with the (Portuguese) federation until the end of the tournament and every decision that has been taken, they were aware of all along. “(Federation president) Gilberto Madail looked for sponsors but when none came forward he told me I was free to negotiate (my future) ... with whoever I wanted.” Asked whether his decision to join Chelsea was financial he said: “Yes, that is one of the reasons. But he added: “I'm 59 and I don't want to work as a coach until I'm 70. I want to retire in four or five years, so it was a financial matter but there are other things.” Basel Reuters
Austrian national soccer team players (L to R) Roman Kienast, Roland Linz and Markus Katzer watch captain Andreas Ivanschitz during practice. Euro 2008 co-hosts Austria will invoke the spirit of Cordoba against Germany on today and the prize this time could be more than just a sense of schadenfreude. At the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, an Austrian team with no chance of qualification beat West Germany 3-2 to take the reigning champion out of the tournament with them. Thirty years on from that great upset, Austria has a chance to go one better. A point would be enough for Germany to go through as Group B runner-up behind Croatia but victory for the Austrian could take them into the last eight at the expense of their old rival, provided Poland does not beat Croatia by a bigger margin. A 50,000 crowd will give the Austrians fervent backing in the capital but the cold reality is that the Germans, despite a poor performance in their 2-1 defeat by Croatia, remain overwhelming favorites to get the point they need to go through. That was acknowledged by Austria coach Josef Hickersberger, who played in that famous win in Cordoba -- Austria's only victory over Germany at a major tournament. “You don't often win against Germany, at least not if you are Austria,” he said. “You
SOCCER
Venezuela grabs precious point in Uruguay Venezuela stole a precious point when they came from behind to hold Uruguay to a 1-1 draw away from home in Saturday's World Cup qualifier. Captain Diego Lugano gave Uruguay an early lead but midfielder Ronald Vargas, who scored in last week's 2-0 friendly win over Brazil, salvaged a point for Venezuela after a mistake by Uruguay goalkeeper Fabian Carini. Venezuela, the only South American team never to have played at the World Cup, have seven points from five games in the South American group while Uruguay, held by Chile in their previous home game, have five. Uruguay fielded a three-man attack and nearly scored when Maximiliano Pereira's deflected shot was well saved by Renny Vega. The hosts went ahead from the resulting corner when Sebastian Abreu rose at the far post and his header was turned in from close range by Fenerbahçe defender Lugano in the 12th minute. Montevideo Reuters
SOCCER
GROUP B STANDINGS P W
D L
GF GA Pts
Croatia
2
2
0
0
3
Germany
2
1
0
1
3
2
3
Austria
2
0
1
1
1
2
1
Poland
2
0
1
1
1
3
1
AUSTRIA-GERMANY Kickoff: 21:45 (live on atv and LÝG TV) Venue: Ernst Happel, Vienna Capacity: 50,000
1
far, has overcome an ankle injury and will play. He is likely to shift up to attack alongside Miroslav Klose, with Mario Gomez losing his place after two unconvincing displays.
6
POLAND-CROATIA Kickoff: 21:45 (live on atv and LÝG TV) Venue: Woerthersee, Klagenfurt Capacity: 30,000
know the statistics. I can't remember when Germany lost twice in a row.” The Germans’ goal will be to reproduce the sharp counterattacking soccer that took them to a 2-0 win over Poland in their first match. “We see this is a challenge rather than a crisis,” centerback Christoph Metzelder said at a news conference. Germany, a three-time European champion, will be without Bastian Schweinsteiger after his red card against Croatia, and probably full-back Marcell Jansen, who has a shoulder injury. Lukas Podolski, scorer of all three German goals so
Time for Poland to reward fans, says coach Zewlakow Elsewhere in Group B today, Poland needs to beat Croatia on even if it only amounts to a graceful exit from Euro 2008, said defender Michal Zewlakow. “We have let our fans down so far and they have been our driving force so we really have to do everything we can to give them something to cheer,” Zewlakow told reporters. To have any chance of advancing Poland must win by two goals in Klagenfurt and hope Austria defeats Germany in Vienna by a more slender margin. The Croats are already through as Group B winners but Zewlakow does not expect any favors. “We know they will be relaxed and probably start with a number of second-string players eager to prove their worth and impress their coach,” he said. Poland coach Leo Beenhakker, who dismissed Poland's chances of progressing after Thursday's 1-1 draw with Austria, has changed his mind. Ýstanbul/Vienna Today’s Zaman
African heavyweights suffer shock defeats
AA
Hirvonen leads title race after Turkish win PHOTO
Africa's heavyweights suffered surprise defeats in World Cup qualifiers with Angola, Egypt, Ghana and Morocco all beaten in their group matches. Cameroon and the Ivory Coast were also held by supposedly inferior opposition on a day of shock results. African champions Egypt lost 1-0 in Malawi to a goal three minutes into stoppage time from substitute Chiukepo Msowoya, which set up a three-way tie at the head of the African zone Group 12 standings. Roguy Mere and Stephane Nguema were the scorers as Gabon won their first points in Group Five with a 2-0 win over Ghana while Uganda romped to a 3-1 win over Angola in Kampala. Eugene Ssepuya, Andy Mwesigwa and Dan Wagaluka scored for the Ugandans while substitute Mantorras got a late consolation goal for the 2006 World Cup finalists. Rwanda's 3-1 win over Morocco put them top of Group Eight with a 100 percent record, a feat matched by Burkina Faso who beat the Seychelles 3-2 away in Victoria. Johannesburg Reuters
REUTERS
BASEBALL
Ford Focus driver Mikko Hirvonen of Finland celebrates his victory in the Rally of Turkey at Antalya on Sunday.
Finland's Mikko Hirvonen regained the overall lead from Citroen's Sebastien Loeb in the world rally standings after taking champions Ford to a one-two win in Turkey on Sunday. Hirvonen defended his overnight lead to win the eighth round of the season by 7.9 seconds from team mate and compatriot Jari Matti Latvala. Loeb finished third, 25.7 seconds off the pace. Hirvonen, despite having just two wins to his French rival's five, has 59 points to Loeb's 56. Latvala moved up to third place overall on 34, three points clear of Subaru's Australian Chris Atkinson. “It's fantastic but that was close,” Hirvonen told the official wrc.com Web site. “My front tires are fin-
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ished and I had a puncture for the last few km - I wasn't sure I'd done enough.” Hirvonen came under intense pressure from Latvala in the final 31 km Olympos 2 stage in the mountains near Antalya on the southwest Mediterranean coast after starting the day with a 16.1 second advantage. “It's been an unbelievable fight,” said Latvala. “I couldn't have driven any better but in the end it wasn't enough.” Loeb had led the rally into Saturday's second stage after a tactical move by the Ford drivers, who slowed to ensure the Frenchman would have to perform the leader's role of 'roadsweeper' on the rough gravel tracks. The next rally is in Finland on Aug. 1-3. Antalya Today’s Zaman
Greece's Euro 2008 title defense petered out tamely on Saturday when they lost 1-0 to Russia but Spain became the fourth team to qualify for the quarterfinals with a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Sweden. Greece's 1-0 defeat in Salzburg sent Spain through to join Portugal, Croatia and Netherlands in the last eight, all as group winners on six points. The Greeks join co-hosts Switzerland as the only teams out of contention at the end of the second round of group games, with the 2004 champions the only one of 16 teams not to score. It also maintained the European Championship's record of the defending champions failing to reach the final since it switched to a tournament format in 1980. “We didn't score against Sweden (in their earlier group match) and we didn't score today, which shows where our problems lie,” said Greece coach Otto Rehhagel. “We thought we would do better here.” In what is becoming a recurring theme at this action-packed and highly entertaining tournament, David Villa netted in stoppage time for Spain in Innsbruck, his fourth goal in two games and the seventh addedtime goal in 16 games so far. Saturday took the tournament, co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria, past the halfway mark with 16 of the 31 matches played. The first eight days have produced some excellent football and unexpected results in a generally trouble-free, party atmosphere.
Looked lively Spain again looked lively and led through Fernando Torres before Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored a cracker in Sweden's opening 2-0 win over Greece, leveled later in the first half. It stayed that way until the 92nd minute when Villa broke away and fashioned a goal out of nothing, his fourth of the tournament following his hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Russia. The Russians later got their campaign back on track with a first-half goal by Konstantin Zyryanov after a blunder by Greek keeper Antonis Nikopolidis and though Greece finally threw some bodies forward after the break they rarely threatened. Russia and Sweden meet in their final game in Innsbruck on Wednesday when the Swedes will need only a draw to go through but Russia will have striker Andrei Arshavin available for the first time in the tournament after a suspension. The situation is far less clearcut in Group C where myriad possible outcomes surround the group's final round on Tuesday. Despite being held to a 1-1 draw by Romania, world champions Italy remain in the competition and could still reach the quarterfinals with a meager two points. France need to beat Italy in the World Cup final repeat to have any chance following their 4-1 thrashing by Netherlands. Fans of all persuasions were still purring in appreciation of the Dutch performance in that game, with comparisons to the Total Football of the 1970s and the 1988 European Championship-winning teams proving irresistible. Even Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was caught up in the euphoria, saying that he told the players he was keeping his diary free for June 29 -- the day of the final. Vienna Reuters
GROUP B STANDINGS
Spain Sweden Russia Greece
P
W
D
L
2 2 2 2
2 1 1 0
0 0 0 0
0 1 1 2
GF GA Pts 6 3 2 0
2 2 4 3
6 3 3 0
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Richie: Commodores to reunite soon for a tour Grammy award-winning pop singer Lionel Richie has said that he and the Commodores will reunite soon for a tour. Richie said a reunion could happen in the next two years because it is important the group get together before it loses more band members. St. John's, Antigua, AP WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2008
Paul McCartney gýves concert ýn Ukraýne for cancer kýds
Tens of thousands of people braved heavy rain and thunder to see Paul McCartney perform a charity concert Saturday night on Kiev's central Independence Square. The outdoor show, the first in Ukraine for the former Beatle, was billed as the biggest concert ever in the former Soviet republic. It was also broadcast live on national television
and on giant screens set up in five other Ukrainian cities. After a half-hour delay because of the weather, McCartney -- who turns 66 next week -- came out on the stage and greeted the crowd in Ukrainian, before diving into the Beatles hit "Drive My Car." He followed up with a series of Beatles songs, including "Hey Jude," "Let it Be," "Back in the
U.S.S.R.," and "Penny Lane." The show also included a rendition of "A Day in the Life," which McCartney dedicated to John Lennon. According to Rolling Stone magazine, none of the Beatles had ever sung that song -written more than 40 years ago -- live until McCartney performed it two weeks ago in his home city of Liverpool. Kiev, Ukraine AP
Man spells ‘botryoidal' to win spelling bee A word that describes anything shaped like a bunch of grapes was key to winning this year's national senior spelling bee on Saturday. That word was "botryoidal," and Larry Grossman, 56, of Northwood, N.D., got it right. Grossman is a teacher and six-time winner of the North Dakota state spelling bee. For winning the 13th annual AARP The Magazine's National Spelling Bee, he gets to take home $500 plus bragging rights. "This is a great feeling. 'Great' doesn't seem like a very adequate word but that's all I can think of on short notice," he said. In winning the contest for people 50 and over, Grossman didn't get the big bucks or the national television coverage that children get for winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee. On the other hand, the kids don't get to misspell two words. Contestants in the senior bee's final, oral round are eliminated on their third misspelled word. The last four contestants all missed two words, making for a tense showdown. "It was kind of like the bottom of the ninth with two outs," Grossman said. Last year's third-place finisher, Michael Petrina Jr., of Arlington, Va., took second. Petrina was eliminated by misspelling "umbones," which is the word for a knob or protrusion at the center of a shield. Cheyenne, Wyo. AP
Car given to Nepal king by Hitler awaits new home A car gifted by Adolf Hitler to a Nepali king is likely to be displayed in a palace museum after the Himalayan nation abolished the 239-year-old monarchy and the ousted King Gyanendra quit the palace. Officials said a 1939 Mercedes Benz presented by the Nazi leader to King Tribhuvan, Gyanendra's grandfather, is now rusting at Nepal's main Narayanhiti palace grounds. "It is lying there for more than three years after an engineering college in Katmandu, which was using it to train mechanics, said it did not have enough money and spare parts to restore the antique car." But now efforts are being made to display the car in the palace, which the government says will be turned into a museum. "We should display it in the new museum," said Govinda Prasad Kusum, a senior bureaucrat preparing an inventory of the property and other valuables of Gyanendra, which will be in possession of the government. "The car will be a major attraction there." A special assembly elected in April overwhelmingly voted to abolish the monarchy last month and gave Gyanendra 15 days to vacate the pink pagodaroofed palace, which he did last week. The car was manually carried by scores of laborers for several days from Nepal's southern plains to Katmandu in 1940, when the mountainous country had no roads. Katmandu Reuters
Wig-wearing robber fails to plan escape A would-be bank robber was taken down by four civilians and arrested over the weekend after getting his money but failing to plan his escape, police said. Police arrested Larry Don Enos, 57, and charged him with aggravated robbery, said Lt. Paul Henderson, a Fort Worth police spokesman. Enos was in jail Friday evening waiting to be transferred to a holding facility in Mansfield, jail spokesman Lt. K. R. Ulrickson said. Bond had not been set yet and it was not known if Enos had an attorney. The incident began when a man with a handgun walked into a bank and told an employee: "This is a robbery. I want the money from the drive-thru and the money from the cash register." The man was wearing a fake beard, mustache and wig, Henderson said in the online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. After getting the cash, the alleged robber -- who apparently took a taxi to the bank robbery, KTVT reported -- told the teller to drive him from the bank, but the teller refused, Henderson told The Associated Press. The teller instead tricked the alleged robber, giving him keys and saying they went with a car in the parking lot. Fort Worth AP
Man changes name to ‘In God We Trust' A school bus driver and amateur artist from the Chicago suburb of Zion has legally changed his name to "In God We Trust." A Lake County circuit court judge approved Steve Kreuscher's (CROY'shirz) name change petition on Friday. The 57-yearold's first name was changed to "In God," while his last name was changed to "We Trust." He says the new name symbolizes the help God gave him during tough times and says he can't wait to begin signing his artwork with the new moniker. Zion, Ill. AP
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