News Scan for Turkey, August 21st, 2017
Erdoğan criticizes US for weapons sent to SDF in Syria
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has criticized the United States for its support of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), arguing that the weapons the U.S. provided in Syria “have ended up in Turkey.”
“The weapons that have been distributed to the organizations in the name of the fight against Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] in Syria and Iraq have been withheld in the attacks that the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party] have operated in Turkey,” Erdoğan said on Aug. 20.
“We know which country’s weapons are in the hands of the PKK, the YPG (Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units), the PYD [Democratic Union Party] or Daesh,” he added.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/erdogan-criticizes-us-for-weapons-sent-to-sdf-in-syria.aspx?pageID=238&nID=116975&NewsCatID=510
Turkey eyes to boost ASEAN ties, PM Yıldırım says during Singapore visit
Turkey hopes to develop its ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) further when Singapore takes the chair of the regional body, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said Monday.
Speaking at a joint news conference with his Singaporean counterpart in capital Singapore, Yıldırım said his country appreciates the decision made earlier this month to include Turkey in ASEAN’s sectoral dialogue partnership group. “Singapore played an important role [in Turkey’s membership in ASEAN sectoral dialogue partnership group]. Next year, Singapore will chair ASEAN during which we want to develop our relations with ASEAN even more,” he said.
He added that a strategic partnership was established between Singapore and Turkey in 2014, and bilateral relations took a new dimension when a free-trade agreement was signed during Premier Lee Hsien Loong’s visit to Turkey in the same year.
https://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/2017/08/21/turkey-eyes-to-boost-asean-ties-pm-yildirim-says-during-singapore-visit
Chair of CHP: ‘Judiciary in Turkey is used by the government as a tool to suppress people’
Chair of Turkey’s main opposition party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, has lately become the target of a systematic verbal attack of members of the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party), the President, and their supporters.
Earlier this week, CHP’s (Republican People’s Party) Chair Kılıçdaroğlu gave statements to a group of journalists in Ankara, including BirGün’s Yaşar Aydın, on a range of topics from Erdoğan’s claims about involvement of Kılıçdaroğlu in giving information to journalists on MİT trucks case to speculations about a possible early election in the country.
In a recent speech delivered to his party members, Erdoğan had accused Kılıçdaroğlu of having provided jailed CHP MP Berberoğlu with ‘secret information’ that had eventually led to the spread of reports of the Cumhuriyet newspaper on the MİT trucks found to have been delivering weapons to Syria. Talking to his fellow party members, Erdoğan had claimed that he ‘received information from authorities’ and said: “You know the person (Enis Berberoğlu) who is locked; if it turns out that he has a link with Kılıçdaroğlu, do not be shocked”.
http://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/chair-of-chp-judiciary-in-turkey-is-used-by-the-government-as-a-tool-to-suppress-people-175545.html
Turkish aviation sector to grow further with Istanbul’s third airport
urkey’s aviation sector, which grew by 14 percent over the past decade, is expected to grow even further once the Istanbul Third Airport becomes operational.
The airport, set to open Oct. 29, 2018, is expected to be the largest airport in the world when completed in 2023 and will serve as Turkey’s primary airport and a hub for connecting flights between Europe and Asia. The airport will serve 90 million passengers annually once the first stage of the project is completed in the first half of 2018.
Last month, Transport, Maritime Affairs, and Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan announced the number of employees working on construction of Istanbul New Airport reached 30,000, while 57 percent of the project was complete. He added that they were aiming to reach 35,000 employees soon and estimated that direct and indirect employment would rise to 225,000 once the airport is completed.
https://www.dailysabah.com/economy/2017/08/21/turkish-aviation-sector-to-grow-further-with-istanbuls-third-airport
CHP leader ready for ‘everything’ ahead of justice meeting
The Turkish president’s statements implying that an ongoing probe into espionage and the leaking of state secret documents to media outlets, dubbed as the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks cases, can also reach the leader of the main opposition, as one party deputy is already behind the bars in the same case, cannot be taken lightly, according to Kılıçdarloğlu.
“I don’t want to think of a scenario in which the head of Turkey’s main opposition is behind the bars,” the CHP leader said, while adding that despite the possible repercussions, he is ready for everything. Every aspect of justice will be discussed at the “justice congress,” which will take place next week in the western province of Çanakkale, he noted.
“We want to establish a platform where those who are suffering from problems with justice and those seeking solutions to it come together,” he told the Hürriyet Daily News.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/chp-leader-ready-for-everything-ahead-of-justice-meeting.aspx?pageID=238&nID=116973&NewsCatID=338
Deputy PM Mehmet Şimşek: Early election out of question, time to focus on reforms
Dispelling rumors about an early election, Mehmet Şimşek, Turkey’s deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, reiterated that throughout the history of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), they have never held early elections opportunistically, emphasizing that it is now time to focus on their comprehensive agenda in terms of reform.
Şimşek said the Turkish economy has overcome the negative impacts of last year’s July 15 coup attempt and is back to pre-crisis levels in terms of economic growth, job creation and overall economic performance. Emphasizing that the high growth rate in the first quarter of this year will be maintained until the rest of the year, Şimşek said that in the short term, there is no question regarding growth outlook. However, he acknowledged that in the medium term, Turkey needs to implement more structured reforms to sustain growth performance of 5 percent or more, stressing that the government has implemented a very comprehensive reform agenda and is determined to deliver on structural reforms.
https://www.dailysabah.com/elections/2017/08/21/deputy-pm-mehmet-simsek-early-election-out-of-question-time-to-focus-on-reforms
Time to return to normality for Turkey: UK
The United Kingdom stands by Turkey a year on from the coup attempt and understands the extraordinary challenges Turkey is facing, but urges it to signal a return to normality by lifting the state of emergency rule issued after the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Alan Duncan, has told daily Hürriyet, stating that British authorities have concerns about “human rights, arrests and the workings of democracy and judicial processes.”
He also restated the U.K.’s continued solidarity with the Turkish government and its people that it showed so clearly on the night of the coup attempt and during the challenging times that followed.
“I think the first thing to understand is just how extensive and a total threat this was to the country and its entire government and its working as a state. So, if you understand that, then you have to understand that extraordinary steps needed to be taken to stabilize the country and to make sure this could not happen again,” he said in an interview with the daily on Aug. 17.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/time-to-return-to-normality-for-turkey-uk.aspx?PageID=238&NID=116883&NewsCatID=510
21.08.2017
compiled by Editor BTT
This is a news-scan from major Turkish papers and internet sites. However, we do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.
