NEWS SCAN for Turkey – June 24th, 2013

Down below you will find a summary of topics from major Turkish papers and internet sites.

EU ministers to discuss opening of new negotiation chapter with Turkey

All eyes are turned to Luxembourg, where EU ministers will discuss the opening of a new negotiation chapter with Turkey, at a time when EU-Turkey tension has been running high after the Gezi Park protests.

Regarding the issue a senior Turkish government official is reported to have expressed Ankara’s hope that “common sense will prevail” to prevent the situation from becoming a deeper problem.

The Foreign Affairs Council of the EU is scheduled to convene today at the level of foreign ministers, under the leadership of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton to discuss a very critical issue concerning Turkey-EU relations.

Despite the approval of 26 member countries, Germany stands as the only country that seems opposed to the opening of this chapter due to the ongoing spat between Berlin and Ankara over the Gezi Park protests. If opened, the chapter on regional policies will be the first in three years and could have a positive effect in reviving the negotiation process.

Tender for Golden Horn Port to be held on July 2

It is reported that a tender for the privatization of the HALIC shipyard area in Istanbul, to build a large yacht port, will be held on July 2. The winner will be rewarded the operation rights of the tourism complex for 49 years.

The BOT project which includes two yacht ports, two five-star hotels each with 400 rooms, a large mosque, and shopping malls and parks, in an area of around 230,000 square meters was initiated by the Transport Ministry on May 14.

The offers will be received on July 2 for the privatization of Camialtı and Taşkızak shipyards in Haliç. The project includes two yacht ports, two five-star hotels – each with 400 rooms, a big mosque, and the shopping malls and parks in the area of around 230,000square meters.

Aswar National Group from Kuwait to invest USD 1.2 billion in energy sector

Kuwait’s Aswar National Group is planning a USD 1.2 billion power plant project in the Turkey’s Black Sea province of Amasya.

Turkey’s consistently growing economy and the rising demand for energy keep attracting foreign investments from abroad.

It is reported that the Kuwaiti group has acquired Benal Danismanlik, a Turkish consultancy company developing power plant projects, through its subsidiary A&S Enerji to realize a 1,060 MW gas-fired power plant project developed by Benal.

The officials have stated that Amasya Organized Industrial Zone would be location of the plant and the first 530 MW unit would be completed within the next 3 years at a cost of USD 600 million. The optional second unit with the capacity to raise the output to 1,060 MW is planned to be built at a later stage.

Thousands attend the commemoration demonstration of the 1993 Sivas massacre

It is reported that tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul’s Anatolian district of Kadıköy on Sunday, to mark the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Sivas massacre, upon a call from Alevi associations,

Several unions with the support of the Taksim Solidarity Platform (a local organization that launched the Gezi Park protests) participated in the demonstration where a representative of the platform made a speech emphasizing that their demands had not been met by the government, yet.

The crowd commemorated the killing of 35 people on the night of July 1-2, 1993, in an arson attack led by a mob on a hotel where many Alevi intellectuals and artists who had come to Sivas for a conference were staying. The controversies surrounding the pogrom have never completely been uncovered and an Ankara court dropped the case on the killings in March 2012, ruling that the charges against the suspects exceeded the statute of limitations. The Madımak hotel has since become a symbol of the discrimination faced by the Alevi community, who have long asked the state to turn it into a memorial museum.

PM Erdoğan says bloodshed will come to an end with the settlement process

Erdoğan addressed people at a rally in Samsun on Saturday on which occasion he stated that with the settlement process the bloodshed in Turkey would stop completely, and drew attention that for months there had been no loss of life due to terrorism.

He also said that some groups wished to sabotage the settlement process first by means of the Reyhanlı attack and then with the latest demonstrations. He added that Turkey had come to the point of a complete solution to a 30-year-old problem that had cost Turkey much.

Referring to the studies of the “wise people” commission, Erdoğan said that different regions in Turkey had embraced each other and have adopted the problems of Turkey in a non-violent environment. “

2406.2013
SOURCE: MEDIA

We do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.