NEWS SCAN for Turkey – June 25th, 2013
Down below you will find a summary of topics from major Turkish papers and internet sites.
Operation on Turkish economy via Gezi protests failed, Turkish PM says
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said today that a serious operation on Turkey’s economy with protests focused on Gezi Park has failed.
“Radical reforms that we have made in 10,5 years prevented this operation from reaching success,” Erdoğan said. “Investors keep on relying on our country’s economy, democracy and future.”
Erdoğan also criticized a tweet from BBC reporter Selin Girit that said, “A proposition from the forum at Yoğurtçu Park: Let’s not be the standing man, but the man that stops. Let’s stop the economy. Don’t consume for six month[s]. They will listen.”
The protests that aimed to sabotage the ongoing Kurdish peace process have strengthened the people’s unity and brotherhood, the prime minister added.
EU agrees to open new chapter with Turkey, talks to start in October
The European Union has agreed to open a new chapter with Turkey but postponed negotiations until after the presentation of the Commission’s Annual Progress Report and a discussion of the General Affairs Council (GAC) in October.
The proposal was submitted by Germany, which suggested postponing the new round of EU membership talks with Turkey by about four months to signal the bloc’s displeasure at the crackdown on anti-government protests.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu praised the decision and said there would be no delay under any circumstances. “We agreed with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on a text that declared the opening of Chapter 22 on regional policies,” Davutoğlu told reporters, adding that further procedures and technical meetings would be announced in the coming days.
Wise man resignes from the commission
Academic Murat Belge has resigned from the wise men commission, which is tasked with working on details of the settlement process aimed at ending the decades-old conflict with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), over the government’s handling of protests linked to Gezi Park, near İstanbul’s famed Taksim Square.
In a column published in the Taraf daily on Wednesday, Belge said he can no longer attend Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Tuesday meeting with the wise men, a group composed of Belge and 60 others, while he is critical about how the prime minister managed the three-week crisis.
Belge said the choice of words and language the prime minister used to describe those who participated in the Gezi Park protests were also a “personal insult” towards him. Erdoğan frequently ridiculed and belittled the protesters, accusing them of using tactics of “burn and destroy” and describing them as “looters and violent mobs.”
Erdoğan, Obama discuss Turkish protests and free press
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a “lengthy” phone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama June 24 in the wake of the Gezi protests.
The White House said in a statement that Erdoğan described the situation in Turkey, where a sit-in to save Gezi Park prompted a police crackdown on May 31.
“The two leaders discussed the importance of nonviolence and of the rights to free expression and assembly and a free press,” the statement said. Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said the conversation was very positive.
25.06.2013
SOURCE: MEDIA
We do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.
