NEWS SCAN for Turkey – June 27th, 2013
Down below you will find a summary of topics from major Turkish papers and internet sites.
PM Erdoğan says only 15 pct of PKK forces have withdrawn from Turkey
During a meeting on Wednesday with the Wise People Commission Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said only 15 percent of PKK forces had withdrawn from Turkish soil, so far.
The meeting was organized to discuss the reports prepared by Wise People Commission tasked with working on the details of the settlement process aimed at ending the decades-old conflict with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
On the contrary Selahattin DEMIRTAS of BDP (pro-Kurdish Party) has said the first stage of the peace process has been accomplished and it is now time to go ahead with the second stage which has to do with democratization steps.
Merkel tells Turkey democratic values “non-negotiable” for EU
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday she welcomed an agreement to reopen talks with Turkey about joining the European Union but warned in the light of the crackdown on Turkish anti-government protests that democratic values were non-negotiable.
Merkel told the German parliament that the agreement this week to make progress in Turkey’s application for membership conditional on respect for human rights and political reform meant the EU was “not acting as if nothing had happened”.
Merkel also said “This outcome makes it clear that Turkey is an important partner but that our European values of the freedom to protest, freedom of opinion, the rule of law and religious freedom, are always valid and are not negotiable”.
Turkey’s Capital Markets Board (SPK) launches a detailed investigation into brokerages, particularly focusing on foreign transactions
Turkey’s Capital Markets Board (SPK) has opened a detailed investigation into financial orders at brokerages, with a focus on foreign transactions between May 20 and June 19, when Turkey’s main stock exchange, Borsa Istanbul, fell by nearly 20 percent.
It is reported that the regulator has requested information on brokerages’ personnel, copies of research reports, logs of communications with customers and more for the period of May 20 to June 19 in what sources close to the matter described as unprecedented in scope. Officials said “This is a decision for a limited probe in connection with the period of high volatility in the market that began with the Federal Reserve’s statement. If you look at the date, you can see that it coincides with May 20, when the Fed began its statements.”
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on May 22 that the U.S. central bank could slow down its bond buying, and on June 19 he said tapering of the program could come by year-end. The market volatility also coincided with three weeks of antigovernment protests during which Prime Minister Erdoğan repeatedly accused market speculators, which he called the “interest rate lobby” of seeking to destabilize the Turkish economy.
Facebook says the company has not provided Turkish authorities any user information in relation with Gezi Park protests
In a written statement on Wednesday, Facebook said it did not share with Turkish authorities any user data in relation to Gezi Park protests. The statement went as follows;
“Facebook has not provided user data to Turkish authorities in response to government requests relating to the protests. More generally, we reject all government data requests from Turkish authorities and push them to formal legal channels unless it appears that there is an immediate threat to life or a child, which has been the case in only a small fraction of the requests we have received. We are concerned about legislative proposals that might purport to require Internet companies to provide user information to Turkish law enforcement authorities more frequently. We will be meeting with representatives of the Turkish government when they visit Silicon Valley this week, and we intend to communicate our strong concerns about these proposals directly at that time”.
Turkey’s communication minister had said earlier on Wednesday the Turkish officials had contacted several social networks including Facebook and Twitter for cooperation and added “We did not see a positive attitude [from Twitter] but Facebook has been working in harmony with the Turkish authorities for a long time”.
TAP knocks out Nabucco to carry Caspian gas to Europe
It has been reported that TAP (The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) has been selected over Nabucco, another proposed pipeline project, to transport natural gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field across Turkey to the European market, The long-awaited decision about the preference between the Nabucco project (1,300-kilometer-long) and TAP project (791 kilometers long) has finally been made. Experts believe said decision is not to harm Turkey’s benefits although changes in the consortium’s shares is expected be on the agenda
TAP oversees the transportation of Caspian gas that will be carried to the Greek border in Turkey via the 10 billion euro Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) to European markets. According to the plans, the pipeline will carry a total of 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year, keeping 6 billion cubic meters in Turkey while transporting 10 billion cubic meters to European markets. The gas will be transported to southern Italy via an undersea pipeline that will be built in the Adriatic Sea between Albania and Italy, according to the framework of the project.
The TANAP consortium includes the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), the Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) and the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), with BOTAŞ and TPAO comprising 20 percent of the consortium, SOCAR owning 51 percent of the shares and the remaining 29 percent allocated between BP, Statoil and Total. Meanwhile, the TAP consortium comprises Swedish AXPO and Norwegian Statoil, with each holding 42.5 percent of the shares, and German EON with a 15-percent share. The pipelines are projected to begin construction in 2014 and be completed by 2018.
27.06.2013
SOURCE: MEDIA
We do not verify above stories neither do we vouch for their accuracy.
