NEWS SCAN for Turkey – Oct 22nd, 2013

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

Turkish PM Erdoğan says:We would even demolish a mosque to build a road

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reaffirmed his government’s determination to go ahead with construction projects that have generated harsh criticism particularly from environmentalists, while accusing protesters blocking the construction of engaging in banditry.

“We are serving the public, not the individual,” Erdoğan said, in response to criticism over the third Bosphorus Bridge based on the bridge’s likely adverse effect on the forests to the north of the city and the wildlife depending on these forests.

“Everything can be sacrificed for roads, because roads are civilization. But those who are not civilized do not know the value of the roads. In our values, roads do not recognize any obstacle. Even if there is a mosque in front of a road, we would demolish that mosque and rebuild it somewhere else,” Erdoğan said, as he also referred to protests against the removal of hundreds of trees for a road construction passing through the campus of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ). “We won’t stop because somebody says so. Bandits used to block roads in the past, now modern bandits are blocking the roads.”

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

Turkey may face internal conflict, says main opposition CHP leader

The government has destroyed the country’s sense of justice and this could lead to critical conflicts among people, according to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader.

“The government has ruined justice, which is the assurance of our coexistence. If justice is destroyed, polarization and arguments begin … Turkey is rapidly moving in this direction. If serious and critical emerge soon, it is the government that is responsible for it, as they have ruined justice and annihilated people’s hopes for the future,” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on Oct. 22 in his address to his party’s parliamentary group meeting.

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EU agrees to convene on Nov. 5 for talks on new chapter with Turkey

The European Union has announced the decision to open Chapter 22, on regional policies, with Turkey. This is the first time the EU has decided to open a new chapter in Turkey’s accession process in three years.

The European Union General Affairs Council agreed on Tuesday to open a new chapter with Turkey on November 5th in an Accession Conference that will revive negotiation talks in Turkey’s EU accession bid. Chapter 22, entitled Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments, is the first chapter to be opened following a three-year hiatus in negotiations in which no new chapters were opened.

The decision to restart negotiations is said to have followed Germany’s change of heart in its opposition to Turkey’s accession. Germany decided to give the green light to Turkey’s membership negotiations following the release of the European Commission’s Progress Report on Turkey last week, which highlighted the progress on democracy and freedom of expression in Turkey and welcomed the government’s recently released democratization package.

SABAH

Spokeswoman: NATO couldn’t be more concerned about Turkey’s Chinese missile deal

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said on Monday that the organization could not be more concerned about Turkey’s tentative missile-defense deal with China. At a press conference before a meeting of defense ministers from NATO candidate countries, the official was asked to rate NATO’s concern about the prospect of Turkey acquiring a Chinese air- and missile-defense system on a scale of one to five. Lungescu, after explaining NATO’s priorities on the controversial deal, said: “First, it is a decision for Turkey to make. What matters to us is the interoperability of this [Chinese] equipment with NATO’s connected defense system. And in that regard, that number is five.”

Turkey announced on Sept. 26 that it had chosen the FD-2000 missile-defense system from China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corporation (CPMIEC) over rival systems from Russian, US and European firms. However, the Chinese firm is under US sanctions for violations of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The main competitors for the tender were the Patriot missile long-range air-defense system, produced by US partners Raytheon and Lockheed Martin; Russia’s Rosoboronexport with its S-400 system; China’s HQ9, exported as the FD-2000; and the Italian-French Eurosam and its SAMP/T Aster 30.

TODAYS ZAMAN

IMFpraises Turkey over unemployment rate

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) pointed to the large employment losses which has led to sharp increases in unemployment rates after 2008, saying, “By 2012, most countries had unemployment rates well above their pre-crisis levels, with the exception of Macedonia, Turkey and some CIS countries” in a recently published report entitled “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Raising the Growth Potential of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE)” under its “Regional Economic Issues” series.

It was indicated in the report that the drop in the working age population in the Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries would be another headwind for potential GDP growth, but Turkey would be an exception. “In the period between 2010 and 2025, the decline is expected to be especially large in Ukraine, Moldova and Bulgaria. The only country where the working-age population is still expected to grow significantly is Turkey,” the report said.

Also touching upon the issue of credit supply, the report said that credit supply was constrained by the large stock of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the Central and Eastern European countries and that NPL ratios have risen sharply in many countries with the notable exception of Turkey since the onset of the crisis and reached an average of 14 percent in the region.

DUNYA

Reforms boost agricultural production of Turkey

Speaking to the Aksam daily on the Turkish agriculture sector, Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Mehdi Eker said that agriculture in Turkey has recovered with the implementation of radical reforms, while it failed to meet even the domestic demand in early 2000’s.

Eker said that Turkey’s agricultural exports hit $16 billion in 10 years with a four-fold increase and added that the sector grew with coherent policies despite the global crisis and draughts. “Today, Turkey meets demands by a population of 76 million and 32 million tourists and exports 1,663 types of products to 188 countries. Employing 6 million people today, agricultural sector is the shining star of our economy,” Eker said, adding that Turkey was listed as the 7th largest agricultural producer in the world in the 2013 OECD Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation Report.

DUNYA

22.10.2013
compiled by Editor BTT,

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