GOOD MORNING--TURKEY PRESS SCAN ON FEB 25

HURRIYET
-- ALEVI STUDENT EXEMPT FROM RELIGIOUS COURSE
An Alevi teacher and her husband filed a lawsuit in an Antalya court requesting that their daughter could opt out of compulsory religious courses at school on the grounds that "the course does not fit in her religious and philosophical belief." The court unanimously decided that the execution should be suspended. The student will not take part in religious study at school. The court decision has also become a judicial precedent.
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-- BAYKAL MAKES SEVEN OFFERS TO TACKLE UNEMPLOYMENT
Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) chairman Deniz Baykal responded with a package of measures to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan who asked, "Do you have any idea to fight unemployment?" Here are Baykal's proposals: "Stop election expenditure, make investments in infrastructure, cut VAT on car sales for six months, establish a loan guarantee fund, non-reduction in force should be a condition for companies that got loans, make a 10 point reduction in insurance premiums and withholding tax and use the unemployment fund to fight unemployment."
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MILLIYET
-- BIG EAR IN CHARGE
Illegal tapping scandal also came to the agenda during discussions over the tax penalty given to the Dogan Publication Holding. Soner Gedik, the deputy chairman of the holding, had a phone talk with Mehmet Akif Ulusoy, the head of the Revenues Administration, to express the objections of the holding to the tax penalty. This conversation was posted on some web-sites. Moreover, Gedik conducted this phone conversation with Ulusoy after talking with Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan and with the permission and knowledge of the minister.
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-- KURDISH IN PARLIAMENT FOR SECOND TIME
Another Kurdish crisis erupted in the parliament. The first time was when Leyla Zana, a former parliamentarian from the banned Democracy Party (DEP), wanted to take the parliamentary oath from the rostrum in Kurdish 18 years ago. Ahmet Turk, the chairman of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), spoke in Kurdish in a meeting of his party in parliament and said, "the prime minister speaks in Kurdish, so why shouldn't I?" When Turk started to speak in Kurdish, the state-run TRT TV channel cut its live broadcast. The government and opposition parties defined the move as a provocative act aimed at the upcoming local elections.
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SABAH
-- HERE ARE THREE DIFFICULT CONDITIONS OF IMF
Speaking to daily Sabah, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan explained the three critical demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that caused a bottleneck in talks. The IMF wanted bureaucrats to be authorized to carry out inspections directly related to tax collection. Erdogan said "impossible". Separately, the IMF wanted tax payers to be asked the source of their income. Erdogan, in response, said, "We can not have shadow economy recorded if the 'where did you find it?' implementation returns." When the IMF asked the government to annul the law on allocation of additional resource to municipalities, Erdogan said, "The burden on the central administration is diminishing thanks to the infrastructure expenses by the municipalities."
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-- SECOND KURDISH CRISIS IN PARLIAMENT
A second Kurdish crisis broke out in the parliament 18 years after Leyla Zana took the oath in parliament in Kurdish. Ahmet Turk, chairman of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), made part of his speech in the Kurdish language at his party's group meeting in parliament. State-run television TRT immediately stopped the live broadcast of the speech when Turk continued his speech in Kurdish, which he started in Turkish on the occasion of "International Mother Language Day".

VATAN
-- SEVEN PROPOSALS TO END UNEMPLOYMENT
Deniz Baykal, the chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), proposed a seven-article plan to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who said that he would quit politics if Baykal had a remedy for unemployment and if he did not put that remedy into action. Baykal's seven-article program aims at solving unemployment. Baykal said that he was ready to extend every type of support. These remedies are to lift Value Added Tax (VAT) on automobiles and durable consumption goods for six months, prevent over-valuation of the lira and aim at loosening fiscal policy to an appropriate extent, create a loan guarantee fund and urge the companies to make use of the fund not to dismiss workers. Other remedies Baykal proposed are:
- Insurance premiums, tax burden on waged people and withholding tax should be cut by 10 points.
- The opportunities of the Unemployment Fund should be used to fight unemployment. Credit card and housing loan debts should be restructured, and an extra two years should be given for the repayment of debts in equal installments.
- The 2009 budget should be revised under realistic figures.
- Appropriations for public infrastructure investments should be increased.
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-- DENIZ FENERI e.V. HANDED TO PROSECUTORS AT LAST
The Deniz Feneri e.V. charity association file reached Ankara on Tuesday morning, 170 days after it was requested from Germany. It was handed over to prosecutor Nadir Turkasan in Ankara. The file, comprised of 3,000 pages, will be translated from German to Turkish in March. The Ankara chief prosecutor said that they would do what they had to do regarding the file.
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CUMHURIYET
-- LANGUAGE CRISIS IN PARLIAMENT
Democratic Society Party (DTP) chairman Ahmet Turk has been the first leader to speak Kurdish in parliament. He began his speech in Turkish and then continued in Kurdish. He said prohibition of mother language is not in accord with democracy. Parliament TV stopped its broadcast immediately after Turk started speaking Kurdish. Political analysts said Turk violated the constitution and the law on political parties.
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-- FILE IN TRANSLATION
The Deniz Feneri file arrived in Turkey 169 days after a German court convicted three Turks of fraud for siphoning off donations in Germany, using them for other purposes outside charity and transferring the funds to several Turkish people and companies including the Deniz Feneri Association and Kanal 7 TV channel. The Justice Ministry has sent the file to the Ankara Prosecutor's Office. The 3000-page file which consists of three folders will be translated into Turkish.
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RADIKAL
-- WORLD GIANT THY
As world aviation shrank 10 percent, Turkish Airlines company (THY) grew 21 percent. Temel Kotil, the Director General of THY, said, "The target of THY is to increase the number of transit passengers by 50 percent among our total passengers."

-- TURK SPEAKS IN KURDISH, BROADCAST STOPS, ANKARA DISCUSSES...
Ahmet Turk, chairman of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), said, "The fear of speaking in your mother tongue is artificial, so I am going to speak in Kurdish." The broadcast from parliament was stopped. Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said the formal language was Turkish, "the Constitution and Political Party Laws are very clear."

YENI SAFAK
-- IRAN WANTS TO BOOST TRADE WITH TURKEY AFTER DAVOS
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's stance in Davos has had contributions to the improvement of trade with Middle East countries. The governor of Iranian province of Tabriz arrived in Istanbul with a large delegation of businessmen and lawmakers. Governor Ahmed Ali Reza Beygi said trade between Turkey and Iran should be improved.       Â

-- BAKOYANNI SUPPORTS TURKEY'S EU BID
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni said Turkey's EU membership was of key importance and expressed the full support of Greece. During her first visit to the United States after Barack Obama was elected president, Bakoyanni said that Turkey's membership was related to the Cyprus issue.