GOOD MORNING--TURKEY PRESS SCAN ON MAR 22

 

HURRIYET

--GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF CHILDREN

Children were again in the front line during this year's Nevruz celebrations. A child wearing a scarf carrying a toy AK-47 (Kalashnikov) posed like a terrorist, overshadowing the meaning of Nevruz.

 

The festival of Nevruz is meant to symbolize peace and brotherhood and aims to make people forget their enmity and love each other. The fire set ablaze and jumped over is for warming the hearts of people. However, the photograph taken in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir is proof of how those who have exhausted the love in their hearts and who feed their souls with hate and enmity use children as a tool for their bad intentions.

 

This year's Nevruz celebrations ended without incident, but some exerted great efforts to cause problems. They burnt tires on streets, opened posters of head terrorist Abdullah Ocalan and chanted slogans in favor of the terrorist organization PKK.

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--HE IS GERMAN, BUT ESTABLISH COMPANY LIKE A TURK

Serdar Kepenek, who offers consultancy services to Isfalt, one of the affiliates of the Istanbul Municipality in return for 4 million euros annual, dropped his Turkish citizenship on June 27, 2001 and became a German citizen.

 

However, he established companies as if he was a Turkish citizen despite his German citizenship. He used the ID card he got from the Aegean province of Kutahya in 1991 in official procedures for the establishment of companies. Germany passed a law in 2000 ending duel citizenship for Turks.

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MILLIYET

--PREMIER REVISES ELECTION TARGET

Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan revised his Justice and Development Party's (AKP) target for the upcoming local elections. The premier first put the target for next weekend's election as above 47 percent, the votes the AKP received at the latest general elections. Erdogan then shifted his expectations down to 42 percent, which he said would the criteria of success for his party.

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--U.S. DIPLOMAT IN TURKEY JOINS NEVRUZ CELEBRATIONS

U.S. Ambassador in Ankara James Jeffrey attended the Nevruz Day celebrations at the capital's Ataturk Culture Center. The U.S. diplomat jumped over the Nevruz fire along with Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay.

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SABAH

--CHECHEN SUMMIT IN ISTANBUL

Sabah daily newspaper covered the contacts of a French delegation that came to Turkey secretly to investigate three Chechen assassinations in Istanbul. France was alarmed after three Chechen commanders were killed in Istanbul in five months. France, who has been worried that the Russian secret service could take Chechen refugees in its territories as a target, sent a ten-member delegation including judges and intelligence officers to get information about the assassinations.

 

The delegation met officials at the Turkish Justice Ministry and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in Ankara, and met prosecutors and intelligence officers in Istanbul. Turkish executives gave the files related to the killing of Gazi Edilsultanov, Islam Canibekov and Ali Osaev to the French delegation.

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--PEACE AND ENTHUSIASM IN NEVRUZ

The Nevruz day was celebrated in many cities and squares on Saturday without problems. The biggest celebrations were in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir and Kizilcesme, Istanbul. Tens of thousands of people participated in the two celebrations in which the Nevruz fire was set ablaze and people danced to Kurdish songs.

 

VATAN

--PKK ASSASSINATION TEAM CAPTURED

Turkish intelligence units, gendarmerie and police arrested in joint operation three PKK terrorists who entered into Turkey from Iraq's north over a month ago. Two of the terrorists were captured last Monday and the third was arrested on Saturday in Istanbul, and police seized plastic explosives, two hand grenades and an automatic rifle. The three terrorists were said to have been planning to assassinate Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan during a party rally on Sunday in Istanbul.

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--QUIETEST NEVRUZ

Daily VATAN's columnist Rusen Cakir covered the Nevruz Day celebrations in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir where the celebrations received biggest participation: "I was in Diyarbakir in 1992 again for the Nevruz. Over 80 people were killed then in clashes with security forces. One of them was my colleague.

 

It is evident that a great deal of progress has been made when one looks at yesterday's celebrations. A majority of the speeches were made in Kurdish, not Turkish, and all the songs and marches were sung in Kurdish. In the past, just a reference to the PKK and Abdullah Ocalan was enough for violent clashes. But this time police avoided intervening and dispersing the crowd," Cakir writes.

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CUMHURIYET

--NEVRUZ CELEBRATED WITH JOY

This year's Nevruz Day, the beginning of spring, was celebrated by the people and state officials in separate ceremonies and rallies. Turkish Culture Minister Ertugrul Gunay and U.S. Ambassador James Jeffrey jumped over the celebration fire in capital Ankara. Tens of thousands of people joined the celebrations in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. No major incidents occurred during the celebrations.

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--ALTERNATIVE WATER FORUM BEGINS IN ISTANBUL

An alternative water forum started on Saturday in Istanbul in response to the 5th World Water Forum which was also held in Istanbul. Jonathan Neale from the Campaign Against the Global Climate Change warned that Turkey would become a place like Darfur if climate change was not brought under control.

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RADIKAL

--PROBLEM OF CITIES IS CRISIS, PROBLEM OF PARTIES IS IMAGE

The cities are seeking remedies, however the concern of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) is to strengthen their position. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) wants to fortify its claim that it could be an alternative because he was not a party of ideology but a mass party. The Democratic People's Party (DTP) wants to have a leading role in the Kurdish problem.

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--ENTHUSIASM AND POLITICS INTERMINGLE

Nevruz celebrations were held without incidents for the first time in years, and almost 500,000 people gathered in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir and 100,000 others came together in Istanbul's Kizilcesme Square.

 

However, these two celebrations turned into a show of the Democratic People's Party (DTP). In the two celebrations, people opened banners and chanted slogans in favor of head terrorist Abdullah Ocalan. Participation was low in official celebrations, which were fairly colorful. An official celebration was held in Semdinli for the first time.

 

YENI SAFAK

--AKP TO MOVE ON ALEVI PROBLEMS

Reha Camuroglu, a lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said a number of meetings will be held after the local elections in order to address the problems of the Alevis in Turkey. "Their problems are the problems of the nation, just as the Kurdish problem or the headscarf problem," Camuroglu said.

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--TURKEY TO EXPORT POULTRY TO EU

The European Union gave a green light to Turkish poultry breeders for exports of processed chicken products after six years of intense work by Turkish producers. Processed poultry exports will begin as of March 29 with seven Turkish companies for a start-up.