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ATALAY MEETS WITH DTP AS PART OF KURDISH INITIATIVE
Sunday's Zaman
Leisure Radio Guide
Interior Minister Beþir Atalay, who has been meeting with political
parties and civil society organizations as part of a government
initiative to find a comprehensive solution to the Kurdish issue,
paid a visit to the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society
Party (DTP) on Thursday.
Accompanied by Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary
group deputy chairman Bekir Bozdað and AK Party Deputy Chairman
Abdulkadir Aksu, Atalay was welcomed by DTP parliamentary group
deputy chairman Selahattin Demirtaþ as he entered the party's
headquarters. Speaking after a one-hour meeting with DTP leader
Ahmet Turk, Atalay said: "Let us have confidence. We can solve
this as long as we have self-confidence." Atalay said in the press
statement that the meeting had been very productive, providing an
important opportunity for exchanging opinions. He said: "We have
wished from the start for this project to be carried out under the
roof of Parliament. We think the contribution of Parliament and our
political parties to this project of brotherhood and peace is very
important. We explain, in these visits, the work we have been carrying
out. In all the meetings we have had so far, including with three
political parties, we have listened to valuable opinions that lig!
ht the way of our project."
In a statement after the meeting, DTP leader Turk said a political
effort was being made by the government to put an end to 30 years of
bloodshed and pain. Turk said his party was working for normalization
in Turkey, noting that they were very optimistic that a solution was
near and that they did not want to be frustrated.
"Our [aim] is to solve the problems, not dissolve Turkey," he said,
expressing his opinion that military operations and weapons cannot
solve the problem. Turk said they were working for societal consensus
and embracing differences.
Aug. 8 President Abdullah Gul called for "a new era and a new
understanding" in the solution to the Kurdish question, which he called
"Turkey's most important problem."
One soldier was killed and another wounded in an armed attack by
members of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in Hatay's
Karlýsu area.
Turkey and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of neighboring Azerbaijan
signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the construction
of a natural gas pipeline between Nakhchivan and Turkey's eastern
Anatolian province of Iðdýr. The MoU envisions the transfer of 500
million cubic meters of gas per year.
Halis Toprak, an industry mogul who has been in the news recently
for his controversial marriage to a woman a fraction of his age,
experienced a dramatic blow to his business. The Savings Deposit
Insurance Fund (TMSF) seized control of 20 of the businessman's
companies as he was visiting his medical industry company, Toprak Ýlac,
in Adapazarý.
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Ankara deputy Salih Kapusuz
renamed a recent move by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan on the
Kurdish issue, saying in a speech that it is a democratic initiative
and not a Kurdish initiative.
Turkey would treat 40 people who were wounded in an attack in the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Turkey's Emergency Management General
Directorate said.
Artem Silchenko from Russia won the Antalya leg of the Red Bull Cliff
Diving Series 2009.
Aug. 9 President Gul met with Malatya native Sami Karaaslan (68), who
had been walking from Malatya to Ankara for days after promising in
2007 to do so if Gul were elected president. Learning about Karaaslan
from Zaman daily reports, President Gul ordered a car to bring him
to Ankara on Saturday. They met on Sunday.
President Gul emphasized the importance of finding a solution to
the country's longstanding Kurdish question with the cooperation
of opposition leaders, who have adopted a hard-line policy on the
issue. "Opposition is very important. Opposition is part of politics,"
Gul said while returning from a trip to the provinces of Muþ, Bitlis,
Tatvan and Ahlat.
Muhsin Yazýcýoðlu, the founder of the Grand Unity Party (BBP), who
died in a helicopter crash during election campaigning in March, was
commemorated on Kahramanmaraþ's Keþ Mountain, the site of the crash.
Aug. 10 The Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly condemned a series of
bombings that killed at least 41 in Iraq.
Turkey's two main opposition parties, the Republican People Party
(CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), voiced their refusal
to meet with the ruling party to discuss plans to grant more rights to
the nation's Kurds, responding to reports that Interior Minister Beþir
Atalay was planning to meet with opposition party representatives to
discuss reconciliation efforts.
A fire engulfed forests near the town of Seferihisar, Ýzmir province,
scorching 600 hectares of forest and 100 hectares of agricultural
land. Hundreds of houses and summer villas were evacuated in several
neighborhoods, municipality officials said.
The government plans to conclude a tender for the construction of
Turkey's first nuclear energy power plant in September, Energy and
Natural Resources Minister Taner Yýldýz said. "We have to finish an
important part of the tender process in August, and we must conclude
it next month," Yýldýz told reporters in Ankara.
Arzu Erbaþ Cakmakcý, who had received awards and been received by
the Dutch royal family for her charity work, was stabbed to death in
Amsterdam in the parking lot outside a daycare center she owned.
Aug. 11 Prime Minister Erdoðan made a historic appeal and called
on opposition parties to collaborate with his ruling AK Party in
order to find a solution to the country's long-standing Kurdish
question. Several AK Party deputies, including Deputy Prime Minister
Bulent Arýnc, shed tears while Erdoðan delivered a touching speech
at his party's parliamentary group meeting.
Both main opposition CHP leader Deniz Baykal and MHP leader Devlet
Bahceli continued to express their mostly critical views on the Kurdish
initiative. Baykal mostly reiterated his party's earlier concerns and
"red lines" -- psychological borders the CHP would never agree to
cross -- while MHP leader Bahceli stepped up his staunch opposition
to the Kurdish plan, clearly stating that he is not ready to make
any concessions or compromises to back the initiative.
Turkey is ready to engage in unlimited cooperation with regional
countries in order to once again turn the Mesopotamian region,
which was once the cradle of a succession of glorious civilizations,
into a prosperous area, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoðlu said during
an official visit to Baghdad. His bold remarks on Turkey's vision
regarding regional cooperation came at a joint press conference with
his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari. "We have seen that Turkey is
determined to help Iraq," Zebari was quoted as saying by Anatolia,
as he spoke of the presence of good relations after tension caused
by the PKK issue.
The autopsy report of Mikail Tekin, an ethnic Turkish prisoner in
Belgium's Jamioulx Prison who died last Saturday, was released,
listing his cause of death as "physical violence." While the prison
administration announced the cause of death as "choking while eating,"
other prisoners protested, claiming that he was subjected to torture
while being transported to an isolation cell.
Geophysical Society of Turkey (GST) Honorary President Ahmet Ercan
said he did not expect an earthquake to occur in the Marmara region
until 2015.
Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON)
Chairman Rýzanur Meral said the Turkish business world supported
the government's "democratization initiative" for a solution to the
Kurdish issue.
The Israeli military announced that the Turkish, US and Israeli navies
will conduct a joint naval search-and-rescue exercise in the eastern
Mediterranean next week.
Aug. 12 Interior Minister Atalay met with heads of smaller parties
represented in Parliament as well as civil society organizations. After
meeting with the head of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) on Tuesday,
Atalay met Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB)
President Rýfat Hisarcýklýoðlu on Wednesday.
Israel under right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not
resume Turkish-mediated peace talks with Syria, insisting that any
new negotiations be direct, Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Danny
Ayalon said.
A man and his daughter died when a drunk woman who was also found
to lack a driver's license drove into a house in Sakarya. Ýbrahim
Aydýn and his daughter Sinem were seriously injured in the accident
and died after being taken to the Yenikent State Hospital.
The results of Turkey's Student Selection Examination (OSS) were
announced, giving more than 528,000 students the opportunity to pursue
higher education at universities across the country.
A Turkish advocacy group in the United States accused Google of
restricting free speech after the global search engine suspended its
ads following complaints by an Armenian-American group that the ads
were denying the disputed "Armenian genocide."
Some 200 people marched in Amsterdam in the evening in memory of
Cakmakcý, the Turkish businesswoman who was killed on Monday in the
Dutch capital by unknown perpetrators.
Aug. 13 Three Belgian prison guards interrogated by prosecutors
following an autopsy report indicating traces of violence on the
dead body of a Turkish prisoner were released, reports said. Turkish
officials in Ankara and Brussels handed over separate notes of
diplomatic protest to their Belgian counterparts.
The government has allocated some TL 3 billion for the Southeastern
Anatolia Project (GAP) so far this year, State Minister Cevdet Yýlmaz
announced in a written statement.
Germany welcomes the government's plans to launch a series of reforms
to address the grievances of Turkey's Kurds and believes Turkey will
become stronger if it addresses these problems, German Ambassador to
Turkey Eckart Cuntz said.
Interior Minister Beþir Atalay, continuing his meetings with political
parties and civil society organizations as part of a government
initiative to find a comprehensive solution to the Kurdish issue, paid
a visit to the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP). Speaking after the one-hour meeting with DTP leader Ahmet Turk,
Atalay said: "Let us have confidence. We can solve this as long as
we have self-confidence."
Aug. 14 Speaking at his party's Extended Province Chairmen meeting
on the eighth anniversary of the establishment of the AK Party,
Erdoðan criticized the opponents of the Kurdish initiative, mostly the
opposition CHP and the MHP, accusing them of trying to make political
gains from the issue.
An attempt by Somali pirates to hijack a Turkish merchant vessel in
the Gulf of Aden on Friday was thwarted after a Turkish frigate warned
NATO forces of the situation, Turkish maritime authorities announced.
An Ýzmir court accepted an indictment against 34 individuals suspected
of being members of the Kurdish Communities Union, Turkey Council
(KCK/TM), an organization that allegedly functions as the urban arm
of the terrorist PKK, announcing that the suspects will appear in
court at the first hearing, slated for Nov. 19.
A Turkish man was reported to have been killed in his house in
Amsterdam. The Cihan news agency said 30-year-old Ufuk Kayakuþu was
found stabbed to death in his home. Police are investigating the
murder but no information is available on the perpetrator.
Sunday's Zaman
Leisure Radio Guide
Interior Minister Beþir Atalay, who has been meeting with political
parties and civil society organizations as part of a government
initiative to find a comprehensive solution to the Kurdish issue,
paid a visit to the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society
Party (DTP) on Thursday.
Accompanied by Justice and Development Party (AK Party) parliamentary
group deputy chairman Bekir Bozdað and AK Party Deputy Chairman
Abdulkadir Aksu, Atalay was welcomed by DTP parliamentary group
deputy chairman Selahattin Demirtaþ as he entered the party's
headquarters. Speaking after a one-hour meeting with DTP leader
Ahmet Turk, Atalay said: "Let us have confidence. We can solve
this as long as we have self-confidence." Atalay said in the press
statement that the meeting had been very productive, providing an
important opportunity for exchanging opinions. He said: "We have
wished from the start for this project to be carried out under the
roof of Parliament. We think the contribution of Parliament and our
political parties to this project of brotherhood and peace is very
important. We explain, in these visits, the work we have been carrying
out. In all the meetings we have had so far, including with three
political parties, we have listened to valuable opinions that lig!
ht the way of our project."
In a statement after the meeting, DTP leader Turk said a political
effort was being made by the government to put an end to 30 years of
bloodshed and pain. Turk said his party was working for normalization
in Turkey, noting that they were very optimistic that a solution was
near and that they did not want to be frustrated.
"Our [aim] is to solve the problems, not dissolve Turkey," he said,
expressing his opinion that military operations and weapons cannot
solve the problem. Turk said they were working for societal consensus
and embracing differences.
Aug. 8 President Abdullah Gul called for "a new era and a new
understanding" in the solution to the Kurdish question, which he called
"Turkey's most important problem."
One soldier was killed and another wounded in an armed attack by
members of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in Hatay's
Karlýsu area.
Turkey and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of neighboring Azerbaijan
signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the construction
of a natural gas pipeline between Nakhchivan and Turkey's eastern
Anatolian province of Iðdýr. The MoU envisions the transfer of 500
million cubic meters of gas per year.
Halis Toprak, an industry mogul who has been in the news recently
for his controversial marriage to a woman a fraction of his age,
experienced a dramatic blow to his business. The Savings Deposit
Insurance Fund (TMSF) seized control of 20 of the businessman's
companies as he was visiting his medical industry company, Toprak Ýlac,
in Adapazarý.
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Ankara deputy Salih Kapusuz
renamed a recent move by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan on the
Kurdish issue, saying in a speech that it is a democratic initiative
and not a Kurdish initiative.
Turkey would treat 40 people who were wounded in an attack in the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Turkey's Emergency Management General
Directorate said.
Artem Silchenko from Russia won the Antalya leg of the Red Bull Cliff
Diving Series 2009.
Aug. 9 President Gul met with Malatya native Sami Karaaslan (68), who
had been walking from Malatya to Ankara for days after promising in
2007 to do so if Gul were elected president. Learning about Karaaslan
from Zaman daily reports, President Gul ordered a car to bring him
to Ankara on Saturday. They met on Sunday.
President Gul emphasized the importance of finding a solution to
the country's longstanding Kurdish question with the cooperation
of opposition leaders, who have adopted a hard-line policy on the
issue. "Opposition is very important. Opposition is part of politics,"
Gul said while returning from a trip to the provinces of Muþ, Bitlis,
Tatvan and Ahlat.
Muhsin Yazýcýoðlu, the founder of the Grand Unity Party (BBP), who
died in a helicopter crash during election campaigning in March, was
commemorated on Kahramanmaraþ's Keþ Mountain, the site of the crash.
Aug. 10 The Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly condemned a series of
bombings that killed at least 41 in Iraq.
Turkey's two main opposition parties, the Republican People Party
(CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), voiced their refusal
to meet with the ruling party to discuss plans to grant more rights to
the nation's Kurds, responding to reports that Interior Minister Beþir
Atalay was planning to meet with opposition party representatives to
discuss reconciliation efforts.
A fire engulfed forests near the town of Seferihisar, Ýzmir province,
scorching 600 hectares of forest and 100 hectares of agricultural
land. Hundreds of houses and summer villas were evacuated in several
neighborhoods, municipality officials said.
The government plans to conclude a tender for the construction of
Turkey's first nuclear energy power plant in September, Energy and
Natural Resources Minister Taner Yýldýz said. "We have to finish an
important part of the tender process in August, and we must conclude
it next month," Yýldýz told reporters in Ankara.
Arzu Erbaþ Cakmakcý, who had received awards and been received by
the Dutch royal family for her charity work, was stabbed to death in
Amsterdam in the parking lot outside a daycare center she owned.
Aug. 11 Prime Minister Erdoðan made a historic appeal and called
on opposition parties to collaborate with his ruling AK Party in
order to find a solution to the country's long-standing Kurdish
question. Several AK Party deputies, including Deputy Prime Minister
Bulent Arýnc, shed tears while Erdoðan delivered a touching speech
at his party's parliamentary group meeting.
Both main opposition CHP leader Deniz Baykal and MHP leader Devlet
Bahceli continued to express their mostly critical views on the Kurdish
initiative. Baykal mostly reiterated his party's earlier concerns and
"red lines" -- psychological borders the CHP would never agree to
cross -- while MHP leader Bahceli stepped up his staunch opposition
to the Kurdish plan, clearly stating that he is not ready to make
any concessions or compromises to back the initiative.
Turkey is ready to engage in unlimited cooperation with regional
countries in order to once again turn the Mesopotamian region,
which was once the cradle of a succession of glorious civilizations,
into a prosperous area, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoðlu said during
an official visit to Baghdad. His bold remarks on Turkey's vision
regarding regional cooperation came at a joint press conference with
his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari. "We have seen that Turkey is
determined to help Iraq," Zebari was quoted as saying by Anatolia,
as he spoke of the presence of good relations after tension caused
by the PKK issue.
The autopsy report of Mikail Tekin, an ethnic Turkish prisoner in
Belgium's Jamioulx Prison who died last Saturday, was released,
listing his cause of death as "physical violence." While the prison
administration announced the cause of death as "choking while eating,"
other prisoners protested, claiming that he was subjected to torture
while being transported to an isolation cell.
Geophysical Society of Turkey (GST) Honorary President Ahmet Ercan
said he did not expect an earthquake to occur in the Marmara region
until 2015.
Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON)
Chairman Rýzanur Meral said the Turkish business world supported
the government's "democratization initiative" for a solution to the
Kurdish issue.
The Israeli military announced that the Turkish, US and Israeli navies
will conduct a joint naval search-and-rescue exercise in the eastern
Mediterranean next week.
Aug. 12 Interior Minister Atalay met with heads of smaller parties
represented in Parliament as well as civil society organizations. After
meeting with the head of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) on Tuesday,
Atalay met Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB)
President Rýfat Hisarcýklýoðlu on Wednesday.
Israel under right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not
resume Turkish-mediated peace talks with Syria, insisting that any
new negotiations be direct, Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Danny
Ayalon said.
A man and his daughter died when a drunk woman who was also found
to lack a driver's license drove into a house in Sakarya. Ýbrahim
Aydýn and his daughter Sinem were seriously injured in the accident
and died after being taken to the Yenikent State Hospital.
The results of Turkey's Student Selection Examination (OSS) were
announced, giving more than 528,000 students the opportunity to pursue
higher education at universities across the country.
A Turkish advocacy group in the United States accused Google of
restricting free speech after the global search engine suspended its
ads following complaints by an Armenian-American group that the ads
were denying the disputed "Armenian genocide."
Some 200 people marched in Amsterdam in the evening in memory of
Cakmakcý, the Turkish businesswoman who was killed on Monday in the
Dutch capital by unknown perpetrators.
Aug. 13 Three Belgian prison guards interrogated by prosecutors
following an autopsy report indicating traces of violence on the
dead body of a Turkish prisoner were released, reports said. Turkish
officials in Ankara and Brussels handed over separate notes of
diplomatic protest to their Belgian counterparts.
The government has allocated some TL 3 billion for the Southeastern
Anatolia Project (GAP) so far this year, State Minister Cevdet Yýlmaz
announced in a written statement.
Germany welcomes the government's plans to launch a series of reforms
to address the grievances of Turkey's Kurds and believes Turkey will
become stronger if it addresses these problems, German Ambassador to
Turkey Eckart Cuntz said.
Interior Minister Beþir Atalay, continuing his meetings with political
parties and civil society organizations as part of a government
initiative to find a comprehensive solution to the Kurdish issue, paid
a visit to the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP). Speaking after the one-hour meeting with DTP leader Ahmet Turk,
Atalay said: "Let us have confidence. We can solve this as long as
we have self-confidence."
Aug. 14 Speaking at his party's Extended Province Chairmen meeting
on the eighth anniversary of the establishment of the AK Party,
Erdoðan criticized the opponents of the Kurdish initiative, mostly the
opposition CHP and the MHP, accusing them of trying to make political
gains from the issue.
An attempt by Somali pirates to hijack a Turkish merchant vessel in
the Gulf of Aden on Friday was thwarted after a Turkish frigate warned
NATO forces of the situation, Turkish maritime authorities announced.
An Ýzmir court accepted an indictment against 34 individuals suspected
of being members of the Kurdish Communities Union, Turkey Council
(KCK/TM), an organization that allegedly functions as the urban arm
of the terrorist PKK, announcing that the suspects will appear in
court at the first hearing, slated for Nov. 19.
A Turkish man was reported to have been killed in his house in
Amsterdam. The Cihan news agency said 30-year-old Ufuk Kayakuþu was
found stabbed to death in his home. Police are investigating the
murder but no information is available on the perpetrator.