Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RwISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi<br />
1l1onday, August 9, 1993<br />
turkish daily news .<br />
Kurdish attacks puncture Turkey.s tourist balloon<br />
. By Suna Er<strong>de</strong>m<br />
Reuters Staff Writer<br />
KU$ADASI- Pinprick attacks by Kurdish<br />
militants are <strong>de</strong>flating Turkey's hopes<br />
for another big expansion. in Its money-spinning<br />
tourist tra<strong>de</strong> this year. .<br />
In this popular Aegean resort, scantilyclad<br />
tounsts stroll past the spot where a<br />
bomb explo<strong>de</strong>d in a litter bin two weeks<br />
ago, lightly woundin~ 18 people, six of<br />
them foreigners. "We ve seen no bombs<br />
y<strong>et</strong>," said Johann Hatsatt, one of a group<br />
of holidaymakers from Freiburg in southern<br />
Germany. "We're not losing any sleep<br />
over it. It was a false alarm."<br />
The blast was too small to cause any<br />
~rmanent damage but tour operators sa-<br />
Id a-rash of bombings, kidnappings and<br />
threats had scared many Western sun-seekers<br />
away from Turkey. "It's all over for<br />
. this year,' said Adnan Sav~ of Istanbulbased<br />
Marvel Tours. "Our business is<br />
running at around 25 percent of what it<br />
was a year ago. If these inci<strong>de</strong>nts had not<br />
happened we should have seen a 20 percent<br />
increase." The tourism ministry is<br />
sticking to its forecast of revenue rising<br />
to a record $4.5 billion in 1993 from last<br />
year's $3.7 billion, which equalled 30<br />
percent of Turkey's export earnmgs.<br />
Officials had hoped for a windfall from<br />
touri~ts diverting to Turkey because of<br />
the war in the. former Yugoslavia, which<br />
would more than offs<strong>et</strong> the loss of a crucial<br />
Balkan land route. But Kurdish militants<br />
have threatened to blitz tourism and<br />
were blamed for small bomb blasts in Istanbul,<br />
Kusadasi and the southern resort<br />
of Antalya, which killed one person and<br />
injured 46, including 21 foreigners, in June<br />
and July.<br />
Last month's riot in the central town of<br />
Sivas, where Moslem militants attacked<br />
leftwing intellectuals and burned down a<br />
hotel, killing 37 people, also tarnished<br />
Turkey's image abroad. Coupled with the<br />
kidnapping of six foreign tourists in the<br />
mainly Kurdish southeast in July, the attacks<br />
have created at least pock<strong>et</strong>s of misery<br />
among tour operators and hoteliers.<br />
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) says<br />
tourism indirectly funds.Tlirkish military<br />
operations in the southeast, where 6,850<br />
people have been killed in its war for in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nce<br />
since 1984. It says tourists<br />
cannot go there safely without Its permission.<br />
.<br />
Apparently impressed by the damage<br />
Islamic militants have wreaked on<br />
Egypt's tourist tra<strong>de</strong>, the PKK has warned<br />
,that once-peaceful western resorts<br />
are now also in the "war zone". More plainclothes<br />
police have been sent to seasi<strong>de</strong><br />
towns, but Antalya hoteliers are still contemplating<br />
their losses. "From June 27 to<br />
July 15, we had 1.297 cancellations and<br />
28<br />
lost DM 198,000 ($116,000)," said a manager<br />
at one big hotel. "Tourism is in a<br />
pil1ful state. We are seeing som<strong>et</strong>hing on<br />
a par with 1991 when hundreds cried off<br />
.because of the Gulf crisis." Tourism bounced<br />
back in 1992 after stagnating during<br />
the Gulf crisis, the first big s<strong>et</strong>back<br />
to the strong growth in tourist arrivals<br />
and revenue recor<strong>de</strong>d since the early<br />
1980s. Vital for the balance 'Ofpayments,<br />
tourism indirectly helps fund the yawning<br />
1993 budg<strong>et</strong> <strong>de</strong>ficit, projected at $8.6 billion.<br />
Official figures for the first five<br />
months show 2.89 million tourist arrivals,<br />
up from 2.85 million in the same 1992<br />
period.<br />
They spent $1.1 billion, 12.6 percent<br />
more than the year before. Figures for June<br />
and July were not available, but a tourism<br />
ministry spokesman said: "We believe<br />
tourist numbers have r<strong>et</strong>urned to normal.<br />
Our targ<strong>et</strong>s for this year remain the<br />
same." The ministry is promoting upmark<strong>et</strong>,<br />
off-season tourism and bUilding<br />
golf, trekking, rafting and ski centres to<br />
shift Turkey's image as a cheap haven for<br />
sun-worshippers. There is some evi<strong>de</strong>nce<br />
that things are now looking up. Antalya<br />
airport authorities reported 187,000 flight<br />
passengers in July,ll ,000 up on July<br />
1992, bringing the total for the year so far<br />
to 724,000, up 184,000 on last year. But<br />
others are convinced that tourism has been<br />
savaged. "Cancellations have been<br />
frightening -- 80, 100, 500 at a time," sa-.<br />
id a gui<strong>de</strong>. "From travel agencies and five-star<br />
hotels to boys sellinp bread in the<br />
stre<strong>et</strong>, everyone is affected.'<br />
. "The foreign press is hugely exaggerating<br />
these inci<strong>de</strong>nts," she said. "There<br />
was a tiny bomb in Istanbul and some<br />
Italian passersby were slightly injured.<br />
That hit headlines at home -- at a time<br />
when bombs were killing people in Milan<br />
and Rome."<br />
. The Antalya-based Profi travel agency<br />
said 20 to 30 percent of its clients changed<br />
bookings after the June blasts. Profi<br />
<strong>de</strong>als mainly with Germany, source of<br />
half Turkey's tourists, Few people in the<br />
business believe Egypt's expenence will<br />
be repeated here and some say tourists<br />
should show more phlegm. "It will never<br />
be like Egypt. While Turkey has its army,<br />
I don't thmk any group will succeed," said<br />
one hotel manager. "When people realize<br />
bombs can go off in Turkey, just as<br />
they do in the U.S. or in Florence, they<br />
will come round."<br />
Rafsanjani shuffles<br />
the Iranian Cabin<strong>et</strong><br />
• There is no immediate indication from the conservatives on<br />
wh<strong>et</strong>her theyare willing to endorse all proposed ministers<br />
Reuters ministers changed, including Oil Minister Gholam-<br />
TEHRAN- Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani reza Aqaza<strong>de</strong>h and Economy and Finance Minister<br />
presented a 'new C~bin<strong>et</strong> to Iran's M,ajlis (?arlia- Mohsen Nourbakhsh.<br />
ment) on Sunday with seven changes mcludmg the Rafsanjani, 58, elected with 63 percent of the vote<br />
interior and <strong>de</strong>fence ministers but leaving key fi- in June, said last week he would follow a non-adnance,<br />
oil andforeign portfolios intact. venturous foreign policy to secure the calm nee<strong>de</strong>d<br />
Rafsanjani, w.howas sworn in last Wednesday for for Iran's economic reform and progress in his seca<br />
second four-year term, named his 23-man team in ondterm.<br />
a l<strong>et</strong>ter read in an open session of the assembly. He r<strong>et</strong>ained Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati,<br />
The Majlis will vote on individual ministers after Iran's longest serving Cabin<strong>et</strong> member since 1981<br />
up to 15 hours of <strong>de</strong>bate starting this week, Tehran who played a key role in negotiations leading to an<br />
Radio said. The changes were more limited than informal cease-fire b<strong>et</strong>ween Israel and Lebanon's<br />
what the Majlis' conservative majority had <strong>de</strong>mand- Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas.<br />
ed and apart from the Interior Ministry, which is a Rafsanjani named <strong>de</strong>puty foreign minister Ali<br />
highly political post, mostly brought in new techno- Mohammad Besharati as interior minister. He recrats.<br />
places Abdollah Nouri, who belonged to the radical<br />
The radical Salam newspaper quoted an unnamed wing of the Iranian clergy and was frequently criti-<br />
Majlis <strong>de</strong>puty as saying wi<strong>de</strong> agreement had been cized by Majlis <strong>de</strong>puties. ,<br />
reached on the list announced by Rafsanjani after Besharati has been involved for years in Iran's efweeks<br />
of public and backroom lobbying. There was forts to ease often tense ties with its Gulf Arab<br />
no immediate indication from the conservatives on neighbours. He was among the first organizers of<br />
wh<strong>et</strong>her they were willing to endorse all the pro- the Revolutionary Guards after the 1979 Islamic<br />
posed ministers. Their newspaper Resalat said two revolution and became <strong>de</strong>puty foreign minister in<br />
weeks ago the Majlis majority wanted 12 of the 1984 afterfailing to win re-election to Majlis.,