Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

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