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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ÇILLER: Calls on French support for the economy<br />
By Nazlan Ertan<br />
Turkish Daily News<br />
PARIS- Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, who<br />
arrived in <strong>Paris</strong> on Thursday for two days of<br />
official and unofficialtalks aimed at boosting<br />
Turkey's investment prospects and salvaging<br />
Ankara's ailing political image in Europe, has<br />
called on France to support her economic program<br />
as well as to "respect" Turkey's political<br />
system and "appreciate" that her government<br />
"ISdoing its utmost" to overcome human rights<br />
violations.<br />
During her me<strong>et</strong>ings Çiller also reiterated<br />
Turkey's continuing European vocation and<br />
Ankara's continuing respect for its political and<br />
economic commitments in this context. Prime<br />
.Minister Çiller was gre<strong>et</strong>ed at the airport in<br />
<strong>Paris</strong> with an official ceremony on Thursday<br />
evening. Shewas welcomed by Minister for<br />
State Douste-Blazy and, following the playing<br />
of the Turkish and French national anthems,<br />
<strong>de</strong>parted for the Crillon hotel where she is staying<br />
during her visit. Çi11er's contacts in France<br />
shortly after she arrived in <strong>Paris</strong> began with a<br />
me<strong>et</strong>in~ with French businessmen over a dinner<br />
organIzed jointly by the Turkish-French<br />
. Business Council, the Turkish Council for<br />
,Foreign Economic Relations and the French<br />
Organization of Employers. Expecting angry<br />
protests, French police were out In force at the<br />
building of the French employers' organization<br />
where the dinner was held. .<br />
Çi11erstarted her official contacts on Friday<br />
Morning by receiving. French foreign minister<br />
Alain Juppe at her hotel. Addressing reporters<br />
after the me<strong>et</strong>ing, Juppe <strong>de</strong>scribed the talks as<br />
"constructive" and referred to the state of economic<br />
and commercial relations b<strong>et</strong>ween the<br />
two countries as "excellent."<br />
Juppe listed Turkish-European Union relations,<br />
the situation in Bosnia and the work<br />
un<strong>de</strong>rway concernin~ the French language<br />
Galatasaray University In Istanbul as among the<br />
subjects that had been discussed. The French<br />
foreign minister also said he planned to visit<br />
Turkey before his country assumed the term<br />
presi<strong>de</strong>ncy orthe European Union.<br />
Turkish Foreign Minister Hikm<strong>et</strong> Ç<strong>et</strong>in, who<br />
also atten<strong>de</strong>d the Çiller-Juppe talks, also told<br />
reporters thatthe state of relations b<strong>et</strong>ween the<br />
two countries were "excellent." He said that the<br />
<strong>de</strong>cision to s<strong>et</strong> up a Joint Committee would further<br />
improve relations.<br />
Ç<strong>et</strong>in listen the situation in the Caucasus as<br />
another of the topics that had been taken up<br />
during the talks and said that both France and<br />
Turkey, because of their special positions concerning<br />
the Azeri-Armenian conflict, were<br />
ready to play a positive role in s<strong>et</strong>tling this dispute.<br />
.<br />
Referring to the U.N.-imposed embargo on<br />
Iraq, C<strong>et</strong>in said that Prime Minister Çi11erhad<br />
un<strong>de</strong>rfined that need for the Turkish-Iraqi oil<br />
pipeline to be kept outsi<strong>de</strong> of the scope of this<br />
embargo. C<strong>et</strong>in said Çiller had also expressed<br />
Turkey's <strong>de</strong>sire to see a continuation of the<br />
un<strong>de</strong>rstanding that France had shown on this<br />
score at the United Nations. .<br />
Çiller m<strong>et</strong> with French Prime Minister<br />
Edouard Balladur over a lunch that was also<br />
US Secr<strong>et</strong>ary of Defense Perry leaves Turkey<br />
Turkish Daily News<br />
ANKARA. U.S. Secr<strong>et</strong>ary of Defence<br />
William Perry left Ankara for Zagreb, after<br />
compl<strong>et</strong>ing his one day official visit to<br />
Turkey on Friday. . .<br />
Perry m<strong>et</strong> Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Süleyman Demirel,<br />
Defence Minister Mehm<strong>et</strong> Gölban, Chief of<br />
Staff Gen. Dogan pürq and Foreign Ministry<br />
~n~ersecr<strong>et</strong>ary Öz<strong>de</strong>m Sanberk during his<br />
VISIt.<br />
Perry was originally scheduled to travel to<br />
Sarajevo from Ankara, but this plan was cancelled<br />
after shots were fired at aircraft using<br />
the city's airport. Reuters reported that a<br />
spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo<br />
said,"The visit is <strong>de</strong>finitely off," Asked<br />
wh<strong>et</strong>her Perry's cancellation of Friday's visit<br />
had ~ythin~ to do with the shutting down of<br />
SaraJevo' s aIrport, the spokesman said: "You<br />
can draw your own conc1usions."<br />
Perry had been scheduled to me<strong>et</strong> with the<br />
U.N. comman<strong>de</strong>r in Bosnia, Lt. Gen. Sir<br />
Michael Rose. During Perry' s visit, talks with<br />
Turkish officials were focused on the Bosnia<br />
question. After the Bosnian Serbs: unsatisfac-<br />
tory response to the peace plan proposed by<br />
the United States, Russia, Britam, Germany<br />
and France, Perry said tighter sanctions<br />
against Serbia, and the lifting of the arms<br />
embargo on Bosnia may result.<br />
Meanwhile, during the Perry-Galban me<strong>et</strong>ing,<br />
the two reviewed bilateral relations.<br />
Gölban criticized the conditions imposed by<br />
the U.S. Congress, which connect aid to the<br />
human rights and Cyprus questions. "Turks<br />
are ups<strong>et</strong> about these co.nditions," sàid<br />
Gölhan. "Nearly 8,000 soldiers and civilians<br />
have been killed by this separatist terrorist<br />
organization. If we are discussing human<br />
rights, do not forg<strong>et</strong> that all those victims had<br />
ri$hts." He stresSed that. there was no <strong>et</strong>hnic<br />
dIscrimination in Turkey, citing <strong>de</strong>puties and<br />
Cabin<strong>et</strong> members of Kurdish oriP.n' Gölban<br />
also noted that Turkey and Turkish C1Priots<br />
accepted the U.N. Secr<strong>et</strong>ary General s plan<br />
for Cyprus, and that it was Greek Cypriot<br />
lea<strong>de</strong>r Glafkos Cleri<strong>de</strong>s who had rejected it.<br />
Gölhan thanked Perry for his assistance on<br />
the issue of purchasing aircraft from the<br />
United States.<br />
atten<strong>de</strong>d by Juppe and C<strong>et</strong>in as well as by other<br />
French cabin<strong>et</strong> ministers.<br />
Sources close to the talks with Balladur and<br />
Juppe indicate that the question of human ri~hts<br />
in Turkey had also come up with both si<strong>de</strong>s<br />
touching on this subject in "diplomatic langua~e."<br />
Çlller is reported to have given the message<br />
that her coalition government was doing its<br />
utmost in this conteXt but that there was the<br />
need for the Turkish constitution to be amen<strong>de</strong>d<br />
for significance improvements. She herself supported<br />
such a change to the constitution, she<br />
said, but changes did not come about just<br />
because she wanted them.<br />
"If that was the case, then we would not have<br />
had any problems concerning the subject of privatization,"<br />
she said, referring indirectly to the<br />
recent Constitutional Court <strong>de</strong>cision to cancel<br />
the government's privatization bills and related<br />
<strong>de</strong>crees. A coalition of human rights grou~s led<br />
by France Liberte, foun<strong>de</strong>d by Presi<strong>de</strong>nt<br />
Mitterrand's wife Danielle, has criticised<br />
Çmer's handling of Turkey's IO-year:old<br />
Kurdish ~eparatist insurgency, saying military<br />
operations ma<strong>de</strong> life "hellish" for Kurds.<br />
Çi11er was not expected to me<strong>et</strong> either<br />
Mitterrand or his wife during her stay in <strong>Paris</strong>.<br />
The presi<strong>de</strong>nt is in hospital recovering from<br />
prostate surgery and his wife is in a separate<br />
ho~ital after heart surgery.<br />
t;iller said before her <strong>de</strong>parture for <strong>Paris</strong>:<br />
"There are recent efforts to create a false image<br />
of Turkey in France." "The terror ~up (PKK)<br />
which wants to divi<strong>de</strong> Turkey IS primarily<br />
against Turkish <strong>de</strong>mocracy and human rights.<br />
This truth must be ma<strong>de</strong> clearly un<strong>de</strong>rstood,"<br />
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