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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
Kinkel urges Turkey to put
row aside
• Kinkel: '...however, Yilmaz's remarks were not
helpful. I have openly rejected his remarks. We now
have to look ahead'
Ankara - TDN with wire dispatches .MARCH 14, 1998
German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel on Friday urged
Ankara to turn aside from a row over Turkey's bid to join the European Union (EU) and to look to its
future which, he said, was inconceivable without Europe.
Kinkel rejected Turkish accusations that Germany wanted the EU to be an exclusively "Christian club" and
that Bonn was the chief obstacle to its bid tn jnin tlH'bh-
"We Germans have always made it quite clear what is or is not possible and that we want Turkey in Europe
and to make its way towards full membership," Kinkel told the daily Cologne Rundschau in an interview.
"We should now look ahead. The Turkish government knows very well its best interests lie in the
European option," Kinkel said.
A meeting of leaders from 26 countries, including candidates in eastern Europe for EU membership, in
London on Thursday to discuss enlarging the bloc was overshadowed by Turkey's refusal to attend. The
I5-nation bloc had put Turkey's longstanding membership bid in cold storage last year. Ankara responded
angrily and froze all political dialogue with the ED.
Kinkel underlined EU concerns over Turkey:s human rights record, the Kurdish conflict and disputes with
EU-member Greece. "Candidates for the EU are not judged on the basis of religion; the decisive thing is that
they must fulfil the criteria," Kinkel stated.
Turkey's relations with the EU took a turn for the worse last week when Turkish Prime Minister Mesut
Yilmaz said Germany was behind Ankara's exclusion from EU membership. He also infuriated Bonn by
charging the German government with pursuing in eastern Europe a policy of "Lebensraum" -- Adolf
Hitler's policy of expansion in the 1930sto create a "living space" for the German people.
But Ankara remained defiant late on Thursday, saying it had made the right decision by refusing to attend
the EU enlargement conference in London.
MIT is in contact with CIA and MOSSAD
Ankara - TDN Parliament Bureau
National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Undersecretary Senkai Atasagun, noting that different intelligence
organizations could interact with each other and share information on some issues, added that MIT
sometimes has contact with the CIA and MaSSAD.
In an answer to Virtue Party (FP) deputy Zeki Unal's written question which he addressed to Prime Minister
Mesut Yilmaz in order to learn whether claims that the MIT was in contact with the CIA and MaSSAD
were true, Atasagun provided a written declaration by State Minister Yucel Seckiner on behalf of Mesut
Yilmaz. "The fact that intelligence organizations share information when needed is a known reality. The
MIT interacts with these organizations with the permission of the relevant state offices," the statement said.
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