SAKARYA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that they would adopt the constitutional amendment that foresaw sale of lands which lost the character of being forests, as it was and submit it to President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
When a journalist asked his view about the return of the constitutional amendment to the parliament by President Sezer, Prime Minister Erdogan said that ''Mr. President had sent back the same law to the parliament saying that Article 169 should be cancelled and that certain amendments had to be made in Article 170. We did the things wanted by him and sent the constitutional amendment back to him. I have difficulty in understanding the law's being sent to the parliament again and I am sad about it on behalf of the nation. By selling off the lands which are no more forests and where there is plunder, a revenue will be earned for the Treasury. We don't bring a legal regulation that will make existing forest lands a present for certain people. We believe that the regulation we made is correct and we will send back the law to President Sezer as it is, as this is to the interest of the country and people.''
ERDOGAN: ''LEGAL STATE SHOULD BE RENEWED TO PROTECT LIFE, INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETY''
Recalling that Council of Ministers convened in Sakarya province on the 4th anniversary of massive Marmara earthquake, Erdogan said they convened to find a solution to heal the wounds of the quake.
Erdogan said it was impossible to forget the quake which claimed lives of 18,000 people in Yalova, Golcuk, Kocaeli, Sakarya, Duzce and Bolu.
Erdogan said quake caused sufferings but that the society and the nation should look at future and take steps to build up the future.
Reminding the journalists that 3891 people died only in Sakarya, Erdogan said the government was resolved to do its best to heal the wounds of the quake.
Erdogan said they came to Sakarya to make assessments on the spot, and to announce the road map of the solution, stating that other provinces which had been affected by the quake were also on their agenda.
Erdogan said they began to reveal corruption incident one by one, and started to put an end to corruption.
Erdogan said Council of Ministers convened in Erzurum in July, and in Sakarya today, stating that they would convene in Sivas in September. He said, ''those meetings don't take place in other province symbolically. On the contrary, we convene to consider problems of the country as a whole.''
Stating that they would lay the foundation of 812 other houses today, Erdogan said, ''those are not adequate. We recommend our citizens to stay in those house as they were constructed carefully.''
NO PREFABRICATED HUTS WILL REMAIN IN SAKARYA WITHIN TWO YEARS
Erdogan said that they would lay the foundation of the 12-kilometers road which would connect the old city centre with the new one.
Erdogan noted that not all the problems were seen easily and fully from Ankara, adding that ''if the former government had started to build permanent dwellings immediately after the quake in 1999, the housing problem would have been solved today. Time was lost by temporary dwellings. In Bingol quake, we acted very fast and started building permanent dwellings immediately. The houses will be handed over to quake survivors in the beginning of October. The problems should be solved at its place, the solution capacity of local administrations has to increase.''
The development plans of Sapanca Lake would be prepared immediately, said Erdogan noting that Sapanca lake and its surrounding would be conserved.
As of October 2004, the construction of Sakarya Government Building would be finished, Erdogan said adding that certain amount of money was allocated for improving judiciary and health services in Sakarya. He added that a 250-bed capacity hospital would also be built.
(Öª-AY) 18.08.2003