GUL DUE AT CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE IN COPENHAGEN
President Abdullah Gul will today travel to Copenhagen, Denmark to attend the closing session of the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15), slated for tomorrow. A Presidential Press Center statement said Gul would be in Copenhagen on December 17-18 to participate in the heads of state and government climate summit, which some 119 heads of state and government are attending. The statement also underlined the importance placed by Turkey on the fight against climate change. A Turkish delegation including deputies, Cabinet ministry officials, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations has been representing Turkey at the conference, which started on December 7. During his stay in Copenhagen, Gul is also expected to hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from around the world. /Aksam/
DAVUTOGLU URGES INTL COMMUNITY TO DO MORE TO REVIVE MIDEAST PEACE PROCESS
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday called on the international community to work harder to revive the Middle East peace process. Davutoglu made the remarks after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was in Ankara for official talks that focused on the Palestinian issue as well as regional issues and improving bilateral ties. Davutoglu also had a separate meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Ali Aboul Gheit, and Egyptian Intelligence Service head Omar Suleiman. Speaking to reporters afterwards, Davutoglu said they had discussed bilateral relations and regional issues ranging from talks between Israel and Palestine to developments in Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Davutoglu said Turkey and Egypt share a vision on the Palestine issue, as both support a solution resulting in an independent Palestinian state on sold foundations, thus bringing peace to the region. "We believe that the past couple of months were wasted," he said. "Unfortunately, major opportunities were missed both in the world and in our region. Greater steps could have been taken in the Middle East." He said Turkey continues to work to revive the Middle East process and build an atmosphere of peace in the region, calling on all parties to do the same. He said not only Palestine and Israel but the whole international community should show a stronger will to revive the Middle East process. Davutoglu added that both Turkey and Egypt want the situation in Iraq to improve and elections to be held there in peace and calm. He said both countries also want to cooperate more in regional matters and continue bilateral consultations. During his visit, Mubarak also met with Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan and Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug. Mubarak and Babacan discussed ways to boost bilateral trade ties and economic cooperation. /Turkiye/
US REBUFFS TALK OF SHIFT IN TURKEY AWAY FROM WEST
Suggesting that Turkey has turned its back on its allies within NATO and in Europe, particularly just after top Turkish and US leaders had a lengthy meeting to discuss a series of global matters, doesn't reflect the real situation, a senior US State Department said on Tuesday. The remarks by Philip Gordon, assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs, came at a hearing by a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Ankara and Washington may have different views on certain issues, Gordon said, adding that during their Dec. 7 meeting at the White House, US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed a series of issues, including their approaches to Iran, Israel and Syria. "I believe that thinking that Turkey has turned its back on its decades-long cooperation with NATO, the US, and Europe is an incorrect perception," Gordon was quoted as saying by the Anatolia News Agency. Stressing that the two leaders' meeting took a few hours, he said, "This is not a sign showing that a country is moving away from the US." It's also mistaken to say that Turkey, which is continuing its bid to become a member of the European Union, is moving away from Europe, he said. "However, it is a fact that Turkey is continuing to be a close partner for us with its big and important cooperation on a regional and global scale." Following his meeting with Erdogan, Obama voiced his appreciation for the role Turkey plays in promoting global peace. Erdogan's visit was also used as an opportunity to diversify the strong political and military cooperation between the two allies, with the launch of an initiative aimed at boosting trade and investment ties. The new initiative has been widely characterized as another concrete sign of the mutual desire to make the model partnership more substantial. /Today's Zaman/
MAJOR DUTCH FIRM TO POUR INVESTMENTS INTO TURKEY
A leading Dutch company plans to shift a big chunk of its world investments to Turkey, State Minister for Foreign Trade Zafer Caglayan said yesterday. Caglayan, currently hold trade talks in the Netherlands, yesterday said that Dutch-based Eureko, a leading European financial services group whose core business is insurance and has operations in 13 countries, plans to channel a major share of its world investments to Turkey. "Eureko will bring its investments to Turkey in 2010," Zafer Caglayan told reporters after a reception hosted by the Turkish Embassy in The Hague. Eureko, the largest insurance group in the Netherlands, is already active in Turkish market after acquiring 80 percent of the shares of insurance firm Eureko Sigorta from Turkey's Garanti Bank. "I met with top executives of the firm," said Caglayan. "They told me that Eureko would vacate those countries and bring investments to Turkey. The company wants to grow in Turkey." In addition, Caglayan said he met with executives of BAM, a Dutch engineering and construction industries company with $9 billion in annual revenues, who told him they want to enter the Turkish market and are interested in building the third bridge on the Istanbul Straits. Caglayan also discussed with his Dutch counterpart Frank Heemskerk ways of boosting bilateral trade ties between their countries. /Sabah/
THY SEES 10.3 PCT RISE IN PASSENGERS IN FIRST 11 MONTHS
Turkish Airlines (THY) passenger numbers rose 10.3 percent in the first 11 months of 2009 year-on-year, the company announced on Wednesday. In a statement released through the Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB), THY said its number of passengers rose to 23 million in the first 11 months of the year compared to 20.8 million in the same period of 2008. International business class passengers and international transit passengers also increased by 5 percent and 71.1 percent, respectively, between January and September 2009 year-on-year, the statement said. During the same period, passenger occupancy rates, on the other hand, were down 4 points to 71.1 percent. Landing numbers also rose 11.5 percent, increasing to 194,500 in the first 11 months of 2009 over 174,400 year-on-year. Metric tons of cargo - mail air freight loaded onto THY planes - grew by 15.6 percent, climbing from 183,600 tons in January-November 2008 to 212,300 tons in the same period of 2009. /Today's Zaman/