INDONESIAN PRESIDENT VISITS TURKEY
President Abdullah Gul yesterday met with his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambangu Yudhoyono at the Cankaya Presidential Palace. After the meeting, Gul told a joint press conference that they had agreed that citizens of both countries could now get visas at the border and that they would start negotiations to end the visa requirement entirely for short visits. "All of this shows that that there are many opportunities for cooperation, even if the distance between our countries is great," Gul said. "I hope this visit will conclude successfully, with relations between Turkey and Indonesia strengthened." The visiting president also addressed Parliament. /Star/
ERDOGAN: "TURKEY IS SET TO BREAK ECONOMIC GROWTH RECORDS AMONG G-20 COUNTRIES"
Speaking at his ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's economy is fast moving to the forefront of countries recovering from the global economic crisis, adding that all the country leaders he spoke with at last week's G-20 summit in Toronto had confirmed this. Stating that Turkey's economy is now admired worldwide, Erdogan said Turkey is the best-positioned country among the G-20 in terms of many economic indicators. He said that Turkey would break a new record with growth figures for the first quarter set to be announced today. Experts are predicting double-digit growth for the first quarter. To break a historic record in gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter, Turkey needs to reach 12 percent GDP growth. The G-20's fastest-growing economy is currently China, with 11.9 percent growth. To break its own 2004 records of 13.9 and 15.7 percent first and second quarter growth, Turkey needs higher growth figures. Saying that Turkey's growth is drawing international attention, Erdogan also said Turkey has become the fastest-recovering country, bringing the impact of the global financial crisis to the lowest levels. Turkey is the only country among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members that didn't need to intervene in its financial markets due to the crisis, he said, adding that Turkey also showed a remarkable budget performance amid the crisis compared to other G-20 countries whose public debts skyrocketed due to the crisis. Now Turkey is a different country with its stronger position both in the economy and foreign policy, Erdogan said, pledging that they would work to ensure that every citizen, province, district and town benefits from this growth. /Hurriyet/
ANKARA URGES STRONGER NATO COOPERATION AGAINST THE TERRORIST PKK
Preparing to expand its intelligence network against the terrorist PKK in the face of rising attacks, Turkey is asking fellow NATO members to give stronger support to its efforts against the terrorist group. As it takes an active role in many NATO operations and peacekeeping missions, Turkey expects its NATO allies to share their intelligence on PKK activities with Turkey, as well as to extradite PKK criminals in their territory to Turkey and deal a heavy blow to the terrorist group's drug trafficking activities. In a recent security summit chaired by President Abdullah Gul, participants decided that Turkey would no longer rely on US intelligence on the terrorist group alone but also would seek NATO's intelligence support. In a series of attacks over the last two months, the terrorist PKK has claimed the lives of dozens of Turkish soldiers. /Turkiye/
TURKEY URGES THE EU TO START ACTING CONSISTENTLY
Belgium, set take over the European Union's six-month rotating presidency from Spain as of tomorrow, should show "consistency" regarding Turkey's EU membership process, something that the 27-nation bloc is currently not doing, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. A ceremony for the opening of a new chapter between Turkey and the EU in Ankara's accession negotiations with the bloc will take place in Brussels today. The chapter on food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy is opening on the final day of Spain's six-month term presidency - the only chapter to have opened under Spain's presidency, although in January, at the beginning of its presidency, Spain said it hoped to start talks on four chapters during its turn at the helm. Turkey, after formally beginning accession negotiations with the EU in 2005, has so far opened talks on only 12 chapters. Spain made outstanding efforts to open the new chapter, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Ozugergin told reporters yesterday. "They pressured both the mechanisms and the member countries," he added, referring to Spain's efforts to overcome the resistance of certain other EU member states to taking a further step towards Turkey's EU membership. "The number of chapters that can't be opened (now) is 18 out of the total of 35 negotiating chapters. Is something like this acceptable? We've come to a position where we can't open chapters due to various countries or individuals. Eighteen is about 50 percent of the 35 chapters plus one." He added, "We expect Belgium to iron out problems created by the EU. The EU should give slome thought about where it wants to go with Turkey. You don't open the chapters and then say, 'Your axis has shifted.' The EU has to be consistent, and Belgium should show this consistency during its presidency." Asked about remarks by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs Philip Gordon last week suggesting that Turkey is alienating its US supporters and needs to demonstrate its commitment to its partnership with the West, remarks made on the eve of a meeting before Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Barack Obama in Toronto, Ozugergin gave a curt, sharp response. "We find this unfair and unfortunate," he said. "Unfair because Turkey doesn't need to prove its loyalty to the Western world, and unfortunate because the way these remarks came before Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Obama's meeting makes one think that there is a problem regarding the timing as well." He also announced that Turkish and EU officials would gather in Turkey next month for a meeting focusing on the strategic aspects of Turkey's EU bid. /Today's Zaman/
FM DAVUTOGLU TO VISIT KYRGYZSTAN
Turkey welcomes the approval of Kyrgyzstan's new constitution in last weekend's referendum, said a Foreign Ministry statement yesterday. It also said that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will soon pay a visit to the country and reiterated the support of both Turkey and the Secretariat of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). /Cumhuriyet/
STATE MINISTER CAGLAYAN VISITS NORTHERN IRAQ
State Minister Zafer Caglayan, accompanied by 200 businessmen, yesterday met with Massoud Barzani, head of the regional administration in northern Iraq, and Barham Salih, the regional administration's prime minister. Afterwards, Caglayan said that the two leaders told him that they would show full solidarity with Turkey in standing against the attacks of the terrorist PKK. Caglayan said that the goal of his visit was to improve trade ties and political relations, and also boost cooperation against the terrorist PKK. /Aksam/