IN FIRST VISIT OF POST-MUBARAK ERA, PRESIDENT GUL DUE IN EGYPT TOMORROW
President Abdullah Gul is scheduled tomorrow to fly to Cairo, in the first official visit to Egypt from Turkey since a massive 18-day popular uprising forced longtime leader Hosni Mubarak to resign. Gul last visited Egypt last July, largely to boost trade ties and reaffirm Turkey’s good relations with the Arab country. /Today’s Zaman/

IN GERMANY, ERDOGAN PROPOSES TWO-STAGE VISA ELIMINATION
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced yesterday that during discussions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel he proposed a two-stage plan for exempting Turkish nationals traveling to Germany from visa requirements, yet cautioned that, even if mutually agreed upon, implementation of the plan would take time. Speaking to reporters en route from Hanover to Istanbul after completing a two-day visit to Germany, Erdogan said Merkel explained her concerns about illegal immigrants who use Turkey and then Greece as transit countries to reach Germany. Under Turkey’s proposal, Erdogan explained, artists, academics, athletes and businesspeople would initially be eligible for the exemption, to be expanded in stage two. Erdogan and Merkel had a working dinner in Hanover on Monday evening after inaugurating the city’s CeBIT communication and information technology fair. /Today’s Zaman/

ERDOGAN RULES OUT POSSIBILITY OF NATO INTERVENTION IN LIBYA
As world powers began discussing a possible no-fly zone over turmoil-stricken Libya, and possible military intervention, following a weekend UN Security Council decision to impose sanctions, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said, "Reporters have been asking me whether or not NATO should intervene in Libya. This is such nonsense. What does NATO have to do with Libya? NATO’s intervention in Libya is out of the question. We’re opposed to such a thing." Clashes between security forces and protesters seeking the ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi have left hundreds dead in the North Africa country. Addressing the Turkish-German Economy Congress in Hanover, Erdogan criticized the international community, without naming any country. "We’re not among those who see oil whenever they look at the Middle East," he said. "We’re not among those who see ill-gotten gains whenever we look at the Balkans. We’re not among those who look at the Caucasus, Asia and Africa with an eye for our own interests." Later in Geneva, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and they spoke about Libya and Iran, as well as Bahrain, Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, but Clinton reportedly said nothing about possible US intervention in Libya. The North Atlantic Council declared Friday that the alliance would not intervene in the Libyan crisis, but will continue to monitor the situation closely in coordination with other international organizations. /Hurriyet Daily News/

ADMITTING IRANIAN CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS STORY WAS FALSE, BRITISH DAILY APOLOGIZES TO PM ERDOGAN
Britain’s Daily Telegraph yesterday apologized to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a story last fall claiming that Iran had made campaign contributions to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). "We wrongly stated [in a Sept. 14, 2010 article] that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey had ’improperly negotiated and accepted a donation in the sum of $25 million to his AK Party from Iran to further the party’s campaign in a forthcoming general election’," the paper admitted. "We now accept that we were misinformed and the allegation was untrue. Neither Prime Minister Erdogan nor his party has negotiated any such deal or accepted any donation of any kind from Iran. We apologize to Prime Minister Erdogan." When the story broke, a furious Erdogan called it "contemptible slander" and vowed to take legal action. Sources said the apology might bring Erdogan’s case against the paper to an end. /Hurriyet Daily News/

JOINED BY TOP STATE OFFICIALS, THOUSANDS PAY FINAL RESPECTS TO FORMER PM ERBAKAN
Istanbul’s Fatih Mosque drew an unprecedented throng yesterday for the last prayer for former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, the longtime leader of Turkey’s Islamist movement. Hundreds of thousands of people came from all across Turkey to pay their final respects. President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Parliament Speaker Mehmet Sahin – all onetime political students of Erbakan – arrived at the mosque around noon to attend the prayer. Gul and Erdogan lined up behind Erbakan’s coffin, draped in green and Koranic verses, and followed Turkey’s top cleric, Religious Affairs Directorate head Mehmet Gormez, to offer their prayers. Participants included politicians from a range of parties, including the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) along with academics, journalists and some high-ranking officers from the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), which 14 years ago this week had pressured Erbakan to step down as prime minister. Foreign guests from Muslim-majority countries – Arabs, Indonesians and Pakistanis – were also in attendance, reflecting Erbakan’s decades-long efforts to foster pan-Islamic solidarity. As a former prime minister, Erbakan could have had a state funeral, but instead asked for a "modest" one, his family announced after his death Sunday. Yet this modest funeral turned into a national event, demonstrating a devotion that few other political leaders in Turkish history have been able to win. After the prayers, Erbakan’s body was taken to the Merkez Efendi Cemetery, where he was buried next to his wife Nermin, who died six years ago. /Hurriyet Daily News/

TURKEY URGES WORLD TO NOT LET LAST YEAR’S DEADLY ISRAELI RAID ON MAVI MARMARA BE FORGOTTEN
A high-level session in Geneva on Monday of the UN Human Rights Council devoted to Libya offered Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu an opportunity to renew Turkey’s call for the world not to forget Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship last year. "Following the Israeli assault that targeted the humanitarian aid flotilla on May 31, 2010, the council, to its credit, reacted without delay and without hesitation," Davutoglu told the council. "It held an urgent debate and dispatched an independent international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law resulting from the Israeli attacks. Some members of the council voted against establishment of the fact-finding mission. Others abstained. However, in the end, wisdom prevailed. I salute those who acted as the council’s true conscience. To those who voted no or abstained, let me say: Such positions carry the risk of emboldening countries who persistently violate human rights. One day others may follow suit. In the end it may be one or more of your countrymen whose rights are violated in the gravest manner. On that day it will be those countries that look upon this council for solutions. (…) Unfortunately, the New York process, the Palmer Commission [UN probe of the raid] has not produced results. Israel is using this mechanism to push the issue into oblivion and prevent the international community from taking action." For her part, Davutoglu’s US counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, told the council that it must abandon its bias against Israel, as it undermines its work. Davutoglu and Clinton on Monday held an hour-long meeting during which they discussed developments in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen as well as Iran’s nuclear program. The two also talked about Clinton’s visit to Turkey, expected later this month. /Today’s Zaman/

BRITISH OPPOSITION LEADER WELCOMES CHANGE IN TURKEY’S MAIN OPPOSITION PARTY CHP
On a three-day visit to Britain, main opposition Republican People Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu yesterday met in London with his British counterpart David Miliband, who was elected Labour Party leader last September. During the meeting, Kilicdaroglu told Miliband about the CHP, saying that his party is working for more democracy and freedom. Welcoming changes in the CHP, Miliband said, "I’m pleased to hear this from a fellow social democrat party. We stand ready to forge structural cooperation between the Labour Party and the CHP. I hope you get good results in Turkey’s coming general elections" this June. Following his meeting with Miliband in Parliament, Kilicdaroglu also attended a reception hosted by Labour’s Friends of Turkey. Speaking at the event, Kilicdaroglu said, "The new CHP wants more freedom, more democracy and more equality between women and men. We also hope for help from Britain’s Labor Party in achieving this." Kilicdaroglu also met with representatives from the London-based Centre for European Reform. Speaking to reporters afterwards, Kilicdaroglu said he was asked about the CHP’s domestic and foreign policy priorities should it come to power. /Cumhuriyet/

TUBISAD: "TURKEY IS EUROPE’S MOST DYNAMIC TECHNOLOGY MARKET"
Turkey’s position as the most dynamic market for information technology and telecommunication services in the near Middle East and Central Asian regions and its extensive experience makes it an important partner for Europe’s IT sector, according to Informatics Industry Association (TUBISAD) head Turgut Gursoy. Gursoy made his comments at a joint press conference at CeBIT 2011 in Hanover, with Germany’s Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM), urging German and European IT firms to cooperate with Turkish ones. "Turkey has a young, educated population, and some 32 billion people use the Internet, and so has a great potential for the IT market," he said. /Hurriyet/