ANKARA - These are some of the major headlines and their summaries in Turkish press on April 13th, 2005. The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
AEGEAN SPRING
HURRIYET- Turkey and Greece signed a historic decision that will prevent dog fight which brought warplanes of the two countries against each other in the Aegean skies.
A red telephone line will be set up between Eskisehir and Larissa for this.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis decided to set up a direct communication line between the national air operation centers in Eskisehir and Larissa.
DISBANK TO BE SOLD
HURRIYET- Disbank, the 7th biggest private bank of Turkey, will be sold to Belgian-Dutch capital Fortis Bank. Fortis will pay 985 million Euro for Disbank.
89,3 percent share of Disbank will be sold to Fortis Bank. Fortis will pay 880 Euro to 89.3 percent share of Disbank. Fortis Bank is expected to make a call to small shareholders.
DISBANK GETS SOLD
MILLIYET- The Fortis group has purchased Turkey's Disbank for 985 million Euro. This sale has been the biggest sale of a private bank in Turkish history.
KURDISH PROBLEM IS IMAGINARY
MILLIYET- Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan has remarked that the PKK does not represent Kurdish citizens of Turkey. ''The PKK can not talk on behalf of the Kurdish citizens of Turkey. If you say that there is a Kurdish problem, it would be purely imaginary,'' said Erdogan. Erdogan was protested by a group of Kurds living in Norway during his trip to this country.
AGAIN THEY COLLECT SCRAP METAL
SABAH- Despite the terrifying incident that occurred in the military area in Istanbul's Sultanciftligi a week ago, no measures have been taken so far.
The ''forbidden zone'' plate is still there, but the woven wires are destroyed.
The children still continue to collect scrap metals and play there.
Seven schoolchildren were injured last Wednesday after accidentally setting off military devices they picked up at a military yard close to their school.
KARDAK SHADOW IN SECURITY SUMMIT
SABAH- A Kardak crisis was experienced when Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis were refreshing confidence.
Assault boats of the two countries came face to face because of a fishing boat violating Turkish territorial waters.
VATAN- A NEW BEGINNING BETWEEN TURKEY & GREECE Turkish Foreign and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and his Greek counterpart Petros Molivyatis have agreed on establishing a new ''partnership.'' The two ministers have made a decision to create a new confidence building measure to do away with chronic problems. Turkey and Greece will make use of dialogue in resolving disputes.
GOODBYE TO USING STOLEN CELLULAR PHONES
VATAN- After hundreds of Turkish citizens became victims of snatch-and-run incidents throughout Turkey, officials have taken a measure to discourage further thefts. Stolen cellular phones would no longer be available for use or sale.
BITTER CONFESSIONS IN ECONOMY
CUMHURIYET- 2004 report of the Central Bank included assessments contradicting the statements of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and State Minister Ali Babacan.
The report stressed that some risks in structural level continued, noting that there was a drop in salaries of civil servants.
FEHRIYE ERDAL TO BE TRIED
CUMHURIYET- Bruges Court will today start to hear the cases against Fehriye Erdal, DHKP/C leader Dursun Karatas and 10 members of the terrorist organization on charges of the crimes the committed in Belgium.
Erdal is one of the suspects of the assassination of businessman Ozdemir Sabanci, Toyota-Sa General Director Haluk Gorgun and secretary Nilgun Hasefe on January 9, 1996.
BRITISH MAKE TURKEY THEIR NUMBER ONE TOURISTIC DESTINATION
RADIKAL- Turkish sources have remarked that Britons continue to make Turkey their number one touristic destination. The number of British citizens visiting Turkey has increased by 41 percent in 2005 compared to the same period last year.
WORLD CHILDREN TO VISIT TURKEY
RADIKAL- Turkish sources have indicated that 822 students from 49 countries will be coming to Turkey to attend the 27th International 23 April Children's Festival. Some of the countries that will be represented in Turkey include Germany, China, France, Palestine and Congo.
ERDOGAN GIVES APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO PKK MEMBER IN NORWAY
TURKIYE- After a PKK member in Norway told Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan that they can end the ''war'' between Turkey and PKK, Erdogan replied that the PKK does not represent Kurdish individuals in Turkey. ''What you are saying is ugly! You say that you can end the 'war' between Turkey and PKK.... Who are you and which war are you going to end? Is there a separate state in Turkey which is in war with Turkey?''
TURKISH IS ONE OF THE MOST RICHEST LANGUAGES
TURKIYE- Turkish Language Institute Chairman Prof. Dr. Sukru Haluk Akalin has remarked that Turkish is one of the most rich languages in the world. Based on our studies, the Turkish language has over 600,000 words.
STUDIES CONCLUDED WITH THE IMF, AGREEMENT TO BE IN MAY
ZAMAN- State Minister Ali Babacan said new stand-by talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were completed, stating that Letter of Intent could be discussed in the first half of May.
The new program is expected to include use of 10 billion USD loan from the IMF.
Babacan also said there was no more issues to be negotiated.
BAYKAL: ''ECHR HAS MADE A DECISION ON RE-TRIAL OF OCALAN''
ZAMAN- Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal claimed that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had made a decision on re-trial of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the terrorist organization PKK.
Replying to questions of reporters, Baykal said, ''I have received an information that such a formal decision has recently been made by the ECHR.''
IMF: INTERESTS AND UNEMPLOYMENT ARE PROBLEMS
YENI SAFAK- International Monetary Fund (IMF) Turkey Desk Chief Reza Moghadam stressed that the outlook in Turkish economy was fairly good, ''Still, obstacles remain,'' Moghadam said, adding ''public debt is still high, interest rates are high, unemployment is high.''
Moghadam stressed that the government was successful in implementing the economic policies in the past 2-3 years, adding that the IMF was always ready to cooperate with the government.
Speaking in the joint news conference with State Minister Ali Babacan, Moghadam said that the works related to concluding another three-year stand-by agreement were concluded as of the same day.
''The letter of intent has been concluded,'' he said, adding that the IMF Executive Board would probably discuss the letter of intent in the first week of May.
END TO DOG FIGHT IN THE AEGEAN
YENI SAFAK- Turkey and Greece will set up a ''military dialogue'' mechanism that will end ''dogfight'' tension in the Aegean which appeared with the allegations of ''air space violation''.
Turkish and Greek foreign ministers decided to set up communication lines between the military operation centers of the two countries.
The two ministers also signed three new Confidence Building Measures.
They are; ''setting up cooperation between Turkish and Greek military natural disaster management teams, and holding joint exercises between them; participation of a certain number of military personnel in language training programs to be provided by Turkish and Greek military institutions every year; and organizing sports events between Turkish and Greek military academies.''