TURKIYE- Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna writes on the Turkish-American Economic Commission meeting. A summary of his column is as follows:
Turkish-American Economic Partnership Commission held a meeting in Ankara yesterday afternoon. President Bush agreed on establishing such a commission during Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's visit to Washington. Although it is not an EU member country, Turkey wants the privileges recognized to European Union countries by the US to be granted to it. In fact this is a modest and rightful request. Our government and businessmen would like open the doors of the US market wide open instead of the situation right now. We are asking for this since the time Turgut Ozal was prime minister. However, Washington did not recognize the tolerance and the facilities it granted to Jordan, from Turkey its most strategic and the most powerful military ally. It granted these rights to Jordan as it was the neighbor of Israel and lay between Israel and Iraq. At the meeting yesterday, the negotiations for the attack helicopters and early warning planes were requested be finalized as soon as possible. It is evident that the possibility of our agreeing with another country for the deal worth billions of dollars is causing concern.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION