MILLIYET- Columnist Fikret Bila comments on the Kivrikoglu map incident. A summary of his column is as follows:
The map issued by private press organization Rapporteurs Sans Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders) shows photos of the international leaders they hold most responsible for violating the freedom of the press. Our Chief of Staff Gen. Huseyin Kivrikoglu was included among these photos. Ankara made a strong reaction to this situation. It is clear that Reporters Without Borders do not know Kivrikoglu, or simply ignored the facts. To show Turkey in the same league as Iran, Iraq and Syria or to picture Kivrikoglu alongside Saddam and Khatami clearly demonstrates their bad intentions.
The Turkish General Staff has decided to freeze its relations with its French counterpart. Until the French authorities correct this mistake, our bilateral military and defense ties are frozen. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit was briefed by Foreign Minister Ismail Cem over the telephone and Ecevit told him to not let up on the issue.
After Ecevit and Cem talked, French Ambassador to Ankara Bernard Garcia was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal told the ambassador that Ankara strongly objected to the current situation and was requesting that France remove Kivrikoglu’s picture from the map. The shame in Paris has also been discussed between Cem and Kivrikoglu, and Cem told him that the Foreign Ministry was following the issue closely.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Huseyin Dirioz said yesterday that there had been no delay on reacting to the issue and that from the beginning the Foreign Ministry had worked together with the General Staff.
The outcome of the contacts between Ecevit, Kivrikoglu and Cem leads us to the conclusion that Turco-French relations will be very strained if this shame is not corrected. Let’s see what Paris will do: Will it consider its relations with Turkey or with Reporters Without Borders more important?
sOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION