ANKARA (A.A) - 18.05.2002 - These are some of the major headlines and their brief stories in Turkey's press on May 18, 2002. The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
HURRIYET (LIBERAL)
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JOURNEY TO VICTORY
Turkish national football team, which will train for the World Cup finals in Hong Kong before proceeding to South Korea, the venue of the finals, was seen off from Istanbul with a magnificent ceremony. The national football team left for its historic Far East journey.
TWELVE DAYS WITH BROKEN RIB
Doctors rushed to Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's house on the day when Rahsan Ecevit said that Prime Minister did not have anything. Ecevit suffered from inflammation due to a 12-day broken rib. Professor Mehmet Haberal and Professor Turgut Zileli went to house of Ecevit immediately on Friday morning and took Ecevit to hospital. It was seen that Ecevit, who did not get out of his house for 14 days, suffered from a broken rib for 12 days. Ecevit, who was hospitalized for at least one week, cancelled his trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The leaders' summit will be held at the hospital on Tuesday.
TUSIAD: ''PROXY MECHANISM HAS TO OPERATE AT PRIME MINISTRY OFFICE''
The businessmen requested that the proxy mechanism had to operate at the Prime Ministry office. A statement of TUSIAD said, ''the markets are shaken and there are question marks regarding the government.'' The statement noted that it was announced that Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit would stay at the hospital for at least one week due to his illness and said, ''the proxy mechanism has to be put into practice at the PRime Ministry office.''
MILLIYET (LIBERAL)
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MARKETS SHAKEN BUT IMF CALM
One U.S. dollar which was around 1 million 407 thousand Turkish liras (TL) when Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit was going to hospital climbed to 1 million 453 thousand TL at the end of the day. The stock exchange lost 5.43 points in value while the interest rates climbed by 8 points. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that economy was strong and that the programme would not be affected.
DRAFT LUXURIOUS CONSUMPTION TAX LAW COMES TO PARLIAMENT
The draft law on luxurious consumption tax was presented to the Office of Parliament Speaker. The tax will be imposed on 207 various kinds of products. In accordance with the draft law, the luxurious consumption tax will be taken for one time during the production and exportation stages from the products subject to Value Added Tax (VAT) currently around 26 and 40 percent. Within this framework, 26 and 40 percent VAT will be lifted. The luxurious consumption tax rates for products like household goods and television will not be increased by the Council of Ministers.
SABAH (LIBERAL)
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EU SHOULD UNDERSTAND PKK INTRIGUE
General Yasar Buyukanit, the Deputy Chief of General Staff who is currently in the United States, said, ''the United States is aware of the danger caused by the terrorist organization PKK's becoming KADEK. The European Union (EU) should also be aware of this.'' Buyukanit said that he warned the U.S. officials that the change of terrorist organization PKK's name as KADEK was an intrigue and that those officials said that they would not accept such an intrigue. Buyukanit said that the United States was very pleased with the support extended by Turkey to the fight against terrorism.
THERE IS NOT ANY LEADERSHIP PROBLEM IN DSP
Democratic Left Party (DSP) deputy leader Zeki Sezer said that there was not any prime ministry problem in Turkey and leadership problem in DSP. Sezer said that the campaigns of several circles who did not benefit from the radical and structural reforms made under the leadership of DSP against their party and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit.
CUMHURIYET (LEFT)
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LEADERS TO CONVENE ON TUESDAY
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said the leaders' summit would take place in Baskent Hospital on May 21.
A general evaluation would take place and relations with Europe would take place at the summit.
Prime Minister Ecevit said he was in good health condition to relieve the markets. Ecevit said he would continue works more effectively in the near future.
BUYUKANIT: EUROPE SHOULD SEE THE TRICK
Deputy Chief of General Staff General Yasar Buyukanit who is currently in the United States said that he had warned the U.S. officials that change of terrorist organization PKK's name was just a trick and those officials had told him that such a trick could not be accepted.
Noting that the United States was quite pleased with Turkey's support to fight against terrorism, Buyukanit said, ''meanwhile, we explained a matter. Terrorist organization PKK changed its name as KADEK and even a delegation from the European Parliament came to Turkey a few weeks ago and they said, 'KADEK is not a terrorist organization because it has not carried out any terrorist act.' I gave an example to the U.S. officials by saying how can Osama bin Ladin be persuasive if he tells from the al-Jazeera television that he changed his name as 'Hassan' and claims that he has never been involved in any terrorist act so can you believe that the PKK is persuasive even if it changed its name? Also the American officials are aware of seriousness of this matter. They told me that such a trick cannot be accepted. Actually, we, as the Turkish Armed Forces, want the EU members not to be deceived by this trick.''
RADIKAL (LEFT)
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ANNAN IS A REMEDY FOR DENKTAS
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf Denktas, who seems happy about United Nations (U.N) Secretary General Kofi Annan's visit to the island, told Greek Cypriot administration leader Glafcos Clerides: ''now, everything is on the table, let's start.'' Denktas seems to be profitable at the end of the historic Cyprus trip of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Denktas told Clerides, with whom he held a face-to-face meeting on Friday: ''let's look from where we will start.''
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER YILMAZ: ''THERE IS NOT ANY VACUUM IN ADMINISTRATION''
Deputy Prime Minister and Motherland Party (ANAP) leader Mesut Yilmaz said that the illness of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit would not cause any administrative vacuum and deficiency in initiatives. Yilmaz said that such speculations were baseless. Yilmaz said, ''everybody can become ill. The Prime Minister will conduct his works from the hospital. We are taking all the measures to prevent an administrative vacuum.'' Upon a question, Yilmaz said that there was not any reason for bringing into agenda an early election. Yilmaz noted, ''the Prime Minister will stay at the hospital for some time but there will not be any deficiencies in governmental works.''
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER BAHCELI: ''I HOPE HIS ILLNESS WILL NOT LAST LONG''
Deputy Prime Minister and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli refrained from making comments on hospitalization of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit but said, ''I hope his illness will not last long.'' Bahceli, who went to Vienna on Friday for a three-day private trip, said, ''I hope the Prime Minister will be discharged from the hospital and be in the office as soon as possible.''
TURKIYE (RIGHT)
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ECEVIT SHOCK
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit will stay in hospital at least one week. With this news report, stock exchange collapsed, and foreign exchange increased.
Prime Minister Ecevit did not go out of his house for two weeks, and also did not receive guests in the recent days. His doctors controlled him on Friday morning, and hardly convinced him to go to hospital for check-up.
Prof. Dr. Haberal, who controlled Ecevit, gave the news which shocked Turkey, and said that Ecevit has a broken rib and tissue injury in his rib and there were initial signs of thrombophlebitis in his left leg, but his vital functions were working well.
Haberal told reporters that Prime Minister was not in a serious condition, adding that he should be kept under hospital conditions at least for one week.
ISTANBUL APPROACH COMPLETED
World Bank Europe-Asia Private Sector Director Ira Liebermann said that they had reached an agreement with the Banks Association of Turkey (TBB) on the issue of Istanbul Approach which was developed to save companies having difficulties.
Liebermann told reporters following the meeting with TBB officials that they had been recording progress.
He added that they had reached an agreement with the TBB on the issue of Istanbul Approach which was developed to save companies having difficulties.
ZAMAN (CONSERVATIVE)
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TURK: THERE IS NOT CONNECTION BETWEEN EXTRADITION OF MONSIEUR AND FEHRIYE ERDAL
Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said on Friday that extradition process of Fehriye Erdal, one of the suspects of killing of businessman Ozdemir Sabanci, would not change with the Belgian captured in Istanbul.
Turk responded to the questions of reporters following ''Annual Forensic Medicine Evaluation 2002 Meeting''.
Turk said Turkey had demanded extradition of Fehriye Erdal from Belgium, stressing that Erdal was not extradited to Turkey because of existence of death penalty in Turkey.
''Existence of capital punishment constitutes an obstacle for us when a person, who committed crime in Turkey, shelters a country which lifted death penalty. Thus situation of Fehriye Erdal will not change as a Belgian was captured in Istanbul,'' Turk said.
ZEKI SEZER: DON'T HAVE DREAMS ON DSP
Democratic Left Party (DSP) deputy Chairman Zeki Sezer said there was not any problem of Prime Ministry and leadership of DSP, noting that nobody should have dreams on DSP. He said all those dreams would be in vain.
Zeki Sezer said they would not allow tricks and secret plans.
IMF DELEGATION ASKS FOR HEALTH CONDITION OF ECEVIT
As markets are shaken with the news that Prime Minister Ecevit was hospitalized after 13 days, economy bureaucrats in Ankara held meetings one after the other. The IMF delegation, who met State Minister for Economy Kemal Dervis, discussed the economic program which is being implemented in parallel with the discussions of early elections which were brought onto the agenda pertaining to health condition of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit.