Cakmakoglu: There Is An Intention To Destroy Turkey's Linguistic Unity Behind These Innocent Looking Demands

ANKARA (A.A) - 15.06.2002 - National Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu has said that there are Turkish people who speak different languages and added that there are intentions to destroy Turkey's linguistic unity behind the demand of education in mother tongue, which at first look like an innocent call.
Cakmakoglu spoke at the Globalization and the Effects of Nation State meeting organized by Eurasia Strategic Research Center (ASAM) at Ankara's Sheraton Hotel on Saturday.
During his speech, Cakmakoglu drew attention to Turkey's linguistic unity, sensitivity over terrorism and the Cyprus conflict.
Cakmakoglu stressed that a national state has an official and national language and Turkish was Turkey's only official language and it was also the language used in education.
''In Turkey's social texture, there are people who speak different languages,'' he continued. ''There are demands to allow these people education in their mother tongue. Behing this demand which looks very innocent, there is an intention to destroy Turkey's linguistic unity. The second is the terrorism issue. Turkey witnessed many terrorist incidents in the past. After Sept.11 terrorist attacks in the United States, all countries started focusing on the terrorism problem which Turkey has been trying to draw attention to for many years. The whole world started supporting a world power. Article 5 of NATO, which was ignored for 52 years, was put into implementation.''
Cakmakoglu also said that the EU displayed great reluctance to include the PKK and DHKP-C in its list of terrorist organizations. He said that the EU had to include these two organizations in its list after the PKK changed its name since it could not reject a regional power like Turkey.
CAKMAKOGLU: ANY INTERFERENCE TO IRAQ'S DOMESTIC AFFAIRS WOULD NOT YIELD THE DESIRED EFFECT''
National Defense Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu has said that any interference to Iraq's domestic affairs would not yield the desired result.
Speaking at a meeting titled ''Globalization and Effects of Nation State'', Cakmakoglu stated that until 1990s, western and eastern countries had a good balance in terms of their military capacities. After the ending of the Cold War, this balance was disrupted, benefitting the Western world. This led to a power vacuum.
The defense minister said that the United States became a ''super power'' and it wanted to maintain this status from oil in the Middle East, Central asia and Caucasia. At the same time, this country wanted to develop stability and cooperation among these countries and make them supporters of the United States.
Cakmakoglu indicated that in 15-20 years, there is the possibility that the EU or China could arise as super powers.
Cakmakoglu said that Turkey was located in a highly risky area due to its geostrategic position. He said that Turkey's security concerns were based on terrorism, long range missiles, mass destruction missiles, fundamentalist Islamism and regional conflicts.
Assessing Turkey's relations with its neighbours, Cakmakoglu said that Turkey and Greece, although there are still some undiscussed problems, improved their relations significantly in the last two years. He added that there are efforts to bring the existing problems.
Cakmakoglu said that Syria displayed a positive attitude when it returned terrorist chief Abdullah Ocalan to Turkey and Turkey agreed with the UN Security Council's resolutions regarding Iraq.
He reiterated that Turkey supports Iraq's territorial integrity and sovereignty. ''Any interference to Iraq's domestic affairs would not yield the desired result,'' he said.
Cakmakoglu said that Turkey receieved reports about Iran's developing mass destruction and nuclear weapons and this was causing concerns in the government.
About the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Cakmakoglu said that Turkey would do its best to bring peace to the region through an agreement that would satisfy both sides.
On Turkish-Armenian relations, he said that relations between the two countries cannot improve unless Azerbaijan withdraws from the Azerbaijani land and stops its allegations of a genocide committed by Turks.
Cakmakoglu also called on all the world's countries to cooperate more effectively in the fight against terrorism.
Cakmakoglu said that Turkey should be cautious about terrorism as long as there is a potential for terrorism.
He also said that the Cyprus issue was a priority for Turkey.