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Ahmadinejad says hopes for Turkey energy deals soon |
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Written by Reuters
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Friday, 15 August 2008 15:42 |
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday he hoped his country and Turkey would soon sign energy deals opposed by Washington, which is exerting pressure on Tehran to give up its nuclear program.
The two Muslim neighbors failed to conclude expected energy accords during Ahmadinejad's two-day trip to Turkey, which ended on Friday. Turkey, a NATO member with strong ties to the United States and Israel, has come under fire for inviting him.
Ahmadinejad has lobbied hard to visit Turkey since coming to power in 2005 as Iran seeks support amid international demands for a suspension of his country's nuclear enrichment program -- the subject of ongoing talks between Iran and Western powers.
"We have reached important agreements on natural gas and electricity issues. God willing we will complete them as soon as possible," Ahmadinejad said.
"As you know, issues like natural gas and petroleum need investment and talks on these issues may take a long time."
The failure to strike a deal to boost Iranian gas supplies to Turkey was an apparent blow to Tehran's diplomatic initiative to avoid international isolation over its nuclear program.
But Ahmadinejad attracted vocal support from hundreds of Turks as he later visited the city's Blue Mosque to pray.
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Nine Turkish soldiers killed in rebel attack |
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Written by Agencies
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 07:13 |
Nine Turkish soldiers including a lieutenant colonel were killed on Monday when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device planted by terorists.
After what was one of the biggest attacks on the military this year, special forces troops backed by Cobra helicopters searched the area for the rebels behind it, the sources said.
In addition to the nine killed, two soldiers were also wounded in the military vehicle attack on a country road near a bridge in Kemah district in Turkey's eastern Erzincan province.
The bomb was detonated by remote control, the sources said. Earlier Turkish media had described the device as a landmine.
Several F-16 fighter jets took off in the main southeastern city of Diyarbakir after the ambush but their destination was unclear.
"This attack, which once again shows the ugly face of terrorism, demonstrates plainly how far the terrorists are from human values," President Abdullah Gul said in a statement.
Erzincan province rarely witnesses separatist conflict but neighboring Tunceli is the scene of frequent clashes between Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels and Turkish armed forces.
The PKK claimed responsibility for an explosion last week in Erzincan which damaged the key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and has said it would carry out more attacks on economic targets in Turkey.
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Turkey pipeline fire may be extinguished today |
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Written by Agencies
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Friday, 08 August 2008 10:31 |
 The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline fire, which has temporarily halted the flow, may be extinguished on Friday or Saturday, a senior source at Turkey's Energy Ministry told.
"It's still impossible to get the oil out of the pipeline. We're expecting that it will be consumed and the fire will be put out either today or tomorrow," the official as saying.
"We are going to work to bring the pipeline back into working condition within 10 days. We'll be working as hard as possible to get the line functioning again," he said.
However the blaze at the pipeline has affected oil prices upwards on Thursday, the strengthening dollar and worries about economic growth offset supply concerns and oil dropped under $116 a barrel on Friday.
Brent North Sea crude for September delivery shed $1.91 to $115.99 per barrel in electronic deals. New Yorks main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery dropped 1.73 dollars to 118.29 dollars a barrel.
The gains Thursday in the United States came after the outlawed PKK admitted sabotaging the Turkish section of the pipeline.
In early Asian currency trade, the euro had dropped to $1.5216 against the dollar, while the dollar had strengthened to nearly 110 against the yen. Investors have bid up dollar-denominated oil futures this year as a hedge against a falling dollar and inflation, and any sign of a stronger greenback is often enough to give pause to a rally.
In Turkey, pipeline shareholder BP PLC and other oil companies declared what's called a force majeure after the pipeline attack, freeing them of contractual obligations to deliver crude and still providing a floor to prices. |
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Turkey's governing party avoids ban |
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Written by International Herald Tribune
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Thursday, 31 July 2008 02:56 |
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Turkey's governing party narrowly missed being banned in a court ruling on Wednesday that relieved months of pressure in the country and handed a victory to the party's leader, a former Islamist.
The party, Justice and Development, or AKP, as it is known in Turkish, was kept alive by just one vote six members of Turkey's Constitutional Court voted to close it for violating the country's secular principles, but seven were required. A ban would have brought down the government, forcing elections for the second time in a year and pitching Turkey into political chaos.
"A great uncertainty blocking Turkey's future has been lifted," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the party, speaking in Ankara, the capital.
The court case was the culmination of an epic battle between the country's secular establishment a powerful coterie of judges and generals that has deposed elected governments four times in Turkish history and Erdogan, a broadly popular politician whose supporters say that his past as a political Islamist is firmly behind him.
And while the ruling was widely viewed as a victory for Erdogan, and in turn for Turkish democracy, the court reined the party in, imposing a strong but not fatal sanction to cut its public financing in half and issuing a "serious warning" that it was steering the country in too Islamic a direction. Legislation pressed by the party that would have allowed women in head scarves to attend universities, for example, raised suspicions about its agenda.
"AKP is on probation," said Soli Ozel, a professor of international relations at Bilgi University in Istanbul. "The court clearly said it sees the party as a focal institution for Islamizing the country." |
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Turkish court agrees to hear coup plot case |
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Written by Reuters
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Friday, 25 July 2008 18:05 |
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A Turkish court agreed on Friday to hear a case against 86 people accused of a plot to overthrow the government, which media reports said included a plan to assassinate a top general.
The investigation into the ultra-nationalist group known as Ergenekon has rattled markets and increased political tensions in Turkey, which has also been unsettled by a legal effort to shut down the ruling AK Party for Islamist activities.
"Istanbul's penal court has accepted the indictment of 86 suspects as part of the Ergenekon investigation.
The defendants, including the head of a small nationalist party, a newspaper editor and retired army officers, face charges including incitement to armed insurrection, aiding a terrorist group and possession of explosives.
In the last 50 years, military coups have ousted four elected governments in NATO-member Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but officially secular country seeking to join the European Union.
CNN Turk television, which broadcast footage showing pages from the near-2,500 page indictment, said the court would hold its first hearing on October 20 in Silvri prison, near Istanbul.
It reported the indictment as saying the group had planned to assassinate the current head of the armed forces General Yasar Buyukanit in 2005 when he was the head of the Turkish land forces. It said there was no evidence of a link between the group and the army.
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Six killed in a terror attack on U.S. Consulate in Turkey's Istanbul |
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Written by Hurriyet
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Wednesday, 09 July 2008 07:52 |
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Three unidentified gunmen and three Turkish policemen were killed Wednesday in an attack on a police guardpost at the main entrance of the well-fortified US consulate in Istanbul that officials labeled a "terrorist" act.
The three assailants jumped from a car and opened fire at the police checkpoint around 11:00am (0800 GMT), officials told reporters, adding that they also fired shots at the building.
The security forces returned fire, killing all three gunmen.
The assailants "directly" targeted the police post outside the high-walled US consulate in the upscale district of Istinye, Istanbul province Governor Muammer Guler said.
Two other people, a policeman and the driver of a towing vehicle, were also injured, he said.
"There is no doubt that this is a terrorist attack," Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said.
Istanbul's chief prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin said the attackers were armed with pistols and shotguns. Forensic teams were seen examining a shotgun on the ground.
The attack occurred right outside the high-walled consulate compound in Istinye district. Guns and rifles were seized at the scene after the shootout, which lasted about eight minutes. |
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Jerusalem protests Iranian president's visit to Turkey |
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Written by Ha'aretz
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Sunday, 10 August 2008 00:36 |
Israel has officially protested against the planned visit of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Turkey next week. Israel's ambassador to Turkey, Gabi Levy, presented the protest to officials in Ankara, and the Turkish ambassador to Israel was summoned to Jerusalem.
"Israel is disappointed that Turkey has invited for an official visit a leader who denies publicly the Holocaust, and thus grants him legitimacy," was the message given to the Turkish ambassador to relay to his government.
Iran's president has sought an official invitation to Turkey for four years, but every time such a visit was scheduled, it was postponed.
In recent months ties between Ankara and Tehran grew closer as Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan attempted to play mediator between the Iranian regime and the United States.
Erdogan offered the Americans indirect negotiations with Iran in Turkey, along a model similar to the Turkish mediation between Israel and Syria.
Ahmadinejad's planned visit also drew severe criticism in Turkey because of the Iranian president's criticism of the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk. As a way of containing the furor, Ankara downgraded the visit from "official state visit" to "working visit." |
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Turkey plays down Ahmadinejad snub to state's founding father |
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Written by The Guardian
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Thursday, 07 August 2008 10:21 |
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was always going to have a problem paying homage to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founding father of modern Turkey and a leader synonymous with secularism.
But in a move that has revived criticisms of its alleged Islamist sympathies, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development party has got around the difficulty by inviting the Iranian leader to Istanbul, the former Ottoman capital, instead of Ankara, the Turkish capital and site of the Ataturk mausoleum.
Ahmadinejad said he was unwilling to go to the late leader's mausoleum in Ankara, a courtesy which protocol demands of all visiting foreign leaders.
As the architect of the modern Turkish state that consciously subjugates Islam, Ataturk was the antithesis of everything the devout Iranian president represents. He was also an ally and role model of Reza Shah, father of Iran's last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic revolution that brought the theocratic regime to power.
Turkish officials have tried to gloss over the exceptional arrangements by describing Ahmadinejad's visit next week as a "working" trip. He will meet the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and President Abdullah Gul for talks likely to be dominated by Iran's nuclear programme, an issue on which Turkey has tried to establish itself as an intermediary between Tehran and the west.
However, pro-secularist Turkish newspapers have overlooked the subject matter to focus on the perceived snub to Ataturk, prompting Turkey's foreign minister, Ali Babacan, to accuse them of risking the visit's success. "Iran is a very important country that is on the active agenda of the entire world," he said. "I consider these discussions concerning the details of the visit ... irrelevant in the context of such an important process. They will cast a shadow over the essence of the visit."
Ahmadinejad's arrival follows Babacan's attendance last week at the non-aligned movement talks in Tehran, where he met Iran's nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister. It is the latest phase in an intense round of Turkish-led diplomacy which yesterday saw Erdogan host the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, in an effort to resolve the long-running dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights.
US officials played down a report in one Turkish newspaper which suggested that the Bush administration had objected to Ahmadinejad's trip. |
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Istanbul bombs kill 14 on eve of political case |
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Written by Reuters
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Sunday, 27 July 2008 18:23 |
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Bombs killed 14 people and wounded 140 in Istanbul late on Sunday, just hours ahead of a court case over banning the ruling party that has plunged Turkey into political turmoil.
Officials said one loud blast brought people into the streets of a busy shopping area, then a larger bomb hidden in a rubbish bin exploded a few minutes and a few metres away, tearing through the crowds.
"This is a terror attack," city governor Muammer Guler told reporters at the scene, in a pedestrianised street where families gather in the evenings to dine, sip tea and stroll.
Television showed ambulances taking away the wounded in the Gungoren district of Turkey's biggest city, near the main airport. Among the rubble and glass of broken shop windows, men carried away the wounded and children cried.
"First a percussion bomb exploded and then a bomb in a garbage container," Deputy Prime Minister Hayati Yazici told reporters.
One witness said: "Tens of people were scattered around. People's heads, arms, were flying in the air."
Turkish media put the toll at 14 dead and 140 wounded. Earlier, officials confirmed 13 dead and more than 100 wounded. |
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Adviser tells Turkish court not to close down Islamic-rooted ruling party |
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Written by International Herald Tribune
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 02:58 |
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An adviser to Turkey's Constitutional Court recommended on Wednesday that the court not shut down the Islamic-rooted ruling party, a senior court official said.
Advisor Osman Can told the court in a nonbinding report that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party should not be disbanded because it was only seeking to expand freedoms when it lifted a ban on Islamic headscarves, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Can also recommended that the court should drop charges of undermining secularism against the party, the official said.
The court, which has closed down several pro-Islamic parties in the past on similar grounds, has a tendency to weigh precedent more heavily than the recommendations of its advisers.
Can recommended to the top court earlier this year that it allow the lifting of the ban on headscarves but the court overwhelmingly decided to put the ban in place, inflicting a blow to the ruling Islamic-rooted government.
Hasim Kilic, president of the top court, confirmed that Can's recommendations had been relayed to members of the 11-judge panel.
A verdict on the case is expected within a month.
Can also said in his recommendations that speeches by the party members, deemed anti-secular by the country's top prosecutor, should be considered to be within the limits of free speech.
The Justice and Development Party denies charges of violating secular principles of the republic. |
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Turkey Formally Arrests Retired Generals in 'Coup' Probe |
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Written by VOA News
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Monday, 07 July 2008 04:46 |
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Turkish media say authorities have formally arrested two retired Turkish generals in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the Islamic-leaning government.
The state-run Anatolia news agency Sunday said a Turkish court ordered former generals Sener Eruygur and Hursit Tolon arrested on charges of forming and leading a terrorist organization. The news agency said the two are being held at an Istanbul jail.
Lawyers for the generals denied what they called "false accusations" and said they would appeal the ruling.
The generals were among 21 people detained Tuesday in a police investigation against suspected members of a hard-line secularist network known as Ergenekon.
Authorities say the suspects planned to stage illegal protests across Turkey on July 7, carry out assassinations and trigger battles with security forces.
Eleven of the detainees have been released. But some of them, including the Ankara representative of a secularist newspaper Cumhuriyet, have been barred from leaving the country while the case continues.
Opposition groups have called the arrests part of a government campaign to intimidate critics. A ruling party official, Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, has said the government is acting according to its obligations. |
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