Cablegate: Turkish Media Reaction

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TAGS: OPRC KMDR TU PREL KPAO
SUBJECT: TURKISH MEDIA REACTION
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Media Highlights: A/S Gordon Visit Aftermath; Crowley Comments on
Iran; Davutoglu on Iran's Nuclear Program;
Chief Prosecutor Initiates Investigation Against the AKP;
Turkey-Egypt Bilateral Naval Exercises

A/S Gordon Sends Three Warnings to Turkey
In a weekend article, senior columnist of mainstream Hurriyet, Sedat
Ergin commented on A/S Gordon's recent visit to Ankara and says
"Gordon's visit was a preparation visit to PM Erdogan's US visit on
December 7. Looking at his remarks carefully, one can say that
Turkey and the US disagreed on three issues: The US Administration
expects Turkey to change its stance and stop tolerating Sudanese
President Bashir. Secondly, Gordon drew attention to Turkey's "zero
problem with the neighbors" policy and conveyed US' expectation for
Israel to be included in the list of neighbors. In an interview
with The Guardian, Gordon openly said that the US doesn't share
Turkish confidence regarding Iran's nuclear program." Sedat Ergin
believes that these issues will come to the agenda of Obama-Erdogan
meeting unless the disagreements are eliminated until the meeting on
December 7.

Also in today's Milliyet, columnist Semih Idiz cites "a high level
American diplomatic source" and notes that Washington expects to see
"a speedy process of ratification" for the Turkey-Armenia
normalization protocols, because "a campaign for April 24 genocide
resolution will start soon in the U.S." The writer however urges
Washington not to create a link between the two issues: "If
Washington starts pressuring Ankara with this argument, it will only
help for a backfire."

Spokesman Crowley Comments on Iran's Nuclear Program
Turkish media extensively covered State Dept Spokesman Philip
Crowley's comments on Iran, at the weekend. Saturday's mainstream
Hurriyet reports that speaking at the Foreign Press Center in
Washington on Friday, Crowley told journalists that US concerns
regarding Iran 's nuclear program are "not gossip, but quite real."
Adding, "we're eagerly anticipating the international inspection
report which will come out later this month, regarding the recently
disclosed nuclear facility in Qum." Crowley also added that the US
has valued Turkey 's role as a mediator.

Turkey Offers Tehran New Nuclear Formula
Today's Hurriyet reports that Foreign Minister Davutoglu offered a
Turkish plan to store Iran's uranium in Turkey stating "We could
store it just like a trustee." FM Davutoglu's who commented while
on his way to Spain said he was still waiting for a response from
Tehran. "Turkey facilitated a negotiation channel between the West
and Iran over Iran's uranium issue for the last 10 days and
submitted a proposal to the parties for the storage of Iranian
uranium. Iran had previously accepted the idea of storing the low
grade uranium in another country but Ahmedinejad had to step back
after harsh criticism from the opposition in his country. The
Iranians trust us and our doors are open." added Davutoglu.
According to Hurriyet, Davutoglu confirmed that Turkey has the
technology necessary to meet Iran's uranium storage needs.

Chief Prosecutor Initiates Investigation Against the AKP
Mainstream Sabah reports that it has been learned that Yargitay
Chief Prosecutor's Office initiated an investigation against the AKP
for not abiding with the law state principles. Reportedly, the
prosecutor's office initiated the investigation for the recent
judicial wiretapping crisis saying that the AKP has violated the
article 68 of the constitution by tapping judiciary.

Turkey-Egypt Bilateral Naval Exercises
Mainstream Sabah and liberal Radikal cite the Turkish General Staff
website in reporting that Friendship Sea-2009 Turkish-Egypt
Bilateral Military Exercise would be performed in Eastern
Mediterranean in November 16 and 21, 2009. The target of the

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exercise is to boost cooperation between the Naval Forces of the two
countries. Turkey attended the exercise with two frigates, two
assault boats, a submarine, a corvette, a tugboat, two fast petrol
boats, and an underwater assault team. Egypt attends the exercise
with two frigates, two assault boats, a ship, a helicopter and an
underwater assault team.

Upcoming events:

- November 16: President Gul will receive Justice Minister Sadullah
Ergin and Court of Appeals President Hasan Gerceker to discuss
allegations for wiretapping in judiciary

- November 16: Italian President Napolitano will come to Turkey for
an official four day visit

- November 16-18: PM Erdogan attends FAO summit held in Rome

- November 23: Israeli Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer will come to Turkey

TV News (CNN Turk)

Domestic

- Omer Faruk Eminagaoglu, head of union of judges and prosecutors
(YARSAV) , fails to win a seat in YARSAV's board of directors

- TGS rejects allegations that Ergenekon suspect Colonel Cicek had a
lunch with army commanders before his interrogation

- Report prepared by the EU commission says that Turkey managed to
avoid a deep financial crisis in the global economic turmoil because
of the reforms in banking and finance

World

- President Obama says time is running out for diplomacy in a
dispute over Iran's nuclear program

- Palestinian officials say that they are preparing to ask the UN to
endorse Palestine as an independent state without Israel's consent
because they are losing faith in the peace talks.

- Israeli PM Netanyahu stresses that he prefers to speak to Syria
directly but if there is going to be a mediator, he prefers France
because he doesn't think that PM Erdogan can act objective mediator.

JEFFREY

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