The following are translations of excerpts from the Turkish Press
SEVEN MEMBERS OF HIGH COUNCIL OF JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS (HSYK) RESIGNED, EXCEPT ALI RIZA ERTOSUN
Ertosun says "I will stay in my position to pass my experiences to the newcomers. This does not mean I am going to continue my post till the end. I respect my colleagues' decision to resign; I am sure that they have their own reasons to get such decision."
http://haber.gazetevatan.com/o-neden-istifa-etmedi/334182/1/Gundem
TURKISH WILL BE THE SECOND LANGUAGE IN AUTONOMOUS KURDISTAN REGION
Group vice-chairman of the Independence and Democracy Party (BDP), Batman Deputy Bengi Yildiz, says: "Governors, Chiefs of Police and military officials on duty in southeast of Turkey do not know the Kurdish language. Therefore they can not establish close contact with local citizens. Turkey must have autonomous regions which allow their mother language to be the first. The Turkish language may remain the official language of Turkey".
http://haber.gazetevatan.com/turkce-ikinci-dil-olacak/334038/1/Gundem
RULING THAT RUINED CEM UZAN
The New York District Court came down with a decision, in the Libananco lawsuit filed by Motorola and Nokia, that cast a blow to Cem Uzan. The court ruled on Sept. 27 that the real owner of the Southern Cyprus based Libananco was Uzan.
The ruling said Libananco was established to evade courts. It said, "Uzan, who owns 100 percent of the shares of the company, used his power to defraud and to make false statements."
http://www.sabah.com.tr/Ekonomi/2010/10/12/iste_uzani_bitiren_karar
CEVIK BIR ALSO WIRETAPPED
A dossier on former Eskişehir police chief Hanefi Avcı ,who was arrested within the scope of an investigation into the illegal Revolutionary Headquarters Organization, includes important information on several subjects.
Voice recordings featuring conversations of journalist Mehmet Ali Birand, Fatih Altaylı, former deputy Ahmet Özal, as well as former deputy chief of General Staff Çevik Bir, the then Naval Forces Commander Güven Erkaya, former GATA Commander Çetin Harmankaya, former prime minister Mesut Yılmaz, journalists Enis Berberoğlu and Ertuğrul Özkök, businessmen Erol Aksoy and Erol Evcil were allegedly found during a search of Avcı's office. Mesut Yılmaz said it was hard to comment on the matter.
NATO SHARES TURKEY'S DESIRE TO END TERRORIST ATTACK RISK, NATO SG
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that NATO allies shared Turkey's desire to end the risk of terrorist attacks.
Speaking to reporters prior to NATO foreign and defense ministers meeting (on October 14), Rasmussen said, upon a question about the PKK terrorist organization, that Turkey was able to solve its domestic political and security matters without the intervention of NATO. He expressed hope that terrorist attacks would end soon.
Rasmussen noted that NATO was not only a military organization, but that it also shared common values, including respect for human rights.
He also said that NATO's foreign and defense ministers would meet -- for the first time in the history of alliance -- on October 14, as a part of the preparations for the Lisbon summit of NATO heads of the state and government on November 19 and 20, 2010.
http://en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=181522
TURKİSH PREMİER PRESSES FOR APOLGY, COMPENSATİON FOR ISRAEL'S DEADLY FLOTİLLA RAİD
The Turkish prime minister on Monday reiterated a call on Israel to make an official apology over the Jewish state's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last May, and demanded compensation for the relatives of the victims.
"As we have said before, Israel has to apologize and it has to pay compensation to the families," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in a joint press appearance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
Israeli commandos stormed the three-vessel aid convoy on May 31, killing eight Turks and a Turkish-U.S. citizen, as the raid strained relations between the two countries.
The United Nations launched a probe into the incident, setting up a four-member panel, which is expected to present its final report to the UN chief in February of next year.
The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council issued a report in September on the raid, saying Israel violated international law both by attacking the aid ships and by enforcing a blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The United States cast the lone vote against the report, while several European countries abstained from voting.
"The Geneva report is there, and it describes the Israeli aggression as brutal. The nine victims were killed as in execution style, from close range," Erdogan said, adding, "and there are countries that are still abstaining or taking sides with Israel. History will not forgive such attitude on such a crime against humanity."
Erdogan said his government had called off a series of joint military exercises with Israel in protest of the flotilla raid, adding that Turkey was "reviewing relations" between the two countries.
"Certain aspects of our relations with Israel have either come to a stand-still or they have been cut off. But there are trade deals done by private companies," he said, "which still hold. Of course, our attitude may change in line with Israel's future behavior. But if Israel insists on its law-defying attitude, it will be alienated more in its region."
http://en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=181516
ASSAD ACCUSED ISRAEL
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Israel on Monday of working against peace between their two countries, despite Western efforts to help negotiations resume.
"There are ideas being put forward by some countries. They are preliminary and we do not know if they will push the process forward for not ... the atmosphere is not positive," Assad told reporters after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in the Syrian capital.
"The Arab side really wants the peace process, and the Israeli side is working in the opposite direction," he added.
Assad was referring to U.S. and French moves to relaunch Syrian-Israeli talks, which broke off in 2008 without a deal.
Damascus has stuck to its demand for a total Israeli pullout from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.
Indirect talks were being mediated by Turkey, whose ties with Israel worsened this year after a deadly Israeli attack on an aid ship carrying Turkish activists, who had been heading for the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade.
Assad last month separately met U.S. envoy George Mitchell, who is trying to rescue Israeli-Palestinian talks, and Jean-Claude Cousseran, who was appointed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to pursue the so-called Syrian-Israeli track. Israel, which wants Syria to distance itself from Iran, and fromLebanon's Shi'ite movement, Hezbollah, insists on talking to Syria without preconditions.
Almost 10 years of face-to-face talks between the two countries that were being supervised by the United States collapsed in 2000 after Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, turned down an Israeli offer that fell short of returning the whole of the Golan.
http://en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=181480
FRENCH FM SUGGESTS LOW-SPEED EU TALKS WITH TURKEY
The foreign minister of Turkey-skeptic France has suggested keeping Turkey's full European Union accession negotiations going at a snail's pace, expressing his country's concerns regarding the opening of some of the negotiation chapters.
"This matter [the negotiations] has to be left to its own natural course. It should not be handled in a speedy manner," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was quoted as saying by daily Hürriyet on Monday.
Kouchner arrived in Ankara late Monday for a two-day visit.
Along with Greek Cyprus, France has been the most vocal opponent of Turkey's entry to the European Union, and has unilaterally suspended the opening of five of the 33 negotiation chapters, dealing a heavy blow to Ankara's membership bid.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who has repeatedly expressed his concerns regarding Turkey's full membership in the European bloc, is scheduled to visit to Ankara in the coming months, following an 18-year break between French presidential visits.
Kouchner met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu over dinner Monday to organize a joint press conference slated for Tuesday. The French official is also set to inaugurate the official opening of the Charles De Gaulle School in Ankara.
According to Kouchner, accession negotiation chapters should be opened one by one. "However, that doesn't mean that these relations contain any doubts or any hostility. As long as Turkey completes the reforms, there will be forward advances," he told Hürriyet.
Although he did not want to disclose the messages he would convey to Turkey before his meeting with Davutoğlu, Kouchner said that France wants Turkey to be more active in the Mediterranean Union, a new organization organized by France to create closer links between neighboring Mediterranean countries. Turkey is doubtful about the initiative: it believes the main purpose behind the new organization is to kill Ankara's EU membership bid.
Stressing that he differed from the rest of the French administration on the subject of Turkey's entry into the EU, Kouchner said that Ankara's opposition to the election of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO chief has weakened the hands of Turkey's friends.
"The events that took place in Strasbourg have put Turkey's friends in a difficult position. Of course, we are in no position to teach Turkey any lessons. We are, however, waiting for a transformation from Turkey," he said.
France's top diplomat, a former activist and co-founder of the internationally renowned nongovernmental organization "Medecins Sans Frontieres" (Doctors Without Borders), also expressed his personal admiration of Turkey. "It has not yet completed its development, however Turkey is the only country that is Muslim, modern, democratic and secular at the same time," he said.
For Kouchner, what makes Turkey distinct is its diplomacy. "I have a great admiration for the power, liveliness and the means for getting results in Turkish diplomacy. I mean this with sincerity. Turkish diplomacy truly is filled with universality, liveliness and success," he said. "For instance, the agreement between Turkey, Iran and Brazil was not simply one of technical nature, but was one that portrayed the diplomatic change taking place in the world."
The French minister also expressed esteem for his Turkish counterpart, Davutoğlu, calling him "determined, active and wise."
"He runs throughout the globe. I do not know when he actually sleeps," Kouchner said.
