The following are translations of excerpts from the Turkish press.
SPY OPERATION IN NAVY
Two admirals invited to testify by public prosecutor about obtaining and disclosing secret and confidential infirmation both political and military. Police on Monday detained 35 people, including a retired military officer and 11 others on active duty, in a probe against an alleged prostitution ring in the Turkish Naval Forces accused of blackmailing admirals using illegally taped video footage. Police raided and searched houses of 14 suspects in a simultaneous operation in nine cities. The detainees also included a senior bureaucrat with the Defense Industry Undersecretariat and four employees of the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK).
http://haber.gazetevatan.com/donanmada-casus-operasyonu/336615/1/Gundem
EU TROOPS ON TURKEY BORDER
Athens, which has been unable to stop illegal migration from the Turkish border, asked for the help of the European Commission. Frontex, the EU's organ responsible for border security, took action. Frontex guards have been sent to Greece. The team will supervise the 200-km border of Turkey and Greece in consultation with Turkish officials, but will not stage operations on the Turkish side of the border. Frontex was established three years ago. This is its first border mission.
http://www.sabah.com.tr/Gundem/2010/10/26/yunanturk_sinirina_ab_muhafizi_geliyor_17794938253
HSYK AFTER 68 DAYS
The Supreme Board of Judges & Prosecutors, or HSYK, after changing its structure, convened after a 68-day interval and visited Anıtkabir before beginning its first session. The members arrived at Anıtkabir with their new 2011-model official vehicles bought by the Justice Ministry. During the first gathering with 22 members, they chose a temporary acting president for the board. Former Justice Academy Chairman Ahmet Hamsici received 13 votes and won the position. Of the other candidates, Ali Suat Ertosun received six and Hüseyin Serter won three votes.
http://www.milliyet.com.tr/hsyk-hamsici-yi-secti/siyaset/haberdetay/2010/10/26/1306124/default.htm
AMNESTY FOR DEBT IN REAL ESTATE, WATER & ELECTRICITY TAXES
Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan announced that citizens' debts in electricity, water and real estate taxes would be restructured. He noted that they would discuss tax debts and insurance premiums with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Babacan said, "Legal arrangement will be completed in November at the latest."
http://haber.gazetevatan.com/vergi-affi-mujdesi/336669/2/Ekonomi
BIG PRIZE FOR OGUN SAMAST
As Vatan had warned earlier, Ogün Samast, the suspected murderer of Turkish-Amenian journalist Hrant Dink, is covered by the "stone-throwing children's law." Samast will be tried in juvenile court, and he will receive a lighter penalty. Three months ago, Parliament adopted a law providing for the trial of children under the age of 18 in juvenile court. The law aims to eliminate unjust treatment against children who were forced to commit crimes.
http://haber.gazetevatan.com/ogun-samasta-piyango-vurdu/336634/1/Gundem
KDP deputy chairman arrives in Turkey
The deputy chairman of the Iraq's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) arrived in Turkey on Monday. Nechirvan Barzani will meet Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu over a working meal, and be received by Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
http://en.cumhuriyet.com/?hn=185490
WHETHER TO ATTEND OCTOBER 29 RECEPTION OR NOT IS FREE IN CHP
The main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, has left the decision to its deputies whether or not to attend to the Oct. 29 Republic Day reception at the Çankaya Presidential Palace. CHP Deputy Chairman Hakkı Süha Okay said that they did not make a group decision about the participation. He also did not reveal whether CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu would attend the reception or not. Okay said, "I, too, have not decided yet."
FOUR LANGUAGES, ONE WELCOMING
Turkish President Abdullah Gül and his wife Hayrünnisa Gül were welcomed in four different languages in Mardin, where they attended an arts exhibition. "Welcome to the city of Mardin," said a banner greeting the Gül couple outside the exhibition hall in Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic and Assyrian.
http://www.turkiyegazetesi.com/haberdetay.aspx?NewsID=734888
US DEFENDS IRAQ RECORD AFTER WIKILEAKS FUROR
The whistleblower website WikiLeaks released an unprecedented 400,000 classified US documents, which recount widespread torture in Iraqi prisons and purport to show 15,000 more civilian deaths than previously disclosed.
General George Casey, the top officer in the US Army who earlier headed forces in Iraq for three of the bloodiest years in the war, on Monday denied that the United States "turned a blind eye" to prisoner abuse.
"That's just not the case. Our policy all along was when American soldiers encountered prisoner abuse, was to stop it and then report it immediately up the American chain of command and up the Iraqi chain of command," he said.
Casey also denied undercounting civilian deaths, saying US forces regularly inquired at morgues about death tolls.
"It doesn't ring true with me. We actively went out and tried to understand the impact of both our actions and the militant groups' actions on civilians," he told reporters.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also rejected WikiLeaks' accusations, noting the United States trained Iraqi security forces in human rights.
"That's one of the reasons why we've continued to have military forces in Iraq, to help with ongoing training of Iraqi security forces. And we believe that we've seen their performance improve over time," Crowley said.
WikiLeaks, run by Australian-born computer hacker Julian Assange, said the documents showed a total of 109,032 deaths in Iraq between 2004 and 2009 -- 66,081 of them civilians.
Britain, the main US ally in the Iraq war, said there was "no place" for mistreatment of detainees.
"We do as a matter of course investigate any allegation that is made against our troops," said a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises six US-friendly Arab monarchies, urged Washington to "open a serious and transparent investigation" into possible "crimes against humanity."
Rights groups also called for a probe, with New York-based Human Rights Watch saying the United States may have breached international law if it knowingly transferred prisoners to potential places of abuse.
The documents have had the most impact inside Iraq, where Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has come under renewed pressure as he seeks a second term following hard-fought elections.
The US image worldwide took a severe blow in 2004 when photographs emerged showing US troops humiliating inmates at Abu Ghraib prison. US military courts found 11 soldiers guilty, handing them sentences of up to 10 years in prison.
US President Barack Obama opposed the Iraq invasion and has declared an end to the US combat mission. But his administration fought the release of the documents, saying they could pose risks to US forces and their assets in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A military task force sifting through the records determined that WikiLeaks removed the names of the more than 300 individuals who would have been at risk, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said.
But the documents still contain information such as titles or positions "that could lead to the identification of those individuals," Lapan added.
Assange dismissed fears that the release put US troops and Iraqis at risk in an interview with CNN's Larry King late Monday.
"In statements about this issue, the Pentagon is about as credible as North Korea. There are no names in the documents that we have released," he said.
Human rights advocates joined the Pentagon in criticizing the group after it published 77,000 classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan in July that identified Afghan informants for the US military, putting their lives at risk.
US critics said the episode highlighted the government's excessive use of secrecy labels on documents that even the Pentagon describes as "mundane."
"There are several things the US could do to reduce more of these unauthorized disclosures and one of them is to drastically cut back on the scale of classification," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.
During the CNN interview, Assange also denounced lingering sex crime accusations against him as "false," saying they distracted from Iraq war abuses revelations.
Assange is under investigation from Sweden for the alleged rape and molestation of two Swedish women, though prosecutors have not yet charged him more than two months since the allegations emerged.
Assange dismissed the questions on his personal life as "tabloid journalism."
"It should be obvious that these things are not in balance and not proportionate," Assange told CNN.
