Message from the Canadian Ambassador By Michael T. Mace On the occasion of Canada Day, I am pleased to have this opportunity to provide a few words about Canada's relations with turkey. Since my arrival in Ankara last September, I have been impressed by the dynamism and optimism of the Turkish people and by their determination to build a prosperous, democratic and open society based on the fundamental principles of constitutional and international law. We recognize that Turkey faces enormous challenges

By Nazlan Ertan / Turkish Daily News Paris - A recent French declaration that conditions were not ripe for its return to NATO's military wing has not only created unease in the Alliance before a key summit in July, but marked the first strain in the "cohabitation" between the Gaullist president and the Socialist government.NEWS ANALYSIS The declaration on NATO was made by Jacques Rummelhardt, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, who said: "Without prejudging the president's assessment,

Reuters Belgrade- Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic was detained overnight by government opponents trying to sabotage her crackdown on high level corruption, Bosnian Serb sources said on Monday. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Plavsic was held by police near Bijeljina in the northeast of the Serb Republic entity in Bosnia. She was allowed to leave on Monday morning by car for her office in Banja Luka under the protection of NATO peacekeepers. The sources said hardliners

Six deputies of DYP and one RP parliamentarian resign from their parties in two days, securing Yilmaz majority in Parliament TDN with Wire Dispatches Ankara - Two more deputies of the conservative True Path Party (DYP) resigned from the party Saturday providing a majority in Parliament to secularist prime minister-designate Mesut Yilmaz. The resignation of Turhan Arinc and Ali Uyar from the DYP reduced the Islamists and their allies to 272 deputies on paper, compared with 275 deputies who are likely to

'Turkey also wants a solution to the Cyprus conflict and the solution everyone agrees on is a bi-communal, bi-zonal federal state without which the Greek Cypriot accession to the union cannot be accepted by Turkey,' said Ciller TDN with wire dispatches Ankara - The much-anticipated European Union meeting for Turkey to brief "all applicant states" about the conclusions of the intergovernmental conference did not present much cause for optimism as it ended in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, on

It is up to President Chirac to decide whether to pursue moves to rejoin Reuters Paris- The left-wing French government said on Friday that conditions were not ripe for France to return to the military wing of NATO but that it was up to Gaullist President Jacques Chirac to decide whether to pursue the move. Foreign Ministry spokesman Jacques Rummelhardt said Chirac had taken the initiative of proposing France's return to the military wing, which it left in 1966 under General Charles de Gaulle, and it

Tough mission: The NATO head will hold one-to-one meetings with alliance envoys in the hope a consensus over new members will emerge in time Reuters Brussels- NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana renewed attempts to try to find agreement within the alliance over which countries to invite to join the West's defense club at a special summit next month. Solana has been charged with trying to end differences among NATO's 16 members over whether to limit membership to three former Communist countries or

Sources close to PKK: 'Ceasefire depends on Yilmaz' Turk: It is obvious that 15 years of armed conflict have achieved nothingBy Saadet Oruc / Turkish Daily News Ankara - Ahmet Turk, a leading Kurdish politician, has signalled the possibility of a ceasefire announcement by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Although Turk, speaking to the Turkish Daily News, emphasized that this was only his personal prediction based on observation of the political scene, sources close to the PKK confirmed that

Turkish Daily News Ankara - Russia, disturbed by the military-based affinity between Turkey and Israel, is trying to improve its relations with Syria, Iran and Iraq, the Anatolia news agency reported. According to the news agency, the comment published in the Russian newspaper "Nezavisimaya Gazetta" alleged that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), has been having an important effect on Russia's policies against Turkey. The article, published Wednesday, also indicates that the Russian

Turkish Daily News Ankara - Ankara announced on Monday that it is keeping a close eye on Greece and Armenia's recent agreement concerning the exchange of military intelligence and the extension of a joint military exercise program. Speaking at the weekly press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sermet Atacanli said, "Since the subject involves Turkey's security, we are giving it the attention it demands." After his official visit to Armenia on Saturday, Greek Chief of General

Europe, though gradually implementing structural reforms, has insisted that it wants to find its own way of running its economy rather than copy the American hire-and-fire style free labor markets Reuters Denver-The United States appears to have piqued the pride of some of its European guests at a summit of the Group of Seven rich nations by lecturing them on everything from how to run their economies to helping Africa, delegates said. That, plus disagreements over enlargement of NATO and sustaining a

Reuters Prague- Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, whose country is likely to be among the first new members of NATO, said on Sunday the door should remain open for nations left out of the first wave of alliance enlargement. He also said he did not expect major new deployments of NATO forces, arguing that a similar effect could be achieved by modernizing the Polish army and military infrastructure. Speaking at a North Atlantic Treaty Organizationsecurity workshop, Kwasniewski said the alliance

Russian President Boris Yeltsin steals the show at "Group of Seven" summit in Denver, Colorado Reuters DENVER- President Bill Clinton made his weekly radio address on Saturday from the summit of the Group of Seven industrial nations in Denver and said the global economy's interdependence required countries to work together. "The very fact that we're gathering speaks volumes about the world today," Clinton said in the radio address. "Our homelands are thousands of miles apart,

Greek media jolted by Bacon's retractionBy Ugur Akinci / Turkish Daily News Washington - There are days that spokespeople facing the press on behalf of major U.S. federal agencies and departments, age rapidly over inadvertent flops. Thursday was perhaps such a day for Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon who had to correct his statement concerning the sovereignty of the islet, Kardak, only hours after his regular Pentagon briefing. Bacon, in reply to a question, first "admitted" that on the new

NYT and Washington Post echo similar concerns Rustu Saracoglu: 'Secularists fail to see how undemocratic they are'By Ugur Akinci / Turkish Daily News Washington - The major American dailies have taken a rather dim view of the conditions surrounding Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's resignation on Wednesday. The two motifs frequently mentioned in the news stories and editorials published in the last few days in the New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times,

Reuters Washington- Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott has given Romania encouragement that its bid for NATO membership will succeed if it continues reforms, a State Department statement said. At a meeting on Wednesday with Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Talbott sought to soothe Bucharest's disappointment over U.S. rejection of Romania's bid for NATO membership this year. Albright "stressed the importance to the United States of its

Turkish Daily News Electronic Edition, 'Washington Insight' By HarunKazaz, June 21 1997 21 June, 1997, Copyright © Turkish Daily News 'Washington Insight' By Harun Kazaz These days, Washington is being lobbied by foreign dignitaries in order to gain America's support for their country to join NATO. The entire focus is no longer on the first wave of nations -- with Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary's inclusion to be announced during the Madrid Summit -- but positioning by the countries for

Yilmaz says he is ready to take on the responsibility while Ciller has the support of RP and BBP Turkish Daily News Ankara - President Suleyman Demirel on Thursday dove into the difficult task of finding a new government after the resignation of modern Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister, Necmettin Erbakan, which followed months of tension between his government and the secularist establishment headed by the military. Demirel met separately on Thursday with main opposition leader Motherland Party

Reuters Moscow- Russian President Boris Yeltsin will not take part in the July summit of NATO states that is expected to decide on inviting some east European countries to join, the Kremlin said on Thursday. A presidential press statement said Yeltsin had told a group of journalists from the Group of Seven countries he would not go to Madrid for the meeting. Russia, which has signed a deal on special relations with NATO, is opposed to the Western alliance's eastward expansion, saying the move would

Limited leverage: One has to seriously question how much leverage the principle EU members have, given that this week's Amsterdam Summit revealed the Union is still not in a position to come up with a common defense policy Slow expansion: Turkey's preference, now that it has acknowledged that expansion will go ahead, is for this to be a slow process allowing the Alliance to absorb new members and not endanger NATO's central concept of collective security Conflicting loyalties: Turkey's dilemma is that it