·  EU REFUSES TO SET TIMETABLE FOR TURKEY ACCESSION.
On 1 July, Denmark began its six months Chairmanship of
the European Union, which is planned to end with agreement on the
conditions for enlarging the E.U. at the Copenhagen summit in December
2002.  On the same day Gunter Verheugen, European Commissioner responsible
for enlargement stated to the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
that no timetable could be set for Turkey's membership.

In welcoming Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, and all
the other Commissioners to Copenhagen, Mr. Rasmussen "expressed the hope
that all ten of the candidates would be ready to enter the E.U.". (Editor's
Note: Turkey is the eleventh candidate).  Mr. Rasmussen once again warned
"against the slightest delay in the negotiations, which would result in
several years postponement of this enlargement" referring to the very full
agenda of the E.U. over the coming years. He indicated that  "the European
Union will present its common position to the candidate countries very
early in November and that there remained intense negotiations to be
convicted until the Copenhagen summit" on 12/13 December. This summit might
even be prolonged for one or two days if need be.
 

·  MHP THREATENS TO LEAVE COALITION IF REFOMS ON
KURDISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND BROADCASTING INTRODUCED
On 1 July, the vice-president (deputy speaker) of the
Turkish Parliament, Murat Sokmenoglu, one of the heavyweights of the
National Action Party (MHP ­ neo-fascist) warned the two other parties in
the coalition that the MHP would leave the government if the reforms
regarding education and broadcasting in Kurdish were put before Parliament.
"If our partners establish a consensus with the opposition parties,
Parliament would be called for an emergency session, and capital punishment
could be abolished. But our position is clear on Kurdish language education
and broadcasting. Our position is that, if our two coalition partners agree
with the opposition on these questions, they would not see us in the
government in the following period" stressed Mr. Sokmenoglu.
 

· SICKLY ECEVIT FACING WIDESPREAD RESIGNATION CALLS.
On 27 June, the Turkish Prime Minister, Bulent Ecevit, sowed the greatest confusion by
admitting, for the first time, the probability of early General Elections,
before going back on his remarks by claiming to have been "misunderstood".
"I think I was misunderstood. It is out of the question to organise early
elections before 2004 ­ I am categorically opposed to this" he declared to
the press in from of his house, where he is resting under medical supervision.

A little more than an hour before, however, Mr. Ecevit had indicated, at a
meeting of the parliamentary group of his party, the Democratic Left Party
(DSP ­ ultra-nationalist) that "elections were on the horizon" while
affirming that he was opposed to such an eventuality. This was, in fact,
the first political meeting he had attended for nearly two months.
He had even asked his party's 128 members of parliament to go to their
respective constituencies to prepare the ground for a poll.

This brief speech before his M.P.s by Mr. Ecevit, who had gone through a
complete medical check-up at hospital the day before, was with confusion
over the use of words. After this speech, he had a meeting with President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer, as he had been wont to do every week prior to his
illness. Then he went to meet the many cameras that had been camping before
his house to refute his own remarks. "When I mentioned elections, it was
about the next elections in 2004 " he said.

Ever since his first spell in hospital, on 4 May last, Mr. Ecevit has
rejected many calls for his resignation and for early elections because of
his failing health. Mrs. Tansu Çiller, leader of the True Path Party (DYP),
the main opposition party, reacted to the Prime Minister by considering
that it was "high time for Mr. Ecevit to make his farewells to the people.
It is even too late" she added.

Mr. Abdullah Gul, Vice-President of the islamic Justice and Development
Party (AK), went one further by demanding the "inevitable" general
elections be held next autumn. Moreover, he openly questioned the Prime
Minister's "faculty of judgement". A member of Parliament of the government
coalition Motherland Party (ANAP) said that Mr. Ecevit's remarks had opened
the way for discussions on early elections "the Genie has escaped from the
bottle" Nihat Akbulut considered.

Since 1999, Mr. Ecevit has run a three party coalition government, but his
poor health and the divisions in his government on the reforms to be
effected in order to join the European Union have allowed serious doubts to
hang over the political life of the country, with repercussions on its
crisis ridden economy. His remarks have sent a shock wave through the
already volatile financial markets, the Turkish Lire (TL) losing against
the dollar (1.64 million TL) before recovering to return to its level of
the previous day (1.60 million TL). The Istanbul Stock Exchange, which  had
fallen to its lowest level of the year the day before, dropped a further
5.1% at the close, recovering on 27 June with a rise of 4.4% to 9000, a
phenomenon that analysts attributed to the resumption ­ however partial ­
of Mr. Ecevit's political responsibilities on that day.

On 1 July, a number of Turkish journalist of different political leanings
called, in concert in the Turkish daily Hurriyet, for the resignation of
the Turkish Prime Minister. "It is not only bad for him, but also for
Turkey. I look around me and nearly everyone thinks as I do and cry "that's
enough"" wrote Emin Çolasan. "If Ecevit is disinclined to leave, then he
must be made to leave   A country cannot be sacrificed for one person. Now
it's enough" continued Bekir Çoskun. "I think it is time for the Prime
Minister to retire. He must retire, not only as head of the government but
also of his party" stressed Mehmet Yilmaz. "After talking to Kemal Dervis,
I can say this: If we want stability, we have no other choicebut to forsee
a near post-electoral, post-Ecevit, political future. Either we do this now
or else it will be after an unprecedented crisis" wrote Hasan Cemal. "Is
there a Captain on board the ship? " asked Guneri Civaoglu and Ertugrul
Ozok, Editor-in-Chief of Hurriyet invokes the Russian example "Eltsin, in
giving his position to Putin, not only erased his own bad luck but also
created a leader capable of saving Russia. Today this "sick man" leader is
creating Russia's prosperity and the people remember Eltsin as the leader
who developed Russia. There is one service Ecevit can render his country.
That is to act like Eltsin, courageously and in time   and open the way to
a leader    That is why I beg you, Mr. Prime Minister, to read Eltsin's memoires".

The daily Hurriyet didn't stop there. The next day Emin Çolasan in a crude
and trivial argument on the front page of the paper, directly accused the
Prime Minister's wife and political partner, Mrs. Rahsan Ecevit, of being
the cause of the P.M.'s illness. She if said to have refused all help, to
have fed him for years on dry biscuits and tea, that his blood tests showed
him to be undernourished   The Turkish Prime Minister is said to be
particularly saddened and shocked by the paper's comments.
 

· TURKISH WRITER FIKRET BASKAYA RELEASED.  The left-wing writer, academic
and journalist, Fikret Baskaya, was released from prison on 27 June after
having served a sentence of one year for an article he'd written on the
Kurdish problem. Mr. Baskaya, 62 years of age, was welcomed by Human Rights
defenders on leaving Kalecik prison, near Ankara.

Mr. Baskaya, a university economics specialist, who had already served
twenty months in prison between 1993 and 1995 for defending Kurdish rights,
was sentenced to 16 months for "separatist propaganda" by the Istanbul
State Security Court for an article published in 1999 in the paper Ozgur
Bakis ­ which has since had to cease publication.
 

· ARMED FORCES PLAN $6 BILLION PURCHASE OF 150 FIGHTER PLANES
According to the Turkish daily Milliyet, of 5 July, Turkey is prepared to sign a
contract with the US State Department on 11 July for 150 new generation
F-35 fighter planes, of Americano-British manufacture, for a sum of $ 6
billion (i.e. $ 40 million each) payable by 2013 and to be delivered
between 2015 and 2030.

The Turkish General Staff also intends to confirm its order for 30 new F-16
planes for a billion dollars, but is asking the United States to help it
with the sales of its old F-16.

The F-35 programme, with a projected sale of 5,000 planes is the largest
ever military project for jet planes.

Despite the injection of $16 billion dollars by the IMF, Turkey has the
greatest difficulty in facing up to its unprecedented economic crisis,
which is hitting all levels of Turkish society ­ except, apparently the
Turkish Armed Forces. Moreover the leaders of the three government
coalition parties, including Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, for the first
time in two months, meeting on 4 July in a summit with the various
Ministries responsible for economic affairs, failed to make any concrete
advance on economic reforms