News Scan, 13th Jan – Gül intervenes in HSYK bill row, meets with opposition leaders

Gül intervenes in growing HSYK bill row, meets with opposition leaders

President Abdullah Gül intervened on Monday in a growing row over the government’s plans to change the structure and operation of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) by meeting with the leaders of the opposition parties in Parliament.
The opposition has been harshly slamming the government’s challenge to overhaul the HSYK, which had earlier been determined through a government-backed constitutional referendum in 2010, in a move to override the separation of powers and hence result in a regress in democratic standards.

Gül invited Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli and pro-Kurdish Peace Democracy Party (BDP) leader Selahattin Demirtaş to Çankaya Palace for separate meetings to discuss the proposal.

TODAYS ZAMAN

No active diplomacy possible without strong democracy, FM Davutoğlu says

A strong democracy is a must in pursuing an active diplomacy, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said at the opening ceremony of the sixth annual ambassadors’ conference in Ankara on Jan. 13, adding that representing a country became easier when rights and freedoms were maximized.

“Democracy cannot be consolidated by forcing individuals to think in certain ways,” Davutoğlu said, adding that fighting against “bans, corruption and poverty” had been the main philosophy of the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) administration. He also insisted on the accountability of the executive.

“The executive should be accountable at all times. It should not avoid rendering accounts for the authority that it uses. In this meaning, we have not avoided rendering account [on anything] in the last 10 years,” Davutoğlu said.

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

PM Erdogan to meet top EU officials in Brussels

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is going to pay a critical visit to Brussels on January 21, his first to the heart of the European Union in five years, to take up Turkey-EU relations with the Union’s top officials.

Erdogan is expected to come together with President of European Council Herman Van Rompuy, President of European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and European Parliament President Martin Schulz in bilateral meetings, as well as in a separate mini-summit – an unaccustomed gathering for the chiefs of three top EU institutions.

Turkish premier will also meet the leaders of political parties represented in the EU parliament. Foreign Affairs Committee Chairperson Elmar Brok, EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Commission Co-President Helene Flautre and Parliament’s Turkey Rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten will also be in attendance at the meetings.

Erdogan’s talks with the EU officials are thought to focus on issues such as Turkey-EU relations, future steps to protect the acceleration in membership talks, difficulties in negotiation process and visa facilitation.

During his Brussels visit, Erdogan is expected to hold various meetings with Turkish representatives in Belgium.

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

Turkish auto industry gears up for new investments, capacity increases 

Turkey’s auto industry is geared up to receive new investments from the world’s leading motor vehicle makers and spare part manufacturers. According to investment certificates granted to companies operating in the field, the industry will receive TRY 5.8 billion (approx. USD 2.6 billion) worth of investments over the next 2 years in the form of capacity increases, new model additions, and research & development (R&D) related activities.

Major motor vehicle manufacturers in Turkey will be investing TRY 3.2 billion and creating 2,400 jobs while the spare parts industry will invest TRY 2.5 billion and create 6,700 jobs, analysis of the investment incentives show. A total of 9,000 new jobs are to be created in the industry within the next 2 years as a result of plant upgrades, opening of new assembly lines and R&D activities. Total motor vehicle production capacity in Turkey will hit 1.7 million vehicles per year with the realization of the planned investments.

Home to production plants of global automakers like Ford, Fiat, Toyota, Honda, Renault and Hyundai, Turkey’s automotive production volume reached 1.13 million vehicles in 2013, up 5 percent over the preceding year. 853,000 motor vehicles were sold in the country in 2013, rising 10 percent year-on-year.

The critically important sector also led Turkey’s 2013 exports with USD 21.3 billion worth of shipments out of a total USD 151.7 billion.

INVEST.GOV.TR

Turkey to start FTA talks with Singapore

Talks on a free trade agreement (FTA) between Turkey and Singapore will soon commence on a ministerial level, as per the decision reached by Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visiting the Southeast Asian country and his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong.

Stating that the two countries were intent on building closer trade and business ties, “We have taken the first steps towards free trade between our countries. Talks on an FTA will begin between the economy ministers of Turkey and Singapore”, Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Loong.

“Singapore is an important partner for Turkey in reaching the Asia-Pacific region. We expect Turkish and Singaporean businessmen to jointly work in third countries”, Turkey’s Prime Minister said, adding that the two countries shared similar traits such as being strategic gateways to their respective regions.

“Trade between Turkey and Singapore reached USD 1.2 billion in 2012”, Erdogan said, adding that the two countries should set the bilateral trade target to USD 5 billion. Following Japan and Singapore, Prime Minister Erdogan will visit Malaysia on the last leg of his Far East tour.

INVEST.GOV.TR

 This is the struggle for the survival of Western lifestyles, says Turkish columnist

Turkey’s turmoil is about the struggle for survival of those with a Western lifestyle, against conservative authoritarianism, a prominent journalist claims. If the bill that will give the administration more control over the judiciary is endorsed by Parliament, Turkey will be heading toward fascism, says Ertuğrul Özkök

One of Turkey’s leading columnists argues the current political turmoil in Turkey is about the struggle for Western lifestyles against an authoritarianism that imposes a conservative way of life. After all the talk about the rights of veiled persons, the rights of Kurds, it is for the first time there has been talk about the struggle of people with Western lifestyles, according to daily Hürriyet columnist Ertuğrul Özkök.

Turkey is living a face-off with all its problems that accumulated in the past 50 years. The first face-off was with nationalism by the end of 1940’s, the second was with left-wingers. Today Turkey is living a face-off between Islamists. Look at the speech delivered by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Dec. 17, 2004, when negotiations with the EU started. He said a big step was being taken on the way for modernization and he thanked everybody that contributed to it; including Turkish media, civil society and the opposition. Now look at where Turkey has come. Turkey needs to settle its accounts with its Islamism. Unfortunately, we have an Islamic degeneration. While we were talking about a democratic and Muslim Turkey; Erdoğan perceived the Arab Spring as the ascent of Muslim Brotherhood to the government and forgot all about his Dec. 17 speech. He is quarrelling with Israel, with Arab regimes, with the EU, United States… Currently he has a profile of a confused man seeking an Islamic leadership.

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

TÜSİAD: Amendment to Internet law worrisome

The Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD) has said a planned amendment to the Internet law as part of an omnibus bill being negotiated by the parliamentary Planning and Budget Commission could pave the way for an increase in Internet censorship, calling the amendment worrisome.

In a press statement on Monday, the association stressed that the draft amendment does not provide solutions to obtaining more balanced and appropriate decisions to block Internet access. “The amendment should be cleared of provisions that will negatively affect fundamental rights and freedoms as well as the growing Internet-related economy [in Turkey],” the statement said.

The amendment to Law no. 5651 on cybercrimes was recently introduced by ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy Zeynep Karahan Uslu. According to the changes, which were included in the omnibus bill by the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, the transportation, maritime affairs and communications minister as well as the head of the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) will be able to block websites without obtaining a court order.

“The continuous debates in our country, with a tendency towards censorship and prohibition of the Internet which has a significant effect on access and the spread of knowledge, contradict our aims of being a knowledge society. We hope that Parliament will amend the draft by taking the opinions of NGOs, academicians and Internet partners into consideration,” said TÜSİAD in the statement.

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Transparency Int’l urges Turkey to clean up politics, fight corruption

Transparency International’s Turkey office held a press conference on Monday in reaction to a recent corruption scandal involving sons of ministers and a number of state bureaucrats, urging the government to put mechanisms in place to clean up politics and fight against corruption more efficiently.

In the press conference, held in İstanbul, the organization pointed out that the recent corruption allegations and subsequent developments in the investigation have shown that Turkey needs to take immediate action to combat corruption. Bureaucrats, renowned businessmen and the sons of three ministers were detained on bribery charges on Dec. 17. Transparency International Turkey also stated that Turkish politics, which the association defines as very problematic in terms of corruption and bribery, should be cleansed as soon as possible.

Pointing to the results of the Global Corruption Barometer released by Transparency International in July 2013, Oya Özarslan, chairwoman of Transparency International’s Turkey office, said most Turkish people believe the institutions involved in corruption in Turkey are political parties, Parliament and the media. Stating that 65 percent of the Turkish people believe the political parties and deputies in Parliament are the most problematic institutions in terms of corruption, Özarslan said, “If plans for immediate action encouraging honesty for civil servants and preventing civil servants from abusing their duties are not adopted, the political system in Turkey, the financial markets and the reputation of our country in the world will continue to be damaged,” adding, “The government has to avoid attempting to restrict the authorities of the judiciary and should adopt appropriate regulations to ensure clean politics in the country.”

TODAYS ZAMAN