Press Scan

HURRIYET

FIRST OFFICIAL DELEGATION TO TALABANI
Following the Iraqi elections which Kurdish groups have become the second biggest power, the first meeting between Kurdish alliance and Ankara will be held today. A high-ranking delegation from Turkish Foreign Ministry and General Staff Headquarters will proceed to Iraq to meet Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Jalal Talabani.
Hurriyet daily has found the details of this secret visit. Turkish delegation secretly went to southeastern city of Diyarbakir from Ankara yesterday. The delegation which is headed by Turkey's special representative to Iraq Osman Koruturk will proceed to north of Iraq by highway today. They will be protected by the United States and Kurdish
groups.

ARMENIAN MOTION FROM MERKEL
German Christian Democrats Union leader Angela Merkel, who could not prevent Turkey from taking a date for EU entry talks, is presenting an Armenian motion to parliament this time. The motion claims that Turkey killed 1.5 million Armenians but not confess it.
''This rejective attitude contradicts EU's view of peace and forgiveness,'' claims the motion.

MILLIYET

REFORMIST GENERAL OZKOK
Al Ahram newspaper praised Chief of General Staff Hilmi Ozkok, who visited Egypt, saying, ''the reformist general who doesn't accept politicization of the army.''

STUDENT PARDON PASSED FROM PARLIAMENT
The parliament adopted the law envisaging pardon of students who were dismissed from higher education institutions as of June 29th 2000. 675,000 students will benefit from the law, the scope of which was broadened. Students have to apply to necessary authorities within two months to benefit from the law.

SABAH

ERDOGAN WARNS MEDIA NOT TO HARM RELATIONS WITH U.S.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, ''differences between countries which can understand each other can't be turned into a tension because of the speculations (by some circles).'' Touching on Turkish-U.S. relations at the gathering of his Justice & Development Party (AKP) at the parliament, Erdogan said, ''we maintain friendly relations and are an ally of the United States.'' Warning the media of the two countries to refrain from impolite and imprudent attitudes,
Erdogan said, ''some communication problems that emerge between friend and ally countries from time to time cannot harm bilateral relations.''

LAW CONCERNING CREDIT CARDS SPEEDED UP AFTER MURAT DIES
The law concerning the credit cards was speeded up after a cleaning personnel named Murat Akkavak at the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) committed suicide due to his credit card debt worth 3 billion Turkish liras (TL). After hearing about the news, BRSA Chairman Bilgin said, ''we should take measures'' and the draft
law was prepared in a very short time.

CUMHURIYET

AKP OPPOSES TO PUBLIC
Justice and Development Party (AKP) government does not take into consideration the warnings of social parts regarding the implementation of many economic and social issues. Unions were not included in the process of arrangements in transfer of SSK hospitals and social security reform.

STUDENT PARDON ENACTED
The proposal, which gives the right to continue school to 667,000 students who left school as of June 29th, 2000, has been enacted.

RADIKAL

DRAFT LAW ON CREDIT CARDS READY
Tevfik Bilgin, the Chairman of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) said, ''we will present the draft law concerning the credit cards to State Minister Abdullatif Sener on March 15th the consumer's day. Our aim is to prevent a potential chaos.''

DAMS MAY BE EMPTY THIS YEAR
As the precipitation decreased by 25.7 percent in Turkey in the last four months when compared with the previous year, this caused concerns about the agriculture and energy industries. Officials fear that low rate of precipitation can hit agricultural production and decrease water level in dams.

TURKIYE

ONLY SOME PATIENCE, WE WILL OVERCOME PROBLEMS
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that problems faced in the transfer of hospitals under the auspices of the Social Security Agency (SSK) to the Health Ministry were temporary. Erdogan said, ''why aren't those, who used to criticize why the SSK members could not buy their medicine from normal pharmacies, rather than the pharmacies at SSK hospitals, supporting this decision now? Yes, there are some problems but they will be overcome. We only want some patience from our people.''

NEW ARRANGEMENT REGARDING CREDIT CARDS
Under a draft law concerning the credit cards, banks can give credit cards to solely people who apply to get a credit card. All credit cards of those who can't pay the minimum debt of their credit cards for three months will be cancelled. And, the credit card limit can't exceed three-folds of the average monthly income of people. Also, the new draft law limits the interest rates imposed on people who can't pay their credit card debts on time.

ZAMAN

ANKARA POSITIVE TOWARDS PRIME MINISTRY OF JAAFARI
Turkey is positive towards candidacy of Ibrahim al-Jaafari for Prime Ministry in Iraq. Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan said, ''those who will govern Iraq will be determined by the will of Iraqi people. Jaafari is an experienced statesman who knows Turkey well.'' Recalling that al-Jaafari visited Turkey between Dec. 1st and 3rd, 2004, Tan said he then met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and had fruitful talks with them.

RICH RETIRED PEOPLE OF EU TO BUY PROPERTY IN ISTANBUL MOST
Istanbul Chamber of Commerce Chairman Mehmet Yildirim said that in a close time European retired people will come to Turkey and start to buy real estate. He noted, ''retired people in Europe who have 2-3,000 Euro of salary can easily buy real estate in cities like Istanbul, Antalya and Izmir and live in Turkey.''

YENI SAFAK

YTL BECOMES EUROPEAN
The Euroclear Bank, a leading European settlement company, included New Turkish lira (YTL) to its settlement and transfer system. The YTL was made operation in the company on February 14th, 2005.

STUDENT PARDON PASSED FROM PARLIAMENT
The law envisaging the student pardon which enabled students who were dismissed from the universities to return to school, was adopted by the parliament.Â