Turkey president meets with Egypt’s political players

Salma SHUKRALLAH     Ahram Online

Gul's visit shows intention to craft special relations with Egypt after January 25 revolution.

In an attempt that seemed to aim at reshaping Turkish Egyptian relations after the January 25 revolution, Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, held a series of meetings on Sunday with a diverse range of Egypt’s political players.

In the morning Gul held a meeting with Egypt’s supreme council of the armed forces, Egypt’s current ruling body. In a statement directed at delegates of the revolution’s youth, which he met later on Sunday evening, he stressed his belief that the military is moving towards constitutional democracy.

Gul also met with opposition figures from the Muslim Brotherhood, Ghad, Wafd, Kifaya and the National Association for Change including Essam El-Erian, Mohamed Morsy, Mohamed Badei, Ayman Nour, El-Saied El-Badawy and George Isaac.

British deputy PM says Turkey valuable example for Mideast

Selçuk GÜLTAŞLI

Addressing the latest democratic movements in the Arab Middle East, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Turkey is “a valuable example for other societies.” Delivering a speech in Brussels on Wednesday titled “Building Open Societies: Transforming Europe’s Partnership with North Africa,” Clegg appraised the “Turkish way” and strongly supported the idea that Turkey could be a model for emergent democracies of the Arab world. It is being hotly debated both in the West and in the Arab world whether Turkey could be a source of inspiration for Muslim societies that want to end decades of dictatorships and live in a democratic system. Clegg, whose country has consistently supported Turkey’s aspirations for EU membership, said recent events had highlighted Turkey’s importance. “As a Muslim majority country, a NATO member and a country firmly committed to the path to EU membership, and a state with a vibrant multi-party democracy, it provides a valuable example for other societies,” said Clegg.

The Turkish energy minister says new argument needed than oil-indexed natural gas price

AA

The Turkish energy minister said on Friday that a new argument was needed than the oil-indexed natural gas prices.

Turkish Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız, who is currently in Kazan, the Autonomous Republic of Tatarstan to attend Turkey-Russia Joint Economic Committee meeting, replied to questions of a group of Turkish reporters. Upon a question on reduction of gas prices with Russia, Yıldız said the increase in oil prices was an important element in discussions over gas prices. Noting that Turkey desired the oil-indexed natural gas price to leave its place to another argument, Yıldız said talks on the matter continued with Russia.

Bad weekend for EU-Turkey relations

Andrew  RETTMAN        EUOBSERVER

BRUSSELS - Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused German society of "xenophobia" and the German government of "discrimination" ahead of a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel. The remarks follow an unfriendly encounter with French President Sarkozy.

Speaking to a group of ethnic Turks in Dusseldorf on Sunday (27 February) ahead of his meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hannover on Monday, Mr Erdogan said: "We are observing the xenophobia in certain European countries, notably Germany, with great unease ... Islamophobia is a crime against humanity, just as anti-Semtism is."

He urged German politicians not to feed the fear of foreigners, but also called on the 2.5 million ethnic Turks in Germany to try to fit in.

Mr Erdoğan goes to Germany

The Economist

IT IS no secret that Turkey's efforts to join the European Union have not been going well. But a bout of Europe-bashing this week by Turkey’s mildly Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has exposed just how rotten relations have become since the EU formally began membership talks with Turkey in 2004. All the more so because Mr Erdoğan made his comments in Germany, where he was meant to be shoring up Turkey’s case. If anything his visit has had the opposite effect.

Mr Erdoğan's German hosts were outraged by a speech he delivered in Dusseldorf on Sunday before a huge crowd of Turkish immigrants. He accused Germany of seeking to forcibly assimilate its estimated 3m-strong Turkish community. "Nobody will be able to tear us away from our culture…our children must learn German, but they must learn Turkish first," he thundered. Not so, riposted Guido Westerwelle, who said German had to come first.

Japan bank to support Toshiba in Turkish nuclear plant bid

Bloomberg

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, or JBIC, could offer loans to Toshiba, which has exclusive rights to negotiate the building of a nuclear power station in Turkey, according to an official at the state-owned bank.

Toshiba, the biggest Japanese maker of power generation machinery, along with the country’s Trade Ministry, won the right last year to negotiate exclusively with Turkey until March 31 to build a power plant on the Black Sea coast, which may cost as much as $20 billion.

The talks commenced after Turkey failed to conclude negotiations with a group led by Korea Electric because of differences over ownership structure and power pricing.

Japan is pushing companies such as Toshiba and Hitachi to compete with rivals including Korea Electric Power Corp. and Areva for overseas nuclear projects to aid the nation’s economic recovery.
“JBIC’s assistance is part of a long-term government plan to boost the success rate for Japanese firms,” said Daniel Aldrich, a political science professor at Purdue University in Indiana. “France and South Korea certainly want to continue their penetration of foreign markets in nuclear technology.”

EU raises economic growth forecast for 2011

Eurotribune

The European Commission Tuesday raised its economic growth forecast slightly for both the eurozone and the EU in 2011, but said inflation rate in the two blocs would be higher than the November forecast.

According to the interim economic forecast, eurozone economy will grow 1.6% and the EU will expand 1.8% in 2011, both 0.1% point higher than estimated in the autumn forecast. Inflation outlook for the currency bloc has lifted to 2.2% from 1.8% owing to higher energy and commodity prices. EU27 economy is predicted to grow 1.8%, faster than the 1.7% expansion seen in November. Inflation would be at 2.5%.


The report, however, pointed out that growth will be uneven across the member countries, while noting that the outlook in countries like France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK have boosted the projections. These countries together account for as much as 80% of the European Union GDP. The Commission said the overall economic outlook for the region has not returned to normalcy despite the recent relative calm in the financial markets. The report also underlined the need for structural reforms and fiscal prudence. “Ensuring a stronger recovery calls for an agreement on an ambitious agenda of fiscal consolidation and structural reforms”, it said.

Source:
http://www.eurotribune.eu/index.default.php/?p=18255&l=0&idioma=2

Turkey says Nato move on Libya ‘absurd’

Delphine Strauss in Ankara and James Blitz in London         Financial Times

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, has hit out at US and UK calls for military intervention in the Libya crisis, warning that would be an “absurdity” for the Nato alliance to intervene in the region.

As the stance of Turkey, a prominent western ally, was bolstered by similar comments from non-Nato member Russia, the US and UK led calls for tougher action to stop the violent crackdown against opposition forces by Muammer Gaddafi, Libya’s leader. Both Washington and London are saying they are looking at the possible establishment of a no-fly zone to prevent air attacks on towns held by rebels.

Source:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/27198084-43fe-11e0-8f20-00144feab49a,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F27198084-43fe-11e0-8f20-00144feab49a.html%3Fftcamp%3Drss&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2F&ftcamp=rss#axzz1FMOKENLp

Libyan crisis: Britain and allies now risk over-reaction

Simon TISDALL     The Guardian

Britain, Italy and the US are talking up possible military action against Muammar Gaddafi

Criticised for reacting too slowly to the Libyan crisis, Britain and its allies now risk a dangerous, ill-thought out over-reaction in raising the prospect of direct western military intervention. If any lesson has been learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, it is that while it is very easy to get into a war in the Middle East, it is difficult to control events once engaged, and harder still to find a way out.

David Cameron's order to British military chiefs to prepare plans for a no-fly zone over Libya, to prevent Colonel Gaddafi's forces attacking opposition groups, may be a calculated attempt to increase the pressure on the Libyan leader to step down. But Cameron's proposal, delivered in the Commons, potentially goes beyond the sort of protective air patrols Britain and France conducted over Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the 1990s.

"We do not in any way rule out the use of military assets," Cameron said. On the face of it, this is a very bold statement.

A false choice between Iran and the US for Arab states

Tony Karon           The National 


Washington saw the "hand of communism" at work everywhere during the Cold War, whether in the heroic rebellion of young black South Africans against the apartheid regime, Chileans challenging the brutality of their military dictatorship, the pacifist policies of an Australian Labor government or even India pursuing a foreign policy independent of the United States. "Those who are not with us are against us," was the underlying sentiment, reiterated by President George W Bush at the outset of his "global war on terror" - and also in the US-led Cold War against Iran in the Middle East.

No surprise, then, that the democratic tsunami sweeping the Arab world has prompted warnings in Washington that Iran would be the primary strategic beneficiary from the collapse of "moderate" Arab autocracies. Iranian officials, for their own propaganda purposes, claim the same thing: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for example, hailed the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak as an "Islamic revolution" - which earned him a rebuke from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which made clear that it was not leading the revolution, and that it shared the common goal of a democratic political order in Egypt.