TURKISH MEDIA REACTION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 001640 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/SE, EUR/PD, NEA/PD, DRL JCS PASS J-5/CDR S. WRIGHT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR TU PREL KPAO SUBJECT: TURKISH MEDIA REACTION MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2009 Media Highlights: A/S Gordon Visit Aftermath; Crowley Comments on Iran; Davutoglu on Iran's Nuclear Program; Chief Prosecutor Initiates Investigation Against the AKP; Turkey-Egypt Bilateral Naval Exercises A/S Gordon Sends Three Warnings to Turkey In a weekend article, senior columnist of mainstream Hurriyet, Sedat Ergin commented on A/S Gordon's recent visit to Ankara and says "Gordon's visit was a preparation visit to PM Erdogan's US visit on December 7. Looking at his remarks carefully, one can say that Turkey and the US disagreed on three issues: The US Administration expects Turkey to change its stance and stop tolerating Sudanese President Bashir. Secondly, Gordon drew attention to Turkey's "zero problem with the neighbors" policy and conveyed US' expectation for Israel to be included in the list of neighbors. In an interview with The Guardian, Gordon openly said that the US doesn't share Turkish confidence regarding Iran's nuclear program." Sedat Ergin believes that these issues will come to the agenda of Obama-Erdogan meeting unless the disagreements are eliminated until the meeting on December 7. Also in today's Milliyet, columnist Semih Idiz cites "a high level American diplomatic source" and notes that Washington expects to see "a speedy process of ratification" for the Turkey-Armenia normalization protocols, because "a campaign for April 24 genocide resolution will start soon in the U.S." The writer however urges Washington not to create a link between the two issues: "If Washington starts pressuring Ankara with this argument, it will only help for a backfire." Spokesman Crowley Comments on Iran's Nuclear Program Turkish media extensively covered State Dept Spokesman Philip Crowley's comments on Iran, at the weekend. Saturday's mainstream Hurriyet reports that speaking at the Foreign Press Center in Washington on Friday, Crowley told journalists that US concerns regarding Iran 's nuclear program are "not gossip, but quite real." Adding, "we're eagerly anticipating the international inspection report which will come out later this month, regarding the recently disclosed nuclear facility in Qum." Crowley also added that the US has valued Turkey 's role as a mediator. Turkey Offers Tehran New Nuclear Formula Today's Hurriyet reports that Foreign Minister Davutoglu offered a Turkish plan to store Iran's uranium in Turkey stating "We could store it just like a trustee." FM Davutoglu's who commented while on his way to Spain said he was still waiting for a response from Tehran. "Turkey facilitated a negotiation channel between the West and Iran over Iran's uranium issue for the last 10 days and submitted a proposal to the parties for the storage of Iranian uranium. Iran had previously accepted the idea of storing the low grade uranium in another country but Ahmedinejad had to step back after harsh criticism from the opposition in his country. The Iranians trust us and our doors are open." added Davutoglu. According to Hurriyet, Davutoglu confirmed that Turkey has the technology necessary to meet Iran's uranium storage needs. Chief Prosecutor Initiates Investigation Against the AKP Mainstream Sabah reports that it has been learned that Yargitay Chief Prosecutor's Office initiated an investigation against the AKP for not abiding with the law state principles. Reportedly, the prosecutor's office initiated the investigation for the recent judicial wiretapping crisis saying that the AKP has violated the article 68 of the constitution by tapping judiciary. Turkey-Egypt Bilateral Naval Exercises Mainstream Sabah and liberal Radikal cite the Turkish General Staff website in reporting that Friendship Sea-2009 Turkish-Egypt Bilateral Military Exercise would be performed in Eastern Mediterranean in November 16 and 21, 2009. The target of the ANKARA 00001640 002 OF 002 exercise is to boost cooperation between the Naval Forces of the two countries. Turkey attended the exercise with two frigates, two assault boats, a submarine, a corvette, a tugboat, two fast petrol boats, and an underwater assault team. Egypt attends the exercise with two frigates, two assault boats, a ship, a helicopter and an underwater assault team. Upcoming events: - November 16: President Gul will receive Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and Court of Appeals President Hasan Gerceker to discuss allegations for wiretapping in judiciary - November 16: Italian President Napolitano will come to Turkey for an official four day visit - November 16-18: PM Erdogan attends FAO summit held in Rome - November 23: Israeli Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer will come to Turkey TV News (CNN Turk) Domestic - Omer Faruk Eminagaoglu, head of union of judges and prosecutors (YARSAV) , fails to win a seat in YARSAV's board of directors - TGS rejects allegations that Ergenekon suspect Colonel Cicek had a lunch with army commanders before his interrogation - Report prepared by the EU commission says that Turkey managed to avoid a deep financial crisis in the global economic turmoil because of the reforms in banking and finance World - President Obama says time is running out for diplomacy in a dispute over Iran's nuclear program - Palestinian officials say that they are preparing to ask the UN to endorse Palestine as an independent state without Israel's consent because they are losing faith in the peace talks. - Israeli PM Netanyahu stresses that he prefers to speak to Syria directly but if there is going to be a mediator, he prefers France because he doesn't think that PM Erdogan can act objective mediator. JEFFREY