Category: East Asia & Pacific

Turkey selects Japan to build nuclear plant

Japan has learned from the Fukushima disaster and will offer technology with the highest safety standards while building Turkey’s second nuclear plant, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today.

Turkey chose a Japanese-French partnership for the construction of a nuclear reactor on its Black Sea coast and a nuclear cooperation agreement was signed during Abe’s visit to Ankara.

Despite being prone to earthquakes, energy-dependent Turkey declared in the wake of the Fukushima incident that it would stand firmly by plans to build three nuclear power plants.

A powerful earthquake and tsunami off Japan’s northeastern coast knocked out vital cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in 2011, causing multiple meltdowns and setting off the worst nuclear catastrophe since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Turkey’s Energy Ministry said the country decided to begin technical negotiations with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France’s Areva, after companies from South Korea, China and Canada withdrew or were eliminated from the bid.

The 5000-megawatt capacity plant is expected to cost US$22 billion and be operational in 2023.

Russia will construct Turkey’s first plant in Akkuyu, on the Mediterranean coast. It is scheduled to begin test production in 2019.

In constructing the second plant, “we are going to use first-class technology,” Abe said. “We have carried our experience in nuclear safety to the highest level through lessons learned from past accidents and risks.”

“We will share our experience with Turkey,” he added. “We have raised standards, lifting us to the highest ranks in terms of nuclear safety.”

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said under the cooperation deal with Japan, Japanese experts also would work with Turkish engineers in selecting the site of a third nuclear plant.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country was a rapidly developing nation that was forced to diversify energy resources. He has repeatedly downplayed nuclear risks.

“There may be a one in a million risk but that does not mean we can’t take a step,” Erdogan said. “We still take planes even if they crash, we still ride cars even if there are road accidents.”

– AP

via Turkey Nuclear Plant | Turkey tab Japan to build… | Stuff.co.nz.

May 4, 2013
Turkey accepts Tokyo’s apology on Istanbul’s Olympic bid

ANKARA, May 1 (Xinhua) — Turkey’s sports minister has accepted the apology from the governor of Tokyo for criticizing Istanbul’s bid for the 2020 Olympics.

Turkish Youth and Sports Minister Suat Kilic said on Wednesday “we now wish for a friendly competition between the candidate cities abiding by the criteria established by the International Olympic Committee.”

Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose apologized Tuesday after he said “Islamic countries, the only thing they share in common is Allah and they are fighting with each other” in an interview by the New York Times.

His controversial remarks soon prompted criticism in Turkey and the International Olympic Committee.

Tokyo is competing with Istanbul and Madrid to hold the Olympics for a second time after becoming the first Asian city to host the Games in 1964. Istanbul is bidding for a fifth time after its previous campaigns were unsuccessful.

The hosts for the 2020 Games will be decided at the next IOC Session in Argentina in September.

Editor: yan

via Turkey accepts Tokyo’s apology on Istanbul’s Olympic bid – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

May 2, 2013
Turkey becomes partner of China, Russia-led security bloc

Turkey’s PM Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during the Global Alcohol Policy Symposium in Istanbul (MURAD SEZER, REUTERS / April 26, 2013)

ALMATY (Reuters) – NATO member Turkey signed up on Friday to became a “dialogue partner” of a security bloc dominated by China and Russia, and declared that its destiny is in Asia.

“This is really a historic day for us,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital Almaty after signing a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev.

“Now, with this choice, Turkey is declaring that our destiny is the same as the destiny of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries.”

China, Russia and four Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – formed the SCO in 2001 as a regional security bloc to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking from neighboring Afghanistan.

April 27, 2013
Overcoming Conflict: How The Battle Of Gallipoli Sparked A New Friendship

Overcoming Conflict:
How The Battle Of Gallipoli Sparked A New Friendship

The following op-ed by Sevin Elekdag, TCA Research Fellow and Onur Isci, Lecturer at the Department of History at Georgetown University was published in the Eurasia Review on April 25.Every year on April 25, Turks join with Australian and New Zealand friends to commemorate ANZAC Day. On this day 98 years ago, with the Allies at their side, the newly formed Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS) landed on the Gallipoli peninsula to invade the Ottoman Empire’s capitol, modern-day Istanbul, and take control of a precious WWI supply route to Russia. As support for the war waned, the British came to Australia with a propaganda machine aimed at encouraging young Australian men to sign-up to fight in this war on a foreign land half a world away. Over the next nine months, the Turks fought a bloody battle against the ANZACs, and while the Ottoman army ultimately prevailed, both sides suffered great hardships and heavy casualties.

For the ANZACS, this little known WWI event is recognized as their first ever major offensive and has become a defining moment in shaping the national identities of the Australian and New Zealand people. For Turks, it gave inspiration and a leader (Mustafa Kemal) to the Turkish National Resistance Movement that eventually freed Anatolia from foreign invaders.

In 1934, when memories of the battle were still fresh, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, commander at Gallipoli and founder of modern Turkey, stated:

“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives…You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours…you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.”

These words mark the beginning of years of cultural exchange and efforts to establish official diplomatic relations between these nations. At the time, it may have seemed impossible to bridge the obvious differences in how the event was, and is, perceived in each country. But with perseverance, what ultimately emerged from the wreckage was a new friendship between Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. Out of respect and understanding, these nations now come together to reflect on the tragic realities of war.

So it is that Gallipoli has become a national symbol of reconciliation. How inspiring to see Turks, Australians and New Zealanders set aside animosity and empathize with the experiences and suffering of the other. Coming together over this shared experience has allowed nations once at war to build friendship and solidarity from its ashes.

Following last year’s anniversary, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Australian counterpart, Julia Gillard, met in Ankara, Turkey to plan a special remembrance of the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign. The two leaders announced that 2015 would be proclaimed the Year of Turkey in Australia and the Year of Australia in Turkey.

Every day, news from the Middle East is dire. As governments change and conflicts rage on, one worries about the next generation of leaders for Palestine, Syria, Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. Are they being given examples showing that after the hostilities, there is the possibility for finding common ground? That dialogue and reconciliation are important steps towards a more prosperous and stable future for their children, and every generation thereafter? Is history passed down in a way that considers the perspectives of other cultures?

As war and threats of conflict swirl across the continents, it is never too soon to use the lessons of Gallipoli to teach our children not just to honor bravery and sacrifice, but also to recognize that it takes equal measures of great strength and empathy to set aside the tragedies of war.

April 25, 2013
Turkey: Following the Anzacs
Turkey puts $60 million into multimedia encounter, writes Russell Maclennan-Jones

Turkish World War I memorial at Canakkale near Gallipoli, Turkey. Photo / Supplied

People on this side of the world have a clear picture of Gallipoli: mateship, valour, sacrifice in a small campaign that we lost on the way to winning World War I. It’s far more complicated for Turkish people. They won the campaign at the cost of many lives and saved their country, but went on to lose the war.

They lost an empire, too, but from its ashes rose modern Turkey, a prosperous, fairly stable country linking Europe to the Middle East.

A new centre near the battlefields of a century ago makes it easier for visitors to get a Turkish perspective. Allied victory there, and greatly increased support for Russia through the Bosphorus, could have ended the war swiftly and even altered the Russian revolution.

The Turks have spent nearly $60 million on the Canakkale Epic Promotion Centre and epic is the right word. It’s history as entertainment and a vivid celebration of the men who defeated the invading Anzacs, British and other Allies, in 1915.

Conceived as a multimedia extravaganza, with actors bringing many scenes to life in film segments, the building has an ambitious flowing scheme to cope with big crowds moving from one multimedia experience to another.

No media trick is forgone, from the 3D thrill of being shelled by a battleship to hand-to-hand battles in the trenches on the peninsula. It gets pretty confusing and is very noisy. Headphones provide an English translation, which can be a bit hard to follow.

The Ottoman veteran Adil Şahin and the Australian veteran Len Hall met as friends in Gallipoli in 1990, 75 years after they fought as enemies in the same place.

Generations of Kiwis mark the battle’s start on April 25, Anzac Day, but the Turks celebrate March 18, when they routed Allied navies, a defeat that led to the invasion attempt, and this naval battle takes up a lot of the experience.

Guides lead the 30 or so people in each group from room to room. At one point you’re on the heaving deck of a battleship, at another you feel as though you are in the middle of the fighting.

Some of the acting is unconvincing (British Navy types discussing tactics, all in Turkish, of course), but the ordinary soldiers bring some of the scenes to life. Facts, figures and statistics are sparing. It’s more a matter of the feeling that the homeland was under threat and brave soldiers stood up when it mattered.

Allied soldiers are shown being shot down on the beach, and the ruse of guns left to fire themselves as the Anzacs withdrew is depicted in detail. But between those two events little is shown of the Allied effort or of how the soldiers scraped an existence on the unfriendly hills.

After the high-tech experience I hope schoolchildren are taken up the hill to where their forefathers fought ferocious battles. The graves there show how many people died in what was a fruitless campaign.

Because the centre is new, tour groups may not have incorporated visits yet. The best way to get there is to take a taxi from Eceabat. Buses are infrequent. If you can spend two or three days in Eceabat or Canakkale do visit the centre and take a guided tour of the battlefields. To avoid crowds go at dawn or sunset and ask a taxi driver to show you the landing places and cemeteries.

CHECKLIST

Getting there: Emirates flies daily from Auckland to Dubai with a connection there to its flight to Istanbul. fares are currently available from $2,497 return.

By Russell Maclennan-Jones

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April 25, 2013
Anzac Day terror warning for Australians travelling to Turkey

AUSTRALIANS attending Gallipoli’s Anzac Day dawn service are being warned of the possibility of a terrorist attack in the country.

Visitors making the April 25 pilgrimage are being told to “exercise a high degree of caution in Turkey because of the high threat of terrorist attack”.

The warnings, contained in the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Smartraveller bulletin for Turkeyand Anzac travellers, ask people to be aware terrorists are constantly active in the country.

The latest attack was in February when a suicide bomber targeted the US Embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a security guard and injuring others.

Australians are being warned of the possibility of terror attacks in Turkey as Anzac Day approaches. File image. Source: AFP

The Turkish Government has warned the group claiming responsibility is planning further attacks.

There have been nine notable events since 2010, and Australian Amanda Rigg, 22, was killed when a suicide bomber hit an Istanbul police station in 2001.

“Terrorist attacks can occur anywhere at any time in Turkey,” the travel advice says.

“In recent years, terrorist attacks have occurred in tourist areas and locations frequented by foreigners.

“Foreigners have been killed and injured.”

Terrorism expert Professor Clive Williams, from the Australian National University, said Australian tourists were not usually targets but the advice was sensible.

Travellers risked being caught in “the wrong place”, as Ms Rigg had been, he said.

“She was not targeted, she just happened to be where a bomb went off,” Professor Williams said.

“In Turkey, the main target is the government and then second is the United States and then third is the UK.

“You just need to be careful where you go and what you do in Turkey.”

Travellers should avoid government offices, embassies and consulates, be wary in busy areas like transport hubs and exercise particular care around significant local dates, like May Day on May 1.

Those considering travelling to areas bordering with Syria, Iraq and Iran are told to reconsider their need to travel.

April 22, 2013