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Nazarbayev:
Don't Forget Us on Road to EU
Istanbul, TURKEY,
May 22, 2003
- Paying an official
visit to Turkey this week, Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev stated that it was important
for Turkey to improve its relations with the
Turkic republics in Central Asia as well as
maintaining its relationship with the European
Union.
Demanding that a
new stability pact be established in the Caspian
region, considered to be the "world's energy
domain," Nazarbayev said that Turkey, as a country
experiencing energy problems, should participate
in such a pact. The Kazakh president noted that
although the Turkic republics had a $41 billion
trade volume with EU member countries, this amount
totaled only $1.6 billion with Turkey.
Nazarbayev was
participating in a "Global Problems of Security"
conference held at the War Academy in Istanbul
during the first leg of his Turkey visit. Welcomed
with a military ceremony by Chief of General Staff
Gen. Hilmi Ozkok and War Academy Commander Gen.
Halil Ibrahim Firtina, Nazarbayev said that
Eurasia and the Caspian region had recently
increased in importance.
Nazarbayev added
that construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
pipeline was important as well. Stating that the
Kazakh oil connection to this pipeline was
significant, Nazarbayev said, "The concept of a
stability pact is needed in the Caspian [region]."
He said he believed that Turkey should participate
in a Caspian stability pact along with countries
surrounding the Caspian and added that Turkey
enjoyed close relations with the countries of the
region.
Meanwhile, it is
found very speculative that Anatolia News Agency
(AA) applied censorship to Nazarbayev's statement
regarding Turkish schools. Serving Nazarbayev's
speech, AA totally skipped part of the president's
speech praising the success of the Turkish schools.
It is stressed that a state agency, which has an
important role informing Turkish people, skipping
these praiseful news almost all the time
contributes misunderstandings regarding
aforementioned schools. |
