www.todayszaman.com - September 8, 2008

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10

Students head back to school amid problems

05

Fed up with incessant political wrangling, Pakistanis want new president to get down to solving problems

07

Benelux-centered Fortis CEO Yvan De Cock sees great growth potential in Turkish banking industry

Yo u r Wa y o f U n d e r s t a n d ý n g T u r k e y

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2008 WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM YTL 1.50

Turkey’s oil bill swells despite drop in imports page08 SOCCER DIPLOMACY

Soccer sows seeds of new era between Turkey and Armenýa SELAHATTÝN SEVÝ

EKREM DUMANLI / SÜLEYMAN KURT, YEREVAN

PHOTO

President Abdullah Gül's brief yet still landmark visit to Armenia raised hopes for dialogue that could eventually restore relations between the two estranged neighbors and help bury an almost a century old hostility over history.

"My visit broke psychological barriers in the Caucasus," Gül told reporters on his way back to Turkey on Saturday night after watching a World Cup qualifying match between the national teams of the two countries in Hrazdan Stadium. During his brief stay in Yerevan, Gül also had a one-and-a-half-hour meeting with his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarksyan, who had invited him to watch the game.

The visit has huge symbolic importance: It is the first time ever a Turkish president has set foot in Armenia since it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. It is also a landmark step because Turkey and Armenia have had no formal ties since 1993, when Turkey severed relations and closed its border with Armenia in protest of Armenian occupation of a chunk of Azerbaijani territory over a dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. But the origins of dispute go much deeper in history. Armenia claims the Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million Armenians in eastern Anatolia during the World War I years as part of a systematic campaign of genocide.

Both Gül and Sarksyan were hopeful that the visit could break the ice and open the way for dialogue to resolve differences. "We hope we will be able to demonstrate goodwill to solve the problems between our countries and not leave them to future generations," Sarksyan told a news conference after meeting with Gül on Saturday. Gül, alongside Sarksyan, said he was "leaving optimistic."

"If we create a good atmosphere and climate for this process, this will be a great achievement, and will also benefit stability and cooperation in the Caucasus," he told reporters after the game, which Turkey won 2-0. CONTINUED ON PAGE 04

Prime minister levels harsh accusations at media boss Doðan

Turkey, too strong and too good for Armenia

Turkey beat Armenia 2-0 in their 2010 World Cup qualifying Group 5 game in Yerevan to prove that soccer can be a meritocracy. The game was marked by the presence of President Abdullah Gül, making this the first visit by a Turkish president to Armenia. Gül was invited to attend the game by his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarksyan. PAGE 19

President Gül’s Yerevan visit boosts Turkey's credentials in Europe French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Union Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn have praised President Abdullah Gül's visit to Armenia to watch a World Cup qualifying match between the national teams of the two countries. Sarkozy welcomed the visit, the first ever by a Turkish president

IF ONLY HRANT WERE HERE, TOO…

BY YAVUZ BAYDAR ON PAGE 04

PRAISING A BORING FOOTBALL MATCH BY ETYEN MAHÇUPYAN PAGE 14

since Armenia became independent in 1991, as "courageous and historic." Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said in a statement on Saturday: "While the region is in the midst of a serious crisis, [his visit] is a courageous and historic gesture for Turkish-Armenian relations. CONTINUED ON PAGE 04

CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT GÜL BY ÞAHÝN ALPAY PAGE 15

In response to a number of news stories that appeared in newspapers owned by the Doðan Media Group alleging the involvement of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan in a case of fraud involving a Turkish charity based in Germany, Erdoðan said yesterday the smear campaign against him and his party was being purposefully conducted

by Aydýn Doðan, the owner of the media group, to pressure the government to change a zoning ordinance to fit Doðan's business plan.

Doðan personally requested that Prime Minister Erdoðan change the zoning of land on which the Doðan-owned Ýstanbul Hilton Hotel is built. When the prime minister refused, newspapers owned by the Doðan Media Group began attacking the prime minister and his party, Erdoðan said on Sunday while speaking at a meeting of his party's Bayrampaþa branch in Ýstanbul. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

Prof. Soysal: Most Turkish universities are still autocratic YONCA POYRAZ DOÐAN, ÝSTANBUL

Survey reveals divergence among Kurds on Kurdish issue BETÜL AKKAYA, ÝSTANBUL A recent opinion poll has revealed that there is disagreement among Kurds, rather than only between Turks and Kurds, on the substance of the Kurdish problem in Turkey. The survey, conducted by polling company Ankethane from Aug. 1-10, clearly demonstrates that there is a dif-

ference of opinion among Kurds as to what the Kurdish problem is, contrary to the common belief that only Turks and Kurds are divided over the definition and solution of the Kurdish issue.

The poll was conducted in three regions, two of which are largely Kurdish populated. According to the poll, there is a clear divergence of opinion regarding the Kurdish problem among eastern and south-

eastern provinces that strongly support the proKurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and those which don't support it. The third region where the poll was carried out is western provinces, which appear to deny the existence of the problem, most likely because of having been influenced for long years by the official view toward Kurds in the country.

Asked whether there is a Kurdish problem in

Turkey, 78.3 percent of respondents in pro-DTP eastern and southeastern provinces (hereafter to be referred to as pro-DTP provinces) said yes, whereas 20.3 percent said no. The percentage of "yes" answers decreased, however, to 47 percent and "no" jumped to 36.1 percent in eastern and southeastern cities which don't support the DTP (hereafter to be referred to as non pro-DTP provinces). CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

Featuring news and articles from

Professor Ayþe Soysal, a former rector of Boðaziçi University, said “academic freedom” is a distant idea for many Turkish universities and that this has left many researchers feeling restricted. “The main problem is that most of the universities in Turkey are still autocratic. In the West, researchers are more independent. In Turkey, however, department heads expect researchers to work on subjects that they find appropriate,” she said, adding, “This fact is especially disturbing for the young people who have been educated in European and US universities.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 09

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02 TODAY’S ZAMAN

’

F OOD FOR THOUGHT

’

Q UOTE OF THE DAY

We hope we will be able to demonstrate good will to solve the problems between our countries and not leave them to future generations.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan

CROSS READER

FATMA DÝÞLÝ

’

President Abdullah Gül

No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character.

On the same front with Christofias

John Morley

After the first round of meetings with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias is said to have delivered a speech at the Stockholm Foreign Policy Institute that may send shivers down the spines of some people in Turkey. The most striking part of his speech was the two parties he described.

According to news articles, after saying some circles in Turkey are hindering prospects for a solution on Cyprus, Christofias defined international parties: He described one party as democratic, including Mehmet Ali Talat, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan and those supporting the EU. He described the other party as the deep state, including anti-democratic figures in the army and state. Such a perspective cannot ever be understood by those who see the Cyprus issue as the biggest "national action." Thus, those people may be happy if Christofias gets Talat into trouble by defining those parties.

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BUGÜN, GÜLAY GÖKTÜRK

press roundup SELAHATTÝN SEVÝ PHOTO

Prospects of thaw wýth Armenýa closer after Gül’s výsýt

ADAKULE HOTEL

columns

W ORDS OF WISDOM

We have put forward our determination to create the climate [necessary] to overcome problems that exist between Turkey and Armenia.

f.disli@todayszaman.com

President Abdullah Gül paid a visit to Yerevan on Saturday to watch a World Cup qualifier match between the national teams of the two countries that Turkey won 2-0, the first president to visit Armenia in the history of Turkish Republic.

Turkey severed ties with Armenia and closed its border when Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani territory, in a show of solidarity to its regional and ethnic ally Azerbaijan. During this historic visit both Gül and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarksyan, expressed hope that their meeting would herald a new beginning for the settlement of problems between the two neighbors. And now reconciliation seems closer after this historic visit.

"I could say that it went the way I had hoped. Turkey defeated Armenia; friendship won. In other words, soccer diplomacy worked," says Milliyet's Hasan Cemal, who was among the Turkish journalists in Yerevan with Gül. Referring to a question he asked Sarksyan as to what he expects as the next step in relations with Turkey, he quotes him as saying "the opening of the border gates" and "the establishment of diplomatic relations." "These two things are seen as opening the doors to normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia. In particular, opening the border is paid much heed by the public in Yerevan because it will have a positive influence on their daily lives," says Cemal. In his view, this historic step Gül has taken should be followed by other steps, and the governments of both countries should show the necessary determination and courage to this end. "If other positive steps are not taken, this could result in big expectations turning into big disappointments," warns Cemal.

Star's Mustafa Karaalioðlu, who was also among Turkish journalists in Yerevan, gives some details about the meeting between Gül and Sarksyan. He says Armenian allegations of genocide, which suggest that ethnic Armenians were exposed to genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915, did not come to the agenda during the meeting. "Sarksyan did not make mention of the issue. The leaders talked in particular about the stability of the region.

Sarksyan suggested that Armenia could take part in the Caucasus alliance initiated by Turkey," says Karaalioðlu.

Yeni Þafak's Ali Bayramoðlu discusses whether Gül's visit could help in the settlement of disputes between the two countries and expresses hope that it could. Referring to Gül, he says Gül's meeting with Sarksyan was very realistic, as he said that "the opening of the border with Armenia cannot be expected from Ankara at the end of my visit. The Armenians would not expect such a thing, either." According to Bayramoðlu, humane values were the winners of Gül's Yerevan visit since a pro-peace approach and courageous and reasonable politics were dominant. "I am sure Hrant [Dink] was very happy, too," says Bayramoðlu, referring to slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who made great efforts for the reconciliation of Turks and Armenians during his lifetime.

PRESS REVIEW

M O N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 8 , 2 0 0 8

Can top court secularize an individual?

ZAMAN, MÜMTAZ’ER TÜRKÖNE How can one maintain a secular lifestyle? We should not have any reservations repeating the answer, since it is the key point. If the Constitutional Court victimizes the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as a "focal point of anti-secular activities," and if it considers secularism as a lifestyle, it must explain this definition that we cannot understand. At least, it must include a definition of the phenomenon of secularism in its justification. Demanding that an individual be secular means imposing an ideology and a philosophical belief on an individual under the guise of secularism. If "individuals cannot be secular," the words of the leader of the AK Party leader, are considered a crime in the justification of the Constitutional Court, we are expecting an explanation of the "individual standards of being secular."

"How to be a secular individual?" Here you are!

Enthusiastic Armenians wave flags bearing the names of both Turkey and Armenia at the World Cup qualifier match at Hirazdan Stadium on Saturday. Turkey scored two goals against Armenia, which brought it victory.

zaman:

New era with Yerevan, read the daily's lead headline yesterday, in a story reporting that a visit paid by Turkish President Abdullah Gül to the Armenian capital on Saturday to watch a World Cup qualifier match between the national teams of the two countries marked the beginning of a new era in Turkey's relations with Armenia.

President Gül and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarksyan, met for an almost three-hour meeting before the match, which Turkey won 2-0. At a joint press conference following the meeting Sarksyan said, "We hope we will be able to demonstrate goodwill to solve the problems between our countries and not leave them to future generations," the daily reported.

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taraf:

Aydýn Doðan attacks with anger stemming from the Hilton Hotel case, read the daily's top headline yesterday, quoting remarks from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, who claimed that Doðan Media Group owner Aydýn Doðan had launched a campaign against him and his party because Doðan was not given permission to construct new buildings on the premises of the Hilton Hotel.

"You are carrying out such a crazy defamation campaign because you could not sit at a bargaining table with me," said Erdoðan, appealing to Doðan, whose request for a building permit was rejected by the Ýstanbul Municipality because it was against the law. The row between Erdoðan and

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CM Y K

SABAH, MAHMUT ÖVÜR Referring to campaigns in the newspapers of the Doðan Media Group, Prime Minister Erdoðan has said: "The only reason for the campaigns against me is Hilton [hotel chain]. They attack me and my party because we do not restore the Hilton." In this way, articulating the name of Aydýn Doðan, the prime minister has begun a new government-media war. However, hearing the prime minister's speech in the party congress room in Güngören, it was understood that this war will be like no other. Because it was the first time that a prime minister talked about a solid situation and declared it to the public. To tell the truth, I wonder how a media boss will overcome such accusations and how this debate will reflect on the truth of the fight over money in Ýstanbul.

radikal:

Promising start, was the main headline of the daily yesterday, referring to a meeting between President Gül and his Armenian counterpart, Sarksyan, in Yerevan on Saturday. The joint message given by both leaders was a determination to resolve disputes between the two countries. Gül went to Yerevan to watch a World Cup qualifier game between the national teams of the two countries upon an invitation from Sarksyan, the daily noted.

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NATIONAL

TODAY’S ZAMAN 05

M O N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 8 , 2 0 0 8

PHOTO

AA

Soccer is never only soccer The famous saying “Soccer is never only soccer” has once again been been proven true by a visit paid by President Abdullah Gül to Yerevan, where he watched a game between the Turkish and Armenian national soccer teams. A leading Justice and Development Party (AK Party) figure who notes that they would like to make Turkey one of the rare countries that have good ties with neighboring countries underlines that this time soccer has been used to achieve this goal. Stressing that Gül’s visit was a first in Turkish history, he also said: “These are two countries that have no formal diplomatic relations we are talking about; the border gates are closed. They have longstanding issues that have remained unresolved for 85 years. Soccer has played a unique and influential role by bringing these countries together.”

The final score (2-0 for Turkey) at the game was overshadowed by the diplomatic influence of soccer. Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan gravely and courageously responded to the courtesy of Gül, who paid this visit despite the great risks involved. Noting that they agree that direct relations should be relied upon to resolve bilateral issues, Sarksyan said: “We will resolve these issues; we will not postpone them for future generations,” implying that they hold a positive view of the Caucasian Stability and Cooperation Platform.

Turkey, which aims to contribute a great deal to international peace through the platform, also wants to make sure the project will make all countries in the region win. Of course, wins require small compromises. According to the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the National Movement Party (MHP), Turkey made a compromise from its official stance by making this recent gesture, which was totally unnecessary. But it should be recalled that improvement in the standard of living

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and President Abdullah Gül in Yerevan. The two countries have long-standing issues that have remained unresolved for 85 years. of the people in the region is a colossal gain.

Such an improvement requires regional stability and peace. Many of the politicians to whom I spoke about this matter are pretty excited.

To this end, Gül’s visit to Yerevan holds great importance. True, Turkey has started with a compromise. Armenia will secure substantial advantages through improved relations with Turkey. If they act responsibly and wisely, these advantages may help Armenia end the isolation they have been suffering. For this reason, it will have the opportunity to change its image as an invading country, if it responds positively to Turkey’s proposals on NagornoKarabakh. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan will have a chance to resolve one of its major problems because of reliance on diplomatic means and tools.

Fruitful results from the initial steps will

make the platform more concrete and viable.

This will also make positive contributions to the resolution of issues between Russia and Georgia because the project will serve the national interests of both countries. Above all Russia will be pleased if the crisis does not grow further.

Likewise, Georgia needs the crisis to remain in abeyance to maintain its territorial integrity.

Peace and stability that will be achieved by making small compromises in return for the prevention of serious crises will make the region more stable. All countries in the region will benefit significantly from implementation of the project.

President Gül has left a very fruitful year behind. He started his second year in office with as important a diplomatic move as a visit to Yerevan. Hopefully, other countries in the region will act reasonably and responsibly.

Opposition leaders decline to meet Babacan Leaders of the two biggest opposition parties have declined to meet with Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, who is visiting political parties to introduce a government program outlining a series of planned reforms to meet European Union standards.

Babacan, speaking yesterday to reporters after a meeting with Grand Unity Party (BBP) leader Muhsin Yazýcýoðlu, in the first stop of his tour, said he had requested a meeting with main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal but was told that Baykal could not meet with him on the requested date due to a schedule conflict.

Instead, the CHP officials said the party’s deputy chairman, Onur Öymen, could be contacted on the issue. Babacan said Ambassador Oðuz Demiralp, who heads the Prime Ministry’s Secretariat General for EU Affairs, and officials from the Foreign Ministry will meet Öymen at a time he agrees upon to brief him on the blueprint, called the Third National Program.

“It seems Baykal does not need a briefing,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan said in a speech yesterday, criticizing the CHP. “I am sending our minister … but if you don’t need any information, you don’t get it.”

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) also down a request from Babacan to meet its leader, Devlet Bahçeli. Babacan said party officials had given the name of an official in the party as a contact person and that the government will now send a copy of the draft Third National Program to that person.

Asked whether any meeting with Bahçeli was planned, he said there was no such arrangement at this stage.

The government, criticized by the EU for a slowdown in reforms, has prepared the National Program to speed up the process. The over-400page draft document contains proposed amendments to 131 laws. The government will finalize the draft program after discussions with political parties and nongovernmental organizations.

Babacan said he would meet with Zeki Sezer of the Democratic Left Party (DSP) on Monday as part of his introductory tour of the parties. He is also expected to visit the proKurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) to introduce the Third National Program. Ankara Today’s Zaman

Will Toptan ever be forgiven?

A recent initiative by Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan, who made a call to political parties for the establishment of a commission to draft a constitution through compromise, has led to varying interpretations and comments.

While some greatly appreciated the initiative, skeptics argued that Toptan was attempting something impossible.

A deputy who is a lawyer by profession recalls that the Constitutional Court’s decision on amendments to Articles 10 and 42 of the Constitution violated the authority of Parliament. He further recalls that Toptan demonstrated a poor performance during that process, failing to protect the dignity and integrity of the legislature. Stressing that Toptan made visits overseas to ensure that he would be absent while developments were taking place, the deputy comments that Toptan wants to make up for his mistake through this initiative.

Toptan, who called on political parties to appoint members to the suggested commission, made his point by making reference to the political conditions in Turkey. Noting that the previous political environment had hampered creation of a commission of compromise, Toptan said, “I am of the opinion that this is the right time.” However, the first negative response came from the CHP. Furthermore, the AK Party does not like the membership composition -- the number of members assigned to each party in the proposed commission. His future attitude vis- -vis the obstacles and problems he encounters will show whether he is trying to make up for his mistake in the past or he is just acting responsibly.

Students back to school amidst problems in system FATMA DÝÞLÝ ÝSTANBUL

As about 14 million students attend classes on the first day of the 2008-09 school year today, the problems of the Turkish education system have returned to a priority spot on the agenda.

The three-month summer vacation, which started in June, for 14 million secondary and high school students, as well as 662,000 teachers in Turkey, ended yesterday.

Teachers’ unions argue that given the small share allocated in the state budget to education, the problems in the system will continue for many years to come. The government, on the other hand, says a “problem-creating” mindset has been obsolete since 2002.

Education Personnel Union (Eðitim-Sen) Chairman Zübeyde Kýlýç complained that last school year’s problems in the educational system have rolled over to this year, in addition to some brand new ones.

Kýlýç argued that one of the basic problems of education is related to the insufficient number of schools, teachers and classrooms in the country. She said while there were 35,000 schools in Turkey in the 2002-2003 education year, this figure has not increased over the past several years and even declined to 34,000 after some schools in rural areas were shut down.

“Turkey needs to recruit at least 50,000 teachers in the coming three to four years in order to meet the teacher shortage,” she said, adding that although the Ministry of Education has recruited 159,000 teachers over the past six years, this has not solved the problem because 100,000 teachers retired over this period.

Associate Professor Hanefi Bostan, head of the Ýstanbul branch of Eðitim-Sen, also dwelled on the insufficient number of teachers in Turkey, pointing to it as the most significant problem of the education system. He said efforts to make up for the teacher shortage by recruiting retired teachers or teachers who work on hourly basis were futile since this provides only a temporary solution.

Bostan also talked about the physical conditions of schools in Turkey, terming them miserable and noting that sometimes there are more than 100 students in a classroom, particularly in big cities. He said it is impossible to expect these students to achieve academic success in such crowded classrooms.

According to statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Turkey comes last or second to last in almost all rankings of educational achievement.

Turkey’s average math, reading and science level is 60 points below the OECD average and almost 120 points below the leader, Finland. Only 40 percent of Turkish youth have a high school diploma, compared with the EU average of 85 percent.

Bostan also criticized the curriculum that is being taught in schools, emphasizing that it should be altered in line with the realities of today’s world.

“We should stop importing curriculums from other countries. We can benefit from their methods; however, we should develop our own curriculum by highlighting our national values,” he said.

Eðitim-Sen’s Kýlýç also complained about the insufficient investment in the education sector and a decreasing budget at the Ministry of Education.

“While the budget of the Education Ministry was 17.18 percent [of the central government budget] in 2002, it fell to 8.27 percent in 2005 and 5.6 percent in 2008. This is a very alarming decrease,” she noted.

Textbooks free of charge again Just as has been the case for the past several years, students’ textbooks will be waiting on their desks inside nylon packaging on the first day of school and there will be messages from both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan and Education Minister Hüseyin Çelik inside the packaging as well. Free textbooks for students and teachers will number 165,854,333 this year.

The first half of the 2008-09 school year ends Jan. 23, 2009, and students will take their midterm break on Jan. 26-Feb. 6, 2009.

The second semester will begin Feb. 9, 2009, and the school year ends June 12, 2009.

Eskiþehir police seize 8 kg of drugs A police operation in the northwestern province of Eskiþehir has led to the seizure of 8.752 kilograms of marijuana brought to the province to be sold near school entrances as the new school year begins today. After learning that drugs would be brought from the southern province of Mersin to Eskiþehir, the police department’s anti-smuggling and organized crime division launched an operation, named “Buzdaðý” (Iceberg). Rahim B. (30) and Erol E. (45) were caught red-handed with the marijuana and money during the course of the operation. The suspects were remanded to the court after their initial testimony. The police investigation is continuing. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires

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BUSINESS

TODAY’S ZAMAN 07

M O N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 8 , 2 0 0 8

Economy becomes US electýon battleground Last week, as the Republican Party chose John McCain, the senior US senator from Arizona, as its nominee for US president, a barrage of bad economic news about the US economy shook the political landscape. This barrage followed the earlier good news that real gross domestic product (GDP) had grown at a healthy annual rate of 3.3 percent in the second quarter, driven by rising net exports, which accounted for 3.1 percent. The bad news included the jump in the national unemployment rate by 0.4 percent to 6.1 percent in August, its highest level in five years. Employment dropped by 342,000 as unemployment rose by 592,000. Thus far this year the economy has lost 605,000 jobs. Non-farm payrolls declined by 84,000 in August -- across manufacturing, construction and services -for the eighth consecutive month, symptomatic of a recession.

During the past year, unemployment has jumped by more than 2.24 million and the national unemployment rate has risen by 1.4 percent, indicating that the US economy has already fallen into a “jobs recession.” According to the Federal Reserve Bank’s latest “Current Economic Conditions” report (also known as the Beige Book), the pace of economic activity has been “slow,” with “weak, soft or subdued” business conditions, resulting from a declining rate of consumer spending.

As for the housing crisis, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, close to 4 million, almost one in 10, homeowners with a mortgage were either behind in their mortgage payments or in foreclosure, with the default rate in the second quarter rising to 9.2 percent from 8.8 percent in the first quarter, almost double that of the previous year. Foreclosures rose to 2.1 million homes during the second quarter at the fastest rate in 39 years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, while many Americans abandoned

ASIM ERDÝLEK a.erdilek@todayszaman.com

their homes, failing to either refinance or sell, as adjustable mortgage interest rates increased and house prices decreased. As a barometer of the worsening housing crisis, on Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) closed Silver State Bank, a subsidiary of Silver State Bancorp, with $2 billion in assets and $1.7 billion in deposits -- the 11th bank to fail this year as a victim of the subprime mortgage mess. Also, toward the end of the week rumors circulated about the imminent nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two battered and insolvent giant US mortgage-finance institutions, which have been the linchpins of the US mortgage market, together owning or guaranteeing about half of the $12 trillion US mortgages. They have together lost about $14 billion from rising defaults, which has wiped out close to 95 percent of their market value over the last year.

It now seems certain that more than the personalities of the nominees, their convention speeches and their party platforms, or the war in Iraq , the way each nominee will try to persuade US voters during the next two months that his specific prescription and detailed treatment for healing the sick economy is better than the other’s will determine who wins. Senator McCain, compared to the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, has the tougher task in persuading voters as the nominee of the party of the unpopular incumbent president, George W. Bush. Several public opinion polls

surprisingly praised Obama for his remarks favoring “sound money” and “a stronger dollar,” emphasized that the trend in the Misery Index had in the past been a good predictor of the electoral fortunes of the competing parties and their presidential nominees.

(Remember how Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H. W. Bush in 1992 became one-term presidents, bedeviled by the rising Misery Index.) It warned McCain that his electoral success depends on separating himself from the record of the current Bush administration, which championed lower taxes, the first half of Reaganomics, but lost the other half, low inflation and a strong dollar. It also urged McCain to continue to separate himself from the administration’s loose spending policies that have resulted, combined with lower taxes, in huge budget deficits.

The Wall Street Journal editorial did not mention another issue that favors the Democrats -- the rising inequality of income and wealth under the Bush administration. This is an issue that remains in the background as relatively dormant when the economy is doing well -- and the rising tide lifts all the boats, which the detractors of Reaganomics refer to as “trickle-down economics” -- but comes to the fore when the Misery Index begins to rise sharply, as it has been doing this year. Another issue that McCain has to contend with and that the journal’s editorial glosses over, although it refers to it once as the “housing boom and bust,” is the global financial crisis, triggered by the subprime mortgage meltdown. The middle-class anxiety is fueled by not only the spike in the Misery Index but also the still deepening housing crisis, with defaults and foreclosures rising and home values falling.

Appropriately, here is how the journal cautioned McCain in its latest editorial over the weekend: “You’ll need a better argument than ‘these are tough times’ and ‘I’ll fight for your future.’”

indicate that the majority of voters already believe that Senator Obama can fix the ills of the economy better than Senator McCain.

Judging from their convention acceptance speeches and initial post-convention campaigning, Obama has seized on the necessity to address the ailing economy more specifically and effectively than McCain, despite McCain’s reluctant admission that “some Americans have been left behind in the changing economy, and it often seems your government hasn’t even noticed.” Obama seems to have grasped the motto “It’s the economy stupid!” of former President Bill Clinton in his defeat of President George H. W. Bush in 1992. Compared to Obama’s now much easier job of running as the opposition candidate against the party in charge of the White House, McCain, who now projects himself, co-opting Obama’s campaign approach, as a reformer and an agent of change, has the unenviable task of running against the currently dismal economic record of his own party. His emphasis on maintaining low taxes and cutting them further in favor of the relatively well off, especially the corporate tax from 35 percent to 25 percent, despite their potential benefits for the economy as a whole, is unlikely to resonate well with the lower and middle-class voters, who are squeezed by rising unemployment and inflation, as well as falling home values.

Even The Wall Street Journal, which supports McCain but recognizes the “middle-class anxiety,” last Thursday severely criticized the Bush administration’s handling of the economy in a scathing and sobering editorial titled “McCain, Bush and the Dollar,” which concluded that “this administration has lost its way on the dollar and inflation.” It focused on the weakening of the dollar (”the malign neglect of the dollar”) and the recent spike in the Misery Index (the sum of the annual rates of inflation and national unemployment). The journal’s editorial, which

Turkey still lagging far behind EU average GDP per capita

Fortis CEO sees great growth potential in banking industry CÝHAN

The Turkish banking sector has leaped forward significantly since the 2001 financial crisis, thanks to a reform and restructuring period. Today, banking is one of Turkey’s most dynamic sectors, says Fortis Turkey CEO Yvan de Cock The interest shown in Turkey by foreign banks has increased in recent years parallel to improvements in the country’s investment climate and largely as a result of new structural changes and an overhaul of the banking industry. Turkish banks have also enjoyed an expanding market, and they have diversified their product portfolios with innovative tools to meet the demands of the consumer market.

Benelux-centered Fortis entered the Turkish market by acquiring 89.3 percent of Turkey’s fifthlargest privately owned bank, Dýþbank, from the Doðan Group in 2005 for approximately 985 million euros. Dýþbank’s network of 173 branches was re-branded as Fortis. This year Fortis Turkey posted a first-half profit of YTL 155 million, an increase of 28 percent over the first half of 2007.

Fortis is a banking, insurance, and investment management company, and it is the 20th largest business in the world by revenue. Fortis not only deals with banking operations but also operates in the insurance market, with life, health, and property insurance services. In 2006 its profits were 4.56 billion euros with a market value of 45.74 billion euros, according to Forbes magazine.

Today’s Zaman spoke to Fortis CEO Yvan De Cock recently and asked for his take on developments in Turkey’s financial sector.

What is your assessment of the Turkish finance sector’s development in recent years?

The Turkish banking and finance sector has come a long way since the crisis of 2001.

After the crisis, the sector went through a reform and restructuring period and got rid of many of its structural weaknesses in the process. Today, as a result, this sector is one of Turkey’s most developed and dynamic sectors. There is a strong and independent regulatory framework with supervision.

Those reforms, combined with the strong growth of the economy in recent years and the atmosphere of declining interest rates and inflation, created a sector more focused on customer banking services and growing strongly. According to Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency [BDDK] figures, the total assets of the Turkish finance sector reached YTL 844.6 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2008. The growth will continue, albeit at a somewhat slower pace, next year.

Saturation level in all major banking areas is not compatible with a population of over 70 million. There is still major potential for growth.

Our sector focuses on the retail, consumer and SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] sectors, as well as commercial, private and merchant banking. There is tough competition in all banking areas, which encourages innovative and high-

PHOTO

YAKUP ABUTAR ÝSTANBUL

Fortis Turkey’s top executive Yvan de Cock says there is still great potential for growth, especially in banking services for small companies. quality products and services that are also affordable. This competition increases overall service quality and consumer alternatives.

As Fortis, we focus on retail, commercial and merchant banking. In all these business areas, we have performed very well. Within the context of retail banking, I can say that we have achieved a particularly strong growth rate in the areas of SMEs and consumer finance businesses. We grow by providing innovative, high quality and affordable products and services, meeting the needs and expectations of consumers. The important thing is to grow profitably, in order to make the growth sustainable, and I’m happy to say that Fortis Turkey certainly achieves this.

Foreign banks’ contributions have reached the level of 25 percent in Turkey.

Do you see growing interest among foreign financial institutions?

Since the banking and finance sector is one of the most developed sectors of the Turkish economy and Turkey has great potential in this field, it is only natural for international financial groups to take an interest and invest in this country. Their share has increased considerably in recent years. One shouldn’t forget that international groups bring strong capital and international know-how to Turkey. These are very important ingredients for growth. It also

introduces more competition to the Turkish market and new products and services for the benefit of the Turkish consumer and Turkish companies. I believe Fortis is a good example of the benefits of international banking knowhow and capital combined with local expertise.

In comparison with European and American banks, what is the level of Turkish banks’ products and usage of technology?

I would say quite advanced. The competition forces the banks to continuously provide innovative products and services for consumers.

Today Turkish consumers can have most of the products that European and American consumers enjoy. Very strong and state-of-theart technological infrastructure helps a lot. Fortis Turkey’s IT systems, for instance, are amongst the most advanced in the Fortis Group, since they are fully based on Internet technology with the highest level of security.

What kind of problems has the restructuring process in Turkish banking that began in 2001 brought with it?

As the restructuring process was intended to solve problems rather than create them, I would speak about “challenges.” These challenges were related to the full implementation of risk management with respect to the main risks: liquidity risk, assets

CM Y K

and liability management, credit risk, market risk and operational risk.

In the near future, the main challenge for banks will be to monitor the increased liquidity and credit risks as a result of problems in the international economic and financial markets.

What will the balance be between investment and savings banking in the future?

In the overall picture, Turkey has major potential for growth in both fields. Today banks are more focused on commercial banking and retail banking and all these areas are in a process of rapid development and deepening.

There is still a lot of distance to go in this field to be on par with developed economies.

On the other hand, investment banking is taking its first steps in Turkey. We see more and more investment banks, private equity funds and even hedge funds in this country, but they have been developing recently and are in the beginning stages.

I believe both fields have a lot of growth potential in Turkey, but commercial banking for consumers and corporations will always be ahead.

Has the sector reached the target in terms of loans?

I still see a lot of growth potential in all areas of loans, but more particularly in SME loans, housing loans and consumer loans.

Despite the high growth rates in its economy over the past five years, Turkey’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has made little progress toward EU averages in the given period.

According to a recent report by the General Directorate of EU Affairs, a subdivision of the State Planning Organization (DPT), the average GDP per capita of the entire EU, based on the purchasing power parity (PPP), was 2.7 times more than Turkey’s GDP per capita five years ago. The report claimed that if the current projections prove valid, this difference will be 2.4 times by year’s end. In 2009, a citizen of the EU will be 2.3 times richer on average than a Turk.

The report, titled “Economic Developments in the EU Member and Candidate Countries,” said the average GDP per capita in the EU was 21,600 euros in 2004, whereas it is estimated to climb to 25,900 euros by the end of 2008. This figure is expected to grow to 26,800 euros in 2009. In Turkey on the other hand, the GDP per capita was 8,100 euros five years ago and it will have reached 10,900 euros by the end of 2008.

Next year it is expected to rise to 11,500 euros.

With respect to the GDP per capita based on PPP, Luxembourg topped the list as the richest nation in the EU with 68,500 euros as of 2007. It is estimated that this country of affluence and prosperity will retain its place in 2008 with 71,000 euros; as the second nation, Ireland will follow it with 33,600 euros of GDP per capita. The Netherlands is predicted to come third with 33,600 euros, and Austria will be chasing it with 32,500 euros.

Sweden will be slightly behind it with 32,200 euros.

Of the 27 members of the EU, 14 will have a GDP per capita below the bloc’s average of 25,900 euros. Bulgarians will take the lowest rank among all the EU nationals with their 10,800 euros of GDP per capita. That means if Turkey was a member of the EU, it would place slightly above the poorest country in the EU. As one of the three candidates waiting to be a member of the world’s most prominent economic union, Croatia will have 14,600 euros of GDP per capita by the end of this year, leaving Turkey far behind. Ankara Today’s Zaman with wires

Legal structure now ready for EIB Turkey office An agreement concluded between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Turkish Republic and ratified on June 3 by Parliament officially come into effect yesterday after being published in the Official Gazette, enabling the EIB to open branches and representative offices in Turkey.

The EIB has a special mission of extending favorable loans to support investment in European countries and in countries that are involved in the EU accession process. The bank can provide loans with repayment terms starting up to eight years after disbursement of funds and terms extending up to 30 years.

With the agreement, the Turkish government is allowing the EIB to open two major offices, one in Ýstanbul and one in Ankara, and several representative offices connected to these main offices.

The EIB will be able to invest in securities and real estate, to strike deals and make contracts with businesses as well as sell property. Ankara Today’s Zaman

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T09-08-09-08.qxd

07.09.2008

15:45

INTERVIEW

Page 1

TODAY’S ZAMAN 09

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

‘Most Turkish universities are still autocratic, says Ayþe Soysal’

PROFILE

contýnued from page 1 Soysal was one of Turkey’s few rectors who drew attention for her pro-freedom views. She was especially disturbed in 2005 when the university first decided to host -- and then cancelled because of a court order -- a conference on the Armenian issue titled “Ottoman Armenians during the Decline of the Empire” that would discuss World War I-era killings of Armenians, still a taboo in Turkey.

She had a good chance of becoming a rector in the next four-year term despite coming in second in the elections, but she called for respect for the democratic election process and expressed her unwillingness to accept such an appointment.

Speaking to Monday Talk, she elaborated on the shortcomings of the higher education system in Turkey.

There are quite a lot of women in Turkish universities as academics but, when it comes to the upper-level positions, there are so few.

Why do you think this is the case?

It is harder for women to get elected. Maybe this is a discouraging factor for women. Despite that difficulty, though, women should be stubborn and become candidates for the elections. That’s what I did. I became a candidate three times to be the head of the university, but I was elected only once. This is how it happens. Women should accept this and try to overcome the glass ceiling.

You came in second in the last election by a close margin and you still had a chance to become the head of the university. But you did not wait for the whole process to be completed. Why? I wanted the democratic process to prevail, but I was not able to do anything but send some messages.

According to the legal procedures, universities need to have at least six candidates, and we had only six candidates. If I retracted, the elections would be null, so I did not, but I called for respect for the result of the election. I remained as a candidate, but I did not go to the interview at the Higher Education Board [YÖK].

Does YÖK call each candidate for an interview?

Yes. How would the process work if you went to the interview? What would be asked in those interviews?

The interview system arose a few years ago, so I have never been interviewed by YÖK. I do not know what questions are asked. The law says YÖK should make a short of list of three candidates among the six, rank them and send the list to the president.

The president does not have to appoint the person who came in first in the election, and sources in Ankara say the president was likely to appoint you as the rector. When there was such a demand at the higher levels, was it hard to indicate that you were not willing to take the position?

Yes, it was.

What are the problems with the current rector election system?

Before law No. 2547, rectors were appointed only by the president. Then upon the initiative of some of the universities, including Boðaziçi University, the system was changed. Now there is a middle ground: Both voting by the faculty and YÖK are involved in the process. As a result, YÖK and the president are involved in appointing rectors.

What is the main problem with that?

To me, the main problem is that it has not been made clear what is expected of a rector.

Currently university instructors vote for the rector candidates. So they have some expectations, but what are they? If students voted, they would expect something else, probably. So who should appoint rectors is a subject that is currently being discussed in the world. And there are different models.

If what is expected of a rector can be clearly defined, then the system of electing one would be clear.

How do you think this could be done in Turkey?

There are varying factors. The needs of the universities differ according to where they are located. Is it an inner-city university or is it outside of a city? Is it a newly established university or a rooted university?

So a framework system should allow responses to the different needs and demands of the universities.

Do you think an autonomous system would help?

Autonomy should be provided in the academic environment, but having autonomy at the administrative level would present problems. Take Boðaziçi University, for example: It is a public university supported by public funds, so it should be accountable to

PHOTOS

ONUR ÇOBAN

‘Universities are places in which full freedoms should be practiced while respecting the rights of other people. In Turkey, we have a different picture. People think that there should be one idea at the university: the idea of the rector. This cannot be. The rector is a person who keeps everyone together despite their varying views’

Ayþe Soysal Having served as the first female rector of Boðaziçi University from 2004 to 2008, she returned to the department of mathematics as an instructor. She has recently become a consultant for the Women Entrepreneurs of Turkey (KAGÝDER) organization. Professor Soysal also held office as vice dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and as the chairwoman of the department of mathematics. Between 1992 and 2004, she was elected dean of the School of Arts and Sciences for four consecutive terms. She also represented Boðaziçi University in the Interuniversity Council (ÜAK), and she held board membership for the Turkey branch of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Her research interests are in finite group theory, cohomology of groups and commutative rings.

the public. We should look at the models available in the world and adopt the administrative models of respectable universities.

What would you say about the responsibilities of rectors?

Good governance is a big part of their responsibility and nobody inspects them on this issue. A university is like a company. For example, we are a midsized university with 11,000 students and thousands of employees. Somebody should evaluate the rector to see what has been done at the university since his or her ascendance to the position of rector. This has not been done and the system has been criticized without bringing concrete solutions to the problems. I am not saying this to defend the system, but we cannot say that the only culprit behind the low-productivity level at the universities in Turkey is the system.

How do you think university rectors could be evaluated?

The office of the rector should be transparent.

What the rector promises and what is being done can clearly be seen then. The rector can periodically provide information on what is being promised and done or not and why. Academics should also be interested in this process. They should have a shared vision for the university. They should clearly outline their expectations and question how many of them have materialized. In addition, the rector’s office should be observed from outside the university, as well, because the university is a place where the future heads of companies, state institutions and entrepreneurs are educated. So what happens at the universities matters to everyone. If we have a look at what is going on in the universities after a rector is appointed for his or her four-year term, if we adopt an evaluation mechanism, then universities would be better administered and would be better places for research.

What were the problems you faced as a former rector?

Most of the rectors would complain about financial difficulties, but I believe strategic budget management can be a remedy to that problem. There are ways to gather donations, as well. The main problem in a state university is the recruitment problem.

Public administration law binds you and it becomes too difficult to recruit the necessary staff you need. I

am not talking about the supportive secretarial staff, but the academic personnel. The process is too slow.

The university is a dynamic place because research is a dynamic area. You need to establish new departments and new laboratories fast, but you need to support those new places with more instructors, assistants and researchers. You need a flexible recruitment system to be able to do that. We have such a rigid system in which appointments can take months. Furthermore, you are even bound with the retirement plans of the people appointed.

When we look at the Turkish scientists and researchers in developed countries, we see that they are quite productive, but when they are in Turkey, they are no longer so prolific. Do you think this situation is partly due to the inflexibility of the Turkish system?

The main problem is that most of the universities in Turkey are still autocratic. In the West, researchers are more independent. If they receive a project, they can do the related research. In Turkey, however, department heads expect researchers to work on the subjects that they find appropriate. This fact is especially disturbing for the young people who have been educated in European and US universities. TÜBÝTAK [Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey] has played an important role in overcoming this problem, at least in the scientific areas; but literature, for example, is not in the scope of TÜBÝTAK.

CM Y K

You have not mentioned much about the budgetary problems of the universities, but what would you say about this issue? For example, does a highly respected university, such as, Boðaziçi, which is considered the Harvard of Turkey, have enough resources?

Of course not. In the United States, an average university has a budget 15 times more than ours, not to mention the universities like Harvard and MIT, which have millions of dollars in their accounts. Our budget is YTL 100 million. Indeed, our situation is dire because half of our budget goes to personnel wages and benefits.

Are there student representatives at universities?

Each university needs to have a student council. The way it works is that a student representative is elected in a department and then students elected in the departments come together in their faculty to elect a representative from their faculty.

Then faculty representatives elect a student to represent all the students of the university. At Boðaziçi, we have the student representative attend the board of directors meetings when matters concerning students are discussed. During my term, we included the student representative in the tenders to select a food company, to give service to students. But this is not the case at each university.

Is there an institutional regulation at Boðaziçi

regarding student representation?

YÖK has a basic regulation requiring higher education institutions to have student representatives. And the harmonization laws with the European Union call for this, as well. However, not every university complies with it.

You are known to be supportive of freedoms but that attribution seems to make your job more difficult rather than easier, right?

Unfortunately, you are right. Universities are the places in which full freedoms should be practiced while respecting the rights of other people.

In Turkey we have a different picture. People think that there should be one idea at the university: the idea of the rector. This cannot be. A rector is a person who keeps all people together despite their varying views. We should remember that law No. 2547 was created when there was military rule in Turkey. That law seeks to punish freedom of expression. And that created an environment of distrust. This should be changed.

Was the court case following the planned Armenian conference at the Boðaziçi University a result of a mentality biased against freedom of thought and expression?

It probably was. Kemal Kerinçsiz [a member of the executive board of the Lawyers’ Association] filed a court case against us.

What were your thoughts after seeing his name among the people detained as part of the Ergenekon investigation?

I wasn’t surprised because at the time we received many ill-intentioned faxes from various sources. Now I can see that those people might be connected.

Where were the faxes coming from?

For example, from NGO’s whose names appear in the Ergenekon proceedings.

A new term for higher education will start and the headscarf issue continues to be a problem…

Fortunately, I am not a rector anymore. But I wish Turkey would find a way to allow its young conservative women who choose to wear headscarves to receive higher education.

Have you noticed any discomfort among students because of wearing or not wearing a headscarf?

Not at all.

T10-08-09-08.qxd

07.09.2008

18:32

Page 1

10 TODAY’S ZAMAN

Hong Kong residents vote for new legislature Hong Kong residents voted to elect a new legislature on Sunday, with the bruised democratic camp trying to maintain its watchdog legislative role against resurgent pro-Beijing rivals. At stake is the pro-democracy camp's control of one third of the legislature, without which Hong Kong's reformists would lose crucial influence over political reforms aimed at creating a model of universal suffrage by 2017, with Beijing's consent. Since Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese rule in 1997 amid promises of a high degree of autonomy, the Democrats have pressured Beijing's Communist leaders to allow direct polls as promised in the city's mini-constitution, or Basic Law. Beijing recently acquiesced, ruling in December to allow universal suffrage in 2017 at the earliest. But the pan-democrats fear China will propose a watered down version with electoral rules stacked against pro-democracy candidates. "It's a very dangerous moment," said activist and ex-lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung who is seeking re-election. Leung said the democrats' could be hurt by their tendency to promote lofty democratic ideals over livelihood concerns, with Hong Kong's economy slowing down quickly. Hong Kong Reuters

Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, a militant hot spot on the Afghan border. "Tell him we don't want any more fighting. We want peace." Wana shopkeeper Gulzar Wazir wanted the militants out. "His rule would be best if he brought back peace and solved the Taliban problem, cleared the dirt from our land once and for all," Wazir said.

Bread, clothing and shelter

Pakistani President elect Asif Ali Zardari is congratulated by party members during a celebration dinner at the PM’s residence in Islamabad. of Peshawar. But many people see Pakistan's support for the US-led campaign, which Zardari has vowed to uphold, as the cause of the blood letting. "We're going to see more bloodshed because he looks like a US ally, just like Gen. Musharraf," said Noor Ali, a fruit vendor in

Elsewhere, inflation, running at about 25 percent, is the most pressing problems. "Their politics doesn't feed us or our children," said Neelam Khan, a doctor in the eastern city of Multan. Enough is enough. We can't live on empty slogans. They should get us out of this economic turmoil. In Peshawar, Mohammad Subhan, an attendant at a natural gas filling station, harkened back to a decades-old Bhutto party rallying cry.

Zardari must act on the PPP's manifesto: bread, clothing and shelter. Now, he has power he has the opportunity. Zardari spent 11 years in jail on corruption and murder charges and although he was never convicted, and denied any wrongdoing, he faces widespread doubts about his suitability to be president. Islamabad Reuters

Menacýng Hurrýcane Ike powers toward Cuba, Gulf Ike’s top sustained winds have reached 135 miles per hour (215 kph), making it a savage Category 4 on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the US National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Ike barreled toward Cuba as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm on Sunday and was forecast to sweep into the central Gulf of Mexico as a large and powerful storm echoing Hurricane Gustav.

Ike's top sustained winds reached 135 miles per hour (215 kph), making it a savage Category 4 on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, the US National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters said Ike could strengthen further before sweeping into Cuba late on Sunday, severely threatening sugar cane fields, the tourist hotels of Varadero and the crumbling colonial buildings of Havana.

The densely populated Miami-Fort Lauderdale area in south Florida seemed an increasingly less likely target, but visitors were ordered to flee the vulnerable Florida

Keys island chain on Saturday. Ike was forecast to curve into the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of this week's Hurricane Gustav, plowing toward an area that produces a quarter of domestic US oil. Gustav slammed ashore near New Orleans, which was swamped and traumatized by Hurricane Katrina three years ago but largely spared by Gustav.

Oil companies had begun returning workers to the offshore platforms that were evacuated before Gustav hit Louisiana today west of New Orleans. But one company, Shell Oil Co., said on Saturday it had stopped returning workers in case new evacuations were needed. The deeper Ike goes into Cuba, the weaker it will be once it re-emerges over the Gulf of Mexico. But over water it was expected to rapidly regain its former intensity.

"In five days there will be a large hurricane in the central Gulf of Mexico," the hurricane center said. Alerts went up across eastern Cuba as residents shivered at the prospect of another major storm a week after Hurricane Gustav devastated parts of western Cuba. Tourists were evacuated from the Guardalavaca resort on Holguin province's northern coast, as were thousands of students picking coffee in the mountains.

‘The danger zone' In Havana, residents lined up at gas stations and searched stores for candles, crackers and canned goods after a forecaster warned on state television that "almost the entire country is in the danger zone." "It looks like this year we will have no respite," Eduardo Gonzalez said from

eastern Santiago de Cuba, "and if it continues like this we will have to live out the hurricane season in the shelters." Ike pounded Britain's Turks and Caicos islands on Saturday on a course that would take it through the southern Bahamas and then westward across the length of Cuba. By 5 a.m. (0900 GMT) the center of the storm was east of Great Inagua Island. Ike's center will swirl through the southeastern Bahamas Sunday morning and near or over eastern Cuba in the evening, the hurricane center said.

Ike was was forecast to batter the islands in its path with storm surge flooding up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) above normal tides. It was also expected to rain new misery on Haiti, where hundreds of people died in flooding and mudslides caused by three earlier storms in the last month. Havana Reuters AP

TENSION

Fed up with incessant political wrangling and stunned by a vicious tide of violence, Pakistanis say they want their newly elected president to get down to solving problems.

As expected, Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, swept an election by legislators on Saturday to replace the unpopular Pervez Musharraf, who resigned last month under threat of impeachment.

"My worries are terrorism and rising prices, not the politics," said Nighat Anis, a retired teacher in Islamabad. "Our children are either becoming militants, suicide bombers or victims of terrorist attacks. We want an end to it. If he does it, the whole nation will support him."

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is on the front line of the US-led campaign against militancy. An impatient United States is intensifying its efforts to kill militants in Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun territory on the Afghan border, while the militants are responding with ever more deadly strikes against the Pakistani security forces.

As members of parliament were voting on Saturday, a suicide carbomber killed 30 people in an attack on police in the northwestern city

PHOTO

Two suicide bombers detonated explosives inside the headquarters of the main police station in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Sunday, killing two policemen and wounding 35 people, police said.

The blasts occurred hours after a suicide bomber blew himself up in an attack on an Italian convoy in western Herat on Sunday, but there were no casualties. A senior border police commander, Abdul Razaaq, was among the 25 officers who were wounded in the Kandahar explosions, police chief Matiuallah told reporters. The others wounded were civilians. Police cordoned off the roads leading to the police headquarters. The attack is the latest in worsening violence in recent months in Afghanistan where the alQaeda-backed Taliban have made a comeback.

About 2,500 people, including 1,000 civilians, have been killed in fighting in the first six months this year, aid agencies say. Earlier, officials said that US-led soldiers, backed by air support, and Afghan police killed more than 20 Taliban fighters in two separate clashes.

A US military statement said its forces killed more than 10 insurgents during an operation in the southeast province of Khost on Saturday, and did not mention any casualties on its side. Kandahar Reuters

WORLD

Pakistanis want new president to solve problems quickly AP

Blasts hit Afghan police HQ, two dead and 35 wounded

PHOTO

TERROR

M O N D AY, SEPTEMBER 8 , 2 0 0 8

ROCKET

Iran: Satellite launched with China and Thailand A joint research satellite of China, Iran and Thailand was launched on a Chinese rocket on Sunday aimed at boosting cooperation on natural disasters such as earthquakes, an Iranian minister said on Sunday. The announcement came just a few weeks after Iran said on Aug. 17 it had put a dummy satellite into orbit on a domestically made rocket for the first time. US officials said the attempted launch was a failure. Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Soleimani said the three countries had worked together on the satellite which he said was equipped with cameras. "This morning it was launched successfully and it was placed into orbit," he told state television, without giving details. "Iran and China and regional countries are countries which have a lot of natural disasters," he said. "God willing, we can have good activities in the direction of aerospace research." China is among six world powers seeking to convince Iran to halt nuclear work the West fears is aimed at making bombs, but it has been reluctant to consider steps that might hurt its energy ties with the world's fourth-largest oil exporter. Tehran Reuters

OBITUARY

Abu Ghazala, Egypt's ex-defense minister, dies Abdel-Halim Abu Ghazala, Egypt's former defense minister and a veteran of Arab Israeli wars once touted as a possible successor to President Hosni Mubarak, died late Saturday at 78. Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported that the former field marshal died at a Cairo military hospital from complications related to throat cancer. Abu Ghazala served as Egypt's military attache in Washington in the late 1970s where he developed close ties with the US military after Cairo signed a peace treaty with Israel.

Abu Ghazala became minister of defense in 1981 shortly before the assassination of late President Anwar Sadat during a military parade. After becoming president, Mubarak promoted him to the rank of field marshal and named him deputy prime minister as well. Though Abu Ghazala was careful not to appear to be a political rival to Mubarak or to undercut his authority, he was widely regarded as a natural successor to the president. He was also very popular with the Americans. In 1989, Mubarak moved Abu Ghazala from minister of defense to the ceremonial post of presidential assistant after press reports surfaced about Mubarak's alleged fears of the field marshal's ambitions. In February 1993, Abu Ghazala resigned and focused on writing military books. Cairo AP

Flood victims leave the area in the back of a truck through flooded streets after Tropical Storm Hanna hit the area in Gonaives, on Saturday. Hanna has killed over 160 people in Haiti.

Japan’s ruling party leadership race heats up, candidates multiply

Iran to hold presidential poll in 2009, Ahmadinejad likely to stand for 2nd term

Former Defense Minister Yuriko Koike said Candidates seeking to become Japan's next Sunday that she was confident she could change prime minister laid out their policies on Japan for the better by representing women's Sunday in a bid to win the support of members of viewpoints in policies. "The resignation of Prime their ruling party. Seven candidates are expected Minister Fukuda meant a crisis to contest the election to become not only for the LDP but also for the Liberal Democratic Party Japan," Koike said on a popular president and replace Prime talk show on TV Asahi. "I'm conMinister Yasuo Fukuda, who anfident in leading the country in nounced his resignation Monday the right direction, and that would amid sagging support and troube a big chance for Japan." bles with a parliament split beFormer Foreign Minister Taro tween parties. The Sept. 22 party Aso, 67, considered the front-runvote is considered a prelude to ner, sought support on Sunday in national legislative elections that several LDP leaders indicated his home town of Fukuoka in Taro Aso could be held in November. southern Japan. Tokyo AP

official after its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Iran will hold its 2009 presidential election Khamenei, who is the ultimate authority in maton June 12, when conservative Mahmoud ters of state With significant powers both in doAhmadinejad is widely expected to stand for a mestic and foreign policies, the president heads second four-year term despite mounting criticism the government and can appoint over his economic policies. "The and dismiss ministers and also 10th presidential election ... will chairs the powerful Supreme be held on the 22nd of Khordad National Security Council. Even of next year," election headquarthough Iran's nuclear row with ters head Alireza Afshar told the the West dominates headlines Fars News Agency, referring to about the country abroad, anathe number of such elections in lysts predict that the economy Iran since its 1979 Islamic and rising inflation in the world's Revolution. The Iranian month of fourth-largest exporter will be Khordad ends on June 21 next the main battleground in the year Under the constitution, the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad election campaign. Tehran Reuters president is Iran's second-highest

Page 1

WORLD

TODAY’S ZAMAN 11

M O N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 8 , 2 0 0 8

POLL

Angola ruling party on course for big victory Angola's ruling MPLA headed on Sunday for a landslide victory in a parliamentary election which opposition parties have branded illegitimate, preliminary results showed. The MPLA, which has ruled the oil-rich African nation since independence from Portugal in 1975, has taken almost 82 percent of the vote at the national level, the electoral commission announced. The African country's main opposition party UNITA, a former rebel group, was far behind. The ruling party was also seen crushing the opposition at the provincial level on the basis of about 50 percent of the votes after the two-day poll.

Angola's government has touted the ballot as a showcase for its recovery from civil war after flawed polls elsewhere in Africa and hopes that it will spur foreign investment.

Angola rivals Nigeria as sub-Saharan Africa's biggest oil producer. Although nobody is predicting a return to fighting, a disputed poll could shake the fragile political stability that has existed since the end of the 27-year war in 2002. The electoral commission has stressed that results released so far are provisional. Luanda Reuters

Sarkozy to seek Russian breakthrough on Georgia French President Nicolas Sarkozy will travel to Moscow today to tell Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to comply with a month-old peace plan for Georgia or risk damaging relations with the European Union.

Four weeks after Sarkozy brokered the cease-fire deal between Russia and its smaller neighbor, the West says Moscow has yet to honor half of the six-point plan, including pulling troops back to positions they held before a brief war with Georgia. The Kremlin says a provision in the deal allowing it to conduct 'special measures' permits the stationing of troops in a buffer zone around South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- an interpretation Tbilisi, and the West, denies.

Sarkozy is returning to Moscow with the backing of the European Union, which agreed

last week to postpone talks with Russia on a new partnership pact scheduled for later this month if Moscow did not pull back its forces.

In addition to a withdrawal, he will press Russia to accept more international observers to monitor the pullout, and to set up talks on security arrangements in the rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Russia stormed after Georgia tried to take back South Ossetia last month, officials said. "It seems to us that it would be good to manage in Moscow to set a date and a place for these international discussions," an official close to Sarkozy told reporters ahead of the trip. The talks are part of the six-point plan agreed by both sides.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, will be accompanied on the trip

by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The EU has condemned Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states -- a move followed only by Nicaragua -and said the peace plan must be fully respected.

EU foreign ministers meeting in the southern French town of Avignon this weekend would not comment on what steps the 27-nation bloc might take next towards Russia, saying everything depended on the outcome of Sarkozy's talks today.

The EU has so far stopped short of imposing sanctions against Europe's largest energy supplier, but one EU diplomat said Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Poland had already called for punitive measures to be taken if there is no progress. Paris Reuters Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his vice presidential running mate Joe Biden.

PHOTO

TRIP

Iraq says historic Kuwait visit delayed Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheik Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah will visit Iraq after Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, an Iraqi government official said on Sunday. "Sabah and Nouri al-Maliki, his Iraqi counterpart, will discuss reparations for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, debts, and efforts to improve relations between the one-time enemies," said Yasin Majid, media advisor to Maliki. The visit, which would mark the first high-level Kuwaiti delegation in Baghdad since Iraq under former president Saddam Hussein invaded the tiny Gulf state, had been planned for this week, but was delayed on Sunday, Majid said. This year, Ramadan concludes around the end of September. A source in Sabah's office had earlier said the Kuwaiti prime minister was not planning a trip to Iraq, but no officials were able to confirm if a trip would take place after Ramadan. As Iraq seeks to rebuild after five years of bloodshed, its government is hoping for reconsideration of the percentage of its oil exports earmarked for a Geneva-based fund set up to settle post-conflict damage claims from the invasion of Kuwait. Iraq was driven out of Kuwait in 1991 by a US-led coalition. Baghdad Reuters

POLLS

Canadian Prime Minister calls election for Oct. 14 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sunday called an election for Oct. 14 in a bid to strengthen his grip on power after 2-1/2 years in charge of a minority Conservative Party government. Opinion polls in the past week show the Conservatives have such a large lead over the opposition Liberals that they could win a majority of the 308 seats in Parliament. Harper, who predicted another Conservative minority, said Canada needed steady leadership at a time when the economy is suffering from the U slowdown. He already has made clear he will not propose the kind of high-profile tax cuts his right-leaning government unveiled in the past. The Liberals say that if elected they will bring in a revenueneutral carbon tax designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Harper says the plan is a disaster. "Between now and Oct. 14, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interests at a time of global economic trouble," Harper told a news conference after calling what will be Canada's third election in four years. "They will choose between direction or uncertainty, between common sense or risky experiments, between steadiness and recklessness ... we are not promising miracles," he said, vowing to keep the budget in surplus. He made the announcement after asking governor-general Michaelle Jean to dissolve Parliament. Jean is the representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada's head of state. Ottawa Reuters

UNREST

Russian President Medvedev (R) meets his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez at the presidential residence in Gorki outside Moscow in July.

Venezuela to host Russýan navy exercýse ýn Carýbbean Plans for the naval operations come at a time of heightened diplomatic tension and Cold War-style rhetoric between Moscow and the United States Several Russian ships and 1,000 soldiers will take part in joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea later this year, exercises likely to increase diplomatic tensions with Washington, a pro-government newspaper reported on Saturday.

Quoting Venezuela's naval intelligence director, Salbarore Cammarata, the newspaper Vea said four Russian boats would visit Venezuelan waters from Nov. 10 to 14.

Plans for the naval operations come at a time of heightened diplomatic tension and Cold War-style rhetoric between Moscow and the United States over the recent war in Georgia and plans for a US missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Cammarata said it would be the first time Russia's navy carried out such exercises in Latin America. He said the Venezuelan air force would also take part.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of Washington, has said in recent weeks that Russian

ships and planes are welcome to visit the South American country.

"If the Russian long-distance planes that fly around the world need to land at some Venezuelan landing strip, they are welcome, we have no problems," he said on his weekly television show last week.

Chavez, who buys billions of dollars of weapons from Russia, has criticized this year's reactivation of the US Navy's

Fourth Fleet, which will patrol Latin America for the first time in over 50 years.

The socialist Chavez says he fears the United States will invade oil-rich Venezuela and he supports Russia's growing geopolitical presence as a counterbalance to US power. Chavez has bought fighter jets and submarines from Russia to retool Venezuela's aging weapons and says he is also interested in a missile defense system. Caracas Reuters

Immigrant death sparks riots in Spanish town

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushed for closer north African counter-terrorism cooperation on Saturday on a tour of an oil-rich region hit by attacks blamed on al-Qaeda.

Rice, who arrived in staunch US ally Morocco late on Saturday after visiting Algeria and Tunisia and holding a historic meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli, told reporters in Algiers she had been saddened by attacks in Algeria that killed scores of people.

"The cooperation here is good," she said after talks with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, adding the two countries had affirmed their "strong ties" in the discussions.

"But there is always more that you can do to tighten sharing of information, to make sure you

REUTERS

Rice demands closer Maghreb counter-terror links PHOTO

Immigrants went on a rampage in a southern Spanish town overnight throwing stones and bottles at police after a Senegalese man was stabbed to death, police and Spanish media said on Sunday. Police would only say that the killing of a man in the town of Roquetas de Mar, had sparked "altercations throughout the night in which immigrants were involved." Spanish media said African immigrants were enraged by the death of the Senegalese man, 28, who was stabbed in a fight. Daily newspaper El Mundo's website said African immigrants threw stones and bottles at police, and burnt down two homes and two police cars. It quoted emergency services as saying that rioters set up barricades, burnt rubbish bins and cars. A policeman who went to the scene told national radio station RNE that firefighters were called to a false alarm and were directed by a group to where a fire was supposed to be. "They began to throw stones at the cars... They ended up destroyed, with broken windows, dents in the doors, at the front. The only thing there wasn't was injuries," policeman Carlos Manuel Ruiz said. Police arrested three immigrants, the media reports said. Madrid Reuters

AP

18:30

PHOTO

07.09.2008

REUTERS

T11-08-09-08.qxd

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice review an honor guard at the presidential palace in Algiers. have all the right channels to give technical support in terms of the terrorism threat," she said, referring to north African states generally.

"It is not a secret that it is a problem that has really been very salient in the Maghreb."

An estimated 125 people were killed in an upsurge of political violence in Algeria in August in attacks by al-Qaeda's North Africa wing and clashes between the army and militants.

The periodic violence worries many in the region because the country on the southern shores of the Mediterranean is a major energy exporter to Europe and its 34 million people are still searching for stability after years of political strife. A revolt began in 1992 in Algeria after the then military-backed authorities, fearing an Iran-style revolution, scrapped an election a radical party was set to win. More than 150,000 people have been killed in the ensuing violence. Rabat Reuters

Obama and rival McCain spar over Social Security Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama warned the elderly on Saturday that Republican rival John McCain would put their retirement income in danger.

Obama told a Washington gathering of AARP, an interest group that represents the elderly, that McCain would go beyond President George W. Bush's rejected plan to allow people to invest some of their Social Security funds. Obama said McCain has embraced that proposal, called privatizing, and "gone even further, suggesting that the best answer to the growing pressures on Social Security might be to cut cost-of-living adjustments or raise the retirement age." "I will not do either," he said in remarks delivered to the group by satellite from Newark, New Jersey, trying again to link McCain with the unpopular president.

McCain, a senator from Arizona who got the Republican presidential nomination this week in St. Paul, Minnesota, denied he favored privatizing, saying, "No proposal of mine would affect any retiree in any way and nothing would be mandatory." "We're not going to privatize it," he told the same group later by satellite. "It is a government function to provide for those who have worked and earned and saved all their lives." "But we want to give, if we can, younger workers the option of taking some of their own money and the option to put it into an account with their name on it."

In his hard-fought nominating campaign, Obama lost the elderly vote to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. That voting bloc is considered one of the areas where Clinton excelled that Obama needs to win over. McCain, who at 72 would be the oldest person first elected president, ran well among the elderly in his Republican primary campaign for the nomination.

Joint appearance Now that the nominating conventions are over, the candidates have less than two months until the Nov. 4 election to make their case to the American public.

But the two nominees will put their politicking aside on Thursday when they make a rare joint appearance at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center in New York to commemorate those who died in the attacks on September 11, 2001.

There was no letup on Saturday, though.

Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the country's first black president, criticized McCain and the Republicans for not discussing issues or offering an outline for the future at their convention, which ended on Thursday night. "He's not offering much change, that's why you didn't hear much about his plans for the future this week," Obama told the AARP. He said his whole campaign was about the future "and securing your future starts with protecting Social Security -- today, tomorrow and forever."

Social Security provides a monthly check to the country's elderly and disabled. Obama said more than half of seniors depend on it for more than half of their income. Terre Haute, Indiana Reuters

T12-08-09-08.qxd

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07.09.2008

14:45

Page 1

16 TODAY’S ZAMAN

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

LEISURE

tv guýde

Gregorian Calendar: 8 September 2008 C.E. Hijri Calendar: 8 Ramadan 1429 A.H. Hebrew Calendar: 8 Elul 5768 calendar@todayszaman.com

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‘Dante 01’

BROKEN ENGLISH ÝSTANBUL: Beyoðlu Alkazar: 12:00 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:15 Altunizade Capitol Specrum 14: 11:00 13:00 15:10 17:15 19:20 21:30 Fri/Sat:23:30 Suadiye Movieplex: 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 Fri/Sat:23:45

this day in 1991 the Macedonian people went to the polling stations to determine the future of the country and opted for independence from Yugoslavia.

Today is Republic Day in Uganda. This day honors the establishment of the Republic of Uganda in 1967. Uganda became an independent nation in 1962, but was ruled by a coalition between a republican-leaning party and a pro-monarchy party. In 1967 the republicans ousted the monarchs and the monarchists and established a single-party state.

Today is the anniversary of the breaking of the siege in Malta. Also known as Two Sieges and Regatta Day, these festivities celebrate victory over the besieging Ottomans in 1565 and the siege of the Axis Powers in 1943. The Maltese celebrate this day with parades, fireworks and boat races.

Today is Siege of Leningrad Day in the Russian

Today is the Feast of the Nativity of Mary in Christianity, commemorating the birth of the mother of Jesus Christ. The family record of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Matthew is the principal reading for this feast. The Nativity of Mary is celebrated in different Christian countries under different names, and a related day is celebrated as a national holiday in Andorra, honoring "Our Lady of Meritxell."

Today is International Literacy Day. In 1956 the World Conference of Ministers on the Eradication of Illiteracy was held in Iran. It was recommended that the day of the conference's inauguration be proclaimed International Literacy Day. In 1967 UNESCO began officially observing this day, dedicated to efforts to combat illiteracy and provide education for all.

Today is Independence Day in Macedonia. On

E2 08:00 The Rachael Ray Show 09:00 The Martha Stewart Show 10:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 11:00 Desperate Housewives 12:00 The Rachael Ray Show 13:00 The Martha Stewart Show 14:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 15:00 The O.C. 16:00 The Rachael Ray Show 17:00 The Martha Stewart Show 18:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 19:00 The O.C. 20:00 Desperate Housewives 21:00 24 22:15 The Sopranos 23:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 23:30 Family Guy 24:00 South Park 00:30 The Sopranos 01:30 High Stakes Poker 02:30 24 03:30 South Park 04:00 The Sopranos

Federation. The siege of Leningrad (today St. Petersburg) by the Germans occurred between Sept. 8, 1941, and Jan. 18, 1944. The siege impressed itself on the psyche of Leningrad's inhabitants for at least one generation after the war. The population resisted for nearly three years and the pride of the city is unmistakable -- "Troy fell, Rome fell, Leningrad did not fall." The siege of Leningrad had a sizeable impact on Russia's music, literature and film industries.

Today is Pak-Naval Day. This day celebrates the Pakistani Navy and its contributions to the security of the country.

Today is the liberation day of the Turkish districts of Burhaniye, Havran and Edremit of Balýkesir province, Kemalpaþa and Selçuk of Ýzmir province and the city of Manisa. These cities and districts were all liberated from two to three years of Greek occupation. By Kerim Balcý

CNBC-E 18:10 Chuck 19:30 Two And A Half Men 20:00 Las Vegas 21:00 Without A Trace 22:00 Look Who's Talking Too 24:00 Las Vegas 01:00 Without A Trace 02:00 Look Who's Talking Too 04:00 Las Vegas 05:00 Without A Trace

DANTE 01

ÝSTANBUL: Beyoðlu Sinepop: 12:00 14:15 16:30 18:45 21:00 Niþantaþý Citylife: 11:45 14:15 16:45 19:15 21:45 Fri/Sat:24:00 Kadýköy Rexx: 11:15 13:45 16:15 18:45 21:00 ANKARA: Cinebonus Bilkent: 11:45 13:00 14:15 15:30 16:45 18:00 19:15 20:30 21:45 Fri/Sat:23:00 24:15 AFM Cepa: 12:00 14:25 16:50 19:20 21:45 ÝZMÝR: Cinebonus Konak Pier: 11:45 14:15 16:45 19:15 21:45 Fri/Sat:24:15

KING OF THE HILL ÝSTANBUL: Beyoðlu CineMajestic: 11:30 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:30 Levent Cinebonus Kanyon: 11:15 13:15 15:15 17:30 19:45 22:00 Fri/Sat:24:15 Altunizade Capitol Spec um 14: 11:45 13:50 16:00 18:15 20:50 Fri/Sat:23:00

Crossword

When making a television series about yourself and your friends, the hardest part is making sure the stories are entertaining to others. The next hardest part is making them fit into a half-hour. And when the town you and your friends inhabit is Hollywood, it really helps if the community likes it.

"This could be humiliating in this town if we didn't get it right," said Doug Ellin, executive producer and creator of "Entourage," one of HBO's few remaining hit original series.

About to launch the fifth season of the insider show about four childhood friends from Queens, N.Y., coping with the absurdly easy life of young Hollywood, Ellin has received enough calls from studio heads saying they can relate, and from friends' wives concerned about Vince's career, that he feels the effort is worth it.

In the new season that opened Sunday night, the boys tackle what Ellin called the "biggest thing about Hollywood," that is, its extreme seesaw nature. "One second, your friend's a loser, the next he's this gi-

Actors (L to R) Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon and Jerry Ferrara in a scene from “Entourage.” ant star that you need favors from. The next second, he needs favors from you," he said. And that's if you're lucky. "Sometimes it never goes up."

Until now, Ellin said, many fans have perceived the ensemble's lead character Vince, a laid-back acting talent played by Adrian Grenier, as having an easy ride. But to show the real nature of the town, the new season opens with Vince's big film bombing

at Cannes. His leading man status suddenly is called into question. Ellin said he based the story line on Mark Wahlberg's appearance in "The Departed." (Wahlberg is also an executive producer, along with Stephen Levinson, of "Entourage.")

Ellin's own career has also been a model seesaw. A native New Yorker and Tulane University graduate, Ellin set out with friends for Hollywood, where he was sur-

Goldmax 08:20 The Night of the Iguana 10:20 The Formula 12:20 Garage Days 14:10 Shining Through 16:20 The Thing Called Love 18:15 Dead Heat 20:00 La Môme - La vie en rose 22:20 The Abyss 01:10 Il Regista di Matrimoni - The Wedding Director 02:55 La Môme - La vie en rose 05:10 Brewster McCloud

prised at how easy it was to get two films made: "Phat Beach" (1996) and "Kissing a Fool" (1998). He was up. The first made $1.6 million; the second $4 million. Then, he couldn't find work. He was down. Then, he joined forces with Wahlberg and Levinson to make "Entourage." Up again.

His goal for "Entourage" is to finish at least eight seasons, and then maybe some more. The show has won three Emmys but has yet to capture one for best series. "I do have a dream about winning [for best series] in Season 10 after losing nine seasons in a row," he said.

One reason "Entourage" has lasted so long is that it does not satirize its material, Ellin said. And the show is really more about friendship than Hollywood itself.

"Obviously Hollywood is big in the show, but at the end of the day, it's about these guys sticking together and helping each other out with their lives. That's what people relate to," said Ellin. "When I meet people, they always tell me, ‘I know a Vince. ...’" Or an Eric (played by Kevin Connolly) or a Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) or a Johnny "Drama" (Kevin Dillon as Vince's brother). © Los Angeles Times, 2008

Movýemax 06:25 Southern Belles 08:00 Holiday in Handcuffs 09:35 Sunshine 11:30 The Aura 13:50 Life Is Ruff 15:25 The Happy Elf 16:20 Employee of the Month 18:25 American Pastime 20:30 Just Add Water 22:20 K-PAX 00:25 Jadesoturi - Jade Warrior 02:15 Just Add Water 03:45 Carman: The Champion

MGM Movýes 07:05 Flight from Ashiya 08:50 Lenny 10:40 Beach Blanket Bingo 12:20 Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!

14:05 Best Seller 15:45 Sabaka 17:10 Love in the Afternoon 19:25 Return to Treasure Island 20:45 The Horse Soldiers 22:45 The Wild Party 00:35 Money Talks 02:05 Best Seller 03:45 Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!

05:30 Man From Del Rio

Comedymax

Cem Kýzýltuð

Mr. DýploMAT!

c.kiziltug@todayszaman.com 577

ANAMORPH

LYNN SMITH HOLLYWOOD

08:00 Miss Guided 08:30 Two Guys & A Girl 09:00 In Case of Emergency 09:30 War At Home 10:00 Will & Grace 10:30 Everybody Loves Raymond 11:00 Til Death 12:00 America's Funniest Home Videos 12:30 Third Rock From the Sun 13:00 King of The Hill 13:30 The Game 14:00 Miss Guided 14:30 Two Guys & A Girl 15:00 In Case of Emergency 15:30 War At Home 16:00 Will & Grace 16:30 Everybody Loves Raymond 17:00 Til Death 18:00 America's Funniest Home Videos 18:30 Third Rock From the Sun 19:00 King of The Hill 19:30 The Game 20:00 Miss Guided 20:30 Two Guys & A Girl 21:00 Will & Grace 21:30 Everybody Loves Raymond 22:00 Til Death 23:00 Entourage 23:30 Chappelle's Show

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ÝSTANBUL: Ýstinye AFM Park: 11:15 13:35 15:55 18:15 20:35 Kozyataðý Wings Cinecity io: 10:30 11:15 13:15 15:15 17:15 19:15 21:15 ANKARA: Atakule On Tower: 11:30 12:30 13:15 14:15 15:15 17:15 19:15 21:15 Kýzýlay Büyülü Fener: 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 ÝZMÝR: AFM Bornova Forum: 11:15 13:15 15:15 17:15 19:15 21:15 AFM Maviþehir Ege Park: 11:30 13:45 16:00 18:15 20:45 ANTALYA: Cinebonus Migros: 11:30 13:30 15:30 17:30 19:30 21:30 Fri/Sat:24:00

EASY

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00:00 Identification and Programming 00:25 Music 07:25 Identification and Programming 07:30 Music 08:30 News (English, French, German) 08:40 Live Broadcast (English, German, Russian) 10:30 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 10:45 Live Broadcast (English, German, Russian) 12:30 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 12.45 Live Broadcast (English, German, Russian) 15:00 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 15:15 Live Broadcast (English, German, Russian) 18:30 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 18:45 Live Broadcast (English, French) 21:30 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 21:45 Live Broadcast (English, Greek) 23:58 Identification

Broadcast Areas: HOW TO PLAY? : The objective of the game is to fill all the blank squares in a game with the correct numbers. There are three very simple constraints to follow. In a 9 by 9 square Sudoku game:

travelers’ s.o.s

ÝSTANBUL: Ataköy Galleria Prestige: 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 Fri/Sat:24:00 Caddebostan AFM Budak: 10:50 13:00 15:10 17:20 19:30 21:40 Fri/Sat:23:50 Maltepe AFM Carrefour Park: 11:15 14:00 16:30 18:45 21:15 ANKARA AFM Ankamall: 11:30 14:00 16:10 18:30 21:00 Fri/Sat:23:30 AFM Cepa: 11:40 13:50 15:50 17:55 20:00 22:05

Every row of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order Every column of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order Every 3 by 3 subsection of the 9 by 9 square must include all digits 1 through 9

Ambulance: 112 Fire: 110 171 Police: 155 156 Maritime: 158 Unknown numbers: 118 Turkish Airlines: 444 0 849, U.S. Embassy: 0312 455 5555 U.S. Consulate: 0212 2513602-3-4 Russian Embassy: 0312 439 2122 Russian Consulate: 0212 244 1693-2610 British Embassy: 0312 455 3344 British Consulate: 0212 293 7540 German Embassy. 0312 455 5100 German Consulate: 0212 334 61 00 French Embassy: 0312 455 4545 French Consulate: 0212 292 4810-11 Indian Embassy: 0312 438 2195 Pakistani Embassy: 0312 427 1410 Austrian Embassy: 0312 419 0431-33 Austrian Consulate: 0212 262 9315 Belgian Embassy: 0312 446 8247 Belgian Consulate: 0212 243 3300 Egyptian Embassy: 0312 426 1026 Egyptian Consulate: 0212 263 6038 Israeli Embassy: 0312 446 3605

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Alanya FM 94.4 Ankara FM 100.3 Antalya FM 92.1 Ayvalýk FM 101.1 Bodrum FM 97.4 Fethiye FM 103.1 Ýstanbul FM 101.6 Ýzmir FM 101.6 Kalkan FM 105.9 Kapadokya FM 103.0 Kuþadasý FM 101.9 Marmaris FM 101.0 Pamukkale FM 101.0 Trabzon FM 101.5

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Khan suffers 1st defeat, KOed in 54 seconds British lightweight hope Amir Khan suffered the first loss of his professional career when he was knocked out in 54 seconds by Breidis Prescott of Colombia at MEN Arena.

In Khan's first pay-per-view bout, he was knocked down twice by left hooks, the second time for good. He won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, and attracted high hopes of a title shot next year as he fashioned an 18-0 record in pro fights. Manchester, AP WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

before athletes from 148 countries were introduced.

The crowd cheered and waved flags as China's Communist Party leaders and foreign dignitaries looked on. The guest list included Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, German President Horst Koehler and South Korean Prime Minister Han Seungsoo. Earlier on Saturday, they shook hands and posed for photos with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China's legislature

in the heart of Beijing. Hu gave a brief speech and toasted the games. "Caring for the disabled is an important symbol for social civilization and progress," Hu said before raising his glass. "China's people and government have always attached great importance to the cause of the disabled," he said in remarks televised on state television. "We insist on putting people first, carrying forward a humanitarian spirit and advocating equality and opposing discrimination." Ýstanbul/Beijing AP

REUTERS

The Paralympic Games began on Sunday in Beijing, a day after China staged a lavish opening ceremony for an event it sees as another chance to cement its role as a global player to an international audience. Turkey is being represented at the games by 16 athletes, including eight women.

Thousands of cheerleaders and dancers in puffy, rainbow-colored suits performed a dance routine in the center of the field at the National Stadium on Saturday

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Beýjýng Paralympýc Games begýn ýn earnest after openýng ceremony

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton wins rain-splashed Belgian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix in a rain-splashed finale on Sunday to extend his lead in the championship standings after race leader Kimi Raikkonen spun off during the penultimate lap. Hamilton again proved he was the top wet-weather driver, holding his cool in the last few laps when a sudden shower turned the Grand Prix into chaos and held off Ferrari's Felipe Massa by 14.4 seconds. BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was third. Hamilton now holds an eight-point edge over Massa, 80 to 72, going into the last five races.

Raikkonen, who overtook the pole-sitting Hamilton early and led most of the way, is far back with 57 points, turning the rest of the championship into a two-way race between Hamilton and Massa. It long looked like Raikkonen would win his fourth straight Belgian GP but the low-flung leaden clouds over the wooded circuit suddenly released a huge shower in the last three of 44 laps. With most cars having switched to dry tires at the final pit stop, that was enough to decide the race. "I was praying: rain, rain, rain," Hamilton said. "I wanted the rain to come," realizing it was his best shot at victory.

The two riders almost crashed into each other, but after some spectacular maneuvers Hamilton appeared from the Source hairpin in front. The British driver soon lost the lead again, however, when he had to veer off the track to avoid a slower car in front of him.

But Raikkonen, in turn, spun on the slippery surface to put Hamilton back in front. Raikkonen was then forced to take risks, resulting in a crash into the side railings. "It was incredibly tough," Hamilton said.

Heidfeld had switched to wet-weather tires, letting him make up much ground with a late surge. Hamilton enjoyed the advantage of his pole position for just one lap. While he got to the opening Source hairpin first, Raikkonen was already making a move behind him. Having started in fourth, he went way wide in the hairpin but immediately challenged teammate Massa on the first long straight and got into the slipstream of the championship leader with a daring move. One lap later, he used the same long straight to let his Ferrari engine do the talking, and when Hamilton's McLaren could not respond, the Finn was in front on his favorite circuit. Spa-Francorchamps AP

Roger Federer awaits opponent for delayed final Roger Federer stormed into his fifth successive US Open final on Saturday but the rest of the day's play was washed out, tossing the last weekend of the Open into disarray. Organizers were grilled about the scheduling as Federer, in sublime form with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 win over Novak Djokovic, was made to wait 24 hours before knowing his challenger after the second semifinal was suspended by rain. Sixth-seeded Briton Andy Murray was in the driver's seat to book a date with the Swiss maestro, leading top seed Rafael Nadal 6-2, 7-6 2-3 when the remnants of Tropical Storm Hanna hit Flushing Meadows.

The women's final, scheduled for Saturday night between twice champion Serena Williams and second seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia was postponed until Sunday night. The men's final has been slotted in for today. Organizers came under fire after the elements conspired against them and Nadal and Murray were forced to abandon their match at 2:48 pm local time (1848 GMT). New York Reuters

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