Now we see why the parliament was involved in the approval process. They are asking for tax exemption, not a trivial matter. In the mean time, no work started on building the first plant.
Why is the order contingent on tax exemption? Doesn't this plant pay for itself with excellent margins? I think it may be important to get this approval for Manova, not just for the exemption itself, which is a gigantic matter, and is important to GRNO in terms of royalty payments. What may be even more important are political reasons, and keep in mind this is my own typically wild opinions.
I think it is important to Manova for the legal and political systems to show MANOVA a sign of support. Do you or do you not want waste crankcase oil to converted into useful product? GRNO asked Texas and they said yes. GRNO asked South Carolina and they said no. (Don't nobody panic now, that is just my own sour opinion so far.)
Turkey's political problems are important to understand. The ruling coalition is made up of both left and right wingers. The Prime Minister is a right winger, but there is a left winger with 55 seats who has been making noises about pulling out and collapsing the government. On top of that there are the Islamists who want to take secular Turkey into an Iranian theocracy, which they deny, but they still wind up going to jail for it. There is a shooting war with some Kurds, there is the rivalry with the Greeks that has been going on for thousands of years, and so on. It is easy for me to see how the Manova principals would want to find out how solid their position is before they commit to spending millions to place GRNO plants in Turkey.
The government is scheduling for new elections 20 months ahead of time so that the voters can sort out the political situation. In the following article, Yilmaz is the conservative Prime Minister and Baykal is his left wing rival in the coalition.
Yilmaz election plan stirs Turkish turmoil
09:25 a.m. Apr 24, 1998 Eastern
By Alistair Bell
ANKARA, April 24 (Reuters) - A plan by Prime
Minister Mesut Yilmaz to quit later this year to allow
early elections plunged Turkey back into political
turmoil on Friday, just as the government was making
headway against economic troubles.
Senior figures in the coalition slammed an accord
Yilmaz reached with an opposition powerbroker to
dissolve the government later this year and set up an
interim administration.
Investors on the Istanbul stock exchange dumped
shares in fear that looming polls and likely leadership
squabbles would dampen the fight against an annual
inflation rate of up to 100 percent. The bourse's general
index fell 5.42 percent in morning trade.
''Calls for elections are being made every
week...Turkey will get nowhere like this,'' the
Anatolian news agency quoted Isin Celebi, minister for
state planning and foreign trade, as saying on a visit to
China.
Yilmaz and key opposition leftist leader Deniz Baykal
announced on Thursday they had agreed to hold
elections next March -- 20 months early -- in an deal to
prevent Baykal dropping his support for the minority
government.
Ministers criticised the plan as a recipe for the same old
instability that has plagued Turkey since the
mid-1990s.
''Doubts will again arise over the economic targets for
the next six months,'' said Celebi, a member of Yilmaz's
conservative Motherland Party. ''It is a very wrong
decision,'' the Sabah daily quoted Public Works
Minister Yasar Topcu as saying.
As part of the pact, Yilmaz should step aside in
October to make way for an unnamed ''independent''
prime minister who would head a pre-election
government of secularists.
With a three-month parliamentary recess due to start on
July 1, that would give Yilmaz just over two months to
finish planned economic reforms.
He also has prickly relations with the European Union
and a concerted U.S. bid to mend the division of
Cyprus on his plate.
Yilmaz, a conservative challenged by the main
opposition Islamists, had shown signs he was bringing
price rises and tax evasion partly under control after 10
months in office.
March monthly inflation of 4.3 percent was lower than
expected. Government plans to improve fiscal efficiency
have prompted a significant increase in the number of
people declaring incomes, even before tax reforms have
been passed by parliament.
However, reforms to the leaky social security system
that are sought by the IMF have yet to get off the
ground.
Turkish shares had soared in recent weeks on optimism
the government could last until next year. Those hopes
were dashed.
''Uncertainty and worries dominate the market,'' said
dealer Cihan Aluc from BAB securities.
''The Turkish people are interested not in elections but
their pockets,'' MP Hamdi Ucpinarlar, a spokesman for
the coalition ally Democratic Turkey Party, told a
news conference.
He accused Yilmaz of riding roughshod over the
national assembly, which ultimately decides when
elections are held. ''I regard the leaders' statements and
debates on early elections as an insult to parliament,'' he
said.
The Islam-based Virtue Party, the biggest parliamentary
group, welcomed polls on any terms. ''We say 'yes' to
any conditions for elections,'' said leader Ismail
Alptekin in Istanbul.
Alptekin was speaking during a visit to mayor Recep
Tayyip Erdogan who was sentenced to 10 months in
jail this week for inciting hatred in a political speech.
Thousands of Islamists have taken to the streets to
protest at the sentencing, also condemned by NATO
member Turkey's closest ally Washington.
''It is a serious matter when democratically elected
leaders are subject to criminal prosecution by state
security courts for statements they made as political
figures,'' U.S. State Department spokesman James
Rubin said on Thursday.
The United States is set to press Ankara, as well as
Athens and the two sides in Nicosia, to reach a solution
on Cyprus.
U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke will visit the
island early next month for what are expected to be
tough peace talks.
Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 in response to a
Greek Cypriot coup backed by Athens. The lack of
progress on Cyprus is one of the main barriers to
Turkey's plans to enter the EU.
infoseek.com:80/Content?arn=a1190LBY452reulb-19980424&qt=turkey&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
Charles
P. S. As an indication of how unstable the political situation is in Turkey, now Yilmaz is indicating he wants to renege on his early election agreement. As an example of problems, among other things the government is trying to work with the IMF to reduce the 100% inflation rate.
Turkish PM Yilmaz edges back from early
poll plan
09:18 a.m. Apr 27, 1998 Eastern
By Steve Bryant
ANKARA, April 27 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime
Minister Mesut Yilmaz, assailed by worries at home
and abroad, on Monday sought to extricate himself
from a controversial early election plan agreed with a
parliamentary powerbroker.
''I hope Baykal will make a fresh evaluation in the face
of criticism by both the coalition partners and his party
members,'' Anatolian news agency quoted Yilmaz as
saying.
Yilmaz and key leftist Deniz Baykal announced last
week they had agreed to set up an interim government
under a new prime minister in October to take the
country to an election next March. Polls are not due
until the year 2000.
Government allies have attacked the plan as an
unnecessary return to the political instability that has
plagued NATO member Turkey since the mid-1990s.
Yilmaz, too, said he was determined that parliament
should not go into pre-election mode and become
distracted from implementing government plans for
economic reform and anti-Islamist measures.
''We can go to an election at the time we want. We
can go in October, or in a year. But first we must make
the parliament work,'' the agency quoted him as saying.
With international efforts to solve the Cyprus problem
gathering steam and Turkey's economy in urgent need
of reform, coalition partners and media commentators
say the last thing Turkey needs is deeper political
uncertainty.
But Yilmaz says he was forced into the deal because
Baykal had threatened to withdraw the parliamentary
support that his Republican People's Party (CHP) gives
the minority government.
''If there is no early election, then the government will
have to find backing from someone other than the
CHP,'' party vice-chairman Ali Topuz told Reuters.
Turkish shares ended Monday morning trade 0.67
percent weaker due to political uncertainty, off an early
low of four percent down.
Stocks had hit all-time highs last week on hopes that
Yilmaz's government would tighten Turkey's costly tax
and social security systems.
The government has also vowed to slash inflation --
running at just under 100 percent a year -- to 50
percent by the end of 1998.
In addition, the prime minister, often a cautious figure,
has committed himself to passing a package of
anti-Islamist laws demanded by Turkey's rigidly
secularist armed forces.
Yilmaz came to power 10 months ago after military
pressure triggered the collapse of an Islamist-led
coalition. He has presided over a widespread
crackdown on political Islam in the overwhelmingly
Moslem country.
Anatolian said police had detained 130 people in a
month-long crackdown on an armed Islamist group
active in the southeast of the country.
As if Yilmaz's domestic commitments were not enough,
the coming months also bring important developments
in Turkey's perennial disputes with Greece and its
love-hate affair with Europe.
Turkey on Monday signalled a softening in its line on
the Cyprus dispute, days before U.S. envoy Richard
Holbrooke was due to visit the divided Mediterranean
island in an attempt to return Greek Cypriots and
Turkish Cypriots to stalled talks.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said international
recognition of the Turkish Cypriot state was not vital for
dialogue between the two sides on the island.
Turkey is the only country to recognise the breakaway
Turkish Cypriot state and keeps some 30,000 troops in
the north of the island, divided since 1974 when
Turkey invaded in response to a Greek Cypriot coup
backed by Athens.
The dispute bedevils Turkey's relations with neighbour
and historic rival Greece, and contributed to an EU
decision last year to put Turkey's long-standing
membership bid on hold.
The coming months also see the conclusion of an
international competition over rival pipeline routes to
carry the bulk of output from Azeri oilfields in the
Caspian Sea.
Turkey favours a route that runs from Baku to its
Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Two rival routes
terminate on the Black Sea, in Russia and Georgia.
^REUTERS@
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