Bush visit, NATO summit dominate events in June.

(From Turkish Probe)

President Bush's appeal to the EU to give a date to Turkey for the start of accession talks and the abrupt "mind your own business" response from Chirac highlighted continued US-French discord during the month of June.

The state visit to Ankara by U.S. President George Bush, the NATO summit and the foreign ministers' conference in Istanbul of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) as well as anti-Bush visit and anti-NATO protests in Ankara, Istanbul and elsewhere throughout the country were the subjects dominating the media in June.

The release of the four former pro-Kurdish lawmakers from prison, the start of broadcasts in "ethnic languages" including Kurdish as well as the Cyprus-related developments were among other major developments of the past month.

Here is a summary of events during the past month:

JUNE 1

Anti-terrorism police in Istanbul detain two suspected outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members and seize explosives in a security sweep in the city.

Berham Saleh, a senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), is named the new deputy prime minister responsible for national security affairs in Iraq while he holds talks at the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer pays an official visit to Poland.

JUNE 2

A parliamentary investigation committee recommends prosecution of former Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz and Former Minister Gunes Taner on charges of rigging the privatization of state-owned Turkbank in favor of a businessman.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges the world to end the isolation of Turkish Cypriots as a reward for their support for a U.N. plan to reunify the island.

Amnesty International criticizes the Turkish government for failing to effectively implement existing laws to protect women from violence and says as many as half of all Turkish women are victims of physical violence within their families.

Armed men kidnap Turkish and Egyptian truck drivers in Iraq and threaten to kill them if their countries do not condemn the U.S.-led occupation.

JUNE 3

An Ankara administrative court blocks a planned $1.3 billion sale of oil refiner Tupras until an appeals court rules on the deal, delivering a fresh blow to the country's troubled privatization program.

Customs authorities in Istanbul seize a radio-controlled missile and launcher as well as other weapons from a ship headed …