ISTANBUL
The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
Friday’s papers focused on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks concerning the presidential system and his demand of deportation for Gulen, the death of a Japanese reporter in southeastern Turkey and the dollar’s rise against the Turkish lira.
“We could have made progress more,” MILLIYET headlines, quoting Erdogan’s remarks.
The Turkish president spoke on Thursday on Turkey's state-run broadcaster TRT from the new presidential palace in Ankara.
"I believe that with the presidential system, we will make more progress concerning the rights and freedoms,” he said.
Turkey has been governed under a parliamentary system for decades. The country has been discussing the possible introduction of a presidential system and Erdogan has expressed his hopes for such a change.
VATAN quotes Erdogan as saying, “It will be right if Gulen is deported.”
Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen is accused by the government of trying to topple the Turkish government.
"The U.S. should do its part as a strategic partner of Turkey,' said Erdogan as he called on the United States to deport Fethullah Gulen as part of the fight against the “parallel state,” an alleged group of Turkish bureaucrats and senior officials embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and the police, who are reportedly working to undermine the Turkish government.
In other news, VATAN reports on the death of Japanese reporter Kazumi Takaya in a traffic accident in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa on Thursday, headlining on its front page: “Tragic end of journalist.”
“Bad news from Japanese reporter,” titled HABERTURK, which ran a photo of the site of the accident where the Japanese reporter Takaya was killed.
The daily reported that Takaya had been living in Turkey for 22 years and had two children aged 8 and 12. Her husband Hisashi Takaya is an engineer, who worked on Istanbul’s Marmaray metro project, the paper added.
Takaya, 47, was working for Japanese Fuji TV and had arrived in Akcakale district of Sanliurfa to cover the developments regarding the hostage situation of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, captured in Syria by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant militants.
On Jan. 20, ISIL posted its first video of Goto and Haruna Yukawa, threatening to kill them within 72 hours unless Japan paid a $200 million ransom.
ISIL later released a video Saturday showing Goto holding a picture of what appeared to be the beheaded body of Yukawa.
Several newspapers focused on the dollar’s rise against Turkish lira.
“Dollar against Turkish Lira reaches historic peak,” DUNYA writes on its front page, noting that the dollar had reacted to the expected interest rate cut by Turkish Central Bank and Federal Reserve or FED’s statements.
The central bank on Tuesday scheduled an emergency meeting of its monetary policy committee to be held Feb. 3. Markets expect the meeting will announce a further cut in the weekly rate, at which banks must repay their loans.
Central Bank Governor Erdem Basci said declining inflation had allowed the first in a series of interest rate cuts, on Jan. 20. "As long as we keep our cautious stance during the rate reduction period, it is possible that we will see the lowest level of inflation in the past 45 years by the end of 2015," he said.
During its latest policy meeting on Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve, or FED, said that it would leave interest rates unchanged at a range of zero to a quarter of a percentage point.
VATAN said: "Central Bank’s emergency meeting signal and FED’s statements have increased the fever of dollar." HURRIYET also stated that the Central Bank's announcement of an emergency meeting had had a big impact on this rise.
