Commenting on a recent meeting between Israeli officials and the Greek Cypriot administration on oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean, almost all dailies reported that Israel is planning to deploy 20,000 commandoes and 10,000 construction workers to Greek Cyprus in order to construct a natural gas terminal and pipeline in southern Cyprus. Israel's plan has caused tension within the Greek Cypriot administration.
Turkish dailies also highlighted a NATO summit taking place in Chicago. Among the items on NATO's agenda were the concept of “Smart Defence,” a missile defense system in the Turkish province of Malatya and stability in Afghanistan. Furthermore, a decision taken at the summit will mean Turkish generals will have to assume more duties in NATO.
Several newspapers reported on comments by Turkish Minister of Customs and Trade Hayati Yazıcı that green passports would be issued to Turkish businesspeople whose businesses exceeded a certain amount of exports. Yazıcı added that green passports would be provided to businesspeople by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
