RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
___________________________________________________________
RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 2, No. 119, 23 June 1998

TURKEY PLEDGES TO APPROVE NATO EXPANSION. Turkish Defense
Minister Ismet Sezgin said in Warsaw on 22 June that Turkey
will soon ratify the agreement on NATO enlargement, which
will provide for the entry of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech
Republic. Sezgin made that statement following the signing
of a military cooperation agreement between Turkey and
Poland. The accord foresees an exchange of military cadets
and stipulates that each country send observers to monitor
the other's military exercises, "Turkish Daily News"
reported. JM

HUNGARY'S YOUNG DEMOCRATS, DEMOCRATIC FORUM SIGN COALITION
AGREEMENT. Prime Minister-designate Viktor Orban, chairman
of the Federation of Young Democrats-Hungarian Civic Party
(FIDESZ-MPP), and Hungarian Democratic Forum chairman Sandor
Lezsak signed a coalition agreement on 22 June. They
stressed that the two sides cooperated closely even before
the elections and that their plans are identical. According
to Orban, the coalition agreement is not only for the next
four years but for "several cycles". Also on 22 June,
FIDESZ-MPP agreed to let the Independent Smallholders' Party
nominate a joint candidate for the president of the republic
in the elections due in 2000, but reserved the right to veto
its choice. MSZ

HUNGARIAN UNIVERSITY STILL CAUSING TENSIONS IN ROMANIAN
COALITION... Bela Marko, chairman of the Hungarian
Democratic Federation of Romania (UDMR), said on 22 June
that the ruling coalition has "to make up its mind whether
it wants the UDMR in the coalition or out of it." Marko was
responding to a declaration made the same day by National
Peasant Party Christian Democratic chairman Ion Diaconescu.
That declaration supported Education Minister Andrei Marga's
position that a "multicultural" university, rather than a
Hungarian-language university, is the solution to
university-level education of the minorities. Diaconescu
also supported Marga's position that a separate Hungarian-
language state university might become a "source of inter-
ethnic conflict resembling that in the former Yugoslavia."
He added that the task of the commission set up earlier this
month was to examine not "ways of setting up a Hungarian-
language university, but whether this was opportune,"
RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS

...AS ETHNIC HUNGARIANS PRESENT ULTIMATUM. The UDMR Council
of Representatives on 20 June announced it will quit the
coalition if the government does not set up by 15 July the
commission to examine ways of setting up the Hungarian
university. The council also said the ruling coalition must
officially declare its intention to set up the university by
31 July and the parliament must amend the education law by
30 September, Romanian state radio reported. In other news,
the Bucharest Municipal Tribunal on 19 June rejected the
registration of Gheorghe Funar's formation under the name of
Romanian Unity Alliance (AUR). The Party of Romanian
National Unity (PUNR), whose former chairman Funar is,
appealed against the registration because AUR was the name
of a PUNR-Republican Party alliance in the 1990 elections.
MS
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
               Copyright (c) 1998 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx