The Governmental Auditing Commission (DDK), which is part of the President’s Office, has written a report on shipyards. When racist comments on Greeks contained in the report became public, the President’s Office took out the relevant appendix and republished the remaining report on its website. 

In the picture below, Turkish President Abdullah Gül is shown with Greek PM Costas Karamanlis and Foreign Minister Dora Bankoyanni. 

New version edited

The racist expressions were first noticed and reported on by Aslı Işık from the Haber Türk newspaper. While th

e November 2008 version of the report contained the racist terms, the controversial appendix has been taken out in today’s version on the Internet.

The main topic of the DDK’s report from 26 November 2008 was the shipyard region in Tuzla, outside of Istanbul. However, the analyses of maritime business and shipyards were followed by an appendix called “Report on the Informal Meeting on Greece”.

Appendix 4 noted that this meeting took place on 12 December 2007 and was headed by Necmi Uğurlu, former Athens Trade Advisor.

"Lazy and inefficient"

Following the observation that public offices opened 7.5 hours a day in Greece, the report continued:

“This shows how lazy the Greek people are and how inefficient they are in their business life. Within these working hours there are another one and a half hours for tea breaks. Even if the President came, employees would not interrupt their tea breaks.”

Under a heading “General Evaluations” it said:

“Their manufacturing sector is weak, which shows the people’s laziness.”

"Email disability"

“One can say that the Greek people have a mail reading disability. That is why, when writing to Greece, one should use a fax rather than email. Even large Greek firms communicate by fax, preferring hand-written communication.”

“It is a people that likes to show off. Just as they value personal appearance, you can hardly see any old cars in Greece.”

"Hostility gene"

“One should not forget that no matter how sincere a relationship is formed with the Greeks, at one point the hostility that the Greek people feel towards the Turkish people will surface. Necmi Uğurlu explained that ‘the Greek people have a genetic hostility towards Turks.’”

The report also lists other “evaluations” of a more positive kind:

“Greece is an extraordinary chance for Turkey. There is little manufacturing, so it is dependent on other countries.”

“They are good at paper production, but industrial product factories are closing. The cost of an unqualified worker is around 1,000 Euros. The gradual decline in the young population is dragging Greece towards pessimism.”

“Trade relations between Turkey and Greece have intensified since 1996, when the Customs Union with the EU came into effect.”

“The majority of the people know a foreign language.” (TK/AG)