SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ADANA 0265 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU IZ ADANA SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY, OCTOBER 10, 2003 ¶1. This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for October 10, 2003. Please note that Turkish press reports often contain errors or exaggerations; AmConsulate Adana does not vouch for the accuracy of the reports summarized here. POLITICAL, SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHTS ¶2. HURRIYET (Cukurova Supplement): The prosecutor asked for eight years of aggravated imprisonment for Cumali Kizilkoca (29) who threw a hand grenade at the US Consulate in Adana four months ago. The court is expected to make its final decision on the case at the next hearing on October 16. ¶3. TURKIYE: A woman and her son picked potatoes in Elmaduzu village of Bingol yesterday. After they returned home, the hand grenade they had put in the bag, without recognizing it, exploded. As a result of the explosion, the son was killed and the mother was seriously wounded. ¶4. MILLIYET: It is reported that shopkeepers in Diyarbakir did not honor PKK's call for closing down their shops on the anniversary of Abdullah Ocalan's extradition from Syria on October 9, ¶1998. The security director of Diyarbakir toured the town and thanked the shopkeepers for their actions. The police also arrested eight persons who threatened merchants in Diyarbakir. ¶5. CUMHURIYET/BOLGE/EKSPRES/OZGUR GUNDEM/EVRENSEL: A group of fifty persons, mostly HRA members, blocked E-5 highway which passes by AK Party's provincial office in Adana to protest the motion authorizing the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq. The police kicked and beat the demonstrators who sat on the main highway. The demonstrators shouted slogans such as "Murderer US, Collaborator AKP" and "We will not become US soldiers." A police supervisor was wounded by stones while eleven persons were apprehended, including the president of the HRA chapter in Adana. Some groups shouting anti-war slogans in densely Kurdish populated Sakirpasa, 19 Mayis, and Denizli quarters in Adana dispersed into the streets after police interference. Ozgur Gundem paper claims that students did not go to schools, and the majority of shopkeepers did not open their shops despite police pressure in the Southeast. It also claims that people were dressed in black outfits. ¶6. TERCUMAN: Turkish truckers carrying foodstuffs and construction materials to Iraq stopped their operations due to attacks launched against them. Thousands of truckers forming long queues at Habur Border Gate decided not to carry materials to Iraq until Turkish soldiers were deployed there. In the meantime, the transportation companies increased their fares by forty percent. ¶7. ZAMAN: People who protested Malatya Inonu Univeristy's ban on use of headscarves in May 1999 are being put in jail. The court had demanded capital punishment for 53 inmates, and an imprisonment term varying from five to fifteen years for 22 inmates, while 161 others were brought before the judges for participating in an unauthorized march and meeting. While the majority of the detainees were acquitted, fifteen persons were given sentences varying from three years and nine months to one year and three months of imprisonment. ¶8. HURRIYET (Cukurova Supplement)/BOLGE: Based on a tip, the police from Hatay's Security Directorate seized ten kilos of heroin in Antakya and six more kilos in a village of Samandag township. Five persons involved in drug trafficking were detained. ¶9. BOLGE: Based on a tip, the jandarma from Provincial Jandarma Command of Van seized 111 kilos of hashish, 5.7 kilos of hemp seed and three Kalashnikov weapons and assorted bullets. Two others alleged are wanted by the security forces. ¶10. YENI SAFAK: In Ozalp and Muradiye of Van province, seventy-eight families, whose houses and land were submerged under the reservoir of Sari Mehmet Dam in 1992, are still hoping to be resettled by the state. The site designated for the villagers' resettlement is being used for Organized Livestock Raising. ¶11. HURRIYET/YENI SAFAK/RADIKAL/OZGUR GUNDEM: The case involving the alleged rape while detained of a woman identified by the initials S.E. is going to be handled at the Felony Court of Mardin today. It is alleged that S.E. had been raped and tortured when she was under detention during 1993-1994 period. Four hundred five soldiers will be arraigned in this case. Three more cases of this nature have been filed at the court in Mardin. ¶12. Turkiye: Based on a tip, police teams from the Security Directorate of Kahramanmaras arrested three persons distributing forty counterfeit 100 USD bank notes into market. ¶13. OZGUR GUNDEM: Batman Security Directorate's anti-terror teams raided Ozgur Halk magazine's office in Batman two days ago. The magazine's representative for Batman and four visitors were detained. Three hundred fifty books, one typewriter, 300 million TL, and four photo albums in the office were seized by police. ¶14. EVRENSEL: Evrensel's representative in Diyarbakir was detained by police two days ago while he was trying to interview internally displaced people in the Melik Ahmet quarter of the town. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ¶15. SABAH: The new border gate located between Mardin and Sirnak aims to abandon the existing Habur Border Gate which passes through Iraq's Kurdish region under Mesut Barzani's control. It is reported that IKDP charged a "Transit Tax" up to one hundred USD. After strong reaction, the tax, which was reduced to twenty- five USD until recently, has been lifted. But the Turkish truckers bringing around 800 liters of oil from Iraq are being charged around 34 USD under the name of "fine". Nusaybin's sub- governor, Omer Ulu, said opening of a second gate had been on the agenda of the government for a long time, and part of the road for the second gate with Iraq would pass via Syria, too. With opening and shifting of trade to the second gate, IKDP will suffer great financial losses. REID