ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 005110

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/SE, EUR/PD, NEA/PD, DRL
JCS PASS J-5/CDR S. WRIGHT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR TU
SUBJECT: ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT,
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2004

THIS REPORT PRESENTS THE TURKISH PRESS SUMMARY UNDER THREE
THEMES:

HEADLINES
BRIEFING
EDITORIAL OPINION
-------------- --------------

HEADLINES


MASS APPEAL
Verheugen: EU members react to criminalizing adultery -
Milliyet
Adultery a `bump' on Turkey's EU path - Aksam
Saving Private Bush - Sabah
Americans strike Iraqi children while seeking Zarkawi -
Hurriyet
Israeli FM: Arafat will be exiled soon - Aksam
Terror strikes in Indonesia - Sabah

OPINION MAKERS
Verheugen holds `minorities summit' at Fener Patriarchate -
Zaman
Verheugen: Adultery issue can only be a joke - Cumhuriyet
Powell: Genocide carried out in Darfur - Zaman
US wants Sudan's oil - Yeni Safak
US Democrats liken Bush to Hitler - Yeni Safak
Barzani vows to fight for Kirkuk - Cumhuriyet
US bombs `rebel' cities in Iraq - Radikal
Zawahiri defies Washington on Al-Jazeera - Radikal
Israel will exile Arafat - Yeni Safak


BRIEFING

EU expansion chief's Turkey visit: European Union
enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen finished his
visit to Turkey on Thursday after holding a series of
meetings with Kurdish activists, Christian and Jewish
leaders, and government officials in various Turkish
provinces. Verheugen warned Ankara that more work needs to
be done to end torture, improve cultural rights and resolve
the standoff in Cyprus. Verheugen said there has been no
visible effort to encourage the return of displaced people
to their villages in southeastern Turkey. On Thursday,
Verheugen discussed the problems of minorities in Turkey
with Christian, Jewish, and Syriac representatives in
Istanbul. Religious and minority leaders told Verheugen
that Turkey's EU accession would enrich the European bloc.
Verheugen also warned the ruling AK Party against any effort
to criminalize adultery. He stressed that such an effort
would give the impression that Turkey is injecting Islamic
elements into its legal system and thereby increase
objections to Turkey's aspiration to be granted a date for
entry talks. Meanwhile, FM Abdullah Gul said Thursday that
he is certain that the EU Commission's progress report on
Turkey would be positive. `Turkey will make the EU richer,
bigger, and add a dynamic population and economy' to the EU,
Gul said.

U.S. Forces Bomb Turkmen Area in northern Iraq: "Milliyet"
and "Cumhuriyet" report that U.S. forces bombed targets in
the majority-Turkmen city of Tel Afer on Thursday.
According to "Milliyet," 57 people were killed and more than
80 wounded in the attacks. The ethnic identities of those
killed and injured could not be determined. Papers also
report U.S. bombing raids against resistance targets in
Felluca which resulted in 12 deaths, including 5 children.
More extreme press outlets likened the US raids to last
week's attack on school children in north Ossetia.

Barzani claims Kirkuk: Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP) leader Massoud Barzani said to a foreign news service
on Thursday that Kurds would go to war to preserve the
Kurdish identity of the city of Kirkuk, which Barzani
characterized as `the heart of Kurdistan.' The Kurds aim to
reclaim Kirkuk, the oil-rich northern Iraqi town they lost
during Saddam Hussein's `Arabization' campaign, before a
nationwide census to be held in Iraq later this year. FM
Gul warned visiting KDP official Necirvan Barzani earlier
this week against attempts to turn Kirkuk into a Kurdish
city. 153,000 Kurds have flocked to Kirkuk and its
surroundings since March, papers note.

Syria hands over PKK militants to Turkey: Syria handed over
seven captured Kurdish PKK fighters to Turkish authorities,
"Sabah" reports. The suspects include PKK leader Hamili
Yildirim, a founding member of the PKK who served 16 years
in a Turkish jail for his prior PKK activities. Yildirim
and the other six men were captured by Syrian security
forces while trying to infiltrate Turkey. "Sabah" also
reports that the Dutch government has agreed to comply with
Turkey's extradition request for the return of PKK militant
Nuriye Kesbir, who was captured by Dutch authorities in
Amsterdam in 2001.

Mehmet Ali Birand Under Investigation: "Sabah" reports that
prominent journalist Mehmet Ali Birand is under
investigation on suspicion of `aiding and abetting' a
terrorist organization. The allegations stem from the
appearance of three lawyers for jailed PKK leader Abdullah
Ocalan on Birand's "32nd Day," a weekly program that airs on
the all-news channel "CNN-Turk."

EDITORIAL OPINION: 9/11-Global war on Terorism

"Only Terrorism has Become Global"
Mustafa Karaalioglu commented in the Islamist-opinion maker
"Yeni Safak" (9/10): "The grip of terrorism is growing
stronger with every passing day. Exploding bombs in almost
every region of the world shows that it is impossible to
establish international stability within the framework of
democracy and the rule of law. The preventive strike
policies that have appeared in order to combat terrorism
have also made it more difficult to establish security.
Before the bloody marks of the incident in Ossetia have
faded, the new terrorist attacks in Indonesia are a further
sign of the global spread of this threat. Today, the
possibility of a terrorist attack in another country or on
another continent is larger than it was yesterday. Being a
woman, a child, or an innocent civilian no longer offers any
protection from terrorist attacks any more. On the
contrary, terrorism picks the most innocent targets to wound
more deeply. Moreover, not only terrorist organizations but
also states prefer these cruel methods. It is certain that
each attack will be more dramatic than the one before as
long as the world prefers to fight instead of solving these
problems through dialogue."

"September 11, 2001"
Yilmaz Oztuna opined in the conservative-mass appeal
"Turkiye" (9/10): "Tomorrow is the third anniversary of
September 11 tragedy. This is the date that the global
fight against terrorism began. Terrorists started the war.
One should never forget this fact. The ones who forget it
will divert in the wrong direction. The third millennium
began with this terrible incident. Unfortunately, more than
the half of the world's population believes that the
treasures of the world are owned by a happy and selfish
minority. This happy minority believed it was unfair for
energy resources to be left in the land of poor people. The
reason that terrorism has spread this widely is because some
countries are not taking concrete measures to stop it. As a
matter of fact, many countries use terrorism against their
rival and enemies. Until these countries that support
terrorism are exposed, the terrorists manage to take their
actions further. The world is being divided into two: those
determined to fight against terrorism, and those who support
and use terrorists and increase their hostility against the
countries involved in counter-terrorism efforts."
EDELMAN