SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 22, 2005

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000146

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 22, 2005

This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for July 22, 2005.
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


1. SABAH (GUNEY): Turk Telekom (Turkish Communication
Company) workers in Antakya did not attend work for an
(unspecified) length of time to stage a protest against the
company's privatization.


2. SABAH (GUNEY): Valeh Haciyev, a deputy minister from
Azerbaijan currently visiting the Ceyhan district, said that
Azerbaijan's petroleum would arrive at Ceyhan on October 30.


3. ZAMAN / RADIKAL / SABAH / HURRIYET / CUMHURIYET / OZGUR
GUNDEM: PKK terrorists reportedly opened fire yesterday at 7
a.m. on Jandarma teams patrolling the Akinkoy rural section of
Van's Ercis district. One soldier died and two terrorists were
killed in the clash. Ozgur Gundem reports another terrorist
attack on a military unit in Sirnak, allegedly killing three
soldiers.


4. CUMHURIYET: The paper reports that some circles describe
the murder of Hikmet Fidan (see press summary 07/07 and 07/20)
as the "Susurluk Case of the Kurdish politics." The daily notes
that political parties, finding themselves in a heated debate
after the murder, have been firing criticisms against each
other. Some reportedly claim that Fidan was killed because of
his dissenting views with the PKK, reports the daily.
Cumhuriyet quotes one of Ozgur Gundem's journalists as saying,
"Kurdish political institutions were made to bear the blame for
Fidan's murder."


5. OZGUR GUNDEM: The father of Private Kirandi applied to
the Human Rights Association (HRA) to seek its assistance in
securing his son's release. The members of HRA's National
Headquarters and its 34 chapters will not sleep tonight, and
will light candles outside their premises to mark the kidnapping
incident. The HRA Chairperson said that they were ready to do
whatever they could to secure Kirandi's release.


6. OZGUR GUNDEM: The soldiers are reportedly conducting
raids on houses in Tunceli under a one-month general search
permission issued by a court. Lawyers on the other hand are
reportedly claiming that this practice is unlawful and one
violates the New Penal Code.


7. OZGUR GUNDEM: Following the anthrax cases in Bingol,
Elazig, Malatya and Diyarbakir, anthrax has been diagnosed in
five people in Hakkari's Yuksekova district.


8. HURRIYET / RADIKAL / OZGUR GUNDEM: Two shepherds grazing
separate flocks on a mountain in the Baskale district of Van
were reportedly kidnapped by four unidentified four persons.


9. OZGUR GUNDEM: Ahmet Faruk Unsal, an AKP deputy from
Adiyaman and the deputy chairperson of the Turkish Parliament's
Human Rights Commission (TPHRC),pointed out that it was an
infelicitous decision to move the place of the court from Mardin
to Eskisehir in the case of the killing of Ahmet and Ugur Kaymaz
in Mardin. During the court session held a day before,
ultra-nationalists reportedly attacked the people who had come
from Kiziltepe, and wounded five of them. Reportedly, the TPHRC
members did not attend the court session despite having vowed
before that they would monitor the case.


10. RADIKAL / ZAMAN: Minister of Interior Abdulkadir Aksu
announced that nine Middle East countries would sign a protocol.
The protocol reportedly aims to provide cooperation between the
countries in preventing the PKK and other terrorist
organizations in Iraq from crossing borders and leaking into the
other countries.


11. BOLGE: "The EU Seminar for Regional Journalists" will
be held in Ankara between June 25 and August 5 for journalists
coming from twelve Turkish cities, including Diyarbakir, Van,
Adana and Gaziantep.


12. BOLGE / EKSPRES: A Nationalist Workers' Association
announced that a statue of genocide would be opened today at
Martyr's Forest in Adana to commemorate the Turks who died in
Armenian massacres.


13. HURRIYET: The damage assessment study launched after the
four earthquakes, which have hit Bingol's Karliova district,
have not been completed, causing a heated public debate. An AKP
Bingol deputy, who came to the Karliova district, reprimanded
the district subgovernor because of the study's delay in front
of the Governor, other deputies and the headmen.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS


1. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Officials took action following
farmers' protests against the lack of irrigation water in
Hatay's Amik Plain (see press summary 07/18). The governor's
office paid the amount required by the Irrigation Office to
enable release of water to the Amik Plain from the Yarseli Dam.



2. SABAH (GUNEY): Gaziantep Governor, Gaziantep's
deputies, Municipality, Chambers, Commodity Exchange and the
Southeastern Exporters' Union set up a special team which will
work to advertise Gaziantep's pistachio in Turkey and abroad.




REID