SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR SEPTEMBER 12, 2005

UNCLAS ADANA 000161 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR SEPTEMBER 12, 2005 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for September 12, ¶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 HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): A seventeen-person work group comprised of members from five different countries came to Hatay for the "First Meeting of Civilizations", an event that will be held between September 25-30, 2005. The group paid a visit to the Hatay Governor, Abdulkadir Sari. SABAH (GUNEY) / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): The family of Fevzi Dogan, a mayor in Mersin, who was killed in late May with a bomb, greeted DYP (True Path Party) Leader Mehmet Agar with a photo of Dogan in Mersin's Silifke district and demanded that the murderers be found. EKSPRES: Adana CHP provincial Chairman Serdar Seyhan has been reelected to office in the party congress held in a hotel in Adana. The intra party opposition group "Grassroots' Initiative" did not emerge as an opposing voice in the congress. SABAH (GUNEY): A forest fire in three separate spots in Adana's Feke district allegedly was caused by terrorists' deliberate attempt to set the forest on fire. Nearly 62 acres of forest was burned. BOLGE / SABAH (GUNEY) / OZGUR GUNDEM: An association called 78ers' Association, as well as some mass organizations and political parties held a public meeting in Mersin to protest the anniversary of the 1980 coup in Turkey. Nearly 1,000 demonstrators demanded that the perpetrators of the coup be prosecuted. BOLGE / ZAMAN: Five soldiers were killed in a clash between security officers and terrorists in Sirnak and Bingol. Three soldiers were reportedly wounded in the clash. OZGUR GUNDEM: Walter Scott Reid, U.S. Consul to Adana, and an accompanying delegation met with the DTH (Democratic Society Movement) members in Batman. The purpose of this visit turned out that the U.S. aimed to distance the Kurds from the PKK and [the terrorist leader] Abdullah Ocalan. The headline in the front cover said, "The U.S. threatening the Kurds." HURRIYET: Nancy McEldowney, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission in Ankara, said that the U.S. saw no difference between Osama Bin Laden and Abdullah Ocalan. According to the article, Eldowney further added that the PKK was a network of murder. Eldowney expressed strong cooperative effort to eradicate these terrorist elements. ZAMAN: A Turkish journal with left-leaning tendencies claimed in an article it published that Alawi's strengthened the Kurdish movements in Turkey. The daily claims that the article sets both the Alawi's and Kurds as vulnerable to hostile intentions. The article reportedly urged Turks to shop from the Turkish merchants. The article further mandates the Turks to speak only Turkish to evade the influences of the Kurdish language on Turkish. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS ¶1. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Land Survey studies and site examinations for the Organized Agricultural Zone project have been completed in Mersin's Tarsus district. REID