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