SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 2, 2005

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000225

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 2, 2005

This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for December 02,

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

NTV ONLINE (http://www.ntv.com.tr/news/352125.asp ) /
HURRIYET / ZAMAN / YENI SAFAK / RADIKAL / SABAH / CUMHURIYET:
Ministry of Interior has recently switched the positions of
Hakkari's Yuksekova District Subgovernor and Mus's Bulanik
District Subgovernor. Yuksekova Subgovernor Yucel Akgul is now
working as the Subgovernor of Bulanik district. Ministry had
already switched the position of Hakkari's Semdinli District
Subgovernor with Karabuk's Ovacik District Subgovernor.

NTV ONLINE (http://www.ntv.com.tr/news/352155.asp): A mine
blast in Van's Caldiran district killed one person and wounded
another.

RADIKAL / NTV ONLINE (http://www.ntv.com.tr/news/352059.asp):
A report of Diyarbakir Chapter of Egitim-Sen (Teacher's Union)
drew attention to the problems concerning education in the
province. According to the report, there are 341,295 illiterate
people in Diyarbakir and the city has a shortage of 1,045
teachers. Thirty-eight percent of the students enrolled at
Diyarbakir schools are reportedly girls. Every year, on
average, 46,000 new students is registered at schools.

NTV ONLINE (http://www.ntv.com.tr/news/352101.asp) / ZAMAN /
CUMHURIYET: Massoud Barzani, National Leader of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party, stating that the December 15 national
elections would be a significant turning point for Kurds and
Kurdistan, further claimed that Kirkuk will be attached to the
Kurdish administration in 2007. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs offered a strong reaction to Barzani's remarks.
Meanwhile, an Israeli newspaper separately claimed that retired
officers of the Israeli Army were going to northern Iraq over
Turkey under the disguise of agricultural specialists and
engineers, and were training the Kurdish peshmergas in a secret
area called Z-zone in Iraq.

CNNTURK ONLINE
(http://www.cnnturk.com/DUNYA/haber_detay.asp ?PID=319&HID=1
&haberID=143122) / RADIKAL: Kurdish groups, which embarked upon
efforts to find oil in northern Iraq 16 kilometers away from
Turkey's Silopi district, reportedly disturbed Shiites and
Sunnis in the Baghdad administration. According to the
Kurdistan Democratic Party, companies from Turkey, Britain,
Portugal and the U.S. will carry out exploration for oil.


HURRIYET: Vedat Gulsen, attorney of the officers arrested for
their involvement in the Semdinli Case, said that they were
unable to find witnesses who would give statements on his
clients' behalf only because people in Semdinli avoid
confrontation because of the alleged pressure and threats
exerted on them to give statements against the state. Gulsen
said he and his clients would petition the court on Monday to
lift the decision to arrest his clients.

CUMHURIYET / SABAH / ZAMAN / YENI SAFAK: According to Zaman
daily, the number of patients contracting diarrhea reached 7,700
in Malatya. Three thousand and three hundred students in 25
primary schools were affected from symptoms such as diarrhea,
vomiting, fever and nausea. Malatya State Hospital Doctor
reportedly announced that there was an ongoing decrease each day
in the number of patients affected from diarrhea. Malatya Mayor
Cemal Akin announced that November 28-dated tests on water
revealed that the problem already has been eliminated. Sabah
daily reported Provincial Health Director of Malatya as saying
that they had been warning the municipality about insufficient
chlorine application on the city water since April. The
director's two children are reportedly sick from diarrhea, as
well. Authorities reportedly warned that a typhoid epidemic
might strike Malatya province.

ZAMAN: During the public unrests that followed the Semdinli
bombing, the houses rented by the police officers in the city
center were reportedly attacked by demonstrators. PM Erdogan,
upon learning these developments after his visit to Semdinli,
decided to launch housing projects for police officers in
Hakkari in more secure areas of the city.

RADIKAL / CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM: A delegation of
intelligentsia formed by the efforts of the Turkey Peace
Initiative will go to Semdinli today to extend support to the
bombed Umut Bookstore, to express condolences and to strengthen
solidarity. (Note: The name Umut means 'hope' in Turkish. End
Note.) The delegation will bring hundreds of books to the
store.

RADIKAL: Minister of Justice, Cemil Cicek, urged everbody and
every institution to be sensitive about the investigation
process of the Semdinli case. "Our role, when a demand to open
an investigation against a public officer is placed, is to
permit opening of that investigation. When judiciary places a
demand, if there is something we could do, it is most natural
for us to respond to it."

CUMHURIYET: The Diyarbakir Governor's Office did not allow the
Kayapinar Municipality to name the municipality's newly built
parks with Kurdish names or names whose meanings refer to
specific contexts important for Kurds. For example the proposed
name "33 Bullets" refers to the bullets found in the body of
Ugur Kaymaz after he was killed on November 2004 by the security
forces. The municipality has applied to the Supreme Court to
annul the Governor's ban.

OZGUR GUNDEM: Esat Canan, Hakkari deputy from CHP
(Republican People's Party),said that military circles might
have prevented CHP from appointing Canan to the Parliamentary
Investigation Commission for the Semdinli Case (see press
summary 12/01).

OZGUR GUNDEM: The daily claimed that cost assessment studies
have not been done to date despite the fact that the Minister of
Internal Affairs and former Hakkari Governor promised to cover
the costs of the damage done by the November 1 bombing in
Semdinli. The tradesmen affected from the bombing said that
200,000 new Turkish liras (approx. 148,000 USD) the government
allocated to the Subgovernor's Office would not be enough to
cover the costs of the 67 utterly damaged buildings.

OZGUR GUNDEM: Following the finding that the type of the
bombs found in the car of the officers Ali Kaya and Ozcan
Ildeniz, who were arrested for their involvement in the Semdinli
Case, matched the bomb used in the bookstore blast, Ali Kaya
reportedly said in his statement that the car remained under the
control of alleged PKK followers for nine hours. People could
have replaced the regular type of bombs officers owned with the
ones used in the bombing incident, said Ali Kaya.

OZGUR GUNDEM: Following the dismissal of four workers from
their jobs in Adana's Cukurova University Hospital allegedly on
grounds that they engaged themselves in unionist activities, 400
workers enrolled in a health union to protest the dismissals.

HURRIYET ONLINE
(http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/3590636.as p?m=1&gid=69): 527
young activists, who publicized themselves as human shields and
who staged many protests in many (unspecified) places asking for
a peaceful solution for the Kurdish problem and for the end of
military operations in the southeastern region of Turkey,
reportedly went to the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq and
enrolled in the ranks of the PKK terrorist organization. The
spokesperson of the "so-called" human shields said that, since
their demands for the end of violence and oppression found no
response, they decided to take up arms instead of trying to stop
the war by going to the operation areas as human shields.

HURRIYET: Four village guards, who attacked the public
residences and security directorate of Sirnak's Silopi district
in 1995 with their state registered arms, have been convicted
and sentenced to life in prison.
REID