SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 19, 2005

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000242 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 19, 2005 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for December 19, ¶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 SABAH: In Diyarbakir, addressing the "Kurdish National Democratic Working Group" comprised of leftist, Islamic, liberal and nationalist politicians opposing PKK, the National Chairman of the Hak ve Ozgurlukler Partisi (Rights and Freedoms Party), Abdulmelik Firat, said his party gathered 50,000 signatures demanding from the Turkish government a federal structure for Kurds within the Turkish State. During a two-day summit chaired by Abdulmelik Firat, the grandson of the 1925 revolt's leader Sheikh Sait, admiration to Barzani and the necessity for coming-together of all Kurds in Turkey for adopting a new policy were expressed. The overwhelming majority of the speakers emphasized that the demand for "federation" should be inscribed in the party's charter during its upcoming general convention. The Working Group will reconvene for a third meeting to decide on the demands raised at the summit. YENI SAFAK: Husnu Tuna, an attorney representing the Centennial University's academicians intervening in one of the cases against the Centennial University Rector Yucel Askin, who is accused of preparing and possessing illegal records on academicians, said that it had been discovered that the lawyers who represent the Treasury Department were missing at the court ruling during which Rector Askin had been acquitted from the charges of smuggling antiquities. Attorney Tuna said that the acquittal decision would be appealed to the Supreme Court. CUMHURIYET/ ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: 16 persons arrested during an operation by the police from the Tunceli Anti-terror Department on charges of assisting and harboring PKK militants were released after their arraignment. The suspects will be tried without being kept under confinement. The suspects had been detained based on documents confiscated from three militants killed in the ensuing clashes with GOT forces in the rural Gulbahce village of Pertek, Tunceli province, on October 10, ¶2005. CUMHURIYET: Cumhuriyet newspaper reports that 33,000 persons and over 100 billion US dollars have been lost to PKK's attacks in the last 21 years. The daily reported the breakdown of 621 
persons killed from densely Kurdish populated towns as follows: 158 soldiers, 23 policemen, 4 teachers and 2 vicars from Gaziantep; 57 soldiers, 4 policemen, 1 watchman, and 2 teachers from Sanliurfa; 56 soldiers, 21 policemen and 21 teachers from Diyarbakir; 38 soldiers, 3 policemen, 33 village guards and 1 village headman from Adiyaman; 15 soldiers, 2 policemen, 4 watchmen, 121 village guards and 9 teachers from Mardin; 38 soldiers and 8 policemen from Van. 24,000 PKK militants have been killed since 1984 until the abolishment of the State of Emergency Rule on November 30, 2002 and from the PKK's breaking its unilateral truce on June 1, 2004 up to now. Although there are no definite figures, 4,485 citizens, including public employees; and 5,050 GOT forces have been martyred by PKK. ZAMAN: The hearing concerning Ahmet Kaymaz (30) and his son Ugur Kaymaz (12),who had been killed in Kiziltepe of Mardin on November 21, 2004, will resume in Eskisehir today. The attorneys and NGOs following the case called out people to act according to their common sense in order not to cause any provocative acts while the Eskisehir Governorate banned all sorts of demonstrations, press announcements and meetings to be held in town on the hearing date for the same purpose. Ulkede Ozgur Gundem daily reports that the Forensic Medicine determined that each of the 9 bullets that had penetrated into Ugur Kaymaz' body was fatal and a person with wounds in those parts of the body could not engage in an armed clash. ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: The Semdinli prosecutor, who had been interviewed by the Turkish National Assembly's Human Rights Inspection Committee, has been quoted in the Committee's draft report as saying that the security department is not reporting the names of the policemen knowledgeable about the bombing incident in Semdinli and the events that took place afterwards despite his written notice to the security directorate about these events. EKSPRES/ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: The Adana Branch of Human Rights Association and some other NGOs undertook a march to protest the "Return to Life Operation" launched against inmates on hunger strike on December 19, 2000. The hunger strike, in 20 prisons nationwide, continued for 61 days and the "Return to Life Operation" resulted in the killing of 2 soldiers and 19 inmates and wounding of 78 inmates. Ulkede Ozgur Gundem claims that 32 persons had been killed during the prison operation and none of the perpetrators had been punished yet. The group's speaker, Cemal Dogan, claimed that inhumane applications in prisons continued and the crowd chanting anti-Return to Life Operation disbursed. HURRIYET: In Midyat of Mardin, two sisters, Tugba and Derya Ileri, going to high school on a motorbike received death threats signed by Hizbullah. Initially, unidentified persons damaged their motorbike and then they received e-mails warning them that they were becoming bad models for the girls living there, and questioned them about what they tried to mean by dressing like boys. The girls' father, Salih Ileri, a retired teacher, said that some circles did not approve of his daughters' riding a motorbike on the ground that it was a sin. Salih Ileri filed a petition of complaint with the public prosecutor concerning the issue. ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: It is reported that two mass graves found in Tatvan of Bitlis on August 24, 2004 might belong to PKK militants killed on October 27, 1994. The Avras family claimed that the bones of one of the bodies most likely belonged to a family member of theirs and applied to the public prosecutor. Samples taken from the Avras family had been sent to the Forensic Medicine lab for analysis but although one year has passed no response has been given by the Forensic Medicine. The lawyers' demand for an additional investigation has been denied by the prosecutor. The Avras family's lawyer submitted the case to the European Court for Human Rights. BOLGE/BOLGE: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan watched, through satellite TV, the inauguration ceremonies held for the Irrigation by Gravity Project of the Yumurtalik Plain. The Adana Governor, mayor, Adana lawmakers from AK Party and the 6th Regional Director of the State Water Works Department in Adana participated in the ceremonies. BOLGE: Workers and their families protesting the closure of the Adana Cigarette Factory gathered in the Southern Region Representation Office of the Tek-Gida Is (The Union of Tobacco, Alcoholic Beverages, Food, and Subsidiary Works) and carried Turkish flags and banners reading "IMF, get out; This country is ours; Monopoly is homeland, Homeland can not be sold" and shouted anti-government slogans. On behalf of workers, the union's Regional Representative, Gursel Dilkilic, said the cigarette plant erected on 44,000 square meters had 50,000 ton daily production capacity and possessed 23.32 percent of Turkey's cigarette market and made an annual profit of 2.5 million US dollars. Dilkilic said that 700 people were presently working in the plant, and advised privatizing the cigarette production line in lieu of closing it. REID