Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05ADANA65
2005-04-01 06:02:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Consulate Adana
Cable title:
SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MARCH 30, 2005
how-toThis record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000065
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MARCH 30, 2005
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for March 30,
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
ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM: The concluding remarks at the end of the
First Alevi Conference in Ankara announced a campaign to do away
with the state's mandatory religious instruction. The campaign
will start in April and continue until September 12.
ZAMAN: According to Zaman, the recent attempt to burn the
Turkish flag in Mersin caused tension between different groups,
manifested most strongly in universities. Hostility arose
between ultra-nationalist students and members of the PKK youth
centers in Marmara University, for example, and university
administrators had to call in police as a preemptive measure.
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / OZGUR GUNDEM: Harun Kaygu, a
fourteen-year-old child, died as he played with a mortar shell
that he found on an open field close to a military training zone
in Geneyik village of Gaziantep. Likewise, two children died in
1998 due to ammunition related blasts in the same place and
families have complained about military trainings being
conducted so close to human settlements.
EKSPRES / BOLGE / EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: DISK
(Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions),KESK
(Confederation of Public Sector Emloyees Unions),Turk-Is
(Turkish Labour Union),TMMOB (Turkish Union of Chambers of
Architects and Engineers) and TTB (Turkish Medical Association)
are planning to stage a mass rally on April 3 in Adana against
the privatization of various state enterprises such as TEKEL
(State Tobacco Enterprise),SEKA (State Paper Mill Enterprise),
hospitals, village services offices, and enterprises related
with transportation, communication, and energy.
CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM: Mehmet Agar, DYP (True Path Party)
leader, has been traveling in southeastern Turkey and delivering
political messages in many provinces. Today, Agar was at DYP's
Provincial Congress in Mardin. A day ago in Diyarbakir, Agar
bid farewell in Kurdish, which reminded many people of the trial
that Tuncer Bakirhan, DEHAP (Democratic People's Party) leader,
was subjected to for bidding a Kurdish farewell to a crowd prior
to March 2004 local elections. Bakirhan had reportedly been
charged with violating the Political Party Act that bans
non-Turkish languages during party activities, but was
eventually acquitted for a lack of evidence of having made a
Kurdish address, since he only bid farewell.
OZGUR GUNDEM: Alaattin Erdogan, the head of the DEHAP
delegation sent to Mersin to investigate the flag-insult
incident, rejected claims that he showed disrespect to the
Turkish flag in 1998 (see 03/29 press summary). According to
Erdogan, the case was allegedly a plot fabricated by the
officials against him.
BOLGE: Asuleyman Akkapulu, a fifty-five-year veteran of the
CHP (Republican People's Party) in Adana, said that CHP has
actually been a long-suffering institution that has come to an
end in practice today in Adana. Criticizing the recent toppling
of the provincial party administration, Akkapulu stated that the
Provincial Chairman should also have been blamed if things had
been going wrong within the party administration.
BOLGE: Bolge reports that a power transition in Adana's CHP
was underway after the reshuffling of the party administration
here. Claiming that Adana CHP MP Ugur Aksoz was engineering this
change from Ankara, the report says everyone is struggling to
win a position, and waiting anxiously to learn the names of the
new party administration members. Of particular interest is the
answer to the question: "Who will assign whom?"
EVRENSEL: Evrensel quotes from an article by well-known
Milliyet journalist Guneri Civaoglu, who paid a visit to the
Incirlik Airbase in Adana and described his observations there.
According to Evrensel, the Turkish media is extending support to
the U.S. by backing its requests regarding the use of the
Airbase. Meanwhile, the U.S. has (allegedly) been intensifying
pressure on the Turkish government by bringing forth the
following two unsolved issues: the recognition of the Orthodox
Patriarch as Ecumenical, and the recognition of April 24 as the
Armenian commemoration day.
EVRENSEL: As time for the verdict approaches in the appeal of
Abdullah Ocalan at the European Court of Human Rights, the issue
of granting a retrial to Ocalan was reportedly discussed in the
meeting of the Council of Ministers the day before.
BOLGE / EKSPRES: Adana AKP MP Abdullah Torun denied IHA news
agency's allegation that Torun was not welcomed by the public
during his visits around Adana with Yuregir Mayor Omer Topcu on
March 29. Torun described IHA's reporting as false and baseless.
Today, Ekspres reads that Yuregir has benefited greatly from
Torun's outstanding performance in his office and the paper
outlines his merits.
REID
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MARCH 30, 2005
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for March 30,
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
ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM: The concluding remarks at the end of the
First Alevi Conference in Ankara announced a campaign to do away
with the state's mandatory religious instruction. The campaign
will start in April and continue until September 12.
ZAMAN: According to Zaman, the recent attempt to burn the
Turkish flag in Mersin caused tension between different groups,
manifested most strongly in universities. Hostility arose
between ultra-nationalist students and members of the PKK youth
centers in Marmara University, for example, and university
administrators had to call in police as a preemptive measure.
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / OZGUR GUNDEM: Harun Kaygu, a
fourteen-year-old child, died as he played with a mortar shell
that he found on an open field close to a military training zone
in Geneyik village of Gaziantep. Likewise, two children died in
1998 due to ammunition related blasts in the same place and
families have complained about military trainings being
conducted so close to human settlements.
EKSPRES / BOLGE / EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: DISK
(Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions),KESK
(Confederation of Public Sector Emloyees Unions),Turk-Is
(Turkish Labour Union),TMMOB (Turkish Union of Chambers of
Architects and Engineers) and TTB (Turkish Medical Association)
are planning to stage a mass rally on April 3 in Adana against
the privatization of various state enterprises such as TEKEL
(State Tobacco Enterprise),SEKA (State Paper Mill Enterprise),
hospitals, village services offices, and enterprises related
with transportation, communication, and energy.
CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM: Mehmet Agar, DYP (True Path Party)
leader, has been traveling in southeastern Turkey and delivering
political messages in many provinces. Today, Agar was at DYP's
Provincial Congress in Mardin. A day ago in Diyarbakir, Agar
bid farewell in Kurdish, which reminded many people of the trial
that Tuncer Bakirhan, DEHAP (Democratic People's Party) leader,
was subjected to for bidding a Kurdish farewell to a crowd prior
to March 2004 local elections. Bakirhan had reportedly been
charged with violating the Political Party Act that bans
non-Turkish languages during party activities, but was
eventually acquitted for a lack of evidence of having made a
Kurdish address, since he only bid farewell.
OZGUR GUNDEM: Alaattin Erdogan, the head of the DEHAP
delegation sent to Mersin to investigate the flag-insult
incident, rejected claims that he showed disrespect to the
Turkish flag in 1998 (see 03/29 press summary). According to
Erdogan, the case was allegedly a plot fabricated by the
officials against him.
BOLGE: Asuleyman Akkapulu, a fifty-five-year veteran of the
CHP (Republican People's Party) in Adana, said that CHP has
actually been a long-suffering institution that has come to an
end in practice today in Adana. Criticizing the recent toppling
of the provincial party administration, Akkapulu stated that the
Provincial Chairman should also have been blamed if things had
been going wrong within the party administration.
BOLGE: Bolge reports that a power transition in Adana's CHP
was underway after the reshuffling of the party administration
here. Claiming that Adana CHP MP Ugur Aksoz was engineering this
change from Ankara, the report says everyone is struggling to
win a position, and waiting anxiously to learn the names of the
new party administration members. Of particular interest is the
answer to the question: "Who will assign whom?"
EVRENSEL: Evrensel quotes from an article by well-known
Milliyet journalist Guneri Civaoglu, who paid a visit to the
Incirlik Airbase in Adana and described his observations there.
According to Evrensel, the Turkish media is extending support to
the U.S. by backing its requests regarding the use of the
Airbase. Meanwhile, the U.S. has (allegedly) been intensifying
pressure on the Turkish government by bringing forth the
following two unsolved issues: the recognition of the Orthodox
Patriarch as Ecumenical, and the recognition of April 24 as the
Armenian commemoration day.
EVRENSEL: As time for the verdict approaches in the appeal of
Abdullah Ocalan at the European Court of Human Rights, the issue
of granting a retrial to Ocalan was reportedly discussed in the
meeting of the Council of Ministers the day before.
BOLGE / EKSPRES: Adana AKP MP Abdullah Torun denied IHA news
agency's allegation that Torun was not welcomed by the public
during his visits around Adana with Yuregir Mayor Omer Topcu on
March 29. Torun described IHA's reporting as false and baseless.
Today, Ekspres reads that Yuregir has benefited greatly from
Torun's outstanding performance in his office and the paper
outlines his merits.
REID