SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR APRIL 5, 2005

UNCLAS ADANA 000072 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR APRIL 5, 2005 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for April 5, 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 (GUNEY) / BOLGE / EKSPRES / OZGUR GUNDEM: Osman Akkus, a lone anti-war and anti-NATO demonstrator, whose nickname is "Don Quixote", protested the U.S. presence in Incirlik Airbase on a horse at the entrance of the Incirlik district in Adana. HURRIYET / SABAH (GUNEY) / RADIKAL: During a four-day military operation conducted against the terrorist organization PKK in Sirnak, a Jandarma officer died and nine terrorists were killed. Seventeen caves and shelters, where the terrorists hid themselves, were discovered. Reportedly, eight Kalachnikov guns, twenty anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, four kilograms of C-4 explosives, four rocket propellers, chemical substances, hand grenades, bullets and documents were found in these caves and shelters. EVRENSEL: It is reported that a hundred military vehicles have been brought to the train station of Diyarbakir. The vehicles were reportedly unloaded and delivered to Seventh Army Corps under tight security measures. This deployment of the vehicles in the region was reportedly regarded as a sign of escalating military operations in southeast Turkey. SABAH (GUNEY) / EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: When KADEK was established in April 2002, the PKK organization was (supposedly) done away with, but it has now reportedly been re-established at the "Congress of Restructuring". It is claimed that the founder of the organization expressed loyalty to Abdullah Ocalan and stated that "new" PKK was reportedly "set free from errors and deficiencies". OZGUR GUNDEM: April 4 is reported to be the birthday of the arrested PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The police allegedly stopped a convoy of forty buses from Nusaybin, Kiziltepe, Derik and Mazidagi districts, as they were traveling towards Omerli, the hometown of Ocalan. A bus set off from Adana as well, and two police cars reportedly followed it. Another convoy with fifty cars, to which DEHAP (Democratic People's Party) members bid farewell, set out for Omerli from Diyarbakir. EVRENSEL: In Istanbul and Adana, a group protested the arrest of twenty-seven "human shield" volunteers, who aim to end the military operations in southeastern Turkey, by means of a press statement. The press statement claimed the peace and democracy talk of the (Turkish) government was mere rhetoric. HURRIYET / RADIKAL / SABAH: A lawsuit was opened against four MHP (National Movement Party) members in Osmaniye on the grounds that they flew the Turkish flag on four flagpoles although the Sub-Governor and the Kadirli District Mayor (from Justice and Development Party) did not grant authorization to them to do so. Separately, in another flag incident in Erzurum, seven high school students were detained on the grounds that they brought down the flag from the mast at a primary school and tore it into pieces. RADIKAL: The Ministry of Culture plans to embark upon a restoration project of the historical Armenian Church in Van. YENI SAFAK: Twenty provincial chairmen from CHP (Republivan People's Party) who were removed from their party posts plan to apply to the European Court of Human Rights against the party administration, should domestic judicial processes not remedy the party's (allegedly) anti-democratic actions. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS ¶1. SABAH (GUNEY): MUSIAD (Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association) Executive Board members and Mehmet Aygun, MUSIAD Adana Branch Chairperson, paid visits to the Chairperson of the Adana Chamber of Commerce and Adana Chamber of Industry. Aygun called on the deputies, bureaucrats, chambers, faculty members and NGOs to work together to solve the problems of Adana. REID