Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ADANA114
2006-05-23 06:22:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Consulate Adana
Cable title:
SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MAY 22, 2006
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000114
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MAY 22, 2006
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for May 22, 2006.
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
OZGUR GUNDEM: A bomb explosion took place on Friday (05/19)
in a trash can located in front of the apartment building where
Sabahattin Suvagci, former DEHAP (Democratic People's Party)
provincial chairperson, has been living in Hakkari. No
casualties have been reported. The daily hints that bombings
are being orchestrated to refute claims that bombings in the
region that took place in the second half of 2005 abruptly
stopped when defendants of Semdinli case were arrested. PKK,
according to the paper, had already denied any links with the
May 3 bombing incident this year in Hakkari, which targeted a
school bus. That bombing, the daily hints, has reportedly
already been used by the defendants themselves in a May 4 court
session to prove that bombings did not abruptly stop following
arrest of Semdinli case defendants.
EVRENSEL / EKSPRES / BOLGE: A tragic accident took place when
a truck, which was carrying trafficked Afghani and Bangladeshi
nationals, hit another truck on the road between Gaziantep and
Adana on Friday (05/19). Forty-three people were killed and 4
people were wounded as a result of the accident.
RADIKAL: Ankara Governor's Office demanded twenty-three
amendments to the charter of the Association for Academic
Research and Kurdish Democracy Forum on grounds that some items
violated the Turkish constitution's clauses against separatism.
OZGUR GUNDEM: The PKK claimed that six soldiers and a
village guard died during military operations going on in
Diyarbakir, Mardin and Hakkari provinces.
OZGUR GUNDEM: Foreign national delegates of the 5th ICAD
(International Conference Against Disapperances) in Diyarbakir
have reportedly been baffled by reported police activities such
as recording events during the conference, obtaining identity
information of the disappeared people who delivered talks during
the conference, and barring the closing date of the conference.
EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: A campaign has been launched
recently to gather signatures from people in support of
Diyarbakir's Sur District Mayor Abdullah Demirbas. A lawsuit
was brought against Demirbas for submitting an article called
"Municipalities and Local Administrations in the Light of
Multi-Language Environments" to European Social Forum in Vienna.
Separately, an investigation has begun against Cevdet Konak,
Hozat district mayor in Tunceli, reportedly because of a speech
he delivered at a festival in Germany.
OZGUR GUNDEM: Thousands, including Nusaybin mayor, authors
of the weekly Kurdish language newspaper Azadiya Welat, DTP
Nusaybin administrators, Egitim-Sen (Teacher's Union) members,
SES (Health Laborers' Union) members, BES (Laborers' Union)
members, attended a concert which was organized by Mardin's
Nusaybin Municipality. Police, reportedly seized
green-yellow-red colored scarves from women and demaned copies
of the identities of two musicians.
OZGUR GUNDEM: An investigation has been started against
seven people including DTP Nizip district chairperson in
Sanliurfa on charges that they "praised criminals" and "chanted
illegal slogans" during a January 25 dated youth festival in
Sanliurfa's Birecik district.
CUMHURIYET / EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: Local DTP congresses
have been held in Van, Mardin, Adana and Sanliurfa provinces.
Ibrahi Sunkur, Ferhat Turk (currently under arrest),Kerem Ugur
and Ibrahim Binici have been elected provincial chairmen of Van,
Mardin, Adana and Sanliurfa provinces respectively. Yesterday
DTP also held two congresses in Diyarbakir and Istanbul. DTP
co-chairperson Aysel Tugluk made a call to authorities to act
more bravely to reach a democratic solution for the Kurdish
problem in Diyarbakir.
YENI SAFAK / ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM: A 4.8-magnitude earthquake
hit Bitlis and Siirt yesterday morning. The epicenter of the
earthquake is reportedly Bitlis's Hizan district. No casualties
or material damage has been reported.
OZGUR GUNDEM: The ministry of education in England has
reportedly begun revising its policies about languages being
taught at schools in England. Among current discussion topics
are integrating new languages in school programs including
Kurdish language and its dialects.
ADANA 00000114 002 OF 002
YENI SAFAK / RADIKAL / BOLGE / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Gaziantep
Security Directorate conducted operations and seized four
undocumented shotguns, six cartridges, and 385 bullets in a
business place and a storage house in Gaziantep. Thirty-six
tons of smuggled diesel fuel, 65 kilograms of smuggled tea, and
100 kilograms of sugar have also been seized. A total of 26
people, five of whom were customs officers, have been detained
during the operations and police have started monitoring the
Kilis border gate closely.
RADIKAL: A bee keeper, who opened fire in the air thinking
that a wild animal entered his apiary, was shot dead by security
officers who mistook the bee keeper for a terrorist in the dead
of the night in Erzincan's Pulumur district.
EVRENSEL: Adana branch of Chamber of Electrical Engineers
(CEE) held a panel against nuclear power plants. Tuncay Ozkul,
CEE chairperson; Tacidar Seyhan, CHP deputy from Adana; a
nuclear engineer, CEE board president and member engineers
attended the panel discussion.
EKSPRES: AGIMAD (Clothing Brands Association in Adana) will
protest the Industrial and Commercial Fair of Adana this year
and 22 companies under the umbrella of the association will
boycott the fair unless the organizers of the fair are chosen
from among more professional companies.
ZAMAN / BOLGE / EKSPRES: With the coming of wheat harvest
in the Cukurova region, the farmers are reportedly expecting the
government to announce incentives to support wheat buying.
Fethi Coskuntuncel, Chairperson of Adana Commodity Exchange,
said that the government should provide regional incentives for
wheat buying instead of buying wheat from the farmers; a measure
which would trigger self generated agricultural planning,
according to Coskuntuncel.
SABAH (GUNEY): Efforts reportedly gained momentum in
Gaziantep as the day for the International Iraqi Fair, which
will be held on June 7, neared.
SABAH (GUNEY): Hatay Governor Ahmet Kayhan said that the
bidding process of the airport project for Hatay had begun and
the airport would be completed in the following year.
EVRENSEL: Youth for Labor group in Diyarbakir remembered Deniz
Gezmis, a young leftist student leader of the 1970s and his
friends, who were hung by a military tribunal in 1972 in Turkey,
on the 34th anniversary of their execution.
ZAMAN: PM Erdogan met with Deputy Secretary of State in
Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh city where World Economic Forum is being
held. Erdogan sent a message to the U.S. to start fighting
against the PKK.
CUMHURIYET: Patriotic Front against Imperialism protested in
Hatay's Iskenderun district the reported U.S. aspirations to use
the port of Iskenderun as a military base.
CUMHURIYET: Seven terrorists, who were caught in an operation
conducted in Nigde province on May 16, have been arraigned and
arrested. The terrorists are reportedly members of TKP-ML TIKKO
(Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey)
terrorist organization.
WILSON
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MAY 22, 2006
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for May 22, 2006.
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
OZGUR GUNDEM: A bomb explosion took place on Friday (05/19)
in a trash can located in front of the apartment building where
Sabahattin Suvagci, former DEHAP (Democratic People's Party)
provincial chairperson, has been living in Hakkari. No
casualties have been reported. The daily hints that bombings
are being orchestrated to refute claims that bombings in the
region that took place in the second half of 2005 abruptly
stopped when defendants of Semdinli case were arrested. PKK,
according to the paper, had already denied any links with the
May 3 bombing incident this year in Hakkari, which targeted a
school bus. That bombing, the daily hints, has reportedly
already been used by the defendants themselves in a May 4 court
session to prove that bombings did not abruptly stop following
arrest of Semdinli case defendants.
EVRENSEL / EKSPRES / BOLGE: A tragic accident took place when
a truck, which was carrying trafficked Afghani and Bangladeshi
nationals, hit another truck on the road between Gaziantep and
Adana on Friday (05/19). Forty-three people were killed and 4
people were wounded as a result of the accident.
RADIKAL: Ankara Governor's Office demanded twenty-three
amendments to the charter of the Association for Academic
Research and Kurdish Democracy Forum on grounds that some items
violated the Turkish constitution's clauses against separatism.
OZGUR GUNDEM: The PKK claimed that six soldiers and a
village guard died during military operations going on in
Diyarbakir, Mardin and Hakkari provinces.
OZGUR GUNDEM: Foreign national delegates of the 5th ICAD
(International Conference Against Disapperances) in Diyarbakir
have reportedly been baffled by reported police activities such
as recording events during the conference, obtaining identity
information of the disappeared people who delivered talks during
the conference, and barring the closing date of the conference.
EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: A campaign has been launched
recently to gather signatures from people in support of
Diyarbakir's Sur District Mayor Abdullah Demirbas. A lawsuit
was brought against Demirbas for submitting an article called
"Municipalities and Local Administrations in the Light of
Multi-Language Environments" to European Social Forum in Vienna.
Separately, an investigation has begun against Cevdet Konak,
Hozat district mayor in Tunceli, reportedly because of a speech
he delivered at a festival in Germany.
OZGUR GUNDEM: Thousands, including Nusaybin mayor, authors
of the weekly Kurdish language newspaper Azadiya Welat, DTP
Nusaybin administrators, Egitim-Sen (Teacher's Union) members,
SES (Health Laborers' Union) members, BES (Laborers' Union)
members, attended a concert which was organized by Mardin's
Nusaybin Municipality. Police, reportedly seized
green-yellow-red colored scarves from women and demaned copies
of the identities of two musicians.
OZGUR GUNDEM: An investigation has been started against
seven people including DTP Nizip district chairperson in
Sanliurfa on charges that they "praised criminals" and "chanted
illegal slogans" during a January 25 dated youth festival in
Sanliurfa's Birecik district.
CUMHURIYET / EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: Local DTP congresses
have been held in Van, Mardin, Adana and Sanliurfa provinces.
Ibrahi Sunkur, Ferhat Turk (currently under arrest),Kerem Ugur
and Ibrahim Binici have been elected provincial chairmen of Van,
Mardin, Adana and Sanliurfa provinces respectively. Yesterday
DTP also held two congresses in Diyarbakir and Istanbul. DTP
co-chairperson Aysel Tugluk made a call to authorities to act
more bravely to reach a democratic solution for the Kurdish
problem in Diyarbakir.
YENI SAFAK / ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM: A 4.8-magnitude earthquake
hit Bitlis and Siirt yesterday morning. The epicenter of the
earthquake is reportedly Bitlis's Hizan district. No casualties
or material damage has been reported.
OZGUR GUNDEM: The ministry of education in England has
reportedly begun revising its policies about languages being
taught at schools in England. Among current discussion topics
are integrating new languages in school programs including
Kurdish language and its dialects.
ADANA 00000114 002 OF 002
YENI SAFAK / RADIKAL / BOLGE / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Gaziantep
Security Directorate conducted operations and seized four
undocumented shotguns, six cartridges, and 385 bullets in a
business place and a storage house in Gaziantep. Thirty-six
tons of smuggled diesel fuel, 65 kilograms of smuggled tea, and
100 kilograms of sugar have also been seized. A total of 26
people, five of whom were customs officers, have been detained
during the operations and police have started monitoring the
Kilis border gate closely.
RADIKAL: A bee keeper, who opened fire in the air thinking
that a wild animal entered his apiary, was shot dead by security
officers who mistook the bee keeper for a terrorist in the dead
of the night in Erzincan's Pulumur district.
EVRENSEL: Adana branch of Chamber of Electrical Engineers
(CEE) held a panel against nuclear power plants. Tuncay Ozkul,
CEE chairperson; Tacidar Seyhan, CHP deputy from Adana; a
nuclear engineer, CEE board president and member engineers
attended the panel discussion.
EKSPRES: AGIMAD (Clothing Brands Association in Adana) will
protest the Industrial and Commercial Fair of Adana this year
and 22 companies under the umbrella of the association will
boycott the fair unless the organizers of the fair are chosen
from among more professional companies.
ZAMAN / BOLGE / EKSPRES: With the coming of wheat harvest
in the Cukurova region, the farmers are reportedly expecting the
government to announce incentives to support wheat buying.
Fethi Coskuntuncel, Chairperson of Adana Commodity Exchange,
said that the government should provide regional incentives for
wheat buying instead of buying wheat from the farmers; a measure
which would trigger self generated agricultural planning,
according to Coskuntuncel.
SABAH (GUNEY): Efforts reportedly gained momentum in
Gaziantep as the day for the International Iraqi Fair, which
will be held on June 7, neared.
SABAH (GUNEY): Hatay Governor Ahmet Kayhan said that the
bidding process of the airport project for Hatay had begun and
the airport would be completed in the following year.
EVRENSEL: Youth for Labor group in Diyarbakir remembered Deniz
Gezmis, a young leftist student leader of the 1970s and his
friends, who were hung by a military tribunal in 1972 in Turkey,
on the 34th anniversary of their execution.
ZAMAN: PM Erdogan met with Deputy Secretary of State in
Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh city where World Economic Forum is being
held. Erdogan sent a message to the U.S. to start fighting
against the PKK.
CUMHURIYET: Patriotic Front against Imperialism protested in
Hatay's Iskenderun district the reported U.S. aspirations to use
the port of Iskenderun as a military base.
CUMHURIYET: Seven terrorists, who were caught in an operation
conducted in Nigde province on May 16, have been arraigned and
arrested. The terrorists are reportedly members of TKP-ML TIKKO
(Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey)
terrorist organization.
WILSON