SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JUNE 09, 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000136 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JUNE 09, 2006 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for June 09, 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 ZAMAN / HURRIYET ONLINE: An explosion that took place in a trash can in Sirnak's Cizre district killed a 13-year-old child and wounded five people. Separately, terrorists opened fire at a police residence in Batman's Kozluk district yesterday night at around 21.00. Four police officers on guard have been wounded. RADIKAL / OZGUR GUNDEM: The daily claimed that six soldiers died the previous day during the clashes that took place in Hakkari's Semdinli and Tunceli's Pulumur districts. Meanwhile, because of an ongoing military operation in Diyarbakir's Dicle district, a village has been blockaded by the soldiers for one week and the villagers are reportedly very uneasy about the situation. BOLGE: Deniz Baykal, CHP National Leader, will come to Adana on Sunday and address the party delegates in Adana. According to the daily, the opposition group within the party will show great interest to Baykal's visit and will convey their complaints about the CHP local party administration in Adana. YENI SAFAK / BOLGE / OZGUR GUNDEM: TPAO (Turkish Petroleum Corporation) discovered two petroleum reserves in the two wells it dug in the mined area at the border area with Syria in Mardin's Nusaybin district. OZGUR GUNDEM: Representatives of the business world and non-governmental organizations, and intellectuals will hold a conference in Diyarbakir on June 11 to discuss democratic ways to resolve the Kurdish issue. EVRENSEL / SOZGUR GUNDEM: As people voiced allegations about military people in connection with killing of Selahattin Aksu and his daughter in Mardin's Kiziltepe on June 3, General Chief of Staff demanded from Mardin's Kiziltepe Subgovernor and Prosecutor that the incident be thoroughly investigated. DTP (Democratic Society Party) delegation, who paid a visit to the family of Aksu, pointed out that the event might have been an act of (illegal) gangs which embedded themselves in the state structure. The villagers in the district have not provided much information reportedly because they had concerns about their security. OZGUR GUNDEM: Adana chapter of Human Rights Association announced that human rights violations have increased by 300 per cent as compared to the previous year. OZGUR GUNDEM: Thirty eight attorneys who gathered in front of the Court Hall of Adana extended support to Attorney Behic Asci who launched a hunger strike in April 5 against isolation of the inmates in the jails. ZAMAN / EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: As the news reports about 34 children, who were found to have disappeared from the state orphanage in Diyarbakir, has been making the news. Ozgur Gundem daily points out the poor physical and hygienic conditions at the orphanage. OZGUR GUNDEM: DTP Women's Assembly set up stands in Diyarbakir, Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, Bursa, Mersin, and Adana to gather signatures in support of the co-chairmanship concept of DTP, introduced for the first time in the Turkish political world (see press summaries 05/26, 30, and 06/06). DTP has recently decided to reintroduce the single national leadership model despite objections from women members of the party, in response to Turkish Supreme Court objections to the co-chairmanship. OZGUR GUNDEM: Kahraman family in a village of Diyarbakir's Bismil district allegedly carried out an attack with the reported help of village guards with guns against the Tanrikulu family in the neighboring village. A 40-year-old woman was serioiusly wounded as a result of the attack. The attack reportedly resulted from a dispute between the families over a piece of land. BOLGE / SABAH (GUNEY): Jandarma Command teams in Mersin's Tarsus district seized 10 kilograms of hashish during an operation conducted on a car. Separately, police found 8,500 bottles of smuggled whiskey and vodka in hidden sections of a truck in Mersin. RADIKAL / EVRENSEL: People, who have incurred damages ADANA 00000136 002 OF 002 because of the Semdinli bombing in Hakkari on November 9, 2005, demanded through their attorneys a total of 950,000 YTL (approx. 615,000 USD) in compensation from the Ministry of Interior. The owner of the bookstore, Seferi Yilmaz, is among the persons who solicited compensation. NTVMSNBC ONLINE: VAKAD (Van Women's Association) conducted a study in Van on the causes of increasing suicide rates among women, which is a reported development similar to the cases in Batman. According to the report of the association, women in Van are being forced into committing suicide if the family thinks the woman brought disgrace to the family. According to the figures provided by VAKAD, 45 women in 2005, and 22 women in the first five months of 2006 in Van have committed suicide. RADIKAL: Three members of the closed Kurd-Der (Kurdish Association),who were arrested on May 2 (see press summary 05/03) for holding an unauthorized march towards the border in Sirnak's Silopi district against intensified military deployments in the border area, have been released by the Diyarbakir 6th Heavy Penalty Court. ZAMAN: As new stories about theft of archeological artifacts from the museums appear in Turkey every day, it has been recently found out that an archaeologist working in the museum of Kahramanmaras replaced 140 artifacts in the museum with fakes 11 years ago. SABAH (GUNEY): International Iraq Fair reportedly boosted Gaziantep's economy greatly. REID