SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JUNE 23, 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000150 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JUNE 23, 2006 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for June 23, 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 HURRIYET / RADIKAL / ZAMAN / CUMHURIYET: Both parties of the Semdinli trial objected to the June 19 verdict given by Van's Third Heavy Penalty Court. Defendants' attorney said that the court is to respond to their objection in fifteen days. The attorney further said that they did not specify the grounds for their objection because the court also has not stated the grounds on which its verdict was issued. Litigants objected to the verdict as based on grounds that the defendants should be given penalty for "attempting to disrupt unity and solidarity of the country", a statement which was included by the former Van Prosecutor Ferhat Sarikaya in the Semdinli indictment. Meanwhile, Yeni Safak daily corrected the imprisonment term the court gave to the non-commissioned officers as thirty-nine years and ten months in prison, not thirty-nine years and five months. Cumhuriyet daily cited Ahmet Ersin, Izmir deputy from CHP and member of the parliamentary commission probing Semdinli case, as branding it a very exceptional situation that the Semdinli trial was finalized in one and a half months. Ersin criticized the trial process for being deficient because the court gave verdict without taking the last statement of one of the defendants. OZGUR GUNDEM / EVRENSEL: People in Semdinli showed reaction upon hearing the news that Seferi Yilmaz, owner of the bookstore which was bombed on November 9, 2005 in Semdinli, was also arrested because of a statement given about him by a PKK defector following the verdict given by the Van court. Semdinli people held a march, demanded release of Yilmaz and expressed that Yilmaz was not alone. DTP, EMEP (The Party of Labor),SDP (Socialist Democracy Party),ESP (Socialist Party of the Oppressed People),Human Rights Association, Free Citizens' Movement, Mesopotamia Cultural Center, and Kurdish Institute extended support to those protests. OZGUR GUNDEM / EVRENSEL: EU officials reportedly pointed out that an investigation to probe the names behind the Semdinli incident should be started to find out about the suspected involvement of senior military officials in the incident. OZGUR GUNDEM: Citing the recent clashes which took place in northeastern Gumushane province and southern Osmaniye province on June 20 and 21 respectively, the daily alleged that the extent of the Turkish Armed Forces' operations has widened as if to include the whole country in a war. One soldier in Gumushane and two soldiers in Osmaniye have been killed, the daily claimed. Separately, it is noted that PKK headquarters reportedly warned the Kurdish people in Hatay and its districts Iskenderun, Erzin and Dortyol against a person (counter-guerilla) who gathered money from people in the name of PKK. RADIKAL / HURRIYET / SABAH: A 21-year-old soldier died in a clash with PKK members in Tunceli's Pulumur district yesterday morning. ZAMAN: A PKK member has been killed in a clash that took place in Mardin's Nusaybin district. SABAH: The daily cites allegations of an Israeli newspaper claiming that some retired Israeli security officials and some big companies in Israel set up military camps in northern Iraq and provided military training, equipment and ammunition to the Kurdish people in the region. OZGUR GUNDEM / EVRENSEL: DTP Women's Assembly asked for a de facto continuation of the party's co-chairmanship model in response to the Supreme Court's objection to co-chairmanship which reportedly conflicts with the Turkish Political Parties Act. Some circles reportedly say that, if co-chairmanship got abolished in Sunday's DTP congress, Co-chairperson Ahmet Turk would be designated as the leader of the party. Yet, nothing is certain about that, Evrensel daily noted. HURRIYET: Representatives of ETA and IRA, upon invitation from DTP to their first-ever congress to be held on June 25 in Ankara, announced that they would attend the congress. HURRIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM / SABAH / CUMHURIYET: Turkish Parliament has passed a law concerning the founding of Bilkent University's international educational sciences institutes, one of which is already in operation in Ankara, in Erzurum, Malatya, Urfa and Van provinces as well. Ozgur Gundem describes the project as an attempt to convince public workers to come to the ADANA 00000150 002 OF 002 southeastern region through offering educational opportunities for their "privileged" children (see press summary 06/31). BOLGE / EKSPRES: DYP (True Path Party) Leader Mehmet Agar came to Adana and attended an event the provincial party organization held in Seyhan Hotel. Agar reportedly stressed during his talk that nobody has been regarded as belonging to a minority in the country, except for the non-Muslim communities, for a long time in the country. Every national of the country has always been united in both good and bad times and there has never been a separate Kurdish issue in that regard to date. SABAH (GUNEY): Mardin reportedly suffers severely from lack of investment in the province. Nearly forty of the seventy factories in the organized industrial zone have been idle to date. BOLGE / CUMHURIYET: Tayfun Mater, Spokesperson of Global Peace and Justice Commission, delivered a speech at the panel called "Middle East and Turkey in the Aftermath of Iraqi Occupation" at the Theater Hall of the Adana Municipality. Mater said that without the presence of Incirlik Airbase, the U.S., since it was occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, would not be as comfortable as it is today. Chairperson of the Adana Coordination Council of the Union of Turkish Engineers and Architects Chambers and Editor-in-Chief of the local Yeni Adana daily were among the panelists. BOLGE: Lionel Martijn, Head of Union of Developing Municipalities in EU, held a seminar in Mersin's Anamur district that enlightened local people on the issue of how developing municipalities can benefit from EU funds. CUMHURIYET: Unexpected developments have been rocking the provincial party organization of AKP in Adana. While provincial chairperson Mustafa Attaroglu was in Ankara, it was announced that deputy chairpersons Bilal Nadir Gok and Fatih Kocaispir, who supported Attaroglu in last months provincial chairperson elections, were removed from office. BOLGE: Fire broke out in forestland near Adana's Kozan district and ten hectares of forest land have burned so far. BOLGE: A fight in Adana between two families belonging to the same clan, which is renowned for their misdemeanors in the province, resulted in gunfire which wounded a person. BOLGE / EKSPRES: Authorities accelerated their efforts to prepare Ceyhan district for the opening of Baku-Tibilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline on July 13 in Adana. HURRIYET: Five people called the Kazanli district mayor in Mersin and told him that they would come to the municipality to settle old scores with the mayor. Those people carried out a raid at the municipality with guns at 11.30 am yesterday. Four of the assailants ran away when they could not find the mayor in his office. The fifth one has been detained. REID