SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 07, 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000159 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 07, 2006 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for July 07, 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 SABAH: Necirvan Barzani, the Prime Minister of the regional authority in northern Iraq, reportedly signed a deal with Microsoft Company to embark on efforts to produce a Kurdish language Windows operating system, reported the web site of the Iraqi Kurdistan Patriotic Union. SABAH / ZAMAN: Ministry of Justice recommended that Van's Chief Prosecutor Kemal Kacan, who has been included in the decree which relocates positions of judges and prosecutors in Turkey (see press summary 07/07),be appointed to Bakirkoy Prosecutor's Office in Istanbul; a move, if realized, that would constitute a demotion for Kacan. This recommendation reportedly does not oblige Higher Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HBJP) to issue the same decision. HBJP may appoint Kacan elsewhere as a regular prosecutor. HURRIYET: The daily reported that PKK members raided a highland area in Hatay's Amanos Mountains on June 2 and forcibly took food from inhabitants as they told people that they were hungry. Separately, the daily notes that a group of terrorists demanded food from a shepherd in a village of Gumushane and gave 100 euros in exchange. HURRIYET / SABAH: An explosion took place in a truck carrying bread to the police station in Diyarbakir's Dicle district yesterday at noon. The explosion took place near the station, it killed the driver and wounded a commissioned officer and two soldiers from that station. HURRIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM: Police and Jandarma received a tip-off that two PKK militants would attempt to carry out an assassination against Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc during his visit next Saturday in Tunceli. The intelligence obtained informed that the two militants had brought A4 and C4 explosives to the province and they may target the governor and other high ranking officials in the city. Meanwhile, Ozgur Gundem daily reported that intensified security measures and implementations similar to state of emergency rule have been continuing in Mardin's Kiziltepe district because of a tip-off that claimed two PKK terrorists arrived in the district. CUMHURIYET / SABAH / ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM / YENI SAFAK: Ankara Chief Prosecutor's Office prepared an indictment against, and demanded two years in prison for, DTP Chairperson Ahmet Turk and DTP member Aysel Tugluk for issuing a March 8 statement marking Women's Day for the attention of DTP branches which allegedly violated Turkish Political Parties Act. Zaman daily reported that the Women's Day statement was in Kurdish and it praised terrorist leader Abdullah Ocalan. OZGUR GUNDEM: The daily reported that the number of investigations brought against Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir between 1998 and 2004 was 193. The daily separately reported that nine DTP members have been detained in Izmir following a police raid at their houses yesterday morning. Meanwhile, six out of seven DTP members, against whom action was brought for carrying posters of Ocalan and shouting slogans in support for him on September 1 Peace Day last year, have been acquitted. Then Chairperson of Human Rights Association's Adana chapter have been convicted and sentenced to 10 months in prison. OZGUR GUNDEM: According to the daily, PKK leader Murat Karayilan made a call to the foreign investors not to carry out investments in Turkey. OZGUR GUNDEM: Diyarbakir's Sur Municipality delivered 4,000 Kurdish books (fables) to children. OZGUR GUNDEM: The daily claims that five soldiers have been killed and 11 soldiers have been wounded during clashes between PKK and Turkish military in rural sections of Bingol. EVRENSEL: Villagers in Tunceli's Hozat district filed a complaint with the Hozat Prosecutor's Office because of a mortar shell which landed on a section close to their settlement area in Dag hamlet. EVRENSEL: Diyarbakir Bar Association, Mazlum-Der (Solidarity Association for Oppressed People) and Human Rights Association will file a complaint against the alleged extra-judicial killing of a PKK member after being caught and interrogated in August ¶2005. The PKK member was allegedly brought then to an operation ADANA 00000159 002 OF 002 area to make him appear as if he was killed in a clash, reported 07/01 edition of Ozgur Gundem daily. RADIKAL / EVRENSEL / BOLGE: Several non-governmental organizations protested the new Anti-Terror Law in Adana and sent a letter to President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to veto the law. CUMHURIYET / RADIKAL / HURRIYET / SABAH / OZGUR GUNDEM: Twenty-four hard-discs, which were found damaged in a January 2000 operation conducted against the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Istanbul, were sent then to the U.S. to recover the information on them. The discs reportedly were used also to archive detailed information about the rector, department heads, professors and assistant professors at the Dicle University in Diyarbakir. Ozgur Gundem daily pointed out to alleged links between Turkish police and Hezbollah members as allegedly revealed in the hard discs. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Eighty-eight people, who entered the country illegally from Iran, have been caught in two separate operations in Van's Baskale district. The people were from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. HURRIYET: DYP (True Path Party) Provincial Chairperson in Adana shot a truck driver he quarreled with in his leg and wounded him. The cause of the quarrel was that the two people did not allow one another to pass on a road. ZAMAN / SABAH (GUNEY) / CUMHURIYET: Parents of a 20 year-old girl claimed that 54-year-old CHP party assembly member in Adana allegedly abducted their daughter on June 30. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Initiative against Nuclear Power in Mersin held a protest activity against nuclear plants. RADIKAL: Kyrgyz people, who first migrated from Pamir Highland in Afghanistan to Pakistan and later came in 1982 to Van's Ulupamir village in Ercis district, has been the focus of research at Van's Centennial University since 1997. A 20 volume book has been written during the research. ZAMAN / BOLGE: Aircraft pesticide spraying ban, which was imposed on May 26, has been temporarily lifted, announced Ministry of Agriculture. The farmers in the Cukurova region are reportedly pleased about the development. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS SABAH (GUNEY) / BOLGE: A meeting has been held by Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA) at Chamber of Commerce in Adana. SMEs in the Cukurova region, who attended the meeting, were given information about a system providing lower cost opportunities for SMEs on opening an office in the U.S. in order to export goods to this country. REID