Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ADANA159
2006-07-10 09:20:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Consulate Adana
Cable title:
SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 07, 2006
VZCZCXRO3694 RR RUEHDA DE RUEHDA #0159/01 1910920 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 100920Z JUL 06 FM AMCONSUL ADANA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4220 INFO RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 0821 RUEUITH/AFOSI DET 521 ANKARA TU RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 0768 RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 0665 RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC
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
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