SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 16, 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000168 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 16, 2006 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for July 16, 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/SABAH: The Sirnak Governorate announced that a terrorist who did not yield to "halt" warning of the GOT forces in the Cudi Mountain was killed in the ensuing clashes. The announcement said that operations to ensure security and public order in the region would continue. ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM/EVRENSEL: Hasan Salar, a PKK defector who was arrested after surrendering to the security forces at Habur border gate on April 17 2006, was brought before a judge at the 4th Felony Court of Diyarbakir for the first time. Hasan Salar had claimed that Seferi Yilmaz, the owner of the Umut Bookstore bombed in Semdinli in November 2005, had made a telephone call with the mountain cadre of PKK. Salar had caused Yilmaz to be detained on charges of membership to PKK. Hasan Salar was acquitted after his first hearing. ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM/HURRIYET: Dr. Erdal Bahoz, HPG -People Protection Forces- Headquarters Commander signed an agreement with the President of the Geneva Call Organization, Paascal Bongard; and the Swedish Parliament Spokesperson, Elizabeth Reusse-Decrey; that HPG will support all international agreements banning and removing land mines. Reusse said that PKK had signed the Geneva Convention Agreement 11 years ago and that its decision and this agreement it has been signing now should become a good model for the countries surrounding them. ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: In order to promote sensitivity for protesting the construction of the Ilisu Dam on Tigris river, which will submerge the historic Hasankeyf township, the Amnesty International representatives from Diyarbakir, Batman, and Malatya provinces convened in a cave in Hasankeyf. ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM/BOLGE/EKSPRES: Members of the Prison Commission of the Human Rights Chapter of Adana held a press release in front of the Kurkculer Prison in Adana concerning pressure applied to prisoners and defendants in prisons. Ethem Acikalin, the spokesperson for the Prison Committee claimed that inmates and prisoners using their democratic rights against the pressure of the prison administration were given disciplinary penalties. SABAH: Three persons allegedly in preparation of undertaking actions were arrested, and a rocket launcher, many weapons and C-4 explosives were seized during the search in a house in Baglar Quarter of Diyarbakir. YENI SAFAK: An "Emergency Medicine Relief" campaign has been initiated in Diyarbakir by the Diyarbakir Charity Assistance and Solidarity Association. The President of the association, Cevdet Kara, said that the imperialist states talking about democracy, peace, freedom, and human rights closed an eye to Israel's massacre of Palestinians. Kara said that they would apply an embargo on products produced by countries supporting Israel. Saadet Party (Felicity Party) is also going to organize a meeting in Diyarbakir to support Palestine but condemn Israel. The date for the meeting has not been announced. Meetings protesting Israel were held in Adana and Izmir as well. People shouting anti-American and anti-Israel slogans dispersed peacefully. YENI SAFAK/CUMHURIYET/HURRIYET: It is reported that Murat Karayilan, a key executive in the PKK ranks, had been wounded during the Iranian artillery fire at the Kandil Mountain in Northern Iraq about 19 days ago. Karayilan and three other militants who had been wounded had been taken to the private El Necd Hospital in Baghdad following their initial treatment in a township in Northern Iraq. It is reported that one of the wounded militants died afterwards. CUMHURIYET/BOLGE/EKSPRES: Patriots from all over the country gathered in front of the Incirlik Air Base and initiated their 45-day long march dubbed "United States of America get out. This country is ours." Addressing hundreds of patriots, Tuncay Celen, a founding member of the 1968ers Association, said that patriots condemn the United States and its collaborators once more and would like to say "stop" to US planes taking off from the Incirlik AB and bombing children in Iraq, Palestine, and Middle East. The press announcement by Baris Kinik, from the Patriotic Union's Adana Initiative, read "War and blood has never stopped in our region. Here is Israel, just on the pretext of one of its soldier has been abducted, it has started a big assault. The purpose is occupation. This will worsen the position of ADANA 00000168 002 OF 002 imperialists and their collaborators. That is why patriots have been setting off." The representative of the Retired Military Initiative of the Patriotic Front, Retired Captain Murat Pabuc, said "People have been asking us where we find this energy. We get this energy from our hatred at the order and system of the occupiers. The soldiers who have come here to ensure security of this area are our brothers, I ordered and commanded for years. I understood that there are collaborators who have been providing bases to these occupiers and acting with them." HURRIYET: A group of approximately 60 Turkish, Lebanese, and French nationals fleeing from Lebanon entered Turkey from Reyhanli and Yayladag border gates with Syria. The group said that there were more than 10,000 people waiting at the Syrian border to cross into Turkey. EVRENSEL: It is claimed that women defendants at H-Type prison in Erzurum, where high security measures are being applied, have been threatened by wardens that they would rape them. 15 female students, including 3 women had been arrested during the security forces' home raids in Sivas on April 18, and had been transferred from the Sivas prison to the one in Erzurum. The female defendants' attorney Fahrettin Kaya said that his clients had been forced to take off their clothes at the entrance of the prison but because the inmates rejected the orders they were insulted and cursed, and that even one of his clients had been beaten by a female warden. HURRIYET-CUKUROVA: 55 elected headmen from various quarters of Gaziantep visited Aleppo to get acquainted with the local administration in Syria. Aleppo has been designated as a sister city of Gaziantep. REID