SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 28, 2005

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000003

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 28, 2005


This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for December 28,

2005. 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 (CUKUROVA) / CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM: Mersin's
2nd Court of First Instance continued hearing the case of six
children, who allegedly attempted to burn the Turkish flag in
Mersin on March 20 (see press summaries 03/21, 23 and 24). The
children did not appear at the court session. Because of the
Christmas holiday the observers from the European Council did
not attend the hearing as well. Attorney of the defendants said
that the court has focused attention on claims of an
unidentified person dressed in a suit who allegedly incited the
children to wrongful action. The hearing is adjourned until
March 13, 2006.

OZGUR GUNDEM / ZAMAN: Recent secret visit of National Jandarma
Command's Intelligence Service Chairperson and Brigadier
Commander Mehmet Corten to Musa Sivacioglu, Chairperson of the
Turkish Parliament's commission for probing the Semdinli Case
(TPCSC),to submit a report on the incident, caused a crisis.
Reportedly, the report said that the two non-commissioned
officers "acted unprofessionally." Ahmet Ersin, member of the
commission from CHP (Republican People's Party),angered by the
alleged secret visit, said this development cast a shadow on the
credibility of the commission and he would demand to call back
Corten and have him explain what he meant by "acting
unprofessionally."

ZAMAN: TPCSC will hear the statements of former Hakkari
Governor Erdogan Gurbuz, National Security Directorate's
Anti-Terror Section Chairperson Selim Akyildiz and Semdinli
Subgovernor Mustafa Cihat Feslihan today.

OZGUR GUNDEM: The reports generated by MIT (National
Intelligence Center) Office of the Prime Minister, and Jandarma
Command have been submitted to the TPCSC. Jandarma's report
said that two non-commissioned officers' duty on the day of the
Semdinli incident were to track down a packet that would
allegedly be sent from Germany. When the bombing took place,
the "team" was there to have a comfort break. The officers went
to the site when the bombing took place and the local people
thought that they carried out the bombing.

ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM / CUMHURIYET: Reportedly, following the
December 19 newspaper report on corruption activities carried
out at the Habur Border Gate, police initiated an
anti-corruption operation at Habur Border Gate in Sirnak's
Silopi district and detained two non-commissioned officers, five
police officers and a village muhtar (headmen).

OZGUR GUNDEM: People in the Karaduvar quarter of Mersin's
Akdeniz township are reportedly intimidated by the security
guards of a company called TUTAS Petroleum, which lost a lawsuit
filed by the local people on charges of illegally installing
pipelines and contaminating the soil where agricultural
cultivation was taking place. Despite the court's verdict,
guards of the company reportedly attacked the persons that came
to uninstall the pipes. The local people are worried about
violence they have been subjected to and are reportedly afraid
to send their children to school.

OZGUR GUNDEM: The daily reported the displeasure of Kurds
with a Turkish airline company called Onur Air which made no
mention of Kurdish people in a four- page December 21 dated
article in its free promotional magazine, which enumerated the
names of Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Azeri people as the
inhabitants of the Sanliurfa province, but made no mention of
the Kurdish people who reportedly make up the majority of the
population in Sanliurfa.

OZGUR GUNDEM: Syriac Orthodox Christians in Mardin's Midyat
district celebrated Christmas with a church ritual that started
at 5.30 a.m. at Mort Smuni Church in Midyat. The ritual was
conducted by the Mor Gabriel Monastery Metropolitan Samuel
Aktas.

EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: During a meeting of Tunceli Mayor
Songul Erol Abdil with the city assembly and the people of
Tunceli, the municipality reported on the services it provided
in 2005 and expressed its commitment to undertake efforts to
provide a wider variety of services for people of Tunceli in

2006.

OZGUR GUNDEM: Four of the five people detained on charges of
alleged plans to assassinate Van Governor Niyazi Tanilir were
arrested following their detention and arraignment (see press
summary 12/27). The fifth person was released because of minor
age.

YENI SAFAK / CUMHURIYET / HURRIYET / RADIKAL / ZAMAN: Zahide
Koc, a woman who was locked in a stable by her father for six
years reportedly for separating from her husband in Hakkari's
Yuksekova district, was rescued through the two-month long
efforts of women's rights activists.

HURRIYET: After noticing a hand grenade in one of the
irrigation canals of the DSI (State Water Works) canal network
in Adana, local residents called the police. Bomb squad members
safely took the Turkish made bomb to the Security Directorate
for further analysis.

ZAMAN: RTUK (Supreme Board of Radio and Television),which
have not taken any steps to date about the applications of the
stations to broadcast in non-Turkish language and dialects on
grounds that the stations' application documents were not
complete, held a meeting and announced that it decided to grant
authorization to local radio and television stations to
broadcast in non-Turkish languages and dialects. RTUK will
reportedly require the stations to submit an attested warrant
that they will neither promote separatism nor provide language
education.

CUMHURIYET: Turkish Parliament's Commission for Probing Honor
Killings (TPCHK),which is currently conducting studies at the
local level in Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa, have highlighted the
extent of the ongoing family feuds in the region. According to
the statements of the chairperson of the Chamber of Butchers,
who voluntarily tracks incidents of honor killings and feuds in
the region, in recent years 88 women fell victim to honor
killings and there are currently 90 feuds going on in the region.

OZGUR GUNDEM: The daily reported criticisms that
non-governmental organizations in Sanliurfa made against the
TPCHK. Reportedly, TPCHK met only with state officials and
chieftains of the clans in the region, which, according to the
non-governmental organizations, further strengthened the feudal
structures in the region.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): ISDEMIR (Iskenderun Iron ad Steel
Factory) in Hatay, which has been going through modernization
for a period of time, aims to break a record in 2005 with a
production figure of 2,014,780 tons of iron slabs.


2. ZAMAN / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Amin Rianom, Indonesia's
Ambassador to Ankara, who was invited to Adana by ADSIAD (Adana
Industrialists and Businessmen Association),paid separate
visits to the Adana Governor Cahit Kirac and Mayor Aytac Durak.
Rianom called on industrialists in Adana to make investments in
Indonesia.


3. YENI SAFAK / OZGUR GUNDEM: The dailies pointed out that
some provinces in southeastern Turkey have still not been
included on the incentive list of the government, whereas
provinces in western Turkey enjoyed benefits from the government
incentives.


4. OZGUR GUNDEM: DISIAD (Diyarbakir's Businessmen and
Industrialists Association) announced the new members of its
executive board elected as a result of an extraordinary
congress. Rafi Turk was named as the new chairperson replacing
Seyhmus Akbas, the former chairperson of DISIAD.
REID