SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MAY 01, 2006

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000097 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MAY 01, 2006 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for May 01, 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 (CUKUROVA): Syriac Culture Center has been founded within the body of Syriac Cultural Association in Mardin's Midyat district. EKSPRES / BOLGE: Adana Mayor Aytac Durak issued a message to mark May Day, and said that it was pleasing to see Mayday was being celebrated peacefully. BOLGE: AKP Adana party organization entered a busy week before the arrival of PM Erdogan to the AKP Adana provincial congress which will be held on May 6. To date, two candidates announced that they would be running for the chairmanship, Mustafa Kebude and current chairperson Abdullah Dogru. BOLGE: A public march has been held in Mersin to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's birth. EVRENSEL: The unions and labor platforms celebrated May Day in Batman, Siirt and Hakkari's Yuksekova district early. The Governor's Office in Erzincan did not grant authorization for public meeting to be held in the province on grounds that a foreseen and imminent threat may disrupt the public peace, security and health. SABAH (GUNEY): GAP (Southeastern Anatolia Project) 5th Engineering Congress has been held in Sanliurfa. SABAH (GUNEY): ANAP (Motherland Party) Leader Erkan Mumcu held a public meeting in Hatay. HURRIYET: Eighteen PKK terrorists have been convinced to leave the mountains thanks to the efforts of Batman Governor and Batman Jandarma commander. Meanwhile, a terrorist, who fled from PKK, has surrendered himself to authorities in Sirnak's Silopi district, said Sirnak Governor's Office. ZAMAN: A new ethnicity-based party will reportedly challenge the position of DTP, which reportedly does not brand PKK a terrorist organization. Kurdish National Democratic Study Group will brand PKK as a terrorist organization and will embrace all Kurdish origin people regardless of their positions. OZGUR GUNDEM: Van 3rd Heavy Penalty Court refused 330 attorneys who wanted to take part in the first court hearing of November 9 Semdinli bombing incident, which will start on May 4, as intervening attorneys on behalf of bookstore owner Seferi Yilmaz. Yilmaz said that their struggle would continue regardless of developments (see press summary 04/28). EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: DTP provincial chairpersons met in Diyarbakir. Co-Chairperson Aysel Tugluk made called on PM Erdogan to regard Kurdish people as counterparts in resolving the Kurdish issue. Tugluk further pointed out the gravity of the increasing number of arrests of DTP officials. Tugluk also said that the Anti-Terror Law had eventually turned into an Anti-Kurdish Law. OZGUR GUNDEM: Diyarbakir Municipality will open a park in memory of human rights activist Aysenur Zarakolu in Diyarbakir. Diyarbakir Mayor, DTP Co-Chairpersons, and representatives of civil society attended the groundbreaking ceremony. OZGUR GUNDEM: A feud between two families has been resolved peacefully in Erzurum's Karayazi district through local DTP mediation. OZGUR GUNDEM: The Yesil family was denied permission by Jandarma, despite family members getting previous permission from local Jandarma, to enter a village and visit the grave of Veli Yesil, one of the rebels of the Dersim Rebellion in the 1920s, on grounds that a military operation was going on in the area. OZGUR GUNDEM: A woman inmate died in Izmit because of a hunger strike she has started in May 2005 to protest the F-type prisons, one of the layouts of a plan implemented in Turkish prisons early in the 2000s, which, according to human rights activists, brought more isolation to the inmates. The hunger striker was buried in Gaziantep. OZGUR GUNDEM: Dead bodies of three foreign national ADANA 00000097 002 OF 002 terrorists, which have been held in a morgue in Turkey for more than one month, have been sent to Aleppo in Syria. Syrian security officers buried the bodies secretly without notifying the families about the burial process. OZGUR GUNDEM: Soldiers are allegedly visiting villages at the border area with Iran in Van province in Turkey in order to warn people that villages might be evacuated in a possible war that may take place between Iran and the U.S. RADIKAL: With efforts of Turkey Branch of IPEC (International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour),children of 1400 seasonal cotton field workers in Adana have been convinced to send their children to schools instead of having them work at the fields to date. REID