SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MARCH 8, 2007

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000033 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MARCH 8, 2007 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for March 8, 2007. 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 EKSPRES / BOLGE / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / SABAH (GUNEY): Cahit Kirac, Adana Governor, who has recently been assigned to the governor's position in Izmir, told the journalists that he will be leaving Adana with very warm feelings from his experience here. Kirac worked as the governor of Adana for 2.5 years. Saban Bas, Chairperson of Chamber of Commerce, issued a press release about governor's reassignment and said that the services Kirac rendered for Adana would never be forgotten. EVRENSEL: Following the recent prison sentences issued against the chairperson and vice-chairperson of DTP (see press summary for March 7),and, the police raids conducted at DTP provincial premises and arrests, reportedly this time the pro-Kurdish Gundem daily's publication has been suspended by a court and the daily has been withdrawn from shelves. 13th Heavy Penalty Court reportedly indicated the grounds for suspension of publication as the recent news Gundem published about Ocalan's alleged systematic poisoning by the authorities at Imrali prison. ZAMAN / HURRIYET: Zaman daily reports that Gulcihan Simsek, chairperson of DTP's Bostanici chapter in Van, apologized in a speech he delivered at a March 8 World Women's Day event that he had to continue talking in Turkish. Simsek used a courtesy title before the name of Abdullah Ocalan and suggested that Kurdish speakers should always try to use Kurdish in most of their daily lives. Hurriyet and Zaman dailies further report that following the six month prison sentence issued against DTP national chairperson for using a courtesy title before the name of Abdullah Ocalan (see press summary for March 7),former DEP (Party of Democracy) deputy Sedat Yurttas has also been sentenced to six months in prison on the same charges. ZAMAN / EVRENSEL / RADIKAL / HURRIYET: Diyarbakir Prosecutor's Office started a probe against two attorneys who announced allegations about poisoning of Ocalan in a meeting held in Rome. The probe was initiated on grounds that the attorney's announcement was misleading the public and the attorneys were abusing their professional capacities. The probe results will determine whether a trial process would be started against the attorneys or not. Meanwhile, Ocalan's attorneys decided to lodge a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights on grounds their client's right to preserve his life, which is a clause of the Universal Human Rights Declaration, was being violated. Separately, Hurriyet daily notes that the brother of Abdullah Ocalan went to the Imrali prison yesterday to pay a visit to Ocalan. ZAMAN / HURRIYET: MHP national chairperson Devlet Bahceli warned the party's ultra-nationalist supporters that they should not yield to ethnical provocations that would be carried out on Newroz day and that they should preserve their common sense and peaceful attitude at all times. ZAMAN: CHP established a committee to research reasons why CHP was not successful in getting votes for CHP candidates in the eastern and southeastern region during elections. The committee conducted studies in ten separate provinces: the reasons they found out for why the people in those regions had always stayed aloof from CHP were ethnical structure and people's devotion to religion in those regions. According to people in the region, the CHP was a party that was distant from religion. The report of the committee also said that DTP was striving to strengthen ethnic nationalism in those regions without paying attention to issues of the rest of the country. ONLINE GUNDEM DAILY: - Youth in Van's Hacibekir and Yuniplik quarters held a march and shouted slogans in support for Abdullah Ocalan. Police intervened when youth in Mardin's Kiziltepe district attempted to hold a demonstration to protest the alleged poisoning of Ocalan by authorities. Demonstrators continued their activities as they dispersed in the back streets. Youth in Adana's Gulbahcesi, Sakirpasa, Denizli and Barbaros quarters clashed with the police as they attempted to draw attention to Ocalan's health condition through a demonstration. Police intervened ADANA 00000033 002 OF 002 with gas bombs and the crowd dispersed. Tension still persists in the aforementioned quarters, reports the online daily. Thirty-one of eighty-eight women, who were detained during a police raid on the DTP Cizre chapter in Sirnak on grounds that they attended a demonstration that aims to draw attention to Ocalan's health condition, have reportedly been arrested. Nearly 1000 people waiting outside the court hall clapped their hands to protest the arrests. - DTP Batman Provincial Chairperson Ayhan Karabulut, who was detained for his alleged pro-PKK propaganda made on March 3 in Batman, has been arraigned and arrested. CRIME / LAW ENFORCEMENT ZAMAN: During an anti-human-trafficking operation, police found out that a human-trafficking ring police dissolved, which enabled PKK terrorists to go abroad with fake documents, were themselves swindled by the PKK members. CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT SABAH (GUNEY): Attorneys at the Court Hall of Adana held a meeting and conveyed their complaints about a new regulation to Ibrahim Gazioglu, chairperson of the Adana Bar Association. According to the attorneys, the new regulation was breaching the rights of the attorneys and was incapacitating the bar association leaving all the authority to courts and prosecutors. GREEN