SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 1, 2007

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000007 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 1, 2007 This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for January 11, ¶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 EVRENSEL: Inspectors of Ministry of Interior started an investigation against Firat Anli, Yenisehir District Mayor in Diyarbakir, for sending a Kurdish greeting postcard celebrating Ramadan to Diyarbakir Prosecutor's Office. EVRENSEL: DTP and Association for Solidarity with the Families of Inmates held a press announcement in Istanbul to extend support to attorney Behic Asci who has been on a huger strike for 281 days due to the reported unjust laws and the conditions of the inmates in prisons in Turkey. DTP members then paid a visit to the house of Asci. ZAMAN: PM Erdogan responded harshly to criticisms of CHP Leader Deniz Baykal about AKP ads hung on billboards in provinces of Turkey and claimed that Baykal was very badly mislead by those who had given him the information that the ads were not hung in the southeastern provinces (see press summary for December 10). Erdogan enumerated the provinces in the east and southeast Turkey where ads were hung. ZAMAN / EKSPRES / BOLGE: Cukurova Journalists' Association celebrated the "Active Journalists' Day" on January 10 in Adana. Adana Mayor Aytac Durak also issued a message to celebrate the day. HUMAN RIGHTS SABAH (GUNEY): Eleven Afghan refugees seeking asylum are being hosted at the guest house of Gaziantep Municipality per instructions from the governor and are being paid 100 YTL of salary from the solidarity fund. EVRENSEL / BOLGE: Women activists in Diyarbakir's Baglar district claimed that the state authorities were responsible for the death of a woman called Aysegul Alpaslan, mother of five kids, who was killed five days ago by her husband in the name of honor. The husband was immediately arrested after the event; however, family members of the woman did not take her body from the morgue. According to activists, the authorities failed to address Aysegul Alpaslan's case well, despite the fact that she filed petitions with the authorities that she had been threatened many times. ECONOMY HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Middlemen, who envisaged that vegetables and fruits could be sold well after holiday period, bought vegetables and fruits from Mersin and Antakya before Sacrifice Holiday to store and sell them in Batman province later; but, they have to dispose of all the produce now, because the produce froze and were destroyed in the storehouses they were being kept in, due to cold weather conditions in Batman. EKSPRES / BOLGE / EVRENSEL / ZAMAN: Lack of rain since November in the Cukurova region including the Adana province has been worrying the farmers and some farmers started resorting to irrigation methods during germination phase of the plants. CRIME / LAW ENFORCEMENT: HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Police seized 11 kilograms of hashish found in a can in the luggage section of a passenger bus in Van's Gevas district. Police, who was not able to identify the owner of the can, have been continuing to probe the case. CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT SABAH (GUNEY) / BOLGE / EKSPRES / EVRENSEL / ZAMAN: Coffins of the 34 people, who died in the Moldovan-flagged plane that crashed on Tuesday (01/09) in north of Baghdad, have been brought to the airport of Adana yesterday (see press summary for December 10). Relatives of the dead formed a large crowd as they waited for the coffins in reported painful grief. Coffins of the 30 Turkish people were then transferred to a cemetery in Adana. The coffins that were not identified will be sent to the Forensic Authority for DNA tests. Executive board member of the Kulak Construction Company, who lost company's general manager ADANA 00000007 002 OF 002 and 30 workers in the crash, told the journalists that they all were in great sorrow at that moment. Many prominent political and civil society members of the province are paying visits to the owners of the company to extend condolences. Evrensel daily draws attention to the poor safety conditions of the flights launched to carry workers to Iraq from Turkey. Zaman daily points out that the team that was sent to Iraq to examine the cause of the accident returned without any evidence or clue, to Turkey. The Moldovan technicians who also went to Iraq reportedly said that the U.S. authorities immediately cleared the site of the accident and had taken possession of the black-box of the plane. WILSON GREEN