SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JUNE 12, 2007

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000080 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JUNE 12, 2007 ¶1. This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for June 12, ¶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: ¶2. SABAH (GUNEY): The local daily reports on its front page that the family of a truck driver has not been able to hear any news about the truck driver and his son who were reportedly detained in the northern Iraq by the U.S. soldiers twenty days ago on alleged grounds that they were aiding and abetting insurgents. ¶3. BOLGE: Minister of Interior will come to Adana today to attend the 23rd National Parliamentary Elections Regional Security Meeting and to conduct some local studies. ¶4. BOLGE: CHP Adana provincial party organization will hold a meeting today, in which party's district chairmen will also take part, to assess the current situation in the run towards the election. A second meeting will be held in the afternoon to include CHP's candidates who will run for parliamentary seats and a program concerning the election campaign will be prepared. ¶5. GUNDEM: DTP's independent candidates gathered at a meeting in Diyarbakir ahead of July 22 parliamentary elections. The meeting reportedly aimed to discuss the work plan and election strategies. At the end of the meeting, a declaration about the election will be generated. (Note: DTP calls its independent candidates as "Independent Candidates of A Thousand Hopes." End Note.) (This summary is from June 10 edition.) ¶6. GUNDEM: Courts issued 30 months of prison sentence against each of 15 DTP members, including DTP Sirnak provincial chairman, for three different cases brought against them. The defendants are convicted on charges of making three press announcements: one that marked the anniversary of Abdullah Ocalan's arrest, another that marked the anniversary of an alleged massacre the daily refers to as "August 18 massacre." The third case was brought on charges of making a press announcement to draw attention to Ocalan's health condition in prison. ¶7. GUNDEM: Adana Prosecutor's Office brought a lawsuit against the Adana Newroz Committee which organized Newroz celebrations in Adana on March 21 where people reportedly carried posters of Abdullah Ocalan and flags of the PKK then. �0A; ¶8. CUMHURIYET: The daily claims that the U.S. started having Kurds settle in areas bordering the Baku-Tibilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in a region located between Russian Federation, Armenia and Azarbaijan. ¶9. RADIKAL: There is a lot of activity going on at Turkey's borders with Iran and Iraq, reports the daily. While Iranians started evacuating the Kurdish villages near its border, Iraqis started establishing 6 Kurdish military posts at their border. SECURITY ¶10. ZAMAN / GUNDEM / CUMHURIYET: A corporal was killed in a conflict that erupted between security forces and terrorists during a military operation going on in Erzincan's Kemah district. A non-commissioned officer was reported as wounded. Separately, Gundem daily claims that PKK terrorists attacked a military vehicle that was carrying special team members on a road between Erzincan and Erzurum, but the paper has no further information on the number of casualties, if there is any. Cumhuriyet daily reports that one private was killed in Sirnak yesterday. Zaman daily reports that 3 terrorists were killed in a conflict that erupted in a section of Diyarbakir province. Separately, Gundem daily alleges that the death toll was actually ten soldiers, not three as announced by the authorities, during the attack PKK carried out on a military vehicle in Sirnak's Guclukonak district on June 9 (see press summary for June 11). CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT ¶11. ZAMAN: Local jandarma cracked down on a criminal ring comprised of five members who stole 40 tons of crude oil from ADANA 00000080 002 OF 002 Baku-Tibilisi-Ceyhan pipeline's Mustafabeyli section in Adana's Ceyhan district. ECONOMY ¶12. BOLGE / ZAMAN: Adana Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Consulate in Adana will hold a talk on non-immigrant visa issues with an aim to give information and provide answers to questions of local businessmen about visa procedures of the U.S. Roger Rigaud, Vice-Consul in the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, will be holding the talk. ¶13. ZAMAN: Truck drivers started expressing their complaints about the long truck lines formed at the gate of the port of Mersin because of the slow bureaucratic procedures that make the drivers wait 3 to 4 hours. CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT ¶14. BOLGE: War veteran Murat Caner, who was disabled during a military operation in northern Iraq on an unspecified date in the past, and a few members of the Association for Families of Martyrs and Disabled Veterans in Adana, held a protest in front of the mayor's office against escalating terrorism in the country. Caner said that Turkey should not conduct a cross-border operation and should deal with the problems within the country in the first place; otherwise the number of people dying will increase even more, according to Caner. ¶15. CUMHURIYET: Adana Governor made an announcement about the measures and prohibited actions that the people should heed in the province during the June 17 Nationwide University Entrance Examination which is a very critically important test that all high school graduates must take to be eligible for university access in Turkey. The Governor made a call to people to be careful about the noise level not to disturb the students taking the exam in the province. ¶16. GUNDEM: Ten people in Erzurum were found out to contract Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. The doctors said that the health conditions of the patients, who are under treatment, are well. ¶17. GUNDEM: Despite the promises given by the prime minister and agricultural minister to remedy the material losses of the farmers in Diyarbakir's Cinar and Bismil districts following the November 2006 flood disaster, no tangible steps have been taken so far in line with the promises, reports the daily. GREEN