SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JUNE 21, 2007

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000085 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JUNE 21, 2007 ¶1. This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for June 21, ¶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. EVRENSEL: ADSIAD (Adana Industrialists and Businessmen Association) started holding meetings with the four highest-ranking Adana candidates of four political parties, who are most likely to win seats in the parliament in July 22 elections. ¶3. EVRENSEL / GUNDEM: Van's Fourth Felony Court overturned attorneys' objection placed against continuation of confinement during prosecution process of 2 non-commissioned officers and one PKK defector Veysel Ates who are being held as defendants in the Semdinli case. They are charged with involvement in the Semdinli bombing that took place in a bookstore in Hakkari's Semdinli distict on November 2005. ¶4. EVRENSEL / GUNDEM: DTP National Headquarters issued a written announcement and invited PM Erdogan, who criticized DTP as "being a party which sees terrorism as in its backyard," to participate in a live discussion program together on television. Meanwhile, Ahmet Turk, former DTP national chairperson and independent candidate from Mardin, asked the PM: "Whose backyard does your party represent?" Separately, Gundem daily reports election campaigns of independent candidates going on in Adana, Agri, Malatya and Diyarbakir provinces. Meanwhile, independent candidates protested remarks made by the premier, who reportedly attempted to convince people not to vote for independent candidates in a speech he delivered at an AKP rally held in Agri. ¶5. EVRENSEL: Diyarbakir's Sur District Mayor Selahattin Demirtas, who has recently been removed from office for launching a "multi-language municipality service" in the Sur district municipality (see press summary for June 15),said that, even if he were wrong in implementing such a service, the penalty issued was an excessive one and went beyond the limits of normal legal actions: the court could have simply cancelled the decision made to adopt multi-language municipality service, said Demirtas. Meanwhile, Istanbul chapter of the Human Rights Association protested the pressure exerted on the Kurdish language and condemned the Sur Mayor's removal from office. ¶6. BOLGE / SABAH (GUNEY): The Ceyhan Municipality and chamber of commerce held a rally in the Ceyhan district of Adana, protesting terrorism. Thousands of people reportedly attended the rally. ¶7. HURRIYET: The funeral of a soldier, killed during a shootout with terrorists in Gumushane (see press summary June 20) the previous day, was held in Denizli yesterday. ¶8. GUNDEM: A funeral was held in Agri for a PKK member, who was killed in a shootout on June 10 in Diyarbakir's Kulp district. DTP Agri provincial party officials and many citizens attended the funeral. Meanwhile, the bodies of two PKK members from northern Iraq, who were killed in a May 30 military operation in Siirt's Eruh district, remained unclaimed. The coffins were buried by municipality teams. ¶9. GUNDEM: A Kurdish singer, who was sentenced to a year and 3 months in prison for allegedly disseminating pro-PKK propaganda by singing a Kurdish song about Abdullah Ocalan during Newroz celebrations on March 21 in Sanliurfa, was released when the court ruled that the number of days the singer remained in prison could be counted against his prison term. As the Kurdish singer was released from the prison, however, Turkish officials again detained him as a result of a court verdict ordering the singer's deportation. SECURITY ¶10. BOLGE / GUNDEM: The dailies report that shipments of military ammunition and vehicles to the military units in the security zone declared by the army in Sirnak have been continuing. A military convoy, under armored vehicle escort, set off from a tank battalion cantonment in the Cizre district for a neighboring battalion, located at the outskirts of ADANA 00000085 002 OF 002 Mountain Cudi. CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT ¶11. BOLGE / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Seventeen Pakistani nationals, who entered the country illegally in transit to Cyprus, were apprehended in the inter-city bus terminal of Mersin. GREEN