SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 13, 2007

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000094 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 13, 2007 ¶1. This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for July 13, ¶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. EKSPRES / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / SABAH (GUNEY) / BOLGE: Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, AKP Deputy National Chairperson and Adana candidate, went to Imamoglu district of Adana. A 300-vehicle convoy and thousands of people reportedly welcomed him there. Firat, who was pleased with the crowd that gathered, opened a campaign office in the district. Firat said that such enthusiasm of people would carry them again to power. Firat further gave the good news to the workers that Mensa textile company of Adana, which had been undergoing financial hardships, would not be closed. Meanwhile, CHP's first ranking candidate in Adana, Prof. Gaye Erbatur, claimed that AKP was using state's money instead of using its resources while it delivered aid to poor people. ¶3. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Orhan Miroglu, a DTP-endorsed independent candidate from Mersin, said that peace prevailed in Mersin for hundreds of years despite its being a city with a wide diversity of people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds. Miroglu said that elected officials in Mersin will have serious responsibilities in addressing problems related to migration. ¶4. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Tacidar Seyhan, Adana deputy from CHP, filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office reportedly because posters with CHP candidates' photos, which made calls to people not to cast votes for those CHP candidates, were being hung in the southern quarters of Seyhan and Yuregir districts of Adana. ¶5. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): During a meeting of a Rotary Club in Adana, Adana Governor announced that the overall crime rate in Adana declined a great deal in the last five years. ¶6. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Ibrahim Tatlises, a Kurdish-origin celebrity and first-ranking candidate in Istanbul from Genc Party, after leaving Gaziantep and Sanliurfa where he continued his election campaign, came to Kilis and canvassed people. Tatlises reportedly addressed a crowd of 5000 people there. ¶7. CUMHURIYET: CHP candidates in Hatay are planning to send 100,000 letters to people in Hatay to raise awareness of the electorate about irregularities the AKP government allegedly allowed in public tenders in Hatay. ¶8. EVRENSEL: As Akin Birdal, DTP-endorsed independent candidate from Diyarbakir, was paying visits to the villages of Diyarbakir in his campaign program, jandarma reportedly conducted a raid on the same village where Birdal was touring. Jandarma reportedly told the people that the official ban on the political propaganda have not been lifted yet, so Birdal was not allowed to make propaganda there. Despite jandarma's warning, people gathered around Birdal and continued to hear his political address. Birdal later paid a visit to an Alevi village. Separately, an independent candidate in Van filed a complaint against Saray District Jandarma Command for allegedly disrupting the candidate's election campaign. ¶9. EVRENSEL: Nazmi Gur, DTP-endorsed independent candidate from Adana, opened a campaign office of EMEP (Party of Labor) in an area of Adana densely populated by people of Arabic background. The opening speech was made in Arabic by EMEP Adana Provincial Chairman. ¶10. CUMHURIYET / EVRENSEL: A branch of Council of State ratified Ministery of Interior's recent authorization given to Diyarbakir's Prosecutor's Office to start an investigation against Osman Baydemir reportedly for "hanging a banner in Kurdish" on the billboards in the Diyarbakir city center and "printing invitations in Kurdish." ¶11. ZAMAN: Adana Municipality will allocate free bus service for the people of Adana, a majority of whom have retreated to nearby seaside resorts because of the high summer temperatures in the province, to facilitate their transportation back to Adana to cast their votes on July 22. SECURITY ADANA 00000094 002 OF 002 ¶12. ZAMAN: A PKK defector reportedly confessed that, in the face of a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, the terrorists in the nearby border area evacuated their camps and buried all the documents belonging to the terrorist organization under the ground. The defector added that the PKK owned anti-aircraft missiles. DTP officials, according to the defector, were paying visits to the PKK headquarters and bringing gifts along with them. ¶13. SABAH: A PKK mine killed a soldier in Erzincan's Kemah district at around 9 p.m. last night. Another soldier was wounded. CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT ¶14. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Forty-nine Afghani and Pakistani nationals, who entered the country illegally, and two snake-heads were caught in Van's Baskale district. CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT ¶15. ZAMAN: The results of Turkey's national University Entrance Exam have been announced. Four of the 27 top scoring students are from Diyarbakir, Adana, Sanliurfa and Osmaniye. The rest of them are mainly from the western provinces of Turkey. GREEN