US embassy cable - 04ANKARA2857

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 002857 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/SE, EUR/PD, NEA/PD, DRL 
JCS PASS J-5/CDR S. WRIGHT 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC, KMDR, TU, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT: ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT, 
THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2004 
 
 
THIS REPORT WILL PRESENT A TURKISH PRESS SUMMARY UNDER 
THREE THEMES: 
 
 
HEADLINES 
BRIEFING 
EDITORIAL OPINION 
 
 
HEADLINES 
 
 
MASS APPEALS 
Americans bomb Iraqi wedding: 40 killed - Hurriyet 
Day of massacres: US kills 45 civilians, Israel 15 - 
Milliyet 
Israel massacres 23 civilians - Turkiye 
Israel, US shed blood in Middle East - Sabah 
FM Gul hopeful of EU accession talks date for Turkey - 
Milliyet 
FM Gul wants release of Leyla Zana - Sabah 
First torture conviction: Pvt. Sivits sentenced to one year 
in prison - Aksam 
Another `shame' of torture: One year jail term for torturer 
- Turkiye 
Gas price in US goes over $2/gallon - Hurriyet 
Georgia's Saakashvili visits Turkey - Aksam 
 
 
OPINION MAKERS 
American forces kill 45, wedding becomes massacre - Radikal 
US, Israel kill 75 civilians in Iraq, Palestine - Yeni Safak 
Israeli missiles hit civilians - Cumhuriyet 
Black Wednesday in Middle East - Zaman 
Israel applies unseen brutality - Yeni Safak 
US troops torture Reuters members in Iraq - Yeni Safak 
Israeli missiles kill 22 Palestinians protesters - Radikal 
Torturer US soldier sentenced to one year - Zaman 
Karamanlis can't convince Annan to revise Cyprus plan - 
Cumhuriyet 
Zebari opposes withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq - 
Cumhuriyet 
Zarkawi claims responsibility for killing IGC chairman - 
Cumhuriyet 
 
 
 
 
BRIEFING 
 
 
EU, Turkey:  At the EU-Turkey Accession Partnership Council 
meeting in Brussels, EU representatives told Turkish 
officials that Turkey it is falling short in six areas of 
reform, including Kurdish-language broadcasting, freedom of 
religion for non-Muslims, and elimination of torture.  The 
EU also made clear that the imprisonment of pro-Kurdish DEP 
lawmakers is not in line with EU political criteria.  FM Gul 
said after the meeting on Tuesday that the only cloud 
hanging over Turkey's efforts to win a date to begin 
accession talks with the EU is the imprisonment of Leyla 
Zana and three other pro-Kurdish lawmakers.  `I wish that 
the Kurdish lawmakers had been released, but we cannot put 
pressure on the judiciary to that end,' Gul said.  A US 
official praised the Turkish reform effort as `excellent,' 
but urged further concrete steps forward in implementation, 
"Hurriyet" reports from Washington.  `The EU should give 
Turkey a date for accession talks by the end of the year. 
We will be stressing that repeatedly at the June NATO Summit 
in Istanbul,' the anonymous US source said. 
 
 
Turkish parliamentary delegation visits Palestine:  Seven 
members of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Group traveled 
to Palestine on Wednesday to meet with Palestinian leaders 
Arafat, Ahmad Qurei and Nabil Shaath, and with local NGOs. 
AKP lawmaker Huseyin Tanriverdi, the head of the delegation, 
said the group intended to make a humanitarian contribution 
to the peace process in the Middle East.  Israel's 
Ambassador to Turkey, Pinhas Avivi, said after meeting with 
Tanriverdi in Ankara that the lawmakers are `biased.' Avivi 
called on the delegation to meet with Israeli officials as 
well.  Tanriverdi stressed the Turks' sensitivity with 
regard to the killing of civilians in Palestine, and urged 
Israel to end military operations there. 
Cyprus:  FM Abdullah Gul, in Moscow to attend a meeting of 
the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) with Russia, 
the US, the UN and the EU, is expected to urge Russian 
Foreign Minister Lavrov not to veto a prospective UNSC 
resolution that would end the international isolation of the 
Turkish Cypriots.  Meanwhile, `TRNC PM' Mehmet Ali Talat 
said that early elections are an option in northern Cyprus 
following the resignation of three lawmakers from the 
coalition's parliamentary group.  Talat said the current 
distribution of seats in the `TRNC parliament' did not 
represent the 65 percent of Turkish Cypriots who voted for 
the reunification of Cyprus in the referendum held in April. 
 
 
Broadcasts in Kurdish:  Despite a parliamentary decision to 
allow broadcasting in languages other than Turkish, papers 
report that implementation is still lacking.  A disagreement 
continues between the public broadcaster TRT, Turkey's media 
watchdog Radio and TV High Council (RTUK), and the related 
state ministry about whether such broadcasts should be done 
through TRT or by private broadcasters.  PM Erdogan has 
instructed all three institutions to end the disagreement 
and begin broadcasts in Kurdish as soon as possible. 
 
 
EU report on compulsory military service:  A report 
submitted to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly 
called on Turkey and other countries to recognize the right 
of conscientious objection to compulsory military service. 
Turkey rejected down the call, saying the right to 
conscientious objection was not protected in all European 
countries.  The EU will discuss the report at a meeting in 
June. 
 
 
 
 
EDITORIAL OPINION:  Iraq/Abu Ghraib; World Economic Forum 
 
 
"Human Rights Report and Racism" 
Turgut Tarhanli wrote in the liberal-intellectual Radikal 
(5/20): "The US approach toward human rights is designed to 
help the US have more influence over world affairs.  In 
other words, the Washington administration treats the human 
rights concept as a tool to be used both in domestic 
politics and in international relations. .. This year the 
Department of State Human Rights Report has seemed to lose 
its influence following the Abu Ghraib photos.  For the 
people of the US as well as the Washington administration, 
there is a serious violation of human rights - namely, 
racism.  This racism was even endorsed by Secretary Rumsfeld 
in his approach to the Abu Ghraib case during the 
Congressional investigation.  It is very important that 
human rights organizations around the world, and especially 
those in the US, stand up and call the US administration to 
account for this racism." 
 
 
"A La Americana" 
Oktay Eksi wrote in the mass appeal Hurriyet (5/20): "The 
one-year sentence for US soldier Jeremy Sivits does not 
constitute justice at all.  President Bush tried to argue 
that the torture in Iraq was an individual case, but 
evidently the abuse was systematic.  There is even more to 
this scandal, because General Sanchez, who is now advocating 
the most severe punishment for the torturers, had in fact 
been providing guidance to the torturers since October 12, 
2003. . General Miller, who was placed in charge of the 
prisons, was portraying some of the torture methods as 
legitimate.  His remarks reminded me of President Bush's 
comments defending Rumsfeld.  It was also interesting to see 
Wolfowitz admitting that there had been miscalculations in 
Iraq at the same time Bush was defending Rumsfeld full 
blast." 
 
 
"The Train of Reform" 
Hasan Cemal commented in the mass appeal Milliyet (5/19): 
"The World Economic Forum continued to discuss reforms and 
changes that are at the top of the agenda in the Arab world. 
Although this issue has been under discussion for a long 
time, the tone at this event was rather different.  . During 
last year's World Economic Forum, change and reform had been 
mentioned more seriously and with greater urgency.  This 
year it is not the same. What changed over the past year? 
The Bush Administration's credibility has fallen 
drastically.  The US' moral authority has been fatally 
crippled by the abuses at Abu-Ghraib and by the ongoing 
problems in Iraq.  President Bush has lost his credibility 
in the Arab world.  US officials such as Secretary of State 
Powell and Paul Bremer gave very confident statements at 
last year's meeting.  This year, the picture is different. 
American officials are downbeat.  The positive atmosphere 
has disappeared.  The atmosphere is dominated by worry and 
uncertainty.  The violence, terror, and torture will never 
end in this geography unless the train of reform finally 
arrives.  But, it doesn't appear likely that the reform 
train can take leave the station as long as the Bush- 
Rumsfeld duo stays in power." 
 
 
EDELMAN