US embassy cable - 05ADANA47

UNCLAS ADANA 000047 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, ADANA, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MARCH 8, 2005 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for March 8, 2005. 
 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, SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    A dog with rabies bit an 11-year-old in 
the Islahiye district of Gaziantep province, and the incident 
has caused panic.  Children are afraid to go to school, and a 
local neighbor is accompanying them to school with a shotgun. 
Several villages have reportedly been placed under "quarantine." 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report stated that 
Turkey failed to live up to plans to facilitate the return of 
internally displaced people, mainly Kurds, to southeastern 
Turkey. According to HRW, Turkey misled the EU about its 
progress in facilitating the return. 
 
CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM:      The Human Rights Association 
started a probe into claims that a grave holding five bodies 
exists in a Jandarma station yard in Yedisu district of Bingol. 
Mustafa Bayram, who did his military service in that Jandarma 
station in 2000, claims that five PKK members were caught during 
an operation in April 2000, and were later (allegedly) 
interrogated, killed and buried in the yard of the station. 
 
 
CUMHURIYET:     Mehtap Kizilkan, a social worker for the Diyarbakir 
NGO KA-MER (Women Association), drew attention to the myriad 
types of violence women face.  She announced that forty-two 
women, "escaping the threat of death," applied to KA-MER for 
help in one year. In Van, 82 women have applied to the newly 
opened Counseling Office of the Women's Association, 60 of whom 
solicited help for being exposed to violence. 
 
BOLGE:  Despite campaigns to raise awareness on the issue of 
education and children's rights, children in southeastern Turkey 
are working in a variety of sectors instead of going to the 
schools. According to surveys, 87,000 children between the ages 
12-14 are (reportedly) working, primarily in agricultural 
fields. 
 
YENI SAFAK:      The Turkish Parliament's Human Rights Commission 
reportedly obtained a statement which Major General Yavuz Erturk 
gave to the European Court of Human Rights in May, 1998, 
regarding the disappearance of 11 villagers in the Kulp district 
of Diyarbakir in 1993. In the statement, Gen. Erturk stated that 
the Bolu Command Brigade was not conducting an operation in 
Kepir hamlet of Kulp on the date when the incident was supposed 
to have taken place. 
 
 
 
REID