US embassy cable - 05ADANA65

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000065 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, Press Summaries, ADANA 
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MARCH 30, 2005 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for March 30, 
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 
 
ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM:   The concluding remarks at the end of the 
First Alevi Conference in Ankara announced a campaign to do away 
with the state's mandatory religious instruction.  The campaign 
will start in April and continue until September 12. 
 
ZAMAN:  According to Zaman, the recent attempt to burn the 
Turkish flag in Mersin caused tension between different groups, 
manifested most strongly in universities. Hostility arose 
between ultra-nationalist students and members of the PKK youth 
centers in Marmara University, for example, and university 
administrators had to call in police as a preemptive measure. 
 
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / OZGUR GUNDEM:     Harun Kaygu, a 
fourteen-year-old child, died as he played with a mortar shell 
that he found on an open field close to a military training zone 
in Geneyik village of Gaziantep. Likewise, two children died in 
1998 due to ammunition related blasts in the same place and 
families have complained about military trainings being 
conducted so close to human settlements. 
 
EKSPRES / BOLGE / EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM:      DISK 
(Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions), KESK 
(Confederation of Public Sector Emloyees Unions), Turk-Is 
(Turkish Labour Union), TMMOB (Turkish Union of Chambers of 
Architects and Engineers) and TTB (Turkish Medical Association) 
are planning to stage a mass rally on April 3 in Adana against 
the privatization of various state enterprises such as TEKEL 
(State Tobacco Enterprise), SEKA (State Paper Mill Enterprise), 
hospitals, village services offices, and enterprises related 
with transportation, communication, and energy. 
 
CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM:      Mehmet Agar, DYP (True Path Party) 
leader, has been traveling in southeastern Turkey and delivering 
political messages in many provinces. Today, Agar was at DYP's 
Provincial Congress in Mardin.  A day ago in Diyarbakir, Agar 
bid farewell in Kurdish, which reminded many people of the trial 
that Tuncer Bakirhan, DEHAP (Democratic People's Party) leader, 
was subjected to for bidding a Kurdish farewell to a crowd prior 
to March 2004 local elections. Bakirhan had reportedly been 
charged with violating the Political Party Act that bans 
non-Turkish languages during party activities, but was 
eventually acquitted for a lack of evidence of having made a 
Kurdish address, since he only bid farewell. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Alaattin Erdogan, the head of the DEHAP 
delegation sent to Mersin to investigate the flag-insult 
incident, rejected claims that he showed disrespect to the 
Turkish flag in 1998 (see 03/29 press summary). According to 
Erdogan, the case was allegedly a plot fabricated by the 
officials against him. 
 
BOLGE:  Asuleyman Akkapulu, a fifty-five-year veteran of the 
CHP (Republican People's Party) in Adana, said that CHP has 
actually been a long-suffering institution that has come to an 
end in practice today in Adana. Criticizing the recent toppling 
of the provincial party administration, Akkapulu stated that the 
Provincial Chairman should also have been blamed if things had 
been going wrong within the party administration. 
 
BOLGE:  Bolge reports that a power transition in Adana's CHP 
was underway after the reshuffling of the party administration 
here. Claiming that Adana CHP MP Ugur Aksoz was engineering this 
change from Ankara, the report says everyone is struggling to 
win a position, and waiting anxiously to learn the names of the 
new party administration members.  Of particular interest is the 
answer to the question: "Who will assign whom?" 
 
EVRENSEL:       Evrensel quotes from an article by well-known 
Milliyet journalist Guneri Civaoglu, who paid a visit to the 
Incirlik Airbase in Adana and described his observations there. 
According to Evrensel, the Turkish media is extending support to 
the U.S. by backing its requests regarding the use of the 
Airbase.  Meanwhile, the U.S. has (allegedly) been intensifying 
pressure on the Turkish government by bringing forth the 
following two unsolved issues: the recognition of the Orthodox 
Patriarch as Ecumenical, and the recognition of April 24 as the 
Armenian commemoration day. 
 
EVRENSEL:        As time for the verdict approaches in the appeal of 
Abdullah Ocalan at the European Court of Human Rights, the issue 
of granting a retrial to Ocalan was reportedly discussed in the 
meeting of the Council of Ministers the day before. 
 
BOLGE / EKSPRES:        Adana AKP MP Abdullah Torun denied IHA news 
agency's allegation that Torun was not welcomed by the public 
during his visits around Adana with Yuregir Mayor Omer Topcu on 
March 29. Torun described IHA's reporting as false and baseless. 
Today, Ekspres reads that Yuregir has benefited greatly from 
Torun's outstanding performance in his office and the paper 
outlines his merits. 
 
 
 
REID