US embassy cable - 05ADANA72

UNCLAS ADANA 000072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, Press Summaries, ADANA 
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR APRIL 5, 2005 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for April 5, 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 
 
SABAH (GUNEY) / BOLGE / EKSPRES / OZGUR GUNDEM: Osman Akkus, a 
lone anti-war and anti-NATO demonstrator, whose nickname is "Don 
Quixote", protested the U.S. presence in Incirlik Airbase on a 
horse at the entrance of the Incirlik district in Adana. 
 
HURRIYET / SABAH (GUNEY) / RADIKAL:     During a four-day military 
operation conducted against the terrorist organization PKK in 
Sirnak, a Jandarma officer died and nine terrorists were killed. 
Seventeen caves and shelters, where the terrorists hid 
themselves, were discovered. Reportedly, eight Kalachnikov guns, 
twenty anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, four kilograms of C-4 
explosives, four rocket propellers, chemical substances, hand 
grenades, bullets and documents were found in these caves and 
shelters. 
 
EVRENSEL:       It is reported that a hundred military vehicles have 
been brought to the train station of Diyarbakir. The vehicles 
were reportedly unloaded and delivered to Seventh Army Corps 
under tight security measures. This deployment of the vehicles 
in the region was reportedly regarded as a sign of escalating 
military operations in southeast Turkey. 
 
SABAH (GUNEY) / EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM: When KADEK was 
established in April 2002, the PKK organization was (supposedly) 
done away with, but it has now reportedly been re-established at 
the "Congress of Restructuring". It is claimed that the founder 
of the organization expressed loyalty to Abdullah Ocalan and 
stated that "new" PKK was reportedly "set free from errors and 
deficiencies". 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   April 4 is reported to be the birthday of the 
arrested PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. The police allegedly 
stopped a convoy of forty buses from Nusaybin, Kiziltepe, Derik 
and Mazidagi districts, as they were traveling towards Omerli, 
the hometown of Ocalan. A bus set off from Adana as well, and 
two police cars reportedly followed it. Another convoy with 
fifty cars, to which DEHAP (Democratic People's Party) members 
bid farewell, set out for Omerli from Diyarbakir. 
 
EVRENSEL:       In Istanbul and Adana, a group protested the arrest 
of twenty-seven "human shield" volunteers, who aim to end the 
military operations in southeastern Turkey, by means of a press 
statement. The press statement claimed the peace and democracy 
talk of the (Turkish) government was mere rhetoric. 
 
HURRIYET / RADIKAL / SABAH:     A lawsuit was opened against four 
MHP (National Movement Party) members in Osmaniye on the grounds 
that they flew the Turkish flag on four flagpoles although the 
Sub-Governor and the Kadirli District Mayor (from Justice and 
Development Party) did not grant authorization to them to do so. 
Separately, in another flag incident in Erzurum, seven high 
school students were detained on the grounds that they brought 
down the flag from the mast at a primary school and tore it into 
pieces. 
 
RADIKAL:        The Ministry of Culture plans to embark upon a 
restoration project of the historical Armenian Church in Van. 
 
 
YENI SAFAK:     Twenty provincial chairmen from CHP (Republivan 
People's Party) who were removed from their party posts plan to 
apply to the European Court of Human Rights against the party 
administration, should domestic judicial processes not remedy 
the party's (allegedly) anti-democratic actions. 
 
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS 
 
1.      SABAH (GUNEY): MUSIAD (Independent Industrialists and 
Businessmen Association) Executive Board members and Mehmet 
Aygun, MUSIAD Adana Branch Chairperson, paid visits to the 
Chairperson of the Adana Chamber of Commerce and Adana Chamber 
of Industry. Aygun called on the deputies, bureaucrats, 
chambers, faculty members and NGOs to work together to solve the 
problems of Adana. 
 
 
 
 
REID