US embassy cable - 05ADANA141

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000141 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, ADANA, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 15, 2005 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for July 15, 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 
 
1.      EKSPRES:        CHP (Republican People's Party) Seyhan 
district's Women Branch Chairperson complained that few women 
were able to serve as candidates in last weekend's elections, 
which were held to nominate district delegates and candidates 
for the district chairpersons of CHP in Adana (see press summary 
07/11). 
 
2.      BOLGE:  Mersin Port Workers are continuing to protest 
against the privatization process launched for the port.  The 
workers, who are members of Liman-Is (Union of Port Workers), 
started a strike and did not leave their workplace yesterday. 
 
3.      HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    The Hatay Municipality rejected 
the appeal of South Korean Protestants to obtain a license to 
officially name a church, which Protestants established in Hatay 
as a "place of worship." It did so on the grounds that there 
were currently no Protestants living in Hatay.  A religious 
officer from South Korea has been assigned to the church and 
worship has started following permission from the Hatay 
Governor. Tradesmen in the neighboring environs, however, are 
reportedly disturbed that fifty children are visiting the church 
daily, reports the paper. 
 
4.      OZGUR GUNDEM:   The Ministry of Environment and Forests, 
upon seeing the risks, such as injuries, deaths and health 
hazards involved in its Iraqi scrap weaponry importing, stopped 
importing Iraqi scrap.  Following the decision, forty trucks 
waiting to enter Turkey at the Habur border gate were returned 
back to their points of origin. 
 
5.      OZGUR GUNDEM:   Anthrax was diagnosed in two people and 
a state of quarantine was imposed in Elazig's Karakocan 
district. 
 
6.      OZGUR GUNDEM:   The Dortyol Jandarma Command in Hatay 
conducted an operation in the Dortyol district and discovered a 
field where Indian hemp was being cultivated.  The Jandarma 
burned all the plants they seized. 
 
7.      OZGUR GUNDEM:   Eighteen thousand people have applied to 
the Governor's Office in Diyarbakir to benefit from the 
Compensation Law for Losses Caused by Anti-Terror Activities to 
date.  248 of the 368 applications examined in the last month 
were rejected, and the government has paid a total of one 
trillion New Turkish liras to the rest.  People are reportedly 
frustrated with the amounts settled by the commission and will 
resort to legal means to receive "fair" amounts. 
 
8.      CUMHURIYET/ZAMAN/OZGUR GUNDEM/HURRIYET: The 
PKK/Kongra-Gel terrorist organization reportedly told the 
Mesopotamian News agency that military operations, which were 
intensified in Tunceli following the kidnapping of private 
Coskun Kirandi, were placing the soldier's life in danger. The 
PKK reportedly called the family of Kirandi to voice their 
demands to end military operations in the region.  Meanwhile, 
DEHAP National Chairperson Tuncer Bakirhan demanded that private 
Kirandi be released. 
 
9.      OZGUR GUNDEM:   Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir called 
for cooperation among the Kurdish and Turkish intelligentsia to 
end the conflict in the southeastern region. 
 
10.     OZGUR GUNDEM:   The Turkish Parliament's commission for 
probing fuel oil smuggling, have already revealed that many 
companies, which are bound to export petroleum coming from Iraq 
back to Iraq after processing it in the Iskenderun and Mersin 
provinces, were instead selling part of the petroleum in 
internal markets of Turkey.  The commission demands opening of 
investigations against a list of suspected companies, but 
allegedly omits TPIC (Turkish Petroleum International Company) 
from this list.  TPIC is reportedly a company established upon 
the advice issued by the National Security Council, and it has 
allegedly become the hotbed of fuel oil smuggling in the course 
of time. 
 
11.     HURRIYET/ZAMAN: The Van Security Directorate's Smuggling 
and Organized Crime Branch conducted a search at the Yuzuncu Yil 
University's rector's house in Van and found 240 pieces of 
historical and archaeological artifacts.  The rector was in 
Azerbaijan during the search of the security officers. 
 
12.     CUMHURIYET:     The Dicle Subgovernor said that a ceremony to 
commemorate the killing of seven people in 1994 in Ugrak village 
by (allged) PKK terrorists would be held on Saturday. 
 
13.     HURRIYET:       The number of PKK terrorists coming in to 
Turkey from the Qandil Mountains in Iraq is reported as 700. 
Turkey wants to see the U.S. conducting operations against PKK 
camps in Qandil Mountain, whereas the U.S. says it can only 
provide intelligence on this issue. 
 
 
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS 
 
1.      EKSPRES:        The TMO (Turkish Grain Board) began to sell 
corn in its supply for a lesser price per kilogram than it has 
bought corn on the open market a year ago from the farmers, in 
order to free up storage space for new wheat purchases. 
 
 
 
REID