US embassy cable - 05ADANA160

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000160 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, Press Summaries, ADANA 
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR SEPTEMBER 01, 2005 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for September 01, 
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 / BOLGE / OZGUR GUNDEM:   Police in Adana reacted to a group 
of people protesting the killing of Hasan Is in Batman.  The 
group chanted slogans in support of Abdullah Ocalan, set tires 
on fire in the street and threw stones at the police.  Police 
used armored vehicles and tear gas during its intervention.  No 
casualties were reported after the incident.  Zaman separately 
reported that Batman's Prosecutor initiated an investigation 
into the killing of Hasan Is. 
 
RADIKAL:        Relatives of two terrorists killed in the Besiri 
district of Batman (see press summary 08/29) have retrieved 
their dead.  A 100 person group, comprised mostly of DEHAP 
members, staged a demonstration. The police took security 
measures but did not intervene.  A separate 500-person woman's 
group marched from the DEHAP provincial headquarters to the 
hospital where the bodies of eight other terrorists were being 
kept. 
 
BOLGE / ZAMAN:  Devlet Bahceli, national leader of MHP 
(National Movement Party), attended the Victory Day ceremonies 
in Mersin's Tarsus district.  During his address to the crowd he 
said, "For the first time in its history, Turkey has been 
undergoing a period of great hardship. Separatist forces have 
been increasingly jeopardizing the independence of the country." 
 
EKSPRES:        400 workers of BOTAS (Petroleum Pipeline 
Corporation) continued their strike, which started last week 
(see press summary 08/2) in Adana's Ceyhan district. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Fifty-one headmen of the villages in Bingol's 
Karliova district warned that they would resign if no solutions 
were found within 48 hours for problems resulting from the March 
earthquakes in Karliova. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   38 Afghans and 6 Bangladeshis, who entered the 
country illegally, were caught in Siirt's Baykan district.  The 
migrants were later deported. 
 
HURRIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM:        eportedly the Chief of Staff was 
concerned aboutrecent incidents in Batman, where large groups 
o people attempted to march to a nearby military opration 
area, and where civil unrest erupted when residents from the 
region attempted to retrieve te bodis f trrrists killed in 
Besiri from thehopitl. LadForesCommander Buyukanit 
reporely said that there were attempts to PhilistinizeTurkey, 
and that a legal political party was amon the actors in these 
attempts. 
 
ZAMAN / OZGU GUNDEM:   Tuncer Bakirhan, who was barred from 
oing abroad by an Ankara Court, made his first vist to the 
Security Directorate of Ankara a prtof a procedure requiring 
tha h rgulrl chckwth authorities to make sur tht e 
does not leave the 
untry (see press summary 08/29). 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   An investigation has been filed against the 
mayor of Diyarbakir's Sur district and four municipality 
personnel allegedly on grounds that they erected monuments 
memorializing "terrorist organization members."  The 
investigation refers to a monument erected in memory of Ugur and 
Ahmet Kaymaz, a father and his 11-year-old son, who were killed 
in November 2004 in Mardin's Kiziltepe district. 
 
SABAH:  Diyarbakir's police seized 20 modified pistols 
during a search conducted on the motorcycle of a suspected rider 
on the road to Sanliurfa, and 17 modified pistols at a hunter's 
shop in Diyarbakir. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Police, who raised the security threat level 
to high in Hakkari during recent Victory Day celebrations, 
reportedly conducted searches and raids throughout the day in 
the province. 
 
EVRENSEL:       A group of NGOs and political parties in Gaziantep 
issued a declaration titled "Lay Down Arms, Stop the Military 
Operations!" 
 
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS 
 
1.      EVRENSEL:       Farmers Union and Citrus Fruit Producers in 
Adana formed a delegation, which will be visiting the Ministry 
of Agriculture in Ankara, to demand an urgent announcement of 
decisions about products such as citrus fruit, cotton and corn. 
 
2.      EVRENSEL:       State Minister Kursad Tuzmen announced that 5 
million New Turkish Liras were allocated specifically to the 
Southeastern Agricultural Sales Cooperatives to buy pistachios 
from farmers in the region. 
 
 
 
 
REID