US embassy cable - 05ANKARA5451

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ANKARA 005451 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/SE, EUR/PD, NEA/PD, DRL 
JCS PASS J-5/CDR S. WRIGHT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC, KMDR, TU, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT: ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT 
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005 
 
 
THIS REPORT PRESENTS THE TURKISH PRESS SUMMARY UNDER THREE 
THEMES: 
 
HEADLINES 
BRIEFING 
EDITORIAL OPINION 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
HEADLINES 
 
MASS APPEAL 
General Ozkok: Ethnic Nationalism Aims at Dividing Turkey - 
Hurriyet 
Lagendijk: Kurds Should Forget Ocalan - Aksam 
Turkish Votes Helped Schroeder to Catch Up with Merkel - 
Hurriyet 
Five Turks Enter `Bundestag' - Hurriyet 
Elections Make Turks Noticed in Germany - Milliyet 
North Korea Backpedals on Nuclear Program - Milliyet 
Direct Flights between Germany-Northern Iraq - Milliyet 
Sound Bomb Blast in Downtown Istanbul, Time-Bomb Deactivated 
in Ankara - Sabah 
 
OPINION MAKERS 
AKP Blocks Terror Debate at Parliament - Cumhuriyet 
Politics Deadlocked in Germany, Observers Expect New Polls - 
Radikal 
Turks Delighted with German Election Outcome - Radikal 
Germany Looking for Its Chancellor - Zaman 
Talabani: Interests of Kurds in Turkey Lie in Democracy - 
Yeni Safak 
Cyprus Prepares for New Diplomatic Initiatives - Zaman 
One Billion USD `Flew' Out of Iraq - Radikal 
EU to Take Nuclear Crisis with Iran to UN Security Council 
-Radikal 
North Korea Ends Nuclear Program - Cumhuriyet 
North Korea Gives In - Yeni Safak 
Israel to Set Up No-Man's Land North of Gaza - Yeni Safak 
Afghans' 50 Percent of Democracy - Cumhuriyet 
Egypt Releases 1,500 Inmates, to Free 500 More - Yeni Safak 
Chavez Given a `Hero's Welcome' on His Return from US - Yeni 
Safak 
 
 
BRIEFING 
 
EU Agrees on Turkey Counter-Declaration:  EU ambassadors 
agreed among themselves Monday with regard to how to counter 
in a declaration Turkey's refusal to recognize Cyprus, an 
issue that has cast a shadow on the scheduled EU entry talks 
with Ankara beginning October 3, the EU presidency said. 
The accord is to be approved by EU ministers on Tuesday.  A 
British spokesman said the EU presidency is confident that 
talks will begin on time.  The EU underlined in the counter- 
declaration that recognition of all member states is a 
necessary component of the accession process, noting that 
Brussels will review Ankara's implementation of its 
obligations next year.  The declaration will also say that 
Turkey is expected to normalize relations with all EU member 
states in the shortest possible time.  The draft added that 
Turkey maintained its obligation to support efforts to find 
a solution to the Cyprus problem through the goodwill 
mission of UNSG Annan.  Turkish papers comment that Nicosia 
had made the EU meet their demands. 
 
Gul to Ask Rice about Tal Afar:  Foreign Minister Gul is to 
ask Secretary Rice the reason for the `harassment' by 
coalition forces of the Turkish Red Crescent convoy ferrying 
humanitarian aid to the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar at a 
luncheon hosted by the US Secretary in honor of the foreign 
ministers of EU and NATO members in New York today, papers 
report.  The Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay) said on Monday 
that US troops in Tal Afar, discomfited by Turkmen ovations 
for the Turkish humanitarian team, blocked the distribution 
of aid material in their convoy of five trucks, ordered the 
Turks to leave the area, "Cumhuriyet" reports.  Kizilay said 
it has called the International Red Cross and the US Red 
Cross for help, noting that such American attitudes will 
cause an international `scandal.'  Kizilay said that the 
issue was resolved soon after the calls, and that the 
Turkish convoy distributed the humanitarian goods to the 
Turkmen in the city. 
 
European Parliament Kicks Off Kurdish Conference:  The 
European Parliament United Left Group kicked off the `EU, 
Turkey and the Kurds' conference in Brussels Monday, papers 
report.  Former Kurdish lawmaker Hatip Dicle called for 
economic measures to recover the damage inflicted by the 15- 
year long fighting in `Kurdistan' and rights to allow `armed 
guerrillas in the mountains' to participate in the political 
process in Turkey.  Another Kurdish lawmaker, Selim Sadak, 
claimed that Kurds were supporting Ankara's EU accession 
process more than the Turks and called for a `cleaning' of 
all laws and regulations from their `uniform and 
authoritarian' grounds.  The EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary 
Commission Co-chairman Joost Lagendijk said that he can 
understand why the military and nationalist circles in 
Turkey have been uncomfortable with Prime Minister Erdogan's 
remarks in Diyarbakir.  `What I cannot understand is,' 
Lagendijk said, `that why the Kurds treat Abdullah Ocalan as 
their sole leader, taking to the streets for the release of 
Ocalan instead of for language and cultural rights.' 
"Cumhuriyet" comments that `separatist' elements had come to 
the forefront at the conference. 
 
Turks in the US Help Katrina Victims:  Turks living in the 
United States made the largest donation, 500,000 USD, for 
Hurricane Katrina victims at an aid concert organized by the 
`Higher Ground Hurricane Aid Fund' in New York, "Zaman" 
reports.  Tickets were sold at 10,000 USD each.   UN 
Secretary-General Annan and leading US businessmen, 
 
SIPDIS 
politicians, artists and media representatives joined the 
event.  Turkey's Consul-General in New York, Omer Onhon said 
before the concert that about 20,000 were killed in the 1999 
earthquake in Turkey, and that Turks knew well natural 
disasters and the pain inflicted by them. 
 
Talabani Asks Erdogan to Denounce Zarkawi Actions:  Iraq 
President Jalal Talabani told the London-based Arabic daily 
"al-Hayat" that the interests of the Kurds in Turkey lie in 
the success of democracy, "Yeni Safak" reports.  Talabani 
said that he had asked Turkish PM Erdogan at a meeting in 
New York last week to denounce the `sectarian' war declared 
by Zarkawi in Iraq.  Talabani said about Syria that 
Washington aimed not at toppling the Assad regime, but at 
changing Syrian policies with regard to Iraq, Lebanon and 
other issues.  In another talk with the BBC, Talabani 
rejected the criticism that the Sunnis were barred from the 
Iraq administration, saying that some of the high-level 
administrators and six ministers in the cabinet were Sunni 
Arabs. 
 
Ozkok Warns Separatists, Fundamentalists:  The Chief of the 
Turkish General Staff (TGS), General Hilmi Ozkok, said in a 
message on the occasion of Veteran's Day that the Turkish 
military will confront the groups that want to open 
discussion of Turkey's unitary structure as well as the 
fundamentalists who use Islam for their `perverted' 
intentions, never allowing them to reach their `evil goals,' 
papers report. 
 
AKP Rejects Parliamentary Debate on Terrorism:  A motion 
submitted to the parliament by the opposition CHP to hold a 
debate on the increasing acts of terrorism, was rejected by 
ruling AK Party votes on Monday.  Opposition leaders 
directed strong criticism against PM Erdogan for rejecting a 
parliamentary debate on rising terrorism in southeast 
Turkey.  The parliament was recessed until October 1. 
 
Shalom Wants HAMAS Prevented from Joining Palestine 
Elections:  "Jerusalem Voice of Israel Network B in Hebrew," 
the state-funded radio, reported Monday that during a 
meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, Israel's 
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom asked the Turkish FM to 
pressure Mahmoud Abbas to block participation of HAMAS in 
Palestine elections.  Gul said that Abbas cannot be blamed 
for the actions of extremists, warning against bringing the 
political process to a halt in the face of such 
developments.  Gul also voiced Turkey's interest in taking 
part in rebuilding the Gaza Strip, said the Israeli radio. 
 
Police Foil PKK Bombing Attempts in Major Turkish Cities: 
On Monday, Turkish police arrested two brothers in the 
Aegean coastal city of Izmir, aged at 27 and 19 and 
allegedly affiliated to the PKK, with 2 kg of RDX plastic 
explosives set to be detonated by a mobile phone, papers 
report.  A small bomb exploded in a rubbish bin on Monday, 
wounding a cleaner nearby in downtown Istanbul, police said. 
In Ankara, a time bomb made of 12.5 kg of A-4 plastic 
explosives and set to detonate during the rush hour 
yesterday, was deactivated by police near the wall of a 
traffic police office, only a few feet away from a busy 
road.  Following the discovery, security measures around 
state offices and foreign missions have been enhanced, say 
reports. 
 
PKK Landmine Kills Technician in Bingol:  A landmine 
believed to have been planted by the outlawed PKK went off 
in the Genc town of the eastern Turkish province of Bingol, 
killing one person and injuring two others, papers report. 
The blast killed Fehmi Dogan (39), a technician making a 
survey, and injured two people. 
 
Ankara Governor Wants Gay Organization Closed:  The Ankara 
Governor's Office applied to the prosecutor to close the 
"Kaos Gay-Lesbian Organization" (Kaos-GL) in Ankara on 
grounds that the organization `contradicted' Turkish moral 
values, "Milliyet" reports.  Kaos-GL works to defend gay 
rights through legal action in Turkey, says the report, 
warning that the `prohibiting' mentality in Turkey has re- 
emerged on the eve of the accession talks with the European 
Union. 
 
Roots of the US Congress in Patara in Turkey:  Dailies carry 
a story by Richard Bernstein in Monday's "New York Times," 
`A Congress Buried in Turkey's Sand,' which said that 
Turkish and German archaeologists working in the small 
Mediterranean seacoast town of Patara in Turkey, uncovered a 
`parliament building' which has `rows of stone seats 
arranged in a semicircle, like the chambers of the American 
Congress.'  `The Lycian League was mentioned twice in the 
Federalist Papers, once by Alexander Hamilton and once by 
James Madison, so it could safely be said that it entered 
into the history of the formation of the United States,' 
said the article.  It added: `Patara is a Greek ruin, a 
Roman one and a Byzantine one as well, which is what makes 
the site, buried in sand for centuries, likely to take its 
place alongside Troy, Pergamon or Ephesus as one of the most 
important.  An impressive necropolis, a Roman bath, a large 
semicircular theater, a broad main avenue leading to the 
agora, a Byzantine basilica and a fortified wall have been 
largely rescued from the sand and scrub brush so far.'  The 
Bernstein story stressed that money is needed urgently to 
preserve the many stone inscriptions that, no longer buried 
by sand, face the danger of erosion, and concluded: `Of 
course, there is also the parliament building, linking this 
dusty place to the United States, 7,000 miles and 1,800 
years into the future.' 
 
 
EDITORIAL OPINION:  German Election; United Nations 
 
"Colorful Scenarios" 
Sami Kohen wrote in the mass appeal "Milliyet" (9/20): "The 
German election result is filled with contradictions and 
uncertainties.  The two main rivals are winners and losers 
at the same time.  Merkel was hoping to gain a comfortable 
ruling majority but it did not happen.  Schroeder gained a 
significant increase in his party's votes but it did not 
help him to ensure his PM seat.  . The current composition 
of the Bundestag makes it difficult to predict the nature of 
the coalition.  It is not clear who will be the next PM. 
The only certainty is the fact that the German parliament is 
now open for every type of coalition scenario.  . Germany 
now enters into a period of uncertainty.  Every delay in 
forming a new government will have a negative impact on 
politics and the economy." 
 
"Hard Bargain in Germany" 
Zafer Atay wrote in the economic-politic "Dunya" (9/20): 
"The election results in Germany indicate a crisis.  At 
present, there are many different coalition scenarios but it 
is not certain yet which one will come to pass.  . In short, 
Germany now enters a period where hard bargaining will take 
place for weeks.  There is another problem hidden in the 
upcoming bargain: who takes the premiership?   If the big 
coalition plan is implemented, the position of prime 
minister will be a problem because both Schroeder and Merkel 
consider themselves winners. . There is one more point about 
the German elections.  Merkel underestimated the strength of 
the Turkish-German voters and looked as if did not care 
about them.  Schroeder, on the other hand, managed to get 
support from Turkish and other foreign citizens." 
 
"Bush Prevents the UN Reform Process" 
Sahin Alpay commented in the Islamist-intellectual "Zaman" 
(9/20): "UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's reform package 
did not receive support from the Bush Administration.  It 
was unlikely that the US would support Annan, particularly 
given his differences with American plans during the Iraq 
crisis.  It was not a coincidence that President Bush 
appointed John Bolton, a well-known anti-UN figure, as the 
American representative in the UN.  Annan presented some 
comprehensive and fundamental reforms in the UN organization 
but no consensus was achieved on them.  John Bolton 
expressed content after that. . The gist of the issue lies 
in the ruling mentality of the Bush administration.  The neo- 
cons are after American hegemony on a global scale and they 
do not care about equality among UN members." 
 
MCELDOWNEY