US embassy cable - 05ANKARA5949

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ANKARA 005949 
 
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 
SUBJECT: ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT 
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 
 
 
THIS REPORT PRESENTS THE TURKISH PRESS SUMMARY UNDER THREE 
THEMES: 
 
HEADLINES 
BRIEFING 
EDITORIAL OPINION 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
HEADLINES 
 
 
MASS APPEAL 
Gul: Turkey Won't Show Before Seeing EU Framework - Sabah 
Blair: Turkey Can Be Bridge Between Europe, Arab World - 
Hurriyet 
Blair: Britain's Iraq Pullout Depends on December Polls - 
Hurriyet 
Patriarch Bartolomew: Turkey is Part of Europe - Hurriyet 
Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II to EU: Do Not Exclude Turkey - 
Vatan 
Ties between Turkey, EU at Breaking Point - Aksam 
Vienna Barrier on Turkey's Road to EU - Milliyet 
`Kurdistan Airlines' Flies Over Turkish Skies - Milliyet 
 
OPINION MAKERS 
Michael Rubin: Timing of Hadley, Hughes Visits Symbolic - 
Zaman 
Washington Post: Turks Challenge Hughes on Iraq - Radikal 
Talabani Wants Cooperation with Turkey - Yeni Safak 
Minister Salih: Iraq Takes Turkey's Terror Concerns 
Seriously - Cumhuriyet 
Athens: We Support Turkey's EU Membership - Yeni Safak 
Triple Bomb Attacks Kill 85 in Iraq - Zaman 
Local Elections Held in West Bank - Yeni Safak 
US Removes Part of Arms Sanctions on Libya - Cumhuiryet 
 
 
BRIEFING 
 
Hughes Loved Istanbul:  US Undersecretary of State for 
Public Diplomacy, Karen Hughes, toured tourist areas during 
her free time in Istanbul on Thursday, "Milliyet" reports. 
Hughes said she had been `enchanted' by Istanbul.  `Turkey 
and the Turks have fascinated me.  People here are 
incredibly welcoming and hospitable.  Istanbul is a place 
that has to be seen.  It's a feast of marvelous views,' 
Hughes said after touring Istanbul's famous tourist 
attraction Covered Bazaar (Kapalicarsi.)  Hughes said she 
would come back as soon as possible to do some shopping for 
her house.  Hughes said she will prepare an extensive report 
for President Bush on Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.  She 
departed Turkey for the US on a private plane yesterday 
afternoon. 
 
Undersecretary Joseph in Ankara:  The Bush Administration 
has stepped up efforts to gain Turkey's support for US 
policies with regard to Syria and Iran, "Radikal" reports. 
US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and 
International Security Affairs, Robert Joseph, the third 
high-level US official to call on Turkey following official 
visits by Presidential National Security Advisor Stephen 
Hadley and Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, will hold 
meetings in Ankara today to discuss `nuclear tensions' in 
the region.  Ankara had warned Hadley and Hughes that an 
intervention against Syria may prove to be riskier than 
Iraq.  Ankara is cautious, and has also hinted to the 
Americans that it does not have full confidence in the UN- 
led investigation into the Hariri assassination.  The paper 
claims that Washington is expecting a `clear Turkish 
contribution' on the issue. 
 
Hughes Visits Patriarch Barholomew:  Undersecretary Hughes 
called on the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate on Thursday before 
departing from later in the day, papers report.  Hughes said 
after meeting with Bartholomew I that the Patriarch was a 
`great and prominent' religious representative.  A statement 
by the Patriarchate in Istanbul said that Bartholomew had 
told Hughes about the importance of reopening Halki Seminary 
for the education of clergy for the Orthodox Church. 
 
EU Fails to Agree on Framework Document for Turkey: 
European Union ambassadors failed again on Thursday to agree 
on a negotiating framework document for the opening of 
accession talks with Turkey next week, papers report.  EU 
term president Britain summoned ministers to an emergency 
meeting on Sunday.  EU diplomats said that the 24 other 
countries had been prepared to accept the draft negotiating 
framework, but that Austria had demanded substantial 
changes.  `Turkey will not go Luxembourg if we don't see the 
negotiating mandate beferohand,' Foreign Minister Abdullah 
Gul said on Thursday.  `Both the EU presidency and the 
member states know there are some elements that cannot be 
accepted by Turkey.  There is a heavy agenda in front of us. 
But we still have time to resolve the problems,' Gul said. 
PM Erdogan said that he does not believe that the current 
impasse represents a `serious problem' for Turkey. 
Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc said that no one should 
expect the Turkish assembly to approve Turkey's accession 
protocol before October 3, stressing that the matter will be 
discussed by the parliament after membership talks with 
Ankara are kicked off. 
 
Salih Visits Ankara:  Visiting Iraq Planning and Development 
Minister, Dr. Barham Salih, said yesterday that he had 
brought goodwill messages expressing determination to 
improve ties with Turkey from President Talabani and Prime 
Minister Jafari to Ankara.  `Iraq takes Turkish concerns 
over the PKK seriously.  My government will not tolerate 
armed attacks against any of Iraq's neighbors.  The 
governments of Iraq and Turkey need a wider exchange of 
intelligence to achieve greater security in the region,' 
Salih told the all-news channel NTV.  Salih met with Energy 
Minister Hilmi Guler and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on 
Thursday.  Guler said after meeting with Salih that Ankara 
and Baghdad will work on measures to ensure the regular oil 
flow through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline.  `We see occasional 
interruptions in the oil flow in the pipeline.  We want to 
change the route of the pipeline to ensure a more regular 
flow,' Guler said.  The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has a 
capacity of approximately 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), 
but output has averaged only around 200,000 bpd since 2003 
because of sabotage attacks. 
 
Turkmen Party Official Claims Rape of Iraqi Women by US 
Soldiers:  Iraqi Democratic Turkmen Party Chairman Kasim 
Omer told the semi-official Anatolian News Agency that 25 
Iraqi women had been raped by US forces over the past month 
during coalition operations in Tal Afar.  Omer said that one 
of the women who was raped later became a suicide bomber and 
blew herself up, killing six others in Tal Afar on 
Wednesday.  Omer showed some photographs to the press, and 
claimed that US forces had killed scores of innocent 
civilians, including pregnant women.  The US Embassy issued 
a written statement Friday afternoon characterizing Omer's 
remarks as `highly inaccurate' and highlighting the effort 
being made to repair the damage in Tal Afar and return 
people to their homes. 
 
New Iraq Abuse Photographs Scandal:  Turkish media report 
that a pornographic website provided free access to some 
30,000 US troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan in exchange 
for photos of the troops with Iraqis or Afghans they had 
killed.  The US military said that it could not verify the 
authenticity of the photographs, or whether they had been 
sent by US troops.  The military said it saw no reason for 
further official investigation into the charges.  However, a 
federal justice in the US ruled that the pictures should be 
made public.  The Pentagon has objected to the ruling, 
arguing that such disclosure will further damage battered US 
image abroad. 
 
Police Detain Hizb-ut Tahrir Members:  A man and his son 
were arrested for faxing a statement to military units in 
Istanbul on behalf of the fundamentalist `Hizb-ut Tahrir' 
organization, papers report.  The four-page statement, 
entitled `a call on devout officers in the Turkish military 
to take urgent action,' was faxed from an electronics shop 
in Istanbul's conservative Fatih district.  An Arabic 
magazine and two hand-drawn maps were found in the suspects' 
home.  Meanwhile, a man believed to be the head of the Hizb- 
ut Tahrir in Turkey was detained in Adana yesterday.  The 
suspect is believed to have instigated an unauthorized 
demonstration by the group during the summer, in which 
demonstrators called for an end to the Turkish Republic and 
criticized Ataturk. 
 
Independent Lawmaker Joins ANAP:  An independent lawmaker 
from Turkey's eastern province of Erzurum, Ibrahim Ozdogan, 
joined the opposition Motherland Party (ANAP) on Thursday, 
increasing the number of ANAP seats in the parliament to 18. 
ANAP, which is chaired by former Tourism Minister Erkan 
Mumcu, needs just two more deputies to form a party group in 
the parliament.  The current distribution of seats in the 
parliament is as follows: AKP 355, CHP 157, ANAP 18, DYP 4, 
SHP 4, HYP 1, Independent 7, and Vacant 4. 
 
Kurdistan Airlines Fly between Frankfurt and Erbil: 
"Milliyet" reports that northern Iraq's `Kurdistan Airlines' 
is now flying between Frankfurt and Erbil over the Turkish 
air corridor under the name of `Hamburg International' 
airlines run by Germans.  Turkish officials said the flight 
over Turkey is probably permitted because Kurdistan Airlines 
is not written on the plane, and that Turkey cannot legally 
prevent a flight requested by Germans for commercial 
purposes. 
 
Two PKK Members Surrender:  Two PKK terrorists surrendered 
to Turkish security forces in Silopi, in the southeastern 
province of Sirnak yesterday.  The militants complained 
about the `enormous' pressure on members of the 
organization, and the `inhuman treatment' they had been 
subjected to.  They said that many more PKK militants are 
planning to surrender to Turkish authorities.  Meanwhile, 
security forces killed a PKK member during fighting near 
Bitlis, Diyarbakir on Thursday. 
 
Turkish Businessman Detained in Iraq:  Cuneyt Bozbeyoglu 
(53), Chairman of the Ankara Industrialists and Businessmen 
Association (ASIAD), was detained by Iraqi police while 
trying to enter Turkey from Dohuk.  Bozbeyoglu is reportedly 
being held responsible for the unpaid debts of an ASIAD- 
member Turkish construction company working in Iraq, 
"Milliyet" reports.  Bozbeyoglu is being kept in the Saray 
police station in Suleymaniye.  The Turkish businessman is 
suffering from high blood pressure, has a history of heart 
problems, and needs constant medication. 
 
 
EDITORIAL OPINION: 
 
"Maybe This is Best for Everyone" 
Murat Yetkin commented in the liberal-intellectual "Radikal" 
(9/30):  "Foreign Minister Gul's statement yesterday gave a 
clear indication of Turkey's position on the EU talks. 
Prior to the EU membership negotiations, Turkey faces many 
problems.  Gul could not go into detail on these problems, 
but there is a `big risk' that many of the conditions are 
unacceptable for Turkey.  It was good for Gul to release 
this statement yesterday, because some EU countries had been 
dismissing press reports that Turkey might walk away from 
the table.  I would like to draw attention to a potential 
trap that Turkey should be aware of.  Austria is insisting 
on a `privileged partnership' clause in the framework 
document.  Other countries have promised Turkey that such 
language would not be acceptable.  But a de facto 
`privileged partnership' could be presented to Turkey in 
this document in other ways.  The `permanent limitations' 
mentioned in the final document on December 17, 2004 was 
essentially a `privileged partnership' in other words.  In 
the past, EU policy has led to confusion and a need for last- 
minute solutions.  For this reason, Turkey should remain 
calm, and not send its delegation to Luxembourg before EU 
leaders reach an acceptable compromise on the framework 
document.  Otherwise, Turkey could face grave consequences." 
 
"Bush's Image Maker Carries a Message from Gul" 
Ferai Tinc wrote in the mass appeal "Hurriyet" (9/30):  "US 
Under Secretary Karen Hughes told me yesterday that she is 
taking a message from Foreign Minister Gul to President 
Bush.  She said that Gul's message had made a big impression 
on her.  Hughes said that Gul had explained to her the 
different attitudes that the Turkish people and the American 
people have about Iraq: The US considers Iraq, Iran, and 
Syria as remote countries, while Turkey views them as 
neighbors.  Hughes stressed that she will emphasize these 
remarks in meetings that determine State Department policy. 
Hughes added that the purpose of her visit had not been to 
improve the US image, but to listen to its important allies 
and ensure that these views are reflected in US policy." 
 
MCELDOWNEY