US embassy cable - 05ANKARA6352

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ANKARA 006352 
 
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 
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2005 
 
 
THIS REPORT PRESENTS THE TURKISH PRESS SUMMARY UNDER THREE 
THEMES: 
 
HEADLINES 
BRIEFING 
EDITORIAL OPINION 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
HEADLINES 
 
 
MASS APPEAL 
Bush Gives Iftar for Muslims at White House - Hurriyet 
Bush Hosts Fifth Iftar Dinner for Muslims - Milliyet 
Holy Koran Added to White House Library - Aksam 
`Army of Lawyers' to Defend Saddam - Sabah 
Time of Account for Saddam Hussein - Vatan 
China's Military Strength Scares Rusmfeld - Aksam 
Guliyev Crisis in Azerbaijan - Milliyet 
 
OPINION MAKERS 
Erdogan to US: Our Patience Running Out on the PKK - Yeni 
Safak 
MacCormack: We are With Turkey in Fight against Terror - 
Radikal 
`Iftar Diplomacy' at the White House - Yeni Safak 
Bush to Muslims: Ramadan Mubarak - Radikal 
Bush Calls on Muslims to Denounce Terror - Zaman 
Iraq Constitution Vote Tainted - Radikal 
Trial Time for Saddam Hussein - Radikal 
China Discomfits Rumsfeld - Cumhuriyet 
Anti-War Grandmothers Detained in US - Radikal 
UNICEF: 40 Million Children Face Violence, Abuse - Yeni 
Safak 
 
 
BRIEFING 
 
Erdogan Issues Warning against PKK in Northern Iraq:  Papers 
report Prime Minister Erdogan's warning on Tuesday that 
Turkey will take `necessary measures' to end the presence of 
PKK terrorists in northern Iraq.  `Turkey has shown a 
certain degree of tolerance up to now, but we cannot 
continue this anymore,' Erdogan told a meeting of his party 
group, stressing that the terrorist presence in northern 
Iraq must be rooted out.  Erdogan warned `everyone who bears 
responsibility in the region' that Turkey will take 
`appropriate steps' when the time comes.  Erdogan said 
Turkey wanted the Iraqi Constitution to be shaped in a way 
that will represent all Iraqi groups.  He voiced hope that 
the new parliament to be formed after the December 15 
elections will amend the constitution.  `We are evaluating 
the upcoming elections along with the US and UN 
representatives,' Erdogan said.  The PM also noted that 
Turkey is working closely with the UN to determine the 
future of Kirkuk. 
 
US Stands with Turkey against the PKK:  The US State 
Department said yesterday that it stands firmly behind 
Turkey in the fight against terrorism, Turkish papers 
report.  Department Spokesman Sean MacCormack told a press 
briefing on Tuesday that US forces in Iraq are aware of the 
PKK problem and are `taking steps to address it.' 
`Certainly the PKK is a terrorist organization, and we 
certainly stand with the Turkish government in our common 
fight against terrorism,' MacCormack stated. 
 
Jeffrey on Turkey, Iraqi Kurds:  Turkish state television 
(TRT) reported US Iraq Coordinator Jim Jeffrey as saying 
yesterday that Turkey has played a `very helpful role' in 
Iraq.  `Turkey has received high-level visits, including the 
prime minister, from Iraq, and that's a particularly 
important relationship,' Jeffrey said in reponse to a 
question from a journalist in Washington.  He noted that the 
US is pleased with the role the Kurds are playing in `a 
federal, united, democratic' Iraq.  Jeffrey added that `we 
consider the integration of the Kurds into the new Iraq to 
be one of the more successful achievements of the past 
several years.' 
 
President Bush Hosts Iftar at the White House:  President 
Bush hosted an iftar dinner for Muslim representatives in 
the United States for the fifth consecutive year at the 
White House, Turkish papers report.  `As we work together to 
defeat the terrorists, we must be very clear about the 
enemies we face.  The killers who take the lives of innocent 
men, women, and children are followers of a violent ideology 
very different from the religion of Islam,' Bush told the 
Muslim leaders before the iftar.  `Their strategy will 
fail,' Bush said, and he called on `all responsible Islamic 
leaders' to denounce `an ideology that exploits Islam for 
political ends.' 
 
Gul Proposes Lifting All Restrictions on Both Sides in 
Cyprus:  Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul proposed that all 
restrictions on the Turkish and Greek sides in Cyprus, 
including the closure of Turkish ports and airports to Greek 
Cypriots, should be removed simultaneously.  Gul was 
responding to press questions in Ankara on his return from a 
trip to Finland.  Yasar Yakis, head of the parliamentary 
commission for EU harmonization, had said on Monday that the 
Greek Cypriots could be granted access to Turkish ports even 
before Ankara recognizes Nicosia.  Dailies comment that the 
Turkish government does not seem inclined to support Yakis's 
proposal. 
 
Erdogan to Visit Earthquake Victims in Pakistan:  Prime 
Minister Erdogan told his party group meeting yesterday that 
Turkey has sent 173 search-and-rescue and health personnel, 
7 vehicles, 3 ambulances, a field hospital, 3 sniffer dogs, 
22 tons of food and 17 tons of medicine on 9 cargo planes to 
Pakistan following the massive earthquake on October 8. 
Erdogan added that 104,000 blankets, 10,000 tents and 20 
stoves in United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 
(UNHCR) warehouses in Iskenderun will also be sent to the 
region through an air corridor to be opened between Incirlik 
Airbase and Islamabad.  Turkish businessmen donated 20 
million USD to earthquake victims over the weekend in 
Istanbul.  On Thursday, Erdogan will fly to Pakistan to meet 
with President Musharraf and Prime Minister Aziz. 
 
Fried on Turkey-Armenia Ties:  US Assistant Secretary of 
State for Europe and Eurasia Daniel Fried said in Yerevan 
yesterday that the US will continue its efforts to normalize 
Armenian-Turkish relations.  Responding to questions by 
Armenia's independent news agency Mediamax, Fried said that 
`the difficult issues of the past' are being discussed at 
conferences today, and that some leading politicians in 
Turkey are `ready to launch more efforts.'  `This will 
depend partly on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict and partly on how people will change over the 
course of time.  I keep in touch with Armenian organizations 
in the US, and some of them have played a very constructive 
role in normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations. 
Specifically, I mean the process that took place within the 
framework of the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation 
commission,' Fried said. 
 
Survey on Honor Killings in Southeast Turkey:  A survey on 
honor killings in the mainly Kurdish southeast found that 
37.4 percent of respondents approved of killing `unfaithful' 
women who have `stained' the family honor, "Hurriyet" 
reported.  The survey was carried out by Dicle University in 
Diyarbakir, and included 430 people in the southeastern 
provinces, 335 of whom were men.  21.6 percent of 
participants thought the women should be punished in other 
ways such as having their ears, nose, or hair cut off. 
Papers comment that the results are `scary' at a time when 
Turkey is striving for membership in the European Union. 
Turkey Improves on Corruption Perception:  Turkey placed 
65th in Transparency International's (TI) 2005 Corruption 
Perceptions Index (CPI), papers report. 
Turkey's corruption perception indices rose to 3.5 in 2005 
following results of 3.1 and 3.2 in 2003 and 2004, 
respectively.  France, Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, 
Nigeria, Qatar, Taiwan and Turkey showed a decline in 
perceptions of corruption.  Iceland leads the list as the 
least corrupt country with 9.7 points.  More than two-thirds 
of the 159 nations surveyed scored less than 5 out of a 
score of 10.  The worst corruption is seen in Chad, 
Bangladesh, Turkmenistan, Myanmar and Haiti, all of which 
are also among the poorest countries in the world. 
 
 
EDITORIAL OPINION:  Iraq; Turkish Cypriot Leader to 
Washington 
 
"Will the Constitution Be Good Enough to Save Iraq?" 
Omer Taspinar wrote this commentary from Washington in the 
liberal-intellectual "Radikal" (10/19): "The Bush 
administration is maintaining its usual optimism, expecting 
that the new constitution will help reduce the chaos in 
Iraq.  The rate of Sunni participation in the referendum is 
a reason for some optimism.  But neither the American people 
nor international opinion share this optimistic expectation. 
. It will be very hard to keep Iraq intact, as it has no 
strong government and no overarching Iraqi identity.  A 
Yugoslavia-style dissolution process looks like the most 
realistic scenario for Iraq's future. A civil war in Iraq 
seems inevitable, and will likely take place right after the 
pullout of American forces.  But the US is very determined 
to pull out of Iraq, and various scenarios on this issue are 
being avidly debated in Washington.  Due to a decrease in 
public support for the war, the Pentagon wants to leave Iraq 
as quickly as possible.  . As for the civilians, despite 
President Bush's effort to disseminate optimism, the growing 
belief is that the terrorism in Iraq will not end as long as 
American soldiers are stationed there.  The US has become 
like a magnet for terror in Iraq.  Thus, the Pentagon and 
the White House have agreed on the need for a significant 
reduction of US troops in Iraq.  The debate now is about 
timing and numbers.  The location of military bases is 
another issue, in which northern Iraq looks like the most 
rational option." 
 
"Possibility of US Action against the PKK is Very Weak" 
Hakan Celik wrote in the mass appeal-tabloid "Posta" 
(10/19):  "Prime Minister Erdogan once again criticized US 
policy on the PKK yesterday.  This issue is very important 
for Turkish-US relations.  The increasing PKK terror 
activities sting the Turkish Government, which is acting 
with good intentions on the issue.  The US has repeatedly 
said that it considers the PKK to be a terrorist 
organization.  . But the occupation of Iraq and Washington's 
close relations with the Kurds in northern Iraq have caused 
the Bush administration to be unwilling to take any concrete 
steps on this issue.  The Americans keep repeating the same 
sentence, which Turkey finds it hard to believe: `we would 
like to eliminate the PKK, but for the time being we don't 
have enough firepower to do it.'   Despite PM Erdogan's 
rightful rebuttal, the US Administration's agenda seems too 
full to deal with the PKK.  I hope I am mistaken." 
 
"It Should not Remain Only Symbolic" 
Sami Kohen wrote in the mass appeal "Milliyet" (10/19): "The 
invitation to Mehmet Ali Talat to Washington as a `Turkish 
Cypriot leader' by Secretary Rice is a very important event, 
both symbolically and substantively.  . This invitation 
indicates that the US administration is determined to 
maintain direct contact with the Turkish Cypriot side.  This 
means that Washington, at least, does not ignore the 
existence of Turkish Cypriots on the island.  It also 
provides hope that the US will take an active role in the 
settlement of the Cyprus issue.   Every step taken by the US 
to end the economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriots, which 
is the main expectation from the Rice-Talat meeting, will 
encourage others to take similar action. . Along with its 
symbolic importance, the Rice-Talat meeting in Washington 
could be the harbinger of some new developments on Cyprus." 
 
MCELDOWNEY