US embassy cable - 05ANKARA6428

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ANKARA 006428 
 
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, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT: ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT 
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2005 
 
THIS REPORT PRESENTS THE TURKISH PRESS SUMMARY UNDER THREE 
THEMES: 
 
HEADLINES 
BRIEFING 
EDITORIAL OPINION 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
HEADLINES 
 
 
MASS APPEAL 
Talabani Urges Ankara to Declare PKK Amnesty - Hurriyet 
Sunni al-Anbar Province Rejects Iraq Constitution - Hurriyet 
Iraq Constitution's Fate Depends on Mosul Votes - Milliyet 
Journalists' Hotel Bombed in Baghdad: 20 Killed - Hurriyet 
Haaretz: Hamas Militants Trained in Istanbul - Sabah 
Bernanke the New Boss for US Dollar - Sabah 
Dowd: Miller Went to Jail for Fame - Aksam 
Hurricane Wilma Pounds Florida Shores - Turkiye 
Wilma Spares US, Kills 13 in Haiti - Posta 
 
OPINION MAKERS 
McEldowney: The US Does Not Meet with Terrorists - Zaman 
Talabani: Barzani's Visit A Recognition of Kurdish Identity 
- Radikal 
Talabani Calls for Amnesty for PKK - Yeni Safak 
One Million Syrians Rally to Protest UN Hariri Report - Yeni 
Safak 
Syrians: We Won't Become Another Iraq - Cumhuriyet 
`Revolution' Unlikely in Azerbaijan - Cumhuriyet 
Wolfensohn Blames Israel for Cutting Talks with Palestinians 
- Cumhuriyet 
Israel Kills Islamic Jihad Commander Saadi - Yeni Safak 
Miller Quake Jolts The New York Times - Radikal 
 
 
BRIEFING 
 
McEldowney: US Doesn't Meet with Terrorists:  US Charge 
d'Affaires Nancy McEldowney denied weekend press reports 
claiming that American officials had met with members of the 
outlawed PKK in northern Iraq: `The US government does not 
meet and will not meet or will meet with terrorists,' 
McEldowney said.  `The US, a true friend and ally of Turkey, 
backed Ankara in dealing with problems including the fight 
against the PKK,' she continued.  `President Bush and US 
government representatives are urging Iraqi officials to 
work in cooperation with the US and Turkey to put an end to 
the terrorist activities of the PKK,' McEldowney said during 
a visit to a charity bazaar set up by the Altindag 
Municipality in Ankara in an effort to help the needy during 
Ramadan. 
 
NSC Lists Terrorism as Primary Threat to Turkey:  Turkey's 
National Security Council (NSC) reached agreement on the 
National Security Policy document at its regular meeting on 
Monday, papers report.  The new National Security Policy 
Document will be decisive in shaping Turkey's internal and 
external security policies.  The document lists separatist, 
fundamentalist, and radical leftist movements as `primary 
domestic threats.'  The NSC had postponed discussing the 
document during two previous meetings, when military members 
of the Council expressed concerns about several parts of the 
draft.  The National Security Policy Document, seen by some 
analysts as the `secret constitution' of Turkey, will be 
submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval.  The NSC 
also discussed Turkey's EU drive, and stressed in the 
statement issued after the meeting the importance of the 
protection of Turkey's national interests during the 
accession process.  The Council also raised the need for 
effective use of the country's water resources, and advised 
that construction of new dams on the Tigris and Euphrates 
rivers should be completed as soon as possible. 
 
EU to Ask Turkey to Open Ports to Greek Cypriots:  The 
European Union will ask Turkey in the Accession Partnership 
Document to be issued on November 9 to open its ports and 
airports to Greek Cypriot aircraft and vessels and normalize 
ties with Nicosia, papers report.  Turkey earlier proposed a 
simultaneous lifting of sanctions imposed on the Turkish and 
Greek parts of Cyprus.  The EU blueprint will also urge 
Turkey to seek ratification of the customs union protocol in 
the parliament. 
 
EU Report Lists Shortcomings in Turkey's EU Drive:  A 
monthly report released by the EU Commission draws attention 
to escalating terrorism in Turkey, and says that the growing 
violence may have been manipulated by opponents of reform in 
the military and the police, "Cumhuriyet" reports.  The EU 
Commission report notes that heated debates between Kurdish 
activists and Turkish nationalists are adding to tensions. 
The report says that rising violence has strengthened the 
position of hardliners in the country, who are now 
advocating tough anti-terror measures.  Nationalism is on 
the rise in Turkey and political tensions are mounting, the 
report claims, adding that the bureaucracy's continued 
support for the status quo will cause serious trouble for 
the Turkish government during the EU accession process.  The 
report warns that the government has not met EU expectations 
with regard to constitutional reforms, and draws attention 
to differences in police treatment of Kurdish activists and 
Islamist demonstrators. 
 
Talat in Ankara Before Flying to US;  Turkish Cypriot leader 
Mehmet Ali Talat is due to visit Ankara to meet with Foreign 
Minister Abdullah Gul before leaving for the US on 
Wednesday, where he will be received by Secretary of State 
Rice in Washington.  While in the US, Talat will also meet 
with former US Special Cyprus Coordinator Thomas Weston, 
UNSYG Kofi Annan, and UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis. 
Talat is scheduled to meet Congressman Henry Hyde, the 
Republican head of the US House International Relations 
Committee, and other key committee members.  He will address 
an event to be held jointly by the Brookings Institution and 
the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 
two Washington-based think tanks. 
 
Dissident Kurdish Activist Killed by the PKK:  Dailies 
report that Veysi Akgonul, a Patriotic Democratic Party 
(PWD) member detained in connection with the murder of 
Kurdish politician Hikmet Fidan in July, has admitted that 
he and several colleagues handed Fidan over to the PKK after 
he rejected pressure from the terrorist organization to 
leave the PWD, a dissident Kurdish political grouping 
founded by PKK defectors led by Osman Ocalan.  The PKK 
reportedly had ordered Fidan to join the Democratic Society 
Movement, led by former Kurdish parliamentarian Leyla Zana. 
Another suspect in the case, Firat Karahan, said that Fidan 
had been murdered to silence PWD activities in Diyarbakir. 
`Following the murder, Osman Ocalan decided to leave the 
PWD,' Karahan said.  Papers say that Fidan's killer had been 
identified, and was now hiding in rural areas of Diyarbakir 
with other PKK militants. 
 
New Kurdish Party to be Founded:  The Democratic Society 
Movement (DTH), formed by former DEP lawmakers Leyla Zana 
and her colleagues, is preparing to launch itself as a 
political party named the Democratic Society Party (DTP) 
during the movement's two-day meeting in Ankara this week. 
Former Kurdish lawmaker Selim Sadak said that during 
Turkey's EU accession process, basic rights such as freedom 
of expression will be strengthened, and that the Kurdish 
problem will be solved within a democratic atmosphere 
created by the EU.  Sadak urged the EU not to allow Turkey's 
membership process to advance before the Kurdish problem is 
resolved, and said that the process must not be solely 
focused on economic issues.  Papers say that legal 
restrictions prevented Leyla Zana from becoming the official 
party leader, and that another former Kurdish 
parliamentarian, Ahmet Turk, and Abdullah Ocalan's lawyer, 
Aysel Tugluk, will co-chair the DTP. 
Trial of 4 Policeman for Southeast Killings Begins in 
Eskisehir:  The trial of 4 policemen charged in the shooting 
deaths of a Kurdish man and his 12-year-old son in the 
southeastern city of Kiziltepe (Mardin) earlier this year 
got underway yesterday in Eskisehir under tight security. 
12 people were detained in skirmishes outside the 
courthouse, and lawyers for the victims' family walked out 
of the courtroom to protest what they termed the `oppressive 
atmosphere' of the hearing.  The defendants claim that the 
victims were armed at time they were shot, but several human 
rights groups who later visited Kiziltepe cast doubt on that 
assertion.  The trial will continue in December. 
 
Reinhard on the Image Problem of US:  Keith Reinhard, the 
President of the global advertising giant DDB Worldwide, 
said the image problem of the United States has reached an 
`alarming' level.  Reinhard, in Istanbul for the anniversary 
of a DDB Worldwide partnership with a Turkish company, told 
the press that Australia, Canada, the UK, and Germany have 
surpassed the United States as a destination country for a 
bright future.  Reinhard said the US loses billions of 
dollars every year from students shifting to Canada or the 
UK due to hardships in obtaining US visas.  `In Germany, a 
close US ally for many years,' Reinhard said, `European 
brands are preferred over American ones,  and even 37 
percent of British intellectuals say they will not buy 
American brands.'  A column in "Hurriyet" says that few US 
Senators had been interested in Reinhard's views when he 
addressed the Congress as head of Business for Diplomatic 
Action (BDA).  Reinhard now has the tough task of making the 
Bush Administration acknowledge that the US has an image 
problem before he begins `educating' ordinary Americans. 
Reinhard said he told the Congress that McDonald's and Coca- 
Cola have spent 2.4 billion USD on their image last year, 
much more than the US Government spent to win friends around 
the world. 
 
Pope Benedict to Visit Turkey in 2006:  Pope Benedict XVI 
has accepted Ankara's invitation to visit Ankara and 
Istanbul in 2006, papers report.  The Greek Orthodox 
Patriarchate had earlier invited the Pope to attend the St. 
Andrew's Feast Day on November 30 in Istanbul, but Ankara 
advised the Vatican to schedule the visit for 2006 in a 
maneuver to prevent participation by the Pontiff in the St. 
Andrews' services.  The visit, during which Pope Benedict 
XVI will meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, is 
seen as a significant effort by Christians to boost dialogue 
among churches.  By allowing such a dialogue, Ankara aims at 
toning down the Vatican's opposition to Turkey's EU 
membership. 
 
 
Hijaz Railway Project:  Minister of Transportation Binali 
Yildirim told a ceremony on the 100th anniversary of the 
Hijaz Railway at Haifa Eastern Train Station in Israel that 
Turkey is ready to join efforts to reactivate the railroad, 
which was destroyed during World War I, the semi-official 
Anatolian News Agency reported yesterday.  The Hijaz Railway 
operated between Haifa and Damascus, and work continues to 
renew the route all the way to Saudi Arabia.  Haifa Mayor 
Yona Yahav also asked Yildirim to ensure direct flights 
between Haifa and Turkey. 
 
EDITORIAL OPINION:  Syria 
 
"Before the Syrian Crisis Grows" 
Sami Kohen commented in the mass appeal "Milliyet" (10/25): 
"The international community's efforts to exert pressure on 
Syria will have an impact on relations between Ankara and 
Damascus as well.  Things might become difficult for Ankara, 
as its bilateral relationship with Syria reached a 
significant phase during the last two years.  Turkey 
continued its rapprochement with Syria even when the US was 
pressuring the Assad regime.  . The involvement of the 
United Nations in the Syrian issue and the new process 
toward Damascus are incompatible with Turkish diplomacy's 
wish to develop bilateral ties with Syria and to remain in 
step with the international political consensus.  . In fact 
Turkey, by using its special status in the region, can play 
a role to minimize the potential impact of the Syrian 
crisis.  Turkey is capable of giving conciliation messages 
to both the Assad regime and the international community, 
and by doing so lowering tension in the region.  Turkey's 
message to Assad could address several topics, including 
that the regime must take the UN stance seriously and not 
defy the international community, and that it must end 
support for militant groups and insurgents and accelerate 
the domestic reform process.  Turkey's message to President 
Bush and the West in general could include the need to avoid 
taking any military action, not being so harsh on Assad, 
being patient by using diplomatic measures, and being 
careful about the possible backlash of economic sanctions 
against Syria.  The time is perfect for Turkey to check the 
atmosphere for a diplomatic initiative like this." 
 
"The Hariri Report" 
Yilmaz Oztuna commented in the conservative-nationalist 
"Turkiye" (10/25):  "The ruling Baath party organized 
demonstrations in several Syrian cities yesterday to protest 
the UN report, but this will only strengthen the US thesis. 
Syria will not bow its head easily.  But many countries, 
including Turkey, are examining the report carefully. 
Secretary Rice stated that in the 21st century, 
 
SIPDIS 
assassinations take place only in places where there are 
anti-democratic regimes.  This statement echoes the tone of 
the US mission to bring democracy to Syria after Afghanistan 
and Iraq.  Washington wants to coordinate with London, 
Israel, and possibly even Ankara to carry out this mission. 
If Ankara acts against the principles of the strategic 
partnership and remains aloof from the US initiative, then 
the US will take Armenia and Kurdistan as its partners." 
 
MCELDOWNEY