US embassy cable - 05ADANA202

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000202 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, ADANA, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR NOVEMBER 07, 2005 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for November 07, 
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 
 
SABAH / RADIKAL / ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM: On Saturday night, 
Suleyman Bolunmez, an independent deputy from Mardin, quarreled 
with Mehmet Tutas, son of the former Mardin mayor, in front of a 
cinema in Ankara.  During the argument, Tutas opened fire and 
wounded Bolunmez.  Reportedly the incident was part of ongoing 
hostility between Bolunmez's and the Tutas's families. 
Allegedly, Bolunmez did not support Tutas's father in last 
year's local elections in Mardin.  Tutas was arraigned and 
arrested yesterday. 
 
RADIKAL:        A CHP delegation, which conducted studies at a 
girls' residence in Sanliurfa regarding allegations of girls 
suffering from violence and abuse (see press summary 10/31 and 
11/01), said that the delegation found no indication of sexual 
abuse in the residence, but found evidence of beating and bad 
management. 
 
RADIKAL:        An 11,884,000 Euro project will be launched in 
Turkey to eradicate rabies disease.  The EU will fund 9,103,000 
Euros of the total project. 
 
BOLGE:  Nejat Kocabay, Program Coordinator of the ILO 
(International Labor Organization), said that a project launched 
by joint initiatives of ILO, Ministry of Education, GAP 
(Southeastern Anatolia Project) aims to draw children from work 
in the agricultural fields to schools where they could be 
trained for vocations. 
 
BOLGE / ZAMAN:  Recai Kutan, deputy national leader of SP 
(Happiness Party), who attended the provincial congress of his 
party in Mersin, sharply criticized (Turkish) government's 
domestic and foreign policies, and the policies the U.S. and EU 
pursued in the Middle East.  According to Kutan, after Syria and 
Iran, the next target of the U.S. in the Middle East will be 
Turkey. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   A 3.8 magnitude minor earthquake shook 
Bingol's Hizan district yesterday. 
 
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / BOLGE / EKSPRES:  Two girls staying at a 
children's shelter in Adana attempted to commit suicide 
allegedly because their families did not come to see them during 
the Ramadan holiday.  The girls were hospitalized, and are in 
healthy condition now. 
 
BOLGE / OZGUR GUNDEM:   During the 24th anniversary of YOK's 
(Higher Education Board) foundation, ESP (Oppressed People's 
Socialist Party) staged protests in Istanbul, Izmir, Hatay and 
Adana against YOK, which has long been criticized for being an 
anti-democratic establishment since its foundation after the 
1980 military coup. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Despite the schools' opening two months ago, 
many children, who are working in the cotton fields on Hatay's 
Amik plain, are reportedly looking forward to the end of the 
cotton harvest to be able to attend school. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Amnesty International prepared a report about 
Iranian-origin Kurds' conditions in Turkey following its 
meetings with 25 representatives of Kurdish refugees in Van, 
members of UNHCR's office in Van, officers from Van's Security 
Directorate, members of Van Bar Association and Van Human Rights 
Association.  According to the report the conditions of 
Iranian-origin Kurds were dire and needed to be addressed by 
Turkey. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Brother of Edip Solmaz, the former Batman 
Mayor, who was killed in 1979, was brutally killed.  His dead 
body was found yesterday at his house at around 8 p.m. in 
Batman. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   An explosion that occurred in Hakkari's 
Semdinli district killed a 23-year-old shepherd.  Reportedly, an 
explosive went off when the shepherd grabbed it. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   PKK reportedly announced that it killed two 
JITEM (Jandarma Intelligence Center) members who were involved 
in the killing of Ugur and Ahmet Kaymaz in November 2004 in 
Mardin's Kiziltepe district. 
 
SABAH:  Mugdat Ozturk, an athlete from Van who won the 2005 
European Junior Championship, earned a scholarship from Iowa 
State University in the U.S. 
 
HURRIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM:        The bomb, which exploded in a car 
near the Jandarma Command in Hakkari's Semdinli district on 
November 1 (see press summary 11/02), a day which marked the end 
of fasting, was minimum 100 kilograms, according to officials in 
the Security Directorate.  The updated figures about the 
casualties are 23 people.  Sixty-seven businesses were 
demolished as a result of the blast.  The tradesmen in Semdinli 
are reportedly blaming the PKK for the incident --without 
directly referring to the name of the PKK-- because of the 
proximity of the spot to the Jandarma Command.  However, Ozgur 
Gundem daily reported that the authorities, who have not started 
damage assessment studies, caused the goods in the shops to 
deteriorate due to rain.  Explosions in the last two months in 
the Yuksekova and Hakkari districts have reportedly caused panic 
among people. 
 
HURRIYET:       The representative of Iraqi Turkmen Front in Turkey 
sent a letter to President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to draw attention 
to article 22 in Iraq's new Constitution, which would grant PKK 
members the right to take refuge in Iraq.  Article 22 reportedly 
renders it difficult the process of returning PKK militants 
caught in Iraq to the country they flee from. (This summary is 
from 11/06 edition.) 
REID