US embassy cable - 05ADANA221

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000221 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, ADANA, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR NOVEMBER 25, 2005 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for November 25, 
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 
 
HURRIYET / ZAMAN:       Upon receiving a tip-off that a PKK militant 
was readying to launch an attack, Istanbul Intelligence and 
Anti-Terror Branch Directorate conducted operations in 
Istanbul's Gaziosmanpasa and Eminonu districts and caught two 
people, who were allegedly procuring arms for the PKK.  24 
Glock-, one CZ-75-, one Sig Sauer-, two Baretta- and one 
Ceska-brand shotguns, 19 spare clips, 150 cartridges and two 
blank cartridge guns were seized during the operation. Two 
people caught were arraigned.  In a separate operation conducted 
in an unspecified location, four alleged PKK militants were 
caught. 
 
HURRIYET:       Turkish Parliament's Commission for Probing Honor 
Killings, started scrutinizing the elderly female members of the 
families, as well, because, according to the opinions of the 
academic faculty members and experts, mothers and mother-in-laws 
are also backing the honor killing practices within the family 
and are in fact very influential in the honor killing decision 
processes of the family gatherings. 
 
ZAMAN / HURRIYET:       Turkey reportedly sent to Denmark several 
times evidence of Roj TV's affiliation with the PKK.  Turkey 
claimed that a minimum of 18 of the programs that were aired on 
pro-PKK Medya TV and MED TV, whose broadcasts were already 
banned by France and the UK respectively because of the 
station's reported PKK affiliation, were now being aired in Roj 
TV under different titles but with the same content and same 
people. 
 
HURRIYET:       Van Chief Prosecutor's Office (VCPO) extended the 
scope of the investigation about the Semdinli case. 
Prosecutor's Office will investigate both the gang allegations 
and the possibility that there might be a PKK provocation in the 
incident.  VCPO will look into the alleged contact and phone 
calls between Seferi Yilmaz, the owner of the bookstore which 
was bombed, and Murat Karayilan, a senior PKK official. 
 
RADIKAL / HURRIYET / ZAMAN:      Erdogan Gurbuz, Hakkari Governor, 
who has been assigned as a governor to another central Anatolian 
province recently, said that this change of place was a normal 
practice of the government and could even be regarded as a 
promotion since he assumed the responsibilities of a bigger 
province. 
 
HURRIYET:       Government's second "Security Summit" will be held 
today and PM Erdogan will chair it.  The first one was held 
immediately after the incidents and demonstrations that followed 
the Semdinli bombing, which took place on November 9. 
 
ZAMAN:  Zaman daily reported that Prof. Ugur Oral, the 
rector of Mersin University, had allegedly informed the YOK 
(Higher Education Board) against the faculty members during 
Kemal Guruz's chairmanship.  Allegedly, Oral wrote a November 
2000 dated letter to the YOK and warned YOK against 'separatist 
activities' of some of the scientists, the press and the Adana 
American Consulate. 
 
ZAMAN:  Reportedly, Diyarbakir Dicle University Rector, 
Prof. Fikri Canoruc, dismissed nine professors from the 
university allegedly on the grounds that the professors formed 
an opposing stance against him (the rector).  One of the 
professors dismissed was reportedly the rival of Canoruc during 
the rector elections. 
 
ZAMAN:  Semdinli Prosecutor reportedly said that he would 
not have released Ali Kaya and Ozcan Ildeniz, the two soldiers, 
who were caught by the local people and detained following the 
Semdinli bombing, had the prosecutor possessed at that time the 
evidence he has now.  Sources from the Prosecutor's Office 
reportedly said that the case would be handled under 
terror-related cases, and the possibility that it would be 
handled under criminal network/gang cases was weak. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   The daily claimed that the government was 
feigning as if it was trying to resolve the case in a determined 
manner; but prior similar cases, such as the 1996 Susurluk case 
and the Yuksekova Gang case, proved that such cases were 
deliberately forgotten in the course of time. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   The police, conducting raids on houses in 
Adana, detained three people.  These people were reportedly 
detained on charges that they participated in an October 9 
protest activity in Adana against the arrest of terrrist leader 
Abdullah Ocalan in 1999. 
 
RADIKAL:        Reportedly, 3345 women have applied to women's 
organizations on grounds that they were subjected to violence 
this year.  Nebahat Akkoc, Chairperson of KAMER (Center for 
Women), said that 2235 women have applied to KAMER's Emergency 
Line this year with complaints of violence they suffered. 
REID