US embassy cable - 05ADANA228

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000228 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, ADANA, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 6, 2005 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for December 06, 
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 
 
BOLGE / EKSPRES:        Tension developed when a business owner 
criticized Adana Mayor Aytac Durak for attempting to demolish 
their places of business despite their having licenses issued by 
Hasan Gulsen, as Durak and an accompanying delegation went to an 
area in Adana to warn business owners not to build places of 
business without having appropriate legal licenses.  An angry 
business owner reportedly attempted to slap Adana Mayor Aytac 
Durak on the face. (This summary is from 12/04 editions.) 
 
RADIKAL / OZGUR GUNDEM / ZAMAN: Britain's Financial Times 
reportedly published an article 
(http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c08dce02-64eb-11da- 8cff-0000779e2 
340.html) that focused on the Semdinli case.  According to the 
article, the violence that resumed in the eastern part of Turkey 
has become a regenerated nightmare for Turkey that jeopardized 
its EU bid.  According to the dailies, the article expressed 
that Diyarbakir was "the political capital" of Kurds.  The 
article further cited interviews with the Diyarbakir Mayor Osman 
Baydemir and Semdinli Mayor Hursit Tekin. 
 
CUMHURIYET / ZAMAN:     Vedat Gulsen, attorney of the officers 
arrested for their involvement in the Semdinli Case, petitioned 
the Van Heavy Penalty Court on Monday to lift the decision to 
arrest his clients (see press summary 12/02).  According to the 
new penalty laws, the Court must respond to the petition in 
three days. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   A hundred and thirty-five Kurdish artists and 
Kurdish cultural institutions made a joint press announcement 
saying that they would burn their artworks should the government 
continue its policy of blacking out Roj TV, reportedly a medium 
through which people were able to express their opinions freely. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Association for Rule of Law, while warning the 
public that the epidemic disease that erupted in Malatya could 
spread to the rest of Turkey, urged authorities to take action 
against the Mayor, who allegedly "failed to carry out" his 
duties in due manner. 
 
RADIKAL / ZAMAN:        Reportedly, as the number of patients 
suffering from diarrhea is decreasing, Malatya Mayor (AKP) 
recently suspended four municipality employees following the 
opening of investigations against them. 
 
CUMHURIYET / HURRIYET:  CHP (Republican People's Party) 
delegation, which investigated the causes of diarrhea epidemic 
in Malatya, reported that the AK party government did not handle 
the situation in Malatya sensitively.  According to the 
delegation's report authorities have still not discovered the 
water network problem that caused the disease and this situation 
still poses risks for human health.  The delegation also cited 
in the report remarks of the Malatya Mayor saying that most of 
the patients "showed psychological symptoms."  A Hurriyet 
columnist claimed that Malatya Mayor should resign for ignoring 
the warnings of Inonu University's rector about the contaminated 
water. 
 
HURRIYET:       Despite the Sirnak Governor's notice not to drink 
water from the city's water system (see press summary 12/05), 
Sirnak Mayor Ahmet Ertak (from DEHAP) said that he had no 
confidence in the results of the eight tests Provincial Health 
Directorate made with samples taken from different water sources 
in the city.  The Mayor, while saying that he and his family 
were drinking the city water without boiling it, further said 
they were not recommending that people do the same.  According 
to the daily, the number of patients suffering from diarrhea 
reached 80 in Sirnak. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Allegedly, police officers beat a truck driver 
as the driver was waiting in his vehicle along with a queue of 
trucks at the Habur border gate to cross the border into 
northern Iraq.  Allegedly police officers opened fire when other 
drivers attempted to intervene.   Reportedly, the officers beat 
the driver when the driver asked, "When will it be our turn (to 
cross the border)?" 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   As a result of police's three unannounced home 
raids in Sirnak's Silopi district, a total of 9 persons, two of 
whose identities are unknown, have been detained.  Reportedly, 
there was a handcuffed person along with the officers as the 
raids were carried out. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Reportedly, HPG (People's Protection Forces), 
the PKK's militant wing, carried out an attack on a Turkish 
military facility located at the entrance of the Sirnak 
province.  Allegedly one soldier was killed and another one was 
wounded. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   (Unspecified) people opened fire at a police 
car patrolling a quarter of Diyarbakir.  No casualties were 
reported.  Reportedly, the police, while increasingly 
controlling various points leading to the area of the incident, 
have been conducting raids on coffee houses. 
 
CUMHURIYET / RADIKAL / OZGUR GUNDEM:    Reportedly, Hamit 
Ergin, mayor of Diyarbakir's Hazro district, along with his 
relatives, caught a person who had been following him allegedly 
in order to "execute" him (see press summaries 03/22-23-25, 
09/20 and 10/06).  Ergin reportedly surrendered the person to 
security officers; however, the accused was released the same 
night on grounds that he did not do anything suspicious.  The 
daily claims that Olcay Dal, the person who reportedly followed 
Ergin, was a defector.  Dal allegedly admitted when he was 
caught that he had been given 10,000 USD to kill Ergin by a 
member of the Dolan clan. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Reportedly, 15 employees were dismissed from 
Perenco Crude Oil Company in Diyarbakir allegedly because they 
wanted to become members of a union.  Reportedly, temporary 
village guards were employed in place of the dismissed workers. 
 
HURRIYET:       The details of the meeting of Abdullah Ocalan and 
his attorneys were reportedly published on pro-PKK websites. 
During this 1.5-hour meeting, Ocalan reportedly said that they 
(Kurds) were accepting the overarching identity concept of 
"Citizenship of Turkey."  According to Ocalan, what they 
demanded was the removal of barriers placed against the 
identities of sub-cultures through more democracy within the 
society, not through establishing another state or 
confederation. 
REID