US embassy cable - 03ADANA83

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 0083 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, IZ, ADANA, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT:  SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY, 
          MARCH 24, 2003 
 
 
1.  This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary 
for March 24, 2003.  Please note that Turkish 
press reports often contain errors or 
exaggerations; AmConsulate Adana does not vouch 
for the accuracy of the reports summarized here. 
 
 
2. Cumhuriyet/Evrensel/Dunya/Tercuman/Sabah/ 
Hurriyet: Having obtain only over-flight 
permission from Turkey, the US is getting ready 
to close down its military bases in southeastern 
Turkey. Trucks and buses were dispatched to 
remove military personnel and equipment from 
Nusaybin's Industrial Zone. Vice Chairman for 
Nusaybin's Craftsmen and Merchants Association, 
Zeynel Tuncalan, said the industrial zone had 
been rented to the US in February for a period of 
one year at USD 248,000 a month; they did not 
receive any notification about the evacuation of 
the facilities. Some 1,800 military vehicles and 
500 containers of military equipment that were 
offloaded at Iskenderun port for the northern 
front will now be reloaded. No materiel has been 
dispatched from the port by rail for the past 
three days. Activity was seen at the air bases. A 
big number of C-17 cargo planes landed at Batman 
airport. 
 
 
3.  Cumhuriyet: Citizens in the Southeast 
complained about a lack of measures taken against 
the possible use of chemical and biological 
weapons. The inhabitants of Batman said it was 
mandatory during 1991 Gulf War for pharmacies to 
have atropine sulfate, an anti-poison drug, but 
now it was not available at any of the 50 
pharmacies in town. The citizens complained that 
neither the Provincial Health Directorate nor the 
Provincial Civil Defense Directorate had taken 
any measures, and that they needed at least 
500,000 atropine sulfate units. The Provincial 
Health Directorate officials said they were 
called at least by 50 or 70 people a day asking 
about precautions they should take in case of a 
chemical or biological attack. 
 
 
4.  Milliyet/Radikal/Tercuman/Hurriyet: Sanliurfa 
Governor Sukru Kocatepe announced that a piece 
that fell off a plane that belonged to an 
unidentified country landed one kilometer away 
from Ozveren village in Sanliurfa province.  The 
debris left a four-meter-wide and one-meter-deep 
hole in the ground. The governor said Turkish 
military officials were examining the site. The 
jandarma found a 1.3 meter long metal piece near 
Ayakli village of Viransehir. It is reported that 
the metal piece found was a from a "guided 
missile," the body of which had exploded and 
fallen over a 500 meter area. 
 
 
5.  Tercuman: Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah 
Gul announced that there were no negative aspects 
in Turkish-US relations. FM Gul announced that 
Turkey had granted permission to an American C- 
130 aircraft carrying wounded individuals to land 
at Incirlik AB the previous evening. 
 
 
6.  Milliyet: With the legal conclusion of 
Operation Northern Watch, jets did not fly and 
tanker planes operating under ONW flew out of 
Turkey as of Friday.  Some 1,200 soldiers 
assigned to ONW at Incirlik AB are expected to 
return home. It is reported that the planes 
continuing to use Incirlik AB were flying in 
support of the humanitarian relief program in 
Afghanistan.  Preparations are being made near 
the base's golf course for deploying Patriot 
missiles. 
 
 
7.  Evrensel: During Newroz festivities on March 
21 in Bingol, five people, including an 
administrator at DEHAP's National Headquarters, 
were ordered held and subsequently put in Bingol 
prison. Seven more persons were imprisoned in 
Sanliurfa, and one in Izmir, in connection with 
Newroz-related incidents. 
 
 
8.  Evrensel: After policemen failed to capture a 
group of youth who set a bonfire and shouted 
slogans during Newroz celebrations in Siirt, the 
policemen allegedly took revenge by breaking the 
windows of the surrounding houses with the 
stones. The windows of ten houses are reported to 
have been damaged. 
 
 
9.  Evrensel: Ten students from Cukurova 
University in Adana who had been detained on the 
grounds of undertaking anti-war actions on March 
21 were subsequently released by the State 
Security Court of Adana. 
 
 
10. Turkiye: Two persons trying to introduce 
40,000 dollars in counterfeit U.S. currency into 
the market in Batman were arrested by police. 
During a search of a taxi, fake 100 U.S. dollar 
bank notes were found in secret compartments of 
the car. 
HOLTZ