US embassy cable - 03ADANA163

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 0163 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PINS, PGOV, PHUM, TU, IZ, ADANA, Press Summaries 
SUBJECT:  SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY, 
          JUNE 20, 2003 
 
 
1.  This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary 
for June 20, 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. 
 
 
POLITICAL, SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
 
2.  Cumhuriyet/Hurriyet/Milli Gazete/Evrensel: As 
a result of ensuing clashes between the security 
forces and PKK/KADEK militants in Isa village of 
Karliova (Bingol), two militants were killed. The 
killed militants have been identified as Engin 
Cinkir(AKA "Zagros"), andCein akr (KA 
"Xmdi") Bigo'sgovrnr, Husyi vni 
, 
sid six militantswere involved in the clashes, 
and hy lunched an opera 
on to arrest the 
remaining four. Based on the information obtained 
from an operation against Hizbullah in 
Diyarbakir, Mehmet Sah Akalp, an employee at 
Ballica Cigarette Factory in Bafra of Samsun, was 
arrested. It is alleged that Akalp was in charge 
of organizations in mosques and recruiting 
militants for Hizbullah. The court imprisoned 
Akalp. Duzgun Mentes, 31, a TIKKO (Turkish 
Workers' and Peasants'Communist Army) member 
wanted by the State Security Court of Malatya was 
arrested by jandarma 
in Bursa. 
 
 
3.  Evrensel: A group of fifty people, including 
an informant named Mesut Mehmetoglu, attacked 
DEHAP's district office in Hazro (Diyarbakir) 
with clubs and stones yesterday morning. DEHAP's 
district accountant, Tahsin Kacar, was wounded 
during the attack. 
 
 
4.  Hurriyet: Twelve administrators at 
municipality of Kozluk (Batman) were jailed for 
corruption. The AK Party mayor Ayhan Isik and 
four municipal employees, who disappeared just 
before the operation, are wanted by police. The 
Acting Mayor, Mehmet Erkul, also from AK Party, 
is among the jailed persons. 
 
 
5.  Evrensel: The police apprehended 
approximately sixty DEHAP affiliated women in 
Diyarbakir, Batman, and Sirnak for demanding a 
general amnesty and trying to make a press 
release in front of AK Party's offices. The 
police beat and slapped the women while detaining 
them. Similar actions were taken by DEHAP's 
female members in Istanbul, Adana, Gaziantep, 
Bursa, and Ankara. 
 
 
 
 
6.  Cumhuriyet: The road to Yesilgoz village of 
Beytussebap (Sirnak)is still closed. The 
villagers who are unable to return to their 
village have been trapped in Beytussebap for over 
a month. They are living in tents provided by 
Beytussebap's Red Crescent office. Non- 
governmental Organizations offered to contribute 
to the costs for opening Yesilgoz' forty 
kilometer-long village road. A Human Rights 
Association (HRA) delegation visited one hundred 
forty families living in tents, and prepared an 
observation report. At a press announcement in 
HRA's Diyarbakir chapter yesterday, the HRA's 
General Secretary, Feray Salman, said three 
hundred of seven hundred seventy five persons 
living in the tents were under twelve, and eighty 
percent of the campers were unable to buy basic 
needs, even bread. Feray said the number of 
people living in the tents would soon reach one 
thousand five hundred people as the schools would 
be closed for summer vacation. 
 
 
7.  Radikal/Hurriyet/Milli Gazete: Habur Border 
Gate, which was unilaterally closed down for two 
days by IKDP's forces in Northern Iraq, was 
reopened. While the US and UN's humanitarian 
relief trucks were permitted to cross the border, 
commercial trucks, which were not allowed to 
pass, formed a ten kilometer-long queue. Truckers 
carrying perishables got furious, and questioned 
who would be held responsible for the foodstuffs 
that went bad. Hurriyet reported six hundred 
trucks daily were carrying diesel from Northern 
Iraq to Turkey. 
 
 
ECONOMIC AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 
8.  Bolge: According to the information released 
by Gaziantep-based Southeast Anatolian Exporters' 
Union, the exports to the neighboring countries 
from the provinces in the GAP region amounted to 
26.319 million USD, with a forty three percent 
increase in the past five months. 
HOLTZ