Cablegate: Southeast Turkey Press Summary,

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ADANA 0265

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU IZ ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY,
OCTOBER 10, 2003

1. This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary
for October 10, 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. HURRIYET (Cukurova Supplement): The prosecutor
asked for eight years of aggravated
imprisonment for Cumali Kizilkoca (29) who
threw a hand grenade at the US Consulate in
Adana four months ago. The court is expected to
make its final decision on the case at the next
hearing on October 16.

3. TURKIYE: A woman and her son picked potatoes in
Elmaduzu village of Bingol yesterday. After
they returned home, the hand grenade they had
put in the bag, without recognizing it,
exploded. As a result of the explosion, the son
was killed and the mother was seriously
wounded.

4. MILLIYET: It is reported that shopkeepers in
Diyarbakir did not honor PKK's call for closing
down their shops on the anniversary of Abdullah
Ocalan's extradition from Syria on October 9,
1998. The security director of Diyarbakir
toured the town and thanked the shopkeepers for
their actions. The police also arrested eight
persons who threatened merchants in Diyarbakir.

5. CUMHURIYET/BOLGE/EKSPRES/OZGUR GUNDEM/EVRENSEL:
A group of fifty persons, mostly HRA members,
blocked E-5 highway which passes by AK Party's
provincial office in Adana to protest the
motion authorizing the deployment of Turkish
troops in Iraq. The police kicked and beat the
demonstrators who sat on the main highway. The
demonstrators shouted slogans such as "Murderer
US, Collaborator AKP" and "We will not become
US soldiers." A police supervisor was wounded
by stones while eleven persons were
apprehended, including the president of the HRA
chapter in Adana. Some groups shouting anti-war
slogans in densely Kurdish populated Sakirpasa,
19 Mayis, and Denizli quarters in Adana
dispersed into the streets after police
interference. Ozgur Gundem paper claims that
students did not go to schools, and the
majority of shopkeepers did not open their
shops despite police pressure in the Southeast.
It also claims that people were dressed in
black outfits.

6. TERCUMAN: Turkish truckers carrying foodstuffs
and construction materials to Iraq stopped
their operations due to attacks launched
against them. Thousands of truckers forming
long queues at Habur Border Gate decided not to
carry materials to Iraq until Turkish soldiers
were deployed there. In the meantime, the
transportation companies increased their fares
by forty percent.

7. ZAMAN: People who protested Malatya Inonu
Univeristy's ban on use of headscarves in May
1999 are being put in jail. The court had
demanded capital punishment for 53 inmates, and
an imprisonment term varying from five to
fifteen years for 22 inmates, while 161 others
were brought before the judges for
participating in an unauthorized march and
meeting. While the majority of the detainees
were acquitted, fifteen persons were given
sentences varying from three years and nine
months to one year and three months of
imprisonment.

8. HURRIYET (Cukurova Supplement)/BOLGE: Based on
a tip, the police from Hatay's Security
Directorate seized ten kilos of heroin in
Antakya and six more kilos in a village of
Samandag township. Five persons involved in
drug trafficking were detained.
9. BOLGE: Based on a tip, the jandarma from
Provincial Jandarma Command of Van seized 111
kilos of hashish, 5.7 kilos of hemp seed and
three Kalashnikov weapons and assorted bullets.
Two others alleged are wanted by the security
forces.

10. YENI SAFAK: In Ozalp and Muradiye of Van
province, seventy-eight families, whose houses
and land were submerged under the reservoir of
Sari Mehmet Dam in 1992, are still hoping to be
resettled by the state. The site designated for
the villagers' resettlement is being used for
Organized Livestock Raising.

11. HURRIYET/YENI SAFAK/RADIKAL/OZGUR GUNDEM:
The case involving the alleged rape while
detained of a woman identified by the initials
S.E. is going to be handled at the Felony Court
of Mardin today. It is alleged that S.E. had
been raped and tortured when she was under
detention during 1993-1994 period. Four hundred
five soldiers will be arraigned in this case.
Three more cases of this nature have been filed
at the court in Mardin.

12. Turkiye: Based on a tip, police teams from
the Security Directorate of Kahramanmaras
arrested three persons distributing forty
counterfeit 100 USD bank notes into market.

13. OZGUR GUNDEM: Batman Security Directorate's
anti-terror teams raided Ozgur Halk magazine's
office in Batman two days ago. The magazine's
representative for Batman and four visitors
were detained. Three hundred fifty books, one
typewriter, 300 million TL, and four photo
albums in the office were seized by police.

14. EVRENSEL: Evrensel's representative in
Diyarbakir was detained by police two days ago
while he was trying to interview internally
displaced people in the Melik Ahmet quarter of
the town.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

15. SABAH: The new border gate located between
Mardin and Sirnak aims to abandon the existing
Habur Border Gate which passes through Iraq's
Kurdish region under Mesut Barzani's control.
It is reported that IKDP charged a "Transit
Tax" up to one hundred USD. After strong
reaction, the tax, which was reduced to twenty-
five USD until recently, has been lifted. But
the Turkish truckers bringing around 800 liters
of oil from Iraq are being charged around 34
USD under the name of "fine". Nusaybin's sub-
governor, Omer Ulu, said opening of a second
gate had been on the agenda of the government
for a long time, and part of the road for the
second gate with Iraq would pass via Syria,
too. With opening and shifting of trade to the
second gate, IKDP will suffer great financial
losses.
REID

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