This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000109
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM IZ TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY AUGUST 20, 2004
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for August 20,
2004. 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
SABAH, MILLIYET: Working on a tip, police from Izmir Security
Directorate arrested two alleged PKK/Kongra-Gel suspects with
one kilo of C-4 bombs in a house in Ciftlikkoy. The suspects
told police during questioning that they had been planning to
attack the touristic Cesme town of Izmir.
ULKEDE GUNDEM: Villagers found two unidentified dead bodies in
Findik district of Guclukonak, Sirnak province, yesterday.
Jandarma took the dead bodies to Guclukonak to identify them.
ZAMAN, ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: 600 people evicted from their houses
in Ilicak (Germav) village of Beytussebab, Sirnak province, have
been living in tents under very tough conditions for about a
month now. The villagers told the visiting Diyarbakir HRA
Committee that in one case 21 persons were living in one tent.
Soldiers from the Beytussebab Jandarma Command reportedly told
villagers that they should move, for security reasons, to the
right bank of the Ilicak Creek that runs through the village,
but the villagers unanimously told the HRA Committee that the
GOT forces evicted them from their houses for having assisted
and harbored the PKK. They said that PKK militants had not
visited their village for over a year, but that villagers had
provided food to the militants in the past out of fear. Some
women in the tents complained that their children were suffering
from skin diseases. The Beytussebab Sub-governor Cihan Demirhan
told the HRA Committee that the villagers had not been forcibly
evicted, and that they could return to their houses if they
wanted.
MILLIYET, HURRIYET: Hasan Tabak, 23, who had managed to escape
from the highly-secure Kurkculer F-type prison in Adana on May
7, 2004, was rearrested in Adana. Tabak is being charged with
attempted murder, and with being a member of a criminal
organization. Tabak was also involved in a fight after he had
escaped from the prison.
VAKIT: Based on a tip, the Jandarma team from Hilvan, Sanliurfa
province, seized 3.4 kilos of hashish and 2,279 roots of hemp in
a field in Bahcecik village that belonged to Resat Y., who was
later imprisoned.
MILLIYET, HURRIYET: President Bush's National Security Advisor
Condaleeza Rice stated that the United States was doing what it
could, with non-military methods, to weaken the PKK and make it
less active. During a speech Rice delivered at a Washington
think-tank in Washington, in response to a question about
combating the PKK, she said "In order to confront the threat
imposed on Turkey by this irregular force, which we have
declared as a terrorist organization, we are discussing with
Turkish authorities about what can be done on both sides of the
border."
EVRENSEL: In Adana, some NGOs and political parties condemned
the U.S. attacks in Najaf, Iraq. The demonstrators, who gathered
in the Inonu Park, carried placards stating "Do Not Go to Iraq,
Do Not Shed Brothers Blood," and shouted anti-American slogans.
The Adana HRA Secretary, Ethem Acikalin, claimed that the United
States is attempting to activate its Broader Middle East Project
by invading Najaf.
MILLIYET, ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: With initiative from the
government, the Radio and Television High Commission (RTUK)
prepared a new regulation opening the path for broadcasting in
languages other than Turkish on TRT and other national TV
channels. Given the demand from the Southeast for broadcasting
in Kurdish, and taking into account the sensitivity in the
Southeast into account, RTUK requested opinions from some
government agencies, including Interior Ministry and National
Intelligence Organization (MIT), about whether or not
broadcasting in Kurdish in Diyarbakir is permissible. The
Diyarbakir Governorate, inresponse to an Interior Ministry
inquiry said that the most widely spoken Kurdish dialect in
Diyarbakir was the Kirmanci dialect. RTUK informed the
Diyarbakir Soz and Gun TV stations and the Cagri-TV in Batman,
which had applied for permission for broadcasting in Kurdish
some time ago, to submit their applications. Military circles
are not sympathetic to broadcasting in Kurdish before a detailed
study has been made in the region.
AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
YENI SAFAK: In Viransehir, Sanliurfa province, the Chamber of
Agriculture Vice President Hammut Babac said that the yield in
cotton was going to be lower than last year's production due to
the problems they experienced in electricity and irrigation. He
said that they produced 140,000 tons of cotton from 280,000
acres in 2003 and that they were expecting the yield from the
same area to be between 80-90,000 tons in 2004.
REID