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 000136
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM IZ TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY, OCTOBER 6, 2004
1. This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for October
06, 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
2. ZAMAN: In Adana, police from the Anti-Smuggling and
Organized Crime Department of Adana Security Directorate seized
7.250 kilos of material used in making hashish. Cebbar A. was
caught red-handed while trying to sell the material to police
and was imprisoned.
3. ZAMAN: Former CHP Hakkari Lawmaker Mikail Ilcin said around
40-50 million Kurds lived in the world, and asked if the world
would come to an end if the Kurds who having been struggling for
seventy years in Iraq founded a state. Ilcin defined himself as
a Turkish/Kurdish nationalist of Turkey. Ilcin said a Kurdish
state, which would hoist its flag in Northern Iraq, would not
undermine Turkey.
4. MILLIYET: Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul expressed
his concern about the PKK/Kongra-Gel organization's presence in
Iraq to the new Iraqi Ambassador to Turkey, Cemil Umran.
Ambassador Umran responded that because Iraq had not fully
installed domestic security yet, it might be impossible for the
Iraqi administration to address its neighbor's security
expectations.
5. CUMHURIYET: In order to abolish the "Temporary Village Guard
System," the Interior Ministry has been working on a draft law,
which will affect 58,400 guards currently on the payroll and
26,967 voluntary ones. According to the draft law, the village
guards aged 45 with 10 years of active service will be entitled
to retirement, an annuity, and health coverage. Village guards
aged 45 but with less than 10 years of service will be
compensated by severance pay. Village guards have been accused
of assisting and harboring PKK elements, arms smuggling, drug
trafficking, abducting girls and rape, and are seen as the
biggest impediment to return to evacuated villages.
6. CUMHURIYET: Hakkari Governor Erdogan Gurbuz announced that
two PKK/Kongra Gel members were arrested by the Jandarma during
a car search on the Yuksekova-Semdinli highway. One was a Syrian
national while the other was registered in Yuksekova.
7. CUMHURIYET/ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: The hearing of the case
concerning Bingol HRA President Ridvan Kizgin and 125 women who
tried to form a "Dialogue Desk for Peace" in Bingol last year
opened at the Bingol Criminal Peace Court yesterday. They are
being charged with "resistance to police." The hearing, which
more than 100 women from various parts of the country attended,
was postponed to an unspecified date.
8. SABAH: Two children, Selam Derer and Hadi Yildiz, who live
in the Ferhatkale Camp in Gelisen village of Semdinli, Hakkari
province, took home a landmine they found in a field. The mine
exploded and Elam Derer (12), Hadi Yildiz (10), and Bahrem Aslan
(33) were killed, and three others were wounded.
9. TURKIYE/MILLI GAZETE: Despite stringent security measures in
Kirmitli, Osmaniye province, where two persons were killed and
three others wounded as a result of clashes between the current
and former mayors' families, three more persons were wounded in
clashes yesterday. The Jandarma re-intensified security measures.
10. EVRENSEL/ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: NGOs and political parties in
Tunceli asked GOT officials to stop military operations that are
causing fires in the forests in Tunceli. They demanded the
government undertake steps to resolve the Kurdish issue.
EMEP-Tunceli Provincial Chairman Huseyin Tunc said that military
operations covered the entire region, and the resulting
violation of the "right to life" could result in a new wave of
migration. Tunceli Bar Association President Huseyin Aygun
stated that forests in the region were being burnt under the
pretext of combating terrorism, and that people were prevented
from extinguishing the forest fires. Attorney Aygun said the
perpetrators of the fires should be held accountable. Eighteen
young Human Shield Initiative (HSI) members from Sanliurfa set
off for Tunceli in an effort to halt operations there and to
establish a bilateral truce. In Sanliurfa, around 200 persons
supporting HSI members chanted, "Peace is the essence of
humanity, and we are going to become the voice of peace." The
crowd shouted slogans including, "No to War" and "May Hands
Raised Against Peace Break."
11. EVRENSEL/ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: The military operation that
started on September 22 in the Bercelan Pasture, Hakkari
province, is continuing. It is claimed that chemicals were used
in the pasture during the operation, and that many cattle were
killed as a result. Seven pastures as well as the Kocanis
village, where ten families had returned, have been
re-evacuated. An Investigation Committee to be made up of Van
and Hakkari Goc-Der (Migration Association) and HRA offices,
along with DEHAP will go to Bercalan Pasture in the coming days.
12. EVRENSEL/ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: The International PEN General
Secretary Terry Carlbom, accompanied by Kurdish PEN authorities,
SIPDIS
visited Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir regarding the Writers'
2005 Meeting to be held in Diyarbakir.
EDUCATION
13. TERCUMAN: Diyarbakir Deputy Governor Cumali Atilla said
there was a need for 3,000 classrooms in Diyarbakir province,
and that 250 trillion Turkish Liras (approximately USD166.6
million) were needed to address the gap. Atilla said there were
eighty students per class and four students shared a desk, and
added that because there were no schools in some villages,
parents were unable to send their daughters to be educated.
Deputy Governor Atilla said there were 350,000 students and
11,000 teachers in Diyarbakir province.
ALLISON