Cablegate: Southeast Turkey Press Summary for July 15, 2005

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 000141

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 15, 2005

This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for July 15, 2005.
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

1. EKSPRES: CHP (Republican People's Party) Seyhan
district's Women Branch Chairperson complained that few women
were able to serve as candidates in last weekend's elections,
which were held to nominate district delegates and candidates
for the district chairpersons of CHP in Adana (see press summary
07/11).

2. BOLGE: Mersin Port Workers are continuing to protest
against the privatization process launched for the port. The
workers, who are members of Liman-Is (Union of Port Workers),
started a strike and did not leave their workplace yesterday.

3. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): The Hatay Municipality rejected
the appeal of South Korean Protestants to obtain a license to
officially name a church, which Protestants established in Hatay
as a "place of worship." It did so on the grounds that there
were currently no Protestants living in Hatay. A religious
officer from South Korea has been assigned to the church and
worship has started following permission from the Hatay
Governor. Tradesmen in the neighboring environs, however, are
reportedly disturbed that fifty children are visiting the church
daily, reports the paper.

4. OZGUR GUNDEM: The Ministry of Environment and Forests,
upon seeing the risks, such as injuries, deaths and health
hazards involved in its Iraqi scrap weaponry importing, stopped
importing Iraqi scrap. Following the decision, forty trucks
waiting to enter Turkey at the Habur border gate were returned
back to their points of origin.

5. OZGUR GUNDEM: Anthrax was diagnosed in two people and
a state of quarantine was imposed in Elazig's Karakocan
district.

6. OZGUR GUNDEM: The Dortyol Jandarma Command in Hatay
conducted an operation in the Dortyol district and discovered a
field where Indian hemp was being cultivated. The Jandarma
burned all the plants they seized.

7. OZGUR GUNDEM: Eighteen thousand people have applied to
the Governor's Office in Diyarbakir to benefit from the
Compensation Law for Losses Caused by Anti-Terror Activities to
date. 248 of the 368 applications examined in the last month
were rejected, and the government has paid a total of one
trillion New Turkish liras to the rest. People are reportedly
frustrated with the amounts settled by the commission and will
resort to legal means to receive "fair" amounts.

8. CUMHURIYET/ZAMAN/OZGUR GUNDEM/HURRIYET: The
PKK/Kongra-Gel terrorist organization reportedly told the
Mesopotamian News agency that military operations, which were
intensified in Tunceli following the kidnapping of private
Coskun Kirandi, were placing the soldier's life in danger. The
PKK reportedly called the family of Kirandi to voice their
demands to end military operations in the region. Meanwhile,
DEHAP National Chairperson Tuncer Bakirhan demanded that private
Kirandi be released.

9. OZGUR GUNDEM: Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir called
for cooperation among the Kurdish and Turkish intelligentsia to
end the conflict in the southeastern region.

10. OZGUR GUNDEM: The Turkish Parliament's commission for
probing fuel oil smuggling, have already revealed that many
companies, which are bound to export petroleum coming from Iraq
back to Iraq after processing it in the Iskenderun and Mersin
provinces, were instead selling part of the petroleum in
internal markets of Turkey. The commission demands opening of
investigations against a list of suspected companies, but
allegedly omits TPIC (Turkish Petroleum International Company)
from this list. TPIC is reportedly a company established upon
the advice issued by the National Security Council, and it has
allegedly become the hotbed of fuel oil smuggling in the course
of time.

11. HURRIYET/ZAMAN: The Van Security Directorate's Smuggling
and Organized Crime Branch conducted a search at the Yuzuncu Yil
University's rector's house in Van and found 240 pieces of
historical and archaeological artifacts. The rector was in
Azerbaijan during the search of the security officers.

12. CUMHURIYET: The Dicle Subgovernor said that a ceremony to
commemorate the killing of seven people in 1994 in Ugrak village
by (allged) PKK terrorists would be held on Saturday.

13. HURRIYET: The number of PKK terrorists coming in to
Turkey from the Qandil Mountains in Iraq is reported as 700.
Turkey wants to see the U.S. conducting operations against PKK
camps in Qandil Mountain, whereas the U.S. says it can only
provide intelligence on this issue.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

1. EKSPRES: The TMO (Turkish Grain Board) began to sell
corn in its supply for a lesser price per kilogram than it has
bought corn on the open market a year ago from the farmers, in
order to free up storage space for new wheat purchases.

REID

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