Cablegate: Southeast Turkey Press Summary for September 01, 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 000160

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR SEPTEMBER 01, 2005

This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for September 01,
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

ZAMAN / BOLGE / OZGUR GUNDEM: Police in Adana reacted to a group
of people protesting the killing of Hasan Is in Batman. The
group chanted slogans in support of Abdullah Ocalan, set tires
on fire in the street and threw stones at the police. Police
used armored vehicles and tear gas during its intervention. No
casualties were reported after the incident. Zaman separately
reported that Batman's Prosecutor initiated an investigation
into the killing of Hasan Is.

RADIKAL: Relatives of two terrorists killed in the Besiri
district of Batman (see press summary 08/29) have retrieved
their dead. A 100 person group, comprised mostly of DEHAP
members, staged a demonstration. The police took security
measures but did not intervene. A separate 500-person woman's
group marched from the DEHAP provincial headquarters to the
hospital where the bodies of eight other terrorists were being
kept.

BOLGE / ZAMAN: Devlet Bahceli, national leader of MHP
(National Movement Party), attended the Victory Day ceremonies
in Mersin's Tarsus district. During his address to the crowd he
said, "For the first time in its history, Turkey has been
undergoing a period of great hardship. Separatist forces have
been increasingly jeopardizing the independence of the country."

EKSPRES: 400 workers of BOTAS (Petroleum Pipeline
Corporation) continued their strike, which started last week
(see press summary 08/2) in Adana's Ceyhan district.

OZGUR GUNDEM: Fifty-one headmen of the villages in Bingol's
Karliova district warned that they would resign if no solutions
were found within 48 hours for problems resulting from the March
earthquakes in Karliova.

OZGUR GUNDEM: 38 Afghans and 6 Bangladeshis, who entered the
country illegally, were caught in Siirt's Baykan district. The
migrants were later deported.

HURRIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM: eportedly the Chief of Staff was
concerned aboutrecent incidents in Batman, where large groups
o people attempted to march to a nearby military opration
area, and where civil unrest erupted when residents from the
region attempted to retrieve te bodis f trrrists killed in
Besiri from thehopitl. LadForesCommander Buyukanit
reporely said that there were attempts to PhilistinizeTurkey,
and that a legal political party was amon the actors in these
attempts.

ZAMAN / OZGU GUNDEM: Tuncer Bakirhan, who was barred from
oing abroad by an Ankara Court, made his first vist to the
Security Directorate of Ankara a prtof a procedure requiring
tha h rgulrl chckwth authorities to make sur tht e
does not leave the
untry (see press summary 08/29).

OZGUR GUNDEM: An investigation has been filed against the
mayor of Diyarbakir's Sur district and four municipality
personnel allegedly on grounds that they erected monuments
memorializing "terrorist organization members." The
investigation refers to a monument erected in memory of Ugur and
Ahmet Kaymaz, a father and his 11-year-old son, who were killed
in November 2004 in Mardin's Kiziltepe district.

SABAH: Diyarbakir's police seized 20 modified pistols
during a search conducted on the motorcycle of a suspected rider
on the road to Sanliurfa, and 17 modified pistols at a hunter's
shop in Diyarbakir.

OZGUR GUNDEM: Police, who raised the security threat level
to high in Hakkari during recent Victory Day celebrations,
reportedly conducted searches and raids throughout the day in
the province.

EVRENSEL: A group of NGOs and political parties in Gaziantep
issued a declaration titled "Lay Down Arms, Stop the Military
Operations!"

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

1. EVRENSEL: Farmers Union and Citrus Fruit Producers in
Adana formed a delegation, which will be visiting the Ministry
of Agriculture in Ankara, to demand an urgent announcement of
decisions about products such as citrus fruit, cotton and corn.

2. EVRENSEL: State Minister Kursad Tuzmen announced that 5
million New Turkish Liras were allocated specifically to the
Southeastern Agricultural Sales Cooperatives to buy pistachios
from farmers in the region.

REID

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