Cablegate: Ankara Media Reaction Report

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DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/SE, EUR/PD, NEA/PD, DRL
JCS PASS J-5/CDR S. WRIGHT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC KMDR TU
SUBJECT: ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2006

In Today's Papers

Afghanistan
Milliyet reports Turkey will send a brigadier general to the
multinational force command in Afghanistan to be commanded by an
American full general. Also, a Turkish brigadier general will take
over the Kabul Regional Command in April to serve until the end of
next year. Turkey will increase troops in Afghanistan to 900 from
the existing 620. A high-level military source told Milliyet
"Turkey will of course send troops to Afghanistan. What we have
been saying from the outset is that the ISAF mission does not
include fighting against terrorism."

Additionally, several papers report some 85 villagers were killed in
a NATO military strike against suspected Taliban militants in the
insurgents' former southern stronghold of Kandahar, according to
Afghan officials. The UN Afghanistan mission has asked for a
comprehensive investigation into the incident.

Commenting in leftist-nationalist Cumhuriyet, Mumtaz Soysal, argues
that Turkey should not be drawn into the fight against the Taliban
in Afghanistan: "The pain and agony of Afghanis never end. They
used to suffer from Taliban fundamentalists, a radical group created
and established by the US in order to counter the Soviet Union, and
they are now living in the crossfire with Western soldiers. As the
recent story about German soldiers in Afghanistan indicates, the
suffering of the Afghani people is continuing one way or the other.
Interestingly enough, the story about German soldiers coincided with
the NATO efforts to move combat forces to areas outside of Kabul.
Germany has been very cooperative with the US so far, and it remains
to be seen whether this request will also be accepted by Berlin.
Turkey also received the same request and was asked to fight against
Taliban. Fortunately, the Turkish Chief of General Staff was smart
enough to make clear that Turkey cannot do this and he made his
statement even when the question was still in the rumor stage.
Let's hope that the government of Turkey also shows similar smarts."

Edelman, Satterfield on Iraq, the PKK
All-news broadcasters NTV, CNN-Turk and Skyturk-TV reported in their
main newscasts and early morning news programs that Undersecretary
of Defense Eric Edelman said at the Turkish National Day reception
at the Turkish Embassy in Washington that the US Administration was
not considering relocating troops in Iraq to be stationed in the
north of the country. "The Baghdad government opposes the partition
of Iraq, and the US supports Iraq's integrity," Edelman said,
stressing again that "No one in the US Administration wants Iraq
divided."

Meanwhile, at a press conference in Washington, State Department
Iraq Coordinator David Satterfield responded to a question by saying
"We are not happy with the progress recorded against the PKK. More
forward steps are needed to ensure that the PKK will not resume its
operations in the future," indirectly criticizing the Iraqi Kurds.
Satterfield emphasized that the terrorist organization must lay down
its arms immediately.

Writing in the economic-political daily Dunya, Haluk Ulman compares
the war in Iraq to the war in Vietnam: "President Bush finally
admitted that the situation in Iraq was worsening although this was
basically an expression of the de facto situation. It took a very
long time for Bush to see the reality in Iraq -- he was receiving
lots of comments as well as warnings from observers about the
situation resembling Vietnam ever since the beginning of the Iraq
invasion. When it comes down to the two bloody situations, there
are certainly many similarities between the-then picture in Vietnam
and the current picture in Iraq. However there is also a big
difference between the two. When the US decided to pull out from
Vietnam, there was at least an authority to take over the
administration. In Iraq, there is no organized power who can take

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responsibility from the US since the country has been driven into
chaos and anarchy. President Bush is facing trouble both militarily
and politically. Whether and how he will be able to overcome this
trouble will be interesting to watch."

Cengiz Candar, commenting in the conservative Bugun, suggests that
Turkey undergo a "comprehensive mentality change" regarding
strategic policy issues: "On Iraq, the ongoing approach is almost
narrowed down to being anti-American and waiting for the failure of
the Bush administration's policy. In fact, there are many
developments in our neighborhood which require that we better shape
a political stance by evaluating the situation independent from
domestic political considerations. The recent proposal on Iraq by
Richard Holbrooke, who is potentially a strong figure for the
Secretary of State position in a Democrat Party administration, is

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good enough to shake nkara. Holbrooke is clearly asking for a
polcy change in Iraq and suggesting the transfer o American troops
to northern Iraq. Let's notforget that Senator Biden, to whom
Holbrooke made reference in his open letter to Bush, has been a
staunch supporter of dividing Iraq into three. The main point is
this: Do we, as Turkey, have a political stance on this and other
proposals? Do we have a game plan? Has Turkey prepared a project
to ensure its security and Iraq's stability? If we cannot provide
positive answers to these questions, the rest is doomed to be empty
talk."

Barroso on Turkey's EU Drive, van der Linden Visits Turkey
All papers report in a statement to Italian daily Corriere Della
Sera, a pessimistic European Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso said Turkey was running late on reforms required for
membership. "We hope the EU term president Finland can prevent
aborting the negotiations. But honestly, I am really worried,"
Barroso said.

On the other hand, Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe
(PACE) Chairman Rene van der Linden met with Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul in Ankara on his four-day official visit to Turkey with
a 28-member delegation. No statement was made after the meeting.
The PACE Chairman later said he did not expect a "train crash"
during Turkey's EU drive. Friday Linden will join a roundtable
meeting held by the prestigious Bilgi University in Istanbul.
Poll: Turkish University Students on Honor Killings
Hurriyet and Radikal report that in the eastern city of Van, despite
an attempt by her father to protect her, a 15-year old girl, who had
a baby without being married, was killed by her brother for damaging
the family's honor. Papers quote the local public prosecutor as
saying that the family decided to designate the brother to kill the
girl, in order to remove what they saw as "a stain on their honor."

Additionally, Hurriyet carries a public opinion survey conducted
among 4,449 university students which indicates that 55.3 percent
believe girls must preserve their virginity until marriage whereas
32.4 percent disagree, with only 5.4 percent saying virginity was
"an old tradition." 30.9 percent of the Firat University students
in eastern Turkey say honor killings may be committed, followed by
28.8 in the Adana-based Cukurova University, 18.7 in the
conservative Selcuk University in Konya, 17.1 in the 19 Mayis
University in the Black Sea city of Samsun, 9.8 in the Akdeniz
University in the Mediterranean city of Antalya. The lowest
approval for honor killings came from major cities Istanbul and
Ankara with 3.4 percent from Istanbul's Bogazici University and 3.1
from Ankara's Hacettepe University.

Islamist Company Transfers Funds to 'Naksibendi' Sect
Hurriyet, Milliyet and Radikal have been demanding the arrest of
pro-Islamic businessman Dursun Uyar for collecting enormous funds
from devout masses in Turkey and Germany before going bankrupt four
years ago. Uyar, the owner of the Islamist Yimpas Holding, was
sentenced to prison. His case is pending at the Supreme Court of

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Appeals. Hurriyet says for the past four years the Duyar file has
been shelved at the Court of Appeals and in another eight months the
case will be thrown out because of the statute of limitations,
reporting on Sunday that despite an Interpol arrest warrant, he was
seen with four cabinet ministers attending a funeral on Friday.
Hurriyet and Milliyet also cite the German Die Welt reporting part
of the money collected by Yimpas in Germany, 29 million Australian
Dollars, had been transferred to the leader of the influential
Naksibendi sect, Muharrem Cosan, in Australia, and another part to
the sect members in Turkey. The Die Welt report claimed Prime
Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Gul also belonged to the
Naksibendi sect.

Turkish Engineers Claim Bush, IMF Intervened in Cargill Case
Radikal reports Turkish Chambers of Engineers' Union TMMOB has
warned parliamentarians in a letter that a court ruling stipulating
the closure of Cargill facilities in the Bursa province had been
turned down by the higher court (Danistay), emphasizing that
President Bush and the IMF had intervened to see a solution to the
problems of the US food giant's facilities which had been built
illegally on agricultural land. TMMOB said a recent bill enacted to
take the issue out of judiciary control was a violation of the
principles of a law state.

TUSIAD Invites Armenian Businessmen to Turkey
The economic/political daily Referans reports Turkey's influential
business group TUSIAD has invited Armenian businessmen to Turkey to
join a meeting of the Black Sea and Caspian industrialists to be
held November 27 in Istanbul.

TV Highlights
NTV (8 a.m.)

Domestic News

- Prime Minister Erdogan told the London-based Al-Hayat daily the US
and its coalition partners have failed in the war in Iraq.

- The US Land Forces Commander General Peter Schoomaker is to meet
Friday with the Turkish Land Forces Commander General Ilker Basbug
as well as Turkish General Staff Chief General Yasar Buyukanit in
Ankara.

- Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will participate in the 14th
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Council
of Ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday.

- On Friday, the EU Commission is expected to release the first part
of a Euro 259 million package of financial support to Turkish
Cyprus.

- The former chief of IMF Turkey Desk Reza Moghadam said Turkey has
achieved a significant economic success, and macroeconomic stability
and structural reforms should be continued to maintain this
achievement.

International News

- Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in skirmishes in the Gaza
Strip on Thursday.

- An Israeli high court has rejected a plea of Palestinian villagers
who were affected by the Israeli security fence which traversed
their lands.

- Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister George Lillikas stressed they had
abandoned the 'good-boy policy' in the controversy regarding the
access of Greek Cypriot vessels to Turkish ports.

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- Some 30,000 Greek teachers rallied in Athens and Salonika while
civil servants staged a nationwide strike in support over teachers'
demands for pay hikes.

Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at

http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/

WILSON

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