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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000246
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR NOVEMBER 27, 2006
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for November 27,
2006. 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
SABAH (GUNEY): Sinan Aygun, Chairperson of Ankara's Chamber
of Commerce, talked at a panel called "Being a Woman in
Southeastern Turkey." Aygun, as he responded to journalists'
question, said that there was not a Kurdish problem in Turkey;
instead there was a problem about terrorism. Aygun stressed
that he had colleagues and partners of Kurdish origin, together
with whom they were working in harmony.
SABAH (GUNEY): The daily reports that Mehmet Ali Talat,
President of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), was
annoyed by a question asked during the conference he attended at
Gaziantep University on Saturday. Talat, in response to a
question about why Talat was disturbed about the presence of
Turkish flag as next to the TRNC flag during the ceremonies
marking the anniversary of the foundation of the republic in
Cyprus, said that nobody had the right to ask that question, and
he had never been disturbed with the presence of the Turkish
flag.
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: KKK, the political wing of the PKK,
issued a serious caution that it will reconsider its cease-fire
decision that was declared three months ago, because the
military operations in the southeastern region had intensified
since the declaration, the obstacles causing the Kurdish culture
to go backward had not been eliminated, and oppression against
Abdullah Ocalan had become even graver.
EVRENSEL: Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, AKP Deputy National
Chairperson, said that AKP would not hold talks with DTP, unless
DTP declared the PKK as a terrorist organization. Firat, who
stated that it was impossible to discuss the topic of general
amnesty at the Turkish Parliament, prescribed that the PKK must
lay down arms.
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: The youth assemblies of DTP condemned
the prison sentence The Fourth Diyarbakir Heavy Penalty Court
the court issued against 18 human shields that arrived from
Istanbul and Siirt to Siirt's Eruh district two years ago to
stop the ongoing clashes there. The court ordered three years
of prison sentence to each activist.
SECURITY
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: According to the paper, people
celebrated the 28th anniversary of the foundation of the PKK in
Van, Gaziantep and Adana. Police blockaded the area where
people were celebrating the anniversary in Van with armored
vehicles, and they intervened as the people were chanting
slogans in support for the PKK and Abdullah Ocalan. Police
reportedly detained many people.
HUMAN RIGHTS
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: A 25-year-old woman in Hatay's
Iskenderun district, who suffered from her drug-addicted
husband's violence against her for nine years, could not take
refuge in a women's shelter, because she would have to leave her
children in an orphanage. The woman, who stayed with her
relatives for a while, had to return back to her husband three
months ago, because the woman's parents denied kinship with the
woman when she eloped with her husband nine years ago. A
women's activist from Democratic Free Women's Movement said that
the state must embark upon a serious project to save women
suffering from violence.
EVRENSEL / TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: Esat Canan, Hakkari deputy
from CHP, condemned the Governor's Office in Hakkari which
immediately claimed in a written announcement that "two PKK
terrorists did not obey security officers' halt warning" on
November 23, 2006 in a forest area in a village of Hakkari's
Yuksekova district. One of the persons fired upon had died, and
the other was seriously wounded. Canan claimed that the two
people, whom the security personnel opened fire on, were only
villagers returning to their homes in the evening, and Evrensel
daily points out that despite the governor's office depicting
the wounded survivor and the other villager as terrorists, the
survivor was released by the authorities.
ADANA 00000246 002 OF 002
ZAMAN: Hakkari Governor's Office announced that six
shelters of the PKK were discovered with many explosives,
bullets, clips and substances used in producing drugs, as hidden
in those shelters in Hakkari.
CRIME / LAW ENFORCEMENT
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Jandarma teams conducting identity
checks on a passenger bus in Ceyhan caught nine people who
entered the country illegally. Six of the people caught were
from Iraq, one of them was from Senegal and one of them was from
Mauritania.
ZAMAN / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / SABAH (GUNEY) / BOLGE / EKSPRES:
Adana police caught three drug traffickers, who were being
followed for twenty days by narcotics police, in Adana's Pozanti
district. Police found 4000 ecstasy pills hidden in two big
loaves of bread and 800 grams of heroin in a bag attached with
tape to the body of one of the traffickers. The pills were
reportedly brought from Europe for their consumption in Turkey
and heroin was brought from Syria, Iran and Iraq to be consumed
in Holland and Germany.
SABAH (GUNEY) / EVRENSEL / EKSPRES / BOLGE: A groom was
wounded during his wedding ceremony in Adana because of gunshots
into the air, most probably fired by one of the guests. (Note:
Opening fire in the air is a pattern of celebration observed in
weddings in some parts of Turkey. End Note.)
ZAMAN / BOLGE / HURRIYET: Police, upon receiving a tip-off
that people were opening fire in the air in a wedding ceremony
in Osmaniye, came to the spot to take the situation under
control. However, some drunken men, who are members of the
"Cono clan" in the province, opened fire at the police and
wounded 11 police officers. Eight people have been arrested;
three guns and one pistol were seized.
ECONOMY
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): State Minister Kursat Tuzmen,
Chairperson of Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchange
attended the opening ceremony of the new building of Chamber of
Commerce in Gaziantep's Nizip district.
EVRENSEL / BOLGE / RADIKAL / HURRIYET: Following protest of
some lemon producers in Mersin against the Lemon Harvest Day, a
day which was organized by the Mersin Governor's Office and
Erdemli district's citrus fruit union (see press summary for
November 26), 600 farmers convened at Marsin's Mezitli district
and held a protest against the government. The farmers, who
threw lemons and the flag of AKP on the ground, attempted to
trample on them; however, the police did not allow the
protestors to crush the flag.
CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT
ZAMAN: A radio channel called Radio Hayat in Adana will
protest the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey through
conducting a live broadcast for 94 hours and five minutes,
starting as of Monday (11/27) until the hour the Pope leaves the
country. The radio channel conducted a similar protest when
Israel launched strikes against Lebanon in summer.
ZAMAN / HURRIYET: A 3.4-magnitude earthquake shook Adana at 4.30
p.m. yesterday evening.
GREEN