VZCZCXRO3531
RR RUEHDA
DE RUEHDA #0259/01 3470623
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 130623Z DEC 06
FM AMCONSUL ADANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4385
INFO RUEUITH/AFOSI DET 521 ANKARA TU
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 0931
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 0803
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/AFOSI DET 522 INCIRLIK AB TU
RUETIAA/DIRNSA FT MEADE MD
RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 0987
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ADANA 000259
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 12, 2006
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for December 12,
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
HURRIYET/TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI/CUMHURIYET/YENI
SAFAK/RADIKAL/BOLGE/EVRENSEL/ZAMAN/SABAH: Explosion in military
lodgings in Diyarbakir killed six persons, including four
children. Eight persons were rescued but sustained wounds. Teams
dispatched from Ankara are also participating in the rescue
works. It is reported that the central heating boiler caused the
explosion and destroyed half of the five-storey building
inhabited by forty people. Experts disclosed that the static
structure of the building was not in conformity with the zoning
plan. Mustafa Baran, 27, who does the maintenance work on the
boilers was detained. The Land Forces Commander, General Basbug,
visited the scene of explosion.
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI/EVRENSEL: Approximately twenty thousand
people attended DTP's meeting in Dogubeyazit of Agri province.
DTP's Co-chairpersons asked everybody to take responsibility for
peace and that they would continue rendering peace efforts
despite provocations. DTP Co-chairman, Ahmet Turk, addressing
the AKP and CHP, said "You requested us to help stop the
bloodshed. And we realized that. Why are you silent now?" The
crowd shouted "Long live President Apo. End to operations. Peace
should not be a hope but a reality. Kurdish and Turkish mothers
hand in hand. The ambassador for peace is in Imrali." slogans.
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: Preparations have been made by mayors,
city-council members and representatives, who could not get into
the parliament because of the national threshold, for marching
from Silopi to Ankara on December 16, 2006. The meeting is being
organized by DTP. The participants aim to turn the ceasefire
into a lasting peace.
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: In order to hold its 1st Ordinary
Convention, the DTP District Office in Cermik of Diyarbakir
rented the wedding hall of the municipality. One day prior the
meeting, the Mayor of Cermik, Mehmet Akdag -from Democratic Left
Party- cancelled the allocation of the wedding hall for that
purpose. DTP's Provincial Chairman for Diyarbakir condemned the
mayor's behavior.
HURRIYET CUKUROVA: The TNP forces launching an operation seized
25 kilos of heroin, one shotgun and 25 rounds of ammunition in a
minibus traveling from Hakkari to Van. The minibus driver and a
passenger in the minibus have been detained by police.
EVRENSEL: According to Firat News Agency, a twenty-seven year
old woman, who opened a green-yellow-red [colors of the
Kurdistan flag] colored scarf during DTP Co-chairperson Ahmet
Turk's recent visit to Ercis of Van, has been imprisoned in
Ercis on the charges of "harboring and assisting PKK." Two
children had been arrested by police and released following
their depositions on the grounds of having shouted pro-PKK
slogans during DTP Co-chairman Ahmet Turk's greeting remarks in
Ercis.
EVRENSEL/BOLGE/EKSPRES: The Incirlik AB, which has been used by
the US for 51 years in operations in the Middle East and against
countries in the region, continues to be used for logistic
support purposes for Iraq. 103,000 tons of cargo has been
dispatched from Incirlik AB to Iraq in the past 18 months.
BOLGE: A group of eight TAYAD -Inmates families Solidarity
Association- members undertook a sit-in action and made a press
announcement that convicted prisoners in F-type prisons in
Turkey are being subjected to isolation and demanded that
isolation should be lifted.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS
HURRIYET CUKUROVA: The President of Chamber of Industry (PCI) of
Adana, Umit Ozgumus, said that their visit with 31 businessmen
from 22 industrial establishments to Iran in November 2006
already produced good results. Mr. Ozgumus said Adana has
entered into a new period with Iran and that businessmen had
already made connections for 30 million US Dollar trade with
Iran.
SABAH: Under a project conducted by the Chamber of Commerce and
Industry of Kahramanmaras and financed by the United Nations
ADANA 00000259 002 OF 003
Environment Fund, biogas is being produced from animal dung in
Ayaklicaoluk village. The fermented fertilizer will be used in
organic farming. The Kahramanmaras Governor, Ilhan Ates, said
that the number of people asking for jobs was very small in
Kahramanmaras, and added that an area of 925 acres on the
Gaziantep freeway was being considered for an Organized
Industrial Zone. Here are some tips about Kahramanmaras: It is
11th largest province of Turkey in terms of the area it covers
and 17th in terms of population. It is number one cotton yarn
producer in Turkey, producing 29 percent of Turkey's production.
It is number one red pepper producer in Turkey -20,000 tons
annual production. It currently supplies 12.5 percent of
Turkey's energy from the Afsin-Elbistan thermoelectric power
plants operating with coal and its share will increase to 20.4
percent with coming into circuit of the 5 dams under
construction in the province. It produces 70 percent of Turkey's
stainless steel kitchenware.
THE NEW IRAQI REPORT AND KURDS
By: Baki Gul
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI daily - December 12, 2006
Is the United States who had chosen Kurds as allies for itself
revising this alliance? This appears to be the case while
looking at the "Iraqi Report" prepared by former congressman Lee
Hamilton and Former Secretary of State James Baker. The Southern
Kurdish leaders openly opposed the report after it was
disclosed. They even said that the report was unacceptable.
The Kurdistan Institute for Political Problems announced that
the report was to the disadvantage of the Kurds on the ground
that it did not touch upon the rights of the Kurds and proposed
postponing article 140 concerning Kirkuk. In his announcement,
Mesut Barzani too had expressed that the report did not satisfy
the Kurds. Putting into circulation former Baathists in the
reconstruction of Iraq is another proposal that Kurds do not
want to be realized. The Iraqi President, Celal Talabani, has
been saying that such a proposal would be in opposition to the
long struggle the Iraqi people have been making against
dictatorship.
The local parties and nongovernmental organizations in Southern
Kurdistan will also refuse this report by making press
announcements. But the USA does not have an official response to
Kurds' reaction yet. Former US diplomat, Peter Galbraith, who is
particularly interested only in Southern Kurdistan, called out
the Kurdistan government to "cut its ties with the Central
Government" in case the report was put into action. This thought
seems to be Galbraith's personal idea.
According to the proposals cited in the report announced last
week, it is emphasized that the violence in Iraq can not be
solved solely by military measures. The need for Iraq to
intensify its diplomatic ties with its neighbors is also
emphasized.
The United States still has not managed to get out of the
chaotic situation in Iraq. As a result of intervention in Iraq,
2900 American soldiers have been killed and 21,000 soldiers have
been wounded up to now. Attention is drawn to the fact that the
US has spent 400 billion US Dollars and that the cost of the
Iraq war will reach 1 trillion US Dollars shortly.
The possibility that the report submitted to the US President
and Congress be adopted as the USA's new Iraq policy has been
making Kurds uneasy. Particularly the interpretetion of the US
proposal that intensive diplomacy needs to be pursued with
Iraq's neighbors has sharpened the appetite of Iran, Syria and
Turkey who are hostile to the Kurdish [state] formation. It is
certain that these three neighboring states of Iraq will
unconditionally unify in an anti-Kurdish alliance and thus try
to get concessions from the US on the Kurdish subject.
The Southern Kurds think that they will be left alone and all
their gains will be at risk if the United States that chose the
Kurds as its fundamental ally during the intervention in Iraq
adopts this report as its new Iraq policy. The results of the
relationship that the US will enter into with the
Syria-Iran-Turkey trio, and that will unite in an anti-Kurdish
front, might end to its disadvantage. This is an unpredictable
aspect [of such a policy]. What is more, the basic issue handled
during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan's recent
visits to Iran and Syria was what [might] be done against
Kurds-PKK.
ADANA 00000259 003 OF 003
Consequently, the first issue that Baser and Ralston would talk
about is the Kurds. The expressions in the report will
strengthen Turkey's hands in its demands from the United States.
Besides, Turkey's [counting on] a share for itself from the
picture in Iraq has a great influence on the lack of progress in
the truce and its [practical failure]. [Given the] intellectual
and political structures in Turkey, the Southern Kurds also do
not have [a role] in maintaining the cease fire process.
That is, if the United States revises its policies in Iraq and
keeps the Kurds in a passive position, Iraq's neighbors will
deepen the chaos in Iraq and will jeopardize the relatively
secure climate in the Kurdish region. Consequently, the Kurds
have to act with more common sense and update their democratic
unity policy.
GREEN