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Cablegate: Southeast Turkey Press Summary for May 25, 2007

Published: Mon 4 Jun 2007 10:00 AM
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SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MAY 25, 2007
1. This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for May 25,
2007. 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:
2. EKSPRES: The daily claims to have acquired from circles
close to AKP the AKP Adana's parliamentary election ticket. The
list the daily published today reportedly will cause an
intra-party strife.
3. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): MHP Adana provincial party
organization announced with a press briefing the party's
provincial parliamentary election ticket that would run for 14
seats from the Adana province. Yilmaz Tankut, provincial MHP
chairperson, resigned from his office to run in the July 22
parliamentary elections.
4. CUMHURIYET: A primary election will be held in 6 provinces
on May 27 to determine the candidates of CHP in Mersin,
Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Aydin, Mugla and Sivas. A total of 51
candidates in Mersin, 35 candidates in Gaziantep and 19
candidates in Kahramanmaras will compete for places on the
ballot.
5. GUNDEM / EVRENSEL: DTP National Chairperson Ahmet
Turk cautioned people against statements made following the
bombing incident in Ankara adding that such statements, which
aimed to provoke Turkish people, could force Turkey to take a
dangerous path. Evrensel daily claims that the Turkish media
readily claimed the PKK was responsible for the Ankara bombing
despite its announcements denying links with the incident and to
the evidence.
6. CUMHURIYET: The daily claims that the Ankara suicide bomb
attack followed the statements of Abdullah Ocalan, who said that
"my health condition is bad; something must be done about it."
The PKK had already announced in the recent months that it would
start suicide missions.
7. GUNDEM: A total of 37 DYP members resigned from DYP in
the Elazig province which is the hometown of the DYP leader
Mehmet Agar. One of the party officials criticized the central
leadership and the merger of DYP and Motherland party. The
resigning members said they would settle in the coming days whom
they would support in the future.
8. GUNDEM: Mardin's Families of the Inmates Initiative
will start a hunger strike to call for an independent delegation
of doctors to check the health condition of Abdullah Ocalan in
the Imrali Prison Island. Meanwhile, the hunger strikes that
were started in Diyarbakir, Siirt, and Mardin's Kiziltepe
district to draw attention to the health condition of Ocalan
have ended.
SECURITY
9. YENI SAFAK / RADIKAL / CUMHURIYET / EVRENSEL / BOLGE /
GUNDEM: PKK terrorists killed 6 soldiers with remote
controlled mines in rural sections of Sirnak's Guclukonak
district and Siirt's Pervari district, announced the Siirt
Governor's Office. Ten security officers were wounded, three
seriously. The Gundem daily claims that the soldiers died in a
conflict between security forces and PKK members, not because of
mine blasts as announced by the authorities.
10. BOLGE / SABAH (GUNEY): Ebru Kara, the suicide bomber
caught in Adana with 11 kilograms of A-4 plastic explosives (see
press summary for May 24), reportedly said during her
interrogation, "You are poisoning Apo (Abdullah Ocalan),
therefore, I decided I would kill you." Adana police said that
they were alarmed for days since the day they got tip-off that
well-dressed and groomed women would enter Turkey to carry out
illegal activities. The police said they were also looking into
whether the suicide bomber, who headed towards Ceyhan district
at the time when she was caught, was planning an attack against
BTC pipeline or not. Meanwhile, terrorist Adem Barik, who
reportedly supplied explosives to suicide bomber Ebru Kara and
helped her to come to Adana, was caught in Sanliurfa and brought
to Adana by the police for interrogation.
11. YENI SAFAK: Police detained 18 people, who were members of
the DTP's Halfeti district party organization in Sanliurfa, on
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grounds that they praised the criminals and the criminal
activities, shouted slogans in support for the terrorist
organization, and carried flags which were used as symbols of
the terrorist organization. Four of the detainees were arrested
later.
CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
12. EKSPRES / BOLGE: Jandarma teams in Adana's Karatas
district found 49 Iraqi nationals who entered Turkey legally as
tourists, were planning to travel to southern Cyprus illegally
via boat. Eight snakeheads aiding and abetting this illegal
operation were detained.
ECONOMY
13. SABAH (GUNEY) / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Mehdi Eker,
Minister of Agriculture and Village Works, attended the opening
ceremony of the Middle East Agricultural Fair that was held for
the first time in Diyarbakir. A total of 130 companies
participated in the fair.
CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT
14. SABAH (GUNEY): The daily reports announcement of Tarkan
Kulak, the owner of the Adana-based company whose 29 workers
were killed in an Moldovan-flagged plane's crash in north of
Baghdad on January 9, 2007, about the compensation payment that
would be made by the American insurance companies to the
families of the victims. Kulak appeased the families and
assured them that they were following the process attentively.
15. GUNDEM: Two hundred Kurdish families, who were
reportedly displaced from the southeastern region and who
settled in Hatay's Dortyol district, have been suffering from
lack of electricity and tap water for years despite applying to
authorities many times to resolve the problem. The authorities
said that the area was not covered by the district's zoning
plans, therefore, the settlers could not subscribe to water or
electricity networks.
16. GUNDEM: Police reportedly did not allow a group of
Kurdish students to dance a Kurdish folk dance and play Kurdish
songs in the annual Spring Festival of Kars's Kafkas University
allegedly citing the grounds that the dance was "ideological and
divisive."
17. GUNDEM / EVRENSEL: Diyarbakir Municipality recently
announced the program of the 7th Diyarbakir Culture and Arts
Festival which will be held between May 30 and June 3.
18. SABAH (GUNEY): Seyhan Municipality will open a park on
Saturday (May 26) which was built on an 8000- square-meter-land
in a quarter of Seyhan district in Adana.
GREEN
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