Cablegate: Southeast Turkey Press Summary for July 13, 2007

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TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 13, 2007

1. This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for July 13,
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 / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / SABAH (GUNEY) / BOLGE:
Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, AKP Deputy National Chairperson and
Adana candidate, went to Imamoglu district of Adana. A
300-vehicle convoy and thousands of people reportedly welcomed
him there. Firat, who was pleased with the crowd that gathered,
opened a campaign office in the district. Firat said that such
enthusiasm of people would carry them again to power. Firat
further gave the good news to the workers that Mensa textile
company of Adana, which had been undergoing financial hardships,
would not be closed. Meanwhile, CHP's first ranking candidate in
Adana, Prof. Gaye Erbatur, claimed that AKP was using state's
money instead of using its resources while it delivered aid to
poor people.

3. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Orhan Miroglu, a DTP-endorsed
independent candidate from Mersin, said that peace prevailed in
Mersin for hundreds of years despite its being a city with a
wide diversity of people from different religious and ethnic
backgrounds. Miroglu said that elected officials in Mersin will
have serious responsibilities in addressing problems related to
migration.

4. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Tacidar Seyhan, Adana deputy from
CHP, filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office reportedly
because posters with CHP candidates' photos, which made calls to
people not to cast votes for those CHP candidates, were being
hung in the southern quarters of Seyhan and Yuregir districts of
Adana.

5. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): During a meeting of a Rotary Club
in Adana, Adana Governor announced that the overall crime rate
in Adana declined a great deal in the last five years.

6. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Ibrahim Tatlises, a Kurdish-origin
celebrity and first-ranking candidate in Istanbul from Genc
Party, after leaving Gaziantep and Sanliurfa where he continued
his election campaign, came to Kilis and canvassed people.
Tatlises reportedly addressed a crowd of 5000 people there.

7. CUMHURIYET: CHP candidates in Hatay are planning to send
100,000 letters to people in Hatay to raise awareness of the
electorate about irregularities the AKP government allegedly
allowed in public tenders in Hatay.

8. EVRENSEL: As Akin Birdal, DTP-endorsed independent
candidate from Diyarbakir, was paying visits to the villages of
Diyarbakir in his campaign program, jandarma reportedly
conducted a raid on the same village where Birdal was touring.
Jandarma reportedly told the people that the official ban on the
political propaganda have not been lifted yet, so Birdal was not
allowed to make propaganda there. Despite jandarma's warning,
people gathered around Birdal and continued to hear his
political address. Birdal later paid a visit to an Alevi
village. Separately, an independent candidate in Van filed a
complaint against Saray District Jandarma Command for allegedly
disrupting the candidate's election campaign.

9. EVRENSEL: Nazmi Gur, DTP-endorsed independent candidate
from Adana, opened a campaign office of EMEP (Party of Labor) in
an area of Adana densely populated by people of Arabic
background. The opening speech was made in Arabic by EMEP Adana
Provincial Chairman.

10. CUMHURIYET / EVRENSEL: A branch of Council of State
ratified Ministery of Interior's recent authorization given to
Diyarbakir's Prosecutor's Office to start an investigation
against Osman Baydemir reportedly for "hanging a banner in
Kurdish" on the billboards in the Diyarbakir city center and
"printing invitations in Kurdish."

11. ZAMAN: Adana Municipality will allocate free bus
service for the people of Adana, a majority of whom have
retreated to nearby seaside resorts because of the high summer
temperatures in the province, to facilitate their transportation
back to Adana to cast their votes on July 22.

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12. ZAMAN: A PKK defector reportedly confessed that, in
the face of a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, the
terrorists in the nearby border area evacuated their camps and
buried all the documents belonging to the terrorist organization
under the ground. The defector added that the PKK owned
anti-aircraft missiles. DTP officials, according to the
defector, were paying visits to the PKK headquarters and
bringing gifts along with them.

13. SABAH: A PKK mine killed a soldier in Erzincan's
Kemah district at around 9 p.m. last night. Another soldier was
wounded.

CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

14. HURRIYET (CUKUROVA): Forty-nine Afghani and Pakistani
nationals, who entered the country illegally, and two
snake-heads were caught in Van's Baskale district.

CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT

15. ZAMAN: The results of Turkey's national University
Entrance Exam have been announced. Four of the 27 top scoring
students are from Diyarbakir, Adana, Sanliurfa and Osmaniye.
The rest of them are mainly from the western provinces of Turkey.
GREEN

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