This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ADANA 0265 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU IZ ADANA
SUBJECT:  SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY, 
          OCTOBER 10, 2003 
 
 
¶1. This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary 
for October 10, 2003.  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, SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
 
¶2. HURRIYET (Cukurova Supplement): The prosecutor 
asked for eight years of aggravated 
imprisonment for Cumali Kizilkoca (29) who 
threw a hand grenade at the US Consulate in 
Adana four months ago. The court is expected to 
make its final decision on the case at the next 
hearing on October 16. 
 
 
¶3. TURKIYE: A woman and her son picked potatoes in 
Elmaduzu village of Bingol yesterday. After 
they returned home, the hand grenade they had 
put in the bag, without recognizing it, 
exploded. As a result of the explosion, the son 
was killed and the mother was seriously 
wounded. 
 
 
¶4. MILLIYET: It is reported that shopkeepers in 
Diyarbakir did not honor PKK's call for closing 
down their shops on the anniversary of Abdullah 
Ocalan's extradition from Syria on October 9, 
¶1998. The security director of Diyarbakir 
toured the town and thanked the shopkeepers for 
their actions. The police also arrested eight 
persons who threatened merchants in Diyarbakir. 
 
 
¶5. CUMHURIYET/BOLGE/EKSPRES/OZGUR GUNDEM/EVRENSEL: 
A group of fifty persons, mostly HRA members, 
blocked E-5 highway which passes by AK Party's 
provincial office in Adana to protest the 
motion authorizing the deployment of Turkish 
troops in Iraq. The police kicked and beat the 
demonstrators who sat on the main highway. The 
demonstrators shouted slogans such as "Murderer 
US, Collaborator AKP" and "We will not become 
US soldiers."  A police supervisor was wounded 
by stones while eleven persons were 
apprehended, including the president of the HRA 
chapter in Adana. Some groups shouting anti-war 
slogans in densely Kurdish populated Sakirpasa, 
19 Mayis, and Denizli quarters in Adana 
dispersed into the streets after police 
interference. Ozgur Gundem paper claims that 
students did not go to schools, and the 
majority of shopkeepers did not open their 
shops despite police pressure in the Southeast. 
It also claims that people were dressed in 
black outfits. 
 
 
¶6. TERCUMAN: Turkish truckers carrying foodstuffs 
and construction materials to Iraq stopped 
their operations due to attacks launched 
against them. Thousands of truckers forming 
long queues at Habur Border Gate decided not to 
carry materials to Iraq until Turkish soldiers 
were deployed there. In the meantime, the 
transportation companies increased their fares 
by forty percent. 
 
 
¶7. ZAMAN: People who protested Malatya Inonu 
Univeristy's ban on use of headscarves in May 
1999 are being put in jail. The court had 
demanded capital punishment for 53 inmates, and 
an imprisonment term varying from five to 
fifteen years for 22 inmates, while 161 others 
were brought before the judges for 
participating in an unauthorized march and 
meeting. While the majority of the detainees 
were acquitted, fifteen persons were given 
sentences varying from three years and nine 
months to one year and three months of 
imprisonment. 
 
 
¶8. HURRIYET (Cukurova Supplement)/BOLGE: Based on 
a tip, the police from Hatay's Security 
Directorate seized ten kilos of heroin in 
Antakya and six more kilos in a village of 
Samandag township. Five persons involved in 
drug trafficking were detained. 
¶9. BOLGE: Based on a tip, the jandarma from 
Provincial Jandarma Command of Van seized 111 
kilos of hashish, 5.7 kilos of hemp seed and 
three Kalashnikov weapons and assorted bullets. 
Two others alleged are wanted by the security 
forces. 
 
 
¶10. YENI SAFAK: In Ozalp and Muradiye of Van 
province, seventy-eight families, whose houses 
and land were submerged under the reservoir of 
Sari Mehmet Dam in 1992, are still hoping to be 
resettled by the state. The site designated for 
the villagers' resettlement is being used for 
Organized Livestock Raising. 
 
 
¶11. HURRIYET/YENI SAFAK/RADIKAL/OZGUR GUNDEM: 
The case involving the alleged rape while 
detained of a woman identified by the initials 
S.E. is going to be handled at the Felony Court 
of Mardin today. It is alleged that S.E. had 
been raped and tortured when she was under 
detention during 1993-1994 period. Four hundred 
five soldiers will be arraigned in this case. 
Three more cases of this nature have been filed 
at the court in Mardin. 
 
 
¶12. Turkiye: Based on a tip, police teams from 
the Security Directorate of Kahramanmaras 
arrested three persons distributing forty 
counterfeit 100 USD bank notes into market. 
 
 
¶13. OZGUR GUNDEM: Batman Security Directorate's 
anti-terror teams raided Ozgur Halk magazine's 
office in Batman two days ago. The magazine's 
representative for Batman and four visitors 
were detained. Three hundred fifty books, one 
typewriter, 300 million TL, and four photo 
albums in the office were seized by police. 
 
 
¶14. EVRENSEL: Evrensel's representative in 
Diyarbakir was detained by police two days ago 
while he was trying to interview internally 
displaced people in the Melik Ahmet quarter of 
the town. 
 
 
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 
 
 
¶15. SABAH: The new border gate located between 
Mardin and Sirnak aims to abandon the existing 
Habur Border Gate which passes through Iraq's 
Kurdish region under Mesut Barzani's control. 
It is reported that IKDP charged a "Transit 
Tax" up to one hundred USD. After strong 
reaction, the tax, which was reduced to twenty- 
five USD until recently, has been lifted. But 
the Turkish truckers bringing around 800 liters 
of oil from Iraq are being charged around 34 
USD under the name of "fine". Nusaybin's sub- 
governor, Omer Ulu, said opening of a second 
gate had been on the agenda of the government 
for a long time, and part of the road for the 
second gate with Iraq would pass via Syria, 
too. With opening and shifting of trade to the 
second gate, IKDP will suffer great financial 
losses. 
REID