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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000242 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 19, 2005 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for December 19, 
¶2005.  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 
 
SABAH: In Diyarbakir, addressing the "Kurdish National 
Democratic Working Group" comprised of leftist, Islamic, liberal 
and nationalist politicians opposing PKK, the National Chairman 
of the Hak ve Ozgurlukler Partisi (Rights and Freedoms Party), 
Abdulmelik Firat, said his party gathered 50,000 signatures 
demanding from the Turkish government a federal structure for 
Kurds within the Turkish State. During a two-day summit chaired 
by Abdulmelik Firat, the grandson of the 1925 revolt's leader 
Sheikh Sait, admiration to Barzani and the necessity for 
coming-together of all Kurds in Turkey for adopting a new policy 
were expressed. The overwhelming majority of the speakers 
emphasized that the demand for "federation" should be inscribed 
in the party's charter during its upcoming general convention. 
The Working Group will reconvene for a third meeting to decide 
on the demands raised at the summit. 
 
YENI SAFAK: Husnu Tuna, an attorney representing the Centennial 
University's academicians intervening in one of the cases 
against the Centennial University Rector Yucel Askin, who is 
accused of preparing and possessing illegal records on 
academicians, said that it had been discovered that the lawyers 
who represent the Treasury Department were missing at the court 
ruling during which Rector Askin had been acquitted from the 
charges of smuggling antiquities. Attorney Tuna said that the 
acquittal decision would be appealed to the Supreme Court. 
 
CUMHURIYET/ ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: 16 persons arrested during an 
operation by the police from the Tunceli Anti-terror Department 
on charges of assisting and harboring PKK militants were 
released after their arraignment. The suspects will be tried 
without being kept under confinement. The suspects had been 
detained based on documents confiscated from three militants 
killed in the ensuing clashes with GOT forces in the rural 
Gulbahce village of Pertek, Tunceli province, on October 10, 
¶2005. 
 
CUMHURIYET: Cumhuriyet newspaper reports that 33,000 persons and 
over 100 billion US dollars have been lost to PKK's attacks in 
the last 21 years. The daily reported the breakdown of 621 
persons killed from densely Kurdish populated towns as follows: 
158 soldiers, 23 policemen, 4 teachers and 2 vicars from 
Gaziantep; 57 soldiers, 4 policemen, 1 watchman, and 2 teachers 
from Sanliurfa; 56 soldiers, 21 policemen and 21 teachers from 
Diyarbakir; 38 soldiers, 3 policemen, 33 village guards and 1 
village headman from Adiyaman; 15 soldiers, 2 policemen, 4 
watchmen, 121 village guards and 9 teachers from Mardin; 38 
soldiers and 8 policemen from Van. 24,000 PKK militants have 
been killed since 1984 until the abolishment of the State of 
Emergency Rule on November 30, 2002 and from the PKK's breaking 
its unilateral truce on June 1, 2004 up to now. Although there 
are no definite figures, 4,485 citizens, including public 
employees; and 5,050 GOT forces have been martyred by PKK. 
 
ZAMAN: The hearing concerning Ahmet Kaymaz (30) and his son Ugur 
Kaymaz (12), who had been killed in Kiziltepe of Mardin on 
November 21, 2004, will resume in Eskisehir today. The attorneys 
and NGOs following the case called out people to act according 
to their common sense in order not to cause any provocative acts 
while the Eskisehir Governorate banned all sorts of 
demonstrations, press announcements and meetings to be held in 
town on the hearing date for the same purpose. Ulkede Ozgur 
Gundem daily reports that the Forensic Medicine determined that 
each of the 9 bullets that had penetrated into Ugur Kaymaz' body 
was fatal and a person with wounds in those parts of the body 
could not engage in an armed clash. 
 
ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: The Semdinli prosecutor, who had been 
interviewed by the Turkish National Assembly's Human Rights 
Inspection Committee, has been quoted in the Committee's draft 
report as saying that the security department is not reporting 
the names of the policemen knowledgeable about the bombing 
incident in Semdinli and the events that took place afterwards 
despite his written notice to the security directorate about 
these events. 
 
 
 
EKSPRES/ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: The Adana Branch of Human Rights 
Association and some other NGOs undertook a march to protest the 
"Return to Life Operation" launched against inmates on hunger 
strike on December 19, 2000. The hunger strike, in 20 prisons 
nationwide, continued for 61 days and the "Return to Life 
Operation" resulted in the killing of 2 soldiers and 19 inmates 
and wounding of 78 inmates. Ulkede Ozgur Gundem claims that 32 
persons had been killed during the prison operation and none of 
the perpetrators had been punished yet. The group's speaker, 
Cemal Dogan, claimed that inhumane applications in prisons 
continued and the crowd chanting anti-Return to Life Operation 
disbursed. 
 
HURRIYET: In Midyat of Mardin, two sisters, Tugba and Derya 
Ileri, going to high school on a motorbike received death 
threats signed by Hizbullah. Initially, unidentified persons 
damaged their motorbike and then they received e-mails warning 
them that they were becoming bad models for the girls living 
there, and questioned them about what they tried to mean by 
dressing like boys. The girls' father, Salih Ileri, a retired 
teacher, said that some circles did not approve of his 
daughters' riding a motorbike on the ground that it was a sin. 
Salih Ileri filed a petition of complaint with the public 
prosecutor concerning the issue. 
 
ULKEDE OZGUR GUNDEM: It is reported that two mass graves found 
in Tatvan of Bitlis on August 24, 2004 might belong to PKK 
militants killed on October 27, 1994. The Avras family claimed 
that the bones of one of the bodies most likely belonged to a 
family member of theirs and applied to the public prosecutor. 
Samples taken from the Avras family had been sent to the 
Forensic Medicine lab for analysis but although one year has 
passed no response has been given by the Forensic Medicine. The 
lawyers' demand for an additional investigation has been denied 
by the prosecutor. The Avras family's lawyer submitted the case 
to the European Court for Human Rights. 
 
BOLGE/BOLGE: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan watched, 
through satellite TV, the inauguration ceremonies held for the 
Irrigation by Gravity Project of the Yumurtalik Plain. The Adana 
Governor, mayor, Adana lawmakers from AK Party and the 6th 
Regional Director of the State Water Works Department in Adana 
participated in the ceremonies. 
 
BOLGE: Workers and their families protesting the closure of the 
Adana Cigarette Factory gathered in the Southern Region 
Representation Office of the Tek-Gida Is (The Union of Tobacco, 
Alcoholic Beverages, Food, and Subsidiary Works) and carried 
Turkish flags and banners reading "IMF, get out; This country is 
ours; Monopoly is homeland, Homeland can not be sold" and 
shouted anti-government slogans. On behalf of workers, the 
union's Regional Representative, Gursel Dilkilic, said the 
cigarette plant erected on 44,000 square meters had 50,000 ton 
daily production capacity and possessed 23.32 percent of 
Turkey's cigarette market and made an annual profit of 2.5 
million US dollars. Dilkilic said that 700 people were presently 
working in the plant, and advised privatizing the cigarette 
production line in lieu of closing it. 
REID