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 000013 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 24, 2006 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for January 24, 
¶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, SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
HURRIYET:       The health of five-year-old Muhammet Ozcan, who has 
been treated at Van Centennial University's Research Hospital, 
has been improving.  Muhammet Ozcan is the brother of a 
12-year-old Fatma Ozcan, who died of bird flu in mid-Janaury in 
the Van University Hospital. 
 
SABAH / OZGUR GUNDEM:   Seven young persons and children, who 
have been suspected of displaying bird-flu symptoms, have been 
transferred from Bitlis's Tatvan district to the Van Centennial 
University's Research Hospital. One person in Batman having the 
symptoms of the bird flu has been hospitalized in Diyarbakir. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   The daily reported allegations that bird-flu 
has been detected in the sections of Iran mostly populated by 
the Kurds; however, Iran has allegedly been veiling such news 
about the outbreak of bird-flu cases in its territory. 
Reportedly, many wild birds and poultry in the Mahabad province 
of Iran and in its villages died, and officials are trying to 
hush up the details about the cases. 
 
ZAMAN / BOLGE:  Officials from the Provincial Agricultural 
Directorate suspecting a bird flu case took samples from twenty 
dead birds found on the shore of the Seyhan dam lake in Adana. 
The cause of the death of the birds reportedly could be fishing 
nets. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:    A reported makeshift quarantine has been 
imposed and intensive measures have been taken upon arrival of a 
12-person U.S. delegation to Erzurum's Maksut Efendi quarter. 
However, when the delegation left the spot, the quarantine was 
been ended instantly, according to the paper. 
 
ZAMAN:  Upon noticing a bomb placed in one of crowded 
shopping malls of Mersin, police safely detonated the bomb 
through the help of a fuse. 
 
BOLGE / ZAMAN / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    MHP (National Movement 
Party) Deputy General Secretary and MHP Adana Provincial 
Administration paid a visit and extended support to the workers 
who refused to leave TEKEL cigarette factory in Adana in order 
to protest the decision of the government to close down the 
factory. 
 
CUMHURIYET / HURRIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM / SABAH / EVRENSEL: 
Harsh winter conditions in the eastern and Southeastern Turkey 
have had adverse impacts on people's lives.  Currently, roads to 
5,000 villages have been closed because of snowfall.  Meanwhile, 
a faculty member in Erciyes University in Kayseri said that 
bird-flu virus would persist in cold weather conditions under 
snow.  The professor noted that when the climate would get 
milder in the spring, the bird-flu disease could continue to 
jeopardize human health. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   More than a hundred people launched a hunger 
strike in Siirt to protest the 20-day confinement of Abdullah 
Ocalan in his prison cell.  Meanwhile, an unspecified number of 
people in Mus, who started an 8-day rolling hunger strike on the 
same grounds, have decided to prolong the strike indefinitely. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   According to Murat Karayilan, one of the top 
PKK officials, Turkey and the PKK have been striving to exhaust 
the PKK's financial resources.  Karayilan reportedly urged the 
people to be sensitive to this issue and contribute more to the 
PKK, which has been standing on its own feet for years without 
resorting to outside means. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Two of the three people detained three days 
ago in Diyarbakir on grounds that they aided and abetted a 
terrorist organization, have been arraigned and convicted of the 
aforementioned crime. 
 
EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM:        Silopi Democratic People's 
Initiative made a call to the people to participate in the press 
announcement they will be holding to commemorate the fifth year 
of alleged disappearance of two people, Serdar Tanis, HADEP's 
former Silopi provincial chairperson, and Ebubekir Deniz, 
HADEP's provincial leader, at Silopi Jandarma Command in 2001. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Action has been brought against fifteen people 
who used a Turkish courtesy title before Abdullah Ocalan's name 
during a press announcement in Mardin's Mazidag district on July 
2005 to protest the 'inhuman' conditions of Abdullah Ocalan in 
his prison in Imrali Island. 
 
BOLGE:  DACE's (Eastern Mediterranean Environmentalist 
Associations) secretary made a press announcement and said that 
despite operations undertaken by the Spanish government to 
remove the toxic waste in the shipwreck of M/V Ulla, a vessel 
which sank in September 2004 in the Iskenderun Bay due to 
negligence that arose because of the dispute between the company 
that owned the waste and the agency of the vessel, most of the 
2,200 tons of waste have not been safely removed and removal 
operations have indeed remained incomplete.  DACE secretary 
further stated that they would file a lawsuit with the European 
Court of Human Rights concerning the case. 
 
SABAH (GUNEY):  A delegation from the German Development Bank 
came to Gaziantep and paid a visit to the Gaziantep Chamber of 
Commerce.  The delegation and chamber members discussed the 
problems of SMEs and tried to work out solutions to address 
those problems. 
REID