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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 000237 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/SE, EUR/PD, NEA/PD, DRL 
JCS PASS J-5/CDR S. WRIGHT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR TU
SUBJECT: ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT 
FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2006 
 
 
THIS REPORT PRESENTS THE TURKISH PRESS SUMMARY UNDER THREE 
THEMES: 
 
HEADLINES 
BRIEFING 
EDITORIAL OPINION 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
HEADLINES 
 
MASS APPEAL 
Nuclear Support from Syria to Iran - Hurriyet 
Bin Laden Threatens the US Again - Hurriyet 
Threat Along with Ceasefire Offer from Bin Laden - Milliyet 
Avian Flu Summit in Ankara - Vatan 
Straw to Meet Talat in his Office - Hurriyet 
Arinc Support for Erbakan - Sabah 
Cem Uzan Meets with the Energy Minister - Sabah 
Greek Cypriot Electricity Gesture to Northern Cyprus - Sabah 
Tajikistan President in Ankara - Sabah 
Haluk Ulusoy Re-elected as the head of Football Federation - 
Milliyet 
Gas Flow from Iran Reduced - Milliyet 
 
OPINION MAKERS 
Straw to Meet Talat despite Greek-Cypriot Objections - 
Radikal 
Chirac issues Nuclear Warning - Cumhuriyet 
Conditional Ceasefire Offer from Bin Laden - Cumhuriyet 
Gul Urges Iran to be Transparent - Zaman 
Guantanamo's Lonely Turks - Yeni Safak 
US Ambassador Wilson: Turkey is Successful in Fight against 
Bird Flu - Yeni Safak 
 
BRIEFING 
 
Bird Flu Epidemic:  "Vatan" reports that the Health Minister 
Recep Akdag is going to hold a summit on bird flu in Ankara 
today.  Ministers of Environment, Agriculture and Interior 
will be attending the summit.  All papers report that bird 
culling continues all over Turkey.  "Yeni Safak" reports 
that, after his meeting with the Health Minister, US 
Ambassador Ross Wilson told reporters that the expert team 
from the US was highly satisfied with the Health Ministry's 
actions in the fight against the epidemic.  Ambassador 
Wilson added that Turkey is playing an important role for 
the whole world in fighting the epidemic. 
 
Syrian Support for Iran:  All papers report on the support 
Syria's Assad expressed to Iran's Ahmedinejad on Iran's 
nuclear program.  Ahmedinejad is in Damascus for an official 
visit and the two leaders held a joint press conference 
after the meeting.  Assad was quoted as saying 'we support 
the right of Iran and any state in the world to acquire 
peaceful technology.  Countries who oppose this give no 
convincing reasons for the opposition.' 
 
Bin Laden's Threat:  "Hurriyet" and "Milliyet" report that 
in a tape broadcasted by Al-Jazeera TV, Osama Bin Laden 
threatened the US with a new attack inside the US and 
offered a conditional truce.  Bin Laden said that if the US 
pulls out of Iraq and Afghanistan they will agree to a 
ceasefire. 
Cem Uzan Meets with Energy Minister Guler:  "Sabah" reports 
that Energy Minister Guler received the former chief of the 
Uzan Group, Cem Uzan, to discuss former Uzan Group assets, 
including the energy companies CEAS and Kepez.  Reportedly, 
Cem Uzan urged the Minister to come to a settlement and 
stated that he intends to survive in the Turkish Energy 
Sector. 
 
ANKARA 00000237  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
Gas Flow from Iran Reduced:  "Milliyet" and "Cumhuriyet" 
reported that Iran has reduced the amount of natural gas 
shipped to Turkey by 80 percent.  Iranian officials said 
that the reason for this was a technical failure.  However, 
"Cumhuriyet" wrote that the cut was a result of the cold 
weather conditions in the region. 
 
Straw to Visit Talat:  Today's papers carried the news that 
Greek Cypriot Leader Papadopulos refused to meet British 
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during his visit to Cyprus next 
week in protest of Straw's plan to meet with Turkish Cypriot 
President Talat at his presidential office. 
 
Greek Cypriot Gesture to Turkish Cypriots:  Greek Cypriots 
supplied Northern Cyprus with electricity yesterday after a 
major outage affected the power supplies of households in 
the northern part of Cyprus. 
 
Gul Urges Iran to be Transparent:  "Zaman" reports that FM 
Gul sent a message to Iran urging transparency related to 
its dealing with the International Atomic Energy. 
 
Guantanamo's Lonely Turks:  "Yeni Safak" gives extensive 
coverage on its front page to seven Turkic Uighurs going to 
be released from Guantanamo.  The prisoners from 'East 
Turkistan' cannot leave the prison because no country will 
accept them.  The US officials stated that these prisoners 
will not be given to China because of the risk that they may 
be tortured, but they could be sent to any other country 
willing to accept them. 
 
EDITORIAL OPINION:  Iran, US-Turkey Relationship 
 
"The Target is Iran" 
Derya Sazak opined in the mainstream daily "Milliyet" 
(1/20):  "The US has started lobbying for an attack against 
Iran's nuclear facility.  It has been observed that 
following German PM Merkel's visit to the US, the EU and 
Russia increased their pressure to stop Iran's nuclear 
program.  The UK continuously urges the UN Security Council 
to take action against Iran.  And, there has been a 
noticeable increase in military visits to Ankara.  The US is 
trying to convince the western world, including Turkey, that 
Iran's nuclear reactor will be a huge threat in the future. 
It will not be possible to launch an operation against Iran 
like the one against Iraq.  The Saddam regime had been 
gradually weakened by the US since the first Gulf war in 
¶1991.  Therefore, it will not be possible for the US to open 
the same kind of front against Iran.  There is only one 
other solution -- launching an air operation against the 
facility.  The US will need Turkey's support for such an 
operation.  Diplomatic traffic has started between 
Washington and Ankara. Already many military and political 
meetings have taken place between the two countries.  These 
issues will play an important role in the re-structuring of 
Turkish policies." 
 
"The New Military Strategy of the US" 
Kamuran Ozbir wrote in the nationalist "Ortadogu" (1/20): 
"The planning and meetings taking place in the US recently, 
show that the US is changing its military strategies.  The 
US has 200,000 troops in Germany, South Korea and Japan. 
These forces were deployed in these places during the cold 
war period.  Today's political conditions and defensive 
needs have changed immensely.  Reportedly, the Pentagon is 
working on a broader, more flexible strategy.  As President 
Bush explained some time ago, with this strategy, a total of 
70,000 troops will be withdrawn from certain bases, some 
 
ANKARA 00000237  003 OF 003 
 
 
military facilities will be closed and others will be 
reconstructed for rapid operation use.  Of course this 
doesn't mean that the US military presence in foreign 
countries will disappear.  The 'advance base' system will be 
used (mainly in Poland, Romania, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). 
Since the main threat regions have shifted to the Gulf, the 
Eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus and Central Asia, it is 
natural to have such strategy changes.  How will these 
changes affect Turkey?  From the angle of security, US troop 
withdrawals from Europe will not cause any problem for 
Turkey.  However, this new strategy will increase the 
importance of Incirlik air base.  There might be one other 
base on the agenda.  Washington wants to move two F-16 
fleets from Germany to Incirlik.  Under the new US military 
strategy, Incirlik is in a position of an 'advance base,' 
with facilities to launch an operation in case of emergency. 
The US has already conveyed its demands on this issue to 
Turkey and negotiations continue.  Whether Turkey will meet 
these demands or not remains to be seen." 
 
WILSON