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 000026 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR FEBRUARY 07, 2006 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for February 07, 
¶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 
 
BOLGE / EKSPRES:        Turkish American Association in Adana 
implemented new security measures and installed four 
surveillance cameras on its premise following a bomb attack 
carried out on the association's building on January 30 (see 
press summaries 01/31 and 02/03). 
 
RADIKAL:        Officers from the Diyarbakir's Security Directorate 
issued a warning for bishops and priests in the province to be 
more cautious following the incident in which a Catholic priest 
in Trabzon was killed. Diyarbakir police members paid a visit to 
the Syriac Orthodox Church in Alipasa quarter to urge the church 
members to be more cautious and to ask whether they needed 
anything in terms of security concerns. 
 
BOLGE:  Party grassroots in Adana's AK Party Yuregir 
headquarters, who are reportedly disturbed about re-election of 
Bilal Nadir Gok as Yuregir District AKP Chairperson, conveyed 
their frustration about this development to the AKP national 
headquarters.  Bilal Nadir Gok is reportedly showed nepotism and 
favoritism toward members of a religious sect during the 
selection of the administrative board members. 
 
HURRIYET:       A 26-year-old female member of the terrorist 
organization PKK, who had to join PKK as a result of her 
kidnapping by PKK members in 1993 from a village in Igdir when 
she was 13 years old, escaped from the organization when she was 
convinced by Igdir Jandarma Intelligence team members as they 
chatted with her through the internet. 
 
HURRIYET:       Security officers, barely noticing a bomb which was 
planted on a road between Tunceli and its Hozat district, 
immediately took security precautions and safely rendered the 
bomb ineffective. 
 
CUMHURIYET / HURRIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM:   Van Centennial 
University Rector Yucel Askin, who paid visits to some party 
leaders and representatives in Ankara, when asked by journalists 
whether he would enter political life, said he had a 15-month 
tenure ahead of him that he would complete as the rector of the 
university, and he would consider then whether he would engage 
himself in politics or not. 
 
SABAH / OZGUR GUNDEM:   Ozgur Gundem and Sabah dailies reported 
that two non-commissioned officers who were arrested on November 
29, 2005 as they were held as defendants in the November 9 
Semdinli case, were indeed rewarded with a certificates of merit 
by the Hakkari Provincial Jandarma Command on November 22, 2005. 
 Ozgur Gundem further reported that, Ahmet Ersin, CHP member of 
the Turkish Parliamentary Commission Probing Semdinli Case 
(TPCPS), said the reward might have been made to influence the 
judiciary.  Esat Canan, CHP member of TPCPS, said that the act 
to grant certificates to the officers aimed to provide patronage 
to the officers.  Separately, following Abdullah Ocalan's 
weekend remarks made to his attorneys, who said that Ocalan 
would order all the PKK militants to lay down arms should the 
government 1- remove all obstacles that have been preventing 
Kurdish people from enjoying their cultural rights, 2- protect 
these rights in the constitution, 3-issue a general amnesty for 
all the militants,  Esat Canan said he was supporting the 
suggestion to issue a general amnesty. 
 
EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM:        Due to snowed-in closed roads in 
Bitlis's Hizan district, a 70 person team carried a pregnant 
woman for eight hours along the 30 kilometer road to be able to 
bring her to the hospital in Tatvan's state hospital in Bitlis. 
The women gave birth to a boy; however, the health condition of 
the women is reportedly still under risk. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   A WHO (World Health Organization) delegation 
has been in Iraq for one week to conduct studies on the bird flu 
outbreak in Baghdat and Suleymaniye.  One person's death was 
confirmed as from bird flu in Iraq.  The delegation said that 
seven patients were suspected as having bird flu and samples 
taken from them have been sent to a laboratory in Cairo Egypt. 
 
CUMHURIYET / EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM:   Following a January 
24-dated letter from the Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme 
Court to DTP (Democratic Society Party) to drop the membership 
of 74 founding members of DTP (see press summary 01/31), DTP 
Central Executive Board announced that it had to drop these 
memberships.  DTP further announced that the decision of the 
Prosecutor's Office was an undemocratic one and DTP would 
continue to struggle in the legal arena for annulment of this 
decision. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Adana Security Directorate members, who 
conducted an unannounced raid on the provincial party building 
of DTP in Adana, detained 9 persons and seized more than 70 
photographs in the building. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Turkish Armed Forces started a military 
operation in the Uludere district of Sirnak.  The operation has 
reportedly been assisted by the military personnel from Senoba 
Jandarma Command, village guards and military aircrafts. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   The hunger strike that was started in Mahmur 
refugee camp in Iraq which lasted for four days has reportedly 
been ended (see press summary 02/03).  Meanwhile, 10 members of 
the Democratic People's Initiative in Adana's Misis quarter, 
launched a two-day rolling hunger strike to protest government's 
policies that reportedly aimed to isolate Ocalan in his prison 
cell. 
 
RADIKAL / SABAH / EVRENSEL:     Members of the Free Women's 
Initiative in Batman marched to protest the increase in 
incidents of women's suicide in Batman recently. 
 
SABAH:  Two Jandarma privates in separate Jandarma Commands 
in Sirnak committed suicide. 
 
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS 
 
BOLGE:  GAP (Southeastern Anatolia Project) Administration 
Regional Development Director announced that 15 billion dollars 
are needed for the GAP project to be completed in 2010.  17 
billion dollars have been spent to date for the 32-billion 
dollar project and financial resources other than the public 
budget are needed to complete the project on time. 
 
¶2.      CUMHURIYET / HURRIYET / BOLGE / EKSPRES / RADIKAL: 
State-owned Tekel Cigarette Company has completed a production 
planning process to achieve standardization of the cigarettes it 
produced.  Tekel will now consider strategic proximity of its 
factories to the markets in its rearrangement of production in 
its factories.  Tekel has already determined which factories 
will be producing its highest-demand brands. 
 
¶3.      BOLGE / EKSPRES:        John Hendrix, a Dutch agricultural 
advisor, who has been providing consultancy services about fruit 
and fruit sapling production for Turkish farmers since 1998, met 
with people engaged in this business in Adana's Yumurtalik 
district.  Hendrix reportedly said that the cost of inputs in 
fruit production surged greatly; therefore, farmers should 
consider measures to prevent further rising costs. 
 
¶4.      HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    State Minister Kusat Tuzmen said 
that Gaziantep's export capabilities and Gaziantep's premises 
have been giving hope to them (government).  This was because 
Gaziantep has reached a 40 percent exporting figure while the 
average exports figure in Turkey was 17 per cent. 
REID