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 000034 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR FEBRUARY 10, 2006 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for February 10, 
¶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 / SABAH (GUNEY) / ZAMAN:        Tekel Cigarette 
Factory in Adana will resume its operations early next week; 
this has turned out to be a reported victory following a 41-day 
strike of the workers at the factory.  700 workers joyfully 
celebrated government's decision to re-start production. 
 
SABAH (GUNEY) / ZAMAN:  Prime Minister Erdogan will come to 
Mersin today to attend a series of openings and meetings in the 
province.  Erdogan will arrive at the Sakirpasa Airport and stay 
briefly in Adana.  Erdogan will stay 1.5 days in Mersin and then 
will go to Kahramanmaras. 
 
CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM:      327 members of intelligentsia, 
including well-known Turkish authors Yasar Kemal and Orhan 
Pamuk, issued a joint declaration in Istanbul and demanded an 
answer from the Ministry of Justice and judicial authorities on 
why they have not yet taken action and started the investigation 
into the murder of Musa Anter, a Kurdish writer, who was killed 
in 1992 in Diyarbakir.  Abdulkadir Aygan, a PKK defector who is 
currently residing in Sweden, has already made public 
confessions and explained details of Anter's murder, which was 
allegedly planned by Aygan and perpetrated by JITEM members back 
in 1992. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Kurds in several southeastern provinces of 
Turkey have started protest actions as the February 15 
anniversary marking Turkish authorities' bringing of Abdullah 
Ocalan to Turkey after catching him in Kenya in 1999, drew near. 
 Youth in Batman blocked a railroad and stopped a passenger 
train that set off from Diyarbakir for 45 minutes.  Free 
People's Initiative in Batman and a group of youth in Siirt held 
separate demonstrations to protest arrival of Ocalan to Turkey. 
Meanwhile, hundreds of people staged separate protest marches in 
Mardin's Kiziltepe and Nusaybin districts.  Police intervened in 
Nusaybin with armored vehicles and people responded with Molotov 
cocktails and stones. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Government and main opposition party has 
remained indifferent to calls issued by PKK leader Abdullah 
Ocalan (see press summary 02/07), said the daily.  Ocalan 
reportedly said early in the week that he would order PKK 
militants to lay down arms should the government concede the 
cultural rights of the Kurds while at the same time protecting 
these rights in the constitution, and issue a general amnesty 
for the militants. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Italian attorneys of Abdulah Ocalan made a 
call to the EU and the Italian government to take action 
reportedly because the health condition of their client could be 
grave.  The attorneys demanded that an independent delegation of 
doctors go to Imrali Prison and check the health condition of 
Ocalan. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Abdulaziz Yilmaz was allegedly kidnapped with 
his friend Omer Kisak by JITEM (Jandarma Intelligence Center) 
members (see press summary 01/30) in the Usak province as they 
were traveling from Adana to Izmir two weeks ago.  Kisak was 
reportedly able to flee from the kidnappers.  The daily reported 
that the alleged dead body of Yilmaz was found nearby a farm 
where two people were reportedly brought when they were 
kidnapped.  Since the dead person's head, arms and legs were 
dissected from the body and were not found, DNA samples will 
reportedly prove the identity of the remaining torso of the 
body. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Heavy rain, which started pouring yesterday 
and has continued to fall intermittently   till today, caused 
flooding in Diyarbakir and 172 houses and businesses have been 
swamped.  Roofs of three houses have collapsed and great 
material damage was done.  Municipality workers are striving to 
provide relief efforts, said the Acting Mayor Ilhan Diken, and 
cautioned people that the downpour may continue for about two 
more days. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   A 21 year-old male in Batman jumped from one 
of the hills of Hasankeyf district and committed suicide. 
 
RADIKAL / CUMHUTIYET / ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM:    Police conducted 
a raid on a house in Sirnak's Cizre district and reportedly 
found buried remains of people whom terrorist organization 
Hezbullah allegedly kidnapped and executed between 1993 and 
¶1996.  In the same house, Hezbullah's ammunition storage was 
discovered in 2000, and, Abdullah Gul, owner of the estate and 
the person responsible from the military wing of the Hezbullah 
was arrested and jailed then.  Gul was released two years ago 
when he applied for benefits from the Repentance Law which took 
effect during the AKP's rule. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Reyhanli Jandarma Command members caught a 
person red-handed as he was trying to cross the border illegally 
at the Yenisehir border area in Hatay's Reyhanli district.  He 
was attempting to smuggle 700 boxes of cigarettes. 
 
ZAMAN:  Efforts of the government to make up for the grave 
shortage of doctors, and the Health Ministry's 8,000 YTL salary 
offer to attract doctors to the southeastern region of Turkey 
have reportedly been proving futile. 
 
ZAMAN:  Turkish parliamentary commission for probing the 
Semdinli case has not been able to finish its report concerning 
the incident despite the passage of three months since the 
incident.  CHP members of the commission have already decided to 
provide annotations on the controversial report on grounds that 
the report is denigrating the state. 
 
RADIKAL:        A percussion time bomb planted on a street near a 
bank in Mardin's Kiziltepe district exploded at 10 p.m. 
yesterday.  Bomb squad teams started investigating the scene 
following the explosion.  No casualties were reported following 
the event. 
 
RADIKAL:        First hearing of the court action brought against 34 
people on charges of attending the funeral of a PKK terrorist 
who was killed in the rural sections of Batman's Besiri district 
was held yesterday.  Former DEHAP administrators and 
municipality council members are among the defendants in the 
case who are facing 2 years of prison sentences should they be 
convicted of the charges of "organizing the funeral march, 
chanting slogans, praising the criminal actions as well as the 
criminals." 
REID