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 000036 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR FOR FEBRUARY 13, 2006 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for February 13, 
¶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 
 
RADIKAL / CUMHURIYET:   Istanbul Medical Forensic Authority 
confirmed that bones found in a mass grave in 2004 in 
Diyarbakir's Kulp district belonged to the 11 villagers who 
reportedly disappeared during military operations conducted by 
the Bolu Commando Brigade in the region in 1994. 
 
SABAH / HURRIYET:       Nearly 150,000 people participated in a public 
meeting held in Diyarbakir to protest caricatures of Prophet 
Mohammed published in Danish newspapers.  Anti-U.S., 
anti-Israeli and anti-EU slogans were chanted and banners in 
four languages, including Turkish, Kurdish, Zaza and English 
waved during the event.  People arrived at Diyarbakir from 
provinces such as Adana, Siirt, Batman and Mardin to participate 
in the protest activity. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   As February 15 drew close, protest activities 
against "the concerted efforts of the international community" 
in 1999 to arrest Abdullah Ocalan has reportedly becoming more 
widespread in the southeastern region.  People have been 
reportedly hitting the streets in many parts of the country to 
mark the upcoming day.  Representatives of the Kurdish community 
in Van have been making calls for the people to wer black 
outfits and not to go outside their houss on that day.  Police 
intervened when a group o youth staged a demonstration in a 
quarter of Adna province and blocked traffic flow with Molotov 
cocktai 
.  The scuffle ended when the police disprse the 
crowd  Hundeds of Cizre People's Initative mmbers taged 
sit-in protest activity i Cize hen th polic prevented them 
from marchng.  Meanwhile, 300 people announced in Gaziantep the 
start of their two-day rolling hunger strike. In Malatya's DSP 
(Democratic Society Party) provncial building, hunger strikes 
have reportedly ben continuing and groups have been taking 
turns n fasting, which will reportedly end on February 15. 
Meanwhile, attorneys of Abdullah Ocalan reiteraed their demand 
in Istanbul to assign an indepenent delegation of doctors to 
check the health codition of Ocalan. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Esat Canan,Hakkari deputy from CHP 
(Republican People's Party), said arresting seven members of the 
community in Semdinli who reportedly caught and turned over the 
non-commissioned officers to the authorities during the Semdinli 
bombing was unacceptable and unlawful.  These seven persons have 
been charged recently with "disrupting the unity and solidarity 
of the state" and "damaging public property."  Canan further 
said that these arrests aimed at taking revenge on people who 
unearthed the alleged criminal ring in the state.   Mesut Deger, 
Diyarbakir deputy from CHP, said that the judiciary should 
better look into what had originally incited these people to 
commit those actions (on Nevember 9, 2005).  Deger drew 
attention in his remarks to officials initially denying 
ownership of the car found in the site of the incident, only a 
while later to acknowledge that car's ownership as the state's. 
Deger criticized the parliamentary commission probing the 
Semdinli case as only serving to mitigate (public) reactions 
against the incident. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Osman Baydemir, who went to the U.S. to attend 
the UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) meetings made an 
interview with the Voice of America radio station.  Baydemir 
reportedly expressed problems of Diyarbakir and the other 
provinces in the southeastern region and commented on how to 
resolve them during the interview.  Meanwhile, Diyarbakir 
Municipality was included in the "Taskforce" group under UCLG 
Committee on City Diplomacy which was established to promote the 
influence of local governments in conflict prevention and 
resolution. 
 
RADIKAL / CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM:    PM Erdogan appeared 
offensive and disrespectful while he responded to a farmer 
protesting his agricultural policies in Mersin, and this was 
carried in front pages of some newspapers on Sunday.   PM 
Erdogan, who went to Mersin province in southern Turkey to 
attend his party's provincial congress, was protested by an 
angry farmer.  When PM decided to allow the protestor to 
approach him and express his opinions, the shouting pitch of the 
farmer's angry tone turned the conversation confrontational in 
nature, resulting in the PM exposing himself to cameras and 
journalists as he rebuked the farmer with remarks that appeared 
disrespectful.  (This summary is from Sunday editions.) 
 
CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM / RADIKAL:    PM Erdogan delivered a 
public speech in one of the main squares of the Kahramanmaras 
province and said that the government was striving to increase 
the standards of living for the Turkish people.  According to 
Erdogan, contracts entered into with foreign companies in 
previous governments regarding natural gas exports were 
hindering people of Turkey from efficiently benefiting from this 
energy resource.  Erdogan left the province later to attend a 
coal-powered power plant's opening ceremony in Afsin-Elbistan. 
Radikal noted that women and men sat separately at a dinner held 
by local AKP party organization for their leader. 
 
RADIKAL /  CUMHURIYET:  Kani Yilmaz, who was formerly a central 
committee member and a European representative of the PKK, and, 
who had left the PKK two years ago to establish PWD (Patriotic 
and Democratic Party) with Abdullah Ocalan's brother Osman 
Ocalan, was killed by a bomb planted in his car in northern 
Iraq.  Reportedly, there were also two members of PWD in the car 
along with Yilmaz, but one of them left when the car stopped at 
a gas station near Suleymaniyah province.  The car had moved 100 
metres away from the station when the blast occurred.  The 
incident killed Yilmaz and the other PWD member and heavily 
wounded the driver.  Yilmaz was gravely criticized by the PKK 
for not being able to seek shelter for Abdullah Ocalan in 
European countries in 1999 before Ocalan was caught in Kenya. 
Yilmaz was supporting the idea that PKK lay down arms and fight 
with democratic instruments to resolve the Kurdish issue.  PWD 
announced that Yilmaz's murder was perpetrated by the PKK. (This 
summary is from Sunday editions.) 
 
ZAMAN:  Zaman daily quoted Sehabettin Ozaslaner, former Van 
Mayor from HADEP (People's Democracy Party), as saying that PKK 
had (allegedly) attempted to assassinate him when he refused to 
pay an extortion fee amounting to 550,000 USD that the PKK 
demanded from him two years ago.  Ozaslaner said that he barely 
escaped a PKK assassination attempt later. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Investigation has been started against 15 
people who participated in the January 25-dated press 
announcement in Sirnak that was held to demand action from 
officials against the alleged disappearance of two former HADEP 
Silopi administrators in local Jandarma Command in 2001. 
Meanwhile, two people in Osmaniye have been detained and 
arraigned on charges of conducting a referendum called "Abdullah 
Ocalan represents my political will." 
 
ZAMAN / SABAH / CUMHURIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM:      Gaziantep 
police, upon receiving a tip-off, followed a truck, which set 
off from northern Iraq, as it crossed the border and came to 
Gaziantep.  Police conducted an operation against the vehicle 
and found 44 pistols hidden in the truck.  33 of the pistols 
were reportedly Glocks, the type of handgun used in the assault 
against catholic priest Andrea Santorio in Trabzon. 
 
CUMHURIYET:     ESP (Socialist Platform for the Oppressed People), 
HOC (Rights and Liberties Front), Socialist Democracy Party and 
Socialist Youth Association members held a protest activity in 
Adana against the court releasing two non-commissioned officers 
held as the defendants in the Semdinli case. 
 
HURRIYET / ZAMAN:       Thirty soldiers and privates in the Bolu 
Jandarma Command have been hospitalized and doctors are looking 
into whether the flu-like symptoms are indicators of bird flu. 
REID