VZCZCXRO1782
RR RUEHDA
DE RUEHDA #0097/01 1230659
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 030659Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL ADANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4121
INFO RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 0718
RUEUITH/AFOSI DET 521 ANKARA TU
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 0670
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 0582

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000097 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MAY 01, 2006 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for May 01, 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 (CUKUROVA):    Syriac Culture Center has been founded 
within the body of Syriac Cultural Association in Mardin's 
Midyat district. 
 
EKSPRES / BOLGE:        Adana Mayor Aytac Durak issued a message to 
mark May Day, and said that it was pleasing to see Mayday was 
being celebrated peacefully. 
 
BOLGE:  AKP Adana party organization entered a busy week 
before the arrival of PM Erdogan to the AKP Adana provincial 
congress which will be held on May 6.  To date, two candidates 
announced that they would be running for the chairmanship, 
Mustafa Kebude and current chairperson Abdullah Dogru. 
 
BOLGE:  A public march has been held in Mersin to celebrate 
the 125th anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's birth. 
 
EVRENSEL:       The unions and labor platforms celebrated May Day in 
Batman, Siirt and Hakkari's Yuksekova district early.  The 
Governor's Office in Erzincan did not grant authorization for 
public meeting to be held in the province on grounds that a 
foreseen and imminent threat may disrupt the public peace, 
security and health. 
 
SABAH (GUNEY):  GAP (Southeastern Anatolia Project) 5th 
Engineering Congress has been held in Sanliurfa. 
 
SABAH (GUNEY):  ANAP (Motherland Party) Leader Erkan Mumcu 
held a public meeting in Hatay. 
 
HURRIYET:       Eighteen PKK terrorists have been convinced to leave 
the mountains thanks to the efforts of Batman Governor and 
Batman Jandarma commander.  Meanwhile, a terrorist, who fled 
from PKK, has surrendered himself to authorities in Sirnak's 
Silopi district, said Sirnak Governor's Office. 
 
ZAMAN:  A new ethnicity-based party will reportedly 
challenge the position of DTP, which reportedly does not brand 
PKK a terrorist organization.  Kurdish National Democratic Study 
Group will brand PKK as a terrorist organization and will 
embrace all Kurdish origin people regardless of their positions. 
 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Van 3rd Heavy Penalty Court refused 330 
attorneys who wanted to take part in the first court hearing of 
November 9 Semdinli bombing incident, which will start on May 4, 
as intervening attorneys on behalf of bookstore owner Seferi 
Yilmaz.  Yilmaz said that their struggle would continue 
regardless of developments (see press summary 04/28). 
 
EVRENSEL / OZGUR GUNDEM:        DTP provincial chairpersons met in 
Diyarbakir.  Co-Chairperson Aysel Tugluk made called on PM 
Erdogan to regard Kurdish people as counterparts in resolving 
the Kurdish issue.  Tugluk further pointed out the gravity of 
the increasing number of arrests of DTP officials.  Tugluk also 
said that the Anti-Terror Law had eventually turned into an 
Anti-Kurdish Law. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Diyarbakir Municipality will open a park in 
memory of human rights activist Aysenur Zarakolu in Diyarbakir. 
Diyarbakir Mayor, DTP Co-Chairpersons, and representatives of 
civil society attended the groundbreaking ceremony. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   A feud between two families has been resolved 
peacefully in Erzurum's Karayazi district through local DTP 
mediation. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   The Yesil family was denied permission by 
Jandarma, despite family members getting previous permission 
from local Jandarma, to enter a village and visit the grave of 
Veli Yesil, one of the rebels of the Dersim Rebellion in the 
1920s, on grounds that a military operation was going on in the 
area. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   A woman inmate died in Izmit because of a 
hunger strike she has started in May 2005 to protest the F-type 
prisons, one of the layouts of a plan implemented in Turkish 
prisons early in the 2000s, which, according to human rights 
activists, brought more isolation to the inmates.  The hunger 
striker was buried in Gaziantep. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Dead bodies of three foreign national 
 
ADANA 00000097  002 OF 002 
 
 
terrorists, which have been held in a morgue in Turkey for more 
than one month, have been sent to Aleppo in Syria.  Syrian 
security officers buried the bodies secretly without notifying 
the families about the burial process. 
 
 OZGUR GUNDEM:  Soldiers are allegedly visiting villages at 
the border area with Iran in Van province in Turkey in order to 
warn people that villages might be evacuated in a possible war 
that may take place between Iran and the U.S. 
 
RADIKAL:        With efforts of Turkey Branch of IPEC (International 
Program on the Elimination of Child Labour), children of 1400 
seasonal cotton field workers in Adana have been convinced to 
send their children to schools instead of having them work at 
the fields to date. 
REID