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DE RUEHDA #0150/01 1741232
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R 231232Z JUN 06
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INFO RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 0807
RUEUITH/AFOSI DET 521 ANKARA TU
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 0755
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 0654
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000150 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JUNE 23, 2006 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for June 23, 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 / RADIKAL / ZAMAN / CUMHURIYET:        Both parties of the 
Semdinli trial objected to the June 19 verdict given by Van's 
Third Heavy Penalty Court.  Defendants' attorney said that the 
court is to respond to their objection in fifteen days.  The 
attorney further said that they did not specify the grounds for 
their objection because the court also has not stated the 
grounds on which its verdict was issued.  Litigants objected to 
the verdict as based on grounds that the defendants should be 
given penalty for "attempting to disrupt unity and solidarity of 
the country", a statement which was included by the former Van 
Prosecutor Ferhat Sarikaya in the Semdinli indictment. 
Meanwhile, Yeni Safak daily corrected the imprisonment term the 
court gave to the non-commissioned officers as thirty-nine years 
and ten months in prison, not thirty-nine years and five months. 
 Cumhuriyet daily cited Ahmet Ersin, Izmir deputy from CHP and 
member of the parliamentary commission probing Semdinli case, as 
branding it a very exceptional situation that the Semdinli trial 
was finalized in one and a half months.  Ersin criticized the 
trial process for being deficient because the court gave verdict 
without taking the last statement of one of the defendants. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM / EVRENSEL:        People in Semdinli showed reaction 
upon hearing the news that Seferi Yilmaz, owner of the bookstore 
which was bombed on November 9, 2005 in Semdinli, was also 
arrested because of a statement given about him by a PKK 
defector following the verdict given by the Van court.  Semdinli 
people held a march, demanded release of Yilmaz and expressed 
that Yilmaz was not alone.  DTP, EMEP (The Party of Labor), SDP 
(Socialist Democracy Party), ESP (Socialist Party of the 
Oppressed People), Human Rights Association, Free Citizens' 
Movement, Mesopotamia Cultural Center, and Kurdish Institute 
extended support to those protests. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM / EVRENSEL:        EU officials reportedly pointed 
out that an investigation to probe the names behind the Semdinli 
incident should be started to find out about the suspected 
involvement of senior military officials in the incident. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Citing the recent clashes which took place in 
northeastern Gumushane province and southern Osmaniye province 
on June 20 and 21 respectively, the daily alleged that the 
extent of the Turkish Armed Forces' operations has widened as if 
to include the whole country in a war.  One soldier in Gumushane 
and two soldiers in Osmaniye have been killed, the daily 
claimed. Separately, it is noted that PKK headquarters 
reportedly warned the Kurdish people in Hatay and its districts 
Iskenderun, Erzin and Dortyol against a person 
(counter-guerilla) who gathered money from people in the name of 
PKK. 
 
RADIKAL / HURRIYET / SABAH:     A 21-year-old soldier died in a 
clash with PKK members in Tunceli's Pulumur district yesterday 
morning. 
 
ZAMAN:  A PKK member has been killed in a clash that took 
place in Mardin's Nusaybin district. 
 
SABAH:  The daily cites allegations of an Israeli newspaper 
claiming that some retired Israeli security officials and some 
big companies in Israel set up military camps in northern Iraq 
and provided military training, equipment and ammunition to the 
Kurdish people in the region. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM / EVRENSEL:        DTP Women's Assembly asked for a 
de facto continuation of the party's co-chairmanship model in 
response to the Supreme Court's objection to co-chairmanship 
which reportedly conflicts with the Turkish Political Parties 
Act.  Some circles reportedly say that, if co-chairmanship got 
abolished in Sunday's DTP congress, Co-chairperson Ahmet Turk 
would be designated as the leader of the party.  Yet, nothing is 
certain about that, Evrensel daily noted. 
 
HURRIYET:       Representatives of ETA and IRA, upon invitation from 
DTP to their first-ever congress to be held on June 25 in 
Ankara, announced that they would attend the congress. 
 
HURRIYET / OZGUR GUNDEM / SABAH / CUMHURIYET:   Turkish 
Parliament has passed a law concerning the founding of Bilkent 
University's international educational sciences institutes, one 
of which is already in operation in Ankara, in Erzurum, Malatya, 
Urfa and Van provinces as well. Ozgur Gundem describes the 
project as an attempt to convince public workers to come to the 
 
ADANA 00000150  002 OF 002 
 
 
southeastern region through offering educational opportunities 
for their "privileged" children (see press summary 06/31). 
 
BOLGE / EKSPRES:        DYP (True Path Party) Leader Mehmet Agar came 
to Adana and attended an event the provincial party organization 
held in Seyhan Hotel.  Agar reportedly stressed during his talk 
that nobody has been regarded as belonging to a minority in the 
country, except for the non-Muslim communities, for a long time 
in the country.  Every national of the country has always been 
united in both good and bad times and there has never been a 
separate Kurdish issue in that regard to date. 
 
SABAH (GUNEY):  Mardin reportedly suffers severely from lack 
of investment in the province.  Nearly forty of the seventy 
factories in the organized industrial zone have been idle to 
date. 
 
BOLGE / CUMHURIYET:     Tayfun Mater, Spokesperson of Global 
Peace and Justice Commission, delivered a speech at the panel 
called "Middle East and Turkey in the Aftermath of Iraqi 
Occupation" at the Theater Hall of the Adana Municipality. 
Mater said that without the presence of Incirlik Airbase, the 
U.S., since it was occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, would not be 
as comfortable as it is today.  Chairperson of the Adana 
Coordination Council of the Union of Turkish Engineers and 
Architects Chambers and Editor-in-Chief of the local Yeni Adana 
daily were among the panelists. 
 
BOLGE:  Lionel Martijn, Head of Union of Developing 
Municipalities in EU, held a seminar in Mersin's Anamur district 
that enlightened local people on the issue of how developing 
municipalities can benefit from EU funds. 
 
CUMHURIYET:     Unexpected developments have been rocking the 
provincial party organization of AKP in Adana.  While provincial 
chairperson Mustafa Attaroglu was in Ankara, it was announced 
that deputy chairpersons Bilal Nadir Gok and Fatih Kocaispir, 
who supported Attaroglu in last months provincial chairperson 
elections, were removed from office. 
 
BOLGE:  Fire broke out in forestland near Adana's Kozan 
district and ten hectares of forest land have burned so far. 
 
BOLGE:  A fight in Adana between two families belonging to 
the same clan, which is renowned for their misdemeanors in the 
province, resulted in gunfire which wounded a person. 
 
BOLGE / EKSPRES:        Authorities accelerated their efforts to 
prepare Ceyhan district for the opening of Baku-Tibilisi-Ceyhan 
Pipeline on July 13 in Adana. 
 
HURRIYET:       Five people called the Kazanli district mayor in 
Mersin and told him that they would come to the municipality to 
settle old scores with the mayor.  Those people carried out a 
raid at the municipality with guns at 11.30 am yesterday.  Four 
of the assailants ran away when they could not find the mayor in 
his office.  The fifth one has been detained. 
REID