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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000246 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR NOVEMBER 27, 2006 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for November 27, 
¶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 
 
SABAH (GUNEY):  Sinan Aygun, Chairperson of Ankara's Chamber 
of Commerce, talked at a panel called "Being a Woman in 
Southeastern Turkey."  Aygun, as he responded to journalists' 
question, said that there was not a Kurdish problem in Turkey; 
instead there was a problem about terrorism.  Aygun stressed 
that he had colleagues and partners of Kurdish origin, together 
with whom they were working in harmony. 
 
SABAH (GUNEY):  The daily reports that Mehmet Ali Talat, 
President of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), was 
annoyed by a question asked during the conference he attended at 
Gaziantep University on Saturday.   Talat, in response to a 
question about why Talat was disturbed about the presence of 
Turkish flag as next to the TRNC flag during the ceremonies 
marking the anniversary of the foundation of the republic in 
Cyprus, said that nobody had the right to ask that question, and 
he had never been disturbed with the presence of the Turkish 
flag. 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI:    KKK, the political wing of the PKK, 
issued a serious caution that it will reconsider its cease-fire 
decision that was declared three months ago, because the 
military operations in the southeastern region had intensified 
since the declaration, the obstacles causing the Kurdish culture 
to go backward had not been eliminated, and oppression against 
Abdullah Ocalan had become even graver. 
 
EVRENSEL:       Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, AKP Deputy National 
Chairperson, said that AKP would not hold talks with DTP, unless 
DTP declared the PKK as a terrorist organization.  Firat, who 
stated that it was impossible to discuss the topic of general 
amnesty at the Turkish Parliament, prescribed that the PKK must 
lay down arms. 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI:    The youth assemblies of DTP condemned 
the prison sentence The Fourth Diyarbakir Heavy Penalty Court 
the court issued against 18 human shields that arrived from 
Istanbul and Siirt to Siirt's Eruh district two years ago to 
stop the ongoing clashes there.  The court ordered three years 
of prison sentence to each activist. 
 
SECURITY 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI:    According to the paper, people 
celebrated the 28th anniversary of the foundation of the PKK in 
Van, Gaziantep and Adana.  Police blockaded the area where 
people were celebrating the anniversary in Van with armored 
vehicles, and they intervened as the people were chanting 
slogans in support for the PKK and Abdullah Ocalan.  Police 
reportedly detained many people. 
 
HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI:    A 25-year-old woman in Hatay's 
Iskenderun district, who suffered from her drug-addicted 
husband's violence against her for nine years, could not take 
refuge in a women's shelter, because she would have to leave her 
children in an orphanage.  The woman, who stayed with her 
relatives for a while, had to return back to her husband three 
months ago, because the woman's parents denied kinship with the 
woman when she eloped with her husband nine years ago.  A 
women's activist from Democratic Free Women's Movement said that 
the state must embark upon a serious project to save women 
suffering from violence. 
 
EVRENSEL / TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: Esat Canan, Hakkari deputy 
from CHP, condemned the Governor's Office in Hakkari which 
immediately claimed in a written announcement that "two PKK 
terrorists did not obey security officers' halt warning" on 
November 23, 2006 in a forest area in a village of Hakkari's 
Yuksekova district.  One of the persons fired upon had died, and 
the other was seriously wounded.  Canan claimed that the two 
people, whom the security personnel opened fire on, were only 
villagers returning to their homes in the evening, and Evrensel 
daily points out that despite the governor's office depicting 
the wounded survivor and the other villager as terrorists, the 
survivor was released by the authorities. 
 
ADANA 00000246  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
ZAMAN:  Hakkari Governor's Office announced that six 
shelters of the PKK were discovered with many explosives, 
bullets, clips and substances used in producing drugs, as hidden 
in those shelters in Hakkari. 
 
CRIME / LAW ENFORCEMENT 
 
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Jandarma teams conducting identity 
checks on a passenger bus in Ceyhan caught nine people who 
entered the country illegally.  Six of the people caught were 
from Iraq, one of them was from Senegal and one of them was from 
Mauritania. 
 
ZAMAN / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / SABAH (GUNEY) / BOLGE / EKSPRES: 
Adana police caught three drug traffickers, who were being 
followed for twenty days by narcotics police, in Adana's Pozanti 
district.  Police found 4000 ecstasy pills hidden in two big 
loaves of bread and 800 grams of heroin in a bag attached with 
tape to the body of one of the traffickers.  The pills were 
reportedly brought from Europe for their consumption in Turkey 
and heroin was brought from Syria, Iran and Iraq to be consumed 
in Holland and Germany. 
 
SABAH (GUNEY) / EVRENSEL / EKSPRES / BOLGE:     A groom was 
wounded during his wedding ceremony in Adana because of gunshots 
into the air, most probably fired by one of the guests.   (Note: 
Opening fire in the air is a pattern of celebration observed in 
weddings in some parts of Turkey. End Note.) 
 
ZAMAN / BOLGE / HURRIYET:       Police, upon receiving a tip-off 
that people were opening fire in the air in a wedding ceremony 
in Osmaniye, came to the spot to take the situation under 
control.  However, some drunken men, who are members of the 
"Cono clan" in the province, opened fire at the police and 
wounded 11 police officers.  Eight people have been arrested; 
three guns and one pistol were seized. 
 
ECONOMY 
 
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    State Minister Kursat Tuzmen, 
Chairperson of Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchange 
attended the opening ceremony of the new building of Chamber of 
Commerce in Gaziantep's Nizip district. 
 
EVRENSEL / BOLGE / RADIKAL / HURRIYET:  Following protest of 
some lemon producers in Mersin against the Lemon Harvest Day, a 
day which was organized by the Mersin Governor's Office and 
Erdemli district's citrus fruit union (see press summary for 
November 26), 600 farmers convened at Marsin's Mezitli district 
and held a protest against the government.  The farmers, who 
threw lemons and the flag of AKP on the ground, attempted to 
trample on them; however, the police did not allow the 
protestors to crush the flag. 
 
CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT 
 
ZAMAN:  A radio channel called Radio Hayat in Adana will 
protest the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey through 
conducting a live broadcast for 94 hours and five minutes, 
starting as of Monday (11/27) until the hour the Pope leaves the 
country.   The radio channel conducted a similar protest when 
Israel launched strikes against Lebanon in summer. 
 
ZAMAN / HURRIYET:       A 3.4-magnitude earthquake shook Adana at 4.30 
p.m. yesterday evening. 
GREEN