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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 006364 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/SE, EUR/PD, NEA/PD, DRL 
JCS PASS J-5/CDR S. WRIGHT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR TU
SUBJECT: ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT 
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2006 
 
In Today's Papers 
 
Ecevit to be Laid to Rest Saturday 
All papers:  A state funeral will be held Saturday for Turkey's 
former Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who died at the age of 81 due 
to circulatory and respiratory failure after nearly six months in 
coma at a military hospital in Ankara.  Milliyet reports Ecevit's 
wife, Rahsan, wanted to delay the funeral until the weekend to 
enable civil servants to participate.  The government will make 
amendments in regulations to permit the burial of Ecevit in the 
state cemetery, said government spokesman Cemil Cicek following a 
cabinet ministers meeting yesterday.  The government will also hold 
a special session in the parliament Tuesday to commemorate the 
veteran politician. 
 
Mainstream and conservative, papers agree that Ecevit had been one 
of the most important political leaders of the last 50 years in 
Turkey.  The liberal/opinion-maker Radikal says everybody -- his old 
and new political opponents alike -- mourns for Ecevit.  The 
Islamist-oriented intellectual Zaman praises Ecevit for never 
yielding to pressure and threats, and for boldly resisting the 
military takeovers in 1970 and 1980.  Vatan notes the fact that 
despite serving four terms in office, Ecevit had been Turkey's only 
prime minister who did not become a dollar millionaire.  "Ecevit 
will go down in history as the poorest of all Turkish prime 
ministers, leaving behind four modest apartments, two inherited, and 
from which he did not collect any rent," Vatan says.  The 
leftist/nationalist Cumhuriyet says before his death Ecevit was 
working to unify the left -- seen by the paper as the last wish of 
Ecevit.  A commentary in the mass-appeal Sabah speculates that 
opposition groups would use the funeral as anopportunity to stage a 
secular show of force aainst the ruling AKP government, thus 
warningagainst current Prime Minister Erdogan's presidential 
ambitions. 
 
Several papers quote State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey as 
saying that "Ecevit's commitment to Turkey and its secular, 
democratic institutions was respected throughout the world.  We 
extend our sincere condolences to Mr. Ecevit's family and to the 
people of Turkey." 
 
Turkey's EU Process 
Hurriyet, Milliyet, Cumhuriyet and others: In a newspaper interview, 
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Turkey's standoff with the 
European Union over Cyprus is "very serious" for its aim of joining 
the bloc and Turkey should understand that there will be no way to 
simply "carry on" if there is no movement on Cyprus.  Milliyet 
reports that the Cyprus disagreement with Turkey was discussed 
yesterday at a meeting of EU Commission officials and the officials 
did not suggest the suspension of accession talks with Turkey. 
Instead, they decided to discuss the issue before the EU leaders 
meeting in December.  The strategy document discussed at the meeting 
yesterday said that the EU commission would table the necessary 
proposals before the summit meeting of EU leaders in December if 
Turkey fails to meet its responsibilities.  Additionally, the EU 
commission warned Turkey that the course of the accession 
negotiations would be influenced by the Turkish failure to meet its 
obligations. 
 
Hisarciklioglu Warns about Decreasing EU Support in Turkey 
Sabah reports Turkish Union of Chambers (TOBB) chairman Rifat 
Hisarciklioglu warned Turkey and the EU regarding the alarming 
decrease in public support for Turkey's EU accession.  "NGOs and 
professional organizations have not been made part of the EU entry 
process.  Screening procedures have been carried out by the 
representatives of state institutions, excluding other parties," he 
stressed.  Hisarciklioglu also said, "The EU has ignored all its 
pledges on Cyprus, and pursued double standards in free speech, 
terrorism and Armenian genocide allegations."  He slammed the EU for 
 
ANKARA 00006364  002 OF 003 
 
 
remaining silent to the barring of Turkish candidates from the Dutch 
elections while not hesitating to meddle in Turkish judicial 
decisions. 
 
Erdogan Proposes Women's Reforms to Muslim Organization 
Sabah reports that Prime Minister Erdogan has sent to the 
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) a proposal for forming 
a special sub-organization designed to work on reforms for women in 
Islamic countries.  He maintained that Islam has to fight against 
wrong beliefs and traditions to improve the status of women. 
Erdogan said "Muslim Turkish women" should be represented on 
international platforms, in politics and in all aspects of social 
life.  He stressed that ignorance was a major obstacle that had to 
be overcome, adding that his government had launched a campaign for 
sending girls to school in an effort to improve their status. 
Erdogan also noted that he was not content with the number of women 
in the Turkish parliament, vowing to increase the number of female 
parliamentarians in the next elections.  Erdogan also denounced 
honor killings, stressing that such actions cannot be forgiven. 
 
YASED Supports US Cargill 
Milliyet reports Turkey's International Investors Association 
(YASED) said in a statement that the "Cargill problem" stemmed from 
the disagreement between the executive and judiciary mechanisms in 
Turkey.  The statement said the closure of the Cargill plant in the 
Bursa province, which had been named "the best factory" among 300 
Cargill plants in 2005, made other international investors in the 
country uneasy. 
 
Editorial Commentary on the Saddam Death Penalty 
Emin Colasan comments in the mass appeal Hurriyet:  "The truth is 
that Saddam was a real dictator and he was brutal.  Yet at the same 
time Iraqis, with the exception of opponents of the regime, were 
living safe and sound.  He has now been tried by a court -- a puppet 
court organized by the US -- and sentenced to death.  Time will show 
whether the verdict will be executed or not. But the main problem 
for Iraq remains the security of the Iraqi people.  Under the Saddam 
regime, Iraq kept its territorial integrity to a certain degree 
until the US invasion which only helped bring about the loss of 
thousands of lives and create a division between Sunni, Shiite and 
Kurd.  The US had better reevaluate the Iraq case considering the 
abyss that it is heading toward.  If it was possible to ask the 
people of Iraq whether they would rather live in the Saddam era or 
the current occupation, the answer would probably be the former in 
the Sunni and Shiite areas." 
 
Melih Asik observes in the mainstream Milliyet:  "There is no way 
for the US and the UK to present the verdict on Saddam as a fair 
judgment.  First of all this was not a fair tribunal.  Who can 
possibly believe that? This is a country where everything fails 
because of the occupation with the exception of a properly working 
court system.  Saddam's sentence comes because of his killing of 148 
Iraqis.  If that makes a good case, one really wonders about the 
crimes of Bush and Blair.  If Saddam is hanged it will not serve any 
purpose at all.  His hanging will only accelerate the fight against 
the US as well as the puppet administration.  The truth is a 
dictator genuinely dies when he is tried and hanged by his own 
people.  But when he is hanged by others, he becomes a hero.  The 
hanging of Saddam will add another mistake to the US account." 
 
Fehmi Koru argues in the Islamist-opinion maker Yeni Safak: "The US 
was leading the trial process which started right after the 
occupation.  However the very same US did not do anything while 
Saddam committed all those crimes.  This is simply because when he 
was brutally committing crimes, he was considered to be one of the 
good guys by the US.  He was receiving guidance from Donald Rumsfeld 
for instance.  And, can we call it a coincidence that the court 
verdict was available 48 hours before the US Congressional 
elections?  Iraq policy has become a key factor during this election 
and the Republicans are trying to use the verdict to argue that 
 
ANKARA 00006364  003 OF 003 
 
 
things are going well in Iraq.  The truth is Iraq is suffering even 
more every passing day.  Figures coming from independent sources are 
telling us that almost 3,000 Americans and 655,000 Iraqis died so 
far.  Utterly disappointed due to growing instability, more Iraqis 
seem to see joining the resistance as the only option. Saddam has 
been sentenced to death but Iraq remains a problem." 
 
 
TV Highlights 
NTV (8 A.M.) 
 
Domestic News 
 
- Representatives of 65 NGOs in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir 
have released a statement saying southeast Turkey should be declared 
an emergency region after flash floods killed over 40 people in the 
mainly Kurdish region. 
 
- On Monday, university students and NGOs staged rallies in Ankara 
and Istanbul to protest the 25th anniversary of the founding of 
Turkey's High Education Board YOK. 
 
- Police detained 110 suspects in house raids in anti-drugs 
operations in the city of Sakarya near Istanbul. 
 
- OECD Global Forum on International Investment will be held in 
Istanbul on November 6-7. 
 
- Prime Minister Erdogan said communication taxes would be curbed 
gradually.  The Turkish Telecommunication Institution expects the 
government to cut taxes charged from mobile phones by five points. 
 
 
International News 
 
- President Talabani said the execution of Saddam Hussein could be 
carried out without his signature.  Iraq's court of appeals is 
expected to rule on the Saddam Hussein verdict by mid-January. 
 
- EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has welcomed Prime Minister 
Erdogan's pledge to revise Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, 
widely seen as a serious breach of free speech. 
 
- Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Deputy PM, said Israeli Jews and Arabs 
should be separated so Israel can become a homogenous Jewish 
country, praising Cyprus as "the best model" to follow because of 
the ethnic division in the island following the Turkish military 
intervention in 1974. 
 
 
  Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ 
 
WILSON