VZCZCXRO3531
RR RUEHDA
DE RUEHDA #0259/01 3470623
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 130623Z DEC 06
FM AMCONSUL ADANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4385
INFO RUEUITH/AFOSI DET 521 ANKARA TU
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 0931
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 0803
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/AFOSI DET 522 INCIRLIK AB TU
RUETIAA/DIRNSA FT MEADE MD
RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 0987

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ADANA 000259 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 12, 2006 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for December 12, 
¶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 
 
HURRIYET/TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI/CUMHURIYET/YENI 
SAFAK/RADIKAL/BOLGE/EVRENSEL/ZAMAN/SABAH: Explosion in military 
lodgings in Diyarbakir killed six persons, including four 
children. Eight persons were rescued but sustained wounds. Teams 
dispatched from Ankara are also participating in the rescue 
works. It is reported that the central heating boiler caused the 
explosion and destroyed half of the five-storey building 
inhabited by forty people. Experts disclosed that the static 
structure of the building was not in conformity with the zoning 
plan. Mustafa Baran, 27, who does the maintenance work on the 
boilers was detained. The Land Forces Commander, General Basbug, 
visited the scene of explosion. 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI/EVRENSEL: Approximately twenty thousand 
people attended DTP's meeting in Dogubeyazit of Agri province. 
DTP's Co-chairpersons asked everybody to take responsibility for 
peace and that they would continue rendering peace efforts 
despite provocations. DTP Co-chairman, Ahmet Turk, addressing 
the AKP and CHP, said "You requested us to help stop the 
bloodshed. And we realized that. Why are you silent now?" The 
crowd shouted "Long live President Apo. End to operations. Peace 
should not be a hope but a reality. Kurdish and Turkish mothers 
hand in hand. The ambassador for peace is in Imrali." slogans. 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: Preparations have been made by mayors, 
city-council members and representatives, who could not get into 
the parliament because of the national threshold, for marching 
from Silopi to Ankara on December 16, 2006. The meeting is being 
organized by DTP. The participants aim to turn the ceasefire 
into a lasting peace. 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI: In order to hold its 1st Ordinary 
Convention, the DTP District Office in Cermik of Diyarbakir 
rented the wedding hall of the municipality. One day prior the 
meeting, the Mayor of Cermik, Mehmet Akdag -from Democratic Left 
Party- cancelled the allocation of the wedding hall for that 
purpose. DTP's Provincial Chairman for Diyarbakir condemned the 
mayor's behavior. 
 
HURRIYET CUKUROVA: The TNP forces launching an operation seized 
25 kilos of heroin, one shotgun and 25 rounds of ammunition in a 
minibus traveling from Hakkari to Van. The minibus driver and a 
passenger in the minibus have been detained by police. 
 
 EVRENSEL: According to Firat News Agency, a twenty-seven year 
old woman, who opened a green-yellow-red [colors of the 
Kurdistan flag] colored scarf during DTP Co-chairperson Ahmet 
Turk's recent visit to Ercis of Van, has been imprisoned in 
Ercis on the charges of "harboring and assisting PKK." Two 
children had been arrested by police and released following 
their depositions on the grounds of having shouted pro-PKK 
slogans during DTP Co-chairman Ahmet Turk's greeting remarks in 
Ercis. 
 
EVRENSEL/BOLGE/EKSPRES: The Incirlik AB, which has been used by 
the US for 51 years in operations in the Middle East and against 
countries in the region, continues to be used for logistic 
support purposes for Iraq. 103,000 tons of cargo has been 
dispatched from Incirlik AB to Iraq in the past 18 months. 
 
BOLGE: A group of eight TAYAD -Inmates families Solidarity 
Association- members undertook a sit-in action and made a press 
announcement that convicted prisoners in F-type prisons in 
Turkey are being subjected to isolation and demanded that 
isolation should be lifted. 
 
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS 
 
HURRIYET CUKUROVA: The President of Chamber of Industry (PCI) of 
Adana, Umit Ozgumus, said that their visit with 31 businessmen 
from 22 industrial establishments to Iran in November 2006 
already produced good results. Mr. Ozgumus said Adana has 
entered into a new period with Iran and that businessmen had 
already made connections for 30 million US Dollar trade with 
Iran. 
SABAH: Under a project conducted by the Chamber of Commerce and 
Industry of Kahramanmaras and financed by the United Nations 
 
ADANA 00000259  002 OF 003 
 
 
Environment Fund, biogas is being produced from animal dung in 
Ayaklicaoluk village. The fermented fertilizer will be used in 
organic farming. The Kahramanmaras Governor, Ilhan Ates, said 
that the number of people asking for jobs was very small in 
Kahramanmaras, and added that an area of 925 acres on the 
Gaziantep freeway was being considered for an Organized 
Industrial Zone. Here are some tips about Kahramanmaras: It is 
11th largest province of Turkey in terms of the area it covers 
and 17th in terms of population. It is number one cotton yarn 
producer in Turkey, producing 29 percent of Turkey's production. 
It is number one red pepper producer in Turkey -20,000 tons 
annual production. It currently supplies 12.5 percent of 
Turkey's energy from the Afsin-Elbistan thermoelectric power 
plants operating with coal and its share will increase to 20.4 
percent with coming into circuit of the 5 dams under 
construction in the province. It produces 70 percent of Turkey's 
stainless steel kitchenware. 
 
THE NEW IRAQI REPORT AND KURDS 
By: Baki Gul 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI daily - December 12, 2006 
 
Is the United States who had chosen Kurds as allies for itself 
revising this alliance? This appears to be the case while 
looking at the "Iraqi Report" prepared by former congressman Lee 
Hamilton and Former Secretary of State James Baker. The Southern 
Kurdish leaders openly opposed the report after it was 
disclosed. They even said that the report was unacceptable. 
 
The Kurdistan Institute for Political Problems announced that 
the report was to the disadvantage of the Kurds on the ground 
that it did not touch upon the rights of the Kurds and proposed 
postponing article 140 concerning Kirkuk. In his announcement, 
Mesut Barzani too had expressed that the report did not satisfy 
the Kurds. Putting into circulation former Baathists in the 
reconstruction of Iraq is another proposal that Kurds do not 
want to be realized. The Iraqi President, Celal Talabani, has 
been saying that such a proposal would be in opposition to the 
long struggle the Iraqi people have been making against 
dictatorship. 
 
The local parties and nongovernmental organizations in Southern 
Kurdistan will also refuse this report by making press 
announcements. But the USA does not have an official response to 
Kurds' reaction yet. Former US diplomat, Peter Galbraith, who is 
particularly interested only in Southern Kurdistan, called out 
the Kurdistan government to "cut its ties with the Central 
Government" in case the report was put into action. This thought 
seems to be Galbraith's personal idea. 
 
According to the proposals cited in the report announced last 
week, it is emphasized that the violence in Iraq can not be 
solved solely by military measures. The need for Iraq to 
intensify its diplomatic ties with its neighbors is also 
emphasized. 
 
The United States still has not managed to get out of the 
chaotic situation in Iraq. As a result of intervention in Iraq, 
2900 American soldiers have been killed and 21,000 soldiers have 
been wounded up to now. Attention is drawn to the fact that the 
US has spent 400 billion US Dollars and that the cost of the 
Iraq war will reach 1 trillion US Dollars shortly. 
 
The possibility that the report submitted to the US President 
and Congress be adopted as the USA's new Iraq policy has been 
making Kurds uneasy. Particularly the interpretetion of the US 
proposal that intensive diplomacy needs to be pursued with 
Iraq's neighbors has sharpened the appetite of Iran, Syria and 
Turkey who are hostile to the Kurdish [state] formation. It is 
certain that these three neighboring states of Iraq will 
unconditionally unify in an anti-Kurdish alliance and thus try 
to get concessions from the US on the Kurdish subject. 
 
The Southern Kurds think that they will be left alone and all 
their gains will be at risk if the United States that chose the 
Kurds as its fundamental ally during the intervention in Iraq 
adopts this report as its new Iraq policy. The results of the 
relationship that the US will enter into with the 
Syria-Iran-Turkey trio, and that will unite in an anti-Kurdish 
front, might end to its disadvantage.  This is an unpredictable 
aspect [of such a policy]. What is more, the basic issue handled 
during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan's recent 
visits to Iran and Syria was what [might] be done against 
Kurds-PKK. 
 
ADANA 00000259  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
Consequently, the first issue that Baser and Ralston would talk 
about is the Kurds. The expressions in the report will 
strengthen Turkey's hands in its demands from the United States. 
 
Besides,        Turkey's [counting on] a share for itself from the 
picture in Iraq has a great influence on the lack of progress in 
the truce and its [practical failure]. [Given the] intellectual 
and political structures in Turkey, the Southern Kurds also do 
not have [a role] in maintaining the cease fire process. 
 
That is, if the United States revises its policies in Iraq and 
keeps the Kurds in a passive position, Iraq's neighbors will 
deepen the chaos in Iraq and will jeopardize the relatively 
secure climate in the Kurdish region. Consequently, the Kurds 
have to act with more common sense and update their democratic 
unity policy. 
GREEN