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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000261 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR DECEMBER 18, 2006 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for December 18, 
¶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 (CUKUROVA):    The daily, while it reported recent 
resuming of the light rail metro project in Adana which was 
halted five years ago due to reported shortage of funds, despite 
the 339 million USD that was spent for it to that date, pointed 
out the irony created as workers were currently striving to 
purge the water that accumulated in one of the big wells dug 
during the past construction process.  The article mainly points 
out the irony in workers' efforts to save tons of fish that 
started a colony in that "huge million-dollar-aquarium" during 
the water discharge process.  The daily reminds with a photo 
showed Mayor Aytac Durak, just before March 2004 elections, 
posing for cameras, as he ran a test drive in one of the trains 
of the supposed rail system. 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI / EVRENSEL / RADIKAL:       Nearly 1000 DTP 
members, whom the daily refers to as elected members, started "A 
Walk for Peace" in Diyarbakir the previous day.  Thousands of 
people reportedly enthusiastically welcomed the convoy as it 
entered several provinces such as Sanliurfa, Gaziantep and 
Adana, to draw the attention of the state authorities and public 
to Kurdish people's calls for peace, and to extend support for 
the cease-fire.  The walk will reportedly end in Ankara today, 
and it is expected that some of the DTP members would talk with 
the parliament spokesperson in Ankara. 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI / EVRENSEL: Many people protested with 
marches in Istanbul, Izmir and Adana the seventh anniversary of 
simultaneously held December 2000 police operations, dubbed 
"Return to Life", which ironically caused the deaths of 122 
inmates as the police conducted operations at twenty separate 
jails in Turkey. 
 
EKSPRES:        Unrest broke out in Inonu Park of Adana as some 
political parties and civil society members held a march to 
protest the seventh anniversary of "Return to Life" operations. 
A group of people, undergoing police search reportedly as they 
were trying to enter the venue designated for the protest, had a 
brief heated altercation with the police. 
 
CUMHURIYET:     Reportedly, because of an ensuing shrinkage in the 
PKK grassroots as radical religious groups are reportedly 
gaining more influence in southeastern Turkey, recent criticisms 
from top PKK officials in the Qandil Mountains against some 
religious sects and groupsv followed similar remarks expressed 
by Abdullah Ocalan last week. 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI:    Sirnak Governor's Office notified the 
Ministry of Interior and Foreign Ministry about seals used by 
the Iraqi side during the processing of trucks passing the Habur 
Border Gate in Sirnak, to enter Turkey.  The seals imprinted on 
the documents of the commercial vehicles the word "Kurdistan" as 
in the following statement "Iraqi Federal Republic - Kurdistan 
Regional Authority". 
 
CRIME / LAW ENFORCEMENT 
 
ZAMAN:  The daily reports that nine children were detained 
on grounds that children stole telephone cables of a police 
station in a village of Diyarbakir.  According to the 
authorities, one of the children died under detention because of 
a heart attack. 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI / EVRENSEL: The dailies reported 
allegations that soldiers opened fire on a 15-member group of 
children in a village of Diyarbakir, as the children, who were 
reportedly scared of the soldiers accusing them of stealing some 
telephone cables of the police station, ran away.  Soldiers 
allegedly caught Semsettin Yavuzkaplan, a 16-year-old boy. 
Soldiers reportedly forced him to lie down, treated brutally and 
allegedly dragged the child on the ground towards the police 
station.  Later, police reportedly detained seven more children, 
and announced that the boy initially brought to the station died 
because of a heart attack.  Villagers stoned the police station 
when officials did not return the dead body of the child to his 
relatives.  When the villagers blockaded a section of a main 
road, many jandarma teams deployed in the area took the 
situation under control.  Human Rights Association and DTP sent 
 
ADANA 00000261  002 OF 002 
 
 
delegations to the village. 
 
CUMHURIYET:     Police seized 10 kilograms of heroin in Hakkari 
during a search of a car that was being followed under police's 
investigative efforts. 
 
HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
TOPLUMSAL DEMOKRASI:    Adana Chapter of Human Rights 
Association held a dinner event to mark Human Rights Week. 
Representatives of the political parties and democratic 
organizations attended the event.  Chairperson of the Adana 
Chapter said that the (Turkish) state was committing a crime by 
ignoring the hunger strikes and the Kurdish issue in Turkey. 
 
 
CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT 
 
ZAMAN / HURRIYET:       Health Minister Recep Akdag paid a visit to 
Hatay and conducted local studies at several state hospitals 
where allegations of irregularities in the tenders had recently 
surfaced. 
GREEN