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DE RUEHDA #0013/01 0180643
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R 180643Z JAN 07
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RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
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RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 1027

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000013 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 17, 2007 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for January 17, 
¶2007.  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 
 
BOLGE:  The U.S. military said hostile action was not 
believed to be the cause of last week's crash of a cargo plane 
north of Baghdad that killed 34 Turkish workers.  The exact 
cause of the crash is yet to be determined and the wreckage of 
the plane has been secured on the Balad air base to help in 
further investigations that were being led by the Iraqi 
government, said the military. 
 
GUNDEM: European Court of Human Rights convicted Turkey for 
subjecting Veli Tosun to torture after being detained (on an 
unspecified date) on charges of being a PKK member.  Turkey is 
to pay 30,000 euros for compensation and 2000 euros for the 
costs of the court. 
 
GUNDEM: Supreme Court of Appeals will hold an appellate 
court on January 18, 2007 to review the 39-year prison sentence 
verdict of the Van Third Heavy Penalty Court issued against two 
non-commissioned officers for their involvement in the November 
2005 bomb incident at a bookstore in Hakkari's Semdinli 
district. 
 
HURRIYET / EVRENSEL:    DTP announced its decision taken on a 
January 12 party assembly meeting to hold an extraordinary 
congress next month.  The latest political developments and the 
situation in the southeastern region and Iraq were evaluated in 
the party assembly meeting last Friday (01/12).  The outcome of 
the discussions was that the party should undergo a process of 
self-criticism and regeneration so that it could renew its 
administration blamed for its performance failure in the face of 
expectations of the people. 
 
GUNDEM: DTP is making preparations to hold a public meeting 
on January 21 in Mersin.  DTP provincial party organization in 
Adana expressed commitment to work hard to get organized in 
sections of the province for the success of the meeting. 
Chairperson of DTP in Adana pointed out the importance of the 
meeting with regard to the cease-fire declared on October 1, 
2006 (by the PKK) and made a call to people to embrace peace 
objectives. 
 
SECURITY 
 
HURRIYET:       As a result of a conflict with PKK members during an 
operation going on in rural sections of Diyarbakir's Lice 
district, a non-commissioned officer died and three PKK members 
were killed. 
 
HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Twenty-three people on a boat off the 
shore close to Mersin were caught by teams of Shore Security 
Command.  Five of the people were Georgians, one of them was an 
Iranian, and 17 of them were Syrians. 
 
EKSPRES / BOLGE:        Nine Somalians were caught in the luggage 
section of a passenger bus in Adana as it was traveling from 
Hatay to Istanbul. 
 
GUNDEM: Mirkeram Ercan, a student in the Economics 
Department of Gaziantep University, filed a complaint with the 
Human Rights Association against the police who had allegedly 
threatened and disturbed him since the day Ercan attended an 
event that extended support to the "Walk for Peace" convoy of 
DTP members who briefly stopped at Gaziantep after setting off 
from Diyarbakir in mid-December en route to Ankara. 
 
ECONOMY 
 
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Temperatures fell below zero at night 
and frost hit the fields of growers in Mersin.  Tons of lettuce, 
lemon and banana were destroyed. 
 
CRIME / LAW ENFORCEMENT: 
 
GUNDEM: DTP party organization in Mardin intermediated to 
resolve the feud that was going on between two families in 
Mardin's Kiziltepe district for two months. 
 
ADANA 00000013  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
SABAH (GUNEY):  Kahramanmaras police seized 152 kilograms of 
hashish in a narcotics operation conducted in the province and 
detained seven people in connection with the crime. 
 
CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT 
 
GUNDEM: Diyarbakir, which has been undergoing the severest 
winter conditions of the last 77 years for about twenty days, 
has finally seen the temperatures rise above zero degrees 
Centigrade.  Water systems of the houses, schools, and 
businesses had frozen up and more than thirty factories had to 
halt their operations in the meantime.  Separately, the snowfall 
that began in Van yesterday adversely affected the flow of 
transportation in the province.   The daily also reported that 
the students of the vocational school of the Firat University in 
Mus are to walk five kilometers to school every day under winter 
conditions, because they are unable to find transportation 
facilities en route. 
 
GUNDEM: In two separate incidents, two children, aged 12 and 
14, committed suicide in Agri's Tutak and Diyadin districts. 
 
 
SABAH (GUNEY):  Meteorologists in Adana gave the news to 
farmers who desperately long for rainy weather that they were 
expecting rainfall over the weekend. 
 
SABAH (GUNEY) / EKSPRES / EVRENSEL / HURRIYET:  The police 
announced the cause of the death of a police officer on Sunday 
(01/14) during a ceremony DYP held in Adana to mark the joining 
of a former ANAP deputy to DYP ranks as an accidental shooting 
by another officer. 
 
EKSPRES / BOLGE:        People piled up and formed long lines in front 
of a bank in Adana to receive the 18 YTL aid (approx. 13 USD) 
given bimonthly by Social Cooperation and Solidarity Foundation 
to poor people for educational and health purposes. 
GREEN