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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000007 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 1, 2007 
 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for January 11, 
¶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 
 
EVRENSEL:       Inspectors of Ministry of Interior started an 
investigation against Firat Anli, Yenisehir District Mayor in 
Diyarbakir, for sending a Kurdish greeting postcard celebrating 
Ramadan to Diyarbakir Prosecutor's Office. 
 
EVRENSEL:       DTP and Association for Solidarity with the Families 
of Inmates held a press announcement in Istanbul to extend 
support to attorney Behic Asci who has been on a huger strike 
for 281 days due to the reported unjust laws and the conditions 
of the inmates in prisons in Turkey.   DTP members then paid a 
visit to the house of Asci. 
 
ZAMAN:  PM Erdogan responded harshly to criticisms of CHP 
Leader Deniz Baykal about AKP ads hung on billboards in 
provinces of Turkey and claimed that Baykal was very badly 
mislead by those who had given him the information that the ads 
were not hung in the southeastern provinces (see press summary 
for December 10).  Erdogan enumerated the provinces in the east 
and southeast Turkey where ads were hung. 
 
ZAMAN / EKSPRES / BOLGE:        Cukurova Journalists' Association 
celebrated the "Active Journalists' Day" on January 10 in Adana. 
 Adana Mayor Aytac Durak also issued a message to celebrate the 
day. 
 
HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
SABAH (GUNEY):  Eleven Afghan refugees seeking asylum are 
being hosted at the guest house of Gaziantep Municipality per 
instructions from the governor and are being paid 100 YTL of 
salary from the solidarity fund. 
 
EVRENSEL / BOLGE:       Women activists in Diyarbakir's Baglar 
district claimed that the state authorities were responsible for 
the death of a woman called Aysegul Alpaslan, mother of five 
kids, who was killed five days ago by her husband in the name of 
honor.  The husband was immediately arrested after the event; 
however, family members of the woman did not take her body from 
the morgue. According to activists, the authorities failed to 
address Aysegul Alpaslan's case well, despite the fact that she 
filed petitions with the authorities that she had been 
threatened many times. 
 
ECONOMY 
 
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Middlemen, who envisaged that vegetables 
and fruits could be sold well after holiday period, bought 
vegetables and fruits from Mersin and Antakya before Sacrifice 
Holiday to store and sell them in Batman province later; but, 
they have to dispose of all the produce now, because the produce 
froze and were destroyed in the storehouses they were being kept 
in, due to cold weather conditions in Batman. 
 
EKSPRES / BOLGE / EVRENSEL / ZAMAN:     Lack of rain since November 
in the Cukurova region including the Adana province has been 
worrying the farmers and some farmers started resorting to 
irrigation methods during germination phase of the plants. 
 
CRIME / LAW ENFORCEMENT: 
 
HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Police seized 11 kilograms of hashish 
found in a can in the luggage section of a passenger bus in 
Van's Gevas district.  Police, who was not able to identify the 
owner of the can, have been continuing to probe the case. 
 
CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT 
 
SABAH (GUNEY) / BOLGE / EKSPRES / EVRENSEL / ZAMAN:     Coffins of 
the 34 people, who died in the Moldovan-flagged plane that 
crashed on Tuesday (01/09) in north of Baghdad, have been 
brought to the airport of Adana yesterday (see press summary for 
December 10). Relatives of the dead formed a large crowd as they 
waited for the coffins in reported painful grief.   Coffins of 
the 30 Turkish people were then transferred to a cemetery in 
Adana.  The coffins that were not identified will be sent to the 
Forensic Authority for DNA tests.  Executive board member of the 
Kulak Construction Company, who lost company's general manager 
 
ADANA 00000007  002 OF 002 
 
 
and 30 workers in the crash, told the journalists that they all 
were in great sorrow at that moment.  Many prominent political 
and civil society members of the province are paying visits to 
the owners of the company to extend condolences. Evrensel daily 
draws attention to the poor safety conditions of the flights 
launched to carry workers to Iraq from Turkey.  Zaman daily 
points out that the team that was sent to Iraq to examine the 
cause of the accident returned without any evidence or clue, to 
Turkey.  The Moldovan technicians who also went to Iraq 
reportedly said that the U.S. authorities immediately cleared 
the site of the accident and had taken possession of the 
black-box of the plane. 
 
 
 
WILSON 
GREEN