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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 000083 
 
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 
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2007 
 
 
In Today's Papers 
 
Erdogan Warns the Kurds on Kirkuk 
All papers report Prime Minister Erdogan told an AKP group meeting 
Tuesday that Kirkuk belongs to all Iraqi people and not to a single 
ethnic group.  Turkey cannot be a bystander in the face of growing 
strains among the ethnic Arabs, Kurds and the Turkmen, Erdogan 
asserted, adding Turkey resents Kurdish efforts to take control of 
the disputed oil-rich city.  Erdogan recalled that Turkey sheltered 
more than 500,000 Iraqi Kurdish refugees escaping the attacks of the 
Iraqi army following a failed Kurdish insurgency in early 1991. 
"Turkey has not remained indifferent to the plight of Kurds escaping 
oppression and death, and today, we will not remain indifferent to 
the Turkmen and Arabs in Kirkuk. 
 
The Turkish Parliament will convene a special session Thursday to 
discuss an AKP motion to debate developments in Iraq.  If the motion 
is approved, the parliament will convene in a closed session on 
Tuesday. 
 
Gul, Gonul, Buyukanit to Visit the US 
Sabah reports Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will meet with Secretary 
Rice in Washington during the week of February 5.  Gul will move on 
to New York after wrapping up talks in Washington, including one 
with the representatives of the Jewish lobby.  Gul is expected to 
discuss with Americans the issues of Iraq, Kirkuk and the possible 
Armenian genocide draft to be submitted to the US Congress. 
Hurriyet says Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul will also go to the US 
soon, before the Turkish General Staff (TGS) chief General Yasar 
Buyukanit travels to Washington next month for talks on the 
situation in Iraq and the PKK. 
 
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry (MFA) 
responded in a statement to a column in today's Hurriyet which 
claims Gul said at a recent meeting in Istanbul, "The existing 
conjuncture in the US is negative; it will be difficult at this 
point to block an Armenian genocide proposal."  MFA said, "Foreign 
Minister Gul told the gathering that Turkey has stepped up efforts 
to prevent the Armenian bill, stressing that such a possibility 
should be eliminated considering the huge damage it will inflict on 
Turkey-US ties." 
 
Iraqi Turkmen want to Arm against Kurds 
The left-leaning/nationalist Cumhuriyet says on its front page that 
the Turkmen in Kirkuk want to arm themselves, fearing otherwise they 
will be driven from the city by Kurds who want to make it part of 
the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.  Kirkuk provincial 
assembly's Turkmen member Ali Mehdi Sadik warned Turkey, "All ethnic 
and religious groups except the Turkmen have armed militias; we'll 
be destroyed if we don't arm."  Sadik, who participated in "Kirkuk: 
2007" panel meeting held in Ankara over the weekend, told Cumhuriyet 
that the police and security forces in Kirkuk are controlled by 
either Shiites or Kurds, adding that the Kurds have sent 20,000 
peshmerge to Kirkuk.  Sadik noted, "Kirkuk must be given a special 
status.  Fighting in Kirkuk will soon spread all over Iraq, there 
will be huge bloodshed." 
 
Several papers report that the final communiqu of the "Kirkuk: 
2007" meeting, sponsored by the Turkish Global Strategy Institute 
and joined by all Iraqi groups except the Kurds, said Kirkuk was an 
Iraqi city.  A planned referendum to determine the future of the 
oil-rich city must be put off until the Iraqi Constitution is 
reviewed.  The Iraqi government and international organizations must 
be asked to halt actions such as forced migration, abduction, 
killings, and rights violations in Kirkuk, said the communiqu. 
 
Mainstream Milliyet says a UN human rights report warned a crisis is 
looming in Kirkuk with the Kurdish peshmerge intimidating the Arabs 
and Turkmen through methods such as arbitrary detentions and 
mistreatment. 
 
ANKARA 00000083  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
Editorial Commentary on Iraq 
Commenting in the leftist Birgun, Mete Cubukcu argues that the US 
has a "Plan B" to deal with the region if Iraq becomes a divided 
country: "Not counting any undisclosed plans, there are at least 
seven plans on Iraq known by the public.  President Bush has added 
one more to that recently.  This is going to be the last plan on 
Iraq as far as the Bush administration is concerned, yet failure 
seems inevitable.  The situation poses an odd picture.  The US 
occupied the country, destroyed the infrastructure as well as 
provoked enmity by ignoring ethnic and sectarian balances, yet the 
same US is now talking about the potential problems if these issues 
remain unaddressed.  Being aware of the course of events leading 
towards division, the Bush administration hopes to create an iron 
fist by enhancing central authority.  The new plan signals more 
bloody and large scale operations using the excuse of fighting 
against insurgents.  Breaking the resistance is one difficult thing 
by itself, and the US once again is ignoring the potential harm to 
itself caused by angering ordinary people with the operations.  On 
the other hand, the US seems well prepared for the plan B in case 
Iraq's division becomes a reality.  The US is handing out 'threat 
cards' to the countries in the region, including Turkey.  Turkey 
gets the 'Kurdish card' while Saudi Arabia and Egypt get the 'Iran 
card.'  In sum, the US plans to implement a controlled-crisis 
management style in case of a divided Iraq by using sectarian 
differences and making everybody in the region fight with each 
other." 
 
Ismail Kapan writing in the conservative-nationalist Turkiye, 
concludes that the US Broader Middle ast Project was really all 
about controlling il resources: "The Broader Middle East Project 
was promoted as a democracy project and ended up unleashing the real 
intention following the allocation of Iraqi oil to American and 
British companies.  But this is not going to be enough.  The Broader 
Middle East idea hopes to control oil reserves but at the same time 
hopes to retain the US role as super power by blocking other powers 
from emerging.  The US does not want any challenge in its super 
power capability and wants to defer a potential conflict with China 
as long as possible, until around 2030.  Given the current stage, 
the US strategy may not work out as planned.  The Broader ME 
Initiative has already experienced a colossal failure.  Nevertheless 
the US will come up with many more plans in order to keep its 
supremacy at all costs.  Washington will not hesitate to implement 
contingency plans to realize its goals even if it takes a regional 
war or extended sectarian fighting in the region." 
 
EU: Direct Flights to 'TRNC' Impossible without Nicosia's Approval 
 
Mainstream Milliyet reports that following Britain, EU jurists said 
direct flights to Turkish Cyprus would not be possible unless the 
breakaway region in the north gains international recognition. 
"According to International Civic Aviation Organization (ICAO) 
rules, states allow flights through their airspaces in line with the 
agreements they make with ICAO.  Since the only government that has 
secured a deal with ICAO is the Greek Cypriot side, it's not 
possible to launch direct flights to the north of the island without 
approval from Nicosia," European jurists said. 
 
Hisarciklioglu Joins Debates on Presidential Elections 
The Turkish Union of Chambers (TOBB) president Rifat Hisarciklioglu 
criticized in the liberal/intellectual Radikal the elite business 
grouping TUSIAD's call on Recep Tayyip Erdogan to "continue as the 
PM and not become Turkey's new president," saying such a statement 
may be interpreted as support for the ruling AKP before the 
forthcoming general elections in Turkey.  "Erdogan has not yet 
announced whether he will run for president or not," Hisarciklioglu 
said, "TOBB is Turkey's leading civic organization; we try to keep 
an equal distance to all parties in an effort to preserve our 
integrity."  He noted that the focus of debates should not be 
persons eyeing the presidential post, but "the system." 
 
ANKARA 00000083  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
A Woman for Top Post at TUSIAD 
Hurriyet reports a woman, Arzuhan Yalcindag, may become the next 
head of TUSIAD, Turkey's most influential business forum, in an 
election on January 25.  Yalcindag, the chairwoman of Dogan Media 
Holding and the daughter of Turkish business tycoon Aydin Dogan, is 
a member of several foundations and organizations including the 
American-Turkish Council. 
 
Group Warns against Internet Crackdown in Turkey 
Milliyet reports the Turkish Informatics Platform, an association of 
over 20 communications NGOs said in a statement entitled "The 
Internet is Not Guilty," that they fear a crackdown by authorities 
using pornography as an excuse.  The statement said a new draft bill 
which aims to "monitor, screen and censor the Internet" as an 
anti-child pornography move, may prove to be detrimental with regard 
to individual rights and freedoms.  "Legal arrangements are 
necessary, however, attempts to regulate the Internet only through 
debates on matters such as child pornography will not produce a 
healthy result," it maintained. 
 
 
TV Highlights 
NTV (6 A.M.) 
 
Domestic News 
 
- Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will participate in the January 
24-28 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. 
 
- Five terrorists and one officer have been killed in security 
operations in the Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir. 
 
- The International University Sports Foundation (FISU) decided to 
hold the "Winter Universiade 2011" games in the eastern city of 
Erzurum in Turkey.  Erzurum was competing with the Slovenian city of 
Maribor in the bidding. 
 
- The ruling AKP government is preparing to change the status of 
215,000 temporary workers into municipal and state employees. 
 
- S&P analyst Farouk Soussa finds it unlikely for Turkey to curb the 
inflation to 4 percent by the end of the year. 
 
International News 
 
- President Bush said the execution of Saddam Hussein looked like a 
"revenge killing" which will make harder to persuade Americans to 
support the government in Baghdad. 
 
- President Papadopoulos said he does not expect substantial 
progress on efforts to reunite Cyprus until after Turkish general 
elections due in November. 
 
  - The Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, submitted his 
resignation to the Israeli government yesterday. 
 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ 
 
WILSON