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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000067 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MAY 07, 2007 
 
¶1.      This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for May 07, 
¶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: 
 
¶2.      GUNDEM: The daily claims that, after AKP called for 
early elections, AKP began to press for a constitutional 
amendment package at the parliament to which CHP reportedly also 
extends support:  Those amendments, if passed, will reportedly 
hinder DTP from winning seats in the parliament through 
independent candidates.  This move by the AKP is because of its 
fear that it could lose many votes to DTP in the southeastern 
region.  (Note: DTP's strategy for the next elections was 
formerly announced in the same newspaper: to win seats through 
independent candidates. End Note.) 
 
¶3.      CUMHURIYET / GUNDEM / YENI SAFAK / EVRENSEL:    DTP 
national chairperson, its central executive board, party 
assembly members and mayors from DTP will hold a 2-day meeting 
on May 8 and 9 in Diyarbakir with the election agenda. 
Candidates to be nominated, independent candidates, alliances 
and strategies of the party will be among the topics of the 
discussions.  The party is aiming to have 24 deputies in the 
parliament through independent candidates to be able to form a 
parliamentary group later. Cumhuriyet daily reports that there 
are a lot of intra-party disputes going on regarding naming the 
nominees.  It is almost definite that Ahmet Turk (Chairman of 
DTP), Aysel Tugluk and Osman Ozcelik (Vice-Chairmen of DTP), and 
Hilmi Aydogdu (DTP Diyarbakir Provincial Chairperson) will be 
nominated.  Ahead of the 2-day meeting, DTP Diyarbakir party 
organization held a meeting yesterday.  Meanwhile, caucuses are 
being held in other provinces, such as in Elazig, to elect a new 
board for the local party organization, after the former 
chairperson resigned from office. 
 
¶4.      GUNDEM: After examining data obtained from the last 
national census in 2000, the Higher Election Board determined 
that Diyarbakir province's quota for parliamentarians in the 
next elections should increase from 8 to 10.  In the November 
2002 elections, 6 AKP nominees and 2 CHP nominees from 
Diyarbakir were able to win seats in the parliament. 
 
¶5.      YENI SAFAK / GUNDEM / EVRENSEL: Mahmut Alinak, DTP 
Kars Provincial Chairperson, has been sentenced to 10 months in 
prison under Article 301 for uttering the following remarks, 
which allegedly downgraded The Turkish Parliament and the 
Turkish Chief of Staff, during the opening ceremony of the DTP 
Ardahan party building (on an unspecified date): "Semdinli 
(bookstore) was bombed by the hitmen of 'the counter-guerilla 
republic.' It is therefore natural for the current regime to 
protect those hitmen."  Alinak will apply to a higher court to 
appeal the court verdict. 
 
SECURITY: 
 
¶6.      YENI SAFAK / GUNDEM / CUMHURIYET / BOLGE:       Two jandarma 
commandos were killed in a conflict between security forces and 
PKK members in a section of Sirnak.  Gundem daily separately 
claims that a PKK member was allegedly 'executed' in a military 
operation going on in Hatay's Hassa district, since the PKK 
member allegedly carried no arms.  Cumhuriyet daily claims two 
PKK members were killed in Hassa district and those PKK members 
had one M-16 and one Kalshnikov rifle, and four grenades with 
them.  Bolge and Yeni Safak dailies report 5 PKK members killed 
in Hassa.  Cumhuriyet daily reports three people detained on 
grounds that they were PKK members in two separate operations in 
Van.  Meanwhile, a private was reported as wounded by a land 
mine in Bingol's Genc district.  Gundem daily also claims that 
Land Forces Command decided to clad the senior officers in the 
army with the same uniform that the privates are wearing during 
operations because of the increasing number of deaths among the 
senior officers. 
 
¶7.      CUMHURIYET / GUNDEM:    A hand-made bomb exploded at 11.30 
p.m. in front of a police station in Gaziantep.  A person was 
reported as wounded as a result of the explosion.  Two people 
wearing helmets were reported as leaving the bomb device there, 
and they reportedly fled the scene on a motorcycle. 
 
ECONOMY 
 
¶8.      GUNDEM: Ferda Cemiloglu, a Turkish businesswomen from 
 
ADANA 00000067  002 OF 002 
 
 
GUNSIAD (Southeastern Industrialists and Businessmen 
Association), reportedly said that the political instability 
caused by the announcements of the Turkish Chief of Staff about 
a possible cross-border operation into northern Iraq has 
decreased exports from Turkey to Iraq by 8 per cent.  Cemiloglu 
also said that Turkey's attempt to decrease the revenues the 
northern Iraqi region is obtaining through the Habur Border Gate 
in Sirnak through establishing two new borders at the Syrian 
border would do no good to Turkey's economy. 
 
CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT 
 
¶9.      HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Jandarma found 137 kilograms of 
hashish and 5 kilograms of heroin in hidden sections of a car 
during routine road checks in Van's Muradiye district.  Four 
people in the car were detained. 
 
CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT 
 
¶10.     BOLGE / EKSPRES:        Adana Municipality sponsored a Spring 
Festival in Karaisali district of Adana which is held annually. 
Karaisali Mayor thanked Mayor Durak for services the Adana 
Municipality rendered for the district. 
 
¶11.     BOLGE / EKSPRES:        A 60-person youth group, whose members 
are university students, paid a visit to provincial party 
organization of MHP in Adana to get to know more about MHP. 
Provincial Chairperson Tankut conversed with the youth. 
 
¶12.     GUNDEM: The "silent march" TUHAD-FED (Solidarity 
Association for Families of the Inmates) members were planning 
to hold in Diyarbakir to draw attention to the health condition 
of Abdullah Ocalan and to the "poor living conditions in jails" 
was reportedly prevented by the Diyarbakir police who took 
intense security measures with armored police vehicles at the 
site of the march.  The daily separately notes that 6000 
signatures were gathered at the Maxmur Camp in northern Iraq 
during a three-day campaign that was started by Feleknas Uca, a 
European Parliamentarian, to draw attention to Ocalan's health 
condition. 
 
¶13.     GUNDEM: A festivity DTP was planning to hold yesterday 
on the banks of the Euphrate River, in an area which is close to 
the birth place of Abdullah Ocalan, on a week that is close to 
Mother's Day (May 13), was banned by the Sanliurfa Governor's 
Office on alleged grounds that people may attempt to visit the 
graveyard of Abdullah Ocalan's mother there. 
 
¶14.     EVRENSEL:       GABB (Union of Southeastern Turkey's 
Municipalities) sent food aid to 450 families in Sirnak's Cizre 
district who were affected by the flooding that hit the area on 
April 29 (see press summary for May 1). 
GREEN