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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000074 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR MAY 25, 2007 
 
 
¶1.      This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for May 25, 
¶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.      EKSPRES:        The daily claims to have acquired from circles 
close to AKP the AKP Adana's parliamentary election ticket.  The 
list the daily published today reportedly will cause an 
intra-party strife. 
 
¶3.      HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    MHP Adana provincial party 
organization announced with a press briefing the party's 
provincial parliamentary election ticket that would run for 14 
seats from the Adana province.  Yilmaz Tankut, provincial MHP 
chairperson, resigned from his office to run in the July 22 
parliamentary elections. 
 
¶4.      CUMHURIYET:     A primary election will be held in 6 provinces 
on May 27 to determine the candidates of CHP in Mersin, 
Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Aydin, Mugla and Sivas.  A total of 51 
candidates in Mersin, 35 candidates in Gaziantep and 19 
candidates in Kahramanmaras will compete for places on the 
ballot. 
 
¶5.      GUNDEM / EVRENSEL:       DTP National Chairperson Ahmet 
Turk cautioned people against statements made following the 
bombing incident in Ankara adding that such statements, which 
aimed to provoke Turkish people, could force Turkey to take a 
dangerous path.  Evrensel daily claims that the Turkish media 
readily claimed the PKK was responsible for the Ankara bombing 
despite its announcements denying links with the incident and to 
the evidence. 
 
¶6.      CUMHURIYET:     The daily claims that the Ankara suicide bomb 
attack followed the statements of Abdullah Ocalan, who said that 
"my health condition is bad; something must be done about it." 
The PKK had already announced in the recent months that it would 
start suicide missions. 
 
¶7.      GUNDEM: A total of 37 DYP members resigned from DYP in 
the Elazig province which is the hometown of the DYP leader 
Mehmet Agar.  One of the party officials criticized the central 
leadership and the merger of DYP and Motherland party.  The 
resigning members said they would settle in the coming days whom 
they would support in the future. 
 
¶8.      GUNDEM: Mardin's Families of the Inmates Initiative 
will start a hunger strike to call for an independent delegation 
of doctors to check the health condition of Abdullah Ocalan in 
the Imrali Prison Island.  Meanwhile, the hunger strikes that 
were started in Diyarbakir, Siirt, and Mardin's Kiziltepe 
district to draw attention to the health condition of Ocalan 
have ended. 
 
SECURITY 
 
¶9.      YENI SAFAK / RADIKAL / CUMHURIYET / EVRENSEL / BOLGE / 
GUNDEM: PKK terrorists killed 6 soldiers with remote 
controlled mines in rural sections of Sirnak's Guclukonak 
district and Siirt's Pervari district, announced the Siirt 
Governor's Office.  Ten security officers were wounded, three 
seriously.  The Gundem daily claims that the soldiers died in a 
conflict between security forces and PKK members, not because of 
mine blasts as announced by the authorities. 
 
¶10.     BOLGE / SABAH (GUNEY):  Ebru Kara, the suicide bomber 
caught in Adana with 11 kilograms of A-4 plastic explosives (see 
press summary for May 24), reportedly said during her 
interrogation, "You are poisoning Apo (Abdullah Ocalan), 
therefore, I decided I would kill you."  Adana police said that 
they were alarmed for days since the day they got tip-off that 
well-dressed and groomed women would enter Turkey to carry out 
illegal activities.  The police said they were also looking into 
whether the suicide bomber, who headed towards Ceyhan district 
at the time when she was caught, was planning an attack against 
BTC pipeline or not.  Meanwhile, terrorist Adem Barik, who 
reportedly supplied explosives to suicide bomber Ebru Kara and 
helped her to come to Adana, was caught in Sanliurfa and brought 
to Adana by the police for interrogation. 
 
¶11.     YENI SAFAK:     Police detained 18 people, who were members of 
the DTP's Halfeti district party organization in Sanliurfa, on 
 
ADANA 00000074  002 OF 002 
 
 
grounds that they praised the criminals and the criminal 
activities, shouted slogans in support for the terrorist 
organization, and carried flags which were used as symbols of 
the terrorist organization.  Four of the detainees were arrested 
later. 
 
CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT 
 
¶12.     EKSPRES / BOLGE:        Jandarma teams in Adana's Karatas 
district found 49 Iraqi nationals who entered Turkey legally as 
tourists, were planning to travel to southern Cyprus illegally 
via boat.  Eight snakeheads aiding and abetting this illegal 
operation were detained. 
 
ECONOMY 
 
¶13.     SABAH (GUNEY) / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Mehdi Eker, 
Minister of Agriculture and Village Works, attended the opening 
ceremony of the Middle East Agricultural Fair that was held for 
the first time in Diyarbakir.  A total of 130 companies 
participated in the fair. 
 
CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT 
 
¶14.     SABAH (GUNEY):  The daily reports announcement of Tarkan 
Kulak, the owner of the Adana-based company whose 29 workers 
were killed in an Moldovan-flagged plane's crash in north of 
Baghdad on January 9, 2007, about the compensation payment that 
would be made by the American insurance companies to the 
families of the victims.  Kulak appeased the families and 
assured them that they were following the process attentively. 
 
¶15.     GUNDEM: Two hundred Kurdish families, who were 
reportedly displaced from the southeastern region and who 
settled in Hatay's Dortyol district, have been suffering from 
lack of electricity and tap water for years despite applying to 
authorities many times to resolve the problem.  The authorities 
said that the area was not covered by the district's zoning 
plans, therefore, the settlers could not subscribe to water or 
electricity networks. 
 
¶16.     GUNDEM: Police reportedly did not allow a group of 
Kurdish students to dance a Kurdish folk dance and play Kurdish 
songs in the annual Spring Festival of Kars's Kafkas University 
allegedly citing the grounds that the dance was "ideological and 
divisive." 
 
¶17.     GUNDEM / EVRENSEL:      Diyarbakir Municipality recently 
announced the program of the 7th Diyarbakir Culture and Arts 
Festival which will be held between May 30 and June 3. 
 
¶18.     SABAH (GUNEY):  Seyhan Municipality will open a park on 
Saturday (May 26) which was built on an 8000- square-meter-land 
in a quarter of Seyhan district in Adana. 
GREEN