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DE RUEHDA #0094/01 1991110
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000094 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 13, 2007 
 
 
¶1.      This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for July 13, 
¶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 / HURRIYET (CUKUROVA) / SABAH (GUNEY) / BOLGE: 
Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, AKP Deputy National Chairperson and 
Adana candidate, went to Imamoglu district of Adana. A 
300-vehicle convoy and thousands of people reportedly welcomed 
him there.  Firat, who was pleased with the crowd that gathered, 
opened a campaign office in the district.  Firat said that such 
enthusiasm of people would carry them again to power.  Firat 
further gave the good news to the workers that Mensa textile 
company of Adana, which had been undergoing financial hardships, 
would not be closed. Meanwhile, CHP's first ranking candidate in 
Adana, Prof. Gaye Erbatur, claimed that AKP was using state's 
money instead of using its resources while it delivered aid to 
poor people. 
 
¶3.      HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Orhan Miroglu, a DTP-endorsed 
independent candidate from Mersin, said that peace prevailed in 
Mersin for hundreds of years despite its being a city with a 
wide diversity of people from different religious and ethnic 
backgrounds.  Miroglu said that elected officials in Mersin will 
have serious responsibilities in addressing problems related to 
migration. 
 
¶4.      HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Tacidar Seyhan, Adana deputy from 
CHP, filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office reportedly 
because posters with CHP candidates' photos, which made calls to 
people not to cast votes for those CHP candidates, were being 
hung in the southern quarters of Seyhan and Yuregir districts of 
Adana. 
 
¶5.      HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    During a meeting of a Rotary Club 
in Adana, Adana Governor announced that the overall crime rate 
in Adana declined a great deal in the last five years. 
 
¶6.      HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Ibrahim Tatlises, a Kurdish-origin 
celebrity and first-ranking candidate in Istanbul from Genc 
Party, after leaving Gaziantep and Sanliurfa where he continued 
his election campaign, came to Kilis and canvassed people. 
Tatlises reportedly addressed a crowd of 5000 people there. 
 
¶7.      CUMHURIYET:     CHP candidates in Hatay are planning to send 
100,000 letters to people in Hatay to raise awareness of the 
electorate about irregularities the AKP government allegedly 
allowed in public tenders in Hatay. 
 
¶8.      EVRENSEL:       As Akin Birdal, DTP-endorsed independent 
candidate from Diyarbakir, was paying visits to the villages of 
Diyarbakir in his campaign program, jandarma reportedly 
conducted a raid on the same village where Birdal was touring. 
Jandarma reportedly told the people that the official ban on the 
political propaganda have not been lifted yet, so Birdal was not 
allowed to make propaganda there.  Despite jandarma's warning, 
people gathered around Birdal and continued to hear his 
political address.  Birdal later paid a visit to an Alevi 
village.  Separately, an independent candidate in Van filed a 
complaint against Saray District Jandarma Command for allegedly 
disrupting the candidate's election campaign. 
 
¶9.      EVRENSEL:       Nazmi Gur, DTP-endorsed independent candidate 
from Adana, opened a campaign office of EMEP (Party of Labor) in 
an area of Adana densely populated by people of Arabic 
background.  The opening speech was made in Arabic by EMEP Adana 
Provincial Chairman. 
 
¶10.     CUMHURIYET / EVRENSEL:  A branch of Council of State 
ratified Ministery of Interior's recent authorization given to 
Diyarbakir's Prosecutor's Office to start an investigation 
against Osman Baydemir reportedly for "hanging a banner in 
Kurdish" on the billboards in the Diyarbakir city center and 
"printing invitations in Kurdish." 
 
¶11.     ZAMAN:  Adana Municipality will allocate free bus 
service for the people of Adana, a majority of whom have 
retreated to nearby seaside resorts because of the high summer 
temperatures in the province, to facilitate their transportation 
back to Adana to cast their votes on July 22. 
 
SECURITY 
 
ADANA 00000094  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶12.     ZAMAN:  A PKK defector reportedly confessed that, in 
the face of a possible Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, the 
terrorists in the nearby border area evacuated their camps and 
buried all the documents belonging to the terrorist organization 
under the ground.  The defector added that the PKK owned 
anti-aircraft missiles.  DTP officials, according to the 
defector, were paying visits to the PKK headquarters and 
bringing gifts along with them. 
 
¶13.     SABAH:  A PKK mine killed a soldier in Erzincan's 
Kemah district at around 9 p.m. last night.  Another soldier was 
wounded. 
 
CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT 
 
¶14.     HURRIYET (CUKUROVA):    Forty-nine Afghani and Pakistani 
nationals, who entered the country illegally, and two 
snake-heads were caught in Van's Baskale district. 
 
CULTURE / SOCIETY / ENVIRONMENT 
 
¶15.     ZAMAN:  The results of Turkey's national University 
Entrance Exam have been announced.  Four of the 27 top scoring 
students are from Diyarbakir, Adana, Sanliurfa and Osmaniye. 
The rest of them are mainly from the western provinces of Turkey. 
GREEN