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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ADANA 000099 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JULY 21-27, 2007 
 
 
¶1.      This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for July 
21-27, 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.      CUMHURIYET/EVRENSEL/HURRIYET/YENI 
SAFAK/CUMHURIYET/SABAH/HURRIYET: Charges have been pressed 
against Leyla Zana, the Kurdish former deputy from DEP, and 
Mehmet Nuri Gunes because of the speeches they delivered in 
Igdir in support of the DTP-supported independent candidates. 
Leyla Zana allegedly said Turkey should except dividing the 
country into states and naming the Southeastern Turkey as the 
"Kurdistan" federation. She added that demanding such a thing 
was not in violation of the territorial integrity of Turkey. The 
Chief Public Prosecutor of Igdir, Mustafa Kucuk, initiated an 
investigation about Zana and Gunes for violating articles 216, 
302 by instigating hatred and animosity among people, and 
violating paragraph 58 of 298 by using a language other than 
Turkish in the election campaign. The Evrensel newspaper quoted 
Leyla Zana as saying "Those who are getting mad at my statements 
today will recognize the reality in five or ten years and 
realize it -the federation." 
 
¶3.      RADIKAL: In reaction to the Prime Minister's claim that 
MHPers and DTPers would fight in the parliament, the former DTP 
National Chair, Ahmet Turk, said that the Primier threatened the 
voters by such a statement, and added that they were not getting 
into the assembly to fight with others but to represent their 
thoughts and beliefs. Turk and former DTP co-chair, Aysel 
Tugluk, said that they were ready to discuss the Kurdish issue 
even with the MHP should the appropriate climate be created. 
 
¶4.      EVRENSEL: Thousands of people attended the DTP-supported 
independents' meeting in Silopi district of Sirnak where there 
has been a constant troop and military equipment build up. The 
crowd carried banners reading "Either true democracy or none. 
Solutions in democracy, not in operations. This country is ours, 
we will bring peace. Don't do separatism Baykal." The Sirnak 
independent candidate, Sevahir Bayindir, criticized Prime 
Minister Erdogan for not solving the Kurdish issue and closing 
down the Habur border gate with Iraq. Approximately 10,000 
people attended the DTP-supported independent candidates' 
meeting in Bingol. Akin Birdal and the Diyarbakir Mayor Osman 
Baydemir addressed to more than 10,000 people in Bismil district 
of Diyarbakir, and more than 30,000 people attended the 
independents' meeting in Hakkari. 
 
¶5.      CUMHURIYET/SABAH/ZAMAN: While Ankara is awaiting Baghdad 
to take concrete steps against the PKK, the Iraqi Foreign 
Ministry gave two demarches to Ankara claiming that Turkey had 
bombed some targets in Northern Iraq and that some of the 
medicine and food items received from Turkey had gone bad. The 
Mesut Barzani-affiliate Kurdsat TV channel broadcasting from 
northern Iraq aired some images of villagers leaving their homes 
in the rural Zakho region. In its demarche to Turkey, the Iraqi 
administration noted that a diplomatic solution should be sought 
to the tension in the border region because of the bombings on 
July 18. The Turkish Health Ministry disclosed that no medicine 
had been exported from Turkey to Iraq but that it was exported 
from other countries through Turkey. 
 
¶6.      CUMHURIYET/ZAMAN/RADIKAL/HURRIYET/BOLGE/EKSPR ES: The 
Justice and Development Party (AKP), which had gained 365 seats 
with 34.43 percent popularity in the 2002 general elections, 
increased its votes to 46.67 percent but its seats decreased to 
341 in the July 22 General Election. The Evrensel newspaper 
claimed that the e-memorandum by the Turkish General Staff 
helped AKP to increase its popularity which had dropped to 30 
percent prior the memorandum. 
 
¶7.      BOLGE: Residents from the Suruguden, Saridal, Yukari 
Sizma, and Cicekli villages of Mus province protested casting 
their votes on the grounds that they did not receive any 
services from the government. The village headmen of the four 
villages jointly said that they would not cast their votes in 
the coming elections unless they received some services. They 
said that their village did not have roads, their schools were 
in poor conditions, and that they did not benefit from any 
health services. The villagers demanded a boarding school to be 
built in the region. 
 
¶8.      RADIKAL/SABAH/BOLGE: Medeni Oz, the CHP's Diyarbakir 
 
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Provincial Chairman, resigned from his position after the 
crushing defeat of his party in Diyarbakir. CHP got only 2 
percent of the votes in Diyarbakir province. 
 
¶9.      YENI SAFAK: At a press conference at the DTP's office in 
Mersin yesterday, the independent candidate Orhan Miroglu, 
disclosed that he would file a petition with the Provincial 
Election Committee on the grounds that the elections were not 
held in a healthy fashion in Mersin province. 
 
¶10.     EKSPRES/CUMURIYET: The DTP-supported candidate from Adana, 
Nazmi Gur, said that he would reject to the temporary results 
announced by the Provincial Election Board through his lawyers. 
According to the results that have been announced, Gur received 
50,340 votes and lost by only 1,792 votes. The Cumhuriyet and 
Bolge newspapers report that when it became clear that Gur did 
not get elected, his supporters gathered in the 
Kurdish-populated quarters of Adana and chanted pro-Ocalan 
slogans. Police arrested 12 persons. 
 
¶11.     SABAH/HURRIYET/RADIKAL/EVRENSEL: According to the 
preliminary election results in Hakkari province, the 
DTP-supported candidates had won two seats in Hakkari, but after 
the votes cast in the customs offices at the border areas were 
distributed to the provinces the AKP candidate Abdulmuttalip 
Ozbek won the election by 41 votes and independents lost one 
seat. The independent candidates objected to the result and the 
Provincial Election Committee (PEC) recounted the votes cast in 
40 ballot boxes. The PEC will announce the result later. DTP 
dismissed its administrators in Hakkari and Yukeskova based on 
people's demand. The imprisoned DTP-supported PKK-suspect 
Sebahat Tuncel, who was elected as a lawmaker from Istanbul, was 
discharged from the Gebze Prison and was met by 2,000 people at 
the prison gate. 
 
¶12.     HURRIYET: The DTP-supported lawmakers gave warm messages 
about the course of action they would follow at the parliament. 
Sevahir Bayindir, the independent lawmaker from Sirnak, said "We 
will be the power of solutions not of crisis. Turkey's future 
depends on establishing dialogues and producing solutions." 
Osman Ozcelik, the independent lawmaker from Siirt, said "We do 
not recognize any other force above the parliament. In general, 
we will not be creating problems but generating solutions at the 
parliament." Hasip Kaplan, the independent lawmaker from Sirnak, 
was quoted "We have to overcome the presidential issue with 
consensus. We are coming to the parliament to solve people's 
problems. 
 
¶13.     HURRIYET: The former Minister of National Education, 
Huseyin Celik, took a thank-you tour in Van together with AKP's 
newly elected four lawmakers and stopped by the DTP's election 
office and congratulated the independent lawmakers Ozdal Ucer 
and Fatma Kurtulan. Minister Celik was applauded by DTP 
supporters for his visit to their office. 
 
¶14.     HURRIYET: Kutbettin Arzu, who has been elected to the 
parliament from the AKP's ticket when he was the President of 
Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Diyarbakir, said that the 
people in East and Southeastern Turkey have given to Turkey and 
the  world the message that they want to live  in unity and 
peace. Arzu said that the Prime Minister was knowledgeable about 
the problems of the region and that they should find solutions 
to the unemployment issue through short and mid-term projects 
immediately. 
 
¶15.     EVRENSEL: 170 villagers from Cevizlibelen village of 
Bahcesaray district in Van province applied to the Human Rights 
Association's Van Chapter claiming that they had been beaten and 
prevented from casting their votes on the July 22 General 
Election. The villagers want to be given a chance to use their 
votes again. The President of Van HRA office, Cahit Bozbay, said 
that they would file petitions with the Interior Ministry, High 
Election Committee, and the Chief Public Prosecutor of 
Bahcesaray and follow the issue closely. 
 
¶16.     SABAH: Because of the speech he delivered and talking with 
demonstrators during the March 28, 2005 events which broke out 
when the dead bodies of four PKK militants were being buried in 
Diyarbakir, the Diyarbakir Mayor, Osman Baydemir, whose trial 
continued at the 6th Felony Court of Diyarbakir, did not attend 
the hearing but a delegation from the European Parliament did. 
 
¶17.     RADIKAL/HURRIYET: The demand by defendants of the Semdinli 
case, the jandarma noncommissioned officers Ali Kaya, Ozcan 
 
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Ildeniz, and PKK defector Veysel Ates to be discharged from 
prison, was unanimously rejected by the 5th Felony Court of 
Diyarbakir. The defendants are accused of throwing a bomb to the 
Umut bookstore in Semdinli district of Hakkari on November 9, 
2005 and killing one person and wounding another one. The court 
had sentenced Ildeniz and Kaya to 39.5 years and Ates to 39 
years and 10 months of imprisonment. 
 
SECURITY 
 
¶18.     CUMHURIYET/HURRIYET: The Sirnak Governorate announced that 
the GOT forces killed two terrorists, one female, who had killed 
one lieutenant colonel, one major, and one private on June 9 
with a remote-controlled mine on the Guclukonak-Sirnak highway 
on June 9. Terrorists, who attacked a police check point at the 
entrance of Semdinli, Hakkari province with rockets, wounded two 
policemen. Security forces detonated explosives planted on a 
road in Sirnak and seized a photocopy machine and 81 bullets for 
the Kalashnikov weapons in Malazgirt district of Mus province. 
 
¶19.     YENI SAFAK/CUMHURIYET/ZAMAN: In general, the July 22 
General Election was held in a peaceful manner throughout 
Turkey. As a consequence of the fights that broke out between 
rivaling groups and families with blood feud, 27 persons were 
wounded in Sivas, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Batman, and Antalya 
provinces. 
 
¶20.     EVRENSEL: People in Southeastern Turkey cast their votes 
under the shadow of soldiers and village guards. The security 
officials who are supposed to be 100 meters away from the ballot 
boxes monitored the election very closely and village guards 
wounded two persons with weapons in Bismil district of 
Diyarbakir. 
 
¶21.     BOLGE: The Sirnak Governor's office announced that the 
security officials detained and brought to justice a total of 11 
persons involved in recruiting militants for and shouting 
pro-PKK slogans during an election campaign meeting in Sirnak. 
 
¶22.     CUMHURIYET/ZAMAN/YENI SAFAK: The PKK militants who 
determined a minibus carrying bread to the jandarma outpost near 
Sutluce village of Tunceli yesterday warned the minibus driver 
not to carry bread to soldiers anymore and set fire on his 
minibus. The GOT forces carrying out operations in Silvan and 
Lice districts of Diyarbakir and Dogansehir of Malatya arrested 
2 PKK militants, including a female. Legal action has been taken 
against three persons allegedly harboring the illegal terror 
organization. 
 
¶23.     ZAMAN/YENI SAFAK: It is claimed that three soldiers on 
patrol in Bogrupek village of Baskale district of Van province 
had been kidnapped to Iran. The Van Governor, Ozdemir Cakacak, 
said that he had not received any news of that nature. 
 
¶24.     ZAMAN: In an operation in Hinis district of Erzurum 
province, jandarma seized assorted explosives, organizational 
documents and discovered life-support devices cached in the 
fields. Jandarma detained 20 suspects in Hinis. The GOT forces 
also detained 20 people on the charges of membership to, 
assisting and harboring the PKK in Varto district of Mus. 
 
¶25.     ZAMAN: PKK militants exploded a mine on the 
Cukurca-Hakkari highway and wounded a noncommissioned officer. 
 
CRIME & LAW ENFORCEMENT 
 
¶26.     CUKUROVA HURRIYET: Based on a tip, the counter-narcotic 
teams from the Bitlis Security Directorate seized 28 kilos and 
20 grams of hashish in the secret compartments of a truck and 1 
kilo and 422 grams of hashish in a car that were traveling from 
Bitlis to Diyarbakir. 
 
¶27.     RADIKAL/BOLGE/CUMHURIYET/YENI SAFAK/SABAH: In Mersin, 68 
persons allegedly involved in irregularities in state-sponsored 
construction bids have been arrested by police after six months 
of technical surveillance. The detainees include the Provincial 
Director and some employees of the Public Works, Provincial 
Board members, some AKP administrators, and contractors. 
 
¶28.     RADIKAL/ZAMAN: Based on a tip, the GOT forces in Van 
seized 140 kilos and 700 grams of heroin in Omerova hamlet of 
Ekecek Village of Baskale district in Van province. The market 
value of the drugs is estimated to be around 12 million US 
Dollars. 
 
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ECONOMY 
 
¶29.     HURRIYET: According to the Turkey's 500 Largest Industrial 
Establishments 2006 Report, eight companies from Adana ranked 
among the top 100 and 10 companies from Gaziantep ranked among 
the top 500. 
 
¶30.     SAFAK: While visiting the AKP's Provincial Office   in 
Siirt, Nihat Ozdemir, the President of the Executive Board of 
Limak Construction Company, told reports that two dams would be 
built on the Botan River in the region: Alkumru and Cetin dams. 
Mr. Ozdemir said that his company had already been awarded the 
bid for the construction of the Alkumru Dam which will produce 1 
million kilowatts of energy per year. 
 
¶31.     ZAMAN/BOLGE: The President of Chamber of Commerce of 
Adana, Saban Bas, is trying to have 55,000 hectares of land 
adjacent to the Adana-Yumurtalik Free Trade Zone be designated 
for a new Organized Industrial Zone, which would help create new 
employment opportunities. The land belongs to the Treasury 
Department. 
GREEN