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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 002168 
 
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 
MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2007 
 
 
In Today's Papers 
 
Turkish Parliament to Hold First Round of Presidential Election 
All papers report the Turkish parliament is to convene Monday at 
3.00 PM for the first round of voting for the country's new 
president.  The first and second rounds of voting require 367 
(two-thirds of the 550 MPs) votes to elect the new president whereas 
in the third round, a simple majority of 276 votes will suffice. 
Since Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan is not allowed to vote, the 
AKP has 340 votes and Gul therefore needs 27 more votes from other 
parties or independent lawmakers.  Gul is expected to be elected in 
the third round of voting, August 28.  On the same day, President 
Sezer will hand over the presidential post to Gul, and on the next 
day, Gul is expected to approve the government list to be submitted 
by Prime Minister Erdogan. 
 
In today's voting, there will three tow candidates in addition to 
Gul. The nationalist MHP has nominated Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, a 
former defense minister now MP from the Kayseri province, and the 
left-leaning DSP has nominated its Eskisehir MP Tayfun Icli.  Ufak 
Uras, the leftist Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP) chairman, said 
he will participate in the parliamentary session but will not vote 
for Gul.  Muhsin Yazicioglu, leader of the Islamist-nationalist 
Grand Unity Party (BBP) said he will cast his vote in favor of Gul. 
The main opposition CHP has not nominated any presidential candidate 
and declared it will not take part in the vote.  Kurdish party DTP 
is not expected to support Gul since acting chairman Nurettin 
Demirtas said over the weekend after a meeting with the AKP 
candidate that the DTP was not satisfied with the messages issued by 
Gul with regard to the Kurdish issue. 
 
Editorial Commentary on US-EU Expectations of Turkish Presidential 
Election 
 
Washington-based Yasemin Congar writes in the mainstream daily 
Milliyet: "The outside world, including the US and the EU are 
closely watching the developments in Turkey -- the election 
aftermath and presidency process.  What they see is a country with a 
state mechanism falling behind people's demands, and a top-level 
force resistant against progress.  The events of both April 27 
[military warning] and July 22 [general elections] have made this 
conclusion crystal clear, by clearly showing the differences between 
the people's will and the pro-status quo front.  The old-fashioned 
practices of the Turkish state are not meeting the people's 
expectations.  American officials as well as EU diplomats hope to 
see a strong continuity in reforms and efforts toward a civilian 
constitution during Abdullah Gul's term as president.  They hope 
that the AKP government will use its election victory power to 
establish political consensus for reforms.  Those reforms should be 
strong enough so that fears about secularism or nationalism are 
marginalized." 
 
Washington-based Ali Aslan writes in the Islamist-oriented daily 
Zaman: "Some observers find the US administration's stance on issues 
such as the military warning, the elections aftermath and the 
presidential election process as extremely cautious and incompetent. 
 Those observers, including some retired ambassadors, believe that 
it is in the US interest to make a strong commitment to the rising 
trend toward democracy in Turkey.  It seems the problem stems from 
the fact the US is not yet very clear on who is the winner of the 
Turkish political game.  Probably that's the reason for the State 
Department to issue technically cautious statements regarding 
Abdullah Gul's candidacy.  Another reason is that the US does not 
want to be seen as interfering Turkey's domestic affairs.  Many 
Americans I spoke with hope to see the new Turkish president 
engaging more in international relations using his skills from his 
Foreign Ministry days.  When Gul is elected as president, it is also 
hoped that he will be more of a rationalist and realist than Sezer 
was, especially on some controversial matters, such as inviting 
Talabani to Turkey.  There are many pending foreign policy issues 
 
ANKARA 00002168  002 OF 003 
 
 
before Turkey and the US, with Iraq and Iran being the priority.  We 
should move on these right after the conclusion of presidential 
process." 
 
Paper: US-Turkey Special Anti-Terror Envoy Mechanism a "Fiasco" 
Liberal Radikal reports on page one that an unidentified security 
source said that despite the rise in the PKK attacks, the Turkish 
and US envoys for countering the PKK terrorism have not met since 
the retirement of the Turkish envoy Edip Baser.  Diplomatic sources 
say that so far Rafet Akgunay, Baser's replacement, and Ralston have 
held only one phone conversation.  The Turkish Foreign Ministry 
(MFA) has sent Ralston two letters detailing Turkish demands and 
complaints to no avail.  Washington is disappointed with the 
counter-terrorism mechanism, and diplomatic sources believe Joseph 
Ralston might also quit.  In addition, the report says that Turkey 
is not expected to replace its special Iraq envoy Ambassador Oguz 
Celikkol when his mandate expires at the end of this year, according 
to Radikal. 
 
Turkey-Iran Natural Gas Cooperation 
Sabah, Milliyet, Hurriyet, Cumhuriyet, Radikal, Vatan, Bugun and 
others:  Papers report that Energy Minister Hilmi Guler met with his 
Iranian counterpart Perviz Fettah and Iran's acting oil minister 
Gholam Hussein Nozari at the weekend to finalize an agreement with 
Tehran on natural gas cooperation.  Mainstream Milliyet and 
leftist-nationalist Cumhuriyet say that Turkey agreed to increase 
the cooperation on natural gas with Iran despite the objections from 
the United States.  Nozari said, with this agreement, Turkey will 
allow Iran to use its territory to transfer Iranian gas to Europe 
and in return, Iran will let Turkmenistan gas flow to Turkey via an 
Iranian pipeline.  Milliyet reports that this agreement also enables 
Turkey to import six billion Kwh of electricity from Iran. 
 
Turkey to Produce Unmanned Helicopters 
The Islamist-oriented Yeni Safak reports Turkish military is to kick 
off production of "unmanned helicopters" which have a 15 km range 
and fly at an altitude of 10,000 feet, transmitting audio and video 
footage between 500-1,000 feet.  The entirely Turkish-made 
"Malazgirt" helicopters will be able to take off vertically and land 
in all kinds of terrain.  The Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAI) has 
also been working on the production of unmanned aircraft which can 
fly up to 30,000 feet, according to the paper. 
 
Halacoglu: Kurds Have Turkmen, Armenian Roots 
Liberal Radikal reports Turkish History Association Chairman 
Professor Yusuf Halacoglu told a symposium in Kayseri over the 
weekend that the Kurds in Turkey were of Turkmen descent and that 
Kurdish Alevis were of Armenian descent, basing his claim on the 
Ottoman deeds in the 16th century.  "About 30 percent of those who 
deem themselves Kurd actually have Turkmen origins, and those who 
are known as Kurdish Alevis in Tunceli and Sivas have converted from 
their Armenian-Christian roots," said Halacoglu.  Kurdish party DTP 
and Alevi organizations in Turkey strongly reacted to Halacoglu's 
remarks, saying such "racist" statements would be harmful to 
domestic peace. 
 
Atlas Air Hijacking 
All papers:  The two hijackers who had attempted to hijack an Atlas 
air plane traveling  from Lefkosa to Istanbul on Saturday, wanted to 
go to Iran to join the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization in 
Afghanistan, reports mainstream Hurriyet.  Mainstream papers Sabah 
and Milliyet report that during his interrogation, the Palestinian 
origin hijacker [some outlets report he was Egyptian] Mommen 
Abdulaziz Talikh said that he had received training in al-Qaeda 
camps and was jailed together in Saudi Arabia with a terrorist - 
code name Ahmet - who was one of the organizers of 9/11 terrorist 
attack.  Turkish hijacker Mehmet Resat Ozlu who was working as a 
waiter in a hotel in Northern Cyprus, met with Talikh about a year 
ago and for the last month they had shared a house, adds Milliyet. 
 
 
ANKARA 00002168  003 OF 003 
 
 
TV News: 
(NTV, 6 A.M.) 
Domestic News 
 
- The ongoing repair and support of the bridges and viaducts in 
Istanbul, an earthquake-prone city of over 10 million, will be 
completed in 2010. 
 
- One PKK terrorist has been killed in security operations in 
Hakkari.  PKK terrorists killed a gendarme in the province of 
Osmaniye. 
 
- A pro-PKK group of 20 masked militants set to fire two commuter 
buses in the Gazi neighborhood in Istanbul. 
 
- Forty people were killed in traffic accidents across Turkey on 
Sunday. 
 
International News 
 
- Senior military commanders have told the British government that 
Britain can achieve "nothing more" in southeast Iraq, and that the 
5,500 British troops still deployed there should be withdrawn 
without delay. 
 
- The OSCE said on Sunday Kazakhstan's parliamentary election was an 
improvement on previous votes but still failed to meet international 
standards. 
 
- A spokeswoman for President Bush said White House Press Secretary 
Tony Snow plans to leave his job before the end of the Bush 
administration in January 2009 because of financial concerns. 
 
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denied rumors circulating on the 
Internet that Fidel Castro had died. 
 
MCELDOWNEY