VZCZCXRO0385
OO RUEHDA
DE RUEHAK #1742/01 3421206
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 081206Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1408
RUEKJCS/CJCS WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC//PA
RUEUITH/ODC ANKARA TU
INFO RUEHTH/AMEMBASSY ATHENS 0176
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 6611
RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 4314
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 7675
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 7582
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 4179
RUEUITH/DET 1 39LG ANKARA TU
RHMFIUU/39OS INCIRLIK AB TU
RHMFIUU/AFOSI DET 523 IZMIR TU
RHMFIUU/39ABG INCIRLIK AB TU
RHMFIUU/AFOSI DET 522 INCIRLIK AB TU
RUEUITH/AFLO ANKARA TU

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 001742 
 
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 PREL KPAO
SUBJECT: TURKISH MEDIA REACTION 
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009 
 
Media Highlights 
 
Obama:  Turkey a Partner; Erdogan A Friend (Hurriyet)  Live coverage 
of Turkish PM Erdogan's meeting with President Obama dominated the 
Turkish airwaves throughout the evening 12/7 and rules the front 
pages of Turkey's bombastic print media sector today.  Despite 
somber news of a terrorist attack that left seven soldiers dead in 
central Anatolia, all major news channels reported live from 
Washington and hosted panels of experts in the studios with NTV TV 
fielding correspondents reporting live from Erbil and Kabul.  In a 
front page double banner "Full Consensus at Summit," liberal Radikal 
zeroed in on Obama's comment that "Turkey can be an important 
player" in finding a solution to the crisis with Iran.   Mainstream 
Sabah headlines "Turkey is our Guarantee in the Region" and reports 
that Obama emphasized  that as a secular, democratic Muslim majority 
country, Turkey is able to contribute not only to regional peace but 
global peace as well.  Conservative Today's Zaman notes Turkey's 
approach has raised Western concerns but for the U.S. "Turkey's 
blossoming relations with Iran have eased Tehran's isolation as 
Washington tires to pressure the Islamic republic into a deal." 
Circulation giant Hurriyet headlined "Vital Partner" and chronicled 
the deliverables, from cooperation in counter-terrorism and 
economics, as well as science, art, politics and technology. 
Islamist-oriented Zaman in "Model Partnership with US Comes True," 
and other media gave prominent play to the two leader's unifed 
approach to terrorism, and expression of condolences for martyred 
members of the Turkish armed forces who died in the 12/7 ambush in 
Topak, noting that PM Erdogan said "Now is not the time to gain 
enemies, but to make friends."  Mainstream Vatan highlights 
President Obama's comments on the PKK issue as saying "PKK is our 
Common Enemy but the problem cannot be solved only with military 
means" and notes the President's praise for PM Erdogan's "courageous 
steps" in the Kurdish "democratic opening."  Hurriyet's senior 
columnist Sedat Ergin described the meetings as a positive and noted 
that "White House visits always strengthen the political positions 
of Turkish leaders.  Erdogan will return to Turkey with the wind of 
gained support from the White House."   The paper also notes that at 
the joint press conference, President Obama concluded by saying "I 
am very happy to call Turkey a partner and Erdogan as a Friend." 
Noting that the meeting went on for more than two hours, 
leftist-nationalist Cumhuriyet in  "Two Hours Bargaining" reports 
that PM Erdogan stressed that necessary steps will be taken in order 
to re-open the Halki Seminary. 
 
Ambush: 7 Martyrs (Sabah) 
All media outlets give extensive coverage to the terrorist attack 
killing seven Turkish soldiers near Tokat in the northern part of 
Turkey. Mainstream Hurriyet reports the terrorists took advantage of 
the foggy weather to attack the gendarme team near the town of 
Resadiye in Tokat province.  Liberal Radikal says the attack fueled 
tensions as the Constitutional Court starts discussing to disband 
DTP while at the same time protests in support of Ocalan in East and 
Southeast are becoming effective in the larger cities. Mainstream 
Milliyet reports PKK, DHKP-C and TIKKO have carried out activities 
in the region but there was no immediate indication of who was 
behind the attack. Mainstream Vatan draws attention to the politics 
of the region, noting that the Nationalist party MHP, which showed 
the strongest reaction to the government's Kurdish opening, had 50 
percent of the votes in Resadiye.  Meanwhile leftist Taraf 
highlights the timing saying the attack targeted the GoT's 
democratic initiative on the Kurdish minority and came a few hours 
before the Erdogan-Obama meeting.  Islamist-oriented Yeni Safak says 
the ambush was the latest attempt to undermine tranquility. All 
papers report Turkish leaders including President Gul, PM Erdogan 
condemned the deadly attack.  Vatan's Columnist Ruhat Mengi in "PM 
is in the US While the Country is Given Over to Terror" harshly 
criticizes PM Erdogan as "While Turkey is suffering under terror 
because of the opening Erdogan initiated by taking the terror 
organization [PKK] as an interlocutor, the PM and his wife are 
staying in one of the most luxurious and most expensive hotels in 
Washington.  While the mothers of the seven martyrs of Tokat are 
 
ANKARA 00001742  002 OF 003 
 
 
crying, TV channels are focusing on Erdogan's meeting by 
highlighting the two leaders meaningless words and calling each 
other "my friend, my partner," as if  there were any positive 
results of any of their earlier meetings." 
 
Decision Day for DTP 
Turkish media all report that the Constitutional Court will begin 
debating a closure case against the DTP today.  Mainstream Vatan 
reports that according to the Turkish Constitution, seven votes are 
necessary in order to close the party and notes that "today it will 
be decided whether the 219 DTP members, including party chair Ahmet 
Turk and many mayors, will be banned from the politics. 
Islamist-oriented Yeni Safak says the indictment for the case was 
prepared by the chief prosecutor two years ago and there are 141 
different charges in it against DTP.  Vatan columnist Bilal Cetin on 
12/8 notes that during the last two years, "DTP officials exerted 
every effort to support the chief prosecutor's claims and they 
openly showed that their party was linked to PKK terror 
organization.  Moreover, they ignored the friendly warnings of many 
actors including the EU Ambassadors, to distance themselves from the 
terror organization.  After all this, a closure decision has a very 
high possibility." 
 
US Presents 'Country of the Year Award' for Turkey 
In "Turkey-US Go Into Model Partnership," mainstsream Star newspaper 
and Turkish wire services report on a new economic partnership 
announced during the PM Erdogan visit to Washington.  As reported in 
the Turkish-American web portal www.turkishny.com, US Trade 
Representative Ron Kirk and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke 
inaugurated a new "Framework for Strategic Economioc and Commerical 
Cooperation"  with Turkey during the Erdogan visit.  At the 
inauguration, Turkish State Minister and Deputy PM Ali Babacan said 
that "US-Turkish commercial and investment relations were advancing 
well and there was a potential for improvement."  In addition, the 
US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has announced Turkey as the 
recipient of the "2009 Country of the Year" award. The agency's 
statement said, "this award is a reflection on the success of the 
Agency's program in Turkey supporting their development priorities." 
USTDA Acting Director Leocadia Zak said "this important award 
reflects the strong economic relations between Turkey and the US." 
 
Erdogan:  Genocide Not in the Family 
In his speech at Johns Hopkins University and before he officially 
launched a new Turkish office in Washington, PM Erdogan said that 
lobbying is not enough for resolving the Armenian issue and added 
"my ancestors didn't and won't commit genocide." He said that claims 
that Turkey 'shifting its axis' are unfair and emphasized that he 
expects the Minsk Group to get more serious on the resolution of 
Nagorno-Karabakh, so that both the Azeri-Armenian and 
Turkey-Armenian conflicts will be resolved. On a question regarding 
the gas agreement with Iran and whether it's discussed in his 
meeting with President Obama, Erdogan said "Turkey is against 
nuclear weapons in the region and nuclear capacity could be used 
only for peaceful means.  Turkey will do its best to resolve the 
concerns on Iran's nuclear program." 
 
Copenhagen:  Useful Result Hard To Get.  Stating  a common media 
theme, leftist-nationalist Cumhuriyet headlines "An Opportunity the 
World Must Not Miss" while mainstream Hurriyet in "A Useful Result 
will be Hard to Get at Copenhagen" more darkly comments that "except 
for the hope generated by Obama's decision to attend on the last 
day, there is no evidence that binding and useful decisions will 
result from the summit."  In "Climategate spread from Turkey" 
Hurriyet continues that the conference is still struggling with the 
fall-out from the stolen East Anglia e-mails and that the theft, 
which it suggests was instigated by the Russian Secret Service and 
spread via Turkish servers, should be called "Pirategate". 
Mainstream Milliyet headlines "To save the climate, 1200 limousines 
and 140 planes" but then focuses on previously announced national 
reduction targets.  Liberal Radikal notes in "Release in 12 days of 
as much CO2 as an African Country" condemns the 321 million TL 
 
ANKARA 00001742  003 OF 003 
 
 
participant expense and 41 tons of CO2 released at the conference, 
but continues that the gathering has become "Hopenhagen."  Economic 
daily Referans headlines "Global warming can only be reduced with a 
10 trillion dollar investment" in a long detailed article focused on 
the climate change economics and predicts "large negative results if 
the summit fails." 
 
TV News (CNN Turk) 
 
Domestic 
 
- A group of 200 DTP activists rallied in Tunceli and threw Molotov 
cocktails at bank branches, police cars and shops.  Police used 
teargas to dispurse the protesters 
 
- Interior Minister Besir Atalay said government's democratic 
opening process was continuing but fiercely criticized DTP for 
fueling unrest in the southeast 
 
- DTP deputy Selahattin Demirtas held a press conference to denounce 
the killing of a student during protests in Diyarbakir 
 
- Interior Minister Atalay said 119 people were arrested in 
connection with recent outlawed protests in various parts of Turkey 
 
- Turkey is one of the 13 countries with upgraded credit rating this 
year 
 
- Turkish banks report 53.7 percent increase in profits this year 
 
 
World 
 
-  Iranian security forces break up anti government demonstrations 
in central Tehran 
 
- A suicide bomber attacked a court in Pakistan's northwestern city 
of Peshawar, killing six and injuring more than 30 
 
- The Azerbaijani Embassy in Ukraine delivers a diplomatic note to 
the Ukranian Foreign Ministry for airing an anti-Azerbaijani film on 
TV 
SILLIMAN