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Viewing cable 06ADANA23, SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 31, 2006

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06ADANA23 2006-02-02 06:36 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Adana
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 000023 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PINS PGOV PHUM TU ADANA
SUBJECT: SOUTHEAST TURKEY PRESS SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 31, 2006 
 
This is the Southeastern Turkey press summary for January 31, 
ΒΆ2006.  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, SECURITY, HUMAN RIGHTS 
 
HURRIYET / EVRENSEL:    Bird Flu National Coordination Council 
reportedly confirmed that avian influenza outbreak affected a 
total of 31 provinces in Turkey, with recent additions of three 
more provinces on the list, and a total of 1,596,000 birds have 
been culled to date.  Meanwhile, Iraqi Health Minister announced 
that a 17-year-old girl died because of bird flu disease on 
January 17.  Two people in Sivas's Kangal district got sick 
after eating meat of a bird which was about to die and were 
hospitalized in Sivas.  Moreover, bird flu was suspected in four 
people in Batman.  These people were reportedly hospitalized. 
 
HURRIYET / ZAMAN:       An F-16 military airplane crashed in an area 
five kilometers away from the Diyarbakir province.  The pilot 
survived as he was able to get out of the plane and use his 
parachute. 
 
EKSPRES / BOLGE / YENI SAFAK / ZAMAN:   A bomb exploded in the 
Turkish American Association in Adana at 3.15 p.m. yesterday and 
four people incurred minor wounds during the blast.  The bomb 
exploded in the lobby of the association's building where 
English courses were being offered.  50 students were in the 
building when the explosion took place.  A small fire reportedly 
broke out following the blast. 
 
BOLGE / ZAMAN:  Jandarma teams in the Seyhan district found 
three Kalashnikov rifles, four hand grenades, seven cartridges, 
and many bullets in one of the waste water canals in Adana. 
 
YENI SAFAK / ZAMAN / EVRENSEL / CUMHURIYET / RADIKAL / OZGUR 
GUNDEM: The inspectors of the Interior Ministry determined 
that the new year card Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir sent to 
the Turkish Parliament, which also included a Kurdish "Happy New 
Year" statement in it, was unconstitutional, and the inspectors 
demanded in their recent report that action be brought against 
Baydemir.  Interior Ministry sent the report to the Diyarbakir 
Prosecutor's Office.  According to the inspectors, said daily 
Ozgur Gundem, Baydemir openly breached the following clause of 
the constitution: Turkish state and its nation are marked by 
unity, the two are inseparable, and the language of the state is 
Turkish.  The inspectors demanded further action against Osman 
Baydemir and 55 mayors of the southeastern provinces for sending 
a letter to the prime minister of Denmark to prevent the 
black-out of the pro-PKK Roj TV in Diyarbakir. (This summary is 
from 01/28 editions.) 
 
EVRENSEL / YENI SAFAK / OZGUR GUNDEM:   Osman Baydemir 
criticized the investigations started against him for sending a 
Kurdish new year's card to the parliament and writing a letter 
to the Danish Prime Minister not to ban the broadcasts of Roj 
TV.  Baydemir said that it was a funny attempt to prosecute a 
person writing in Kurdish which was a language spoken by a 
significant number of people in the country.  Baydemir said that 
whatever the court decided about the postcard in Kurdish, he 
would still continue to speak Kurdish. 
 
EVRENSEL:       182 villages in Mus have been without electricity 
due to the problems caused by adverse weather conditions. 
Separately, an avalanche blocked the road to Hakkari's Cukurca 
district and local authorities have been undertaking tasks for 
five days to clear the way. 
 
YENI SAFAK:     Gaye Erbatur, Vice-Chairperson of the Turkish 
Parliamentary Commission for Probing Honor Killings, said that 
the violence women suffered from was no worse than horror film 
scenarios.  According to Erbatur, in order to evade a stain on a 
family's honor, girls and women are being locked-in their 
houses, they are being forced to commit suicide, and their noses 
or ears are being cut off. 
 
YENI SAFAK:     One of the actions brought against the Van 
Centennial University rector Yucel Askin on charges of aiding 
and abetting the PKK terrorist organization was dropped. 
 
ZAMAN / OZGUR GUNDEM:   The daily cited a survey reported 
yesterday on Ozgur Gundem daily.  Whereas Ozgur Gundem's report 
emphasized the guerillas' preferences in music, literature, 
cinema, religion and sports, Zaman daily only drew attention to 
the religion aspect of the survey and cited that the most 
popular leaders for the militants were Zoroaster and Jesus 
Christ.  Ozgur Gundem said in yesterday's report that most of 
the militants liked Jenifer Lopez, Kurdish-origin singer Ahmet 
Kaya, Loreena McKennit, among singers.  Most of them read Orhan 
Pamuk, Murray Bookchin and Amin Maalof.  Moreover, the survey 
results showed that most of the guerillas were a fan of the 
Galatasaray soccer club in Turkey. 
 
ZAMAN:  PKK was reportedly readying to launch terrorist 
activities, especially in Mersin on February 15, a day which 
marked the capturing of the terrorist leader Abdullah Ocalan in 
Kenyan capital Nairobi seven years ago. 
ZAMAN:  Subgovernor of Osmaniye's Kadirli district said that 
the attempt to burn a Turkish flag in yesterday's incident in 
Kadirli did not have a political character (see press summary 
01/30).  According to the subgovernor, the flag was probably 
burned by unknown person(s) seeking a source of heat. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   According to the daily, legal amendments 
adopted in 2003 in Turkey have been preventing many former 
political prisoners in Turkey, who have served their prison 
sentences, from engaging in political life.  Basing its move on 
these legal amendments, Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme Court 
sent a January 24-dated letter to the DTP (Democratic Society 
Party) demanding that they drop the membership of its 74 
founding members. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM / EVRENSEL:        The refugees in the Mahmur camp 
conveyed their demands in a report submitted to the UN 
delegation that is currently visiting the camp.  Reportedly, the 
refugees would only return to Turkey if Turkey freed Abdullah 
Ocalan, granted the right to mother tongue education, abolished 
the village guard system, issued a general amnesty for militants 
in the mountains and jailed political prisoners, paid 
compensation for the damages incurred by the refugees' 
displacement. 
 
OZGUR GUNDEM:   Derik Municipality in Mardin named a park 
after Ugur Kaymaz, a 13-year-old child, who was killed with his 
father by security forces in Mardin's Kiziltepe district in 
November 2004. 
REID