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Viewing cable 06ANKARA1771, ANKARA MEDIA EACTION REPORT

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06ANKARA1771 2006-04-03 13:31 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Ankara
VZCZCXRO0513
OO RUEHDA
DE RUEHAK #1771/01 0931331
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 031331Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4489
RUEKJCS/CJCS WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHDC//PA
RUEUITH/ODC ANKARA TU
INFO RUEHTH/AMEMBASSY ATHENS 7059
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 0222
RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 0605
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 5193
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 4902
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1516
RUEUITH/DET 1 39LG ANKARA TU
RHMFIUU/CDRUSAE IZMIR TU
RHMFIUU/USDOCO 6ATAF IZMIR TU
RHMFIUU/39OSS 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 001771 
 
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 EACTION REPORT 
MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2006 
 
  In oday's Papers 
 
  PKK Tensions on the Rise in outheast Turkey, Istanbul 
  All papers:  Tension has been on the rise in several 
  citie in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 
  Tuesday's funeral of 14 PKK militants killed in clashes 
  with the Turkish security forces earlier last week. 
  Clashes with security forces last week have killed eight 
  people in the region.  One protester died in the clashes 
  in Kiziltepe, Mardin and 10 people were injured over the 
  weekend.  Youths have been fighting street battles for 
  days with police in the region's main city, Diyarbakir. 
  In Istanbul over the weekend, a few hundred PKK 
  sympathizers burned a commuter bus in the middle of the 
  city, causing the death of three people. On Saturday, 
  there were clashes in Silopi, near the Iraqi border. 
 
  Papers report a total of 565 protesters were detained, 
  with 247 of them arrested on Sunday, bringing to 445 the 
  total number of arrests in two days.  The Hakkari 
  Governor's Office said most of the illegal demonstrators 
  were young people and children.  The Prosecutor's office 
  has decided to arrest Ayhan Karabulut, the Batman 
  provincial chairman of Turkey's main Kurdish party, the 
  Democratic Society Party (DTP) and inspectors launched an 
  investigation into the mayor of Diyarbakir, Osman 
  Baydemir, for his meeting with the demonstrators earlier 
  last week. 
 
  Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said that the incidents 
  that have erupted in southeast Turkey kicked off when the 
  terrorist organization PKK began to lose strength. 
  Erdogan said at a meeting organized by his ruling AK 
  Party that the people of the region have been exploited 
  for years and that "they are discriminated against for 
  being Kurds."  The DTP has called for an end to the 
  violence but has also asked Ankara to push through more 
  reforms in the southeast. 
 
  Papers quote businessmen from the southeast as saying the 
  answer to terrorism in the region is more investment. 
  "We ask for incentives, not financial support," the 
  businessmen said, adding that children on the street 
  would not throw stones at the police if they are given 
  jobs.  The economic/political daily Referans writes the 
  cost of recent violence in southeastern city Diyarbakir 
  is estimated at USD 15 million. 
 
  Saturday's Milliyet says the AKP government had decided 
  to prepare a new package for fighting terrorism which 
  would include the extension of the legal detention 
  period.  Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the 
  government wanted to solve the problems within the 
  framework of democracy, but would not hesitate to 
  introduce "emergency rule" if necessary.  EU Enlargement 
  Commissioner Olli Rehn's office has urged Ankara to 
  protect the cultural rights of the Kurds to ease the 
  strains in the region.  "We are aware of the serious 
  terrorist problem in the region but it is a much wider 
  problem than just a security issue," Rehn's office said. 
  In Ankara, the parliament called a special session for 
  Tuesday to discuss the violence. 
  In a column entitled, the "PKK's Heavy Defeat," Ardan 
  Zenturk wrote optimistically in the tabloid Star that 
  while the mayor of Diyarbakir "praised the terror and the 
  terrorists, in Mersin, Adana, Sanliurfa and Gaziantep the 
  provocative incidents were overcome by the peoples' 
  common sense." Zenturk concludes that "with the latest 
  incidents, the Kurds in the region (including the ones in 
 
ANKARA 00001771  002 OF 003 
 
 
  Northern Iraq) realized that the PKK do not fight for the 
  benefit of the Kurds in Turkey, but only for its own 
  presence.  Our Kurdish friends will reject the PKK shadow 
  over them and continue to coordinate with us all to 
  fulfill economic and democratic conditions for a European 
  Turkey." 
 
  Erdogan Appeals Court Decision on Caricatures 
  Milliyet, Sabah, Cumhuriyet, Yeni Safak and others: 
  Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has appealed a court 
  decision that rejected compensation to him from 
  "Penguen," a weekly humor magazine, for its cartoons 
  depicting Erdogan as various animals in February last 
  year.  A local court had earlier ruled that portraying 
  Erdogan as an animal was not an insult.  In his appeal, 
  Erdogan said the cartoons had constituted an assault 
  against his personal rights.  Penguen's cartoons were 
  meant to protest a fine given to a political cartoonist 
  in Cumhuriyet who had drawn Erdogan as a cat entangled in 
  a ball of wool over his government's failure to pass a 
  bill easing conditions for theology high-school (Imam- 
  Hatip) graduates to continue university education in 
  fields other than theology. 
 
  Washington Fears Iranian Nuclear Attack against Incirlik 
  Airbase 
  All papers cite a British Sunday Telegraph story that 
  Washington is concerned that Iran could launch a nuclear 
  attack on Incirlik Airbase in southern Turkey.  The 
  Sunday Telegraph wrote that Washington feared Iran might 
  launch nuclear attacks against American forces in the 
  region, including Israel and Turkey. 
 
  Gul: Radar Station in Iskenderun Funded by NATO 
  All papers:  Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in 
  response to a motion by the opposition CHP that a radar 
  station built in Iskenderun in southern Turkey was funded 
  by NATO, but that it will be run by the Turkish Air Force 
  Command. 
 
  Turkey Wants to Increase Trade with US Three-Fold 
  State Minister Kursad Tuzmen told the press on his return 
  from the annual ATC conference in Washington that by 
  2010, Turkey wanted to increase trade with the US to USD 
  30 billion from the existing USD 10 billion.  Tuzmen said 
  California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, and 
  Texas were picked as "target states" for Turkish 
  exporters and investors.  Tuzmen also warned against 
  increasing violence in southeast Turkey, emphasizing 
  domestic and international investors would not come to a 
  country where terrorism is intensifying. 
 
 
  TV News 
  (NTV, 8.00 a.m.) 
 
  Domestic News 
  - The ruling AK Party is to brief the parliament 
  regarding the unrest in southeast Turkey at a special 
  session on Tuesday. 
 
  - Concerns regarding foreign tourists visiting Turkey 
  become true: The number of tourists arriving in Turkey's 
  tourism capital Antalya falls 38 percent in the first 
  three months compared to last year. 
 
  - A Turkish high court scrapped a controversial Interior 
  Ministry circular for the establishment of special zones 
  for the sale of alcohol in Turkish towns. 
 
ANKARA 00001771  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
  International News 
  - Israeli President Moshe Katsav met with Olmert's Kadima 
  party representatives and will talk with other parties in 
  an effort to help establishment of a coalition 
  government. 
 
  - US and British foreign secretaries, Rice and Straw, 
  paid a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday to ask the 
  Iraqis to speed up government formation work. 
 
  - Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni said the Annan 
  Plan for reunification of Cyprus had "become history" 
  when it was rejected by the Greek Cypriots. 
 
  - The European Commission is expected to recommend in May 
  that Bulgaria and Romania be admitted to the European 
  Union on January 1, 2007. 
 
  - A Turkish truck driver, Suha Ates, was killed in Iraq 
  over the weekend while he was ferrying cargo from Ankara 
  to Baghdad. 
 
  - Taliban gunmen shot dead a Turkish engineer in Farah 
  province in western Afghanistan. 
 
  Economy News 
  - Turkish growth for 2005 was calculated as 7.6 percent, 
  and per capita income is reported as USD 5,000. 
 
  - Despite problems on Cyprus, separatist terror and 
  questions regarding the health of the Turkish economy, 
  Greece's National Bank is bidding to buy Turkey's 
  Finansbank for USD 2.7 billion.  US-based Citibank is the 
  other bank seeking to buy Finansbank.  Finansbank has 219 
  branches across Turkey and operations in 10 countries. 
  Turkey's economic recovery has made Turkish banks, with 
  access to an under-developed market of 72 million people, 
  an attraction for foreign players seeking new sources of 
  growth. 
 
  - Turkish exports increased 7.4 percent in the first 
  three months of the year. 
 
 
 Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
 
  http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ 
 
MCELDOWNEY