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Viewing cable 03ANKARA2099, ANKARA MEDIA REACTION REPORT

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
03ANKARA2099 2003-03-31 13:05 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Ankara
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 002099 
 
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, MARCH 31, 2003 
 
 
THIS REPORT WILL PRESENT A TURKISH PRESS SUMMARY UNDER THREE 
THEMES: 
 
 
HEADLINES 
BRIEFING 
EDITORIAL OPINION 
                         ------- 
 
 
HEADLINES 
 
 
MASS APPEAL 
Rumsfeld: Operation plan not mine - Hurriyet 
`Civil war' in Pentagon - Milliyet 
Iraqi suicide attacks cause panic - Hurriyet 3/31 
Al-Qaida might strike in Turkey - Milliyet 
`Friendly fire' casualties continue - Milliyet 3/30 
Human bombs vs. smart missiles - Sabah 
Civilians massacred: 58 dead - Sabah 3/29 
Worldwide front against war expanding - Vatan 
Khalilzad to Turkomen: Accept Kurdistan - Turkiye 
Iran against Turkish presence in N. Iraq - Aksam 
`Freedom' massacre: 55 dead, mostly women, children - Aksam 
3/29 
U.S. remembers Rommell, changes operation plan - Aksam 3/29 
 
 
OPINION MAKERS 
Americans pause for a while - Radikal 
Invaders halt ground advance - Cumhuriyet 3/30 
6,000 bombs, 675 missiles - Radikal 
Second marketplace massacre: 60 dead - Radikal 3/30 
War spreading: Suicide bombers in Baghdad - Cumhuriyet 
Peshmerges advance on Kirkuk - Cumhuriyet 3/29 
Robin Cook: British troops must withdraw - Yeni Safak 
4,000 Arab volunteers in Iraq - Zaman 
Iraq might become a second Palestine - Zaman 3/30 
`Dark ties' obliged Perle to resign - Zaman 2/29 
 
 
 
 
BRIEFING 
 
 
Iraq: "Cumhuriyet" claims that the U.S. refrained from 
signing a formal protocol about coordination with Turkey in 
Northern Iraq.  U.S. officials believe that a verbal 
understanding regarding Iraq's territorial integrity should 
be sufficient for Ankara.  U.S. Presidential Envoy 
Khalilzad's meetings in Ankara will continue on Monday. 
Khalilzad told the Turkish side that Northern Iraqi Kurdish 
groups welcomed the statement by TGS Chief General Ozkok. 
Prime Minister Erdogan assured a German daily that Turkey 
has no intention to occupy Northern Iraq.  Iranian Foreign 
Minister Kharrazi said that Turkey's concerns over Iraq's 
territorial integrity are understandable, but that Tehran is 
against a Turkish military presence in Northern Iraq, 
"Aksam" reports.  Meanwhile, Turkey's former president 
Suleyman Demirel slammed the AKP government for `damaging 
the 50-year old friendship with the U.S. for nothing.' 
Demirel said Prime Minister Erdogan's maneuvers proved that 
he could not be trusted.  He also voiced concern that Turkey 
might be blamed for not opening a Northern Front if the war 
takes longer than expected and leads to increased 
casualties.  `Turkey should have joined the international 
coalition if it wanted to have a role in Northern Iraq,' 
Demirel said.  A "Milliyet" front page story claims that Al- 
Qaida has been preparing since last November for attacks on 
U.S. and Israeli targets in Turkey.  The Turkish police have 
taken extraordinary security measures to protect foreign 
missions and companies, papers report.  Dailies report that 
Turkish villagers threw stones at a truck convoy carrying 
U.S. military equipment from Mardin en route to Incirlik and 
Iskenderun.  Justice Minister and government Spokesman Cemil 
Cicek, an influential figure in the AKP cabinet, said on 
Sunday that Turkey should not be blamed for the failure of 
Americans in the operation.  `Turkey and the U.S. have 
different priorities in Northern Iraq; we have no 
imperialist goal in the region, and will intervene solely 
for humanitarian reasons,' Cicek said.  Reports note Ankara 
is greatly concerned about the Kurdish peshmerges' advance 
on Kirkuk.  Sunday's reports say Khalilzad has convinced 
Kurdish groups and the Turkomen to attend a meeting with 
Turkey and the U.S. in Ankara or the Turkish border town of 
Silopi next week.  Saturday's dailies say that `fear, pain, 
and hatred' reigns in Baghdad following a `second 
marketplace killing' by an unidentified missile.  The 
missile attack claimed about 60 lives.  Papers report 
growing fear among coalition soldiers after a suicide attack 
in Najaf, in which four Americans were killed.  Coalition 
soldiers have now started shooting at civilian targets 
without warning, according to reports. 
 
 
Court rejects release of DEP members: The State Security 
Court (SSC) Friday refused to free four Kurdish Democracy 
Party (DEP) parliamentarians jailed nine years ago. 
European parliamentarians and human rights activists who 
observed the hearing were disappointed by the verdict, 
papers report.  Turkey was widely criticised for jailing the 
four, who won an appeal to the European Court of Human 
Rights.  The retrial could take many months.  Leyla Zana, 
Hatip Dicle, Selim Sadak, and Orhan Dogan would not normally 
be entitled to release for another two years. 
 
 
 
 
EDITORIAL OPINION:  War in Iraq 
 
 
"Did the US stumble?" 
Yilmaz Oztuna opined in conservative-mass appeal Turkiye 
(3/31): "The ongoing speculation about the US stumbling in 
the Iraq war and dragging itself into a Vietnam-like 
situation should be watched carefully.  Such rhetoric will 
not do any good for Turkey or its relations with the US, 
because this kind of propaganda stems from ideological 
positions.  Turkish-American relations as well as the US 
superpower role around the world should be taken seriously 
and analyzed free of ideological dogma.  Otherwise, it will 
only distance Turkey further from being a member of the 
contemporary civilized club.  . However, it is true to a 
certain extent that the US has made some tactical mistakes 
in its war strategy.  It does not matter really at this 
point whether the White House or the Pentagon is to blame. 
But the fact of the matter is that the US apparently began 
the operation without having enough military build-up." 
 
 
"The miscalculation" 
Sami Kohen wrote in mass appeal Milliyet (3/31): "The 
coalition force has started to admit that the war is not 
moving as it was planned.  Even President Bush accepts the 
fact that it might take longer than the 2 or 3 weeks to 
finish the job. . In spite all the negative factors and 
delays, the overall conviction is that the US will win the 
war in the end.  Even France agrees with this.  . It is also 
true that the war will take weeks, and maybe months. In 
other words, there will be more blood and more tears. 
Moreover, it remains to be seen how the different resistance 
tactics by Saddam's regime will be countered by the 
coalition's undeniably superior military and technological 
power.  Even when the tide turns in favor of the coalition's 
forces, we should still not expect a swift ending.  It seems 
that winning people's hearts will be harder than winning the 
war itself, and will take much more time." 
 
 
PEARSON