Cablegate: Ankara Media Reaction Report

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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
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2006

In Today's Papers

The Alliance of Civilizations Meeting
All papers reported that a group of twenty prominent world figures
met in Istanbul yesterday and issued a report calling for urgent
efforts to heal the growing divide between the Muslim and Western
worlds. The report said that the main causes of the rift between
Muslim and Western societies are not religion or history, but recent
political developments, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict along with Western military interventions in countries like
Iraq and Afghanistan. In a speech to the group, PM Erdogan said
that the Alliance of Civilizations initiative is the "global peace
project of the 21st century." UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said
that the problem is "not the Koran, the Old Testament or the Bible;
the problem is political."

Iraq and the PKK
Several Iraq-related stories are covered in the Turkish press.
Cumhuriyet and Milliyet report that the Iraqi government issued a
report naming 42 terrorist organizations in Iraq and that the PKK
was not among them. Hurriyet and Sabah report that Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki will come to Ankara on November 15-16 and
will have meetings with President Sezer, PM Erdogan and FM Gul.
Iraqi Special Envoy for Countering the PKK Shirwan al-Waili,
reportedly, will be accompanying the Prime Minister to Ankara.

In addition, Hurriyet, Milliyet, Cumhuriyet, Vatan and others
cover the remarks of US Democrat Party leader Howard Dean during an
interview with Fox TV. The papers report Dean said that the PKK
problem stems from the US occupation of Iraq and that if the US
hadn't gone into Iraq, PKK terror wouldn't be a serious problem.
"Turkey is one of our most important allies. The PKK terrorist
organization conducts activities in Turkey and this may cause Turkey
to enter northern Iraq. Turkey's intervention in Iraq would be the
worst thing that could happen," Dean said.

Survey on Attitudes towards EU, Foreign Relations
Yeni Safak gives extensive front page coverage to a survey carried
out by polling company ANAR. The survey shows that 54.1% of the
interviewed supported Turkey's EU accession, and 37.1% objected to
EU membership. 60.1% of the interviewed were skeptical about
Turkey's EU membership, believing that Turkey would never be
admitted into the EU. When asked which relationships should be
given more importance in foreign affairs, 31.6% said the EU, 22.9%
said the Turkic world, 21.3% said the Islamic world, 15.2% said
neighboring countries, 3.3% said the US, and 3.9% said "other."
ANAP, conducting the survey for Yeni Safak, queried a random
sampling of 2640 people in 12 provinces.

TV Highlights
NTV (7 A.M.)

Domestic News

- Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir rejects allegations that he used
municipal vehicles to carry supplies for PKK
- 50 people have been detained in Sivas for trafficking narcotics
- An Istanbul court sentenced former DYP deputy Sedat Bucak to one
year 15 days imprisonment on charges of assisting and sheltering an
organized crime organization in the Susurluk case.

International News

- Armenian lobby groups in the US are pressing the Bush
Administration to withdraw the nomination of Richard Hoagland as
Ambassador to Armenia.
- Austrian Foreign Minister Plassnik suggests a "time-out" may be
wise in the EU membership talks with Turkey
- A bomb planted in a minibus exploded in eastern Baghdad killing

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16 people
- The Arab league has decided to lift the American-led embargo
against PalestineVisit Ankara's Classified Web Site at

http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/

WILSON

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