SUB-GOVERNORS SURVEY SECURITY AND POLITICS IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ISTANBUL 000508

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/27/2013
TAGS: ASEC PGOV TU
SUBJECT: SUB-GOVERNORS SURVEY SECURITY AND POLITICS IN
ISTANBUL

Classified By: CG David Arnett for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).



1. (C) SUMMARY: In recent meetings, several of Istanbul's
kaymakams (sub-governors) were surprisingly open in
describing the challenges they face in overseeing proper
functioning of the security apparatus. Pointing to a massive
rural-urban migration to Istanbul over the past several
decades as a central source of difficulty, the kaymakams
discussed their concerns related to street children and
crimes committed by minors; proper handling of demonstrations
and protests; rural-urban migration; and improving police
training. All were eager to underline their firm belief that
Turkey and the U.S. would remain close allies and friends
despite recent difficulties in the relationship. END SUMMARY.


--------------
Istanbul's Sub-Districts
--------------



2. (U) Poloff recently met with kaymakams for Bagcilar,
Sisli, and Kadikoy districts in Istanbul. The three
districts, very different in terms of income levels,
commercial interests, and location, roughly mirror the
diversity of economic conditions among Istanbul's
12-million-plus population. Bagcilar, located on the
northwestern edge of Istanbul's European side, is a classic
gecekondu (literally "landed at night," a neighborhood of
recent arrivals to the city, often interspersed with
squatters and small businesses). Sisli, in central European
Istanbul, has both a thriving commercial district and
residential areas spanning the entire range of incomes, from
very poor to affluent. Its population of 300,000 people
swells to one million during the day, as workers crowd in
from outlying areas. Kadikoy, a central district on the
Asian side, has a variety of retail and commercial
businesses, a pedestrian neighborhood and shoreline area
popular with locals, and a largely middle-class residential
area.


--------------
Bagcilar and Gaziosmanpasa
--------------



3. (C) Poloff met April 3 with Bagcilar's acting kaymakam,
Aziz Inci. Inci said that most residents of neighborhoods
like Bagcilar are immigrants from Turkey's rural areas and
Southeast, with few adults born in Istanbul. Inci believes
that most come to Istanbul for economic reasons, and that
"security reasons" as a justification for migration ended in
about 1995.



4. (U) Inci views the primary challenge of his job as one of
providing infrastructure. Working to solve shortcomings in
education, health, and social services, and combating
joblessness, are his main preoccupations. In order to make
necessary improvements, as kaymakam he must often work not
only with the governor's office, but also with neighboring
kaymakams and the Istanbul mayor in order to deal with
cross-cutting issues such as electricity, transportation, and
sewage.



5. (C) One way in which kaymakams come into direct contact
with political parties is through such development projects.
Inci said that local political party offices often show
interest when the kaymakam is making decisions on where to
improve infrastructure, or whom to hire for certain
contracts. Additionally, political parties seek to
"bandwagon" onto successful projects, claiming them as their
own initiatives to score points with the local electorate.


--------------
Sisli
--------------



6. (C) Sisli kaymakam Osman Demir also pointed to
infrastructure development as a key need for Istanbul's
social development, and also as a means of enhancing
security. Demir expressed concern about what he perceives to
be a growing pattern of criminal activities among minors.
Demir pointed to economic hard times, a burgeoning youth
population, and lighter punishments on young offenders as
causes of this problem. Demir believes some criminal
elements are recruiting minors to avoid harsher punishments.



7. (C) Demir pointed to a continuing presence of illegal
immigrants in Istanbul as a major problem. Sisli has a
number of night clubs in the Elmadag neighborhood that have
performers and some prostitutes from the former Soviet Union.
Additionally, garment and leather businesses in the
Nisantasi neighborhood cater to suitcase traders from the
same countries, and signs in Russian are nearly as frequent
as Turkish or English.



8. (C) Demir argued that trafficking in Istanbul is largely
voluntary. He laid out several "typical" scenarios, which
include Chinese workers attempting to enter Europe by
transiting Istanbul, and women from the former Soviet Union
working as shuttle traders in Istanbul, and occasionally
"raising capital" by engaging in prostitution. Demir felt
that both local and international mafia have a hand in this
ongoing problem, but that economic under-development in
neighboring countries was its major impetus. (As kaymakam,
Demir oversees the security apparatus for the Sisli district,
and has intimate personal knowledge of all significant
arrests, detentions, and police investigations within the
area.)


--------------
Kadikoy
--------------



9. (C) Kadikoy Kaymakam Yuksel Peker was surprisingly frank
about problems of police administration and human rights.
Peker conceded that torture in Turkey is still a problem, but
argued it can be solved by proper education. "Police, in
their zeal to extract information, believe that torture is
the best option. Training them in other methods of proper
interrogation will stop them," he suggested.



10. (C) Peker, like his other colleagues, believed that many
of Istanbul's current social ills are caused by severe
pressures brought about by massive rural-urban migration. He
echoed their belief that infrastructural improvements will do
much to ease these pressures, and encourage law-abiding
behavior.


--------------
What's a kaymakam?
--------------



11. (U) Kaymakams (sub-governors) are chiefs of Ministry of
the Interior offices in Turkey's provincial sub-divisions,
and thus formally the chief representatives of the Turkish
State below the level of governors. Career civil servants,
they must be university graduates of public administration or
political affairs faculties. They may be graduates of either
public or private universities. Upon graduation, they take
an entrance exam to enter the kaymakam program, and then
begin an approximately one-month training program at the
Ministry of the Interior in Ankara. Kaymakams generally
aspire eventually to be appointed as governors. Early in
their careers, they usually do a one-year training program in
the U.S. or U.K. to study Anglo-Saxon local administration.



12. (C) A kaymakam's career usually moves geographically from
East to West. After completing MoI training in Ankara, a
young kaymakam is typically posted somewhere in the rural
southeast. Throughout the region, kaymakams are generally
young men in their late-20s to early 30s. Though technically
in charge of the security apparatus throughout the
sub-district (sometimes a very large geographic area),
kaymakams in this period of their careers are heavily
supervised by governors and deputy governors in the
provincial capitals. At the same time, they are somewhat
eclipsed by a security apparatus that, while respectful to
them as the future governors of Turkey, keeps them somewhat
distant from direct control over jandarma and other security
operations. On one occasion, poloff met with a jandarma
colonel and kaymakam simultaneously. While technically of
higher rank, the kaymakam was deferential to the colonel, who
was both older and more experienced.



13. (C) A young kaymakam understands his limitations: he is a
colonel without a regiment, charged not with independent
decision making on security matters, but with communicating
the governor's instructions to the local security apparatus,
and reporting back on the local situation. "Do well in small
matters and you will be rewarded" is the order of the day. A
young kaymakam looks to onward assignment as a deputy
governor or a kaymakam in a more comfortable location. On
more than one occasion, young kaymakams and deputy governors
asked poloff about an American FSO's career track, and
claimed to see strong similarities.



14. (U) As a kaymakam's career progresses, the geography
changes, with postings in Turkey's coastal areas and larger
cities. While poloff estimates that median age for a
kaymakam in the rural Southeast is just over 30 years old,
Istanbul's kaymakams average close to 50. Previous posts for
kaymakams poloff spoke with in Istanbul include the Aegean
area, Ankara and Istanbul.

15. (C) MoI civil servants who pursue this career path
typically display an awareness of Turkish ethnic and
geographical diversity that may be lost on many of the
Ankara-Istanbul elite and even on many governors. While
typically Kemalist in outlook, they often exhibit a clear
understanding of the problems that have given rise to
conflict and political instability. Uniformly, when speaking
about political unrest in both rural and urban settings,
kaymakams have stressed to poloff their belief in the
importance of opportunity for Kurdish and Turkish poor,
stating that they believe their role in apportioning funds
for development projects to be very important in enhancing
security and discouraging extremism. Improvements in
education, state-funded health care, and physical
infrastructure are thus key concerns for kaymakams throughout
Turkey.
ARNETT