Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04ANKARA6116
2004-10-28 10:20:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ankara
Cable title:  

HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT CALLING FOR NEW CONCEPT OF

Tags:  PGOV PREL PHUM TU 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ANKARA 006116 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/27/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM TU
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT CALLING FOR NEW CONCEPT OF
"MINORITY" SPOTLIGHTS FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGES FOR TURKEY

REF: ANKARA 3236

Classified By: (U) Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons: E.O
. 12958 1.4 (b, d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ANKARA 006116

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/27/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM TU
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT CALLING FOR NEW CONCEPT OF
"MINORITY" SPOTLIGHTS FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGES FOR TURKEY

REF: ANKARA 3236

Classified By: (U) Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons: E.O
. 12958 1.4 (b, d).


1. (C) Summary: A GOT human rights board's report
recommending Turkey update its concept of "minority" to make
it consistent with Western European practices has stirred
sharp controversy. Report notes Turkey continues to apply a
narrow, discriminatory definition of "minority" based on
Turkish State's mis-interpretation of 1923 Lausanne Treaty.
These "non-Muslim" minorities are de facto barred from
holding positions in core State institutions. FM Gul and
other GOT officials have criticized the report, asserting it
reflects only the views of a minority of board members.
However, the report's conclusions are consistent with our
observations and many contacts affirm the substance of the
report. In the midst of a tense GOT-EU debate over the
definition of "minority," head of the EU Commission office in
Ankara asserts the GOT's narrow definition may violate a
number of international conventions signed by Turkey. This
long-overdue debate reveals that Turkey, despite major legal
reforms on paper, remains distant from the West in
fundamental civil-society respects. End Summary.

--------------
Report Calls For New "Minority" Definition
--------------


2. (U) The Minorities Working Group of the Prime Ministry's
Human Rights Consultation Board on October 22 submitted a
report calling on the GOT to develop a new concept of
"minority" consistent with practice in contemporary Western
societies and underscoring the discriminatory way in which
those who are not Muslims are not considered "Turks".


3. (U) The report notes that while the West has recognized
the existence of ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities
for centuries, Turkey continues to apply a narrow, legalistic
definition of "minority" rooted in the 1923 Lausanne Treaty.
The Lausanne text refers to the rights of "non-Muslim"
minorities; it makes no reference to ethnic or linguistic
minorities. Moreover, the Turkish State interprets the
treaty as conferring legal minority status exclusively to

only three "non-Muslim" communities -- Greek Orthodox
Christians, ARMENIAn Orthodox Christians, and Jews --
although these groups are not specified in the text.


4. (U) The report draws attention to the Turkish State's
continuing practice of ignoring a Lausanne article stating
that "all Turkish nationals" have the right "to use any
language they wish in commerce, in public and private
meetings and in all types of press and publication media."
Turkey has long restricted the use of Kurdish and other
non-Turkish languages; under recent EU-related reforms
non-Turkish news and cultural broadcasts have been permitted
only under tight restrictions (reftel).


5. (U) To this day, according to the report, the Turkish
State has based Turkish identity on the Turkish language and
the Muslim faith. "Non-Muslim" Turks are blocked de facto
from participating in key State institutions such as the
armed forces, the MFA, law enforcement, and the Turkish
National Intelligence Organization, according to the report
(Note: this is consistent with our observations. End Note).
Turks who are not Muslim or who speak languages other than
Turkish are discriminated against -- including by the courts
-- for being "of foreign origin with Turkish citizenship"
rather than Turks. The report calls on the GOT to amend the
Constitution and all relevant laws to embrace the Western
concepts of equal rights for all citizens and cultural rights
for all ethnic/linguistic/religious groups.

--------------
Officials Reject Report
--------------


6. (U) The report was drafted by a subcommittee of the
78-member Consultation Board. Many Board members -- who
include police, Jandarma and government officials, in
addition to human rights observers -- reacted angrily when
they learned of the report, and accused Board Chairman
Ibrahim Kaboglu of adopting the text without the approval of
the majority of Board members. Kaboglu, an Istanbul
University professor, insists that the report was adopted
according to Board regulations -- by a majority of members
present at a meeting attended by more than half the Board
members.


7. (U) High-level GOT officials have also criticized the
report. FM Gul asserted that the report's conclusions were
inspired by "jealousy" and claimed that the GOT had not asked
the Board to prepare such a report. Vahit Bicak, head of the
Human Rights Presidency (attached to the PM's office),
declared that the report does not reflect the GOT view. Board
members were temporarily locked out of their meeting room at
the Prime Ministry. Fethi Bolayir, president of the Societal
Thought Association, reportedly applied to the prosecutor's
office to press treason charges against the lead author of
the report.

--------------
EU Has Also Raised Minority Issue
--------------


8. (U) The report surfaced in the press at a moment when
Turkish sensitivities on the question of minorities are at a
peak. The GOT and EU are engaged in a tense debate over the
way the Turkish State defines minorities. GOT officials and
Turkish pundits criticized the EU Commission for referring to
Kurds and Alevis as minorities in its October 6 reports on
Turkey. Ambassador Kretschmer, head of the EU Commission
Representation to Turkey, has said publicly that Turkey's
official definition of "minority" may be in conflict with a
number of international conventions signed by Turkey.

--------------
Non-Muslims Have Second-Class Status
--------------


9. (C) A wide range of contacts has expressed to us views
consistent with the report. Baskin Oran, the Ankara
University professor who headed the subcommittee that drafted
the report, told us recently that the Turkish Republic has
failed to establish a modern, pluralistic concept of
"Turkishness." Turkish identity, he averred, continues to be
defined in the context of a "millet residue" -- a reference
to the "millet" system under which non-Muslims in the Ottoman
Empire maintained separate legal and educational systems and
were generally treated as second-class subjects. To this
day, you cannot be considered a "real" Turk if you are not
Muslim. Turks refer to the country's non-Muslims as "Turkish
Citizens" -- by which they mean non-Turks who hold
citizenship -- while Muslims are simply called "Turks."


10. (C) Suavi Aydin, a Hacettepe University anthropologist
and expert on Anatolian minorities, asserted to us that the
ethnic aspect of Turkishness is complex, and less significant
than the religious/linguistic aspect. In the 19th and early
20th centuries, large numbers of Islamized immigrants --
principally from the Balkans (mostly of Slavic origin but
including people who had converted, at least nominally, from
Judaism) and the Caucasus -- poured into Anatolia. It is
widely known that many Turks today are descendants of these
immigrants. Aydin said no one knows what percentage of
modern Turks actually descend from the original Turkmen
population of Anatolia; he estimated it is probably around 50
percent (note: his estimate is widely at variance with the
figure of 6,000,000, or 8.5% of the population, used
confidentially by the Turkish State, according to leading

SIPDIS
national security analyst Faruk Demir. From our own
observations throughout Anatolia and the comments to us of
other anthropologists and sociologists, we thing Demir's
figure is accurate. End note).


11. (C) Turks rarely openly analyze their nation's ethnic
diversity, but they recognize it in the faces of their
compatriots, Aydin continued. Since the early days of the
Republic, immigrants have been pressured to speak Turkish
exclusively, adopt Islam (at least nominally; practicing the
faith is optional) and leave behind their native language and
culture. All who did so were accepted as Turks, in the
interest of establishing a large, unified, uniform nation.
Any efforts to study or comment on ethnic diversity are
viewed as threats to the State. Oran recalled a saying
posted on the classroom wall when he was in elementary
school: "Citizen, Speak Turkish." At the time, he viewed it
as encouragement to use proper Turkish grammar; he now
recognizes it as a warning to immigrants.

--------------
Kurds, Alevis Present Dilemma
--------------


12. (C) Aydin said the Kurds represent a unique dilemma for
the Turkish State -- they are Muslims, but many of them
maintain their mother tongue and assert their cultural
identity. This explains why the State long tried to deny the
existence of the Kurds as a distinct group, asserting until
the early 1990's that they are "mountain Turks" who speak a
"dialect." There appears to be no discrimination against
Kurds as long as they are assimilated into mainstream Turkish
society and do not make an issue of their Kurdish identity.
Such Kurds can hold high positions in the government and
bureaucracy. But those who speak Kurdish or otherwise
highlight their ethnic/cultural identity are viewed as
separatists.


13. (C) Tunc Ugdul, MFA Deputy Director General for
International Political Organizations, recently confirmed to
us the State's awkward relation to the Kurds. Ugdul
criticized the EU for referring to Kurds as a "minority,"
averring that, "We do not consider the Kurds a minority
because Kurds can become soldiers, police, judges, and
high-level government officials. They are not one of the
minorities that is prevented from holding those kinds of
positions." When asked whether it is official policy to bar
minorities from government jobs, Ugdul bobbed and weaved,
answering uneasily that non-Muslims are underrepresented in
government.


14. (U) Alevis also face suspicion as a large group outside
the Sunni Muslim mainstream. Some Alevis do not consider
themselves Muslim, while others view Alevism as a branch of
Islam. The GOT rejects any description that implies Alevis
constitute a religious minority. During a visit to Germany
in 2003, PM Erdogan stated that Alevism is "not a religion"
and that Alevi Cem houses are "culture houses" rather than
"temples." Many Alevis claim that Turks who openly identify
themselves as Alevi are barred from higher-level positions in
government. However, at least until recently, a fair number
of senior officers in the Turkish military were reportedly
Alevi.

--------------
Comment
--------------


15. (C) Owing to the "secular" nature of the working group,
the report fails to examine the status and role of religion
as it relates to the unresolved questions of minorities,
individual and national identity, and development of civic
society. Nevertheless, the report cogently exposes the heavy
social, intellectual, and psychological costs stemming from
the Turkish State's fearful and discriminatory approach to
minorities, Moreover, in concert with the EU's October 6
reports, the report has sparked a long-overdue debate on one
of the most sensitive, unresolved issues in Turkey.


16. (C) Unfortunately, there are as yet no voices on the GOT
side calling for change. The EU-related reform process has
focused on legal amendments, and the GOT has racked up
impressive accomplishments on paper in that field. But
Turkey's antiquated, suspicious approach toward minorities
serves as a reminder that the gap between Turkey and the West
is in some areas much wider than is usually acknowledged. A
pro-Turkey Danish diplomat formerly assigned to Ankara used
to say that the Turkey that joins the EU will have to be very
different from the Turkey that begins its harmonization
process. We agree. If harmonization is to be successful,
Turkey will have to undergo a profound, radical change in the
relationship between the State and its citizens. In this
regard, as many of our Turkish interlocutors admit, a Turkey
that hasn't figured out what it means to be "Turkish" will
not have the self-confidence truly to integrate with Europe.
EDELMAN