Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04ANKARA6985
2004-12-16 10:35:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ankara
Cable title:  

THREE SOUTHEASTERN TURKISH MAYORS

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PREL TU 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006985 

SIPDIS

ISTANBUL PLS PASS ADANA

E.O.12958: DECL: 12/16/2025
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL TU
SUBJECT: THREE SOUTHEASTERN TURKISH MAYORS

REFS: A. ADANA 147

B. ANKARA 6213

Classified by Political Counselor John Kunstadter, E.O.
12958, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

This message is from AmConsul Adana.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006985

SIPDIS

ISTANBUL PLS PASS ADANA

E.O.12958: DECL: 12/16/2025
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL TU
SUBJECT: THREE SOUTHEASTERN TURKISH MAYORS

REFS: A. ADANA 147

B. ANKARA 6213

Classified by Political Counselor John Kunstadter, E.O.
12958, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

This message is from AmConsul Adana.


1. (SBU) Summary: In the Southeastern Turkish towns of
Viransehir, Kiziltepe, and Sirnak, pro-Kurdish DEHAP party
mayors have differing views on the Democratic Society
Movement (DSM),which appears to be DEHAP,s successor party:
while two mayors welcomed DSM, another thought DSM,s
leaders were only seeking to enhance their personal standing.
Two Sirnak lawyers are also unimpressed with DSM. There is
a widespread view in the Southeast that perceived U.S.
support for Kurdish autonomy in Iraq will have a spillover
effect in the Southeast. Bar and municipal contacts
predicted that internally displaced citizens would probably
approach the ECHR for compensation instead of the recently
formed Compensation Commissions. End Summary.

Is the new movement "new"?
--------------


2. (C) Southeastern Turkey,s pro-Kurdish DEHAP party mayors
share a party, but not all think alike. In Viransehir and
Kiziltepe, two towns an hour apart, mayors gave different
opinions on a number of topics. Viransehir,s second-term
DEHAP Mayor Emrullah Cin viewed the new Democratic Society
Movement (DSM) (ref A) as a positive development. "Reaching
out to others is a good thing," he said. Sirnak,s DEHAP
Mayor Ahmet Ertak agreed. However, Kiziltepe DEHAP Mayor
Cihan Sincar was downbeat on most everything, including DSM.
She hinted that she thought the people involved in the DSM
effort may be using it to enhance their own standing. "They
won't achieve anything," she said, "if they don't define the
problem correctly." Sincar also took exception to Leyla Zana
having reportedly told a Swiss op-ed writer than there was no
more torture in Turkey: "I'm here, and I say there is," she
insisted. (Note: Sincar's husband, Mehmet Sincar, was
elected to Parliament as a pro-Kurdish DEP party (one of
DEHAP,s predecessors) deputy along with Leyla Zana. He was
murdered in 1993 in a mysterious killing in Bingol, and to
date authorities have not charged anyone in his killing. End
note.) Cizre attorneys Mehmet Ali Dinler and Abdulgaffar

Dursun were equally unimpressed with the DSM, claiming it was
"the same old people" involved and there was nothing new or
exciting about the movement.

U.S. Iraq Policy Means &The Arrow has Left the Bow"
-------------- --------------


3. (C) The idea of a separate &Kurdistan8 still appears
not to have been extinguished in the Southeast. Mayor Sincar
referred to the &Kurdish problem8 as a regional rather than
internal Turkish issue. Attorneys Dinler and Dursun also
appeared separatist. The attorneys expressed pleasure with
President Bush's reelection and stated they wanted to see
actions like that in Iraq in both Syria and Iran. "The arrow
has left the bow," they said, reflecting the widely-held
perception in Southeast Turkey that U.S. support for Kurdish
autonomy in Northern Iraq will inevitably have a (positive,
in eyes of these lawyers) spillover effect for Kurds in
Turkey and elsewhere in the region. Poloff emphasized that
the European Union is the best way forward for reform in
Turkey, and stressed U.S. support for the territorial
integrity of Iraq. Separately, Sincar made expressed dismay
at recent media reports -- reports she believes -- that
Turkey is readying 40,000 troops for to enter Iraq in case of
trouble in Kirkuk.

One Mayor Focusing on Development and Reconciliation
-------------- --------------


4. (SBU) Viransehir, a town of 160,000, has little industry
or economic activity, and has seen over the past ten years a
significant influx of migrants from surrounding villages. In
the 1990s Viransehir benefited from oil smuggling from the
Habur border gate. Mayor Cin is trying to stay positive,
clear the city's debts and rustle up projects. Instead of
politics, during a recent visit he wanted to showcase his
efforts by providing a tour the new community center. The
center has Viransehir,s first movie theater, classrooms, a
library, and an income-generating weaving project. Cin was
vague on how the project was funded, like other DEHAP mayors
who have told us of community projects such as health centers
and cultural festivals. He claimed that at least 40,000 of
the city's citizens (including seven of his family members)
were in Europe currently, and remittances may play a role in
funding such projects, highly visible to community members.

5. (C) Cin was dismissive of the Social Solidarity Fund's
Conditional Cash Transfer program (ref B). (Note: Two
governors with whom we spoke in the region, however, were
positive about the program and seemed interested to hear
about the significant U.S. contribution to that effort. End
Note.) He worried that inadequate monitoring would result in
the project having little impact on education in the
Southeast. "Parents will take the money and still have the
kids out picking cotton," he said. He claimed that money
being transferred through the government to the poorest in
the Southeast is not as effective as community development
projects at the grassroots level through, for example, sister
city programs (he recently had a good experience with such a
project with Italians).


6. (C) Ertak is focused on reconciliation, bringing people
together during Ramazan by hosting a series of themed iftar
dinners for different segments of the community, most
recently an iftar dinner for 150 local women. Ertak claimed
that he had good relations with government officials in
Sirnak, although relations with the military in Sirnak had
been "cool" -- but perhaps thawing slightly in the wake of
the October 29 National Day celebration. However, in October
two Ministers from Ankara visited Sirnak and neither paid a
courtesy call on him, he noted. Sincar is pessimistic about
the prospects for improvements in the lives of Turkey's
ethnic Kurdish population, EU or no EU. (Note: She
expressed these views in mid-November, even before the
widely-publicized shooting death in Kiziltepe of Ahmet Kaymaz
and his 12-year-old son (septel),that have resulted in
demonstrations by some 10,000 Kiziltepe residents in the
streets of this town. End note.) She also predicted, as did
the Cizre attorneys, that citizens applying to Compensation
Commissions would refuse the amounts offered them and instead
take their cases to the European Court of Human Rights, where
they believe they can get better compensation.


7. (C) Comment: The three DEHAP mayors illustrate the wide
range of views and styles within the party. In Viransehir
there was a roll-up-your-sleeves, community development
approach. Sirnak's mayor gave the impression he had
conflict-avoidance approach, and we sensed a hint of fear
around him. (Note: For good reason. For years, government
security forces made Sirnak the Southeast,s mostly
tightly-controlled province; DEHAP,s predecessor HADEP was
in effect banned. Two HADEP officials disappeared in Sirnak
in 2000, having last been seen entering a jandarma station.
End Note.) In Kiziltepe, defiance, anger and despair
characterized the mood in the Mayor's office. Regardless of
how a mayor goes about his/her job, however, not much
meaningful development or public works can take place in
their majority-Kurdish municipalities absent real government
support, including fiscal support. Regional observers tell
us that Kurds do not expect DEHAP to solve their economic
problems, they just want an outlet to express their Kurdish
identity. For others, an outlet for expressing Kurdish
identity, let alone economic development, does not seem to be
enough. End comment.
EDELMAN