TURKEY'S SOUTHEAST: GOVERNOR REJECTS CLAIMS OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 001550

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY'S SOUTHEAST: GOVERNOR REJECTS CLAIMS OF
RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE

Classified By: Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons 1.4 b an
d d.

1.(C) Summary:, AMCON Adana PO discussed southeastern
Turkey's current situation with the Mersin governor, a
veteran government administrator in central and southeastern
Anatolia, including concerns about religious intolerance in
Tarsus (septel). Governor asserted that there are no
religious tolerance problems in Tarsus and asked that any
cases of such immediately be brought to his attention because
the Turkish government would not accept discrimination toward
its citizens on the basis of religion. He further stated
that SE Turkey's "real8 problems are the economy and
foreigner influence which have disrupted what he claimed are
otherwise historically balanced relations between Turkish
citizens in southeast Turkey over the last three decades. He
dismissed the need for private broadcasting in any language
other than Turkish and said Turkey's "race problems8 as
asserted from Europe need to be solved through a Turkish
super-identity for its citizens. End Summary.

2.(SBU) On March 11, AMCON Adana PO discussed southeastern
Turkey's current situation with Mersin Governor Atilla Osman
Celebioglu, a veteran government administrator with past
assignments in Sivas, Tunceli, Malatya and Kahramanmaras,
provinces in central and southeastern Anatolia, many of which
have seen considerable strife and host both Turkish
(Anatolian Shi'a) and Kurdish (Zaza-speaking Yarsanist) Alevi
populations. Mersin has a mixed Sunni, Alawi (Arabic and
Turkish-speaking "Alevi" sect whose practices are similar to
those found in Syria) Christian and Anatolia "Alevi"
population from both the groups described above.

3.(SBU) The governor reflected on the considerable increase
in use of the Mersin port for container traffic in the last
two years and what he described as "more intensive use" of
factories in eastern Mersin and western Adana in the last
year and a half. (Note: the corridor has a Pasabahce glass
factory; Sabanci Group CIMSA ready-mix concrete factory; and
a Sabanci Group TEMSA light bus factory - with Mitsubushi;
several regional light industrial goods distribution centers;
a petrochemical plant; and several textile factories. End
Note.) He said that the additional economic activity was
welcome, but unemployment remained high and considerable
internal migration continued to arrive in Mersin from
southeastern provinces. He also lamented that the Turkish
National Police and Jandarma had seen an increase in drug
trafficking in the region, mentioning as an example a recent
450 kilogram seizure of heroin in conjunction with
authorities from Istanbul and Hatay. "There are clearly more
drugs coming through from the east and, if we are seizing
more like we are, that means a lot more is probably coming
through here. Our coastline is too porous to patrol well and
it gets through here and heads to Europe that way," he said.
He said that drug use was also on the rise in Mersin,
mentioning inhalants as a problem. He also said that
trafficking in persons was an issue whose frequency was
increasing for police, noted that it was priority law
enforcement issue for the police and Jandarma and that most
trafficking through the region still seemed destined for
Istanbul and involved Russian, Ukrainian and former Soviet
Republic females.

4.(C) Celebioglu said that internal migration, the region's
violence and forced urbanization over the last two decades
were wearing the society's fabric thinner and making Turkish
society vulnerable to negative outside influences which
exaggerated sectarian tensions and encouraged forces that
were fostering alienation among internal groups in Turkey
which otherwise he depicted as having had harmoniously
co-existed. Without these outside influences, he
characterized Turkey as historically a "model country" where
Turks, Kurds and Armenians had lived together peacefully for
centuries. He repeated the shopworn Turkish official claim
that many Kurds in Turkey had been successful in politics,
even reaching the level of Prime Minister (note: presumably
meaning PM Turgut Ozal. End Note.) and that many Turkish
ministers had been Kurds as well. He then pointed to the
large number of very successful Kurdish ethnic business
people in Turkey, saying "just look here in Mersin." (Note:
the Arslan family is Kurdish and are very successful in
cereal and grain import-export; the family scion
unsuccessfully ran for mayor in Mersin last year on the AK
Party ticket. End Note.)
5.(C) "The real problems in Anatolia are economic. We had
no jobs and sent our workers to Europe, where they made
money, but were alienated from European society which did not
accept them. Some in these groups became radicalized, have
lost touch with what is really going on fine in Anatolia now
and perpetuate our problems by sending money and recruits who
actually know little about modern Turkey to cause problems
and violence here (note: presumably referring to PKK and
DHKP-C activities based in western Europe. End Note.). Then
European governments, who also know little about Anatolia,
give prescriptions for what we ought to do to change our
society. In the meantime the forces which Europeans have
sheltered have caused billions of dollars of damage and cost
tens of thousand of lives in eastern Turkey and caused
internal societal disruption which have deprived us of the
opportunity to invest in and develop that region in the way
that they now say is necessary," said Celebioglu.
6.(C) He claimed to be proud of the recent changes in
Turkish law, but said that they should have been made because
they met the needs of Turkish citizens, not European
conditions. Asked about his sense of whether private "mother
tongue" broadcasting was on the public agenda, he discounted
the need for any such broadcasting and pointed to state
broadcasts in Kurdish, Laz and Arabic, as well as several
other dialects, as more than sufficient . He said that
education was a high priority in the Black Sea region where
he was born and eastern Turkey and that scarce resources were
better spent improving school conditions and increasing
school attendance rather than pursuing non-Turkish language
education, another aspect of cultural rights Kurds in Turkey
seek. "There is no money for it and not that many Kurds
would really want it," he said.

7.(C) When AMCON ADANA PO raised reported intolerance toward
Alevi and Christian groups in Tarsus, the governor asserted
that that was impossible because the Turkish government would
not accept discrimination toward its citizens on the basis of
religion and asked that any such cases immediately be brought
to his attention. He then said that the Mersin police had
been arresting "Gypsy crime rings" (read: Roma ) which had
been responsible for a rise in property crime and smuggling
in the province. He also said that anyone who wished to
change the religious affiliation on his/her identity card was
free to do so and he did not believe that this was an issue
in Tarsus. When asked about police harassment of groups
trying to seek licenses for religious festivals or worship
services, he allowed that individual police might do so, but
there was no government policy along those lines.

8.(C) Comment: The veteran governor is the epitome of the
official Turkish government mindset frequently encountered
in southeastern Turkey, mindsets that have not changed in
decades but that must change if there is to be any progress
in the Southeast. The governor appeared no more in tune with
Southeastern Anatolia,s dynamics than the &outside forces8
onto which he deflects blame. This discussion featured less
of the confrontational tone and immediate calls for U.S.
attacks on the PKK in northern Iraq which are staple features
among administrators, prosecutors and police further east,
but shared the shallow, disingenuous intellectual
underpinning heard commonly among Turkish state officials in
the region.

9.(C) Comment,cont'd: The governor's views are a perfect
illustration of the regions,s bureaucratic hostility to
implementation of reform. The Diyarbakir Chief Prosecutor
has voiced similar discouraging views on the likelihood of
private "mother tongue" broadcast approval to AMCON Adana PO
and indicated no interest in prompt investigation with DNA
testing in a mass grave case in the province. Legal contacts
also report that many village restitution claims are being
rejected summarily by province courts based on the need for
evidence which is unreasonable given the state role in
village destruction during that period. In Tunceli the
Jandarma commander continues to try to intimidate a prominent
attorney from filing and pursuing village restitution claims
and calling for investigations into alleged past military
involvement in mass killings in that province. Turkish DCHOD
Basbug publicly also has belittled families seeking
investigations into regional mass grave cases as attempts to
bid up European Court of Human Rights restitution
settlements. Taken together, these actions or inactions,
underpinned by the broader governmental attitudes expressed
by the governor toward the EU accession process, demonstrate
the deep-rooted nature of resistance to implementation of
EU-related reforms which themselves in many cases were poorly
drafted. End Comment.

EDELMAN