Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05ANKARA4245
2005-07-22 13:44:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ankara
Cable title:  

EUR/SE DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S VISIT TO ADANA: KURDISH

Tags:  PREL PGOV MOPS PHUM TU PKK 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004245 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/22/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV MOPS PHUM TU PKK
SUBJECT: EUR/SE DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S VISIT TO ADANA: KURDISH
ISSUES


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

(U) This is a Consulate Adana cable.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004245

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/22/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV MOPS PHUM TU PKK
SUBJECT: EUR/SE DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S VISIT TO ADANA: KURDISH
ISSUES


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

(U) This is a Consulate Adana cable.


1. (C) Summary:Incoming EUR/SE Dep. Director Baxter Hunt
visited Adana on July 19, meeting with local AK Party
officials, attorneys and human rights advocates, and 39th
Wing officials. AK party officials expressed confidence about
the continuing appeal of the party and cited the lack of U.S.
action in Iraq against the PKK as the chief problem in
U.S.-Turkey bilateral relations, which they otherwise
considered to be on a sound basis. An AK party mayor
expressed concern about "Southern Kurdistan Republic
Government" stamps he claimed were placed in Turkish
drivers' passports at the Turkish-Iraqi border. Lawyers and
human rights advocates criticized what they saw as shallow
GoT democratization efforts and poor implementation of
newly-passed laws and judicial procedures. Several contacts
described strong Kurdish desires for more cultural rights
and Alevi desires to eradicate or reform the State Religious
Affairs Department. Hunt visited the 39th Wing at Incirlik
Air Base, receiving briefings on ongoing cargo hub and tanker
support missions. End Summary.


2. (C) Incoming EUR/SE Dep. Director Baxter Hunt visited
Adana on July 19, meeting with local AK Party officials,
including party provincial chief Abdullah Dogru and Seyhan
mayor) Dr. Azim Ozturk. Both expressed confidence that AK
Party is doing well in local constituents' eyes because of
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan,s charismatic leadership, the
AK party's "clean, honest image in comparison to its
predecessors", the party's grassroots strength, its focus on
raising living standards (citing fuel subsidies to regional
farmers as an example) and its delivery of public services,
especially infrastructure. Both predicted long-term AK party
political success. Dogru and Ozturk claimed that AK also
faces almost no effective domestic opposition and neither
foresaw issues which would decrease significantly AK's
internal party cohesion. In a later meeting, a human rights
advocate and attorney, with self-described center-left

political views, took issue with the latter internal AK
assessment, saying that corruption allegations linked to the
Albayrak group could weigh AK down and observed that "many
people see the AK party's commitment to real reform as thin
and just a game to deflect the military with an EU shield."
Both Dogru and Ozturk downplayed the role of religious values
in AK party internal deliberations on public policy. Dogru,
saying that he himself was half-Kurd and that several AK
ministers also were Kurdish, said that AK had done enough on
the "Kurdish agenda," and that the Turkish government had
higher priorities to address now with its scarce resources.
He rejected a link between fighting terrorism and a broader
democratization program addressing Kurdish activists'
demands. Ozturk, commenting on the GoT's democratization
program, said that the GoT did not believe in democratization
for a specific religious or ethnic group, but believed it
should focus on initiative which benefited all Turks, citing
efforts to improve housing, roads and living standards.


3. (C) Both Dogru and Ozturk cited the lack of U.S. action
in Iraq against the PKK as the chief problem in U.S.-Turkey
relations, which they otherwise considered to be on a sound
basis. Ozturk drew attention to PM Erdogan's public comments
about a possible unilateral incursion into Iraq to attack the
PKK and said that such a step was avoidable if the U.S. would
not move against the PKK there. Hunt and AMCON ADANA PO
repeated remarks by CJCS Myers about a possible Turkish
incursion into northern Iraq. Ozturk stated that it is
particularly worrisome to the GoT and AK Party to see
"Southern Kurdistan Republic Government" stamps placed in
Turkish drivers' passports by Kurdish officials at the
Ibrahim Khalil gate opposite Habur gate on the Turkish-Iraqi
border. In a meeting with a U.S. military official who
manages the ground line of communication into Iraq through
the Habur Gate, Hunt also heard a report of Kurdish troops
(probably peshmerga or peshmerga-associated) at the Ibrahim
Khalil gate starting to wear a new shoulder patch symbolizing
the Kurdish Regional Government instead of central Iraqi
authority symbols.


4. (C) Lawyers and human rights advocates criticized what
they termed as shallow GoT democratization efforts and poor
implementation of newly-passed laws and judicial procedures,
saying this was based on both entrenched state elite
philosophical resistance to reform and case load constraints.
As an example, several lawyers cited judges' and
prosecutors' resistance to allowing cross-examination of
witnesses, citing likely prolongation of trials and already
excessive case loads. The lawyers declared that the National
Police (TNP) is selectively shaping evidence in national
security cases to exclude information contrary to State
assertions and also suggested that there is inappropriate TNP
conduct of operations in the case. They also claimed that, in
these national security cases, there is a routine absence of
basic physical evidence or analysis thereof. An examination
of victims' clothes and medial records could shed light on
whether the authorities used torture or the manner in which
defendants were killed or injured during TNP operations.
Attorneys also said that pre-trial investigation still is
conducted by police, not prosecutors. Two attorneys did say
that there had been meaningful change in providing for
defense attorneys for those arrested, notifying arrestees of
their right to an attorney, and authorities, allowing the
presence of defense attorneys during questioning.


5. (C) Several contacts described Kurdish desires for
greater cultural rights, including Kurdish-language
instruction in public schools, Kurdish-language broadcast
rights, greater devolution of authority from governors to
elected municipal leaders, reduction of the 10 percent
electoral threshold, and recognition of a "legitimate group
identity for Kurds" within the Turkish republic. When one
contact tried to characterize U.S. efforts in Iraq as aimed
at allowing a Kurdish state to form, Hunt and AMCON ADANA PO
pressed back, pointing out U.S. support for Iraqi territorial
integrity and the need for all Iraqi's to support the
constitutional-drafting process.


6. (C) Another contact explained Alevi desires, that the
Religious Affairs Department either be dissolved or changed
to include support for Turkey's Alevis. The Alevi contact
said that Turkey's 12 million-member Alevi community (Note:
This figure is exaggerated; the real number is closer to 7
million. End Note) will resist what he called the "Sunni"
Religious Affairs Department's assimilation policy.


7. C) All the lawyers with whom Hunt met asserted that the
Turkish State and Government will not change without
sustained pressure for change from outside and pressed for
the U.S. to continue to support Turkey's EU accession
process. Hunt assured them of continuing U.S. support.



MCELDOWNEY