TURKISH GOVERNMENT INQUIRES ON TWO DETAINEES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 007302 SIPDIS SIPDIS EMBASSY BAGHDAD PLEASE PASS MNF-I E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MOPS PREL TU IZ SUBJECT: TURKISH GOVERNMENT INQUIRES ON TWO DETAINEES (U) Sensitive but unclassified -- please protect accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) Summary and action request: The Turkish MFA has inquired about the status of two Turkish citizens it claims are CF detainees in Iraq. The MFA filed a diplomatic note about one alleged detainee; while it has not done so for the other, MFA personnel have made repeated informal inquiries with us. Request MNF-I provide information we can pass to the GOT on both detainees. End summary and action request. ¶2. (SBU) In late August 2005, MFA approached us requesting information on the following Turkish citizen, whose family had reported him detained by CF earlier that month: Name: SOYER, Gunay Father's Name: Huseyin Mother's name: Ese Place of birth: Seyhan, Adana, Turkey Date of birth: 1975 The Turkish MFA has said that Soyer was "employed by Turkish company ERKA, a contractor used by the 39th Wing at Incirlik Air Base. His last place of employment was in Mosul at the MFA base (NFI) pump station." MFA has asked: --What, if any, charges were pressed against Soyer? --If he is not charged, on what grounds is he being detained? --What advice can the MFA pass to his family on the earliest possible timing of his release, if found innocent of the charges or cleared on any suspicion? Post was able to learn the following information from Task Force Freedom in Mosul: Soyer was detained by MNF-NW soldiers for trespassing on a military installation on Aug. 1, and was transferred to Abu Ghraib on Aug. 18. Despite repeated inquiries by ODC-Turkey with MNF-I, however, we have received no further information on this detainee. ¶3. (SBU) The second detainee is Ali Iskender DINLER Father's Name: Huseyin Mother's Name: Naime Place of Birth: Ankara Date of Birth: 1 May 1969 ¶4. (SBU) The Turkish MFA sent us the following diplomatic note concerning Dinler on Dec. 5. Informal Embassy translation follows: BEGIN TEXT: Republic of Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2005/KOKD/508921 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey presents its compliments to the Embassy of the United States of America and attaches the copy of the application received from Afken Construction, Tourism and Trade Corp. As clearly noted in the mentioned application, the said company started providing food services to Kellogg Brown and Root Services (KBR) at the U.S. Military's H1 Palace -- Camp Freedom US Military in Mosul in July 2003. Ali Iskender Dinler started working at the mentioned camp as Operation Manager. In April 2005, he was called back to Turkey as he had a verbal argument with the Camp Manager Joey Wilson. Since then he had been in contact with the KBR authorities in Baghdad and Kuwait for business reasons. Some time ago he returned back to the U.S. Military's H1 Palace -- Camp Freedom for demobilization of dining-halls. On November 19, 2005, the fourth day of his stay in the camp, he was interrogated by the security guards of the KBR officials, was notified that he was banned from entering the camp, and was handed over to the US military authorities. Since then he has been under detention and under interrogation somewhere and he has not been released yet. During this period, Akfen has provided the US Army Officer Marcus T. Lewis all the ANKARA 00007302 002 OF 002 information he requested through email. The mentioned application requests the release of the said person (Mr. Dinler) who has been successfully working at their company and has committed no crime. The Ministry requests an investigation and information about the whereabouts of the noted person by using the above mentioned information and the attached documents. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey avails itself of the opportunity to renew to the Embassy of the USA the assurances of its highest consideration. Ankara, December 5, 2005 END TEXT ¶5. (SBU) In addition to the diplomatic note, MFA provided us a series of emails between Dinler's company, Akfen, and a SGT Marcus T. Lewis, U.S. Army Force Protection, Mosul (email address marcus.t.lewis@us.army.mil). Post has also received an inquiry on this case from the President of the Turkish Human Rights Association. WILSON