Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ANKARA4102
2006-07-13 13:42:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ankara
Cable title:  

TURKEY: GOVERNING AKP BACKSLIDING ON INTRAPARTY

Tags:  PGOV PREL PINS TU 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004102 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/13/2025
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: GOVERNING AKP BACKSLIDING ON INTRAPARTY
DEMOCRACY


Classified By: Janice G. Weiner, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004102

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/13/2025
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINS TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: GOVERNING AKP BACKSLIDING ON INTRAPARTY
DEMOCRACY


Classified By: Janice G. Weiner, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary. PM Erdogan's governing Justice and
Development Party (AKP) claims to support democratic
pluralism and is generally considered to be more internally
democratic than other Turkish political parties. AKP,s
senior leadership, though, routinely interferes in provincial
conventions and has recently expelled from the party AKP MPs
and other members who publicly disagree with the leadership.
The AKP is a diverse coalition and the leadership,s
opposition to intraparty democracy may be intended to balance
the factions within the party. End Summary.

-------------- --------------
AKP Initially Supported Intraparty Democracy and Dissent
-------------- --------------


2. (C) When the governing and pro-Islam Justice and
Development Party (AKP) was formed in the summer of 2001, the
party,s founders claimed that AKP would be a new kind of
Turkish political party. The party,s founders emphasized
the importance of intraparty democracy, collegial
decision-making, and open debate. In August 2001, Erdogan
even paraphrased Voltaire, saying, "I do not agree with your
views, but I am ready to give away my life for you to be able
to express your views freely."


3. (C) On March 1, 2003, in a free vote, over 100 AKP MPs
defected from the position advocated by their party,s
leadership and voted against authorizing the U.S. military to
enter Iraq from Turkish soil. At the time, this move was
hailed by many observers as an indication of AKP,s
commitment to intraparty democracy --- a first in Turkey.

--------------
Party Leadership Exerts Control
--------------


4. (C) On February 1, 2003 --- three months after AKP,s
November 2002 electoral victory and a month before the famous
March 1 vote --- AKP,s Founders, Board adopted nine
undemocratic amendments to the party bylaws which increased
the power of party provincial and sub-provincial chairmen and
dramatically reduced the level of intraparty democracy. One
amendment allowed he party chairman to give a single
individual rom the Central Administrative Board the power to

expel members from the party. Another amendment allowed
provincial and sub-provincial party chairmen, rather than
provincial or sub-provincial conventions, the power to
appoint most local AK Party officials. A third amendment
gave party convention chairmen greater control over the
convention process.


5. (C) Over the past few months, Prime Minister Erdogan and
the senior leadership within AKP have repeatedly interfered
in local AKP conventions. The AKP leadership wants local
party conventions to nominate only a single individual for
that province's party chairmanship. In some cases, the AKP
leadership is openly intervening in the process in favor of a
handpicked candidate. The AKP leadership has further
intervened to postpone conventions in Isparta, Bingol, and
several other provinces when the delegates refused to
nominate only one candidate for the chairmanship. Erdogan
summoned the nine strongest of twenty-three candidates in
Agri province to Ankara and ordered them to nominate a single
candidate for their convention. In Ankara province, Erdogan
and other senior party leaders openly intervened to support
incumbent chairman Nurettin Akman --- an AKP moderate and
longtime Embassy contact --- against a more radical
challenger from the poor district of Altindag.


6. (C) Most AK Party members we talk to readily admit the
lack of intraparty democracy, but defend the party
leadership,s right to interfere in provincial conventions.
Orhan Kaya, a businessman and a candidate to become the AKP
vice-chairman for Ankara province, told us that the AKP
leadership is trying to diffuse tensions and balance various
factions within the party. Provincial chairmen are powerful
and the central party leadership does not want chairmen to
gain too much power or build factions within the party.
Ismail Safi, a businessman, founding member of AKP, and AKP
VP for International Affairs, admitted that AKP is not fully
democratic, but reminded us that all Turkish parties are

ANKARA 00004102 002 OF 002


undemocratic due to Turkish political traditions. Safi
emphasized that AKP remains committed to democracy in the
long run. He also pointed out that the AKP leadership is
more committed to a strong U.S.-Turkish relationship than the
party,s grassroots. Ramazan Basak, a young Kurdish
businessman from Sanliurfa and a member of the AKP provincial
organization in Ankara, told us that Erdogan and the
grassroots want AKP to be internally democratic, but other
AKP politicians are afraid of intraparty democracy and
Erdogan is forced to support their demands in order to keep
the party from falling apart. Basak predicts that
democratizing reforms will come to AKP with time.

--------------
Intolerance of Dissent
--------------


7. (C) Tolerance of dissent is another hallmark of internal
party democracy. AKP has tolerated dissent, but only to a
certain extent, apparently concerned with holding its big
tent party together. AKP has expelled several MPs from the
party over the past few years for their public statements
criticizing the party leadership. Although it is common for
Turkish political parties to expel members who publicly
disagree with the party leadership, this contradicts AKP,s
pledge when it was founded five years ago to be a more
democratic and open political party.


8. (C) On June 29, the AKP Disciplinary Board expelled
maverick Afyon MP Mahmut Kocak from the party. Kocak was
expelled on the grounds that his public remarks had harmed
the party. He had repeatedly criticized PM Erdogan and the
AKP leadership for undermining intraparty democracy and
ignoring allegations of corruption. Although a number of AKP
deputies --- including Ersonmez Yarbay, Turhan Comez,
Ertugrul Yalcinbayir, and Abdullah Caliksan --- spoke out
publicly in favor of intraparty dissent and against Kocak,s
expulsion, the majority of deputies seem to have accepted the
AKP Disciplinary Board,s decision.


9. (C) Kocak is not the only critic expelled from AKP. Hatay
MP Fuat Gecen was expelled from the party on June 6 and
Istanbul MP Goksal Kucukali resigned from the party in 2005
after his name was sent to the Disciplinary Board. On May
29, six party members in Tarsus were expelled from the party
for criticizing the central party leadership. There have
been other cases of individuals being expelled or forced to
resign from the party too, but some of those were due to
corruption allegations.


10. (C) Comment. Turkey is a democratic country; but, as in
many European countries, intraparty democracy is not the
hallmark of Turkish democracy. AKP has built a diverse
political coalition pulling together various Islamic groups
and many pious but secular, center-right voters. The
leadership's opposition to intraparty democracy may be
intended to balance the factions within the party or to
maintain moderate leadership over the party. The leadership
may believe that its strategy is working for now; whether it
can, in the future, regain a greater measure of democracy may
prove an indicator if its ultimate staying power as a major
force on the Turkish political scene. However, if the
party's lack of internal democracy slides into
authoritarianism, the party will face the same fate as other
failed Turkish political parties. End Comment.

Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/

WILSON