Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07ANKARA2713
2007-11-05 11:34:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ankara
Cable title:  

TURKEY: THE KURDISH DTP PARTY'S SQUANDERED

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PREL OSCE TU 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHAK #2713/01 3091134
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 051134Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4267
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//J-3/J-5//
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEUITH/ODC ANKARA TU//TCH//
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEUITH/TLO ANKARA TU
RUEHAK/TSR ANKARA TU
RUEHAK/USDAO ANKARA TU
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 002713 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL OSCE TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: THE KURDISH DTP PARTY'S SQUANDERED
OPPORTUNITY

Classified By: Adana PO Eric Green, reasons 1.4(b),(d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 002713

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL OSCE TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: THE KURDISH DTP PARTY'S SQUANDERED
OPPORTUNITY

Classified By: Adana PO Eric Green, reasons 1.4(b),(d)


1. (U) This is a Consulate Adana cable.


2. (C) Summary: Despite having 20 of its representatives in
parliament, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP)
has entirely sidelined itself during Turkey's confrontation
with Iraq over the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The DTP erred by refusing to distance itself sufficiently
from the PKK and spurning opportunities to play a
constructive role in parliament. It may well be that the DTP
was unable to distance itself from the PKK precisely because
the PKK pulls its strings. The ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP),consumed with protecting its flank
from nationalists and the military, has not explored ways to
exploit the DTP's new national role to achieve progress on
the political aspect of the Kurdish issue. As a consequence,
when the PKK conflict hit the boiling point in mid-October,
the DTP lacked the ability to play any meaningful role with
either the PKK hostage situation or as a channel of
communication with the KRG. As if wanting to further
marginalize itself, a DTP conference in Diyarbakir in late
October introduced constitutional proposals that will only
engender further suspicion about the party's goals. The
DTP's new leadership, to be elected on November 8, will
likely wait for a long time before it sees a fresh
opportunity to play a meaningful role in Turkish politics.
End summary.

High Hopes Dashed
--------------


3. (C) When they entered parliament after the July general
election, DTP deputies vowed they would avoid the amateurish
grand-standing that led to the dismissal of Kurdish
nationalists elected in the 1990s. At the level of symbolism
and protocol, things went well: DTP leader Ahmet Turk
publicly shook hands with (ultra-nationalist) MHP leader
Devlet Bahceli and DTP representatives were welcomed at
events by President Gul.


4. (C) Substantively, however, the DTP failed to enlarge the
small political niche it occupied in July into a platform

from which it could influence GOT policy on the Kurdish
issue. Most importantly, the DTP failed to even try to
exercise any moderating influence on the PKK, which has
intensified its attacks on Turkish military and civilian
targets, culminating in the deaths of over 40 people in
October. Secondly, when addressing the violence, DTP
spokesmen appear more like apologists for the PKK than
politicians fulfilling their democratic responsibilities.
Underscoring how tone-deaf it is to Turkish political
realities, a three-day DTP meeting in late October issued a
communiqu whose first paragraph praised imprisoned PKK
leader Ocalan's decisive role in achieving a "democratic
solution" to the Kurdish problem while making to reference to
the escalating crisis. The DTP's inability to establish an
independent role reinforces the impression that its actions
are largely dictated by the PKK, which appears interested
only in throwing up roadblocks to addressing the Kurdish
issue through parliamentary politics.


5. (C) PM Erdogan and the AKP have shown little interest in
using the DTP's presence in parliament as an opening for
exploring a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue. As the
situation with the PKK heated up, Erdogan used it as a litmus
test, making DTP condemnation of the PKK a pre-condition for
dialogue with his government. The DTP predictably refused;
this precluded any chance of the DTP occupying a position
somewhere between PKK terrorism and democratic politics.
Multiple DTP officials told us that if DTP MPs condemned the
PKK, "their own constituents wouldn't allow them back in
their districts."


6. (C) As a result, the AKP-DTP dialogue that had been
expected following the election was stranded on the
launch-pad. Siyar Ozsoy, an aide to Diyarbakir mayor Osman
Baydemir, noted that both the AKP and DTP bear responsibility
for mismanaging their relationship during the first months of
this parliament. Now, he said, the PKK and the Turkish
military are directing the game and the civilian politicians

ANKARA 00002713 002 OF 003


have much less influence.

What Now for the DTP? A Long Wait in the Wilderness
-------------- --------------


7. (C) The DTP now appears to have little choice but to wait
passively while the current PKK-Northern Iraq crisis unfolds
and then wait ) perhaps for years ) for another political
opening. Ozsoy noted that "when there is violence, the DTP
has no role." He also said that Kurds are growing tired of
the DTP's vague slogans calling for "peace and democracy."
The party needs to develop more concrete proposals on
cultural, socio-economic and political issues (and actually
do something for its constituents).


8. (C) The recent DTP-organized Diyarbakir conference made
some gestures in this direction, by advocating a new
administrative structure for Turkey called "democratic
autonomy," which would devolve substantial government
authority to regional parliaments throughout the country.
The communiqu also proposed that the constitutional
amendment process now underway embrace an ethnically neutral
concept of citizenship, instead of what they view as the
current ) in their view ) Turco-centric formulation, and
allow the use of other languages in education.


9. (C) Some mainstream politicians may sympathize with the
goal of loosening Turkey's highly centralized system, and
President Gul has talked eloquently about celebrating ethnic
diversity. The DTP, however, by introducing these ideas in
the midst of the most serious PKK-related crisis since the
late 1990s, has made such constitutional innovations even
less likely. The establishment now treats the DTP
declarations as an intolerable provocation. CHP vice
chairman Onur Oymen typified this stance, calling on the
judiciary to close DTP, since "each sentence of that
announcement was supporting terrorism and was in violation of
the basic principles of the Constitution."

Leadership Transition Unlikely to Shift Policy
-------------- -


10. (C) The DTP is expected to name Firat Anli as its new
party chair at the party's November 8 Ankara convention.
Born in 1970 in Diyarbakir, Anli served as the Diyarbakir
provincial chair of HADEP, the DTP's predecessor, and for
four years as a vice president of the provincial bar
association. In 2004, he was elected Mayor of the Yenisehir
district of Diyarbakir (analogous to a borough president who
reports to the mayor of the whole city).


11. (C) Sezgin Tanrikoglu, Anli's former boss at the bar
association, told us that he is hard-working and progressive,
but lacks the national experience of the current chairman,
Turk. As with any DTP chairman, Tanrikoglu said, Anli's
scope for action will be extremely limited by the prevailing
political atmosphere and "external factors", i.e. the PKK.
According to Seymus Diken, a journalist and media advisor to
Baydemir, Turk's removal as chair results from DTP's
disappointing showing in the election. It may also represent
revenge by Tuncer Bakir, a former HADEP national chairman,
whose team felt marginalized by the Turk leadership. Since
Turk will remain leader of the DTP's parliamentary group, the
party will have a two-headed (at least) structure, which is
unlikely to result in the development of a more unified,
coherent message.

Comment
--------------


12. (C) The marginalization of the DTP since the July
elections has many causes, including poor internal
leadership, PKK intransigence and the AKP's desire to avoid
appearing cozy with Kurdish nationalists at a time of rising
PKK violence. The result is that the GOT is now unable to
exploit the DTP's presence in parliament as an additional
conduit to the KRG authorities in Northern Iraq. The DTP is
in dangerous territory. Some of the statements from its
Diyarbakir conference - including referring to imprisoned PKK
leader Ocalan as the leader of the Kurds - put it and the
people it represents at risk. The more DTP is considered as

ANKARA 00002713 003 OF 003


a nuisance and less as a constructive tool, the greater the
risk the party will be banned. In that case, one contact
told us recently, only the PKK would rejoice in being able to
tell Turkey's Kurds and the world that no peaceful solution
to the Kurdish problem is possible.

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

MCELDOWNEY