TURKEY: CHP'S EMBRACE GETS COLD SHOULDER IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 001137

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/17/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: CHP'S EMBRACE GETS COLD SHOULDER IN
SOUTHEAST

REF: 2007 ANKARA 2834

Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Kelly Degnan, for reasons 1.4
(b,d)


1. (U) This is a joint EMBASSY Ankara-Consulate Adana cable.


2. (C) SUMMARY. Republican People's Party (CHP) chairman
Deniz Baykal traveled to Turkey's Kurdish southeast June 4-5
to deliver a message of understanding for the needs of the
region's farmers and of pride in Turkey's ethnic diversity
and richness. Party officials emphasize the symbolic gesture
of holding CHP's executive committee meeting in Diyarbakir
but remind that Baykal's words reiterate CHP's long-standing
views. Some party insiders acknowledge, against a background
of controversy and the 2007 elections, that CHP is wholly
discredited in the southeast -- a view shared by Kurdish
observers as well. END SUMMARY.


3. (SBU) Baykal's road show to the southeast included
attending an agriculture and farmers' convention in the
southeastern city of Sanliurfa, where he acknowledged the
challenges faced by farmers and called for eliminating
terrorism and replacing the atmosphere of tension and
hostility with a culture of dialogue and mutual respect. He
emphasized cultural identity as a question of individual
dignity and a source of national richness. Baykal warned
that Turkey is in the process of giving 27 EU member states
the right to intervene in its destiny, implying that
integrating Turkey from within was a necessary antecedent to
integrating with Europe. Without referring to his Secretary
General, Onder Sav, who has yet to apologize for comments
viewed as insulting the Prophet Mohammed, Baykal stated that
freedom of expression should take a backseat to sacred
feelings, reminding his audience that CHP reacted strongly to
Danish caricatures of the Prophet. CHP's June 5 executive
committee meeting in Diyarbakir was the first such meeting in
the southeast since 1994. Baykal's visit was marred by the
tragic death of CHP's deputy youth branch chairman, Ersin
Cildir, killed when the bus he was riding on top of went
under an overpass; Baykal was criticized for pressing on with
his trip.


4. (C) Commenting on Baykal's visit, Deputy Secretary General
Algan Hacaloglu told us identity and economics fit together
well; where there is political stability and self-confidence,
capital follows. The key to addressing the southeast's
cultural and economic needs is integration, he said,
asserting that CHP opposes assimilation; people should be
free to develop their identities. While Baykal was greeted
in Diyarbakir by citizens throwing eggs distributed by a
local grocer -- according to Hacaloglu, a Turkish Hezbollah
supporter, an organization he implied the US supports --
Hacaloglu characterized the welcome in Sanliurfa as warmer.
"Diyarbakir is a politically-motivated city," he remarked.
CHP's lone southeastern deputy, Turkish Alevi Sevket Kose of
Adiyaman, could not identify for us a single concrete step
that CHP should take to back up Baykal's words. Deputy
Atilla Kart, a Kurd representing Konya, conceded the party's
current mentality misses the point; its bureaucratic and
"bone-like cadre" is out of touch with the people and has
generated a crisis of confidence among the public. CHP has
to woo the people back. Sinop deputy Engin Altay agreed that
confidence is already lost; when Baykal went to embrace the
people, they turned their backs to him.


5. (C) Kurdish intellectual Serafettin Elci, former cabinet
member and currently head of a small federalist party
(KADEP),explained that after years of anti-Kurdish rhetoric,
it is impossible to take Baykal's nice words seriously. CHP
has been rigid and hostile not only to Turkey's Kurds, but
also to Northern Iraqi Kurds; Baykal's speech last fall (ref
A) was not about improving relations with the government in
Northern Iraq but rather about perpetuating existing
policies. Describing Baykal as "an old friend," Elci asked
whether Baykal would initiate any action on improved language
rights, and if not, would he support those who did? Elci was
skeptical.


ANKARA 00001137 002 OF 002


SE Welcoming but Skeptical
--------------

6. (SBU) Baykal's visit was the culmination of several months
of behind-the-scenes outreach by CHP to respected people in
the region. The outreach was dictated by the party's dismal
results of the 2007 election, when CHP's vote collapsed in
the southeast and much of central Anatolia, allowing AKP to
boast (correctly) that it is the only party in Turkey with
genuine national appeal. According to Altan Tan, a
researcher and writer from Diyarbakir, CHP members were
uninformed about Kurdish issues at a briefing he gave at CHP
headquarters in 2007. Sezgin Tanrikulu, President of the
Diyarbakir Bar Association, told us he has met with Baykal
three times since January, including during Baykal's June
visit, and sensed a change in Baykal's and CHP's views
concerning the Kurdish issue. Tanrikulu said Baykal's
statement may have been a recognition that his previously
negative attitude about Kurdish cultural and linguistic
rights and overall democratization in Turkey and his stance
on EU accession have a detrimental effect on the country.


7. (C) Tan hopes Baykal's visit does not prove to be a
one-off; if he repeats these messages in Ankara he could make
a substantial difference because he has strong influence on
the military, the judiciary and other conservative elements
of the Turkish establishment. Writing in "Taraf" daily,
influential columnist Ahmet Altan went even further, saying
Baykal's remarks mark a turning point in respecting Turkey's
multicultural identity, noting that Kurds will now be able to
proudly say they are Kurds.


8. (C) Other contacts were far less charitable toward
Baykal's speeches, saying his visit was crafted solely as a
gambit to repair CHP's reputation in the region. Nurcan
Baysal, leader of a development NGO, said, "No one believes
he wants to solve the Kurdish problem. He is making
political calculations. When politicians are in the
southeast, they say one thing, when they go back to Ankara,
they forget." Halil Balkan, the President of Sirnak's
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said people do not care
what Baykal said because they think he made the remarks to
curry favor in advance of the March 2009 local elections.


9. (C) COMMENT: If Baykal is expecting to reap immediate
political benefits from his trip to the southeast, he is
likely to be disappointed; the region remains highly
skeptical about CHP, which Kurds believe has been on the
wrong side of the Kurdish issue in recent years. Asked about
Baykal's visit, one uneducated Kurdish woman told a reporter,
"You can't make bread with words." If Baykal wants to win
over skeptics, he will need to let his words in Urfa guide
his deeds in Ankara. One important act would be for CHP to
support economic and social reforms under discussion in
parliament and agree to meet with pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP) members. CHP's new party program, which
Hacaloglu currently heads, will be another indicator of the
party's commitment to reforms. END COMMENT.

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WILSON