TURKEY: VIOLENT CLASHES CAST SHADOWS OF PAST COUPS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 000672 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/08/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL TU SUBJECT: TURKEY: VIOLENT CLASHES CAST SHADOWS OF PAST COUPS Classified By: Political Counselor Janice G. Weiner, for Reasons 1.4 (b ,d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY AND COMMENT. Violent clashes at universities around Turkey over the last several weeks, while small in scale, are being widely identified as deliberate provocations to polarize and destabilize the country. In the back of everyone's mind is clashes as prelude to a possible coup. If true, it is a dangerous game with which Turkey has bitter experience: the violence that bloodied the country in the lead-up to the 1980 military coup was later understood to have been at least partially provoked to bring Turkey to the point of welcoming military-imposed order. Current clashes, if indeed provoked, lend credibility to the claim of some contacts that those who see the Republic as under threat from Islamists have taken off the gloves, disregarding possible consequences. Whether along ideological, religious, or ethnic lines, polarization serves those who look for a return to less democratic, but more traditionally Turkish, governance. Most of Turkey's youth is too young to remember the lead-up to 1980 and thus potentially more susceptible. On a positive note, a wide range of observers see the recent violence in this light and condemn it. END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. ¶2. (SBU) A series of clashes at universities and a handful of other violent incidents are raising the specter of the widespread social violence that preceded the 1980 coup. The clash at Antalya's Akdeniz University over the weekend of April 5-6 is making headlines as it turns out that the two gun-wielding participants were not in fact university students. One of them, 34-year old Omer Ulusoy, had already been detained by the police five times. Ulusoy, who sports a sword tattoo across his forehead (said to be the sword of the prophet Ali),was a prominent participant in Antalya's Ulku Ocaklari (Nationalist Hearths) Youth Festival. Three students were stabbed, 18 injured, and 40 people taken into custody. "Hurriyet" daily writes that the tension at Akdeniz has been building for several weeks between "leftist ethnic view" (read Kurdish) and right-wing students. The paper quotes an anonymous student as saying that when the leftists burned a Turkish flag in the dorm, students brought in weapons, broke dorm windows, and harassed female students. "Then right-wing people from outside came, and incidents got bigger." ¶3. (SBU) Nationalist Action Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli, reportedly angered by reports about links between the Akdeniz perpetrators and MHP/idealist youth, instructed party officials to investigate allegations that gunman Ulusoy and his 19-year old colleague -- whom he termed provocateurs -- are members of the Nationalist Hearths, which functions unofficially as an MHP youth branch. MHP deputy group chairman Oktay Vural said that the Akdeniz incident "smells of provocation" and said trying to link it to MHP is unfair. Vural confirmed that after the incident, MHP sacked the leadership of the Antalya provincial party organization, which Ulusoy reportedly frequented. ¶4. (SBU) After the Akdeniz incident, the Security Directorate General decided to increase police presence outside the campuses of Ankara, Diyarbakir's Dicle, Izmir's September 9, Marmara, and Istanbul Universities through the end of the semester. Media reports of clashes and the motives behind them may be more easily manipulated than the clashes themselves, and such reports should be read with caution. Some of the incidents around the country, as reported in media and human rights websites, include: February 26 - Ankara Two television reporters were attacked by ultranationalist students with knives while trying to report on the headscarf issue at Gazi University. February 29 - Giresun After a vocational student was beaten by three ultranationalists, a Kurdish student complained that the university remained indifferent to harassment of leftist students. ANKARA 00000672 002 OF 003 March 8 - Ankara Clashes between two different leftist student groups resulted in more than 30 injuries at Ankara University's Education Faculty. March 10 - Bursa Right-wing students attacked leftist students at Uludag University. The following day, Jandarma prevented 250 people from protesting the attack and detained 64. Twelve students were injured in the would-be protest. March 11 - Adana Fifteen non-students entered Cukurova University campus and attacked a small group of leftist students with iron bars. March 25 - Ankara Leftist students were attacked with knives at Ankara University's Faculty of Letters, History, and Geography; some were seriously injured. One report contends that clashes began after a leftist student harassed the girlfriend of a right-wing student. Private security prevented students from holding a press conference to protest the attacks. April 2 - Istanbul Left-wing students organizing a commemoration of 1970s communist Mahir Cayan clashed with right-wing students at Istanbul University's Faculty of Literature. Twenty-six students were taken into custody. ¶5. (U) Clashes have also taken place at universities in Mugla, Afyonkarahisar, and Karabuk. Other unusual violent incidents that may or may not be related include: a hand-grenade thrown by a 10-year old in Istanbul on April 6; an April 7 attack in a Tarsus cafe that killed 5. Reactions -------------- ¶6. (SBU) The cabinet reportedly discussed the violence April ¶7. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek described the incidents as provocations and reminded that such incidents had happened in the past. Akdeniz University rector and Inter-University Board Chairman Mustafa Akaydin expressed concern that the pre-1980 period may emerge on campuses and said, "For weeks, such incidents are happening at universities." He noted that Akdeniz was selected as a target and that the incidents were provoked from outside. The Human Rights Association (HRA) issued a statement on April 7, referring to numerous violent incidents and objecting to what it characterized as discriminatory treatment of leftist and Kurdish-origin students. It alleged that students known as "nationalists" or "idealists" were protected and provoked against other youngsters. ¶7. (SBU) Some hold AKP responsible. Egitim-Sen leftist teachers' union president Alaaddin Dincer claimed that discussions about the headscarf and a new constitution pulled campuses into politics. He added that such incidents cannot be portrayed as simple left-right clashes. Middle East Technical University rector Akbulut called on the GOT to relax the atmosphere. ¶8. (SBU) Observers agree that polarization and destabilization are the goals of campus provocateurs. A few connect this violence, which disproportionately involves minors, to the clawings of the cornered Ergenekon organization, the alleged aim of which is to destabilize the country and facilitate a coup. Hasan Cemal of "Milliyet" described the Akdeniz incident as a trap laid for democracy and stability. He assessed the aim is to divide the youth into left-right, Islamist-secularist, idealist-revolutionary, Alevi-Sunni, and Turk-Kurd to pave the path for a coup. Gungor Mengi of "Vatan" describes the Akdeniz event as a plot designed to terrorize; he urged students, judges, administrators and security forces to cooperate against disruption. Taha Akyol of "Milliyet" pointed out that alleged nationalist youth involvement runs counter to MHP's general strategy and asked everyone on the right and left to isolate provocateurs. Prominent activist Sanar Yurdatapan observed, "What is pleasing today is that a majority of society is making this very analysis, that there are ANKARA 00000672 003 OF 003 provocations behind such a conflict." Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey WILSON