TURKEY: NGO'S PRESENT KURDISH SOLUTIONS TO A

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000690

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/11/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL OSCE TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: NGO'S PRESENT KURDISH SOLUTIONS TO A
DISTRACTED GOT


Classified By: Consulate Adana Principal Officer Eric Green, reasons 1.
4 (b),(d)

Summary and Comment
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1. (C) A broad coalition of Diyarbakir civil society
organizations sent a delegation to Ankara this week to
present a series of recommendations on how the government can
address the Southeast's socio-economic problems. On the
economic side, the recommendations focus on improving the
effectiveness of numerous government investment programs and
encouraging additional spending on local infrastructure,
particularly the irrigation network. For dealing with the
political dimensions of the Kurdish issue the report calls
for adopting a "civilian and democratic" constitution that
reflects EU values and spells out specific measures to loosen
restrictions on Kurdish language and cultural expression. By
steering clear of the amnesty question (and other issues
closely associated with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK)),the report's advocates may get more traction in
their efforts to persuade the GOT that it can make meaningful
progress on the Kurdish issue before facing the more
politically divisive questions.


2. (C) The AKP will approach the Kurdish issue in the coming
months through the prism of its closure court case. The
party may consider accelerating the EU agenda progress on
broad democratic reforms to be in its interest, but will
likely be more cautious on Kurdish-specific initiatives on
language/cultural rights lest it be accused of conceding to
PKK demands. End summary and comment.

A Pragmatic Manifesto
--------------

3. (U) A coalition of business, human rights and women's
organizations from Turkey's southeast spent part of the week
in Ankara meeting with political parties, Prime Minister
Erdogan and President Gul to present a report with
recommendations for achieving socio-economic progress on the
Kurdish issue. The report contains dozens of
recommendations, including:

--The State must play a more active role in infrastructure
development in the region and ensure that state investment is
distributed fairly.

--The New Incentive (subsidy) Law must focus on the
southeastern region and should prioritize highly competitive
sectors to create higher value-added industries in the region.

--A civilian international airport must be built in
Diyarbakir to serve the region and more ring roads must be
built to facilitate regional transportation. (The current
airport in Diyarbakir is controlled by the Turkish Air Force.)

--Investment for building border gates, infrastructure and
highways must urgently be expedited to promote border trade
with neighboring countries.

--The GAP (Southeastern Anatolian Project) must be
restructured to ensure more equal distribution of resources
to the nine GAP provinces and the GAP irrigation plans must
be completed quickly.

--The EU and democratization process must continue with
determination; the following steps must be taken to open the
path for solving the Kurdish problem:

a- All restrictions on freedom of expression and cultural
rights must be removed.
b- All restrictions on broadcasting in non-Turkish languages
in public and private broadcasting media must be removed.
c- Educational institutions at all levels should offer
education in the mother tongue as an elective course.
d- Kurdish Language, History, and Literature departments or
institutions should be opened in universities.
e- Services must be provided in the mother tongue at public
institutions and offices.
f- Kurdish names should be restored to villages in the region.
g- The Political Parties Law should become democratic and the

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election threshold must be lowered from 10 percent to a just
level.
h- A comprehensive project to address the economic and social
problems of people who were forced to migrate from their
villages must be implemented.

The Dialogue Continues, But Hopes are Dim
--------------


4. (C) The emphasis on economic recommendations reflects the
influence of the business organizations and the group's
desire to show that it is pushing ideas that the government
can achieve politically. (One human rights organization
withdrew from the delegation because it wanted more political
recommendations included.) Sahismail Bedirhanoglu, the
president of GUNSIAD, a business association, explained to us
the group talked about amnesty for PKK fighters in their
briefings but did not include the topic in the report because
they do not believe the GOT is prepared to take action on
amnesty in the near future. If the proposals the NGOs
recommended are implemented, he said, then civil society
institutions would be in a better position to pressure the
PKK to give up its weapons.


5. (C) Bedirhanoglu also confirmed media reports that during
the group's meeting with PM Erdogan, the PM and Diyarbakir
Bar Association President Sezgin Tanrikulu got into a heated
debate over the question of language rights for Kurds,
prompting Tanrikulu to walk out of the meeting early.
Another participant in the meeting, AKP deputy Abdullahrahman
Kurt, told us that the PM and Tanrikulu have butted heads in
the past, but that he and others in the room told Erdogan
that Tanrikulu should be respected because he is a
constructive force in the region.


6. (C) Kurt believes the PM will determine the pace of the
reforms, but warned that he will be cautious about moving
"too rapidly" on language/culture/democratization reforms
because he does not want to be criticized for being too
lenient on the PKK. He added the AKP closure case will also
inevitably distract the government from making rapid progress
in the southeast. Bedirhanoglu echoed this pessimism, noting
the NGOs held these meetings in order to keep the
conversation going on the Kurdish issue, but their hopes of
significant progress in the coming months are diminishing.

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WILSON