CONGRESSIONAL STUDY GROUP GETS BROAD VIEW OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ISTANBUL 000346 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/07/2019 TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV TU AR GR CY OSCE SUBJECT: CONGRESSIONAL STUDY GROUP GETS BROAD VIEW OF ISSUES IN TURKEY REF: ISTANBUL 0069 Classified By: Consul General Sharon A. Wiener for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) Summary. A Congressional Study Group arranged by the Association of Former Members of Congress met with leadership from the Jewish Community, Armenian Archbishop, analyst Hugh Pope, Kurdish intellectual Umit Firat and GOT EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis between September 1-3. Both Jewish and Armenian leadership stressed that unwritten laws prevent minorities from being civil servants and military officers, but the Jewish leadership placed some of the responsibility for the current situation on their own shoulders for not pushing the GOT for equality. Pope and Bagis provided their assessments of Turkey's current position vis-a-vis the EU, both contending that Turkey is moving in the right direction despite challenges with Cyprus. Firat presented the "democratic opening" proposed by the AKP as a positive indicator that Turkey is finally addressing its political issues long kept under the rug. End Summary. Jewish Community Leadership -------------- ¶2. (C) On September 2 Turkey's Jewish Community President Sylvio Ovadya and Vice president Lina Filiba presented background on the Jewish Community in Turkey to the Congressional Study Group, which included two former and four current representatives -- Doug Lamborn (R-CO),Frank Lucas (R-OK),Pedro Pierluisi (D-PR),and John Shadegg (R-AZ) -- and explained the community's current challenges. Ovadya and Filiba both stressed that "No one wants to be simply tolerated, especially if they are equal citizens of a country." Ovadya explained that while the Jewish community has close relations with the state and GOT, unwritten laws prevent Jews from being civil servants and serving as officers in the military. Filiba did note that there are 150 Jewish academicians at Turkish universities who carry the green passports of civil servants. Filiba placed some of the responsibility for the current situation on the shoulders of the members of the Jewish community who allowed themselves to be stifled by the situation and fa il to pursue ideals. "Not many people are courageous enough to do this," she explained. ¶3. (C) Filiba emphasized that the GOT is currently seeking to include more minorities in decision-making processes due to Turkey's EU accession bid and pressure from EU authorities. Filiba confirmed that, like the Armenian Patriarchate, the Jewish community had been approached about providing suggested names for the GOT's EU Secretariat. She criticized the Armenian Archbishop's decision to go to public with the GOT's approach instead of working with the GOT with more political savvy. Armenian Archbishop Atesyan -------------- ¶4. (U) The Archbishop provided basic background on the Turkish Armenian population in Istanbul and Anatolia (Ref A), explaining that only 45 of 2,200 Armenian Orthodox churches remain in Turkey and the number of openly Armenian Orthodox Turks in Anatolia numbers only at 3,000 because of perceived danger to individuals or family. At this time 67,000 Turkish Armenians live in Istanbul, where 22 priests offer services on a rotational basis in Istanbul's 38 churches. Atesyan said he will be traveling to New York on the 14th of September to visit cousins and to solicit funds from wealthy Armenian Turks who had migrated from Diyarbakir for the renovation of Sirp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir. Hugh Pope -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Journalist and analyst Hugh Pope from the International Crisis Group spoke briefly to the CSG about Turkey's location at a metaphoric crossroads. "It is not going anywhere" he contended, and "it is not really a world player." Overall, however, Pope assessed that in its slow progress Turkey has been changing for the better and that "Europe is the eventual story for Turkey." Turkey is three decades away from achieving the average GDP of the European Union and for this reason at least eight EU countries look at Turkey's accession as an impossibility. Pope also emphasized ISTANBUL 00000346 002 OF 002 the need for a solution to Cyprus by April 2010, otherwise, he contended, it will end up divided and push Turkey away from the EU. Even the Middle East wants Turkey to join the EU, as a way of ensuring Turkey's consistency and non-rogue stateness. Pope also qualified Obama's choice to use the Armenian word for the "great catastrophe" on April 24 as brilliant and said he believed by holding back, Obama allowed Turkey to move forward with Armenia. Egemen Bagis -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Bagis briefed the CSG on Turkey's EU accession process. Referring to the EU as "Turkey's dietician," he pointed to the improved health of the 27 countries that have already implemented the "dietician's criteria" and indicated that Turkey's own economic and social health has already improved in the reform process. Currently the GOT is working on opening the taxation and environment chapters. Turkey will equalize its taxes on domestic and imported liquor by 2018, he explained, and move toward lead-free fuels. In reference to the societal components of EU accession, Bagis said he "is not claiming we have solved minority problems, but overall they are better." ¶7. (SBU) Bagis also shared that the Greek Cypriots had announced they would not participate in an upcoming planning meeting on Cyprus. He pointedly said that only the United States could help Turkey make or break a deal on Cyprus, but he was not confident about where the Obama administration stood on the situation. Overall, he was not optimistic about progress on Cyprus given a host of factors. He explained that Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis announced he was going to hold early elections and worried that, "Anti-Turk rhetoric and nationalism increases every time there is an election period in Greece." Turkey as a Regional Player -------------- ¶8. (C) The Istanbul Policy Center organized an off-the-record roundtable discussion for the CSG with prominent academics, industry leaders, journalists, and economists to discuss Turkey's role in the region. The participants agreed that Turkey and the United States had a proactive role to play together in guaranteeing that Iran does not develop nuclear weaponry. There was some discussion, without a conclusion, as to whether Turkey could continue to play an effective mediating role in the region following Davos and in view of its perceived close ties to the United States. A representative from the German Marshall Fund emphatically stated that Turkish political leaders need to start guiding Turkish public opinion on its relationship with the United States, especially in light of a depressingly low 14 percent approval rating of the United States. The "Democratic Opening" -------------- ¶9. (SBU) In a meeting with the CSG, Kurdish intellectual Umit Firat stressed that Turks suffer from a paranoia about "divisibility" - fearful that any number of groups is trying to break apart the unified country at any time. Firat considered the "democratic opening" recently put forth by the AKP as a turning point, representing the first time Turkey had addressed its smoldering political issues, including the minority question, Alevis, secularity, and Cyprus. Despite the internal efforts of various civil society groups, he said, it took the EU as a catalyst to bring Turkey to address its paranoia. The opening of TRT6 (a 24-hour state channel broadcasting in Kurdish) on January 1, approval by the Board of Higher Education to permit Kurdology Departments in universities, and the Minister of Interior's consultations with civil society members, combined with General Basbug's support for the reforms all indicate to Firat that GOT is realizing Turkey cannot live in the realities of the 30's/40's and must address i ts political problems openly. WIENER