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

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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