US embassy cable - 03ANKARA6060

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006060 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2013 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKEY: THE VIEW FROM THE HEARTLAND, PART ONE 
 
 
(U) Classified by Political Counselor John Kunstadter. 
Reason: 1.5 (b,d). 
 
 
1. (C) Summary: During poloff's Sept. 10-13 trip to the 
western Black Sea provinces of Kastamonu and Sinop, contacts 
across the spectrum averred the importance of strong 
U.S.-Turkey relations but also took the opportunity to 
express their very palpable anxiety with USG Iraq policy, in 
particular what they assert is too "pro-Kurdish" a bias. 
Regional prosecutors described a court system slowly, 
sometimes painfully, adjusting to recently passed EU-related 
reforms.  Elected mayors and State-appointed governors, 
meanwhile, are clamoring for local administration reform that 
would free them to be more responsive and more effective. End 
Summary. 
 
 
2. (C) Kastamonu is a conservative, nationalist, agricultural 
province.  Most of the mayoralties are held by 
ultra-nationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) or other 
right-of-center parties.  With an economy based on fishing 
and agriculture, Sinop has been known as a center-left 
stronghold for decades.  Nevertheless, ruling AK Party did 
well in the Nov. 2002 general elections, capturing two of 
Sinop's three seats in Parliament (note: none of our contacts 
could offer any convincing argument as to why AK performed so 
well there. end note). 
 
 
-------------------------- 
Attitudes Towards the U.S. 
-------------------------- 
 
 
3. (C) Our interlocutors were at pains to claim that they 
support strong Turkey-U.S. ties.  Many of our contacts -- 
from elected mayors and State-appointed sub-governors to 
businessmen and journalists -- spoke warmly of Turkish-U.S. 
relations, often tracing the history of the relationship from 
its beginning in the aftermath of World War II.  Fishermen 
and local political leaders in Sinop spoke longingly of the 
days when the U.S. military had a large presence in the town 
(note: the base was closed in the early 1990s. end note). 
They romanticized the American presence, which they said had 
brought more to Sinop than financial benefits.  Many learned 
English and forged strong friendships that they continue to 
try to maintain today.  For example, one local activist from 
main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) -- which has 
spewed anti-American public rhetoric for months -- provided 
poloff a list of Americans who had lived on the base and with 
whom he wanted to re-establish contact. 
 
 
4. (C) Even as our interlocutors denied that any 
anti-American sentiment exists among Turks, several took the 
opportunity to vent their frustrations with what they assert 
is a one-sided USG Iraq policy.  In typical Turkish fashion, 
our contacts -- including Kastamonu acting governor Fahri 
Oluk, the AK Party boss in Kastamonu, and Sinop chief 
prosecutor Kuris -- waited until the end of the meeting to 
voice their concerns.  Sinop's CHP chief, meanwhile, led off 
the meeting with a weak defense of his party's position 
against Turkish involvement with coalition efforts and 
refused to talk about anything else for the next hour.  In 
both Kastamonu and Sinop, our contacts raised the same 
questions: 1) why hasn't the U.S. rid Northern Iraq of the 
presence PKK-KADEK militants?; and 2) why does the U.S. trust 
Kurdish groups in Iraq more than Turkey? 
 
 
------------------------ 
EU Reform: Growing Pains 
------------------------ 
 
 
5. (C) Public prosecutors in both Kastamonu and Sinop see 
EU-related reforms as positive for Turkey's democratic 
development.  In Kastamonu, Ali Ceyhun Ceyhan spoke 
positively about recent human rights training he had received 
in the U.K.  He said that he had attended the course with the 
province's police chief, who, he asserted, does not tolerate 
torture of any kind.  Ceyhan expressed hope that the EU would 
recognize Turkey's progress on this front.  The Sinop 
prosecutor, Ethem Kuris, echoed Ceyhan's thoughts on the EU, 
noting he too had received human rights training.  Kuris 
admitted, however, that full implementation of the legal 
reforms recently enacted by Parliament will take time. 
 
 
6. (C) On the other hand, both prosecutors claimed that 
reforms had made their jobs much more difficult.  In 
particular, Ceyhan noted that the reduction of the detention 
period for suspects to 24 hours had made collecting enough 
evidence especially difficult.  Twenty-four hours is "simply 
not enough" to build a case, he said.  He lamented that "now 
sometimes it seems that suspects have more rights than the 
victims."  For his part, Kuris acknowledged that the reforms 
would lead to changes in the State Security Court (DGM) 
system but claimed that, for now, they remain essential to 
Turkey's ongoing fight against terrorism.  In terrorism 
cases, he said, because it is not always easy to gather 
evidence that would be credible in the normal criminal 
courts, they refer these cases to the DGMs, where rules for 
determining the admissibility of evidence are looser. 
 
 
------------------------------------ 
Bring on Local Administration Reform 
------------------------------------ 
 
 
7. (C) One common theme that cut across party affiliation and 
had support among all State representatives with whom we 
talked was the need for significant reform to Turkey's 
cumbersome local administration.  Echoing comments that we 
have heard in Ankara, mayors in Kastamonu and Sinop, along 
with mayors of smaller towns in each province, asked 
rhetorically whether some Ankara bureaucrat knows better than 
the mayors what projects should be undertaken. 
 
 
-- Sinop mayor Hamza Ince -- from center-right Motherland 
Party (ANAP) -- bitterly complained that he is caught between 
a glacier-like Ankara bureaucratic machine and a regional 
administrative court with the power to stop any municipal 
project. 
 
 
-- Sinop deputy governor Ramazan Aksoy said the province 
needs more flexibility to be better able to address the 
infrastructure needs of local residents. 
 
 
-- Kastamonu mayor Turhan Topcuoglu -- a member of MHP -- 
noted that without local administration reform, he will not 
be able to complete city-wide infrastructure improvements. 
 
 
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Comment 
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8. (C) In general, our Turkish interlocutors in both 
provinces seemed level-headed, practical, sincere and willing 
to speak their minds.  As an illustration, Mehmet Yildirim -- 
CHP Kastamonu deputy and local garlic producer -- escorted 
poloff around the Kastamonu central market, preening as local 
journalists took photographs.  Yildirim confronted an older 
constituent and asked if the man like Yildirim's work so far 
as a deputy.  The older man replied: "What do you mean?  Here 
you are wondering around the market, doing nothing.  What is 
it that I am supposed to like?" 
EDELMAN