US embassy cable - 03ANKARA6702

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006702 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/24/2013 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKEY: BAYKAL MANEUVERS TO EASY VICTORY AT CHP 
CONVENTION 
 
 
REF: ANKARA 6613 
 
 
(U) Classified by Political Counselor John Kunstadter. 
Reason: 1.5 (b,d). 
 
 
1. (C) Summary: At a contentious but unenthusiastic 
convention, CHP leader Baykal won re-election easily after he 
rammed through by-laws that made challenging him nearly 
impossible.  In his speech opening the convention, Baykal 
focused on what he termed CHP's historical role in Turkish 
politics and roundly criticized the government for 
cooperating with the U.S. in Iraq.  Convention delegates are 
likely to approve Baykal's preferred list of party assembly 
candidates with few new faces, ensuring that there will be 
few changes to CHP policies. End summary. 
 
 
------------------------------ 
Baykal Outmaneuvers Opposition 
------------------------------ 
 
 
2. (C) In a late-night vote Oct. 24 after hours of bickering, 
delegates for the main opposition CHP re-elected Deniz Baykal 
party chairman.  In the final tally, Baykal received 973 of 
1089 votes cast.  116 ballots were empty or invalid.  Before 
the vote, Baykal ensured that he would be the only candidate 
for chairman by ramming through a hotly debated party by-law. 
 The by-law requires that any member who wants to run as a 
candidate must receive support of 20 percent of the party 
delegates, whereas in previous general conventions, potential 
candidates could declare themselves with support from 5 
percent of the delegates.  The remaining opposition 
candidates -- Erol Tuncer and Bedri Baykam -- were forced to 
withdraw from the race as a result of the new by-law. 
 
 
3. (C) As reported reftel, Baykal favored a block list (no 
choice) of candidates for the party assembly.  After hours of 
heated debate, the motion in support of the block list 
passed, ensuring that Baykal's favored candidates will enter 
the CHP assembly.  The convention's Oct. 24 start was delayed 
until 1400 because of "Friday's special characteristics," 
according to the organizers, meaning voting for the party 
assembly is likely to take place late in the evening. 
(Comment: "Special characteristics" is an awkward reference 
to Friday prayers, which many Turks attend.  To admit that 
the delay was based on respect for religious practice would 
amount to a form of apostasy for Kemalist CHP. End comment) 
As a result of the delay, we will not know the composition of 
the assembly until late Oct. 24. 
 
 
----------------- 
Somber Atmosphere 
----------------- 
 
 
4. (C) Poloff attended first day of the Oct. 23-24 
convention, which lacked any of the fanfare of even the more 
subdued conventions we have attended over the past year. 
Prior to the official start, embattled CHP Vice Chairman 
Mehmet Sevigen, whom many of our contacts call Baykal's court 
jester, repeatedly tried to rally the crowd but received, at 
best, half-hearted replies.  Sevigen announced over the loud 
speaker each delegate and CHP M.P. as they entered the 
convention hall.  As Kemal Dervis entered with two close 
colleagues -- M.P.s Fikret Unlu and Zulfu Livaneli -- Sevigen 
remained silent.  There were no banners supporting any 
opposition candidate.  Instead the crowd held banners 
declaring "our Deniz (sea) is cleaner than our oceans."  The 
only chant to resonate with crowd was "Murderer U.S.A., 
Accomplice AKP," referring to the ruling AK Party.  As party 
delegates slowly filed into the hall, convention organizers 
repeatedly played the "Tenth Year March," a 1933 Kemalist 
hymn closely associated with the 1997 February 28 process, 
which culminated with the resignation of then-P.M. Erbakan -- 
father of Turkey's modern political Islamist movement. 
 
 
------------------- 
CHP's Special Guest 
------------------- 
 
 
5. (C) Mainstream press is having a field day with Baykal for 
inviting former Greek F.M. Pangalos, who for years was 
essentially persona non grata in Turkey for his role in Greek 
support for the PKK.  Milliyet Oct. 24 published an enlarged 
photograph of Baykal embracing Pangalos.  Despite his 
reputation here, Pangalos -- who Milliyet quoted as saying 
that he is proud of what he did in the past to support the 
PKK -- was greeted by applause from the convention audience. 
 
 
---------------- 
Baykal's Message 
---------------- 
 
 
6. (C) The Oct. 24 press is also critical of Baykal's 
two-hour opening speech, which Milliyet columnist Fikret Bila 
-- a frequent critic of the AK Government -- called 
confusing.  Baykal focused primarily on CHP's historical 
importance in Turkish politics, asserting that the party has 
always been Turkey's political "lighthouse."  He denied CHP 
is a "State-party" but rather the party that founded the 
State.  Turkey can achieve democracy by protecting the State, 
he asserted.  Claiming the AK Government is trying to 
brainwash Turkey's youth, Baykal criticized AK policies on 
education and decried AK's efforts to place its supporters in 
key positions in the bureaucracy. (note: patronage is 
practiced by every Turkish government. end note)  Finally, 
Baykal lambasted the GOT for passing the Parliament motion to 
send troops to Iraq as part of a stabilization force.  "I 
deplore the government," he said. 
 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
 
7. (C) Baykal's transparent machinations to ensure complete 
victory and total control over the party has sparked a wave 
of public criticism in the press and within the party itself. 
 Even Milliyet columnist Can Dundar, who has indexed his 
columns to CHP's anti-American drumbeat since the beginning 
of 2003, wrote in his Oct. 24 report that Baykal behaved like 
a Ottoman pasa.  Former CHP state minister and party boss for 
Sinop -- long known as a bastion of CHP propriety -- resigned 
from the party Oct. 24, citing Baykal's undemocratic 
practices.  Without a facelift for the assembly, more could 
follow, although our contacts still maintain that local 
elections next March will be Baykal's last chance. 
 
 
8. (C) Most of the frustration with Baykal in the 
rank-and-file stems from his dictatorial style and control of 
the party, rather than dissatisfaction with the general line 
of CHP policies.  There are those in CHP, like Kemal Dervis, 
who claim they want to move away from the statist, strict 
Kemalist version of the party and envision a CHP more like 
European-style social democratic parties.  But this is a 
minority view untested by what Dervis would do in power; one 
contact involved in the breakup of Dervis' summer 2002 
alliance with former F.M. Cem described to us in detail Oct. 
23 how Dervis, Cem, and former Deputy P.M. Ozkan worked with 
former Deputy Chief of the General Staff Bir in a plan to 
replace then-P.M. Ecevit through an internal party "coup" and 
to maneuver President Sezer's replacement with Bir. 
 
 
9. (C) Propaganda handed out at the convention provides a 
better clue as to the general direction of today's CHP. 
Eager CHP Youth Branch members distributed a book entitled 
"CHP's Iraq Diary" -- which is fraught with anti-American 
speeches from leading CHP members -- and a brochure called 
"What did they say? The views of AK Party M.P.s on Iraq." 
The message is clear: Baykal's CHP will continue to attempt 
to use Iraq as its primary club against the GOT and USG.  In 
addition, CHP youth passed out magazines entitled "Turkish 
Left," containing several anti-American articles, including a 
particularly virulent one by by former Constitutional Court 
chief Yekta Gungor Ozden -- who has been an outspoken 
proponent of the Red Apple (Kizilelma) movement of far-left 
and far-right crypto-fascists. 
EDELMAN