US embassy cable - 04ANKARA1007

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 001007 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
FOR EUR PDAS CHARLIE RIES FROM DCM ROBERT S. DEUTSCH 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO, PREL, PHUM, SCUL, SOCI, KISL, TU 
SUBJECT: OUTREACH TO MUSLIM AUDIENCES IN TURKEY 
 
 
REF: STATE 13711 
 
 
1.  While Turkey's 20th century history is completely 
different from other countries in the Greater Middle East, 
the issues we are dealing with in this 99 percent Muslim 
country are at their base only different in degrees.  Like 
the rest of the region, Turkey has been governed by an elite 
intent on maintaining policies in an often self-serving 
national interest while disempowering a majority of its 
population.  With technology, the disempowered have 
increasing knowledge of global developments and an increasing 
ability to make their voice of disaffection heard.  Often, in 
the Muslim Greater Middle East, including here in Turkey, one 
important center for collecting opposition and motivating 
action is Islam, its facilities, educational, or 
factions/parties.  In Turkey, as in the Greater Middle East, 
the U.S. has been associated with the rule of the 
often-corrupted elites, and it has come to be seen in a 
common prism with them.  Recently this has been reinforced by 
perceptions of U.S. pro-Israel policies or pressure on Iraq. 
Our credibility gap is underlined by the numbers of people in 
Turkey as in the Middle East, who believe we would support a 
greater Israel (from the Nile to the Euphrates), or who 
believe, even now, that our continuing support for Saddam 
Hussein will result in his return to power in Iraq. 
 
 
2.  In Turkey the imperfect democratic institutions that have 
been created since the 1950's have allowed the bulk of those 
disempowered to find a political voice, and the drive for EU 
membership has provided impetus to improve those institutions 
and begin empowerment. The current AK Party Government draws 
its support from this base.  For the U.S. to connect and 
reverse their skeptical view of our motives, we must be 
palpably supportive of democratization, of individual 
freedoms and of social and economic justice.  We must work to 
promote shared values here as we did in Central and Eastern 
Europe. We must deliver that message despite obstacles:  a 
need to work with a bureaucracy and military that often 
represents the past; an education system designed for the 
status quo; a media environment that propagates fiction and 
conspiracy theory; a business climate used to anything but 
open markets and fair competition; and an atmosphere that 
rejects personal responsibility. 
 
 
3.  To overcome misperceptions and begin to create a positive 
view of the common values and support for a democratic 
evolution, it is essential that we maximize the positive 
contact between Americans in the flesh and Turks (as we would 
elsewhere in the region with Arabs, Persians, etc.).  In the 
first instance that means staffing our missions so that we 
have people who can get out from behind their in baskets, 
travel and put a real face on the U.S.  But we need to do a 
better job of preparing our diplomatic personnel for that 
mission.  A sophisticated, nuanced understanding of the 
history, culture and diversity of views within Turkey is 
vital to this Mission's work.  Religion informs the worldview 
and lives of many Turks, just as it does the citizens of many 
other countries, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.  We need to do 
a better job of giving our staff background in local 
traditions.  We need those skills not just in our diplomatic 
personnel but for our military and law enforcement colleagues 
as well.  We must be sensitive to and demonstrate respect for 
the values and aspirations of Turks.  FSI can contribute by 
doing a better job of explaining Turkey's diversity, Islam in 
general, and Islam in Turkey. 
 
 
4.  We are working to expand our presence through Turkey 
virtually by building poles of attraction for our staff and 
contacts. 
 
 
American Corners:  American Corners in the culturally 
conservative cities of Kayseri and Gaziantep and in Bursa 
provide the Mission platforms for programming, outreach, and 
the dissemination of information in locations where we would 
not otherwise have a presence.  We are working to improve 
their impact and ensure our visible support.  Over the next 
year and beyond, we are considering opening additional 
American Corners; this is relatively low-cost program 
(approximately $30,000 in start up costs) that will require 
limited support from EUR. 
 
 
5.  We need to support and augment programs that bring 
non-official Turks and Americans together: 
 
 
-- Visitor Exchanges:  The International Visitors Program is 
one of the USG's most highly leveraged programs in support of 
greater mutual understanding.  The budget for the IV Program 
should be tripled in order to reach more future leaders from 
all sectors of Turkish society, including government, 
politics, the media, community service, education, NGOs, and 
culture. 
 
 
-- Academic Exchanges:  There is no better way than through 
study in American universities for people from other 
countries to develop an understanding of, and personal and 
professional associations with, the United States that will 
last for a lifetime.  Fulbright exchange programs should be 
significantly expanded in both directions to provide more 
Turkish university students a formative experience in the 
U.S. and enable more young Americans to come to Turkey and, 
through interaction with their peers, help dispel inaccurate 
preconceptions of the United States.  Turkey is the eighth 
largest source of international students in the United 
States, sending more of its young adults to American 
universities than any other European country - and more than 
any predominantly Muslim country.  As Turkey moves closer to 
EU accession, it is imperative that we not lose this edge and 
that Turkish students remain attracted to American higher 
education.  Programs such as the State University of New 
York's dual degree program, which will bring 250 Turkish 
students to SUNY campuses during the next two years, should 
be supported with scholarship seed money.  But we also need 
to find ways to get more U.S. professors and students into 
Turkish institutions, beyond Istanbul and Ankara. 
 
 
-- Youth Exchanges:  We should initiate a high school age 
exchange program in an effort to engage young people and 
provide them a positive, firsthand introduction to the United 
States before their worldviews have hardened to the point 
that they are no longer open to new ideas.  We remember a 
range of government and privately supported high school 
exchange programs with Western Europe.  We need the programs 
to be activated here, again with U.S. exchange students 
coming this way too. 
 
 
5.  We need to be seen supporting Turkey's democratic reforms 
in education: 
 
 
-- English Language Fellows:  In FY-03 the Mission received 
$315,000 in R Bureau Muslim outreach funding to support the 
placement of nine English Language Fellows in Turkey to 
teach, train teachers, and develop curricula.  These talented 
young teachers are tangibly improving the quality of English 
language instruction while building ties between Turkish and 
American youth.  For example, our English Language Fellow in 
Erzurum, a conservative city in eastern Turkey, has 
revolutionized teaching methods at her host university by 
introducing instruction based on critical thinking and active 
student participation.  After class, she accompanies female 
students to the mosque and engages them in comparative 
discussions of religion in the U.S. and Turkey.  Funding for 
the highly successful English Language Fellows program in 
Turkey should be renewed and increased in FY-04 and future 
years, whether by R or EUR. 
 
 
-- Teacher Training:  From FY-01 to FY-03, Bilkent 
University's Graduate School of Education received a grant 
from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to 
support six-week teaching internships in Iowa high schools 
for its students.  These future teachers come from 
undergraduate programs throughout Turkey, represent all 
socio-economic classes, and attend Bilkent University on full 
scholarship.  As graduates, they go on to teach in secondary 
schools across the country, bringing with them the benefit of 
their firsthand experience in the U.S.  We have proposed 
extending the Iowa internship program to graduate education 
students from other Turkish universities.  This is a 
low-cost, high-impact program that is literally changing 
Turkish education methods from the ground up.  The grant 
should be renewed. 
 
 
-- Study of the United States:  Turkey's universities boast a 
vibrant American Studies community, with which the Mission 
works closely to strengthen teaching and research about the 
United States.  This community provides more than 4000 
students every year an opportunity to learn in depth about 
American history, literature, culture, and social values. 
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs provides 
funding for American Studies activities in Turkey, and this 
support should be increased. 
 
 
6.  A key area of reform that comes home to Turks is improved 
government implementation of individual rights and 
effectiveness.  Turkey's legal system application of Rule of 
Law is a major shortcoming where we can visibly be engaged. 
 
 
-- Judicial Exchange:  In FY-02 and FY-03, the Mission, with 
DRL funding and in conjunction with the Institute for the 
Study and Development of Legal Systems, undertook a major 
project to examine Turkish and U.S. perspectives on freedom 
of expression, police conduct, and trial alternatives in the 
criminal justice system.  Several visits were exchanged 
between Turkish judicial authorities and their American 
counterparts to examine these issues in both countries, 
culminating in five seminars in Turkey that were attended by 
700 Turkish judges, prosecutors, and lawyers.  This 
initiative substantially advanced MPP objectives in democracy 
and human and reached a wide cross-section of the Turkish 
legal community.  DRL is unable to provide further funding 
support.  A $600,000 FY-04 grant has been requested from the 
Office of Citizen Exchanges to complete the next phase of the 
project by jointly designing specific measures to achieve 
reforms in the areas of freedom of expression, police 
conduct, and trail alternatives.  This is a long-term 
initiative, and we urge EUR to build funding support for it 
into its FY-06 budget request. 
 
 
-- Democracy Programs:  We propose pursuing the Congressional 
initiative to establish a West-Muslim Dialogue Center in 
Istanbul.  But we hope the center could be bi-national 
(U.S.0Turkish) in its inspiration and also focus on promotion 
of democracy beyond Turkey's borders through non-governmental 
efforts.  Such foundations now exist in Germany, the United 
Kingdom, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Poland, 
among other countries.  Given its commitment to democratic 
reform and EU accession and its strategic location near 
regions that lack democratic governance, Turkey has the 
potential to advance democracy by sharing its experience with 
countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus.  Funding should 
be provided to support the start-up costs of such a 
foundation, including a series of meetings to examine the 
experience of other democracies in assisting democracy 
internationally and to explore how Turkey can become engaged 
in this field.  In addition, expanded ECA funding should be 
provided for the exchange 
of young Turkish and American legislators under the auspices 
of ACYPL, and new funding should be earmarked by EUR to 
support Turkish NGOs in sharing their expertise with emerging 
civil society organizations in Iraq.  A joint U.S.-Turkish 
effort in this area would help demonstrate our real 
commitment. 
 
 
7.  Media:  Professionalization of Turkey's media is 
essential to a more effective democracy with informed voters 
and political leaders whose worldview is based on a modern 
reality.  While it is hard to see how to change the media 
economics in Turkey where low journalist salaries are an 
obstacle to accurate journalism, we should develop programs, 
possibly within the West-Muslim Democracy Promotion Center, 
to promote journalistic quality, ethics, and investigative 
accuracy.  In addition incremental staff could play a 
significant role.  This Mission's press operation is 
seriously understaffed, and we require an Assistant 
Information Officer position.   The responsibilities of an 
AIO would include outreach to national and regional media, 
speech writing for the Ambassador, conducting U.S. Speaker 
programs that are specifically targeted at the media, and 
maintaining liaison with military public affairs officers at 
EUCOM and Incirlik.  In the Mission's FY-05 MPP, an Assistant 
Information Officer position was our highest priority for new 
American positions and it will be again in our FY-06 
submission.  It should be funded and filled as soon as 
possible. 
 
 
8.  The President has given us a challenge for the next 
generation.  Developing open societies in the Greater Middle 
East joined to the modern world politically through 
democratic institutions and respect for individual freedoms 
(including religion) and responsibility and economically 
through the prosperity of market economies is a challenge 
that begins in Turkey.  We need resources and political will 
to do the job, but we don't need to reinvent the wheel.  The 
tools are familiar.  Reaching out to Turkey's or the Greater 
Middle East's Muslims requires understanding and flexibility, 
but we can succeed. 
 
 
EDELMAN