US embassy cable - 04ISTANBUL1751

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ISTANBUL 001751 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: IZ, PHUM, PREL, TU, Istanbul 
SUBJECT: VIEWS FROM IZMIR ON IRAQ, EU MEMBERSHIP, HUMAN 
RIGHTS 
 
REF: ANKARA 6206 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: Izmir business and religious leaders, NGOs 
and a journalist shared their views on human rights, Iraq, 
Turkey's EU membership and religious issues November 12 with 
Izmir liaison officer.  The Izmir branches of the Human 
Rights Foundation and the Bar Association, both involved with 
legal access and medical aspects of torture, noted their 
displeasure with U.S. policy in Iraq.   The muftu's office 
stressed increasing religiosity in Izmir, including 
applicants for the hajj and in Koranic classes.   EGIAD, the 
Young Businessmen's Association, was focussed on EU 
membership and eager to establish contacts with U.S. 
businessmen associations and participate in U.S. trade 
missions and fairs.   Former MP and Hurriyet Aegean rep 
Tartan was confident of the role model Izmir could serve as 
an EU city.   End summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Izmir Deputy Muftu Cemil Karaguz discussed the 
responsibilities of the muftu,s office, including overseeing 
200 mosques in the Izmir region, and administration of 
Koranic courses, both short and long term, which attract many 
youth as well as women.   He claimed that religiosity in 
Izmir has increased in recent years, and that the number of 
applicants for the hajj in Izmir doubled from 3,000 to 6,000 
for 2005 -- with half of the applicants women.   In the final 
days before Ramazan Bayram, the muftu's office was busy 
answering inquiries from residents regarding the amount of 
zekah (tithe in income to the poor, one of the requirements 
of Islam) to be distributed.    The assistant to the muftu 
noted that the imams deal with current concerns such as the 
growth of pickpocketing by reinforcing moral values in their 
weekly khutbas (sermons).   (Comment: Although the muftu 
office's views on the growth of religiosity may be 
overstated, the influx of residents to the Izmir region from 
the southeast may be changing the traditionally more secular 
character of the population.  End comment.) 
 
3. (SBU) Lawyers at the Izmir Bar Association, a 4800-member 
organization that concentrates on human rights and the 
prevention of torture, discussed their goals to ensure that 
all detainees are guaranteed access to a lawyer following 
arrest, and that detainees who claim they were tortured are 
examined by qualified medical doctors.   They were eager to 
re-establish contact with USG representatives, but underlined 
their concern about U.S. policy in Iraq. 
 
4. (SBU) Sharing the Bar Association,s concern about U.S. 
Iraq policy and human rights was the Izmir branch of the 
Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, an NGO that provides 
physical and psychological treatment and rehabilitation 
services to those subject to torture.  Dr. Veli Lok heads a 
group of four reputable medical doctors at the Izmir branch, 
who offer their services on a volunteer basis and approach 
the problem clinically.  Sharing statistics on examinees in 
Izmir in 2004, he noted that of the 122 cases to date, 27 
were women, 40 were victims of torture,  over 99 per cent of 
the examinees originated from the southeast and 90-95 per 
cent were of Kurdish origin.  At the conclusion of the 
meeting, Dr. Lok criticized U.S. policy in Iraq, commenting 
that U.S. concern about victims of torture in Turkey is 
matched by Turkish concern about Iraqi victims of torture by 
U.S. soldiers in Iraq.   Liaison officer stressed to both 
Associations the U.S. commitment  to human rights, and noted 
that these incidents are being dealt with legally. 
 
5. (SBU) Directors of EGIAD, the Aegean Young Businessmen,s 
Association, told liaison officer that their members had 
overcome initial concerns about EU membership and were now 
looking forward to the benefits EU accession would bring to 
commerce in Izmir.   EGIAD is an extremely active association 
and holds monthly meetings with speakers for all members as 
well as periodic smaller work groups on EU and foreign 
relations, IT, legal, press, and cultural issues.  They were 
eager to reinvigorate contacts with American young 
businessmen's associations and to participate in trade 
missions, trade fairs and matchmaker programs in the U.S. 
 
6. (SBU) Hakan Tartan, former DSP MP and Minister of Labor, 
who ran as a candidate of Ismail Cem's New Turkey Party in 
2002, is now Hurriyet's Aegean representative.  Tartan, a 
native of Izmir, was enthusiastic about Izmir's advantages in 
the cultural and commercial areas -- and further promoted 
this role of Izmir as a model city for Turkey's EU membership 
in his Hurriyet column November 13. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment: In general,  the interlocutors expressed 
little concern about the nature of the continued U.S. 
presence in Izmir -- as opposed to the views conveyed to 
Ambassador Edelman during his October 25 visit to Izmir. 
(reftel)  End comment. 
SMITH