US embassy cable - 04ANKARA6985

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006985 
 
SIPDIS 
 
ISTANBUL PLS PASS ADANA 
 
E.O.12958: DECL: 12/16/2025 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PREL, TU 
SUBJECT: THREE SOUTHEASTERN TURKISH MAYORS 
 
REFS: A. ADANA 147 
      B. ANKARA 6213 
 
Classified by Political Counselor John Kunstadter, E.O. 
12958, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
This message is from AmConsul Adana. 
 
1.  (SBU)  Summary:  In the Southeastern Turkish towns of 
Viransehir, Kiziltepe, and Sirnak, pro-Kurdish DEHAP party 
mayors have differing views on the Democratic Society 
Movement (DSM), which appears to be DEHAP,s successor party: 
 while two mayors welcomed DSM, another thought DSM,s 
leaders were only seeking to enhance their personal standing. 
 Two Sirnak lawyers are also unimpressed with DSM.  There is 
a widespread view in the Southeast that perceived U.S. 
support for Kurdish autonomy in Iraq will have a spillover 
effect in the Southeast.  Bar and municipal contacts 
predicted that internally displaced citizens would probably 
approach the ECHR for compensation instead of the recently 
formed Compensation Commissions.  End Summary. 
 
Is the new movement "new"? 
-------------------------- 
 
2.  (C) Southeastern Turkey,s pro-Kurdish DEHAP party mayors 
share a party, but not all think alike.  In Viransehir and 
Kiziltepe, two towns an hour apart, mayors gave different 
opinions on a number of topics.  Viransehir,s second-term 
DEHAP Mayor Emrullah Cin viewed the new Democratic Society 
Movement (DSM) (ref A) as a positive development.  "Reaching 
out to others is a good thing," he said.  Sirnak,s DEHAP 
Mayor Ahmet Ertak agreed.  However, Kiziltepe DEHAP Mayor 
Cihan Sincar was downbeat on most everything, including DSM. 
She hinted that she thought the people involved in the DSM 
effort may be using it to enhance their own standing.  "They 
won't achieve anything," she said, "if they don't define the 
problem correctly."  Sincar also took exception to Leyla Zana 
having reportedly told a Swiss op-ed writer than there was no 
more torture in Turkey:  "I'm here, and I say there is," she 
insisted.  (Note:  Sincar's husband, Mehmet Sincar, was 
elected to Parliament as a pro-Kurdish DEP party (one of 
DEHAP,s predecessors) deputy along with Leyla Zana.  He was 
murdered in 1993 in a mysterious killing in Bingol, and to 
date authorities have not charged anyone in his killing.  End 
note.)  Cizre attorneys Mehmet Ali Dinler and Abdulgaffar 
Dursun were equally unimpressed with the DSM, claiming it was 
"the same old people" involved and there was nothing new or 
exciting about the movement. 
 
U.S. Iraq Policy Means &The Arrow has Left the Bow" 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
3.  (C) The idea of a separate &Kurdistan8 still appears 
not to have been extinguished in the Southeast.  Mayor Sincar 
referred to the &Kurdish problem8 as a regional rather than 
internal Turkish issue.  Attorneys Dinler and Dursun also 
appeared separatist.  The attorneys expressed pleasure with 
President Bush's reelection and stated they wanted to see 
actions like that in Iraq in both Syria and Iran.  "The arrow 
has left the bow," they said, reflecting the widely-held 
perception in Southeast Turkey that U.S. support for Kurdish 
autonomy in Northern Iraq will inevitably have a (positive, 
in eyes of these lawyers) spillover effect for Kurds in 
Turkey and elsewhere in the region.  Poloff emphasized that 
the European Union is the best way forward for reform in 
Turkey, and stressed U.S. support for the territorial 
integrity of Iraq.  Separately, Sincar made expressed dismay 
at recent media reports -- reports she believes -- that 
Turkey is readying 40,000 troops for to enter Iraq in case of 
trouble in Kirkuk. 
 
One Mayor Focusing on Development and Reconciliation 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
4.  (SBU) Viransehir, a town of 160,000, has little industry 
or economic activity, and has seen over the past ten years a 
significant influx of migrants from surrounding villages.  In 
the 1990s Viransehir benefited from oil smuggling from the 
Habur border gate.  Mayor Cin is trying to stay positive, 
clear the city's debts and rustle up projects.  Instead of 
politics, during a recent visit he wanted to showcase his 
efforts by providing a tour the new community center.  The 
center has Viransehir,s first movie theater, classrooms, a 
library, and an income-generating weaving project.  Cin was 
vague on how the project was funded, like other DEHAP mayors 
who have told us of community projects such as health centers 
and cultural festivals.  He claimed that at least 40,000 of 
the city's citizens (including seven of his family members) 
were in Europe currently, and remittances may play a role in 
funding such projects, highly visible to community members. 
5.  (C) Cin was dismissive of the Social Solidarity Fund's 
Conditional Cash Transfer program (ref B).  (Note:  Two 
governors with whom we spoke in the region, however, were 
positive about the program and seemed interested to hear 
about the significant U.S. contribution to that effort.  End 
Note.)  He worried that inadequate monitoring would result in 
the project having little impact on education in the 
Southeast.  "Parents will take the money and still have the 
kids out picking cotton," he said.  He claimed that money 
being transferred through the government to the poorest in 
the Southeast is not as effective as community development 
projects at the grassroots level through, for example, sister 
city programs (he recently had a good experience with such a 
project with Italians). 
 
6.  (C) Ertak is focused on reconciliation, bringing people 
together during Ramazan by hosting a series of themed iftar 
dinners for different segments of the community, most 
recently an iftar dinner for 150 local women.  Ertak claimed 
that he had good relations with government officials in 
Sirnak, although relations with the military in Sirnak had 
been "cool" -- but perhaps thawing slightly in the wake of 
the October 29 National Day celebration.  However, in October 
two Ministers from Ankara visited Sirnak and neither paid a 
courtesy call on him, he noted.  Sincar is pessimistic about 
the prospects for improvements in the lives of Turkey's 
ethnic Kurdish population, EU or no EU.  (Note:  She 
expressed these views in mid-November, even before the 
widely-publicized shooting death in Kiziltepe of Ahmet Kaymaz 
and his 12-year-old son (septel), that have resulted in 
demonstrations by some 10,000 Kiziltepe residents in the 
streets of this town.  End note.)  She also predicted, as did 
the Cizre attorneys, that citizens applying to Compensation 
Commissions would refuse the amounts offered them and instead 
take their cases to the European Court of Human Rights, where 
they believe they can get better compensation. 
 
7.  (C) Comment:  The three DEHAP mayors illustrate the wide 
range of views and styles within the party.  In Viransehir 
there was a roll-up-your-sleeves, community development 
approach.  Sirnak's mayor gave the impression he had 
conflict-avoidance approach, and we sensed a hint of fear 
around him.  (Note:  For good reason.  For years, government 
security forces made Sirnak the Southeast,s mostly 
tightly-controlled province; DEHAP,s predecessor HADEP was 
in effect banned.  Two HADEP officials disappeared in Sirnak 
in 2000, having last been seen entering a jandarma station. 
End Note.)  In Kiziltepe, defiance, anger and despair 
characterized the mood in the Mayor's office.  Regardless of 
how a mayor goes about his/her job, however, not much 
meaningful development or public works can take place in 
their majority-Kurdish municipalities absent real government 
support, including fiscal support.  Regional observers tell 
us that Kurds do not expect DEHAP to solve their economic 
problems, they just want an outlet to express their Kurdish 
identity.  For others, an outlet for expressing Kurdish 
identity, let alone economic development, does not seem to be 
enough.  End comment. 
EDELMAN