US embassy cable - 05ANKARA776

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 000776 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, TU 
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS BOARD CHAIRMAN RESIGNS AMID FEUD OVER 
MINORITIES, HEADSCARF RIGHTS 
 
REF: 04 ANKARA 6116 
 
Classified By: Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons 1.4 b an 
d d. 
 
1. (C) Summary: The chairman and vice chairmen of a GOT human 
rights board resigned from the body in protest Feb. 7, 
asserting that the Prime Ministry dismissed them one year 
before their terms were up.  The resignations followed a 
bitter dispute over the board's taboo-breaking October report 
on minorities, which top GOT officials had harshly 
criticized.  FM and Deputy PM Gul is replacing a total of 14 
of the Board's 78 members; most of the outgoing members hold 
leftist or secular views, while their replacements are more 
Islam oriented.  One Board member, a close Embassy contact, 
told us the new appointments are part of a broader plan by 
the ruling AK Party (AKP) leadership to reverse the 
long-standing official ban on Muslim headscarves in 
universities and among civil servants.  She says the new 
board will criticize the ban in an upcoming report, which the 
AKP will use to support a legal appeal of a European Court of 
Human Rights (ECHR) ruling upholding the ban.  A Prime 
Ministry contact denies that the 14 board members are being 
dismissed early, claiming their terms ended February 1.  PM 
Erdogan told a German newspaper that the headscarf ban should 
be lifted; however, he denies making the comment. End 
Summary. 
 
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Board Leadership Resigns... 
--------------------------- 
 
2. (U) Istanbul University Professor Ibrahim Kaboglu 
announced his resignation February 7 as chairman of the GOT's 
Human Rights Consultation Board; the Board's three vice 
chairmen joined him in stepping down.  The resignations 
capped a bitter dispute between the Board leadership and top 
GOT officials following the Board's October report on 
minorities (reftel).  FM Gul and other GOT leaders angrily 
condemned the report, which called on the Turkish State to 
update its concept of minority rights.  Prosecutors opened an 
investigation of Kaboglu and the lead author of the report 
for possible treason; the investigation continues. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
...Claiming They Were Forced Out Early 
-------------------------------------- 
 
3. (C) The resignations were made in symbolic protest shortly 
after the Prime Ministry -- FM Gul has ultimate authority 
over the Board in his role as Deputy PM responsible for human 
rights -- sent notice to Kaboglu and 13 other members that 
their terms had expired as of February 1.  The Board members 
maintain that they were appointed in 2003 for a three-year 
term ending in February 2006, and say the GOT is forcing them 
out early.  However, Vahit Bicak, head of the Prime 
Ministry's Human Rights Presidency, insisted to us that 
Kaboglu and the others are mistaken, and that their terms 
began in 2002.  The different interpretations stem from 
disagreement over when the Board officially began its duties 
after Parliament established the body in 2001.  Bicak 
acknowledged that FM Gul, furious over the minorities report, 
had originally wanted to sack Kaboglu and other Board 
members.  But Bicak informed Gul that their terms would 
expire in February, and advised against dismissing them 
early.  Bicak said Kaboglu violated Board regulations by 
adopting the minorities report without the required majority 
Board approval, a charge Kaboglu denies (Note: Several Board 
members have told us Bicak holds a petty grudge against 
Kaboglu, whom he unsuccessfully challenged for the Board 
chairmanship.  End Note). 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Board Member: Real Target is Headscarf Ban 
------------------------------------------ 
 
4. (C) Oya Aydin, a Board member and attorney for Kaboglu, 
told us the AKP leadership is dismissing the 14 Board members 
early, but there is a deeper motive beyond the minorities 
report.  Shortly after the controversy over the minorities 
report, FM Gul announced that he had selected a number of 
candidates to fill upcoming openings on the 78-member Board. 
The new appointees included bitterly anti-Western, Islamic 
fundamentalist columnist Abdurrahman Dilipak, of the daily 
Vakit, and others known for Islam-oriented views in line with 
those of the AKP leadership.  They will replace members who 
generally hold leftist, or Kemalist/secular views.  The MFA 
has refused to respond to our repeated requests for 
confirmation that Gul indeed appointed Dilipak. 
 
5. (C) Aydin told us the new appointments are part of a 
broader AKP effort to reverse the long-standing official ban 
on Muslim headscarves in universities and among public 
servants. "The one thing they (the new appointees) all have 
in common is that they oppose the headscarf ban," she said. 
Aydin said tension began building between Gul and Kaboglu 
over the headscarf issue long before the October minorities 
report.  Gul had repeatedly pressured Kaboglu to ensure that 
the Board's upcoming report on women's rights included a 
strong condemnation of the headscarf ban, but Kaboglu 
refused.  According to Aydin, the AKP wants to use the 
women's rights report to strengthen the legal appeal of a 
2004 ECHR ruling upholding the headscarf ban in universities 
(Leyla Sahin v. Turkey); the appeal will be heard in May. 
"They want to be able to say that the human rights community 
in Turkey opposes the headscarf ban," she said.  Aydin said 
Gul has quietly reassigned the official who drafted the paper 
to the ECHR representing the Turkish State's legal defense of 
the ban. 
 
----------------------------------- 
PM Reportedly Calls for Lifting Ban 
----------------------------------- 
 
6. (U) The Turkish press on February 8 widely reported PM 
Erdogan's comments on the headscarf issue to a German 
reporter for Welt am Sonntag during the Davos World Economic 
Forum.  Erdogan was quoted as saying the headscarf ban in 
universities should be lifted, and that the GOT is working on 
a plan to address the issue.  He also asserted to the 
reporter that the Koran requires women to wear headscarves. 
"My daughter, my wife, and I are pious Muslims," he said. 
"According to the Koran, a woman must wear a turban (Muslim 
headscarf) in society.  My daughter, because she respects the 
Koran, fulfills this condition. My daughter lives in 
accordance with the rules of our religion."  Erdogan was 
further quoted as saying his daughter also wears a headscarf 
because it is "chic, in fashion."  We understand from a 
reporter close to Erdogan that, at his foreign policy advisor 
Omer Celik's suggestion, Erdogan initially denied making the 
comments, claiming he never gave an interview to Welt am 
Sonntag.  However, the author of the report stood by the 
story, saying he cleared the text in advance by e-mail with 
Erdogan advisor Cuneyt Zapsu.  Erdogan's press advisor Ahmet 
Tezcan's subsequent acknowledgment that the interview had 
taken place and clumsy attempt to deflect criticism of 
Erdogan by blaming Zapsu reflects the disarray and rivalry 
among key Erdogan advisors. 
 
7. (U) Turkish media have subsequently reported main 
opposition CHP chairman Baykal's warning to Erdogan that his 
linkage of piety to the turban implies uncovered women are 
not good Muslims; Feb. 9 leading daily "Hurriyet" published 
the views of leading Turkish theologians that the Koran does 
not require the turban.  Press reports have also claimed that 
the AKP leadership is preparing a bill to remove the 
headscarf ban and has held consultations with hand-picked 
NGOs that support lifting the ban.  The Higher Education 
Council (YOK), a bastion of "secularist" thinking, has 
reacted angrily to these reports, reasserting that the 
headscarf ban in universities will remain in effect. 
 
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Comment 
------- 
 
8. (C) Since coming to power in the 2002 elections, AKP has 
had to strike a delicate balance between the requirements for 
Turkey's domestically-popular EU candidacy and resistance to 
change on the part of the Kemalist establishment on the one 
hand and the interests of the party's more Islam-oriented 
base.  Erdogan has on several occasions begun to pursue 
reforms desired by Islamists, only to retreat under fire from 
the secular establishment and, in one case, the EU.  Examples 
include AKP's abortive moves toward reforms related to imam 
hatip (Islamic preacher) schools, Koran courses, and an 
anti-adultery law.  Until now, Erdogan has strictly avoided 
the headscarf issue, because it is highly sensitive in Turkey 
and because he knows the EU, itself struggling to define its 
approach to Islam, will provide no cover. 
 
9. (C) Now that the EU has set a date to begin accession 
talks, it appears that some of the more ideologically 
Islamist members of the AKP leadership are looking for ways 
to bring the turban issue to the agenda.  Various polls have 
indicated that a majority of Turks do not support the ban in 
universities.  But the issue remains explosive.  Erdogan's 
comment that the Koran requires women to wear headscarves is 
exactly the kind of statement that causes tension between 
pious and secular Turks.  His comments and Gul's apparent 
moves by stealth to pack the Human Rights Consultation Board 
heighten the fear among "secularists" that lifting the ban is 
only the first step toward a goal of imposing Islamic values, 
interpreted in a hard-core Sunni manner, more firmly on 
Turkey.  In this regard, the apparent attempt by AKP to 
support the appeal of the ECHR headscarf ruling underscores 
the division between the Islam-oriented AKP government and 
the secular State.  AKP leaders are actively working to 
support a legal case challenging the official (State) 
position. 
EDELMAN