US embassy cable - 05ADANA29

UNCLAS ADANA 000029 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, PHUM, ASEC, PREL, TU, ADANA 
SUBJECT: CIVIL SOCIETY UNDER PRESSURE FROM JANDARMA IN TUNCELI 
 
1.  (SBU)  On February 7, 2005, former Tunceli Bar President 
Huseyin Aygun was reportedly threatened by the Tunceli-based 
Jandarma Commander in a face-to-face meeting called by the 
Commander.  According to press reports, confirmed by Mr. Aygun 
in a telcon with post, the Commander accused Aygun of being an 
"enemy of the Turkish state," and later told Aygun to give up 
his human rights work if he wanted to avoid having "evidence" 
about him sent to the prosecutor.  Aygun no longer serves as Bar 
President, but still works as a lawyer in Tunceli.  In addition 
to past advocacy regarding the right of return or compensation 
for those evicted from their villages in the 1990s, he 
especially champions language issues, while publishing a small 
Zaza-language newspaper in Tunceli, an Alevi stronghold. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Comment:  Aygun as been tried and acquitted in the 
past for such things as aiding an illegal organization, and for 
stating that students should have, at a minimum, the right to 
petition for language in their mother tongue (for that he was 
charged with "praising an act described by law as a crime.") 
Noteworthy in this week's news is the pattern emerging about how 
this particular Tunceli-based Commander interacts with members 
of local government and civil society in the province.  This is 
reportedly but one in a string of similar incidents.  The 
current Tunceli Bar Association president and other Bar members 
alleged to PO the same Jandarma Commander had threatened a 
village headman for allegedly supporting terrorism, and added 
that troops directly under his command are suspected in a Fall 
2004 alleged extrajudicial killing in Tunceli.  His behavior 
seems to also be raising eyebrows among European colleagues in 
Ankara.  End comment.