US embassy cable - 05ISTANBUL383

C O N F I D E N T I A L ISTANBUL 000383 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, TU, Istanbul 
SUBJECT: ISTANBUL POLICE BRUTALITY DRAWS EU CRITICISM 
 
 
Classified By: Consul General David Arnett for Reasons 1.4(b&d) 
 
1. (c) Summary: The use of violence by Istanbul police to 
break up a demonstration of Turkish women on March 6 prompted 
widespread international press coverage and criticism from a 
visiting EU Troika delegation.  Our human rights contacts 
characterized the police response as harsh and unacceptable. 
Startling images of the event, aired by local and 
international television, have raised questions about 
Turkey's commitment to EU reform just months before 
membership negotiations are set to open.  Some here have even 
suggested that the event may have been a deliberate attempt 
by the police to sabotage Turkey's own EU bid.  Our 
experience with the local police and a discussion with one of 
our senior police contacts suggest to us that the police 
crackdown may, in fact, have been ordered from above. End 
Summary. 
 
2. (sbu) Istanbul police used force to break up a March 6 
demonstration in the Beyazit neighborhood of central Istanbul 
held to mark International Women's Day.  The demonstration of 
several hundred women was organized by groups including the 
Democratic Women's Movement (which appears to be the women's 
branch of a nascent Kurdish party with PKK elements), the 
Independent Revolutionist Working class Platform, the 
Contemporary Jurists Association and the Labor Movement 
Party, a radical socialist party.  Riot police were captured 
on film breaking up the demonstration, beating women 
demonstrators with truncheons, and spraying them with tear 
and pepper gas. 
 
3. (c)  Lerzan Tascier, a board member of the Human Rights 
Association, told us that she believed the police 
intervention was harsh and unacceptable. "The police were 
full of hatred and they acted as if they were unleashed," she 
added.   She maintained that the demonstration, organized by 
radical socialist/left-wing groups, had gathered on a legal 
basis to conduct a peaceful rally, and no illegal slogans 
were used.  All 63 demonstrators detained by the police were 
subsequently released by the court.  Meanwhile, a separate, 
much larger demonstration of 2,000 to 3,000 women organized 
by the Union of Women Laborers occurred peacefully on March 6 
in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul.  We know from experience 
that riot police generally cannot use force without direct 
orders.  The Deputy Police Chief for Counter-Terrorism, whom 
we saw at the event on television and who was almost 
certainly one of the senior police officials responsible, 
professed "no knowledge" of what had transpired and 
nonchalantly tried to pass the buck. 
 
4. (u)  According to subsequent press reports, Turkish 
officials were slow and hesitant to condemn the incident.  EU 
Enlargement Commissioner Rehn, visiting Turkey as part of an 
EU Troika delegation for meetings with the GOT, raised the 
issue with FM Gul on March 6.  After the meeting, Gul told 
the press that the police had to act within the framework of 
government regulations, and said the Interior Ministry had 
begun the necessary procedures to investigate the incident. 
Following public EU criticism of the incident, Gul also 
condemned the police action and promised to punish those 
responsible for the violence.  Justice Minister Cicek 
contradicted him, however, noting that "we need to show 
understanding to the police." 
 
5. (c) Comment: Unfortunately, the violence employed by 
Istanbul police in this incident is far from extraordinary. 
A female Reuters correspondent told us, for example, that a 
police officer sprayed her face with pepper gas while she was 
covering street demonstrations at last year's NATO Summit. 
The fact that these demonstrators were women, the violence 
was captured on film, and it came just before a major EU 
visit all ensured that the event would be publicly condemned. 
 At least one newspaper, Hurriyet, has already commented that 
the violence may have been a deliberate attempt by 
disgruntled police to sabotage efforts for Turkey's EU bid. 
Given some comments we have heard from the grumbling state 
bureaucracy, reports of discontent with some of the 
EU-imposed penal code reforms, and the duplicitous answer we 
received from our police contacts, we would not rule it out 
as a possibility. 
ARNETT