US embassy cable - 05ANKARA1550

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 001550 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKEY'S SOUTHEAST: GOVERNOR REJECTS CLAIMS OF 
RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE 
 
Classified By: Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons 1.4 b an 
d d. 
 
1.(C) Summary:, AMCON Adana PO discussed southeastern 
Turkey's current situation with the Mersin governor, a 
veteran government administrator in central and southeastern 
Anatolia, including concerns about religious intolerance in 
Tarsus (septel).  Governor asserted that there are no 
religious tolerance problems in Tarsus and asked that any 
cases of such immediately be brought to his attention because 
the Turkish government would not accept discrimination toward 
its citizens on the basis of religion.  He further stated 
that SE Turkey's "real8 problems are the economy and 
foreigner influence which have disrupted what he claimed are 
otherwise historically balanced relations between Turkish 
citizens in southeast Turkey over the last three decades.  He 
dismissed the need for private broadcasting in any language 
other than Turkish and said Turkey's "race problems8 as 
asserted from Europe need to be solved through a Turkish 
super-identity for its citizens. End Summary. 
 
2.(SBU)  On March 11, AMCON Adana PO discussed southeastern 
Turkey's current situation with Mersin Governor Atilla Osman 
Celebioglu, a veteran government administrator with past 
assignments in Sivas, Tunceli, Malatya and Kahramanmaras, 
provinces in central and southeastern Anatolia, many of which 
have seen considerable strife and host both Turkish 
(Anatolian Shi'a) and Kurdish (Zaza-speaking Yarsanist) Alevi 
populations.  Mersin has a mixed Sunni, Alawi (Arabic and 
Turkish-speaking "Alevi" sect whose practices are similar to 
those found in Syria) Christian and Anatolia "Alevi" 
population from both the groups described above. 
 
3.(SBU)   The governor reflected on the considerable increase 
in use of the Mersin port for container traffic in the last 
two years and what he described as "more intensive use" of 
factories in eastern Mersin and western Adana in the last 
year and a half. (Note: the corridor has a Pasabahce glass 
factory; Sabanci Group CIMSA ready-mix concrete factory; and 
a Sabanci Group TEMSA light bus factory - with Mitsubushi; 
several regional light industrial goods distribution centers; 
a petrochemical plant; and several textile factories.  End 
Note.)  He said that the additional economic activity was 
welcome, but unemployment remained high and considerable 
internal migration continued to arrive in Mersin from 
southeastern provinces.  He also lamented that the Turkish 
National Police and Jandarma had seen an increase in drug 
trafficking in the region, mentioning as an example a recent 
450 kilogram seizure of heroin in conjunction with 
authorities from Istanbul and Hatay. "There are clearly more 
drugs coming through from the east and, if we are seizing 
more like we are, that means a lot more is probably coming 
through here.  Our coastline is too porous to patrol well and 
it gets through here and heads to Europe that way," he said. 
He said that drug use was also on the rise in Mersin, 
mentioning inhalants as a problem.  He also said that 
trafficking in persons was an issue whose frequency was 
increasing for police, noted that it was priority law 
enforcement issue for the police and Jandarma and that most 
trafficking through the region still seemed destined for 
Istanbul and involved Russian, Ukrainian and former Soviet 
Republic females. 
 
4.(C)   Celebioglu said that internal migration, the region's 
violence and forced urbanization over the last two decades 
were wearing the society's fabric thinner and making Turkish 
society vulnerable to negative outside influences which 
exaggerated sectarian tensions and encouraged forces that 
were fostering alienation among internal groups in Turkey 
which otherwise he depicted as having had harmoniously 
co-existed.  Without these outside influences, he 
characterized Turkey as historically a "model country" where 
Turks, Kurds and Armenians had lived together peacefully for 
centuries.  He repeated the shopworn Turkish official claim 
that many Kurds in Turkey had been successful in politics, 
even reaching the level of Prime Minister (note: presumably 
meaning PM Turgut Ozal. End Note.) and that many Turkish 
ministers had been Kurds as well.  He then pointed to the 
large number of very successful Kurdish ethnic business 
people in Turkey, saying "just look here in Mersin."  (Note: 
the Arslan family is Kurdish and are very successful in 
cereal and grain import-export; the family scion 
unsuccessfully ran for mayor in Mersin last year on the AK 
Party ticket.  End Note.) 
5.(C)  "The real problems in Anatolia are economic.  We had 
no jobs and sent our workers to Europe, where they made 
money, but were alienated from European society which did not 
accept them.  Some in these groups became radicalized, have 
lost touch with what is really going on fine in Anatolia now 
and perpetuate our problems by sending money and recruits who 
actually know little about modern Turkey to cause problems 
and violence here (note: presumably referring to PKK and 
DHKP-C activities based in western Europe.  End Note.).  Then 
European governments, who also know little about Anatolia, 
give prescriptions for what we ought to do to change our 
society.  In the meantime the forces which Europeans have 
sheltered have caused billions of dollars of damage and cost 
tens of thousand of lives in eastern Turkey and caused 
internal societal disruption which have deprived us of the 
opportunity to invest in and develop that region in the way 
that they now say is necessary," said Celebioglu. 
6.(C)  He claimed to be  proud of the recent changes in 
Turkish law, but said that they should have been made because 
they met the needs of Turkish citizens, not European 
conditions.  Asked about his sense of whether private "mother 
tongue" broadcasting was on the public agenda, he discounted 
the need for any such broadcasting and pointed to state 
broadcasts in Kurdish, Laz and Arabic, as well as several 
other dialects, as more than sufficient . He said that 
education was a high priority in the Black Sea region where 
he was born and eastern Turkey and that scarce resources were 
better spent improving school conditions and increasing 
school attendance rather than pursuing non-Turkish language 
education, another aspect of cultural rights Kurds in Turkey 
seek.  "There is no money for it and not that many Kurds 
would really want it," he said. 
 
7.(C)  When AMCON ADANA PO raised reported intolerance toward 
Alevi and Christian groups in Tarsus, the governor asserted 
that that was impossible because the Turkish government would 
not accept discrimination toward its citizens on the basis of 
religion and asked that any such cases immediately be brought 
to his attention.  He then said that the Mersin police had 
been arresting "Gypsy crime rings" (read: Roma ) which had 
been responsible for a rise in property crime and smuggling 
in the province.  He also said that anyone who wished to 
change the religious affiliation on his/her identity card was 
free to do so and he did not believe that this was an issue 
in Tarsus.  When asked about police harassment of groups 
trying to seek licenses for religious festivals or worship 
services, he allowed that individual police might do so, but 
there was no government policy along those lines. 
 
8.(C)  Comment:  The veteran governor is the epitome of the 
official Turkish government mindset  frequently encountered 
in southeastern Turkey, mindsets that have not changed in 
decades but that must change if there is to be any progress 
in the Southeast.  The governor appeared no more in tune with 
Southeastern Anatolia,s dynamics than the &outside forces8 
onto which he deflects blame. This discussion featured less 
of the confrontational tone and immediate calls for U.S. 
attacks on the PKK in northern Iraq which are staple features 
among administrators, prosecutors and police further east, 
but shared the shallow, disingenuous intellectual 
underpinning heard commonly among Turkish state officials in 
the region. 
 
9.(C) Comment,cont'd:  The governor's views are a perfect 
illustration of the regions,s bureaucratic hostility to 
implementation of reform.  The Diyarbakir Chief Prosecutor 
has voiced similar discouraging views on the likelihood of 
private "mother tongue" broadcast approval to AMCON Adana PO 
and indicated no interest in prompt investigation with DNA 
testing in a mass grave case in the province.  Legal contacts 
also report that many village restitution claims are being 
rejected summarily by province courts based on the need for 
evidence which is unreasonable given the state role in 
village destruction during that period.  In Tunceli the 
Jandarma commander continues to try to intimidate a prominent 
attorney from filing and pursuing village restitution claims 
and calling for investigations into alleged past military 
involvement in mass killings in that province.  Turkish DCHOD 
Basbug publicly also has belittled families seeking 
investigations into regional mass grave cases as attempts to 
bid up European Court of Human Rights restitution 
settlements.  Taken together, these actions or inactions, 
underpinned by the broader governmental attitudes expressed 
by the governor toward the EU accession process, demonstrate 
the deep-rooted nature of resistance to implementation of 
EU-related reforms which themselves in many cases were poorly 
drafted. End Comment. 
 
EDELMAN