US embassy cable - 05ANKARA3032

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 003032 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/27/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, TU, OSCE 
SUBJECT: GOT INTIMIDATION FORCES CANCELLATION OF 
UNIVERSITY-SPONSORED CONFERENCE ON ARMENIAN QUESTION 
 
REF: ANKARA 1841 
 
(U) Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons E.O. 
12958 1.4 (b and d). 
 
1. (U) This is a joint Ankara-Istanbul cable. 
 
2. (C) Summary: Under accusations of treason by GOT and other 
political leaders, and the threat of prosecution, Bogazici 
University officials announced May 24 their last-minute 
decision to cancel a conference at which independent-minded 
intellectuals were scheduled to speak on the massacre of 
Armenians in 1915.  Justice Minister Cicek and an opposition 
MP harshly condemned those who organized the conference, as 
did the Higher Education Council.  An Istanbul prosecutor 
began an investigation of the event.  Some University faculty 
members fired back with a statement criticizing the GOT for 
its "attack on free expression."  EU contacts say the GOT's 
actions have further eroded Turkey's image in Europe.  The 
incident is the latest example of resurgent nationalism and 
anti-reform backlash in Turkey since the December EU Summit. 
End Summary. 
 
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Conference Canceled Under Threats 
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3. (U) Following rhetorical attacks by Justice Minister Cicek 
and others, State-owned Bogazici (Bosphorus) University 
announced its last-minute decision to "postpone" a conference 
on "Ottoman Armenians During the Collapse of the Empire: 
Scholarly Responsibility and Problems of Democracy."  The 
conference, scheduled to take place May 25-27, held the 
promise of a more open discussion than Turkey has seen before 
on the massacre of Anatolian Armenians in 1915.  The 
conference was jointly organized by Bogazici, Sabanci, and 
Bilgi universities and was scheduled to take place at the 
Bogazici campus in Istanbul. 
 
4. (C) As reported reftel, the GOT is engaged in an 
uncompromising public relations campaign to "prove" the 
Ottomans did not commit genocide against Armenians.  Various 
one-sided events have been organized for the purpose of 
spreading the official view.  For instance, Justin McCarthy, 
an American demography professor whose backing of the 
official Turkish position has won him decades of support from 
the Turkish State, was given the red-carpet treatment in 
March when he addressed Parliament and a university audience 
with speeches, laced with strong anti-EU undertones, 
dismissing the genocide allegations. 
 
5. (U) The Bogazici University event, by contrast, would have 
included several critics of the official view among its list 
of about two dozen speakers.  These included Fethiye Cetin, 
author of "My Grandmother" ("Anneannem"), a biography of a 
young Armenian girl caught up in the slaughter of 1915, 
forcibly taken in by a Turkish family and forcibly converted 
to Islam (reftel); Halil Berktay, a Sabanci University 
professor who has written that the tragedy of 1915 contains 
many elements of genocide; Turkey's foremost liberal (in the 
classic sense) columnist Ismet Berkan; and Ankara University 
leftist-gadfly professor Baskin Oran, who has frequently 
criticized the official State position.  Many of the other 
scheduled speakers were academics not considered 
controversial. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Justice Minister Calls Event "Stab in the Back" 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
6. (U) Cicek, who also serves as GOT spokesman, implied 
during his harsh remarks before Parliament May 24 that the 
conference constituted treason.  Cicek asserted that the 
conference was "a stab in the back of the Turkish nation" 
because it would undermine GOT efforts to "silence" Armenian 
genocide allegations.  "Universities are autonomous, but this 
does not mean that they are exempted from responsibility," he 
explained.  In a rare display of political unity, Sukru 
Elekdag, MP from the opposition Republican People's Party 
(CHP), labeled the conference "treason" and said the event 
would serve as academic cover for "Armenian propaganda." 
 
7. (U) Cicek also opined that the Higher Education Council 
(YOK) should take action against conference organizers.  YOK 
promptly responded with a statement declaring that the 
organizers' stated goal of airing views contrary to the 
official position proved that the event "cannot be a 
scholarly meeting."  YOK concluded that "such an effort by a 
Turkish university is unfortunate for Turkish higher 
education." 
 
8. (U) The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor, according to press 
reports, started preparing to build a case against conference 
organizers the day before the event was set to begin, sending 
a notice to Bogazici University officials requesting 
transcripts and other conference documents. 
 
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Intellectuals Strike Back 
------------------------- 
 
9. (U) Some Turkish intellectuals -- but relatively few -- 
have sharply protested.  A group of 109 Bogazici faculty 
members, mostly untenured and thus all the more courageous, 
released a statement May 25 condemning the assault on the 
conference.  In the statement, the faculty members describe 
the comments of Cicek and others as "an attack on freedom of 
expression."  The faculty members further state that they 
would like the conference to be re-scheduled as soon as 
possible, and declare that they are "embarrassed that (Cicek) 
bears the title of Justice Minister."  The History Foundation 
of Turkey issued a statement calling the cancellation "an 
undeniable defeat and a dark moment in Turkey's experience in 
democracy."  Yusuf Alatas, president of the Human Rights 
Association, told us he is planning to issue a joint 
statement with the Helsinki Citizens Assembly calling on 
Cicek to resign.  Murat Belge, a Bilgi University professor 
who helped organize the conference, stated that the president 
of Bogazici, while good, is inexperienced and may have been 
unwilling to resist pressure.  Bilge claimed he and his 
colleagues would try again to hold the event, probably in the 
fall. 
 
10. (C) A number of columnists also harshly criticized the 
GOT.  Turk-Islam synthesist Taha Akyol, of Milliyet, and 
liberal Asli Aydintasbas, of Sabah -- two of Turkey's 
largest-circulation dailies -- averred that it was Cicek who 
stabbed Turkey in the back by taking a  hard-line approach 
that will only enhance international sympathy for genocide 
allegations and erode Turkey's international standing. 
Berkan, a columnist for the daily Radikal, told us May 25 
that the attack on the conference reflects the fact that 
leaders of the ruling AK Party do not support, or even 
understand, Western human rights concepts.  The GOT has 
adopted EU-related legal reforms, but not out of a sincere 
commitment to making Turkey more democratic, he said.  Berkan 
expressed deep regret that his alma mater Bogazici 
University, "the most liberal state university in Turkey," 
gave in to intimidation.  In his May 26 column, he wrote that 
the cancellation "was a turning point in terms of academic 
autonomy and freedom in Turkey." 
 
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Diplomats: Another Setback for EU Candidacy 
------------------------------------------- 
 
11. (C) A German diplomat told us Cicek's comments were the 
worst he'd seen by a GOT official during his three years in 
Ankara.  "This shows that the Turkish Government no longer 
cares about EU standards," he said.  "It's all about Turkish 
politics and staying in power now."  The German Ambassador, 
on hearing of Cicek's remarks, told us that he immediately 
put a call through to the Minister and asked him if he 
understood how profoundly significant it was that the German 
Ambassador was calling (i.e., implying that Cicek's 
stab-in-the-back remark is redolent of proto-Nazi language 
from the Munich beerhalls).  Cicek did not.  Other EU 
diplomats concurred that the conference cancellation is seen 
in Europe as yet another setback in Turkey's EU candidacy. 
 
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MFA Tries to Downplay Incident 
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12. (C) We discussed the issue with Asip Kaya, of the MFA 
Security Affairs office, which follows the "genocide" issue. 
Kaya nervously asserted that the conference was not canceled 
due to GOT pressure.  He claimed he personally would have 
preferred to see the conference proceed as scheduled, but 
asserted that organizers failed to include diverse viewpoints 
among participants.  He tried to assure us that Turks are 
free to express their views about the events of 1915, 
although he could not cite an event where views contrary to 
the official position had been presented. 
 
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Comment 
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13. (C) A mainstay of the GOT's policy on the Armenian 
genocide allegations has been the argument that the issue 
should be handled by historians.  This is a rational 
position, but the GOT has always been disingenuous in its 
approach.  In 2003, the Education Ministry issued a memo 
urging schools across the country to have fifth- and 
seventh-graders write an essay explaining why the genocide 
allegations are "baseless."  Fifth- and seventh-graders are 
not historians, but apparently that doesn't matter since the 
government is providing them with a pre-ordained conclusion. 
 
14. (C) PM Erdogan is fond of demonstrating the GOT's 
supposed willingness to "leave it to historians" by claiming 
that Turkey's archives are "open" and challenging the 
Armenians to open theirs as well.  As reported reftel, the 
GOT employs an Orwellian definition of "open," similar to 
Cicek's above-noted concept of academic autonomy.  There are 
tight restrictions, including a special visa requirement for 
foreigners, and only the "catalogued" archives can be 
reviewed. 
 
15. (C) This assault on free speech fits into the broader 
backlash against EU reforms since the December Summit.  In 
the current climate of resurgent nationalism and doubts about 
Turkey's EU prospects, the GOT has panicked and wrapped 
itself in a defensive, nationalist-Islamist cloak.  In that 
context, MPs reviewing the now-passed Penal Code have left 
intact language in the legal reasoning of article 305 that 
would appear to punish the expression of views contrary to 
State policy on Cyprus and the Armenian massacres.  Though 
various contacts had assured us the controversial language 
would be removed, MPs did not do so as they passed the law on 
May 27. 
 
16. (C) Moreover, the Bogazici University conference was not 
the only human rights-related event the GOT canceled at the 
last minute this week.  The Justice Ministry on May 24 
canceled a seminar for doctors on the treatment of torture 
victims.  The event, organized in cooperation with the 
European Commission, was set to begin the next morning, and 
participants from London learned of the cancellation only 
when they arrived at their Istanbul hotel. 
 
17. (C) And there is more bad news to come.  Our EU contacts 
say the May 25 decision by the High Court of Appeals for the 
closure of the Egitim-Sen teachers' union will prove more 
damaging than the cancellation of the conference.  Under the 
ruling, the GOT will close Egitim-Sen unless the union 
removes from its statute an article supporting the right of 
citizens to be educated in their mother tongue.  Our contacts 
say teachers' unions in Europe are concerned about the case 
and will press their governments to raise the issue with the 
GOT.  We will report septel on the case. 
EDELMAN