US embassy cable - 03ISTANBUL508

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ISTANBUL 000508 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/27/2013 
TAGS: ASEC, PGOV, TU, Istanbul 
SUBJECT: SUB-GOVERNORS SURVEY SECURITY AND POLITICS IN 
ISTANBUL 
 
Classified By: CG David Arnett for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY: In recent meetings, several of Istanbul's 
kaymakams (sub-governors) were surprisingly open in 
describing the challenges they face in overseeing proper 
functioning of the security apparatus.  Pointing to a massive 
rural-urban migration to Istanbul over the past several 
decades as a central source of difficulty, the kaymakams 
discussed their concerns related to street children and 
crimes committed by minors; proper handling of demonstrations 
and protests; rural-urban migration; and improving police 
training.  All were eager to underline their firm belief that 
Turkey and the U.S. would remain close allies and friends 
despite recent difficulties in the relationship.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
------------------------ 
Istanbul's Sub-Districts 
------------------------ 
 
 
2. (U)  Poloff recently met with kaymakams for Bagcilar, 
Sisli, and Kadikoy districts in Istanbul.  The three 
districts, very different in terms of income levels, 
commercial interests, and location, roughly mirror the 
diversity of economic conditions among Istanbul's 
12-million-plus population.  Bagcilar, located on the 
northwestern edge of Istanbul's European side, is a classic 
gecekondu (literally "landed at night," a neighborhood of 
recent arrivals to the city, often interspersed with 
squatters and small businesses).  Sisli, in central European 
Istanbul, has both a thriving commercial district and 
residential areas spanning the entire range of incomes, from 
very poor to affluent.  Its population of 300,000 people 
swells to one million during the day, as workers crowd in 
from outlying areas.  Kadikoy, a central district on the 
Asian side, has a variety of retail and commercial 
businesses, a pedestrian neighborhood and shoreline area 
popular with locals, and a largely middle-class residential 
area. 
 
 
-------------------------- 
Bagcilar and Gaziosmanpasa 
-------------------------- 
 
 
3. (C) Poloff met April 3 with Bagcilar's acting kaymakam, 
Aziz Inci.  Inci said that most residents of neighborhoods 
like Bagcilar are immigrants from Turkey's rural areas and 
Southeast, with few adults born in Istanbul.  Inci believes 
that most come to Istanbul for economic reasons, and that 
"security reasons" as a justification for migration ended in 
about 1995. 
 
 
4. (U) Inci views the primary challenge of his job as one of 
providing infrastructure.  Working to solve shortcomings in 
education, health, and social services, and combating 
joblessness, are his main preoccupations.  In order to make 
necessary improvements, as kaymakam he must often work not 
only with the governor's office, but also with neighboring 
kaymakams and the Istanbul mayor in order to deal with 
cross-cutting issues such as electricity, transportation, and 
sewage. 
 
 
5. (C) One way in which kaymakams come into direct contact 
with political parties is through such development projects. 
Inci said that local political party offices often show 
interest when the kaymakam is making decisions on where to 
improve infrastructure, or whom to hire for certain 
contracts.  Additionally, political parties seek to 
"bandwagon" onto successful projects, claiming them as their 
own initiatives to score points with the local electorate. 
 
 
----- 
Sisli 
----- 
 
 
6. (C) Sisli kaymakam Osman Demir also pointed to 
infrastructure development as a key need for Istanbul's 
social development, and also as a means of enhancing 
security.  Demir expressed concern about what he perceives to 
be a growing pattern of criminal activities among minors. 
Demir pointed to economic hard times, a burgeoning youth 
population, and lighter punishments on young offenders as 
causes of this problem.  Demir believes some criminal 
elements are recruiting minors to avoid harsher punishments. 
 
 
7. (C) Demir pointed to a continuing presence of illegal 
immigrants in Istanbul as a major problem.  Sisli has a 
number of night clubs in the Elmadag neighborhood that have 
performers and some prostitutes from the former Soviet Union. 
 Additionally, garment and leather businesses in the 
Nisantasi neighborhood cater to suitcase traders from the 
same countries, and signs in Russian are nearly as frequent 
as Turkish or English. 
 
 
8. (C) Demir argued that trafficking in Istanbul is largely 
voluntary.  He laid out several "typical" scenarios, which 
include Chinese workers attempting to enter Europe by 
transiting Istanbul, and women from the former Soviet Union 
working as shuttle traders in Istanbul, and occasionally 
"raising capital" by engaging in prostitution.  Demir felt 
that both local and international mafia have a hand in this 
ongoing problem, but that economic under-development in 
neighboring countries was its major impetus.  (As kaymakam, 
Demir oversees the security apparatus for the Sisli district, 
and has intimate personal knowledge of all significant 
arrests, detentions, and police investigations within the 
area.) 
 
 
------- 
Kadikoy 
------- 
 
 
9. (C) Kadikoy Kaymakam Yuksel Peker was surprisingly frank 
about problems of police administration and human rights. 
Peker conceded that torture in Turkey is still a problem, but 
argued it can be solved by proper education.  "Police, in 
their zeal to extract information, believe that torture is 
the best option.  Training them in other methods of proper 
interrogation will stop them," he suggested. 
 
 
10. (C) Peker, like his other colleagues, believed that many 
of Istanbul's current social ills are caused by severe 
pressures brought about by massive rural-urban migration.  He 
echoed their belief that infrastructural improvements will do 
much to ease these pressures, and encourage law-abiding 
behavior. 
 
 
------------------ 
What's a kaymakam? 
------------------ 
 
 
11. (U) Kaymakams (sub-governors) are chiefs of Ministry of 
the Interior offices in Turkey's provincial sub-divisions, 
and thus formally the chief representatives of the Turkish 
State below the level of governors.  Career civil servants, 
they must be university graduates of public administration or 
political affairs faculties.  They may be graduates of either 
public or private universities.   Upon graduation, they take 
an entrance exam to enter the kaymakam program, and then 
begin an approximately one-month training program at the 
Ministry of the Interior in Ankara.  Kaymakams generally 
aspire eventually to be appointed as governors.  Early in 
their careers, they usually do a one-year training program in 
the U.S. or U.K. to study Anglo-Saxon local administration. 
 
 
12. (C) A kaymakam's career usually moves geographically from 
East to West.  After completing MoI training in Ankara, a 
young kaymakam is typically posted somewhere in the rural 
southeast.  Throughout the region, kaymakams are generally 
young men in their late-20s to early 30s.  Though technically 
in charge of the security apparatus throughout the 
sub-district (sometimes a very large geographic area), 
kaymakams in this period of their careers are heavily 
supervised by governors and deputy governors in the 
provincial capitals.  At the same time, they are somewhat 
eclipsed by a security apparatus that, while respectful to 
them as the future governors of Turkey, keeps them somewhat 
distant from direct control over jandarma and other security 
operations.  On one occasion, poloff met with a jandarma 
colonel and kaymakam simultaneously.  While technically of 
higher rank, the kaymakam was deferential to the colonel, who 
was both older and more experienced. 
 
 
13. (C) A young kaymakam understands his limitations: he is a 
colonel without a regiment, charged not with independent 
decision making on security matters, but with communicating 
the governor's instructions to the local security apparatus, 
and reporting back on the local situation.  "Do well in small 
matters and you will be rewarded" is the order of the day.  A 
young kaymakam looks to onward assignment as a deputy 
governor or a kaymakam in a more comfortable location.  On 
more than one occasion, young kaymakams and deputy governors 
asked poloff about an American FSO's career track, and 
claimed to see strong similarities. 
 
 
14. (U) As a kaymakam's career progresses, the geography 
changes, with postings in Turkey's coastal areas and larger 
cities.  While poloff estimates that median age for a 
kaymakam in the rural Southeast is just over 30 years old, 
Istanbul's kaymakams average close to 50.  Previous posts for 
kaymakams poloff spoke with in Istanbul include the Aegean 
area, Ankara and Istanbul. 
15. (C) MoI civil servants who pursue this career path 
typically display an awareness of Turkish ethnic and 
geographical diversity that may be lost on many of the 
Ankara-Istanbul elite and even on many governors.  While 
typically Kemalist in outlook, they often exhibit a clear 
understanding of the problems that have given rise to 
conflict and political instability.  Uniformly, when speaking 
about political unrest in both rural and urban settings, 
kaymakams have stressed to poloff their belief in the 
importance of opportunity for Kurdish and Turkish poor, 
stating that they believe their role in apportioning funds 
for development projects to be very important in enhancing 
security and discouraging extremism.  Improvements in 
education, state-funded health care, and physical 
infrastructure are thus key concerns for kaymakams throughout 
Turkey. 
ARNETT