US embassy cable - 03ANKARA3266

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 003266 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/16/2008 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, TU 
SUBJECT: GOT RESPONSE TO POLICE RAID OF HUMAN RIGHTS 
ASSOCIATION 
 
 
REF: ANKARA 2998 
 
 
Classified by Acting Political Counselor Nicholas S. Kass. 
Reason: 1.5(b)(d). 
 
 
1. (C) Summary: FM Gul and EU leaders have publicly 
criticized the May 6 police raid of the Human Rights 
Association's (HRA) Ankara offices.  MFA and Justice Ministry 
contacts told us they regretted the raid, but said 
prosecutors acted within the law.  However, one senior 
Interior Ministry contact defended the action as a legitimate 
investigation of a "suspect organization."  End Summary. 
 
 
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EU, GOT Leaders Criticize Raid 
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2. (C) The police raid of the HRA Ankara offices (reftel) has 
drawn a sharp reaction from the EU and some GOT leaders. 
According to our contacts, FM Gul told EU-member-state 
ambassadors May 9 that the raid was "an example of the need 
to change Turkey's judicial system."  EU Expansion 
Commissioner Verheugan, addressing the European Parliament 
May 13, said the "harassment" of the HRA was "difficult to 
understand," according to our contacts.  Justice Minister 
Cicek has also publicly criticized the raid. 
 
 
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Embassy Raises Concerns 
----------------------- 
 
 
3. (C) We raised USG concerns about the raid in separate 
meetings May 9, 13, and 15 with officials at the Justice, 
Interior and Foreign ministries.  We noted that prosecutors 
have opened more than 400 cases against the HRA over the past 
two years and have repeatedly failed to prove allegations of 
support for terrorism.  By repeatedly taking the HRA to court 
and failing to win a conviction, prosecutors appear to be 
conducting a harassment campaign. 
 
 
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MFA, Justice: Raid "Unfortunate" 
-------------------------------- 
 
 
3. (C) Abdulkadir Kaya, Director General for International 
Relations at the Justice Ministry, acknowledged that, in the 
past, many cases were opened against the HRA based on weak 
evidence.  He said this practice is becoming increasingly 
less common as Turkey strives for EU membership.  He 
predicted that the May 6 raid will be the last time 
prosecutors use such tactics, unless they turn up solid 
evidence linking the HRA to terrorism.  Kaan Esener, head of 
the MFA Human Rights Department, said he is concerned that 
the "unfortunate" raid will cost the GOT some of the 
credibility it has gained in EU circles through its 
legislative reform process.  "On the one hand, we're making 
reforms; but on the other hand, we're searching the offices 
of human rights organizations.  It sends a mixed signal," he 
said.  Still, Esener said, prosecutors have acted within the 
law.  Kaya also averred that, unlike in past cases, the 
prosecutor in this investigation has gone by the book, 
getting a search warrant in advance and personally 
supervising the search as required. 
 
 
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Interior: "Where There's Smoke There's Fire" 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
 
4. (C) Nezih Dogan, Interior Ministry Secretary General, was 
unapologetic about the raid.  Arguing that, "where there's 
smoke, there's fire," Dogan articulated the 
Establishmentarian line, asserting that "prosecutors must 
have had good reasons" for repeatedly investigating the HRA. 
Dogan claimed there is no harassment campaign against the 
HRA, arguing that thousands of other NGOs operate in Turkey 
without being taken to court.  If HRA leaders believe they 
are being unfairly targeted, he asked, why don't they open a 
counter suit against the State?  Dogan asserted that HRA 
members "provoke" authorities by voicing support for jailed 
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.  (Kaya at Justice made a similar 
claim, though he acknowledged that pro-PKK speech did not 
constitute material support for terrorism.) 
 
 
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Comment 
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5. (C) Human rights issues are hotly debated in Turkey. 
However, in the Turkish system, protecting the State from the 
individual is paramount.  Consequently, Western individualism 
and human rights concepts are still too little understood, as 
reflected in the comments of our contact at the Interior 
Ministry -- a principle organ through which the Establishment 
maintains Kemalist order and propriety.  In this context, 
rounding up suspects on less than convincing evidence is seen 
not as harassment but, all too often, as a perfectly 
legitimate and effective way to discourage and warn activists 
and other perceived miscreants.  Gul and Cicek's criticism of 
the police raid, though laudable, needs to be followed up by 
the kind of decisive action that Turkish officials habitually 
avoid. 
PEARSON