US embassy cable - 03ANKARA4196

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004196 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/02/2013 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, TU 
SUBJECT: GOT CIRCULAR ON ARMENIAN "GENOCIDE" SEEN AS 
ANTI-REFORM EFFORT 
 
Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons 1.5 b and d. 
 
 
1. (C) Summary: Turkish Education Ministry has urged all 
fifth- and seventh-graders to write an essay arguing that 
allegations that the Ottomans committed genocide against 
Armenians are "baseless."  The Ministry also asked schools to 
organize conferences on the issue, and seven teachers have 
been indicted for comments made during one such conference. 
Our contacts, both in and outside the GOT, are mostly 
embarrassed by these measures, but the chairman of the 
parliamentary Human Rights Committee defended the essays. 
Academics and human rights activists said they believe the 
military-dominated National Security Council (NSC) is behind 
the measures.  End Summary. 
 
 
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Students Urged to Write About "Baseless" Allegations 
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2. (U) Education Minister Celik in April issued a circular 
urging all schools in Turkey to have their fifth- and 
seventh-graders prepare a one-page essay arguing that the 
allegations that Turkey committed genocide against Armenians 
are "baseless."  The essays have been submitted to the 
Education Ministry, which will review them and announce in 
September the winners of the national competition. 
 
 
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Armenian Schools Ignoring Contest 
--------------------------------- 
 
 
3. (U) Turkey's Armenian schools were included in the 
distribution of the circular.  However, Hrant Dink, editor of 
the Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper Agos, told us the 
Armenian schools are not participating in the voluntary essay 
competition.  Still, he said, knowledge of the competition is 
a kind of "psychological torture" for Turkish Armenians. 
 
 
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Teachers Arrested at Conference 
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4. (U) The circular also asked schools to organize 
conferences on the "baseless" allegations.  At one such 
conference, seven teachers were arrested June 2 in the 
southeastern province of Kilis when one teacher, Hulya 
Akpinar, got into a dispute with the speaker and was joined 
by six others when she walked out in protest.  Prosecutors 
have indicted the seven teachers, and accuse Akpinar of 
claiming during the conference that the Ottoman State had 
massacred 800,000 Armenians as part of a deliberate policy. 
According to press reports, however, the dispute began after 
Akpinar asked the speaker whether the GOT had a policy on how 
it would respond if the Armenian lobby managed to persuade 
many countries to accept the genocide allegations.  Akpinar 
has reportedly been dismissed from her job. 
 
 
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Parliamentary and GOT Reactions Mixed 
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5. (C) We have raised concerns about the circular and the 
indictment with a number of GOT contacts and other public 
figures.  Most were visibly embarrassed by the issue, but 
Mehmet Elkatmis, president of the parliamentary Human Rights 
Committee, defended the measures.  Elkatmis argued that the 
Education Minister "did the right thing" by encouraging 
students to "study" the Armenian accusations.  When we noted 
that the circular required students to reach a specific 
conclusion, Elkatmis argued that was justified, given the 
GOT's policy on the issue.  Elkatmis further averred that the 
arrest of the teachers was "not an international incident" 
and noted that the teachers were "only under investigation" 
and that none remained in detention.  (Note: It was clear to 
us that Elkatmis had not been aware of the issue; his 
responses were prompted by an advisor who whispered in his 
ear.  End Note). 
 
 
6. (C) However, Koksal Toptan, chairman of the parliamentary 
Justice Committee, said the circular and the indictment 
reflect the fact that human rights reform in Turkey is 
incomplete.  "We have deficiencies in implementation (of 
reforms)," he said.  "There is no question about that." 
Toptan predicted that the charges against the teachers will 
be dropped.  Abdulkadir Kaya, Justice Ministry Director 
General for International Relations, called the indictment of 
the teachers "stupid, unacceptable," but said the Justice 
Ministry does not have the authority to intervene in the 
case.  "We are stuck with it for now," he lamented. 
 
 
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Others Blame NSC and Reform Opponents 
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7. (C) Prominent political reformer and civil society 
activist Berna Turkili, pointing to what she called the 
"Soviet-like" line on her identity card listing religion, 
sees the contest as a reflection of continuing paranoia on 
the part of an Establishment which wants to keep Turkey 
anchored in the revolutionary nationalist fervor of the 
Republic's initial period. 
 
 
8. (C) Suavi Aydin, Hacettepe University anthropology 
professor and expert on Anatolian minorities; Baskin Oran, 
Ankara University international relations professor; and 
Yavuz Onen, Human Rights Foundation chairman, all told us 
they blame the NSC for the measures (Note: We have no 
information confirming NSC involvement.  End Note). 
 
 
9. (C) "There is no way the Education Minister did this on 
his own," Aydin claimed.  Aydin argued that the circular is a 
reaction by establishmentarian elements of the State opposed 
to human rights reform and EU membership.  These elements 
seek to delay the reform process by pumping life into 
traditional Turkish paranoia over issues such as Armenian 
genocide allegations, Cyprus, and relations with Greece, he 
said.  Onen believes the circular has two purposes: 1) to 
warn the GOT against any effort to radically change policies 
toward Armenia, and 2) to ensure that the next generation of 
Turks accepts the State view of the genocide allegations. 
Oran characterized the circular as a typically clumsy effort 
by the Establishment, and predicted the backlash will 
actually prove beneficial.  "We have to thank the opposition 
(to reform) for being stupid," he said.  Public reaction to 
the arrest of the teachers will generate more open debate 
about the genocide allegations, and relations with Armenia, 
just as the GOT's crackdown on Kurdish cultural expression 
has broadened the debate on the Kurdish issue, he said. 
 
 
10. (C) Editor of intellectual center-left "Radikal" Ismet 
Berkan, whose wife is of Armenian descent and whose May 15 
column sharply criticized the essay contest, differed on the 
contest's origin.  Responding to our comment that Education 
Minister Celik (from Van, which had a sizable Armenian 
population until 1915) has long been a contributor to the 
genocide denial camp, Berkan averred that the stimulus for 
the contest came from lower-level retrograde Ministry 
officials trying to curry favor with Celik. 
 
 
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Comment 
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11. (C) Turkish authorities have long made legal arguments 
for rejecting the term "genocide," and otherwise handled the 
question in a short-sighted, hyper-defensive manner, for 
example by issuing counter accusations of an Armenian 
"genocide" of Turks.  More and more Turks appear to us to 
have an inkling of what happened on both sides, and have 
begun to argue that this issue should be left for historians. 
 It is reprehensible, therefore, to ask young students to 
take on this burden, especially considering that Turkish 
textbooks provide nothing but propaganda on the question. 
 
 
PEARSON