Cablegate: Scenesetter for November 11-19 Visit to Turkey Of

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PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAK #6394/01 3131732
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 091732Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9906
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA PRIORITY 1327

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 006394

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE
FOR USCIRF DELEGATION

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM TU
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR NOVEMBER 11-19 VISIT TO TURKEY OF
THE U.S. COMMISSION ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

REF: A. STATE 178504
B. ANAKRA 5735
C. ANARA 5723
D. ISTANBUL 1669
E. ISTANBUL 1818

ANKARA 00006394 001.2 OF 003

1. (U) This is a joint ConGen Istanbul-Embassy Ankara message.

2. (SBU) Introduction: Mission Turkey welcomes the U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to
Turkey. We have arranged meetings for the delegation in both
Ankara and Istanbul with Government officials, religious
community leaders, academics, journalists, and NGO and
business leaders in order to provide access to a wide variety
of perceptions and opinions related to religious freedom in
Turkey. This is a particularly interesting, potentially
pivotal period in Turkey on these issues.

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Tradition of Tolerance, Era of Change
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3. (SBU) Turks pride themselves on what they describe as
their country's long history of religious tolerance. They
point to the 500 year history of Jews in Turkey, where they
were welcomed after their expulsion from Spain, as well as to
Greek, Armenian, and other Christian minorities who have
historically been free to practice their faiths. Istanbul in
particular has, for centuries, been a city where one can hear
church bells or the call to prayer, or attend Friday evening
services, all within a few hundred yards of one another.
Today's Turkey is, however, about 99% Muslim. While legal
structures and physical edifices reflecting Turkey's
religious diversity remain, the reality is that the diversity
-- and in some circles, tolerance for that diversity -- has
waned.

4. (SBU) Pressure to reverse that trend is one key aspect of
Turkey's EU accession process. Even before the formal launch
of accession negotiations in October 2005, the EU had focused
on how minorities, including religious minorities, were
treated. As a result, over the past four years, Turkey has
undertaken serious reforms to bring its legal structures into
line with those of the EU and to meet the so-called
Copenhagen criteria, which include general human rights
benchmarks. However, over the past year, one of the EU's
critiques has been that the pace of reforms in Turkey has
slowed noticeably. And one specific area on which the EU has
focused is the need for Turkey to show progress on improving
the rights of religious minorities and women.

5. (SBU) These are not popular issues here at a time when
Turks have been dealing with a spike in terrorism at home and
instability and conflict on their borders. In addition,
Turkish pride causes them to bristle when faced with
continued demands from Brussels. With a public increasingly
soured on the EU process -- and uncertain as to whether
Europe really wants them -- Turkish politicians have been
reluctant to push through major EU-related reforms before
parliamentary elections which must take place by November
2007. To help advance Turkey's candidacy, the government
here has, however, pressed forward with a smaller package of
14 new laws.

6. (SBU) This package includes two laws with the potential to
have an important impact on minority rights -- the
Foundations Law, and the Law on Private Education
Institutions. Parliament is in the process of passing a new
Foundations Law, which would enable non-Muslim communities to
reclaim some of the properties expropriated by the state over
the years. Parliament adopted the Education Institutions Law
in a watered-down form that failed to achieve the original
goal of allowing non-Turkish citizens to attend religious
school in Turkey, a key issue for all minority religious
communities in Turkey and one that is at the heart of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate's Halki Seminary dispute. If, as a
result of a separate issue (Turkey's obligations related to
Cyprus), the EU partially suspends accession negotiations
with Turkey in December, this would effectively stall any
further reforms until after the 2007 elections.

7. (SBU) In many ways, Turkey is a country in flux. Today,
less than 1% of the approximately 74 million Turks adhere to
a non-Muslim faith. The predominant form of Islam in Turkey
is Sunni. There are also an estimated 15-16 million Alevi,
or heterodox Muslims. Officially a secular state, the
government's Directorate of Religious Affairs (the Diyanet --
Dee-ah-NET) nonetheless trains and employs all imams.

ANKARA 00006394 002.2 OF 003

8. (SBU) Islam itself is undergoing a transformation within
Turkey as forces of orthodoxy, modernity and Ataturkist
traditions tug believers in different directions. Many
Turkish Muslims, for example, belong to a variety of
religious organizations such as the mystical Sufi
organizations called "tarikats". While technically illegal,
they attract many adherents and generally focus on one
charismatic leader. One example is the Nakshibendis. In a
recent headline-grabbing event, an Imam reportedly in line to
succeed the current head of the Nakshibendi tarikat was
stabbed to death in a mosque in a conservative district of
Istanbul (ref d). His attacker was immediately killed by the
Imam's fellow worshippers. Another example is the Gulenists.
Large numbers of mainstream business leaders, civil servants
and others follow the teachings of Fetullah Gulen, a
charismatic Muslim leader and educator who has lived in the
U.S. for some years. Gulen espouses interfaith dialogue,
heads an international network of schools, and has strong
ties to established media groups in Turkey.

9. (SBU) Generally, most religious Turks reflect a
traditional Ataturkist attitude favoring secularism. A
devout couple in a conservative Istanbul neighborhood was
representative of mainstream believers when they told us all
they sought was to worship God according to their own
conscience and avoid anyone dictating the modalities of
religious practice, while voicing concern that Islam might
become too prominent a feature in Turkish politics.

10. (SBU) Religion and its appropriate role in society have
become a lively topic of debate throughout Turkish society.
Senior Turkish military leaders (who see themselves as the
ultimate defender of Ataturk's modernist and secularist
principles), in a series of recent speeches, stressed their
concern about what they see as the threat of Islamic
fundamentalism. Newly appointed chief of the Turkish General
Staff (TGS) General Yasar Buyukanit declared that Ataturk's
principles were under "serious attack" and warned against
those who want to "redefine secularism" as well as those who
seek to tarnish the image of the Turkish military (ref b).
President Sezer used similar words at the October 1 official
opening of Parliament (ref c). This discourse is as much
about the upcoming May 2007 presidential election (and
whether Prime Minister Erdogan, whose wife wears a headscarf,
should serve as the President of the secular Republic) as
about the role of religion in public life. It is emblematic,
though, of the shifts Turkey is undergoing and an opening of
political debate on many issues, that presidents, generals,
and prime ministers feel a need to speak openly on the topic.

11. (SBU) Tensions between the staunch secularists -- who
see themselves as the defenders of the Ataturkist revolution
-- and pro-Islam forces who want to see greater room for
religious expression in public life were roiled in May when a
gunman opened fire in the court that had ruled in favor of
expanding the public sphere in which the headscarf may not be
worn. One judge was killed and four were injured in the
shooting. Thousands attended the funeral of the murdered
judge, which subsequently turned into a massive pro-secular
demonstration.

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Effects of Conflict, Broadcast Live
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12. (SBU) The events in Lebanon and Israel this past summer
reverberated in Turkey, in part due to very one-sided media
coverage and political comment that focused on Israel's
actions and largely excluded Hezbollah from responsibility.
In Istanbul, thousands gathered to protest against Israeli
actions, and anti-Semitic media and other attacks worried the
city's Jewish community. The situation has since normalized.
Recent violence in Gaza will likely inflame public anger
again and could lead to another revival of pressures on
Turkish Jews.

13. (SBU) The public response to Pope Benedict XVI's speech
delivered at the University of Regensburg on September 12 was
similarly negative. A popular view regarded the speech as a
call for revival of the Christian empire once shared by Rome
and Constantinople. Nonetheless, the Pope is set to visit
Turkey later this month and will be received by President
Sezer as a head of state.

14. (SBU) Turkey portrays itself as a bridge between
civilizations. Prime Minister Erdogan, together with Spanish
Prime Minister Zapatero, is co-chair of the UN-sponsored

ANKARA 00006394 003.2 OF 003

Alliance of Civilizations Initiative. Early this year, when
the controversy was raging over cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammed that had appeared in a Danish newspaper and violent
crowds were in the streets in many Muslim countries, Turkey
remained quiet, its demonstrations peaceful. Erdogan and
Zapatero issued a joint call for tolerance and calm; Erdogan
was the only leader of a majority Muslim country to do so.

15. (SBU) The USCIRF visit coincides with a meeting of the
High Level Group of the Alliance of Civilizations, led by
Rabbi Arthur Schneier, in Istanbul at which the Group will
present its report to UN Secretary General Annan. Both
Erdogan and Zapatero are slated to attend. The Pope's visit
at the end of the month adds an extra dimension to the
perspectives the Commission is likely to receive.

16. (SBU) We look forward to discussing these issues and
others with the Commission upon its arrival in Turkey. The
Commission's program should elicit a broad array of opinions
and, consequently, a better understanding of the religious
freedom situation in this country. For a more comprehensive
view of the status of religious freedom in Turkey and how
various communities are affected, please visit the State
Department's International Religious Freedom Report on Turkey
at: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71413 .htm.

Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/

WILSON

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