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P 150750Z JUL 09
FM AMCONSUL ISTANBUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9066
INFO RUCNOSC/ORG FOR SECURITY CO OP IN EUR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ISTANBUL 000268 
 
SIPDIS 
 
EUR/RPM FOR JESSICA FISHER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OSCE PHUM PGOV KDEM
SUBJECT: TURKEY INPUT FOR OSCE HUMAN DIMENSION MEETING 
 
REF: SECSTATE 59944 
 
¶1. (U) Summary.  Mission Turkey proposes including the 
following points in the statements prepared by the US mission 
to the OSCE for the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in 
the fall of 2009. 
 
Tolerance and Non-Discrimination 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Officials in Turkey have begun to pursue a 
comprehensive approach to address the social, political, and 
economic problems that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has 
tried to use as a justification for terrorism.  We welcome 
the steps Turkey has taken to expand Kurdish broadcasting by 
opening a Kurdish language public television station.  We 
also welcome steps the government has taken to establish 
Kurdish language faculties/institutes at several 
universities.  Additionally, the Turkish government has 
pledged greater support to its Alevi population. We hope the 
Turkish government will continue these efforts in line with 
its OSCE commitments. 
 
Freedom of Though, Conscience, or Religious Belief 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶3. (U) Religious communities in Turkey continue to face 
government and legal obstacles in opening, maintaining, and 
operating recognized houses of worship.  We urge the 
Government of Turkey to take steps to end such legal hurdles 
so that all religious groups in Turkey can legally gather in 
their places of worship. 
 
¶4. (U) The Turkish Government has made significant steps in 
recognizing the property rights of religious communities in 
its amended foundations law. The laws need to be fully 
implemented and amendments made to address properties sold to 
third parties in the past. We also urge the Government of 
Turkey to reopen the Halki Seminary, which has been closed 
since 1971. 
 
¶5. (U) We urge the Government to remove the religious 
identification requirement on national identity cards. We 
will continue to monitor closely the trials in Turkey 
regarding the murder of Armenian Turk Hrant Dink and the 
Christians murdered in Malatya in 2007. 
 
¶6. (U) Bans or limitations on religious expression continue 
to arise in a diverse array of countries, including Greece, 
Turkey and France.  The United States recognizes that 
governments must balance competing priorities and interests 
when addressing the extent to which religion and religious 
symbols should be manifest in public institutions.  We think 
the better approach is to respect, wherever possible, an 
individual's choice to manifest his or her religion, 
including through attire or other displays of religious 
symbols, in schools or other government buildings. 
 
Refugees and Displaced Persons 
------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (U) In the OSCE's 1989 Vienna Document, participating 
states agreed to "fully respect the right of everyone to 
freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each 
state, and to leave any country." In the OSCE's 1991 Moscow 
Document, participating States further agreed to "remove all 
legal and other restrictions with respect to travel within 
their territories and for their own nationals and 
foreigners." 
 
¶8. (U) The United States is very grateful for the assistance 
Turkish authorities provided over the past twelve months to 
facilitate the timely resettlement to the United States of 
2100 Iraq refugees who had sought temporary asylum in Turkey. 
 At the same time, however, we are concerned that Turkey's 
laws still require exit permission before refugees, who have 
no durable solution in Turkey, are allowed to depart Turkey 
for resettlement in third countries. 
 
¶9. (U) One obstacle to gaining an exit permit is the resident 
permit fee that Turkish regulations require refugees, who are 
often the poorest members of society and who cannot obtain 
legal employment in Turkey, to pay before they can depart for 
resettlement to a third country.  In some cases, families 
have been charged thousands of dollars in residence fees 
before they were allowed to depart Turkey.  While other OSCE 
countries recognize that refugees' humanitarian situation 
should make them exempt from such fees, Turkey charges late 
fines when refugees cannot pay fees on time.  Although a 
"humanitarian waiver" of the fees is available under Turkish 
law, it is not consistently applied, even for single mothers 
 
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or for elderly or disabled refugees. 
 
¶10. (U) Turkish regulations also require that refugees get 
special permission from police before they can travel outside 
the provincial towns to which they are assigned for 
residence.  These restrictions sometimes hinder refugees' 
ability to appear for UNHCR interviews or for resettlement 
interviews at embassies in Ankara, or to travel to the 
airport in Istanbul to depart the country.  These 
restrictions violate OSCE commitments to freedom of movement 
and exacerbate the refugees' already difficult humanitarian 
situation. 
 
¶11. (U) Additionally, within the last year, the Turkish 
government has stopped providing UNHCR access to migrants 
apprehended before they are registered with the police or 
UNHCR. This makes it impossible to determine who may be 
qualified asylum seekers. 
WIENER