Turkey - the land of paranoia (Armenian separatism without Armenians and Jewish land grab in Turkey without Jews)

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Jun 17, 2011 at 15:59

I am very grateful to the collaborators of 'Wikileaks" for recent publishing of c. 250 000 cables sent by US embassies around the world to Washington.Thus people like me can learn many new and valuable things and get a clearer idea of what is happening behind the scenes.Open sources like newspaper articles rarely give so much insight as these cables.

Especially the cables from the US embassy in Ankara are a fascinating source of information.They show both competence and analytical qualities of the authors and their informers as to what is going on in Turkey. From what is available I can only conclude the US authorities are perfectly well informed about almost everything of interest in Turkey, including those things Turks themselves try to keep secret or distort and Washington is also well informed on paranoid aspects of the Turkish political mentality of the Turkish ruling class.

To show what I mean let me just quote a few passages from cable with ID 04ANKARA7106 written on 22.12..2004 and classified as SECRET//NOFORN (=no foreign nationals) "SUBJECT: A RARE GLIMPSE INTO TURKISH MILITARY INTEL: IRAQ, PKK CONCERNS, PARANOIA, ANTI-NATO CAMPAIGN"
The abbreviation 'JITEM' we encounter in the cable refers to "Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele", i.e. "Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism"

Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin 04ANKARA7106 2004-12-22 We learn from it that for the political Turkish elite Armenian separatism in Turkey can exist without Armenians as it is a matter of family tree so to say, and that Jewish land grab needs no Jews at all to haunt their minds. But when the educated and shrewd Anakara elites think so and tell police on teh ground think so too, then what can we expect from the common credulous Turk? Contrary to my habit I am going to leave the cable without further comments as I think the cable requires none.It is eloquent enough without further additions.

" Long-term Embassy contact with deep experience in intel and national security analysis has
relayed to us from his sources the belief that ...(3) Turkish Jandarma intel is besieged by paranoid orders from Ankara to uncover "Armenian separatists" and an "Israeli land grab" in the
southeast ...

... The Turkish State's fear of history is reflected in a steady stream of orders from Ankara to JITEM posts in the field to combat "Armenian separatism." Our contact's JITEM acquaintances told him that for a long time they were mystified by the insistence of the orders, given that there is literally only a handful of Armenians left in the southeast. As they worked in vain to uncover any signs of Armenian separatism, they came to realize that Ankara was basing its suspicions on the meticulous population registry (nufus kutugu) of family lineage which, among other things, shows how many citizens -- especially concentrated in certain regions of the east and southeast -- actually have an Armenian background underneath their forebears' voluntary or forced conversions or adoptions during the period when Armenians were being deported and murdered en masse by the Ottoman authorities and local Muslim bands. The distant and suppressed Armenian connection is so pervasive that JITEM even came across a village imam with Armenian roots, our contact relayed. In our own extensive travels throughout Anatolia, especially east of the Kizilirmak River, we have been repeatedly struck by (a) the common knowledge among
ordinary citizens of what happened in 1915, a knowledge which most will readily share; and (b) the number of people with apparent Armenian features.

¶9. (C) We note that the population registry, a continuation of the Ottoman system akin in some ways to parish baptismal records but more centralized and detailed, is a system whose maintenance even today illustrates the extraordinary attention to, and fear of, "foreign elements" among the citizenry. "

Then ¶10. (S/NF) JITEM has also been burdened by an endless loop of orders to investigate allegations that Israelis are buying up land in the fertile Harran plain south and east of Urfa, our contact reports. After a square-inch by square-inch review, JITEM in Urfa could find no evidence of such a trend.
Noticing that Ankara was relying for its orders on material published in the weekly "Aydinlik" by Dogu Perincek, a notorious source of pro-"Eurasian", anti-U.S., anti-NATO, anti-Israeli disinformation -- which many of our Turkish contacts say is provided and financed in great measure by the Russians -- one local JITEM commander, to get Ankara off his back, slyly suggested in his final report that Ankara should
consider whether this information had been provided by Syrian intelligence or by the Israelis themselves to make Turkey fear Israel's might."

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".