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Viewing cable 10ISTANBUL53, ECHR RECOMMENDS AGAINST RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION ON

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
10ISTANBUL53 2010-02-12 11:52 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Istanbul
VZCZCXYZ0002
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIT #0053/01 0431152
ZNR UUUUU ZZH (CCY AD220352 MSI9064-695)
P 121152Z FEB 10
FM AMCONSUL ISTANBUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9506
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK PRIORITY
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
UNCLAS ISTANBUL 000053 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL GR TU OSCE
SUBJECT: ECHR RECOMMENDS AGAINST RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION ON 
TURKISH ID CARDS 
 
REF: 09 ISTANBUL 376 
 
1.  (U) Summary.  On February 2, the European Court of 
Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Turkey violated freedom of 
conscience and religion by including religious affiliation 
on national identification cards.  The ECHR concluded that 
removing the religion box from the cards would be an 
appropriate step toward ending such violations, but the 
ECHR did not mandate such removal.  Turkish citizens are 
not permitted to include some religious affiliations, 
including Baha'ism and Alevism, when registering with the 
GOT's Population Directorate, but can choose to leave 
religious affiliation blank.  The information provided to 
the Population Directorate is then used by the Ministry of 
Interior on the Turkish ID cards.  Such information is used 
to determine whether a Turkish citizen child is permitted 
to attend a minority school (only if one or more of the 
child's parents are Armenian, Greek Orthodox, or Jewish is 
the child permitted entrance to these schools.)  Even if 
MOI removes the affiliation box from the ID card, Alevis 
and Baha'i will continue to face the same challenges with 
the Population Directorate without a similar change in the 
registration process as well. End Summary. 
 
2.  (U) On February 2, the European Court of Human Rights 
(ECHR) issued its judgment against Turkey in the case of 
Sinan Isik v. Turkey on the topic of the inclusion of 
religious affiliation on national identification cards. 
Turkish citizen Sinan Isik applied to the ECHR in 2005 
after being unable to register "Alevi" as his religion on 
the Turkish national identification card.  Ultimately, the 
ECHR ruled that Turkey violated Article 9 of the European 
Convention of Human Rights pertaining to freedom of 
conscience and religion. 
 
3.  (U) Greece was the last member of the European Union to 
abolish the requirement to list religious affiliation on 
national identity cards - in 2001 - despite the protests of 
the Greek Orthodox Church.  According to surveying 
completed by professor Lina Molokotos at Sorbonne 
University, the Muslim minority in Greece was supportive of 
maintaining the religious affiliation listed on the 
identity card.  Some minority communities considered the 
cards listing their Muslim religious affiliation to be the 
legal proof necessary to protect the special privileges 
accorded to minority religious communities by the Lausanne 
Treaty, such as education in special bilingual schools. 
 
4.  (U) In 2006, Turkey amended its Law on Population and 
Citizenship to allow citizens to leave blank the box for 
religious identity. However, the ECHR still found that a 
citizen's voluntary or compulsory indication of religion on 
national identification violated the principle of freedom 
of conscience and religion.  In its ruling, the court said 
that it was not the responsibility of the state to review 
its citizens' religious affiliation. Such action hampers 
the neutrality of the state on religious matters.  The ECHR 
concluded that removing the religion box from the cards 
would be an appropriate step toward ending such 
violations.  However, it did not mandate this action. 
 
5.  (U) The list of religious affiliation from which a 
Turkish citizen can choose has changed over time, once 
including various denominations of Christianity and Islamic 
sects, but now just offering "Christian" and "Islam" in 
addition to others.  The list has never included Alevi or 
Baha'i as options, leading to complaints from members of 
these religious communities that they were prevented from 
self-identifying (Ref).  While some Baha'i citizens choose 
to leave the religion box blank, others argue that they 
should have the option to self-identify if the national 
identity cards include a box for religious affiliation. 
 
6.  (SBU) President of the external affairs office of the 
Turkish Baha'i Community Cuneyt Can is optimistic that the 
GOT will make the change recommended by the ECHR, but 
predicts the process will be long and contentious. 
Specifically, he said some cabinet members opposed the idea 
of removing the religious affiliation requirement for 
several years.  Can also argued that because the GOT does 
not collect religious affiliation information in its 
census, it relies on information gathered during 
registration to continue to claim that its population is 99 
percent Sunni Islamic.  Such assertions allow the GOT to 
justify policies and institutions aligned with Sunni Islam, 
such as the Diyanet (Directorate of Religion), Can 
 
contended. 
 
7.  (U) President Fermani Altun of the AKP-aligned Alevi 
organization Ehl-i Beyt told us that he sees the ECHR 
ruling as positive and is optimistic that the GOT will 
change requirements for listing religious affiliation on 
identification cards. "In this day and age people should 
not be categorized or identified by religion." 
 
8.  (U) In a speech on February 3, PM Erdogan said he saw 
no reason why changes recommended by the ECHR could not be 
implemented; he noted that such changes would be in line 
with ongoing discussions in the Constitutional Court. 
(Note: Two weeks prior to the ECHR decision, Director of 
Political Affairs of the EU General Secretariat, Alp Ay, 
told us that removing the religious affiliation box was not 
a high priority for the GOT. End note.) Article 7 of the 
Turkish Population Services Law (5490) dictates what 
information is collected and recorded by the Population 
Directorate for the citizens in each neighborhood and 
village.  According to Article 129 of Law 5490, the 
Ministry of Interior then determines what information from 
these family records is included on the identification 
cards.  Law 5490 requires the Population Directorate to 
record the religious affiliation of each citizen in its 
archives, but Article 129 of the law does not necessarily 
require this information to be included on the 
identification cards.  Former ECHR justice from Turkey Riza 
Turmen argued that the GOT is currently in violation of 
Article 24 of the Turkish Constitution which mandates that 
the GOT cannot compel a citizen to reveal his or her 
political or religious affiliation. 
 
9.  (SBU) Comment:  In what would be the easier of 
bureaucratic options, the Ministry of Interior may choose 
to remove this box from the identification card (and comply 
with the ECHR recommendation) while the Population 
Directorate could feasibly continue to document information 
on religious affiliation. Simply stopping the inclusion of 
religious affiliation on ID cards would be an easy step to 
foster religious freedom in Turkey.  All citizens must 
carry their ID card on them at all times.  The cards are 
used for a variety of purposes - from identity checks at 
police stops and applying for jobs, to checking out 
headphones for simultaneous interpretation during 
conferences.  A religious affiliation box left blank or 
indicating a non-Islamic religion can raise suspicion among 
some members of the Turkish Republic long taught to fear 
non-Islamic subsets of the population.  Removing this box 
on such a commonly used document would remove an instrument 
of potential discrimination.  It is unlikely that the 
Population Directorate will stop requesting information on 
religious affiliation from new Turkish citizens.  Such 
information is used to determine whether a Turkish citizen 
child is permitted to attend a minority school; only if one 
or more of the child's parents are Armenian, Greek 
Orthodox, or Jewish is the child permitted entrance to 
these schools.  However, Alevis and Baha'i will continue to 
face the same challenges when trying to self-identify with 
the Population Directorate without a similar change in the 
registration process as well.  End Comment. 
WIENER