TURKISH INFORMATION ON IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 004669

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/23/2013
TAGS: PREL MOPS TU IZ
SUBJECT: TURKISH INFORMATION ON IRAQI GOVERNING COUNCIL
MEMBER MAHMOUD OTHMAN


REF: ANKARA 4539


(U) Classified by Charge d'Affaires Robert Deutsch, reasons
1.5, b/d.



1. (U) Baghdad minimize considered.



2. (S) On July 23 the Government of Turkey passed to the
Embassy the information below to support its claims that
Iraqi Governing Council member Mahmoud Othman is closely
affiliated with the PKK/KADEK. (Note: KYB is the Turkish
abbreviation for Talabani's PUK.)


Begin Text:


The information we have regarding Mahmoud Othman, who is one
of the independent Kurdish Members of five Kurdish members of
the interim administrative council established in Iraq, is as
follows:


1.1 He was born in 1939 in Suleymaniye, and he is a Sunni;
1.2 He is a member of the Soran tribe;
1.3 Between the years 1964 and 1975, he worked as the
secretary of the KDP executive committee and as a politburo

SIPDIS
member;
1.4 He was among the Kurdish leaders who held the secret
meetings in June 1969 led by Molla Mustafa Barzani in Iraq
called, "Kurdish Revolutionary Council" and "Meclis-I Tenfis"
;
1.5 In 1969, he worked as deputy head of the KDP foreign
committee and attended the meetings under this title;
1.6 He was a refugee in Iran from 1975 to 1976;
1.7 Between the years 1976 and 1977, he carried out
activities to establish the KYB together with leader of the
KYB Celal Talabani in Syria;
1.8 He was among the Damascus central administrators of the
KYB in December 1977, and after he was replaced by another
person he crossed to Iraq in 1978;
1.9 In 1979, he carried out activities together with C.
Talabani and worked as the General Secretary of the "Kurdish
Country Union" established in January 1979 by C. Talabani;
1.10 He attended the meetings held by Kurdish leaders in
Iran in 1979;
1.11 In November 1979, he was under the command of the KDP
interim commandership;
1.12 In January 1981, he conducted an armed attack against
the Iraqi Government together with a force of 1000
individuals;
1.13 He became the leader of the Iraqi Kurdistan Socialist
Party (IKSP) established in November 1981;
1.14 He went to the USA in 1986 to provide cooperation
between the Kurdish organizations;
1.15 In 1989, he was in Paris for a while and attended
various meetings and conferences, and at the same time he
commanded the forces attached to him in Iraq/Mergasor Region;
1.16 In April 1990, he attended the symposium on "Kurdish
Issue" held in Switzerland/Lausanne;
1.17 In December 1990, he was the official spokesman of the
Iraqi Kurdistan front;
1.18 He was General Head of the IKSP from 1990 to 1992, but
due to some disagreements with the administrators, he left
the IKSP and went to Europe;
1.19 He attended the meeting held in Iraq/Selahattin on 10
February, 1993 by Iraqi opponent organizations;
1.20 He had direct contact with Abdullah Ocalan and members
of the KADEK (PKK) administrative council, and in January
1999, when A. Ocalan was in Italy and wanted to stay in
Italy, he tried to have him stay and frequently talked on the
phone with A. Ocalan during that term. A. Ocalan said
regarding him that, "everybody should benefit from his
experiences and opinions."
1.21 He attended the meetings, conferences and such
activities held by subsidiary foundations of so-called,
"Kurdistan National Congress (KUK)" and the KADEK (PKK) as a
"Kurdish Politician";
1.22 He sometimes held negotiations with the high-ranking
KADEK (PKK) members regarding the KDP and KYB developments
and developments in Iraq;
1.23 He had an active role during the preparatory stage of
the "Kurdistan National Congress" established by the KADEK
(PKK) as of 1977, and worked at "National Congress
Preparatory Commission";
1.24 He attended the conference regarding the problems of
Iraqi Kurds and establishing dialogue between Arabs and Kurds
together with the authorities of the KYB and KDP held in May
1998 in Cairo by Egyptian solidarity committee;
1.25 During the "solving the Kurdish issue forum" held on 28
and 29 July -------------- by Washington Kurdish Institute, he made
some statements regarding the situation in Iraq;
1.26 He attended the International Conference named
"Kurds-The People Who Do Not Have a State" organized by
Brussels Kurdish Institute in Belgium/Leuven on 10 October
1998 and made some statements that there should be permanent
agreement between the KDP and KYB and in order to achieve
this, he would continue acting as a mediator;
1.27 He attended the 12th yearly meeting of the North
America Kurdish National Congress (KNC) organized in the
USA/Michigan from 30 July to 31 July 1999, and there he said
that, "A. Ocalan and the Kurdish movement in Turkey should be
supported by all the Kurdish parties, and they would not shut
their eyes to the state terror in Turkey";
1.28 During the meeting named, "establishing peace between
Kurds" organized by the KUK on 19 and 20 August 2000 in
Brussels, a seven member committee was formed to establish
peace between the Kurds in so-called northern Kurdistan, and
to organize a conference called, "International Kurdish Peace
Conference," and he was chosen as the head of the committee;
1.29 During the disputes between the PKK and KYB occurred at
the end of 2000, at the request of the PKK high-ranking
administrators, he worked to establish dialogue between the
PKK and KYB, and to reach his aim, he headed a group formed
by Kurdish individuals residing in European countries, and on
20 September 2000, he went to Suleymaniye. But when he
became unsuccessful as a mediator, he resigned from the
"Council for Establishing Peace Between the Kurds";
1.30 He made a speech at the activity named, "Unity for the
Kurdish Issue, National Conference for Peace and Democracy"
organized by the KUK on 13 and 14 December 2001 in Brussels;
1.31 He sometimes took part in some Media TV programs and
put forward his views as a "Kurdish Politician";
1.32 He has direct contact with the high-ranking
administrators of the KADEK (PKK).


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