TURKISH MFA SUGGESTS SYRIANS BEHIND ASSASSINATION

S E C R E T ANKARA 006961

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2014
TAGS: PREL PTER TU
SUBJECT: TURKISH MFA SUGGESTS SYRIANS BEHIND ASSASSINATION
OF REPORTED PKK MEMBERS IN N. IRAQ


Classified By: POLCOUNS John Kunstadter; reasons 1.4 (b,d)



1. (S) POLOFF met with Turkish MFA First Secretary Celal
Dogan on 10 December to discuss US-Turkish relations and
counterterrorism issues. Dogan is assigned to the MFA's
Directorate of Intelligence and Research and works on PKK
issues. During the course of the meeting, Dogan asked POLOFF
whom the USG thinks was behind the 29 November 2004
assassination of several PKK/KONGRA-GEL and Democratic Party
Union (PYD) officials in northern Iraq. POLOFF limited his
reply to noting that the stories he had read in Turkish
newspapers about the assassination were attributed to Turkish
military sources. Dogan suggested to POLOFF that Syria might
have been behind the assassination because Syria was having
problems with its Kurdish population.


2. (S) Post notes there are other reports that Arab
insurgents may have carried out the killings.
EDELMAN