KURDISH ACTIVITIES IN ARMENIA

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 YEREVAN 000587

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, S/CT

E.O. 12958: DNG: CO 03/10/2014
TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV PINR AM TU
SUBJECT: KURDISH ACTIVITIES IN ARMENIA

Classified By: Ambassador John Ordway for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).

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SUMMARY
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1. (S) There is an Armenian-Kurdish friendship society in
downtown Yerevan with a sign posted on the door identifying
it as such. The "Friendship Society's" main goals in Armenia
appear to be to promote Kurdish culture, organize holidays,
demonstrations, and campaigns for better treatment of and/or
freedom for Ocalan, as opposed to promoting a specific
anti-Turkish propoganda campaign. The office, however,
openly admitted to us that it represents the Kurdish People's
Congress (also now known as Kongra Gel). There is no
evidence that Kongra-Gel has either the interest or the
ability to fundraise in Armenia. Active recruitment drives,
or the establishment of any type of Kurdish military camps in
Armenia would be extremly difficult to conduct and hide in a
country that is 97 percent ethnically Armenian. Kurds
currently constitute a small minority of approximately
40,000, most of whom work as nomadic cattle and goat farmers
and live near the poverty level. Approximately 500 Armenian
Kurds held a peaceful demonstration in downtown Yerevan on
February 15 to mark the fifth anniversary of Ocalan's arrest.
End Summary.


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KURDISH POPULATION IN ARMENIA
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2. (S) According to Knyaz Hasanov, the Kurdish representative
to the executive office of the President of Armenia,
approximately 40,000 Kurds live in Armenia (down from an
estimated 60,000 in 1989). Many Kurds emigrated either to
Azerbaijan (because of the Nagorno Karabakh war, Hasanov told
us) or to Russia for economic reasons. The majority of
Armenian Kurds live in or near Talin, Ashtarak, Aragats,
Aparan and Odketenbuan. Most work in cattle or goat
husbandry and have been hard hit by the economic crisis that
affects Armenia's rural sector. Hasanov noted that in
Armenia there were no successful Kurdish businessmen, Kurdish
restaurants, Kurdish supermarkets or even a Kurdish library.



3. (S) Hasanov commented that the majority of Kurds in
Armenia are Yezidis, or Christians. While some members of
the Yezidi community liked to differentiate themselves from
the Muslim Kurds, Hasanov said, he felt that ethnicity,
history, and language bonded all Kurds in Armenia together
with no visible religious friction. Hasanov felt that the
Kurdish population as a whole had a good relationship with
the Armenian government. Hasanov did not feel that Kurds
suffered discrimination on a personal or official level and,
while the Armenian government did not always respond to their
requests for funding for cultural events, it would usually at
least listen to them. (COMMENT: In our experience, the local
Yezidis vigorously differentiate themselves from Kurds,
regardless of the obvious connections. Moreover, the
indigeneous Yezidis and Kurds are quite split. A proposed
USDA project to engage them in livestock-related projects
faces substantial challenges due to their inability, at least
initially, to agree among themselves on how to organize. END
COMMENT)


4. (S) Hasanov introduced us to prominent Armenian/Kurds
including the chairman of the Kurdish writers association,
the head of a Kurdish radio program (which broadcasts for 30
minutes a day),the deputy head of the Armenian-Kurdish
Friendship society, a professor of Kurdish language, an
engineer, a government bureaucrat and the Armenian head of
the local "Friendship Society." All of the prominent
Armenian/Kurds told us that they were desperately
underfunded, and were able to only sporadically publish three
Kurdish language newspapers, unable to fund Kurdish cultural
events, and wanted more than the government-allotted 30
minutes of daily Kurdish radio time. All claimed that they
had very few contacts with prominent Kurds abroad and that
they were unable to successfully solicit funds for their
cultural projects. While most agreed that the Armenian
government could do more for them as a minority group, none
felt that they faced rampant discrimination on a personal or
government level and realized that their economic situation
does not differ substantially from Armenians as a whole.

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KURDISH PEOPLE'S CONGRESS IN YEREVAN
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5. (S) Cherkeze Erash, the administrative head of the office,
explained to us that the KPC established its office in
Yerevan in 1994 and while the KPC sent representatives from
time to time to Armenia, Erash was the long-term
representative. (NOTE: He openly admitted to us the
connection with KPC. END NOTE.) Presently, he told us, the
KPC had two activists who arrived from Turkey, Heydar Ali and
Gazim Seyit, who arrived in January 2004 and were planning to
stay until May. The office is a Soviet-style three-bedroom
apartment located in the center of town, with modest
furnishings and multiple posters and banners depicting Ocalan
and other prominent Kurdish heroes and "martyrs." Erash
explained to us that they had three full-time employees and
approximately 22 Armenian Kurds who live in villages outside
of Yerevan and work for the office part-time. We noticed one
part-time driver with an older Russian vehicle. Erash worked
as a professor at a local university to supplement his
income.


6. (S) Erash told us that they usually receive 2-3 KPC
visitors at a time from Iran, Syria, Europe, Iraq and Russia,
who usually stay for one to four months. He said that in
2003 the Armenia office had approximately 15 such visitors.
Erash stated that the visitors come to Armenia for the
purpose of monitoring the local Kurdish population, give
seminars on the Kurdish situation in northern Iraq, and help
with Kurdish language and cultural instruction in the
villages. Erash described his own job as a coordinator and
organizer of Kurdish holidays, demonstrations and overseas
visitors. He stated his next assignment was to organize the
upcoming Novruz holiday in March, and coordinate the travel
of famous Kurdish speakers and/or musicians from Europe to
Yerevan for the holiday. When asked about KPC's relationship
with the Armenian government, Erash told us that he had good
contacts in most government ministries and the Armenian
government did not restrict KPC's movement or interfere with
their office in any significant way.


7. (S) When we asked about KPC's finances, Erash commented
that the local Kurdish population was very poor, and KPC was
not able to raise funds in the poor village areas. Erash
stated that money for the KPC's office rent came from
Russian-Kurdish businessmen, whom he did not name, and/or
occasional gifts from European Kurds. Erash lamented that
they did not pay salaries at the KPC office, but money from
various Diaspora Kurds did defray some living expenses of the
key KPC office employees (including Erash himself). Erash
stated that KPC visitors and Kurdish entertainers from
overseas generally paid their own way and often lived with
local Kurds as a way of reducing expenses. Erash told us
that the KPC avoids using the local banking system and money
was often hand-carried by couriers or by businessmen
themselves when they came to visit Yerevan.


8. (S) Rzgan Lezgiyan, a local Kurdish language professor,
agreed that the KPC was probably unable to raise much money
in Armenia, but criticized the fact that the KPC spent what
little money it had to transport village Kurds to Yerevan for
pro-Ocalan rallies instead of creating social welfare
programs. Lezgiyan stated that most educated Yerevan Kurds
did not interact with the KPC office in Yerevan because of
its strict pro-Ocalan propaganda. Lezgiyan remembered that
in 2002 the KPC office had sponsored five Kurdish students to
take Kurdish language courses but suspended the funding when
the students failed to show at a KPC organized pro-Ocalan
rally. Lezgiyan believed that the KPC office was most
influential five years ago when Ocalan was first captured and
they were able to attract several thousand people to downtown
Yerevan for a pro-Ocalan rally. Since then there had been a
noticeable decline in numbers of attendees at pro-Ocalan
rallies, which were now only numbering in the low hundreds.
The most recent such rally was held February 15, and
attracted about 500 participants.

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NEW DIRECTION FOR THE KURDISH PEOPLE'S CONGRESS
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9. (S) Ali explained to us that his job in Armenia was to
travel to the villages and educate Kurds on the new direction
of the KPC which was focused on human rights, democracy and
freedom. Ali stated that guarantees of freedom were more
important than statehood and as long as Ocalan was in good
health they would pursue a strategy of peaceful negotiations
with Turkey. He then amended his comments by stating that if
Ocalan's health worsened or died in captivity then the KPC
might have to revise its strategy. He explained that the
Caucasus, Central Asia and eastern Europe were in his sphere
of responsibility and he traveled throughout this region
often. In Armenia his job was to give seminars to Kurds
about news from Northern Iraq and to spread the message of
the new KPC policy. He also stated he acted as a facilitator
for Kurdish businessmen and looked for investment
opportunities, but lamented he did not see many in Armenia.
Lezgiyan told us that when he met Ali he noted that the KPC
had dropped their demands for an independent Kurdistan and
also downplayed the fact that Ocalan was their supreme leader
in their propaganda. Lezgiyan speculated that this was done
because of pressure from the American government.

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KURDISH PEOPLE'S CONGRESS DENIALS OF WRONGDOING IN ARMENIA
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10. (S) Erash, Ali, Hasanov and Lezgiyan all strongly denied
that there were any camps of Kurdish fighters in Armenia.
All stated that it would be impossible to hide a military
training camp in Armenian villages where the population was
97 percent Armenian and any large group of strange Kurds
would be immediately noticed by the local authorities. Ali
stated that it would also be logistically much easier to
transport fighters from Turkey to northern Iraq, where they
would be safe, receive good medical treatment and have the
infrastructure to support them, rather than trying to hide
them in Armenia. Ali and Erash also commented that the
Kurdish population has a good relationship with the Armenian
government, which they would be loathe to jeopardize. (NOTE:
In 1999 there was a meeting between the Armenian National
Security Service (NSS) and Turkish Intelligence which
resulted in meetings and exchange of information. We were
told recently by the NSS that this meeting focused primarily
on the issue of training camps, and included field visits to
sites suspected by the Turkish side of such activity. END
NOTE.)


11. (S) Erash and Ali both also strongly denied that there
was any drug trafficking by Armenian Kurds and stated
repeatedly that this type of behavior is not tolerated in
Kurdish culture. Erash claimed that everyone knew everyone
in the Armenian Kurdish community, and if Kurdish elders
found out about any such activity the offending parties would
be immediately expelled from Armenian Kurdish society.


12. (S) Erash, Ali, Hasnaov, and the educated Yerevan Kurds
were all in agreement in telling us that due to the poor
economic situation in Armenian there was little or no
possibility of KPC doing any type of fundraising in Armenia
and that the Armenian KPC office relied heavily on donations
from Diaspora Kurds to keep their office running, publish
their newspapers and help defray living expenses for key
employees.

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COMMENT
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13. (S) Through post's observations as well as through other
contacts it appears that the local KPC's office's main goal
is to spread pro-Ocalan propaganda. Due to the very poor
economic conditions of most Armenians, and especially that of
the Kurdish population, it would be difficult for KPC to
raise any significant funds in Armenia. Armenia's
overwhelmingly ethnically Armenian population makes it
equally difficult for the KPC to set up any type of armed
camps, or recruiting drives in the Armenian countryside
without attracting local authorities' notice. To the best of
post's knowledge, the local KPC office does not appear to be
actively engaged in supporting terrorist activities from
Armenia. The office's official registration as a "Friendship
Society" also serves to obscure any actionable connection to
the terrorist KPC. The NSS claims to be closely monitoring
the activities of the office and has stated that they would
immediately arrest and/or deport any member of the KPC office
found to be conducting illegal activities.


14. (S) There are, however, two vulnerable points that
might be exploited to disrupt, if not actually shut down,
this operation:

-- To the extent that we can reliably identify to the GOAM
the KPC visitors as members of Kongra Gel, which is on the
U.S. terrorist list, we can encourage the GOAM to expel them
or prevent their entry into the country.

-- The "cash-by-courier" funding mechanism is another
vulnerable point, if we can proivde the GOAM information that
shows the funding source is Kongra Gel.
ORDWAY