ANKARA DELIGHTED WITH PKK ARRESTS IN FRANCE AND

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000336 SIPDIS SIPDIS TREASURY FOR OTI - JSERAFINI JUSTICE FOR DAAG SWARTZ AND OPDAT - JSILVERWOOD E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/14/2017 TAGS: KTFN PTER EFIN FRU TU BE SUBJECT: ANKARA DELIGHTED WITH PKK ARRESTS IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM REF: 2006 ANKARA 6496 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: DCM Nancy McEldowney for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (S) Summary: Turkish MFA Director General for Security Guven stressed the importance of the recent French and Belgian arrests of PKK individuals and looked forward to further cooperation with the French on the case. At the same time, Guven noted French concerns about press reports crediting the U.S. role. The Belgian DCM hinted a separate Belgian anti-PKK action might be in the works. End Summary. -------------- Turkish MFA Pleased, Cooperating with French -------------- ¶2. (S) Turkish MFA Director General for Security Affairs told us February 14 that Turkey is very pleased with the arrests in France and Belgium, particularly the fact that three important figures -- Riza Altun, Canan Kurtyilmaz and Nedim Seven -- were among those arrested. In contrast to the views that press reports attribute to Turkish Justice Ministry officials, Guven understood that a prosecution in France -- while not as desirable for Turkey as extradition -- is still a very good outcome. Guven and Head of Department Ceren Etiz said French Counter-terrorism prosecutor Philippe Dorcet had contacted the Turkish authorities and would be coming to Ankara in early March with a team to explore further cooperation in the prosecution of this case and possible extradition. -------------- French Concern about U.S. Credit -------------- ¶3. (S) Guven said the French Embassy was disturbed by press reports that attributed the French prosecutors' action to U.S. pressure. Guven passed on the French Ambassador's remark that "the Americans had nothing to do with it," and that France is not "the valet of the CIA." We pointed out that U.S. officials had made no such claims, the allegation of which only supported pressure in France to let Altun and others go. The most important goal was to keep them behind bars. Pressing too hard for extradition could sour French prosecutors' desire to cooperate. Indeed, Etiz referred to press reports that Sarkozy advisor Patrick Devedjian had said the arrestees would not be extradited since Turkey was not a democratic country. Guven agreed with us that prosectors and police often had a different attitude than diplomats or politicians and could cooperate well against PKK. We noted that this attitude had been much in evidence at the recent prosecutors' workshop organized by Ankara RLA. Guven said the MFA supported the workshop and continued to press the Turkish Justice Ministry to cooperate better with other countries. ¶4. (S) Meanwhile a French CT prosecutor and an Ankara-based French diplomat separately told RLA that press reports of a "CIA" role were erroneous: the arrests were due to a long and painstaking investigation in France and the French authorities believe they have strong evidence. Both were very encouraged by the arrests and looked forward to working with Turkey to develop more information. The diplomat was very skeptical about the possibility of any extradition in this instance because the criminal jurisdiction and violations charged are French. The French officials hoped Turkey would not push for extradition of the arrestees before prosecution for crimes in France. This could sour prosecutorial cooperation. -------------- Belgian Hints at More to Come -------------- ¶5. (S) The Belgian DCM, who previously worked at the Belgian Justice Ministry, told us the Belgian role in the arrests was entirely derivative of the French investigation. The Belgians had acted on an EU warrant from the French, which he said required the Belgians to hold suspects and deliver them to the requesting country. He said that two other prominent PKK leaders (Zubeyir Aydar and Cemil Bayik) were with Canan Kurtyilmaz when she was detained but that they could not be held because they were not the subjects of an EU arrest warrant. When we pointed out that they were wanted by Turkey under Interpol red notices the Belgian DCM said this was not sufficient in Belgium. Separately, the Belgian DCM hinted that he was hopeful there would be additional Belgian actions against the PKK in the near future, and stressed the need for Belgium to cooperate with Germany and the Netherlands in particular on PKK networks. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶6. (S) The arrests in France are a marked validation of the U.S. policy to encourage European countries to take action against the criminal activities of PKK elements in their own countries, even if the U.S. had no direct role in the actual investigations or arrests. The priority now must be to ensure that these individuals remain behind bars. This should seriously hamper PKK support activities in Europe, although new funding mechanisms will quickly emerge. Domestic political opposition in France to the arrests, as shown by baseless allegations of a CIA role, USG "pressure" or Devedjian's scandalous remarks seems to be growing. We need to remain alert and encourage the French authorities to stick to their guns. At the same time, these arrests show the openness of European law enforcement to the "Al Capone" approach. We should move now to support deeper European-Turkish-U.S. information sharing and cooperation to break down remaining PKK fronts and propaganda organs like Roj TV and Firat News. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON