PKK Issue: Update on Violence and Political Developments

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000339 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV TU IZ SUBJECT: PKK Issue: Update on Violence and Political Developments (January 16-31, 2007) REF: ANKARA 237 and previous (U) Sensitive but unclassified - please protect accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) This is another in a series of periodic reports on PKK violence in Turkey. Our primary sources for these reports are mainstream Turkish press services, such as the Anatolian News`ency, and international wilties and are often otherwise unreliable. ¶2. (U) During the January 16-31, 2007 period one Turkish security member was killed and a private was injured during a clash with the PKK in Diyarbakir province. In the same incidents three PKK terrorists were killed. A total of three PKK members were arrested. Police arrested one woman PKKer in Istanbul, and the KDP turned over two others to the Turkish military at the border crossing near Silopi. Security forces seized AK-47s, drums, cartridges, hand grenades, TNT, etc. at different PKK shelters in the region. ¶3. (U) Following are political comments by Turkish and Kurdish officials, as well as other developments: -- TURKISH OFFICIALS: -- Public statements by GOT officials during this period chiefly centered around the Kirkuk issue and the Jan. 30-31 visit of Special Envoy for Countering the PKK Gen. (r) Ralston. - January 31 dailies quoted Turkish Special Envoy Baser as telling the media after his meeting with Ralston, "We are to drive forward on the work that has been done until now. We have made a certain amount of progress. Although we would like to share many issues with you now, we cannot disclose these to the press because of the sensitivity of the matter. We will give you better news in the future." When asked whether he was disturbed that his counterpart Ralston had a meeting with KRG President Barzani, Baser replied, "No." -- KURDISH VIEWS: - Dailies on January 17 reported that PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan has released a statement demanding administrative changes in the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). In line with Ocalan's desires, the party leadership agreed January 12 to hold an extraordinary convention to elect new leadership at the end of February. -- OTHER DEVELOPMENTS - January 17 dailies reported that Turkish government representatives would go to the US to discuss their concerns about PKK and Kirkuk. FM Gul and Chief of the General Staff General Buyukanit were scheduled to hold contacts in Washington in February. Before their visits, PM Erdogan decided to send Defense Minister Gonul to Washington. Erdogan said that the visits will be used to discuss in detail Turkish concerns about Iraq. - "Sabah" on January 28 reported that officials of the Turkish Ministry of Justice and the U.S. Department of Justice held a round rist organizations. ¶4. (U) Followin are selected columns and articles on the topic: - Enis Berberoglu in the January 16 "Hurriyet" wrote that it might have been the U.S. that informed the GOT that Murat Karayilan had been injured and in a hospital in northern Iraq. Berberoglu added that one should not question U.S. intentions. He noted that this ANKARA 00000339 002 OF 002 was important in order not to mislead the Turkish public. Berberoglu referred to the U.S. plan to tell European capitals that the PKK was a criminal organization and to stop the flow of money and human resource to the PKK in Iraq. Berberoglu also commented about a possible cross border operation and argued that the best time would be in the spring, preferably after the Presidential elections. - Mehmet M. Yilmaz in the January 16 "Hurriyet" wrote that the Kurdish "Turkey Seeks Its Peace" conference was shallow, since the most basic problem of Turkish Kurds did not even come on the agenda. Yilmaz stressed that romanticism, such as calling PKK-ers "guerrillas" instead of "terrorists," prevented discussion of the real issues. Yilmaz asserted that the main problem was that the PKK took Turkish Kurds hostage and was not interested in their freedom. - Writing about the same conference, Hasan Cemal in the January 17 "Milliyet" wrote that people should be able to discuss the PKK openly at such gath. is taking Turkey'sQconcerns seriously. He reminded that the operation did not mean that the camp would be immediately closed. He noted that soon there would be a survey in the camp to determine who the residents were and that Iraqi forces would CONTROL access to and from the camp. - Ismet Berkan in the January 19 "Radikal" compared the PKK to the IRA, and stressed that for the PKK to be able to defend its views peacefully in the political arena, it must lay down its arms. WILSON