GREEK MFA ON COMBATING PKK TERRORISM

S E C R E T ATHENS 002118 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/25/2017 TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV KTFN IZ GR SUBJECT: GREEK MFA ON COMBATING PKK TERRORISM REF: A. SECSTATE 134271 ¶B. SECSTATE 148531 Classified By: POLCOUNS ROBIN QUINVILLE. REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (S) On September 28 and October 25, DepPolCouns delivered, respectively, ref a and ref b points on combating PKK terrorism to Ambassador Alexandros Rallis, deputy head of the MFA D1 Directorate for International Organizations. ¶2. (S) On October 25, D1 First Secretary Photis Bourlogiannis provided the Greek response in which he noted that the EU maintained the PKK on its list of terrorist organizations, as does the U.S. Greece had no separate policy from the EU on terrorist organizations and thus supported and actively pursued EU policy to combat the PKK. Greece also supported EU efforts to increase intra-EU, and EU-U.S. cooperation in fighting terrorist organizations. ¶3. (S) With regard to the specific requests to heighten alert on PKK terrorist movements and financial transactions, Bourlogiannis said his directorate had passed the requests to a number of Greek official organizations concerned with the issue and that these organizations were taking appropriate steps. The organizations included the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Public Order Ministry (responsible for the police and now subsumed under the Interior Ministry),the Greek Intelligence Service (EYP), the Bank of Greece, and the Financial Intelligence Unit. COUNTRYMAN