TURKEY: PKK RETURNEES HEAD FOR DIYARBAKIR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 001514

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR EUR/SE
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BAGHDAD PLEASE PASS TO RRT ERBIL AND PRT NINEWA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/19/2019
TAGS: PGOV PTER PHUM IZ TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: PKK RETURNEES HEAD FOR DIYARBAKIR

REF: ANKARA 1508

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Classified By: POL Counselor Daniel O'Grady, for reasons 1.4(b,d)


1. (C) SUMMARY. The Turkish public continues to be riveted
by the saga of PKK returnees who arrived at the Habur Gate
border crossing on October 19. Five of the original 34 were
detained but later released. Interior Minister Atalay
projects that another 100-150 returnees will arrive soon, and
promises that their processing will be "more accelerated." A
large convoy of Kurdish supporters is escorting the PKK
"peace group" to Diyarbakir, where it hopes to present nine
"demands" that include publicizing PKK Leader Ocalan's road
map. The exuberant celebrations could create a public
backlash, but TGS Chief of Staff General Basbug told the
Ambassador he is cautiously optimistic about the process -- a
key signal of support. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) Late afternoon on October 20 Turkish authorities
released all five of the Turkish Kurds who had been detained
the previous day after their return from northern Iraq. The
five were arrested by prosecutors at the Habur border gate
for crimes they committed in the past: illegal demonstrations
and spreading terrorist propaganda. Two of those arrested
were from the Makhmour camp and three were from the PKK
Hakurk Camp. The other 29 returnees reportedly refused to
leave the border area without their colleagues. Initial
reports indicated that the five detained returnees refused to
state that they were entering Turkey to "support the
democratic opening" instead insisting that they had "come to
Turkey upon the call from their leadership (jailed PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan)." After many hours of hearings by a judge
called specially to the border, the five were released at
around 4 p.m. October 20 when the judge decided "there is no
suspicion that the detainees would try to flee." Reportedly
"thousands" of cars and buses were waiting at the border to
transport the returnees to Diyarbakir, and thousands of
people had gathered along the route to cheer them on. The
group of returnees is expected to attempt to deliver a letter
to the government with an agenda for peace consisting of nine
demands (listed below).


3. (C) Interior Minister Besir Atalay told reporters at a
breakfast on October 20 that the group of returnees was just
the first, and was part of the government's larger
"Democratic Opening" initiative. He stated that another
group of 100-150 returnees would come from Iraq in the near
future and that two Ministers from the government would
travel to Mosul and Erbil shortly. Atalay indicated that the
processing of subsequent groups would be "more accelerated."
Pro-PKK Firat News Agency reported that an additional group
of returnees would come from Europe, through Istanbul,
sometime between October 25 and November 1. In a
conversation with the Ambassador on October 20, Chief of
General Staff General Ilker Basbug said that he was
cautiously optimistic that all would go well; the Ambassador
stressed our continued support for the process. Most of our
interlocutors in the Southeast expressed great hope for
peace, explaining that many people felt more optimistic now
than they had at any time during the years of conflict.


4. (U) The nine demands of the PKK "peace group" are as
follows (from press reports):

-- The road map Ocalan created should be referred to the
authorities of concern and should be made public.
-- Military operations should be terminated. Peaceful and
democratic ways to solve the Kurdish issue in the political
sphere should be developed.
-- The Kurdish identity should be protected under equal terms
in the Constitution.
-- We should be able to freely speak our mother tongue

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(Kurdish). We should be free to learn it, promote it, and
live our values, our culture, and geography within our
language.
-- We should be able to freely name our children with Kurdish
names, educate them in Kurdish, and raise them in that
environment.
-- We should be able to freely live our history, culture, and
literature and protect them.
-- We should be able to develop a democratic social
organization established under our own identity. We should
be able to freely engage in politics. We should be able to
express ourselves freely.
-- We should be able to safely live in the villages, towns,
and cities of Kurdistan under sufficiently developed
conditions far from the oppression of special team members,
village guards, and the police.
-- We demand more democratization in Turkey and we would like
to have a more democratic Constitution.


5. (C) COMMENT: The government's expedited release and
return of all 34 PKK-related returnees indicates a strong
desire to compromise when working toward a lasting peace.
While there is still much that could go wrong in the coming
days, the government has cleared the biggest hurdle: getting
the returnees into the country, interviewed, and released.
Atalay's comments that more are coming will likely resonate
strongly with Turkish Kurds in the Southeast, although the
exuberant welcome of the PKK returnees will leave a sour
taste in the mouth of many Turks and may create difficulties
for the government. (In an October 20 discussion with us,
former Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin warned that excessive
celebrations would be a dangerous irritant.) General
Basbug's optimistic comments seem to indicate that the
military is also onboard with the process.

JEFFREY

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