TURKEY: LARGE-SCALE COUNTER-TERROR OPERATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000552

SIPDIS

DEPT. FOR EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/14/2029
TAGS: PGOV PTER PREL TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: LARGE-SCALE COUNTER-TERROR OPERATION
TARGETS KURDISH POLITICIANS, ATTORNEYS, AND BUSINESSMEN

Classified By: Acting Pol Counselor Christopher Krafft for reasons 1.4(
b,d)


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Police reportedly arrested upwards of 70
people nationwide April 14 in a synchronized operation
targeting the terrorist PKK and those that support it. The
operation was launched against offices of the pro-Kurdish
Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 14 different provinces, as
well as against a private Diyarbakir-based television
station, Gun-TV. Among those arrested were three DTP
national deputy chairs, a number of provincial DTP officials,
at least one attorney who represents jailed PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan, the chief editor of Gun-TV, and a number of
businesspersons. Media reports quote government officials
indicating the operation was one year in the making, with the
aim of exposing those with explicit links to the PKK,
especially within DTP. DTP continues to face a
constitutional court case calling for its closure because of
links between it and the outlawed PKK. DTP officials and
supporters claim the raids were the ruling Justice and
Development Party's (AKP) revenge for DTP's success in March
29 local elections throughout the country's Southeast and
accuse the GOT of sabotaging the potential for peace on the
heels of the PKK's latest announcement of a unilateral "cease
fire." END SUMMARY


2. (C) The orchestrated raids on DTP offices took place early
in the morning April 14 in 14 provinces (Diyarbakir, Batman,
Mardin, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Sirnak, Elazig, Hakkari, Van,
and Bingol in the Southeast, along with Adana, Ankara,
Istanbul, and Aydin on the Aegean coast). Zeynel Bagir in
DTP's Diyarbakir office told us party officials had
identified thus far at least 70 detainees, but believes
others have been detained but not yet identified. Some press
accounts claim only 50 or so were arrested. National Deputy
Chairmen Bayram Altun and Kamuran Yuksek were arrested in
Diyarbakir, while Deputy Chairwoman Selma Irmak was detained
in Mardin. Bagir attributed the raids to DTP's success
throughout the Southeast in March 29 local elections, saying
Turkey's "establishment" has not yet absorbed nor accepted
the DTP's renewed electoral strength among Kurdish voters.


3. (C) Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir told us the local
private Kurdish broadcasting station, Gun-TV, had been raided
and its chief editor, Ahmet Birsin, arrested. Gun-TV had
been closed down for the past 12 days for broadcasting in
contravention of laws banning certain election-related
programming prior to the March 29 elections. Baydemir noted
the GAP Project's Municipalities Union and a guesthouse that
belongs to the Diyarbakir Municipality were also among the
sites raided. He intimated the possibility of a peace
process being established between the Turkish state and the
PKK following the terrorist group's March 29 proclamation of
yet another "unilateral cease-fire," extended until June 1 in
an April 13 statement, had been sabotaged. DTP party leader
Ahmet Turk reiterated Bagir's claim, telling his
parliamentary group during a meeting in Ankara that the
operation was a clear indicator of the government's
"intolerance" of the election result. DTP Co-chair Emine
Ayna called the raids "very dangerous" and "politically
motivated." A journalist who had spoken with Selahattin
Demirtas, Deputy Chairman of DTP's parliamentary group, said
Demirtas believed AKP is "hell-bent on revenge because of the
election results," noting that the police are "clearly under
AKP's control."


4. (C) COMMENT: Law enforcement authorities have yet to
divulge specific information regarding the nature of the
evidence uncovered linking those arrested to the PKK or
terrorist activities and are not speaking publicly today
about the arrests. We will continue to seek clarification.
Whether the operation is purely a counter-terror effort, is
linked to the constitutional court case on the party's
closure that has been pending for nearly a year and a half,
or is an attempt, as all DTP officials are now claiming, by
AKP to exact revenge on the party for its revival in the
Southeast at AKP's expense, what seems clear is ethnic Kurds
in Turkey are beginning to lose hope that the post-election
period might lead to increased outreach by the AKP-led
government on reforms that would address their long-standing

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concerns related to culture, language, and economic and
political rights. GOT actions in the coming weeks and months
may revive those hopes, but it may become increasingly
difficult to counter the perception among Kurds that AKP
seeks to achieve through police raids what it could not do at
the polls, i.e., diminish DTP's hold on a sizable proportion
of Turkey's ethnic Kurdish electorate by systematically
undercutting it.

Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey

Jeffrey