VZCZCXRO4383
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHMOS
DE RUEHKUK #0093/01 1060848
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P R 160848Z APR 06
FM REO KIRKUK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0623
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY 0585
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 0041
RUEHKUK/REO KIRKUK 0651

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000093 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
BAGHDAD FOR POL, ECON, NCT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  4/16/2016 
TAGS: PINS PREL PTER PHUM IZ TU
SUBJECT: BANNED IN TURKEY, POLITICAL PARTY OPENS ERBIL OFFICE ON 
KRG'S TAB 
 
KIRKUK 00000093  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: RSDEAN, Acting Regional Coordinator, REO Kirkuk, 
DoS. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
 
¶1. (C/NOFORN) SUMMARY: The Socialist Party of Kurdistan recently 
opened a party office in the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil, 
Iraq.  Its representative Nureddin Agiri said Erbil's Kurdistan 
Regional Government was subsidizing the SPK's Erbil office. 
Agiri admitted his under-financed party was banned in Turkey, 
but said it rejected violence and was pushing for the 
establishment of Kurdish provinces in Turkey, Syria and Iran. 
Agiri said SPK members supported the U.S. presence in the area 
and were involved in the recent Newroz demonstrations in Turkey. 
 END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (C/NOFORN) Nureddin Agiri, Representative to Iraq from the 
Socialist Party of Kurdistan (SPK) in Turkey, met April 6 with 
IPAO in Erbil.  The SPK was founded in the Kurdish city of 
Diyarbakir in Turkey, but is prohibited by Turkish law.  The SPK 
recently established an office in the Kurdish province of Erbil, 
Iraq, to promote their regional cause.  Agiri said that Erbil's 
Kurdistan Regional Government (dominated by the Kurdistan 
Democratic Party) supported their organization by providing an 
office and paying their rent.  He said he had a staff of six. 
 
Party Ideology 
-------------- 
 
¶3. (C) Agiri said the SPK was created to push for the 
"democratic rights of Kurds" and create a Kurdish province 
within Turkey, similar to the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. 
According to Agiri, Kurds were until 2002 referred to as 
"Mountain Turks" in Turkey and were not allowed to claim their 
ethnic heritage as anything other than Turkish. 
 
¶4. (C/NOFORN) Agiri said that the SPK sought to create Kurdish 
provinces similar to the Kurdistan Region in Iraq for Syria, 
Turkey and Iran.  He said this was to ensure democratic and 
human rights for the Kurdish people while living among people of 
other ethnicities.  He said that the "Socialist" part of the 
"SPK" name could be more accurately replaced with "Democratic" 
to reflect their actual goals.  Agiri said the SPK had worked 
within the democratic process to elect two mayors in Turkey; 
however, he described the candidates as independents with an 
allegiance to the party. 
 
No Methodological Connection to the PKK 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) The SPK shares some ideology with the Kurdistan Workers' 
Party (PKK), but Agiri said it had no other connection.  Agiri 
stated emphatically that the SPK condoned neither terrorism nor 
violence, and that as long as the PKK continued to embrace those 
methods, there could be no relationship between the two parties. 
 He charged that the Turkish government had created the PKK to 
get Kurds to fight other Kurds.  He said that jailed PKK founder 
Abdullah Ocalan had told a publication that for four years the 
Turkish government had given the PKK arms to fight other Kurds, 
adding "They used me, and I used them too."  Agiri said that, if 
the PKK gave up its arms and accepted democracy, then the two 
groups could get closer. 
 
Fear of Imprisonment 
-------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) Agiri said that, if Turkey knew of the political nature 
of his travel to Iraq, he would face imprisonment.  In 2002 he 
was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail and fined 1 
million Turkish lira.  One month into his sentence, the Turkish 
law he was charged under was changed because of Turkey's bid to 
join the European Union.  He said the law forbade Kurds from 
claiming their ethnicity.  Today, that law no longer existed and 
Kurds had the political right to claim their ethnicity. 
However, he said, Turkish criminal law prohibited Kurdish 
organizations and political parties; the maximum sentence was 12 
years.  Agiri said that he was imprisoned for saying in the 
press that Kurds wanted "the democratic process" because none of 
the four countries with large Kurdish populations were taking 
care of them. 
 
Membership and Finances 
----------------------- 
 
¶7. (C/NOFORN) Agiri said that many of the SPK's members now 
living outside Turkey were prohibited from returning.  The 
 
KIRKUK 00000093  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Secretary General of the party, Masud Taq, lived between his 
 
SIPDIS 
home in Germany and Erbil.  The second in command, Kormal Burka, 
was a writer and poet living in Sweden.  The membership of the 
party is kept a secret, though he estimated there were about 
2,000, most of who still live in Turkey.  He said that the 
membership came from all social classes, including teachers and 
officials, and that sometimes they recruited members based on 
education or occupation.  He said they were very afraid of being 
infiltrated by Turkish intelligence, as there were Kurds who 
were willing to work against them. 
 
¶8. (C/NOFORN) The party was supported financially by its 
membership, much of which came from Europe.  Beyond salaries, 
transportation for officers, and leasing office space, he was 
unable to identify other specific programs or expenses.  He said 
that the party membership was poor and donations were taken 
voluntarily.  One reason they were not very active was because 
they lacked funding. 
 
Cooperation with Legitimate Turkish Parties 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C/NOFORN) Agiri said that the SPK coordinated with legally 
registered Kurd-dominated parties in Turkey, including the 
Rights and Freedoms Party (RFP).  He said the RFP was founded by 
Abdulmelik Firat, the grandson of Shaykh Sayid, the leader of 
the Kurdish revolt in Turkey executed in 1925.  The RFP was a 
legitimate party, but existed to talk about Kurdish problems 
legally.  Both Turks and Kurds were members of the RFP and 
approached the issues by seeking human rights for all 
ethnicities.  He said that the SPK was heavily involved with 
demonstrations in Turkey over the Newroz holiday in March. 
Until 1997, celebrating Newroz was illegal in Turkey because it 
was specific to one ethnic group.  Now, Newroz is celebrated as 
a holiday for all Turks, but the Kurds used it as an opportunity 
to demonstrate for more democratic rights. 
 
SPK's Support for U.S. Policy in Region 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (C) Agiri said the SPK supported the U.S. presence in Iraq 
and felt it benefited the whole of the Middle East.  America's 
global dominance in politics and economics brought positive 
change to the region and its old systems of government.  He said 
that was the first time the SPK had ever contacted a U.S. 
official and sought a relationship. 
 
¶11. (C) Agiri said Kurds as a whole had benefited from the U.S. 
presence in Iraq because it brought global attention to their 
cause.  He said all Kurds were paying particular attention to 
Iraq's Kurdistan Region, as it gave them hope.  He said that, 
even though Turkey had democracy, it did not apply it to the 
Kurds, and still treated them the same way others did in the 
rest of the Middle East. 
 
Comment: 
-------- 
 
¶12. (C/NOFORN) Agiri appears to be a sincere proponent of the 
SPK's cause and stressed their commitment to non-violent means 
to achieve democracy for the Kurds in Turkey.  He appeared to be 
thoughtful and frank during the meeting, with realistic 
expectations of what the U.S. could do for the SPK.  Given 
Iraq's and the KRG's willingness to allow the PKK-affiliated 
Kurdistan Democratic Solutions Party to operate in the Kurdistan 
Region, it is not surprising the KRG is willing modestly to 
bankroll the SPK, particularly given its at least ostensibly 
democratic program. 
BRADFORD