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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000237 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV TU IZ
SUBJECT: PKK Issue: Update on Violence and Political Developments 
(December 16-31, 2006) 
 
REF: 06 ANKARA 6590 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 
Agency, and international wire services.  While these are more 
reliable than most Turkish press sources, they are not necessarily 
unimpeachable.  Another source is the Turkish Armed Forces General 
Staff (TGS) website which documents contacts/clashes with the PKK. 
Press services sympathetic to the PKK, such as Neu-Isenburg People's 
Defense Forces and Firat News Agency, tend to report higher numbers 
of the Turkish Security Forces casualties and are often otherwise 
unreliable. 
 
¶2. (U) During the December 16-31 period, there were no reports of 
casualties due to PKK violence.  A total of 16 PKK members were 
arrested in Hakkari, Agri, Batman, Konya, Sirnak, Malatya, Sanliurfa 
and Tunceli provinces, and onePKKer surrendered in Hakkari.  A total 
of four PKK members were handed over by the KDP and PUK to Turkish 
authorities at the Iraq-Turkey border.  Security forces detonated or 
seized AK-47s, cartridges, A-4, ammunition, foodstuffs, and other 
goods found at different locations. 
 
¶3. (U) Following are political comments by Turkish and Kurdish 
officials: 
-- TURKISH OFFICIALS: 
- Special Envoy Edip Baser said in Sivas on December 20, that Turkey 
was capable of launching a cross-border operation if the Turkish 
state deems necessary.  He noted, "If my state sees it appropriate 
to make a decision to launch a cross-border operation, it makes that 
decision as an independent state and its armed forces execute that 
decision without any difficulty. No one should have any doubts about 
that."   Speaking to a local television station in the central 
Anatolian town of Sivas, Baser underlined Turkish citizens of 
Kurdish origin were also a part of the Turkish state.  "The most 
fertile land for terrorism and fundamentalism to grow is ignorance," 
he said. "That's why we have to get rid of ignorance." 
-- FM Gul said in a TV interview on Dec. 29 that if necessary, 
Turkey would carry out a cross-border operation to deal with the 
PKK's presence in northern Iraq.   Gul added that Turkey did not 
seek to interfere in the domestic affairs of any other country, but 
that if Iraq served as a base for a terrorist organization carrying 
out attacks in Turkey, then Turkey could avail itself of its 
international rights. 
 
-- KURDISH VIEWS: 
 
- The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) "Peace March" ended 
in Ankara on December 18.  DTPers protested Speaker of Parliament 
Arinc for refusing to receive them.  DTPers chanted slogans in 
Turkish and Kurdish such as, "Long Live the Brotherhood of People," 
"We do not want to die or kill," and "Mutual Ceasefire."  The march 
began in Diyarbakir on March 16 with slogans such as "Long Live Apo 
[Ocalan]." 
 
- During a ceremony in Diyarbakir on December 23, DTP Chairman Turk 
criticized PM Erdogan, who recently backed off from comments he made 
in 2005 admitting there is a "Kurdish problem" in Turkey.  Erdogan 
reportedly said, "My wife is from Siirt [in the southeast].  She is 
an Arab. I love my wife and there is no Kurdish issue in my 
country." 
 
- "Hurriyet" on December 27, quoted DTP Chairman Ahmet Turk as 
saying that if the Republic of Turkey preferred to resolve the 
Kurdish issue through peaceful means his party would appeal to the 
PKK either to sweep the mines that it laid or to tell the GOT where 
it planted the mines.  He stressed that if the state took a positive 
first step, the DTP would have a stronger influence over the PKK. 
He added that otherwise their efforts won't bear a fruit.  Turk 
could not confirm whether or not the PKK had a map of the mines that 
it laid. 
 
- December 22 dailies wrote that 100 academics and 320 intellectuals 
issued a joint declaration and appealed for a "civilian solution" to 
 
ANKARA 00000237  002 OF 002 
 
 
the Kurdish issue.  Among those who signed the declaration were 
Orhan Dogan, Prof. Dogu Ergil, Sezgin Tanrikulu and Ayhan Bilgen. 
 
¶4. (U) Following are selected columns and articles on the topic: 
 
- Hasan Cemal in the December 26 "Milliyet" questioned whether 
Turkey's policy of ignoring Iraqi President Talabani was a good 
idea.  Cemal favored good relations between Turkey and Iraq Kurds. 
In return, he asked the Iraqi Kurds not to ignore some of Turkey's 
sensitivities such as the PKK, the Kirkuk issue and an independent 
Kurdistan. 
 
- Murat Yetkin in the December 26 "Radikal" wrote that Kurdish votes 
in the Southeast, and even in Diyarbakir, might this time favor a 
conservative party rather than the DTP.  On the Kurdish issue, 
Yetkin listed some critical aspects: 
 
¶1. The U.S. has realized that it won't be able to pull itself from 
the Iraq quagmire unless Sunnis and Shias reached an agreement. 
 
¶2. Since Barzani was concerned about the possibility of the 
postponement of the referendum scheduled for the end of 2007 on the 
status of Kirkuk, he started to make mistakes that caused increased 
hostility among Arabs toward Kurds. 
 
¶3. The U.S. for its prestige in Iraq, needed Iran's cooperation. 
Iran, like Turkey, opposed Barzani on the Kirkuk and independent 
Kurdistan issues. 
 
¶4. Due to corruption in the Kurdish region, locals in that area have 
been inclined toward more religious/conservative movements. 
 
¶5. The KDP's priority has been protecting its own existence. 
Meanwhile Turkey has started to talk to the U.S. about the 
conditions under which it might be able to carry out a cross border 
operation. 
 
- Mehmet Ali Birand in the December 28 "Posta" asked, "The DTP must 
make a decision: Would it remain as the tail of the PKK or assume 
its own identity?"  He referred to interesting signals that the 
public in the Southeast has been giving both to the PKK and to the 
DTP.  Birand wrote, "Whether you call it the Kurdish or the 
Southeast issue, the public wants to relax.  They do not want their 
kids to die in a struggle with an unclear aim." 
 
WILSON