US embassy cable - 03ANKARA6072

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT. FOR EUR/SE AND NEA/NGA 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/24/2013 
TAGS: PTER, PREL, MOPS, MARR, TU, IZ 
SUBJECT: NORTHERN IRAQ: TALABANI TRIES TO MEND FENCES WITH 
TURKEY 
 
Classified by DCM Robert Deutsch.  Reasons 1.5 b and d. 
 
 
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Summary 
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1. (C) Iraqi Governing Council member and leader of the 
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Jalal Talabani, sent letters 
Sept. 23 to Turkish PM Erdogan and MFA Undersecretary Ziyal 
seeking improved relations between the PUK and Turkey.  He 
also sent a verbal message noting that Turkey and the Iraqi 
Kurds are both allies of the US and that the PUK did not want 
to make any problems for Turkey.  On the matter of Turkish 
troops deploying to Iraq, Talabani noted that the decision 
rested in the first instance with the US, and in the second 
with the Governing Council (GC), but it was important that 
Turkish troops not enter the PUK area.  He planned to invite 
Turkish companies to do more business in the PUK area and 
would try to foster better relations between the Iraqi Kurds 
and Turkey.  He returned the Turkish diplomatic passport that 
he has held for several years and thanked the Turks for 
making it available to him.  According to the PUK rep in 
Ankara, Bahros Galali, Turkish MFA contacts recieved the 
letters warmly, agreed to forward them to Ziyal and PM 
Erdogan, and said that Talabani was welcome to visit Turkey. 
Galali told us that, if invited, Talabani might come to 
Turkey in November, while he is GC President.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
 
2. (C) On Sept. 25, PolMilOff met with Ankara PUK rep Galali, 
who said he had delivered letters from GC member and PUK 
leader Jalal Talabani to the MFA for U/S Ziyal and PM 
Erdogan.  He provided us with his own translation from Arabic 
of the letter to Erdogan (see para 3) and read for us the 
letter to Ziyal.  The highlights were as follows:  Together 
we built the first step of the relationship between Iraqi 
Kurds and the GOT.  We worked together against terror, 
fighting the PKK and securing the border.  Along with the KDP 
we helped you achieve peace in Turkey.  Now our relationship 
is not good.  Together with you, I would like to take an 
initiative to improve relations between Turkey and the Iraqi 
Kurds, including the KDP and the PUK.  Masoud Barzani and I 
went to Baghdad only days after Saddam fell to show that we 
consider ourselves Iraqi.  We want a unified Iraq.  We do not 
want an independent Kurdistan.  This is our policy.  We are 
ready to cooperate with you.  Today I am returning my Turkish 
diplomatic passport.  I am grateful for having had it.  Now 
that Iraq is free, I have two Iraqi passports - one for GC 
members and one tourist passport.  I am enclosing herewith a 
letter to Prime Minister Erdogan. 
 
 
3. (C) Text of Talabani letter to PM Erdogan (unofficial 
translation): 
 
 
Your Excellency The Prime Minister of Turkey and My Dear 
Brother Recep Tayyip Erdogan: 
I would like to send greetings from my heart and explain some 
matters in this letter. 
First, I would like to mention that  I have been quite 
criticized by Kurdish nationalists when I started having good 
relations with Turkey.  But I have never changed my ways and 
I continue on the same path.  Moreover, I had the opportunity 
to establish very good relations with the deceased Mr. Turgut 
Ozal.  I have worked for the KDP, the PUK and Turkey to bring 
our relations to this stage.  We have worked against the PKK 
together.  We have put control points on the Turkish border 
to prevent the entry of the PKK into Turkey.  We have worked 
for Turkey so much.  Secondly, I have wanted to establish 
good relations between the Iraqi family and Turkey and always 
worked for this aim.  Thirdly, we have had very good 
relations with the Turkmen Front.  We opened a Turkmen school 
and moreover we have requested from them to participate in 
our local parliament, but they did not.  The Turkish 
military, the Turkmen Front and some diplomats are witnesses 
for this event and they have thanked us for that as well.  We 
have changed the regime of Saddam together with the Turkmen. 
But unfortunately, suddenly the Turkmen Front started 
propagandizing against us in the media.  Fourthly, after the 
Saddam regime, we have always repeated that we do not want to 
establish an independent Kurdish government.  We went to 
Baghdad and denied the propaganda and worked there.  We have 
always said the following:  we want territorial unity in Iraq 
and we want a democratic Iraq.  We have never massacred the 
Turkmen.  After the liberation of Kirkuk, I went there.  I 
said: "since Turkmen are a minority, they need to have more 
rights than we do."  Many people have heard my explanations. 
the head of the Turkmen Front's Kirkuk office, Mustafa Kemal 
Yaycili was there and thanked me as well. 
I would like to explain very clearly.  Some people within the 
Turkmen Front made propaganda and stirred up trouble.  Those 
people - Sanan Ahmet Aga and Mustafa Kemal Yaycili have 
worked with Saddam Hussein and (I have?) got some documents. 
Because the PUK was strongly against Saddam Hussein, those 
people who worked with Saddam propagandized against us. 
There were two reasons to do that for Saddam: first, to 
destroy relations between Turkey and the PUK and make us 
enemies; and second, Saddam wanted to cast me and the PUK in 
a very bad light to the Turkish public. 
 
 
I cannot understand why our relations went bad.  I have 
always wanted good relations with Turkey.  We have always 
given preference to Turkish companies here and we have done 
lots of work with them.  We have supported them.  Our 
intelligence service worked with MIT (Turkish National 
Intelligence Organization).  We never want to have bad 
relations with Turkey.  We would like to live in a brotherly 
manner with Turkey. 
 
 
When I was in Turkey previously, some people have protested 
me in front of the Ankara Palace.  Despite this event, I did 
not leave Turkey and moreover wanted to come again.  I have 
been to Moscow and I wanted to come to Turkey to refute the 
propaganda.  Because of events in Sulaymaniyah, the Turkish 
media have pressed very hard explanations.  As you know, 
there were Turkish officer in there and they have already 
confessed that they were trying to hit somebody.  I was in 
Moscow with my son at the time and I could not come to Turkey 
because of the hard tone taken against us in the news. 
 
 
My Dear Prime Minister, I would like to establish very good 
relations with Turkey and especially with your government. 
Our relations are very goof with the MFA, MIT and some people 
from the military.  We would like to establish good relations 
in the political, economic, social and commercial fields and 
we never want to see bad dealings between Iraq and Turkey. 
We oppose the exitence of any terrorist groups in northern 
Iraq and understand Turkey's sensitivity about this.  We 
would like to have good dealings with Turkmen in Iraq and we 
will always continue providing support for that.  I trust 
your humane, democratic, and Islamic personality and I 
believe that our relations will be very good.  I believe you 
will prevent tyrannical propaganda.  I would like to open a 
new page in our history to establish strong and good 
relations.  Finally, I wish you health and success. 
 
 
Your Brother, 
Jalal Talabani 
General Secretary of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan 
End text of letter. 
 
 
4. (C) Galali said that when he presented these letters to 
MFA Deputy DG for the Middle East Safak Gokturk, they were 
warmly received.  Gokturk said he would forward the letters 
and that Talabani was always welcome to visit Turkey. 
According to Galali, Gokturk also noted that if Turkish 
troops deployed to Iraq they would do so to help Iraq secure 
peace and freedom, and to shorten the occupation.  Turkey, he 
said, would not come as occupyers. 
 
 
5. (U) Baghdad Minimize Considered. 
EDELMAN