US embassy cable - 04ANKARA1422

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 001422 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
ANKARA PASS IZMIR 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, PTER, TU 
SUBJECT: Southeast Turkish Sunni religious leader on 
region's political malaise 
 
 
This is a joint Amembassy Ankara/Consulate Adana cable. 
 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:   A prominent southeast Turkey 
Kurdish Sunni religious leader, or sheikh, from the 
Nakshibendi tarikat made a call on AMCONSUL Adana PO on 
March 1 and generally reflected a state of malaise in 
the region.  He said that people in the region are wary 
of AKP and see the party as more intent on 
consolidating its own power than bringing change to 
Turkey.  He described continuing loyalty among regional 
supporters for DEHAP despite its factionalism and poor 
organization for the upcoming municipal elections, and 
sees little taste for new confrontation among KHK 
cadres in Southeast Turkey.  He said that Osman Ocalan 
is exploring closer ties to the KDP for his faction 
within the KHK in northern Iraq.  End Summary. 
 
 
AKP becoming same old, same old 
 
 
2. (SBU)  A prominent southeast Turkey religious 
Kurdish Sunni religious leader from the Nakshibendi 
tarikat leader made a courtesy call on AMCONSUL Adana 
PO on March 1 following visits to followers in Adana 
and nearby Hatay and Mersin the previous weekend. He 
generally described a state of malaise in southeast 
Turkey.  He said that people in the region are wary of 
AKP and see the party as more intent on consolidating 
its own power than bringing change to Turkey.  "It is 
just another group of rich people trying to get 
richer," he said, describing deep southeast Kurdish 
perspectives on the AKP, "They have not brought us any 
new job opportunities."  When DPO noted the new 
regional incentives law, which includes many southeast 
Turkey localities, he used a hand gesture of brushing 
something away to discount its potential to alleviate 
regional unemployment. "That is for their people in the 
west," he remarked. 
 
 
DEHAP suffering from internal divisions, but still has 
loyal following 
 
 
3.(SBU)  He indicated that he sees DEHAP's overall 
political strength weakening because of internal 
political divisions and supporters' frustration with 
DEHAP municipal incumbents which they perceive as 
ineffective, but reflected that deep southeast Turkey 
regional supporters will remain loyal to DEHAP at the 
upcoming municipal elections.   "We are wrestling with 
ourselves in some places and sending up many new 
candidates because people want to see new faces, but we 
will still support (DEHAP), not AKP or somebody else. 
The new faces will just be weaker voices in some 
cases," he said.  When asked about Mersin or Adana, 
cities with larger internal migrant populations from 
southeast Turkey, he shrugged his shoulders in body 
language dismissing prospects for a significant DEHAP 
showing. 
 
 
Little taste for confrontation among KHK in Turkey 
 
 
4.(SBU)  Asked what the future holds for the KHK now 
that the reintegration law has expired in Turkey, the 
sheikh said that most Kurds in southeast Turkey still 
hope for a general amnesty for the bulk of the KHK 
cadres. When PO noted that it is hard to imagine such 
an amnesty and that both the U.S. and Turkey see KHK as 
a terrorist organization with dim future prospects, the 
sheikh said that many people in southeast Turkey still 
think even KHK leadership deserves a general amnesty 
although they are realistic enough not to believe it is 
forthcoming.  PO then asked if he has heard of much KHK 
military activity in southeast Turkey in recent months. 
The sheikh said that "only troublemakers here and 
there, like village guards and fringe elements among 
those in the mountains (referring to unspecified 
minorities in the KHK), are taking shots at each other. 
Most of those in the mountains do not want a fight, but 
they have nothing to which to come home. This year they 
let us collect walnuts and grapes from our field in the 
hills without any problems," he observed. 
 
 
5.(SBU) There are no jobs and the government keeps the 
(Habur) gate mainly closed to squeeze regional 
business, he asserted; the government does not want 
(Kurds) to get wealthy from trade with Iraq.  In recent 
years thousands of trucks a day went through the gate, 
now it is just a fraction of that. Why? If the 
government really cared about us, they would open some 
factories in the southeast and get us jobs.  People 
with money in their pockets would care for their 
families and homes, and not carry guns, he said.  He 
went on to decry the long daily truck line which now 
extends past Cizre awaiting transit southbound through 
the Habur gate.  His son, traveling with him as a 
companion, said a friend from Cizre had described a 14- 
kilometer backlog of trucks on February 27.  The sheikh 
said that he is deeply saddened to see the historically- 
rich community in Cizre, which he noted that the Koran 
cites as the real resting place for Noah's Ark, as a 
mud pit strewn with smog, truck hulks and gas floating 
on pools of water.  He also noted that a recent multi- 
truck collision just narrowly avoided triggering an 
explosion that might have blown up the bridge over the 
Euphrates at Cizre   (Comment: this is generally 
corroborated by KBR transit officials in Silopi. End 
Comment.) 
 
 
PKK/KHK in Iraq not monolithic 
 
 
6.(SBU)  He said that Osman Ocalan is exploring closer 
ties to the KDP for his faction within the KHK in 
northern Iraq.  "(Osman Ocalan) is looking to get 
closer to Barzani and the KDP, and trying to find a 
place to stay in Iraq for his people," the sheikh 
asserted. 
 
 
EDELMAN