US embassy cable - 04YEREVAN587

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 YEREVAN 000587 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, S/CT 
 
E.O. 12958: DNG: CO 03/10/2014 
TAGS: PTER, PREL, PGOV, PINR, AM, TU 
SUBJECT: KURDISH ACTIVITIES IN ARMENIA 
 
Classified By: Ambassador John Ordway for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1. (S) There is an Armenian-Kurdish friendship society in 
downtown Yerevan with a sign posted on the door identifying 
it as such.  The "Friendship Society's" main goals in Armenia 
appear to be to promote Kurdish culture, organize holidays, 
demonstrations, and campaigns for better treatment of and/or 
freedom for Ocalan, as opposed to promoting a specific 
anti-Turkish propoganda campaign.  The office, however, 
openly admitted to us that it represents the Kurdish People's 
Congress (also now known as Kongra Gel).  There is no 
evidence that Kongra-Gel has either the interest or the 
ability to fundraise in Armenia. Active recruitment drives, 
or the establishment of any type of Kurdish military camps in 
Armenia would be extremly difficult to conduct and hide in a 
country that is 97 percent ethnically Armenian.  Kurds 
currently constitute a small minority of approximately 
40,000, most of whom work as nomadic cattle and goat farmers 
and live near the poverty level.   Approximately 500 Armenian 
Kurds held a peaceful demonstration in downtown Yerevan on 
February 15 to mark the fifth anniversary of Ocalan's arrest. 
 End Summary. 
 
 
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KURDISH POPULATION IN ARMENIA 
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2. (S) According to Knyaz Hasanov, the Kurdish representative 
to the executive office of the President of Armenia, 
approximately 40,000 Kurds live in Armenia (down from an 
estimated 60,000 in 1989).  Many Kurds emigrated either to 
Azerbaijan (because of the Nagorno Karabakh war, Hasanov told 
us) or to Russia for economic reasons.  The majority of 
Armenian Kurds live in or near Talin, Ashtarak, Aragats, 
Aparan and Odketenbuan.  Most work in cattle or goat 
husbandry and have been hard hit by the economic crisis that 
affects Armenia's rural sector.  Hasanov noted that in 
Armenia there were no successful Kurdish businessmen, Kurdish 
restaurants, Kurdish supermarkets or even a Kurdish library. 
 
 
3. (S) Hasanov commented that the majority of Kurds in 
Armenia are Yezidis, or Christians.  While some members of 
the Yezidi community liked to differentiate themselves from 
the Muslim Kurds, Hasanov said, he felt that ethnicity, 
history, and language bonded all Kurds in Armenia together 
with no visible religious friction.  Hasanov felt that the 
Kurdish population as a whole had a good relationship with 
the Armenian government.  Hasanov did not feel that Kurds 
suffered discrimination on a personal or official level and, 
while the Armenian government did not always respond to their 
requests for funding for cultural events, it would usually at 
least listen to them. (COMMENT:  In our experience, the local 
Yezidis vigorously differentiate themselves from Kurds, 
regardless of the obvious connections.  Moreover, the 
indigeneous Yezidis and Kurds are quite split.  A proposed 
USDA project to engage them in livestock-related projects 
faces substantial challenges due to their inability, at least 
initially, to agree among themselves on how to organize.  END 
COMMENT) 
 
4. (S) Hasanov introduced us to prominent Armenian/Kurds 
including the chairman of the Kurdish writers association, 
the head of a Kurdish radio program (which broadcasts for 30 
minutes a day), the deputy head of the Armenian-Kurdish 
Friendship society, a professor of Kurdish language, an 
engineer, a government bureaucrat and the Armenian head of 
the local "Friendship Society."  All of the prominent 
Armenian/Kurds told us that they were desperately 
underfunded, and were able to only sporadically publish three 
Kurdish language newspapers, unable to fund Kurdish cultural 
events, and wanted more than the government-allotted 30 
minutes of daily Kurdish radio time.  All claimed that they 
had very few contacts with prominent Kurds abroad and that 
they were unable to successfully solicit funds for their 
cultural projects.  While most agreed that the Armenian 
government could do more for them as a minority group, none 
felt that they faced rampant discrimination on a personal or 
government level and realized that their economic situation 
does not differ substantially from Armenians as a whole. 
 
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KURDISH PEOPLE'S CONGRESS IN YEREVAN 
------------------------------------ 
 
5. (S) Cherkeze Erash, the administrative head of the office, 
explained to us that the KPC established its office in 
Yerevan in 1994 and while the KPC sent representatives from 
time to time to Armenia, Erash was the long-term 
representative.  (NOTE:  He openly admitted to us the 
connection with KPC.  END NOTE.)  Presently, he told us, the 
KPC had two activists who arrived from Turkey, Heydar Ali and 
Gazim Seyit, who arrived in January 2004 and were planning to 
stay until May.  The office is a Soviet-style three-bedroom 
apartment located in the center of town, with modest 
furnishings and multiple posters and banners depicting Ocalan 
and other prominent Kurdish heroes and "martyrs."  Erash 
explained to us that they had three full-time employees and 
approximately 22 Armenian Kurds who live in villages outside 
of Yerevan and work for the office part-time.  We noticed one 
part-time driver with an older Russian vehicle.  Erash worked 
as a professor at a local university to supplement his 
income. 
 
6. (S) Erash told us that they usually receive 2-3 KPC 
visitors at a time from Iran, Syria, Europe, Iraq and Russia, 
who usually stay for one to four months.  He said that in 
2003 the Armenia office had approximately 15 such visitors. 
Erash stated that the visitors come to Armenia for the 
purpose of monitoring the local Kurdish population, give 
seminars on the Kurdish situation in northern Iraq, and help 
with Kurdish language and cultural instruction in the 
villages.  Erash described his own job as a coordinator and 
organizer of Kurdish holidays, demonstrations and overseas 
visitors.  He stated his next assignment was to organize the 
upcoming Novruz holiday in March, and coordinate the travel 
of famous Kurdish speakers and/or musicians from Europe to 
Yerevan for the holiday.  When asked about KPC's relationship 
with the Armenian government, Erash told us that he had good 
contacts in most government ministries and the Armenian 
government did not restrict KPC's movement or interfere with 
their office in any significant way. 
 
7. (S) When we asked about KPC's finances, Erash commented 
that the local Kurdish population was very poor, and KPC was 
not able to raise funds in the poor village areas.  Erash 
stated that money for the KPC's office rent came from 
Russian-Kurdish businessmen, whom he did not name, and/or 
occasional gifts from European Kurds.  Erash lamented that 
they did not pay salaries at the KPC office, but money from 
various Diaspora Kurds did defray some living expenses of the 
key KPC office employees (including Erash himself).  Erash 
stated that KPC visitors and Kurdish entertainers from 
overseas generally paid their own way and often lived with 
local Kurds as a way of reducing expenses.  Erash told us 
that the KPC avoids using the local banking system and money 
was often hand-carried by couriers or by businessmen 
themselves when they came to visit Yerevan. 
 
8. (S) Rzgan Lezgiyan, a local Kurdish language professor, 
agreed that the KPC was probably unable to raise much money 
in Armenia, but criticized the fact that the KPC spent what 
little money it had to transport village Kurds to Yerevan for 
pro-Ocalan rallies instead of creating social welfare 
programs.  Lezgiyan stated that most educated Yerevan Kurds 
did not interact with the KPC office in Yerevan because of 
its strict pro-Ocalan propaganda.  Lezgiyan remembered that 
in 2002 the KPC office had sponsored five Kurdish students to 
take Kurdish language courses but suspended the funding when 
the students failed to show at a KPC organized pro-Ocalan 
rally.  Lezgiyan believed that the KPC office was most 
influential five years ago when Ocalan was first captured and 
they were able to attract several thousand people to downtown 
Yerevan for a pro-Ocalan rally.  Since then there had been a 
noticeable decline in numbers of attendees at pro-Ocalan 
rallies, which were now only numbering in the low hundreds. 
The most recent such rally was held February 15, and 
attracted about 500 participants. 
 
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NEW DIRECTION FOR THE KURDISH PEOPLE'S CONGRESS 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
9. (S) Ali explained to us that his job in Armenia was to 
travel to the villages and educate Kurds on the new direction 
of the KPC which was focused on human rights, democracy and 
freedom.  Ali stated that guarantees of freedom were more 
important than statehood and as long as Ocalan was in good 
health they would pursue a strategy of peaceful negotiations 
with Turkey.  He then amended his comments by stating that if 
Ocalan's health worsened or died in captivity then the KPC 
might have to revise its strategy.  He explained that the 
Caucasus, Central Asia and eastern Europe were in his sphere 
of responsibility and he traveled throughout this region 
often.  In Armenia his job was to give seminars to Kurds 
about news from Northern Iraq and to spread the message of 
the new KPC policy.  He also stated he acted as a facilitator 
for Kurdish businessmen and looked for investment 
opportunities, but lamented he did not see many in Armenia. 
Lezgiyan told us that when he met Ali he noted that the KPC 
had dropped their demands for an independent Kurdistan and 
also downplayed the fact that Ocalan was their supreme leader 
in their propaganda.  Lezgiyan speculated that this was done 
because of pressure from the American government. 
 
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KURDISH PEOPLE'S CONGRESS DENIALS OF WRONGDOING IN ARMENIA 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
 
10. (S) Erash, Ali, Hasanov and Lezgiyan all strongly denied 
that there were any camps of Kurdish fighters in Armenia. 
All stated that it would be impossible to hide a military 
training camp in Armenian villages where the population was 
97 percent Armenian and any large group of strange Kurds 
would be immediately noticed by the local authorities.  Ali 
stated that it would also be logistically much easier to 
transport fighters from Turkey to northern Iraq, where they 
would be safe, receive good medical treatment and have the 
infrastructure to support them, rather than trying to hide 
them in Armenia.  Ali and Erash also commented that the 
Kurdish population has a good relationship with the Armenian 
government, which they would be loathe to jeopardize.  (NOTE: 
 In 1999 there was a meeting between the Armenian National 
Security Service (NSS) and Turkish Intelligence which 
resulted in meetings and exchange of information.  We were 
told recently by the NSS that this meeting focused primarily 
on the issue of training camps, and included field visits to 
sites suspected by the Turkish side of such activity.  END 
NOTE.) 
 
11. (S) Erash and Ali both also strongly denied that there 
was any drug trafficking by Armenian Kurds and stated 
repeatedly that this type of behavior is not tolerated in 
Kurdish culture.  Erash claimed that everyone knew everyone 
in the Armenian Kurdish community, and if Kurdish elders 
found out about any such activity the offending parties would 
be immediately expelled from Armenian Kurdish society. 
 
12. (S) Erash, Ali, Hasnaov, and the educated Yerevan Kurds 
were all in agreement in telling us that due to the poor 
economic situation in Armenian there was little or no 
possibility of KPC doing any type of fundraising in Armenia 
and that the Armenian KPC office relied heavily on donations 
from Diaspora Kurds to keep their office running, publish 
their newspapers and help defray living expenses for key 
employees. 
 
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COMMENT 
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13. (S) Through post's observations as well as through other 
contacts it appears that the local KPC's office's main goal 
is to spread pro-Ocalan propaganda.  Due to the very poor 
economic conditions of most Armenians, and especially that of 
the Kurdish population, it would be difficult for KPC to 
raise any significant funds in Armenia.  Armenia's 
overwhelmingly ethnically Armenian population makes it 
equally difficult for the KPC to set up any type of armed 
camps, or recruiting drives in the Armenian countryside 
without attracting local authorities' notice.  To the best of 
post's knowledge, the local KPC office does not appear to be 
actively engaged in supporting terrorist activities from 
Armenia.  The office's official registration as a "Friendship 
Society" also serves to obscure any actionable connection to 
the terrorist KPC.  The NSS claims to be closely monitoring 
the activities of the office and has stated that they would 
immediately arrest and/or deport any member of the KPC office 
found to be conducting illegal activities. 
 
14.  (S)  There are, however, two vulnerable points that 
might be exploited to disrupt, if not actually shut down, 
this operation: 
 
--  To the extent that we can reliably identify to the GOAM 
the KPC visitors as members of Kongra Gel, which is on the 
U.S. terrorist list, we can encourage the GOAM to expel them 
or prevent their entry into the country. 
 
--  The "cash-by-courier" funding mechanism is another 
vulnerable point, if we can proivde the GOAM information that 
shows the funding source is Kongra Gel. 
ORDWAY