US embassy cable - 04ANKARA3584

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 003584 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT. FOR NEA/NGA AND EUR/SE; BAGHDAD ALSO FOR MNF-I 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/22/2029 
TAGS: PREL, MARR, PINR, PTER, TU, IZ 
SUBJECT: IRAQ: TALABANI MEETS TURKISH FM GUL, PROPOSES 
TURKISH FACT-FINDING MISSION TO KIRKUK AND JOINT COMMITTEE 
TO SOLVE THE PKK PROBLEM IN NORTHERN IRAQ 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR ERIC EDELMAN, REASONS 1.4 B AND D. 
 
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Summary 
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1. (S/NF) Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUU) leader and 
former Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) member Jalal Talabani 
met PolMilOff June 22 and briefed on what he called his 
"excellent, friendly" meeting earlier that day with Turkish 
Deputy PM/FM Gul.  He told Gul that the PUK condemned all 
violent PKK action against Turkey, and reported that of the 
224 attendees at the last PKK/KONGRA-GEL congress in northern 
Iraq, more than half opposed continuing the armed struggle 
against Turkey, and that for the first time, PKK members were 
refusing to return to Turkey to carry out PKK operations. 
Talabani proposed to Gul the establishment of a joint 
committee to explore solutions to the PKK presence in 
northern Iraq.  Talabani also suggested that Gul send a 
Turkish fact-finding mission to Kirkuk to learn what was 
really going on there.  Talabani told PolMilOff that Osman 
Ocalan was in Mosul and that the PUK was not in contact with 
him, but that the U.S. was.  End summary. 
 
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A Turkish Policy Shift Toward Iraqi Kurds? 
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2. (C) On June 22, PolMilOff met PUK leader and former IGC 
member Jalal Talabani in Ankara, where Talabani had just met 
with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Abdullah 
Gul.  Talabani asserted the meeting was excellent and 
friendly.  He believed that the tone reflected a new, less 
confrontational Turkish policy towards Iraqi Kurds and 
federalism in Iraq.  When PolMilOff asked if Talabani had 
seen the press statements from PM Erdogan and FM Gul denying 
that there had been such a shift in policy, Talabani replied 
that Turkish MFA Iraq Coordinator Osman Koruturk had told him 
and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani 
about the change in policy but asked them to keep it private, 
explaining that Turkish officials needed time to prepare 
Turkish public opinion for the shift.  When Barzani went 
public with it, Talabani explained, the Turks felt they had 
to deny it, but Gul had not done so in his meeting with 
Talabani that day.  (On June 23, MFA Middle East Deputy 
Director General Safak Gokturk confirmed to us that the GOT 
accepted a federal structure in Iraq, but claimed this was 
not a change of policy).  Talabani told us that he said to 
Gul the new Iraq had to rest on four pillars: democracy, 
human rights, federalism, and equal citizenship, and that Gul 
had agreed.  Talabani said the letter Gul had sent to him and 
Barzani after the Feb. 1 terrorist attacks in Irbil, and the 
visits he made to those wounded in the attacks when they were 
being treated in Turkish hospitals had helped usher in a new 
era of cooperation. 
 
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Talabani Proposes Joint Committee to Solve PKK Problem 
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3. (S/NF) Talabani told us that Gul had not asked for any 
specific PUK action against the PKK/KADEK/KONGRA-GEL, but 
that Talabani had declared that the PUK publicly condemned 
any violent PKK action against Turkey.  Talabani informed the 
FM that, according to his information, of the 224 attendees 
at the recent PKK/KONGRA-GEL congress in northern Iraq, 140 
voted against continuing the armed struggle with Turkey.  For 
the first time, many were refusing to return to Turkey to 
carry out operations.  The Syrian Kurds in the PKK wanted to 
return home to Syria.  And Osman Ocalan was in Mosul with 17 
other former PKK leaders.  We asked Talabani if he or other 
PUK reps were in touch with Ocalan.  Talabani replied that 
the PUK would not have contact with him out of deference to 
Turkish sensitivities, but that the U.S. was in contact with 
Ocalan.  Talabani then asked if we knew how Abdullah Ocalan 
was able to get messages from a Turkish prison out to 
northern Iraq since he was closely guarded and Turkey 
controlled everyone to whom he had access.  Talabani said he 
told Gul that there needed to be a political solution to the 
problem of the PKK presence in northern Iraq, and proposed to 
Gul the establishment of a joint committee including the PUK, 
the KDP and Turkey, plus possibly the U.S. and UK, to explore 
possible solutions.  Gul was positive toward the concept, 
according to Talabani.  (Gokturk did not mention this 
proposal to us when discussing Talabani's visit). 
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Talabani Lectures Gul on Kirkuk, Suggests Fact-Finding 
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4. (C) Gokturk, whose debrief on the Gul-Talabani meeting 
tracked closely with what Talabani told us, told PolCouns and 
PolMilCouns that Gul had been firm with Talabani about 
Kirkuk, saying that there were two things the Turks knew for 
certain: the Kurds were trying to change the demographic 
balance there, and that Kurdish militia were actively moving 
around Kirkuk, though the Turks did not necessarily believe 
that the militia would take any action any time soon. 
Nonetheless, their presence increased fears and concerns 
which could "trigger something."  Talabani told PolMilOff 
that he had spoken at length with Gul about the situation in 
Kirkuk, about which, he told us, Gul knew very little.  He 
told Gul that to rectify the damage done by Saddam's eviction 
of Kurds and Turkmen from the area and importation of Arabs 
from other regions, the "Arabization" Arabs would have to 
move out.  The Kurds and Turkmen that had been evicted had to 
be allowed back.  This was not about taking over Kirkuk by 
changing demographics, it was about restoring the status quo 
ante.  He told us Gul listened carefully without pushing back 
as Talabani explained this.  Talabani suggested to Gul that 
if Turkish officials wanted to really know what was going on 
in Kirkuk, Turkey should send a fact-finding team there.  He 
said Gul was interested in doing so. 
 
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Turkmen Weakness Not America's Fault 
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5. (S/NF) Talabani told us that Gul complained the U.S. had 
failed to help the Turkmen secure their political rights. 
Talabani said he agreed the Turkmen had not achieved their 
political due, but claimed he had objected to the idea that 
this was America's fault.  He said he told Gul that the 
reason the Turkmen, and the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) in 
particular, were not well represented in Iraqi political 
structures was because they had adopted confrontational 
positions towards the coalition as well as all the former 
Iraqi opposition leaders, many of whom have been running Iraq 
with the coalition for the past year.  Instead, the ITF had 
allied with Islamist extremists and former Saddam supporters. 
 Thus, the ITF had put themselves on the wrong side of the 
political divide in Iraq.  Talabani said repeatedly that it 
seemed the Turkmen Front's main political program was to 
confront the Kurds.  "They received poor political guidance 
from here," he told us.  This approach would not help them 
improve their political stature in the new Iraq.  They had 
failed to form even one alliance with a group that had a 
leading political role, even though they knew many of the 
individuals well from opposition conferences.  Talabani 
explained to Gul that he personally had inserted language in 
the TAL about Turkmen rights and had tried to get the Turkmen 
included in opposition leadership positions in the months 
before the war.  "And after we tried to help them, look at 
how they behave toward us," he said.  He also shared with Gul 
information found in Baghdad implicating former ITF leader 
Sanan Aga as an agent of Saddam.  Talabani told us that at 
the end of the meeting, FM Gul told Talabani he had learned a 
lot. (Gokturk asserted to us that Ankara was advising Iraqi 
Turkmen leaders that in the new Iraq, they should become 
active in domestic politics as Iraqis and stop asking for 
"external assistance.") 
 
6. (U) On June 23, Talabani met PM Erdogan, MFA 
Undersecretary Ziyal, EU Ambassadors and TNIO and TGS 
representatives.  According to press accounts, Talabani 
raised with PM Erdogan the idea of establishing joint 
committees to "probe allegations about northern Iraq," but 
Erdogan did not offer a clear response.  The press also 
reports Talabani saying the Kurds wanted  a joint Kurdish, 
Turkmen and Arab administration in Kirkuk, and a special 
status for the city. 
7. (U) Baghdad minimize considered. 
EDELMAN