US embassy cable - 02ANKARA8142

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 008142 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
STATE FOR NEA CROCKER, NEA/NGA AND EUR/SE; 
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH; 
DAMASCUS FOR WALKER 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/11/2012 
TAGS: PREL, MARR, TU, IZ, Iraq 
SUBJECT: NORTHERN IRAQ: TURKMEN FRONT TO BOYCOTT OPPOSITION 
CONFERENCE UNLESS 4 KDP-FRIENDLY TURKMEN ARE BLACK-LISTED 
 
REF: A. ANKARA 7775 
     B. ANKARA 7550 
     C. ANKARA 7509 
     D. ANKARA 7148 
 
 
 (U) Classified by Pol-Mil Counselor Stuart Brown.  Reasons: 
1.5 (B and D). 
 
 
1. (C) Operation Northern Watch POLAD met with Iraqi Turkmen 
Front (ITF) Ankara rep and Executive Committee member Dr. 
Mustafa Ziya November 12.  Ziya said that although the 
opposition conference steering committee had increased the 
number of Turkmen seats, the total number of seats had also 
been increased.  The Turkmen, Ziya said, still end up with 
only 6 percent.  He complained that at the 1999 New York 
meeting the ITF got all of the Turkmen seats, but for the 
Brussels conference 2 percent were being given to Turkmen 
Islamists, 2 percent to KDP-friendly Turkmen and only 2 
percent to the ITF.  Ziya said that the ITF wanted to 
participate, but would not do so unless the situation were 
fixed.  He said that the ITF could live with 6 percent of the 
seats, and even with sharing those with the Turkmen 
Islamists.  However, the ITF would not participate if the 
KDP-friendly Turkmen were attending. 
 
 
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Dr. Ziya Names Names 
-------------------- 
 
 
2. (C) Ziya said that the Turkmen the ITF objected to are: 
Walid Sharika, Turkmen Brotherhood Party; Saifat din Damerji, 
Turkmen Union Party; Jawdat Najar, Kurdistan Turkmen Cultural 
Association and minister in the Kurdistan Regional 
Government; and Shirzat Oza'iri, Democratic Turkmen Party of 
Kurdistan.  Ziya alleged that Sharika and Oza'iri were not 
really Turkmen at all and worked for KDP intel services, and 
that Oza'iri and din Damerji participated in the GOI's Anfal 
campaign against the Kurds.  All these individuals and their 
groups had, Ziya said, at most a few dozen supporters (the 
ITF, he said was "a thousand times" bigger) and received 
their salaries from the KDP.  It was, he said, impossible for 
the ITF to agree to sit with them as part of the Turkmen 
delegation to the conference.  Ziya said these four 
individuals really represented the KDP, and that the KDP was 
using its position on the steering committee to "stack the 
deck" in its favor at the conference.  He urged the US to 
press the KDP to get these individuals removed from the 
invitation list. 
 
 
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ITF Seeks USG Intervention to Reign-in KDP 
------------------------------------------ 
 
 
3. (C) Ziya said the ITF's impression was that the Iraqi 
Kurds and Shi'a were controlling the steering committee.  It 
would, he said, be useful for the USG to discuss the 
conference problems with the "group of nine" (the steering 
committee plus the ITF and Assyrians - we are unsure who 
number 9 is).  Ziya said the ITF rep in London would be 
meeting with Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi to 
discuss the conference, but would be in a listening mode and 
would not try to form an alliance. 
 
 
4. (C) Ziya also told us that per Ref A, the ITF had decided 
to appoint him ITF representative responsible for external 
relations.  An official announcement will be made November 
16. 
PEARSON