US embassy cable - 03ANKARA2467

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 002467 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/15/2013 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKISH KURDS: OVERJOYED BY END OF SADDAM 
 
(U) Classified by Political Counselor John Kunstadter. 
Reason:1.5(b)(d) 
 
 
1. (C) In April 15 discussions about the situation in Iraq, a 
leading Kurdish political activist from Turkey's Southeast 
and two business associates offered enthusiastic 
congratulations to the USG for the Coalition's success 
against the Saddam regime.  According to these Kurds: 
 
 
-- Turkey did the USG a favor by not passing the March 1 
resolution that would have allowed deployment of U.S. and 
Turkish troops to N. Iraq.  If the resolution had passed, 
they said, the Turks would have entered N. Iraq "and it would 
have been a disaster" for the USG and the region.  Turkey is 
now in a bind; the key to getting the Turks to play ball is 
to maintain the pressure on them -- not to accede to their 
demands. 
 
 
-- Their relatives in Syria are "ecstatic, too."  "If only 
the Americans will drop bombs on us and get rid of Assad," 
their relatives say.  "When are the U.S. troops going to 
come?" they say their relatives are asking. 
 
 
-- The Turkish State is making it difficult for Turkish Kurds 
to do business in N. Iraq or participate in reconstruction. 
They said they can conclude construction deals with Barzani 
but the deals won't become a reality without GOT support. 
The Turkish State is trying to push Turkey's Kurdish 
businessmen into the arms of "Turkmen companies."  Otherwise, 
the Turkish authorities deny permission to do anything: "we 
get blocked...unless we associate with an American partner." 
 
 
-- Turkish intellectuals, whether "secularist" or Islamist, 
are blinded by ideology, lack of information, and hostile to 
USG regional interests.  As a result, most Turkish press 
commentators and others got it completely wrong on Iraq and 
ignored signs of the Iraqi people's distaste for Saddam. 
 
 
2. (C) We have heard similar congratulation to the Coalition 
and expressions of frustration at all forms of 
authoritarianism in the region, including the Turkish State 
in their view, from other Turkish Kurds.  For instance, 
senior members of the now-banned HADEP expressed strong 
support for USG regional efforts in an April 10 meeting with 
us.  A scholarly, Kurdish-origin (Zaza) imam from Gaziantep 
who has sharply criticized the damage to Islam from radical 
Islamists and demonstrated great tolerance for Christianity 
and Judaism in his remarks to us, commented on the identical 
nature of Kemalism and Leninism in an April 13 conversation 
and thought it would have been liberating for Turkey "if the 
U.S. had directed a couple of cruise missiles onto Ataturk's 
mausoleum." 
 
 
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Comment: Turks "Doan Wahnt Nobody Nobody Sent" 
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3. (C) Like Chicago's legendary political machine, the 
Turkish State machine is careful about whom it deals with. 
An interesting angle will thus be the selection of winners in 
the eventual wheeling and dealing on (sub)contracts that will 
be part of any Turkish effort to participate in Iraq 
reconstruction.  Given the Turkish State's abiding suspicions 
about Kurdish aspirations in Turkey and N. Iraq, we think the 
rate at which Kurdish contractors participate will be a 
useful barometer of the State's plans for Turkey's Southeast. 
PEARSON