WikiLeaks – ARMENIA – No 1
R 261254Z JUL 93, FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN, TO SECSTATE WASHDC 4112
INFO AMCONSUL ISTANBUL, AMCONSUL ADANA, AMEMBASSY ANKARA
C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 002697
E.O. 12356: DECL: OADR
TAGS: PINS PREL PTER AM TU
SUBJ: PKK “SUPPORT” FROM ARMENIAN SOURCES
REFS: A) STATE 220237 B) YEREVAN 1701 C) YEREVAN 0165
¶1. CONFIDENTIAL – ENTIRE TEXT.
¶2. REFTEL (A) asked for a report on “possible PKK-Armenian” links and instructed embassy Yerevan to “continue to monitor the situation closely and to keep US informed”.
We raised the subject with foreign minister [Vahan] Papazyan July 26 and he said that he had been asked the same thing by journalists during his recent trip to the US. His answer is (and was) that “there are no links of any kind between the PKK and the Government of Armenia, although there might be such links of any kind between certain opposition groups such as the Dashnaks”.
When we asked him whether he was talking about the Dashnaks here or those at party headquarters in Athens, he replied “there’s no difference”.
This reply is consistent with responses we have gotten from senior Government of Armenia officials for more than a year now, not only regarding the PKK but also regarding all sorts of terrorist organizations, and particularly the ASALA.
¶3. REFTEL was this embassy’s attempt to track down the basis of rumors in Turkey about a PKK magazine being published in Armenia. It turns out that the magazine only published two issues, that the vast majority of the Kurds in Armenia are non-Muslims (and apolitical) Yezidis, and that the editor-in-chief of this magazine – although prone to exaggerate the level of political consciousness among Armenia’s small Kurdish community – admitted that there was no PKK activity inside Armenia.
(Comment: this makes sense; at a time when the Government of Armenia is trying to do all within its power to achieve normal relations with Turkey, why would it want to provoke Turkey by allowing PKK activity within its borders? Furthermore, the Government of Armenia is making a maximum effort to confiscate weaponry of all types from civilians and put it into the hands of the ‘proper’ authority; why would it countenance the training of terrorists who could one day be turned against any target of opportunity?
¶4. REFTEL (C) was an offer to demarche the Government of Armenia about the alleged PKK presence in a specific region as reported by embassy Baku in Baku 0070. According to our records, the department never replied to this message. But we have brought up the subject of terrorism on a regular basis with a range of senior officials, all of whom condemn the ASALA and all of its cousins in the terrorist world. Their one regret in this area is that – as they see it – there is precious little they can do if, for example, Dashnaks living in Iran want to finance, train, or equip terrorist units operating – illegitimately and in direct opposition to Government of Armenia – in the name of the Armenian people.
Gilmore
P. S. Harry J. Gilmore was the first United States Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia from May 1993 to July 1995. Gilmore died April 23, 2015, after suffering a heart attack at his home in Dumfries, Virginia. He was 77.
