EurasiaNet, NY
Feb 16 2008

AZERBAIJAN: WASHINGTON, BAKU CONCERNED ABOUT PKK CELLS IN CAUCASUS

Ron Synovitz 2/16/08
A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL

Azerbaijan’s government has raised concerns with US officials that
militants from Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are expanding
from northern Iraq into the Caucasus and could be setting up cells in
Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov tells RFE/RL that the
PKK issue was the main focus of his talks on February 14 with
visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State on Terrorism Frank
Urbanchik.

"We suggested that this issue be watched closely," he says. "These
issues will be more broadly discussed, I believe, in the next round
of talks between Azerbaijan and the United States."

Like Turkish officials, Azimov describes the PKK as a "terrorist
group." But Azimov stops short of confirming Turkish state media
reports that allege the PKK has already moved from northern Iraq into
the Azerbaijani districts of Fuzuli and Lachin. Both of those
districts have been occupied since the early 1990s by ethnic-Armenian
forces who waged a separatist war in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of
Nagorno-Karabakh.

But Azimov does suggest that PKK fighters are moving closer to
Azerbaijani territory. "Lately, we have been watching [PKK]
activities…very closely," he says. "Due to the problems that Turkey
is facing, we have been very vigilant. According to the information
we are receiving from different sources, the activities of this
organization are approaching our country."

More specifically, Azimov says the PKK is building "close relations"
with "terrorist groups and organizations" that are enemies of both
Turkey and Azerbaijan — a remark seen in Baku as a reference to
Armenia or ethnic-Armenian forces.

Government officials in Yerevan have consistently denied Turkish
media reports that PKK militants have moved into the districts of
Azerbaijan that are occupied by ethnic Armenians.

Independent and opposition media in Azerbaijan also report that PKK
militants are now active in parts of Azerbaijan. Those reports
alleged that ethnic-Kurdish officials in Azerbaijan’s government have
been backing the PKK — a claim that Baku also denies.

US Regional Concerns

Jonathan Henik, a public-affairs officer at the US Embassy in Baku,
confirms that the United States and Azerbaijan have been discussing
the threat of PKK militancy. He says most of Washington’s previous
discussions on the issue had been with Turkey or with European
governments.

But Henik says the United States is increasingly concerned about what
appears to be growing ties between the PKK and other groups in the
Caucasus that have been deemed terrorist organizations. He says
Washington is also worried about the threat the PKK poses to energy
infrastructure in the Caucasus.

Those concerns focus on a 1,770-kilometer pipeline that carries
Caspian oil from Baku through Georgia and on to southeastern Turkey’s
Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

About 20 million ethnic Kurds are scattered mainly in northern Iraq,
Syria, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. Describing themselves as the
world’s largest stateless minority, most live in southeastern Turkey,
where the PKK has fought an insurgency since 1984. More than 30,000
people have been killed in that fighting, most of them ethnic Kurds.

Though the PKK declared a cease-fire in 1999, fighting by separatists
resumed in southeastern Turkey in 2004. Authorities in Ankara fear
that the Kurds in northern Iraq plan to set up their own state — a
move that would stir tensions and lead to increased calls for
autonomy by Turkish Kurds.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul raised the issue during talks at the
White House in early January with U.S. President George W. Bush.
After that meeting, Bush told reporters he supported Turkey’s efforts
to fight the PKK militants in northern Iraq.

"Relations between the United States and Turkey are important for our
country. And we have worked hard to make them strong," Bush said.
"And I believe they are strong. We deal with common problems. One
such problem is our continuing fight against a common enemy — and
that’s terrorists. And such a common enemy is the PKK. It’s an enemy
to Turkey. It’s an enemy to Iraq. And it’s an enemy to people who
want to live in peace."

Editor’s Note: RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service correspondent Alekber
Raufoglu contributed to this report from Baku.