Question and Answer Session at ASAM Iftar Dinner With General Ralston and General Baser

October 19, 2006

Question 1:  Inaudible. Question concerning map prepared by retired U.S. military officer presented at NATO Defense College in Rome.

Ralston:  First of all, with regard to your question about whether there are maps on United States military installations inside of Turkey showing a dismemberment of Iraq.  I’m familiar with the issue and let me try to correct a couple of the misconceptions that I have read in the Turkish press.  First of all, there was a map that was published in a journal called Armed Forces Journal.  I’ve seen this described as a semi-official publication of the Department of Defense.  Let me tell you that is absolutely false.  This is a private magazine. It does not receive support from the Department of Defense in any way, shape, or form.  As a private magazine they take articles from anyone who wants to write to express an opinion, not unlike some media publications in Turkey.  There was a retired army Lieutenant Colonel who had a grand vision of how he thought the world ought to be organized.  This article was published in Armed Forces Journal.  It has no standing whatsoever as an official publication.  It is contradicted in everyway by the United States government, including by the President of the United States this past week.  The United States’ policy is for a unified Iraq.  I know this is a very serious issue.  Can I tell you there is not a copy of Armed Forces Journal on some military base in Turkey? I can’t tell you that.  It is a free country.  Those magazines are all over the world.  But it is not in any way, shape, or form U.S. government policy, nor is it endorsed as U.S. government policy. 

Question 2: (Informal Translation) FROM AKP MP TURHAN COMEZ I would like to remind you of the mistakes the U.S. has made. First, they did not close the Mahmur Camp.  They should have done this.  There are terrorists in that place.  Second, the U.S. hasn’t stopped logistical activities that supply the PKK in Kandil Mountains.  They didn’t put into place anything to hinder the movement of various goods to the PKK.  The U.S. could have hindered the PKK in many ways. What a pity they haven’t done this thus far.  (Inaudible)  After this opening I would like to ask you a question.  With 30,000 deaths caused by the PKK what if the PKK had been al-Qaeda?  Are they not just as dangerous as al-Qaeda?

Ralston:  Let me address your last comment first.  One of the jobs that I have is to educate United States citizens on the problem of the PKK.  I have said that the PKK is a greater threat for Turkey than al-Qaeda is for the United States of America, not only if you look at the number of Turkish citizens that have been killed over the past twenty plus years. It is a very high percentage if you just look at the number Turkish citizens that have been killed in the last year alone as a percentage of seventy million people.  This is a fact that is not as well understood by the citizens of the United States of America as they should understand it. I try to make that point wherever I have the opportunity to do so. 

Let me go back and address a couple of your other points with regard to the Mahmur Camp.  This is an issue that I discussed yesterday in Baghdad.  General Baser and I have talked about it.  We have talked about it in your government circles in Ankara.  There are two parts to this problem-- one is bureaucratic.  There needs to be an agreement worked out between Turkey, Iraq, and the UNHCR.  That agreement has not been completed.  I urged the Turkish government to get our concerns on the table so we can do that.  There needs to be a response from the government of Iraq to the UNHCR.   That has not been done and I brought up the point that the UNHCR needed a response with the President of Iraq yesterday. 

Then, there are, what I will call practical steps that need to be dealt with.  By the way, I think there is agreement between the government of Iraq, the government of the United States, the government of Turkey, and UNHCR.  First of all, the camp needs to be cleansed of any PKK personnel.  That is a military job.  There is agreement that this needs to be done.  Second step, all the arms need to be removed from the camp, which again is a military task.  Step number three, UNHCR needs to register every person in the camp-- man, woman, and child.  They need to be issued a card and if they don’t have that card they are not allowed in the camp.  Step number four, everyone in the camp needs to be interviewed by the United Nations on what their intentions are.  Do they want to be repatriated?  Do they want to remain in Iraq?  Lastly, we need this tripartite agreement between Turkey, Iraq, and the UNHCR on how to implement that last step.  These are the steps that General Baser and I have outlined.  Now we need to go and address each one.  There are things the United States of America needs to do, there are things the government of Iraq needs to do, and there are things Turkey needs to do, in all fairness, to close this camp.  And that is one of the things we are committed to doing. 

With regard to munitions I understand the concern.  Many of the munitions have entered Iraq many years ago and came from other countries around the world.  I wish that weren’t so. But it is a fact of life we are dealing with around the world, whether it is al-Qaeda, whether it is the PKK, wherever it is, we need to keep munitions out of the arms of terrorists. 

There are many other financial issues that you mentioned.  The United States of America is sending a team to Europe here in the next few days.  Their mission is to convince European governments to cut off the flow of funds to the PKK.   There are other things that need to be done in terms interdicting communications.  That is being addressed.  These are only a sample of the types of things that General Baser and I, and our Iraqi counterpart, the Minister of State for Security Mr. al-Waili, are going to be tackling.  I appreciate your input and let me just try to assure you that all of the issues you have mentioned are being addressed. 

Question 3:  Inaudible.

Ralston:  With regard to the question:  “if we had a political party in the United States that was affiliated with a terrorist organization, what would our response be?”  While that is a very broad question, I understand it.  I think the government would take a position by looking at the degree of affiliation of the terrorist group.  Do they support the terrorist group? If so, they would take legal action against the party.  What the outcome of that legal action would be is not for me to say.  That is something we have a judicial process to work through and they would have to make the response.

Question 4: Inaudible.

Ralston:  I think the question was: “do we have a plan for the integration of PKK members into broader society if they renounce violence?”  Is that the correct question?

Questioner:  Yes.

Ralston:   No. At this point I do not have a plan for that.  I think this is one of the things that would be on our list of things to look at.  I think it is a subset of the broader issue.   How do you reintegrate people in the PKK into society?  There is not a simple answer for that.  If you have an eighteen year old, who just left home and wandered up to the mountains, and he has not committed any crimes then I would suspect the way to handle that is:  he turns himself in or is captured, and he is given to the proper judicial authorities.  Then the judicial process works its way to decide whether he has committed a crime or not, and what is the appropriate disposition of that.  He may be sent back to his family, he may be sent back to the village.   If, in fact, he is a terrorist who has committed terrorist acts and killed people, then it is up to the judicial process to determine what the appropriate punishment is before he is reintegrated into society.  There are other steps in between.  This is something that I think needs to be looked at in the broader sense.  Do I have a solution for it tonight?  The answer is no, I do not. 

Question 5: Inaudible.

Ralston:  As I understand your question:  “Is there a change in U.S. policy regarding the goal of having a democratic society in Iraq?”  I am certainly not the one to answer that question here today.  I’m trying to restrict myself to those measures that we can take to counter the PKK.  As a broader statement I think every American would agree that democracy is the preferred form of government.  Sometimes it takes awhile to get there.  It took us a long time.  We were talking earlier today with the Consul General.  It took the United States of America thirteen years from the time we became a country before we had a constitution.  And we didn’t exactly get that right in 1789.  We have had to amend it from time to time.  I think you have to be patient with the government of Iraq as they try to work their way through this.

Question 6:   Inaudible.

Ralston:  With regard to your second point in the use of the word “crusade,” I think the United States recognized that was a word that had a different meaning outside the United States than it did inside the United States.  In deference to the sensitivities of those outside the United States, we do not use that as part of the policy.  If I understood your question, there may be those who would like to create a different country going to the Black Sea that would separate Turkey from Central Asia.  I can only tell you what the United States government policy is.  We certainly respect the territorial integrity of Turkey, we respect the territorial integrity of Iraq, and we are not in favor of drawing new lines on the map.

Question 7: Inaudible.

Ralston:  The question I think you addressed to me was what I’ll call anti-Americanism in the general public, and do I have a plan to address that?  Again, my job is special envoy for countering the PKK and I’m trying to focus on that.  I must tell you that I think there is a whole list of reasons as to why there is a negative feeling towards the United States within the Turkish public.  I do believe that if we are successful in our mission of countering the PKK, then I think that will at least go some small step in trying to get us back to the relationship between the people of the United States and the people of Turkey that I certainly hope that we would have.

Question 8:  Inaudible

Ralston:  Let me take part of the question.  As I understand the question, you said there were some unwilling parties here and perhaps in your view one of the unwilling parties is Iraq.  I would like to address that because in all my discussions with Iraqi officials I have stressed to them that the PKK is not in the interest of anyone in Iraq, because the PKK is not only a terrorist organization that is a threat to Turkey, it is a terrorist organization that is a threat to the stability of Iraq.  I must tell you that I am getting broad agreement -- some of which may surprise you -- from the Iraqi officials that I’ve talked to.  They are beginning to realize the PKK is a bigger threat to the economic survivability and the economic well being (inaudible).

Question 9:  Inaudible.

Ralston:  General Baser and I had an interview on Turkish television earlier this afternoon and I got a very similar question to the one reference of the Foreign Minister.  As I said then, it is not my job to explain the comments of the Foreign Minister of Iraq or to comment on them.  I was not there when he said whatever it was that he said.  I don’t exactly know what he said and I don’t know the context in which it was said.  The Foreign Minister of Iraq does not determine U.S. policy.  So, I don’t think that has a bearing on what the United States does or doesn’t do with regard to this problem.  With regard to your question about amnesty, that is a matter I think is best handled by the Turkish citizens and the government of Turkey.  I have not been asked by anyone to work on that problem.  Therefore, I am not.

Question 10:  Inaudible.

Ralston:  Let me take the first part of the question.  If I understood the question correctly, was there support of the PKK from western nations both financially and otherwise?  That is very much one of the issues on our agenda. As I said, the United States is leading a team in the next few days to go to European countries and do what they can to convince the governments there that they need to do more to shut down the flow of funds because it is a crime to provide material support to a terrorist organization.  I am not enough of a legal expert to know what material support is in terms of professors and intellectuals, and so forth.  But, very much on our table is how we can interrupt the flow of funds and any material support to the PKK.