United States vows to put PKK out of business

“We want to put the PKK out of business. We put Al Capone out of service for tax evasion. This is what we want to do [for the PKK as well],” Shari Villarosa, deputy coordinator for regional affairs in the State Department’s Counterterrorism Office, told Today’s Zaman in Ankara on Thursday. “It is a very effective way. Our desire is to stop the flow of funds to terrorists,” she said, adding, “We regard a threat to Turkey as a threat to the US.”

The United States, which already classifies the PKK as a terrorist organization, imposed further sanctions on the group to cut off its funding under an anti-drug smuggling law in 2008 and designated three top leaders of the organization as narcotics traffickers last year. “This would enable us to take action against any of those individuals and to close their bank accounts and seize their assets,” Villarosa explained, noting federal prosecutors can also go after individuals who donate to fundraising campaigns by the terrorist group.

She stressed that the action would put pressure on non-US banks as well because she said those banks that have accounts belonging to someone on the US terror list would not want to jeopardize their ties with the US banking system. “They will also cut off this funding. We found this an extremely effective measure in cutting [off the] sources of funds. If there are no funds, it is going to be very difficult to mount future attacks,” Villarosa underlined.

Commenting on a recent wave of arrests targeting PKK-affiliated businesses in France, Belgium, Italy and Germany in recent weeks, Villarosa acknowledged that the US strongly urged Europeans to take action against PKK. “We encouraged more cooperation between Turkish and European legal officials, prosecutors and law enforcement people. We can claim [some] credit for helping bring people together with positive results,” she said.

Turkey and the US have significantly increased cooperation on the PKK threat since 2007. The US has started to share intelligence on PKK activities and relayed real-time actionable intelligence to the Turkish military so that security operations can pinpoint terrorist hideouts. The State Department also intensified what Villarosa called a “diplomatic outreach” program to explain to European partners the threat PKK activities pose.

The senior counterterrorism official further noted that US officials have regular meetings with their European counterparts on global terror threats and gave assurances that the PKK has always been on the agenda of those discussions. “I have regular twice-a-year talks with the EU. The last one was in the US in November. I will go to Brussels in April. The PKK was part of our discussions as well,” she remarked.

Though she declined to comment on any specifics of intelligence operations and played down differences of opinion between the two NATO allies, Villarosa emphasized that the US has increased its cooperation in “many fashions.” She said the US officials have raised the issue of the PKK threat with both the central Iraqi government and Kurdistan regional administration officials. “They are very well aware of our concerns that the PKK poses a real threat to stability,” she said, adding that a “terrorist group operating freely is not good for the stability of either Turkey or Iraq.” She vowed to continue raising US concerns with the relevant authorities in Iraq.

Touching on the democratization initiative launched by the Turkish government last year, Villarosa said: “It is important to address grievances for the people who feel marginalized whether they really are or not, but they perceive it as such. If grievances were addressed, there should be less reason to resort to violence and this should diminish violence.” She also made it clear that the Armenian resolution that passed in the US House committee did not hinder cooperation and meetings on counterterrorism activities.

Departure from Bush-era policies

Villarosa pointed out that the Obama administration represents a break from Bush-era policies and that the US will strive to work with partners like Turkey to face the challenges of the global terror threat. “One of the hallmarks of the Obama administration is the recognition that we need to do more with our partners while facing a global threat. We must work together and increase our engagement in multilateral organizations. We want to work more closely with our important bilateral partners like Turkey,” she said.

She emphasized that the al-Qaeda terror network remains the primary concern of the US and that the Obama administration is committed to disrupting, dismembering and ultimately defeating al-Qaeda. “The fact that they have cells in Turkey is nor particularly surprising. This is why we value our close cooperation with Turkey so much. We are relying on Turkish officials to take necessary actions,” Villarosa explained.

Stressing that education is a key to countering violence and extremism, the US official said Washington could use Turkey’s experience in religious education to stem the spread of radical ideology in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. “We definitely welcome Turkish efforts in this area,” Villarosa said, expressing her hope that the terror threat will diminish once people are given the opportunity to make informed decisions. “I do not know any religion in which violence is justified. I personally believe they will not choose violence,” she said, adding, “This is very specific area we want to work on with Turkey.”

Villarosa noted that in some cases US involvement does more harm than good. “We do not pretend to have expertise in all areas. We want to bring our international partners into this discussion so that we can have a better understanding of what our best practices are. We realize the situation in Pakistan is very different from the situation in Somalia. There is not necessarily one approach that fits all these problems. There might be any number of initiatives we can pursue together. This is something we do plan to significantly devote new resources to in the future,” she said.