A 17 February 1999 Moscow Times report quotes Meravi Shamuyev, a member of the Kurdish Parliament in exile and chairman of the International Union (or Association) of Kurdish Organizations (IUKPO), a body that coordinates Kurdish associations throughout the former Soviet Union, as saying that close to 200,000 Kurds live in the Moscow area and nearly one million in the former Soviet Union. According to IUKPO deputy chairman Ibrahim Aliyev, IUKPO has branches in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia (TASS 9 July 1999). A 25 June 1999 TASS report suggests the presence of notable Kurdish communities in the Russian cities of Moscow, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Samara, Novosibirsk and as far away as the Kamchatka peninsula.

A Website entitled The Voice of the Kurdistan People owned by the Patriotic Union of Pakistan (PUK) party states that the PUK is present in Russia and publishes in Russian a newspaper entitled New Kurdistan.

According to the 17 February 1999 report, relations between the PKK and Moscow were good in the days of the Soviet Union. However, the Russian government, under pressure from Turkey which threatened to break off diplomatic relations, denied political asylum to PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

A 30 August 1996 Open Media Research Institute (OMRI) Daily Digest report, citing Komsomolskaya Pravda, states that a group calling itself the "International Union of Kurdish Public Associations" purchased a site occupied by the "Solnechnii" children's summer camp near Gavrilov Yam, in the Yaroslavl area, with the intention of opening a Kurdish cultural centre, and "possibly" a military camp. The report infers that members of this organization were "militants linked to the Kurdistan worker's Party (PKK)."

An editor's note published in a 3 September 1996 Russia Reform Monitor report, a publication of the American foreign Policy council, Washington, DC, referring to the above-mentioned OMRI Daily Digest report, states that:

The PKK long received covert support from the KGB for guerilla and terrorist attacks against Turkey. Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, as head of the Russian External Intelligence Service (SVR), has long been a PKK supporter, and once persuaded Saddam Hussein to allow the PKK to use Iraqi territory.

The same location is mentioned in a 26 October 1998 Anatolia News Agency report which states that Turkish journalists were denied access to a camp operated by the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) in the "Yaroslavl region" in northern Russia. The one square kilometre camp called "Solnichniy" is located 5 km away from Gavrilov Yam, the nearest settlement. The journalists noted that the entrance and the outside buildings of the camp were illuminated with PKK symbols and that one of the buildings had a sign advertizing MED-TV, the PKK television channel (ibid.).

No additional information on the presence and activities of Kurdish groups in Russia could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Anatolia News Agency [Ankara, in English]. 27 October 1998. "Journalists Prevented from Entering Rebels' Camp in Russia." (NEXIS)

The Moscow Times. 17 February 2000. Sujata Rao. "Kurd Riot from Moscow to London." (NEXIS)

Open Media Research Institute (OMRI) Daily Digest. 30 August 1996. "Russia: PKK Camp Near Yaroslavl." http:/www.rferl.org/newsline/1996/08/1-rus/rus-30086.html [Accessed: 29 Feb. 2000]

Russia Reform Monitor [Washington, DC]. 3 September 1996. No. 181. "P.K.K. Guerilla Camp Said to Be Operating in Yaroslavl." http://www.afpc.org/rrm/960903.htm [Accessed: 29 Feb. 2000]

TASS. 9 July 1999. "Itar-Tass Domestic News Digest of July 9 - 4." (NEXIS)

_____. 25 June 1999. Georgy Perov and Irina Chumakova. "Police Disperses Kurdish Meeting in Central Moscow." (NEXIS)

The Voice of Kurdistan. Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Last updated: 28 Feb. 2000. http://www.aha.ru/~said/dang.htm [Accessed: 29 Feb. 2000]

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB database.

Internet Sources, including:

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

Various Searches on the Web

World News Connections (WNC).