TURKISH FOREIGN TRADE UNDERSECRETARIAT ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 000262

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR NEA/NGA AND EUR/SE


E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2008
TAGS: ETRD ETTC IZ PREL TU UNSC
SUBJECT: TURKISH FOREIGN TRADE UNDERSECRETARIAT ON
HIGH-LEVEL DELEGATION TO IRAQ


(U) Classified by Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Deutsch.
Reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).



1. (C) In a January 9 meeting on sensitive Turkish exports to
Iraq (septel),Econoff raised State Minister Kursad Tuzmen's
upcoming visit to Iraq (January 10 to 12) with Tevfik Mengu,
Director General for Agreements at the Foreign Trade
Undersecretariat. Mengu, who will travel with the
delegation, acknowledged that the visit was "purely
commercial", though he did not rule out that Tuzmen might
bring a political message to Saddam Hussein. He said that,
at last count, 324 businesspersons planned to fly with the
GOT delegation, and that more would be traveling by bus.
Econoff pointed out that this high-level visit comes at a
time when we are trying to increase pressure on Baghdad to
comply with UN Security Council resolutions. Mengu responded
that Turkey was not doing anything contrary to UN
resolutions, but only seeking legitimate business for its
companies. He added that, in meeting GOI officials, the GOT
had always taken care to reiterate the message that Iraq must
comply with all UN resolutions.



2. (U) Tuzmen told the press January 9 that his trip was a
routine effort to take a share in upcoming tenders under the
Oil for Food Program. He added that he had obtained the UN's
consent for this visit (sic).



3. (C) Emin Sirin, the Deputy Chairman of Parliament's
Foreign Policy
Committee, confirmed to us January 8 that TGS briefers nodded
their heads when he strongly criticized the Tuzmen trip
during a January 6 closed briefing for his committee on Iraq.



4. (C) Comment: Tuzmen's claim that the GOT is trying to
develop legitimate trade through this and other visits does
not accord with the fact that the vast majority of Turkish
trade takes place under bilateral trade arrangements outside
the Oil-for-Food program. It is hard to correlate the
structure of this trade mission with the "delivery of a
message", which we were originally told was the genesis of
this trip.
PEARSON