Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04ANKARA2719
2004-05-14 08:01:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ankara
Cable title:  

TURKEY INCHING TOWARD MORE ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN

Tags:  PARM PREL TU 
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140801Z May 04
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 002719 

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/13/2014
TAGS: PARM PREL TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY INCHING TOWARD MORE ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN
PSI


C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 002719

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/13/2014
TAGS: PARM PREL TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY INCHING TOWARD MORE ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN
PSI



1. (C) Summary: NP PDAS Susan Burk met with a Turkish
interagency group May 12
in Ankara followed by a call on MFA DG for International
Security Affairs Turan
Morali to push for more active Turkish participation in the
Proliferation
Security Initiative (PSI). The Turks noted that they were
planning to observe
PSI activities in 2004 and make their first "concrete
contribution," offering
an aircraft to an exercise in the Mediterranean, in January

2005. The GOT cited
legal difficulties with deploying military assets outside of
Turkey, even for
exercises, and hoped to have these legal obstacles overcome
by then. Burk and
her delegation outlined ways in which Turkey could contribute
to PSI without
deploying actual military assets for non-NATO purposes,
through experts participating
in workshops where they could network and share information.
The Turks welcomed these
suggestions and agreed to try to send an appropriate
delegation to the experts meeting
and shipping workshop (vice local embassy reps) in Norway and
Denmark in August.
The GOT will look forward to receiving an official
invitiation from Denmark and Norway.
End Summary.



2. (C) NP PDAS Susan Burk and reps from NP, EUR and JCS
visited Ankara May 12
to urge the GOT to more actively participate in PSI. They
met with a Turkish
interagency group composed of reps from MFA, TGS, Coast
Guard, MND, the Turkish
National Intelligence Agency, U/S for Foreign Trade, U/S for
Customs, and the
U/S for Maritime Affairs. The GOT side was led by MFA
Disarmament Head of
Department Bulent Meric, who began by noting that US and TU
nonproliferation
views overlap and are particularly important to Turkey
because of its sensitive
geography. Meric welcomed the April 28 UNSCR, which called
for enforcement of
international non-pro regimes. He added that Turkey has been
favorably
inclined toward PSI since its inception but has been
struggling with two
issues:
-- uncertainty about the GOT domestic legal basis for PSI,
and
-- the Turkish constitutional requirement that all non-NATO
related military
deployments outside of Turkey be approved by Parliament, even
for exercises.



3. (C) Meric said Turkey had decided to observe the

operational experts group
meetings to get a sense of how the initiative was evolving.
But he noted that
late notice about the meetings made it difficult to send the
appropriate
experts. Now the GOT was assessing how it could amend its
legislation to allow
it to more actively participate in exercises and what assets
it had to
contribute. It currently planned to contribute one aircraft
to a January 2005
air/ground exercise in the Mediterranean.



4. (C) Burk welcomed Turkey's future contribution and
outlined the genesis of
the initiative, noting the interagency nature of its
activities and the high
interest of many countries. She emphasized that PSI was an
activity, not an
organization. It was composed of a loose network of
countries willing to work
together on an important problem, each with their own
capabilities and
contributions. She added that Turkey has been a longtime
partner
in the field of nonproliferation and has many things to
contribute to PSI
besides military assets. One of the important benefits of
the operational
experts meetings was establishing points of contact with
other countries. In
doing so, PSI partners know who to contact if there is a
shipment of concern.
Because each country has its own legal structure and
capabilities, there is no
standard way to deal with suspect shipments, but at least
partners would know
with whom to discuss possible courses of action. In this
vein Burk pushed the Turks to
send appropriate experts to the operational experts meetings,
rather than local
embassy reps.



5. (C) Meric noted that the GOT had been told it should not
attend unless it
had something concrete to contribute. In addition, last
minute invitations generally
made it difficult to arrange travel. Burk said the next
meetings in Denmark
August 3-4 and Norway August 5-6 had been agreed
to at the Ottawa meeting, which was attended by a Turkish
embassy rep. She asked
that the GOT begin planning for attendance prior to receiving
the official invitation
from Denmark and Norway and committed to encouraging the
Danes and Norwegians to invite
Turkey. She also added that some meetings were regional or
functional, therefore
Turkey would not likely be invited, or even want, to
participate in every one.
Meric said Turkey was ready to begin developing contacts and
sharing info. The
GOT would begin preparing for the Oslo meeting.



6. (C) Both sides agreed that the problem is complicated, but
the two
governments shared the same objective. The GOT seemed eager
to participate
more fully in PSI without having to deploy military assets to
exercises right
away. The US side underlined that participation does not
imply a commitment on
Turkey's part to do an interdiction. Burk encouraged the GOT
to move toward
conclusion of the EXBS agreement in order to facilitate
non-proliferation
cooperation. Meric said the GOT hoped to have a response
soon, which he hoped
the USG would accept.



7. (C) In a follow-on meeting with MFA DG Turan Morali, Burk
and Meric gave a
readout of the interagency meeting. Morali supported a more
active role for
Turkey in PSI, admitting that tight travel budgets made
attending all of the
meetings somewhat difficult.



8. (C) Comment: PDAS Burk's visit was useful in two regards:
a) it clarified
for the Turks that participation in PSI did not necessarily
require immediate
commitment of military assets for exercises, and b) it
facilitated the gathering
of all the relevant GOT agencies together -- a rare
occurrence in Ankara. The
GOT now seems eager to participating more actively in PSI and
is looking forward to
contributing military assets to exercises beginning in Jan
'05. It had obviously
not received word from its embassy in Ottawa about the
Denmark and Norway meetings.
Advance notice will hopefully allow the GOT to make
arrangements for appropriate expert
representation in future events.



9. (C) Burk Delegation has cleared this cable.
EDELMAN