NATO-AFGHANISTAN: PRESSING TURKEY FOR A LARGER

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 002946 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/26/2029 TAGS: MARR AF TU SUBJECT: NATO-AFGHANISTAN: PRESSING TURKEY FOR A LARGER ISAF CONTRIBUTION REF: A. STATE 111287 ¶B. ANKARA 2822 ¶C. ANKARA 2691 (U) Classified by Ambassador Eric S. Edelman. Reason 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) The Ambassador deployed reftel talking points with MFA Deputy Under Secretary Ali Tuygan on May 25, noting that Turkey was receiving similar messages from SACEUR Gen Jones. He recalled previously discussing Turkey's contribution of a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) with U/S Ziyal (ref b) and renewed his request that Ankara consider locations in Afghanistan's west and south. In response, Tuygan made the following points: -- Helicopters: Turkey has no more helicopters to offer. (The Ambassador urged Tuygan to reconsider.) The issue of restrictive caveats had been conveyed by TU NATO Ambassador Uzumcu and he (Tuygan) would be raising it with the Turkish General Staff later in the day. -- Infantry: Tuygan was discouraging about any additional Turkish ground forces in the immediate future given GOT's limited resources to pay for deployments and the prospect that Turkey's 3rd Corps would probably deploy early in 2005 if the Istanbul High Readiness Force takes over command of ISAF from EUROCORPS. -- Role 2 Medical Facility: Tuygan said he had not heard of this requirement before and would look into it. (Comment: Other officials at MFA have already informed us that Turkey does not have a Role 2 Medical Facility so it cannot provide one -- ref c.) -- PRT: The judgment of the survey team Turkey sent to Afghanistan in April was that the Turkish PRT should be somewhere where it could make a difference within the constraints of the GOT's limited resources. Takhar fit the bill. (The Ambassador recalled U/S Ziyal making a similar point; Ziyal also suggested that after gaining experience in Takhar, Ankara might be able to consider supporting another PRT elsewhere. Tuygan agreed.) ¶2. (C) During a separate conversation with ODC-T Chief MajGen Peterson, TGS Deputy J-3 MG Kalyoncu also cited the lack of money to pay for deployments as a reason Turkey cannot contribute more to ISAF, despite its large force structure. (Comment: Under the requirements of Turkey's IMF program and budgetary reforms required to qualify for EU accession, the defense budget is truly limited and less flexible than in past years.) EDELMAN