AFGHANISTAN: TURKS PLANNING FOR FEBRUARY

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 004554

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/09/2014
TAGS: PREL MOPS AF TU
SUBJECT: AFGHANISTAN: TURKS PLANNING FOR FEBRUARY
ASSUMPTION OF ISAF COMMAND, SEEK NATO FUNDING FOR DEPLOYMENT

REF: ANKARA 3618

Classified By: DCM Robert S. Deutsch for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) On Aug. 10, PolMilOff called on Col. Halit Yilmaz,
Chief of TGS's NATO Branch office, to discuss NATO issues,
including Turkey's planning for the Istanbul High Readiness
Force (HRF) to assume command of ISAF in February 2005.
Yilmaz said that even absent a final NATO decision on the
future of ISAF and thus also absent "political direction"
from the Turkish civilian leadership, the Turkish military
was proceeding with planning for the Turkish Army deployment
as the HRF in February. Yilmaz added that Turkey wanted its
successor in August 2005 to be formally lined up in advance,
recalling that Turkey was pressed into two extra months as
ISAF commander in 2002 while a replacement had to be found.


2. (C) Given that Afghanistan's parliamentary elections are
scheduled during Turkey's likely command, PolMilOff urged the
GOT to consider deploying a "robust" presence, and inquired
as to Turkey's plans thus far. Yilmaz responded that TGS had
not yet decided whether to offer a Corps HQ, a Corps HQ plus
one battalion, or a Corps HQ plus two battalions. He added
that Turkey expected NATO collectively to pay Turkey's
deployment costs, which he estimated to be US$ 17 million for
the HQ alone.


3. (C) Comment: We had heard earlier from MFA that the NATO
budget committee was considering Alliance policy on using
NATO common funds to defray ISAF deployment costs. With
Turkey just beginning to explore a new three-year IMF
stand-by, the defense budget is likely to be as tight next
year as it was this year, when the deployment of three
Turkish helicopters to ISAF was held up for months as we
searched for someone to pay for their transportation. We
could easily go down this road again unless a funding source
for the transportation cost of the Turkish deployment is
found well in advance of Feb. 2005. If that is to be the
GOT, we need to start working on Ankara soon. End comment.


4. (U) Kabul minimize considered.
EDELMAN