TURKEY INTENDS TO JOIN ICC "AS SOON AS POSSIBLE"

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 006051 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/25/2014 TAGS: PREL MARR TU SUBJECT: TURKEY INTENDS TO JOIN ICC "AS SOON AS POSSIBLE" REF: ANKARA 2770 (U) Classified by Political Counselor John Kunstadter, E.O. 12958, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Turkish MFA International Political Organizations Department Head Levent Sahinkaya told us on October 22 that Turkey intends to become a signatory to the Rome Statute "as soon as possible." Sahinkaya said he cannot predict whether this will happen before or after December 17, when the EU Summit will decide whether to open the EU harmonization process with Turkey, but said the GOT intends to join before the end of the year. ¶2. (C) According to Sahinkaya, the MFA's legal department has been tasked with researching the procedure required to become a signatory and a GOT interagency working group is researching what needs to be done to harmonize Turkey's war crimes law with the Rome Statute. Turkey will join the ICC as soon as it can complete these two processes. Sahinkaya previously told us the GOT was in no hurry to join the ICC (reftel),but now he says that GOT will "accelerate our efforts" in view of PM Erdogan's October 6 statement in Strasbourg. ¶3. (C) Sahinkaya said the EU is discouraging Turkey from signing an Article 98 agreement with the United States. He requested information about the status of U.S./EU discussions on Article 98 and asked whether any EU country has signed an Article 98 agreement with the U.S. Turkey, he said, is giving priority to its EU candidacy and evaluating its ICC positions in that light. EDELMAN