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