TURKISH MFA CONTINUES TO PUSH FOR DIRECT U.S. -

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 001048

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EB/TRA/AN
DEPT PASS TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT
PARIS, BRUSSELS FOR TSA, FAA
NICOSIA FOR MDIXON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2015
TAGS: EAIR PREL CY TU
SUBJECT: TURKISH MFA CONTINUES TO PUSH FOR DIRECT U.S. -
NORTH CYPRUS FLIGHTS


Classified By:
(U) Classified by DCM Robert Deutsch, E.O. 12958, reasons 1.4 (b) and (
d).


1. (U) This cable contains an action request in para 6.


2. (C) Meeting with Econ Counselor and Econoff on February 15
on a range of aviation and maritime subjects (septel),MFA
Deputy Director General for Maritime and Aviation Affairs
Vakur Gokdenizler raised the continuing GOT interest in
establishing direct air services between North Cyprus and the
United States. As in previous meetings on this subject, he
raised several possible means of moving closer to direct
commercial flights. These include:

-- A direct military transport flight, since, he maintained,
state aircraft are not covered by ICAO treaties;

-- A direct THY flight from a U.S. airport to Ercan,
returning to the U.S. after a stop in Turkey. Gokdenizler
suggested that, since the plane would return to the U.S. from
a Turkish airport (presumably Istanbul) which U.S.
authorities have certified as secure, there might be less
need to do a U.S. review of Ercan Airport security;

-- Creating an American Airlines - THY codeshare Istanbul -
Ercan flight.


3. (C) Gokdenizler understood that AA had written THY that an
Istanbul-Ercan codeshare did not make commercial sense.
Alluding to a conversation last fall with EB DAS Byerly at an
ICAO conference in Montreal, Gokdenizler also acknowledged
that the USG could not order AA to implement a codeshare to
Ercan. However, he stressed that FM Gul attached great
importance to direct flights, and argued that they could
contribute to a political solution in Cyprus by undermining
the isolation of Turkish Cypriots. Gokdenizler asked U.S.
authorities to consider approaching AA to ask the firm to
reconsider the codeshare idea.


4. (SBU) Gokdenizler added that the GOT was doing everything
possible on the technical level to remove barriers to direct
flights. In this regard, he asked whether TSA could share
any observations from its informal visit to Ercan Airport.
He stressed that he was not necessarily interested in a copy
of a formal report. He would be very happy with an
unattributable non-paper describing any technical security
issues that would need to be addressed at Ercan.


5. (SBU) Econ Counselor responded that he would convey MFA's
views on the codeshare to relevant Washington agencies, and
that we would request information from TSA concerning its
visit to Ercan Airport.


6. (SBU) Action Request for TSA and EB: Please advise
whether there is information on security issues at Ercan that
can be shared on an unofficial basis with the GOT. End
Action Request.


7. (SBU) Comment: Even if AA and other U.S. commercial
carriers decide a direct flight to Ercan is not commercially
viable, we think the GOT would pressure THY to operate such a
flight at a loss for the sake of the symbolic political
value. End Comment.
EDELMAN