RESIGNATION OF TURKEY'S SECGEN FOR EU AFFAIRS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 004619

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/08/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS TU EUN
SUBJECT: RESIGNATION OF TURKEY'S SECGEN FOR EU AFFAIRS
REFLECTS DISARRAY IN AKP GOVERNMENT'S EU POLICY

(U) Classified by Polcounselor John Kunstadter; reasons: E.O.
12958 1.4 (b,d).


1. (C) Summary: The resignation of Turkey's Secretary General
for EU Affairs, a senior career diplomat highly regarded by
his EU interlocutors, reflects a drift in ruling AKP's EU
policies. The resignation also foreshadows a fundamental
political struggle between the secular State and
Islamist-oriented AKP. End summary.


2. (U) Murat Sungar, Turkey's Secretary General for EU
Affairs and a career diplomat with 37 years' service,
announced Aug. 5 that he is resigning effective Sept. 30,
three days before Turkey is scheduled to begin accession
negotiations with the EU. While marginalized and left
undermanned and isolated in offices on the outskirts of
Ankara by the AKP government, the EU Secretariat and Sungar
have been Turkey's principal bureaucratic link with Brussels
and EU capitals, a link valued and trusted by Brussels and EU
ambassadors in Ankara.


3. (C) In his statement to the press Sungar hoped his
resignation would give the AKP government the possibility to
work with "people of compatible political views." Seasoned
observers we talked to Aug. 6, including a counselor at the
Prime Ministry, noted that Sungar's statement was a graceful
but pointed way of indicating the gulf between the secular,
rational, Euro-oriented corporate culture of Turkey's MFA and
the elusive, Islamist-oriented, closed culture of AKP.


4. (C) Aug. 6 centrist "Hurriyet", Turkey's
largest-circulation daily, and left-of-center "Milliyet",
owned by the same Dogan media group, featured the story with
banner page 1 headlines. One of our best contacts, a
pre-eminent national security analyst, told us that
"Hurriyet"'s deputy editor Enis Berberoglu had called him
Aug. 6 to underscore that the banner headline reflected the
Dogan group's assessment that Sungar's resignation is stark
evidence of the deep tension between the secular culture of
the Turkish State and the ever-clearer Islamist priorities
and ad hoc approach to the EU of the AKP government.


5. (C) AKP's attempt to squelch the news was evident both in
the reluctance of Turkey's main TV channels (with the partial
exception of NTV) to give play to the story Aug. 6 and in the
venomous coverage of the story in Aug. 7 Islamist "Yeni
Safak" the de facto press organ of AKP. Using a derogatory
headline implying that Sungar is both effete and deracinated,
"Yeni Safak" blamed Sungar for the lack in Turkey's
preparation for screening and harmonization and asserted
without any grounds that he resigned because he had been
miffed at not being given a senior ambassadorship in Europe.


6. (C) Comment: Caught up in a Byzantine political rivalry
with FonMin Gul, PM Erdogan waited almost five months to
appoint a chief negotiator (and then chose a minister without
political clout in the Cabinet). Erdogan also avoided travel
to any EU capital for seven months after the Dec. 17 EU
summit but gave Gul no leeway to move forward with the EU in
the meantime. In this context, Sungar was left with no
political direction and was granted no power by the AKP
government effectively to coordinate preparations for the
start of screening and harmonization. His resignation
reflects his frustration at AKP's drift and lack of a
convincing EU strategy. On a broader plane, his departure is
a prelude to the approaching fundamental political struggle
between the secular State and a party in power which appears
more and more determined to change the nature of the State.
MCELDOWNEY