TURKEY'S NSC SECGEN LOOKING FOR WASHINGTON

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 005350 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/SE E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/09/2015 TAGS: PREL PGOV TU SUBJECT: TURKEY'S NSC SECGEN LOOKING FOR WASHINGTON INVITATION REF: A. ANKARA 2553 ¶B. ANKARA 3892 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Nancy McEldowney, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) During an August 26 meeting with EUR DAS Bryza, Turkish National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Yigit Alpogan raised the possibility of a visit to Washington this fall to meet his NSC counterparts. Alpogan first mentioned his interest in such a visit during the Charge's initial courtesy call with him in July (ref b),saying he had cancelled his planned early June visit to Washington to avoid competing with PM Erdogan, FM Gul and DCHOD Basbug, who traveled to Washington on the occasion of the annual American-Turkish Council (ATC) conference. Alpogan welcomed an invitation to visit anytime from the end of October through the end of the year. ¶2. (C) Comment: As Turkey's first civilian NSC SECGEN and a longtime diplomat, Alpogan has impressed us as a suave interlocutor with a clear policy-supporting role but whose ability to shape policy remains unclear. As head of the NSC Secretariat, he has the nominal government lead in wrangling SIPDIS with the Turkish military over government-proposed changes to the country's National Security Policy document that would re-define the internal and external threats to the country and strip away some elements of the military's traditional role as protector of Turkey's unitary, secular structure. A visit by Alpogan to the US would provide an opportunity to show him the role of the NSC in shaping US policy and perhaps to influence the role of Turkey's NSC, which appears to be a work in progress. MCELDOWNEY