TURKS REACH OUT TO IRAQIS ON HUMANITARIAN AID FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006440

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/25/2015
TAGS: EAID PREL MOPS IZ
SUBJECT: TURKS REACH OUT TO IRAQIS ON HUMANITARIAN AID FOR
TALAFAR

REF: A. ANKARA 6100

B. BAGHDAD 4219

C. ANKARA 5452

Classified By: A/DCM James R. Moore for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: The Turkish MFA has revised its humanitarian
aid (HA) offer for Talafar in order to generate a positive
Iraqi response and to mend fences with the Iraqi Red
Crescent. Senior MFA officials raised the HA issue Oct. 26
with both Charge and ECONCouns. We responded that Turkey
must approach the Iraqis; our role is only to provide
logistical and security support once the two governments
agree on modalities. MFA called us later to inform us that
the ITG's representative for Talafar aid and reconstruction,
Haydar Abadi, has told the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad that he
welcomed the Turkish offer, and that the Turkish Red Crescent
has formally proposed an aid package to the Iraqi Red
Crescent. We hope we can proceed on this basis. End summary.


2. (C) MFA Deputy Director General for Multilateral Affairs
Tunc Ugdul called in ECONCouns Oct. 26 to discuss Turkey's
offer of humanitarian assistance (HA) to Iraq (reftels).
Ugdul reported that responsibility for this issue had now
passed to his office (from the Economic Directorate),and
that a senior-level Ministry meeting the previous day had
decided the following:

--Turkey wishes to provide HA only for Talafar, not for
Kirkuk. Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) is the provider.

--Turkey proposes to send a total of 540 tons of food and 84
tons of soap and cleaning products which would require a
total of about 30 trucks. This would be done in two
shipments: one before the end of Ramadan, and one a bit later.

--Of the shipments, Turkey will provide one-third directly to
the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) at any site the IRCS
may choose.

--TRC will then take the remaining two-thirds directly to
Talafar, where it will deliver the aid to the IRCS for the
IRCS to distribute (i.e., without regard to religion,
ethnicity, or other factors not related to humanitarian need).

--Turkey seeks the USG's assistance in approaching the IRCS
to seek their assent to the Turkish offer. Ugdul explained
that there had been "misunderstandings" between the TRC and
IRCS over the last Turkish HA shipment to Talafar in
September (ref c). Ugdul said that the IRCS had accused the
TRC of seeking to provide aid only for Turkmen; he added that
Turkey has provided aid in the past to Iraqis of all
communities and had no desire to single out the Turkmen. He
asserted that Turkey wants to create "an atmosphere of
understanding" between the Red Crescents, and hoped Turkey's
modified plan for its HA shipment would help establish this.
He reiterated how important it would be for the U.S. to
intervene with the IRCS.


3. (C) Deploying ref b, ECONCouns pushed back, noting that it
is not an appropriate role for the USG to broker between the
TRC and the IRCS or between the GOT and ITG. We want to be
supportive of Turkey's relationship with Iraq, but to act as
a go-between would undermine the sovereign ITG. We added,
however, that the revised Turkish plan -- to have the IRCS
deliver the aid -- was a new element.


4. (C) Shortly after our meeting, Ugdul called to report
that:

--TRC had last week proposed its plan (as outlined above) for
providing HA to the IRCS, but the Iraqis had not yet
responded. Ugdul advised TRC to repeat its proposal today.

--The Turkish Embassy in Baghdad had met Oct. 25 with Haydar
Abadi -- ITG representative in charge of HA and
reconstruction in Talafar -- and reported that Abadi welcomed
the Turkish offer "of the new assistance prior to the end of
Ramadan."

--Consistent with the increasingly pragmatic approach the GOT
has taken over the past year to building relationships in
Iraq, Ugdul said the MFA would like to foster an improved,
cooperative working relationship between the two neighboring
Red Crescents, for the long term.

5. (C) MFA Deputy Undersecretary Nabi Sensoy also raised the
Talafar aid issue during an Oct. 26 meeting with the Charge
on another topic. Charge emphasized that Turkey must make
its offer to the Iraqis: We are prepared to assist with
logistics and security only after the sovereign ITG accepts a
Turkish aid offer.


6. (C) COMMENT: It seems that the aid issue has been a hot
potato within the Turkish MFA, unfortunately causing
paralysis when action was most needed. Nineteen days have
passed from the first the Turks told us of their offer and we
responded that they should talk to the Iraqis, yet the
Turkish Embassy in Baghdad did nothing until Oct. 25 and --
so we were told by MFA -- didn't even receive instructions
until Oct. 21.

7. (C) COMMENT, CONT.: Most importantly, however, we believe
the Turks have made progress. In addition to de-emphasizing
the political nature of the planned aid, the ITG, via Abadi
has accepted the offer. Per ref b, we would like to work
with Embassy Baghdad and Task Force Freedom to organize
logistical and security arrangements for the smooth delivery
of this assistance. END COMMENT.
MCELDOWNEY