AVIAN INFLUENZA: REQUEST FOR MILITARY AIR SUPPORT

UNCLAS ANKARA 000135 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MOPS PREL OTRA TU AR GG AZ SUBJECT: AVIAN INFLUENZA: REQUEST FOR MILITARY AIR SUPPORT REF: ANKARA 134 ¶1. This is an action request. See para 3. ¶2. Based on information received January 13 from Washington, we expect an interagency team to arrive in the next few days to assess the AI situation in Turkey and what role the USG could usefully play to support GOT and international agencies' efforts to deal with the current situation. We understand (and have encouraged) that this team, or a part of it, may then travel to the southern Caucasus region. The remote and disparate locations where AI has been detected in Turkey suggests that military airlift would greatly facilitate the work of this team here. Given the commercial availability and routing of flights from Turkey to the Caucasus as well as between Caucasus' capitals, military airlift for those movements may also assist the team in its work in that region. For example, flights from Van (the closest commercial airport to Dogubayazit, where the fatal human cases were contracted) to the Tbilisi only leave five days/week and require backtracking to Istanbul -- twelve hours in total. A direct flight would take a fraction of that time. ¶3. Action Request: We request the Department initiate procedures for the provision of military airlift support for this team. We are informed that the total team may consist of up to ten individuals, although a smaller number than that would be traveling at any one time. We also do not yet know what the team's itinerary, which likely will not become clear until after initial consultations with the GOT in Ankara early in the week of January 16. We have made initial contacts with EUCOM (the POC is Col Dennis D'Angelo). We will keep the Department and others informed, but in the interest of time, we request the process of coordination with DoD and identifying resources for airlift support begin now. WILSON