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