GETTING TURKEY ON BOARD WITH NATO'S MIDDLE EAST

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 002282 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/18/2016 TAGS: NATO PREL MARR TU SUBJECT: GETTING TURKEY ON BOARD WITH NATO'S MIDDLE EAST SECURITY COOPERATION CENTER REF: STATE 63202 Classified By: Political Military Counselor Timothy A. Betts, reasons 1 .4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Drawing on reftel, we raised the proposal for a NATO Middle East Security Cooperation Center with MFA NATO Affairs DDG Serdar Kilic on April 25 after coordinating with the Norwegian and Italian embassies. Kilic said he had read the US-Italy-Norway paper on the subject and agreed with its thrust. While Turkey would be willing to include African nations in the proposal now, it was also willing to support a consensus to focus on Istanbul Cooperation Initiative and Mediterranean Dialogue countries for the time being. ¶2. (C) Kilic said he believed Turkey would be prepared to provide trainers for the center, but was less forthcoming about funds and students. Recalling discussions in Brussels during which alternative methods of funding were discussed, he recommended the Alliance seek contributions from Gulf Cooperation Council countries before looking to Allies for budget support. He did not think the GOT would send students to the center since Turkey had adequate training facilities of its own. We argued that often students learn as much from each other than from formal instruction and we urged Turkey to consider sending students who might serve as informal mentors for their counterparts from partner nations. Kilic said sending Turkish students could be reexamined, but a convincing case would need to be made to the Turkish military on the benefits of doing so. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON