TURKEY WORRIED ABOUT MALIKI "CONCESSIONS" TO KURDS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 001738 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/04/2017 TAGS: PREL IZ TU SUBJECT: TURKEY WORRIED ABOUT MALIKI "CONCESSIONS" TO KURDS Classified By: Ambassador Ross Wilson. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary. Turkey's Iraq Special Envoy Oguz Celikkol is worried that PM Maliki, under siege from Sunni and other groups, is making political concessions to Kurdish politicians -- including on Kirkuk -- in order to maintain his grip on power. Celikkol's effort to work through Maliki spokesman Ali Dabbagh to overcome Maliki's reluctance to accept the Turkish Prime Minister's invitation to visit Turkey in the very near future has apparently not succeeded. Celikkol said Turkey did not believe a visit by an Iraqi ministerial delegation, counter-proposed by Dabbagh, would be fruitful. Meanwhile, Celikkol was encouraged by recent energy and police training contacts with Iraq. End Summary. -------------- Maliki Visit -------------- ¶2. (C) Taking advantage of a meeting he called to offer a read-out of the recent Neighbors and trilateral energy meetings in Istanbul (septel),Celikkol told Ambassador July 5 that he had met PM Maliki spokesman Ali Dabbagh in Istanbul on June 30 in order to encourage acceptance of PM Erdogan's invitation to Maliki to Turkey. He said that Turkey would like to see: 1) additional pressure by the central government on Barzani to act against the PKK, 2) an unambiguous declaration that the government of Iraq considers the PKK to be a terrorist organization, and 3) the signing of agreements to cooperate in fighting terrorism. ¶3. (C) Celikkol said that after his return to Baghdad, Dabbagh called back to say Maliki had instructed him to go to Irbil to "pressure Barzani." It was not clear to Celikkol if that trip had taken place. Dabbagh also proposed a visit to Turkey by an Iraqi ministerial delegation as an alternative and perhaps precursor to a Maliki visit. Celikkol said, however, that Ankara viewed such a ministerial visit as not likely to be productive, particularly in view of the expectations for Maliki's visit that had been raised in the Turkish press. -------------- Frets About Maliki Concessions to Kurds -------------- ¶4. (C) Celikkol said he also raised with Dabbagh Turkish concern with reports that Maliki was making concessions to Barzani and Talabani -- including on Kirkuk -- in order to stay in power. Dabbagh said that these rumors were not true. However, Celikkol said he had received subsequent reports of a Maliki/Dawa/Kurdish political alliance that seemed to substantiate the rumors. At the same time, he was troubled by continuing rumors of U.S. backing for a power bid by Iyad Allawi. Ambassador replied that Allawi was the source of these stories and that we had told him to stop. He said the U.S. is strongly supporting the Maliki government and believes any change now would delay Iraqi decision-making at an important time. He also described recent U.S. efforts with Barzani on the PKK. -------------- Positive Energy and Police Training Contacts -------------- ¶5. (C) Meanwhile, Celikkol was positive about both the energy meetings and the visit of U.S. Major General Hunzeker and Iraqi National Police General Aydin Kadir to Turkey. He thought there were good prospects for Turkey to offer advanced police training. Ambassador agreed that this seemed promising and that we would work to make this happen. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON