Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07ANKARA469
2007-03-01 16:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ankara
Cable title:  

TURKEY: RACE FOR UNSC SEAT BRINGS RENEWED

Tags:  PREL ECON AORC UN XA TU 
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Tim W Hayes 03/02/2007 03:30:16 PM From DB/Inbox: Tim W Hayes

Cable 
Text: 
 
 
C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 00469

SIPDIS
CX:
 ACTION: POL
 INFO: CONS TSR PMA ECON DCM AMB RAO FCS PA MGT DAO

DISSEMINATION: POL /1
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: POL:KDEGNAN
DRAFTED: POL:CKRAFFT
CLEARED: POL:DJBURGER, PMA:CRICH, ECON:RKIMBRELL

VZCZCAYI836
RR RUEHC RUEHZO RUEHZL
DE RUEHAK #0469/01 0601653
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 011653Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1168
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000469 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2017
TAGS: PREL ECON AORC UN XA TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: RACE FOR UNSC SEAT BRINGS RENEWED
ENGAGEMENT WITH AFRICA


Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Kelly Degnan for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000469

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2017
TAGS: PREL ECON AORC UN XA TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: RACE FOR UNSC SEAT BRINGS RENEWED
ENGAGEMENT WITH AFRICA


Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Kelly Degnan for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: As Turkey gears up its campaign for a
non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2009-2010,
the GOT is taking a renewed interest in Africa, reflected in
part by PM Erdogan's recent visit to Addis Ababa for the
African Union Summit. Never a key focus of Turkey's foreign
policy, the importance of Africa's 53 votes in the UN General
Assembly and the success of Turkish business ventures on the
continent have helped to refocus Turkish attention south
across the Mediterranean. The GOT expects to open up to six
new embassies in Africa, has or will soon open new offices of
the Turkish International Cooperation Administration (TIKA),
and plans to host a mini-summit involving key African leaders
sometime this summer. END SUMMARY

UNSC SEAT A KEY GOAL
--------------


2. (C) Turkey sees itself as a key player in global
diplomacy, both in its role as a bridge between a secular
West and the Islamic world and as a stabilizing force in an
otherwise highly unstable region. The GOT is seeking to
underscore its role on the global stage by capturing a
non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for
the 2009-2010 cycle, the election for which will be held at
UNGA in Fall 2008.


3. (U) As part of the Western European and Others Group
(WEOG),it appears Turkey will be competing with Austria and
Iceland for the WEOG's two seats that will open in 2009.
Turkey last held a seat on the UNSC in 1960, when it shared a
two-year term with Poland. Prior to that, it served in
1951-52, and again in 1954-55. Austria has served two terms
(1973-74 and 1991-92) while Iceland is a first-time candidate
and, as part of the WEOG Nordic sub-group, will have the
backing of its Nordic neighbors. Seeking the votes of
two-thirds of UNGA members in order to gain the UNSC seat,
Turkey formally launched its campaign in June 2005.

AFRICAN VOTES CRUCIAL
--------------


4. (C) Perhaps not coincidentally, Turkey formally declared

2005 "The Year of Africa" aimed at "promoting and
diversifying Turkey's relations with African countries," and
was granted Observer status by the African Union in April

2005. Recognizing that no UNSC candidate country can hope to
win the votes necessary to gain a seat without strong African
support, the GOT set out to increase its exposure and
potential support on the continent.


5. (C) Turkey's Year of Africa expanded on a self-described
"Opening Up to Africa" policy begun in 1998. But, according
to MFA Department Head for Africa Raif Karaca, the initiative
was poorly conceived and very little had been done in
concrete terms to demonstrate Turkey's commitment to "open
up" to the continent.

MAKING A POLITICAL COMMITMENT
--------------


6. (C) Since the announcement of its UNSC candidacy, Turkey
has invested staff time and funding in a number of GOT
official visits to all African nations. MFA delegations have
gone to countries never before visited by an official Turkish
delegation, while Foreign Trade Undersecretariat delegations
have increased their travel to Africa to expand efforts to
sign largely symbolic treaties on issues such as bilateral
investment and double taxation. According to Karaca, MFA is
considering opening up to five or six additional embassies in
sub-Saharan Africa, most likely in Accra, Dar-es-Salaam,
Luanda and Yaounde, and possibly Gaborone, Maputo and Lusaka.
These would augment the 12 Turkey already has on the
continent, including missions in all five North African
countries as well as Addis Ababa, Dakar, Khartoum, Kinshasa,
Lagos, Nairobi, and Pretoria.


7. (C) PM Erdogan made the first visit of a Turkish prime
minister to sub-Saharan Africa in March 2005, when he
traveled to Addis and Pretoria. He followed that up with a
March 2006 visit to Khartoum and a January 2007 trip to
Addis, where he spoke to African leaders assembled for the
African Union Summit. Turkish-AU relations have been
fostered not only by the Turkish side but by AU Commission
staff as well, particularly Commission Chairperson and former
Malian president Alpha Oumar Konare. Konare visited Turkey
in November 2005 and has pushed to extend links between the
continent and Turkey. Karaca said Konare had extended the
invitation to Erdogan to speak at the Summit and is anxious
to move ahead with the organization of a mini-summit of
African leaders in Turkey that has been a subject of
discussion between AU and GOT officials in recent weeks.
Attendees would likely include Konare and leaders from Ghana
(as current AU Chairman),Ethiopia, Algeria, and South
Africa. While Turkey ideally would like to host such a
meeting in summer 2008 to get the biggest bang for its effort
just before the UNSC vote, Konare is pressing for the event
to occur in June 2007, before his tenure as Commission
Chairman ends.


8. (C) GOT officials have expressed in the past interest in
"doing more" on the Darfur crisis and claim the GOT had
pressed Sudanese President el-Basir to allow the peacekeeping
force there to transition from solely an AU operation to one
involving the UN. Turkey has also contributed 38 civilian
police and a small military contingent to UNMIS as well as to
UN Missions in Sierra Leone, DROC, Cote d'Ivoire, and Liberia.

AND PUTTING LIRA WHERE THEIR MOUTHS ARE
--------------


9. (U) Turkey has also made a commitment to increasing its
development and humanitarian assistance to Africa, opening
offices of its development agency, TIKA, in Addis in 2003 and
Khartoum in 2006, with plans to open in 2007 in Dakar.
Karaca said Turkey has, in recent months, made a donation of
$2 million to WFP programs fighting poverty and famine in
Africa, as well as $587,000 to Ethiopia through the Turkish
Red Crescent Society. According to the GOT, WFP now
considers Turkey one of the leading donor countries fighting
famine in West Africa.


10. (C) Karaca noted that the private sector has unexpectedly
been at the forefront of Turkey's increased engagement with
African nations, establishing trade ties which have deepened
into investment relationships. As an example, Karaca said
there are currently over 3,000 Turks living in Sudan, most
involved in running the interests of the 120 Turkish
companies that have invested over $140 million in the
Sudanese economy alone. While that may be the largest
Turkish community on the continent, smaller versions have
sprung up elsewhere, leading Turkish Airlines (THY) to
increase the frequency of its flights to sub-Saharan
destinations Addis, Khartoum, and Lagos, as well as to
consider starting a new route to Dakar and reopening a route
to Johannesburg and Cape Town that it dropped in March 2002.
THY also serves all five North African capitals.


11. (C) Karaca added that Turkey's trade volume with the
entire continent exceeded $12 billion in 2006, and is growing
by 35% per year. During his speech in Addis, Erdogan
announced a goal of bringing two-way trade volume up to $30
billion in the near future. Total Turkish investment in
Africa exceeds $400 million, with over 350 Turkish companies
operating on the continent. Turkish construction companies
have been in the vanguard of Turkey's business offensive,
undertaking projects worth a total of $17.3 billion, with the
expectation of a further $10 billion in projects over the
next three years.


12. (C) COMMENT: The primary motivating factor behind the
current level of Turkish attention on Africa is winning votes
for the UNSC seat. However, GOT officials seem serious about
extending Turkish influence and interests into Africa in
support of trade and investment goals. With the success that
Turkish business has had in recent years on the continent,
and the plan to open new diplomatic missions, Turkey's
committment to a long-term increase in engagement with Africa
seems real.

Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/

WILSON