TURKEY: RACE FOR UNSC SEAT BRINGS RENEWED

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