TURKMENISTAN: LACKING DIPLOMATIC STATUS, EUROPA HOUSE NOT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000328 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EUR/ACE AID/W FOR EE/EA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID EU TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: LACKING DIPLOMATIC STATUS, EUROPA HOUSE NOT THE PARTNERSHIP THAT GOVERNMENT EXPECTED ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: On April 9, the European Union is scheduled to officially open a "Europa House" to support its programs and projects in Turkmenistan. Due to European Commission member states' concerns about Turkmenistan's human rights record, however, the Europa House has not accepted the diplomatic status that the Government of Turkmenistan wanted to give it as a bridge to a planned permanent mission by 2009. Instead, the Europa House's resident coordinator will not have decision-making authority, and the center will only provide logistical support for visiting missions and operate an information resource center in a hotel on the outskirts of Ashgabat. The government of Turkmenistan complained about the low status of the center to a visiting EU delegation in December 2007, but EuropeAID, to whom the center is subordinate, remains opposed and the resident European Ambassadors seemingly are unable to influence what the EU-TACIS advisor called a "crazy situation." END SUMMARY. ¶3. (SBU) USAID Country Representative met on February 15 with new Europa House Coordinator, Emilio Valli, to learn more about its planned activities in Turkmenistan. As an indication of the status it expected the center to take on, the government of Turkmenistan provided space for the center in the Mizan Hotel, across the street from the premier President Hotel, in the fashionable outskirts of Ashgabat. Like its counterparts in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, the Europa House in Ashgabat will support European Union programs and projects. It will provide technical support in the planning and programming phase as well as during implementation. The center will also increase awareness among the general public and government institutions alike about the EU, its policies and activities. The center's official opening will take place on April 9, in conjunction with the visit of a delegation headed by the "troika" of EU Foreign Ministers and the Coordinator for External Affairs. FOREIGN MINISTER UNHAPPY WITH CENTER'S LOW STATUS ¶4. (SBU) In a phone call later that day, the EU's long-time Advisor to the National Coordinating Unit, for years the de facto EU representative in Turkmenistan, told USAID Country Representative that the Europa House's launch was a "crazy situation." He explained that the European Commission's members were divided on future policy towards Turkmenistan. Although the EC's external relations department favored full diplomatic status for the Europa House until a permanent delegation is established in 2009, EuropeAID, to which the Europa House is subordinate, did not. As a result, the center's Italian coordinator does not have diplomatic status, which will limit his stature and access to government officials in this protocol-obsessed culture. ¶5. (SBU) The advisor said that the host government had complained about the situation to a visiting EC delegation in December 2007. Government officials reportedly told the delegation that it did not want the center if it did not have diplomatic status and called the center a "waste of grant funding." In particular, the Foreign Minster was not happy with the center's perceived low status, and the European resident ambassadors don't know what they can do in order to remedy the situation. German Ambassador Hans Mondorf recently told a group of like-minded ambassadors the situation was such a "shameful mess" that he refused to brief them on it. Stating that he himself would have demanded diplomatic accreditation or resigned, the EU advisor said that the coordinator had not protested loudly because he did not want to jeopardize his job. Adding insult to injury, an advance mission had hired an ethnic Russian as the coordinator's deputy without the coordinator's involvement, which the EU advisor suggested was an enormous strategic blunder. ¶6. (SBU) COMMENT: It remains to be seen how much this situation will affect the European Union's relationship with the host government or its programs. A more telling indicator might be the potential departure of the abovementioned long-time EU advisor. As long as he remains in Ashgabat, he will continue to be able to take ASHGABAT 00000328 002 OF 002 advantage of his direct access to high-level government officials. If he indeed departs for another post in the coming months, as he has regularly hinted (and reiterated in the phone call with USAID Representative),the EU member states could find themselves in a considerably weakened collective position due to the non-diplomatic status of the EU representative. This could increase the efforts of individual states to push forward with their own bilateral agendas, such as Germany and its Central Asia Strategy. END COMMENT. HOAGLAND