64TH UNGA, THIRD COMMITTEE: TURKEY'S POSITIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 001545 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR EUR/SE, IO/HR (NEVILLE) AND DRL/MLGA (SIBILLA) E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/26/2019 TAGS: PHUM PREL UN TU SUBJECT: 64TH UNGA, THIRD COMMITTEE: TURKEY'S POSITIONS REF: STATE 109397 Classified By: POL Counselor Daniel O'Grady, for reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) Kaan Esener, head of the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told us on October 26 that Turkey would support U.S. positions (REFTEL) on the 64th UNGA Third Committee's Burma and DPRK resolutions. He added that Turkey would co-sponsor and support the U.S. electoral resolution. On the country-specific resolution on Iran, Esener stressed that Turkey might have problems supporting the U.S. position because, he said, Iran is its strategic neighbor. He expressed hope that Turkey could work with other countries to work out "more acceptable" language for the resolution. ¶2. (C) Esener also said that Turkey, as a secular country, is generally against the "defamation of religion" resolution. However, he said, if the USG wants to influence the text of the resolution, it should focus on convincing three of the OIC countries : Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan. He stressed that the U.S. should try to gain the support of these three countries to achieve acceptable language before the resolution is introduced. JEFFREY "Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"