AFGHAN AMBASSADOR PLEADS FOR GREATER TURKISH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 000349

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SE, SCA/A

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2019
TAGS: PREL MARR MCAP MOPS AF TU
SUBJECT: AFGHAN AMBASSADOR PLEADS FOR GREATER TURKISH
INVOLVEMENT IN AFGHANISTAN

REF: ANKARA 304

Classified By: DCM Doug Silliman for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

SUMMARY
--------------


1. (C) The Afghan Ambassador in Ankara believes that
Turkey, as a Muslim country, can provide more effective and
acceptable support to Afghanistan than other NATO allies.
Military and police training, education, construction, and
religious messaging are Turkey's comparative strengths. He
argues that the US and Afghanistan must work together to
expand Turkey's contributions in these areas. END SUMMARY.

AFGHANS LIKE TURKS
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2. (C) Afghan Ambassador to Turkey Masoud Khalili, in an
impassioned two-hour monologue to DCM March 2, argued that
the US and Afghanistan must convince Turkey to play a more
active role in Afghanistan. Average Afghans -- those who
must fight against Taliban domination -- have a positive, if
somewhat misguided, impression of Turks as "good Sunni
Muslims." This means that Turkish assistance and a Turkish
presence in sensitive areas of Afghanistan is less
controversial than other NATO members or perceived "Christian
countries" like the US, UK and Canada. (Note: The impression
that Turkey's advice goes down easier in Afghanistan is
shared by the Turks themselves; they offered to put what they
termed their "soft power" at the disposal of allies as we
work to shape events in Afghanistan (ref). End note.)

THE PLAN
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3. (C) Khalili laid out six areas where Turkey could should
expand its assistance.

-- ARMY AND POLICE TRAINING: As a "Muslim army" with a
history of helping to build the first Afghan army in the
1930s, Turks should play a more prominent role in training
the Afghan National Army (ANA). He recommended joint US and
Turkish training of ANA units so that Afghan soldiers can
learn from "both John and Mustafa." While there has been
less extensive Turkish-Afghan police contact, Turkey can
provide training in both counter narcotics and criminal
investigations. (Note: Turkey's efforts in this area have
been significant: Turkish military training, both in
Afghanistan and in Turkey, has been a high point of Turkey's
engagement. Turkish training of police has also been
important, but only 150 Afghan police officers have been
involved in counter-narcotics training with Turkish
counterparts. Turkey could do more in these areas. End
note.)

-- CONSTRUCTION: Turkish firms, using international
financing/donations, should build housing blocks for military
and police officers and government officials (like those that
exist in Turkey). Having "an apartment with two bedrooms"
would give an Afghan soldier "something more concrete to
fight for." Giving Turkish firms the contracts for building
the compounds provides extra incentives for Turkish
government involvement in other areas. (Note: Turkish
commitments to build housing have been its greatest success.
Turkey's June 2008 pledge in Paris brought its contribution
to USD 200 million, most of which will be in the form of
housing construction across Afghanistan, managed by Turkey's
state housing authority. Turkish officials point out that
Turkey gets more effect than other Western donors from its
contributions as it expends far less on security for its
contractors. End note.)

-- EDUCATION: There are currently 800 Afghan students in
Turkish universities; that should increase to more than 5,000
per year. Turkey should also expand construction of primary
and secondary schools (which Turkey is doing in some areas)
and send more Turks as teachers. He argued that a
Turkish-funded girls school in northern Afghanistan with 35
female Turkish teachers is a powerful symbol of Turkey's
commitment to Afghanistan and provides at least a few Afghan

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girls with strong role models on the equality of women. He
praised also the schools in Afghanistan run by the Fetullah
Gulen Sufi movement. While at first skeptical of the
movement's religious roots, he said that "children of
relatives" who have attended the schools reported no
proselytizing and high academic standards.

-- EXCHANGES: Turkey should expand its programs to bring
political parties, women's groups, and students to Turkey for
short periods to see "a Muslim country that has succeeded."
Seeing the wealth and development of Ankara or Istanbul helps
Afghans believe that they can accomplish the same at home.

-- COMBAT FORCES: Turkey should move its forces into areas
where combat operations are needed. Turkish forward
operating bases, he argued, would better challenge local
populations to support the Afghan government by showing
Muslims directly confronting the Taliban.

-- RELIGIOUS MESSAGES: The Turkish Diyanet (Religious
Affairs Secretariat) should send imams to Afghanistan to
preach in mosques. Turkish imams "dressed is suits and ties"
and preaching Turkey's tolerant interpretation of Islam could
begin to modernize Afghans' views of Islam.

HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN
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4. (C) Khalili said that he has raised these ideas with PM
Erdogan, Chief of Defense Gen. Basbug, and MFA personnel.
All were polite and receptive, but non-committal. He
believes that it will take a strong push from the US at the
political level to convince Turkey to take the next steps.
He is working on getting higher levels of the Karzai
government to deliver the same requests to Ankara.

THE DOWN SIDE
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5. (C) Khalili argued that Afghans would have to make sure
that Turkey did not "play the ethnic game" by supporting only
Turkic Afghans. Recent Turkish engagement, including in
Wardak province and Kabul, leads him to believe that the
Turks are willing to deal with Hazara, Tajiks, and Pashtouns
as well. He also expected increased Iranian nervousness over
expanded Turkish engagement in Afghanistan, accompanied by
"the usual Iranian covert meddling," but thought the
advantages heavily outweighed the disadvantages.

COMMENT
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5. (C) We defer to Embassy Kabul and Washington on whether
Turkish troops and trainers and teachers would be more
effective or readily accepted than those of other NATO or
coalition partners. While we admire Khalili's enthusiasm,
Turkey has been reluctant so far in responding to our calls
for increased commitments, particularly in expanding the role
of Turkey's military forces. We concur that Turkish
construction firms active in Afghanistan appear to be able to
do more with less. If these ideas proposed by Khalili appear
sound, they could form the base of a joint US-Afghan
engagement plan to expand Turkish contributions in
Afghanistan.

BIO NOTE
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6. (C) Khalili is a Tajik (FARSI)-speaking supporter of the
Northern Alliance and was injured in the September 9, 2001
bombing that killed Tajik Commander Ahmed Shah Masoud.
Khalili arrived in Ankara as Ambassador in 2006 after nine
years as Ambassador to India. He served in the mid-1990s as
Ambassador to Pakistan, but claims that he was expelled after
complaining to then-PM Benazir Bhutto about Inter-Services
Intelligence Directorate support for the Taliban. He is the
son of a FARSI poet and Afghan Ambassador and both reads and
writes poetry in FARSI, with a particular fondness for the
work of Jelaluddin Rumi. He is married to Suhayla, from
Nooristan, and has three sons (currently aged 28, 23, and 21).


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Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey

Jeffrey