TURKEY STILL UNDECIDED ON ICJ ADVISORY OPINION

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 000559 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/14/2019 TAGS: AORC PREL ICJ KV TU SUBJECT: TURKEY STILL UNDECIDED ON ICJ ADVISORY OPINION REF: STATE 29385 Classified By: Acting POLCOUNS Christoper Krafft, for reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) MFA Balkans Department Head Ahmet Riza Demirer told us April 14 that MFA still has yet to decide if Turkey will offer any submission (advisory opinion or written statement) to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the legality of the manner in which Kosovo declared independence. ¶2. (C) Comment: Despite being one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo, Turkey chose not to vote on the Serbian-sponsored UNGA ICJ resolution. At the time, the MFA explained that it did not want to further harm Turkey's bilateral relationship with Serbia. It has since ruminated on submitting either an advisory opinion or written statement; at times positing that it would be awkward to participate in the ICJ process having not voted in UNGA. Demirer confided April 14 that while Turkey supports Kosovo, the MFA is uncomfortable with discussing the concept of "self determination" and the possibility that Kosovo could establish precedent for other regional frozen conflicts, namely Nagorno-Karabakh. We have repeatedly emphasized that "self determination" is not featured in the USG brief and explained that Turkey can simply offer a written statement reiterating Turkey's recognition of Kosovo, reserving the right to comment further before the subsequent deadline in July. As tensions increase between Turkey and Azerbaijan over Armenia, it will become progressively less likely that the GOT will take any step it believes could further fuel them. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey Jeffrey