TURKEY'S VIEW ON EUROPEAN SECURITY AND THE CORFU

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 000853 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR VCI/VIP, EUR/RPM, EUR/SE E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2019 TAGS: KDEM OSCE PREL NATO PGOV PHUM ECON SUBJECT: TURKEY'S VIEW ON EUROPEAN SECURITY AND THE CORFU MINISTERIAL REF: A. SECSTATE 59226 ¶B. LAURENDEAU - GODFREY EMAIL DATED JUNE 16 ¶C. 2009 Classified By: Pol-Mil Counselor Anthony Godfrey, Reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) MFA DDG for OSCE, Nonproliferation and Disarmament Affairs Ahmet Muhtar Gun said that Turkey fully supports the principles outlined in ref a regarding the Corfu ministerial and noted specifically that Turkey's approach will be guided by the language contained in Paragraph 3 of the December 2008 NATO Foreign Ministers Communique and Paragraphs 7 and 8 of the 2009 NATO Summit Declaration. ¶2. (C) Gun took the opportunity to explain Turkey's non-participation in the June 10 "Future of Conventional Arms Control in Europe" conference in Berlin. He said Turkey decided to "boycott" the event in part due to Germany's insistance on including Cyprus in the discussion and in part out of a philosophical disagreement over whether Allies should be having this discussion as the U.S.-Russia "parallel action" talks are ongoing. Gun was concerned that Russia might succeed in driving a wedge between Allies. He later welcomed receiving an informal readout of the event and expressed relief that Allies were able to maintain solidarity during the meeting. Gun asked to consult with the U.S. delegation in advance of the next HLTF meeting in Brussels in July (ref b). Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey JEFFREY