UN/CYPRUS: TURKISH PERMREP OFFERS TO ADVANCE DATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000417 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV UNFICYP UNSC CY TU SUBJECT: UN/CYPRUS: TURKISH PERMREP OFFERS TO ADVANCE DATE FOR UNFICYP ADOPTION Classified By: Ambassador Alejandro Wolff for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. Turkish Permrep Baki Ilkin has proposed advancing the date of the adoption of a rollover of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) to the end of May in order to avoid having the adoption fall during Turkey's June Security Council presidency. Ilkin told Ambassador Wolff that in order to agree to advance the date, Ankara would need assurances that the Council discussion of the UNFICYP report and resolution would take place in closed consultations, and that only Council members would participate in the formal meeting to adopt the resolution. Turkey would also need assurances that the text of the resolution would be something that Ankara could accept, even if Turkey would vote against the resolution and would make a short explanation of vote after the adoption. Ambassador Wolff said that the U.S. would support Turkey with regard to advancing the date of the adoption and a balanced text, but stressed that Turkey would also need buy-in from Russia, the U.K. and France for its preferences on the resolution text. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) Turkish Permrep Baki Ilkin told Ambassador Wolff on April 21 that he had consulted with Ankara about how to handle the rollover resolution for the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). The current mandate (Res 1847) expires on June 15, which coincides with Turkey's June presidency of the Security Council. Ilkin said he had proposed to Ankara that adoption of the rollover be advanced by a few weeks so that it would fall in Russia's May Security Council presidency. According to Ilkin, U.K. Permrep John Sawers had initially suggested the possibility to Ilkin of advancing the date of the adoption, but Ankara was not fully on board with this approach. Ankara feared the change in procedure could be used by the Greek Cypriots to claim a victory, since Cyprus has been actively lobbying for the Council session to take place in May. Ilkin said he had already discussed advancing the date with Russian Deputy Permrep Dolgov who had given positive signals. Ilkin had also raised the issue with U/SYG for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe, who said that the UN could be able to advance the publication date for the Cyprus report to May 15, if necessary, to accommodate an adoption of the UNFICYP rollover at the end of May. (Resolution 1847 calls for the report to be issued by June 1.) ¶3. (C) Ilkin said that in order to justify advancing the meeting to May, he would need to assure Ankara that the discussion of the SYG's report would take place during closed consultations, and Cyprus would not be invited to participate in the open meeting during which the adoption would take place. Ilkin said that Turkey would vote against the resolution in any event, and would make a brief explanation of vote (EOV) after the adoption. He acknowledged that Turkey's "no" vote would be a break with the Council's past practice of adopting the UNFICYP resolution unanimously. Ilkin stressed that even though Turkey would vote against the resolution, the wording would need to be something that Turkey could live with. He said that his mission would give further details to the U.S. mission on specific Turkish concerns on the resolution. ¶4. (C) If Turkey's conditions for moving the Council meeting to May could not be met, Ankara was prepared to hold the adoption under its June presidency. Ilkin emphasized that Turkey did not see any reason to engage in a harsh debate over the Cyprus resolution while reunification negotiations were ongoing, but that Turkey could also not be seen to be weak in the Council. Ilkin's stated preference would be to reach consensus on moving the adoption to the end of May. ¶5. (C) Ambassador Wolff said that the United States would support Turkey whether its decision would be to advance the date of the UNFICYP adoption to May or to keep it in June. Wolff noted that Council practice for the last several years had been to discuss the SYG report in closed consultations, and to adopt the resolution in a session with participation only of Council members. (The last time Cyprus participated in a Council meeting on UNFICYP was 1984.) Wolff said he understood Ilkin's concerns about the text in the resolution, and suggested that the best way to ensure that the text is acceptable would be to keep to previously agreed language. He cautioned that after it becomes known that Turkey would vote against the resolution, thereby breaking with past practice of a unanimous adoption, other members could attempt to insert language they knew to be unacceptable to Turkey. Wolff stressed that Turkey would need to get a clear understanding from Russia, the U.K. (which takes the pen on Cyprus resolutions) and France of Turkey's preferences on the resolution text, since they could have strong views on the substance of a rollover resolution. USUN NEW Y 00000417 002 OF 002 ¶6. (C) Wolff encouraged Ilkin to continue to discuss the proposal with the U.K. and Russia, and said that the U.S. would do so as well. Rice