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.


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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