TURKEY CONSIDERING DOING MORE TO SUPPORT ANSF

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 000272 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE, EUR/RPM, SCA/A E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2020 TAGS: MASS PREL NATO SUBJECT: TURKEY CONSIDERING DOING MORE TO SUPPORT ANSF TRAINING REF: A. SECSTATE 14366 ¶B. ANKARA 221 Classified By: Pol-Mil Counselor Anthony Godfrey, Reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) We delivered ref a points to MFA NATO and Euro-Atlantic Security Issues Section Head Esra Dogan on February 18. She confirmed that the GoT has received recent letters from both NATO SYG Rasmussen and DSACEUR regarding additional ISAF training requirements and said that Turkey is actively considering all the requests "with a positive view." She said that while Turkey would not be in position to make a firm commitment on any of the requests in the letter from DSACEUR at the February 23 ISAF Force Generation Conference, she expects that Turkey will make a general but positive statement about its intent to do its utmost to help meet ISAF training requirements. ¶2. (C) She relayed that the Afghan Interior Minister Atmar met with his Turkish counterpart Besir Atalay on February 5 in Ankara and requested that Turkey send 1500 security trainers to Afghanistan to meet Afghanistan's massive training needs. According to Dogan, the Ministry of Interior is still evaluating this request, but there is a political decision to be as forward-leaning as possible in meeting this Afghan request. It remains unclear, however, to what extent the Ministry of Interior will be able to meet this request as it does not have experience deploying its officers in such large numbers. Dogan also confirmed that Turkey did pledge a Police Operational Mentoring Liaison Team (POMLT) at the December force generation conference, but the timing of the team's deployment is still not firm; the Ministry of Interior has action on developing the modalities of the team's deployment. ¶3. (C) On one specific request -- for Turkey to establish a comprehensive medical clinic in Wardak and training Afghan personnel to operate the facility -- Dogan said Turkey has already taken the decision to move forward on evaluating this request and that experts from the Ministry of Health is planning to send a team to Wardak to make an assessment. ¶4. (C) She noted that some of the requests by DSACEUR are apparently linked to Turkey's establishment of its PRT in Jowzjan, including one POMLT to be based in Sheberghan, where Turkey intends to deploy its PRT. She said that Turkey is impatient about the inconclusive discussions that have taken place thus far with Germany and Sweden regarding security arrangements for the Turkish PRT (ref b) and that there is a growing sense within the MFA that Turkey should not wait for a positive response from Germany and Sweden if the talks do not lead to an agreement soon. ¶5. (C) Undersecretary Burns, during his February 18 meeting with Deputy Chief of the Turkish General Staff General Aslan Guner, expressed appreciation for Turkey's significant contributions , especially in training Afghan police and security personnel, and encouraged Turkey to do more. Guner proudly recounted some of Turkey's latest initiatives, and said that the military had gotten full support from the civilian government in financing support to Afghanistan. ¶6. (C) Comment: Given the additional contributions Turkey pledged at the December NATO FM meeting (training of one brigade's worth of ANA personnel, establishment of a military training facility in Kabul that will train 600 ANA personnel at a time, a Police Training Center in Jowzjan attached to its planned PRT, one additional OMLT to accompany the four already deployed to Kabul, a POMLT, and opening more police training courses in Turkey for Afghan police officers),we were pleasantly surprised that Turkey remains open to doing still more in Afghanistan. Turkey's forward-leaning posture in response to the Afghan Interior Minister's request reaffirms our view that the GoT will be inclined to be responsive to direct requests from Afghan officials. Jeffrey "Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"