TURKEY STILL STRUGGLING TO DEFINE RESPONSE TO US

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000030

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/05/2020
TAGS: PARM PREL NATO TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY STILL STRUGGLING TO DEFINE RESPONSE TO US
MISSILE DEFENSE REQUESTS

REF: 09 USNATO 0584

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Doug Silliman for reason 1.4 (b, d)

Summary
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1. (C) In a January 4 meeting focused largely on Missile
Defense, Ambassador Jeffrey pressed Turkey's top military
leaders to define more sharply their technical questions
regarding the Phased Adaptive Approach and to be more
specific on "precisely how NATO-ized" a system would need to
be in order for assets to based in Turkey. Deputy Chief of
Staff GEN Guner said that Turkey appreciated the
responsiveness of the highest levels of the USG to Turkey's
MD concerns, said the briefings in U/S Tauscher's office by
MDA on the debris issue were very useful and announced that
the TGS had identified a new lead officer for Missile
Defense. While they had not yet formed a complete response,
the TGS suggested that Turkey's political leaders would be
prepared to consider support to the PAA only after NATO had
reached full consensus to adopt the PAA as a NATO system.
The Ambassador pressed the TGS to reach out to civilian
leaders responsible for Missile Defense and to ensure that
the upcoming return visit of U/S Tausch
er to Ankara would be productive. End Summary.

Missile Defense
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2. (SBU) On January 4, the Ambassador met with Deputy Chief
of the Turkish General Staff GEN Aslan Guner to follow-up on
political - military issues raised in December 2009 both
during PM Erdogan's trip to Washington and during the High
Level Defense Group, which Guner chaired for Turkey. With
Guner was Assistant DCHOD GEN Bilgin Balanli, TGS Chief of
Plans and Policy LTG Yalcin Ataman, MG Alpaslan Erdogan and
MG Tahir Bekiroglu. ODC Chief Maj Gen Stanley Clarke and Pol
Mil Couns accompanied the Ambassador.


3. (C) The Ambassador opened the discussion on Missile
Defense by pointing out that Undersecretary of State Ellen
Tauscher planned to return to Turkey toward the end of
January and that Turkey should use this visit as an
action-forcing event to get concrete answers to specific
questions on Missile Defense. The Ambassador urged the Turks
to make their concerns as specific as possible; at this
stage, we need to move beyond generalities. He cited the
issue of Turkey's concerns about debris falling from
intercepted missiles; once that concern was raised, it was
addressed clearly by the Missile Defense Agency's Director
LTG O'Reilly during GEN Guner's meeting with U/S Tauscher.
The Ambassador pressed the Turks to provide the U.S. with
their priority areas for protection; armed with this
information, U/S Tauscher's team could find out how, with
what assets, and in what stage of the PAA's development these
areas could be protected.


4. (C) The Ambassador recognized that Turkey sought NATO
"cover" for its participation in Missile Defense, but he
pressed the Turks to define more clearly what that meant.
"How much NATO do you need" for Turkey to participate? The
Turks seemed well-briefed on the troubles facing "interim
capability" at NATO (ref),but LTG Ataman also made clear
that Turkey's policy makers thought that the PAA should be
"part of a whole NATO project" and would likely ask the U.S.
to achieve full consensus at NATO before asking Turkey to
step forward with contributions. The Ambassador pushed back,
pressing the Turks for clear requirements of what NATO
decisions in which committees would satisfy their needs. He
acknowledged that the issue of Command and Control was
potentially complex, but explained that the nature of Missile
Defense lent itself not to long decision chains involving
senior officers, but to a careful bilateral negotiation -
well in advance of any action - of protocols which would
delegate authority to respond to threats in a timely fashion.


5. (C) The Ambassador said that one of the outcomes of
discussion with U/S Tauscher and A/S Vershbow was the need
for a Turkish inter-agency task force on Missile Defense
issues with which the USG could connect. Members of this
group could travel to the U.S. for meetings with the Missile
Defense Agency and other USG entities in advance of the next
Tauscher visit. GEN Guner said that for the TGS, he had
tasked MG Tahir Bekiroglu as the lead officer on Missile

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Defense. Bekiroglu said that he had access to a team of
officers within the TGS to work on Missile Defense issues;
while he did not meet on the issue outside of the military,
he did have a point of contact within the Foreign Ministry.

Cobras, Predator Coverage
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6. (C) Ambassador and Guner also reviewed Turkish PM's
request for Cobras earlier and more Northern Iraq Predator
coverage. Guner said these measures were essential. AMB
noted that we were on the hook for an answer but this
wouldn't be easy.

Comment
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7. (C) We will continue to press the Turks to make clear
their requests for information so we can make U/S Tauscher's
visit to Ankara more valuable. We are concerned, however,
about the TGS suggestion that Turkey may insist on full
consensus at NATO before considering bilateral engagement in
support of the PAA. Consensus for Interim Capability of
NATO's ALT/BMD is essential to keep Turkey moving in the
direction of "yes" on our requests for basing PAA assets here.
SILLIMAN

"Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s
gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"