US embassy cable - 04ANKARA6051

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 006051 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/25/2014 
TAGS: PREL, MARR, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKEY INTENDS TO JOIN ICC "AS SOON AS POSSIBLE" 
 
REF: ANKARA 2770 
 
(U) Classified by Political Counselor John Kunstadter, E.O. 
12958, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) Turkish MFA International Political Organizations 
Department Head Levent Sahinkaya told us on October 22 that 
Turkey intends to become a signatory to the Rome Statute "as 
soon as possible."  Sahinkaya said he cannot predict whether 
this will happen before or after December 17, when the EU 
Summit will decide whether to open the EU harmonization 
process with Turkey, but said the GOT intends to join before 
the end of the year. 
 
2.  (C) According to Sahinkaya, the MFA's legal department 
has been tasked with researching the procedure required to 
become a signatory and a GOT interagency working group is 
researching what needs to be done to harmonize Turkey's war 
crimes law with the Rome Statute.  Turkey will join the ICC 
as soon as it can complete these two processes.  Sahinkaya 
previously told us the GOT was in no hurry to join the ICC 
(reftel), but now he says that GOT will "accelerate our 
efforts" in view of PM Erdogan's October 6 statement in 
Strasbourg. 
 
3.  (C) Sahinkaya said the EU is discouraging Turkey from 
signing an Article 98 agreement with the United States.  He 
requested information about the status of U.S./EU discussions 
on Article 98 and asked whether any EU country has signed an 
Article 98 agreement with the U.S.  Turkey, he said, is 
giving priority to its EU candidacy and evaluating its ICC 
positions in that light. 
EDELMAN