US embassy cable - 04ANKARA6967

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006967 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/14/2029 
TAGS: PREL, MASS, MARR, PINR, RS, TU, IZ 
SUBJECT: RUSSIAN DEFMIN IVANOV'S EXTRA DAY IN ANKARA: BLACK 
SEA, IRAQ, CHECHNYA AND SALES 
 
REF: A. ANKARA 6887 
 
     B. ANKARA 6845 
     C. ANKARA 6867 
 
Classified By: Political Military Counselor Timothy A. Betts. Reasons 1 
.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) Summary: Russian Defense Minister Ivanov, accompanied 
by Russian Navy Chief ADM Kuroyedov, had wide-ranging 
discussions with Turkish DefMin Gonul December 7, the day 
after President Putin departed.  According to an MND 
official, Ivanov (unlike Putin--ref a) professed no problem 
with Turkey's potential EU membership.  Ivanov and Gonul 
agreed to improve cooperation against WMD proliferation and 
trafficking in the Black Sea and exchanged views on Iraq, 
with Ivanov suggesting Moscow is willing to sell arms to "a 
legitimate government of Iraq."  The two ministers had a pro 
forma exchange on Georgia and Chechnya.  Ivanov sought 
greater access for Russian defense industry to the Turkish 
market; Gonul complained about maintenance problems with 
Russian helicopters and utility boats already in the Turkish 
inventory.  Three defense agreements were signed:  prevention 
of incidents at sea, protection of proprietary defense 
industry information, and protection of classified 
information exchanged pursuant to defense industrial 
cooperation -- all termed "routine" by our MND briefer.  End 
Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Turkey's EU Membership -- No Problem for Russia 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
2. (C) MND Policies and Principles Director RADM Serdar 
Dulger briefed PolmilCouns December 13 on the December 7 
meeting between Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov and 
Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul.  Both Ivanov and 
Russian Navy Chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov accompanied 
Putin during the President's December 5-6 visit, and both 
stayed in Ankara an extra day for additional meetings; both 
attended the meeting with Gonul.  According to Dulger, Ivanov 
told Gonul that Turkey's NATO and possible EU membership 
"won't bother us at all."  Russia is in a position to develop 
relations with not only Turkey, but NATO, the EU and the US, 
Ivanov said.  (Comment: This is in contrast to what we heard 
were Putin's admonishments to the Turks he met that Turkey 
did not need and should not enter the EU--see ref a.  End 
Comment.) 
 
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Desire for More Cooperation in the Black Sea 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
3. (C) Dulger said that the ministers devoted significant 
time discussing the Black Sea.  Ivanov reaffirmed Russia's 
commitment to participation in BLACKSEAFOR.  (Note: 
BLACKSEAFOR was a Turkish initiate launched in 2001 to build 
cooperation among Black Sea littoral states' navies. 
Beginning as annual exercises, BLACKSEAFOR has developed a 
political dialogue at the vice ministerial level and a 
rotating command structure.  In June 2004, participants 
agreed to expand the mandate to include naval cooperation to 
counter terrorism, WMD proliferation and trafficking.) 
Ivanov called for Turkish-Russian cooperation to make 
BLACKSEAFOR "more effective and practical" in combating 
organized crime and proliferation. 
 
4. (C) Related to this discussion, Dulger said that Kuroyedov 
had a separate meeting with Turkish Naval Forces Commander 
ADM Ornek.  Although he did not know what they had discussed 
in the meeting, Dulger had attended a number of social events 
hosted by Ornek.  At these events, Kuroyedov, who speaks no 
English, exhibited little knowledge of the Black Sea as most 
of his experience was in the Far East.  Nevertheless, he was 
supportive of enhanced cooperation among the littoral states, 
stating "our cooperation on these issues (focusing 
BLACKSEAFOR on fighting terrorism, WMD proliferation and 
trafficking) should go beyond written declarations."  He also 
expressed support for Turkey's unilateral BLACKSEAHARMONY 
operation which is based on NATO's Operation Active Endeavor 
in the Mediterranean. 
 
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Iraq 
---- 
 
5. (C) Gonul told Ivanov that in Iraq Turkey wants elections 
to occur on time everywhere.  In the end Ankara wants a 
stable Iraq; instability in Iraq would be bad for Russia as 
well as Turkey he said.  Gonul listed three factors that were 
important to prevent turmoil in Iraq: territorial integrity, 
centralized control over the armed forces, and preserving 
Iraq's natural resources for use by all Iraqis and not by 
foreigners. 
 
6. (C) For his part, Ivanov said that Russia was not sending 
military equipment nor personnel to Iraq.  However, if asked 
by a "legitimate Iraqi government," Moscow would consider 
selling arms to Baghdad.  Though Russia has forgiven 80% of 
its Iraqi debt, Iraq still owed Russia $6-7 billion, so any 
arms would need to be paid for, he said. 
 
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Defense Cooperation 
------------------- 
 
7. (C) Dulger reported that Ivanov promised Gonul that 
Russian companies would compete to sell Turkey a wide variety 
of defense equipment, including helicopters.  Gonul welcomed 
the Russians' interest in the Turkish defense market.  He 
then raised some specific maintenance and spare parts issues 
regarding Russian-origin helicopters currently in service 
with the Jandarma and specialized utility boats (e.g., tugs, 
etc.) in the Turkish Naval Force's inventory.  The Russians 
agreed to look into them. 
 
8. (C) Three agreements were signed during the visit.  Dulger 
characterized them as "routine and not specific."  The most 
significant was an agreement between the Russian Ministry of 
Defense and the Turkish General Staff on the prevention of 
incidents on the high seas.  The other two were within the 
framework of previous agreements.  One was on protecting 
intellectual property rights on information exchanged under 
the military technical cooperation agreement.  The other was 
to protect classified information exchanged under the defense 
industry cooperation agreement. 
 
----------------------------------- 
Other Issues:  Georgia and Chechnya 
----------------------------------- 
 
9. (C) Other issues touched on in the meeting included: 
 
-- Georgia/CFE:  Gonul urged Russia to fulfill its Istanbul 
commitments; Ivanov changed the subject. 
 
-- Terrorism:  Ivanov noted that Turks were among the foreign 
fighters found in Chechnya; Dulger said Gonul "noted the 
Russian complaint" and asked Russia to recognize the 
PKK/Kongra Gel as a terrorist organization. 
 
EDELMAN