US embassy cable - 05ANKARA412

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000412 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, MARR, PREL, TU 
SUBJECT: NATO CENTER OF EXCELLENCE-DEFENSE AGAINST TERRORISM 
 
 
1.  Summary:  In an effort to gain alliance contribution for 
its new Center of Excellence - Defense Against Terrorism 
(CoE-DAT), the Turkish General Staff (TGS) on January 10 
briefed NATO embassies in Ankara on the center and sent 
letters from MOD Gonul and CHOD GEN Ozkok to their 
counterparts.  A manning conference is planned for the last 
week of February, either in Ankara or at Allied Command 
Transformation (ACT) in Norfolk.  TGS highlighted the US 
contribution to the CoE-DAT and noted that the UK had also 
agreed in principle to contribute personnel.  Turkey plans to 
use this center to provide training to Iraqi senior military 
leaders as the GOT's contribution to NATO's training mission 
for Iraq.  End Summary. 
 
2. TGS/J3 Training Division Chief MajGen Cihangir Aksit 
hosted a briefing on the Center of Excellence - Defense 
against Terrorism (CoE-DAT) at the Turkish Partnership for 
Peace (PfP) Training Center Headquarters for NATO member 
embassies in Ankara January 10, 2005.  Representatives of 
over a dozen embassies attended.  PfP Training Center 
commander COL Bakkal briefed on the establishment of a 
CoE-DAT and how it would help facilitate international 
cooperation against terrorism.  Aksit explained that Turkey 
was providing this briefing to NATO embassies in an effort to 
expand the discussion of the CoE-DAT beyond military circles. 
 
3.  The basic structure of the CoE-DAT consists of a director 
(most likely an active duty or retired Turkish general 
officer), a Deputy Director (US Navy Captain), Political 
Advisor, and a Council of Science.  The staff of 
approximately 82 will consist of about 30 percent civilians 
and 70 percent military personnel.  They will be organized 
into several directorates, including the Directorate of 
Academics, Directorate of Education & Training, Legal Office, 
Liaison Office and the Council of Science.  Within these 
directorates will be numerous functional offices, including 
an intelligence cell under the Council of Science.  Turkey is 
planning to contribute approximately 64 percent of the 
staffing, but is prepared to provide less if sufficient 
offers from other countries are received. 
 
4. Instruction will be at the "strategic and operational, not 
tactical, level."  Thus, most of the courses will be 
conducted in classrooms.  Instructors will mainly be experts 
from outside the CoE-DAT who will be contracted to teach 
specific courses, although other Turkish military 
institutions may offer CoE-DAT courses at their own 
facilities as they currently do for the PfP Training Center. 
The curriculum will be subject to continuous review and 
development relying heavily on "customer" feedback.  Aksit 
emphasized repeatedly how the success of the center would 
depend on providing value-added to "customers."  While all 
allies and NATO partners would be the center's customers, ACT 
would be the first among them, according to Aksit. 
 
5.  Aksit and Bakkal expressed appreciation to the US for 
making available on a part-time basis an Army major 
(currently assigned as liaison at Turkey's Training and 
Doctrine Command) and for promising to provide a Navy captain 
who will be the deputy director of the CoE-DAT.  Bakkal 
stated that the UK had also indicated it would contribute 
personnel to the center, but London had not yet provided 
details on numbers and functions. 
 
6.  The center was building relations with Turkish and 
international institutions, both private and public, and was 
actively exploring cooperation with the following 
institutions: 
 
--  Joint Special Forces University/USA 
--  Counter Terrorism Fellowship Programme/USA 
--  Center for Military Relations/USA 
--  George Marshall Center for Security Studies in 
Europe/USA-Germany 
--  Institute of Contemporary Internal Relations/China 
 
7.  The CoE-DAT plans to utilize both open and classified 
materials, although access to the latter would be subject to 
NATO security MOUs.  The briefer stated that all Alliance 
members would be invited to contribute information to the 
various terrorism databases the center planned to compile. 
When asked if intelligence from Turkish civilian agencies 
would be included among these sources, the briefer became 
evasive.  In a subsequent private conversation, a GOT 
official informed PolMilCouns that the Turkish National 
Intelligence Organization (MIT) and the Turkish National 
Police have been invited to send liaison officers. 
 
8.  A Manning Conference is planned for the last week of 
February, 2005.  TGS hoped that it might be held in Norfolk 
at ACT.  If that were not possible, it could be held in 
Ankara. 
 
9.  The first planned course for NATO/PfP personnel, "Defense 
Against Suicide Bombing," is scheduled for March 14-18, 2005. 
 Although TGS does not expect the CoE-DAT to be fully 
operational until June 2005, Turkey offered training at the 
center to Iraqi Security Force leaders (general and flag 
officers) on crowd and riot Control and on internal security. 
 Iraq declined, explaining that it cannot send personnel out 
of the country for training before the January 30 elections. 
EDELMAN