US embassy cable - 05ANKARA1048

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 001048 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EB/TRA/AN 
DEPT PASS TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT 
PARIS, BRUSSELS FOR TSA, FAA 
NICOSIA FOR MDIXON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2015 
TAGS: EAIR, PREL, CY, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKISH MFA CONTINUES TO PUSH FOR DIRECT U.S. - 
NORTH CYPRUS FLIGHTS 
 
 
Classified By: 
(U) Classified by DCM Robert Deutsch, E.O. 12958, reasons 1.4 (b) and ( 
d). 
 
1. (U) This cable contains an action request in para 6. 
 
2. (C) Meeting with Econ Counselor and Econoff on February 15 
on a range of aviation and maritime subjects (septel), MFA 
Deputy Director General for Maritime and Aviation Affairs 
Vakur Gokdenizler raised the continuing GOT interest in 
establishing direct air services between North Cyprus and the 
United States.  As in previous meetings on this subject, he 
raised several possible means of moving closer to direct 
commercial flights.  These include: 
 
-- A direct military transport flight, since, he maintained, 
state aircraft are not covered by ICAO treaties; 
 
-- A direct THY flight from a U.S. airport to Ercan, 
returning to the U.S. after a stop in Turkey.  Gokdenizler 
suggested that, since the plane would return to the U.S. from 
a Turkish airport (presumably Istanbul) which U.S. 
authorities have certified as secure, there might be less 
need to do a U.S. review of Ercan Airport security; 
 
-- Creating an American Airlines - THY codeshare Istanbul - 
Ercan flight. 
 
3. (C) Gokdenizler understood that AA had written THY that an 
Istanbul-Ercan codeshare did not make commercial sense. 
Alluding to a conversation last fall with EB DAS Byerly at an 
ICAO conference in Montreal, Gokdenizler also acknowledged 
that the USG could not order AA to implement a codeshare to 
Ercan.  However, he stressed that FM Gul attached great 
importance to direct flights, and argued that they could 
contribute to a political solution in Cyprus by undermining 
the isolation of Turkish Cypriots.  Gokdenizler asked U.S. 
authorities to consider approaching AA to ask the firm to 
reconsider the codeshare idea. 
 
4. (SBU) Gokdenizler added that the GOT was doing everything 
possible on the technical level to remove barriers to direct 
flights.  In this regard, he asked whether TSA could share 
any observations from its informal visit to Ercan Airport. 
He stressed that he was not necessarily interested in a copy 
of a formal report.  He would be very happy with an 
unattributable non-paper describing any technical security 
issues that would need to be addressed at Ercan. 
 
5. (SBU) Econ Counselor responded that he would convey MFA's 
views on the codeshare to relevant Washington agencies, and 
that we would request information from TSA concerning its 
visit to Ercan Airport. 
 
6. (SBU) Action Request for TSA and EB:  Please advise 
whether there is information on security issues at Ercan that 
can be shared on an unofficial basis with the GOT.  End 
Action Request. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment:  Even if AA and other U.S. commercial 
carriers decide a direct flight to Ercan is not commercially 
viable, we think the GOT would pressure THY to operate such a 
flight at a loss for the sake of the symbolic political 
value.  End Comment. 
EDELMAN