US embassy cable - 05ANKARA4619

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 004619 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/08/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PINS, TU, EUN 
SUBJECT: RESIGNATION OF TURKEY'S SECGEN FOR EU AFFAIRS 
REFLECTS DISARRAY IN AKP GOVERNMENT'S EU POLICY 
 
(U) Classified by Polcounselor John Kunstadter; reasons: E.O. 
12958 1.4 (b,d). 
 
1. (C) Summary: The resignation of Turkey's Secretary General 
for EU Affairs, a senior career diplomat highly regarded by 
his EU interlocutors, reflects a drift in ruling AKP's EU 
policies.  The resignation also foreshadows a fundamental 
political struggle between the secular State and 
Islamist-oriented AKP.  End summary. 
 
2. (U) Murat Sungar, Turkey's Secretary General for EU 
Affairs and a career diplomat with 37 years' service, 
announced Aug. 5 that he is resigning effective Sept. 30, 
three days before Turkey is scheduled to begin accession 
negotiations with the EU.  While marginalized and left 
undermanned and isolated in offices on the outskirts of 
Ankara by the AKP government, the EU Secretariat and Sungar 
have been Turkey's principal bureaucratic link with Brussels 
and EU capitals, a link valued and trusted by Brussels and EU 
ambassadors in Ankara. 
 
3. (C) In his statement to the press Sungar hoped his 
resignation would give the AKP government the possibility to 
work with "people of compatible political views."  Seasoned 
observers we talked to Aug. 6, including a counselor at the 
Prime Ministry, noted that Sungar's statement was a graceful 
but pointed way of indicating the gulf between the secular, 
rational, Euro-oriented corporate culture of Turkey's MFA and 
the elusive, Islamist-oriented, closed culture of AKP. 
 
4. (C) Aug. 6 centrist "Hurriyet", Turkey's 
largest-circulation daily, and left-of-center "Milliyet", 
owned by the same Dogan media group, featured the story with 
banner page 1 headlines.  One of our best contacts, a 
pre-eminent national security analyst, told us that 
"Hurriyet"'s deputy editor Enis Berberoglu had called him 
Aug. 6 to underscore that the banner headline reflected the 
Dogan group's assessment that Sungar's resignation is stark 
evidence of the deep tension between the secular culture of 
the Turkish State and the ever-clearer Islamist priorities 
and ad hoc approach to the EU of the AKP government. 
 
5. (C) AKP's attempt to squelch the news was evident both in 
the reluctance of Turkey's main TV channels (with the partial 
exception of NTV) to give play to the story Aug. 6 and in the 
venomous coverage of the story in Aug. 7 Islamist "Yeni 
Safak" the de facto press organ of AKP.  Using a derogatory 
headline implying that Sungar is both effete and deracinated, 
"Yeni Safak" blamed Sungar for the lack in Turkey's 
preparation for screening and harmonization and asserted 
without any grounds that he resigned because he had been 
miffed at not being given a senior ambassadorship in Europe. 
 
6. (C) Comment: Caught up in a Byzantine political rivalry 
with FonMin Gul, PM Erdogan waited almost five months to 
appoint a chief negotiator (and then chose a minister without 
political clout in the Cabinet).  Erdogan also avoided travel 
to any EU capital for seven months after the Dec. 17 EU 
summit but gave Gul no leeway to move forward with the EU in 
the meantime.  In this context, Sungar was left with no 
political direction and was granted no power by the AKP 
government effectively to coordinate preparations for the 
start of screening and harmonization.  His resignation 
reflects his frustration at AKP's drift and lack of a 
convincing EU strategy.  On a broader plane, his departure is 
a prelude to the approaching fundamental political struggle 
between the secular State and a party in power which appears 
more and more determined to change the nature of the State. 
MCELDOWNEY