US embassy cable - 02ANKARA8380

S E C R E T ANKARA 008380 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2012 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PINS, TU 
SUBJECT: TURKEY'S NEW FOREIGN MINISTER: YASAR YAKIS 
 
 (U) Classified by DCM Robert Deutsch; reasons: 1.5 (b,d). 
 
 
1. (U) Turkey's 58th government, announced Nov. 18, includes 
former career diplomat and three-time ambassador Yasar 
(Yashar) Yakis (Yah-kish) as Foreign Minister.  Bio below. 
 
 
2. (C) A mostly conventionally-minded, retired 39-year 
veteran of the MFA, Yakis is now AK Vice Chairman for foreign 
affairs.  He not in the inner circle of AK Chairman Erdogan's 
advisors; according to a number of younger AK officials, some 
of them among Erdogan's closer advisors, Erdogan considers 
Yakis useful as a barbarian handler/liaison to the Kemalist 
foreign policy establishment but will keep his own counsel; 
indeed, Erdogan has now appointed as his foreign policy 
advisor Egemen Bagis, who spent 17 years in the U.S. and is 
intimately familiar with, and a promoter of, the American way 
of doing things. 
 
 
3. (U) Yakis was born 1938 in Akcakoca on the Black Sea.  Of 
Laz extraction (an ethnic minority related to Georgians; 
known for their mixture of cleverness and otherworldly sense 
of humor and often the butt of jokes by other Turks). 
Graduated from Ankara U. Political Science Faculty, which at 
the time was the premier institution for training high civil 
servants and a bastion of Kemalism.  Entered the Turkish 
Diplomatic Service 1962.  Served in the following positions 
until 1988: Antwerp Consulate General; Lagos; NATO Defense 
College; Counselor at Turkey's Permanent Mission to NATO; 
Counselor in Damascus; head of the Economic and Commercial 
Cooperation Permanent Committee of the Islamic Conference 
Organization in Jiddah; formed and headed the ISEDAK 
Coordination Bureau in Turkey's State Planning Organization. 
From 1988-92 Ambassador to Riyadh; 1992-95 MFA Deputy 
Undersecretary for Economic Affairs; 1995-98 Ambassador to 
Cairo; 1998-2001 Permanent Representative at Turkey's Mission 
to the UN in Vienna.  Retired 2001. 
 
 
4. (U) Married, one child.  Speaks French, Arabic, fluent 
English.  Recipient of the Saudi Government's King Abdulaziz 
Award (first degree).  Several publications, inter alia on 
Middle East water issues, Histadrut, and Turco-Egyptian 
Relations. 
 
 
5. (S) Yakis is described by both AK officials and MFA 
officials as liable to be captured by the MFA establishment 
if, as expected, he becomes Foreign Minister.  One MFA 
contact described him as someone who would not be strong at 
the MFA helm.  From Embassy contacts with him he strikes us 
as extraordinarily protocol-conscious and as having a chip on 
his shoulder with regard to the MFA: at once eager to return 
at a higher rank than his former colleagues and at the same 
time anxious to prove that his talents were unrecognized 
during his career.  He has told us he wants to take a fresh 
look at Turkey's rocky relations with its Arab neighbors and 
Iran. 
 
 
6. (S) The one area where we have seen him move beyond 
conventional thinking is Iraq.  He has expressed a strong 
preference for a peaceful solution, but also engaged in 
creative thinking in our presence about how to handle the 
problem of the Kurds in Northern Iraq, floating the idea that 
perhaps the creation of two independent states there would 
help keep the Kurds in check. 
PEARSON