US embassy cable - 03ANKARA2386

S E C R E T ANKARA 002386 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
STATE FOR EUR/SE, NEA/NGA, PMAT; OSD FOR ISA AND ISP; JCS 
FOR J5; EUCOM FOR J5, POLAD; CENTCOM FOR J5 AND POLAD; 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/19/2013 
TAGS: PREL, MARR, MOPS, TU, SY, IZ, ETTC 
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE TO TURKEY ON STATE OF US-SYRIA BILATERAL 
RELATIONS 
 
 
REF: A) STATE 93794 B) ANKARA 2372 
 
 
(u) Classified by Ambassador W. Robert Pearson.  Reasons: 
1.5 (B and D) 
 
 
1. (S) During a late afternoon April 11 meeting with MFA 
Director General for Bilateral Relations Burcuoglu (after FM 
Gul had announced he had canceled his trip to Damascus -- ref 
b), DCM conveyed USG views on the current state of US-Syrian 
relations (ref a).  DCM said he had intended to deliver the 
message in anticipation of FM Gul traveling to Syria.  Even 
though the FM had canceled the visit, the it was useful to 
share with the GOT current US views on US-Syrian relations. 
 
 
2. (S) After the DCM delivered ref a points, Burcuoglu said 
FM Gul would have delivered a similar message to Syrian 
officials had he visited Syria.  He described the canceled 
visit as a "missed opportunity."  Burcuoglu said that, given 
FM Gul's busy travel schedule (Burcuoglu said Gul would be 
traveling to Brussels, then to Athens and finally to Pakistan 
on April 21-22), there were no plans at the moment to 
reschedule the visit to Syria. 
PEARSON