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Tuesday, November 30, 2010     INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING

Cables: U.S. diplomats said Turkey's Erdogan
was obsessed by Israel

LONDON — The United States has quietly deemed Turkey an unreliable ally, government documents show.

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State Department cables acquired by WikiLeaks asserted that Washington was harboring increasing concern over the pro-Islamist government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan. The cables, some of about 250,000 acquired and released by WikiLeaks, showed deep U.S. suspicion of Turkey's emerging alliance with neighboring Iran and Syria.

"He's [Erdogan] a fundamentalist," the cable, reporting a meeting between the U.S. and Israeli ambassadors, said.


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The October 2009 cable reported a meeting between U.S. ambassador James Jeffrey and his Israeli counterpart, Gaby Levy. Jeffrey's cable to the State Department quoted Levy as reporting Erdogan's hatred of Israel, Middle East Newsline reported.

"He hates us religiously and his hatred is spreading," Levy was quoted as saying.

U.S. diplomats were said to have endorsed the Israeli assessment and said Erdogan was obsessed by Israel. The cables reported meetings in which senior U.S. officials urged Ankara to withdraw its hostile policy toward the Jewish state.

"Our discussions with contacts both inside and outside of the Turkish government on Turkey's deteriorating relations with Israel tend to confirm Levy's thesis that Erdogan simply hates Israel," the cable said.

The cable added that Erdogan's hatred of Israel and the West was fueled by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Davutoglu was deemed "exceptionally dangerous" and encouraged the prime minister to adopt a pro-Islamist foreign policy.

"He [Erdogan] has surrounded himself with an iron ring of sycophantic — but contemptuous — advisors," the cable said.

Erdogan was described as ignorant of foreign affairs and resistant to assessments by the Foreign Ministry or the military. The exception, a January 2010 cable said, was Davutoglu, who lobbied Erdogan to expand Turkey's sphere of influence to Central Asia and the Balkans.

"It [Turkey] has the ambitions of Rolls Royce but the means of Rover," the cable said.

A cable sent in 2005 said Erdogan avoids reading with the exception of the pro-Islamist newspapers. The Turkish prime minister was said to have been attracted to conspiracy theories.

"According to a broad range of our contacts, Erdogan reads minimally, mainly the Islamist-leaning press," the 2005 cable said. "He relies on his charisma, instincts, and the filterings of advisors who pull conspiracy theories off the Web or are lost in neo-Ottoman Islamist fantasies."

Davutoglu has been credited with Turkey's so-called "zero-problem" policy, in which Ankara forged strategic ties with Iran and Syria. The policy, which included Turkey's defense of Iran's nuclear program, has sparked concern both in the United States and the European Union.

A "confidential" cable dated Feb. 25, 2010 reported a tense meeting between Undersecretary of State William Burns and his Turkish counterpart, Feridun Sinirlioglu, regarding Iran. Burns was said to have urged Ankara to convince Iran that "it is on the wrong course." In response, Sinirlioglu acknowledged regional concern over Iran's nuclear program.

"Alarm bells are ringing even in Damascus," Sinirlioglu was quoted as saying.

Still, Jeffrey, who has left Ankara, said Erdogan does not intend to abandon either NATO or efforts for Turkish membership in the European Union. The ambassador urged Washington to continue to engage with Ankara.

"Does all this mean that the country is becoming more focused on the Islamist world and its Muslim tradition in its foreign policy?" a January 2010 cable asked. "Absolutely. Does it mean that it is 'abandoning' or wants to abandon its traditional Western orientation and willingness to cooperate with us? Absolutely not."



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