US, Turkey split over views on Syria, cables say

The United States administration expressed skepticism toward Turkish government attempts to mend ties with Syria to encourage the Arab country to enact reforms and showed no interest in entering tripartite dialogue, according to leaked U.S. cables from 2005.

“Our correspondents within the Turkish government say that Bashar al-Assad’s stranglehold on the regime is too weak to sustain anything beyond economic reforms,” read the cable link from Robert Deutsch, a U.S. diplomat in Ankara, published by the Turkish partner of WikiLeaks, daily Taraf.

The cable went further to say that the leaders of the Turkish government were trying to position Turkey in the role of a liaison between the United States, Israel and Syria, while encouraging economic reforms that could later lead to political reforms.

Calling the renewal of ties between Syria and Turkey a “lovefest,” the U.S. diplomat interpreted the Turkish government’s views on Syria as a combination of “wishful thinking and neo-Ottoman nostalgia.”

According to the cable, Deutsch also reminded an official from the Turkish Foreign Ministry that Turkey’s military threats against Syria in 1998 to expel Abdullah Öcalan, the now imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, had worked. Such concrete messages would be more effective against Syria, said Deutsch, according to the cable.

Another cable sent by the U.S. acting ambassador in Ankara, Nancy McEldowney, also revealed American reservations about the Turkish government’s belief in encouraging reforms in Syria by strengthening al-Assad’s hand. According to the cable, the U.S. diplomat expressed the American administration’s anxiety over a seeming lack of consensus in the international community regarding Syria’s behavior. McEldowney said rapprochement between Turkey and Syria could be used by the Syrian regime as a tool to gain further legitimacy.

McEldowney also said Turkish President Abdullah Gül felt “used” by the Syrian regime and was looking for ways to turn down a visit by al-Assad and his wife to Turkey, according to the cable.