VZCZCXYZ0001
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTH #1058/01 1091442
ZNY CCCCC ZZH (CCY ADBD7158 MSI6070-695)
O 191442Z APR 06 ZDS
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5211
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 001058 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR THE SECRETARY FROM AMBASSADOR CHARLES RIES 
 
C O R R E C T E D COPY TEXT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/18/2014 
TAGS: PREL PGOV GR CY TU VISIT
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER: YOUR APRIL 27 VISIT TO ATHENS 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Charles P. Ries.  Reasons 1.4(b/d). 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY:  Thank you for agreeing to make a quick stop 
in Athens on April 27.  The Greek Government is delighted you 
are able to visit so soon after FM Bakoyannis' March 23 trip 
to Washington, and sees your visit as more proof of the 
deepening U.S.-Greece strategic partnership, or as Bakoyannis 
called it in Washington, "the historic relationship between 
the world's strongest democracy and the world's oldest 
democracy." 
 
¶2.  (C) Your stop here will emphasize to a skeptical Greek 
public the importance we attach to Greek participation in the 
Global War on Terror, in the broader Middle East, and in the 
region.  It also gives us a chance to emphasize the interest 
we have in Greece's potential contribution to European gas 
security -- a "front burner" issue given Greece's role in two 
regional pipeline projects. 
 
¶3.  (C) To make these points, and to review the latest 
thinking on regional issues -- Cyprus and Kosovo, in 
particular -- we have arranged meetings with both Prime 
Minister Karamanlis and Foreign Minister Bakoyannis.  We 
expect you will also take part in a press event and hope you 
will agree to a "Meet and Greet" event with the Embassy 
community.  While this is your first visit to Greece as 
Secrtary of State (indeed, this is the first solo SecState 
visit to Greece since 1993), we want to present this visit to 
the Greeks not as a unique event but as part of a continuum 
of U.S.-Greek consultations.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶4.  (C) Your visit is well-timed to enlist Greece's 
contributions to transformational diplomacy -- with the 
emphasis on securing Greek help for a number of key 
objectives in the Eastern Med.  Bakoyannis can be an 
excellent partner in this regard -- she has made one of her 
own priorities to transform Greek attitudes about the United 
States.  Both transformations are necessary to shore up this 
important corner of Europe, where the ethnic rivalries in 
ex-Yugoslavia, Cyprus and the Middle East have often 
collided.  In an April 18 meeting with me, Bakoyannis 
outlined the following as likely topics for discussion with 
you: 
 
THE BALKANS: As the 2005-2006 Chair of the Southeast European 
Cooperation Process (SEECP), Greece hosted SEECP 
consultations with the Contact Group April 5 to discuss the 
Kosovo status negotiations, and the supporting role to be 
played by the states in the region.  On April 18 USG Special 
Envoy Frank Wisner was in Athens for similar consultations. 
Both visits are the fruit of hard work by the Greeks to 
become a constructive player in the region, and, indeed, 
Greece -- as the largest investor in the Balkans -- has a 
long-term interest in supporting the democratization and 
economic growth of its neighbors.  That said, Frank Wisner 
had a tough meeting with FM Bakoyannis, who continued to 
argue for a slower approach to a Kosovo solution, saying that 
much more needs to be done by the international community to 
keep Belgrade on board.  She believes that Serbia's nascent 
democracy will not be able to withstand both Montenegro's and 
Kosovo's independence in the same year.  Both she and Wisner, 
however, did agree to fully and publicly support the next 
phase of UN Envoy Ahtisaari's work. 
 
-- You should welcome Greece's interest in supporting a 
post-settlement Kosovo, particularly in terms of the tangible 
assistance Greece could provide to Kosovo's Serbs.  The 
Greeks need to be reminded, however, that a drawn-out 
negotiating process is not in the interests of stability in 
the region.  NOTE: Either/both the PM and FM will raise the 
Macedonia name issue, although we suspect it will be mainly 
for the record.  We continue to support the UN-led process 
under Matt Nimetz.  The Greeks appear to believe the 
Macedonians may be ready to deal following their elections 
this year.  END NOTE. 
 
GREECE-TURKEY-CYPRUS:  Both the PM and FM will tell you they 
continue to support Turkey's EU accession "in spite of" 
Ankara's intransigence on Aegean issues and its refusal to 
reopen the Halki Seminary.  Turkey's recent decision to meet 
a Hamas delegation, in the face of EU consensus to keep Hamas 
isolated, was seen here as an worrying indication of how 
Turkish interests can diverge from those of the EU.  On 
Cyprus, Bakoyannis will want to present more evidence, as a 
result of her April 6 trip to Nicosia, that Papadopoulos is 
committed to reunifying the island.  She understands that 
unless a way can be found for Turkey to open its ports and 
airports to Cyprus this year, the EU-Turkey accession process 
will be endangered.  The Greek foreign ministry told us that 
one other element of her April 6 consultations in Nicosia was 
to meet with top Greek Cypriot clergy to stress how the two 
sides can live together. 
 
-- Our goal is to enlist Greek help to avoid a trainwreck 
between the two sputtering engines of Turkey's EU accession 
and a Cyprus settlement.  Turkey's recent package of 
political reforms (announced April 12) includes a law on 
minority foundations that would allow non-Muslim communities 
to reclaim property expropriated by the Turkish state. 
Bakoyannis told me that this legislation might provide Greece 
with a mechanism to solve Greek-Turkish disputes over the 
status of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul in a way 
that would facilitate Turkey's EU accession, and she will be 
interested in what you heard on this topic in Ankara.  It 
would be useful to hear more of her thinking on the way 
forward on Cyprus, as well as her ideas for interfaith 
dialogue on the island. 
 
DIALOGUE OF CIVILIZATIONS: In her meetings in Washington, 
Bakoyannis discussed her desire to promote a dialogue of 
civilizations, and has her eye on opportunities to use Athens 
as a bridge between the western and Muslim worlds.  Since her 
return, Bakoyannis has pushed for the opening of a mosque in 
downtown Athens. 
 
-- Athens is the only EU capital without a mosque, although 
10 percent of Greece's population is now Muslim (mostly 
Albanian, but Athens is home to as many as 100,000 economic 
migrants from the broader Middle East).  Bakoyannis' remarks 
may have prompted an announcement by the Orthodox Church that 
it will turn over property for the construction of the first 
Muslim cemetery in Athens.  PM Karamanlis' offer to host a 
BMENA ministerial event is still on the table, and you could 
explore with both the PM and FM how Athens might support 
greater outreach to the Middle East. 
 
AFGHANISTAN: Greece has an engineering unit and a medical 
facility in Kabul, and will lead the ISAF HQ battalion in 
¶2008.  The British general in charge of ISAF operations told 
us that the Greeks were doing a good job, notwithstanding 
some language difficulties.  He had wanted, however, to put a 
Greek engineering officer in charge of NATO infrastructure in 
the country, but was frustrated by Greece's national caveat 
preventing its troops from operating outside Kabul. 
 
-- Greece can, and should, do more in Afghanistan.  We are 
interested in sharing more ideas about how Greece could take 
on responsibility for a PRT in the north.  You might mention 
the need to lift national caveats, especially as Greek troops 
are sought after for important NATO responsibilities. 
 
IRAN:  Greece has been a staunch supporter of our goal to get 
Iran to stop its enrichment program.  Faced with 
Ahmadinejad's April 11 announcement that Iran had "joined the 
nuclear club," Greece, as a non-permanent member of the UNSC 
and a member of the Board of Governors of the IAEA, gives 
every indication of being in sync with the EU3.  Greece 
supports work in New York on a Chapter VII resolution, and is 
supportive in discussions of sanctions at the EU level. 
 
-- We have appreciated the willingness of senior Greek 
policymakers to work with us at every step of the way since 
last September's IAEA meeting to the ongoing work in the 
UNSC.  You can keep Greece firmly in our camp by sharing with 
Bakoyannis our thinking on next steps. 
 
ENERGY SECURITY: Greece has just completed a link-up with the 
Turkish natural gas grid, and is committed to a transit 
pipeline to Italy.  When completed, such a pipeline would 
represent the first non-Russian controlled route for Caspian 
natural gas to Western Europe.  As a result, in March, Greece 
found itself in the cross hairs of an intense Gazprom-led 
effort to lock-up the pipeline with a long-term contract 
exclusively for Russian natural gas.  To get its way, Russia 
has not hesitated to play its many cards with Greece -- it is 
the source of 80 percent of the country's natural gas 
supplies through 2016, and can play a key role in the 
financing of the Burgas-Alexandroupoli Bosphorus-bypass oil 
pipeline from Bulgaria to Greece, which the Greeks very much 
want to see constructed.  The Russians have pushed their 
energy agenda at a very high level, with recent visits to 
Athens by Gazprom Chair Alexei Miller followed quickly by 
that of Russian FonMin Lavrov.  Although Greece relies on 
Russian goodwill in the short-medium term, it has nonetheless 
shown itself receptive to putting Caspian gas into the 
Turkey-Greece-Italy Interconnector.  EUR DAS Bryza had a very 
successful visit to Athens March 30-31 to provide top 
government and private sector energy players with information 
and support to push back against Russian/Gasprom pressure. 
 
-- As you did in Washington, you should underscore our 
support for Greece's efforts to play a constructive role 
within Europe on energy, and to urge the Greeks to find a way 
to allow Azeri gas through to Europe. 
 
------------- 
EMBASSY ANNEX 
------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Construction of the new Embassy Annex is well 
underway and is on-time and on-budget.  It will be completed 
by spring of 2007.  The project will cost approximately USD 
40 million, of which roughly USD 10 million will be awarded 
to Greek companies through construction-related contracts and 
services employing 200 local construction workers during the 
two years.  Once completed, this facility will give us 
state-of-the-art capability for our consular, commercial and 
public affairs sections, which serve more than 200 visitors 
daily. 
 
-- A note on consular affairs:  Bakoyannis will raise again 
Greece's quiet campaign to be included in the Visa Waiver 
Program, an issue she discussed in many of her meetings in 
Washington, and one which is dear to her heart.  Greece has 
recently rolled out a new, high-security, biometric passport, 
and will soon start issuing secure diplomatic and official 
passports.  We understand all the old passports will be out 
of circulation by the end of the year.  Recent data appears 
to show that Greece meets VWP overstay and visa refusal 
criteria.  Greece is the only Schengen member among VWP 
aspirants.  I have told Bakoyannis that DHS had not yet begun 
to review possible new VWP participants, and that we should 
work closely together to achieve progress and manage 
expectations. 
 
----------------------- 
PRESS DURING YOUR VISIT 
----------------------- 
 
¶6.  (C) The Greek media is generally viewed as 
sensationalist, irresponsible, and anti-American, even by 
Greeks.  Nearly every day we read stories of imagined or 
exaggerated U.S. attempts to control Greece's domestic 
politcal scene, pressure Greece into supporting U.S. 
interests in the region, secure oil supplies for Americans, 
or subvert the rights of Americans and/or non-Americans in 
some part of the globe.  By far the best means to set the 
record straight on U.S. interests and activities are 
interviews with high-ranking USG officials. 
 
¶7.  (C) For your visit, we are recommending an interview with 
ERT (Greek state television), which makes a decent effort to 
present balanced news.  In a one-on-one interview with ERT's 
well-regarded diplomatic correspondent, we anticipate 
serious, sober questions about the strategic partnership with 
Greece, Greek-Turkish-Cyprus relations, the Macedonian name 
issue, Kosovo, Iran, Iraq, and the Visa Waiver Program. 
(These are also the issues that will come up during your 
joint press availability with the FM at the Foreign 
Ministry.)  We expect portions of the interview to run during 
the national evening news on ERT, with other stations using 
portions in their broadcasts.  The interview in its entirety 
would be run the following day on ERT. 
 
¶8.  (C) NOTE: The phone-tapping scandal that began February 
2, when the government confirmed that cell phones belonging 
to high-ranking officials had been tapped by unknown agents, 
is very much alive.  There is widespread speculation that the 
U.S. is the perpetrator.  Karamanlis and Bakoyannis are 
determined not to let this belief impede our bilateral 
cooperation, and neither are likely to raise this issue with 
you.  We have not commented on the allegations or the ongoing 
investigation.  END NOTE. 
 
-------------------------- 
SECURITY DURING YOUR VISIT 
-------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (C) There is a strong possibility that there will be one 
or more demonstrations by both leftist groups and anarchists 
during your visit.  We have every expectation that the 
Hellenic Police will exercise tight control over their 
movements.  There are no other indications of any threat to 
you or your delegation by any known terrorist groups.  We 
will monitor both situations closely. 
Ries