VZCZCXRO7455
OO RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHNP RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHTRO
DE RUCNDT #0417/01 1131440
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 231440Z APR 09
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6388
INFO RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000417 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2019 
TAGS: PREL PGOV UNFICYP UNSC CY TU
SUBJECT: UN/CYPRUS: TURKISH PERMREP OFFERS TO ADVANCE DATE 
FOR UNFICYP ADOPTION 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Alejandro Wolff for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY.  Turkish Permrep Baki Ilkin has proposed 
advancing the date of the adoption of a rollover of the 
United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) to the 
end of May in order to avoid having the adoption fall during 
Turkey's June Security Council presidency.  Ilkin told 
Ambassador Wolff that in order to agree to advance the date, 
Ankara would need assurances that the Council discussion of 
the UNFICYP report and resolution would take place in closed 
consultations, and that only Council members would 
participate in the formal meeting to adopt the resolution. 
Turkey would also need assurances that the text of the 
resolution would be something that Ankara could accept, even 
if Turkey would vote against the resolution and would make a 
short explanation of vote after the adoption.  Ambassador 
Wolff said that the U.S. would support Turkey with regard to 
advancing the date of the adoption and a balanced text, but 
stressed that Turkey would also need buy-in from Russia, the 
U.K. and France for its preferences on the resolution text. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (C) Turkish Permrep Baki Ilkin told Ambassador Wolff on 
April 21 that he had consulted with Ankara about how to 
handle the rollover resolution for the UN Peacekeeping Force 
in Cyprus (UNFICYP).  The current mandate (Res 1847) expires 
on June 15, which coincides with Turkey's June presidency of 
the Security Council.  Ilkin said he had proposed to Ankara 
that adoption of the rollover be advanced by a few weeks so 
that it would fall in Russia's May Security Council 
presidency. According to Ilkin, U.K. Permrep John Sawers had 
initially suggested the possibility to Ilkin of advancing the 
date of the adoption, but Ankara was not fully on board with 
this approach.  Ankara feared the change in procedure could 
be used by the Greek Cypriots to claim a victory, since 
Cyprus has been actively lobbying for the Council session to 
take place in May.  Ilkin said he had already discussed 
advancing the date with Russian Deputy Permrep Dolgov who had 
given positive signals.  Ilkin had also raised the issue with 
U/SYG for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe, who said that the UN 
could be able to advance the publication date for the Cyprus 
report to May 15, if necessary, to accommodate an adoption of 
the UNFICYP rollover at the end of May.  (Resolution 1847 
calls for the report to be issued by June 1.) 
 
¶3. (C) Ilkin said that in order to justify advancing the 
meeting to May, he would need to assure Ankara that the 
discussion of the SYG's report would take place during closed 
consultations, and Cyprus would not be invited to participate 
in the open meeting  during which the adoption would take 
place.  Ilkin said that Turkey would vote against the 
resolution in any event, and would make a brief explanation 
of vote (EOV) after the adoption.  He acknowledged that 
Turkey's "no" vote would be a break with the Council's past 
practice of adopting the UNFICYP resolution unanimously. 
Ilkin stressed that even though Turkey would vote against the 
resolution, the wording would need to be something that 
Turkey could live with.  He said that his mission would give 
further details to the U.S. mission on specific Turkish 
concerns on the resolution. 
 
¶4. (C) If Turkey's conditions for moving the Council meeting 
to May could not be met, Ankara was prepared to hold the 
adoption under its June presidency. Ilkin emphasized that 
Turkey did not see any reason to engage in a harsh debate 
over the Cyprus resolution while reunification negotiations 
were ongoing, but that Turkey could also not be seen to be 
weak in the Council. Ilkin's stated preference would be to 
reach consensus on moving the adoption to the end of May. 
 
¶5. (C) Ambassador Wolff said that the United States would 
support Turkey whether its decision would be to advance the 
date of the UNFICYP adoption to May or to keep it in June. 
Wolff noted that Council practice for the last several years 
had been to discuss the SYG report in closed consultations, 
and to adopt the resolution in a session with participation 
only of Council members. (The last time Cyprus participated 
in a Council meeting on UNFICYP was 1984.)  Wolff said he 
understood Ilkin's concerns about the text in the resolution, 
and suggested that the best way to ensure that the text is 
acceptable would be to keep to previously agreed language. 
He cautioned that after it becomes known that Turkey would 
vote against the resolution, thereby breaking with past 
practice of a unanimous adoption, other members could attempt 
to insert language they knew to be unacceptable to Turkey. 
Wolff stressed that Turkey would need to get a clear 
understanding from Russia, the U.K. (which takes the pen on 
Cyprus resolutions) and France of Turkey's preferences on the 
resolution text, since they could have strong views on the 
substance of a rollover resolution. 
 
 
USUN NEW Y 00000417  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶6. (C) Wolff encouraged Ilkin to continue to discuss the 
proposal with the U.K. and Russia, and said that the U.S. 
would do so as well. 
Rice