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DE RUEHGB #2637/01 2741235
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FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO IRAQ COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 002637 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/30/2019 
TAGS: PREL TU IZ
SUBJECT: RRT ERBIL: KRG BULLISH ON RELATIONS WITH TURKEY 
 
BAGHDAD 00002637  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: RRT Erbil Team Leader Andrew Snow for reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1.  (U) This is an RRT Erbil cable. 
 
¶2.  (C) Summary: Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) 
officials told us recently they are pleased with the KRG's 
improving relations with Turkey, casting this development -- 
along with strong relations with the United States -- as a 
counter to malign Iranian influence.  These KRG officials, 
like other Kurdish leaders, stressed that the Kurds are a 
natural and more reliable ally to the United States and 
Turkey, in the latter case despite Turkey's treatment of its 
own Kurds.  The KRG appears eager to maximize economic ties 
with Turkey, even as officials complain that for now the 
Turks tended to sell consumer goods without investing. 
Despite KRG enthusiasm over improved relations with Ankara, 
there continues to be some ambivalence in its relationship 
with the Turkish consul in Mosul, who is not yet authorized 
to deal with the KRG on an official basis. End Summary. 
 
Relations with Ankara 
--------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) In recent discussions with RRT Leader, KRG Presidency 
Chief of Staff Dr. Fuad Hussein, Minister Responsible for 
External Relations Falah Mustafa, and KDP External Relations 
Representative Safeen Sizayee were exuberant about the 
improvement in their relations with the GOT, saying they have 
been working behind the scenes for a long time to nurture the 
relationship.  These officials said they had told Turkish 
leaders that Erbil would be careful not to do anything that 
would create problems for the GOT.  The KRG officials were 
thrilled that the GOT is now willing to receive GOI 
delegations that include KRG officials, in contrast to 
earlier GOT policy, and are very appreciative of President 
Gul,s reference to the "Kurdistan Region of Iraq" on his 
visit to Baghdad in March, a departure from previous GOT 
policy. 
 
KRG-Turkey-U.S. "Anti-Iran" Axis 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) In the eyes of our KRG interlocutors, the Kurds are 
natural allies of Turkey and the United States in the region, 
 
saying the three formed a bulwark against Iranian influence. 
KRG officials say they are drawn to Turkey as the most 
democratic, secular, western, and private-sector-oriented of 
their neighbors, and as their link to Europe.  (COMMENT: KRG 
officials tend not to be interested in Middle Eastern models. 
 For example, in seeking RRT assistance in collecting 
information about how political parties are funded in other 
countries, KRG parliamentary leader Kamal Kirkuki 
specifically expressed interest in western European and 
Turkish models, rejecting those in the region for being "not 
democratic." END COMMENT.) 
 
¶5. (C) Iranian influence -- and how the KRG-Turkey axis can 
counter it -- was a frequent theme in our conversations in 
Erbil.  KRG officials characterized the Kurds as true friends 
of the United States, while deriding Arab leaders in Baghdad 
as under Iranian influence.  For this reason, the KRG 
officials said, the GOI would never be a reliable ally to the 
United States.  As for Iranian interference in Iraq, the 
KRG's Falah Mustafa accused Iran of trying to influence the 
July 25 regional elections by supporting the leading opponent 
of President Barzani, Kemal Mirawildi.  (Note: KDP 
politicians tend to be more anti-Iranian than PUK 
politicians, who have close relations with Iran. End Note) 
 
KRG-Turkey Economic Ties 
------------------------ 
 
¶6. (C) KRG officials and businessmen tend to grumble that 
Turkish businessmen mostly just sell their goods and rarely 
invest in the KR.  The Director of the Dohuk Provincial 
Investment Board told RRToffs that, out of $16 billion in 
foreign investment in the KR, only $80 million is from 
Qforeign investment in the KR, only $80 million is from 
Turkey.  (COMMENT: This figure seems low given Turkish 
investment in the oil sector and the ubiquitous Turkish 
business presence. END COMMENT.) Even so, the KRG welcomes 
the business connection which they see as strategic to ensure 
Turkey has a stake in the KR.  Safeen Dizayee said KRG Prime 
Minister Nechirvan Barzani had worked hard on economic 
integration with Turkey. 
 
¶7. (C) Ashti Hawrami said that Turkey is increasingly 
attracted to the KR,s oil and gas potential and that "we are 
just an extension of Turkey."  According to Hawrami, Turkey 
sees the KR,s stability and non-hostility and understands 
the KRG has resources it is willing to share.  One American 
businessman, based in Erbil with good connections to senior 
KRG officials, said Turkish company Genel Enerji, which has a 
producing oil field in the KR, had been lobbying the GOT with 
 
BAGHDAD 00002637  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
regard to its domestic Kurdish initiative.  Although the 
Dohuk Investment Board Director and others have told the RRT 
that Turkish goods are starting to feel competitive pressure 
from Iranian and goods transported via Jordan through 
now-peaceful Anbar, Turkish consumer goods continue to 
dominate the market here.  Meanwhile, the Turkish consul in 
Mosul noted to RRToffs that many smaller Turkish companies 
had been cheated or blackmailed in the KR, and the Turkish 
company building the new Erbil airport had run into a 
contract dispute, as had construction heavyweight Tepe in 
building portions of the new American University in 
Sulaimaniyah campus. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Despite these problems, Turkish business now has a 
huge and apparently growing stake in the KR market.  Other 
factors contributing to continued improvement in KR-Turkey 
relations are Turkey's domestic Kurdish initiative and 
increased travel to Turkey by KR citizens.  KRG officials and 
media pundits are all pleased to see Turkey considering 
allowing Turkish Kurds more rights of cultural expression, 
although KRG officials are careful not to say anything that 
might undermine the GOT's efforts or strain Turkey-KRG 
relations.  In recent years there has also been an increase 
in travel by ordinary Iraqi Kurds to Turkey.  Turkish charter 
company Atlas Jet has frequent flights to Istanbul and is 
able to command premium prices.  A long-time American 
resident of the KR said Turkish authorities have greatly 
eased previously onerous border formalities for Iraqis.  He 
also said Iraqi Kurds are now able to speak Kurdish in Turkey 
without incident. 
 
¶10. (C) COMMENT:  Despite Turkey's frictions with the PUK and 
its treatment of Kurds in Turkey, the KRG appears eager to 
build relations with Turkey.  Still, the Kurds are sensitive 
to the limits of their engagement.  For example, they suspect 
that the local Turkish consul has a mandate from Ankara to 
engage with the three provinces as provinces, but not the KRG 
central leadership, although it is far from clear whether 
this is a matter of choice or instruction on the consul's 
part.  Notions of a Turkey-KRG-U.S. axis to counter Iran may 
be calculated in part to appeal to U.S. concerns about malign 
Iranian influence in Iraq.  KRG leaders are careful to repeat 
the mantra that they will remain part of a federal, 
democratic Iraq, but the way they talk about Turkey and about 
Iranian influence in Baghdad -- and the way they complain 
about the Turkish consul's reluctance to engage the KRG -- 
show the KRG is reticent to let Baghdad determine the Kurds' 
relationship with neighbors and the United States. END 
COMMENT. 
HASLACH