USIA - Unofficial Transcript: Tarnoff Ankara Press Conference (96-07-02)

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From: The United States Information Agency (USIA) Gopher at <gopher://gopher.usia.gov>

UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT: TARNOFF 7/2 ANKARA PRESS CONFERENCE

(Emphasizes "particular" U.S. interest in Turkey) (2730)

At a July 2 news conference in Ankara, he noted that the security relationship between the two countries dates from the time U.S. and Turkish troops fought side by side in the Korean War.

In the post-Cold War world, he said, "Turkey is even more important to the U.S. because Turkey stands at the crossroads of U.S. interests stretching from the Balkans, where Turkish and U.S. forces are helping to maintain stability, to the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia."

Tarnoff said, "We also discussed Iraq. The United States is committed to the unity, territorial integrity, and independence of Iraq. The United States remains firmly opposed to the creation of an independent Kurdish state. And I acknowledge the immense economic sacrifices of Turkey's fidelity to the U.N. sanctions against Iraq. It is our hope that the implementation of Security Council Resolution 986 will bring relief, not only to Iraqis suffering under Saddam Hussein's misrule, but also to the Turkish economy. We reviewed the ongoing talks designed to meet, as far as possible, Turkey's concerns about Operation Provide Comfort, which we and our coalition partners believe is vital to maintaining regional stability and should be renewed."

Tarnoff came to Turkey for consultations with President Suleyman Demirel, Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller, and the new Minister of Defense, Turan Tayan.

Tarnoff was introduced at the news conference by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Marc Grossman:

Following is an unofficial transcript of the news conference received from U.S. Information Service in Ankara:

AMBASSADOR MARC GROSSMAN: Ladies and, gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us today. I know it's sort of hot in this room, so we will make this as brief and as useful as we possibly can. We are also celebrating our Independence Day this afternoon at the Residence, so we are here to meet you, to have Under Secretary Tarnoff make a short statement, and then, of course, he would be glad to answer any questions. It is a personal and professional pleasure to introduce to you the under secretary of state at the Department of State. Let me frame that for you: Under Secretary Tarnoff is the number three ranking official in the State Department and a very close collaborator of President Clinton and Secretary Christopher. He comes to Turkey after participating with the president and the secretary at the summit in Lyon. What we would like to do is ask the under secretary to make a short statement, and then we would be very glad to answer any of your questions. It is my pleasure to introduce Under Secretary Peter Tarnoff.

TARNOFF: Ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to be in Turkey again, the more so because on this occasion I was able to bring my family and spend some time enjoying the beautiful and historic city of Istanbul before coming to Ankara last night.

My visit and that of the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Jan Lodal has been planned for some tine, four or five weeks. I came for political consultations. It has been an honor to be received by President Demirel. And I also called on Prime Minister Erbakan, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mrs. Ciller. Mr. Lodal called on the new Minister of Defense, Mr. Tayan, as well as members of the Turkish General Staff. I would like to thank Under Secretary Oymen for his hospitality to me in the Foreign Ministry and at lunch. We discussed many subjects in the context of our long-standing, close ties, including our joint commitment to democracy, human rights, operation Provide Comfort and maintaining stability in the region, including Greece, Cyprus and the Aegean.

I would like to underscore that we discussed with confidence and candor, in all of the conversations that I had, the values, interests and goals which unite our two countries and governments. As a democratic nation, we have a particular interest in the enlargement of the democratic sphere, in which Turkey, as the region's only democratic and secular Muslim state, plays an important role. Our security relationship, anchored in NATO, dates from the days when Turkish and American troops fought side by side in Korea. In the post-Cold War world, Turkey is even more important to the U.S. because Turkey stands at the crossroads of U.S. interests stretching from the Balkans, where Turkish and U.S. forces are helping to maintain stability, to the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Just after the suicidal incident in Tunceli and the explosion in Saudi Arabia, in my discussions I renewed our governments' shared commitment to eradicate terrorism wherever it strikes. indeed, I have just come, as Ambassador Grossman indicated, from Lyon, where terrorism was high on the G-7 agenda. I reiterated our conviction that the PKK is a vicious terrorist organization which represents no responsible element in Turkey or elsewhere.

We also discussed Iraq. The United States is committed to the unity, territorial integrity, and independence of Iraq. The United States remains firmly opposed to the creation of an independent Kurdish state. And I acknowledge the immense economic sacrifices of Turkey's fidelity to the U.N. sanctions against Iraq. It is our hope that the implementation of Security Council Resolution 986 will bring relief, not only to Iraqis suffering under Saddam Hussein's misrule, but also to the Turkish economy. We reviewed the ongoing talks designed to meet, as far as possible, Turkey's concerns about Operation Provide Comfort, which we and our coalition partners believe is vital to maintaining regional stability and should be renewed.

We discussed relations between Turkey and Greece, where I will go, leaving Ankara this evening. I expressed the hope that the two countries, both NATO allies of the United States, will find a way to resolve the issues which give rise to tensions. We, the United States, stand ready to facilitate the process. We seek, also, progress toward a resolution of the situation on Cyprus, in pursuit of which Special Presidential Envoy Richard Beattie -- and I just learned that he will be accompanied by Ambassador Madeline Albright, our Permanent Representative to the United Nations, who is also a member of President Clinton's Cabinet -- will visit this region later this month, and this is an issue to which President Clinton and the whole administration are committed.

Turkey has taken an important step toward establishing a government according to its constitutional processes. Democracy is at work. Let me reiterate what Ambassador Grossman has stated so many times before: The United States supports Turkey's democracy, territorial integrity, and economic success. We support our security partnership, which has enhanced the well-being of both countries.

Now let me try to answer a few of your questions.

Q: Mr. Ambassador, with your permission. Yusuf Kanli, from Turkish Daily News. Mr. Under Secretary, I would like to ask your impressions about the first contacts with the new Turkish Government. Thank you.

TARNOFF: As I indicated in my opening remarks, I had four meetings: with the president, the prime minister, the foreign minister and with Under Secretary Oymen.

I found a consistency in the responses that I received when I explained what our interests and principles were. I thing many of these are known to you. As far as our principles are concerned, I was able to describe the fact that we have some objectives that remain constant in our relations with Turkey. They involve our security ties, Operation Provide comfort being one of them, obviously, our cooperation in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The fact that we are able to deal with each other in areas of the world as far afield as Bosnia is very important, and, very importantly, as I stressed in my statement, cooperation on terrorism, which we are going to find ways to enhance.

I also talked about our political cooperation, the fact that Turkey and the United States have political interests in the region, where Turkey has a unique role, especially in some of the countries to the East of here and in the former Soviet Union, where I know that Turkey's lead and interest has played an important stabilizing role in drawing these countries into the democratic sphere of nations. And, finally, the important issue of values which we and Turkey share: democracy, human rights, the fact that we are both vigorous and open democracies, committed to human rights, we have to be able to talk about these issues together. Throughout all the conversations I had, I felt there was a good understanding, a good resonance with all of my interlocutors on these basic principles of our relationship.

Q: I'm Stephen Kinzer, from the New York Times. Mr. Secretary, I just want to follow up on that question. There have been concerns expressed here and elsewhere about what the ascent of the Refah Party in Turkey could mean for the security relationship with the United States and for foreign and security policies that Turkey may follow in the future. Can you reassure us that you feel those concerns are unjustified, or do you share some of then?

TARNOFF: Let me be a bit more specific and refer to my conversation with the prime minister and also with the foreign minister. I found in both of those conversations a commitment to work with the United States on all of the issues that have been important to us over recent years, indeed sometimes in recent decades. We talked, obviously, about Operation Provide Comfort, which is an indispensable part of our security relationship and which, of course, has to be renewed by the Parliament at the end of this month. But, I found a very strong commitment on behalf of both members of the prospective new government to the principles of our cooperation, including in the fields that I have just mentioned.

Q: Hello, I'm Kelly Coutourier from the Washington Post. Just to follow up on that question. In the Turkish Daily News this morning, there was an article quoting Turkish military sources and saying that there were three changes in the Operation Provide Comfort format that the Turkish military was seeking. Can you comment on the U.S. position on those three changes? You probably read the article and know what the changes are.

TARNOFF: Yes, I saw the article. Let me say that we are talking very actively to the highest military and civilian authorities in Turkey about Operation Provide Comfort. We have found, as I indicated before, a fundamental disposition in all of our conversations to commit to a regime which would allow our security cooperation to continue, including in this very important area of Provide Comfort. It's natural that old friends and allies would be talking about the details of this and other elements of our security cooperation; those conversations are ongoing, but I think that I come away from my conversations here, as does Mr. Lodal, reassured that we are working actively with our Turkish friends and allies to make sure that it will be possible for the Parliament at the end of this month to renew Provide Comfort on terns that are acceptable to both Turkey and the United States.

Q: I'm Barcin Yinanc from Milliyet newspaper. Well, this is going to be a follow-up to all these follow-ups, and I will try to be more specific. One: Did you get the impression that this government will be prolonging Provide Comfort? Yes or No? Two: You were intransigent up until now to remove the MCC from Zakho. Do you still maintain this view? Three: You are coming from Lyon, and I understand the G-7 countries have said that they will be helping those countries fighting terror, so have you brought some kind of new proposal to the Turkish Government in order to help the Turkish Government in its fight against terror? Thank you.

TARNOFF: With regard to your first two questions, which would relate to each other, we are discussing at very high levels on the civilian and military side here the details of operation Provide Comfort. It's natural that these discussions be ongoing, and they certainly are being conducted now, given the fact that the mandate must be renewed, hopefully for a longer period of time, at the end of the month. I don't want to get into specific elements of what may be discussed, but reflect to you a very strong sense that I had in my conversations today that there was a determination on both the Turkish and the American sides to engage on this issue, to work through those areas where we have to reach an understanding and to come out with a unified position by the end of the month, in time for the Parliament to vote to extend Operation Provide Comfort.

With regard to what happened in Lyon, let me say that, since the initiatives taken by the G-7 and G-8 leaders were done rather at the last minute, given the news that had been received just beforehand about the bombing in Saudi Arabia, it was left to the French Chairman of the G-7 (President Jacques Chirac) to formulate specific proposals with regard to initiatives and meetings that would take place later this month. I'm told that we expect to hear from the French Chair of the G-7 sometime soon. At that time, we will be in a better position to see exactly what is on the agenda. But we and everyone else, President Clinton in particular, made clear that we want a coordinated worldwide approach to this issue. Just because the issue came up among G-7 or G-8, we don't believe that a solution to the problem or cooperation should be limited to the G-7 or G-8. On the contrary, we will be looking, and I know the French Chair will do the same, to much broader cooperation, although I can't yet at this early moment tell you exactly what the form will be.

Q: Tainya Yilmaz, from Channel 6. What will happen about the warships in America? Three Perry class war ships?

TARNOFF: Well, let me tell you that we are mindful of the fact that we have an arrangement with the government of Turkey to have these vessels made available to Turkey. This has been something that has been the subject of a lot of conversation and discussion. The administration has made clear its desire to be able to go through with this transaction. It's a subject of political discussions in the United States, but during my conversations here I made clear that it is administration policy to be able to follow through on the agreements that we have had in the past, and we will continue to work both with our Congress and with Turkish authorities to try to make sure this happens at the earliest possible moment.

Q: Amberin Zaman, with the Daily Telegraph. During your talks with the new prime minister today, did the issue of Turkey's Military Cooperation Agreement with Israel come up at all? And, if so, did you get any sense that the agreement may either be canceled or modified?

TARNOFF: I would rather not get into specifics of conversations with one or another of the people that I was talking to, but suffice it to say that in more than one conversation this subject did come up. I had no sense from the people I was talking to that this agreement would be canceled. I certainly stated the American position, which was what we said when we learned about it, and that is we think it is a good thing for friends and allies to be cooperating in a part of the world where Turkey has been playing a very important role of stability and seeking for peace, and I was able to repeat those sentiments during a couple of my conversations.

AMBASSADOR MARC GROSSMAN: Thank you very much.

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