I covered Turkish Foreign Minister meeting with Sec. Kerry at the State Department. I was one of only two questioners (the other was CBS's Margaret Brennan) at the press conference on Nov 18, 2013
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: Please.
QUESTION: Thank you. Mr. Foreign Minister, you were in Iraq a couple weeks ago, and you stated that we are opening a new page with Iraq. What does Turkey want to see on this new page? And we know that you are going to Russia and few days later to Iran. What is Turkey hoping will come out this visit?
And Mr. Secretary, can Turkey trust U.S. will fully be on its side when it struggles with the prospect of failed state in Syria, largely due to ineffectiveness of international community so far? What concrete plans does your Administration have to have is huge humanitarian and security burden over Turkey’s shoulders?
And also Mr. Foreign Minister, could you give some comment at this point? Did you feel U.S. Government has sent mixed signals to Ankara or left Turkey abandoned?
And quick question, Mr. Secretary – (laughter) – just Middle East peace for a second.
SECRETARY KERRY: That’s what we call in the law a leading question. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Yeah, just on the Middle East process, Prime Minister Netanyahu said you will be in Israel on Friday. You have said Israeli settlements are illegal, a barrier to peace, and U.S. Government has been saying this for more than 30 years. What is difference now? Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Go ahead. (Laughter.)
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: Two ladies asks so many questions, not two questions. The gentleman will ask for gender equality. (Laughter.)
SECRETARY KERRY: She asked you first, but I’m happy to go first.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: Okay, okay, thank you. Thank you very much. About the new page on Iraq, yes, my visit was very successful, but it was a visit after so many other diplomatic meetings. The Speaker of the Parliament Nujaifi came to Turkey. We met with Hoshyar Zebari several times. Hoshyar Zebari visited Turkey. And this – we prepared the ground for my visit.
And three basic messages was there in my visit: First is, Turkey wants to have excellent bilateral relations, cooperation, and economic integration, if possible, with Iraq. That has been our intention when we established High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council mechanism first with Iraq. Now what we are doing, what we have decided with Prime Minister Maliki, is the preparatory meeting of this High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council will be completed soon. And Prime Minister Maliki in his visit – was probably late December, early January – there will be a High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council mechanism where all the important ministers will be accompanying Prime Minister Maliki, and we will have joint cabinet meeting in Turkey.
Second message was that Turkey is supporting ethnic and sectarian peace in Iraq, and Turkey will supporting the electoral process, and Turkey’s happy that a date has been declared for the general elections in Iraq. And Turkey’s at equal distance to all the groups in Iraq, and I am happy that the same messages were shared by United States as well. And we will support this process of election, and we will give the same message to all Iraqi parties. When Massoud Barzani – Mr. Barzani came to Diyarbakir, we also shared these views, and I shared with other Sunni and Shiite leaders when I was in (inaudible). (Inaudible) message, which is really even as important as the others, is a message to the region that we don’t want sectarian tension. With the leaders – Sunni and Shiite leaders – we shared this same concern, and as Turkey and Iraq – once we have good relations and in full solidarity, I am sure that will be the right message to those who want to provocate sectarian tension and war in our region. We will not tolerate, and I am happy to see the same political will on the Iraqi side that they are ready to work with us, that these scenarios of sectarian war in our region will not be successful.
About our visit to Russia and Iran – in fact, this month, we had several visits – but to Russia, we are going for High Level Cooperation Council meeting. Like Iraq, we have this mechanism with Russia, and Prime Minister Erdogan and President Putin will be co-chairing this joint cabinet meeting and Cooperation Council mechanism. There we discuss – we will discuss bilateral issues and new projects of cooperation. But at the same time, of course, as I said before, we will be consulting on Syria, Caucasia, and all other pending issues international, and that will be an excellent opportunity. After my visit to Washington, the same week, I will be visiting Tehran and (inaudible). So with this excellent consultation here, we will have the same opportunity of consultation with Russia and Iran on these difficult files.
In Tehran, again, this will be my first visit after the new government. Although I went for immigration ceremony, this will be bilateral visit. And we are preparing President Rouhani’s visit to Turkey and Prime Minister Erdogan’s visit to Tehran. Of course, we will be sharing not only bilateral issues, but also P5+1, Iran negotiations, as well as all regional issues from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Syria to Lebanon, and other regional issues. And that will be another good opportunity to create a common position in all these difficult files.
Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Every fact in our relationship – every fact in our relationship – speaks to the trust that is built on an ongoing basis between our countries. And the fact is that Turkey is a NATO ally. The United States is supporting Turkey with respect to its border challenges and the unrest in Syria. The United States is working extremely closely on a daily basis with their officials and ours, cooperating completely with respect to Syria. We have consistent sharing of intelligence. We work on strategy. We are both involved on the challenges of the borders with respect to humanitarian assistance.
As you just heard, Turkey has put in 2 billion, and some of that internally in its own country. We’ve delivered over 1.3 billion in aid in order to help. We are collaborating and working closely together with respect to the London 11. We’ve been meeting consistently with respect to this challenge of Syria and the region. Ahmet and I talk some weeks several times, and then certainly once every week or two weeks we’re on the phone together. We have a constant discussion. And I think that if you look at the work we’ve done together with respect to Israel and Turkish relations where we’ve cooperated, the visit of Prime Minister Erdogan to here, to the United States, the President’s statements, this relationship is strong, and nobody should try to get in the way of it and suggest questions about its durability. We are working with Turkey with respect to European membership. We would love to see – we’ve been supportive of that for a long time. We’re encouraging that dialogue to continue.
So there are so many things that we are really engaged in that any neutral observer would have to look at this relationship and say, “Wow, these guys are really working together and they’ve got mutual interests.” And that’s what really brings nations together – when you share values, you share interests. Sometimes we have a disagreement. That’s okay. Friends can have disagreements as long as they respect each other about how they deal with it and how they are proceeding forward. So I’m very confident about this relationship going forward, and as I said to you earlier, we’re grateful for the work Turkey has done with us on so many different issues.
With respect to the Middle East peace process – and one other thing about – you asked about failed states and failing states in the region. Those are our interests too. We are deeply concerned about failed or failing states. And the United States believes in helping to bring about the stability of that region. It is not just of interest to Turkey or to Jordan or to Iraq or Lebanon. It is of great interest to us, and has been for many, many years. And we will not move away from or walk away from or turn away from that interest that is at the forefront of what President Obama talked about at the United Nations and remains a center of his foreign policy.
On the question of the Middle East peace process and the settlements and sort of – “What’s the difference,” is what you asked. Well, the difference is enormous. First of all, we have said that the settlements are illegitimate, and the United States policy has always opposed these settlements. And you saw an effort during the first four years of the Obama Administration to try to achieve a freeze on those settlements. For a temporary period of time, it was achieved. But then other things changed, and so that’s not the current framework within which we find ourselves.
But if you look back in history, few administrations have been able to begin on day one of a second term to focus on the Middle East peace process. Too often it’s been in the final months or in latter months. So we now have three years-plus ahead of us here to continue to work on this. I don’t want it and President Obama doesn’t want it, and I don’t think Prime Minister Netanyahu or Israelis want it to drag on for that long. We believe that there is a difference in the air today in all parties. The Israelis have taken great risks. Even when they made decisions with respect to Gaza or Lebanon and rockets came at them, nevertheless, they are still committed to peace, and the vast majority of the people in Israel are committed to a two-state solution. And Prime Minister Netanyahu, to his credit, has said, “We’re going to negotiate,” and believes it is worth trying to find a way to change the status quo. And he took great risks in the decision he made and the formula he accepted to come back to these talks. The world should credit him and Israel for doing that.
The Palestinians likewise have made a commitment to come to this process. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has given up what is his ability to take issues to the United Nations for a period of time because he’s committed to be part of this process. And he has taken political heat for that, but he believes it’s the right thing to do to be at the negotiating table. The Arab community, through the Arab League, has a committee of foreign ministers who are following these negotiations, who have recommitted to the Saudi King’s creative peace proposal of a number of years ago, which has now been updated and now includes a sort of state-of-the-art 2013 recognition of how one might achieve territorial solution here.
So there’s a lot of energy going into this, a lot of people supporting it outside, in Europe. The Japanese have made a commitment recently, others, to do things. There’s a great deal of support. And I think that makes this different, because people understand that this is a crisis, a conflict that has been locked in a place for too long, and that the benefits of peace for everybody are significant enough to be working for them. So that’s what’s driving this, and our hope is that over the next weeks, months, progress can conceivably be made. But we’re going to try to exhaust every possibility that is available in order to put that to the test, and that’s where we’re heading with this.
And I think that with respect to the visit that – you asked the question – let me reiterate: Originally, we thought that I was going to try to travel this weekend, but because I’m testifying before the Senate on Thursday and the timing gets sort of difficult, it’s going to be very hard to be able to fit that in right before the Thanksgiving holiday. And I pleaded guilty of wanting to be able to spend some time with my family over the course of the Thanksgiving holiday, so we agreed that it would be better to try to do this after that, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. But nobody should interpret anything from that except my schedule and my challenges.
That’s it.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: Just – I forget to answer your question about mixed signals.
QUESTION: Exactly.
FOREIGN MINISTER DAVUTOGLU: I think there is no need of sending any signals, even not-mixed or – mixed or not-mixed. There is – in our relations, we have always had channels of communication, not signals. We don’t need signals. And we still remember how President Obama welcomed our Prime Minister in May in an extraordinary way of hospitality, and both – Prime Minister Erdogan everywhere, he praises President Obama’s leadership, and President Obama always praise our Prime Minister and our President’s contributions to global peace. And between us, we met I don’t know how many times in less than a year, and how many telephone calls? Once I remember there – we spoke three times by phone, and my wife rebelled. She said, “Maybe I should call you as well to consult some family issues by phone. It is easier to reach you by phone other than seeing each other.” (Laughter.)
So we are – so therefore, there is no signal between us. There are – since there is a sincere dialogue, consultation, and not-mixed or not – mixed or not-mixed signals, but there is no signals. Direct, sincere, friendly, if sometimes needed, very frank also consultation between us, because we are working not only for our nations, but for regional and global peace. And that will continue forever between Turkish presidents, leaders, as well as American, Turkish ministers of foreign affairs forever. Thank you.
SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much.
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