Ambassador Wilson: Good afternoon. We thought it would be useful this afternoon just to report on the work that is taking place today in southeastern Turkey to evacuate Americans out of Lebanon with the assistance and the cooperation of the Turkish authorities. I think the first thing I want to say is how much we appreciate the cooperation and assistance of those authorities in working with us and with others on this important humanitarian work. It would be impossible of course without Turkey’s help. The United States Government and the American people are very, very grateful.
Today the USS Trenton, an American warship arrived in Mersin at about 10 AM, carrying approximately 1,650 passengers, mostly Americans. There are a small number of several other nationalities. The arrangements for them to get off of the ship went very well and smoothly. They have been processed and are being processed efficiently by Turkish immigration and customs authorities. After that they have been met and assisted by staff from the American mission in Turkey which is to say our Consulate in Adana supported by personnel from the Embassy and from our Consulate in Istanbul as well as a number of people that have come from the United States and other posts in Europe to help out. These people then are proceeding by bus to Incirlik Airbase. We are very grateful to the Turkish commander of that base for allowing the American component there, our 39th Tanker Wing to collect these evacuees, to accommodate them, and then to facilitate their onward travel to the United States.
These people will be leaving for the United States as fast as charter aircraft arrangements can be made. We hope and expect that the first group will leave a little bit later today, others in the coming day or two. I would note that these are not the first Americans to arrive in Mersin. There have been at least a couple of dozen that have come onboard ships chartered by other countries, in particular by Canada. We are very grateful to the Canadians for allowing our people to come out with them, and again, for the efficient and cooperative approach that the Turkish authorities took in helping us to help them. That I think is most of what I want to say except again to repeat how thankful we are, the United States Government and the American people, to Turkey for cooperating with us in facilitating these evacuations as well as evacuations of other nationalities through Turkey out of Lebanon. I’ll be happy to answer a few questions.
Question: At the weekend there were high level talks between President Bush and Prime Minister Erdogan and also with Secretary of State Rice and Foreign Minister Gul. After the talks between President Bush and Prime Minister Erdogan, the Prime Minister made a statement saying that he was very much pleased that military talks have started between two sides concerning ending the PKK terrorism in northern Iraq in terms of concrete steps. Could you elaborate on what sort of military talks have started? Were they in Ankara, in Washington, or elsewhere? Thank you.
Ambassador Wilson: Here is what I can tell you on this issue. First, obviously I can confirm that the phone calls took place. They reflected the seriousness with which we regard Turkey, our relationship with Turkey, and the concerns that Turkey has raised about the need for urgent action to address PKK violence. The President and Secretary Rice talked about what we are prepared to try to do to work much more effectively with Turkey and with Iraq on this problem. I don’t want to elaborate on what those steps are. We will be following up in coming days with the same sense of urgency that Turkey attaches to this issue.
Question: As far as we know there will be a meeting in Rome to discuss what to do with respect to Lebanon. And there are news reports that Abdullah Gul was invited there during the phone call with Condoleezza Rice with her Italian counterpart.
Ambassador Wilson: I can’t comment on Secretary Rice’s conversation with the Italian Foreign Minister. In the conversation that she had with Foreign Minister Gul, she expressed interest in his attendance at the Rome conference, and my understanding is that he plans to be part of it on Wednesday.
Question: Did President Bush during his conversation with Prime Minister Erdogan reiterate the US position concerning cross-border operations?
Ambassador Wilson: What I would like to focus on is the fact that both the President and Secretary Rice talked about what we are prepared to try to do together with Iraq and Turkey to work effectively on the problem of the PKK. I think I'd just as soon leave it at that.
Question: As you are evacuating people from Lebanon do you feel uneasy about your country's (inaudible) and the increasing number of evacuees?
Ambassador Wilson: I don’t feel at all uneasy about my country’s position. We are working to try to help thousands of Americans and thousands of citizens from other countries who are trapped by the fighting there to get out of harm’s way. And we have been doing that work together with a variety of other countries with nationals in the area, and other countries in the region in particular with Turkey and also with Cyprus. I think that is a separate issue from the position that Secretary Rice has enunciated on the more general approach to the conflict there. We are working hard. We are working effectively. The wire reports are that about 30,000 foreign nationals have left Lebanon in the last couple of weeks. I can’t vouch for that number. Among Americans I believe as of yesterday, it was about 12,500 American citizens who had been evacuated. That number of course went up some today.
Question: What can you tell us about reports of meetings that General Peter Sutton may have had in Ankara and about General Casey's recent visit to northern Iraq?
Ambassador Wilson: I will answer your questions relatively narrowly. Everything I know about the visit of General Casey or the reported visit by General Casey to northern Iraq comes from Turkish media press reports. I can’t deny that it happened. But I have no direct evidence that it happened. As far as General Sutton is concerned, he deals regularly with a wide range of people throughout the Turkish military and defense establishment. That is his job as head of our office of defense cooperation. His primary responsibilities here relate to sales of American defense technology and other kinds of defense cooperation between the United States and Turkey of that sort. I don’t want to get into what he may have been doing in the course of the last number of days. Suffice it to say that we have had, are having, and will continue to have a wide range of conversations with people throughout the Government, the military and other parts of Turkish society to be sure that we understand and report accurately back to Washington what the concerns are here and that we are able to work cooperatively and effectively and more effectively, I would underline, with the Turkish Government as we in Turkey seek to deal with the PKK and other issues of international terrorism.
Question: It was recently reported that you met with Cuneyt Zapsu. Who initiated the meeting and what topics did you discuss? Did you discuss Yasin Al-Qadi?
Ambassador Wilson: Cuneyt Zapsu is a friend. He is someone that I have seen from time to time in the six or seven months that I have served in this country. And I try to meet with him reasonably regularly as a way to better understand how issues are viewed in this country and to take the pulse of influential people. And I honestly don’t remember where the impetus for this specific meeting came from but it is not important. I was happy to meet with him. I think we had had an exchange over a period of a couple of weeks about getting together. It happened on the day in question last week. We talked about a variety of topics. It is not really my place to get into what those topics are. I understand of course that he is not a representative of the Turkish Government and I don’t deal with him in that spirit or that context. To the extent that I have things to discuss with the Turkish Government including issues like the Al-Qadi case and the approach the Government is going to take, I deal with the Government.
Question: There has been talk that Mr. Zapsu is going to be leaving his job as advisor to the Prime Minister.
Ambassador Wilson: He certainly did not give me any impression that he has got such plans. That’s about all I can say.
Question: Do you have a comment on the Al-Qadi ruling of the Danistay?
Ambassador Wilson: Here you get into issues of Turkish law and jurisprudence that I don’t entirely understand and would not pretend to understand. Each country has certain obligations to fulfill in connection with UN Security Council resolutions. There are a number of resolutions that were adopted in the couple of months after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that were designed to improve the international community’s ability to work together in combating terrorism, combating terrorists, combating terrorist financing, combating terrorism in all its various forms and permutations. Countries have an obligation to meet the requirements in these resolutions. They do so through their own laws and regulations and so forth. We expect that Turkey will meet its obligations under these resolutions to the best it can just we try to and other countries around the world attempt to as well.
Thank you.
Former Chiefs of Mission
