New WikiLeaks On Turkey: Snubbing the Opposition, Suspecting the Military, Warning about Iran

The Main Opposition: "No More than a Bunch of Elitist Ankle-Biters"

The cable, sent 30 December 2004 and titled “Erdoğan and the AK Party after Two Years in Power: Trying to Get a Grip on Themselves, on Turkey, on Europe,” reports not only about the Justice and Development Party (AKP) but also about the main opposition party (CHP). The CHP is called “no more than a bunch of elitist ankle-biters” and claimed as one of the reasons why there is no serious alternative to Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Eric Edelman, then the US ambassador to Turkey, adds: “The AKP’s lack of cohesion as a party and lack of openness as a government is reflected in the range of murky, muddled motives for wanting to join the EU we have encountered among those AKPers who say they favor pursuing membership...or at least the process.”

The Military Plotting: “Some Fire Behind The Smoke”

In a report sent 23 February 2010, US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey said that he was seeing “some fire behind the smoke” of the ongoing Ergenekon case. He added, “The military obviously has plans to intervene if necessary in political affairs. AKP appears to have concluded that it gains politically from the arrest of military officers.”

Warning to Ankara: No Business with Iran

The US Embassy in Ankara is told by the State Department on 22 Februrary 2010, “[The] US. has information about several transactions involving Turkish firms planning to export and import from Iran arms and related material controlled by the Wassenaar Arrangement....The U.S. wants to provide this information to Turkish officials, request that they investigate this activity and use all available means to prevent these firms from exporting and importing such arms to and from Iran.”

Misreading the Presidency Suspicions about the Generals

On June 17, 2007, a report stated, "Even if the AKP emerges from July 22 [2007] elections able to form a single-party government, it will be forced to accept a consensus candidate for the presidency." However, the AKP's Abdullah Gul became President in August 2007.

The same report puts the military on the spot and says: 

We also detect the military's hand behind recent allegations that the US has, either directly or indirectly, provided weapons to the PKK in northern Iraq. This is....designed to weaken the AKP's national security credentials and encourage undecided voters to turn to ‘tougher’ pro-secular parties.

The generals are clearly working behind the scenes, using ongoing PKK terrorism and the debate over the necessity of a cross-border operation into northern Iraq to portray the AKP as weak on terrorism.