Cablegate: Turkey: Demarche On President's Emergency Plan

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS ANKARA 001151

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAID KHIV PREL SENV SOCI TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: DEMARCHE ON PRESIDENT'S EMERGENCY PLAN
FOR AIDS RELIEF

REF: STATE 38300

1. (U) Regional Environment Officer briefed Health Ministry
officials on the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,
per instructions reftel. Kamuran Ozden, Head of the
Ministry's External Relations Department, was pleased to
receive the information, adding that he agreed with the U.S.
global strategy, since AIDS does not respect borders. Ozden
asked if the U.S. had identified the 100 countries under the
USD 5 billion portion of the strategy and offered that Turkey
was eager to cooperate with the U.S.

2. (U) Ozden said that Turkey continues to be fortunate that
the incidence of AIDS in Turkey remains quite low. However,
the government realizes that Turkey is a crossroads for
legitimate and illegitimate migration and trade and therefore
is at risk from the growing AIDS epidemic in neighboring
countries. "If it shows up in Moscow, it will eventually
show up in Istanbul," he said.

3. (U) Ozden said Turkey had a bad experience with the
Global Fund, which rejected a number of Turkish proposals and
did not take into account the national characteristics of
Turkey.
EDELMAN

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