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Viewing cable 05ANKARA247, TURKEY'S THRACE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY AND BOSPHORUS BYPASS - ADVOCACY QUESTION

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
05ANKARA247 2005-01-15 15:29 2011-05-17 19:00 CONFIDENTIAL Embassy Ankara
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000247 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USDOE FOR CHARLES WASHINGTON 
USDOC FOR ADVOCACY CENTER AND 
4212/ITA/MAC/OEURA/CPD/DDEFALCO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2014 
TAGS: EPET BEXP TU KZ
SUBJECT: TURKEY'S THRACE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY AND BOSPHORUS BYPASS - ADVOCACY QUESTION 
 
 
Classified By: ECONOMIC COUNSELOR THOMAS GOLDBERGER FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) 
 
This is an action request.  Please see Para 4. 
 
1.  (SBU) Thrace Development Company (TDC) Chairman Howard 
Lowe called on Ambassador December 8 to update us on TDC's 
proposed oil pipeline project that would be an alternative 
"bypass" route across Turkish Thrace for oil exported from 
the Black Sea that currently passes by tanker through the 
Turkish Straits.  Lowe described his continued frustration 
with no movement on TDC's longstanding permit application to 
the GOT for the proposed project.  (TDC, with USG advocacy 
support, has asked the Turkish Government to issue it a 
"conditional permit" that would allow it time to demonstrate 
the financial and environmental feasibility of the project - 
or at a minimum to give TDC a timely yes or no response.) 
Asked about TDC's Turkish partners, Lowe disclosed for the 
first time that Mehmet Karamehmet, Chairman of the Cukurova 
Group, was a partner in TDC.  We noted to Lowe that some U.S. 
companies had experienced questionable, even threatening, 
behavior in their dealings with Mr. Karamehmet and his 
companies, and advised Mr. Lowe to exercise extreme caution 
in connection with Karamehmet.  Lowe said that Karamehmet had 
declined an offer to be taken out of the partnership, noting 
that Karamehmet's share constituted 16-17 %. 
 
2.  (C)  Karamehmet is known to Post as an unreliable and 
unsavory business partner.  Post knows of one U.S. firm that 
was subject to unethical and intimidating tactics, including 
death threats, to force a settlement of a business dispute 
favorable to Karamehmet.  Because of this, Post has advised 
U.S. firms against partnering with Karamehmet.  While his 
extensive Cukurova Group has significant interests in some 
good assets (for example, Yapi Kredi Bank and Turkcell, the 
major mobile telephone operator), it has been involved in 
bank failures and murky financial transactions and dealings. 
These include the failure and takeover of Pamukbank in 2002 
and dubious lending from Yapi Kredi to other Cukurova Group 
companies, resulting in $2 billion bad debt on the bank's 
balance sheet.  Turkish bank regulators are obliging Cukurova 
Group to make good on this debt, but to date the group has 
been unable to do so.  Also, Cukurova Group is ineligible to 
hold a bank license because of the failure of Pamukbank. 
Karamehmet has also been involved in a nasty, public battle 
for control of Turkcell with the company's Finnish/Swedish 
partners. 
 
3.  (SBU) Our concerns were further heightened following a 
January 12 conversation with Econoff in which TDC's locally 
retained consultant, lawyer Yilmaz Oz, revealed that the 
other TDC partners included former Kazakh Prime Minister 
Nurlan Balgimbaev and Servet Harunoglu, Fintraco Construction 
Chairman.  Embassy notes that the former has been linked in 
court documents to the FCPA case against James Giffen related 
to Kazakhstan, but is not in a position to evaluate this 
information.  Lowe and his partners all appear to have oil 
and other business experience in Kazakhstan.  Howard Lowe 
last called EconOff on December 21 to check on developments 
(or lack of) on Bosphorus bypass projects.  He said that TDC 
was making progess in discussions with Gazprom for a 
potential oil throughput guarantee.  Lowe again expressed 
frustration on lack of progress from the GOT on permitting 
their bypass project. 
 
4.  (SBU) Action request:  Post has advised Lowe to excercise 
extreme caution in its dealings with Karamehmet.  Given this 
new information about financial interests behind TDC, post 
would appreciate Washington's updated guidance on how to 
pursue the company's advocacy request. 
 
5.  (SBU) Background:  TDC applied for a permit for its 
trans-Thrace (Kiyikoy-Ibrikbaba/Saros) project in June 2003. 
A Transneft (partnered with Turkish Anadolu Construction) 
backed project filed an application for a copycat 
trans-Thrace project in June 2004.  While MENR officials 
agree in principle with the Embassy's consistent message that 
the market - not governments - should pick potential 
Bosphorus bypass projects; in practice, the GOT Council of 
Ministers has held up permits pending approval of an 
acceptable route.  The GOT has expressed concern about lack 
of oil throughput guarantees and environment impact - in 
particular associated with the trans-Thrace route.  The GOT 
has indicated a preference for the Samsun-Ceyhan route and 
has sought to gain Russian support for this route.  (Note: 
Prime Minister Erdogan just returned from Moscow, seeking a 
broad range of energy, economic, and political agreements. 
They do not appear to have reached any solid agreement on 
Bosphorus bypass.  End Note)  In his meeting with the 
Ambassador, Howard Lowe asserted that the Samsun-Ceyhan route 
was not competitive from both a cost and technical basis, 
relative to TDC's proposed route and project.  He asserted 
that the high elevation passage would create extra costs 
and/or limits to pipeline size that would affect capacity. 
Additional reporting on Bosphorus bypass issues will be 
provided septel. 
EDELMAN