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U.S. Double Standard for Turkey Damages U.S. Interests
By Gene Rossides
http://www.hellenicnews.com/readnews.html?newsid=3D2809 &lang=3DUS
December 13, 2004
The United States application of a double standard on the rule of law
to Turkey has damaged and continues to damage Unites States interests
in the region and throughout the world, yet little notice is given to
it in the media or academic and think tank communities.
Further, the U.S. appeasement of Turkey at the expense of Greece,
Cyprus, and other nations in the region also damages U.S. interests.
Let's look at the facts.
1. When Turkey invaded Cyprus on July 20, 1974 with the illegal use of
U.S. supplied arms, the State Department violated the U.S. Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, which prohibited the use of
U.S. supplied arms for aggression, by refusing to halt immediately
arms to Turkey. The Secretary of State at that time was Henry
A. Kissinger. Kissinger and the State Department refused to denounce
Turkey's invasion.
2. From August 14-16, 1974, Turkey broke the UN sponsored negotiations
and cease-fire and renewed its aggression with a massive assault on
the Greek Cypriots and increased its land grab from 4 percent to 37.3
percent of Cyprus with widespread destruction, killings, rapes and
looting, and forced 200,000 Greek Cypriots from their homes and
properties. The U.S. again violated the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
by failing to halt arms to Turkey and did not denounce the renewed
aggression.
Indeed on August 13, 1974 an official State Department announcement
approved by Kissinger encouraged the renewed aggression by stating
that the Turkish Cypriots needed more protection.
3. On February 26, 1975 Kissinger initiated legislation to overturn
the rule of law embargo enacted by the Congress in the fall of 1974
following Turkey's invasion of Cyprus when the State Department had
refused to apply the provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act to
Turkey.
In the spring and summer of 1975 Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
mounteda massive effort to overturn the embargo. Congress held firm in
July 1975 but partially weakened thereafter and on October 2, 1975 the
rule of law was partially lifted.
4. President Jimmy Carter in direct violation of his campaign pledge
of September 16, 1976, initiated a substantial lobbying effort with
the Congress in 1978 to lift the remaining rule of law embargo. That
effort succeeded in the summer of 1978. 5. Turkey, in violation of
the Geneva Convention of 1949, has brought over 100,000 illegal
Turkish colonists/ settlers from Anatolia to occupied Cyprus. The
U.S. has done nothing to stop the flow of these settlers nor pushed to
have them returned to Turkey.
6. In 1984 Turkey started a massive military operation against its
Kurdish minority who were seeking political, human and cultural
rights. The Turks used 250,000 soldiers in operations which over the
years killed over 30,000 innocent Kurdish citizens, destroyed 3,000
Kurdish villages and created three million Kurdish refugees.
The U.S. Executive Branch did nothing to object to Turkey's ethnic
cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocide against the
Kurds. Indeed the U.S. continued military and economic aid to Turkey
making the U.S. an accessory to Turkey's actions against its 20
percent Kurdish minority. There is also theissue of the legality of
the use of U.S. arms by Turkey against its Kurdish minority.
7. Turkey has repeatedly since the mid-1980s illegally invaded
northern Iraq with the illegal use of U.S. arms to attack the Kurds in
northern Iraq. Again the U.S. Executive failed to enforce the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 and did nothing despite pleas from Congress.
8. The Aegean Sea boundary. Turkey has made claim to one-half of the
Aegean Sea and refuses to take its claim to the International Court of
Justice at the Hague for a binding ruling. The State Department has
refused to state publicly that it accepts as final the treaty-defined
demarcation of the maritime border between Greece and Turkey in the
Aegean Sea. The relevant agreementsare the Lausanne Treaty of 1923,
the Italy-Turkey Convention of January 4, 1932, the Italy-Turkey
Protocol of December 28, 1932 and the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, under
which the Dodecanese Islands and adjacent islets were ceded by Italy
and Greece.
The U.S. is a signatory to the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty and is
obligated by U.S. law to carry out its provisions. The State
Department has failed to publicly declare what the law is despite
requests and should do so now. TheU.S. should also publicly repudiate
any challenge to the treaty -defined boundary and should urge Turkey
to submit its claim to the International Court of Justice in The
Hague.
9. Turkish violation of Greek air space in the Aegean has been ongoing
since at least 1974, three decades, and the U.S. has basically done
nothing to stop it.
10. Economic blockade of Armenia. AHI supports the Armenian American
community's efforts on the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act, passed as
part ofthe 1997 Foreign Aid Bill, which calls for a halt to
U.S. assistance to any country blocking U.S. aid to another
country. The Turkish blockage of aid to Armenia includes
U.S. humanitarian and pharmaceutical aid. We deplore the
Administration's waiver of that Act for Turkey. It is in the
interests of the U.S. to recognize the 1915 Armenian Genocide on the
lines of H. Res. 193 which had passed by the House International
Relations Committee and S. Res. 164 in the Senate. We refer readers to
Peter Balakian's new book The Burning Tigris, a remarkable history of
the Armenian genocide by the Young Turk government in
Turkey. Mr. Balakian includes the details of the humanitarian movement
of leading American public citizens and ordinary citizens to save the
Armenians.
11. Armenian Genocide. The Executive Branch actively and successfully
lobbied
to prevent the Congress from passing an Armenian Genocide resolution.
12. The undemocratic, unworkable and not financially viable UN Annan
Plan was influenced and drafted primarily by Lord David Hannay of
Britain and the U.S. The undemocratic features of the British and
U.S. maneuvered Annan Plan, whereby an 18 percent Turkish Cypriot
minority has a veto over all legislation and executive decisions makes
a mockery of the U.S. `Initiative for Democracy in the Middle East'
and elsewhere.
A future article will discuss those presently responsible for the
U.S. double standard for and appeasement of Turkey to the detriment of
U.S. interests.
Gene Rossides, President of the American Hellenic Institute and a
former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
By Gene Rossides
http://www.hellenicnews.com/readnews.html?newsid=3D2809 &lang=3DUS
December 13, 2004
The United States application of a double standard on the rule of law
to Turkey has damaged and continues to damage Unites States interests
in the region and throughout the world, yet little notice is given to
it in the media or academic and think tank communities.
Further, the U.S. appeasement of Turkey at the expense of Greece,
Cyprus, and other nations in the region also damages U.S. interests.
Let's look at the facts.
1. When Turkey invaded Cyprus on July 20, 1974 with the illegal use of
U.S. supplied arms, the State Department violated the U.S. Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, which prohibited the use of
U.S. supplied arms for aggression, by refusing to halt immediately
arms to Turkey. The Secretary of State at that time was Henry
A. Kissinger. Kissinger and the State Department refused to denounce
Turkey's invasion.
2. From August 14-16, 1974, Turkey broke the UN sponsored negotiations
and cease-fire and renewed its aggression with a massive assault on
the Greek Cypriots and increased its land grab from 4 percent to 37.3
percent of Cyprus with widespread destruction, killings, rapes and
looting, and forced 200,000 Greek Cypriots from their homes and
properties. The U.S. again violated the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
by failing to halt arms to Turkey and did not denounce the renewed
aggression.
Indeed on August 13, 1974 an official State Department announcement
approved by Kissinger encouraged the renewed aggression by stating
that the Turkish Cypriots needed more protection.
3. On February 26, 1975 Kissinger initiated legislation to overturn
the rule of law embargo enacted by the Congress in the fall of 1974
following Turkey's invasion of Cyprus when the State Department had
refused to apply the provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act to
Turkey.
In the spring and summer of 1975 Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
mounteda massive effort to overturn the embargo. Congress held firm in
July 1975 but partially weakened thereafter and on October 2, 1975 the
rule of law was partially lifted.
4. President Jimmy Carter in direct violation of his campaign pledge
of September 16, 1976, initiated a substantial lobbying effort with
the Congress in 1978 to lift the remaining rule of law embargo. That
effort succeeded in the summer of 1978. 5. Turkey, in violation of
the Geneva Convention of 1949, has brought over 100,000 illegal
Turkish colonists/ settlers from Anatolia to occupied Cyprus. The
U.S. has done nothing to stop the flow of these settlers nor pushed to
have them returned to Turkey.
6. In 1984 Turkey started a massive military operation against its
Kurdish minority who were seeking political, human and cultural
rights. The Turks used 250,000 soldiers in operations which over the
years killed over 30,000 innocent Kurdish citizens, destroyed 3,000
Kurdish villages and created three million Kurdish refugees.
The U.S. Executive Branch did nothing to object to Turkey's ethnic
cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocide against the
Kurds. Indeed the U.S. continued military and economic aid to Turkey
making the U.S. an accessory to Turkey's actions against its 20
percent Kurdish minority. There is also theissue of the legality of
the use of U.S. arms by Turkey against its Kurdish minority.
7. Turkey has repeatedly since the mid-1980s illegally invaded
northern Iraq with the illegal use of U.S. arms to attack the Kurds in
northern Iraq. Again the U.S. Executive failed to enforce the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 and did nothing despite pleas from Congress.
8. The Aegean Sea boundary. Turkey has made claim to one-half of the
Aegean Sea and refuses to take its claim to the International Court of
Justice at the Hague for a binding ruling. The State Department has
refused to state publicly that it accepts as final the treaty-defined
demarcation of the maritime border between Greece and Turkey in the
Aegean Sea. The relevant agreementsare the Lausanne Treaty of 1923,
the Italy-Turkey Convention of January 4, 1932, the Italy-Turkey
Protocol of December 28, 1932 and the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, under
which the Dodecanese Islands and adjacent islets were ceded by Italy
and Greece.
The U.S. is a signatory to the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty and is
obligated by U.S. law to carry out its provisions. The State
Department has failed to publicly declare what the law is despite
requests and should do so now. TheU.S. should also publicly repudiate
any challenge to the treaty -defined boundary and should urge Turkey
to submit its claim to the International Court of Justice in The
Hague.
9. Turkish violation of Greek air space in the Aegean has been ongoing
since at least 1974, three decades, and the U.S. has basically done
nothing to stop it.
10. Economic blockade of Armenia. AHI supports the Armenian American
community's efforts on the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act, passed as
part ofthe 1997 Foreign Aid Bill, which calls for a halt to
U.S. assistance to any country blocking U.S. aid to another
country. The Turkish blockage of aid to Armenia includes
U.S. humanitarian and pharmaceutical aid. We deplore the
Administration's waiver of that Act for Turkey. It is in the
interests of the U.S. to recognize the 1915 Armenian Genocide on the
lines of H. Res. 193 which had passed by the House International
Relations Committee and S. Res. 164 in the Senate. We refer readers to
Peter Balakian's new book The Burning Tigris, a remarkable history of
the Armenian genocide by the Young Turk government in
Turkey. Mr. Balakian includes the details of the humanitarian movement
of leading American public citizens and ordinary citizens to save the
Armenians.
11. Armenian Genocide. The Executive Branch actively and successfully
lobbied
to prevent the Congress from passing an Armenian Genocide resolution.
12. The undemocratic, unworkable and not financially viable UN Annan
Plan was influenced and drafted primarily by Lord David Hannay of
Britain and the U.S. The undemocratic features of the British and
U.S. maneuvered Annan Plan, whereby an 18 percent Turkish Cypriot
minority has a veto over all legislation and executive decisions makes
a mockery of the U.S. `Initiative for Democracy in the Middle East'
and elsewhere.
A future article will discuss those presently responsible for the
U.S. double standard for and appeasement of Turkey to the detriment of
U.S. interests.
Gene Rossides, President of the American Hellenic Institute and a
former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury