Cyprus-Forum.com

[insan]

Monday, February 14 2005 @ 06:36 AM Central Standard Time

Views: 208
The Turkish Cypriot foreign minister said the time had come to tell Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos to “stop” before the prestige of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is further damaged by Papadopoulos' intransigent attitude towards efforts to reach a settlement in Cyprus.



“Papadopoulos' uncompromising attitude must come to an end,” Foreign Minister Serdar Denktaş told the Anatolia news agency. “Things cannot go on like this. Somebody must say ‘stop'.”

Denktaş was referring to the Greek Cypriot leader's rejection last week of a call from Annan to list his objections to a plan for reunification of Cyprus, which he opposed last year. The Greek Cypriot leader accused Annan of not being impartial in his approach towards the Cyprus issue as he had not requested the Turkish side to give a similar written list of its objections.

Denktaş said this was evidence that his inflexible attitude remained unchanged. “His irresponsible attitude pays no attention to what others say. It has placed Annan in a difficult situation and undermined his prestige. And it is not only the prestige of Annan that has been damaged but also that of the U.N. Security Council,” he said.

He said he would talk to the ambassadors in Cyprus of the five countries that have a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, telling them that the time had come for the council to intervene to condemn Papadopoulos and press him to act in parallel to Annan's wishes. According to Denktaş one reason behind Papadopoulos' attitude is that he is confident of the support that he thinks some of the permanent members have for him.



Greek Cyprus-US tension:

U.S. attempts to seek business in Turkish Cyprus have also angered the Greek Cypriot leadership. The Greek Cypriot media reported yesterday that Papadopoulos has threatened Washington with allying itself to so-called “enemies” of the United States in the region, such as Iran and Syria, and further threatened boycotting U.S. goods sold in Greek Cyprus.

U.S. Ambassador Michael Klosson announced last week that Washington would support businesses in Turkish Cyprus as part of a $30.5 million aid package earmarked for the Turkish Cypriots, and the U.S. commercial attaché is expected to a lead a group of U.S. businessmen to Turkish Cyprus in a visit this week.

http://www.turks.us/article.php?story=20050214063617357

[Piratis]

Turkey and TCs refuse to obey the UN resolutions for 30 years, and now suddenly they remembered the prestige of the UN.

What a bunch of crap.

[erolz]

The Greek Cypriot media reported yesterday that Papadopoulos has threatened Washington with allying itself to so-called “enemies” of the United States in the region, such as Iran and Syria, and further threatened boycotting U.S. goods sold in Greek Cyprus.

Did TP really make this threat?

Does this strike anyone else as bordering on madness?

[-mikkie2-]

The Turkish press is inevitably biased and sensationalist. I very much doubt that Papadopoulos has made any threats towards the US.

[brother]

Borderıng or completely a fruıt and nutcase.

[insan]

QUESTION: On Cyprus, any update on the U.S. commercial invasion and occupation of northern Cyprus in the name to ease the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community?


MR. BOUCHER: I don't think I have an update for you today on steps to ease the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community, no.


QUESTION: But how do you explain the fact that more than 28 U.S. companies are planning to settle in the Turkish occupied territory of Cyprus to conduct business? Do you know if they are doing that via the services of the legitimate government of the Republic of Cyprus or direct?


MR. BOUCHER: I explained it the other day, and if you want me to explain it again today, I'd explain it exactly the same way as I did the other day.


QUESTION: Which is --


MR. BOUCHER: Which is there's a team of businesspeople that are going down to northern Cyprus to look at opportunities for cooperation. We are sending somebody from our commercial section, as we often do with business groups.


QUESTION: Via the Republic of Cyprus or just direct?


MR. BOUCHER: They're coming down from Turkey, as we have permitted --


QUESTION: And what about via Brussels, since Cyprus is a member of the European Union?


MR. BOUCHER: Why don't they go through Brussels?


QUESTION: Excuse me?


MR. BOUCHER: Brussels is out of the way.


QUESTION: Okay. And also, according to your Ambassador Michael Klosson in Nicosia, U.S. AID senior official of the Department of State, Thomas Mefford, is in Cyprus to promote, as he said, U.S.-Turkish Cypriot partners for growth. I'm wondering if your official is doing that with the permission of the Republic of Cyprus, or illegally direct with the Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish military, recognizing the de facto status created by the Turkish invasion and occupation of forces.


MR. BOUCHER: I don't know how he traveled there, but in any case, our activities to ease the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots do not change our recognition policy in any way, shape or form.


QUESTION: On Albania?


MR. BOUCHER: On Albania? We're on a roll, keep going.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2005/42316.htm

[pantelis]

The day you see a McDonalds opening for business in Kyrenia, it would be day that the "solution" would be within a six months reach.

All the rest, visits, money, etc, are simply bribes and propaganda for the Iraq-US miserable situation and Turkey's desired role in it.

[insan]

Nicosia voices intense displeasure over arrival on Thursday of U.S. delegation to Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus

NICOSIA (ANA/G. Leonidas) - The effort by the United States to promote direct business contacts with the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus, with the arrival in the occupied north this coming Thursday, via the illegal airport at Tymbos, of a U.S. Commercial Attache and a business delegation, caused intense displeasure in Nicosia on Saturday.

The visit was announced at a press conference in the occupied north by U.S. Ambassador to Nicosia Michael Klosson and was confirmed by U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. As stated by Klosson, the visit is included in the framework of the activities of an organisation which the U.S. set up especially for Cyprus, the Cyprus Program for Economic Growth-CyPEG.

The Cyprus government denounced the action of the Americans and lodged a demarche to the United States.

As wriiten in the newspaper "Fileleftheros" on Saturday, the foreign ministry lodged demarches in Nicosia and Washington, while the U.S. Ambassador was summoned late Friday to the Presidential Palace. According to the newspaper, President Tassos Papadopoulos expressed his displeasure to Klosson not only over the specific move, but also about "other matters which have recently arisen from American actions in relation with the Cyprus issue and the Turkish-occupied area."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday stated that "the U.S. does not wish to see the Turkish Cypriots isolated" and termed as a bad result the fact that Cyprus was not reunited before Cyprus' accession to the European Union.

Rice's statements were made to European mass media, in which she also said that apart from economic aid "we are examining what more we can do."

On his part, Boucher confirmed on Friday that an American business delegation will visit the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, accompanied by the U.S. Commercial Attache of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

Boucher noted that this delegation is consistent with our goal of easing the economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriots by expanding business contacts on an off the island."

Cyprus Commerce Minister George Lillikas described the move by the Americans as "an organised attempt by Washington aimed at sending political messages for the upgrading of the pseudo-state."

http://www.ana.gr/anaweb/user/showplain ... &service=8

[pantelis]

Anti-Americanism in Turkey
Thursday, February 17, 2005

Opinion by Semih İDİZ

The U.S. administration is deeply concerned with the rise in anti-Americanism in Turkey today. An important part of U.S. Ambassador Eric Edelman's brief in Ankara has turned into trying to understand the reasons behind this phenomenon and ways in which the trend can be reversed. On top of informal talks held about it between former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and key Turkish officials earlier this week, the subject was discussed during Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent state visit to Ankara.

So what are the facts pertaining to this topic? First of all, it must be said that Turkey has always had an anti-American streak. But this has existed mostly – though not exclusively by any means -- in certain leftist circles that have counterparts in Europe and the rest of the world. Neither is this a new phenomenon for Washington, which is aware that this is a throwback to the Cold War days and Vietnam, a time when, incidentally, even many of my own American classmates at college were “anti-American” in that sense.

In those days, the Turkish far right and the military and civilian establishment were “pro-American” to the extent that every time a leftist stood up and shouted, “Down with American imperialism!” they would come down heavily on him or her with the blessing of America's hawkish establishment. The torture and persecution of free-thinking liberals, leftists and communists that took place in Turkey in the post-war years is mostly a result of this fact.

These left-wing quarters hold many of the same opinions today, but it is clearly not what they think or feel that is of concern to American diplomats in Turkey.

U.S. diplomatic anxiety stems from anti-Americanism spreading like a bushfire among the very elements and groups that they cultivated to prevent left-wing anti-Americanism in the past. Needless to say, leading the list of those nurtured in this way – and who have “turned” now -- are the powerful Turkish Armed Forces together with the conservative and ultra-nationalist factions in the political domain that have always looked to the military to take their cue on key issues.

Put another way Washington is worried because it has lost the faith of the civilian-military establishment in Turkey with which it did all its “business” in the past. So why has this establishment turned against America?

Well, Ambassador Edelman hits the nail on the head when he said it is related to the Iraq issue. The fact is that neither the establishment nor the conservative public in Turkey – and needless to say leftists and liberals – saw the war against Iraq as being a legitimate one. Regardless of this, though, it was obvious the same establishment would try to steer away from projecting overtly anti-American sentiments for the sake of preserving the “strategic relationship” between the two countries.

This it did until developments in northern Iraq started to take a turn that was anathema to the deeply conservative and ethnocentric Turkish military and civilian establishments. Needless to say, there was also a “Kurdish” dimension to this, with the prevalent feeling being that the Americans were determined to punish Turkey for refusing to help them invade Iraq and were openly courting the Iraqi Kurds to this end.

Then came the famous Sulaymaniya raid, when U.S. Marines swept down on members of the Turkish Special Forces in northern Iraq without consulting the Turkish General Staff – their “strategic allies” – to air the grievances they may have had against these forces in order to sort the problem out. When news broke in the Turkish media that Turkish soldiers had been roughed up and treated as if they were Baathist insurgents, with sacks being placed over their heads, a vital link was severed for the Americans.

The sentiment on the Turkish side was made clear when unnamed senior soldiers were quoted in the Turkish press as saying, “The Americans should count themselves lucky that our boys acted sensibly in order not to aggravate the situation, because they could easily have responded, at the expense of their own lives, taking down quite a few of those Marines with them.” Clearly this was not an approach befitting “strategic allies.” It reflected, however, anger on the Turkish side. So this incident inevitably triggered the negative sentiment that the Americans are now trying to grapple with.

On the other hand, the fact that the issue of the PKK presence in northern Iraq has also been left to fester by Washington merely adds fuel to the fire. In Turkish eyes America became the bearer of a glaring double standard here by chasing after its own terrorists – and expecting everyone else's help on this – while doing nothing to help Turkey against its own terrorists. This impression has spread to the extent that most Turks, whether civilian or military, seriously believe today that the PKK is actually being harbored by the American military in northern Iraq.

With these facts on the table public anger against the U.S. presence in Iraq peaked and started taking on such a vitriolic aspect that even Prime Minister Erdogan felt a need to feed it with the strong remarks about the Americans that we all know at this stage. It is also unlikely that Turks will be mollified by remarks such as ones made by Secretary of State Rice to the effect that they see no difference between the PKK and al-Qaeda because it begs the crucial question: “If that is the case, then why aren't you going after the PKK like you are going after al-Qaeda?”

Having said all this, it must be apparent to everyone that at least as far as the Turkish establishment is concerned Washington could easily start turning the tide in its own favor again with a series of simple well-timed gestures, starting with action against the PKK in northern Iraq. Once the Turkish military establishment is “won over” in this way, it is clear that estranged conservative elements will also slowly start “returning to the fold” for the simple reason that these elements always look to the military to determine their stance on crucial national issues. Is this not, after all, what the Americans always relied on in the past?

[insan]

Some Islamist countries, Islamists, GCs, Americans etc are also deeply concerned with the American's actions. So what? Do you mean what America is giving to TCs is bribe and what Tassos has given to TCs was not?

Then the politicians of GCs are angel and The America's evil. You have a great intelligence, Pantelis!