BARACK Obama’s choice of Senator Joseph Biden as his vice presidential running mate has sparked hopes among Greek lobbyists in the United States that the promotion of the Cyprus problem will take on a more substantial profile.
Leaders of the Greek American community as well as deputies in Washington who deal with promoting Greek national issues praised Biden’s consistent philhellenic views throughout his 35 years in the Senate and considered his selection the best thing that Greece and Cyprus could hope for.
As far back as 1997, the Athens News Agency reported, Biden had firmly asserted, speaking to the then newly appointed US ambassador to Ankara, that the Turkish government had violated international law by invading Cyprus in 1974 and continued to violate international law by keeping its troops there. “Our policy is that [the Turkish invasion and occupation] was illegal,” he had stated.
More recently, according to yesterday’s Phileleftheros, he appeared with his fellow Democrats, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, during the 23rd conference of the International Co-ordinating Committee Justice for Cyprus (PSEKA) in 2007, where he expressed the view that, while he supported Turkey’s EU accession, the United States’ position should depend on Turkey’s adherence to improving its citizens’ human rights and religious freedom and its attitude regarding its differences with Greece over the Aegean dispute and the Cyprus problem. He went on to comment that the United States should demand and make perfectly clear that the foundations of their relations with Turkey would depend directly on the way the Cyprus problem would be resolved, on the complete withdrawal of Turkish forces and on whether Turkey would continue its claims regarding its right to the oil that had been discovered two years ago in the waters between Cyprus and Egypt.
During this year’s PSEKA conference, he announced his satisfaction with Demetris Christofias’ election as President and stated that he was hopeful about the possibility of a resolution to the Cyprus problem since the two sides’ interests were now beginning to converge.
Biden cautioned his audience not to expect much from George W. Bush and further expressed his hopes that, in this year’s presidential elections, the United States would elect a truly committed president who would be willing to take on some risks so that the procedure can actually progress.
Biden, who heads the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, is also known to have voiced positions against Turkey with regards to both the Armenian and Kurdish disputes, according to Phileleftheros.
Unsurprisingly, the Democrats’ choice of Senator Joseph Biden was met unfavourably by the Turkish press.
According to the English-speaking version of Zaman, a leading deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party commented that “it is not easy to be happy with this selection when looking from Turkey and considering Biden’s almost two-decade-long firm support of the Armenian diaspora’s efforts for recognition of their allegations of a genocide,” and further asserted that he believes the Turkish public opinion will follow McCain’s strategies “more closely than before given the disappointment over Biden’s selection.”
The daily also pointed to the front page of the leading Turkish newspaper, Hürriyet, which criticised Biden’s selection and labelled him as “inconsiderate” following a 1999 conversation between Biden and the then prime minister of Turkey, Bülent Ecevit, when the senator had reportedly told Ecevit, “if you do not solve the Cyprus problem then I will not approve the financial aid package of $5 billion which you expect from us, from the Congress” in a bid to put pressure on the Turkish government.
Despite the overall contentment with Biden’s selection prevalent among the Cypriot media, some have expressed worries that the senator may now decide to loosen his firm positions regarding Turkey following his newly-appointed role as Barack Obama’s right hand man.
Furthermore, as reported by the Washington Post earlier this year, although Obama doesn’t reject their advice, he is not a big fan of lobbies, declaring, “they won’t run my White House, and they won’t set the agenda in Washington.” Nonetheless, according to a recent ABC News article, although Obama may decry taking cash from federal lobbyists, Biden doesn’t seem to share this opinion and has taken $344,400 from lobbyists since 1997, indicating he may be more open to lobbies, including ones favouring Greek and Cypriot national interests.
Do you think the USA policy for Cyprus will change if Obama is elected? The fascist Bush liked the fascist military dictatorship of Turkey. But I think Obama will not like them so much!!
