SPECIAL REPORT: Clinton invites Cyprus occupation leader to Washington

For Immediate Release: March 20, 2009

Contact: Nikolaos Taneris, New York, Tel. 1-917-699-9935

NEW YORK—The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) distributes a report based
on the Cyprus Press raising grave concerns about efforts under way ,with
Clinton’s visit to Turkey, to falsely legitimize the illegal military-invasions
and military-occupation perpetrated by Turkey in Cyprus:

(THE ARTICLE BELOW IS REPRODUCED FOR FAIR USE AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES)

Clinton invites Cyprus occupation leader to Washington by Hellenic Antidote
blog, Friday, 20 March 2009

URL: http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2009/03/clinton-invites-cyprus-occupation.html


In a previous post, I suggested that the statement US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton released with her Turkish counterpart, Ali Babacan, concerning Cyprus,
which called for the lifting of the 'isolation' of the Turkish Cypriots, was
meaningless and didn't reflect an attempt by the USA to upgrade the status of
Turkey's pseudo-state in the north; but it seems I was being naive and didn't
appreciate how mind-bogglingly hypocritical, cowardly and base American foreign
policy is.

Below is an article from yesterday's (Cypriot daily) Phileleftheros (my
translation), which reveals that in an effort to boost the status of Mehmet Ali
Talat, leader of the Turkish occupation regime in Cyprus, Clinton has invited
him for an official visit to Washington. The Phileleftheros article is also
noteworthy for drawing attention to the fact that the chief architect of the
US's efforts to upgrade the Turkish occupation regime in Cyprus is a
Greek-American diplomat, Gregory Makris. With Greeks like these, who needs
Turks?

Hillary does a favour for Erdogan and invites Talat to Washington

The leader of the Turkish Cypriots, Mehmet Ali Talat, will be in New York and
Washington at the end of next week to meet with UN Secretary General Ban-Ki
Moon, and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security
Adviser James Jones.

An American official told Phileleftheros he 'couldn't confirm the information';
but another source said the meeting with Clinton is 'certain', even if
Washington is now having second thoughts after receiving protests from Athens
and Nicosia, who made it clear that any meeting with the occupation leader would
be considered extremely provocative.

Nicosia is particularly annoyed that the Americans are boosting Talat and
upgrading his political status while the US secretary of state has yet to meet
her Cypriot counterpart and, indeed, the new American government has so far not
invited any Cypriot official to Washington.

Nicosia considers the American move raises serious questions about America's
motives and displays extreme bias, especially at a time when negotiations for a
Cyprus settlement are in progress.

One American diplomat told Phileleftheros that Clinton's proposed meeting with
Talat would send out the wrong message to President Christofias.

'Before Christofias was elected,' the diplomat said, 'we could have tried to
justify such a move by saying the president was the hardliner Tassos
Papadopoulos. But now the president is someone who has a fervent wish to find a
Cyprus solution.'

According to reliable sources, during their recent meeting in Ankara, Turkish
prime minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan asked Clinton, as a personal favour to him,
to meet with Talat.

Clinton didn't exclude the possibility and agreed to discuss it with her
advisers.

The same sources reveal that the US embassy in Cyprus, on the advice of
Greek-American Gregory Makris, head of the embassy's political section,
recommended that Erdogan's request be accepted, noting that such a meeting
between Talat and Clinton would assist Talat in the internal politics of the
pseudo-state.

Makris, who frequently speaks out against the president of Cyprus, is known to
be a strong supporter of ending the so-called 'isolation' of the Turkish
Cypriots. He mentions the issue in nearly all the correspondence he sends from
Nicosia.

The Greek-American diplomat, in his private discussions, refuses to accept that
the so-called 'isolation' of the Turkish Cypriots is a consequence of the
Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus.
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