Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Oppose the illegal colonization of Cyprus and support US interests in the Eastern Mediterranean

On June 5, 2012 upon the urging of Cypriot-American and Greek-American organizations nationwide, US Representatives Gus Bilirakis of Florida and Eliot Engel of New York introduced House Resolution 676 which among other things:
a) urges Turkey to stop sending non-Cypriot Turkish citizens in the occupied north part of Cyprus and to seize any efforts of de-facto colonization of the island by changing the composition of its population
b) urges Turkey to respect the territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus, by ending its ongoing military occupation
c) urges Turkey to respect the right of the Republic of Cyprus to exploit its natural resources within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) without threatening statements, threat of war or other interference
d) urges the US Administration to call on Turkey to end its violation of the Geneva Convention (article 49 – colonizing areas under occupation) and end its interference with Cyprus’ sovereign right to exploit its energy resources.
Concurrently, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine introduced Senate Resolution 47 with identical language in the US Senate.
This is one of the strongest languages we have seen coming out of Congress in the last few years criticizing Turkey’s actions in Cyprus. Some of it might have to do with Congress finally realizing that Turkey’s interests in the Eastern Mediterranean are not completely aligned with those of the United States. With Cyprus and Israel exploiting Block 12 Natural Gas resources in conjunction with Texas-based Noble Energy and Turkey threatening such exploration efforts, the pressure is on the United States to see that its own business interests are sometimes threatened by Turkey’s expansionistic policies.
At the same time, we are all aware of the ongoing effort by Turkey to implant hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens from the heart of Anatolia into the occupied part of Cyprus with the intention to shift the population composition on the island. While the ongoing occupation is in violation of several UN Resolutions, the intentional “colonization of occupied territories” is in violation of the Geneva Convention, to which Turkey is a signatory.
http://www.americanhellenic.org 
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