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.
