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The following AHMP letter to the Editor was published in the Sunday, March 16, 1997 edition of The New York Times Magazine. The first version below is the letter that was submitted, while the one that follows is what was published.
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February 25, 1997
Letters to The Editor Magazine The New York Times 229 W. 43rd Street New York, NY 10036-3959
To the Editor:
Stephen Kinzer's failure to mention Cyprus in an article purporting to examine the West's problems with Turkey is a troubling omission (2/23 "The Islamist Who Runs Turkey, Delicately"). Along with widespread human rights violations and the ethnic cleansing of over a million Kurds from rural areas in Turkish Kurdistan, Turkey's nightmarish1974 invasion and continuing occupation of the island-nation of Cyprus--&emdash;leaving Nicosia the last divided European capito--&emdash;is perhaps the most recurring reason offered by EU ministers for Turkey's exclusion from Europe.
Most ironic is Kinzer's emphasis on Turkey's quips about double-standards in the enforcement of international humanitarian law, for example with the perceived inaction of the US and Europe in Bosnia. Ironic because it is Turkey's brazen transgressions of international law in Cyprus that have set the tone for the application of double standards by the international community in the post-Vietnam War era.
When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he specifically cited to the West's abject failure to enforce international law in Cyprus to justify his own aggression. When the Serbs defended themselves against accusations of ethnic cleansing, they easily evoked Kissinger's and our own State Department's complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Greek Cypriots by Turkey. It is a vicious cycle of self-exoneration through finger-pointing ger-pointing to past wrongdoings; a cycle of hollow pretexts which can often be traced directly to the Cyprus tragedy.
Perhaps this tragic cycle can be interrupted were justice finally brought to its source.
Very truly yours,
P. D. Spyropoulos, Esq.
Director
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As published in The New York Times Magazine:
Stephen Kinzer's failure to mention Cyprus in an article purporting to examine the West's problems with Turkey is a troubling omission. Along with widespread human rights violations and the ethnic cleansing of over a million Kurds from rural areas in Turkish Kurdistan, Turkey's nightmarish 1974 invasion of Cyprus--&emdash;leaving Nicosia the last divided European capital--&emdash;is perhap the most recurring reason offered by European Union ministers for Turkey's exclusion from Europe.
Most puzzling is Kinzer's emphasis on Turkey's concerns about double standards in the enforcement of international humanitarian law, for example, with the perceived inaction of the United States and Europe in Bosnia. It is Turkey's brazen transgressions of international law in Cyprus that have set the tone for the application of double standards by the international community in the post-Vietnam War era. A recent instance of this occurred when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait: he specifically cited the West's abject failure to enforce international law in Cyprus to justify his own aggression.
P.D. SPYROPOULOS
American Hellenic Media Project
New York