Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-03-05

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Friday, March 05, 1999

Military tensions mount over Ocalan

THE MOUNTING tension in Greece's and Cyprus' relations with Turkey, caused by the stepping up of threats by Ankara, was given extensive coverage yesterday.

Phileleftheros said that the warnings issued by Turkey to Greece constituted "clear war threats", but Nicosia and Athens had remained calm, consciously avoiding a verbal confrontation. The paper quoted former Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis as saying that Greek-Turkish relations were at the "most dangerous point of the last decades" and blamed the US for the situation.

Turkey had resorted to two lines of action in order to raise the tension. Its ambassadors in all major capitals have been giving press conferences at which they attack Greece and Cyprus for their alleged help to the Kurds, while the politicians have been making military threats.

Alithia also pointed out that Turkey was raising tension "by exploiting the clumsy handling of the (Abdullah) Ocalan affair by the Greek side." The government in Athens had ignored the threats in the hope that the build-up of tension would be avoided, even though Ankara had threatened Greece with "worse developments".

Despite the calm response by Greece, Western diplomatic sources in Nicosia could not hide their concern about the situation, especially after Turkey announced that two big military exercises would be held in the Aegean at the beginning of next month.

Machi, quoting "reliable sources in Athens", claimed that Turkey had decided to provoke a small-scale military clash with Greece in the immediate future. This would take place either in the Aegean Sea or along the Cyprus ceasefire line.

Exclusive information from Greek military headquarters said that a National Action Plan was in force to ensure that troops in both Greece and Cyprus were on alert.

Haravghi, under the headline "Presidential Hubris", slammed President Clerides for a speech he made at an event to mark 40 years from the end of the Eoka struggle. It accused him of "distorting modern Cypriot history in the most brutal way".

Clerides' sin was his observation that the Greek Cypriots were to blame today's problems. He had said: "we have the greatest share of responsibility because of a host of mistakes and omissions in the political field." This was tantamount to absolving the Turkish invaders, the Greek junta, Nato and the treacherous coupists from responsibility for the invasion and blaming everything on the Greek Cypriot people, the paper said.

Politis said that the police force was held in "desperately low esteem" by public opinion. According to an opinion poll, 88.4 per cent of respondents believed that there was corruption within the force and that policemen were involved in organised crime.

The poll findings were released on the day when the House ad hoc committee on crime had accused the police hierarchy of giving it misleading information.

Simerini led with a report claiming that US envoy Thomas Miller would attempt to "revive the dead intercommunal dialogue on his visit to the region next week. During his visit he hopes to secure a resumption of the intercommunal talks in the summer."

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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