Cyprus PIO: News Update in English, 98-08-07
From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/>
News Update
Friday, 07/08/98
CONTENTS
- [01] AHEPA calls on the US government to assume responsibility for
Cyprus
[01] AHEPA calls on the US government to assume responsibility for
Cyprus
Greek American organisation AHEPA called upon the US government to
acknowledge responsibility for the Cyprus tragedy and to recognise Cyprus
sovereign right to self-defence, pending demilitarisation.
In a resolution, approved unanimously yesterday during the 76th annual
congress of the organisation in Florida, AHEPA puts the blame on the US for
the failure of negotiations for a Cyprus settlement.
Stating that "negotiations have failed to produce a settlement because of
the faulty approach adopted by the US that Cyprus is a traditional
diplomatic problem where 'meet - in -the -middle' negotiations can solve
it", the resolution calls on the American government to acknowledge that
the "US bears a national responsibility for the Cyprus tragedy".
Moreover the resolution quotes Ambassador Holbrooke's words describing US
actions in 1974 in Cyprus as "shameful" and makes reference to State
Department's desk officer for Cyprus in 1974 who clearly said that "a
Cyprus solution is possible if the US steps up its responsibilities and
remembers its own guilt".
Reminding the US involvement in the 1974 tragic events in Cyprus, AHEPA
calls on the US administration to help restore the "status quo and the rule
of law as it applied before Turkey's 1974 illegal invasion".
It also calls upon the US "to issue a clear statement, that pending
demilitarisation, the government of Cyprus has a sovereign right to self -
defence" and demands the US to take action to bring about the removal of
all illegal Turkish settlers from Cyprus and the restoration of the
churches illegally converted to mosques in violation of the 1949 Geneva
Convention.
From the Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office (PIO) Server at http://www.pio.gov.cy/
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