Do the Americans take us for fools?

Sir,
The US State Departments’ recent “notification” regarding US arms deployed in the Republic of Cyprus is outrageous. The Turkish armed forces have been using US-made weapons to occupy the northern part of Cyprus, in violation of US laws since the invasion.

In particular the occupation army has deployed in Cyprus hundreds of US-made M48A5T1 and M48A5T2 tanks, M113 armoured personnel carriers, US-made 155mm self-propel towed guns (M114A1, M52T1, M44T1, M110A2), and TOW anti-tank missiles, while the occupation troops are also equipped with hundreds of other weapons, explosives and G3A3 and G3A4 rifles, all of US origin. In effect, more than 95 per cent of the weapons used by the Turkish occupation army are of US origin.

US State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli has said that Washington is not aware of any recent case in which Turkey appears to have violated the terms of the licence on US arms sales to Ankara. They obviously think we are fools.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Turkey are living essentially in a dungeon of huge repression. As a result of the so-called “counter insurgency” against the Kurds in the mid 80s, which peaked in the nineties, Turkey received more American arms than in the entire cold war period. Several million refugees, tens of thousand of people killed, hundreds and thousands of towns and villages destroyed much of the countryside razed.

Turkey is the biggest recipient of US arms in the world outside of Israel and Egypt, obviously not for Cold War reasons, not for reasons having to do with the Middle East, but simply in order to slaughter and oppress its domestic Kurdish population and to maintain an occupation army in Cyprus.

The honest and hard working people in this part of the world are not content to view the atrocities of Turkey and its supporters merely with a detached contemplation. The oppressive regime that rules Turkey has no place in Europe and no place on this beautiful island with a historically peace loving Hellenic majority. The true face of the regime in Turkey is the greatest hindrance to democracy within Turkey itself and a major impediment to stability in the region.

Lazaros Temetzian, Larnaca

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.