By Jean Christou
US PRESIDENTIAL emissary for Cyprus Richard Holbrooke has sharply criticised the State Department for its negative comments on Turkish harassment of the Greek Defence Minister’s plane last Thursday.
State Department spokesman James Rubin had said on Monday he had no independent confirmation of the incident surrounding Minister Akis Tzohatzopoulos’s plane.
But Holbrooke’s rebuke last night provoked a clear condemnation of Turkey from Rubin and an admission that he had made a mistake.
Turkish warplanes twice buzzed the C-130 Hercules plane carrying Tzohatzopoulos to and from the island last week.
Holbrooke – who was on a visit to Ankara at the time of the incident – was strongly critical of Monday’s official US response.
“I have no doubt that the provocative action of the harassment of the aircraft by Turkish fighters indeed happened and I consider it a mistake on the part of the State Department that it doesn’t accept this reality,” the Athens News Agency quoted Holbrooke as telling its Washington correspondent.
Last night’s comments from Rubin at his daily press briefing clearly reflected the US envoy’s intervention:
“In the last 24 hours, very senior American officials have raised these events with the Turkish government,” Rubin said.
“We have made clear to our Turkish allies the seriousness with which we view the information we have received and the need to ensure that any future Turkish activities do not contribute to an atmosphere of tension between Turkey and its neighbours,” Rubin said.
Rubin said accounts of the incident – and a previous one as Tzohatzopoulos was flying to Cyprus – were “indeed disturbing”.
“It’s clear that flying provocatively close to the Greek defense minister’s aircraft would not be consistent with Turkey’s stated desire to reduce tension with Greece,” he said.
On Monday, Rubin had said he considered Tzohatzopoulos’ flight to the island as an overflight in itself.
But yesterday he conceded that the plane on which the Greek defense minister was flying was not a combat aircraft and he acknowledged that he had made a mistake Monday when he said the incident had taken place over Cypriot territory.
“Obviously I didn’t do my job as well as I should,” he said.
Greece lodged official protests over the incident Turkey initially denied the charges, but later said its planes had approached the C-130. But Ankara insisted it did not know Tzohatzopoulos was a passenger.
Holbrooke, however, dismissed, the argument: “Even if the Greek Defence Minister wasn’t in the plane it’s an unacceptable act which
does not help in defusing tension between Greece and Turkey. It (the buzzing) is a very serious incident in which human lives were put in danger.”
Athens yesterday welcomed Holbrooke’s stance: “Holbrooke is close to reality and confirms his reliability as a mediator,” Tzohatzopoulos said.
Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas also lauded Holbrooke’s statement but said Athens would not ignore Rubin’s.
“We accepted the positive statement but made a note of the negative one,” Reppas said.
He had earlier characterised the State Department spokesman’s remarks as “unprecedented and unacceptable and ignoring or distorting true facts”.
“The Defence Minister was flying in Greek air space. He wasn’t flying over Cyprus,” Reppas said.
Tzohatzopoulos, also earlier quoted by the Athens News Agency, said Washington’s initial stance diminished its credibility.
“When the US government spokesman confuses the overflight of a military aircraft with the official visit of the Greek Defence Minister to Cyprus in a C-130 transport plane, there is a problem.”
