"Greek Cypriots have little to show for international support

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- Greek Cypriots have a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions, international recognition and assurances of support from world powers.

The Turkish government, though, has a third of Cyprus.

The island's partition seems unchangeable 25 years after Turkish troops invaded five days after an abortive coup by supporters of union with Greece. The unionists were backed by the military junta then ruling in Athens.

The Mediterranean island off the coast of Turkey has been divided since into a Greek Cypriot controlled south and the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the Turkish-occupied north. Turkish Cyprus is recognized only by Ankara, which has 35,000 soldiers there.

July 20 is traditionally a day for celebration in Turkey. The mood among Greek Cypriots in recent days has been one of disappointment and a sense of abandonment.

"From where I stand I can see my home in the occupied north, yet the Turks will not allow me to return, even though the United Nations tells them they should. What kind of world is this?" said Andreas Christou, a Greek Cypriot refugee from the northern side of the divided capital, Nicosia.

Air raid sirens wailed in the main Greek Cypriot towns Thursday morning to mark the anniversary of the July 15, 1974, coup - launched by the military junta then ruling Greece that briefly toppled the popular Cyprus president, Archbishop Makarios.

Elderly women in black dresses wailed at the tombs of loved ones killed during the coup or the invasion. Greek Cypriots flocked to churches for memorial services, where they heard speeches denouncing world powers for not pressuring Turkey to withdraw its force and allow reunification of the island.

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who ordered the invasion during an earlier stint as premier and will visit the Turkish sector Tuesday, reiterated that for Turkey "there is no Cyprus problem, as this was settled in 1974."

Ecevit's comments came during a visit to Turkey by U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, who said at a news conference that the United States considers the island's partition unacceptable.

But Cohen went on to say that "the United States, contrary to press accounts, did not come here to exert any pressure on Turkey, any more than we sought to exert pressure on Greece."

He noted that both Greece and Turkey are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and said they should be able to conduct dialogue without pressure from fellow alliance members.

"If the Americans do not exert pressure on Turkey how will the Cyprus problem be solved?" asked Spyros Kyprianou, speaker of the Greek Cypriot parliament. "Will Ecevit have a dream and repent?"

Greek and Turkish Cyprus are divided by a buffer zone, policed by 2,000 United Nations peacekeepers, that slants across the island and runs through Nicosia. The Turkish side prohibits Greek Cypriots from crossing to the north, except in very few cases.

U.N. Security Council resolutions call for the withdrawal of all Turkish troops and an estimated 50,000 Turkish mainlanders who settled in the north. The council has also demanded that 200,000 Greek Cypriots who fled or were forcibly expelled in the wake of the invasion be allowed to return to their homes.

Like the United States, the Security Council maintains that Cyprus must be reunified as a single federal state. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the establishment of the Turkish Cypriot state in 1983 violated international law.

Turkey has ignored the resolutions and findings, and earlier this year rejected a call from the Group of Eight -- the seven major industrial nations and Russia -- for the resumption of unconditional peace talks.

Turkey insists negotiations can resume only if the Turkish Cypriot state is recognized and if the talks are aimed at forming a confederation between independent Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot states."