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US
"When we were trying to convince Turkey to allow the passage of our troops through its territory in Northern Iraq, we gave Turkey two motives: several billion dollars in the form of donations and loans and Cyprus in the form of the Annan plan."
Daniel Fried (member of the National Security Council and special advisor to President Bush), 26 June 2004
"If Ankara's actions in Cyprus do not constitute ethnic cleansing, the term has no meaning."
The Washington Times, 18 November 1999
"The Greek people are a difficult if not impossible people to tame, and for this reason we must strike deep into their cultural roots: perhaps then we can force them to conform. I mean, of course, to strike at their language, their religion, their cultural and historical reserves, so that we can neutralise their ability to develop, to distinguish themselves or to prevail, thereby removing them as an obstacle to our strategically vital plans in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East."
Henry Kissinger, reportedly in 1994
"In 1996 the European Court of Human Rights ruled 11 to 6 that Turkey committed a continuing violation of the rights of a Greek Cypriot woman by preventing her from going to her property located in north Cyprus. The ruling reaffirmed the validity of property deeds issued prior to 1974. The Court also found in this case that "it was obvious from the large number of troops engaged in active duties in northern Cyprus that the Turkish army exercised effective overall control there.""
Cyprus Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1998 by US Department of State
"A Cyprus settlement should be consistent with the fundamental principles of human rights and democratic norms and practices."
Former US president Bill Clinton, 1992
"Apartheid is South African only in terms or word origin. Apartheid is readily found elsewhere. Its Turkish version flourishes in Cyprus."
Bengt Scotland and Lech Niekrasz 'Cyprus: Hell and Paradise', 1989
"Cyprus has been Greek in culture, leanings, customs and language for much more than three thousand years. You probably spent time visiting archaeological diggings and museums when in Cyprus. They prove this point better than any written words can do, including Turkish official statements."
Bengt Scotland and Lech Niekrasz 'Cyprus: Hell and Paradise', 1989
"According to the most recent statistics, the Christian population in Turkey has diminished from 4,500,000 at the beginning of this century to just about 150,000. Of those, the Greeks are no more than 7,000. Yet, in 1923 they were as many as 1.2 million."
New York Times, 26 November 1979
"Since then the Turkish side has been pursuing total separation of the communities. Last year all ethnic Turks were allowed to go north in exchange for promises that the ethnic Greeks in the Turkish area would be given freer movement, better schools and more medical care. In addition, the Turkish side promised to allow the United Nations to set up posts in the north and provide the Greeks with moral and material support.
The Turkish side, keeping few of its promises, persisted in putting pressure on the remaining ethnic Greeks to leave. As a result a steady trickle of departures has become a flood. About 30 Greeks go south every day".
Steven Roberts, The New York Times, 1 November 1976
"...the Turkish Cypriots in the occupied northern part of the island seem to have joined their compatriots in the south as victims of Turkish aggression and occupation"
US Senate Subcommittee report, 1976
"The Turkish invasion turned the island into a shambles. In political terms it violated the integrity of an independent state. In economic terms it shattered the island's flourishing economy. And in human terms it brought personal tragedy to thousands of families and turned half the population into refugees, detainees and beleagured people caught behind ceasefire lines."
US Senator Edward Kennedy
"The Turks are blackmailing the US Government into violating the very laws that this House and the Senate of the United States passed, and should we move to allow this one instance to pass to expediency it will become instead the accepted method of violating our laws and forcing our hand, a precedent we can ill afford.
We have sold, according to my figures, almost $11 billions worth of arms to foreign nations. The potential for blacmail, the potential for misuse, the potential for other Cypruses, appalls me..."
Representative McKinney (R Connecticutt) during debate on Cyprus in US House of Representatives, 24 July 1975
"In Paphos today where some 500 Turkish Cypriots were being transferred to the north, the main square resoundedd with the sobbing and wailing of elderely women abandoning their homes after a lifetime. Greek and Turkish Cypriots mingled easily with no apparent hostility toward each other. Many of the departing Turkish Cypriots handed over the key of their homes to the Greek Cypriot refugees, with apparent pleasure, "to look after them", as one said."
Washington Post, 11 April 1975
"Desolation and destruction mark many areas. Whole villages and towns and cities are empty of people, who fled their homes in fear of advancing Turkish forces. The 15,000 to 20,000 Greeks who remain are being held as virtual hostages – confined to their villages or elsewhere, and usually separated from family members and without adequate food and water and medical care...
Government controlled areas of the island have been inundated with refugees from the north. Since the invasion on 20 July, over 200,000 men, women and children – at least a third of the population – have sought shelter wherever they could find it – in open fields, under trees, along the roadsides, and in schools, monasteries and public buildings."
Senator Edward Kennedy, 'Preface to Study Mission Report of the US Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Problems Connected with Refugees and Escapees', 14 October 1974
"Then listen to me Mr Ambassador. Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant, Cyprus is a flea, Greece is a flea. If these two feckless fleas continue itching the elephant they may get whacked by the elephant’s trunk, whacked good… We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks Mr Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and the constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last very long.’"
President Johnson to Greek Ambassador, Alexander Matsas, June 1964 following Ambassador Matsas's refusal to agree to the US Acheson plan for the partition and 'double enosis' of Cyprus
"Dear Mr Prime Minister: I am gravely concerned by the information which I have had through Ambassador Hare from you and your Foreign Minister that the Turkish Government is contemplating a decision to intervene by military force to occupy a portion of Cyprus... Ambassador Hare has indicated that you have postponed your decision for a few hours in order to obtain my views.
It is my impression that you believe that such intervention by Turkey is permissible under the provisions of the Treaty of Guarantee of 1960. I must call your attention, however, to our understanding that the proposed intervention by Turkey would be for the purpose of effecting a form of partition on the island, a solution which is specifically excluded by the Treaty of Guarantee...
Further, Mr Prime Minister, I am concerned about the obligations of Turkey as a member of the United Nations...
I have no doubt that the general membership of the United Nations would react in the strongest terms to unilateral action by Turkey which would defy the efforts fo the United Nations and destroy any prospect that the United Nations could assist in obtaining a reasonable and peaceful settlement of this difficult problem.
I wish also, Mr Prime Minister, to call your attention to the bilateral agreement between the United States and Turkey in the field of military assistance. Under Article IV of the Agreement with Turkey of July 1947, your Government is required to obtain United States consent for the use of military assistance for purposes other than those for which such assistance was furnished..."
Extracts from President Johnson letter to Prime Minister Inonu of Turkey, 5 June 1964
"We turned a deaf ear to the dying [Greek and Armenian] Christians, when they called to us for aid, fully aware that America was their only hope, and now it would apper there is a growing tendency in this country to whitewash the Turks and condone their crimes in order to obtain material advantages from them... the Turks should not be accepted into the society of decent nations until they show sincere repentence for their crimes."
James W Gerard, former US ambassador to Germany on the Genocide of the Greeks and Amenians of Smyrna, Asia Minor, 1926
"... the destruction of Smyrna was but the closing act in a consistent program of exterminating Christianity throughout the length and bredth of the old Byzantine Empire; the expatriation of an ancient Christian civilzation, which in recent years had begun to take on growth and rejuventation... thousands of Christian teachers and pupils butchered or despersed. This process of extermination was carried on over a considerable period of time, with fixed purpose, with system, and with painstaking minute details; and it was accomplished with unspeakable cruelties, causing the destruction of a greater number of human beings than have suffered in any similar persecution since the coming of Christ.
... the curious feature is that, owing to the propaganda carried on by the hunters of certain concessions, an anti-Christian and pro-Turk school has sprung up in the United States."
George Horton, former Consul and Consul-general of the United States in the near east on the Genocide of the Greeks and Amenians of Asia Minor, 1926
"After the Turks had smashed the Greek armies they turned the essentially Greek city (Smyrna) into an ash heap as proof of their victory."
Sir Valentine Chirol, University of Chicago in 'The Occident and the Orient', 1924
"Hundreds of Greek men were taken from their homes and made to sit in the streets as the Turkish soldiers went systematically from man to man, slitting their throats, reciting the word "Pashida" – sultan. This form of death saved ammunitiion; it was particularly excrutiating. The wives and daughters of the men were then raped and beaten, and those who refused to submit were immediately slaughtered... There was constant shooting, followed by screams and panic-stricken running. The Turks were openly looting the enitire city."
Frank Brady, 'Onassis: An extravagant life'
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