[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 151 (Wednesday, October 21, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S DOUBLE STANDARD OF FOREIGN POLICY

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                          HON. MICHAEL PAPPAS

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 20, 1998

  Mr. PAPPAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my concern on the 
Clinton Administration's double standard of foreign policy application 
toward Turkey. I fail to understand why the same policy that is now 
being implemented against the Bosnian Serbs, who are denying basic 
human rights and imposing death sentences upon hundreds of ethnic 
Albanian women and children in Kosova, is not being implemented upon 
Turkey.
  For 14 years, the Turkish military has been conducting an inhumane 
campaign of ethnic cleansing and oppression on its own Kurdish people 
in no different a way than the Serbs are. The Turks' war of horror 
against the Kurds has killed over 30,000 Kurds and has left over two 
million refugees without homes and lives.
  The situations in Kosova and against the Turkish Kurds are 
unacceptable and must be dealt with swiftly, so that more innocent 
people will not die. If the United States military is ready to 
intervene in Kosova, then someone could ask are we ready to do the same 
against Turkey? A double standard foreign policy is not good policy, 
especially when innocent lives are at stake. I ask that the 
Administration end this doublespeak, and act now in Turkey.
  Mr. Speaker, I also ask that the following letter from the A.H.I. be 
inserted in the Record following my statement.

                            American Hellenic Institute, Inc.,

                                                 October 15, 1998.
     Hon. William J. Clinton,
     President of the United States, Washington, DC.

  Re: Double Standard on the Application of the Rule of Law to Turkey

       Dear Mr. President. The present crisis in Kosovo impels me 
     to write to you once again on the double standard that 
     underlies the Administration's foreign policy approach to 
     Turkey. At a time when our nation has invoked the threat of 
     military intervention over the application of UN Security 
     Council Resolution 1199 on Serbia, we utterly fail to apply 
     the same standard of the rule of law to Turkey.
       The American Hellenic Institute is appalled by and wholly 
     condemns the violence in Kosovo. We welcome the 
     Administration's efforts to address the Kosovo crisis as 
     being in the best traditions of our nation's moral and 
     humanitarian values. These values, however, as also under 
     attack in Turkey where the Turkish military is conducting a 
     ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing and repression against 
     its own Kurdish citizens. Just as we acted in Kosovo, so our 
     country needs to undertake similar efforts in Turkey in 
     defense of U.S. interest and values.
       Turkey's fourteen year war of terror against its 20% 
     Kurdish minority in Turkish Kurdistan is no secret. The 
     Turkish armed forces have killed over 30,000 Kurds and 
     destroyed 3,000 villages resulting in over two million 
     refugees. Ethnic cleansing has taken place on a vastly wider 
     scale than in Kosovo. And yet our government does nothing.
       On Bosnia and Kosovo, high officials of our government have 
     repeatedly spoken out in protest. We have mobilized our armed 
     forces. Over turkey the same officials are conspicuously 
     silent.
       If, as demonstrated over the past weeks, we are ready to 
     intervene militarily on behalf of the Kosovo Alabanians, we 
     should be ready to apply the same principles on behalf of the 
     Kurds in Turkey. If we do not and instead continue U.S. 
     support for Turkey, then we are turning ourselves into an 
     accessory to Turkey's massive human rights violations in 
     Turkey. This is a stain on U.S. honor.
       Mr. President, our country cannot live by double standards. 
     In 1991 the U.S. went to war with Iraq to eject it from 
     Kuwait. What is the difference in principle between the Iraqi 
     invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990 and Turkey's 
     invasion and occupation of 37.3% of Cyprus in 1974? There is 
     none. Indeed, the military controlled government of Turkey is 
     in violation of more laws than Saddam Hussein in his invasion 
     of Kuwait.
       The Administration's vigorous actions and resolve in Kosovo 
     stand in harsh contrast to its willingness to support 
     Turkey's repression (some would say genocide) against its own 
     Kurdish citizens and to its unwillingness to enforce a series 
     of UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions 
     condemning Turkey's illegal invasion and occupation of Cyprus 
     dating back to 1974. Why is our country so selective in 
     enforcing certain resolutions and disregarding others?
       The answer, I regretfully have to conclude, is that the 
     Administration is mesmerized by Turkey. Consider the 
     following recent examples:
       When in October 1998 Turkey threatened military action 
     against Syria and mobilized its armed forces on the Syrian 
     border, the Administration did not condemn Turkey's action as 
     a violation of the UN Charter article 2 (4) and a threat to 
     regional stability. Instead it referred once again to the PKK 
     as a ``terrorist'' organization and called upon Syria to 
     ``cease its support of the PKK.'' In effect, this denies the 
     Kurds the right to autonomy which we are championing for the 
     Kosovo Albanians.
       When in August 1998, President Demirel issued a statement 
     claiming unspecified Greek sovereign territories in the 
     Aegean, the Administration made no statement condemning this 
     irresponsible irredentism of Turkey against an American NATO 
     ally.
       When in December 1997 the European Union unanimously found 
     itself unable to accept Turkey's application for membership 
     on the deeply seated grounds of Turkey's fundamental lack of 
     normal democratic governance and adverse human rights record, 
     the Administration took Turkey's side.
       When in early 1997 the Republic of Cyprus announced its 
     intention to acquire a modest increase in its self-defense 
     capability, the Administration created the S-300 controversy 
     by taking the lead in criticizing Cyprus. It subsequently 
     allowed to go uncontested Turkey's absurd interpretation that 
     this challenged the balance of power in the Eastern 
     Mediterranean.
       The sad fact is that the Administration has thrown its lot 
     in with the Turkish military controlled government. We supply 
     them with the arms needed to oppress their own citizens, we 
     take their side against the European Union; we fail to 
     condemn their repeated challenges to international law in 
     the Aegean and over Cyprus; we stand by when Turkey time 
     and time again demonstrates it is the primary source of 
     regional instability.
       The explanation AHI is regularly offered for this bizarre 
     policy that so obviously contradicts both American interests 
     and values is that Turkey is a secular Islamic state and that 
     any alternative U.S. approach might risk delivering Turkey 
     into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists.
       Mr. President, this analysis is fundamentally erroneous. 
     The true fault line in Turkey is not between secularism and 
     fundamentalism but between military rule and democracy. The 
     Administration's current policy supports the military and 
     ignores democracy. In Iran we found at great cost that this 
     approach did not work. We should not make the same mistake in 
     Turkey.
       The Turkish constitution affords the military political 
     powers far exceeding anything than would be acceptable in the 
     U.S. or other normal democracies. Instead of siding with the 
     military and its political and diplomatic puppets, the 
     Administration should support, as does AHI, the brave Turkish 
     citizens within Turkey struggling for human rights and the 
     rule of law.
       A guiding principle in foreign affairs for the U.S. should 
     be the words of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1956 
     Middle East crisis, when he condemned and reversed the 
     invasion of Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel. In a 
     memorable address to the nation on October 31, 1956 
     Eisenhower said:
       ``There can be no peace without law. And there can be no 
     law if we invoke one code of international conduct for those 
     who oppose us and another for our friends.''
       The need for a change in our policy toward Turkey is 
     critical in the interests of the U.S.
           Respectfully,
                                               Eugene T. Rossides.

     

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