[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23876-23877]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  COMMEMORATION OF THE 43RD ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF CYPRUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bishop of Utah). Under a previous order 
of the House, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I actually did not come tonight to discuss 
Iraq or to respond to what my colleagues said on the Republican side, 
but I could not help but when one of my colleagues got up and showed 
that book bag and I think suggested that there were over a million 
Iraqi children that were going to receive that very nice book bag, I 
just could not help but think, well, what about all of the American 
children that went to school; I do not remember any of them getting a 
free book bag.
  So part of the problem is that when the Republicans talk about all of 
these wonderful things that are going to be given to the Iraqis, they 
seem to forget that many of these things, whether it is education or 
health care needs, are not provided to our own citizens here in the 
United States.
  But in any case, Mr. Speaker, this evening I want to mark the 43rd 
anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Cyprus. Since the 
end of 80 years of British rule in 1960, this remarkable island of 
Cyprus and its people have endured great hardships and great triumphs. 
Despite being divided for the past 29 years, Cypriots have not given up 
hope to one day see the end of the Turkish occupation and the 
reunification of the island. I recently traveled to Cyprus in August; 
and I firmly believe that all people, Greek, Turkish, Armenian and all 
of the inhabitants of the island, want to see the end of the 
intransigence of the Turkish leaders and greet each other as fellow 
citizens once again.
  As we all know, Mr. Speaker, on July 20 of 1974, Turkey unilaterally 
invaded the sovereign nation of Cyprus, resulting in the ethnic 
cleansing of the northern third of the island of Greek Cypriots.

                              {time}  1945

  This action was, and continues to be, widely condemned by the 
international community. And dozens of U.N. resolutions have been 
passed about this illegal occupation. And the European Union has made 
it clear that Turkey's entrance into the European Union eventually will 
be based in part by its ability and willingness to settle the situation 
in Cyprus.
  Now, I have to say many of us know that this past year there seems to 
have been an opportunity to reunify the island and even the Turkish 
occupation of the northern part of Cyprus because Cyprus, it was 
finally agreed, would enter the European Union on its own. In fact, the 
accession to the European Union is scheduled to take place next May in 
2004. In April of this year the decision was finally made by the 
European Union to accept Cyprus as a member.
  The United Nations under Secretary General Annan put together a plan 
for the reunification of Cyprus. And back in the early part of this 
year, there were negotiations between the Turkish occupied government 
in the northern part of Cyprus and the government in Nicosia, the Greek 
government which represent the entire island as well as the Turkish 
government. And we were hopeful that there would be some agreement on a 
reunification plan before the decision was made in April

[[Page 23877]]

that Cyprus would join the European Union. It certainly made sense to 
have Cyprus join the European Union as a unified island. But 
unfortunately because of the intransigence by the Turkish-Cypriot 
leader, Ralph Denktash, those talks led to nowhere. And everyone 
agreed, not only the Secretary General of the U.N. but also our 
government agreed and specifically stated that the reason why the talks 
broke down and no unification plan under the auspices of the U.N. was 
adopted was because the leader of the Turkish Cypriots, Mr. Denktash, 
refused to budge and refused to effectuate any real negotiation 
according to the U.N. plan.
  Mr. Speaker, I wanted to share my outrage over a statement made by 
Mr. Denktash yesterday. Frustrated by the unity of the international 
community identifying him as the obstacle to reunification, he compared 
Secretary General Kofi Annan's plan for the reunification of Cyprus 
with the genocide committed by President Milosevic of Yugoslavia. Now, 
that is an outrage in itself. Here is the U.N. under the Secretary 
General trying to bring peace to a divided island, trying to reunify 
the island for all its people, and that is compared to the genocide by 
the President of Yugoslavia?
  For Mr. Denktash, a man that has repeatedly flouted the will of the 
U.N. and his own citizenry, this ridiculous claim is, I think, the most 
egregious action that he has taken so far. It is not enough for him, it 
seems, to operate outside international norms; he must now accuse the 
U.N. of committing the worst of crimes against humanity.
  Mr. Speaker, I sent a letter to Mr. Denktash today which I would 
insert into the Record.
                                                  October 1, 2003.
     Mr. Rauf Denktash,
     Washington, DC.
       Mr. Denktash: I was shocked to learn of your comments 
     yesterday in an interview with the Anadolu Agency that 
     compared United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with 
     indicted war criminal Slobadan Milosevic. This could not be 
     further from the truth. Milosevic is accused of the worst of 
     crimes against the ethnic Albanians, and Kofi Annan works 
     tirelessly for the advancement of global truth and justice. 
     In order to set the record straight, I ask that you issue an 
     apology to the Secretary General and recommit yourself to the 
     reunification process with Greek Cyprus.
       Your statement clearly is not helpful to the reunification 
     process of Cyprus. In sharp contrast, Greek Cypriot President 
     Tassos Papadopoulos has proven to bend over backwards in 
     order to move the talks forward. After the failure of the 
     talks in March at The Hague, he did not waiver from his 
     determination to arrive at a solution, stating that despite 
     his ``understandable sense of disappointment, we will not 
     abandon our efforts for a Cyprus solution, which would be 
     functional and viable.''
       It is also evident that you are not truly representing the 
     will of your own citizenry. As you well know, tens of 
     thousands of Turkish Cypriots protested in support of the 
     U.N. plan for reunification with Greek Cyprus earlier this 
     year. They demanded that they be given the same rights that 
     are enjoyed by the Greek Cypriots, and reunite the country 
     once again after 29 years of division. Your decision to open 
     up the border to Cypriots on both sides for daily trips was a 
     positive first step towards the cessation of tensions, but a 
     first step is all it will remain if you do not return to the 
     negotiating table.
       A solution can still be reached in the Cyprus problem. You 
     still have the chance to heed the advice of the international 
     community and the demands of your own people. An apology 
     regarding your recent comments about Kofi Annan, accompanied 
     by a sincere commitment to the reunification talks, will go a 
     long way for the people of Cyrpus to have their country back.
           Sincerely,
                                               Frank Pallone, Jr.,
                                               Member of Congress.

  Mr. Speaker, in that letter I demanded that he apologize for his 
statement and recommit himself to the U.N. peace process. His behavior 
further demonstrates what Mr. Annan stated about how it was solely Mr. 
Denktash who was the reason why these reunification talks broke down. I 
would ask him to start up the reunification talks again. This is what 
should be done, not making these outrageous statements about the U.N.

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