Cyprus Dilemma
Your editorial “Solving the Cyprus Dilemma” (May 8) overlooks the background to the events of 1974 by wrongly portraying the intercommunal question of Cyprus as a question of “invasion” by Turkey. The Cyprus question has not been brought about by Turkey’s legitimate intervention in Cyprus. The Cyprus question had already existed for 11 years by the time Turkey intervened in 1974. The U.N. peacekeeping force has been stationed in the island since March 1964.
The crux of the Cyprus question lies in the policy of the Greek Cypriots to reduce the Turkish Cypriots to the status of a “minority” by depriving them of their political equality and partnership status and rights entrenched in the 1960 agreements and the constitution that created the bicommunal partnership republic.
The relationship between the two sides in Cyprus is not one of “majority and minority” but one of equal political status.
Unless the two sides in Cyprus are accorded full, equal status by the international community, the Greek Cypriot side will continue to render fruitless all efforts toward a negotiated settlement.
AHMET ERDENGIZ
Representative, Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus
Washington
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