NEW YORK – As Hellenism worldwide commemorates the grim 50th anniversary of the illegal invasion and occupation of Cyprus, the International Coordinating Committee – Justice for Cyprus (PSEKA) released the following statement signed by PSEKA President Philip Christopher:

Fifty years ago on July 20, 1974, the Greek-American community watched in disbelief as American-made arms paid for by our taxes, were utilized by Turkey to invade, kill and rape thousands of Greek Cypriots and conduct ethnic cleansing by expelling 200,000 people from their ancestral homes and create a puppet state (TRNC) in the occupied 37% of the Island.

During these past 50 years, the Greek-American community has spared neither time, effort nor money in mounting collective action in the United States Congress and achieving an embargo on Turkey that was subsequently lifted with the promise that Turkey will abide by UN Resolutions and withdraw its 40,000 occupation troops from Cyprus.

The Greek-American community of two million, first in education and second in income, has contributed in immeasurable ways to America. Unfortunately, we failed to convince any administration to bring pressure to bear on Turkey who continues to occupy 37% of the Republic of Cyprus, a member of the United Nations and European Union.

We are often told by the State Department and our elected officials that in foreign policy, there are no allies or enemies, but simply protection of National interests. For 50 years, our country, the United States of America, the greatest Democracy in the world, has compromised its Democratic values for the sake of interests and expediency. I remain optimistic and wish to express my sincere thanks to all organizations and salute their commitment and dedication to the cause of the Greek Cypriot people for Freedom and Justice.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere!”

50 years of occupation is enough!

Turkey, NATO’s Rogue State must be held accountable!

We call on the Biden Administration to put an end to the 50-year occupation of 37% of the Republic of Cyprus.

Sincerely,

Philip Christopher

President

PSEKA also released a statement concerning the United States’ national security interests in the Eastern Mediterranean and included a 1975 statement by U.S. Admiral E. R. Zumwalt, Jr., retired Chief of Naval Operations.

“The National Security interests of the United States in Eastern Mediterranean is with the only two true Democratic states – Israel and Cyprus,” the PSEKA statement pointed out. “Dr. Kissinger always tilted American foreign policy to favor Turkey.”

“On this 50th Dark Anniversary, we recirculate the statement of Admiral E. R. Zumwalt, Jr., retired Chief of Naval Operations, that was made on the first anniversary of the illegal invasion. It was true in 1975 and more true in 2024.”

Statement by Admiral E. R. Zumwalt Jr., Retired Chief of Naval Operations, in the First Anniversary, July 20, of Turkey’s Invasion of Cyprus— Statement as follows:

Sunday marks the first anniversary of the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey. The Congress of the United States is locked into a collision course with the Secretary of State on fundamental U.S. foreign policy. The debate begins this week in the House of Representatives on Dr. Kissinger’s proposal to lift the ban on further American arms to Turkey. In this escalating controversy, I commend to the attention of the Congress and the press a precise statement of the true moral issues and the best interests of the United States by General James A. Van Fleet, who implemented the Truman Doctrine against a Soviet inspired Communist insurgency in post-World War II Greece without loss of a single American in uniform:

As one whose entire career has been in the Armed Forces of the United States, I believe that our country and our NATO partners must stand against aggression, whether by friend or foe. To do otherwise would be a renunciation of a fundamental principle of our foreign policy— to oppose aggression, not aid or acquiesce in it. I must condemn the continued acts of Turkish aggression against Cyprus and its people. It is unconscionable that the Government of the United States should surrender to the threat of Turkey to close our bases there. This is capitulation to blackmail and unworthy of our country. History teaches and I accept the wisdom of a warning by a great allied leader in World War I, Clemenceau of France: “War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.”

May I suggest a contemporary corollary to that Clemenceau axiom: “Peace is too complicated to be entrusted to any single diplomat.” Dr. Kissinger has marshaled his propagandists to convince Congress that U.S. installations in Turkey are technically more important than American relations with Greece. There is a supreme irony in this argument, because when the military junta was imposing a dictatorship on Greece, the argument then was that Greek bases were of most vital importance to NATO and the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Now that a Democratic Government has at long last returned to Greece, Dr. Kissinger tilts toward Turkey.

I believe the best interests of America and of NATO require the friendship of both Greece and Turkey.

But to pit one country against another in this way is as dangerously inflammable and divisive in foreign policy as it is in the Halls of Congress. However, if a choice is to be forced between our military installations in Turkey and the continuation of the support of U.S. installations by a democratic government in Greece, then in my judgement, the Congress should cast a vote for Greece, and against the Kissinger amendment to lift the ban on U.S. arms to Turkey. In my opinion, existing and potential military bases in Greece are more important to us than our installations in Turkey. There is another matter of concern regarding Turkey. As the harvest of opium poppies begins this week in Turkey, all Americans should remember that Turkey unilaterally rescinded the ban on the growing of opium poppies for which U.S. Government agreed in return to pay Turkey $35 million over a three-year period. U.S. taxpayers have already supplied $15 million of this sum to Turkey.

Thus, to Turkey’s aggression against the Island of Cyprus, using American arms, has been added her aggression against an entire generation of young Americans with opium grown in Turkish soil. The current controversy has been distorted into a political test of strength between the Administration and what they have characterized as “the ethnic politics of the Greek lobby.” That is a very un-American argument at a time when this nation of emigrants enters our Bicentennial Year. The ban on future American arms to Turkey is not an “ethnic” and certainly not a Greek issue. It is fundamental American policy on which in other times I have seen the Navy used as an instrument of enforcement. Twice the Sixth Fleet was ordered into the waters between Turkey and Cyprus as clear warning by an American President against Turkish aggression. And you will remember that there was no aggression because American policy was then crystal clear. Regrettably there was no policy at the time of the invasion of Cyprus last year. Today, only Congress can clarify American policy in this controversy. That is the challenge of the debate on the Kissinger amendment this week. Seven months ago, that policy was debated and a judgement was then made clear. By a margin of 199 votes in the House, the amendment calling for a ban on further American arms to Turkey was overwhelmingly passed. In my judgement that verdict should be repeated this week by the defeat of the Kissinger amendment, 5.846.

E. R. Zumwalt Jr.