Cyprus News Agency: News in English (AM), 97-04-11

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] Feissel briefs Clerides on Geneva meeting

[02] Hamilton sees genuine US interest in Cyprus solution

[03] Cyprus problem not US foreign policy central goal

[04] US Ambassador meets Attorney General

[05] Impressions of a surreal visit to the occupied areas

1130:CYPPRESS:01

[01] Feissel briefs Clerides on Geneva meeting

Speaking to journalists after his meeting with President Clerides, Feissel said he did not have much to report adding that discussions have been good.

"So we have to continue and hopefully we will have something very soon", he added.

Commenting on a statement by Cyprus Government Spokesman, Manolis Christofides, that there has been no progress in the substance of the Cyprus problem, Feissel said that "until you get there it does not matter whether you are 95 per cent near the goal. You have to be one hundred per cent and that is what we are trying to achieve", he noted.

He refrained however from being more specific on how close the two sides are, noting that "we have had some good discussions."

Asked whether good will measures will be announced by the end of the visit of UN Special Representative on Cyprus Han Sung Joo, Feissel said this was not the purpose and repeated that there is "some work to be done although we are close."

Han Sung Joo is due to arrive in Cyprus tomorrow and will have a meeting with President Clerides on Monday, April 14.

CNA MCH/GP/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1140:CYPPRESS:02

[02] Hamilton sees genuine US interest in Cyprus solution

Washington, Apr 11 (CNA) -- The ranking member to the US House International Relations Committee, Representative Lee Hamilton (D-IN), considers the interest of the Clinton administration towards a solution in Cyprus as "genuine".

In a foreign policy briefing at the Washington Foreign Press Centre, Hamilton responding to a CNA question said that "the United States government genuinely wants to try to move Cyprus towards a solution".

He said "I think all of us are highly frustrated with what's been the status quo there for many years."

Hamilton said the Cyprus problem, from the standpoint of the United States government is that "many, many other things keep intruding".

He said the agenda of the United States in foreign policy is "a very crowded agenda and it is not easy to get the attention of American top policy makers focused on the Cyprus problem. I very much hope the year of Cyprus will come about. I certainly will do all I can to make it come about", Hamilton added.

CNA DA/GP/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1150:CYPPRESS:03

[03] Cyprus problem not US foreign policy central goal

Washington, Apr 11 (CNA) -- US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, avoided mentioning the Cyprus problem as one of US' key foreign policy goals.

When asked by CNA whether she intends to undertake an active initiative on Cyprus, a surprised Albright replied, "I will not answer (that question)".

Her reply came yesterday at the end of a speech by Albright at the American Society of Newspaper Editors Convention in Washington, D.C.

During her speech, the US Secretary of State said her country's three top foreign policy goals are keeping the American people safe by defending against threats to security, consolidating the US role in "an ever- expanding global economy" and promoting the principles and values "upon which our nation's democracy and identity are based".

She referred to US efforts in maintaining global security, noting that Russian nuclear warheads are no longer a threat and that North Korea has dismantled its nuclear weapons programme.

Albright added that Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein has been trapped "into a strategic box".

The US Secretary of State also mentioned the building of ties with Eastern Europe, welcomed the expansion of NATO into the region, and pledged to wipe out terrorism and violence in the Middle East peace process.

In reference to human rights, Albright talked about the violation of human dignity in Cuba, Sudan, Burma, China and "elsewhere around the globe, " but did not mention human rights violations by Turkey.

She also said the US has a responsibility to "help other (countries) share our aspirations for liberty, peace and the great miracle of a normal life".

CNA EC/MH/GP/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1150:CYPPRESS:04

[04] US Ambassador meets Attorney General

"We were talking about a variety of things, some of which involve commercial activities and others which involve more specific legal matters, " Brill told CNA after the meeting.

Brill added he and Markides "touch base from time to time" to discuss "a number of issues that involve our two governments".

"We have common views (and) it's good to talk to the Attorney General about them," Brill said.

The US Ambassador said the issue of narcotics was not one of the areas the two touched on.

Brill also refused to comment on information that US Presidential Emissary on Cyprus, Richard Beattie, will be replaced by US Ambassador to Romania, Alfred S. Moses.

CNA MM/MH/GP/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1240:CYPPRESS:05

[05] Impressions of a surreal visit to the occupied areas

Nicosia, Apr 11 (CNA) -- Cyprus is a small island with a long and tortuous history, perhaps too much of it. It has suffered the suffocating boot of occupation from countless conquerors, but only one has managed in all this time to tear the country in two.

Turkey invaded this island 23 years ago and continues to occupy 37 per cent of its territory, not allowing any of 600,000 inhabitants to freely travel across the searing scar called the demarcation line.

The line stretches from one side of the island to the other to insidiously remind everyone that justice here is doled out through the barrel of a gun and by those who wield it.

Recently, a group of Greek Cypriot journalists were permitted to cross the demarcation line for a few hours to attend a Trade Union Forum held co- jointly between Greek and Turkish Cypriot Trade Unions. The following are a collection of personal thoughts and impressions of that visit.

The journey begins at the Turkish Cypriot "checkpoint" with a throng of journalists, conference delegates and Turkish Cypriot "policemen" jostling to ready themselves for the bus ride north.

Tempers flared when some delegates refused to put their names on so- called arrival papers to the self-styled state in the occupied areas, but Turkish Cypriot delegates scurrying about managed to sooth most by stroking the ego of a burly, mustachioed Turkish Cypriot "policeman" who demanded everyone write their names on that little white piece of paper.

I wait to be "processed" with the nervous excitement of a schoolboy on his first trip away from home.

I try to temper that by keeping focused on the job I have to do, but any anxiety I felt is quickly overtaken by the mental effort of trying to absorb everything I see and hear, not knowing whether I would ever have an opportunity like this again.

A Greek-speaking "official" takes down my name. I show him my identity card and he lets me through. I breath a sigh of relief. At least this, what I thought would be the hardest part of the trip, is over and done with.

The journalists already aboard the bus whither in the stifling heat, as Greek Cypriot trade union representatives behind still haggle with the "officials" over names, identity cards and signatures.

The thing is that no one would dare sign the "arrival" cards issued by the Turkish Cypriots because that would mean recognition of the pseudo- state set up by Turkish Cypriots in the occupied north.

The whole process is anathema to Greek Cypriots, regardless of politics. Most however, compromise by just giving their names and place of birth. Pretty harmless you would say, but it still leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.

Meanwhile, a couple of jovial Turkish-Cypriot "agents" try to inject some humour in the whole affair. The response is nervous laughter. Some veteran journalists however, are not that easily amused. They crack their own jokes, just to keep things interesting until we get moving.

We depart a good 90 minutes late, but the time slips by quickly, melting away in front of the anticipation of what's waiting ahead.

The bus speeds through the streets of occupied Nicosia. My first impression is that we simply haven't left the free areas. Everything is the same, the only difference being the Turkish names on the stores and the fact that I cannot roam the city of my own volition.

What's striking about occupied Nicosia is the profound contradiction between the affluent and the impoverished, the Mercedes-driving business man and the plebeian wage earner.

Pockets of huge, luxurious mansions sprouting in places contrast the poverty that thrashes the more rural areas in the occupied part.

Ultra-modern, villas perched breathtakingly atop the peaks of the Pendadaktylos mountain range literally and metaphorically look down on the poor, meagre little houses in the villages dotting the expanse of the occupied north. It's apparent the chasm between rich and poor here is wide, perhaps too wide to bridge.

Beyond Nicosia stretches a bare expanse of land devoid of any construction to speak of. This is just one of the Turkish military's exclusive domains. We pass by an army camp dominated by a firing range gouging deeply the scarred earth.

Our "guide" tells us unconvincingly to put away our cameras but the noise of clicking shutters goes on unabated as we drive by the camp.

Opposite the army camp about a kilometre away stands what they tell us is a university, a bland complex of grey buildings that is more reminiscent of a prison camp than an institution of higher learning.

Perhaps it's not coincidental that the army camp and the university dominate this part of the landscape - military virtue in the Turkish mind lies on the same plateau as the pursuit of knowledge.

The occupation is not only engraved by the physical presence of the Turkish army. It is also etched symbolically on the hills of Pentadaktylos. Immense, painted images of the Turkish flag's half-moon and star stab the earth numerous times as we make our way to Lapithos.

The bus lumbers up the road slicing through the Pentadaktylos. To our left and right, the imposing rocky cliffs slip by to reveal what we all have been waiting to see - the graphic little town of Kyrenia.

With its picturesque harbour and beautiful orchards, Kyrenia has attained almost mythic proportions to the Greek Cypriots. It symbolises the eternal hope of return, of a peaceful and carefree time when Cyprus was free of the chains of occupation and division.

We all strain out of our seats to catch a glimpse of that almost mystical northern coast of Cyprus. It's almost a quarter of a century that some of the older journalists saw what is beyond the Pentadaktylos. For many others, it's the first time of their lives.

An entire generation has been denied the most beautiful, most graphic part of this tortured island. Pentadaktylos has acted like a gigantic, immovable rocky curtain all these years, shutting out the sight of places and names that have now passed into legend.

Lapithos, Karavas, Ayios Georgios, Bellapais, Kyrenia. Places that have attained not only a physical, but a psychological distance as well.

A whole lifetime we watched these places on television and on film. Old, black-and-white shots of Kyrenia and Ayios Ilarionas that gave you the sense they were a million miles away in another dimension.

Italian neo-realist film-makers believe no matter how true you were in recording unfolding reality on film, the fact that those images have been transposed on film makes them unreal. Images on film are not real images because the actual physicality film distorts their trueness.

That is the sense cultivated in the minds of a generation that has no memories of the occupied areas. Their only testimony to those areas are images captured on film that gave them an ethereal quality, unreachable and distant.

But then, you find yourself face-to-face with what you thought was imagined and the legend melts away like the flame of a candle melts away the wax. Pentadaktylos, Kyrenia, Bellapais, Morphou, Famagusta. They are all too real.

It is at this moment that the futility, the downright stupidity of division strikes you like a ton of bricks. Separation and distance whither away at the realisation of how contrary and alien these concepts are to this place. Cyprus is much to small an island to bear this cross of division.

Your feelings become confused at the sight of what you thought you would never be able to see. You are not sure what to feel. Should you feel sad because you cannot visit these beautiful places at will, or angry at those who are preventing you? Should you sink in your seat and reflect on these moments through the prism of cold logic or burst out in rage?

The emotional roller-coaster reaches its peak when they let us off at Karaoglanoglu memorial, a monolithic structure commemorating the Turkish soldiers, who died during the 1974 invasion of the island.

The memorial, situated a few dozen metres away from the actual beach where Turkish troops landed on Cyprus, is dedicated to Colonel Ibrahim Karaoglanoglou, the first officer to die ashore.

It is a typical example of the Turkish ode to militarism. It is a brown- stone structure dominated by a black metal mould of lantern-jawed soldiers in Nazi-like helmets carrying their wounded comrades on their soldiers.

In front of the mould lie the 70 some odd graves of the Turkish soldiers who died at the invasion landing. There are the graves of Bahadir Yalcin, Necati Sivacilar, Celal Bekiroglu and other young men who died here doing the bidding of their political masters in Ankara. The monument praises them as fallen heros and triumphant conquerors, but their tomb stones belie that.

Next to the monument are row upon row of captured Greek Cypriot armoured vehicles, personnel carriers and tanks, invasion relics that rest silenced forever like treasured Turkish war booty pronouncing Turkish might.

I walk past the rusting hulks wondering if I would see personal effects of the young men that once occupied these war machines, perhaps morbidly spot a drop of dried blood.

But alas, these machines were wiped clean long ago to remove even the slightest human element from them. They are not meant to show human sacrifice, but rather to evoke the futility of resistance to the mighty Mehmecik, the proud Turkish soldier.

We saw a lot of these types of memorials strewn along our journey. Someone commented how the Turks do not have even one memorial dedicated to a cultural figure or one dedicated to peace. Just the army. The one institution Turks respect the most.

As we continue on to our destination, we come across a couple of Greek Cypriot cemeteries and the sight is deplorable. Not a single tomb has been left intact, not a single cross left standing.

Vegetation left uncocked has engulfed everything in the cemetery. Who could do something like this? Why would anyone do such a thing? Is there so much hatred and mistrust brooding in this place that even the dead pose some kind of threat? Or is it just another crude and vulgar way of wiping out anything that even remotely suggests that Greeks once lived here?

Just through the outskirts of Kyrenia we noticed a youth, not more than 15 years old, squatting barefoot atop a rocky fence staring blankly into space. The funny thing was that just next to him was a bus stop with a bench.

We quickly surmised that this is the face of the illegal Turkish settler, 80,000 Anatolian Turks imported by Turkey in Cyprus to boost the numbers of Turkish Cypriots emigrating abroad en mass to avoid the squalor of their existence.

The arrival to our final destination, a hotel in Lapithos, is anti- climactic. We all switch back to professional journalist mode because there is work to be done. I head back to Nicosia emotionally drained in my mouth.

We were permitted to see the forbidden for a few hours and now we go back behind the curtain to reminisce on what we have seen. But I do not want to reminisce. I want to go back again without having anyone ever having to watch over me.

CNA MH/GP/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

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