U.S. Department of State 96/02/05 Daily Press Briefing

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U.S. State Department Directory

Subject: U.S. Department of State 96/02/05 Daily Press Briefing

Office of the Spokesman

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GREECE/TURKEY

Greek President Stephanopoulos' Visit to U.S. .........10-11

Sovereignty of Aegean Islets ..........................11-15

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CYPRUS

U.S. Diplomacy re: Cyprus Issue .......................16

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Q When is Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke going to visit Athens?

MR. DAVIES: I don't know when he might have a chance to visit Athens. I know it was his intention to get down to the Aegean and visit a number of capitals. But for several reasons, that situation has changed. He won't be going to the Aegean. Obviously, in Turkey things have yet to settle out in terms of the formation of a government. Assistant Secretary Holbrooke, who doesn't have a whole lot of time left, has a number of appointments in Europe -- Central Europe, Western Europe. He wants to go on to those.

Finally, -- the real answer to your question -- my understanding is that in terms of scheduling it could not be worked out with members of the Greek Government. I think they have travel planned. So for a variety of reasons, Ambassador Holbrooke has decided not to undertake that mission, and we will look for other opportunities to discuss with the Government of Greece these issues, including, I believe, there will be a state visit here soon by President Stephanopoulos. So we hope that perhaps during that visit we can get into that.

Q (Inaudible)

MR. DAVIES: May 9. Thank you.

Q According to reliable sources, he has been advised today to retract Mr. Burns' statement, February 1, that "on the question of Imia/Karadak, we do not recognize either Greek or Turkish sovereignty." Do you have anything on that?

MR. DAVIES: That I've been instructed to retract it?

Q Yes.

MR. DAVIES: No, I have not instructed to retract it.

Q So that your government decided not to recognize either Greek sovereignty or the so-called Turkish sovereignty over the Greek island, Imia. My question is: What is the legal status of this island today, and who is the owner?

MR. DAVIES: You answered the question in the first part of your question, which is that we've chosen for the time being not to take an issue -- to stake out a position on the question of sovereignty over those islets. We are not taking a position at this time.

Q The first day he stated that, "We are not taking a position." The next day, in answer to my question, he elevated to the decision. It was that, "We do not recognize." It's totally different between taking a position and not recognizing. So since you don't recognize the Greek sovereignty and the so-called Turkish sovereignty over this specific island, could you tell the legal status and who is the owner right now?

MR. DAVIES: We don't take a position on the legal status. Now there's something else that you can play off me tomorrow. We don't take a position at this time on the legal status of those islets. That's the end of what I've got for you on that today.

Q On the Holbrooke visit, would it be correct to say that the Greeks disinvited him -- asked him not to come?

MR. DAVIES: You'd have to ask the Greeks.

Q Well, what did they tell Holbrooke?

MR. DAVIES: I don't know what, if anything, they told Holbrooke. I saw a report that reported what I think Mr. Simitis had to say, but those words stand for themselves. I don't know if they communicated anything specific to Ambassador Holbrooke.

Q In that report -- same subject -- in that report there is a report of rising anti-U.S. fervor in Athens, and that's another reason why he was disinvited, according to the statement from the Prime Minister. Are you concerned about anti-U.S. feelings in the region?

MR. DAVIES: If there's a concern, it's probably that Assistant Secretary Holbrooke, who was a member of the President's team -- if you'll recall, the President and the Secretary of State and many others in the government, notably Assistant Secretary Holbrooke -- pulled out all the stops diplomatically to prevent a confrontation over Imia/Karadak. We believe we were successful, because there wasn't any kind of a confrontation. Tensions did not escalate in the Aegean at that time.

So our concern, I suppose, is with the fact that we are now in some fashion being labeled as part of the problem here, rather than part of the solution, since we thought we were part of the solution.

Q I have a follow-up. During the Imia crisis, Mr. Holbrooke asked Greek officials for the removal of the Greek flag and the Greek forces from Imia island. The answer was yes for the forces, not for the flag, because it was a Greek island. On a later stage, Mr. Holbrooke informed the same official that Turkish flag and Turkish forces "landed" -- not invaded -- landed on the second Greek island. '

Mr. Holbrooke then using his diplomatic skill succeeded to defuse the crisis, as you said, at the political cost of Greece. My question is, was Mr. Holbrooke aware prior to the Turkish invasion of the second island, and what actually Mr. Holbrooke did to prevent the Turkish invasion since he was mediating, as you said, to defuse the crisis on behalf of President Clinton?

MR. DAVIES: I don't know what Ambassador Holbrooke was or was not aware of at that time, and I wasn't personally engaged in those heroic efforts on the part of Assistant Secretary Holbrooke, the Secretary of State, the President and others to get the parties to back off.

So since I don't have in front of me any kind of an elaborate, annotated schedule of who knew what and said what at what time, I can't answer your question.

Q Last Friday I asked you specifically to give an answer about the Turkish claims against Greece over the Aegean, and you stated into my tape recorder, "Whatever Mr. Nicholas Burns said on this issue is valid, on the record, and we don't have anything else at this point."

Later, however, I was in touch with a State Department official who informed me that according to a press guidance, as of that day there is no list of Greece islets or no Greek islands in question as far as for Greek sovereignty rights over them.

My question: Do you expect any list, for example, tomorrow or after 50 days? Otherwise, do you prepare any kind of list to this effect?

MR. DAVIES: Mr. Lambros, I would not look for a list. I don't think you're going to get a list. It doesn't exist, and I can tell you now there are no plans to draw such a list.

Any more Greece/Turkey?

Q Yes. Did I understand you correctly to say that Holbrooke not only is not going to go to Greece, he's also not going to go to Turkey or Cyprus as he had originally planned?

MR. DAVIES: My understanding is that he will not be going to any of those capitals at this stage. He's going to pursue a rather full schedule of calls in Central Europe and then in Western Europe, and that we will look for other opportunities to pursue the agenda of the United States in the Aegean, lowering tensions.

Q (Inaudible) five days ago was same in Turkey as now. What is the reason of this change of Mr. Holbrooke's not going to Turkey, because Turkish Government is waiting for him, and the Turkish people made statements that they are waiting for Mr. Holbrooke in Ankara.

MR. DAVIES: It was decided on balance that given the state of political affairs in Turkey, given scheduling difficulties in Greece, given the very few weeks that Assistant Secretary Holbrooke has left in office and the many demands on his time, that the best use of his time right now would be to continue on his schedule in Central Europe and in Western Europe. That's really all that there is to say about that.

Q You say that you are going to talk peace methods with the Greek President 5th of May. When are you going to talk with Turkey?

MR. DAVIES: We talk with Turkey every day. We have a very fine Ambassador, Marc Grossman, in Ankara, and he leads our efforts on a daily basis to deal with the Turkish Government on these issues. Obviously, we'll look for other opportunities at other levels as well to talk these matters over with the Government of Turkey.

Q It came to my attention that the legal division of the Department of State is reviewing a document of the Turkish Embassy here in Washington, D.C., dated January 29, sent by the Turkish Consul, in which, inter alia, citing only political argument, not even one (inaudible) of convention proposed to your political dialogue with Greece for an agreement over the Imia issue.

Do you consider the Greek-Turkey dispute over Imia political or a legal one?

MR. DAVIES: It doesn't matter whether it's political or legal. The point was, it came to a point where military confrontation was a possibility in our view, and because that was our judgment, we decided to become engaged in resolving the dispute, at least at that time; and we were successful, we hope, in mediating between the two sides, and we were able to defuse tensions between the two.

It wouldn't be useful for me to get into the nature of our position on those islands, because we've decided right now not to take a position on the sovereignty of the islands, the legality of the islands, what have you.

Q At the same time, last Friday I asked White House Deputy Spokesman, Mr. David Johnson, if he could confirm reports that the U.S. Government in the framework of (inaudible) is trying to create a kind of neutral zone in the Aegean, including some area of the Anatolia Peninsula, in order to face the Balkan crisis.

Mr. Johnson asked me to address the question direct to you. So, therefore, I'm asking you, do you have anything on that?

MR. DAVIES: First let me thank David Johnson for that. (Laughter)

Q White House (inaudible).

MR. DAVIES: What I'm going to do is, with your permission, perhaps we can talk after the briefing. But may I invoke cloture on this issue.

Q (Inaudible) According to the same sources, during the Imia crisis, the Turkish Prime Minister, Tonsu Ciller, was also in touch with high German officials in Berlin or in Bonn. We would like to know if Mr. Holbrooke was aware of that Turkish general communication. What was the purpose?

MR. DAVIES: You're down to a level of detail that I'm simply not prepared to address, even if I thought it was a good idea to address those details, and I don't think it's a good idea to. So I'm going to let that go.

Q Another subject --

Q Could I just nail down one piece of diplomatic terminology here? Do you believe that every relevant Greek official who has anything to do with the incident is unavoidably tied up? Or do you think there may be some deeper reason for asking Holbrooke not to come?

MR. DAVIES: I think the reasons for Ambassador Holbrooke not going to the area are as I laid them out. You really have to ask the Government of Greece -- Greek officials -- those questions. I'm not in the business of divining what their rationale is. All I can do is tell you what Ambassador Holbrooke -- what his rationale is for doing what he's doing.

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Q A month ago the word was '96 would be the year of the big push in Cyprus. This was Mr. Holbrooke's own words.

Considering what has happened and the fact that Mr. Holbrooke cannot even visit the region, has there been a reassessment of that agenda goal?

MR. DAVIES: It's the view of the United States that we want to do everything we can, obviously, to diffuse/solve/or move the parties toward solving the Cyprus problem. We have a number of other American officials who are engaged in that.

I don't think you should read anything into Assistant Secretary Holbrooke's decision not to go the Aegean in the next couple of days. It would simply be overdrawn to then conclude that we were somehow changing, in a tectonic way, in a big way, our views towards Cyprus or the role we might play in solving the Cyprus problem.

Q Will he be involved in the Cyprus initiative even after he leaves the State Department?

MR. DAVIES: You would have to ask him. I don't know what his plans will be as a private citizen. We obviously hope that a man of his skill and accomplishments would remain available. I think he maybe even said he'll remain available to the President and the Secretary of State for diplomatic assignments that suit his schedule and that suit the United States.

We very much hope that we won't lose Dick Holbrooke forever to various forms of government service, and I suspect we will see him again in different guises.

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(Press briefing concluded at 1:59 p.m.)

END