As long as Turkey continues threats to Greece and Cyprus we will not approve sale of F-16s, US Senator says
Photograph: ΟΡΕΣΤΗΣ ΠΑΝΑΓΙΩΤΟΥ
The sale of F-16s to Turkey could only take place if Ankara abandons its aggressive stance towards Greece and Cyprus as well as other actions in the Eastern Mediterranean that are contrary to our national interests and national security, US Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Bob Menendez has said.
In an interview to Mega tv channel in Greece, Menendez said that “what we have seen is a Turkey that is threatening another NATO member country, the Hellenic Republic, and threatening it without justification, without cause,” reiterating his position that he will not move to approve the sale of F-16s to Turkey.
Menendez said that in his mind “it would be problematic to sell military hardware when Turkey takes such actions and when it clearly manifests over and over again some of its intentions.”
At the same time, he assessed that the sale of the F-16s can only be done “if and only if we can have Turkey abandon its belligerent position both to the Hellenic Republic, to Cyprus as well as to other actions in the Eastern Mediterranean which are adverse to our national interests and our national security.”
Referring to the State Department’s approach to call on both Greece and Turkey to tame their words or to find a peaceful way to resolve their differences, the US Senator said that “this is not acceptable when it is one side and only one side that is belligerent.”
Senator Menendez is to be applauded for his steadfast conviction toward the Universal Principles and Basic Human Rights fostered originally by what is enshrined in the American Constitution: Freedom; what Rights we have as Individuals which we defend as such accordingly as equals without discrimination or distinction, and Liberty; as Persons having distinct identities demonstrating as Majorities toward the Minorities living among them the same Goodwill.
Turkey would do well with a BBF in its own Constitutional reform, as was Turkey’s suggestion for Cyprus before the dramatic shift Mr. Erdogan has taken to disrupt the order that the Treaty of Lausanne secured for the whole region, (and the world,) not just (in) Cyprus and Greece.
Let us remember that it was the notion of “Greekness” which brought the misery that left Cypriots divided since 1974. And let us also remember that after the coup’s initial success, in three days, it failed because Cypriots, Greek Cypriots in particular overwhelmingly did not support it.
Let us remember most of all that “Turkishness” still remains and demonstrates itself to be as a venture no different to the “Greekness” brought down in effect by Greeks, that as a dogma it is expanding in a hateful enterprise toward supremacy over all “others” including in Turkey itself where Citizens are divided, more divided than ever defined as “Turkish” and those who are not.