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U.S. Department of State Daily Press Briefing
Thursday, January 9, 1997

CYPRUS Reports of Turkish Threats of Military Strike/ Carey Cavanaugh & Amb Beattie Schedules/US Negotiators /Issue for Secy-NATO Secy Gen Meeting Today/US Negotiators 9-11

QUESTION: Still on Turkey - actually on Cyprus. Turkish officials have threatened to strike the military targets in Cyprus. Do you have anything on that?

MR. BURNS: We sure do have a comment on that. First of all, we hope very much that this report from the Anatolian News Service is incorrect. We hope that it does not reflect in any way, shape or form the views of the Turkish Government. There can be no question that Turkey must respect the rules of the road here, which are: no country, and specifically in this case Turkey, should threaten the use of military force against Cyprus. No country, specifically here Turkey, should undertake military force against Cyprus.

The United States has made very clear its position on the SA-10s. We're opposed to their deployment. The deployment, I understand, will not take place for perhaps 16 to 18 months from now. A purchase contract has been signed. There's no reason for the Turkish Government to run off and threaten anybody, and they should not do so. We need peace and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean. We need through the efforts of our envoy, Carey Cavanaugh, to try to convince the parties that we should re-energize the political talks on Cyprus. It's no time for the Turkish Government to be making wild and dramatic statements which will not, of course, be supported by any sensible member of the international community.

We warned the other day that it would be completely out of bounds for Turkey to take this action, and we reaffirm that today.

QUESTION: Nick, when you said Anatolian News Agency story is incorrect, you checked it, and nobody in Turkey uttered such a statement?

MR. BURNS: No. I said I hope that this news service report does not reflect the views of anyone in the Turkish Government. We hope this is some kind of misunderstanding or editorial mistake or reporters running amok or whatever it is. But, if it truly does represent the intentions of the Turkish Government, then you've heard what I have to say in Points 2, 3, 4 and 5 of my comment.

QUESTION: Is Carey Cavanaugh sticking to his original schedule?

MR. BURNS: I believe he is. I'm not aware that he's deviated from it, but, if you're interested, why don't you call the European Bureau and ask them.

QUESTION: Nick, is Cavanaugh now the main negotiator on Cyprus? I mean, what happened to Beattie, and all the other guys?

MR. BURNS: No, the principal negotiator is Mr. Beattie - Dick Beattie.

QUESTION: So where's he? Why isn't he going?

MR. BURNS: He's the Presidential envoy, but he's not the day-to-day negotiatior. Carey Cavanaugh, who is our Director for Southeast European Affairs, is our day-to-day person in charge. But, of course, Ambassador Beattie is the President and Secretary of State's primary diplomat. We just felt, given the developments in Cyprus this week, it was very important that he go out there to try to stabilize - at least inject some U.S. influence to encourage stability and discourage the kind of statements that we've seen today from this news agency.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) the situation seems to be so serious - it seems to me that the man who is appointed the special envoy of the President would be the one - I mean, what's his job if he doesn't go at a time like this?

MR. BURNS: His job, of course, is to direct our efforts at resuming the political negotiations on Cyprus, and he's doing an excellent job in that. We do have, Carol, as you know, a very fine Ambassador, Ken Brill, in Cyprus - very fine Ambassadors in Greece and Turkey in Tom Miles and Marc Grossman, and those Ambassadors speak, obviously, for the President and the Secretary of State on a daily basis.

Marc Grossman, our Ambassador to Turkey, met this morning with the Turkish Prime Minister, Mr. Erbakan, and they discussed a wide variety of issues concerning the United States and Turkey, and I wouldn't be at all surprised is this issue of Cyprus came up in that discussion.

QUESTION: Well, that still didn't really answer the question of why Beattie, if this is -

MR. BURNS: But that was my answer. The fact is you don't always need to have your special emissary, special negotiators from Washington, run out every time there is a problem. We do have very well qualified American Ambassadors, and in these three countries three of our best Foreign Service Officers - highly capable professional diplomats - and we have great confidence in them.

Dimitris.

QUESTION: Nick, if Turkey continues to make such threats against Cyprus, what kind of specific actions the U.S. Government plans to make?

MR. BURNS: We'll leave that to our discussions with the Turkish Government. But, obviously, as a fellow member of NATO, there can be no question that Turkey must not threaten Cyprus - not question about it - and the Turks know that. We thought we'd remind them of that central fact today.

QUESTION: Did the issue come up at all this morning in the meeting with Solana?

MR. BURNS: With Secretary General Solana? There was a very brief reference to the Greek-Turkish problems between Secretary Christopher and Secretary Solana, yes, and I know it's on Secretary Christopher's mind. In a meeting this morning, there was a discussion of this great difficulty that all of us in NATO have over these continued tensions between, in this case, Greece and Turkey as opposed to Greece and Cyprus. Secretary General Solana, of course, is aware of that, and all of us in NATO are trying to work to diminish the provocations and the tensions and the concerns that are clearly present between Greece and Turkey.