Cyprus

Jonathan Clarke’s article, “Sloganeering Steers U.S. Policy Awry” (Commentary, Jan. 10), is a bit off the wall, somewhat incomplete and incorrect, and totally insensitive and arrogant. If you believe him, Greeks can do no wrong and Turks can do no right.

The writer uses the word “whatever” when he refers to the reasons of Turkish military intervention in Cyprus in 1974. The brutal ethnic-cleansing campaign waged between 1963-1974 by Greek nationalists in Cyprus, designed to annihilate Turks and unite Cyprus with Greece, is the reason why Turkey intervened. If you can call people’s lives “whatever,” then you are doomed as a diplomat or an honest solution seeker.

The writer seems to ignore the phenomenal expenditure by the Greeks Cypriots ($2 million per day) and the Greek cruelty of 1963-1974 on the island. He seems to be unaware of the total lack of confidence among the Turkish Cypriots in the Greek Cypriots’ or their sympathizers’ solutions.

ERGUN KIRLIKOVALI

Member, Board of Directors

American Turkish Assn.

Irvine