More Turkey watch:
Turkish Opposition to Cyprus Missile Deal Heats Up
Turkey/Cyprus: Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Omer Akbel on Monday announced that, despite meetings in Moscow last week,
Russia continues to reject Ankara's request to cancel the planned sale of advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles to the Greek Cypriot
government. Said Akbel, "The missiles are continuing to negatively affect security and stability in the region." Turkey has vowed to
block deployment of the missiles, and other Turkish officials have not been as restrained in their rhetoric as Akbel.
Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz on Thursday warned, "If the Greek Cypriots and Greece think that we are bluffing, this will be a
grave mistake." Tansu Ciller, leader of Turkey's True Path Party and former Prime Minister, took it a notch higher last week when she
asserted that the missile crisis had driven Turkey and Russia to the brink of war.
Turkey has begun intercepting and searching ships that it believes may be carrying missiles or missile components as they pass
through the Straits of Bosphorus. Turkey has specifically targeted Cyprus and Egyptian-flagged vessels bound from Russia and the
Ukraine. Cyprus is planning to file an official complaint, charging that Turkey is violating the 1936 International Treaty of Montreux,
which guarantees the right of free passage through the Bosphorus during peacetime. The missiles are not scheduled to be delivered
until late 1998.
This issue has been boiling since the missile sale was announced in January, but the fact that Turkey is taking police action so far in
advance of the scheduled delivery, combined with the increasingly strident rhetoric out of Ankara, lends greater urgency to the crisis.
While we can not take statement's such as Ciller's seriously, it does provide some indication of how supercharged the issue has become
in Turkey. What is more worrisome is the fact that, a full year before the missiles are due, Turkey has already ratcheted up to boarding
and searching foreign vessels. What is the next step in the escalation? And, actually taking Ciller's comments more seriously for a
moment, what happens when Turkey tries to board Russian flagged vessels? |
