UNITED NATIONS: TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER TELLS GENERAL ASSEMBLY THAT CYPRUS PEACE IS ESSENTIAL TO STABILITY IN MIDDLE-EAST AND EAST MEDITERRANEAN AREA.

Record ID: 336976

  • Title: UNITED NATIONS: TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER TELLS GENERAL ASSEMBLY THAT CYPRUS PEACE IS ESSENTIAL TO STABILITY IN MIDDLE-EAST AND EAST MEDITERRANEAN AREA.
  • Date: 25th September 1974
  • Summary: 1. GV & SV Delegates at the Assembly (3 shots) 0.21 2. SV Professor Turan Gunes from Turkey speaks in French 1.52 GUNES: "I must say that, because of its very nature, the Turkish nation does not bear oppression, but is always on the side of those who suffer oppression, and it has shown it many a time in this organisation. This leads me to mention the
  • Embargoed: 10th October 1974 13:00
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  • Location: UNITED NATIONS
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  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA370NNAE4WDDCDPF78CVV0RF27
  • Story Text: Speaking in a debate in the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (24 September), the Turkish Foreign Minister, Professor Turan Gunes, referred to the Cyprus situation and the importance of the island to peace and stability in the Middle East and East Mediterranean areas.

    On the same day, Professor Gunes and the Greek Foreign Minister Mr. George Mavros both had meetings with United States' secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger. Once again Dr. Kissinger offered to involve himself personally in a mediation attempt over Cyprus -- if the two sides wanted him to do so.

    During his U.N. address, Mr. Gunes departed from his prepared text to some extent. He condemned any idea of partition for Cyprus, and challenged the Greek Government to do likewise.

    SYNOPSIS: The General Assembly of the United Nations heard Turkish Foreign Minister Professor Turan Gunes condemn andy idea of partition for Cyprus, and challenged the Greek Government to do likewise. Exercising his right of reply afterwards, the Greek Foreign Minister, Mr. George Mavros, said Greece had already rejected both Enosis and partition.

    In his speech, Professor Gunes -- who also leads the Turkish delegation at the U.N. -- said that Turkey was always on the side of those who suffered oppression. He then turned to the Cyprus situation.

    He outlined the Turkish position on Cyprus by giving a summary of his remarks about the problem on previous occasions. He said Turkey had spared no effort to find a peaceful solution to the problem during negotiations between the two communities over the last ten years. The negotiations had brought no concrete result.

    Turkey had, meanwhile, always had to face attempted faits-accomplis against the island's government since nineteen-sixty-three, he added. The latest and most serious, had been that of July fifteenth this year, when a foreign power launched a long-prepared coup designed to annexe the island.

    Cyprus, said Professor Gunes, was an essential part in the balance created by the Treaty of Lausanne between Turkey and Greece. The island was also important to the stability and peace of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East areas, because of her international status. Any intervention endangering the island's independence therefore destroyed that balance and peace in the region.
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