July 17, 2003

The Honorable Colin L. Powell
Secretary of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

Re: Request for investigation to determine the responsibility of Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and the 1974 Turkish commander of Turkey’s Cyprus invasion forces for the murder of five Americans

Dear Mr. Secretary:

In July 1974, five Greek Cypriot Americans in Cyprus were kidnapped by Turkish forces at gunpoint despite the fact that they had United States passports. It was learned later that they were turned over to Turkish Cypriot militia forces who murdered them in cold blood. The Turkish Cypriot militia was under the command of Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader.

The Executive Branch, inexplicably, did not investigate the whereabouts of the five American citizens until Congress passed legislation in 1994 ordering “an investigation of the whereabouts of the United States citizens and others who have been missing from Cyprus since 1974.” The legislation H.R. 2826, was initiated by Representatives Eliot Engel (D-NY) and John Porter (R-IL) and introduced in August 1993. It became Public Law 103-372 on October 19, 1994. The five Americans were part of the 1492 “missing” Greek Cypriots who had been taken into custody by Turkey’s armed forces.

The Executive Branch then conducted an inquiry and determined that the five Americans were dead. The Executive Branch, again inexplicably, did not pursue its inquiry in order to determine who was responsible for the murder of five Americans and to bring the person or persons responsible to justice.

The U.S. has pursued relentlessly, as it should, those responsible for killing Americans abroad. We have done so regarding the PanAmerican flight 103, the USS Cole, the four Americans killed by the November 17 terrorist gang, the September 11 horrific attacks and others, yet we did not do so regarding the five Greek Cypriot Americans.

On March 1, 1996, the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, in an interview on Greek Cypriot television station Sigma with interviewer Stavros Sidheras, stated that the Turkish Army had taken into custody Greek Cypriots and handed them over to the Turkish Cypriot militia forces who killed them. Reuters reported on March 3, 1996 that according to the tape of the interview Denktash said:

“What happened is this. As the Turkish army was moving and was
arresting Greek Cypriots, unfortunately it handed them over to fighters, our fighters [Turkish Cypriot Militia] among whom there were people who had lost their families, their villages…Instead of taking them to police stations or prisoner of war camps, they killed them.”

On March 5, 1996, the Co-Chairman of the “U.S. Committee on the Missing in Cyprus,” Congressmen Eliot Engel and John Porter, were horrified by the revelation that hundreds of Greek Cypriots, missing since the Turkish invasion, were murdered by Turkish Cypriot militias. Congressmen Engel and Porter, the initiators of the “Missing in Cyprus” bill said:

“We were shocked to hear that the missing Americans and Greek
Cypriots in Cyprus may have been killed in cold blood during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.”

Mr. Denktash is not new to the use of violence. In a BBC television interview in 1984 he stated that a friend of his had exploded a bomb on the night of June 7, 1958 at the Information Bureau of the Turkish Consulate in Nicosia. Mr. Denktash had falsely blamed the Greek Cypriots for the act and Turkish Cypriots began burning and looting Greek Cypriot shops and homes. The Greek Cypriots responded and before long fighting spread throughout the island. (See “Cyprus: The Bitter Legacy,” BBC television broadcast, 1984.)

Mr. Secretary, we urge you to direct the appropriate agencies of the U.S. government to investigate and determine the person or persons responsible for the killing of five United States citizens and others in the custody of Turkish forces and Turkish Cypriot militia in Cyprus in 1974. Specifically we request a determination as to the responsibility of (1) Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, the commander of the Turkish Cypriot militia; and (2) the then commander and officers of the Turkish invasion forces in Cyprus for the killings of five Americans and others in their custody, which are a violation of the Geneva Convention and war crimes.

The Turkish military forces in Cyprus committed massive violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in its 1974 aggression against Cyprus. A number of these violations amount to war crimes.

The government of Cyprus filed three applications to the European Commission on Human Rights. The Commission issued its report on the charges made in the first two applications on July 10, 1976. In it, the Commission found Turkey guilty of violating the following articles of the European Convention on Human Rights:

1. Article 2—by the killing of innocent civilians committed on a substantial scale;
2. Article 3—by the rape of women of all ages from 12 to 71;
3. Article 3—by inhuman treatment of prisoners and persons detained;
4. Article 5—by deprivation of liberty with regard to detainees and missing persons—a continuing violation;
5. Article 8—by displacement of persons creating more than 170,000 Greek Cypriot refugees, and by refusing to allow the refugees to return to their homes—a continuing violation;
6. Article 1 of the First Protocol to the Convention—by deprivation of possessions, looting and robbery on an extensive scale.

On January 23, 1977, the London Sunday Times published excerpts of the report and stated: “It amounts to a massive indictment of the Ankara government for the murder, rape and looting by its army in Cyprus during and after the Turkish invasion of summer 1974.”

The government of Cyprus filed a fourth interstate case against Turkey which was the first case by the government that was brought before the European Court of Human Rights. It was brought before the Court because Turkey had accepted the jurisdiction of the Court in 1990. The Court’s decision rendered on May 10, 2001 is a devastating indictment of Turkey which found Turkey guilty of:

• violating the rights of Greek Cypriot refugees to their property and the right to return to their homes in the occupied north;
• violating the right to life and the right for personal freedom of the persons missing since the Turkish invasion and for persistently denying an adequate investigation into their fate;
• violating the rights of the relatives of missing persons because of its refusal to inform them of their fate;
• violating the rights of some 500 Greek Cypriots enclaved in the Turkish occupied north.

Mr. Secretary, a thorough investigation is needed and long overdue.

 

Respectfully,

 

Gene Rossides

 

cc: The President
Vice President Dick Cheney
Congress

Misc.

1. Appeasement of Turkey
2. Engel and GOP re. new legislation
3. Mr. Denktash is not new to the use of violence. In a BBC television interview in 1984(need date) he stated that a “friend” of his set a bomb at a Turkish consulate office in 1958 which Denktash falsely claimed was set by a Greek Cypriot. This elevated the Turkish Cypriot violence against the Greek Cypriots and initiated the intercommunal fighting in Cyprus. (chrono does not have it)
4. General Kenan Evren
5. Denktash organized the TNT underground; command of militia and direct control.
6. The 4 Armenians killed in Turkey.