Dilemmas of the Greek-Turkish Conflict

...For one thing, the reason for the embargo still exists: Turkey remains fundamentally unyielding on Cyprus...

...Cyprus is just one area of dispute between the two Mediterranean countries...

...Thus the new Prime Minister is left with the job of reaching a Cyprus agreement-a thankless task from a political point of view, since Turkey can't win anything more there, and negotiations will mean surrendering some of Ecevit's gains...

...Turkish authorities insist their only goal is to prevent the Aegean from becoming a "Greek lake," and therefore-also in violation of treaty arrangements-they send planes into Greek airspace without permission...

...Do the Greeks, the Turks inquire, plan to use our current military weakness from the U.S...

...It means in the eyes of the United States Congress the relation between Turkey and the United States doesn't have the value it had before...

...Cokie Roberts, a new contributor to these pages, has reported from Greece and Turkey for CBS...

...But under the Turkish Constitution, only Parliament can declare early elections, and Ecevit's tactic didn't work...

...His aim was to gain a stronger majority and rid himself of an uncomfortable partner, the far-Right National Salvation party...

...Cararnanlis consistently points to the backing in Congress to calm Greek anti-Americanism: Most recently he condemned a violent demonstration at the U.S...

...In short, a traveler to these two countries sees mirror images-with the Greeks hating Henry Kissinger and closing bases because of his policy, and the Turks hating Congress and closing bases because of its policy...

...weapons were illegally used on Cyprus, in an effort to force the government to take a more flexible bargaining stand...

...People in both countries ask, "What do they really want...

...For its part, Constantine Caramanlis' Greek government, knowing it will have to turn over a large portion of the island to Turkish control, wants to get the whole painful business over with as quickly as possible...

...Caramanlis recognizes he will never again command the support he has at present, and the sooner an understanding is reached, the greater the chances are it will be forgotten before the next election...

...to reverse this trend...

...Turkish officials insist they really want a settlement...

...for he, too, is a conservative regarded as overly friendly to American interests by the Left...

...Greece, which favors a system of cantons, refuses to accept bizonality...

...Congress terminated arms shipments to Turkey after U.S...

...Nevertheless, he is currently trimming back the American presence by eliminating the homeporting of the Sixth Fleet and reducing the number of other military personnel...

...As a result, several caretaker administrations have had to serve until the new Nationalist Front was organized under Demirel...

...The House of Representatives is unlikely to vote a resumption of arms shipments to Turkey very soon...

...For another, as one Congressman visiting Greece explained to me, "I don't have any Turkish restaurant owners in my district...

...policy, particularly Kissinger's policy, favored Turkey during the Cyprus crisis, it would interpret a restoration of aid as a total abandonment by America...

...The Turks say they appreciate this, and have no desire to humiliate Caramanlis, but they won't talk about other matters until the principle of separate ethnic zones for Cyprus is agreed upon...

...But to ward off criticism from sensitive nationalists and anti-American Leftists, Demirel-a close friend of the U.S...

...Suleyman Demirel, the "peasant Prime Minister" who, following a four-year absence, returned to office with an unstable coalition of four conservative parties, must deal not only with inflation, unemployment and unrest at home, but also with foreign policy problems involving Turkey's old enemy Greece and its old friend America...

...And that's simply an impossibility...

...In addition, Demirel's Cabinet doesn't even include the country's most popular political figure, Bulent Ecevit, the hero of last year's Cyprus intervention...

...Ironically, the atmosphere of detente successfully promoted by Secretary of State Kissinger has resulted in both Greece and Turkey feeling free to expel the U.S...

...Apparently, too, the Turks no longer feel the same need for a strong American presence to protect them from the USSR as they once did...

...Athens is afraid the Turks will use their present position of strength to force a settlement of all the differences between the two neighbors, and it genuinely believes that Turkey wants the islands...

...military...

...Meanwhile, Demirel is talking tough...

...The ploy produced just the opposite effect...

...In what one American diplomat describes as a "game of chicken," the illegal arms on the Greek islands fire at the illegal Turkish airplanes overhead...

...And I did hear unofficial voices in the capital proclaiming, "We should have taken the islands 50 years ago...

...It's just lucky they keep missing...

...Like Demirel, Cararnanlis is obliged by domestic politics to take steps against the United States...

...As Demirel put it: "An arms embargo means hostility...

...Ankara disavows any aggressive designs, although heatedly denying the Greek historic claim to the islands and demanding the right to sail on the Aegean, fly over it and drill for oil under it...

...Twelve Greek islands lie right off the coast of Turkey in the Aegean, and the agreements ceding them to Greece specifically stipulate that they not be armed...

...Foreign Minister Ihsan Sabri Caglayangil added, "The embargo will remain a wounded place between the two countries...

...Ankara thought responding to Washington's strongarming would signify a serious loss of prestige, and when the cutoff went into effect the negotiations stalled...

...The parties of the Front, however, have come together only out of a common fear of Ecevit, and shortly after Demirel received his tiny vote of confidence, Parliament once more rejected early elections...

...As a reporter traveling between the two lands, I have been struck by their seeming lack of communication...

...installations in the country...

...who went to an American school and worked for an American company-will probably close some of the more than 20 U.S...

...THE ARGUMENT ACROSS THE AEGEAN Dilemmas of the Greek-Turkish Conflict BY COKIE ROBERTS Ankara Turkey's new government, formed in April after six months of trying, faces problems that will make its survival rather difficult...

...Prime Minister Demirel told me he considers the situation "very dangerous," and each nation accuses the other of acting in a provocative manner...

...Since Athens believes U.S...

...Then, as with every conversation in Ankara these days, the talk turns to the topic of military aid...

...Basically, Ecevit, a social democrat who admires Sweden's Olof Palme, dissolved the shaky government he led after his Cyprus victory, hoping for early elections...

...What each nation really wants is for the U.S...

...Now, despite the 41-40 Senate vote of May 19 to resume aid, the issue has extended beyond Cyprus...

...Yet they seem unwilling, or perhaps unable, to grant any of the concessions that might make an accord possible...

...arms cutoff to start a war...

...Do the Turks, the Greeks wonder, plan to use their military superiority to take the islands...

...embassy by calling it "an attack against the Embassy of a great country whose people, press and Congress have exhibited the best possible feelings toward Greece...

...Turkey wants very much to be accepted into the Western community, and partly to that end it has built up a large military structure with half a million men under arms...

...Beyond all this, though, the cutoff has become a symbol of support within Greece...

...to take its side on its own terms...

...In Turkey the stoppage is normally referred to as an embargo since, as President Ford has pointed out, the Turks can't get equipment they have already paid for...

...But last summer, when the Greeks realized they could not protect Cyprus, they decided a line of defense had to be set up somewhere-and that somewhere was the islands...

...It is difficult to see any way for the U.S...

...How a coalition without Turkey's single biggest vote-getter was established is a complicated story...