Carter's Aegean Dilemma

...again to everyone's surprise, he did ?2.8 per cent...

...Greece, represented by a new civilian government, felt Washington should have intervened to prevent the invasion...

...arms...

...military bases...

...that a policy acceptable to both is difficult to envision...

...The Greek government, in particular, is eager to get on with its own domestic problems and seeks an early solution...

...Instead of refusing the request as expected, the Archbishop—realizing he has lost world sympathy by appearing to be intransigent—reacted positively...

...Notwithstanding this felicitous side effect, Clifford's journey was less successful in achieving a more primary objective—patching up U.S...

...But the Carter Administration faces a delicate task in the Aegean...

...Clifford responded that the U.S...

...Clifford's visit was a case in point...

...He could convey no progress on the Aegean: Negotiations, enmeshed in procedural problems, are going nowhere...

...pressure...

...A pact was signed last June but still has not been approved by Congress...

...differences with Turkey...

...the Army reportedly feels the drain of maintaining 28,-000 troops on the island, and wants better relations with nato as well as U.S...

...Although Congress, at the urging of Henry Kissinger, partially restored the flow of arms in 1975, Turkey—to protect itself against future embargoes —refused to reopen the installations unless it was granted a four-year, $1-billion Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA...

...The leverage of military and economic aid from Washington could also help the Cyprus negotiations, where the need for a third party is more immediately evident...

...Athens therefore began negotiating its own DCA with the Ford Administration and had reached a tentative agreement when the talks were interrupted by last November's elections...

...Some optimistic analysts say the Turkish military agrees...

...If Washington throws its weight around too obviously, the situation will not only, remain deadlocked, but America will be seen as the villain by both sides...

...In a move intended to undercut the envoy's impact, Ankara persuaded Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to invite Archbishop Makarios to resume the negotiations —stalled for months—between the two communities...

...The emissary told Ankara that unless it made truly meaningful concessions on Cyprus, the flow of arms would not be fully restored...

...The message was understood, but rationality doesn't always govern decisionmaking in Turkey...

...One of the formulators of the Truman Doctrine to protect Greece and Turkey against postwar aggression, he takes particular pride in having helped to shape nato...

...They may never resume, for Congress has now linked the two DCAs and will not approve arms to Turkey without significant movement on Cyprus...

...An old Navy man, Carter is concerned about the effect the tensions here have had on nato, and hopes to strengthen the ailing alliance by helping to heal the divisions between these two members...

...And the U.S., he suggested, is the only country that can lend "the kind of assistance necessary" to bring them together...

...Even their priorities are at odds: Clifford found the Greeks consider the Aegean the most pressing problem, while Turkey emphasizes Cyprus, calling for a more active Greek involvement...

...Much to the relief of the Suleyman Demirel government, which faces elections this year (see "Cyprus and the Turkish Elections," NL, March 28), Clifford couched his plea in terms of mutual interest, avoiding any attempt to publicly pressure Turkey...

...While it is too early to say precisely what the Administration will make of Clifford's report, the former Defense Secretary did announce that Carter's Aegean policy will represent the joint judgment of the Executive and Congress...

...Congress, spurred on by Greek-American constituents, embargoed arms to Turkey...

...Upon returning to Washington, Clifford could give the President little more than a mixed report...

...Greece sees any new policy from Washington as an improvement, and greeted him as a harbinger of a happier era in Greek-American relations...

...Nor could the countries agree on whether his trip itself was to be welcomed...

...Neither Greece nor Turkey will allow itself to be publicly perceived as responding to U.S...

...Thus in February, after 13 years without direct contact, the two leaders sat down and talked together...

...The U.S...

...Unlike Gerald Ford, therefore, who deemed a defense arrangement with Ankara the most important consideration in the area, Carter will probably persist in his expressed intention not to fight for Turkish arms in Congress under present conditions—even if Turkey responds by "burning the blanket" and expelling all U.S...

...position and derided the visit as "untimely and unnecessary...

...He also found that nato is still a four-letter word in Greece...

...bases...

...On Cyprus, he could not fly into the airport of one side without being criticized by the other...

...UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim subsequently arrived on the scene, and encouraged the further talks that eventually took place in Vienna early this month...

...would not be blackmailed: The President could not ask Congress to act on the DCA under present conditions...

...Ankara retaliated by closing down operations at some of its 26 U.S...

...It is this deadlocked situation that Carter inherited, and that the Clifford mission sought to ameliorate...

...Moreover, each country perceives any gesture of American good will toward the other as a personal insult...

...It was then up to Denktash to name a first figure for the territory Turkish Cypriots would demand...

...This must have particularly pained Clifford...

...The stock of the United States itself has not gone up in Greece either...

...Unfortunately, Athens and Ankara remain so far apart on most issues Cokie Roberts has reported from Greece and Turkey for CBS News...

...He understands, too, the U.S.'s own responsibilities: In the past, Congress and the Executive Branch have pursued divergent paths in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the need for a single policy has never been clearer...

...True, the Constantine Kara-manlis government wants to reach an accord on the DCA, but young Greeks remain rabidly anti-American...

...RECONCILING GREECE AND TURKEY Carter's Aegean Dilemma BY COKIE ROBERTS Athens President Jimmy Carter sent former Defense Secretary Clark Clifford to Greece, Turkey and Cyprus in February partly for humanitarian reasons?to seek peaceful solutions to the various conflicts in the area—but mostly for strategic ones...

...Nonetheless, Clifford did elicit assurances from both camps that they would at least attempt to continue constructive talks on the Cyprus dispute...

...in the face of increasing anti-Americanism from the Left, Athens pulled out of the military wing of nato...

...Later that year, the U.S...

...Perhaps the most significant determination of Clifford's visit was his finding that Greece and Turkey are simply unable to solve their differences by themselves...

...Meanwhile, Greece became alarmed by the prospect of such extensive arms assistance to its foe?more because differences over air and mineral rights in the Aegean threatened to come to a head than because of Cyprus...

...And in Turkey, Carter is characterized in the press as a "peanut seller," slang for a pimp...

...position has been particularly muddled since July 1974, when the Greek military dictatorship inspired a Rightist coup that overthrew Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios...

...That conference yielded few tangible results, yet the atmosphere here now approaches optimism for the first time in two and a half years...

...Even natives are quick to quote the saying, "A Turk will burn his blanket to kill a flea," and observers doubt that Demirel will act on Carter's wishes...

...Ankara, however—assuming American bases are more important to Washington than Cyprus is—insisted there could be no linkage between arms and the island...

...Ankara's response, it will be remembered, was to send troops to the island and occupy 40 per cent of it, ostensibly to protect the Turkish minority of 18 per cent...

...Ankara fears a change in the U.S...

...Makarios also publicly agreed to what his government has privately accepted for months—a federated Cyprus with two separate communities...

...In other words, the two branches of government will no longer pursue opposing interests...

...But this had unforeseen repercussions...