Cyprus Action Network of America
Congressman Dan Burton Makes Offensive Anti-Cyprus Remarks
Current Status
Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana recently issued a "Stop the Blame Game With Regard To Cyprus" speech to the House of Representatives premised almost entirely on false historical revisionism, inaccuracies and omissions.
Burton has a long record of support for Turkish Crimes and their cover up, just recently he was commended by the Turkish lobby ATAA for his offensive speech on Cyprus, over the years Burton has also been an active participant, from the very beginning, of US delegations visiting the pseudo-regime in northern Cyprus, disregarding international law, Burton has also been involved in numerous official delegations and receptions with the pseudo-regime.
Turkey's invasions and ongoing illegal occupation is in complete
contempt for norms of war, international law, UN resolutions, and human rights, and its ongoing cultural genocide of Greek Orthodox Christianity from Cyprus is continuing unabated, and Turkey remains unapologetic and unrepentant. The Republic of Turkey was founded on the heels of one of the most tragic episodes in the history of humanity. The Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocide of 1915-1923, perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government, was the very first planned genocide of the 20th Century, the Turkish government denies its responsibility for these crimes, and continues to regard the victims with contempt through its ongoing aggression against Cyprus and through its horrific human rights record, that often involves torture and assassinations of intellectuals for thought crimes.
The Annan plan was rejected by the Cypriot people, in a popular
referendum because the Annan plan was racist, its provisions mandated that the Turkish military and security forces (notorious for racist brutality and human rights abuses) rule over the Cypriot people, furthermore it also mandates that major port city Kyrenia remains Turkish, forever.
Essentially, Annan plan was an attempt to dissolve the democratic Republic of Cyprus and replace it with a new structure, that would enslave the people of Cyprus to undemocratic, human rights abusers running the Turkish government and military. Burton's speech uses blatant omissions of facts, to shamelessly hurl the blame onto the Orthodox Christian people of Cyprus, rather than on the aggressor, Turkey.
Finally, Congressman Burton's speech uses Turkish false historical
revisionism to explain away the conflicts in Cyprus prior to Turkey's 1974 crimes of ethnic cleansing, military invasion, and cultural genocide. The Turkish state funded and staffed anti-Orthodox Christian terrorism and hate groups, with the aim of creating para-state, parallel administrations in Cyprus, in order to undermine the democratic process.
The pseudo-regime founded by Turkish terrorist Denktash and by Turkish security forces was merely a further manifestation of Turkey's decades long undermining of democracy and abuse of human rights in Cyprus.
Please refer to our information paper "Burton's Anti-Cyprus
Remarks" for Congressman Burton's actual speech in black text, our
analysis is in green, directly below each of Congressman Burton's remarks.
URL: http://www.cyprusactionnetwork.org/resource_center
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What You Can Do
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Contact Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana and ask him to apologize for the historically incorrect speech.
As always, be firm, but polite. Hostile comments will only undermine the message you are trying to deliver. A sample letter and phone script is already provided
By Mail: Congressman Dan Burton
2308 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0001
By Telephone :(202) 225-2276
By Fax: (202) 225-0016
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Phone Script:
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[During regular business hours a receptionist will answer your call.
Ask to speak to the staff member who is responsible for judiciary or foreign affairs. If he/she is not available, please leave a written or voice-mail message.]
Hello, my name is __________________.
I am calling about Congressman Burton's Anti-Cyprus speech, "Stop
The Blame Game With Regards To Cyprus"
This speech was highly offensive to Greek Orthodox Christians, who are victims of Turkey's ongoing ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide of Orthodox Christian people. Turkey is a human rights abuser, is guilty of Armenian and Assyrian and Greek Genocide, is a military aggressor, is undemocratic and is unfit to rule over the people of Cyprus.
We must stand, as a nation, against human rights abusers, against
military aggressors, and against genocide denial and act with absolute moral clarity in the fight to eradicate these terrible crimes.
Thank you for your time. I would appreciate learning of any action the Congressman takes on this matter, and would appreciate an apology. I can be contacted at the following address: __________________
Thank you.
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Sample Letter
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(Please take a moment to personalize the letter.)
Congressman Dan Burton
2308 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0001
Dear Congressman Burton:
I'm writing in response to your speech "Stop The Blame Game With
Regard To Cyprus" delivered on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 in the House of Representatives.
As an American citizen of the Greek Orthodox Christian faith,, I have always had the honor of being represented by elected officials who stood firm and strong in the face of human rights violations and historical denial.
There were several inaccuracies and omissions in your speech on Cyprus First, your speech starts off with a statement that downplays Turkey's war crime of military aggression and crimes against peace in Cyprus, by deliberately putting quotes around Turkey's very real invasion.
Numerous United Nations Resolutions, spanning several decades, have been consistent in declaring the Turkish military occupation of Cyprus illegal, and call upon the speedy and total withdrawal of the Turkish military occupation forces
Second, the speech erroneously claims that Greeks killed Turks
beginning in 1963, this is false historical revisionism. The first inter
communal killings in Cyprus date back to 1958, and they involved brutal killings of Cypriot Orthodox Christians by the fanatical Turkish terrorist group TMT. The New York Times reported on the killings on December 27, 1963, detailing the attacks on Cypriots targeted merely because of their ethnicity and religion, the Turkish TMT terrorist killings of Cypriot Orthodox Christians continued and escalated throughout the 1960s.
Third, your speech falsely claims that Turks were harmed during the coup in Cyprus, and irresponsibly use this falsehood to somehow justify Turkey's gross crime in 1974. The most significant omission is the fact that in August 1974 (when Turkey launched the bloody second invasion that resulted in the occupation of an additional 30% of the island) the democratic presidency of Cyprus was restored, parliamentary democracy
led by Karamanlis was in power in Athens, and there was neither a call for union with Greece or violence directed at the Turkish minority.
Fourth, you falsely claim that the pseudo-regime in northern Cyprus is a case of "rights", nothing could be further from the truth. The pseudo-regime established by late Turkish TMT terrorist leader Denktash and by the Turkish military and Turkish security forces is recognized by no other country in the world, other than Turkey, its very claim to statehood is in violation of international law.
Finally, your speech is offensively anti-Cyprus , you claim that
Greeks, the people actually victimized by Turkey's crimes of ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide are not on the side of peace and offer up the people's democratic rejection of the racist Annan plan. The Plan allows the Turkish military to remain in Cyprus, forever, and even extends to the Turkish military the "right" to intervene over the entire island, . The final revised drafts of the Anan plan called for the turning over of the entire island's defense (for a period of twenty years) to the Turkish government through its military (an unrepentant perpetrator of Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic genocide) and renown for ethnic
cleansing and racist brutality throughout the region. Ultimately, the victims of Turkish aggression decided that they would never allow the Turkish military to rule over their lives, Turkey's horrendous human rights record and history of Genocide, makes Turkey unfit to rule over any human being. In democracies, ideally, the power should never come from the muzzle of a gun, the Turkish army still refuses to leave this troubled island, and leave all its inhabitants Greek, Latin, Arab Maronite, Armenian and Assyrian alone. Now that would be a real peace.
I urge you to amend your remarks and position to reflect the historical truth.
I would also appreciate a sincere apology.
I look forward to hearing from you or your office in this regard.
Sincerely,
____________________________________
(Signature)
____________________________________
(Name)
____________________________________
(Address)
____________________________________
(City, State, Zip)
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Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA)
2578 Broadway #132
New York, NY 10025
New York: Tel. 917-699-9935
http://www.cyprusactionnetwork.org/
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