Sir, - In his letter, Mr Selcuk Unal, the third secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Ireland, states that "Turkey has always said that it has absolutely no territorial claims over Greece and in Cyprus its only concern is to protect the security and rights of the Turkish Cypriots in the island." Almost simultaneously, in an "information sheet" from the Turkish Embassy on October 21st, we read: "It should be pointed out that Turkey has repeatedly said that it has no territorial claims whatsoever over either Greece or the southern part of Cyprus.".
Does not the last statement imply that Turkey does have territorial claims over the northern part of Cyprus, which it has occupied for the past 23 years in defiance of the international community? Are Mr Unal and the Turkish Embassy unaware that their government does have territorial claims over the Dodecanese islands of Imia, Farmakonisi and others, and over the island of Gavdos off the south coast of Crete and 250 miles from the nearest Turkish coast? Do they forget that in January of last year Greece and Turkey came to the brink of armed hostilities after a Turkish landing party took possession of the rocky islet of Imia?
National boundaries are drawn in accordance with international agreements and international laws. Greece accepts and honours the present legitimate boundaries and makes no claims whatsoever on any Turkish territory. Turkey, evidently, disputes these boundaries and the relevant international agreements and laws. The only logical and honourable thing that the disputing party, Turkey, can do is to take the matter to the International Court of Justice at the Hague. The Greek government has consistently and repeatedly suggested that Turkey should do just that.
Instead, Turkey engages itself in a war of nerves by creating dangerous incidents in the Aegean sea and in the Greek and Cypriot airspace. The harassment in Cypriot air space of the transport plane of the Greek Defence Minister Mr Tsohatzopoulos on October 11th by Turkish war-planes (The Irish Times, October 16th) is just an example of such incidents.
Sir, the atmosphere in the Cypriot Greek and Turkish region is tense enough as it is. Only a spark is needed to set the whole region aflame. Unwarranted and nonsensical incidents like the above may well produce that fatal spark. For what? - Yours, etc.,
Trinity College, Dublin 2.