Word: turkishly
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Britain, which had occupied the island from 1878 to 1960 and along with Greece and Turkey is a co-guarantor of Cyprus' independence, had led the negotiations and was as stunned-and bitter-as Athens at the Turkish intransigence and arrogance. British Foreign Secretary James Callaghan said that "what happened was totally unnecessary, and that's not only my view but also that of the U.S. Government, as the Turks have been told. I cannot believe that peace in the eastern Mediterranean depends on 36 hours...
...ability of the Turks to do what they wanted on the island despite international condemnation was, in fact, never seriously questioned. Cyprus is only 44 miles off the Turkish coast, mere minutes from Turkish airbases, and it is easily supplied from Turkish ports. The Greek mainland, by contrast, is 525 miles away; a Greek counterinvasion almost certainly would have been thwarted by Turkish air support and the 40,000 Turkish troops already deployed on the island. The only Greek alternative would have been to attack Turkey on the mainland through Thrace. This, however, would have been even more disastrous...
Despite the unfavorable odds, the Caramanlis regime for a time considered war. More reservists were called up, and tanks rumbled through the streets of Athens on their way to the Turkish border. "If we have to choose between national humiliation and war, the choice is easy," boasted Foreign Minister Mavros before he left for the abortive Geneva talks. For Caramanlis, however, the choice was not so easy, and in a radio and TV address to his nation, he reluctantly admitted that "armed confrontation was impossible due to distance as well as to the known accomplished fact [of the Turkish presence...
Whatever the Greeks thought about U.S. intentions, Washington claimed neutrality in the Greek-Turkish dispute. It was "pure baloney" to say otherwise, said Robert McCloskey, an aide to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The U.S. threatened to cut off arms aid to both sides if they went to war. Kissinger himself talked with Caramanlis and Ecevit by telephone and urged the Turks not to use further force. He later offered his offices as mediator, either in Nicosia or Washington. In a gesture to placate Greece, the U.S. pulled out Ambassador Henry J. Tasca, who was far too closely identified with...
...Turkish voice in the Geneva peace talks that collapsed last week was that of Foreign Minister Turan Günes, 53, a wily, tough bargainer with the roughhewn features of an Anatolian peasant. Before returning to Ankara, Günes received TIME'S Robert Kroon for a poolside interview at the Turkish diplomatic mission in Geneva and gave his version of why the peace talks went sour...