Turkey lobbies Congress against lifting Cyprus arms embargo as tensions mount
Ankara is scrambling to keep Congress from lifting a three-decade arms embargo on Cyprus as US-Turkey tensions mount.
It remains unclear whether lawmakers will move forward with any of the four Turkey sanctions bills introduced over the last week, but Congress is much closer to passing another irritant between the troubled NATO allies into law.
Turkey, which occupies Northern Cyprus, has launched a last-ditch attempt to convince lawmakers to drop a provision in the annual defense authorization bill that would lift the United States’ three-decade arms embargo on Cyprus.
“The longstanding US policy has purposefully not taken sides among peoples of the island or guarantor states to avoid promoting an arms race that might lead to an undesired or unintended consequences,” Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic wrote in a pair of identical letters to the chairman and top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee: Reps. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Mac Thornberry, R-Texas.
Kilic’s September letters urge Smith and Thornberry to drop the Cyprus language from the defense bill. The letters were distributed by Turkish lobbying firms Venable and Capitol Counsel.
