GREEK LOBBY’S JOY AT OBAMA CHOICE FOR RUNNING MATE
By Marcos Charalambides
Cyprus Mail
26 Aug 08
BARACK Obama’s choice of Senator Joseph Biden as his vice presidential
running mate has sparked hopes among Greek lobbyists in the United
States that the promotion of the Cyprus problem will take on a more
substantial profile.
Leaders of the Greek American community as well as deputies in
Washington who deal with promoting Greek national issues praised
Biden’s consistent philhellenic views throughout his 35 years in the
Senate and considered his selection the best thing that Greece and
Cyprus could hope for.
As far back as 1997, the Athens News Agency reported, Biden had firmly
asserted, speaking to the then newly appointed US ambassador to Ankara,
that the Turkish government had violated international law by invading
Cyprus in 1974 and continued to violate international law by keeping
its troops there.
"Our policy is that [the Turkish invasion and occupation] was illegal,"
he had stated.
More recently, according to yesterday’s Phileleftheros, he appeared
with his fellow Democrats, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, during the
23rd conference of the International Co-ordinating Committee Justice
for Cyprus (PSEKA) in 2007, where he expressed the view that, while
he supported Turkey’s EU accession, the United States’ position should
depend on Turkey’s adherence to improving20its citizens’ human rights
and religious freedom and its attitude regarding its differences with
Greece over the Aegean dispute and the Cyprus problem. He went on
to comment that the United States should demand and make perfectly
clear that the foundations of their relations with Turkey would
depend directly on the way the Cyprus problem would be resolved,
on the complete withdrawal of Turkish forces and on whether Turkey
would continue its claims regarding its right to the oil that had
been discovered two years ago in the waters between Cyprus and Egypt.
During this year’s PSEKA conference, he announced his satisfaction
with Demetris Christofias’ election as President and stated that
he was hopeful about the possibility of a resolution to the Cyprus
problem since the two sides’ interests were now beginning to converge.
Biden cautioned his audience not to expect much from George W. Bush
and further expressed his hopes that, in this year’s presidential
elections, the United States would elect a truly committed president
who would be willing to take on some risks so that the procedure can
actually progress.
Biden, who heads the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, is also
known to have voiced positions against Turkey with regards to both
the Armenian and Kurdish disputes, according to Phileleftheros.
Unsurprisingly, the Democrats’ choice of Senator Joseph Biden was
met unfavourably by the Turkish press.
According to the English-speaking version of Zaman, a leading deputy
of the ruling Justice and Development Party commented that "it is
not easy to be happy with this selection when looking from Turkey
and considering Biden’s almost two-decade-long firm support of the
Armenian diaspora’s efforts for recognition of their allegations of a
genocide," and further asserted that he believes the Turkish public
opinion will follow McCain’s strategies "more closely than before
given the disappointment over Biden’s selection."
The daily also pointed to the front page of the leading Turkish
newspaper, Hurriyet, which criticised Biden’s selection and labelled
him as "inconsiderate" following a 1999 conversation between Biden and
the then prime minister of Turkey, Bulent Ecevit, when the senator
had reportedly told Ecevit, "if you do not solve the Cyprus problem
then I will not approve the financial aid package of $5 billion which
you expect from us, from the Congress" in a bid to put pressure on
the Turkish government.
Despite the overall contentment with Biden’s selection prevalent among
the Cypriot media, some have expressed worries that the senator may
now decide to loosen his firm positions regarding Turkey following
his newly-appointed role as Barack Obama’s right hand man.
Furthermore, as reported by the Washington Post=2 0earlier this year,
although Obama doesn’t reject their advice, he is not a big fan of
lobbies, declaring, "they won’t run my White House, and they won’t set
the agenda in Washington." Nonetheless, according to a recent ABC News
article, although Obama may decry taking cash from federal lobbyists,
Biden doesn’t seem to share this opinion and has taken $344,400 from
lobbyists since 1997, indicating he may be more open to lobbies,
including ones favouring Greek and Cypriot national interests.