The intelligence community provided 'explicit warning' on Turkish military move on the island of Cyprus, but the U.S. could take no preventive action because it faced arguably the worst political turmoil in its history, the Watergate scandal
Greece had considered attacking Turkey through their mutual border following Ankara's move to send troops to Cyprus in July 1974, in the wake of an Athens-engineered coup on the eastern Mediterranean island, according to a U.S. intelligence report written 32 years ago and released by the State Department over the weekend.
The 873-page-long archive released on U.S. relations with Cyprus, Turkey and Greece from 1973 to 1976 covers the transcripts of then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's talks with U.S. presidents and Turkish, Greek, Cypriot and British leaders, as well as minutes of his meetings with senior U.S. officials, correspondences with the U.S. embassies in Ankara, Athens and Nicosia, and several political and intelligence assessment reports.
The 1974 Cyprus crisis came amid the Watergate scandal – arguably the worst political turmoil in U.S. history. At the height of the scandal, then U.S. President Richard Nixon was forced to resign and was replaced by Gerald Ford in early August when hostilities on the island were continuing.
But many of the documents had several sentences or paragraphs not declassified because of still ongoing sensitivities. Such parts were deleted from the released texts.
The intelligence report – titled "Study Prepared by the Intelligence Community Staff for Director of Central Intelligence (William) Colby" and dated January 1975 – evaluated the Cyprus crisis in terms of the U.S. intelligence community's performance.
Intelligence woes:
The U.S. intelligence failed to provide a warning on July 3-15 on plans by Dimitrios Ioannides, leader of a military junta then ruling Greece, for a coup against Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios, the report said. As a result, the U.S. could take no preventive action and the coup took place on July 15, catching Washington off guard.
But when Turkey planned retaliatory military intervention on Cyprus on July 15-20, the U.S. intelligence community provided "explicit warning, including date," the report said. Nevertheless, "the State Department took little, if any, preventive action, claiming that it did not get the message," it said.
The report then said that "Greece threatened a Thrace offensive" on Turkey on July 20-25, but that the U.S. intelligence provided strong warning.However, the part on U.S. preventive action was deleted because it was not declassified.
Later when Turkey planned a second phase of offensive on Aug. 1-15, the U.S. intelligence's "warning was confusing and unconvincing," and the State Department was caught off guard, the report said.
Ford, Kissinger back Turkey:
Other highlights from the 247 documents released include the following:
- In a telegram from the U.S. Embassy in Athens to the State Department on July 15, U.S. ambassador Joseph Tasca said of Nikos Sampson, leader of the Greek-inspired coup in Nicosia, "he is an out and out gangster, a gorilla-type with no compunctions against murder and assassination."
- Speaking to Ford on Aug. 9, Kissinger said: "The British are backing the Greeks now and are even threatening military action against the Turks, which is one of the stupidest things I've heard."
- In another conversation between the two men on Aug. 20, Ford told Kissinger: "Remember, the situation was precipitated by the Greek government, and wasdisapproved of by the United States and the world. When they did it, they couldn't take the advantage of it. But the Turks could and did it."
Later, both Ford and Kissinger fought hard against a U.S. congressional move to declare an arms embargo against Turkey, but failed to stop the initiative that took effect in February 1975. Kissinger qualified the move as a "foreign policy disaster."
Some 33 years after the Cyprus crisis, the island is still divided into two. The closest the two sides came to reunification was in April 2004, when they voted on a U.N.-sponsored plan.
But while Turkish Cypriots overwhelmingly voted in favor of the reunification referendum, a vast majority of Greek Cypriots rejected it. Despite this, the European Union shortly after admitted Greek Cyprus as a full member.