US-BASED Jewish lobby groups have denied any role in helping to pass a congressional resolution censuring Turkey over its role in obliterating Greek Cypriot cultural presence in the north of Cyprus, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) has reported.
According to JTA, a report last week in Congressional Quarterly said the powerful Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbied for the non-binding resolution passed in the US House of Representatives on September 28 by voice vote.
The three groups have denied any such role, JTA said.
A spokesman for Republican congressman Gus Bilirakis, a Greek American who initiated the legislation, said: “We did not seek support of any outside group, although many Jewish members of Congress co-sponsored the resolution.”
Four Jewish lawmakers are among the 27 sponsors.
One is Democrat Howard Berman, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Another is also Democrat Adam Schiff, whose district has a strong Armenian presence and who has often taken on Turkey, the JTA said.
Another co-sponsor, Democrat Shelley Berkley, is of Greek-Jewish heritage.
The House has more than 30 Jewish members.
The story comes as Cyprus and Israel have upped the ante on bilateral relations. Also for the first time this year, members of the US Jewish lobby accompanied delegates from the American-Cypriot Diaspora when they held their annual conference in Cyprus, and were feted by the government.
The Congressional Quarterly story attributed the new level of support to the deteriorating relations between Israel and Turkey, in the wake of the 2009 Gaza war and Israel’s deadly May 31 raid this year on a Turkish-flagged aid flotilla attempting to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza which resulted in the death of nine activists.
Israel and Greece have enhanced ties over the summer, partly because Turkey recently canceled joint military exercises with the Jewish state.
Bilirakis at a recent Washington conference promoting Israeli-Greek ties said such an evolution was natural, blaming Turkey for alienating both countries, JTA said.
But diplomats from Greece and Israel at the conference stressed that enhanced ties would not be at Turkey’s expense.
In the aftermath of the invasion, hundreds of Greek Orthodox churches were looted in the north, and cemeteries were destroyed.
JTA said Bilirakis’ resolution mentions only the Turkish invasion and not the Athens-backed coup that sought union with Greece. By focusing strictly on cultural heritage, it bypasses claims by both Turks and Greeks regarding recovery of civilian dead and of property.
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