Michael Rubin Testifies Before Congress on Turkey’s Occupation of Cyprus

0:00 Chairman Smith, Chairman McGovern, Executive Committee Member Billis, and Representative Schneider, thank you for the opportunity to testify. Um, Representative McGovern, in response to um your opening lament with regard to US policy currently with regard to the United Nations, what's not in my biography is that I'm on the strategic advisory committee, a bipartisan committee for UNHCR. I recently came back from um a factf finding mission with them to the front lines in Ukraine, Clark, Denipro and so forth and I couldn't agree with you more. Perhaps at some point I can sidebar with your staff uh with regard to some ways forward um with mitigating some of the issues that are now occurring um and how we can separate the wheat from the chaff.

0:50 Regardless, I'm here to talk about Cypress. The question of Cypress goes to the heart of both human rights and international law. Turkey claims justification for its invasion, but the facts show that Turkeykey's action not only to be a naked land grab, but a precedent setting one. I should note that the common Turkish narrative is that they were rescuing Cyprus because of the actions of the Greek Juna because of um the policy at the time of Anosis unity. The irony here and where Turkeykey's analogy falls flat is the major land grab, 32% of the country, the ethnic cleansing came not only after the Huta had fallen from power and democracy had been restored, but during a period of peace talks in Geneva. There is absolutely no excuse, no reason. But the ultimate irony now is that the very

1:57 historical justification which the Turks could be more applied to them and President Erdogan's rhetoric regarding the forcible unification of the island, the lack of legitimacy um of criate sovereignty and so forth. So when Turks make this historical analogy, it needs to be shut down immediately. When it comes to history, the truth isn't flexible in this case. The facts simply aren't on Turkeykey's side. And there's a tendency in the United States where we tend to have a shorter view of history that we allow falsehoods if they exist long enough to sort of be laundered into reality in the public discussion. And the Turks need to be called out on this.

2:52 If they're justifying the Turkish invasion, then by the same logic, it's time for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to go. Had the US and Europe responded immediately and effectively to Turkeykey's seizure, ethnic cleansing, and colonization of northern Cyprus, the Kremlin would be less likely to assume Russia could get away with the seizure of Ukraine, Donetsk, and Lohansk. The fact of the matter is what's happened in Cypress doesn't stay in Cyprus. And again across administrations both Republican and Democrat and also unfortunately within the European Union itself there's a tendency to assume that little countries can pay the price for unrelated diplomatic initiatives or that justice and human rights for smaller countries is simply an irritant that should be ignored. But when we look at the

3:55 precedent that we've seen with regard to the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, there's absolutely no difference between that and for example Transnistra in the north of of Muldova or Luhans Dunesque or what the Russians have done ethnically cleansing Crimea. At any rate, I detail the history in my written testimony, but I want to focus here and my retaining time on the From a human rights perspective, this is not just Turkey versus Greece. And as Chairman Smith has said, Criate Muslims are traditionally more moderate than their Turkish counterparts. They have a different culture. By flooding Cyprus with settlers, Turkey is seeking to snuff out a culture. It is cultural genocide. Now, Representative McGovern in his opening statement asked about negotiations. The problem we have here now when the majority of those living in occupied zone are actually settlers

5:00 alien to the culture of criate Muslims is that the Turks are essentially stacking the deck to prevent meaningful negotiations. While I don't detail it as much in my written testimony, given the resources now that we know Cyprus has, especially offshore energy resources and we've seen the East Med Act and so forth, uh, that was passed in the last administration with bipartisan support. The fact of the matter is the criate criate Muslims themselves in the occupied zone know and understand that if they were left to their own devices, they could they could have a much higher standard of living alongside their other criate compatriots. The problem is that Turkey is now using this beach head of settlers in order to styy an agreement because when push comes to shove, Turkey wants to seal Cypress's resources. We should have no uh diplomatic nicity

6:03 about what's going on. Time should not launder aggression. The lesson successive administrations imply is filibuster and the land becomes yours. That's not something we should accept in Cypress. It's not something we should accept with regard to Russia in Crimea and it's not something we should accept anywhere else. Now, Erdogan feels empowered enough to shred the status quo and I think that this current administration and past administrations need to have some introspection about why he feels so empowered. We see this for example in Veria or more recently uh in March with deploying the F-16s to northern Cyprus. um or the establishment of the drone base. And of course, I want to commend FDD for their work back in March, Sin's work in particular, with regard to the deployment of the F-16s to to Cypress. That shredded the stat status quo. There's no military reason for it. Um, but doing this was a way to basically

7:08 stick the finger in the eye of the United States to humiliate the United States in the view of the Turkish public. And the United States, whether Democrat or Republican, simply shouldn't stand for it. Erdogan's actions also bly this idea that Turkey wants aircraft to counter Russia. If Turkey is so concerned as a NATO ally that it needs these aircraft, these aircraft should be geared towards Russia. They shouldn't be in Somalia. They shouldn't be in occupied northern Cyprus. And the same thing is true, of course, with the drones in an occupied airfield. Selling Turkey advanced weaponry only encourages Erdogan to believe that there can be aggression without consequence. Selling advanced engines is further counterproductive because Turkey is now open about its desire to develop its own aircraft. Turkey seeks advanced engines not to supply its planes, but to reverse engineer American products so outside

8:12 forces can no longer styy or limit Turkish aggression. Back before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I believe in the year 2010 or 2011, I had warned about the Obama administration and its desire to provide drones at the time to Turkey, warning that there could be reverse engineering of those drones. We've seen what has happened and the problem is not only the theft the theft of American intellectual property but Turkey has taken a destabilizing role in any number of countries um and once the United States allows that technology to leak, we lose our diplomatic leverage and we actually encourage adversaries to undermine American interests. be it in Africa, be it in Asia, be it in Europe or anywhere else.

9:08 it's not I mean providing military tech to Turkey is akin to providing it to China. Period. Whether Turkey is a NATO ally or that or not is is irrelevant. In fact, Turkey uses its NATO status in order to sherk its responsibility and its actions with regard to the theft of intellectual property. Now, northern Cypress has also become a money laundering and terror finance hub. Its casinos and universities fund terrorism and facilitate human trafficking. It proposes a clear and growing danger to United States. Simply put, the United States should link Turkeykey's inclusion on the Financial Action Task Force Blacklist with its behavior in northern Cypress. And while there can be complaints that Turkey is an ally, so how could we recommend it for FATF blacklisting? I believe Chairman Smith, we've talked about this before with regard to human trafficking and other

10:11 issues with the listing as tier two, tier three countries for both Israel and South Korea, which you were very involved in. And you know what those two countries did? They worked with the United States behind the scenes to get off the list. When we have these diplomatic tools, and this is important for both Democratic administrations and Republican administrations, these diplomatic tools are most effective when they are approach approached objectively rather than subjectively. If we allow uh pet countries to have an excuse not to abide, then what we do is not only relieve pressure on one offender, but we allow every other country which is designated to suggest that their designation is just subjective and without meaning. We we abandon our moral clarity. So what should US policy now do? Between 1940 and 1942, the US recognized Vichy France. It was a mistake that the United States should not repeat. The State Department should

11:14 stop ascribing any legitimacy to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cypress. And by this, I mean two points. The United States, whether it's a Democratic administration or a Republican administration, has instructed its diplomats not to refer to northern Cyprus as occupied for fear of accept upsetting Turkey. I'm sorry, it is occupied. The earth is round, the sky is blue. We call an occupied portion of a European Union member occupied period.

11:47 And while we may might be afraid that Turkey will have a temper tantrum, I point out and through the good work of this this this um committee when it came to recognition of the Armenian genocide, not only by the Biden administration, but also all 50 states and the District of Colombia. So many people warned that Turkey would actually react negatively, undermine American interests and so forth. And yet we see that Turkey is basically an Erdogan is an empty suit in this. When push comes to shove, if we do what is right, he's not going to respond. And as a historian, the reason why it's so important to call a spade a spade, to recognize a genocide as a genocide is because if you don't delegitimize the ideology, it fers.

12:39 Germany did the right thing after World War II. I spent a lot of time in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And the reason why Eastern DRC is as unstable as it is because the Houthu genocidier who continue to fester in some of the camps in Eastern DRC have never had their ideology delegitimized. Now this also means that there should be in practice no visas for so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cypress officials unless given on Republic of Cypress passports. Now, we all know at the annual United Nations General Assembly senior meetings and so forth in September when all the heads of state come, others come as well. Look, last year I met with um Adar Zubi, the the president of uh southern Yemen, who of course wasn't recognized, and I've met with others there at these meetings.

13:35 But when I Zubati comes, he comes on a Yemeni passport. When the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cypress comes, why is the US embassy issuing him a visa on a Turkish passport? He has if he wants to get a Republic of Cypress passport, he can, but that should be our policy across administrations. Likewise, why is there a Turkish Republic of Northern Cypress office opened on K Street right now and in many different European uh cities as well? I would go further. Choosing northern Cyprus as a vacation destination is no different than choosing Russia occupied Crimea.

14:21 Anyone who fails that moral choice and funds a criminal regime, and I revert to the money laundering and so forth, the terror finance that goes on in the occupied zone should be subject to extra review if not visa bans into the United States. I would say that look I know many Europeans and I'm I'm almost done many Europeans who have visited Iran or Iraq for innocent reasons and they have extra scrutiny perhaps unfairly at times when they come to United States. I would take a much harder line for those who thought it was a good deal simply to fund an occupation regime because they want a a beach vacation that's €100 cheaper. Finally, the United States should support the return of the Acroi and Dealia sovereign base areas to criate sovereignty. It's hard to advocate for the end to Turkish occupation when Britain retains its

15:24 imperial footprint on the island. Now, there's a history here and I recognize that and I'm only talking about 3% of the island. In 1960, if the Criates wanted their independence, they had to acquies to this. But it's one thing when the British commit to defending s um criate sovereignty, but we saw that in 1974 they didn't. And with Brexit, we also see that the British, forget this talk of from 1968, 1970, east of the Suez Canal. We're now talking about the British not projecting force east of Gibralar or even east of Calala. And the fact of the matter is that there is no reason for the British to have that base there. I would argue with the Iranians proving that they can hit our base in Doha, for example, uh in Alu in inQatar that it's untenable for us to have a base in Qatar. We shouldn't take over the sovereignty from the British. We

16:27 should lease the base fairly, return all those areas that aren't don't have military value and we can help better defend the eastern Mediterranean and also put a line in the sand to Turkey so that they understand that aggression won't pay. The best diplomacy is bipartisan, rooted in moral clarity and respect for human rights and backed when necessary by force. It's time to make ending Turkey's illegal occupation of Cyprus and for that matter portions of Syria and Iraq core components of US foreign policy. And with that, I thank the commission.