Posted on 09/26/2004 3:09:48 PM PDT by thierrya
Cyprus Minister Says Chechens Being Trained In North To Strike Russia
NICOSIA, Sept 26 (AFP) - Cypriot Justice Minister Doros Theodorou said in remarks published on Sunday that Chechen terrorists were being trained in the Turkish-held part of the divided Mediterranean island to strike Russian targets.
The charges were carried in an interview with the mass circulation Phileleftheros newspaper.
"There are Chechens and other terrorist groups over there (north) being trained," Theodorou was quoted by Phileleftheros.
"But we are mainly talking about Chechens who are trained to hit predominantly Russian targets," he said.
Earlier this month after the Breslan school massacre in southern Russia, a Greek Cypriot government spokesman denied that the authorities had any hard evidence of terrorist activity in the Turkish-held part of the island.
Theodorou insisted that the intellingence reports received by the internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot government were trustworthy.
He said he would suggest that the government make known the terrorist threat in the north to the international community, especially the European Union and the United States.
Both Brussels and Washington are seen as sympathetic to the Turkish Cypriot cause since Greek Cypriots rejected an UN peace plan at a referendum in April.
"Our side must establish what illegalities are going on and make the accusations at every level," said Theodorou.
"Our information is clean and from credible sources and we have every reason to trust them," he added.
Who is training them?
"Who is training them?"
Allah!
I'm not sure I believe this. I'd like to see more evidence. It would be a very strange place to train terrorists. The Greek Cypriots are not an impartial source.
Many Turks feel great sympathy for the Chechens:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1223398.stm
Moscow also said the Chechen charities in Turkey finance the rebels, who have been fighting Russian forces for the last three years in the breakaway republic, the Anatolia news agency said.
http://www.theturkishtimes.com/archive/02/11_01/f_russia.html
can you blame cypriots for rejecting a plan produced by kofi anan? (but the MSM is not allowed to point out yet another Koff failure)
The Greeks love the Russians. :-)
Implausible and biased.
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Why say that? A simple google of "cyprus chechnya terrorist training turkey" leads to articles dating back to 2000 from sources as varied as The WP, Pravda, VOA and DoJ that make the same allegations.
Russia and turkey are long-time enemies and turkey has been training military from former USSR states since the dissolution, as well as pushing to extend its oen sphere of influence into the oil fields of the Caucucus.
I stand by my original assesment. Northern Cyprus has made heaps in recent years as far as integration goes. In fact, were it not for the Cypriot Greek vote a few months back, they could very likely be in the EU already. In light of all that I find it implausible that Cypriot Turks would get involved with any Chechen terrorists. Same goes for Turkey proper.
I followed the links you gave and I only found one article related to the subject, it was the Pravda article. Pravda is on par with National Enquirer, as far as I'm concerned.
If you choose to think that turkey or its minions on Cyprus are not in any way supporting any anti-Russia groups that engage in terror then you choose to ignore evidence such as the number of phone calls made by the terrorists to locations in turkey in both the Russian school and theater massacres. But go right ahead if it makes you feel better.
Never mind my first reply to this. I took a minute to look at your page and I see clearly the anti-Greek position that pervades it. You are not qualified to make statements about bias in these issues. Have a nice day.
>>>But go right ahead if it makes you feel better.
This is not about naivite. One has to realize the the WOT is not the only thing out there, as important as it is to us. There are low-level conflicts that have century-deep roots. Thus when certain Greek sources claim al_Qaida groups are training in Turkish territory, one has to take it with a grain of salt and remember that Greece and Turkey have been on the brink of war several times in the past 50 years.
>>>Have a nice day
Fine, you're neither the first nor the last person to choose ethnic bigotry over reasonable discourse.
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There can be no reasonable discourse whith one who papers his own page with biased sources as you have. I have not chosen ethnic bigotry (look to your self for that), I have chosen not to get involved in discussion with someone who wears his agenda on his sleeve.
>>>There can be no reasonable discourse whith one who papers his own page with biased sources as you have.
Do tell about the bias in my page please. Are you a USC fan?
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Ok. Your page shills for a novelist whose first line defines "serious scholars" as being "non-Greek". No bias there on his part or yours for touting him, is there?
The article you are referring to is nothing but a brief summary of Albania's mainstream history. The author, Sam Vaknin, is not a biased person, you can check that if you want, plenty of articles by him online.
His non-Greek comment, refers to the fact that the histories of Balkans peoples are seldom accepted by their neighbors. Take Macedonia for example, they say that they are descendants of the ancient Macedonians, the Greeks say that the ancinent Macedonians were Hellenistic and the Macedonians are largely Bulgarians and slavicized Greeks. As far as Albania's hisory, the mainstream version is not accepted by certain other Balkan nations.
Synopsis: I am not anti-Greek, you made an understandable but wrong assumption.
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