Bruce Fein's January 15 commentary on Turkey was extremely narrow in its analysis and entirely devoid of objectivity. It is a tremendous disservice to George Washington to compare him with Turkish ultranationalist leader Mustapha Kemal who is responsible for the genocide that was inflicted upon Anatolia's Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christian populations in 1922-23. Upon entering the city of Smyrna in September 1922, Kemal's troops enthusiastically proceeded to slaughter over 100,000 Greeks and 30,000 Armenians,

To refer to Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit as a proponent of human rights is to ignore the fact that Mr. Ecevit ordered the Turkish invasions of Cyprus on July 20 and August 14, 1974. The Turkish invasions resulted in the ethnic cleansing of over 200,000 Greeks and the occupation of thirtyseven percent of territory that is part of the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus. The Turkish occupation of Cyprus is a violation of international law and dozens of United Nations resolutions, as well as legal rulings by the European Court on Human Rights.

Mr. Fein's analysis on Cyprus ignores both international law and the atrocities committed by Turkish forces. To date, there are over 1,600 Greek Cypriots that have been missing since the Turkish invasions. Referring to the Turkish occupied territories as "democratic" is terribly misleading as can be demonstrated by the murders in August 1996 of two Greek Cypriots, one of whom was peacefully protesting when he was shot to death bya Turkish sniper.

Mr. Fein ignores the reality that there is no such thing as a "Greek Cypriot administration", only the Republic of Cyprus. To date, every country in the world refuses to legitimize the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. Mr. Fein's commentary refers to Kosovo and Bosnia. Unlike these two provinces, the Republic of Cyprus was an independent and sovereign entity, and fully recognized for fourteen years before it was invaded by the army of a foreign state in 1974.