Menendez says US must assume ‘assertive role’ toward Turkey

Senator Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for saying that a peace accord between two sovereign states is the only viable option for Cyprus.

Turkey’s strongman repeated the call for a “two-state solution” during a visit to the Turkish-occupied north during which Turkish Cypriot authorities controversially announced a partial reopening of the abandoned town of Varosha for potential resettlement. 

“I will say that over several administrations, we have been rather passive in my view, about this engagement and all we see is Erdogan continuing to encroach… in the exclusive economic zone of not only Cyprus, seeking to do so with Greece,” said Menendez, as the committee held a hearing on President Joe Biden’s nominees for State Department posts, adding that Erdogan’s comments violate United Nations Security Council resolutions. 

“It has played, in my view, a nefarious role in a variety of things in the region and unless we take an assertive role and push back, we are going to find ourselves with a significant challenge,” Menendez said.