Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XVI, Cyprus; Greece; Turkey

304. Telegram From the Embassy in Greece to the Department of State¹

Athens, September 20, 1967, 1525Z.

1382. NATUS Info.

1. King Constantine last night expressed to me his “fed-upness” with hardened Turkish position which had brought to naught Prime Ministerial meeting on which he had pinned strong hopes. Acknowledging Greek side might have bungled discussions, King doubted even extreme Greek ineptness could have caused such sharp change in Turkish position. He could not understand how Turkish side could say enosis had not been contemplated when even word enosis was included in paper jointly signed by Toumbas and Caglayangil last December. Col. Papadopoulos and his associates now believe British probably responsible for Turkish intransigence.² (I expressed doubt British could or would have played that role.) King himself could think of no reason except Turkish desire to trim sails to Soviet winds on eve of Demirel’s Moscow visit. In any case, King saw no point in further efforts to deal with Turkish Government at this stage. Perhaps when Turkish reasoning clarified, somebody (presumably meaning U.S.) could help get Turks back on rails. In meantime King would have no further interest in “this kind of game.”

2. I commented that out of our own sad experiences with international disputes we had repeatedly been taught necessity for patience and persistence. Continuation of dialogue could be very important. King heard me out but without further comment turned to other subjects.

Talbot

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 27 CYP. Secret; Priority; Limdis. Repeated to Ankara, Nicosia, London, Paris, and USUN.
2. Queried by the Department of State in telegram 41302 to Athens, September 21, about the apparent discrepancies in Greek versions of this meeting, Talbot responded in telegram 1431 from Athens, September 22, that enosis was mentioned in the “Basic Principles” document initialed by the Foreign Ministers at the beginning of the meeting and that this had been inserted by the Greek side as one of its objectives. In initialing, the Turkish Foreign Minister was simply acknowledging he understood the other side’s basic principles. (Both ibid.)