Office of the Historian

90. Letter From President Carter to Turkish Prime Minister Demirel1

Washington, March 16, 1977
Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

Although Secretary Clifford has already expressed his thanks for your cordial reception during his recent visit to Ankara, I wanted to write you personally to add my appreciation for the courtesy and openness with which you and your colleagues received my Special Representative. The time you devoted to Secretary Clifford, and the warm personal relationship which he tells me developed between you, gives me great hope for early and full restoration of the close ties which have so long bound our two countries together.

I can assure you that when Secretary Clifford spoke out of the wealth of his own personal experience of the abiding importance of NATO, he was expressing my views as well as his own. The American people place great value on Turkey’s friendship and the alliance relationship we have developed and maintained together for almost thirty years. In conveying to me the impressions he gained from his visit to Ankara,2 Secretary Clifford has deepened my understanding of the situation in the eastern Mediterranean and of the importance that must be attached to safeguarding and strengthening U.S.-Turkish relations.

I was also heartened to learn, based on Secretary Clifford’s mission, that specific, substantive proposals will be put on the table in the next round of intercommunal negotiations between the two Cypriot communities which begins in Vienna later this month.3 I am hopeful that through these procedures a process of sustained discussions of concrete issues can begin and that progress can be made toward the lasting and just solution that will benefit all Cypriots. My Administra [Page 292] tion places a high priority in assisting in any way we can the efforts of United Nations Secretary General Waldheim and the two Cypriot communities in reaching a mutually acceptable settlement. It is my earnest hope that through these efforts, 1977 will prove to be the year a just Cyprus settlement becomes a reality.

I hope that it will be possible to meet with you at an early date so that we have an opportunity to discuss matters of mutual concern to our two countries.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Carter
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, President’s Correspondence with Foreign Leaders File, Box 19, Turkey: Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel, 2/77–4/80. No classification marking.↩
  2. See Documents 8 and 10.↩
  3. See Document 11 and footnote 3, Document 38.↩