Wendy Sherman: “Those who are watching us have heard the sad story of how this island was divided by force from an invasion of a foreign…”

“Those who are watching us have heard the sad story of how this island was divided by force from an invasion of a foreign army 23 years ago today. They have heard how there are nearly 200,000 refugees, over 1,600 missing persons, 5 of them U.S. citizens. Nicosia is today, as the gentleman from Florida pointed out, the only truly divided city and only divided capital in the world. A few years ago the most famous divided city was Berlin. President Ronald Reagan said, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'' It is time for Americans to turn to Mr. Yilmaz and say, ``Mr. Yilmaz, tear down this wall. Unite this island. Unite the city of Nicosia.'' I do want to bring to the attention of my colleagues renewed interest in the State Department and the Defense Department to transferring several frigates to the Turkish Navy. This is something that should not be done without a lot of pause and a lot of consideration. There are those that say that we should help the Turkish military because it confronts Iran and Iraq, but I would ask, in an effort to contain Iran and Iraq, where will the Turkish Navy deploy the frigates? The last oceangoing vessel seen in eastern Anatolia was Noah's ark. These frigates ought to be viewed as an expansion of the Turkish Navy.”