Cyprus
Rick Scott on Turkey: “It does not behave as a NATO ally” – “bullying” stance towards Greece and Cyprus, support for the cable
US Republican Senator Rick Scott accused Turkey of “bullying behaviour” towards Greece and Cyprus in an interview with the Associated Press in Athens, and backed the Greece–Cyprus–Israel electricity interconnection project.
Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida accused Turkey of “bullying behaviour” towards Greece and Cyprus, in an interview with the Associated Press in Athens on Saturday, October 17. “You’re not behaving as a NATO ally when you take F-16s and fly over somebody else’s country. You’re not much of an ally when you occupy part of another country’s land. And that is what they are doing,” he said. “I hope that changes, but if you look at it, it is bullying behaviour,” he added.
Scott expressed support for the Greece–Cyprus–Israel electricity interconnection project. “I think what Greece, Cyprus and Israel are doing will be good. It is good for them, good for us. We will do whatever we can to help. We will do whatever we can to make sure Turkey doesn’t create problems,” he said.
Ankara maintains that it must be consulted before the seabed surveys for the cable, which are at the centre of the tension over the NAVTEX messages and the requests for the surveys of recent days. What Athens could do if Turkey obstructs the work is examined in a related analysis.
The US senator is a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees and chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee. In Athens he met Greek officials on defence and energy issues, a week after the visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He also said that the departure of Kimberly Guilfoyle as US ambassador in Athens will not affect Greek-American relations.
In Cyprus and the buffer zone
The day before, October 16, Scott visited Cyprus. According to his office’s statement, in Larnaca he met US Ambassador John Breslow and Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry Michael Damianos, and visited the UN buffer zone. The statement speaks of cooperation that “confronts the aggression we have seen from bullies like Putin and Erdoğan” and notes that “the main obstacle to Cypriot sovereignty right now is Turkey”.
This is not the first time Scott has attacked Ankara. In August he had called on Turkey to “get its act together” over its stance towards Israel and its NATO allies. By Saturday afternoon there had been no official reaction from the Turkish government or foreign ministry to the new remarks, though there was commentary in Turkish media. His statements are the political position of a senator and not the announcement of a new US government policy.