WASHINGTON 27/1/2005 (ANA)
The State Department this week replied to US Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) that the United States will not take any action violating rules governing international civil aviation, including provisions as spelled out in the seminal 1944 Chicago Convention.

Snowe had requested clarifications from the State Department following a visit last October by two experts from the Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, and specifically their tour of an illegal airport (Tymbou) in the occupied areas.

On Wednesday, during a normal press briefing, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said he’s unaware of “anything, one way or another, on the airport in the north…”
His statement came in response to a question on whether Washington has revised its policy vis-a-vis illegal airports in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, to which he replied in the negative.

In a letter late last November to US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Thomas Ridge, the ex-US Homeland Security Secretary, Snowe cited “troubling issues related to international civil aviation and US foreign policy''.
As a member of the US Senate Subcommittee on Aviation, the senator said it came to her attention that in late October two officials from the TSA ''conducted an inspection of the airport at Tymbou, Cyprus, which is located in the area of Cyprus presently under illegal occupation by Turkish troops''.

In the State Department reply, signed by Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs Paul Kelly, the official noted that no change has occurred in the policy of recognizing the Republic of Cyprus as the government of the island republic. Kelly also adds that there is no intent to undermine the legal national sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus.
He clarified that the visit by the two TSA experts was “not an inspection”, but was part of an initiative to promote international aviation safety and within the spirit of the UN Chief’s call on UN Security Council members to assume a leading role in eradicating restrictions and obstacles that have “isolated the Turkish Cypriots and blocked their development”.

In her letter, Snowe said “this action (the visit to the illegal airport) apparently comes in the wake of other US measures related to possible flights into the Tymbou airport and the airport of Lefkoniko, also in the occupied territory''.
She added that the US administration has contacted the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) about access to these illegally operated airports, and that in May 2004, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency designated these airports with official US government identifiers - LC46 for Tymbou and LC47 for Lefkoniko.
''These actions raise troubling issues related to international civil aviation and US foreign policy'', Snowe said, noting that the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 sets forth the US policy on Cyprus, which is a free government of Cyprus, and the withdrawal of all Turkish military forces on the island.

Citing Security Council resolutions 541 and 550 which support the US policy, Snowe reminded that ''international norms of civil aviation, including those administered by ICAO, recognize the legal flights into a country cannot occur without the consent of the government with sovereignty over the airspace in question and the target airports specifically ... Flights into the occupied northern part of Cyprus, without the consent of the Republic of Cyprus, are inconsistent with these international standards," she said.

Source: Athens News Agency

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