"WEBCommentary Contributor
Author: Tony Phyrillas
Date: February 23, 2005
If Syria leaves Lebanon, shouldn't Turkey leave Cyprus?
There is growing international pressure on Syria to end its illegal occupation of Lebanon. Syria has been using Lebanon, once the jewel of the Middle East, as a terrorist base since 1976 when it sent 27,000 troops into Lebanese territory under the guise of establishing order after Lebanon�s bloody civil war.
The Syrians decided to stay and install a series of puppet regimes in Lebanon. The recent assassination of Lebanon�s former prime minister, a staunch opponent of the Syrian occupation, has brought a renewed effort at the United Nations to get Syria to leave Lebanon. Syria still has 14,000 troops stationed in Lebanon.
Just slightly to the west of Lebanon sits the island of Cyprus, a sovereign nation since 1960. It too has endured an occupation by a foreign power. Since 1974, Turkish troops have occupied one-third of the island. (Ironically, many Lebanese fled to Cyprus in the 1970s to escape the violence in their country.) "
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