SENATE VOTES TO MAKE $50 MILLION FOR TURKEY A GRANT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400380026-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 26
• Publication Date: May 23, 1979
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Rele 12 97. 'CIA-RDP88-o1315R000400380026-2 ON PACE _ 23 MAY 1979
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F ate Votes to Make 0 Million for Turkey a Grant,
y GRAHAM HOVEY
Sp-clal to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, May 22 - The Senate
sustained President Carter and deci-
sively overrode its own Foreign Relations
Committee today in approving a grant
rather than a loan of $50 million to Turkey
for arms and military equipment.
In an action that cut across party and
ideological lines, the Senate voted 64 to 32
for an amendment to the $4.4 billion se-
curity assistance bill that restored the $50
million grant requested by Mr. Carter.
The Foreign Relations Committee had
substituted a loan, with delayed repay-
ment terms for the grant, partly because
Congress is trying to phase out grant aid
and partly because senators wanted to re-
buke Turkey for some recent foreign
policy moves.
A four-hour debate focused on the ques-
tions of whether a grant or a loan would
be more likely to produce constructive
action by Turkey on a Cyprus settlement,
on reintegrating Greek forces into the
NATO command and on providing listen-
ing posts in Turkey for the United States
to monitor Soviet compliance with the
new strategic arms limitation treaty.
Sarbanes Leads Opposition
Opponents of the grant, led by Senator
Paul S. Sarbanes, Democrat of Mary-
land, emphasized that Turkey had
blocked Greece's reintegration into the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization and
cited a statement by the Turkish Cypriot
leader, Rauf Depktash, that he and his
Greek Cypriot counterpart, President
Spyros Kyprianou, were "180 degrees
apart" on a Cyprus solution, although
they did agree over the weekend to re-
sume negotiations.
Mr. Sarbanes, a leader of the Greek-
American community who originally op-
posed even the loan, said the Ankara Gov-
ernment had made no concessions on ei-
ther Cyprus or Greek reintegration since
last July when Congress ended an arms
embargo imposed on Turkey after its in-
vasion of Cyprus in August 1974. In the
legislation lifting the embargo, Congress
stipulated that Turkish cooperation on
these issues would heavily influence fu-
ture aid.
In the roll-call, however, 32 Democrats
and 32 Republicans supported the argu-
ments of the amendment's authors, Ma-
jority Leader Robert C. Byrd of West Vir-
ginia and Senator John H. Chafee, Repub-
lican of Rhode Island, that Turkey's eco-
nomic and military needs were desperate
and its contribution to NATO indispensa-
ble. -
Turkey's Role in Arms Pact
Mr. Byrd said, in a floor speech, that
the grant for Turkey should not be con-
strued as an action against Greece. lie
said aid for Turkey would improve not
only its own security but also that of
Greece, of NATO and of United States
allies in the Middle East.
The Majority Leader said he had been
"very encouraged" by the report that the.
Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities
had agreed to resume negotiations on the
island's future and by recent reports that
progress was also being made on
Greece's reintegration into NATO.
Mr. Byrd said the American military
instal a ions in Turkey were o major
importance in of Soviet
strategic actrvities anwou e "of o
vious si i icance in ven ritving Soviet
compliance wt . t e strategic arms
treaty.
rCO . -;,.
n a related matter, he said the State
Department ha told him that, contrary
to press reports, turkey hadnsaid th t
t o ovie nion wou e even a veto on
American U-2 ig is over Turkey or the
purposes of verifying M-aTTFre--ty.
New York Senators Split
The lineup of the vote on the Byrd-Chaf-
fee amendment was unusual in that most
fiscal conservatives in the Senate sup-
ported the grant rather than the loan,
while liberals and a few conservatives,
including Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, a
candidate for the Republican Presiden-
tial nomination, backed the loan and the
Foreign Relations Committee.
New York's Senators divided on the
issue. Senator Jacob K. Javits, the rank-
ing Republican on the Foreign Relations
Committee, supported the loan proposal
of which he was an author. Senator Dan-
iel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat, voted
for the grant.
If the Senate action is sustained in the
final version of the bill that emerges from
a Senate-House conference committee,
Turkey will get $451.2 million in economic .I
and military aid from this bill alone.
Overall, Turkey will receive $678.7 mil-
lion in all kinds of assistance from the
United States over two fiscal years end-
ing Sept_ 30, 1980, making Turkey the
third largest recipient of American aid,
trailing only Israel and Egypt.
The Administration also hopes that a
consortium of West European countries
and Japan, being organized by West Ger-
many, will raise at least a billion dollars
for Turkey over the next year.
Earlier in the day, the Senate rejected,
58 to 34, an amendment by Senator Wil-
liam Proxmire, Democrat of Wisconsin,
that would have eliminated $45 million in
aid to Syria..
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