House lifts arms ban on Turkey

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 15

House lifts arms ban on Turkey

(New Zealand Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, October 3. In a significant victory for the Ford Administration, the House of Representatives voted last night to reverse itself and ease the eight-month arms embargo against Turkey, the “New York Times” reported.

The bill now goes back to the Senate, which can either accept one change made in

the measure by the House or send the legislation to a Senate-House conference. The bill was passed by a vote of 237 to 176. The measure, which was approved after last-minute lobbying by the Administration, had been sought in an effort to repair severe strains in Turkish-American relations. A number of House members who had voted on July 24 to defeat a similar bill maintained that they were switching in support of the Administration because the embargo’s aim of encouraging a Turkish-Greek settlement of the Cyprus situation has been unsuccessful.

The measure easing the embargo has been actively pushed by the Administration in an effort to repair severe strains in TurkishAmerican relations. The bill would allow Turkey to buy SUSIBS million in military equipment, including 24 F4F fighters, contracted for before the Congressionally imposed embargo took effect in February. Turkey also would be permitted to buy through commercial channels other arms in the United States as long as it did not violate the cease-fire in Cyprus. Visa refused A high-level international conference due to be held in New York later this month has been cancelled because the United States has refused to grant an entry visa to Mr Sergio Segre a leader of the Italian Communist .Party. — Rome.