A group of 22 United States congressmen have urged the country’s President Donald Trump to “bring up” Cyprus during a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which is said to be in the offing.

The group included Greek Americans Dina Titus, Chris Pappas, Gus Bilirakis, and Jim Costa, as well as House of Representatives foreign affairs committee member Gregory Meeks, and was sent following a telephone conversation between Trump and Erdogan earlier this week.

“For years, President Erdogan has antagonised Turkey’s neighbours, including fellow Nato allies, by violating Greek sovereign airspace, illegally occupying parts of the Republic of Cyprus, harassing ships in the Aegean sea, and threatening to invade Greece and Israel,” the letter read.

It also criticised Turkey’s “Blue Homeland” doctrine, which outlines its claims in the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean.

The doctrine, the group said, “serves as [Erdogan’s] political and military justification for dominating the Eastern Mediterranean at the expense of other regional powers”.

As such, they said, “Turkish vessels are challenging Greek and Cypriot exclusive economic zones at a worrying rate; Erdogan is claiming natural gas deposits off the coast of Cyprus; and he even signed a memorandum with Libya’s provisional government in Tripoli which infringes on the sovereign rights of Greece and Cyprus”.

“This policy flouts international law, particularly the United Nations convention on the law of the sea and furthers Erdogan’s aims of regional dominance and his neo-Ottoman goals,” they added, before shifting their focus to Cyprus.

“President Erdogan also continues to wrongfully and illegally occupy the Republic of Cyprus. 51 years ago, Turkey invaded Cyprus and embarked on a gruesome campaign to ethnically cleanse parts of the island, destroy religious landmarks, and kidnap and disappear Greek Cypriots living there,” they said,

They added that since then, the ‘TRNC’ has “been deemed illegal by numerous successive UN security council resolutions”, and Turkey has “been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for its various crimes against humanity perpetrated in Cyprus”.

They also made reference to the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March, writing that Erdogan and his AK Party have “become increasingly authoritarian in recent years by consolidating power through constitutional changes and imprisonment of opponents and critics”.

Imamoglu’s arrest, they said, “shows a sudden move to further consolidate [Erdogan’s] power in Turkey”.

They went on to make reference to “baseless investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of human rights defenders, journalists, opposition politicians, and others”, saying they constitute “hallmarks of society in Turkey”.

“Anti-terror and disinformation laws have been used to curtail freedom of expression; freedom of peaceful assembly has been unlawfully restricted; distribution of aid after the February 2023 earthquakes failed to adequately address the rights and needs of people with disabilities; and violence and women and girls remains widespread,” they added.

As such, they urged Trump to “bring up” a series of issues to Erdogan, including “Erdogan’s problematic ‘Blue Homeland’ policy and the danger it poses to Greek and Cypriot sovereignty and the integrity of their territorial waters and maritime zones”.

Additionally, they said Trump should speak to Erdogan about “the continued illegal occupation of Cyprus”, “respect for humanitarian rights and political opposition within an alleged democracy like Turkey”, and “the antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric Erdogan habitually spews”.

“It is our collective responsibility to urge greater respect for international law as well as the rule of law within his own country. Doing so would strengthen Nato, strengthen our partnerships with countries like Greece and Cyprus, further guarantee Israel’s security, and promote global security,” they said.