U.S. State Department
Daily Press Briefing
August 19, 2002

Philip T. Reeker, Deputy Spokesman

[...]

QUESTION: Mr. Reeker, what prompted the State Department to release the hundreds of declassified documents containing pertaining Greece, Turkey and Cyprus from '64 to '68 now, in the middle of the hot summer, and not later, creating a real political mess in Athens, Ankara and Nicosia?

MR. REEKER: Goodness. What a suggestion. (Laughter.)

I think, Lambros, if I am correct, you are referring to the release of the latest volume from the Foreign Relations of the United States, so called FRUS Series. This is the volume 1964 to 1968 on Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, Volume 16.

This is an ongoing series that we do that obviously is dealing with an era from '64 to '68 when, in fact, I wasn't born. So it's, you know, important historical documentation about US efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem, to try to deal with the Greek political crisis at the time.

And it's history. It's put out through the Office of the Historian. You're probably familiar with it. It's an ongoing series of very nice hardbound books. Much of the information in this particular volume has been made public before. The series, as I said, is a continuous release. They are made public and published when all the necessary editing and declassification has taken place.

QUESTION: One more question.

MR. REEKER: It gives you something to read at the beach.

[...]