Turkey's PM criticises EU actions over Cyprus
Turkey’s prime minister accused the European Union of not treating the issue of Cyprus fairly but said his country still wants to join the 25-nation bloc and will continue to work to meet the criteria for membership.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference yesterday that Greek Cypriots were rewarded with EU membership after voting “no” in April 2004 on a UN-brokered plan to reunify the divided Mediterranean island, while Turkish Cypriots, who voted “yes,” are still being punished.
“A comprehensive and fair settlement must happen at the UN level,” he said.
Cyprus has been divided between a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish-occupied north since 1974, when Turkey invaded after an abortive Athens-backed coup by supporters of union with Greece.
Erdogan said EU decisions in December 2004 and October 2005 opened the door to Turkey’s membership and “had a very positive impact on the Islamic world – 1.5 billion people – because the Islamic world would like to see Turkey as a member of the EU".
However, last week, EU ministers agreed to partially suspend membership talks with Turkey because it refuses to open up to trade with Cyprus.
Ankara does not recognise the Greek Cypriot government in the south of the divided island, and Turkey is the only country to recognise the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north.
Despite the EU’s action, Erdogan said, “we will continue to view the process positively".
“We will continue to work on the process,” he said. “We will not cut off our relations in any way with the European Union because as you know, when you’re a government, when you’re a state, you have to take decisions based on common sense and not some emotional outbursts at any specific given time,” he said..
“So we will continue to adopt that commonsensical approach,” Erdogan said.
Early this year, Turkey proposed an “Action Plan for Cyprus” which would include Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus as a separate economic entity in the EU’s customs union. It also proposed opening all Turkish airports and ports to Greek Cypriot vessels and planes in exchange for the lifting of restrictions on Turkish Cypriots in the north.
The plan received a positive response from Britain and the United States, but Cyprus’ UN envoy Andreas Mavroyiannis called it a “nonstarter.” He said it tries to trade an EU obligation – the opening of Turkish ports and airports to Cyprus – for rewards advancing Turkey’s own political goals on the island.
Erdogan told reporters “the European Union so far has not treated the issue of Cyprus fairly.”
“The European Union did not fulfil the promises it made immediately in the aftermath of the referendum in April 2004” to help northern Cyprus, he said.
“What we would like to see is that the Europeans treat Cyprus fairly,” Erdogan said. “And the whole thing therefore comes down to lifting the isolations and having direct trade in the north of the island, and we will do whatever we can to respond to those steps.”
