Official's home bombed before Cyprus reunification talks
Just hours before Cyprus' reunification talks were scheduled to begin today, a small bomb exploded in front of the home of the prime minister of the self-declared Turkish Cypriot state. There were no injuries.
Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat, a leading advocate of reunification, quickly vowed that the talks would go on.
The blast in front of his home shattered windows and tore apart tree branches and street signs.
Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos will meet with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and Mr Talat at an abandoned airport on the sides’ border later today for a round of UN-sponsored peace talks aimed at ending the island’s division
“There is no return from this road,” Mr Talat told reporters in front of his home after the early morning blast. “In this process, there may be some people who are disturbed by the two communities coming closer, but such acts will not make us return from this path.”
There have been fears in Cyprus that extremists could use violence to try and disrupt the talks.
For decades, negotiations have failed, but the two sides now face a firm deadline. Cyprus enters the European Union on May 1 as a united country or as a divided land with UN peacekeepers patrolling in its capital.
The EU and US are closely watching the talks and are putting pressure on Turkey and Greece to press for a settlement before Cyprus’ entry into the EU.
For Turkey, Cyprus’s entry as a split country could be a disaster for its own EU bid. Turkey has 40,000 troops on the north of the island and EU leaders have made it clear that those soldiers could be considered as occupying EU territory after May 1.
In an address to parliament, Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul spoke of the possibility that without a solution, some EU officials who visit aspiring member Turkey in the future could be from Cyprus.
For EU and Greek Cypriot leaders, the division raises the possibility of an EU member that controls only two-thirds of its territory. EU laws would only apply in the internationally recognised Greek Cypriot side of the island if Cyprus enters the EU divided.
“We are now closer than ever to finding a solution,” EU Expansion Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said earlier this week. Mr Verheugen arrived in Cyprus yesterday to stress the EU’s interest in a settlement.
US President George W Bush pressed the need for a solution in his January talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The negotiations will open at Nicosia’s airport, which was abandoned after the island was divided in 1974 following a Turkish invasion after a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece. The airport is now used by UN peacekeepers.
The last round of talks collapsed in April, amid Mr Denktash’s objections. Mr Denktash has long said that uniting the Turkish Cypriot north with the Greek Cypriot south would lead to Greek Cypriot domination.
The south, with a population of 600,000, has three times as many people as the north and about five times the per capita income.
