Turkish Forum

Tag: Demetris Christofias

  • No blank check for Turkey: Greek Cyprus

    No blank check for Turkey: Greek Cyprus

    NICOSIA

    This file photo shows Greek Cyprus’ foreign minister, Kozakou-Marcoullis.
    This file photo shows Greek Cyprus’ foreign minister, Kozakou-Marcoullis.

    Greek Cyprus’ support of Turkey’s ultimate EU accession process is not a “blank check” as it depends on Turkey’s implementation of all of the bloc’s obligations without any concessions, the country’s foreign ministry has said.

    Evaluating the European Commission’s progress report on Turkey released Oct. 12, the ministry said it welcomed the commission’s call for Turkey to increase its efforts for the settlement of the Cyprus problem. However, the Greek Cyprus ministry denied the report’s claim that Turkey was continuing to give public support for talks between the two sides of the island.

    “The statements of Turkish Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] made during his illegal visit to [Turkish] Cyprus in July,” is proof that Turkey is not giving support to the talks, the ministry said. The Mediterranean island has been divided since Turkish troops intervened in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece.

    Greek Cyprus also asked the European Union to increase its pressure on Turkey over the Cyprus issue, saying, “The EU ought to make it clear that it is Turkey that is the source of the tension, especially in light of the fact that Turkey has recently intensified its threatening stance in the eastern Mediterranean, creating tension and challenging the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus in a provocative manner and in blatant violation of international law.”

    Meanwhile, Turkish Cyprus’ leadership called for domestic support for its agreement allowing Turkey to explore for oil and gas in the Mediterranean.

    The Turkish Cypriot Prime Ministry said Oct. 13 that it supported the Continental Shelf Delimitation Agreement signed with Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported Oct. 14.

    “Everyone should extend support to the agreement signed with Turkey in order to protect the rights and interests of the Turkish Cypriot people and motherland Turkey,” the Prime Ministry said in a written statement released Oct. 13.

    On Sept. 21, Turkey and Turkish Cyprus inked a continental shelf accord in New York to determine their maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in which the Turkish state oil company will conduct exploratory drilling.

    Meanwhile, Turkish Cyprus President Derviş Eroğlu and his Greek counterpart, Demetris Christofias, met in the buffer zone in Nicosia on Oct. 14 as part of intensified talks to find a solution to the Cyprus question. Eroğlu and Christofias will meet twice before holding a tripartite meeting with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York at the end of the month.

    via No blank check for Turkey: Greek Cyprus – Hurriyet Daily News.

  • The insoluble Cyprus problem: Sad island story

    The insoluble Cyprus problem: Sad island story

    Long talks have got little nearer to solving Europe’s oldest “frozen conflict”

    Mar 31st 2011 | NICOSIA | from the print edition

    20110402 eum988GLOOM has settled over the Cyprus talks. Under a UN special envoy, Alexander Downer, the Greek-Cypriot president (Demetris Christofias) and his Turkish-Cypriot counterpart (Dervish Eroglu since March 2010), have held 100 meetings since September 2008. But politics intrudes: general elections are due in Cyprus (in May) and Turkey (June). Attention will then switch to Cyprus’s European Union presidency in 2012 and its presidential election early in 2013.

    After meeting the two leaders in Geneva in January, the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, expressed grave concern about the talks’ slow progress. Yet Mr Downer, a former Australian foreign minister, is breezily upbeat. He told an Economist Cyprus conference last month that more had been achieved than was widely realised. He noted broad agreement on such long-term issues as the structure of a federated Cyprus. The toughest disputes are all short term: property, territory and security. Yet Mr Downer says the real question is not whether a deal is possible but whether the two sides truly want one.

    And this is where pessimism kicks in. Mr Christofias baldly told the same conference that “progress has been zero since Mr Eroglu was elected.” He preferred dealing with the man whom Mr Eroglu defeated, Mehmet Ali Talat. His negotiator, George Iacovou, thinks Turkey does not want a deal at present. Most of the Greek-Cypriot media are rejectionist. Turkish-Cypriots have staged protests against Turkey, their sponsor, but these have mostly fizzled. Mr Eroglu’s negotiator, Kudret Ozersay, says that “everyone wants peace, but not everyone wants a compromise.” Without more progress, he adds, he might quit.

    The talks cannot go on for ever. Time is making them harder. Younger Cypriots have no memory of a united island and the “green line” is coming to look like permanent partition. Mr Christofias seems ready to run again in 2013 if there is a chance of a deal. But without clearer signs of progress, he could well lose—just as Mr Talat did. Is there scope for unilateral gestures? The International Crisis Group suggests several, including Turkey opening its ports to Cypriot trade, Cyprus allowing charter flights to Ercan airport in the north or a supervised return of the ghost resort of Varosha to its Greek-Cypriot owners. But in today’s bitter climate, none looks feasible.

    What if there is no deal? Many Greek-Cypriots shrug their shoulders: they are now in the EU and the euro. But Mr Downer warns those who want the talks to fail to be careful what they wish for. The economy suffers from the island’s division. And a failure to settle the Cyprus problem can only make Turkey’s strained relations with the EU worse. Sadly, there is little the EU can do about this. It is perhaps telling that the Greek for give and take is “take and give”.

    from the print edition | Europe

    via The insoluble Cyprus problem: Sad island story | The Economist.

  • Christofias: “Turkey cannot join EU until troops out – Cyprus”

    Christofias: “Turkey cannot join EU until troops out – Cyprus”

    Thu Feb 5, 2009 2:15pm GMT

    NICOSIA, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said on Thursday that Turkey would not be able to join the European Union as long as it kept troops stationed in northern Cyprus.

    “It’s not possible for Turkey to be accepted as a member of the union while continuing the occupation of Cyprus,” he told reporters. (Reporting by Michele Kambas; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

    Source:  Reuters, Feb 5, 2009